Maxwell sighted as he looked at the line of students before him. He just never could get used to waiting in line in the cafeteria. Especially in the summer, when the heat was already enough of a hindrance, wasting time like this seemed horrible to him. Because the academy was so big, there were several cafeterias, and this one usually was one of the less popular ones. Unfortunately, it seemed like one of the halls in the northern part of the building was closed. None of the students really knew why, but rumors said that it was related to the dark mage incident. After the hall in question was closed, its regular visitors went to those close by. The students from those places again went to the next halls, not wanting to eat in a cafeteria overfilled with the students from the first hall. This movement went on and on, and, like a wave, reached even the opposite parts of the school. Even Maxwell had thought about going to another cafeteria, but he didn't really expect to find one with less students waiting. At least there was one positive aspect about the current situation. Since the students from the closed hall had spread out to so many other halls, the actual number of new students at this one wasn't really that big. As he continued to think about it, he noticed why only few students had come to this hall. The temperature… The sun was, again, burning down on the academy, and this hall had many glass windows. What looked beautiful in the other seasons evolved into an oven in summer. He had only recently started coming to this cafeteria, and as such hadn't known about this. The waiting was already bothersome by itself, but the heat was unbearable… he thought about cooling himself down with magic, as he suddenly felt something cold running down his back. Surprised, he turned around. What he saw behind him were a few familiar faces, one certainly amused by his reaction. ‘Lucy, you…!’ He tried to get the ice out of his clothes. This was the downside of having an ice mage as a friend. At the sight of him struggling with the sudden cold, even the others could help but giggle a bit. Finally he got a grasp at what had fallen into his clothes. A chunk of ice fell to the ground. ‘Are you crazy?! Surprising me like this…’ Lucy didn't seem to regret it one bit. ‘You looked like you were in need of something cold.’ she tried to hold back her laughter. ‘What kind of friend would I have been if I had not helped you with the heat?’ Maxwell wasn't convinced. He looked at the others. Lucy, Finn, Alex and Lydia. ‘You shouldn't make fun of your seniors.’ he mumbled. ‘Anyways. What took you so long?’ He felt bad as he noticed they had shamelessly cut in the line, skipping all those standing behind him. He would have been pretty dissatisfied if that many people had skipped line to stand before him. But of course, he wouldn't say that now… ‘We saw Lydia on our way here, and thought accompanying her wouldn't be a bad idea.’ Fin didn't look that happy. ‘I wouldn't have, if I had known that it would take that long! Seriously…’ Maxwell couldn't really follow. ‘What were you doing?’ This time Lydia answered. ‘I was looking for Mr. Stellox'. I wanted to talk to him about yesterday's experiment. Sadly I couldn't find him. It seems like he didn't attend his lectures today either.’ She seemed a bit worried. Fin tried to brighten the mood a bit. ‘Ha! So even the famous Stellox can get sick! Or maybe he is just tired after helping us yesterday?’ Lydia gave him a sharp look. ‘It’s Mr. Stellox. And he wouldn't be tired after something like that…’ ‘Yes, yes, whatever.’ Alex also joined the conversation now. ‘I also think it is a bit weird… have you noticed how the professors are constantly on edge today? Some even seem… scared.’ A chill ran down Maxwell's spine. He had also noticed it, but had genuinely hoped that it was just his imagination. Now Lucy seemed down. ‘Do you think that… something happened again? Like, a second room or something?’ She looked uncomfortable. ‘I don't think it's something like that. This is Prestillon! It's already a miracle that they managed to build even one room with the professors noticing. A second one would have been totally impossible. Especially with the headmaster being present!’ Fin was known to be a fan of the Mr. Harms. Only natural, considering his family had several holy mages. If Fin only had a talent for holy magic, he would have had a good position in the church waiting for him. ‘Even you have to agree that something is fishy here.’ Alex had a serious look on his face. But so had Fin. ‘There is nothing ‘fishy’ here. You are just paranoid. That's exactly what the dark mages want! They can't harm us, so they want to scare us.’ He wasn't usually this naive, but when the church was the topic, he became naturally biased. Maxwell looked at the people standing before him in line. He was slowly getting closer to the food… ‘What are you getting to eat?’ The others were seemingly surprised by that question. ‘Talk about changing the topic…’ This may seemed out of context, but it was enough to distract them. ‘What is the free one today?’ The academy offered one free meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That option was mostly monotone and sometimes a bit lacking in taste, but a great alternative for those with tight pockets. A grin began to form on Fin’s face. ‘Oh, you are going with the free option today? What an unusual sight…’ He didn't usually brag about his background, but every meal, he would make at least one comment about him (his family) having more money than the rest. ‘You rich snob! Not everyone can get money shoved up his-’ Alex interrupted Lucy at this point. ‘Well, what will our majesty Lord Fin eat today?’ Of course, Fin wasn't really royal or noble, but one can fight sarcasm best with sarcasm. Alex had learned that in the many years of having Fun as a friend. ‘Oh, what a hard choice… I think I will take the -’ ‘5 basic options for me and my friends please.’ Maxwell smiled like a sadistic torturer. ‘Oh, did I interrupt you, my friend?’ Fin's face was like frozen. ‘You…’ ‘Now now, let's eat!’ Lydia took a plate and went in the direction of one of the free seats. ‘Are you coming?’ The others had tagged along, and now only Fin stood at the food distribution. A bit embarrassed, he quietly followed his friends, who were eagerly trying not to laugh. As they sat down, they didn't really talk much. Time was scarce, and so none of them would waste their time at lunch. It didn't even take ten minutes until all of them were done. Maxwell stood up. ‘As always, it was a pleasure. But I'll have to go now. I haven't really finished my assignment yet, so…’ He took his plate. ‘Where do you think you are going?’ Maxwell didn't understand. ‘Don’t tell me you already forgot about this.’ Even Fin looked disappointed. That surely was a new time low. Lucy seemed a bit impressed by his terrible memory. ‘We have a bis assembly in a few minutes. At the grand park near the Dame. Don't you remember?’ Now he understood what they were talking about. ‘Ah yes, the assembly…’ He remembered. ‘Don’t you think it is weird that they announced that on such short notice? And without telling us what this is about…’ he looked at Alex. Alex just nodded slightly. ‘As I said. It's fishy.’ Before Fin could even say anything about this, Lydia interfered. ‘Don’t start with this again. They will tell us what it is about when we are there, won't they? It won't get us anything to speculate.’ Maxwell noticed why she was so desperate to change the topic. Lucy didn't seem too well, she was clearly taken by the current situation. ‘Yes, you are right. In that case, let's go now. Even those that came in after us already started to clear their tables. It should be any minute now.’ As if they had only now realized what time it was, the others abruptly stood up. As they left the cafeteria, Maxwell just couldn't shake off this ominous feeling. The behavior of the professors, Mr. Stellox's absence, the closed lunch hall at the northern part… This all happened way too fast. He indeed had a bad feeling, but never would he have expected what was to come.

