The Burning Flowers

Chapter XV

West Wilham High’s Halloween festival began at around six o’clock in the evening while the sun was just crossing the horizon. Since they wanted to be there as early as possible in order to closely monitor the situation and be prepared for anything Mallicent may try, the three mages and Scott departed the house at around five forty-five. It was fortunate that the festival wasn’t exclusive to the students since it meant they wouldn't have to sneak themselves in, and according to Scott, the holiday of Halloween was one where people dressed up in costumes for reasons that Ryokumo didn’t fully understand. Ijiria did have a holiday in the fall centered around the harvests and the supernatural, but evidently the part about wearing costumes was not a constant between the two realms. Of course, they weren’t about to complain, for it meant that Ilirianna’s hair wasn’t going to draw much attention from the other festival goers. In fact, all the princess had to do was put on the clothes she wore at Aeyir’s ball and, should anybody ask, she could claim that she was supposed to be a princess from those “fantasy” novels Scott liked.

Unfortunately, Scott didn’t have money to go buy costumes for them, and since neither he nor Abi had been particularly interested in dressing up anyway, Ryokumo happily accepted the offer to wear what Scott had already purchased, that being what he referred to as a “wizard”. It was made up of a long blue robe with bright yellow stars scattered across it, a pointed and wide brimmed hat of the same color, and a fake long white beard. When Ryokumo asked Scott what exactly a wizard was supposed to be, he was quite amused by the answer.

“Well, it’s more or less an Omaruan interpretation of what a magic user looks like. They’re usually found in fantasy books and are typically depicted as being wise and secretive. Stuff like that.”

“Wait, so you’re telling me that this monstrosity is what your people think we dress like?! Reiner, I’m offended! This is utterly insulting!”

But Scott had merely rolled his eyes and shrugged. “Says the guy who was more than happy to go out in public wearing it. Take it or don’t, Caeli. I couldn’t care less.”

Since Ryokumo had just been giving him a bit of a hard time for fun, he gladly accepted it and, right before departing for the festival, he tossed on the robe and hat then strapped the beard around his face, much to the clear exasperation of the girls.

“You’re really going to wear that?” Ilirianna grunted with a cocked eyebrow, to which Ryokumo flashed her a sly wink.

“Course I am! If Omaruan tradition dictates that one must dress up for the occasion, then I shall do so! Though I must say, the beard is a tad scratchy. Not the biggest fan!”

The princess rolled her eyes but, seeming to decide that it wasn’t really that big of a deal, she dropped the subject as they headed off for the school. Ryokumo had yet to visit West Wilham High, so he was rather excited to see what a magicless school was like. He didn’t expect it to come close to the beauty of the Academy, but Omaruo had already proven to him that it was an interesting enough place in its own right. Wilham truly wasn’t like anywhere he had ever been, so he was grateful for the opportunity to witness another realm with his own eyes—to interact with the magicless people the way he had. Everything he read spoke of the magicless as an inferior civilization, and while it was certainly true that if the Ijirians decided to invade, Omaruo wouldn’t stand much of a chance, in his mind, that didn’t necessarily mean they were inferior. They were different, and he had a lot of respect for the ways in which they had still thrived. In that sense, the fact that the people of Omaruo reached a similar level of advancement to Ijiria without the aid of magic indicated that they were just as, if not moreso, intelligent and innovative.

Yes, it truly is a wonderful place. I’m sure Nigreos and Album are going to be jealous that they missed an opportunity like this. They would have loved Wilham! Too bad we won’t be allowed to come back or else I’d bring them to visit Scott someday

His thoughts shifting to his fellow teammates, he hoped for what felt like the millionth time that they were okay. Ryokumo and the girls had left Ijiria behind in the middle of a very dangerous situation, and since it had now been a week in Omaruo, it meant that around three and half days had passed back home. Whatever happened at Hiriech would probably be over now, and he could only pray that Nigreos and Album, as well as the two Masters that had accompanied them, made it out of there safely.

But there’s no point in dwelling on that, he reminded himself. Like I’ve told the princess, Hiriech is out of our hands, so we need to focus on the current task. We have to either subdue or eliminate Mallicent, and ensure the safety of this realm. Only once that’s accomplished and we’re back home should we dwell on the rest of the Kosah-Rei.

