Adastreia Blackwood carried herself with elegance and her head held high. Rarely if ever did she let any actions or circumstances retract from her image of superiority. At the academy she was a representative for the Blackwood family name and she would not allow it to be sullied, and that's exactly what had landed her in the position she was in now.
The girl made her way onto the campus from the train station that carried the majority of students from the next town over. Adastreia strode past the open gates that marked the beginning of the school grounds. Like usual she was accompanied by an entourage of rats and parasites who called themselves friends, students of higher status that hung around her for repute and other selfish reasons. Despite her awareness Adastreia remained in their company, it would be unbecoming of a Blackwood to cut ties with other potentially beneficial parties simply because she 'Didn't like them'. If she was going to be the next head of the family she would have to learn to deal with such individuals, both in the school and the political sphere.
Adastreia strolled past the school's crystal lake and recounted yesterday's events as she walked, tuning out the mindless buzz and white noise spouting from the current rotation of fools that surrounded her.
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The young Blackwood stood under a park patio surrounded by three other girls, the group chattered on about meaningless drivel, more white noise that Adastreia would internally tune out as she mimicked enthusiasm and any other emotion required to keep them droning on. "Gotta keep up appearances" she thought to herself as she went through the motions she had learned so well. At times she had wondered if she was one of those demons she read stories about as a child, the kind that mimicked human speech and emotion to trick and lure their prey to them. Alas she was but a mere mortal, cream of the crop naturally, but still human.
Despite all of the facades and faces she put on she still made sure to pay attention for any key words spoken that would allow her to tune back in to reality, she couldn't be caught not paying attention now. This was how she found out that one of the girl's birthdays was soon to arrive, Adastreia made a mental note to get something for her. Not out of genuine care but rather out of necessity. Like everything else.
"She's lucky, I could probably scrounge up the best gift she's ever seen from the change in my pocket. I guess I'll have to grab something when I go to the capital this weekend." She thought to herself while smiling in a silent judgment.
Adastreia tuned back out after giving the girl a "Happy Early Birthday!" which earned her an unwanted hug. She could almost feel the strength sap out of her and disgust pour in.
The group continued to prattle on through most of the lunch break. Adastreia's focus had long since dissipated leading to her going back on autopilot. Only when her name was said with a tone she didn't recognize did she return focus, beside them stood a tan boy with a white shirt and black hair who was looked upon by the girls with less than pleased expressions.
"Yes?" Adastreia responded with a confused tone. She knew who this boy was, Magnus Carlisle, he was notorious in the school for being absurdly annoying and engaging in all sorts of pranks and getting himself into trouble. Never enough to warrant serious attention, but nonetheless bothersome for both teachers and students alike.
Magnus cleared his throat.
"I've come to see if you would like to see a magic trick?" he responded as he emphasized by shuffling a small deck of cards.
"No" All the girls said simultaneously, including Adastreia who's voice was at the forefront.
"Now now give me a chance, I promise It will be worth the watch. Should you dislike the trick I promise I will never bother any of you again." He continued, clearly trying to reel them in. It was working.
But before they could adjourn to discuss the proposition Magnus flung the cards above his head in an arc and followed up by catching them and spreading them out along his forearm before collecting them all with one massive sweeping motion and holding them fanned out towards the girls.
"Pick a card, any card"
The girls shifted, clearly not enticed by the offer. Adastreia relented and decided that the quicker someone chose a card and played the boy's game the sooner they would be left alone. So against her better judgment she paced forward about five steps and chose a card at random and looked it over.
A black queen of spades.
Adastreia promptly returned the card to its fanned out comrades, she made sure to place it in a different slot rather than the one she pulled it from. The boy swiftly returned the cards to their stacked form and shuffled briskly, occasionally performing a trick to keep the attention of his apprehensive audience.
"So Ada, are you ready to have your mind blown?" He inquired.
"Don't call me 'Ada'." Adastreia shut that down before it started. No one called her Ada but her mother.
"Tough crowd." he mumbled.
Adastreia didn't entertain his comment with a response. After a few more seconds of shuffling from Magnus she was presented with the fan of cards in front of her yet again. In a flash Magnus drove them all between one another until only one card remained on top in which he flipped over and held in front of his chest proudly.
"Was this your card?"
Adastreia took a second to look at the card extended to her. On the card a drawing of a rat with a crown. A rat? That couldn't be right, what kind of deck was this?
She gave a look of confusion towards the trickster, but before she could inquire about the odd card she was given she noticed the look of horror plastered on one the faces of the girls she had been previously conversing with. It was then that she felt the pitter patter of four tiny feet on her head. As the realization of the situation struck her and and other girls noticed a collective scream of terror was released paired with the hysterical laughing from Magnus. Adastreia frantically brushed and slapped at the rat that was perched upon her head as her cries echoed across the lake Magnus held his hand out to the rat who decisively jumped into his hand for fear of its life.
