Sight-Infused

The sudden info dump caught me off guard. As I walked into my room, got changed, and lay on the bed, only then did everything start to sink in. I wondered about how Antonio felt, under those dark green glasses and clean white lab coat of his. Under that flat expression he wore all the time. Did he miss his brother?

It made me sad, in a way. To think even to him, who helped me up till this point, I could only do something only after it was too late. That was assuming I could find him in the first place, and if it turned out that he was inside the tornado, among the wind that he controlled, then there would be nothing I could do. Without my own magic skills, I wouldn’t be able to push through the winds. I could only tell him where his brother was.

And after all he did for me.

He might be annoying at times, but now I realized, I did consider him my friend. I want to help him, I want to bring his wish to fruition.

I thought someone like him would have wished for something bigger. Maybe to pull his brother back, maybe to find a way to track him down before it was too late. Maybe he did wish for that, and only asked me out of desperation.

Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe…

If I couldn’t grant such a simple wish, to see his brother for the last time, then I am truly worthless. I wondered if there was something I could do to help find him. It would be great if we could reach his brother before the time was up, but considering that Antonio himself had spent all this time looking for him and couldn’t come up with anything, what could someone like me do?

I decided to try checking out the security camera video myself. Based on its position, I would assume it had been positioned above the tunnel. On its left and right was what seemed like the dormitory, with the clock tower and the two school buildings that sat beside it standing in the distance. In front of the clock tower lay an empty space, so I assumed the fountain was built after the accident, maybe as a commemoration of sorts.

Would the fountain hold any clues? I remember it looking like a completely normal, decorative fountain with no special engravings or patterns on it. I opened my phone and decided to put the fountain on the newly made list of things I should check. Maybe it would show me something that others could not see.

For now, I booted up my internet browser and decided to try to look into the story of the Great Knight of the Highlands, hoping to find anything helpful. I browsed various websites. The tale of the Knight was popular among the people, mainly because it showed that you didn’t need to have extraordinary abilities to be helpful.

Looking at the articles, I realized that no one truly knew what abilities he had. It was written that he could see what others could not, but not in a supernatural way. Many believed he was just a master tactician. A normal human, without the strength to wield a sword, nor the ability to use magic. A normal human that mastered the art of leading a battle, resulting in countless victories. One that showed mercy to his enemies, and respected the soldiers that he commanded.

That was the reason people loved him. They believed him to be a normal human, like everyone else. Antonio’s brother had been missing since five years ago, so it made sense if he knew this ability after a long, thorough search across the web, and he tied it with the knight’s story for an easier explanation.

I then went to search for information regarding the infused. There were several articles discussing the blood-infused, which was the most common of all. I managed to find only two articles briefly mentioning the element infused. Considering how little people manage to connect their souls without losing their bodies, it would make sense that not much research could be conducted on them.

But when I typed in sight-infused, not a single search result came up. All the other articles also only mentioned the other two infused. For them, sight-infused didn’t exist. I opened the messaging app and typed in a quick message to Antonio, asking him for his sources. The reply didn’t take long.

I concluded my hypothesis on your abilities based on the story of the knight, along with my own analysis of you. I did not use any external sources. The name sight-infused does not exist out there, and is a product of my own naming sense.

I found myself speechless as I read that message. If even someone like him couldn’t find a good source to work through, what were the chances of me stumbling on a gold mine? I decided to look into magic shields instead. I found countless articles teaching how to apply them, and which element was best against which, but I couldn’t find any about how to see or break them.

Well, some articles did teach a way to predict which shield was used, but the steps were vague and required a great deal of practice. Even then, the guess may not be accurate.

My motivation to help him died out all of a sudden, and I found myself browsing aimlessly through social media. I felt like I needed to do something, but I couldn’t think of what. I found myself helpless again, rotting away alone in my room, looking at beautiful, but random pictures that the media fed to me.

A lot of them consisted of food and traveling spots, though. Considering that I would be traveling later this year… assuming everything went according to plan, I couldn’t help but feel slightly excited. I really do hope the cost would be cheap, I do not want to be more of a burden to Aliya than I already am.

Speaking about Aliya, I decided to message her. It had been a while since we last had a long chat, so if she had time, it would be nice to get my head off this issue momentarily. She didn’t reply, however, leaving me alone once more. I looked at the time, it showed five in the afternoon, so I guess it would make sense if she couldn’t immediately reply.

I found myself staring up at the ceiling once more, at that single lightbulb that lit up the room. A single lightbulb, despite its small size, had the ability to give light into the entire room.

