Queen of Scars

Chapter Two

"Isolde, what are you doing here?" There was a top voice booming over my distraction, high and with the undertone of uncertainty; Jasper. We were standing in the far corner of the courtyard where classmates were still staring us down sideways, whispering, trying to figure us out. The charmed totems surrounding us glimmered faintly, thrumming with magic as they echoed the unspoken threat now hovering between us.

I met his eyes, the afterglow of my glowing scars vibrant in my blood. "I must find out what happened," I answered, my tone even though my tempest of feelings was inside me. "I'm trying to figure out why I showed up dead and what my parents were up to."

Jasper sighed, exasperated, rubbing a hand through his messy hair. "You can't just go crawling into the past without knowing what you're up against. Some things are best left buried." He locked eyes with me, his natural instinct as my protector activating something fierce as he took a step closer, creating a wall between me and the dozens of prying eyes of our peers.

I squared my shoulders, resolve hardening me. "If I don't know the truth, how can I protect everybody? Particularly now that something major is unfolding." Bioluminescent lichen and mosses grew in spindly branches overhead, bioluminescent flowers blooming in a riot of colours; our minds echoed with the buzzing of residual energy that no one of us had the confidence to explain.

Jasper Kyawwed me as we exchanged glances, and his face melted a little as a fleeting moment of admiration cut through his dark crust. "You're not who you used to be, Isolde. But be careful. The secrets you're about to discover may change it all."

I followed the old familiar route to the familiar locker he had told me about. The hallway was far less boisterous now, and the rush of students gave way to a tense anticipation that echoed my inner turmoil. The atmosphere was steeped in the aroma of polished wood and residual magic, a subtle yet ever-present hint of the arcane threads weaving their way through the realms of Crestwood Academy.

When I arrived, my fingers met the cold surface of my locker. The familiar combination padlock was replaced by knots of intricate engravings of symbols I did not recognize. I laid my hand on the lock, the residual magic swirling around me. Little by little, the lock released, the symbols glimmering dimly beneath my finger.

Stumbling into the chambers of my own mind, pieces of me littered around like papers on an unkempt desk. One stood out to me; a journal with a faded leather cover and my mother's initials stamped on the front. I gasped and opened it with great care, the pages yellow but readable.

As I continued to read, memories rushed back, a rush of flashbacks down memory alley of my time at Crestwood, the bullying, and the night I went missing. The entries chronicled my parents' role within a secret society of the academy, their commitment to safeguarding ancient prophecies, and their abrupt vanishing act that left me orphaned and unprotected.

Something flashed by, breaking my concentration. Marcus, an ex-Alpha and my mentor in the early years at Crestwood had crept up quietly behind me, somehow both comforting and menacing at the same time. "Isolde," he said, his voice low and serious. You've done a lot, but be careful. Exploring the past can stir sleeping things that should stay asleep."

I glanced up, coming face to face with his intense blue eyes, which appeared to look through me. "I have to know, Marcus. "My parents' disappearance is not merely a family tragedy, it weaves itself into the very fabric of Crestwood's magic."

A hand on my shoulder, his grip steady and comforting. "Your secret society works in the shadows to keep prophecies that maintain balance in check. Your parents were central players, and their disappearance has left a space that others might try to fill.'

I skimmed the engravings in the journal, gradually familiarizing myself with them, revealing cryptic overlapping references to ancient prophecies and powerful legacies. "What do these symbols mean?" "In," I said, pointing to a particularly intricate one.

Marcus looked them over with all due care. "These are markings of the old guard, symbols that imply protection and strength. They tie back into the prophecies your parents were protecting. You have to understand them if you want to fulfil your destiny."

As his words settled in, a cold chill walked up my spine. The journal said I belonged to a mighty bloodline. These one-processing old prophecies held the equilibrium between the other realm and the human realm. My heart felt heavy with this revelation, but so did my determination to seek the truth.

Just as I was about to look more deeply into the journal, footsteps suddenly approached in the hallway. The dark and enigmatic figure at the helm was Dr. Vivian Thorne, our principal at Crestwood Academy. Her face was a mask as she gazed at us. "Isolde Ravenscroft," she began, her tone steady but with an undercurrent of authority. "I see you have something that belongs to your family."

I felt Marcus's hand close tighter on my shoulder, communicative: play it cool. "Dr. Thorne," I said, holding my ground. "Yes, I did. I'm working to understand my parents' work and their disappearance."

Her eyebrows arched as her eyes wandered between me and Marcus. "Be careful with what you unearth, Isolde. Some truths are best kept buried, and your quest for the truth could result in a far worse consequence than you know."

I held her gaze, bruised to the bone but unrelenting. "I have to know the truth, Dr. Thorne. On behalf of myself and all of Crestwood."

Her eyes drilled into mine, a molten combination of warning and something else; concern, maybe, or a nibble of admiration. "If you go down this road, you're entering dangerous territory. Trust me, you don't want to poke at things that have been buried for a reason."

Frustration and defiance flooded through me. "You don't get it, Dr. Thorne. This is bigger than my past. It's about defending the present and onward."

She took my arm, and her skin was cool like ice. "I do understand, but you know what? Sometimes, the price of truth is too high. "Don't do something stupid; you'll regret it."

