TL note: Gaëlle is the girl Akko talked to during that animal language class in the episode Orange Submariner.
"That's why I think it's odd. If you believe their words, apparently I stayed in the guild room since the beginning, never leaving with my party and thus making me a prime suspect".
"That is weird, really grinds the ol' walnuts", the girl with the wig says. She sits cross-legged on her wooden bench, stroking her non-existent beard as she thinks my words through.
"Maybe you have a long lost twin, who somehow end up in this same school as you", the girl dressed in thief clothing says with a shrug.
The gagged girl also pitches in, she speaks her idea, but with the cloth wrapped around her mouth, it's impossible to hear it.
"What did you say?" I ask her, but it's Wigs who responds.
She shakes her head and says, "She said that your future self time travelled to the past to this moment, which is why two versions of yourself exist".
Muffles speaks again, and despite her muffle-ness, I can make out what she says this time.
"Morrowind".
"That guess sounds oddly specific, but okay", I remark and not give her idea any second thought.
"Good luck with that guess", thief eventually agrees with me. "That's as possible as a dragon attacking the school".
The girls' humouring sort of gets to me. Their ridiculous suggestions and half-serious take on my otherwise serious matter eventually makes me feel better now that I realize I could be overthinking things and all this is just a simple and silly misunderstanding and that they'll end before I knew it.
"With that being said…" Wigs' words cuts me out of my own world, and I realize I've been out of what they're conversing about these last minutes. She turns to the guard still standing outside our cell and says. "Hey, Bucket-head, bring us some food, will ya?"
The guard turns and says, "What, you think you'd find a McDonalds down in this god forsaken place?"
Wigs shrugs, "just asking".
"Is this place really that bad you'd call it that?" Thief asks.
"It sort of is", I answer, reminiscing my adventure with my party.
We spent the next minutes just arguing and bantering about mostly unnecessary stuffs, and eventually our conversation drifts into our experiences in the labyrinth so far and how they end up here. Apparently, these three are not in the same team, each has their own stories to tell: from their battles against rats, trolls, and snakes, to their diverse reasons of being thrown here that ranges from stealing sweet rolls and failing a rebellion to failed usurpations and affairs in the court. These three's backstories are diverse and unbelievable to the point that I soon suspect these are just their roleplaying stories.
Our story-telling session comes to an abrupt end when the guard suddenly hushes us down. We were confused but do as she says.
"I was getting to the good part" Wigs complains.
"You didn't hear that?" the guard asks, bewildered.
We stay silent again, trying to hear whatever the guard wants us to hear. What made us realize what she meant is not from a noise, but from the ground beneath us.
The whole room felt like it shook. We all stop our activities and share shocked stares, wondering if any one else felt that. Thief is the one who breaks the silence, or she would've, as when she opens her mouth, the room shakes a second time and she, who'd been sitting in a precarious way on her stone bed, loses her balance and falls to her side.
"What was that?!" Wigs cries and stands up, eyes frantically searching the room.
The shaking sends a wave of ripples on a puddle of water on the floor, once, twice, thrice, and still counting. We all look to each other, all with questions in our heads. Eventually, the muffled girl says something and Wigs goes to her to remove the gag.
"Alduin", she says, and I immediately take the cloth and put it back to her mouth.
The next thing we hear is the clinking of keys. We look to the door and found the guard hastily fumbling over her keys as she tries to find the right one. She swings the door open and motions us out, "Oookay roleplaying's over, let's get the hell out of here!"
—
When we return to the main guild room, everything is already in chaos. All the adventurers are on the move, panicked and confused as they pour through the tightly packed corridor that leads to the exit above. Gaëlle tries her best to maintain order among them, she tries to coordinate the evacuation while ordering the guards to stay and prepare the stockpiled treasures for transport.
The whole foundation shakes yet again, sending the students into further panic that most of them drop their treasures where they stand and try to leave. Gaëlle notices our little group in the crowd and points to the exit. "Leave everything and just go! Leave the treasures to us!"
—
The mass of students going through the narrow and bottlenecked corridors makes progress slow and arduous. The way out is a struggle, and even more so when we're grouped up, so eventually, our little merry band of inmates agrees to split up.
"Stick close to the walls", Wigs says to me with a wink as she, along with Thief and Muffles, gives me a thumbs up.
