M Litterae est Magicae!

M LITTERAE EST MAGICAE! A story by actual students

SECRETS, SORCERY, AND A DANGEROUS EDUCATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Session 01

NEW YEARS

Session 02

THE CRUCIBLE

Session 03

THE TOWER

Session 04

LUBAR CASTLE

Session 05

THE GOLDEN PLAINS

Session 06

AMBUSHED

Session 07

EMOTIONAL SUPPORT CLASS

Session 08

OFFICE HOURS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Session 09

THE PLEDGE

Session 10

THE CAVE OF CREEPS

Session 11

DOGE ALLEY

Session 12

THE HIDDEN CITY OF ALVARO

Session 13

MOUNT ASHES

Session 14

THE ANCIENT SPUKHAUS

Session 15

CORPORA GRAVIS

thank you, To all of my wonderful students, whose incredible imagination and beautiful enthusiasm enabled the success of this class.

And to Linkedkey, for taking a chance on such a bold and bizarre program

- Matthew thompson

Authors Angela Qi Bingyin Geng DOMINIC DING Marysa Liu Racha e l Zhou Erica Jin Ethan Zhang Jayden Sun Kylie Chen Melissa Liang Vanessa Chen Elizabeth Zhang

SESSION ONE

New Years

Vanessa Chen Most usually associate the darkness with the bad, and the light with the good, but, to me, the darkness was my one and only friend. The light’s fine, and there’s nothing wrong with it, don’t get me wrong, but something about darkness, the shadows, and myself should be together. It was on the New Year’s of my eleventh year when they came for me. It was the day where they took me away from my house, my family, and to that school of magic.

I first discovered my powers when I was sitting outside on my parents’ balcony, listening to my parents talk about my sister. Brooke, my sister, was also sent to this school of magic 5 years ago, after she acquired her powers, and since then, we’ve never heard of her. My parents are, well, not exactly what comes to your mind when you imagine parents. They’re nice and all, but don’t really hold back on the truth. They don’t sugarcoat anything, and they don’t lie. And that includes our family’s history with magic. All my memories are a bit fuzzy, as for they stopped talking about it when I was about 4 or 5. It was midnight, and I was sitting on the balcony, in the shadows, when, according to my parents, all the moon’s light shone upon me. Even though I was in the shadows, the light still projected there, and they said that my eyes glowed the colour of the moon for a second, and the shadows seemed to expand, and grow bigger, even though we were under direct moonlight. Then everything stopped, and I went back to normal. Thing was, I don’t remember anything like that happening, just pitch black for a couple seconds.

I recall my parents rushing towards me, hugging me and crying about how happy they were. How

happy they were, not sad. Yes, you heard me right. You know how everyone in Kahori doesn’t like magic? Well, my family, they’re quite the opposite. We’ve always had a history with magic, where in

every generation there would be at least one person who manifested powers and would attend the school. My dad, with tears streaming down his cheeks, said “Oh my dear Ash, you will learn to control your powers and I will me, I am so proud of you.” My mom was too busy dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief and hugging me to say anything. At that moment, I was too stunned to say anything, or even react to what just happened. All my mind was thinking about was the fact that I might be able to see my sister again.

Bingyin New Years of my eleventh year finally came. It was the first time my powers started manifeste. This meant that I would be taken from my family and sent to a far away school to learn how to control my powers, and I dreaded this day with all my heart. Even if it meant I could have the most spectacular future ever, I didn’t want it.

It’s going to be alright, I thought. Just tell her that you have magical powers and could be dangerous to society unless you’re taken away. This wasn’t working. The more I thought about it, the more I panicked. But I knew I’d have to tell her eventually. “Shoya, dinners ready.” “I’m coming mom,” I called out. My nerves were killing me. It's okay, I thought. This is your chance to tell her everything. As I walked into the kitchen, the smell of warm bread and hot tomato soup welcomed me. Mom was already sitting at the dinner table, waiting for me to come join. “What’s the matter darling?” “Is something bothering you?” she always knew when something was bothering me. “Everything is fine mom,” I lied. “I just……” my voice drifted away. Just take a few deep breaths, I told myself. “M-mom, y-you know how some kids have powers?” “Yes but why-.” Her eyes widened, “no, t-that can’t be possible.” Tears leaked down my face before I could stop them. “S-shoya, I… I will always support you no matter what happens.” I look up, shocked. “Mom, y-you.” My voice started to crack. She holds me close, tears rolling down her cheeks as well. And at that moment, I knew that was the last time I would see her in a very, very long time.

Rachael I run my fingers over the scorch mark, or what remained of it, at least. It was still there, after all those years… I was dead, I knew it, and this was just my spirit, but still the day it happened still seems so real to me… the day my very short life took a turn that I never anticipated…

Let me tell you a story. A story of what changed my life, and what ultimately led to my own death, and why I am here, after all those years, but it still seems so real…

Let us fall back about half a century, to 12:00 am sharp on January 1st, 3801. I was sitting on my bed - I couldn’t sleep. A book was propped in my hand - it was the Hobbit, which I had read many, many, times but still found it an interesting read. I looked up to check the time, and looked to see a bit of the wall bursting into flame and calming down again. It did this again, and again, until I whispered, “I wish that wouldn’t happen.” The fire that was flickering on the wall, never burning a hole in it completely, but still scorching it, calmed down, finally and at last.

I shivered, the small room darker than it ever was, now that the fire had gone out. With a snap, I snuffed out the lamp.

I fell into a light sleep, waking up at the slightest shuffling of noise. It didn’t help with the constant chattering and scuttling of rats in the roof above, or the whoosh of the wings of the owls that often flew outside my window in the night.

I had heard about this - That when the year turned on January 1st at midnight, the families of Grade Sixes would not stop worrying. About some kind of magic, but I had grown up to believe that magic was unreal, just a fantasy, and if it was, it was hidden away by the government, and it was not dangerous, here in Kahori.

The next day it rained, because the weather here is quite so very weird compared to that of Earth. I dreaded what to come.

The Day -Angela

Hey my name is Tokyo Taski. I live with my mom Suki, my dad Hiko and my brother Fitz.

We live in Kahori. I like exploring and can’t sit still. Today is December 31 and many people say when we turn 11 some of us will have somewhat magical abilities and sent to a far away school.

My brother is 16 and did not get sent away. I wonder if I would? I don’t know if that's exciting or scary. You see, many of my friend’s parents are so terrified and one of my friends Akari even had to move away. My other friend Amaya said her family might move as well. My parents don’t seem so scared about it, they just act like it's going to be a boarding school. My family aren’t like the loving family you imagine. I like to spend all my time exploring and Fitz has been obsessed with writing songs lately, however I do think my mom favours my brother more than me.

I’m not upset though, all that hugging and loving makes me cringe. Anyway it was around 9:30 pm I was going to bed. However, I was woken up by an electric shock. I checked the clock, it was 12:00 am. Wait can it be! I manifested a magical power. A burst of lightning shot out of my hand. I thought this might hurt it didn't I did not get shocked. I ran to tell Fitz, we have this special bond together we tell each other everything. Some stuff our parents don’t even know! Fitz, Fitz FITZ! Uhhhhhh what? He asked. I think I manifested a magical power. I just shot lightning out of my hand a few seconds ago. Oh stop dreaming, he said, go back to bed. I was about to argue when another burst of lightning shot out. This time it radiated all over my body.

Oh gosh now that's cool. Okay now he believes me.

Tomorrow while eating breakfast I knew I had to tell my parents, and if you were wondering if more lightning shot out of my hand then you're right, I already ruined my hair brush and my brothers chewing gum. Uhhh mom and dad? Yes Tokyo my mom responded. Um I think I manifested an ability of shooting lighting bolts out of my hand. My mom and dad looked at each other, pale faced. No one talks for a moment. Uhhh mom? I said. My mom finally speaks.

Sweetie no y y you you manifes BOOM. A bolt of lightning shot out my hand. The waffles I was eating had turned into ashes.My dad talked but when he opened his mouth the words came out.

I was about to say something when the door rang. Ding Dong.My dad opened the door. There stood a guy in a black suit with black sun glasses even though it was raining.

We have come to collect Tokyo Suki Taski to a school where she will learn to control her abilities as a blitz. I learned that blitz is what they call people that can control lighting. I never really see my parents cry, but I'm sure I saw a little bit from my mom. Dad's tears didn’t roll down but his eyes were watering. I look at my family. My dad's brown hair and his emerald eyes. My moms snow blonde hair and blue eyes. Finally my brother, Brown hair like my dad and blue eyes like my mom. I look at myself in the reflection of the person coming to collect me’s glasses.

My dirty blonde hair like my mom and my emerald eyes from my dad. I kissed everyone before I was pulled away for I don’t know how long. My family was never the type of loving family that showed their love to everyone. But now I know at the end of the day they loved me.

Entry 1 Marysa Liu

Marysa

was quite a simple person with simple

likes and dislikes. Nothing about her was interesting but the world she lived in was full of suspense and wonder. Kahori, was what the country was called and it was a magical place but not in a way most people think. Kahori is split in 2 sides which are separated by a magical barrier; on one side there is a normal village of non magical people but beyond the barrier on the other side is where all the magic is stored. Wizard and Witches of all ages and species practice their magic to perfection and unleash their spells into their side of the world.

Somehow, children from the village have been manifesting magical powers of their own around their eleventh New Year. Due to the danger they bring the children must be brought through the barrier to the magical side of the world so they may learn to control their powers at a school called

M Litterae est Magicae. Before we continue with the story, let us talk about our protagonist for a second. As I said before, Marysa is quite the simple person, she likes Art but is very antisocial not to mention that she was a perfectionist with atychiphobia (the fear of failure). Hopping back to the story, it was the day before Marysa’s eleventh New Year she was panicking, “There’s only a small percent chance I WON’T get magical powers but if I do, there is only a small percent chance I’ll survive at the magic school.. Then again I don’t exactly have any guardians so if I don’t survive it doesn’t really matter” Marysa whispered to herself as she walked around in her small room. Marysa didn’t have any parents so she lived alone, everything she has (which is not much) were things she earned from hard work. ~~~ That night Marysa found it quite hard to sleep as she

Watched her clocked.

11:52 pm Is what the clock said before Marysa couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer and drifted into a nice slumber. ~~~ Wake up…

WAKE UP WAKE UP Marysa opened her eyes realizing she fell asleep and once again looked at the clock 3: 27 am Sighing in relief Marysa looked around her room realizing nothing was out of the ordinary ‘Nothing is out of place.. NOTHING CHANGED! Am I safe? Do I not have powers? No one seems to be at the door either.. I THINK I’M SAFE!’

Marysa quietly celebrated, closing her eyes to fall back asleep when all of a sudden she felt very light and in no time she hit her head ‘Wait what?’

Marysa opened her eyes to see that she and everything else in her room began floating ‘Please tell me this is a dream… THIS HAS TO BE A DREAM RIGHT?’ Marysa panicked trying to get back on the ground not wanting to wake up her neighbours. As she continued to struggle, Marysa got more and more panicked when finally she and all her stuff fell on the ground with a big THUMP! “Ow” That’s going to leave a mark.

Kylie

On one special New Year’s Eve I found out I had magical powers when I was on bed and the bed had frozen. I was sleeping when suddenly I felt like I was on a pile of ice. I woke up sleeping on a frozen bed. I told my mom the next morning on my 11th birthday. She sent me to a faraway school of magic. The school of magic looked really mysterious. But I had to go in and learn how to control my magic. My mom said this would be my new school and there were no switching schools. At first I was kind of scared but then thought of all the good things and it cheered me up.

Jayden Jayden has a big sense of humor, once he saw somebody drop ice cream on the floor on a sunny day he said you don't have to worry about eating a lot of calories. He dresses up very funny. He makes up funny voices and once in school his classmate tried to sit on a chair but right at the last second Jayden moved the chair so that his classmate would fall down on the ground butt first and Jayden would have a huge laugh. Jayden was playing basketball after dinner until he heard the bullies thumping their feet while coming towards Jayden. One of the bullies was called MCandrew. MCandrew is very greedy and was usually the one punching the victim while Jagger was the one holding the victim’s hand and holding it like a handcuff.

Jagger was very strong and was usually the one holding the victim’s hands behind their back while MCandrew was the one punching. Jayden ran as fast as he could while the bullies were two times faster. Jayden ran and ran until he hit a did end and the bullies charged at him with great speed but somehow Jayden was running up the wall and now was safely on the roof away from the bullies. Jayden said to himself “how did i climb up the wall?”

He swung his hand from his head to his knee and suddenly let out a zap. The zap went super close to MCandrew’s hair that made his hair go black but luckily it was a tiny burn.

Everybody falled silent with their eyes wide open and their mouths drooping down. The night was very weird. Jayden went back home quickly before the bullies tried to follow and went into the house with an amazed face. Jayden’s parents asked what’s going on. Jayden attempted to hide his powers and said “nothing”. His parents said “ok are u sure?” “ya” said Jayden. Ok fine said Jayden “i climbed up a the school wall and zapped something with my hands randomly”. Jayden's parents said “YOU HAVE MAGICAL POWERS?!”. “Uh i think so,'' Jayden said, sounding amazed. The next day Jayden went to school and accidentally zapped something and everybody stared at him with wide eyes and drooping mouths even the teacher. Jayden said “uhhhhhh”. After a second everybody said “YOU HAVE MAGICAL POWERS?!” “ya?” said Jayden. After school Jayden returned home and found a letter to Jayden and it said “You have been selected to a school for magic!” Jayden went to his parents and showed his parents the letter he found from the mailbox. Jayden’s parents opened their eyes so big and said “you have been selected to a school for magic?!” Jayden’s parents said well let’s attend because you are magical. Jayden didn’t show the part where it said it’s dangerous because he was too excited to go to the school for magic. But Jayden also showed that he had to be gone for sometime so Jayden and his parents have a leaving party.

Name: Erica

I named my character Annie. She likes playing soccer and loves drawing. She’s scared of snakes but loves sharks. She’s brave but can get very emotional. Most of the time she’s calm but if something disturbs her, she will go crazy.

New Years Eve finally came and Annie was excited. She was excited to celebrate it but then she was sent a message. It said that her magic school was going to give you a trip and to learn how to control your powers. But it came with a price.

If she would accept the invitation she would almost never see her family again.

Annie decided to go to the magic place for an adventure. A long but exciting one.

Having made that decision she celebrated New Years Eve and decided to start going at night. When she told her family they started wishing her good luck and said there good-byes and then she left with her stuff that she packed earlier.

The Magic World By:Dominic One day when I finally turned 11 I was just sitting on my desk doing homework. Until my mom and dad shouted at me Can you please come down here?! I yelled back of course! I rushed downstairs just to see my parents horrified. My parents said I am scared that you will be sent away from us cause you have magical powers. After a while I relieved my parents and I said mom, dad everything is going to be fine! Then it was that minute that changed my life. When I said that last word fine I exploded a glass of water! Oh my god, a-a-ar-are you going to be sent to that magic school my mom said?! I was so depressed I ran up to my room crying I locked the door and felt like I wanted this bad dream to end. However this wasn't a bad dream, this was reality. Now I had to face reality and accept who I am. I spent all summer planning out what I was going to do. I kept strong and the people who criticized me I just ignored them.

SESSION TWO

The Crucible

Vanessa Chen The next morning, after I had dressed, packed, and was currently eating breakfast, I heard a knock on the door. My dad stood up, and opened the door. There was a short, plump, man who said his name was Puck and that he was here to pick me up. They conversed a bit, and then my dad called me to the doorway. I recall my parents bending down to hug me, and then my dad whispered in my ear: “As proud of you as we are, remember that magic has a mind of its own. It cracks, sparkles, and causes things that sometimes can’t be explained. Magic is powerful, and dangerous, and that’s why we’re letting you go to this school to learn to control your powers.” He pulled away, then smiled at me. My mom then said “Promise me that you’ll find your sister and tell her that we love her and say hello.” “I can’t guarantee that, but I’ll try.” my voice shook a bit. This was probably the last time I would ever see them. I sighed, pushed my glasses up my nose, and followed Puck out of the door.

Along the way, I could hear some children yelling about how they don’t want to go. I entered the black carriage, which was locked on the outside. Inside the carriage, I was greeted by a guy by the name of Argon, who was sitting on a seat with wheels and was rolling along beside the carriage.

After a while, we were approaching the Conlis Mountain Zone. I’ve been quite close to the border, but no one is ever allowed past the mountains. Everyone knows that people who live on the other side of the mountain is where people with magic live. I believe the school is also there.

We reached the border, and the Crucible (the people who picked us up) left the carriage. Fortunately, Argon was still here with us. The carriage rolled on, but I didn’t really pay much attention to the scenery, after all, there were some books about past Conlis in my dad’s study, and I may or may not have read a little of those books when no one was looking. We crossed by a town that was covered by

a purple dome. Children would run up to the dome, press their faces against it, and waved at us.

Argon waved back at them, stepped inside the purple dome. He then suddenly reached inside his pockets and made it rain candy. I wasn’t really paying attention though, and when he came back, Colena was throwing herself at the door, but nothing happened. I could tell that Colena wanted to escape, maybe even kill herself before reaching the school. I really didn’t want to witness a death, but thankfully, nothing happened to her body either.

After a couple of minutes of Colena continuously throwing her body at the carriage, her hand broke through. I felt a coldness wash over me, and saw liquid darkness. This was different from the darkness I was used to. “Of course it’s different,” a voice chided me in my head. “This is magic we are talking about.” The carriage was shaking. Colena and Jayden ran towards the darkness, and it dragged them farther away from the carriage. Argon was also fighting the darkness. Blasts of blue light attacked the darkness, and eventually Colena and Jayden, who had jumped off the carriage, weren’t surrounded by the darkness anymore. As I looked around from the windows, the darkness was gone.

All of a sudden, the carriage was lurching, and I felt us being lifted along with the carriage. We hear these voices chanting. I looked down to see Argon protecting Colena and Jayden, who were simply staring at the palms of their hands. There was more darkness and creatures coming out of it. I spotted the three people who were chanting, and they were blasting the creatures and the darkness.

After quite some time, it all disappeared; the carriage was back to normal; Jayden and Colena came back. “Whoo! That was fun! And those people you just saw? They’re your teachers,” said Argon, as the carriage approached the tower.

Dominic One fine night I was in my room planning my trip to the school I was going to be sent to. When all of a sudden I heard loud footsteps I looked out the window and there they were the people that were going to send me somewhere away from my family. Of course I was really scared so I hid under my desk. When I saw Segal, Puck and Argon I was going to run out of the house and jump in the carriage cause this was called life. However I decided to make a plan. A few minutes later the people outside were shouting at me. I saw there were already a few people inside in the carriage. I was going to but I liked it instead I just froze there. I was going to make a run for it but they carried me inside the carriage. on the way to the magical lands I was so nervous I could have puked! I wanted to get off as soon as I could and get over it.

However during the trip the candles got put out. I thought it was gonna be fine however darkness came from the candles everyone screamed as few of them tried to push it back. The dark wrapped around them, almost killing them until we got rescued. A few heroes started fighting the darkness eventually destroying the darkness. I could’ve cried. I was definitely lucky this time but maybe not next time.

Name: Erica The night Annie realized she had magical powers she screamed. It shot through almost everyone's ears. She first felt really worried but after a few moments she felt slightly better. The night passed by pretty fast and it was almost morning.

Annie was collected and ended up with a few other people in a dark and creepy carriage. The carriage was a pretty big one but it still wasn’t as big as Annie thought it would be. When Annie and the other people were sitting in the carriage she thought of how much she regret leaving but also feeling a bit scared to use her new powers. She knew controlling them would be very very hard and wouldn’t be easy to do all the other things she liked doing. After all she thought of how good it felt to not change much and not become another person until she realized what if her powers could make her change into someone or something else. After realizing what she had thought about, Annie decided to try and break out of the carriage. She tried as hard as possible but not a single movement happened. Annie was determined to get out but no luck. It was still as hard as a magical barrier. Later on the carriage stopped for a moment and then continued moving. Annie was scared but still was brave on the inside until something happened to a few of the people who were in the same carriage as Annie.

Jayden

Jayden was having a normal day until he saw his neighbor Dominic get picked up by Crucible, Crucible is a tall man and magician hat and Crucible said “come into the cartridge now or else you will die”. Jayden who was at the front of his house said “try to kill me ya noob”. Crucible made an evil smile and said “ok”. Crucible took out his staff-like weapon and pointed at Jayden who was staring at it. The staff that Crucible was holding charged and went wooooooom at Jayden the zap was lifting up the dirt on the ground. It was very powerful But luckily Jayden dogged it and rolled over shifting all his weight to the side. The staff charged up again and almost hit Jayden and Jayden thought Crucible was never going to stop zapping Jayden until he dies? Now back to the zap almost hitting Jayden. The dirt went up in the air strongly and until a nice teacher called Argon came and stopped Crucible before he could do further damage to Jayden he zapped the zap that Crucible made to zap Jayden. They said to Dominic to get on to the carriage and he did and it was Jayden’s turn to get on the carriage. Argon said “we will teach you how to control your magic and bla bla bla bla bla bla bla, he took out his hand but Jayden didn’t take it and then Crucible said “10 seconds or my way”. Jayden finally took Argon's hand after Argon’s pep talk. It was time for the rest of the people to get on the carriage and say bye-bye to their parents. It was hours and they crossed a desert which made them very thirsty and hungry. Agron said “almost there!” Jayden and this girl called Melissa escaped and the rest was in the carriage and saw a town bubble with a person staring at them. While Jayden and Melissa were escaping these black spirits thingies and tried to wrinkle them off and it worked and all they see is their beautiful hand. Jayden and Melissa were ordered to get back on to the carriage. Jayden was thinking that he would be taught how to throw a fireball at the school.

Kylie I woke up one morning and I heard a knock on the door. I opened the door and saw a strange guy standing there. He said I had to go with him so I just followed him to a black carrier. And so I went in. Then I saw my friends in the carrier as well. We passed through the mountain range and then I saw a small valley. And then the pathway started going up and I could see a tower at the end of the path. At the west I could see the sunset down at the sea.

To the left of me I could see a bustling town. Suddenly I heard a crash and my hand broke through the window. Then I feel the carriage begin to shake.

Entry 2 Marysa Liu

Today

was the day, there was no escaping… or

was there? No one knows, but was there a way to control her powers without going to that dreading school? Marysa’s mind raced like a carousel as she feared for what the future had in store, life is the most unpredictable thing and you may only hope for the best outcomes sometime .

‘Run away, hide, it’s the only way.. The people who are going to take you to the school won’t find you if you run’ ‘No, go to the school, you’ll learn magic and maybe make a change in this twisted world’ Marysa’s thoughts fought with each other. What was the right decision to make? Should she go to the school or hide somewhere no one would find her?

As Marysa was deep in thought, she started to dissociate Tic Marysa started to drift away from reality Toc ‘Nothing made sense..’

Tic ‘What’s going to happen to me?’

Toc ‘I just need a little bit more time-’ ...

As Marysa snapped back into reality, she realized that everything was… rather quiet....

She was looked around her room and everything was rather stillMarysa looked out her window realizing it was raining.. Well… it’s still raining but the rain isn’t falling out of the sky.

Outside the window it looked like a drawing, imaginary, like a dream. The rain looked frozen in its place as little raindrops flouted in the air, very still, paralyzed in place

Marysa looked at the clock on her nightstand for what seems like forever and yet, the time didn’t seem to change on it she remembered the last sentence she said “I just need a little bit more time-” It made sense yet didn’t at the same time.

‘Did I just freeze time?-’ Marysa started laughing, she was relieved ‘I could just make time freeze forever right? I don’t have to go to the school!’

Marysa was the happiest she ever was in a while until Pitter patter, pitter patter It started raining again.

KNOCK KNOCK Someone was at the door.

‘W-what happened? I thought I froze time.. Is it only temporary?’

Marysa walked down stairs to open the door, it was time.

Thump, thump, thump Down the stairs Marysa went.

As she touched the doorknob, her head started to spin ‘Maybe I shouldn’t answer the door.. What if they break down my door? It doesn’t really matter though.. I could always ask Robert to repair it’ Marysa started to turn the doorknob ‘No STOP DON’T DO IT, IGNORE IT, FIGHT AGAINST THE URGE’ The urge to open the door became stronger and STRONGER AND EVEN STRONGER. Sooner or later the door was opened and In front of Marysa was a big man with long black hair and a thick coat seated in a wheelchair “Good day to you lad, some lovely rain we have today” “H-hello?-” Marysa stuttered with a quizzical look on her face.

“Anyways, I’m here to collect you for magic school-”

PEW PEW PEW A few houses away there was a man shooting magic at a boy who seems to be dodging pretty well “Please get in the carriage I need to take care of some business.. Also my name is Argon” Said the man as he blasted across the muddy road to save the boy.

Marysa was as confused as ever but gathered the last of her things (which wasn’t much and mostly consisted of art supplies) and hopped into the carriage. After a few minutes and maybe even hours, the carriage was full with children from my neighbourhood. Some Marysa knew, and some she didn’t. ~~~ The trip to M Litterae Est Magicae took three long days, most of Marysa’s time was spent looking out the window at all the new sights she never got to see. As the carriage went north of the Conlis Mountain Range Marysa started to worry, all the stories of the people on the other side of this mountain scared Marysa

But now that she’s seen it for herself, it wasn’t half as bad as she thought. The area was very calm and beautiful. ~~~ After awhile, Argon and his crew left and even so the carriage carried on going closer and closer to the school. As the carriage got closer to the school, it passed by a village with many towns-folks waving at the children being taken to the school and being the anti-social fetus she was, Marysa started to panic and attempted to hide herself as much as possible. As Marysa peeked through the window, she realized a REALLY BIG almost transparent purple dome that kept the villagers away from the path the carriage was taking ‘It’s most likely to protect the villagers from us in case we do any magic’ Marysa thought as she heard Argon say “EYYYYY Hello buys and guys!”

As he reached into his pocket and magically made colourful candy appear

All the children looked very happy as Marysa heard a kid who she was 99% sure was named Colena say “How did you do that?”

And Argon explaining all the wonders of the world. ~~~ Marysa had dissociated again..

Time had seem to slowed down or maybe even quickened but Marysa wasn’t sure as she was deep in thought BANG BANG BANG! Marysa snapped into reality again to see Colena trying to break the lock that kept the door shut.

Nothing happened, the lock was still brand new.

Next, Colena tried to break the window.

Still no success.

Marysa heard Argon telling Colena about how it was impossible to break the door and windows.

As Colena and Argon kept talking, Marysa went back to daydreaming and dissociation again “____dangerous location” She heard Argon say as her senses slowly stopped working and all she could think about were the deep thoughts in her head CRASH! Colena broke the window, a cold wind could be felt. …

The Carriage started shaking and shadows could be seen outside BANG BANG BANG Colena continued to try and break the window more Darkness started to creep into the carriage.

Colena and Melissa reached out to touch the darkness, it looked like some kind of ritual was being performed.

The battle between Argon and the darkness was a big blur but Argon seemed to be winning.

Maryse sees the darkness creeping up on Argon and out of instinct she screams “WATCH OUT” And very heroically, Argon shot the darkness with his illuminous blue light.

Marysa had a mix of emotions.

Confusion?

Panic?

Anxiety?

It was all a big blur for her.

The cart started to speed up as it soon started to fly. Voices from the distance could be heard, they chanted in a language Marysa didn’t understand but soon three figures were in sight and shined a bright light at the monster. It was blinding and Marysa was forced to look down and cover her eyes but soon the figures came closer.

Marysa was able to see their features.

The first was a woman, she had blue skin and blasted the bright light at the darkness.

The second figure was a young man who was also blasting light at the creature but he also rapped a liquid around his arms and quickly the liquid turned into steel as the man punched the darkness.

The third and last figure was a small man wearing yellow with a bald head and big beard giggling as he made illusion of himself and the others.

As the darkness was defeated, the cart landed and Marysa was trying to collect her thoughts.

The three figures zipped away and Argon explained how those three figures were going to be our teachers ‘What a good first impression’ Marysa thought very sarcastically.

Bingyin The next morning the doorbell rang. As I went to answer it, I felt like there were butterflies in my stomach. A man dressed in blacked stood on the other side of the door. “Hello miss, do you know someone by the name Aiko?” He said.

“That would be me.” I told him. “Oh, well I am here to collect you.” Before I could even say goodbye to my mom, he led me towards a carriage and pushed me in. I fell face first into the carriage and as I lifted my head I noticed that there were other children in the carriage with me. For some unknown reason I suddenly felt a lot better knowing that I wasn’t alone. There were about 11-12 other kids in the carriage with me so it was pretty crowded. The carriage began to move and I could tell we were headed north.

The Crucible wasn't as bad as I thought. I met Segall, Argon and Puck and they really weren't all that bad, but they weren’t too talkative either. As we traveled north a mountain slowly came into view. Segall and Puck left and Argon was outside of the carriage. We passed the mountains and saw a valley. There was fog everywhere and it was hard to tell who was who. Then I could just make out a small mountain range and tower. The west sun was shining brightly in the distance. The carriage made its way onto a pathway and the townspeople waved at us. But then I noticed a semi-transparent purple dome around the town. No one seemed to be going past the dome and I wondered if you could even walk out of it. Then argon waved his hand and candy and shiny stuff was everywhere. “How did you do that?” Someone asked. “Creating candy out of thin air is something you will learn,” said Argon. We continued up the path, cold, freezing wind filled my ears and lungs. Then suddenly, the candles in the carriage went out and I couldn’t see anything but darkness. And just when I thought that things couldn't possibly get any worse, the carriage starts to shake and liquid darkness pours in the carriage. From somewhere behind me I heard someone shouting,”awsome!” The darkness touches someone and slowly wraps

around his body parts. It seemed as though he was not aware of the situation.

There seemed to be distant voices coming from outside the carriage. And just as quickly as it came in the darkness pulled back as though retreating. I looked up and my jaw dropped, holding a lantern blasting brilliant blue light into the endless darkness was Argon! Shapes were speeding around him and Mellisa shouted ,”Behind you!” Argon turned around, consumed the darkness and blasted it back. Then the carriage started to move again and just when I thought things had started to look a bit better, two kids jumped out and the darkness wrapped them up. They seemed like they had lost their memory or something. I wanted to help but the carriage kept moving. We followed the path and then the horses went silent. The carriage lurched left and right, being lifted into the sky. Strange voices filled the carriage, one high and clear, another dark and demanding, and the last voice was strangely musical and lyrical. Light bursted into the carriage and I looked down. Argon was protecting the two kids.

Three figures could also be seen. Slowly but surely the carriage came to a rest. The two kids looked dazed and confused as though nothing had even happened. The three figures zipped off. “Who was that?” Someone asked.

“Those three were your teachers,” said Argon camly. Then we finally made our way to the tower.

Rachael January 2, 3801 I stared at the black carriage-thingy.

“You can do magic,” he said, “But it is hard to control. So you have to go to a school of magic. You’ll learn how to throw fireballs, whatever. [correction inserted by me: that was supposed to be “you’ll learn how to kill yourself in many different ways”, but I guess he was trying to convince me]. And there’s also a chance that you’ll survive!”

“Excuse me,” I said as politely as I could (also very quiet because that’s me, and that’s that), “Might?” Someone in the distance yelled: “Puck, hurry up or I shall do it!” Then a tall, sleek man came into view. His hair was sleek and black, blown to the side by the wind and he wore (the dimwit) sunglasses. His eyes were the darkest of the black, and I couldn’t help but feel frightened.

“You will come with us or I shall have the pleasure to kill you,” he snarled, “And Puck, you’re not helping by reassuring them.” I looked past him to see a carriage-limo thing, holding several children. I was sure that none of them looked happy.

“Kill me then,” I said. “I don’t care.”

He smiled coldly and said: “Are you sure?”

I imitated his face and laughed coldy and mockingly, saying “Yes.” He drew out a dark staff, and pointed the tip at me. He flicked his hand, and a blast of magic shot towards me. I threw myself to the side. He directed it at me again, and this time I still dodged it. Rinse and repeat. Then a blast came towards me and I slipped in the mud while dodging it, laughing mockingly, although deep down I was frightened. [Redacted] it, I thought. As he turned the staff on me once more, a man in a wheelchair, by the name of Argon, said, “Okay, Segall, stop.

We have an agreement that says we are not to harm any of these children.” He started to negotiate with me and promised to protect me, holding out his hand. I refused, but still, he persisted. I knew what was north of the Conlis, and my curiosity was shattered. What was wrong with not going to some stupid school that literally screamed danger?

“I prefer living in the freedom of democracy, thank you very much,” I snapped.

“If you stay here,” he said, “You’re a danger to everyone around y-” “I never had anyone around me,” I interrupted, “Most of my family are dead - the reason why I’m living here is I was adopted by a family I don’t even consider family. The neighbours always think I’m weird and dangerous, so who cares? So do my friends, and practically everyone I meet. I honestly don’t care if I have magical powers.”

Blah blah blah, all about how he would not let me die and whatever. There was no point in this. I gave in. I wished it was a dream, and if it was a dream, I desperately wanted to wake up.

Along with I, several children headed north for 3 days, before we arrived at the Conlis.

Mountain Range (After picking up the last child, who also apparently put up quite the fight). The Conlis was a long mountain range, in the shape of, strangely, a near perfect straight line. I had explored the Conlis, and I had also been told never to look past the peak when I was six. It was strange, considering that I was so curious to see what was beyond the sounds of sparks and bangs and strange creatures that occasionally wandered south of the mountains, but now, as I was going to, it felt strangely empty inside me, never again full of the same curiosity I once had.

The mountain range was beautiful - as far as I could see at least - with its lush green forests, gentle sloping gray-brown sides, perfect for skiing and tobogganing in the winter and hiking in the

summer. The snow-capped peaks were glimmering in the sunlight as usual, despite the fact that I knew that I would never enjoy the sight again. It was here, I knew, that my biological parents had met their deaths, and I wondered when I shall.

A winding path (that, as usual, I was told never to go through) led its way through the mountains, and it was here that the other members of the “Crucible” (I know, it sounds like something from Harry Potter) departed. I lost sight of both Puck and Sigall, Only Argon stayed. The horses looked like they had a better sense of direction than Sigall and Puck, who probably had IQs of -3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197… (Yes, I was just flexing knowing a couple numbers of pi but negative). I probably looked extremely depressed most of the time, thinking of what had happened to my parents here, near this very spot.

The other side of the Conlis was equally beautiful. For some particular reason - I don’t know what’s wrong with that mind of hers - Colena started to try to smash the door (As you can imagine, it was the most annoying thing in the world while I was trying to read a book in my head [yes I’m strange like that]). Time passed, and she finally managed to break it a little, and for some reason there was darkness. Just plain black darkness..

For some reason, Colena and Jayden decided to touch it, and darkness wrapped around their hands. Now, I don’t know what happened next, but suddenly they were sucked out of the carriage, and Argon was there, fighting with magic. Seriously I don’t pay attention to ridiculous things, because I was too busy scanning the carriage for exits that would allow me to escape (except the thing that would automatically kill me). Just as Argon was losing it (not in the laughing way, in the battle way), I heard three voices, all of them chanting in a lyrical way. One was a high-pitched woman’s voice, one was a humorous voice, and the other was a man’s voice. They were chanting weird things, and the only thing I made out was “Oscal Madina, Oscal Madina”, which means Asal City in Arabic. I don’t know what the heck that is, and I personally don’t care.

Then suddenly the darkness dispersed, and three figures - one glowing blue, one glowing red, one glowing yellow - zoomed off into the distance, pursuing their opponent.. “Well,” said Argon, “That was a wonderful introduction to your new teachers.”

Knock,Knock. I was in the middle of buttering my waffles when knock, knock. My dad goes to answer the door. I continue to butter my waffles. I was about to bite down when my dad called me from the other room. ‘Tokyo, come here’. I went to the door and a guy stood in the doorway. He had black hair brushed to one side and was wearing a long black leather jacket and sleek black boots with black sunglasses even though it was raining. He looks at my dad and says’ is this Tokyo Suki Taski’? ‘Yes’ my dad said in a concerned tone. The guy looks at me ‘pack your stuff and meet me outside, you have no longer than five minutes’ this guy said in a cool tone.’What?’ I asked. Surprisingly my mom looks at me in tears.

‘Hiko, it’s t t true, t t the school. My dad turns as white as the milk I was drinking.’ the schools true’ I whispered trying to keep my voice stable. My mom nods. My heart drops.”I’m going to leave” I said finally crying. I took the silence as a yes. My mom comes to kiss me, my dad comes to kiss me, and my brother hugs me. I’m led to a quite comfortable looking limousine. There are three people, Argar, Segall, and Puke. We head north for three days until we meet the edge of a calm mountain range. Every Once in a while fire explosions come and it suddenly turns winter or lighting shoots out of nowhere. Argar, Segall, and puke leave the carriage. However the carriage continues to drive itself.

I see two mountains, and a path leading up to a tower. When we get closer we see people bustling in the tower and people waving at us. There is a transparent dome covering the tower. This weird girl starts smashing the window and talking to Argon. Then this cold wind starts to fill the carriage. The weird girl smashed the window harder and the candles went out.

The weird girl breaks a hole in the window and cold air comes in. The weird girl shouts”WE’RE DYING! AWESOME”. Then three people start getting covered by this weird black shading thing.

The horses connected to the carriage start running into the darkness.The carriage lurch from right to left. I feel like the cart gets raised up and this weird language I don't understand starts chanting.

I see a woman with blue skin using fire to push darkness away, a person making an illusion of himself, and another guy shooting stuff in different directions. Argon comes and says that was a nice introduction to your teachers. You must be tired, get some food and head back into the school.We are then led to the school.

The night I got my powers It was just like a normal day. Netflix and chill on bed and drinking orange juice on It I was getting orange juice that day, then I dropped It but It was like a speed of light i caught It felt so weird still thinking about this. I heard a doorbell and I went to pick it up but It was a scary man. He said he came here to pick me up but I said no cause I thought It was just a stranger. I went out to see who was there also and there was a bearded man he introduced himself to me he said his name was puck and he was pretty nice to me he explained everything to me and I was kinda happy cause I wanted to get out of the house for literally the whole day then they said you might want to say goodbye to your parents, me being dumb and saying no so I just went on the bus and i saw alot of children. At first I thought we were getting kidnaped but everyone told me to calm down so I met a lot of people on the bus, even the adults. Their names were Segall, Puck, and Argon; they were quite nice but not for everyone. Now i was relaxed and I went to sleep, when i woke up I saw everyone screaming so i decided to do that as well cause I didn’t know what to do then I saw this black orb and me and Colena, rachael all decided to touch It and It shocked me and I went back to sleep.

The next day we were here at the school and I am so excited to learn magic, But I wonder what powers I have???

SESSION THREE

The Tower

Dominic When I finally arrived at the castle we arrived in a weird circular room. I kept thinking to myself my plan is going wrong! I was confused. I didn't know what was so special about a circular room. I kept thinking but nothing came to mind. Until one of the teachers went into the middle of the room and flew up. My mind was blown, I didn’t know there was actual magic! I quickly thought this was a dream so I pinched myself. It hurt a lot, that meant this was not a dream. I was looking and just staring amazed. After that we followed Angelina into the main hall and then to the area we ate. Angelina ran under the table and hid under. I grabbed a plate to smash it but nothing happened. I just froze so I decided to put the plate back. Then when it was lunchtime one of my classmates waved at an older kid the older kids waved back then went back to what they were doing. That's rude I thought. After the next day I went to have breakfast and there standing was professor Gill.

Before I decided to have breakfast I asked Professor Gill a joke whether Professor Festo likes pesto. I found it was pretty funny but Professor Gill didn’t. He made me have a dark sensation and told me not to do things like that. I was frowning after that incident, what did professor Gill have against proffester Festo? So I went to the place where you can fly and went to my classroom. The classroom was nice, it had bookshelves and desks all of those in a normal

classroom. However then a lever appeared. I asked profesor Gill what is that? Of course I was curious.

Apparently it was a machine to launch monsters. I was watching as one and then another fought as hard as they could. One person named Jayden cast a spell on all of us.

I was mad at him even if it was an accident. When it was my turn I had to defeat a zombie crocodile I decided to dab cause I dab too much however then the zombie croc bit my leg. My leg flared with pain as if it was going to get ripped off. So I concentrated on the crocodile’s head and his head exploded into pieces. I screamed cause that was one of the weirdest moments in my life. When I went back to my dorm my leg ached after that crocodile bit me but I was so tired I could’ve slept for centuries. However instead I just sat on my bed thinking about my day.

However then I noticed my window looked like sushi, so I tried to eat it. I failed of course, but I saw a light at the end of the window so I tried to punch the window and break it.

When I finished punching it I screamed. My hand hurt so much I thought there was boiling water poured all over my hand. So I took my hand away and just lied on my bed. I checked the clothing the exact fashion I love wearing was inside. Puma jackets, Denim jean jackets, ripped jeans and much more. I was confused this was the best room ever! I didn’t know how they knew this stuff but one word came to my brain as fast as sonic “Magic”. I slowly went to sleep after being so tired.

Jayden and the others arrived at the magic school and went into the tower. It was amazing at first sight. Jayden looked around and found a cafeteria, he was hungry. On one of the floors a boy hit a talking metal armor. The talking metal armor name was Jerry the Jouster. The boy hit Jerry right in the face and it rolled slowly on the ground. A girl called Kylie came along and put the head back. After they had dinner in the great hall. Jayden was eating super fast. They were rushed by a teacher to head to their room. It was time for their first class.The test was about defeating these deadly animals. It was Jayden’s turn and the teacher said “step up”, Jayden stepped up and Jayden had faced a turkey and Jayden tried to punch the turkey in the face but the turkey blocked it and punched Jayden very hard. The teacher said “use magic!” Jayden tried to throw a fireball but all he did was say “hiya!” The teacher took the turkey away with magic and Jayden failed the test. Jayden and the others headed back to their room and they had thrown themselves on their beds in their room after having a long day.

Kylie

Argon tells us to get out and Colena and Jayden follow. I asked Argon what we are doing and he said that we are going to M Litterae est Magicae! I went to the dark tower to check it out. Then I find a warmly lit circle room. As I walk, I feel disappointed because there are no people. And at the entrance there was armor as the height of a child and he was cald Jerry and he could talk. I asked Argon why he had a wheelchair and he said because he never learned how to walk. Argon goes in the middle where a circle is and he levitates away. When I tried, it did not work. Then Vanessa said I Believe I can fly and she levatated up. The rest of us went up as well, thinking we can fly. And then I started playing with the elevator, going up and down up and down.... Then I went to the top to check it out. On my way, I say all the other floors as well. On the third floor there was a warm fire and books with two sets of doors. One is on the left and one is on the right. The fourth floor had a small landing area and there were 4 doors one had professor Gill written on a label. The fifth floor had 4 doors as well. The sixth floor is small and there are many doors and dim torches. At the top floor I see the closed black roof. Then I went down to the ground floor to fix Jerry after being taken apart by Jayden. THen I went back to the second floor and sat down at the table. As I sit down I see older students with different colored clothes on the farther sides. Then we started eating dinner. Argon said that there are different towers for different classes. We can smell, see and talk to but not touch the other people in the tower. We finished eating and got into the magic elevator and went into our sleep room. Vanessa went into a room and a label saying Vanessa appeared on the door. Then we all went and chose our door to go to. The room was very cozy and comfortable. I went to sleep as quick as a wink. The next morningI went to the second floor for breakfast. Then I hear footsteps coming towards our table. As it got close enough to see it, It was professor Gill! When professor Gill came, He started talking non stop on things. I drift up to the third floor and I see professor gill in a room. Then I follow him. There were torches and smoothe hard wood for the floor. Then professor Gill started talking again. A staff floats to his hand and moves it from right to left and continues talking. He asks if anyone wants to volunteer. I said “Me” but Angela got to go first. I went third. On my turn, A skeleton came and I tried to blast it with ice but I failed and got an inch shorter.

Entry 3 Marysa Liu

As

the cart arrived at the school, Marysa

took a look at the gigantic building in front of her. It was a big castle, very ancient but very appealing. The vines on the building were a prime feature as it adds very aesthetic vibe to it. Many mountains surrounded the place and Marysa could only IMAGINE the wonderful view you could see from one of the top floors of the castle. Jaiden and Colena still looked confused from what had happened last time with the darkness. As the children entered the building, everything was pitch black.

‘Is this suppose to be unusual or is this a ritual that happens every year with the new students…’

Marysa whispered to herself as she looked around to at least find one thing that was visible out of all the darkness that

Filled the vast room. Everyone froze for a second, all standing at the doorway until Kylie stepped up and walked into the darkness and disappeared. Slowly after that everyone else followed and one by one through the darkness which seemed endless until the students reached the other side. On the other side, glowing red torches lit the area. In the middle of the room, was a big brass circle ‘Interesting..’

As Marysa looked around she noticed a suit of armor with a wooden jousting lance beside it.

“Well don’t!-” Argon was saying as Kylie interrupted him by saying “Why do you have a wheelchair?”

Marysa had wondered about this subject too but she never had the courage to ask Argon herself “Oh! I never learned to walk” “What?!” said Kylie “Well I was born a little different and this school, has no stairs!”

Marysa looked around and Argon was right

This school (or this floor at least) didn’t have stairs at all.

“When you figure it out, you can join me for dinner” Marysa heard Argon say as he stood on the brass circle and started to flouting up. Kylie stood on the circle too and… nothing happened.

‘I swear if you have to use magic to flout up in the sky that is so unfair’ Marysa thought as none of the children knew how to use/control their powers so they would be stuck on the first floor forever. Marysa looked at the brass circle wondering how it worked as a unknown voice started speaking “Well it’s not so much flying, it’s not so complicated” Vanessa stepped in the brass circle ‘Wait, is she doing the T pose?-’ And started levitating upwards.

“I guess you don’t need old Jerry” The same unknown voice said “No Jerry you can come too!” Kylie said

“Well that’s not really how it works- I’m just a suit of armor” Jerry said ‘Ohhhh that makes sense’ Marysa whispered as she turned her head to look at the armor with the wooden jousting stick “Ah ok so you figured out the first puzzle, it’s meant to like teach you that if you would like to elevate in this school you just gotta believe in yourself!”

Jerry said with what seemed like a smile? Jerry and Kylie started a small argument which quickly ended as Kylie stepped on the brass circle and started singing “I BELIEVE I CAN FLYYYY” Marysa was not sure how she felt about that.

