137 – Conspiracy

Something hard tackled Mal's chest and throw him to the ground. Overhead, a crescent moon shaped beam of energy shot past his head and into the sky.

"Oh, my goodness, on my dearest honor, I apologize!" Rolam pushed himself off of Mal. "I don't know what happened. I've never had one of my ranged mana slashes go out of control like that."

Mal's mind immediately raced toward a conclusion. Had the voice developed the ability to influence the outside world? Probably not. Even she wasn't capable of that. But what she was capable of was taking advantage of an event that was about to happen, and then making it even worse by screwing around in his head.

"It's fine." Mal pushed himself up off the ground and brushed off his robes. "Actually, it's good you're here. Is Philo here—?"

"What about Philo?"

Philo poked his head out from behind Rolam and across through the doorway.

"Are you well, master?"

Lusia strode past Philo and Rolam, and stood above him, her hands folded respectfully in front of her, the slightest tilt to her head.

Mal stared at her for just a little bit too long. Rolam raised a singular eyebrow.

"Well," Philo coughed into his clawed fist. "Philo's fine. Not sure about the ape, given how long he's taking to answer."

Mal raised his voice so that all of them would hear. "It's actually good that you're here, because there's something I need to explain to you."

Rolam's eyebrow dropped, and his eyes narrowed. "What is it?"

He was able to pick up on the mood change. Perhaps he associates this particular attitude with when we faced down the 10th vessel.

Mal glanced over at the doorway.

"We should step inside for what I'm about to tell you."

Rolam nodded, and was the first to go back in. Lusia trailed after him. Philo looked back and forth between Mal and the room before he shrugged and went in.

Mal stepped through, already mapping out how the conversation would go.

"Wait, wait, wait. I just need to make sure I'm clear on this. You were working with the professors as part of a plan to draw out the cult, and you didn't tell any of us?"

Mal winced.

After he'd explained everything, Rolam had been the first to speak.

"You lied."

"I understand you're angry. I put all of you in danger, and I apologize for that."

"What? No, I'm not mad about that. I'm mad about the fact that I didn't get to join in."

Mal stared at Rolam.

"Do you have any idea how much honor I could have gotten?" Rolam said. "It would have been great, especially in light of—"

He stopped, then one of his hands reached down toward his other hand and adjusted a new leather glove. No one else seemed to notice besides Mal.

"Philo must confess to having more of an issue than Rolam," Philo said. "We could have been seriously injured. Why would you do this?"

"I felt that the school would have been in danger if I hadn't."

Philo's frown softened at that. He was just about to speak, when—"

"Hold on one second. Come on." Rolam shook his head. "As excited as I am for the opportunity to head north, I must express a little bit of honorable discontent with the idea."

Really, Rolam? Fine with fighting here on home soil but afraid of going abroad? Why?

"It's Philo's homeland," Philo said. "We got to go see where you came from before. Now it's Philo's turn."

Rolam's lips twisted further down. "Don't you understand? You went through the same experience."

Right. Philo wasn't exactly well treated by the elfs. It was understandable that Rolam wouldn't want to experience the same thing, especially for a longer period of time.

"But what of Savaly?" Philo asked.

At that, Rolam fell silent. His eyebrows furrowed together, and he lifted up his gloved hand and stared at the one that Mal knew to have the mark of The Herald of Glory.

"Why are you so concerned about this?"

To Mal's surprise, it hadn't been Rolam or Philo who'd said that. It had been Lusia.

Mal quickly recovered. "Because she's the princess of our country."

"And that's reason enough to put your life in danger?"

Mal's lips curled into a small frown. She wasn't wrong, not exactly. It was a bad excuse, and he knew it. But there weren't exactly a lot of cards on the table, none that he could think of, anyway.

"I want to serve my country in whatever way it sees fit."

"Mm."

Rolam and Philo cast glances at each other.

"I hate to be suspicious, but she does bring up a good point," Philo said. "Your reasons are a little lacking."

Rolam glanced back and forth between Philo and Mal before his eyebrows shot up.

"Oh, I see."

He shook his head. "I'm afraid that this is simply the pattern of behaviour that our honourable leader is defined by, draconid."

Philo snorted. "What do you speak of, elfling?"

"Nothing. Merely that our honourable leader has a tendency to get himself into the situations where he's most needed." He looked Mal square in the eyes. "Isn't that right?"

Mal wasn't sure what Rolam was implying, but he didn't think he'd like it if he knew.

"Sure," Mal said.

"I've changed my mind," Rolam said.

