"HENRY! Behind you!" A voice said from behind.
Thanks to the voice that called out from behind, Henry turned around just in time to see a knife inches from his face.
"What the-" Henry muttered, just before immediately taking a few steps back.
Henry's eyes traced from the knife's edge, now high in the air but still pointed at him, to the wrist being held, and finally to the two figures who were now suddenly right behind him. One, he recognized, the other, he did not. The presumed assailant was a robed individual like everyone else. Her eyes stared fiercely directly into Henry's.
"Those eyes, those robes... did that student... just try to kill me?" Henry thought in his head.
The other figure, the one holding onto the assailant's right hand wrist, was none-other, than Femble, the Arch-Magus of the transmutation magic academy, Gratiswiesel Academy, and number 5 of the Lucky 8, the council of eight elite mages who, respectively, run the eight academies of magic.
"What do you think you are doing?" Femble said sternly.
The assailant's expression seemed to suddenly change from precise focus to distress, before quickly trying to struggle out of Femble's grip. Femble did not let go, as she continued to hold the student's wrist high, lifting the student off the ground to take away her leverage. Femble's arm glowed with power from her gauntlet, however she noticed something strange about the student's struggling. Something about the way her expression changed, and the way she changed the direction in which she was struggling just now.
"Were you trying to pull the knife towards yourself?" Femble said with a shocked expression.
Henry didn't notice when, but at some point during the exchange between Femble and the assailant, it seems that the direction of the knife did indeed change. She was now looking into the students eyes, before using her other hand to quickly retrieve a small stone, which she proceeded to use one hand to do a series of taps on, before raising it to her mouth.
We have another code 20. Please send a medivac-
Suddenly, the student dropped the knife from her hand, while her other hand shot out with incredible speed, slapping the knife into her own throat. It happened too quickly for Henry to see it, but Femble noticed something trailing her hand as it swung. However, she was unable to do anything to stop the student from suddenly ending her own life. It was clear that the student's wound was fatal. She took a deep breath before raising the stone again, and softly saying the next words.
"Cancel code 20, code 21." Femble said softly.
Femble sighed to herself. "This time I knew they were going to try to end their own life, and I still couldn't stop them. How many students are going to die like this," she thought to herself.
Femble lowered the lifeless body, but as soon as she placed it down, she sniffed the air.
"Kerosene." Femble mumbled.
She stood up slowly in front of the body, as something appeared to start happening. Fortunately, the assailant's body seemed to not appear any different after a moment, she thought.
"Good," Femble thought, "Elijah is doing his job, no need to panic the student's who witnessed this any further. The assailant had used at least an expert transmutation spell, which must have been how she boosted her hand like a rocket. Meanwhile, no one here should have passed even their novice transmutation exams."
Femble's eyes locked onto Henry, the target of the assailant.
"Henry-" Femble called.
"Mm!" Henry backchanneled.
"and Sarah!" Femble added.
"Yes, ma'am," they both said in unison.
They both quickly stood straight with their left hands in their right palms and politely bowed their heads as they were taught to do during the orientation. However, Henry's line of sight was now trained on the lifeless body of the student who just tried to murder him, that was now on the floor.
Seeing this, Femble cleared her throat quickly, "at ease."
Henry lifted his head, glad to look up from the sight. That's when his eyes settled on the student who had called his name earlier, Sarah. They had briefly met just after the orientation which occurred three days ago before the weekend, however he did not really get a chance to know her yet. However, her eyes seem to have welled up in tears, and upon glancing at the body, he recalled seeing that Sarah had been previously candidly conversing with that very same student. However, based on her expression, she was either just as confused as Henry about the situation, or she was a brilliant liar, as different emotions seemed to flash in her eyes.
"You two. You are coming with me to my office," she said before starting to walk off to her office. "Now."
Henry gulped. He did not like the tone in Femble's voice.
Henry's thoughts were running wild. "Am I about to get kicked out after just a week, without even having done anything? What am I going to do then? Where will I go?"
