Was Balthazar a good man ? Depends who you ask. Good and evil are moralistic views, as such, from the moral of society, Balthazar certainly wasn't a good man. He had no qualms being violent and had been in a few figts in the academy, he also wasn't above dirty plays, from lying to stealing, even though he had never stolen anything of value, he knew that as any man, greed could catch up to him.
On the other hand, he was upright with his own limits, and thought that to be oneself, who must be truthful, at least toward himself. Not shy away from his desire, flaws or talents. As such, one must pursue what his heart longs for. And could you condemn as a bad man the one who pursues his desires like a child pursues his ? You can oppose him, but can you hate him ? Doesn't that make you hateful, to live for those you claim hateable, with hatred ?
Balthazar was no saint, but he was no monster either. Merely a man, one that walks his own way, and like all, carries his own burdens. To love or to hate, it is better to walk.
Time flew by quickly once Balth's headache had settled. He finished reading the book and started working on the pratice of the spell.
"[Track Sigil]." The name was simple, yet it was hard to cast, and even more so in the current situation.
See, the spell required the caster to focus on the energy mark of the sigil he wished to track and from there one could follow the magical traces and remnants from the sigil.
However, the one before Balthazar was made by a mage which was as competent as him, and who had hid it very well, since the energy disappeared almost entirely when the sigil was not activated.
Add to that the fact that Balthazar was a begginer with this spell, in fact, it was already impressive he could learn it in so little time.
His determination was, however, not shaken in the slighest, pushed by the curiosity and excitement of the why and how he gained such memories.
Were they sealed in the sigil ? Or was it something else ?
Anyway it was the opportunity for Balth to finally learn at least somethings about Necromancy, and that wasn't something he was ready to pass on.
Noon came, and with it the hunger. Balthazar left his room, and went to the refectory. He ate a lot that day, at least twice what he would normally eat.
You might have noticed that Balthazar didn't seem to have a lot of friends here. And you would be correct, most of them had graduated too after all.
They had choosen to go somewhere else, some became adventurers, other decided to set up shops in the various cities of the kingdom or the empire.
Even the student who got the first place of graduation last year, Pauld Elwinis, had set off and choose against staying at the academy.
There were rumors he was accepted as a disciple of a member of the Council of High Magic, the highest magical authority in the whole of the Empire of Karnass.
Headmaster McFullen had a seat there. Also, you'd do well not to look down on the Grand Academy of Arcana, as a place founded by a glorious archwizard, it could compete with any top tier magic institution of the Empire without being ashamed.
Balthazar walked toward the library, there, he discretly found a place, well hidden behind the many bookshelf and sat down on the ground. It was 1pm, that meant he had three hours until 4pm, when the test would be hel by Professor Amos. That meant he had those three whole hours to practice Track Sigil unto the wanted sigil before then.
As he had taken the time to eat, and calm down a little, the seriousness of the situation had too started to set in for Balthazar. If he had felt this way when he woke up, how would the studets have felt ? For how much time had they suffered that ?
As such, Balth was concerned about them, this was the other reason why he wanted to try and find something before the test.
If he found anything, he really wanted to deal with it himself, as it would be one of his only chance to put his hands on necromancy knowledge, rare thing in this day and age.
If he didn't find anything, on the other hand, he's at least be able to speak with Rachel about the progress and she'd e able to update him on the situation. Anyway, He had made the decision that if he couldn't find something conclusive by monday, he would talk about it to Lucius, the old fox had a soft side for him and was wise enough to deal with the matter without causing to much ruckuss in Balthazar's opinions.
Three hours passed by like the blink of an eye, yet, Balthazar had found nothing, not even the slighest clue. He was sullen and frustrated, yet again. Frustration truly was the emotion he felt the easiest. More precisely, he felt it so strongly when he felt he should be able to do something, yet was unable to, and failed.
Balth headed straight for Classroom 7-A, the one where the test would be taking place.
He arrived and greeted Amos, they talked together for a few minutes, as the students arrived. Quickly, the subjects were distributed to them and they started to work on them.
"They do seem exhausted, you didn't lie." whispered Amos.
"Yup, should probably give them some free points as compensation"
"Don't even think about it. I don't see their deputy, did she call in sick ?"
"What ? Ok, wait I'll go check at the infirmiary. All of that does look fishy to me."
"Keep me updated Balthazar." Amos adjusted his glassses and started keenly watching the students.
