Chapter 6: Vibrant and Faded

COWARD

It was painted on Noah’s door in large letters.

“You can’t just let this stand,” said Alexis, standing in the doorway to Noah’s room and fuming.

“I can, and you wouldn’t believe how easy it is,” said Noah, sitting at his desk and writing in a notebook. “If anything, I think it’s a bit funny. Whoever did it went out of their way to use yellow paint. That, I can appreciate.”

“How are you unaffected by this?!”

“Because I literally am unaffected by it. Is it my job to clean the door? Does that paint somehow rob it of its functionality? Someone vandalizing academy property isn’t my problem. There is no reason for me to care.”

“So you’re fine with this label being stuck on you? You’re fine with everyone calling you a coward?”

“I’m not going to spontaneously get sick or hurt because of the nasty opinions swirling in those idiots’ heads. I don’t care what they call me or what they think, as long as they do so quietly. If I just let them have the last word, they’ll shut up.”

Alexis sighed and closed the door, then sat on the bed. “Are you coming to lunch or not?”

“Funny, you never followed me to the library like this.”

“Back when you just studied in the library, you never skipped lunch. I get that you enjoy your privacy and your research, but don’t start forgetting to eat. Besides, now that we’re neighbors, I can finally get a look at what you’re doing. What are you doing anyway?”

“Studying magic, as always.”

“Magic that I never see you perform. In fact, I’ve only ever seen you use magic once, and I didn’t actually see it.”

“You’ve been getting rather curious about that as of late. I told you before, I have not been sneaking into the women’s baths.”

“I know that, but—”

“Or maybe I have. Maybe I was lying before to give you a false sense of security. Then again, there is always the possibility that I’m just saying all this now to mess with you and make you paranoid.”

“Ugh, enough already. Seriously though, when we first met, you told me you were going to Colbrand to try and understand your magic, but you’ve never said anything about it after that.”

“You never asked.”

“Well I’m asking now. Have you even talked to anyone about this?”

“Not yet. First, I want to pursue every avenue I can on my own. The fewer people who know about my magic, the better, you included. Any information I reveal is information that can be used against me.”

“I guess it’s easy not to care what people think when you have no faith in them. What about me? Have I not earned your trust? I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“It’s not about faith or trust; it’s a matter of probability. You may have no intention of betraying me at the moment, but ten years from now, maybe you’re captured and tortured for information, and they use mind control magic or a truth potion to get you to spill my secrets. Maybe twenty years from now, I end up doing something that makes you so angry that you want my head on a pike, and you use what you know about me to hunt me down and exact your revenge. Or maybe a week from now, I find out you can’t hold your liquor, and you end up blabbing. As long as I don’t tell you, I don’t have to worry about those things happening.”

“So all this time, you’ve been waiting for me to betray you?”

“Don’t take it personally. I wait for everyone to betray me. I don’t expect people to literally stab me in the back when I meet them, but that liquor thing comes from experience. The better I know you, the more I tell you. Isn’t that how all friendships work? Besides, people who make promises and blanket statements underestimate the power of the future. They don’t realize how the smallest things can have the biggest influences in their lives. They underestimate how much their feelings and beliefs can change over time.”

“Well I’m curious, so at least let me see you disappear.”

“There is literally nothing to see.”

“Don’t play semantics. I already know you can disappear, so you might as well tell me some things about that.”

He exhaled through his nose and closed his book. “Fair enough.” Alexis watched him brush the hair out of his eyes, and the next instant, he was gone. She automatically jumped to her feet, compelled by primal instincts, as though fearing the phenomenon was contagious and that she’d get pulled into oblivion.

“Noah?” she asked nervously.

“Yeah, I’m still here, sitting at my desk.”

She stared at the empty space, looking for any kind of sign of his presence. “That is incredible. How ... what’s it like?”

“Let’s talk outside. Just pretend you’re alone, and I’ll follow you.”

“Uh ... ok.” She nervously approached the door, never taking her eyes off the seemingly empty chair. She put her hand on the doorknob but didn’t turn it, still searching for any sign of movement.

“Any day now,” Noah said behind her, once more making her jump in shock. By some miracle, she stopped the frightful yelp shooting up her throat.

“Don’t do that!”

