When Mel arrived at the dragon forge the following day, the air was tense in the small classroom and Master Foss was uncharacteristically pacing the room. His body radiated tension all the way from his hiked up shoulders to his stiff knees. He kept tugging at his beard and searching for something in the room.
All the other students were already here, and they didn’t look relaxed or comfortable in their seats. Instead, they observed Master Foss with an eerie quietness and expressions of confusion plastered over their faces. Mel’s own face turned into a quizzical look, wondering what could possibly have happened here.
Her guards dropped her off in the classroom, but then abruptly turned to leave. They didn’t like to watch her as much anymore. Not since the ban on her touching metal had been lifted, and they’d grown accustomed to her daily activities. Usually, they stepped outside the dragon forge after dropping her off, standing watch at the top of the staircase. It was the only way out from the forge, anyway.
Mel took her seat in front of Will and turned to him right away. His gaze caught with hers and she saw worry in his eyes.
“What happened?” Mel asked.
Will shook his head and opened his mouth to say something, but Master Foss’ booming voice cut through the silence before he had a chance. Mel and the others turned to the front of the classroom, all eyes on Master Foss.
“The crude dagger Melissa and I forged the other day, the double imbue, it’s gone. Someone must have taken it last night and I haven’t notified the guards yet or Headmaster Lorken. But this doesn’t look good. We’re already trying to convince them to approve more tests with the magic, but now I’m afraid they might never approve. Not if we can’t find the double imbue.”
Master Foss shook his head and met each of the students' gazes. When his eyes landed on Mel’s, she averted her eyes. A heaviness settled in over her chest and her breathing came in shallow bursts.
Meredith mimicked Master Foss’ gesture and shook her head too. “What? Who would do such a thing?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to speculate on this. My conclusions are not favorable and won’t lead us to finding the culprit, anyway.”
“What’s your speculation?” Will asked.
Master Foss shook his head once more, as if they were too dangerous to speak out loud. Mel could guess, though. He probably thought it was someone working for Headmaster Lorken who was out to sabotage them and even though Mel wanted him to believe that. Since Headmaster Lorken clearly was out to destroy their progress anyhow, she needed to tell the truth. They needed to know, so she could make them see the necessity in what she’d done and join her side fully.
There was just one slight problem. One tiny bump that made Mel’s voice stick inside her throat. If Master Foss or any of the other students decided to report her to Headmaster Lorken or the governor, she would be in big trouble. They’d perhaps kill her for working with the void or at least banish her to the dungeons for eternity. A faith she could assume was worse than death itself. She’d go crazy down there, she knew that. Anyone would.
“It’s probably Headmaster Lorken’s goonies who’ve taken matters into their own hands,” Dean said. “Deciding to stop us from further experiments wasn’t enough. Now he wants the governor to mistrust us with the one double imbue item we’ve made.” He looked over his shoulder at Mel, and she met his gaze for a moment. “Mel is the one who’s got the most to lose from this. Can we really report it’s missing if it means she’ll be put in danger?”
“I agree,” Master Foss said. “It’s too much of a risk at the moment. Mel could be falsely accused of stealing the item and punished for it. We should see if we can try to find it first. But I have a duty to report anything unusual to Lorken, so I’ll put my neck on the line for this.”
Mel swallowed hard. She knew they’d all have to put their neck on the line for her. She knew they’d all be risking a lot for joining her side. But the longer this conversation went on before she told the truth, the more distrusting she thought they would be of her. She needed to tell them now, despite the risks. Before more comments about her innocence were thrown around.
Mel licked her lips. “I took it. I stole the blade.”
The words tumbled out of her mouth, not like she’d planned them. But rather like accusations, damning ones, about herself. This was not what she was supposed to tell them, but her heart was pounding inside her chest, forcing the words out in an urgency she didn’t want.
Meredith’s head snapped back, and a loud gasp escaped her lips. Master Foss' eyes grew hard, and he stared at her with brows dipped into a massive frown.
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“I meant to take it,” Mel continued. “It wasn’t to steal or take it to the void. I promise. I gave it to Austin right away. I don’t even have it anymore.”
Mel held up her hands in front of her, as to showcase her innocence.
“What the hell, Mel?” Dean said in an outburst, his hands flailing against his sides.
Her gaze flickered around the room, sometimes catching Master Foss’ or Meredith’s, but she never held theirs. She couldn’t. All she felt was the guilt creeping up from her stomach like an unwelcome guest wrapping its hands around her throat.
“I gave it to him as an experiment,” Mel said. “I mean to make an experiment with it. I gave it to Austin so he can pierce the skin of a beast with the blade and then activate it with the lava spell. Then we can see our idea in action and know if it will work before we create the arrowheads. That way, when you get the approval from Headmaster Lorken, we’ll just need to forge the arrowheads, craft the arrows, and shoot the dragon down.”
