"It is hard to not be proud of such a fine school, where discipline is handled so precisely…"
-Merle Ambrose, Speech at the 76th Spiral Education Meeting
Being sent to the headmaster's office for nearly killing someone in a training session on the first day of classes isn't fun. You get mean looks and scared looks.
Tunnels connect the different parts of Wizard City, so I had to walk through the narrow and quite crowded tunnel connecting Ravenwood to The Commons.
The Commons was-as always- very crowded, and Ambrose's office-as always- was bustling with students.
Ambrose stood in front of his desk while students were all about the cramped office, talking to the headmaster, and sitting on the floor practicing magic or reading books.
I made my way over to Ambrose and he pointed toward a large wooden door painted red. Then he returned to talking to other students.
I walked over to the door and turned the large brass knob and gently pushed. Inside was a darkened room with cushiony yellow chairs in which three other students were sitting. The door shut quietly behind me and I sat down in one of the chairs.
It was very obvious that this was the waiting room for students who had disciplinary problems and were sent to the headmaster. One of the students was a boy who looked much older than me. His eyes were covered by dark hair and he held a plain black wand. The next student was a girl with long, flowing blond hair. She was wearing bright yellow robe and had a long yellow staff sitting at her feet. She wore an angry face and her arms were crossed, as were her legs. The next student looked my age, but much shorter. He had an evil grin on his face and he held a purple spike.
The girl in yellow sighed.
"So, why are you all here?" she asked.
The boy with the purple spike was first to speak up, "I was in the branches of Mortis, the death tree! I was peeling off his bark for a potion I wanted to make," his evil grin so wide, it nearly touched his ears.
The other boy in black said, "I was wandering around the Haunted Cave and I was near Lord Nightshade's Tower. Then a Wizard City guard apprehended me and told me to 'report here at once'," he said, mocking the guard's words.
"I almost killed a student with an ice beetle," I said.
"What?" the girl seemed surprised, "you can't kill anyone with an ice beetle! They're way too weak!"
"Well I almost did…"
"Why are you here, anyway?" the boy in black asked the girl.
"I was correcting Professor Dalia Falmea about the history of fire magic and she sent me here for 'causing a disruption'."
Then a door that I hadn't noticed on the other side of the room swung open, interrupting the conversation. The life professor, Moolinda Wu burst in wearing an expression I'd never imagined she would have on her face, pure anger. She sat down in the chair next to me.
"Hello, Professor Wu," the boy in black said.
Wu's expression eased as she said, "Hello, Thomas. I wouldn't expect to see you here!"
"Professor, I have no idea why I am here. I was near Lord Nightshade's tower and-"
"You what?"
"Professor, I was instructed to get straw from the field guards and-"
I was intrigued to hear him finish his sentence and to see what Wu thought of it. However, the door burst open and Merle Ambrose stood in the doorway, his monocle glinting, and his knuckles white from clutching his staff. His blue wizard's hat was slanted to one side and he looked very angry.
"Professor Wu," he began, "why are you here?"
Wu stood up, "I have a complaint, Headmaster, about Professor Falmea."
"Please return to the Life School, Professor Wu."
Wu looked shocked. She stared in disgust at the old wizard, enraged. She stormed out of the room from the door that she came through.
Ambrose smiled at the rest of us, "Children, I'm sure you all are not to blame for why you have come, but procedures tell us that we have to go through the standard disciplinary actions. Now, Thomas, why don't you come in first?"
Thomas, the boy in black, rose and followed Ambrose through the large door into his office, which was surprisingly empty. Ambrose closed the door behind him.
It felt like a half an hour passed when the door finally reopened and Ambrose's bright face shone again.
"Ms. Twister?" he invited, cheerily.
The girl in yellow followed the beaming old man into his office just as the doors swung closed again.
It was a long time before his face shown again. I figured that the girl, Ms. Twister, had given Ambrose a hard time because when he appeared again he looked a little off.
