Ravenfire

I woke up very early that day, leaving the dormitory before Emma woke up. I followed Salamander quietly to a room only accessible from the outside with just a single entrance. He opened its thick wooden door with a key and led me inside. The place was filled with containers of fermenting fruits. From the corner of my eye, I spotted a distillation workstation situated at the side. It had several finished products lined up neatly with the name ‘Alojzije’ marked on each glass bottle of clear liquid.

“Where are we?” I asked, wondering why the academy had such a room.

“It’s Toad’s secret rakija place,” replied Salamander. “It’s where he produces them now after I complained about him working in our room.”

“Does everyone have a secret room now?” I was jealous. I wanted one too.

“I heard it was Prof. Alice who lent this room to him. She also leaves her pickled vegetables here sometimes.”

The door suddenly opened and a grinning Toad stuck his head in through the door. “Oho. Enjoy your time with Remina, my brother!” He winked and left as abruptly as when he arrived.

“Salamander, what the hell did you tell Toad?” I placed my hands on my hips, demanding an answer.

“I said I was going to practise dancing with you,” he replied as he busily prepared papers on the table.

“Was that the best excuse you could come up with?” I complained.

“It worked. That’s what matters! Now, can we please start?” He sounded annoyed.

I sighed and sat down. “Fine.”

We spent about an hour translating samples of text from the diary until we discovered the pages relevant to our goals. Neither of us spoke as we concentrated on turning coded sentences into readable text.

“I believe we have our potion recipe,” Salamander broke the silence and pushed his sheet of paper towards me.

‘Potion of Clear Visions’ was written at the top, followed by a list of ingredients and brewing instructions. A description below indicated that it was for temporarily viewing another person’s prophetic vision by searching their memories.

“Great job,” I congratulated him.

“How are you faring?” He glanced at my paper.

“I found something rather strange.”

“What is it?”

“Let me read it to you.” I cleared my throat. “A death to hold life. A death to release life.”

“What could it be referring to?”

“Hold on. Let me translate the rest.”

The human soul is one that requires powerful energies to contain. It is no surprise that the energies that sustain the human body are just enough to power the seal and keep a soul trapped. Releasing the trapped soul, I assume, would require the same amount of energy.

“This is about the soul trapping device,” I concluded.

“I have a rather wild theory,” he began.

“Do tell.”

“We have three dead students. One death could have been used to release the soul in the device. If the device had been used again, the last two deaths should have occurred at the same time, which they didn’t. Unless the sealed soul doesn’t leave behind a body. Then we have a fourth unidentified disappearance.”

“That also leaves us with one death unaccounted for, which fits into the narrative of having two separate murderers,” I added.

Salamander nodded, pleased. “Exactly. And we already have a lead who can tell us what really happened to Rose and whether hers was a separate case.”

“You’re going to force yourself into Emma’s memories?”

“I’m a Winter mage, far better than you at seeing into memories. I have no doubt that I will succeed in extracting the truth if I do that. Unfortunately, we have to resort to coercion to even get near Emma Sweetblossom.” He sounded determined to get to the truth no matter what. “You will aid me, right?”

I was a little unsure about hurting Emma a second time, but it was the fastest way to get to the truth and time was not on our hands. “Yes.”

Suddenly, the door burst open and Toad peeked in, expecting to catch us in the middle of a dance. He was disappointed to see us both seated on the table with books and papers.

“Toad!” Salamander and I said in unison angrily.

“Of all the things you could have done in here, you chose to study?” Toad complained.

We both glared at him.

“Alright, alright. I’ll leave you nerds alone.” He left and closed the door.

The thought of betraying Emma a second time stuck with me for the entire day. The pangs of guilt tugging at my heart felt alien and new to me. Had I actually considered her a friend? Now that I thought about it, she was the only female student I spent time with. Schoolwork and the looming threat of an unidentified murderer didn’t really leave me with much time to expand my social circle.

I sighed as I stared at her empty bed. She was late. That was very unusual. Ten more minutes and the dormitory would be locked for the night.

