"Five more minutes, mom."

 

Charity tapped Ryan on the shoulder again, "We've arrived."

 

Ryan sat up and pulled back his hood so he could see more clearly out the window. He had pulled it' down over his eyes so he could sleep on the carriage ride to school. The king had sent him in one of the official royal carriages so their arrival was drawing some attention. Most of the students had gathered outside the main entrance to the school. The more popular students were hanging out here and basically 'holding court', while the less popular were waiting for friends to arrive. The three princes had already arrived and were out front in their respective areas, so people were wondering who this fourth carriage could be.

 

Ryan sighed, "I should have jumped out near the gate and snuck in." He looked at Charity, "The footmen will take care of the bags, right?" She nodded and he sighed again, “Nothing else to do but bite the bullet." Charity shook her head as he said another confusing phrase, "I don't think this is going to be as bad as you think." Ryan looked at her, "That's what I love about you.” He flashed her a smile, “The endless optimism." The footman lowered the step and opened the door. Ryan tensed up, ~Prickly. Think, Prickly.~

 

Ryan pulled the hood forward to keep his face in shadow and stepped out. His height was a dead give away as to who it was, but his aura wasn't anything anyone expected so it was throwing people off. It was gloomy, dense and ominous. He didn't walk like skittish prey, but like a looming predator. The first thing he did stepping out of the carriage was to pull out a metal case and open it, pulling out a hand rolled cigarette. Slipping that away, he produced a lighter that he had created for just this situation.

 

He flipped it open causing it to ignite in a low, orange flame. He lit up his smoke and flicked the lighter closed, slipping it back into his pocket. He took a long draw and blew it out skywards before turning to the footman who was starting to unpack the luggage and hand it off to the school porters. Ryan called out, "Hey." They looked at him, half expecting to get threatened. Ryan slipped each one a copper coin, "No scratches, eh?" The three looked at their coins with some confusion, slipped them into their pockets and just shrugged, "Ah-yes, lord? Of course!" Ryan winked, gave one a pat on the back, "Keep up the good work." Then started walking towards the main entrance. Charity fell in behind him so she could whisper to Ryan, "You don't have to pay the servants." Ryan partially turned back to talk to her, "It's called a tip and it's only polite."

 

The murmuring was already starting. It didn't take long for people to figure out who he was and the various factions were already spreading rumors. Ryan kept moving at a steady pace, ~The question is, who's the idiot who is going to get in my-~ Three rather large upperclassmen stepped out from the shade of a tree to get in Ryan's way, ~And there you are.~ He kept walking straight at them, eventually coming to a stop in front of them. They leered and egged each other on. The leader of the trio stepped closer to confront Ryan.

 

Ryan blew smoke in his face.

 

The leader coughed and scowled, "What the...? He reached out to grab Ryan by the collar, "Why you little-" Then screamed.

 

The leader yanked back his hand as if he had just grabbed glowing hot metal. He stared at his hand to see that it was injured. His palm had multiple bleeding pin pricks as if he had just grabbed a handful of needles. He looked at where he grabbed and saw nothing, save a faint dampness to Ryan’s clothes. Ryan took another long drag on his cigarette then dropped it to the ground, crushing it beneath his toe. One of the guys standing behind the leader shouted, "You are so dead!" and closed to punch Ryan in the face.

 

Water is quite amazing. If you put enough pressure on water and force it through a small enough hole, it becomes a remarkable cutting tool. This is often referred to as a water laser. Ryan's recreation of one doesn't reach very far, only an inch or two. He discovered he could only seem to do it at close range, but within that two inches it has amazing cutting power. Make a few of these when someone grabs your clothes, you put a few holes in someone's hand. However, Ryan wasn't as skilled as he thought. Shifting the focus to other parts of his body took a moment. If he had field tested his little trick, he would have realized it was only practical for using it when someone grappled you.

