This chapter has been updated from previous. The fallout of Unicorn way! Enjoy!
[1st person, Genevieve]
I feel like I have to do a recap here: Emily and I just saved a bunch of fairies from an evil skeleton, whom was turning them into dark fairies, all with Em's fire magic and my storm magic, and reset the proper balance to a street for life magic. To top all of that off, my sister and I seemed to be wrapped up in trying to prevent this evil plot that will make this city fall to dark forces. It's hard for me to believe too; of course I was there, so I have no choice but to believe it. Still, I keep thinking that anytime now I'll wake up and find this is all something I conjured in my mind. Of course it's not just me talking; I bet anybody would do a mental double take.
That's not all on my plate; Emily believes we created life magic out while we were fighting old Ratts even though I didn't see any. She says it's because we could dispel the dead, but we could do that without each other. I guess that was just a metaphor. The real big question on my mind (besides the whole Malistere thing, I guess that's important too) is how did Emily know what was the right way to perform her magic. How'd I figure it out? It felt right, so I guess it was. Why was Emily the one to figure it out first? Maybe I'll figure it out later.
These thoughts were going through my head as we were going down the tunnel that led back to the commons. At the end of the tunnel we ran into a gate of wrought iron bars; Private Stilson must have closed it after we went through to keep it closed off to everyone else. I wondered if he'd open it now that the street is less of a danger; maybe, maybe not.
"Private Stilson, we're back, could you let us out please?" I asked with a sarcastic tone.
"Oh, sorry," said Private Stilson. "I just had to make sure no one else entered." Private Stilson pulled a lever and the gates opened up.
"So, how'd everything go on Unicorn way?" he asked as we exited the tunnel.
"Pretty well," said Emily. "The ghosts weren't that hard to beat and we solved the dark fairy problem."
"Yeah, the streets are safer now," I told him.
"Ah," said Private Stilson. "I guess I'll leave the gate open then, but I'll still stand guard in case anything undesirable tries to make its way through."
"That's fine with us," said Emily. "Right now we have to go tell Professor Ambrose about everything that happened."
"Oh, okay, well good luck you two."
"To you as well," I called back as we ran to the headmaster's office.
Professor Ambrose's office was emptier than last time when we came inside; I wondered why that was. Professor Ambrose was talking to a boy; I wondered if he was ever not talking to someone. With him obviously not noticing we had entered the room, we ran up to talk to him.
"Professor Ambrose," Emily said to get his attention. Ambrose quickly finished his conversation with the boy and turned to us, sending the boy on his way.
"Ah girls, you're back. Congratulations, I heard that you have found a solution to the fairy corruption."
"How'd you hear that?" I asked. "We have literally just finished that a few moments ago."
"You'd be surprised to find out that news travels fast around these parts. Let's just say that as soon as you went to go fight Rattlebones, Ceren informed the life school, and they informed me, and now that you're back I assumed you have succeeded in that task."
"Yes, we did," said Emily. "It was awesome if not anti-climactic, and I have one Rattlebones bones." Emily pulled the bone from her bag as if it was a forever bag. She certainly was getting a knack of this magic thing. "It should slow down his reforming process; maybe Delia could move back into her tower."
"Maybe, yes maybe," said Professor Ambrose. "Unfortunately, Wizard city is not out of peril just yet. All is at risk." That reminded me of what Rattlebones had said to us.
"I think we know what you mean," I told him.
"You do?" questioned Ambrose. We went on to tell him what Rattlebones told us.
"Well," said Emily. "When we were confronting Rattlebones, he said that corrupting the fairies was Malistere's idea. I'm pretty sure he brought the undead to Unicorn way as well."
"Ratts also said it was just the beginning of Malistere's plans," I continued. "He said and I quote: 'Soon wizard will fall and there isn't anything anybody can do about it; MWAHAHAHAHA!'"
Ambrose regarded our words.
"So, Malistere has designs of bringing Wizard City to its knees? This does not bode well. We still need to be on guard lest his evil plans succeed. Thank you for all you have done, girls. As a token of my gratitude, and the gratitude of the life school, you can have these potion flasks."
"Cool, there's already a potion in there," said Emily.
"Yeah and the potion is purple," I said, admiring that it matched my outfit.
"In there are healing potions," explained Ambrose. "They can be used to replenish your health; of course it will only work if you down the entire contents of the flask." Emily examined her flask some more.
"How come I feel like we're going to be chugging these?"
"You should always have one on you, but don't worry if you run out, you can always get more from the one who makes the potions, Hilda Brewer, in the fairegrounds. Potions only cost 100 gold coins a bottle."
"100 coins!" I exclaimed, almost dropping my flask.
"Potions are not easy to make, Genevieve," said Ambrose. "You might be given more flasks overtime, so you won't have to worry about constantly needing to get one."
