Fuck Aurelius thought. He’d forgotten about that stupid blueprint on his soul!

  He currently had 2 wands pointed in his face, their bony texture catching the light in a rather uncomfortable manner.

  As for his three friends, they had dove onto the floor, bracing themselves for a fight. Seraphine in particular, pointed her fingers threateningly at Aurelius, ready to blast him with magic. The sight of the girl, with her back on the floor and a small rat on her belly looked almost comical.

  As for Lucina and Tiberius, they had cast mana shields around their bodies, curled in on themselves like prawns to decrease the area that the shield had to cover. Tiberius, ever the loving boyfriend, had abandoned Lucina to her own devices, cowering silently 3 feet away from her.

  Aurelius sat very still, knowing that any movement would mean getting blasted to kingdom come. The dining hall fell silent rapidly as more and more students caught the sight of two commission sages about to break out into a fight. Aurelius could make out a few students inch their way towards the windows and exits, ready to run for their lives.

  Wally Tona’s usually relaxed and laid back attitude was gone, replaced with cold, deadly professionalism as he commanded threateningly, his voice laid with dripping poison.

  “Raise your hands to your head very slowly.”

  Aurelius complied.

  “I’m going to knock you out, and you will not resist.”

  Aurelius held back his complaints as he nodded silently and deliberately.

  “I invoke my contract,

  I ask the honourable spirit of water,

  Lend me the power of dreams,

  Compel my enemies to sleep,

  Give them slumber,

  And seal their minds.”

  Every word seemed to create a fog out of the retired sage’s mouth. From Aureliius’s eyes, he could see the man’s face distort and spiral into nonsensical swirls of muted colours. He could sense lethargy pouring into his brain, as his thoughts slowed down to a crawl.

  With the last word, Aurelius fell into a deep slumber, with sounds of crashing waves drowning out his mind.

  ???

  A loud clap started in Aurelius’s ears, resonating slowly, amplifying intensely until it reached an unbearable level of noise. His eyes flew open, as he tried to clutch his ears in pain, trying to drown out the noise.

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  However, to Aurelius’s confusion, he found that his wrists had been bound with ignivite handcuffs, and his legs had somehow lost their mobility.

  He felt a mild cool burrowing into his lower extremities as he started to make sense of his surroundings.

  “Aurelius Vennor, you are currently suspected to be involved in a conspiracy against humankind in collusion with the fae. Do you submit to mind magic?” A cold, emotionless voice called out.

  Aurelius blinked as he scrutinised his surroundings, finding himself in a tight rectangular cell, with his legs encased in stone. A familiar face stared down at him, his glare piercing Aurelius’s eyes. It was Wally Tona, together with an unfamiliar mage.

  The other mage jotted down notes in his clipboard, occasionally lifting his glasses up to inspect his writing.

  “Er… What could this possibly be about? Do you have the necessary permits?” Aurelius asked, completely unnerved by the pressure that the old man was exuding in front of him.

  “Admittedly, the mind magic interrogation permit is still in review by the ethics committee, and this gentleman here will determine the authenticity of your consent.” Mr. Tona said.

  “Don’t expect that to stop the commission for very long though. We may be procedural but we have the right to interrogate you properly in due time. In fact, it should be possible to find such a permit within the next 24 hours.” He continued.

  “What we need to verify is your relationship with Dr. Varian, a lich of the Fae. The Fae have not been forthcoming about their operations for more than a century, yet now we have you, who have pinpointed the location of one of their liches.”

  “We cannot confirm your divine revelation with certainty, especially since your godly bestower is a lost god. In fact, you claimed to have received it from The Lost God Himself. We have no idea if that particular deity is aligned with the interests of mankind.” He finished.

  Aurelius felt a headache coming on. How many times had they gone through this in this particular loop? It’d only been like a fucking day!

  “Er… Have you checked my soul yet?” Aurelius asked, deliberately dodging the question of mind magic. He was still not ready to allow the commission into his mind, after all.

  “No. It would not be safe for us to investigate your soul without your cooperation anyway. You could be an undead for all we know.” Mr. Tona answered impatiently.

  “I-I’m willing to cooperate and show you my soul. I believe that the ‘corruption’ that the honourable spirit Sylven had sensed is actually a divine gift. A soul blueprint from Quetzalcoatl Himself.” Aurelius responded smoothly.

  Mr. Tona frowned, casting a glance at the mage from the ethics commission. The other mage simply shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, “if he consents, it’s not my problem”.

  The frowning mage made his way outside of the cell, his trench coat flapping with every snap. Aurelius could make out the mage’s shadow from the open steel doors, as he glanced nervously at the ethics committee member.

  The unbothered mage simply jotted down a few more notes on his dorky clipboard, flipping and reading through his notes without even a cursory glance at Aurelius.

  Meanwhile, there were a few ringing noises outside, which Aurelius suspected was from a phone in the prisons. After a few unintelligible words echoing through the corridors, the old man walked back into the cell.

  “Hmmm, they’re sending over the necessary items… We did only have the words of Ms. Sylven with regards to this… corruption on your soul.” The man commented.

  “Um… That makes this whole set-up a little… overkill…” Aurelius started.

  “Nonsense. The Fae are known to be crafty. Their name magic can be subtle enough to avoid the surface level detection of souls…” The retired sage snorted, dismissing Aurelius’s complaints.

  “Does that mean that if my soul is whole, I get to leave?” Aurelius asked.

  “Hmm… We’ll see about it after we’re through with the process.” The mage replied, a little less tense this time.

  With a line of geometric shapes, a small crystal ball appeared in the air outside the cell, hovering in place magically.

  The sage walked up to the sphere, using magic to grab onto it.

  With an impatient gesture, the man signaled for Aurelius to reach out to the orb with his hands.

  “Hmmm… They sent the expensive stuff… Hold onto the crystal and do not let go of it for 2 hours. I will notify you when the time is up.” He commanded.

  Then, a gruelling wait began.

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