The Greatest Treasure

As the title of my page says, this is for my fanfiction, The Greatest Treasure. Every time I write a new chapter, I will post it here. Sometimes, you will even see exclusive content on this page, like extra background information about the characters. Be sure to comment and tell me what you think. Enjoy!

Part One: The Unknown Wizard

Chapter One
Sophia

My name is Sophia, just Sophia, and I am fourteen years old. You see, I was adopted. I was taken in by a kind widow who never had any children of her own. Neither of us knows what my last name is, but nobody calls me by my foster mother’s last name, Palmer. I’m always only Sophia, the one who doesn’t have a full name.

At first, I was alone in this predicament. I was teased at the elementary school, and generally was left by myself all the time, which I hated. I was a very social person.

That changed when I got to 8^th grade in middle school. That’s when I met Elizabeth. She also does not have a last name. Strange things happen to both of us. There was the time when flowers grew out of a budding branch when I was wishing for spring to come last year, and the time when a tree seemed to come to life when I was bullied and threw the bully into a mud puddle.

Once during history class when we were studying Greek myths, we were reading about the centaurs. One materialized in the room, right near Elizabeth. Of course she got blamed for it, and then we were both shunned. I didn’t mind quite as much this time. We had each other now.

One cold but sunny November day, the two of us were sitting on a bench during recess. We were discussing our lives in general, and occasionally someone would remark about what a nice day it was. It was quite a nice day, though cold.

While we were talking, ink-black clouds came in over the horizon. Suddenly we both went quiet, and then looked at each other. “This isn’t natural,” I muttered to Elizabeth. She nodded in silent agreement. The other students outside started to scream and point up at the clouds. Then a few of them even pointed at us. “It was them! They did it!”

Suddenly, we were alone in a swirling vortex of mist. Though most people would have been terrified, I felt strangely calm about the whole affair. A sinister dark face appeared in the mist. “Puny little wizards. You will never stop my rise to power, and soon enough, the spiral will be mine!” He laughed evilly and disappeared.

I felt a very sudden jerk, and then Elizabeth and I hit something hard, and we both passed out.

I woke up in a very white, clean room. I was in a white bed with white sheets that was in a room with a white floor and white walls. People in white uniforms walked through the white hallway beyond the open door, tending to their various duties.

“We must be in a hospital of some kind,” I thought. I sat up and saw Elizabeth in the next bed. Then I noticed the fairies fluttering around my bed.

A man with a long gray beard and a twinkling staff came in. He had a big hat and a sparkling purple robe. He carried quite a large book in his hand, and was talking to a lady in a white uniform.

“These are the young wizards you found unconscious on the roof of Golem Tower?”

“Yes, these are them,” replied the white woman.

“Well now that I am here, we must consult the Book of Secrets to find out your school and name.”

“Excuse me, sir,” asked Elizabeth. “But we both go to the public school in our hometown on earth, and I think that we ought to be sent back.”

“Well, you two now go to the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts, and we must find out which classes you will go to. Let’s begin with you,” said the old man. “Simply answer these questions and it will be decided.”

Elizabeth looked through the book, filling in answers. “Show off my skills…earthquake …playing with my pets…afternoon…competing against others…bat…peridot.”

“Well, you seem to belong to the school of Myth. Now I will consult the book to find out your name.” After some two minutes of studying the book, the old man said, “You are Elizabeth GoldenThistle. Now I will find out what school you are,” this time speaking to me.

It was my turn to answer the questions. After answering them, I came to the final question and picked my favorite gemstone: the jade.

“Well, it seems that you are a new life student! Your name is Sophia EmeraldBlossom. Now do you have any questions, young wizards?”

I’m pretty sure that we both had an infinite amount of questions – at least, I did. But I think we both knew that this person did not have an infinite amount of time. I asked first.

“I’m sorry, but you haven’t told us your name yet. What is it?”

“I am Merle Ambrose, Headmaster of the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts. I would prefer to be called Headmaster Ambrose.”

Now Elizabeth asked a question. “I’m pretty sure we’re late starting here. What grade are we in since we’ve started late but we’re still starting at the beginning?” Some other student wizards I hadn’t noticed before started tittering.

“Your age doesn’t really matter here at Ravenwood. No matter what age you are, you will always start at the lowest grade – Novice.”

Now it was my turn. “Where do you get wizard clothes like that?” I pointed towards a student in a bed. Now all of the students were at least giggling behind their hands, but some simply howled with laughter. Headmaster Ambrose silenced them with a glance.

“I think you have mostly recovered. After this, you will be able to visit Gaius SilverThistle, Viktor DarkWood, Constance WindSong, and Darla WhisperWind for your free novice robes. Do you have any more questions? Because I have been very busy as of late, and I really must be going soon.” I didn’t want to trouble him more, even though I had loads more questions to ask. But Elizabeth simply had to ask more.

“I want to ask just one more thing. Do new wizards always see threatening faces in the mist when they are brought to Ravenwood?”

Headmaster Ambrose glanced around to make sure no one was listening. “This is…not normal. We must meet in my office after you get your robes. We must discuss matters and events. You may leave.” Yellow and blue sparks erupted around him as he disappeared.

We nodded at each other as we left the infirmary. When we stepped outside, the first thing I saw was a glittering blue lake. The next thing I saw was a castle, complete with a small courtyard and hung with red banners that each had an emblem of a tree.

We went into a tunnel marked “Shopping District”. All the people in the shops were very friendly, and helped us get our stuff. Then, we hurried back to the office, not wanting to be late.

Headmaster Ambrose greeted us when we entered. “We have urgent matters to discuss. Describe this face. Was it long in shape? Did he have dark eyes and dark hair?” The answer was yes to all the questions. “What did he say?” he asked next. I glanced at Elizabeth. Her memory is better, so I was relying on her to tell him since I’d forgotten.

“He said that nobody could stop his rise to power and soon enough the spiral would be his.” Elizabeth seemed to have no trouble repeating his words.

“This is becoming worse than I thought. The man you saw is the very one who is causing all the problems that Wizard City has. He is the reason why certain streets are barred. I cannot elaborate further, but I suppose you want your dorm key? You are in Girls’ Dorm #11, and here is a key for both of you.”

I took the plain copper key that said G11 on it.

“And good luck in that dorm. I have heard the current residents are…rather strange. You can get set up there, and tomorrow you can begin classes.”

We set off toward the dorms.

I walked up the steps to the girls’ dorm entrance, feeling rather apprehensive. Strange residents? What’s THAT supposed to mean? But there wasn’t really time to dwell on nerves. I opened the door and stepped inside.

There was a long white hallway. At the sixth door to the left, I stopped, inserted the key into the lock, and turned it. The door swung open. I stepped inside, closely followed by Elizabeth and the door swung shut behind us.

Inside Girls’ Dorm #11, I couldn’t see anything for a minute except a blinding display of snow and flames. Then my eyes adjusted to the light and I saw a bright white line straight through the middle of the room. On our side, near to the door, snowflakes were falling all around. On the other side, lots of small orange flames flew around through the air. On the fiery side, I saw a table with an anvil, a few knives, bubbling bottles of fluid, and some other tools. Standing behind the table, metalworking using the anvil, was a girl almost as fiery as her surroundings. She was so wrapped up forming her silver band that she didn’t notice us until she was done and had set the molten silver aside to cool down.

Then she looked up. She came out from behind the table and came over to us, standing just on the fiery side near the line. We came closer, and I spoke first. “My name is Sophia EmeraldBlossom, this is Elizabeth GoldenThistle, and we’re new students assigned to this dorm.”

The fiery girl spoke. “I’m Donna DragonFlame, and welcome. Sorry about the snowflakes. My roommate Emma IceCrafter conjured them and I can’t get them to go away. Why don’t you come on to this side and warm up a little?”

I nervously obliged, and winced as the flames swirled and danced around me. Donna kept talking. “I’m a level 11 fire, and I chose ice as my second in hopes that I could learn to take those darn snowflakes away. But it isn’t working.”

I marveled as Donna gently touched her molten silver band. “How do you do that? I saw you using the anvil without any gloves or anything. Why don’t you get burned? What were you doing?”

“I was crafting. Since I’m a fire wizard, I can shield myself from fire. I’ve heard that fire wizards make good metalworkers. Emma’s dad is fire, and he makes great athames himself. You should see the one that Emma’s got. It’s amazing! They aren’t letting wizards into Olde Town anymore, sadly, which is where I took crafting lessons and got this handy station. But I took lessons for a while. I can teach you how later, if you’d like. But I need to finish this ring I’m making.” Donna went back to her table and took some polished rubies out of a rock tumbler.

“One last thing, Donna,” I called. “Where’s Emma?” But Donna didn’t answer. She was too busy shaping up the rubies.

We took that as the cue to leave Donna to her work. We stepped outside and Elizabeth closed the door behind us. “I sure would like to meet Emma. Maybe she’s less strange.” Elizabeth echoed her agreement, and we headed into the Commons.

We finally found Emma in the library. She was sitting against the wall answering questions on a sheet of paper with a book beside her. The book was called “The Magic of Ice”. I said hello to her, and she introduced herself as Emma IceCrafter.

“I’m doing homework for Professor Greyrose. I usually do homework in the library. I don’t hang around in the dorm unless I have to,” she explained. I could see why she didn’t want to stick around in the dorms.

“So, is that a report?” “Yeah,” Emma said. “It’s pretty hard. I’m supposed to write it about chapters three and four, but I’m having trouble making it long enough. I think she’ll understand if it’s a little short, but this has only half a page written!”

“Well, I don’t know how I can help you. Thing is, we’re really new here and can’t do any magic at all.” “That’s okay. But thanks for trying to help,” Emma replied. “Want to be friends?” she asked us. We accepted, and left the library.

“That certainly was less strange,” said Elizabeth. “She seemed almost normal,” I agreed. “Except for being a wizard, of course. I wonder how classes will be tomorrow. I hope it won’t be like how it was on earth.”

“I sure hope so,” Elizabeth agreed. “Because if it isn’t, there will be trouble.”

Chapter Two

Elizabeth

I awoke to the sound of a school bell, and the first thing I thought was, Wow, these blankets are soaked. My blankets were sopping wet due to the snowflakes falling all around Emma and me; the difference was her blankets were dry, for some unknown reason.

Sophia yawned and stretched, and I asked Emma, “When do classes start?” “Shhh!” she whispered. “Our classes start at eight, but lucky Donna’s class doesn’t start until nine. Don’t wake her up; you don’t want to experience her crazy fire elf attack.”

“But eight? That’s early!” protested Sophia. “And what time is it, anyway?” “It’s 6:30,” replied Emma. “And we’d better get some breakfast together because the classes are draining. Who’s up for frosted flakes?”

I hate frosted flakes, but when I asked Emma if there was anything else we could eat she said doubtfully, “Well, I might be able to make some pancakes but then there was the time when I set my bed on fire…” I took the frosted flakes.

After everyone was ready, and Donna was awake relishing a freshly cooked egg, we went off to the novice classes.

Soon enough, Sophia and I were walking to the life and myth classrooms. Sophia stopped outside the life classroom to wish me luck when a girl wearing fancy yellow robes walked out of the myth one. After surveying me for half a minute, she said, “You must be a new myth student. I just wanted to say that you’ll probably love myth class. Professor Drake is very nice to the new students, and he always goes easy with the homework.”

My face lit up in a smile. “Really? That’s great, then! See you later!” Feeling very confident, I stepped into the classroom and took a seat among about 20 other students. Most of them were wearing simple yellow robes like mine, but some had fancier robes of different colors. I sat near the back of the room, and looked up at the front. There were two blackboards; one had a sketch of a wizard with a troll, and the other was completely blank.

Suddenly, there was a flash of yellow sparks, and a tall man in yellow robes appeared in front of us. He looked at the group of us and shook his head, apparently dissatisfied with us. He didn’t even greet us – all he said was, “I believe there are a few…absentees. Very well! We will begin without them.”

He waved his hand at the blank blackboard, and the chalk levitated and began to write, stating the goals for today. It was “Myth symbol, and if they ever get past that, Begin learning blood bat spell”.

Just then, the door banged open and a yellow-clad boy burst in, breathing heavily. “You’re late, Mr. LegendSword,” the professor said dryly. “Take your seat and we will…discuss penalties afterward.” The boy, looking so pale he almost looked sick, sat down in the empty seat next to me.

“We will begin with what you all have miserably failed to do for the past two months: draw the myth symbol. Please begin.” Then he sat down behind his desk and took out a fat brown volume, titled The Complete Encyclopedia of Mythical Beings: Bo to Dr.

By now I had a fairly good idea of what Professor Drake was really like; mean and grumpy to his students. But I wasn’t mad at him. I was really mad at that girl who lied to me and said he was nice. I felt furious. But I took a few deep breaths and looked at the other blackboard, the one with the pictures on it. There was also a sketch of a triangle shaped symbol with an eye in the middle. It must have been the myth symbol.

I held up my wand and moved it in a triangle shape in the air. Nothing happened. Then I remembered a few things. Emma’s words about classes: The classes are draining. What I learned about magic yesterday: Mana is magical energy. Finally something clicked. Since it must be magic to draw the myth symbol, and it takes energy to do magic, then it must take energy to draw the myth symbol.

I closed my eyes, channeling all my energy and concentration into producing that triangular symbol on the blackboard – and then I opened them. Shining in front of me was the symbol from the blackboard, except a whole lot bigger and a whole lot brighter. Everyone in the classroom turned to look – including Professor Drake.

He didn’t even seem impressed. He raised his eyebrows at it and said lightly, “Well, well. It seems we have a case of beginner’s luck. Do that again for me.” He pointed his wand at the symbol and it disappeared. It didn’t take long to produce the same symbol, now that I knew the secret.

“I suppose that you must learn your first spell.” Professor Drake sighed dramatically. “If these novices ever get past the myth symbol, we will practice in the tower.”

A strange glowing light appeared next to me as the LegendSword boy managed to produce the myth symbol. He looked quite pleased with himself, earning another sigh from Professor Drake.

“Fine,” he said. “Meet me in the tower when you have finished.” And he swept out the door in a display of utter inconvenience. I wasn’t sure what he meant by finished, but I was finished making the myth symbol so I followed him outside.

I crossed the street and headed into a tower with a blue plaque on the door. The plaque had an eye on it, so I guessed that this was the tower he meant. As soon as I entered, I noticed that the LegendSword boy had followed me in, and Professor Drake was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, some sort of straw person appeared in front of me. A circle appeared on the ground, and I was in a little circle on its rim. The straw thing was across from me, on the other side. I tried to run, but I seemed to be anchored to the circle. Professor Drake appeared out of the circle, behind the straw man. He tossed something to me, and I saw that it was a small card.

It said “Blood Bat” on it, and had a picture of a bat and some numbers on it. Professor Drake shouted, “There’s your spell card, use it!” Um… spell card? I thought. I was too late. I heard a rather strange whistling noise. The straw thing was making a symbol that looked like a spiral with lightning coming out of it, and a snake appeared in front of me.

It reached out with its tail, and something that looked disturbingly like lightning shot out of it, straight at me. Before I knew it, I was sitting on the ground with a massive headache. Ugh. Time to try again.  This time, I held out the spell card, and made my myth symbol, and heard a quiet noise that sounded almost like bells. Shortly afterward, a hideous retching noise followed.

I turned around and wondered whether the LegendSword boy was actually sick. But no; the bat as pictured on the spell card had appeared in the middle of the circle and was spitting at the straw man. Ew. The straw thing collapsed, and the headache disappeared. So did the circle. I stared at the spell card in my hand, not sure what to do with it.

