News!

Ok, I’m going to give you some news.
1) I like lists so this will be in list form.
2) Downtime! Maintenance! CELESTIA!!!! Woot! LIVE!
3) NAT POSTED. O_O
4) This is a word that begins with s and ends with y. No, not stupidity. STORY! STORY DONE! No, not completely finished, but Part 6 is. I feel like I’ve been working on it forever. (This is scarily near to the truth.)
Anyway…

~The Tale of Alexandra Stormrider (Part 6)~

Have you ever been in a situation where time feels like it’s dragging itself out particularly slowly just to torture you?
Multiply that feeling by about a hundred thousand.
Then you’ll understand how I felt stuck in Malistaire’s dungeon, or cage, or prison, or whatever it was –we still hadn’t worked it out, because we still hadn’t gotten our bearings.
I’d woken up at a time I assumed was the next morning, but naturally, Malistaire had conveniently refrained from giving us a clock, so we really didn’t know. I also noticed he hadn’t supplied us with a light source – though that was easily solved, what with the pyromancer I was locked in with – and, most importantly, food or water, which, frankly, sucked.
Suddenly a little flame leapt into life, startling me for a moment before I saw that it was just Matt, quite literally playing with fire. I supposed that was just something that happened when you were a pyromancer, just like Jacob Ravencloud, my friend and fellow diviner (who was thankfully not here in Malistaire’s dungeon place with us), and I could make the air crackle with static electricity, and Liam Dawnbreeze, Jake’s twin, and a theurgist, could make almost anything grow, no matter how sick or wilted it was.
“Okay,” said Matt cheerfully. “Let’s work on a plan to get out of here.”
“Great!” I mimicked his annoyingly positive attitude. “Any ideas?”
“Well, erm… Seeing as we don’t know our way around this place, or how to get out, we need to find someone who does.”
“Of course! What a brilliant idea! Hey, Mr Dragon dude who probably works for Malistaire – could you show us out?!”
Matt looked a bit put out. “We could put them under some sort of spell?”
“You can do mind control spells now?”
Matt sighed. “Maybe not, then.”
“What we need is someone we can trust.”
“Like Autumn?”
“Who else? She’s our only chance to get out of here. It’s not like we know anyone else who can help us in this situation. We have to find her. I mean, she has to be somewhere around here.” I hesitated. “Unless she’s…” I didn’t want to even think of that possibility, let alone voice it.
“OI!” a voice grumbled from outside of our prison. We both jumped and turned to face a skeletal warrior who seemed pretty miserable. “You two. Small yous. Yes. You.” He seemed to want to make it clear that it was us he was talking to.
“Okay,” I said, rolling my eyes. “We get it. Us. Carry on.”
“You want food? Here. Take food. Nourish you.” He threw a parcel on the icy stone floor and left quickly.
“Great grammar,” I mumbled as he walked away.
********
“Where the heckhound are we?” Liam complained to his twin.
Jake studied the map. “I know,” he said, hesitantly. “Um. I think I do, anyway. See that little corner, there?”
“Nope.”
He sighed and pointed to the map. “That one. That leads to—“
“What corner?” Liam cried, exasperated.
Jake rolled his eyes. “Just forget it, and follow me.”
“How do I know we’re going the right way?”
“Well, obviously, I’m smarter than you.”
“How?”
“You can’t read the map.”
“So?”
“If I can read the map, and you can’t…”
Liam scowled. “Map-reading is pointless. We should just use our Quest Trackers.”
“Oh, nice one. Remind me what quest we’re on?”
“Saving Matt and Alex.”
“Is that in our quest logs?”
Liam groaned. “Fine,” he said, miserably. “Lead the way. But don’t blame me if we get lost.”
********
Other than the visit from the somewhat pathetically ineloquent skeletal warrior, our time passed uneventfully. The bleak hours – or what felt like hours – stretched by punctuated by half-hearted plans to break out.
“We could burn down the bars,” suggested Matt hopefully.
“Might as well try,” I grumbled, moving as far away from the bars as possible. Matt gave the door to our cell a long hard look and the lock burst into flames. I could feel the heat from the back of the cell, and any normal padlock would have melted in seconds. When the relentless flames did die, though, the lock remained unscathed. Even Matt’s fire didn’t work, and everyone knew that he was undoubtedly the best pyromancer in the adept class by miles.
He sighed and retreated back into the corner, where I was still sweating.
“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about being cold,” I said, a little grudgingly. Naturally, Matt didn’t look concerned by the heat at all.
“Was that too much for you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m a diviner. We don’t like hot weather. We like rain. And storms.” I pushed him over and heard a little crack of electricity.
“Ouch,” he said, pretending to be hurt. “That was mean.” He pulled a face, and then made a little ball of fire appear. I retaliated with a splash of water. Soon we were having a full scale fight throwing fire and water at each other and hearing the hiss of steam when they collided.
