Wizard and Witches: Griffith Academy

A Glimpse

Nova let out a sigh of stress after listening to Clara’s story. If what she told him was true, Nova would be more convinced that Fox had more than one ability. First, he already had the power to transport himself from one place to another through a portal or teleportation. Then an unexplainable power for his fast and powerful movements. And the last one would be technology mastery like Clara.

It would make a few things clear, mainly on how he could do stuff, but it would also raise many more questions about himself. For example, why would he hide his powers if it’s nothing special? What was his past before the principal brought him here? And most importantly, why did he choose to stay in the academy?

“I checked the tools that he had used to repair his mask. Each of them is a high-grade tool. Other than when creating and maintaining Holosen, I rarely used these tools. I never knew the mask he used is so... advanced.” Clara explained. She always saw the mask as a regular ceramic mask. But to be fair, she never saw what was on the backside of that mask.

“Look, Nova. I may not know a lot about Fox, but I know he is a kind person. He cares for me more than anyone else. I’m sure he won’t do anything bad to anyone inside the academy. He has his reasons for his secrecy and mask, I’m sure,” Clara explained as she cleaned up the mess on her table. The young girl’s mind simply couldn’t fathom the thought of Fox being evil. Cruel at times, maybe, but not evil. 

Nova stayed silent for a second.

“I wasn’t sure about telling you this,” Clara continued, ”Fox has helped me countless times. He trusts me, and I trust him. I feel like I have betrayed him somehow by telling you all this,” She added.

Nova routinely came to Clara to ask her if she saw anything suspicious from Fox. And most of the time, she had nothing to tell him as she never really paid attention to what Fox was doing inside her shop. But this time, catching Fox using her tools to repair his mask was ingrained in her mind. She didn’t think it through before reporting it to Nova, and she started to regret it.

“I understand. But aren’t you curious about what’s under Fox’s mask? His power is unknown, and the only one who knows about it is the principal. Fox never shows his true power, but he always wins the battle he was in. Plus, the machine that he uses to talk and even change his voice. Surely it piqued your interest? Trust me, this is for his and the school’s sake. I trust him. But his similarity to the most infamous villain in history is just… disturbing. Anyway, thanks for the info.”

Clara shook her head, still feeling guilty about telling Nova all that. It was like she betrayed Fox’s trust in her. She just wanted Nova to leave so she could rest and reflect on her decision.

“Alright. I should leave then. Sorry for taking your time,” Nova walked to the front door. The little girl was unaware of the storm raging inside Nova. Whether he should keep trusting Fox and drop his investigations or continue in his attempt to uncover Fox’s identity. Would he like what he found?

Nova was about to walk out but stopped right before stepping out of the shop.

“I believe him, Clara. He is my aide and also a good friend. He is a person that I could trust and believe in, just like you do. But it is my job to find out whether he is a threat or not for the academy. You remember about your incident, right? As the Protector Leader, I can’t let anything like that happen again.”

After saying that, Nova left Clara’s shop. Clara locked the shop door as soon as the blonde Protector left.

She didn’t want to admit it, but she was also curious about Fox. His mysterious face, origin, and never-changing costume of fox mask and black robe made Clara curious about the reason behind all of that.

“I’m an i***t; I should have never told him...” Clara sighed as she turned off the light and walked to the back room. She made a mental note to never tell anyone anything about Fox. For all he had done for her, the least she could do was to be someone he could trust.

But... is that all there is?

She never really thought about it, but now that it came across her mind, she wondered what Fox was to her. A father figure? A brother figure? Or more than that? Even more, what Fox considered her to be? Maybe his little sister? More…?

Clara planted her face deep inside her pillow. She didn’t even know how old Fox was. It wasn’t only that, Clara didn’t even know when his birthday was! She felt ashamed, calling herself a person that Fox could trust but didn’t even know when his birthday was.

She made another mental note to ask Fox about his birthday before falling asleep.

Meanwhile, on his way back to the Protector’s HQ, Nova realized that he forgot to ask the little mechanic about some glitch in Holosen's programming. He immediately turned around and walked back to Clara’s shop, hoping he could reach it before Clara fell asleep.

As he closed in on the mechanic shop, he noticed someone was already standing in front of the shop. A person just stood there, wearing a cloak that covered its whole body. It was hard to see the figure clearly because Nova was still quite far away from the shop. All he could see was that the cloak had a light brown color and was torn in many places.

He was so busy admiring the figure’s cloak that he didn’t realize the person was already starting to walk away. Nova immediately gave chase. The figure’s movement was smooth, like water moving around rocks. He kept following the mysterious person down an alleyway, where they somehow disappeared.

“s**t!” he cursed himself.

It was because of this Nova preferred to act first then act. He could’ve caught the person if he just had immediately approached them. Fox always suggested he do the contrary, but he never felt like he was the type to think first. The thing that bothered him the most was that no one in the academy wore or sold that kind of robe.

“The seer must have seen something” Nova rushed out of the alleyway and headed toward the Protector’s HQ. Nothing slipped her watchful eyes.