As Henry walked alongside Femble and Sarah, he reflected on the recent turn of events in his uneventful life, until recently that is. He has no recollection of his parents, having grown up in Maple Falls Orphanage. Unfortunately, the reality of being an orphan was not too uncommon in their city of Déidrop. What has been extremely fortunate, is that Déidrop is in the capital of Déidom, which meant that there did exist some semblance of support systems for children like him. Déidom is well known for it's stagnated politics; that is there are very active congresses, however not much legislation ever passes. Meanwhile, conditions continue to simultaneously improve on average while the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest continues to grow. This dynamic has been amplified by the recent discovery of spice-root, a rare fungus known for its magical properties that grows in a dangerous region known as "The Forbidden Woods." These dangerous woods are not located within their borders, and is a source of frequent expeditions. This fungus has great transformational properties that enables a wide variety of magics, attracting rune crafters and mages from all over the world to Déidom and converging onto Déidrop, as it is known as the "Transmutation Capital." Maple Falls Orphanage was a relatively dull but cozy home. Henry had been living a fairly normal life until just recently. Henry's thoughts snapped back to the current moment, as they were approaching the chairperson's office. The moment, in his head, where his amazing new magical journey, would come to an end. In some way, Henry felt like this was reality catching up to him, as crazy as that sounded. How could he, an orphan who never paid any attention in arcanics, the study of all that's arcane, have been selected to be a mage? He had felt like a fish out of water since the moment he stepped in. The only person who seemed to have acknowledged his existence was Sarah.
"Please you two, take a seat" gesturing to the two seats in front of her desk. Henry and Sarah sheepishly took seats, left and right respectively. Femble took a seat at her desk, folded her hands together towards her chin, and sat silently while her eyes would occasionally switch between Henry and Sarah. This remained for awhile, uncomfortably so, until almost a minute had passed.
Just as Henry was about to open his mouth to ask something, anything, Sarah was the first to speak up, "I don't know what happened with Alice, I only met her today! We talked about pretty normal stuff, like what theatre performances we saw growing up! After that conversation we hadn't met up again until the hallway, but by then she wasn't saying anything and was all silent and wasn't responding to anything I said, until Henry walked by and... and... and..."
The words seemed to catch in Sarah's throat at that moment, as she tried to find the right words to describe what transpired.
It was at that moment that finally Femble seemed to react, raising her right hand, and said, "It's alright. I understand now everything from your perspective. You can now go Sarah."
Sarah's expression betrayed any attempts to hide her rapidly shifting shock to relief, before glancing at Henry and back at Femble, before giving a salute and respectfully saying, "Thank you Arch-Magus Femble."
Sarah bowed her head with her left fist in her right hand as the salute norm is for all the mage academies, and left the office. This left just Femble and Henry. Once again, Femble folded her hands together towards her chin, but this time smiling, seemingly as if to provide comfort. This went on for a shorter amount of time than last time, however, it began to take longer than Femble expected.
"It's okay," Femble started, before Henry had interrupted nearly simultaneously with, "I didn't-" Femble stopped speaking for a moment, again waiting for Henry to continue, "I didn't know her, we never spoke or anything. I don't know why she would try to kill me, what her motive is, or why I would be targeted, or if I even am."
Henry glanced over his shoulder at those words, however immediately felt his cheeks grow flush, since he is currently in the office of THE Femble. The members of the Lucky 8 aren't necessarily celebrities, but they are well respected individuals, perhaps considered even more powerful than any of the politicians in government. Not only were they responsible for many of the economic boons that their government so freely made use of, they were extremely powerful in their own regard. To even hint at the idea of feeling unsafe around one would be paramount to the statement, "Nowhere is safe." Speaking of which, what was she even doing there!? The Arch-Magus functions effectively as a headmaster or principle would in a school, often being burdened with the administrative duties such a high position entails. The fact that she was at precisely the right location of the attack, at that precise right moment is nothing short of a pure miracle.