 

A punch is different from a grab. It comes in at an angle. A punch isn't straight on, but has some angular force to it. If Ryan had covered his cheek with a series of short ice spikes, that would have had the effect he was going for. Unfortunately, he didn't. Instead, he only managed to make one water laser. One water laser with all the power behind it, as opposed to spread out over an area. A water laser doesn't just impale and break off, it cuts. CONTINUOUSLY. Sure, With aura manipulation one could armor their hand against Ryan's little spell. Just like Ryan had used aura hardening to armor up his face to make sure he didn't get injured.

 

Alas, the one punching him was a conjurer, not an aura user.

 

The water laser severed  two fingers.

 

Even with aura boosting his reaction speed, Ryan needed a second for what had happened to sink in. Both Ryan's jaw and the jaw of his attacker dropped open as they watched a ring and pinky finger go tumbling off to skitter across the white marble walkway that let up the path to the main building. For Ryan, this was a less than ideal move as it allowed the blood spurting from the injured hand to get in his mouth.

 

The student pulled back and staggered, staring at his fresh finger stumps. Blood gushing down his arm, the attacker stared at his injured hand in disbelief. His eyes were as wide as dinner plates with mere pinpricks for pupils. Ryan started to spit out the blood in his mouth, "ACK! *Ptu* What fresh Hell is this?" He wiped at his face and the front of his uniform, "I Just BOUGHT THIS!" He pulled his head back and looked down himself to get a better look at the spray across his 'school uniform'. Everyone else was shocked into silence while Ryan muttered to no one in particular, "Do dry cleaners even exist here?"

 

Someone in the crowd screamed.

 

The sound jolted Charity out of immobility and she grabbed Ryan by the shoulder to yank him back, "REED! What were you thinking???" Ryan responded indignantly, "Hey! HE Punched ME!" He brushed off her grip, "Don't start nothing, won't BE nothing!" Ryan looked around and boosted his speed so he could quickly scoop up the fingers, "Charity, You got a healing potion, right?" He held the fingers up and wiggled them a little, "I'll hold them in place, you feed him the strongest you got."

 

Just then the leader of the Trio said, "You are not touching Aaron!" and stepped up to punch Ryan, but stopped as he suddenly realized what he was about to do. It was clear he wanted to beat the arrogance right out of Ryan, but was now afraid of the very idea of touching him. Ryan just quirked an eyebrow, "Seriously?" With one hand, Ryan held up one of the severed fingers in such a fashion to look like he was flipping said leader off. With his other hand he reached for the leader's face, fingers spread wide, "I don't have time-"

 

"SIR REED DEMONSLAYER, BLACK KNIGHT OF THE REALM, WHAT ARE YOU DOING???"

 

Reed flinched and looked back at Charity who was standing there. Her arms were crossed, her brow furrowed, and a most angry frown upon her face. Ryan seemed to shrink a little into himself. He replied to her question with a little bit of a whine, "I was going to encase his head in a bubble of water until he passed out?" Ryan smiled at first, but it turned into a grimace, "Now that I'm saying it out loud maybe that's not a good-"

 

Charity interrupted Reed and stepped up to the leader and spoke in a respectful, yet soft tone, "May I know your name, Milord?" The leader looked from Reed to Charity and back again a few times before he answered, "Lord Thomas Hargrove." Charity nodded, "Ah. You are the son of the count who protects our northern borders. Lord Alexander Hargrove, yes?" He nodded, but kept glancing at Ryan. The crowd had gathered around, but nobody was getting too close. Nobody was interfering, but nobody was helping either.

 

Behind Thomas the friend who still had all his fingers, was wrapping a handkerchief around Aaron's hand in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Charity smiled, and bowed her head, "Lord Thomas Hargrove, I happen to work at the palace at the infirmary and I make a habit of carrying healing potions. Before this gets much more out of hand-” She paused, “No pun intended.” She sighed and mentally chastised herself before continuing, “Perhaps you'd allow me to reattach your friend's fingers?" She bowed even further. Behind her , Ryan slowly held up the two fingers and waggled them at Thomas.

