Don’t Let Sirens Go

I step onto the Grounds trailing after the others in my class, looking around just to get my bearings. I knew this place well enough after having the past three year-end exams here but they liked to change the scenery a little every year and I wanted to see what was new, hoping the additions would tell me what creatures I need to look out for.

There were pine trees off to the right and a cliff drop that wasn’t as steep last year. I try to guess at which creatures the modifications had been made for as my classmates make a ruckus and jump over one another in the false pretense of beating each other to the beasts. There were no Professors on the Grounds to tell them to stop, so I simply shuffled a little further away from them.

I want nothing to do with their horse play and the possibility of them alerting our potential targets was frustrating, but not enough to say anything. Some days I simply couldn’t comprehend how any of them had managed to get into a school for tactical combat against magical creatures and circumstances but today was not a day for underestimating any of them. Today, they were competition.

I stood straight and quiet with my back to the dormitory, waiting for the release click that would signal the beginning of the test.

“Hey Sterling!” Desamy calls, whipping around to face the shadow I was standing in and nearly wrenching Davy’s arm off in the process.

”Did your contact in the school give you any hints as to what’s out there?”

Most of the other students hush in disbelief that he would actually ask me that. Those from the other years looked at me suspiciously to see if I was flustered or embarrassed. I show none of my annoyance, but I’m not surprised by what Desamy had said. It was one of his favorite jokes to use since I had gotten into the school on a recommendation.

“I still don’t have a contact in the school Desamy, not unless you count our Project professors.”

Some of the other students turn back to their own conversations, realizing it’s just a baseless jab and Desamy grins sharply, nudging Davy to join the conversation when the exam click snaps through the air, the crisp, clear sound amplified by a spell bead on our school bracelets.

I channel energy into the weightless spell I’d crafted into an armband last semester and take off for the far barrier before any of the other students can attempt to draw me back into conversation.

After exploring the new layout of the Grounds I cut off the weightless spell and drop down to a crouch to examine some possible tracks. It was a muddled trail, too many thin drag marks to have any less than six appendages. I follow the motion with a sway of my head, trying to figure out how this creature moves.

By the time it leads me to a large rotting tree leaning against a short cliff with leaves piled up around it I’m almost certain I knew what creature this was. If it was what I thought it was, it wouldn’t like the daylight even on a cloudy day like today.

The space between the leaves and tree left just enough room for a young gravemocker to curl itself into. I use the weightless spell to lift me quietly onto the tree and bore a hole through it to look beneath, not wanting to wake it if it was asleep. I peer into the hole to see a white wall of maggot looking flesh beneath, breathing slowly every now and again. A gravemocker for certain.

I bore a couple more holes to help figure out what position the creature was in and what would likely end in a killing shot without waking it. Once I see the thin black sensory whiskers on its head I adjust down until I’m certain the shot will go through the creature’s vertebrae and possibly hit its heart after. It was a small organ though, so there was no guarantee.

I run the pad of my thumb over my bracelet until I find the correct carving, glancing down to make sure it was the yellow color I expected. Practicing to identify spells by touch was all well and good for fast speed combat and emergencies, but it was always best to double check when the situation permitted it.

Finding the yellow bead I’d expected, I channel the tiniest piece of energy into it, ready to send a needle shaped beam into the creature below when a shriek breaks the silence. I whip around in time to see a second year student fall off the cliff, chased by a massive coal hog.

I catch her by the arm to slow her fall and I do, but only for a moment. I underestimate her momentum and end up getting pulled from the tree myself. I activate my weightless spell so as not to crush her when we land then leap up the second I touch the ground. I whip around to face the tree after a cursory glance to make sure she was conscious with all her limbs attached. She was a second year student so she had to have completed the first aid class to handle most injuries herself.

She starts babbling some nonsense about a coal hog and the wrong spell but I block her out, not needing an explanation or caring for apologies, not when we weren’t out of the situation. The biggest threat right now was the Gravemocker we’d definitely just startled awake.

I pull my favorite tool out of my rucksack and wait for the creature to leave its shelter. It really didn’t look like anything useful - just a piece of rope with one oddly thin end- but the second I channeled energy into it it became a pointy staff. I had been working on ways to modify it, but I didn’t have time to choose one of the modifier spell rings from my bag, so the rope staff alone would have to do.

The second year is getting louder behind me and I huff in annoyance at the added distraction, balancing myself on the balls of my feet ready to leap the second the gravemocker darted out. With six limbs and six thin hook appendages under each, fighting this thing from the ground level was not advised. Even a juvenile would be taller than me.

It was less than a minute after falling that the moggot-like creature darted out, screeching loud piercing calls of almost human cries of shock and pain. The second-year girl screams too, nearly causing me to stumble, thinking there was a second gravemocker behind me as I pushed off the ground.

I narrow my focus down to the vulnerable point just after its stringy black sensory whiskers and channel energy into the weight bead on my school bracelet, driving my staff down through the soft flesh of the gravemocker.

It slams to the ground with its limbs still scrabbling against the dry leaves and I drop my kill tag and land on it, jumping off the second I realize its blubbery body was not going to be easy to stand on and there were no benefits to remaining there. The second-year was still babbling when I turned to leave.

“Wait! Where are you going?” She asks frantically.

I stop despite myself. The tone in her voice was too desperate to leave without saying anything no matter how much I wanted to.

“Please, I don’t want to be left in the forest area alone, what if there’s more of those things?”

“It’s a gravemocker, you should know that, and there’s not likely to be more than two in any location. They don’t work in groups larger than two.”

“So there could be another one?” She yelps and I turn around in exasperation to look at her.

“Why are you even here if you’re not prepared to fight any creature at or below your level of certification?”

She bulks at that and I clench my jaw. This is why I kept my mouth shut, I was too blunt and often forgot that most people were in this school to be certified for the money or connections and not for the job itself.

”Don’t answer that I shouldn’t have asked. The cliff slopes up if you head that way.”

Then I activate my weightless spell and take off before she can say anything else. I didn’t have time to waste on conversations anyway, it’s like she forgot that we were in the middle of an exam.

I head in the opposite direction I’d pointed her in, slanting my path to cut across near the deep lakes to see if they had any water creatures. I saw a couple students I knew and some that I didn’t but I steered well away from all of them. The interaction with the second year would be the last interaction I had if I had anything to do with it; she’d nearly cost me the gravemocker.

I tag a common creature here and there. Not really satisfied with any of them, I decide to head into the mock school building at the edge of the barrier. Just in time to spot Davy across the far field fighting what could either be a coal hog or just a mud fox. I duck inside knowing that wherever Davy was, Desamy wouldn’t be far away. Those two were the last two people I wanted to run into so I barred the doors on the library only to hear a commotion down the hallway.

Curious and wanting to make sure no one was actually getting injured since you couldn’t really light a flare spell inside, I went to investigate, only to find Desamy himself fighting picture mites, poorly.

He was practically being dragged across the three paintings they had invaded. The images were landscapes of farming though so there wasn’t much chance of him getting hurt if he got stuck. Since we weren’t supposed to assist anyone anyway, I didn’t. Plus, it was Desamy. His constant targeted quips at me made him the most annoying in our class.

“Davy if that’s you get over here and help me!”

Desamy calls as he grabs hold of the picture frame, preventing the picture mites from pulling him all the way through. I gave him one thin bony finger he probably couldn’t see and said, “Not Davy” before letting my weightless spell pull me past him and further into the library.

I’d stored enough energy in the armband’s spell to keep me weightless for a month, so I’m not worried about wasting it unnecessarily. Passing the window though, I spot a Deep Sea Strangler and stop short in a jolt of surprise. While not an overly dangerous creature, it was incredibly hard to catch them alive. They were worth quite a bit of money so working under the assumption that this was the highest graded creature on the Grounds wasn’t much of a stretch.

To include it on a test that involved a few first years was risky though, so despite the fact that I knew it would cause the ‘selfish prick’ rumors in Desamy’s agenda to skyrocket I concentrated my weightless spell’s energy and shot out the window heading directly for it.

It leads me on a merry chase back towards the lakes that leaves me beyond thankful I had practiced with the weightless spell until it was second nature to be flying like this. It left me enough concentration to run over how to stop the thing. It led me looping under an old crumbling stone footbridge and stopped under the arch.

It was only when I followed it that I realized there was a rather large environmental spell on the area causing the pressure here to be extremely dense, like the deep sea. This is probably why the professors moderating the test felt confident enough to include a deep sea strangler in the exam. If threatened it would simply flee back to its own environment, and this section was off limits to first years.

It turned to face me thinking I could not fight this way but I was prepared. I had made rings to slide down my rope spear for different effects, and this one was a quick shock of electricity. I pushed my modified rope spear forward for maximum momentum as it charged me. Its own momentum sent the rope spear straight into one of its six hearts. It stunned it stiff for a moment and I used that time to take out two more.

With only half its hearts functioning the creature went into attack mode, baring its rows of needle like teeth and flashing its scales in a luminous pattern that was designed to blind other deep sea predators, its smooth tentacle appendages flared out, ready to grab me the second my guard went down.

Fortunately I knew these tactics and was prepared, sliding a shaded second eyelid I’d designed to diffuse visual spells and installed across my eyes. I moved a little slower than estimated and the light stabbed into my left eye too close for comfort, the pupil shrinking in the shock of it.

This caused the white area on the one I’d failed to shield to turn yellowish with some sort of low level spell that probably worked a lot better in the water.

I grit my teeth in annoyance as my vision in that eye tints yellow too, knowing a partial failure or any form of change for me was just ammo in the other students’ artillery.