Even with Kylie’s weird singing, she started to fly.

“Anywho Jerry the Jouster is what people call me” Jerry (the Jouster) said as everyone tried to levitate like Vanessa and Kylie “Can I kill Jerry?” Ethan asked

“Well you can try” Jerry said as Ethan punched off Jerry’s helmet, Marysa watched in shock (Insert shocked/surprised Pikachu face am I right?-)

Dominic took Jerry’s head and placed it back on his body. Angela leviates upwards and Ethan kept punching Jerry. Finally all the students levitated upwards to the dining room (it did take some time finding out which room the dining room was though because the castle layout was puzzling) ~~~ As the students entered the dining room, there were people dressed with different colours. Red, Blue, and Yellow, the teachers at each table were the ones who helped fight the darkness when Marysa and the rest were coming to the school.

The teacher in blue seemed very strict, the teacher in red wasn’t as strict but still gave his students a stern speech. The teacher in yellow was very goofy

And seemed to make a lot of jokes as his students were constantly laughing. As all the students saw the freshmen enter the dining room they started to clap which made Marysa kind of uncomfortable as she tried to make herself look smaller.

Even so, Marysa sat down and looked down at her plate to find her favourite meal. She tried to eat it at a relatively slow pace but the empty void in her stomach made her eat her food almost without chewing. When dinner was done Argon told all the students about where they would be staying and how they will begin their classes tomorrow. ~~~ It took Marysa some time but she finally found her room and as she entered she was amazed, it was all she could ever dream of. The walls were colourful patterns and vases of beautiful flowers were placed on almost every counter.

Paintings of many varieties covered the walls as well as fairy lights that hung from the ceiling.

The bookshelves in the corner had all her favourite books on them and on her bed there

Were many stuffed animals. Beside her bed was a desk used for studying and drawing and all the things in her room followed a specific colour pallet. Everything was placed just right but something in Marysa’s room didn’t seem right. In one of the corners there was a dog bed, a water and food bowl and a basket of dog toys. It was very odd because Marysa didn’t have a dog and never planned to get one… Maybe there was a previous owner in this room and they had a dog?

That didn’t make sense either, Marysa doubted this school allowed animals but maybe the dog was a service animal. It was a strange name the dog had though because on the bowl where most people would imprint the dog’s name it said “Doggo”. Doggo was a very close word to “Dog” so maybe that’s what the name on the bowl was for any of the future pet owners who had a dog so it wasn’t for a specific dog. Marysa decided to ignore the dog bowl and walked into the bathroom. The bathroom was very aesthetic pleasing

Decipher the code

As it had a bathtub, a fluffy rug, more plants/ flowers and a gigantic mirror. ~~~ After the self room tour, Marysa went back in the bathroom, took a bath, changed into her sleep clothes, As Marysa slipped into her bed, a wave of confusion and sadness filled her body. She started to think about her chance of surviving in this school and what would happen to her.

Marysa didn’t know what to do, she was lost.

As the thoughts crept into her head, Marysa fell asleep. ~~~ “\^^6 \^^6” Marysa was in a field with her 4^7 named 4^77^. Sunflowers sprouted from the ground and they were having a picnic. This place seemed so familiar yet so unfamiliar to Marysa.

“Where am I?” “~^=(5 1- 8^^$” ...

“(5%71( 81) (5-=(%54" “(5%71( 81) (5-=(%54” The sunflowers slowly started to wilt and 1&@7%’s face became unrecognizable to Marysa. 1&@7%’s head twisted in ways Marysa didn’t know were possible.

The bright, clear, clouded sky became A filthy 7(1~ colour.

Marysa started to run “Where am I?” The farther Marysa ran, the more lost she became.