"That's a relief," said Emily. "Thanks for the flasks professor." We put our flasks on our belts next to the orbs that told us how much health and mana we needed. Some lights appeared and flew into our bags and we felt ourselves ready for a new level of magic. Just then we had received some messages on our wands.
"These are probably telling us what the lights were," I said.
"Or they could be about something else, just as important, like us entering a new level," said Emily.
"You better answer them," said Ambrose. Emily waved her wand, and a small image of Mr. Lincoln appeared before us.
"Congratulations!" he said. "You two have just earned your first badges! Each badge you earn will give you a title that you can proudly display below your name tag."
"Name tag?" I questioned. "We don't have name tags."
"All new students get name tags at the beginning of the year," he stated.
"So, if we're not wearing name tags, could we still show off our badges?" Emily never really was one for decorations.
"They can only be displayed with your name tag; you can still talk about it though. Of course, people will only truly know you have one if they can see it."
"What if we have multiple badges and don't want to wear them all at once?" I asked.
"You really shouldn't," said Mr. Lincoln. "It's distracting and heavy, but you can always pick what medal to wear from where they're stored in your spell book."
"And where would that be?" asked Emily.
"Your character page," said Mr. Lincoln simply.
"Our character page?" I asked. That didn't make sense to me.
"Your character page is the page in your book that knows everything about yourself. It knows how far you are in magic, what type of wizard you are, how far it will be before you advance, how well you are, and all the important things about yourself that you might not know about. That's where you can find your badges and pick which one you want to display. Be proud of your accomplishment, of course future badges will not be so easy to obtain as the one you have gotten. Good luck in the tougher challenges." With that, he disappeared. We let his message sink in for a moment.
"I wonder what badges we got?" questioned Emily.
"Let's check." We pulled out our spell books, enlarged them and opened them to the tab that looked to be the character page.
"Here it is," said Emily. "Hero of Unicorn way. Huh, that's nice."
"I got one too," I said showing her my book.
"Rightly so," said Ambrose. "You two deserve them."
"Let's check our other messages," said Emily.
"I'll go first," I said. I waved my wand, and in front of me appeared the image of a little frog-man.
"Oh, I am so excited to be talking to you! I heard you were going to be one of my new storm students and I also heard of how you're the hero of unicorn way!"
"Wait, did I hear you correctly? Did you say that I'm going to be one of your storm students?"
The frog nodded excitedly.
"Yep, I'm going be your teacher for storm magic. This is just excellent, young wizard! You haven't even been to class yet and yet you've already exceeded the rest of your classmates and furthered your understanding of the art of storms. You've reached the level to be an apprentice and surpassed all the novice levels!"
"I have!"
"Yes!" I was still getting over the shock and utter embarrassment of going to have a frog for my teacher. I realized I probably didn't reach this accomplishment on my own.
"Well, my sister did help me. She made me realize I was doing the spells wrong." The frog jumped with excitement.
"Thank you, little miss." He could barely contain his glee. "Come see me when you get the chance, I have something for you!" Just then he vanished. The shock settled back in. I was getting a frog for my teacher.
"What's your message?" I asked Emily.
"I'll check." She waved her wand. An image of a tall lady in a red dress, with candle-like hair and pointy ears.
"I hear you're the hero of Unicorn way," said the lady with a calm voice.
"Y-yeah," said Emily. "I am." The lady was a little intimidating, and Emily had to talk to her.
"Yes, that is very nice. You also seem to be one of my new students."
"You're my new teacher?" said Emily with shock and awe. I'm not sure how Emily felt about this new teacher.
"Yes, and I have to say I'm proud to be so, you've already shown you have the spark of pyromancer potential." Emily was glowing with pride from hearing that. I think Emily liked this teacher.
"It also seems that you have surpassed everyone in your class, being suitable to be an apprentice."
"I-I have."
"Yes," said her teacher coolly. Emily looked at me for brief moment.
"I have my sister to thank for that," said Emily. "She helped me beat those monsters and gain that experience."
"Indeed, your sister did have a big part in you moving forward." She turned to me. "I thank you for that." She turned back to Emily. "Excellent job. You have reached a new level of achievement. Come see me as soon as you can, I have a new spell for you." The lady vanished. This was just great; Emily gets a beautiful lady and I get a frog. Why couldn't I get a person too?
Ambrose regarded us again.
"Again, I apologize for all this excitement, girls. There are forces at work making things…disorderly." That distracted my mind for a moment when I sympathized for him. Things must have been very stressful, trying to run a school and stop an evil wizard at the same time. I could imagine how Dumbledore must have felt. Ambrose cleared his throat.
