It was around ten minutes since the school day had ended and he was fixing up some of the mess on his desk, including papers, staples and sticky notes all around. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door that made him jump, making him drop two of the sheets he had just decided to throw away. He kissed his teeth in annoyance, calmed down quickly and called for the person at the door to come in. The door opened and there stood his worst student, Vlaire.

"Vlaire, what an odd surprise."

"Yo teach. I'm here to return this." She threw the story book at her teacher, who narrowly caught it.

"Vlaire, please don't do that again." He begged in between nervous laughs.

She walked over and sat down in the chair opposite his desk.

"Teach. I want to ask you about the 'Collapsing Sun'." She said seriously.

He smirked and sat down as well.

"What would you want to know about one of the ten mysteries on this planet?"

"Just some recent news on it. Nothing too serious."

He rummaged through his messy cupboards and filing drawers until he found two newspapers from the two weeks prior to the current. He passed them over to her. "I read these in the past two weeks and saw news on the Collapsing Sun. People were saying they were being inflicted by its power to make them constantly think about the Collapsing Sun and have also had highly surreal dreams of its existence. This week, many were seen travelling across the world and were interviewed. They all said they had a dream of 'Collapsing Sun', and were told to hunt it down. However, these were all brushed off as rumours. I think I've seen a few travellers in the town a while ago actually."

Vlaire looked down from her teacher who was done speaking and to the two newspapers. One from the week prior and another the week prior to that. She reached for the one from two weeks ago and read an article on it.

'A rare group of people across the world have been claiming to have had dreams of a treasure called 'Collapsing Sun'. They all state that it has been inflicting their minds, making them constantly obsessed with the idea of it until they decide to go and look for it themselves. Here's a statement written by Jacob who has also had the supposed dream, "I can't stop thinking about it. It's like its forcing me to go and look for whatever this treasure is, even though I've never even heard of it since my school days. I hope this whole thing just blows over.".'

Vlaire gave the newspaper back to the teacher and opened the next one, which was the most recent on it. It looked like the story had gained attention as it was now number five on the Breaking news list.

'Many have been seen travelling across the world as of today. They all speak of the treasure 'Collapsing sun', here is a statement by jack, "If I keep having these dreams about this treasure, then maybe it's actually worth it. I want a better life after all.".'

Vlaire handed this newspaper back to her teacher as well.

"Looks like you have an idea of what's going on."

"Yeah. Ever since I read the story it's never left my head, like a scratch that I can't reach."

Her teacher stood up and opened his office door. "I think it's getting late. Maybe you should go."

"Yeah. Thanks. Clean up your office too Teach." She said

She stood up and left the room quickly. Her teacher shut the door behind her slowly but also in annoyance of what his student said, continuing to attempt the challenge of clearing his messy, paper littered office.

"Looks like this 'Collapsing Sun' is becoming a lot more known. If I want to find it I'm going to have to pass that entrance exam to the top mage school in the world. I wonder why people are having dreams of it. Being sixteen and all, I'm going to have to start pulling my own weight."

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As she walked, she passed a boy and his father on a horse travelling to the houses ahead. He was Vlaire's age and had just moved into the town. He had dark black hair and dark purple eyes, which looked intoxicating to stare into.

"That girl with the short brown hair we just passed. She looked cute didn't she?" His father teased.

"I didn't even see her. By the way, you think our moving carriage is at the new house already?" The boy asked.

"I'm sure of it Ryuga. After all, they left before us. I'm hoping we can have a fresh new start since your mother's death and all." His father replied solemnly.

Ryuga didn't reply and stared at his hands. His father noticed and made sure to reassure his son.

"Don't worry about school. If anything happens make sure to tell me. Never be nervous when I'm around!"

Ryuga nodded reluctantly, and the horse ride continued.

She took a few steps past the fence of trees and entered an open and wide grass field, a well in the middle being the only thing in the entire vicinity.

"This should be a good enough place to train." Vlaire said, beginning her stretches.

She didn't understand why she had become so interested in that treasure. Maybe it was that obsession thing everyone in the newspapers were talking about, making them think about the Collapsing Sun until it was the only thing on their mind. If she wanted any chance of leaving home and finding it, she would have to enrol into a new school away from home as an excuse, and go find the lost treasure with the freedom she would receive from going there. Vlaire thought about it and knew that going to Herring academy was her best option. Not because of its prestigious level, but the amount of freedom students were given. This would provide her a chance to go and find the treasure.

Before coming to the open field, she made sure to read up on how to enhance magic abilities by searching around in the school library. From what she read, exhausting the body and then meditating was the most tame ways of training, but being placed into a life threatening situation would awaken innate abilities instantly. She went down and started doing crunches, push-ups and squats, consistently and in six sets of twenty each. Exhausted, she took a ten minute rest, making sure to gulp down every drop of water in her water bottle. She then began running around in a set route but as she was almost ten seconds into running, her legs gave out and she was breathing heavily on the floor.

"I'm...so done with this." she thought while gasping for air.

She saw this opportunity to close her eyes and meditate, focussing on the feeling of magic in her body. Some magicless people didn't know how it felt, but since she used a tiny amount of fire magic back when she was younger and first acquired it, Vlaire knew exactly how it felt within her body. While meditating, she felt her body getting hotter. Not extremely hot, but cosy and warm, as though she was in bed after waking up under the covers. She opened her eyes and saw that her body was engulfed in flames. Not a single inch of her body was not on fire. She yelled in fear and tumbled backwards, her legs tripping over the brick well edges, causing her to fall straight down.

She was screaming louder than she had ever before. The well was old, and she had never seen anyone come to these parts of the town before, so her only conclusion was that it was dry and the bottom was rock solid dirt.

"This is it for me... Why did I suddenly get so interested in that dumb treasure!? I did this to myself..." She thought, as she fell to her supposed certain doom, still yelling at the top of her lungs.

"Shut your trap you little brat!" Someone shouted from below.

Vlaire immediately opened her eyes, hope slowly filling them after hearing someone down below. Suddenly, she saw a blast of flames coming up from down below her. Not knowing what was going on, she closed her eyes again. As she opened them, she found herself back in the grass field and no longer falling in the dark well. She was also no longer coated in flames from her magic test trial.

"What...happened?" She asked herself, stunned.

"I happened you loud mouthed kid." A female voice said from behind Vlaire.

Vlaire turned around immediately, startled by the sudden voice and looked up at the majestic being in front of her. A woman shaped in fire, dressed in royal clothing and had enflamed hair floated above the ground in front of Vlaire.

"I am The Scorching Empress. A spirit who just saved your life. Thank me by repaying me!" It demanded.

Vlaire had no idea what she was looking at, but knew that ever since she began her journey to find the Collapsing Sun, her life had become more abnormal, and she knew that it would only get even more strange in the future.