The sun rose from its wake, the sky painted in a sheet of coral-indigo blend, and the chirping of the birds provided a melodious alarm for its neighbouring inhabitants. The cool wind guided them up the steep hill, providing comfort upon the strenuous exercise so early in the morning, occasionally finding a small leaf dancing between their ears. The twins returned to the stone fortress for another day’s worth of lessons, with their briefcases filled with plenty of academic material. They gently knocked as they were greeted by Elais, who had just packed his small leather briefcase consisting of his personal note taking stationary and was prepared to leave for the historical magical archive in the next town over. They noticed their student waiting at the end of the corridor, slowly running her way up to greet them, with her gentle footsteps resounding through the hallway with every step she made. Yura and the twins sent Elais off with plenty of farewells and waves, with Viktor jokingly requesting souvenirs (or perhaps he was serious about that remark) before they shut the door behind them. 

Elais arrived at the worn down marble building in the centre of a remote city, its high pillars and arched construction looming over the nearby surroundings. It had once been bustling with tourists from far and wide, and had now been reduced to an abandoned structure. Despite its rustic appearance from the outside, the interior had remained well maintained and adorned with its regal colours providing an artistic view on its ceilings filled with carefully crafted patterns. It had definitely seen better years, evident with a light layer of discolouration on its marble floor tiling. 

He found himself amongst the magic archive in the lower basement, which had been boasted to have been the largest collection in the world. The books had been arranged carefully and sectioned by elements of magic, and various forms of foundational knowledge for magic-users of all levels. He opened up his notebook, particularly paying attention to his lack of knowledge of the cults and their intentions and walked towards the centre of the room to begin his research. The archive also boasted a one-of-a-kind magically-run search engine, which was used to search for specific topics and recommend books, making it much easier to navigate the library with its extensive collection. He began looking through the archive for dark magic relating to transcending or manipulating life, to no avail. Oddly, there was no information regarding civil wars pertaining to magic-users either. Elais decided to look around the specific sections the books should have been located within the library, and noticed that there were a couple of rows missing from the shelves. Most of the surrounding book shelves had heavy layers of dust on them, yet this particular shelf presented some sign of disturbance. Elais noted the finding, and stayed around longer to survey the shelves in case he missed anything. After all, it’d been a while since he visited the place, being one of his favourites of all time. 

The sun had set by the time he returned to his home, the doors slamming shut to silence once more, to his surprise. He immediately noticed the twins lying on the living room sofas, with Viktor having a bag of ice on his forehead as he laid on his back, his tail occasionally twitching. He surveyed the surroundings and noticed freshly made cuts on the table, and some shrapnel on the ground. 

“What in the world happened here?” Elais demanded as he approached the twins in a rather menacing fashion. 

Varna jumped from her seat, surprised by his presence. “Oh my goodness we were waiting for your arrival.” She walked over to Viktor to check up on him before responding to Elais. “You see, during Viktor’s lesson, large pieces of shrapnel suddenly materialised and struck him. I didn’t feel any magic presence when it was casted, though.”

“Thankfully we noticed in time. I’m just in shock if anything,” Viktor added, rolling over to his side. “We’re not injured in any way.” 

Elais sat himself on the opposite sofa, opening his notebook to a brand new page. “Do you recall what was happening during the lesson?”

Viktor paused briefly to have a quick think. “We were reading together about the savage incident, specifically about the mass slaughter of vampires that happened during the civil war over power dynamics. It must have upset her.”

Elais nodded. “She’s traumatised from seeing much bloodshed in her life, including corpses.”

“She was silent during that part. She was fighting back tears, and definitely could not have casted any spell since they require incantations,” Varna continued. “Her powers are definitely not telekinesis or magical materialism.”

“We’ve tried our best to calm her down, but we suggest you take her to an isolated area to help her destress, since it appears to activate her powers so far,” Viktor commented. 

Elais jotted down their findings into his notebook, and set it aside. “I’ll consider it.”

Elais stood up to prepare the twins tea, and set them aside on the table in front of them. 

“Were you able to find anything at the archive?” Varna asked, her ears twitching slightly.

He shook his head. “I’m curious, actually. Are either of you aware of any recent civil wars regarding sorcerers and some newfound dark magic?” 

