I continued walking towards the direction of the moan I heard but before I reached the cavern, Bolzen burst out from nowhere, grinning and nervously chuckling at me.
I halted, taking a glance at him from head down. His shirt was free and unbuttoned, billowing in the wind and his shorts a tad loose like he had worn them in a hurry.
I said nothing to him as he went on blabbering meaningless words just to keep me from proceeding any further.
"We've been looking for you... and Sheila. We're about to leave," I told him.
He chuckled again and stepped back to look into the cavern as if checking on something or someone.
"Psst, Bolzen," I called to him with a whispery voice.
"Psst."
Finally hearing me, he turned to look my way.
"Is she in there?" I whispered.
Bolzen smiled and nodded his head. Hearing that, I smiled back and gave him two thumbs up and he clutched the air.
As we were fooling around, I heard Sheila approaching the exit of the cavern and became a bit more serious.
"Ahem, come on man, let's go. It's getting late and we are running out of time."
As I was speaking, she stepped out, startled the minute she saw me.
Sheila's cheeks turned red and she looked anywhere else but where I was standing.
She was embarrassed.
"Hey, Sheila," I said, breaking the awkward silence that loomed in the air.
"H-Hey... D-Dee," she stuttered, clutching her legs together and subtly rubbing her fingers against each other.
We doubled back to where the rest of the class was waiting for the three of us.
After a couple of minutes of walking, we came back to the beach.
"Found them!" I yelled as we came into sight.
"Thank goodness," Albert muttered, heaving a sigh of relief.
The bus was already there, the driver waiting patiently for everyone to enter before leaving.
...
...
...
— Mage Society, Silver City Branch —
Footsteps thudded against the ground with a sense of urgency as an individual paced through the hallway.
The hasty steps reached the front of an office and stopped.
Before walking through the door, this individual took deep breaths many times to calm his nerves.
Entering, he met another man who sat behind a desk, upon which were exhausting heaps of papers and an abundance of stationery.
The man behind the desk stopped what he was writing and with an inked-tip feather in his hand, he looked forward to see who had walked in.
He adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat.
"What is it, Westerly?" he asked.
Westerly was the man who had stormed into his office without even as much as knocking before entering.
The westerly voice faltered after the man put him on the spot.
"F-Forgive me, sir."
He was visibly overwrought by the presence of the man in glasses.
He was overwhelmed not just in the way of a junior standing before his superior but also in the way of someone who revered or feared the man in glasses.
"What is it?" the man asked with a commanding voice, dropping his inked feather and leaning back on his tall cosy seat to listen to Westerly.
Westerly had gotten his full attention.
The man changed his posture again, his new pose making Westerly even more nervous.
He dropped everything, clasped his hands and rested his chin on them.
"Report... Archmage... Kalvin!" Westerly yelled with a quavering voice.
"Calm down, Westerly."
Westerly's behaviour was only natural.
Standing in front of an Archmage rank warlock like Kalvin was not something that happened to 2-star Warlocks like himself.
It was so rare that even when the meeting involved a bad premise, the less-ranked mages saw it as a privilege to gain wisdom from the scolding.
"The team of warlocks and witches that was tasked with investigating the recent upsurge in mana within the Silver City..."
Westerly paused and heaved a sigh. He was shrouded with fear that made him hesitate in passing on the information.
"And?" the Archmage asked, taking off his glasses.
"There wasn't any word from them for days. It was like they had disappeared. That was until a few hours ago when we found one of them. He was dead and his body was mangled in the most grody manner... in ways I can't even begin to describe."
The room fell silent after Westerly finished his report. The sudden quietness made the 2-star warlock even more anxious, coupled with the fact that Archmage Kalvin's eyes were glued to him.
Kalvin scratched his sparsely bearded chin as he thought about what Westerly had said.
"Hmm, is that so?" he replied.
Is that so?
That was all the Archmage had to say?
Westerly was taken aback by his superior's response. Even he, as low as he was in the ranks of the Mage Society, would not respond like that to such a serious matter.
The event had claimed the lives of fifteen mages — warlocks and witches inclusive — and all Kalvin could say was 'Is that so?'
Kalvin flicked his hand in front of him, gesturing the mage out of his office.
"You can go now, Westerly."
"But sir, don't you think we shou—"
Kalvin's eyes narrowed into slits, his jaws clenched and his face wore a stern countenance.
He cast a deathly gaze on Westerly, who shuddered and instinctively took two steps back.
"You... can... go... now... Westerly," Kalvin repeated himself.
Westerly walked out of the office and shut the door after him. As he stood outside the door, he started to breathe normally again while rubbing his chest gently.
He turned, setting his eyes on the door before clenching his fists and walking away.
Meanwhile, Kalvin may have acted nonchalantly in the presence of Westerly but he would rather that than appear to be panicking.
"So it's getting as dangerous as we anticipated," he breathed.
Kelvin pondered on this new development before picking the handset of the golden black coloured antique phone on his table.
With a finger, he spun the dial a few times before it dinged and a voice responded from the other side of the line.
"Hello," the voice answered.
"Abandon your current mission and return now," Kalvin instructed and dropped the handset.
Kalvin sighed. "I didn't expect this to escalate this quick."