I finally got the better of him with a mini-torrent of water, leaving him dripping. I wasn’t much better. In fact, most of the room was covered in water. The room? The cell. I’d forgotten.
“I think we need to dry off,” said Matt, happily. He closed his eyes and concentrated for a few seconds. In an instant he was bone dry.
“How did you do that?” I marveled. One of the best things about having talented friends was discovering all the cool things they could do.
“Pyromancer skills,” he said, tapping his nose. I’d noticed the water on the floor around him was drying up as well.
“You’re amazing,” I said, “for someone who’s such a jerk.”
“Well, if that’s how you feel, you can stay soaking,” he grinned.
“Sorry.”
“Hmph.”
Suddenly I heard a familiar voice in my head.
“You two done now?”
********
Liam sighed. “How much further do we have to go?”
“Stop whining.” Jake frowned at the map, and turned it around. “This way,” he said.
“There’s so much walking. Can’t we just teleport to them?”
“You’re kidding, right? You can’t just teleport into Malistaire’s secret dungeon! It’s near impossible to get there by foot!”
“Then why are we doing this? We should have told Ambrose.”
“I’m beginning to wish you hadn’t come.”
“Yeah, well, me too. This isn’t exactly a picnic.”
“Go back to Wizard City, then!”
Liam was silent. “But—”
“Did you hear that?” Jake whispered.
“The whisper chat?”
“Yeah.”
“The one which told us to go back to Wizard City.”
“No, the one that told us to go eat some ice-cream.” Jake rolled his eyes. “What do you think?”
“Alright, calm down. Well?”
“Well what?”
“What should we do?”
Jake sighed. He closed his eyes. Who are you?
I can’t tell you. But honestly, both of you need to get back to Wizard City. You can’t stay there. It isn’t safe. You aren’t safe.
That’s not an issue. We’re not here to be ‘safe’.
Wizard City needs your help!
Prove it.
What do you want me to say? I’m here, and you need to come.
Then tell us who you are!
I can’t. You need to come back.
Jake opened his eyes to find a concerned Liam staring at him.
“Dude, did you just, like fall asleep?”
“You’ve lived in Wizard City all your life and you still don’t know how people whisper chat?”
“Not all people whisper chat like psychos.”
Jake thought for a second. “That wasn’t a normal whisper chat.”
“No duh.”
“We have to keep going.”
“Go on then. Where next, little bro?”
“We’re twins. I’m not your ‘little bro’.”
“Say what you like. I was born before you.”
Jake sighed again. “Sometimes I wish you weren’t born at all. Follow me.”
They headed around the corner, Jake looking concerned and Liam tired.
“This is sooo boring,” he complained.
“You said to come here,” Jake reasoned.
“So? I didn’t realize it would be this long.”
“You’re saying that if you knew how big Dragonspyre was you wouldn’t have come.”
“No…”
“Well, yeah you are.”
“Stop twisting my words! I didn’t say that!”
“You implied it,” Jake stressed.
“Ugh. Fine. I’m going back.”
“Fine.”
Liam turned around quickly and began to walk away before Jake could change his mind about letting him wander off. He turned a corner, and came face to face with a draconian.
“Surprissssse,” it hissed.
Liam took a step back.
“Thought you wanted to go home. It’s thissss way.” The draconian flicked its tail to point behind it and slightly to the right.
Liam changed his mind.
“JAKE!” he yelled.
“What? Thought you were going home.”
“There’s a draconian here!”
“Seriously, Liam? You’ve told me that one over and over again. When will you stop pulling that trick?”
“No, really!”
“Sure.”
“Jake, you know I wouldn’t say it if there wasn’t. I first thought up that trick six years ago.”
The draconian hissed again and stepped forward. Liam turned on his heel and sprinted back to Jake, who turned around as Liam slammed into him.
“Changed your mind now, have you?”
“No. It’s just that there’s sort of this draconian chasing us.”
“Right.”
The draconian hissed.
Jake’s eyes widened. Liam glared at him. “Told you I wasn’t joking!”
“Ok,” said Jake. “So…”
“There’s another one!” yelled Liam.
“Come on, Liam! This is—“
“Yes! It is serious!”
Another draconian was ducking behind the first, but unlike the latter, it wasn’t sneering or snarling.
Suddenly, it pounced – but not on the twins. It attacked the other draconian.
“Go!” it screeched, frantically. Shocked as they were, Jake and Liam didn’t hesitate to obey.
********
I stood up quickly. Matt looked a bit puzzled. “Autumn?” I said, hesitantly.
“Well, it took you a while!” Autumn was sitting in the cell opposite us.
“What are you…?” I stuttered, confused, as glad as I was to see her. “How did you…? Why didn’t you…?”
“Save the babble already. We have talking to do.”
