In the previous chapter: Uilliam requested Gordon to retrieve Oriane and bring her to the tower, following careful consideration of his prisoner's request. Oriane was about to head to another meeting with Shireen before Thursday's deadline regarding the Autumnal Festival.
-----
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
"I really can't do this," Marian explained, sounding almost... desperate. "Like, what is this room anyway? An amplifier? Why haven't I heard of this... Oculatory before?"
Carolina rolled her eyes and slid her long skeleton-like fingers over a raised plain block of concrete, and effectively ignoring her string of questions. The second her skin touched the smooth surface, however, it came alive, turning liquid and danced erratically in the air. A few ripples later, splashing against her fingertips, it returned to its original form.
There was a soft rumble in the concrete.
Both the vampiress and Marian stepped back, looking ahead at the plain white wall.
Nothing happened.
"Try again!" prompted Marian. "Nothing's happening."
"Patience, darling. I'll answer your questions later," she tutted.
Certainly, in less than a minute, the white wall began to fade, melting away to reveal a smooth glass door, complete with modernised door handles and frosted tint. Beyond the glass was a room with a massive crystal orb in the centre, surrounded by clay tablets with arcane symbols printed on them slowly spinning around it.
Even Marian, who was definitely much more worldly than anyone in her age group, stood agape at the device.
"Is that the–"
"The Oculatory," Carolina finished for her. Swiftly, she pressed her hand onto the handle and pushed the door wide open, strolling in casually without even batting an eye at it. "Come on, now. Time is of the essence."
While Carolina went around the room, possibly to prepare the unusual device for use or whatever it was she needed to do, Marian gingerly stepped inside. Her attention was entirely pinned on the largest clear quartz she had ever seen.
Stretching at over three metres in diameter, the quartz was completely clear. There were no cracks, no pattern within the orb, and definitely no colour. An unpractised eye would have thought it was man-made glass. Except Marian had been around enough crystals to know that the amazing apparatus in front of her was a clear quartz.
"Hello, beautiful. Where did you come from?" she breathed with amazement.
At closer inspection, the massive orb was actually floating amidst the arcane tablets. Suspended by only the goddess knew what sort of forbidden magicks allowing it to remain in that state for so long.
Perhaps it wasn't magick...
Once the thought crossed her mind, Carolina did something at the other side of the room which caused the tablets and the orb to slowly descend to the ground, as if mechanical.
Marian thought it was awesome. To think she had access to this thing because she wanted to play a prank on Elle! It was unthinkable. Wait until she told Charlotte about this – since her Water elemental friend was the one with the real touch with crystals. Marian was excited to share this discovery as much as she was to actually use it.
When the tablets and the orb settled, she couldn't help but reach out, wanting to feel the quartz under her palm.
"Don't even think about it!" Carolina interrupted. She had phased next to Marian in the blink of an eye and had a firm hand clamping down on her wrist. "Darling, this Ocular is one of the only three in all the realms. Nobody touches it. Okay?"
"Right," Marian ripped her wrist from Carolina's hand and rubbed it with the other. Goddess but the vampiress had a strong grip. "No touching. Got it."
Once satisfied, Carolina let out a breath and motioned for her to follow. "The altar is on the other side. You'll access the Ocular from there," she began explaining. "It's easy. You'll do what you would normally do to look for your friend, Elle. But instead of keeping that energy inside of you, you'll transfer your powers into the Ocular. It'll amplify your aura, giving you the power you need to search further away."
"Okay?" she replied, unsure of exactly what she was required to do. Marian was sure she wasn't qualified enough to do this, but it seemed like Carolina and whoever she was working for had no other choice.
If she had to deal with the crazies like she saw when Oriane got summoned by their occult leader, she supposed she'd be pretty desperate to get things sorted before it got out of hand.
The altar was a raised podium with a small clear quartz held up by two pillars. When she stood directly before it, the smaller quartz was completely aligned with the Ocular. Obviously, she was supposed to channel her affinity into the smaller one, which would automatically direct it to the larger crystal.