A part of him had hoped that they could potentially wrap things up at this festival if Mallicent made an appearance, but at the moment, the Malloway boy was still at his apartment on the other side of town from the school. Ryokumo didn’t like that one bit, especially since Scott had claimed he wanted to take back the dagger at this festival, but he could only conclude that Mallicent intended to drop by later, perhaps when there were more people present that he could use as collateral. Either that or he was sensing Ilirianna on the move and opted to remain in hiding. Deciding to keep his senses always attuned to Mallicent’s signature, Ryokumo shifted his attention back to the current moment as the four of them began to approach West Wilham High School.

As expected, while not as awe-inspiring as the Academy, it was still a rather interesting sight as they walked alongside the black iron fence surrounding the school towards where groups of costumed students were filing through the front gate. Through the bars, Ryokumo could see a massive courtyard separating the outer fences from the main school building itself, which looked to be about three stories high. The lawn was filled with a variety of attractions ranging from some places to buy food to what appeared to be games, though Ryokumo didn’t recognize most of them. The pumpkins with faces carved into them that the magicless referred to as “jack-o-lanterns” were practically everywhere, some expressing joy, others glaring, and even a handful that just looked like random shapes had been cut out without any sort of method in mind. He also saw a variety of hay bales that the pumpkins tended to be resting on, and he couldn’t help but notice the massive fake spider hung above the doors to the school, leaving him wondering if Omaruo spiders got that big like in Ijiria or if it was just an exaggeration for the holiday.

As for the students, Ryokumo didn’t recognize the grand majority of their costumes, leaving him to try and guess what exactly he was looking at. Some of them had fake fur taped to their faces, and he supposed they must have been some dog-human hybrid, which didn’t make much sense to him, and others had, for some reason, decided to dress up as what must have been walking corpses, something he felt was an omen for bad luck on their part. He also observed a lot of people with skulls painted on their faces, as well as some with faces that were about as pale as Album told him her father’s was, though these particular students also had fangs and black cloaks. However, they weren’t all foreign to him, for he did notice a couple of people dressed similarly to the pirates he encountered out in the Starlight Bay.

Eventually, they and the crowd arrived at the front gates, above which was a massive decorated sign with the words “Welcome to West Wilham’s Halloween Festival” written across it in black, orange, and purple letters. According to Scott, the festival was a fundraiser for the school’s art programs so they had to pay a fee to get in, though the fee included tickets that could be exchanged for attempts at the games or for some food. Scott paid for all four of them, and after ushering them into the courtyard and moving off to stand by the fence to the left, he passed out twenty tickets each. Ilirianna didn’t seem too interested, but Abi and Ryokumo gladly accepted them. Since he was there, he decided it would be a waste of Scott’s money to not use each and every one, and even as the boy began speaking, Ryokumo was already scoping out his first attraction.

“Alright, so what’s the plan, Princess?” Scott said softly, though given the loud chattering of those around them, Ryokumo didn’t feel the need to be so cautious. “Is Mallicent still at his apartment?”

Ilirianna grimaced. “Yeah, for the moment at least. Though, I imagine he’ll wait until after dark if he makes an appearance, so I suppose we should just keep an eye out and be ready for any sudden changes. At the very least, we’ll know the second he does move.”

Subconsciously, Ilirianna’s right hand drifted down to where the realm dagger was hidden beneath her overcoat. She hadn’t once parted with the dagger since they reclaimed it, but given that Scott had insisted they would get in a lot of trouble if anybody saw them with a weapon at school, she had been forced to strap it around her waist and hide it under her coat.

“So what I’m hearing is that we have a lot of time to kill, yes?” Ryokumo chimed in with a smile as he playfully stroked his fake white beard. “In that case, let us enjoy ourselves! It’s been a long and stressful few weeks, and since Reiner was so generous as to buy us tickets, I say we finally take this opportunity to relax a bit! Let’s get some food, play some games, and when Mallicent shows his ugly ass, we kick it! Easy as that!”

Ilirianna narrowed her eyes and he could tell that she didn’t like the idea of having any fun in their current situation, but Ryokumo knew that she was intelligent enough to understand there really wasn’t much they could do if Mallicent stayed home. So to his relief, she let out a tired sigh and shrugged.