 

Thomas swallowed nervously and looked around to see everyone was looking at him, and then over at his two friends and the ever increasing amount of blood dripping to the stone walkway. The bright crimson was standing in stark contrast to the white marble. Thomas turned back to Charity and nodded, "Agreed."

 

Ryan rolled his eyes, "Finally." He sped up to approach Aaron so he'd have no time to react. Ryan snatched the bloody handkerchief away leaving it to fall to the ground while he grabbed the wounded hand, "Hold still." The two fingers in Ryan's hand became encased in a bubble of water which Ryan directed to flow over the injured appendage. The fingers moved into place. Ryan frowned, "Whoops!" and the two fingers switched places. Ryan let out a nervous chuckle, "Almost got them backwards." Aaron went even paler after that comment. He started to stagger as if he was going to faint.

 

"Whoa Whoa Whoa!" Ryan exclaimed as Aaron collapsed. A beanbag sized bubble of water appeared under Aaron to cushion his fall. Oddly enough, Aaron didn't fall into the bubble, but merely rested on top of it. The surface tension was strong enough to support him. It didn't need to hold him for long, as Ryan only used it to get the lad to the ground, then had a smaller version flow under Aaron's head to keep it supported.

 

Charity slipped a hand behind Aaron's head and with the other held a purplish fluid to his lips, "Drink. It should only take a minute to fuse your fingers back on." She snapped her head towards Ryan, "YOU... hold those fingers in place, PERFECTLY." Aaron gulped down the potion, but said nothing else. Everything about this was absolutely surreal, but the fact that a maid was verbally dominating a noble was the strangest thing of all.

 

On one hand, to allow a commoner to berate a noble was against everything most witnesses believed in. On the other hand, she seemed to be the only one able to CONTROL Ryan, so for now, everyone just kept quiet, especially Aaron, who was gritting his teeth as the sensation of pain slowly returned. Ryan reduced the bubble of water around the fingers until it was a shimmering, thin coating over the whole of the hand. Surface tension alone was keeping things in place. In fact, the pressure was enough to force any blood that had covered the hand back inside. Aaron watched in fascination as his blood seemed to flow back into him, like bleeding in reverse.

 

Ryan wasn't happy. He crouched next to Aaron, holding on to his hand at the wrist and concentrating to maintain the water envelope. He looked pissed off about the entire situation, but for the moment, he was biting his tongue. That was going to end, because Charity was about to kick this hornet's nest. Charity pulled out a fresh handkerchief from her many pockets and wiped Aaron's forehead. She was looking at Aaron, but clearly was talking to Ryan as she softly remarked, "You didn't have to cut off his fingers." Ryan scowled even more, "HEY! I didn't cut off his fingers! I set up a damage field and he punched me!" Ryan rolled his free hand in the air, "How was I supposed to know he was so fragile his fingers would fall off?"

 

At this point, a group of people were forcing their way through the crowd. The crowd was parting to make way for the black clad disciplinary committee, "Out of the way!" and "What's going on?" could be heard from the back. The group was led by the chancellor's son. Kyle's distinctive long green hair was pulled back in a ponytail and quite visible through the milling throng.

 

Charity didn't look at Ryan, but kept talking in a tone that seemed most judgmental, "There were other choices other than this... damage field." Ryan pointed at Thomas, "HEY! When I used it on him all it did was poke him a bit! That's what it was supposed to do!" He pointed at the hand he was holding and presented it to Charity like it was evidence, "It wouldn't have done this if he knew how to punch right!"

 

Charity snapped her head to look at Ryan, "Why did you impale ANYTHING???" Ryan looked exasperated, "It seemed Poetic! You punch me, your hand gets mangled! Ironically, I'm a big fan of Irony!" The disciplinary committee finally made its way to the center of the crowd, "Alright! What's going-" Kyle spotted Ryan crouched next to Aaron and felt a wave of apprehension. Sweat started to form on his forehead,"-on?" Ryan glanced at Kyle and spoke in a sarcastic tone, "Isn't it obvious? I'm reattaching the fingers of the guy who tried to punch me and my maid has decided to side with him." Charity scrunched up her lips before speaking through gritted teeth, "I am NOT picking sides, I'm merely pointing out-" Ryan cut her off, "What you are doing is being a bitch."

