The Bane of Light

Hand Prints

"Golden child, Lion boy; Tell me what it's like to Conquer
Fearless child, Broken girl; Tell me what it's like to Burn"

∞

Seated in the restricted section of the academy library, I listened to the grandfather clock steadily tick behind me. A fire blazed down on the lower levels, it's heat thankfully not reaching this high up, encasing me in a comfortable chill. The dim torchlights flickered on my scripture, as I tried to complete a theoretical essay on ethical magic use. I was at a standstill, using the restricted section to pull moral travesties that happened when corrupt magic was used. I scribbled down facts about the Seine Coven Witches Massacre that occurred in 1865, when a dark mage used his magic in a fit of rage. He used it to punish his coven of twenty people, but lost control of the corrupt essence and suffocated them all to death in sulfuric fire.

Writing about the horrific manner of which they died, how the flame was so hot it left nothing of their bodies, was easy. The issue for me was trying to find a loophole, something that could have prevented the travesty all together. I was not very creative when it came to ethical view points. It was my fatal flaw- having a complete black and white outlook on such situations. Others said it made me a morally-grey pessimist. I believed it was simply being realistic.

With a heaving sigh, I slammed the ancient text book shut. It was an original copy in French, so I had to use a circular reading spectacle to translate the words into English. French was not one of my strong suits, pardon moi, and was a big pain to translate. But It wasn't laziness or inability to learn the language that kept me from fluency. I simply chose not to. Had I any bit of respect for the disgusting French populace, I would have learned it ages ago.

With a standstill of my research, my mind began inching towards the image the twins showed me earlier today. I had refrained from thinking about it, knowing that I would not be able to focus on the task at hand if my find was racing with my ever-present, troubling thoughts.

The past week had been weird, constantly throwing questions at me that I did not have answers to. First with Paris being summoned to my room and discovering Beastly, to the demonologist being hired to hunt some unheard-of demon, to me tapping into some strange, foreign magic while burning the ring. My head felt as if it was going to burst at the will of all of the recent events in my life.

The demonologist was summoned. I knew he was powerful, which most likely meant he was more demon than he was human. Those more magi than mortal were drawn to other magi and magical creatures, so they were particularly good at their jobs. That would have been a problem for us, had he not proclaimed that even he, a professional demon hunter, couldn't manage to locate the source of the 'Chudovische' as he called it.

I lazily got up from my secluded area, making my way down to the main level. I loved my spot in the library. The rest of the students where too afraid to go into this shadowy nook, instead preferring cushy, open areas next to blazing hearths. My workspace was located in-between the shelves of the restricted section, which luckily meant utter privacy for me. It had one large mahogany desk, the dark wood worn and chipped through generations of use.

It was sturdy, and was likely used in a private office during it's previous life, looking at the expensive detailing and decals on it's body. I had a large, cushiony arm chair, made out of an emerald, velvety material. The desk was in a corner between the wall and the shelves, with low lighting and the wonderful smell of old books and parchment hanging in the air. It was my spot, and I adored it.

As I got to the low level of the library, I walked up the podium in the middle of the main floor. The Book of Findings, a golden book with slates as its pages, rested angelically on a grandiose stand. Light from the skylight directly above it, shined down on its golden pages. It was the way magic users were able to locate books in a library that completely defied the laws of physics.