Draconic Testament (10 page)

”Thanks Veronica.” Bastion smiles warmly, then laughs “I think you’re starting to like me.” Bastion turns away and leaves, ignoring Veronica’s huff at his statement, then notices one of Talia’s friends whispering to her girlfriend. Of course, she was one of the ones watching, and of course, she’ll end up relaying this to Talia. This is going to be another headache to deal with.
Tuesday. After the day of exams, he goes on a hunt for Talia, who surprisingly wasn’t looking for him. He checks near the gates, waiting for her be on her way to leave, so he can talk to her, be straight with her, before anything gets out of control. He’s staying for good, and not only is he scared to lose Talia over nothing, he’s scared to lose one more reason to leave behind his old life. Though it’s not Talia who ends up coming to the gate first, it’s Vander. “Hey.” Vander says, though he doesn’t seem all that normal. “Err, hey.” Bastion replies.
”Fire thing was crazy, huh? Almost get the hunch it was some arsonist. You know, arsonists always rub me the wrong way. They always talk about fire as if it’s their sex slave or something. Know anything about this?” He asks.
”No, why, do you?” Bastion asks, sensing that there’s something odd about Vander. He’s usually cheery and happy, but right now he has some sort of a sorrowful look on his face.

”No… No, I don’t, but…” Vander starts
, “We need to talk. I have plans for something, a trip, and I need your help. We’re going to somewhere in Germany.”
”Germany?” Bastion asks, remembering that Vander could speak German. “What for?”
”A project, a German TV show. Remember the archery training I was doing?” Vander asks “Well, this is part of it. Your sword skills are needed. Talia can come too, I mean, we’ll all be paid. Fun, right?”
”So this was the big reveal? A TV show?” Bastion asks, “Not that I'm complaining, it seems pretty cool. I don’t know, I’ll see.”
”Have you got anything better to do during the six week holiday?” Vander asks. Bastion smiled as he thought in his head. ‘Yes, learning dark secrets of the arcane with a bunch of Magician lunatics.’ Though he never said so. “I don’t know yet, is all… I’ll think about it.” Bastion smiles.
”Well, I don’t want to rush you, but I'm going in exactly a week from now, on Monday.” Vander forces a laugh, then waves and leaves with a goodbye. As he waves Vander away, he spots Talia in the crowd outside the gate, walking down the road. The fact that she passed him must mean she’s rather angry at something, and it was rather easy to guess what it was. Trying to run after her now would end in failure, since getting through the crowd would be hard and he’d likely end up losing her. He decides to give up, and go home till tomorrow.
Wednesday. After the morning exams, Bastion grabs a bite to eat and goes looking for Talia. He couldn’t find her anywhere, so he ends up approaching one of Talia’s friends. “Err, hey, Alice?” Bastion asks, smiling, “Do you know where Talia is?” Alice looks at Bastion with a dirty, grudging look. Bastion grinded his teeth, and sighed quietly.
“She doesn’t have an afternoon exam today, so she went home.” Alice huffed.
”What? Why, how come?” Bastion asked.
”The afternoon exam is for GCSE courses, Talia has a BTEC that relies on coursework to make up her grade. She doesn’t have an exam for IT or PE.” Alice said.
”Oh, I didn’t know.” Bastion sighs, “Guess I missed her.” Bastion was about to say goodbye, when Alice’s bitch mode turned on and she began to provoke him “Well, maybe you should examine Talia’s timetable rather than examining other girls” She snapped.
”Well, first of all, that doesn’t make any sense, because I’d much rather examine a female body than a timetable all day. Second of all, I don’t examine any other girls than Talia.” Bastion snapped back.
“Oh, you don’t? You just make a habit of getting into dark corners with them?” Alice retorted.
“Actually, she pulled me into the corner to talk about something… secret, and I-“ Bastion began.
”Secret? Oh that makes it all better, doesn’t it?” Alice laughed.
”No, it’s not like that…” Bastion sighs, knowing he’s digging an even deeper hole for himself.
”Then what is it like? What was the “secret”, that you’ve got a little fantasy of cheating on your girlfriend?” Alice snaps
”Can you please just tell Talia-“ Bastion begins
”No, you tell her yourself, you go and get on your knees and explain yourself. Quit being a scumbag!” Alice roared.
”How about... fuck off?” Bastion snapped back, and stormed off, ignoring Alice’s angry ranting in the background.
