Under the Moonlake

The last week had been... unnerving, to say the least. Over and over, Maria kept looking at her right hand. It looked fine, but... it just... she shook the thought again, for the thousandth time. The guard’s death just couldn’t be because of her, could it? But the bad vision had told about darkness and death, starting from her, spreading around the Academy. Covering the whole continent. What if the lights flickering out and the death really was her fault? Her dad had said that she was the one in danger, but what if she was the thing everyone should be afraid of? Was that why Mr. Brown had put her under surveillance? Maria had thought that she was the victim, but what if she was the villain? But why did Mr. Brown want her to come to Aether then? Was it so that when those destructive powers surfaced, they'd find a way to help her control them? Was there a cure for this?

Tears pricked at the edges of her eyes as Maria tried to shoo those thoughts away. It just... hurt to think about all of this. To think that she was mad at her dad for only letting her stay here for two years... Maria let out a humorless laugh at that. How things had changed.

So she broke. Through tears and hiccups, she finally told Nin and Mya about the visions. It wasn't easy, but she was going to go insane keeping all those thoughts inside of her.

Nin stood next to her, quietly rubbing her back, handing her tissues when she needed them. From time to time, she muttered "Geez" and "Oh dear...".

Mya had gone quiet, looking at Maria with wide eyes, opening and closing her mouth. At a few points during her teary confession, she burst with a hundred questions, which came at such a speed that Maria would only be able to answer one or two.

After telling them about last night, the room had gone eerily quiet.

...

For about two seconds. Then Mya started asking about everything that she could think about.

It ended much more relaxed than it had started, as Mya's questions started becoming more outlandish and hilarious.

Nin decided that they all needed a break after that terrible night and they went to go and get some sweets from the Wintercrest market.

It wouldn’t be easy to go through all of this, but at least now Maria had someone to talk to. And made bearing things a lot easier.

---

The teacher board had been assembled, and Mr. Brown had called on some other people whom he thought this meeting concerned: the water dorm administrator, the investigator and so on.

"First of all, I know this may be an unusual start, but I need all of the people in this room to do a basic element test. Just a drop of blood should suffice."

Small glass containers were spread among the participants, inside each being a sharp sterile needle. The participants looked at each other with curiosity and confusion, before Ms. Summers spoke up.

"Surely this is some sort of farce? Why would we need to test what our element is since we all know the answer already?"

"I'll tell you about it after we each take the test, Ms. Summers. I'll start."

A crimson drop of blood fell on the glass, the magical reaction turning the liquid brown, until all was left was a fine layer of sand.

The people inside begrudgingly made their test as well and Mr. Brown looked around the room, trying to find an imposter in their midst.

Suddenly, there was a sound of shattered glass.

"Oh, how clumsy I am!" Said Ms. Summers. "I am so sorry for the mess-"

"Apprehend her." Mr. Brown said calmly to the guards. The teachers stared, eyes widened with surprise. And Mrs. Summers' expression changed from one of bashful embarrassment to a furious cold scowl. She backed into the corner and before the guards could catch her, she melted into the shadows.

The doctor, which Mr. Brown had called to supervise the samples, took the remains scattered across the shattered glass: a black gooey substance, the mark of a dark element.

"Scour the campus. Alert the other guards. Try to set up some sort of charm that could defy her shadow walking abilities. We need to catch her NOW." The guards dispersed out of the room, hurrying with their new orders.

"I could help with the charm, headmaster." Piped up the charms professor. "Although I do need more details to know what I need to work against."

"Your test, professor?" Mr. Brown asked.

He handed the container, containing thick green moss.

"Very well. Ms. Summers has become a dark element. Treat her magic as that of a normal dark. You are dismissed."

The teacher hurried out of the room, in search of the closest rune stone.

"Now then, here's our current situation. We have an important vision that is starting to come true. Coming from the retired Mr. White."

Murmurs spread at the mention of his name and Mr. Brown waited for them to quiet down before continuing with the briefing.

----

"The vision speaks of his daughter. A darkness spreading from her and starting here, at the Academy. Me and Mr. Feldspar discovered that the guard that died last night had mysteriously changed from his native element into dark. I presumed that more of the people on campus were afflicted and decided to test our most trusted in order to not have sensitive information leak out."

Shadow quietly giggled at that. She was still there, in the corner of the room, spying from its shadows. How had the principal not thought about checking that she was still there?

The answer came to her quickly. Few had mastered the dark so well as to hide in the shadows for more than a few minutes at the time. It looked like the headmaster had heavily underestimated her. She looked at her incorporeal form, still as invisible as before. She still had plenty of time left.

"We must act quickly and efficiently in order to prevent this ailment from spreading." Said Mr. Brown. "Doctor, I would hope your team works on analyzing our victim and possibly the sample from Ms. Summers in order to work on a way of determining how it spreads and how we can contain it."

"What about classes, Mr. Brown?"

"We will continue classes as normal for the time being. There is no need to panic the students unless we have ways to ensure their safety. We need more concise results for that. But I think it prudent to test the students and expel the changed students for the time being."

Hushed murmurs were heard at that, before a voice spoke up. "What about the normal dark students?"

Mr. Brown turned towards the doctor once more.

"Is there any difference between a normal dark and what our ailment is?"

"It is too early to say, Headmaster."

