Maple's dreams had been in chaos lately, a lot was happening around her and her body was trying to digest all the emotions she was going through. To get a relaxing start to the day, Maple went with a cup of hot chamomile tea. She also gave her mother a call. The time difference made sure she would be awake at this time. Maple had told her she would be looking for another job, so they talked about the option for a while. Whether Maple wanted to try some new or would stay in the same business.
The small town did limit the possible jobs Maple would be able to find within a 30-minute drive. It did have a small industrial area with different small companies. Maple sent off a couple of unsolicited application to some companies that might have her interest. There were a couple of tech companies, a cereal manufacturer, two hardware stores and a few supermarkets within a 15-minute drive.
Maple did not mind getting a temporary job just tot pay the bills. It was usually not the kind of employees that was hired though. She was qualified for a job that included team and project management, so some kind of development or a job like receptionist or secretary would be fine.
Hopefully, someone was in the need of a capable young lady like herself. If she had not heard back tomorrow she would give them each a call and try to advertise herself a little.
Today Maple had plans. She was going to meet with the Blackwood family after lunch. Before that it was back to cleaning. The decorations from the festivities the day before had to be packed away, and she wanted to finish cleaning the upstairs.
Maple took down the decoration, vacuumed the webs, dust, and dirt brought in and wiped of the fake blood from doors, windows and the floor. Especially the upstairs toilet where she had gone a little crazy with the blood.
The second floor had a hallway with four rooms and a bathroom. Two smaller bedrooms, a large one, an oblong one and a hallway.
Before moving on to use the paint she had bought, Maple wanted to fill her stomach with a healthy breakfast sadly she had forgotten to buy eggs and bacon. Instead, she took some rye bread with butter and toppings that she had purchased yesterday. It was healthy, dense and quick to make. Happy and satisfied Maple got to work painting the walls white.
2 hours ran by fast and Maple had to get ready to leave. A quick shower to remove any paint marks from her skin and droplets from her hair and she was ready for action.
Maple had not been sure how exactly see would find her way back to the Blackwood estate. She still had the general diretion, and last time she had managed to get back home, so she had thought it trivial. After a while of wandering the woods Maple did not find herself any closer to the estate. Was she lost? It was her second time in the woods making it impossible for her to recognize anything. She had not even noted down any landmarks for reference.
After retracing her steps to once again find her house she tried a second time to find her way. Once more she found herself lost with no idea why she could not get any nearer to the Blackwood estate.
Luckily, Maple had left well before the agreed upon time. Her intent had been to go exploring, but instead it was spent getting lost. If only the GPS in her phone worked here.
As she gave up and started walking around randomly she once again felt a presence watching her. Just like the one she felt on the way back from the Blackwood estate. Looking around she could not see anyone.
She tried scanning the tree line until she saw something yellow flash by. Not sure if it was a yellow animal or something like a piece of plastic Maple try to approach the area where she had spotted it. She could not find it, but just as she felt lost again she saw another flash at the edge of her vision.
As Maple followed the yellow flashes she soon found the forest growing darker, and before she knew it she had arrived in front of the Blackwood estate.
Had it been some kinds of will o' wisp, leading her through the woods? Not all such stories ended happily. At least this one had been helpful. Giving the forest a small bow in thanks, Maple tried to commit anything noteworthy to memory. She wanted to avoid getting lost a second time.
The forest surrounding the Blackwood estate was a lot darker than Maple remembered it to be, but she really had not paid attention the last time. The forest was cloaked in darkness as if it was night. The trees were in lack of leaves even considering it was fall, so they definitely were not what blocked of the sun. The leaves were dark brown, unlike the ones by the house which had been almost spring green.
The ground also appeared free of leaves, but instead it had a lot of smaller bushes of different types. Most of them were the prickly kind, such as thorn bushes, some dry heather, thistles, nettles and holly.
It most likely was not possible to locate the Blackwood estate by the vegetation and had the transition been clearer she would have known to take the dark path. Not that following the dark path of the forest was a good idea based on any cartoon.
