IX; The Five

  Professor Riscard and I walked to the base of the tower. Holding his hand over a strange pedestal nestled on the side of the black stone, a plethora of runes began to shine. Soon after, the tower shredded apart, revealing the same moving elevator I’d been in before.

  “What are we doing?” I asked as we walked inside and the door closed shut.

  “You’ll be informed shortly,” he told me as the room began to move. “This Wicked Witch, I take it she’s your mother?”

  “How’d you know?”

  “I took a guess,” he exclaimed with a hint of amusement. “The Old Fool you mentioned before, you told him you remember nought of your awakening—it seems only right I should fill you in.”

  Crossing my arms, I took a deep breath. The air in this tower felt… austere. Fulfilling, even.

  “When a boy messenger arrived from Sandel bringing word of your awakening, we sent two men to help you. The Inquisitor Mikael and a Prime Magi, Hil.”

  “Prime Magi, sir?”

  “It’s one of our ranks—but you’ll learn that in due time. Regardless, they arrived three days after you awoke and discovered what could only be described as hell on earth. Throughout the ordeal, Mikael cautioned Hil to kill you—and I cannot lie, I would’ve said the same … but Hil thought differently.”

  Hil… “How is it that you help someone awaken?”

  I still hadn’t the faintest idea how an awakening of magic works.

  “You enter their mind using a spell,” he answered, “however, you cannot cast magic on a living object—and thus you need something dear to the awakened. As such, Hil used your mother’s head.”

  Half-chuckling, I scratched my jaw. “At least someone made use of it … my mother was beheaded, then?” I don’t remember doing that.

  “Aye,” he answered, sorrow becoming his face. “I’m sorry you had to learn it this—”

  “—it doesn’t matter,” I cut him off. “So Hil entered my mind. What did he see?”

  Biting his lips, no doubt in some form of awkwardness, Professor Riscard looked at the roof of the moving room we were in. “We don’t know. Hil never returned after entering your mind. By the time Inquisitor Mikael approached the scene, Hil’s body was gone—and only you remained.”

  “So not only did I destroy my village, but I killed a Magi.”

  “We do not know whether he is dead or not,” he told me, patting my shoulder. “A word of advice, however: do not mention Hil’s fate to Alice.”

  “How come?”

  Smiling, he let go of me. “It is not my place to reveal the details of another student—but Hil thought of her as a daughter. I cannot imagine it was one-sided.”

  “I see…”

  Fuck.

  The room stopped, and opened to a great circular hall. Inside, there were six magi, standing in order—five of which wore blue robes, and one of which was the old fool. And by his side, a Magi in blue robes with red hair down to waist was practically screaming.

  “How do you not see it!?” he roared, pointing a finger at the old fool. “The ritual! The dreams! Even the kid’s name is practically the same! How do you—”

  “—that’s enough, Jelen,” the old fool cut him off, smiling as watched Professor Riscard and I approach.

  Even the kid’s name… what the fuck does that mean—assuming he’s talking about me, that is. What names are like Gram? Are there even any? If there are, I certainly haven’t heard them.

  “Riscard, Gram,” the old fool greeted us as we stopped before them. Professor Riscard slightly bowed—and I poorly attempted to mimic him. “I hear you slept in Room Six last night?”

  “Yes…” I confirmed, looking around at the five blue-robed magi.

  There was the red-headed one, Jelen, with orange eyes mind you, one with wavy grey hair, grey eyes and a clean face, a middle-aged woman with curly brown hair and green eyes, another girl, far younger—near my age, really—with pure black hair straight down to her shoulders and purple gems for eyes, and finally, an aged man with oily, brown hair that was tied into a pony-tail, along with a set of black eyes.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  If I had to guess … Fire, Wind—like Riscard, trees or some shit, no idea, and no idea. What the fuck are purple and black eyes for?

  “Most intriguing,” the old fool said.

  “Most intriguing!?” Jelen sneered.

  Rolling his eyes, the one with wavy grey hair sighed jagged shards. “Do you ever shut up, Jelen? We’ve made our stance on the boy quite clear.”

  “Stance?” I laughed accusingly.

  “You were not given leave to speak,” the girl my age with the straight black hair said… she kind’ve looked like Alice. Maybe it was just the hair, I don’t know. On close inspection, her voice sounded smooth. Very, very smooth. Oddly so, I might say. I couldn’t really pinpoint it with anything in my mind.

  Chuckling sliding echoes, the middle-aged woman raised a hand. “Come now, Celeste, I don’t think you need to speak to him like that.”

