The Princess of the Night

Chapter 12 – Answers

"Well you see, I um, I kind of ran away…" said Lily as the trio exited the café. Gerard cocked his head to the side, eyebrow raised.

"Ran away? Why? I mean, I heard the College of Mages was strict, and the Supreme Council is extremely fond of corporal punishment, but I didn't think it was that bad."

Lily frowned. "You seem to know quite a lot about us Gerard. Were you part of the College?"

Gerard laughed at this. "Oh Goddess no, I wouldn't dream of joining the College. Too many rules for my liking. But it is hard to learn magic and not learn about the College. It has been the centre of magical learning for millennia."

They had arrived back in the alley that Gerard and Marek had arrived in. Lily's body stiffened.

"Do you yow feel that? There's some powerful magical residue in this area!"

Gerard waved his hand dismissively.

"Don't worry, that was us. There tends to be a lot of residue after a Dimensional Jump."

"You're not even from this dimension? Wow!" she exclaimed.

"You know, I preferred it when you were quiet." interrupted Marek.

"Marek, be nice," admonished Gerard.

Gerard turned to Lily. "Ok, we're going to teleport now. Have you ever teleported before?"

She nodded in affirmation. The group were surrounded in a brilliant white light. When it faded a moment later, the scenery had changed utterly. Instead of a dimly lit alley filled with overflowing bins they stood in a small apartment. It was sparsely furnished and a thick layer of dust covered every surface.

"Where are we?" asked Lily, trying not to throw up. Teleporting did that to her, and she didn't want to embarrass herself.

Gerard ignored the question and walked briskly to the window, glancing outside before closing the blinds. He repeated the process with every window in the apartment.

"It was an apartment he used when he had to come to town for book signings and charity functions," drawled Marek, lounging on a dusty armchair.

Gerard's voice echoed in from the master bedroom.

"Lily, Marek, get in here and make yourselves useful!"

Lily walked into the room to find Marek already lying on the large double bed, crumpling the papers Gerard had set out neatly. Gerard was scowling. Marek gazed around absentmindedly for a few moments before turning to Gerard.

"Oh, did you want me to move?" he asked mockingly.

"It would be appreciated," muttered Gerard in an irritated tone.

Marek got up slowly, being careful to crumple as much paper as he could. Gerard exhaled loudly in an attempt to compose himself. Presently he turned to Lily.

"Have you learned anything about sigils?" he asked.

"A little, when I was trying to find my discipline, but I'm an elemental mage-"

Marek snorted. "They honestly think you can only learn one discipline! What fools!"

Lily looked to Gerard, confusion etched on her face. Gerard shot a disapproving glance at Marek.

"Of course they think that, it's the standard Supreme Council propaganda." He spared Lily an apologetic look before returning to his notes. "The Supreme Council of mages make the College tell you that mages can only master one discipline of magic because they're afraid of rebellious little mages like yourself becoming too powerful. They're in power and they want to keep it that way."

Gerard finished sorting his notes and handed some of them to Lily, along with a red marker.

"Here, go draw these on the inside of the front door, they should keep any unwanted guests out, for a while at least. Follow the instructions to the letter, the placement of the runes is very important." Said Gerard, turning to Marek. "Please tell me you can at least take our safety seriously?"

Marek held out his hand and Gerard passed him more sheets. He took one look at them and there was a flash. Gerard raised an eyebrow.

"You gonna check them?" sneered Marek, "Make sure they're to your liking?"

Gerard snorted. "And give you the satisfaction of saying I told you so? I think not."

Lily knelt in front of the door, carefully drawing the symbol Gerard had told her to draw. She stuck her tongue out as she worked, something she did when she was concentrating. She had seen a mage blow his hand off drawing a flame rune in the College. She wasn't taking any chances. As she worked she thought about the past few days of her life. Had she made the right decision running away from the College? Up until a few hours ago she would have said no, but after meeting Gerard and Marek she felt more confident. They were powerful, and seemed to have mastered many different magical arts. With them she had a chance of evading capture.

Lily's concentration drifted while she was thinking, and she drew a line slightly longer than it needed to be. A bolt of lightning shot from the rune, streaking over Lily's shoulder.

"Careful." Came a voice from behind her, and she rose to her feet, spinning as she did so. Gerard stood there, the lightning bolt suspended in the air inched from his face.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" squealed Lily as the lightning dissipated.

"It's fine," said Gerard, trying to act like he wasn't just almost killed by lightning. "I'll finish them later. Now, I don't believe you got to finish your story earlier. Why exactly did you run away?"

He turned and walked towards the kitchen, indicating that she should follow. She did, and entered to find Gerard sitting backwards on a chair, resting his arms on the back. Lily pulled up a chair and sat facing Gerard.

"You were close enough with your earlier guess," she began, "the discipline system was extremely strict and conservative, but that's not the main reason why I left."

This piqued Gerard's interest. "Oh? Well what then?"

"You see a few days ago the scryers detected a huge influx of magical energy around this town. It was massive, bigger than anything we had seen in centuries. The Supreme Council didn't take any chances, they sent a team of High Mages to investigate straight away."

Gerard raised an eyebrow. "High Mages? Just how powerful was this magical signature?"

Lily's brow furrowed. "That's the thing that prompted the response. At first there was about as much energy as your Dimensional Jump, but then-"

"The energy skyrocketed, didn't it? Unlike anything you'd ever seen before?" interrupted Gerard.

"Exactly," said Lily, confused. "Three scryers brains' melted in their skulls from the sheer power of the magic. Unlike anything we'd ever seen before is an understatement. The scryers that pulled away in time said there was enough magic to r-"

"To raise the sun." came Marek's voice from behind her. All traces of his earlier humour were gone. He turned to Gerard. "Looks like we found her."

Lily looked from one man to another, confused. "Wait, you know that creature?"

Gerard looked at her sharply. "Mind your tongue, you're referring to a princess."

"Princess? Princess of where?" enquired Lily.

"Equestria, the dimension we came from. Funnily enough, it was dear old Celestia's job to raise the sun each and every day." Chimed in Marek.

"The only question is," mused Gerard, "is what the Supreme Council want with her."

It was Lily's turn to look at Gerard as if he were an idiot. "Isn't it obvious? They're going to try and harvest her powers."

The colour drained from Gerard and Marek's faces as they breathed in unison.

"Shit…"