The letter from Doctor Kathor had been an invitation to a school in Swivel City. I had no idea where it was but Amanda helped point me in the right direction after I helped her with Vanessa, that bitch. The University was massive. It was surrounded by a stone wall with metal fencing on top so I had to circle it to find an entrance.
As I stepped through the arc that was the entrance I could feel the air change. Outside what I had assumed to be mana floated freely. I would see one or two motes of it every few seconds. Inside the university proper it was concentrated. It was like stepping into a lake.
I pushed through the feeling and headed for what looked like the main building. It was very gothic looking with entrances that ended in points. My guess was good because as I pushed open the door it turned out to be some kind of reception desk. The person behind the desk gave me a smile, “Welcome to Swivels Arcane University. How can I help you today?”
I set the letter down on the desk, “Doctor Kathor sent me an invitation.”
She took it and read it before turning to the computer she had. A few button presses and a phone call she turned back to me, “Doctor Kathor is on his way. You can wait over there.”
I nodded and followed her arm. There were some comfy looking chairs so I took a seat. Doctor Kathor showed up about ten minutes later. He looked the same as the last time I saw him. Long white beard with swept back hair. He had on a white dress shirt with a blue vest and tie. I stood up as he approached me and he held out his hand to shake, “Sunya Tetsuko. You’re looking well.”
“Thank you Doctor. I’m guessing Owl messaged you?”
He nodded and waved at me to follow him, “She did. Would you like a tour of the ground before we start digging through scrolls?”
We walked through some doors into a massive hallway. The flooring was tile and the hallway extended out and curved to the right. One side looked like doors to classrooms, the other side was a wall of windows. Through the windows it looked like a park. There were a few trees growing with stone pathways. I could see a few people walking between different buildings, groups sitting down and studying together. A few were practicing magic with what looked like illusions being weaved between their hands.
“Id love a tour. This place seems interesting. The letter you sent me didn't arrive at my apartment though so you're going to have to fix that if you send another one.”
“Ah. I sent it with magic. It was supposed to arrive at where you considered your home.” He replied.
That was an understandable mistake. “What all gets taught here?”
“Everything a normal university would teach gets taught here with a side of magic.” He pushed open a door on our left and inside I saw a massive class room. The seating was on levels and it was all pointed towards the right side of the room where there was a wall with things written on it, “This is one of the regular classrooms. I think this one is used for math most of the time.”
He shut the door and we walked farther into the university. He pointed at a building that was on the other side of the university, “that is the library. It holds almost every book ever printed and our students love it.” He pointed to another, “That is the cafeteria. We feed our students freely. We have a course that teaches chefs. They learn by feeding the students here. It is a very efficient system.”
We were father down when he pushed open the next door. This room was different. The door opened to the middle of the room and there were seats on both sides of the room. They were still on levels they were just facing each other. In the center of the room was a pedestal that was holding a bowl. I could see writing on the ground around it in a circle, “I am guessing this is where you teach magic?”
Doctor Kathor gave me a small smile, “Correct. The bowl is for any kind of potion making. The writing on the ground is for rituals. The pedestal looks heavy but it is designed to move. You can just pull it out of the ritual circle.”
Looking down at the circle I could see some of the runes printed into the ground matched some of them that were on Doctor Kathor's vest. “There are dedicated classrooms for things but this is one of the hybrid rooms. Magic 101 is you will.”
He closed the door and we headed down the hallway. The hallways branched ou and we hung left. The next room he showed me looked like a regular lab. Desks every few feet with one at the front for the teacher. Doctor Kathor led me into the room and set his hand on the desk in the front. It lit up and the desks around the room followed it, “The teacher does things here while making potions and the desks the students are at shows the teacher what the students are doing so the teacher can correct them.”
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“What is taught here that something like that is needed?” I asked him.
“Ritual preparation or more potion making. This is not the only classroom of its kind. The teacher can show how it's prepared and the desks of the students blow it up so they can see in detail.” He replied.
We left the class room and headed deeper into the university. People passed us in the halls and gave Doctor Kathor nods of respect. Class rooms started getting fewer and more offices showed up. Every office had a name plate on the door and some had lights showing from the crack at the bottom.
