I woke up to sunlight hitting my face, and then I was brought into the awful truth that my body was in immense pain. Looking at my body, I looked like a mummy, so many bandages, especially around my abdomen and head. I am wearing a light colored gown, with white walls surrounding me… I’m in the school’s medical wing. Man, what happened yesterday? I was about to hold my head but then I became aware of a weight on my right hand. Looking at my hand, I noticed a bandaged one attached to a sleeping figure. It was hard to tell who was under the mess of dark hair. Upon pondering about it, she woke up and hugged me.

After I winced a bit, she shoved me back a bit and stood up and practically flew across a room, as if she was afraid of me. Why was she acting like that?

Her voice started out small, “Are you ok?”

“I feel a lot of pain, but I think I’ll live. What about you?” I motioned to her bandaged hand and wrist.

“It’s fine. The doctor says there will be scarring, but its fine.” She said as she looked down at her wrist.

I was curious, “What happened? Did you get cut up?”

She didn’t say anything for a moment, she just stared at me. Slowly she said, “Do you not remember?”

“Remember what? I was unconscious when that leader guy hit my head.”  She remained silent. “What happened to them anyway? Did they get caught, did they escape, what happened?”

“One escaped and one is in questioning I believe.” She said ever so quietly.

“What about the other five? There were seven of them right?” I’m pretty sure there seven.

“They died.” She said solemnly.

“Did they put up a fight? Was it the police or the school that got to them?”

Before she could answer, there was arguing outside the room that drew our attention. Before I could manage to hear what was being said. The door opened as an older lady barged in while pushing a doctor out of the way. She rushed to my bedside and got in my face. She appeared to be in her mid to late twenties. She had blue eyes and long, blonde hair set into a pony tail. She had our school’s cloak on but the color was grey, signifying she was a professor.

“Why did you do it?” She demanded.

I confused as to why she was mad, “Do what?”

She looked like she was about to blow a fuse, “You know good and well what I’m talking about. If you were that strong, you could have spared them easily, so why did you kill them?”

Ok, now I have absolutely no idea what she was talking about. “I think you have the wrong room. I have no idea what-.” I was cut off.

“Don’t mess with me! I know you are lying, just tell me why?” She was mad I could tell, but she was calm in an odd way.

Then a man entered the room, he had a white robe that I believed meant he was the Headmaster. With a gravelly voice he calmly said, 

“Calm down Professor Aurelia, he has no magical essence about him. I didn’t his eyes were glowing, but they turned to straight black. 

When his eyes turned black, it made me realize how pale his face was. He looked dead with the nearly black rings around his eyes. It was hard to pin down what age he was.  He glanced over to Karin and spoke, “Mind leaving us Mrs. Weidenmann?” Without saying a word she left the room, the Headmaster gazed upon me, and I felt the room drop below a few degrees, “Do you realize what happened yesterday?”

“No, I was unconscious when my head was slammed into the ground by that one guy.”

“Did you use magic?”

“No, Dr. Halonen said I was no different from a human. I was joining the ranks of the anti-magicsmen.” I say confused.

He looked over to the doctor and the doctor shrugged, “Perhaps a concussion caused a relapse in memory…”

The Headmaster looked down in a brood, and then he said, “No, it could be a split personality.” The room fell silent for a moment, he then looked at me again “You brutally killed five men yesterday. These men are part of The Cleansing Virtues. The Cleansing Virtues is a rebellion, consisting of mostly anti-magicsmen and a few humans. They have started an inquisition against magicsmen, being around since magicsmen rose to power a few millennia ago. From yesterday’s news, it is now known that they have set their sights on this city. 

Also, your face is well known now Mr. Valentini.”

I still didn’t believe him, and I guess it showed on my face, so he pulled up Holograph of the news from yesterday’s drone. Up until the part my face was bashed in it was as I remembered, even when that guy killed that student. The pain of me hitting my head came back when it played that part. I saw myself rise up in the video and then I went on a sickening rampage. There was so much blood, I felt sick watching my own violence. I saw knives being thrown at me, and I didn’t care. I was shot with a bolt from a crossbow at one point. I bashed peoples’ heads in the ground, splattered their skulls like they were water balloons. Thrown a hammer through one man and burnt another to a crisp. I was a monster.

After the video was over, I wanted to hurl. I looked at the Headmaster, “This is me?”

