Evacuation Complete

Daren shoved the remaining papers into the box. The headmaster's private laboratory was nearly empty. Her student file wasn't here either. Time had run out. Whatever was left would be destroyed. Fortunately, he managed to strip the place bare of the important research and materials.

As Headmaster Marin's student, Daren was the only other person authorized to enter. A barrier blocked everyone else, including his grandfather. Many of the projects were highly sensitive, so Daren had to pack most items by hand. Whenever he packed a box, he would shove it outside for soldiers to carry away.

Carriages already started streaming towards Forest Waypoint. His grandfather stood by the door to stuff Daren into the next carriage off campus as soon as he walked out. Daren looked around the familiar room and sighed.

This was his most favorite place on campus, though the restricted archives placed a close second. The headmaster let him spend hours on his own projects in this room.

"Daren? Have you finished grabbing the last box? It's time to go."

"Just a second! I need to clean up."

He tweaked the magic formation of his final experiment then let it run. Daren pushed the last box out of the door when the formation started emitting sparks. A soldier quickly shut the door behind him. A muffled boom could be heard on the other side.

The lab should still be structurally safe, but anything still inside would be charcoal. Stallesso patted Daren's head as he led his grandson away.

"You can always repair the headmaster's lab or get a new lab later. Our family doesn't lack money."

"I know. It's just the memories that I'll miss."

Stallesso watched as Daren got onto his carriage and began his trip to Forest Waypoint. Daren leaned back into his seat as he watched the buildings go by outside the window. The carriage stopped just before exiting campus to pick up a cheeky blond-haired passenger.

Fair beads of sweat clung to his face as Chris climbed into the carriage with a large trunk. The trunk was shoved underneath the seats. Chris collapsed on the seat next to Daren.

"Hey Daren! Geez, his lordship didn't let you wait at all. I almost missed this carriage. I had to sprint to the exit with the case. Fortunately, one of the officers gave me a lift on their horse."

"Sorry about that. He's getting a bit anxious. Anyways, did you find anything?"

"Nurse Rouse told me not to use serious magic or do any heaving lifting… but I did manage to dig out something."

Chris grinned and held up a file. Daren happily snatched the file out of his hands and began reading.

"Yup. The headmaster left Lord Stallesso the master key to all of the offices. I volunteered to help clean out the deputy headmasters' offices since Aayla was off doing something else. No one can access their labs, so we'll have to make do with what we found."

The smile on his face faded the more Daren read. He quickly scanned the pages before throwing them to the floor in frustration.

"What the heck is this? Most of this is blank or just garbage. Birth place unknown? Nationality unknown? 'Identity verified by the headmaster due to loss of identification documents'? How on Tellus did Deputy Heston get Aayla inside the university?"

The documents floated into Chris's hands before he stuffed them back into their folder. Daren tapped his fingers on an armrest in annoyance.

"In a way, this tells us a lot. The headmaster must know something. He wouldn't just let any random person in. He's probably helped cover things up. Deputy Heston had to have his permission to keep Aayla's student records in her office."

Daren continued to sulk while staring out the window. Their quest to find information had hit a wall. All of the books on Terra were either stolen, ashes or lost among the mad scramble to evacuate.

"Did you find anything in the headmaster's office?"

Daren shook his head. "Nothing useful. He prefers to keep his projects in his head until he's getting ready to publish the results. If he writes anything down, he encodes it or keeps it abstract. However, he did have several books on spatial magic and portals along with historical records from the restricted archives."

"I thought that his current project was improving that communication artifact."

"It is. These books don't go with his research at all."

He pulled several books out of his bag and handed them to Chris. Each one appeared ancient and faintly glowed under the effects of a preservation spell. Chris whistled as he scanned the opening pages of the first book.

"These tomes must be the originals. Possibly from before the Great Disaster old. The head librarian actually let him remove these from their cases? There must be a copy for him to look at."

"For books on a subject this rare and complicated? Most likely not. Besides, I'm not so sure the head librarian knows. He snuck around for a while during the beginning of the school year. I might have seen him and Deputy Heston arguing over one of these books."

Chris squinted his eyes while thoughts whirled in his head. Deputy Heston started looking into something earlier in the year, and even put her current projects on hold. Was the headmaster helping her project?

The carriage remained silent for the rest of the journey. They were dropped off at the Forest Waypoint Police Headquarters then whisked away to the most expensive hotel in the city. Stallesso had reserved the pent house suite for his grandson.

The duo stayed inside for the rest of the day. They watched carriages flow between Nafriton and Forest Waypoint until they finally stopped leaving the city. By sundown the entire evacuation was completed. Flames rose from parts of Forest Waypoint again.

At dinner time, the Halcyon students paid a surprise visit and brought food with them. Jacki nervously pulled Chris aside to question him about his day. She didn't trust that idiot to keep his workload low enough.

The students brought disturbing rumors with them. A new Prophet had made an appearance. The True Order never had two prophets before. People were extremely disturbed by the news. Another prophet was horrible news, if the news could be trusted.

"What do they call him again? The Prophet of Terra? What's that supposed to mean?"

"We have no idea, Chris. That's just what the rumors are saying. Apparently, he's skilled in artifact manipulation and created a giant army of magical beasts. That army supposedly took down Sarrasak."

Another student chimed in. "The military is cracking down on these rumors as best as they can, but they aren't outright denying them either."

"So, there could be some truth to them?"

The students nodded.

"Anything else?" (Chris)

"Some of the people who've gone missing over the past year have shown back up!"

"That's great! Where?" (Chris)

"… In the True Order's army."

"Some say that they were brainwashed zombies. Others insist that they seemed to enjoy spouting the Order's nonsense and causing misery. Either way, all that we know is that they've appeared."

Chris pushed back his bangs and sighed. Great. Just great. Chinebar needed another nutjob to slaughter innocent citizens by the thousands. Missing wizards were also appearing in that nutjob's army. Daren didn't seem to be paying the conversation much attention. His eyes were glued to the door.

"What about Miss Glowery?"

The others looked at Jacki.

"I think Aayla was helping shut down the residence hall. They needed her help closing the trial grounds. She should be in Forest Waypoint by now."

"Do we know where her room is?" A blush crept across Daren's cheeks as he rushed to explain. "Grandfather promised to take care of her on Deputy Heston's behalf! I just want to know so I can keep an eye on her until my grandfather gets back."

The rest of the group smiled and nodded. Of course, they believed him. Then the first-years were kicked out to go find Aayla.

**********

Thankfully, the military chose to evacuate the campus when they did. Several days later, defense forces from further south arrived with a True Order army hot on their heels. Magic beasts quickly overran the campus and nearby villages.

The army launched a ferocious attack while the defense forces retreated behind the walls. Only the appearance of Stallesso Forolan managed to push them back. No civilians were harmed, but the city was surrounded by a sea of berserk magical beasts.

Among the enemy wizards, about half remained silent and rarely spoke a word. They stood still like statues unless given orders. A familiar face also attracted a lot of attention. The True Order commander of the Nafriton raid had returned. Stallesso could barely control his urge to sink his fist into the smug jerk's face.

The True Order demanded their immediate surrender. The mayor, Stallesso and military commander refused. The fighting began at dawn the next day.