“I guess I can’t disagree with that, but let’s make sure we don’t get too far away from each other.”

“Well, that shouldn’t be a problem,” Scott told them. “From what I’ve heard, the second and third floors are off limits for the festival, so we’ll be nearby no matter where we go.”

The princess nodded. “Very well, then. I suppose…”

She trailed off as Scott’s eyes wandered over her shoulder, and when the other three turned to see what had caught his attention, they saw three costumed students, a boy and two girls, making their way over from one of the food stalls, each carrying what looked like an apple covered in caramel.

Just like before, Ryokumo struggled to identify what they were supposed to be dressed as, with the boy wearing a bright red wig, a round nose of the same color, and multi-colored makeup over his face that was rather unsettling. His clothes were just as flamboyant and his shoes must have been double the size of his actual feet. The shorter of the two girls was a little easier to identify, for she wore a one-piece with black fur and a pink circle around her stomach. Her black hair had two cat ears protruding from it while whiskers and a pink nose were painted on her face. The third one looked very similar to Ryokumo’s costume, though her robe and hat were pitch black, her face was painted completely green, and she was lacking the beard.

Turning his attention briefly back to Scott, it was clear to Ryokumo based on his anxious expression that these must be the members of the Science Club. Having kept watch over her house for the past few days, he soon recognized Laura Harrison as the one with the green face.

“Alright, Caeli, don’t embarrass me,” Scott growled irritably.

“May I ask why you singled me out?”

“Take a damn guess.”

The boy then raised his hand in a wave, putting on a smile that wasn’t very convincing, and immediately, Laura fixed him with a stern glare.

“Where the hell is your costume, Reiner?” she demanded with a scowl, sticking her apple aggressively in Scott’s face. “I thought we came to the agreement that you were supposed to dress up for the festival! Did your stupid brain stop working again?!”

Scott didn’t hesitate to jab his thumb in Ryokumo’s direction. “Well, you see, Laura, my friend here was really excited to dress up for this, and since it was a last minute decision for him to attend, I thought I’d be generous and lend him my costume for the occasion. He’s never been to a Halloween festival, you see. I was being nice! You should praise me rather than insult me!”

“Ha! Like hell!” Her eyes then shifted first to Ryokumo then to Ilirianna before she clicked her tongue and glared at her friend a second time. “So how many goddamn people have you stuffed into that house of yours, huh? I feel like every day there’s somebody new! I mean, who the hell is he?!”

Once again, a thumb was aggressively jabbed in Ryokumo’s direction, and despite Scott’s warning seconds before his friends arrived, the wind mage just couldn’t help himself. Stepping forward before Scott could answer for him, Ryokumo grinned broadly and gave an overexaggerated bow.

“Well, as he said, I happen to be a good friend of Mr. Reiner!” he announced. “I go by the name of Ryokumo Caeli and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, fair maiden! Truly, your beauty is unrivaled by even the fairies of old! And I must say, green is such a gorgeous color. One of my favorites, actually!”

Given the slightly startled looks from the Science Club, the exasperation from Ilirianna and Abi, and especially the bright red color that had overtaken Scott’s face, Ryokumo was quite pleased with himself as he extended his hand for the others to shake.

“I, uh…” Laura stuttered, hesitantly taking his hand. “Right, okay, sure. Why not… Laura Harrison, nice to meet you, er…?”

“Ryokumo,” he repeated.

“Yeah, Ryokumo.”

The mage then turned and expectantly waited for the other two to introduce themselves. Since the shorter girl seemed a bit intimidated by him, it was the boy who gripped his hand next, also taking the initiative to introduce both of them.

“Well, hello there. I’m Brian and this is Carmen. Good to meet you, Dude. Nice beard.”

“Ah, thank you so much! And I must ask, what is it you’re currently dressed as? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this?”

Brian frowned, sparing a quick and inquisitive look over Ryokumo’s shoulder before answering, “Uh, I’m a clown, Bro. Have you never been to the circus or something?”

A clown? Hmm, curious. I guess clowns look different here in Omaruo.

“Ah, yes, of course! No, I know clowns! I love clowns!” He then laughed before addressing Carmen. “And you? What are you—?”

