Visions of Doom

The night fell quickly once he had returned to the dorm from dinner that evening. There was no sign of the three students who had attacked him the day before and a soft breeze cooled down the warm evening air. Uri's mind seemed to always want to go back to the discussion he had with Kelly earlier that day and, for some reason, it tried to find out if there was a hidden meaning behind the simple 'I wanted to talk to you' justification she had given him. Sleep was all that his body asked him for and slowly distracted his mind from trying to find the deeper meaning behind the conversation he had with Kelly. A yawn followed him entering his room and he closed the door behind him, "What a day."

He sat up on the ground, where was he? The smell of fire and smoke mixed in with the smell of death, a horrid stench lingered in the air. He stood up and looked around, everything was burning or burnt. Screams and shrieks broke the silence around him as he heard a terrible call "The mage hunters are here!" from somewhere in the main square of the Mage Haven Academy. He turned towards the entrance gate that he had walked in through on the first day he had arrived in the academy and saw a group of painted, masked warriors with bloodied swords, maces and axes who walked towards him. He recognized the symbols on their bodies, Oik runes. Uri braced, anticipating to be clobbered by the attackers before they simply moved past him, but as he turned around, he touched one of them and they seemed to notice something before ignoring it and continuing to walk with the rest of the group. It was an Oik attack on the academy, but why hadn't they attacked him or even noticed him? He felt something over him, it was a cloak, the same as the one that Kelly had used earlier that day except whatever he tried he couldn't remove it.

"Uri..." A voice called him from somewhere to his left and out of sight, "Help me..." He looked back at the Oik hoard and hurried towards the voice that was calling him, it seemed to be coming from the area near the library. A horrid smell made him gag as he jogged towards the library and he spotted a mage still on the ground with blood dripping from his mouth and an open wound, Uri held himself from throwing up and heard the voice once more, "In here..." He turned back to the library as the doors seemed to open for him to come in. Uri did as the voice told him to and entered the library that seemed mostly untouched by the raid on the Mage Haven Academy, "Knowledge is power, Uri, you know this..." Droplets of glowing liquid seemed to begin trailing down the stairs of the library. He followed it, not knowing what else to do. It headed down the stairs, further down than head been allowed to go as a first year student.

"Where are we going?" Uri asked his invisible guide, "Where are you bringing me?"

"Knowledge..." The voice answered as the liquid continued to head further and further down, past the fourth and fifth year floors, "Forbidden knowledge..." A wall was in front of them as the liquid drops lead him to a brick in the wall, this was the floor that was only accessible with authorization, what could be below this? The bricks lit up as they then began to retract and give Uri and his guide a passage into a dusty and dark pathway. The drops grew larger and dead and extinguished torches on the walls lit up as the drops passed them, "For your kind to survive..." They arrived on a floor that had several bookshelves filled with books that seemed to be older than anything Uri had ever seen, "You will need to have the forbidden knowledge..." The drops of light lead him to a specific book, the 'Dominator's Magic'. Uri's hand reached forwards and touched the book before the drops caught his attention once more.

"What is this? Is this real?"

"Seeing is believing..." The next book that the drops indicated was called 'Reality Warper's Tome'.

"What is this for?" Uri asked as he moved to the second book and noticed the other names on the book shelves, "What is this?"

"To protect your kind..." The voice repeated, "You will need to have the forbidden knowledge..." Something shot through his body and he blacked out with getting to see what was held within the two books that his guide decided to point out to him.

He sat up dripping in sweat and breathing heavily. He was in his room, the sun was only just rising but there wasn't the smell of burning or the screams of death, there was no sign of damage on the life dorm as he walked out of his room and looked around, "It was only a dream," He mumbled to himself before he turned and returned to his room. His mind began piecing together the horrid dream that he had that night. It was a horrible sight if it could become a reality, "I need to see about that library thing," He spoke to himself as he headed to the shower room of the dorm, "If it is even real."

The day was still very young as Uri walked towards the library, flashes of his dream happening as he walked, "You are up early, Uri," He turned, breaking out of his daydream and saw the headmaster standing a few meters away from him, "What is that determined look on your face for?"

"Is there a floor below the floor that is below the fifth year floor in the library?"

"A floor that would be a seventh floor?" Uri nodded, "Why would you want to know?"

"So there is one," Headmaster Solven raised an eyebrow at his comment.

"Why would you want to have access to such a floor?"

"Curiosity."

"If that floor existed, would you think that you could have access to it more easily than the floor above it?"

"I would assume it was the same with a need for authorization," The headmaster chuckled as he walked next to Uri as they headed to the library, "I am glad you are up early to talk, why are you so curious about a made up floor?"

"I had a dream about it," The headmaster looked at him and nodded slowly.

"What was in this dream?"

"The floor and books that were there."

"Did you read any of them in your dream?" He shook his head, "The sixth floor is the last floor of our library and that is for documents that some students can have access to with permission and justification, there is no seventh floor in our library."

"This isn't another cover up, headmaster?" Benjamin Solven laughed and shook his head, "What is so funny?"

"We cover up things when they need to be, our library is a seven floor building, ground floor and then six floors down, there is no seventh floor in that library."

"Oh, alright," They were standing in front of the library, "I want to check that my dream wasn't a complete delusion."

"You are a first year student, for your safety, you cannot head down to the sixth floor without permission."

"My safety?" The headmaster nodded, "Why not?"

"The information that is written on those books is not meant for someone of lower magical abilities to read and attempt to reproduce, it is simply too dangerous for your mind to even notice those spells," He explained as they began walking back, the headmaster had been able to convince him that the dream was nothing more than a dream and there was nothing about it that was a reality, "That is why you study in separated groups and your practice is very rigidly structured, magic is dangerous, knowledge is dangerous and they are both as dangerous as they are powerful."

"Knowledge is power," Uri added and the headmaster nodded, "It is the case here."

"You are sharp, Uri, it is absolutely the case here," The headmaster left him in the square where he had stopped Uri and headed back to his office, "If you wish to discuss anything with me, do come and see me, Owliver will be able to alert me of your presence if I have dived deep into my studies."

"Alright, I will," Uri looked at the library then back at the path towards the life dorms, "There is no seventh floor in our library, it was a dream after all and dreams are nothing but dreams," Uri shrugged and began heading back with the determination to investigate having left him after the conversation with the headmaster.