I tap energy into activating my best shield and yank it out from under my skin, promising myself I’d recharge it overnight for the next day of exams before striking spelled flint and steel in an arc that went straight through the deep sea strangler.

It screams low and awful, rattling my bones with the vibrations of it through the ground before collapsing sideways.

I pressed an exam badge into the creature’s deep purple side gently, knowing this one had just been defending itself.

Deep Sea Stranglers didn’t really bother with humans unless they felt threatened. This one had probably gotten its depth mechanism damaged and as a result came too close to the surface in its confusion, attacking ships thinking they were invading its territory.

The badge snaps open and thin silver filaments quickly wrap the beast, winding around it until it looks like a mummy.

I’m tempted to pat its head but the image of rows of ten inch needle-like fangs stops me. I wasn’t about to get disqualified from the rest of the exam on medical, especially not considering the jokes that would surface as a result.

I battle with more creatures as the afternoon passes into evening. I finished taking out another gravemocker and was searching the surrounding area for any others since this one was a juvenile like the first I’d found and they tended to work in senior junior pairs.

By the time I finished the search and dispatched the older gravemocker, golden hour was ending and the professors were activating the Whisperlight beacons to signal us inside the castle for the night. The rooms were warded against unauthorized entry and it was never a good idea to go on a night hunt without a partner.

We follow the forth year’s designated blue Whisperlights to a mess hall of heavy wooden tables, a place set for each of us with steaming stews already served. Several student’s familiars had already decided some seating arrangements, sitting on the long bench awaiting their partners.

Felicity’s great horned cat was cleaning a paw as if unbothered, but the way she refused to look at Felicity made it obvious she was not thrilled to be left out of the test. Unfortunately, the term partnership extended to familiars, so she wasn’t allowed to help during the exam.

Davy’s four foot long scaled snow lizard also sat off on the right side and seeing the thing, I headed to the opposite end on the other side.

Davy Hillcrest was practically Desamy’s right hand and I wanted none of the demeaning or gloating chatter that they would produce instead of eating.

Finding my usual place at the very end of the table I sat and angled myself away from the others. Each bowl had a placard under it with a room number and spelled wristband that would sink into your skin as a temporary tattoo. That would be the passcode to get into your assigned room.

Immediately after we finished the meal, the others move to gather around the fireplace and before half of them were even sitting, the chatter starts up.

Elsbeth gripes that she took too long to subdue a coal hog and would be docked points only for Megan to whine louder that she’d lost her favorite spelled cloak to a low level water fairy because she hadn’t been paying enough attention.

Once the conversation had started everyone began to join in, discussing what they did well and what they could’ve done better.

Cornelius blushes in embarrassment as he recounts how he’d slipped in the mud as he’d grappled with a Steerwyrm and nearly lost the thing down a burrow. His jacket’s elbow patches told the story alongside him, dried mud still caked on quite thickly there despite the passing hours.

He ducks his head and angles himself towards Desamy, asking how he had done knowing he could always be trusted to take the unwanted spotlight from someone else. Desamy straightens his spine like a king recounting his greatest victory as he tells the story of how he’d taken down a vampire pegasus.

I roll my eyes into my mug of cider, well aware he’d spent the seven minutes before he’d taken it down shrieking pleas of mercy as if the dead white horse would fold its wings and fangs away demurely and let him saddle it.

He was lucky that thing hadn’t been with a herd. There had only been two in the forest today and I’d already dispatched the bay one, catching it unawares as it tore a lesser clawed rabbit to shreds.

The conversation slows as the others look for another topic, not yet ready to retire. I’m about to make my escape before I can be dragged into anything when Davy glances around the room and spots me still sitting at the table.

“How do you think you did Sterling?”

I consider his question, trying to find an answer they won’t judge me for. I wasn’t satisfied with what I’d done, but if I ended up taking the top score the others would resent me for saying so. If I said I’d done well enough they would gossip that I was conceited and saw myself as above them.

I sweep my gaze over the others as I think. I look out the thick glass windows to the left of the fireplace as I reply, wanting to be able to read posture without picking up on minute details of the annoyance I know will be there.

“I’ll pass.”

Desamy’s eyeroll is so theatrically large that I can see it even though I’m not looking at them. Elsbeth giggles behind her hand and Felicity leans in to whisper something to Megan.

“Of course you’ll pass Sterling.” Desamy states only half sarcastically, causing the others to chuckle. “I think you’d cease to exist if you ever failed, but that doesn’t answer Davy’s question, how do you think you did?

I dull my gaze as I look back at Desamy, wishing I had had enough sense to leave before I’d gotten dragged into the conversation.

“Theres no point in estimating scores or status yet, the exam doesn’t end until tomorrow evening. Now you’ll have to excuse me. I have spells to examine and recharge. Good night.”

I grab my placard and add my mostly empty mug of cider to the neat stack of dishes at the end of the table before leaving. Desamy is calling questions to me as the heavy oak door swings quietly closed.

“If the exam isn’t over yet why did you say you’ll pass?!”

I sigh into the quiet polished hall and glance at my placard, ensuring I knew which room number I was looking for before turning around and heading down the hall.

I find the room tucked away in the last section reserved for our year and open the door cautiously, just in case the Professors thought to play a joke on us by adding a trap spell to the door but nothing happens.

A quick glance around the room tells me I’ll have only one roommate but I don’t recognize the other student’s trunk, a polished light wood with gold fastenings that contrasts mine.

My cherrywood trunk is already set by the end of the bed furthest from the door, so I put my rucksack down and hang my long coat by the window hook to change out of my field clothes.

After a quick shower, I treat the minor scrapes I’d received while fighting the deep sea strangler and set to inspecting my spells.

I take off and lay out each of my capture badges, tools and spells, going over each methodically before placing it back into its designated pocket in my rucksack.

I fix and replace the broken components the best I can with what I have on hand and am just finishing up resetting and recharging the depleted spells when the door opens.

I startle a bit as Cornelius Rivera enters, bringing with him a draft of warm air that reminds me I hadn’t even bothered to light the fire and that he was probably going to be annoyed at me for that. I’d meant to, but time tended to escape my notice when I was focusing on field preparation.

Cornelius sets his bag down slowly as I get to my feet and set about preparing the fire. He disappears into the washroom without a word and by the time he comes back, the fire is blazing and I’ve packed up my external tools and returned to working on my internal spells.

The shield spell I kept under my skin was my most complicated spell to recharge, requiring me to drain a good portion of my own energy to use as a catalyst to restart it despite the implant including the carvings for renewing. Even with the energy dump it would take almost nine hours to replenish.

I hated cutting it that close to the exam’s start time, but it was already dedicating more energy than I should to the spell. But, there was no work around to spells that focused primarily on shielding. It was designed to take hits for me and dissipate the energy of whatever was attacking me by releasing a burst of equal energy automatically to cancel out the attack.

There was no shortcut around that, but I’m already exhausted and know better than to drain energy I don’t have. I sigh as I downgrade the spell to replenish slower. I’ll just have to hope I can get by without my main shield for the first two hours of tomorrow’s exam. That was as much as I was willing to cut back. Exhausted from both the exam and recharging spells, I forget to activate the spells I had placed around my bed to prevent dreams.

I’m only half aware that I’m younger than I should be as I jump from piling to piling, holding my papa’s hand as my mama talks to the captain of the beautiful glossy ship beside them. My papa laughs as he tells me to be careful and hands me the plush kelpie toy I’d been carrying around for as long as I could remember. I stuffed it into the side bag papa had had made for me, a miniature copy of the bag my mama kept her spells in.

My excitement squeezes my lungs in a tight hug of anticipation when I ask my papa for the thousandth time if he was really really serious that I could go with them this time. Then my mama beckons us forward and I reach for her, taking her hand as all three of us follow the captain onto this ship. But it’s not a ship anymore.

It’s a craggy rock with waves jumping and hissing at us and my hands are not holding my parent’s anymore and the ship isn’t beautiful or glossy anymore as it sinks beneath swarming waves that look like a gaping mouth.

Then the craggy rock turns into sharp teeth and the waves to scales as my mama reaches for my papa who is carrying the unconscious captain, and they’re both swallowed by a part of the sea that isn’t water. What’s left of the water turns wine dark and the hiss of waves turns to the hiss of laughter as I scream desperately for my parents, but the only sound I can hear is the call of the lure lady, satisfied but not enough, and I know she and her sisters are coming for me next.

I startle awake to a hesitant hand on my shoulder. Cornelius leans over me looking somewhere between concerned and terrified and I struggle to pull my guard back up and come up with excuses before Cornelius realizes just how out of it I am.

“What is it?” I ask, voice rough from sleep and loss, trying to buy time to compose myself.

“There’s a si.. there’s something at the window.”

“What?’ I ask again, unable to switch my stream of thought off the excuses I had ready for disturbing his sleep with my nightmares. He doesn’t reply this time, choosing instead to simply point over my legs to the window. I follow his finger and my heart stops.

There’s an apparition floating in the center of the second window and for a moment I wonder if my nightmare followed me into reality.

I grind a fist into my left eye to see if maybe there was still spell residue from the deep sea strangler causing me to see things that weren’t really there.

It doesn’t take me long to realize it’s real, and it’s not actually right outside the window but at the dock below, simply projecting the image of itself upward.

That was an ability of Lure ladies. They used sea vapor and fog to project mental images of themselves into the minds of their prey since they couldn’t reach the decks of taller ships.

