Shocking the World

Classes were immediately canceled for the rest of the day. All students and nonessential staff were ordered back into their rooms. Confused, most students peacefully obeyed. Those caught fighting were thrown into the university containment cells to cool off.

All faculty and necessary staff were summoned to the Central Academic Building immediately. Once everyone had arrived, the headmaster personally locked the doors and cast a strict privacy spell. He could not risk the incident leaking before a proper response was prepared. The deputy headmasters stood beside him, except for Deputy Downer.

"At this moment, you all have probably heard about the fights breaking out this morning. The largest by far was at the northern practice fields. Those situations are already contained, and the participants are being punished as we speak.

"However, there is one incident that you probably hadn't heard about yet. It is urgent that we put together our response as soon as possible. Before we get into that, I would like the following faculty and staff to step forward please."

Headmaster Marin called for several conservative and foreign staff. Each of them was either an important, faction leading professor or researcher. Professor Jerome Foryl was among them. They stood in their own factions and glared at the other. Security guards separated each group.

The headmaster's calm smile disappeared. His furious gaze nearly froze the room solid. The factions' glaring match abruptly ended as they bowed their heads. Even the bystanders shivered in fear. The old man had never been so angry before.

"Deputy Downer, bring them forward and explain what's happened this morning."

On cue, security dragged Lysander Foryl and his friends in anti-magic chains before the headmaster. Unlike their victims, the arrogant scumbags only had a couple of bruises here and there. Lysander was a bit worse than the rest, but he would ultimately be fine. Well, physically at least.

Aayla, the healing professor and the two witnesses that could still stand stood to the side with their armed escorts standing between them and the accused. Deputy Downer handed a crystal orb to the headmaster.

"This morning one group of Chinebarian students attempted to murder a group of exchange students from Risoperi and Iswara. Using artifacts far beyond what is allowed by university policy, the accused viciously attacked and crippled the victims as well as silence the witnesses.

"The victims are Dhairya Patil, Shreya Nan and Arunjeet Sanghera from the Risoperi Kingdom along with Benderang of the Fawzi Clan and Nabila of Khagathampalle Village from the Iswara Kingdom.

"Here are the accused: Lysander Foryl, Edgar Purser, Arch Halpine, Logan Ormoris and Gyllero Cadden."

The conservatives fiercely objected to these claims. They absolutely didn't want this hot potato. The foreign staff members rioted. Some collapsed in grief, while others tried to attack the conservatives. Security and some neutral professors barely managed to calm them down. The others stood in a shocked silence for several seconds before an uproar started that further rocked the meeting room.

Professor Foryl lowered his head. He glanced at Lyse, who smirked and held back his chuckles as he watched the distress of the foreign faculty and staff. Lyse didn't even bother to hide the glee in his eyes. Clearly, he expected to be rescued by Professor Foryl and the conservatives.

There was no saving Lysander from this. Attempted murder of any student or staff member crossed way over the headmaster's line. If this incident was true, then it would also be a major international incident. Each foreign exchange student either had an important background or sponsor. Neither Chinebar nor the True Order could afford to offend several of these mighty nations and figures at once. Especially since Chinebarian students are at fault.

Though tiny, Iswara is the largest economic and trade powerhouse on Tellus, if you ignore the higher end magical items. Risoperi is one of the weaker countries, but it has strong ties with Iswara, the far south ocean voyaging Kilaholm Kingdom and Chinebar's southern neighbor the Ixcan City States. Each country had no direct contact with Chinebar, but they had far better international relationships.

One of Professor Foryl's worst fears had come to life. That little rat! That idiot! Lysander caused a major disaster and was going to pull his uncle down too. How could this have happened? What should he do?

"SILENCE! Please continue presenting the evidence you've found so far, Deputy Downer. I'm sure that everyone will want to hear both sides of the story."

Deputy Downer placed the crystal on a table and a crystal-clear image appeared on the wall. The image began to move, and showed the beginning of the fight before it suddenly blurred. The next video that he showed was the end of Aayla's battle with Lysander.

"This is the direct video of the incident. We suspect that an artifact interfered with the monitoring system. Our monitoring team is processing other data as we speak. The medical staff have given me a preliminary report that indicates an extremely vicious fire type artifact was used to cripple the victims. All will survive, but will most likely never be able to use magic again.

"The suspected artifacts were found in Lysander Foryl's possession, and we have eyewitness testimony that he can use them. Statements were taken from the witnesses and the accused. The accused deny any wrong doing, while the witnesses did not see the original fight directly. They only described what they found from afar and what happened during their encounter with Lysander Foryl.

"With the surveillance out, we will have to gather more indirect evidence, which will take some time. The victims are all still unconscious so their statements will have to wait until later.

"That is the basics of the situation. I will go into a few more details and answer whatever questions that I can."

The entire room froze as Deputy Downer continued. The conservatives desperately tried to get out of this mess, while the progressives teamed up with the foreign staff to push them further into it. The poor neutrals tried to find the best way to defuse the situation.

As time passed, more evidence was uncovered by the medical and investigation teams. Aayla, the other witnesses and the accused presented their own sides of the story with professors stepping in for lawyers. A few of the conservatives fell to their knees. They couldn't downplay the incident anymore.

Disdain, feelings of superiority over and sometimes even hatred towards foreigners was common among the conservatives. However, this incident would be the excuse for their enemies to join forces against Chinebar. No noble truly wanted that.

**********

Nafriton University was in an uproar. The strange disappearances had caused enormous amounts of friction between factions and fear amongst ordinary people. This led to the outbreak of several fights on campus during the first day back to school. The largest fight was a multi-class brawl on the practice fields.

However, that was not enough to cause the sensation rocking the republic. What really caused a storm was a case of multiple attempted homicides. The main culprit was Lysander Foryl, the most promising wizard of the Foryl family who outshone his siblings by far.

During the multi-class brawl on the practice fields, this rising star of the conservatives and his lackeys tried to kill multiple Nafriton students then silence the witnesses. The first victims were foreign exchange students who had previously clashed with Lysander Foryl many times before.

Lysander Foryl used special artifacts intended for his protection to suppress and cripple the victims. While hunting down an escapee, he encountered witnesses who tried to save the escapee. These witnesses included a professor. The witnesses fought desperately to survive when Lysander Foryl tried to silence them. In the fight, he either mishandled an artifact or it malfunctioned.

This caused massive damage to the school grounds. At this point, security arrived on scene. Lysander Foryl's lackeys were caught tormenting and further crippling the original victims. By a miracle, all survived the incident.

Though some would prefer death. The victims were crippled to varying degrees. All will never use magic again, though some will also have physical issues as well. After extensive treatment at Nafriton, they were sent to their home countries. The compensation to the victims by Nafriton was not made public.

Lysander Foryl and his companions were promptly expelled from university and face serious charges including attempted murder, committing hate crimes, property damage, arson and others. Their compensation to the victims will be determined in court later this year.

Nafriton commended the witnesses for their actions saving the escapee, but their identities were withheld from the public for safety reasons. The university also announced an internal investigation and wide sweeping policy changes. Artifacts up to a certain level were overlooked for personal safety reasons, but they will no longer be ignored. The university also issued a scathing condemnation to the providers of the artifacts, which were well beyond the university's tolerance level.

The report on this incident spread throughout all of Tellus overnight. The Chinebarian, Risoperi and Iswaran governments launched their own investigations into the incident. They demanded to know how the university could have failed in such a catastrophic way.