Chapter 93 - The Core, the Duel, and the Vaults III (Patreon)

They weren’t able to track Hazel down.

“She probably doesn’t want to be found.” Erik said.

“Sleeping in her bed with her invisibility necklace on.” Sora speculated. 

Vivian shrugged. She’d gotten changed into what Felix could only describe as ‘tomb raider chic, witch style’. Which was one heck of a look! Vivian caught him staring, and did a twirl.

“Do you think it looks good?” She asked. 

“Yeah!” Felix said, only for Sora to kick him in the shins.

“Hey! What was that for?” He asked.

“Let’s get going.” She grumped. 

Felix looked at Erik, wide-eyed in surprise. Erik held up his hands.

“I’m staying well out of it.” He said.

Traitor.

The five of them descended down to the vaults. Sora hummed an actiony song the whole way while skipping. Felix spent the entire time mulling over the recent events.

“What was the whole thing with Chris?” Felix asked Erik. The Morsin pulled a face.

“Oooh boy. Alright. Ready for a whole lot of your noonie conceptions to get challenged?” He asked.

“I don’t like where this is going.” Felix said. Vivian immediately made a pained noise of her own.

“Just remember you can completely ignore her!” She said. “You don’t have to do anything!”

Alexandria looked even more pissed off than usual, thunderclouds rolling across her face. Erik pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Can we please give this to Felix in logical order, and not a Sora-tier explanation?” He asked.

“Why not?” Sora twirled mid-skip, and started hopping backwards. “It’s simple. You’ve got a Dragon core, now Beatrix is supposed to marry you to have a bunch of dragon babies. Boom. Done. Why make it complicated?”

Felix came to a halt as everything crashed down around him. He sputtered, unsure how to begin tackling that.

“This. This is why we slowly peel things back for Sutter.” Erik said with a sigh. “Dude, don’t stress about it. As Vivian said, it’s your choice. You’re also under the Morsin aegis. Yeah, the Brynwyll’s are going to want your core, one way or another. Marriage or payments to get it after your death are the most common ways, and there’s a certain set of expectations.” 

“Like what?” Felix asked, firmly back to cursing his father. This whole dragon core thing sounded like a huge headache.

“Well, it’s like, expected that you’ll come to an agreement of some sort.” Vivian’s voice was frosty. “They scratch your back, and you scratch theirs. For example, they have a monopoly on dragon cores. Want a good wand? Well, they have literally all the wands that could work well for you. Need a special thing? They’ve got it. At the same time, it’s not a one way street. They strongly prefer that you’ll marry in, since that’ll significantly strengthen their bloodline, and it’s considered a ‘duty to assist the noble bloodlines’. Which is a whole load of hogwash as far as I’m concerned.” She folded her arms under her chest. 

“Wait, don’t you love those sorts of bo-” Alexandria’s whispered question was interrupted by Vivian hitting the other girl.

“Shut UP!” Vivian hissed, flaming red with embarrassment. “Nobody needs to know about that. Um. So, what do you think of Felix’s noblecore? Cool effect, isn’t it?”

Vivian’s attempt to change the subject was unsubtle, but it worked.

“It’s fascinating.” Alexandria whispered. “The potential is endless. I wonder if the scale of the display we saw today is normal, or if it knew it would be revealed? Since knowledge of your protection is the first step in causing you harm, and your core seemed geared towards protecting you from harm.”

“My nose got broken.” Felix sullenly said. No harm? That seemed completely off-base. Broken bones, sliced arms, bloody noses - he’d seen plenty of harm.

“Magical harm.” Alexandria corrected in a hiss. “Which speaks to the theory that you’re a spirit dragon. Your core’s effects are so powerful it must be a high generation, but you’re showing none of the physical traits we’d expect to see out of a flesh and blood dragon. Like Thorne said, you are showing reality bending, or luck, on a large scale. But no physical improvements. Not actually tougher, faster, or stronger. Keep that in mind.”

Felix mulled that over. Magical harm… it made complete sense to him. The number of times he’d tripped, fallen, or otherwise been unusually clumsy since coming here came back to him… and all the spells that had missed him as a result. His core did seem frightfully willing to cause him physical harm in order to dodge magical harm, though. At the same time, the price seemed well worth it. He’d walked through a tempest with absolutely no problems. If he occasionally tripped for that level of protection? Entirely worth it.

Plus, it seemed like he’d be able to live on Earth with absolutely no problems if he wanted to. No magical harm would mean no magically-induced ‘accidents’ to ‘save’ him. Yeah. It was all looking up.

“Now, I think the real loser in all of this is poor Mau.” Vivian said. “I wonder what the best way to get him back with Brynwyll would be?”

