Chapter 41: The Letter

Having Zelda back helped with a lot of my stress, but she also gave me one more thing to worry about. What if they found she was back and they hurt her? Zelda's power was devastating if she was in the right environment but it wasn't difficult to catch her off guard. I couldn't believe that she was willing to stay behind and fight along with us. Life had given her an out, a way to get away from all of this. I wasn't sure if I could say that I would have come back too, but it was hard to imagine how you would react to something in a scenario that never happened.

I wondered what Titania Tilpin and Manfred had in store for the future. I knew she still had the Mirror of Amoret, which Charlie had used to find our father. I also knew that in a scuffle between Charlie and Joshua, it was cracked. Many unsavory characters were starting to trickle into the abandoned buildings of Piminy Street. Joshua's magnetism was responsible for attracting these awful people, no doubt. It wouldn't be a safe place for Katya to live much longer and I hoped that she would choose to move, at least until we could get the menace under control or wipe it out altogether.

It was more than a coincidence that Dagbert had arrived to the academy at the exact moment that my parents decided to go whale watching. Was he strong enough to control the oceans? Could he still drown them if he was nowhere near them or if he didn't know where they were? Manfred had tried to hypnotize Charlie weeks ago with hopes to find out where they were, no doubt. But why didn't he try to hypnotize me? Had Charlie gone into the postcards they had sent? Was there a way that he knew something that I didn't?

"Your grades are slipping. Maybe if you found your classes as interesting as that wall, you would be doing better." Manfred's bitter voice snapped me out of my thoughts and my eyes focused on him. He wasn't wrong. Each test I had gotten back today had lower marks than I usually acquired. The only reason I had been so ahead was because I had nothing better to do when I still lived in California. I wasn't a genius by any stretch, not like Zelda. I was more perceptive than anything. Much of my schooling had been interrupted in the time I had attended Bloor's academy and I was putting more effort into my magic than I was my academics.

"Don't act like you care about my schooling when you've done everything possible to hinder my advancement." I snapped back at him. It was stupid thing to say and I knew it would have repercussions, but for some reason I didn't care. "It's not like you'll let me have a chance to get into a decent college anyway, so what's the point? It's not like any of us are focusing on our studies, since Dagbert is so busy drowning people and you're trying to bring back an ancient enchanter. Do you care about Billy's schooling? What about Asa's? Or Tancred's? How do you expect me to study when I have to worry about you prowling in the shadows? Why should I fucking care about any of this when I don't even know if I'll survive to graduation?"

Manfred's face flushed a bright red from his anger and frustration. He didn't have an answer for me. Instead, he looked back down at the papers in front of them and pretended like I didn't exist. Mine and Charlie's eyes met each other from across the table. I had won.

I had been sleeping deeply in soundly when I had been awakened by what sounded like someone yelling in my ear. Get up! Get up, now! I had nearly jumped out of bed and flicked my light on. I looked around everywhere, but I couldn't see anyone. The only explanation was that there was something that Salem had wanted me to see and it had been him that had used his telepathy to wake me from my slumber. I flicked off my light just in case Matron came around and noticed it was on. Go to the window.

I wandered over, hoping for just a moment that Salem was standing outside, staring up at me. I didn't get to see Salem, but what I saw was good enough reason for Salem to wake me up. Many suspicious looking characters were making their way into the academy. Norton Cross was accompanied by a very strange looking man wearing dated clothes, my grandmother and my great aunts were dressed up and looking just as sinister as ever. Titania and Ezekiel were obviously holding a meeting, but they seemed confident enough to do so right under our noses. Did Charlie know this was happening? They're gathering all of these people to help search for the box and the will. They're going to try and find it using any means necessary. You need to be careful in dealing with them, Infinity. Ezekiel will use money as a motivator and these people will do ANYTHING for money.

What do you want me to do about them? I can't go down there and spy. They'll know I'm there. One of those women, she has second sight and she almost caught me once before.

Look at their faces, remember them. They'll be all about the city, possibly disguising themselves as everyday people. Movers, construction workers, taxi drivers. I want you to stay far away from them.

How do you know all of this? Are you still in the city?

Sometimes. It's best for you if you don't know where I am and if they don't think I'm helping you. I shouldn't even be communicating with you now, lest someone catches on. Eustacia, she's getting a lot more powerful. She can almost do what I do. And Manfred's hypnotism is way more powerful than it was before. If they get a hold of you and find out where I am and what I'm doing, we're both dead.

I'm not going to remember this conversation in the morning, am I?

