Chapter 43 :"You should respect your elders."
The next couple of weeks, Flora spent her time navigating between her classes, her friends and her secret rendezvous with Dimitri. It seemed that her and the young mage were trying to make up for lost time by spending as many hours together. Every evening, she would leave the dining hall with the excuse of needing to do some research in the library. Of course some nights, one or two of the girls, usually Musa or Bloom, would choose to come with her, those nights she would end up really studying with her friends. The other nights when she was lucky to be alone she would head towards Dimitri's office and private quarters.
He always greeted her with a small smile and a cup of green tea that he had started to keep in his office just for her. He even knew that she prefered drinking it with a bit of honey and lemon, two other things he kept in his small kitchen more for her than him. They had found out that they were both quiet people that enjoyed their evening by reading or working. So that's what they did. After the second meeting, Dimitri had offered to move to his private quarters where there was an armchair and a two seat sofa in his small living room/dining room. Most of the evening would pass by in comfortable silence. One of them would sometimes choose to interrupt it to ask questions about the other's reading or to talk about their day. Flora had discovered that Dimitri was quite talented in imitating his coworkers while complaining about his long day. She had laughed more often than she would have liked to admit because of his perfect imitation of Griselda scolding the students and fixing her glasses. She had made a note that the man rarely complained about professor Palladium and professor Wizgiz. And if he did it was in a teasing and affectionate manner. She was glad to see that there were other people he enjoyed the company of in the school.
One night she was daring enough to ask about this interesting friendship.
"You and Professor Palladium and Wizgiz seem to get along well." She watched him fiddle with his book. He seemed to be taken by surprise by her statement. She waited patiently for him to find his words. she did not want to rush him. She knew it was difficult for him to talk about personal matters.
"Yes, they both are talented magic users. And they are the only other non fairy teachers in the school. Even though they still mostly use light magic they were easier to get along with than the rest of the staff." She smiled at him in understanding since she thought he was done talking. But to her surprise he placed the book on the low table in front of him and turned to face her.
"When I was first allowed to work as a teacher all the teachers working then had been warned of my past. They either avoided me or kept a suspicious eye on me." She grabbed his hands in hers to encourage him to continue. "But a few years later Faragonda became headmaster and most of the staff progressively retired. She chose to not tell the newer staff of my identity and sentence. The only ones that know are Griselda, Concorda and Faragonda herself. Wizgiz and Palladium were the first teachers to arrive and treat me as a normal coworker. It was easier for me to spend time with them and I usually chose to work with them on projects instead of the other teacher."
"I'm happy you could meet them. They are amazing people and teachers." She smiled softly at him.
"Also, we are similar in a small way, perhaps that helped me get closer to them. Palladium is really young, the youngest teacher of the school. When he started teaching we were the same physical age. And Wizgiz he's part leprechaun, that species ages really slowly. I think he's going to be 150 years old this year. We're the oldest duo of the school.`` He chuckled at the idea.
Flora thought this could be a good opportunity to ask about his immortality.
"Well, it's not immortality itself. It's an imprisonment curse very old, probably illegal now. In summary, you attach the soul of a prisoner or a convict to a place. as long as he stays in that location he'll not age. When I leave Alfea it does not work on me anymore. It was meant to make the prisoner's suffering last as long as possible."
"How sadistic." She could not help but say. He nodded his head in agreement.
"You remember the prison where the trix were sent after your first year?"
"The temples of light, right?"
"I'm pretty sure they use the same curse on the prisoners but instead of torturing them they try to convert them to the light."
"I'm pretty sure the witches saw it as torture." She joked. He chuckled at her words. She had successfully lightened the serious mood that had been surrounding them.
Instead of moving back to his side of the sofa, Dimitri made the bold decision of placing an arm over flora's shoulders and bringing her closer to him. She smiled shyly at the new position they were in but decided to continue reading her book in fear of breaking the sweet moment. Dimitri held his book one hand on his lap while his other hand played absentmindedly with a few of flora's hair locks that were falling over her shoulder.
Unfortunately, it seemed that all good things must come to an end. A half hour later, the quiet couple was startled from their reading by the sound of thunder. They both looked at each other in confusion.
