Peter and the Heart of Alchemy (War of Contractia Book 5)

by Tj Dixon

  The minutes and hours pass slowly as one long tiring mental battle without rest. It is almost the end of the lesson when I break though a small gap in Esme’s defences. A face very similar to Esme, but older, appears but then Esme pulls away from me. She glares at me for a moment before reluctantly putting her forehead back against mine.

  “That’s enough everyone.” Professor Hertz tells us before we can renew our mental battle. Esme pulls away from me quickly. “Make sure you only go to the lunchroom and or your rooms during the lunch break.”

  Esme ports away and moments later the rest of the class do. Professor Hertz looks at me.

  “I don’t know what the rest of the class have against you, but making enemies out of your allies is never wise.” Professor Hertz tells me and then ports away too. I just laugh miserably and shake my head. I don’t do it intentionally! I then port to the lunchroom.

  “Hi Misty!” Rose calls out from behind me. I turn and see she just ported in with Lily.

  “Hi Rose.” I say, trying to hide my anxiety.

  “Let’s eat together.” Rose says and I nod with a fake smile. I’m getting good at fake smiles though, so she doesn’t notice.

  “What are you having?” I ask, feigning interest.

  “Blood soup.” Rose grins. It’s made from vegetables and enchanted rose petals, without a trace of blood or even meat. The liquid just looks like blood. “What about you?”

  “Umm, the snow soup.” I tell her with another fake smile. The snow soup is just made from white vegetables with very little taste, but right now that’s what I want. My nerves are killing me right now so if I ate anything too flavourful I think I might vomit.

  “What about you, Lily?” I ask.

  “I’ll have the standard meat broth.” Lily says and leads the way to collect our soup. It isn’t long before we are all sitting down and eating it. I rush mine in the hope of avoiding Rin and anyone she has spoken to. As soon as I’m finished I stand up, relieved to have gotten through my meal without being harassed again.

  “I’m porting back to my room. Enjoy the rest of your soup.” I tell Lily and Rose who are both still eating.

  “You were quick! You must have been hungry.” Lily laughs.

  “The lesson was intense.” I tell her. It’s true, but obviously not the whole truth.

  “See you at training, if we’re ever able to continue it. Did you hear about Juliet? It seems she messed up. I suppose it doesn’t matter now, since we couldn’t have used the arena anyway.” Lily tells me.

  “Juliet was the only one who actually managed to get any of the crystals.” I remind Lily who nods grudgingly.

  “I suppose Tabi and Helski both deserve their share of the blame.” Lily says.

  “See you.” I say and port away, unable to even fake a smile this time.

  I’m annoyed at Juliet for letting Rin into my room but I’m not angry at her. She didn’t mean any harm and getting angry at her will only make matters worse. She’s my best friend and may soon be almost my only friend, or perhaps even my only friend. I don’t want to lose her too, even if she is weird.

  I sit on my bed and feel sorry for myself. I fight back the tears and this time I succeed, but they aren’t very far away. I look at my wrist and think to myself how easy it would be to end it all, but I really don’t want that. I just want the torment to end without having to stop being myself. Is that really too much to ask?

  The lunch break ends and I port back to class. I check my chair but there isn’t anything there this time. I didn’t expect there to be anything again so soon, but you never know. I sit and wait for Professor Hertz to port in.

  “The afternoon lesson is cancelled.” Professor Hertz says as she ports in. “Port back to your rooms and remain there until the morning lesson. Do not be early tomorrow. You can be up to ten minutes late.”

  I sigh both in relief and frustration. No afternoon lesson is good, sort of. It means I don’t have to face my tormenters again today, but it also means that I have even longer to fill. I suppose I can practise with Juliet.

  “Are the Year 3 lessons also cancelled?” I ask.

  “Yes, but if you want to meet up with a Year 3, make sure to do so in their room, or in yours.” Professor Hertz tells me.

  “Thanks.” I smile and for the first time today it is genuine. I then port straight to Juliet’s room. It may be rude, but since the corridors are off limits I can’t port outside her room and knock.

  “Misty?” Juliet asks. It looks like she just ported back here.

