Highfield Academy - Revenge of The Crows

Ethpadon had now merged in harmony with Joshua’s mind and the symbiotic relationship between the life forms was almost pure harmony. Only it conveyed to Joshua there was a problem which concerned her.

“My sister Ethpadmin is unsettled and informs me there is a third presence occasionally infiltrating Kelton’s mind, this needs to be addressed as my sister feels it has evil intent and could compromise the melding.”

This revelation caused Joshua considerable concern, and his first reaction was to talk about this with his friend Kelton, only Ethpadon forbid this, and used her powers to prevent such a meeting, but guided Joshua to talk instead with Merlin.

On a cold October morning, Joshua entered Merlin’s study after having requested time to talk with him.

“Thank you, Sir, for granting me this time, Ethpadon my wand needs to communicate with you and has requested permission to mind meld Sir.”

Merlin looked at the student before him.

“That is a most unusual request, it would mean opening myself to allowing the wand privy to all my secrets,” he replied.

Merlin paused and thought, “I am prepared however with Ethpadon’s permission to allow the mind of my wand to merge with her, it would enable communication to take place, and then my wand can pass that to me, would that be acceptable?”

Ethpadon understood, showing the extent of her sentient being, and told Joshua that she accepts Merlin’s kind offer. As the two wands touched, they immediately familiarised themselves with each other’s minds, and Ethpadon was surprised to learn the wand in which she was merging minds with, was of a much older and of an even higher level than that of she and her sister.

In wand terminology, Ethpadon was a High Princes of immense power, yet Merlin’s wand sat among the heavens and was created by a far greater power imaginable. To have been allowed such a bonding of minds was a great honour to Ethpadon, and she came away wiser, and had gained an even greater understanding of her role in life.

The knowledge which had concerned Ethpadon had been passed and as the wands separated, Ethpadon no longer had any knowledge of what had brought this meeting to take place. Merlin had instructed his wand to remove the concerns so the sister wand could gain no detection of what had taken place. Joshua also had been affected similarly, and thought Merlin had summoned him for a progress report.

On returning to his dormitory Joshua came under attack, Mr Claws had set another ambush, and along with five practice Rang’s been hurled towards him, spells were also sent in his direction.

Joshua awoke ten days later in the infirmary and wondering what had happened, he had stupidly relaxed his guard and was caught unprepared. Although his injuries were not life threatening, they had rendered him unconscious and injured. After that, the entire school learnt of the incident and the student’s alert levels increased, should they also become caught up in these incidences.

Miss Winslow was there to meet Joshua,

“So, I see you have learnt that you are not infallible, and that even with the wand you can be harmed, you could have been killed do you realise the stupidity of endangering yourself in such a way?”

As Joshua regained control of his mind he also realised he had not only endangered himself but other students, as had there genuinely been an intruder, then there was no saying who else could have been harmed.

Looking at Miss Winslow he blinked and apologised

“Sorry Miss I can’t seem to remember what happened, I remember talking with Merlin and leaving his office, but after that, it is a blank Miss.”

Miss Winslow smiled, “Yes Merlin explained to me why you had been caught out so easily, none the less allow this to be a lesson, Mr Claws took advantage of the situation, only he also was not aware that you were susceptible at that moment to such an attack, had he have known, then the attack would not have been so severe, yet even then you took down three Rang’s and deflected all but one of the spells, I would say under the circumstances you did well.”

Joshua still had no memory of what had happened, but was pleased to learn he had defended himself, what surprised him even more was to learn that he had also placed Mr Claws in the infirmary for a time.

As one of his spells had placed Mr Claws into a bubble of frozen time, leaving him suspended and vulnerable to attack. It was Miss Tianna who had found Mr Claws and Joshua, as she was there to oversee the test.

Word had quickly spread among the teachers of Mr Claws predicament and some knowing his pride laughed believing he brought it on himself, as not all teachers agreed with Mr Claws method of preparing students for constant readiness for an attack.

However, Merlin and the school governors of Royal Fay had approved the teaching method, and they had dutifully accepted, yet they did not have to like it.

The next day, Joshua could return to his dormitory, only on the way, Mr Claws sprung yet another trap, only this time not as fierce as before. Joshua sensed it coming and blocked every attempt, and even sent three wicked illusion spells at Mr Claws, the first spell was designed to make the attacker believe they were in control, while the remaining two spells hit home.