I jolted to the window like a magnet had pulled me there and grab my coat off the window hook as I look down. There shouldn’t be sirens here. There absolutely should not be sirens here.

Because of a siren’s innate power to will you into doing things, they were considered a class twelve threat. Not even fully trained combatants went against them unspelled. There was absolutely no way they were brought here as part of the exam, and if that was true, then they hadn’t been given safeguard limits to ensure they didn’t kill the examinees, which meant this situation was almost as bad as it could get.

If I was right about one other hunch, it really couldn’t get much worse.

Because I’d taken care of the deep sea strangler, I’d most likly scored the highest on the exam yesterday. That meant I was likely roomed closest to the first years for their safety.

The rooms were typically set up in a corner fashion where the highest scoring forth years roomed next to the lowest scoring first years. Lowest scoring second years roomed by the lowest scoring forth years, highest scoring third years roomed next to the highest scoring seconds, and lowest thirds with highest firsts. The weaker groupings were kept on the far side of the Grounds which was further from danger and closer to the barrier. That way in case of emergency the students could all help each other without overwhelming or endangering each other with unknown spell levels.

If any of the first years heard the sirens call they wouldn’t be able to resist. The fact that a lure lady’s songs couldn’t work on anyone sleeping was the only thing going for us right now.

“Rivera, plug your ears. Now.”

I don’t look away from the siren’s reflection hovering outside the window but I can still see the thin shiver that rolls through him. I assume it’s just a very healthy dose of fear until he whimpers.

“I didn’t pack earplugs in my kit.”

“What.” I hissed slowly at him before I even considered that there wasn’t that much use for spelled earplugs on an exam where you know class six or seven creatures will be the highest threat when creatures with the power to impart will are always considered class ten or above. There were still shriekers but good shield spells worked for that.

I sigh and decide that him being willed to fight for the siren is a bigger threat than fighting the siren without earplugs, especially when I’d practiced spells to muffle hearing so that I could study in peace.

“Here. Take mine.”

He starts to protest immediately but I shove the spelled complete-silence plugs into his hands and twist my earrings until they activate a muffled hearing spell as I turn back to the window.

”Don’t bother, I have wards against willing.”

I push the thin metal frame open and look at the dock directly below surrounded in fog. I sigh knowing that’s another factor that would add to the risk in fighting this creature but it wasn’t a surprise.

I knew it would be foggy below. Sirens could only project desires into spaces that were occupied by a majority of water.

Before I hop down myself I send a gust spell to blow away some of the lighter whisps. It wasn’t a great remedy since the conditions creating the fog were still present but I needed to see the real siren, even if it was just a glimpse.

I saw only a flash of it but it was enough to confirm that this really was a lure lady. The creature was covered in blueish scales and wasn’t bothering to change its face using desire or mindreading.

I flick another glance at Rivera when he opens the thin window beside me to look down too only to realize the siren most definitely was using desire, and I was only seeing its true face because that’s what I most wanted to see.

This creature was the main reason I had been accepted into this school and I wouldn’t soon forget that, especially not after the meetings my aunt had gone through to get me in here, and not having just woken from dreaming of them.

I reach outside my window to push Rivera’s shut again. It bumps none-too-gently into his nose and he looks at me indignantly but I just shake my head when he looks at me in accusation.

A little bump on the nose wouldn’t cause any lasting damage, but it would break whatever effect desire had had on him from this far away.

I didn’t bother to explain that to him because he was already shoving my earplugs in his ears and I didn’t feel like wasting time playing pantomime with a person I had once mistaken for a friend.

“What should we do?”

Rivera asks a little too loudly and I hold my hand flat facing the floor so he knows to lower his voice.

I pour a bit of energy into a spell-speak that was carved into one of the school beads so he could read what I was saying before I tried talking to him and he copies me. No sense in wasting time on poor communication.

“You are going to put all your energy into shielding the rooms of the first years on this side of the hall. They have natural barriers, so just add to that instead of trying to make a fresh shield and don’t stop until you’ve made it as thick as you can. We don’t want any sound getting through.

I’m going to use myself as bait to keep it away from everyone else’s rooms-“

Conrnelius straightens his spine, abruptly cutting me off in protest.

“What? No, we need to get the professors! We aren’t trained for high class creatures yet! We don’t even have a license to look at them let alone make contact!” He hisses at me but I hold up a hand to quiet him and explain, slightly annoyed at the interruption.

“Obviously we need to get the professors, but they aren’t on the Grounds.

They stay outside the exam ward at all times to prevent them from helping students, and the Whisperlights have all gone out for the night.”

Cornelius takes a breath to ask a question but I know what he’s going to say so I answer before he asks.

”No, they can’t be reactivated from our side of the ward.”

He slumps to the chair in exhaustion and despair, covering his eyes with his hands for a moment before looking back at me with new resolve.

“Then what do we do?”

“Well we can’t do nothing.” I say, focusing on his spell-speak as an excuse to look away from him. I wasn’t used to anyone’s undivided attention and it was more uncomfortable than I remembered, so I threw myself into explaining.

“Someone will be on watch outside the Grounds using a light detection bubble. It’s in the rules to prevent cheating and sabotage. I’ll set off a red light flare and they’ll detect it and they’ll send someone to investigate. We just need to keep that thing away from the dorm rooms until help arrives.”

”annnd there’s no way around that? We can’t just bar all the windows and hope it gives up to hunt one of the other creatures?”

I shake my head trying not to show my frustration and grab my rucksack, thankful that I’d packed it the night before. We were wasting time we didn’t have because he didn’t want to do this.

“It won’t hunt something else with humans so close. It’s a class twelve creature because it will stop at nothing to target humans. This creature hunts every night and its preferred prey is us, Rivera. So leaving it alone isn’t an option. Not when someone else could be awake and unaware of the danger.”

Cornelius contemplates this for a moment as if aware of my impatience and deliberately slowing me down before scrunching his face and nodding slowly.

“I hate it, but it makes the most sense. Waking anyone else to help us is a hit or miss chance of them being willed. So I’ll do as you suggest, but there’s got to be a way to rig our silence spells to be able to communicate.”

I just looked at him baffled for a moment, too surprised he’d even try suggesting something so stupid. Had he not been paying attention in class when the professors had explained their communication spells? A spell like that would require two objects specifically crafted as one then split into two with the same spell replicated in converging patterns to even have a chance at working; and that’s before you even get into the difficulties of charging a split spell. Where would the energy come from if one was depleted faster than the other?

It could kill its user during charging. And even if all that went right, there was still the risk of him hearing more than my voice and getting willed by the siren himself. Messing with something like that could cause serious damage in too many ways to count.

He definitely hadn’t been following along well in spell theory class, but I’d seen his innate understanding for magical spells in action so I just shake my head and forget it. Now was not the time to be insulting the intelligence of the only person capable of helping.

“No luck there, we’ll have to cope without. Just keep the first years safe and if anyone else wakes up, keep them away from the east side of the building. Got it?”

“I got it but what if we need to-“

I cut him off with a wave of my hand as I turned away, not wanting to see more of what he’s saying now.

“Enough of this Rivera. We have to try.”

He’s about to protest again but I’ve had enough of discussing it without acting, so I grab my rucksack and activate my weightless spell as I drop out the window.

I drop to the embankment the dock was attached to and scan the fog looking for signs of unnatural shapes. I stay crouched there ready to bolt if it breaches from the water at me as I prepare the red light flare. I didn’t have an infrared flare in my pouch so I was carving a regular red light flare into one before I stepped foot on the dock.

I wanted the flare to be invisible to the siren and while I knew as deep sea creatures they struggled to see most red lights, I wasn’t comfortable taking the chance that this flare was within their visual range. I’d already witnessed first hand that red lights bright enough for them to see enraged sirens, and I was already out of my depth here. No sense making it worse for myself.

Modification done, I touch my spark ring to the tip of the flare and channel a fleck of energy into it. The flare starts smoking and I set it upright hoping that it was detected quickly before standing and striding down the dock myself.

The fog wraps around me like a blanket of reassurance that I had no plans to fall for. I’d dreamt of fog like this and knew better than to let my guard down. Lure ladies were incredibly fast in the sea and I didn’t know how much of that speed they could access here. The water was deep, but salt water magic didn’t always function as well in fresh waters, not without the conduction capabilities salt lent some wild magics.

I could only hope its speed was dampened because if it wasn’t, I would have no way of surviving this. I’d simply be snapped up and dragged around until it got bored of playing with its food. No sense contemplating it now.

I scan the dense vapor looking for unnaturally sharp angles or solid colors despite knowing this creature could shift its scales to blend in. Minutes pass until I lose track of how long its been. I hadn’t known what time it was when Cornelius woke me so I had no point of reference to begin with but it had been at least ten minutes since I’d lit the flare. I would get out my pocket watch and look, but I didn’t dare look away from the water, for even a second.

My mind dulls gently, tired and not comprehending why I wasn’t resting but I tug it back to alertness like a boat drifting at its moorings. ‘Sleep now and die a fool’, I tell it, but it still drifts again against my wishes.

It should surprise me when I see it watching me just off the center of the dock, its scaled shoulders are even with the water but it has an unnatural stillness to it that suggests it had been watching me for some time. Perhaps waiting for my head to drop or my eyes to stray.

I drop my eyes to hover around the creature. I want to look at it. Want to finally confront the face of the creature that took my family from me but I don’t know if it’s willing me to do that, and I can’t risk finding out. I know from textbooks that eye contact could strengthen their hold on the spells they were weaving around you and the no eye contact suggestion was meant for people authorized to confront class twelve creatures, and I wasn’t that skilled yet.