“Noooo…” Erik moaned. “We’re not playing matchmakers with a pair of spurned teenagers. Please. No. Have mercy on me.”

Vivian pouted. 

“But your help would be invaluable!” She said.

“Do you want a bunch of 11 year olds helping you with your love life?” Erik retorted.

“Well, no, but-”

“Exactly.”

Sora spoke up.

“Hey, wait. Thought. Idea. Thing I noticed.”

“Uh oh.” Felix snarked, not sure why.

“Hey!” She frowned. “This is about you!”

“Okay, okay, tell us what the great caffeine has for us now.” Felix said.

Sora stuck her tongue out.

“I’m tempted not to tell you all now, but… we’re going to do something to put Felix in ‘magical danger’ yeah? If his core’s so powerful, why the heck is a teacher not jumping out to give him detention, or he literally breaks a leg to slow him down, or something else?” She asked.

Felix paused. That was a great question.

“Either we’re going to get there to find out the Vaults are closed, or Felix’s core is doing a lot less reality-warping now that the secret’s out.” Erik said.

“Does magic actually work that way?” Felix asked. None of it sounded right or logical in any way.

“Yes.” Alexandria whispered. “It’s rare but known. Knowledge of a phenomena can change the phenomena. Most of the classes dealing with that are higher level, and they’re rarely studied or formalized. What’s the point, when formalizing the phenomena will change it?”

Felix was getting a headache.

“Sounds like Schrödinger's cat.” He said.

“Who has a cat?” Sora asked.

“Nevermind.” Felix said. 

“Wait! Pause!” Vivian said, as they were about to go down a spiral staircase to the Vaults. “Felix, take my hand.” She didn’t wait for him to respond, instead grabbing his hand. “Right. This way, you’re not going to fall down the stairs and crack your head opening as a way to avoid the Vaults.”

Felix didn’t protest, hand holding was nice.

They made it to the vaults with absolutely minimal fuss. Nobody was around, which Felix expected. Most of the excitement around them was in the first few weeks, especially in the 1st year level. Deeper down, there might be teams of students from Phoenix House or other wanna-be Purifiers trying to break through their classmates wards, but at the top floor? Nobody. The students wanting entertainment were at the Dragon House duel, or finding their own trouble. The studious students were holed up in their library, rooms, or had a nice study nook somewhere. The social students had dozens of other rooms to congregate in. And so on and so forth. 

Near the bottom of the castle but not actually the bottom, out of the way, and relatively boring? The floor was utterly deserted. 

“We’ve had a suspicious lack of problems.” Sora announced as they spilled out onto the landing. “Veerrrryyy suspicious.”

Felix didn’t think there was too much to be suspicious about going unmolested through an entire castle, but maybe Sora had a point. If his core was really warping reality to keep him out of trouble, why hadn’t anything happened as he was actively going looking for it? Or was it the case that his core knew he’d keep pressing on regardless, now that he knew what to look for, and that injuring or diverting him wouldn’t work?

“Which one do you want to start with?” Erik asked.

“We’ll be cheering for you!” Vivian said, doing a little energetic dance that vaguely reminded Felix of cheerleaders.

“Wait, you’re not coming with?” Felix asked. 

Alexandria laughed bitterly.

“Are you insane?” She whispered. “Are you trying to get us killed? You have the protection, not us. If we tried the Ifrit it’d burn us alive. You should be able to just walk through it.”

“And we don’t have the castle wards on us anymore.” Erik said.

“Oh right.” Felix looked away so the others wouldn’t see him flush. Trying to avoid the embarrassment, he briskly walked straight to the first vault he could see, which happened to be the Thunderbird vault.

The Ifrit was still there, lounging around on a plush, oversized sofa and reading scorchmarked books. All of the books, magazines, and other entertainment in the pentagram looked slightly charred, but after an entire year of sitting around with nothing better to do, Felix wasn’t too surprised that the being might’ve worked his way through the entire catalog. He walked up to the door and hesitated.

Was this really a good idea? He’d just found out about his core. He’d had one duel where something funny happened. Then one of the seniors got a Great Idea, and suddenly he was about to violate half the ironclad safety rules of rituals. Like ‘Don’t get into the pentagram with the demon’. Felix could just imagine the talking to now. 

“How’d you get hurt?”

“Well, I had a duel, and it suddenly make me think I was utterly invincible, so the first thing I did was jump into a pentagram with an Ifrit.”

Maybe it wasn’t all magical harm. Maybe it was less than that. Immunity to spells being cast, or something else narrow.

“You’re overthinking it.” Sora said, before pushing him into the room. “Good luck!”

Felix wanted to swear loudly and squawk in outrage, but instead chose the better path of shutting the fuck up when in close, unprotected confines with a deadly being of air and fire.

