'Then a genius solution comes to me like a lightning flash of inspiration.'

Oh yeah!

It's a quote from SOS (not, the distress signal) in chapter... five? Six? I honestly don't know. Scrolling up is too much work so I guess I'll just go with six. Though it might be five...

Never mind.

Whatever chapter it is will be up soon cause I'm making great progress on it.

Um... yes, there is GWB as well but there's the whole problem of different computers and all that so... sorry, you'll just have to wait a bit longer.

That's all I wanted to say.

Hopefully I'll be on W101 this weekend. Then again... I may not be. I got a fair bit of homework.

Oh well.

Maybe I'll procrastinate and do some photo editing. I haven't done it in a while and to be honest it was lots of fun. I'll have to post more of them up here. Of course my search for a good header is done. I like the one I have now.
:)

Laterz!
~Emma

"Do you know the Muffin Man?"

"The Muffin Man?"

"The Muffin Man."

"Yes, I know the Muffin Man. Who lives on Drury Lane?"

"Well she's married to the Muffin Man."

"The Muffin Man!?"

"THE MUFFIN MAN!!!"

"She's married to the Muffin Man..."


:)
Sorry, I just had to post that.

Anyway, a little something to pass the time by with?

(For those of you who haven't read the first four parts click here.)

Enjoy!

----------------------------------------

Chapter Five – the invisible box

It’s been two weeks.

Two. Whole. Weeks.

No more schools to be found.

No more Chrons to be found.

Boring. Boring. Boring.

Delina and David came home three days later just like they said. Cathrine has been tired because she’s been staying out with friends since there is no school.

I reached level 27 with Alric’s help. But of course I couldn’t learn any more spells. So that makes dueling hard when Alric’s not there. Plus it’s Marlybone. So that makes it even harder.

One day after fighting an especially hard clockwork I was about ready to give up and leave when something caught my eye.

On the ground where the clockwork had been lay a necklace. I quickly run out into the street and pick it up. Once back on the safety of the sidewalk I examine it.

It was a simple. A plate of bronze inlaid with emerald and jade. It was a pretty thing but it had no status, making it useless.

As I walk back down the ally I pass a wizard in green dueling a clockwork. She looked like a Magus by the different style of clothing. She was furiously casting spells at terrified clockworks who looked liked they’d rather flee if given the choice.

I continue by.

When I get to Regents Square I go over to Prospector Zeke, he knew everything about the clothing and accessories from across the Spiral. The necklace didn’t look like it was from Marlybone, maybe he knew where it was from.

“Hello young wizard. How may I help you?” he asks kindly.

I smile at him. “Hello. I was won this necklace in a duel but it doesn’t have a status and it wasn’t a quest item. I was wondering what world it was from.”

I hand the necklace over to Zeke and he examines it with eyes that know what they’re doing. After a moment he hands it back and says, “I have not seen the likes of it before. Perhaps someone made it at a crafting table and decided it was just for decoration then accidentally lost it to a clockwork.”

I nod. “That’s makes sense. Thanks!” I plop the necklace in my bag and go back to Chelsea Court, where I was before as well. That’s usually what someone means when they say ‘went back to.’ But of course I don’t think you need me telling you that now do I?

Once back walking alone the rooftops I again pass the girl attacking the clockworks. Still? No, they were different ones. The last ones had been... rank four? These were rank four elite. And yes, there is a difference.

“Need any help?” I ask.

She glances over her shoulder. “Uh... sure!”

I join the duel and so does another clockwork. Together we finish them off, though I don’t really think she needed my help at all.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

“Calamity Emeraldshadow. You?”

“Suri. Rain.” If your curious the reason I say my first name, pause, then my last name is because I still have to think a moment before saying Rain. To me Silverwillow will always be my last name.

“Nice. Did you know ‘Suri’ in the ancient language means ‘rain’? So really your name is Rain, Rain. Though I guess that doesn’t matter. Storm wizard I’m guess?”

I laugh. “No, really? Hadn’t noticed. You’re a Life wizard then?” Some of the light and laughter in Calamity’s eyes die. She mutters something. “Pardon?” I say.

“Hmm? Oh, I was just saying that you were right.” She pauses. “You haven’t seen a necklace about have you? Bronze? Covered in jade and emeralds? A clockwork stole it form me and I’ve been fighting them all trying to get it back.”

I smile. “I have it actually. The last clockwork I fought dropped it. Here.” I dig it out of my bag.

She smiles a smile that makes the bleak evernight shine. “You don’t know how long I’ve been looking for this.”

Usually people say that meaning days and days. However the way she said it caught my attention. “Exactly how long then?” I ask.

She thinks for a moment. “Well, I won’t be here much longer, so I may as well tell you. I... I died during the Era of Darkness from the plague. But you can only die and rest in peace if you’re with the inanimate object you value most, because that is was what you want to take with you when you die.

“However when me and my family were traveling through Marlybone trying to get me to a doctor a clockwork stole it from me. And we couldn’t get it back. So I died, and I became a ghost, and I’ve been dueling these clockworks for years trying to find the one that stole the necklace. I’m surprised he dropped it to you.”

I gasp. “You’re... you’re dead?”

She smiles a little. “Don’t hear that often do you?”

I shake my head. “So what happens now?”

“Well, someone has to send me off. Care to do the honors?”

Send off a dead person? That was not exactly on the list of top-ten-things-I-want-to-do-before-I-die. But it couldn’t be that bad.

