IMPERIAL ACADEMY

A false accusation

"Master Orion… I… I'm sorry…" Alex muttered as master Orion quickly grabbed a cloak and covered the painting with it. He gazed at Alex and took his hand, leading him out of the room. Alex took a final glance at the covered painting while they climbed the staircase.

"Obstruo!" Master Orion chanted as soon as they were outside the dark building, and the gates snapped shut immediately. Alex watched in awe as a brand-new chain appeared and secured the gates.

Then, Master Orion turned to Alex with a frown on his face.

"What were you doing down there, Alex? This building is strictly off limits!" Master Orion snapped at Alex. Alex shuddered as the older man fumed.

"I'm sorry Master Orion. I got lost," Alex lied. Master Orion arched his brow as he gazed upon Alex.

"I sealed this building myself with a very potent spell. I felt that the spell had been broken and rushed down here. Tell me, Alex, did you break the spell?" Master Orion asked him and Alex knew he couldn't tell another lie.

"Yes, Master Orion. I did," Alex replied. Master Orion was intrigued.

"How did you do it? To break such a spell, you should be in your third year of training, at least. Did you study magic before you came to this academy?" Master Orion asked Alex, who shaked his head.

"No, Master Orion. I just felt the spell in my mind and broke it. I didn't really think about it so much," Alex confessed. Master Orion started walking slowly and Alex followed. The academy was silent, and no one else could be seen in the compound, except for Alex and Master Orion.

"I shall speak to the Deans of the various wings tomorrow. I would like to take charge of your extra-elemental magic classes myself," Master Orion said to Alex, who was surprised.

Extra-elemental magic covered all spells that didn't come from a mage's natural element. Telekinesis, telepathy, astral projection and the rest all fall in this category.

"And since you seem to be connected to all four elements, you should train in all of them, each for a year. Starting with the element of fire," Master Orion said to Alex. Alex shuddered. Does that mean he would have to learn four years of fire magic all in one year? How would he cope?

"You'll find a way to survive. You have to," Master Orion suddenly replied to him. Alex was shocked.

"Did you just read my mind?" Alex blurted out, and Master Orion stopped walking. He turned to Alex with a stern look on his face.

"I was low-born when I first came to this academy. There were four of us. We were all servants that had escaped from our masters and wanted a shot at a better life. But, unlike me, the others weren't special. They were executed on the spot. But I was spared because I had control over all four elemental magic. I was special. The teachers saw it and bent the rules for me. The same way I bent the rules for you today," Master Orion explained to Alex.

"To survive here, Alex, you will have to work harder than anyone else. Even myself, for there are certain aspects of your powers that I do not understand yet. If you don't, the teachers here will write a petition to the High King and demand your execution. And trust me, it will be granted. The only way to survive is to become so excellent that they cannot simply ignore it. So if that means taking four years of academic workload in a year, you must do so. Do you understand me?" Master Orion yelled at Alex, who nodded in fear.

"Yes, Master Orion. I understand," Alex replied to him, and Master Orion nodded.

"Good. Now, return to your room. Training starts tomorrow," Master Orion commanded, and Alex walked away. Everything that Master Orion said to him lingered in his mind. Alex knew that he probably had just one shot at getting what he wanted in life, and he was not going to waste it.

Alex took a turn through a little corridor that led directly to the Red Wing. However, the corridor was dark. That made Alex curious because they were lit up with candlelight while he walked them earlier.

Just then, Alex heard grunts coming from a dark spot beside a waterfall. He slowed down his steps as he tried to see further, but he couldn't see anything. He could only hear the grunts.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Alex asked as he approached the darkness, taking one careful step after another. The grunts and the shifting of something like a leg on the ground kept coming to him, and as Alex swallowed hard, he kept approaching the sounds.

Suddenly, a pair of red eyes stared at him. Alex gasped and froze as fear gripped his entire body. A snarl was the next thing he heard as the creature that was staring at him rose to its feet.

"Fulgur Atrum!" The creature chanted and, suddenly, black lightning shot out from the creature's body, but before it could strike Alex, a cocoon of yellow energy surrounded Alex and shielded him from the attack.

The creature kept snarling as the lightning attack persisted, and as the energy from the shield started taking a toll on Alex, he screamed.

"Ahhhhhh!" Alex cried out as his eyes suddenly turned yellow and a massive wave of telekinetic energy shot out from Alex's body, hitting the creature and simultaneously lighting every candle that had been snuffed out.

The creature hit a wall and started to bleed from its head, and Alex saw that it was humanoid.

"It can't be…" Alex muttered. He had heard stories, but had never seen one in real life. The creature snarled again and disappeared into the darkness.

Alex fell to his knees, breathing heavily as he gazed at the body of a boy on the ground. He dragged himself to the boy and touched him, but the boy had bled out. He was dead. Alex gazed closer and saw that it was one of the boys that had mocked him earlier with Kevin. There was a bloodied knife beside the boy that had been used to slit his throat.

But then, other students from the Red house, who had heard the massive energy shake the building, rushed down and saw Alex kneeling beside the dead boy with the knife in his hand.

"Alex! What did you do? What did you do?" Kevin yelled as soon as he saw the victim. Every other student standing there gazed at Alex with fear on their faces.

"What? No! This wasn't me. I didn't do that. You have to believe me," Alex pleaded with them, but they didn't want to listen.

"Just because we played a prank on you earlier, you had to murder him? Were you planning on killing me too?" Kevin yelled at Alex. Bruno stood beside a pillar, unsure of what to do or say.

"No…" Alex muttered as more teachers trooped to the scene.

"It wasn't me!" Alex cried out.

"Then, who was it?" Kevin yelled at him.

"It was a witch!" Alex replied with a scream.