Chapter Text
“Do you understand the reason you have been brought here?” the gentle, yet fatherly, voice asked, as if the question were the center of the boy’s world. As if his answer would make or break how the rest of the conversation would flow.
The black-haired youth simply sat and watched. His red, softly glowing eyes looked at the man in front of him. The royal blue suit seemed to be working attire, and the silvered accents seems a continuation of his the threads of silver hair in his otherwise oceanic shaded hair. The gentleman just simply watched back, looking for any sign of movement. The boy did nothing. Not a twitch. Not a tap. He hardly looked like he was breathing. He seemed completely still, doing nothing but watch, his eyes never leaving his interrogator’s frame. He took in the cane, a simple oak-colored piece with touches of silver leaf along the length, a hawk’s head of silver at the top for a handle.
The older man’s eyes continued to be stuck on his guest. His red eyes were an oddity of their own Adorned with a soft, unnatural glow that cast a light toward him, giving him full indication of where the boy was looking. And the man looked right back. He was shocked someone so small seemed so large in the black cloak he took off while inside. The rest of the teenagers ensemble was similarly colored, save his grey shirt that offset the rest of his otherwise unchanging clothing color. The biggest surprise was his this but aged frame. He was more fit than most of the officers who chased him, but looked as old as the green officers who joined the pursuit.
A minute.
Two minutes.
A full five minutes passed before the youth replied.
“Because you wanted to pick me up off the streets before I turned seventeen? Before you aren’t allowed to try and tell me what to do? You want to have an intervention and set me on the right path in this, the eleventh hour?” the young man replied with a touch of cynicism. He had some hope for the conversation, but any other time the powers that be had tried to get him on the right path, it went poorly.
But the gentleman in front of him was different. His tone, his gestures. His patience. Most cops would have thrown him in the cell after a minute of not responding. This man looked like he would wait for an hour if it meant getting an answer.
“Glad to see that wit is good for more than just running and hiding. Do you know how long we were after you tonight?” the man asked, expecting another long pause for an answer. The quick reply was surprising to him to say the least.
“About an hour, hour fifteen. And you had about twenty guards all on the hunt. Well, twenty-one if you count the guy I had to knock out at the start of this. And of those guys, I took out two more on the way during the chase. And I didn’t even use my daggers. Can I at least get some credit for that much and have my daggers back?” The boy shifted in his chair, looking away for a moment to the small table behind his captor, his daggers and sheath belt sitting on it. Without meaning too, he reached towards where the two blades would lie, seeming uncomfortable without them by his side. His discomfort was obvious. The older gentleman quickly picked up on the fact that talking was not his strongest skill.
“And might I add that four more were out of this chase because they simply couldn’t keep up with your pace. The man said pointing his cane at the youth with a chuckle. But no, the daggers stay with me for the time being. But if you cooperate with me, instead of having to be turned over to the police chief, you can have them back tonight,” the man offered, though a hint of a threat laced his voice.
“You have my attention.” the boy asked, gaze once again fixated on his captor. “But can I get something in return for all these questions you asked?” the trapped youth asked, dropping the quiet act in favor of acting a bit tougher. Trying to hide how much he hated having the spotlight on him.
“If it’s the question I think you plan to ask, Shane, then I will gladly answer. I am Headmaster Koren Windfury. Though that much I assume you had figured out by my attire and badge. I came here to discuss enrollment into my Lucerna Academy.” The Headmaster sat down across the table, the silence returning as Shane rolled around the information that was just given to him. After a few moments, the boy finally found what he wanted to say.
“So, what do you want out of me?” Shane asked, leaning forward in a guarded manner, like he was preparing to make a deal. “I know that you run a well-known Academy, and part of your success comes from having people who follow the rules and care about learning. What makes you think a delinquent like me that you had to chase for over an hour would make excellent student material?” Shane replied, running the past two hours though his mind as he recalled the entire chase. The alleys he took. The streets he passed. The hiding spots that lasted all of five minutes before he had to move again. The slip up was clear in his mind as he recalled the moment he finally failed. Turning down a normally bustling street. That night, it was empty. Almost like they expected him to run there and had. . . “You set this up?” The realization finally dawned on Shane’s face as the Headmaster smiled.
“See. I knew you were clever. Like your father. And mother,” Koren replied simply. “And judging by your face, you didn’t know I worked with your parents.”
Shane sat with his jaw slightly open, though he tried his best to play off the shock. It was obvious just from his eyes darting around as if looking for answers in the room. “Lots of people knew my parents. Part of the tragedy when they passed was that so many people knew them, and me. But no one I knew would take me in, except my best friend’s dad.” The angered youth replied, trying to regain his puffed up appearance. “And because he was single, it was determined that it would be too much for one man. And people wonder why I ran,” Shane ended with some disgust, and expected another long lecture of how running didn’t fix anything.
Koren waited a moment to speak, knowing his next statement would most likely be unexpected.“I’ll shock you for a moment. You were right. Running was the best response that you could have come up with to being sent away from the people you knew. Your world was being torn away. First your parents, then your best friend, then the people who could tell you about your parents. And for that, I personally apologize. If I had known more about the situation, I would have made it a personal job to get you in the right home,” Koren responded, watching as a slack jawed Shane looked on dumbfounded. “But don’t misunderstand me. That wasn’t truly the best solution. But for as old as you were, and what you had given to you, it was the best you could come up with. But, how did you get those daggers back?”