Professor Drake sighed again. What is it with this man and sighing? “Keep the spell. Put it in your spellbook.” I sat down on a large stack of books near the wall and flipped open the book. There were several bookmarks sticking out of the side, and I wasn’t sure which one I wanted. I flipped to a random bookmark; it had a picture of a deck of cards on it. I saw different sections for different schools, and I clipped the card in the myth section.

Suddenly, a tinkling noise that sounded like breaking glass startled me out of my work. I looked up and saw that the circle and the straw man were back, and this time the LegendSword boy was across from it. A large snowy beetle was in the middle, surrounded by a small field of ice. It lunged straight at the boy, and snapped at him with its pincers. Startled, he fell back, then the beetle disappeared. The boy shook his head in confusion.

In a short while, I heard the same retching noise as earlier, and found that the LegendSword boy had summoned the blood bat. The straw man collapsed, and the circle disappeared. By then, a few more students had filtered into the tower. Professor Drake sighed. How did I know that was coming?

“You are dismissed, Miss GoldenThistle,” the professor said. “Mr. LegendSword, stay here. I need to speak to you after class about penalties for your tardiness.” The LegendSword boy gulped, but stayed relatively calm. He waved to me as I left the tower.

I sat down on a bench near the life school to wait for Sophia. I heard shouts and laughter as a group of wizards dressed in blue walked toward the Commons gate. I spotted Emma in the group and she ran over to the bench to sit with me. “How did classes go?” she asked.

I sighed. “They were okay. As good as classes with Professor Drake could get, I guess. Have you met him?”

“Sadly, I have. He’s a huge grumpy-puss. You should probably practice in a tower once school is out for the day. He doesn’t actually teach much, believe me. I’ve eavesdropped, that is, heard, some conversation from some Magus Conjurers,” Emma replied.

That cheered me up again, and we spent a happy five minutes together talking about all the different teachers. According to Emma, Professor Wu talked too slowly, Professor Drake was a grumpy-puss, Malorn AshThorn was in-adept, Professor Falmea was FAR TOO HOT, Professor Balestrom talked too fast, Professor Wethersfield had a really annoying accent, and Professor Greyrose was practically perfect in every way.

After this, Sophia and a group of wizards in green came out of the life school. Sophia’s face brightened, if possible, even more when she saw me. She ran over to the bench. When I asked her how class went, she said, “It was awesome! Professor Wu was really nice! Even though everyone else in the class had already learned all the stuff I was going to learn, she did a review day just for me! Making the life symbol was really easy, and I got to practice my imp spell (that’s a little green thing with a violin) against a real fairy! So cool! I learned it really fast, and I can’t wait for my next lesson! All my classmates were nice, too!” After saying all this, Sophia settled into an awkward grinning period of silence.

For some reason, this made me upset. “Oh, so you had a great class, did you?” I asked in a somewhat angry voice. “I’ll tell you how mine went. That girl outside the myth school lied to me! Professor Drake was a huge sighing angry grumpy-puss! Nobody in the class had learned anything at all since he doesn’t actually help them! I could make the myth symbol, but he didn’t even care! Then he threw me into a surprise battle and didn’t tell me how to cast a spell! I had to figure it out myself! Honestly, it was horrible! I want to switch schools!” I ended gasping and angry.

Sophia looked very sorry. “I’m so sorry if I made you feel bad! I just sort of assumed your professor was nice, just like that girl said!”

Emma’s face darkened. “There was a girl who came out of the early class and lied to you about Professor Drake? I think I might know who she is. Does she have really bright blond hair, which part of is in little strings by her face? Does she have narrow amber-colored eyes? Was she wearing super fancy clothes, dyed yellow?”

The answer was yes to all the questions. Emma looked almost pleased. “I knew it! But before I tell you exactly who she is, you should probably hear the backstory. You ready?” We nodded, and she began her story. “Well, there’s this adept ice girl. She lives in the Commons, her parents are in charge of the entire Shopping District so she’s very rich, and she’s really super bossy. She doesn’t pay much attention to schoolwork; she’s sixteen and only recently got to adept. Her name is Tasha IceCoin. She’s easy to spot, what with her really bright blue hair worn in what I bet is the same style that the girl you saw was wearing.

“So anyway, Tasha has a group of friends who are a lot like her, and in their group, there’s one girl from each school. Tasha and her friends are all pretty mean, but I think the death girl, Fiona, is the worst. Good thing I’m not death. This way, they can wreak havoc in all the schools. Since I’m ice, I get Tasha. I think you probably met the myth girl, Natalie MythCoin. If you see anyone with that hairstyle and those clothes, you should steer clear. The Coins (that’s what we call them, since they all have names ending in coin) are nothing but trouble.”

Donna slid onto the bench next to Sophia. “Oh, explaining the Coins, are you? I didn’t think they were worthy of our discussion. Well anyway, I need to hurry off to Initiate class or I’ll be late. See you!” Without another word, she dashed off to the elemental schools.

Emma let out a long sigh. “Donna always contradicts anything I say. How much of Wizard City have you seen yet?”

“Well, aren’t most of the streets off-limits?” Sophia asked.

“Yeah, but have you been to the fairegrounds yet? What about the library? And you still need to meet my family!”

We consented for a little tour of the places we were allowed in, and it became late very soon. We decided it was probably a good idea to return to the dorm for the night.

On our way back through Ravenwood, I noticed a boy in yellow scrubbing the walls of the life school. “Wait a minute,” I said. “That’s a boy I remember from my class! He got detention for being late!”

Emma said, “I’ll meet you guys later. I think I need another go at removing those nasty flames from the room.”

Sophia and I walked toward the boy, and I greeted him. “Hi, I’m the girl who sat next to you in myth class. I know your last name is LegendSword, but what’s your first name? My name is Elizabeth GoldenThistle, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said. “And I’m Alric.” He must have noticed how concerned I looked, because he said, “Oh, are you worried about what I’m doing? Don’t be. Considering it was Professor Drake, I think I got off pretty easily. Last time I was in detention, he made me – well, you don’t want to know if you know what’s good for you. And nice job with making the myth symbol, by the way. I’ve been stumped for ages.”

“Well, you managed it anyway,” I replied. “How did you do it today, as opposed to all the other days you couldn’t? And I thought it was really strange how lots of people succeeded today!”

Alric just shrugged. “Beats me. I have no idea. I have to finish scrubbing this wall before curfew, or I’ll be in even bigger trouble.”

I took that as the cues to leave, so I just said, “Well, see you later.” With that, Sophia and I entered the girls’ dorms. Once inside, I was momentarily blinded again. I guess you never get used to having two elemental-obsessed arguing wizards sharing a bedroom with you.

Chapter Three
Sophia

“Elizabeth, have you seen my hat?”

“No!”

“What about you, Emma? Have you seen it?”

“Is it that charred lump on the floor next to your nightstand?”

“Oh, no! It is! Now it’s ruined! Donna, what have you done?”

“It wasn’t me! Whiskers just likes to play sometimes!”

Whiskers, Donna’s pet firecat, meowed and chased his tail. I sighed and said reluctantly, “Oh, well. I guess I’ll need to buy a new one after class. But I’ll need to wear my starter hat to class! Everyone will laugh at me!”

Donna just shrugged and said, “That’s your problem.”

I ground my teeth together and resisted saying the snappy retort that came into my mind, simply saying, “Maybe you should keep Whiskers on a leash.” Whiskers mewed pitifully as I stepped out the door, headed for my fifth life class.

I managed to get to the classroom and sit down before it started, and not a moment too soon. As soon as I sat down and got my books out, Professor Wu appeared before us in a shower of green sparks. She began to speak.

“Welcome, my students,” she said. “Normally we’d be reviewing the history of how the life school began, but I have a very special announcement to make today.” Excited murmurs filled the room. Professor Wu began to speak again, and the room fell silent. “We will head across the street to the life tower, and there I will test you. But this is not just any test. One student will be chosen to help with Wizard City’s troubles.”

A quiet red-haired girl in the back raised her hand.

“Yes, Brianna?”

“Which street needs our help the most? Aren’t the more advanced students enough? Why don’t you just let everybody help out? And why are you choosing a novice? Also, why are you choosing a student of the life school?”

Professor Wu laughed. “I’d prefer if you’d just ask one question at a time, Brianna. However, those are all very good questions and I’ll answer them all. You will be starting on Unicorn Way, because that’s where the biggest problems lie right now. I have heard rumors about the fairies who reside there becoming corrupted by an unknown force, and I sent out a journeyman theurgist, Ceren NightChant, to check for me. However, I have not heard from him for several days and I’m becoming worried about him. Therefore, I’m starting to believe that if the troubles are as bad as I think they are, he is not enough.

“The simple answer to your third question is that letting everybody help out would be very dangerous. I’m not going to do names, but some of you are not ready to help the fairies in real, potentially dangerous battles. The more complicated answer is that I believe that helping out on Unicorn Way will lead to bigger and bigger missions, until the student I choose will likely have a large role in defeating Malistaire.”

More murmurs spread around the room, louder than before and sounding more worried than excited.

“Don’t worry! Whichever student I choose will have special training from me in addition to their regular classes, and will also have Ceren’s help. I will make sure that I choose a student who is adept enough to take on real monsters and succeed.

“To answer your fourth question, I’m choosing a novice because the more advanced students are busy enough with their studies. Also, to put it in Professor Drake’s rather insensitive words, you are ‘expendable’.”

Even more murmurs started up, this time angry sounding.

“Even though Professor Drake might, I do not view you as expendable. Please quiet down. To answer your final question, Brianna, all the teachers are giving their novices this test. One student of each school will be chosen. However, I do have worries that there will be certain complications involved, especially with the death students. Now, I believe I have answered all the questions, and it is time for the test. For those who might be worried, no history will be involved, as this is not important when fighting monsters. Now, quietly form a line behind me and we will cross the street together.”

As I exited the life school with my classmates, I noticed Professor Drake crossing to the myth tower followed by a line of students. I saw Elizabeth and Alric in the line, and I smiled and gave them a thumbs-up.

It took a minute to adjust to the dim lighting in the life tower, but Professor Wu wasted no time. She immediately said, “When I call your name, please come up. You will be dueling a fairy with 150 health. Whoever succeeds the fastest gets to go. If there is a tie, there will be a tiebreaker. Let’s begin with BattleHorn, Carlos!”

A fairy appeared in the middle of the room, and a nervous-looking boy stepped out of the group of students. After a short battle, Professor Wu said “4 rounds” and wrote something on a clipboard. Then, she called DawnLeaf, Molly. Molly was so nervous that she kept fizzling her imps and was defeated after a few rounds. Professor Wu revived her with a different kind of fairy, and then wrote on her clipboard.

After that, Professor Wu called “EmeraldBlossom, Sophia!” All it took was my name to turn my legs to jelly. I took a deep breath and walked forward. Instantly, a battle circle appeared and I pulled out my spell deck. All that was in it were some wand strikes and three imps. I casted an imp. I was lucky, and the imp did 105 damage. After that, I followed up with my wand strike and finished the fairy off. Professor Wu seemed impressed. She said “2 rounds”, wrote something on her clipboard, and murmured something under her breath.

Once 13 more students had been tested, Professor Wu said, “There is a tie between Sophia EmeraldBlossom and Brianna RainbowSong, who both finished in 2 rounds. Their final test is to duel each other. May the best duelist win!”

The two of us glanced at each other. Brianna looked very nervous, and I guess I must have looked the same way. After a very difficult battle, I managed to come out victorious due to no fizzles and lucky damage.

Professor Wu looked at me and smiled. “Well, well,” she said. “I’m impressed you could beat Brianna, a well geared wizard, in your starter hat. Congratulations!” I reached up and felt my hat. I had forgotten that Whiskers had incinerated my usual one. However, I felt no joy at coming out the winner of the test. I didn’t want to help save Wizard City or defeat Malistaire; I just wanted to learn magic! I’d have preferred it if Brianna had passed instead of me!

Brianna just smiled and said, “Well done.” She looked blatantly relieved that it wasn’t her who was chosen. Professor Wu said, “I believe most of the other schools are already finished testing. I want you all gathered in the commons at noon to hear Headmaster Ambrose’s announcement on who else was chosen. See you then!”

At noon, I stood in the Commons waiting for Merle Ambrose to emerge from his office. In the meantime, I discussed classes with Elizabeth. She seemed relieved to hear that I’d gotten chosen, although I’m not sure why. Why would she want me to be put in immense danger? Just after that, I found out.

“I got chosen, too,” she said. “It would’ve been awful if I had to do it without you! Professor Drake called me expendable, though. He’s very grumpy all the time, but I didn’t know he’d be that nasty!”

Just then, Donna and Emma ran out of Ravenwood, panting, and joined us. Emma opened her mouth as if about to say something, but Headmaster Ambrose emerged and she never got her chance.

“First of all, well done everyone!” he said. “Now I will name the students who were chosen. From the school of fire, Abigail AngleCrafter!”

Emma whispered, “I met her in novice fire class. She’s nice.” Emma had decided to do fire as her secondary school.

But Ambrose was continuing. “Would Miss AngleCrafter please come up?” A girl with short black hair and green eyes stepped out of the crowd and walked up to stand near Ambrose.

“The student from the school of ice has yet to be decided. We have a very gifted apprentice who would like to do it, but she has failed in battle before and we’re not sure whether we should let her. She will be tested further later today. If she fails, Christina RainbowSong will go.

“From the school of storm, we have Grace StormRider! Would Miss StormRider please come up?” A girl with blond hair like Abigail’s and similar eyes made her way out of the crowd. She looked extremely nervous.

“From the school of myth, we have Elizabeth GoldenThistle! Would Miss GoldenThistle please come up?” Elizabeth took a deep breath and walked out of the crowd. I noticed she kept her distance from Grace.

“From the school of life, we have Sophia EmeraldBlossom! Would Miss EmeraldBlossom please come up?” As I walked up toward Ambrose, I felt a tugging sensation around my feet and landed sprawling on the grass. I clambered to my feet and looked around, finally spotting the wizard who tripped me. He was a sandy-haired, blue-eyed boy with a mischievous smile on his face, dressed in orange. He must be a balance wizard.

I made my way up to where Elizabeth and the other wizards were standing without incident. Once I was there, Ambrose continued.

“We have not yet determined a wizard from the school of death, as all the novices failed the test. I will choose a more advanced student later, along with Malorn AshThorn.

“From the school of balance, we have Nicholas SandThorn. Would Mr. SandThorn please come up?” The boy who’d tripped me came up and gave me an easy grin. In my mind, I was fuming. Him? HE has to form a team with me? He’ll wreak havoc and be insufferable! I can’t handle this!

“Well done to all who were chosen! Please come back tonight at 7:30 to find out who were chosen from the schools of ice and death!”

The crowd of students began to disperse. Soon, only Elizabeth, Donna, Emma, and I were left in the Commons. As we walked to our favorite bench in Ravenwood, I asked Emma a question. “What were you about to say when Headmaster Ambrose came out?”

Emma gave a short, nervous laugh. “Oh, it’s really nothing. I’ll tell you later if it’s worth telling. But it’s almost time for apprentice class! I can’t be late!”

Donna gave a start and jumped up. “Oh, I forgot! Let’s go!” The two of them raced off to the ice school.

“Well THAT was helpful,” said Elizabeth indignantly.

