NOVPUBThe information was not surprising but still, it was quite relieving especially for grandma Mayfair. The sooner he was brought home, the sooner she would stop having nightmares imagining that a lunatic was holding him captive somewhere and torturing him.
Lately, the face of the captive had changed into that of Azur. The faces that she was interchanged, sometimes it was the demon face and other times it was the human one.
"We should start this whole process and find my Cillian; he has been away from home for long enough. I know I will rest easy when our whole family is united." Her tone was honeyed, rich with excitement.
"You are right about that which is why I am meeting Sabrina tomorrow. But first, those that have not been to the academy should take a tour given by me, the dean. If you are not too exhausted, I would like to suggest that we go it after dinner." Rufus requested of them.
Phoebe almost leaped to her feet. "Are you kidding? I do not care if I am exhausted or half asleep, I am going." She announced, her excitement bubbling over.
"But you should rest my dear, or have you forgotten that you need to rest to bake that baby properly? This is not a good idea. Why not tomorrow when you are fresh and more energetic and the sky is bright enough for Maureen to punch anything that might try to grab you.
You heard Rufus, someone tried to poison him, so you all have targets on your backs. Everything that I have heard about this academy so far spells danger. Danger usually multiplies at night." Jennie extinguished her daughter's excitement.
Edward lightly squeezed his wife's fingers. "No worries honey, I will be watching her." His eyes traveled around, the table was full of those that would do anything for Phoebe. "We all will be watching her." He assured her, but that was not comforting enough.
The napkin left Jennie's fingers, landing lightly on the table. "Then I am going to, and nobody say a word about it." She made an announcement that no one dared to refute.
Post meal, Rufus traced a glowing arc in the air, everyone leaped through and tumbled onto academy grounds.
"Woah!" Andre laughed, the same disbelief in his voice was etched on his face and the faces of those that had walked through it. "It just keeps getting better and better."
"I will need to learn that." Rekha said.
Rufus moved his eyebrows up, what she hoped to do was a hopeless mission. This particular way of accessing the academy was only available to him. He smiled as contentment settling within him upon seeing their reaction.
"Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the Moldove founding academy." He announced.
Phoebe looked up at the sky and laughed. For so long she had wanted to see this place. It was a vast gothic structure with stone towers twisting impossibly to the heavens, defying the laws of physics and gravity in some areas.
Every building that was within eye distance had windows that shimmered. They had been crafted from enchanted glass. In their reflections were glimpses of academy history and whispered spells.
Vines of green and silver ivy crept on the snow filled ground, pulsing with magic that was alive.
Andre stepped on one and it squealed. "Watch it idiot." A sound came from the ground.
Phoebe's jaw dropped while Andre nodded with excitement. "They talk Pheebs, the trees, vines, windows, paintings, animals.... almost everything here can communicate in some way."
Students in cloaks of various colors walked or run past them. Others were flying in the sky on modernized broomsticks.
From a distance, they heard a thunderous roar and saw flames rising to the sky. They seemed to be chasing after a girl that was flying away screaming, "Run, Roc has gone mad again."
"Roc is a dragon." Andre informed Phoebe, giddy because he had seen a real dragon. They were not myths, they were real.
As if the dragon was not exciting enough, a group of six flamingos passed by them. They all female birds with the longest unnatural eyelashes Phoebe had ever seem. Instead of the typical pink, they had feathers of deep crimson, very dark pink and midnight blue.
"Pardon us please, ladies coming through." One of them said.
Everyone stepped aside for them to go on their way.
"Hello handsome." One said to Luke, and it winked at him.
Luke hid behind Luna's back. That was freaky!!!
"This is fucking cool." Luna screeched.
Grandpa Rufus was chuckling, "That is the Duskwind flamingo. If you ever see one at dusk, you will notice that it glows like a celestial being."
Grandma Mayfair was trying to take pictures of the flamingos, but she discovered that her phone was frozen.
"Ha...." Star exhaled in contentment. "Now this feels like home, oh how I have missed you." She let out another throaty hum of pleasure. The way she spoke, it was as if she had been there before.
The Saxon spirit made its presence known along with other ghosts. Even America and Diana had come out of the space to see the school for themselves.
"Beautiful is it not?" It asked, a smile never leaving its lips.
Connie twirled around happily. "It is far beyond what I was expecting." She bounced with joy.
At the heart of the academy was the Valon River, in it a golden liquid was flowing. The river was believed to have no beginning and no end as its source had never been found. No answer had also been provided as to why the river had golden water.
"That river is supposed to be overflowing with, there is evil going on here that is why it is drying up." Star told Phoebe.
Phoebe's gaze moved to the old patriarch to parrot what Star had said. "The river is drying up and if you fail to uproot all the evil here, it may dry up forever." She spoke like the knowledge flowed to her naturally.
Rufus' brows almost flew off his face, then he quickly remembered that Phoebe was the guardian. "Actually, the volume has increased quite a bit after uprooting most of the evil doers and eliminating the dark magic which had infected the school. All that is left is to finish the rest of them off." The words happened to stumble out nervously as if he was explaining this to a disciplinary committee.
Beside the river was a tree which the spirit identified as the Lumina tree which was a physical representation of the one in the souls of the spellweavers. It was dry with no leaves, fruits or flowers.
"That tree is connected to all of the spellweavers; it's condition symbolizes the state of the light in their souls. It is supposed to be healthy with fruits which represent each spellweavers light and growth. At night this light is reflected across the sky like a constellation. How did it wither and dry, but nothing was done?" It explained sorrowfully. 𝚗ovp𝚞b.𝚌om
"This tree is rotting from the roots which only means that the lead spellweaver is the problem." Phoebe spoke like a prophecy, saying what Star was whispering to her.
Rufus nodded. "I agree, Abraham's only job is to take care of this tree and the one inside him. This is related to him, but he still won't talk. We cannot compel the truth out of him unfortunately; he is one of the few that are immune to truth spells." He spat the words out angrily.