He nodded and straightened up, “Now you can no longer join the anti-magicsmen or the humans knowing that you do have magic. However since you cannot have control your magic on command yet, it would be dangerous to place you in rapid paced classes. I realized what you had used was Pyromancy, however I am going to put you in a Conjuration class, it is… a little slower than the other classes. This is until you have a grasp at your own magic. Here is your room key, once you are ready you may leave for your room at once. You have the rest of the day off considering.” He turned then paused before heading out, “Ah, report to Conjuration Class for a briefing on how rooms work.” He resumed his pace out the door with Professor Aurelia in tow.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Looking at my room key, I see the number 777b. I smile to myself, remembering my mother saying before the first fallout, that three sevens in a row was good luck. Then the image of me smiling soaked in blood came back to bring on a frown.

I kept my bandages on my abdomen from the advice of my doctor. I guess it was serious than I thought, then again I knives stuck me. I hid the bandages with my cloak as to not raise suspicion. I made my way to the North Tower. I was surprised to not have seen anyone, but I reminded myself that class was still in session. When I entered North Tower Lobby, I went to the map on the wall. Looks like I’ll need to head to the second floor and the third class on the right from the stairs.

I arrive at the door and a big breath before I go inside. What I saw was not what I expected. I expected a classroom full of nice orderly chairs and desks much like the classroom of the Diligence Core. What I saw was couches mostly around the edges of the wall and an empty space in the middle of the classroom. Most of the students were asleep in said couches. The professor was begging the students to cooperate to no avail.

When I entered I caught the attention of the professor, she put her entire focus on me, “Hmm, you sure are late, but I’m surprised you came at all.” I don’t know why, but I felt really offended.

“I was just in the medical wing, I was unconscious till now.” I defended myself, but to my dismay she had a look of doubt on her face so I lifted my shirt to show the evidence. She looked flabbergasted for a moment, so I spoke, “I assume you are Professor…?”

She snapped out of her shock to speak, “No, no, I am not the professor. The professor is so lazy that he can’t come to class, so I’m his substitute.  Though he only comes to class once a year and that is at graduation. I swear that man… Oh my name is Mrs. Valentine.”

Valentine? “Oh that’s interesting, it’s a lot like my name. My name is Nicola Valentini.”

She straightened up a bit, “You mean the one the Big Three, Valentini?” I nodded. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m part of a branch family of the Valentini’s. It’s a long story, but there is a branch that was disowned then accepted again. That would be the Valentines.” She once again looked at my face then flipped out. “You, you, you were on the news yesterday weren’t you, why are you here?”

I slowly nodded, “I don’t have recollection of that though, it appears that I didn’t have any magical essence until yesterday then it vanished again. So the Headmaster told me to come here.”

She calmed just a bit, “Headmaster Thanatos? Alright, I don’t know why he sent a wroth student is a sloth classroom, but I will trust his judgement. Since I am not a professor and we are related, you may call me April. Now then, it’s almost time for class to end so I will go ahead and tell you how the dorms work.”

I nod and sit down on the nearest couch next to snoring student, and she continued, “The dorms are located in the Central Tower Complex. Hard to miss, it is located in the center of courtyard, you have to walk around it to go to different Towers. The Central Tower Complex looks like it is multiple towers but in actuality, it only has one entrance and the towers all share one Lobby. If you look at the structure maps provided on the Lobby walls it’s easy to figure out where you go. You were assigned a room already, one tower is for humans and the other is for magicsmen and anti-magicsmen. Each Sin is assigned it’s corresponding Virtue.”

I nod once more before she finishes up, “Alright class is dismissed.”

No one moved but I got up, thanked Mrs. Valentine and left for my room.

…

I had checked the map in the lobby, and it appears I take elevator three to the seventh floor. Waiting for my stop, I can’t help but wonder what my roommate will be like. Obviously since I was a Pyromancer, I would be with Kind Core student. Kind Core, huh? Is he going to be ultra-nice or is that only in name?

The elevators makes a dinging sound as it comes to a halt at the seventh floor. The door opens to acquaint my eyes with a unique scenery. There was a red carpet with a gold trim, beige hall way walls and Big burly guy getting hit over and over again by a really short, really mad girl. He is desperately apologizing and guard his body with what appeared as brief cases.

It looked like the big guy needed help so I started to make an approach, but I was stopped by the guys stare. It relayed a message to me, even though there were no words, I understood I was not to interfere. Perhaps this was an everyday thing. So I turn my approach into a retreat with a slight angle difference, I managed to sneak passed the royally angry girl.

776a, 776b, 777a, ah 777b. Pulling the key from my pocket I carefully place the key into the keyhole.