Fredozy
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Chapter 59: Almost impossible
🕑 Added 2025-08-17 09:53:26 +0000 UTCKai sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, then reopened them with a sharp clarity.
"I don't get something," he said finally, voice calm with a confused edge to it. "How the hell did Fogg get to Fillory in the first place? And how did Jane not see this coming?"
Alice shifted where she sat, uneasy. "He must've found another portal… or something I don't know."
Kai hummed, the sound low and skeptical. 'Another portal huh? Or…' His mind immediately tugged at a possibility. "The Neitherlands," he murmured, almost to himself. "That would've been his way in. That or he really did have another direct access to Fillory." He gave a small nod.
"And Jane not seeing this…" he continued, his gaze narrowing.
Alice fidgeted with her hands and shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe he hid it… too well."
Kai exhaled, leaning back. "A desperate man will always find a way," he said philosophically, his tone low and deliberate. "Desperation is the fire that burns reason away, and when a man burns… he'll walk through every shadow, every forbidden door, until he finds the thing that promised to heal the wound that lit him aflame in the first place."
Alice looked at him quietly, her eyes shimmering.
"Tell me something," Kai pressed, gaze hardening, "wasn't there opposition when he came here? Surely the higher ups didn't just sit back and watch while he massacred the entire school?" He tilted his head. "Unless, of course, they valued self-preservation more than the lives of their students. In which case…" His mouth twitched faintly. "I'd almost understand."
Alice swallowed, then said softly, "Some alumni came. They tried to stop him. They even managed to trap him."
Kai frowned. "What?"
She nodded.
Judging from her expression, he already knew. "Ahhh. It didn't end well for them, did it?"
Alice's silence, and the way she shook her head, confirmed it.
"It was a trick," she said finally. "He wanted to be caught by them, wanted them to feel safe. They thought they had him. And then… when they lowered their guard, when they saw an opportunity…" She shivered. "They tried to siphon from him. From 'him'. Fogg wasn't just a magician anymore, Kai. He was a walking battery of magic. And their greed…" her lip curled "it blinded them to the danger they had invited in. They wanted power. They thought they could drain him of all that magic, use it for themselves."
Her voice trembled as she recounted it, but she pressed on. "And he let them try. Watched them scramble like hungry dogs, fighting for scraps they didn't even understand. And when they thought they had it…" Her hands clenched against her knees. "He killed them. All of them. One by one."
Kai let out a cold laugh under his breath. "Humans and greed," he muttered. "That shall be the fucking downfall. Should've seen it coming a mile away."
Alice nodded slowly. "The ones who didn't die immediately… they ran. Some escaped. But he hunted them down. And the ones still hiding…" she clutched her clothes tightly now, her knuckles white. "They're still being hunted."
Kai's sharp eyes flicked to her hands, the trembling, the tension. "Your parents?" he asked softly.
A single tear slipped down her cheek as she shook her head. That was answer enough.
Kai's gaze softened. He stood, walked over to her, and without another word, wrapped his arms around her.
Alice froze for only a moment before melting against him, clutching him tighter, pressing her face against his chest. "They tried to escape," she whispered, her voice breaking. "To another world. But he… he caught them off guard."
Kai said nothing, just kept rubbing her back in slow circles, steadying her as best he could. After a long moment, she shifted, tilting her face upward. Her eyes were half-lidded, puffy and red from crying, yet still carried that faint, captivating look that made Kai think with a low inner groan: 'Damn. Even after all that, she still has that look.'
Alice gently pulled herself free, sitting back upright.
Kai broke the silence. "Let's go out, shall we?"
He strode toward the classroom entrance, paused at the doorway, then glanced back at her. She hesitated but rose to her feet, following.
Soon, the two of them were walking through the ruined grounds, the crisp air biting at what could barely be called fresh anymore. The silence of the destroyed campus hung heavy around them.
"He went for the seniors next," Alice said bitterly.
Kai's lips pressed into a thin line. "What a shit show Fogg's made of this place. Unexpected doesn't even begin to cover it." He turned his head slightly while dragging a foot along the dirt. "And tell me something, Alice. He let you live. Why the hell haven't you left all this?" He gestured to the broken, morbid remains of Brakebills surrounding them.
"I can't leave." Her voice was flat, but weighted. "He put up wards. He warned me that if I try to leave, he'll know. If I try to break the wards… he'll know. And then he'll come for me."
Kai tilted his head back and stopped dragging his foot after walking around a section of the school, studying the ruined sky above with a peculiar look. "He'll come for you if you break the wards, huh?"
She nodded.
A small, sharp smile touched his lips. "Hmm. Good to know." There was a faint edge to his tone, and for just a second, his magic shifted into something dark, coiling and alien. Alice flinched, instinctively recoiling at the sensation. 'What was that?' she thought, pulse quickening.
Kai sighed and asked evenly while tapping his foot on the ground, "So. What have you been doing?"
"I've been reading… all the books here. Anything that could tell me how to fight him." Her shoulders slumped. "But—"
"There aren't a lot of battle magics," Kai finished for her.
She shook her head. "No. And the ones that exist take… tremendous energy."
"That kind of energy," Kai said quietly, "can turn you into a Niffin. I know."
Her silence was answer enough.
"Well," Kai said, a grim smirk forming, "looks like what you have is an infestation problem. And lucky for you I'm into that kind of business."
"What's that?"
His words carried a sarcastic bite. "Bleed an infestation dry of its supply, and watch it starve."
Alice blinked, tilting her head slightly at that.
Kai raised an eyebrow. "How would you like it if the Beast problem could actually be solved?"
She stared at him, incredulous. "Kai… people far more experienced have tried. They used every spell, every method, and nothing worked."
"Of course nothing worked," Kai cut in, his voice sharp with conviction. "You're forgetting who he was. He was the 'Dean'. He knew every spell they'd throw at him. And if he didn't know the spell itself, he knew the caster, their capabilities and their mortal limits. You don't get to be Dean without learning the dirty little secrets of the magical society. It's just politics. He knew exactly what to expect."
Alice's brows furrowed. "…So what are you suggesting?"
Kai's lips curved into a slow, deliberate smile. "Simple. I'm suggesting me."
His tone was deceptively calm, but for a split second, the air around him shifted again and it felt raw, foreign, uncharted power that made goosebumps crawl across Alice's skin. 'There it is again,' she thought, shaken. 'Why does his magic feel like that?'
"I'm something he doesn't know," Kai went on. "Something he hasn't calculated into his schemes. And I know magic he couldn't possibly comprehend, even if it were handed to him on a silver platter."
Alice sighed, her voice weary. "I hope you're not just saying all that. Fogg is unpredictable. To catch him off guard would be… almost impossible." She shook her head, turning away. "No. It's too risky."
She started hurrying off, her steps uneven but determined.
Kai stood still, watching her retreating form, sighing deeply. 'The trauma she must've felt…' He slid his hands into his pockets, tilted his head back, and stared up at the sky. Another long sigh escaped him.
"Almost impossible… but not impossible."
