Mirren Academy of Spells

Chapter 20: Encounter

Chapter 20: Encounter

I thought what Marco said at the pub was a bad joke. I truly believed it was. I only realized it was an actual threat from the assembly days later.

For the entire day, I enslaved myself inside the observation room, testing Santi's theory about time healing. By late afternoon, when I stepped out sweaty and exhausted, I noticed certain unrest from the people at the tower.

I caught some words from their whispered conversations on my way to my desk.

"Totoo ba? Na-trace na nila ang location?"

"Mukhang buburahin na nila talaga ang alleyway. Malaking gulo na naman 'to."

I stopped mid-step. What?

My concentration went down the drain. I couldn't even write a single sentence for my observation. Buburahin? What did they mean by that? How could they just wipe out an entire place? There were people in there with actual running businesses and establishments.

I rushed to Alice's tower to ask about it.

"Bakit ka nandito, Olivia?" nagtatakang tanong niya. "Uuwi ka ba nang maaga?"

I grabbed her arm and pulled her to a corner near the empty staircase. "Alice, may kailangan akong malaman." She would know. Her division, the internal affairs, knew everything. "May plano ba silang salakayin ang alleyway?"

Alice blinked, unable to answer me right away. "Hindi ko alam kung pwede ko itong sabihin. We signed the non-disclosure agreement, you know."

"Alice, alam na ito ng lahat sa building," I told her. "I just need the confirmation."

She must have noticed the urgency in my voice. She bit her lip before carefully choosing her words. "All I know is they've been tracing the place nonstop for the last several months at plano nilang sunugin ang buong lugar ngayong gabi."

My voice trembled. "Sunugin? They don't have to do that! What about the people in there?"

"It's a den of criminals of low lives, Olivia," mumbled Alice. "I find the approach a bit forceful too, pero wala tayong magagawa. It's an order from the heads of the assembly."

I shook my head, placing my thumbs inside my palm, squeezing it tight. What could we do? What could I do? If I go to father and talk him out of it, would he hear me out? Would it worsen the situation?

Tonight. I barely had enough time.

I didn't come back to the research tower. I rushed out of the assembly building and rode the bus back to the academy. There was only one thing I could do.

I needed to warn them.

I searched for Claudia in the campus. She must have had connections from someone in the alleyway. She could warn them, but Claudia was nowhere to be found. She wasn't in the classrooms or training ground. She wasn't in the dorm either. It took me an hour of wandering before someone told me she was out doing fieldwork.

Shit. This was bad.

I racked my brains for the next person I could talk to, but the only person that came to my mind was Santi. The sun was setting and he was my remaining option here.

I went straight to the dorm to ask the dorm keeper about Santi's whereabouts, but all he gave for an answer was a shake of his head. "Sinabi ko na dati, the kid rarely stays here."

I bit my lip, my thoughts in a complete disarray. Where was everyone when I needed them?!

I was running out of time. I tried to search for Santi in places he could have been to. The training grounds, in empty classrooms, and my last hope...the ruined tower.