Chapter 1: No-name

Harmonia’s twin-brother Ant was someone who could never be on time, and she should’ve remembered that. Let’s back up a bit, shall we? Before all hell had broken loose, it was just another normal Wednesday for Harmonia, well, as normal as it could have been for her as she walked past Gardington Park, clutching her purse defensively even though no one else in the park even batted an eye at her—it was an old habit really, one that she never had been able to get rid of even after Old Mikey rigged up the invisibility shield a month ago. She had just finished her patrol shift, which was pretty successful today. There had only been a sphinx who was blocking people on the streets, but she was easy enough to deal with, once Harmonia wrote her a ticket. Harmonia’s skirt fluttered lightly as she sped up a little. She was supposed to meet up with Ant five blocks from here, and according to Harmonia’s watch, they only had thirty minutes before the first session at the Academy started. Digging into her purse, she reached for her sticker of speed that her brother gave her for her last birthday, during which he dubbed the gift the SOS. Harmonia stuck the sticker to her heel and hoped that she wouldn’t be late.

~

Ant was already at the rendezvous spot, which Harmonia knew before she turned the corner by his laugh that echoed down from the end of the alleyway. Ant was rarely ever on time, not that Harmonia wasn’t grateful, but something was off. Everything was going a bit too smoothly—first the peaceful patrol, and now her brother was where he was supposed to be. Harmonia lightened her footsteps, as they taught her in Stealth class. She spotted a splash of gold on the wall in front of his brother whose body had blocked her view from whatever made up the rest of the graffiti. Harmonia straightened her back and tapped her brother on his shoulder. “Really, Ant, you’re doing graffiti now?” Harmonia raised an eyebrow as her brother grinned, stepping back for her to admire his handiwork. “And that of a woman. Which makes no sense. By the way,” her eyes darted over to the golden can of spray paint clutched in Ant’s right hand, “Where did you get that?” “Pretty, isn’t it? I got this bad boy from Hector yesterday at the Academy. It just paints automatically for you, see?” He waved his spray can at the wall, giving a demonstration as the golden paint shot from the nozzle onto the red brick wall. It spelled out a word. Street. Streeta- No, it couldn’t be. Streetaperede. It was something that Harmonia had only ever read in a book stashed in the depths of the Academy’s library. And it was a forbidden one too, one that required special permission to even lay a finger on. How did her brother of all people know of the word? “Ant, stop.” Ant turned to grin at her, except that it wasn’t Ant. It was a creature that wore Ant’s clothes and bore Ant’s voice. It was one of those No-names, a species that could mimic any form of any sentient being—including humans. However, according to Harmonia’s copy of Modern Monsters & Mythical Beings, it was said that their disguises could only hold up for a couple of minutes before it strips away into their natural form. And by “strip away” Harmonia didn’t know that it meant that the skin would literally strip away. The textbooks gave her an impression that it wasn’t literal in its descriptions, and her monster mentor believed it to be merely a metaphor, too, but now, here she was. She wasn’t sure whether to be grateful for the lack of warning or not, because while the monster looked too horrendous to even show up in their textbooks, she might have been better prepared with a clearer introduction to it. Harmonia flicked her wristwatch, sliding out her dagger, while a copy of her brother’s skin peeled off of the monster, revealing a sticky red coat of slimy skin underneath. “Hello, Harmonia. Your brother Ant is a tasty-looking human. Pity that I haven’t yet had the chance to meet him yet. You too, girl, now that I see you properly. Human flesh is hard to come by these days, you know, what with all the patrolling that your Academy does.” “It’s necessary.” “To kill us? Without mercy, in cold blood?” “We only do that to those who did it to the humans first,” Harmonia replied, thumbing the leather hilt of her dagger. “Now, if you’ll-” The No-name lunged at her, his claws outstretched. Harmonia ducked as she moved to the left, thrusting the blade into the unprotected area that was his lower left torso. The monster shrieked in pain, his body curling up. Harmonia yanked out her blade, driving it once again into the back of the monster’s neck. The monster retched, his throat making gurgling sounds as black blood bubbled out. Harmonia backed away, not wanting to touch the dark liquid. The monster was dead within less than twenty seconds. After all, Harmonia wasn’t the best in Close Combat for nothing. Her back hit the brick wall with the woman and the half-written word. Harmonia turned around, running her fingers over the golden paint—it was still wet, and some of the paint was now stuck to her thumb.