The dream is not what it seems

Marysa became slower and

slower

Soon her feet became paralyzed.. !*@&#!)9172390&!@#(&!@(#(*&!@*#&(!27827

~~~ Beads of sweat formed on Marysa’s head as she woke up from that dreaded nightmare. It was so vivid in her head and it seemed to be playing on repeat. Some fragments of the nightmare Marysa didn’t remember like who she was having a picnic with and what they were saying before they became… well, corrupted.

‘That nightmare was so cliche..’

Marysa thought as in some of the books she’s read the main character’s nightmare alway consisted of the beautiful sky turning dark and running away from something. The more times Marysa read about this cliche nightmare, she thought the main characters were exaggerating about how traumatizing it was but now that she has experienced it, she understood. Marysa looked at the clock that sat on her nightstand

5:23 AM It was still quite early in the morning and Marysa could get a little bit more sleep before having to get ready for her first class.

That was the problem though; Marysa couldn’t fall back asleep. She got up, changed into some casual clothing and walked around her dorm once again. Still astounded by the looks of her room, Marysa suddenly saw a little patch of stained glass on the wall. It looked like a mini Starry Night and it was beautiful, Marysa tried to look outside the stained glass but she couldn’t see anything.

Strange.

Bingyin The carriage slowly came to a stop. “This is where you're going to school,” said Argon. I saw a big wooden door with large brass handles come into view. Argon waved his hand and the door opened. I was disappointed and confused when on the other side of the door was a wall of darkness. My first guess was that the school had been attacked and filled with the black liquid, but that didn’t make any sense because Argon didn’t seem at all worried or panicked. I realised that half of the class had already gone into the gooey blackness and disappeared. I shut my eyes and quickly stepped in with the others. Opening my eyes, I saw that I was now in a circular room with the rest of the kids. The room seemed to curve out of sight and was well lit and warm. However, I noticed that in the middle of the room there was a large metal circle with four pillars surrounding it. There were also a bunch of doors in the room. Finally breaking the awkward silence, Argon came rolling in behind us. “Why do you sit in a wheelchair?” One of the girls who I later found out was called Kylie asked. Well cause I never learned to walk,” he said. Then he rolled his chair forward into the middle of the circle and started to float upwards. I guess everyone was just as shocked as I was because no one said a thing. After a few moments, Kylie walked forward and stood in the circle and looked up. Nothing seemed to happen so Kylie then walked out of the circle. Suddenly a voice behind us said, “it’s not quite so complicated.” I turned to see who had said that and found myself staring at a suit of armor called Jerry. “You just gotta believe in yourself,” it said. After everyone recovered from the shock, a girl named Vanessa stepped forward and into the circle. Now I don’t know exactly what she was thinking, but it looked like she was trying really hard to fly. We all gazed up at her as she slowly lifted off the ground and disappeared. Kylie then stepped back into the circle and said, “I believe I can fly.” While Kylie floated up, another kid punched Jerry in the face. It was all very chaotic as Angela also stepped in the circle and disappeared as well. In the end though, everyone managed to get onto the second floor. We headed for the Great Hall when a delicious smell of dinner filled my nostrils.

We walked into another room full of long empty tables and watched as Angela crawled under one of them. At that moment I suddenly felt very tired and decided to sit down at a table. As I sat down, a dozen more tables full of students appeared.

Confused, I looked around me to see if everyone else was seeing what I was and they all seemed just as confused as me. Most of the students looked much older than us and a few were dressed in red, yellow, and blue. The kids dressed in red were talking to the guy who had punched the darkness away before. I also noticed the woman with blue skin and pointed ears sitting with a bunch of older kids all dressed in blue and a fat man who looked a bit like yellow Santa Claus. The yellow man, I saw, had three hands which creeped me out completely. I might have stared at him longer if it weren’t for the fact that many suits of armor like the one downstairs brought heaping plates of food. As we all started to eat, Argon told us that each table

would get their own tower to sleep in. He said that there were three main points when it came to magic, alteration, destruction, and illusion. We all chatted a bit more. A few minutes later the older students all got up and left. We walked out as well and back to the elevator. “Just think about your destination,” Argon said. I did as I was told and we headed to the dormitories. When we arrived, we all chose a room. Inside mine was a fireplace, a stained glass window that looked strangely like someone ice skating. Deeper in the room was a steaming tub of water, a bed and a wardrobe. I took a shower and got into bed. It has been a strange night, I thought as I slowly drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, we all ate breakfast and I noticed that Argon wasn’t there. I sudden;y heard footsteps as a man with dark skin approached us. He said his name was professor Gill and that we should all finish our breakfast quickly and come to class quickly. After finishing we all drift off to the third floor and walk into the classroom. “Welcome to your first class,” he said. “ It is dangerous to be inside but that it will have to do for now.” “Today you will be learning the basics.” He assured Angela forward and pulled a lever. There was a horrible hissing noise and a real skeleton appeared. I glanced at Angela and she seemed to be concentrating hard.

Suddenly, just as the skeleton was getting nearer, Angela electrocuted the skeleton leaving it in ashes. Amazed I stared at what used to be the skeleton in awe. Until I realized that it was my turn. I nervously walked to the front and of course tripped over my own feet in the process. There was hiss and another skeleton appeared. I tried to focus but nothing seemed to be happening. I started to get worried, but just as the skeleton was about one meter away, I felt a strange feeling that I can’t describe. BAM! I lifted the skeleton without actually touching it and it shattered into a million pieces. After that I couldn't concentrate on class anymore, but I do remember Kylie tried using her ice powers which didn’t end too well. After that my memory became fuzzy and I don’t remember too much. But I knew for sure that I was going to train hard to control my powers.

Rachael January 5, 3801 So basically, Argon had to carry Colena and Jayden (who were still in the stupid brain-dead state that they launched themselves into [don’t worry, they recovered]) back to the cart, where it drove the rest of the way down to the plateau that M litterae est Magicae (the stupidest name ever) stood. .

There was nothing there. Literally nothing, unless you count a couple of shrubs and low grasses. It was mostly swirling snow and large gusts of wind. It stung, sweeping through the shattered window in the carriage, and I lost all sense that going here was a good idea (WARNING: It gets even worse). Before, it was practically impossible to get out of this stupid carriage (curses), but when the darkness came, it sort of broke a magical barrier, and now, it was restored (but they didn’t bother to care that all of us were going to get hypothermia and die. Tell me if I’m being too dark).

The carriage trundled up to a gatehouse, where the door opened, and over the constant howling of the wind (or should I say wind-wolves), Argon yelled: “C’mon! C’mon in!” and so we all piled in the gatehouse. We made our way down the steps, with Jayden and Colena just sort of following along. Argon seemed not to notice, or he simply didn’t care, when Colena fell behind, and soon disappeared, darting off into the distance.

Kylie asked Argon “What are we doing?”

Argon answered (obviously) “You’re going to school.”

“What school?”

“M Litterae Est Magicae. There’s a sign.”

There was in fact (finally they got something correct) a sign. Painted on it was “M Litterae Est Magicae” (yes, it means M is the Magic Letter, which is, in my unworthy opinion, the worst name ever), and it hung over a large wooden door. The door had a single brass handle in the middle, and Argon casually waved his hand towards it. The handle turned, the door opened, and we followed him inside. Well, there wasn’t really an inside. It was just a wall. A very very black wall that wasn’t very purposeful at first sight.

Kylie stepped into the black wall and vanished. Jayden went next, followed by everyone else.

We came to a landing with a suite of armor. The suite of armor turned out to be Jerry the Jouster, and apparently there were many of them around the school. It was warmly lit, and completely circular, with glowing red torches on the walls, their flames flickering (We’re very old fashioned, we use torches instead of electricity). In the middle of the room was a large metal circle. Four pillars stood beside it. There were several doors set into the walls. Kylie asked Argon, “Why do you have a wheelchair?”

Argon replied, “Oh, because I never learned how to walk.” That was really a horrible explanation, because walking was an innate ability and you can’t really not learn how to walk.

“What?” Kylie said.

“Well, I was born a little bit different from the other people. But this gets me around. Allows me to do pretty much everything everybody else does, and, here at the Academy, if you take a look, there’s no stairs.”

“Then how do you get up?”

“How indeed.” He rolled his wheelchair onto the brass disk, spun around to face us, winking, and said, “When you figure it out, you can join me for some dinner.” He began to float up, and disappeared through a hole in the ceiling. Kylie walked onto the metal disk, and looked up. She pondered for a moment, then walked out of the circle. “Er, well, it’s not so much flying, it’s not quite so complicated.” a voice said.

Vanessa stepped onto the disk and, after a moment, lifted a few feet off the ground. She disappeared into the ceiling. “Woah, wow, this guy’s a natural. Well, alright then. No one needs the Jerry, I guess I’ll just stay here.”

“No, Jerry, you can come as well,” Kylie said childishly.

“No, that’s not how it works. I’m kinda just a suite of armor.” Then, above us, the same voice said, “Just kiddin, I’m up here too, how are you doing, welcome to the school.” Then, down here, the same voice said, “Right, yeah, that’s the first puzzle,, uh, you just gotta, uh, it’s a lesson. It’s meant to teach you that if you want to, uh, elevate up within this school, all you need to do is believe in yourself.”

“Uh, excuse me, I don’t think that's a lesson,” Kylie said. “If Vanessa had not tried that silly thing we might have not come up.”

“Maybe that’s a lesson to say that you should be brave and that you should try stuff!”

“Does it work anywhere in the castle?” Dominic asked.

“It doesn’t work anywhere except the magic elevator, actually, because you’re not the one flying,” Jerry said. The voice above us said, “Oh, we did not teach you how to get back down. So that may be difficult, if you wanna leave.” Kylie stepped onto the circle and sang, “I believe I can fly!” (which is a horrible song). She did fly, however, despite the fact that she had to sing the worst thing ever. The voice above said, “Oh, we’ve got two now!”

Kylie stepped out of the circle, but she didn’t plummet. Instead, she gently floated down, landing softly on the brass circle. She started going up and down the elevator, which was reasonably boring.

Meanwhile, more interesting things were happening. Ethan, who seemed to have had his brains go up the elevator with Vanessa and disappear, said to the Jerry, “Can I kill you?”

“Uh, would you like to try?”

Ethan’s answer was obviously yes, because the next moment he had streaked across the room and punched the Jerry’s helmet off. “Oh, vandalism on your first day. That’s very good. That’s really great. Then you can always wonder ‘why did I get taken away from my family and go to this school?’ and then the first thing you do is break the property.”

“Does the school have a weapon room?” Melissa asked.

“A weapon room? This is a school of magic, so yes, of course it has a weapon room.”

“Does the weapon room have guns?”

“I don’t know what that is.” Kylie landed for what seemed like the three million, seven hundred fifty-eight thousand, four hundred sixty-ninth time, walked over to the Jerry, and fixed his helmet for him.

“Thank you,” he said.

“Next time these people come, be careful to stay away from them,” she said.

“Well- I can’t move, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m Downstairs Jerry.”

The voice from upstairs said, “Are they breaking Downstairs Jerry?” Angela stepped into the elevator, paused for a moment, then began to float up. Ethan was still knocking pieces off of ‘Downstairs Jerry’. Kylie walked to the elevator, and began to float to the top. I’m just going to describe what she saw because it doesn’t waste the time describing it later.

The second floor was quite warm, with a very large fireplace in the main area. All around the room were bookshelves, filled with rows and rows of books sitting on them. There were also couches, desks, tables, and various areas for sitting, pitchers on the tables filled with water sitting next to the glasses, and two sets of doors, one on the right and one on the left. The one on the right side of the room was marked “Great Hall” (Harry Potter Rip Off alert) and the one on the left side of the room was marked “Kitchens”.

The third floor had a small landing, with doors immediately next to it. There were four of them, all of them dark red. One of them was labelled “Professor Gil”. The fourth floor was almost exactly the same, except the doors were blue, and one of the doors was marked “Lady Tyrande”. The fifth floor was also exactly the same, except this time all the doors were yellow, and one of them was marked “Sir Festo”.

On the sixth floor was a dimly lit area, with a circle of doors with blank nameplates. There was simply no seventh floor - just a brass handle that literally looked like it couldn’t open anything.

“Well, if you’re done taking apart Downstairs Jerry,” the suit of armour said as a delicious smell wafted from above, “You might want to go to the dining room.” So we all headed towards the Great Hall (double Harry Potter rip off alert).

There were a couple of long tables that were set with plates and spoons. It was empty otherwise.

Not very helpful. Bingyin went and sat down at one of the tables, and Angela ducked under one of them. One at a time, we took our seats. The room around us was suddenly filled with people and people talking. The moment someone stepped away, everything would be gone except this room with people sitting on benches.

Dominic wanted to smash a plate, which was not a very good idea. So some other stupid stuff happened, we ate, and then everything was cleared away. And then we went to the dormitories, a set of about a dozen rooms.

So the next day we had our first class - well it isn’t a first class, it’s more like Gil flying random hideous things at us. On the far wall, which was curved to match the rest of the tower, was a set of windows that had light streaming in. Torches illuminated the other side of the room. The floor was smooth, hard wood that caused our footsteps to echo unsettlingly. Gil was standing there, with his armed cross, looking

extremely irritated about something while gazing at us with a penetrating stare that made me want to blend into the walls and disappear. “Welcome to your first class,” he said, “From time to time you will use these classrooms inside the walls of the school, however, in most areas in the schools we suppress the magical abilities because it is extraordinarily dangerous, mostly to yourselves. For this reason, the majority of your training will take place in the real world (define real world). But, if I sent you out there today, none of you would come back. Because none of you know how to use your powers.”

“I know why that barrier is there now!” Kylie exclaimed, “Because if we always do our training outside, they might get hurt.”

“Very good. That barrier is to protect them from you (I feel like I’m some dangerous monster now) and from everyone in this valley. We exist in a place where magic runs wild, it mimics the curse that has been placed upon you (Oh wow I’m a cursed person why don’t you just slaughter us all - oh wait I have plot armour so I can’t be slaughtered sorry I forgot). We are going to learn how to control that curse, how to bend your misfortune into a boon (into a what?). Today, you will take your first lesson in the school of alteration. There are three schools of magic (we are already in a school, don’t tell me that this is like Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang except all in one school) that you shall perform at M Litterae Est Magicae: alteration, destruction , and illusion. Destruction magic helps you break things. That’s about it.

Illusionary magic helps you fool your opponents; it is primarily performed in a defensive manner - it has some limited offensive capabilities. Alteration strikes a balance between the two, helping you manipulate the world around you.”

A staff floated up from the area near him and began to sweep around him unnaturally. He threw it from his other hand and it revolved around him before he snatched it out of the air with the other.

“You will learn that the laws of nature are merely suggestions,” he continued, spinning the staff around absent-mindedly, “You can shape the world around you-” Here he floated the stick in front of him “-and discard what is not necessary.” He formed a fist with his hand, and the staff exploded into thousands of small splinters. “And from this-” he spun his hand around in the air “-we can create what we need.” The splinters turned into spikes, and with another flick of his hand, they all flew towards us. He held up his hand, and they stopped, splintering again. “Whether we need the ability to deal some damage-” Gil snapped his right hand and it formed a wall directly in front of us, which fell to the ground. “- we’ll keep ourselves a little bit safe.

“These are the skills you can master if you dedicate yourself towards the school of alteration. It is not a get-out-of-jail free card. You must work hard and attune your body as well as your mind. The strength of the user determines the strength of the alteration. Today I am teaching you the basics. Tomorrow, you will go out into the world. We don’t die in an unceremonious fashion (is that relevant). Do I have a volunteer?

“You have never used magic before. From time to time, magic may have used you. But that is not what we are going to be doing here. The powers that you will attempt to harness will always, always, be there. It will seek to run free of your control. This will always remain a possibility, no matter how well trained you become, but you still could have it.”

Here is the order that we went in: Angela, Bingyin, Kylie, Jayden, Melissa, Ethan, Marysa, Erica, Dominic, me, Vanessa.

As I said before, it was more like flying random hideous creatures at us. Gil went over, and pulled a lever. A metal grate lifted up at the back of the room, and out came a skeleton. It held up a rusty metal spear and surged towards Angela. There was a pause, then a bolt of electricity appeared out of nowhere and reduced the skeleton to a wonderful pile of ashes. Gil congratulated her and told her to stand in another place, which she did.

Another skeleton came out for Bingyin. She did something and shattered it on the ceiling, which made bits of bones fall down.

Another skeleton came out for Kylie as well. She tried to do something to it, unfortunately failed, and wild energy was expelled around her, and just as it began to calm down, I thought I saw her grow 1 inch shorter until it faded away. Gil stepped up and smashed the skeleton with his staff. “You’ll live,” he said, pulling the spear out, which had somehow wedged itself in Kylie. Great failure, Kylie

👍

Jayden had a very large vulture come at him, which he punched in the face. Gil swatted it out of the air with his staff and snapped, “Use magic in magic school.” Which really isn’t that logical because your stick is not constructed out of magic and swatting a bird out of the air with it is not magic either, Gil. He waved his hand and another bird swooped down at Jayden, to which he tried to do something but had magic swirl around him and blast all of us before subsiding.

Melissa just gave up (Well so did I so no worries clearly stated to Gil that she wanted to die.

👍) and yelled at the vulture, “Come at me!” and

Ethan also got a big bird swooping at him, and plucked off all its feathers with magic and it fell to the ground.

Marysa got a big nasty serpent at her, which I tried to help but Marysa exploded it. Then there was a large nasty serpent that came at me, which I just gave up on, and darted away from it. Someone froze it (I think) and Marysa decided to tie it into a knot., which made a wonderful decoration.

Erica had a large sort of rotten crocodile come at her, which she flew all of Gil’s staffs (staves?) at.

Gil smirked at her and gestured her to the side without saying a word.

Dominic got another zombie crocodile. He dabbed and tried to throw magic at it and failed miserably. There was a popping sound, and these pink things appeared in the room. He then exploded the crocodile.

Vanessa got a large boulder at her, and she gathered the darkness and the shadows into a large fist and punched it, splitting it open.

And I guess that’s it?

-Angela

First Day Mission We headed up to the school.We headed up to the school, I was so nervous I did not know what was going to happen. Argar opens the door and a girl goes first and disiaperres. We go into a warm room. I felt a little better there are candles lighting it and in the middle of the room is a ball and pillars surrounding it. There are several doors marked with symbols. I hear the trumbling sound of Argon’s wheelchair. A girl goes up to Argon and asks why do you have a wheelchair. Argon says I never knewn how to walk. Then Argon’s wheelchair floats away. I hear a voice from behind me. I watch as a girl suddenly floats 3 feet off the ground and goes up.

I step up to the elevator and I say I believe I can fly. I go up to the second floor. I smell a really good smell. I decided to go to the great hall because I love to explore and many people follow me. I open the door and it is relatively empty. I decided to go climb under a table. I hear a bunch of voices and I smell food. However, I continue to stay under the table. People come to give us food so I crawl out of the table. I take a spoon of soup and when I accidentally drop it, I feel a surge of power like I did before and a poof of smoke comes out.

I later find out powers are limited within the tower for safety and that every student has our own tower. I also find out that Santa does not exist. We are led back to the elevator. One by one, we step into the elevator. We head up to the dorms. I was too tired to really pay attention to how it looks. It is quite comfortable. There is a fireplace and a stained glass window. The window suddenly goes into a picture of a mossy forest. Ther is also a desk with a few books on it, a washroom with a bathtub, and a very comfortable bed that I immediately fall into and fall asleep.

I woke up at 6 am. I brush my teeth and take a shower. When I headed down for breakfast. I have waffles as breakfast because they are my favourite food. Professor Guilt talks and says when you are finished with your breakfast, you may head to your first class with me.

The jerry’s come in and collect my forks and knives very suddenly. I still had one more waffle to eat. I then go up to floor 3. There are red doors everywhere. I walk into one of the rooms the Professer Guilt is in. There are torches and the floor has smooth hardwood.

It reminds me of a dance studio. I awkwardly stand there, there is no desk or chairs.

Professor Guilt speaks” welcome to your first class, we will mostly take class outside but we will sometimes take class outside”. We are suppose to learn how to control our powers. While he explains stuff which I was not really listening to because I never was good in school, he plays around with a staff. He asks for volerteers of how to control our powers. I volunteer to go first.

Professor Guilt comes up to me and says good luck. He pulls and lever and a metal gate goes up. A skeleton comes up to me. I try to electrcute him. I try first and nothing happens. The skeleton comes closer and I hold out my hands and then I feel sparks. Finally a huge burst of lightning came out of my hands as I shattered the skeleton in pieces. Professor Guilt comes to

me and says good job Tokyo and explains to the class what had happened. I did not pay attention because I was too focused on thinking about what had happened 1 minute ago.

He then tells me to stand in the corner and observe my classmates from afar.

Everything was fine, one girl called Kylie got hurt and a boy named Jayden first got hurt and the threw a fireball at the vulture that is attaking him. Suddenly I feel a sharp pain in my chest.

Uhhhhhh, I clutched my chest veins and came up my arm for a few moments as it then exploded out back to Jayden. The rest of my classmates feel the same as I also see them clutching their chest. The rest of the class also battles their monster although some quited and some had to get Professer Guilt to kill it for them

Vanessa Chen The carriage trudged up the path to the tower, and Argon dropped off Jayden and Colena, who looked a bit confused and befuddled. It was really desolate, and I could still feel the coldness from the previously broken window. “Come on in,” said Argon, and we hiked up the steep path all the way up to the tower. “What’s going on?” asked Kylie. “Why, we’re going to the academy,” was Argon’s reply.

When the doors opened, all I could see was darkness. Kylie, deciding to go first, stepped into the darkness, and eventually, the rest of us followed. I reappeared inside a circular room. As I looked around, I could see it was lit by glowing red torches and it was filled with pillars and columns. In the center of the room, there was a large brass metal circle. There were several doors set in the wall, and a short suit of armor holding a jousting stick. I heard Argon behind us. “You realize that there’s no stairs here right? Well in fact, there are no stairs in the entire academy,” said Argon. He rolled onto the brass circle, and as we watched, his wheelchair floated up, and he disappeared.

I came to the conclusion that if no one here learns to fly, then we’re all going to rot here. Kylie, being brave, walked up into the middle of the brass circle, ready to fly. Nothing happened. She came back to us, her cheeks a bit red from embarrassment. I don’t know why, but I walked next onto the brass metal circle. As I stepped onto the circle, “What stats do you need to fly?” was the first thought that came to my head. “It’s not that complicated,” was the reply I heard from inside my head. I thought very intensely, “I want to fly. I want to fly. I want to fly.” Then, all of a sudden, I rose up and onto another floor. After a couple of minutes, I heard a voice in my head say, “Are they hurting the downstairs Jerry?” I turned around to see another suit of armor very similar to the one we saw earlier. I could also hear clangs and bangs as my soon-to-be classmates beat downstairs Jerry up.

Kylie, figuring out on how to fly on the elevator, was rising up and down.

I smelt something very good, the scent was so appetizing, and I was hungry. I followed Angela, and as I watched her open the door, I realized that there were no people there in the room. I looked around the room. It was empty of people, and the tables were set. Angela crawled underneath a table, and Dominic took a plate like he was going to smash it while Bingyin sat at the same spot. Eventually, we all sat down at the same table, and all of a sudden, we were transported to another room. I could hear and see others, but when I stood up, it all disappeared to the room we were previously in. Suits of armor that resembled the Jerrys carried plates of food into the room, and we ate. I ate as much as I could, and once we finished eating, we headed back to the elevator.

As I stood on the brass metal circle again, I thought was hard as I could, “I want to go to the dorms. I want to go to the dorms.” Soon enough, I arrived at the dorms. I opened the first bedroom door I saw, and closed the door behind me. I looked back at the door to see that it was shimmering, turned darker, and then the name “Ash” was inscripted on the door. Observing my surroundings, I noticed that everything was personalized, as for it was kind of like my bedroom at home. Not really exploring it, I was tired after all, I changed and crawled into the bed, and soon, I fell asleep.

We woke up the next day, and slowly filtered out and entered the room again to eat. As I ate, I noticed that Argon was not there, and the chair at the end was in fact, empty. I heard a rustle, and looked up to see a dark skinned man, who was dressed in red. He introduced himself as Professor Gill, and as someone asked a question about another teacher, I saw that he sort of tensed up at the mention of another professor, and left soon after. From our perspective, it seems like the teachers don’t really like each other, even if they all came together to make this school. Breakfast was quickly ended

by the Jerrys, who didn’t want to piss off Professor Gill. They claimed that they were doing us a favor, and judging by the look on Professor Gill’s face, I would say that they’re right.

We walked into Professor Gill’s classroom, and saw that there was nothing in it, just him standing there with his arms crossed. He lectured us about the types of magic we were going to learn at this school and what they do. There was Alteration, Destruction, and Illusion. Destruction is offense, Illusion is defense, and Alteration is a little bit of both. Apparently, when you’re of age, you can choose to further your studies into a certain area of magic. I recall seeing some students who had at least one item of clothing that was either red, blue, or yellow, who were huddled around one of the three respective teachers, but most were dressed regularly. Everyone lined up. I chose to go last, in darkness, while Angela was up first.

Professor Gill pulled on a lever, and out clankered a skeleton. As Angela raised her hands to do some magic, I remembered Professor Gill saying, “Before this, magic used you. But here, you use magic,” and a bolt of lightning came down from nowhere and struck the skeleton into millions of pieces. One by one, my classmates would fight whatever came out of a chamber when Professor Gill pulled down a lever. I saw Kylie get an inch shorter, Jayden fully heal himself while the rest of us all got injured, a snake who wanted to bite Marysa got blasted to pieces, and Melissa, who just wants to die. Then, it was my turn. I stepped up and Professor Gill pulled on yet another lever. How many levers does this guy have? As I watched, a large stone boulder rolled towards me. I dodged it, and then willed the darkness to come and help me. A fist came out of the shadows, and destroyed the rock into tiny pieces. “Not bad,” I thought to myself, “but I’d prefer the rock just straight up vanish.”

SESSION FOUR

Lubar Castle

It was midnight and Jayden was one of them to sneak out after bedtime. Jayden and the others went very quietly and they passed Jerry the jouster. Jayden thought it was best if he was protected. He made a very dumb descien and wanted to put on Jerry to be protected.

Jayden was about to put the peace on his head but before he put it on his head Jerry said “i wouldn’t do that if i were you”. Jayden did not listen so he just plopped on his head. A poof sound went off and Jayden was on the floor. Jayden was dying so the others went to search for a teacher close by to help Jayden. One of the others tried to use magic to sense if a teacher is close by but it didn’t work so they had to split up and search each floor. After they found Argon. Argon said “oh my” he slashed a hand over and Jayden breathed heavily. After that they were sent on a mission to go to a castle. They were waiting for hours to get there and finally they arrived. There was this guard and said “good morning”. Jayden said “can we go inside?”. The guard said “of course you can come in”. The doors creaked open, leaking a long hallway they had to walk and once the guard said “were here”. A man who had a red drink in his hand came oolong and said “welcome welcome. The first look was creeped after a few minutes they realised he was a vampire because of his drink. He introduced himself and his name was Rasputine. Jayden and the others were led to this dining area. He said to wait and not to follow him. 2 People followed him because they had a suspicion of him.

Rasputine was going to the kitchen being followed by 2 people. Those 2 people got caught and Rasputine said “why were you following me?” Those 2 people said because they wanted to know what kind of food they could get. Those 2 people were back at the dining table waiting for the food. The food finally came and it looked weird and it was actually poison soup Rasputine tried to persuade us by drinking it himself and he said good. But he was shaking. One the others said why are you shaking is it because the soup is poison? Rasputine said “no i'm shaking because it is good''. They wondered how he survived the poison. Jaydne thought because he was a vampire. That's when they realised the gates of the castle went down and now they were trapped. Rasputine said “then want to try this?”. One of the people that sneaked out said they were too young to drink. Just till they realised a boy who was totally traumatized by the alcohol said “it's good try it”. Rasputine was annoyed that the people were not eating the food. He started a huge fight and attacked first. Rachel died and became a Jerry! Jayden was not in the best condition so he just watched the war going on. It was now the battle between Girl and Rasputine. (i don't really remember but i think it was very chaotic) They escaped by busting the gate open.

They ran away and did not feel good.

My character was really amused out of everything that was happening, when the chaos was Happening I just wanted to kill someone. Rachael went with me to the castle and she almost got killed, and apparently there was a battle between Gil and Rasputin, yeah that was weird.

Kylie

After thinking, I decided not to make one of the flumphs my pet. Then Professor Gill leaves the room. And we went for dinner. Then I went back to my room. I went down out to the door with Angela and Jayden but Gerry stopped us. And then Gerry said they used to be people.

And he is a ghost in a set of armor. I see Jayden take off the helmet of Gerry and Collapse to the floor. Then, Jayden started dying. I try to find Argon for help. I could not find him so I tried to heal Jayden. But I failed and vanished. Then, Professor Surfesto helped me and I reappeared 10 feet high. I fall down and turn blue. And again Professor Surfesto made me un blue. Then I went up to sleep in my room. The next morning and I had breakfast. Argon was there telling us that we had a real world mission today with Professor Gill. Then Professor Gill said have to protect the people from Lubar castle. After breakfast, we headed to the castle. When we arrived, A very thin man came out and said good evening and welcomed us to the Lubar castle. Jayden takes the key and opens the door. Then a skinny dog comes. Then I see two scared looking statues. Inside the castle is cold. And I would rather be outside than in here. There were torches but they did not give warmth. Then walking down the stairs comes a guy with a black Jacket and with a red liquid in a mug. He greets us and all of us think he is a vampire. That is probably why the room is cold. I attempted to make a sword out of ice but I turned blue again. Then Professor Gill Asked me why I used magic at the food table. And he hands me a steak knife made of ice. I put it in my pocket. The chef brings in some soup. I thought it was suspicious so I did not drink the soup.

A teenager drinks alcohol and he falls down to the floor, Then Racheal says she poisoned him and the boy says, yes, yes. Then we got trapped in a room. The room rose 40 feet off the ground. Then I tried to freeze the man And I felt power in myself. More power than ever. I tried to freeze him again but I grew 12 feet tall instead. I tried to freeze him again but instead, metal came on my right hand and I punched the ceiling. I felt a falling feeling in my belly and I found myself in a different place. Then we headed back to the magic school.

Melissa.

It was the middle of the day. Rasputine said it was time for dinner. Some people argued. During dinner everyone was going to do something- Stupid… I was thinking about it and asked if the soup was hot. Rasputine said, “piping hot”. And people said “The soup is poisoned!¡”. What I’m going to tell you, it’s something very rude but, it’s hilarious and Rasputine deserved it. Don’t do it at home… I took the bowl of soup and dumped it on Rasputine with the WINE. I was taken away from the rude guy, we all knew he deserved it. Now, off topic bit imma call the dude Karen now so keep that in mind. So Karen calls some dude Grim? Wait take 2, I’m checking the instructions. Ok his name is Gil. Karen calls Gil to just drag me out and I punch him. He told me he would expel me the first chance he got. I agree to this statement and he starts getting physical. Well he’s asking for a death wish. He punched me and I got a gun that I realized I had for a long time which would have been useful… so I shot him but that day, I forgot to load my gun. Not like the school had bullets anyways. So I fascinate him with the gun and punch him.

We were caught and sent back to “Dinner” when we got back, Karen wasn’t dead even though I poured PIPING HOT SOUP THAT'S SUPPOSEDLY POISONED. I looked at him and thought about using a Not-So-Threatening-Gun. Even if I had bullets, he probably won’t die. Conspiracy theory, he used a spell. There's this kid with more wine and Karen yells at him or, something. I was told about some people sneaking into the kitchen and scaring the chefs with, “¿Do you like potatoeses?”. I don’t have the memory of trying to escape but trust me, I shall get out of that place my first chance. Now I think we’re all up to date enough for my side ‘cause I was out in the hall most of the time.

Did I spell Karen’s name right during the first half?

Bingyin By the end of our first class, pretty much everyone was beat up and bruised. The only person who wasn’t injured was Jayden, which was probably because he was the one who had caused most of the classes injuries. Also the creatures called flumphs were flying in every direction.

To me they looked really creepy and I would rather them be dead. Which was why I didn’t understand very well why anyone in their right mind would want to adopt or keep one as a pet. Fortunately for me, the flumphs disappeared with a loud pop! Relieved as I was, I was confused as to why they vanished all of a sudden. “Not all magic is permanent you know,” Professor Gill said camly. Then he noticed most of the classes disappointed faces and addad. “The flumphs are most likely still here, you just can’t see, touch, or hear them because they are on a different layer than you guys.” “You should all head back to your dorms to get some rest, you will need much energy tomorrow,” and with that he got up swiftly and left the room. Five minutes later, I walked into my room and plopped myself on the bed. My body was aching with small bruises. I layed there thinking, and was about to drift off to sleep when there was a loud banging sound from downstairs. My instincts told me that I should check out what was going on, but I just layed there. Everything was quiet again so I assumed that the teachers had taken care of everything, but I couldn’t help thinking about what had happened. After that I couldn’t fall asleep until it was very, very late.

Morning came and I was feeling plenty better, still a tiny bit sore in some areas, but much better. As we all ate breakfast together, Argon told us we were going on a real world mission today and to go outside once we were done eating. My heart literally skipped a beat, my blood went dry.

How were we supposed to go on a real world mission and rescue others when we could barely even help ourselves? When we arrived outside I saw the familiar face of Professor Gill. Maybe my brain was just slow today, but it took me a few moments to realize that he was all armored up and there were two Jerry’s beside him. Was it really going to be that dangerous that he needed to wear a chain vest underneath his robes?

Also why didn’t we get any armor? My thoughts were interrupted when the rest of the class started to walk forward. We walked for what felt forever, my feet ached and I was desperate for water. After around two hours maybe, we finally arrived to see a large stone castle. It honestly looked like one of those haunted mansions in a horror movie that they tell you not to go into but you do anyways. Next to the gate of the castle was a small cottage. I noticed that Prof. Gill was walking towards it so the rest of us did the same. Prof. Gill knocked on the large wooden door, a thin oily haired man answered it and ushered us inside. He led us to a door on the other side of the room with a large lock on it. The man pulled out a key and with a loud clicking sound the door opened. We all walked into the castles courtyard. It was raining cats and dogs out there. By the time we actually stepped into the castle almost everyone was soaked and dripping wet. The only person not wet was Prof. Gill, all he had to do was glare at the sky and the rain just seemed to bounce off him. The

castle was strangely cold and uncomfortable, music was playing but there was no sign of where it was coming from or what device was playing the music. We walked further into the castle to find a large staircase. Walking down it was a pale man wearing a big fur coat and holding dark red liquid.

“Welcome to Castle Lubar.” I will be the host, Rasputine,” he said. Follow me to the dining room.” “How do you know that the people are planning to kill you?” someone asked. “Well I found a note that said they would kill me after dinner,” he replied. We walked in silence after that until we arrived at Rasputine's Great Hall. It was a very large room with long tables covered with beautiful velvet tablecloths. In the center of the room was the largest chandelier I had seen in my whole entire life. Rasputine than left the room gesturing us to sit down. We all did as we were told and waited for the food to arrive. A few minutes later, everybody was given a napkin. “Can I go to the washroom?” Marysa asked as soon as her napkin was delivered to her. “Yes but please be quick,” Prof. Gill said. Just as Marysa left the room, a second set of doors open and a boy came in with a bottle of wine and some fancy looking cups. “Would any of you care for some wine?” He asked. Everybody said no probably due to the fact that we were all underaged. Suddenly, an amazing smell wafted in as the soup was served. I was about to dig in when Mellissa threw the soup at Prof.

Gill. “Do you want to be expelled?” He asked. Then he led Mellissa out of the room. I was watching them leave and there was a coughing sound from at the other end of the table. The boy from earlier who was offering us wine was choking and became pale as snow. “Why do you look so scared?”

Rasputine asked. “Did you do something to the wine?” “It wasn’t me,” the

kid gasped. Rasputine then took another large sip of the obviously poisoned wine. “I poisoned the wine,” Rachael said. I stared, was she being serious right now? Was that what she was doing when she said she was going to the bathroom? “It looks fine to me,” Rasputine said, his eyes narrowing. Could someone possibly be that stupid? I thought to myself.

Then there was a loud, sharp snap and bars appeared in front of the doors, preventing anyone from coming in or going out. “Kill me if you want but no one else was involved,” Rachael replied firmly. Was she trying to act noble? “I told the boy to poison the wine, he couldn’t do anything about it,” she proceeded to say. There are people inside this town who wanted to kill me before you all came here,” Rasputine said. He then took another swig of the very obviously poisoned and deadly wine. I realized then that there was blood dripping off his hand. “What happened to your hands?”

Someone asked. “I am simply testing if I am mortal or not,” Rasputine answered. “I intend to kill you all anyway,” He said. He then lunged towards Rachael and sunk his sword into her shoulder. I suddenly felt the same feeling that I felt the night that I heard bangung downstairs. I felt useless and angry at the same time. Before I knew what I was doing. BAM! My arms moved without thinking and I threw my bowl of soup at Rasputine. It missed him by inches and shattered in the corner. I feel even worse than before, I couldn’t even help my classmates. Rasputine proceeded to stab Rachael again and again until her arms fell off. I was horrified. In fact I was so busy being horrified that I didn’t even notice that Kylie was like six feet tall and how all the spoons and bowls and plates were melting into her arm. Then she punched the wall and Prof. Gill and Mellissa were

standing there. I didn’t even manage to get a scratch on him. I couldn’t help the situation. I could feel my legs moving but my mind was numb.

Everybody ran out the courtyard and into the plains. Prof. Gill was holding Rachael in his arms and she seemed to still be breathing but I knew at that moment that those would be the last breaths she would take ever again.

Rachael January 3rd, 3801 After that rather disastrous - er - class (it should have been called a hooligan gathering, don’t ask me why), some people (Kylie and Dominic) decided they wanted to kill the Floumphs and chased them around the room. They actually did so for a while before the Floumphs vanished.

Angela and Jayden tried to (I really hate being with people who have literally no common sense) adopt them before they disappeared. Gil, no, I’m sorry, Professor Gil came over and said, “Many effects are not permanent. It’s hard to think of these creatures as having been created, and then vanished. They were brought here from a different plane [whatever that means], and now they’ve returned to that plane. They’re probably still in this room, actually. You just can’t see them, ‘cause they exist on different layers than you [yes I think we’ve established that]. Much as the dining hall, we were in the same room, but just entirely different levels.” And that was the first “class” we had at this stupid school.

We spent the rest of the day doing whatever we did (This is, after all, fifty years later). Then, we went to bed. Well “we” was an overstatement. Half of us (including me) chose to go down and explore. We - well, it was more like Kylie, Jayden, Angela, and I - went to the bottom, hoping to go outside, or at least see the sun.

“Uh, is there anything I can help you with?” Jerry said.

“I need to get out of this accursed tower,” I muttered.

“Were you born as a knight in armour?” Dominic asked.

“No,” the Jerry replied.

“Then how did you become like that?”

“I- uh, I died.”

Dominic asked something and Jerry said, “Yeah. The Jerries were individuals, but they are also together. We’ve served this place for a long time, and it helps us continue to live, and to help, you know, young kids like you. “ Dominic said something, and Jerry replied, “No, no. I’m more like a ghost in a set of armour.”

Then some other stupid things happened, and then Jayden decided to try on Jerry’s helmet. “Woah, hey, I thought we got that out of our system yesterday. I wouldn’t recommend doing that!” it said, before he put it on. Just so you know, Jayden practically died. He collapsed to the ground. I reached over and yanked the helmet off of him. “Uh, don’t put on the helmet, you’ll die!” Jerry said.

“I’m not stupid enough to do that,” I muttered.

I set it down, then Kylie, Dominic, and I started searching all over the tower for Argon. I tried using magic to do it, which failed miserably and made everything black for a moment, then I blinked and everything came to view, though it was very strange. Dominic managed to get Festo somehow, though I think it had something to do with punching the brass metal thing at the top of the elevator. Kylie (who somehow turned blue) managed to get Argon, and both of them came, did some stuff with Jayden, who managed to get up and go back to the dormitories. We all followed him shortly after.

January 4th, 3801 We assembled, and Kylie was no longer blue (may I just point that little detail out? I mean, I know you don’t care whether Kylie is blue or not, but may I just point that out? If the answer is no, then too bad. If the answer is yes, then okay). Gil was waiting. He was dressed similarly as he had the day before, except now he looked more like a Jerry wearing red robes instead of a magic teacher.

He had shin pads and elbow pads made of some kind of metal, for example, and he was wearing a chain-mail vest. Two Jerries were standing next to him, holding their jousting sticks. Gil explained what we were doing. Then, we left.

We went north, skirting the Golden Prairies. A castle began to come into view after a few moments, and arrived at the gates a few moments later (I have a feeling that I sound like SpongeBob). The gate was closed, casting a towering shadow over us in the daylight. A small structure stood next to it, and in it, a figure was moving around. Jayden walked up to the door, and a very thin man with very long blonde hair and a gaunt face looked out and said, “Good evening-” he looked at the sky “-good day-” "What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?" - Gandalf, the Hobbit (I’m just sticking this here) “-welcome to our castle, I take that you’re from the school,” he continued in a misty voice.

“Can I come in?” Jayden asked (ooh finally we have manners though none of us had the courtesy to ask him his name).

“Yes, yes, you may come in,” he replied. There was a clattering sound, and he came out with a large ring, on which a single key hung. He handed it to Jayden. Jayden walked over to the gate, stuck the key in, turned it, and there was a thud. Then, with a creak, they opened. We walked inside. There was another creak, and the gate closed, locking automatically. That gave an unsettling feeling in my spine, as we were now locked in the grounds in the castle.

It began to rain in the courtyard, though the weather outside was far from it. The ground was muddy, and there were several broken down shacks that stood around. Gil looked annoyed, glaring at the rain, and the rain just started bouncing off of him. He certainly did not get wet. The rest of us were soaked. In the huts, there were faces that peered out, then quickly pulled away from the window. There were statues on either side of the doors to the castle, but they were posed in somewhat terrified positions, though statues that were carved were meant to represent something beautiful. Gil looked at them strangely, and with an irritable jerk of his head, he opened the front door.

Inside the castle, it was cold. Unnaturally cold, though torches that were blazing warmly lit the walls and illuminated the halls (wow that rhymes). There seemed to be more nitrogen than usual in the air here, making it hard to breathe. We went into the Entrance Hall (why does this remind me of Harry Potter - Oh wait it’s because there’s literally this place in Harry Potter named the Entrance Hall), where music began to play. There was no source of which this music came from, and it was eerie, sending a chilling feeling down my spine. There were two doors on either side, in front of us was a staircase that split in the middle to the upper levels, and behind us were the open doors that we just walked through.

Going down one of those staircases was a man in long, dark robes and a very thick black fur coat, an earring dangling from one of his ears. His hands were covered in rings that glistened in the torchlight, and in his right head he carried a glass filled with dark red liquid. “Ah! Good evening,” said Rasputin, his eyes settling on our group, “Welcome to the Castle Lubar! I am your host, I am lord of this castle, Rasputin. Please follow me this way. And we can discuss, see, the difficulties we are meeting.”

He led us down a hallway. “It’s, uh, difficult for me to know which one of my people has betrayed me,” Rasputin said, looking really sad about it, though at all costs I doubted that he truly meant it.”

“How do you know that someone is trying to kill you?” Vanessa asked.

“Ah! We found a note that they are intending to do something after dinner,” he said. “I am glad that we can at least enjoy our meal.”

He led us into his Great Hall, which was very big and rather empty, lit by several chandeliers whose hulking forms hung up high on the ceiling. “Make yourselves at home, I am going to check on the chefs, make sure they have everything in order. Once we are finished with the food, we can begin, um, rooting out traces. Or, help me find them and kill them! Then you can thank me, and you can be on your way.” This did not help with my current opinion of that place.

Angela went somewhere, and so did Dominic. Kylie tried to do something and turned blue, which Gil (or shall I say Gilmor) looked on disapprovingly. Marysa was peering at her napkin curiously. Then she asked to go to the washroom. Rasputin showed her the way. Dominic tried to sneak back in, got caught, and did not make a very convincing lie.

So we ate (and Rasputin was the only one who drank the poisoned wine, Gil said he was chaperoning students) - well they ate. I pretended to eat and touched nothing. Rasputin said the [poisoned] soup was wonderful. Then something happened and Angela asked why the boy no older than thirteen was looking so scared (Melissa had dumped the soup on Gil so both of them were out of the scene). Then Rasputin threatened the boy and I do not know why I did this.

“I did it,” I said quietly. He rounded on me, and he was really very stupid, because he didn’t know that I had never been in this castle.

“What did you do to it?” Rasputin demanded.

“I poisoned it,” I replied, quietly but firmly. Bars slid over the doors, sealing us in sometime around this time that I am describing. “Kill me if you want, but there is no one else to kill.”

“This is a good offer, but why did you do that?” Rasputin asked menacingly, “Also, he practically just told us he’s involved.” He gestured to the boy.

“I told him,” I said, searching for lies to tell. I tried to give the impression that I threatened him not to tell. “There was nothing he could do.”

“Is this true, boy?” Rasputin asked the boy whom, now as I realize it, we never asked the name of.

“It’s- it’s true,” he said.

Then Rasputin said something, repeating that he had perfected something. He was still drinking the very obviously poisoned wine.

“Why are you drinking blood?” Dominic asked stupidly.

“I am not drinking blood, I am coughing up blood as I drink this poisoned wine, to test if I am immortal or not.”

“What if you’re not immortal?”

“Then I will continue to work.”

“What happens if you die?” Vanessa asked.

“I will not die. There is something in that school that is mine. I will walk through M Litterae Est Magicae, and I shall take back what is mine. So, if you could cast some spells on me, as I attempt to murder you all.”

Dominic tried to do something and told Rasputin to die in a hole, and a whole lot of butterflies started swirling around him before disappearing. Rasputin was visibly confused by this, walked over to his chair, and pulled out a sword. “I was controlling him,” I said quickly, and let him round on me.

“That’s right, I was trying to kill you, was I not?” He turned towards me and walked towards me with the “big knife”.

Angela pulled electricity out of the air and shot (zapped?) it at Rasputin. He grunted in pain, then it seemed to cease. The sword plunged, and pain overwhelmed me - I fell backwards, writhing in agony. Rasputin snarled at me, which gave me the impression that he was part wolf, and suddenly changed. He was no longer a regal figure - instead his face was gaunt, his hair was grey, his teeth rotten, his eyes bloodshot and his face sallow. His face faded back as he drew back.

“Would anybody else want to die?” he snarled.

Bingyin tried to throw soup at him, which missed and shattered in the corner. More soup shattered in the corner. Rasputin pulled the sword out from me, which triggered another wave of white-hot pain. “C’mon,” he said, “Are you all scared? Hit me with magic. Magic!” Vanessa backed up against the door, as if she just hoped it would open and she could fall through. There was a shattering noise upstairs. “Why do you want us to shoot you with magic?” Kylie asked.

“Because I need to test if I’m immortal,” he snapped.

Dominic shot a blast at him that blew half his brains out, but soon healed. “Good one,” he said. Kylie tried to do something but ended up growing twelve feet tall, filling up half the room. I just asked Rasputin to kill me.

“I do not know why you want to die,” he said, walking closer to me. As he did, I saw the changed version of him again, except this time he had half his brains blown out. Then, in a fleeting moment, he twirled the sword, and stabbed it down into me.

There was a flash of pain, and I felt a scream build up in my throat, but it wouldn’t let itself sound. The world was gone, now just a glimmer in the darkness.

There was more pressure than pain, and as I faded into the darkness, I heard some voices, then a large explosion. There was laughter. Then something was attaching itself to me. I looked up, and saw a flaming red dragon swirling around the room, a man in black robes holding up his hands as if controlling it. There was a flash of blue light, then a bubble containing Dominic, Marysa, Erica, Bingyin, Vanessa, Ethan, Jayden, Kylie, Melissa, and Angela floated out of the room. I tried to lift one of my arms, and it felt abnormally heavy. I looked down at it, and I saw that it was covered in armour. As I raised my other hand, another landed on it. A helmet lowered and set itself upon my head. “Okay girl, okay okay okay, hang on, okay, Jerry’s got you,” said the voice of Jerry. The next thing I knew, I was jogging across the prairies, surrounded by the others.

There were also a lot of voices, and occasionally a voice punctured them and said, “I know, I know, it’s strange. Rachael, you died.”

“I’m pretty sure I have the brains to know that,” I mumbled. “But it’s okay! ‘Cause, you're a Jerry now!” he exclaimed. And well, there you go, the very sad ending (no jk).

When I went to my dorm after all those long days I walked slightly tired but not tired enough. So I decided to sneak out with a couple of my classmates. I went to the magical elevator and asked Jerry some questions. I was still sort of bored until Jayden took Jerry's helmet off and put it on. At once Jayden shrieked in pain collapsing to the floor in agony. Almost all of us panicked and had to do something.

Racheal pounced at Jayden and took the helmet off. Jerry yelled saying if you put me on you'll die too! I panicked and ran to the magic elevator to use it. However Kylie was faster than me, I dont know what she did cause she just stood there for a few moments and went away from the magic elevator. Vanessa looked like she tried to do a spell but later she went down on her knees holding her head painfully. I ran to the elevator after all that, I wished to go to the professor's room even though I'm not allowed to because my friend was dying! I forgot the door was closed so I accidentally bumped my head into it and got a little dizzy but I shook it off. I decided I was going in and that was final. I punched upwards with all my might and then the door made one of the loudest sounds I ever heard! I had to cover my ears with my hands. I think it woke the entire school up! Then there was someone in all of that darkness. I asked a few questions about who they were and then asked if they could help heal my friend. I led them down some levels and showed my friend lying on the ground fainted. The person immediately cast a quick spell

healing Jayden. After a while the person led us back to our dorms. My hand still hurts a little bit cause that door was as hard as titanium! I was extremely tired so I just layed on my bed till I fell asleep. The next day I woke up ready to start my day I ran towards the professors and had my breakfast then professor gill gave us a hard task. We were going to go to a castle called Lubar Castle and try to defeat who was bad either the king or the citizens of the lands. As I went there with all of my classmates, professor gill and some jerrys we found ourselves at a long luxurious dining table. The king greeted us in kindly, I thought to myself how could someone so kind and nice be bad? I peered at Angela for a second and saw that she sneaked into the kitchen. I decided to follow her and I thought I successfully did it. After a while I got bored but suddenly Angela jumped up. The chefs jumped too and said who are you?! Angela said that she was from space, the chefs looked confused and asked how she got here. She said that she teleported herself here. The chefs actually saw me the entire time and asked me who I was. I panicked and said I was from the magic school. The chefs said that they poisoned the soup and that we shouldn’t drink it. I believed them of course I didn't want to die after all! I decided to sneak back out but I accidentally got saw. I said that I wanted to see what I could eat. I secretly told everyone about how the soup was poisonous. Everyone didn't seem to believe me cause they thought I was saying

nonsense. I noticed that Marysa was gone so I was just thinking of where she could be. Until suddenly Marysa walked from another hallway looking sort of casual. I told the king that I heard that the soup tastes really good. The king said why don’t you have some of the soup then? I lied and said I didn't really like soup but he said that I should use my manners. I panicked and blurted out I was allergic which was lying too. He said that made sense and I returned back to my seat. I wondered why the boy looked so scared so I asked the king, why that boy looks so scared? He said yeah, why do you look scared boy?! Then he started asking all these questions to the boy making the boy as pale as snow. Then Mellisa apparently was just sitting there fumbling with her fingers. Professor Gill shouted at her and told her to come outside immediately.

Then Rasputin(the king) said that he wanted to battle us. I was confused, why did he want to battle us? We were just a bunch of students from a magic school right? However we decided to agree. I started by trying to make his head explode off however I failed and just spawned some butterflies. Rasputin took his sword out and was slowly walking to me readying to kill me. Until Racheal yelled and said she was controlling me. I knew this was all fake and she shouldn’t have done that cause I felt a good battle.

Racheal sat there and blamed herself for 2 things she didn’t even do! I felt bad at her as rasputin slashed her shoulder. Racheal screamed painfully and started to cry