The rat had the right idea, however the only person who's life was truly in danger was Magnus's own. Least that's what Adastreia thought. As soon as she noticed her head was cleared she pivoted to face Magnus, her eyes were a fiery blaze of hatred and wrath. The girl with scarlet hair shot a finger outward at her assailant. It seemed with a simple gesture but a few of the girls around them began to scatter, aware of what was coming.
The color of the air around Adastreia and Magnus seemed to shift into a deep red, in her rage her finger sliced through the air etching symbols into reality itself as if the space around her was a canvas to be painted upon. Before any could be given the chance to protest they were all met with red sparks that ignited and erupted into a crimson flash that engulfed the patio, pier, and half of the crystal lake.
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Adastreia finished recounting the previous days events, she preferred not to dwell on the fact that a rat was in her hair, thinking about it only made her wheezy and angry. Magnus had assured her afterwards that his pet rat was not deadly in any way and that he gave it baths. This did nothing to reassure her mind.
Once she had made it inside the school the rest of the day was a blur, she went through her classes as normal. Neither of the two students she had been paired with for detention; Piper and Magnus, shared her classes. She had waited until the study period they all shared arrived to the other two students in the library, there they could discuss their strategy for how they intended to acquire a treasure known as a Divine Artifact.
"I could always ask my mom to borrow one." She thought to herself as she strode past the massive doors of the school library, as she entered through the doorway she was greeted by the wave of old book smell the library was well known for.
While it seemed a good idea in theory; in reality it would all be for naught if Mr.Klaus aimed to keep the artifact that the students found. She dreaded the thought of permanently loosing a family relic. Adastreia's hand clenched slightly in annoyance as she continued to brainstorm an easy solution to rid herself and her 'accomplices' of their sentences. She quickly returned to her pompous demeanor as she approached the table where Magnus and Piper were sitting. The two had taken notice of her as she arrived and met her with very different greetings, Magnus met her with a mocking smirk to which Adastreia ended abruptly with a raise of her hand causing the troublemaker to instinctively jolt much to her delight. Piper on the other hand gave a groggy peace sign that caught Adastreia off guard, she had never been greeted with such a gesture before. She racked her brain to come up with a response, she wasn't used to the jargon used by the lower class, this lead to her giving a confused look and attempting to replicate the hand sign in response.
They really did live in different worlds. Adastreia almost wished she had Piper's attitude and nonchalant style, the thought, though passing, would remain in her head as a unique concept. The thought of herself with sunglasses and such casual wear almost awarded a laugh, but she had enough composure to keep such things to herself.
"So, does anyone have any spare artifacts laying around? Cough Adastreia cough" Magnus was the first to open conservation, starting with a flat question clearly aimed at Adastreia. A question that earned him a stare that pierced his soul.
"I don't know, and even if I did they would not be mine to hand out. That would be at my mother's discretion." Adastreia returned, clearly miffed by the notion.
"Well then lets go ask your mom, and if you can't convince her." Magnus retorted while emphasizing his point by smoothing back his hair. "Then I can." His ridiculous antics actually earned a snort from Piper, much to his clear satisfaction.
Adastreia scoffed at the idea that someone like him could ever find themselves in the position to look upon her mother, let alone converse with her. This idea had garnered a smirk from her, though not because of her classmate's charm or wit, but simply because his ignorance and self confidence led him to such nonsensical conclusions. To her Magnus was the type of jester you loved to see fall flat on his ass. "First off I have no idea where my mother could be, she's a very busy woman and could be halfway across the country. But on the off chance that you meet her within the time it takes us to find an artifact, I'll gladly watch you embarrass yourself in front of the current head of the Blackwood family."
Eventually the bickering concluded and the group decided they should first search the school's library for anything of importance. Piper had actually been the one to suggest the idea, this had taken Adastreia by surprise, she hadn't taken Piper for the type of girl to take infinitive like this. Though it was just as likely that she suggested the idea to go listen to music in the far corner of the library so she wouldn't have to hear Magnus and her strangle each other for the next 15 minutes.
Adastreia took to searching the left wing of the Library, this section typically held the history books and the like. Magnus took to the middle section a few rows down and Piper made herself scarce at the farthest end of the right wing, the only thing down there was the biology isle and books about divine beasts, though if what she had learned in her classes was correct and divine beasts could have some connections to artifacts then Piper may not have have been roaming endlessly like she may have initially thought.
