The Secrets of the Aorta Ruins

Chapter Fifteen

The two began to fall into a new routine. During the week they both had their normal classes, the headmistress was rather impressed when Becca had shown her where Dare and her had made it to. Sure, the headmistress moved the lessons up to there, but Derek was still helping her. Every week day and Saturday evenings the pair were in Becca's room studying math and science until there was nothing left in either book for Dare to teach her. Sundays were left either for studying or for the occasional city trip. Time once again began to flow more quickly, up until it became closer to what should have been her midterms.

"Dare! You caught me up way too much!" Becca said, yelling at him during one of their many trips out of the castle. She caught the Headmistress smiling from behind them. She was backed off a lot more from their first trip out of the city but many of the things Becca wanted to explore were still considered to be off limits to them, and with Becca's biggest want out of the way on their first trip they mostly ventured out just for something else to do.

"Are you seriously mad at me for helping right now Becca?" he asked confused, and yet seemingly amused at the same time.

"Yes. Headmistress Davina back there," Becca said pointing right at her, "wants to make all my 'midterms' be finals now. Its totally your fault," by the end of her sentence her yelling had subsided to a more teasing tone, clearly giving herself away to Dare. By then, he was laughing, no longer confused.

"Well I am so sorry for helping. I will be sure not to make the same mistake again next year," he said, still laughing.

Becca hugged onto his arm, clingily, "No. That's ok, you can stay and still help me," she looked down to see his face was a bright pink, but he didn't seem to be complaining about the sudden contact or about her not wanting him to leave the school.

"Oh really? And what if I don't want to any more?" he asked. She thought about the question, but she didn't honestly didn't have an answer for him.

"Cry. Possibly," she answered honestly.

"Not the big tough Becca you always pretend to be," he joked.

"Exactly. Pretend." She said, but finally releasing his arm. They were exploring the northern part of the island today. There was a steep path that led up the mountains to where most of the Shadefall dwarves called home. There were dwarves on many continents, of course, but they tended to stick close together on each of them. Below the mountain the mountain before the path though, something else had caught the young girl's eye.

"What's that?" Becca asked, pointing. She already had a feeling she knew the answer, but she asked anyway for confirmation.

"Huh? Oh, just the Aort Ruins. Why?" Dare questioned.

"Really? Can we go explore them?" Becca asked, both excited and fascinated. She had been itching for an adventure and this was just the thing she had in mind. She knew they were north somewhere but wasn't sure exactly where.

"That would be a no, Rebecca," the Headmistress said, catching up from behind them once Becca had stopped to stare. Becca hadn't even noticed she had stopped for that long that the she would have been able to hear. She wasn't surprised the headmistress had denied her permission, but she was hoping that the two of them could have made their way inside before she had caught up.

"Why not?" Becca asked curiously, "You don't believe the old legends, do you Headmistress?"

"I think it would be best not to find out. And either way, its starting to get late. We should begin making our way back to the castle anyway," she said more firmly than Becca had ever heard her. From the look on Dare's face, Becca could only assume he was thinking the same thing.

"Can someone fill me in on what you two are talking about?" Dare asked, sounding confused. Becca paused in front of the ruins a moment longer, planning to use what remained to help explain to him. She pulled out her cellphone too and collected as many photos as she could.

"Well, that clearly was the front door," she said, clicking a new photo. "The legend said he practiced in the attic, which may still be intact in part of the mountain!" She was speaking excitedly, completely unaware that she wasn't actually explaining anything rather than being even more vague and confusing. The sun beginning to set in the west helped the photos look even more spooky, but it was also a reminder to the headmistress that she was supposed to be leading her students back to the castle, especially before Becca came up with any worse ideas about the ruin site.

"Rebecca," she said, her voice filled with warning. It was hard to imagine just her name alone sounded like such a threat.

"I know, I know," she groaned. With one last look at what had previously been a remarkable castle, she unwillingly began making her way with Dare back through the towns. The headmistress had been letting them stay out a bit later depending what day of the week they had ventured into the cities on but being that it was Sunday and Becca had begun letting her curiosity get the better of her, it wasn't surprising that she was making them head back to the castle already.

Most of the walk back to the castle was quiet, except the one time Dare asked again for an explanation. Becca checked to see how far the headmistress was before telling him she would explain later. She had been following much closer once again, like the first time they had all ventured into the city together. It was almost as though she was afraid Becca was going to run off at any moment to head back to the ruins.

The rest of the walk back was quiet. No one spoke another word. Once inside the castle, the headmistress as usual disappeared into her office, and Becca invited Dare into her room. She locked the door behind the two of them, which wasn't common for when the two of them were in there. Becca smiled as Dare made himself comfortable on her bed while she sat at her desk as usual, waking her computer up and putting some music on.

"Are you going to explain yet?" he asked impatiently. Truth be told, Becca was surprised he had waited this long to ask her again.

"Explain what?" she questioned, not sure which part he was even confused about.

"Why do you want to go look around there so bad? Why do you think the Headmistress was so against it? What legend?" he asked all at once.

"Well, a long time ago there was said to be a man that lived there," she began.

"I know about the Blood Mage that lived there, Becca" he said annoyed as though she was explaining how to tie his shoe.

"Well, then you should already know," she said simply.

"But I don't understand!" he said, now frustrated.

"Then let me explain, from the beginning. No interrupting, even if there are parts you already know, ok?"

"Fine," he said, but still sounding slightly annoyed for a moment. Becca waited a moment for him to return to his happy go lucky self before continuing the tale.