"Welcome, now, to the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts, Emily and Genevieve. Now, on to your enrollment." I felt good. By the looks of things, so did Emily. I was finally apart of a magic school. I know I had my grievances before, considering I could die and all, but I still wanted to learn magic…it's cool.
Ambrose continued. "There are seven magic instructors here in Ravenwood. You should visit each of them to get to know them better."
"We will," I said. I then remembered my teacher was a frog and gave a little frown.
"If you can't find the Ravenwood tunnel, you can use your compass or your wands. The main school houses are circling the Great Tree, Bartleby. You should come see me as soon as you are done." Hearing the name Bartleby and the fact he was the great tree seemed to click something in my memory. He was the one who told me about the wisps! After that I was sure he was going to be kind tree that I could talk to on occasion and get along with.
"We have a compass?" questioned Emily. She reached in her bag and pulled out a compass. This was a different sort of compass for instead of just showing north, south, east and west, it also displayed the name of the location in each direction. Gamma's tower was apparently to our east, while the commons were to our south.
"Nifty," I said as Emily put away her compass.
"Okay, Professor, we'll get right on that," said Emily. Then she started to drag me out the door.
Once outside, we decided to use our wands to find Ravenwood. I used my wand to create arrows on the ground to show us the way to Ravenwood, while Emily made and arrow to direct her inside her wand. Along the way, we passed a girl who looked like she needed help. I figured it was best to maybe try to help her later, seeing as we didn't really know the school yet.
We went through the Ravenwood tunnel, following my arrows. Once we made it through, I saw that my arrows were leading us in every direction. That was probably because I told them to the schools of Ravenwood. Ravenwood had looked amazing. Bartleby was in the center of everything; I had no idea he was that big; of course, they don't call him the Great Tree for nothing. Surrounding him were indeed the schools that had their own symbols, but many different trees. On the road right outside the tunnel were all the symbols of the schools in a circle. We looked back and saw two great towers. I was a little confused of what they were for until I heard a certain someone behind me.
"Hello." The voice was so close I jumped, as did Emily. We turned around and saw a boy who wore a hood.
"Don't scare us like that," I said sternly.
"Sorry," said the boy. "I'm Simeon Firemane."
"Firemane?" said Emily with curiosity.
"Yeah, I'm a pyromancer."
"Me too!" said Emily with excitement.
"Yeah, except you're new students and I'm not new here. We won't have classes together I'm afraid."
"How did you know we were new students?" I asked warily.
"The fact you were taking in your surroundings sort of hints it."
"Okay, so what did you want to tell us?"
"Well, you see, I'm the prefect as well as head of the dorms, so if you're curious, your dorm is in that tower." He pointed to the tower on our right. "The headmaster said you'd like a room together, it's already arranged."
"What floor is it on?" asked Emily.
"Does it matter?" asked Simeon.
"It does if we have a problem climbing multiple flights of stairs every day," I said. Simeon laughed. "What did I say?"
"You think there's stairs?" he asked while chuckling.
"You mean there isn't?" asked Emily, while she was grinning.
"No; you open the door you go straight to your room." I should have figured that. I mean, this is a magic place.
"Anything else you want to mention Simeon that we should probably know?" I asked with annoyance.
"Yeah," said Simeon, calming down. "Pets are allowed, but you can only have a certain amount of items in your room at a time. Once you get high enough experience with magic you can have your own castle. If you ever do own a castle, tell me when you're ready to move out." Simeon walked away after he said that.
"Again, I say why would we want a castle? It'd just a whole bunch of room we don't know what to do with."
"You never know," said Emily. "We could get a lot of stuff here."
"I doubt it; let's just take a tour of Ravenwood. Where should we go first?"
"Well, my arrow in my wand is pointing right in front of us, so how about there?" Emily pointed to a dog-man beside some suitcases.
"I'm not sure," I said. He could have just been passing through.
"We should see what he's about," said Emily walking towards him. I followed so we would stay together. As we approached him, Emily introduced us.
"Hi, we're new students, and I thought we could check to see what you're about here."
"Jolly good to meet you, new students. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Arthur Wethersfield. I am originally from Marleybone, which is a much different world than this."
"I can imagine that," I said. I had just learned the dog man was British and from a different world.
"Nice to meet you Arthur," said Emily. "I'm Emily, and this is my sister Genevieve, but everyone just calls her Gen."
"You can call me Genevieve," I butted in.
"Those are lovely names, Emily, Genevieve. Let you tell me a bit about my experience."
"Proceed," I ushered.
"Well, I know I may not look like much of a magic teacher-"
"You're a magic teacher? Should have figured that," said Emily.
"Yes, can I continue?" asked Arthur.
"Sorry," said Emily.
"So, anyway, I know I may not look like much, but as a lad I was always interested in magic, but they don't practice magic in Marleybone. So, when I got older, I spent many years studying here in Ravenwood."
