After this new buzz about Volken, the Council had been busy once more managing the aftermath.
So much so that it took them two weeks to notice the disappearance of one of their professors.
They thought that Professor Vyrill Krustal must have broken a small personal break, as he did tell his brother that he shall be traveling somewhere, with a bag on hand.
Jasny Krustal taught that it must have been a hiking trip to the mountains or something, as his equipment seemed to be for that.
But Vyrill Krustal had not returned yet from some mountain for 14 days already, and he had grown anxious, asking an oracle.
The first told him that he could not be found.
The second said the same thing. And the third, and the fourth…..
All of them said that Vyrill Krustal could not be found. He had vanished.
But how can one vanish from thin air in Magecia? In this world where people were blessed with magical powers that can divine their location, why couldn’t these renowned oracles find him?
There were only two options.
Vyrill Krustal was dead, or he was currently unconscious, lost somewhere with his mind unable to be contacted by these oracles..
Or….
He had went to realms beyond Celestus.
And so, Jasny Krustal went to the Elementi and Mecha realm. But he also had a search party look for his brother around different mountains in case….
In case he really lost consciousness, or lost his life.
“Vyrill….. Please come back.” He would clutch his forehead at night, unable to sleep at all, and gaze at the portrait of his brother.
“I should have paid more attention to you, to what you are suffering….. But you wouldn’t let me in. You wouldn’t trust me with all your troubles.”
And little did Jasny Krustal know that there was a reason for that.
For months, he expended all he could for the search. He asked oracles in the Elementi and Mecha realm.
They all had the same answer. His mind could not be contacted.
But a more helpful priest from the Temple of an unknown minor god also told him….
That his soul could not be contacted on the Other side.
This meant that he was not dead, and gave Jasny some relief. This also motivated him to keep searching, and he would not stop until he found his brother again.
Eventually, it was already the end of the school year, and Vyrill Krustal could not be found. A new Life Science teacher had to be hired in his place even months before that…..
And everyone in the Academy had already adjusted to his disappearance. Not many missed Vyrill Krustal.
He had always been a strange man to many, and cold to his students. People treated him like he was already dead and moved on except for his brother….
And two other people.
Ronin was at Professor Espinella’s office once more, wearing the cloak.
In a few months’ time, after vacation, he would not have to worry about going here as he would become and Upper Year student, and go here as he pleased.
“What do you think happened to him, Professor?” Ronin asked.
“I-I have not the slightest idea. It could be anything, with h-how frazzled Vyrill had become these days.”
Ronin agreed. “Something tells me that he had deliberately got lost. He went somewhere that could not be sensed even by the best diviners and oracles in Magecia.”
“That could be…..” Professor Espinella rubbed his chin. “But why?”
“Only he would know.” Ronin went out to the door. “And Professor.”
“Yes?” Professor Espinella turned to him.
“If he contacts you and tells you his whereabouts…. You would tell me, wouldn’t you? I am his and your assistant after all.”
“Not to mention only you hold the truth to what I have done to him. What I have done to his Flame.”
Espinella knew that he was being blackmailed, and Ronin was basically saying that he was an accomplice for hiding the truth with him.
Professor Espinella nodded and replied in a calm manner. “Of course.”
Ronin left the room wearing a dry smile.
‘Professor, you are not a terrible liar, and that is the problem. You sound much more assured when you lie rather when you stutter while telling the truth.’
He already gained the information he needed, and so he left whilst whistling a tune.
It was a tune that sometimes get stuck in his head, like an earworm.
“Twinkle, twinkle, little star….”
Meanwhile, Professor Espinella only calmed down once he heard the whistling go farther away and never to be heard again, along with Ronin descending the stairs.
He went over to his closed window and…..
Tap, tap!
He knocked on it. Soon enough, a Griffon appeared, with a letter on its beak.
The Griffon was a giant bird-feline hybrid, could be half-lion, half-tiger, etc. It was commonly used for travels from the Celestus realm to the lower realms of Elementi and Mecha.
But this bird was used to deliver a message, and it had come from much, much lower than those latter two realms.
Espinella opened its window and took the letter from its beak. He patted the Griffon’s head.
“Send your master my regards, may both if you be well in the Abyssal Realm.”
“CAW!” The bird responded, and few away, its jaguar tail swishing as it went.
He opened the letter with his sharp opener, and read the contents with a frown.
Vague words again. Always ending with the same thing.
[I have found it. The lost piece to the Truth. The lost piece to a Lie. I want you to come and see with me if you are ready.]
[Make sure the boy knows nothing of this. –V]
Espinella folded the paper and sighed.
“The future is so uncertain, but my heart keeps yearning for one thing. And I need to chose which path will take me faster there, Vyrill.”
“Yours….. Or Ronin’s? Which path will lead me to what I yearn for, that single thing that my daughters and I had always wanted—-“
“The path of Change.”
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