At 7:30 that evening, the students of Ravenwood had again gathered to hear Headmaster Ambrose. Elizabeth, Donna, Emma and I were together again, Emma looking flushed and sweaty but strangely pleased with herself.

A hush fell over the commons as Ambrose walked out of his office. “Would all those chosen earlier please come up here?” I emerged from the crowd along with Elizabeth, Grace, Abigail, and Nicholas.

“The aforementioned apprentice thaumaturge has been tested and has passed. She is ready to go with the five I chose earlier. May Emma IceCrafter please come up?”

I was shocked. So that’s what Emma was about to say! I can’t say I wasn’t relieved that Emma was coming along instead of this random Christina person. Ambrose continued.

“I have chosen an adept necromancer to accompany you as well. I daresay she needs to concentrate more on her studies, and this should help her; however, she is still easily capable. May Fiona DeathCoin please come up?”

Everyone up with me except Ambrose looked horrorstruck; from what I could see, almost everyone in the crowd looked horrorstruck as well. Then I noticed a group of fancily dressed girls near the front smugly grinning, and one of them left the group to stand with us. She wore fancy clothes that matched her group, the hairstyle of the myth girl we saw earlier, and an exceedingly proud and sickly sweet expression on her face.

Emma looked so horrorstruck that she almost fainted; strike that, she sank to the ground and actually did faint. Professor Wu rushed out of the crowd and revived her. For the first time, Ambrose looked mildly worried. “Well, I’m sure you seven will all get along – er – splendidly,” he said. “Now everyone get back to your dorms and do your homework before curfew. I want to see you seven in my office tomorrow morning after novice class; Emma, you can skip classes until they catch up to you.”

The crowd dispersed, and we went on our separate ways. Emma rushed off to the library to check out a book about casting technique for ice spells, and everyone else walked away to who knows where. Everyone, that is, except Elizabeth and me. We were about to pay a visit to the fairegrounds to earn some gold, but I felt like going for a short walk around the lake first. I told her that I’d see her there, and I walked down the path toward the rainbow bridge. Headmaster Ambrose stayed outside his office, surveying the various wizards around the commons.

I had looped around the commons and was heading back down the path toward the fairegrounds when I spotted a sobbing girl. From the colors of her clothes, she looked to be a necromancer. I cautiously made my way toward her to ask what happened.

She said, “I just started my gardening lessons, and I even planted a dandelion seed in this pot.” She showed me a small clay pot she was holding, full of soil. However, I couldn’t see any green shoots. “I followed Farley’s directions to the letter, but I’ve been waiting for a whole day and nothing’s coming up. I really want to get to a higher gardening rank so I can plant things that drop mega snacks and I can train my pet, but it looks like that’s never going to happen.”

I replied, “You must be level 12 because you’ve just started gardening, right?” She nodded, and said, “Maybe it’s because I’m a death wizard. I guess that growing things and death magic don’t mix. Maybe I should’ve chosen life as a secondary school.”

“Let me see that,” I said. I took the pot from her and examined the soil. It looked strange and kind of blackish. “It looks like there’s residue in the soil from some death spell. I’m not sure I want to know where you’ve been keeping this.” I gently brushed the layer of black powder away from the moist brown dirt, and to my surprise a little sprout popped out of the soil. It grew and grew until it had a little yellow blossom on it.

“Whoa!” the death wizard exclaimed. “I’ve never met a life wizard who could do that! What level are you, anyway?” I explained that I was level 3, and she grew even more amazed. Just then, I noticed Headmaster Ambrose looking our way. I hid the potted plant behind my back, hoping I didn’t look too guilty. Was it wrong to help a higher level student with a project?

He didn’t look angry at me, just mildly startled. He called me over, and I could pick out a tone of excitement in his voice. “Miss EmeraldBlossom, could you see me in my office please?” I was clueless. Why would he sound excited if he was going to give me detention? The necromancer looked pale, and whispered, “I hope I didn’t get you into trouble!” I did my best to give her a reassuring smile as I walked into the office.

Once inside, the headmaster motioned for me to sit down. “I noticed you could grow that dandelion just by touching it,” he said. “This is a very unusual power, even for a theurgist. In fact, I’ve never seen anything like it before. I have a suspicion about why you happened to be chosen to help on Unicorn Way. Professor Wu told me it was mostly luck, but I am inclined to believe it was fate.”

Fate? Is there some kind of ancient prophecy to do with this? He stood up and walked over to a pile of old scrolls in the back of the room. “Just wait a minute while I try to find the prophecy,” he said. Oh, great. I was right. Go figure. After a few minutes of rummaging, he pulled out a yellowed scroll of old parchment. He sat back down, cleared his throat, and began to read.

When Ravenwood’s greatest master of death

Loses his greatest treasure

He turns away from teaching youth

To evil beyond measure

“This, of course, refers to Malistaire,” he said. “Um, excuse me? Who’s Malistaire?” I asked. He looked at me blankly, then said, “Oh, you don’t know? That’s right! I never told you! In short, he was the death professor not too long ago. His wife, Sylvia, was the life professor. When she died from illness, he turned bitter and tore the death school away from Ravenwood. Nobody knows where it went. He summoned undead monsters to terrorize Wizard City, though I have yet to discover why. He is also the face you saw in the darkness when you came to Ravenwood. He sought to dump you somewhere, maybe in the void between worlds, but Gamma managed to intercept him and brought you here.”

I was about to ask why he bothered when there were much more powerful wizards around, but the headmaster cut me off with, “You’ll learn why in the next two verses of the prophecy.”

An unknown wizard comes from earth

Whom he tries to hide

Who escapes to learn theurgy

The power she has inside

This theurgist can touch the ground

And grow plants up at will

She’ll rally a group of fellow wizards

The death master to kill

A large lump formed in my throat, and my stomach started churning. “Who else?” I managed to stammer out. “Who else is in the prophecy? What other powers do they have?” He smiled and said, “They are unimportant to you as of now, for you are the leader. I am not quite sure whether the students we have chosen are all a part of this prophecy. I do, however, believe your friend Miss GoldenThistle is involved. I would appreciate it if you would whisper her and have her teleport to you.”

I wasted no time in sending a whisper message to her. “Hey Elizabeth, could you teleport to me?” I asked. In three seconds and a flurry of yellow sparks, she was standing beside me. Then she realized where she was. Headmaster Ambrose spoke first.

“I don’t think you saw when Miss EmeraldBlossom helped a fellow student grow a plant,” he said. “She merely touched the soil and a shoot sprang out of the ground. This is not a normal theurgist power.” He then repeated the verses of the prophecy he had told to me, but continued on.

The conjurer can memorize

If she was there and heard

She can repeat to anyone

What they said, word for word

He followed up with “Can’t you?” this time talking to Elizabeth. “Tell me, what did I say about Miss EmeraldBlossom’s power?”

Elizabeth didn’t need to concentrate at all. “You said, ‘She merely touched the soil and a shoot sprang out of the ground. This is not a normal theurgist power.’”

Headmaster Ambrose was duly impressed, and said, “Just like the prophecy said: word for word.” Elizabeth turned white.

“So you mean,” she said nervously, “That Sophia is supposed to lead a group of wizards, and they all have special powers and eventually will defeat this death master? And I’m part of it?” Ambrose said, “Precisely. She’ll tell you about Malistaire later. Now, it’s getting late. I believe you share a dorm with Miss IceCrafter, correct? Her power is quite complicated, and I doubt that she even knows she has it. As I said, it’s getting late, and you should be going to bed before curfew, which is in about half an hour. Good night, young wizards.”

After we left the headmaster’s office, we headed toward the fairegrounds, our original destination that evening.

“What I don’t get,” said Elizabeth, “is why they want us to do this now. Why not wait until we’re a much higher level with bigger spells and more able to succeed with this mission?”

“I’ll tell you later,” I said, taking out my money bag. We had reached the brightly colored tents of the fairegrounds. I walked up to one and stood in front of its respective sigil. “I want to concentrate on a successful game of Skull Riders.”

Chapter Four
Sophia

After classes the following morning, the seven of us were gathered in Headmaster Ambrose’s office. He had an important announcement. I wonder if it’s the stuff about the prophecy.

“You all know you are going to help on Unicorn Way, but there is something much more that you may be destined to do,” he said. “I have a feeling that you are the subjects of an ancient prophecy, and that you are destined to defeat Malistaire.” I noticed that Fiona looked uncomfortable, for some reason. “Here is the complete prophecy.”

When Ravenwood’s greatest master of death

Loses his greatest treasure

He turns away from teaching youth

To evil beyond measure

An unknown wizard comes from earth

Whom he tries to hide

Who escapes to learn theurgy

The power she has inside

This theurgist can touch the ground

And grow plants up at will

She’ll rally a group of fellow wizards

The death master to kill

The conjurer can memorize

If she was there and heard

She can repeat to anyone

What they said, word for word

The thaumaturge’s power

Is to freeze time at her will

For a minute, she can move about

With others frozen still

The pyromancer summons flame

To help her native land

It can be used to light the way

But cannot leave her hand

The diviner’s gift is very rare

She soars up in the sky

Yet her powers are limited

Just once a day she can fly

The sorcerer has a powerful trick

It helps him be very sly

He makes himself invisible

Unseen by any eye

The necromancer’s deathly touch

Can shatter things at will

Yet it is for objects only

It cannot be used to kill

Beware your first necromancer

She lies with her very breath

She’ll betray this noble team

And join the master of death

Everyone stared at Fiona, who gave us an awkward smile, fidgeted, and said, “Look, whoever wrote this prophecy was wrong. I’m not going to betray anyone, if that’s what you’re thinking. Who knows? What if the person who wrote this prophecy isn’t a reliable source of information? What if he was just practicing his rhymes? Oh, these are great rhymes, by the way.”

That just made it more awkward. I think she’s lying. The prophecy said “she lies with her very breath”. I wouldn’t put it past her to do something evil. But then…maybe she wouldn’t. Would she really want the spiral to be destroyed? I was very confused.

The headmaster went on. “Because of this, I would like to propose one more test. I already know Miss EmeraldBlossom and Miss GoldenThistle are subjects of the prophecy. Miss AngleCrafter, can you please summon the fire?”

Abigail tried. She held out her hand, screwed up her face, and concentrated. Nothing happened. She then started saying, “Um…summon fire! Vocare ignis! Abracadabra!” She waved her arms wildly. Ambrose just shook his head, and said, “I don’t think you are in this prophecy. However, you can help on Unicorn Way anyways. I’m sure we’ll find the pyromancer of the prophecy eventually. What about you, Miss IceCrafter? Try to concentrate on freezing time. Then, move to the other side of the room and wait for the minute to be up.”

Emma looked a little nervous, but she merely said, “I’ll try.” The next thing I knew, Emma was all the way on the other side of the room. I blinked, trying to remember when I saw her move. I couldn’t.

Ambrose looked pleased. “Well, Miss IceCrafter, I think it was good that I let you join the team. You’re staying, even if you fail again. Miss StormRider, are you able to fly?”

Grace said, “Yeah. I’ve done it loads of times. I’m not sure whether I should use it up for today, though.” Ambrose told her to do it anyway, and soon Grace was hovering near the ceiling. I grinned. All these powers were really cool!

“Now, Mr. SandThorn,” Ambrose said, “please don’t prank anyone while you’re invisible. I have heard reports of your rather obnoxious behavior.” Nicholas grinned and disappeared, then reappeared.

“And you, Miss DeathCoin,” he continued, “I have doubts about whether you can break things when you touch them. But I would like you to try anyway.” He set an already chipped old teapot down on his desk. “Could you please break this?”

Fiona touched it, but nothing happened. She gave a fake giggle and said, “Well, I can still break it. That doesn’t change.” Then she lifted the teapot high, dropped it on the floor, and stomped on it. It shattered into several small pieces.

Ambrose cleared his throat. “That is not what I meant, but nevertheless, you must make haste to Unicorn Way. From what I have been hearing, the problems get worse by the hour! With luck, you can finish there today.”

When we just stood there silently looking at each other, Ambrose said, “You are dismissed. You should go see Ceren NightChant, because he might have ideas on how to help the fairies.” We turned around and left the office.

Soon, we arrived at the barred tunnel to Unicorn Way. Private Stillson, the guard at the gate, said “You shall not pass! The undead and corrupted fairies are running all over the streets! You will be flattened!” We explained that we were the special helpers trying to save Wizard City, so finally he let us through, raising the gate just for us.

Once inside, we couldn’t help but look around. There were so many things to see! I was staring at the park down the hill, with a little island in a pond and a unicorn statue on it, while Emma seemed drawn to a large building on the right with a black unicorn outside it. “That’s the arena,” she whispered.

Just then, a dark shadow seemed to dart around a corner of the street’s bordering wall. I jumped. “What was that?!” I said rather loudly, alarmed. “What?” said Elizabeth.

“That—that shadow, the one that darted around a corner over there.” I pointed toward where I saw it. Everyone stared at me, and Abigail said, “It was probably nothing. Maybe it was just a shadow of a tree branch moving in the breeze.” There was no breeze. “Or—or maybe…” She trailed off, but everyone knew what she was thinking. Stray undead. Everyone’s pulse pounded a little bit quicker.

Fiona just laughed it off and said, “Sophia! You crack me up! You novice theurgists are always imagining things with your heads in the clouds! Don’t worry, you’ll advance and develop your common sense…I hope.”

I bristled, but said nothing. We continued on, passed another armed guard, and saw a student wearing green. We hurried toward him. “Hi,” I said, panting. He looked at the group of us and smiled. “Hello there!” he said pleasantly. “I’m Ceren NightChant. Headmaster Ambrose probably told you about me. I remember you from the announcements. You’re the seven students to help out here, right? You seem nice enough. I’m glad to meet you.” He held out his hand, and everyone shook it, except Fiona, who he came to last. She withdrew a little bit and said, “Eww! Life wizard cooties!”

Ceren stiffened. “On the other hand…maybe this one is not quite so nice,” he muttered, just loud enough for me to hear him. Then, he spoke louder. “Are you ready to get to work? I’ve ventured out there and seen those fairies for myself. They’re now all black and doing all sorts of mischief. We’ve got to stop them before all the fairies become evil!”

Nicholas nodded approvingly at the “all sorts of mischief” part. I noticed Elizabeth scowling at him.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Ceren asked. “Let’s get to it!” As we walked down the street, Ceren pointed at a black cage hanging from a post. “Those cages made of bone have fairies inside them. I’m not sure why they are there.”

I walked up to a cage and stared at the little yellow fairy inside. Its wings beat helplessly as it desperately circled around, looking for a way to escape. “What’s your name?” I asked her.

“I’m Sunflower,” she replied. “I’m trapped in this dreadful cage! A nasty creature with clacking bones came and put me in here, and now I’m stuck! Help me, please!”

As she said this, the fairy began to morph. It slowly turned black, and the crystal clear wings turned dark pink. It let out an evil cackle, punched through the bars with its newfound strength, and flew to join its fellow corrupted fairies on the street.

I turned around to face the others, my shoulders sagging. “I was too late to save that one. Apparently, these cages are used to trap the fairies and corrupt them.”

Ceren looked crestfallen. Fiona sniffed and crossed her arms, clearly displaying that this was a waste of her time. Without waiting for the others, I dashed to the next cage on the street, where a similar fairy hovered inside, trapped.

When I reached the cage, I didn’t waste time talking to the fairy. Once I found the door, I fiddled with the tiny latch, which was difficult since the latch was fairy-sized and the whole ordeal was very clumsy. Luckily, I managed to unlock it in time, and the fairy zoomed out, still uncorrupted. “Thank you,” she said. “My name is Buttercup. Maybe I will be able to help you someday.”