Could it...?

“Sure,” I say.

“Okay. Repeat after me, only add more meaning to the words.” I nod. “Okay. ‘I wonder shall you wander’.”

“I wonder shall you wander,” I repeat. Calamity glares at me.

“No, no. You have to add meaning, not just repeating it will do.”

“I’m sorry. How should I do it?” Honestly, I wanted to get this right.

“You have to add meaning to it. Like adding magic to a spell to make it work. Like that.”

“Okay. I wonder shall you wander.”

“No, no!”

“Ack! I’m sorry!”

“Try again.”

“I wonder shall you wander.”

“No!”

“I’m sorry!”

She takes a deep breath. “Magic. Add magic to it.”

I take a deep breath to calm my nerves and close my eyes. I reach deep into my soul and try to gather magic in my heart, as if I’m about to cast a spell. I try again.

“I wonder shall you wander.”

Silence. I open my eyes to see Calamity glaring at me. “Fail.”

I sigh.

“I wonder shall you wander.”

“You got it! Okay, now this. ‘Tis hope to pass on through’.”

“Tis hope to pass on through.”

“Great! Now, ‘with this object may you seek peace’.”

“With this object may you seek peace.”

“Now hand me the necklace.” I hand her the necklace. “Now, ‘rest in peace benevolent soul’.”

“Rest in peace benevolent soul.”

“And may you find your ancestors in the place above.”

“And may you find your ancestors in the place above.”

“Rest in peace.”

“Rest in peace.”

I look up to see Calamity slowly fading. Then a panicked thought crosses my find.

Life.

Could she have been the Chrons of Life and Ice?

“Wait!” I yell. I grab for her transparent hand. “Wait!”

“No!” she yells.

And with a feeling of falling off a cliff I leave the rooftops of Marlybone and am suddenly surrounded by white fluffiness. Like I was on a cloud.

“You stupid idiot!” yells Calamity furiously. She punches my arm. However having the disability of being a ghost it didn’t hurt as much had she been solid. However it did give me cold chills.

“Where are we?” I ask.

“You knocked us into limbo! A bleak oblivion of nothingness! Because I was dead and was trying to pass on and you are living you weighed me down so I couldn’t get up all the way and we got stuck in the middle! Don’t you know that’s why people don’t being their bodies with them? Cause they’re too heavy!” She punches me again and I jump up out of the way...

...and go flying.

I float back down like a feather and land softly on the clods. Calamity and me stare at each other with eyes the size of dinner plates. There was only on answer to this conundrum.

No gravity.

Or, considerably less than there is on the Spiral.

“Whoa,” I say.

After a moment of jumping around Calamity snaps, “How do we get out of here?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. I only know how to get out Places of Nowhere.”

“Places of Where?”

“Nowhere. A pocket of empty space. To get out you have to break something. I broke a mirror the first time. The second time I ended up there I broke my arm However,” I add at Calamity’s horrified look, “it healed instantly afterwards.

“You’re weird, you know?” she says.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Why did you follow me?”

“Well, I’m looking for people called Chrons, they have talent in two schools, not just one. I’m looking for someone in the talent of Life and Ice. Since you were Life it just crossed my mind at the last moment.”

Calamity makes a face. “No one in my family likes Ice because of some incident. hundreds of years ago. I wasn’t even allowed to be friends with Thaumaturge's.”

I sigh. “Oh.”

Inside I was wallowing in disappointment. Darn. I was so certain that she would be the Thaumagist, Life and Ice, Chrons. But then again, how could she be. She was a ghost!

“How do we get out of here?” I ask.

She shrugs. “There’s bound to be someone else here. Someone who couldn’t let go of his or her possession because it was too heavy. We should start looking.”

We start walking around the cloud place. Huge walls of clouds were all around us, and we could pass through them. They seemed to be in rows. Some of the clouds were also tinted different colors. Some light blues or purples and sometimes light reds and yellows.

It was odd.

I look forward after getting tiered of looking left and right and spot something small and black. “Look!” I say. I point to the object and Calamity’s eyes widen. We quickly make our way to the blank thing.

It was a book. A small black boot covered in a gray dust. All around it the clouds were sprinkled with this gray dust. The cover was black leather, old by the way it was cracked. Some dry, yellow pages stuck out here and there.

“What is it?” I ask.

“It might be a possession of a person who got stuck here like we did. But you need this to get all the way up there. By would they leave it?”

I pick it up and flip through the pages.

Blank.

Every last one of them.

I hold it up for Calamity to see and she takes it from me, looking through it herself. After a moment she hands it back. “Weird.”

I take hold of the front and back covers and hold them out like wings and give the book a little shake. A small, silver stick falls out and lands on the cloud floor with a ping that resonants around us. Once it dies down I pick it up.

A pen.

Like a pen you’d have back home. On earth I mean.

Not a feather pen. No ink well. A common, everyday, earthen, silver, pen.

Calamity takes it from me and says, “what is this odd contraption? Does it write? Is it a tool for eating?”

I laugh. “No, it’s a pen. For writing.”

“Really?”

I take it from her. “Yeah, watch.” I draw a line in the first page of the book. “See? It holds the ink inside of it instead of having to keep dipping it in an ink well.”

“How odd.”

We continue walking. I keep the book under my arm and continue to explain to Calamity how a pen works. Soon we come to a hill of clouds. We walk up it and then stop, and then gasp.