It raises its chin gently at me, eyes wide as if beckoning me to come closer. It looks innocent and ethereal despite my knowing that it wants to kill me. It gives up on stillness to sway gently back and forth as if lulling me to sleep, which has the opposite effect on me, startling me into being more aware of where my eyes are looking. But it doesn’t change its behavior, simply swaying gently as it stares its coal black seal eyes at me. I swear it widens them when I refuse to meet its gaze, skirting around the creature out of determination not to stare directly at it.

After a while, I got too tired to stand without swaying myself since I was no longer propping myself against the piling so -making sure to keep my eyes unfocused on the area around the siren- I crouched down. I was trying to make myself small so that it would take its time, toy with the prey that looked too stupid or too afraid to run.

It was a very dumb idea. I thought it would be cautious since they typically hunt in pods but it must’ve been too hungry for caution, because the creature jerks forward inhumanly fast.

I scramble and slam my back into a piling as it reaches towards me with deep blue talons just barely retracted. They look the same as regular long human nails when retracted, but they left gouges in the dock where it had tried to grab my leg.

I focus on breathing as I scramble to my feet and rub a finger against my gust spell ring, channeling energy into it. The adrenaline coursing through me rushes forward and I hold my breath as I funnel the energy, wanting to conserve some of it for later. Though holding it back is a straining task when it comes to adrenaline and I mostly fail. It all courses towards the spell like built up water flooding through an opening door.

The fog blows away from me like I had beat massive wings a few times and the creature slides its arms off the dock in an attempt to hide. I can tell by the way the scales around its gills are vibrating that it’s singing its magic at me louder now, refusing to give up on its prey. I can hear the echo of some of it pass through my muffled hearing spell, but only a little.

Enough to scare me though, it would only be a second’s distraction to lose concentration, and that’s all it would take to fall for a siren’s desire magic. I probably wouldn’t even notice until the pain cleared my mind.

I pull my rope staff out from my rucksack without looking and harden it into its weapon form as I stand back up and strike hard and fast with sharp blows aiming for the siren’s neck, no longer trying to make myself look small. Maybe if I could get this creature to think that I had been trying to trap it, it would hesitate long enough for help to get here.

It bares it’s rows of cat sharp teeth at me, ducking side to side as if in an enraged challenge that I would dare to injure it. I don’t step much closer even as I strike at it though, preferring to keep the width of the dock between us so I have some time to react. After it ducks further away from the dock I back off a step to watch for what’s coming next. If I kept the creature in my sight it wouldn’t be able to duck under the dock and come up behind me.

I should’ve known better. How many late nights I’d spent pouring over books, chapters, and research papers about sirens. I knew this creature like the back of my hand and could probably recite more information about it than the people actually qualified to hunt it. I knew their hunting tactics and preferred methods of trapping prey, I knew their magic and physical capabilities.

I knew how extremely rare it was for sirens to hunt without its pod. But I hadn’t considered that more than one siren had somehow passed the barriers and made it onto the Grounds. Not until something with sharp talons yanks my back foot out from under me from the other side of the dock.

I’m pulled off my feet towards the edge and I scramble to find something to grasp before I fully realize what’s happened. I hadn’t taken my eyes off the siren so what was attacking me now? The hands were too humanoid to be anything but a gravemocker or a siren and gravemocker’s hated water.

I huff as I struggle to keep my grip on the piling as it yanks on me harder, pulling my legs over the edge of the dock. I grit my teeth with the strain of holding onto the piling. Cutting off energy to my rope staff, I snatch for it with my other hand as my grip on the piling slips and I loop desperate fingers around whatever piece of the rope staff that I can. I twist myself over so I’m practically sitting on the edge of the dock and kick out at the creature latched onto my right leg.

I hit it but not enough to dislodge it. I hiss half in pain and half in satisfaction as this second, larger siren tries to yank itself forward to dislodge my grip and I land another solid blow against the creature’s gill slits. It throws itself back into the water a bit in its shock but it’s a very short lived success, since its sudden move just yanks me further off the dock.

It’s a stalemate between its determination and my desperation until the second siren breaks through the water and digs its talons into my legs too. I can feel the vibrations of their hunting song through their hands as they finally succeed in pulling me off the dock. I have just enough time to activate my second eyelid and tuck my necklace charm into my mouth so I can breathe. Though the eyelid won’t help me diffuse any of the siren’s magic, it will let me keep my eyes open in the water.

The water seeps past my muffled hearing spell and I thrash harder against their grips as I realize I hadn’t crafted the spell to withstand a different density of molecule. The spell was effectively useless in water. I slam my fists against my ears in a desperate attempt to use the water pressure to break my eardrums but it does nothing.

I scream in frustration and horror as I realize this is really happening. It isn’t a nightmare this time. I kick at the siren still holding me and channel energy into my rope staff again, jabbing at its gill slits. It just looks at me and bares its teeth, hissing as if in warning as it tightens its grip until I want to scream from that alone. I can feel its humming through the water and through their grips on my legs until it reverberates in my head.

I throw myself into resisting the music and watch the little one closely even as I kick feebly at the larger. I watch as its talons start digging into my leg and I turn the staff towards it, smacking at its hand with a pathetic amount of energy. It lets go anyway, though my blow hadn’t been strong enough to make it let go.

I tried to channel energy to my gust ring in hopes that it could pull the oxygen it needed from the water but it did nothing. I don’t even bother trying my shield spell, I could sense its dull emptiness without even trying to feed it energy.

Now with my hearing spell gone, I could feel the wild magic surrounding my mind, seeping into the folds of my consciousness as I kicked and thrashed less and with less energy every time. They were going to win. No, they already had, I just wasn’t dead yet.

Through exhausted closing eyes I watch the little one let go to circle me as the larger siren hums louder, slowly moving us deeper into the murky depths. Cut off from my own energy almost like I didn’t know how to muster the will to fight back. There was only their will now, invading and suffocating my own.

They had no reason to keep willing me, but they did. To keep me from struggling or to prevent me from tasting bad, I didn’t know. Maybe because they didn’t understand how I had resisted at first. It didn’t really matter now anyway.

I could feel the shape of suggestions in their humming until it became all that I’m aware of. ‘Let go, there’s no point in struggling now, don’t be scared, just rest, it’ll be over soon, it’s hopeless to try’.

Their song hums in my bones like my Mama rocking me to sleep, rewriting me until my thoughts snag on the word try. They repeat the word every now and again and the snag in the wild magic tears wider. Try. try. try.

Then my mama’s voice whispers behind the wild magic, “come on Sterling, you have to try it! That’s half the adventure!” Then my own voice muffles the wild magic, snapping at me, “Enough of this Rivera. We have to try.” The human-ness in the words courses through me like a bolt of electricity until I find myself struggling against the sirens almost unconsciously with every ounce of energy I have left.

I wriggle around and catch them off guard as I shove my own voice back down the same channel, resisting with every stubborn part of me that knew what they wanted was wrong. ‘No, no, no!’

The little one grabs hold again but I manage to slide my hand into the rucksack and grab at a handful of rope spear rings. I try to distinguish them by touch but end up grabbing two random ones hoping it wasn’t the electricity modifier, as that was likely to take me out along with them.

A third siren I hadn’t noticed before flashes up from the depths and grabs ahold of my hip, then they all snarl their hunting song together as I shove the word no back down the same channel. It was causing a massive migraine to throb walnut sized lumps throughout my brain but I kept doing it, thrashing about to try and get away from them as I did.

I knew I had a low chance of success but that didn’t matter to me as much as fighting anyway. My parents had fought. They’d fought the waves and the rocks and the sirens until there wasn’t enough of them left to fight. I would do the same.

I kicked off all three of them whenever I got the chance even as it tugged at the wounds they were holding me by. I could see the waters shade lightening slightly as I kicked at them, until the sirens dug their talons deep into my skin and my gut churned at the horrifying understanding of what they were doing.

Sirens could do the same thing angry bees did in a way, using their talons instead of a stinger. Their full talons were never fully protracted when hunting, as it was extremely dangerous for them and had the possibility of injuring their pod members.

Their talons ran the full length of their forearm, kept flat and unflexed inside their arm, cushioned by three muscles surrounding it. Those muscles could flex at the end of the talon and snap off any that was unsheathed, saving the siren if they tangled with something they couldn’t escape.

And now I could feel as the talons ripped through my muscles; heard them tearing in my imagination as I was lit up by red hot pain. I nearly lost my grip on the rope spear as I tried to fix the second ring modifier over the end but I tightened my grip, losing hold of the ring instead, it sank into the darkness below.

With the first modifier in place and the air in my necklace charm running out, I decided to just activate the rope spear’s modifier and hope for the best. I was dead anyway if I didn’t try. I aimed my rope spear at the largest siren since it’s the lowest and let energy course into it.

Within seconds I was holding the end of an eighteen foot pole with sharpened “branches” jutting out along its entire length in a spiral except for the arms length closest to me. The branches stab through all three sirens, pinning the largest straight through the chest, the smallest through its arm and tail, and the third one through its side.

My own leg was caught in the branches too but I ignored it and kicked off the sirens again, hard enough to pull at their talons. I reach down to the closest one and bend its hand away until the talon snaps off, then I kick at the hand of the smallest siren until its talon snaps off too. The largest creature had snapped its own talons off when it was struck by the branches so -freed from their grips- I pushed off the dead siren and kicked for the surface.

I break into air keening pained gasps into the cool night, surprised to find no fog until a Professor using a weightless spell swooped down with a cry of surprised anxiety. “Sterling!”