Matt was still looking slightly confused. “Autumn?” he asked. “Since when were you there? We didn’t know you were just over there…”
“Well, I didn’t know it was you two until you started throwing fireballs and stuff. But let’s start with the basics. Why are you here?”
“We came here to save you,” I said, feeling slightly uncomfortable. This wasn’t how I’d imagined this would pan out.
“You two? But… you’re only level… what, twenty? You’re hardly ready for this. Do you have no common sense?” She looked almost annoyed.
“Um, no?”
“Well, that’s reassuring,” she said sarcastically. “Any plans on getting out?”
“Not yet. You?”
“Well, if I did, I wouldn’t still be stuck in here, would I?”
“Okay, okay. We have been trying to come up with something.”
Autumn raised an eyebrow.
“We’ve only been here for a day, or something. Give us a chance. Why didn’t you say something earlier?”
“I only just noticed. I just thought Malistaire had taken some novices or something. I tried to call you out loud, and I guess you didn’t hear. Did you find anything in there?”
“Nah,” Matt said. “It’s empty.”
“Oh. I was just saying because I did find something, at least. A scrap of paper. Might mean something.”
Matt and I looked at each other before turning to Autumn simultaneously. “The prophecy!” we cried, at the same time.
“I can’t make out the first line,” she said, regretfully, “but it says something like… Two are young girls… I can’t see the rest. It’s too dark.”
Matt made a spark, and the corridor lit up.
“Hm. Nice. You’re Falmea’s son, aren’t you? That would explain a lot—”
“What. Does. It. Say.”
“It’s a bit of a rubbish poem… I’ll read the next bits.

“But all will face darkness; no doubt there's a lot
It shall be a long road but they must persevere
For their destinies lie somewhere shrouded in fear.

“Alas, Spiral saviors, your fates are tied
You cannot succeed until one has died.

“Not very positive, is it? All that stuff about fear and dying.”
“Autumn, that prophecy’s about Jake and Liam.”
“They’re not two young girls.”
“Forget it. Pass it to us.”
“That would be a great plan if you weren’t across the corridor from me.”
I sighed. “Well, when we get out, then.”
“Great. You guys can—”
“YOUS!”
“Great,” I muttered.
“Bonehead’s back,” mumbled Matt, miserably.
“OVERCRAMPING. YOU.” The skeletal warrior pointed to Autumn. “YOU GO TO WITH YOUS.” He pointed at Matt and I. He slammed Autumn’s cage door open and dragged her over to ours, opening our door with a massive key and shoving her in with us. Autumn winced as he relocked the door.
The warrior started to clunk down the hallway again, but not before Matt had sent a small flame shooting straight at the hand he was holding the keys in.
“GRAH.” The stupid thing shook his hand briefly and carried on walking. The keys were lying on the floor, just outside Autumn’s old cell.
“Heckhounds,” said Matt. “Bit late.”
“You were brilliant! We practically have it now!”
“Yeah, but we don’t,” he frowned.
“We’ll find a way, don’t worry.”
Matt smiled at me appreciatively. “Thanks.”
“YOUS! QUIET!” The skeletal warrior came back, dragging a limp form of a draconian behind him. It crooned painfully.
“QUIET, TRAITOR.” He tossed the poor thing in a cell, where it began to whimper mournfully, and lumbered off, almost stepping on the keys he’d dropped not a minute before. It surprised me that he didn’t even think to lock the cell again. I suppose there must be a few issues when you don’t have a brain, though.
The draconian lifted its head sadly. Despite being a dangerous animal and probably an evil minion of one of the most powerful and terrifying wizards of all time, I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for it. I opened my mouth to speak but suddenly, to all of our surprise, it interrupted.
“Yes. I am a traitor.” Her – she was definitely female – voice was croaky and weak.
Matt, Autumn, and I exchanged confused glances.
“I posed as Malistaire’s minion. I’m a spy.”
We continued glancing at each other before Matt decided to speak up. “Who for?”
“I couldn’t say, hatchlings.”
Hatchlings? “Ambrose?” suggested Autumn.
“No, no, hatchlings. A world a little further away than Wizard City, but I help your kind.”
“Like who?”
“Some wizards just down… I doubt you know Dragonspyre, but my brethren were about to attack them, and worse… take them here.”
Matt and I looked at each other. “How many were there?” I asked eagerly.
“Two. No more than hatchlings, like yourselves.”
“What did they look like?” I pressed.
“I didn’t have a chance to look at them more than briefly. I’m sorry, hatchlings.” She lay her head down on her front claws
“It has to be Jake and Liam,” Matt whisper chatted to me. “They’re the only people who know we wanted to save Autumn.”
“They might have told someone,” I replied, uncertainly.
“She said they were hatchlings. Plus, they wouldn’t have done that.”
“I hope they’re okay.”