Instead, he gave Sora a one-finger opinion of her actions, then added a second finger for good measure. Keeping both of his hands up, flipping her off over his shoulders, he slowly worked through the room, expecting the Ifrit to get up and incinerate him at any moment.

To his shock and surprise, the Ifrit didn’t do anything. Just flipped through the pages of his book.

Maybe… maybe it hadn’t noticed him. Maybe the book was just that engrossing, or the Ifrit had been contracted not to hurt anyone who came through. It was a school, it was supposed to be a teaching aid for first years. Dumbass first years, who might just step into the pentagram anyway, out of ignorance, arrogance, or some other reason. 

No matter the reason, if there was some logic or if Felix’s core worked in mysterious ways - or both! - Felix saw no reason in testing his luck, and hurried his way through the room. The archway at the end of the room was warded, looking like a semi-solid pane of blue light, but Felix was able to simply walk straight through it. 

The next room was dominated by a gigantic crystal sphere. A little plaque directly told wixen what needed to happen.

Channel enough magic to fill up the sphere, then pass onto the next room.

That seemed ridiculously straightforward and simple. Then again, it was Thunderbird House, the house of power, and Felix suspected there was an extra trick to it that he was missing. He felt a little bad that none of the other first years had probably seen this room, and wouldn’t be able to appreciate the magic. Then again… what magic? The challenge was ‘fill up the crystal’, which was a nothingburger if Felix had ever heard one.

Shrugging, figuring he should at least try, Felix put his hands on the orb and pushed in his magic. Revelations about his core or not, it still responded slowly. It connected to the orb, and started to drain out. Felix had nothing to do but think. And talk to himself, but he wasn’t that bored or lonely. 

Weren’t dragons supposed to be masters of magic or something? Felix had reading to do. A lot of reading. And talking with Paracelsus. Why had he gone along with his hare-brained scheme to rob the vaults instead of doing the smart thing?

Oh right. Peer pressure, and a whole lot of ‘what the fuck is going on’. Felix was finally getting a second to think. Well, a second second. The first time, Sora had pushed him in. Felix owed the girl some sort of terrible vengeance for that. Maybe he’d hide her broom or something.

Oh! No! Even better!

Felix was going to sweep the floor using Sora’s broom. Then once he got home, find an actuarial table, figure out how much his life was worth, calculate the odds of him dying there, and send her a bill. He had no delusions that Sora would actually pay said bill, but it should get the point across. Maybe he’d tie it to the handle of her broom.

Back to dragons. Maybe he needed a ritual to help his core along? The coven, spearheaded by Alexandria, wanted to do a series of Rituals of Power. A number of them could easily help his core and his magic. Or maybe there was a special dragon awakening rituals or something that the Brynwylls had. 

Felix sighed, utterly bored, and squinted at the crystal orb. Was it brighter than when he’d started?

Even as he was looking, any little light that might’ve been in there dimmed to nothing. 

Right then. This was going to take approximately a billion years, and Felix wanted lunch. He walked up to the barrier, and experimentally poked it with his finger. It didn’t annihilate him, embarrass him, or otherwise cause him grief, so he stepped through.

The next room had a bunch of thick, heavy books, with a string of numbers hanging in the air. A number of clocks were ticking along on the wall, along with a key to turn them. 2:22:18; 5:18:10; 3:20:27; 44:8:9; 44:13:10; 44:19:19; whatever they meant. Felix looked closely at one of the books, and realized it was a bible. They were all bibles. There were the same number of bibles, clocks, and numbers.

Not wanting to just immediately give up, Felix poked at the puzzle a bit. He tried winding the clocks to the time displayed. Not really sure how to handle the numbers greater than 24, he cycled the entire clock through before putting the time on it.

Except by the time he’d finished the second clock, the first had already ticked past the displayed time. With a groan of frustration, Felix walked through the door. 

The last room was dominated by an oversized vault door. Runes were etched all over the room. On the walls, on the floor, all the way up to the ceiling. The lines ran up and down the vault door itself. Felix paused and patted his robes, cursing when he failed to find his notebook.

Damnit Sora! He’d gone straight from dueling - no way was he putting his stuff in the line of fire - to the Vaults, with no stops inbetween. Then Sora had pushed him in before he could remember to grab his stuff from Erik. 

Tentatively leading with his toe, tapping the ground like it’d set off a tripwire, Felix shuffle-slid across the room. When nothing happened, he didn’t relax.

He put his hands on the handle to the vault, and praying they didn’t include a basic lock or something - then again, that was what the unlocking charm was for, wasn’t it? - he wrenched the handle down and opened it up.

Then fell down as he saw what was inside.

“Hi!” The spirit of Camelot said.