Chapter 17: The traitor's prophecy.
Amanda sighed for the tenth time in the past five minutes before grabbing another fancy pastry from the table, tossing it up and attempting to catch it with her mouth… only for it to land on the ground instead. She shrugged and was about to grab another, when the last one was snatched by Jasminka. Oh well… she'd just wait for the servants to bring more.
"I'm bored!" She complained loudly to no one in particular. "Only three days stuck in this lavish mansion and I'm already going crazy! I can't believe I'm saying this but… can't we go back to school?"
"Luna Nova is temporarily closed due to the attack." Lotte reminded her. "And we all agreed to help Akko find Professor Ursula, so… I guess we're gonna be here until her training is done."
"What a bother." Amanda made a grimace. "Are we even sure that there was an attack on Luna Nova? I mean… I didn't see any blood witches or anything."
Lotte and Sucy shared a brief look before the former answered.
"We didn't either." She admitted. "Akko said she did, but…"
"She's Akko." Sucy finished.
"Great." Amanda grumbled once more. "And this whole mess is because of some prophecy, which none of us have ever read, that says that Akko will save her mother with the power of love? Smells like bullshit to me."
"So what are you saying, Amanda?" Sucy narrowed her eyes at her.
"Look, I want to help Akko, okay?" She answered, almost defensively. "And I don't want anything to happen to Prof. Callistis either, but… I just wished we had something more concrete to go on."
"I… think I can help with that, actually." Lotte intervened sheepishly before pulling out a volume of Nightfall.
"No offense Lotte, but I doubt a fiction novel can help right now." She deadpanned.
"It might be fictional, but some of the events are based off of actual real-life stories." Lotte continued undeterred, with that characteristic passionate gleam in her eyes that appeared whenever she talked about her favorite book series. "An example is the war of witches arc, which was based off prophecies made by real witches hundreds of years ago."
"Does it have the prophecy Finnelan mentioned?" Sucy raised an eyebrow.
"No, but I'm pretty sure it's the Traitor's Prophecy, the most ancient one of all."
"Ominous name." Amanda commented.
"It is an ominous prophecy." Lotte emphasized. "More so, there is only a single written record in existence, and it's been in the possession of a powerful family for centuries, so no living witch has ever read it."
"A powerful family?" Sucy raised an eyebrow with skepticism. After all, normal people usually didn't care about magic at all.
"Old inquisition members. They were leaders in the witch hunts centuries ago, which is how they were able to seize the prophecy." Lotte quickly explained. "They've kept it at the Appleton academy ever since, as some sort of trophy to signify their victory against witches."
"Why has no witch ever tried to take it?" Amanda asked, frowning.
"Most witches don't take these prophecies seriously, mostly because the return of blood witches seemed unlikely." Lotte answered. "But if Finnelan is to be believed, the events of such prophecy are already in motion."
"I see." Amanda smiled mischievously as an idea started forming in her head.
"Amanda, no!" Lotte quickly interfered. "It's dangerous!"
"But it sounds fun!" She protested. "Besides, it's not like we have anything better to do."
"I'm busy with my mushrooms." Sucy quickly said.
"I… I just really don't think it's a good idea." Lotte answered when Amanda's eyes landed on her.
"Jas?" Amanda turned to her friend, but she was too engrossed eating a large cake to listen and she had learned that it was better to not interrupt her when she was trying new foods. Thus, her eyes went to her trusted mischief companion, Constanze, who just gave her a determined nod and a thumbs up in response. Ah, as usual, Cons didn't disappoint.
"Great!" Amanda grinned. "We'll need to do some research first, but I'm sure it'll be fine." She laughed. "After all, I doubt that some academy has more security than most of the banks we've robbed."
"You did what?!" Lotte exclaimed, horrified.
"Pft, relax! We gave the money away to charity." She assured her. "Most of it, anyways."
"Amanda!"
"Point is, this will probably help Akko, right? And it'll placate my boredom too! It's a win-win! What could go wrong, really?"
"Just what are you talking about, you bunch of misfits?" Amanda felt a chill run down her spine upon hearing the familiar, and rather odious, voice of a certain auburn-haired girl. And sure enough, when she turned to face her, she found Diana's minions standing behind her with their usual malice-filled faces.