Ceren smiled at me and said, “Thanks for helping that fairy. Let’s split up and each unlock a cage. Sophia, Emma, Abigail, Grace, you take this side of the street. The rest of us will cross and get the other side. I’ll meet you back at the park.”

After freeing as many fairies as we could, we came back to the park and waited. After about a minute more, Ceren, Elizabeth, Fiona, and Nicholas joined us. Ceren said, “Great job, everyone! Now that you’re here, I think I have enough spare time to go tell Professor Wu about the situation. I haven’t gotten a chance yet, and I think she’s getting worried. While I’m gone, you should probably go talk to Lady Oriel at the end of the street. She knows more about the fairies than I do. See you soon!” And with that, Ceren ran off to the Commons tunnel.

I sighed. “Well, I guess we should go talk to Lady Oriel then,” I said reluctantly. We trudged off down the street. When we reached a dead end, we found a large building with huge oak doors. “Is this the end of the street?” Abigail asked.

I was pretty sure that it was, so I pushed hard on the doors and they swung open very slowly. Grace helped, and soon the heavy doors opened far enough for us to push through.

It turned out that it wasn’t a building at all, just a walled-in courtyard with bright yellow fairies fluttering all about. Then I saw a seraph with a sword, and we weren’t sure who she was. None of us seemed particularly keen on walking up to her and introducing ourselves.

Fiona seemed to get over it fairly quickly. “What are you all so scared about?” she asked. “Pfft, it’s just a seraph with a sword. Nothing dangerous. Emma, why don’t you go talk to her?”

Emma replied, “If you’re so courageous, you go.”

Fiona marched toward the seraph, looking overconfident. “We need help with the fairy problem.”

The seraph looked at her intently. “Who are you?” she questioned. Without waiting for an answer, she swooped down and held her sword at Fiona’s throat. “I sense an immense darkness within you. You could be a spy for the enemy! Answer me!”

I sighed. Even though I disliked Fiona, I couldn’t let her be killed for no reason other than being rude. Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward.

“Sorry about her,” I said, pointing at Fiona. “I’m her…acquaintance. My friends and I are trying to save the fairies. Ceren NightChant said there was someone named Lady Oriel down here. Do you know her?”

The seraph smiled and released Fiona, who scurried back to the others. “I am Lady Oriel. You say you know Ceren? He must have reason for sending you; he is not one to ask for help for no reason. He has been working on this for several days and has made no progress. I told him not to come here unless he has progressed. What progress have you made?”

I told Lady Oriel about the bone cages, the corruption of Sunflower, what she’d said about a monster with clacking bones, and how we freed the rest of them.

Lady Oriel looked pleased. “The only way to stop the problem is to attack the roots,” she said. “I need some of you to search the street and find a skeleton. From what I have seen, undead are cowards, so he is likely hiding in a tower. There are two towers on this street, but I think the one that is closer to us is more likely where he is hiding. Tell me, are you a theurgist? I can sense the song of life in you.”

I confirmed what she said, and she responded, “Good. Although the undead are fearsome, their one weakness is life magic. You should lead the group to fight him. Choose three companions, although I need someone you trust to lead the other expedition.”

I instantly thought of Elizabeth. “There’s another expedition?”

“Yes. Although the root of the problem is of utmost importance, the branches must be cleared away as well. I need the rest of you to defeat all the undead and fairies on this street. They are not particularly strong, but there are many of them. Come back to me when you have finished.”

I returned to my group and explained the plan to them. Elizabeth volunteered to lead the group that would clear the street, and let me choose first. I chose Emma, Abigail, and Grace, which left Elizabeth with (much to her disappointment) Fiona and Nicholas. Using the map the headmaster had given us, I led my group down the street.

After a short walk, we came to a tower. A light was on inside, though I couldn’t hear any sound from it. I slowly pushed open the heavy oaken door, and found myself standing in an empty tower.

“Come on in,” I called back. “It’s safe.”

Once everyone was inside, the door suddenly slammed shut. Emma whirled around and tried to open it, but we were locked inside. We all turned to help Emma force the door open, but it was too strong.

“Should I blast it?” offered Grace.

“Let’s not risk it,” I replied. “We could get electrocuted or something, and for all we know, this door could be enchanted so spells backfire!”

“It doesn’t matter,” a cold, brittle voice behind us said. “You’re all going to die anyway.”

We slowly turned around, and found ourselves face to face with an eerily grinning skeleton and his three dark fairy henchmen. The skeleton continued. “I will kill you slowly. My master will greatly enjoy watching you die. He will rule the spiral and avenge those who oppose the dead!”

“Not without a fight!” Emma shouted. She drew her wand and said, “Are you with me?” We raised our wands and charged.

Elizabeth

My bloodbat scattered a skeletal pirate and our battle circle disappeared. We staggered over to the sidewalk and collapsed. My mana was severely drained, and Nicholas had barely escaped alive. Fiona was the only one who seemed perfectly fine. I guess she can resist her own magic.

I scanned the street and gave a tired smile when I noticed that the crowd of monsters was much thinner. There were only a few stray skeletons and fairies left; we had finished off the ghosts early when we saw how fragile they were.

The fairies, though, were a different story. They were twice as durable as a ghost and had a wider variety of spells. They could even strengthen their attacks with a “blade” that hung around their heads.

After another few battles, we had finished. We patrolled the entire street and could find no monsters. We even smashed the bone cages for good measure. Then, we spotted a green-robed figure jogging towards us.

“Ceren!” I called. “Over here!”

“Where are the others?” he asked. “You did a great job, but they’ll come back unless you destroy the root of the problem. Its name is Rattlebones. He’s a nasty old skeleton, and he’s not afraid to keep trying. He has an eternity to corrupt everything, at least until someone finishes him.”

We told Ceren about what our friends were doing, and his face went pale. “Wha-what? They can’t fight Rattlebones! They’re only novices! They’ll be crushed! I have to save them!” He sprinted as fast as he could down the street.

I grumbled. “Only novices? Look what we just did!”

Fiona smirked. “What I just did. You were only along for the ride. I did most of it.”

“I don’t care who did it! The point is that it got done!” I snapped back. “I don’t care what you think. I’m going after Ceren.” I marched off down the street. Nicholas glared at Fiona and followed me. I turned around for one last look and saw Fiona laughing her head off.

Sophia

My face was flushed and my legs were shaking as I directed my imp towards Rattlebones. Grace zapped the remaining fairy, and it blinked out of existence. Abigail dropped a small fireball on the skeleton, and Emma chucked an ice shard at it. The frozen needle nailed him in the rib cage, and he exploded into a pile of bones.

I marched up to it and victoriously kicked the pile, sending its skull sliding across the room. Suddenly, the door burst open, and Ceren came rushing in, flushed and panting. “I’m here!” he shouted. “I’m here to save you! Don’t worry!”

Then he spotted us standing over the scattered bones. He started laughing. “Well, well!” he said. “You’re a little more talented than I first thought! I can’t believe it! You bested that retched skeleton!” He collapsed into a fit of laughter. Soon, we were laughing with him.

Elizabeth and Nicholas arrived on the scene, and Elizabeth asked, “What’s so funny?” That just made us laugh harder. Nicholas grinned and snuck some bones into his backpack.

When we finally settled down, I felt very weak, but I asked where Fiona was. Elizabeth said, “Who knows? I don’t care. Good riddance. We need to return to Lady Oriel, though. She could be worried about us.”

We agreed, and we arrived in the hedge maze all smiles. Lady Oriel rewarded me with a healing spell, and told me that a proper theurgist should be able to save her friends. Then, we teleported away to tell the headmaster the news.

He leveled us all up to level 5 for our accomplishments, and promised he’d call us whenever he heard of another street in trouble. However, we were apprentices now and had to choose a second school. After visiting the library and studying lots of books, I made my decision.

I closed the heavy leather-bound book on the seven schools of magic and looked at Elizabeth, who was studying a smaller black volume intently. I squinted at it, and the cover said, “Should I study necromancy? A guide to death as a second school.” I groaned.

“Please don’t pick death.” I pleaded. “I don’t like necromancy.”

Elizabeth looked up and set the book on her lap. I noticed she was in the chapter titled Necromancy for Conjurers. “Have you made your decision already?” she asked. I nodded and said, “For a while I was undecided. I knew I needed a strong attack school, so I narrowed my choices down to fire or storm. Just now, I decided that I wanted to be able to hit in one spell and not over several minutes. I chose storm.”

Elizabeth groaned. “Why did you have to do storm? It’s the opposite of myth! I just decided on death anyway, so we’re even.” When I asked her why in the spiral she had to choose the opposite of life, she said, “First, to be fair. Second, I think it would be really cool to be able to hit and heal in one spell.” I had to admit her reason sounded pretty reasonable, so I decided to live with it. At least death wasn’t her primary school.

“So, what do you want to do?” she asked me. “We have the rest of the day free.”

I smiled at her. “I don’t know about you, but I want to visit Unicorn Park. Now that Unicorn Way is clear, I need some rest and relaxation.”

“That sounds great! Can I come, too?”

“You know, I’d like you to. Companionship sounds really good, too.” I smiled at her, and together we headed off to the park.

Chapter Five
Sophia

“Race you to the library!”

“You’re on!”

Elizabeth and I, now level 6, dashed through the Commons, each trying to reach the library first. When Elizabeth’s back was turned, I took a shortcut. I waded through the lake and squeezed between two houses, and when Elizabeth arrived on the library’s porch, I was waiting for her.

“Not fair!” Elizabeth complained. “I thought we agreed to stick to the paths!”

“You said no such thing,” I countered. “Although you might’ve thought we did. I’m a theurgist; I’m supposed to be creative. I’m not afraid to get my boots wet.”

“So you cut through the lake.” Elizabeth sighed. “Sometimes I’ll never understand why you theurgists have such strange ideas.”

“Whoever said strange ideas were bad things? You conjurers are so serious all the time.”

“It’s too cold for the lake! For goodness sake, it’s the last week of November! It must be 40 degrees out there!”

“Young wizards!” an elderly voice interrupted us. We immediately tensed. “I require your assistance immediately. Come see me at my office.”

We quickly returned our books and headed back across the commons. When we arrived in his office, everyone else was already there, but we noticed a strange girl that wasn’t here before. She had dark skin and a brown ponytail, and her deep purple robes revealed her to be a diviner. She looked ready to faint.

The headmaster spoke. “This young wizard had to sneak past so many armies of undead to warn us of the danger Triton Avenue now faces. Apparently, there has been undead there for a few weeks, but nobody has been brave enough to leave their homes to tell us. Finally, someone decided that the authorities had to know, so here is our brave messenger.”

“Who is she?” I asked curiously.

Grace said, “It’s Susie GryphonBane! I’ve known her practically forever. She’s my cousin, and we lived together until recently. Since I’m the youngest person at my house, aunt Alura decided to send me to a dorm where it’s safer. She’s been like a mother to me.”

“Don’t you have a mother?” I asked.

Grace fidgeted nervously. “Um…”

“Young wizards,” Ambrose interrupted, “I still need to get to the point. There is another street that needs saving! I believe Susie has more to tell you, but she can inform you of recent events on the way. I have my own matters to straighten out. You are dismissed.”

We left the office, and Abigail shivered in the brisk autumn wind. “So what’s been happening?” Elizabeth asked Susie.

“It’s a long story, although the walk is long enough to compensate.” Susie began her tale. “There’s always been a small amount of undead on Triton Avenue, just like there are always fairies on Unicorn Way. You see, at the end of the street is the haunted cave. It’s barred, but the bars aren’t exactly monster-proof. Every once in a while, a stray ghost or ghoul will slip through the bars, but an adult wizard will always settle it quickly. It’s not a major problem, just a little nuisance. Just this summer, the undead must’ve become stronger. All together, they pushed and managed to break the bars completely. They all rushed out, and the street has been severely plagued ever since. Most families sent their children to the dorms, or only left their houses by teleporting. Just three weeks ago, my twin brother Artur decided he’d had enough. He went to scout out the haunted cave and find the charge.”

“Charge?”

“Source of the problem. Anyway, he’s been missing for ages! I think he’s been kidnapped!”

Grace gasped. “Artur? No! That—that’s impossible! Not Artur!”

“Yes. I’m afraid so. I need your help to save Triton Avenue and Artur. Are you up for it?” Susie grinned. “And mom made cookies.”

Grace turned to me. “Aunt Alura’s cookies are amazing. You’ll love them. They have the perfect shock to them—

“Shock?” I didn’t like the sound of that.

“Sorry. I’m speaking diviner. Kick. Zing. Whatever you want to call it. The point is, they’re spicy, like gingerbread cookies but better.”

“Why do the GryphonBanes share a last name?” I asked. “From what I’ve seen, most wizard families don’t.”

Grace looked pleased that I asked her this. “If a certain magic school runs in a family, that family will share a last name. The StormRiders, GryphonBanes, TallStaffs, and StormCoins are the four all-storm families of Wizard City. There are other diviners, of course, but those are the only families that are all diviners.”

“Get ready!” Susie called. “We’re almost at the tunnel to Triton Ave. These undead are sneaky and vicious. For some reason, they’ve learned storm magic, so they hit pretty hard and resist most of the people on this street. As soon as we set foot on the street, they’re likely going to ambush us, so be ready for a battle.”

We nodded and stepped through the tunnel. As soon as we saw the stormy skies and purple stones of Triton Avenue, we saw a bunch of ghouls advancing on us.

“Shield!” Susie shouted. “I know how they fight. They’ll likely open with an aggressive move.” She was right. As soon as our shields formed, they were shattered by vicious snakes. “The trick,” she instructed, “is to be aggressive right back. Everyone attack that one!” Several bolts of magical energy struck a ghoul, and he sank into the ground.

“Good! Keep going!” After several repetitions, our area of the street was clear. We dashed to the sidewalk and down a ramp, and then veered sharply left. A house was built into the cliff, which I normally wouldn’t have noticed.

“Is that your house?” I asked Grace. She nodded. We entered the house and were greeted by boisterous barking. An eager black and purple dog scrambled through a doorway and ran to meet us, jumping up and attempting to lick our faces.

Grace laughed and reached down to pet him. “This is Sparky, the family Mulberry Hound,” she said. “He’s very friendly. He’s supposed to have special storm powers, but I’ve never seen him in action. Even he’s older than me. He’s ancient.”

“…literally?”

“We’ll, he’s lived for five generations. What do you think?”

“Who’s there?” a young female voice called. A girl with purple hair and sparkling blue eyes stepped out of the doorway to meet us. “Grace? Susie?” she asked. “What are you doing here? And who are your friends?”

Fiona sniffed and crossed her arms. “They’re not my friends.”

Grace introduced us, and the girl told us her name. “I’m Scarlet StormRider, Grace’s older sister,” she said. “Come on in. Aunt Alura just made cookies. She wasn’t expecting you, but there should be enough for everyone.”

We met Alura GryphonBane, a plump woman with curly black hair and warm brown eyes. “Would you like to try my thundersnaps?” she offered. She put on a purple oven mitt and pulled a tray out of an oven heated by what looked like burning rocks. On the tray there were several brown cookies shaped like lightning bolts. “Made with fresh thunderspice,” she announced proudly.

I took one politely. “What’s thunderspice?”

“It grows right here on Triton Avenue,” Scarlet explained while chewing. “Late fall is when it’s in season, so we can have it fresh and not dried like normal. It adds the perfect shock to salads and baked goods.” She turned to aunt Alura. “Can I have another?”

