Hastum
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68. Decent human
🕑 Added 2025-08-30 11:15:53 +0000 UTCOphelia looked toward the old mansion with no small apprehension on her face. Next to her, Daniel sat on the ground with his knees tucked up and his head resting on them. His gaze was unfocused and distant.
She was pretty sure he was in shock, that or the hit he took to the head just a few minutes ago still had him groggy.
The past fifteen minutes were among the most intense of her life. Though to be fair, the past few weeks were firmly in that category as well.
The ghost battle had been fascinating, to say the least. For the first time, she had seen her teacher in action at close range rather than in the fleeting glimpses from the car.
And for the first time, she understood what he meant when talking about a mage’s power.
It was beautiful but also terrifying.
She glanced aside at Daniel. She understood him on some level. That sensation of the rules of the known world crumbling before your eyes, yourself held together only by one goal. For her, back then, it was survival. For him, it seemed to be bringing his brother back.
She looked away from the young man and back toward the mansion entrance, where Samuel had disappeared some time ago.
She sighed.
He had given her a few chaotic instructions and gone on his merry way. What went on in his mind was always beyond her. She took a quick glance at the bones and the box she'd moved inside the salt circle at Sam’s command.
Ophelia broke from her thoughts as she noticed movement from the direction of the mansion. The door opened slowly, and she saw her teacher step through. Relief hit her, but as Sam stepped closer, it quickly turned into worry.
He was limping.
She squinted through the dim light, supplied only by a few lamps they had set up, and realized that there was blood dripping down his face, from somewhere beneath his hair.
He limped forward with a smile that, for once, seemed human rather than that of a cat that ate the canary.
“I got her,” he said, almost tripping on the uneven ground. “The ghost is gone.”
“R-Really?” Daniel lifted his head, hope clear in his eyes. “Is she really gone?”
Samuel nodded slightly. “Don’t worry, boy. I’ll save your brother. No harm will come to him.”
Daniel exhaled, visibly relieved. “Oh, thank you so much.”
“Pass me the box and we can finish this,” Sam said, stretching out his hand toward Ophelia.
His back was straight and his voice strong, despite the apparent injury. The whole scene made him look heroic.
She bent down to pick up the box with the spirit cage. She got it and looked at him once again, squinting at the blood. “Are you sure you’re all right to continue? You seem badly injured.”
Sam shook his head confidently. “Barely a scratch. I can continue. It’s a small sacrifice to save someone’s sibling.”
Daniel smiled. Tears of relief shone in his eyes as tiredness and tension loosened their grip.
Ophelia raised her eyebrows, fidgeting with the box for a few seconds, but finally stepped forward to hand Sam the board. He reached out his hand to grab it.
But then Ophelia dropped it and exploded into movement. As the Ouija board fell to the ground, it revealed a dagger she held in her hand underneath the box.
She stepped in and drove the blade into Sam’s abdomen. She felt it vibrate as energy released from the black obsidian surface into her teacher’s body, widening the wound with a sickening squelching sound.
“What the–!” Daniel scrambled back in a half-crouch. “Why would you–”
He stopped mid-sentence as Samuel began to… melt. There was no other proper explanation for what was happening. The face sagged into a wide hollow mouth. The eyes collapsed inward into gaping black holes. And the skin seemed to stretch into a thin white film over pale muscle.
Ophelia tried to retreat into the salt circle, but the creature’s claw closed around her wrist, keeping her out. The touch was cold and slick, like wet cloth.
She pulled, but the grip held fast. Panic flared as the creature’s form, even though barely held together, seemed ready for a strike. Its every movement looked like it required effort. It was dying but still trying to fight.
She pulled again, but it was still to no avail.
She felt the snake within her coiling to strike, but fear for its safety restrained her. What if it died fighting against a creature this strong? Her only family disappearing?
Before she decided what to do, a projectile slammed into the ghost, flinging it aside and releasing her wrist in the process. She saw Samuel walking from the direction of the mansion.
She exhaled and looked at the spirit. It didn’t seem to have enough energy to get up as it was slowly dissipating on the ground. It weakly clawed at the salt circle, a thin film of mana forming where its hand touched the barrier.
