Dreadlords The Student's Last Wish

[Kael]

Dreadlord Academy | 0130 AM

The war with Cortos had been going on for some time. Upper level students and even Proctors were disappearing and reappearing for long assignments. While the emotions of fear, bravado, and desperation initially changed the mood of the academy, things had begun to normalize. War was a chance to prove oneself on assignment, and even get assignments more frequently, but it was mostly expected. The students too young to go to the field just saw it as another job once they became of age, as the reality of war had only really hit in reduction of supplies.

That was, until Initiate Loren had decided to sneak a trophy to the academy. Specifically Loren had found a decorative lamp. The lamp was of obvious value with a golden skin, slotted with rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. Loren was no noble's son, and figured he could sell the lamp on graduation to get ahead, but the lamp was intended to be taken. For the lamp had been purchased by Cortosi from a black market after being used for centuries to seal a variety of elemental spirits known as "Djinns", with a deconstructive spell cast upon to release the Djinns right when the Anirians returned home.

It was an hour past midnight when the spirits erupted from the device. Loren and his roommate had been burned alive. Their screams awoke nearby guards and students, but they were overwhelmed by the elementals. Fifteen minutes an explosion blasted through the West Alchemy lab.

---

Kael awoke, like several others, to the explosion. Sweat ran down his forehead as he pulled his hand to his face. The skin was pink. He went from hyperventilating to breathing a bit slower. His skin was pink. He'd manage to keep form asleep, as he normally did.

What was that blast? I'm at the Academy right? Last assignment was two weeks past.

It took him a moment to realize what was happening.

Kress, we're under attack. Kael thought to himself. Where's Avery? Vult? Marcia? Kilien? Kael leapt out of his bed and grabbed a pair of shortswords, heading out through the room.

Wait, why do I care about those humans? His next thought pierced him, but his feet moved him closer to the screams. Out the door and into the courtyard he went, finding the tree he liked to sit under as a squirrel burning alight. His human-watching spot destroyed by the picture of feminine fire to the right. Swords held out he charged at the creature, not completely sure how he was going to stab the fire, but working off instinct.

 

[Lux]

He had fallen asleep in the training room.

It had been an intense session learning to sharpen his reflexes, and Blake had promised to help him after her own training but it was clear she never made it. Lux had worked hard, perhaps too hard, since his cool down lying on the cold stone floor had turned into sleep well into the night.

Something had stirred him. It was as if his magic had awoken him, had troubled him into opening his eyes and only seeing the darkness of night that seeped in from the windows.

"Fuck..." He scrambled to his feet, wincing at the soreness of laying on cold stone for hours. "Fucking hells..."

He was stupid, oh so stupid for closing his eyes.

But he felt it again. That disturbance. A power all too powerful, and certainly a challenge to face. Lux felt a hunger, not one that took place in the pit of stomach, but weighed upon his conscience that acted as a bridge to his magic. Something was wrong. Something was not right, and in the witching hour, it was always something that did not bode well.

Screams. The sound echoed even here, and Lux was already snatching his shirt off a post and rushing out to investigate.

 

[Blake]

Blake had long since passed out on her bed, her usual nighttime garb of a tank top and baggy sweat pants serving the role that a blanket usually would. One arm rested on her stomach, the other on the floor as she snored loudly, resting diagonally across her bed.

The muffled boom did not initially rouse her from her slumber, instead only serving to interrupt her snoring before she drifted off once more. However, as she slept, she began to sweat. That sweating led to tossing and turning as the heat of the room began to rise, and eventually her body decided that it could rest no longer.

Blake snapped awake to a room licked by flames.

"Oh shit!" she yelped as she frantically rolled out of bed, grabbing whatever random objects were within reach. "Shitshitshit, shit!"

The girl instinctively ran for her door, cloaked herself in shadow, then shoulder checked the wooden barrier. She tucked and rolled as she fell into the hallway beyond, smoke and fire and screams filling the space, and quickly took a length of cloth from the assorted items she'd collected and wrapped it around her nose and mouth.

"Gotta get out of here. Gotta find Lux!" Blake muttered as she took off down the hall, bare feet being singed all the way.

 

[Kael]

Kael took the blade in his left hand and chucked it with trained precision. The fire spirit seemed to have some physical form, as the blade embedded itself within the creature's chest. It was not nearly as receptive to pain as a man, and continued to move unhindered but aware of the shapeshifter's hostility. The creature looked over at Kael and spat in some dialect Kael had never heard, then raised a hand and launched a torrent of flames.

Kael reacted mostly on instinct. What did he know that could withstand such fire? A dragon of course. Had Kael ever become a dragon before? No, but today he stole a small part. His left arm became a wing that wrapped itself in front of Kael as he charged. The sensation was not unlike putting a towel over his hands before moving a hot pot of stew. Noticeable, tolerable, but in a distinctly finite way. even if Kael could maintain the form he could not ward the flames forever. He pressed forward despite this. Perhaps the creature could be bested by decapitation. he just needed to get close enough.

---

As Blake and Lux continued to get closer and closer together the heat of the flames would die down, and the air around them would grow thinner and thinner. They would run into students who seemed unburned, uninjured, and yet comatose and turning blue. Something around them was trying to steal their very breath.

 

[Lux]

"Hey!" He shouted, spotting Blake amongst the droves of Initates spilling out into the open air. "Where were you?" He didn't look pissed off, but rather annoyed that this chaos was happening in the middle of the night. That and perhaps the combination of his aching limbs for sleeping on a cold, hard surface for several hours.

Another devastating BOOM! shook the earth, and many Initiates cowered or yelped. It had been loud, hurting all their ears.

Lux didn't wait for Blake to speak. He found her hand and pulled her with him, running towards the source. Flames were growing smaller, until they spattered out like a candle's flame running out of wick. It was hard to breath, but he ignored that. His eyes went to the Initiates laying over the ground. They didn't seem to have be blasted by that source, nor did they exhibit burns.

"What the fuck is happening?" He looked to Blake, his shoulders rising and falling with an effort to keep breathing.