AnnouncementContent Warning: Injury, AmnesiaChapter 11: Chaotic Fever Dream

  -Marion-

  I woke up in an unfamiliar room. A soft breeze was rustling through the drapes that framed the window next to my bed. A bit of orange sunlight shone into the room. I tried to right myself up, but the throbbing pain in my chest and the dizziness in my head made me immediately regret that decision. Fuck. I grimaced and pulled down the bnket to look at the source of the pain.

  The first thing I noticed was that I was naked except for my underwear. The second thing I noticed were the bandages that were wrapped around most of my torso. Fuck. What the hells happened? And where the hells was I even?

  It wasn’t an infirmary, that much was obvious. The room was fairly spacious and the bed was rge and comfortable. There were two nightstands next to the bed, one on each side and a dresser on the left wall. The window to the right almost filled the entire wall. The doorway was on the opposite side of the bed, but instead of a door there were two curtains covering it up. So I guess the bedroom was part of a rger quarter.

  I was about to try and get up again when I heard steps approaching the room. The curtains parted and a maid walked in. An actual maid. Where the fuck was I?

  “Good morning Mx Corey,” she greeted melodically. “I hope you’ve rested well. The doctor will be over shortly to check up on you. In the meantime, can I bring you some breakfast?”

  “Where am I?” I blurted out. I felt extremely out of pce here, especially with a maid attending me all of the sudden.

  The young brunette gave me a curt smile then answered, “You are in one of the guest chambers of the Academy of Applied Magics. The headmistress herself arranged for your stay.” She sauntered over to the bed and eyed the bandages around my torso. A slight frown crossed her face.

  “You were pretty messed up when you were brought in yesterday, you know? I honestly wasn’t sure you’d make it. The doctor is a talented woman, but even she has her limits and I was pretty sure you had a hole in your abdomen,” the young girl bbbered on.

  What the actual fuck happened to me? The st thing I remember was that I gathered a bunch of light power within me and lunged at Lorelei. I really hope she’s alright. Maybe she’s here as well? “Uhm,” I started, just realising I didn’t even know the girl’s name.

  She seemed to have caught on though and quickly replied, “Genevieve, pleasure to meet you.”

  “Right, Genevieve. Do you know if an elven woman by the name of Lorelei is staying here as well? She and I were duelling at the competition while whatever this was happened,” I said, motioning towards my chest. I added, “I just want to know if she’s alright, I really didn’t mean to hurt her!”

  “I’m sorry Mx Corey, I don’t know of a Lorelei, but I can ask around if you wish. In the meantime, would you like some breakfast?”

  My heart sank a little after hearing that. I really hope she’s alright. I honestly didn’t know if I could ever forgive myself if I hurt her… or worse. My voice was a little shaky when I replied, “Yea breakfast sounds nice. Thank you, Genevieve.”

  With that, the young maid curtsied and gave me another compassionate smile, before dashing off through the curtains.

  She returned a few minutes ter with a tablet of food and while I was eating the doctor came in to check up on me. I’d apparently dislocated a wrist and broken four ribs, one of which nearly pierced my heart. In addition I was suffering from a severe concussion, which expined the dizziness. My shoulder and ribs were already set back where they belonged, but my other internal damage and the concussion had to heal on their own.

  I also learned that Lorelei was mostly fine. She won our match and managed to get into the finale, where she was bested by an elven archmage. The doctor didn’t know where she was staying, sadly, and she made a point of reminding me I wasn’t in the condition to meet up with anyone anyway.

  I was condemned to bedrest for two more days at the least and with that both of my guests left and I was alone with my thoughts. It was only then that I started to realise what all this meant. I lost. I wouldn’t get the spell scroll. It was locked away somewhere in an academy I would never be able to set foot in.

  Unlike Grimbolt’s, the Academy of Applied Magics was very much exclusive to the rich and powerful. And I happened to be neither of them. I might have had a chance to get an invitation if I did particurly well in the tournament, but I was knocked out, literally, in the third round.

  That didn’t mean I was going to give up, though. There was still a chance, however small, I could somehow swipe the scroll. Yes, the academy’s defences would probably kill me before I even got through the front door, but continuing my life like before would be a fate worse than that.

  Alternatively, I could also try and make a pact with a demon to get my transformation, but whatever they would ask of me would most likely be worth a lot more than just my life.

  Things were likely going to be pretty chaotic at the academy for the next couple of days, with the enrolment of the princess around the corner and the aftermath of the tournament. So if I wanted to break in, I should do it soon.

  First, I needed to find a way into the academy itself. As far as I’m aware the academy only has one gateway in, which is heavily guarded, both by physical and magical means. This would most likely be the hardest step.

  Second, I needed to find out where the vault was situated inside the academy. It was unlikely that I could obtain that information from outside it, so I needed to stay undercover for a day or so.

