A New Teacher

Chapter 41: « The outside finally matches the inside. »

« Valtor? As in THE Valtor? The Dark mage that was famous for the brand marks he left on his victim's necks?" Wizgiz squeaked out in shock and disbelief. Had the topic of the conversation been lighter Dimitri would have teased the little man about his funny high-pitched voice. But now was not the time. Another dark wizard had appeared to make a mess of the magical dimension and Flora and her friends had ended up in the middle of the mess. Again. He will have to hire a team of bodyguards and maybe buy one or one hundred of those stupid good fortune and protection charms for her if these kinds of things kept on happening. To make matters worse, their last week as she left for solaria had been bitter. Well to be honest, he was the one that had been the cause of the uncomfortable situation. He now could admit that he had acted petty and maybe a bit childish about Flora canceling their plans of spending the start of their summer together. Well, he had assumed that she would cancel them, after hearing the Royal announcement. Instead of talking to her about it, he had just said goodbye and left her there. Since that day they had not communicated in any way.

Hens right now, he had no clue where she was except that the girls had contacted Miss Faragonda a few minutes ago to tell her they had seen Valtor in Solaria, that Stella was under a powerful transformation spell and they were coming back to Alfea as soon as possible. That was it. He had no idea if the other girls were hurt, if they had fought the man and his servants. Faragonda had asked all her most trusted staff members (and him) to join her in her office. She had quickly explained the situation and she had at first been met with disbelief, but they had all quickly changed their opinion after she had shown them an official letter from Andros confirming that Valtor and three other prisoners had in fact escaped omega.

And well now except nag Faragonda about more details, make useless theories on how the man had escaped, they could only wait. And he hated waiting. He hated feeling helpless. He despised not knowing what was going on. Especially when Flora was concerned. Even he had to admit that not knowing her whereabouts had made him more impatient and frustrated about the situation. A few decades ago, his past self might have just gone back to his archive, a new cup of coffee in hand not a care in the world about what would happen to this building and all the pesky fairies in it. How times had changed.

"Professor Darkell, do you have any information about Valtor that could help us fight him or protect the school against him?" Griselda was surprisingly the first to speak to him and ask his insight.

"Unfortunately, Valtor is quite younger than me. If I'm not mistaken, he was active approximately forty years ago, I was down in the archives at the time. So, the only things I know about him were things I read in books. I do know that unlike Lord Darkar who was skilled in the control of dark creatures and the weakening of light ones. Valtor is specialized in the manipulation of light creatures. His mark can seek the darkness of any beings' heart and use it in his favor. It is quite rare and impressive magic that requires a lot of confidence and a talent for finding the most corrupted and ambitious souls."

He had to admit that when he had first read about the man, he had been impressed byt the nature of his magic. The mark seemed to be something he had crafted himself. And Darkell always admired more people that created and worked on their abilities than people that only relied on their natural strength. But now that the man was possibly behind the endangerment of flora and her friends, his opinion on the man had drastically changed. The only thing that interested him was how to keep him far away from the flower fairy. And okay maybe he was still curious about how the man had created the mark and how it worked. But who could blame him? He was a man who liked knowledge and that brand was a fine piece magic. Imagine all the things he could if he was able to reproduce that spell. All the possibilities... no Dima focus. Keep flora safe first, then ponder about world domination.