Shia walked the lonely white corridors. She had to climb a lot of floors. It was getting late and soon it’d be that time. She had one particular destination in mind. The headmaster’s office.

She knocked a couple of times. No answer. Of course, there wasn’t. She was the daughter of a viscount. If it was her father, exceptions could be made. But not for her. “Miss, I’m telling you, you can’t be here,” the guard said, who’d come running behind her. He was panting, she was not.

Now, ordinarily a girl would turn back.

But Shia wasn’t an ordinary girl. So, she kicked the door. She kicked it hard. Hard enough to send the door flying to the other end and crash into a table. “Good afternoon,” she said.

She completely disregarded the guard behind her who was too afraid to follow her into the room anyway. So, he promptly took his leave, damn sure he wouldn’t be paid this month either.

A man was seated on the chair behind the table, and apparently the door had hit his wig which had now come loose. He smiled and stared. An old man. But not a trace of facial hair. “Good afternoon miss. I was under the impression I didn’t have any meetings today.”

“Well, I must apologize on that end. Something urgent came up, you see,” she said. She didn’t wait for permission or whatever, she just strolled into the room. “Might be sudden but I do require your help.”

“Of what sort?”

“I need you to save Sol.”

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“He was given a warning. A very strict one mind you, but he went out on his own. It is beyond me now.”

“I’m sure one of the former heroes hasn’t gone senile just because he put on some years and lost all his hair,” she said, smiling. “Now, would you or would you not save him from your hired help?”

“Oh? You already looked into this?”

“Well, we do have an extensive network. My family could be quite scary you know.”

“Well, I’m sure they are. But are you sure, he is your family?”

Shia stared, not quite smiling anymore. “That’s for us to decide. I only came here to get an answer. And depending on it, will change how my family view’s your academy and by extension You, sir.”

The headmaster remained neutral but eventually smiled. “You’ve grown since we last met,” he said. “However, it still doesn’t change the fact that it is beyond-”

Woosh!

A wall of fire. Just outside. The mighty oak tree that stood for centuries, was burning.

Just seconds later, another explosion!

“If he dies, I won’t stop till I kill you both,” Shia said, kicking the window open. “Well then headmaster, if you’ll-”

“Alright, alright,” he sighed.

“Woah!”

Both of them started floating and they slowly descended straight to the grounds below.

“Sol!” Shia somersaulted, landing next to a passed-out boy. No, he wasn’t just passed out… he was… dead. “SOL!”

A vertical cut on his chest, blood everywhere, no pulse… no warmth… he was dead.

“This isn’t what we agreed on Alustur. You were merely supposed to scare the boy. What would I do about his-”

While the grown up were talking, Shia cried. It’d been a long while since she last cried. Yet…the tears just flowed. So much so that she didn’t see the blurry white thing bite Sol’s neck and his body radiating heat.

Seconds later his hand started glowing and so did the blurry white thing.

It grew, it grew, and it grew!

Soon, there was only the white thing and its white reddish scales… but-

“Huh?” She suddenly felt the warmth. She placed her ears on his chest and… yes, his heart was beating albeit faintly. “Sol!” She dragged him to her chest, hugging him lightly.

She was so focused on Sol that she didn’t even hear the laughter behind her.

“Ke K Eke”

Or the fireworks that was about to take place soon….