Relic and Ruin

CHAPTER FOUR

DIDASKALEINOPHOBIA – FEAR OF SCHOOL OR GOING TO SCHOOL

"Dead bangers!" someone yelled from the academy gardens.

The Misten Reaper Academy was home to over three thousand boarding students—three thousand Reapers. All Ivy League–worthy, polished, steel eyed, and sharp.

The academy itself had stood since before Misten was even a town. In its early days, it was located within a great forest. It rose with huge columns of stone and iron, sparkling spires, and great lead-lined windows. Around them, humans hurried down the footpath, completely oblivious to the monster of a building beside them—and the monsters filing off the bus.

Outside, the academy had defined boundaries. As huge as it was, it was nestled deep within a large flat piece of estate land. Manicured shrubs and trees and pearl-lined paths paved the green block, and gardens and butterfly houses dotted the corners, while stone training arenas circled the academy walls.

Inside, however, the academy was endless—a constant maze of ever-changing halls and staircases. The elder Reapers claimed the building was alive, and that if you mistreated it, its magic halls would make you disappear forever.

Necromancy was so profoundly banned inside school grounds that the plaque outside the gates practically screamed.

W A R N I N G

THIS SCHOOL DOES NOT TOLERATE THE FOLLOWING:

1. Any use of necromantic magic once within the gates.

2. Raising of the dead.

3. Speak of raising of the dead.

4. Threats of raising the dead.

5. Rumors of raising the dead.

6. The use of any necromantic gifts.

7. Chewing gum.

Not only was the practice of necromancy itself banned, but any second gifts that a Necromancer inherited were banned as well. Reapers, unlike Necromancers, didn't inherit gifts—they were Reapers and that was all there was to it.

The Laheys had been homeschooled on all things necromantic due to their family's Reaper transition. By the age of two, the Lahey children were able to control their powers, whereas before they would accidentally raise dead birds and mice when upset. Once they became aware of their abilities, the girls were asked to search through the gardens of Ebony Manor to find something dead.

Alice had found a beetle, Lilith a small bird, Chasity a snake, Eris a baby raccoon, and Nyx a butterfly. The creatures were each placed in their own separate jars and set on shelves in their bedrooms where, once a fortnight, the girls would raise them and release the buildup of their necromantic power. After a day or two, their mothers would make them siphon their excess life, and the creatures would be corpses again until their next resurrection.

At home, they were just Necromancers who took Reaper classes. At the academy, they were second-best Reapers—things that needed to be watched. Even as they walked the halls, there were always eyes on them. Someone was always stationed nearby. They were only guests here, and they knew it.

And so, out of spite they always found ways to get sent to the headmaster's office. Eris might secretly resurrect a hive of bees, sending them flying through the halls. Alice might singe someone's hands or hair. Lilith's invisible friends would sometimes follow her to school—Fred and George Weasley tripping people in the halls, Gandalf refusing to let people pass through classroom doors.

"You know," Lilith whispered during first period, using her brush to paint the long black feathers of a bird on canvas, "I really don't know what the point of this class is."