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The seats at the park were continuously filled by more and more students. Maxwell was breathless. He had always known that the academy had way above a thousand students, but seeing all of them at one place was another story… the many rows of chairs with the students fully concealed the floor. This view resembled that of an ocean, slowly flooding the beach. He grasped as he saw another wave of students reach the place. ‘Do you want to take a seat or just stand here?’ The Voice was too familiar. ‘Lydia… even you have to admit that this view is amazing.’ They hadn't taken a seat themselves yet, and were only witnessing the situation from a small hill a few Meters away. ‘What does that mean, ‘even I’? But I have to agree. You don't get to see this many mages at once often… especially not this organized.’ Fin grinned. ‘Of course this is perfectly organized! This assembly was announced by the headmaster himself after all!’ Maxwell couldn't tell if he really thought that or just made statements like this as a joke by now. He really hoped it was second.

Because they arrived so late, they could only secure seats in the far back of the assembly. ‘Do you have any idea how many students are here?’ Although he had kept quiet until now, Alex seemed just as amazed as Maxwell. ‘To be honest, I have no idea. There are far more than we could count.’ Lucy's reply was that overly calm that it was obvious she tried to hide her excitement. Maxwell looked at the stage that was set up in front of the chairs. A total of ten professors were already up there. All of them were dressed in black. It nearly seemed a bit creepy. As the last students had sat down, the headmaster stepped on the stage, followed by the vice headmaster and Mr. Cloffing. The crowd of students immediately went quiet. Those three, again, wore black. Mr. Harms looked at the mass of students. Although he didn't look at anyone in particular, everyone could feel his gaze. He started speaking. ‘Dear students, I am here to inform you about terrible news.’ A wave of uneasiness came through the students. A few started talking, but stopped a few seconds later, as they didn't want to interrupt the headmaster. He continued with his speech. A few minutes went on like that. He talked about how dangerous these times were, and still appalled the students to stay calm, without even revealing the information this all was about. Then, he stopped for a moment. His following words would have a greater impact on the students than they could have imagined. ‘I am to inform you that yesterday evening, Professor Stellox was found dead.’

It was quiet. There was no whispering, no coughing or even breathing. Even the nature around them kept quiet. It was as if all of them were waiting for the headmaster to reveal that this was some kind of joke, that he and the other teachers laughed out and that Mr. Stellox would teleport on the stage. But none of that happened. The silence continued for a few minutes.