Shane shifted again when he was told that he wasn’t totally in the right, but his defensive walls began to crumble when he was told that it was at least reasonable at his age. The tough guy visage cracked enough for the experienced Headmaster to begin to slip past the defenses. “They kept them in the orphanage. Locked up in a safe in the head mother’s office. She never locked the door so people could talk to her. I snuck in at night, picked the lock, and took them out. Then I closed the door and relocked it. That was all I took. Ask her yourself. Nothing else was stolen.”
“I know. I’ve talked with her already. That’s how I got your records.” the Headmaster replied, pulling out a suitcase and opening it up to reveal a small stack of papers. “And the best friend you mentioned was, Dawn? Dawn Silvered-Pelt. You know she is attending my school, the Academy I mentioned a moment ago.” The Headmaster looked at Shane with a curiosity in his eyes. To see what Shane would do. To see if he had pierced the right chip in the wall.
“That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You want me to be a student, don’t you?” The dark haired youth began to piece together the clues that were slowly being dropped. To make sense of the offer that was in front of him. And with that, he unknowingly dropped his guard completely. Exposing at his core that he wanted a purpose, someone to give him a goal.
“Again. That wit shows through strong as ever.” Koren paced over to Shane, sticking a hand in his pocket to produce a key. “Now. I will give you back those daggers on one condition. You come with me tonight. You go to my school. And we will talk details there.” Headmaster Windfury offered, pointing the key at the manacles on Shane’s wrist
“You want me to come to Boreas? The Academy of the North?” Shane looked on, still with shock on his face. The chance to get his daggers back didn’t even matter at that point. “Why?”
Koren merely stood there. Watching. The expression on his face as hard to read as a statue.
A minute.
Two minutes.
Three minutes.
Eventually he broke the silence, with a response that shook Shane beyond the cracks in his walls. A response that made him willingly expose his real personality. The part of him that wanted help, despite the tough guy ruse. To willingly stick it out and silently ask for Koren to be the one to help him. “Because I feel I owe you. And your parents. It’s a matter of pride. Reputation. And because you deserve this. You earned this tonight, with that display of effort and skill to evade us. And because we need people like you in the Academy. People who have seen the dark side. Hearts that lived in the shadows. Because we need people who understand it, and can fight it with that knowledge. We can train a student to be the greatest fighter, but if they don’t know when to fight, where to fight, and when to run, it doesn’t matter. We need people who know the darkness, so that they can stop the darkness before it starts.”
Shane felt weak for a moment. He had hardly stood and he was already back in his chair. The chase had hardly worn on him. But this. This call to help. And the acknowledgement of his parents, of who they were, and where he had been left in life. He simply sat for several long minutes, what seemed like an eternity in his mind. The rest of the dialogue flowed through his head. Why they needed him. What he was being called to do. His father had been a leader, and now he was being called to lead. But, but how could he? He never got along with people. He only managed to hold a conversation with this man because he could play the tough guy. The moment his walls crumbled, he went back to silence.
“I know this is all a lot for you. But how about his? You come back with me, and you will have a week to think it over. If I read my transcripts right, the first year students will arrive in a week. They show up early to get a tour of the school. You have until they come to think things over. I’ll even inform Mr. Silvered-Pelt of your request for lodging until then. I’m sure he will accommodate. He cares about you, just as much as Dawn does. She has voiced to me before coming to the school that she only regretted being here without you.” The Headmaster walked over and unlocked the shackles before returning to his side of the table where he stood at the door, reaching to open.
“A week?” Shane looked up finally, not even glancing at the daggers that were out in the open for him to grab without issue.
“A week.” Koren turned back towards Shane looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
Shane stood up, walked over to the table with his daggers, and looked them over. The crow wings that made the handles stuck out from the sheath, the beak that was the blade tucked up inside. “I’ll have your answer by then. Good enough for you?”
Koren simply chuckled, and gestured towards the table with a sign of permission. Shane watched the Headmaster pick up his suitcase before walking out and talking to the sheriff outside the door, leaving it open for Shane to hear. “He is going to be coming with me. Is that alright with you?”
The tall, muscular man looked over Koren, then over to Shane before giving his halfhearted response: “I suppose. Just, don’t ask my men to go on a wild goose chase like that again. Not unless you want to come up with a great idea like emptying the street again.” The sheriff begrudgingly walked off, out of Shane’s view as he wrapped the familiar second belt around his body, just above his waist.
“Glad to see that it still is comfortable for you. We haven’t a far distance to get to the Silvered-Pelt residence. Care to join me?” Headmaster Windfury stuck his hand out to guide Shane down the hallway.
“Yeah. It’s funny you say that. The street you guys emptied to catch me is the street they live on. I was going to. . .” Shane stopped sharply as his mind put the last piece of the puzzle together, seeing the full picture in front of him. And it gave him a look of what kind of man he was talking to. “That’s how you knew to empty it!” Shane looked at Koren with shock, and a bit of respect.
“I know how people work, much better than people give me credit for.” The older gentleman followed as Shane walked down the hall he was directed towards, reaching the outside of the station and finding a black car waiting for them.
“You really were confident I would take the position,” Shane said as he entered the back seat, as he was joined by the Headmaster.
“Call it a vote of confidence,” he replied before looking at the driver. “Take us to the Silver-Pelt home. We have some discussing to do there.” Koren promptly gave the order as the car drove off into the night. The darkness seemed to consume the black vehicle as it drove into the shadows of the city, cruising through the familiar town as Shane began thinking about the offer he had just been given.