After class, Professor Hathaway summoned a guide star to guide the students to Professor Sinclair’s classroom for Introduction to Magical Creatures. However, after Professor Sinclair’s class, Rosemary met quickly with Lilith and Samantha to discuss the matter of telling Professor Brown about the diseased trees in the forest. “I’m not ready for her to know my true name,” explained Rosemary, “but that’s no reason not to tell her everything else.”

  “So you’re still not going to tell her your true name?” asked Lilith.

  Rosemary shook her head. “Not yet.”

  “Suit yourself,” said Lilith, “but she’s gonna keep calling you ‘Simon’ till you do.”

  “I know,” agreed Rosemary, “but I’m still afraid.”

  During lunch, Lilith found Clara and brought her to sit with Rosemary and Samantha. There, they had a chance to bring Clara into the loop. It was decided that the four of them would meet after the last class of the day in the main lobby of Lumière Tower, and from there go together to talk to Professor Brown.

  When Rosemary arrived at the meeting point with Lilith and Samantha, they found Clara already waiting there. This made perfect sense, as she had only had to come from the workshop one floor above, while Rosemary and her classmates had come from Professor Pendleton’s potions lab Miller Tower, all the way in the East Wing. All four of the girls descended together down three flights of stairs to Professor Brown’s classroom in the third basement level. However, when they reached her classroom, they found that nobody was there and the door was locked.

  “We could try Professor Parker,” suggested Clara.

  Everyone agreed with Clara’s suggestion, and the girls went one flight of stairs up to the second basement level. From there, they went to the perimeter corridor, a part of the underground tunnel system that connected the various towers. They soon found the southbound tunnel, from which a passage would fork off to the right to take them to the main keep.

  As they got into the tunnel, Rosemary admired the oramasynthic paintings covering the walls. She had been in the underground tunnels once before over a week earlier — but that had been in a different section, and as such the specific paintings she was seeing now were all new. Having been at Misty Peaks for over a week, she was getting used to the idea of oramasynthic paintings. Still, she had not seen these specific ones before — each one creating within a picture frame a believable three-dimensional simulacrum of a window. Some of these looked out on far-away places on Earth, while others looked out on science-fictional or fantastical settings.

  The fresh view every few feet was amazing. However, when Rosemary and her friends got to the point that the other tunnel forked off, they saw a rather unpleasant sight. The tunnel that forked off was filled with small humanoid figures, about two feet tall, whose bodies were built out of cobblestones. These creatures seemed to be engaged in some rather raucous behavior. They were throwing each other around the tunnel, smashing into the lovely magical paintings. They were punching one another so hard that they produced an unpleasant popping sound, like thunder, and sometimes even flashes resembling lightning. Rosemary even saw one of them have its head punched clean off its shoulders. This, of course, did not prove fatal. The head that was knocked off was just one more cobblestone, and the creature it belonged to just picked it up and put it back on its shoulders before growling loudly and getting back into the fight.

  “Rock gremlins,” said Lilith. “We’ll have to go back.” However, as they tried to turn back, they saw that more rock gremlins had made their way into the tunnel behind them. These rock gremlins were farther away, about half the way back to Lumière Tower — but as far back as they were, there were still plenty of them, and there was no getting past their violent festivities. To make matters worse, the gremlins in both tunnels were slowly getting closer to where the girls were. With no other path to escape, the girls took the only clear tunnel, the one that they had meant to veer off of at the fork.

  “We made it!” exclaimed Rosemary when the girls reached the perimeter corridor of another tower.

  “I don’t think so,” said Lilith, looking to the right.

  Rosemary turned to see what Lilith was talking about. Sure enough, blocking this tower’s perimeter corridor that they’d have to pass to get to the main bailey was a huge pile of debris. Most of this debris was wooden planks — but they were broken in ways that left extremely sharp points at the end that could impale anyone foolish enough to attempt climbing over it.

  “Is this,” asked Samantha, “the place that Professor Parker said we shouldn’t go?”

  “You mean Montrose Tower?” asked Lilith. “Yes, it is.”

  “Is there a way to go back,” asked Rosemary, “and try the main corridor?”

  “No,” answered Clara. “The rock gremlins have that totally cut off.”

  “In that case -” began Rosemary. But then, she turned and saw the path to the left. Here, there was no pile of debris on the floor. The problem was that there was no floor on which to put a pile of debris to begin with. Rather, there was a whole section of floor that seemed like it had been torn out altogether. Anyone who would attempt to cross over would most likely fall through, and probably hurt themselves on the jagged edges of wood at the edges of the gap.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “We’re screwed,” said Rosemary.

  “No, we’re not,” said Clara. “It looks like the latch on this door is broken.” She gently pushed the door ahead open and walked through, Rosemary and Samantha following behind her, Lilith coming in last.

  As soon as they were inside, Rosemary could see that they were in a lobby that was very dimly lit with red-flamed torches mounted to the walls. At the central wall opposite the entrance were several very lanky figures — their head drooping down, arms limp to their sides. However, within a few seconds, with much a clatter, these figures stood to attention and lifted their hands to elbow level, brandishing a saber in each hand.

  “Have you thought how we’re going to see in here?” asked Lilith.

  Nervously, Rosemary fumbled with her left hand for the diamond on her bracelet. When she found it, she pulled the wand out — but rattled from all that was going on, she failed to get a good hold on it, and dropped it on the floor.

  “Aw drats!” she said, as she got on the floor and began feeling around for it.

  Finally, she heard Clara say “Fiat lux,” and she had enough light to notice her wand rolling in the direction of the far wall. She leapt for the wand and caught it before it rolled too much farther, but slipped when she tried to get up off the floor.