"Nothing that you airheads would be able to understand." Amanda retorted with a mocking grin.
"Watch your words." Hannah answered, her eyes hardening.
"We are Diana's friends and you're all staying here only thanks to her generosity." Barbara was the one who talked next. "What do you think she'd do if she found out you've been rude to us?"
"Nothing." Amanda shrugged. "Isn't the Cavendish motto 'affection'? Miss goody two shoes is too bent on traditions to kick us out."
"She might not kick you out, but I'm really not above kicking your butt." For emphasis, Hannah kicked Amanda's chair, which barely bothered the smirking redhead.
"You seem too confident for someone that's been under Diana's shadow all her life." This comment, of course, only made Hanna's face turn red in anger.
"Amanda!" Lotte interfered. "Can you please not antagonize them? I wouldn't want Diana to get upset with us."
"Besides, it's a little childish." Sucy added, much to everyone's surprise. "We can poison them instead khekhekhe."
"Sucy!"
"Ugh, I don't even know why we waste our time with you all." Hannah scoffed. "Let's go, Barbs."
"But if you're planning something reckless… let's just say I'd think twice about it if I were you." Barbara added with a malicious smile before the two went away, leaving the group of friends alone one more time.
"Ugh. I really do hate them!" Amanda complained once the duo was out of earshot.
"You know, it's said hate can only come from love." Sucy commented teasingly.
"I don't love them! Never have." Amanda instantly replied rather defensively. "Sure, Hannah is kinda cute and all. And she has an amazing, uh… hair and-"
"Is there a but here?" Sucy continued with her unrelenting teasing, obviously having fun at the expense of the poor redhead.
"I said hair!" Upon receiving raised eyebrows from the other girls, Amanda shrank down a bit and felt heat rise to her cheeks. "What I'm trying to say is that I absolutely don't love Akko's bullies despite how good they might look, okay? That's all."
"Khekhekhe." Sucy laughed again. "You're almost as fun to tease as Akko."
"In any case…" Amanda coughed and tried to straighten herself up a bit. "Constanze, let's go to your ship. I believe we have a mission to plan."
Amanda and Constanze left their brooms behind some bushes once they got to Appleton Academy. It was late at night already, and unlike Luna Nova, it wasn't a boarding school, so it should be empty… or so Amanda hoped. Now, first they needed to get to the control room so that Constanze could deactivate the cameras and other security systems. Then, Amanda should be able to safely search for the prophecy. Simple, right?
And to ensure that, even if she was caught, she wouldn't get into too much trouble, Amanda also used a spell to change her clothes into the Appleton uniform and disguise herself as a boy.
"Okay, so… the security room should probably be… uh… over here?" Amanda pointed to a hallway on their right and scrunched up her eyebrows. "Maybe we should get a map first…"
Constanze face palmed and shook her head before signaling Amanda to get down. Thinking she wanted to whisper something to her, Amanda got closer to the other girl and squatted slightly so they were on the same level… and then Constanze took this chance to climb onto her back and then position herself sitting on top of her shoulders.
"Hey! What gives?" Amanda protested, but still straightened up and held Constanze's feet in place, ensuring she wouldn't fall. She'd be lying if she said this had never happened before.
In response, Constanze just pointed to what appeared to be a classroom near them and Amanda took this as her clue to walk in that direction. Once they got closer, she saw that, outside the door, hanging under the relatively low ceiling, was a slowly moving security camera, no doubt Constanze's target. She waited until it was looking the other direction and so she dutifully got closer to it and let the other girl work.
Constanze immediately got out her tools and opened up the camera before putting something inside it and closing it again. Once that was done she took out what appeared to be a watch of some kind, which showed some sort of rudimentary radar on its screen, upon which a lone green point beeped over and over again. Satisfied, Constanze then pointed to their left and started guiding Amanda around the school, across some hallways and down some stairs until they were in front of a door with a sign that simply read "Security. Authorized personnel only".
"Huh. Cool trick." Amanda praised her as she kneeled down, allowing the shorter girl to get off of her. "Now once you deactivate the cameras I'll begin searching for the prophecy."
