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Cinder
Cinder had always considered herself unlucky. How could she not? Stuck living in a house as essentially a servant with two egotistical, whiny women who blamed her for everything that went wrong in their lives and the only person in the house that actually liked her has been dead for the past few months. She had a missing hand and leg, was treated like dirt in her last school, and has since gotten herself mixed up in a whole lot of life-threatening danger in this school. But this… this was a whole other level of bad luck.
She strained against the thick chains keeping her bound to the chair, wishing desperately that she still had her wand, but it was sitting on the carved ivory desk beside seven other wands, each tantalisingly in front of their respective owners.
"Are we going to be here long?" Thorne drawled, "These chains really chafe."
From her cushioned throne-like chair, Levana smiled, "You're staring just right of my head Mr Thorne. Look a little to the left."
Thorne scowled at her, his cheeks flushing slightly. From anger or embarrassment, Cinder couldn't tell, but he moved his head just to the left as Levana instructed.
She nodded with satisfaction. "Much better."
In one, graceful movement, she stood up from her chair and circled around her desk so she was standing in front of them. "Now then, do any of you know why you're here?"
Cinder raised an eyebrow. "No, but I guess you're going to tell us."
Levana narrowed her eyes briefly at Cinder but continued. "You're here, because all of you, plus a few more students, have been actively disturbing the peace here in this school."
"Um, are you sure you've brought the right students?" Thorne asked, "I mean, I make it my own personal mission to "disturb the peace", but Kai and Cress? I don't think they've ever even stolen a pencil from a teacher's desk!"
Levana ignored him. "Setting loose a werewolf inside the building, sneaking around after hours, meddling with the magic of the Star Tree, even murdering a staff member! Such transgressions cannot go unpunished."
"Did you just say… murder a staff member?" Cress asked faintly. Cinder had to hand it to her, the girl was a good actress.
Levana nodded. "Yes. I know you all are responsible for Aimery Park's death."
"How can we be responsible?" Kai protested, "He was killed by werewolves! Those things literally eat nothing but human! Professor Park shouldn't have been out in the Black Woods during the full moon."
"Aimery is a very competent wizard, he could easily have handled a couple of mutts." Levana replied coolly. "And I can't help but notice the extraordinary number of coincidences leading up to his death."
"Please, don't leave us in suspense." Jacin said with a roll of his eyes.
"Watch your tongue Mr Clay, it might get you into trouble." Levana told him coldly, before turning back to face all of her captives. "Reports from other students say that Miss Linh here started insulting Professor Park just as he arrived for library duty, and proceeded to beg for him not to give her detention in the Black Woods in the full moon."
"Yes, because I didn't want to get eaten alive by werewolves or acromantula or whatever other monsters you're keeping in that forest." Cinder interrupted.
"Even so, you've never displayed such a cowardly desperation to avoid the place, nor have you ever so recklessly insulted a teacher before." Levana mused, "Needless to say, it's quite suspicious."
"Since when is our headmistress also our resident detective – ow!" Thorne's joke dissolved into a yelp of pain as Levana smartly smacked him.
"And then there's the matter of my dear stepdaughter, Winter." Levana continued as if nothing had happened. "Why is it, that on the very night a powerful wizard was killed by some mindless creatures he should have been able to easily subdue, that her strange mutterings and hallucinations suddenly worsened exponentially and she began falling into random states of unconsciousness, and in her waking periods she's screaming and thrashing?"
"Try asking a doctor." Scarlet said.
"I did. She said that it was a result of Winter neglecting her Lunar gift had made it weak and that her worsened condition is a result of attempting to use her Lunar gift and overtaxing her brain." Levana said calmly, "That means she must have used her gift on the night of Aimery's death."
"So, what, you're saying that she made Aimery stand nice and still while the werewolves devoured him?" Kai asked incredulously, "Winter's way too sweet for that! She wouldn't hurt a fly, much less a human being."
"Winter has made I abundantly clear that she's not all too fond of Aimery." Levana countered, "I imagine it wouldn't be too much of a chip off her conscience to orchestrate a little accident for him."
Jacin glared at her. "No, it wouldn't be a chip off your conscience. Winter would never hurt anyone, no matter how much she hated them."
"She is a human, not an angel Mr Clay, I would ask for you to remember that."
"What I don't get is why the rest of us are here." Thorne said, "So far all I'm hearing is what Winter and Cinder did wrong."
Levana pointed one ivory skinned finger at Jacin. "He was out with Winter on the night of Aimery's death as well, which is why he's here. You," she turned the finger towards Thorne, "were found near the Star Tree by Sybil Mira a few weeks ago. A quick study carried out on the tree to see how long it's been since it's absorbed moonlight has shown us that is around when the tree's enchantment was altered. She," the finger shifted to Cress, "has been seen around your group constantly, and Sybil has reported to me that she is rather adept at altering enchantments. Therefore, she is the only student close to you that is sufficiently skilled to alter the Star Tree. And she," the finger shifted to Scarlet, "was seen walking around with Ze'ev Kesley, or as you like to call him, "Wolf", less than an hour before his sudden transformation. And he," the finger shifted to Kai, "according to the teachers is quite close to Miss Linh, who I've already confirmed to be an accessory in the operation to kill Aimery Park."
"You're kidding, right?" Scarlet burst out, "That's your evidence? It's all just guilt by association and circumstantial evidence!"
Levana nodded. "True, true, only none of the other students in this school have developed quite the same knack for being in the, as you seem to want me to believe, wrong place at the wrong time and associating so closely with the very people who all the evidence points to. Though I understand your concerns, and if on the off chance that I'm wrong about your involvement, I will let you go with nothing more than a warning to stay away from these unsavoury characters. Fine?"
Cinder scowled at the headmistress. Somehow, she doubted that. Levana was (unfortunately) convinced that they were all guilty. Undoubtedly everyone who was released from this office would find themselves in a little "accident" before Christmas.
"And how exactly are you going to confirm whether or not you're right?" Kai asked.
Levana smiled and curled a finger in a beckoning gesture towards Scarlet. The chains wrapped around her wrists and legs unravelled and she lurched to her feet with a grunt of surprise. It looked like she was being pulled around on strings. She walked in an oddly military-like manner so she was standing just to the side of Levana's desk. Slowly and deliberately, she placed a hand on the ivory surface and spread her fingers out. Levana opened a drawer and fished through it for a few moments. At the sight of her coldly delighted smirk, Cinder felt hundreds of cockroaches crawl up her spine.
Levana pulled out a knife, with a white crystal handle and oddly foggy metal, so all Cinder could see of her own reflection in the blade was a vague coloured blob. Levana handed the knife to Scarlet who took it and, her face draining of any semblance of colour, raised it over her own hand.
Levana turned and smiled at the still seated group. "For every lie you tell, your friend here will lose one of her fingers."
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