[Flashback -]

"Are you two alright?" Emily asked worriedly as she stared at her best friends who seemed to be in immense pain at the moment.

Both Shane and Rylan were being punished for the chaos that they created in the dining hall during the lunch break, making the mistake of using their powers in front of the mortals.

She was not hundred percent sure about what exactly happened that made the two of them lose their calm and do something as stupid as to fight with the fellow students and break the rules of the Academy, but she knew her friends better than anyone and she had a strong feeling that the reason behind their actions was definitely something serious and big.

"Well, you guys should be happy to know that the group of those seniors is being punished by Mrs. Whitney. They are probably suffering nearly double of what you guys are going through. Just bear for another hour and the detention time will be over." She notified them in order to cheer them up but only watched Shane grimacing when he tried to open his mouth to speak.

"Don't worry too much about them. The punishment is given according to their endurance levels. Also, more or less... they deserved this." The boy with blonde hair and black raven-like eyes spoke with a huff as he shook his head as if he was unhappy or frustrated about something.

He was the one who was assigned the task to look after Shane and Rylan during their punishment hours. No doubt that he was not happy about wasting four hours, especially when the final exams were supposed to begin within the next two days.

Emily followed the line of direction in which the boy had been staring for a while by now and noticed a pair of glasses visible under the water that was filling the pond.

She raised her right hand and let the combined energy of wind, fire, and earth come out to fetch the item.

"What are you doing?" The boy asked her as he noticed her using her power to pick up his glasses that were probably broken.

"Ain't this yours?" Emily asked in response as she offered him the glasses after fixing them up with a simple spell.

It had been over nine months since she started learning magical spells and charms. And after such a long time of constant practice, she was finally able to catch up with nearly half of the students of her magical classes.

Currently, she loved using her powers whenever she could. It made her feel strong, powerful, and most importantly, it was helping her control her darkness.

Besides, Shadow had been recently teaching her some ancient spells to merge the energy of the darkness living inside her with the magical essence to give her spells and charms a boost.

"T-thanks..." The boy said as he accepted the glasses and put them on, letting out a sigh of relief immediately.

"It's alright," Emily responded with a soft smile.

Soon enough, the silence became a little awkward as none of them spoke for a while. She looked at all the three boys and then let out a deep breath as she noticed the frown on the blonde hair boy's face.

"You are in the second year, right?" She asked him to start a conversation so that he could calm down a little.

"Oh... yeah! I'm Ashen Night." The boy introduced himself as he also let a barely noticeable smile appear on his lips.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Night. I'm Emilia Alessandro." Emily heard both Rylan and Shane grunting behind her when she shook hands with Ashen.

She turned around to look at her best friends with raised eyebrows but unfortunately, neither of them was in a state to speak at the moment. She just noticed the warning look in Rylan's eyes.

Because of the punishment, Rylan was unable to use his powers including his ability to talk with her through the mind link. That's why she could not find out exactly what he was trying to tell her.

"They are probably in pain," Ashen spoke from behind her as he too observed Rylan and Shane curiously.

Emily gave another look in her best friends' direction before she returned her attention to Ashen and nodded her head slightly.

She knew that the boys were trying to tell her something but she did not want to be too obvious about her questions in front of a stranger, so she decided to talk with Rylan and Shane after their punishment.

--

Emily entered the infirmary and headed straight towards Rylan and Shane who were signing their papers for discharge.

"You two are now looking as good as ever. Nice!" She complimented them after seeing that there seemed to be no trace left of the harsh punishment that they received in the afternoon.

Rylan immediately took hold of her arm and dragged her out of the infirmary along with Shane after bidding goodbye to the nurse who was in charge of the place during the nighttime.

"What's wrong?" Emily asked as soon as the three of them stopped next to the stairways that led to the second floor where the classrooms for medical studies were located.

"That's what we want to ask you. What was wrong with you? Why did you talk with that blonde?" Rylan questioned her like a big brother who was having a hard time handling his little sister and her stupidness.

"Why can't I talk to him?" Emily asked in return, raising her eyebrows in question as she stared at the two young men.

"Because he's a fae..." Shane responded in a desperate tone as he slightly shook her by her shoulder as if trying to knock some sense into her.

"And...?" Emily was still having a hard time grasping why it mattered if Ashen was a fae or some other supernatural.

"Em, are you forgetting about how tricky a fae can be? It's not good for you to have any sort of contact with them. Just ignore them." Rylan reminded her as he pleaded with her to listen to him.

"But I thought that Elves were supposed to be the tricky one," Emily said with a frown as she tried to recall what she had learned so far about these two races.

"There's not any difference between these two races. They both have command of elemental powers and they both are tricksters who enjoyed tricking others. Just stay away from them." Shane told her and watched the girl nodding her head in understanding.

Even though Emily agreed to stay away from the Elves and the Faes at that moment, the future was unknown.

What if she was bound to end up getting tangled with those two races... more than anyone was prepared for...?