Balthazar walked hurriedly within the academy, until he reached the infirmiary. Most of the people who ended up here usually did so for minor failure in classes, failing to cast a minor evocation spell or messing around with vapour or potions in alchemy class.
He spent a few minutes roaming around and asking the nurses if they had seen Rachel, but it appearead she was not there.
Feeling surprised , Balthazar rapidly headed to the classroom 7-A and told Amos before asking a student to come in the hallway for a second.
"Do you know where your class deputy is, Jonas ?"
"Rachel ? I think she didn't feel well this morning and told us she'd be calling in sick for the day, then we had class and she wasn't there so I guess that's what she did, or she fell asleep, bu she should've awoken by now then."
"You can go back Jonas." Balthazar pointed at Amos.
"[Message]. I'll go check in the dorm." He would've happily given more explaination, but the spell had a word limit preventing that. Amos nodded.
Balthazar moved without need to look at his surrounding, the elite dorms were the place where he had spent a good five years of his life, so he knew exactly where he had to go to be there as fast as possible.
Barely fifteen minutes after, Balthazar entered the 3rd Year Elite Class Dormitory and headed for the girl aisle.
Onto the doors, the names of the two students who shared a room was written.
'Lola, Jasmine... Victoire, Sophia... Leila, Rachel, there !'
He knocked.
"Rachel ? Rachel are you here ?"
No answer.
Balthazar knocked a second time, hearing no answser, he turned the doorknob. A small door chain was blocking the complete opening the door from the inside.
Balthazar moved so as to see the interior of the room. He saw the teenage girl, lying on the ground, face down and unmoving. Without much more thought Balthazar cast Magic Missile spell onto the chain and threw the door open. Quikly he entered and looked around him, no danger was seen. He knelt by Rachel's side and touched her neck, badum, badum, badum, a pulse was felt and Balthazar heaved a sight of relief, he then realized the coldness of her body, it felt as if his hand was touching a block of ice, as he removed his finger, they almost felt numb from the cold.
"Detect Magic." Balthazar looked around for a moment. A few seconds passed before he saw a small, faint trail of magic, one eerily similar to the flame he conjured during the night.
'Necromancy, I don't know if I should be happy or sad. Maybe afraid huh ? Anyway I got to get Rachel to the infirmiary right now!'
Balthazar tried to hold Rachel up, but struggled, feeling his lack of strength, he exhaled and threw her on his back as best as he could before rushing to the infirmiary.
It was 8pm, the test had to have ended now, and the nurse came to Balthazar who was waiting in the entry of the infirmiary.
"Sir, the girl you brought has woken up, please be gentle with her she might be a bit confused. It doesn't appear to be anything serious, merely a fainting due to exhaustion." She said before leaving.
Balthazar thanked her and headed toward Rachel's room.
"Rachel, do you feel better ?"
"Ugh, yes, it feels like I banged my head really hard."
"You probably did when you fell. Tell me did you fell something weird before fainting ?"
"No not really, I just felt light headed suddenly and I collapsed."
'Weird, she has been in that state for at least an hour, since the start of the test until I arrived to her room.'
"Ok I see. By any chance, have you ever seen that symbol ?" Balth showed the sigil he got from the library.
"Oh, you mean that ?" To which Rachel got a folded piece of paper from the pocket of her robes and presented it.
Balthazar unfolded it, revealing the exact symbol, this time bigger in size, and clearly with better finish.
"Where did you find that ?"
"In a book, in the library, a student reccomended it to me to study for the test. How did it go by the way ? Am I going to get a zero ??"
"Don't worry about the test, Professor Amos is not without heart either. You mind if I keep the paper for a moment ? I'll give it back to you later, I'm afraid it could be a bad, bad prank from older seniors of the academy."
"No, I don't mind, as long as it helps."
"Thank you Rachel, try and get ssome sleep."
"Thank you teacher."
After explaining that to Amos, who stated he would hold another test and keep only he better grade of the two, Balthazar headed straight for his quarter.
'A student reccomended her the book huh ? What a coincidence. But if I am right, something put Rachel in that state. Could it have still been there or in action when I arrived ? Did it sense me ? If it did, is it sentient ? Come to think of it, it uses necromantic energy, it could have been an undead, no what am I thinking, an undead doesn't just appear out of nowhere, expect if death energies are heavily concentrated, like on a battlefield everyone know that. Or... Or it could be.. a necromancer ? Here ? In the academy ? And why would he prey on students ? Does he need something here ?
Anyhow, I need to prepare for tonight, I doubt nothing will happen now. Come, I'll be ready or I'm not Balthazar !'