Chapter 85: The Voreth

Cassie’s POV

"Principal Bellweather!!!" I yelled out banging on her door. My knuckles were raw and the blood from my palm smeared across the oak. The book felt heavier with every second, like it was drinking my fear.

The door opened up quickly, with her rushing out to meet me.

"Cassie. What is wrong with you, why the panic?" She asked obviously worried. Her eyes dropped to my bleeding hand, then to the book clutched against my chest. The ink was still wet.

"We have a situation. Everyone in the clinic.... is possessed!" I say to her almost out of breath.

"Possessed? By what? And how?" She asked. But she was already moving, already calculating. Principal Bellweather didn’t waste time on the disbelief. That was probably why she was Principal.

"No time for explanation. We have to do something. Mrs Stone might be in trouble." I tell her. My voice cracked on Mrs. Stone’s name.

"If that is so, I must alert the whole school on this new threat."

She didn’t wait for me to answer. Principal Bellweather turned sharp and strode back into her office.

Her hands moved fast over the crystal on her desk, the school wide wardstone. It was bigger than my head, cut in facets, and it pulsed like a heartbeat when she touched it. Veins of blue light ran through it, connecting to the walls, the floor, the whole school.

“Attention all students and faculty,” her voice echoed through every hall, every classroom, every dorm. The sound vibrated in my bones. It wasn’t just sound radiating. It was magic riding the wards. “Code Black. Code Black. All students report to the Great Hall immediately. No one must walk the halls alone. Senior Elementals, you are all needed. This is not a drill.”

“Is that really necessary? Cold black? Isn't it like for something really really bad?” I asked, my voice smaller than I wanted it to be. My legs were shaking. The blood loss, probably. Or the guilt. “I mean, they might be possessed but they're still just students and are still in there. Right?”

“Yes they are. But something is within their spirits now and we don't know what it is capable of.” Bellweather cut me off, eyes sharp.

She grabbed a thin silver chain from her desk drawer and pressed it into my palm. It was cold. Cold like the book. Runes were etched into every link, tiny and sharp. They bit into my skin.

“What’s this?” I whispered. I didn’t want to let go of the book, but the chain felt important.

“Wardstone alloy. It won’t stop what’s in your friends, but it might keep it from getting to you too. You're far too important to have another thing within your spirit.” She looked at my bleeding palm, then at the book still clutched to my chest. “You bled on that book?” she asked me eyeing the book suspiciously.

I simply nodded. I felt too guilty to admit it. That this was all my fault.

"Where did you find it? And please tell me it has nothing to do with whatever that's happening now." She said, looking at me accusingly.

The question hit me hard. My throat went dry. The book felt like it was pulsing against my ribs, like it had a heartbeat of it's own.

“I... I found it in the east wing,” I admitted. The words came out small. “In the restricted section. Between two healing tomes. It had no title. And I saw a spell in it. For waking the sleeping.”

Bellweather’s face didn’t change. But her eyes did. They went flat and Cold.

“The restricted section of the east wing,” she repeated. Like she was tasting poison. “Cassie, that section is sealed for a reason. Nothing in there is left there by accident. Nothing is ever that simple around here.’”

“I know that now,” I whispered. “But I was desperate. Mrs. Stone's healing wasn't working. Nothing she did was working. I needed to do something and this was the only answer I got.” I said to her and she sighed heavily.

She outstretched her hand to me, "Let me see that book. Hand it over." She commanded.

I finally released the book to her reluctantly.

She went through it and stopped at the page where the spell was.

"What you've done is very reckless, Cassie. Luckily for you, I think there might be a way to stop this." She said, her eyes still scanning the spell. I felt a wave of relief wash over me.

"Let's get to the Great hall, We'll meet Mr Winchester there for additional assistance. Then we'll go get Stone from the clinic. Hopefully she's keeping them busy enough and is still alive." She said.

"Okay." I say and nodded.

"Follow me." Principal Bellweather said and gripped my wrist, not roughly, but firmly.

We moved fast. The halls were already emptying. Students sprinting toward the Great Hall, guards shouting Code Black down every corridor and leading students to the hall.

The Great Hall doors were already thrown open when we got there. Hundreds of students pressed shoulder to shoulder, panic thick in the air. Senior Elementals stood at the front like a wall, their faces hard, magic sparking at their fingertips.

“Clear a path,” Bellweather ordered. The crowd parted for us.

And there, we met Mr. Winchester. He took one look at us, down at the book, at my bleeding hand, and his expression went stone cold like he understood before I could even explain.

“Instructor Ryke!” Bellweather called out.

Ryke pushed through the front line, flames licking up his forearms. Head of student combat. He looked like he wanted to burn something already.

Bellweather didn’t waste time. She stepped onto the raised platform with me, but she didn’t address the whole hall. She pulled me behind one of the stone pillars, out of sight from the students. Just her, me and Winchester with Ryke.

She set the book down on a low table and flipped open to the page on the spell I had used.

“Alright,” Bellweather said, voice low and sharp. “No long talks. Just the truth. Cassie, tell them. Everything.”

Ryke’s face was clouded with confusion. “This book is banned from being used in this school. How is it out in public?” He asked.

“Ryke,” Winchester cut him off, wind dying to a whisper. “Let her speak.”

All three of them looked at me. Waiting.

My throat was dry and My hands shook.

“It all started back in the forest,” I said, voice barely there at first. Then stronger. “When we were all out there. I heard a voice. Calling to me. Calling my name. It was just whispers then it got louder. I thought I was going crazy. Then Sage heard it too.”

"Sage? She heard this voice too?" Principal Bellweather asked and I nodded.

“When we came back here to the school. The voices followed me,” I kept going. “I didn't think anything of it at first but then people started collapsing and turning blue one by one. Mrs. Stone said it was foreign energy, and her healing did nothing much. The voice got louder. Telling me what I needed to do to save everyone and I believed it. But I realize now that it was only fooling me.”

I swallowed. Looked down at the book.

“It led me to find this book in the east wing in the Restricted section. And it's where I saw the spell to wake them. It said ‘To wake the sleeping, one must give what keeps them.’ a drop of Blood and A name. So I thought... I thought if I said their names, they’d wake up normal. So I did it. I did the spell. But..... It also said there'd be a price. Which wasn't mentioned in the book but I see what it is now.’”

Ryke’s flames flared. “I can't believe you were that stupid to do a magical spell blindly without any supervision.”

“I'm sorry. I just wanted to help.” Tears burned my eyes but I didn’t let them fall.

“Those blue entities from the forest. They're a tricky little ones. They must be hungry for power. They simply used your desperation to get to you.” Mr Winchester said.

Bellweather stared at the book like she was concentrating hard.

Winchester spoke quietly, “The voice or voices you heard. Did it ever say its own name to you?”

I nodded. My blood went cold remembering it. “Voreth. It called itself Voreth.”

Bellweather picked up the book and closed it with a sound like a coffin lid.

“Then we don’t waste any more time,” Ryke said. “We fix this now.”

Bellweather’s eyes met mine.

“Okay,” she said. “Now that we know what we’re dealing with. We must go get Mrs. Stone. And then figure out how to cast out this entity entirely from our children and from this school.”

~