I took a small bite and tasted warm gingerbread. I took a larger bite, but then after I chewed for a while I could taste the “shock”. It felt like a charge of static electricity, and it wasn’t particularly pleasant. I carefully set my cookie down. Elizabeth had politely refused the cookies, but Nicholas was chewing thoughtfully. “Hey,” he said with a full mouth. “This isn’t half bad.”

After everyone had had their fill of thundersnaps, we thanked aunt Alura and headed off to work. Susie told us her plan. “You may not know this, but my second school is death. There’s a rather…smart boy in my class who lives on this street. He specializes in learning about undead; it fascinates him. He was around since Malistaire was professor. As annoying as he is, he might have ideas about what we should do.”

Grace took on a sour expression. “You don’t mean Duncan GrimWater, do you? He’s a pest!”

Susie sighed. “Sadly, that’s who I’m talking about. He does have quite the attitude, so be prepared. He thinks he’s amazing.”

We stopped on a grassy ridge to catch our breaths. We were just getting ready to go on when Grace coughed and spluttered, shouting incoherently. For some reason, she was soaked. Then we noticed the boy in black robes standing behind her, laughing like a crazy person. He was carrying a dripping bucket of water.

I glared at him, and then asked Susie, “Duncan GrimWater?”

“How did you guess? Anyway, Duncan, we were looking for you.”

Duncan stopped laughing. “Looking for me? Do you want me to stop the undead or tell you what’s causing it? You’ve already asked for that. What do you and your friends want this time?”

“We need a Lumina crystal.”

“What am I, a storm mill worker? Go ask Blad Raveneye. He’s the one who would know.”

We crossed a few bridges and stepped into a blue column of light that teleported us to the top of the cliff. When we talked to the burly man, he told us to check the barrels around the street.

We set off down the sidewalk, with Abigail, Grace, Emma, and me on one side and the rest on the other. When we came to the first barrel, we found that it was sealed tightly shut. We all heaved and tried to pry it open together, but the lid wouldn’t budge. Nobody wanted to break the barrel, but eventually it seemed that we had no choice. Then, Emma remembered her athame and succeeded in prying the lid off. We gathered the deep purple crystals inside and continued on to the next barrel.

We had only walked a few steps when I felt a leathery hand grip my shoulder. I whirled around and found myself face to face with a shriveled old woman. Then, I realized I was seeing an undead banshee. I ran out into the middle of the street and directed an imp spell at it, gesturing for my friends to come and help.

Although more enemies came to the aid of the banshee, we defeated them and I got a chance to try out my new leprechaun spell.

“Let’s stick closer to the buildings from now on,” I said, shivering as I remembered the feel of the banshee’s hand.

We opened the rest of the barrels with no incidents, although it was slightly annoying to find out that all the others were relatively easy to open. Had the undead gotten into them?

Soon, our pockets were filled with the dark crystals, and we hurried back to Blad. However, Grace couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that something was wrong with them.

“I don’t feel any energy flow from them like I should,” she said uneasily.

The others were already waiting when we arrived, Fiona looking cross. “What took you so long?!”

“We got assaulted by banshees,” Emma explained.

Susie looked worried. “Look, we can continue our cozy chat later, but right now we have a problem. I’ve detected a significant lack of energy from the lumina crystals. I’m guessing Grace probably felt it, too. The point is, these crystals don’t have the energy we need to reveal where the undead are keeping Artur. Blad’s already told me he needs a powerful source of storm magic to recharge them, and I don’t think I count.”

Grace stepped back, suddenly looking alarmed. “You don’t mean--”

Susie laughed. “Of course not you! You’re only apprentice! I don’t think Scarlet could manage it either; she’s a magus just like me. I think we could be at a standstill. Unless we can find a very powerful creature of storm, we can’t find out where Artur is.” We lapsed into a pondering silence.

Suddenly, Blad decided to speak up. “May I make a suggestion? The mill foreman, Sohomer SunBlade, is an expert at powerful sources of storm magic. He probably knows where you can find exactly what you need.” He fished around in his pocket before withdrawing a bronze pebble.

“This,” he said, while passing it to Susie, “is a keystone. It will unlock the high-security teleporter up the cliff for you. Snap it into the base, and then you all have about thirty seconds to get through before the teleporter turns off. Then tell Sohomer your problem. You shouldn’t need a keystone to return.”

We looked at each other, and Susie said, “Let’s do it.” Soon enough, we’d all gotten through the teleporter. We found ourselves on a high ledge overlooking the rest of the street. A large man stood in front of a building equally large.

Susie approached him. “Hello, Mr. SunBlade. We need to charge some lumina crystals, and we were wondering if you knew of a powerful source of storm magic to do it.”

Sohomer thought for a moment, then said, “There are quite a few that I know of, but most are inconveniently located and you probably couldn’t handle them. However, there’s a storm kraken right through this other teleporter.” He gestured to another blue column of light. “He’s a little rough, but if you work as a team you should have no problem. Make sure you expose the crystals while you fight him. Good luck.”

We stepped through the teleporter and discovered that we were on a stone platform surrounded by crumbling Greek-style columns. We were maybe a few feet above the water, and looming cliffs surrounded us. We must’ve been far below the rest of Triton Avenue. Suddenly, we heard a crackling roar and a large purple reptile sprung out of the water.

“WHO DARES CHALLENGE THE KRAKEN?” it roared. “THEY SHALL FEEL THE WRATH OF STORM!” Then, it sprung at Susie.

The impact hit her by surprise, and she fell over onto the stone. She didn’t look hurt, but she was out cold. For the first time, I noticed that Fiona looked somewhat nervous. She slowly backed away one step at a time.

The kraken directed its gaze at me. Its stormy, dark gray eyes swirled with the fury of a thundercloud. Energy built up from its hands as it prepared to strike. I noticed Emma pulling a golden card out of her deck and discreetly making the ice symbol. Two shields materialized in front of me: one red and one purple. When the kraken threw its supercharged ball of electricity, it splashed against the purple shield. Although the shield shattered on impact, it deflected the hit. “Thanks!” I shouted at Emma. Then, I revived Susie with a fairy.

Everyone joined the fray, except Fiona who was busy flipping through a fashion magazine. Why she brought useless reading material on dangerous missions, I didn’t know. After a chaotic flurry of various spells, a fireball finished it off. The kraken dissipated into a shower of purple sparks, which got sucked into the crystals. The crystals began to glow and make a faint humming sound.

Susie pulled out a staff with an amethyst on the top. The whole thing shone with storm power. When she brought it close enough, a lumina crystal slid toward it, then stopped. “The staff has a magnetic field,” she explained.

Soon, streams of energy flew from both crystal and staff, and joined in the air, forming an oval shape. The undulating purple field started the shimmer, and an image formed: a scarecrow with fire in its eyes towering over a boy in purple, its hand outstretched. Susie dropped the staff in shock. The purple energy blinked out of existence and the crystal went dark, all its power drained.

“The harvest lord,” she murmured, then fainted. I tried to revive her with a minor blessing, but I didn’t think it worked for trauma. I was right. “We should bring her back to your house, Grace,” I said.

Grace shook her head. “No. We don’t have time. The harvest lord could kill Artur any minute. We need to go. Sophia, Emma, you should come with me. Elizabeth, Abigail, Fiona, Nicholas, bring Susie to the house and start clearing undead from the street. If my hunch is right, they won’t be back anytime soon.”

I ran off with Grace, followed by Emma. “Harvest lord?” I asked as we ran. “Wouldn’t he be good if he’s lord of the harvest?”

Grace answered, spitting out words as she sped up. “He used to be. When…the citizens of the rest of the city…forgot about him he…cursed their harvest. Now…he just brings crows to ruin the crops. That’s why…we don’t usually grow many things anymore.”

Before long, we’d arrived at a tower. Grace didn’t even hesitate to barge right in. We had no choice but to follow.

Inside the dimly lit room, the pumpkin-headed scarecrow stood out like a beacon; its head was filled with fire. A small army of zombies surrounded Artur, who was tied up at the back of the room.

“You fell for it,” said the harvest lord. “The bait worked. Now I can finish off your mission before it truly begins! Malistaire will not be threatened by a few puny student wizards. His rise to power will be uninterrupted. Guards! We shall attack!”

“Help!” Artur cried from the back of the room. “Free me, and I’ll help you defeat this monster!” The next thing I knew, Emma was near Artur, cutting his bonds with her ever-so-useful athame. She must’ve done a time freeze to get there without intervention. Then, she pointed her wand at the harvest lord and made the ice symbol. He froze into a block of ice. Even as I watched, it began to slowly melt in the heat of the room.

“Hurry and take out the minions!” Emma called. “The stun won’t last forever!”

“I’ve got this!” Artur called back. “Stand back, everyone!” He made the storm symbol. Thunder boomed overhead. Rain poured down, filling the room with swirling water. Violent waves crashed down on the zombies, who dissolved under the water pressure. Artur gave us a thumbs-up, and Grace ran over to high-five him. The water swirled away down an invisible drain. Suddenly, we heard the harvest lord’s cackling voice.

“Nice try!” He flew over to Grace, who was still crossing the room, and grabbed her. Storm energy crackled across her skin, and she fell limply to the floor. “Stop fighting,” he said, and pointed at her. “Or she dies.”

Elizabeth

“Ugh!” I cried out as the lightning bats ripped at my arms. They retreated, but left a stinging electric sensation behind. I glared at my teammates. Fiona was sitting on the sidewalk, still studying her magazine, and Nicholas seemed more interested in seeing if he could trap one of the bats to use for who-knows-what. Abigail was the only one being helpful. The lasting flame from her fire elf melted the zombie who’d attacked me.

“Thanks,” I gasped as I staggered over to the sidewalk and collapsed, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu. Abigail gave me a sympathetic look and pulled something out of her backpack. It was a bottle, filled with a fizzy purple liquid and plugged with a cork stopper. “Drink some of this. It’ll make you feel better.”

I popped it open and drank it. It tasted like a soda I’d had once on earth. Sprite, I think it was called. It felt way fizzier though, and was almost overpowering. Once I got it all down, though, I felt way better, definitely ready to charge into battle.

“Thanks a lot,” I told her. “What is it?”

“It’s a revival potion. They’re a new invention that Hilda Brewer, the Wizard City alchemist, invented. I think every wizard should carry some, but sadly not many people know about them. They cost a small gold fee, but recently she’s been giving them out as minigame prizes.”

“That was great. I should go see her with Sophia and Emma. Are you ready to take on more zombies?”

Abigail nodded, so I charged back out to confront more undead.

Sophia

Artur and I stared at each other in horror. We seemed to have reached a stalemate with the harvest lord. I inched along the wall towards him. The harvest lord’s back was to me, so he didn’t notice. I hoped that the harvest lord didn’t have very good hearing.

“I have a plan,” I whispered as Emma, Artur, and I huddled together. “Emma, go distract him. Don’t attack him; just distract him. Talk to him, sing a song, do whatever. Just don’t anger him or he could kill Grace. When he moves away from her, I’ll revive her with my fairy. Do a time freeze and shield her. If possible, move her over here, too. Then we all attack together.”

Emma and Artur seemed to understand. Emma ran out into the middle of the circle and began to recite a poem.

There once was a fiery old scarecrow

He could knock out a wizard in one blow

His name was “Harvest Lord”

But he must’ve been bored

Because he had nowhere to go.

I gaped at her. Is she crazy? That’s really going to make him mad! The harvest lord whirled around and raised his arm, building up a massive ball of fire. Suddenly, Emma was behind him, quickly making an ice symbol, but instead of only shielding Grace, shields appeared around all of us.

“That’s a legion shield,” Artur whispered to me. “It’s pretty rare. I have no idea where she could’ve gotten one.”

I made a life symbol and a green fairy swirled over to Grace, reviving her with a burst of green life magic. She scurried over to us, still looking a little disoriented. “What just happened to me?”

“We can tell stories later,” I told her. “I’m nearly out of mana. Artur, do you have any attacks?”

“Only one,” he replied. “It’s a slim chance, but I could smash him in one go. Much more likely, it’ll barely scathe him.”

“Please at least try!”

He made the storm symbol. A thick, dark cloud materialized above the scarecrow’s head, and a lightning bolt came down in a blaze of electric power. There was a loud crack, and the scarecrow snapped into several pieces.

“Yes!” Artur shouted. He was nearly beside himself. “It did 1,000 damage! In case you were wondering, that was a spell called Wild Bolt.”

“We should get going,” Grace said with a big smile. “Susie will want to see you.”

Elizabeth

“Yes!” I shouted as the banshee dissolved with an excruciating scream. “That was the last one!” I gave Abigail a high-five.

“We should go back to Susie’s house,” she said. “She’s probably conscious now and beside herself with worry.”

I agreed, and we set off together, with Nicholas trailing us trying to drop a lightning bat down Fiona’s shirt.

Sophia

Now that we’d succeeded on Triton Avenue, Headmaster Ambrose didn’t know of any immediate problems around the city. He’d leveled us all to 9 for our achievements. I still remember what he said:

“Good job, all of you! I have not heard reports of trouble from any other streets yet. For now, you should go to classes and be regular students. I will call you when I hear of problems.”

It had been a calm week. Elizabeth introduced me to Revival potions, which I thought were pretty cool. I planned to show them to the others sometime soon.

However, I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that all was not well. I still felt a mysterious shadow stalking me. Was it somebody shy following me around? Not likely. Probably it was a monster from the darkness trailing me, just waiting to strike.

Chapter Six 

Sophia

I blearily opened my eyes, and then remembered there was no school today. I closed them again and rolled over, sighing contentedly as I anticipated another hour of sleep. Then, I remembered why there was no school today. My eyes bugged out and I sat up, suddenly feeling wide awake.

I leaped out of bed and ran across the room, wincing slightly as the flames gave way to cold snowflakes, which I found rather appropriate for the day. I started shaking Elizabeth. “Get up! Get up!” I hissed loudly. The only reason I didn’t shout was because there were people sleeping in the next room. “It’s Christmas!”

Elizabeth rolled over and muttered something indistinct, but I thought it sounded like “I don’t want your boots.” I bit my tongue, not sure whether to laugh or be exasperated. She did have a habit of saying random things in her sleep. I shook her harder.

Finally, she sat up and woozily rubbed her eyes. “It’s Christmas!” I reminded her, just in case she hadn’t been paying attention. Before long, we had roused Emma and Donna, too, and headed out for a walk in the Commons.

As soon as I stepped outside, a frigid wind assaulted me and stung my face. My feet began to slowly dampen as the newly fallen snow seeped through my soft, slipper-like boots.

“Darn,” I said. “I forgot to put on the right boots.”

“Me too,” said Donna, shivering. “Let’s go back inside for a minute.”

Once inside, I pulled on my waterproof brown boots. Elizabeth looked at them and sighed enviously. “I want your boots.” I burst out laughing, but didn’t tell her what was so funny.

When we reached the commons, we found that they were almost empty. A few students milled around talking to each other, or perhaps checking out the decorations. I guessed that most were still in bed, relishing their extra hour of sleep like I was initially planning to.

We sat down on a convenient bench near Zeke and Eloise’s cart and looked at each other. Donna cleared her throat, “Sophia, I have a present for you.” She passed me a green box with a pink ribbon. I winced at the color coordination (or lack thereof) but decided not to say anything.

