The next thing he knew, Marvin was on the floor with Chiron helping him up, and Eobard helping Kara, who had a shocked expression on her face.

“What-what happened?”

“Look down, Marvin.” instructed Chiron. Doing so Marvin saw that his right pant leg was destroyed, revealing his prosthetic leg. His prosthetic leg that now was decorated with similar engravings to the ring Marly had given him as bait to lure the Vaewolf out of hiding.

“The school has your email address. I’ll send to you the physical and mental exercises you’ll need to do in order to advance your prowess and next week we’ll get started on the theoretical parts . Also I’m sure there are some spare clothes that fit you up at Kon’s office, right?” She turned to the principal who nodded-Marvin didn’t even want to know why he’d have spare pants that are small enough for him-but the dark haired boy got the distinct impression she wanted Marvin to leave as quickly as possible.

“W-What about A-Ava?” he asks, barely able to get his bearings. Kara, apparently having seen what he saw, looked at him with empathy, while the others stared at him with considerable shock. Apparently Ava Mallory’s fate was quite significant. And something they weren’t used to discussing.

“It’s not our place to tell you Marvin. I think you understand that.” explained Kara.

And Marvin did understand that. He supposed that whatever happened to Ava was what had Adam, Marly and CB on edge. That it also weighed heavily on the adults in this room, so he didn’t push them further.

Leaving the room through the elevator he and Chiron came through, his mind was focused mainly on what he had seen in his vision. But as it stood then, he coulnn’t wait to get home and rest, finding himself even more tired than when he fought the Vaewolf.

Walking out of the school there was relative silence. There were only a few people on the street, and aside from the mildly uncomfortable pants that he still didn’t know how to explain to his grandma, there wasn’t much to distract him from his thoughts.

Namely his thoughts surrounding one Ava Mallory. In his vision of the past he promised he’d help her. What that entailed, he did not know. Nor did know if he was actually expected to or not. Hell, he didn’t even know she got into his memory in the first place. Presumably using magic, but at this point that was like saying ‘she just did’. Even with all the anxiety surrounding the awakening he had, he’d expected things to go smoothly. At least as smoothly as they could in this situation.

“Marvin! Wait up!” called out a voice behind him. Turning around he realised it was Adam running toward him. Stopping to let his dark skinned classmate catch up, Marvin noticed that as he got closer he didn’t appear to be remotely out of breath. Quite impressive considering there was a good amount of distance between them.

“What’s up man?” asked Marvin, as he and Adam began walking beside each other. Not for the first time, Marvin noted Adam’s height. They both had a slim build, but whereas Marvin barely reached one point seventy meters in height, Adam easily reached one eighty. A fact that didn’t help Marvin’s confidence when standing next to him.

“Today was your magic thing right? I don’t know much about it, but thought I’d come by the school and check on how you were doing. But by the time I got there you were gone. But as luck would have here we are again!” explained Adam, an easy smile on his face the whole time.

“Oh!” How would one explain something like that? Seeing what, he assumed, was Marly’s long lost sister wasn’t the easiest conversation topic, so he figured it best to avoid it. “You know, it-it went well. I mean, a lady that looked like she spent a tad more time inside than reasonable, placed her hand on my head, and resulted in my going on a rollercoaster of memories. And all of that happened in front of a centaur and our school’s principal. So, you know, fun.”

“Fun indeed.” smiled Adam. “There’s another reason I wanted to talk to you actually.”

“Why do I get the feeling this isn’t going to be a good thing?”

“You don’t have an optimistic bone in your body do you?” laughed Adam. “The thing is… I ran into Marly earlier today. It-it wasn’t pretty. Some words were exchanged. She ranted about how we need to stick together and what. I’m not her, or CB’s for that matter, biggest fan, but I think she has a point.” A melancholic look filled Adam’s face. Once more Marvin found himself wondering about Ava, and his odd encounter with her.

“What happened between you all?” asked Marvin before he could stop himself. He inwardly cursed himself for that slip, especially when he saw the hurt in Adam’s eyes at the question. “You don’t have to say anything if it’s too much. I was just curious is all.”

“It’s complicated.” sighed Adam. “Speaking of changing the subject, I think we should start hanging around a bit more.”

“Are you sure you’re not just making a big mistake?” retorted Marvin lightheartedly, trying to uplift the mood of the conversation.

“Yeah, I mean, you’re a decent enough guy. I’d rather ‘stick together’ with you than the other two any day of the week.”

This was not the day that the mystery of Ava Mallory would be solved. Granted, this was the day that he even found out Ava Mallory existed and that she was in some sort of trouble. It’d be unreasonable for him to expect the answers to his questions to be answered immediately.

Still, he figured he could enjoy the time between now, and whenever that revelation’s consequences were revealed.

--

Something had happened. That was all Eobard Kon could understand about this situation, and he hated that fact.

Marvin Perlie mentioned an Ava. And based on what Kara told him afterwards, it was clear that it was Ava Mallory, a person he should have absolutely any idea even exists. Well, that may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but it was highly unlikely that any of the apprentices in his school would disclose such personal information to a person they had known for a total of five days.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The boy also had no ties to the supernatural world, which left only one option: During this awakening he saw something he wasn’t supposed to. Maybe a memory that wasn’t his, or a message from a powerful magical source.

Whatever it was, he has the feeling it won’t bode well for any of them.

Kara was obviously distressed. She obviously saw whatever Marvin did during his awakening as well. There was fear, confusion, joy and a thousand more emotions visible in her eyes during that moment.

On the other side was Chiron, who was just standing there with a calm expression on his face. No emotion betrayed by it. Not even subtle hints that he was also worried, or even felt anything. Eobard had seen people hiding their emotions, primarily the negative ones, behind a steel gaze more times than he would have liked. And this was not it.

