Chapter 16 – Extortion

After he finished eating, Sal noticed the majority of the Silver and Gold cohorts making their way into the canteen. He wondered why his cohort had taken so long, as there couldn’t have been that many of them waiting after class to talk to Lars. Sal had wanted to get out of there as soon as possible after his gravity-defying stunt. He and Barry had ducked out the moment it was viable, ensuring a space in one of the often too-crowded elevators.

From the entrance of the canteen, Divinity made eye contact with him and raised something in her hand. Sal squinted across the room and saw that she was holding up his sunglasses, and he laughed. After giving her a thumbs-up and gesturing for her to join them, Sal turned back to Barry, who looked at him skeptically.

“You know, your miming skills really haven’t improved. There’s a whole class dedicated to sign language that they use out in the battlefield. Remember we saw it on the footage of the raid?”

Sal snorted. “Yeah, and do you think they have sign language for sunglasses? Not sure how I’d be able to signal that without looking even stupider.”

Barry paused before he took out his tablet and nodded. “Let’s find out then.” He scrolled through a range of information before he used his other hand to type in a message on the surface of the screen. When he stopped, he looked back up at Sal and laughed. “You’re absolutely right, it looks ridiculous.”

Just to demonstrate his point, he made circles with his thumb and finger on each hand and reversed them before holding them over his face. “These are just glasses. You have to make a weird little wave with your hand first, apparently. To represent the sun.”

The ridiculousness of the situation had Sal in stitches, which was complemented by whimpers of pain as his chest reacted.

Barry pulled his hands away from his face and looked at Sal with a strange expression. “Are you going to tell me what you did to get into this sorry state? And don’t tell me that you went overboard with meditation. Lars might accept that, but I’ve been pushing myself for years and I’ve never once reached a point as miserable as this.”

Sal took a steadying breath as he shifted in his seat uncomfortably. The pain he was going through now was nothing compared to what it had been like during the night and early morning. It was more in line with the aftermath of their training for the cohort tournament. With a heavy sigh, Sal tapped his chest and smiled at Barry.

“Body Manipulator pulled every scrap of essence from my joints and used it to smash through my essence gates. My core is currently in the early forties, but I’m paying for it with copious amounts of pain. And, before you ask, it’s not Nova, and I can’t tell you who it is.” Sal finished with a shrug and a weary smile.

Barry stared at him like he was absolutely out of his mind. “How much did you spend on a service like that? I know you’re rolling in it, but there must be smarter uses for your Q-Cred! Nova probably would have done it for free, if her jumping out of a building to save you is anything to go by!”

Sal put up a hand to stop Barry from continuing. “Come on, don’t make me laugh. It already hurts too much!”

Just when Barry was about to continue, Divinity and the remainder of the teams joined them at the table. She looked at the vacant space around them with a raised eyebrow. “Are you some kind of pariahs today? Why is everyone staring and keeping their distance?”

Knowing that he’d somehow twist the narrative, Sal pointed at Barry with a grin. “His fault. Not mine!”

Barry shook his head with his eyes locked on Sal, with pretend disappointment written all over his face. When he finally looked back at Divinity, who had placed a hand on her hip, his smile returned. “There was a second-year bullying the first-years. I encouraged him to show his true colors, and now he’s in the headmaster’s office. Nothing too dramatic.”

Sal wanted to stoke the fire a little more as payback. “Tables exploded, glasses shattered, people were crippled with pain and cut up pretty badly. All very preventable.”

He moved his legs out of the way before Barry could kick him under the table. Divinity shook her head as she sat beside them. Jack and Blathnaid bickered about something while they stood to one side, and Anthony sat alongside Barry.

Divinity lifted her fork and aimed it directly at Barry. “Did you actually hurt someone?”

Barry gave Sal a blank stare before slowly turning his head to Divinity. “No, I put up an illusion of myself that faced a guy with a very short fuse. He brought it on himself and was pretty reckless about it all. Technically, it was just my illusion…not me. So, technically…I’m innocent in all of this. Not my fault if he was arguing with a bit of antagonistic essence.”

Divinity looked as if she suppressed the urge to smile, but it eventually made its way to her face. “Seriously, Barry…can’t let you out of our sight for five minutes. You two missed Rust’s breakdown of the next classes. I tried to tell you, but you were out the door the moment Lars stopped talking.”

Almost like an afterthought, Divinity slid Sal’s sunglasses across the table, which he gratefully accepted.

Sal frowned at Barry before turning back to Divinity. “What’s the breakdown? It’s not today, is it? I don’t think I could throw a punch if my life depended on it.”

Divinity dug into her salad with her fork and looked at Sal with a sigh. “You do know that we have a schedule, right? It’s on your tablet. You don’t need a personal divination to tell you every class that’s coming up!”

She began to eat, and Sal looked back at Barry, who returned to his tablet to scroll for a few moments. Sal waited patiently until Barry glanced up at him with a smirk.

“I’m not actually looking up our schedule. I already know what’s next.”

Sal groaned as he dug into his own pocket, sighing as loudly as he could. Before he could so much as withdraw the tablet, Anthony leaned across with an awkward smile.

“It’s lunch now, followed by a free period. It’s going to be taken up by Analysis starting next week. Tomorrow morning is Skill with Lombardi.”

Sal grinned as he leaned across the table to Anthony. “Thank you, Anthony. It’s nice to know I can rely on someone! What did Rust say about our next class?”

Anthony’s smile faltered as he slid backward onto his chair. “I didn’t actually listen to that part…sorry.”

