Chapter 45: When the Dream Starts to Fade
“Princess, that’s almost the entire second year,”
“I know! Isn’t it awesome?”
Certainly – at least from the perspective of a teacher.
“When we started this, you said your magic would both filter out whomever had unnatural power, and help prevent that power overwhelming them,”
“That was six months ago, Nat! Now look at them all – I’m so proud of them!”
“It’s not helping us though, is it?”
“But they’ve come so far…”
“Princess, if we don’t find out the source before Cethin Sarff…”
Natalie wasn’t even sure what this ‘Cethin Sarff’ was about, other than it being a small collection of renegade faeries Titania kept talking about. Their motives for attacking the Academy were still unclear, but it couldn’t be ruled out that they had come to the same conclusion Natalie, Titania and the others had come to – and if they had, and they were after the same thing, it wouldn’t be long before they struck again.
“I know, I know… I thought it’d be easier, okay?” said Titania, “I mean it was so obviously Deneb at first, but then I realised Lysander totally had some kind of defensive barrier way over my level, and then Dante started acting strange, and Katrina’s got really impressive spirit, and there’s definitely something up with that Elone, and Byron, and Lyra’s got magic of her own, and…”
Natalie took a deep breath. “This really isn’t getting us anywhere, is it?” she said, before Titania could continue her characteristic babbling. It was no surprise that half the students enrolled at the Academy were odd in some way or another – it was the same with most year groups – but what they were looking for went deeper than ‘odd’. Someone whose very existence created a corruption in the leylines – enough to draw in trouble such as Cethin Sarff – was a danger not only to themselves, but also to everyone around them.
“But they’re totally fighting it!” squeaked Titania, “Then when Skirnir tries it on with them, they’ll totally screw with his magic too!”
“I can’t say I share your optimism. If it took them six months to overcome your illusions – no disrespect, of course – I don’t have much faith in their overall ability…”
“Ah, they just need a chance to shine!”
Natalie wasn’t sure if she admired Titania’s optimistic faith or despised it. The world had taught her to be cynical and realistic, and she’d seen people with similar ideologies to Titania – and Princess Phantasia for that matter – get corrupted and devoured by the cruelties of fate.
“If it weren’t for Godhand, they’d have been given it already,” she said, “But it’s too late to kick-start their education now – all we can do is try and protect them and sort things out behind their backs. Speaking of which…”
“Nat, you’re so totally boring…”
“Princess, please… that cult of spirit mediums is going to try and summon their master, Alastor, tomorrow night. We’ll need to secure the illusion to make sure that ‘Veritas’ lot don’t try and get in over their heads like they did with Godhand,” – covering up that incident had taken more effort than everything previous combined – “Ceres says some of them are definitely keeping digital notes and recordings to remind themselves. I told her to initiate the backup plan, though I don’t know if Korrigan’s clever enough to follow it through…”