The book cases were at least twice as tall as Adastreia, maybe more. Thankfully there were ladders for the harder to reach novels. She hadn't known where to start originally, she had effectively been floating down the isles looking for anything that stuck out until she decided to systemically sort through the timestamps given to the books on the shelves. Starting with what she thought to be the most relevant.
Minutes passed, which turned into ten, twenty, and then thirty. Adastreia found herself sitting on the floor resting on a shelf as she skimmed through the contents of a book that retailed a battle fought many many years ago by Xianren temple monks, a good read, but not what she was looking for. The girl closed the book after her skimming was finished and slowly rose to her feet and returned the book to it's proper place on the bookcase about two levels above her head.
"You'd think a school that teaches about the intricacies of magic would have more books on magic items. Maybe I should see how the other's are fairing."
Adastreia began to make her way towards the far right isle, she was going to skip Magnus and meet Piper first. She had no intention of hanging around the boy as long as she didn't have to.
In the corner of her eye she spotted an unusually dusty and unkempt book, It sat by itself in the top corner of the wall in a shelf virtually unattended to. She pondered to herself, was it worth grabbing the ladder to reach it, or would she waste her time looking at another useless novel. She came to the conclusion that they all still had time to search and that she could always check on the others in a few minutes rather than this instant. So with a sigh and some moving of ladders she eventually climbed up the wooden contraption and was met face to face with the object that had caught her gaze. It was a dark crimson red book, perhaps that's why it caught her attention, it had fading golden words woven into the front cover that read 'The Expedition'. She descended the latter and slowly opened the book as to let it's contents become known to her, she glazed over the table of contents and found a chapter that sounded like it might offer something of value. 'The Retrieval Of Precious Artifacts''.
Adastreia whirled through the chapter and got a synopses of the events. Thousands of years ago a voyage was conducted and led by a man known as the 'Divine Beast Hunter' also known as Caspian. Supposedly there was a hunt conducted in The Outlands, an unexplored continent known to house the most dangerous of divine beasts and other horrors. The chapter Adastreia found herself on explained that a multitude of treasures were retrieved and that… but that's where it was cut off. Confused she flipped through the pages but they were either torn out or unfinished, she was furious, she was right on the cusp of crucial information, but it was yanked from her. She quickly gathered herself and briskly made her way towards the others as she quietly called out to alert them she had found something as she passed their isles as well as making sure to not disturb any other students that may have been studying.
The two other students made their way over to Adastreia in a hurry, Piper less so than Magnus. But both of their eyes lit up when they saw Adastreia holding a book in hand, the notion that the group may have found something was enough to raise smiled and spirits.
"Did you find where we can get an artifact?" Magnus started with a gleam in his eye.
"Unfortunately not." Adastreia responded, which brought the mood down momentarily before she continued. "But I did find something that might give us some clues." She held up the book so that they could get a better look at it, Piper and Magnus looked it over.
"The title sounds promising, but what's in it?" Piper chimed as she lowered her glasses from her face to get a better look. Magnus was squinting at the book, like he was searching for something.
"Well." Adastreia continued. "The book says that there was a voyage long ago, one that set sail to The Outlands. Supposedly led by a man named Caspian, The Divine Beast Hunter. His trek brought back a hoard of treasures, including. Take a guess."
Piper's eyes sparkled. "Artifacts?!" her glasses almost fell off her face as she spoke and her eyes shot up to meet Adastreia's.
Adastreia beamed. "Precisely. So far this book has given us the best lead." Her smile lessened as she proceeded. "But as I said earlier it doesn't tell us where any are located. The pages look like they've vanished or were removed. So it seems that this is as far as our lead takes us." .
It was then that Adastreia noticed that Magnus had been abnormally silent, she turned her attention back to the boy whose gaze was still latched onto the books front cover.
"Uh..Rat boy. Are you here?" Piper waved a hand next to his face to try and draw his attention. Only when Adastreia moved the book side to side did Magnus seem to fall back to reality, instantly his devilish grin returned. She began to wish she continued to hold the book still as to hopefully keep him in his trance, she had enjoyed the quiet.
"Yes, I am here." Magnus whirled and spun back three paces to me both of the girl's gazes before he carried on. "And You better be grateful I am, otherwise you would have had to kiss your chance at freedom goodbye.".
Adastreia looked at Magnus with confusion. "Now why's that?"
Magnus looked like he was about to unleash an evil villain laugh, and then it struck her.
"You've got to be kidding me.." she said in disbelief. Was she about to get shown up by this clown?
With a snap of his fingers and a look that spoke a thousand words he 'showed her up'. "Sorry to disappoint Ada, but I know where the find the missing pages of that book."