Chapter Twenty #2
‘One day it’ll come out. That pressure you feel will release itself from your body and I hope I’m still around to witness it.
I want to see the look on your face when you feel yourself breathe easily for the first time.
I hope your element is stronger than any flame your family can muster.
Fire needs air to survive, remember that.
You strip away its air and it’s nothing. They’ll become nothing.’
After Xavier and I have our heart-to-heart, we focus back on the course work.
Professor Fern, a blonde woman in her mid-forties, gave us each our own tasks dependent on our abilities.
Xavier and I were placed together because we both can’t access our elements.
For the likes of Tilly, who was sitting a little way away, she and her partner were miles ahead and got to work on fun things, like condensing her water element into a shape and seeing how long she could keep it in that form.
I watched in awe as she created a wobbly ball of water, rising a few inches above her palm and kept it there for several minutes before it dropped, splashing water all over herself and her lap.
I felt a surge of pride when she looked over at Xavier and I with delight dancing in her eyes.
‘I’m sorry, but this is insane,’ I whisper to him and Tilly now as we walk side by side through the library that’s situated underground.
After Tilly’s impressive display, Xavier and I made plans to go to the library together to see if there was anything that could help us learn how to uncork the metaphorical bottle containing our elements.
I look around, starstruck, as we walk down one of the hundreds of narrow aisles that stand tall like soldiers, reaching all the way up to the ceiling.
Glass lanterns hang between each aisle. The lantern directly above us sways ever so slightly as we walk with quiet steps beneath it, careful not to disturb the eerie stillness of the sleeping books.
When Xavier suggested coming here, I had no clue we would be heading beneath the academy. Nowhere on my map did it indicate that the entrance to the library was not only in the building where we go for our Sympathetic Magic class but located below it.
Our footsteps echo on the stone floor as we fall deeper into the maze of shelves. My fingers reach out to run along a particular row of dusty spines, leaving a trail in my wake.
‘In my defence, Agate’s side of the library isn’t as creepy or unkempt. I mean look at this—’ He stops and points up to a thick spider’s web hanging limp from a lantern like someone batted it away as they walked past but never bothered to get rid of it. ‘Disgusting.’
‘Agate has its own section! Why don’t we just go there?’ Tilly asks, shuddering as she ducks low to avoid the web then suddenly yelps. ‘Is there something on me? I feel like there’s something on me!’ Her hands start flapping.
My smile spreads wide. ‘If by something you mean the giant black spider crawling up your arm, then yes.’
She flips me off. ‘Ha-ha, very funny.’
‘I wasn’t joking.’ I reach forward and with the back of my hand I whack the spider that’s crawling up her arm before it reaches her shoulders and her locks of curly hair. The furry creature falls to the ground and scuttles away beneath the bookshelf.
Tilly’s face is one of pure horror. Her hazel eyes widen to the point where I fear they’re about to pop out and roll beneath the bookshelf along with the spider.
Xavier steps behind her and clamps hand over her mouth just seconds before she lets out what I’m sure would have been a deafening screech.
Tilly reaches up and yanks Xavier’s hand off her face to whisper-yell, ‘I almost died! Did you see that?’ She whirls around to me. ‘Oh my gosh, you touched it. Why would you do that?’
My eyes lock with Xavier’s as our friend wipes her arms and legs with her hands, whacking away the invisible spiders that could be crawling on her. Our shoulders start shaking with silent laughter.
‘Oh good. I’m so glad you both find my near-death experience funny.’ Tilly’s hands land on her narrow hips.
‘I’d make it up to you by taking you into Agate’s library, but you wouldn’t be allowed in.’
That piece of news gives me pause. ‘It’s part of the library, isn’t it? Shouldn’t it be accessible to all students?’
‘You’d think so. They’re extremely secretive about what information leaves Agate’s tower. You should see the headmaster’s collection; he has his own room down there that’s restricted for everyone.’
‘Wait, let me get this straight. You’re telling me that beneath Agate is an entire room of information that’s being kept hidden?’ My mind starts to race. I can’t begin to imagine the wealth of knowledge about this academy that might be stored in that restricted section.
Lillian wasn’t lying when she said each unit has their own secrets, though a bloody bathing chamber is nothing compared to this.
‘How is that allowed?’ I press. How has no one refuted this? Knowledge is power, it’s no wonder every headmaster that’s ever lived has been from Agate. For all we know, they could be sleeping on top of centuries of history down there. Each headmaster over time adding their own chips to the pile.
‘It’s kind of expected though, isn’t it?’ Tilly says. ‘When you think about the history of this place and who created it. Of course he would have built his own secret horde of knowledge for only him and his people.’
‘Wait. Who are you talking about?’ I ask, confused. Did I miss something?
Xavier and Tilly look at me like I just grew a second head. ‘Achātēs,’ they say in unison.