“Well open the damn door already. Let’s go.”

She steadied her breathing and opened the door, and after stepping into the hall, it closed on its own behind her.

“Noah?”

“Yes, I’m still here. Come on, you were worried about me missing lunch, remember?”

She walked through the corridor with instinct itching in the back of her head like a bug bite. She wanted to spin her head around and scan everything to search for Noah, but she maintained her composure. She went down the stairs, and even then, heard no other footsteps but her own. Not a single board creaked, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Noah was still walking with her.

As she walked, she passed by other cadets, and the looks they gave her were complicated. She had no intention of serving any faction and cared not for noble society. In the months since enrollment, she had bested all those around her and become one of the top cadets. To the upper nobles, she was an unusable asset that only made them look bad, and to the rest of the cadets, she was a talented rich girl they could never touch, with a serious personality that many found off-putting. She and Noah fit into the same social circle, though that association had further lowered her social standing, as well as created plenty of rumors. She didn’t mind the rumors, as they helped keep her sexuality a secret.

It was when she stepped outside, and they were once more alone, that she dared speak. “Do you do this all the time? Just disappear with your magic so that people can’t even see you in the halls?”

He reappeared beside her. “You disapprove?”

They began walking across the campus in the brisk autumn air. “It’s just ... kind of sad. I know you don’t care what people think about you, but you really put this kind of effort into avoiding everyone?”

“I didn’t come to this academy to make friends. I came here for answers.”

“I guess this really is just a means to an end. When our time here is over, you aren’t going to join the knighthood, are you? You’re just going to slip away once you get what you want.”

“I need information, and I want to experience everything this world has to offer, neither of which I can do as a pawn for Uther. You said before that you wished to forge your own destiny. You can either do that by taking orders and fighting a never-ending war over land, or coming with me to see what lies over the horizon.”

Alexis stopped walking, and Noah turned and looked back. “You’re serious?”

“I am. Come with me. Be a free agent. It’s rare for me to find someone I can rely on and fight side-by-side with.”

She opened her mouth several times, but nothing came out. Finally, she spoke. “I can’t. I can’t be the person you want me to be.”

“Then just be you. I wouldn’t be your friend if you were anything else.” He turned away before he could see her smile. “Come on, I’m starving.”

She caught up to him, and they resumed walking. “So what does it feel like when you disappear?”

“I become invisible, not disappear. My mana wraps around me and hides me perfectly, even my footprints. I have yet to encounter anyone able to detect my presence, even gold-ranked knights. I can still move and do everything as usual, so it’s great for a fight, but I prefer not to use it unless I’m planning to kill my enemy. I don’t want them running off and revealing my abilities to others. The problem is that I have yet to find any leads on what this magic is. I can’t even find the runes.”

“Huh, that is strange. No wonder you’re so focused on finding answers.”

They arrived at the mess hall, bustling with cadets. With the advent of dueling, the room’s far wall had been turned into a scoreboard. All the cadets’ names were listed with tallies marking wins and losses. Under Noah’s name, rather than simply leaving his score blank, ‘COWARD’ had been written. The rules were also laid out so that incidents like Seraph crushing Alexis wouldn’t happen again. The proxy clause hadn’t been added, but Seraph was forbidden from challenging Noah again. On the other hand, everyone else could.

“Cadet Noah, I challenge you to a duel!” Lunch was potato soup, but an annoying fly had decided to land in it.

“Are you serious?” Noah asked.

“You heard me, and you can’t have your servant girl stand up for you this time.” Brown hair with a scar on his face; Henryk Schtern was one of Galvin and Seraph’s friends.

Alexis rose to her feet, eyes filled with rage. “What did you just call me? After Noah is done, I’ll break whatever’s left. I challenge you.”

“Fine, I’ll be at the field,” Noah said. “Now do you mind? I’m trying to eat.”

Henryk left, and Alexis was able to settle down.

“So, do you want me to beat him extra hard, or would you like time to play with your food?” Noah asked.

“Just leave some fight in him, so I don’t look bad when I beat everything else out,” she replied.

