Flora was disappointed when her suggestion was refused. Otherwise, she could do some research into the silly bird, maybe even backtrack and deduce some important data about Greya’s artificial life spells.
Pity.
Still, this was not important for Flora. Suppose she could get her hands on the original data of the spells, she would not be able to reproduce the results as long as she did not learn Greya’s path. She was curious only because of a wizard’s natural desire for knowledge.
Flora said she would take Angor to his room, so Angor tried to enjoy the grassland scenery on the cloud whale along the way. Yet, as he walked through the “ranch”, he felt something strange.
For instance, when he walked past a square stone house, he caught a really thick smell of blood.
And, ever since he began walking behind Flora, he got the feeling that someone’s watching him from behind. The indescribable uneasiness on his back was making him uncomfortable. Every time he looked back, nothing was there. Every tent was shut tight. The occasional cows were the only creatures out there.
But when Angor turned to walk forward again, the sense of being watched immediately returned.
Angor felt strange all over himself. It seemed Flora noticed this as well, although she did not say anything about it.
When walking near a metal building, Angor sensed something weird as if he was smelling rotten corpses. He was not sure if he was just hallucinating.
The sun was bright, the grass was fresh. The cows and eagles were all enjoying the peaceful nature.
The ranch was clean and beautiful on the first look. At least, that was Angor’s first impression. However, the strange feelings, the bloody smells, the malevolent gaze and Flora’s occasional smell all made Angor to hesitate about this.
Maybe a bottomless abyss or some nameless evil was hidden under the sunlight.
However, Angor did not intend to look into the completely different atmosphere compared to what he felt on The Redbud.
Maybe this was what the apprentices meant by dividing wizards into black and white? The Redbud was not “clean”, but one would be fine as long as one did not look for trouble. Angor never shivered for no reason on the ship. Yet, since he came onto the cloud whale just a little while ago, he felt every nerve on his body tensed up as if a monster was out there somewhere, ready to devour him in the next second.
Back when Angor was communicating with Flora, he believed he got really lucky by having a school sister like this.
Now he was thinking otherwise.
He barely knew Flora and Sunders. He was a student now, true, but that was hardly enough for Angor to determine someone’s nature.
Mara said that Flora was an infamous black wizard in the southern region, named “The Blood Witch” while Sunders was someone powerful enough to slaughter wizards. How could Angor feel proud just because he joined them?
Angor’s future was still uncertain.
When he thought this through, he believed he should not worry about the uncertainty from now on. Anxiety could make someone dependent and unaware of small details.
He recalled reading about a famous psychology case from Earth, the Stockholm Syndrome.
Two criminals with previous records planned to rob the biggest bank in Stockholm, Sweden. When they failed, they imprisoned four workers in the bank and went into a stalemate with the police for 130 hours. It ended when the criminals decided to give in. However, several months after the incident, the kidnapped workers showed sympathy to the criminals and refused to accuse them on the court. They even tried to fund for a defense for them. They claimed that instead of harming them, the criminals took care of them during the stalemate, thus they refused to cooperate with the police.
A female worker even fell in love with one of the criminals and proposed marriage during his sentence in jail. During the six-day imprisonment, the criminals threatened the workers’ lives as well as occasionally showed mercy to them. Under some unexpected mindset development, the workers decided to refuse the government’s aid to rescue them.
The Stockholm Incident was different compared to Angor’s current situation, but there were similarities.
When extremely stressed by danger, a man would cling onto the tiniest thing he could find that gave him hope. That was what Angor was feeling right now. If his mind was changed by Sunders’ and Flora’s simple kindness, he would be the same as the victims in the incident above.
Cold sweat covered Angor’s back.
He slowly gave up the friendliness he showed towards Flora and returned to being a noble who knew good manners, but only good manners. Even his expression became exactly the same one carried by his deceased father. Polite, composed, distant.
The Brute Cavern was a black wizard organization. If he approached the place with his naive moral principles, he would certainly find a quick and terrible death.
Flora was aware of Angor’s changes in mind all along. Just like when they passed the rotten bloody smells, Flora stayed silent even though a tiny trace of approval shined in her eyes.
Angor was a young man without much experience in this world. She and Sunders would not be his babysitter, so Angor must grow strong by himself in this realm going by the law of the jungle.
“There’s your tent ahead. How does it look?” Flora pointed towards a round and white tent with a red flag on top of it.
Angor paused.
The tent looked… ordinary.
It was only about a hundred meters away from Sunders’ beautiful tent. There was only a small dirt slope between them. Only a short walk.
However, Flora took Angor on a detour and walked nearly a kilometer.
He looked at Flora. A vague idea already came about his mind.
He only smiled in the end. “It’s nice. Thank you.”
“Good. Get in, I’ll come for you in the evening.”
Before she left, Angor quickly asked a question, “Can you tell me why the teacher took me in?”
Flora stopped her steps.
She turned around with a big smile. Her eyes turned into the shape of a slim, crescent moon.
“I want to know it too. Maybe you can ask him yourself tonight?”
…
Inside the small, white round tent.
The decoration was simple. A bunk bed, a bedside stand, white, gauze curtain, hollowed, caramel desk and chair. There were also a clock and candle stand like the ones in his room on The Redbud, although a bit more delicate.
Angor sat on the chair and placed his luggage on the desk.
The mid-sized leather bag contained everything he had: clothes, wash supplies and a pair of chamois leather hunting boots. There was also a small wooden box with Greya’s Section Ephemera in it as well as several bamboo tubes containing dried Morning Dew leaves.
Everything in the bag was trivial to Angor. He would not get frustrated even if he lost them. He always kept his most precious belongings close to himself: the hologram tablet and the Alien Eye.
He put away his clothes and spaced out since he had nothing to do.
He was thinking about using his tablet to read some novels. However, he was staying in someone else’s territory, and Sunders’ intention towards him was not clear, added by Flora’s explanation about a wizard’s “extra pair of ears and eyes”… Angor did not dare to take out his tablet, fearing that someone might be watching.
Exposing the tablet was not something serious. There were only Hanzi in it and no one could read them. However, Angor was afraid that someone might decide to get to the bottom of it, which would lead to the exposure of Jon’s identity as a “smuggler”. That would be disastrous. Angor made up his mind to stay low profile for some time. At the very least, he would not use the tablet during his days on the cloud whale.
Without the tablet to pass time, and no books since he gave them all to Alan, the only thing Angor could do now was to stare at the air.