Philo stared at Rolam, before he shrugged. "As Philo said, it would be good to see his family again. It seems that we're joining you on this little quest,

"You're looking a little green, ape."

Mal pushed himself off the railing of the airship and shot a glare at Philo. He was just about to protest when a sudden bit of turbulence hit the airship and Mal felt his feet slide out from under him. His back hit the wooden deck with a thud and he let out a low groan.

Mal thought back to his brief encounter with Igna. The woman had merely glanced at him a while ago before disappearing under the decks.

"Screw you."

Philo laughed, little puffs of smoke coming out of his nostrils with each exhale.

A low groan came from underneath them. Mal's heartrate shot up. He jumped to a standing position and looked back and forth, while Philo snatched his spell book out of his robes.

When nothing happened, Mal released a breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding. Philo did the same, nearly falling over.

Mal's lips twitched."It seems that our little escapade with those airship pirates has given us a few misconceptions about this method of travel."

Philo chuckled, then leaned against the deck railing. "Indeed. Philo supposes it's not a bad instinct to have, all things considered."

Mal walked over to his side and did the same. The sky breeze flapped Mal's robes, pricking against his skin like needles. Even so, there was a freshness to the air that was even stronger than the mountains of Exodi Academy.

"Looking forward to seeing your family again?" Mal asked.

"Oh, of course. Philo loves his family, and it'll be good to see his homeland again."

There was the slightest hint of hesitation in his voice that Mal picked up on. "You don't seem too enthused."

"It's really nothing."

"If it's nothing, you won't mind telling me."

A beat of silence. Nothing to be heard but the sound of the wind.

"Just because I care for my family doesn't mean that the rest of that Violeko cares for me."

Ah, there we go.

"Especially given your application to a human school of wizardry."

"Yes, like Rolam." A chuckle slipped from Philo's mouth. "Philo's more similar to the elf than he wants to admit."

“That’s probably why you two get on so fabulously,” Mal said.

“Don’t push it.”

Mal felt himself settling into a state that he could almost call comfortable.

“You’re not invisible, you know.”

Mal looked over at Philo. The draconid had said the sentence without looking him in the eyes, his gaze fixed on the horizon.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Philo means that whatever secret you’re hiding, it’s plain that you’re hiding it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“It’s obvious, ape. You’re going after Savaly for some reason. Rolam thinks he knows. He might be right. I’m not sure. Lusia is certainly aware."

"You're being ridiculous."

"Philo's not blind. He still remembers what the demons said to you."

Mal's hairs stood on end. "Does it matter?”

“It matters to you.”

There was a lot of truth to that. If it didn’t matter, things would be so much easier.

But it did matter. Because Mal had done so much wrong. How would Philo ever be able to look him in the eye if Mal ever revealed the full scope of what had happened, of who he was?

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“You’re gonna need to talk about it with someone. In Philo's experience, bottling those sorts of things up doesn’t work well for people. And that aside, it's going to come out eventually.”

“What, as if you haven’t also been keeping secrets?”

Mal wasn’t even sure if he’d hit the mark on that one. But the way Philo’s eyes had widened and the way he backed up indicated that he’d struck something deep.

He’s hiding something? What?

“What are we going to find out when we get to Violeko?” Mal said.

“Nothing. You’re overthinking things, ape.”

“I don’t think I am.”

The airship rocked back and forth, and for the second time today, Mal’s instincts went off like a siren.

The airship was tilted down. Mal’s shoulders dropped when he realized that they were only going in for their descent.

“We’ll talk more about this later,” Philo said.

“We’ll see.”

The city of Nyka came into view.itstretched out in every direction as far as the eye could see. The buildings were all low, with pitched roofs and fabric covering over most of the buildings.

Over the next minute, the airship lowered and lowered until it finally touched down on a large wooden platform raised above the ground.

Footsteps from behind.

“Honored leader!”

“Master.”

Mal turned around to face Lusia and Rolam. He purged the conversation with Rolam from his mind.

“Has anyone seen Igna?” Mal said.

“This honorable one hasn’t seen her.”

“No.”

“Well, that’s just fantastic.” Mal let out a sigh. “Let’s just head in.”

He walked over toward the wooden ramp and stepped down.

Two draconids, double his height, a little taller than Philo, blocked his way.

“Is your name Malfrasius Patoal?” one on the left said.

Mal’s mouth stiffened.

Oh, this is bad.

Lie? No, they clearly already knew who he was. It would just earn their enmity. Play it safe. Act the part of the fool.

“Yes.”

“You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit terrorism in the Empire of Violeko.”