Illumination

Chapter One

Blue lights flashed in the darkness of the night. The wailing of sirens broke the silence of a normally peaceful and quiet town. Men dressed in black suits carried a large black bag out of the house of the neighbour on the other side of the street. The metallic numbers on the door were illuminated by the streetlight. Number 99 had one occupant. At least it had had one occupant.

The men in black got inside a large black van with the bag, turned off the sirens and soon they were gone. Annabelle Lee stared out of the window long after the van had vanished into the darkness. Eventually she returned to bed and tried to sleep.

Death had come to the sleepy town of Hope and claimed one of their people. Not with a natural death but with violence that shattered the way of life they cherished and had assumed would never end.

The campus was eerily quiet in the morning following the night's tragedy. The silence was not calm or peaceful. It was a mixture of sorrow, shock and outrage. One of their people had been murdered. Naturally this also meant that a killer walked among them. As Annabelle walked among her fellow students she could feel the fear as if it was something tangible floating in the air.

She could see the fear in their faces.

Annabelle could feel something else in the air as well, a surge of energy that felt like electricity. If electricity made you feel ill and tainted. It felt ... impure.

This odd energy permeated the entire school. Annabelle reached out with her senses to try to locate the source of the energy. Unfortunately she couldn't trace it to the mage or mages who had channelled it. There was just way too much of it. The dark energy of the black magic that still lingered in the air like a disease was overwhelming. Annabelle had to shut down her supernatural senses to endure it.

On the way to her first class Annabelle was greeted by a red haired girl with dark brown eyes displaying the obvious redness of sleep deprivation. The girl was fairly short and had a heart shaped face that usually beamed with positivity. Annabelle thought she was childlike and innocent in a way that was very endearing. The expression that now appeared on the face of this girl was one of exhaustion and grief. Like Annabelle Sarah was wearing the black uniform of their school.

The uniform was far from fashionable but somehow it looked good on Sarah, like everything else. Annabelle was taller than most girls at the school and her blond hair, blue eyes and C cup breasts were considered attractive but she thought that the petite A cup Sarah was much more beautiful.

"Hey." Sarah said.

"Hey." Annabelle said.

"Did you see the body?" Sarah asked.

"No." Annabelle replied and shook her head. "I had no interest in seeing that."

"I heard it was pretty bad. A lot of blood."

"Gross." Annabelle said. "Who would do something like that?"

"No one I know." Sarah said.

In a town like Hope everyone knew everyone.

"About that." Annabelle said. "You know that there aren't strangers in town. No one ever comes here. Ever."

"Yeah." Sarah said. "But... It can't be one of us. That's not possible."

"Unfortunately I don't see any other possibility."

"There has to be." Sarah insisted stubbornly.

"How well did you know her?" Annabelle asked.

"Laura? We talked a few times but I wouldn't call her a friend. She didn't seem to have many of those."

While everyone knew everyone that obviously didn't mean that everyone liked everyone. It did not mean that Hope had no outcasts.

"I had a few classes with her." Annabelle said. "But we never talked. I never felt like she wanted to."

Soon Annabelle and Sarah reached their first class and took their seats behind their desks. They were five minutes late but the teacher didn't say anything as they sat down. Ms. Kennedy was younger than the other teachers at the age of twenty eight and fairly attractive.

The bell rang to end the first class of the day. At the same time Annabelle felt an immense surge of dark energy. She lost her balance while getting up but Sarah caught her before she fell.

"Are you ok?" Sarah asked.

"I think so." Annabelle replied.

Annabelle reached out with her senses and suddenly found herself blocked. It was like the school was enveloped in a veil of black magic that she could not breach. That was certainly not good. How could she explain to her normie friend that there was a problem? She didn't even know what exactly the problem was. What kind of ritual had just been performed? What was that dark energy doing?

This was a level of magic that was far beyond her knowledge and experience. Annabelle took her phone out of her pocket and texted her master. This was definitely not something that she could handle solo. Her master had often told her about the importance of understanding her limitations.

Rule number one, never fight an opponent you can't defeat.