No, but you'll remember these faces. Get into your bags and find a pen and a piece of paper. I grabbed my flashlight from my bedside table and fished through my bags looking for a notebook and a pen. Write down: Ashkelan A-s-h-k-e-l-a-n Kapaldi K-a-p-a-l-d-i Hall of Portraits. You'll want to go down there tomorrow and look around. I want you to realize what Titania is capable of. Now, stay up for a bit. You need to remember all of these people.

Salem's voice left my thoughts and I did as I was told. Although they were several floors below me, I tried to memorize their features the best I could and I stayed perched at the window for almost a half an hour, hoping I didn't miss any stragglers. I was grateful I did, because the most menacing looking character of all came the latest. He was a large man with broad shoulders and a strange gait. His whole body swayed as if he were walking on the deck of a ship. Although my window was closed and I was several floors higher than he, my room was flooded with the smell of the sea. This man was obviously tied to Dagbert Endless in some way. I wondered if he was his father or at least some kind of close relative. If he was here, that meant that they had something big planned, something too big for Dagbert to handle.

This was the man that they were going to use to make sure my parents never came home again. I backed away from my window and climbed into the bed, pulling the blankets over my head as if that would help get the fish smell out of my room. You won't remember this in the morning, but I love you. His voice was faint as my eyelids suddenly grew heavy.

The screaming of my alarm had woken me up from a strange dream. Though I couldn't remember much of it, Salem had been there. When I reached over to my nightstand to search for the photograph of us that I kept there, I was surprised to find my biology notebook there instead. There was a note scrawled on it that was definitely my handwriting, but I didn't recall writing it. "Ashkelan Kapaldi: Look in the Hall of Portraits." I read out loud. I frowned. I would pass through the hall on my way to breakfast and look, even though I wasn't exactly sure why I needed to look there. Did I wake up from a dream and think this was important? Would I even find anyone named Ashkelan Kapaldi there?

I threw the notebook back into my bag and rushed to get ready for the day. I would have to give myself enough time to return all of my things to my locker, look for Ashkelan Kapaldi's portrait, and get to breakfast on time. I decided to skip my shower and tied my hair into a messy bun on top of my head and cover my greasy roots with a headband. I knew someone would end up having something to say about my disheveled appearance but I didn't care. I had left myself that note for a reason and I knew it was important that I find out why.

After tossing all of my books into my locker, I speed-walked to the hall of portraits, glancing at various portraits as I walked by. My eyes stopped on Manfred's portrait. Manfred Ezekiel Bloor, the golden plaque below it read. The portrait had been painted sometime after his eighteenth birthday. Whoever they hired, he had captured Manfred's glittering, hypnotic stare perfectly. When I couldn't bear to look at it any longer, I let my eyes drift over to the empty spot next to it. The spot had formerly belonged to Salem, but Dr. Bloor had someone take it down. I remembered Dr. Bloor's harsh words the night we returned to the academy after Asa's rescue. "Your name will be struck from the Bloor family tree, you will inherit nothing, your portrait will be removed and you will no longer be considered my son. If you forfeit any information against us, Manfred will make sure that both Charlie and Infinity suffer."

I traced my fingers over the inscription below, which still had not been removed. Salem Gideon Bloor. Directly after the Bloor lineage of paintings ended, the Yewbeam section began. I couldn't help but notice that Uncle Paton didn't receive a portrait, but Grandma Bone and my great aunts did. I studied Grandma Bone's portrait the hardest. Grizelda Lisabette Yewbeam. I shuddered at the fact that I shared a middle name (or at least a variant of it) with that woman. I knew that Ailwyn had been the one to choose my name and probably had no idea who Grandma Bone was, but I had an urge ask my parents if I could legally have it changed when they returned, just for good measure.

I walked down the hallway a bit further. I recognized quite a few of the names that graced the walls. With the passing of time, their achievements and crimes had been long forgotten. Not all of these people had been bad, but why didn't my family get to have their lineage on these walls? "It's over there." A voice came from behind me, nearly making me jump out of my skin. Dr. Bloor was standing so close that I couldn't believe that I never heard him approach, as he was usually accompanied by heavy footfalls. I turned to see what he was talking about. He was pointing towards a large, ornate portrait a little further down the hall. When I glanced at the plaque, I was surprised to see the name that I had been looking for. I was even more surprised when I finally looked up at the portrait itself and realized that I had seen that man before. I had watched him walk into the academy the night before with Norton Cross. Something about the portrait was off though, as if whatever life that the artists had painted into all of the other portraits that adorned the walls had been sucked out.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked him as I studied the portrait.