  “Let’s practise together.” I tell her with my second genuine smile of the day.

  “Not angry?” Juliet asks nervously

  “Don’t be silly. Why would I be angry?”

  “Rin angry.” Juliet tells me nervously.

  “Rin’s always angry.” I laugh.

  “Yes. Rin always angry.” Juliet laughs.

  “So how was your morning lesson?”

  “It was fun.” Juliet smiles.

  “I wish mine was.” I chuckle.

  “Bad lesson?”

  “The worst. Well, no, it could have gone a lot worse, but it was bad enough.”

  “No lesson now.” Juliet says, trying to cheer me up.

  “Yes. No lesson now. Let’s practise something fun.”

  “Burning.” Juliet says enthusiastically.

  “You really do like burning things.” I laugh cheerfully. Being with Juliet really does cheer me up. I wish I could be with her all the time, instead of having to deal with all the horrible people in class. If only she were a year older and in my class. Of course she’d be in 2B not 2D, but I can wish. It’s not like it’s going to happen so why worry about the details?

  “Burning.” Juliet says.

  “Yes, let’s practise burning things.” I smile.

  “No. Burning.” Juliet tells me and I frown, confused.

  “What…?” I start to ask but there is a loud thump in the distance and the room shakes a little. It is followed by a second loud thump and the room shakes a little harder. Then a third thump sounds like it isn’t anywhere near as far away. This time the room shakes so hard I feel like I might fall over. The fourth thump is less a thump and more an almighty explosion. I don’t almost fall over this time either. I actually fall flat on my back and Juliet is thrown to the floor face down.

  The fifth explosion makes me think the roof is going to come down on top of us, but it doesn’t. We are fortunate to be on the floor because the bed flies through the air above us and hits the wall. It breaks in half as it smashes against the wall.

  Then there is silence. I lie there waiting for the sixth explosion but it never comes. After a while Juliet stands up and helps me up.

  “Burnt.” Juliet tells me. I look at her but can’t see any burns and I didn’t sense any flames.

  “What burnt?” I ask nervously.

  “Land.” Juliet tells me and points at her window. I walk up to it and gasp.

  The land outside really is burnt. The view from her window should be trees from the forest and the town in the distance, but there are no trees and there is no town. There is just ash. A huge cloud of ash as far as I can see. It starts where the forest was and the ground between the academy and that huge cloud of ash is entirely black.

  “What in the name of the queen…?” I gasp in horror.

  “Not the queen. Heaven.” Juliet tells me and I frown in confusion.

  “Heaven?” I ask dubiously.

  “Heaven. Angry. Scared.” Juliet tells me. I suppose it is natural to be angry and scared after this, but why blame heaven? Surely this must have been something to do with the empire. It must have been either our attempt to destroy whatever monsters they sent here or an attempt by the empire to destroy us. At least the academy’s shielding held and the town had been evacuated. “Practise?”

  “I’m not sure I feel up to practise.” I admit. Then I hear a voice in my head. It is Peter’s.

  “Is everyone ok?” Peter asks
and he sounds almost desperate.

  “I’m fine.” I tell him through the queen’s gift that hangs round my neck.

  “It seems everyone is ok.” Peter says sounding very relieved. I suppose I’m relieved too, though I suppose a dark part of my heart wishes that Rin wasn’t ok. That same darkness prays that some of my classmates aren’t ok.

  “Scary.” Juliet tells me.

  “I know. That was really scary.” I admit.

  “No. You.” Juliet says and I blink in shock.

  “Me?” I ask, unable to hide the hurt from my voice.

  “You went dark.” Juliet tells me.

  “You could tell?” I ask wondering how this girl can miss such obvious things but see something like that, which nobody other than perhaps Peter would have noticed.

  “Yes.” Juliet nods.

  “Sorry. I’ll try not to think bad things again.” I tell Juliet who smiles.

  “Tired.” Juliet says and looks at her broken bed.

  “I suppose I know enough earth magic to fix it.” I say and closing my eyes I bind the broken wood together. I open my eyes and look at the result of my earth magic. It looks odd but it is in more or less the correct shape. It should certainly function. I then move it with earth magic back where it belongs.

