There was a long silence in Principal Crane’s office as Mr. Slithers processed what Shadoe had told him. Eugene stood awkwardly in the middle of their gaze unsure of how to break it.
“Sir,” Shadoe spoke but was abruptly cut off.
“Shadoe, I need you to stop. Stop whatever investigation it is you had going with Mr. Watkins. It ends now.”
“Sir? I don’t understand.”
“You don’t have to understand you have to obey. Obey like the agent you trained to be, is that clear? Agent Wright you are to watch her.”
“Sir!” Shadoe went to beg but he was already gone before she could question further. Eugene’s mask faded away from his face with the look of defeat.
“We’re not actually going to stop, are we?” He said with defeat rather than a question. Shadoe didn’t answer. She only looked at him with her face filled with annoyance towards her boss, anger towards her enemy, and sadness towards her injured teacher. She jumped out the window of the office leaving Eugene behind and out the back of the school to the old shed and to the secret entrance of Jackson Hunter’s old office. Shadoe was tired of this. She was tired of being kept in the dark without good reason. She would continue her research and the research of her teacher. His work would not go to waste no matter what the Flying Castle has to say about it. She would find out but she would also make sure that her own boss would not know what she would soon know.
No one was in the office making Shadoe feel more comfortable in her snooping. He had said he had information for her and he wasn’t stupid enough to keep it upstairs in the main office. He would hide it here. Rummaging through the drawers she found nothing. She closed her eyes and tried to beg the whispers that had guided her before to guide her now. They obliged, guiding her feet across the room and to the slide. Her hands were pulled by the whispers underneath it and to her amazement she found his notebook, along with scrolls, hidden on the underside of the slide. Grabbing them free she rushed to the desk and opened it.
Shadoe, the information I have discovered is indeed valuable. I am entrusting you with the contents and you alone. No one can know of the knowledge I have discovered thanks to Gideon’s assistance. The Anzillu is not a person but an ancient race of powerful means. They were created to be weapons, powerful weapons capable of great destruction. During this time there were a great many threats to witches and warlocks; magic alone was not enough of a defense against creatures as deadly as there were back then. In order to combat the monstrous threats such as the chimera, gorgons, avariels, and the aswang, the Anzillu were bred through a human sacrifice. Using the scales of dragons, the magic horn of a unicorn, the ashes of the phoenix, and blood of the leviathan the Anzillu were given life. They were impervious to poisons and healed twice as fast, they were stronger and more durable than frail human bodies, they were agile and swift, and their magic knew levels unbelievable to us. In the beginning they served as an army against the threats and were successful in their efforts as such creatures do not exist today, however, understanding their own power they turned on our kind sending normal witches into settlements. In their most dangerous form the Anzillu could be identified with a beast-like humanoid appearance but they also took the same shape of a human outside of that form. The only way to identify them was through a marking usually appearing on their neck or collarbone when they reached maturity.
Shadoe recognized the mark from the scrolls. It was a combination of the Sumerian symbols for the elements encased in a circle of grape vines. She turned the page in the notes as her hunger for the information spread when she dropped the notebook seeing blood splatters covering the pages. Shadoe dropped the notebook and covered her mouth from the shock. Tears flooded her eyes as she recalled Mr Watkins cold body on the floor. He must have thrown the notes down the slide to get them away from Will.
