The Void at the Academy

They were running now, taking the turns of the meandering hallway as it led them to the other side of the mansion. “What do you mean that the spell does not work?” Melanie glared at Julian as he scrambled with the lock on the door leading to the staff offices and pulled her behind him.

“The spell does not work. I saw it backfire… that’s how we are here now. I’m sorry.” He said between breaths, “The school is going to succumb to the Void. There is nothing we can do now but try to get out. If we do not make it out in time, we will both die.”

They raced down the hallway and turned right. Behind her, she could feel the floorboards shake as the farthest began to collapse into the abyss. A thunderous noise followed them as it took everything behind them. A cloud of darkness breathed behind them as they ran.

Julian knew the school the best since he grew up here and graduated from academy. Magic was a huge part of his life, and he could not picture his life being without it. His mother was a mage and the headmistress of the Mages Academy for many decades until her passing a few years ago. Since then, Julian had taken over as Headmaster and had successfully led students through their courses and attain different levels of mastery. He was a breath of fresh air when it came to operating the academy.

Turning left quickly, he ran to a window that was directly above the roof of the terrace. “We need to climb out and down to the ground. As long as we are out of the building it should be fine.” He unlatched the window and swung it open, thanking the gods that it was summer break and that there were not students in the building. He was eternally grateful that no one will be harmed. He climbed out first and held his hand for his favorite employee. Her delicate tanned hand reached towards his as she swung her pant-covered leg over the windowsill and got out of the building. He knew that they belonged together; he just had not admitted it to her yet.

“How are we getting down?” She stared over the edge of the Terrance rooftop wearingly. She quickly looked back as the thunderous rumble from the Void became louder and approached even closer.

“I am going to climb down. Once I am down there, you will need to jump. I will catch you; I promise.” He assured her once he saw the panic rise in her eyes.

Melanie was the only employee to stay once the weird events of the Void began. The rest of the staff refused to stay to find out the results of this supernatural force. To be fair, he did not blame them. They are still unsure of what went awry and allowed for the Void to escape its confines. Unfortunately, now that they are losing the school and its vault, they most likely will never know what happened. Julian would not be surprised if some unruly teen found their way into forbidden spell closet and knocked something down. Allowing for a force like this to take that kind of force required a good amount of time.

Shaking his head and the thought, he reminded himself that at this moment the most important thing was to get out.

Melanie knew she had to be brave. She stared at Julian as he descended the column expertly. It was obviously that growing up here he had done this a few times before. Once he was a reasonable distance from the ground, he jumped and landed like a cat on his feet. He held his hands up, offering to catch her. His eyes encouraging her to do so. The jump was a solid fifteen feet from where she was.

Melanie gulped, “here goes nothing”. She swung her leg over the edge and took a deep breath. This was not just a leap of trust. This was literally a leap for her life. If she stayed, she would certainly die. Today, she chose to be brave, and she pushed herself from the edge of the rooftop as the roars from the Void came behind her.

Feeling her stomach rise to her throat, she held in her scream as her arms shot out to meet Julian’s. He quickly grabbed her under her arms and allowed her weight to fall on top of him. They both tumbled to the soft, dewy grass beneath them. Realizing that she had not released her breath, she finally let go and looked down to his stormy grey eyes.

Briefly smiling at her, his fingers softly brushed her cheek. She smiled in return. Almost laughed, really. Without saying a word, he pulled her to him and kissed her. He kissed her like he had been dreaming of for a year now. Melanie had been there for him when he encountered the hardest challenges he had to face since she got here.

They kissed passionately as the school building crumbled and succumbed to the Void behind them. And just like he said, the building was the only thing that was taken as the Void had no rights to touch Mother Earth. Separating and turning to look at the vacant land that was once their school, there was no way to believe what they had just gone through. How they almost died to get here. How the world brought them together once more despite their attempts to stay separate.

Melanie’s entire life had to come apart for her to find herself and her true calling. She was a mage just like she saw in her dreams, just like the Oracle told her. Melanie came from the city where she had to hide in the “broom closet” for years. First from her friends, then her fiancé (who left quickly once he found out her stash of herbs and sigils), and even her family. She was a teacher in the city, so teaching was natural to her, and she came to the academy to begin anew and found her passion teaching the closest thing to Chemistry… alchemy. She was not just a mage; she was also an alchemist!

She was now where she truly belonged. Better late than never, she thought.