"So let me get this straight, you don't have to be born with magic to learn it? Anyone can learn it?" I asked.
"Of course," said Arthur. "Now where was I, oh yes, for the past ten years I've been studying in Krokotopia. I came back to teach students a form of magic called 'Sorcery' which deals with the Balance of All Things."
"Oh so that's what sorcery was about," I said. I was always curious about the different types of magic and why they were called different names.
"Yes, it is more advanced than the other schools and harder to master, but its power is unbelievable!"
"It must be something spectacular," said Emily with awe.
"Come by later if you want to learn more," Arthur told her. "Cheers!" We walked away from him.
"That was interesting," I said. "You seemed intrigued."
"I was," said Emily.
"Yeah, but you should remember that that's not your class."
"Yeah, I know," said Emily glumly. "It didn't seem very big."
"It's probably one of those newer classes."
"Let's just finish the tour," said Emily. As she said that, we were coming up to a purple building with a symbol of a storm cloud. "Hey, this looks like your school. Let's go in and talk to your teacher."
"Nope," I said, grabbing her arm and dragging her farther down the path.
"Why not?"
"I just think maybe we should go to yours first, I mean ironically fire magic is pretty cool."
"So is storm," she said yanking herself away.
"Come on, Em, work with me," I pleaded.
"Why don't you-hey what's that?" Emily seemed to notice some floating rubble by her school. She walked towards the floating rubble and I followed her. When we got there I couldn't believe my eyes; there was huge chasm that took a chunk out of the pathway. There was a student wearing all black, with black hair, black jester hat and a staff with a red orb on it, standing by the chasm.
"Hey," I said approaching him. "It looks like you've been here a while, what's with the chasm?"
"Oh, this chasm?"
"You see any other chasm nearby?"
"Well, this gaping chasm is all that's left of the death school after Malistere tore it from Ravenwood."
"Malistere!" said Emily.
"Tore it from Ravenwood!" I cried.
"Uh huh, I guess he wasn't a fan of someone else teaching his classes."
"He used to be a teacher here?" questioned Emily.
"Uh huh; I'm guessing from the fact you didn't know what this chasm was about and you didn't know Malistere was a teacher, that you two are new students here."
"Yep," said Emily.
"Oh, okay, I'm Malorn Ashthorn. I don't mean to boast, but I used to be one of Malistere's top students. Now I'm about all that's left, so I try to teach the new students."
"That's nice of you," I said.
"Yeah I know," said Malorn. "So, if you want, I can teach you some Death spells, or 'Necromancy.' If you're up for it, stop by any time." We started walking away.
"He seemed nice," I said.
"Yeah," said Emily. "I guess not all necromancers are cold and distant."
"Yeah," I said. My eyes drifted to a red building with a flame symbol. "Hey, here's your school, let's check it out!"
"Fine," Emily huffed. "If you're going to be difficult, we'll go to mine first."
When we entered the building, we saw the walls were covered in red wall paper with little flame symbols, and there was a red runner down the middle of the room. At the front of the class were two chalkboards, a desk and a couple torches. On the right chalkboard was a diagram for how to probably cast a fire sword, and on the left chalkboard was a piece of chalk magically writing the teacher's name (Ms. Dalia Falmea) and the lessons for the first class, being the casting of a fire sword and a fire elf. When we went farther into the room, I noticed there were scorch marks on the floor. There was also a brazier at the front with some sort of glowing liquid in it. At the front of the class was the lady from Emily's message. She must have been Ms. Falmea.
"Well, well, well," said Ms. Falmea. "Here comes one of my new students, and her sister."
"Hello Ms. Falmea," said Emily. "I'm glad to finally know your name. I'm Emily and this is Genevieve, Gen for short."
"Genevieve is fine though," I said.
"It's a pleasure to meet you both. Welcome to the School of Fire, Emily. You called me Ms. Falmea, but I also can be known as Madame Falmea. This is the place where I instruct students how to be powerful Pyromancers! But Fire can be quite dangerous. We must not be rash, lest we destroy that which we mean to achieve." Emily nodded as she said this, taking in every word.
"Come see me after you have finished your tour. I'm always up for fanning the flames so students can learn more about Pyromancy." With that we left the building.
"It was warm in there," I said as we left the fire school. "Are you sure you'll be alright in there? I know how you feel about heat." Emily paused for a moment.
"I may not like sweating all the time, but I do like dragons, you know that. Besides, I feel things differently than other people, I'm sometimes more okay with heat than they are."
"Okay, if you say so." Just then we came across a tree that looked as if it was on fire. I almost walked past it, shielding my eyes because it was so bright, but it talked to us; it talked to Emily at least.