"So that's what you two were planning." Amanda felt an unpleasant chill run down her spine and slowly turned around to face the one speaking. As expected, it was none other than Hannah, with Barbara standing close behind as well. Amanda was panicking internally, but she still tried to calm down her racing heart and get ready in case she had to take them out somehow.
"You're here for the Traitor's Prophecy?" Barbara raised an eyebrow.
"Well… apparently it's important to what's happening right now, so… I think it's kinda unfair that it's in the hands of a bunch of witch-killing men." She tried to justify herself, hoping she wouldn't have to fight them.
"The Blackwells haven't killed witches in centuries." Barbara corrected. "But… I gotta admit it's kinda unfair of them to have kept the prophecy." She turned to look at Hannah as if silently asking for her opinion, but the girl seemed to be frozen solid, simply staring at Amanda with wide eyes. "Hannah?" The girl in question shook her head and then glared at Amanda as if she'd done something absolutely atrocious and offensive.
"What on Earth are you wearing, O'Neill?!" She yelled, to the confusion of the rest of the girls.
"The Appleton uniform?" She answered, raising an eyebrow, but it came out more like a question. "I figured it would help me get into less trouble if someone finds me."
"Take it off!" She demanded.
"What? Why?!"
"Do it, O'Neill! That's an order!"
Now, Amanda wasn't very fond of the bossy tone of voice Hannah was using, but… with a mischievous smile she figured it was best to oblige.
"Alright then." With her fingers, she took the hem of her shirt and slowly started to lift it out of her pants, revealing her midsection.
"W-what are you doing?!" Hannah rushed towards her and grabbed her hands, making her let go of the shirt that, sure enough, fell and covered her exposed skin again.
"Taking it off?" Amanda raised an eyebrow at her.
"T-that… that's… it's not what I meant!" Judging by her tone of voice, Amanda figured she must have been pretty flustered, which gave her a better idea of what was going on.
"You think I'm handsome, don't you?" She shot her a shit-eating grin.
"Y-you wished!" Hannah tried to deny it, but her bashful expression betrayed her, although the darkness of the night helped conceal her blush.
"Amanda…" Barbara interfered. "For Hannah's sake, can you take off your disguise? I think she's having a bi panic attack."
"I'm not!" Hannah yelled indignantly at her best friend. "S-shut up! You traitor…"
"Hey, I would, but… it's for my own safety." The redhead said a bit more sympathetic. "But if it's too much for you, you can go now." Then she made a pause and raised an eyebrow at the two girls. "Unless you think you can stop us."
"Oh, we can." Barbara answered with more confidence than she should have had, in Amanda's opinion. "But… should we?" She questioned Hannah, who took a few seconds to look to the side and slow down her breathing before adopting a thoughtful expression.
"I mean… the prophecy is an ancient witching relic that shouldn't be in possession of mortals." She mused out loud. "But if we get discovered it could go wrong for us and the entire witching community."
"Then again, if we help Amanda, we'd be less likely to get caught." Barbara argued. "Plus, if someone ever finds out that the prophecy is missing, it'd be a great humiliation for the Blackwell family." She added with a malicious smile.
"That is a great plus." Hannah mirrored her smile before nodding, apparently coming to a decision, before turning to Amanda. "We'll help."
"Uhhh… no thanks." She quickly answered. "I'm a professional thief; I do this alone." Upon getting a kick in the shin from Stanbot, she added: "Ow! Okay, Cons and Jas help too, but… that's it."
"We weren't asking, you dumbass." Hannah grabbed her collar and started pulling her. "Now, lead us where the prophecy is and we will help you."
"Hey! Stop it!" She struggled to get away from Hannah's grasp but the girl was surprisingly stronger than she would have expected, and she wouldn't want to use too much force and accidentally hurt her. "Constanze! Aren't you gonna do something?" But her friend just shrugged, opened the door to the security room and closed it swiftly behind her. Amanda knew her enough to know that was a 'not my problem' answer and she groaned. She wasn't getting out of this, was she?
After Amanda promised she wouldn't run away and Hannah let her out of her grip, the three of them started searching for the prophecy. It would have been way more efficient to split, in Amanda's opinion, but as the girls pointed out, they really didn't have a way of communicating, and of the three only Amanda was an expert thief. She had actually proposed they howled as a signal but… alas, they weren't impressed with her 'poor imitation of a wolf'.