The student body rushed out of the classroom around her. The horde was loud and utterly lacking in organisation. Annabelle remained where she was and continued exploring the school with her mage senses. From somewhere came the sound of a large bell that sounded ancient and echoed in her head. As the ringing of the bell faded, leaving her with a mild headache, frustrated and terrified shouting came from the entrance to the languages building.

Annabelle and Sarah went to see what was happening and saw their fellow students trying to get out of the building and failing. It was as if a barrier, a force field of some kind, was keeping them in.

Annabelle pushed her way to the open doors and touched the barrier. She pulled her hand back with a sharp intake of breath. The others seemed to be coming into contact with something that stopped them from moving forward without experiencing pain. Clearly the barrier reacted differently to a mage trying to get through. The spell keeping them in had shocked her like touching an exposed electrical wire would. Something that Annabelle had done before and it wasn't an experience that she was going to forget soon.

The dorms that the school owned were not well maintained. Which wasn't really surprising with an institution funded by the government. The government and competence just didn't go together.

"What is it?" Sarah asked appearing behind her.

What could she possibly say other than claiming that she didn't know? What could she say that wouldn't be dismissed as insanity?

"No idea." Annabelle said.

"This can't be real." Someone nearby said.

"Is this real?" Someone else asked.

A multitude of voices asked questions and demanded answers that no one could give them. Annabelle could have told them some things but would they believe her? Did she really want to draw attention to herself right now by outing herself as a mage? Clearly someone somewhere on the campus was using black magic. Either a group or an insanely powerful mage able to wield more magic than any individual ever had as far as Annabelle was aware. There was no record, and the records were fairly extensive, of a mage like that so it had to be a group.

Considering that she had no idea who they were or how many of them there were her master would certainly advise her to be careful. He would tell her to not make what were clearly dangerous enemies see her elimination as a priority.

As she considered her options her phone beeped. It was a message from her master, Nicodemus Montgomery. The message was simple.

Wait for me. Do not engage.

Annabelle responded with an update on the situation.

The response she received was:

REMEMBER RULE 1. PRIORITISE SURVIVAL. NO HEROICS.

Not a difficult message to decipher. Master Montgomery had so far told her nothing about his past but Annabelle suspected that he had once been a soldier.

She responded with:

ROGER. ROGER.

...

There was no response.

"What should we do?" Sarah asked.

Annabelle grabbed her hand and said. "Come with me."

Sarah did not protest and followed her through the crowd that did not notice them leaving. Annabelle took her to the closest empty classroom.

After closing the door Annabelle turned to Sarah. She had decided that she had to say something. If she was going to keep Sarah alive she had to try to explain the situation. Even if her master would disapprove. His second rule stated that it was necessary to keep the occult and supernatural a secret from normies. The reason being the protection of mages from another witch hunt.

Sometimes when normies found out about the secret, and that did not happen often, it went very badly. Master Montgomery had told her several stories about how dangerous what she was about to do was.

"Sarah." Annabelle said. "I need you to listen to me without interrupting and accept what I'm going to say without objections. Can you do that? Feel free to ask questions after I'm done but there are premises I need you to accept. We don't have time for scepticism."

Sarah nodded, looking serious and somewhat confused.

"Good. Someone here, likely several people rather then one, has deliberately put us in this situation using means that are not natural. That means being black magic. Their intentions cannot be good and we have no idea who they are. They've imprisoned us here without supplies for long term survival and this likely isn't the end goal but step one of their plan. Or maybe step two. I am making a few assumptions here but that's necessary. I've contacted someone on the outside who can help and we need to avoid attention until this mess can be dealt with. Because as already mentioned we are not exactly stuck in here with people who want to protect us."

"Did they kill Laura?" Sarah asked.

"That seems likely." Annabelle said. "I have difficulty believing that these events aren't connected. Black magic is pretty nasty and its practitioners have a history of powering up their rituals with human sacrifices. Summoning a demon always requires one. Actually maybe that's what's happening..."

In that scenario there would be a demon around and not just human enemies.

"Wait." Annabelle said. "I'm overlooking something important. Where are the teachers?"

In an emergency like this the teachers should have been taking control and trying to calm down their students. They should have been dealing with the situation as the figures of authority and adults in the scenario. Without leadership there would soon be chaos.

"I didn't notice any." Sarah said.

