To the surface!

Maria started swimming upwards, urgency filling her with adrenaline as she rushed towards the surface. She could feel her wet clothes dragging her down, as if they wanted to pull her towards the vicious mermaids. She fought back, heaving a gulp of icy water, but she was already falling behind. Mrs. Cloud created the occasional current and, soon enough, some of Maria's classmates started creating their own little currents to pull them up.

Mind hazy from the panic, Maria tried to summon her own current. She concentrated on the water, pulling it up, trying to make it carry her faster towards the surface. She felt her arms burning with exhaustion and winced at the sudden cramp, her concentration now broken. So she simply kept swimming, hoping that the pain wouldn't stop her from getting to the surface.

She looked up. Mrs. Cloud had managed to reach the ice cap of the lake and was currently cutting through the thick layer of ice. Some of the faster students had managed to reach her. But she was still a ways behind.

Her train of thought was interrupted as she felt a harpoon swish past her ear, missing her by a hair's width. She screamed, but no sound came out. Only a few bubbles, gently floating towards the ice cap. She glanced towards the murky bottom of the lake and the overwhelming panic froze her for a second. There was a group of armed mermaids, a couple wielding harpoons and three holding a sort of net on a stick. They were so much closer than she thought that they would be. One was empty handed, making menacing gestures. Must have been the one to throw the harpoon. Another one was preparing to throw their harpoon.

"Moonlake, please!" Maria begged in silence as she moved her gaze upwards once more. There was now a hole in the ice and her classmates were climbing out. She moved her hand upward, trying to make the water push her toward the surface.

She heard the swish of the trident.

She closed her eyes.

...

She felt a rush of water push her up. The tingling energy of the Moonlake surrounded her hand, a light glow warming her numbed fingers.

Maria opened her eyes and moved her hand once more and another current pushed her even higher. The energy that her enveloped her palm moved towards her chest, warming her up. Strange, that had never happened before. She looked back down, the mermaids much further than before, a harpoon floating harmlessly in the water below her. She smiled, dizzy and relieved.

Another current pushed her up, this one not her own, and an arm caught her. Mya's arm held tight around her waist as she used the other to create another current.

And after another current, they finally broke the surface. Maria gasped a gulp of icy air, taking in the sight around her, still dizzy from the adrenaline.

Most of her classmates were still standing on the thick ice, catching their breath, shivering slightly. Some of them were slowly heading towards the dorms, if not to get dry, then probably for a warm shower and a blanket. Just the thought of that sounded delightful.

Mrs. Cloud was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Mrs. Cloud?" Maria asked.

"She went to get some help for the classmates stuck under the lake." Another answered, voice low, maybe remembering that without Mrs. Cloud's quick thinking, they would be trapped there too.

A harpoon flew through the hole in the ice, scaring them all as they scampered away from it. It swished harmlessly through the air before landing on the ice, its sharp barbells catching on the thick crust.

They all moved towards the edge of the lake just in time to see Mrs. Cloud and a small group of teachers head towards the Moonlake. As she saw them, she squinted, fingers moving in her palm as she was counting them up. A look of relief passed on her face as she realized nobody was missing. That relief was quickly replaced by something much tougher as she approached the edge of the lake, cut a new hole in the ice and dove back in. The other teachers soon followed.

As she and Mya were heading back towards the dorms to warm up, Maria prayed to whoever was listening and was merciful enough to help the students and the teachers come out ok on the other side.

"Are they going to be alright?" Mya asked in that quiet sort of way that she did only when something had her really scared.

"I'm sure they'll be fine. You saw how many teachers went after them." Maria didn't really know if she said that for her or for Mya. Maybe it was for the both of them. Hope was in short supply these days and they needed as much as they could get.

"Besides," Maria added "we only have a week left till Spring's Turning. We just have to pass some exams and then... We're going to have a full week of holiday! That's exciting, right?"

"Yeah" Mya said, still a bit unsure.

They walked in silence for a bit, the crunching of snow underneath their feet the only sound left.

-

Some of the exams that week got cancelled, due to the teachers being to busy trying to find out what had angered the mermaids of the Moonlake. And while Maria was happy she wouldn't have to remember so many different things for beast study, she would have liked to know a bit more about the mermaids. Could she have done anything more? The book seemed lacking in that regard, detailing habits of their everyday life, explaining their architecture and eating habits, trailing off on some sort of sign language that had been taught to the mermaids inside the Moonlake.

But nothing about sudden aggression.