Honestly do I need to go into detail about stopping on a white hill which was made of the softest thing I had ever felt? And how the gasp made me start coughing because what I saw startled me that much?

No, I think I do not.

Below were about five, small houses made of glass. They shimmered in an unknown light source. We could both make out figures making their way between the houses.

“What is that?” I ask.

Calamity doesn’t answer.

She starts running.

“Hey wait up!” I yell. I start to run after her but trip over my own feet and fall face first into a puff of cloud.

How graceful.

The book had spilled from my arm however the pen was still firmly in my grasp. Deciding it wasn’t worth it to accidentally lose the book and pen I stick the pen back in the book and stick the book in my bag.

There.

Safe.

...I hope.

I follow Calamity down into the house cluster. The people, slightly transparent I notice, don’t seem to see us.

I walk over to an elderly lady and try to tap her shoulder.

My hand passes right through.

The lady gasps and the same time I gasp and she looks behind her, squints, then turns back around.

She hadn’t seen me at all.

I walk over to Calamity who was talking to a man maybe in his mid thirties.

“Calamity, somethings wrong here,” I say.

She turns to me. “What do you mean?”

“What do I mean?” says the man. “I mean that you need to hurry up and get out of here before it happens to you too!”

“Before what happens?” I ask.

“I was talking to her,” says Calamity pointing to me. The man squints.

“Who?”

“Her.”

“The old lady?”

“No. My friend right here not two feet away from you.”

The man shakes his head. “No one there, sorry sweetie, talking to air you are. Perhaps it’s already started...”

“Nothing has. How do you stop it?” asks Calamity.

“Stop what?” I intervene.

“The curse here,” she says softly.

The man was talking. “There is said to be a book. A book that has supreme, magical properties. This book is lost somewhere in this in between world. The key to the door that will destroy the curse was destroyed. Then a man came here not too long ago, maybe a decade ago, and started terrorizing this place with monsters. He said if we did everything for him he would let us go. But he never did. Then he vanished, and his book was lost.”

Suddenly terrified of knowing who it might be I say, “Calamity, ask him if he knows who this man was.”

She nods. “Who was this man?”

The other man shrugs. “Don’t know his first name. Only went by his last name I believe.”

“And what was that.”

“Um... I think it was Silverwillow. Yes, his name was Silverwillow.”

I stumble back, passing through some people who yelped in surprise as a cold feeling washed over them, and then I collapsed on the ground. Calamity rushed over to me.

“Are... are you okay?”

I shake my head. I was sure I looked panicked and frightened. Silverwillow. Again my last name had popped up as someone who had wrecked havoc and destroyed lives, even if these people were no longer living.

I decide to change the subject. “The book I found. Could it be the same book?”

Calamity turns to the man who was looking quite confused. “What did this book do?” she asks instead. I smack her, but without much force. I was surprisingly weak from the shock.

“Well, he would write in it, then whatever he had written would fold off the page and become a monster.”

I quickly take the book from my bag and flip to the first page.

The line was gone.

I stare at the page.

Then I have an idea.

Taking out the pen I look around. Only a key could release this place from some curse. What did the key look like? Was it even a key? I begin to walk around the place looking at stuff.

Calamity must’ve figured out the same thing because she asked the man, “what does the key look like?”

“Um, small? Silver too. It kind of looks like a... rose. It has to fit those doors.” He points to two massive doors I hadn’t see before. Maybe I should get glasses, they were humongous! They stood by the outer reaches of the houses. Made entirely out of a silver metal, it was decorated with constellations and celestial patterns. Above them on a silver stone sign were the words: pass through these doors and they shall take you to where you are supposed to go.

“Big,” I mutter.

I begin to draw.

I don’t mean to boast but I was a rather good drawer. But I mostly kept my drawing to myself. As I drew this time I let the image of a rose shaped key flutter in my mind. As I drew I felt a tingle go up my fingers.

This book had been made for evil.

But I was using it for good.

Soon an interesting looking key was on the page. I turn the book upside down and shake it. The image of the key falls out and solidifies on the ground. The man and several other by passers gasp and quickly make a dive for it. I step out of the way.

Though as they try to grab for it their hands pass right through.

“What is this hallucination!” yells the man. He turns to Calamity. “You! You are working for him aren’t you! You have given us false hope to try to learn our secrets!”

“What? No! No I’m not! I’m trying to help!”

“Lies!” he yelled as he made a lunge to attack her.

“No!” I yell. I step in front of him but he simple passes through me. Calamity tried to defend herself but he had an unfair advantage.

But I had the trump card.

Piking up the key I run towards the doors. They were even more massive up close. Without bothering to think I jam the key in the key hole and turn it.

A buzzing noise fills the air and everyone behind me freezes what they’re doing to watch the huge doors, doors that had never been opened, open to reveal a blinding light.

“The doors have opened!” everyone was yelling. And then they were rushing up to it. Full of hope of finally going to where they had waited so long to go.

Soon they’re are only a few people left. I turn to Calamity as she walks up behind me. “Well, this is it,” she says.

I smile. “They’ll take you where your supposed to go. So, go on!”

She smiles, then hugs me. I was startled for a second. I had only known her for about four hours but I guess that was enough to become a friend. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Before I could say anything she let me go and walked towards the door, never looked back, and disappeared.

Then it was my turn.

Being the only one left I didn’t have a reason to look back.

Book under my arm I walk through the shining doors. The light vanishes around me and morphs into buildings and rooftops surrounded by an ever night.

