The Institute for Mianite Arts

Chapter 40: Jazlyn's Sunday

I was even more sore than last week, since I had done more training now and I had fought more this purge. Thank goodness we were allowed a free day. I was starting to think that this might be a good day, until I exited my room.

"Jazlyn! There you are!" Alyssa gasped, pulling me aside. "It's the Taint."

"What about it?" I asked as I saw a few more Dianitees enter the hallway. "I thought it was being cleared?"

"It is, supposedly. But I guess whatever the teachers are doing isn't enough, since it spread to the Dianite dorms." She looked at me worriedly.

"To the Dianite dorms? How?" My eyes flew wide. She didn't respond, so I darted past her to talk to the other Dianitees.

"Oh, hi Jazlyn!" one of my old friends waved to me. "Did you hear about what happened?"

"Yeah, I did. How bad is it?" I winced when I saw the look on her face. "What are we going to do about it?"

"You should notify the teachers, being the head and all," she told me. For some reason, she sounded bitter when she said "the head", as if she wasn't happy with me being the leader. Didn't exactly boost my already low self-esteem.

"Yeah," Alyssa said, stepping in. Glaring at the girl, she added, "I think we both will. Let's go, Jaz. We need to do something about this if nobody else will."

The girl narrowed her eyes, but there was no way I was staying around to argue when there was a bigger issue on hand. I grabbed Alyssa's arm and pulled her away. The two of us ran through the hallway in search of a teacher.

"Who should we tell first?" Alyssa asked.

"Mot's smeltery is close to here, so let's ask him," I responded. We darted to the end of the hallway, and pushed open the door.

"Girls!" Mot cried when he saw me, jumping. "Why aren't you eating?"

"The dorms," I painted, slightly out of breath. "The Dianite dorms are Tainted."

His face went slightly pale. "The dorms are... but how?" He snapped out of it and began to grab supplies that were laying around him. "Oh no. Well, thanks for telling me. Jazlyn, why don't you go and tell Dianite? This is news he'll want to hear."

I did as he told me, with Alyssa right behind me. For the first time in my life, I saw my god look worried. "This... shouldn't be happening. I apologize for this, if it got into either of your rooms. We'll get it sorted as soon as possible. For now, you should relax and eat some breakfast. This is a job we can handle."

I nodded, and the two of us went to sit down. "You heard him," Alyssa said once we were seated. "Relax. There's nothing you can do. I assume they're clearing the Taint right now. It'll be fine by the time we go to sleep tonight."

"Yeah, you're right," I said, even though I wasn't so sure. It wasn't worth it to argue, since I didn't exactly have any argument besides the fact that I can't help but worry.

After we finished, she stood up and grabbed her spellbook. "Well, we shouldn't waste our time. We have lots of work to do. Shall we work on Ars Magica?"

"Sure. Let's find an empty room, though," I said as I grabbed my own spellbook. "There's nothing more to learn from Waglington at the moment, so we might as well just practice what we already know alone."

She looked more than happy to oblige. "This way, nobody can take you away like they did last time." Alyssa grinned at me.

"Well, you were probably able to get a lot more done since I wasn't there to play tricks on you," I reasoned, smiling back.

She shrugged. "It gets terribly boring alone. Being alone with you is loads more fun."

Her crimson eyes shone with joy, and I couldn't help but notice how pretty they looked. Stop it, Jazlyn. Focus on your work. "Yeah, it's much more fun to work with someone else. Anyway, shouldn't we try out our new spell?"

We didn't get to work for very long before we heard a loud noise outside. "EVERYONE, GATHER AROUND!" someone shouted. "THE GODS HAVE CALLED A MEETING!"

Alyssa and I stared at each other in shock. Not wanting to miss anything the gods had to say, the two of us hurriedly packed up our things and took off. The hallways were filled with people, and she held onto my arm so as not to lose me in the enormous sea of students.

"This is addressed to the members of Dianite, but it also concerns all of the Mianitees and Ianitees!" Dianite yelled so we could all hear. "The Taint problem is worse than we expected."

I buried my face in my hands, and Alyssa leaned against me for comfort. "It's going to be fine, don't worry," she said in a low voice.

"We will hopefully get this sorted, but if we can't do it quickly, I advise that you gather up all of your items and keep them at hand. Evacuation to the nearby town of Urulu might be necessary."

"Evacuation?" I cried, but my words couldn't be heard over the wash of complaints and calls coming from the other students.

"The Dianite dorms are safe to sleep in for now, so you should feel no fear tonight. If anything gets worse, I will let you know immediately. That is all." He stood up and gestured for us to leave.

Alyssa and I got up. Even she looked scared at this point. "You know you have a problem," I said to her quietly, "when even the gods can't solve it."