Chapter IV.XL (4.40) - The Chiame Problem

  Kizu flexed his pointer finger and winced. It had been a while now since Taroe had reluctantly stitched up his severed finger. If the process had been either quick or painless, Kizu wouldn’t have minded. Instead the healing was long and painful. But at least he had his finger back to mostly normal. Just a thin scar and a broken fingernail remained of his injury.

  It made writing numerology equations an absolute nightmare. Kizu had been close to breaking down and buying one of the egregiously expensive quills that wrote verbal speech that Faible’s uncle, Jeri, sold. But he’d held back on the temptation. While Kizu had money from his past spoils as well as from a weekly allowance from his family, he was spending it nearly as quickly as he was gaining it these days. Mostly on building additions to Owl’s Respite and more seeds for his plant nursery.

  “At least Ione is a lot cheaper of a date than Emilia ever was,” he mused.

  Maybe that wasn’t fair to Emilia. It wasn’t like she had ever directly pushed him to spend money on her. But it kind of felt expected whenever they had gone out together.

  Ione cared more about the experiences than the image. Since their first date to the aquarium, they’d gone out together several more times. They took turns, she’d plan a date, then he’d plan a date. So far they’d gone to the beach twice, baked bread at a local bakery lesson, and hiked the side of the volcano next to the academy. Well, ‘hiked’ was a generous term for it. Ione’s summons had carried them a good portion of the way. But, regardless of the means, they’d submitted it and seen inside the collapsed crater at the top.

  According to one of the history books Faible had recommended to Kizu, the island’s volcano was technically still active but hadn’t been much of an issue in recent memory. Just one scare where some smoke seeped out for a few days. It was suspected that the World Dungeon’s caverns intercepting the magma flows kept the tension from building within the mountain for a proper explosion.

  Kizu pushed aside his notes and school books. Leaning back in his chair, he looked around his study nook.

  He’d converted the final bit of space in Owl’s Respite’s hull to a crammed office. Little more than a desk and a single chair.

  The desk was currently covered in sketches of a divination ritual spell. Anata had begged him for help the other day after she and Mae had accidentally dropped their ball into the lake above. The divination ritual Kizu had come up with was designed to draw in the user’s lost objects, so long as they had them on their person in the last few hours and had spent a good amount of time with the thing beforehand. After successfully recovering the ball, Kizu had attempted several variations of spell to retrieve Sojan. Sadly with no luck. Still, it had been excellent divination practice and Kizu felt he had a decent grasp on the spell. Drawing in lost objects was a useful utility spell to have on hand, though it wasn’t very cost effective in terms of blood use.

  Above him he could hear Anata and the Kitsune’s footsteps as they ran about on the deck, playing with the recovered ball. Last week he’d worked on an enchantment on his laboratory’s door to help keep them out of this area of the ship. There were simply too many dangerous ingredients and he couldn’t risk them hurting themselves. The last thing he wanted was for them to experience the same harsh lessons he had under the crone’s tutelage.

  Kizu looked over to his blooming nursery. Behind a few plants that hung from the ceiling, a beam of light shone down on the nursery. There was a gate over it to shine authentic sunlight down. On his hike with Ione, he’d found a nice, abandoned spot to create as the other point. Now he had three gates total on Owl’s Respite. One into Taroe’s home. One to the hotspring village waterways. And a final one to the mountain. He was getting a lot of practice with the spell.

  Of course, that wasn’t the only spell he’d been working on. He’d been working on balancing all the branches.

  He snatched up his scrying orb from his bag. “Orb. Show me my rankings.”

  “Kaga Kizu, Third-Year. Combat 325, Astronomy 201, Divination 77, History 652, Politics 701, Rejuvenation and Restoration 799, Conjuring 800, Brewing 1, Numerology 699, Music 302 (Piano), Enchanting 152, Illusion 66, Elemental 174.”

