The Curse (H. Academy Series #1)
Chapter 17: Breadcrumbs

Morta and I found Amma in my room, sitting on the floor, surrounded with candles, dozens of books and papers, the entire rainbow of highlighters and a spread sheet titled ‘The mystery of H. Academy.’

“Well, shit!” Morta shouted, an expression of disappointment on her face. “Just when I began thinking she was normal.”

“Amma, what are you doing?” I chuckled at Amma’s bewildered face once she saw our silhouettes.

“I’m trying to solve our problem, of course.” She pointed at the copy of my father’s journal like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I downloaded a bunch of crap from Witchipedia, as well.”

“Witchipedia is useless. Everything they put on has to go through the High Council.” Morta murmured but kneeled next to her anyway, to see what she found.

“Of course, that’s what I counted on. But-”

“Wait, wait, wait! We have to put some kind of protection on this room before you say anything.” I remembered and Morta’s eyes popped open. She quickly grabbed one of Amma’s pens and a blank piece of paper.

“What are you doing?” Amma leaned over the paper curiously.

“I guess this is the moment we realise she’s actually a genius.” I kneeled next to them and looked at the paper. Morta drew multiple circles on the page, all intertwined with each other.

“It’s air magic. Basically, you circulate the air so many times that all other particles start to follow it.” Morta explained. “Once that happens, no sound is able to get out of the room.”

“How do you know that?” I stared in awe.

“Uh, I passed Elemental Magic and this is my favourite spell to use when I bring a boy home.” Morta smiled smugly. “Nobody will sense it, the school is overflowing with magic because of the party.”

“Ha, who would’ve thought? You actually learned something in this school.” I focused my magic on the piece of paper and imagined the air circulating as Morta described. Amma and her did the same.

The air whooshed around us, warm and gentle, but strong enough to close the door we left open. Soft, air magic enveloped us in its embrace, caressing my skin and reminding me of warm summer nights.

“Jade, would you do the honour? You’re good with rhymes.” Morta nodded at me and I blushed slightly. The rhyme creating was one of my favourite parts of magic.

“A few secrets and a little bit of air, close all doors and make this game fair.” The air carried my words around the room, becoming almost visible in its linear trajectory. The wind slammed into the windows and doors, shaking the room.

“Okay, it’s done.” Morta nodded towards Amma. “What did you find?”

“Well,” Amma cleared her throat as we sat in a circle, a bunch of papers and a bottle of witch’s brew in the middle, “I searched the Witchipedia, trying to find something of use and then I remembered Dominic.” The frog, that quietly hopped out of the shadows of my bed, clearly summoned by his name. “I decided I wanted to upload the process of creating Dominic, for scientific purposes. I emailed Professor Lorenia for permission and she told me that the Headmaster has to approve.”

“It would save them so much time if Professors could give permission on their own.” I noticed. But Witchipedia was no joke, everything had to be approved by higher authorities.

“Yes, but Professor Lorenia said the Headmaster was magically connected to the server and no matter where he is or what he’s doing, trivial stuff like this gets approved in a matter of seconds.” Amma’s azure eyes glowed with excitement under the light of the candles around us. “I also got points for extra credit.” She added proudly.

“I will give you a thousand bucks if you pass Intro to Potions for me.” Morta offered with a blank expression.

“Uh, I would never devoid you of something as priceless as a learning experience.” Amma said, making me smile.

“It’s an opportunity for you to revise!” Morta tried again.

“Don’t you think I could revise for my own grade?” Amma squinted. “I can definitely study with you if you want.”

“I’ll pass.” Morta cut her off, all excitement disappearing off her face.

“No, Morta, you’ll probably fail.” I murmured, making Amma laugh.

“Ha, ha.” Morta rolled her eyes.

“So, what did you find?” I rushed Amma.

“Okay, so, I sent the entire process of creating Dominic to the Headmaster-”

“Wait, what did Lorenia say about Dominic?” Morta interrupted. “How did we create him?”

“Oh, that’s very interesting!” Amma squeaked and I grabbed the witch’s brew.

The music from downstairs managed to reach our floor and I let myself wonder whether Leon was already in that girl’s pants. Probably. I imagined her moaning against his ear, his hands sliding across her naked body, sending shivers down-

“Jade?” Morta’s wide grin interrupted my thoughts. “I believe the process of creating a black frog isn’t so exciting.”

