The Arch Stone: Foxway Academy: Book 1

by Adam Faulkner

  “Don’t tell him I told you, but Max- Professor Greyford, I mean- thinks the same. The head boy and girl are voted for by the students, so he didn’t get much of a choice… has she been hard on you?”

  I sighed.

  “Yeah, that’s one word for it…”

  “What did she do?”

  “She’s…” I hesitated. “It’s nothing… She’s just being hard on the first-year, I think…” I lied. I didn’t like lying to a teacher, especially not someone like Miss Artemis, but I still didn’t want to get anyone too involved with the threats unless she carried on.

  “Okay… Well, I can always try and talk to her, ask her to give you a bit of a break, if you’d like?”

  “Maybe… Not sure how much it’ll help, but maybe she’ll listen to you.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.” Artemis smiled. “So, is there anything else on your mind? I know that the end-of-year exams are coming up. Is there anything you’re struggling with there?” I laughed a little. “What is it?”

  “I’m kind of struggling with all of it…” I confessed. “I don’t really know where to start with remembering… well, anything…”

  “Alright… Is it that you’re finding it hard? I’m sure I could find some time to help you, if you have the time.”

  I shook my head.

  “Mary’s already helping me with that kind of thing… I don’t think it would help, anyway. It’s not that I don’t understand it. I just… I don’t know how to remember all of it… I can’t focus on anything to begin with, and with everything that’s happening…”

  “You’ve got a lot on your mind at the moment, in all honesty. I’m not surprised you’re struggling with your workload. I’d suggest you take it bit by bit. If you can only focus for ten minutes, then use that ten minutes. Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t. If you keep getting worked up because you can’t focus, it’s not going to help you focus more.”

  “I mean, I know it’s not my fault… But I have been trying to force myself to concentrate…”

  “Just do what you can. If you do that, even if you can’t remember everything, what you can remember might just make up for it. And if you need any help with anything specific, you can always come to me. Or, honestly, any of the other teachers. I know that’s what teachers always say, but most of the time we actually mean it.”

  I smiled.

  “I will.”

  “Good.” Artemis smiled. “So, is there anything else?” I thought for a few seconds.

  “I… I don’t think so.”

  “Then in that case, I’ll see you again in class.”

  “Yeah.” I nodded as I stood up and moved for the door.

  “And I’ll try and find Miss Evergreen sometime today to speak to her about calming down a bit?”

  “If it’s not a hassle… I don’t want to be awkward…”

  “Not at all.”

  “Okay…” I nodded. “Thank you, Miss Artemis.”

  “Goodbye, Emilie.” She smiled again. I smiled back and closed the door behind me. I didn’t think that she was going to be able to get through to Polly, but there wasn’t really a reason not to try.

  After a trip to talk to my AMP teacher, to try and find some more revision materials, I walked back across the courtyard towards the dorm when I heard footsteps. I span around the survey the area, but there was no one there. I shook it away.

  “So you’re throwing random sounds at me now… Thanks…” I said to myself as I carried on towards the dorms. I heard the same sound. I looked around, focusing on the area a bit more. I saw a faint shimmering as Polly Evergreen appeared out of thin air. I tensed up.

  “So, I see you’ve set the staff on me. I admit, I wasn’t expecting you to try and change anything. It was wise of you not to mention what I actually said, though. We wouldn’t want them to get too far into our business…” Her voice was threatening. More so than usual. I bit my lip as I started formulating plans in my head.

  “What do you want?” I asked, trying to keep my composure. I couldn’t try and teleport away; I didn’t have time to construct the spell. And I really did not want to be getting into fighting her out in the open like this.

  “You know what I want.”

  “I really don’t know anything…” I told her. “Are you really doing all this for information? That’s kinda insane…”

  Polly laughed.

  “Do you really think that all I want is for you to tell me what’s going on in my school? You’re a child. If I want to find out what is going on, I’m perfectly capable of it,” she assured me. “What I want…” she pointed to my chest. “Is that.”

  I tensed up again. I’d assumed this whole time that she just wanted to know what was going on.

  “Like hell…”

  “You don’t know what sort of power that stone has. It shouldn’t be trusted to someone like you.”

  “Sorry. Not your decision to make.”

  I turned around and started to walk away, but something stopped me in my tracks. I looked down at my feet. They were encased in the same strange field that Polly had used to block the door the last time we’d… talked.

  “Let me go…” I threatened with a shaky voice. She slowly walked towards me. “I said let me go…”

  “Once I’ve got what I came for, you can do whatever you want…” Polly smiled sinisterly.

  She was about to reach out to take the stone when my feet released. I jumped back and activated my ice. I looked around again, looking for whatever had let me go. There was a young man, clearly in Third-Year, standing at the steps of the main building. He was tall, handsome, and it didn’t take much for me to realize who I was looking at. Polly span around and tensed up.

  “Gabriel...” she grumbled. “Is everything okay?” she asked in an innocent voice.

  Gabriel Pendragon walked down to us, completely calm.

  “I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. It looked like there was an argument going on. I wouldn’t be the best Head Boy if I didn’t look out for younger students.” He looked over at me.

