Forgotten Magic: An Alchemyst Fanfiction

Chapter 27- This is Real

I was early and sat down alone on the soft chairs that line the long tables.

The banquet was tonight and all the girls were spending every free second in their rooms deciding what was appropriate for a winter banquet.

I was kind of in the middle for this situation.

As much as I felt that it would be good to make this a special day and dress of fancy, it would require a lot more work.

Also, attracting attention to myself right before I left was probably not the best idea.

It was best to just say my silent goodbyes and be gone.

Breakfast was served but I noticed that no one else had arrived.

“Where is everyone?” I asked the waiter.

“The school-wide breakfast is optional this morning as many are preparing for the banquet tonight.”

Not even a teacher had showed up, wow.

Maybe this was a bigger thing than I had initially thought.

I awkwardly finished my breakfast, thanked the waiter for their big effort to feed such a small amount of people and headed back to my room.

There was a crowd of people gathered in the hallways and I was surprised.

They missed breakfast so they could stand in the hallway?

Didn’t really make sense to me.

When I got closer I realized they were all looking at something.

I found Bree in the sea of faces. (see what I did there? Bree in the sea? No ok. Fine. Please continue.)

“What’s going on?” I tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned towards me with a shocked expression.

She shook her head and pointed, with a shaking hand, through an open door.

It was my room.

I shoved through the crowd, trying to get there as fast as I could without   tripping over my dress.

The scratched door was open wide, revealing the chaos that was left of my room.

My clothes lay torn and flung across the room, only rags left of the beautiful embroidery that someone had spent many painful hours of their life on.

My blankets had been thrown aside and I could see a few pieces of feathers lightly dusting the floor, having fallen out of my pillow.

The bedside table had been flipped over and the lamp shattered.

Pages had been viciously ripped out of my beautiful books that lay dying in various corners of the room.

Only one thing was left untouched.

My desk.

My desk was exactly how I’d left it and as I wandered into the room on guard, something caught my eye.

An envelope lay on the hard wooden surface.

Hello Aurelia,

A cold feeling came over me and I shivered uncontrollably.

Hello Aurelia,

We sincerely hope that you’ve been enjoying your stay. We found something of yours and we are very willing to return it, granted you give us what we want.

We can discuss the technicalities later when we meet but until then, just know that you have four days and counting until John Dee dies. 

How did they have John? It wasn’t possible, this was a setup! Four days? Did I really have time to waste? I had to leave right away! But this was exactly what they wanted! 

Not only had my room been torn apart, but my life.

Meet at the top of the Eiffel Tower at sunrise on the fourth day from now for a talk and he will be spared.

And if I don’t?

If you don’t, I will see to it myself that you will never stop being hunted. You have no shortage of friends. This much we know and at the moment a certain boy on Christmas holidays with his family is quite close, we could pay him a visit if you wanted to.

The letter answered my question.

I tore my desk apart, searching for a pencil. I had to write to Dee, if he didn’t reply, I’d know something was wrong. I could wait for twelve hours. That was all I could guarantee.

When I had surveyed the mess previously I had thought it could be James, extracting his revenge but he would never go this far, even if he was joking. And he certainly wouldn’t sign his name as The Dark Elders.

He didn’t even know about The Dark Elders.

Everything suddenly became real as I shut my letter quickly and pushed through the crowd to find the messenger.

This was real.

People wanted me dead.

I’d put this school in danger for far too long and now everyone would pay for my mistakes. Again.

“Please take this to Sir Dee as fast as possible!” I begged the messenger, “Upon your arrival, you may take a new horse to speed your journey.”

The man nodded, a new horse was quite a prize and fairly hard to come by, he’d take what he could get.

A few of the concerned onlookers from the destroyed room scene had followed me out and they grabbed for my hand anxiously.

I pulled away from their grasp, now I needed to think.

The headmistress stopped me when I tried to enter the school, “We have formed a guard for you.”

A guard?

“To protect you from those who wish you harm,” she explained, “They will accompany you and ensure that you are alright.”

I didn’t say anything but I did wonder how in the world was a guard with swords going to protect me from The Dark Elders?