Legacy 205: Mystery at Magic School

Part 5

Xxx

Noah and Kyle watched from behind a marble column as Sandra entered the fight by blasting the Dark Elder named Selene with a bolt of lightning. She had ordered them to stay back and look for a way to enter the vault without the Darklighters noticing them, which would give them the chance to find a weapon to use against the Trinity and their army. Noah didn't like the fact that Sandra was putting herself in danger like this, but he realized it was the only way. They needed a distraction. Selene rose to her feet and faced her former friend.

"Hello Selene." Sandra said calmly. "It's is good to see you."

"I wish I could say the same." Selene replied. "But kind words aren't going to erase the past or what you did to me."

"I understand." Sandra admitted. "You have every right to be angry, but I cannot allow you to continue, enough innocent lives have been lost."

"You cannot stop me." Selene said.

"Please, don't do this." Sandra pleaded. "I know what you truly desire, but Baldr is not going to help you. He'll never take that risk."

Selene lashed out by waving her hand, causing a wave of shadows to knock Sandra against the force field with great force. The Elder winched in pain but crawled back up with a determined look. As the two of them faced off, Kyle nudged Noah and they moved closed toward the force field.

"You know nothing of what I desire." Selene said. "You never understood, so instead of supporting my choice, you betrayed me out of jealously."

"Perhaps I was jealous, I can admit that after all these years." Sandra replied. "But my true reason was the safety of the council. I could not allow you to endanger everything we had created. Not even you."

"No harm would have come to you if you had just let me leave with him." Selene said.

"I could not take that risk." Sandra replied. "Together, you were too great a threat."

"I don't believe you." Selene said bitterly. "You ruined my chance at happiness because you didn't want to be alone. I will never forgive you for that."

"You were my closest friend, Selene." Sandra admitted as tears formed in her eyes. "I wish things could have been different, but I don't regret the choices I made. I did what was best for the greater good."

"In that case, you can die for your greater good." Selene replied coldly.

Selene raised her hands unleashed a stream of shadow at Sandra, who countered her attack with powerful bolts of lightning. For a moment, the two seemed evenly matched, but then Selene started gaining ground. As Noah watched Sandra struggle, he felt Kyle grab him by the shoulder and run toward the force field. When they reached it, Kevin saw them and quickly opened a hole through which they could enter. Noah turned back to Sandra and saw she had been forced to her knees. Selene moved toward her, shadows surrounding them entirely.

"You need to help her!" Noah demanded.

"There is nothing we can do, boy!" Odin snapped at him. "Once we lower the force field, we won't be able to get it back up in time."

"Sandra knew this." Qetesh added. "She wanted to bring you to safety, so she made herself the distraction."

"Maybe we can still save her with weapons from the vault." Kyle suggested. "There has to be something we can do."

"No, we cannot take that risk." Qetesh replied. "Sandra knew what she was doing when she confronted Selene. In a way, she needed to face her once last time to make peace with herself."

Noah turned away from the Elders to see Sandra. She was kneeling in front of Selene as waves of shadow swirled around them. Tentacles of shadows forced Sandra to her feet as they wrapped themselves around her body. Selene moved closer and whispered something in her ear. The two women stared at each other for a moment, after Selene touched Sandra's face and caused her veins to turn black. Noah screamed as he watched her body turn to dust.

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In the common room of Magic School, Payton sat silently in her corner by the fireplace. Most of the younger students had gone to bed, so only a few others remained. So far, everyone seemed to act like regular teenagers, even despite the murder that had just happened. Maddison and Zev were making out in the corner, while Harry was reading a comic book. Liam was nowhere to be seen, just like Kinsley, who had been absent all evening. She needed to go check on them, though before she could get up, Lexie sat down next to her and handed her soda can.

"I hope you like cherry flavor." Lexie said. "It was all that was left."

"Actually, I think I'm going to go to bed." Payton replied. "Today has been pretty exhausting."

"I know what you mean." Lexie said. "As much as we all try to act normally, a lot has happened. I mean, one of our professors was murdered by someone in the school. That's insane."

"Who you do think could have done it?" Payton asked.

