“Good morning, John” Alice responded to his greeting meekly. He noticed a hint of something in her voice he didn’t notice before and one he could not exactly place. With the addition of the slight wincing of her features when she spoke, he managed to. Something was bothering her, he knew that now, but even a day ago he would have not been sure. Nonetheless, that made John worry. Yesterday she had been worried about him after their encounter with Tiffany and Brad. Her concern and silence afterwards made him want to act. They needed to not stop communicating again, but he didn’t feel ready to talk to her about it yet, so he just sat down and started down a conversation with her. Which mostly kept to small talk, to his slight disappointment. Having thought back to the incident, John idly rubbed his head, remembering where he was punched, but he felt nothing there.

Eventually, the school bus reached the academy. Unlike the previous day where they seemed inseparable until after they had left the bus, this time they were much more distant. Alice seemed more detached to John, and while he tried to approach her, she was unwilling to continue a conversation and remained a few steps away. They were quickly separated as she ran off towards class the minute the bus stopped. At this point, he knew something was wrong, but he still didn’t know what was causing it. He spent most of his classes running over it in his head and trying to figure it all out, so he didn’t pay much attention to anything else. There were two events that he paid attention to, however, and they were quite strange.

During his first class, he continued to attempt to find some solution to the current situation even if he couldn't find out what caused it. He also used Psychic Connection to ease his mind when he found himself thinking too much. Sadly, it didn’t give him any new skills to distract him or helped him find a solution. So once the class ended, he moved on to chemistry.

Just like in business class, during chemistry almost nothing happened. While he was using Psychic Connection about halfway into the class, however, he felt a mind in the corridor, but couldn’t connect to it. At first he thought the mind was out of range like the previous day but when he went to touch it, he felt it, but nothing more. This confused him as it was the same as the mind he tried touching yesterday. It meant that his inability to touch the mind the previous day wasn’t because of range, but something interfering with Psychic Connection.

'It could even be the same person that disrupted it during Wentworth's class' John reasoned, and wanted to investigate further. When he tried to touch the mind again to get some information, it was no longer there. Having disappeared just like it did yesterday. Not being able to leave the class in the middle of it without getting into trouble, he dropped the matter for now. Instead spending the rest of class waiting for the mind to return, though it did not. Once the bell rang once more, he headed to his next class, disappointed.

As earlier in the day, nothing of importance happened during sociology and he spent the time in it idly thinking and using Psychic Connection. After sociology, John had his lunch break, and that meant he could talk to Alice. He wasn’t sure whether to talk to her about what was bothering her, or how he could even do it. What he figured he should mention, however, was the date they had planned. Wanting to talk to her about that, at least, he went to search for her.

While walking down a corridor towards the cafeteria, one that was strangely empty, something glinted in the corner of his eye. In the same way he saw the previous day, but this time, he caught it. His head moved quickly to the right of him, where he had spotted the glint. Walking towards it slowly, he noticed a slight shimmer. That’s what the glint had been, he was sure, and it resembled his Arcane Barrier somewhat. No waiting an instant, he used Observe on the shimmer as he knew that meant something interesting was there. And indeed, something was. The sheet that followed would domino into becoming a very important moment in John’s life.

Under that shimmer, someone was there. It was the first person John was absolutely sure had magic. Her sheet gave him no useful clues about his own situation, and despite her thinking he was only human, he wasn’t sure how long that would last.. Unfortunately it was already too late for him to retreat.

A second later, the shimmer was gone. Instead of it stood a beautiful purple-haired woman, Ember. She was wearing a long black dress of sorts that went down to her hips, but had cut outs for the sides of her stomach. Above it she wore a purple piece of clothing that resembled a bra with wide straps that covered both her shoulders, and on her hips she wore a short purple skirt attached to the dress. The colors and style interweaved with each other in strange ways that John’s fashion sense was awed by. Barely noticing the exact details, he panicked as Ember’s appearance surprised him. Her odd clothing and the colors only working to amplify that confusion.

“Who are you?” she said in a calm tone, her voice displaying a level of professionalism and composure higher than John expected. Her body was leaning forward, as if ready to lung with a short silver blade with a black handle that was now in her hand.

“Well, I’m ummmmm-” John stuttered, not knowing how to respond, his mind rushing to find something to say to the women. Before he could finish thinking of something, however, he was stopped by her lunging at him, and a moment later her knife was to his throat.

“Talk clearly and quickly or you might not live to regret it,” she said, her tone showing slight agitation from John’s lack of an answer. It only took a second before his arms were locked behind his back and prevented him from moving. Her grip was powerful and sure, and she was so quick that he hadn’t even seen her move. All of this caused him to panic, and he blurted out the first thing he could think of, everything.

“I’m John Miller, I’m a student at this school and yesterday I woke up with powers. I don’t really know how to use them, and I barely know what’s going on. But I know some things. I know you’re part of something called the “Council of Exploration” and that you lived in something called the “Abyss”. And I know of some other people who have magic in this school. A girl named Aria Brighton, and one named Melody, I have no idea what I could say that would confirm my identity. But I’m sorry, that’s literally everything I know, please don’t kill me,” John said, barely catching his breath as he kept an almost impossible pace. As hard as that pace made him to understand, her response showed she did.

“Hold on.. So you want me to believe you’re a late bloomer who’s only been active since yesterday and you somehow found me without any assistance? Fat chance of that. Now tell me who you really are,” Ember responded, her tone once again more frustrated and her quicker. She moved the blade to John’s throat as well, adding a threat to the question.

“Seriously, that’s who I am. I don’t know how to prove it to you, but I’ll do anything. Just please don’t kill me. Please,” John responded, his tone begging.

“Fine, there’s one way you can prove it to me. And for your sake, I hope you are able to. Now don’t say anything, scream, or make any sudden movements. Or I will kill you. Got it?” she asked, waiting for a response from him, her tone once more calm. A simple nod came in response, and she began walking while still holding him.

John had found himself in a much more dangerous situation than he expected that lunch time.