The Warlock's Shadow

A Temporary Victory

The afternoon after the Celestial Shadow was kind of a blur. I remember I had felt like I wasn’t really in my body and that my body was just on autopilot. It was a surreal feeling. I had decided to go to bed early. I was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted from a fight with a warlock. Nocturne seemed to feel the same. Their body was kinda limp most of the time, barely hanging on to my shoulders. The next day we all took the day off from school. It was well earned. I called up Lisa and Sasha on the crystal ball and agreed to meet later that afternoon at the park.

#

We all had an awkward silence as we sat at a picnic table coming to terms with everything that happened.

“So…,” I said to break the uncomfortable silence. “He’s still out there somewhere.” My friends nodded in reply.

“Anyone think the Knights will get him?” Sasha asked. It was met with awkward shrugs. I sighed.

“None of us are okay,” I said plainly. “Are we?” Sasha and Lisa shook their heads. Lisa gave a bit of a sniffle. Sasha hung their head. Our dragons sat in front of us on the table looking up at each of us.

Lisa looked at Zero who was nuzzling her face, “I know we’re okay,” she said to her. “But, we’re also not.”

Topaz was attempting to playfully poke Sasha with their nose in an attempt to get more than a smirk from them. Nocturne just looked up at me with an inquiring look and chirped as if to ask if I was doing alright. Dragons were strangely in tune with their companion’s emotions. It was almost as if they just knew our mental and emotional state. It was likewise that they could also help with healing emotional scars. They just kinda knew what would help and heal us and no one could really explain why.

“We also need to acknowledge the troll in the room,” I said. “As long as Mr. Roland is out there, he has Blight’s book and will use it however he can. Plus, the threat of Blight is still out there. We need to do whatever it takes to stop them both.”

“But how?” Sasha said. “We’re only fifteen and we barely survived going up against one warlock.”

“Yeah, but we survived,” I said. “I know none of us are feeling all that great. I also know we can’t really talk to anyone else that can help.”

“So what do we do?” Lisa asked.

“We support each other,” I said. “We hold each other up. We stick together no matter what happens.”

“So how do we handle getting the book if the Knights never get Mr. Roland?” Sasha asked. “And what about Blight?” I thought for a moment and scratched the back of my head.

“I…,” I paused. “Have no idea. But that doesn’t mean we won’t ever think of anything. We just have to take it one step at a time.” We decided it was best to just relax and hang out while we talked about the positives. We talked about seeing the eclipse for the brief moment we could see it, we talked about how brave our dragons were and praised them. Something that was definitely overdue. Topaz stood proud and gave a triumphant cry to which we all laughed.

“Topaz, why are you so weird?” I heard a familiar voice. The last time I heard it was, was…I realized where I had heard that before. I heard it when I found Nocturne’s egg.

“Nocturne?” I asked. “Was that you just now?” Nocturne looked up at me confused and a little excited but all I heard was chirps and trills.

“You heard Nocturne speak?” Lisa asked. “What did he say?”

“I only heard for a moment,” I said. “He said how weird Topaz was.”

“That’s great,” Sasha said excitedly. “You’re starting to bond closer,”

“You think so?” I said. “Try again, Nocturne.” He looked up at me inquisitively, I assume trying to get through to me and trying to get me to hear him. I concentrated on trying to hear him but, “No, nothing. Sorry, Nocturne.”

Nocturne seemed to shrug his shoulders and trilled a little disappointed, almost as if to say ‘oh, well.’

We stayed at the park all day just talking and having fun. Being able to hear a bit of Nocturne definitely was a huge confidence boost. Once the sun started to set we decided it was time to start heading home.

“Hey, Lisa?” I said turning to her. “Can I talk to you for a second?” Sasha, picking up on my awkwardness, suddenly realized how late they were and ran home leaving us alone.

“Yeah, what’s up?” She turned to look at me. Our eyes locked and I got really shy and awkward as her fire opal eyes almost glittered in the sunset. I reached into my pocket, having held onto the ear ornament that I bought back at the Draconis Festival and pulled it out.

“I, um, I wanted to give you this,” I said, almost thrusting the earpiece into her chest. She took the jewelry from my hands and looked at it. She smiled and marveled at it.

“Oh, wow, Alex,” she said, marveling at it. “I love it,” She immediately tilted her head and placed it on her ear.

“How’s it look?” She tucked her hair behind her ear to show it off. Her long ear now carefully adorned with the silvery ornament I had so carefully picked out.

“It really suits you,” I said, smiling at her. Suddenly she latched on and hugged me tight. Which was weird. During the entire school year I never saw her hug anyone. She usually didn’t like close physical contact. I awkwardly wrapped my own arms around her to finish the embrace.