It had begun to snow by the time lunch was over, but the cold was a blessing in Noah’s next class. It was spear training, and they were striking at stationary targets to practice their aim. To hone their strength, a more rigorous method had to be used. The spears in the cadet’s hands were chained to battering rams, being pulled back every time the target was hit. Stones were used to increase the weight and difficulty of the exercise, and the rams would strike against boulders meant to rob them of their momentum.

While their breath fogged in front of them, all the cadets were sweating from the exertion. When they first began this practice after enrollment day, blisters, cuts, and friction burns were common injuries, and after months of daily training with various weapons, every cadet had developed tough calluses on their hands.

There was no time to rest after the class. Being late to his duel would bring trouble. He went out to the dueling field, where combating youths turned green grass into fighting rings of frozen mud with their stomping feet. Despite the temperatures dropping, there was always an audience. Many simply loved to watch for entertainment, while others hoped to gain information on future opponents, and of course, there were the gamblers.

Only those who were challenged and won would receive money, so the wealth exchanged was very little. Money was scarce for cadets, especially those living in the barracks, but just like in prison, there was always something to gamble with, and the preferred currency was gonlief cigarettes. While the Knight’s Sheath had always been one of the most popular bars and brothels in Colbrand, Daniel’s music had exploded its clientele, and his cigarettes were loved by customers. Now other establishments were making their own, and cadets were snatching them up on the weekends.

Of course, the academy tried to ban smoking, but in between classes, Noah would see groups of friends hanging out behind buildings in a cloud of smoke and running away whenever they saw a teacher approaching. As expected, the nobles were trying to turn it into a status symbol and were using runecrafting to make self-lighting cigarettes and searching for any other pleasant herbs and plants they could add.

“I’m actually surprised you came out!” said Henryk as he approached.

“Who’s presiding over the duel?” Noah asked, ignoring the insult.

“That will be me,” said Sir Kiev behind him. “What is the challenger payment?”

“The usual, a silver coin.”

“All right, let’s make this quick,” Noah said as he took his position in one of the rings, his hand resting on his sword. As Henryk entered, a crowd of cadets began to gather. Noah’s reputation was poor, but everyone still remembered stories of his fight with Lady Zodiac, and many were curious to see if they were true. Among them was Galvin, smarmy as always, and keeping Sophia chained to his side.

“Duelists ready!” Kiev announced. Noah and Henryk faced each other and drew their weapons, a sword vs. a shield. “Fight!”

“Come at me, you spineless commoner!” Henryk dared with his shield raised.

“Wow, you really are Galvin’s friend. Tell me, did he order you to fight me, or did you actually have the balls to ... to...” Noah trailed off, looking over Henryk’s shoulder. “Holy shit, what is that? Shit! SHIT!”

Noah began to panic, and Henryk, bless his heart, turned his head and looked, but to his credit, he didn’t look all the way before realizing his mistake. Still, it was a gullibility that would not go unpunished. While others were still looking at the empty sky in confusion, Henryk whipped his head back, just in time to see the soles of Noah’s boots as he kicked him in the face with both feet at the same time. For those who didn’t see the kick, the sound of the blow connecting was gruesome and loud enough to tell them what had happened, and while Noah managed to stick the landing, Henryk collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

The general reaction was sour, but the silence was robbed by Foley, laughing so hard that he could barely breathe. “That was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen!”

“Cadet Noah, that is unacceptable!” Sir Kiev shouted.

“It’s not against the rules, I checked. Besides, spear training left me with sore shoulders.”

“Pain is not an excuse to lie and cheat! That is behavior unbecoming of a knight!”

“Shouldn’t you be more worried about the cadet who not only fell for the oldest trick in the book but was knocked out in a single blow? All the chivalry in the world won’t mean much if this is the quality of knights we can expect in the future. Henryk, back me up here.” There was no response from the cadet, lying on the ground like roadkill with both his nose and several teeth busted. It was taking the work of two dedicated healers just to try and wake him up. “Oh, that’s right, he’s out cold. It’s my win.” He looked around. “Anyone else? No? Thought so.” He walked over to a disapproving Alexis. “Sorry, I didn’t think he’d go down so easily.”

“I agree with Kiev; that was a cheap shot,” she said.

“Right, like I’m going to waste my A-material on Henryk-fucking-Schtern.”

Nearby, Galvin elbowed his friend Mark in the ribs, prompting him to step forward. “I challenge you!”