collapsing to the ground. Kylie tried to do something to Rasputin multiple times well that's what it looked like. She never really did something but a lot of random stuff just came out. Angela wasn’t really doing anything but I just ignored the fact. I decided to try once and for all to try and kill rasputin. I tried to shoot his head off as I concentrated I shot a red beam at him shooting him on the side of his head. Some gross stuff came out of the wound and the wound unformed and was healed immediately. I was confused this couldn’t be possible, how could someone be that powerful?! I looked afraid as Rasputin took out his sword and slashed at Racheal in the chest Racheal collapsed crying in a puddle of blood. We tried to fight him off but suddenly Mellisa came falling from the roof and as she did that all of the metal things in the room flew to Kylie’s right fist and created a metal gauntlet. Kylie punched upwards to the ceiling and the ceiling came falling down. Professor Gill rushed into the room and I told him that Rachael had died. He was confused and saw Racheal was lying on the floor. However then all of the sudden Rasputin cackled evilly. That made a shiver go down my spine. I was of course really scared by now I mean what's next. Then Rasputin floated up into the air and fire went out of his hands. I was so scared I could’ve put my head in radioactive waste and be blind forever just to get out of this. Rasputin suddenly aged right in front of us and the fire turned into a dragon's head trying to attack

Professor Gill. Professor Gill punched the ground as a bubble came up to all of us and I was quite confused why a bubble couldn't just be popped. Then he called the Jerrys over and Jerry ran into a bubble and clashed into parts. I had no idea what Professor Gill was doing. All of this was kinda weird and I didnt know what to do. The bubble kept moving away from the castle however and I was in one so I couldn’t fight. I wanted to rip Rasputin’s head off if I could! This just is not fair. Rasputin seemed like he was immortal. How was Professor Gill going to defeat him? As we floated back to the school I suddenly thought illusion magic. If being immortal was impossible then he must have been using illusion magic so maybe he was just using illusions to fool us! However then I finally remembered that he didn't really have any pain so how could that be [possible. On our way home to the castle I was worried about professor Gill. Was he going to risk his life just so we could live? I gulped to the feeling of that and tried to get my mind off it. When we finally arrived at the dorm I sat on my bed and just thought of what could happen to Professor Gill. As I thought I got sleepy and fell asleep. As I woke up I changed out of my pajamas and my new clothes for the day. However I didn't feel like going down but I had to so I went to the elevator and I flew down. Cause I was curious who would be there if Professor Gill was not alive?

Vanessa Chen I heard some whooshing noises, and turned around to see the Floumphs that Dominic had created by accident. Angela and Jayden wanted to adopt them, while Dominic and Kylie wanted to kill them.

After a minute of chasing them, the Floumphs vanished. Professor Gill explained that they actually hadn’t died or whatever, they had just vanished off of our field of vision. Apparently, there are multiple layers of magic, and the Floumphs were just on another. Before class ended, Professor Gill told us one last thing. Tomorrow, we are going on a mission with him. And with that, he ended class.

After dinner, I went to my dorm room, ready to sleep.

When I woke up, I discovered that there was a pretty big commotion that had happened last night from one of the Jerrys. Apparently, Jayden, Kylie, Dominic, and Racheal all decided to sneak out the tower. Jayden had tried to put on a helmet that belonged to one of the Jerrys, and nearly died.

Thankfully, Dominic had found Sir Festo, and he managed to bring Jayden back, though when I got a closer look of him at breakfast, he didn’t look all too well. Kylie had turned blue trying to heal Jayden, and the Jerry didn’t know what happened to Racheal. I looked around. Everyone looked fine, except of course, Jayden. After breakfast, we headed downstairs, met up with Professor Gill to start the mission. He looked armed up. For our first mission, we were to help this guy named Rasputin, the landlord of Lubarr Castle. He thinks that the villagers are planning to kill him, and he wants us to protect him. Meanwhile, the villagers want us to protect them from Rasputin, whom they think is trying to kill them. Professor Gill said that once we arrive there, we can decide who to aid.

As we trudged on in the cold, wet, rain, the castle came into view. I heard the rain plinking off of the armor of the two Jerrys who Professor Gill had brought with us. I noticed that the front gate was

locked. Then, this guy with oily, blond hair, who handed us the key to open the gate. Once all of us were on the other side of the gate, it swung close, securely locking us in. Professor Gill looked annoyed at the rain, even though he wasn’t wet at all, unlike the rest of us. As we passed huts, we saw pale, thin faces pressed upon the glass windows, staring at us as we walked by. We entered the castle. It was really cold, and we all shivered and pulled our coats closer in. I could hear faint music in the entrance hall. Suddenly, a man in a black fur coat, who was covered in jewels, introduced himself as Rasputin, and welcomed us in. While we followed him, I first thought that he was a vampire. The castle was cold and gloomy, he was drinking a red liquid in his wine goblet, and he was pretty pale and thin.

We reached the main room, and sat down at the table. Rasputin and Professor Gill sat at the end. As Rasputin went to check on the chefs, I noticed from the corner of my eye Dominic and Angela slip out and follow him. When they came back, Marysa asked to go to the washroom. Finally, everyone was sitting at the table. After the table was set by servants, the wine arrived. When a servant made to pour the wine in one of my classmate’s glasses, I was extremely pissed off. I told Rasputin that we’re minors and should not be drinking alcohol. My sister has told me that when I’m mad, which is rare, I’m pretty scary, and judging Rasputin’s expression, I guess she was right. He agreed not to give us alcohol, and offered Professor Gill some. Professor Gill declined, saying that he would rather not drink while chaperoning. Nevertheless, a glass of wine was poured beside his plate.

Soon enough, the soup had arrived. None of us drank it, though Rasputin did. Bingyin accidently spilt their’s over, while Melissa, who desperately wants to die or get expelled, dumped all her soup onto Professor Gill. He indeed, did not look very pleased, and told Melissa to follow him where she would wait outside with the Jerrys. After they left, a metal bar locked the door close, and we were alone

with Rasputin and his servants. All of a sudden, Rasputin stood up, coughing up blood, and chugging the obviously poisoned wine. He yelled at the boy who was serving the wine, and it was quite clear that the boy had taken part of trying to kill Rasputin off. If I didn’t know that Rachael was extremely suicidal, then I probably thought that she was trying to save the boy. But, after knowing her for a couple of days, I quickly noticed how much she tried to die. In fact, most of my class is suicidal, and all I have nothing to say to address that situation. Racheal stood up, trying to take the blame from the boy, and Rasputin said he would deal with her first, then with the boy.

Then he went into this really long speech about how he actually didn’t invite us here to protect us here, but to rather use us as test subjects to see if he was immortal or not. Then, if he was indeed immortal, he would march straight into our school of magic and take what is rightfully his.

Interesting. I made a mental note to remember that. At the mention of that, my mind also went: “Where the hell is Professor Gill and Melissa?” I backed up against the door and the iron bar, trying to listen to see if anything is happening outside. All I heard were shattering noises, like something was breaking. I watched as Dominic severely injure Rasputin, and I could see part of his head fall off, leaving a small portion of his brain exposed. Then, to my horror, I saw his head fully heal, with Rasputin smiling and boasted about how he’s now immortal, but he was still coughing out blood, so I don’t really know if he’s actually immortal or acquired regeneration abilities.

All of a sudden, Kylie grew 12 feet tall and made a metal glove out of all the nearby metal, breaking the ceiling of the castle and from the roof tumbled out Melissa and Professor Gill. As Professor Gill started shouting incantations, I looked at Racheal, who had been stabbed twice by Rasputin. I noticed that her breaths were getting slower and slower, eventually stopping. I bent beside

her, checking to see if she had a pulse. There was none. Well I guess that was the very first death I ever experienced. I heard a lot of bangs and clashes, as Professor Gill and Rasputin fought with magic.

The battle was very short though, as me and classmates were quickly teleported by Professor Gill into the courtyard. A couple of seconds later, he came bursting through the door and ushered us out the courtyard with his hands, forcing us to start running as fast as we could through the rain. As I did a quick headcount, I realized that no one had taken Racheal with us, and that her body was probably still lying there, in the middle of the dining hall in Lubarr Castle.

Lubar Castle -Angela

Since I passed my test, I turned from being a -1 to 0. After my first day, I was exhausted.

I have decided to adopt a floumph. They appeared when a boy named Dominic failed his test. I wrap my arm around them but after a minute they disappear. Mr.Guilt explained how many things came in the same room but on different layers that we can see. He says we should better get some rest and get some food. I went to my dorm and I decided to read beside the fireplace.

The next morning. Jayden is not doing well he is unconscious. I had breakfast and I headed down stairs. We go out to the field where Mr. Guilt is waiting for us. 2 things were weird, he has a chain vest over his robe and 2 metal plates near his arms. He looks like he is dressed up for combat. I see 2 Jerries. “ For your first assignment, our aid is needed for an old lando that lives in Lubar castle. He thinks people that live close to him are wanting to kill him and the people that live there think the lando is going to kill him.

We walk for 2 hours and we see a small castle in the distance. We go up to the gate.

Skinny man says hello nice day. Jayden asked can we come in, the skinny man says yes. We walk in the gates close behind us. We are now in the courtyard in Lubar Castle. It began to rain although it was nice and sunny 1 second ago. We all get wet but Professer Guilt goes not. We are walking towards the castle. As we get closer we see statues. However the statues look like they are terrified.

As we enter the castle, it is really cold. We enter the hallways and with 2 staircases. We see a guy wearing a really fluffy fur coat, he carys a glass with red liquid, his hands are also filled with rings. His name is Ruspuet and he takes us to dinner. He says they are wanting to do something to me after dinner, he seems quite sad about it. The great hall is very big but quite empty. He says he is going to the kitchen to cheak on the chefs. I decide to follow him because I think he is suspicious. I do not think he sees me.

The chefs smile when he is there but signs in relief after he passes. A boy named Dominic later comes in too. There are 3 chefs. I ask one of the chefs if he likes potatoes. The chef was startled and asked where did you come from. I say from space and specifically jupiter, he then says I like potatoes just fine and who invited you from space?I say myself. The chef looks very confused. He then asked Dominic and why are you here. Dominic says I am from the magical school I want to know what I should not eat. The chef says don’t eat the soup. Dominic says it is because it is blood. The chef said no, just don’t eat the soup.

On my way out, I say adios amigos to the chefs and exit the kitchen. I know the chef said don’t eat the soup, but I want to tell the other people the soup is very delicious. There is a bowl of soup infront of me but I decide not to touch it. A girl called Marysa pours soup into Professer

Guilt’s lap. Professor Guilt escorted Marysa out the room. Dominic told Rasputin to eat some soup. Rasputin told Dominic to have some but Dominic says I am allergic.

The kid who is serving the wine, turns pale white. He says it wasn't me. Then a girl named Rachel said it was me. Rasputin thinks it is poisonous but still drinks it. Rachel said she poisonned the wine. Rasputin says it tastes fine to me. He stands up and says who else did stuff. Rasputin snaps his fingers and an iron rod slams against the door and the door glows blue. Rachel says kill me if you want no one else involved. Rasputin still drinks the poisonous wine.

He says he is drinking poisson for fun to test if I am immortal. So use magic and try me while I murder you. Dominic says go die in a hole and become a meme. Then thousands of butterflies flew and then disaperre. Rasputin walks toward Racheal with a sword. I decided to zap Rasputin. Rasputin growns a little and then stabs Racheal in the shoulder. The more I look at him the more he looks apart, his teeth are yellow and her eyes are bloodshot.

A girl called Bingyin throws soup at Rasputin. Rasputin pulls the sword out of Rachels shoulder. We hear a shatter upstairs but Rasputin does not realize.Dominic blasts a red beam at rasputin. We see Rasputin's injury close up.Then kylie suddenly grows 12 feet tall and has a very low voice. A large part of his head is missing. Rasputin then stabs the sword into Rachel again. Her arm falls off and she is limb. I think she is dead. Kylie raises up a fist. Then all the metal things stink onto her arm and she punches the roof.

Professor Guilt and Marysa fall in. Professor guilt makes a hole and a suit of armor falls trew the hole.It was garry a blinding blue flash fill the room. I feel like I am falling and I end up in the courtyard. Rachel is not here. Professor Guilt collects all of the dirt in the courtyard and makes a fist. The fist punches threw the gates of Lubar Castle and we then started a job back to our school. I look over my shoulder a few times at Lubar castle.

SESSION FIVE

The Golden Plains

Kylie

Professor Gill let us in the school and we went to our rooms to sleep. But, I could not sleep and heard the voices of Professor Gill, Surfesto and Tyrande. Then the teachers were absent for a few days. After those few days, Professor Gill talked about Rachael’s death and we went back to our rooms that day to sleep. But then, I heard a door slam, which woke me up. I heard Argon yelling once I was awake. I got out of my room and saw four people wearing black jackets throwing people. Then, Argon comes in and swirls around a person, who ends up being new Rachael, and she wakes up. Rachael sits up and collapses to the ground, so Argon helps her up. Then, we had Profesor Tyrade for our next class. We went in the room and no one was there. There were two doors, so I attempted to blast one door to open it but I failed, and surprisingly nothing happened. Then, I see Angela try a backflip but she also fails and splats on the floor with her back. Professor Tyrande comes up and says, “please come now” to us. We went down the magic elevator with her and then she started talking. I tried to go invisible but failed and my backpack went on fire. Professor Tyrande handed me a staff and it burned to ashes. She told me I have a special power that allows me to burn things that I touch. Then, I saw the person from last night, Rachael, come with us.

Then I hear a rumbling sound and lots of noise. I see a half man and lots of different colors.

Professor Tyrande starts talking to the half man/centor. I tell the centor that instead of hunting, we can place traps. Angela does a front flip. We found a hut that looks like it has been burnt down. Dominic tries and fails the same way Angela did. When he did that, I felt a vibration. I used magic and dug down towards the vibration. After digging for a while, I felt I was at the same level as the vibration and I could feel the vibration coming from one way. I continued digging towards the vibration, until three land sharks came out from the ground and Professor Tryande took me out of my hole. Vanessa shines so bright and hits one shark with the light. That land shark went back down the ground. I make two land sharks explode and they go underground as well. I watch as a gigantic land shark monster comes out.

Jayden wasn’t really doing anything because of his injury, which was amnesia. When the others were having the time of their lives, Jayden was in a well made bed. Jayden was looking at the blanket, but couldn't see that well. He noticed that his sight was very blurry.

Jayden went up and realized that he had the whole room to himself! He was too lazy to get up, so he slept for a few more hours and then he came up looking tired. He was very energetic because he thought he brought an electronic device to play with. He was tired again because he knew he didn't bring electronics. He went back to bed and closed his eyes. He wanted something cool to happen but it was just a normal day.

Bingyin We crossed the plains in complete and utter silence, Prof. Gill didn’t say a single word to any of us. I felt distant and separated from everyone else, it was like I was underwater. I wanted to stab myself but I was honestly too scared to try. That was the problem, I was too much of a coward to actually do anything right. When we finally arrived back at the school, we were all immediately ushered up to our dorms. As I stepped in, everything seemed normal, even though it wasn’t and everything would be different from now on. I took a few deep breaths and decided to take a nice hot bath to drown out all my thoughts. I was finally feeling a bit better while soaking in the tub when I heard arguing from downstairs. Couldn’t I get even one second of peace? It seemed to be Lady Tyrande, Sir Festo, and Prof. Gill who were shouting. I couldn’t make out much of what was being said, but I think I knew what the topic was.

Classes were suspended temporarily because of what happened.

Some people thought of this as good news so that they could process everything that happened, but I thought of it as just more time to mourn about it. What I really needed was to take my mind off things and focus on classes. How was I supposed to do that when there was nothing to keep me distracted? I also noticed that the teachers would randomly disappear every now and then. Most of the time, Argon was the one in charge of us. A couple days after the incident, we were all told to head to the courtyard. Once we got there, I realized that we weren’t alone and a bunch of the older kids were also there. “I guess we weren’t resuming classes after all”, I thought, disappointed. Prof. Gill was standing in the center of the courtyard, and after everyone was seated, he started reading inspiring quotes and phrases from books. At first, I was very

confused as to what was going on, but then it occurred to me that this was probably Rachael’s funeral. I guess that explained why all the teachers were coming in and out of school all the time. Finally, when fluffy, white snow started to pile up beneath our feet, we all rushed back inside to eat dinner in the warm castle.

I woke up a few hours later to the sound of someone screaming. I was a bit drowsy and confused, so I crept out of bed to see what all the commotion was. Downstairs, there were four people dragging what seemed to be the figure of an eleven year old girl. They tossed her onto the ground like a sack of potatoes. The girl started shuddering in pain on the floor. The four people just laughed and ran off. At this point, Argon came rolling in the front door muttering and waving his hand at the girl on the ground. She was wearing a long black coat covered in mud and drops of blood and from what I could tell, her hair was frizzy and all over the place. She sat up and noticed me and the others staring at her from above and decided to make a run for it, but she didn’t get very far before collapsing in a heap on the floor. Argon picked her up carefully and started for the elevator, scared of being caught. I ran back into my dorm wondering what I had just seen.

When I woke up next, it was morning. I felt terribly tired because I barely got any sleep after what happened. But, I tried to shake off the drowsy feeling within me and stay focused. I was actually quite excited for today because it was going to be the first class in months. When I arrived at breakfast, Argon told us that we have a new student in our class and to be nice to her because she spent a lot of time in the wilderness. “Did he mean that girl from last night?”, I wondered. I wanted to ask him but I couldn’t let him know I was there. Once we had all finished

breakfast, we headed up to Lady Tyrande’s classroom, but when we walked in, nobody was there and the room was completely empty. Kylie attempted to burst open the door and Dominic started screaming “FBI open up!”. We waited a few more minutes and I was feeling really tired at that point in time, so I sat down on the floor and waited. Another minute passed and I finally heard the elevator and I could see the top of Lady Tyrande’s head as she told us to head outside. Everybody did as told and went outside. I saw Lady Tyrande already there waiting for us as we walked out. “Seems like after the nightmare experience with Prof. Gill,” she begins, “I need to teach you how to actually do magic.The first thing I will teach you is the virtue of patience. From what I can tell,” looking right at me, “With the obvious exception of you darling, none of you are very patient.Today we will be heading to the great golden plains. Please follow me.” Lady Tyrande then began to move and we all rushed to keep up with her. As we headed north, I noticed Lady Tyrande began to slow down her pace and fell in line with the new student. We kept walking and a few minutes later, there was a loud noise from the back of the class. We all turned to see the new student wave her hand at a nearby bench.

Everybody watched as the bench broke into tiny pieces. We all stared for a few more minutes before continuing to walk. The light yellow or golden grass waved around us. Lady Tyrande led us to a valley and we stopped.

I held my breath as I waited for something magical to happen. Moments later, a sea of centaurs surrounded us. Everybody was already worn out from the two hour hike and I really wasn’t paying attention anymore. We were told that we were to catch a psychopath, and we started walking toward the edge of the balck forest. Thick smoke surrounded the area and the place was a total mess. There were little fires everywhere, overturned things, and random everyday objects lying around. But the thing that caught my attention was this strange mound of dirt with gloves on it. I

felt like I had seen something like this before, but smaller. I was wracking my brain for ideas and trying not to fall asleep at the same time. It didn’t help that Kylie was digging a hole and making the whole earth around it vibrate and shake. That’s when I heard Lady Tyrande shouting. I wheeled around to see a black figure with a fin heading right for Vanessa. I thought she was a goner, but she started to glow really bright while shooting weird light beams at the shark. The shark didn’t seem to be able to get close to her, so I just hoped she could keep that up because I did not need another person in this class to die.

Rachael |Ραξηαελ December 9, 3800 I watched the man that seemed so weird to me carefully, squinting in the sun that beat down upon the ground. He moved in the shadows, spying about the small village. I tossed a stone from hand to hand, still staring at him, because the shadows seemed to slide over him, and make him disappear, then after a moment he would appear in a different place. The stone I was tossing from hand to hand suddenly emitted a small spark. I shrugged it off, and continued tossing it from one hand to another absent-mindedly, until it ejected another spark, brighter this time. At this point he was in the shadow nearest to the shadow that I stood, unnoticed, but soon to be.

I closed a fist upon the stone, because I was not to be seen. But the closer my hand seemed to it, the more it seemed to glow, to glow in the darkness, until it was as bright as a star. That, of course, he could not have not noticed, as his eyes were sharp. I made an effort to throw it away, to throw it and draw him away to somewhere else. Unfortunately, the glowing stone was barely out of my hand when he whirled around and stared at me, for a moment, before his mouth curved into what was meant to be a smile but just looked like a vitriolic grimace.

“Ah,” he said, still making attempts to smile but failing miserably, “I was wondering where you were.” I shrank backwards.

“Are you stalking me?” I said nervously.

He laughed. It was cold and harsh. “No, no,” he said, “I have been watching you, in the shadows-” “That’s stalking,” I interrupted, “Well according to the Oxford English Dictionary it is not, but it’s close to it.”

“Well, nevermind whatever the Oxford Dictionary says,” he continued, “because this-” he flicked his hand lazily at where the glowing stone lay, it shot into his hand and he held it up “-is what you are.”

“I’m a weird glowing stone that I made?” I said, “I certainly am very weird, then.”

“I don’t mean it like that,” he said, tossing it from hand to hand as I did, “It means you have magic.”

“Alright, I care not,” I said.

“You should. Sometime soon - for it is December already - a group of three shall come and take you from your freedom,” he explained, “Would you rather give up your freedom?”

“No.” “Then go. Don’t come back here. It is not safe, for every year they do this once, and will search forever for whoever they missed.”

January 10, 3801 I peered down the tree that I had hastily scrambled up, hearing footsteps coming. “It’s okay,” an unfamiliar voice said, “My name is Colena. I need to tell you something.”

“Why should I trust you?” I asked.

“You don’t need to trust me to listen,” Colena replied, “Unless you lack the ability to listen.”

Hearing me pause, whoever they were, continued, “People are looking for you. They speak of

someone with magic hidden in the forest, among trees and shrubs. I have heard this on my journey south, for I am an escaped student of the school.”

“A what?”

“A school. They bring you to this accursed magic school and teach you how to use magic.”

“Oh, alright, go on.”

“The Crucible, which is the group sent out to retrieve the students, are tearing the country apart for you. Well not literally, but they are looking everywhere. So be careful of people dressed in black from now on.By the way, I'm the first person to run away, ever, because it hasn't been easy to run away from the Crucible and I was the only one in that Carriage of to-be first years” she snorted “that had even a bit of common sense. Actually, there was another girl named Rachael, but she was a bit....I don't know how to put it....she seemed to have wanted to die.” here she rolled her eyes at the sky “I mean, I don't care if I die or not, but I'm not gonna attempt suicide anytime soon. That girl asked a man to kill her. I stalked them starting from a day or two after I ran away. I know, it's kinda weird to be stalking people you just ran away from. Well--nothing much else to say, got to go and resume my stalking. Last I heard, Professor Gil (a teacher at the school) was being shouted at by Tyrande and Festo (also teachers from the school) so it's gonna be interesting. Good luck, new friend.”

January 20, 3801 Hunters often came to these woods, and I always hid from them, scrambling up trees and hiding in the canopy. They sometimes left behind arrows that missed, which made useful weapons. I avoided using magic, though once or twice I did, when cold settled into the ground and it was nearly impossible to light a fire. Now I followed a set of footsteps, which were not made by the usual boots of hunters. There were two pairs of them, and I traced them to a clearing, where they stopped abruptly next to the bushes. I then traced them backwards, where they led to another clearing, but no footsteps led away. I drew out an arrow and nocked it on a bow that I had quickly retrieved from someone crossing the forest.

A circle of people dressed in black appeared out of the shadows. One of them had a rather cold face, tall and slender, while the other one looked much gentler, and much plumper. The rest were all somewhere in between. This was not an even fight, see, for I was outnumbered five to one.

Two of them held staves (it’s plural for staff), which probably shot magic. The one that had a rather cold expression hissed out of the corner of his mouth, just enough for me to hear, “Puck - you go block the way there, Rennyn, you go there, Horar, draw your blade, Golvig, come with me.”

Now I knew which one gave the orders and which one was the ‘leader’. I shot an arrow at his leg, because I did not wish to kill. Then I quickly scaled a tree, jumped to the next one, shot an arrow at Golvig, which caught him in the shoulder. I flicked my hands towards the staff, and it caught fire, which reduced it to a pile of ashes. The fire soon spread to the grass. I blasted it with water, which put out the fire and also (very satisfyingly) drenched the Crucible. The one named Rennyn, his face stony, asked the ‘leader’, “What are we to do now, Segall?” Segall replied, “Use force.”

“But we have an agreement with Argon-” “Nevermind that.”

“But-” Segall shot Rennyn a murderous stare, and Rennyn cut off, and said, “Alright then.”

Segall reached for his staff. That one caught fire, too, and became a wonderful pile of ashes before I drenched them all with water again. Then I shot an arrow at Puck, which hit him in the side.

He collapsed. Horar was the only one standing properly. He sheathed his sword, a gleaming silver blade, and drew out a small throwing dagger. He shot it at me. I dodged it, then seized it where it had sunk into the tree branches and lobbed it back at him. It missed, sinking into the ground. He hurled it back at me, which caught me in the shoulder. I wrenched it out before it sunk in too deep, but blood was already creeping across the fabric of my clothes, drenching it. I pressed a finger to the wound, trying to stop it from bleeding. I threw the throwing dagger at Horar, who deflected it with his blade.

He threw it back at me, and I dodged it just in time. I nocked an arrow and shot it at Horar, which caught him in the chest and he fell backwards.

I was running out of arrows by now, so I dropped down the tree, and darted towards Segall. I made for the arrow, which still stuck out of his leg as he struggled to get to his feet. I reached towards it with my uninjured arm, grasped the fletching, and yanked it out of his wound. I tried to bolt away, but he grabbed the arm that had been pierced and twisted it. It was agonizing, and I aimed a kick at his shin, then threw the arrow, once again, at him. It caught him in the shoulder, and I seized it, and backed into the shadows.

I sat there for a moment, fingering the fletching of the arrow. Segall was picking up Horar’s sword, and Horar was dead. “I killed someone,” I whispered, trembling, “I did the unforgivable.” I nocked another arrow but I did not have the heart to shoot it. Rennyn was nowhere to be seen. Puck was still tending to his wound. Golvig was also nowhere to be seen. I climbed a tree again.

Suddenly, I saw Golvig grinning maliciously on the tree next to me. He let out a soft whistle, reached his hand down, and drew up Horar’s blade. He swung it towards me, and luckily he wasn’t very good at handling swords, or else I probably would have died. It cut very shallowly into my back, before it lurched me forward and I fell onto the ground, heard a crack, and knew no more.

January 22, 3801 I drifted in and out of consciousness. We seemed to be traveling through a bumpy mountain road.

We arrived at a deserted place with a single gatehouse. All that seemed to be there was the howling of the night wind, and the dancing of low shrubs and grasses. There was a gatehouse, and I fell unconscious again as they dragged me towards the door.

The next time I went conscious, I heard a shout saying, “Have some sympathy, will you?”.

This voice was unfamiliar, but that was pushed out of my mind when the two people holding me threw me onto a hard, concrete floor, and I once again sank into unconsciousness.

I blinked. Suddenly, everything felt strangely warm and safe for the first time in about a month and I looked up at the man in a wheelchair next to me. I looked up to see about half a dozen faces peering down at me, and tried to stand up and limp away. I staggered about a meter, then fell.

The man in a wheelchair, Argon, said, “Woah, woah.” He supported me and rolled the wheelchair over to a blue circle, and floated up towards a hole in the ceiling.

January 23, 3801 The next morning, I found myself in a bed. There was a woman named Tyrande who was beautiful and creepy at the same time. Her skin was blue, her ears pointed, and she wore black robes which had specks of blue on them. Her hair was long and dark, tied into two braids. Tyrande had a regal and refined looking posture, which was undermined by the fact that she had blue skin. I heard the sound of something falling, and quite a large thunking noise. Tyrande cleared her throat. “Good,

I’m glad that you’re awake,” she said. “It is unfortunate, by the circumstances by which you have come to be here, but, I must say, I’m glad you’re finally here.” She gestured to the bedside table, which had a plate of pancakes on it. I glanced at it with no interest in eating. “Eat up, and when you’re ready, join your class at the [something I couldn’t quite hear]. We have some rather dangerous things to get to today, but I give you my personal promise, you’ll be safe with me.” I did not trust her yet. I blinked and pretended to look distraught. She left the room. I looked at the pancakes, and I decided to not eat them in case they were poisoned. I got up and followed the direction that Tyrande left, bringing the untouched plate of pancakes with me.

After I got rid of the pancakes, obviously not by eating them, I followed Tyrande outside.

Eleven more students came later, and Tyrande said to them all, “After our little nightmare expedition with Professor Gil”, which confused me, “it falls on me to teach you how the heck to do magic. Now, the first thing I want to impart on you is the value of patience. You all, well”, looking over at Bingyin, “with the obvious exception of you, darling, are severely lacking in patience. We only need to look at the boy who was smacking his face against the door and shouting, the girl who was doing backflips and landing on her head, or the one who attempted to blow several things up”, to which I had a rather amused expression on my face. She continues, “You are not a particularly patient bunch”.

“Why?” Dominic asked.

Tyrande sighed. “Young man, do you have something to say?”

“Er. . . yeah. I’m just asking why.”

“No, please! Tell the entire class.”

“Um…” “Go on, we’re waiting.”

“Um… Can you please fly a doge at me?”

“Very good, you’ll be on the front lines.”

Okay, simply, what?

“Alright. Today we will be heading to the Great Golden Prairies”, Tyrande explained.

Kylie decided to do something and accidentally set her backpack on fire. Tyrande looked over with a dull expression and said, “Yeah, that’s what I thought. No, just keep it on, darling.” Kylie was literally fighting with the backpack to get it off of her and stamp the fire out, of which I looked on with considerable amusement. “Good, wonderful, yes, excellent,” Tyrande said, with a hint of sarcasm.

“No, no, no, no, I’ve seen that one before,” she said, and grabbed one of Professor Gil’s sticks/staffs (life is life and what you’re going to read next is something that clearly proves that Professor Gil and Tyrande literally hate each other) that was leaning against a wall. She tossed it to Kylie. Kylie caught it, and dropped it as it burst aflame and became a wonderful pile of ashes. Press F for respect. “I’ve seen this side effect before,” she said. “Everything you touch will catch fire for some undetermined amount of time.”

“Yes, as no doubt you’ve learned, in this world there are consequences for failing spells. So we try not to do it too much,” she said airily.

“So, today, we are heading north to the Great Golden Plains (you just said they were prairies…) to assist our local herd of centaurs. Before you get excited about how majestic that was, it’s to catch a psychopath who has been murdering people. So, be careful. Again, Kylie, dear, don’t put your hands in your pockets - it might catch fire for a while.”

Tyrande led us north from the grounds without any training in magic. Two Jerries also accompanied us. I could see, in the distance, the silhouette of a castle, but we didn’t head in that

direction. We headed towards the left, where we saw (at least I did, not sure if the rest were smart enough to notice it) where this prairie had earned its name - the Great Golden Prairies.

The grasses were waving in the wind, a pale yellow-golden hue. It made a whoosh sound Tyrande fell back until she was beside me. I had managed to keep up pace with them, just being a little slower due to the injuries I had suffered.

“Now, I know this all might be terribly abrupt, but we do need to keep things moving.

Recently, the entire semester was disrupted when we had the unfortunate death of one of our students. Now, as I said, I promised to keep you safe, but I intend to instruct you and teach you just as though you have been here for the past month. So, if you please, I would like you to destroy that bench. Just look at it, think about how much you would like it to stop being a bench, and then hurl that feeling towards it” (this guys, is what is called favouritism).

There was a loud noise, and nothing happened (great, very successful indeed). “Try again, try again,” Tyrande said, although I would prefer not to make extreme loud noises, thank you very much.

I tossed my hands towards the bench, and the bench was torn into bits, which were then thrown clear across the courtyard. I maintained a poker face. And suddenly, I was hit by another wave of pain, and I clutched my ribs, which were bruised before. I stared, half glaring, half with a genuine expression, until Tyrande snapped, “Eyes front, continue moving”.

“Very good”, she said to me. We headed west, through the pale yellow-gold grasses and low shrubs.

They waved in the breeze as if they were dancing, merrily going about their day, like seaweed in an ocean, except for the fact that we are not in the ocean and seaweed isn’t yellow. I saw a dark tower, with an air of mystery to it rising to the south, and the plains were lively with animals.

After traveling for a while, I heard a distant rumbling sound. It came from the west, and I immediately strained my ears for further hints of what it might be. I looked towards the sound, and Tyrande moved forward until she was at the head of the group, where she then held up her hand, indicating for us all to stop. She strode until she was at the edge of the valley, and stood there, perfectly still, looking at the source of the noise, until a sea of dark figures hurdled through the valley towards us. There was the hammering of hoofbeats, and I knew that these were centaurs.

The centaurs split, and encircled the group. I eyed them with apprehension, but they did not seem to notice. The hoofbeats died down, and Tyrande looked back at us, saying, “Don’t worry.

These are the ones who’ve asked us for help”. I still stared at them all warily. Tyrande strode to a particularly fierce-looking one and said, “A delightful display. I require a conversation with your leader”.

There were both men and women in the group, different colours of skin as well, scattered with the occasional pattern. After a moment, one with a deep red hue walked forward with an air of regality. “Well met, Lady Tyrande. Your hunters - look a little small. Can they handle themselves?”, he called.

“Don’t you worry about my hunters,” said Tyrande. “I’m more worried about your beast, Rowan. A little bit different than usual, is it not? You tell me we’re looking for - a man?”

“Or a group of them,” the one by the name of Rowan replied. “Probably a group of them, considering the excessive amount of damage they can do to us.” He walked forward to address the entire group. I shrunk backwards, trembling for no particular reason.

“A few days back we had a group of merchants who were absolutely torn to shreds. Truly grisly stuff. The birds had gotten to them, and we weren’t able to get much from the seam .

Yesterday, one of our own got caught unaware, and - very little was left behind. Causing us to conclude, again, that it was some sort of group of criminals, or poachers, perhaps. They just leave the

parts or remains that they’re not in need of for the carrion birds. We’ve seen smoke rising near the edge of the black forest. That is where we will begin our hunt today.”

Kylie asked something, and Bron, who was the leader, said, “It seems to strike at random, and they, quite troublingly, don’t leave any footprints.”

“Maybe the footprints are too small or invisible?”

“Perhaps. My people are skilled trackers, but we suspect their presence is being concealed by magical means.

“How old are you?” Angela asked for no particular reason.

“Thirty-nine seasons”, he replied, raising an eyebrow. Each season was 3 months, which meant that this centaur had been existing for one hundred seventeen years.

“You count age by seasons?” she asked nervously.

“How else would you count them?” the centaur said.

Kylie said some nonsense. Maybe Colena was right, about most of the first-years not having any common sense. “You’d like to lay a trap?” Bron said. She said more rubbish (I’m being British now because I don’t know any other synonyms of nonsense). “Sure,” he said, tossing an arrow from his quiver to her. She caught it, and I noticed that the fletching was made of turkey feathers for no particular reason. Kylie said something to him, and he said, “Oh. Alright then.” Then he cantered away.

Half of us started planning a trap. Then one of the centaurs (I forgot which) said, “You are, uh, from the magic school, yes?”

We then took about an hour going towards the smoke near the forest. The rest of the centaurs left us, leaving only Bron following. We came to what used to be a grass hut. Kylie said something to Bron about the attackers not being there physically, but I don’t believe that centaurs have the nerve to disembowel themselves. Melissa went over to an overturned cart that had all the goods spilled out of it. She found a chest, and smashed it with a rock, revealing the gold inside. She continued to loot the cart, which Bron looked on disapprovingly. Marysa pushed the door of the hut open and went inside. Angela did a front flip that just looked amazing. Dominic then tried to do a backflip, and just fell flat on his back. A few moments passed, and there was a ping sound from Dominic’s direction. He’d stepped on something made of metal. They still were trying to do backflips and frontflips.

“Why are you doing flips?” I asked. Each time Dominic hit the ground, however, there was a large vibration that just seemed to get larger and larger. Kylie did another flip, and landed softly, but there was no vibration. She tried to do another one and landed hard on her bottom. There was a large vibration. Angela went over to Melissa and threw a tomato at Bron. The centaur pulled an arrow from his quiver, shot it as it went by, and smiled at Angela as if she had just said “Hey, can you hit this fruit?” because she missed by like ten meters.

Both Vanessa and I were watching Tyrande. Her brow was furrowed, and her eyes darted across the horizon as she subtly moved towards me. Kylie waved her hands and began to dig using magic. Every time more dirt sprang up from the hole she was digging, I felt - and I think everyone else did too - the vibration again. Marysa came out of the hut carrying a blackened torch. She handed it to Bron. She had an exchange with him. The vibrations were still going on. Bron asked Kylie, “Is there a reason you’re digging?” She replied something I couldn’t hear. They had an exchange. Kylie disappeared into her hole.

I started to glow blue as Tyrande waved her hand casually towards me, calling out, “Children, come away from the burning house and stop eating the fruit. Fall into formation and for god’s sake,

get Kylie out of the hole. Bron, we’ve found our - psychopaths. Vanessa, would you do me a favour and attack the thing before it gets here?”

I followed Vanessa’s gaze to three fins sticking out of the ground. “I suck at destruction magic but why not,” Vanessa replied.

“Very good, that’s the spirit.”

Vanessa thrust her hands out towards the first one, and it surged out of the ground. It was a massive dark shape, with a large fin protruding out of its back. Its head could be described as triangular shaped, with rows and rows of teeth gleaming as it dived, head first, into the ground. The sloping body disappeared, and all that was left was the fin, sweeping through the ground. Kylie yelled, “SHARK!” “Land shark! But yes!” Bron called.

Kylie did the same thing to another one of them. It got knocked out of the ground, and with a swish of its tail, it was back in the earth. Dominic ran forward stupidly, and Tyrande waved her hand and he got blasted backward. “No no no, you don’t want to go start punching the thing,” she said, “You’re at magic school, use magic.”

Angela tried zapping them with electricity, and nothing happened. “Er, maybe electricity doesn’t work on the underground rock-monster,” Tyrande called, “Good try, though, Angela.”

Vanessa tried conjuring a fireball to throw at them, which she did, but it just floated above her as she started glowing with bright light. Just then, the shark reached her, and the massive figure burst out of the ground, gnashing its teeth. It was about 12 feet long, and six feet wide. It met the light and snarled, then sunk back into the ground and began circling her. I like my cliffhangers, so I’m going to end here.

Vanessa Chen During the entire journey back to the tower, Professor Gill didn’t say anything to us. When we came back, it was dark, and we all headed upstairs to go to sleep. The thing was, as I lay in my bed trying to doze off, all I could hear was raised voices. The only voice I could distinguish was Professor Gill’s, and everything else was muffled. Suddenly, I heard a loud bang, as though someone had slammed a door. After that noise, everything calmed down and I was finally able to drift off to sleep.

During the course of the next 2 weeks, all classes were suspended, as the teachers were busy doing something, and we didn’t do any more magic. Argon was with us during meals, and I spent the time we were supposed to have classes in my room or in the library reading up stuff. I had given up trying to find my sister, after learning about the different layers of magic. I knew that I wasn’t powerful enough, and there was no point in trying because I’d probably end up getting injured. I heard Argon’s voice calling my classmates and I to go outside to the courtyard. As we stepped out onto the courtyard, I saw all the other students, coming from the exact place we came from, except it was from their layer of magic. As Professor Gill stood up in front of the crowd of students, he spoke of how brave and noble Rachael was. It struck me that this was her funeral, though I couldn’t see any body, so I assumed that they couldn’t recover her body. After the speech, a lot of students approached my classmates and I, telling us how sorry they were, and that they sent their condolences. Following that, I headed back to my room to catch some sleep, because classes are resuming tomorrow and we’re going to start learning Destruction magic with Lady Tyrande.

Late at night, or early in the morning, depending on your choice, I was woken up by the sound of voices. It sounded as if I was underwater but the people talking weren’t. As I moved to the door to

listen more clearly, the sound faded away, so I went towards the other direction near the glass window.

As I stood right next to the freezing cold glass, the voices got clearer. I could hear Argon’s voice yelling about something, though I don’t really remember. After all, I had just woken up, and wanted to go back to sleep. I heard the front door open, and as I looked down, I saw some guards kicking and dragging a person who was covered in mud, with twigs and leaves sticking out in their hair. I learned later at breakfast that the person was Rachael, and she ran away to hide in the woods because she didn’t want to go to the school. After breakfast, we flew a little higher on the elevator, past the red floor and onto the blue floor.

Out of all the doors, only was unlocked, so we entered it. It was empty, like Professor Gill’s room, except Lady Tyrande wasn’t there. Dominic yelled, “FBI open up!” and nothing happened. Bingyin sat on the floor, patiently waiting, and probably done with my class’s antics. Kylie tried to blast something, but nothing happened either. Angela tried to do a flip, but landed hard on the ground on her back. Everyone giggled as I slipped into the shadows to stick my head out of the doorway, seeing if anyone was there. No sign of anyone, not even Lady Tyrande. Rachael wasn’t there either, so I guessed Lady Tyrande was probably with her. Suddenly, she appeared along with Rachael, and told us that we are very impatient, with the exception of Bingyin, who was still sitting calmly on the floor. Then, we followed her outside for another mission. I wasn’t really paying attention, but Kylie did something and her backpack suddenly caught fire. Lady Tyrande told us that this is one of the side effects of failed magic, and told Kylie to not touch anything.

As we walked, I noticed from the corner of my eye that Lady Tyrande slowed down to talk to Rachael. She said something to her, and Rachael made some groaning noise towards a nearby bench.

Nothing happened, so Rachael tried again. This time, there was another loud groaning noise, and the bench broke. I quickly deduced that while on the run, Rachael has probably been doing Destruction magic to protect herself and get the necessary things to live. That means that even though she has no knowledge about Alteration magic, she can do Destruction magic better than the rest of us. We walked through the Great Golden Plains with the sound of the swaying grass loud in our ears. There was a distant rumbling noise, and as we stopped with Lady Tyrande at the front, the sound got louder and louder. I winced and covered my ears. I hate loudness, it makes me dizzy and I can’t concentrate.

A herd of centaurs circled around us, all in different colours. As I listened to one of them talk with Lady Tyrande, it seemed to me that we were going to hunt someone or something. There had been a lot of attacks recently, and every time there was one, there was a smoke signal or something like that.

After voting to stay here or to go inspect the area near the Black Forest, we decided that we’re going to the Black Forest. At the attack site, there was a grass hut that looked like it was burned, along with a cart that was tipped over. Marysa and Melissa decided to investigate first. Meanwhile, Angela decided to do another flip, this time landing with perfection. I watched as Melissa started hoarding the cart, which was full of fresh fruits and vegetables, waving at the rest of us to come and help her.

I moved closer to Lady Tyrande and Brawn, the centaur who had come with us. I overheard them talking about the fact that there were no bodies and no trace of footprints. They looked at a glove, which had 5 finger drag marks a few centimeters away from the glove itself, and discussed how unsettling it was that there were no tracks. All of a sudden, I felt giant vibrations, and turned around to see Dominic doing flips, along with Angela. I noticed that every time Dominic didn’t land perfectly, there would be a giant vibration coming from where he landed. Other people noticed this too, as Kylie

hit the ground and there was another vibration in the area. I turned my attention back to Lady Tyrande, and as I watched, she was inching closer and closer to Rachael. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, even though all I could think of was why she showing favoritism at this moment where we could be in danger.

Kylie started digging into the earth, using Alteration magic, and I saw Brawn look a little weirded out about it. As Kylie dug more and more, I felt more vibrations, and turned to see three triangular things moving closer and closer towards me. Everyone else also saw these three creatures coming towards me, and I heard Lady Tyrande say, “Ash, dear, please do something to it before something bad happens”.

Once again, I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and turned to face the three creatures approaching me.

I concentrated my emotions into my hands, not really sure about what I wanted to do. I managed to injure it, and we started fighting the creatures. I heard a voice say that these were land sharks, and I thought to myself that if these were land sharks, fire might be able to do some damage to it. I tried to summon a fireball to burn one of them. A giant fireball appeared and vanished, and I glowed very bright as a result of a failed attempt of casting magic. I sighed. I prefer the darkness over light, but it wasn’t bad. Suddenly, one of the land sharks grows really big, full size if I may, even though I’ve never seen a land shark before. A bright blast of light came from my body, and the land shark hissed, then started to circle around me.

-Angela When we finally arrive in the castle, Professor Gill opens the door and we are all ushered to bed. I was sitting on my bed, but I heard raised voices so I came out next to the elevator and listened. I hear Sir Festo, Lady Tyrande, and Professor Gill talking. I did not really pick up anything they were saying, so I went to bed. Two weeks have passed since school has stopped.

Argon was mostly in charge and one day, he told us to meet in the courtyard. I see many students that I rarely see except in meal times. I later remember that Rachael has turned into a Jerry. Professor Gill reads lines from a book and explains Rachael's death. I stay there for an hour before it gets too cold and I go inside. I was urged to get some dinner and then go to bed.

I was reading some of the books on my bookshelf when I heard voices. Suddenly, the front door of the school bursts open. I see people all dressed in black who swung people on the floor. I look down at these figures who are all shuddering in pain, and the people who did that to them who were dressed in black cloaks. They were soaked in mud and their hair was in all directions. In the morning, I learned that we have a new classmate. I finished my breakfast and headed to the blue door. As I arrive, I walk into the classroom and find myself in a large room. It is very similar to the one in Professor Gill’s classroom. The classroom is completely empty.

I stand there and decide to try flipping. However, I fall flat on my back. After a few minutes, I was fine again. Then, I hear a woman clear her throat. I look over and see a beautiful woman with long, dark hair in braids and sapphire green skin. She said, “We have rather dangerous things to do today, but you will be safe”. She came up the elevator and told us to follow her. I decide to smash a vase before I follow. I wonder what it could be. We gather out in the front. We are heading to the “whoosh”. Kylie’s backpack catches on fire. The woman tells us, “Today we are going to the golden plains. We are trying to catch a sociopath that has murdered many people”.

Two Jerries lead us north and Lady Tyrande walks beside us without giving us any practice on magic. I hear a loud noise of a wave, but it then calms down. I learned that the noise was made by the new girl. The second time the noise happens, the bench a few metres beside us suddenly gets shattered in pieces. We continue heading towards the plains. When we were in the centre of the plain, we heard a rumbling noise. Lady Tyrande stands in front of us. We are on top of a valley, and hundreds of centaurs surround us. “Don’t worry, these are the ones that asked us for help”, Lady Tyrande assured us. The centaur named Roman looks at us and says, “You hunters are rather small, will they be able to stand up for themselves?”.

He explained the back-story of the criminals and why they need help. “We’ve seen smoke around the black forest and that is where we will begin our journey”, a centaur says. I ask a centaur named Braus how old he is. “ 39 seasons”, he says. I ask why they count age by seasons, and he questions me why not, so I tell him “nevermind”. We then decide how we are going to track the criminals down. Some people say to make a trap, but we decide to go to the attack site. Most of the centaurs leave us and only Braus comes with us. The smoke gets thicker as we get closer, and I see a grass hut in the distance. There is also a cart with fruits and

vegetables. A girl named Marysa tries to open a chest with a rock. She finally opened it and there was money inside. Marysa takes the money for herself and goes into the hut.

I got bored, so I decided to try doing a front flip again. This time I flipped around twice and landed perfectly on my feet. Dominic sees this and tries to flip too, but he falls flat on his face. I tried to cover my laugh. I decided to investigate this place and went to the cart with the vegetables and fruits. I then see Kylie nail a flip. I was happy for her, but on her second time she fell flat on her face and the ground rumbled beneath our feet. I got bored again so I tried to throw a tomato at Braus. However, he takes his arrow and shoots right through the tomato. I then tell him that I meant to do that.

Kylie then used magic to dig a big hole. Although, every time she digs, the ground would rumble again. Kylie digs until I no longer see her. I hear lady Tyrande say, “Get away from the hut, kids! Vanessa, can you please kill that thing before it comes here!”. I whip my head around to see a shark looking thing. I attempted to electrocute it, but nothing happened. “Perhaps electrocuting is not the best for this giant underground shark creature, but good try Angela”, Lady Tyrande told me. I guess I should be happy because at least I succeeded. The last thing I hear is a terrifying GROWL!

SESSION SIX

Ambushed

Continuing from last time the sharks circled around Vanessa we tried our best to protect Vanessa of course.

Kylie quickly went out of her hole that she dag from last time and kylie tried her best to protect vanessa and shot drops of water falling on one of the sharks dropping raindrops slowly however it got faster and faster the water stuck to the shark and froze the shark and the shark went pale white! The shark quickly dived down into the ground to unfreeze themselves. After Kylie did that I decided to generate some fire to scare the sharks I decided to generate some fire in front of me. My hands glowed and I started generating fire in front of me and smoke raised from the fire. Angela tried to do something to the ground sharks I had no idea what she was trying to but all I knew was a ice beam shot from Angela's hands bursting with power. Vannesa didn't really do anything and the beam shot her in the chest pushing her back however then it went through and hit a shark smashing the shark on the snout. Bingyin moves close to the shark and heals vanessa. Vannesa breathed in relief and lifted herself back up and stood. However then a shark erupted from the ground and started snapping its jaws and looked at vanessa. However Vannesa was glowing and it blinded the sharks so the shark decided to try and attack Bingyin.

Bingyin jumped back, apparently dodging the attack.

Ethan found an axe and grabbed and swinged it at the shock however he got hit too. Ethan groaning on the

ground looked so vulnerable. I teleported the fire to the shark that was still overground. I waved my hands above the fire and then a loud screech came. The shark got fire wrapped around him spinning and twirling burning the shark painfully. It was a while later and a lot happened. A dark storm came and we were in the castle safely. The teacher put me in a bubble, a penalty one. We were with festo and we talked and he said that I can't pop the bubble. However if whoever cast the bubble dies then it will pop. We talked a little and all of a sudden my bubble popped and I fell on the ground on my knees.

Kylie

I extend my hand and freezes the fin of the land shark and it dives back under ground. I see Dominic set the ground in front of him on fire. Then I see Angela have a beam of ice at Vanessa. I see Bingyn heal Vanessa. And then Marysa makes the fin of one shark turn into dust. Then I see Vanessa shrink 7 inches. I wait for the 2 sharks to come up to freeze the ground, and so they cannot go back underground. I felt a shark moving towards the shack.

Then I see a giant black thing come towards us. A giant black cloud came and Tryande told us to go back to school right now. Dominic does not listen and gets trapped in a magic bubble as if he was in time out. And he started floating towards the school. I tried to freeze the giant cloud coming towards us but it did not work. Professor Gill jumps over us and goes in the cloud. The centor told us about this situation. Professor Tyrande floated towards the cloud and went in the dark cloud. And I felt Professor Surfesto teleport in the dark cloud. I attempted to explode the cloud but it did not work. And the teachers were fighting in the giant dark cloud. Then I go to magic school. We go to Professor Surfesto’s office. I see a projection of a tiny 4ft Professor Surfesto. Then the projection of Professor Surfesto makes a film of soap. Then the projection of Professor Surfesto pops the film of soap. And I see the bubble that was around Dominic disappear.

Bingyin

We all watched as the sharks glided through the long waving, golden grass.

At last, it seemed that we came to our senses. Beside me Dominic started a fire and Angela created an ice beam. I think it was meant for the shark but it ended up hitting Vanessa directly in the chest. The beam passed through Vanessa and did successfully hit the shark, but now Vanessa had a literal hole in her chest. Rachael then seemed to have tried to dig a hole under Vanessa but somehow I think it made Vanessa shorter.

I wasn’t just going to stand around doing nothing so I ran up the ridge that Vanessa was on, and held my hand up toward her. A beam of white light shot out of my hand and extended toward Vanessa. She started to glow even brighter than before but at least she didn’t have a hole in her chest.

The shark behind Vanessa suddenly came gliding straight for me but I was able to dodge it. A few meters away from me a greenish brown beam hits a second shark right in the fin. It slowly started to disintegrate and the shark went underground again. But my relief didn’t last long when I saw the first land shark going straight for Ethan. He grabbed a nearby ax and charged towards the shark but it dodged and he got a pretty bad scratch. Beside me Vanessa raised her hands and shot a puff of smoke out then started to shrink until she was about seven or eight inches shorter than before. Suddenly there was a flail of pain. I spun around quickly to see a land shark that was half on fire about to crash into Angela, Ethan and the rest of the group. Crack! Angela shot a wave of electricity at the still charging and roaring in pained shark. Ethan ran towards the shark and swung the ax right between two plates of armor.

The shark flailed around and Ethan was sent flying backwards. Rachael then stepped forward and raised her hand at the shark, it was also sent flying back. But it seemed to have an after effect on Rachael of growing 11 feet tall. The shark went in for another attack. As it hitted Rachael, she