“Thank you,” is all she said before slowly letting go. We said our shy and awkward goodbyes as we both walked home.

#

The next month of school was pretty boring. Lisa and I got to be a bit closer as friends and I rarely saw her without the ear jewelry I gave her. Security was still tight; the Knights were still at nearly every door looking like gargoyles. I even started more training into my Essence Weaving. With the new potion Lisa helped make for me it made the training a bit easier. I still struggled with a lot of it without having Nocturne to train but it did come more naturally to me. Everything was pretty normal and quiet until lunch one day the three of us sat at an empty table and just made idle talk until a girl we didn’t quite recognize quickly placed their tray down and started talking.

“Guys, you’ll never believe what I found out,” She pulled out one of the books we grabbed from the archives. But how did they get it? She was medium height, conventionally pretty with shoulder length blonde hair and somehow a familiar face. The three of us looked at each other but none of us could quite recognize the girl who just sat down who seemed to know us.

“Sorry but, you seem really familiar,” I said. “Who are you?”

“Oh, right,” she said as she chuckled to herself. “I forgot that I’ve been gone for a month getting treatment and should probably start reintroducing myself to just about everyone.” She looked up. “It’s me, Samuel,” Lisa, Sasha and I all dropped our jaws. I could see it now that she said something. “Well, this is where the reintroduction comes in, my new name is Ellery.” She said with a smile.

“So, wait,” Sasha said. “Is that why you had a female dragon? Fill us in,”

“Maybe another time,” she said. “Right now I want to show you this.” She placed a book on the table. Apparently she forgot to give us one of the books we took from the archives earlier in the school year.

“I found a hidden page within the book that spells out a prophecy and I think it’s about you three,” She said.

“A prophecy about us?” Lisa said. “Why would a prophecy about us be in a book that’s, who knows, how many years old?”

“I’m not sure,” Ellery said. “But here it is:

In shadows deep, where realms entwine

Three hearts, one destiny they find.

Magic aglow, powers untold

This here, secrets unfold

When shadows merge and daylight wanes

A trio is bound by magic’s chains

In unity strong, darkness they face

Yet evil lurks in that sacred place

Through seasons passing, a shadow’s call

A threat whispered on wings of a thrall

A specter’s echo lingers, a malevolent scheme

The trio’s journey, a turbulent dream”

We all took a moment to let that sink in for us all. On one hand it was fairly plain, but on the other hand this seemed foreboding.

“How do we know this isn’t talking about our fight with Mr. Rol–?” Sasha said louder than they should. Lisa and I were quick to cover their mouth before anyone who mattered heard. Ellery tilted her head in confusion.

“Geeze, Sash wanna tell the world while you’re at it?” I said slightly annoyed.

“Sorry,” they apologized. “But, like I said, how do we know it’s not talking about…recent events?”

“Er, what recent events?” Ellery asked. We all gave a collective sigh.

“If we tell you,” I said. “And let you in on this, you have to swear that you can’t tell anyone.”

“I never let anyone know what I was researching when I was helping you so sure,” she said. “Your secret is safe with me.” We all looked at each other and quietly told Ellery all the things we had done, what she was actually helping with as far as research, even events leading up to and including the fight with Mr. Roland.

“So you’re telling me,” Ellery began. “That I helped take down a warlock?,” She seemed more excited than hurt that we kept a secret like that from her. We all looked a bit puzzled at her and her acceptance of the facts.

“Um, yes?” Sasha said.

“That’s amazing,” She bounced in her seat excited beyond belief.

“Okay,” Sasha said. “So knowing what you know now; how do we know this prophecy isn’t about what just happened rather than something in the future?”

“I guess we don’t,” Ellery admitted. “But here it mentions a spector’s shadow, that seems to fit Blight more than it does Mr.–, I mean that other warlock.”

“You do have a point,” I said. “Do you mind if we keep this book so we can look it over and talk about it?”

“Of course,” She said and handed over the book. We finished off lunch with casual conversation about the last month, about what we did the day of the Celestial Shadow, and Ellery filled us in on the magical intricacies of her transition. Which involved seeing a variety of wizards and sorcerers. The wizards dealing with the medical aspects and the sorcerers dealing with the transfiguration of the human body into its correct form.

The lunch bell rang and we finished off the school day. We met during our free period in the secret library room after abandoning it for the last month, not thinking we needed it anymore. We laid out the book and re-read the prophecy again.

“The trio’s journey, a turbulent dream,” Lisa said. “Can we not catch a break? Just this year was stressful enough,”

“Yeah, I know,” I said.