I thanked her and ripped open the wrapping, revealing a box that read “Hat of Hardiness – Silverthistle’s Finest Headwear.” When I opened the box, I found a green hat inside that looked sort of like a nightcap. I gave Donna a skeptical look.

“No offense, but…a nightcap?”

“Look at the tag. It has good stats.”

When I checked the tag, I was pleased with what I saw. I sighed and said, “Fine, I guess I’ll put up with looking like a sleepwalker for that health boosting. In exchange, I have a present for you.”

I passed her my much better color coordinated gift, which was sparkly orange with a shiny red ribbon. She complimented me on my wrapping paper choice and tore it open. Inside was a box that read “West Ende Girls Pet Snacks – random assortment.”

I grinned at her. “Maybe you can train Whiskers to be more controlled.”

She grinned back and said, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

When our present swapping was finished, I had a new hat from Donna, an engraved jade dagger from Emma (courtesy of her dad, the athame shopkeeper), and a box from Elizabeth that she warned me not to open. It had a stamp on it that said “fragile”, and the label read “Jade Egg – Pet Shoppe Boys’ Quality Specimens.” Elizabeth told me that it would hatch into a unicorn very soon, so I should bring the egg to the dorm and leave it alone.

Elizabeth had a new book, an engraved peridot dagger, and some new boots from me. Donna had been thrilled by the new crafting tools we’d given her, and Emma appreciated the new ring and amulet we gave her.

We were interrupted by a gruff voice. I turned and saw Prospector Zeke coming toward us with a package wrapped in brown shipping paper. “Package fer Donna DragonFlame!” he shouted. “From 31, Hyde Park!”

Donna hastily stood up. “That’s from my parents!”

When she noticed our puzzled expressions, she explained, “My parents and little brother Kevin evacuated to Marleybone when the undead came. I visit them every once in a while.”

She eagerly opened the box. Inside were a Christmas card and a bulging sack of gold. There was a note pinned to it. “Sorry we couldn’t get you anything better. We hope you’re having a good year and making some friends. Are you making good grades in storm class?”

Emma looked up. “Storm class?”

Donna chuckled. “Yeah. Some older wizards interrupted when I chose my school and the headmaster forgot to give me the last question. I got into the storm school at first. Later, he realized his mistake and moved me to the fire school. It’s a lot better now. I should really send a letter back explaining…”

She took her money bag out of her backpack and dumped it out along with the new gold, counting it up. “Hey! I’m level 15 and I have 1,500 gold now! That means I can buy my own house!”

A smile slowly spread across Emma’s face. “So you’ll remove the flames and we can have a proper dorm!”

“Want to come with me?” Donna offered. “We can check out the house shop together. It’s really interesting. Houses are like their own little worlds. I get a spiral key and everything!”

Elizabeth and I were happy to accompany her, but Emma politely declined. “No thanks,” she said. “I need to take Sophia’s egg to the dorm.”

Donna, Elizabeth, and I were soon walking through the Shopping District. Snow had begun to fall again, and the temperature must’ve dropped about 10 degrees. As warm as my new hat was, it wasn’t enough.

“I think-” I said, my teeth chattering loudly, “I think I’ll go back to the dorm. Flames sound pretty good right now.”

“There’s no need,” Donna said quickly. “I can warm you up in no time at all. I use this handy skill all the time when I craft.”

“Donna,” I said, “I appreciate your thoughtfulness, but please don’t cast a sunbird on me. It won’t work very well.”

“Oh, no!” Donna laughed. “I wasn’t going to do that! Here, watch.” She extended her hand and a tongue of fire sparked into existence. Despite the newfound warmth, a shiver ran down my spine.  I glanced fearfully at Elizabeth, who was muttering under her breath.

“The pyromancer summons flame

To help her native land

It can be used to light the way

But cannot leave her hand.”

“Donna,” I said. “We need to see the headmaster right now. This is urgent.”

“Come on!” she said. “Can’t all pyromancers do it? I know it’s weird in class, but this isn’t class. What’s the big deal?”

“Sorry about this,” I told her, “but we have to.” I grabbed her hand that wasn’t covered with fire and teleported straight to the headmaster’s office. When we appeared there in a shower of green sparks, her hand was still on fire.

“Headmaster,” I said. “I’ve found the pyromancer.”

There’s no better way to ruin your holiday than a dangerous mission. Sadly, he immediately sent us off on one. Headmaster Ambrose summoned us all together and briefed Donna on the prophecy. Then, he told us (surprise, surprise!) that another street needed saving.

“Firecat Alley is overrun by rabid fire elves,” he told us. “Go solve their problem.” Then he practically kicked us out.

“Wow, he’s got a lot of holiday cheer,” I grumbled. We set off together, but the joyful mood had been sucked out of us. As the now thick crowd of wizards laughed and shouted, I distinctly wished that I was among them. I mean, it’s Christmas! Couldn’t he just wait one day? I didn’t know I was in for a pleasant surprise.

As soon as I stepped onto Firecat Alley, I felt a warm breeze. There were tiny snowdrifts here and there, but the flaming braziers quickly melted them. At least it didn’t feel like Christmas. That would’ve made it worse. I began to envy Abigail.

“Do you have any idea where we’re supposed to go?” I asked. “Headmaster Ambrose didn’t give us a whole lot of details.”

“I have no idea,” said Donna. “Let’s try going down this ramp. We’ll wander around until we see someone who could help us out.”

Fiona huffed and rolled her eyes. “Lousy plan.”

Donna turned on her. “What? Do you have a better plan?”

Fiona crossed her arms and sighed, following us as we looped around the street. We came down a steep ramp into a little park. The trees and bushes were all a rusty color, with unidentifiable glowing orange fruits in them. Donna pulled one off a bush and took a big bite.

“Mmmm!”

“Is it good?” I asked her.

“Very.”

I took one off the same bush and took a bite. At first it tasted like an orange. Then, my mouth caught on fire. (No, it didn’t literally go up in flames. It just…ah, never mind.)

“Ah!” I said. “Does anybody have some water? Anyone?”

“I’ll take care of it,” Grace said. She aimed her wand at me and doused my face in a cold stream.

“Thanks,” I gasped, still dripping wet.

Suddenly, we heard a gruff voice behind us. “What are you doing here? I ordered evacuation five days ago!”

We turned around to find a Wizard City guard. “Well, what are you doing here?” Fiona snapped back. “Don’t guards stay off the dangerous streets?”

He turned red. “I…I was hoping to find a cure for the fire elves. You see, an elf named Feebo once saved my life with an arrow. I can’t just let him and his species run rabid like this!”

Fiona looked like she was about to object, but I jumped into the conversation before it could turn into an argument. “Funny,” I interjected. “That’s what we were here for. The headmaster sent us. Do you have any idea of what we should do first?”

The guard sized us up. “Now that you mention it, I do recognize you. You’re…Sophia EmeraldBlossom, right? I’m Private Quinn.” After we shook hands, he continued on. “There’s someone down the street who could probably help us. She used to teach alchemy at Ravenwood.”

Fiona actually smiled. “Professor DarkKettle! I remember her!”

“She’s the one. Anyway, she knows a lot about curses, so she could probably help. Here’s Feebo’s arrow,” Quinn said, pulling it out of his pocket. “I still have it, and for all I know, Gretta could need it.”

We continued down the street, looking for Gretta DarkKettle’s house. Eventually, we found one that looked like it was the place. There were cobwebs around the doorknob, suggesting that nobody had entered the house via the door for a long time…or left it. The windows glowed with a poisonous green light, and the sweet stench of rotting flowers filtered through the cracks in them. Grace eyed the house warily.

“Are you sure this is the place?” she asked. “I mean, it looks like there’s black magic going on in there--”

Fiona nodded. “I’m sure,” she confirmed. “Professor DarkKettle was always fascinated with black alchemy. It was a hobby, of sorts. Of course she never taught it to us in class, but she would let us drop in during free time and help her out.” She sighed enviously.

The stench grew stronger, and the light inside flashed. My eyelids began to feel heavy as thick green fumes wafted past us and dissipated into the air. “Black magic?” I asked weakly. “What’s the difference between that and death magic?”

Donna decided to answer. “There’s a fine line drawn between black magic, or mordromancy, and death magic, or necromancy. Many necromancers do cross the line. While death magic involves the dead and is somewhat creepy, it isn’t necessarily evil. Black magic, on the other hand, always produces bad effects. The reagents for the spells are impossible to obtain without hurting someone else, or at least some of them are.”

Fiona seemed cheery. “Now that that’s cleared up, let’s go in!”

It seemed we had no choice if we wanted to save the fire elves. To my surprise, the door was unlocked. I jumped when the hinges screamed loudly in protest at being moved after an unknown number of years dormant.

The inside of the cottage was cast in shadow. All candles in the room were unlit, and the only source of light was the cauldron in the middle of the room. The eerie green mixture inside was swirling as if it was a whirlpool, but there was nothing stirring it. Next to it, a heavy black book rested on a copper bookstand. The entire place stunk with evil, yet the book was strangely alluring. It was almost as if I wanted to approach it, pore over its pages, and become the most powerful wizard of the spiral with its unstoppable effects…

“Sophia!”

I jerked my head up as I heard a shout. It was Elizabeth. Then I realized where I was. I was standing over the book on the stand. I snapped out of my trance, and noticed that my eyelids were getting very heavy. The green fumes coming from the cauldron were really thick and very annoying. I read the description in the book.

Draft of Endless Slumber

They need not drink to fall asleep

But in the fumes thou must them keep

And then they will, unless they die

In dreamless sleep forever lie.

I shivered. “Wow, this is creepy!” I blinked hard. I was really starting to feel sleepy now. Emma staggered over to a heavily cushioned blood-red armchair and collapsed, muttering, “Wake me up later.”

I began to panic. I could barely keep my eyes open. Gretta DarkKettle seemed to be out somewhere, so she couldn’t stop the spell. Soon, we’d all be snoring lumps on her floor (or chairs.)

Suddenly, I heard a sound like the whistle of a strong wind. Gray sparkles shaped like skulls appeared, and a figure formed out of thin air. Soon, the black-clad witch holding a broomstick was fully formed.

It only took a few seconds for her to survey the scene. She considered for a moment, then said, “Oh, I’m so sorry, my dears. I set up this spell for hostile intruders, not students like you perhaps seeking to buy something.” She bustled over to the shelves and pulled out a round luminous green bottle. When she poured the contents in, the potion turned darker and the odor subsided. When she added a few wrinkled mushrooms, the fumes began to clear. Finally, she poured the blue contents of a square bottle labeled “Nightshade Infusion” into the cauldron, and the mixture turned purple.

Emma blinked and sat up. “Phew,” she said. “If I’d fallen asleep, I’d be a goner.” She squinted at the witch. “Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m Gretta DarkKettle, former professor of alchemy at the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts and now a saleswoman for all kinds of useful potions. What would you seven like today?”

I cleared my throat and stepped forward. “Um, we don’t need anything right now, but thanks anyway. We came to ask for help with the fire elves. Private Quinn said maybe you might know how to break the curse on them.”

She thought for a minute. “Well, I’d need one of their arrows first, and a charred knife from one of those magma men on the street. Bring me back those, and I’ll consider your request. Are you sure you don’t want my latest concoction?” She brandished a skinny bottle with swirling red liquid inside. “It’s the Vengeful Elixir! One glass of this and all your spells in battle will be double strength!”

I stared at her. “Um, maybe later.” I turned to the others. “Well, let’s go fight some of those magma men.”

I sighed with relief when we were back on the street. “I’m so glad that’s over.” We all took a few minutes to rest, and then decided it was time to see to the magma men. We were just about to charge into battle when Grace said, “Where’s Nicholas?”

We looked around frantically. Nicholas was nowhere to be seen. We were just about to get really worried when we heard a faint call further down the street. “Hey, guys! Come see this!”

When we saw him, he was in the middle of the street, happily chewing something while making the balance symbol. A scorpion materialized, snapping at a snowman made of molten rock. Then it lunged, and the magma man crumbled, leaving only its hat behind.

Nicholas ran over to inspect it. “Aw, no knife.” He noticed another magma man approaching, its eyes aflame with rage. “Sweet! There’s another one!” He reached over and rummaged for something in his backpack. Finally, he pulled out…

“…a marshmallow?” I whispered incredulously to Elizabeth. She just shrugged and rolled her eyes. Nicholas stuck the marshmallow on the end of his wand and charged at the magma man, sinking the sugary treat into its flaming body. When he pulled it out, it was crispy and golden brown. He popped it into his mouth and began to chew, again making the balance symbol. His scorpion finished it off. However, this didn’t yield a knife either.

“You’re roasting marshmallows on monsters?” Elizabeth yelled out to him. He looked at her and shouted back, “Well, they’re the perfect temperature!”

Elizabeth and I looked at each other and silently made a decision. We can’t let him do this on his own. He’s too slow, even on a sugar high.

We ran out into the street to help him out, with Emma, Donna, and Grace close behind.

The sun was beginning to set as we made our way back to Gretta Darkkettle’s house. The door swung open with an ominous creak, and we found her waiting for us.

“Thank you very much,” she said as Fiona handed her the knife. She set it aside and began her spell. When she was finished, she had a nice bowl of thick white liquid. “There,” she said. “Now, why don’t four of you go feed this to the fire elf prince, Alicane Swiftarrow? You don’t even need to defeat him! Easy! I’d recommend that the life girl, the storm girl, the myth girl, and Fiona do that.”

I decided to follow her recommendations and the four of us set off together toward Fireglobe Theater. Much unlike Gretta’s door, the large double doors of the theater’s well-oiled hinges swung open without a sound.

The vast interior was draped in rich crimson velvet, with fire plaques pinning up the draperies. The only light source was from unseen lanterns hung high above the stage, which was decorated with cheesy wooden cutouts.

A fire elf emerged from backstage. He squinted at us as if trying to decide if we were alive. Eventually, he called out, “Don’t you know it’s rude to interrupt a performance?”

We glanced at each other. “Sorry!” I called out. “We didn’t know! Please, carry on.” I motioned for the others to follow and we sat down on a bench.

The fire elf cleared his throat. “Guards!” He called backstage. Three fire elves came onstage. They stared at the first elf expectantly. “Yes, Prince Alicane?” I gasped but stayed calm.

Prince Alicane scowled. He loudly whispered, “This is the part where you shoot your arrows at that house.” He pointed to a cutout. The elves nodded, looking embarrassed, and incinerated it with flaming arrows.

“Good!” the prince cried. “Now do it to the rest of the houses!” The fire elves repeated their actions until the stage was covered in smoking ash.

“Now,” shouted Prince Alicane, “we will destroy the rest of Wizard City! Let’s try it for real!”

“We have to stop this,” said Elizabeth. “Come on.”

Together, we marched down the steps toward the elves and blocked the exits. “Not so fast, Prince Alicane!” I shouted.

The prince sneered. “I admire your loyalty and courage, but you are only students of magic, young wizards. Now, kindly step aside so we can meet up with Gretta and let her know we are ready.”

Grace’s face turned deathly pale. “Donna! Emma and Nicholas! We left them with her!” She stared at us, terror clearly evident in her wide green eyes. “It’s a trap!”

Donna

Sometimes, staying with someone you only met earlier that day while your friends could be getting killed is not the best idea. I think today was one of those times. As soon as the door swung shut, Gretta turned to us with an eerie smile on her face. Everything was calm and quiet…too quiet. Much too quiet.

