Elliox looked at the stack of documents on his desk. The yellow paper stood in contrast to the table, which was made of ebony. How long had he studied the information of his staff members by now? It must have been hours. As he reached for a cup of coffee, which had cooled down to room temperature, the sounds of the well known school bells rang through his office. He looked outside the window. ‘So it's already afternoon…’ The sun was up in the sky again, like any other day. Truly, nature did not care for the moods of mere humans. A swarm of birds passed his view. As he took a closer view, he noticed their unusual strong color - blue. ‘Guides of souls.’ Stroff mumbled. Elliox twitched. He had already forgotten that his vice was also in the room. The reason he referred to the birds as guides was a fairytale like myth. Blue birds were said to be help the souls of great people find their place in the sky. This belief wasn't shared among the holy mages and the church, but tolerated. In the last year's, in which the church had become more powerful and gained the people's trust, most of these old sayings and myths had become less and less popular, slowly being forgotten by the people. Of course, the oldest professor of this academy hadn't forgotten a single one, although it was questionable if he actually believed in them. He looked at Stroff. ‘Have you found anything?’ The old man's expression said enough. Elliox let out a sight. He took one last look at the outside. He could see masses of students, leaving the main building and heading towards the countless parks and gardens. As he turned around, getting ready to continue his search for any flaw that could expose a professor to be a possible traitor, the door suddenly opened. Who stepped inside, was Mr. Cloffing, carrying long awaited news. 'The examination of the body is done. The mana traces aren't enough to find the caster.’ This wasn't surprising. Not after all the previous times the culprits had managed to get rid of any traces in mana form. But Cloffing wasn't down yet. ‘After I couldn't find any clues myself, I decided to ask Mrs. Cursen for her opinion. Although she didn't seem too sure, she said the wounds would most likely have been caused by Impact magic.’ He carried the smell or iron with him. The professor he mentioned, Mrs Cursen, was a mage who focused on healing magic. Her expertise wasn't holy magic, which was known for its healing spells, but a combination of wind and water based healing. She was one of the older professors and had a lot of experience from her time before the academy. ‘Impact magic? I don't question Mrs. Cursens skill, but impact magic is very rare. Is she sure about it?’ Elliox was skeptical. Dark magic and impact magic? It sounded too unrealistic… and frightening. Impact magic was a very specialised form of wind magic. If he remembered correctly, it worked with shock waves and air pressure. Dark mages often only studied dark arts and had terrible knowledge on other elements. Was this really an exception? ‘She said that, although it was a long time ago, she saw similar wounds once in the past. But as I already said, she couldn't say it for sure.’ A small smile appeared on Elloix’ face. If a dark mage really managed to control dark and wind magic to such an extent, it would mean that controlling a third element would be impossible for them. Dark magic was a very intensive subject and consumed a lot of time. Wind magic in itself wasn't known to be that hard to master, a specialization like impact magic was another story. A human lifetime wasn't enough to learn even more than that, since those two were already very impressive. The knowledge of this one fact had refused the suspect to older wind magic users. Even if it was just by a bit, his smile widened. ‘Don’t get excited too soon.’ Stroffs words were calm, but could clearly be understood as a warning. ‘Get unfocused and it will lead to your downfall.’ Truly, he was the only one who could say something like that to the headmaster himself. Elloix smirked. ‘Don’t worry, I am not planning to.’ What could have been a normal conversation between colleges looked more like the infighting between monsters. Cloffing could hardly breath, as the two mages stared at each other. It took a moment until he caught enough breath to continue his report. ‘There is one more thing, although it may be nothing… We found something while searching through Mr. Stellox’ room. A notebook of his… I noticed that its cover was written in one of the old languages. I couldn't confirm it's contests yet, since it has strong magic seals on it, but it didn't give off a good vibe…’ Stroffs twitched as he heard those words. ‘Are you suspecting he was one of them?’ His tone was seemingly unfriendly. ‘Now now, no need to get your guard up. Let us at least hear out what Mr. Cloffing has to say, shall we?’ He sounded a bit amused by the situation. It seemed like the death of Mr. Stellox' hadn't touched him that much. Cloffing just nodded at Elliox words. He knew that what he said would have an aftermath if he didn't word it correctly. ‘I wouldn't dare to assume he was one of them… Since he focused on the old languages and ruins, of course it would only be natural for him to have such a book. But if we are lucky, maybe he already had a few suspicions and noted them down. I think it would be worth a try.’ Cloffing was unsatisfied by his own answer. Even if Stellox studied these languages, there was no need to write in them. Also, why would he place seals on the book? He wasn't the type to make a secret out of his studies, so there would be no reason for him to keep anything secret. Except for… he tried to stop thinking about that. Stellox had a great reputation. Talking bad about the dead wouldn't do anything good. He could still feel Stroffs gaze. Stroff sighted. ‘You should have said so from the start.’ Elliox seemed to consider Cloffings suggestions. He looked at the other two. It was true that this book could contain useful information. Cloffing was competent. If he didn't manage to break the seal, then it really was something. As he thought about it, Stellox' hadn't been incompetent either. He may have seemed a bit clumsy, but when it came to magic, he had been an expert. The high quality magic seal was only one of the proofs for that. That made whoever killed him even more powerful. He had made his decision. ‘Take the notebook to Mrs. Fotto. If she can break the seal, let Mr. Vonstadt translate it. Understand?’ Cloffing nodded. Mrs Fotto was the academy's only professor who specialized in magic seals and how to break them. If she couldn't do it, then no one at the school could. The only problem was her personality… The years in lonely studies hadn't done anything good for her sociability. It was a wonder how she could keep her position as teacher when she had problems even talking to her students. Well, until now, even though several students had complained about her, all of them had managed to learn a lot with her help. Results were all that mattered at this school. As the door closed behind Mr. Cloffing, Elloix turned towards Mr. Stroff. ‘What is it Mr. Harms?’ He hesitated for a moment. ‘Has something like this ever happened in the history of this school?’ Stroff looked down. He had been at this school the longest, which he was very proud of. He had survived several headmasters, even the king of Karvoc had changed several times while he was professor. In his many years, he had witnessed this academy go through many hardships. ‘A dark mage incident? A professor getting murdered in our own halls? Another one killing them?’ Stroff didn't wait for his questions to be answered. ‘I have witnessed many critical moments of this academy, but none of them were like this.’ Elliox had feared such an answer. He had read the chronicles of this academy enough times to know that this was the first time anything like this happened, but he still had felt the urge to ask this. The most reassuring answer would have been that worse had already happened in the last and that it was covered up. But that was just wishful thinking. Even if only shortly, he had known the previous headmaster. He was a righteous man, not someone who would cover up his mistakes. He looked to his right. A portrait of the academy when it was first built decorated the wall. It had been a gift to celebrate his promotion to the headmaster of this academy. Who would have thought that he would end up here, when he first started as mage for the church? And who would have thought that he would get to hunt a dark mage once more… Unlike the staff, which had never experienced a similar situation, he was too familiar with it. He smirked once again. He would end the dark mage, like he had done it so many times before. If only it was as easy to find them as it was to fight them… He turned his attention back to the stack of files in front of him. For now, this was all he could do.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Cloffing wandered through the hallway. It had been a long time since he had last been to this department. A department made up of a single person… ‘Ugh, where is it?’ Since he was unfamiliar with the lowest floor, it took him a while to find his destination. He knocked at the door… Nothing happened. He knocked again. This time, something at the other side of the door started moving. It still took a moment before the door finally started to open. It stopped after a few cm. A pale face looked through the gap. ‘W- Who are you? What d- do you want?’ The voice was really quiet. 'It's just me, Cloffing. Could you please open the door for me? I've got something interesting. Want to take a look?’ A few seconds of silence followed. One could feel how she was considering the offer. 'The headmaster sent me.’ Cloffing had a gentle smile on his face. ‘R-Really? I-I guess it can't b-be helped then.’ She sounded even quieter this time. As the door slowly continued to open, the small figure of a thin woman came to light. The room behind her was totally dark. Cloffing stepped inside. As if she knew that his eyes weren't as used to the darkness as hers, she lit up a magic lantern. ‘Thank you.’ If there was one thing he had learned in the past, then that was that she couldn't be treated like most other professors. ‘W-What did you want to show me?’ He took something out of his pocket. ‘This book..’ he laid it down on a table in the middle of the room ‘has placed some very strong seals on it.’ She took a look at it. The look at her face immediately got serious. ‘This l-looks interesting…’ ‘Do you think you can break it?’ She took a few seconds to think. ‘Mhmm. I-I think s-so.’ Cloffing smiled, now widely and happy. ‘How long do you think it will take?’ A few seconds of silence followed. Suddenly she said, now in a much louder voice ‘Ah y-yes! I can f-finish it in a-around a D-day!’ Surprised by the sudden outcry, he took a step back. Her aura had completely changed. Instead of tired and quiet, she now seemed loud and energetic. ‘T-This is it! It is g-great! G-Genius!’