“Shut up.” I rubbed my eyes, trying to shake off the leftovers of the lust charm, obviously still gripping me. “Amma, please, continue.”

“Lorenia said that it’s possible that Jade’s black magic had somehow clashed with my white magic. The herbs got confused and thought we were creating a black magic repellent. And those are-”

“They’re familiars.” I realised. “Dominic is a familiar.”

The frog ribbited.

“Awesome.” Morta stared at the frog, suddenly liking him very much.

“Back to the Headmaster.” I reminded Amma and she nodded eagerly.

“As I was saying, I sent the entire thing to the Headmaster, expecting an instant reply. I know he’s in Vatican, but-”

“Yeah, what the hell is he doing in Vatican while our school is under attack?” This time, I interrupted Amma and she puffed in frustration.

“Kissing Christian ass, again.” Morta said.

“Anyway,” Amma emphasized the word loudly, “the answer never came. I thought about asking Professor Lorenia about it, but decided to ask around on the forums. Turns out,” her eyes widened, “nobody was able to put anything up on Witchipedia for the last three weeks.”

“Why?” I asked, even though the conversation I listened to earlier began creeping up my mind.

“Nobody received the Headmasters’ approvals. Which means the Headmasters aren’t there to answer.” Amma waited for our responses, the glint in her eyes more satisfied than scared. The girl’s love of a hunt for answers seemed stronger than the fear for the school.

“Professor Darth said something to my father in the meeting..” I stuttered, feeling the tension in the room rise. “H. Academy wasn’t the only place that was attacked. It happened in other schools, too.”

Silence fell over our little circle and for a moment, we heard nothing but the gentle ribbit of our familiar.

“And where are the Headmasters while their schools are under attack?” Morta voiced what all of us were thinking.

“Do you think something happened to the Headmasters?” Amma’s lower lip quivered and I shrugged my shoulders, feeling my anxiety rise. If there was ever a time to back out of this entire thing, it was now.

“Jade, what else did they say in the meeting?” Morta asked, the seriousness on her face very much different than the usual disinterest.

“Nothing of use. Thar pushed the idea that students need to learn how to fight against the demonic entity, he suggested adding more black magic into the curriculum, but my father straight out refused. He forbade all action until further notice.” I felt my words like huge weights in my throat and my chest. The disappointment and betrayal became too heavy to bear.

“So,” Amma bit her lip, “schools are under attack by the unknown force that is completely immune to white magic and the Arch Mage decides not to do anything about it?”

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Morta said, her eyes lost in thought.

“We need to sneak into the main hall and steal a sample of the black ooze.” I suggested. At this point, I wasn’t sure whether my father had already done it.

“I’m pretty sure they sealed the door.” Morta said. “Plus, I doubt you’d be able to analyse it, not with the knowledge we have.”

“Then, what do you suggest?” The witch’s brew slid down my throat, weirdly soothing my nerves. We quieted down without anything clever to say.

A decision loomed over me; did we really want to meddle? Now that we were almost certain something foul was at play? The High Council and the Arch Mage didn’t try their best to save the students from whatever was going on.

“You know what’s bugging me?” Amma said. “Why didn’t they evacuate us?”

“Oh, that’s a good question.” My gaze collided with Amma’s while Morta chugged the witch’s brew straight from the bottle.

“Is the thing happening only in schools?” Amma asked.

“They only mentioned the schools.” I shrugged.

“I think it’s pretty obvious.” Morta jumped in. “The High Council, Arch Mage and Goddess knows who else are in on this thing. They have to be. There is absolutely no reason for not evacuating us, or not fighting the demonic entity.”

“You’re jumping to conclusions, Morta. We have no idea what’s going on and we can’t just assume the Arch Mage knew about it.” I shook my head, not even wanting to think of that.

“Then, why aren’t they doing something? Why is everyone ordered to stand still?”

“I don’t know!” Frustration grew in me with every passing second.

“I think we should back out.” Amma murmured, staring at her own spread sheet on the floor. She played with the neon green highlighter. “What if we find out something we don’t want to know?” Her eyes turned from interested to scared fast.

“It’s all fun and games until you learn the government has turned from corrupted to straight out evil.” Morta puffed and took another sip.