  A few solid leaps forward. Music was the most notable. Ignis had been over the moon about his improvement there. The hours of practicing over spring break while locked up with Shika and Mitsuko had paid off in dividends. The professor had even given Kizu a few exercises to practice incorporating magic into the music. Just leaning into the tunes and very slightly amplifying the emotions the noises naturally pushed.

  As for this semester’s classes, both Divination B and Illusion A were incredibly insightful. He genuinely loved attending every class. He’d quickly surpassed his peers in Numerology F and Professor Knoff was assigning him homework for the D class. In harsh contrast to his treatment in Politics F, where the only attention Professor Krimpit gave him was the occasional glare across the classroom. This was despite Kizu constantly holding himself back from remarks and remaining civil. In his mind, he was a star pupil. But Krimpit neither forgave nor forgot.

  “Conjuring.” He glared at the 800 listing. Even when Ione assisted him, he had no luck. No matter how decent the summoning circle, nothing happened unless he really pushed himself. And the one time he’d done that outside of class, it had been another horrible abomination that Ione had to help him eliminate. Like Sene, he had no talent for that branch of magic.

  Rejuvenation and Restoration F should be higher. Kizu believed that he might progress decently in the class, but Taroe refused to teach the F class even the most basic healing spells, believing them to be too dangerous to perform until they had a fuller knowledge of the human body. Which Kizu didn’t mind too much. He had enough on his plate at the moment. And Taroe’s lessons actually helped him in a different way as well. His spatial phase spell had improved greatly now that he knew how to visualize his insides better. He could manage an entire arm now. Not walking through walls yet, but still able to perform more than a few tricks.

  “Kizu?” someone said at the door. “Are you down here?”

  Kizu, reclining on the back two legs of his chair, slipped and crashed to the floor. Then he scrambled over to the door and swung it open, revealing Ione. A smile spread across his face.

  “Come on in.” He stepped aside and beckoned her into the ship’s converted cargo hull. But his smile slipped as he saw her expression. “Everything okay?”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Yes,” she answered quickly. “Well, no, actually. That was a white lie.” She flopped down on his chair. “I can’t sleep anymore.”

  “Chimae?” Kizu guessed.

  “Ding, ding.” Ione pointed at him. “Big prize for the winner. Your choice of, A– listening to me complain, or B– getting me something tasty to munch on. Might as well dive into gluttony if I can’t engage in sloth.”

  “I’ll take both prizes.” Kizu reached into his storage ring and pulled out a sandwich he’d taken from the academy cafeteria earlier in the day. He held it out to her. “What’s wrong?”

  Rather than take the food, Ione took a massive bite of the sandwich in his hand then leaned back in the chair, chewing while staring up at the ceiling. Her answer came when she finally gulped.

  “I fell asleep in Illusions F today. Chiame cursed two of my classmates, hexing them into a fusion of flesh.”

  “What?” Kizu jolted straight. “She cast spells through you? Can you cast hexes? I thought you only had skills with summoning.”

  Ione shrugged, her body still drooping over the chair, eyes staring upwards. “Never done it before.”

  “Was everyone okay?” Kizu asked.

  “Ignis separated them. And then he reported me to the headmaster. I’m supposed to meet with his assistant tomorrow.”

  “Roba.” Kizu considered. “If you’re comfortable with it, you can probably safely explain your situation to her.”

  Ione sighed and finally sat up. “I don’t want to though. I like keeping my problems private. They’re my problems, not hers. I claim them as my own. I should only be able to share them with people like you. People I love.”

  Love. Kizu blinked. That was the first time he’d heard that word directed at him in over a decade. Not since…his sister, Anna. But before he could form any sort of response, she continued on.

  “I know it’s silly. I should let more people in. But they don’t deserve it!”

  She flexed a fist and punched the air. Then she opened the hand and let it flop down again.

  “I’ve been working on another variety of the potion,” Kizu said. “I think I’ve enhanced it.”

  He pulled the potion out of his ring. It glowed an ominous orange.

  Ione finally sat up and leaned forward. She took the potion and weighed it in her hand.

  “If I drink this, it will extinguish Chiame?”