“What if we asked Kur about this new prophecy that Sam–, er, Ellery found out?” Sasha suggested.

“We probably could,” Lisa said. “We haven’t seen him for quite a while.”

“Alright, let’s go there tonight,” I said. The final bell rang letting everyone know school was finally over. We carefully snuck out of the secret room and out of the school. The Knights still looking stone faced all along the hallway on the way out of the school made me think if they were even real. Per the daily routine our dragons casually glided over to us and made their home on our shoulders as we walked home. Sasha and I stopped by as many convenience stores as we could and bought as much jerky as we could fit into our bags.

#

We got to Kur’s lair at midnight and greeted him with the usual “offering” of jerky. “We found a new flavor,” I said. “Something called wasabi.” We opened up the packages and tossed them into his mouth. He munched on them thoughtfully.

“Oh. That’s spicy,” he said. He gave a bit of a roar but overall seemed pleased. “What did you say this flavor was again?”

“Wasabi,” Sasha said. “Apparently it comes from the far east countries on the other side of the world.”

“Kur, I think we have an issue,” I said.

“Oh? What seems to be the problem?” he said. We gathered around him and pulled out the book that had the prophecy in it.

“There apparently is a prophecy in this book we found that a friend found and it seems like it’s about us.”

“Now that is certainly interesting,” he said. “What does it say?” We read him the prophecy and he was silent for a while. Our dragons broke any silence that would have been deafening otherwise by chirping and playing around on Kur’s head.

“What do you think?” Sasha asked. “I think it’s about us but for the stuff we already did with Mr. Roland, but our friend Ellery seems to think differently.”

“All I can say is that it is interesting.”

“What?,” I said. “But why?”

“Though I do have some ideas about this prophecy, to dissect it, presume we know everything about the seer and what they saw when writing it and putting ideas into your head about it, could have its consequences.”

“Like what?” Lisa asked.

“Quite simply, if I told you it was about you, and gave you false expectations, it could make it a self-fulling prophecy. On the other hand, if I say it is not about you, you could disregard key elements of your own potential futures which could affect other things in your life. On the third hand, if it goes ignored the prophecy may never come to fruition. However, prophecy or not, we still must acknowledge that Blight is a potential threat.” Our collective hearts sank but at the same time it was also a relief that it probably wasn’t about us after all.

“This warlock may still be out there, as well as other followers and disciples that Blight might have had throughout his life. Because you fought off one of his followers, not that you had much choice in the matter, you must always be on your guard as you’ve now made many powerful enemies.”

“So what do we need to do, you think?” I asked. “We can’t be on edge all the time.”

“You don’t need to do anything, friends,” he said. We all looked at each other confused.

“But didn’t you say we need to always be on guard?” Sasha said. “How can we do nothing but also be vigilant?”

“You already have protectors and those to look out for you all the time,” Kur laughed. His laughs echoed and shook the walls. It was hard to tell, but I think he was smiling. He could see the further confusion on our faces to his comment. He gave a growl and looked up at his head. Our dragons looked over the edge of Kur’s massive brow down at one of his eyes and chirped in unison. They all glided down and lined up in front of all of us. Each one in front of their companion. Nocturne looked up at me sitting on his haunches, thumb claws folded in front of him as if he was wringing his hands, if he had them.

I tried to hear him, but I just couldn’t. His expression looked as if he was asking if I’d give him the privilege of looking after me.

“...Please?” I heard him say and I gave a small gasp. It was like hearing a clear signal after a millisecond of static on a radio. I leaned down and offered my arm. Like Kur it appeared that he smiled but I couldn’t be fully sure. He seemed to be happy as he quickly crawled up my arm and perched across my shoulders as normal, wrapped his wings around my shoulders. His head that usually laid across my chest instead pressed and nuzzled the side of my face. Though, again, I couldn’t hear him. I just knew he was saying, ‘you’re safe with me, you’re my best friend and I’d never let any harm come to you.’

“You have them,” Kur said. “As long as you have them you will never have to worry.”

We left Kur that night feeling a lot better than we did going in. While walking home we split up at the park as usual. We took extra caution around the park after the last time we were out late going through. But once we made it through we all breathed a sigh of relief and made our ways home.