The question was: how was she supposed to work her affinity outside of herself? Marian had never even heard of any elemental able to do that before. It sounded so complicated.
Carolina stood behind her, fiddling behind a wall that blocked her view when she looked back. She sounded like she was tapping, except that immortals didn't use human technology. Nothing in their world required tapping.
It sounded so primitive to her ears. After all, when everything could already be done by magicks, why use the foreign?
She waited a few more seconds for the vampiress to finish whatever she was doing. When Carolina finally emerged, she gave Marian a nod. "You can start."
-----
Thursday came and went.
And with it came the time to make a decision on who would be responsible for the Hunt preparations. In the end, Maddox and his friends, along with a few other volunteers, stepped up to complete the task despite the lack of additional help. They tried to enlist as many Were teachers as they could, but only five were available for the task set for Friday.
The rest of the Student Council may only pray and hope that in the act of completing this task, no one would get injured. The surrounding forests, according to the rumours were dangerous indeed. With only a less than a dozen who would be out there that Friday, it made the task of making sure everyone was safe more difficult than ever.
Strange that despite most Weres had registered to participate in the Hunt itself, not very many were willing to assist in preparing for it. The lesser people were up for the job, the lesser volunteers there were.
On Friday morning, a dozen Were students and about five additional supervisors set outside the borders of campus grounds and headed for the tall trees, following the mapped route.
Each of the cones that would be placed within the forest represented the boundaries of the event. Outside the boundaries were where the real danger lay yet no one was willing to talk about that.
Oriane found that plenty of things were taboo in conversations over the last few weeks she had been here. One of them being subjects outside of the comforts of campus life.
If she had not confided in Marian and Charlotte, no one would be willing to do anything about the crazy cultists underground until it was far too late. Even Uilliam, she increasingly found as the days went by without a peep from him, was unwilling to commit himself practically. She had a week left... At the thought, Oriane shivered but refused to think too much on it. Occupying herself had kept the horrors of her situation at bay, for the most part.
There she was. Standing in the middle of the gardens, quite late in the Friday evening, after class, and picking up all the trash on the grass that accumulated during preparations. She held in one hand a cotton bag and in another a clamp for picking up the loose bits of tape, ribbons, and various other materials she had thought the immortals were too above using.
While she did her task, she wondered why the Student Council hadn't merely sent a witch to do it for them. Surely, there was a spell of some sort to get all the trash out of the way with a wave of their hands?
Unfortunately, according to Shireen, who was standing only five feet away from her and in the middle of the same job as she, the witches hired by the college were not technically a part of the full-time staff and they cannot be called on to do clean-ups any time they wanted. They were there at the beginning of each school year and at the final month. The rest of the time, they were back with their covens. On the other hand, the elementals who were developed from witches, such as Marian, were too proud to be doing this job. Therefore, manual clean-ups were the way to go.
It didn't help that elementals were not capable of differentiating the industrial-level materials such as plastic in their affinities. To any of them, if they were to attempt to deconstruct the elements with plastics or radioactive materials such as plutonium, it would feel unnatural and they would cease to contemplate to try again.
No wonder that, in addition to a privacy issue, they were unwilling to adopt most human technologies as their own.
The sun was setting readily. Despite the fact that Mystic High was set in another dimension, strangely enough, daylight still shifted when the seasons changed. In the advent of October, the sun began its descent by at least an hour early. The rays turned from a dark orange against a beautiful shade of blue until the sky was darker. Only the faintest remains of yellow glow lit up from the distance, blocked by the tall imposing height of the trees in the forest.
Oddly, the Weres were still not back from their task. In the forest, despite aided by their night vision, it would be getting too late for comfort. Despite this, there was not a shadow or a peep from them.
Even Shireen began to worry. She had been trying to avoid her for the most part since the incident with the stranger in her room. However, as the dark grew, Shireen stepped closer to her. At Oriane's side, her usually bubbly friend dropped her trash bag on the grass and let her gaze slide over the faded daylight, in the direction of the entrance to the forest.