And a very familiar voice yelling words that shall remain unrepeatable.

“Calamity?” I ask. Yes, it was Calamity, solid as a wizard can be. Her clothes, originally a dull green since she was, well, dead, were now a vibrant neon and decorated with Life symbols that I hadn’t seen before. She was stomping her feet and looked incredibly angry. “What are you doing here?”

She turns and sees me. “The stupid door brought me back here! Why!?”

“Um...” Honestly I didn’t know. “You seem like a wizard again. Not a ghost.”

She looks down at herself, as if stunned. “But... I’m supposed to be dead. Please don’t tell me I’ve come back to life. That breaks the laws of life. Any Theurgist knows that.”

“Well I’m a Diviner. But, maybe you need to finish something?”

“Well if that’s it I’m gonna be mad. I was ready to move on. I’ve been stuck as a ghost for ten years. Enough is enough.”

“Fine. So what are you gonna do?”

She sighs. “Not much I can do about it now. Where can I stay?”

I think, then it comes to me. “There’s an abandoned apartment in Hyde Park. You can stay there. I like to duck in there to escape a clockwork mod. I’m sure you can stay there. No one will find you. And it’s not a quest stop.”

She sighs. “Suppose I don’t have a choice. But what about food? I have to eat now. And drink. And sleep.”

“Wow. As a ghost you don’t sleep? Ouch. Ten years of sleepless nights.”

“Yeah, pitiful right?”

I show her the apartment and then we saw goodbye to each other. I had no idea how long we had been in the cloud place, and if I still had time before I had to go home I wanted to go to the library.

When I got to Wizard City I found that it had only been an hour since I had gone to Marlybone. Yes, that meant I had time.

I go over the library. Harold smiles at me as I walk up to him. “Are there any books on dark materials?”

“Well Suri, usually that’s a Necromancer asking. Back right. Lowest shelf. You’ll know it’s covered in cobwebs. Whatever for?”

“I heard some Necromancers talking about something or other and it got me curious.”

“All right.”

I head to the back. Indeed the lowest shelf was covered in cobwebs. I start going through the book titles.

Frog Worts and the Wraiths Scythe

Death and Domination

A Common Spell for Necromancer

Resisting the Dead

Tales from Dragonspyer

Nothing I was looking for. There had to be something though. There just had to be. There just wasn’t nothing on something.

But like there was nothing on the School of Shadow there was nothing on the book I had found or the secrets it held.

Such as the Rose of Interchange.

It was written on a scrape of paper tucked between the pages of the book, close to the binding so it was hard to get out. On it had been written: Never draw the Rose of Interchange, for it’s power is unbelievable, and should never be used. This is a warning for those who have the power to use this, for only a Silverwillow can create.

I wouldn’t do it, I was just curious as to what a Rose of Interchange was. There had to be something about it somewhere.

As I was putting a book back there was a small tremor and the shelf above the one I was searching decided to collapse.

Right on my hand.

Ouch.

While I was nursing my bruised hand I look at the 20 some odd books that had fallen. Great, I may as well put them back. As I start trying to put the heavy, large, wooden, long, (did I mention heavy?), shelf back I spot in the darkness a panel.

A panel slightly loose.

Just inviting me to open it.

Just a pretty little invitation tied off with a silk ribbon.

So of course I opened it.

Not much happened.

Just a puff of chilly air.

I reach my hand in and pull out a very small, very thick book.

The pages were thick with age and the leather cover was nearly cracked. A few strands of ribbon thread showed here and there, worn away with age.

I quickly glance around to make sure that there isn’t anyone around then I take it out of the small compartment. I smelled strongly of damp leather and mold. Obviously it had been there a long time. I carefully open the cover. It was only staying on due to some thin lengths of worn out binding.

The first page was yellow and stained. It was inscribed with:

~The Invisible Box~

And Other Strange Objects Unknown to Wizards

Was this a Jackpot?

I hope so.

Carefully, ever so carefully I turn to the next page.

Unreadable.

I turn to the next page. I was able to make out ‘... and then there is ...’ but nothing more. How old was this book?

The next page was slightly more readable. I started reading it, hoping it would tell me about the Rose of Interchange and maybe, just maybe, something about the School of Shadow.

‘There is known in the world the four element: water, fire, earth, and air. However where did these elements come from? Were they made? Or are the natural? The answer is simple: they were made. But how, and by what? This is something we don’t dwell on. But after years of research I have found the answer. There is an object called the Myhu. It merely looks like a book but it has extraordinary magic that none can fathom. With the power to create it is by far the most powerful force in the universe.

‘However, there is no creation without time. Time is a necessity in all things. Without time nothing would happen. We would all stand frozen doing nothing, if we even here in the first place. For the Myhu to work it must have it’s partner Levan. When both Myhu and Levan are together there becomes a force that can change everything. Levan represents time. It merely looks like a pocket watch but like Myhu it holds unimaginable abilities.’

That was it. The whole page consisted of those two paragraphs. My mind buzzed over what they had said.

Mahu and Levan. The book and the watch. Creation and Time.

Awesome!

To be able to control creation and time would make you uber powerful and totally unstoppable. Epic!

“Suri! Where are you!?”

I look around, was Alric near? No, that was a whisper chat. “In the library,” I respond. “Why?”

“You better come out to the Commons quick! Something weird is going on!”

“Okay, be right there.”

