Chapter 7

February 6, 1993

Unable to sleep, Coralis went for a walk. Awake too, Victoria followed her. It was cold outside so they stayed inside the building. The school had so many hallways and stairways, that they could easily walk for an hour without seeing the same wall painting twice.

As they approached a stairway, they heard some whimpers coming from behind a wall. They stopped walking and tried to figure out where was that person.

“You heard that, right?” said Coralis.

“Yeah, I’m not sure if the person is crying or in pain, or both. It sounds like it’s coming from behind that wall.”

The girls stood between an outside window to their left, and a wall to their right. They looked closely at the wall and tried to find a door. Both of them were convinced that the whimpers came from behind it. They patted the wall, passing their hands over the entire wall surface. Eventually, a hidden door opened. They paused. They didn’t know which one of them had a hand on the hidden lever, but they found the secret door, and it was all they cared about.

They glanced at each other, shrugged and walked through the door. As soon as they passed it, the door closed behind them. They stood still, as they processed what was in front of them.

There was a window across the room, the moonlight passing through it projected large shadows on the wall next to the door. Two demons stepped out of the shadows.

“Corhaaliniakhys!” both of them said at the same time, staring at Coralis with a grin spreading on their faces, indicating her to follow them.

Coralis shook her head.

“I will not go with you.”

Suddenly, she saw Victoria flying across the room, with one of the demons holding her by the throat.

“If you do not come, she comes with us,” said the demon holding her.

Without hesitation, she pulled her wand out of her cloak and threw a laser to try to cut off the hand of the demon holding her friend. She failed, but it was enough to distract and make him loosen his grip. Victoria tried to crawl to the wall they entered from.

Coralis got into a fighting position. Something was stirring within her. She tried to shoot another laser out of her wand, but it bounced off her hand and fell off the ground, burned out. She was angry and upset. She didn’t want to follow them and saw red when they tried to take her friend instead. She could feel her energy fizzing at her fingertips, and she tried to turn it into a weapon.

In the meantime, two teachers walked down that hallway and heard a commotion from across the wall beside them. Unlike Coralis and Victoria, they knew where each secret lever was. They opened the hidden door and walked through it to check what was happening. They saw Coralis injured and Victoria lying in a corner near the shadows, unable to move. One of the demons was also lying on the ground, and Coralis was in a position to fight the other one, despite her injuries.

When the demon facing Coralis realized two full-fledged elementals entered the room, a mage and a fay, he touched the other demon, and they disappeared.

Swope, one of the teachers who walked into the hidden room, saw enough to know that Coralis and Victoria had been fighting demons. Not just any demons: Swope was convinced that the two demons he saw were associated with Lord Meozo.

Borin, the other teacher, was a mythology teacher. He was also a fay well-versed in demonology. He saw demon blood on the ground and collected a sample. He always had sampling papers and an empty container on him.

“Tell me, girls, what brought you here at this time?” said Swope as he was looking at Coralis’s injuries.

She had deep gashes across her right shoulder and on her ribs. Her left shoulder looked broken and she had blood coming from her eyebrows. Victoria was slowly moving to a sitting position.

“I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that something, or someone, was watching me. I went for a walk, and Victoria came with me. We were walking down some hallway when we heard someone whimpering. It came from across that wall,” said Coralis, pointing toward the door they came from. “We couldn’t see a door, but when inspecting the wall, we must have found a lever because a door appeared.”

“But there was no one crying when we got in this room. I swear, we heard someone in pain across the wall. Two ugly creatures came out of the shadows and one of them grabbed me by the throat, wanting to take me somewhere with them because Blue didn’t want to follow them,” said Victoria.

Swope and Borin looked at each other. If Lord Meozo was back, his associates would go after the descendants of the loyal ones who got killed and weren’t above taking others to lure them. They would need to explain what happened to Principal Arthurio and although it was well past curfew, they didn’t want to give the girls detention because they should never have had to fight demons on school grounds.

“Are we in trouble? Blue saved my life. I know we shouldn’t be here and fighting, but these creatures almost took us.”

“No, you won’t be in trouble, we’ll make sure of it. Coralis, what you fought were demons. Honestly, considering that you are only 12 years old, I am impressed that you managed to stand your ground against them and remain in one piece. I’m sure that Swope agrees with me. I am a lot more concerned about how these two demons got here and lured you in,” said Borin, looking through the window.

“They called me a weird name. Sounded like my name, but it wasn’t,” said Coralis, thinking about the name they used when the demons saw her. “Corhaaliniakhys, that’s how they called me.”

The teachers’ eyes went wide for an instant.

“Never repeat that name to anyone, unless you absolutely need to and trust the other person with your life. Don’t even repeat it to any of the school administrators. The demons called you by your true name, the one your parents gave you when introducing you to your god or goddess. The true name of an elemental has power. You don’t want anyone to summon you using it,” said Swope.

“I think they wanted to summon you, but your elemental energy is still developing, so all they could do, was to lure you somewhere. However, they injured you and drew blood. If one of the demons managed to get some of your essence under their fingernails, they can now also use it to summon you,” said Borin.

“True, hopefully, they didn’t get enough of it to be able to do anything with it. We need to speak to Arthurio and the school administrators to reinforce the school wards before they try again to take students. For tonight, Coralis, I will take you to the infirmary. As for you, Victoria, Borin will take you back to your dorm.”

