Graduation Massacre

March 14th, Imperial Year 879
Cartethene Academy Courtyard, Galeria

"Your highness." Rayne approached Calli, and gave her a small bow. "Are you enjoying the ceremony?"

"I don't see why not." She looked up at the king and his grandson, who gazed upon the mana crystals, which gave off a soft hum. They had been arranged in a straight line in front of the throne, which now sat behind the gold-lined oak table the items sat on, themselves covered in gold and silver ornamentation. "I presume you are too?"

"Of course, your highness." The two turned and gazed over at Alex, who was now talking to an older nobleman in a lively conversation."

"So, what is it?" Calli looked at Rayne with a smirk. "You don't approach me as often these days."

"Have you seen Jason around, your highness? I hope he will not be late to the ceremony."

"Ah, Jason and his ceremonies. I hope he will arrive too. He should be well aware of the time."

"Truly. Only if my dear friend Alex would see things my way." She shrugged, and looked out at Alex, who was engaged in a lively conversation with an elderly nobleman. The two stood next to the priests, who were setting up an elaborate ritual. The Archbishop Piccelli stood in the center, in prayer.

"Alex is a relic of the old world. Best we sideline him, your highness. I'll try to curry favor with the crown prince, that should bypass our attempts at dealing with him."

Calli shook her head.

"I'd like to include Alex in the new government, if possible."

"With all due respect your highness, that would be a clown show. We wouldn't get anything done with the Church and the nobility meddling in our affairs."

"Alex's ideals aren't so different. If I can just get him to sign off on a more radical approach, I see no reason why-" Calli paused, biting her lip. "And what is that sound?" She looked over to the confused looking priests, who now milled about, talking to one another in hushed tones.

Rayne waved a servant over.

"The crystals are behaving strangely. The priests can't explain why." The servant shook his head and looked back at the crystals, to which the priests were beginning to tinker with. 

"Calli!" Alex began walking towards the duo from the distance, waving his arm at her. "The priests do tell me that there may be some kind of mishap with the blessing ceremony. Should we perhaps go over our speech in the meantime?"

Calli graciously bowed to Alex, and nodded.

"Yes, we should. In fact, I wish for you to read over my speech in particular. I hope that it might resonate with you."

"I have no doubt that you have written a wonderful speech. Give it to me, so that I may read over it then."

As Calli handed her paper to Alex however, the crystals began to hum louder and louder, as they began to slowly glow.

"Hey..." Rayne tapped the duo on the shoulders. "What's going on?"

"The crystals, no!" Father Piccelli ran over to the king, who had ceased to read from a manuscript he was looking over, and now looked at the blessing tables, confused. "Your majesty, get down-"

***

Bomb /bom/
Noun
1. A type of spell, only able to be created over stone structures, that detonates upon a sufficient inflow of redirected mana. A type of magecraft that involves mana parasitism [see page 378 for mana parasitism]
2. A non-magical explosive device fused to detonate under certain conditions.

I feel like I'm going to throw up.

I couldn't protect Phoebe. I couldn't save her. I raced around the hallways regardless, trying to at least salvage something from this whole scenario. I may not be a mage, but I am blessed with an amazing sense of mana detection.

The beautiful gothic ornamentation that had given me so much relaxation these past few years now felt as if they were monsters trying to suffocate me.

I kicked down a door from where I could sense some residual mana. The room looked like any other classroom, full of tables, desks, and other teaching implements. 

...it's in the closet. Rear of the classroom.

I opened the door of the closet and walked in, trying to find the sigil.

Top left wall, hidden behind a cloak. Bingo.

I pushed the cloak aside and looked at the sigil, as I soon recognized a major issue. I don't know how to deactivate sigils. I understand that the sigil is meant to parasitically draw mana away from the host source, then pass it back down to it's original source - not as a continual flow, but in a sudden burst. A bomb is made with a network of these parasite sigils.

It's not going to blow up in my face if I deactivate it, right? If I even can.

I took my sword and swung at the sigil, hoping that would do something. The wooden wall buckled and caved. Spurred, I swung again, and again, and again, desperately hammering away at the sign until it disappeared.