  “It will lessen her control over you,” Kizu replied. “But I think it should absorb her more than it will eliminate her.”

  “Absorb her,” Ione repeated thoughtfully.

  “I think…” Kizu hesitated. “I think you might retain her spell capabilities if she’s casting spells.”

  “And her personality? I don’t want to become a muddled mix of me and her.”

  Kizu shook his head. “No. That I’m certain of. Your soul will expand around her. It will be more like she’ll be a prisoner inside your soul. You should be able to still tap into her memories with practice, but she won’t have control unless that’s what you want.”

  “Interesting. What could go wrong?”

  “Physical problems? Well, I used some bioluminescent mushrooms I cultivated with Aoi’s help. There is a chance they might make you glow orange for between a week to a month. Soul problems? That’s more complicated. There’s a chance it messes with your magic.”

  “Absolutely not.” Ione pushed the vial back into Kizu’s hands. “Summoning is closely tied with the summoner’s soul. I am not taking that chance.”

  “There’s nearly no chance it would be permanent,” Kizu said.

  “Summoning is all I have, Kizu.”

  “But Chiame—”

  “Not for anything in the whole world. End of conversation.”

  Kizu replaced the potion in his ring and closed his eyes, holding back a sigh. Then he took out a different potion. This one was a dull gray.

  “Another attempt?” Ione guessed.

  “No. Not quite. But some of the same ingredients.” He swirled the liquid inside. Despite his promise to Knoff to not try anything without supervision, Kizu uncorked the vial. Then he threw his head back and downed it.

  “Kizu!”

  “Relax. I’ll be fine. And this way we can know if the problem ingredients do anything notable.”

  The moment he finished his sentence, he blinked and a man stood between himself and Ione.

  His skin was brown like the headmaster’s and he wore a worn leather outfit that left his chest bare save for a single strap. The man blinked and looked around himself. Then raised a hand and marveled at his body.

  “You…you’ve created me?” his soul stowaway asked.

  “No,” Kizu said. “I simply made it so we can talk face to face.”

  “Kizu?” Ione said behind the man. “We were already talking face to face?”

  “She can’t see me,” the man noted. “Interesting.”

  “I’m speaking to an external extension of my soul’s parasite,” Kizu explained. “This forces him to actually directly address me.”

  “‘Parasite’ is a bit of a rude term. I only melded with you to save your agency.”

  “I see.” Ione considered. “So I could maybe force Chiame to speak to me.”

  “You’ll at least know you’ll be talking to her,” Kizu clarified. “It doesn’t force them to actually speak.”

  “Am I here simply as an example trial run?”

  “No. I’ve been meaning to talk to you. You’re from the west, right?”

  “I believe so. Based on your knowledge of geography.”

  “What’s your name?”

  The man before him frowned and began pacing back and forth. Ione sat in the chair behind him, eyebrow raised quizzically while Kizu waited for his soul roommate’s response.

  “Zayne,” he finally said. “That was my name. Zayne Ali Ayad. I was a spearman.”

  “How does a spearman from who knows how long ago end up inside an aurora on the other side of the world?”

  “The story is…complex. My memories are not clear.”

  It felt odd hearing the voice from Kizu’s head finally manifested in the shape of a human body. While he claimed to be a spearman, Zayne didn’t look particularly strong. He was lean and a bit shorter than Kizu. Still, he held himself with pride. His posture straight and exuding confidence.

  “You know about my sister, right?” Kizu asked. “She’s somewhere in the east.”

  “I’ve heard of her in passing while coexisting with you. I do not have access to your memories and I often sleep unless prompted to awaken.”

  Well that answered a few questions. “Can you show me more of your past? With the caveat that I don’t want to be knocked out for over a day again.”

  “Perhaps…yes. I think that might be possible.” Zayne strode forward and reached out a hand. He placed it on Kizu’s forehead.

  “Kizu!” Ione cried out. “What—”

  The world blurred.

  Fifteen Blood Curse Academia chapters (7 weeks) ahead of Royal Road on Patreon!