"Just, get away from here. And don't let anyone catch you looking at it again." He walked away just as quickly as he had come. He had good advice. If Manfred or anyone else caught me looking around, they would know that I knew and would find a way to keep me quiet. I lowered my head and walked by the last of the portraits, hoping that I wouldn't get the last bits of unwanted breakfast.

Though, I didn't have such luck as the majority of my breakfast didn't even look edible. I dropped down in a seat next to Riley and stared down into my burnt toast and mostly liquid oatmeal. "Why are you so late?" He asked me, placing a banana down on my tray. "You look like you slept in."

"Yeah." I took a sip of tea and nearly spit it back into the cup. It was too strong, probably what had been left at the bottom of a kettle. "You don't have to give me your food. I know bananas are your favorite."

"Yeah, yeah. Just eat it, will you?" He waved his hand at me as he finished his final piece of toast. "Heard a lot of commotion going on outside of the academy last night, bunch of unsavory looking characters sticking to the shadows. Your family was among them. I saw a guy with fancy pants with that old doorman from the Pets Café and he looked like one of those guys in the portraits."

"I wouldn't say that too loudly." I frowned, peeling the banana open and taking a bite. "Maybe you shouldn't be around me too much anymore. They were able to hurt Tancred, and he wasn't easy to take down. I couldn't imagine what they would do to you."

"Nice try, but you're not going to get rid of me that easily. Charlie lets Gunn and Olivia stick around."

"I don't understand why you hang around me. You have plenty of normal friends. You're popular. I'm sure people aren't happy that you're hanging out with the freaky endowed kids." I never really questioned Riley's friendship, at least not until now. While I knew Salem harbored a little bit of jealousy, he never said that Riley couldn't be trusted. And it really wasn't that I didn't trust him, I just wondered why he would want to be involved in this mess.

"I dunno, Fin. You went MIA for the first week that I was appointed Head Boy, so when you came back, I figured I should get to know you. That's why I sent Dagbert off. I had expected you endowed lot to be cliquey and weird, like you thought you were better than the rest of us, but you weren't. I've gotten to see quite a bit of your life and the stuff you go through on a daily basis. And despite all of that mess, you still try to be a good person. I admire that. Also, you need someone big and strong to keep those weird guys away until Salem realizes he's an idiot and comes back for you."

"You can't blame me for being worried about you." I frowned at him.

"And you can't blame me for being worried about you." With breakfast coming to an end, he gathered both of our trays and walked with me to my English lesson.

As I headed to lunch later in the day, I noticed Charlie, Fidelio and Gabriel walking ahead of me. They had hesitated as they passed Ashkelan Kapaldi's painting. Had Charlie spied on the shady visitors that had visited the academy last night? That's a stupid question. He's Charlie. Of course he did. I thought to myself. "Charlie!" I called out them, quickening my pace to catch up. "What's going on?" I asked coolly, easing into their conversation.

Gabriel shot me a furtive glance. He was always a suspicious, shy boy and I knew he had a hard time trusting anyone that wasn't Charlie. "This may sound weird, but I think I saw that guy in that painting last night and Gabe thought he saw him today." Charlie, however, had no reservations towards allowing me into his conversation.

"I saw him last night too." I informed him. "And when I woke up this morning, there was a note next to my bed in my handwriting that I didn't remember writing. I told myself to look for Ashkelan Kapaldi's portrait in the morning. You didn't travel in there at all, did you Charlie?"

"No, I didn't. I don't know how he got here. It's not like my endowment is a common one." We didn't want to get caught staring at the portrait by anyone, so we continued to walk towards the cafeteria and get our trays. "You said that you wrote yourself a note and you didn't remember writing it. Do you… Do you think there is a chance that Salem had something to do with that? Don't you think it's odd that Uncle Paton just knew to be at the chapel when I came back with Otus?"

I thought about it for a moment, but many doubts jumbled around in my mind. Katya probably tipped Uncle Paton off. Salem is probably long gone, in America by now. I'm very intuitive, I probably just had a dream and wrote down the name and it was a lucky guess. "I doubt it was Salem." I rolled my eyes.

"It's strange to me that he hasn't come back yet. You told me he only left because you wouldn't let him help and you were working against us to try and make peace. But now you're helping. Why wouldn't he come back?"

