“And what’s so important or special about his being a member of the Hellinger family?” Josephine Wong asked with a frown: “And … actually while we’re on that, what’s so concerning about the Hellinger family?”

“How much do you know now?” Professor Barnes asked: “Anything in the Division’s information archive?”

“Just the basics for now that are already public or semi public information - affinity to magic regarding the mind and spirit, curses, and even training unconventional power wielders into powerful and deadly magic wielders, might as well call it an online encyclopedia understanding.” Josephine Wong sighed and said: “The classified documents take time to get access, and I am still waiting in the queue.”

“For one, the unnamed serial murderer decades back, one about whom your students wrote a very nice paper, was almost sure to be a Hellinger, and one that was on the ‘less talented’ branch of the family.” Professor Kapur said in a gentle voice: “Which, though there exists a very limited amount of records to paint a full picture, led to a full on high scale street justice slash kangaroo court witch hunt. Several big magical families, half of which have several members lost to the unnamed serial murderer, launched a coordinated attack against the Hellinger family. This attack almost completely wiped out the entire Hellinger name. And at least up until recently, not many have heard about a real survivor of Hellinger.”

All of Professor Kapur’s former students started looking at Professor Kapur with weird and concerned looks on their faces.

“What? I’ve been here for months and I have a lot of time!” Professor Kapur laid her hands out and said: “And you know as a senior and tenured professor, I can access almost everything right?”

“Yes, it’s just we never knew you’re interested in crime history.” Glenda Grimes shrugged and chuckled.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“No, I was not. I just read them as a form of entertainment.”

“And, I’m sorry I am still not sure what this has to do with the war we’re about to face?” Jianmen asked.

“There has always been one very interesting rumor about the Hellinger family, which had been circulating in the world of high magical society for quite some time.” Professor Dorothea Clarkson said: “Some of their most talented and sophisticated mages had come together and forged a really powerful artifact, one thing that’s said to even possess the power to reshape worlds or slay gods. Exaggerations, of course, but still, no one should take the Hellingers lightly. Those who did paid heavily.”

“If such an artifact existed, then the use of it could have caused a disturbance strong enough to open up a wound in our realm of the world and make it easier for the defilers to come. But if I’m understanding this correctly, they didn’t use it when they were under attack?” Jianmen asked, frowning.

“Apparently not. If they did, or if the thing really possessed the power they claimed, then they might have survived, or even won.” Professor Barnes shrugged: “Which means, the artifact’s still there, and the so called ‘codex’ - ”

“Yikes.” Jianmen shook his head.

“So, all I’m hearing is that you have agreed to join me and lend us your forces. Provided that I help you with capturing this Assistant Professor and prevent the artifact from being found and used by the Vyn syndicate?” Josephine Wong asked with a cunning smile on her face.

“Yes. And IF this artifact was indeed not used and is still somewhere, one might reason it would be somewhere inside the Hellinger Castle, which was not found for all this time after the battle due to one of the defence mechanisms in it being triggered when the battle was almost finished.” Professor Dorothea Clarkson said: “And as you could imagine, if they do get that artifact, it will be a problem for many, the Division included.”

“Okay, but the codex is still in our hands.” Josephine Wong asked with her eyes narrowed: “When did this assistant professor go AWOL?”

“By our estimation, around a week ago.” Glenda Grimes said: “Which is quite a long time for them, they may have already found it.”

“Okay, good news for you, I think we may have the coordinates to the Hellinger Castle.” Josephine Wong sighed: “Are you prepared to go? Do you have a team on standby?”

“We have an emergency response team. But it’s gonna take some time to assemble everyone.” Professor Barnes sighed: “A few of them are not in the academy right now, as they were sent out to capture some fugitives.”

“Okay.” Josephine Wong went silent and started thinking, then after half a minute she said: “If we’re going to go into the castle, then Jianmen, I would like you to come with us. We will need to send our students home, and I will need to find some members of my team as well.”

“Sure thing.” Jianmen nodded: “But what about the finals?”