They took the book with them, leaving Samara sputtering in rage close to boiling over. Heading straight to the Magical Studies building in Merlin Hall to have Lorna take a look at the tome. They found the ancient elf talking with some of her students, entertaining them with a complicated display of magic. She twisted the four elements, fire, earth, water, and air, in a complex pattern above their heads in the room. Fractal patterns formed and broke apart as she guided the motion with subtle movements of her fingers. After a bit, she saw Meira and Dana entering the Hall.
“That’s going to have to be it for today, children… my dear niece seems to need my attention. Keep trying to control multiple disparate elements in your practices… each element needs a different touch so to handle more than one at once is a good exercise to expand your abilities.”
The students nodded, some noting down her words before they made their way out of the room. Lorna looked ashen and concerned at them as the duo approached as if reading the seriousness of their situation.
“Don’t tell me… you’re pregnant and you need my help.”
“Auntie stop!” Meira shot daggers at the older elf. “That kind of joke isn’t funny… especially after what happened to cousin Wanda.”
“We actually found something we hoped you could take a look at for us.” Dana tried to move the conversation on as quickly as he could. Holding out the ancient book for her to see.
“Now where on earth did you find something like this?” She took the book from them, laying it flat on her lectern and opening it to the first pages. “This is primordial magic… the ink itself is infused with power to keep the wrong eyes from even making out what is written here.”
She turned the pages, seeing the various rites and rituals depicted in the pages. The color draining from her face a little more with each one. Her brow furrowed in concentration as she read over the words whose letters seemed to wiggle in front of her eyes.
“I am not entirely sure what to make of this. Many of these rituals should not work at all… they seem to be almost designed to brute force their effects into reality through sheer force of mana.”
“What about the ritual involving the Fount itself?” They flipped the pages to the pictures they had seen in the dorm. “What does this one do?”
“The Fount would be a sufficient power source for nearly any of these rituals… flooding the channels with so much power but you don’t need a ritual to use the Fount.” She examined the page, deciphering the ancient text. “Oh my… this isn’t just opening it… it is supercharging the output… draining the ley lines converging here into one large pulse that could change reality itself… not just on this island but everywhere.”
“What about the things arrayed around the Fount in the picture?” Dana pointed at the strange picture that he had trouble making out the details of.
“Foci…It says it needs the Master’s Key, the Vampire’s Sun, and the First Spell. The First Spell might refer to this symbol that is all over the pages.” She pointed out the strange maze-like pattern that had appeared more and more often lately.
“I think there is a good chance that that symbol has something to do with things.” Dana showed her the ring they had gotten off the orc after they had been attacked. “Seems like whomever they are might not like us looking into what is happening.”
“Not they… he… or maybe it by now.” Lorna turned, searching through a few shelves before pulling out a book bound in navy blue dyed leather. “That symbol is associated with one of the mages that formed the cabal around the font thousands of years ago.”
She opened the book to a passage that seemed to depict four figures around a roiling pool of power. Likely the Fount before the iris had been installed to cap off the mana flow inside. She pointed to one figure, his back to whoever had drawn the picture so his features were unseen.
“Of the four, this one has the least known… it seems that a concerted effort was made on his behalf to erase any trace of himself from being able to be found. He has become associated with enigmas and riddles just because people romanticize his paranoid secrecy.”
“So are these guys with the rings trying to bring him back or something?” Dana stared at the symbol on the ring as it glinted in the low light of the room.
“Perhaps… though since we don’t know much about him we can only assume his lack of activity is due to his passing. He could merely have gone underground and it seizing this opportunity to take back this island which once belonged to him.”
“And you think that he might have something to do with this First Spell thing?”
“Yes, Mr Wilde… the first spell he designed using the fount is likely tied on a deep level to the magics flowing from it. Finding that spell is likely what the ritual is calling for.”
“Anything helpful about the other two?” Meira didn’t look pleased by the whole conversation… she paced the room, her hand not leaving the pommel of her weapon.
“If they all have to do with the Fount and the island then perhaps the Master could refer to who controls the school?”
“Seems like a perfect excuse for Ruska to want to get rid of Eterna…” Meira grumbled. “Take control of the school and get access to the key all in one swoop.”
“Unless Eterna saw what was happening before it could.” Dana took the ring off his finger and showed it to the two elves. “She sent this to me before what happened… it opened the gates to let me in and out of the school even after Ruska locked the place down. It could easily be Eterna’s Key to the school.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“That just leaves the Vampire’s Sun,” Lorna said examining the ring. “Sadly I don’t have much access to the living dead’s records to even take a guess what that might be.”
“Does it matter, though?” Dana asked. “If all three are needed for the ritual isn’t it good enough we have the ring and can keep it out of their hands?”
“Theoretically, yes… if what we guess is the Key is truly the ring then keeping it away from them would greatly hamper whatever they wish to do. Though rarely is magic so literal, often different objects could serve the same purpose in a ritual. The only true way to prevent usage of such a rite is to use it oneself and alter reality so that it no longer was a possibility.”