started to glow blue and the shark slowly started to disintegrate. The other two sharks seemed to have disappeared under the ground waiting for the right moment to attack. “They are attracted to vibrations,” Lady Tyrande said. “Don’t move and they’ll ignore you.” Wow, what a great time to tell us that, I thought. Just then, Angela started to jump up and down.

What was she doing?! Before there was even time to move, the earth began to shake and a land shark was heading right for Angela. Angela jumped on to Lay Tyrande’s back clearly regretting her decision. Lady Tyrande threw her hand at the shark but nothing happened. She glared down at it as though angry with her hand and tried again, the shark shattered, chunks of shark flying everywhere. She then turned to Brawn as though nothing had even happened. “Perhaps our newest student could show everyone how-” she stopped suddenly, the amusement drained from her face. ”Everyone get behind me now,” she said, trying to keep calm. I turn to see a black cloud of darkness coming straight for us. We all watched as the darkness slithered toward us weaving around the long, thin waving grass. “Class is dismissed, return to the castle immediately,” said Lady Tyrande with a notable hint of panic in her voice. As I ran toward Lady Tyrande I could see Dominic running for the darkness. What was he doing? I wondered. Lady Tyrande made a bubble around him and he started to float off in the direction of the school. We all ran for the school and I noticed that Rachael was now back to her normal size. The black cloud continued to chase us. Ever so often I would look back to see the cloud getting closer to us. The sun could barely be seen and I had a sickening cling in my stomach as I watched it slowly sink into the horizon. I stopped, everyone was out of breath and tired, but the cloud was still inching closer. “Keep moving, do not look back,” the familiar voice of Lady Tyrande said from behind me. As though on cue, everyone looked back.

We all watched in horror as Lady Tyrande plunged into the darkness,

allowing it to wrap around her. We got closer to the school and it seemed to be that the centaurs had already warned the school. Prof. Gill and Sir Festo ran past me and also got swallowed up by the darkness. I was about to make my way back to the school with the others when I noticed the new kid (Rachael) walking toward the cloud. I made the decision right then and there to follow her. I could hear Argon calling out for us to come back but I ignored it. I wasn’t just going to stand around anymore. I would help fight the darkness. I knew it would be dangerous but if I was going dir, I would die fighting.

Rachael | Ραχαελ January 23, 3801 Erm alright we’ve got these “underground rock-monsters” in Tyrande’s words assaulting us now, and they should go to court and be charged for assault, murder, and attempted murder. Kylie got out of her hole and decided to also try to go to court, because she went and froze the fin of one of the sharks, who dived deeper into the ground. Dominic set the ground in front of him on fire, then Tyrande sarcastically said to him, “Very good.”

“Why am I blue?” I asked Tyrande, who’d cast a spell on me to make me so.

“Oh, just a- precaution, you know-” she cut off, gesturing to the fact that I did just fall off a tree and break my ribs and sustain a whole lot of cuts. “But you’re free to stretch your legs and- you know, engage in some fighting. But just know I’ve got your back.”

Angela shot an ice beam at the shark that was attempting to murder Vanessa, which passed through Vanessa and hit the shark. I attempted to dig a tunnel below Vanessa with magic and get her out of the way, and managed to get myself to the age of 13 instead of 11. That was not a very great start. A bunch of dirt flew up around Vanessa and that was it. Bingyin moved closer to Vanessa, and white light extended from her hand. I nearly got blinded, because Vanessa just started to glow even brighter.

Marysa blasted the fin off of the shark going towards Melissa. Ethan charged at the remaining above ground land shark with the wood axe that lay nearby, got scraped by it, and gave it a nasty cut. Vanessa tried to do something and got seven inches short, which is nearly a foot. Kylie created an ice rink that I think was meant to prevent the sharks from blowing up the dirt.

Dominic waved his hands over the little campfire that he created and it disappeared and reappeared on top of the shark. The fire engulfed it, and it charged towards us in agony. Alright, since Kylie is the ice specialist, Angela is now the electricity specialist, and she blasted a bolt of electricity towards it. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Ethan tried to cut its head off, but managed to wedge his blade into its skin before getting thrown backwards by the shark. I tried to blast it with magic, failed, and ended up twelve feet tall until the shark crashed into me and disintegrated in the blue shield that Tyrande had cast on me. I was still twelve feet tall until that wore off.

“They’re attracted to the vibrations,” Tyrande explained, “if you don’t move they’ll go away. If you would like a bit more practice, by all means, jump up and down.” Angela began to jump up and down. A shark zoomed out of the ground, going very fast towards Angela. She charged at Tyrande, who sighed and thrust a hand towards it. Nothing happened. She looked a bit confused, then swept her hand towards it, and it died. “Bron, if you would, we would really like the last shark to surface so perhaps our newest student could show the rest of the class-” I scowled for a moment. She called for Kylie and Melissa to come back as all the calm amusement drained from her face. “Vanessa, come down from there,” she said quickly and firmly. The land shark surfaced, and Dominic blasted a donut looking ring at it, which bounced off. Very nice. I pointed a finger at it (I was still giant by the way), and it was ripped to shreds.

“Yes, wonderful,” Tyrande said, still looking pale.

A dark shifting mass appeared, about perhaps half a kilometre away. I shrunk back to normal size again as we all stared at the cloud. Every light that hit it disintegrated, and it seemed to absorb light and

turn it into darkness. “Class is dismissed, return to the school,” Tyrande said, with a noticeable panic in her voice, “Immediately!” Vanessa was still 7 inches shorter, but not glowing. Dominic ran towards the cloud, and Tyrande trapped him in a bubble which floated towards her. “This is not a game, boy, this is serious,” she hissed. With a flick of her hand, he began to float up towards the school. “I hate you, Tyrande!” he shouted, and Tyrande replied, “I hate you too, crazy boy.”

We hurried back to the tower, with Tyrande bringing up the rear. Several times I glanced back at the broiling cloud. Kylie tried to freeze the cloud, because in her eyes, ice is the solution to everything.

The ice ray that was ejected from her fingers just passed into the cloud.

Several times the cloud surged forward towards us, reaching tentacles of the darkest black towards us, Tyrande would make a slashing movement with her hand towards it, and a ray of blue light would propel it back. The cloud was still getting gradually closer. Tyrande was looking kind of strained, and I tried to put the same bubble around her as she had to me, which failed and I ended up making her fly. She gave me an amused look before she began to fly towards the cloud. “Keep moving!” I think Gil yelled, “Do not look back!” But I looked back anyway, to see Tyrande surrounded herself with blue fire and plunging into the cloud. A bright yellow light soared above, and a jubilant laugh echoed from it Festo. The centaurs seemed to have reached the tower and warned the school. A bright red light appeared, streaking across the ground at speeds that man is incapable of, and Gil leaped over our heads (he’s not flying, just running very fast), and both him and Festo plunged into the cloud, swallowed in the darkness.

For some reason, I had the feeling that I should go back and assist, and the blue bubble around me was not very happy with that. I broke free of it, and set off towards the cloud. I glanced back, and saw Bingyin, who hesitated, then followed me. I saw three different colours - red, blue, and yellow exploding inside the cloud. A light streaked from behind me as Kylie attempted to blow up the cloud. I do not know why, but an intent made me want to go inside that cloud, so I did so. It apparently saved my life.

Vanessa Chen As the land shark circled around me, I noticed that half of its body was still underground. I sighed, and heard a crack as Kylie tried to freeze a land shark in front of her. It snarled, and dove underground, where we couldn’t see it anymore. I heard another crackle that sounded a lot like fire behind me, but I didn’t dare turn around in case the land shark would attack. I felt a freezing sharp pain in my chest as I saw a beam of ice go through my chest and also hit the land shark, though it didn’t really look like it caused a lot of damage. I then suffered even more as someone, I think Rachael, tried to blow up the ground where the land shark was, but I didn’t know what happened as dirt obscured my vision. I sighed, and silently pleaded to my classmates to stop trying to save me because it’s probably going to go the opposite direction.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Bingyin, who healed me. Unfortunately, I glowed even brighter than before, much to my dismay. The land sharks started to move past me, and towards the group. Marysa tried to do something to the shark, though she only managed to disintegrate the fin as it dove underground, and out of our sight. The rumbling of the land sharks got closer and closer to the rest of the group, and I saw from the corner of my eye Ethan snatching an axe leaning on a tree and charging towards the land shark, though also scraping himself in the process. I pointed my hands towards the place where one of the land sharks had disappeared, and sighed with annoyance when a puff of smoke came out of my hands and I grew 7 inches shorter. I felt all my clothes get a little too big to my discomfort, and I watched as my classmates prepared to battle the land sharks.

Dominic teleported a fire he had made onto a land shark, and it growled, charging even faster towards the group, where both Angela and Ethan tried to attack it. Angela, who I think was trying

to go for her signature shock, waved her hands and nothing happened. Ethan, though, managed to wedge the axe in between the plates, and the shark screamed in pain. Rachael then grew 11 feet tall, and the shark surged towards her, and we watched as it disintegrated into dust as it collided with the blue spell Lady Tyrande had casted on her. As we looked around for more land sharks, I heard Lady Tyrande say, “It’s attracted to vibrations that are caused by movements, so if you want to attack it or something, jump up and down.” Upon hearing this, Angela sprung up and down, and a land shark charged in her direction. She looked at Lady Tyrande, who rolled her eyes and proceeded to demolish the last land shark. I bet if Rachael had asked, she would’ve done it in a heartbeat. At least Professor Gill disliked us all equally, instead of favouring one over the rest.

Suddenly, I spotted a dark cloud swiftly coming towards us, and looking closer, I noticed it looked like the liquid darkness that the teachers had battled the first night we arrived here. Lady Tyrande made everyone go back to normal, except for me. I supposed she couldn’t change my height back, or she just doesn’t like me enough. She told us to start heading back to the school, and Dominic decided to run towards the cloud instead. Lady Tyrande looked very annoyed, and with a flick of her hand Dominic was in a bubble, drifting towards the school, while the rest of us ran along. I was at the front of the group, so I didn’t really pay any attention to the back, where Lady Tyrande was. Eventually, when we were very close to the school, I heard Lady Tyrande tell us not to look back, and we watched as two colours of red and yellow fly swiftly past us. Naturally, we looked back, and all three teachers started battling the darkness. Argon ushered us in, saying that if the teachers needed help, the older students would be the back up. I glanced back, and saw Rachael and Bingyin heading back towards the darkness, and said nothing. On the yellow floor, there was a table of sandwiches and we chatted with an illusion of Sir Festo’s, as he was too busy fighting the darkness to teach us. Suddenly, Dominic’s

bubble popped. We were informed that that meant that Lady Tyrande decided to pop the bubble, or she was dead. Probably the former, but the latter was possible.

SESSION SEVEN

Emotional Support Class

Name: Erica Weeks past and everyday was more weird. Things started happening and Annie wasn’t convinced it was something from magic. She had never really believed in magic but even though she didn’t believe in it she still thought if it was real. Either way Annie didn’t like the times when her classmates found themselves turning blue or into random things. The sounds at night didn’t bother her at all. She felt kind of lonely without her family. But she had some friends in her magic school. Annie remembered reading a book series called Harry Potter. She had seen all the movies and read all the books. There were many spells to learn in there but Annie was sure they wouldn’t learn those. Like usual, another day another class to be at but this time there was a substitute teacher. Everyone (including Annie) was confused. Since she left her house Annie wanted to just run back no matter how much danger she would be in. She also wanted to try and learn a spell that would protect her when she was outside in the middle of nowhere. Maybe she could try and learn a spell that could turn the teachers into something harmless.

Annie liked cats so maybe with enough brain power she could sneak out at night to find a spellbook in the library and figure out some spells or powers she could use. It would be a big risk though. If the spell she had casted went wrong she could be in big trouble and in a lot of pain or anything that’s really painful. It

was for the love of reading. Annie sat daydreaming about all the luck she was getting from her family and wondered what her family was doing while she was gone. What were their new habits, where did they go, did they move houses, or did they adopt some other kid? Many questions in Annie’s mind were not answered. But Annie knew questions come with answers and hoped to find an answer to all of her questions.

It was a sunny day and Sir Festo's substitute teacher, Sir Festo was teaching the class how make illusionary cats. Jayden wanted to make a illusionary cat because he loves cats and would really want one. Everybody tried to make their illusionary pets but did not turn out good. Jayden couldn’t really do magic. Jayden somehow slept and fell to the ground and that was the end of the day for Jayden

Kylie

We are sitting on pillows and practicing illusions. Then, I feel prickly. I tried to go invisible and butterflies and flower pedals started swarming around me. Then the room fills with fog. After the fog cloud goes away. Then I tried to go invisible again and this time it worked. I see a little cat appear on sufesto’s head. I see Dominic grow a third eye and Vanessa shrink 5 ft and grow 10ft taller. Then Dominic grows 12ft tall and hits the ceiling. Dominic’s third eye disappears and goes back to normal height. Then Dominic shoots a gigantic fireball in the air and it comes down and hits us. All our illusion pets are destroyed and we are hurt. The projection of Surfesto disappeared. Jerry comes in and asks what happened. I go back to being in our room.

Rachael | Ραξηαελ

January 24, 3801 Three flashes in the sky and on the ground marked the three teachers, battling with their might against the dark cloud (sorry but I can’t start chapters, I’m so very sorry that it sounds so lame). I felt like I couldn’t fight anymore. I had fought, of course, but that had almost drained me of my energy. I was suddenly snapped out of that state by a blinding flash on the top floor of the castle. I knew that probably the rest of the students were in their illusion class, and I wondered if it was just a side effect from a failed spell that occurred. I saw a couple of illusions of platypuses and cats and this really weird thing with one eye suddenly turned black, and then disappeared.

It startled me even more when a couple moments later, Marysa and Ethan (not the rest of the class though) came out of the front door of the castle. I jumped up and yelled: “You shouldn’t come here!”. (It was not worth my breath considering that they didn’t listen) They just kept on continuing, and disappeared into the cloud of darkness. Bingyin and I followed.

Marysa apparently had made an illusion of a dog (which she named ‘Doggo’ - go search it up or you shall be prohibited from reading this further [jk]), and she sent it into battle (which was quite useless considering that it’s an illusion so everything would just go through it. I once again plunged into the unbearable darkness, with Gil still on the ground and Tyrande & Festo flying high in the air, like bombers except they didn’t screech like a vulture when they descended. There were still three flashes of light, although they were dimmed by the darkness.

Marysa and Bingyin disappeared, and I lost sight of Ethan as well. I saw some darkness disperse and then close again as Ethan’s figure disappeared outside the dark cloud, heading back in the direction of the castle. I also saw Marysa point (?) at something, and then I saw something coming towards me, but couldn’t quite identify what. There was no thunder, of course, but I could still faintly hear the thundering of the centaurs’ hooves as they rushed in a panicked group towards well nothing, as far as I could see (I’m in some dark cloud, don’t judge me). I did, however, spot the familiar glow of red light on the ground, and I crept silently towards it. When I was close enough, I extended my hands, and a blue light flowed from my fingers to make the same protective shield around him that Tyrande had done around me (because I was an idiot and thought that the ground was more dangerous than the sky). The red light turned a vibrant purple (for some reason that was hilarious). He saw me, smiled (unusually), and said: “Enjoying your first day at school?”

“Not really, considering that there’s a whole battle going on,” I replied, with a hint of a smile.

He laughed. “Remember, we are not trapped down here with our enemies, it is that our enemies are trapped down here with us.” (Those two phrases mean the same things, it’s just different perspectives so I see no point in saying that but whatever). He smiled again, raised his stick/staff over his head (it really did look like a stick in the darkness), and charged away.

I saw a scorpion scuttling after Ethan, and so I followed him deeper into the darkness, quietly, as to not disturb the highly sensitive scorpion. I tried to put a force field between them, which unfortunately failed and made both of us disappear. The scorpion made a very confused action, and scuttled away. I followed him, and I think Ethan did too, because when Tyrande flew over and made the same thin thread, the thread led to him not far from me, and it stayed about the same distance as we both followed the scorpion. I attempted to make a protective shield around Festo and Tyrande, but that failed (wow my failing of spells takes up about 60000% of my spell casting) as well,

and so the side effect was that I grew a third eye (which made me visible). Suddenly all the shadows were see-through, and I could see everyone and what they were doing (it’s because I grew another eye on my forehead for one minute). But that did not shock me. It was something else that actually surprised me.

I saw threads, like in marionette puppets, extending up to an invisible person that was not invisible for the third eye. They were thin and dark, controlling the shadows as if they were puppets.

The person who was controlling them was an old man with sagging skin, and half of his face blown out, exposing the brain and blood. However, the blood seemed to be kept in the body and he seemed to be alive, grinning with malicious intent. He did not notice me staring at him, but all the same, it felt like he was watching me in some way. I knew him, of course - he was the old man who had told me to go into the wilderness, but my feelings changed, and I began to have hostile emotions towards him.

Exactly 1 minute after I failed that spell, the eye closed and disappeared, and I was once again surrounded by suffocating darkness. The scorpion reached out with a pincer and cut the thread between Ethan and I, and poised its sting, jabbing it down towards Ethan. It had a malignant gleam in its eye, as did all the creatures here, as did the old man that I had seen. I waved my hand and let a force field appear around Ethan. When its sting reached the force field, it withdrew it with a hiss, and jabbed it down towards me. I panicked for a moment until the sting bounced harmlessly off my body because the scorpion no longer had a sting.

Ethan turned and ran, and I knew that for sure because darkness dispersed then closed again as Ethan headed back towards the castle. The scorpion turned towards him, and I trapped it in a bubble as Tyrande had done to Dominic. The bubble enlarged for a moment, and the scorpion snapped at me angrily. I looked towards it with a face that had no expression. I held out my hand, and I slowly shrunk it until it simply ceased to exist.

The darkness around me evaporated. I looked around, glad to be free of the suffocating feeling. I realized that I felt quite exhausted, and there was a sharp jab of pain in my ribs, which I didn’t necessarily care about. Argon had put down his lantern and was rolling his wheelchair towards us. Marysa was nearby, and Festo was gliding like a flying squirrel over top of the darkness, trying to pretend that the darkness was a herd of sheep. The three teachers moved back towards us, and they gestured for us to go back into the castle. Argon went with us, and extended his hand towards the door. It opened, and he also weakened the force field around it, and we all headed inside.

We all headed upstairs, and to my surprise (and probably Bingyin’s as well, but I don’t speak for her), everyone was utterly destroyed. Lying on the ground and groaning, basically. We managed to get them to the dormitories. Some of the ones that saw no action out in the Plains asked questions, but I refused to answer them. The three teachers headed towards the staff room. There was a continuous green light around the castle, and the darkness, although we had fought them off for now, was still hovering over the Plains. It lay there, thick, a mystery to some, something to be fearful of for others. A blemish on the horizon that gave off a menacing feel, as if somebody was watching you with a malevolent gaze, that would forever stain my memories, and the ones of many others. Half the centaur herd was missing, perhaps dead, or perhaps hiding among the grass, scared and weak, living in fear. I knew now who was doing this, but I couldn’t process it, and so I decided to try to find out more. That, however, would be an adventure for the next day. And so I drifted off into a light sleep, troubled by dreams of not the battle, but instead the old man.

Vanessa Chen Sir Festo’s illusion reminded us that for today’s class, we would be creating illusionary cats and dogs.

Marysa tried first, and all I could feel was this trickling feeling on my skin that gave me goosebumps everywhere. Kylie summoned butterflies and flower petals, Ethan created a fog that followed him wherever he went. When I tried to go invisible, because it was illusionary magic, I created this horrible creature that had one eye and wings. It was horrendous, and when I tried to throw a fork to get rid of it, I guess I was so horrified that I missed by quite a lot. Marysa decided to try again, this time creating some sort of wonderful music, and that terrible creature which I think is a modron started walking towards her. Dominic created an illusionary cat on top of Sir Festo’s illusion, and I tried to restore my height, only to fail even more and grow 5 inches shorter. I wanted to defenestrate myself, even though it wasn’t possible, since the windows are protected by magic. A minute later, and all the results of failed magic disappeared. I sighed in relief when the maybe modron vanished. Dominic was now trying to restore the 12 inches I had lost, though he kept on failing and failing. I tried again, and managed to restore 10 inches, so now I was only 2 inches shorter than my original height. Finally, after many multiple tries, Dominic managed to restore my height. Unfortunately, from what I deduced, from all those failed attempts of magic had piled up, and Dominic had summoned a giant fireball that exploded and injured just about everyone, except for Marysa and Ethan, since they were sitting in the corner. All the illusions had been destroyed, including Sir Festo’s illusion, who was cut off before vanishing. I couldn’t make out anything, except for the sound of Jerry’s voice, and footsteps leaving the room, and then it was all black. Eventually, I woke up in my bed, and it turns out there was this big battle, and I glanced outside, looking at the destruction that had been made.

-Angela

“We will be conjuring imaginary cats and pet them to make us feel better,” Sir Festo explained. I decided to try conjuring a platypus instead but I waited until it was my turn to conjure. Myrasa trys, and I feel a chill and goosebumps up my arm but that was it. I think she failed. Kylie then trys to go invisible but suddenly illusional flower petals and butterflies fly all around her. Melissa decided to do nothing and a boy named Ethan tried to shoot a fireball but then the room filled with fog. I giggled under my breath, Ethan walks to the corner and the fog cloud disapperes. Dominic trys to conjure a shrek but it fails as well. Vanessa attempts to turn invisible too but then suddenly this disgusting gross creature reaches towards her. Vanessa throws a fork at it but it misses.

Kylie tries to turn invisible again and she surprisingly succeeds. Dominic conjures a cat above Sir Festo’s head and he pets the cat. Myrasa disappeared all of a sudden. I try to conjure a platypus and then a cute baby platypus spawns infront of me. “ ahh this is a more beautiful cat then the last on” Sir Festo says. Myrasa then appears although she has a long beird and a big cloud of fog above her head. After a few minutes, the fog disappeared and the horrifiy creature disappeared. Vanessa then trys to regrow her height and I just remembered she shrinked in the class we had with Tyrande.

Sadly, Vanessa grows 5 inches shorter again. Dominic trys to help but an eye grows on his forehead. Vanessa trys again and she grows 10 inches taller. Dominic trys to help Vanessa grow the last 2 inches but then his head sticks to the roof. Vanessa then finally successfully conjures a cat. Sir Festo explains our animals can be conjured successfully anytime and I got really happy. I picked up my platypus and tickled it’s belly, I decided to name my platypus Snouty. Dominic helps Vanessa grow the last 2 inches but Dominic without warning shot a fireball at himself. The fireball exploded in the whole room and I got hurt and so did my poor platypus.

Sir Festo was about to say something but he then suddenly disappeared. My insides bubble with rage as I go to Dominic. “ YOU STUPID BOY, YOU KILLED MY DAM PLATYPUS” I screamed. I was going to continue when something smashed against the building. Soon Jerry the Jouster came into the room and told us to go downstairs. After we held downstairs, we all headed outside. Although I had to stay inside because I am seriously hurt and getting down the stairs felt like an accomplishment. I ploped myself down on a comfy stuffed couch on the main floor and conjured my platypus Snouty for company. I hear some blasts and bangs outside and I am rather glad I am not out there.

After what felt like an eternity but was probably only 30 minutes, I was able to walk and do everyday movements. Soon the front door swings open and I see my classmates looking destroyed. I help some of them to their dorms. Lastly I headed to my room, I barely had enough time to change into my pajames before my eyes locked shut and I fell into what felt like a neverending slumber.

SESSION EIGHT

Office Hours

Name: Erica It has been weeks since Annie wanted to learn a spell to transform the teachers into animals. Her thoughts of becoming someone like a superhero was very low. Maybe she had no choice. Maybe she just had to wait and wait and wait some more in magic school. Annie thought and said to herself “I mean can it really be that hard?” and soon she just remembered something that would be very useful. But it couldn’t come to her and Annie couldn’t get the words to come at her. Would it be something that could truly save everyone’s life there at her magic school?

Annie was sure that it would help. Classes were about to begin and Annie wasn’t ready. Everyday when she had school she wouldn’t have fun at all. Even with her dream school she still wouldn’t have fun. Learning was just boring and she preferred to read all day. Reading and reading and more reading, Annie could do it for the rest of her life but still she knew that wasn’t possible and for the most part she didn’t like being adventurous. If there was something she would actually want to do it would be escaping just in a less dangerous way. Annie just doesn’t like getting scared so much and always disliked getting scared. Her friend would normally try and scare her but she always was a step ahead. This kind of trained her so that she wouldn’t have to bother with the scary things later on in the future. Just like being at the magic school. Things never went as planned.

It was morning and everybody woke up and this teacher that Jayden recognized but forgot his name said “today is a blue day where you can relax” Jayden was so excited to start the day. Is there anybody that wants to visit the principal. There were a few people who wanted to go including Jayden. There were 2 students that were talking in the office. Jayden came in and dumbly said “hey bro what you up to?”. The principal said “nothing bro”. For 20 mins Jayden was asking questions, weird ones. After the talk the principal had to go do something that led Jayden to curiosity. The principal just left without making Jayden and a few others leave. Once he left Jayden jumped up and down. Jayden wanted to look everywhere, look in his drawers and look everywhere. He first looked in the principal's drawers and saw this hat.

Jayden remembered what happened to him when he put on jerry but he was curious so he put it on. Gladly nothing happened. 5 seconds later there was this man. He said “give it back”. Jayden of course said “no”. The man said he was an illusion, he also said “if you focus hard enough you can go threw the door”. Jayden tried and bumped his head on the solid door. The man laughed hard. Jayden asked “where are you?”. The man said a place that Jayden did not know. Jayden said “why couldn’t you talk in person?”. Jayden was focusing on something else so he forgot what he said. (lol) The man said “it's time for you to leave” Jayden left quietly. After that people went to the library but Jayden didn't while Jayden was doing nothing there was a librarian jerry and told secret stuff to some students.

Kylie

We had a day off and got to rest. I went to see Professor Surfesto. I try to sense if he is an illusion and he appears to not have a shadow. I tried to pull on Surfesto’s beard but my hand went straight through. Surfesto asked how I knew he was an illusion. I told Him because he had no shadow and a shadow appeared. I tried to follow marysa neakly but got caught.

Library Jerry told us a story of the past. I tried to sense if there were any illusions in the staff room but I did not feel any magic. But I still feel like Tyrande and Sirfesto were an illusion.

Rachael | Ραχαελ January 24, 3801 So we returned to the school. Argon explained, “It seems that there’s a lot of business going on right now. And, as a result, you’ve been given a couple of lieu days. You get a day off. You can spend the time alone, if you want, but there are office hours as well - you can be with your teachers, they are available.

I’m going to be out for the rest of the day to try and to help the centaurs get settled in. If you need anything, feel free to ask any of the Jerries.” Then, he exited the tower. Kylie, Angela, Jayden and Marysa went to see Festo. I knew what I was going to do. There was a certain person who could describe it to me - well not a person, more like a soul.

Half of us broke down doors, and the other half tried to not. I made my way down

Vanessa Chen I was standing in the shadows while the rest of my class hung out in the common room. There was an empty room for practicing magic, and I was debating on whenever I should go practice or not, when Argon rolled in. He informed us that today’s a lou day, and we each asked a whole lot of questions about it. Eventually, we learned that it meant that we had like a free day off of school or something like that. There were office hours with all the teachers, and when the majority of my classmates heard that, departed to whichever teacher they were looking for. I decided to stay back in the library and read a bit more. Part of the class left, and I slipped a book off it’s shelf and started to read.

When I finished the book, the library Jerry walked over, ready to place the book back on it’s shelf.

However, I had a question for the library Jerry and when it approached me, I asked him. “Why do the teachers came together to form this school when they appear to dislike each other so much?” The Jerry responded, and started to tell me and everyone else who was listening the story. Apparently, the darkness was from a mage who was desperate. There was a giant battle, and all the three groups of magic collaborated and gave it their all to defeat the mage. Magic was in such chaos, that the mortals without magic, who had feared them for so long, managed to catch up with the magical people. There was another giant battle, and the mages were pushed back into the Conlis Mountain Range, and the children who sprouted up with magical abilities were also sent there. The government, or the Empire, has developed technology that cancels out magic, and then they overwhelm you with the numbers they have. We also managed to convince the Jerry to tell us a rumour that was before Professor Gill came. It was that before Professor Gill, there was Professor Gustav, who was mean and uptight. He died from fighting the darkness, was what Lady Tyrande and Sir Festo told them, but they might’ve killed him themselves. The Jerry also mentioned something about this guy named Rengar,

who was an extremely powerful mage, but when I try to rack my brain for more information, it’s like trying to take something from a place that’s already empty.

-Angela

In the morning when we finished breakfast, we were all hanging around in the common area of the school. “ Right now, you guys are having a few lou days,” Argon explained. Lou days are days where we just have free time. “ You guys can also talk with the teacher, they are in their offices, I will be gone so you may talk to the Jerrys if you have any questions” Argon continued. I decided to go to my dorm and chill. However, after a while I got bored and decided to go to Sir Festo’s office. I go to floor 5 and kick the door of Sir Festo’s office door open. When I come in, I see 2 Sir Festo’s, one has a mohawk and the other one is braiding his beird. “ Ahh hi Angela” Sir Festo said. “ What are you doing?” I asked him. “Ahh, just trying some new haircuts,” he replied. Then, he waves his hand and the Sir Festo with the mohawk disappears. “ Do you like unicorns?” I asked. “ Yes I love them I actually have one” suddenly, he conjured a unicorn that danced around him. “ Do you believe in a walking potato that is red and has a rainbow tutu with a knife stabbed into it’s head and looks like the imposter in among us” I blurt out. “ Umm-u-umm are you okay Angela?” Sir Festo questioned. “ No I am not okay I landed right on my head while trying to do a front flip this morning in my dorm” I said which actually was not true. “Yes I think so,” Sir Festo said.

“Do you have any more questions?” Sir Festo asked as I heard footsteps behind me and the sound of the elevator going up. I decided to say” Angela, out and pick up the door I knocked down and walked away. I passed Rachael, Jayden, and Kylie as I walked out the classroom. I first did not know what to do with my door but after brainstorming, I decided to throw the door into the bathtub in my dorm. I decided to spend the rest of my lou day reading a few of the books on my desk and attempting flips. I had no clue what the others were doing but it didn’t really matter since I was quite enjoying myself.

I tried my first back handspring after a few hours and I fell flat on my face knocking out a tooth. I washed out my mouth and put my tooth under my pillow hoping that tooth fairies exist even though I always knew they did not. I then conjured my platypus and snuggled in my bed stroking him.

SESSION NINE

The Pledge

I woke up in the morning tired, feeling if I could just fall on the floor and sleep some more. I tiredly woke up, brushed my teeth, took a shower etcetera. I walked tiredly in a casual strut to the room and then I noticed we get to choose our classes we are in! I proudly chose to be in the yellow class cause of course festo was very nice. I proudly walked to the stage when it was Festo’s turn I saw some of my classmates there too! I was excited as I put my soft yellow robes on. I smiled proud of my class. That didn't continue though after what I would call a joining ceremony.

After the joining ceremony thoughts swirled spinning inside my mind. What if I made the wrong decision? Did I actually make the right choice? Does Festo hate me? I sort of shook it off after a while. I waited for my class's quest because I was excited for it. After all our past journeys I was expecting this one to be better than the rest! After a little while from the ceremony we went into a room and Jerry the librarian was there. I whispered to him any more secrets you wanna tell us? Of course I was curious, wouldn’t it be inhuman for me to not be? He/she told me that he was gonna teach us instead of Festo! I instantly thought this was gonna be interesting, until he/she said we would just be organizing books. I sighed boredly at what is so special about books. I was pretty bored so I conjured up an illusionary Jerry right beside library Jerry. They looked identical from what I saw! Then Jerry told us he wasn't telling the truth and we were going

with Argon the so called “caretaker”. We went to what I believe is called the great golden prairies. We walked and walked and walked and guess what? Walked some more, until we finally reached a jail cell where we met Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was a stone jail guard and seemed nice. When I first talked to Elizabeth I had a bunch of questions including who the strongest prisoner was. So I asked a few questions and Elizabeth told me one of the prisoners was Gustaf. This immediately struck a light bulb. If Tyrande and Festo didn't kill Gustaf then he must have been captured here! It made a bunch of sense this was the missing piece to the puzzle and I have finally found it!

Then we had to get through some traps through a hallway.

On the way dead snakes fell out of the ceiling it was gross.

Elizabeth said she didn't feed them cause one time one bit her hand off and she had to rebuild it. Angela shocked Argon’s wheels on his wheelchair. I knew it by the looks of her face! It shocked Argon and Argon I guess panicked a little bit but then calmed down. Then I believe the next one was a ghost Marysa sent her doggo flying in and harassing the ghost. Then Elizabeth destroyed the ghosts from how strong her power was. Argon also demonstrated that Elizabeth was immune to magic by making a magic spear and pushing it into Elizabeth. The spear shattered and its lengthy pieces fell to the floor. Then Rachel tried to conjure up something I wasn't sure what it was but it turned into a black grease. I jumped back just in time!

However Angela broke through the crowd and then something happened. Fire was everywhere and Racheal shot some water at somebody on fire so the fire got washed out. Then they returned back to normal. So I saw that water would cure them so I shot a beam of water at angela. However then Angela shook it off and shot an arc of electricity at me. After that fight I was pretty tired and there weren't really any more traps. We continued through the passageway and I kept asking Elizabeth questions because this was pretty interesting however then we ended up at a stone wall. We all started to cast magic and it fell down we all fell downwards and elizabeth wasn't with us anymore she must've gotten behind the rocks! I am guessing we were all scared for Elizabeth because she was probably our friend by now. I tried to break her out but Argon stopped me because he didn't want even more damage done. Argon pulled out his lamp in the darkness and it glowed much much much brighter, Until it illuminated his face and he said the only way out is if we keep going. By this point I was wondering if I would even survive or not!

Rachael | Ραξηαελ January 24, 3801 I tailed Argon until the edge of the Golden Prairies. I wondered what in the whole world he was doing there. I watched as he set up camp, summoned a tent from nowhere, cranked his lantern up so that it illuminated everything within about 10 meters of it, and went into the tent. Tyrande and Festo were not there, presumably in the staff room.

January 25, 3801 Today was ‘pledge day’ (OR WHATEVER YOU CALL IT I DON’T REALLY CARE). Really, it’s the worst day ever for pledge day. Some people just don’t have something in particular called common sense. For one, the weather looks horrible, and this thing is outside. We’re all going to be soaking wet by the time we get inside. Two, again about the thing being outside, there’s this horrible dark cloud outside that could just launch fireballs or whatever at us the moment we step outside! Some people… Alright I’m going to stop ranting about how illogical this is.

As we stepped outside, the sky was a gloomy gray, as if it was going to leak its tears and rain at any moment. There was a stage set up, the three teachers were there, and so were a couple of centaurs, staring at us with their penetrating gaze. The tower cast a shadow over it, and I shivered, looking into the distance. The cloud still lay thick over where half the centaurs had gone missing, and I wondered, for a moment, what had become of them. Then, I averted my eyes to the stage.

Gil went first. He welcomed Kylie and Angela warmly as they stepped onto the stage with him.

When their turn was over, Festo went next, floating onto the stage, unlike Gil, whom I had never seen fly.

Marysa, Melissa, Ethan, and Dominic, stepped onto the stage with him, with Marysa’s doggo in tow.

They, too, were welcomed warmly, stepped off the stage, and Tyrande went on. I hesitated. Bingyin and Jayden went on, and I followed, wondering if this was really the right choice. Tyrande had a smile stretching from ear to ear, which seemed to enlarge once I joined her on the stage. Soon after, I stepped off the stage, glad to be rid of the attention. Vanessa and Erica chose not to pledge at all. I had considered that, very much, and now I wondered if that was a better choice.

We had lunch in the Great Hall. Several of us caught on friendly looks and waves from fellow pupils of the same school of magic. It was confusing, how this tower worked. You couldn’t interact with anyone of upper years, and they could only see you and you see them in the Great Hall. The tower that we were in seemed to have no upper years at all. When you stood up at the Great Hall, everything would just disappear - and you would be stuck in a dark, barren, room.

A couple of us - that is, Bingyin, Kylie, Dominic, and I - spent a bit of time after lunch walking in and out of the doors, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Bingyin just thought this tower was the weirdest tower ever (yeah I sort of agree), but Dominic and I figured it out. Dominic figured out that this was something magic - probably Illusion magic. Just as we were walking out of the tower for class, I figured out that this tower was not a real tower. I stared back at the tower, and much like once you know an illusion is an illusion, the tower blurred, then flickered for a moment, then I saw it again, but instead of a bright glowing thing in a middle of a deserted place, it was old and ruined, the walls

were creeping with ivy, and several windows were broken. There were shingles falling off the roof, tangled in the ivy. When I looked towards the door, which was usually a black wall, I saw a light blue, almost cyan, swirling portal. I turned, and walked back through the portal. The interior was the same.

It wasn’t one tower. Well, it was (sort of) one tower with several dimensions. When I walked through it, I went to the first year tower, but when an upper year student walked through, they went into the first year tower. I ran to the Great Hall, and sat down at the table. As I walked towards the table, I could sense faint blue light emanating from it. When I sat down, I saw the more or less empty room, and I realized that the Great Hall was simply a place where the towers were closest together.

Outside the ruin, Argon’s shield was still there. We gathered in the courtyard, expecting a teacher to come floating or walking in. Instead, Library Jerry marched in in his clanking armor. I knew, and I think we all did, that it was Library Jerry because they were carrying books. They were collecting books left behind by students in the courtyard. Dominic marched up to them and said, “Do you have any more secrets?”

“I have lots of secrets, one of them I will tell you right now.” I gave them a skeptical look that no one seemed to notice.

“Really?”Dominic asked (it really did sound a little childish now that I think of it).

“Yes! Your instructor is Argon.”

“I know.” (how the heck do you know…)

“Argon will be giving you lessons today, unfortunately he’s not here because he had to get a bit of a head start, which is why it’s up to me, Library Jerry, to teach you class,” they exclaimed (I don’t believe that one hecking bit). “Alright everybody! The first bit of magic we’re gonna do is the Dewey Decimal System (bruh why are we learning about organizing books), we’re going to organize all the books in the library. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

“No,” I muttered under my breath. Dominic decided to do more unnecessary magic (I thought ya’ll getting hit by a fireball and nearly killing yourselves was enough… but luckily this time it succeeded…) and made an illusion of Jerry appear right next to Jerry, which looked exactly like him and for a moment I couldn’t tell them apart.

“Someday you’re going to grow ten inches shorter,” I muttered to myself. Jerry said, “Good job, you didn’t fireball anybody.” Jerry then said something about the fact that you can be followed around by illusionary pets, which I didn’t really listen to because I didn’t really see a point.

“So ya guys are gonna head to the Golden Plains (it’s the Golden Prairies…),” he said in his [weird] (sorry but I find it weird that Americans usually tak lak thas) American (yes Earthians, I know about the Americas) accent, looking towards the Golden Prairies which were still covered in a thick mass of dark stuff (dark stuff is very descriptive… indeed), “Uhhhhhh, be careful (I’m pretty sure we all know that already, no need to state the obvious).” He turned, and walked towards the tower-portal-thing.

Apparently we don’t have a chaperone, which I was happy about because I didn’t have to worry about accidentally killing one of my classmates if Tyrande put the stupid shield on me. We walked towards the very edge of the prairie, with prairie dogs and chickens hooting in the distance (I don’t really know how they hoot but deal with it, I’m not changing it), to the place that I saw Argon last night.

More unnecessary magic. Kylie decided to turn invisible, which also thankfully succeeded. Angela said, “Merry Easter!” She then tried to do something involving a horse, which failed, and everyone ended

up getting a prickly sensation. Bingyin tried to do something and nothing happened. We arrived at a little campsite that only I recognized. It was the one that Argon had set up the previous night.

“Ah, good to see you all, good to see you all,” Argon said, rolling his wheelchair out. “I’m teaching you today - oh! Where’s Kylie?”

“Kylie got eaten by a massive tarantula on the way here,” Angela said.

“A giant tarantula, you say?” said Argon, “Oh, that’s so terrible, Kylie was the best student we ever had.” He did not seem convinced by this joke. “I’ll miss Kylie the most. Far more than I missed you.

She was always my favourite.”

“You were my least favourite, too,” Angela replied, “And ho! Happy Easter!”

“Anyway, for those who might be listening, we have a bit of a strange one today. We have to check on something, see.”

“Can I eat Cheetos while we’re doing it?” Dominic asked.

“I honestly don’t care what you eat,” Argon said dismissively, then continued, “It’s a place known as the Cave of Creeps. We’re going to check in on a couple of old friends of mine. Make sure everything there is alright.”

As we headed northeast for the Cave of Creeps, Marysa, Vanessa, and I heard a rumbling noise.

It was obviously centaurs, though for all I knew, centaurs were either in the school grounds or disappeared into the dark cloud. None dared to touch the prairie, for it was still covered in dark layers of black cloud. Yet it was coming from the direction of the Great Golden Prairies.

“I hear this rumbling from the plains,” Vanessa said to Argon.

“You hear a rumbling from the plains? Ooh, this way!” Argon replied, and wheeled off to a couple of rocks. “This way! This way! This way!”

“Hyah!” cried the centaurs in an angry tone. I looked to see about a dozen centaurs, galloping towards us. The darkness was slipping on them, and it corrupted their bodies and their minds. They all reached a hand back towards their quivers; they all drew back the bowstring and let loose the turkey feather fletching, which was also now black. A large light blue shield appeared above Dominic’s head.

Two walls of energy went up - one from Argon and one from I - and both dissipated as soon as the black arrows touched them.

Out from the ground next to the rocks emerged a figure that resembled that of a human, except it was much larger. It was 36 decimeters tall, which is 12 feet. With a swipe of their arm, several fireworks burst into the sky, then became beams of light and shot towards the centaurs. They shot over their heads, and several of them turned off, hissing and baring their teeth as they returned to wherever they had come from.

Then I diverted my gaze to the person standing next to the rocks. They were hard to see, and as we moved closer, I saw that they were carved out of stone. “What the hell are you doing here?” they snapped. Half of us started saying “ask Argon”.

“Elizabeth!” Argon said merrily, “Why, you’ve grown since last I saw you.” Which was ridiculous because rocks can’t grow. “Is your dad around?”

“Why do you ask?”

“We’ve got to check on the prisoner.”

“Why?”

“Well, not that we’re doubting your abilities, but just, you know, strange things going on - you saw the centaurs and whatnot.” *exchange continues* *big rumbling noise that is not the centaurs occurs* A large rock on the horizon straightened up and came ambling towards us. “Argon, it’s been a long time,” he said in a very slow voice. “What did you-” Elizabeth looked towards him for a moment, and appeared to make a whole lot of sounds that appeared to be rock-speech or whatever it is. *they have a brief exchange* So we entered the cave that was not a cave but instead a prison.

So the first thing that happened was it rained about twelve snakes! Very nice. Marysa and Melissa had both pressed forward, and Jayden had stopped, holding everyone back. I panicked and made several of the snakes cease to exist. Then I noticed that the snakes didn’t appear to be moving. Dominic tried to do something and the burns on his arms disappeared.

“Oi! Elizabeth! Did you forget to feed the trap snakes?” Argon called.

“The last time I tried to feed them, they bit my hand and I had to cut it off and rebuild it and that was hard! I’m not going to touch a single trap snake again,” Elizabeth replied.

Angela electrocuted Argon’s wheelchair’s wheels. I forgot what I tried to do, but I failed to do it and ended up nearly slipping on grease that had filled the tunnel. Ethan and Jayden fell into the grease.

Angela stopped. Her eyes were pitch black, and she released a blast of energy at us. It missed. Angela started running away from Vanessa. Then she turned and shot a blast of magic at Dominic. That worked, luckily not doing much damage, and Ethan and Jayden caught fire. I drew water vapour from the damp cave around me, then formed it into a large ball of water, which Ethan charged through, no longer on fire or having grease on him. Jayden did something to get it off of him. Angela got blasted in the face with water by Dominic. More lightning struck him. Then a ghost came - out of Angela? We all looked towards Argon, and he was pale, pointing at the ghost. “G-g-g-g-g-host!” he stammered. Vanessa tried to do something and turned blue. Elizabeth annihilated the ghost. I exploded something that I forgot what. *brief exchange between Argon and Elizabeth and Argon throws a magical spear at her that doesn’t do anything except nearly kill us with shards* Then there was this argument that I didn’t pay any attention to, and yah. I think it was about humans and elves. And then we continued down the tunnel.

Vanessa Chen We were gathering in the courtyard today, as the snow lightly fell on top of our heads. Today was Pledge Day, where, if you wished to, you could pledge to a certain school of magic. I decided to not pledge, along with Erica, while 4 people pledged for Sir Festo, 3 for Lady Tyrande, and 2 for Professor Gill. I personally think that pledging is literally just showing the entire school which teacher you like the best, or your favourite type of magic. I think Alteration is the most useful, but I still didn’t pledge. As we ate lunch, some students from the other years who were in the same school as my classmates waved and smiled at them. After that, we headed down to the front of the school, where Library Jerry told us to meet Argon in the Great Golden Plains, and to be careful. Then we were left alone, with no chaperone, but we still decided to head to where Argon was. I noticed Kylie disappear and probably turn invisible, and the same prickly feeling that gives me goosebumps from Angela.

After some trekking, we finally reached Argon, and we followed after him to go to the Cave of Creeps to check on someone. You could obviously tell that it was poorly named, after all, who would name a cave the Cave of Creeps? Well, whatever, it doesn’t anyways. I suddenly heard this rumbling sound, like thunder, and quickly alerted Argon about it. He then ushered us towards these rocks, as if they’re going to protect us, but by then it was too late, and I heard this angry and sinister voice commanding something. Centaurs, black and dark, appeared out of the darkness, and I deduced that these were probably the centaurs that had run towards the darkness, and now were corrupted. They raised their dark bows and fired black arrows at us. Dominic managed to create a giant shield that covered all of us, and the energy destroyed the corrupted black arrows. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a figure

sprinting, and there was a flash of fireworks, along with beams of light what whizzed over the corrupted centaurs’ heads. They then turned around and returned to the darkness

As the figure got closer and closer to us, I noticed it looked like a carved rock out of stone. It said, “What the hell are you doing here?” and Argon greeted the stone figure, who’s name was apparently Elizabeth. They conversed for a bit, and I caught some snippets about releasing a prisoner, and dying painful deaths. Personally, I didn’t really pay much attention, it didn’t really interest me, so I didn’t really try to listen into whatever was going on. We walked for a bit more, and then this giant stone figure appeared, and after chatting with Elizabeth for a little while, I realized this guy was her father. After that, she announced that we were going to check on the prisoner to see if he was still there or not.

We walked in line, slowly, into the rocks. I was at the back, so I couldn’t really hear what Dominic was saying to Elizabeth. That or I simply wasn’t interested and therefore did not pay much attention.

She then asked us if we knew about this guy named Gustav. I flashed back to the library Jerry, who had told us about Gustav, who was the professor before Gill, and one day they went out and when they came back, it was just Tyrande and Festo, who claimed he died from fighting the darkness, though there were rumours about them actually killing Gustav instead. I nodded, and I guess this means that Gustav is the prisoner. Suddenly, as we trudged through this gloomy cave, a dozen snakes fell down onto the ground, and right before Rachael vanished them, I noticed that they appeared dead.

Elizabeth shouted an apology, claiming that she forgot to feed the snakes. Angela, who was right in front of me, decided to electrocute Argon’s wheels. Why, I don’t know, and by this point, I’m pretty sure that both you and I have come to the point where we know that my class is extremely chaotic.

Soon enough, the smell of cooking snakes had filled the hallway, if you could even call it a hallway in the first place. Rachael then created some grease, though I think that was from a failed attempt at magic, as Rachael doesn’t really seem like the type of person to create grease. I managed to avoid the grease as we approached a crossroad, where Elizabeth failed to recall which tunnel we should go through. After some pondering, we continued on. I felt this cold feeling ghost over my body, and then left. Then, Angela attacked me out of nowhere, but I quickly dodged, staring at her. She turns towards Dominic, and attacks him in return, casting a lightning bolt towards him. He manages to jump away, and the lightning bolt hit the grease Rachael had created, setting both Jayden and Ethan on fire.

There was a little commotion, and I think I was too surprised to recall what exactly happened, but then, there was this purple ghost hovering. I shot a look towards Argon, who was whimpering and shaking. He really has phasmophobia, huh. I attempted to seal it away, but instead of doing that, I turned blue, and became Kylie’s twin. Elizabeth quickly reduced the ghost to ashes, and Angela said she doesn’t feel so well, so Argon decided that we would head back to the entrance.

We continued, until my class for some reason decided to start blowing everything up, and this eventually led up to the point where part of the cave exploded. My class managed to avoid the rocks, but Elizabeth was unfortunate enough to get caught in the explosion, and now she is stuck underneath the giant pile of rocks. Argon sighed, then turned and told us, “Hate to break it to yeh, but the only way out is through.”

-Angela

Today, we are going to choose which house of magic to stay in now that we have experienced all the types of magic. I chose Alteration taught by Professer Guilt. I choose this because Lady Tyrande is mean and even though I really like Sir Festo, I just choose Professer Guilt. When we wake up and finish breakfast we head out to the yard. Somebody explained that today is the day to choose your house. I already know and the first person to step on is Professer Guilt. I go up and he welcomes me as well as Kylie. Sir Festo glides up next and happily welcomes Marysa, Melissa, Ethan, and Dominic. Lastly, Lady Tyrande steps up and welcomes Jayden, Bingyin, and Racheal who was first a little hesitant. Vanessa and Erica do not choose.

When I walked up, I was to pick any red item on the table before me and I chose a red pin which had my name carved in it. We headed back to the building and I went to my dorm and reflected about my house. After a while when I went into the great hall, I received many smiles and waves from older students with a red item pinned on them. After lunch I headed for my class. I went to the courtyard and I waited for my teacher. However, library Jerry comes and says “ I will be teaching you guys and we will be organizing books in the library, Fun?”. I got a little confused, then, Jerry said “ Go to the golden plains”. Then he heads away.

After a few minutes of deciding we decided to go to the golden plains for whatever reason. My legs get tired so I try to conjure a horse so I can ride but I didn’t work so everyone felt a pickly sensasion. After we get there, we see a tent and Argon comes out of it and greets us. He asks where Kylie is. I say that she got eaten by a huge tarantula. “ Oh kylie was my favourite student. I miss her far more than I do for you” He joked. “ I hate you too,” I replied.

After we move on, he says we will be checking on a few friends of his and they live in the Cave of Creeps. He turns to walk and we follow.

Argon stops and pauses, suddenly, 12 black arrows shoot towards us, and Dominic and Racheal make shields as we sprint to the cave of creeps. I feel a few more arrows come but miss. We are met by a girl. “ What are you doing here’ She asked. “ Ahhhhhh my dear Elizabeth, you have growned” Argon smiles. They talk for a while and Argon talks about meeting a weird prisoner. After a while, Argon finally convinces Elizabeth to take us to the prisoner. She leads us the prisoner. Midway she says “ his name is Gustav, ringing any bells” Elizabeth asks.

We say yes, then she explains a little more about Gustav.

I learned that Gustav tried to revive people and other weird things. Suddenly, the ground infront of me cracks Racheal fixs a few and we continue, then a box of dead snaks fell over us, my heart did a backflip and Dominic screamed. Argon asked Elizabeth if she forgot to feed the trap snakes and Elizabeth says the last time she tried she got bit and had to cut her arm off.

Argon then rolls over the snakes with his wheelchair. I got bored after a while and I decided to zap Argon’s wheelchair tires. “ I definitely did not do that” Assured him. Racheal tried to make a force field but instead, this black grease filled the air and as I walked passed, I felt a desire to kill Vanesa.

I zap Vanessa but I miss. She looks at me weird and shocked at the same time, I then find her very scary and I run. Then, I was to kill Dominic and I zap him as well. This time, I make a gash mark on Dominic’s arm and Ethan and Jayden are on fire. I guess it was because my lightning was close to them and they had grease on them. Racheal then made a water ball and stopped the fire that was flaming on them. Then, Dominic threw a water ball at me. I shaked it off and blasted him once again with lightning. I turn to the most terrifying creature, a blue Vanessa. After that, Elizabeth speaks up and talks about ghosts. Dominic then conjured a snake which was quickly killed by Racheal.

“If anyone does not want to see Gustav, you may wait outside” Argon says. I tell Argon I will wait outside and play with my platypus. He agreed and I went out. However, there was no way back so I returned. The rest of my class looks at me weird. “ What happened Angela?”

