"That's easier said than done..." I thought for the umpteenth time three days later.
Sophia's shoulder leaned against mine as we sat on one of the small sofas in the common room.
She was absorbed in a book. Seeing her face out of the corner of my eye was enough to make my heart skip a beat.
I sighed.
Ever since my last conversation with Amy, I had been looking for a good opportunity to confess my feelings for her. A real confession this time, one that left no room for misunderstandings.
But...
On the night of the tournament, I had spoken out of the blue, without even thinking about what I was saying. This time was different, I was afraid I wouldn't find the right words.
I already knew what Amy would say to me:
"You're still making excuses! You just need to say 'I love you'!"
And she would have been right.
"But I'm still scared..."
During those days, the sweet torment that Sophia had put me through had continued.
She almost seemed like a different person. She was always devious when it came to teasing me, but the happy, carefree smile on her face when she was in my company was something I had never seen before.
"Was Sophia like this all the time before the trauma she suffered at the hands of her parents?"
It was possible, but something didn't add up.
"Has no one ever shown this poor girl any real affection?"
Of course, being a noble and in poor health as a child, she probably didn't have many opportunities to make friends with girls or boys her own age.
But was it really possible that there was no one at all with whom she had formed a bond? Perhaps a cousin, another relative or maybe a maid?
Surely not everyone would have given her ineptitude with magic the same weight as her idiotic parents.
"Perhaps she has removed any positive experiences from her memory..."
I wanted to ask her, but I didn't want to remind her of that painful time in her life.
"But now she has me... another reason to hurry and confess."
But it wasn't the only one.
Ever since the day after the tournament, when I thought back to the words Skylark had spoken before it began, I had begun to have a bad feeling.
I was sure that something was going on behind the scenes at the Academy, and yesterday I had confirmation.
"That reminds me..."
«Sophia!»
«Um?» she said, looking up from her book.
«I asked Celeste if she had also seen those people come into the school.»
It had happened the afternoon before.
As we walked through the corridors, we had seen a small group of students gathered outside one of the windows. Intrigued, we had approached to see what they were looking at.
Three people, dressed in sumptuous clothes, were approaching the main door of the school. I had recognised one of them immediately: the king's adviser, who had watched our duels in December.
We had rushed to the entrance and were just in time to see the trio climbing the stairs to the second floor of the school.
«What did she say? Did she recognise the other two?»
Sophia this time didn't blink when she heard the name of her arch-rival.
"She's really changed, hasn't she?"
«Yes... she said that the chubbier one is the king's treasurer while the taller one is the supreme commander of the army.»
Sophia snapped to her feet.
«And you're telling me this now?»
«Sorry... I... it kinda slipped my mind.»
"Love is going to my head."
Sophia huffed, but her expression softened.
«You're such a klutz!» she exclaimed as she returned to her seat and ruffled my hair.
«What do you think they wanted from Skylark?»
«I'm not sure... it must be something important. Aside from the king himself, those are the biggest players in the kingdom.»
She was right.
An Academy like this would certainly need an incredible amount of money to function. Perhaps the treasurer wanted to talk to Skylark about it?
But what did the Supreme Commander have to do with it? Perhaps it had something to do with the Academy's ultimate goal.
"A mage as powerful as Aldric... a weapon for the army."
«Sophia... since Skylark didn't want to organise that tournament... maybe those three are the ones who forced him to!»
The girl looked at me deep in thought as she bit her fingernail:
«You could be right, but... why? If it was supposed to be another exhibition, why didn't anyone come to watch this time?»
«I have no idea...»
We spent the rest of the evening speculating without finding a solution to this dilemma.
"Another day goes by without me having achieved anything..." I thought as I went to bed a few hours later, "perhaps tomorrow I will find the opportunity and the courage needed."
***
When I woke up the next morning, it was not peacefully, alerted as usual by the slight vibration of the enchanted bed on which I slept.
Someone was speaking to me.
I sat up in bed, my heart beating wildly, my right hand reaching for my wand on the bedside table. But I soon realised that I was alone in my room.
"A dream?"
But soon the voice spoke again.
"All students are hereby ordered to remain in their rooms. The corridors will be monitored. Any student caught violating this order will be severely punished."