“Alright, shut up, Caeli,” Scott snapped, grabbing him by the shoulder and yanking him backwards, giving him another irritated expression before returning to address his friends. “Sorry about him. He’s a bit of an idiot.”

“Hey!”

“Anyway!” Talking over Ryokumo, Scott went on. “They really are just friends of mine. It’s nothing to get too worked up over, Laura. I promise.”

It was obvious that not a single one of the three believed him even a little bit, but given how strange all of this must look from an outsider’s perspective, Ryokumo couldn’t say he was all that surprised. Laura, especially, looked like she wanted to rip Scott a new one, and had the three of them not been present, she might have. After all, Scott had told them that his constant checking in on the girl over the past few days had made her even more annoyed with him than she had already been, so a part of Ryokumo prepared himself for the potential that she would finally snap. However, instead of rage, she almost appeared a bit sad, though the somber expression was gone so quickly that Ryokumo wondered if he might have imagined it.

“Whatever,” she huffed. “So should we go off by ourselves then? You gonna spend the afternoon with your friends?”

“Well, I—”

“No, I was thinking we’d split off and do our own thing actually,” Ilirianna interrupted, much to Ryokumo’s surprise. “Reiner, you and Abi should go have fun. I’ll drag Caeli off somewhere so he doesn't embarrass you again.”

Scott frowned, glancing back at her with a confused expression, silently asking whether it was smart to split up, but Ilirianna gazed back confidently, not an ounce of hesitation in her eyes.

“Are you sure, Prin—er, Ilirianna?” he stuttered, as if wanting to avoid drawing more suspicion by referring to her as “Princess”.

She nodded firmly. “Certain. Go ahead. We’ll handle things here. It’s not a problem.”

Then, without giving the boy a chance to question her further or worry about it, Ilirianna turned, grabbed Ryokumo by the arm, and began dragging him away, forcefully enough to communicate that she was ordering him to stick close to her. Therefore, the wind mage did exactly what she wanted and obediently joined the crowds in the courtyard alongside her.

I see what she’s doing. Splitting up like this lessens the awkwardness with Reiner’s friends, but still allows him and Abi to keep an eye on Harrison. Meanwhile, all we have to do is stick close to the main gate and wait for Mallicent.

“Was that really necessary?” Ilirianna grumbled once they were far enough away, and despite her obvious disapproval, he couldn’t help chuckling.

“Yes, perhaps I overdid it, but I was rather offended by the fact that Reiner thought I was an embarrassment!”

“So to counteract that, you decided to embarrass him?”

“Yes, that was my train of thought. I figured it would be a tad funny. I bet Abigail was trying not to laugh!”

The princess sighed and rubbed her temples, her earlier exasperation returning even stronger. “Yeah, sure. I bet sweet and considerate Abi thought it was just the funniest thing. Honestly…” Shaking her head, Ilirianna reached into the front pocket of her overcoat and retrieved some of her small blue tickets before shoving them into Ryokumo’s hands. “Just make yourself useful and go get me one of those apples they were eating. I want to try one.”

Surprised by the wry smile on her lips, telling him that she was at least a little amused by his teasing, Ryokumo let out a laugh and bowed his head.

“At once, My Princess.”

***

As much as Abi wasn’t keen on the idea of being around with Scott and his friends rather than remaining on watch out in the courtyard, she was rather surprised when the awkwardness of their earlier interactions all but dissipated not long after Ryokumo and Ilirianna split off. That wasn’t to say Laura and Carmen, and even Brian to a lesser extent, weren’t still suspicious of the whole situation, but they seemed to have enough trust in Scott to assume he would stick by his word and explain everything at a better time. When that time came, Abi wasn’t sure what Scott would say, and she felt bad for inadvertently putting him in a position where there wasn’t an ideal answer, but having come to know Scott the way she did, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he wouldn’t utter a word of blame towards them.

“I got myself in this situation all on my own so I’ll handle whatever consequences I need to.”

That was what he would probably say, so she decided to leave it to him and do her best to make the evening as comfortable as possible. She had already met the members of his club the one time she dropped by during lunch, and despite Ryokumo being such a pain, they were very welcoming to her as they began to explore what the festival had to offer.

