The Void of Darkness

Chapter 3

A/N: So I've been updating a lot lately.  Lots of chapters in the space of 30 minutes.  Don't expect updates to usually be this often.

"Ok class, time to get started," Ms. Wache announced before Madge could respond, leaving her time to think of a really good answer.

"Now, as you all know, none of you are here by accident. There was no mistaking you for others during registration, no switching, etc. Now, let me just call roll to make sure no one is sneaking in or sneaking out."

As the teacher started to call roll, Madge took in all the names and attached them to faces in her mind. She closed her eyes and sucked in all of the information.

"And last, Madge," the teacher said, concluding her roll call. "Oh, that reminds me, I never did get your last name."

"It's Stra-" she started to reply but then stopped herself. She couldn't give them that name. "It's Denver," she blurted out, saying the first thing that came to her.

"Ok, thank you class. Just a moment while I send this to the office." Ms. Wache pushed a button on the wall and a safe opened. She produced a key from her pocket to open a filing cabinet inside. She tucked the roll inside one of the folders and resealed the wall.

Madge watched all this with an amazed fascination. She didn't know that they had that kind of technology here.

Or, was it actually technology, Madge thought. There was something not quite right about the way everything was working.

"Class, if you could all take out your witchcraft textbooks?" the teacher said, speaking up. "Madge, you should have one. It said to get one on the registration."

"Um, yeah. I must have forgotten it at home," Madge replied. In truth, she had no clue what the class really was, much less what supplies she was supposed to have.

"In the future, that would be completely unexcusable, but because it's the first day of school and you're new, I'll excuse it just this once," Ms. Wache said sternly. "For now, you'll be sharing with Troy."

Madge heard a barely audible groan from the seat next to her. She was going to have to do some serious looking around for a book like that. And from the looks of it, if this "boring" class on her schedule was like this, the others probably were too. This was definitely going to be harder than originally planned. This was so not good.

She needed to find all of her registrations and fast. She didn't have enough energy to do this 4 more times. Not even close.

Ms. Wache was writing something on the board. Madge turned towards the front of the room. She was going to need to pay attention in order to get even a tiny bit.

Of course, she knew witchcraft. She just didn't know if it was the same kind, which it probably wasn't.

"Now, I don't know what you all learned in your junior high schools about this, but you should all have a pretty basic knowledge." As Ms. Wache wrote some figures on the board, Madge's heart sank. It was the aeurobert method. This not only wasn't the one she knew, but it was the one her teachers had always warned her not to learn. They said it had a way of brainwashing you into thinking that these people were good.

Madge raised her hand, as all eyes turned on her. "Yes Madge," the teacher said, almost impatiently.

"I learned a different method of witchcraft, Ms. Wache," Madge said, bravely.

She didn't know what her teacher would do, exactly, but she could only

hope that she wouldn't ask which kind. Her teachers had also warned her that teachers or learners of that kind were very touchy about that and would probably do something drastic, like blow someone's head.

So, by telling the teacher that, she had probably just blown the entire mission, but she had to do something.

"What kind, Madge?" Ms. Wache asked carefully. "You should have signed up for a different course if it was different. Why didn't you?"

"Well, they didn't have mine, and this was the closest match," which was actually fairly close to the truth; there were probably others that were closer had she looked, but still. She needed this one because, well, Troy was in it.

"Madge," the teacher said calmly, "What method?"

This was it, the moment she was doomed to her fate. These people here, while they weren't as advanced, they were still powerful. By making a connection with the teacher to find the memory could have very well been her final mistake. The teacher now had a direct link to her. Madge wasn't quite sure if she could withstand it.

"I-I took, uh," Madge stuttered. She didn't want to give it away. Perhaps she could say a different one that was closely related to hers. "I took the suaquet method."

Ms. Wache's eyes widened in surprise. "I didn't know that they taught that kind in this area. Are you sure it was that one?"

"Positive," Madge replied with growing confidence.

Ms. Wache smiled. "Then I'm sure you wouldn't mind sharing with the class some tricks?" she inquired. "I was going to give them a small taste of the other methods, but having learned this one, it was proving to be difficult learning others. But now that you're here, you can show us!"

Well this was not what Madge had expected. She did know a few tricks for this one, but nothing impressive enough to share with the class. However, now was not the time for excuses. She'd already pulled enough strings to get this far. All she could hope was that it wasn't going to be today.

"Ok, I can do that. When do you want me to do it, so I can prepare something?" Madge crossed her fingers under her desk. She could only hope for at least a week to get something mildly decent.

"You know, Madge," Ms. Wache started. "All I had planned for today was some introductions and then we were going to partner up and work on some tricks so I could see how far along you all are. But I can definitely save that for tomorrow. A nice trick would really motivate us all. Today would be fantastic."

Madge resisted the very strong urge to roll her eyes and growl and scream. There was no way she could pull off a decent trick with a ten-second preparation. She needed time. Her teachers had always told her she was horrible at the suaquet method. This was going to be an epic failure.

But there was nothing Madge could do about that. She was already in way too deep. She couldn't get any deeper than she was.

Madge took a deep breath and walked to the front of the classroom as Ms. Wache sat down at her desk. "Okay, here goes nothing," she muttered under her breath.

She closed her eyes and pictured her power flowing through her veins. She waved her fingers in front of her, getting that familiar tingling feeling throughout her whole body. Trying to remember what her teachers had taught her about manipulating other methods, she pictured what she wanted to do.

Squeezing her eyes tighter, she stiffened, straining with the effort. She heard gasps and almost broke her concentration, but managed to grasp it. She needed the tiniest bit of energy. Still keeping most of her focus on the "trick" she reached out, searching for someone with the most spark.

She grasped it and sucked just enough to finish. She took the energy and channeled it into one last show. She pushed it all out and her eyes flew open. She almost passed out with the effort to remain standing. Everyone was staring at her in shock.

She took a step back towards her desk and wavered. She started falling and without realizing how she got there, she was on the ground. She heard voices calling her name and then everything went black.