The estate was rather well lit much like a street illuminated by streetlights. Though it did not come from a light source, instead it almost seemed as if by magic.
After walking a tour around the place Maple went to knock at the door. The person opening the door was a very slender man in a butler suit. He was almost skeleton thin with even thinner hips almost to at cartoonish degree.
Maple felt herself freezing in place, the hairs in the back of her neck lifting and could not help trembling a little as her blood ran cold. The butler was without face. Gulp. Not just any slender man he was the Slenderman. He appeared humanoid if you ignored the slim hip, long limbs and faceless head. His suit suited him well, it had small details that seemed to move in different patterns. It was quite beautiful.
It took Maple a while to realize she had been staring. With a small cough to clear her throat of the embarrassment she introduced herself "Hello, I believe we have not met, I am Maple and have an appointment with the Blackwood family".
The face of the butler then proceeded to split apart like seeing the invisible Cheshire cat smiling. Unintelligible sounds then came from his static mouth without any movement whatsoever. 'Ahh.. so unnatural' Maple thought as she flinched a little, even Lisa's mouth of cloth had seemed natural not to mention the sounds.
After the unintelligible sounds, he indicated her to take a seat in the foyer's comfy looking sofa. He most likely noticed Maple's incomprehension as he cocked his head slightly to the side. But Maple was quick on the uptake and went to sit down. The butler proceeded to turn around and glide off like some game glitch or spectral apparition.
Maple barely made it to the sofa as she collapsed. That had been unexpected. Maple had seen people in skin suits before, both at parties and at Halloween, but this had been on another level of wrong. It was the first time Maple had felt how deep the uncanny valley could be in real life.
Lara quickly appeared with Chipp, snapped her finger once and guided Maple further into the property. There was still time, so Maple got to see what the others were doing. Axel had been power napping from the ceiling, Lisa was reading her book of cantrips, Dave was making lunches and James was ... head standing in the corner staring at the wall? Was he sleeping like that?
To each his own I guess...
While Maple looked around she got to pet Chipp which was an interesting experience. It did not have feeling of mass or force but still a tactile feedback like touching a soft cloth blowing in the wind.
As Dave was making lunches Maple went to ask Lisa if she could also have a peek at one of the textbooks. When Lisa asked Maple thought about it. Since this was clearly not an area on earth that she knew of. This might as well be a different world, and it was not as if Maple had ever read something about other worlds. So Maple just pointed at random thinking it would be interesting no matter the picked book contained. Hopefully she would be able to read whatever language the wrote in. She only had recollections of 3 books "History", "Traits and Abilities" and "Cantrips". Obviously Lisa was read "Cantrips". Among the two left, one sounded cooler than the other.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
A little luck had been present at Lisa handed Maple the "Traits and Abilities" book. Looking at the book Maple grew amazed, she had never had dyslexia, but the writing in the book reminded her of how it was portrayed in the movies. The symbols, words and sentences were flowing around the page, sometimes over each other or deeper into the book. As Maple got lost in the book she was shaken by Lisa. "Sorry about that, I forgot you had yet to be initialized to the Maze. I will lend it to you some other day".
"What kind of writting was that?" Maple asked curious after having experience it first hand.
"It's the Maze Script, using Maze magic it is possible to write it" Lisa said, only opening Maple up to ask more questions. "You will learn more at the academy" Lisa said as Maple was about to go into interrogation mode.
Looking back at the book, Maple was conflicted. Lisa had said that to read the contents Maple would have to be initiated. It was hard to say, but Maple was pretty sure she had gotten some understanding of the introduction.
The book divided living beings into groups based on their traits and abilities. It came with different explanations on how it was possible to tell the traits of a being. Rather than using species and races like on earth, they categorized people and monsters based on their traits.
For example, the Blackwood family all had some variety of an undead trait but were not called undead. Apparently evolution did not work similarly to the way it worked on earth. While you could expect your children to have traits similar to yours, they might have very different looks, eating habits or capabilities.
This did unravel some questions Maple had but at the same time it gave spawned even more questions in her mind. She might actually enjoy going back to school and listen in on such lectures.
