This is a work of fan fiction using the characters and settings of the MMORPG Wizard101. Wizard101, its characters, the universe of the Spiral, and all the worlds therein are owned by KingsIsle Entertainment. I do not work for KingsIsle Entertainment, have any contact with them directly, or claim any ownership of their characters, concepts, or ideas. The story I have written is not purported or believed to be cannon to the game and is for entertainment purposes only. I am thankful to KingsIsle for the elaborate worlds and characters they have created, without which this story would not exist. I thank everyone and anyone who reads, follows, and supports this story or any of my work, and invite you to please support the official game. Thank you and enjoy!
Ignus Ferric sighed heavily and slumped further into his chair, as a meeting that should have taken twenty minutes was approaching two hours. It had been three weeks since Baba Yaga had returned from Dragonspyre, bringing a mostly dead Dragonspyrian back with her. From Zander's reports the poor thing had made a decent recovery thus far, after weeks of drifting in and out of consciousness she was finally awake and aware of her surroundings. She just wasn't speaking, a fact that had all the scholars up in arms, they needed any and all the information she could provide about the Titan's summoning and the girl's silence was concerning.
"-She's uninitiated, she has not earned the right to be here. On top of this we have no knowledge of her intentions." Librarian Fitzhume muttered indignantly as he crossed his arms.
"Then what would you propose we do with her, Fitzhume? Set her loose upon the Spiral? For all we know she was behind the Titan's summoning." Scholar Ione Virga said flatly.
"Based upon my observations she seems to be a victim more than anything else, and it's not like she has anywhere to go." Zander added.
Tarrak Hadfield spoke up, "Threat or not I agree with Fitzhume, we cannot allow her to wander freely. Baba Yaga already confirmed the Cabal's involvement. Until we have a better understanding of her intentions, we would be wise to keep her detained."
"I fear that detaining her may only do more harm than good. In her current state, she may be a far greater danger to herself than any of us."
The Life Scholar's comment went seemingly unnoticed as Fitzhume hissed. "We already knew the Dragonspyrians to be a power-hungry people, and this disaster is proof of that! There's too many secrets and delicate information here to allow her to remain."
At that point Jaki Whisperwind snapped, "Fitzhume! You would dare base your understanding of one person upon the ways of their entire culture?!"
"If it means keeping the knowledge in our collection out of the hands of someone who would misuse it-"
"We cannot do that to her! We have watched people before, and we can do it again! She must be given a chance to prove herself. Regardless of if we release her or not, we are responsible for what becomes of her."
"All the more reason to keep a close watch on her." Qismah finally said crossing her arms.
"-And we still haven't ruled out the possibility of her being Cabal." Fitzhume added bitterly as the room began to bicker.
"Need I remind you all that she helped to stop the titan!" Baba Yaga shouted pounding her staff into the floor trying to bring the room to order.
Tensions between the scholars rose quickly, the room exploded into a cacophonous argument shortly thereafter, an argument which showed no sign of ending. One side was determined that the survivor stay if only for her own safety, the other determined she be imprisoned or sent to the nearest inhabited world. Slowly Ignus rose from his seat, taking this as his cue to voice his opinion.
"THAT'S ENOUGH 'YA GREAT BUNCH OF PARANOID BOOKWYRMS!" Ignus boomed startling the room to silence. "One schism was bad enough; we don't need another! I understand we can't trust her, especially not after what's happened, and I understand she's going to need help if she's going to overcome the tragedy that has befallen her. But us standing here yelling about it, isn't going to do anything at all!"
"Then what do you suggest we do, Ignus?" Ioane asked quirking an eyebrow.
The fire dwarf smiled, a brilliant white smile, in it the faintest bit of hope that he could end this meeting sooner than expected, "I'm glad you asked."
Dalia Falmea took a deep breath as she sat down and wiped the sweat from her forehead, trying her best to drone out the sound of Ignus's forge. With another deep breath she resumed her previous task of pumping the forge's massive bellows. Despite her best efforts the forge grew dimmer, with a sigh she stopped the bellows and crossed the workshop, her eyes fixed upon a massive pile of coal.
Dalia was midway through filling another bucket of coal when the doors of the workshop burst open.
Startled, the young fire elf slipped and tumbled down onto the pile, causing copious amounts of the black rocks to slide downwards.
"Dalia! OH DALIA!" The familiar voice of Ignus boomed boisterously through the workshop.
"Here!" Dalia shouted back; her voice muffled underneath the pile of rocks. The more she struggled to free herself the more buried she became.
"Where is here?! I swore I just heard you, now show yourself."
The fire elf clawed at the massive pile of black rocks one hand eventually finding daylight, shortly thereafter a massive calloused hand grabbed hers and hauled her up out of the pile.
"There you are, what were you hiding in the coal for?"
"I-"
"Never mind that, go wash up and throw on a clean shirt, I've got a job for you."
Dalia was hardly surprised by what Ignus had told her, as such she followed the Pyromancy Scholar silently through the Arcanum halls. Ignus, being her mentor, he was always finding new jobs for her to do. When he did, he was always in the most cheerful of moods. These jobs usually weren't anything special, in fact they were usually very dirty or extremely tedious (it had something to do with teaching her patience and discipline). When this happened Ignus would become almost toxically cheerful even going as far as to skip down the halls on occasion. But this was different, Dalia had noticed almost right away, his boisterous chipper attitude had been replaced with a serious brooding silence. It was as if he was searching for the right words.
Clearing her throat, Dalia seized the opportunity to speak, "So what's the job exactly? I've done just about everything you needed me to do today."
"I know and I thank you for your help, I got stuck in a meeting earlier today and shall we say I unintentionally agreed to do something."