As she spun away, I caught a glimpse of something shadowy flashing in the periphery of her eyes, with a trace of something defiling clinging unceremoniously in the air. Marcus trailed after her, his guardless position steady. "Isolde," he remembered whispering, "listen to her warning. There are forces at play that you have no idea of yet."

I saw them leave, their sentences falling on me. Returning to the journal, I understood that finding my parents' legacy was just the start. Like threads woven into a fabric, the ancient prophecies, the secret society, and the supernatural equilibrium of Crestwood Academy were all connected, and my part in this elaborate design was only beginning to reveal itself.

I saw the courtyard returning to normal, the bioluminescent plants recovering their steady glow, and a renewed sense of purpose settled over me. I had come to that point where there was only one way out, and the path ahead was perilous and unknown, yet I was not afraid. The secrets from my past were beckoning, and I could not look away anymore.

Jasper nearer, his expression as inscrutable as ever but his mere presence reassuring. "I need to talk to you," he said in a low voice, taking me away from the courtyard and into a dark corner of the library where the flickering lights cast moving shadows.

That tension faded to familiarity when we ended up in a quiet alcove together, creating a place for all these folks. "What is it, Jasper?" I asked, curiosity piqued.

His eyes were fixed on mine, and he breathed more deeply than usual, his nerves rattled by this call. "I know more about your folks than I have let on. And I think you deserve to know how they went missing."

My heart pounded each thud; a reminder of the mystery I was about to reveal. "Tell me everything."

As if the shadows were a breath of air, the supernatural forces of Crestwood Academy entwined with each revelation we made; the air around you coursing with that charge. A cold wind passed through the library and blew out some enchanted candles, leaving us in partial darkness.

The faint sound of a crackle caught Jasper's attention. His eyes narrowed at the chanting echoing in the depths of the library, dimly lit in the far reaches of the chandelier flickering, revealing signs we didn't notice before. He held a finger to his lips and pointed to the source of the brightness, his eyes conveying the same message: Follow me. "There's something you should see."

When I got closer to the bright area, the air shimmered with magic, and I could see the outline of a hidden door behind a giant bookshelf. Jasper put out his hand, fingers brushing against ancient symbols carved into the wood. The door opened with a gentle push, dependant on light from within, glowing with an otherworldly breeze.

The room pulsed with living artefacts and relics of ancient power. In the middle was a large, ornate table with maps and scrolls and strange symbols spread across it. A pedestal stood at the chamber's rear, cradling a crystal orb that glowed, pulsing in tune with the magic that filled the air.

Jasper looked at me, brows knitted together. "Your parents were among a cadre of people within the society responsible for protecting these prophecies. They found something that could upset the balance we're working to maintain."

I took a step forward, eyes on the crystal orb. "What did they find?"

As the enchanted totems outside flickered violently, great darkness plunged the chamber before Jasper could answer. A forceful entity slammed the hidden door shut, securing us inside. Then, the air crisped like late autumn, and a shadow energy whirled in the room around us.

"We need to leave, Isolde," Jasper said urgently. "Something's wrong. And the prophecies are responding to us being there.'

I held onto his arm as the rush of energy nearly knocked us off our feet. "We can't leave now. We want to understand what's going on."

We fought for a way out of this prison when the crystal orb started to glow brighter and brighter until the room was lit in with ethereal light, only to hear a voice fill the air throughout the chamber.

"Isolde Ravencroft, it is time to embrace your fate. The scales are tipping, and only you can bring them back.

The darkness grew more suffocating, the ground trembling beneath us as the chamber fell apart, chunks of rock breaking from the ceiling. Jasper dragged me toward the nearest exit, but a swell of magical force occluded the way.

"Isolde, hold on!" he bellowed, squeezing me to his side as he climbed to block the collapsing chamber.

As all hope seemed lost, the crystal orb exploded, sending shards of light and dark energy flying in every direction. That adjusted, the stationed totems outside were corrected, and the supernatural energies within Crestwood Academy were repressed. A phenomenon of unnatural quiet suffused the surface on which reality recoiled before shadows could pull back and the chamber could illumine in a way it had never done before.

Puffing, Jasper and I fell out of the secret upper room, the hidden door clicking shut behind us. Everything had changed in the courtyard; with a new sense of urgency and mystery.

"What was that?" My voice shivered with a mixture of terror and wonder.

Jasper gazed at me, his eyes mirroring the storm we had just endured. "Your folks are on to something big that can upend everything we know about Crestwood Academy and the equilibrium it keeps."

Before I could even let him register as anything other than something my brain hiccuped around, black darkness had slipped from its creeping place in the shadows, formed, and stepped fully into the ring of light cast by the enchanted totem. Dr. Vivian Thorne looked shinier than I'd ever seen her, in both the eyes and something darker.

"You shouldn't have gone digging about so deep, Isolde," she hissed, her voice foul with malice. Now, you will have to be held accountable for your actions."

Then she walked toward us; the ground under her feet pulsated with dark magic, and the air thickened with the promise of battle. I could feel it surge through my blood, feeling my scars flare like a bright light as I settled in to defend the history of the legacy my parents had left in their wake.

"You will not ruin everything my parents built," I pronounced, though I stood against the darkness she had planned.

But as the reckoning drew closer, the heavens above Crestwood Academy turned ominously black again, and a mighty roar blared through the atmosphere. The totems glimmered and danced violently, their flickering light spinning into a sinister hue of red. At that moment, the real fight for the academy's future was about to begin.