“Good job,” her teacher said as he approached, excitement clear in his voice. “Getting caught like that wasn’t ideal, though. We need to work on stabbing people.”
“I could have died,” Ophelia snapped. “You said one stab would kill it.”
Her jaw muscles flexed in anger as she faced the man.
“You had the dagger in your other hand. You could have finished the job.”
He simply shrugged, and only then did she notice she was pointing the weapon at him. To which he grinned, as if it was something funny.
“How did you figure out it wasn’t me?” he finally asked, once he was closer.
Ophelia scowled. “It started acting like a decent human being.”
“Yeah, that’ll do it,” Sam said, nodding to himself.
Their conversation was interrupted by a slight movement from the salt circle.
“Wh-wh-what? What happened?”
Sam glanced toward Daniel. “Ophelia will explain later.”
He then took a deep breath and let the staff he was holding snake around his wrist. His shoulders relaxed a bit as he closed his eyes, seemingly reveling in whatever sensation the fight brought him.
Finally, after a few seconds of holding his breath in that position, he exhaled, going back to his more serious self.
They both turned toward the creature, whose body was slowly losing coherence. Legs were crumbling into ash that drifted away and disappeared.
Samuel knelt.
Ophelia expected him to finish it with some quick attack, but what he did surprised her. Instead, he unlocked a seal segment, deactivating the barrier.
Daniel leapt back as the ghost crawled forward. But the creature paid him no mind and merely settled over the bones within the circle.
Ophelia stared at her teacher in surprise. She opened her mouth to ask a question, but then realized his expression was strange.
It was one of sadness.
She had seen him mow people down, leap from windows onto cars, showing little emotion besides excitement. But now, after winning a fight and securing what he wanted, he looked sorrowful.
“Is something wrong?” she asked, thinking perhaps the job wasn’t done.
“She was a genius,” he said softly.
“What?”
“A genius. Her understanding and attunement for mental magic were so high that her spirit could perform complex skills. She was practically an anomaly, even if her origin didn’t match that.”
Ophelia glanced around, bewildered.
“But you beat her, right? That was the plan?”
“Yes, but…” He looked at her over the fading ghost. “She should have had a shot at mastery. Can you imagine what magic she could’ve performed if raised in an environment that nurtured her? My father used to say, ‘The world owes geniuses a chance, even if just to burn their wings flying too close to the sun.’ She was owed a chance.”
“So you didn’t want to kill a genius?” Ophelia tried to make heads and tails of it.
“It wasn’t killing. She’d lost her spark and was too blinded by loneliness and anger to regain it. But she shouldn’t have ended like this,” he said, looking back at Ester lying over the few bones. The wide mouth, previously frozen in a silent scream, now settled into a more human look.
Ophelia watched the ghost, now barely visible over the skeleton. She didn’t fully get it, but knew to remain silent.
Samuel nodded toward the spirit.
“Well fought,” he whispered, before turning around and tilting his head toward the mansion. “Let’s leave them alone.”
He then picked up the box and walked away, ignoring the stunned Daniel.
Ophelia sighed, helped the boy to his feet, and followed.
“What was that all about?” Daniel asked.
She wasn’t sure. Sam sometimes liked to be mysterious, a habit that annoyed her greatly.
Earlier, after the ghost fled into the mansion, he had told her that a spirit with mind magic should be able to shift its form. Before she could ask more, he’d handed her a dagger, instructed her not to touch the blade, and said that if someone weird showed up, she should stab them no matter who it was.
Then he simply said he would “pretend to get lost,” and walked into the mansion. Of course, he ended his explanations with a cryptic message, because what else?
After he, or rather the ghost, was back, she was agonizing over what she should have done. Stabbing another human wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience.
Breaking out of her thoughts, she just gave another tired sigh.
“So what was that?” Daniel asked again after not getting any answer.
“The ghost is gone, all according to the plan. Don’t worry,” she gave him an evasive answer.
“What about my brother? Will you get him now?”
“Soon, but I need to rest now,” Sam called back without turning, before she could answer. “I’ll go get your brother first thing in the morning.”
