Petra Price and the Last Dragon: Chapter 14
Here's the latest chapter! :)
This story is also posted here on FictionPress.com.
Description: Petra Price was a perfectly ordinary girl until she got sent away to Rosebury Academy, a school that would teach her all about magic. It's a brand new life, with new friends and a new power to be harnessed. An enemy is soon revealed. What will Petra do?
Mister Glover went ahead and informed Miss Blake of all that had transpired. He had no choice, since Cecelia would be staying at the school with them from then on. It had been clear to Petra for some time that the girl they had thought to be Cecelia was up to something. Having the real girl around the academy only served to confirm the copy's bad character. She was much worse than Petra had been able to imagine.
What remained to be seen was whether Miss Blake was to be trusted. For all intents and purposes, she was placed up front as their leader and Petra still didn't know about her. Having incidentally had the chance to test the spell she and her friends had learned about, it was finally time to put all the extra studying they had done to use.
As soon as she thought their absence as a group wouldn't seem too conspicuous, Petra arranged to meet her friends in the abandoned floor of the dorms that had been claimed as their own. She gave them all a short explanation of what happened when the honesty spell was cast. They did a final check of the questions they would ask before deciding that they would all do it in one big go. Five wands were held high and they recited the incantation one by one. Just as before, the glowing form of a pixie blossomed from the end of Petra's wand. It was soon joined by four peers.
The pixies chased each other around for a little while before coming back to do their jobs for those whom had summoned them.
“I want to know if Miss Blake is good or evil,” Petra told her pixie.
“I want to know why she's brought us all here,” Marnie followed her lead.
“Are we all safe?” was Hilton's question.
Budgerigar came after him with, “I want to know how long she's been alive.”
“Does she know more about Cecelia Craft than she's let on?” They had gone around the circle. With Martin's last request, the five tiny, glowing forms swirled around excitedly before shooting off together, the closed door of the room not barring their way.
“What now?” Marnie asked, glancing at Petra.
“Now, we wait.”
The room was sparsely decorated. They all had chairs to sit in and that was about it, except for one small table that they all had trouble fitting around when they were trying to study. Petra assumed the pixies from the spell would return after a few minutes at most and thought they might as well wait together. She set about trying to make the room a little more friendly, as they were rather better at casting spells than they had been when they first decided to use the space. She made the furniture more livable and cast a spell on the walls to give them a nice cheery color. Her friends joined in and their special area had improved quite a bit. It took several minutes before they once again relaxed into their seats and still the pixies had not returned.
After a few more minutes of anxious waiting, the five glowing forms returned in a swirl of color. Without explanation, all but Petra's disappeared into the wands that created them. Petra's, looking much the same as the first and only other time she'd cast the spell, paused to speak to her.
“Mission unsuccessful. The woman you sent us after is not truly a person and therefore we couldn't get a read on her.” With that, he was gone. His voice managed to stay around a moment longer than his body, “She followed us.”
There was time for nothing more than an awkward, worried glance at each other. There was a soft knock at the door and then it swung open. Miss Blake allowed herself admittance into the room without delay.
“Ah, Miss Price. I very much expected you and your friends to be behind the little interlopers that just came to my office. I believe I would have been slightly disappointed if it had been anyone else, but that can stay between us.”
Petra was unsure of what to do or say. Miss Blake settled the matter for her with a flick of her wand, making another chair appear in the room. The Principal sat primly and looked around at all of them.
“There's no magical trickery needed to know what I'm about, I'll be glad to tell you anything you wish to know. I really hadn't thought anyone would think much of me. I thought my promises of shiny new magical powers would distract everyone from paying attention to the woman behind the curtain.”
Everyone was still and silent until Miss Blake pointed her gaze at Petra. Petra gave herself a little shake, “I'm sorry about what we tried to do. There's no such thing as being too careful, and after all that's happened with Cecelia Craft... One of the pixies said they couldn't get to you because you aren't human. I think we should start there.”
Miss Blake's chair was close enough to the wall that she could reach out and touch it. She did just that for a moment, closing here eyes. Petra assumed she was collecting her thoughts.
“This school was once just a building, an extraordinary building beneath the ground but a building all the same. It wasn't until it was finished and full of people that it started to absorb things. If the walls could talk, and perhaps they can, they'd have so many memories to share. Not only memories fill every hall and corridor. This academy has been soaking up bits of stray magic since the first students came to learn about their powers. They were much like you, all things considered. The outside world charges ahead at such a different pace.”
Miss Blake paused. Petra tried to take in everything the woman had been saying. She didn't really know where Miss Blake's explanation could be headed.
“That magic compounded over the years. There's quite a lot of it now, I don't think all of it could be used up. The school staffed itself by creating the teachers you know and love with its magical stores, and it created me as well.”
This confession produced a gasp from Marnie, who then promptly covered her mouth and blushed. Miss Blake gave her an indulgent smile.