Maria sighed, closed the book and opened the next one on her desk, preparing for tomorrow's exams.

----

Wind echoed around the empty hallways, trying and failing to fill the empty gaps left by the students who were expelled, by the teachers who got fired, by the guards who were thrown out. It would have felt eerily quiet, were it not for the whispers. And they were everywhere, spreading like sickness at the end of winter.

It felt as though all the students were afraid of talking out loud, like it would get them thrown out. So, as fear and uncertainty rose like a high fever, the voices got lower and lower. Fearful whispers of the ones that were gone. Of who was going to be next. Of how the Deep Hollow had become off limits. The headmaster had said that it would be of no use since no one was supposed to study dark magic. Of course, nobody believed him. And the rumors about it went rampant and wild.

The Moonlake came next. There were horrible ghost stories about that. From and about those who had survived. Sometimes about those who didn't. Those who didn't have strong enough magic or were in too much pain to be able to breathe underwater and how their classmates had watched as they slowly drowned. Those students who had gotten trapped under the water always felt a little... off. They felt somehow... icier. Like all the warmth they had got trapped under the icy waters and all that was left were ghost stories and terror. And just thinking about all those changes that happened slowly, and yet so fast, it left Gael shivering. Their Academy, their classmates, their classes, their whole life was falling apart. It just begged the question: Just how much longer would it last? Gael didn't know if he wanted to know the answer.

He didn't like wandering the hallways alone anymore. Too many whispers flitting about, too many dark and twisted thoughts fluttering inside his own mind. If him and Nin were close before, they were pretty much inseparable at this point. She made the whispers bearable and warmed up the icy cold halls with her calm and bright presence. And their friendship grew into something a bit more, as Nin sometimes stole kisses from him in dark corners.

The moments filled him with such warmth, that he felt like if he opened his eyes, he'd be able to see a thousand brilliant colors. If Nin had warmed him up before, it felt like her every touch melted him. It felt so... uncanny for a water to be able to melt him like fire.

In one such moment, Nin, a little breathless, said: "Promise me you won't leave me behind like everyone else in my life."

If he weren't so dizzy, Gael might have thought a bit before the answer. Him being of noble blood, and Nin being an Earthen water... his parents would never allow the two of them to be together. And their relationship was still confined to fiery moments in dark corners and small exuberant touches throughout the day.

But, drunk on kisses as sweet as honey, he answered: "I promise."

He didn't realise he'd break that promise in a bit more than a week.

---

Mr. Brown was getting desperate. Nothing he tried worked. Everything backfired in one way or another.

He checked time and time again with the lab and was always told the same answer: there was no way to differentiate the afflicted from natural dark elements. (Behind the curtain, Shadow smiled at her lie.)

And so, he had to kick out any and all dark elements. He was met with backlash. Riots in the streets for discriminating against the dark element. And he endured it all for the sake of protecting the Academy and their one chance at survival: Maria.

But then it got worse.

As soon as he kicked out all those afflicted, the city started getting attacked. It started small: paper fliers with vague threats, a few smothered fairy lights. He sent a few people he trusted to help out and that was that. But then it escalated. The paper fliers turned into haunting screams in the middle of the night, the streets no longer safe to travel after the sun set. He set curfews and was met with more backlash. The charms that had made the darkness fall upon the city turned more complicated and nefarious and no matter how many times he sent help, it seemed a new one appeared almost immediately. He had no time to think, no time to ponder the suspicious coincidence. And one by one, the lights of Aetheria, the glowing city, faded and were smothered out. Again and again and again.

The city was getting swallowed in darkness and nothing worked. Except, of course, for the defenses of the Academy. As bright as ever, the lights continued to shine inside the campus, unperturbed by the swamping darkness outside its gates.

Mr. Brown was losing sleep, was losing allies, was losing hope. And he wasn't stupid. He knew what all that backlash, all those threats and whispers had turned or will turn into.

"If this hidden dark monster won't be the end of me, whatever rebellion is cooking in this battered and hurt Aetheria surely will." He whispered in his lonely office, head in his hands. He then felt a cold and icy presence in the air. He lifted his head up.

-

Edit: I’ve started a massive bit of editing in which I am changing up from a first person narrative to a third person one. Sorry if it sounds a bit weird in third person, but it should be in line with the rest of the book in a few weeks. I also added some nice little hints in the form of voices, which are meant to represent Shadow before they split. So far, I’ve only done that to chapter 1 and 2 so give them a read if you’re curious about the changes!