Connection

Chapter Nine: Cliff

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Chapter Nine: Cliff

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Cliff wasn't sure how much longer he could stay awake as Preceptor Flintwhisk droned on and on about the history of their community. Out of the classes he had to take, he was positive Mallowkeep History was his least favorite. Preceptor Flintwhisk had always been kind to Cliff, but even that couldn't help Cliff in his fight to be attentive as the monotone voice filled the classroom.

It had been a few days since his visit with Grez, and Cliff couldn't stop thinking about what he'd said. Would he be able to get to the crime scene like had been requested? If it was possible, how would he do it? Would getting to the crime scene actually reveal any useful information? Cliff's mind drifted to questions like this as his Preceptor spoke.

"This was the very beginning of a relationship containing a lot of friction between wizards and Purefides. While many small events littered across history have been found, the next large issue came hundreds of years later. Mallowkeep and two other communities like ours—Esternesse and Violetblank—had been existing as a safe haven for our kind for hundreds of years at this point but as I mentioned before, not many lived in them.

"The Persecution—or as it's known in the Purefide world, the Salem Witch Trials—sparked a large influx of people to the three existing communities. The Persecution started when their ideas of magic and witchcraft turned bad. Many believed at the time that witchcraft was a present force, but no one had an issue of it until the concept of magic transformed into the concept of dark magic. Superstitions then began to tie magic to evil spirits and the Devil. It planted seeds of fear in everyone's hearts, and as we know from the past, fear is one of the strongest forces in this world. There were trials for those that were suspected witches and a few were executed. 

"We don't have too much time left, so we'll go into more depth on that later. Basically, as many people were looking for those performing witchcraft and arresting or killing people who were suspected of it, many wizards began to panic. 

"The population of each community was growing larger and larger. All the new inhabitants couldn't be supported, so more communities were frantically being created. People who'd been mayors or respected in the first three decided it was time for a formal set of laws and governors who had more power than the mayor did. And that is how the idea for the Dignitaries started."

Lazily, Cliff scrawled, The Persecution causes wizards to go to communities, large population creates Dignitaries, and his eyes darted around the room. Most of the other students were hanging on to each word that came out of Preceptor Flintwhisk's mouth, their pencils scribbling furiously on note sheets they'd pulled out. Cliff, on the other hand, preferred to stare at the weak ray of sunlight that filtered into the small room through a window that ran the height of the ceiling.

It cast light across the boxes that were piled in the little space behind the projector that Preceptor Flintwhisk taught with. In his years of being a student of Flintwhisk, he had not once seen the room without the mountain of boxes that he claimed held student supplies, though they were never even given pencils to write with or paper to write on.

"Cliff, why don't you answer that one?" Flintwhisk said. Cliff's head snapped toward the front of the room to find his Preceptor's amber eyes piercing into his own. He opened his mouth slightly, wondering if it would be realistic not to know the answer, but quickly closed it, not willing to test it. 

He knew there wasn't any option but to say he hadn't heard, though he wasn't in the mood to get a lecture either.

With a sigh, Cliff said, "I didn't catch the question."