"I don't know. He's probably over me, met some normal girl and is living the normal life he wanted." I was starting to get irritated. "Can we please just stop talking about him? Riley brought him up earlier too."

"Right. Sorry." Charlie looked like he felt guilty and quickly changed the subject. "Dagbert's father is here too. Lord Grimwald. Dagbert is terrified and tried to ask me to hide his sea-gold creatures."

"The ones he drowned Tancred over? I hope you told him where he could stick them instead." I grinned at Charlie and elicited a laugh from all three boys. "Though I can understand why Dagbert is scared. Do you know about their supposed family curse?"

"Of course. Lord Grimwald is definitely a powerful person. A long time ago, he drowned Cook's entire family because she turned him down for marriage. Twice. If he's here, then nothing good will come of it."

After lunch, the younger students went outside for break. Sixth years were given the option of staying indoors and I often took advantage of it during the colder months. March through April was normally a hit or miss with the weather. Today it was cold and dreary so I was going to spend my time studying in the library. Manfred had made a point to tell me that my grades were slipping and although I felt like it didn't matter much anymore, I didn't want to lose my position as head prefect. I enjoyed the private room and I would be damned if I let myself slip back into the dorms with the other girls. With Zelda back I would at least have a good study partner.

The rest of the week went by with little to no incident. I was excited to go back to the Kettle Shop for more training with Katya and to hang out with Zelda more. My stop at Piminy Street was the sixth shop. I said my goodbyes to Charlie, promising that I would stop by for dinner because he had something that he wanted to tell me.

As soon as I stepped off the bus, I found myself running down Piminy Street just in case any of the other inhabitants decided to take a chance and come out during the day. As soon as I opened the door to the Kettle Shop, Zelda was there asking me about my week and practically trying to shove a plate of cookies she made down my throat. "Katya and Maisie showed me how. Are they any good?"

Zelda's cookies weren't bad, but my standards were high from eating Maisie's cooking for over a year. "They're good, Zel. Maisie was here?" I said through a mouthful of baked goods. I sat my trunk down on the ground and followed Zelda back to the table.

"Yeah. She already knew I was here so it wasn't a big deal. She dropped something off that Paton had wanted to give to you, but he would already be off on one of his adventures when you got home so she gave it to us for safe keeping." She handed me a sealed, blank envelope.

I carefully opened it and quickly recognized Salem's handwriting. Maisie had told me when Salem left that he had something for me when he left and that Uncle Paton would know when it was time for me to see it. It must have been time. "This, it's from Salem."

"Oooooh! Read it out loud."

"Fin,

I know you're not happy with my decision to leave, but this is the way things have to be, at least for now. I wished to tell you what I'm about to say in person, for I have known for quite a while, but the time wasn't right. If Paton has given this to you, it means a very dangerous man has come to the city. His name is Lord Grimwald, Lord of the Oceans, and he is Dagbert's father. My family has asked him for a very important favor.

Lord Grimwald is in possession of a very powerful artifact called the Sea Globe. With it, he has full control of all bodies of water in the world. With Amy and Lyell whale watching, I'm sure you understand why they want for his aid. But this isn't the first time they have requested Lord Grimwald's services.

A year and a half ago, Ezekiel called upon Lord Grimwald and his Sea Globe to drown a man who was studying marine life off the coast of the Pacific Ocean. I didn't care to know the specifics, because as you know, I generally turned my back on them and tried not to get involved. The only thing I knew was that the man's name was Ailwyn Llewellyn. I didn't know he was connected to you at all. Grimwald killed him, and Ezekiel paid your aunt off to bring you here. This is why everyone was so angry when Manfred lost his temper with you. Of course, you then proved to be too difficult to control and found out who you really were. That's why Ezekiel kidnapped you. The only reason he gave up on trying to take your power for himself is because he's too weak. You and Charlie are so unique and powerful that they don't know how to handle either of you. You have two very powerful magicians in your lineage.

Anyway, I'm telling you this because Lord Grimwald needs to be stopped and there is only one person that is strong enough to do it. Dagbert. I know he has done some despicable things in the past, but you have a common enemy. As you may know "When the first son of the Lord Grimwald reaches his thirteenth year, he attains his full power and one of them dies.". Dagbert doesn't want to lose his life, but neither does Lord Grimwald. Everyone will turn their backs on Dagbert to appease Grimwald. You need to help him, Fin. I swear Dagbert isn't as bad as you think he is. His mother instilled some goodness into him and he just acts the way he does because he's scared.

Fight by his side, destroy the Sea Globe.

I love you."