With that, the team of role-player inmates push through the crowd to their own slightly separate ways, and soon enough, they disappear completely.
Goodbye you beautiful bastards.
Eventually on my way out, I spot a tiny metallic figure moving easily through the thick crowd, its size a big contributor to this feat. Remembering where I last I saw it and who it belongs to, I decide to follow it, true enough, it leads me to its master.
"Constanze, what's going on?" I ask the girl once I catch up to her, but strangely enough, it's Amanda who answers me.
"I don't know! I'm pretty sure it's not role playing, though".
The foundation shakes again. It's enough to make us hasten our pace. As we run, I try to stick close to the three for the sake of answers. I ask them, "Do you think it's an earthquake?"
"No idea!" Amanda answers. "Never felt one, never knew what it's like!"
"I remember hearing a noise", Jasminka says from behind and we turn. "Like a growl".
That can't be right, but it can't be wrong either. Is it possible that such a large creature, that's capable of creating these tremors, live somewhere inside this vast labyrinth? Remembering the towering skeleton from earlier, it's not far-fetched to think something bigger could live here.
To that thought, I swallow. "I just hope you heard wrong, Jasminka".
We try to push past the mass of students, and I'm soon reminded that it's very difficult to do so and at the same time keep close with each other. In the ensuing panic, it's not uncommon to be pushed or pulled, so I came to ignore most. But eventually, one was strong enough to make me stumble and fall to the ground. Whoever ran into me too, fell to the ground, her treasure spilled to the ground.
"Gosh, I'm so sorry!" I exclaim and instinctively help grab the treasures.
"Don't mind it, I should be getting used to it by now".
As I help the girl gather her treasures, I couldn't help but catch a glance of her features. It made me pause. This isn't because of some reasons you'd find in romantic stories, I pause when I notice how jarringly disturbing the person in front of me looks like.
Right in front of me, crouching on the floor and grabbing the spilt treasures just as I am, is a person that looks exactly the same as me—same shoulder length black hair, same black eyes, same everything. I'm staring at myself, and eventually… he too looks up. Our eyes meet and both of us stop what we're doing. Both of us stays perfectly still, no words spoken and no movement made, a complete contrast to the loud and hectic chaos around us.
"Whoops", was what's first said by… him.
Before I could form any response, hegrabs the rest of the treasures, shoved it in his bag that also looks exactly the same as mine, and runs away, slipping through and disappearing into the crowd.
"What- how?" I exclaim to no one but myself, but soon find myself answering my own question. "Doppelganger!"
Transformation magic exists in this world, and I've seen it a few times before. There's no reason for me to get bewildered by this aside from this one just so happens to take my form.
However, taking all that happened today into account, this doppelganger isn't that simple of a problem that should be ignored. It doesn't take long for me to figure it out: the missing treasures, the contradicting yet widely supported accusations, and the doppelganger and its treasures, they're all connected. Someone's transformed into me and used my form to slip around the guild room while I was out with my party to steal and effectively put the blame on me. And now that it's discovered, it won't ever show up in the school ever again in my form. If I let it go now, I'll never get to apprehend whoever it is.
I shake myself out of hesitation and, despite myself, found my legs pushing me to where the mysterious doppelganger went to. I eventually found it in the crowd and notice it slipping out of the crowd and into a wayward corridor where no one goes through, presumably because it doesn't lead to the exit. Unknown to the green team, I indignantly, despite the emergency we're in, follow.
—
I lost track of time and fail to realize that, as the chase goes on, the doppelganger's led me progressively further away from the evacuating students. Before I knew it, the chase leads me into a foreign room that describing it as large would be an understatement.
The room that we're in is gargantuan, so much so that calling it a room not only feels like a grand understatement, but also a mismatch. It became quite clear to me that what we've entered is more of a natural cave instead of a man-made room; its floor is dominated by natural rocks instead of the mossy cobblestones I've come to associate the labyrinth's interiors with, and its ceilings are that of a cave; riddled with natural stalactites. The room lacks any hint of human masonry. No light we have can hope to light the edges of this massive cave, and I hear no sound except for our heavy footsteps.