  “There’s no argument,” Polly assured him. “I was just leaving…” She smiled threateningly at me again as she skulked away into the building. I was about to start walking away when Gabriel Pendragon walked up to me.

  “Are you alright?” he asked. “I saw what was going on. Has she been targeting you?”

  I hesitated to reply. It wasn’t like I’d had the best experience with his partner. But there was something about him that made me trust him.

  “Yeah, kind of…”

  “I assume it’s about your little group with the headmaster.”

  “Yeah…” I tensed up a little.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going to ask about it. If Professor Greyford hasn’t made it public knowledge, I’m sure it’s for a reason.” I relaxed a little. “So, has this been happening a lot?”

  “A few times over the last couple of weeks. I think she was… She was going to take something…” I replied. “I can’t really tell you much else. I’m sorry…”

  “It’s fine. I understand,” he assured me. “I’ll try and see if I can keep her off your back. I know what she’s like, but she’s not actually that scary… just likes to think she is…”

  “You’re not a fan either, then?” I asked. Gabriel laughed.

  “We’re very different people, that’s all,” he replied. “Anyway, I should be getting back to my room. Exams are coming up, after all.”

  “Yeah…” I sighed as I straightened my bag on my shoulder and started walking towards the dorms. Gabriel didn’t exactly follow me, but he was definitely there. I knew he was probably just going in the same direction, but I admit it did make me feel a little safer with him there, after what had just happened.

  “Thanks for helping me back there, by the way.” I called back to him as I stopped at the door of Solaris dorm.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad I could help.” Gabriel smiled as
he turned around and walked towards Emerald dorm.

  “Yeah, me too…” I muttered as I walked into the Solaris building.

  40

  “You’ve got to tell someone now, surely!” August pushed.

  “It’s not like she’s the only one after the stone.” I shrugged. “And besides, now I know Gabriel Pendragon’s on my side, she doesn’t really have any support to fall back on.”

  “Apart from almost the entire school… You don’t get to her level of bitch if you’re not popular…”

  “You were never that bad…” I shrugged.

  “Didn’t she do pretty much the same thing?” Matt reminded me.

  “Hey!” August protested.

  “Sorry, but you know it’s true…”

  “I didn’t want her to give me the stone. I didn’t want anyone to have it…” August defended herself. “Besides, I’m hardly Polly Evergreen’s level of insane…”

  “Agreed.” Matt nodded. “Popular or not, she’s clearly unstable…”

  “What type of magic does she use? Cause she managed to stop my feet from moving… And she did the same thing to a door handle last week. She turned invisible as well”

  “Some kind of Barrier magic, I think,” Matt replied. “The invisibility is a combat spell, so anyone could really learn that… Not something I’ve ever tried, but I don’t think it’s even that complicated.”

  “Barrier magic… I guess that’s why she uses combat spells as well. Not much offensive use,” August suggested.

  “Makes sense.” I shrugged. “Of course, how did Gabriel break it?”

  Matt shrugged. August shook her head.

  “I dunno then… Mary normally knows this kind of thing. I’ll ask her later,” I decided. “Either way, I’m glad he got there when he did… She’s pretty scary when she wants to be… Nothing I can’t handle though…”

  “Seriously, you need to tell someone,” Matt argued. “She’s actually tried to attack you now. You said if she did something like that you’d tell Greyford.”

  “She can’t get away with threatening people like that. End of story.”

  “I know, I know… I’ll talk to him after training…” I agreed. “Something tells me it’s not going to be the end of it though…”

  “Probably not,” August agreed. “But you’ll have the upper hand with the school on your side. I can’t see her being able to just carry on threatening you then.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past her… There’s something about her that seems off… I just… I don’t know what it is.”

  “What’re you thinking? She’s Syndicate?” Matt asked. I shook my head.

  “No, not Syndicate… But I feel like she’s after more than just the Arch Stone…” I explained. I sighed. “Can’t I just get through the rest of the first year without everything going to shit?”

  August stood up.

  “Guess not,” she remarked. “Anyway, we should be getting down to the sparring hall. Especially if you’re going to tell the professor about what’s been going on.”

  I grunted as I stood up.

  “Yeah, sure…” I sighed as I picked up my bag.

  *

  When we got down to the sparring hall, Professor Greyford was already there, watching Raven trying to construct the same spell she had been the other day. I still wasn’t sure of exactly what it was supposed to do, but I could see faint sparks appearing in the air in front of her, so she must have been getting somewhere. Greyford turned around as we walked in.

  “Ah, you three. You’re a little early?”

  “Yeah…” I sighed. “Can I… Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  Greyford nodded and walked over to us.

  “What is the problem?”

  “It’s… It’s Polly Evergreen…” I replied. Greyford’s face dropped.

  “Yes?” He sighed.

  “She… She’s been threatening me. Since I joined the organisational group for the Architects’ Ball…”

  “I can’t say I’m surprised she’s capable of something like that…” he admitted. “What did she want?”