The courtyard was where most of the games and food stalls were located, but both the interior of the school, as well as the football field, had other attractions for them to visit. According to Brian, the “football team”, whatever that was, had helped to construct a pretty big corn maze on the field that he seemed quite proud of, so he was very insistent that they stop by once it got dark. He claimed it would be spookier that way, and since Abi still wasn’t fully grasping this Halloween concept, she figured she would go with the flow and do whatever Scott and his friends said would be best.

To kill time before the sun was completely set, they made their way around the courtyard and checked out a few of the games. There was one that was as simple as taking a small sandbag and tossing it through a hole in a slightly inclined wooden board that was around twenty or so feet away. If the player could sink the sandbag five times in a row, they won the chance to pick from an assortment of “plushies” to take home with them. Unfortunately, Abi and Scott both had terrible aims, so they didn’t win anything. The only one to come moderately close was Brian, who sank four in a row and then barely missed the fifth, but despite their poor performances, she still had fun trying. Part of her wished she could have used magic to better her chance, but even setting aside their low mana levels in Omaruo, she also knew she would have felt extremely guilty since it was technically cheating.

Though, I bet that isn’t stopping Ryokumo, she thought with an internal laugh, glancing around the yard and half expecting to sense sudden surges of wind magic within the vicinity. Well, I’m sure he thought about it and Princess Ilirianna reminded him of how stupid that idea is.

After the bag game, Scott then insisted they go and check out “Bobbing for Apples”, another attraction Abi wasn’t so sure about. The game was played by dunking one’s head into a big bowl of water that contained roughly a dozen apples bouncing on the surface. Since Brian, Carmen, and Laura all had makeup on their faces, they bowed out of that one, leaving only Abi and Scott to get down on their knees in the grass and stick their faces into the lukewarm water. Once again, she found that she wasn’t very good at it, and even when she felt an apple hit her mouth, she couldn’t get her teeth into it and it bobbed away. By the time they finished, all she had to show for her efforts was a ton of water dripping from her face and hair. Scott, however, somehow managed to fish out five, and certainly couldn’t hold back a rather proud grin when Abi could only gape at his collection.

“Flexible with your mouth, are you, Reiner?” Laura teased with a snarky grin, to which Scott smiled back at her and said,

“Well I got a lot of practice with your mother. Tell her I said thanks.”

After that, the next few minutes devolved into Laura and Scott taking really cheap shots at one another like a couple of children as they wandered around looking for other games to play, and Abi found herself grateful that Ryokumo wasn’t present, for she was sure he’d have been taking notes to bring a few insults back for Rennigan.

“Are the two of them always like this?” Abi asked Carmen softly as they made their way into the school building.

The girl snorted and rolled her eyes. “More or less, yeah. Honestly, they’ve got the vocabulary of middle schoolers. I sometimes forget they’re gonna be adults next year.” Then, seeming to remember something, she glanced up at her and added, “By the way, I meant to ask the other day, but how old are you, Abi?”

“Oh, uh…” She took a second to debate whether she should lie or not, but when she couldn’t come up with any reason not to tell the truth, she answered honestly. “I’m eighteen, though I turn nineteen in a few months.”

Carmen then grinned curiously. “So are you a college girl then?”

Having no idea what she meant by a “college girl”, Abi resorted to smiling and nodding. “Yup, I guess so.”

As they spoke, she scanned the corridors of the school, finding even more decorations inside. Fake spider webs were placed all around the lockers and the walls across from them had big purple paper taped over them that displayed black images of rickety old houses and trees. More spiders like the one hanging above the front doors were stuck to the roof, and off in the distance somewhere, she could hear some spooky music that she assumed must have been playing on one of the magicless “radios”.

“So Abi, I just gotta ask since I bet you’ll be more honest with us,” Brian began, casting a quick glance at Scott and Laura to make sure they weren’t paying them any attention. “Are you actually dating Scotty? Like, he says you’re just friends, but you guys seem pretty close, so I can’t help but doubt him a bit.”

Abi laughed awkwardly, noticing that Carmen was also giving her an expectant look, and though her first instinct was to insist that they weren’t, for some reason, she stopped herself. What she did instead was dumb and would probably just create more trouble for Scott later down the line, but even though she couldn’t really describe it, she simply felt it was what she wanted to say.