Fear surged through me, combined with disappointment and uncertainty. Morta and Amma probably could have walked away from it, but something was stopping me. It was my dad that was in the centre of it all. No matter what, I was involved. I could play dumb and ignore it, but my ignorance would most likely come back and bite me.

“If we keep snooping, we could find something that is too big to walk away from.” Amma murmured.

“I guess we have a decision to make.” My mind jumped from scenario to scenario, picturing my father as this evil mastermind behind the attacks, picturing the entire High Council as the evil mastermind.

“Why schools?” Amma’s eyes snapped from the spread sheet to us.

“What?” Morta’s hazy gaze seemed a bit too lost to follow.

“Why are the schools under the attack?” Amma repeated while I frowned, thinking about it. “What could a demon possibly want with a bunch of untrained witches?”

“Maybe it’s just bloodthirsty?” Morta suggested.

“Then, why not attack covenless witches?” I countered. “They are a much easier target than a school packed with teachers that know how to fight.”

“Not if white magic isn’t working against them.” Amma shrugged.

“True.” Morta nodded.

“Goddess, I can’t decide whether we should continue trying to figure out what’s going on or simply try to forget and hope we won’t die.” I buried my face in my hands, feeling dizzy the moment I closed my eyes. I opened them and tried to calm my wild stomach, that rumbled with booze and nervousness.

Amma chuckled lightly, her smile twisting with fear. Morta was drunker than the two of us and her hazy eyes danced across the spreadsheet, like she was trying to read the non-existent answers.

“If we continue now,” Amma bit her lip, “there’s no backing out. If we find out the High Council is behind this, we are obligated to fight them.”

“I’m not obligated to do jack shit.” Morta spat out. “Hell, I’ll be happy if the entire High Council burns to the ground because of their own mistakes.”

“I couldn’t care less about the High Council,” I cut her off, “but we can’t let the students become sacrificial lambs.”

“Well,” Morta began, a smile forming on her face, “there’s something we can do that won’t push us further in, but might give us some answers.”

My eyes locked with hers. And the expression on her face, the sinister mischief, was a sign of an idea. The way she looked at us told me we wouldn’t like it one bit.

“Tell us.” Amma stuttered.

“I thought about your grandma’s journal, that pentagram on your hand and the weird spell we found in your father’s notebook.” Morta smiled widely. “That’s the corner we haven’t explored enough.”

“There’s nothing in my grandma’s journal about it, I told you that.” I sighed. “And it’s not like we can ask my father bluntly about it. The most we can do is stare at my wrist and wait for another point to turn black, see if it means something.”

“Or we can ask your grandma.” Morta shrugged, trying to contain her smile from emerging widely.

“What?” Amma’s voice turned high-pitched. “But Jade’s grandma is dead, isn’t she?”

I realised exactly what Morta meant and even though the idea was brilliant, it was highly dangerous and none of were enough magically equipped to do it.

“Bad idea, Morta.” I eyed her.

“Uh, no, great idea.” Morta smiled widely. “Come on, Jade, please, please, please! I always wanted to do it!” Her drunken gaze was enough to know she wasn’t thinking clearly.

“What’s going on?” Amma whined. “Tell me!”

“Morta, you’re forgetting I’ve never met my grandmother. I don’t know if she’s insane, evil or might simply refuse to talk to me.” I warned her. There were so many things that could go wrong, but Morta’s begging eyes slowly persuaded me. It wasn’t like I never wanted to try it.

“Tell me what’s going on!” Amma demanded.

“I think we should summon grandma’s spirit.” Morta said proudly. “And ask her a few questions.”

“No!” Amma shouted, her eyes wide. “We can do that?”

“It’s Halloween soon,” Morta shrugged, “the veil between worlds is the thinnest.”

“Oh, this is going to go horribly wrong.” I murmured. “But maybe grandma could shed some light on the entire situation.”

“It’s a good idea!” Morta exclaimed. “Come on, Jade, it’s a good idea, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s a good idea, Goddess of Death.” I smiled at her enthusiasm. “And no one has to know. Which means we can get some answers in peace.”

“I don’t like this one bit.” Amma’s lip quivered.

But Morta and I already had too grand a mischief on our minds to listen to the signs of danger that awaited.

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