I force a weak trickle of energy into my own weightless spell as Professor Margrove grabs my hand and lifts me from the water, tossing me over his shoulder to center our weight as he calls out to others.

“I’ve got him!”

I pass out looking down at a large piece of my limp rope staff and the unraveled tendril of it currently pierced through my thigh.

I spend time in a thick heavy feverdream of pain and voices. Lost to a kaleidoscope of memories blurring together as they fracture and bleed into shapes they should never have been in, only moored to reality by the black absence of life in corkscrew wounds lacing my limbs. For a breath, I’m aware of nothing, not even time.

Then there is no kaleidoscope and I’m watching as Professor Addicott removes a spell from my mouth and another over my nose. I’m in the same bed I’d jumped out of earlier and Cornelius is standing by his own bed wringing his hands.

I don’t know what spell they’d used to keep me asleep while they worked but I’m pretty certain I’m not supposed to be able to see what they’re doing from outside of myself, watching alongside my classmate and the professors as if I too was holding vigil there, waiting for signs of trouble.

They had several items strewn about the thin blue bedspread, possibly trying to distract themselves or-seeing the shine of two silver bowsbane knives- prepare themselves.

Professor Addicott had done his best to remove all of the sirens’ talons but there was no guarantee he had gotten them all. In fact, the pinpoint burning in my right hip told me he hadn’t gotten them all.

The pain of it like a magnifying glass set before the sun on a hot day, burning right through me from the inside. I don’t have much strength in that body let alone control over what strength I do have, but I can’t let that piece stay there. I can practically picture it in my mind’s eye.

The fragment was about the length of the middle of my pinky finger, no larger. Dark blue and etched with patterns in a way that suggested growth and not carving. Wild magic. Physical wild magic worked as both elements to cures, and as a poison to humans.

My limbs twitch occasionally like shivers of shock or a mild electric current but my eyes stay closed despite my willing them open.

I reach hands I can’t see out as if grasping at my will in an attempt to pull the unconsciousness out of me. I could feel everything, so why couldn’t I do anything about it. Had Professor Addicott missed a step when he had removed the spell that kept me still during surgery?

I tried to find the shape of the block but there was nothing there. I was sending the commands for movement but my limbs weren’t responding more than a twitch.

I simply lacked the ability. I keep trying even as I start to listen to the conversation happening beside me.

“We’ll need to watch him, Margrove. There’s nothing more I can do.”

Before Professor Margrove can answer Professor Addicott, Cornelius speaks up.

“I can watch him sir!”

Professor Addicott shakes his head but Cornelius isn’t deterred when he spots the gentle smile on the old surgeon’s face.

“Me and Eugene’ll watch him! That way you can rest and come running if- if something goes wrong..”

Neil trails off, spotting the bowsbane knives laying beside me, as if realizing just now much responsibility he was signing himself up for and had started questioning whether that was actually a good idea.

The Professors however, didn’t catch on to his change of heart.

“Well what do you think Addicott? If the boys watch over him you can rest and I can focus on recharging my Travel spell, then I’ll be able to leave tomorrow morning.”

Professor Addicott stares unseeing at my unconscious form, stepping forward to take my pulse and pull up the thin blue blanket. I turn my wrist over as I sense the ghost of his touch.

“He’s stable enough, but you’ll have to go for the Westly General surgeons in the morning as soon as that spell is ready, Margrove.”

He shakes his head slowly. “We just don’t have information on these kinds of wounds, they might not even have more information, but we have to try.”

I’m annoyed by how much I startle at the words ‘have to try’, but I brush it off to listen to the rest of the conversation.

“It’s decided then.” Professor Margrove says, and I watch as the color drains out of Cornelius’s face. It amuses me enough to melt my annoyance until the professor adds.

“Since you’re going that direction you should stop by the Sewer’s Conservatory and bring his Aunt back with you, if you can, she’s the new warden for the school.”

My heart sinks as I picture my aunt getting news that yet another family member had been attacked by a siren. She had lost her older sister and brother in law and now has to hear about her only nephew being attacked? After I’d promised her I’d be more than careful. She hadn’t even wanted me to go to this school and yet despite that, it was she that had fought so hard to get me accepted here.

I have to wake up before she comes. I have to. I stride forward and try to grab at my own hand but ultimately fail, unable to see where my hand would even be. When that doesn’t work I close my eyes and focus, trying to picture myself returning, feeling the weight of the blanket above me and the sting of the stitches but nothing changes.

I sit with it for a moment, ignoring as people came and went from the room, Cornelius leaving to return with a classmate, the Professors leaving, Cornelius slumping to sit on his bed and Eugene joining him. The two talk in low serious tones and I try to tune them out to think but give up after the third or fourth time I hear my own name.

“You’re telling me, Sterling. That Sterling, our Sterling, offered himself up as bait to a class twelve creature?” Eugene asks, incredulous.

Cornelius glares admonishingly at him before dipping his head in my direction.

“Yes.”

“You’re lying.” Eugene deadpans and Cornelius bristles, blushing red in humiliation or embarrassment.

“Don’t call me a liar Eugene, the evidence is literally right in front of your eyes.”

”Is it really evidence though? I mean-“

Cornelius cuts him off with a sharply pointed finger at the glass box Professor Addicott had locked the siren’s talons in in case the Westley Surgeons wanted to see the tool that did the damage.

That sobers Eugene right up and he looks back at Cornelius with a part pitying, part reproachful look.

“I’m sorry, I know you saw the siren too. I shouldn’t have tried to poke fun. It’s just… hard to picture the Sterling I knew doing anything like this, ya know?”

Cornelius looks over at me before answering,

“Well then maybe we don’t know him all that well.”

Eugene contemplates this for a second and conversation trickles to a stop and lapses into silence, interrupted only once as Eugene tries and fails to stifle a massive yawn.

“I’ll take the first watch.” Cornelius offers sounding wrung out himself.

“You sleep in my bed awhile, I’ll wake you when it’s your turn.”

Eugene doesn’t hesitate to scoot beneath the covers as Neil opts to sit on the corner of my bed instead of pulling up a chair.

I couldn’t blame him, they looked incredibly uncomfortable. After he settles and I settle back to stillness after the weird sense of being rocked slightly, I go back to trying to return to my body. It really shouldn’t be this hard, it was my body.

I close my “eyes” and focus the same way I had learned to feel for internal spells and energy. Letting the pain and physical sensations wash over me again, focusing on the heat blazing into my side in the hopes that it’ll cement me back to myself.

When that doesn’t work, I decide to pour all my focus into reaching for the Bowsbane knife closest to my hand, pouring energy I can imagine but not access into it. That burning sensation in my side scares me, as if the specks of wild magic were seeping into my being and the longer they stay the less of myself will be left to make it back to.

If I could just control one part of me then returning might happen naturally like it does with pouring energy into spells.

Eugene falls asleep pretty much immediately and Neil tries to fight his exhaustion but the adrenaline crash wins out and he falls asleep still sitting on the bed by my leg. I don’t know how long I watch myself, staring only at my arm, feeding it energy and willing it to swing out and grasp the knife before it happens.

My arm strikes out like a viper, snatching up the hilt like it had practiced that exact movement a thousand times, as if each of my commands were getting through all at once.

With my eyes closed and other limbs still, I plant the knife deep into my own hip and yank away from myself and towards the window, laying open my own flesh like I was deboning a fish. From this floating perspective, even I’m surprised by the lack of reaction to my own actions. My face doesn’t scrunch up in a grimace and my other limbs don’t scramble or flinch to get away.

My arm drops back down still gripping the knife as Neil starts awake, wondering what had rocked the surface he’d been sleeping on. He rubs the sleep from his eyes a few times before looking around, finally spotting the spray of red and a rapidly growing pool of blood not three feet from his knee.

He yelps as he spots it and tries to scramble to his feet, getting caught on the footboard as he tries to get up. There’s panic on Neil’s face as he presses the blanket into my side, trying to hold pressure against the wound as he calls for Professor Addicott to wake up.

My vision starts to fracture into little dots, and I wonder if an apparition can pass out. Then the last thing I see before it all fades away again is the glint of the siren’s talon sticking out of the wound as Neil shoves more of the blanket into it.

I float in a heavy void I’ve felt once before when I was in the hospital after the shipwreck. Occasionally aware of voices, I catch snippets of half understood medical jargon and debates on treatments. The walnut shaped knots of pain in my head are back and I don’t yet have the energy to indicate that I’m conscious, but I am aware enough to stop the energy being siphoned into my shield spell. So I do. The tug of energy settling back into me acts as a nudge into the void and I slip back into unawareness.

This time, I wake to the gentle but exhausted sound of my aunt’s voice as she talks softly to someone else. The headaches aren’t completely gone yet, but they have been reduced to the size of peas, so I decide to wait until my aunt stops talking before attempting to rejoin reality, and simply listen to the voice that had comforted me over the months I had recovered from my injuries and our loss.

“-well you weren’t technically wrong Mr. Smith. He did get in on a family recommendation, in fact I was the one who recommended him.”

The incredulous tone of Eugene pipes up from somewhere at the end of the room.

”But you just said you didn’t have any connections in the school before Sterling started attending here!”

I can hear the soft amusement creep into my aunt’s voices as she answers, not even trying to hide her amusement. She needed a distraction right now and Eugene had proved to be a perfect one.

”Nobody ever seems to realize that there are two ways a family recommendation can go. You’re thinking of the normal kind.”

I can practically see my aunt’s eyeroll in my mind, exaggerated to ease her listeners and draw them in.