“Yeah we are, but don’t tell anybody,” she whispered, putting a finger over her lips and winking.

She got quite a lot of enjoyment out of the shocked and excited expressions Brian and Carmen gave her, though she could feel her cheeks turning a bit red.

Ah, I shouldn’t have done that, but…

Turning her eyes up ahead to where Scott was walking, she let out a soft sigh and let the thought hang as Scott and Laura led them to the entrance of what they called a haunted house. Obviously she didn’t expect any actual ghosts to be inside, but she struggled to suppress her laughs at the fact that the “spirits” haunting the decorated classroom were just students in cheap costumes, and even though she wasn’t really bothered by the jumpscares, she still took Scott’s hand anyway.

In the other classrooms was a pumpkin carving event, a costume contest, as well as a few other attractions that wouldn’t have fit in the courtyard. Once they had visited them all, they did as Brian had been begging and headed to the football field to enjoy the corn maze, which wound up being somewhat similar to the haunted house in that there were random jumpscares at various spots and the “corn” was clearly cheap plastic. The only difference was that it was a maze, and they did happen to get turned around once or twice and were probably in there for fifteen to twenty minutes. By the time they got out, it was around eight, so Laura and Carmen excused themselves to go to the bathroom while Brian split off to find some more food, leaving Scott and Abi to wait for them just inside the first floor of the school.

“Any changes?” Scott asked under his breath, leaning his back against the wall and fixing her with a look that told her, despite how much fun he was clearly having on the surface, their enemy was never far from his thoughts.

Abi shook her head and gave him a reassuring smile. “Nope. Still nothing. Mallicent’s in his apartment, and the only magic I’ve felt is what I’m guessing was Ryokumo cheating at one of the games.”

The boy let out an annoyed sigh and rolled his eyes. “Fucking hell, really? Honestly, that guy’s an idiot, you know?”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

The two of them shared a laugh before going silent once more, enjoying each other’s company as they turned back to watch as costumed students walked about, chatting and joking with one other. There were even a handful of families out and about with their kids, and though a lot of people seemed tired, almost everybody she saw appeared to be enjoying themselves. It was such an uplifting and cozy atmosphere, leaving Abigail once again slightly sad that she would soon be leaving this place behind. Of course, she wouldn't want to trade Omaruo for Ijiria, but she wished it was easier to travel between the realms. She would have loved to pay Scott some visits on the weekends or during the summers.

But that’s just not feasible. Realm travel is illegal without permission from the Masters and the High Council, and they would never allow me to jump to Omaruo just to spend time with a magicless boy.

Abi spared a sidelong glance at Scott only to find him grinning broadly as he observed the passerby. It made her happy to see him in such a good mood, and wanting to ensure that everything was still safe, she closed her eyes and double-checked Mallicent’s position, only to feel his mana still in the exact same spot it had been all evening.

If I had to guess, he probably sensed that the princess was here and realized Scott wasn’t going to accept his request.

That made the most sense to her, and she was about to push Mallicent from her mind once again when she noticed Carmen heading back towards them from down the corridor. At first, Abi wondered where Laura was since they had gone off together, but a sense of fear ran down her spine when she noticed just how unnerved the girl was. When Carmen saw them and looked into Abi’s eyes, there was an undeniable terror within them, making Abi check Mallicent once again.

No, he’s still there, so what could have her looking so shaken up? Did something happen unrelated to us?

“Is everything okay, Carmen?” Abi asked even before the girl had come to a stop. “You look a little sick?”

“And where’s Laura?” Scott quickly added the second he picked up on his friend’s strange state as well.

Carmen swallowed back a lump in her throat, her eyes shifting between Scott and Abi before, to the nature mage’s surprise, her gaze landed on her, and when she finally spoke, Abigail’s entire body went cold.

“I, um…have a message from a young man named Mallicent,” she stuttered. “He, uh…says to bring him the realm dagger to room 3-16 on the third floor, or he’s going to kill Laura. He also said…that if Ilirianna or Caeli come anywhere near him, he’ll kill her instantly.”

Carmen’s eyes then welled with tears as Abi and Scott exchanged stunned looks.

“Guys…what the hell is going on?”