Knife To Meet You!

Her presumption was right, as she soon found herself at one of the smaller doors to the lab. The rest were usually kept locked unless they had to move something into the lab.

Professor Jach seemed to be getting more and more fidgety the closer he got to the lab.

Once during the journey she had dared to pry for further knowledge.

"Is there something wrong? Am I in trouble?", She had asked, more impatient to know the answer to the second question than the first.

It had given the professor a freeze in his step. He had turned slowly towards her, and tried to speak -- once, twice, three times -- but could not bring it to himself to tell her whatever he wanted to say. It took another half a minute or so of hesistance and delibration before he could utter his reply.

And it made her furious.

"...I do not know if I should tell you yet."

"...If that was all you had to say, why say anything at all? Why hesitate so much?", She wished upon him a burnt dinner. Then regretted it and cursed some more. "I could"ve gone and had a three course meal in the time you wasted here!"

Her cursing was mostly hunger induced and she knew it. She also knew that seeing one of the sweetest professors in the academy in this state worried her way too much.

"Something is going down. I"ve never seen him so worried. I don"t know what it is and I wish to stay a dozen continents away from whatever it is...", She mused. "I really hope that"s not why he was looking for me."

===

Jach almost opened the door to the lab. Almost.

He looked back at Seph again.

"I do not want her getting into this just based on her name..." He thought.

And yet he realized that opening the door just like that and letting her know, or dare he say, interact with that knife would have done that exact thing.

"And she was the one who first came up with the runes too. If she realizes what they may have caused in our posession, she.. she might just start blaming herself."

He needed to be a bit more discrete. More careful with this situation.

"Sir, are you okay?", Seph"s comment woke him up from this thoughts.

"Oh, yes... Yes I"m fine.", he nodded despite knowing full well he was not okay.

He moved his hand away from the door handle, leaving the door closed, and turned to fully face the student.

"Let"s just try and make sure we resolve this without the two interacting." He nodded to himself internally.

"Ah, yes, Seph? Do you have any siblings?", He decided to just ask straight away.

Seph seemed a bit confused by the question, but she answered after only a moment of hesitation.

"No, I"m an only child." She shook her head. "Why do you ask, sir?"

"I see...", Jach ignored her question. "And have you ever heard of a place called "London"?"

Her brows furrowed and she just shook her head.

Jach nodded to that. He turned slowly towards the door and opened it.

"Wait here for a moment. I need to talk to Krys first." He told Seph and entered the lab.

===

Kyvas still had no control over his body. He was slowly getting his sight and hearing back. It took much less effort to see Krys" figure pacing around and stumbling through his books now. And the constant flipping of pages was getting clearer -- and more annoying -- by the minute too.

He"d tried to call out to Krys for the past half hour now. But either the thought-to-speech thing that he thought was hapenning was not workig anymore, or Krys was just ignoring him. He was willing to bet it was the second option.

Jach had yet to return with his sister. And Kyvas was tired, angry and bored.

He did not want to think about the weirdness of his situation at all. There were things. Thoughts, perhaps, feelings, observations. Little things here and there. They were obvious clues as to what exactly was wrong with him. Like his sight and the other peculiarity with it he had almost realized. Yet he chose to ignore them, still choosing to believe that this was one big prank.

"KRYS! Stop with the pages and answer me dammit!", Kyvas yelled on the inside. No response.

Just then he heard a click from the door. He turned towards it to see Jach coming in, finally. There was someone behind him too. A girl maybe?

...Hadn"t he gone to call Seph? Whoever that was did not seem like Seph.

The door closed behind Jach before he could get a closer look.

"Wait... How did I turn to look at the door? I can"t move anything." A sudden thought almost crashed his brain.

No, now was not the time to realize. The thought was supressed immediately.

"You said you"d go get Seph. Where is she?" He demanded to Jach. Seemingly forgetting that all he was still doing was just thinking.