It was the same magical voice that spoke before the duels.
"What the hell is going on?"
I approached the door.
"It didn't say anything about peeking out!"
But as soon as I put my hand on the doorknob, I discovered that the entrance to my room had been sealed.
"..."
This had never happened before.
Something was happening out there. Something Skylark didn't want us to see.
"Something to do with those three guys?"
But he hadn't locked us up like this the last time they'd been here.
Unfortunately, I had no way of finding out.
The barrier that protected our rooms was impervious to any magic. I couldn't even try to slip something through the crack under the door.
The spell I had used to get through the wall and into the secret laboratory was also out of the question. When I had tried to experiment with it, I had felt deep pain in my finger, and when I had pulled it out, I had found the tip badly burned.
Unless there were other special innate powers that could achieve the same, Sophia was the only one who could have escaped that situation.
"Please... stay put."
She would be in big trouble if she broke down the door to her room and got caught.
An hour later, when I was finally free to leave my room, I ran towards hers.
We met halfway and I immediately hugged her:
«I was afraid you were going to do something stupid!»
«I'm not you... But I thought about it.»
«I knew it.»
We began a full search of the whole school, but nothing seemed to have changed.
«What do you think happened?»
«We have no way of knowing. One thing's for sure, if they didn't want us to see it, it's not pleasant.»
***
Another week of classes came to an end.
"And I still haven't confessed my feelings to her."
Those ominous signs did not bode well for us: I had to hurry.
I looked at the leaderboard:
64 students remaining
"Time seems to be flying by these days."
The number of students who had died was now dangerously close to the number of survivors.
"And it's only March..."
The six deaths that had occurred during the tournament represented a month and a half to be subtracted from our remaining time at the Academy.
Thinking about it, I had formed a hypothesis about what those influential people who had visited the school wanted from Skylark.
"Were they pressuring him to speed things up?"
But what was the hurry? No one could have come to rescue us. And they certainly wouldn't have expected us to rebel with all those powerful spells around us to keep us locked up.
Adding to the mystery was the hour we had been locked in our rooms.
What had happened at school that Skylark didn't want us to see?
"Like Sophia said, something tells me it would be better if I didn't find out..."
But just then, as if by a twist of fate, as the professor who had finished the lesson left the classroom, the Headmaster entered it.
The students, who had already stood up, immediately returned to their seats.
Skylark's eyes looked at each of us. Just like the last time I had seen him, there seemed to be no trace of the usual mocking sneer under his moustache.
«Very well, I see you are all here. This will make things easier.»
His tone was solemn, I was sure that this time we would not get away with a 'fun' event like the December duels.
«About a week ago, during the tournament, I mentioned that you would soon find out why the Academy had started to organise events on a regular basis. That time has come.»
"So soon..."
I stiffened. I knew we would find out what was going on sooner or later, but I hoped we would have at least two or three weeks of peace.
«The smartest among you will have put two and two together by now and figured out what's going on.»
He paused for a moment, the whole class hanging on his every word.
«As you may have guessed, the events I have organised recently have been the result of external pressure. As much as I am your Headmaster, I also have people to whom I am accountable.»
"So it's true..."
Although those three people were so powerful, there was only one person I could imagine who could bend Skylark to his will: the king.
Could it be that he was the one who had visited the Academy two days ago, and that we had been confined to our rooms as a security measure?
But why pressure Skylark? Was my theory correct?
I had a really bad feeling.
I was obviously not alone: Sophia had put her hand on my knee and was squeezing it.
I covered it with mine, trying to give myself courage.
«Unfortunately, my attempts to appease these outside influences have been unsuccessful,» Skylark said coldly, «I understand their concerns, but I have always believed that in order to achieve good results in anything, it is good to take the necessary time. Time we alas no longer have.»
These last words gave me goose bumps.
I saw some students in the rows in front of me whispering to each other with a hopeful look in their eyes. Perhaps they hoped that what Skylark had just said was a sign of our imminent freedom.
But I was not so naive.
"It means he'll have to speed things up, so... reduce our numbers."
I swallowed. When the Headmaster spoke again, my fears were confirmed:
«But don't worry. There is still some time before the deadline I was given. Therefore, only some of you will have to leave us today.»
