Chapter 9

I stood there staring at the door after Toni and the council had left. That’s all I needed: twelve sex-hungry-feeling, deprived females. The worst was that I was the subject of their obsession, and the more I thought about it, the more I was starting to like the idea of killing Toni. Celina came in a few minutes later, but I obviously hadn’t answered her call. I noticed she came in with her power and shields at full strength. It’s about time someone got something right around here. I remembered the look that Cloe had given me, and I had remained calm, ignoring it, which seemed to garner an even more angry look. I didn’t care. She deserved more than I was going to give her, and I couldn’t invest that much time.

“Mr. Greenstick,” Celina called, “all the students are now gathered in the practice room.”

“Thank you, Celina. I’ll be there momentarily. I have to gather a few things.” Today, I was going to start on their pitiful offensive skills. Walking in, I handed each of them a small book, and they looked at each other and laughed. Growling, I waved a hand at each of them soon, they weren’t laughing. I watched as the spell slowly crept up each of the young mages. As each started to panic, I watched closely who actually used their head. Finally, one of the female students tried a counterspell. Hmmm, I thought it was not bad, not strong, but we would work on that. Soon, they were all performing the counterspell except the same blond male from the day before, and he kept staring at me, hatred in his eyes, with his arms crossed. I sighed.

Within an hour he was totally petrified, I brought all the students, as they cleared the spell, to look at the young idiot.

“I told all of you the first day I wasn’t playing this is the second most favorite spell of the scum out there.”

Looking straight into the three boys eyes I said, “I told all of you the first day I am not playing I am trying to keep you alive, your punishment is to remain like that ‘til tomorrow, this is the last time I will allow this. The next time it will be permanent, this is not a game the quicker you learn that, the longer you stay alive.

I could feel the panic from the blonde boy, his eyes pleading, the pain apparent. I pointed and moved him off the main floor against the wall to watch the rest of the day. All the rest of the day, the blonde young mage watched his classmates catch, if not pass, him power-wise. Finally the day done I watched all the youngsters leave ‘til it was finally the young mage and me.

Walking up to him, I waved a hand and concentrated, sweeping my hand again. I felt the counter spell start to work. Looking him straight in the eyes, I re-enforced what I had said. “I meant what I said earlier: I will not have you interrupting the class and getting your classmates killed. I am no longer an active enforcer, but I am still in active status if they do get killed by all the shit you are pulling here,” I stared straight into his eyes. “I will come after you, and believe me. You don’t want me after you, not when I am mad and avenging them. So you think hard, real fucking hard tonight, while the anti-creeping arbor is releasing you. I will not hesitate to kill you if you resist either,” smiling, I saw his eyes grow wide, “It would be my pleasure for them.”

His head was finally starting to look more like skin, snapping my fingers I sent him home then called his father.

“Councilman, you might notice that your son is recovering from the creeping arbor. I warned him I really don’t want to rid the world of him, but I am hoping this latest punishment will help straighten him out.” I said.

The whole time, the older man nodded his head, “I tried to warn him you weren’t the usual instructor, that you weren’t afraid of the council. The pup laughed at me. This just might do it, though,” Here, the old man thought for a moment. “Can you still do that power-blocking spell you used to?”

My mouth dropped open, and then I smirked, “Oh yeah, he was your friend, wasn’t he?

The old man nodded, then laughed, “he thought you had completely removed his power,” the old man laughed, as did I; it was the first time I’d seen him really let loose like this. “I still don’t know how you do it, not sure I want to know either. Did you ever discover how to remove the power permanently?”

Again, my eyes were huge for a moment, smiling. I nodded, and the old man was still watching me, “oh yeah, that’s right, I got you once, didn’t I?” I replied, remembering a younger version of the elder flailing his arms around. The Mage had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’d finally caught up to a really scummy life violator, had shut his power down, immobilized him, and was moving in for the arrest. There was a sudden noise, and the young Mage appeared from behind a trash can, behind my suspect. The life violator had gotten free and made a move toward the Mage when I froze him again.

“You think you could help a moment? I asked; he nodded, but when I tried to hand the prisoner to him, he couldn’t hold him. “Were you back there the whole time?” I said. Again, he nodded, starting to shake. Waving a hand over him, he smiled and then took over. As I built up my power, I saw the man’s eyes grow. Finally, I reached out and started to rip at the violator’s powers. Unfortunately, I could only get halfway through it.