The direction this doppelganger took and the place we arrive at gives me the idea that it did this intentionally so no other students could look at the two of us and figure out its disguise of me. The idea that all this running away is a planned strategy unsettles me, so I intent to stop the chase altogether. The distance between us wouldn't allow weak spells to reach it, so I need to use something special, something Michelle taught me.
I prepare my wand and begin swinging it around in a circular motion continuously. It seems like a redundant, bordering dumb activity, but it soon shows its meaning. Just like blood, I feel raw magic pushed to the end of my arm by the centrifugal force my swinging is producing. Soon I feel magic concentrating on the tip of my wand.
This is Nent, a traditional and historical spell casting form of spell slinging—a compromise between physical and arcane prowess. Literally the act of slinging spells, Nent is usually mastered by those without spectacular magical reserve, needing such physical feat to boost their magic. They're quite popular centuries ago among spellslingers of old.
Without waiting any longer, I throw this manually concentrated magic towards my target.
I cast a fire spell ahead of the doppelganger instead of directly at it, it lands true to its mark and fire engulfs the path it's about to take. The fire was meagre, but it came sudden enough to surprise it and stop it in his tracks. The doppelganger turns to me and I'm thrown off at the sight of my face again. I've seen it a million times through reflections, but this is entirely different and I doubt I can ever get used to it.
I note the sudden movement of its fingers. Fearing it has something dangerous, I pull my wand back and fashion another spell. With a twirl of my wand, the fire that's been lit behind the doppelganger is given life, and it lunges towards it like snakes. They tightly coil around its body and constrict it of any movement. This is the same spell I used during my teamwork with Hannah in disabling the late Lemmy. Hopefully this person doesn't have the golem's gorilla strength and rip through it.
I can only keep up such complex spell for a limited time, such is the nature of all spells I cast—I may have great knowledge of many spells, but my terrible reserve of magic makes me unable to actually cast most spells I know. This is a risky move on my part, but the doppelganger has no idea of any of this. If I could keep up a façade and convince it that I'm capable of binding it like this forever until it squeezes out information, then the risk will be worth the reward. I just have to hide my weakness well from it.
But before I could carry out my plan, he surprises me.
"30 seconds", it says, its voice level and a perfect copy of mine, further unsettling me. It stares at me, showing no hesitation in its familiar black eyes and taunts, "You won't last 30 seconds holding up this spell…"
I let my surprise show only for a split second—it's enough for him to pick up.
How did he know? How could he possibly know? My plan is as good as ruined if he knows this early.
No, I have to stay calm. This has to be a ploy—he must be trying to throw me off with a wild guess, but how could it hit so close to the truth?
It keeps a calm façade, and its unwavering gaze shows how confident it is with his guess. I do a great job keeping my poker face up so far, but I fail immediately when it continues…
"…You first gen wizard".
What?!
The doppelganger loses its smile and grunts as its fiery chains tighten.
How could it possibly know?! Literally no one in this school but Michelle knows that, and she's not one to talk lightly of it. How could this person know such detail about me without me being aware?
Contrasting it, I couldn't mimic its level of calmness at all. My irresponsiveness is all the more glory to the doppelganger, and the pain I just gave it is more sign that it's won one part of the fight. It smiles cockily, and turns something in its hand.
It may've figured out my plan, but that doesn't mean I've lost the upper hand.
"Don't try anything funny!" I shout and use one of the fiery coils to wrap around the item in its hand. With a pull of my wand, the fiery coil twirls and throws the item towards me.
I catch the item and inspect it. It's a gold coin.
The gold coin is nothing incredible. Its inscriptions are dull, its edges chipped, and dirt covers its dull surface, this coin is nothing remarkable, if not old. I've expected much of it, but aside from its material value, I could feel nothing special in it that would explain the doppelganger's confidence.
"Sorry, Franklin", the doppelganger suddenly speaks again, further unsettling me as it maintains the same level of calmness and manages a small shrug. "There's nothing personal about this. I just wanted to join in the fun".
It snaps its fingers and I suddenly feel it. Magic, I feel it violently coursing within the coin. The next thing I feel is a shock of electricity all across my body. It felt as if a thousand burning needle just stabbed all over my senses and killing them.
I lose control of my feet and fall to the ground, my wand clattering on the floor next to me.