Varna and Viktor looked at each other curiously as their ears perked up, then tilted their heads slightly. “Only spits of gossip, but nothing ever in great detail,” Varna replied.

“Apparently it started about 300 years ago. Something about trying to transcend the natural order of life,” Elais added, taking small sips from his cup. 

“First, 300 years is not that recent,” Viktor interjected, shifting his monocle up with his pointer finger. “Hm.. I definitely didn’t hear much of it, though. But for something that big to have occurred, it’s odd that neither of us know much, considering we’re active in our respective communities.”

Varna nodded in agreement as her tail waved in a pendulum motion. “Considering that I’m a professor of the Arts, I definitely would have known something about it.” 

“And I’m not missing out on something that interesting! That’s a huge historical event waiting to happen!” Viktor exclaimed, almost spilling his tea with his sudden movement as each word boomed as they left his mouth.

“Where did you get that information then, if not the archive?” Varna inquired.

“Adrienne passed it on to me verbally. She said it was too dangerous to hand over any physical information since it’s too risky to keep around apparently,” Elais answered. He was still unsure of the danger that she spoke of, but at least he had made some progress for the day without relying on her resources. 

Viktor hummed a short mellow tune, setting his cup aside. “I’m truly intrigued. I’ll try to find more about it in my spare time.”

Varna paused for a brief moment, lost in her thoughts. She seemed to spiral for a while before she spoke. “Adrienne did say she had some deep family issues to deal with before she went missing. I wonder if this is what she meant..”

“Please keep this information confidential,” Elais said, crossing his arms. “I don’t want any unnecessary harm to come to either of you, especially since we don’t know much of the danger it entails.”

The twins nodded in agreement, and took their leave for the night. 

Elais noticed that it was eerily quiet in the library, and walked upstairs in front of Yura’s room. He knocked to no response, and opened the door gently as it creaked with his movement. He turned on the light and noticed her diary on the vanity table opened to a particular page. It had many sad faces scribbled into it, with wet stains bleeding the ink through the pages. There was no sign of her, except for Mr Foxy sitting on her bed. He climbed on top of her bed and hung himself upside down, and found her hiding under the bed, lying on the floor in a small pool of tears. Her hair was completely disheveled as she curled herself into a ball, and her eyes had become slightly swollen.

“What are you doing down there?” he asked her, his odd behaviour scaring her slightly.

She sniffled and sobbed more, his presence adding to some discomfort. “My powers.. It happened again. Hurt them,” Yura replied quietly, between sobs.

“You didn’t hurt them. It wasn’t intentional,” he reassured her, still hanging from the bed.

Yura averted her gaze, weeping louder than she had before he had entered the room. “I don’t want to see blood. Not again,” she said, her voice wobbling with each word.

Elais propped off the bed, and crouched in front of it. “Come out of there for a second,” he called out to her. 

She was reluctant to move, shaking her head in response. He lowered himself to her level and pulled her out of the bed slowly from her arms, holding her onto his lap. 

“It’s a first step for us to figure out your powers. In fact, we’ve learned more about them after you used them,” he reassured her as he wiped away her tears. “No one was truly hurt, and no one is upset with you.”

She sniffled, and wiped a tear. ‘Do you really mean that?’ she whimpered looking at him with sincere uncertainty.

“Yeah. I do,” he said gently, returning a soft gaze that soothed her.

Yura felt a moment of relief, and laid her head against his chest. “Thank you..”

She let herself cry more, as he embraced her slightly more firmly for her comfort. ‘I’ll take you outside tomorrow to get some dessert. For your efforts in studying recently,’ he told her as he rubbed her back.

She sniffled loudly, and wiped away another tear. “Really? But my powers..” 

“I’ll be there to stop your powers from hurting anyone if it activates again. It’d be a good opportunity to research them further,” he interjected, moving her hair away from her eyes.

She smiled lightly. “Okay. I want to do that.”

“We can also bake tomorrow, even make Mr Foxy’s tarts if you’d like. Without the poison of course,” he added tenderly. 

Yura nodded rapidly, and found herself easing into sleep shortly after as he tucked her into bed with Mr Foxy, as she exhausted herself from both her trauma and soon after, excitement that would follow for the upcoming day. The comfort of his words and actions warmed her heart, feeling that perhaps the world wasn’t as cruel as she thought after all.