  As she looked up, she could see what those lanky figures were. They were nothing but skeletons — bare white bones and all. Only now, they were no longer standing still. Rather, a few of them had begun marching slowly toward her, with more preparing to follow. The swords that moments ago they had been holding pointed upward were now spinning like fan blades. As they slowly marched toward her, Rosemary sat there clutching her wand — petrified.

  “Let’s go!” shouted Lilith, pulling Rosemary off the floor by her arm. “No time for that!”

  The girls ran to the hallway on the right — Rosemary clutching her wand tightly in fear of dropping it again. Onward they ran, their path illuminated only by an orb of light that hovered over Clara’s head. At a certain point, the hallway took a ninety-degree turn to the left. They continued running until, finally, they found a door to the right. This door didn’t open with a gentle push or pull like the one they had come in. But with Clara and Samantha pulling together, it budged and swung wide open.

  Quickly, the girls ran out. Lilith pulled the door shut behind them. They kept running along the tunnel ahead that took them away from Montrose Tower. When they got to the point that the path they had originally intended to take merged from the right with the one they were on, they could hear the rock gremlins frolicking in the distance. They kept running. Some time after they turned left to continue to the main keep, they slowed to a brisk walk.

  Eventually, they stopped for a moment. Clara summoned her wand, lifted it above her head, and chanted, “Non sit lux.” The orb over her head disappeared. Upon seeing her do this, Rosemary remembered that she, too, was clutching her wand. Nervously, but carefully, she transferred it to her left hand and re-inserted it into the gemstone on her bracelet.

  “So they already taught you spells today?” asked Lilith.

  “No,” answered Clara. “We just built our wands and our wearables. I just know a few everyday spells that I’ve had to do a few times with my mom’s wand. You haven’t?”

  “No,” said Lilith.

  “My mom’s a mundie,” said Samantha, as Clara glanced at her.

  “And your dad?” she asked.

  “Haven’t seen him since I was three,” explained Samantha.

  “And I don’t think you have, Rose,” said Clara, turning to Rosemary.

  “No, I haven’t,” she answered. “I’ve seen two other people use that lighting spell you used — but I never used it myself. I shouldn’t have tried to do it now.”

  “Not when we’re being chased by skeletons,” said Clara, “but maybe you could try again after we’re done talking to Professor Parker.”

  The girls kept walking through the underground passageways, and eventually got to the very stairway that Rosemary had been led to the previous time she had been in the underground passageways. Last time, however, she had been led up the stairway. This time, Clara led the group down a flight of stairs and through a door into the administrative office.

  “Can I help you?” asked a woman behind a desk with short, curly brown hair, a black robe with floral designs on it, and long fingernails. A name plate on her desk, in front of a stack of blank pages, identified her as “Mrs. Carter.”

  “Yes,” said Clara. “We need to talk to Professor Parker.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Mrs. Carter. “He’s gone to a USBME conference. He’ll be back on Saturday.”

  “USBME?” asked Rosemary.

  “United States Board of Magical Education,” explained Mrs. Carter. “Y’all mind telling me what this is all about?”

  “Yes,” said Rosemary. “Someone is draining the trees in the forest of their vital essence.”

  “And it’s gotten the attention of the harpies,” added Clara.

  “How do you know this?” asked Mrs. Carter.

  “We saw it,” explained Rosemary, “when we went to get the cores for our wands.”

  Mrs. Carter eyed the girls suspiciously. “And who’s your homeroom teacher?” she asked.

  “Professor Hathaway,” said Rosemary.

  “Except me,” added Clara. “I’m in Professor Sinclair’s homeroom.”

  “Hathaway — Sinclair,” noted Mrs. Carter. “Didn’t y’all do your trip on Saturday?”

  “We did,” acknowledged Rosemary.

  “Nobody else mentioned anything about this,” said Mrs. Carter.

  “It’s only happening at one place,” explained Lilith.

  “I see,” said Mrs. Carter. “Isn’t this something you should be telling Professor Brown about?”

  “We tried,” said Lilith, “but she wasn’t there. Her room was locked.”

  “Okay,” said Mrs. Carter. “I’ll pass this along. But I’m going to need a bookmark to where this is happening — so someone can go check it out.”

  “I’ll give you a bookmark,” said Lilith.

  “Okay,” said Mrs. Carter, handing Lilith a silver rod about a foot long and three inches thick. “When I say ‘go,’ I need you to start visualizing the place and keep going until I say ‘stop.’ Got it?”

  “Yes,” answered Lilith.

  Mrs. Carter placed a small, cylindrical stone on a small plate that sat in front of a ball of some dark grey metallic stone. “Okay,” she said. “Go.”

  Lilith closed her eyes, and furrowed her eyebrows as though in intense focus while she clutched the rod. While she was doing this, Mrs. Carter waved her hand on top of the metallic crystal ball, causing it to shine with a blue light and then an orange one. “Stop,” she called as soon as this light had faded.

  Lilith relaxed her eyebrows and opened her eyes.

  “Okay, thanks,” said Mrs. Carter. “Anything else?”

  “No,” said Lilith.

  Rosemary had been thinking of mentioning the rock gremlins — but when she heard Lilith say “no,” she realized that doing so might let the teachers know that the four of them had been to Montrose Tower. Of course, it hadn’t been their fault, but since Lilith was keeping Rosemary’s secret about her name and entire identity, Rosemary wasn’t about to go against Lilith’s wish to keep quiet about the rock gremlins.

  “Okay,” said Mrs. Carter, “run along then.”