The fiery coils are immediately undone and the doppelganger releases a breath it's been holding. I notice this, noting that the spell it just used takes a toll on it too.
The ground shakes again, and I'm reminded of the emergency we're in that I ignored. But the doppelganger doesn't show any care, it calmly approaches me instead, and I'm alarmed to find that I cannot move at all, not even lift a finger.
This guy is not joking. This is a real paralyzing spell.
It crouches in front of me and the first thing it does is checking my bag and pockets. It found the few treasures I kept in there and doesn't try to hide its disappointment. "Dammit. I knew you won't carry much, not with Gaëlle hogging all the treasures".
Nonetheless, it takes them anyway. I can only watch helplessly as the doppelganger takes my treasures for itself.
The ground shakes again, but the doppelganger still doesn't care, too busy gathering its loot. Only when a second tremor follows, and this one greater and much closer than the previous, does it react. The doppelganger pauses its looting and looks around immediately, scanning the wide room as best it can with the little light that's present from my discarded wand.
Without warning, the ground shakes again, much stronger this time, and the doppelganger stumbles and falls to the floor.
"That can't be good", it says.
This jolt of adrenaline is just what my body needed to kick out of the paralyzing spell. Clumsily, I try to push myself up, only to fall again. The combination of numb muscles and unsteady earth is not good for standing up.
Before I could try again, the doppelganger is already fleeing the scene. It carries its bag overflowing with treasures and leaves, running further into the darkness of the room until I can no longer see its form.
With the doppelganger gone, I try to forget about anything else for now and focus all my strength on getting up, fighting against the painful numb doing so. So caught up I am on just getting up that that I fail to notice that the doppelganger had turned on its heels and changed direction. Running past me and towards the corridor we entered from, it cries, "Wrong way!"
Bewildered, I lift my head to see why it'd changed direction, and my question's immediately answered.
Fire, liquid like a wave in the sea, spreads far ahead on the end of the wide room. Like flood water they spread to fill every surface of the wide room, splashing against high rocks and pillars just like ocean waves crashing onto rocks and coastal cliffs. The fire is so strong it's enough to light part of the dark room, and reveals to me something I'd closely describe to a volcanic eruption.
The sight before me makes me forget all senses of reason and pain and force my legs to carry me to the nearest possible exit—the narrow corridor the doppelganger just ran into. However, my legs still tremble and they give in numerous times. I force myself to not look back and give me another serving of shock and just focus on getting the hell out of here. With my back turned, I had no idea just how close the flame is until I could feel the hot air licking behind me. It's enough to send more adrenaline into me and give my legs the possible kick to run into the exit.
Reaching the exit, I turn and see the fire behind me splashing violently in the distance. It'll take a few times until it arrives in this tight corridor, but once it does, they'll force their way into the tight space and could potentially be faster.
Many questions regarding the fire's origin are plentiful but all ignored. All I have in my mind is to run away from this inferno, all problems before it has gone out of my mind.
—
It's only until I reached the upper level do I realize I cannot see or feel the fire behind me anymore. Only the tell-tale cloud of black smoke follows me this far up.
I let myself stop only briefly to take a breather. The priority now is to get out of here and find out just what's happening. I should only rest and stop to think once I get out of here, once safety is assured. But later I find that I'll have to delay that further when I finally arrive at the labyrinth's entrance.
The labyrinth gate is badly damaged, a good chunk of them had been crushed and made into rubble on the floor, and the locks are now but broken bars, joining the rest of the rubble. Dust and smoke limits my vision, yet despite this, I push through the broken gate. My eyes widen once the thick smoke dissipates and I get to see what's become of the rest of the room.
The room I was just in a few hours ago looks nothing like it was. It now looks like a scene taken straight out of an action movie. Students are running around in panic, all trying to find a way out while chunks of stone fall from the crumbling ceiling and pillars, lifting dust to the air and rocking the ground as they land on the once smooth and clean floors, now littered by debris produced from the destruction. They block passage and causes difficulty on the still on-going evacuation of the panicked students. And a hole, gargantuan in size, has been formed on the far side of the room's wall. I've no idea how that's created.
I've unnumbered questions, but they fall short when I saw the doppelganger amidst the chaos. It slips through the crowd of students with its treasure-filled bag still slung on its back, leaving a trail of gold like Hansel & Gretel. Despite everything, I still feel the urge to confront it, fearing that if it's to escape my sight again, I wouldn't be able to see it ever again.