Mr Claws found himself with a heavy cold which later turned into a Pox of some kind, and later with his body blistering into flowery hives. Merlin recognised the spell as it was one he had used in his youth and he smiled realising that his wand had gifted some of its knowledge, and Mr Claws realised that his actions had brought this about, and that the student master Joshua, was in his right to defend himself how he saw fit, that was, if he never caused any lasting harm.

Merlin later spoke to Mr Claws,

“You brought this on yourself you know, your surprise attack put the boy in hospital for ten days, that was even for me bordering on extreme, so to have attacked the student as he returned to his dormitory and after leaving the infirmary was a bit steep,”

Merlin paused a moment and then continued talking.

“Yes, yes, I understand you are trying to train him to face what is to come, yet you brought this on yourself, as he had every right to defend himself which I would say he did admirably, and I order you to cease such attacks for the next two weeks to give you both time to recover.”

Mr Claws listened in humiliation knowing the Merlin to be correct

“What did he hit me with?” enquired Mr Claws, and the Merlin laughed.

“That is sort of my fault,” he said. “In my youth, I had a particularly nasty fellow magician who constantly like you, attacked me, and was trying to better himself, it was nothing serious just moderately uncomfortable, so one day I got so tired of his actions I devised a spell which, well as you can see for yourself, only I am sorry to say you will grow into a flower garden of a sorts and need to be in here for two weeks.”

Merlin paused looking at the flowers blooming on Mr Claws body.

“They are a beautiful flower, but I am sorry to say your skin will soon start itching as if you have fire ants crawling over you, not a pleasant experience, but needless to say the student who kept attacking me quickly ceased such further actions.”

At that Merlin had left Mr Claws to ponder the wisdom of his past actions and learning of Mr Claws been in the infirmary and what Joshua did, had impressed his fellow students, and many felt Mr Claws had experienced what they called Destiny for his past actions, and for the next two weeks the students were pleased to not have a rather large Red Squirrel or angry tiger creep up on them and shouting.

Even some of the teachers, including Miss Tianna had been impressed by Joshua’s response time and control in defending himself, and kind of thought that his spell was rather ingenious, and that Mr Claws got what he deserved.

Kelton however was just a little envious of the attention Joshua was receiving and that he had not thought up such an ingenious spell, as he had wanted to make Mr Claws pay for the many times he had inflicted pain upon him and the other students, feeling that Mr Claws was just a bit too enthusiastic in his duties.

As explained by the Merlin after the flowers wilted Mr Claws skin burned, and it constantly itched day and night, to such an extent that the nurse had to pad his hands to prevent him from scratching and injuring himself further.

Merlin had known there was a simple cure which he had found to counteract the spell, but he felt Mr Claws had overstepped his training and that his enthusiasm needed rendering down, he also had placed a student in the infirmary with far more serious injuries, so he judged a little humiliation was in order.

When Mr Claws returned to his office it was full of cards and bright flowers gifted from students, who apparently were wishing him well, he could accept the cards as a kind gesture, but the flowers, as beautiful as they were, kind of reminded him of his time in the infirmary, especially the flowering cacti.

Then he laughed and saw the humour in the student’s action and after a time it pleased him that his students trusted him enough to play such a prank. Five days later Miss Tianna and Mr Claws sprang a trapped supervised by Miss Winslow, only this time both teachers had readied their defences, ensuring safety was in place for themselves and the students.

It was Kelton who surprised everyone, somehow, he had sensed or expected such an ambush and had spoken to Joshua, so they were prepared and had acquired two mice to act as avatars impersonating their appearance.

As the trap had been sprung both Mr Claws and Miss Tianna honestly thought they were attacking Joshua and Kelton, especially as the avatars appeared to fight with skill, only as the battle was taking place both Joshua and Kelton observed from where the attack was coming from, and both students positioned themselves behind the unsuspecting teachers.

With a wave of the two wands, a blocking wall appeared in front of them and Miss Winslow called the test to an end.

It was only when Mr Claws and Miss Tianna turned that they realised they could have been killed, it was they who had this time underestimated the enemy and took for granted their surprise ambush would catch the students unprepared.

“How?” asked Miss Tianna, “How did you manage that, were you warned of our ambush in advance?” she asked.

Kelton smiled, “No student or teacher told us,” he replied. “I just realised that you were certain to attack soon, so Joshua and I prepared in advance creating a distraction to give us time to assess the enemy and react.

They had not realised it, but their actions had indicated they were both ready to rise to the next level of training, and that their minds were evolving into constantly been aware of their circumstance and forming a preparedness to defend not only themselves but others also.