“Really? You’re serious about this? All right, next in line, step forward.”

Noah returned to the ring to face Mark, likewise armed with a sword.

“I’ll tolerate no trickery in this match!” Kiev warned.

“Sir, with all due respect, if that were to work a second time, my conduct would really be the least of your concerns.”

“Be silent. Now, both cadets ready! Fight!”

Mark charged while drawing his sword, not wanting to give Noah the room for another heavy attack. Noah drew his own blade and withstood the coming barrage without taking a single step back. Mark attacked from every angle, trying to find a gap in Noah’s defense, but he blocked and parried every swing. While Mark may have been training under Lady Zodiac, his skills couldn’t even be compared to hers, and Noah soon lashed out to exploit an opening. A pinpoint stab to the flat side of Mark’s sword snapped it just an inch past the guard. Noah then struck him in the back of the head with the pommel of his own sword, knocking him out. The match was over in less than a minute.

“Cadet Noah is the winner!” Kiev announced.

There was no cheering or applause, but Noah’s skill had begun to mend his tarnished reputation. He sheathed his sword and turned to Galvin.

“You got something you want to say to me?”

“Excuse me?” Galvin sarcastically replied.

“Using them to gauge my strength was the correct move, but I’m sick of the foreplay. If you want to challenge me, just do it already.”

“Well you’ve stolen my thunder, so fine. I challenge you to a duel. What do you want your challenger payment to be?”

Noah glanced at Sophia, her crimson hair gleaming in the setting sun and her beautiful face darkened by despair. “If I win, I get your fiancée tonight.”

It was like all the air had been drained from the world as everyone struggled with the possibility that they had not just misheard him. Sophia’s face went pale while Galvin stared with bulging eyes full of bloodlust. Likewise, Noah could feel the intensity of Alexis’s fury like the heat of a bonfire on his back.

“Excuse me?” Galvin once more asked, this time with a twitch.

“You heard me. If I win, she becomes my plaything for the evening, to do whatever I want with. Don’t worry, you can have her back when I’m done with her. And Sir Kiev, according to the rules, the academy will not interfere with a challenger’s payment as long as whatever is wagered personally belongs to the challenger and is present on academy grounds. Galvin treats her like property and puts a lot of effort into making sure everyone around him knows it, well now he’s going to lose her like property. So, Prince? What say you?”

“Cadet Noah,” Sir Kiev growled.

“Fine,” said Galvin. “I’m going to make you suffer for your arrogance and bathe in your tears.”

“Good luck with that,” Noah replied, further irking Galvin.

“Enough. The duel will take place tomorrow. I suggest the two of you take time to rethink this,” said Kiev.

“Perfect, tomorrow it is.”

Rather than going back to Alexis, Noah turned and left the field, but he knew she was following him like an angry wasp. Only when they were inside and no one was around did she confront him with a narrowly-dodged punch.

“You son of a bitch!” she shouted while hurling another.

“Just calm down for a second!” Noah said as he avoided her feral attacks.

“No! I thought you had at least some kindness and integrity, but you’re just another perverse bastard!” When her punches didn’t land, she drew her sword and came at him with the intent to kill. Noah narrowly dodged the crazed slash, grabbed her wrists, then slammed her against the nearby stone wall.

“Listen to me! I’m not actually going to do anything to her.”

“Bullshit!” she hissed while now attempting to kick him in the groin.

“I mean it! I said that because I thought it would scare him off and fuck with his head. Didn’t you see the look on his face? Come on, you really think a control freak like him would even consider the risk of gambling with his fiancée? He agreed to it in the spur of the moment, but he’s just going to show up tomorrow with an excuse about how fighting me is beneath him, or it’s dishonorable to wager a woman. He’s a coward who just wants to save face.”

Alexis just barely managed to contain her rage. “You’re not allowed to use my cousin as a piece for your mind games! You’re risking her safety and her honor by underestimating how spiteful he can be!”

“Even if he does decide to duel, I’ll beat the shit out of him, and he’ll welch on the bet. The commandant may even nullify my win to prevent a scandal, but it won’t matter. The damage will be done.”

“What about the damage to her? Do you have any idea what this will do to her and her family?”

