Mystic High ✓

MH │23

In the previous chapter: The leader of the arcane group questioned Oriane, who pretended to be in league with the resident Enforcer (Uilliam) whom he appeared to had been in contact with.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

She had taken one of each type of flyer in hand – from fact sheets, to pictorials she never encountered. The result was a small stack of sheets in her hand while she was led out of the room, past the chamber where others were kneeling over their arcane symbols, and out another sizeable door from the back of the bonfire. She was surprised the entire area hadn't yet been flooded with smoke given how ferocious the fire was burning. But then again, likely another type of magick was at work here to keep the air within the space as pure as possible to prevent suffocation, of course.

Urien tugged her arm up a broad stone stairwell, the corridor airy and not as dusty as the repository she had been in. He produced a key from inside the sleeve of his robes when they reached the top of the steps. Before them was a wall decorated with an abundant of floral engravings. At its centre was another carved copy of the king standing within a winged circle. The key fit easily into a hole in the wall. Promptly, she heard the booming clicks of cogs turning.

The entire wall slid forward, then to the side, until finally disappearing from view.

Oriane felt such relieve when she recognised where the stairwell led her. It was the back of the gymnasium. And immediately a tightness lifted off her chest, she felt as though she could breathe a little better now.

"Go on," Urien urged, crossing his arms at his chest and jerking his head to the side. "Or are you going to stand there forever?" He had this haughty look on him as he stared down at her.

Because she was a few steps under him, Oriane could fleetingly glance at his face. What she saw made her heart jerk in surprise and pity. Angular, harsh, and a part of it was heavily scarred. No wonder he wore a hood. He smirked at her, having caught her looking and her subsequent reaction, and leaned forward towards her. "Do my scars scare you?"

Considering that her cue to leave, Oriane took off without another sparing peep.

The back of the gymnasium was an empty hallway with rooms for storage and one office for the current sports teacher. It was dimly lit with only one fluorescent tube lighting for the entire twenty-metre's length; neither were there any windows.

Behind her, Urien slipped back into the shadows and the wall shifted close, as though there was never an opening there.

Supposedly, it had to be just over an hour since she excused herself from the science class. Perhaps, trying her luck, it was already lunchtime and no one would be around the gym at this time. She hadn't heard any sounds of footsteps nor of students playing ball in the other room, likely she could take off to the staff area uninterrupted. Crossing her fingers and worrying the bottom of her lip, she increased her walking pace out of the narrow passage and gym.

It was raining heavily outside, she noticed the moment she stepped out of the unoccupied gymnasium.

The large floor-to-ceiling window panels painted a rather unpropitious picture. The wind forcing the rain to pelt ever so much harder on the glass. Each hit a resounding knock that struck her ear drums. Dark clouds loomed overhead, dominating the entirety of anything she could see – not that she could see much at all being on the ground floor. The towering pine trees decorating the circumference of the school grounds, including the garden directly on ahead, masked all further view.

Funny how the foul weather matched her own equally foul mood.

Oriane took a deep breath in. For courage, if nothing else. Then, she turned left, for the staircase that led to the staff area to see the resident Enforcer, who she supposed had to be Uilliam, if memory served her correct.