"Hey, you must be a new Pyromancer student," said the tree. Emily stopped to talk to it.
"Yeah, I am."
"I'm Bernie, the Fire Tree; you'll be seeing me a lot while you're here."
"I'm Emily, and this is my sister Genevieve, but everyone calls her Gen. She's a Diviner."
"A Diviner who is known as Genevieve to you until we are closer," I stated. Emily looked at me with a puzzled expression.
"Oh, okay Genevieve, have you met Torrance yet; he's the storm tree."
"No, but we're heading there right now," said Emily.
"How about we go to the Ice School first," I said panicked. "I mean its right there!"
"If you're going to keep being difficult, I'll play along, but you can't keep avoiding your school forever. Bye Bernie," said Emily as we headed toward the Ice School, a Blue building with a symbol of a snowflake.
"Goodbye Emily," called Bernie. "Goodbye Genevieve."
As we entered the Ice School, we saw blue everywhere. Blue wallpaper with snowflake patterns, a blue runner, blue flames coming out of the brazier full of blue liquid and blue icicles were growing by the torches with some sort of glowing blue substance in them. The room seemed noticeably colder. Emily didn't seem to mind that much, and if she could bear it, so could I.
On the two chalkboards, there was a diagram to probably cast a snow puppy and the lessons for the first class along with the teacher's name (Ms. Lydia Greyrose). At the front of the class was a little fairy.
"I remember her," I said. "You thought she was the fairy godmother."
"Or the blue fairy," added Emily. "She told us about the sidewalks."
"She did say she was the Ice magic professor." As we approached her, she took notice of us.
"Ah, you two are alright. Not only that, but I hear you're the heroes of Unicorn way."
"Well your advice on the sidewalks helped," said Emily.
"Ah wonderful, anyways, Welcome, dears! I'm Lydia Greyrose, as you know; I'm your Ice magic Professor."
"Not our Professor," I said. "We're a Pyromancer and a Diviner if you've already forgotten; we're not in your class."
"That does not mean you cannot learn some Ice magic in your spare-time. However, Ice magic, or Thaumaturgy, is not for the impatient or flighty! My Goodness, no! You'll have to study hard to learn Ice magic, but I'm sure you'll be great at it. And I'll always offer a hand if you need it. Come see me when you are ready to begin your lessons. You have much to learn from Ice!"
"I'm not sure what to think about that school," said Emily as we left. "It seems hard."
"She said she would help you, but don't worry, you don't even have to go." As we continued walking down the path, we passed a tree that was covered in snow and had a blizzard around it. I figured it was the Ice tree. Then we came across the purple building with the symbol of the storm cloud.
"Ah, here's your school Gen. It's right here. We should just go in," said Emily, in a mocking way.
"But how about we-"
"No! We've delayed it long enough. I've already met my teacher and we're at the building for the second time already, we're going in!"
"Fine," I said defeated. I approached the doors. I opened them, but just as I looked inside and saw the teacher on the desk, I quickly shut them again.
"What is it, Gen?" asked Emily, half concerned, half annoyed.
"I can't do this," I said.
"Why?"
"He's a frog," I said simply. "He's a FROG!"
"What's wrong with your teacher being a frog?"
"He's tiny, and not even human." Emily looked incredulous.
"Who knew you could be so judgmental?"
"Your teacher is a human."
"Actually," said Emily, putting her hands on her hips. "My teacher is an elf."
"Really," I said, confused. "She's not tiny."
"There you go again, basing your thoughts on stereotypes. She had pointy ears, and all elves, no matter the size, throughout all media, have pointy ears."
"Well," I said, rearranging my thoughts. "She's close enough to looking human."
"I'm sure he'll be fine once you get to know him," said Emily. She grabbed me by the shoulders and shoved me in.
Once inside, I saw Purple was the main colour of this building. It had purple wallpaper with a storm cloud pattern, and a purple runner. It had a brazier with purple flames coming out of purple liquid, and the torches had sparks of electricity in them. The chalkboards had a diagram of how to cast a Thundersnake, and the lessons for the first day listed Thundersnake and Lightning bats, along with the teacher's name (Mr. Halston Balestrom). You could hear the ambiance of a storm while in the room. There was the teacher, standing on the desk, in his little purple suit.
As we approached he noticed us.
"Ah! If it isn't my extraordinary student now, along with her sister! Welcome to the School of Storm, also known as Divination! For those who have chosen to master this magic are known as Diviners."
"I always thought divination meant seeing the future," I murmured to Emily.
"Me too," she murmured back. My teacher continued.
"I am Professor Halston Balestrom, Master Inventor! Oh, yes, and Professor of Storm Magic."
My feeling of inadequacy came back. I'm not an inventor, how could I expect to learn from one. My teacher continued.