  “Grateful.” Juliet smiles and gently kisses my cheek. I go bright red in a way I wouldn’t even when kissing someone on the lips to take or share mana. “Sleep now.”

  “Sleep well, Juliet.” I tell her with a smile.

  I then port back to my room. It is no worse than Juliet’s was and my bed whilst broken is not so badly broken that I can’t fix it. I close my eyes and work my earth magic on it just like I did with Juliet’s.

  I get undressed and into bed. It is too early but I didn’t sleep well last night and today was tiring. I assume it will take a while to get to sleep, but as it happens I am wrong. As soon as my head hits the pillow I start to doze off. It isn’t long before I am dreaming, but it isn’t a pleasant dream.

  Chapter 17 (Peter)

  “The afternoon lesson is cancelled. Return to your rooms and stay there until the morning lesson. Do not be early for tomorrow’s lesson. You can be up to ten minutes late but try to be here just after the lesson is due to start. We have a lot to cover tomorrow.” Professor Schwarz tells us.

  “Why…?” Rin starts to ask.

  “Don’t ask.” Professor Schwarz tells her with a frustrated sigh.

  “Let’s go.” Tora says to Zasty and they port away. Then I am ported back to my room. It must have been Sor because Rin, Hermes, Yu Kii, Emma, Asuna, Angelika, Emi and Sor are all here too. All our eyes turn to Rin.

  “Why am I suddenly the baddie!?” Rin complains.

  “What did you do this time?” Lucy asks.

  “Lucy?!” I exclaim and turn to see her floating behind me.

  “Yes, I’m back.” Lucy smiles.

  “Where were you?” I ask her but she shakes her head.

  “I want to know what evil deeds our Rin has been committing.” Lucy says and I can feel Rin’s aura freezing as Lucy says it.

  “I’m not the one who was committing evil deeds. That would be Misty.” Rin glares at Lucy.

  “So what did Misty do, and why does that make you the baddie?” Lucy asks.

  “How does it make me the baddie? That’s what I’d like to know! She has the most horrific ‘art work’ in her room. You wouldn’t believe the awful things depicted on her walls. She’s sick. Twisted. Evil.”

  “I saw her room earlier.” Lucy shrugs. “Sure it’s pretty graphic, but so what? She’s not actually done any of those things, has she?”

  “According to Peter she hasn’t, but so what? It doesn’t matter if it’s real. What matters is that she’s evil.” Rin tells Lucy.

  “Actually what matters most of all is whether or not it’s real. I’ve seen my comrades suffer fates very similar to some of those pictures on Misty’s wall. To say it doesn’t matter whether or not it’s real is to insult those comrades. Even if you are Peter’s friend, I’m not just going to sit idly by and accept that.” Lucy tells Rin with a quiet fury.

  “I didn’t mean to insult anyone, but if you’ve seen that sort of thing surely you must have been as angry as I was when you saw the pictures on her wall.”

  “No, because I know the difference between reality and fantasy. Those with sick fantasies who know and respect this difference are much less dangerous than those with no fantasies at all, but who can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality.” Lucy tells Rin quite firmly.

  “I can tell the difference, but sick is still sick even if it is just a fantasy.” Rin huffs.

  “A sick fantasy doesn’t make Misty evil.” Lucy tells Rin.

  “How do you even know that she isn’t going to try to act out her fantasies? She may get a chance in the war.” Rin tells Lucy.

  “What matters is that I can tell and Peter can too. How is unimportant.” Lucy tells Rin firmly.

  “And I’m just expected to believe…” Rin starts to say but there is a soft, loud thud and the room shakes a little. Rin frowns and continues. “I’m just expected…”

  This time the thud is a little louder and the room shakes a bit more. Then there is a third thud and it is much louder. The room shakes so hard I feel like I might fall over. Then there is an almighty explosion and I jump into the air to avoid falling over. I lift everyone else up too but the next explosion throws the furniture up into the air. Using wind magic I keep it in place so it doesn’t hit anyone.

  We wait in silence for the next explosion but it never comes. I use the queen’s gift to contact everyone in the club who isn’t in this room and to my relief they are all ok.