~

“Miss Harmonia Thanatos, I’m afraid that your place on the patrol is to be relinquished.” The head mentor sat in front of Harmonia, his fingers laced together. “I will inform Mr. Ilium of your situation.” “Hector Ilium?” The head mentor nodded. “But I didn’t do this sir, I found a No-name drawing it! It was he who did it, not me. Please, sir.” “And have you any proof? Because you are a suspect, Miss Thanatos, especially since you did borrow that book on mystical texts just last week. There is no evidence to suggest that you aren’t guilty, and until you do find solid proof, you will be suspended from all patrols from here on now. Also, Miss Thanatos, if you are confirmed to be guilty by the end of Friday, I’m sorry to say that you will have to be suspended from the Academy.” “Wait, sir,” Harmonia lifted her left wrist, “the body of the No-name may be missing, but here,” Harmonia flipped her wristwatch once more, sliding her still-stained blade out, “this is the blood of a No-name. We can analyze the blood and it will reveal that I was telling the truth.” The head mentor sighed. “Leave the knife on the table for now. I’ll look into it personally, but remember, this is a very serious situation we’re dealing with. The results for the blood will be in tomorrow morning. You are dismissed.” Harmonia stood, her chair scraping the uneven wooden floor. The head mentor’s eyes were now glued to another document in his hands. “Oh, and also, tell Mr. Ilium that he can come in now, will you? He should be just outside my office.”

~

“So? How did it go?” Ant walked backward, eyeing a slip of paper stuck in Harmonia’s copy of Advanced Enchantments & Runestones. “Just get to your class, Ant. Don’t you have Monsters later on?” Harmonia sighed. Her thoughts were now all jumbled together, and she felt like there was a stone weighing down her chest. “Yeah. Speaking of monsters,” Ant grinned, “I still can’t believe you fell for that No-name. You thought that it was me? I’m your brother, Harmonia, you should’ve known me better. You of all people fell for that!” “Shut up.” Harmonia tried to turn around the corner that led to the corridor where her next class was. Ant held out his arms in an attempt to stop her. “No. You aren’t passing until you tell me what’s wrong.” “You’re in my way is what’s wrong, Ant.” “Something big happened in that office. What was it? Did he take you off the patrol? Kill you? Or worse, expel you?” Ant raised his eyebrows playfully. Then winked at someone behind her. “You are not flirting with another girl right now. I have Mr. Geras for Enchantments next, and I am not going to be late.” “I’ll talk to you later, and no, I was not flirting with another girl.” Ant nodded at her. “Got to get to Monsters now. See you, Harmonia, Hector.” “Hector?” Harmonia spun around to face the leader of the patrol squad. “Yeah, um, really sorry to interrupt you guys. I didn’t mean to intrude. Family stuff?” Hector asked. “Oh no, it’s okay. It wasn’t a family thing at all. Just a minor setback whatsoever.” Harmonia picked at her fingernails. “So, what class do you have next? I got Enchantments.” “Same here. Do you want to go together?” “Sure.” They walked in silence before Harmonia let the words slip out of her mouth. “How much did the head tell you?” Hector hesitated. “He did mention that you would be on probation for the next few days, that you would be, um, temporarily off from the patrols. He didn’t say why, though. He did seem frustrated...and agitated? Do you have any clue as to why?” Harmonia frowned. Hector was a great person, plus he was also the patrol leader despite being only a couple of months older than herself. He was trusted by everyone—the teachers, the students, heck, even the head mentor himself—yet Harmonia felt that something would go horribly wrong if she told Hector what had happened.

~

Harmonia wasn’t feeling the best throughout Advanced Enchantments and Runestones. Mr. Geras’s voice was drawn-out and raspy, his back facing the students as his chalk scraped the blackboard. Harmonia was seated in the second row, a decision that she had regretted for the past two hours since. She wasn’t able to focus on the class itself, and she often found her mind wandering back to the gold spray paint, the woman, and streetaperede. “Miss Thanatos?” Harmonia snapped back to reality, her body shuddering a little as she found Mr. Geras in front of her. “Yes?” “As I was asking, what is the maximum amount of enchantments that a human, including ourselves, can possibly handle if being enchanted upon, under the assumption that these enchantments were all performed at once?” “Umm...” Harmonia took a glance at Mr. Geras’ handwriting. Six. But that wasn’t right. The last time she read the newspapers, there had been a man who had allegedly been cursed 7 times over and was still somehow alive. However, it was an article from several days ago and she wasn’t sure if his statement was proven right yet. “Seven?” She hoped that she wasn’t wrong. “Correct, Miss Thanatos. Seven times. Now, class, in case you haven’t heard about it yet, it is indeed true that Christopher Onnes, the man who was brought in last week, had been diagnosed with seven different curses. The official report was revealed just this morning in the papers, and I highly recommend you take a look at it. “On the other hand, this is why we should not always follow the textbooks. Scratch out six, and replace it with seven. I may be eighty, but my mind is still sharp!” There was a bang on the table and an intake of breath from various students when Mr. Geras punched Harmonia’s table. “I can perfectly see who is sleeping and who is not, and when the test comes, reading your outdated, pretty, little textbooks is not going to help you. This is why you pay attention in class.” Mr. Geras raised his voice louder. “You. Out.” He wiggled his pointer finger at a boy in the back, whose head was sideways on his desk. The boy, after a very brief explanation from his friend next to him, leaped up and exited through the classroom door all within the span of less than one minute. “So, seven doses of enchantments...” And the elderly man droned on once more. This would be a longer class than she would have ever dreamed.