Aiden knew something was off, like gut a feeling. He somehow predicted he might not pull it off for the second time. But he still pulled through, not expecting too much on the result. He recited the spell Lucius suggested. They waited, but nothing happened.
"What?" Lucius lost a bit of his glow as he hovered lower. "Try another one."
Even after five attempts of five different spells, nothing happened, reducing Lucius' bright light back to its former glory—actually, even duller than normal.
Riven, on the other hand, remained silent, his mind filled with thoughts.
Lucius settled down on the table. "Why is it not working? Maybe you should do it under another chandelier?"
Aiden shook his head, knowing the problem lies on something else. He was missing something he couldn't wrap his mind around — a small detail that slipped off his mind. He flipped through the pages, trying to look for answers, and then it hit him.
The tingling pain coursing through his fingertips was gone.
He froze for a second and cleared his throat before closing the book—hesitant to let the words inside his mind out.
"I think..." he said while the two wisps waited in anticipation. "I think I know exactly how I did it..."
"How?" Lucius asked him, finally getting a little of color back into his form.
Aiden took a deep breath, knowing the words he ought to utter next will lead him to insufferable consequences and a grim future ahead.
"After those losers beat me up," he began, and the two wisps huddled closer to his face. "I felt this tingling sensation in my fingertips."
Riven flickered. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I thought nothing of it, thinking it would be gone after a moment," Aiden continued. "Besides, I was clenching my fist hard during the rustle."
Lucius bobbed to himself. "Right. And then?"
"That tingling pain persisted for hours as I flipped through every page of this book," he said. "But strangely enough, it's gone now. Or to say, I no longer feel it after busting that bulb out."
The two wisps dulled out for a few seconds, engulfed in their thoughts, before beaming brightly from the realization. Aiden took a deep breath to settle the thoughts in their minds, the truth slipping out of his mouth. He hoped he would never regret letting out.
"The next time I get beat up," he said. "That's when I get to cast spells again."
The silence was loud among the three of them, the murmurs of other students engulfing the room, as the wisps paid homage for Aiden's devastatingly tragic dilemma. This boy was literally born to suffer, Lucius thought to himself. His glow flickering back and forth from fascination to pity.
Riven, on the other hand, seemed to be in a deeper web of thoughts. His wispy memory taking him back to a scripture he had read from a thousand years back but could vaguely remember because of his ungodly handicap.
"Guys! You won't believe this!" Caelum stormed inside the room, breaking the silence among the three. "You won't believe this!"
He hovered atop Aiden's desk, all fidgety. "I snooped around on the class wearing gold capes, and guess what?"
The three looked at him indifferently, as if nothing more could surprise them today after everything that had happened and everything they found out.
"Mortals cast spells by reciting ancient scriptures! Ancient scriptures!" he said. "And they're pronouncing everything terribly!"
He failed to get enough reaction from the three and even before he could wonder, his gaze fell on the book Aiden was holding.
"Yes! Those phrases!" he said, before his flickering light died down. "Oh, you already know."
They all nodded.
Caelum noticed the still atmosphere, and he wondered what had happened during the few hours he wandered around the campus. He pulled Lucius to the side for some briefing. Lucius told him about everything before ending the briefing session with a firm instruction to "act sad."
Though unwilling, Caelum obliged, forcibly dimming his glow before flying back to Aiden's stable. "Sorry things are like this," Caelum said, obviously trying hard fake his sympathy. "I guess we can just--"
"You don't have to pretend," Aiden groaned, forcing a lungful of air out of his system, already accepting his fate. "I know you find it funny. I find it ridiculous, too."
"Great! I didn't feel like acting, anyway." Caelum said, "And! I just saw the teenagers who bruised you earlier. If we hurry, we can catch up to them and you get to be punched agai--"
Caelum was cut short on his speech as both Riven and Lucius' flares urged him to stop. "I mean! We should hurry home before we cross paths with them in the hallway?"
Aiden sat straight. "That's a great idea."
When the bell rang, they all rushed towards the exit. Especially Aiden, who was determined to savor the rare kindness from the wisps. This might be the last time they express some consideration for him, so he had to get the best of it.
"Wait!" he said, turning back inside the room and stopping in front of the boy with glasses, the book he borrowed in hand. The boy waved his hands in front of him.
"You can borrow that. I have a second copy."Aiden, instead of raising a thumbs up, extended his hand forward.
The boy looked at his hand before taking it. "Uh-okay. Welcome, I guess?"Aiden immediately rushed out of the room, leaving the boy confused after an unnecessary handshake.
"What's his name anyway," Aiden said. "I believe he introduced himself before. What did he say?"
Lucius hummed. "Hmm... I think it was something like... Oily? I forgot."
Aiden turned to Riven. "I don't know. I wasn't listening."
Aiden sighed. "I guess I'll just have to ask him next time."
Caelum was overhead, keeping surveillance of the campus to make sure Aiden doesn't stumble upon any of his pursuers. Caelum turned green as a go signal, and Aiden dashed through the hallways, flying past a bunch of scholars, eyeing nothing but the exit. He was running at full speed, his escape almost at a hand's reach as he jumped down the stone staircase, waiting for the stone-path to unfurl, until a voice stopped him in his tracks.
"The viscount summons you," a familiar voice beseeched him from behind. "Mr. Beauregard."