  “What was that?” Rin asks sounding almost calm, but from her aura I can tell she is terrified. I make the ‘window’ visible and float up level with it. I gasp and then feel Rin wrest control of her flight magic from me. She floats level with me and gasps too, before asking me urgently. “Is this the town side?”

  “Yes.” I force myself to tell her.

  “Don’t worry.” Lucy tells Rin.

  “Don’t worry…?!” Rin exclaims with tears running down her cheeks.

  “The town was evacuated already. Your mother is in Utopia Camerona.” Lucy tells Rin.

  “She’s safe?” Rin asks in relief and falls to the ground as she loses focus on her flight magic. I steady her fall so she lands softly on her feet.

  “As safe as anyone is in Contractia.” Lucy answers.

  “So what’s going on?” I ask.

  “I don’t know what this was, but the town and forest had been overrun with monsters. It seems that the Empire is now at war with Contractia. A lot of small towns like ours have been destroyed or conquered, though none of the larger cities or more heavily fortified towns have fallen yet.”

  “What about the Hoshi town?” I ask, thinking of our friends there.

  “Thanks to Dairon, the faeries and everyone you had there they were safely evacuated, despite being attacked by goblins. I arrived in the town just after they were evacuated.”

  “So that’s where you were?”

  “That’s one of the places I visited. I also checked on my mother and she was fine too.”

  “Any word on Silver Town?” Sor asks sounding extremely concerned.

  “It was overrun by imperial goblins, but most of the townspeople escaped to Utopia Camerona.” Lucy tells Sor, who grimaces.

  “Is that your hometown?” I ask and Sor nods.

  “What about the villages?” I ask, thinking of the Hoshi villages we visited with Dairon.

  “The empire has mostly focused on towns so far. I helped evacuate the Hoshi villages and other mages have done the same for other villages that were considered to be at risk. With the loss of so many worlds to the Fallen Angels on one side of Contractia and the evacuation of so many villages and towns on the three worlds under attack by the Empire… Food and homes, or even shelter, will be in short su
pply. It’s not just the refugees who will suffer either, but they will be hit worst of all.” Lucy warns us.

  “Mother…” Rin whispers.

  “Right now she is safer than we are.” Lucy tells us. Then I hear the mental voice of the head teacher.

  “Peter, report to my office immediately.” The head tells me.

  “I need to see the head.” I tell everyone.

  “Why?” Rin asks.

  “She just called me.” I answer.

  “Then I’m coming too.” Rin says firmly.

  “Me too.” Lucy says.

  “So am I.” Hermes says and everyone else looks like they want to come too. Before I can argue though we are all ported directly into the head teacher’s small office. It is crowded to say the least, with Asuna and Rin both pressed against me, and everyone is pressed together. I am shocked by the sudden port of course, but the head teacher’s surprise is even greater than my own.

  “Hi.” I tell her, a little embarrassed by the situation.

  “I did say to come, but I don’t recall asking everyone else to come too.” She frowns.

  “Sorry.” I apologise.

  “I suppose these are some of your best followers, so it works out ok.” She shrugs.

  “Everyone here is my friend.” I tell her, a bit annoyed at the term ‘follower’.

  “We seem to have a bit of a problem that I was hoping you and your friends could help with. Are you aware of the situation outside?”

  “I heard that we are at war with an ‘empire’ and that the town had to be evacuated. Also that the area outside was swarming with monsters. I have no idea what that magical attack earlier was though.” I tell her.

  “We believe it was a dragon.” The head tells me and I go cold with fear. Lucy told me about dragons and they sound as scary as hell.

  “You want me to fight a dragon?” I ask with a gulp.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. The dragon was just a young one that came down a bit too low. It returned to the sky so I doubt we’ll see it again. It actually helped us out since it killed a lot of our enemies. Unfortunately it also almost hit the academy. The academy main ward is down and we need help guarding some of the entrances, since the empire is likely to send more forces to take advantage of the situation. Some of the teachers are guarding the main entrance since that is where we are most likely to be attacked. The others are busy either restoring the main ward or maintaining a temporary port barrier. I want you and your, friends, to guard the slaves’ entrance.” The head tells me.