But before I could take one step forward, I'm stopped by Professor Ursula. She brings her broom to a stop right in front of me and says, "We're evacuating everyone, you have to go!"
"Ursula, professor! Someone morphed into me and tried to steal treasures and he attacked me and h-he tried to-!"
"Jericho! This is an evacuation. This isn't the time for that!"
Whatever I wanted to say falls short. I didn't expect the soft spoken professor to shout so suddenly like that.
I look past her and towards the fleeting image of my doppelganger. For each second passing, it shrinks further in the distance and nears the exit—the gargantuan hole in the wall—in any seconds, it'd be out of the chaos and out of my reach for good.
The professor continues, and I focus back on her once I realize I've missed what she's been saying. "A monster broke out from the labyrinth, someone must've awakened it. We need all of you to get to safety".
The professor stops and bites her lip. I could tell just from her wordless gaze that she's more to say but find difficulty in saying it. After a moment of hesitation, she says, "There are many students not yet evacuated", and stops.
My brows arch, I'm not sure what to make of her statement.
The professor immediately takes flight after that and, as if wanting me to forget what she said, says, "Follow Diana's instructions for the evacuation. Please, leave everything that might slow you down behind and stay safe!"
Before I have the time to think of what she said, I notice a commotion coming from the stairs that leads up the tower. Some students rush down the stairways, among them I hear.
"There're still people up there!" One of them says.
"Leave them for the teachers to handle. We gotta get out of here", another tells her.
I look around, seeing past the chaos looking for Professor Ursula, or any able-bodied teacher, to tell them, but I find none. They're all either too far away or already have their hands full. But then my eyes drift upwards and towards a streaking figure riding a broom, its Diana. I'm very surprised to find that she doesn't use it to escape. Instead, she uses it to easily move around the rubble-riddled room and clear them to make way for the evacuating students and at the same time help coordinate them. Despite the chaos, she shows zero intention in leaving.
Is this what the professor meant earlier?
I bite my lip. My mind's yet to make up the decision but my feet already take me up the stairs. I've previously thought the idea of helping to be mad, but seeing Diana, I begin to feel shame that I've thought of running away with the rest while I'm still fully capable of using magic.
Before I leave, I turn around but not to see the professor for guidance or Diana for confidence, but towards the doppelganger for perhaps the last time ever. It doesn't even spare a second to look back as it passes through the hole and exits the chaos.
Burying my indignation, I press on and begin my climb.
—
"Another to add to the list of my bad decisions in life", I say to myself as I climb up the stairs. It's a habit of mine I couldn't get rid of; I often speak to myself during moments of my bad decision as it keeps my sanity somewhat calm.
During my climb, I've found and directed a handful of panicked and disoriented students. So far I hadn't done anything grand and daring, just using words to tell people where to go and what to do, but I get the impression it's a big help for them more than I perceive it.
'Stick close to the walls', I thought to myself and almost smile. I almost said that to one of the evacuating students and I feel sinful for letting that thought entertain me.
"They're evacuating through the main door, Professor Ursula and Diana are going to help you there if you need anything. Leave anything that's holding you down!" I tell the last group of students I sent downstairs.
"Come on, why are you so slow?" I say to myself in quiet as I saw those girls off.
After this, I let myself stop to take a breather and wait in the room the students I just sent down were using to hide. A rumble and a roar from outside make me pause and, for the first time since this happened, try to think what's happening. Aside from all the things that happened with the doppelganger, thoughts on the monster that the professor mentioned begin to cross my mind. Whatever monster escaped, it must've been huge that it caused such tremors. Luckily, anything that big to cause tremors couldn't possibly be anything but a land dweller, which means as long as this tower holds out, I'll be relatively safe.
Along the spiralling stairways I continue until I found a dead end. Piles of rubble and have blocked any way upwards.
"Who left these here, honestly?"
The rubble is thick, formed of collapsed walls and ceilings and so tight a goblin won't make it through. Taking a deep breath and after complaining to no one in particular, I prepare my wand to move the rubbles. They're many and heavy so I'd have to move them one piece at a time. I don't fail to note that anyone like Diana wouldn't have any problem moving all the rubble in an instant.