“An influential family decides that their child would be ‘perfect’ for the role of public servant -and the money that came with it-, and subsequently decides to meet with someone they know from the council to reserve their child a spot in the next class. If their grades are considered workable, they are accepted.”

Neil snorts politely and my aunt hums in acknowledgment before continuing, trying not to let the amusement drop out of her voice and failing.

“Then, there’s the other kind. The kind you two probably never even considered. The kind where a loving, desperate family member approaches the school’s council and says, ‘please teach this child. I know that if you don’t, they will fight the creatures without training and die doing it. Possibly getting others killed in the process’ and the council reviews the case and votes on whether the child really would attempt to fight such creatures when doing so without the training is tantamount to suicide.”

I can feel the heavy startlement from across the room as my classmates still to listen to my aunt, not used to being faced with such unguarded emotions. I know my aunt well enough to know she’d been scolding them for having such narrow opinions about people and that she’s most likely about to start crying so I pry open my eyes; which I’m pretty sure must’ve rusted shut with the effort it takes.

“Educating my classmates Aunt Marie?” I croak, wincing as the light from the windows stabs at my retinas. I hear the swish of her skirts more than see her as she comes barreling over to my side.

”Sterling!” She calls, her voice already somewhere between elation and admonishment. “A siren of all things, what were you thinking!?”

I clear my throat as my aunt presses firm but gentle hands into my shoulders, as close to the hug she wanted as she was able to get with me laying as I was.

“Evidently Aunt, I was not.”

She huffs in fond exasperation before sitting beside me.

“We both know that’s not true, not when it comes to creatures and certainly not when it comes to sirens. Even the Professors admitted they would’ve been hard pressed to make a choice if presented with your options.”

I raise an eyebrow at her as she discreetly wipes at her eye, banishing the tears that had been about to fall.

“You did well.. Now promise me you’ll never do it again.”

My thoughts snag on the corner of something important that I can’t quite place. “Where are the Professors anyway, did they figure out who caused the breach?”

Neil comes to stand at the footboard, and my aunt looks at him to explain. He stutters as he answers, looking first at the floor and then out the window as he answers.

“Most of them are investigating how the sirens got in..” he starts, then blinks and finally looks at me.

“Wait, what do you mean who?”

I look at my aunt in question, mentally asking her, ‘isnt it obvious?’ And she stares blank-faced back in a way that I know means, ‘not everything obvious to you is to others. Play nice.’

So I turn back to face Neil and Eugene -who had moved closer to stand behind him- and use advice she’d given me during study sessions to the point that it had practically been her motto. Show my work.

“A breach in a barrier the school has had set up for years is rare enough as is but with the year end exams coming up, the barrier would’ve been inspected recently. If there had been any signs of weakness or irregularity they wouldn’t have used it for the exam at all.

A breach large enough for a siren to pass through is massive and should’ve taken years of erosion, or obviously visible damage to happen. The fact that a class twelve creature got through and not a single alarm spell went off speaks to sabotage, not barrier failure. Hence the ‘who’ and not ‘how.’

I look at my aunt out of the corner of my eyes to see if I’d said enough to satisfy her and she nods at me with a little smirk on her face that makes me roll my eyes.

“Can you at least wait until I’m back on my feet before you start mocking me?” I ask her with an overly dull tone so she knows I’m not serious. I know full well that friendly banter is exactly what got us through our last trial together and it would get us through this one. My aunt ruffles my hair lovingly as she stands, exhausted but aware of the same thing.

“Oh but you make it so easy.”

Her gaze sharpens as she turns it onto my classmates.

“Now, you two. I have a favor to ask.”

They both nod earnestly, unable to tell that she’s still jesting.

“I’m off to find one of the doctors to take a look at my reckless nephew, if it’s not too much trouble, would you both be so kind as to make certain he does not suddenly decide to go gallivanting off to fight some other high class creature?”

Neil turns his gaze to me in hopes I would give him some sign on how to reply and Eugene simply freezes like a rabbit catching sight of a hawk’s shadow. I roll my eyes and turn my head away, well aware my aunt was trying to get me to open up and make friends.

“No trouble at all ma’am” Neil answers respectfully and I close my eyes to focus on tamping down my embarrassment. I wasn’t great at conversing in normal situations and this was definitely not that. The silence stretches for a while after my aunt leaves the room and I nearly nod off by the time she returns with company.

I startled back to full alertness as my aunt’s hand gently squeezed my shoulder, frowning at her in mild confusion as I struggled to place how much time had passed.

“What is it?” She asks, trying to gauge if my expression was pain or confusion. Not wanting to admit the truth I grasp for something else to ask, surprised at how easy a question comes to mind.

“Did they figure out who caused the breach and how it was done?” My aunt presses her lips together, unsurprised by my one track mind but annoyed she hadn’t guessed it herself.

“Yes they’ve already figured that out, now stop trying to make the whole world’s problems yours, you have enough problems yourself.”

I grin mischievously at my aunt as she steps back to make room for the doctor. He helps me sit up and I hold my breath, unable to find another way to handle the pain in my muscles. A deep set ache that felt more like my bones had been replaced by solid bruises than wounds from talons. I can’t stop the gasp of escaped air as the angle tugs sharply at the stitches in my hip. I huff another question at my aunt when I catch sight of her bone-white hands clenched in her skirts.

“What’s with the suspense eh? Aren’t you gonna tell me what they found out?”

She’d been holding her breath alongside me and inhaled sharply before answering, trying to keep her voice light but not hiding the strain well.

“There was a first year that woke up to find a threatening letter on his trunk. Apparently his father is petitioning to change some old land treaties that would affect some people’s money and has evidently made some enemies.”

She waves her hand dismissively, eyes flicking to the doctor as to check whether she should be worried or not.

“Evidently.” I say back, breathing out through my nose so as not to make any more noise and upset my aunt. The doctor reaches across to lift the linen bandages and I grab his hand before he can, making eye contact and tilting my head in request. He understands and looks around the room as if just noticing the others.

“Why don’t you two take our lovely guest here to find some food and check in with your project professors, they may want to speak with you both but especially you Mr. Rivera.”

Eugene jumps to his feet as if freed from a trap and Neil trails after him, looking back at me with an expression too complex for me to understand before nodding to my aunt and picking up the roll of tour guide as the door swings shut.

I exhale sharply and gesture for him to continue as he prods my wounds looking for infection and gods knows what else. He narrates what he’s doing and despite my curiosity I only comprehend half of it.

“Most of your wounds are below the surface of your skin so I’ve implanted several charged spells to prevent infection, we’ll have to have them removed later but it was the best option with such extensive damage below the skin. Do not try to feed them energy, the amount of energy they were implanted with was calculated so if infection does occur it doesn’t create more problems. The bandages are also spelled to prevent swelling so leave them on unless you’re bathing.”

“hmm” I hum in response. “I figured that since the debris was in the wounds for a bit. What’s the recovery time look like for this? I didn’t get to finish the exam and I need to know when I can retake it so I can come back next year.”

The doctor stops his steady rewrapping of my leg to look up at me incredulous.

“I thought you’d be considering dropping out after wounds like these, and you’re asking me when you can go back out there?”

I don’t have anything to say that wouldn’t sound condescending so I don’t bother to respond to it at all, opting to change the subject.

“Keep the bandages on, no using spells, check in with you or Professor Addicott for infection for the next few days. Anything else?”

He stares at me for a moment before shaking his head and guiding me back down to the pillow.

“No I suppose not, though I’ll never understand how a fourth year survived an encounter with a siren. I barely believed your dear professor when he showed up on our doorstep before dawn. I’m not certain I truly believed him at all until he showed us a piece of talon. It’s nearly a miracle you survived so I expect you to act like it. I’ve replenished the sleep spell on the end of your bed frame so don’t be afraid to rest for a while.”

He packs up his bag of spells and supplies, leaving a few rolls of bandages on Cornelius’s bed before clicking his bag shut and heading for the door.

“Your aunt will still be eating but I’ll send in your professor to watch over you, I know he’s been wanting to check on you himself ever since we arrived. If you happen to nod off before your dear teacher arrives I’m sure he won’t mind waiting to talk.”

The reassurance that my spells had been activated is the only incentive I need to stop fighting the exhaustion and slip beneath reality despite an unknown thought tugging at the corner of my mind.

I bolt upright, having lost awareness of time yet again only to come face to face with my project’s Professor as he darts forward to check on me.

I cut off his concerned questions and stare him down as I share the thought that had jolted me from sleep.

“The doctor said siren. Siren, singular. There were three Professor Margrove. One’s dead at the bottom somewhere, you obviously found and dispatched one or you wouldn’t be this relaxed. Where’s the third?”

The color drains from his face as he straightens just as abruptly as I had sat up.

“What do you mean three Sterling?”

He steps forward to grab me none-too-gently by the shoulders and I wince as he repeats himself, demanding this time instead of asking.

“What do you mean three Sterling!”

“There were three sir. The little blue tinted one, the large greenish one, and the purple tinted one.”

Professor Margrove starts shaking his head before I even finish what I’m saying, trying to cling to his disbelief.

“No, no that’s not possible. It was a miracle you survived an encounter with one but three? No. You must’ve imagined it. It’s astounding what desire and willing can make a person believe, perhaps you did see three but only one was real.”

I snatch at his hand to make him look at me instead of turning away. I knew eye contact was the only thing that could convince him at this point.

“Professor. There were three. If you only found one, there is still one out there. You have to make sure.”