"Alright then, I should probably leave you to your work. You are dismissed. I guess we will decide on the dark students at a later date."

As he exited the room, the doctor was caught by the guard in front of the door and given a swift handshake. The charms professor had been "charmed" in a similar fashion too.

Shadow smiled as she saw her grip on the Academy rise.

After all, she needed to be in campus to get to Maria and, in order to stay, she needed to quench whatever war Mr. Brown wanted to wage against her.

-----

The next day, all the people in the dorms had their element tested. Which was very peculiar. Why would you test someone who was already sorted into a dorm of the corresponding element?

Maria's dad also came that day to help Maria move out from the dorms. As he entered the room, early in the morning, he hugged a surprised Maria tight.

"Hey, dear... I was told about what happened yesterday. I came as quickly as I could. I'm here because you're coming to me to the White Manor."

Maria's heart stopped in her throat at the news. Did her dad think she was... dangerous? Through hushed whispers, she asked:

"Do you think... I'm dangerous because... I killed that man?"

Her dad let go, his face filled with pure shock.

"No, of course not! You didn't murder anyone, dear! No, we're moving out because it's safer for you this way."

"So this murder doesn't have to do with the vision and Maria's not a killer after all? That's great news!" Chimed in a sleepy, yet chipper Mya.

Her dad chocked on her words.

"You told her about the visions?!" He whispered.

Maria's face paled with fear. Was she not supposed to do that?

"I needed help..." She answered. "I thought I was going to go insane. I thought I had killed a man and stole the light from our dorm because of the bad vision."

Her dad hugged her once more. "I'm sorry about that, dear. It'll be fine, I promise."

And then he whispered:"But promise me you won't tell anyone else about the visions."

"I promise." Answered Maria, tears pooling in her eyes.

That day, she missed a few of her classes while moving out of the dorm. And when she returned for water training, afraid of what Ms. Summers would say if she missed a class before going under the surface of the Moonlake, she found Ms. Summers wasn't there at all.

Ms. Summers had been fired. Quite a few of the guards were also fired. Some students expelled. And still, nothing else was said about all this.

Rumors spread down the halls in hushed voice: that Mr. Brown had finally cracked after reigning supreme over the Academy for so long. In his tenure years, paranoid someone was out to get him, he'd started firing people and expelling students he thought would be out to get him. Or that somehow the sleeping guards had been fired and the students who snitched them were expelled as well. They grew wilder and wilder as the silence stretched.

Maria's new teacher was Mrs. Cloud and she took on the task of training their class in a much slower and milder manner. Even with a hint of unease at the sudden leave of Ms. Summers, Maria enjoyed much more the classes taught by Mrs. Cloud. And after a bit more training, it was finally time to go into the Moonlake.

Up until that day, the surface of the Moonlake had been frozen solid and they had continued our training with normal water and snow. This would be their first time working again with Moonlake water in quite a bit of time. Ms. Cloud cut the surface of the ice gently and ushered them in. They slowly descended into the freezing water.

After the initial temperature shock, they each worked with the much easier to control water of the Moonlake, their magic seeping in it and warming it up.

One by one, they dove under the ice, Mrs. Cloud being the last one to hop in. Maria swam lower and lower, the pressure pushing at her ears and making them pop. The water turned darker and darker and, as she was starting to think I'd gone blind, a swarm of beautiful glow fish swam by. Maria took a breath of water, watching in stunned silence as the colorful fish permeated the darkness. And then something else jumped out of the darkness.

A beautiful mermaid came out in the light, gracefully catching a few glow fish in a net. Her green colored scaly skin shined in the light of her makeshift lantern. She waved a webbed hand at them and smiled a sharp, toothy grin. She then swam forward, her long hair flowing behind her as she lead them through the thick, giant kelp forest.

They quietly followed the eerie guide. Onwards and onwards, until, finally, light broke through.

Maria now stood on the edge of a crater, in which, shimmering with light, stood the rune stone of the Moonlake. Around it, shimmering in its red light, were buildings made of wood and sandstone and kelp and other plants. Colorful coral grew on every roof and most surfaces were tinged green, the plants thriving on the light of the rune stone.

Wait, red light?

As their guide pulled a conch out of a satchel and put it to her lips, ready to blow it, a current swept through, making her stumble and drop the conch. The once mesmerizing features turned sharp and angry as she grabbed for her conch, but was once again pushed away.

Maria took a gulp of water, unsure of what to do. The taste of it seemed off... metallic.

That's when she spotted it. Up ahead was another group of first years, surrounded by a bunch of mermaids. They were fighting: Maria could see ice enveloping some of the tails and hands of the mermaids, but she could also see red. The students were bleeding and the teacher was nowhere to be seen. That couldn't be good.

Another current swept through, this time, pushing her back into the kelp forest, along with her other classmates. Maria turned towards Mrs. Cloud. Her face was a mask of terror, wrinkles pushed away by fear and shock. She made another current to pull them back even further.

Mrs. Cloud opened her mouth, a few bubbles escaping her lips, but her voice didn’t come through. She then pointed up and started swimming upwards. They followed her lead.

A soft "Fwoom" was heard behind them as the mermaid blew her conch, announcing their presence.

They needed to hurry. Who knew how much time they had left?

--

Edit: Maria is leaving the dorms because I realised Mr. Brown wouldn't keep that a secret. He'd choose to protect Maria a bit more.