Author Note: This was originally going to be part of the last chapter, but it was all too long together so it had to be split up.
Edric stood in the bathroom at home, stripping off his Emperor's Coven uniform. Normally he would change in his room, but he wanted to see just how bad his chest looked. The impact earlier had been hard, and as the day went on a dull pain had returned. The bruises twinged mildly each time the fabric of his shirt brushed them.
He didn't tell Frederick of course, that would just be a chance for him to say that he told him so. To tell him to never have an independent thought again and don't forget to learn some more types of magic.
No, Edric just kept it to himself.
He had already changed his pants, leaving just the shirt. As he reached to pull it off, he could already feel his muscles complaining. One the shirt was off, he could see why. Right in the center of his chest was a chain of purple splotches, all aligned with where the suspect's elbow and shoulder had hit him. He poked them gently to make sure and, yes, they indeed did hurt to touch.
Edric quickly put on his replacement shirt, not wanting to look at them any longer. Hopefully they would heal over the weekend, before he was expected to report back to the coven.
Honestly though, Edric wasn't sure if he would go back. The whole week had just been one awful experience after another; he was sick of it. Getting scolded by Frederick today was the last straw.
He would take the failed grade in his class, three more weeks of this just wasn't worth it. It was time to call it quits.
Edric knew his parents wouldn't understand, but he still had to tell them. If he waited until Monday morning to try and insist that he wasn't going, there was no way that would work. If he just skipped it, well they would find out anyway and then bury him with his mask.
The only viable route was to tell them now; at least they would have the weekend to cool off after.
Maybe he should write a will first.
No, he stifled that depressing thought, he would be fine. He was quitting the internship and that was final.
Edric nodded at himself in the mirror, running a hand through his hair to get it in just the right arrangement. He didn't feel ready, but there wasn't much more time to prepare.
He left the bathroom and went downstairs, expecting his parents to be in his father's study. At least, that was where they were when Edric got home. They'd been arguing about something, as usual.
When he neared the study, he could hear his mother's voice inside. She didn't sound like she was in a great mood, which already put Edric off to a bad start. He persisted anyway, knocking firmly on the study door. His mother stopped talking at the sound of the knock.
"Come in." His father's voice said after a moment. Edric opened the door and passed through it, closing it behind him. This could get loud. "Good evening Edric." His father greeted him from behind his desk, though his mother had her arms crossed. She was likely annoyed that they'd been interrupted. "What brings you to see us?" He always spoke so formally, Edric couldn't remember ever hearing a word out of place.
Edric knew his mind was wandering as a defense mechanism, delaying the next step. He tried to focus, bringing the conversation directly to the topic of choice.
"I'm quitting the internship." Well, that was easier to say than he thought it would be.
From the armchair on the side of the room, his mother's expression soured even further. His father was harder to read. "No," He said calmly, but with a firmness to the tone that gave a little away. "You are not."
"I am." Edric stood his ground, moving to cross his arms over his chest. The movement started to apply pressure to his bruises, so he wasn't able to complete it. He flinched at the pain, dropping his arms back to his sides. Neither parent reacted to it. "I hate it. I've had to walk for hours on end, train in magic I will never use, and today I was injured by a criminal." He said criminal instead of suspect, since it made it sound worse.
His mother looked over at his father. "Maybe we should've pushed harder to place him with Nick." She said, not even responding to Edric's complaints.
His father shook his head. "They insisted on choosing his shadow, I doubt it would've made a difference."
What were they talking about? "Did you not hear me?" The volume of Edric's voice was rising. "I said I quit." He spoke firmly.
"And I said you are not." Now his father's voice was ice cold, cutting to the bone. "Do you have any idea how many strings we had to pull to get you that internship?"
That question, even more so than his voice a moment before, chilled Edric. "What do you mean?" He asked, his voice having lost the drive from before. He felt like he had shrunk, in the last few seconds.
"What your father means," his mother took over, rising from her seat to walk his way. "Is that we had to call in a few favors to secure your spot." That was the final blow, to Edric's spirit and his self-confidence. So, he hadn't earned his internship at the Emperor's Coven. No, his parents had manipulated the results to get him in.
Edric felt sick, like he might hurl. "What strings?" He wasn't sure he wanted to know, but he asked anyway.
