Five: Rise of Malevolence

Chapter 2: Truth and Lies

We made our way to the city plaza where a girl in white and black was seen looking around very intensely, and asking people about something and then immediately going to the next person.
"Hey! Are you two Melissa and Marissa Ivenron?!" The girl asked as she ran up to us.
"Yeah, I'm Marissa, and this here is Melissa." I said pointing to her.
"Thank the Seraph of Ice! I finally found you ladies!" The girl let out a sigh. "My name is Liza, I serve as a an as- errr, a maid to my master."
"I'm assuming Mayor Freewind?" Melissa stated while flicking through pages in her tome.
"Precisely, and to why I'm here is to take you to his residence and to practice the ceremony, tonight." Liza said as she gestured us to follow her to Mr. Freewind's home. "We have everything set up for the ceremony, we have your rooms which you'll be staying in and all the facilities and rooms minus my master's room are all accessible to you esteemed guests.
"So, basically we are getting the V.I.P treatment?" I asked excited at the privilege to be allowed to stay in the Mayor's home.
"Yes, that is correct." Liza responded. After this exciting news was disclosed to us how could we not go there, it was such an honor to visit the Mayor, but to stay at his house that was, absolutely thrilling.
"Can we go? I want to have a rest in a nice warm bed, I'm exhausted from fighting that Maligna in the cave." Melissa said as she stretched her arms. We were lead to the grand home of Mr. Freewind which was long and tall with crystals adorned onto some parts of the house that seemed to look like ice bt with more beauty. We entered through the tall, crystal blue doors and into the vast open space that is the foyer.
    "Wow! This place is so huge!" Melissa commented.
    "Your rooms are on the third floor, look for room number five." Liza stated in a tone that sounded as though she had a script and was completely uninterested in us.
    "Where is Freewind? He is here right?" I asked.
    "I was wondering, what is that crystal floating behind you, Melissa?" Liza avoided my question.
    "We found it in the cave after we-
    "Stumbled upon it during our hunt for magic essence!" I cut Melissa off. I gave Melissa a nudge signaling not to elaborate on the way of obtaining this crystal.
    "It looks quite strange, bot something that you'd find normally here, don't you think?" Liza questioned us.
She totally doubts us, the real story is a Maligna sighting that I don't feel the need to want to explain how we felled it and or went about using our magic improperly during the process of eliminating it. I thought in my mind as Melissa quickly saved the conversation, or so I thought.
    "Well maybe a reaction between my magic and Marissa's happened when we used it on the Ma-, err magic essence."
    "Hmm, using magic on magic essence is not needed and is very dangerous. The reactions could make an explosion, and knowing your advanced skills in sorcery, I really question the fact that you're alive." Liza again doubtingly said.
    "We are lucky! And the reaction created this crystal in return, so decided to keep it." I added on to the lie.
     "Well it's been quite informative for me talking to you about your adventure to the Ethereal Cave, but I am currently needed elsewhere, I hope to see your grandiose performance of the ceremony tonight." Liza formally left the foyer quickly running up the stairs and out of sight.
    "We should try and find Mayor Freewind." I said to Melissa.
    "No, we should find a bed, since I'm exhausted from lying." Melissa laughed, causing me to chuckle along. "Why did we not tell her the truth, though?"
    "I'll explain later in the room." I whispered. We soon made our way up the stairs and then up another to get to the third floor, where we admired the many paintings and murals depicting the War of Despair, The Avea Conflict, Amora's Great Split, etc.
    "The Amora region had a lot of reasons worth fighting a war over although the outside just did not seem to understand that wars breed malevolence and negativity which will eat away at the Goddess' divine protection on the Mountains of Purity." Melissa recited a passage below the mural.
    "The five Seraphs would banish away the Princess of Malice, and seal her off with the power of light, although when exposed to darkness the bonds that hold the seal together will shatter releasing true calamity, so keep the seals inside the Divine cities for if even one bond is broken all will be broken. The purity from the inhabitants of the cities shall act as a shield for the seal to protect the world from experiencing a catastrophic event like, The War of Despair." I read the text below the mural.
"Did she say our room was, room five?" Melissa said inquisitively holding her left hand to her chin.
"I think so?" I stated while I shrugged my shoulders. We walked down the ornate hallway and found room five, and it was unlocked.
"Oh thank the Seraph of Ice! Finally a warm bed!" Melissa charged into the room and lunged onto the bed.
"Should we practice the ceremonial spells? Or should we just wing it?" I asked knowing full well we would wing it.
"We don't practice or study for exams, and we are the best mages in the city, so we don't need to practice for this either."
"How did I know you were going to say that?" I sighed and then helped myself to some wanted rest. Although that special and important thing called rest was short-lived due to the constant knocking on the door which then burst open.
"What the hell! Who's there?!" Melissa screamed and got her tome readying to cast a spell at the intruder.
"Woah, woah, woah, settle down girls settle down!" A deep voice echoed through the room. The person entered the room from the dim hallway and it was Mayor Freewind. "I see that you two are always on your toes, that's good but also it could have ended with me getting blasted with whatever spell Miss Melissa Ivenron would have conjured." Mr. Freewind laughed, which also made us feel obligated to laugh along too.
"Mr. Free-
"Just call me Damien, I don't care for formalities."
"Damien, can you tell us about this crystal we found in the Ethereal Cave?" I asked as Damien's eyes went to a shocked expression.
"You killed a Maligna?! How did you manage to do that?!" Damien looked at us with eyes that looked so shocked and happy, like a fan meeting their idol.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked.
"I mean what spells did you use? We could use your techniques and input to really improve the lives of the citizens of Freewind if a rogue Maligna ever attacked the city." Damien asked with great concern.
    "Just basic spells." I lied. I didn't want Damien to know that my powers as a white mage were, to the extent of summoning divine weapons from the sky. That would definitely call in for a violation of the "safe magic" rule in our school.
    "Really? I mean you are the best mages in the city, so what did you do to enhance your "basic" spells?" Damien looked at us with one eyebrow up indicating that he probably knew something was up.
    "Well both of our powers combined and the use of healing and offense magic we really got the best of the Maligna and felled it with a few incantations." I stated professionally to avoid being doubted.
    "Hmmm, that sounds like you guys alright, both so synchronized and always thinking ahead."
    "I assure you Mr. Freewind, err Damien that we will perform to the best of what we can do at the ceremony tonight." Melissa changed the subject.
    "I'm sure you will, tonight will be the greatest ceremony of all." Damien Freewind left our room while pointing to the clock behind us.
    "11:00 am?! We still have so much time!" I looked to the bed where Melissa was. "Guess, I'll take you up on that offer."
    "Rest is important, since our magic needs time to recharge." Melissa said putting her tome onto the dresser next to her. "I can manage to teleport long distances now, but I won't know where it will bring me."
    "How do you know that?" I asked confused by her sudden statement.
    "Because I cracked the true saying of the spell." Melissa had a faint smile, but I knew she wasn't satisfied at knowing just the translation. "I can't say it aloud, since I don't want to risk actually teleporting myself and then not being able to come back."
    "So, right now it's useless, unless you crack more of it?" I asked sighing. Melissa didn't comment, so I just went to the bed across from Melissa and decided to rest until the night comes. Truth be told tonight was going to be the start of such an extraordinary event held annually, but traditions like this will soon be gone...