"If I finish this and it turns out no one's up there…"
I was about to continue with my work and personal ramblings when an explosion rocks the whole foundation. It originates from in front of me, an explosion of rocks that makes me fall back. I instinctively shielded my eyes, and when I uncover them, I'm amazed to find the wall ahead of me has been completely destroyed, rammed from outside by something big. The wall is no longer and now the blue sky outside is visible from here, and there, the perpetrator of this destruction.
It's a dragon, flesh and skin. Wings black and thick as the night and its belly red like the fire it could spew. It's big, big enough to fit the hole that was made in the room down below—the one that it made.
I didn't realize I've been frozen still, my mind blank. Time felt like it stopped, and it resumed once the dragon eyes—glowing like fire—meets mine.
The dragon rears its head backwards and draws breath, its nostrils flare and its belly expands. There, my body felt numb and my heart feels it skips more than a beat.
A dragon that size, the flame it could spew; impossible for me to defend against with my magic. Standing my ground is unthinkable.
The dead end ahead of me; I can't move the rubble quick enough to allow access.
The tight spiralling stairway I'm in; it'll make retreat nigh impossible. The flame could engulf this narrow stairway for miles like air flowing through a flute's narrow pipe.
The only way out of the flame is to throw myself out the broken wall, but with no means of flight, that is simply suicide.
The dragon and its maw that will have to open once it's ready to burn me to ashes; I could throw my strongest spells into it once it does, but that'll require great firepower I don't possess.
The dragon snaps its mouth open, revealing its man-sized teeth and flaming throat—I realize my time is up. The scenarios in my head will no longer be in my head, I'll take a first-hand experience of them here in real life.
I feel my heart leap out of my chest and my hands and knees buckle, but the threat of death makes them astronomically irrelevant when the push of survival overcomes all my fears and senses.
Instead of running away, I stand my ground and take my wand.
Instead of using it to defend, I use it to attack.
Instead of directly attacking the dragon, I aim my wand at the rubble.
Instead of trying to clear through the rubble, I levitate only one big piece of rubble.
And swing my wand with all my force towards the dragon's mouth.
Before I knew it, I'm watching the rock I threw fly towards the dragon's gaping mouth and lodge itself right in its throat.
The dragon's eyes widen and its neck contracts on reflex. Smoke violently erupts from the dragon's throat as the erupting fire is denied exit, and it's forced to rear its head back and violently try to vomit out the alien object causing it. Smoke bursts out from its mouth in coughs, and it painfully chokes out liquid fire.
It all happened in an instant—I didn't even remember myself ordering my body to do it. It felt surreal, like something foreign took wrest the controls of my body and handles it instead of me. So much was I astonished by my own feat that I fail to realize the golden opportunity presented before me, only when the dragon's eyes, red with anger, meet mine again do I break out of my daze and waste my opportunity no longer. My feet take me down the stairs before I could even think.
A dragon! What is a dragon doing in this place?! If I knew what we're dealing with I would've ran away much earlier!
I'd thought that I'm safe, that the dragon would stop giving chase once I run far enough, but I was wrong. The dragon's tail slams the side of the tower, caving through its walls easily. The stairway ahead had also caved in and grows steep, and further down it's collapsed completely. In reaction I try to stop my descent, but the unsteady ground coupled with my buckling legs makes it almost impossible to do so in time. I lose my footing and felt my ankle twist painfully as I land my foot incorrectly. My back meets the stair edges painfully as I tumble down the stairs without stop. At this rate, I'll fall through the collapsed stairs.
Nothing stops me from tumbling down, I desperately reach out to find anything to stop me from falling but find nothing. I cry for help—it's the only thing I feel like I could do.
Thankfully, the reply soon comes as a hand holds onto my own, stopping me from tumbling to my fall. I gasp out in surprise and waste no more time. I hold tightly onto the hand that holds me and attempt to pull myself up.
"Gotcha", I hear my saviour say. I look up to see who it is and my eyes widen in shock as they meet eyes as similar as mine.
The doppelganger is here, beads of sweat trickling down its shaky hands as they precariously hold my weight from falling.