“They’ll be fine.”
Autumn’s voice came into my head at the same time. “You know who she means?”
“We think it might be Jake and Liam,” I replied hastily. “You know. The twins.” I could almost see Autumn groaning. I sighed.
“How come you can whisper chat in here anyway?” I demanded, out loud.
“I dunno. I didn’t try it until I whisper chatted to you.”
“Maybe we can whisper chat to Liam and Jake. Tell them where we are.”
Matt nodded and I saw him concentrate. A few seconds later, he focused on me again. “Nothing.”
I made a sympathetic face. “Maybe not. Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Matt smiled at me. “Like you said, we practically have a way out now!” I grinned back.
********
I can’t remember how long it was after that that Matt fell asleep. Autumn, however, was still very much awake and couldn’t stop talking, making sleep a bit of a non-option for me.
“I’ve been sooo bored in here. Honestly Alex, I’m really glad that someone came that I can talk to. I swear, if it had been one more day, I would have gone crazy. I mean, I can’t even describe how boring it was, what with all those boneheads. Only having them for company – do you see what I mean? I mean, it’s alright for some, isn’t it. You two are really lucky; at least you had each other when you came here. You can keep each other company, whereas I’ve been on my own for days, with no one to talk to at all. It’s totally depressing, but—”
“Autumn.”
“—you guys are—”
“Autumn! Can you please shut up? One, you were kidnapped so of course you wouldn’t have any company; two, you talk way too much and three: I’m tired. I want to sleep.”
“Okay. Okay. Calm down.”
“Can you just be quiet for once?”
“Whatever.”
“You really wind me up.”
“It’s funny when I wind you up.”
Matt stirred in his sleep.
“Right. Well, I’m tired, so ‘night,’” yawned Autumn.
“’Night.”
I curled up in a corner and tried to fall asleep.
********
Liam yawned. “I’m tired. Can we just teleport?”
“How many times do I have to tell you that that won’t work?” Jake asked. “Look, there it is. We don’t have that far to go.”
Liam stared at him.
“What?”
“Race ya.”
The twins began to sprint towards what appeared to be the entrance. Jake began to get slightly ahead.
He tripped and disappeared.
Liam skidded to a halt. “Jake?” he yelled, looking around in confusion.
“Down here,” echoed his twin’s voice from what seemed to be below the ground. Liam turned his gaze to the floor and saw the hole which Jake had fallen into. He saw a rope ladder hanging from the side and began to descend. When he’d reached the bottom he saw Jake sitting uncomfortably on the floor.
“You okay?” asked Liam.
“I think…” Jake screwed up his face. “I think I hurt my ankle.”
Liam crouched down and got out his wand, murmuring something under his breath. A magnificent unicorn erupted from the leaves that were swirling around his wand. It touched its horn to Jake’s foot and Jake’s face lightened. Liam nodded at the unicorn gratefully and it disappeared as suddenly as it had come.
“Better?” grinned Liam.
“Better,” Jake smiled. “Now, let’s go.”
********
I woke up in a matter of hours, which would matter if we had any concept of time, but we didn’t, so our mental clocks were completely messed up. The first thing I noticed was that the other two were still sleeping. Secondly, I noticed that the key was still lying on the floor of the corridor. I rolled up the filthy – though I’d only just noticed it – sleeve of my robe, stretched my arm through the bars of our cell, and reached as far as I could, but I still couldn’t quite touch it.
“It’s a pain, isn’t it?” said Matt quietly, startling me. I turned around and he grinned. I couldn’t help but smile back.
“I didn’t know you were awake,” I replied, similarly quiet. I went over to join him in the corner.
“Well, I am. Unlike sleepy over there.” He nodded towards Autumn, who was still sleeping, and smiled. There was an awkward silence. “Um, last night…”
“It might not have been night. You can never tell when it’s always dark.”
Matt gri nned. “True. But, erm, what Autumn… Erm.” He seemed to rethink it. “Do you have any ideas about getting out?”
I shook my head. “Not a clue. If only we had our wands. Then we could summon a Firecat or something to go fetch it.”
“Wouldn’t the fire cat burn the key?”
“If this metal’s resistant to your fire, the thing wouldn’t have a chance.”
“You never know. Can’t be too careful, can you? For all you know, I could just be a fire cat in disguise.”
“Meow. But seriously, what’s gonna happen to us if we don’t get out?”
Matt didn’t say anything.
“What if Malistaire decides he doesn’t need us anymore?”
“If that was the case, he would have gotten rid of us by now.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Oh, you two,” Autumn grumbled, tiredly. “Wake up. We. Need. To. Get. Out.”
“We were just discussing that, actually,” Matt explained.
“Sure,” Autumn smirked. “So, now you are actually listening to me—” Another voice cut in, making me jump.