"I thought storm clouds were supposed to magically avoid passing over Alfea." Flora inquired.
"Unless it's a magically created storm." He told her. As he said those words, they both jumped off the couch and hurried out of his office. As they were about to enter the main hallway he pulled her aside.
"Go join your friends. I'll go find Faragonda to see what's going on."
She nodded in agreement. "Be careful." She told him. He instinctively pulled her in his arms and pressed a small but tender kiss on her forehead. "You too." And they were off.
It did not take long for Dimitri to locate Faragonda. She was in the headmaster's office surrounded by Griselda, Wizgiz and Palladium.
"Good, you're here." He nodded at the others. And quicly joined them around the desk. They were looking at the surveillance crystal ball. it was showing the skies surrounding alfea. in the distance they could see small silhouettes slowly getting bigger.
"Valtor has taken over Cloud Tower. The students and the teachers are under his spell. Griffin is not responding to any of my calls. He's using them to attack us."
Griffin really needed to upgrade the witch's school's security. Two takeovers in less than three years were terrible statistics.
"I'm going to put up the shield we created this summer. But unfortunately it will be using my magical core to work. I cannot leave this room since i'll need the crystal ball to transfer my magic to the shield."
"No worries Headmistress, you can trust us to help the students outside." Wizgiz declared. Faragonda smiled gratefully at his words. They all left the school, and ran in the direction of the courtyard. Griselda used a spell to amplify her voice so that all the students could here her next words.
"I ask all the teaching staff and third year students to come to the courtyard. the school is under attack."
Wizgiz was the first to step outside but as soon as he did a magical attack blasted him a few feet away from them. They all instantly took up defensive stances while trying to locate where the attack had come from. And how the attacker had passed through the shield.
"Well, it seems the party has finally arrived, I was getting bored." A smooth deep voice drawled from their right. Valtor. It could only be him. The long red coat and long dramatically flowing hair screamed "powerful dark mage wanting to take over the world". Dimitri was so glad he had avoided that terrible fashion phase that most of his brothers had gone through. It must take hours to detangle that thick amount of hair in the morning.
"Oh, but my guest of honor is not here. Did old Faragonda send you to do her dirty work?"
"If by dirty work you mean get rid of pesky pests like you then yes." Darkell replied calmly.
Valtor tried to hide it, but Dimitri could see the surprise in his eyes at being boldly answered.
"Who might you be, kid?" Kid!? Dimitri was probably centuries older than this clown.
"You should respect your elders, you brat!" He spat in the direction of the pink haired man.
"Oh I see, you're him, the prisoner. You and brothers were quite something. I looked up to you guys a lot when I was just a young lad." He said after realizing who he was talking to.
"Well, thank you, I appreciate it." He sarcastically replied.
"But you've fallen quite low, I see. Taking orders from a fairy. How shameful." He shook his head in disappointment. Dimitri clenched his teeth in anger at the mage's insulting words.
He turned towards his co-workers. "I'll take care of him, protect the school." Palladium who was helping Wizgiz back up would have protested if it weren't for Griselda nodding in agreement.
As soon as he got the go ahead, he started slowly whispering an incantation underneath his breath. The floor underneath the longhaired mage turned red and instantly exploded sending the man through the air. Unfortunately the man was quick to regain his balance and stopped his fall in mid air. He floated calmly over the walls of the schools. letting out an amused chuckle.
"Is that all you got?"What the man had not realized was that Dimitri had incanted two spells at the same time. The second one had taken the form of runes on the back of his red trench coat.
"Nope." He finally mumbled the last word of the incantation. Thus suddenly, Valtor was propulsed from the back pulled by an invisible force as far away as possible from the school and in the direction of the magical forest.
Dimitri nodded one last time to his colleagues before taking off, following the path the other mage had taken against his will.
He flew over the dense forest as fast as he could. He needed to keep the man away from Alfea as long as possible. He knew it would be difficult to defeat the sorcerer. Dimitri was specialised in long and complicated incantation, not close combat. That he would leave it to his brothers. They had always been more bloodthirsty than him. But this fight would not be about blood or revenge or evil plans. Today he would fight to protect what he cared for. Or more specifically who he cared for.
