alittlemirror | wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure

wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure

To say Jade is displeased would be an understatement. It's not that he cares about this detention tarnishing his record, no. He doesn't really care about his record. What he does care about is how it cuts into his studying time. He had just come across a particularly fascinating snippet on the nature of death and the soul...

(And besides, those Hufflepuffs had started it with their incessant chattering. They're like a less annoying version of Saphir, and nobody had ever really objected when he hexed Saphir. And it's not like he used a serious hex; he just sealed and removed their mouths. Easily reversible, if they knew what they were doing - and knew how to use nonverbal spells.

After all, what kind of first-year doesn't know how to use nonverbal spells?)

But someone had taken offense to his hex, and now he finds himself trudging to Professor Rammsteiner's office, growing increasingly irritated at the loss of his study time. From what he's heard of detentions, they usually entail doing useless, mundane tasks easily accomplished with a little creative wandwork. He's thought about ignoring Professor Rammsteiner's orders more than once, but he's also been told that it would just lead to more detentions and thus a bigger waste of time.

Oh well. He's here now. With one last irritated sigh, he raises his hand to the door and knocks.

"Professor Rammsteiner? This is Jade Curtiss."

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"Don't talk semantics," Jade replies, cold. His eyes narrow. There's only Professor Eichel and him now, and the bonds that tie him to the older man; nothing and no one else matters. "You know what spell you cast on me. Whatever it is, remove it."

And maybe he can learn something while that spell is being removed.

Professor Eichel's eyes narrow too, in response, his expression utterly focused on Jade. With Heine here, he can't be too obvious. Slowly, he applies pressure without looking directly at him. There's no spell. You can leave. Come back alone, later.

"I've already agreed, since Heine asked." He shrugs, hands spread wide. "I don't want any more from you, or from him."

Professor Eichel's eyes catch him, holding him in place. Jade stills, and--

Surprise jolts him into action. He whips around to face Professor Rammsteiner, eyes wide in an expression of incredulity. "You've spoken with Professor Eichel?"

Heine, who's been staring back at Professor Eichel, jaw clenched so hard that a muscle is jumping in it—also jolts at the sudden question.

"I said I would." The dog snorts, tells him he should have done more.

In the moment of distraction, Professor Eichel presses harder. He uses delicacy, knowing exactly where to push, and enough force to be almost break something.

"No you didn't," Jade retorts. Why did I trust him? He's unreliable. I knew that.

(The thoughts aren't his own, really, but he has no way of differentiating Professor Eichel's will from his own.)

"You just told me to wait." Maybe he should come back later. It's not as if he'll be able to accomplish anything when working with someone so unreliable. "What else are you keeping from me?"

Well, that was close enough, wasn't it? It's what he'd meant. Heine frowns at Jade; frustration makes the voice in his mind louder, and he stumbles briefly over his next words.

"Nothing. I just..." He glances back at Professor Eichel, who gazes upon them with a faint smile and no particular interest. "Dealt with it." Not well enough. What if—shut up, fuck.

"Are you two done?" Eichel asks. It's time to leave. Another time. You'll do better without him.

"We're done," Jade says shortly. He'll come back later, without Professor Rammsteiner to hold him back.

This didn't go as planned. But that's fine; he'll just come back later. That seems very important, somehow; he has to come back later. He needs to settle this.

Heine leaves as soon as he can, as soon as Jade moves. It's a relief. The dog is a little quieter when he's away from them.

"You're done, right?" He can leave. Or at least, he really wants to.

"For now," he mutters, giving Professor Eichel one last look before he turns to go. He doesn't speak again until they're out of earshot.

"I didn't see much point in doing anything while you were there, anyway." He speaks louder this time, a hint of accusation in his tone. He hadn't expected Professor Rammsteiner to actually help out of his own volition. The fact that he did is...nice, he supposes, but Jade dislikes having been kept in the dark about his plans. They were meant to be working together.

Still...he had come here with the intent of facing down Professor Eichel. For a moment, he feels a twinge of doubt. Should he have left so quickly?

"Why not?" He's seen Jade do many things—or maybe that's why. Because Jade did to him what Professor Eichel did to Jade, to some extent. "...never mind."

He just wants to leave this area. Being near Professor Eichel's rooms triggers a few memories that he doesn't want to remember. Shaking his head, he starts to walk away. If Jade doesn't follow, he still says nothing.

"Because--" And he falls silent too, when Professor Rammsteiner decides he doesn't want to hear. Never mind. Yes, that's for the best. Jade doesn't really want to talk about it anyway. It's simpler, better, to leave things as they are.

He stays in place, watching Professor Rammsteiner walk away. Then he leaves as well, taking a different path.

Uncomfortable as he is with the entire situation, Heine spends the night doing something more calming. He goes to the library to read an old book he remembers from his student years.

He's almost calm when he returns.

And of course, he opens the door, sees Jade there, and it all goes to shit.

It's probably fortunate that he's able to come here at all. He has a dim awareness of something missing in his memory again, and he can feel the loops of Professor Eichel's control wrapped around him, binding him tight, telling him to go to sleep, nothing is wrong, you like this, you like being with me.