"Who can master the power of the Storm Lords and the Seas? Anyone who can harness their creativity." I'm a little creative, I guess. "You look like a smart one, Genevieve. Check back when you are ready to start learning how to release your inner thunder!"
"Well, he seemed eccentric," I said as we left.
"He is an inventor," said Emily. As we started to walk back to the center of Ravenwood, we came across a willow tree that looked sad in a pool of water with it raining around it.
"This must be that tree that Bernie mentioned," said Emily. "What was his name…Torrance, is it?"
"Yes, that is my name," said the Tree. "You must be a new Pyromancer, and you a new Diviner," he said, regarding me.
"Yes, we're both new," I said, bearing a grin. Emily elbowed me. "What?"
"Aren't you going to introduce yourself?"
"Okay…Torrance, my name is Genevieve and this is my sister Emily."
"You can call her Gen if you want," Emily added. "Her name is a mouthful."
"Can't I decide that?"
"I'm just saying he can if he wants."
"It's nice to meet you both. Well, I hope you enjoy the class, and the rest of your tour."
"Goodbye Torrance," I called out as we left. After we left him, I spoke up.
"This is just great; you get a friendly tree, while I get a sad tree."
"Torrance isn't that sad," Emily defended.
"He has a rain cloud around him. Not only that, but my teacher is not even a person, and is an inventor. Most Diviners are inventors! I'm not an inventor. I don't think I'll feel comfortable in that School."
"You feel comfortable with the spells."
"It wouldn't be the same without you there." We went quiet for a moment and stopped walking.
"You're still hung up on that, aren't you," said Emily. "The fact we're not in the same school. Because of this, you're letting every little thing about your school bother you."
"They'd bother me even if you were a Diviner as well, but I'd be able to push through it if you were with me."
"You have to push through it yourself, because I'm not changing Schools."
"I'm not asking you to; I want to change Schools." Emily started to get a little fired up.
"I don't need you to be there with me, I'll be fine on my own!"
"We don't know that; the kids here could be just like the kids back at home."
"We're heroes; I don't think much harassing will happen to us."
"Still, I don't think I'll do well in the class." There was another moment of silence.
"I think you need me, more than I need you."
"You're not at all bothered by this?"
"I'm a little bothered at the fact that we're apart, but we were going be apart anyway back at home, except here, I feel like I belong, and I know we're still going to have a dorm together, so I'm not that bothered. We can help each other out then, and hang out after school and on weekends." I turned to Emily.
"I'm glad you're here for me, Em," I said to her.
"I'm glad you're here for me too, Gen." I hugged her, and she hugged me back. "Let's continue on with the tour," said Emily.
"Where to next?" I asked.
"Looks like the life school." Indeed, the next building did look like the life school. It was green and brown, and had a symbol of a leaf in the archway. Beside the school, was a cherry blossom tree, who seemed happy. When we got closer to the school, I felt more relieved in spirit, like a weight had been removed from my shoulders. I figured the school was doing that.
"At least my teacher's not a cow," I said as I entered the school. The teacher standing at the front of the green and wallpapered classroom with a leaf pattern and green runner was a cow in a green kimono. She had black hair tied in a bun with chopsticks; she seemed Asian; I didn't know cows could be Asian. The class looked as if plants were growing in the room, the torches had green light, and the brazier had blue liquid with green flames. We approached her.
"Welcome, my dear young wizards," she said with a kind voice. "I am Moolinda Wu, Professor of the School of Life. This School celebrates the living, ever-green power of creation and vitality." I felt like bowing to her with her act of greeting, I remember that Asians bow in greeting and I felt kind of rude. I bowed and Emily followed suit.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Wu," I said while bowing. "I am Genevieve, known as Gen by many, and this here is my sister Emily, which you may call Em if it makes you comfortable." Em gave me a sideways icy glare but then composed herself.
"It is a pleasure to meet you," said Emily while bowing. Ms. Wu bowed back.
"Emily, Gen," she said to us.
"Yes," we said eagerly.
"Do you know what's special about Life magic?"
"What?" we asked.
"If you listen carefully to your surroundings, you'll hear Life magic all around." Our eyes widened with amazement. "Just a few notes can lift one's troubles, purify one's spirit, and restore life."
"Amazing," I said.
"When can we start learning this?" asked Emily eagerly.
"Soon I will teach you how. Come visit me when you're ready to learn more." She bowed as we left and we bowed back.
"I said it before and I'll say it again," I said as we exited the Life School. "Seems like a hippie school."
"You seemed very intrigued inside," countered Emily as we started walking to the next School.
"I was being polite," I reasoned.
"It still seems a little interesting to know," said Emily.
"Maybe, you're intrigued with a lot of schools already, but you should remember we're only taking the one each," I reminded her.