I delicately put the book in my backpack and put the still spilled books in a messy pile in the corner. Then I run towards the front of the library, anxious as to what could’ve happened this time.

----------------------------------------

Evil cliff hanger I know. MWUAHAHAHA!

And unedited. I know that too.

Laterz!
~Emma

Stupid Novacain

Ok. So when I grow up I'll be able to proudly tell my kids that I never once had a cavity.
However I will be able to list the following:

• Teeth pulled
• Retainer
• Four teeth pulled
• More teeth pulled
• Head gear
• Forget headgear, two permanent teeth pulled
• Braces
• Retainers
• Gum surgery 
• Root canal

How I feel

So.

I missed school.

I was in pain.

So I got on wizard101.

* grins *

 What Suri got (my Death alt)

 Versus what I got.

So then Luke is on. And of course he wanted to show me something.

Here are awkward moments in the conversation where I was silently laughing (in pain because of stupid tooth!)

What I'm thinking...

Haha, sorry, I couldn't resist.

:)

He had also done all these rug tricks and box stacking stuff.

It was lots of fun. He also told me to put in a search bar.

Happy now, Luke?

I also have to get GWB part three up soon too. Of course it's going to be unedited........

So until then...!

----------------------------------------
 

Chapter Four – the perilous search begins

I wiggle my fingers. I wiggle my toes. I turn my neck. I lift my arm.

I smile. No pain. This was a good sign. If I was in pain I had no chance of getting out of here. Wherever here was. Not that I lingered on that question. I knew it had no answer for the time being.

I sit up...

Pain flares through my back and around my stomach, wrapping my middle in a crushing fire. I gasp sharply. Yup, something was broken. A rib, probably. Or maybe I was pouring blood from a wound? I feel tenderly on my stomach. Nope, dry, no blood. I press even more gently on my ribs.

Pain. But not as much as when I had first gotten up.

I frown. This was bad. With a broken arm I could at least hold that. With a broken leg I could’ve leaned against the wall and limped along.

But with at least four ribs seemingly broken I had no chance.

Slowly, ever so very slowly, I stand. I swear it took at least 25 minutes if not half an hour. And I’m not even exaggerating.

I knew I couldn’t even try to be silent as I made my way around this mysterious place. Because even if I tried I would fail. I could assume that much.

Noisily making my way down a deserted hallway I looked around as I went looking for a door or another passageway. I found none.

I pause for a moment and lean heavily on the stone wall. I would love to clutch my stomach in pain but that would make it worse. Hey, that’s what pressure does. As I take deep breaths trying to ignore the pain I become dimly aware of a grinding noise. Like a heavy door being opened slowly.

I freeze. I didn’t know where the noise was coming from so I could be nowhere near it. But then again, I may as well could be.

Before I can react the wall I was leaning on turned out not to be a wall at all but a disguised door. And it had just opened. Not really able to do anything I fall painfully to the ground and I see stars as pain decides to have a giant party with relatives and second cousins in my stomach.

I curl into a ball, though through the pain I know I should be being tied up and having a sacked stuck over my head as I’m dragged off to the master of this weird place so he can decide my exacution.

But I’m not.

I open my eyes to see a slightly familiar face bent over me. “Na...than?” I choke out.

I can’t really see but I think he nods. “Are you okay? You were attacked by that weird person in gray and then I was here and you were not here and then there was this door and this glass thing and then it broke and then this cute little orthos came out!” He holds up a small, two headed dog with a dark rusty red coat, and gleaming dark eyes.

“That... thing was... chasing me,” I say through gasps of breath. The fiery pain had yet to leave.

“Thing?” Nathan looks hurt. And funnily enough the orthos copies his expression. “His name is Kobe.”

“Kobe?”

“Yeah. Kobe.”

I sigh and mutter “weird” under my breath.

“Are you okay? You look like you’re about to be sick.”

“Yeah. Um, never mind that. No, I’m not. I think I broke four or something ribs.”

“Oh. Ouch. How?”

“No idea. How do we get out of here?” I ask.

“Well, I was wondering that myself but I think I know how...” He trails off, then sets the Thing (I swear it was planning to chew my leg off back in the Place of Nowhere, so to me it’s the Thing) down and he immediately bolts towards the far end in the wall.

Nathan helps me to my feet and he walks while I stumble over to where the Thing was scratching at a barely visible door.

“What’s in there?” I ask. “I mean, last time I was near a door it was a maze and I was being chased by that thing.”

“His name is Kobe. And I think there’s something about these doors. I mean, the appear out of nowhere. It’s like... where did come from?”

I nod. This place was weird. With disappearing doors, and orthos, and Places of Nowhere.

Nathan promptly starts trying to open the door. It took a while and eventually I had to help, much to both of our disappointments (he wanted to do it himself, and I didn’t want to help in the first place). Once it was open we stood staring at the fountain in the Shopping District. Wizards were milling around everywhere like they usually do at this time of day, and didn’t seem to find it odd that two wizards had just appeared in the middle of the street.

That is, until I realized we weren’t in the middle of the street at all. We stood on the doorstep of the pet shop, as if we had just come out. And since people usually come out with new pets, and Nathan was carrying an orthos, it only added to our innocent arrival.

Before either of us could make a comment on the matter however two guys who looked like a same level as Nathan, ran over to him and started pestering him about where he had been all day.