I then thought that staring up at the ceiling would be worse compared to spending time browsing social media, so I thought about something else that I could do, something that didn’t relate to Antonio’s troubles. My mind thought about doing homework, only to immediately realize that I had no homework left. They said the first month would be the toughest on new students, as the school wants to get rid of as much as possible. Ever since the first week, I did see a considerable rise in homework and tasks. Normally, others would do it on the weekend, when they had free time, or in the few hours they had before the lesson. The problem was, I had nothing to do in the hours between after school and before bed.

I didn’t play many games, nor did I read many novels or comics. I didn’t watch a lot of movies or shows, either, so I would end up doing all my homework. I ended up always finishing them on the same day I received them. The Keeper’s training didn’t have any homework, and I would usually spend most of my time on Fridays practicing with Antonio. Now that he had his own things to do, I found myself without the slightest idea of what productive thing to do.

I looked through my class group, reading all the random things they had been talking about. Complaining about tasks, commenting on teachers, making jokes here and there, planning study sessions… it just felt so alive, and I felt disconnected from all of it. I had spoken to only half of the now twenty-eight people in the class, and even then I only talked about things related to group projects. I added contacts, got invited to groups, worked on the project, and never said anything again. The fact that I was alone was a result of my own actions. I decided against talking with them or actively engaging in their conversations.

Yet it fell so silent. This room felt so silent, with only the slow hum of the AC unit above my head giving voice.

I rolled around the bed, considering if I should just sleep.

But if I sleep now, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, and that would be worst.

What should I do? Maybe I really should learn something? With all the free time in my hand, I should be able to learn something new, right? Maybe I should pick up a guitar as well, so I could play with Aliya? Maybe I should try games, the ones that teenagers my age like to play? Or maybe go to the cinemas and watch more trendy movies?

Yet all of them needed money. I need money to buy a guitar, a laptop, or cinema tickets. I could study… but I didn’t feel like I was making any progress no matter how much effort I put into it. Besides, while I did study often, I couldn’t say I enjoy it. I only did it to prevent myself from falling even further.

What to do… what to do…

I decided to just check on the fountain earlier, hoping I could figure something out. I once again changed into my school uniform and left the room.

Heading down the stairs, I made my way to the fountain. I approached it, the afternoon sun painted the skies in a shade of yellow. Standing in front of the fountain, I put all of my attention into it. A glow slowly appeared.

“Gray…”

The fountain, like most of the outdoor objects, had a gray color. A cheaper metal, or so people would say when describing the rock element. It had strength against most other elements, with the exception of metal. Well, considering that most non-magic threats that had something to do with metal involved throwing a heavy, sharp object at a speed faster than sound, I wouldn’t be surprised if most people consider the use of a rock element to be enough. Firearms were banned from the public excluding paintball and the heavily regulated hunting rifles. Even those were too small to damage a building. To actually destroy the school again, they would probably need something like a tank, a fighter jet, a battleship, or something that could throw something bigger.

The fountain in particular didn’t see special treatment when it came to shields. If anything, based on the power of its glow, it seemed as if the fountain had received a weaker shield compared to the buildings surrounding it. The fountain only served as a decoration anyway, it didn’t seem to have any memorial importance.

I approached the fountain, in case I missed something, but I couldn’t find anything. No marking, no writing, no carving. I tried to focus more of my attention on it, but I couldn’t see anything. I thought there would be something hiding under it, so I kneeled down and checked the underside. All I got was stares from passersby who looked at me as if I was a weirdo. Not finding anything, I decided to return to my room.

But then, I noticed the winds getting stronger all of a sudden. I looked to my left, toward where I felt the wind was coming from, and there I saw, a human standing in front of me…

No, it was not a human.

A light green glow in the shape of a human stood there. The glow didn’t act as an outline, instead, it filled the shape of the person. It pointed its left hand at me and unleashed a faint, light green arrow. I jumped to the side and dodged its attack. I could feel the strong wind as it flew right past me.

“Kyaa!”

I heard a loud shout from my right. I stood up and looked that way, only to find a girl had fallen. She must have been struck by the attack that passed me. I looked back at that light green figure, only to find him missing. Her friends assisted the girl in standing up. I remain silent there, overhearing the conversation.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah… there’s a strong wind just now, so strong it pushed me over.”

“I felt that too. That’s weird. Is someone playing around?”

Were the girls unable to see the attack itself? But, couldn’t the others see magic attacks? I took one last look at the girl to confirm that she was indeed safe. She walked away, her friends walking beside her while searching for the culprit. Luckily, I stood a distance away from them, so they didn’t realize that it got something to do with me. I then sprinted for building C, for Antonio’s room.