Chapter Text
It was supposed to be a normal orientation, or at least normal by Night Raven’s standards. Jamil thought his own orientation the year prior was bad but the new freshmen really outdid themselves. A weasel had decided to break into the school, as well. The thing even had the audacity to set Kalim on fire!
There was mass panic and confusion, but before the weasel could be handled, a bright light emanated from the Dark Mirror. The blinding light made it difficult for Jamil to make his way to his master to help him, so he spent all his efforts on locating Kalim via his voice.
He was preoccupied trying to douse the flames on Kalim, which led him to miss the mass panic as a bunch of students fell unconscious. It was only when the flames were gone that he finally took in the scene around him. Riddle, Leona, Ruggie. Even Azul and the twins. They were all on the ground. “What–?”
“Jamil?” Kalim’s eyes clearly expressed his horror at the scene but Jamil couldn’t find the energy to comfort him. Everything felt heavy, as if his body was craving sleep despite having been wide awake mere minutes ago.
Kalim held Jamil upright once he began to fall. “Jamil!” It was strange to see Kalim so worried, they hadn’t had any reasons to be afraid while at NRC, but Kalim’s current expression mirrored the one he had when Jamil woke from a coma after being poisoned.
How rare it was to be the one taken care of for once. The thought entered his head just as he joined the rest of his classmates in unconsciousness.
“Jamil!”
Kalim?
“Jamil, wake up!”
Jamil groaned as hands grabbed his shoulders and shook him. What a rude awakening, he’d have thought that Kalim would be nicer when waking him up. Wait, Kalim never woke him up, not since they were kids. It was always Jamil who had to wake his master since Kalim had made a habit of sleeping in.
Forcing his eyes to open, Jamil was met with the worried face of Kalim. “Jamil!” The boy cried as he pulled his servant into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re awake! I just woke up a couple minutes ago, apparently we’ve been kidnapped but we’re in a movie theater? I don’t know. A bunch of our friends and a few freshmen are here, too!”
Despite having just woken up, Jamil took in the information and committed it to memory. “Odd. If you were a target then it would be just you or the both of us being taken.” He scanned the room, noting many familiar faces, a lot of which were still asleep. Malleus’ presence was surprising, Jamil hadn’t expected anyone to be capable of kidnapping the fae prince.
Kalim helped him get to his feet, as he was still a little disoriented from whatever method was used to incapacitate and transport them all. Jamil attempted to use his magic but found that his access to it was blocked. He could feel his magic and yet he couldn’t use it.
“Kalim, did you know we can’t use magic?”
“Oh! Um, maybe?” A sheepish grin took over his master’s face while he sighed.
“Did you not think to tell me that important information?” He took deep breaths to calm himself. Such airheadedness was to be expected from Kalim, it was fine .
At least his master had the audacity to look apologetic. “Sorry! I forgot!” His smile returned to his face, as if all was made better with a useless apology.
“It's fine. Has anyone found a way out, yet?” He assumed not, since Malleus would have been the first to break down a door or wall if he could. Still, Jamil had escaped many kidnapping situations and rescued Kalim from others; his experience would prove useful in finding a way out.
Kalim shrugged at him. “I haven’t been awake for long. You’d have to ask them what they’ve tried. There’s no doors or windows here, though. It’s a completely closed space.” At least Kalim’s own experience with such situations came in handy, though he’d have preferred if those situations never happened at all. Jamil was always the one who got into trouble for failing to protect his master.
“Right.” Okay. He didn’t know where he was, that was bad. He wasn’t gagged, tied up, or blindfolded. That was good. There were no exits, that was bad. They were all unharmed. That was good. Jamil checked his robes and found that his phone was missing, another tally for ‘bad’ things. “There has to be a way out, how else would we be here?” Maybe a loose panel in the floor? A hidden door?
“I’m afraid that information is still unknown.” Lilia appeared behind Kalim, startling the boy.
“Hi Lilia!” Kalim smiled at his clubmate. “You said earlier that you were one of the first people awake, did you check everywhere for any sort of way out?”
Lilia nodded, a rare concerned expression gracing his features. “Yes. I checked the whole room thoroughly and yet I could not find a single way to escape. Malleus and I even attempted to break down the walls but not even a crack appeared.”
Things couldn’t get any worse–
“Jade? Azul?” Jamil stood corrected. Floyd Leech was awake and it seemed his brother and housewarden would be quick to follow. The eel stood up and looked around the room, mismatched eyes burning holes in each person they landed on. “What’s goin’ on?”
Jamil figured he’d be the best person to explain to Floyd while they waited for the others to wake up so he left Lilia and Kalim to their own devices as he walked over to the clearly agitated mer. “We’ve all been kidnapped. Nobody knows where we are, we’re unharmed, we can’t use our magic, and so far we haven’t found a way out.” Blunt and to the point was the best option when dealing with Floyd’s attention span.
“Oh.” Floyd’s face went blank and Jamil couldn’t tell what the other was thinking. Usually he was pretty good at predicting his clubmate’s mood swings but he had never seen that expression before. Even in boredom, there was some sort of emotion in the way Floyd talked or moved.
After a few minutes, Jade began to wake up. Jamil decided to leave the twins to talk and returned to Kalim’s side, where his master was still talking to Lilia. “Welcome back!” His upperclassman gave him a smile.
“Thanks.” Jamil didn’t join the conversation, even tuning the majority of it out in favor of examining the room once more. There was no guarantee that someone there could have taken part in the kidnapping so he spent his time observing each of them to find any suspicious behaviors.
At some point, his eyes landed back on the three Octavinelle students. Floyd had taken to poking Azul, whose face scrunched up in annoyance even while asleep. It wasn’t much longer before the housewarden woke up and glared at his friend? Coworker? Jamil never could get a good read on the relationship between Azul and the twins.
Jade chuckled as Azul felt around for his glasses. “Your glasses fell off during our transportation.” Jamil rolled his eyes at the lie, Azul’s glasses were unmoved when he woke up. Jade likely took them off to mess with Azul.
Azul put his glasses on and took in his surroundings. “Where is this?” Wasn’t that the million thaumark question? Jamil wished he had an answer but even if he did, he’d rather not interact with Azul if he could help it. He moved so he was standing behind Kalim, out of Azul’s line of sight.
From a few rows down, he could hear a laugh from Floyd. “No idea!” Well, it certainly didn’t take long for Floyd to go back to his usual self. Jamil was honestly a bit relieved, it was jarring to see Floyd act so serious. He wondered if it’d take much longer for everyone else to wake up, maybe one of them would have some sort of idea of what was going on.
If it was any other time, Jamil would have already been able to get himself and Kalim to safety. The odd circumstances and lack of escape routes both confused and angered the servant. If Kalim didn’t make it out unharmed, Jamil would be the one in trouble. The delay in escaping was already going to earn him a scolding from his parents. Out of all the times he’d been kidnapped, Jamil would consider this the worst one so far.