Something is wrong.

Emma was never late. She operated like a clockwork with a very specific schedule. I couldn’t help but feel that she ran into some kind of trouble. I eventually stood up and left the dormitory to look for her.

The first place I checked was the greenhouse. Emma always spent time there after classes ended when she had nothing important to do. I opened the door and peeked inside.

Empty.

Where could Emma be?

As I stood there thinking, I heard footsteps of someone running as fast as they could. I turned around and saw Emma running away from a familiar hideous mass of black. The phantom! I quickly hurled a fireball at the creature to get its attention.

“Hey! We still have a score to settle,” I shouted at it.

“Remina!” Emma was surprised to see me.

“Emma, run!”

I took a deep breath as the phantom was starting to head my way. I got myself ready for another round of the Endless Library horror show minus the getting lost part.

“Alright, Remina. Stay calm. Just pretend you’re beating up Salamander,” I said to myself.

Before it reached me, vines started wrapping around the creature, entangling it in place. Spring magic.

“Remina, get out of there!” Emma shouted at me. It turned out, she didn’t run away.

I quickly dashed with Emma to the safety of the dormitory, just in time before the doors were locked. When we entered our rooms, Emma sat on her bed trembling from the incident.

“It’s ok. We’re safe here,” I told Emma to calm her down.

“We should… We should tell the professors… It just suddenly appeared in the hallway,” she was struggling to speak. “Was that what killed the students?”

“I don’t know,” I replied while finding it strange that she would bring that up.

“I didn’t think you’d help me,” she admitted.

“We don’t need another dead student on our hands.”

A moment of silence followed as I prepared myself for bed, believing that our conversation would end there.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” Emma suddenly broke the silence. “I don’t want to hide it anymore. I’m tired of running away. No matter what I do, someone finds out anyway. I give up.”

I turned around to look at her. She extended her hands, offering to let me learn the truth of the vague memories I previously saw. I glanced at her before I accepted it.

I found myself at a neat little house, which was probably where Emma lived. Her parents were arguing with each other about her father’s secret affair. I felt the pain she must have felt when her father shouted hurtful words at her mother and left them to join his other family instead. Her cheerful mother was never the same since. It broke her heart to see her parents change so abruptly.

Next, I found myself at what seemed to be the school where Emma attended as a child, where she tried her best to be the perfect kid any parent would want and become the top student of her class. Despite her efforts, her father would always shower love for her imperfect and mediocre half-sister instead. No amount of hard work could earn his attention.

The scene changed again. I was at Emma’s room where she busily grinded oleander into a fine powder and mixed it into tea. Angry, frustrated, and bitter. She served the tea to her father with a forced smile, shouting at him as he slowly died of poisoning with tears in his eyes. I felt the sadness and regret when her mother walked in and discovered what she had done.

Her mother sent her to Blackthorn Academy to be forgotten and free. The crime was covered up, claiming that he had died of natural causes. No one seemed to suspect any foul play.

During the activity with Prof. Alice, Arabella discovered that Emma had poisoned her father and used this to her advantage. She forced Emma into the secret club and blackmailed her into burying Rose’s body for them.

I soon returned to the dormitory room where I saw Emma right in front of me. She looked terribly afraid of being judged and rejected. I felt her hands shaking, probably trying to hold back her tears from reliving her worst memories.

“I’m not the perfect girl people think I am,” Emma said sadly. “Will you still be my friend despite what I did?”

“I mean, Lysander almost killed me with a dagger. He’s still my friend. I don’t see why I shouldn’t be friends with you,” I replied.

“Thanks, Remina.” She smiled gratefully and hugged me.

“I’ll get the Nightwillows off your back.”

“You shouldn’t fight them, Remina. They could hurt you.”

“They should be the ones afraid of me because I can certainly hurt them.”

I was relieved that Emma didn’t murder Rose afterall.

Salamander was minding his own business in the classroom before morning class started. His black hair was slightly dishevelled, which was rare because he normally had neatly combed hair. While he was reviewing his notes, I sat beside him and offered him my hand.