"Miss Donovan could get on a lot of people's nerves, but she was harmless." Lexie replied. "I can't think of a reason anyone would want to kill her."

"Maybe it wasn't even about her." Payton noted.

"What else could it be about?" Lexie asked.

"I don't know, I'm just rambling." Payton quickly said as she faked a yawn. "I'm going to bed, what about you?"

"I'm not tired yet." Lexie replied. "I'll probably watch a slasher movie or something. Cinderhella is one my favorites, or is that in bad taste?"

"God, I hate that movie." Payton remarked.

Lexie shrugged and grabbed her phone before putting in earbuds. Payton got up and headed to the bedrooms, though before she could reach it, she was confronted by Maddison.

"Hey, we haven't gotten a chance to talk yet." Maddison said. "Payton, right? I'm Maddison."

"Yeah sorry, it's been a crazy day." Payton replied. "It's nice to meet you."

"Ah, that's sweet." Maddison said. "Anyway, I wanted to welcome you to the school and give you some advice about your choice in friends."

"What do you mean?" Payton asked.

"You should really watch out for Lexie." Maddison replied. "She once had a total freak-out or something and forced her former roommate to drop out."

"She seems cool." Payton noted. "What happened?"

"Okay, you didn't hear this from me, but she was stalking her roommate." Maddison said. "She was like obsessed with her and I should know. She did the same thing to me once."

"What do you mean obsessed?" Payton asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Maddison remarked. "She's into girls. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but she's a little extreme."

"Look Maddison." Payton replied with a fake smile. "I really appreciate the advice but I'm not really comfortable with judging people like that."

"I completely understand, I'm not like that either." Maddison said in an attempt to correct herself. "I just wanted you to know. She's known to get in trouble."

"I'll keep that in mind." Payton replied. "I'm going to bed, it was nice to meet you."

"We should totally have lunch tomorrow." Maddison said. "Bye now."

Payton rolled her eyes as she walked away. Maddison was the type of popular girl she hated at her own school, always picking on others. She had to deal with plenty of them when she dated Sean. As Payton looked over her shoulder at Lexie, she remembered her saying that she would rather be invisible than go through what she had experienced. Those words started to make sense now, but she wasn't going to bring it up. Lexie should tell her when she was ready.

Payton went to her dorm room and arranged the pillows in her bed so it looked like she was asleep just to be safe. She then turned invisible and went to investigate. Her first stop would be Kinsley. She quickly found the room and knocked on the door. When there was no response, she figured it was safe to enter. Kinsley was sleeping while holding a stuffed animal, not exactly something a murderer would do. Payton quietly looked around and found a diary on her desk. She tried to open it, but it was apparently protected with magic, as it literally flew out of her hands across the room. It hit the door with a loud thumb that woke up Kinsley. Payton froze as the other girl spotted the diary lying on the floor and suspiciously checked the room.

"Is anyone here?" Kinsley asked. "Maddison? This better not be another prank. I will report you this time."

Kinsley waved her hand and instantly several candles in the room ignited and started to levitate midair. As she got out of bed, the diary levitated from the ground and into her hand. She turned around and looked at herself in the mirror.

"No need to worry, it was nothing." Kinsley told herself. "Maybe the spell I placed on my diary was too strong. A fly probably landed on it or something. Silly me, right?"

The room remained silent and a relieved Kinsley smiled. She placed the diary on her nightstand and the candles levitated down before extinguishing. Payton waited for her to get back into bed and slowly made her way to the door. She waited until she heard Kinsley's breathing change, indicating that she had fallen asleep, before slipping out. That was weird, but it did answer one question, as Lexie had probably heard Kinsley talk to herself and not someone else. As she headed down the hall, she stopped when she saw Maddison and Zev sneaking to her room. They leaned against the door to kiss.

"Come on, do the thing." Maddison whispered.

"Again?" Zev replied with a sigh. "You know, something you really with me just because of my shapeshifting."

"Oh, don't be like that." Maddison replied flirtingly. "You know I like you a lot, I just like to spice things up a little sometimes."

"Yeah, but this one makes me a little uncomfortable." Zev admitted. "We could get into so much trouble if anyone found out. We almost got caught last time, remember?"

