Ridley's Academy for the Mystically Gifted

My first story on wattpad, hope anyone who reads it enjoys!

The man snored softly, his face mashed up against the large sheaf of papers sitting on his mahogany desk. A large clock ticked methodically behind him, the hour hand nearing two. The room in which the man slept so softly was lit by a single lightbulb, flickering slightly as if physically pressed against by the shadows of the late night.

A cat yowled from outside the open window, and the desk lamp flicked out. The man awoke with a start, his white beard standing out against the dark. He massaged the wrinkles above his eyes, and looked around the dark study wearily. "Damn lamp!"

"Need any help?" A sly voice emerged from the gloom. The lamp flickered on, and a darkly dressed man stepped from the corner. He took off his black hat, and held his hands out to the light as if he could extract warmth from it. "Master Ridley?"

"Could have given me a start, Oliver Crankk. I'm not as young as I used to be," Johnathan Ridley pushed the large pile of papers away from him, and slipped on a pair of round spectacles.

"A fact I see clearly."

Johnathan peered deeply at the fine featured face of the stranger, Crankk. "You haven't changed a bit. Necromancy still keeping you alive?"

Crankk adjusted his sleeve cuff. "It has it's uses. But I am here for buisness purposes, I'm afraid. A rather extraordinary item came recently into my possession, but it is of no use to me."

Johnathan knew better than to question into what happened to the item's previous owner, so instead he rubbed his hands together and simply asked, "And what price would this object  come at?"

"Free."

"You don't give anything away without a payment. And I have more sense than to blindly agree to whatever it is you want." A chill had thickened in the room, and Crankk hastened to amend it.

"No, old friend. This is in return for a favour you granted me long ago, for introducing me to the Deathly Arts." Crankk spoke with a slight German accent, and his voice was softly persuading.

"By God, what learning those arts has cost you would make a debt into an avengement.  No, I was not to blame for your introduction to Necromancy, and I have no interest in what you have to offer me."

"We shall see." Taking a small, tigthly wrapped bundle from his coat pocket, Crankk placed the item in Johnathan's withered hand.

Glancing suspiciously at the stranger, Johnathan took a pair of tweezers from his drawer and proceeded to remove the black satin hankerchief from around the small object. After a moment, a small dark stone, with three white quartz tears running through it, sat lightly on the desk. Johnathan took in a sharp breath. "It isn't."

"A host stone? I'm afraid so. It's powers are immesurable, and of absolutely no use to a Necromancer."

"Do you know what this could do? What destruction it could cause?"

"What perfection it could bring? I studied them with you, Johnathan. I know full well of the power they could bring."

"A stone to match each element," the old man explained, despite what Crankk had just said. "None of the five host stones hold any magical power themselves, of course, but if it came into contact with all five of the matching elemental stones, it could weild the entire force of each element, enough power in one place to destroy the entire planet."

Crankk rolled his eyes. "You have not forgotten your teaching ways, professor. But you have forgotten one thing. If a host stone containing all five elements were to be weilded by the Dominus, master of five, it could rid all evil and wrong in the planet. Save the world, so to speak."

"The stones were all hidden, long ago. They can stay that way, Oliver, and no risk to Earth must be taken."

"A dead planet is of no use to even me," said Crankk patiently. "But Solstien and his men are active, and I believe they are after all five elemental stones. A wise guess would also be to assume that they possess a host stone."

Johnathan laughed, and it seemed to spread the light of the lamp throughout the room. "Solstien knows that he cannot weild all the elements. That power resides in the Dominus, and believe me, that is not him."

"Those who seek for gain believe all they want to. He will have thought up his own explanation and justified it accordingly, despite whether this is true. If he suceeds in gathering all the stones, he will undoubtabley destroy the world, no matter what he intends."

Johnathan's look settled once more into worry, and he rubbed his head wearily. "So either we can stop them, or beat them to it."

"You would need the Dominus to weild the stone first," Crankk noted, slipping his hankerchief into his breast pocket.

"Well, since that is impossible. I shall have to find someone to stop them."

Crankk chuckled darkly, clutching his sides. "Oh, Professor Ridley. I have missed you. You know that you possess the Dominus. Why, they're a student at this very academy."

"I'm to old for this!" Johnathan snapped. "Even if I was willing to put a student in that kind of danger, I am no longer able to go ebarking around the world looking for rocks!"

"Then find someone who can," Crankk said simply. "If we meet again, I hope it's in this life." He moved backwards, stiding slowly towards the shadows.

"You're leaving?" Johnathan demanded angrily, rising from his leather armchair.

"Convince the Dominus to track down the elemental stones. Find someone, maybe your nephew, to go along with them and assist in peicing together all of the stones. You know that this is essential if the world is to remain as it is. Good luck Johnathan Ridley, but, if you'll believe me, I have more important places to be than Ridley's Academy for the Mystically Gifted."

And with that, the dark stranger dissapeared into the shadows, and the lamp flickered out once more.