Femble stayed quite for some time, while she shuffled through some papers and folder files. These files turned out to primarily belong to Henry, as well as another student. It turns out, exactly one month before aging out of the orphanage due to his 18th birthday when he became an adult according to Déidom law, he suffered from an extremely strange event. He had been reported missing while he was gone, but suddenly had reappeared in his room precisely one month later, on his birthday. Femble shuffled from this file to another, the results from his entrance exam. As Femble read the report, her eyebrows seemed to raise higher and higher as she read the report. "It says he launched the testing ball to the ceiling after being instructed on how to draw light runes. To do that without the proctor noticing... would require someone with at least adept level evocation magic knowledge, wouldn't it? Along with some clever sleight of hand. However, according to his file which the proctor would not have had, he is an orphan, so he is not a transfer student from the evocation academy. None of this is making sense, unless he really is..."
Her thoughts were interrupted with a question, "If you'd excuse me ma'am, may I ask... How were you in the right place at the right time?"
Femble, slightly surprised by the question, took a deep breath and lowered her arms, before providing a reassuring smile, and continuing "Do you remember that ritual we did when you took your oaths during your orientation a few days ago?"
Henry did indeed remember the peculiar ritual. All of the first years lined up, and one by one, another robed figure just as old as Femble would reach her hand out and touch their palm onto the student's forehead, while the student said the words, "May we seek knowledge endlessly in life so that we may find our dreams." Spoken words were never known to be a crucial factor in magic, often only used to remember movements and their purpose, so Henry did not think much of that aspect, however the lady next to Femble was wearing a glove with a number of runes on it. Femble seemed to chuckle at the next part.
"The lady next to me was the Arch-Magus Delilah, better known as the Eight of the Lucky 8. It always surprises me every year that there aren't a ton of students that get nervous, thinking we're going to wipe their memory or something!" Femble seemingly joked. Henry seemed to nervously smile at this, so Femble cleared her throat and continued. "That was a joke of course. The real purpose, is something that we only started doing recently. Tell me, did you happen to hear about the incidents at this and other academies that began two years ago?"
Henry shook his head.
Femble seemed to have a worried smile as she had asked this. "I see, then Elijah must be doing his job, good. However, for your own safety, I will inform you about a number of incidents that have occurred at Gratiswiesel Academy, as well as a number of the other mage's academies. I will be telling you this information, because I believe that you, Henry, are being targeted by whoever it is conducting these attacks. Every year, a number of students prove to be truly extraordinary during their placement exams. These students would, naturally, catch our attention. Sometimes, we don't catch these students during placements, but they inevitably show their talents during their subsequent classes. However, over the past few years, something very, very *strange* has started occurring. Every year, these promising students seem to be picked off one by one by these students who suddenly, and apparently with no forewarning, go mad, as you have seen yourself. Of course, this sounds like utter insanity, and in many ways it still boggles my mind how little information we have regarding what is causing this. However, this is why we have chosen to keep these events hidden from the public eye as much as possible. The other students will not be aware that Alice, er, the assailant you met today, has passed. Sarah, already knows the details that she knows, and we are not in the business of removing your knowledge, as you have heard from your oaths, but I am sure that Elijah is conversing with her now and informing her of these specific details and the sensitivity of this conversation."
Henry kept hearing that name. "There's that name again, Elijah. If I recall, isn't that the sixth Arch-Magus of the council? What would he be doing here, at the fifth academy? Also didn't Femble say the eighth Arch-Magus was also at the orientation? Maybe they have a quick way of travelling between the respective academies, Henry thought. Still, that is a lot of attention at one academy at once." Henry thought.
Sensing his confusion, Femble began to answer.
Femble seemed to nervously smile while delivering this next bit of information, "Henry, that ritual that we have each student undergo with Arch-Magus Delilah... It is to see how long the student has until their death. Based on that information, we may possibly act and save the students life if it is during their time at our academy, or so is the thought."
Henry did not like where this was going. He did not like where this was going one bit.
"Henry... Today, you were supposed to die."