“Oh my, have you two been alone here all night? That’s not good, not good at all.” A man’s deep voice wakes me up. “Mr Frilyze, wake up, it is well time for you to leave.”

A soft groan is heard very closely to my ear and despite my half asleep state, I startle at this because even though I can feel the warmth of Seth’s body I hadn’t quite realized how close he really is until now.

“Ah, you’re awake as well, Ms Tronder, how wonderful.” The man says. “As it happens we have some important matter to discuss. And I’m sure you can imagine what about.”

Memories of the day before flashes through my mind and I immediately get utterly nervous. My anxiety only grows when I remember Drawiel, and I shiver at the thought of what might’ve happened to her. In response to this I feel Seth’s arms pull me closer to him as he embraces me.

“You cold?” he murmurs so lowly the foreign man next to the bed can’t hear. I shake my head slightly so that it looks like I’m only trying to clear my head as I wake up, before whispering ‘worried’.

He releases me slowly and rises up to sit on the bed. His absence immediately leaves me cold. “It’ll be alright, Rez, no need to worry, okay?”

“That’s quite true, Mr Frilyze, I can assure you that even though this is important, it is not something that you need to worry about.” I finally gather the courage to look up at the man and meet his gaze. His eyes are as dark as Seth’s, but instead of having a dark, dark, dark shade of blue, these are green. And just as Seth’s eyes made me feel assured and safe, these give me the same feelings and I feel like I can trust him right away. And I realize it’s the teacher that showed me the way to my classroom the day before: Mr Hedas.

While I’ve been inspecting this man, Seth has soundlessly made his way out of the room and I’m alone with the professor. He gestures towards in question and only sits down when I’ve given him my consent to do so.

“Well, then, Ms Tronder. May I begin with asking how you’re feeling?”

“Eh, I’m feeling alright, professor, a bit tired still, but nothing bad, really.”

“I’m happy to hear that. And it sure is logical for you to feel tired. After all, you almost drained yourself of magic completely last morning. I must say, though, it is quite fascinating to see a student manage such magic during their first year, yet alone on their first day. Not that it shouldn’t have been counted with, considering your magical inheritage.”

“Yes, professor, about that. Se- Mr Frilyze told me about that yesterday, and I was wondering.”

“Please, Ms Tronder, you are welcome to call your friends by name when you’re talking with me. I don’t mind.”

“Right. Well, Seth told me about the prophecy, and seeing as I’ve read quite a lot of fantasy books, and I’ve gotten quite a broad mind of creativity, as you may have noticed, I just wanted to… well, there isn’t something more to the prophecy is there? Something more than that I’m the heir of the Magic Leadership?”

“Hm, I…” Mr Hedas begins, but then hesitates. “I am not going to lie to you, Ms Tronder. There is actually something additional to the common version of the prophecy, though I am not obliged to tell you what it is. Yet.”

“Oh, I understand. Well, thank you for being honest, professor. Now, you wanted to discuss something with me?”

“Yes, I did. But first I just wanna reassure you that your creature is taken care of. As we speak it is tended by two friends of mine in the stables.” I let out a deep breath of relief, and with that a whispered thank you. “No problem. And also, the teacher you quarrelled with has been spoken to. With that it has come to our attention that he may not be the ideal person for you to have as a teacher. As it seems, he’s rather envious of you, only because of your namesake, and so he’s viewing you as his enemy. If he were to keep tutoring you, he’d probably try to make you fail or misstep in such a manner that you’d be taken away your rightful place in the throne. That leaves you without a teacher in several crucial classes that you need to learn to control and use your magic properly. And which such magic power that you have, I’d say that is quite critical. So, after our staff meeting last night it got decided that I’m going to be your personal trainer, and we’ll have individual classes together.”

“Thank you professor, that is very kind of you. But there is one problem…”

“There is?”

“Yes, well, not with the teaching bit. It has to do with the future bit. Because the thing is… I don’t want the throne…” He looks stunningly at me. “I’m sorry, but… that’s not something I desire… at all.”

After a few moments of silence he collects himself into composure again and smiles at me. “Well then, as you said, it’s a future problem that we can handle later for sure. For now, however, it is highly relevant for you to learn to control your powers, and how to use them in an intact way. Without draining yourself.”

“Yes, professor. Thank you, professor.”

“You’re welcome, Ms Tronder. Now, may I suggest that you try to sleep some more? We don’t have anything planned until the school administration has managed a new schedule for us.”

I mumble another phrase of gratitude before I close my eyes and I immediately fall asleep.

I’m sitting on a throne completely made of glass. When I first look down at it, all I can see is it’s beauty, as it is designed in white, dark blue and dark green glass, with beautiful patterns made by the colours. Then I realize that I’m sitting on it. I look out at the crowd of people standing beneath me.

“Professor Hedas?” I call. “I told you I didn’t want to-” Before I finish the sentence my eyes fall upon the shape of Seth’s profile. He turns to me, but his eyes are dead. There’s no glint of life in them.

“He’s dead, Rez, you had him killed. And now you’ve decided you want to kill me to.” When I let my eyes travel down his body I see that his hands are tied behind his back and his chest and legs are tied to a pole. Beneath him, blue flames burn. They lick his legs, but he doesn’t make a sound. All proof there is to it hurting him is the pained expression his face shows. I look down again to escape the horrible sight. But instead of my beautiful throne, I am now sitting on a blood red throne made of bones, and to my right side sits the dead body of Mr Hedas, dripping blood onto the chair of royalty. The blood simply dissolves into the chair, and I look up in fear. I once again meet Seth’s eyes.

“Next time, Tronder, it is your turn!” he shouts right before the flames completely swallow him.

I wake up out of breath. My throat feels dry and I realize that I’ve probably been shouting for quite some time. I hear someone coming rushing towards the room and when Seth’s head sticks in through the door revealing his worried face my theory gets confirmed.

“I’m sorry,” I say, “it wasn’t my intention to worry you… it wasn’t anything, really. It was just a nightmare…”

“That’s not nothing, Rez, and it really must’ve been scary or painful, for you… it sounded so real…”

I shudder. “Well, let’s hope it wasn’t real. And that it’s never gonna be real either. Cause that’s mean that a quite horrible future lies ahead of you and me.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Yeah. But, how come you’re here? Shouldn’t you like, be in class?”

“I was on my way to lunch actually, but thought I’d drop in and see how you were. And then I heard you screaming and… well…”

“Oh. But, I’m fine now, I promise. Not even feeling tired anymore.”

Seth’s face immediately turns into a wholehearted smile. “Great, then you can come with me and eat!” Without warning he takes my hand hauls me out of the bed.

“Wait! Clothes!”

As soons as I’ve put them on, he once again takes a hold of me and draws me out of the room. His eagerness is quite catching and soon we’re both laughing as we run through the school together.