He had helped himself to Professor Rammsteiner's shower while he had waited for him. Now he sits in Professor Rammsteiner's chair, at Professor Rammsteiner's desk, not doing anything aside from sitting there and thinking.

He should leave. He should...

He remembers being in this chair before, at this same desk, that first time he and Professor Rammsteiner had been together. He tries to focus on memories of that instead, instead of the endless loop of just go back to your room, you're tired and want to rest, running through his head.

It's a relief when he hears the door open. He gets up, face pale and drawn but composed.

"He did it again," he says simply.

Heine is just opening his mouth to ask, what are you doing here, and then Jade tells him of his own volition.

He did it again.

White static fills his entire head, fizzing, sparking. Heine's hands flex unconsciously.

Enough. And this time he agrees.

Heine doesn't speak before turning away and walking to Professor Eichel's room.

He wasn't sure what he expected, but it isn't Professor Rammsteiner walking out on him without warning. There's something foreboding about his expression.

Jade follows him anyway.

"Where are you going?" He asks — demands, really, as the voice in his head that whispers stop this, stop him, you know he can't be trusted grows louder and louder.

Heine doesn't answer. For a moment all he can focus on is eat him fuck him kill him then fuck him and eat him, and it's disgusting but he knows he has to... do at least some of that. Professor Eichel won't stop otherwise.

"To his room," he eventually replies. Already he's on the stairs that will take him up to the private quarters Professor Eichel lives in.

Professor Rammsteiner is behaving oddly - well, more oddly than usual, that is. It sends alarm bells ringing in Jade's head, but he pushes on regardless, knowing better than to leave Professor Rammsteiner alone when he's like this, wild and unpredictable, his curse hanging heavy over his head.

"And then what?"

But he has the feeling that he knows.

Casting one look back over his shoulder, Heine still doesn't say anything. He doesn't know what he can, and the curse is so strong in his mind that he doesn't want to open his mouth.

He's almost at the door. Without pause, he forces the door to Professor Eichel's room open.

The door slams open, the sharp noise of it cracking through Jade. He can see Professor Eichel in the room, at his usual place in his chair, although his teacher is already getting to his feet. He wears an expression of surprise - Jade doesn't think he's seen the older man look this off-guard before.

"Stop--"

He's not sure if he had been the one to speak, or if it had been Professor Eichel. Regardless, there's a tight feeling in his chest, an awareness that they're careening towards some disaster.

Professor Eichel stands, wand arm up—it's too late. Heine throws his arm forward with force that shoves Professor Eichel up back against the wall with a thump.

His eyes close for a second as he coughs, catching his breath.

Heine walks forward. The room seems small and he wants to swallow everything up; the dog has him reach out and grab him by the front of his robe.

"Heine..." Professor Eichel falters. Whatever he had been about to say dies in his throat. He's gripping his wand tightly, white-knuckled, but powerless to lift a hand to defend himself.

Jade doesn't think he's seen Professor Eichel so vulnerable before. His own wand is in his hand before he realizes it, but the wood seems to lack its usual warmth; there's something in the room, some unseen menace that seems to swallow up every shred of warmth in the room. Jade stays still, frozen in place, his heart in his throat.

"Who the fuck do you think you are? I told you." Heine's grip tightens on his shirt. "I told you."

Laughing resounds inside his head. Heine gets up close enough to smell him. For a moment he just stares into his professor's face, seeking—something. Regret or something that will stop him.

But there's nothing that he can recognize. Heine's hand closes over his throat, hard. With a sudden force he pulls Eichel by the neck forward, then back, slamming his head against the wall, again and again.

There's nothing Jade can do but watch, held in place by some unseen force. He should be horrified, he thinks, listening to the crunch of broken bone against the wall. There are better, cleaner ways to do this, ways that don't involve such brutality.

But all he feels is a detached sort of curiosity. He doesn't think he'd move even if he could. He stands there and watches quietly, expression blank, as Eichel's body gradually stops twitching.

The noise goes from hard thuds to a wet smush, wetter and wetter as Heine crushes the back of Eichel's head. Holding onto his neck rather than his head keeps his grip firm.

Time passes while Heine is listening. He doesn't really see anything; the strange sight of Professor Eichel's eyes staring into one spot in space, lightless, and the off angle of his neck seems to have gone far past shock to acceptance.

He lets go eventually and the body falls to the ground. A few pieces of cranium are only partially connected to the rest of his skull, now.

The sheer rage and joy that the dog takes from killing recedes. Heine settles back into his own body, shoulders dropping, presence fading. His limbs feel heavy. It's been a long time since he's done so much, and the effort of locking the dog away once more leaves him exhausted.

Professor Rammsteiner stops, and with it comes a stillness and silence that is disconcerting after so long. He looks, gaze travelling from the bowed figure in front of him to the corpse on the ground, and the bloody mess that covers the walls and floor. Professor Rammsteiner had been strong enough to break bone, he notes.

The pressure holding him back had faded. Jade takes a step forward, a little hesitant, then another. Is Professor Rammsteiner going to rip him apart next? He probably deserves it. But the aura of menace around him had faded, and his teacher looks tired more than anything.

"You really are cursed," Jade says quietly, more to himself than anything.

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