  Third, I needed to get into the vault without dying or triggering any arms. That was also worrying, but I assumed I could probably find a safe way inside if I snooped around the headmistress’ office.

  Lastly, I needed to get the fuck out of there without getting caught. That should be fairly easy, so long as I didn’t trigger any arms beforehand.

  I should probably start by scoping out the academy’s gatehouse, which means I needed to get out of this bed. Yes, it was painful earlier, but if what the doctor said was true, then my legs were completely fine and a concussion didn’t seem all that bad. Yea I got dizzy a little and there was a bit of a headache going on, but I’ve walked around with worse.

  With that I tried righting myself up again. Sure enough I was immediately assaulted by dizziness and a piercing pain in my chest, but I toughed it out until it calmed down a little. See, that wasn’t so bad. Next step: Get out of bed. I shuffled over to the edge and slowly slid down until my feet touched the floor. Okay now the room was spinning around me. I’m sure it’ll be fine.

  After another minute or so, the spinning let up and my vision was only swaying a little. Like I said. Fine. I took the first step and promptly fell to the floor and into a pit of darkness. Damn.

  I don’t know how long I was out cold, but I woke up on the floor sometime ter. After I got control of my limbs again, I went back to step one: Get up. That seemed to work out more or less okay. I took my next step forward and managed to stay upright. This is going better than I thought. Half an eternity ter I pushed through the curtains and was greeted by the rest of my little apartment.

  There was a cozy sitting area with a rge sofa, a loveseat and a comfy looking armchair situated around a fancy firepce. Further to the right there was another pair of curtains, but they were tied to the side and revealed a rge sandstone balcony overlooking the city. I was pretty high up, huh? Where did they put me again? I didn’t remember. Doesn’t matter. Find the academy Marion.

  I swung over to the left side of the room, which left my head spinning like crazy again. Okay fast movements bad. I leaned against the sofa for a while to wait for the spinning to stop. Then I studied the wall for an exit. Sure enough I managed to find a door. No curtains this time. Good. I liked doors, I decided. They meant exit.

  I stumped over to it and pushed it open. Behind it I found a fancy hallway. The walls were decorated with wooden panelling. A bunch of portraits of funny looking mages were hung up in uneven spaces and there was a long red carpet running along the corridor.

  So, left, or right? Both directions looked nearly identical and ended in a circur stairway that went both up and down. I decided to go right, it looked a little closer, couldn’t be sure though. Headache and all.

  I clearly remembered looking over the city, so if I wanted out, I should go down. For once I wasn’t entirely confident, I could climb the stairs down without hurting myself anymore, but I also decided that I was a winner not a quitter, so I grabbed the railing as hard as a could and slowly stepped down.

  At some point I was passed by two sorceresses who looked at me funny. Probably because of how slowly I was moving or something. Or maybe it was the bandages. Or because I was only wearing my underwear. Clothes were overrated anyway.

  The staircase was a lot higher than I expected and at some point, the fancy wooden panelling was repced by cold cobblestone. I was probably close to the exit though. The air felt a lot cooler as well. They were probably airing out the pce.

  Sure enough, the staircase came to end soon after and I found myself in a byrinth of cobblestone corridors. There were a few torches with a creepy blue fire lining the walls and the doors here were heavy and metal bound. Weird way to design a bottom floor, but I wasn’t here to judge the architect of some fancy hospital, so I decided to just move on. I’d probably find the exit somehow.

  I spent what felt like hours stumbling through the creepy hallways. It was really fucking cold down here and at some point, I realised I probably walked all the way down into the basement. So rather than trying to find the way outside, I was looking for another staircase up. Problem being that this pce was a byrinth and I had no idea where the fuck I was anymore.

  It was only when I heard steps echoing through the halls that I got hopeful again. I was also pretty sure I wasn’t allowed to be here, everything about this pce screamed ‘no entry,’ so instead of calling out to whoever else was down here, I carefully moved towards them as best I could.

  Sometimes the steps were fainter and sometimes louder, but eventually I wound up in a rger, much taller passage. The walls here were decorated with metallic glyphs and sigils that reminded me of ancient elvish, but they were complete gibberish. The torches were repced by massive braziers that shone in the same cold blue fme. The steps lead further down into the hallway. I could barely make out the shadowy figure before me.

  I carefully tiptoed after them, luckily my head was spinning a lot less right now, otherwise I’d have for sure fallen over dozens of times. The hallway seemed almost neverending and I started to wonder where the fuck this person was leading me, when the figure arrived at a truly massive, bckened steel door.

  While the figure was casting some sort of incantation, I kept creeping closer. As close as I dared, at least. I was only about a dozen metres behind her when the doors swung open. I managed to get a pretty good look at her, despite the dim light. She was a silver haired, elven woman, wearing a long light blue gown that trailed over the floor behind her as she walked.