“It’ll give her the upper hand. This is an academy duel, so I don’t have the authority to officially break up an arranged marriage, but I do have the means to sabotage it. Once I win, no matter what Galvin does, his reputation will be so trashed that he’ll have no right to marry her. I don’t even have to touch her, he’ll be the cucked prince as soon as the match is over, and she’ll gain a new selection of marriage candidates once news of this becomes widespread.”

“But if she shows up at your door...”

“Remember that healing trick I showed the two of you in the infirmary? Sending holy energy into the brain? I’m curious as to how it affects dreams. If used continuously, I bet it would give me the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had. Afterward, if the truth doesn’t cut it, she’s free to tell people any story she wants, and I’ll go with it. She can say I was asleep when she arrived, say I finished as soon as she touched my hand, whatever foible at my expense will make her look good. Imagine, forced to settle her abusive fiancé’s debts, but as luck would have it, she walks away untouched with all the sympathy and credit and none of the shame.”

“You expect me to believe you’re doing this for her benefit?”

“Like I said before, I don’t care what other people think of me, but sometimes I’ll try to help them, so I don’t forget what it’s like. Altruism is like a muscle that’ll weaken if it isn’t used. Listen, you cannot tell her about any of this. If she knows it’s fake, it’ll alter her behavior. This will only work if Galvin believes it’s real.”

“How can I trust you?” Rather than answering, he let go of her and stepped back, holding his arms out to his sides. She stared at him, gripping her sword with trembling hands as tears budded under her eyes. “If you hurt her, I will never forgive you,” she whispered. She then sheathed her sword and stormed off.

Noah didn’t see Alexis at dinner, breakfast the following morning, or even lunch. He knew his gambit had left her trust in him frayed, and she would wait to see how things worked out before reconsidering their friendship. She wasn’t the only one avoiding him. To the rest of the cadets, he was scum, and even the teachers were openly shooting him dirty looks. At one point, Lady Zodiac confronted him, and he gave her the same explanation he gave Alexis, with the same cold reply.

Finally, the time came. After his second class was over, Noah made his way to the field for the duel. A large crowd had gathered, everyone wanting to see how the match would turn out. Would there be a definitive winner? Or would it turn into a big mess and be nullified like the proxy match? Alexis was among the crowd, a simmering cauldron of fury, much like Seraph, burning with jealousy. Beside her was Sophia, looking like she was going to throw up. Galvin was in the ring, looking more than a little unbalanced. His smirk was gone, and his eyes were full of bloodlust. Rather than a sword, he was armed with a grimoire. Sir Kiev seemed more stern than usual.

“Have either of you reconsidered?” he asked.

“If he wants to fight me, he knows the price,” Noah said.

“Your hubris is going to make it all the more satisfying to crush you,” the prince replied.

“All right, I want a good, clean match. When I say it’s over, you stop. Are we clear?”

“Actually, I would prefer you not intervene. I don’t want my fun to be interrupted. We’re done when I say we’re done,” said Galvin.

“That’s not how this works,” Kiev growled.

“If I may say so, I would prefer that as well,” said Noah.

“We’re not changing the rules of the duel! I am not going to let you two go out of control!”

“A compromise then?” Noah pointed into the crowd. “Let Sophia decide when one of us has gone too far.”

“Keep her name out of your filthy commoner mouth!” Galvin shouted.

Kiev gave a loud huff. “I’m willing to extend your leash a bit, but don’t push me. Now, both duelists ready!” Noah and Galvin assumed their stances. “Fight!”

Noah couldn’t deny Galvin’s speed. He opened his grimoire and slammed his hand on the ground, creating a magic circle of blue runes. “Quicksand Creation!” The ring shook beneath Noah’s feet as the ground was saturated with churning water. The earth liquified, and both Noah and Galvin sank up to their knees in heavy mud.

“Ha! I got you, you son of a bitch!” Galvin cackled.

“Huh, you really did. I imagine you were preparing this spell last night? Well done,” Noah said as he tried to pull his feet free. “Then again, you’re stuck as well.”

“That’s fine with me since I don’t need to move around, because unlike you, I can actually use magic! Watch, Mud Punch!”