A deafening silence fell over the classroom. Now everyone had understood.
Only one question remained.
"How many of us have to die?"
Like condemned men, we awaited our sentence.
«At the end of this day, only 25 of you will remain in the Academy.»
Time seemed to freeze. Perhaps even the laws of physics refused to accept the words the Headmaster had just spoken.
I could tell from his tone that there would be a massacre within these walls today.
But... 39 dead...
That was more than half of us.
As time began to tick again in the classroom and chaos broke out among my classmates, I could only ask myself the same question for the umpteenth time:
"Why?"
What was the point of this damned deadly game?
If it was really about finding Sir Aldric's successor, why did we have to die? And now, why the sudden rush...?
"Something must have happened outside the Academy..."
Meanwhile, panic reigned. Some students seemed to be in a catatonic state, while others were crying in despair. Some even tried to get up and confront the headmaster. But after a few of them were sent crashing into the wall by a simple snap of his fingers, they seemed to give up.
The old mage's typical sneer had reappeared on his face.
"You old sadistic bastard..."
I had no doubt. If Skylark was irritated, it wasn't because he didn't want to see us die, but because he would have less time to use us as toys.
The headmaster spoke again, his voice magically amplified to overpower the commotion:
«Do not worry. I will not be the one to choose who the 25 survivors will be. It will all depend on you. After all, meritocracy is one of the Academy's founding values!»
"As if... You are the same guy who played favourites to help a murderer and organised a tournament in the perfect way to get Sophia and me killed".
«As you leave this classroom, you will notice that something has changed in the school building. The second floor of the Academy is now open to all of you. The same goes for the magic seal that leads to the roof. All this has been done to increase the space available to you.»
"Does he mean...?!"
«Tonight, from 9pm sharp, all the rules of the Academy will be temporarily suspended. You will be able to do whatever you see fit to survive without consequence. This "special state" will continue until there are 25 of you left.»
The implication was clear:
"He wants us to kill each other..."
But something didn't add up.
It was Sophia who expressed my doubts. She stood up from the bench and gave the headmaster a contemptuous look. Looking at her face, I saw that there was no trace of the carefree girl I had met last week. Like a knight who had donned her armour, Sophia had already returned to her role as an unyielding warrior.
«What do you have in mind? You can't really believe that we're going to kill each other just because you tell us to.»
«Perceptive as always, Miss Thornton,» Skylark commented, «as you can imagine, I have prepared an incentive for you to take your fate into your own hands.»
The headmaster approached the lectern and continued:
«On the first day of the school year, I told you that there would be no exams here at Duelcrest Academy. It is not my choice, but I am forced to take those words back. What awaits you will be nothing more than an examination to assess how far you have come since you entered the Academy. And like any exam, you will be judged by an examiner.»
The Headmaster snapped his fingers and a bright pattern suddenly appeared in the floor in front of the desk.
«A seal?! How long has it been there?»
«I'm afraid you will be judged rather harshly. This particular examiner has definitely been unstable lately. But don't worry, we have ways to control them, once your number reaches 25, they will withdraw.»
«Is he planning to unleash some kind of magical beast in the school?»
The headmaster clapped his hands and the magic seal glowed brighter. With a rumble, something materialised.
A figure had appeared before us. It was surrounded by a semi-transparent barrier, its surface crisscrossed by what looked like rushing streams of mana. I had never seen such a spell before.
"It's like... a cage?"
But there was no strange magical creature inside, as I had imagined.
No... this figure was definitely disproportionate to a normal human, but it still didn't look like a beast.
"A troll maybe...? No... it has clothes on and it has long hair. Trolls don't have hair as far as I know."
The figure sat motionless on the ground, its long black hair covering its face.
It was wearing a long black robe that was far too small for it, and it was torn in several places.
I noticed that some kind of dark mist seemed to be hovering around it.
"What the hell is that?"
Suddenly the creature moved and raised its head.
My eyes stared into his.
His cold black eyes, like a bottomless abyss.
His messy, greasy black hair like filthy rags.
His powerful shoulders and inhuman muscles that made him resemble a man-hunting beast rather than a wizard.
For the first time, as I gazed upon Sir Aldric, my idol, my heart was filled not with hope and admiration but with pure unspeakable dread.