  It was the same woman who knew my name the day before. Dema Demi or something. She seemed fairly important, although I wondered what she was doing in a hospital basement. Something secret, no doubt. Maybe I could bckmail her to let me into the academy?

  After she took a few steps through the rge doorway, I carefully tiptoed after her. The massive doors began slowly swinging shut and I had to hurry a little to slip through, but I was confident she didn’t hear me.

  I dashed into a dark corner and took a few deep breaths. This was starting to get really exciting and all I really wanted was to get out of the hospital. After I had calmed myself a little, I started to look around the room I found myself in. Room was understating it, though. It was a massive cavern. There were rows and rows of shelves filled to the brim with books and scrolls and magical items, far as the eye could see.

  The cavern was circur and most of the walls were lined with cobblestone, although further in they turned to natural stone, as the cavern sloped down towards a massive pteau in the centre. There were lush waterways running through the back of the cave that flew in small rivers around the centre, which let it seem almost like some fortified stone garden.

  On the pteau sat a gigantic creature. It had a long, feathered tail, that wound its way around the equally feathered body. Four rge, cwed legs were pced under it, two of which spouted massive, blue-feathered wings that were folded around the main body. Its head was buried in one of the wings.

  I had no idea what I was looking at. Dragon was the first thought, but the rgest dragons only got as big as a lion and as far as I was aware they weren’t feathered. Maybe it was a roc? But even they weren’t this massive and their feathers were usually eagle like, not blue, white and grey.

  I held my breath as I continued through the cavern. Dema Demi or whatever was nowhere to be seen. This pce was definitely super-secret though. And that giant bird was its guardian, I was sure.

  I carefully manoeuvred over to one of the bookshelves and looked some of the backs of the books. Demonology, necromancy, transmutation, chronomancy. All of these covered legally grey or outright illegal lores of magic. What were they doing in a cavern like this?

  My eyes grew wide and my heart started racing when I suddenly realised just where I was. This was the vault. This was the academy vault. Holy fuck. I made it into the fucking vault. By pure look. Stupid, idiotic, luck. I could have died so many times on my way here. And I was in my fucking underwear.

  I started to study the spell scrolls more. Somewhere in here should be the Soul Self spell. My mind felt clearer as ever before, as I shuffled from one scroll to the next, carefully unfolding them and ascertaining their nature. Transmutation was the overall lore. That should be my focus.

  I kept going from shelf to shelf, climbing dders, sneaking around corners. I pulled out scroll after scroll for hours. Every now and then the bird creature shifted slightly, which made me almost pee myself multiple times, but luckily it didn’t wake up once.

  I’d made my way through a quarter of the shelves and my fingers were aching like the hells when I pulled out another transmutation scroll. I was in this cavern for at least five hours by now and the cold didn’t help at all.

  I slowly unrolled the parchment and started to study the first few paragraphs. The nguage was definitely the dark speech of the hells. I could only read a few words, but with every word that I understood I became more excited. I found the word for soul multiple times. Same as transformation. But I had to be sure.

  I slowly climbed down the dder, scroll in hand, down to the cold floor. There, I sat down crosslegged and softly murmured the incantation for the identify spell. My voice softly echoed through the halls and a faint glimmer sparkled across the parchment, as the arcane knowledge was transferred to my mind.

  I only needed to feel the first two words cross my mind for my heart to burst from happiness.

  Soul Self.

  It was almost too good to be true! But I couldn’t celebrate for long. I still had to get out of this pce.

  I quietly rolled up the scroll and was about to get up, when I heard the creature shift again.

  Please don’t wake up now. Please don’t wake up now. I kept thinking the words as I crept around the bookshelf next to me and started to tiptoe over to the massive doors. Right. Still needed to get those open somehow. I’ll find a way, I’m sure.

  The bird shifted again and the front legs straightened out from under the body. Fuck. I rushed over to the door. No time for stealthiness. The creature shifted even more behind me and I heard its rge wings unfold.

  I reached the door. Identify. There was a locking spell on it, obviously, but I heard the dy mutter some words, I just had to remember them properly. Come on Marion, you can do it.

  It was some form of ancient elvish. The way the words flexed and weaved was familiar, but like the glyphs in the passage, it was gibberish. Rievey Vars Somei- That was the beginning. I kept going through the incantation, slowly whispering the words as tried to remember what she said. Whatever the creature was doing, it was completely silent now.

  Doesn’t matter. Open the door. Fuck off. Rievey Vars Somei Arcan Des Paergas Volt- The doors swung open. Okay Marion run for your fucking life. I started sprinting forward. A massive shadow overtook me. The creature flew above me completely noiseless and stopped in the middle of the rge passage before me.

  Its front legs were straightened out. Two wings furled behind them, pointing up like devil’s horns. Its posture was proud like a lion’s and the deep golden eyes of the owl-like head gazed down on me.

  I was so incredibly fucked.

  “Good evening, Marion~” it whooed.

  What.

  Muffin_Maeve