“Is that all?” Dana’s head was already having difficulty coming to terms with anything that could alter reality itself but having to use it themselves seemed crazy. “Just find two other artifacts before a group that has had a significant head start and then reweave the fabric of reality itself, right? And here I thought things would be difficult.”
* * *
The three of them debated deep into the night. Dana was all for taking up some of his student’s offers to help as they might know something they didn’t. The elves, however, were hesitant to put students at such risk without knowing more. Finally, they had to agree to at least talk to the students, especially Jett if she had some insight into the vampire’s part in the ritual.
The next day, Dana stood in front of his class, thinking and rethinking the decision at least a dozen times. Letting the girls decide for themselves what part they might play in something that would affect them so deeply won out in the end.
“Some of you, have put together that I am looking into some things around the school.” Dana started, nodding to Cherri as her face lit up with a beaming grin. “Some of you have already helped me but it seems like there is still much to do so I am going to ask your help once again.”
He then told them everything they had learned over the past weeks. From the President’s death not being an accident, which visually disturbed Fyre, to the book and their suspicions about the ritual found within.
“Admittedly, much of this is circumstantial and guesswork but I think someone is moving to make a real threat against this school and very possibly the students here as well.”
“You know I’ll do anything for a story.” Akuji chimed in.
“Just tell us what you need, Prof.” Brea smiled a rare look of happiness on the banshee’s face. One by one they all seemed willing to help if it meant keeping their school safe.
“Thank you, girls… maybe with your help we can find these magic things and make sure no one can take this place away from us. First things first, Jett… do you have any idea what the Vampire’s Sun might be?”
The vampire girl fidgeted in her seat a moment before reluctantly making her way to her feet.
“Maybe… but it’s not one of the things we vampires are proud of making. You’ve probably noticed that all over the island the vampires living here don’t seem to need to fear the sun. That has a lot to do with the magic on the island… the same spell that keeps the image of the island from being seen by anyone flying over or sailing nearby blocks the harmful parts of the sun’s light while letting through the rest.”
Dana had noticed the vampires seemingly wandering about during the day but they looked so much like regular girls he had never given much thought to how they weren’t being destroyed.
“According to our legends… a long time ago a vampire had a feud with another vampire on the island. Not being able to simply let them greet the sun and be destroyed he invented something completely new.” Jett looked around, almost seeming nervous about sharing this information. “He called it liquid daylight… it was a potion that even a few drops making contact with a vampire’s skin will cause them to immolate as if they were in direct sunlight.”
“You think that potion might be what the book is referring to?”
“It would make sense…” Jett thought to herself out loud. “What you told us about the experiments being done here before the school was founded lines up with when this supposedly took place. I always thought it happened at the school long ago but perhaps it was created here even earlier than that.”
“Is there any way to get our hands on some?” Dana asked.
“It’s not impossible.” Jett squirmed a little more under Dana’s gaze. “Vampires aren’t supposed to drink real blood while here in school. They have a magically created substitute that keeps us fed and well without the need to hunt. Still, some of the vampires don’t agree with feeding ethically. I would bet anything that those same students are smuggling blood in for their own uses. Maybe they can get their hands on what we need.”
“It’s worth a try. How about the spell… anyone have any good ideas where we might find that?” Dana thanked Jett as she returned to her seat.
“The archives might have some information on it,” Akuji said, tapping her pencil on the little notepad she carried everywhere. “If there is any record of things going back that far it would be there but that place is huge. It would take forever to search the whole place.”
“I can help look,” D’arcy said standing up. The ghostly knight seeming proud in her countenance… Dana could almost see the armor she once wore as a knight forming around her. “I don’t need to sleep so I can search longer than most of you.”
A few of the other girls also volunteered to help search the vast catacombs for any hint of the spell or its originator. They were quickly organizing into groups to search for anything they might be able to find to help. Sally Mae, the brash werewolf also volunteered.
“I can see if I can sniff out anything about our missing golem girl. If she’s still anywhere here I should be able to track her down.”
“Thank you, Sally… that would be a big help.” Dana walked to the back of the class where Fyre had been sitting, listening calmly to everyone’s plans. “I suppose that means I should return this to its rightful owner.”
Dana held out the President’s ring to the phoenix’s next incarnation but she waved him off.
“If I sent it to you there was probably a reason. Besides you might need it to complete this ritual of yours once all the pieces are together.” Fyre smiled a little sadly at him. “Do you really think I knew I was going to be killed before it happened?”
Dana thought back to the night he had first met Eterna… she had a happy countenance and an ease of manner when talking to Meira but looking back he could recognize something was worrying in her eyes. Something was stressing her out even more than the beginning of the school year.
“I believe so… I wish I could have seen it earlier… done something.”
“You’re doing something now, Professor Wilde. That’s what matters, I guess… after all if you had changed things I wouldn’t be me now… it’s a strange feeling to both hate the fact I may have been murdered… but to also know I owe my very existence to it.”
“Well for what it’s worth I hope I have a lot more time to get to know this you, Fyre.”
“I hope so too, Professor. But enough doom and gloom, you do have a lesson to teach today, no?” For just a moment Dana could see the strict face of Eterna in Fyre’s eyes… her tone almost matching the former President precisely.
“Yes ma’am, I’ll get right on that.”