He once more touched the ground, and this time, a lump of mud, the size of a fist, was launched towards Noah. The first came too fast for Noah to dodge and winged his shoulder, leaving his arm numb and nearly breaking his collarbone in the process. A second one was launched, and Noah managed to counter it with his sword. However, he simply ended up slicing through it, and the two halves still hit him in the chest, albeit with reduced force.

“See, I’ve been watching you in Elyot’s class, and I have never seen you cast a single spell. You may be good with a sword, but when it comes to magic, you’re utterly helpless! All you can do is stand there while I crush you!”

Noah brushed some of the mud off his shirt and rubbed his shoulder. “Those blows really pack a wallop. Yeah, I’m definitely going to be sore tomorrow.”

His cavalier attitude cracked Galvin’s mad grin. “We’ll see how calm you are after I’ve broken a few—”

“Flashbang.”

Galvin and the spectators were rendered blind and deaf, shocked by a flash of light and feeling like their ears had been boxed.

“ ... t r ... ing ... u h ... r...” Unable to understand what Noah was saying, Galvin yelled and slapped himself until his senses came back under his control. “As I was saying, that ringing you hear is your ears dying. Every time it happens, you permanently lose a little more of your hearing. Well, holy energy can probably fix it, but it’s still going to hurt.” Finally, Galvin could see. Noah’s arm was extended, and he was holding a card towards Galvin, on which a magic circle had been drawn.

“Let’s see how many shots it takes for your hearing to disappear completely, shall we?”

“You son of a—”

“Flashbang.”

Galvin just barely caught a glimpse of it, the sphere of light shooting from the card. It hit him in the face before he could react, and though he felt no physical strike or burn, it unleashed a blinding light that burned his corneas and a teeth-rattling thunderclap. He was stunned and in pain, struggling to stay on his feet.

As its name implied, Flashbang was a spell designed to act like a stun grenade. Derived from a basic lightning spell that would hit the target with an energy orb, Noah had reworked the magic formula for use as an illusion, boosting the light and sound produced at the cost of physical damage. Against enemies, it was like an arc welder going off right in front of their eyes and a gunshot beside their ears.

“Flashbang.”

Before Galvin could even recover, he was hit by a third orb, leaving him struggling to stand. Noah wrenched one foot free from the muddy ground and began his approach. Galvin, unable to see or hear, tried to retaliate with another Mud Punch, only to be hit with a fourth flashbang. He was in utter agony and so disoriented he could barely stand. It took all of his strength and coordination just to cover his ears and keep his eyes screwed shut.

Now close enough, Noah grabbed Galvin by the collar. He opened his eyes, seeing Noah only as a blur. His mind was scrambled as if by a horrific drug, and he tried to brace himself for another flashbang, only to be struck by Noah’s fist. It was the first of a painful barrage. Noah punched him with brutal force, rapid speed, and perfect accuracy, each blow drawing blood and disfiguring flesh and bone. Gripping Galvin’s shirt, Noah wouldn’t even let him fall and instead kept him propped up so he could continue beating him. Such savagery, but his face and breathing were perfectly calm. As gore began to splatter on the viewers, all those unable to watch the beating turned to Sophia, silently begging her to put an end to it, but she said nothing.

“Stop!” Seraph shouted as he jumped into the ring and grabbed Noah’s arm, beating Kiev by a single second.

Galvin had been beaten into an unrecognizable pulp, so Noah dropped him into the mud and turned to Seraph. “Strange, isn’t it? To witness brutality instead of being the one to dish it out? You should learn from this experience, both of you.”

“I’ll fucking kill you!”

“That’s enough!” Kiev yelled as he separated them. “The match has been decided, and Cadet Noah is the winner. Any retaliation will earn expulsion! Am I understood?”

“Yes sir,” Seraph grudgingly answered.

“Cadet Noah, if you have nothing better to do, I suggest you leave.”

“Yes sir.” Noah bowed his head and left the field.

As he walked back to the academy, he examined the card he had used in the duel, now crumbling to ash after excessive use. He had been hoping to avoid using magic in these duels, wanting to save the surprise for more critical battles in the future, but as a field test, he couldn’t have asked for better results. All this time, his magic had just been a means of concealment and deception. Now, his illusions had been weaponized, and the results spoke for themselves.