Afternoon exams seemed like the beginning of the hard stuff, because not only were the exams themselves hard, but what was going on in Bastion’s head was also distracting. He had to worry about not only the whole Magi business, but the grief that was likely to come with the whole Veronica debate. Perhaps that trip to Germany wasn’t such a bad idea, get away from both problems for a while, come back to a cooled off Talia and a non-existent Veronica. There was also the problem of the depression. It had come back to him, pretty hard, and he’d suppressed it, but it didn’t feel as suppressed as it had when Veronica had first done it. After the exams were over, he left with a dreary feeling, as if he could swear he had made a ton of mistakes on his exam and he’d be lucky just to get a pass. It made him feel sick, and he knew he had to sort out his problems pretty soon, or else he’d end up failing everything, and his life would be full of depression. Depression, depression, depression. A normal life would be heaven to him. He couldn’t ignore the magic, but learn to suppress it, like Veronica said, so he left the school grounds and made his way toward the Haven for a bit of training. Perhaps if he trained at manipulating and using his magic better, privately and bit by bit, he’d be able to suppress these feelings. Hell, maybe, he’d learn to do even more cool things, that would actually make his life better! However, while he was passing through town, he ended up seeing somebody wave, through the window of a burger bar, but he couldn’t make out who it was due to the sun glares on the window. He decided to try his luck and walk into the bar, just in case by chance it turned out to be Talia, however, upon entering through the doors of the deserted bar, he saw the one and only Vander. “Hey, come over here.” Vander said, waving him over. Bastion complied, and sat at the table with him. “What’s up?” Bastion asked. “I would have thought you’d be here with Leticia.”
”Nah, no, me and Leticia are through.” Vander says.
”Oh, I'm sorry…” Bastion says, “What happened… unless, it’s you don’t wanna talk about it.”
”Nah, I'm not bothered. It was getting too serious.” Vander says, smiling.
”Too serious? You mean, you were beginning to love one another?” Bastion sighs.
”Yeah, I'm not really up for that, honestly. Our relationship was pleasure only, in my eyes.” Vander says.
“Is that kind of thing really so bad and foreign to you?” Bastion ask, and Vander sighs.
”Oh, don’t be a woman.” Vander groans “To each their own, I don’t want a loving relationship that will end up in a bad marriage. I’d rather hop from girl to girl in my youth… besides, are you any better?”
”The hell’s that supposed to mean?” Bastion snaps, but Vander submits.
”No, no, I'm kidding, chillout.” Vander says “Anyways. Have you given any thought to the trip?” Bastion was getting the whole ‘nagging friend who you owe money to’ vibe from Vander. ”You know… with the whole Talia vs. Veronica, and exams and all that bollocks, it actually looks as if I’ll be coming along.” Bastion sighs “It’ll be like a vacation.”
”Ah, good, good.” Vander beams, his mood lightened slightly at the news. “You told anyone about it? I’d rather it’s kept secret, unless you want to bring somebody along.”
”No, I’d rather it be just me and you, let Talia cool off and get away from all this. I’ll surprise her with dinner when I get back or something.” Bastion laughs.
”Alright then.” Vander said, “Let me get you something to eat.” He says, and he gets up to order Bastion some food while they talk about what’s going to go down at the set. And, for the rest of the day, Bastion relaxes with Vander.
Friday. Last day of exams. The day before, he had no afternoon exams, so he spent his time playing around with his ‘Aura’, which according to Veronica is the name for the ‘presences’ he was sensing through ‘hollow sight’. However, he didn’t actually get anything new from it, so he ended up giving up and heading to the library to pester Veronica about it with Veronica. He asked her how she could manipulate her magic so easy, she kept responding with, “If you want help with your magic, come with me on Monday. There’s no other way.” After about 10 minutes, she grew sick of his pestering, and she ended up levitating water from her cup, and throwing it in his crotch area, making it look as if he wet himself. However, today, for his first exam, he had Biology. He and her were in the same class, so they are also in the same exam, and this time he brought the medallion with him. He vowed revenge, a good parting gift, something to remember him by. He had wondered what to do constantly since it happened. Would he hit her with even colder water in front of everyone? Perhaps that’s a little too far. But it had to be something embarrassing. Would he pull away her seat as she sat down? The only way to do that is with magic, and he wasn’t that skilled, but it had to be something equally funny. A brief moment of embarrassment then it’s forgotten to all but her. Then, he had an idea. After being given equipment, and taking his place at the exam hall, Bastion waited for at least half an hour into the exam before taking his mind off the work, and drawing magic from the amulet. He tried to telepathically blow up the pen by heating the ink up so high that the tube burst, destroying the pen. The pen would then leak all over the place, and the burn would make Veronica yelp or something. She was a girl, after all, right? However, it