"Ugh, we've been here for ages!" Barbara complained. "Hadn't we checked this building already?"
"No! Look, the lock is…" Amanda trailed off when she pushed the door and it opened thanks to her previous picking of the lock. "Uhhh… never mind then! Let's go check that one now." She pointed to some sort of chapel that was behind the building they were currently in, and the three started making their way there.
"Seriously! How big does a school for ordinary boys has to be?" Hannah groaned. "This is probably twice the size of Luna Nova."
"Probably even more than that." Amanda corrected. "But I expected as much from a bunch of pretentious assholes."
"Ugh, you tell me." Hannah rolled her eyes. "I personally know some of them and I wished I could un-meet them."
"You mean… the Blackwells?" Amanda wasn't really one to pry about people's lives, especially when it came to someone she barely knew, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't curious.
"Yes! They're arrogant and pretentious and think of themselves as better than anyone else." She huffed. "Especially Lois Blackwell. He's the worst."
"What, is he your ex or something?" Amanda joked, but when Hannah's eyes widened at her words and her expression became panicked for a second, she knew she had hit the nail in the head. "Wait… For real?!"
"No! Of course not!" She tried to deny, but her expression really told Amanda everything she needed to know.
"Not exactly." Barbara interfered, apparently sensing her friend was just digging a deeper hole for herself. "They never actually dated."
"Y-yeah…" Hannah frowned. "Someone of his status would never date a witch." It might have been the lighting, but Amanda could have sworn Hannah almost looked sad for a second there.
"That's what he said?" Amanda raised an eyebrow.
"I don't even know why I'm telling you this." Hannah adopted her cold persona again, but this time it seemed more like a defense mechanism. "It's not like someone like you would understand."
"Maybe not." Amanda conceded. "But…" she hesitated for a moment before placing her hand on Hannah's shoulder, surprising the three of them. "… if I ever see this Lois, I will personally kick him in the balls for ya, how does that sound?"
"Barbaric." Hannah deadpanned, shaking Amanda's hand off her shoulder before resuming her walking. However, after taking a couple of steps, she paused and turned to give the other girl a tiny smile. "That said… I wouldn't stop you if you did." At her words, Amanda's smile widened and she gave her a determined nod.
The three girls then arrived to the chapel-like structure and Amanda wasted no time picking the lock and letting them inside before following in herself. The interior really did look a lot like a church of sorts, with many, many, rows of wooden benches and a hallway in the middle leading up to a podium with a small chest. It was very ornate too; with gold patterns covering the wood underneath.
"Well… that certainly looks like loot, but I don't know if it's what we came for." Amanda commented once they got close.
"We probably shouldn't just open it; there's sure to be a lot of security systems around it." Barbara said.
"Nah. Constanze probably took care of that already." She answered confidently. Then, she took a couple more steps and reached the chest which, as expected, was locked. But there was literally no lock on earth that could stand a chance against Amanda's expert fingers! Although… this one was proving to be a challenge.
"Yeah… I think we'll need a key for that one." Barbara said after a few minutes of Amanda struggling with the lock.
"It's just to be expected for them to put a more secure lock on this chest than in the normal classrooms." Hannah added in an almost condescending tone.
"No! I can do it. I know it." The redhead protested.
"Shouldn't you know an unlocking spell, if you're to be doing these sorts of things on a daily basis?" Hannah sighed, exasperated at the other girl's stubbornness.
"That'd be cheating!" Amanda protested.
"So what?! We're literally stealing!"
"Girls… keep it down." Barbara shushed them when they started raising their voices.
"Sorry, but I wouldn't have to yell if Amanda didn't have such a thick skull!"
"I'm just trying to have fun and you're ruining it!"
"Fun?! We're trying to steal an ancient prophecy! This isn't the time for fun!"
"Girls!"
In that moment, the door burst open, startling the trio, who quickly turned to look at the newcomer, wands ready… and realized it was a man dressed all in black, wearing a bulletproof vest and holding a flashlight in his hand. Amanda also took note of the taser gun on his belt.
"What are you all doing here?!" He shouted, pointing with his flashlight at their faces, and then pausing at Amanda, probably noticing she was wearing the Appleton uniform. "You know, son, classes are already over. You should be home by now."