  “The Arch Stone,” I replied. “The first couple of times she didn’t say it specifically. She stopped me from leaving a room once, but it wasn’t anything too bad. But early today… She stopped my feet and tried to take it by force. I only got away because the head boy stepped in.”

  Greyford nodded slowly.

  “Let me handle it,” he said. “Threatening students… She’s unbelievable…” he grumbled. “If she tries anything again, don’t hesitate to defend yourself. Try not to hurt her too much, though…”

  “I’ll try…” I laughed nervously. I still didn’t want to have to fight her, whether I had Greyford to fall back on or not.

  After we had talked, we went straight into training. August was spending some time working on some more advanced Electromancy techniques, so I spent some time sparring with Matt. It was fun fighting against him. Unlike Raven and August, Matt’s fighting style heavily relied on hand-to-hand combat, which was something that I tried to focus on as well, so fighting each other gave us both the chance to really practice our skills. I tried to rely on magic as little as possible while we were fighting, at least today. I was starting to get the hang of Luxomancy, but it still wasn’t going to be much use in a fight yet, so I needed to focus on making myself stronger.

  I slid down the wall as I took a break from training. Matt sat down next to me, panting.

  “Nice job there. I forgot how tough you were…” I admitted.

  “I’m not surprised. You’ve been spending all your time on Luxomancy.”

  “True…” I shrugged. “It was fun though. Haven’t trained with you in ages.”

  “Haven’t really done anything in ages…”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We don’t really talk anymore. Not properly,” Matt replied. “I guess it makes sense, in a way… It’s not like things are the same as they were before… Then again, it wasn’t really any different before the attack… After what happened in the library…”

  I laughed.

  “Dumbest thing I’ve ever done… I guess we’ve had a lot to worry about… Not much time for much else…”

  “No shit…” Matt laughed. He stood up. “You got another round in you?”

  I pushed myself up.

  “Is that even a question?” I smirked as I threw a punch at him, which he just barely avoided.

  “Hey!” Matt spluttered as he regained his footing and moved it for his own attack.

  *

  I hated walking home in the evening, especially once it got to this time. We could easily be training until five, meaning it was already pretty much completely dark by the time I actually started the journey home, and everything seemed to put me on edge.

  “It’s fine… I can handle myself…” I whispered over and over. But, of course, this was when my brain, ever the encouraging force, decided to try and persuade me that I was being followed.

  Just turn around… I’m sure he’s there… Or maybe that person, they look dangerous…

  I tried to ignore them, but it was times like this when they were the most persistent.

  What if there’s someone in that alley… And you know there are invisibility spells…

  “You can tell when someone’s using an invisibility spell. You can see where the air’s distorted.”

  When it’s so dark...? Would you really be able to tell…?

  “Yes, I would.” I knew that wasn’t necessarily true. It did feel like one of those times when the voices had a fair point. But I was pretty sure that no one was following me, regardless of what my brain was telling me. I pushed them out of my mind and carried on walking home.

  *

  The downside to living off-site at Foxway was that no one else did it. Literally, there was maybe three other students who didn’t live in the dorms. What this meant is that it didn’t take too much effort to work out where I would be at eight-thirty in
the morning. Still, what I wasn’t expecting when I walked in the next day was to be met by three third-years, all glaring at me as if they were trying to literally set me on fire.

  “Good morning,” I said as I tried to walk past them. The gate was covered in a shimmering field that I recognised immediately. “I guess Greyford’s talked to you then?” I asked as Polly Evergreen appeared out of nowhere. “You know, I was trapped anyway. Making yourself invisible is super overdramatic.”

  “I don’t believe you are in a position to be facetious, Miss George,” Polly replied. “I see you decided to get the school involved in our little situation…”

  “I mean, you stuck me to the ground and tried to steal my property. Pretty normal response…” I shrugged.

  “You shouldn’t have done that.” Polly held out her hands, placing her right hand on top of the left. She bent the right hand up at a right angle and span it around, so it was below the other hand. She pushed the hands back together, so her palms were touching, and opened her hands like a book. She twisted her arms around so that her left hand was in front of her right, with both thumbs pointing up. She touched the thumbs, then her index fingers, and pivoted her hands around so that the little fingers were touching each other, with her hands cupped. I jumped to the side as a bolt of energy shot out, missing me by millimetres. I crashed onto the ground as I tried to process what had happened.

  “Are you fucking serious!” I grunted as I pushed myself up. I activated my ice and took a fighting stance.

  You can’t beat her… She’s too strong…

  I shook the voices away and tried to work out what Polly was going to do next. I considered trying to teleport away, but Polly’s casting was almost unrivalled; I would never be able to construct a spell before her. I pulled up a shield of ice to block another energy bolt.

  “What are you doing! This is insane! You’re insane!”

  “Just give me the stone!” Polly shouted. She had a look in her eye, she looked genuinely unhinged. She fired another bolt at me, which I managed to dodge. I sent a hail of ice shards flying towards her. She managed to dodge them, but it gave me time to find a better position to fight from. Her servants were blocking the door out of the school campus, but they didn’t seem to show any interest in fighting, so I didn’t have to worry about them for the time being. I looked around the area. Polly had disappeared.