Sal sat for a moment, looking at Divinity and waiting for her to reveal what he had missed, but she made no move to divulge the information. With a laugh, Sal tried a different tactic.

“So, Divinity…how is that crown restoration coming along?”

Just like he had flicked a switch, Divinity’s demeanor changed. Her voice took on a fake enthusiasm that didn’t suit her in the slightest.

“Ahh! Sal, you missed it. Rust was telling us how we’d be incorporating a new set of formations for the gauntlet run. Funny coincidence, they’re the ones we’ve already trained in for the tournament. So, I guess it’s nothing to worry about!”

She kept the act up for a few more seconds before getting tired of it and reverting to her normal voice with a chuckle.

Sal found himself on the opposite end of her pointed fork.

“Extort me again and I’ll give you the worst advice going forward! Got it?”

Despite it sounding threatening, the smile on her face was anything but. Sal agreed readily with her and raised his hands defensively for added effect.

Pushing his tray away, Sal rested his elbows on the table and cupped his chin. He wondered whether it would improve his recovery if he went straight to bed for the rest of the day. It was still early afternoon, and it would absolutely wreck his sham of a sleeping schedule, but the thought of waking up and feeling better was tempting.

A slight twinge of pain raced down his leg, and Sal groaned inwardly at the memory of the cramps from last night. It was like the answer had been sent to him by his own body, and he resigned himself to distracting himself with something else for the remainder of the day, until he had to finally get some sleep.

Barry glanced up from his tablet and looked around at everyone. “What is everyone going to do? Are we picking up training again soon for the inter-cohort fights?”

Just those words sent an involuntary shudder down Sal’s spine, but Divinity simply laughed with a shake of her head.

“The inter-cohort future is pretty hazy at the minute, so I’ve got no idea if it’s even going to happen. It’ll depend on if Chatfield gets his way or not, I guess. We should focus on self-improvement while we wait for a clearer path to open up.”

Sal frowned as he turned to Divinity. “Are your visions acting up by any chance?”

If looks could kill, Divinity’s stare would have turned Sal to stone. He realized how that had sounded, so he quickly clarified with a laugh.

“No, sorry. I didn’t mean they were faulty. It’s just that you shook your head at me when we were doing the zip line, and I was sure that you meant that I was going to fall.”

Divinity’s brow furrowed as her lips curled into a grin. “You asked if you could step out to one side. I shook my head to say that you weren’t going to be allowed to skip the lesson.”

Sal stared at her in numb silence while Barry exploded into laughter. Even Anthony seemed to have a bit of a chuckle.

“So, you didn’t think I was going to fall?”

Divinity joined in with the laughter as she shook her head. Then, as though catching herself, she stopped and raised her hand in a mock panic. “Wait, sorry…did you misinterpret that headshake as a calamity?”

Sal sank back into his seat with a smile as he looked around at his friends. “You know, I really hate all of you.”

Barry nodded as he slapped the table in quick succession with both hands. “Doesn’t answer my question. I’m guessing that Divinity is going to slink off to the Skill lab to practice her control. Sal will hide away in the workshop and work himself to death. Blathnaid and Jack will…actually, I’ve no idea what they do. Which leaves…Anthony? What are your plans?”

Barry turned in his seat to look at him. Anthony seemed to sense the dangerous territory he was in, so he mumbled something about having plans. Divinity looked like she wanted to protest, but by her hesitation, Sal guessed that Barry’s assumption was correct.

With a shake of his head, Sal lied through his teeth. “I actually was going to get an early night. Not heading to the workshop today.”

Barry snorted and smiled. “Sure, Sal. If you head back to the dorms, you’re going to stare at your ceiling for a few minutes before starting work on that tracker. At least be honest with yourself.”

Much to Sal’s surprise, Anthony, his eyes wide, cut Barry off.

“You’re able to make trackers? How much would you charge for one?”

Even Divinity was a bit thrown off by Anthony’s sudden surge of excitement.

Sal perked up as he looked at Anthony curiously. “What would you want with a tracker? You’ve got an interest in Appraisal?”

Disappointment crossed Anthony’s face. “Ah, it’s an Appraisal tracker. Was hoping for one that would help me with the Crafting class.” He laughed as he shook his head. “Obviously it’s an Appraisal tracker—you’re an Appraiser!”

Sal wasn’t about to let the thought go, as he was curious. “Anthony, Myth is helping me with it. I could ask him about what you’re looking for. What is it that you need?”

Barry gave Sal a deadpan look before rolling his eyes and turning to Anthony. “Hey, Anthony. How good are you at keeping secrets?”

Anthony didn’t so much as hesitate. “Terrible.”

Barry nodded. “That’s good enough for me!”

Before Sal could interject or stop him, Barry twisted his arm to ignite the glowing green runes of his ability. A distortion of light surrounded both Barry and Anthony and flickered for a few seconds before it disappeared to reveal a very shocked Anthony.

Barry smiled and deactivated his power. “See? I can be subtle. Besides, all the faculty know because of Quest, and it’s only a matter of time before it goes mainstream. You should at least be able to tell your friends, right?”

Sal hesitated before relenting and shooting Anthony an apologetic smile. “Sorry I didn’t tell you before.”

Rather than looking upset, Anthony practically beamed. “I have so many ideas but no way to create them. The listening device was just the start. There are so many ideas, like…have you considered making process improvement equipment, like automation? I’ve some blueprints written up that I’d love to show you.”

Sal smiled and raised a hand. “We can get to all those ideas in the future, but what is your immediate need, specifically?”