This seemed like the perfect opportunity to walk away quietly and totally nonchalantly. Of course that suddenly became impossible because right then fate decided I should run in to Iridian. Of course everyone knew her, not to mention she yelled out super loudly, “HEY SURI!”

I waved meekly and waited a moment while she ran over. “Everyone’s been looking everywhere for you. You said you were just hanging out by the pond but no one had seen you and then you were gone all afternoon and I knew you weren’t questing because then Cathrine was all alone and then–”

“Yeah, I get it,” I say just to stop the flow of oncoming words and get people to stop looking at us, because that was weird. “I was... questing by myself. I got bored by the pond and decided I should try to do some of my own quests.”

“But Alric looked all over Krokotopia for you. Even in the Temple of Storms, but we couldn’t find you.”

I sigh. I didn’t want to lie to Iridian. She certainly didn’t deserve it. But how in the world... I mean... how in the Spiral am I supposed to tell her about Places of Nowhere and vanishing doors and orthos and cracked ribs and...

Hold up a second.

CRACKED RIBS!

Completely forgetting about everything in the universe I smack my stomach, expecting excruciating pain.

None came.

Iridian gave me a weird look. “Maybe you should go home.”

“Uh, yeah. I think that would be best.”

I am numbly pulled along back to the Duneriver’s home where I’m fussed over like a baby kitten. Though I could barely tell. My mind was wrapped around what the voice had told me. This double school business.

I was obviously Storm and Shadow. Though I really had no idea what magic Shadow uses. The remaining six schools could be any set of match ups. Plus I had no idea who it could be. I was a low level, so could the other combinations be Journeymen?

No, I supposed they could be any level.

It could be that their second school is their secondary school. But that might not be true since my secondary is Life but in this case my second school is Shadow.

What ever Shadow is.

Soon it was night and I was laying in bed, thinking the same thing.

And what felt like minutes later the sun was rising. And I was still thinking the same thing.

I was just thinking about getting up when Alric’s panicked voice rang in my head as we he whisper chatted me. “No school today! But for the worst reason!”

“What? Why?” I reply.

“Teleport to me and you’ll see why.”

I hastily struggle into something other than pajamas and run downstairs to tell anyone who was home where I was going.

No one was there.

Instead I found a note on the table saying:

Dear Suri and Cathrine,

David and I have been sent to Celestia to examine some broken machinery. We will be gone for the next couple days. It was urgent and we had to leave early this morning. I’ve told you’re grandparents as well as the neighbors, the Anvilthorn’s. If something goes wrong, contacted one of them.

All my love,

Delina

I put the note back down. Okay. Great. Wonderful.

At then time it seemed totally normal. Nothing odd, nothing wrong. I didn’t even think about where Cathrine was. All I was really thinking about was that Alric had told me: no school, no school for the worst reason, and to teleport to him.

So I did. I appeared in Ravenwood next to Alric. Of course, as soon as I did I didn’t hear what he said, what others were saying, or anything really. To me the whole world had gone silent.

All the schools were missing.

***

Me, Alric, and Iridian were all sitting numbly on the stone wall on Elik’s Edge in the Shopping District. Not many other people were there. Most people were in the Commons or Ravenwood, or home, or taking advantage of the ‘no school’ situation and were questing.

The only thing that had disappeared were the schools. The teachers were all fine, but everything else was just... gone. No one knew how it happened. They hadn’t dropped below Ravenwood into Nightside like the Death school had. But when the Death students had gone down there that school was gone as well. Nathan had told me that.

“I wonder what happened,” I think out loud.

Iridian nods but Alric just stares off into space.

“Why would the schools just disappear?” asks Iridian. “I mean, they’re not exactly portable so it must have been some serious magic. But who did it?”

I think of what the voice had said in the Place of Nowhere. How a great evil would arise while I searched for the other three people who would then help me destroy it. Hmm, maybe I should give it a name. Who ever has a doubled school can be called a... Chrons.

I nod to myself. Yes, Chrons would do nicely.

My train of thought was harshly severed with the sharp knife by the screaming outburst of someone across the way.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE SCHOOLS HAVE DISAPPEARED!?” a Magus Conjurer was yelling at the top of her lungs. “I’ve got three days to get my level to Master and now you tell me THERE’S NO SCHOOL!?”

I’m guessing she’s with her friend because anyone else being yelled out would probably be mad. The other girl she was yelling at, also a Magus by the looks of it, was trying to calm her down while answering.

“SHUT UP! I’m trying to tell you if you would just shut up and listen to me!”

“Then pleeeeease! Continue explaining!”

“Sheesh. The schools disappeared, not the teachers! I guess you can still talk to Cyrus but he’s busy as well as the other teacher trying to figure out what happened.”

They started walking away while having a totally normal conversation about the beautiful weather in Mooshu. I sigh and lean back on the low, stone wall. I probably shouldn’t, just because if someone decided to teleport to me I’d probably go falling off the edge into nothingness and I’d never find the other three Chrons, but I supposed I shouldn’t worry about those things. Things you worry about usually come true.

Time stops for a moment and I think that perhaps I’m thinking too soon.

With a crack like pop and a shower of black smoke and Death symbols Nathan teleports to me and lo and behold I am tipped off the edge.

On natural instinct for anyone falling off an edge I grab onto the closest thing near me. Which is, or should I say who is, Nathan. I grab his arm (I think, you can never be too sure in times like these) and he grabs my arm as if to steady me which is a little bit of late thinking on his part, and before anyone can grab anyones else's arms I’m, or we, are falling.