"They should be back by now," remarked Shireen with a small crinkle between her brows.
Jim, Nix, and Trix, who were huddled together inspecting each and every tent – because the colour schemes all had to be perfect – caught on that something was wrong. They headed over to Shireen with concerned expressions.
"What happened?" asked Nix, with the bright pink bob and an even brighter pink skirt and a white tee.
"It's getting really late," Shireen replied, swerving to looked at them with a smile as if an idea had just popped up. "I'm going to go and find a Weres teacher. Maybe we can get help."
"By yourself?" noted Jim with concern.
All the Weres and shifters were housed in quarters at the back of the Botanical Gardens, an extension of the Botany block. Though, no one would be silly enough to stroll into their territories without worrying for their safety – even if they're only after the teacher responsible for the security of students within the campus grounds. Most definitely not to cause trouble.
"We'll come with you!" offered Nix and Trix in unison. "It's like an adventure!"
"I don't think that's a good idea..." Jim mumbled.
"No no!" chuckled Shireen nervously in response. "I'll be okay. You guys stay here and get things done. The festival is tomorrow. This is more important. You know I'll be fine!"
Jim shook his head and stared straight into Shireen's eyes. "Let me come with you," he pleaded.
Oriane had a feeling perhaps Jim felt something more than friendship towards Shireen than he usually let on. If the rumours were correct, then it was imperative that Shireen didn't go alone. Besides, she had seen Jim working his Clay affinity. He had much more raw strength than any of them. And hence, she added, "You really shouldn't go alone. It's not safe."
With a slight more push and shove, eventually Shireen caved and Jim went with her back inside the building. Rather than using the massive doors, that had begun to close in the evening, they entered through a more commonly used side entrance. A small usage of elemental powers activated the white, painted bricks that kept it concealed, revealing the slightly dimmed hallways within. In moments, they were gone, leaving Nix, Trix, and Oriane still outside finishing trash collection.
Nix and Trix leapt off together to complete ensuring the rest of the decorations were complete, and so Oriane was essentially quite alone in the dead of the night. The only sound being her rustle of the trash bag and the crunch of materials under her clamp. So quiet was the gardens where she stood that when the wind blew against the trees slightly, she heard it loudly like there was a crash in the distance.
It was almost odd, the way the leaves hurtled themselves against one another violently from one end to the other in a full circle about the gardens. A concoction of strife rustled around her. The restlessness of the winds disturbed the forest.
The disquiet made Oriane aware of the forebode in the air. She clutched the clamp to her chest, wishing it could shield her from harm as her eyes darted around fretfully. A string of sticky tape was stuck at the tip of it, fluttering it in the wind that assailed her surrounding unnaturally. Where had Nix and Trix pranced off to? she wondered, bracing herself.
Before it started, the wind stopped. When Oriane blinked and looked around, all was as it should had been, except bits of trash on the grassy grounds had been moved in the disturbance.
That was when she noticed a hooded figure in the distance.
She couldn't see clearly because it was dark now. At first, she had thought it was an apparition projected from her mind.
The only light came from the dim festival lights hanging from the poles. Even these struggled to shine its glow upon the darkness of the evening. No one should be out in the gardens but this was certainly unplanned.
Neither Nix nor Trix was in sight. Weren't they just beyond the next tent, surveying the decorations?
Oriane dropped the trash bag but hugged the clamp, the only solid make-shift weapon she possessed and stepped backwards so she could see around the tents. No one. It was like the two girls had vanished.
As her breath came heavier, she began to panic. The eerie silence pushed at her heart rate, and it felt like she was choking.
And the hooded figure walked towards her in slow but sure strides. However, he was vaguely familiar, particularly the black hood, as he emerged from beyond the trees.
Oriane stepped back again, preparing to launch herself at the gates of the school. At that instant, she remembered she needed to perform an elemental power to access the entrance. She had no power.
The momentary reminder of the deterrent made her miss a step.
Her leaden legs tangled and she stumbled onto the dry brittle grass. Squeezing her eyes shut, she prepared for the worst.
-----