That damned Centaur knew something. He had always been one step ahead of almost everyone for as long as Eobard knew him.

“It really was Ava. After all this time…”

Eobard took a deep breath. “Kara…What did you see?”

“My guess is she was trying to contact me. But something went wrong. There was a memory-Marvin’s memory that she told him to use as a guide to find her, with the end of the summer as a deadline. And a place with strong magical energy. She was the one that sent that message. I could sense her life, her energy. But she wasn’t alone. There were two others. They were older. They were…Vampiric.” she explained, with a quiver in her voice. Vampires hadn’t interacted directly with anyone in centuries. If they had started moving, then there was untold devastation on the horizon.

“Could you tell their age?” asked Chiron. At the confused looks of the two humans he elaborated “It can help us identify the level of the threat. Not in exact numbers of course. Did you get the feeling they were ancient, recent. Perhaps anything unique about their lives? The energy they gave off?”

“Well, one of them felt powerful. As if it was an ancient, living magical item, as crazy as that sounds. An item that has absorbed tremendous amounts of power. The second one was powerful as well, yes, but less than the other one. That was definitely more powerful. More mature, reserved. They also both felt strangely incomplete. It was unlike anything I have ever even heard of. I don’t know how much sense that makes.” responded Kara. For a second Eobard thought he saw fear, pure terror etched in the centaur’s dark eyes. It however vanished just as quickly.

“Actually it does. The Association will want as much information as possible in order to advance. It appears to me we are dealing with stronger forces than I suspected. I'll inform the heading council as soon as possible. We must prepare at once.” explained Chiron, already turning to leave as if the conversation had ended.

“You’ll do no such thing.” stated Kon, readying himself for a battle. Chiron probably was sensible enough, but he was still a centaur, and the white haired man didn’t trust him enough to be relaxed around him. “There are a lot of things you’re not telling us werebeast. I’m tired of your games.”

“I have seen more people fall to their pride than you can imagine Eobard, some of them-more than I care to admit-were even my students. My friends. A delicate balance that we have worked for centuries to establish could be broken. This is bigger than you. Accept that fact.” His condescending tone and the way he looked at Eobard over his shoulder made the principal's blood boil.

Not that he’d ever admit that, giving Chiron that satisfaction of knowing he got to him.

“This is still my school. My call. I am the commanding officer here, and I will not let you turn this into another doomsday event. Or do you need a reminder of what happened five years ago?!” He realised he was shouting, but looking at the calculated look of calmness in the other man’s dark eyes, the lack of emotion they radiated, he was determined to get a rise out of him.

“I assure you, I regret every part I played in that disaster. It is also precisely because of that event that we need to call in for backup. No matter any mishandling back then, do not forget it was not us who began that conflict.

“Moreover, no matter how great you think you are, or how great you once were, you can’t fight this with children as your troops. And don’t try to take the moral high ground. You don’t deserve it.” snarled Chiron. If that was how he wanted to do this, then fine. Let’s do this.

Eobard striked the Centaur, who blocked his attack. Chiron striked back, only for Eobard himself to block. Chiron changed from his human form to his Centaur one. The white haired man realised he was at a disadvantage without any weapons, but he’d just have to make do.

Suddenly a blast of air knocked the both of them back, which prompted them to look at Kara. A heptagram was glowing in her hand, and she was holding what appeared to be a silver lighter with a heptagram that has an alchemical fire symbol in its center in the other.

“Enough both of you!” she shouted. “This isn’t the time for your nonsense. You are both regarded as two of this generation’s greats. Act like it. While I don’t fully trust the IDA either, we don’t have much choice. We can’t move as it would draw too much attention from people we don’t have the time to deal with.” Turning to Eobard she had an empathetic expression on her face. “Kon, you need to remember you don’t have a military force here. You have teenagers. Kids. Kids that won’t be ready for a full blown battle any time soon.”

“Fine then! At least send them out as recon. It was Marvin’s memory that Ava hijacked. He needs to be the guide, and the other three need to be there because he can’t go at it alone. Their trip will be disguised as a school activity to wherever they need to go. I think they’ll have adequate training for their journey. I understand that this is most likely a trap. We can’t risk going in blindly. If we send them in first they can gather information unnoticed. We will have the advantage. Can we agree on that?” asked Eobard.

The other two nodded, but both seemed hesitant. To be blunt Eobard didn’t care. What happened last time cannot happen again. Chiron turned to leave once more, although how he was going to blend in since he couldn’t change to his pure human form without being buck naked from the waist down he didn’t know. Or care. Kara looked at him with concern.

She probably thought that sending in their recruits was too risky. She wass right of course, she didn’t take part in the last conflict. She didn’t see the horrors the Association’s mishandling of that situation brought.

“I suppose I should leave you to your own devices.” he told Kara, somewhat awkwardly after the tension had subsided.

“Whatever connects you to Marvin Perlie, however bad it may be, you can talk about it you know.” She placed her hand on his left shoulder, barely grazing the start of his prosthesis. He thought about the day he lost his real arm. He thought about his friends. His friends who made the ultimate sacrifice. His friends that he failed.

“It was five years ago, on the day I lost everything. I-I also failed to help him. His parents died because of our fight. I couldn’t help anyone, anyone but him. So I thought I could at least give him the chance to live his life as normally as he could. And you saw how well that turned out.”

A quiet chuckle escaped Kara’s lips. “He has potential as a sorcerer. Maybe after all this ordeal is over, and he starts growing you can see that maybe this is the path he was meant to take. And even if it’s not, you can help him find what that is. Have one good thing come out of that day.”

Clenching his right fist Eobard makes a silent promise to himself. To everyone that fell on that day. He will protect Marvin Perlie, he will do everything in his power to do so.

“Yeah. One good thing.”