The Otherworlders Academy - An Original Teen Fantasy

S2-Ep. 5.15 (R) - Know Your Limits

Mouth pursed, Cameron grunts vaguely in the affirmative. He has to admit, perhaps he's being a tad overly sensitive.

"Allright, then." Jake nods, determined. "So, if we can't use magic, or..." he adds hastily before he hurts Cameron's feelings again, "...use magic exclusively, what else can we do?"

Sebastian makes a gesture towards Jake and suggests in earnest, "Maybe you can shift and tear the safe open with your teeth?"

"Oh, yeah, sure!" Jake throws up his hands. "Unless, of course, you want to go ahead and pry it open with your fangs!"

The boys stare at each other for a long, tense moment, and then...

...they both break out into laughter, the sound of their relief echoing through the room and shattering the tension that'd built up around them like static in the air.

Cameron, however, is not amused.

He's still frustrated with his depressingly poor performance on the mission so far. "Why?" he murmurs, shaking his head slowly, feeling overwhelmed.

"Why what?" Sebastian asks.

"Why is the entire success of this mission resting solely on my shoulders?" He looks up, and then in response to the other boys' slightly insulted expressions, adds, "I mean as far as magic is concerned."

"I don't know, dude." Jake crosses his arms and leans back against the safe. "Like I said earlier, we're missing something here, I can feel it. But I have no idea what it might be." He looks up and seeing that Cameron is clearly buckling under the pressure, makes a suggestion. "Okay, look, we gave it our best shot, right? And none of us are happy about failing but the longer we hang around here, with no real plan, the more we risk getting caught. I say we call it quits for tonight and get some sleep. Let's try and come back in the morning, yeah?"

Sebastian grabs his waistcoat from the back of the chair. "Yeah, I'm with you," he says as he puts it on.

"Cameron?" Jake tilts his head in question.

Cameron looks at the boys and then back at the safe, feeling more like a loser than ever.

At this rate, he'll never master his powers, which means he'll never amount to anything more than a birthday party magician. "Me, a Great Mage someday..." he mutters underneath his breath. "Great Mage, my ass!" he hisses.

Then with a sigh, he snags his jacket and grumbles back, "Fine. Let's get out of here."

***

Two guards are finishing up their patrol for the night. Guard #1 points towards the hall where the safe room is.

"Let's go this way," he suggests. "I just want to check down this hall before we sign out."

"Why?" Guard #2 asks, pursing his lips. He really wanted to grab a drink at the pub before going home to the ball and chain.

His wife has been on a tear lately about having another kid, and as much as he enjoys the sex, adding one more to their brood on his Royal Guard's salary will just add more pressure for him to snag a promotion before the end of the year. "Seriously, why?" he asks as he slumps against the wall. "Why make the extra rounds when we could wrap the night up early."

"I don't know," Guard #1 says as he stretches his neck and peers down the hallway. "There were some kids hanging out there earlier. I just want to make sure they didn't take anything."

He looks over at Guard #2 and says, "You heard about what happened to Henry, right? He was fired because that ugly silver ashtray — you know the one that looks like a flattened pile of horse shit — it went missing from the anteroom during his watch. And I'm up for a promotion in the next few years. I can't afford to get sacked because of something as stupid as that."