#

The school year finished off without much issue. Sure Sylas tried to act up every now and then but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. In fact I think I might have scared him a bit one day. In my freetime, and thanks to a third dose of that potion, I learned a fun spell to change the color of my eyes. Sylas had pinned me to the wall in frustration when he didn’t get the reaction from me that he wanted. I gave him an intense look and changed my eyes from brown to yellow with vertical slits for pupils and told him he wouldn’t like it when I got cornered. I used my darkness magic to dim the lights for effect. He may or may not have run away with pants that were wetter than before. Master Elowyn noticed my magic, outside of my darkness affinity, actually improving. It was actually nice to get some praise and recognition that my magic was actually getting better. Though I couldn’t do the basic element manipulation as well as the others, being able to do more than making my hand wet, making smoke, barely making a whisper of air or moving a rock or barley making the smallest buds bloom was nice. It felt much more natural than trying to dig deep and not being able to do anything at all.

The final exams were pretty tough though. I wasn’t sure if I could remember how to divine by using only the number six for numerology, or name all fifty of the carnivorous, man-eating plants for botany. I know I didn’t do the potion I was supposed to make in alchemy for Draught. We were supposed to make the potion which was the first stage in making a philosopher’s stone. The potion was supposed to have been red, resembling blood. Mine had the right consistency but was blue.

The assembly on the last day of school was fairly uneventful. The whole school gathered in the courtyard and they allowed us to have our dragons with us as well. The crowd chatted and made noise and were generally a bit rowdy.

Principal Ashrith came out in his signature gray suit. His long, straight, gray hair was a curtain down his back. His slightly drooping elf ears bobbed gently as he walked. He made it to his lectern and held his hands up and silenced the crowd.

“Hello, hello, yes, welcome to the last few moments of the school year. And what a year it was at Wyvern Glade Academy. Many triumphs and tribulations. Newfound abilities and new self-actualizations.” The principal looked right at the three of us sitting together and smiled warmly. “New relationships and friendships abound. And so, so much growth from each and every one of you. I am proud to call you all my students. And to those leaving this year, I’m proud to call you all alumni of our wonderful academy,” He started the applause and everyone followed enthusiastically this time. As opposed to the beginning of the year where almost no one would clap.

“And with that I, again, congratulate this graduating class, may the future hold all forms of prosperity to you and yours. And to everyone else, I’m proud to accept you all next year for more growth and more opportunities. You are hereby dismissed until next year,”

The student body erupted in cheers and applause as we all left as quickly as we could, and as orderly as we were allowed. Once we made it outside we hung around and waited. Ellery found us and gave us each a hug. Lisa was taken aback as they went back into character and showed some discomfort in getting such a large hug. But for the sake of friendship she gave Ellery an awkward pat on the back. She almost begged us to make sure that we all hung out over the summer months between terms. We didn’t see any reason not to as she had nothing if not helpful over the last several months.

Once Ellery and most of the other students left Lisa held mine and Sasha’s hands and looked up at us. Her fire opal eyes filled with so many different emotions for each of us. She smiled at us.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said. “But I think I want to say, thank you. To both of you.”

“Thank you for what?” I asked.

“Yeah, what for?” Sasha added.

“Thank you for being my friends,” she said. “I never really had friends before this year. No one wanted to sit with me. No one wanted to talk to me or get to know me. People always said I looked scary or intimidating. I was a little apprehensive when you sat with me, Sasha. And more so when you complimented my shirt, Alex. But I’m so glad you both did. This has been the most amazing and exciting year and I’m so glad I met you both.”

“We’re glad we met you too,” Sasha said. “Especially Ale–,” I elbowed Sasha in the ribs to keep him from talking. Lisa giggled.

“But, it’s not like you’re going away right?” I asked. “You’re still gonna be around in the summer and we, all of us I mean, can hang out right?”

Lisa nodded, “yes, of course,” she gave us each a big hug and we all went our own ways home. As soon as I walked into the front door, I saw Mom taking a power nap on the couch before she left for work. I decided to go up to my room and I laid down on my bed. Nocturne made himself comfortable on my chest and curled up tight.

I should feel accomplished. I should feel confident. I mean, I finally learned magic. I found a treatment for my Fae flu side effects. I made a new friend, who I think feels the same as me, and I even went up against a warlock and won. So why did I feel empty?

I looked out of my window to the early evening sky. It was still bright and blue and clear. Some pixies fluttered by the window leaving glittery pathways as they chased each other. Mr. Roland was still out there. My heart weighed heavily thinking about who else could be out there, wanting to team up with or outdo Mr. Roland and find new and more nefarious ways to bring back Blight. But then I remembered my friends, and placed my hand around my amulet that I still wore and my heart felt lighter. As long as I had my friends, and my Dad’s spirit with me, I knew that everything would be alright. I knew that whatever happened, my friends and I would be there for each other.

“That’s right, Alex. No need to worry. Everything always works out in the end.”

“Thanks, Nocturne,” I said. “Wait, what?”

THE END