"Mr. Lotusweave, please come in," he said.
I stood up as Ambrose turned his back on me and proceeded into his office. The boy with the spike was chuckling and made a slashing motion across his throat. I rolled my eyes and followed through the red doors.
The office had changed, no doubt by magic, from the crowded study room to an actual office. There was a huge desk at the front, which was raised on a platform, and a smaller desk below. He invited me to sit at the smaller desk, which faced the larger one. He climbed stairs to the right of the platform and sat at the large desk.
"So," he began, taking a paper out of a bin marked 'in' on the corner of his desk. Later I discovered that these papers appear magically when a student is sent to his office. Ingenious, really.
He examined the paper, "Lotusweave… I remember your mother and your father when they came to school here," he smiled a great smile, "two people with very powerful magic talents."
"Yes sir," I said.
"In fact, if I recall, they were sent to my office on their first day as well. Your father couldn't control a bolt of lightning, and your mother couldn't control an imp!"
"They have told me that, sir."
"Yes… and now you cannot control an ice beetle."
"Yes sir…"
"A very rare case, young wizard, a rare case indeed. Young wizard, have you ever heard of Mallistaire Drake?"
"Yes sir."
"And you know that he was the previous professor of the death school? Until he became…well…dark?"
"Yes sir," I was lying through my teeth. Sure, I had heard rumors about how the death school disappeared, and I might have heard the name Mallistaire somewhere before. But nonetheless, I went along with it.
"Well, young wizard, I think you have a very bright future ahead of you. There are some very gifted students here at Ravenwood. Mallistaire and his armies grow ever closer to breaching the walls of Wizard City, but we hold strong. The secret military moves against them every day. But alas, we suffer heavy losses."
"Sir, what, may I ask, are you suggesting?"
Merle Ambrose paused a moment, as if thinking about how to put it delicately. "Young Wizard, I need you in my student mission force. It is the only way to counter Mallistaire. Oh please, young wizard, please."
"But sir, I know so little!"
The old man's expression eased, "Oh, Lucas, I was never suggesting that you join now! No, no. I forbid that. I was just wondering if after you are finished training to level-say… level twenty wizard approved by your home school teacher, then I think we could use you."
"Now I understand, sir."
"So? What do you think?"
I thought for a moment. I would love to be able to go somewhere with the magic I learn. I decided.
"Yes sir, I will do it."
"Excellent!" his face simply lit up with excitement, "Purely excellent! Now, Lucas, I shall be in touch with you and with Professor Greyrose. Now run along!"
It seemed rather sudden that he was dismissing me out of his office, but I left swiftly and without question. I was out the main door when he returned to the other door and invited the last boy in.
I looked out into the late afternoon that hung over The Commons. I breathed in the fresh air and began walking the long path from Ambrose's office to the main road of The Commons.
I accidentally bumped into a tall boy with curly brown hair and a hard look on his face.
"Sorry," I muttered.
He gave me a cold look and shouldered me away. I instantly knew why. He was a fire school student and I was an ice school student.
It was common that students in opposite schools despised each other. There was a constant rivalry and a shared dislike. The opposites were: ice and fire, storm and myth, and life and death.
I was aggravated by this and moved away with haste toward the Ravenwood tunnel.
My arm band shook as soon as I exited the tunnel from The Commons to Ravenwood signaling that it was time for my Spiral Studies class.
Lining the inner circle around Bartelby, were small doors that lead to even more classrooms I hadn't noticed before. My Spiral Studies class was in a door across from the myth school that had the myth emblem on it, a golden eye within a golden triangle, surrounded by blue.
The door looked very thick, so I leaned on it with all my might. To my surprise, the door was made of a light maple and I fell clumsily into the room.
The room was a tall tower in which the ceiling was not visible. A tall, bald man in yellow robes stood at the front of the room, Cyrus Drake, the Myth professor. At my entrance, he shifted his weight onto one leg and the expression on his face turned to one of impatience.