“Oh, get up, you idiot. We don’t have time for this. We need to find them!”
“Who the heckhound is that?” I asked nervously.
“I dunno,” said Matt, “but they don’t sound too evil.”
“Huh,” mumbled Autumn.
“Um, can you let go of my arm now?” Matt whispered. I released my grip apologetically. I hadn’t even realized I’d grabbed his arm in shock.
“Sorry,” I said quietly.
Two familiarly identical shapes emerged from the darkness.
“JAKE! LIAM!” I yelled before I could stop myself.
There was a silence.
Oops.
“Okay,” said Matt softly. “I’d say we have about ninety seconds before they get here to see what’s wrong.”
“Sorry,” I added. “We need to get out of here. Grab that key.”
A bemused Jake took the key and unlocked our cell, and we scrambled out.
“Which way now?” asked Liam.
“You tell me!” said Autumn, indignantly. “And we need our wands – and our decks!”
“I hate to break it to you, but those things can wait,” said Jake quickly. “You guys need to get out of here.”
“Wait!” I broke in, suddenly. I grabbed the scrap of paper on the floor and held it out to Jake. “We think this is the second part of the prophecy!”
He barely even glanced at it before pocketing it. “Ambrose did say that…”
“What’s the whole deal with this prophecy, anyway?” Autumn interrupted.
“We’ll explain later,” I excused.
“We don’t have time for this stuff, anyway. This way!” Liam darted off into a tunnel, followed by Jake, then Matt, then a still puzzled Autumn. I followed them as fast as I could.
We’d barely got three turns into the corridor when I heard a frustrated cry of anger from behind us.
“YOU FOOLS!”
All of us seemed to use that as an incentive to speed up. Jake sprinted ahead.
“Call yourselves guards!”
He dashed around a corner and we followed unquestioningly. How the heckhound did he know where to go? I jumped over a rock on the floor.
“You LET them escape?”
WHAM. Autumn had tripped. I skidded to a halt and grabbed her, pulling her up and dragging her forwards.
“How? How did they ‘trick’ you?”
Autumn quickly regained her footing and ran after me, limping slightly. Matt turned around to see what had happened and I shoved him forward.
“Well what are you waiting for? Go after them!”
I pressed forward.
“Which way? Which way do you think they went, you brainless idiots? To the exit corridor!”
There was an unsteady thudding of footsteps following us. We turned another sharp corner and there was a rope ladder in front of us. Jake clambered up it quickly, followed by Liam. Matt followed them and I climbed up after him, followed by Autumn.
“YOUS!”
Autumn and I finally scrambled onto the dry scrubland above the tunnel. “What do we do now?” asked Autumn.
“TELEPORT!” yelled Liam at the top of his voice.
In a mix of red, purple, and green, we disappeared.
********
“I cannot stress how disappointed I am in all of you.” Ambrose addressed us – as in, me, Matt, Jake, and Liam – the only people who were bothered enough to try and help Autumn.
Liam looked bored. Jake was trembling. Matt rolled his eyes at me.
“You have broken several rules. Stealing.” Ambrose looked at Matt. “Going to a world you haven’t reached yet.” He looked at me. “And going to Dragonspyre after you were specifically instructed not to.” He looked at Liam. Gamma hooted haughtily.
“It was for a good cause,” I pleaded.
“You should have left this to the staff. You were not ready for a quest like this.” Ambrose looked away and shook his head. Gamma hooted sympathetically. “That said, you managed to get back safely.”
Jake looked a little more relieved.
“And… I have decided that I will not punish you, for now. Besides, what you did was brave, if reckless.”
I grinned, and was about to run out of the office excitedly when Ambrose spoke again.
“But if I hear one more thing about you…” he shook his head. Gamma hooted disapprovingly. Gamma’s hooting was starting to get annoying.
Well, we hopefully wouldn’t be in a situation like that again. I made up my mind about it there and then. From then on, I was going to obey the rules.
“That means no stealing, no disobeying your teachers, no disrespect, no running off and NO fighting. Understood?”
We all nodded.
Ambrose hesitated before Gamma cut in. “Yo-oo-oo-ou are dismissed.”
Jake suddenly spoke up.
“Sir, can I give something to you?”
Ambrose frowned, but then nodded. Jake gave him the scrap of paper which the prophecy must have been on. Ambrose’s expressions went from suspicious to confused to shocked.
“Mr Ravencloud, is this…?”
“Yes, it is, professor.”
“Where did you get it, my boy?”
“We’ll explain everything later, professor.”
Ambrose hesitated. “Very well. Off you go now,” he said, reluctantly.
********
I was trying to do my Life homework in my dorm room, but I was a bit distracted. I stared blankly at my textbook. I needed to revise the theory of healing spells for a test tomorrow.
The magic of the song is based on a form of energy, called Spiritus Incrementa – literally meaning “the growth of spirit” in Latin.
