The headmaster’s question caught Silver off guard, “Fear? Fear is part of the three big exceptions together with intrigue and ambition, they can’t be found within the second layer of one’s mind. If I have to guess I would say fear is either held within the brain, which holds your current thoughts, or within one’s magical power itself, something we have difficulty researching properly.”

The headmaster smiled as she replied with some difficulty “Those are indeed some of the more popular theories, let me ask you another question. What does the world want?”

At this point Silver was sweating, the headmaster was asking her weird question after weird question that didn’t seem related at all, what did this have to do with Villin?

Still, acting impatient and entitled would be a quick way to get yourself killed and so Silver swallowed her worries as she thought about the question. ‘What does the world want?’ was a very odd question. After all, nobody knew if the world was sentient or if it was just a big rock. She herself did believe the word to be a somewhat sentient being though, as for the reason, the world itself was the source of magic power and everyone knew that things that created a lot of magic power were generally powerful and intelligent.

Not knowing the true answer to the question, Silver was forced to make a guess, “Thrive. The world’s purpose is to thrive, have the races atop it reach new heights.”

“Almost!” came the headmaster’s reply, “Even though thriving is likely its secondary purpose, there is one thing it must do no matter what.”

The headmaster looked at Silver but looked disappointed when she didn’t seem to be getting any ideas, “The world’s primary purpose is to survive Silver, survive.”

Hearing how simple and straightforward the answer was, Silver momentarily felt disappointed in herself before focusing again, she still had no idea where this conversation was going.

The headmaster sat back in his chair relaxed as he looked at the stone ceiling, he seemed to be thinking of something that happened long ago. After being in this state for a few minutes, unnerving Silver, he finally spoke again.

“I still don’t know where intrigue and ambition come from, I doubt anyone knows. But fear, fear is a countermeasure the world itself created to counter these feelings.”

Hearing his first lines, Silver began thinking about the words the headmaster was saying seriously, there must be something he was trying to explain.

“In the absence of fear, humans, and beasts would never stop trying to defeat bigger and stronger things. Without fear of death, they would throw themselves towards any enemy they stand a chance of defeating. After some time, they would set their eyes upon the greatest thing they can reach, not being afraid of death or consequences, at some point they would try to kill the world itself, even though they would not succeed, they could harm the planet quite seriously and they would all die themselves as well, stopping the planet’s need to thrive.

“I believe this may have already happened at some point in the past, possibly with extremely dire consequences. And so, the world itself created two things to keep beasts and humans in line. One was fear, as for the other, it was something to fear.” finishing his sentence, the headmaster’s voice slowed down, Silver swallowed deeply as she wondered what it was they were to fear.

“With the emergence of these two things came two worldly treasures. Places of unimaginable power, those beyond any human’s capability. I am quite sure that you, yourself have been inside one of these locations before without even realizing it.”

Hearing the headmaster’s borderline-deranged words, Silver tried to comprehend the information. Yet no matter how much she thought, she couldn’t think of a place she had been in that held such an insane amount of power.

The headmaster took a sip of his tea while looking at the struggling Silver, he had long since forgotten how fun it was to play with people’s hearts.

Still, he thought guiding her towards the solution was mildly entertaining and so he continued to do so, “Tell me now Silver, what do you know about the first central war?”

When the headmaster asked this question, Silver truly felt flabbergasted. The headmaster asked her question after question, each of which seemed mostly unrelated to each other, she wasn’t manipulative herself and couldn’t keep up with his games at all. If it was someone else making her feel this way she would probably grit her teeth and get annoyed but in front of the headmaster she just felt helpless.

Silver thought deeply, the first central war happened long, long ago. Information from it was nearly entirely gone and one couldn’t find it anywhere. Information from the central wars got hidden deeply and other than the third one that was relatively recent, it simply wasn’t possible to find reliable information on the other wars.

Still, she tried to summarize the little bits she knew of, “From the tiny bit of information I gathered it was some sort of uprising. The continent was in chaos during the period and many died. In the end, the clearest consequence is the ban on mirrors and similarly reflective surfaces.”

Seeing what she gathered, the headmaster nodded, at least she seemed curious, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to gather even that much.

“Now tell me, Silver, have you ever looked into a mirror?”

Shocked by his words, Silver hurried to reply, “Of course not headmaster! I wouldn’t dare to do something like that! I’d be killed without as much as a trial!”

The headmaster smiled as he pointed his finger towards the floor to the right of Silver. A large rectangular object rose with a large tarp covering it. “Do you want to?”

Silver was about to hurriedly decline when she saw the look on the headmaster’s face. This wasn’t a trap, he was genuinely asking her if she wanted to do one of the most illegal actions on the entire continent.

Yet, still, she couldn’t bring herself to refuse. What was behind those mirrors that was so terrifying that the entire magical world was still terrified of it so many centuries after the first central war?

The look on Silver’s face obviously didn’t escape the headmaster’s eyes. He smiled as if he approved of Silver’s curiosity. “The first central war was caused by a headmaster.”

Hearing that bombshell being dropped by the headmaster so casually, Silver took in a deep breath.

“He found the great Roland’s biggest gift to The Academy and wanted to utilize it, control it.”

Hearing this, Silver began getting an idea of what was going on, “Fear? Did he leave behind the source of fear, one of those worldly treasures you mentioned?”

A sly smile covered the headmaster’s face as he nodded, “Almost. It wasn’t fear itself but instead, the thing created that people were to fear, and still fear to this very day.”

These words were enough for Silver to finally put the pieces together, “Death! The room of horrors!”

When the realization hit, it hit hard. She had previously already wondered why the great Roland chose to found The Academy where he did. The room of horrors wasn’t built within The Academy, The Academy had been built around it.

“They tried to control death itself…” Silver’s voice lingered as she imagined what the first central war could’ve looked like but her thoughts were interrupted by the headmaster.

“But they failed. And so, they settled to control the dead instead. Mirrors are gateways to the afterlife. With the help of certain techniques, restless souls of the dead would come through them and attack the living. The headmaster of the time nearly won, but after some time he could no longer truly control the dead. He got consumed by them and the rest of the world was left to try and clean up his mess. Many died unnecessary deaths and it also caused the creation of certain horrifying creatures.”

Silver barely held herself back from emitting a low whistle. I did sound quite scary, being able to send legions of the dead upon the world. She had been within the room of horrors herself as punishment once or twice when she was in the first grade, she had very bad memories of the place.

Before she could properly respond, the headmaster made a pulling motion towards the covered mirror and the tarp shot off, revealing a massive glass mirror.

In shock, Silver’s gaze fell upon it. At first, she simply saw herself, looking back at her. This was the first time she had truly seen herself properly that wasn’t on a portrait. Yet, before she could appreciate the sight, the mirror darkened and unholy creatures seemed to be flying towards the glass from the distance.

They started as small specks on the mirror but they soon grew as they got closer. Silver could see rotten, boney faces and yellow teeth. She could feel their hunger as they set their hollow eyes on her. These creatures were nothing like Richard. These were savage beasts, no longer sentient.

As they got closer, Silver glanced at the headmaster, he would cover or break the mirror before they arrived, surely!

Surely.

Surely?

The creatures got closer and closer, in but a few seconds they would reach the glass. Seeing as how the headmaster still made no moves, Silver stood up and reached for her wand.

Why wasn’t he making a move?

Silver felt worried as only a few seconds were left before the dead would reach the glass of the mirror. She took a step back and prepared a spell she thought might work.

The first dead would arrive in 3…

2…

1…

NOW!