Cinder - school of magic

New start

Three days have passed. Those nightmares didn't disappear. I keep seeing them. People from that future, dying, enslaved. I've spent the last few days in bed. Virion didn't come. I failed him. I failed them all. "What can I do? How can I change the future? Why me?" Those questions refused to leave me. A sudden whistle made me quickly get up. Far too quickly. I got dizzy and fell to the ground. A smooth voice showed his concern for me.

Virion: "Are you alright?"

Tabitha: "Vir-Vir! You came back! W-Why? I failed you."

Virion: "What are you talking about? I was gone for a few days and you look terrible. What happened?"

Tabitha: "Of course! You don't remember!"

After that, I've spent some time explaining things to Vir-Vir. I wasn't sure how I was able to go back, or if I could do it again. I've witnessed the true power of those revolutionaries. It was like nothing I've ever seen. They weren't willing to let anyone live. Not even the students. I didn't want to take part in this. However, Vir-Vir was right. Without me, that future will happen anyway, so why not try it one more time. Hopefully, I can save at least someone.

Virion: "I see. Why didn't you listen to me in that timeline?"

Tabitha: "I was... arrogant. I felt so powerful..."

Virion: "I see. Well, your plan wasn't all that bad, but it had a big flaw. You can't expect people, especially students, to win a fight against trained wizards unprepared. You should tell the others what they'll be dealing with."

Tabitha: "But who'll follow me if I tell them the truth? Who'll believe me?"

Virion: "Your friends will."

Tabitha: "But I don't have any. Everyone only makes fun of me because I can't use any normal magic."

Virion: "Don't worry; for this, you have me."

I looked at Vir-Vir with a slight confusion.

Tabitha: "What do you mean?"

Virion: "I've spent the last three days analyzing the situation. I looked up some of your classmates, picked optimal fighters and made a perfect algorithm for finding more people."

Virion explained this to me later. His magic was "Processing". He could process information twice as fast. Thanks to that, his thinking always led to the most optimal results. I agreed to his plan and decided to start recruiting other students tomorrow.

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That day in school, I was very nervous. Vir-Vir was staying very close to me and kept the conversation going. We didn't stop talking since morning. I wondered what led to such opening-up from his side.

Virion: "...and as far as I know, plant magic has been lost for generations before somebody new appeared. Where do you think it's been for all those years?"

Tabitha: "No idea. Why are telling me all this? How is this related to..."

???: "Tabitha?"

Somebody spoke to me. I didn't expect that. Normally others tend to avoid me, so why would somebody say my name. I turned around.
It was Agna. I remembered how we got separated that day in the different timeline. I haven't seen her since.

Tabitha: "Agna! Hey! W-What are you doing here?"

Agna: "What do you think? Going to school." she said with a big smile on her face. "Who were you talking to?"

Tabitha: "Oh...ehm...nobody! Just to myself."

Agna: "Oh! You also like talking to yourself when you're alone?"

This question left me a bit stunned. What was I supposed to tell her?

Virion: "Come on! Say yes! You need to become her friend if you want her to help."

Tabitha: "Wait; you planned this?"

After saying that I realized that Agna was still standing next to me and she couldn't see Virion. I expected her to think that I'm weird and leave, but instead she was smiling even more.

Agna: "Heh! You quite silly, aren't you?"

I didn't know how to answer that question. I just went with a simple "I-I guess." and started to awkwardly scratch my head. After that, we both got going again. Thanks to this meeting, we arrived at the school late and the teacher didn't think twice before giving us a detention. I got quite pissed, but Vir-Vir's look gave me quite a lot confidence. It was the look of satisfaction. During the entire day, he kept on wandering around the classrooms, looking at different students with a strange smile. Did he plan all of this? What was going on in his head? Since that morning, Agna also refused to leave my side, so I didn't have any opportunity to talk to Vir-Vir. I do have to say though, he was very useful. During our potion-making class, the teacher gave us a small test and I didn't study at all. I thought I was doomed to fail but then I heard Vir-Vir's voice after many hours of silence. "1 A, 2 D, 3 E, come on, start writing, time's running out!" He was helping me. I didn't understand why at the time. After the test, the teacher immediately marked them. Thanks to Vir-Vir, I got 100%. I wanted to ask him where he got those answers, but there were way too many people. This success brought quite the attention to me. Many students wanted me to teach them and after Vir-Vir kept saying: "Say yes. YES! Y E S!" I agreed.

I don't know how he managed to do it, but at the end of the day, I was quite a celebrity. At the detention, Vir-Vir taught me how to do simple magic tricks to impress others and before I knew it, I was popular not only among the smart and hard-working students but also among the troublemakers. Only now I've realized how much I underestimated Vir-Vir.