The stone brick passage winds down deep beneath the walls of Upside Academy. Professor Thaulmer's soft fur lined boots create muffled footsteps which echo down the darkened stairwell. A glowing yellow orb of light hovers above Professor Thaulmer as she descends into a largely uninhabited section of the school. Several massive black scorpions crawl along the walls of the passage alongside Professor Thaulmer.

"We should really install a few lights down here..." Professor Thaulmer mumbles.

The swarm of black scorpions moving along the walls clack their ebony claws before speaking in a chorus of hisses.

"Grave doesn't think it's worth the money..." The scorpions reply.

Professor Thaulmer purses her rather plump peach hued lips whilst turning to glance back up toward the surface. She sighs and moves to catch up to the scorpions in their descent beneath the academy.

The tight stone passageway opens up into a brick tunnel devoid of lighting fixtures. The walls and ceiling are crude stone brickwork, but the floor of the tunnel is as smooth as glass. Countless symbols carved into the stone form a matrix of magic channels, their purpose well known amongst Upside Academy's staff.

Professor Thaulmer squats down, her black patchwork leggings stretching audibly as she focuses intently on the faintly glowing lines of the barrier matrix. The swarm of black scorpions spreads out to do have a look at the integrity of the magic runes.

"There's no issue with the magic power supply, so why isn't the barrier active?"

A rather large purple centipede crawls up beside Professor Thaulmer before emitting a quiet hissing. She turns and follows the night crawler as it leads her down the tunnel toward a large clump of scurrying bugs.

Professor Thaulmer's eyes widen when she lays eyes on a huge chunk of missing stone. It's as if the floor of the passage has simply been erased, leaving a massive gap in the barrier matrix. Professor Bagu pulls himself up into an unfinished clump of centipedes, scorpions, and earthworms. He runs what resembles a hand made of bugs across the edge of the gap in the stone.

"This was teleported elsewhere..." Professor Bagu hisses with hundreds of voices.

The oddly clean hole is devoid of dust and debris. Professor Thaulmer steps past Professor Bagu and begins pulling thick fabric from the air to create a huge pile of blankets. Pillows appear to join the floating bedding in a vortex of soft materials. Professor Bagu steps back as she stitches the mess of fabric and fluff into the ground, replacing part of the stone floor with soft pliable bedding. Stitches which flicker faintly fit into the surrounding magic runes. The barrier is reformed as a faint hum of magic power fills the dim passageway.

"Let's go report this to Grave." Professor Thaulmer says.

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"I just did. He said to survey the whole area." Professor Bagu's voices reply.

Professor Thaulmer gives the swarm of a professor a frown before walking deeper into the tunnel. Her slightly nervous expression shifts to one of shock when they see a bright light shining further along the tunnel. The two of them hurry toward the source to find an alarming sight.

The brickwork of the passage is cut cleanly to create a huge opening in the wall and ceiling. Sunlight spills in through the fracture, yet the mountainside just beyond is a hollow shell of what it once was. Huge swaths of stone have been teleported away to create a vast chasm leading into the thick red fog below. Professor Thaulmer softly covers her agape mouth with her soft hand.

"Who on earth is capable of this?"

Several dragonflies and wasps zip from outside to quickly crawl along the edges of the fractured mountainside. Professor Bagu's half formed body disperses as massive wasps fly up out of the fog. Each of these oddly shining bugs hum like helicopters as they cling to the stone. They cluster together to form a wall of insect which quickly transforms into stone as thousands of smaller flying insects fill in the cracks, turning into an ungodly collection of petrified bugs.

Professor Thaulmer shakes off the surprise of seeing such a huge chunk of the mountain missing, and steps upon a flying carpet brought forth from nothing. She stands calmly atop it as it flies up and out of the barrier matrix passage, her eyes scanning the swarms of bugs repairing the damage.

She flies up toward the highest tower in the academy. Her gaze wanders below to see a few students busy with Professor Frost in the arena. She brings her attention back to her destination as the flying carpet slows to a stop just outside a window.

"Quite the entrance, Susie." Headmaster Locke says.

His once again human visage gives her an unreadable look. His piercing gaze moves away from her as he turns around, motioning for her to follow him. Professor Thaulmer steps off the carpet and into Headmaster Locke's office, her boots hitting the floor with a muted thump. He takes a seat behind his imposing desk, and pulls out a few manuscripts.

"I've seen you fly in through that very same window more than once, Grave." Professor Thaulmer replies.

Headmaster Locke doesn't reply, but his thin lipped smirk is enough. He slides over a few pages filled with text. Professor Thaulmer takes a seat across from him and sifts through the papers. Their expressions grow serious as they read.

"It can't be the Umbrinship. They're not sneaky, and they wouldn't care about the academy." Professor Thaulmer slides one of the pages away from her pile.

"Good point. What about the Solar Sons?" Headmaster Locke offers.

Professor Thaulmer purses her lips once again before shaking her head. A drawing of a man with a glowing sun for a head wearing gilded robes takes up most of the page.

"They're even less likely. They only use magic that's related to their saint." Professor Thaulmer replies.

Professor Thaulmer's soft hands push away a couple more pages before her frown deepens. She holds up a manuscript depicting an array of towers topped with a statue depicting a simple diamond shape. Headmaster Locke glances up from his own paper before his gaze grows sharper.

"Are you certain?" Headmaster Locke asks sternly.

"They're experts in spatial spells, and you know they might have a few reasons to do this." Professor Thaulmer replies evenly.

This causes Headmaster Locke to frown deeply, but he takes the page from her and sets it into a drawer. His expression is dark as he gathers up the remaining pages to put away into a separate drawer.

"Don't speak of this further, at least not for now." Headmaster Locke says quietly.

Professor Thaulmer rises from her chair and nods. She turns to leave, giving Headmaster Locke one last look before shutting the door on her way out.