NG EY

2 | A glimpse of mystery.

Well. Nephras is dead.

Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that.

So avoidable. It starved, that's all.

You must be heartbroken.

After a few too-close-for-comfort encounters with the guards that were now swarming the halls, an invisible Kellyn reached classroom 357B. He had never seen the room occupied, and its musty scent leaked into the hallway as he stepped inside. He strode down the aisle splitting the rows of dust-conquered desks and left through the side door, which was marked 'Emergency Exit – Alarm Will Activate' in red capitals. That, Kellyn had learned a few months ago, was a lie.

A few stone steps brought Kellyn down to the grassy yard that separated the Collective proper from the thick stone wall that surrounded it. He crossed the teal grass and approached a nenimac tree. It was taller than the others around it, with a particular branch jutting out towards the continuation of the clump of trees on the other side of the wall. He stepped behind the tree's deep blue trunk, and his fingers tapped his spell stone to a small loop of gold on his belt. The invisible current of Light magic linking the stone to his third scroll dissipated.

Once again able to see his hands and feet, Kellyn gripped the tree's rough bark and peeked towards the main gate in the distance. Two Collective guards stood on either side of the magical fog that hovered in the wide archway, observing people come and go. They looked as inattentive as always. An initiate practicing with a sphere of magic walked right by them, disappeared into the fog, and quickly reappeared on the same side, rubbing her head. Kellyn recited the mantra along with the guards. "No magic while crossing the wall," he murmured.

The coast looked as clear as it ever was. Kellyn was about to start the climb when he spotted a gray-cloaked figure sprinting down the main path towards the gate. One of the gate guards looked up.

The coast was apparently going to rapidly become less clear. Kellyn swallowed and reached high, digging his fingertips into the nenimac tree's deep ridges and sliding his feet up off the ground. When he had a sturdy enough grip with the roughed-up soles of his dress shoes, he quickly stretched again. Eventually, he reached the first branch, where the going got easier. He scampered up the natural ladder until the rungs could barely hold him. Stellated purple leaves obscured his view of the gate, and the ground.

The tree began to bend, ever so slightly. Kellyn leaned his weight towards the wall, and the thin trunk in his hands followed suit. Then, he began to inch his way down a certain branch he knew well. He dodged the two oblong, prickly fruits that had decided to grow there, and as the branch released him, the tree curved just enough, and he was deposited onto the top of the wall.

He quickly flattened on the narrow walkway between the wall's crenellations and took a few breaths, preparing for the way down. He didn't have much time. Once the gate was locked down, guards would use the walls to search the Collective grounds from above. He lifted his satchel's flap to check that the iridescent scroll case was still there. It was.

Kellyn blinked, and a bright red salamander-like thing with six fat legs skittered to a stop in front of him. Its beady black eyes stared into his with something approaching menace. He inhaled sharply and inched away, but the creature advanced on him. It hissed and raised its tail over its head, which was smoking profusely, and Kellyn made an executive decision to jump.

He crashed through the dense leaves of the nearest nenimac and scrambled to grab onto its trunk. His small hands failed him, so he instead executed a controlled tumble through the branches and got hold of a limb right before he ran out of limbs. Breathing a shaky sigh of relief, he dropped to the ground.