Magic Love Academy (VWTB AU)

12 - The Predicament (Rayvinh)

I was studying in my dorm when it happened. The shaking. The destruction. I braced under my desk, but to no avail. I watched all my Five Nights At Freddy's plushies fall off my shelf from their perfectly placed positions. My 3D printer, in it's pristine condition, fell off its table and broke into pieces. We were all sent to evacuate, thinking the destruction had stopped, but many more people dropped left and right. They locked us in our dorms as they attempted to solve the issue, but it's been an hour now with no updates. It's currently 3:00.
     Should I continue studying? It's not like I have anything else to do..
     *PING*
      A text from Doge? What could he possibly want at this time?
   Doge: Rayvinh, we need your help. Do you know where Vwoozi's dorm is?
  Me: Okay, slow down. No, who is Vwoozi and what do you need me for?
  Doge: We think the earthquake was more than an earthquake. We're worried about the academy, we don't trust the administration to be able to solve this on their own. Have you seen the amount of people getting sick? We don't know how much time we have left. As our academy's most capable student, we would really like your help in getting to the bottom of this.
Doge: Also, you said to let you know if I need anything, and I need you right now 🌝
     Me: Okay, I'm in. Send me a pin and I'll teleport, I don't wanna get caught by security.
     Doge: ok *drops pin*
     "lanuae Magicae!" I say, teleporting myself to the location Doge sent. I arrive right in the middle of a group of five people, none of who I recognize.
     "Uh— Hey, I'm Rayvinh," I say, cooly and nonchalantly
     "We know," The 6'7 one says, "I'm toaster. That's Alex, Klicks, Vwoozi, and as you know, Doge."
     "Nice to meet you guys," I say.
     "Enough with the introductions, we need to figure out what to do, and fast." Toaster says. "Rayvinh, what do you think we should do?"
     "I don't have all the answers, you know. I think we should start off by listing what we know." I tell them.
     "Okay," Klicks chimes in, "We know people started falling after the earthquake, Alex being one of them—"
     I interrupt him, "wait, Alex was one of the ones who fell? How did he recover?"
     "Vwoozi healed him." Klicks says.
     "Alex, did you see or experience anything specific while you were sick? Was anything peculiar about it?" I ask.
     "I don't know how to describe it.. It wasn't like getting sick from a cold or strep, I just felt... weak. Like my energy was being drained slowly, like I was losing my powers." Alex explains.
     "Interesting... And did that happen after the earthquake?"
     "Yeah, I didn't feel weird beforehand. But once the aftershock began I immediately felt weird." Says Alex.
     "So it was the earthquake that triggered it... That means the earthquake must be related to something big. I read about this in the library the other day, sometimes when the balance of the cosmos is thrown off it can affect us mages like this," I say. "It might be a bit of a stretch, but maybe an event happened that threw off the balance, which caused the earthquake and the depletion of our powers. If that's the case, then you guys are right, we're going to have to act fast."
     "Good thinking Doge, what would we have done without our top student? "Says toaster.
     "Okay, so if what Rayvinh's saying is correct, how do we stop it?" Klicks asks.
     "Thats the thing, I don't know. This has never happened in the entire history of the world, at least to my knowledge. It's likely whatever threw off the balance happened today, as the physical manifestations are supposed to occur within hours of the event. Did you guys notice anything weird that happened today?" I ask.
     "Oh yeah," Vwoozi says, "Doge fell on his face and got busted up" She says while laughing.
     "Now isn't a time for jokes," I tell her. Her smile drops immediately.
     "Anyone, anything else?" I ask. The group goes silent.
     "Okay, just recount your day. Blurt anything that happened out, literally anything, it might lead us to what happened."
     "I had bad diarrhea.." Toaster says.
     "Seth contracted strep throat." Klicks says.
     "I was sorted into the unchosens.." Doge says.
     "Wait— Doge you're an unchosen?" I ask Doge.
     "Yeah.. But I'm gonna work hard to move up, I know I will." He replies.
     "Okay.. I'm gonna be honest, I don't think diarrhea or strep throat have anything to do with this. And I highly doubt being an unchosen does either," I say, "Is that it?"
     The group goes silent again. "Okay, maybe it's something that happened outside of the academy. We can't rule out any possibilities yet," —I pause— "So I'll keep the diarrhea and strep throat and Doge's sorting in mind..." I say reluctantly. "But for now, I think it's best we devise a plan."
     "I agree," Klicks says. "I think we need to gather more information on Rayvinh's theory, one of should do more research. Maybe the rest can gather more people to help, or focus on damage control and make sure none of us fall ill."
     "I can gather more research on the matter. I know the library best out of all of us, I've read basically every book in there. Let's regroup in.. an hour?— We don't know how much time we have— and together we'll come up with a strategy."
     "Sounds good." They say in unison.
     "Whatever you do, make sure administration doesn't catch you. They might be trying to cover something up, it's best we don't let them know about our plans." I tell them.
     "Go team!" Doge says, excitedly.
     We all stare at him, blankly.
     "Um.. Okay. I'll get started in the library." I say. "Good luck guys."