The Warmth of the Hearth

The blue flames engulfing the room disappear as Carson slowly lets go of Claire and faces her. “What do you mean he’s gone?” He gives Claire some space, allowing her to fully gather her thoughts before continuing.

She wipes away her tears and softly speaks. “During the examinations, I saw him with another person. He...” Her voice falters as she struggles to push words out of her mouth. Carson holds her hand, his warmth transferring to her cold skin. He knew how much Luke meant to her even since they were kids, even when she herself refused to believe it. “He looked exhausted from a previous fight. The other mage he was with had this strange dark manna, something that took over the entire arena. He punctured Luke in the stomach which caused him to bleed.” Tears come back to her eyes and she forces herself to utter the most important piece of information. “Principal Loft was there too...”

Carson’s eyes widen as he hears this. The principal, associated with a student’s murder? In the examinations, no one was supposed to be critically hurt. Each student was given a limiter that would stop them instantly when sensing lethal intent. What’s more baffling is the fact that the Academy has to explain all of this to the Laisrens. “This mage, what did he look like?”

Claire looks at Carson. “He looked like a student, with training gear on, but his skin had these weird dark marks that I’ve never seen before. I also saw his eyes being pitch black, and he...” She pulls his brother in with trembling hands. Carson puts a hand on her head, his heart breaking as he hears her sobs. Luke... They both hear someone at the door, and they look to see who it was.

“What happened?” Elizabeth rushes to the two of them and looks towards Claire. Claire immediately embraces her as she finally gives in to crying. Elizabeth holds her close, as she looks towards Carson for answers.

Carson wipes his eyes with his arm, his red eyes visible to Elizabeth. “Claire says she saw Luke die, and that the principal might have something to do with it.” Elizabeth shows no reaction, she holds Claire tighter. Carson gets up and takes a deep breathe. “Liz, watch over Claire for a bit.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll head to Luke’s room. If he was teleported the same way as us, his body should be there.” He quickly walks towards the higher floors, where Luke’s room is found. On his way, he passes through numerous students who are discussing what happened. Occasional statements about the possibility of cheating or a student dying can be heard as he makes his way through. In a moment, he arrives in front of Luke’s door, or what should have been his door. The electronic nameplate which showed the owner of the room now appeared blank, signifying that the room is empty. Carson quickly opens the door and is shocked by what he sees. All of Luke’s possessions have completely disappeared, as if he had never been there at all. He scans the room for any sign of disturbance, but he finds none. Carson’s mind is a mess, struggling to find some sort of explanation as to what was happening.

“Carson!” He turns his head and finds Claire and Elizabeth. Claire looks at Carson, expecting some sort of assurance that he found something. Carson shakes his head, which causes Claire to lower hers in response. The three of them knew that something was wrong, and answers were nowhere to be found.

“The principal, she knows what’s going on. If we go to her office and ta---” Claire gets cut off by Carson.

“We might all end up following Luke.” Carson states strongly. “I get it, we all want to know what really happened, and we all lost Luke, but if we jump in blindly and it turns out that the higher ups are behind this...” He pauses shortly before continuing. “We might be dealing with something bigger than us.”

Claire grabs Carson on the shirt, pulling his tall stature closer to her as she furiously exclaims. “So what?! You want us to just sit around after what happened?!” She shouts at Carson even louder. “Luke’s dead for fuck’s sake! And we’re supposed to stand back because we’re scared?!” Elizabeth then pulls Claire away from Carson, and Claire immediately calms down. “I’m sorry.”

Elizabeth lets go of her and begins to speak. “As much as I want to find out what really happened, Carson is right. We have to make sure we know what we’re doing.” She looks at Carson, a tear slides down the side of her cheek. “It might be better to talk to Lord Laisren about this, we’ll formulate a plan then.”

Carson nods, and proceeds to run his hand across his hair. “I’ll talk to father about this as well, if anyone can find out what happened, it’s our house. And Claire...” He looks at his sister, his eyes full of concern. “Never speak about what you know to anyone, it’ll be much better that way. The same goes to you Liz, Luke wouldn’t want anything to happen to us.” Carson then proceeds to embrace both of them, his heart heavy from the loss of a friend, the loss of Luke.

They decide to head to House Laisren, agreeing to meet at the main gate after they change from their training gear. An hour later, they arrive at the meeting point as agreed. Several students have also decided to head home with the postponement of the exams, so the gate seemed to be a bit more crowded than they expected. Elizabeth spots her butler beside a carriage painted in bright silver and blue with a black horse at the front, awaiting her arrival. He greets her and her company as he opens the door for them. “We have received your orders, M’lady. Our destination is now set to House Laisren.” With that, they settle down inside and the carriage comes to life with the butler in front, moving at a fast speed.

They travel in silence, each of them preoccupied with their thoughts, until Elizabeth decides to break the silence. “I didn’t see Olin. Could they have heard of the news already?” Carson nods, agreeing with her statement.

“I didn’t see him as well. However, I highly doubt that the Academy would just tell them.” He sighs, putting his head in his hands. He then lifts his face up to continue. “Knowing the Academy, they will find a way to cover up this blunder.”

Claire stares out of the window; the scenery seems irrelevant to her. Her mind is somewhere that nobody will ever be able to comprehend. Fear, sadness, anger, and regret. All of this is gnawing at her from the inside, like a black pit has replaced her stomach. She feels like throwing up as she thinks about what she could have done different. At the very least, she could’ve told Luke how she really felt, instead of giving him a cold shoulder when he was around. A part of her tells herself to remind her to do better when they see each other again. Then the truth sinks in, they won’t ever see each other again. Her trail of thought gets cut off when she sees the familiar alleyways that lead to Luke’s house. The coach stops and Claire looks out of the window, her eyes widen with what she sees.

“Claire!” Carson call out to her as Claire runs out of the carriage and he chases after her. Elizabeth follows the both of them, running. As Claire turns a corner that would lead to Luke’s house, Carson notices thick black smoke in the direction of House Laisren. He looks at Elizabeth, now running beside him to see if she sees the same thing. The two of them pick up their pace and turn the corner. They are met with Claire, kneeling on the ground. In front of them they see House Laisren, or whatever is left of it. Carson looks at the manor, and his heart sinks. House Laisren, the house that kept their only remaining memory of Luke, is now nothing but an inferno that engulfs everything close to it.