"Uhhh…" Amanda trailed off, trying to think of an excuse. This was the first time in a while she'd been caught trying to steal something. "Well, you see… we were just… we…"
"Andrew here promised to show us his school." Barbara interfered, taking hold of Amanda's arm and smiling up at her. "Right Andy?" She winked, which for some reason made Amanda's heart skip a beat. When was the last time a girl had grabbed her arm like that? She just wished this was under better circumstances.
"We know girls aren't allowed to enter, so we came during the night." Hannah added, stepping a little closer to Amanda and grabbing her other arm. "Please don't get Andy into trouble."
"Y-yeah." Amanda stuttered, mustering up a nervous smile. "We weren't after the prophecy or anything." Just a millisecond after the words left her mouth, Amanda wanted to punch herself and, by the looks of it, Barbara and Hannah wanted to punch her as well, with good reason. Okay, so lying wasn't her strong suit! That's why she usually worked alone and rarely got caught!
The guard squinted at them and Amanda tensed, watching him carefully and readying herself to take out her wand… and then everything happened too quickly for her to register.
"Alsolew Airo!" Hannah was the first one to react, getting out her wand and casting a spell towards the guard, effectively stopping him from reaching for his taser gun.
"Toriara Faciesse." At the same time, Barbara casted another spell, turning herself completely invisible as she let go of Amanda's arm. Now she had no way of knowing where the other girl was.
"Ahhgh!" The guard screamed as his body adopted multiple awkward looking positions, with his limbs bending at weird angles as if he was fighting against an invisible force. "What is this strange magic?!"
"Hannah… did you use puppet magic on him?" Amanda would be lying if she said she wasn't impressed, but to be honest she was mostly terrified. And… a little bit aroused too. She liked powerful girls, alright?! So what?
"Y-yeah." Hannah answered through clenched teeth, with her muscles tensed and her undivided attention concentrated on her wand. "And it's very difficult, so don't distract me!"
As the guard continued to scream and tried to free himself from the spell's effect, Amanda noticed that an object came out of his left pocket and remained floating on the air for a moment, just enough for her to notice that it appeared to be a keychain of sorts.
"Amanda! Catch it!" She heard Barbara's voice as the keys flied through the air in her direction… although a little bit too high. She quickly jumped as high as she could in order to catch the keys before they could crash through the ornate stained-glass windows that were behind the altar, and, without losing momentum, went to the chest and looked at the many keys, trying to find one that might fit inside the lock. It was difficult to see through the darkness surrounding them, but she somehow managed to spot an ornate-looking key made of what appeared to be gold, and quickly introduced it in the lock and turned it. To her relief, the chest instantly opened and revealed a roll of age-worn paper inside, tied with a black silk ribbon. Originally, she'd planned on substituting it with something else, but… would it really matter now? They'd been discovered already! And there was no time to waste; they needed to get out as soon as possible.
So, Amanda took the prophecy, closed the chest and ran towards the exit, where presumably Barbara was tying up the guard, while Hannah maintained the puppet magic spell. Honestly? Amanda was surprised she was able to keep it up for so long. As far as she knew, puppet magic usually couldn't be casted on living creatures; at least not if they were awake, and it was even more difficult when it came to humans.
But… there was no time to be thinking about that right now. They needed to get out of here!
"Han, Barb! Come on, let's go!" She shouted as she ran through the door, hoping they'd follow her.
With a grunt, Hannah let go of the spell just as Barbara managed to finished tying up the guard, and then the two followed Amanda as she ran across the many buildings of this massive school towards the exit.
"Aren't we gonna tell Constanze?" Barbara asked between ragged breaths.
"She's probably waiting for us at the door already." Amanda answered.
Just then, alarms started going off all around the school, and they heard voices and the sound of steps in the distance.
"Damnit! The guard must have alerted the others somehow." She said through clenched teeth, trying to remember the quickliest way to the entrance. If she recalled correctly, they just had to turn left on the next hallway and then run straight through the parking lot and…
The three girls stopped dead in their tracks when they came face to face with five security guards, all pointing their taser guns at them.
"Uhhh… hi?" Amanda smiled nervously.