“I have an update,” I announced.

“Put your hand under the table. I don’t want to be seen holding hands with you,” he whispered.

I did as he said. From the corner of my eye, I could see Toad grinning as he watched us secretly holding hands.

“The plot thickens I suppose,” he remarked when he was all caught up.

“The Nightwillows know something we don’t. I intend to find out what it is,” I said while staring at Leslie. “Salamander, you were her partner during Prof. Alice’s exercise. Did you see anything we can use against her?”

Salamander was hesitating a little. “I feel like if I tell you, you’re going to cause much more trauma than you intend to.”

“The more, the better. Tell me and I’ll share the info with you as well.”

“Deal.”

We shook hands.

He then revealed, “When I looked into her mind, I saw a memory of her as a child. She was hiding from a snake.”

“You have a snake, don’t you, Salamander?”

He frowned. “You can’t use my snake. I’m the only one with a silver one. She’ll know it’s mine.”

I sighed. “Fine. I’ll go look for other snakes.”

“Don’t get yourself bit. Why don’t you go ask one of the Autumn students to conjure you one?”

Later that day, I suddenly appeared beside Elliot like a ghost and startled him while he was repotting some plants at the greenhouse. He jumped and let out a muffled scream.

“Elliot, I need you to conjure me some snakes,” I said.

“What do you need snakes for?” he asked, worried.

“Gradual desensitisation. A therapy for phobia.”

“I’d love to help, but… I’m not that good at conjuration.”

“Transfiguration then?”

“That too.”

“Oh.” I was disappointed.

“If you really want snakes, you can find some at a cave, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to go there.” He was looking even more worried.

“I’ll take my chances. Thanks.”

It wasn’t too hard to find the cave that Elliot spoke of. It was just outside of the castle walls. With a snap of my finger, the snakes remained frozen in time, making it easier for me to pick them up and put them in a sack. Now, I just needed to set things up.

“What do you want, Ravenfire?” Leslie asked when she walked into the academy belltower where I was waiting for her at the second floor balcony overlooking the first floor.

It wasn’t hard to lure Leslie Willows into the belltower. All I needed to do was to get someone to tell her that Toad was waiting for her here with a surprise.

“I came to negotiate,” I said.

She frowned. “We’re done negotiating.”

“I think you might want to change your mind. You know what this is, don’t you?” I held up the sack of snakes for her to see. “I want you to tell me everything that happened to Rose. No excuses. I know you’re behind her death.”

She could clearly hear the slithering sound of the creatures in the sack. Courage was slowly leaving her, but she still tried to stand firm. “No, I’m not telling you anything!”

She attempted to leave through the door, but it was locked. I asked Salamander earlier to lock it for me. She cursed loudly and started throwing insults at me.

“Confess everything. Leave no detail.” I readied my pen and notepad.

“Ok! Arabella, Toad, and I found this book in the secret room that said we would be granted amazing powers if we got this artefact and used it in a ritual.”

“You stole the soul trapping device.”

“We didn’t know it was a soul trapping device, ok? We didn’t know Rose would die because of it! We wouldn’t have done it if we knew. The book tricked us!” Leslie insisted in desperation.

“What book?” I continued.

“It was some journal by someone named Lucien!”

“And you involved Emma too?”

“I told you enough! Now let me go!” she begged.

“Wrong answer.” I pretended to lower the bag of snakes to intimidate her, but my hand slipped and instead accidentally dropped the bag directly below, releasing the snakes. I cursed in my head and pretended I meant to do that.

Leslie screamed as she was attacked viciously by the snakes. I might have overdone it and she might one day assassinate me for it, but I still found it funny to watch anyway. When I went out the door, I saw Salamander standing right outside waiting for me.

“I know that look. It’s the face of somebody who messed up,” he bluntly pointed out.

“My hand might have accidentally slipped.” I handed Salamander the notes I took down. “Here.”

“Remember. I wasn’t here and I was never part of this,” he said as he grabbed it and walked away.