Argon asked. “ Ummm there is no way back” I said. “ Hmm” Argon questions. We go to where the entrance was supposed to be. We all use distruction magic to explode the rocks but all the rocks come down. Racheal turns and goes “wait don’t go it’s dangerous” Elizabeth bellowed.

Racheal still goes and when the rocks come tumbling down, she makes a force field around us. The rocks slide down and crush Elizabeth. Darkness follows this, and after a while Argon’s lantern illuminates a small space. Then he says the “ I’m sorry to tell you guys this but, the only way out is through.

SESSION TEN

The Cave of Creeps

Kylie

A lot of rocks fall On Liz and I try to help her. But then she yelled at me and told me not to dig her out. I stopped and she got out. Then, we continued down the cave prison. I put a magical bubble around myself that if you touch the bubble, you will disintegrate. After walking for a while, we found things carving out rock people (more of Liz like things). Then we found tiny mushroom people and The flumphs came back. The flumphs were making weird noises and the mushroom people were dropping spores. Then we arrived at Gustav's prison cell. I was talking to him and Angela kicked Gustav. And we found out he was just an illusion. Suddenly, dark shadows came towards us. Liz locked down the whole place to try to not let Gustav escape. I was perfectly fine because I had the magic bubble. I saw Racheal try to destroy Liz. A bit of the rock broke and the force field disappeared. The ceiling falls down and then Argon uses the dirt to make a staircase for us to get out of the cave. Liz’s father then tasked us to get Gustav back.

Everybody was in prison and Jayden didn't know why. There was moss and mushrooms in the prison. There was a moss girl who kept throwing it at peoples face. There was a pickaxe on the side of the prison it was just like minecraft Jayden thought he picked it up and smashed the wall with it, it worked! Everybody went out, there was a random illusion that came out of nowhere. They were ambushed by the darkness! There were in a battle and Jayden just got knocked out. Well the rest were still fighting. We were in the realm that separated us from the

-Angela

We face this big wall of rock with Elizabeth inside. Kylie steps forward and tries to use magic to move the rocks. Suddenly, the wall blasts open and Kylie jumps away and standing infront of us, is Elizabeth. After Elizebath joined us, we continued deeper into the cave.

However, soon, we find a wall of thick moss infront of us. A boy named Ethan pushes the moss away and continues and we follow. We then turn into a room, it has a strange blue glow coming from these weird mushrooms coming halfway up the wall. As we continue through this chamber Racheal picks one of the mushrooms and raises it up to the roof. Suddenly, the mushroom turned into this weird big spider and Racheal without warning blasted the spider with water.

Kylie then made a shield over herself and glowed. Then Elizabeth comes over to me and puts moss on my shoulder. I had no reason why but I let her. Then Racheal projects this weird cartoon stick figure looking thing with a head of a mushroom. After that, she shrinks 5 inches.

Then Melissa makes an illusion of a normal looking mushroom child. Then, 3 floumphs apperre and my floumph comes right back to me. As soon as the floumphs came, the mushrooms started releasing this weird powder. “Well people, the last human friend I had, he came here and the floumph powder made him very sick” Elizabeth explained. While she is doing this, more powder begans to relese and goes towards Kylie.

Luckily, Kylie has a force shield and as soon as the powder touches the shield, it disinagrates. When Racheal trys to change her height back to normal, this robotic voice tells us to leave this chamber immediately. We head out and go another direction in this weird place.

This place has a weird changing noise. The Racheal speaks up “So these chain sounds, I don’t really know what they are but it might be prisoners trying to do things or other whatever. We turn down this corridor and enter this room. In this room, there were at least 10 axes on the wall carving something I couldn’t really figure out.

Kylie then tries to grow Racheal but she made Racheal shrink another 3 inches. After Kylie, Dominic trys and on his second try, Racheal grows back to her actual height. Then we head down the hallway which opens up to a big cavern. The right and left side lead down do darkness and I can’t see the end. The middle leads to a small platform illuminated by a ugly green light. To the right of the platform is a handcuff. And in the handcuff are hands. Hands leading down to the prisoner we came here for. Gustav. He looks exhausted and is completely bald. However he is moving from left to right dodging the small drops of water coming from the ceiling.

“You’re going to get killed everbody” Elizabeth bellowed. Then Vanessa shared to us about this story of a man that was hung and only had a small rock to stand on. Argon leads us to the platform. I kick a rock over the edge and I wait. However I never hear a sound of the rock

hitting the ground. Then I decided to jump off the edge. “CANONBALL!” I yelled. However, a yellow light suddenly pulls me up. “Ay ay ay ay ay ay, I have never lost a student on these missions and you will not be the first one, everytime we come, a dumb student decides jump of this never ending gap” Argon informed.

“YOU GUYS, do not know how dangerous this is, why do you think he is kept here then the normal prison! I get paid jems to keep him here and not let him escape, JEMS ARE EXPENSIVE!!!!!!” Elizabeth warned. Just then, Dominic yells “I NEVER HAD A CAPUCHINO!”.

“Okay so, Gustav is now making all of you guys insane! You guys will probably not remember this because you guys are all insane!” Elizabeth said to us while pulling Dominic away from Gustav. I decided to conjure my therapy platapus. Then, Kylie steps over to Gustav and asks “How did you get here” “Same way as you got here, Betray” Gustav cackled.

I then decided to kick him in the face, however my foot goes right through him. Cackles echo through the room. I get mad and zap him. However, after my lightning hits, Gustav disaperres and cackles echo throughout the room. “Opps?” I say innocently. Elizabeth gets rigid for a second before blasting magic everywhere. I realize this is a safety measurment and she has made the whole building go in lockdown mode. After that shawdows rise up and then something grabs Erica and drags her away. Dominic then hits the shadows with this weird yellow light. Vanessa conjures a ball of light and Kylie makes these ice people.

After Melissa made a sword of bright light, I used all my energy and blasted lightning anywhere I possibly could.

Dominic Ding The last time Elizabeth was stuck in rocks she was trapped. Kylie apparently tried to dig Elizabeth out but the ceiling didn't give in. Racheal attempted to run however the ceiling went back. Suddenly an explosion of rocks came, luckily Kyle dodged it. Elizabeth looked confused for some reason, honestly I was a little confused why she looked that way. However then Elizabeth didn’t look quite confused anymore. Elizabeth screamed at us for getting her stuck inside the rocks. Honestly that felt like ear rape.

Angel tried to jump on Argon but for some reason there was a force field. We kept walking but we came upon some thick moss, we had to get through the thick moss somehow. Ethan attempts to push it away he pushes it away and easily goes through. Everyone else follows with ease. I tried to follow and the moss wrapped around my hand then around my arm then it squeezed around my arm just for like a slight second. It made me feel much much better. Elizabeth explained on and on but Argon shushed her and she stopped. We continued and we went to a blueish I guess glowing room and mushrooms were growing all around. The mushrooms were blue and glowing, Racheal went first and Argon went behind at a nice. Racheal glanced at it and looked like she was thinking she pulled one of the mushrooms and used it kind of like a lamp. It was actually like a blue spider and

scuttled back. Racheal attempts to blast the spider to pieces with water and parts of it fall down. Kylie makes a force field around her and she started to glow for some reason. We went deeper into the cave. Elizabeth for some reason was putting moss on people. Racheal tried to conjure up something and we saw an animation sort of, it was of a mushroom headed stickman, it was pretty weird.

Racheal schrank 5 inches, was kinda weird. Marysa conjured up a mushroom. A mushroom so called “child” I believe appeared next to Marysa. It was quite confusing. I honestly am not too sure who conjured that. Racheal tried to do something and floumphs spawned they seemed to hate Racheal this once happened to me once. I tried to hug a floumph but honestly I decided to do nothing.

Floumphs started making meowing noises and the mushrooms were puffing out dust. Kylie’s protection I think vanished and she said haha and the mushrooms blew more dust. A burst of light came and it created a point and a high voice said “hey listen”. He or she kept saying stuff.

We all exited the area and we moved to another. In the other there were clanging noises I didn’t know exactly what they were. Elizabeth said”y’know those I kinda forgot what those are, being stuck in one place in a millennia is a pain, they may be prisoners or good folks creating it or making it”. We went closer and we saw trimming apparently stones and the stones looked like a golem, not too far from Elizabeth. Kylie tried to apparently shrink

Racheal so I tried to bring her back to her normal height I successfully did after my second try. Then we went to our third room. The room opened up into a cavern and Argon dropped his lamp on the pathway and it was dark in there.

I saw a sickly green light and there was a stalactite with handcuffs. THere were also 2 pale arms, there was a man there he looked very tired. I heard dripping and shuffling in that order repeatingly. We were standing on a ramp and the guy was kinda shifting and looked uncomfortable.

Angela throws a rock and I never heard anything from it.

Angela jumped in and a glowing white light circled her and Argon complained. We went down more and we saw Gustaf the so-called “prisoner”. ELizabeth said she got paid a gem a day to imprison Gustaf and she could make a Marilyn Minroe dress out of them. She complained that she didn't know why we wanted to see him. Gustaf looked familiar to me and many weeks ago the mission when we lost Racheal. I lowered my head to try and see his face again. Gustaf tilted his head and smiled. I suddenly screamed “I’ve never had a cappuccino”. Elizabeth said that I was getting insane and Racheal was trying to pull me back. Elizabeth said that she thinks we can't kill Gustaf. Someone asked Gustaf how he got there and he responded with that he came here how we did. Then Kylie asked something about Tyrande and Gustaf said to not tell anything about Lady Tyrade. Angel tried to kick him but it went through and Gustaf cackled loudly. Angel shot

electricity at gustaf and he disappeared. Cackles filled the room bouncing around. Elizabeth said she would seal this part so no one will escape. Battle music just pops up somehow. Elizabeth shot out beams all around us and blocked the entrances protecting everyone. Elizabeth tried to cast something and just froze there. Marysa conjured a creepy slenderman to attack the shadows. Kylie waved her hands around and smaller carvings started moving and they became swiping at the shadows. A scorpion tail slashed at Ethan and pinned him to the ground. Erica was getting dragged into the darkness. Erica called out his slenderman, then she got pulled into the dark. Marysa charged her slenderman into the dark and pulled Erica back. I tried to blast light at the darkness I blasted light which smashed at some of the darkness. Mellisa tried to protect herself and a serpent fang bit into her arm. She swung her arm left, right and left and it flinged off. THen her arm became darker. Vanessa created a ball of concentrated light and sent it to Mellisa. She held it in her hand where it was blackish and then it turned back to normal. Kylie conjured up ice people and they dove into the darkness. Mellisa crushed the ball and lines of light were on her arm because it absorbed in. Angela was blasting lightning at the dark. Racheal apparently tried to do something but nothing happened, maybe she tried to teleport somewhere. Racheal exploded Elizabeth and Elizabeth went back to normal and unfreezed however she

screamed in pain. The protections flickered off and sunlight gleamed in. Argon was directing us out and the earth rose and became a staircase. The stairs kept falling off so Argon could go up. All the darkness that tried to follow us just died. I then heard a loud thud. The warren was pushing like a rock and the prison kind of just collapsed. Argon said there was no one down there; it wasn’t much of a prison. He was talking to Argon about his children and Elizabeth started arguing with the warren.

Then the warren said that Elizabeth was his daughter! He was complaining that no prisoners would break out of the prison; it was a so-called “legacy”.

Bingyin

We all stared at Elizabeth who was somewhere under the pile of large rocks and stones. Kylie tried to use magic to pull Elizabeth from underneath the pile, but the ceiling threatened to collapse even more. Before anyone could even react or try to stabilize the roof, a loud and large explosion came from the pile of rocks, pieces of stone flying in all directions. Like a cat, Kylie sprung away dodging the explosion.

Standing there was Elizabeth, looking quite confused and angry. Then, instead of thanking us, she started yelling and screaming like her life depended on it. She did seem okay thankfully, I mean she was immortal and made out of stone so I guess it really shouldn’t have been so much of a surprise. As Elizabeth rejoined the group, we made our way deeper into the cave, followed by Argon. Then for some strange reason, Angela seemed to have attempted to jump on Argon, though she was pushed back by nothing. We kept walking and I noticed strange moss hanging from the roof of the cavern. I had seen it once or twice hanging from the ceiling before, but it seemed particularly thick in this region of the cave. Ethan stepped up to the front and pushed past the moss, seeing that it was harmless, we did the same. I pushed aside the moss and stepped through. Since I was at the front of the group I didn’t actually see what happened, but apparently when someone at the back of the group tried to step through the moss tangled itself around him and somehow healed him. Anyways, we continued deeper into the cave, people started discussing what had happened with the moss, but Argon shushed everyone and we just walked in silence.

Rachael | Ραξηαελ January 25, 3801 Oh, I just realized I forgot to include the fact that we all nearly got crushed by rocks at the end of the last chapter. It’s also my fault that Elizabeth got buried under the rocks, because I used a magical force field around everyone except her which pushed her into the rocks. Anyway, we didn’t die, because we all have plot armour. So Kylie tried to pull the stones off of Elizabeth, who got crushed under them, but she’s this immortal rock person so I honestly don’t care. Suddenly, Kylie sprung aside as a whole lot of rocks flew out of this pile. :). I’m not sure Elizabeth is mentally ill or something, but she just started yelling at us for something. And then, don’t ask me why, Angela wanted to sit on Argon’s lap but failed because there’s this force field around him.

We walked along the tunnel for a moment, when we came upon this moss curtain, which Ethan pushed aside. Nothing happened. Maybe some things don’t need to be blasted to pieces… Dominic reached out and touched it, and it wrapped itself around his hand, squeezed tight for a moment, before releasing. Kylie went and tapped the moss, and nothing happened. Elizabeth started explaining, talking really really fast, before Argon cut her off, holding a finger to his lips and hissing, “Shhhhhh, there are things down here we won’t want to wake up.”

We entered a room with a whole lot of mushrooms that glowed blue. I didn’t recognize these mushrooms, but I knew one that was similar. They were poisonous, so probably you shouldn’t eat this stuff. I picked one up and used it as a light. A few moments later, the mushroom said, “Uh, can I go down?” I looked at it for a moment, and it repeated, “Uh, can I go down?”

“Sure,” I said, and I put it down. It scuttled away. I then tried to make an illusion of what happened, failed, instead made an illusion of a stick bug, and grew five inches shorter. That’s nearly half a foot, mind you. Elizabeth started piling moss on Angela. We were careful not to step on the mushroom people after that. Marysa also made an illusion of one. I tried to make myself back to normal, failed, and three Floumphs appeared in the air. They made a “meaw!” noise several times, and the mushrooms started to release a powder every time they heard a noise. Dominic hugged a Floumph and nothing happened. Elizabeth said a whole lot of stuff. More powder was released around her. Kylie made a force field around herself, and everything that touched the force field dissipated.

I tried to make myself normal height again, failed, and caused a modron to appear. We left the room. As we did, I heard a clanking noise, like hammers, coming from a dark path off to the right. Kylie tried to make me back to normal size, and shrunk me by three inches. Great. Dominic succeeded in doing it after two tries, and I muttered a “thanks” that no one seemed to hear. We turned down the dark path.

There were a whole lot of pickaxes swinging at the wall. Oh and also, I forgot but Vanessa is no longer seven inches shorter than she should be.

The hallway opened to a room, which had an unnaturally narrow walkway. The left side and right side fell away into the darkness below. In the middle was a platform, illuminated with a sickly green glow, on which stood a man that I recognized. Above it was a stalactite, on which two chains were attached, the other end on a pair of thin hands. He had a long scraggly beard and his head was completely bald. He was moving, back and forth, avoiding a single drip of water that dripped down from the stalactite (for some reason it made me think immediately of Chinese Water Torture).

Angela picked up a rock and threw it into the darkness. It never seemed to reach the bottom, or we never heard the sound. Angela tried jumping in, afterwards, which Argon trapped her in a white bubble and said, “I’ve never lost a single student before.” He brought her back. Gustav had not yet acknowledged our presence. Yet he was laughing, softly, but still laughing. He looked at Dominic for a moment, then stared past him. He smiled, his teeth rotten and yellow.

“I’ve never had a cappuccino!” Dominic yelled.

Alright, I’ve mostly been blocking out Elizabeth’s exact words, but this is just too funny. It would be funnier if you heard her say it.

“Okay people! You guys are going insane! I know you’re not going to remember me saying this like twenty minutes ago because you’re all going insane. And the last time I saw him was when my other friend - oh my god, my dad for some reason has so many friends… Uh, anyway, yeah! You’re going mentally insane right now, if you stay here for another second you will go insane! You will go completely insane.”

But if the others were going insane, I was not… Then Elizabeth said something about never caring about how old we were, but you’ll soon find out how much she does care. I established a mental connection between us, and I asked him, Do you still know who I am? I did this just in case Gustav was now hostile towards me. You are nothing to me, he replied, and my lips curved into a smile. Then why did you reply? I said.

It is lonely, he answered.

Are you Rengar? I asked.

I am nothing, he replied. But he wasn’t nothing, he was a human, unless… A nasty suspicion began to grow in my mind.

Meanwhile, Kylie asked Gustav how he got here. He laughed. “The same way you got here,” he sneered, “Treachery and betrayal.”

“Did Tyrande and F-” “Do not speak to me of that woman,” he hissed.

“Mr-” Elizabeth started.

“Professor G- nevermind,” Gustav said.

“-Gustav-” I didn’t hear the rest.

“My reasons are my own, I will not answer your questions.” Then he looked at our group and said, “None of this is real. You will all go bye-bye.”

Angela went up to him and tried to kick him. It passed right through him. “I knew it,” I muttered, “Right from the moment that he said that he was nothing. He’s not here.” His laugh echoed through the chamber. Angela shot a bolt of electricity at him. He disappeared. The shackles jangled for a moment, before falling open. I shivered as laughter echoed through the entire chamber, coming from all directions and ceasing in all directions.

Then Elizabeth went rigid. She froze, and bright light burst out of her from every direction. All of the entrances were struck, and collapsed, closed. Shadows reached out of the darkness, pulling themselves up the ridge. Marysa conjured a slenderman who charged into the ranks. Kylie waved her hands, and carvings of gargoyles on the wall leapt to life, swiping at the darkness. Several scorpions appeared, and one of them struck Ethan with their sting. Ethan’s bad luck strikes again. Bingyin, who was next to Ethan, stood, frozen. Erica was pulled down by a tendril, and she yelled, “Hi slenderman!” before

I lost sight of her. Marysa sent her slenderman charging at the one that was holding Erica, which swiped at it before dragging Erica back. Dominic let out a volley of bright light, which sped into the darkness and struck several of them. Melissa got a nasty snake with its fangs sinking into her forearm. She got it off by swinging around, but her hand was now covered in the snake’s poison, which was to be corrupted by darkness. Vanessa conjured a ball of light and forced it into her hand. Kylie conjured up some ice people which charged into the darkness. Melissa crushed the ball of light, and ended up looking like a tiger except her stripes were glowing white and she wasn’t orange. Angela blasted a whole bunch with electricity. I tried to get out of the room by teleporting, and the room literally just said “No u”. As I did this, four runes glowed. Three of them were on the roof, while the fourth one - the fourth one was on Elizabeth. I knew what to do now.

I thrust a hand towards Elizabeth, and a bright light was ejected from it. She unfroze, stumbled forwards, and caught herself just in time. I also blew off a part of her back, I’m sorry Elizabeth that it had to be so painful, but really, sealing us with demons isn’t going to help the situation. I’m surprised no modron appeared in that battle, though. The runes on the roof blinked several times, before they vanished. The stalactite fell from the roof, hit the platform, and shattered. The earth crumbed down into the darkness, and a stream of daylight burst through the roof. “Make for the light!” Argon shouted, “Make for the light, it’s your only chance!” The falling earth began to turn into a staircase as he waved his hand. We all ran up it, and it turned into a ramp as we got to the top of the Earthen Escalator of Death, and Argon came up.

There was a thud, and we all looked back to see Elizabeth’s father pushing a boulder over the hole. He looked at us and said in his very very slow voice, “Well, there’s the waste of a perfectly good prison.”

“You shouldn’t trap dark wizards in places without light,” I muttered.

“Ay, some prison it was, it was holding nothing! There was nobody down there!” Argon said.

“Interesting,” Elizabeth’s father said, “Well, good luck to you all. You know where to find me when you get back. My children and I will set out and find appropriate replacements.”

“Oh, so I’m going to be leaving this whole catastrophe of a group?” Elizabeth said hopefully.

“No,” he replied, looking at her, “Your task is now retrieving him.”

Vanessa Chen Kylie tried digging Elizabeth out, and then there was this giant explosion. After the smoke or whatever it was cleared, and Elizabeth was back. We then continued deeper into the cavern once again. We eventually reached a place where there was some moss. Everyone pushed it aside, and nothing happened, except for Dominic, which wrapped around his arm, then released it. Elizabeth then started rambling again, which I’d just started to tune her out, when Argon shushed her. After everyone went past the moss, we entered this cavern, where there were these glowing blue mushrooms. Rachael picked one up and used it as a lantern, and then a spider fell and got blasted with water by her. Elizabeth started to put some moss on Angela, and it seemed to make her happy. I don’t really know, but this rock girl seemed a bit strange to me. Not that I’m super surprised, since we do live in a world with magic.

Rachael then became shorter, and now suddenly the blue mushrooms are now apparently people.

Floumphs appeared around the room, making these meowing sounds, and the mushroom people started to release powder. Elizabeth told us that it might be poisonous, she’s not entirely sure. I guess her memory isn’t the best, given the fact she had not been able to remember things multiple times.

We moved into the next area, and there were these banging noises. Elizabeth wanted to check them out, and so we did. There were pickaxes swinging at the wall, chipping away the stone, slowly forming a stone golem. I heard the sound of chains, though it was very faint, and I couldn’t find out the source of the noise. When I looked back, Rachael’s height was back, and we all exited the room, and entered another large cavern. I saw Gustav chained, shifting to avoid the water droplets. I remembered reading a book about Icelandia, where Tyrande is from, about water torture, and this has Tyrande written all over it. Angela decided to jump over the edge of the ground, and into the darkness, and Argon teleported her back, stating that no one’s going to die here, like Rachael. I glanced at Gustav, who’s

eyes looked insane. Dominic yelled something about cappuccinos, and everyone’s therapy pets appeared, including Angela’s platypus. Elizabeth yelled about this not going to work, but I didn’t understand what it was about. Kylie went up to Gustav to talk, but I inched away from him, not wanting to get close. Gustav just gave off these bad vibes I don’t like, and I remember my dad telling me if someone gave off bad vibes, then I should go along with my instincts. I caught Gustav saying something about “This is just my mind,” and I shuddered and watched silently as Angela went up and kicked him. The Gustav we saw vanished before our eyes, the chains clinking together, and the darkness below churned, now able to freely attack us.

Elizabeth went lockdown mode, and by lockdown mode I mean she decided to cut off all the entrances with rocks, and then she froze, unable to move. Marysa conjured something she called ‘Ugly Slenderman’ and it soared into the darkness, ready to fight. Bingyin froze, though I don’t know how, and Erica was dragged into the darkness, and all she ever said was “Hello Ugly Slenderman.” Erica then got dragged back by Marysa, and Melissa got bitten in the hand by a serpent of the darkness, and I noticed the darkness slowly spreading. I quickly conjured a ball of light, and thrusted it into Melissa’s hand, hoping that it would rid of the darkness. Obviously since they are opposites, it would work, but this is magic, and I’ve never tried this before, and I’m not sure what the results would be.

The darkness slowly disappeared, and Melissa crushed the ball, and the light slowly dripped down her arm.

Angela zapped the darkness using lighting, as Marysa cleaved through the darkness using a sword made of light. Rachael then blasted the entire place, and all the earth on top of the prison poured in, and the daylight shone into the cavern, as Argon created an earthen staircase, yelling at us to get out.

After sprinting out, Elizabeth, now unfrozen, talks with her dad, and turns out, since Gustav escaped, she must now join us in order to retrieve him.

SESSION ELEVEN

Doge Alley

Kylie

We went to sleep and the next day, we had a meeting with the teachers about what happened yesterday. We told the teachers about how I was talking to Gustav and he was an illusion. Also how we think Gustav is Rengar. And now, we needed to get Gustav back into prison. We got ready and went to the nearby town where there is a purple dome that prevents you from using magic inside. There, we met a store that sells potions. He offered us some but after Angela drank one, we all decided not to get any. The potion shop owner had Angela and Vanessa to help with a show and Vanessa threw a very purple potion at the guy and that guy was surrounded by fire.

Jayden went along with the others and got knocked out and did not remember. We was at the house where he was sleeping until he caught a scent of chicken. He went to the kitchen to see it. He saw the fresh cooked chicken and took a leg. He was munching and on of the chefs came along and slapped Jayden for eating the chicken. He went out and wanted to read so he went to the library and borrowed a book. He read about magic and then went to a red couch with from scratches on it. He opened the book and read. Jayden found more books so he read book by book. There was some magic on the book so Jayden carefully read it. Moving things with your brain never do this it said.

Dominic

My Homework

I woke up and I went to the room where I saw Jerry the Jouster. I asked him whether he was librarian Jerry but he said he was different. Then Jayden asked if he could put him on again and not die this time. Jerry said even if you put me on you will die anyways. Then walk through the great hall then we go to the library and we go into the dorms. I walked into my room, I love my donut room. I grabbed a book and read it and ate 7 donuts. Then I went to sleep. Then I woke up then we went to the dining hall and Argon was late. I didn’t care, he asked how we were doing and we had a staff meeting later in the day. I finished eating my food. I went up on the elevator, when we got to the top the thing was opened and I was in the staff room for the second time but I could actually see it.

There are 2 tables and one we saw the teacher play cards at, a fireplace and the teachers were sitting inside. I stepped inside the staff room. I was a little excited or scared for the new mission. Gill was sitting to the left, tyrande was in the middle and festo was to the right. I sat down silently. Tyrande smiled at a few of them. Professor Gill cleared his throat and apologized about the mission.

Kylie said the people that went near Gustav got crazy and she put a protection and Angela kicked Gustav 2 times, dark spirits were attacking us. Angel said that was not right, let me tell you what happened. We went to Fiji island

and we went to a pink tower and we entered this room.

Kylie did you say it made people insane, said festo. Kylie said something and she then said Gustav made people insane by magic. Gill leaned towards kylie and angel he said girls, what exactly did gustav say to us. I said we went diancie hunting for 24 hours and practiced violin for 24 hours. Kylie said me and Angela were lying, when I was asking gustav about the things Angel just kicked him and he was gone. Vannesa asked if they knew Rasputin, Gill started blabbering and I was not listening. Festo complained, then I screamed that Rasputin was Gustaf.

Tyrande and Festo sighed and Gill was saying see I was right and some things. I did a gigantic blabber and the teachers were standing straight. Kylie said that she was talking to Gustaf and she was proving me. Tyrande said Jerry dear would you join us for a moment. Library Jerry came and he was like wassup. Library Jerry blushed.

Tyrande flicked her hand to Library Jerry and a green glow came out, then Rachael said y-yes then an image projected across the room and it was Gustav but looked healthier and he had a red robe on him. Honestly, it looked like Dumbledore. Racheal said yes, again. Then one of the teachers said do you have anything else to say to racheal.

Jerry stepped back and said how’s your day going, then Tyrande said you can go back now and Jerry ran out of the room. Festo said I got to the graveyard, I wasn’t listening to the others. Festo said, come children come,

first and foremost the safety of the first years are very important. He said we were going somewhere and we were going to someone called the alchemist. He said he was an odd bird(the alchemist). He said he provides us with stuff. We headed downstairs and we were going to go to the Alchemist. We saw a volcano, a haunted house and a graveyard. We headed out into the school grounds and this was the most people I have ever seen. Argon was awaiting for us to lead us to the town. Racheal pulled aside Gill and Argon to talk to I believe. I walked over to Festo deciding to pull him over, he was talking to Gill. I asked Festo if he knew the weapon in the haunted house.

He said it was a mage killer. Marysa pulled over Gill, I wonder why people are pulling out everyone except Tyrande. I pulled Gill to ask Gill if he knew he said Rengar had destroyed the world before and he said some believe he is still in his reign, however he didnt know him. He said that his plans are very hard to see. I pulled over Tyrande to ask about the volcano whether the lava was going to just turn into rock. She said it will eventually. Then we went back into the carriage that we came here from. We go downhill and instead of going to the mountain range, we go to doge alley. In doge alley everyone had pets and they looked like doges. Argons lantern went out when we went further. I felt a tingling sensation but then it went away. I had a feeling we couldn't. We saw a hotel and a few restaurants then we appeared in a shopping district and it

looked very busy. I liked it. It was dry and nice. Then we went to a store where there was an alchemist. It was called Macabee’s alchemy. The inside looked strange compared to the other stores. Everything was either white or silver. There were many flasks and stuff. There were long tables with flasks on them and there were shelves.

Some people looked offended. Argon said he would be waiting outside and kids liked it. There was a long desk on the back. THere were 3 potions 1 blue, one purple and one even more purple. Angela grabbed the even more purple potion and opened it, smoke came up and went away. Angela drank the potion and smashed the potion onto the floor. Angela belched and fire went out of her mouth. I heard a shattering noise and a man stepped out.

He had short cut grey hair and he was wearing glasses, he had dark pants and shoes and a turtlement. He said to please be careful and he looked at Angel and said oh my.

Angela said she drank the dark potions, he said they were all dark, he was like hmm which one is missing and he said that was a bomb. Racheal said Angela is insane.

Macabee said he was insane and we do not say that.

Some other stuff happened too. Macabee said that Angela was just like him. Macabee gave some potions and said we were going to learn some stuff. I grab the blue potion and I drink it. Macabee said good. Macabee said how did you feel when you broke the rules. I said nothing is happening so I don’t know. Macabee showed us all the

stuff. He was going to teach us Alchemy, I was excited after drinking mouthwash. He said that he has a new product. Argon was looking around and people were on a stage and crowd. He said we were going to go on the stage to show our new line of potions and Vanessa asked about it. He said it was the health potion 12 the 10th line of his healing potions. Macabee said he was like the owner of the company. I asked Macabee what was the brand for the mouthwash curiously. Macabee asked him something and Vannesa was a little skeptical at first. Macabee was talking about whether people should be all bald or not bald. He threw the door open, I saw that everyone in the audience had the same turtleneck. He started bragging, which was VERY annoying. Macabee said he met 2 people and he said Vannesa, and he also said Angela. He said Angela was an influencer and I think Angela went on the stage. I still very much hate Macabee because he was so annoying and bold in such a bad way. Vannesa threw the very very purple potion and threw it to the stage. A massive explosion and fire was in the crowd, it was the bomb, I don’t know if this was funny or bad because those people are suffering however I hate Macabee and it might change his reputation honestly I don’t really know so i’ll say that it's both good and bad. The fire looked like it was burning hot and I was hoping with my fingers crossed that it would make Macabee’s reputation so much worse. I

didn’t think that was going to happen too much because his reputation is so good already I sighed, a little bit sadly.

Rachael | Ραξηαελ January 25, 3801 (days are surprisingly long that they seem like 2 weeks and I have to do each day in like 2 parts or something) Alright, the Fireballing and Electrocuting Dark Mysterious Things Event is over (yay). Fireballing and electrocuting stuff is now strictly forbidden (jk). We headed towards the school again, skirting the Golden Prairies (which was still covered in dark stuff that contained scorpions) and taking a glance at the Great Forbidden Sola Turrim (Sola Turrim means ‘Lonely Tower’ in Latin so it’s the Great Forbidden Lonely Tower). We got back to the school, where centaurs were standing outside watching several small huts being constructed, presumably for them to live in. Gil was standing by and assisting when needed.

The centaurs were apparently unwilling or unable to go inside the tower.

Gil saw us coming, and had a quick conversation with Argon that I didn’t hear and didn’t want to hear. Argon nodded at us, waved, and headed inside his [TOTALLY not copyrighted] hut. We were greeted

by Jerry the Jouster (which is quite a horrible name in my opinion BECAUSE I’VE NEVER SEEN THIS GUY FIGHT AND JOUSTING IS A MARTIAL ART), who said cheerfully, “Hey everybody, I was-” “I’ve got a question. What’s the difference between Jerry the Jouster and Jerry the Librarian?”

Dominic interrupted.

“I feel like you’ve asked this question before, but I’ll give you the same answer that I did the last time you asked this question. The Jerries are part of a collective hive mind (the heck), but we do have distinctive individual identities. I’m a different Jerry than Library Jerry (wow that rhymes), even though we share thoughts (that’s creepy, there’s no privacy), and we do all know all the things that all the Jerries know. No, we are not totally made up of the departed souls of children who died at this school, but there are a couple of them in here, yes.”

“Are you an endangered animal?” Jayden asked (BRUHHHHHHHHH ACCORDING TO THE OXFORD DICTIONARY, AN ANIMAL IS ‘a living organism which feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and a nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli’!).

“Uh no, I’m a magical construct.”

“Can I wear you again but this time you don’t kill me?”

“I didn’t kill you, the omonim did (omonim means namesake in Romanian…). If you wear me again, it’ll do exactly the same thing (Well, heaven and hell would be very welcoming).”

“Then don’t make it!” (bruh) “That’s like asking if I’m going to burn you with fire if you step in the fire again! You can see howhow that doesn’t make any sense!” With that, we went up the elevator thinking about flying (that’s how you go up elevators here…). We passed the blue, red, and yellow doors, the Great Hall (oops copyright, it’s the Dining Hall sorry), the library (where Library Jerry was using the Dewey Decimal System to organize books), and arrived at the dormitories.

January 26, 3801 We were eating the next morning when Argon joined us at our table. Argon let us finish our breakfast, then said, “Eyy, buys and guys (boys and girls), how ya doin’ this morning? We’ve got a bit of a staff meeting to go to later, you’re going to be talking to all the teachers because well, uh, what you saw was, uh, noteworthy (You saw it, you tell them).”

We headed towards the elevator, and instead of going down like we usually did, we went up.

Usually the uppermost floor was closed by a metal oculus (that’s an eye, how do you have a metal eye), but as we approached it today, it opened (how in the world does an metal eye open? Are you doing laser eye surgery to some poor metal guy who doesn’t need it?). We, at least I did (I’m not sure if the others are blind, I certainly don’t think so), found ourselves in the staff room.

It looked, well, normal (In case you’re questioning the definition of ‘normal’, here’s a definition from Oxford Dictionary: ‘typical, usual, or ordinary; what you would expect’). There was a long table and a small table. The small table had been the one where the three teachers had been playing cards, and the long table had chairs around it.The teachers were spread out - Gil on the left, Tyrande in the middle, and Festo on the right. Tyrande smiled with her abnormally white teeth (her teeth should be a bit yellow due to the fact that the underlying dentin layer has a slightly yellowish color). “Please, uh, first-years, take a seat,” she said. And so we did.

Tyrande smiled at Jayden, Bingyin and I (favouritism), and Gil cleared his throat. “I’m terribly sorry for the difficulties you experienced on your most recent adventure, though, as I understand it, you were in quite good hands with Argon (No we were not, he did nothing until I blasted Elizabeth and exploded the roof except save Angela from her suicidal attempt to die). This is why we allowed you a night’s rest and a hearty breakfast before we asked you up here to tell us what exactly you saw and did down there.”

Angela opened her mouth to say something, but Kylie beat her to it. “Um, those who went near Gustav in his prison cell would start going crazy (I apparently do not exist), and I had a magical force field around myself (that doesn’t matter), but then Angela kicked Gustav like two times (it was one) and found out he was an illusion and laughs started coming out and dark shadows were, uh, attacking us and then-” “Thank you, Kylie,” Gil interrupted.

“Kylie, I’m sorry your explanation is wrong,” Angela butted in. “So, I’ll be telling you the real thing. We headed to, um, Fiji Island, and when we got there, we saw this really, um, bright pink castle, and there were literally butterflies flying everywhere (someone’s gone insane) around us and yeah!”

“Oh my god, Angela, what are you doing?!” Kylie exclaimed.

“Okay, so, we entered the building,” Angela continued, ignoring Kylie. “It was like super good, the walls were like neon green, and um, we entered this nice table (?), we entered this nice room, um and yeah.” Festo looked over and said, “Um, Kylie, did you say it made people insane?”

“I am perfectly fine,” Angela protested.

“That’s what an insane person would say,” Festo remarked. “Do you have your therapy platypus?”

“Uh well, uh, I’m not sure if Gustav put magic on them and made them crazy? But I’m pretty sure it is. I’ve never seen my classmates be crazy,” Kylie said. Gil leaned towards Kylie and Angela, the only people who were talking and were both from his school of magic. “Girls,” he said.

“Yes.” Angela said.

“What exactly did Gustav say to you? ” he asked. “Did he mention anything in particular?”

“There was no Gustav,” Angela said. “It wasn’t Gustav!”

“What do you mean ‘it wasn’t Gustav’?”

“Gustav, I- I- I asked him-” Kylie stuttered.

“Gustav had a fake, um, neon green mohawk (er isn’t Mohawk a neighbourhood in Hamilton, Ontario?).” Angela interrupted. Kylie and Angela started talking over each other.

“Gustav didn’t give me any information-” Kylie started.

“Oh, Gustav gave me lots of information - He said that he liked hamburgers-” Angela said. Gil looked like Angela was insane, meaning that Angela believed what she was saying. Dominic seemed be out of his mind like Angela, and said: “After we defeated the green mohawk guy, we were bored, so we went beyonce hunting for 25 hours (we weren’t even gone 25 hours), and we caught one but it was microscopic then, um, we-” “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch all that - did he just say that you guys captured a tiny beyonce?” Gil said.

“Yeah. It was microscopic, and we spent 25 hours catching it.”

“Both of them are lying!” Kylie said.

“Kylie is talking nonsense,” Angela said. Kylie went on to say something about Angela kicking Gustav.

“Do you know who Rasputin is and about him and that stuff?” Vanessa asked (wow you figured it out without me telling you).

“He has been on my mind as well. When we dispatched to take care of him, we expected to encounter a conjurer of tricks, maybe some low level necromancer, and worst a despotic lord full of people that was hurting the people living in his castle - what we found was something of far more dangerous means. Now, it is my belief-” “Gil, Gil. We respect and value your opinion, but wherever you look, all you see is Rengar, Rengar, Rengar, hiding behind every corner! And you know what? It’s never revealed,” Festo said irritably.

“Rasputin is actually Gustav,” Dominic said (yay you guys figured it out without me telling you).

Tyrande and Festo both gave an exasperated sigh at the same time in the same pitch looking in the same direction. Gil pointed at Dominic triumphantly and shouted, “YES! YES! WHY ARE YOU WEARING YELLOW? YES! THAT MAN! THAT BOY, RIGHT THERE! He speaks the truth! We know-” “Yes, we know that you’re very upset that you lost a student, yes, we know that you did your best, and we know that you’re really powerful but there can be other solutions besides Rengar! (bruh Rengar isn’t the solution, he’s the problem) Perhaps, Gustav. Maybe just Gustav,” Tyrande said.

“I actually know what Gustav looks like, we went to his jail cell, and there was this rock-person named Elizabeth who’s the smartest rock in the world, 100%, and then when I got very close to Gustav for absolutely no reason, and I won’t tell you any reason. Then, when I got close, the face turned into Gustav’s (You mean Rasputin-without-his-brains-blown-out, not Gustav because we just saw [fake] Gustav/Rasputin in a jail cell) face, and how I know that is because I know that (great explanation),” Dominic said. All three of the teachers sat up and paid attention to this. Tyrande gestured her hand towards Gil, who nodded towards her, waving his hand in her direction. Her voice was amplified immediately, and said, “Jerry dear - Library Jerry, would you mind joining us up here just for a moment?”

A moment later, Library Jerry came in. “Oh hey, what-” He cut off. “Oh hey everybody, what’swhat’s going on here?” he said, less cheerfully. Tyrande casually flicked her hand towards him, and I watched as the helmet opened, revealing a faint green glow inside of the armor thing.

For the first time in about 2 and a half weeks? I’m not sure of time passing, because every day is literally the same, except today. As the helmet opened, I felt separated from the rest of the Jerry collective thing, I felt pulled away from whatever I was doing, because I was so preoccupied with it. And for some reason, I found myself looking out of- what looked like a window at first, but was actually a helmet’s mouthpiece. I saw everyone. Tyrande, Gil, and Festo. Angela, Kylie, Dominic, Marysa, Erica, Vanessa, Melissa, Ethan, Bingyin, Jayden, and some girl about my age that looked vaguely familiar. “Rachael, dear, are you with us?” Tyrande said, her voice coming into the helmet.

“Ye- Yes?” I said in a questionable tone.

“Wonderful. I don’t mean to disturb you for any longer than we need to. I’m going to give you an image.

Can you tell me if you’ve seen this person before?” She waved her hand. A projection of Rasputin (at least I recognized him as Rasputin) appeared, wearing red - well mostly black robes with red highlights, sort of like what Gil wore. He looked completely different from Gil, however. Gil was always ready for combat, but Rasputin looked more - well - proper, with his long beard full in shine, gleaming - almost.. His head was full of hair that had been swept backwards. His teeth were intact. He looked - well not exactly the same - but mostly the same as he was when I saw him when I died, except he didn’t have his brains blown out.

“Yes?” I said.

“Thank you very much, dear, uh, you may return to what you were doing, unless you have anything to say before you go?”

I paused, not sure if I wanted to say anything. I realized that I had literally not spoken since I arrived here. Tyrande nodded and said, “I understand.” I was pulled back into the world that I had been in for several weeks now, and I had a craving to go back.

“Woah! Woah! Right! Um. So, how’s your day going?” Jerry said awkwardly after that. And, of course, since everything is, um, awkward now, there was an awkward silence (silence becomes awkward after 4 seconds), and Tyrande broke it by saying, “That will be all, Jerry.”

“Oh, yeah, yeah - you know, sometime we could hang out-” Jerry said as he moved towards the door.

“No.” Jerry left. “Alright, this is an interesting development.” Tyrande remarked. The teachers began to talk amongst themselves, murmuring things as they spread out a map, which I have copied on the next page.

(I actually made this map and I had a fun time doing it)

They talked in low voices, and though I craved to hear what they were saying, their voices were too low to hear and I didn’t dare to move closer. All I heard was at the end. Gil said, “So it’s settled. I’ll be moving with my Upperclassmen to the Hidden City of Alvaro to see if we can quiet down that volcano.” He stood up as if he was ready to leave.

Tyrande said, “And I’ll head over to the haunted house to see if we can blast whatever weapon this is. Though I don’t think the mage-killer is really what it set out to be.”

“Ooooo, and I got the graveyard, why did I get the graveyard? Yeah okay, um. Oh, we’ll go to the graveyard!” Festo said. “Oooo, I’m afraid of no ghost, yeah!” (it sounds like you are a ghost with all your ‘Oooooo’s) Festo turned to us and said, “Ah, children, ah, yes. So, you have some first hand experience. You wouldn’t mind (yes I very much would) if Argon brought you along for a while, but first and foremost, the integrity and safety of the first years is very important at this school.”

“Is non-existent,” Vanessa corrected, “Because Rachael has already gone bye-bye.”

“Yeah, and,” Festo paused. “We’re very determined not to lose any more of you. So, we are sending you into the local township, and you’re going to be chaperoned by Argon. We are going to meet an old associate of the school, known as the Alchemist. He’s somewhat of an odd bird (what’s your definition of ‘odd bird’ if you are an odd bird…), but I’m sure you’ll get along with him just fine as he provides you with whatever [insert gibberish] is necessary for surviving the task ahead, and we can keep those casualties to a minimum. Anyway, good luck everyone.”

We were then led downstairs by the teachers, who then left us. We met again with Argon, who was apparently going to lead us into this town (which was called ‘Doge Alley’ and if you don’t know your memes, then you are forbidden to read this [jk]). There were people in red, yellow, and blue robes milling in the courtyard, the largest gathering of people I had seen in person since I had arrived at this school.

I pulled aside both Argon and Gil because I knew that keeping information to myself and not doing anything about it. I told him that I’d seen Rasputin/Gustav in the sky a few days ago. Gil’s expression changed immediately, and he walked off briskly to talk with Festo about something. Just as Festo was finishing his conversation with Gil, Dominic said something to Festo and he said something back. Marysa said something to Gil, and then we were off.

We climbed into carriages that were black with black horses. The horses pulled it down the bumpy mountain road to Doge Alley, which was covered in a shimmering force field that was translucent.

I wondered what it was like to just be trapped in a dome and able to see outside. I wondered if these people longed to see the outside world, and what was beyond the mountains. I felt that it was - how do I describe it - inhumane to do this to someone. We didn’t head towards the Conlis Mountain Range, however - we turned into Doge Alley (TOTALLY not copyrighted from Diagon Alley).

Argon’s lantern immediately went out, though light was illuminated from the purplish dome.

There was a strange tingling sensation that lasted for a couple of seconds, taking magic with it. No magic here (meaning I can’t explode Steve Apple. He’s the Alchemist and the worst alchemist ever). There were a couple of buildings with lighting on the inside. There were a couple of hotels, restaurants and other stuff. We entered what appeared to be a shopping district. It was relatively busy today, the sun shining and nearly blinding me. We got out, and entered the store, which was called Macabee’s Alchemy.

The first thing I saw were 3 potions. One was blue, another purple, another veerryyyyy purple.

They were sitting on a white table, which was on a white-tiled floor. The curtains were silver, the shelves were white, with potions of every colour of the rainbow sitting on the shelves. Most of them were dark colours, such as deep red, purple, indigo, but there was the occasional pink, or bright red, or orange.

Everything else was either white or silver. The first thing I thought about this place was that whoever lived here was insane, because this was basically white room torture (I was right, Steve Apple is insane).

Vials of bubbling liquids and flasks of stuff were on the shelves.

“I’ll, uh, just be waiting outside. This place gives me the heebie-jeebies,” Argon said, “But, I’ve been told that kids like it (I don’t like psychological tortures), so, uh, I don’t know, maybe it’s just because I’m a little bit old.”

Angela picked up the very purple potion and looked at it for a moment. It had a large steel lid screwed tight on top of it, secured with some type of thing. There was no label. Angela twisted the lid, and it snapped open. As soon as I saw the tiny bit of smoke that came out, I immediately saw that drinking it was a bad idea. Too late to warn her. Angela gulped the liquid down, smashing the bottle on

the ground after it was gone. A moment later, Angela doubled over, vomiting fire. There was a sound of rapid footsteps, and a panel slid open, a man stepping in. His name was Steve Apple (the worst name ever).

Steve Apple had short cut grey hair that bent inwards to a widow’s peak, and was wearing a set of spectacles, behind which were eyes the colour of the ocean. He had dark pants with heavy boots and a tight-fitting black turtleneck. “Hello, welcome everybody to Macabee’s. Please be careful with, uh, some of the items - oh my,” he said, looking at Angela. He moved quickly through the room towards her.

“Which - wait, what did you drink?” he asked.

“I drank the really dark potion one and I-” Angela was interrupted by Apple.

“The dark potion… they’re all dark potions.” There, indeed, were all dark potions, with the occasional light one. “Which. Ooo, which one’s missing, which one’s missing, which one’s missing.

Hmmm… my dear, that was not a potion, that was a bomb.”

“Ooh.” “Hang on - I must-” “Angela’s insane,” I said.

“Oh, oh oh oh oh. We do not use such words here. Ladies and gentlemen, insanity is simply what the backwards thinking people label the forwards thinking people. I myself, have been called insane a great number of times.” Alright, English class time. According to the Oxford Dictionary, there are 3 definitions of the word insane. 1. (informal) very stupid, crazy or dangerous. 2. (informal) extremely annoyed; angry. 3. ​(formal or old-fashioned) seriously mentally ill and unable to live in normal society.

There you go. The definition of insane.

“Fine. I’ll say that Angela lacks common sense,” I retorted.

“Angela? Was that your name? I think Angela is a trend-setter. Angela, after you drank that bomb, did all of your classmates also try to drink bombs?”

“No, because not all of us are insane or lack common sense,” I muttered.

“No, because they actually are all fine, unlike me,” Angela replied.

“Is that true, Kylie?” (this guy is a stalker, he knows all of our names without us telling him) “Did you immediately want to grab a potion after Angela drank that bomb?” Kylie didn’t answer. “Kylie… It’s okay, Kylie. It’s alright. Many people in this world are followers, very few of them are influencers. Like myself and Angela (alright now this guy is being a narcissist).”

“I feel special,” Angela said dreamily.

“That’s because you are special, Angela. I would like you to have a - you do know we don’t put labels on the bottles because we know what’s in them - they don’t need to know what’s in them (alright just kill everyone in this town). Try this.” He handed Angela a dark green potion, a deep red potion for Ethan, and, reaching under a desk, pulled out a bright pink potion that was rather small and handed it to Vanessa.

“My friends, what we are doing today is making tomorrow (yeah you just live). We are talking about innovation. We are talking about production, optimisation, and canonization (definition: the treatment of someone or something as being above reproach or of great significance.). We are talking about breakthroughs (when you die that will be a breakthrough),” he declared with pride.

Dominic snatched the blue potion and swallowed the liquid. The Alchemist stepped up to him very closely. “Ooo, what did it feel like to break that rule?”

“I don’t know, nothing’s happening,” Dominic said (stupidity is happening).

“Well that wasn’t really what - well, you drank mouthwash. But, the point here, I mean, you’re probably very nice and fresh and whatnot, but the point was, the point was, the point was everybody (get on with it or I will be killing you) - That was a revel right there. (Alright, more English class. Definition of revel as a noun: lively and noisy enjoyment, especially with drinking and dancing.). Did anybody else want to follow him? It’s okay Dominic, not all revels can be influencers - we can’t all be influencers.”

“I just want to drink the other potion.”

“Ohh, everybody wants to drink all the potions, Dominic, that’s why I’m such a successful business (what’s your net worth). Come, come come come to the front of the store. We have this thing where you place your hand down and it will tell you what you desire (I know what I desire: Steve Apple to go to hell).

“Now, I have a new product to present. Would any of you be interested in helping?”

“No,” I muttered. I looked at Argon. He was looking around, confused, as more and more people were milling around the store, and a stage was set up. “I just need one or two volunteers from the crowd - you wait in the, you pretend that you don’t know what I’m saying, and when I have to have volunteers, I go, ‘ah you, girl I don’t know, come up on stage.’ And Angela the influencer - because we want this in the hands of the right people. That’s very important, because Angela is one of the right people. Whatever Angela has, everyone needs to have it. So, Angela, you will have it.”

“Yes,” Angela said excitedly.

“Can I have it too?” Dominic asked.

“Dominic, we (you) already established that you’re a revel, but not the right kind of revel.”

“Why are we (not we, you) going on that stage?” Vanessa asked.

“We’re (you) going on that stage to debut our new groundbreaking line of potions. Everybody, and I mean absolutely everybody (my name is not ‘absolutely everybody’ so yay and nor is it ‘Everybody’ so double yay) wants the new product. Everyone in the world, gotta have ‘em, gotta have ‘em, gotta have ‘em (NO I WANT YOU TO SHUT UP ABOUT HOW GREAT YOUR PRODUCTS ARE STEVE APPLE). We are debuting our new edition of our health potion, it is the tenth in our line of health potions, I am calling it Health Potion #12 (creative 100).”

“Who is we?” Vanessa asked.

“Oh, my business. Macabee’s store.”

“The Macabee’s store consists of you and?”

“Oh, primarily me. There are, um, peons (you just called everyone that works for you as low-ranking) that work behind the scenes, but I’m what you call the idea man (narcissist alert).”

“Okay.”

“Mhm.” “What brand is the mouthwash?” Dominic asked.

“What brand was the mouthwash? Mac-brand, of course. That’s all we sell. We only carry products by ourselves.”

Vanessa asked something that I couldn’t quite hear, and Steve Apple said, “Are you interested in an unpaid internship?”

“Are you asking me?”

“Yes, you could learn many things from us.”

“Well, can you elaborate further on this ‘internship’?”

“Oh, you’ll join our wonderful team of interns, and begin with product assembly, you will learn how to put potions together, and if you succeed for long enough, you can move to product development! You could start coming up with new ideas for wonderful new potions to help shape the future. Perhaps we live in a world where nobody goes bald. Or maybe we live in a world where everybody is bald. I haven’t decided yet! That’s the world we live in, especially when Angela loses all her hair, and everyone wants to be just like her (no you).”

“How long does the internship last?”

“Oh, as long as I want it to.”

“As you want?”

“Yeah. I mean, you’re free to go whenever you’d like, but the odds are you’ll be fired before you do. Everybody else has been.” He laughed.

“Anyway, let’s get the presentation on,” he said, clapping his hands together. He threw open the doors to the stores, and everyone in the crowd started clapping. They were all wearing black turtlenecks.

“Welcome, welcome everybody. These are our Mac-heads, they are big fans of the Macabee potion brand (NO WE ARE NOT), they just can’t get enough of it. Please, Angela, find your place in the crowd, and don’t forget…” I muttered something about him being a narcissist as we all headed out of the door into the crowd as Steve Apple (he’s got the head of an apple) stepped onto the stage.

“Thank you everybody, hush now,” Steve Apple said (or shall I say the Alchemist), “I have met some wonderful young people in my travels, first, I have met the latest member of our team, Vanessa!”

Two people wearing black turtlenecks (thanks a lot, I hate black turtlenecks now) with a tag that said ‘MAC’ on it wheeled a cart in front of Vanessa. They whispered something to her, then left. I looked at Argon, and so did Vanessa and probably other people. He was at the back, looking sort of bemused, and one of the people in black turtlenecks handed him a small bottle with a sloshing deep red liquid inside. He snapped it open, took a sip, and nodded, then wrinkled his nose and poured it on the ground.

He put the bottle away. Other people were also being handed stuff, and they were tasting it.

“I have also met a wonderful young person - a bright young influencer by the name of Angela.

Angela, would you join us on stage, please?” Angela eagerly went onto the stage. “Vanessa, if you would, toss us our first product.” I smiled, because I knew which one Vanessa would toss. She picked up the very very purple potion. Throw it, I thought, Throw it please… She threw it. Towards the stage. I grinned satisfyingly.

“No, no! Don’t throw that one-” the ‘Alchemist’ cried, holding his hands up. Too late. The bottle shattered, and shards of glass were thrown up into the air. There was a loud bang, followed by a boom, and I watched as fire immediately erupted, billowing purple smoke into the air.

It was fun.