“Well, I suppose this is where the charade ends,” said Gretta. Her dark gray eyes glittered with malevolence. “Your friends will never be able to give Alicane the potion. He is too clever for them. Even now, the fire elves are planning a march on Wizard City. My husband will reward me for such a clever idea. The curse was far too strong for any of them to resist.”

“You,” said Emma, glowering at her. “You cursed the fire elves.”

Gretta cackled. “Yes, my dear. But I can’t let little student wizards leave here with my greatest plan, can I?” She pulled out an ornate staff that swirled with poisonous green energy. “It’s time for you to die.”

Sophia

Alicane’s crazed smile grew as he looked at Grace. That was when I noticed his eyes weren’t normal. They were swirling with pale green mist. “Yes, I’m afraid so. Now, if you won’t step aside of your own accord, I’ll make you.” He raised an arrow to his bow.

Just as he pulled back the string, Elizabeth’s troll slammed into him. His aim careened wildly as he shot the arrow. Luckily, it missed Grace. Not so luckily, it nailed Fiona in the shoulder. Fiona crumpled to the ground in a heap of black. Her nice new black cloak began to burn in magical flames.

I sighed and pulled out my spell deck. It looked, much to my annoyance, that a real battle was about to begin.

Donna

Why did I have to accept this job? I could be using my nice new crafting tools in my nice safe dorm right now! That was my first thought as Gretta raised her staff and pointed it at Emma.

A bolt of black energy pierced Emma’s chest. She blinked as a trail of black dust circled around her, almost like a ball of magic from one of those fancy mastery amulets.

“Are you okay?” I shouted at her, much to my chagrin.

“I think so,” she replied. “It doesn’t hurt, and I don’t feel anything weird.”

Gretta cackled. “Maybe not yet, but I have to take safety measures. I don’t want any nasty time tricks from you, my dear!”

Emma squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated. Finally, she opened them and sighed. “Nothing. I won’t be able to do my time freeze.”

As much as I disliked Emma, (her school, personality, and even snowflakes) I felt a little sorry for her. I could tell that she’d used her power a lot, so I pulled out a nice new pack of treasure cards and tossed them over. “Take these! You’ll need them.”

I noticed Nicholas reaching into his backpack. He pulled out a wand with a gingerbread man on it. He made the balance symbol, and a rotating charm appeared above Gretta’s head. At first, I was about to yell at him for casting at the wrong person, but then I noticed the spikes on it. Emma looked amazed. “He’s casting spells with a cookie?!”

I shrugged at her. Nicholas grinned at us and waved as he began to fade away. He popped a marshmallow into his mouth and gripped his wand tighter.

Emma furiously ripped open the pack. “I sure hope I get lucky,” she muttered. “Eye of Bartleby packs are unpredictable.”

I reached into my own backpack and pulled out my spell deck. I drew out the top seven cards and examined them. Okay…half of these I don’t even have pips for. How about a Fireblade? I made the fire symbol in the air with my wand, and a charm materialized and rotated above my head.

“Now, we can’t have that, my dear,” said Gretta. She pointed her staff at me, and my blade disintegrated. This is crazy! It’s like for everything you do, she has the perfect counter!

“Oh, frog vomit,” I muttered. “She cheats.”

Nicholas’s disembodied balance symbol appeared again, and in a flash of light, a blazing field of sand appeared. A large brown beetle dug itself out of an underground burrow and snapped its pincers at Gretta.

“Ugh!” she spat. “The little –”

I heard heavy, scampering footsteps and then Nicholas’ voice whispered in my ear, “Hit her quickly, while she’s still distracted.” I raised my wand and cast a sunbird. It appeared out of blazing fireballs and clawed at Gretta viciously.

Gretta stamped on the scarab’s head, crushing it. Then, she braced herself and broke the bird’s scorching neck. It effectively killed my summoned creature, but she was left with some nasty burns. Nicholas reappeared, looking somewhat tired. The cookie on the end of his wand was headless. Emma murmured something into his ear and passed him a treasure card.

“It’s time to end this,” Gretta said. We turned to look at her. Her hands were still smoking from my sunbird, and it looked like she had a nasty bite from the beetle. “If you promise to leave without mentioning any of this, I’ll let you go unscathed.” I glanced over at Emma and Nicholas standing together. Emma was using the talk to silently build up pips, while Nicholas was clenching the card she’d passed him so tightly that he seemed almost nervous. I’d never seen him like that before.

Gretta continued on. “If you don’t…” She reached for the charred knife we’d worked so hard to give her and pointed it straight at me. “Well, the alternatives aren’t pleasant, my dears.” The silence was interminable. We looked at each other. Finally, Emma shook her head.

“Sorry. We don’t make deals with mordromancers.” She raised her wand. “Ready, Nicholas?” He nodded and held out his treasure card, making the balance symbol. I was horrified at what happened next. The life practically drained out of him. His face went pale and he collapsed onto the floor. There was a terrible silence.

Suddenly, Emma began to glow. With a brilliant flash, three pips formed and landed at her feet. I counted them. One, two, three…six pips. Enough to do something deadly. Slowly, Emma made the ice symbol.

Quick as an elf, Gretta ran across the room and grabbed me. She held me out in front of her. I can’t believe her! She’s using me as her shield!

“If you kill me, you kill your friend, too!” she called. “How much will you pay to take my life?”

Emma gritted her teeth. “Donna…is…not…my…friend!” With a violent swing of her wand, the ice symbol shattered. The shards built up into a towering form…an ice colossus. The only time I’d ever seen one of these was in old PvP match reruns. “Donna! Run!” I heard her shout.

I tried to wrench myself free, but Gretta locked me in an iron grip. The colossus raised its frosty blade, building up energy for the crushing blow that would follow. I let my hands burst into flame.

Gretta recoiled as the flames licked at her sleeves. I bolted. When I looked back, I saw her staring at the smoking holes I’d charred into her dress. Then, she was smashed into a frozen Gretta-cake.

I couldn’t help it. I started laughing. Emma didn’t join in. She just stood there glaring at me until I finished. Then she said, “Remember what I said. We’re still not friends.”

I nodded, agreeing. “Not by a long shot.” Then, I remembered. “Speaking of shots…the fire elves! What about the others?”

Emma shook her head. “We don’t have time.” She knelt next to Nicholas. “His heartbeat is really slow. He could die any minute. We need to take him to Professor Wu.”

Sophia

I glanced at my hand of spell cards. Hmm…wand strike, imp, leprechaun, legend shield (why didn’t I remove those?), thunder snake, lightning bats…and sprite. I glanced at Fiona. The fire was spreading down her sleeves. I stared at the sprite card in my hand. Just one drop of mana, and I could save her from certain death. But was it worth it?

I let my eyes wander around the theater. To my surprise, Grace was…swimming? Her conjured storm shark had flooded the area with electrified water. She was fine against the charge, but the elves weren’t so lucky. They were floating on the surface, unmoving. Okay, those are taken care of. Elizabeth was trying to keep Alicane at bay. She’d summoned a troll minion, who’d kept up a consistent barrage of bloodbats.

But Fiona…Fiona was the problem. If I couldn’t decide soon enough, she’d die for sure. I stared at her burning body. Why should I save her? She was a bully and a negative contributor to the team in general. She usually didn’t even help with duels. Her SPUD sea dragon was almost never put to good use, and all she cared about was fashion. But she was a teammate. If I were to let her die, I’d be letting down Ambrose, all the professors, and most likely a few of the others on the team as well, not to mention her other friends. They had feelings, too. I held out the sprite card and made the life symbol.

The yellow sprite formed in midair, zipping over to Fiona. She raised her arms, and a burst of green healing energy surrounded Fiona. Then, the sprite disappeared. The fire met the healing energy, and the flames fizzled out. The energy continued working, healing Fiona’s burns. Finally, she sat up and noticed her missing cape.

“That was a Christmas present!” she growled, and flung herself at Alicane. I rolled my eyes. At least she was helping us this time.

Now surrounded by three, Alicane seemed overpowered. Just when we thought that we had this fight in the bag, he whistled. Three more fire elves appeared. Just great.

“This is pointless,” Elizabeth muttered as an elf’s arrow speared her troll through the heart. As Alicane opened his mouth to shout orders to his cronies, Fiona rushed out at him and dumped the contents of the bowl into his mouth. The strange light in his eyes began to fade as he shuddered and dropped to the ground. The other elves fell unconscious, too. Then, Fiona looked straight at me.

“I know what you did,” she said. “Now I don’t owe you anything. Even?”

I sighed. “Even. Let’s go find Private Quinn.”

It was five days after our visit to Firecat Alley. School was going to start again very soon, and we’d been leveled to 12 and gotten neat new spells. Even though we were more powerful than we were before, we’d all changed.

Donna had moved into a Wizard’s Watchtower out in the distant skies of Marleybone. Emma was very busy redecorating our dorm, and both the flames and the snowflakes were removed. Grace paid us frequent visits, often with plates full of fresh cookies from Aunt Alura. Elizabeth was busy writing a long essay for Cyrus Drake, and decided to memorize the whole thing as a “little surprise” to possibly get a better grade. Fiona started being a little nicer to me. I’d heard about Nicholas’s sacrifice, and he was still in the infirmary, but he was conscious and seemed okay. And me? I had a new companion: Princess Ruby. I could hardly wait for what was in store.

Chapter Seven
Sophia

I reached out my hand, extending a chocolate-covered strawberry to Princess Ruby, my new pet unicorn. She gulped it down and reared on her hind legs happily. I decided to return to the dorm, since pet training was a tiring business.

When I arrived, Elizabeth was bent over the desk, scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment. I could tell she was in a bad mood, so I sat down on my bed and opened the mystery novel I’d gotten from the library. After I’d finished a few chapters, the room sounded different – that is, there was a distinctive lack of sound. I realized that Elizabeth must have taken a break.

I looked up from the pages to see her sitting at her desk expectantly, as if she was waiting for me to say something. “Um…” I tried to think of something that wouldn’t upset her. “Bad day today?”

She nodded. “Professor Drake didn’t like my essay. He said it was ‘poorly written.’ I mean, does he think he’s a writing teacher or something?”

I shrugged. “Maybe he was just in a bad mood.”

Elizabeth let loose a derisive snort. “Ha. As always.”

I could tell this conversation was about to turn into an argument, so I was glad when the voice of Headmaster Ambrose interrupted us. “Could both of you please report to my office?”

We didn’t even look at each other as we stood up and left the dorm. I was quite startled when we were the only people he’d called. “So…where are the others?” I asked. “Which street are we going to?”

“Others?” The headmaster looked startled. “Oh, it’s not a street that needs saving!” He paced around his office. “Professor Drake has some things for you to do. I believe he asked for you in particular.”

It wasn’t long until we were pushing the heavy door to the myth classroom open. “Wow, he must really hate me in particular,” muttered Elizabeth.

The professor was sitting at his desk grading papers. When he heard the creak of the door, he looked up and pointed to one of the desks. “That took you long enough. I’ve been expecting you. There’s a list of things I need you to do on that desk. Be quick about it! Time is of the essence.”

I picked up the list, and the two of us did all we could not to dash outside. Once we were out of the dim classroom, we found our favorite bench and sat down to look it over. I read it aloud:

“Here’s what he wants us to do:

- Fetch laundry from Viktor DarkWood

- Return book to library

- Make lunch for me

- Turn in my athame for servicing

- Bring Natalie MythCoin to me

- Get mail from Prospector Zeke.”

We stared at each other in shocked silence. Elizabeth was the first to speak. “Who does he think he is? Our master?”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course that’s what he thinks! But unless we want to get detention, we’d better do it.” We set off toward the Shopping District, our boots crunching through the newly fallen six inches of snow.

I felt a blast of warm air as I stepped into the pleasantly heated robe shop. The shopkeeper was just tying up a large brown bag as we stepped in. “Oh, are you here for Professor Drake’s laundry?” he asked us with a smile. “He has a different pair of students on laundry patrol every week.” He handed us the bag. “Take care not to drag it in the snow. He won’t like it if his clothes are wet.”

We were damp and shivering when we arrived back at the classroom. Snow had started coming down again, and trying to keep a large and heavy bag above the snow while slogging through six inches of it was no fun. Professor Drake took one look at it and said, “Hmph. The bottom is wet. Here’s the book you need to return. Get on with it.” He handed us a very heavy purple volume.

We set off into the storm again, freezing cold winds buffeting us every step of the way. Thankfully, it was warm and dry inside the large building that was the library. I browsed the shelves near the door. I found another book by Anna StoryWeaver, my favorite author, and went up to the desk to check it out. Elizabeth had already returned the book, and Harold Argleston was rummaging through his desk drawers.

“Here you go,” he told her, handing her an even larger brown volume. “I hope Cyrus enjoys it.” He chuckled. “Good luck! And be sure not to get it wet; it came all the way from Zafaria!”

Much to our dismay, Professor Drake wasn’t even grateful that we picked up a book for him. “I didn’t want it yet!” he said irritably. “Now I’ll need to return it before I’m done with it!” He gave us a long, hard stare. “I’m hungry,” he snapped. “Make me a hot lunch.” Then he went back to his grading.

“Hot lunch?” Elizabeth asked as soon as we were out of earshot. “How are we supposed to do that?”

“I think,” I said slowly, “I think it’s time to call on Donna.”

It wasn’t long before we’d gotten together to make a nice hot grilled chicken sandwich. Elizabeth thought he would’ve rather had something fancier, but we decided to make something simple that he’d probably like more. “Grilled chicken,” said Donna as she admired our handiwork. “Everyone likes grilled chicken. Just wait and see.”

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. “Maybe, but I’m not so sure about Professor Drake. He might decide not to like it just out of spite.”

I decided to be optimistic. “Of course he’ll like it after all the trouble we went to. Come on, let’s just take it to him and find out. We don’t want it getting cold.”

When we arrived back at the myth classroom and placed it on the professor’s desk, he looked thoroughly unimpressed. “Grilled chicken,” he sniffed. “How…primitive. I would greatly prefer fresh Celestian imported crab.”

Elizabeth and I stared at each other in shock. Celestian crab? I mentally protested. That must be one of the most expensive dishes in the spiral! And I thought we were generous just doing his chores for him.

With a strained smile, Elizabeth told the professor, “I think that’s a little too expensive. Can you please just eat the sandwich?”

Professor Drake sniffed and pushed the plate away. “No thank you. If you’re going to serve me cheap fast food, I refuse to eat it.” He reopened his hefty book. “Now go take my athame to the shop. I don’t expect you back until you have Miss MythCoin in your company. I need to speak to her.”

I cautiously reached over and picked up the sandwich. The professor didn’t protest, so I took it away and ate it as we walked. We met Donna next to the Commons pond. She rushed up to us, looking excited that we weren’t carrying the sandwich. “Did he like it?” she asked, looking us over. “You don’t have the sandwich on you, so he must have. I told you he would eat it!”

“Um…” I decided how to put the news best without disappointing Donna. “Actually, he called it cheap fast food and he asked for imported Celestian crab.”

Donna was speechless for a moment. Then, she said, “He didn’t!”

“He did.” Elizabeth looked grim. “When we said that was too expensive, he flat out refused to eat the sandwich and went on hunger strike.” She sighed. “At least we don’t have to make him another lunch. That’s something, I suppose.”

“And I got to eat the sandwich.” I paused for a minute, still savoring the barbecue aftertaste. “Well, we’re about to turn in his athame for servicing at the shop. Want to come along?” When Donna looked reluctant, I said, “Come on. I don’t think Emma will be there.”

With a sigh, Donna replied, “All right. I want to show the shopkeeper the athame I made, anyway.”