Borin noticed a burned wand not far from Coralis.

“Is that yours?”

“Yes, I was trying to throw a stronger laser spell to cut off the hand of the one who took Victoria, but it was as if the spell got stuck in the wand and it burned it inside-out.”

“It happens. We aren’t witches. For us, a wand acts mainly as a conduit and amplifier for our energy. If we load it with too much energy at once or try to cast a spell too strong for it, it can short-circuit the wand and burn it. Tomorrow is Sunday, I’m sure Martha can take you to Glasgow so you can get yourself a new wand. You had a beginner one, make sure to buy a more advanced one this time,” said Borin.

February 7, 1993

The next day, most of her injuries were healed. Her left shoulder was still broken, and she was worried that the cuts on her ribs would scar, but the uneasy feeling of being watched was gone.

Martha was granted permission to take Coralis to a wand shop in Glasgow. Usually, when a student needed a new wand, their parents or a blood relative would get it for them and send it to the school. However, Coralis didn’t have any living parents or bloodline relatives. As her guardian, the responsibility fell on Martha, but she couldn’t buy it for her. Coralis needed to be there, to make sure the wand would be compatible with her energy.

Martha was a potion and elixir teacher. However, she was also very skilled at defensive magic. Concerned about the threat looming over Coralis’s head and that the school administrators didn’t take it seriously enough, she decided to personally give Coralis advanced defence classes, just in case she ran into more demons while in Montreal, away from school grounds.

On the way back from the wand shop, Martha instructed her to come to her office at twenty o’clock. From this point on, every Sunday night before curfew, she would give her advanced lessons in defensive spells.

Once again, Coralis went back to Montreal for a few weeks when school ended, then travelled to the Fullemons in mid-July.

August 28, 1993

The day before Coralis, Erik and Henry were to return to school, Swope visited the Fullemons.

“Did Coralis tell you about what happened this past February?” said Swope to the family.

“Victoria said she fought demons and saved her life,” said Erik.

“When the boys told us what happened, right after they arrived home from school, we tried to contact the school to find out more about it. Barla and I were worried about Coralis, but they wouldn’t tell us anything because we aren’t her guardians or family.”

“I can assure you, even Martha is fighting to get answers. Two demons breached the school wards and attempted to kidnap Victoria when Coralis wouldn’t follow them. I know what I saw, and so does Borin. I believe Lord Meozo is back and is targeting Coralis Golmar because her parents were working for him. However, Arthurio and the school administrators refused to take the threat seriously. They think that a student summoned the demons as a prank.”

“Could it have been a prank?” asked Coralis.

“This was no prank, and you know it. I remember very well the time when Lord Meozo was alive, this has his smell all over it. When Lord Meozo found out about you, he most likely saw your father through you and prepared a trap to get you under him, but that failed. He may have left you alone for the past few months, but I don’t trust it. I’m sure he will try again with a more refined plan.”

“Are you serious about Lord Meozo being back?” said Barla.

Erik and Henry were listening with interest. They remembered what Sean told them about his friend Julian.

“Do you know if Julian, the guy who was attacked two years ago during the EET, is still targeted?” said Erik.

“Yes, to both questions. I am serious about Lord Meozo, but Arthurio doesn’t believe so. I am also certain that he is also going after Julian Dewarp, but he is under a different school jurisdiction, and I believe that he graduated this last spring. In the eyes of the elemental society, Julian Dewarp is now considered an adult.”

“We tried to take Coralis under our custody for the entire summer and file for adoption, but human bureaucracy is complicated. I was glad to hear that he didn’t go after her this summer, but what about next summer? If he is truly back, then this mess is only getting started, and he needs to be taken down again before he becomes stronger,” said Barla.

Coralis looked at Barla and Kief. She didn't know they tried to adopt her, and she didn't know what to think of it. Not knowing how to feel about this revelation and thinking about Nadilla, she struggled to push down her emotions.

“I agree with you entirely and that’s also why I’m here. Coralis, I know Martha started to give you additional defence classes on Sunday evenings and plans on continuing that when you return to school. On Wednesday evenings, at twenty o’clock, come to my office. I will give you advanced combat lessons. I know you usually have flyball practices on Wednesday evenings, which should start around mid-October. I want you to come when practice is over.”

“Why would you do that? If the principal doesn’t believe the threat is real, would that put you in trouble?” said Coralis.

“I am concerned about the safety of the students when they are on school grounds. If a cursed creature is specifically targeting you and the school isn’t stepping up to improve the safety protocols, then the least I can do is help you get stronger so that if he sends you more nasties or comes after you himself, you can resist long enough for people to have time to get you out. I’ll take the heat if it comes to me.”

When she returned to school, Coralis took Swope’s warning seriously and as instructed, every Wednesday and Sunday evening, she met with Swope and Martha for combat and defence advanced lessons. Come the End-of-Year holidays, she was exhausted, both mentally and physically.

While Martha insisted on teaching her how to defend herself against mind control, Swope taught her advanced combat spells. He knew that Coralis was already very skilled in hand combat, and it wasn’t likely that she would have any weapon on her when they came to her again, so he focused on elemental combat spells.

Mid-February, Martha had to take Coralis to Glasgow again to get a new wand. There was an inter-school flyball competition coming up soon, and Coralis would need to travel to France with her team. Just in case something was to happen while there, and knowing the summer was also approaching fast, Martha convinced her to buy a second wand.