Vanessa Chen Back in the courtyard, the centaurs were creating huts for themselves, since we don’t know when their home will return. We headed into the school, and Argon headed back into his shack, his dog Tooth right beside him. Passed by a Jerry, though I didn’t stop to talk. I headed back to our dorm, changed, and then slept. The next morning, after breakfast, we were told that we were going to meet the teachers to discuss things. I stiffened, since I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to know about Gustav and that stuff. In the staff room, which I must note that it actually looks like a normal staff room. I thought it would be more interesting looking, but for the most part, it looked fine. We sat down at a long table, where Dominic and Angela proceeded to say some pretty random things that actually had nothing to do with our time in the prison. It was so funny that I had to bite really hard on my bottom lip so I didn’t burst out laughing. Kylie managed to tell the teacher what really happened, and the teachers looked a bit concerned for Dominic and Angela.

After that, I asked the teachers about Rasputin and Gustav. Tyrande conjured Library Jerry, who, if he could blush, I’m sure he would be red as a tomato, after all that gossipping. Jerry's helmet opened and there was this green glow. I heard the voice of the first Rachael, and Tyrande conjured a picture of Gustav, and asked the first Rachael if she recognized who he was. A questionable “Yes?” was Rachael’s response. “Well that settles it,” said Tyrande, and Library Jerry was dismissed. I guess that Rachael saw Rasputin, and it kind of makes sense. We then decided to send Gill to the Hidden House with the supposed super powerful weapon, Tyrande to the haunted house, and Festo to the graveyard.

Meanwhile, we’re going to the town to meet an alchemist. I was looking forward to it, because alchemy seemed really cool, though said alchemist may not be my cup of tea.

As we went straight through the dome, surrounding Doge Alley, I noticed that all the signs of magic disappeared, like Argon’s lantern was put out. We were inside something that looked like a shopping district? I don’t really know. It was nice and sunny today, and we headed inside a shop called Macabee’s Alchemy, and Argon told us that he would wait outside, while we walked in. The entire store was basically either white or silver, and it was filled with lots of potions of different colours. It looked a bit disturbing, in my opinion. Angela took a purple potion, drank it, and then proceeded to belch fire. A man slides out, and tells Angela that she drank a bomb, and I guess that he’s the alchemist.

He then gave Angela a green potion, Ethan a red potion, and me a pink one. I didn’t drink it because it smelled a bit funky. Dominic took a blue potion, drank it, and nothing happened. The alchemist then proceeded to start rambling about something to do with rebels, I don’t know because I hate it when people ramble and zoned off. After that speech, we headed outside into this crowd, where everyone was wearing these black turtlenecks, just like the alchemist dude. He told me that I was going to be his assistant or something like that, and even though he is an alchemist, I would like to learn alchemy, I was starting to intently dislike this guy a lot. These assistants rolled out a cart with a dark red, dark blue, and very very purple potion. I took the very very purple potion, which I think was a bomb, because Angela drank a potion of the same shade, and threw it when what was his name? Steve Apple I think, told me to give him a potion. It exploded on the stage when it hit the surface. So it was indeed a bomb.

-Angela

We returned back to the school although when we came close, I saw little huts placed on the school grounds and Professor Guilt with the centaurs. Professor Guilt talks with Argon a little and we all watch Argon head to Argon’s hut with his dog Tooth. We then headed back inside the tower and we were immediately greeted by Jerry the Jouster. “Hey! How ya doin?” he says. “Are you the same as Library Jerry? Racheal asked. “Uhh no”. After that, I head up to my dorm. I decide to take a shower and head to bed with Snouty. After I wake up, I feel much better and head to the dining hall. Argon was there and when we finished eating Argon spoke up “Okay guys well there is a meeting you guys have to go so follow me”. We head up the elevator and the barrier that usually blocks our pass opens. It opens up to the staff room. There was a long table, and a small table. The teachers sat on the table and we sat down too.

“Please first years, take a seat” Lady Tyrande smiled, showing her very white teeth. “I am terribly sorry for what you experienced in your last adventure, so what exactly did you see?”

Professor Guilt sayed. Kylie started to explain the real story but I decided to tell them nonsense.

“Okay so we went to Fiji Island and entered this beautiful pink barbie in the dreamhouse castle.

The walls were bright orange and there were fluttering butterflies. Then we entered this small room with pale purple walls and the prisoner. The prisoner had a neon green mohawk that was so tall that it reached the ceiling”. I said giggling. “Kylie, did you say that people who go close to Gustav get crazy?” Professor Guilt questions. Kylie then continues, “Okay so Gustav was tied by his hands an-” “No wait let me talk, okay so after we talked with the prisoner we went to play Catch Beonce for 25 hours. Finally we caught one but it was microscopic so then we got bored and decided to play the violin for 32 hours.

“What?” Professor Guilt says. Kylie and Dominic talk some more. “Library Jerry? Can you come here? Library Jerry strolls over us “Hello guys hello! What can I do?” “Hi Jerry so… do you recognize this person?” Lady Tyrande asked, projecting a picture of a man. “Y-yes?” Jerry responded. Then it hit me, Jerry are different people but they share the same knowledge. Right now, this is the old Racheal. So………. I glance at the picture. Woah, it’s the person that killed the old Racheal at Lubar Castle. “Okay thank you Jerry” Lady Tyrande said. Then Jerry left. The teachers then talk about how we will be going on a mission to either the Graveyard, a suckun city, or an ancient haunted house. The teacher then discussed in very low whispers and mumbles. After 5 minutes, it was set. I will be going to the sunken cities. After that was settled Professor Guilt told us we will be going to town with Argon to meet an alchymist.

We headed out to the school grounds, there were sooooo many people. Students dressed in red, blue, and yellow poured down the stone stairs with other teacher. After a few minutes we start walking. After around 30 minutes, we entered Doge Alley. We go through a dome, I shiver and Argon’s lantern goes out. I see a few restaurants and a hotel. I soon find myself in front of what looks like a shopping mall. We enter the mall and head for a store called Macabee’s Alchemy. The store has long white tables filled with bottles and shelves built in the walls. As we enter, the door chings. “Guys I'm just going to stay out here cause this place gives me the creeps” Argon said. We stand in the room by ourselves. There were three potions on the table, I took a dark purple one and drank it. Then when I was finished, I slammed the glass on the floor.

My stomach lurched inside me and I breathed fire out my mouth. To the glass shattering, the alchemist comes running in. “Ahhh, okay my dear what happened here?” “I drank a potion” I bellowed. “Ahhh my dear, you actually drank a bomb. However, you are special, you are like an influencer, like me!” he responded. Then he turns at us, “Who would like to be a volunteer for the presentation?”. “ME, ME, ME!” I shrieked. “Okay then, what is your name,” “Angela” I replied. “Okay so, as you see they are people over there waiting for the launch of the healing potion 12, so, Angela, when I ask for volunteers, you raise your hands and I will call you and you will get on the stage is that okay?” he asked. “Yup”.

The presentation started, and when it was time, I got up on stage. “This is the young, and bright influencer, Angela!” I wave hello. “Vanessa, will you toss me the first product?” Macabee asked. I see a dark purple potion fly from the corner. “Wait no don’t throw th-” BOM! The stage explodes and smoke fills the stage.

SESSION TWELVE

The Hidden City of Alvaro

Dominic Vannesa attempts to do something and nothing really happens, except for a weird glow. Someone said oh my god is Steve Apple dead?! Another said kill me instead.

Angela screamed at them shut up. Everyone was staring at Angela in awe. Angela grabs the blue potion and she said it was the new potion and said to kill Rachael. The audience said they didn’t know who Racheal is. Then she said she is there. Someone talked behind us and they went onto the stage and he had no shadow, so he was an illusion. He was trying to sell people the potions and mouth wash and people looked a bit confused. Steve Apple died so I was a little bit confused. Then Steve Apple started blabbering. I didn't really care what he said. Liz the rock person was asking if she could heal herself. Then Steve Apple asked if he could buy Liz. Argon’s face was white and he was making stupid noises. Elizabeth was begging the Alchemist to heal her and the alchemist said are you dying and Elizabeth said I am. The alchemist said I will heal Elizabeth if I can own Elizabeth when she dies.

Then Elizabeth says how about I give you my arm. Marysa asked if she could have a potion so she can spawn more than one illusion at a time. Steve Apple walked up to her and Marysa asked, is this safe? I asked Steve Apple if he has a potion that will turn me into a waffle. However, he said no sadly. Kylie asked if she could have a healing

potion and Steve Apple gave her one. Kylie asked if she could have a second health potion Steve said that was not a charity except I will give it to you anyways. Kylie then asked for a purple bomb potion, sadly steve Apple said no.

Then Kylie tried to steal the potion except she failed.

Angela then asked for her poisonous thing and she got it. I asked Steve Apple for a purple potion bomb and I got it.

Kylie tried to put a very purple potion back and it was just a purple potion and exchanged it for a blue potion. I drank the bomb and I belched fire. Vannesa asked what do you need to learn alchemy. I asked if I could have a second bomb, sadly he said no and he didn't want to continue helping me in my self-harm. Vannesa tried to create a potion and she created a potion. Racheal drank the potion then a bright light filled the sky and argon was pointing to the sky. There was a red circle going up and down. Argon said that we had to go to the volcano to deal with that now.

Then we left to go solve this dumb volcano. This volcano was doing something that looked stupid yet it looked weird. These fireballs were changing courses. There were a bunch of orbs and I saw Gill and the people in his house.

I was at the end of the shore of the water and it was quite calm. There was a rock flying at us, professor Gill destroyed the rock. Kylie just teleported but she flickered a bit and then she disappeared. Racheal tried to touch Kylie but she couldn’t. I was a bit confused but I didn’t do anything. I went into the water, some people were rushing

to me. Then a scaly arm came and I got pulled under the water. My friends try to help me, I'm in like 3 feet of water and I was like right under the water. I saw a face that was a little bit human. They said something weird I had no idea what they said. They said how may I help you? The face said oh yep more and I glanced at Marysa, as she dived down into the water. Marysa then asked the face about the volcano. The fishy person was saying it was throwing fire at us. Then the fish person said the infernus was throwing fire. Liz then jumped into the water, then the fishy person said is that with you? I asked the fishy person who is infernus and he said “well he works for us”. Elizabeth said hello, mister fish person, can you take me a rock from the volcano. He went no, sadly Elizabeth couldn’t get her rock.

I asked the fishy person whether they have maple syrup.

Then the fishy person started blabbering baby talk to me because she asked if I was Marysa’s pet. Then I said fuck off and he pulled a star from his pouch. Then it bumped into me. Marysa kept exclaiming I was my pet. I was very annoyed about this fish person. Elizabeth walks off and goes to a rock. I was waiting there for something to happen and then a rock flies to the volcano. I was a bit tired, so I would like to just sleep then and there. I heard a loud voice that said stand down. The queen said who authorized you guys to try and destroy infernus. Then Kylie did something amazing. The queen didn’t see this, however she sees Marysa swimming to her in a bubble

with the fish man like behind her. The fishy man said my name is Mr.Eau to Marysa. Then there was random stuff people said. Elizabeth then said a few of my rock people and then everyone one was like, ehh? Then Elizabeth was having a conversation with the queen. Elizabeth asked politely if she could destroy the entire town. Then professor Gill landed on the beach and he said welcome to the “party”. Elizabeth said I said I wanted to assassinate her. Gill then was laughing for the first time like ever. He said that the queen is kinda the worst and he doesn't care for the monarchy society. Elizabeth screamed that she would kill the monarch/queen. Then I shoveled sand into my mouth and started to eat it. The sand was very delicious. Then some more things happened. I was eating my delicious sand not listening, What?!

Jayden and the others were on a mission to somewhere. They were sent on a heli to a volcano. Jayden wanted to hold a gun but instead he held nothing. Once they arrived they found a strange tower with a beam pointing upwards. Jayden was curious and left the others to see it. He readyed his fists to punch if needed. He opened the door and saw a case. He of course opened and found a gun. He went up to the tower and found some guards. Jayden did not know how to work the gun. He just randomly shot those guards to the ground.

Jayden waved to the heli to pick him up but they were too lazy. He went running towards the heli to get on and hold a gun when on it. They got dropped off beside a volcano and there were to stop it from exploding. They went to the edge to see it and it was burning in there.

Jayden was sweating beside it. They just realized they had magic powers to stop it. One person in the group tried to stop it but did not work and another tried to attempt to freeze it and surprisingly did. Jayden knew he could do nothing because he failed the test before.

They were in the heli ready to go back.

Rachael | Ραξηαελ January 26, 3801 The purple smoke was (very satisfyingly) still there. As it cleared from the wind and the remains of the smaller fires that were still burning died down, I saw (also very satisfyingly) that there were a pair of heavy ragged boots next to Angela, with a little bit of purple smoke coming out of them. Angela herself had her eyes watering. I cursed. Not because the audacious braggart Steve Apple was gone (I actually was rather glad he was dead, but I’m not spoiling it, as if I totally haven’t yet), instead because probably half the crowd had smoke inhalation and would need treatment for it. Which wasn’t that great as there were probably 400 people in this crowd and I doubt that medicare is free in this place. Several people were coughing, and Vanessa was waving her hands in the air, clearly trying to cast magic (apparently this time it worked but the next time we tried cast magic it didn’t). A strange glow emanated from her fingers, then faded away. Nothing happened.

“Hey,” someone called from the crowd, “Did they just kill Steve Apple?”

“Oh, my god, I wish I dove in front of it!” someone else said. “Take me instead!”

“If you would like, I could kill you once we get out of this dome,” I muttered under my breath.

“Shut up, you fools,” Angela said loudly. Everyone immediately shut up, looking at Angela, and I couldn’t help but look amused. Angela took the blue potion, said, “This is the new healing potion 2.0 (it’s the mouthwash), and now I’m going to throw it at Rachael.” Friendly. “Throw that at me, and the next time you’re going to die I’m not saving you,” I muttered. Elizabeth was smiling (well at least it looked like it).

“Who’s Rachael?” someone yelled.

“Yeah, I don’t know who Rachael is, the instructions are unclear (since when are they instructions),” said another person.

Angela pointed at me and said, “That girl.” Oh great.

“Ahem, um, hi, hi hi. Hi everyone,” someone said from behind Angela. I cursed again. “How are you doing? There was a little bit of a glitch, but we’re getting things back online. It seems that our influencer Rachael (HER NAME IS ANGELA AND MY NAME IS RACHAEL AND I WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CRAP NAMED STEVE APPLE) has introduced you to - what did you say - the new health potion?” I looked over and I muttered another string of curse words. Steve Apple was there, looking quite very much the same, but with some differences. There was no noise as he walked up the stage, and he had no shadow. Yet, we weren’t able to see through him like we usually could when we identified that an illusion was an illusion.

“If I may have the, uh, mouthwash,” he said. He sold his stuff pretty well, I must admit. No one except us seemed to notice that he was an illusion. There was some applause, though everyone looked a little confused as to what the heck just happened. The crowd dispersed, heading off to wherever they were going.

“Well, that didn’t necessarily go the way that we planned, um - right. Well, Angela, good work keeping the show going, strange move when you tried to whip the mob at your friend over there, that was a little bit of an interesting move.”

“It - kill her,” Angela said (wow how very nice of you).

“Now, I understand, in that way you keep yourself safe (well in that way it would make sense but you know, I wouldn’t have blasted Angela to smithereens if she had kept her mouth shut about getting a crowd to lynch me), but that’s not the thing that would make the most sense here (hard to know I’ll be hearing that from a person who doesn’t have sense). Um, so, Vanessa, well, you did, um, kill me. So, um, yeah, you are definitely fired. Now, I had taken precautions against dying (‘After all, to a well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.’ - Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, p. 320), I just didn’t expect to need to use them quite so soon, so it’s a little frustrating, but I’ll just, you know, better to not have them then not have them, I suppose.

“So. Um, yeah. You were coming to me for - help? Um, so what can the ghost of the greatest (the correct term is worst) Alchemist who has ever lived do for you?”

I faintly heard Dominic mutter, “You mean worst.” and smothered a grin. Liz asked whether he could heal her wounds while shooting daggers at me, and I did my best to look innocent. “You’re a you’re a - rock-thing,” the Alchemist remarked, “who’s really talkative. That’s a - that’s a heck of an invention you guys got.”

“She’s not an invention,” Vanessa retorted.

“Sure. Can I buy you?” the Alchemist asked. And the answer, of course, is no, absolutely not, though this ‘rock-thing’ is going to be blasting one million two hundred twenty three thousand eight hundred sixty-seven spells at me when we get out of Doge Alley (that was a random number). A couple of us looked towards Argon, who was pale and was silently mouthing, “G-g-g-g-g-host”, which was quite amusing to see. Elizabeth looked at me and both of us attempted to use magic - me to explode the ghost, Elizabeth to explode me - and absolutely nothing happened because we are in this weird purple dome.

Elizabeth got herself healed - in exchange for an arm after she died (which is quite impossible as far as I know). Dominic got a bomb, which he retreated to a corner and drank, spouting flame everywhere. Marysa got a potion that would allow her to cast more than one illusion at once, Kylie got two health potions (which I’m pretty sure she stole), and Angela got poison (what kind of poison, I don’t know). I just glared at him and told him to go to hell. Vanessa finally learned alchemy properly, and apparently I’m now her testing subject. Vanessa handed me a potion and I downed it (I don’t really know why I volunteered…). Nothing happened.

After that, we went towards Mount Ashes, because apparently Gil and his people needed some help (not mental help, mind you). Occasionally large clouds of ashes would blow over on normal circumstances, and the wind would blow it away, causing tiny sandstorms to sprout up in the bordering valley. But right now, as we crossed the valley, rocks were shooting out of the central vent. There was barely any gases, so this wasn’t a volcanic eruption. Volcano eruptions usually had a load of gases spurt out of them - water vapour, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen halides - but right now it was just plain rocks with the faint glow of lava.

The sky was now a brilliant pink-red-orange colour, the sun sinking in the west behind the vast figure of the volcano, illuminating the ocean with a golden-orange colour. Several flecks of red light were hovering in the air above the ocean and near the volcano. Rocks streamed out of the central vent from time to time, and every time it was knocked off course somewhere else by one of those blinking red lights. I heard shouting - well I thought I did - and strained my ears to listen. ‘Oscal Medina, Oscal Medina…’ It definitely wasn’t Latin - I recognized Latin words. M Litterae Est Magicae, for example,

meant M is the Magic Letter. Conlis meant Mountain. I shoved it out of my mind. Either way, it wasn’t my business to know what the hell they were chanting.

As we moved closer, I saw that each glowing ball of red light outlined a person. Gil was easily recognizable. Another ball of fire streaked down towards the ocean, and Gil yelled, “Here comes another one!” They scattered into a formation, and another voice, this time a girl’s, shouted, “Overshoot, overshoot!” The ball of fire sailed and landed not far from whatever they appeared to be protecting, but not directly on it. I looked at the ocean underneath them, and saw a long stone column protruding from the surface. Beneath the shimmering surface of the water - not the clearest because of the sunset there were the tops of towers.

We arrived at the shore of the sea. Elizabeth could apparently talk to rocks, so she started talking to one. Dominic and Marysa went underwater and started talking to a fish person, and I saw Kylie blink out of sight, presumably turning invisible or something. I walked over to where she had been standing, and my arm felt air. I did the same thing as her, and arrived on the ethereal plane. It was rather misty there, with some creatures floating serenely along. It seemed like I was in water, yet I wasn’t, I knew. I crossed the ocean, moving faster than I usually would, on a narrow strip of land. I could see Kylie ahead, who was already at the volcano.

After I reached the volcano, rock after rock after rock launched out of the sea and flew towards the volcano. Kylie had gone back to the Material Plane, which means she had quite some chance of being squashed. They slammed into the side of the volcano, which I had just started to climb, and I swear I could feel the ground shake. The ninth boulder hurtled directly towards Kylie. They all started rolling down the mountain towards me, and I casually watched as they all just rolled past me. I heard a shout of “Two more! Two more!” come from Gil, and I watched as Gil moved towards the left, and every other red dot moved towards the right. Gil handled that one fine, but the other red dots scattered as it hurtled at break-neck speed towards the ocean.

From the beach, Angela waved a hand, and a chunk of the one hurtling towards the water broke off, spinning in the air, still streaming towards the shimmering ocean. I turned to see what Kylie was doing, and I saw that she had reached the summit. She raised her right hand, pointed it into the volcano, and a bright blue light shot down into the centre of the volcano. Gil was descending onto the beach where the rest of the group were standing. And then I think Dominic started eating sand??? You know, there is something called ‘common sense’. Some people in that group lack something to be able to have it.

Bye now because I don’t know how to end this.

Vanessa Chen After the smoke cleared, I saw that Angela’s eyes were watering. I felt a bit bad for her, and in Steve Apple’s spot were his boots, with smoke rising from them. Since this guy was like a celebrity, I think that the crowd would attack me, so I tried to make a shield, but nothing happened except for a strange glow. Angela calmed the crowd down by saying “Everyone shut up.” I bit my lip to refrain myself from laughing. I had to try and refrain myself from laughing so many times ever since I came to this school, and I think my parents would be super surprised seeing me laugh so many times. She then grabbed a blue potion, and told the crowd to kill Rachael. I suspect Rachael might have been silently sending Angela messages to say that, I don’t know because I’m not Rachael nor Angela. The crowd didn’t really react, and started whispering to each other. Steve Apple returned, and I realized he kind of looks like a hologram. He proceeded to fire me from my job, which I wasn’t really upset about, and finished up selling his products. He seemed like a ghost in my opinion, and Argon, with his fear of ghosts, started whimpering.

Stephen Pear, or whatever his name was, told Elizabeth that he wants to buy her, and when she said she wanted a revival potion, he said what she would have to give in return would be her body, once she died. I blinked a couple times. What the heck? Well, I had already realized that this guy is an uh, very interesting person. We learned that this Steve Apple we were currently seeing was actually a homeostasis or something like that, so that means there are multiple ghost-like copies of him after he’s actually died, and which I presume, has already happened. Everyone started to get potions, and I saw Kylie attempt to steal a potion, but that didn’t work. After leaving, I tried to make a potion that makes the drinker stealther, though I didn’t tell anyone yet, and Rachael wanted me to test it on her.

I told her I’ll think about it. There was this bright red circle that went up and down. After, Argon told us we had to help Gill with whatever he was doing at that underground city.

At the edge of the water, it looked like the volcano was going to erupt, but actually it’s not erupting, but upon further inspection, it was just shooting out fireballs, which was a bit better since lava wasn’t flowing and exploding everything. A fireball looked like it was aiming towards something Gill and his students were trying to protect. Kylie flickered, vanished, and when Rachael tried to touch her, there was nothing there. Dominic started to wade waist-deep into the water, and then seemed to have a change of mind. Then, he was pulled into the water, and then Marysa conjured a dolphin to help, then dived in after Dominic was dragged underwater. After a while, we saw rock after rock start flying towards the volcano, meanwhile Gill’s students tried to stop incoming rocks, and they scattered. Angela blasted the rock, sent it spinning through the air, and there was this bright flash. Another while later, basically just us standing there doing nothing, Professor Gill came back. He said that merpeople are ‘Trident first, questions later’ type of people. I guess those people who live in Alvero were probably merpeople then.

-Angela

The smoke starts to disapperre and beside me, I see a pair of black boots, and some purple smoke which was where the alcamist stood. I turn around to see Vanessa’s arms still reached and blank eyes. She tried to conjure something but blue sparkles fluttered around her for a second and then disappeared. “Tell them to kill me” Racheal whispers to me.

“SHUT UP YOU FOOLS,” I bellowed. The crowd turned at me. I cleared my throat, and reached for the blue potion, “Okay, so this is the healing potion 2.0! Now you may all leave or you can kill Racheal'' I finished. “Who is Racheal?” a random voice asked. “That girl,” I said, pointing to Racheal. Then, a poof of smoke appers and Macabees comes back again.

He looked a little weird but he was still Macabee. He then turns to the audience and sells the mouthwash and the healing potion. It went quite well and after the audience left, he turned to me “Thank you for taking care of the audience.” he said,I smiled.

“Can I have poison” I asked Macabee. “Uhhh I don’t want to know what you will do with it but okay” Macabee responded. Kylie then asked for 2 healing potions and so did Racheal. Then Vanessa sneaked to the back and decided to self teach herself alchemy. She asked who wants to be the test subjectand Racheal offered. After Vanessa was done, she gave it to Racheal. Just before she drank it, a searing light blinded us for a second. We see Argon waving at us and the beginning of a volcanic eruption. “Wait, wasn’t Professor Guilt assigned to go to the volcano?” I thought to myself. “Okay guys, enough time with the Alchemist ghost. I think your teacher might need some help.” Argon said.

Soon enought, I found myself infront of an exploding volcano infront of us, where Professor Guilt and a few of his students. The next minutes were blur, some people disappeared and I think Dominic was drowning, and I think Racheal went to save him.

Soon, we were talking to I think a fish queen and Dominic was screaming at her.

SESSION THIRTEEN

Mount Ashes

Dominic We were then charging to the volcano and we were at the front of the cave to the volcano. Angela flipped and she hurt herself, then she went into the grass and sat with her platypus. Kylie attempted to give a healing potion to Angela and Angela said no im ok then Kylie took it back.

The caves seemed dormant, because Kylie had destroyed the cave. Elizabeth looked like she was trying to talk to the rocks. ELizabeth just rushed up the side of the volcano.

Kylie shot a cloud and it exploded. I tried to teleport beside Kylie and everything became purple and I felt fast everyone's voices sounded like they were underwater. I saw a whale that was pretty. I saw Racheal standing in the middle of the mountain. I heard someone saying something about a plan or something. SOmeone said what's the big idea and 2 more did the same. I saw several glowing red lights and there were some dark stone bodies.

They were standing around 4 feet tall then were made out of black stone and fire on top. Then they started to argue stupidly. Angela then screamed all aboard and ran towards the ocean. Kylie shouted were here to stop the volcano.

Then they started arguing. Kylie started arguing about them. Kylie started blasting the ice with fire and the ice just melted. 16 massive rocks came launching out of the volcano and were hurtling to the town. Kylie tried to make something and created a 3 foot wall of ice. These magma

gobs and fire were gigantic. A couple of them slam into the ocean below, one smashed into the town, then Argon I think cast a barrier. The dum golems were like boss, boss, boss, boss because the volcano erupted and they’re happy for some reason. THe magma boys are like do you want to come in for dinner and they pushed the others inside the cave. Marysa asked a few questions and they kept asking questions and then they got their hands on fire(the golems). They were threatening them then I noticed that there was a bubble. Marysa tried to pop the bubble but nothing happened. I wanted to do something except I was on the ethereal plane. Then the golems said who is this, what's the big idea and then they threw their fire at her. Racheal doesn't do anything and the fire is just like punched in her face. Then Rachael blasted fire at the golems and the golems were like what's the big idea! They were running like mice. Kylie tried to pop it. I tried to pop the bubble but I saw a whole bunch of enemies and I was confused. I jumped out of the plane and I conjured an icicle above my head and I threw my icicle at Bingyin.

Then a protection came and the icicle melted. Everything was very scary. I screamed inside my head in horror. I was running and running, then Kylie looked at me sharply as if she was trying to find something. I looked over my shoulder and I saw a girl and she shot electricity at me which I dodged. Then I released myself and everything turned back to normal. I looked up to them and more

flaming magma came out. Then it started to weaken Argons shield. Kylie tried to pop the magma person's bubble but sadly failed. Elizabeth screamed something down the volcano. Inside the volcano someone said go away, and they were crying. Elizabeth started screaming at Infernus and he screamed back don't do that!!! There was a red light that went brighter and brighter and the fireballs went away. Then a gigantic flame and 2 hands that are gigantic too. Elizabeth asked how old you were, because Infernus asked what you wanted. Infernus said probably the same age. He said the fish people were mean to me in a baby voice. He said they keep throwing garbage in here. Elizabeth said I can definitely tell your younger from the marks and she was like you're probably like 5 years old. Then Infernus screamed back at him angrily. ELizabeth said like whatever twerk whatever you are and she was like incinerate all their garbage and started putting up a fight. He said something in a baby voice and he said he liked me the most because I was like HOW WOULD YOU LIKE GARBAGE IN YOU HOUSE. Marysa created a fire dragon and infernus said I love it!

Then he asked can I keep this forever? Then Marysa said something kinda like I guess. Then he was talking and gave Marysa a glowing hot stone. It burned the area around a bit he looked and said go on pick it up. Marysa taught him how he could make his own. Then she tapped it a bit and she actually wasn't screaming in pain.

Vannessa asked him stuff and he replied. Vannesa then said why do you think they are throwing trash. Kylie told him about an agreement. Elizabeth started to talk about something and she said she would give you a sacrifice.

Then Elizabeth started talking again. She said that she could give him a spell that could make him much more powerful. He was like yeah the rock girls right. I asked him if I could sacrifice myself and he was like that's kinda weird. Elizabeth said if I remove one of my runestones and do some rock magic thing he could get into his full power.

Then Elizabeth said she would help and stuff and I think she did it. Kylie started talking if you want them to actually make them fear him to make him sort of like the leader or to make them truly respect him. Then Elizabeth started complaining and then agreeing and it was really weird.

Then we returned to the underwater city, however we lost track of Rachael because she disappeared into the ethereal plane. They did their ritual, we used magic to breathe underwater. I screamed at them how would you like garbage thrown in your face and in your home. Then she said where would we put it, then I said in dumps in the ocean. Then Kylie talked about stuff and then they were talking and stuff. She said that Infernus said Infernus keeps their water hot and they are throwing trash into their home. Kylie said respect Infernus or he would not keep your water warm. Then I said why don't you offer him gold and food then she said some annoying stuff. Then she

pointed at Melissa and asked something. Melissa said she saw people who argued whether to talk to the fish queen or not, also people who bribe the Infernus guy. She said we should continue arguing. Then the queen said can we defeat the volcano creature Melissa and then the fish queen became more annoying. Marysa started talking again and said something. The fish queen said we have reached a consensus and she said we have decided to give in and decide to pay him. The light began to get redder for some reason. Everything around us becomes more and more red. We saw Elizabeth over. Infernus flew over here to visit the fish people. Argon backed up a bit as Infernus ascended to the top of the ocean. I asked the fish queen because she was so rude. Then she was like what's in the sky and I was like Infernus(duh). Marysa asked Infernus how many times a week or day the fish people sacrificed things back in the day and he said it was once a year. Kylie rose part of the water and she got lifted up and the queen of fish people went up in the water.

Elizabeth said fish queen person and she said Infernus will be logical and she said she would kill her because she was so much smarter. The fish queen started talking with Elizabeth. Then they started throwing the gold into the cloud and he was like GOOD. He said thank you people of Avaro I will see you next year. A voice said no more garbage this time. The queen looked at us all and she said thank you all for coming to assist us. Then she sounded

grateful for some random reason. Elizabeth apologized.

Marysa tried to turn a rock into gold and she transformed a boulder to a gigantic gold boulder. Elizabeth asked how long do you guys live for? Then Marysa teached the “trash lady” teached her. Then Kylie created a lava pool and people started throwing trash into it, but then it disappeared. Professor Gill congratulated us I think, then Kylie turned garbage into gold for the fish people.

There was one more thing that they wanted to do go inside the volcano! They discussed about if they should or not but you would just melt if you go inside. They decided to go in they went in and magic helped them inside it was just lava lava lava. They went deeper in and found the volcano parts. Jayden loved volcanos so he went for a closer look.

Rachael | Ραχαελ January 26, 3801 (someone would have thought that it was February by now) Well we all went on the volcano, which was frozen (I give credits to Kylie for that), and of course nobody could see me because I was still in the ethereal plane - on the material plane I was officially air. Some of us decided to do some stupid things here. For example, Angela did a front flip that failed (she also swallowed some [not] delicious dirt), then sat down with her illusionary platypus. Kylie walked over to her (passing right through a poor jellyfish) and offered her a healing potion, to which Angela said, “No, I’m good.” Kylie stowed it away.

Elizabeth started talking to random rocks, which didn’t really help cool down her head - her head was so hot it could melt iron and just happened to melt all her brain cells (tell me if I’m being too savage). Elizabeth’s hot head seemed to have influenced people around her, melting half of their brain cells too. Kylie, for example, started exploding clouds, which was pretty stupid. Elizabeth then ran up the side of the volcano, stopping at the caldera.

Dominic appeared in the ethereal plane (aw I was enjoying being the only person there). Then really really stupid magma-people appeared, and one of them yelled, “Hey! Hey! What’s the big idea?”

Then another one echoed, “Hey! Hey! What’s the big idea?” I saw that there were about a dozen of them, and they were a third of Elizabeth’s height - Elizabeth is about 36 decimeters, which meant that these people were about 12 decimeters (see, I can math). They all echoed the same thing, then another one yelled, “What do you guys think you’re doing?” which annoyingly echoed around. Then one of them said again, “Ay! What’s the big idea?”.

Another one said, “Ay! What’s the big idea?”

Some other one said, “Ay! What’s the big idea?”

Yet another one said, “Ay! What’s the big idea?”

A different one said, “Ay! What’s the big idea?”

A sixth one said, “Ay! What’s the big idea?”

A seventh one said, “Ay! What’s the big idea?”

An eighth one said, “Ay! What’s the big idea?”

A ninth one said, “Ay! What’s the big idea?”

A tenth one said, “Ay! What’s the big idea?”

An eleventh one said, “Ay! What’s the big idea?”

A twelfth one said, “Ay! What’s the big idea?” (okay I just did all the numbers because I couldn’t think up 10 synonyms of ‘another’) Oh great, here we go again. The first one said, “No, that’s what I said!”

The second one said, “No, that’s what I said!”

The third one said, “No, that’s what I said!”

The fourth one said, “No, that’s what I said!”

The fifth one said, “No, that’s what I said!”

The sixth one said, “No, that’s what I said!”

The seventh one said, “No, that’s what I said!”

The eighth one said, “No, that’s what I said!”

The ninth one said, “No, that’s what I said!”

The tenth one said, “No, that’s what I said!”

The eleventh one said, “No, that’s what I said!”

The twelfth one said, “No, that’s what I said!”

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Alright, more stupid things. Angela yelled, “All aboard!” and sprinted towards the ocean. Kylie said, “We’re here to stop the volcano from erupting.”

“I thought that was you, you’re the girl with all the ice hands!” one of them said, pointing at Kylie (prepare for another annoyance-slide).

“I thought that was you, you’re the girl with all the ice hands!” a second one said, pointing at Kylie.

“I thought that was you, you’re the girl with all the ice hands!” a third one said, pointing at Kylie.

“I thought that was you, you’re the girl with all the ice hands!” a fourth one said, pointing at Kylie.

“I thought that was you, you’re the girl with all the ice hands!” a fifth one said, pointing at Kylie.

“I thought that was you, you’re the girl with all the ice hands!” a sixth one said, pointing at Kylie.

“I thought that was you, you’re the girl with all the ice hands!” a seventh one said, pointing at Kylie.

“I thought that was you, you’re the girl with all the ice hands!” an eighth one said, pointing at Kylie.

“I thought that was you, you’re the girl with all the ice hands!” a ninth one said, pointing at Kylie.

“I thought that was you, you’re the girl with all the ice hands!” a tenth one said, pointing at Kylie.

“I thought that was you, you’re the girl with all the ice hands!” an eleventh one said, pointing at Kylie.

“I thought that was you, you’re the girl with all the ice hands!” a twelfth one said, pointing at Kylie.

Alright it’s done.

“I did it to stop the volcano from erupting and stopping it from destroying other people,” Kylie said.

“We can’t stop caring about ourselves, if the volcano stops erupting, we all die, I think! Do we all die? Do we all die? Do we all die? We’re not sure. We’re undecided. But we think we like the volcano erupting.” For once, they didn’t echo it. Then, Kylie walked up to the volcano and unfroze it. Sixteen massive boulders immediately launched out of the volcano and streaked towards the fish people’s town.

Kylie tried to make an ice wall around the central vent, but since this is salt water (the presence of salt

makes it harder for water molecules to bond to the ice structure, because ice naturally repels salt molecules), she didn’t make much progress. The first few were swatted out of the air to somewhere in the distance by the red blobs glowing above the volcano. 4 of them, however, reached their target, including a particularly large one that smashed right into the middle of the town. This is when Argon decided to stop being non-existent and create a white force field around the town. The rest of the rocks bounced off of it.

When the volcano was erupting 16 large things, all the magma guys yelled, “YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY! The boss is awake again! YAYYYYYYYYY! Boss! Boss! Boss! Boss! Boss! Boss! Boss! Aiya, you guys wanna come in for dinner?” They all went behind us and began pushing all of us (excluding Dominic and I) towards what looked like the mouth of a cave, shouting, “You guys are coming for dinner!”

“Why do you want the volcano to be erupting?” Marysa asked.

“Oh - we - uh - oh, we don’t like it when it’s frozen. I guess it doesn’t have to erupt, right? It just has to, you know, be a volcano with magma and fire and stuff, because that’s the way we like it!”

I decided to have some really reckless fun and trapped the one that was speaking in a bubble.

“Ay, what’s the big idea?” was echoed around. Their hands all caught fire. They looked around at everyone, trying to decide who trapped one of them in a bubble. They couldn’t see me, of course, which was also fun. Marysa tried to destroy the bubble and nothing happened. I switched back to the material plane and they all turned towards me, yelling, “Ay, what’s the big idea?” I also got pelted with 24 fireballs, but I have plot armour so I just got injured instead of dying of burning. “Ooohhh,” the magma bois said. I set fire to my own hands and started hurling fire at them (it was fun). “Ay, what’s the big idea,” they yelled again, and scattered, except the one that was stuck in the bubble. “Hey guys, wait for me!” the one that was stuck in the bubble yelled as the magma bois just ran down the side of the volcano.

Kylie and Dominic both tried to drop the bubble (well one invisible person and one visible person and who else is invisible other than Dominic). Dominic failed his spell and became confused, and in doing so shot an icicle at Bingyin. She waved her hand and conjured a force field, and the icicle melted on impact. Dominic looked rather aggressive, and he turned and ran down the side of the volcano. Kylie shot a bolt of energy at him which flew over his shoulder, missing, and blew up the beach. There was a prickly sensation, which soon faded.

A whole lot of rocks burst out of the central vent and battered Argon’s shield, which looked like it was on the brink of collapse after that ordeal. Kylie tried to drop the bubble yet again, which failed (wow I’m getting lucky with that bubble). Also, just so you know, I still have my hands on fire.

Elizabeth said something to something inside of the volcano, and I heard a voice sob, “Go away!”

Elizabeth, being the person who had her brain cells melted by her hot-headedness, yelled, “Okay! If you don’t show yourself right now, I will completely obliterate everyone within, er, a mile radius, if you don’t tell me who you are.”

“Wait! Don’t do that! Don’t do that!” the voice cried. “I- I don’t - okay, hang on. I’m coming.

Alright, go away.” The fireballs stopped, and a bright red light emanated from caldera. A hand emerged, and latched onto the mountain (causing a whole lot of landslides that I didn’t necessarily care about), then another one, and a great red mass with two gray arms was pushed out of the volcano.

“I’m Infernus, what do you want?” it said.

“How old are you?” Elizabeth said, clearly on the brink of a rant about how she was the eldest in this group (meanwhile I’m moaning that I’m 13 because of a magic side effect that I hate).

“Old. Did you come to make fun of me?”

“No, I need to know, let me tell you that. Because if this dude is younger than me” (I was right, you see) “then I’m actually going to freak. Let me tell you that. If this younger person is absolutely more powerful than me-” “Can you shut up for once?” I muttered under my breath.

“-but how old are you?”

“Well, probably the same age as you. We’ve both been here since the start of the planet-” “So, why are you exploding this place? Why are you just completely obliterating the fish town?”

“Because the fish people have been mean to me!” it yelled. Infernus was starting to look more and more like a baby.

“How are the fish people being mean to you?” Kylie asked.

“Because they keep throwing garbage in here!”

“I’ll make the fish people stop throwing garbage in you as long as you stop erupting-” “Okay, so I can definitely tell that you’re younger than me,” Elizabeth interrupted (the fact that you’re old AF doesn't give you privileges. And don’t go on about ‘respect your elders’, because that doesn’t work on me, sorry not sorry), “So, why… like, can you stop your gloating (er what?)? I understand that you’re a yellow dwarf (are we talking about fantasy beings or stars?), but I don’t understand that your emotions are - like you’re probably like 5 years old compared to me.”

“I am a great ancient fire god and I deserve to be respected, sorry, in fact, you should probably be giving me a sacrifice to be talking to me at all.”

“Okay, you little twerp, whatever you are. You’ve been bullying these fish folk (you’re like a parent talking to a child) because they threw garbage for you to incinerate. Like, c’mon. I could incinerate all their garbage in one second, no pay no harm (I think you’re starting to become a narcissist, Elizabeth).”

“It’s the principle of a thing. We have an arrangement - they give me sacrifices, I warm their water for them (you’re just going to make it all evaporate) for them. That’s how it works!”

“How would you like it if someone threw a garbage bag in your home?” Dominic snapped at no one in particular.

“Exactly.”

“I don’t even have a home now!” Elizabeth shouted (Nor do I - some of us don’t consider M Litterae Est Magicae as home…).

“They need to give me proper sacrifices, and respect me the way I need to be respected!”

Infernus said.

“This little twerp-” “I agree with that guy down there!” Infernus pointed at Dominic. “Your leader is probably the smartest ever in the whole group.” (who said he was the leader?) “What does your leader want to do?”

Marysa conjured up an illusion of a fire dragon. It wasn’t perfect - its face was a little weird and its claws were a little blunt, but it was fine. “I love it!” Infernus exclaimed. It drifted towards him. “Is this mine to keep forever?”

“Uh, I might have to use alteration to make it forever… but I guess.”

“Thank you! Hold up, hold up, hold on, just a second. I have - there’s like an agreement that elder gods, which I am totally one of, are supposed to do. And when you give us a really good sacrifice, we give you one of these.”

He held out a giant burning hand and dropped something in front of Marysa - a glowing, hot stone, the colour of glowing coal. As it touched the ground, a little bit of smoke was released. “Go on, pick it up,” Infernus said encouragingly.

Marysa taught Infernus how to make it for himself. Marysa then reached out and tapped the stone gingerly, and nothing happened. She picked it up. Nothing happened.

“What kind of sacrifices did they make to you?” Vanessa asked.

“It was usually like gold and food, and cool things, once or twice people they didn’t like, but now it’s just garbage.”

“Define garbage.”

“Uhh, like uhhh, trash. Plastics, old tires, those things for holding the cans of pop together… garbage. Lots of nasty garbage.”

“Why do you think they did that?” That question from Vanessa was left unanswered.

“I hate the fish people too,” Dominic said.

“That’s a kind of racist thing to say - I don’t hate the fish people, I just want to burn them because they’ve been throwing garbage in my volcano. What’s wrong with you? Your leader’s kinda racist.”

“I understand that you’ve been treated really badly, and I understand that (you just said it). So, I also think that I should give you a sacrifice, because - just to raise your ego, okay? The reason that I’m practically alive is because some people kept on putting magic on me until I’d finally be able to talk.

Which is kinda rude because these spell things have really weird things to it, so… if I gave you one spell (that’s not how it works) I guess you would be a lot more powerful (that’s also not how it works), and you’d be able to actually do stuff about the fish people. Like, you know, actually show them that you are Infernus and not a fireball twerp (YOU JUST FRICKIN CALLED INFERNUS A TWERP TWICE).”

“Yeah! The rock girl’s right. I should just destroy more of the fish people’s town, and that will make them respect me. What kind of magic are you giving me?”

“I have a question: can I sacrifice myself?” Dominic asked.

“Uh, that’s kind of weird and strange… What did I say about throwing garbage in my volcano? I don’t want garbage in my volcano.” (that’s really savage… you just called Dominic garbage)” Elizabeth said some nonsense that I didn’t listen to. Everyone went to the fish town to do something. Elizabeth stayed behind, and imbued Infernus with a rune. I stayed, too, and I went back to the ethereal plane. Then, I finally decided to drop the bubble, and I appeared, dropping the bubble, and disappeared before the magma boi could fire fireballs at me.

Shortly after that, Infernus rose up from the volcano as a very large ball of fire and flew over the ocean, carrying Liz who looked reasonably tiny next to him. He dropped her into the ocean - she’d given him more magic (great, let’s just kill all the fish people with a lava monster). Gil gave the instruction for his students to scatter, and Argon backed up a little. Elizabeth said something to the fish queen about doing whatever Infernus said because he did promise that he was going to destroy the fish town. She said something back, Elizabeth answered, and she took off her crown, yeeting it into the large fireball that was Infernus also known as (credits to Elizabeth) the little twerp. Literally every single resident of

Alvaro just started taking valuables and chucking them into the ‘little twerp’. Infernus laughed and said in a great, booming, voice, “Good. Thank you Elizabeth for the new rune. And thank you, people of Alvaro, I’ll see you next year.” The cloud receded back into the volcano, yelling, “And no more garbage this time, put it in the ocean or somewhere sensible!”

The fish queen said something that I didn’t listen to. Gil landed and said something as well, which I didn’t listen to because I was staring at a stray jellyfish. Marysa also turned a rock into gold. Alright, it’s science time. I’m going to explain how you can’t turn a non-gold thing into gold.

An atom of gold has 79 protons and 118 neutrons in its nucleus. The electric force of the protons on the 79 electrons around them shapes the atom and gives gold its chemical properties, like the fact that gold doesn’t rust. To change something that isn’t made of gold into gold, you have to change atoms.

For example, if you turn a duck into gold, the electrons, neutrons, and protons of different elements inside a duck multiply. The duck would be 33 times its original mass, and far too dense - roughly twenty times more dense. The atoms would repel each other violently because they are too close together, which would cause the duck to explode with the energy of half a ton of TNT. There you go. But… this is a story, where the impossible happens.

Vanessa Chen And now we’re heading to the volcano to talk to Infernus, the god in the volcano, without Argon or Gill. Angela tries to flip over, and eats the dirt as a result. Kylie attempts to give a healing potion to Angela, but she declines. Kylie awkwardly put the potion back in her backpack. We stood outside of this cave for a while, and it looked dormant for the most part. Elizabeth decided to walk up to the caldera, or at the tip of the volcano, and stood there. Why? Don’t ask me, at this point I’m not even going to question whatever my classmates and Elizabeth are doing. Dominic disappeared, and these magma stone people started to echo “Ay, what’s the big idea?” It was pretty loud, and I winced really hard. When things start to get loud, I usually lose concentration on what’s going on. Upon closer inspection, they looked like dark stone figures, and they’re heads were like torches, basically on fire.

They started to circle the volcano, and Angela screamed “All aboard,” and ran towards the ocean.

Kylie then told the stone figures that we were here to stop the volcano from shooting fireballs, and they replied saying that they wanted the volcano to keep ‘erupting’. As a result, Kylie decided to unfreeze the volcano, which at this moment I saw she actually froze it, because I was too busy trying not to become deaf. The volcano started to shoot out even more fireballs towards the underwater city.

Gill and his students swatted away a couple of those rocks, and when a particularly big rock managed to make its way towards the city, and suddenly a dome made by Argon appeared, and shattered the rock. The stone figures then proceeded to tell us that they wanted us to come for dinner with Infernus, the dude in the volcano. My classmates then started to talk with them as if they hadn’t asked that question at all. As for me, I still had my ears covered because they were echoing each other, and it was loud alright. Rachael decided to recreate the bubble that Tyrande had put on Dominic and bubbled the magma person who was currently talking. They appeared angered, and started to echo “Ay, what’s

the big idea,” over and over and over again. Marysa tried to do something, but nothing happened, well at least from my point of view. Rachael then reappeared, after getting bombed by magma people. (I’m just going to call them magma people, it’s just easier for you and me.) Rachael then blasted them, and they scattered. She grinned in response, and I wanted to smile too, because now these very loud, annoying stone people that keep on screaming their heads off while I proceed to lose my ability to hear, aren’t speaking anymore.

Dominic reappears, then conjures an icicle and throws it towards Bingyin, then a force field appears and melts the icicle. Dominic turns, and runs away, which seemed very suspicious to me, though it might just be Dominic doing whatever. Now, we can either fight from the outside, or enter the cave to talk to Infernus. Elizabeth, who was all the way up at the tip of the volcano, threatening Infernus. I, for one, don’t think that threatening an ancient god, but Elizabeth, who has also been there since the beginning of time, probably isn’t scared. After another round of warnings from Elizabeth, a bright light appeared, and kept on getting brighter and brighter. Infernus and Elizabeth then proceeded to converse for a bit, and then Marysa conjured an illusionary dragon therapy animal for him. Infernus, very happy, decided to drop a stone for her. Apparently, if you please an ancient god like him, then they would give you a reward. Personally, I think Infernus is just a big baby. He could whine all day long about the merpeople throwing trash down the volcano, when he could just leave the volcano and rage over there instead of just sitting over there, and doing nothing. Personally I don’t like when people don’t use their brains and their logic to make the best decision possible. I am going to rage and storm, which I don’t do normally.

We then headed back to the underwater city to talk with the merpeople. Rachael disappeared into the ethereal plain, and we’re in the fish town. The moment my classmates saw the queen, they started to bombard her with questions, and immediately talked with her about the throwing trash into the volcano. Personally, I didn’t really take a liking to her, and from the little to none of her I’ve seen so far, she’s definitely, as Gill had stated before, a ‘trident first, questions later’ type of person. Suddenly, Infernus, who seemed much more powerful now, thanks to Elizabeth, towered over the city. The queen and her people started to throw all their jewelry and expensive looking things towards him in a rush.

He then told them to keep on sacrificing, and that he’d be waiting for it. After that, the queen seemed quite eager to let us leave, given the fact she saw Elizabeth, and we quickly left.

-Angela

We walk towards the volcano and we see a cave. Thise rock person tells us to go in but I didn’t want too so I went and sat on the grass with my platypus. Kylie started exploding clouds and Liz started talking to the rock person before sprinting up the volcano. I look up and see this weird big whale in the sky. Then Dominic disapperes. Then I hear this voice “Hey! How ya doin?”. “Hey what’s the big idea” Suddenly, glowing red lights in the cave appear surrounding this interesting creature made of black stone. “what’s the big idea” “what’s the big idea” dozens of these voices echo through the air. Then I decided to yell “ALL ABOURD!” before running towards the ocean and jumping in. Just as I went under 6 flaming balls of magma came hurtling toward my direction. Professor Guilt and his students got rid of some but one dropped right into the fish village. The water around me turned a little warmer but I didn’t feel anything else.

I got bored so I conjured a dolphin and we swam around. Our happiness was interrupted by muffled voices of the weird creatures, “Hey wanna come for dinner?” “Yeah you should come for dinner!” “wanna come for dinner” “wanna come for dinner” echoed the dozens of voices. I decided to not go and stay in the water. I then see Rachael apper out of nowhere and get clobbered by fireballs thrown by the magma dudes. Then Rachael clobbered them with fire making all of them run away except one which was stuck in a bubble. Then someone attacks Dominic and chaos errups. In the next 5 minutes, magma spills out and hits the shield Argon created earlier.

Soon, all I knew was that we were going to the Spukhouse.

SESSION FOURTEEN

The Ancient Spukhaus

Dominic We went to the Corpora Gravis from the Spukhaus, Kylie was holding the amulet which I was in. Kylie peered in and I was treading in this sea of glowing water her eye was huge. Kylie attempted to do something and the water around me started to swirl and it was lifting me up to Kylie's eye and I squashed against it(the amulet). I got pulled straight through although I was hurt a bit. I was back to normal and I was very far from the Spukhaus.

Vanessa gave me my shoes back, I was free(pure happiness). A blue hand placed on Kylie's hand and she said I will be taking that dear and Kylie said that Rachael wanted her to chuck it at her then Tyrande started talking about how great Rachael was and everything. Gill put a finger on his lips and he said we've arrived. We saw the graveyard about a kilometer from here. There was just a hill with no path, the moon just arrived. The grass was only a few inches and dew started to arrive. Marysa asked the teachers what the amulet does and Tyrande said it puts people inside probably and also it could blast people and she was. Then Tyrande asked Gill about his thoughts and he said it's a prison, the soul purpose of the amulet is to be forgotten. Elizabeth was like “Tyrande it’s supposed to trap people right and then she started” rock talk. I vanished into the ethereal plane and I was in the purple world. I was wondering whether Thanos was hiding in

here. I was going down the hill, while Marysa was following me. Marysa started looking around for some reason, honestly I was too dumb to know what shes thinking of. I saw a trail leading into trees at the end, I couldn’t see. I was at the base of the hill near the trail, I really wanted to go down the hill, then Angela tried to shoot lightning at Tyrande and then Tyrande turned around and was like bruh, excuse me? Marysa created a cat and the cat was walking down, nothing happened to it.

The smoke dissipated and I looked around and whatever it was that came through it was gone. I looked towards the graveyard however I saw a fire kinda like a campfire it looked inviting. I decided to go nearer to observe I could fit myself in between the gate only Vanessa and Marysa could see me as I went nearer it felt like I was in water. I could still see this flame, however as I got closer I saw some figures. Elizabeth started to ask Tyrande whether there were dark wizards in the graveyard. Tyrande was l like we were going closer to festo. I felt a slight vibration and my hands were glowing and I had a protection. I conjured something and I threw something called an iphone 12 they went right through because they were illusionary. Vanessa made an illusionary ghost and they went floating down the hill. The ghost drifted past the dog and the ghost suddenly dissipated. I was confused then I saw an arrow. 2 more arrows flew at Jayden and Ethan.

Pitch black centaurs came charging at us. Liz starts

running on the hills like sonic. A doggo starts going at Tyrande and the doggo dies then the trees start burning.