Soon, we stepped into the small, pleasant shop. Mr. FireSmith was sitting behind the counter, sorting gems for athame hilts. He looked up when he heard the creak of the door. “Why, hello!” he exclaimed with a smile. “I didn’t expect to see you here today. Can I help you with anything? Would you like an athame?”

“Actually, we just need to give you Professor Drake’s,” said Elizabeth, stepping up to the counter and placing down the elaborately engraved dagger. “He needs it serviced.”

A fleeting look of annoyance passed over the shopkeeper’s face. “Again?” he asked incredulously, picking up the knife. “I could’ve sworn I just did it two weeks ago.” He returned to his gems. “If you’re on the professor’s chore patrol this week, you’d better hurry along. You don’t want to be late.”

Emma joined us as we returned to the Commons. She’d just been to the library to pick up a few books, but was happy to go with us and see what Natalie’s house was like inside. With some guidance from her, we were soon knocking on the door of the luxurious townhouse. Soon, it opened and was answered by a short old man. “Are you here to see Natalie?” he asked. We nodded in response, and he led us inside the house and through a few spacious rooms decorated with vintage furniture.

Soon, the sound of two arguing teenage girls reached our ears. “Are you crazy?” The first voice sounded like it belonged to Natalie. “You mean you actually want to do that to them?”

“Why not?” The second voice challenged. I froze as I recognized the voice of Fiona DeathCoin. “They deserve what’s coming to them, those little meddlesome teacher’s pets.”

I looked at Elizabeth, who was obviously holding back a snort. She knew that she could never be considered Professor Drake’s pet. The man raised a fist and knocked on a large door, and the argument stopped. The door was opened by Natalie, who peered out into the hallway with a forced smile. “Why, look who’s here!” she said, trying to sound happy. “It’s Sophia and her friends.” With a dismissive glance at the old man, she said, “Thank you, OwlWard. You are dismissed.” The man bowed and left the room.

As soon as he was gone, Natalie dropped her charade. “What are you doing in my house?” she asked with her hands on her hips.

“Professor Drake wants you,” said Elizabeth.

“Oh, right.” Natalie rolled her eyes. “I’ll come with you, I suppose.”

When we left the house, there was no pleasant chatter like there was on the previous walk. The air seemed to be filled with awkwardness, so I tried making conversation. “So, what was Fiona doing in your house?” I asked, trying to sound polite but probably failing.

Natalie shrugged. “I have no idea. We’re friends, so she just came over to talk, I guess.” She snorted. “She didn’t sound friendly.”

“What were you arguing about?” Emma slipped cautiously into the conversation.

“It was just something she wanted to do, and I was telling her…” Natalie’s voice trailed off as she glared at Emma. “It doesn’t matter. Why do you want to know, anyway?” Emma’s face flushed and she fell silent, choosing not to answer. We walked the rest of the way to the myth classroom in silence.

Professor Drake didn’t say much to us, only telling us to leave. We hadn’t quite closed the door behind us when we heard him begin to speak, with an unmistakable note of concern in his voice.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Now that’s a great match: snobby Natalie and rude Cyrus. They get along so well together.” Emma snorted in response.

“What were you doing with that loser?” I jumped as Nicholas appeared behind us. “I never thought I’d see the day when you four would hang out with the Coins.”

Emma gritted her teeth. “We weren’t hanging out. The professor wanted her.”

Nicholas shrugged. “Whatever. Now, I suppose His Majesty wants his mail?” The five of us left Ravenwood and emerged in the Commons.

Donna strode up to Prospector Zeke. “Excuse me? We were looking for mail for –”

The prospector waved us off with a smile. “Nope. There ain’t any mail fer you today.” He paused and looked at us with a twinkle in his eye. “Let me guess. You wanted it fer Professor Drake?” When we nodded, he reached into his cart and pulled out a stack of letters haphazardly tied together with twine. “Don’t let any fall on the ground!”

Donna looked down at the bundle in her hands, then looked at us with an evil grin. I knew what she was thinking. “Should we?” she asked, her voice betraying her calm expression.

Elizabeth grinned back. “Personally, I’d love to know what a man like that would want in his mail.” She snickered. “Who knows what lies in this mysterious stack?” Her voice changed into a mocking singsong. “Postcards, advertisements for shaving cream –” She winked slyly at us. “Maybe even love letters from a secret admirer?”

We all burst out laughing. “Let’s do it!” I crowed. Nicholas grinned at all of us approvingly. We retreated to a secluded bench by the library, and Donna greedily undid the knot on the string. The first thing we found was a postcard from Avalon, showing scenic fall foliage from Weirwood. When we read the back, we found that it was from a student of his, Saffron SilverSong, who was at a dueling tournament there. The next thing we found was an issue of the Ravenwood Journal monthly magazine, followed by an advertisement for some “crazy hot deals on shaving cream!” Then came a letter addressed to M. Drake. The unwitting Zeke must have thought it was to the professor.

Emma stared at the address. “This can’t be good.” She looked at us with wide eyes. “I think we just intercepted a letter to Malistaire!”

“Open it,” I said with bated breath. Emma took the envelope from Donna and gently tore it open. She pulled out the stiff white parchment inside and unfolded it, reading aloud and sounding more agitated as she went along.

“To M,

Our plan has succeeded so far. Two of the young students, the life and ice ones, have been successfully captured and are currently held in my custody. The myth one escaped, since he seems to have learned to resist our methods. He may still be out there, but I think that the two we have are enough. By your orders we are keeping the two whelps alive and healthy, although Lt. Maximus thinks we should kill them and be done with it. I did not tell him that we hope to use them as bait for the seven runts who think they can save Wizard City. Ha! Once I receive your reply, I will make sure the news of their capture spreads. If all goes well, the seven should come to my keep soon, where my gathered army will smash them. Then, I assume we are free to kill our prisoners. I expect a report soon.

- General A”

We were struck silent with horror. I stood up, words bursting unbidden from my lips. “We need to rescue them now, before that general, whoever he is, can gather his forces. If we want to save those students, we have to attack him before he spreads the word.”

Elizabeth’s reply faltered. “But Professor Drake –”

Donna leaped to her feet. “Who cares if Lord Drake doesn’t get his mail on time? Saving those students is more important!” She turned to us. “There’s no time to lose. This letter is from General Akilles, the Cyclops military leader on Cyclops Lane. Follow me!”

We ran through the Shopping District, stopping briefly in Olde Town to catch our breaths. To our surprise, we saw Grace leaving the Bazaar with a bundle of Mooshu spices in her arms. She walked up to us. “What’s up? You look worried.”

“Generalakillescapturedtwostudentsandisholdingtheminhiskeepandweneedtorescuethembeforemalistairesendshimaletter!” said Donna.

Grace was confused. “Um…what?”

Donna raised her voice. “I said, generalakillescapturedtwostudentsandisholdingtheminhiskeepan-dweneedtorescuethembeforemalistairesendshimaletter!”

Emma glared at her. “She means that General Akilles captured two students and is holding them in his keep, and we need to rescue them before Malistaire sends him a letter.”

“Woah. There’s trouble on Cyclops Lane, and Malistaire himself is involved.” Grace paused for a minute, thinking. “Okay, I’m in. Let’s hurry!”

We arrived in Festival Park breathless and panting. A hooded myth boy walked up to us and said, “What are you six doing down here? Everyone else evacuated once the Cyclopes started running amuck.” He stuck his nose in the air proudly. “I’m Nolan StormGate, and I’m only here because I’m on official business for Cyrus Drake. My job is to find potentially hazardous undead artifacts and confiscate them. It’s one of the most dangerous jobs in Wizard City, so you should leave now.”

Nicholas didn’t bother to stifle his laugh. “Do you have any idea who you’re talking to? We’re here on even officialer business to save some kidnapped students before Malistaire shows up!” When Nolan looked mystified, he continued. “So you don’t recognize us? We’re the wizards the headmaster chose to help save the city!” Nolan was speechless, and Nicholas waved him away with a grin. “See you later, Nolan. Have fun playing with your rocks. We have a real rescue to make.”

When we were out of Nolan’s earshot, Donna let out a low whistle. “Wow, he’s snobbish, huh?”

Elizabeth chuckled. “Yeah. He acts like he’s Professor Drake’s son. He even has the perfect temperament for it.”

After walking for a few more minutes, we found the general’s keep at the end of the street. The door was slightly ajar, so we walked up to it and I placed my hand on the handle. Suddenly, I heard a rough voice behind us. “Just where do you think you’re going?”

I turned and saw a Cyclops soldier holding a menacing stone hammer. He brandished it threateningly. Emma stepped in front of him with a sweet smile. “Didn’t you know? General Akilles is expecting company.” The last thing I saw before Emma’s time freeze was the guard raising his hammer to strike.

The next thing I saw was the one-eyed giant lying on the ground with a throbbing lump right above his eye. Emma was holding a hefty tree limb. “Got him,” she said with a triumphant smile. I didn’t ask how she got the limb. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to know.

“Come on,” I said as I pushed the door to the keep open. The first thing I heard was a gruff Cyclops voice. “You heard what I said! I can’t take orders from anyone except M himself!”

Then came a haunting, unearthly voice. “But as I told you, M doesn’t know that your letter has been intercepted. He needs to remain undercover while we take matters into our own hands. You know I’m his second in command. The seven wizards should be here any minute now. They’ll walk straight into our trap.”

Elizabeth stared at me in horror. Even with our precautions, we’d lost the advantage of a surprise attack. Someone elbowed me in the back, and I turned face to face with Grace. “Where’s Nicholas?” she whispered.

I looked around frantically. “He must have turned invisible! Where’d he go?”

Donna glared at me. “Sssh! Do you want them to hear us?”

Meanwhile, Emma stared around the slightly open door, seeming horrified. “General Akilles is talking with a wraith!” she whispered. She squinted. “It looks like Lord Nightshade, the legendary undead leader of the Haunted Cave.”

Grace gasped. “I know all about him!” She shuddered. “If so, things could get nasty.” She gripped her wand tightly. “We should prepare to fight them both.”

Suddenly, I heard a shout of pain as a scorpion bit General Akilles’ back. “Augh! Something got me!”

Lord Nightshade scanned the room. “You’re being attacked by an invisible enemy! It must be the balance wizard!” He stared toward the door, his eyes – luminous spheres that seemed to glow beneath the shadow of his hood – narrowed into slits as his gaze seemed to pierce our hiding place. “In fact,” he said, his voice soft, “If I’m not mistaken, the others are standing outside your door.”

Elizabeth looked at me, a question apparent in her eyes. “Let’s go,” I whispered. “After all, they know we’re here.”

With a sudden movement, Donna charged forward and banged open the door, her hand ablaze just for the effect. I followed, casting a legend shield on myself for protection, just in case. A laugh sprang from underneath the wraith’s hood. “Perfect. Here they are.” His eyes narrowed as he stared pointedly at Emma. “If I remember correctly, and my memory hardly fails me, you were the one who casted the spell that killed my wife.”

Emma gagged. “You have a wife?”

“Yes. She was a loyal one! She was prepared to fight to the death in exchange for unleashing fiery chaos on Wizard City.” The wraith’s voice deepened into a snarl. “But you – you came along and killed her, ruining my plan! I’ll ensure that you pay.” He turned to the Cyclops general. “I need to go alert M. You finish them.” The wraith teleported away in a flash of gray skulls.

An unfamiliar voice rang out from across the chamber. “Help!” I turned and saw a green-clad wizard shaking iron bars on the other side of the keep. The bars shut her into a small cell, and there seemed to be a winch mounted on a wall near it that could raise them. “Let us go, and we can help you win this!” I couldn’t quite tell, but she looked to be about Fiona’s level. She had a staff and was wearing a Mooshu ninja hood.

I decided that any extra help was welcome, so I dashed across the room while my friends began to fight. When I reached the winch, I wasn’t sure I could pull it. I tugged hard, but I supposed that the lever was designed to only be pulled by Cyclopes. I dejectedly told the trapped life wizard so.

“Need some help?” Elizabeth came up behind me and made the myth symbol. The ground cracked and a Cyclops sprung out of the ground. She pointed to the lever, and the giant stepped up to it. With a mighty tug, it wrenched the lever down and the bars rose off the floor. Then, the Cyclops turned and bashed the general for good measure before vanishing out of existence.

The theurgist’s eyes sparkled. “Thanks a ton. I’m Sarai RainFlower, by the way.” She turned around and called out, “Destiny, let’s go!” For the first time, I noticed that there was someone else in the cell. She was dressed in blue, and her expression was sullen. She nodded at me and said, “Destiny SoulTamer. Thanks.” Then, she charged straight into battle.

I stepped out of the cell and watched my friends and the general, looking for an opening. Emma seemed to be his prime target. She looked dirty, and she walked with a heavy limp, wincing at every step. General Akilles roared and swung his hammer at her. Before I could blink an eye, Emma was far away, summoning an ice serpent to nip at his legs. I pointed my wand at her and summoned a fairy, which healed her bruises and took away most of the limp.

A closer examination of the battle revealed that my companions were mostly pip-starved and weak, while the general had a limp in his step but still seemed fairly strong. Then, I heard a sound like the tinkle of breaking glass and a block of ice shimmered into existence. It shattered, revealing a mighty colossus made of hardened snow. With one sweep of its frozen sword, the general was down. I stared at Emma, impressed. “Woah.”

Emma stared back at me. “It wasn’t me! I don’t have the treasure cards for that!”

Sarai jumped up and down, cheering. “Great job, Destiny! You were amazing!”

Destiny ignored her and stared at me. I didn’t enjoy it. Her gaze seemed strangely piercing and definitely unsettling. After a few moments, she strode away and left the keep.

Sarai sighed. “She never was much for words. Well, we owe her one for sure.” She smiled at us. “Thanks for breaking us out of there, but I’d better be going.” She smacked her forehead. “Oh, frog vomit! I had an undead artifact in my backpack for Nolan that I promised him I’d deliver by yesterday! He won’t be happy!” She ran out of the keep without another word.

Elizabeth frowned. “That was way too easy. I should think Lord Nightshade knew we could defeat the general once we freed the captives.”

“Maybe he wanted us to survive.” Nicholas shrugged. “Who knows? I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Suddenly, I heard the voice of Headmaster Ambrose in my ear. He sounded upset, so I paid attention. “Young wizards! Please report to my office at once! We must stop Lord Nightshade before it’s too late!”

Exclusive Content Section!


Donna DragonFlame - Inside Story
When Donna was very young, her and her parents, Nathaniel StormBlade and Monica RubyShard, lived in a little house in the Commons. Her family tree was known for only having wizards of the schools of fire and storm in it. When she was seven years old, she got a little brother named Kevin ThunderHorn. When the monster invasion on Wizard City started, she was twelve years old. Kevin was five. Her family got scared and evacuated to Marleybone, taking Kevin with them. But Donna, being just the right age to begin at Ravenwood, got left behind. When she was taking the school test in the headmaster's tower, she was on the last question when some loud boys broke in and knocked the book off its pedestal. Headmaster Ambrose picked it up and announced that she belonged to the school of storm - but he had forgotten all about the last question. Donna started lessons at the storm school, but she was miserable there. She never did very well, and when she was finally able to make the storm symbol, she could never cast Thunder Snake because she always fizzled.  Eventually though, Headmaster Ambrose realized his mistake, and Donna was transferred to the fire school. She progressed very fast, and became an initiate in almost no time at all. That was about when she met Sophia and Elizabeth.


Aspiring author,

- Sophia E