The professor just stares at me for a moment, eyes flicking over my expression in desperation but- finding no cracks in my resolve- he slumps over himself. He runs anxious fingers over the beads embedded in his teacher’s bracer until they come to rest on the cuff embedded with fragments of other teacher’s summoning stones.

He looks lost for a movement as he tries to decide which teacher to bring but quickly picks the blue gem piece, channeling just enough energy into it to cause the stone to start blinking. It’s still significantly more energy than it would be if the linked stone was attached and I flash back to the idea Cornelius had wanted to try last night, shuddering at the idea of pouring energy into an endless void.

“Professor Stein is on his way, I’ll have him organize the search while you and I talk about these sirens and how you survived, deal?”

I nod, slightly embarrassed by my reaction but I decide to ignore the discomfort. At least Professor Margrove was taking me seriously, which he might not have done if I was my normal composted self.

The scene replays as Professor Stein arrives in a storm of demands, wanting to know what is wrong and why he’d been summoned, balking just as Professor Margrove had until we manage to win him over enough to gather some of the other professors to check the water ways.

“I’ll get Madeline to use her detection experiment if you’d be willing to give me a fragment of lure lady talon to calibrate it on.”

“Yes yes,” Professor Margrove waves him off, ready to have the search begin.

“As long as the surgeons say they have enough to analyze it and Sterling is okay with it.”

I answer before their gazes even turn to me. “Do whatever you have to to find that thing before it gets away or hurts someone else.”

Professor Stein dips his head at me in acknowledgement and is out the door and off to do his tasks before anyone else says another word.

“Never still that one.” Professor Margrove says, shaking his in amusement.

”Now, are you satisfied enough that he will handle that to stop worrying and explain yourself?”

I was, so I dipped my head and waited for him to decide what to ask. It doesn’t take him long to choose his first inquiry.

”When I pulled you from the lake you heard me call your name and turned to reach out. Why didn’t you have earplugs in when facing a siren of all things?”

I pick at the seam of the blanket in embarrassment as I answer, knowing my teacher thought me smarter than that.

“I did have hearing dampeners, but I gave my earplugs to Cornelius since he had nothing and wild magic can cut through unspelled materials. I used my earring’s spell for myself, but they were unable to function in the density of water.”

He nods his head thoughtfully and waves away the rest of my explanation in favor of asking another question.

“My next question was going to be how you ended up in the water, but since there were more than one I’m guessing they used an ambush tactic on you. You’d gone out there under the assumption there was only one didn’t you?.”

I just nod to answer that one and he hums in understanding.

”Then I’ll just ask this. If you ended up in the water with three sirens and no hearing protection. How? how did you survive?”

In my mind, I retreat back into that dark water for a moment trying to find a way to explain what had really happened. There was a moment right before I became aware again that I couldn’t account for in the equation of my survival.

“I don’t think it’s replicable sir.” I answer carefully, knowing that’s the most important part of why he’s asking.

“At least not the part where I regained awareness, that was beyond my control and may have been a mere coincidence. Either way I wasn’t quite conscious enough to explain well. After I regained awareness though, I used their channel to push back against the willing.”

Professor Margrove leans back, practically pushing himself into the back of his chair as he assesses me, possibly looking for insanity.

“You used.. how? It’s part of our most basic teachings that humans cannot influence let alone access wild magic.”

“I know that sir, but I don’t have a better way to describe it. The three of them were singing so loud that I felt it in my bones. For a moment I wasn’t separate from it because nothing was separate from it. There was nothing outside the song, it felt like they were rewriting me, so I had to find a way to separate myself if I wanted to have even the smallest chance of fighting fate.”

“Explain what you did as exactly as you can then. All of it.”

If I hadn’t already been aware of how serious this is, I would just by the tone the Professor uses. I take my time to think, knowing my answers are probably going to be repeated and picked apart by magic users and scholars across the country until it was proven or disproven.

“I lost myself to the song Professor. It was only for a moment I think but I was lost. I’d stopped fighting, surrendered and was just… listening. But the more I listened the more the meaning in the song became clear. ‘Give up, don’t struggle, stop trying’ and at first I did what the song told me to. But every time I heard the word try it was like a tear in the wild magic. I could feel that there was supposed to be something outside the song. “

I looked out the window to where this whole mess started, wishing I could keep what I’d heard to myself. It had been so long since I’d heard the voice of my mother so clearly but I knew better. I couldn’t justify hiding it when the knowledge might save lives.

“Then I heard my moms voice under the song saying the same word. Try. It was something she used to say often, ‘come on Sterling you have to try’ and my own voice repeated what I had just told Cornelius. So I did.

I shoved the song away like I was ripping myself out of reality. I was like a kid having a tantrum, kicking and flailing and shoving no no no on into the channel on repeat to try and muffle the song until I’d remembered enough of myself to fight the song again even though I was almost certain it would do nothing.

But, the sirens were surprised enough that it took them too long to respond. By the time they did I was already fitting the modifiers on my rope spear. It was just luck that I grabbed the fragment modifier and luck that it hit all three of them.”

I tip my hand back and forth as I decide to try and ease the tension I could practically see knotting up in Professor Margrove’s shoulders.

“Though perhaps less lucky for the fact that I managed to catch myself in it, I suppose.”

Professor Margrove leans over his own knees and lowers his head like a heavy weight.

“You’re right. I don’t think that’s replicable. It’s far too dangerous to let it get that close to winning.”

“Not close, Professor. They had won and I think they knew that. I think it’s the only reason I was able to fight back, they would’ve been too quick otherwise.”

He just looks at me for a moment and the weight that was resting on his shoulders shifts to settle between us. The old familiar sparkle comes back to his eyes and they light up again as he realizes, yes something horrible had happened but by some miracle, no one had died.

“I still can’t believe you went out there. Even if you thought there was only the one. What were you thinking Sterling?”

I let myself grin back at my favorite Professor who knew exactly what kind of humor I’d come to depend on in our project sessions.

“You of all people should know! You taught deep sea theory last year didn’t you? Go on, think for a second. What was the one sentence that you drilled into our heads on repeat until it was the first thing we thought of when sirens were mentioned?”

Professor Margrove’s face goes pale as he realizes what I’m talking about.

“Oh my gods I almost killed you.” He says in a dead pan tone and I laugh despite the tug on fresh stitches.

“Don’t laugh, I’m never saying it again. I’ll change the whole curriculum.”

I cut off my laughter to make sure he’s not serious.

“Hey don’t go that far, it’s a good saying!”

“It almost killed you.” He hisses at me and I widen my grin as he glares at me.

“Give me some credit would ya? I’m not that dumb. And if you really think about it though, it’s probably saved a lot more lives then it’s endangered. Why don’t you just incorporate this story into the class whenever you say it? That way if you have another harebrained fool like me you can teach them without feeling guilty if they do something foolish. You can say it right now if you want.”

He narrows his eyes at me, trying to see where I was taking this but I give him no hints.

“Well? Go on.”

He remains suspicious but he does as I asked, his tone cautious as he sighs and says.

”Alright then. Don’t let sirens go.”

“And class” I say, mimicking his tone as best I can. “what do I mean by that?”

Then I switch my tone to sound far more childish than I should, as if he was teaching five year olds not fourteen year olds.

He answers me this time, understanding what I was getting at and only half amused by it.

“Report all Siren sightings to the Creatures Guild”

I keep going, trying to drive my point home.

“And what should you not do when you see a siren?”

”Fall into the damn water.” He says, shaking his head and trying to cover the smile forming there. He leans into his exasperation to make up for it.

“You are no doubt the smartest idiot I have ever had the privilege and pressure of teaching.”

Certain that the absurdity of the situation had been nailed home, I let the playful expression fade.

“And you are -by far- the best teacher to deal with that pressure. Why do you think they assigned you as my project professor?”

Professor Margrove slumps back down a little as he realizes he’s only halfway through my schooling and will be dealing with me closely for the next four years.

“Let’s try to make it through this alive, yeah?”

He says shooing me away as he usually does after our project session ends and he boots me from his office.

“You’re going to give me silver hair before I’m fifty. Now get some sleep. And don’t even bother to ask, I will wake you when they find the third siren alright? Now sleep.”

Figuring I had caused him enough trouble for one day, I do as I’m told and lower myself slowly down, sleep rising to meet me before I’ve even touched the pillows.

Characters~

Sterling Shaw:

The only survivor of a shipwreck that occurred due to a pod of sirens willing, he was taken in by his aunt to recover and she adopted him.

He became obsessed with studying creatures, which worried his aunt, who approached the council of the school for a family recommendation and he was accepted after passing a written exam on creatures. Currently a fourth year and sixteen years old.

Cornelius (Neil) Rivera:

A third year transfer from another school that had to close due to aging staff. He was partnered with Sterling for a few research projects and the two were cordial until the assignments were done, after that he became friendly with the rest of the class and drifted away from speaking to Sterling.

It was not intentional, but the other students assumed Sterling’s aloof attitude had caused a disagreement. He became closest with Eugene Smith since they are both third siblings of four and have older sisters.

Desamy Temples.

Got into the school by the skin of his teeth and is constantly terrified of failing out. His father pressured him into it in the hopes of getting a good paying job and later becoming part of his political staff. His older brother tries to change their fathers mind but has so far failed. Desamy strikes out at Sterling because hes the easiest target and he is jealous of the high scores he thinks come naturally to Sterling. He is unaware of his classmates story ans believes him to be the poster child his father wants.