"Your hands where we can see them!" One of them barked. Amanda and Hannah quickly obeyed, although it was impossible to know if Barbara, still invisible, did as well. They shoot each other a questioning look, as if silently asking how they'd get out of this one, but Amanda just shook her head and Hannah sighed. "Now put the parchment on the floor. Slowly."
"Alright, alright!" Amanda really didn't know what to do. If they ran, they'd most likely get tased and caught. Same if they reached for their wands or if she tried anything with the scroll. Ugh! Their only hope was that Barbara used her invisibility to…
One of the guards fell, his hands between his legs as he cried in pain after being, no doubt, hit on his sensitive parts. The others turned towards him to try and spot the assailant, but one of them instantly got tased with the fallen guard's gun that had remained suspended in the air after he fell. Before they could process this fact, however, the gun had already fallen to the ground and Amanda took this as her cue to interfere as she quickly landed a kick on the stomach of one guard before punching his face and sending him to the ground, unconscious. Only two were left, but although Hannah made quick work of one with her puppet magic, making him run straight to a nearby wall and fall unconscious, the other managed to call for reinforcements before Barbara took him out with another taser gun.
"Come on, we're almost out of here!" Amanda yelled. The three girls started running towards the parking lot, already visible from where they were, but then… the sound of electricity, a scream, and Hannah falling to the ground, made them stop dead in their tracks and turn to see another guard had come out of one of the hallways, likely being alerted by his colleagues' screams, and had used his gun against Hannah.
"Murowa!" A spell came from an invisible wand, hitting him and leaving him incapacitated. Although that spell was rather dangerous and its use against humans was highly prohibited because of the amount of pain it could cause, Amanda didn't even think about chastising Barbara; her mind focused on getting out of that damned school as soon as possible. So, she placed the prophecy in the inside pocket of her jacket and picked up Hannah bridal style before continuing to run.
Hannah weakly protested and tried to push her away, but a witch or not, being hit by a taser gun was no minor thing, and Amanda was sure Hannah was in no condition to run at the moment.
Thankfully, they managed to get to the front door without encountering any more guards. Now they just needed to jump over the fence and meet Constanze where they had left their brooms. But… how could they jump the fence when Hannah was more than a little indisposed at the moment?
"We'll have to crawl underneath." Barbara answered Amanda's silent question. Thankfully, her head was starting to appear, so at least she knew she was still with them.
"What? Are you crazy?! There's no space underneath the bars!"
"Morowa!" She pointed the spell towards the lower end of the fence and, although the thick metallic bars didn't break, they at least bended enough to create a small opening through where they could (hopefully) pass through. "Now there is. Come on!"
Barbara was the first to make it to the other side, and Hannah followed as best as she could… with help from the other two girls, of course. But… as her head passed underneath the metallic remains of the fence, her ribbon got stuck on one of them and she screamed upon feeling the tug on her hair.
"Hold on. Let me…"
"There's no time!" Amanda cut Barbara off when she was about to try and get the ribbon off the mangle of bent metallic bars in which it had been stuck. "We've got company."
Indeed, voices were starting to sound very near them, as well as hurried steps, and the lights of lanterns could be seen just a few meters away from where they were. Realizing that she couldn't untangle the ribbon quickly without seriously hurting herself with the ragged metal, Barbara decided against it and grabbed Hannah's hands, pulling her to get her out from under the fence, while Amanda pushed from the other side.
Hannah screamed again, but knew they had no option, so she reached up and pulled on her ribbon, untying it and letting her hair lose. That way, she was able to pass pain-free, but the ribbon unfortunately remained stuck to the fence.
A moment later, Amanda passed as well and carried Hannah in her arms once more before she and Barbara resumed their running towards some bushes nearby, where Constanze was already waiting with their brooms. The short girl shot Amanda a questioning glance upon seeing Hannah's state, but Amanda just muttered "later" before placing Hannah at Barbara's broom, since it would've been irresponsible to let her fly on her own, and then getting into her own broom herself.
The four witches then took off flying to the sky, hoping nothing bad would happen as a result of their actions that night.
A/N: What's this? A self-inldulgent Hamanda chapter? Yeah, pretty much. But in my defense, it does serve the plot, and I hope y'all actually liked it XD
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review/favorite/follow if you want to support me. See you soon!
Thanks to my beta reader moonwatcher13.