Harris Institute for Gifted Students Episode 12: Walls

Harris Institute for Gifted Students by Pineapple | Content Warnings

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Saying their farewells to Ms. Fatima at the edge of the barrier felt like an ending. Sofia knew that it was. That Death or not, things would never be the same. There was no coming back to the school they knew and recognized before.

“It will not be easy,” Ms. Fatima had said to them. “I hate to put you all in the way of this danger, but neither Alaric of the Light nor I can do anything towards each other. He wouldn’t place himself in the position where he would be removed from the school and I… I’m simply an old bruja.”

Samuel shook his head. “I’ve never held anything against the differences in our practice,” he said. “Thank you for your help.”

“Hera and I will keep an eye on campus,” she assured them. “Trust each other and yourselves. Your knowledge and confidence will guide you.”

The Fool or The Hanged Man, Sofia followed Sugi’s lead anyway. It was too late to back out now. Everyone must have felt the same; a nervous energy permeated the air around them as they went. In any other circumstance, it might have been a nice little trail: unpaved dirt surrounded by overgrown yellowing grass.

Everyone was still in their uniforms. Marjani in her usual tall heels, despite the battle they were about to head into. Vanessa had opted for her sports leggings, but she’d tacked on the blazer for the protective sigils that lined the inside. Sumire and Sugi hadn’t bothered to transform yet, not wanting to draw the extra attention. Sugi was even swinging his arms as he walked, looking perfectly carefree.

Greyson had his eyes on Alaric’s tower as he followed. It was fixed in the horizon, as always. Sofia figured she could read his mind if she really wanted, but she didn’t think she needed to. His regret and determination were written plain as day on his face.

Samuel’s expression was hard, blank. He only snapped to attention when Sugi called to him, pointing at what must have been their destination: a somewhat empty patch of land.

Samuel very nearly smiled at the pout on Sugi’s face. “Alright, alright,” he said. He stepped around everyone in front of him and raised his hands. “You know, you’re right. It’s faint—very well hidden—but… now that I know to look for it, I can feel Alaric’s magic.”

“Can you do something about it?” Greyson asked.

“Of course.”

Sam’s hands shook just slightly, and the air in front of them started to shimmer. There was a sphere in front of them. A barrier for protection, like the school’s, but also for cloaking. Light pulsed around the circumference of it, and with each pass of white in front of them, everything behind it became more and more visible. Soon, there was a building there. The same one that Sugi had shown Sofia in his mind’s eye. It would have been impossible to miss, if not for the enchantments concealing it.

“How did you know this was here?” Sofia glanced over at Sugi, who seemed to be gloating silently over his sister. “Like, how did you see it?”

Sugi’s hands dropped from his hips. “Ah, um,” he stalled. His eyes strayed for just a second. “Well… I had a bad feeling and I thought I wouldn’t have a bad feeling for no reason, right?”

Sumire was frowning, her face pinching together in a way it only did when she thought nobody was looking. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

He shrugged. “Something had to explain it.”

“You can’t just—”

“Alright,” Vanessa said. “Come on, cut it out. Finish your little squabble later. We gotta keep moving.”

Sumire snapped her mouth shut, looking more than a little unhappy. She looked almost unnerved, like she was fraying at the ends as she watched her brother’s change. He was engulfed in light for just a second, and then he was in his usual pink and white outfit. She muttered her transformation words, and then her helmet was covering her face and anything else that would give away her mood.

“Ready?” Vanessa asked, taking Sofia’s hand.

Sofia startled at first, but then Vanessa gave her fingers a little squeeze. “Yeah,” Sofia answered, closing her eyes.

An antenna, Marjani and Ben had called her. She felt more like a beacon, doing this right here.

She felt Vanessa’s magic dance over her skin, charging the air with static. The electricity melded with the anxiety in the air. Everyone’s hair was standing up, Sofia could feel it, but she could also feel their anxieties and resolution. She squeezed Vanessa’s hand back.

All the more reason to get this done quickly, she thought.

“Okay, Mickey, you’re up,” Vanessa said, her voice light and easy, but firm enough that it left no room for the jealousy she’d felt at the beginning of the semester. Sofia opened her eyes just in time to see Vanessa jerk her head to the barrier.

Mickey nodded and took aim. She steadied her breath. Her arrow of light was brighter, more powerful than Sofia had ever seen it before. It wasn’t unstable, but it was moving like it was alive. Like it was a nebulous star, stretched in the tension of Mickey’s magic. She released it and it pierced the barrier, getting caught halfway through. It started to fade, leaving a hole and spider web cracks up the barrier.

The cracks spread, and there was a cascading shattering sound. The barrier collapsed, falling and dissolving like iridescent sparkles around them. The tension dissipated with it.

The building was easier to see now. As they approached, Sofia could see the familiar looking runes that signaled Elliot’s involvement.

Greyson clicked his tongue. “He really did have something to do with it, huh,” he muttered.

“I told you,” Sumire said.