"Oh really?" She said trying to sound eager to hide her sinking heart. Knowing Ignus, she half hoped he hadn't agreed to clean the dry docks again.
"I hate messing with the lives of my understudies without their permission, but the other scholar's put me on the spot-"
Yep. He totally agreed to clean the dry docks.
"-We're moving your quarters."
"Sure, I guess I'll- Wait what?"
"We're moving you to a larger set of quarters."
"That's- That's SMOKING!" The young pyromancer exclaimed throwing her arms around the scholar's shoulders for the biggest hug she could muster.
"I suppose now would also be a good time to mention that we're giving you a roommate as well." Ignus said slowly.
This statement only made the young fire elf more excited, "Really?! Who?"
"I'm sure you're aware of the refugee Baba Yaga brought back from Dragonspyre."
Dalia gave him a quizzical look, "You mean the raving one, who broke out of the infirmary a couple of weeks ago?"
"Aye, that's the one, though she's more coherent now than she was then. -Anyway, the Scholars are worried about turning her loose, and Zander is concerned about what could happen if she spends too much time alone, if you get what I'm saying. So, after a 'heated' debate I convinced them to let her stay and you were the best person I could think of for the job. So, I volunteered you to help keep an eye on her. At least until we can determine that she is not a threat and has healed up enough to leave."
"Why would they think she's a threat?"
"Never mind that, all you need to know is what happened in Dragonspyre was terrible, and the Scholar's want to rule out the possibility of her having anything to do with it. Understand?"
"Of course."
"Good. Now it's a simple job, all you've got to do is go everywhere she goes and watch for any suspicious behavior. That includes going to meals and the privy, if she needs a shoulder to cry on, you're there for her. She's going to be spending a few hours with Zander every day so he can tend to her injuries, while she's doing that you and I will be having some one-on-one lessons.
As far as I am concerned the Arcanum is her home for the moment, so we're allowing her to roam the most of it, Fitzhume is making up a list of places she's not allowed to be. But if she asks about the Cabal door, it is possibly dangerous, don't let her near it, and anything beyond it is strictly off-limits to everyone here. Alright?"
Dalia nodded again.
"Great. Both Zander and I will be expecting weekly reports on her progress, and we expect you to be as detailed as reasonably possible. However, if you see or hear anything that is the slightest bit concerning, you come straight to me, Zander, or the nearest scholar. Think you can handle all that?"
"Definitely, not a problem at all."
"Wonderful!" Ignus exclaimed, coming to a stop outside the recovery room's door, "Zander wants to introduce you to her right now. So, stand up straight, smile-"
"I know what to do Ignus." Dalia said through gritted teeth.
"I know you do; in the meantime, I'm going to oversee getting your things moved. There's no rush, so take all the time you need to get acquainted." Ignus said as he began to walk away, "Oh! And before I forget, this is very important. Zander told me to tell you before you go in there, under no circumstances, and I mean none whatsoever, are you to talk about dragons, got it?"
"Got it."
"Good, now break a leg. Not really, I'll see you two soon enough."
Dalia chuckled, waiting for Ignus to be out of sight before taking a deep breath and knocking lightly on the door.
The fire elf counted out five minutes without any sign of the door budging, Dalia wondered what was taking so long. Perhaps there was a sudden change, perhaps something happened? Another ten minutes went by and she started to pace the hall, trying to assure herself that Ignus had led her to the correct door. Perhaps she didn't want to meet her, perhaps it was an elaborate prank? Dalia shook her head, trying to force the doubt out of her mind, they probably didn't hear her knock.
Dalia raised her hand to knock again, before her hand could graze the door it clicked open. The Theurgy Scholar opened the door further, looking up at her with a slight smile on his face.
"She's just inside, I've left a copy of her treatment record in there. If you need me, you know where to find me." Zander said before walking off.
A small knot's worth of nerves found themselves in Dalia's stomach. A certain mix of excitement and uncertainty, she'd never been shy when it came to new people but for the first time Dalia hardly knew what to expect. From what little she knew of Dragonspyrians, they were a very strict, militaristic culture, which valued strength and power. A thought which unnerved her slightly.
No time like the present. Dalia thought as she strode into the room.
At first the elf thought the room was empty, her heart skipping a beat as her eyes roamed across the room. After a few seconds her eyes fell over a female figure, staring out the window. It took it a moment to register in Dalia's head this was the person she'd been charged with looking after, and she was far from what her mind had pictured moments ago.
She was about her height, thin but lithe, with wispy reddish auburn hair that had been pulled back from her face. She stood with the most pristine posture Dalia had ever seen, dressed in a simple long skirt and tunic, her gaze focused on the swirls of dust and magical matter beyond the window. The young pyromancer could not help but notice the paleness of her face and the dark circles beneath her eyes. The expression she wore was lifeless and forlorn, a faint sullen frown upon her face.
She flicked her green gaze in Dalia's direction as a faint acknowledgement of presence; whether her silence was intentional or not the young elf couldn't tell. Unsure of what to do, Dalia slowly meandered in her direction, before sparing a glance at the small stack of paperwork Zander had left for her.
'Patient's Name: Unknown', had been neatly written at the top.
Wow, even Zander can't get anything out of her. Dalia thought as she looked back in the young woman's direction. She hadn't moved a muscle, if the pyromancer hadn't known any better she might have thought her a statue.
Looking further down the paper, Dalia couldn't help but notice how most of the boxes had been left blank, filled with guess work, or question marks. The most common word on the paper was 'unknown'.
With that, the young elf tentatively drew closer and spoke softly, "Hello, I'm Dalia Falmea."