He stood, tapping his one hand with his wand in the other, staring at me as I stumbled further into the room.
I noticed that in the middle of the room, there were several chairs in a circle, and all of the students were present to fill them, except one.
"You are late," the old professor muttered.
"I am sorry, sir, I was at Headmaster Ambrose's office, sir," I replied anxiously.
"Yes, yes. Take a seat."
I took a seat hesitantly in a chair between two boys much taller and older than me who definitely looked like they did not want to be there.
Professor Drake pointed his sharp, straight wand into the center of the room and a yellow beam shot out. A brilliant realistic image of the Spiral appeared in the center of the room. Several "oohs" and "aahs" echoed off the walls of the tower in fascination. The two boys on either side of me were obviously not impressed.
The professor chortled at the students' delight at his simple magic spell. He entered the image, which parted for him until he appeared to be standing at the center of the Spiral.
"The Spiral, as you all know, is filled with a vast number of stars and planets. We are located here," the professor said, pointing to a rather large star near the center of the Spiral.
"However," he continued, "due to the new curriculum written up by the Ravenwood Council for Spiral Studies, I am required to teach you more current events in the Spiral and less history. Does anyone know the pressing issue in the Spiral right now?"
No one raised their hand and the two boys on either side of me groaned.
"This is a time of great conflict. Mallistaire the Necromancer has declared war on the Unified Spiral Federation, which is having problems of its own. The source of magic is being intensely debated, and because of this, several members of the Federation are leaving. It is a dark time for all of us."
A girl raised her hand high into the air.
"Yes, Natasha?" Professor Drake called on her.
"I was wondering… what do you mean by the debate of the source of magic?" the girl asked.
"Well, it is obvious that the source of magic is Bartelby and the seven child trees. However, others disagree. For instance, Wysterians believe that the source of magic is a fountain," Professor Drake chuckled, "but this is a strange instance, because Wysteria has not threatened to secede from the Federation."
The boys beside me yawned. I must admit, this class was boring. I honestly did not care about the whole 'declaring war' thing. I just knew that Mallistaire was bad and the Federation was good.
After a long Spiral Studies class, all of our arm bands shook and we all left. It was not common that everyone would leave when my arm band shook, because we all had different schedules. Mr. Lincoln would have to enchant each one to fit the schedule of each student, I felt sorry for him.
We all exited the small room and followed the counter clockwise flow of students to the tunnel that led to The Commons.
It was evening, and the low sun emitted a spectacular orange glow that coated Wizard City.
I returned to my dorm and tried my hand at crafting up some dinner. I used some cat tails and a small sapphire in a crafting basin. I tapped it with my wand and said crafting magic words. All of a sudden, I had a nice piece of meat with a small salad in the basin. I put it onto a plate nearby and sat down at a table to eat it.
We were taught a bit of crafting magic by Simeon in order to make food for ourselves. He also told us where we could get reagents, or ingredients. With this, we could make three good meals a day and snacks as long as we had the reagents. Simeon had given us some reagents to start out with.
I fed Luke and cleaned his droppings up from the sand box and went into the corner where my bed was. I changed into pajamas and slipped under the covers, ignoring the book that lay on my bedside table. I had no interest in reading it that night because I did not think that it was coincidence that I had the strange dream the night I read the book.
I shut my eyes. It wasn't a dream that came, because I was not asleep yet. It was a vision rather, of me lifting up the pillow and seeing a note. It continued to play over and over again until I opened my eyelids and picked up the pillow. Surely enough there was a note, which was neatly folded, sitting on the bed where my pillow had been. On the outside fold, there was writing:
Lucas Lotusweave, Ravenwood School
I picked up the note and read it.
Lucas, I am guessing that you are confused about many things.
Come to Blackhope Tower on Unicorn Way, and I shall answer your questions about everything, including the storm professor's writing and if it is true or not.
See you soon, hopefully
I closed the note and set it on my bedside table, disregarding it, and went back to sleep.