After Dave had prepared lunches, they gathered and stepped up to the fireplace. Maple could not help thinking of H*rry P*tter as they did. If it followed the same procedure they would throw Floo powder into the fire, but the fireplace was empty.
Lara noticed the confusion on Maple's face and proceeded to explain "we will use the Santa network to travel to the academy town". "All you have to do is follow us into the chimney after we cast the spell" she said and continued to cast a [Santa Step - Maze Academy Town] spell that had a target destination. Maple had not been able to understand a word of what Lara had said as she cast the spell. The small ritual included tapping the fireplace in some kind is melody as well as a small dance.
As the others filed forward they started shrinking and elongate as they got sucked into the chimney. To be honest Maple was quite panicked but at the same time she had imagined walking into fire, so this was an improvement. To power through she closed her eyes and walked forward. Hoping for the best.
It was not comfortable to walk for long with closed eyes but as the surrounding sounds returned she opened her eyes to find herself having arrived elsewhere. Maple had not actually felt a thing. She could not decide whether to be impressed by the achievement or scared at the possibility of not noticing that she had been teleported, warped through space or whatever had happened.
Maple's nerves had still taken hold of her legs making them feel slightly wobbly as if she was dizzy or drunk.
"Wow, you are doing great" Lisa said and continued "I could not even stand after my first [Santa Step]". She did seem quite impressed, so Maple chose to take it as an achievement.
About 10 minutes after arriving a clap interrupted the murmuring of the crowd. "Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen, I will be your guide today" said someone in the crowd. Maple was not tall enough to see and could only follow the crowd.
"If you would please follow me I will take you to Auditorium A for the introductory speech of the vice principal" he said as multiple sighs was heard from the people of the crowd. Lisa also gave a sigh and Maple could not help but inquire to the cause. Apparently, both the vice principal and the headmaster were quite long-winded, and was expected to be a long and tedious speech.
Our guide felt the same and everyone perked up when he allowed people to enter the guest hall to wait for the speech to end. As watching Moses splitting the sea, people quickly streamed into the waiting room. This Included Lisa who was quick to branch off and Axel who had apparently been the one to endure it when Lisa started.
Maple did not mind as she came here for the information. There would probably be a lot to learn even if the speech diverged for a professional speech to one of the old times. James also seemed rather eager as he would get to attend a year earlier, and did not seem to mind that the speech would be boring. Lara on the other hand acted defeated as she was left behind. To make use of the time she even proceeded to pull out a knitting kit as they found their seats.
Shortly after arriving the vice principal walked onto the stage which made the hall fall silent. The speech contained all kinds of subjects be it the history of the school, the honor of attending, the potential of the students, the professionalism and knowledge of the lectures, the knowledge and preparation for exploring the maze, the achievements of the academy and its faculty, old war stories, pictures of grandchildren, rules of the school, the information about the different courses and clubs, attendance procedures and so on.
Most of the content was pretty informative. This school was one of the three great academies. This academy was focused on magic and alchemy. The other greats were a crafting academy and a knight's academy. These three are known as the greats mainly due to their long history, broad array of facilities and teaching resources. Other academies had just as high standards for their education but were narrower in scope such as the cooking school Dave had attended.
This academy dabbles in most subjects but puts focus on magic and alchemy.
Maple tried to take notes as the VP spoke, focusing most on the key points mentioned, such as the subjects offered, rules, regulation and the overall knowledge that she was lacking.
After the lecture, pamphlet was handed out to those interested. Some basic information such as a map, rules and subjects were included.
The first year sounded mostly theoretical and not much magic would be taught. The intent class was apparently the first step to performing magic.
Lisa was studying her books and talking to a friend while axel was trying to socialize.
Maple had not noticed at a distance, but Lisa's friend seemed to have 8 leg, two pairs of eyes and furry chelicera. At first, Maple had only seen her back which did not appear off, at least until she noticed the legs. Then the girl turned around and Maple froze. The inhuman face staring back was a not her first of the day but still it was unavoidable for her to pretend it was normal. On the other hand she looked cute so unlike the uncanny valley the butler had introduced, it was easier to get used to.