Chapter Two: A Very Important Meeting
Charlie
Ever since Dr. Saltweather took over as the headmaster of the academy, the stale air of wickedness that had once permeated the academy was gone. Dread filled the deep pits of my stomach as I noticed that feeling was slowly coming back. Dr. Saltweather took extra care that all of the windows and doors were locked and seemed to watch every student extra closely. Asa no longer slept soundly in his bed at night, instead choosing to take on his beast form and guard the courtyard. I felt that their efforts were in vain. Whoever was responsible for the break in had already gotten what they wanted. They seemed to be very content with keeping to the shadows. Catching us by surprise was the best attack against us.
Dad decided to call a meeting in the west wing after the students went home Friday evening to address the situation at hand. Whenever Billy and I had arrived, dad was already present, along with Uncle Paton, Bartholomew Bloor, Dr, Saltweather, Infinity, Manfred, and Asa. I noticed Billy and I had been the only one of the current endowed students in attendance. Dad and Dr. Saltweather were standing by the fire talking in low voices. Asa was perched on the arm of the sofa, scrolling through his phone. Manfred and Infinity sat close together on the seat of the sofa, heads bent close together as they sorted through what looked like files of some sort. When I stepped closer, I realized it was the student files of all of the endowed students by reading their surnames on the tabs
"We can obviously rule out Emma, Olivia and Dag." Infinity sat the files down on the coffee table in front of her.
Manfred had Vera's file in his hand. "Vera's endowment is slightly incriminating. Many very powerful clairvoyants can almost tap into mental awareness. Not to the point that Salem has, but Eustacia was able to know basic thoughts. She had successfully done it to Charlie once." He murmured. Neither had noticed I was standing directly behind them.
"I really don't think Vera is like that." Infinity frowned. "She seems to like you best out of all of the educators in the academy. Do you think that she could have figured out where the mirror was?"
He let out a defeated sigh. "No, I don't. There just isn't much more to go on."
"What if it's someone that you don't know?" A familiar voice said from behind me. Both Infinity and Manfred jumped in surprise, as well as myself. When I turned my head, Naren Bloor was standing behind me with her hands in the pockets of her green art cape. She had started attending the academy the same year that Vera did. "I don't see any of the current endowed doing something so awful."
"She makes a good point. It's easy to plant someone inconspicuous. Even if the endowed people can sense each other, it's not a sure thing. Titania caught us completely off guard." Manfred pointed out. "And I didn't know about Olivia's endowment until I saw her do it with my own eyes." He sat the files down on the table. "This would be easier if Salem were here."
"We can do this without Salem. He has his own life now." Naren put her hand on Manfred's head and ruffled his hair a bit. He affectionately swatted her away. Seeing them interact was always weird to me. Naren was technically his aunt, but they often behaved like siblings. Manfred was very protective of Naren and that seemed to win Bartholomew's trust very quickly.
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of dad clearing his throat. He stood in front of the fireplace with a very solemn look on his face. Dad very rarely looked serious. He was a very happy, goofy man who had a contagious smile. It was a grim reminder that if that mirror fell into the wrong hands, we would all suffer. While he had defeated Count Harken once before, his body had disappeared and we knew that there was a chance that he wasn't permanently gone. "I'm sure you know why I called all of you here." He crossed his arms and began to nervously pace in front of the fireplace. "Tuesday night, the Mirror of Amoret was stolen. What I've managed to gather is that the thief scaled the old ruin wall to access the courtyard, walked over to my daughter's window, and used possibly telekinesis or magnetism to forcibly rip the Mirror of Amoret from it's hiding place. A hiding place that only Infinity knew. There is a bit of good news in the situation. We have reason to believe that the mirror was shattered in the process. Infinity made sure that if her magic was tampered with, it would cause the mirror to break. And the only one who has ever successfully been able to fix that mirror is Charlie. We have very few leads to go off of on this. One lead is what Billy managed to scrape up. There's an old owl that has lived in the ruins for awhile and was able to give Billy a very basic description. Between what both the owl and Charlie saw, we are convinced that Joshua Tilpin was the one who took the mirror through the means of magnetism. What is worrying is that he knew exactly where to look and how to get through Infinity's magic. It is imperative that we figure out where Titania is holed up at because we already know the Tilpins' plan for that mirror."
"We do have another lead to go on, though we're not sure how reliable it is. Vera Clark had a very vague premonition where she saw a castle that used to be owned by the Bloors. Whenever all of the paperwork and properties were being transferred to my family, Blathe Castle seemed to slip under the radar of myself, my daughter, Harold Bloor, and Judge Sage. There is a chance that Harken acquired it from Ezekiel without informing anyone else and gave it to Titania. To avoid any kind of suspicion, Bart has decided to take this week to travel to Blathe Castle and see if he can figure anything out."
"Pa, is that really the best idea?" Naren interrupted, her brow furrowing. While Bartholomew had been an experienced explorer his whole life, he was getting older. I couldn't blame Naren for being worried, especially if the Tilpins were involved.
"I'll be fine." Bartholomew spoke up. "This is hardly more dangerous than sailing Grimwald's seas."
"At least take Manny with you, or me."
"If someone is here spying in the academy, it will arouse a lot of suspicion if one of the staff or an endowed student just up and leaves. I will be fine. I promise you. Your mother is going to stay with the Bones this week and everything is going to be fine." He ran a hand through his white beard and gave a confident grin. Despite almost pushing 80 years old, Bartholomew was in fantastic shape and I hoped that I looked that way at his age. If dad was confident in sending Bartholomew, I was confident too.
"So, what are we supposed to do in the meantime? What do we do if this lead gets us nowhere?" Asa asked, speaking for the first time since the meeting started. "Do we just wait for Harken and Titania to storm the academy? Do we get launched into another war?" I watched his hand gingerly go up to his chest where he had been impaled with a large shard of ice five years before. Titania had almost killed him during that fight and I couldn't blame him for being worried about going against her again.
"We get ready to fight. Panicking isn't going to get us anywhere." Dad looked around the room. "We took him down once, we can take him down again."
"Without Tancred or Lysander?" I found myself saying. Dad seemed both surprised and disappointed in my doubt.
"Enough." Infinity's stern voice cut through the tension in the room. She stood up from the couch and everyone fell silent. "Nothing is going to stop this from happening. We can either fight it or we can sit and wait for Harken to do whatever awful thing he is going to do. We're much more powerful than we were. Whatever miscreants and mediocre magicians Titania managed persuade this time don't hold a candle to what we have become in the last five years."
"Not to mention that a lot of them were only in it for money, money that Titania no longer has access to." Manfred pointed out. "I studied under Titania, as did Dagbert. I know most of their old tricks and secrets. It won't be difficult for us to take control of the situation."
"Exactly." Infinity clapped her hands together and forced a smile. "As important as this conversation is, I'm going to have to conclude this meeting, at least for right now. Lucian said his train would be arriving shortly after academy dismissal. I would prefer that we don't involve him in any of this, at least for the time being."
Lucian Maxim was Infinity's boyfriend of almost a year. He was an unendowed horror novelist who occasionally traveled to attend book signings and reveals. I had read a few of his books. They were very well written and incredibly creepy. I was surprised that he never had any of his novels turned into movies.
Dad was hesitant when they started dating, as Lucian was nearly ten years older than Infinity, but our family grew to like him a lot. He accepted our family easily despite most people still being wary of the endowed and was a genuinely kind and caring person. I couldn't blame Infinity for trying to shield him from this. With Infinity's dismissal everyone else scattered.
