Ravenfire

“The whole school is covered in mist,” Emma said in a troubled tone when she looked out the window from our dormitory room.

Everything below us was engulfed in a thick, white blanket of mist. Thankfully, it was much lighter up here on the third floor that we could still manage to navigate our surroundings.

I peeked out the door observing worried students in the hallway discussing the weather phenomenon and relating it to the two mysterious deaths. It looked like the rumours about me being the culprit already died down and instead got replaced by theories of ancient curses. Soon, one of the senior students called everyone to leave the hallway.

I turned to look at Emma who was still staring out the window. “It looks like they’re asking everyone to gather at the girls’ dormitory common room. We should probably go too.”

Emma and I followed the other female students to the common room where Prof. Philomela was addressing everyone’s concerns. The petite professor announced, “Classes are cancelled today because of the mist. Stay in your rooms and don’t go outside the dormitory. Best spend the day studying and catching up on your assignments. Meals will be brought to the common room by the staff.”

“Ms. Philomela, should we be worried about the mist?” asked one of the first years.

“Don’t worry. This mist is not uncommon. It happens here once in a while,” the professor assured her.

Everyone eventually returned to their rooms including me and Emma. I was about to lazily spend the day in bed when a familiar slithering creature slipped past the door and climbed my mattress. It was then when I immediately knew my plans for the day were ruined.

Salamander’s snake stared at me with its metallic eyes, expecting me to just take the obvious roll of paper tied around its neck with a green ribbon.

“Your master is either foolish or overconfident to send his own Focus off as a messenger. You know I can kidnap you and throw you in a cage, right?” I said.

The snake hissed apprehensively in reply.

“Remina, who are you talking to?” Emma turned her head. She was surprised to see me communicating with an unexpected scaly visitor. “Is that Aidan’s snake? Why is it here? Did they have another argument?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” I replied.

I sat down on the bed and faced the snake. “How would you like to be my pet instead? I promise not to make you run errands,” I offered sweetly.

It slithered onto my lap and curled up comfortably. I carefully untied the rolled up paper and checked the message.

Remina Ravenfire,

You better not attempt to lure my snake to your side.

I smirked. Of course, Salamander knew me too well. I continued reading the note.

Anyway, as much as this mist is a catastrophe for our educational activities, it’s our chance to investigate places that are otherwise hard to access. I’ll wait for you at the headmaster’s statue at 7 sharp. If I do not see you there, I’ll begin the investigation alone.

I stood up and put on my jacket and scarf. Salamander’s snake decided to ride on my shoulder like a freeloader.

“Remina, you can’t be seriously thinking of going out in this thick mist. It’s already half visibility here. If you go outside, you won’t see a thing.” Emma tried to stop me from leaving.

“Sorry, Emma. I have to go.”

This is terrible. I can’t see a thing.

I underestimated the severity of the mist on the ground floor. The visibility was near zero. I couldn’t even see my own hands and legs. I was starting to think that maybe this was a bad idea.

The snake was kind enough to hiss at me every time I came close to a wall or went the wrong way. After much trouble, I finally made it to the first headmaster’s statue.

I reached my hand out and touched something that felt like… soft and smooth hair? It was admittedly pleasant to touch. I continued doing so.

“Are you done?” I heard an irritated voice in front of me.

I screamed.

Salamander covered my mouth. “Keep it down! We don’t want anyone finding us here.”

I nodded. I could only faintly see his face in this thick mist.

“Let’s go.” He started walking away. When he noticed that I wasn’t following, he stopped. “What’s wrong?”

“Are you actually able to see through this mist?” I asked in disbelief.

“Oh right. I forget that non-Winter students are practically blind in this mist. I can see a little, enough to navigate at least.” He held out a hand. “Do your best not to trip.”

I glanced at where it looked like his hand was. I reached out slowly to touch it. He grabbed my hand and lightly pulled me forward.

“The basement shouldn’t be as misty as this. At least, I hope it isn’t,” he said as we walked.

We encountered no trouble on our way to the door leading to the academy store room. It was locked as expected.

“Would you be able to pick this lock?” Salamander asked.

I felt the lock with my fingers to determine its location. “I think I can manage.”

He waited patiently until I unlocked the door and opened it. Inside, the mist wasn’t as thick so I was able to navigate without his help. We descended the stairs that led to another locked door, which I also picked open.

Behind it was a large storeroom filled with crates, boxes, and glass display cases. It was an impressive collection that probably took years to gather. It was also surprisingly not dusty inside. Someone probably came here to clean once in a while.

“This is amazing. They just keep all these items locked in here? It’s enough to fill a whole museum!” I looked around in awe.

“Where could those cipher devices be?” Salamander muttered to himself as he carefully scanned the artefacts on display.

“There are too many items. We could be stuck here for half a day at least.” I examined the display of various crystals and strange stones. They were pleasing to the eye with their glittering surfaces and beautiful colours.

“This mist won’t be clearing anytime soon. We have time.”

We spent some minutes searching the displays for the cipher devices. It was enough time to learn that much of the academy’s collection consisted of magical inventions by the first batch of professors, but not enough time to locate what we were there for.

I suddenly heard a growl as I rummaged through a box of old periodicals.

I looked at my fellow trespasser, immediately assuming him to be the culprit of the gastrointestinal crime. “Salamander, that wasn’t your stomach, was it?”

He looked back at me, slightly annoyed that he had been accused of such a thing. “Unfortunately not.”

