Chapter 1: Magestone Missing
One day, in the Ignihyde Dorm Lounge, Ortho walks into the lounge.
With glee, Ortho says, "Good morning, Ignihyde!"
However, when he arrives in the lounge, he notices that everyone is on the chairs and floor, sweating and some appear to be frantic that some are moving around.
Ortho wonders, "Wait, why is everyone sweating so early in the morning? Maybe there's a new fitness fad?"
However, Ortho senses something, "Hm? My temperature sensor's showing some abnormal readings… Whoa! It's 30 degrees warmer than usual in the lounge!"
Then Idia rushes in and cries out, "ORTHOOO!"
"Idia? Why do you look like the world's ending?" Ortho asks.
"I'll tell you why! I had trouble sleeping so I woke up early, and my room was a furnace!
My hard drives! My monitors! This is an emergency!" India cries out.
"So it's this hot in the whole dorm? No wonder everyone's panicking…" Ortho says, shocked.
One student says, in worry, "What if the heat destroys my game console?! It's a limited edition! You can't even buy it anymore!"
"Augh, I can't keep cooling my PC with ice magic any longer... Could someone help me out?!" Another says in frustration.
Everyone cries out. "I'm busy with my own!"
It's clear that this dorm is in total chaos.
"If your electronics are that important to you, shouldn't you power them down?" Ortho asks.
"How can you expect us to cut off our lifeline, Ortho?!" The other student asks.
"Lifeline...? Wow, Ignihyde students really are tech-dependent," Ortho says, "But there's a serious risk they'll suffer heatstroke if this goes on. I wonder if something happened to our air conditioning."
Then turns to Idia, "Okay, I'll be right back! I'm gonna visit the headmage and ask him to fix it!"
"PLEASE DO!" Ortho says, and hurries to the headmage as fast as he can.
Moments later, Ortho is in the Interior Hallway.
He soon meet up with the headmage, "Ah, there he is."
He then calls out, "Headmage!"
Crowley turns to see Ortho.
When Ortho arrives, he explains, "We've got trouble in Ignihyde. The whole dorm's as hot as a sauna."
"Really? So it's happening in Ignihyde too?" Crowly responds.
This has Ortho shocked.
Crowley explains, "The temperature has been aberrant in my office as well. It's so cold in there, why, feathers could freeze over! Temperature control on this campus is handled by fairies, who draw power from a highly valuable magestone this school maintains. Perhaps someone's vandalized it in some fashion."
"I'll join you!" Ortho says.
Sometime later, they arrive in the Mirror Chamber.
"So this magestone you mentioned is stored in the mirror chamber?" Ortho asks.
"Yes. It's strictly forbidden for anyone to enter without my permi—" Crowley answers, but stops to notice something, "Hm? Wait a minute…" He rushes over to the Mirror, and exclaims in shock, "SWEET MERCIFUL SEVEN! Gone... GONE! The precious magestone that supplies the fairies with magical power is GONE!"
"It is?!" Ortho asks, shocked.
Crowley turns to Ortho, "Shroud, summon every housewarden to the headmage's office at once. I'm calling an emergency meeting!"
Shortly after…
All the housewardens of the dorms have gathered in the Headmage's office. However, the room is very cold.
Leona shivers, "Brrr! Why's this room so cold?"
But Azul says, "Oh, thank goodness. Octavinelle's been so unbearably hot all day, I feared I was on the cusp of dehydrating into octo-jerky."
"Mm. It's still far warmer in here than it was in Diasomnia this morning," Malleus says.
Quiet in the office!" Crowley shouts, "As you are no doubt aware, we are presently unable to regulate the temperature in buildings across campus. The cause, I'm afraid, is that the magestone acting as a fairy power supply is missing."
On the tablet, Idia says, "Oh yeah, Ortho mentioned you were yelling about something going missing.
"Just so," Crowley answers, "Our campus buildings are kept pleasantly livable all year round by virtue of the magic of fire fairies, water fairies, and wind fairies… just to name a few of our many fae benefactors. With the magestone gone, we cannot fuel the fairies' magic, and thus cannot control the campus's air conditioning. I kept it stored in the Mirror Chamber to avoid this precise scenario, and yet… Someone has undoubtedly stolen it. The nerve—the AUDACITY!" and it's clear that he's upset about it.
"You just said that the stolen object is a magestone that supplies the type of magical power that fairies favor. Wouldn't it follow, then, that the fairies would be our first suspects? As I recall, there's a fae right here among us. A rather tall one, at that," Azul says.
Then Malleus says, "That's a bold implication you're making, Ashengrotto. Are you suggesting that I, the heir apparent of Briar Valley, would stoop to common thievery?"
"Perish the thought! Pardon me. I meant no offense, of course," Azul replies.
"Dude, the amount of power you could get from a magestone would be a drop in the bucket to Malleus," Idia says, "He's already a balance-breaking character with that auto-filling MP gauge of his."
"Yeah, for sure," Kalim says, "Nobody here would think for a minute that you're behind this, Malleus. Just, y'know, if you happen to know anything relevant, it'd be nice to hear. Like, does anything fae-related come to mind? Or anything else along those lines?"
And then Malleus says, "You know… When I was out on a stroll last evening, I did glimpse some fairies around here—a kind that I don't see very often. They were palm-sized, and clad in leaves. There were two of them, and they were struggling to carry an iridescent stone—"
Hearing it, Crowley says, "Why, that's it! That must be the missing magestone! Draconia, which way were they headed?"
"Toward the botanical garden, I believe," Malleus answers.
"We depart at once, everyone! Make haste!" Crowley says.
And with that, the housewardens and headmage head to the botanical garden to solve the mystery.