“Think we got off lightly there,” Liam had commented as we walked out of the door.
“Must be because we have Jakey-boy with us!” Matt had tried to joke. “They wouldn’t want to sacrifice such a talented student!”
“Shut up,” mumbled Jake, looking embarrassed. I didn’t really know what to say.
Also simply known as life force, it is so named because it allows the particles that create living things to work in harmony to provide the key processes of life – namely, growth and spirit.

“I guess you do have a point,” Liam had said. “After all, I’m one of the most talented theurgists I know!”
“How arrogant can you get?” I asked, laughing.
“Big head,” said Matt. “We can’t all get plants to start tripping up moody conjurers!” he added, referencing the time when Liam had set a tree’s roots the task of tripping up the truly arrogant Reed Mythstrider, who had a superiority complex.
It is present in all living creatures’ souls, and is the reason behind life itself. At its creation, a living thing has a set amount of life force, and it is depleted through illness, physical harm, and magical harm. It can also fade as a creature loses the will to live.

“You should be careful around him, you know,” warned Jake, cautiously. “He’s a lot more trouble than he looks, honestly.”
“Really? How can he be any more trouble than he looks?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Jake sighed and shook his head. “Oh, just forget it.”

Without Spiritus Incrementa, everything that exists would fall apart and disappear into the Darkness (the empty space below the Spiral which contains everything that has ceased to exist).

I’d wondered what was wrong with him, and was still wondering. The Mythstrider kid was always a touchy topic with him. Who could blame him? After all, he had been beating him up with a troll for as long as I could remember.

The songs that all life spells utilize send this growth energy into the spirit of the living creature it is directed towards. This replenishes depleted force and therefore—

BAM.
I leapt to my feet and rushed down the corridor into the cold open air of Ravenwood. As soon as I stepped out, I saw… Well, I didn’t see anything, apart from a huge green mass in front of my face. I smelt vomit. And slime.
A humongofrog.
A sneering voice came from behind it. “I don’t think you’ve seen this one yet, have you?”
“No, but I-I-I really don’t think you need to, erm… demonstrate, Reed.”
I was going to kill the Mythstrider kid.
Before I’d even thought about what I was doing, I’d pulled out my wand and begun to wave it. A storm symbol formed and the air crackled with static electricity, and suddenly a wall of water had appeared and was ready to crash down on the frog.
“JAKE!” I yelled. “MOVE!”
Jake’s blonde head bobbed around the huge green mass quickly, and he sprinted towards me, grinning gratefully.
WHOOSH.
“You are going to pay, noobs!”
I bit my lip to try and stop myself from laughing when I saw him. Reed was dripping, from his blue hair to the toes of his expensive Marleybone boots. On the other hand, he looked absolutely furious, his wand was out, and a bunch of Myth cronies were behind him. They stormed over.
“What in the Spiral,” he spat, hatefully, “do you think you’re doing?!”
“Defending a loser,” snarled Blaze Dragonrunner, a similarly arrogant conjurer, “like him?”
I tried to think of a catty response. “What do you think you’re doing, setting a Humongofrog on him? It could have killed him!”
“Actually, Alex, Humongofrogs can’t kill people. They just vomit all over you until you become nauseous,” Jake corrected. I gave him a look which I intended to mean ‘You’re not helping me here’, but he just smiled pleasantly.
“I think the little nerds need teaching a lesson,” Reed sneered. Before I could even open my mouth to tell him that it was better to be a nerd than a low-life bully, he’d given me and Jake a shove so hard that we ended up sprawled on the floor a few feet away.
I sat up, absolutely fuming, when a black and white ball of anger hurled past me.
“Go away!” it screeched, furiously. “You’re a big butthead and I hate you and leave my sister alone!”
I hadn’t expected that from my little brother. Still a little disorientated, all I really wanted to do was congratulate Nat on his bravery before realizing that there was something stomping behind us. I turned around.
“CYCLOPS!” I yelled.
Jake and I scrambled up as quickly as we could. I grabbed Nat, and ducked behind the stone steps of the boys’ dormitory, pulling Jake along with me. At that precise moment, and rather inconveniently, the door flung open and out came – would you believe it? Matt and Liam.
“What the heckhound--?” Matt asked. They both looked dumbfounded. Then they realized that if they didn’t move they were probably going to be flattened by the hammer of an angry Cyclops. They hopped over the side of the steps and joined us ducking.
“What is going on?” whispered Liam, frantically.
“Jakey-boy here was being beaten up by Myth-face and his pet froggy. Not good combo. Smells like sick,” I replied in a hushed tone.
“Too right,” said Matt. “On three, you guys.”
“One,” he said. I checked my deck quickly. Kraken. Storm Shark. Lightning Bats. Leprechaun. I discarded all my non-attacking cards. They weren’t going to help outside of a dueling circle.