"Yeah, I know," said Emily glumly. Just then we came across a tree with one eye, next to a yellow and blue building, with the illuminati eye as the symbol in the archway.
"Well," I said. "This has to be Myth. It's the only School we haven't been to yet."
"What do you think Myth is about?" asked Emily.
"Well, the spells of Myth I've seen involved a minotaur and some ninja pigs…maybe it's about using the magic of old to summon creatures from Myth and legend."
"Could be," Emily shrugged.
"Let's go in."
Inside was not much different than the outside. The walls were yellow with the illuminati eye pattern with a blue runner. The torches had yellow light coming from them and the brazier had blue liquid with an oddly yellow flame. At the front of the room was a wizard in yellow and blue robes with a wand that had a star and crescent moon on it.
"It's actually a full grown wizard this time," I said happily. We approached him.
"Let me guess," he said before we could introduce ourselves. "At least one other Conjurer-want-to-be taking the Ravenwood tour? How quaint." He shook his head in frustration. I was starting to like this guy less and less. "I wish they would send us some adept pupils for once." I could see Emily didn't like him that much either. "Well, if you wish to attempt to learn some Myth spells, come back later and I will see how well you pay attention. Now, leave me alone." So, we left without another word.
"He didn't seem very nice," said Emily as we left the building.
"Yeah, if he is what a wizard teacher is like, I think I'll be okay with my frog teacher."
"We still have no idea what Myth is about," said Emily.
"All we know is that it's a weakness to Storm and vice versa." We started to walk back to the center of Ravenwood.
"Well, that finishes the tour," said Emily.
"On a bad note," I added sourly.
"I think now we head back to see the headmaster," assumed Emily.
"Let's go then, let's get our thoughts off that grouch of a teacher." Emily and I then ran back to the tunnel that led to the commons.
We ran all the way back to the headmaster's office. We had to stop to catch our breath before we went in. After which, we went in, and approached the headmaster to tell him we had completed our tour.
"Good! Now you know where all your classes are held! I hope you liked all your Ravenwood instructors."
"Most of them were okay," I said. Emily then elbowed me in the ribs.
"Everyone was great," said Emily. She gave me a glare. She obviously thought a lie would be more okay right now; I did not get her sometimes.
"That is great. Your classes will start tomorrow at nine. If you want, whenever you're not in class, you can wander about to see what all of wizard city has to offer."
"Awesome," I said.
"Thanks Headmaster," said Emily.
"I should mention though, there have been strange events around town," said Ambrose. Huh, I thought. If wizards find it strange, then they must really be strange.
"Nothing serious," he continued. "Nothing that promising wizards like you can't handle! Now, did you see your teachers about that extra spell yet?"
"No, not yet," I said.
"Well, as a reward for visiting all your instructors, here is a new spell card for each of you! Don't forget to add them to your decks. You should talk to your teachers about them teaching you how to use them." With that he gave Emily a spell called Fireblade, and me a spell called Lightning strike. According to the cards, Emily's spell was supposed to add extra power, and mine was supposed to add accuracy; the two things we lack.
"I also have something else for you," said Headmaster Ambrose. "To welcome you to Ravenwood." A light came in front of us, and then became a Ravenwood banner.
"Thanks Headmaster," said Emily, as it became a light again and floated into her bag.
"One other thing," said the headmaster. "Have I told you about having a secondary school?"
"No?" I said, being confused to what he meant.
"Well, besides having your main class, you can have a secondary school alongside it to learn another school of spells besides your own. It can be any class of your choice, of course you not be able to learn them as fast as your main spells; it will take extra work to learn them, so choose wisely."
"Oh so that's why the teachers were advertising themselves," I said.
"I wonder which one to choose," said Emily. "There are so many good options."
"I guess we should sleep on it," I concluded. "Right now, we should probably go see our teachers, and ask them to teach us these spells." We were about to bolt out the door to do that, when Emily stopped me.
"Wait, its five o'clock right now, where are we going to eat once we're done?"
"That's a good question," I said. I turned back to the headmaster. "Excuse me, Headmaster, where can we find food here?"
"Oh you're concerned about meal-times," said Ambrose. "Don't worry, food usually appears in your dorm room, but there's a few restaurants here as well in the shopping district."
"We're going to have to go check out that shopping district sometime," said Emily. "Of course, now we should go master our new spells. Goodbye Headmaster."
"Good luck, young wizards," said Ambrose.
After meeting the Myth teacher, I wasn't so hesitant to spend time with my frog teacher, I mean Professor Balestrom. He happily obliged to teach me how to master the new spell. This spell would not cost me any mana, so it was pretty simple. I just had to memorize the rhyme I was going to use to cast the spell.