"If you wanted to maximise chaos you would eliminate any authority figures from equation."

"Isn't it too early to assume that that's happened?" Sarah asked.

"It seems likely." Annabelle said. "It's sound strategy."

"You're talking like we're dealing with some kind of a military or terrorist organisation and we don't know that that's true."

"Not exactly but pretty much." Annabelle said.

Sarah was about to respond when the lights died.

"Damn." Annabelle said. "I should have expected that." She drew forth mana, magical energy, from her body and shaped it into a ball of light. Sarah was staring at the light but said nothing. "I really don't want to use a lot of magic in this environment."

Sarah gave her a questioning look.

"The dark energy here is basically pollution." Annabelle said. "Every time that I use magic I risk being contaminated. I channelled this from my own body and even that is risky. The taint could use that energy as an entrance. Like a virus coming into contact with my skin but worse. Dark magic creates a kind of imprint of its users malevolence that is essentially an intelligent virus. Well sort of intelligent. Not human intelligent but smart in a way that a mundane virus isn't. The risk isn't high but it does exist. I've never come across this much dark mana and I don't know anything about the mages that channelled it so there are too many unknown factors to be certain of anything."

Annabelle made the ball of light float next to her near her head.

"Dark magic is fuelled by emotions like rage, bitterness and envy. It will take your unfulfilled desires and twist them. It will take your desires and turn them into obsessions. So try to control your emotions tightly and be wary of anomalies in your thinking. You're far less vulnerable than I am but the risk shouldn't be ignored."

"That's an interesting statement." Said a serene male voice from the direction of the door. Annabelle hadn't heard any footsteps.

She turned to look at the intruder and the light illuminated the figure of a boy about their age with long strawberry blonde hair and eerily dark green eyes with a golden cross around his neck.

"Considering what you are and what is currently illuminating this room." The intruder continued. "It is rather amusing to hear a heretic council caution on the topic of corruption. It reminds me of discussions I have heard about supposed degrees of evil, of choosing the "lesser evil". Evil is evil and a heretic is a heretic. It is quite simple. A thing is the thing that it is and no amount of apologetics or denial can alter that fact."

Annabelle really didn't like this guy.

"Calm down witch." The intruder said sounding amused. "I sensed your magic and came to investigate. You are not one of the people I am looking for and I cannot divert from my mission, unfortunately. I dislike making compromises but under these circumstances it seems the wise decision. Therefore I propose a cease fire for the duration of this crisis. Do you accept?"

"I don't see why not." Annabelle said. "I'm assuming that you're a Paladin ."

"Correct." The Paladin said. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Samuel Slater, a Paladin of the Holy Church. A defender of the one true faith and executor of those who walk the path of darkness and serve the lord of lies."

"Why are you here?" Annabelle asked. "What's your mission? Why would a Paladin come to this school?"

"The Church has been keeping an eye on your school for a while." Samuel said. "The amount of mages found within your student body is unusual and this fact alone would gain you a Paladin's attention. It suggests that a coven is operating on this campus and the presence of a coven is always bad news."

How did the Church get that information when neither Annabelle or her master had known about the presence of other mages at the school? Did they have agents at the school? Were they students or staff or both?

"Ignoring your anti mage bigotry." Annabelle said. "What's your other reason for being here?"

"As I stated that there are not degrees of evil." Samuel said. "All sorcery is heretical so the distinction that you mages make between good and bad magic is meaningless to the Church. But the Patriarch does need to prioritise certain types of mages and certain types of use of magic as the Church does not posses infinite resources. Therefore the threat level of a mage or coven must be considered."

"What does that mean?" Annabelle asked.

"That the Church has reasons to prioritise the elimination of the coven operating here. Reasons that should at the moment be fairly obvious. Are there any other obvious facts that you wish to have stated?"

"No thanks." Annabelle replied. "So what happens now?"

"You said no yet you asked another question to which the answer should be obvious. What does someone do when dealing with an infestation of vermin? Do you study them or seek to compromise with them? No sane person would do that. No, you find them and eradicate them."

The Paladin turned around to leave and said. "There is a difference between a person who has made foolish errors in judgement and one who serves evil. Not all who stray from the path are beyond redemption. They are not all evil. Some are merely lacking in good sense."