***

We fell for a long time. And then we stopped falling. And then we just lay there wondering what in the Spiral just happened.

Honestly, that’s all there is to it. I don’t really need to go into intricate detail about the vast amount of whiteness and blueness that was all around us while we fell. Because there really is nothing to it. Both me and Nathan never saw the floating stone platform that we fell on before we fell on it. So now we’re just laying here stunned, waiting for out minds to catch up with our bodies.

Finally I ask, “is this supposed to be down here?”

I look over at Nathan and he shrugs. “Dunno. I don’t exactly fall over Elik’s edge everyday so you’re asking the wrong person.”

“Does anyone fall over?”

“People have claimed to fall over and then come back again but I don’t know if they were telling the truth.”

Nathan stands and helps me to my feet and we look around.

We were standing on a stone platform that was about ten feet by ten feet. It was smooth for the most part, very light, hair thin patterns decorated the entire surface. All around us was a milky white nothingness. A soft breeze rippled around us. But it was like no breeze I had ever felt. The breeze was so light and soft that a few strands of my hair were lifted and fluttering lazily behind me.

Weird place.

The more I think about it suddenly, the more I realize where we must be.

“We’re in a Place of Nowhere,” I say to Nathan. He gives me an odd look.

“Where?”

“Nowhere. Look, it’s the same place where we were yesterday. Or where I was. You were in the place with disappearing doors and I was in a Place of Nowhere, a pitch black maze. This must be the same.”

He looks around. “So, how do you get out?”

“Well, I’ve only ever been here twice so I’m just guessing. But I think we need to a find a voice who will tell us something, then if we want to get out we have to break something. Last time I broke a mirror.”

“So, how do we find this ‘voice’ person. I mean, it’s not exactly like we’re moving.”

Hmm, Nathan had a point. But there was a breeze so maybe...?

“We must be moving. Feel that breeze? It’s not a natural breeze from like an air current or something, we must be moving.”

“That makes sense.” He bends down and examines the patterns on the stone. “What do you think these are?”

I bend down next to him. “It looks like a picture. See, here’s something that looks like a Death symbol. And that kind of looks like an Ice symbol.”

“You’re right. Here, they have all seven schools. But...” He trails off and curiously looks like an eighth symbol next to the Storm one. “This isn’t one I’ve seen before. Is it an Astral symbol?”

I look at where he was pointing. It was certainly out-of-place. “I don’t think it’s an Astral symbol.”

“Then what could it be?”

Then I start to remember. School of Shadow. I didn’t know what their symbol was. Could this be it? This curling, weaving, pattern? It had a Spiral at the bottom like all the symbols, so that must be it.

But Nathan didn’t know about the School of Shadow. How could I tell him? Did he know about Athol? Did he know about the name Silverwillow?

Suddenly I realize he was giving me a funny look. “What?” I say, slightly snappish.

“You looked panicked for a second then totally confused. What sort of mental battle are you having?”

“Uh... well...”

“Ah, so soon my dear you have come back. Is it also accidental?”

“Who was that?” asks Nathan, looking scared.

I laugh. “It’s just the voice. Guess we found her.”

“Yes. Nathan Deathblade, you are in a pocket of nowhere. A place where there is no such thing as substance or conciseness. There is no need to be frightened my little...”

“Little!?” exclaims Nathan. “Just what are you–?”

“Shh!” I shush him. “Why did you stop?” I ask the voice.

“I was going to ‘little Necromancer’ but I cannot. I am, after all, the Voice of Unspoken Truths. But why are you not a Necromancer? Or are you merely half of one?”

I wish I could say I caught on that Nathan was not just a Necromancer, but one of the wizards with a second school. So I’m wishing. And my wish came true. I understood it pretty quickly by that comment.

“What’s she talking about Suri?” asks Nathan.

But I can’t talk. My mouth is dry. Is the voice really implying that Nathan is a Chrons?

“Yes Suri. If that is what you call them, Nathan is a Chrons. But of what school?”

“What’s she talking about?” Nathan repeats.

“I think.... I think you have a second school.”

“Well I do. Fire.”

“No, I mean a school in which you are as powerful as if it were your own school.” I turn away from Nathan and say to the air, “What is his second school?”

“The prophecy answers that. Listen closely. ‘Protector from the offender / unlikely they are the mender / Power from the musical lyre / the Chrons of Death and Fire’.”

“Fire,” I breathe. “And Chrons is the term?”

“The first awakened, to put it simply, will be randomly bestowed with knowledge. Thus it makes them a kind of leader.”

Okay. Great. Wonderful. No pressure.

“Nathan Deathblade, Necropyro or Dearie, you are the Chrons of Death and Fire.”

Nathan looked stunned.

However I asked, “can you tell us any more of the prophecy?”

“Yes, I can tell you that last two versus for those are the one's left to find. ‘Met death on their birth bed / from a power of no end / the point of playful malice / the Chrons of Myth and Balance. The ice cage commended / with a problem to be tended / From past they paid the price / the Chrons of Life and Ice’.”

“So the other two people are Myth and Life with a second of Balance and Ice.”

“Yes. Mynce and Lifice. Sorcurje and Theurmagy.”

“Wait, then whose Storm?” asks Nathan. He looks over at me and I give him the you-have-GOT-to-be-kidding-me look. “Oh.” Then he does the math. “But there’s seven schools. All are taken but Storm. So what’s your second school?”

