The Wordless Mage
Chapter 44: Victory Is Not Escape

Chapter 44: Victory Is Not Escape

Liora was surrounded by an innumerable mixture of individuals trekking with random, chaotic direction.

On her back was a backpack, heavier than the one she’d carried for her last school. Either by the laptop or the phone she’d equipped along with her, there was a continued vibrating hitting her back.

She sighed as she looked down at a paper, some of its writings obscured with the black but others more visible.

The class she’d entered was the former, undisclosed to her.

Despite the previous deaths having granted her enough autonomy to choose her own speech and actions, this time, she could feel for her body like it were her own, but she could neither direct it to move outside of the norm, nor did she feel that the thoughts running through her head was truly hers.

It was a deceptive freedom, her sensations hers but her thoughts and actions not.

"Hey, Rowan, how ya’ doing buddy?"

A voice chimed in from behind her, a warm hand pressing into her back. It was feminine yet sturdy, carrying within it a strength that she found rather strange.

Outside of her own will, her body jumped from the sudden intrusion, awkwardly posturing itself after the frightful scare.

"Why so jumpy," she asked, her eyes closed and mouth forming a wide smile as Liora turned to locate the person responsible.

"You know better than to creep up on me like that, Lyra."

Lyra pointed forward, her legs straight with playful exhilaration as she walked, carrying Liora along with her by the shoulder.

"Oh, come on, Ro-Ro, you know me better than to treat me so coldly."

Liora wanted to speak up in retaliation to both her crudeness and how close she’d been with Rowan, but she denied both--not because she wanted to, but because she physically couldn’t urge her body to do anything else.

Instead, there was just comfortable quiet between the two, Rowan’s shoulder-blades slumping in response to his unwillingness to engage further with her.

Eventually, they made their way to the ladder of chairs that extended well past the bottom floor, cubical rectangles forming steps that allowed students ascension to the higher layers.

"Well, aren’t you two rather late, again?"

The voice dispelled the shifty gait that the two had adopted, both of their heads slowly swiveling back to where the person stood.

It was a tall professor, their face forgotten but stature very much impressionable.

"We apologize, teacher, this little guy here just creeped across campus so slowly that I had to escort him here myself."

Lyra rubbed her knuckles into Liora’s scalp, ruffling his hair and causing him to grunt in pain.

"Hey, why are you throwing me under the bus!"

"I see, Lyra. Then I suppose I’ll only mark Rowan as tardy."

Lyra squeezed Liora’s shoulders even tighter, almost lifting her from her feet to pull her up the steps.

"Hey, don’t worry," she whispered, "you’re always tardy, so it won’t affect you all that much, but I can’t have bad attendance, you see!"

Her tone completely undercut the words exiting her mouth, the excuse seeming to have been meant as a real attempt to make Rowan any less agitated.

Yet, he didn’t make any form of rebuttal, his white hair spraying over his brow to hide his eyes.

"Don’t be so down, Ro-Ro, I promise I’ll make it up to you."

They both retreated into their seats, watching carefully as the professor explained the contents of his class, although Liora’s hearing seemed to zone out the more she attempted to understand his words.

A byproduct of these just being memories, perhaps.

The professor’s movements seemed to hasten, his mouth moving faster and faster the further along the lecture got.

It got to the point that even the fidgeting of Lyra’s impatient hands became less annoying, the students in the room all moving at inhumane pace.

Time was flowing faster, and yet, the understandings of people’s movements and their words hadn’t been lost. She’d been experiencing life at twenty, even thirty times its normal speed.

Before she could even blink, the barrage of classes were finished and over with, the sun’s dim a deeper orange and it just peeked over a range of mountains far off in the distance.

Lyra was at her side, stepping just in front of her to stop both of their strides.

"So, ain’t there anything you gonna ask me?"

Liora shared Rowan’s confusion, looking down between herself and Lyra momentarily before a lightbulb brightened in her head.

"Yeah, if you really want to try my mother’s cooking that much, I suppose I can invite you over."

Lyra’s face lit up, the hands behind her back reaching out to embrace Liora into a hug.

"Oh~ I just knew you wouldn’t forget! Ever since you gave me some of her spaghetti, I’ve just been dying to get more. You better have her cook for me, otherwise I’ll pay you back for wasting my time!"

Liora could only awkwardly smile, the sun’s radiance warming her skin just as her heart did for her blood underneath.

Time’s flow ebbed, some minutes lasting seconds and others hours. It was an interesting car ride home, vital information regarding the contexts of which Rowan and Lyra had met and their current circumstances being in college slowing time just enough for Liora to catch it.

Finally, they stood before the small house on the countryside, the twilight moon peeking over them with a vibrant hue. It was smiling, or, at least, that’s how Rowan felt.

A nice poem this’ll make, a thought pierced her mind, not belonging to her but feeling just as domestic as if it were.

Liora looked back at Lyra for a moment as she reached for her key, stepping forward to unlock the door’s lock.

"What...?"

"What’s wrong, Ro-Ro? Did you forget your keys?"

"The door... it’s already open.

The fear dangled in front of Liora and lingered in her chest, the sensation of falling filling her mind.

She had growing suspicions, but she wished not to think on them until she made any final confirmations.

Slamming the door open, she rushed into the main hallway housing the kitchen and the stairwell into the second floor.

"W-wait," Lyra cried, reaching her hand out.

Metal wafted the air, its origin halting Liora’s sprint.

There was a body laying on the floor, flies buzzing around the violet blotch that pooled from her face.

Next to her was a bottle, its cap several feet from it. Pills hung from the opening, scattered from an obvious impact to the ground.

"Mom!"

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