Eugene Smith:

Mostly in the school for the money the job will bring when he is fully certified, as he is the eighth son of a blacksmith. He hopes to be able to send money back to his folks, though he has been considering dropping out in seventh year to begin hunting, as the final fee certificatarions for higher class creatures does not appeal to him.

George Collier:

An only child who hero-worshipped his cousin who always wanted to be a creature hunter. His cousin is six years older than him and already fully certified. The two plan to work together to take down the higher class creatures once George finishes his schooling. He follows after Desamy because he mistakes his confidence for competence, not really questioning if Desamy was behaving as a friend should.

Davy (David) Hillcrest:

Best friends with Desamy, Davy tends to like stirring up trouble. He doesn’t mean to be malicious but often ends up coming across that way because he encourages Desamy.

Felicity Muller:

A prodigy when it comes to the study of wild magic and creatures dissection, she’s at the school to get her licenses only so that she can transfer into a research group and publish research papers on creatures and wild magic.

Elsbeth Crosborne:

Her mothers famiky line has a tradition of becoming creature hunters, tracing the maternal hunting line back siz generations. She loves it, but is terrified of not doing well enough to honor the family name.

Megan Severhide:

Born to a well off merchant, she was sent to the school in second year after her father caught her bragging to a few guests that she had enough allowance that she could pay someone to do something potentially deadly just to see if they would.

She had enough funds that locals couldn’t afford to refuse so her father and mother both decided to send her to learn the consequences of what she was asking them to do. She hated it at first but after coming home for summer break the first year, found that her friends were in awe of her, so she decided to keep attending. Her parents are wary and uncertain whether she should but allow it anyway, as they believe she’s found something she’s passionate about.

Aunt Marie:

A middle class widow whose husband died of a childhood illness. He was given three years to live when they married and lived for five before passing in his sleep. She was at his bedside singing for him as he passed. She went to live with her sister and Sterling, who was four at the time, but found she didn’t care for the mundanity and she decided to sign up for teaching classes. She discovered her love of teaching and became a warden and house mother for a sister’s college.

Professor Margrove:

A professor that teaches classes for years 4 to 8 at the collage of creatures studies and combat. Asssigned as Sterlings Projects professor, meaning his extra research topics, interests, and assignments are looked over by him for editing. He also goes to him for any research issues or questions.

Professor Addicott.

The doctor for The College of Creature Studies and Combat. He is also a professor that specializes in healing spells and craftsmanship that occasionally teaches years seven and eight.

Professor Stein:

A professor that teaches years 1-6 at the collage of creatures studies and combat. His main focus is the base knowledge that the rest of the classes build off of.

~Creatures~

Deep Sea Strangler.

A six to twenty two foot eel-like creature with six hearts and two jaws full of four rows of needlelike teeth, each row having anywhere from sixty to one hundred and twenty teeth. They are typically a dark purple though they can range into the dark blue or green colors. This creature has two large, deepest eyes but its vision is poor and it uses echolocation as its primary navigation tool.

It has a depth mechanism more highly tuned than any known creature, but scientists have yet to find a way to study the organ on a living creature because it is located in the center of its circle of hearts, which makes it impossible to study or observe at work.

It’s primary defensive mechanism is using its scales to flash a luminous pattern that was designed to blind other deep sea predators. While dangerous when cornered or confronted, this creature does not interact with humans much unless something else is wrong, as it lives at a depth that humans cannot survive without shielding and spells.

Vampire Pegasus.

Territorial carnivores that typically like near or around the base of mountains/cliffs. They were once rare, but overpopulation became a problem in the 1790’s, when they nearly cause the Bluff ponies to go extinct. The conservation effort of the six limbed bluff pony saw an immediate drop in herd deaths when Shepard were assigned to watch over the herds. It was quickly discovered that it was caused by the vampire pegasus having changed its target to the shapers themselves after several deadly attacks by these creatures after being stalked for days, so they were ruled a threat to human life. Also known as mountain kelpies, as they have been known to use lakes and ponds to stalk prey without leaving a trail.

Steerwyrm.

A horned creature with two front legs that it uses for digging and dragging itself around its burrows. It looks like a brown stretched angler fish and grows all it’s life, though it slowly drastically once it reaches three years old. The longest recorded steerwyrm was a fossil found in 1772, measuring at 22 feet long. These creatures typically range from three feet to seventeen feet in length and about two to five feet tall at the skull, which is the highest point of a steerwyrm.

Siren.

Also called a Lure lady, or a Sailor’s singer, these creatures are considered extremely dangerous. Due to their combined abilities to hyponitize and relax people called willing, and their ability to cause hallucinations, it is never recommended that this creature be approached alone.

Sirens, while typically in the green/blue color range, can tilt their scales to blend in better with the color of the water surrounding them. The scales can also be manipulated to create noises that may induce relaxation.

These creatures have five gill slots on each side of their neck much like sharks do, and are primarily carnivores, resorting to sea kelp only when starving. Lure Lady’s are both male and female, and well known throughout history for seeking out people to eat, preferring humans over any other form of food, though they typically subsist on seals and occasionally dolphins. They’ve been seen in symbiotic relationships with sharks and will only resort to eating them if there are few sharks around and it is a juvenile.

Gravemocker.

A six to nine foot creature that looks a bit like a maggot, it has a humanlike head with sensory whiskers on it that resembles hair falling out.

It has six main limbs that stick out at right angles from the ground when crawling and hang limp when the Gravemocker raises itself up as an intimidation tactic.

Just under those six limbs is a second, stick-like appendage that ends in a thin hook. These are used for climbing and latching onto struggling prey.

These creatures are typically scavengers that dig for carrion and can digest bones, but will hunt solitary humans. Especially in winter when it is incapable of digging up frozen ground.

They are smart enough to use luring tactics and can scream a bit like a human, though its typical noise is a hiss that can be mistaken for whispering. They tend to scream nonsense sounds that end with an a or an o since those are easy sounds for it to make.

They got their name by raiding graveyards during winters.

Lesser Clawed Rabbit.

A rodent with six paws and two sets of ears, two large and two small set behind the large ones that are capable of warping 180 degrees to better locate sounds. This creature is typically harmless unless you’re a farmer with a low-lying crop. They freeze in place or run at the sight of creatures larger than them and are not considered dangerous.

Picture mites.

Extremely hardy tan bug-like beasts that look like a flattened dust mite. While practically harmless on their own, these palm sized creatures multiply rapidly and cause damage in larger numbers.

They have minor dimensional powers and can transport themselves through both written word and artworks.

If the work they are transporting themself through is real, they end up in the place the work was showing or referring to.

They are capable of surviving most environments for at least a few minutes, as they will drag their prey into a different environment to kill it. They will consume anything living, but typically hunt smaller beings than themselves.

The danger for humans comes when they enter fantasy works or environments that humans cannot withstand and are in sufficient numbers to overwhelm a person.

These creatures were used as messenger bugs throughout history, but are no longer used because they degrade the work of whatever they’re using as transportation and they can just decide not to change locations, meaning a message cannot be sent. Bait can be used to lure them through but that requires the other side of the work to be aware a message is coming.

Water fairy.

Light to dark brown ant-like creatures that usually grow moss as they age. They feast on tadpoles and minnows and are attracted to shiny things, as it reminds them of fish scales. Some people are deathly allergic to the mild paralytic they secrete for hunting and defensive purposes. They have four translucent wings but cannot remain airborne for long, tending to hover for only minutes as they select which prey to target.

They typically hunt alone but live in colonies and if a human stumbles upon a colony or angers one they will swarm. They also have a nasty bite, able to latch on with their mandibles as they bite.

Coal hog:

A shelled warthog like creature that lives near vents and dry dusty areas. They use horns on their knees and chin to claw open ant hills as a snack, though their main source of food is the colossal mouse and the banded stoat.

Mud fox:

A fox-like tall lizard that secretes a brown, mud consistency slime to cool itself down and evade detection from other animals with heat vision. It tends to live in open fields and grasslands, but may become a nuisance if located near livestock and crops as the secretions can make livestock ill and crops unable to absorb the nutrients needed to grow. They are a very fast snappy creature with sharp canine teeth. They bark and hiss as a warning. While their bites are not venomous, they must be treated immediately due to the bacteria found in their saliva carrying a high risk of causing necrosis and infection.

Stone wolf:

A large canine that lives approximately 25 to 35 years. They have a slow metabolism and don’t eat much, tending to hunt by walking after the weakest member of a herd until it can no longer keep up with the rest. It will then give a short burst of action to catch up with it and make the kill. They hunt and work in packs of one to three depending on where it is in their lifecycle, spending about three years as a juvenile alone, then separating from its pack for about three years at the end of its life. These creatures are not typically a problem unless they get a disease that makes them unable to function as normal. They will occasionally hunt livestock but can usually be run off by guardian dogs or farmers, as they tend to avoid conflict.

Colossal mouse.

harmless. The colossal mouse russet colored mouse with two thick back legs capable of propelling them a recorded seven to ten feet vertically or twenty three feet horizontally. There are four front limbs, two short ones that end in two inch claws and ans two longer thin ones. These lesser arms have both a knee joint and an elbow joint, used for gathering their main food source, ants.

These limbs can secrete a sugary substance that beads on this limb and attracts ants to them, allowing for more efficient hunting.

Centipede stoat.

Also known as a banded stoat. This thin little creature is extremely rare to spot, having been considered extinct for over 250 years, it avoids any areas that people frequent.

It is being monitored using remote eye spells due to their extremely allusive nature. While they eat desert toads and other small mammals, they can usually be found taking up residence in abandoned ant colonies.

Not much is known about this creature’s life cycle, diet, or growth rate.