Doctor Kathor's office was at the far back. He opened the door and invited me inside. The floor was a red plush carpet that shined. The walls were covered in nick knacks and trophies. Doctor Kathor headed for the desk in the room that was covered in paperwork and some odd things. There was a scale that looked broken, one of its little trays was cracked, the handle of a sword with the blade removed. He took a seat in the leather chair and waved me into one on the other side of the desk. I took a seat and he leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk in front of him, “So let's get down to business. What do you know about vampires?”
I relaxed in the chair and laced my fingers together, “I just know they are a form of undead and it's a magical disease. The only reason I know that is because Owl told me.”
Doctor Kathor gave a slow nod of his head, “That is a very simplified way of saying what they are. You are right that they are undead though. The most dangerous thing about vampires is not their strength or speed, it's their ghouls.”
I shrugged, “I have no idea what that is.”
“Its a human that has fed on their blood. It's very addicting and it gives people that taste it a high. That alone makes them fanatically loyal to the vampire they are drinking from but it also slows down aging and gives the people a small level of regeneration. Its very very hard to get rid of vampire infestations when they happen because ghouls will move their master's corpses during the day.”
“What happens to the people that don't get enough vampire blood after they have taken some?”
“Heavy withdrawal. The people start shaking uncontrollably. Their muscles ache and some have reported migraines. Some people fall into seizures. Everyone's symptoms are different, not uniform like regular recreational drugs. Exterminate a vampire nest and then you have to deal with twenty people under different kinds of withdrawal.”
“What happened to the people that were a part of that warlock's ritual? Were any of them ghouls?”
“No, those were just random people picked up from the street. The warlock was trying to pull something from some other plane with a sacrifice. It would have been a mess to clean up if Owl and you didn't stop it.” Doctor Kathor answered.
“Ok. That's good to know. Why did the vampires work with the warlock then?”
Doctor Kathor hummed then answered, “Fresh vampires like those are susceptible to magic control. They are just regular undead for the first few days. When they get enough blood they complete the transformation. He was just puppeting corpses affected by the magical disease.”
I leaned forward in my chair and rested my chin on my palms as I digested that. I must have been silent for some time because Doctor Kathor let out a cough to get my attention, “Tell me what you felt when you saw the vampire in Angle City.”
“Thats not a vampire.” I was sure of it. “Vampires don't feel like that thing did.”
Doctor Kathor shrugged, “That remains to be seen. We have studied it for quite some time.”
“Regular vampires feel like they are beatable. They feel undead but have some quality of them that I know is destructible. That thing we saw in Angle City was not. It felt old, eternal, hungry.”
Doctor Kathor started going through papers on his desk. He grabbed a few and slid them across from me. They were photocopies of old scrolls. One side had the scroll writing and the other a translation for it, “We mages have studied that thing since it showed up. It's the first vampire in truth. We have accounts of it feeding on humans for a long time.”
He waved at the stack of papers sitting on his desk. It was a huge stack, about three extended fingers high, “This is every way we have tried to kill it. Personally I think we pissed it off the last time because we switched to keeping it contained. Vampires still show up in other places but we take the threat seriously enough and end them. That warlock was hiding the group you fought under magic.”
“I can kill it.” I blurted out.
Doctor Kathor raised an eyebrow at me, “Why do you think that?”
I chewed on my lip then asked, “How does magic work on a spiritual level?”
“Your soul lets you feel it and it takes time to develop the skills to use it. It's like vibrations when you're young. We have older mages go to all the elementary schools and show off their magic.. The kids that feel it stand out. And with parents' permission are able to get into classes for it.”
I shook my head, "That's not how chi works.” I raised my hand up and balled it into a fist, “Chi is your body talking to your soul. The more chi you have the better the communication." I forced my refined chi from the ocean in my belly up my chest and down my arm into my fist. Golden essence started wafting off of it and the office was bathed in a golden light, “When you get enough chi you start refining it. Grinding it together. You might lose one hundred motes of chi to get one refined mote.”
I let the chi slop flowing and the golden light in my hand faded, “Refining chi brings your soul and body closer together. Eventually they will overlap and thats when you can start doing crazy things. I don't punch things with my chi, I punch them with my soul coated in chi techniques. Killing this thing won't be hard. Making sure it stays down will be even easier. It will be messy but I can do it.”
Doctor Kathor leaned back and stroked his beard, “How messy are you talking about?”
“Angle City probably won't survive.”
He let out a hiss of air before replying, “This is going to take some planning.”