 

Charity froze.

 

Ryan winced as he just realized what he said.

 

Kyle cleared his throat, "Well as the-" Charity abruptly stood up and interrupted Kyle, "His hand is healed enough for him to get to the infirmary." She smoothed out her maid's outfit without looking at Ryan. Ryan looked at the hand and dropped the spells causing the water around Aaron's head to collapse. With no support, Aaron's head fell back and hit the stone walkway with an "Ow!" He rubbed the back of his head.

 

Ryan didn't pay any attention, instead standing up and turning to face Charity, "Wait!" Ryan reached for her. Charity shifted slightly to step just out of his reach. She looked past Ryan as she spoke, "I am sorry to offend you, Milord. It seems you need to go with this gentleman, so I will go make sure your luggage is taken care of." She spun on her heel, clasped her hands in front of her, and started briskly walking away, head lowered. Ryan took a few steps after her, "Wait wait wait!" But realized unless he was willing to physically restrain her it was pointless. She kept walking away. The crowd just parted, letting her walk on by. They watched her leave, then turned to look at Ryan.

 

Ryan smacked himself with an audible facepalm. He dragged his hand down his face then opened his eyes to look out through his fingers. He slowly turned to focus on Aaron, who was being helped to his feet by his friends. Ryan spoke in a voice that seemed to ooze malicious intent, "You..."

 

Kyle interposed himself between Ryan and Aaron, "Hold It! All of you are going to come with us to the infirmary to make sure that all injuries have been taken care of, then we will be bringing this matter up with the headmaster.” Kyle stepped closer to Ryan using his height to be as intimidating as possible. Everyone else held their breaths in anticipation of what would be the result of this confrontation.

 

Ryan looked up at Kyle with a flat expression. Eventually he threw his hands up into the air, "Fine!" He turned to start walking towards the main building, then kept on turning, making a full rotation to face Kyle again, "But since I got a soap box I'm going to have my say." Kyle seemed confused by Ryan's turn of phrase, thus giving Ryan time to take control of the conversation. Ryan pointed at himself, "I don't want to be here." He pointed at the ground, "THIS is a waste of my time." He pointed into the distance, "I should be out there murdering demons, not wasting my time with high school drama!" He gestured to the royal carriage in the distance, "I was FORCED to come here for some... King only knows reason!"

 

He leaned into Kyle's personal space, "I just wanted to go to my room when these three dickheads try to bully me and I just can't help but notice that-" He stabbed a finger up at Kyle, "YOU and all of your jackbooted thugs are nowhere to be seen!" He stepped back and held his arms wide, slowly spinning around, "Hey! After all, only a Halfling getting shit on, RIGHT?" The crowd all reacted with shock at Ryan actually calling HIMSELF a halfling. This wasn't just rude at this point. This was the social equivalent to tossing a thermite grenade into a room full of kerosene.

 

Ryan came back around to focus on Kyle, "Isn't it funny that just as soon as that halfling starts to WIN-" Ryan pointed two finger guns at Kyle, "Guess who comes a-running!" Kyle blinked and started to sputter a defense. Ryan cut him off, "Oh CAN IT, you racist asshole! I offered you an apology before and you spit in my face." Kyle's look was nothing short of utterly dumbfounded.

 

Ryan shrugged, "And since I wronged you, that's your call. You don't have to accept a HALFLING'S apology." Kyle cringed at the very use of the word, "So bring me to the headmaster." He looked around the crowd, "I'm sure all of you are looking forward to the HALFLING, getting kicked out over this BULLSHIT, but just know this..." He started for the main building, seemingly daring people to get in his way. No one did.

 

"Nobody is looking forward to getting kicked out of this mutherfuckin' dump more than ME."