was far harder than he imagined. He stared at the pen, and pointed a subtle, concealed, finger toward it, but nothing was happening. He concentrated as hard as he could, and eventually, he felt that the magic was becoming a success, as he could sense the heat in the pen rising. Veronica could also sense this, as she dropped it on the floor before it could explode and shot a sharp glare at Bastion, though not for too long, because an inspector was looking. Bastion hissed frustration at his failed plan, but he’d get her back some other way. However, this was not to be. One of the supervisors walked by Veronica, picking up her pen and smiling as she offered it back. This startled Bastion, as Veronica wasn’t taking it back, just shifting her look from the pen, to the woman, to the pen in a worried fashion. Bastion tried to stop the pen from exploding, but it was too late, the pen practically melted in her hand, the ink seeping onto the woman’s hand. It was hot, but not hot enough to scar. She shrieked, doubling back and falling over. Eventually, more and more people screamed, and for a few seconds Bastion figured they were screaming in shock from the lady, thinking she had been seriously hurt in some way, but when he saw some of the students leap from their seats, he realized that he had burst far more pens than Veronica’s! He sat there, bewildered, eyes wide at the herd of panicked teenagers. Supervisors began to try and calm the room down, fetching new pens and wiping the ink off the hands of the students. Vander didn’t have his pen in his hand at the time, so he wasn’t burned. Bastion expected him to be laughing, but he wasn’t, he was just staring at Bastion. Eventually, a supervisor came along, and handed him a cloth, asking if he needed any help with ‘that’. He didn’t realize what she meant, until he looked at his hand. The pen was melted, completely, plastic and all. The ink was sizzling on his hands, far hotter than everyone else’s. He didn’t feel it, but the look on the supervisor’s face said it all. The test paper and table was practically ruined.
Although the test went on for a lot longer than it should have, given the mess and the disturbance, the one thing that was good about the mini-riot was that Veronica took notice of him after that. Although Veronica had not succumbed to a nasty case of hot ink on her hand, she was definitely bothered by it, which was evident to the way she practically dragged him out of the school toward the library after the Exam. The two of them were completely silent on their little journey, Bastion actually beginning to feel a little uncomfortable. He was also looking around for Talia or any of her girlfriends, because a second witness to another of Bastion’s scenarios with Veronica would be almost impossible to explain. Veronica’s face was cold, and expressionless, and although Bastion was a little happy to see that he had gotten to her, the depth of her anger took him back a little. What made him even more bothered by her is that once she had entered the library, she didn’t even hand in her ID, and she left the receptionist startled, as if she could feel the devil passing her. Once they were in her little study area, she let go of his arm and poured a plastic cup of water. “Think playing pranks are funny?”She asked, filling the cup and turning toward him.
”Don’t even-“ Bastion warned, but too late. She soaked him with the water, though it was aimed at his face rather than his crotch area. “Goddamn…” He groaned, wiping water out of his eyes.
”What, you think that was clever, exploding a bunch of pens? You think that was tough, some way to get back at me for your own actions?” Veronica hissed. “I invited you to come back with me, to Korreal to learn about magic, is that not good enough for you? You have to go pulling off crazy stunts? I don’t have to bother with you, I could just kill you and leave you behind.”
”Hey, look, calm down-“
”Don’t tell me what to do!” Veronica shouted.
”Alright! I'm sorry, ok? I didn’t mean to blow everything up, I just wanted to blow yours up is all.” Bastion shouted back, and Veronica huffed and pulled out a chair to sit in. “Sit.” She commanded, and Bastion followed her order. “If you’re going to do extreme stuff like that to get my attention, then…” She began, her temper still foul. “Then I’ll answer your questions, but none about the Magi until Monday.”
”Alright.” He said, sitting up straight, wondering what to ask first “Firstly, why was that guy trying to kill you? What did he want?”
”I don’t know… I remember he was asking me questions about the portal, about a baby coming through years ago, where the paladin and the young heir was. But I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, apart from the portal. I told him I didn’t know where that thing was, even though I’ve tried looking in history books in this library for areas of importance in southern England, some sort of code.”
”Code?” Bastion asked
”Although I said I wouldn’t talk about the Mages, I’ll tell you this.” Veronica said, leaning forward, knowing she was about to blow Bastion’s mind. “We wiped and recreated parts of history, to hide our existence.” Bastion raised an eyebrow, cynical at first, but eventually, he saw that Veronica wasn’t kidding. “How? Wouldn’t that be insanely hard?”
”No. There are Magi all other the word, use magic on a man’s mind and divide our existence into different myths… Such as witches and vampires.” Veronica said
”Wow… That’s…” Bastion stuttered