Samuel paused to run his fingers over the bricks. They looked lighter up-close. The embedded symbols left the impression that the whole place was much darker than it actually was. They were small, almost imperceptible except by touch. Ray had said that Elliot wasn’t as bad as he seemed for being involved. Sumire had disagreed. Looking at this, Sofia was inclined to do the same.

“Think he’s nearby?” Vanessa asked.

“He wouldn’t have to be.” Greyson shrugged. “But there’s no telling with him.”

“We should stay on our guard,” Marjani said.

Vanessa nodded in agreement. She looked to Ben for the next part of the plan they’d set up the night before. He put a barrier around her as she dragged the door open and went in first. Once she’d surmised that there weren’t any immediate traps, she signaled for everyone else to follow her into the dark, grim hallways. The door creaked closed behind them.

Ben could have kept the barrier up, but Vanessa told him not to overextend himself, and the pink light from his magic flickered, fading into nothing. Samuel made an orb of light and held it up, taking the lead.

Vanessa fell to the rear, keeping an eye on everyone from behind.

It was quiet here. Their footsteps barely even echoed on the polished concrete floors, the sound getting absorbed by the terracotta walls. In Alaric’s tower, they’d echo off every surface. It was so empty here it felt like they’d disappear at any moment. But…

But she could hear him. She could hear that strange, incoherent language that Ray had said was Sahar if she tried hard enough.

She could feel Alaric in the back of her mind, behind her eyes like a migraine. Sugi had said that he wouldn’t know who it was that had been poking around looking. All his hard work and here she was, showing off her mental magic by giving everyone else a boost.

Sugi

Ah, shit—

Sofia felt arms around her before she realized she was stumbling. She froze, only her eyes searching for some clue as to what was happening.

“An earthquake?” Sumire shouted in her ear.

“No,” Greyson answered.

It sure as hell sounded like it. There was rumbling, now that Sofia thought to listen. Also squishing. And the smell of wet earth—clay.

“The halls are changing,” Mickey said.

Sofia’s eyes found her. Greyson had caught her with one arm, her other hand on a wall. Greyson had his other arm around Samuel.

“Sugi!” Sumire shouted.

The arms around Sofia loosened. She could stand on her own, apparently.

Sumire was running towards a wall. She hit her hands against it. Kicked it when punching it didn’t work.

“You okay?” Mickey asked.

Sofia looked over at her, trying to get her bearings. She looked around. The walls and floors had moved. They’d passed a room and Samuel had said that it was empty and then… the door frame had extended and it must have cut them off from the others.

“Sugi, can you hear me?” Sumire shouted.

“We hear you,” Sugi replied from the other side of the newly formed wall. There was a heavy slam on the other side. “Marjani is trying to break through.”

“I don’t think brute strength will work,” Greyson said, eyes narrowing. “There’s… protections. Enchantments. Spells. It isn’t just Elliot’s creations. I don’t even know if I can…”

Samuel looked over at him. “Greyson,” he said, something loaded in his voice.

“I don’t know,” Greyson answered, like a whole conversation happened just in the way Samuel had said his name. “He knows me best, after all. He knows how my powers work. He knows that I… He hates how I destroy his things.”

Vanessa was on the other side of the wall. “I’m gonna try something,” she yelled. “Stand back or else!”

Sumire wisely took a few large steps back away.

Sofia heard the rumbling of thunder. The unmistakable clap of a nearby lightning strike. It was bright, blinding for just a second. When she blinked the spots out of her vision, Sofia saw a smoking hole left in the wall.

“Nice one!” Ben whooped.

Vanessa crawled through the hole she made. Ben was close behind her. He was reaching through to help Marjani when she shoved him backwards so hard he almost slid.

“Marj?” he asked, lost. His eyes were so wide it made him look helpless, like a hurt puppy

“It’s closing,” she said.

Vanessa rushed back to the wall. “I’ll break it open again.”

Marjani met Greyson’s gaze through the opening Vanessa had made. It was no longer smoking, and it was shrinking in size, reforming itself like it’d never been blown apart at all. A small person might be able to fit, but it’d be a tight squeeze. And if they got stuck…? Sofia didn’t even want to think about it.

“It’ll keep doing this, won’t it?” Marjani asked.

Greyson nodded. “I think we’d need to find Elliot to stop it,” he said.

“We can’t just leave them!” Sumire shouted.

“Sumi,” Sugi said. “It’s okay. Don’t waste your energy.”

“What do you mean ‘waste’?” she started, spinning to scream at him.

“We’ll find another way,” Sugi said. “You guys go ahead.”

“Marj, you don’t seriously agree,” Ben cut in.

“We agreed last night that we need to be swift, Ben,” Marjani said. “You all keep moving. The more time we waste here, the more prepared Alaric and Elliot will be.”

Sugi smiled.

“Sugi—”

He said something else, but the wall closed completely.

Sumire slammed a fist into it. And then again and—Ben took her by the bicep. “Come on,” he said.