That means it's gone, right? How do these things work anyhow? I don't know the specifics!

I burst out of the door, and race forwards for a few steps before stopping. Where do I even go now?

I couldn't save her. I couldn't save Phoebe. The distracting thought of Phoebe's last words still rang through my mind. Her tortured eyes, that hopeless tone...

I ignored it. I wasn't stupid, I knew something was wrong, and I ignored it.

...

I'll strike at the source. No more dilly dallying. No more workarounds.

The full moon now illuminated the hallway through the windows, the click-clack of my boots echoing through the marble hallway. From a distance, the sound of murmuring grew louder and louder.

No, not this way either. Maybe...

No, that's not it either.

I ran into another door, trying to find something, anything. Another classroom, one used for alchemy lessons. I had taken a few classes here myself, actually. A brief scan told me that this room had a sigil drawn directly underneath a chair, the one towards the front of the room next to the atelier. I looked closer. In fact, I could even see a trail of mana directly coming from the atelier to the sigil. I approached the chair, drew my blade, and swung down at it, hard.

Did...that do anything? I can only trace mana signatures. It tells me nothing about whether mana is actually present or not, just that it once was, and may be now. I picked up the chair and looked at the underside. Nothing. That means it's gone...right? How many of these are there anyways?

Am I too late?

Out the door, and down the hall. Maybe...yes. It has to be closer to the ceremony. Right? I sped down the hallway, trying to get closer to the ceremony courtyard itself. Closer, closer, and closer. The murmur of voices grew sharper and more distinct, as the enclosed hallways of glass and marble giving way to open ones. The strongest trail of mana seems to be...here...

In front of my was a giant wooden door leading to a brick cellar that faced the courtyard. There was a dim glow coming from underneath the door. That was visible, plain as day, even without mana detection.

"Jason!" Viola, one of my classmates, came running from the other end of the hallway. "Where were you? The blessing-"

"There's a bomb, I don't have time!" I kicked the heavy oak door, which did nothing more than hurt my foot.

"Jason, what are you-"

"Just help me open this damn door!" I took my sword again, and hacked at the chain padlock, destroying it. I shoved the doors aside, and they came open with a grand slam as the hinges swung around and smacked the door against the walls.

"Jason, what is this?"

The entire wall was taken up by a giant sigil, several times the size of the two other ones I had seen. Before I had any time to react, the dim light of the massive curse turned blindingly bright, increasing in intensity as it suddenly let out a high pitched noise. Then, it was silent, and the curse went dark.

Shit.

***

Despite the throbbing pain in my head, I managed to somehow pull myself out of the rubble. The explosion itself wasn't too bad on my end, with the wall having caught most of it. The brick wall was annihilated however, and the debris hitting me on the head wasn't exactly a pleasant experience.

I coughed, and waved around, the dust obscuring my vision beyond a few feet. 

"Hello?" I tried looking around, but nothing was visible in the dust. I couldn't hear anything either, from the ringing in my ears. "Anyone?" The dust cleared slightly, and I scanned my surroundings.

Blood.

I stepped back, in shock. A couple charred and flayed corpses lay on the ground. The stench of burned flesh and the eerie mass of death almost made me fall to my knees.

This isn't right.

The closest corpse had a half molten crown upon his head, and I could see a burnt ermine cape on his back. The second closest one was dressed in the regalia of an archbishop. The ring he had upon his hand still clung to that dead finger of his.

Father Piccelli.

Suddenly, a blade emerged and stopped just before my throat. The dust completely cleared.

"Kneel, traitor."

Behind the guard captain, there were dozens of soldiers pointing spears and crossbows at me, ready to kill at a moment's notice. Some of my classmates too, bloody and traumatized, stared to where I stood. I tried waving at them, but they all looked away. I shifted my gaze to Rayne, but there was not an ounce of compassion in them.

Rayne, my best friend at the academy for three years.

"What...wait-" I tried protesting, but he proceeded to press the blade into my neck, a small trickle of blood coming down on the spot he pressed it. The man looked at me with a look of pure disgust, blade still at my throat.

"Kneel."