Gill is like this is WHY you have kids that die. Then Gill gets iron hands and his staff. I saw several centaurs running at my classmates and then Kylie went out of the ethereal plane. Then I blasted water at the fire and it got put out. Angela shot lightning shocking the centaurs, Kylie attempted to do destruction magic at the centaurs but it didn’t go too well. Kylie levitates off the ground for some reason. Kylie looks towards Jayden and Kylie starts zipping to the graveyard like sonic. Marysa watched the centaurs and apparently she was observing. Then for some reason I couldn’t talk really. Marysa asked how much people can be in the amulet and Tyrande while blasting stuff she answered her. Rowan reached for the arrow and he paused for a moment, then the darkness went off(some of it) from Racheal doing something. He started slowly cantering to Tyrande. Another bolt of light and the dagger went away and the darkness completely drained. Then he called out to Tyrande save my people, then he went black again. Then he turned and then the other centaurs too then he rode away. Kylie drifted past me and her eyes looked terrified as she went closer to me then she started to calm down. I was a bit confused, then Kylie fell 15 feet and she got hurt. Then bright white smoke came up. Kylie slowly picked herself up and she looked from right to left. Kylie made her hand illuminate

with a bright orange fire illuminating the darkness. The figures had robes and apparently there were different pieces on the clothing and apparently some of these people were from the school. I walked forward and Kylie was turning her fire from a large tombstone. There were 2 chainz and climbed in the 2 chains that held Gustaf and apparently Sir Festo was there and dead. Then after a few moments they walked in and Gill knelt down and he said somebody, somebody should say something. Marysa said I wanna revive him and Marysa started thinking. I popped out of the ethereal plane to say something in this memorial. Melissa was overcome with emotions Vanessa created a sun and she elevated it and it casted a warm light. Angela said thank you for teaching me how to make a platypus. Kylie looked towards Festo now for some reason(after seeing the classmates from sir festo). A single tear rolled down Tyrande’s tear and GIll had a stone face and said I may have worked with him long enough and then a lot of other junk. Tyrande said that adorable man taught me in reply to Vanessa asking him do you know illusion magic? Then the bodies disappeared and some of the tombstones too and then sir festo appeared there and they chuckled. Then Festo appreciated me, then he sais there has been a wizard and he has been raising skeletons and he said we were waiting for backup. Festo was describing the boss and stuff. Festo said there are a couple of wizards buried here and he talked about wizards

being bad or good or great or something like that then he said Rengar was here. He said there were some mages here before. Then Festo said there are some bad skeleton boys and he kept talking too well for a tiny bit. Then it looked like Elizabeth apparently was talking to the rock in some way. I walked towards Rengar’s grave and I was standing in front of this gravestone. I saw a glow from the other side and I heard chanting. I peeked around the side and I saw Rasputin/gustaf. He was chanting for some reason, Marysa went inside the ethereal plane and she was following me up the hill, Elizabeth tried to talk to the gravestone apparently, honestly I had no idea what she was saying to Rengar’s gravestone. Vanessa asked if Rengar was a bad guy and Tyrande said well he was powerful and in those days, yeah he was pretty young at that time and she said before it was powerful or not powerful. Then Festo started talking. I couldn’t hear it clearly because I wasn’t paying attention. I tried to conjure a fireball and then Rasputin tried to kill me and then an arch of light blasted upwards from Marysa’s protection.

Then a thick cloud of fog which obstructed my eyesight. A flash of white light which arced and blasted the dagger out of Rasputin’s hand. Then he smiled and he said Ah, I always knew you would be powerful. I did not expect I would have to face you soon. Then Rasputin started saying stupid stuff. Racheal cast another burst of light at Rasputin at his chest and he got thrown backwards. Then

Kylie went into the ethereal plane and then a pink bubble floated out of her mouth she couldn’t talk about. Gustaf was rolling towards Marysa and then Marysa put the amulet to Rasputin which trapped him inside. Festo took the amulet from Marysa and he peered at it and he chuckled and then sighed, then he said Tyrande you didn’t tell me about and he kept laughing. Then he said well done to everyone. Then a hulking skeletal form emerged behind Festo. Marysa blasted a bubble which trapped the skeleton inside the bubble and the bubble spinned in the distance and the skeleton was like why hyhyhyhy. Festo said we have a strange choice and he said the seal was broken. He said we could seal it without checking, Tyrande said we thought Gustaf was in a prison and I said well due to Elizabeth's bad keeping skills. Tyrande said she’s a great student, Then Gill and Tyrande got into a stupid argument. ELizabeth told Tyrande that she wanted to join the school and then Tyrande said we’d love to have you.

Then someone opened the door and nothing really happened Festo said we should go in and then Gill said we shouldn’t go in then I volunteered. I walked in and I thought it would be sort of evil and then little lights came on. It was much larger than the outside and apparently Rachael was following me or something. Honestly, it was kind of creepy. I walked further in with Racheal then I saw some images and stuff. I saw a couple of different scenes of Rengar, he looked like he was good for some reason.

Then I saw a stone coffin, I observed around and I saw a couple of pillars that looked like they were supposed to hold things then. when I got closer, there were orbs that were flickering and one had a staff but I tried to grab it and it was an illusion. Then there was a serene man on the marble. Rachael casted some more light, apparently in the rock coffin. Me and Racheal pushed the lid off and the lid slid over and levitated. I looked down with Racheal to look inside the casket and I saw a sheet laying inside it.

Racheal reached in and she lifted the sheet carefully. Then there is nothing inside the coffin however there were these whispers that came and went away. Rachael reached to the bottom of the coffin. I punched the window and nothing really happened and we searched around and we went back out and then Tyrande asked should we seal it. Then I said that there was nothing inside and Gill was still all stone face and he kept talking about things. I asked Gil how he got his staff, he said that he won his staff as a prize. I cast fire at Gil and Gil said I'm the lawmaker, that doesn't mean I'm Rengar(he was the lawmaker of Pimar).

Tyrande said history is boring and she said I'm the destruction person. I'm the blow stuff up person and she started talking about a lot of stuff and then she started arguing a bit. Tyrande said when the world was filled with Rengar’s magic and some of it broke there was dark and light and she said he was dead. She started talking about a lot of stuff too, I wasn;t quite paying attention to what she

was saying. We walked past Doge Alley and we went to Argon’s hut and he asked us how did it go? Marysa said that everything was safe and she was lying pretty much because it was not. We don't know whether Rengar is there or not. Jerry welcomed us back and he did some weird Jerr humor and then we went to our dorms. I settled down and I was thinking about the wonderful iphone 12s I threw around. I was pretty tired and I was yawning a bit. I had a bad feeling however I just went to sleep anyway and I dreamed about eating sand.

Kylie

We head to the spook house and see Tryande holding a staff thinking. I see Tryande and all the other students covered in mud. I asked her what happened and she said “ any volunteers?” And Dominic and Angela went. And I saw as they slid out on a ramp and into the mud. Then we all went in. Someone went into the ethereal plane and we all slid into the mud. Then we went back up again. Angela ran down and darts fired at her. Then Liz went down and 3 darts hit her head. Rachael shoots fireballs at two triggers and then I touch one.

It shot darts and I found out where they were and that we could block it up to stop it from working. I tried to destroy the stairs but I could not. We headed up into a room and Marysa put the staff with Tryande into a hole in the deck and it fit perfectly. And 3 balconies appeared. One with a tree on fire, a tree with buds and a tree with leaves. I put illusion, destruction, and alteration into the bowls under the paintings and they all got sucked into the bowls. Then we did it at the same time and a yellow, red, blue light came out. Liz started turning the staff and I helped her turn it. And before I realized I was falling into a well with spikes inside. Marysa saved us and made a soft platform onto the well and Liz destroyed herself out of the well and I did too. Then the paintings moved and we put in the magic again and an amulet came dropping down. Dominic tried to catch it but got trapped in the amulet.

Tryande picked up the amulet and said “oh shoot”. (meaning Yay!!!!! My least favorite student is now trapped in an amulet!!!!!)

Rachael January 28, 3801 (It has to be the next day by now, time can’t be that slow) Alright now we’re supposed to go to Tyrande, and Gil went off to find Festo. The sky around the Spukhaus was gloomy, and the sky around it just seemed to be stormy from approaching it. Tyrande was pacing back and forth, while her students were sitting around, looking rather depressed. Tyrande was spinning a wooden staff from hand to hand with such dexterity that would probably make Gil jealous, and she appeared to be thinking about something.

“Ah, reinforcements at last. I hope you are all feeling smart today,” she said dully. She sighed, for what was probably the first time because she seemed to smile every time we approached her. She led us inside, the door creaking open like it had not been used for centuries and was on the brink of falling off its hinges. Argon and Tyrande had a brief exchange.

“Lady Tyrande, do you mind if I wait outside?” Argon said.

“Oh- um - oh, of course Argon, you can wait outside. I think the students need a pick-me-up, and you’d be the perfect person to do that.”

Literally all the students were covered in mud, and so was Tyrande.

“Where are we going?” Kylie asked.

“Well - it’s probably better if I show you. Do I have a volunteer?” Dominic volunteered.

There were an absurd amount of staircases inside, and as we walked further inside, it expanded.

Some staircases went over, others went there, some went nowhere, others seemed to just go straight into solid walls, making it so it was impossible to trace where each stair came from. We approached the nearest staircase, and we went up five steps before Tyrande said, “Good, good, can someone make some light?” Dominic tried to make some light, but failed and disappeared. Angela tried, and immediately dozens of ghosts around us were illuminated. They laughed and surged forward, and immediately the stairs under us turned into a ramp, which swept us out the door and far out into the muddy field. About half a minute later, Dominic appeared, covered in mud. Great start.

“Yes, um, the building has a bit of a - magical defence mechanism. The ghosts inside don’t seem particularly welcoming to us, though they’re not necessarily harmful, more mischief.”

“If you ever studied language you would know that the correct term is mischievous,” I muttered under my breath (quite unnecessary at the time but I’m quite annoying).

Marysa conjured up an illusion of a ghost, and walked inside. The stairs did not turn into stuff-that-would-make-you-muddy. A whole lot of us cast magical spells, and I set both of my hands on fire with fireballs (which was not a good idea as this accursed house was made of wood). We then went to the nearest staircase, and began to climb again.

We managed to make up that set of stairs fine, and emerged onto a landing, with a hallway ahead of us. The hallway’s floor was slightly tilted, and was undoubtedly a trap.

“It looks like a normal floor - you do magic and it turns into a kind of conveyor belt. Sucks, don’t do it. This is as far as we got, and it’s when I came into possession of this,” Tyrande said, brandishing the stick, “I think it’s magic, it’s perhaps part of the weapon we’re looking for, but, on its own, it’s really just a nice stick. I received this here.” She pointed at a set of hooks with space in between them, which looked like it once rested a stick about the size that Tyrande was holding. “So, we started walking, bad things started to occur, we used magic to protect ourselves, and ended up covered in mud.”

Down this hallway, there were four portraits on the wall. “I recommend that we don’t all rush down at once, perhaps, we could have another volunteer go first and-” Tyrande cut off. Angela shot towards the end of the hall. A couple of the floorboards began to sink into the ground as she stepped on them, the currently invisible ghosts laughing. She reached the first portrait, whose eyes and mouth snapped open, laughing and releasing three darts that flew towards Angela. She ducked in time, but as she stepped forward, another floorboard sank, and the portrait of a woman next to it woke up, laughed, and released three darts towards her. All three darts sank into her shoulder, and she ran forward, stepped on another floorboard, three darts embedding themselves into her back. Angela stepped on another floorboard, and a dog started barking, its portrait releasing its darts at her feet this time. She jumped, and landed on the other side, still with six darts sticking out of her.

There was a slow ticking sound - tick tick tick - as the floorboards locked into the same position that we had found it in. The last floorboard clicked into place, and the last painting snapped its mouth and eyes shut. “What are the darts made of?” Elizabeth asked Angela, no doubt wanting to talk to rocks again. “Cotton candy,” Angela replied, though it was quite plain that they were made out of steel (darts aren’t made of steel, but these are rusty nails).

Vanessa chucked (well yeeted is a better word) one of her potions at me, which I drank. I then took off to the end of the hallway. I slipped past the first one without touching its trigger. The portrait did not try to annihilate me. I stepped on the next one, which snapped its eyes and mouth open and fired its darts, which I dodged, but stumbled upon the next one, which released its darts at me. I dodged that one, stepped on the trigger for the next one, and jumped over the darts that fired towards my feet from the dog. The slow ticking sound occurred again.

“I’m Naruto!” Elizabeth yelled (bruh that is pretty stupid plus who is Naruto?), and threw her arms behind her like Lucario and charged down the hallway. Even though she stepped on literally every single trap, none of them did any harm to her, because, you know, she is this 360 cm tall rock. So first she got a rusty nail to the head, but when she stepped on the rest of them, nothing happened. She reached the other side with a rusty nail in her head, apparently taking no notice. I yeeted a fireball at the dog painting, which incinerated on the wall, leaving a scorched spot on the wall. I chucked the second fireball at the portrait next to the dog, which also burst aflame and left a scorched spot on the wall. Angela sprinted across the hallway, and the ticking sound was still sounding.

Dominic vanished to the ethereal plane, and there was a laugh from the ghosts as the ground turned into a conveyor belt and swept us down the stairs that was now a ramp into the muddy field.

Great attempt right there, we could’ve gotten across if you hadn’t decided to do that just then, Dominic.

Vanessa burst out, “But that’s not magic!”

“Well, apparently it’s magic enough for the ghosts,” Tyrande said.

Dominic cast a magical shield around himself, and I went to the ethereal plane while juggling three fireballs. Kylie also went onto the ethereal plane. We went inside, and Kylie decided to blow up a staircase, which fortunately failed. We climbed up the same staircase for the 3rd time, and Marysa raised her fire stone on the first floorboard that triggered the portraits, squeezed it, and annihilated it completely. Three darts shot out of the paintings, but there was no ticking sound. She walked along and obliterated all four traps on the ground, and we followed her.

“You have an aptitude for destruction - why did you choose Festo?” Tyrande said to Marysa (It’s because some of us are peaceful people, not exploding-everything brats). Elizabeth then proceeded to

ask Tyrande if she could join the school, to which she said, “Well you could join the school if you really wanted to, though I feel like most of your magic is already imbued within you.”Kylie got out of the ethereal plane for some particular reason.

We went up another sloped corridor, around another corner, and emerged into a very large room. There was a long stained glass window on the opposite side of the room, depicting the solar system (you know, the thing that contains the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), mostly covered by a half circle depicting half of the world, with a rather large red dot in the middle. The light that streamed through the window was mostly purple, with occasional flecks of white light - well there were only three. The three white lights illuminated the three balconies spread around the room. On all of them was a raised pillar with a sort of bowl made out of wood (much to Elizabeth’s annoyance, virtually nothing here is made of stone). In the very center of this room was a dais, about ten feet in diameter, and directly in the middle of it was a small hole that could fit the stick. Above the first balcone was also a painting of a tree on fire, a tree growing new buds on the second one, and a decorated full-grown tree over the third.

Marysa conjured the illusion of the ladybug that she used to spy on the teachers and sent it down the hole. It discovered only a slight indentation at the bottom. “Can I have the stick?” Marysa asked Tyrande.

“The stick, yes. Sure, Marysa,” Tyrande said, tossing it to her.

Elizabeth went up to the glass and said to it, “Are you sentient?” Angela seems to have infected Elizabeth with the Angela Syndrome, also known as insanity.

Marysa took the stick and stuck it in the hole. It fit perfectly, as if it was meant to be there. I thought I heard a click as it went inside. I followed Marysa onto the first balcony. It was made of wood, so I tried to burn it, throwing all three fireballs at it because I don’t like juggling. Nothing happened - it didn’t burn down nor did it launch fireballs back at me. I left the ethereal plane, which no one seemed to notice. I then proceeded to conjure the shadow illusion that I used to follow Argon. It floated in the air for the moment, then, in a flash, was dragged into the bowl. I used Alteration magic above the bowl, and nothing happened. Marysa created an illusion of a burning tree, and it was pulled into the bowl. Kylie used illusion magic over it, and it was pulled into the bowl. She ran over and did it to the second bowl, and nothing happened. She went to the third bowl, and nothing happened either. Then Kylie did illusion over the first bowl, destruction over the second, and alteration over the third. All three magical schools were accepted into their respective bowls.

Dominic tried setting fire to the stick, and nothing happened. I tried setting fire to the large red dot on the half circle that was the world, and it just bounced off and disappeared.

“Can you use destruction magic on the second bowl?” Marysa asked Tyrande.

“Certainly, would you like me to do it at a particular time, or would you just like me to do it now?”

It was Kylie that figured it out first - she suggested that one of us stand at each of the bowls and cast magic from their respective schools into it. So that was how it came to Marysa standing at the first bowl, I standing at the second bowl, and Kylie at the third. We counted down, before all casting magic at the same time. Three coloured light columns emerged from the bowls - yellow from the illusion bowl, blue from the destruction bowl, and red from the alteration bowl - and hit the paintings of the trees

above them, then dispersed in different directions and nothing else happened, except Vanessa disappearing and going to the ethereal plane.

I cast destruction magic at the decorated tree, and it reflected off of it, not doing anything.

Marysa walked over to the staff, and tried to take it out, but it was stuck. “Somebody turn the staff,” she said suddenly, “Somebody take it and turn it.” We asked Elizabeth to do it, because of arbitrary reasons.

She couldn’t turn it completely, but, as she started to turn it, the platform she and the stick were in began to turn, along with the roof, in a clockwise direction. Kylie stepped up and twisted it, and it turned completely (with a deafening thud), so now the burning tree was over the destruction bowl, the tree with buds was over the alteration bowl, and the decorated tree was over the illusion bowl. At the same time, the dais’ floor opened up, and both Elizabeth and Kylie fell into a pit. Elizabeth started talking to rocks, which wasn’t a good idea when you’re falling into a pit filled with spikes that can almost certainly kill you. Marysa made a platform for them to land on, and then both Elizabeth and Kylie lay there for a few seconds as the pit began to close. I tried to make Marysa’s platform into a trampoline, which failed and everyone within 30 feet of me became invisible for a minute. Then, Elizabeth shot out of the pit like there had been a geyser under her, bouncing painfully off the ceiling, and Kylie followed, carrying the staff, after Marysa tried to do something, and ended up with this thing offering her a vial full of acid. The pit closed.

The little creature that was offering something to Marysa said, “I insist, have some - what?” It was distracted by something for a moment, and the vial shattered on the tray, completely melting it.

“Who dares to-” There was a popping noise, and the little creature disappeared. We spent a bit doing stupid stuff, before I suggested that we cast illusion magic in the illusion bowl, destruction in the destruction bowl, and alteration in the alteration bowl. We did that (same order as last time), and once again the beams reflected off of the mosaics, and all three began to glow. All three lights came together at the peak of the dome, and there was a slight crack. Then an amulet glowing with white light fell, and Dominic rushed to catch it, missed, and was engulfed in an explosion of white light, leaving just his shoes and a bit of smoke coming out of them.

“Oh!” Tyrande said, clearly not wanting any more of whoever died before I came. “Shoot.” She walked over and picked up the amulet, and peered into it. “Well, that’s unfortunate,” she said, sounding like she did not mean it, “I suppose we should have somebody do something about this. Anyway, good work everyone, excellent problem solving, good job not falling into the pit. Jayden, be careful with the shards of glass and maybe not touching them. Dominic, do be careful not to drop powerful weapons.

Other than that, excellent work everybody, everyone gets an A or whatever it is that we’re doing. Those of you in the ethereal plane, please leave or risk remaining behind and becoming trapped here as tormented ghosts, it’s time for us to go. We have to run to Sir Festo. Someone carry this gently, try not to shake him around too much.”

Vanessa Chen After that, Gill decided to head to where Sir Festo was, while us and Argon went to the ancient Spukhaus where Tyrande and her students were. Near the Spukhaus, the sky seemed to darken, and there was distant thunder, like there was a storm approaching. At the house, Tyrande and her students seemed disappointed, and apparently, the haunted house won’t give up the weapon to them.

Before going into the building, Tyrande and Argon had a brief exchange, where Argon asked if he could stay outside, and Tyrande agreed. I guess that would be because of Argon’s phasmophobia.

Looking back towards the students and Argon, I noticed that both the students and Tyrande were covered in mud. When asked about it, Tyrande said it was just better for us to see. Dominic and Angela volunteered, and when Dominic decided to go into the Ethereal Plain, the stairs turned flat, and they both glided down out of the house, and into the mud. So I guess every time we try to cast magic inside the house, we would be kicked out, but if we don’t cast it inside the house, then the ghosts haunting the house won’t do anything about it.

Tyrande brandished a stick they had found from the house. When Angela took off running out of the house, there was laughter from the hallway. After exploring for a bit more, and going up a staircase, we were at this hallway, where Angela took off running. A portrait on the wall starts to laugh, and darts shoot out, aiming towards her. She managed to get hit a couple of times, and I saw that Rachael was preparing to run across as well. Noticing that since, well, Rachael has a tendency to do dangerous things, I took out one of my stealthy potions, and dumped it on her. She didn’t really have a reaction, other than being surprised, and started to run. She makes it across, only getting hit once.

Elizabeth Naruto runs across, flinging her arms behind her. Rachael, on the other side, burned the portrait with her hands she had set on fire previously before entering the house, as Angela ran back

towards us. Kylie inspected the floorboard, while Dominic disappeared, and guess what happened? We

were all sent down, out of the house, and into the mud. If anyone looked at me right now, my face would be like :/. After reaching that place again, Marysa decides to fireball the mechanisms, and we make our way across.

We emerged in a very large room, with a long stained glass window, which depicted the solar system, along with a red dot underneath. My class ran around the place, thinking of things to do, while I zoned out for a bit, not really knowing what to do. I looked around the room. There was a mosaic which was split into three parts. The first was a burning tree, the second was a budding tree, and the third was a fully bloomed tree, which was decorated. Marysa puts the stick that Tyrande had found into a hole in the middle of a platform which was in the middle of the room. Apparently, the burning tree accepts illusionary magic, while the budding tree accepts destruction, and the decorated tree accepted alteration. 3 people who went up to the bowls decided to cast magic for the corresponding bowls at the same time, and for a moment there were these lights, shining in the room, and then nothing after that.

I decided to go to the Ethereal Plain, which was very purple. There, all these ghosts were shaking their heads, where Rachael was casting magic. Marysa then tried to move the stick, but to no avail, it didn’t move. Elizabeth then tried to move it, and the platform started to twist, along with the roof. Kylie tried to help, and then both Elizabeth and Kylie started to fall into this pit that had just appeared.

The ghosts started to laugh, clearly entertained with us. Marysa reached out, created a platform 10 feet underneath. It then started to sink, and Elizabeth blasted her way out, while Marysa and Kylie also blasted Kylie out. I saw this really strange looking creature beside Marysa, and for a moment,

there was this liquid darkness, like the one we first saw on our way to the school, so many nights before. I stiffened at the sight of it, and I conjured an orb of light, before throwing it towards the creature, and it disappeared. Marysa then went into the Ethereal Plain, and we both talked to this ghost.

As we talked more and more we learned that Argon was taken here once he got his magic, and the ghosts would chase him around and around. I guess that’s why he’s so scared of ghosts and has phasmophobia. Marysa pleased the ghosts by making something for half of the ghosts to chase around the Spukhaus. He then told us to be careful when touching the red button, and that they were surprised that we had made it this far already. Jayden gently touched the red button, and then got a bit injured from a shard of glass. I sighed. That was a ghost trick, and even though we did please them, I guess he wanted to trick us. :/ once again. My classmates decided to cast magic once more, and an amulet fell out from nowhere, and Dominic tried to catch it. There was this bright flash, and then there was just his Puma shoes, with smoke rising from them. When Tyrande picked up the amulet, and looked inside, she said that it seemed that Dominic was stuck inside. I then took out some potions I had made before which remove the effects of what happens when you fail magic, and gave them to Rachael and Kylie, before taking one myself. It tasted, well, a bit funky, but my skin did return to normal, so I guess it worked.

SESSION 15

Corpora Gravis

Jayden and the crew were up to another mission and they weren’t told what it was. Jayden on the other hand did not want to go so he faked being sick. He waited and waited till everybody was out of the room. Jayden didn’t want to risk dying. Jayden didn’t know what to do other than play minecraft. There was one computer in the room. He opened it and it was on. He quickly typed minecraft so he could download it and it took about half an hour to download minecraft. It was done Jayden ran around in a circle and did the floss. He opened minecraft and played basically the whole time. But Jayden didn’t know it was a magical computer. There was a minecraft hand that reached to grab Jayden but missed and then there were two hands. He was almost pulled before a teacher caught his arm. He said “why did you go on the magical computer sunny? Shouldn’t you be on the mission?”. Jayden said “i didn’t know it was a magical computer. But the minecraft hand was to strong for even a wizard to pull on Jayden went zoom into the game. Jayden was screaming a like a mine. He was to survive or else he’d die. The teacher had to beat the game to get him outta there. The teacher typed in the chat once you get out of there you are gonna be in big trouble. So the teacher beat the game and Jayden was zoomed back in the room. He was slapped super hard the he was swinged to the wall and was in a concussion.

Kylie

Dominic got stuck in an amulet. I tried to teleport him out but he got squashed onto the amulet. But then, I destroyed the amulet and got him out. But, the amulet was not damaged at all?! We then walked into the graveyard (Corpara Gravis). When we got there, we saw people who looked like they were from our school and surfesto in chains on a tomb?

Professor Gill told everyone to give a moment of respect to surfesto. I could tell that those people were not breathing. I walked closer to the tombs and they disappeared?! I told everyone and then surfesto came out and said “You gotta be able to tell between real and illusions!” All the teachers started talking and then Dark Centaurs came out of nowhere.

They started attacking us and I tried to destroy them but ended up flying 15 feet off the ground. I tried to put myself down again but saw Jayden as a devil and I tried again and everything I said came out in pink bubbles for ONE MINUTE!!!!! I saw Professor Tryande see one of the Centaurs and thought he was her friend and said his name. He then attacked Tryande but Rachael blasted the arrows off him and some of the darkness around that centaur disappeared. Then, that Centaur got a dagger and was ready to dab Tryande. Then, Rachael blasted the dagger and the darkness on that Centaur was totally gone. The Centaur said to Tryande “Save my people” and all the darkness went up the Centaur again. And all the Centaurs went away. Then, we went out to the “real” tombs. Marysa found Rengar’s tomb and Dominic and Rachael went into the memorial place. All of us went back to the school and went to sleep.

Rachael January 28, 3801 – January 29, 3801 Kylie started trying to get Dominic out, tried once, failed to, and tried to destroy it with destruction magic. Dominic ended up getting pulled straight through the front of the amulet, which didn’t seem like it liked to have things go through it. Vanessa handed him his shoes. The amulet appeared to be unchanged. Kylie considered yeeting the amulet at me, to which I said that I didn’t care if she did.

Tyrande put her hand on her wrist and said, “I’ll just be - taking that now, dear.” She looked at me for a moment. Kylie said, “But Rachael wanted me to chuck it at her!”

“No,” I muttered under my breath, “I said I didn’t care if you did. Learn the difference.”

“There are a great number of things that make Rachael special,” Tyrande said, not seeming to notice that I was scowling (because I hate favouritism), “And, at times, that can lead to [insert nonsensical stuff].”

Gil put a finger to his lips and held up his hand. “We’ve arrived,” he said. The graveyard was about 1 kilometre away, down a gently sloping grass hill that had no path. The moon was just starting to show itself from between the clouds, casting an eerie glow upon the ground, which was covered in short-cut grass that glimmered with dew.

“Do you know what else the amulet does other than trapping people?” Marysa asked.

“Honestly, I think that is what it does. I think it traps people inside it. I think that’s the whole thing. That’s kind of an impressive power, I don’t know, I mean maybe it can blast people - it’s supposed to be from the destruction school, but - I don’t know, it feels finicky to use,” Tyrande replied, “It’s very old, but honestly - gosh, that was so long ago - you must understand, darling, that I haven’t been in school for like, a long, long time.” Alright I don’t think I’ve included this before, but Tyrande is an elf there are many types of elves, but Tyrande is a frost elf - well, they aren’t actually called frost elves, we humans just call them that. The proper name is Icelandia. They live in the far north, and that is where they get their name. Elves live a long time, several thousand years, maybe, and I believe that Tyrande is about 500 years old.

“It’s a prison,” Gil said, “The sole purpose of the amulet is to be forgotten. You take whatever your target is, you ensnare it, then you forget about it.”

“But we didn’t forget about Dominic,” Vanessa pointed out.

“And thank goodness we didn’t,” Gil replied, “Or you’d have been there for a long time.”

“Can I have the amulet?” Marysa asked Tyrande.

“Sure,” she said.

And then Elizabeth started stating the obvious and saying that we could trap Gustav in it.

Meanwhile, I (and so did Elizabeth) noticed that most of the grass was moving a little in the wind, but at the bottom of the hill, the grass was not moving. It was stamped down, and I recognized it as a sign of someone passing there, from hiding in the forest. I had gotten better and better at determining whether somebody had passed certain places, which was useful.

Dominic and Marysa vanished to the ethereal plane. Angela tried to shoot a small burst of electricity towards Tyrande, which produced only a bright flash of light and Tyrande said, “Angela? Is there something you’d like to say or do you just enjoy giving away our position while several of your classmates are on a dangerous stealth mission?” A small cat appeared at the bottom of the hill, and I

recognized it as Marysa’s cat. It stood on the trampled down area, looking around. Nothing happened.

Kylie’s illusionary dog went down to join it. Nothing happened, either.

“Tyrande, does this graveyard have any powerful dark wizards?” Elizabeth asked, “Because, you know, I happen to be one of the people who have captured Gustav and now he’s trying to resurrect Rengar. Does that mean that this person might be in this graveyard and does that mean that this graveyard might have some dangerous dark wizards that might need to be captured. There’s two potential dark wizards. So why are we going close to this graveyard?”

If you had any common sense, I thought, you would know that the answer to all three would be yes. And we’re going close to this graveyard because there’s something called being helpful and you seem to lack that ability.

“We’re going close to the graveyard because we need to help Sir Festo,” Tyrande said, “And the reason we sent Sir Festo here is because this graveyard contains the tomb of Rengar.” *rant alert* “OH MY GOD - HE IS GOING TO - HE IS GOING TO KILL US-” Elizabeth exclaimed.

“You say that like the teachers don’t know that,” Vanessa muttered.

“-THE BEST THING WE CAN DO RIGHT NOW IS RUN! THERE’S THIS DARK WIZARD TRYING TO RESURRECT ANOTHER DARK WIZARD-” Meanwhile, Dominic was conjuring illusions of iPhone 12s and throwing them at a target that I couldn’t see.

“-YOU SHOULD LET HIM DIE!” (she’s talking about Dominic now) You know, I thought, would you like someone to die? Plus, you can’t kill off Comic Relief (it’s the nickname that we gave to Dominic), he may be an idiot, but he’s an enjoyable one.

Meanwhile, Kylie and Vanessa disappeared. A few seconds later, Vanessa conjured an illusion of a ghost that sailed down the hill to go find Festo. The ghost suddenly dissipated, and as we all looked closer, I could see a single black arrow, its tip in the ground. Centaurs, I realized, these are centaurs’ arrows. The tip was black. The fletching was also black, which was awkward to see because I don’t think people make arrow fletchings out of raven or crow feathers. Two more of the black arrows shot out from the trees, striking Ethan in the shoulder and Jayden in the calf (Jayden’s bad luck strikes again, though I don’t know what other bad luck he has had). As we were considering picking up the arrows and examining them, a whole bunch of black centaurs came charging out of the woods. The black sea on them was like water, slipping and sliding in some places. Elizabeth started running away. Marysa’s doggo appeared and ran towards Tyrande, who just blasted it towards the trees. Then this large fireball erupted in her hands and burned a whole lot of trees down. “What are you doing?” Gil asked.

“Attacking. They’re attacking the students. What am I - this is why you have kids who die, Gil,” she snapped, sending another fireball towards the trees. Gil glared at her for a moment, before he wrapped both his hands in iron, seized his staff, lunged towards the nearest centaur, and cracked it across its face (wow that must be painful for the centaur). Kylie wanted the max protection, and made a force field around herself after jumping out of the ethereal plane. Dominic continued doing whatever dumb things he was doing, then put out the fire that Tyrande caused and continued doing whatever dumb things he was doing. Angela conjured up a few bolts of lightning, shooting them at the centaurs.

The centaurs were knocked down, twitching because they did just get electrocuted. Oh look, the coward came back, just when we seem like we’ve got the advantage. Elizabeth came sprinting back down the

hill. Kylie tried to do something but it didn’t go very well and ended up levitating off the ground. Kylie tried to do another thing, but her bad luck struck again, and now someone looks like a monster in her eyes, so she was running away towards the graveyard, levitating.

The darkness on the centaurs shifted around as they got blasted over and over again. Some of it appeared to get off of them once they got hit hard, but quickly got back on them. Dominic tried to do something but couldn’t speak for a minute due to pink bubbles streaming out of his mouth. Marysa asked Tyrande about the amount of people that can be stored in the amulet, and Tyrande considered for a moment, before saying, “I don’t know dear-” she blasted a centaur with a loud bang “-probably a lot-” she blasted another one “-depends on how long you’d like them to survive, I suppose-” BANG “-I don’t really know what keeps you alive in there-” BOOM “-anyway, the centaurs are running away, so that’s quite nice, shame I had to blast some of them – hey, is that Rowan?” Her smile faltered for a moment, and she said, “Yeah, right. Uh, Rowan, how are you feeling, dear?”

“You just blasted fire at him and you’re asking him if he’s okay?” Vanessa muttered.

A centaur was slowly picking himself back up. He reached back to his quiver, holding his bow, about to draw an arrow- I blew up the quiver, the bow now useless. He looked at me for a moment, pausing, as some of the darkness faded from his face. “Ooh, nice shot, Rachael,” Tyrande said.

He reached down and unsheathed a sword, dropping his bow. Rowan began to canter towards Tyrande, though his face wasn’t angry anymore, it looked like he was in a trance. Tyrande looked pained.

“I mean, I’m not going to let him stab me with the big knife,” she said desperately. I blew up the sword and narrowly missed his hand. It would have been a shame if his hand got blown off. The darkness drained completely from his arm, and started to fade from his body, too. He looked around. “Tyrande,” he croaked, a hint of desperation in his voice, “save my people.”

The darkness shot back up his body, and within seconds, Rowan was covered in the darkness. He turned away. The centaurs picked themselves up, and disappeared into the forest. I could just see a figure dodge out of their way. “Well that was interesting,” Tyrande said, “What happened to the funny one?” I’m pretty sure she meant Dominic there. She looked around for the rest of us.

Kylie calmed down and remembered that Jayden is not a horrific monster that she saw, and unfortunately also stopped levitating which meant she dropped a painful 15 feet to the ground (which, according to reliable sources, can be fatal). Kylie got up, snapped her fingers, and lit up the night with orange fire burning on her hand.

It illuminated the dying embers of a campfire that was once warm and welcoming, and several figures around them with several tombstones. All the figures were wearing robes with yellow specks in several places. Some of them I recognized, with a shock - I had seen them laughing and talking in the Great Hall. Yet now they weren’t laughing, they were lying on the ground, their faces twisted in horrible pain, their eyes staring without seeing. In other words, they were very much dead.

There was also a large gravestone, the ground beneath it partly, with chains hanging from it. In those chains, his face also twisted in horrifying pain, his eyes also staring without seeing, was a very dead Festo.

We all walked at the same time towards it. Gil stepped forward and took a knee. “Somebody-” he cut off, blinking back tears, “somebody say something.” I was, meanwhile, looking around for anyone that had come here. Someone had come up to the fire, but no one had gone away.

“I want to revive him,” Marysa declared.

Kylie started searching for something.

Dominic got out of the ethereal plane and said, “Festo, you were one of the best teachers I ever had.”

“Thank you for teaching me how to make a platypus,” Angela said.

Then, something caught the corner of my eye, which no one noticed except for me. Colena, who was staring at us creepily from the forest, was casting a doubtful look at the bodies. She caught me watching her, pointed at the bodies, and mouthed the word ‘illusion’. I stared at the bodies for a moment, and they all disappeared, one at a time, slowly. Kylie was already staring at Sir Festo, and I did too, and his body disappeared as well. The others soon realized this, and we all looked at Tyrande. A single tear, glistening in the moonlight, was slowly falling from her eyes. Several of us fought down a laugh. Gil, on the other hand, was looking around, stony-faced. “I may not have worked with him as long as you did,” he said, his voice full of sadness, “But I always knew him to be dependable. Reliable-” “Those are synonyms, you don’t need to add reliable in there,” I said under my breath.

“-you were reassured with the fact that he always had your back-” “Have you guys ever learned illusion magic?” Vanessa asked, looking like she was about to laugh which thankfully neither teacher noticed.

“That man taught me,” Tyrande sniffed, gesturing a hand towards the now empty irons that once held the illusion of Festo, a second tear dripping down her face, shining like a crystal in the moonlight.

“Did he teach you the rules of it?” someone asked, and what followed sounded suspiciously like a smothered laugh.

“The old man practically wrote the rules,” Tyrande said quietly, holding back another sob, “He’s probably the best damn spell caster-” “Oh yes, we’re swearing now, and I thought they were called mages, not ‘damn spell casters’,” I muttered (if you don’t think damn is a swear word, go search up “is damn a swear word”).

“-I ever had the fortune to meet.”

“Do you remember what Festo said about illusions and them being real?” Vanessa said, suppressing a grin.

“Yes I-” she cut off, looking at the illusions. “Son of a b-” Half of us burst out laughing.

Oh wow, if he was a son of a female dog, I thought, grinning at the very thought that it took so long for Tyrande to realize, I would probably see a dog tail sticking out of him.

“Ooh, don’t stop now, you were just getting to the good part!” A jubilant voice that belonged to Festo rang out from the darkness. “It was-” The remaining bodies disappeared, the large gravestone disappeared and turned into Festo, and several other gravestones materialized into the shapes of a human, yellow vestments gleaming in the darkness. Several of Festo’s students were chuckling to themselves, pleased that they had pulled off a very nasty trick on us. “It- Listen, don’t- alright, okay, maybe I took it a little too far- bye Dominic!” Festo said happily, as Dominic took a little visit to the ethereal plane, “Dominic, what you said about me was wonderful, I just want to make sure that you know that, it was really quite nice.

“Now listen. There’s a dark wizard who’s been running around the graveyard and he’s been raising skeletons from the Dead. And it’s rather dangerous, and we decided to wait for backup.”

“And that was why you didn’t respond to any of the messages we sent you,” Gil said.

“But it would’ve given our place away,” Festo protested, “and frankly, the big one had been here three times already.

“Now,” Festo continued, “there’s a couple of wizards buried around here, and, back in the day, no one really made any distinctions between the good wizards and the not so good wizards, so there’s a couple of not so good wizards buried here with the same sort of accolades and honours as the good wizards. The great wizard - we’re talking Rengar - he’s here. I imagine they would want to sacrifice something to raise him, but I don’t know. Now, there are a couple of mages around here that used to run with Rengar back in the day. The gee dark ones. That means the original gangster dark ones. Humo and Grattus - anybody care - we’re all talking - Anyway, there’s just some bad skeleton bois and we should probably try to do something about them and like, no specifics, but if you want to just go you can just go.”

Elizabeth started talking to a gravestone marked “Humo”. There was a pretty big hole next to it.

There was a large building in the middle of the graveyard, made of marble, and that, presumably, was where Rengar was. “Humo is of the rather large sort. He likes smashing things. Grattus is a little bit of a uh - slippier character. I’d watch out for him. They’re both here, and they’re just sort of shambling ‘round the graveyard kind of aimlessly. Humo himself has walked through this campsite a couple of times since we transformed. We worried once or twice that he might catch us, but he was rather stupid, so it seems he didn’t get any smarter by being dead.”

There was an unnatural glow on the other side of the mausoleum, and chanting could be heard when you went near the marble structure. A thick cloud of fog suddenly descended over the other side, and Marysa had disappeared. Dominic was still in the ethereal plane, which meant he could be anywhere. There was a laugh, then someone said, “Ahahaha! A little trickier when you’re in the field trying to cast magic. You will not be able to hide from me for very long.” I moved closer. I knew this person, though the others did not know it. Gustav was probably more familiar to me than the others, in fact. I needn’t hurt him, I thought, I just need to get him away from Dominic. A flash of white light erupted from my hand, struck the bone-handled dagger that was bearing down upon where Dominic was, invisible, and shot out of Gustav’s hand into the darkness. He turned around. I didn’t need to wound him, as I see it now, retelling this story, but I didn’t want to anyway. You see, magic is controlled if you feel like you want something, not need. It will not give you what you need if you do not want it.

Gustav paused. His eyes flicked to Tyrande and Festo, and a fleeting expression of hatred crossed his face as he set his eyes on her. Then, his eyes settled on me again.

“Oh,” he said, a smile creeping across his face, “I always knew you’d be powerful, and I didn’t expect to have to face you so soon.” I felt my stomach plummet. “I never wanted to,” I whispered, and luckily no one heard that. “Girl, go away from this place and don’t be destroyed,” he said, a hint of menace behind his voice, “You have a future. This one-” he gestured to Dominic, who was out of the ethereal plane “-this one’s going to get himself killed sooner or later. Eh, evil magician, his personality, whatever it is-” “No,” I said quietly, “No one is dying today.”

I flicked my hands towards him, and he was knocked backwards, rolled down the hill, where he was met by another flash of light from Marysa, who threw the amulet at him. Gustav failed miserably to stop it. There was a burst of white light, and he was gone, shrunken into the amulet. Marysa picked up the amulet, which lay next to a pair of shoes. Kylie decided to take a visit to the ethereal plane, tried to

do something, and emitted a couple of pink bubbles. Festo took the amulet from Marysa, peered at it, and chuckled, shaking it a little. He sighed. “Tyrande,” he said triumphantly, “You didn’t tell me that youyeah! Ha ha, yes, that will do it! That will do quite nicely. Excellent work, Marysa. Really excellent work.

All of you, all of you, a job well done. Really truly excellent work. Marysa-” Behind Festo, a very large skeletal form that I assumed was Humo emerged from behind the tombstones. More light erupted from Marysa’s hand, and since Humo was being bad by trying to kill Festo, he went into a bubble. “Ooh,” Festo said, looking over his shoulder. There was a whooshing sound, and the bubble spun into the distance, the skeleton inside making very weird warbling sounds. “Well, that went well. This went well. No, this went really really well!” Festo said. “Now we have a strange choice in front of us now. The seal is broken.” He pointed at Rengar’s grave. “I don’t know if you can see the carving that was on it - it’s been stripped away. Now, we can seal it without checking, or does anybody want to see the body of the most powerful wizard of all time?”

“He sounds like Sir Festo,” Tyrande said under her breath, before saying, “Alright, hold on, we should make this decision cautiously. The only thing I’ll mention is that we thought Gustav was sealed up in a prison for a very long time and it turns out he wasn’t. So there could be some bearance-” “And that is because of Elizabeth’s bad keeping skills,” Dominic said.

“We’re not here to criticize Elizabeth’s bad keeping skills,” Tyrande said.

“Bruh Elizabeth insulted Dominic 24/7, he’s allowed to get his go at Elizabeth,” Vanessa pointed out angrily, “Tyrande, are you favouring her now?”

“That’s a fair point. Uh, everybody roast Elizabeth. You can talk about how she doesn’t have her purple thumbs, and she can’t wear shoes properly. She’s not able to enjoy swimming - uh, has anybody caught someone as a rock yet? Rock on, Elizabeth, rock on. Well, the mean potentials of Elizabeth are truly, truly endless. She’s a great student, I think she’s rock solid.”

Elizabeth started ranting as two quarters (I’m thinking up synonyms for half) of us started laughing. I considered using magic to make Elizabeth stop talking.

“I think there’s one thing I should do, which is to allow Gil to say that he’s right,” Tyrande interrupted.

“I did,” Gil said pointedly, “I did tell you something. You told me I’m paranoid-” Both Tyrande and Festo opened their mouths to protest, and Gil wagged a finger at them “-no, no, you called me paranoid.

You said I see Rengar behind every bad thing that happens anywhere we go, and sure enough, sure enough, into cycles we’re beneath our feet and that’s all I wanted to say and I was holding it back but, um, yes, thank you.”

“Nice run on sentence,” I muttered, trying not to laugh.

Kylie finally stopped having pink bubbles coming out of her mouth.

Elizabeth asked something about enrolling into the school. Then Tyrande answered, and I think Elizabeth said something about Ancient Greece. Next time, do Ancient Romans please, they’re more interesting.

Someone opened the marble door to the tomb carefully, and nothing happened. “For the record, I think we should seal it and walk away,” Gil said nervously. Festo thought we should go inside it. Tyrande was torn in between. “We should let the children decide,” she said.

“No that doesn’t make any sense-” Gil began.

“No, we should let the children decide. That’s a great idea.” I swear I heard Vanessa say, “F--- you Tyrande.”

“Hold up, hold up. Here’s a strategy: perhaps only one of us should go, that way, if they’re killed by the evil wizard, we can just seal the door.”

Dominic volunteered, but Tyrande said, looking horrified, “I wasn’t going to send a child, I was going to send Festo!”

“No, he’s brave, he can handle it!” Festo said jubilantly.

I decided to go to the ethereal plane and stalk Comic Relief. We didn’t die, just so you know, because we all have plot armour. So we entered the room, and both of us were knocked out of the ethereal plane (that was the first thing that happened). It was in a pocket dimension, so no ethereal plane existed here. Little lights popped on. The air was not musty, as I had expected it, but it felt fresh.

Everything was made of marble, and several images were carved intricately into the wall. There was a stained glass window as well. The images depicted scenes - scenes of someone, presumably whoever Rengar used to be, destroying creatures of darkness. Scenes of him liberating towns. Scenes of him being welcomed and worshipped by people. Scenes of him as ruler, sitting on a large throne. Scenes and scenes of him doing wonderful things and helping people and being what he was not. This tomb only knew what he once was. It did not know what was happening outside, in the shadows of the world.

In the middle was a coffin, also made of marble. Carved on top of it was a man in robes, looking serene and peaceful. He had long hair that gave him the appearance of Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter due to the marble. There were four pillars, also made of marble. They appeared to hold something, and as we moved closer to it, an image flickered on each of them. One of them had an orb, another a bag, another an amulet, and one towards the back had a staff. The staff looked strangely similar to the one that Gil had, and the amulet looked remarkably similar to the one that now contained Gustav. I wondered where the other two were. Dominic tried to grab the staff, but it was an illusion.

Dominic conjured more light, and illuminated the coffin for a moment, before it dissipated for no reason. The coffin just looked like a box, to be honest. We both leaned against it, and it slid open. At the pivot point where you would expect it to fall over and break, it just kept going. It was pushed past the edge of the coffin, giving it the impression that it was floating in midair (it was). Both of us peered over the side. There was a sheet in it, and I doubted that there was anything under it. My heartbeat thumping in my ears, I slowly reached towards the sheet and cautiously pulled it back. There was nothing there, nothing, except the bottom of the coffin. I touched the bottom of the coffin, as if I expected the spirit of Rengar to suddenly pop out and murder us. Nothing happened. I put the sheet back, and we closed the coffin. As we did, I swore that I could hear whispers, indecipherable but there. A cold feeling ran down my spine, and I shivered. Then, silence fell.

Dominic tried to destroy the coffin. Unfortunately, all magic cast in here bounced off things and evaporated. He then tried to punch the window, which just made his fist hurt and nothing else. We did some stupid things, then left and went back outside to the graveyard. “Well, shall we seal it?” Tyrande said. “Me and Rachael looked inside the grave,” Dominic said, “there’s nothing inside.” (Fun fact: it’s actually supposed to be Rachael and I but who cares, I think I’m getting annoying by doing this too much). “Aha! See, see, look! Look inside! Check!” Festo said. Gil just looked on, stony-faced once again.

“How do we know? How do we know that you didn’t just let him out?”

“Do you really think that I would do that?” I muttered.

“How did you get your staff?” Dominic asked suddenly.

“I won it,” Gil replied, “the same moment I became a protector of my people.” Gil was apparently from Ramar, which was a province in Kahori. The nation’s hold over Ramar was not as strong as the other places - they had their own government, their own laws.

Dominic cast fire at Gil for some reason, who deflected it and put it out with his staff. He said, “It’s the law bringer, it doesn’t mean that I’m Rengar. You called me paranoid. This is the paragon of Ramar-” he cut off. “Did this really belong to him?” he said softly.

“Maybe,” Vanessa said.

“Did you know?”Gil asked Tyrande. She shook her head. “No,” she said. We started walking back.

“Listen, I’m not a history nerd, I’m just long lived. It doesn’t mean that I – okay. To be real with you, history’s boring. I’m just saying that much and that’ll do it. I am the destruction teacher. The blow-stuff-up person. Yeah, alright. So maybe Rengar had some artifacts that were supposed to have been very wicked, but, I guess, we now know they weren’t. And perhaps, maybe, more than one person had been inside the mausoleum. But it’s bones, what can they possibly do?! I mean, I know, there were the zombie skeletons things that we chose to not really deal with, and we left them around there, but they’re just-” Someone (I think it was Vanessa) asked something, and Tyrande said, “The darkness is certainly magical, it’s just- alright. When the world was filled with the remains of Rengar’s magic, some of it broke.

There’s two sides to it: light, which is what we have all been using, and dark. And when they come together, it ends. This is why we fight it as fiercely as we do, and this is why it is strongest here, because this is also its source. It was blown from him when he died, and I press this again: he’s dead. He died. But he still had magic, or it wouldn’t be flying around all over the place, would it? He’s dead, Gustav’s stuck in an amulet, we’re going to forget him somewhere.”

Vanessa said something about Harry Potter.

We walked past Doge Alley, and then walked past Argon’s hut, where Argon greeted us. “How did it go?” he asked.

“Wonderfully bad,” I muttered, “I’ve made myself quite a powerful enemy.”

“We trapped the bad guy in an amulet and now everything is safe,” Marysa said. “No I’m joking,” she added quickly.

Somehow it was nightfall again - a whole day had passed.

When Jerry saw us come in, he said in his weird American-ish accent, “Hey, how are you? It’s looking good, looks like nobody died this time!” Several of us bristled at that last comment.

“Nobody may have died,” I muttered, “But some of us were close to it.”

“That’s a little bit of Jerry humour. Ehh, is it still too soon?” he continued. “Welcome back though, welcome back.”

I stayed up late to talk to Jerry-Rachael, who was on the third floor. Colena came up the elevator quietly, saw us, and hissed, “I have something to tell you.”

She led us downstairs, and outside, which thankfully the Jerry downstairs did not notice.

“I was just in Marysa’s room, about to tell her about the death of Dominic since we haven’t told her yet...and I found Gustav there. Or Rasputin, whatever you want to call him,” she said. Jerry-Rachael and I frowned. “Gustav….trapped Marysa in the amulet. But Marysa’s not the only thing in there. I saw a skeleton too. Also...Gustav is in Marysa’s room right now, sleeping.”

“Is he that careless?” I said.

“Maybe.” she shrugged. “And the Amulet’s lying at the foot of the bed. Also, Gustav said, ‘We’ll get you out soon enough now that you’re home. Nothing to worry about, Master. Soon you’ll be restored,’ to the skeleton. What do you think he meant by that?”

“Maybe….they need to restore him to human form?” Jerry-Rachael suggested.

“Yeah….and then Gustav said to Marysa, ‘we just need to make sure we don’t lose you anywhere too hard to find. Oh, I may also have to talk to you. It was easy enough talking my way past the--uh-- heh--my old friend Argon but as far as your classmates--especially the idiot one’ --he was talking about Dominic, but Marysa didn’t seem to understand that-- ‘needed to get some’ followed by something I didn’t really hear,” she said.

Jerry-Rachael nodded. “Okay. Um, Rachael, you’d better get to bed, in case somebody comes.

Colena, you’d better get out of here, before anyone sees you.”

“Alright,” Colena said. “Don’t forget what I told you.”

“We won’t,” I promised. “See you soon?”

“Next week, Monday, same time,” she said, and Colena watched as Jerry-Rachael and I went back inside the school.

I went to bed after that. I couldn’t sleep, for some reason, and I lay awake. It was then that I realized that I no longer had Gustav’s protection. I had relied on it, now that I see it, while I was hiding, but I broke it when I blasted him backwards on that hill. When I did fall asleep, I dreamed of horrible darkness, suffocating and malicious, swallowing everything I knew – before I was pulled into it and gone.

There are many adventures ahead, and many dangers, but my story shall end here for now, and it is to be continued.

Vanessa Chen We walked towards the graveyard, with Kylie holding the amulet. Then, Dominic reappeared, and I guess that she brought him out using magic. Since I was the one holding his shoes, I gave them back, and he hastily put them back on. Then, we arrived at the graveyard. I could see it on a gently sloping grassy hill, with the moonlight shining over it. Since this was a graveyard, and you could see ghosts in the Ethereal Plain, I decided to go there, even if the purpleness really messed up my eyes. There was also Dominic and Marysa too, as well. Dominic marched down towards the base of the hill, and Marysa sent an illusionary cat along with him. When it reached the base, a dog summoned by Kylie joined it, and nothing happened. He (Dominic) then decided to go down even further, and proceeded to glow like Rachael did when Tyrande put that protection spell on her. He conjured a couple of iPhone 12s and threw them. I looked around, and there was no sight of Sir Festo nor his students, so I created an illusionary ghost and sent it down towards the base of the hill.

Suddenly, the ghost disappeared as dark arrows started shooting out, and Ethan and Jayden both got shot while the corrupted centaurs started charging towards us. Elizabeth, being a coward even though she’s good at destruction magic, decides to run for it, bolting as fast as her stone legs could go. Gil and Tyrande both readied their hands and started attacking the centaurs. Kylie, who I didn’t even notice was in the Ethereal Plain, decided to teleport out. Dominic then puts out something that looks like a fire, though I’m not sure? Angela decides to zap some centaurs, as Kylie starts to float upwards. Tyrande faltered a bit when a familiar looking centaur appeared. I think his name was Rowan? Something like that. Rachael uncorrupted him by shooting something, I wasn’t looking properly because well, everything was happening so quickly, and it was in the dark, so naturally I wouldn’t be

able to see that well. Rowan said something about protecting his people, and then the darkness washed over him once again, and the centaurs quickly galloped away.