Cyber Mage by Saad Z. Hossain

Author:Saad Z. Hossain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Unnamed Press
Published: 2021-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

3

All Parties Are Aggrieved

The night started well for Marzuk. First of all, his black jacket fit him better than he had expected, indicating that the Ergonomic 9000 was well worth the money. His mother spent only half an hour cooing over him, lamenting his lack of a date, at the same time sniffling about how he was growing up far too fast. Make up your mind, woman!

The grand old car was dragged out of the garage, and his father filled up his allowance card, blissfully unaware that Marzuk regularly gave away this pittance to the charity school he supported.

In time-honored fashion, the school gym was the venue; alcohol and other stimulants were strictly prohibited, as was gambling; and anything else remotely fun was quickly squashed by the superintendent, who seemed to have eyes everywhere, until a quiet query to the Mongolian revealed that he was in fact using the AI’s cameras on his students. How low. Probably illegal too.

Still, it had music and lights and food, plus a horde of teenagers hopped up on sporting achievement, and while it suffered greatly in comparison to the oligarchic debauchery Fedor had subjected him to, it was still his first real party (it being very likely that all of Fedor’s guests had to be paid to attend). He was understandably nervous walking in alone. Other boys had dates, some of them, inexplicably, girls from the other schools. How the hell did they manage to pick up dates from other schools in three days? Are they wizards? Of course, not everyone was hormonally advanced yet. Many of them came in clumps, horsing around loudly. Even the most socially impoverished came in pairs, it being a high school axiom that only the very foolish would actually come to a party without a single person to talk to.

Marzuk slunk in, fully aware that even the lowest denizens of the social ladder were staring at him pityingly. Worse, he had severely overestimated the formality of this event. Everyone else was in casual clothes. What kind of yahoos don’t wear jackets to a ball? There were a sprinkling of sartorially advanced guests, but as these were members of the theater club hell-bent on pulling off an impromptu performance, it didn’t fill him with much confidence.

“Ah, Mr. Khan Rahman, always a pleasure.” The superintendent wasn’t being quite sarcastic. “Our celebrity!”

I now have the indignity of hanging out with the superintendent in front of everyone.

“How are you enjoying school life? I’ve been following your grades. Very impressive, son.”

“Thank you, sir.” Are you drunk? You must be.

“Not made any friends yet, eh?”

You don’t have any either, seems like. What’s your excuse?

He spotted Amina from far away, resplendent in some kind of tight silver dress. She was surrounded by a bunch of athletic boys, including that oaf Hinku. She caught him looking and gave a discreet wave and a half smile. She always had that air about her, as if she was just about to pop over for a chat, just on the verge of detaching herself from her surroundings, yet always delayed, waylaid, pulled away.

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