“Two.” I drew my wand and tensed up. Liam, Jake, and Nat were doing the same.
“Three!”
We leapt up, and stood awkwardly for a moment, unsure of what to do. Then Liam waved his wand and summoned a leprechaun. It slid down its rainbow and giggled, then grabbed its pot and smashed it on the floor near the Mythstrider kid’s feet. Matt summoned another, which threw its gold around viciously before starting to climb up Blaze’s robe, kicking and biting on the way. Blaze whipped out his wand and summoned a trio of angry, screeching lightning bats before you could say ‘fail’.
From then on it was a flurry of spells. I didn’t know who had summoned what, and more and more people were joining in the fight and attacking whoever they saw. I don’t even think that anyone ‘took sides’. By the time I’d noticed that passers-by were getting involved it had just become a free-for-all.
I waved my staff. Fizzle. Frustrated, I waved it again, harder, and it flew out of my hand as a sunbird flew past my head, singing my hat. I lunged for the staff which was rolling towards the yellowish feet of a conjurer, but then the Mythstrider kid picked it up and held it out of my reach.
“Not so smart now, are you, diviner?” he sneered contemptuously.
I didn’t bother to try to respond. I gave him a solid shove, making his hair stand on end from the static, and he stumbled, winded. Before he could react properly I snatched my staff and summoned a Kraken. Water flooded the area around us, and a conjurer to my left sent a blood bat at me. I ducked quickly as it aimed for my head, and turned around, only to bump into a somewhat disheveled Autumn.
“Autumn?” I asked, confused.
“Some myth loser attacked me out of nowhere!” she told me, indignant. “So I asked him what he was doing, and he cast a blood bat! So I summoned a treant, and—”
“I get the idea,” I interrupted. Since when had the fight got so big? Suddenly, a minotaur appeared behind Autumn. “Um…” I said, slightly shocked.
She whipped around, and, with a quick wave of her wand, formed a fire symbol. I frowned. Didn’t Autumn second in Myth? To my surprise, she cast a Phoenix, which swooped down over the minotaur. The lumbering beast fell to the floor, defeated.
“Where did you learn that?” I asked, in awe.
Autumn smiled. “Treasure card.”
“Lucky,” I said enviously, before hastily ducking to avoid a meteor which was zoning in on my head. By the time I looked up, Autumn was off dueling a thaumaturge.
“Sorry!” yelled Matt, rushing up behind me. “I was aiming for—”
“Don’t worry,” I butted in. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine – are you okay?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“This has gotten out of hand.”
I glanced around. “Obviously.”
“I think we should go back to our dorms.”
“Yeah. That way, we can’t get blamed for all of this.”
“Let’s go, qui—duck!” We crouched down as a Cyclops nearly tripped over us. Matt grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the dorm rooms.
We made it to the steps. It’s a bit weird to think that if that Cyclops hadn’t come, then everything after that wouldn’t have happened.
“STOP AT ONCE!” cried a dominating voice over the chaos.
Slowly, everyone fell silent.
“The instigators are to come to my office. I know who you are.”
We looked at each other and sighed. Heckhounds.
********
“I can’t believe this has happened.”
I looked around. There I was, just this morning, swearing I’d never make trouble again. Now look at the mess I was in! I’d made everything go wrong. If only I’d just ignored the stupid Mythstrider kid. I glared at him. He was standing at the end of the line looking nonchalant, as though he’d done nothing wrong. I wanted to hit something.
All of us – me, Matt, Jake, Liam, Reed, and Nat – had been guided in here by a troll, which Cyrus Drake had conjured as the battle collapsed in on itself. As for Reed’s cronies, however… It looked like they’d got out of it pretty easily.
“I want you all to know that nothing – absolutely nothing - in all my time at Ravenwood has ever amounted to an event like this. I am disgusted by this misconduct. And with family involved, as well! I will be informing your parents.” He gave the twins a furious stare.
“All six of you will be punished. Heaven knows, the only thing I can think of at the moment is permanent exclusion, and I doubt that will change. You have all disappointed me hugely. To think that all of you had excelled in your classes throughout your time here! I cannot express my horror at the situation.”
Jake looked like he might pass out. Even Liam and Matt looked a little pale.
“Everyone knows he won’t actually expel us,” whisper chatted Matt into my head.
“Really?”
“Yeah, they haven’t done that since they opened the school. Mom told me.”
“Good to know.”
“Aren’t you glad to have me?”
“I guess, moron.”
“Who are you calling moron?”
“Who do you think, imbecile?”
“Who are you calling imbecile?”
I giggled in my head.
Ambrose sighed. “After my many years of teaching here, I know when students are whisper chatting to each other. And I will expel you, if that is what it will come to.”