Mel didn’t think Headmaster Lorken would ever approve of their idea and let them actually forge more double imbues, but she thought it was best to tell Master Foss and the others a version they wanted to hear at the moment. A version that required less deceit and then, when Austin came back with the results, she could break it to them that they needed to go behind Headmaster Lorken’s back.
“No.” Master Foss’ voice cut through the room like a knife. “You’ll get the item back from Austin without him performing this test you concocted. This is not the right way to do things, Melissa, and you should know better. You have jeopardized my position, your own safety, and that of your students. How could you be so reckless?”
Anger suddenly swirled inside Mel and her veins pumped it around her entire body until it reached all the way out to her limbs. Mel used her rage to hoist herself up from her seat and placed her hands flat on the surface of her desk. She leaned over menacingly, regarding Master Foss’ hard face.
“I’m reckless?” she huffed out. “No, you’re all just cowards. What will you do if the dragon kills your families tomorrow, two days from now or a week? All because you refused to sacrifice an inch for them. What will you do when it kills the one you love? Huh? Will you stand by and just watch as Aldrion is being torn to pieces between Headmaster Lorken’s crazy new weapon and the fire magic of the dragon? I won’t. Not anymore. It was you, Master Foss, who told me we needed to do everything in our power to stop it. Did you really mean that? Or did you just mean I needed to, but you, you should save your own ass, just like Headmaster Lorken?”
Mel pointed a finger at Master Foss, and he took a step toward her. His eyes were burning now, and she saw genuine emotion in the stoic older man. He wasn’t his usual self. She had riled him up, and Mel didn’t regret it. She didn’t think she would get anywhere by being nice anymore. She needed to fight for what she believed was the right thing to do.
Master Foss seemed to notice his own change in his body language and pulled back. His eyes lost their fire and his jaw relaxed. “Do you have that little faith in me, Melissa? Do you really think I couldn’t get the approval from Headmaster Lorken the honest way?”
Mel’s anger dissolved as his disappointed tone hit her ears. Her hands fell limp to her sides, and she dragged in a deep breath. “No, I have faith in you. I just don’t have any left for Headmaster Lorken.”
The silence stretched between them and for a moment Mel forgot about the other students still present in the room. She watched Master Foss as if they were alone. Until the silence broke.
“I hate that you went behind our backs,” Will said. “But I’m with her on this. I actually think it's a good idea to test the magic before we fully commit to it and if Headmaster Lorken takes a long time to approve, we won’t have wasted the entirety of it. Then at least, when we forge the arrowheads, we’ll know they’ll work. I don’t condone Mel’s behavior though, and I think that if she wants us to put our necks on the line for her, she’ll have to be honest and upfront with us before she pulls crazy stunts like this.”
“Yeah, Mel, you could have told us yesterday,” Dean said, shaking his head. “But I guess, now that it’s already done, we might as well let Austin test it out. We can just return the item to the forge after his experiment, and then we’ll know for sure if it works. I agree with Will.”
Mel’s eyes left Dean and sought Master Foss’ again. The students didn’t seem to understand that the crude dagger wouldn’t survive the experiment. It barely had one full charge inside it. She knew it would crumble as soon as Austin used the magic and from the look in Master Foss’ eyes; he knew that too.
“That won’t work,” Master Foss said. “The item will be destroyed in the process. Melissa knew this when she took it.” He turned his eyes back on her. “You knew you’d be risking everything for this. Didn't you?”
“Yes,” Mel said, her voice only a whisper by now.
The room grew quiet again as the students processed this new information. The only one yet to speak on the matter was Meredith. Was she with Mel or with Master Foss?
Meredith let out a long sigh before she spoke. “What’s done is done, I guess. Sure, Mel could try to get the dagger back, but to what extent? It’s already missing and we’ll probably be discovered if we try to hide our tracks now. Maybe we should just accept what Mel did and tell Headmaster Lorken the item grew unstable and got destroyed. It feels like he would believe we messed up more than the opposite.”
Master Foss dragged a hand through his beard and, for the first time today, he looked like himself again. Thoughtful and considerate. “Perhaps, but I think it would destroy our chances of him approving another experiment.”
“Maybe,” Meredith said. “But from what you’ve told us, he seems to let us try more things if he thinks there is a risk we’ll fail spectacularly and blow up the forge. Rather than if we present a low-risk experiment with high chances of success. Perhaps, Master Foss, you should try playing the game for once and present a risky experiment. See if Headmaster Lorken approves of that instead?”