  “I just cannot fathom how of the seven Magi in this room, four of them are arguing for this ‘Gram’ to live? It’s stupidious. I’m the only one here who didn’t see that monster, and even I know it’s nothing but a fool’s errand to do it all over again!”

  Monster, huh? Who… are they talking about?

  “I never said the boy should live,” the one with black eyes told her, his eyes locked onto me. “But then again… a man shouldn’t die because he looks like another. It’s not right.”

  Smiling and nodding, I held my hand out towards the black-haired girl. “Thanks for defending me against this murderous bitch—”

  “—another word out of you,” she cautioned, raising her own hand towards my face. “And I’ll end this farce right now.”

  “Fuck you cunt—”

  A thousand shards of purple gemstones shot out from her hand, spiralling towards my face at lightning speeds. Yet, right as they were due to hit, they were deflected by gusts of wind, smashing them against the side of the room.

  Standing in front of me, Riscard’s hand raised and a leather bracelet brimming with white runes wrapped around his arm, he held his other out towards her. “Come now, Arcanist. Such anger doesn’t befit your—”

  “—you’re not my professor anymore, Riscard,” she cut him off, clutching her hands together and pointing them at me. “Typical of you, I should think. Why, you defended the last—”

  “—enough!” the old fool roared, his golden voice echoing throughout the hall. “That is enough! The boy will live because I said so!”

  Her arms shaking, Celeste finally lowered her hands and turned to the old fool. “On your head be the consequences… again.”

  After a moment of silence, the old fool turned to me. “Gram, allow me to introduce everyone. The Magi before you are the Arcanists of Fire, Metal, Earth, Gemstone and Shadow.”

  Gems, aye? Shadow isn’t too surprising, I suppose—a bit dumb—but what use is a gem for magic? More importantly, though: “What’s an Arcanist?”

  “It means the Tree of our Magia has chosen us as their champion,” the Arcanist with the wavy grey hair answered me, crossing his arms as his blue robes draped from his arms. “For each Magia, there can only be one.”

  “Hence why your professor isn’t an Arcanist,” Celeste sneered. “There’s a better Wind Magi out there.”

  Sniggering, I elbowed Professor Riscard. “Fitting, isn’t it? That the Gemstone Magia would choose a girl.”

  Surprisingly, he laughed. I thought he would’ve scolded me for sure.

  “Perhaps,” the old fool began. “You wonder why we’ve called you here today?”

  Ignoring Celeste’s piercing glare at me, I held my hands up. “Why?”

  “We’re going to enter your mind,” Jelen answered me, walking over and flicking my forehead. “See what happened to Hil—if we can—and more importantly, nip this in the bud before it becomes another catastrophe.”

  See, they keep mentioning someone else. Someone with ‘practically’ the same name. “What do you mean? Who are you talking about?”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Headmaster Sig told me, beckoning me towards him. “Not yet, at least. All five Arcanists shall cast Ineo upon your ring—you brought your ring, correct?”

  “How’d you know I would bring it?” I asked, retrieving the ring from my satchel and handing it to him. My father’s ring, aye? They must assume it has some importance to me.

  Holding the ring up to his eye, Headmaster Sig smirked. “I told Riscard to make sure…”

  Turning back to ask Riscard how the fuck he knew, he already begun to spoke: “I could sense it—believe it or not.”

  I don’t believe it. It’s just a normal ring. He must’ve cast some magic or something on it—the fucking knaves … they wanted to make sure I didn’t run and they must’ve thought I’d take this no matter what.

  Headmaster Sig gave the ring to the Arcanist with the wavy grey hair, who pulled a grey wand from his side and carved a small, ethereal-like grey word upon it: Ineo. One after another, they all carved it next to each other. Fiery Ineo. Emerald Ineo. Dreadful black Ineo. Gemstone purple Ineo.

  Celeste, the last to carve her word, walked over to me with the ring. “Put this on. Now.”

  I grabbed the ring. “Don’t let them in!” a shrill voice called out as it wrapped around my fingers.

  “What was that?” Jelen questioned, looking around the room. “You all heard that, right?”

  Using her dark purple wand, Celeste carved Dispello into the air, yet nothing happened. “Let’s get inside. Quickly.”

  Nodding, Professor Riscard grabbed me by the shoulder and led me to the centre of the room. He pushed me down to my knees while the five Arcanists knelt around me.

  “Gram, my sweet…” the shrill voice lamented.

  “Magi,” Headmaster Sig called out, raising his hand. “Activate your runes, now. Return victorious.