The Foolhardies 223 Night School

"The appropriate term is drow, you know. Calling them dark elves is considered offensive," Ty corrected.

"Shut up, Tyberius," Arah scolded. "Seriously though, Dean, what the h.e.l.l do a bunch of dark elves want with our school?" 

"That's where things get complicated," I answered. 

While the three of sat there gazing into the bonfire that one of my visere guards had been kind enough to start for us, I began to tell Arah about what exactly transpired on the previous night when my fire-team and I repelled the attacks of the secret drow death squad known as the Claw. 

"Wait, wasn't the Claw among the a.s.sa.s.sins that tried to attack Aura during the summit with the Starfall clan?" Arah interjected. 

"Yup," I answered right before I frowned. "Now, will you shut up… I'm trying to tell the story here." 

"Oh, sorry. Continue," Arah said as she mimed zipping her lips together. 

After hearing the sound of battle, we rushed outside of the records room and made our way to where we could hear Varda spitting curses like a typical dwarf would have which was south of our current position. 

"Mudd.a.m.n drow b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!" Varda roared. 

"Muds, the mouth on that one," Qwipps chuckled, although his face was full of worry for his best friend. "I'll go first!" 

He spread his wings and zoomed across the hall ahead of me and Aura while I yelled after him not to get turned around. 

The closer we got to the fighting, the more I could hear the screams. Particularly Ty's as he was most likely the weakest link in whatever was happening. 

They may call him the Chosen One in the Fayne, but here on Mudgard where the elemental spirits are incredibly scarce — possibly due to mankind polluting the planet way too much — he might as well have been a dime-store magician who could barely make water sprout from his hands.

I turned left into the next hallway and charged forward, my sword hand grasping for my falchion — and that's when I realized I'd left it in the Fayne. 

I skidded to a stop, suddenly feeling naked. 

In front of me, Varda, Enna, and Qwipps had engaged the nine shadows whose forms were barely discernable under the pale light of Mudgard's moon peeking through the open windows of the hallway. 

There was one body on the ground. It was dressed in the scarlet robes that the Claw liked to dress in. 

Ty was cowering behind Enna with his back against the wall. In his hands was a mop he brandished left and right as if to keep away the deadly shadows standing beyond his protector. 

"Hold up," Arah interrupted my story, bringing us back to the present. "Ty can't use magic in Mudgard?"

She turned a smoldering gaze at him. 

"You said you could!" she accused. 

"I can…" he protested weakly. "But… it's not nearly strong enough to do any kind of damage really…"

Arah punched him in the shoulder. 

"You've been boasting for months how you could create ice glaciers at the snap of your fingers," she reminded him. 

As my two friends argued about Ty's tall tales, I gazed past the wall of the demilitarization zone that my unit was currently a.s.signed to protect and looked up at Idunn while feeling a sense of nostalgia come over me. 

This was how we were long before we met Aura. Just three kids arguing over the smallest thing while hanging out under a starry sky without a care in the world. And now we literally had the weight of a world on our shoulders, or at least that's how it felt most times. Man, things were so much simpler back then. 

Arah's voice turned my attention back on her. 

"So, how exactly did you two survive when you were both useless in that fight?" Arak asked. 

I frowned. "We weren't useless. At least I wasn't…"

"Hey!" Ty protested. "Not cool, man! I helped too!"

Actually, that wasn't such a tall tale because he really did help. 

Remember the Claw member who was dead on the ground beneath Enna's feet? Well, his weapon was also lying on the ground a few feet in front of him which was right by Ty's own feet. Why he hadn't bothered to pick this up and use it instead of the broom he was brandis.h.i.+ng around was beyond me, but at least that meant I could take it. 

"Ty!" I pointed down on the ground. "Kick that over to me now!" 

My yell caught the attention of the two drow that had hung back from the fighting. They dashed toward me, their pointed blades aimed at my defenseless b.u.t.t. 

Heat grazed the right side of my face as a Firebolt zoomed past and smacked the chest of the drow on the right, causing it to be blown back by the force of Aura's attack.

"Thank you!" I yelled just as I dashed forward myself. 

The second drow's blade swung forward. 

I ducked at the last second and dropped to the floor so I could catch the weapon that was sliding toward me courtesy of Ty. Then I picked it up, jumped to my feet, and swung the blade around. 

The clang of shadowblades cras.h.i.+ng into each other reached my ears as the drow and my borrowed weapon locked blades. 

We pulled away from each other which was good for me but very bad for the drow. It seemed to have forgotten the Firebolt-throwing elf behind it. 

"Kablam!" I yelled as I smacked my fist into my open palm for effect. "Aura's Firebolt smacked it in the back just as I pushed forward and skewered the b.a.s.t.a.r.d with the sword in my hands."

"Kablam?" Arah asked with an eyebrow raised high.

"Are you really going to nag me on my choice of sound effects?" I asked while raising an eyebrow of my own. 

"Sorry, sorry… force of habit," she admitted. "Wait…" 

She glanced from me to Ty and she definitely gave him the stink eye.

"How come Aura can use magic but you can't?" Arah asked. 

"Um, it's probably because she's a fairy?" Ty shrugged. "I haven't really asked."

Another round of arguing began with Arah pointing out that learning about his weaknesses and how to overcome them was part of Ty's responsibility. 

I didn't have the heart to b.u.t.t in and tell them I knew why Aura could cast spells w.i.l.l.y-nilly without the use of elemental spirits. It was her Hearthwood Staff which like all gold-tier weapons had a unique trait, casting a single spell that had been enchanted into it. And it didn't need elemental spirits to work. Just the user's mana which in a fairy like Aura was abundant no matter what world she was in. 

Eventually, the argument died down and I managed to return to my story. There wasn't much else to say other than the fact that we cleaned house. 

Don't get me wrong, by no means was it easy, but my team, despite their eccentricities, were the best of the best. So, a stab and slash in the just the right spot as well as a Fist of Stone and Firebolt exploding at just the right moment — and we'd pretty much wrapped things up. 

Nearly twenty minutes later and we were all soaked in sweat. Ten bodies lay beneath our feet with dark blood pooling underneath them. 

The smell of it all made my nose wrinkle in displeasure. 

"Man, the janitor's going to have a rough morning when he sees all this," I sighed. 

"He won't." Aura answered. "We'll call in the cleaners once we're done here." 

The cleaners, a word I learned was the reason most of the world wasn't aware of the many fairy incursions into Mudgard. They were humans working for the fay whose job it was to dispose of bodies and clean up fay-related incidents like this obvious crime scene we were in. 

"Yeah, they're going to need a lot of bleach to get rid of this stuff," I said. 

The laugh that had started in my throat died there as the smell of something burning floated up to my nose. 

"Aura, did you Firebolt something you shouldn't have?" I asked. 

Aura sent me a raised eyebrow that was very reminiscent of Arah. 

"I don't miss my shots, Dean," she said. 

I was hoping she would say yes. After all, telling her off for burning school property was less upsetting than the alternative. 

"s.h.i.+t," I hissed. 

Then I began to run, my feet retracing their steps all the way back to Records where I skidded to a stop in front of the open door.

"s.h.i.+t," I said again. 

It was only then that I realized that the Claw were nothing more than a distraction for while we were fighting with them, someone had come in here and done damage even Cleaners would have a hard time repairing. 

The records room was on fire.