𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒏𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝑨𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝑼𝒔

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑻𝒘𝒐 𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝑳𝒆𝒇𝒕 𝑴𝒆 - 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒏 𝑫𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒕𝒆

"Reports from the districts, sir," A peacekeeper said, assisted by another man.

"Good, good, hand it over." The dean said, taking off his oval glasses and rubbing his eyes.

The man came up and handed the stacks of paper. Giving a quick nod before disappearing behind doors with the peacekeeper.

"Oh great," Dean Dovecote said, staring at the towering stack. He skimmed through the papers, barely reading over them. The same old, just labor reports. The dean pushed the papers to the corner of the wooden, brown desk, and thought about what his friend had said at the party. Looking at the one drawer he hadn't opened since his daughter had died, he leaned over and unlocked it with a black key that hung around his neck. 

Small portraits of Clemensia with his wife and himself, younger, more alive. A smile spread across his face as he looked at his wife happily celebrating her daughter's birthday with a chocolate cake. His now sick wife, a once adventurous and daring woman, smiling. A smile that seemed almost rare these days.

His wife had been bedridden for almost a year after the death of her daughter, unable to recover from the shock that had consumed her. 

The dean had tried to go to Dr. Gaul, seeking medical help, even from the mad woman herself, but to no avail. She hadn't been able to identify anything particularly strange and told the dean to let her rest.

"Let her rest, Alabaster," Dr. Gaul said, placing a gentle rag on the wife's head, her pink gloved her gently wiping the sweat.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"No, no amount of anything can heal a broken heart, Alabaster."

"Very well, do you have an update on the Snow Boy?"

Dr. Gaul's smile broadened, sending a shiver down the dean's spine. "Of course, Dean, when would I ever let you down?"

She rounded the corner of the bed, closing the gap between the two of them. "He was seen exiting the tent during the fire, but you already know that. But what's interesting was that he was with a boy, and...a girl."

"Lucy Gray," The dean said, meeting her eyes.

Dr. Gaul nodded. "Bingo, such a foolish girl to follow the Snow Boy back. A tent outside, near the walls where the hills are. A camp set up to help the wounded from the fire, go there, and you'll find her."

The dean gave a firm nod, readying to take his leave when his wife started coughing at an alarming rate. She had her back hunched over as her whole body shook from the violent coughs.

How could such a beautiful person suffer like this? The dean wondered as he ran toward her side, patting a gentle hand on her back.

"Honey," His wife said, long black hair sticking to her face as she sweated, "Where's Clemensia?"

"She's..." The dean took a moment to think, "...She's training with her classmates, at the academy."

"Didn't the academy explode?"

"No dear, it must've been a bad dream." He rubbed her back. "Go back to sleep."

She nodded weakly before slumping back down. The dean carefully placed the blue blanket over her again, watching as she started to softly snore. He then went to place the blanket on her feet, which were shivering but paused as he spotted dots of red staining the once clean blanket.

Blood.