My teacher was amazed that I already knew how to make the symbol and knew I had to say verses to cast Storm magic. I also needed to master focusing on storing the mind drawn location in my mind, to be transferred out into a floating disk. As soon as I was able to master the spell and memorize the rhyme (Sloppy, Cloppy, Clumsy, Dodgey, you can take a hike; you can't hide from the aim of my Lightning Strike!), my teacher generously offered me a chance to have dinner with him. I accepted, hoping Emily wouldn't mind. I had a great time; we had pizza, a favorite food we shared. I learned all about his ideas and inventions, and I told him a bit about my life, without revealing too much. I learned he liked fashionable hats, and kites, and disliked naysayers and patent officers (officers for inventors, apparently they had their own laws to uphold). I also learned he liked the lightning bats spell the most; he mentioned I might like it too.
After that was done, I met back up at the dorm with Emily. Our room was pretty circular, more octagonal. There were two single beds up against the left side of the room, two desks were up against the right, the door had flowerpots on each side of it, and window was across from the door. Emily had already hung the banner on the wall above our beds, and now she was practicing her new spell; casting it, then minor fireballs to see if they had a boost in power.
"From my flame, burning weak, it is the aid of umerus I seek. In the Pyro-Dracon name, turn my spark into a flame!"
"Careful," I said. "You don't want to destroy the room."
"You're back," said Emily happily. She stopped what she was doing and came to hug me.
"Sorry if I made you worry," I said.
"It's okay," she grinned. "I had dinner with my teacher too."
"Really," I said with interest.
"Yeah, we had something called Pasta Arbiatta, I think. Anyway, she's really nice, but also pretty strict. She was impressed with how far I was, but we did not stop until I knew how to cast it. I learned she's very formal, and very fond of fire. She's not a fan of snow skiing. She likes sunrises and soft jazz music, and her favorite spell is the summoning of the fire elemental, it's a tough one. How'd your evening go?" I told her about everything that had happened.
"Not so bad now, is he?" said Emily smugly.
"Yeah I guess you were right."
"Okay, that's great. Now what to do for the rest of our evening? We still have an hour left before nine and that's when I think we should go to bed."
"What do you want to do for an hour?" Emily thought about it for a moment.
"I still have a problem with these pink clothes I got. How about we find the dye shop and get that fixed, and then we can come back and get some shut eye."
"Sounds like a plan," I said before we rushed out the door, right into Ravenwood.
We followed the directions from Emily's wand to the dye shop, which turned out to be right in the front of the shopping district. When we entered the shop, we saw it was full of display clothes. Robes hung on hangers, hats on stools by the window, wands on wand shelves, and pieces of jewelry and badges. I was too enamored with it all; of course, we were just there to get Emily's stuff dyed and that was it.
Emily asked for everything pink to be dyed red, along with the novice's hat which she wanted dyed entirely red.
"I'll never understand your obsession with red," I said to her.
"Red's a powerful colour, Gen. It's the colour of blood and fire." As soon as everything was dyed, the old woman named Darla Whisperwind, the dye shop keeper turned to us.
"That'll be seventy one gold coins, dear," she said to Emily.
"Seventy one gold coins!" I said.
"She wanted a lot of her things dyed red, and that's not cheap." Emily paid Darla, and we left a shop, where a line was starting to form. We still had a bit of time left, so we took a look around the shopping district. We saw all the different types of shops and tunnels leading to a place called Olde town and a tunnel leading to Colossus Boulevard. We found where all the restaurants were, and the chilly Elik's edge. After which we decided to head back to our dorm.
Once we were back, we started getting ready for bed. Emily chose now to talk to me.
"I always used to introduce you as Gen before, you didn't seem that perturbed."
"We lived in a small town, where everyone knew each other. This is a new place and I rather introduce myself."
"Your name is a mouthful though. Sometimes you don't get to pick your nickname. Remember that one kid in our class, his name was… Jorden, Jarred, I think. Anyways, everyone just called him J.P, his initials. His name wasn't even that hard."
"Still, you're my sister. I've forgiven it to this point; you shouldn't dictate what I'm called."
"I'm not stopping, because your name is a mouthful, but I'll change up my tune so it's not so dictative."
"That's better," I said.
After we were ready for bed, (we were sleeping in our clothes tonight, we'll have to buy some wizard later), we tucked ourselves in. There was one thing I couldn't stop thinking about.
"Hey, Em," I said.
"Yes," said Emily.
"Tomorrow we go to Wizard school," I said happily.
"Yes, we do, don't we," said Emily. Who knew this was going to happen to us?
"Good night," I said happily.
"Good night," said Emily. With that, I fell asleep. I couldn't wait till morning.
So, how was that? It was a little sappy, but that's just who I am. Next chapter they go to school for a bit, but first tell me what you think of this chapter!