It says, "Now don't be alarmed, I'm just—"
But I was alarmed, I gasp and accidentally jerk my hand so hard out of surprise that he lost hold of me and I fall down the stairs again.
—
When I wake up, I find myself in a wide room and lying on a soft mattress, but all is quiet safe for the drumming beat of the rain outside.
Rain, but wasn't it clear?
I sit up and look around. I'm indeed back inside the room in front of the labyrinth's entrance. The room is relatively the same as last I saw it, just less rubble, there're not that many students left and those that are mostly quiet and resting on similar mattresses as mine. Goblins and other fairies however have come here and it seems they're preparing to clean the place up. I note how some of the students around me are being treated by nurses, and the bandage I receive on my ankle and across my forehead indicates I was one of them. It's just that… I don't remember what gave me injury there.
I look outside through the gargantuan hole on the wall and note the already dark sky, made even darker by the circling thick clouds and the pouring rain. The room is kept warm and lit by torches and candles, creating dancing shadows across the tall, crumbled walls as people pass through them. These are normal flames, warm red and welcoming. In normal circumstances, I wouldn't bother differentiating one flame from the other, but these are 'normal' flames, they're more comfortable to look at than those unsettling green or even blue magical flames some witches and wizards tend to like.
Looking at the hole, I'm soon reminded of its perpetrator and I begin to slowly remember what I forget.
I look across the room again towards the injured students being treated and I'm surprised to find Diana there, and even more surprised still that she's not on the receiving end, but rather, she helps the nurses tend to the injured students, despite being covered in dirt and some scratches and bruises herself.
I now remember what she's doing during the hectic chaos. She stood her ground and dutifully evacuated the students, not leaving despite being able to easily do so. And now, she doesn't even rest from helping others despite her own condition.
I didn't realize she was this nice. I wonder if she was the one that tended to my injury.
That thought alone makes my cheeks go warm.
"Hey".
I snap my gaze away and look to the source of the interruption. Besides me is Gaëlle, herself seated on a mattress next to mine. Bandages adorn her cheeks and forehead and a crack is visible on her thick glasses.
"Treasure's all gone", she says solemnly.
I force my eyes to meet hers, my cheeks grow warm but I try to ignore it. "That's unfortunate…"
"Swallowed by the earth, literally".
"Biblical".
"And I don't know, maybe even if they're not lost, they won't get scored anyway. It seems like the event got cancelled entirely, not that I'm wholly against that—".
"Did you saw me staring?" I interrupt, to which Gaëlle fixes her glasses irritably and snaps.
"Yes! Now will you listen to a word I'm saying?" She yells irritably. I believe this is the first time I heard her ever raise her voice that high.
Being loud, we attract the attention of some of the students around us and even awakened those resting nearby. Some of the nurses even hush us from the distance. A light blush grows on Gaëlle's cheeks and she buries her mouth behind her hands, she seems quite ashamed at her own doings.
It wasn't long that we attract the attention of three particular individuals.
"Ho hoh! You're alive!" I hear Amanda call out. That peace-breaking, overly-friendly, loud and American accented voice makes me recoil and make a funny face. I turn and found the entirety of the green team. Surprisingly, none of them sports any bandages or any signs of injury.
Amanda then pats Constanze 's back and says, "told ya, Cons, he's alright, there's nothing to worry about!"
I was surprised at this, but then I look at Constanze and realize that her expression is nothing close to worry, just that impossible to read, passive expression she'd been wearing most of the time since I met her. I figure that Amanda is just messing with me.
Jasminka takes a seat between my mattress and Gaëlle's, she has two warm cups of coco on her hands and offers them to me and Glasses. "Want some?" she offers with a smile warmer than the drinks.
We take the warm cups and drink. The sweetness and warmth of the drink fights the cold rainy wind away, I could feel my energy and focus getting back to me quickly.
"This is so nice, thanks, Jasminka", I smile, a smear of coco covering my lips.
"Thanks…" Gaëlle mumbles her thanks, for a moment she stops from drinking and eyes her coco quietly.
"I made them myself", Jasminka beams brightly, she's very much happy that she's able to help us in a way she can.
Amanda leans closer to us and inspects our bandages respectively. She asks, "So, what happened to you two if you don't mind me asking?"
Gaëlle fidgets for a bit when she was addressed, something I didn't fail to notice.