Life just loves to go in circles doesn’t it?

“Well... um...”

“The time will come when Suri will tell. Perhaps when all four are found or when the great evil arises.”

“Wait. Hold up a second. What ‘great evil’?” demands Nathan. “If I’m part of this Chrons group or whatever then don’t you think you should perhaps, oh I don’t know, mention that we’ll end up fighting a great evil?”

“Oh, I would love to Nathan but I can’t over all your yabbering!” I snap. “The voice last time told me that a great evil was going to arise while I, now we, search. I don’t know what, but it’s not Malistaire. He’s not that evil.”

“But Malistaire is the evil of all evils. The one trying to take over the Spiral. And now he’s classified as ‘not that evil’?” asks a dumbfounded Nathan.

I nod. “Don’t ask me why. It just is.”

He shakes his head. “This is so...”

“Concentric,” I finish for him. When he gives me a weird look I say, “weird. It means the same thing.” After a moment of awkward silence I say to the voice, “so what can we break this time? Not exactly a mirror around here anyway.”

“There are plenty of things to break. It doesn’t always have to be something in the way.”

And by some weird knowledge I knew she had gone. We were alone.

“What does she mean?” asks Nathan. “Doesn’t always have to be something in the way? What was in the way last time?”

“A mirror,” I reply. “I found a glowing mirror, and that was where the voice was. I was able to break the mirror and I was released from the Place of Nowhere.”

“Okay. So what should we break this time? I mean, can we break stone?” He taps the platform.

I shake my head. “Spells don’t work. Unless you’d like to do the honors of using your hands I think we have to break something else.”

He glares at me. “Fine. What then?”

I look around. Nothing in sight. Nothing breakable. I began to think about what had happened after we had left the last place. We had appeared in the Shopping District. Totally unharmed. In perfect condition. But I hadn’t been in perfect condition. I had broken ribs. And they had healed.

Then maybe...?

I look over at Nathan. I hold out my arm. “Break it,” I say.

“What?”

“Break it. If we break something we can get out of here. So break my arm. It’ll heal.”

“Are you crazy!?”

I glare at him. “Fine. If you won’t break it I will.”

I grab my left arm in my right, and with a unnatural strength I didn’t know I possessed I painfully broke my arm.

It hurt.

Unlike the time I had broken my wrist and it had felt light like a balloon, this hurt like a heckhound had bitten it and cyclopes hammer had smashed it afterwards.

Ouch.

But with a suction of air and blur of white and black me and Nathan were met by the friendly scene of the Shopping District and Alric and Iridian looking at us like we had lost our minds. We were both standing on the outer side of Elik’s Edge. We both quickly scrambled over to the safety of the other side.

And of course my arm was totally fine.

“You stupid!” yelled Nathan and he smacked me upside the head.

“You stupid!” yelled Iridian and punched Nathan in the arm.

“Both of you stupid!” I yell myself as I push Nathan and Iridian away from each other.

Some wizards passing by give us odd looks. Alric smiles meekly at them. “Sorry. Misunderstanding about a quest item. Nothing to worry about. Haha. Nope. Nothing at all. We’ll be done here soon. No need to worry.” He sighs in relief once they’ve turned away.

“Where did you guys go?” asks Iridian. “You fell over the edge and then vanished for half an hour and then you guys climb back up as if nothing had happened.”

“Well it goes like this,” begins Nathan. I slap my hand over his mouth.

“We fell over and landed in the home of a colony of ice elves,” I say, trying to hide the fact that I’m lying. “They ran away when the fire elves took over Fire Cat Alley and were hiding here. After they went on and on about how mad they were they helped get back up here using a magical ice ladder. Usually only ice wizards can use it if they fall but since we were kind they didn’t mind. Who knew what was really down there huh?” I say.

Inside I’m shaking like a leaf in a fierce autumn wind. They were never gonna believe it.

“Wow. Maybe I should jump down there,” says Alric leaning over the edge.

“Stupid!” yells Iridian as she fiercely pulls him back. She gives me a pitiful look. “Sorry you had to spend it with that guy,” she points to Nathan and he looks hurt. In fact he looks so funny I give a little laugh. “Next time make sure I come along. I’d like to meet this colony of ice elves.”

She waves goodbye and heads off in the middle of the crowd. Nathan looks from me to Alric and back again. “Well, if you don’t mind I’ll be heading home now. That whole deal with the ice elves has made me tired.” He gives me a... hurtful? Skeptical? Confused? Well whatever look he gave me didn’t matter. Clearly he had caught on that this was a secret. And that there was something I wasn’t telling him.

Then he too disappears into the crowd. I lean back against the stone wall and sigh.

“I know you don’t want to say what really happened down there,” says Alric, not looking at me. I had forgotten he was there. “But if you ever want to tell me, I won’t tell anyone.” He gives me a smile through his blond hair (did I ever mention he has blond hair? Oh well, he does. Green gray eyes and blond hair and pale skin. And Iridian looks the same, only her hair is longer).

I smile back. “I wish I could tell you everything. But I’m not really the one to tell it. Neither is Nathan. It’s a lot bigger than you think. I’m sorry Alric.”

He nods. “It’s cool. Maybe another day. Besides, we have a lot of free days to quest sicne there’s no school.”

I gasp. “No! You’re right! There’s no school!”

Alric laughs. “You really forgot didn’t you?”

---------------------------------------- 

Well, that's all.

Laterz!
~Emma