"She didn't see us. Besides, she's won't be able to tell anyone anymore." Maddison said. "Please, just this one last time. I'll make it worth it."

"Fine, you know I can't say no to you." Zev replied.

Zev smiled and shapeshifted into the form of the British professor that Payton had seen earlier during the meeting. Maddison smiled seductively and started kissing him, after which they quickly slipped into her bedroom. Payton was stunned, as this was a lot more than she wanted to know. Aside from it being creepy, they had mentioned someone had almost caught them. Could they be talking about Miss Donovan? Could they have killed her to keep their little game a secret? She needed to investigate further, but not when they were in the middle of that.

Payton passed through the common room and noticed that Lexie and Harry had not moved at all. As she entered the boys' hallway, she saw Liam stepping out of his bedroom with a towel around his neck and toiletry bag in hand. As he headed to the bathroom, Payton knew this was the perfect opportunity to snoop around in his room. When she touched his door, however, she was instantly sucked into a premonition. She was in the boys' bathroom and saw Liam turn on a shower and starting to get undressed. Hands suddenly grabbed him from behind, covering his mouth. As soon as the premonition ended, she knew Liam was in danger and ran after him.

Xxx

In the Heavens, Selene stared at the dust at her feet. She had long dreamt of this moment in her prison, but it did not feel as she had expected. She had hoped that getting her revenge would give her a sense of closure or satisfaction, but she still felt empty. Sandra had been her closest friend once, but her death felt hollow somehow. She wished she could feel as deeply as she had done in the past, but her heart had been shattered too deeply. She needed to keep going to restore it, to bring back the feelings of warmth, passion and love she longed for.

"No more distractions." Selene said.

"Good, we are wasting time." Amun noted. "I hope you at least took some pleasure in killing Sandra."

"I did." Selene lied.

Selene raised her hands and once again summoned shadows to attack the force field. The remaining Elders channeled their magic into their protective barrier, but Selene sensed it was only a matter of time before it cracked. They were weakening.

Xxx

On the other side of the force field, Noah watched as Selene renewed her assault. He still couldn't believe that Sandra was gone just like that. She had always been there to guide and support him, even with all the mistakes he had made in the past.

"What are we going to do?" Kyle asked.

"We have reduce the force field and retreat into the vault." Odin said. "It is the only way. We cannot let him escape."

"Everyone, retreat into the vault!" Qetesh ordered.

The Whitelighters present nodded and headed toward the vault, while the Elders slowly took steps back while decreasing the size of the force field. As he followed the other Whitelighters, Noah noticed someone crying next to a Whitelighter killed with a poisoned arrow. He recognized her as Gretchen, a blond woman with glasses. He helped her up, though she was trembling in his arms.

"You need to get to safety." Noah said.

"What's the point?" Gretchen asked. "We're trapped in here… Our friends, our family, Sandra, they're gone."

"It's not over yet." Noah replied. "We need to stay strong and keep looking after each other. That's what she would have wanted."

"But what can we do?" Gretchen asked.

"Gretchen, you practically wrote the Whitelighter rule book." Noah said. "You know everything about the Heavens, including what artifacts are in the vault. If anyone can think of something that can help, it's you."

"Shillelagh." Gretchen suddenly said as her eyes widened.

"Excuse me?" Noah asked.

"Shillelagh." Gretchen repeated, now more determined. "The Elders were once gifted a golden shillelagh by the Leprechauns. It can summon a rainbow path."

"Selene cast a spell on the Heavens to keep us trapped." Noah said.

"Yes, with shadows." Gretchen noted. "The only thing that can drive away shadows is light. A rainbow is one of the most powerful sources of light magic there is."

"That could work." Noah said. "Once you get inside the vault, find the shillelagh and get the Whitelighters to safety."

"What? Why me?" Gretchen asked. "What about you?"

"Odin is right about one thing, we cannot let Baldr escape." Noah replied. "This isn't just about the Heavens. The entire world is at stake."

At that moment, a deafening crack was heard and the force field surrounding them shattered. The Whitelighters and Elders retreated into the vault and Noah helped close the door before the Darklighters could reach it. Once inside, he started looking for a weapon to fight.

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