Jach just walked past him and over to Krys. They talked for a minute or so, the content of their talks too low for Kyvas to figure out. Then Jach retreaded his steps until he reached Kyvas.

A hand reached towards him. Kyvas paid it no mind.

"Seph"s outside the door. But I don"t think it"s your Seph.", Jach said without much embellishments.

"Call her in then. I"ll see.", Kyvas replied.

"No. First I have a few questions. What"s your name."

"Kyvas Troy. Now call her in."

"...Her family name is Revosa, not Troy. What p.r.o.nouns do I use for you. I feel bad just calling you "it"."

"I"m a guy. Make what you will of it. Call her in."

"Do you know what"s happened to you? Why you"re in a dagger?", Jach"s voice was much softer ehn he said this.

"Please just STOP! Stop with this... this stupid prank of yours already! I"m sick, worried, scared, just... Just call her in and end this. Please.", Kyvas could just plead.

"...Okay. I"ll call her in. Don"t... try to contact her if she"s not your sister. I don"t want her getting into a mess she does not deserve to be a part of.", Jach nodded and turned to the door without waiting for a reply.

"I won"t", Kyvas replied anyway.

===

"Come in, Seph!", Professor Jach called out from the lab, startling Seph who already had her hand halfway extended to the handle.

She wasn"t being impatient, no. Okay maybe just a bit. Still, it wasn"t impatience that drove her to almost opening the door without permission.

There was something in there. Something with a lot of mana. Something with a lot of mana that somehow, felt familiar.

Mana sensing was something everyone could do. It was, after all, another sense. Most professional mages and enchanters had better mana sense than most individuals. Seph had a mana strength stronger even than those professionals. She was much more attuned to it, could understand the intricacies of precise mana control much better than her peers could. In fact she could even see it, if it were concentrated enough. It didn"t mean she had talent, mind you. Just more potential than most. It was up to her still to make use of that potential.

She was the only one in her cla.s.s that could feel how mana pulsed differently for different people, even if they performed the same spell. It wasn"t unique for every person, no. The patterns evolved as people grew more profficient at magic. The more powerful mages, like her professors, tended to almost immitate the pulse of the person they were guiding.

This pattern she felt from behind the door? It felt like her own.

She gulped. Curiosity overtook hunger and fear, and she opened the door.

There, on the sole table not adjoining any walls, was a dagger. A severely cracked and chipped steel dagger. That was the thing she felt was so familiar.

She didn"t hear when Jach asked her a question about Dihovas. Her eyes were only at the dagger.

She started to approach it, studying it while walking.

The mana it was emitting wasn"t much, but the same couldn"t be said about the mana it had kept stored. She had only once before seen such a mana reserve and that was from the crystal lattice core that powered the entire academy -- She had snuck into it"s holding room without authorization once. Did not end well for her -- and that thing was pure Lead! This was just steel, a much worse mana conductor and yet...

The cracks and chips, she saw them repairing themselves ever so slowly. Much more slowly than the rate she"d expect something with even a tenth of this thing"s mana repairing itself to have.

And it felt like her. Not exactly like her, but still.

She reached out for the dagger, but it flew out towards Professor Jach right before her fingers could tough it"s hilt. Telekinesis. That startled her out of her state.

"...", The professor looked at her, his lips pursed. No longer in the meek state she saw him in before.

She could find nothing in herself allowing her to do anything more than just stare at her feet.

"You"re work here is done. You may leave now." Professor Jach"s words felt like he had given an order.

Seph found herself complying, making a hesistant beeline for the exit. Glancing often at that dagger, which now rested in Jach"s hands.

"Something"s up with that dagger. And I need to know what." She thought to herself right as she was about to exit.

Just then, in the deep recesses of her mind, she thought she heard a faint voice.

"It"s true isn"t it? I"ve become a dagger..."

She blinked. Took a final look at the dagger. And closed the door behind her.