His mother had a small curved smile, ominous in its presence. "If you must know, the Illusion Coven wanted both of you. We came to an agreement; they could pick which one to keep and the other would go to the Emperor." Edric was right, he hadn't wanted to know. The urge to vomit was stronger, his stomach churning. "You will not quit; you will report on Monday and every day for the next three weeks. Am I clear?" His mother would not accept no for an answer, and Edric was no longer prepared to give her one.
"Crystal." Edric replied quietly, but it was good enough for her.
"Fantastic." She said, waving him out of the room. "Leave us now, we were in the middle of something."
Edric glanced back at his father, who at least looked slightly concerned about the conversation. However, he didn't speak or intervene, so Edric knew it was really time to go.
He turned to leave, opening the study door. As he walked through and shut it behind him, he could hear his parents speaking quietly.
"Was that really necessary? I thought we weren't going to tell them."
"Something had to be done."
Edric didn't want to listen, didn't want to hear that. He shut the door behind him roughly, then lurched his way back upstairs.
His mind was turning, over and over. He had been the second choice, the undesired twin. He didn't blame Em of course, it wasn't her fault that this had happened. It was completely his parents' fault, for putting them in the situation to begin with. How could they do that? He didn't know.
Still though, even though he hated the internship he thought he had earned his place. The fact that he hadn't stung, badly.
He made it up the stairs slowly, then walked back towards his room. Actually no, he wanted to go somewhere else.
On his way past Em's room, he drew an illusion circle in the air. It triggered a little illusion spell in her room, to get her attention and invite her to the safest space in the house. He continued past, trusting that she would receive the message.
His destination was the attic, which could be reached via a ladder at the end of the hallway. It pulled down from the ceiling, though Edric usually just made an illusion ladder instead. The real one was covered in dust and spiders, not worth the trouble of taking down.
The attic was also full of dust and spiders, but it didn't have his parents anywhere near it and they were far worse. Edric poked his head up through the entrance and glanced around, trying to see if Emira had left a magic trap near the entrance. He didn't see any this time, so he climbed up into the cramped room.
It was a small space, not even tall enough for him to stand in, but it was well suited for their needs. Edric and Emira could see out the small window into the yard, there were plenty of boxes to sit on, and their parents didn't have any listening spells there. They used to fit better when they were younger. The only downside was the spiders, but Emira didn't mind squashing them, so again, as Edric repeatedly tried to tell himself, it was fine.
Edric shuffled across the space and sat down on one of the boxes, carefully dusting it off first. He hadn't been up here in a while, with how busy he'd been with pranks and now the internship.
A few minutes later, Em appeared through the entrance in the floor. "You called?" She said as she climbed up and fully into the room.
"I just tried to quit the internship." Edric moved subconsciously to cross his arms, but successfully stopped himself this time from pressing on his bruises.
"I assume it didn't go well." Em replied dryly, coming to sit near him on a different box.
"Badly." Edric said bluntly. "It went very badly."
Em reached over to pat him on the shoulder. "There there."
"It's been so awful." Edric jumped into complaining, ignoring the patronizing way Emira just spoke to him. "I can't believe how much walking and running I've had to do, it's ridiculous." Edric frowned at the memory of chasing the suspect today. "And the spells, ugh the spells. They're trying to teach me plant magic. Plant magic of all things." He said incredulously, waving his hands in the air.
"You can't do plant magic at all." Em replied with a nod, already knowing he was incapable of it.
"Exactly!" Edric hit a fist against his leg. "And I got in trouble today for thinking outside the rigid box they all work in. It's absurd." He sighed.
"If it makes you feel better, mine is awful too." Em was also frowning. "I'm barely allowed to do anything. For the last two days I've been powering a simple light spell, that's it, just a light spell."
"Lucky." Edric muttered, before bringing his voice up. "If only we could switch internships, that would be great."
"I wish we could." Em agreed with the idea. "But there's no way."
"Yeah…" Edric's voice faded midway through the word.
The two sat in silence for a moment, the misfortune of their internships hanging between them.
"Three more weeks." Em said quietly, as if just speaking to herself.
Edric repeated it. "Three more weeks."
They were going to have to survive those weeks. He needed to find a way to bear it.
End Note: There aren't arcs, but if there were this would be the end of arc 1.