We turned our heads cautiously to discover the true origin of the sound and saw a large wolf growling at us. Our eyes widened in surprise. A wolf? In the storeroom? Before we could even stop to think properly, it gave chase and we ran for our lives.

“Why is there a wolf in the basement?” I shouted as we pushed our legs to their limits. I began to wonder if I was fated to be chased by some monster every time I agreed to check out some dubious place with Salamander.

“How the hell would I know?” Salamander shouted back. “Don’t look back! Keep running!”

We made it to the exit but the door was stuck. I cursed as I tried my best to force it open while begging the door to let us through.

“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you opening it?” He impatiently rushed me.

“It won’t open!”

“Let me try!” He pushed me aside and gave it a try. It still wouldn’t open. He cursed.

The wolf slowly approached us, cornering us like prey. We got ourselves ready to fight it. It then turned into an unfamiliar man with unruly brown hair wearing a trench coat. Neither of us saw him before in the academy.

“Well, well, well… What do we have here?” said the man like a true criminal mastermind in those old crime novels.

I kicked the door as hard as I could as a last resort and that seemed to do the trick. It opened for us and we quickly ran outside, escaping just by a hair’s breadth. We continued running until we were deep inside the fog. Finally, we managed to catch our breaths.

“Who was that?” I wondered out loud.

Salamander shook his head. “I don’t know. Let’s hurry back to the dormitory before he catches up. He’ll find us if we linger out here for too long.”

As we rushed back to the dormitory, he abruptly stopped walking, making me bump into him.

“Wait. I see something up ahead,” he suddenly said.

“What is it?”

“Something on the ground. I have a bad feeling about this.” He cautiously approached the spot where he claimed to have seen something. “It’s someone lying on the floor.” He bent down and checked for a pulse. There was none. “A dead student. I should have expected this to happen today. A fog is the perfect cover. Now we really need to get out of here before we become suspects or the next victims.”

We turned the body over to see who it was. It was difficult to see, but it was enough for me to recognize the facial features. My eyes widened in surprise.

“Do you know him?” Salamander was quick to notice my reaction.

“It’s Cy,” I replied.

Three dead students. Two of them died the same way while the other was buried with an intention to cover up the crime. It’s strange that besides Rose, the other two were just left out in the open to be discovered. Could this be the work of two separate people?

I sat on my bed that night and pushed my brain to think of similarities between the victims, only to be interrupted by my roommate Emma.

“You went to meet Aidan again?” Her voice sounded a little sad.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“How do you do it, Remina? I can never get along with Aidan like you do. We’ve never gotten past the polite acquaintance stage.”

“Emma, are you blind? He and I exchange death glares every day. What makes you think we’re even good friends?”

“You spend a lot of time together. I often see you talk to him during breaks.”

“It’s a temporary business arrangement, which we both intend to terminate when we’ve achieved our goals.”

“You’re even doing business together!”

“That’s not the point.”

She sighed. “I’ve never liked anyone before. I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m sure he will like you, Emma. Just keep being you. All you need to do is to spend more time together. You’re my complete opposite, so it’s perfect because Salamander hates my guts.”

She nodded with renewed motivation. “You’re right. I’ll try talking to him more then.”

“Yeah. Tell him more about yourself. Find things you like to do together,” I encouraged her.

Look at me. The single person who’s giving love advice like an expert.

“Thanks, Remina. I’ll give it a try.” She smiled. “I’ll use the bathroom first if you don’t mind.”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

After Emma disappeared behind the bathroom door and locked it, I noticed that her closet door was not fully closed, so I walked over to Emma’s side of the room and pushed it. Then, something fell out of it: A metal ankh, just like the one in my pocket.

I couldn’t believe it, so I opened the closet door. A cloak fell on the floor. It looked just like the ones I saw being worn by the people who were moving around suspiciously that night I overslept at the library. I quickly returned both the cloak and the metal ankh.

I moved to my bed and sat down in shock, unable to believe that I might have uncovered evidence to implicate Emma.

My own roommate. The girl thought to be the embodiment of good and perfection.

Emma soon left the bathroom and smiled at me. She didn’t notice the change in my behaviour. “Your turn, Remina.”

I went to the bathroom and spent a while soaking in the bath with my mind completely blank. By the time I was done, Emma was already fast asleep in her bed. I took a deep breath. I knew what had to be done.

She’s going to hate me for this, but I have to know.

I stepped closer to where Emma was sleeping, reaching my hand out to lightly touch her arm. I hoped she wouldn’t notice.

After casting the spell we learned at Prof. Alice’s class, I saw a vague memory of her brewing a poison made of Oleander. Next, I saw what looked like her mother telling her, “Be a good girl at the academy and no one will ever suspect you.” Lastly, I saw her burying Rose’s body with a shovel.

Shocked at these new revelations, I stood paralyzed for some time. My own friend and roommate Emma Sweetblossom was indeed directly involved in the crime.

“Remina? What are you doing?” Emma suddenly woke up. She noticed me poking into her head and gave me a distressed look like I betrayed her. “Were you looking through my memories?”

“Emma… I…” I was too shocked to say anything.

She was deeply hurt, like she was about to cry. “Why would you do this without asking me? I trusted you. I thought we were friends.”

“Emma, did you kill Rose?” I had to know.

“I didn’t kill her,” she insisted.

“Are you sure?”

“Don’t talk to me anymore.” She went back to bed and faced the wall, refusing to speak another word.