Magus Academy 2

Chapter 8

A couple of weeks after we found out about Charles's escape, I was working twice as hard.

No joke, in power control, I had to use so much magic to the point where I almost faint.

I even have to use my powers against Jamie in battle training.

Trust me, we had to go to the infirmary every day.

Additionally, art and etiquettes were both replaced with either power control or battle training.

Not only that but I also had special training sessions to stop me from getting all those nightmares.

Even though the person who mentally attacked me was dead, I still got nightmares.

All of which showed some image of my dead body or sometimes, when it's really bad, I'd dream of the pain I felt when I was mentally attacked.

I'm pretty sure I was traumatized!

Never again could I walk around the school without feeling nervous.

For a matter of fact, I was practically suspicious of every student in the whole of Magus Academy.l, including the teachers.

The sudden shift in attitude towards my learning was a little weird. I mean, they went from being relaxed to suddenly overwhelming me with tasks.

To be honest, if it weren't for my friends I'd be stuck in my room with my trusty collections of books.

I knew that the harder I worked, the better I'd become. However, I wasn't sure that better was good enough.

Whoever was after me was strong and I needed to be careful _ extra careful.

Not only that but apparently I also need to be half-dead.

I barely got any breaks. Even when I slept, I didn't have many hours of it, mainly because I was forced to wake up at dawn for a daily run.

The only break I got was during the weekend. I'd have shorter training sessions for me to relax. However, I was too tired to spend any time with my friends.

Sometimes I wondered whether the person who was after me wanted me to break under pressure.

Eventually, by the end of the term, I was practically a walking zombie. True, I was much more fit, however, I was miserable.

I was doing too much, focusing on too many things at the same time. I was in endless headaches, however, I was still pushed.

The only person who actually went somewhat easy on me was Jamie: whenever he saw how tired I was, he'd let me catch a few extra hours of sleep.

I knew he was worried and I also knew that he told everyone else about my state of mind.

Despite this, I was still stuck in the routine. I'd get up, work my bleeping butt off and go to sleep for like five bleeping hours.

One day, on a glorious Sunday, I believe, it all ended.

I woke up early, preparing myself for my daily run. When Jamie didn't come into my room, I just assumed he was just busy with something and would come late.

Although I was pretty much used to my routine, I still wanted to catch a few hours of sleep so I decided to lay my head back down on my pillow.

I intended for me to sleep for two hours but... umm... I may have slept for an extra seven hours.

When I looked at the time on my alarm clock (it was a present from Ash) I was practically panicking.

It was lunchtime and I was late for the shorter training sessions I had on Sunday!

Oh well, I guess I was slightly more... awake than usual.

Once I walked out of my room and into the dining room, I yelped out loud when I saw all the royals sitting around the table.

"Miss Stone... we've been expecting you," Leo said in a funny voice as I raised my eyebrow.

"Really, Leo?" Rose slapped him on the arm while he yelped something loudly, I wasn't really paying attention.

What I was looking at, however, was something... something... well, all I could tell was that it was some sort of medicine.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing at the bottle of medicine.

"Well... it's a long story..." Sophie said awkwardly.

"Oh don't give me that bleeping cliché opening, Sophie. I know for a fact that it's probably not even that long and you already wasted so much time in building the suspense up to the point where I'm not interested and... oh wait, I'm the one wasting time," I started ranting before awkwardly laughing.

As you can tell, I haven't actually spoken to anyone in ages and needed to warm up my vocal cords.

"Yeah, now shut up," Lizzie said slapping the back of my head, "Basically, someone was using hypnosis on all the teachers so they started exhausting you and eventually draining you of energy. The potion on the table is the antidote we used on them ."

See what I meant when I said that the story wasn't even long?

Anyway, I stood there, confused for a few seconds before it finally sank in.

"SO I WAS BEING PHYSICALLY DRAINED BECAUSE OF HYPNOSIS?" I yelled as the others winced.

I didn't know what but something about that sounded ridiculous. I mean, surely teachers are smart enough not to get hypnotized _ unless someone they trust was doing it...

Oooh, a conspiracy theory...

"Wait... how did you find out about this?" I asked.

"I worked it all out," Jamie answered, "You're welcome."

"I don't give a bleep who did it! I said how. Use your ears!" I snapped, slightly frustrated.

I blame it on my lack of sleep.

"I saw how hard the teachers were pushing you and talked to Mrs Blackburn about it. However, she kept on repeating this one phrase and I assumed she was under the influence of hypnosis. All that time was spent on me finding the antidote and I finally gave it to the teachers," Jamie explained.

To be honest, I still wondered why he didn't tell me about any of this _ it also hurt a little.

I mean, I suffered for the last term and Jamie knew exactly why, yet he never thought about telling me.

"Well, thanks for telling me that earlier," I said bitterly before heading to the kitchen and grabbing a plate of breakfast that was set on the table.

"Umm... we're not done yet," Blaze began, "We're also going on a trip."

A trip, you say?