"She lost her treasures on the run, she's pretty upset about it", I answer in Gaëlle's vice, giving her a 'see? I was listening' look when she looks at me.
Gaëlle presses the rim of her cup to her lips but doesn't drink. She opens her mouth, but the words came out more later, "Yeah. I was… trying to save the treasures and failed".
She says that quietly and it's clear that she's embarrassed about it. At first, I'd thought her reasoning is laughable, born out of gross greed, but the more I think about it, the less I could find fault in this girl. On first glance, to risk your wellbeing trying to save material wealth is foolish, but in her defence, no one at the time of our escape knew the severity of the situation until later towards the end, so the decisions they take then, however wise it seemed at that time, when seen now might seem wholly irrational.
I smile to myself more than towards anyone in particular. Figuring out a person's values after first thinking badly of them is always a rewarding feeling for me.
But apparently, someone doesn't quite understand. Amanda's joyous cackling cuts through the quiet and serious atmosphere, the rest of us look to the girl and her antiques with wide eyes.
"What, that's so dumb?!" Amanda exclaims and points to the bandages adorning Gaëlle. "You got those just because you're trying to save some treasures?"
Gaëlle and I, no, wait, all four of us look at Amanda with quiet, judging stares.
At least Amanda is wise enough to notice this and realize that she's on the wrong side of things and finally retracts her statement. "I mean, uh… what do I know? Maybe the treasure was important after all!"
The apology is half-baked, medium rare at best, but Gaëlle doesn't seem to mind, or she just thinks it's not worth her energy to confront Amanda and accidentally raise her voice again. Gaëlle says nothing and just lifts the cup to meet her lips and drink the warm coco.
Talk about being tact.
Salvaging the situation, Jasminka softly smiles to Gaëlle and says. "At least you two are okay. That's the most important thing, right?"
Gaëlle's eyes trails away, and for a moment I thought she'd actually say no.
"I guess", she quietly says and takes another sip.
Sensing Gaëlle's reluctance under the spotlight, or just plain trying to save her own skin, Amanda turns to me for a change of focus and asks, "What about you?"
"I'm not sure…" I mumble my answer. "But whatever it is, it made me black out and forgot things, hopefully nothing important".
It's the truth, I can't remember much aside from the fact that there's a dragon on the loose and the students evacuating, any detail about that is still blurry to me. I'm no doctor, I've no idea how concussions to the head work. I can only hope my memory will come back to me eventually and no damage it left was permanent.
"I may have had a concussion", I say, pointing to the very obvious bandage wrapped around my head.
"I just hope you don't have amnesia for real" Amanda says.
"Sorry, what's your name again?" I ask Amanda, and she replies only with a chuckle.
I would've returned the laugh, but I'm stopped when I notice Constanze approaching me and offering me something. It's my wand.
"We found it earlier", Jasminka explains. "We checked it over and thankfully there's no damage to it".
Still fearing there's possible damage, I carefully take the wand from Constanze's hands, but I'm glad to find Jasminka's words as true and say, "I must've dropped it. I can't remember how, though".
"It'll come back to you", Jasminka says with a smile.
"Just like my wand, yeah". I reply with a smile as well, her optimism infectious.
There's a brief silence after that, and I take the opportunity to enjoy the warm drink quietly. The endless beating of the rain outside, the warmth provided by the crackling fire and the dancing shadows they create across the room, and the distant sounds of laughs and conversations, they give me a particular feeling of longing and serenity. It's an atmosphere so gentle yet palpable, it's something that's hard to describe with words: the time when you and the people around you are restless, awake and working, but they and the atmosphere around is just quiet, calm, and restful. What I'm trying to say here is that everything feels comfortable, right now and just like this.
"Hey, I'm thinking", Amanda's voice makes us all turn to the girl. She looks to us all with half a smile, "You know, I think the treasure hunt was a success after all. We did find our treasures".
At this, Jasminka smiles too. Constanze doesn't, but nods in agreement anyway.
Gaëlle and I, however, already know where Amanda's going at.
"No", Gaëlle plainly says and returns to her drink and says nothing more.
"That's the most wrong thing I've ever heard in my life and I've heard lots of wrong things", I say.
Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor—I've no idea how head concussions and temporary amnesia work, m'kay?