Could Ambrose see everyone’s private conversations? I suddenly felt extremely embarrassed and began to stare at the floor. Matt looked similarly uncomfortable.
“I can assure you that I am in doubt that any of you will be here for much longer.”
There was a long and awkward pause, where all of us were too scared, worried, or uncomfortable to even look at each other, let alone communicate. Suddenly, Gamma gave a loud hoot.
“Professor, can I consult with yo-ou for a moment?”
“Lead the way, Gamma.” The professor followed a strangely excited Gamma into a small room at the back of the office where students usually aren’t allowed.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Matt whispered, “How does he know when we’re whisper chatting?”
I shook my head in confusion. “No idea,” I replied.
“Mind reading?” suggested Liam.
“Oh, be quiet, you idiots.”
We all looked at the only myth kid in the room.
“What happened to all your buddies, Mr Cool?” asked Matt. “Are they hiding? Have they cast an invisibility spell?”
Reed turned away, clearly thinking he was too important to be bothered with losers like us.
Ambrose swung open the door and marched into the room, and the silence became less awkward and more terrifying. I think we were all holding our breath. Jake now looked close to tears, and I swear that
“We have decided…” Ambrose said, hesitantly, “that exclusion… may not be the only option.” He gave us all intimidating stares. “You will remain here to continue your studies.”
Not one of us could speak. When had Ambrose ever taken back anything he’d said ever before? This had to be a first. All we managed to be able to do was stare at him in shock.
“We have conclu-u-uded that exclu-usion would be a waste of valuable magical potent, what with the entire Spiral being in danger,” added Gamma, insistently. “Malistaire’s forces are gathering, and we need all the wizards we can get to assist in overcoming his powers.”
That didn’t seem like a great explanation. I looked at the others. They were all either still in shock or didn’t seem to have noticed the lousy justification of that argument, with the exception of the myth kid, who still had a haughty sneer on his face.
“This incident cannot go completely unpunished, however,” Ambrose began. “You will attend detentions every week for two months—” I suppose it was only fair, but I couldn’t help being a little annoyed “—and you are all banned from doing any quests for a month. Don’t even try to. I’ll have your Spiral keys taken away until I deem fit to return them, and I’d like you to know that all denizens of the Spiral do report to me who has been completing quests each day.”
I stifled a groan. I supposed we had it coming, after starting a massive free-for all. Still, we were so close to getting into Marleybone! And now we’d be behind in levels and never get through the Tomb of Storms.
“And as for you three,” he continued, seriously, looking pointedly at the twins and Reed. “Your mother and father will be informed. And you too, Mr Fireshard.”
Hold on.
You three?
I was going to say something there but I managed to keep my mouth shut until we were dismissed, at which point I near-exploded.
“What did he mean when he said “you three”?!” I demanded.
Liam and Jake glanced at each other. Reed sniffed.
“Well, he was addressing us two and Reed, obviously,” Liam explained.
I blinked. “Your mother and father. Singular. You three have one mother and one father between you, so…”
“Yeah, Reed’s our older brother.” Jake looked at the floor.
Matt looked about as confused as I was – which is to say, very much so. “Why didn’t you say?” he asked.
“We didn’t say he wasn’t,” countered Liam.
“And like I’d want to be associated with these losers,” sneered the Mythstrider kid. “Now, if you midgets will excuse me, I’ll be going.”
“No way. You’re staying here,” I said. “They’re your brothers. Why do you always beat up Jake?! You don’t just beat up your brother for no reason!”
Nat, who had been strangely quiet up until now, spoke up. “But Alex…”
I turned to him. “You’re annoying, but I wouldn’t set a imp on you, let alone a humongofrog.”
He looked a bit embarrassed. “Thanks, Alex.”
“So, on that note, why do you do it?!” I asked Reed.
“Alex…” began Jake.
“No! You can’t just let your brother keep trying to kill you! Don’t your mom and dad know?”
“No, but…” he started again.
“See? This isn’t fair! He shouldn’t be allowed to just keep getting away with this!”
Liam broke in. “Alex, we’ll explain in a minute. Just let Reed go about his business,” he whispered. He gave me a this-is-going-to­-be-bad-if-we-don’t-leave-him-alone look.
Matt, who was being uncharacteristically awkward, suddenly decided to support them. “Alex, I guess that’s a family issue. You don’t want to interfere too much.”
I sighed and turned my back on the Mythstrider kid, still angry. When I heard his footsteps fade I turned back.
“So what’s the deal?” I asked.
“It doesn’t really matter that much. It’s nothing big.” said Jake.
“Go on. We’ll go sit in the life tower while we explain.” Liam practically pushed us in there.
“This had better be a good story,” added Matt. “Got any popcorn?”
“Only pet snacks,” said Liam. “You know, for animals. So only you could eat them.”
Matt prodded him with his wand.
“Right. Let’s start at the beginning.”