“I came first,” Miss Blake carried on, “When the others turned up, it wasn't long before I knew I was a much different specimen. You witnessed it yourself on your first day here how Mister Glover and the others grew from a child-like state with remarkable speed. I never had such a time, I was simply fully formed. My recollections were very fuzzy at first. I functioned under the impression that my duty was to repopulate this school. I would always find things to guide me, books and documents. It wasn't until you were all here that the facade started to break down. While I had long suspected I wasn't like the rest of you, I had no idea just what I might be until the school let me in on it. I am not simply another creation, but part of the school's magic itself. The magic itself created me as a conduit to fulfill its wishes. Were this place ever to be destroyed, I would vanish with it even if I was not within its walls at the time.”
“That's a lot to take in, even for me.” Martin said after a little while.
Miss Blake chuckled, “It was a bit of a shock for me, too. I was actually a little upset about it for a while, finding out I was some kind of tool or pawn for something so ridiculous as a school that had become lonely. Then I realized that I wouldn't exist at all if not for that and I made my peace with it, especially when I began to noticed the friendships that you students have been forming.”
“I think you've just about covered everything we wanted to know.” Hilton was grinning.
“And then some,” Petra added. “It's so nice to finally know why I'm here and to know that there isn't really a catch, besides the occasional misadventure. Cecelia's double is a bit of a menace!”
“I'm quite sorry about that, Miss Price. I haven't been able to make the school the safe place I had hoped it would be. That seems to have affected you most of all.”
Miss Blake then invited them all to her office and gave them a bit of a talking to for sneaking around and trying to use magic on a school administrator. Her words carried no real bite, as she wasn't very upset with them. The point she seemed to want to get across was that they could come to her in the future if there were any problems concerning the school. Petra did feel a little bad for having mistrusted the woman for so long. Miss Blake assured them that it was all in the past.
Petra was the last to leave Miss Blake's office. The principal had given them all the answers they needed except for one.
“It's Cecelia Craft, Miss, or rather her double. Do you know what she wants? What we should do about her?”
“I'm afraid, Miss Price, that I've as much information regarding that girl as you do.”
Finally having some real information about Miss Blake and Rosebury Academy didn't give Petra as much peace as she would have thought. Every time she saw the real Cecelia Craft around the halls or in a classroom, she felt like she was once more put on the offensive. The girl Petra had started to get know presented no danger but there was a girl out there, a girl that looked just like her new friend. The other Cecelia, whom Petra was starting to wish she had another name for, meant some kind of unknown harm to her and more importantly to those she'd come to hold dear over the past few months.
While she knew she should leave any danger to the school in the capable hands of Miss Blake and the other teachers, she'd been operating under the radar for so long that it had almost become second nature. She couldn't just sit idly by while an evil force was plotting against them.
Petra ended up feeling restless. She was itching for a fight, a feeling that had never come over her before, and there was nothing she could do. A small part of her longed to storm Cecelia's mansion and demand to know what its owner was up to.
It wasn't until the real Cecelia Craft made her preference known that just a little portion of the confusion in Petra's mind was able to clear. The girl insisted on being called Darlene, her middle name, in an effort to distance herself from her nefarious counterpart.
It was the first conversation Petra had had with her since she'd joined the other students at Rosebury Academy. Petra's curiosity finally got the better of her.
“I hope you won't mind my asking, but why do you take classes with the rest of us? I should think from the way that girl carries on that you'd be as advanced in magic as she is.”
Darlene blushed a little, “Oh, my only education came from the school here. I'm quite normal in terms of skill. Once my Father discovered that she was more agreeable to certain family traditions, he started to teach her all manner of things. She was never allowed here at the school, you see, except for the day she was sealed away with me. She can study like I never could. I went off to school, I imagine I was only allowed such freedom to prevent suspicion, and when I returned home I found that she'd surpassed me by leaps and bounds. I'd say I'm about level with you, seeing as I only just finished a year here myself and my memories of that time are a little fuzzy.”
So Cecelia was the smartest witch left standing. The only thing Petra could suss out from that information was that their enemy liked being powerful and wanted to stay that way. Petra already knew that Cecelia liked to have someone to lord power over. Her family had once held power over Martin, a power she had tried to abuse again recently. She also had servants, ones who didn't work for her by choice but because she had created them. There was a similarity there between Cecelia's mansion and the school. Mister Glover and the other teachers were also magical creations conjured by the school or Miss Blake, or perhaps a combination of both. The difference being that Petra had no reason to believe they had any real obligation to stay and that they could leave the school if they wished.
Petra felt the least that could be done was to warn the other students that there was someone out there that was up to no good. She took this idea to Miss Blake. The principal agreed with Petra and made an announcement while the students were assembled for dinner that night.
“We seem to have developed a tendency to draw in the remaining members of the magical community,” she smiled warmly at Martin and Darlene, “I'm sure you've all been getting acquainted with the new student that has most recently joined us. What you may not know is that she is not the girl rumored to have been rescued from the records room earlier in the school year. That girl has been revealed to us as an enemy. She successfully abducted one of our own over the break. If any of you recall anything suspicious from the holidays, please feel free to come to myself or one of the other teachers at your convenience. Now that you've been informed of this matter I expect you all to be very careful.”
With everything out in the open, there would be less of a chance that someone would accidentally show Cecelia the way to get into the academy, or that she would get a chance to steal away another of the students like she had Martin or Petra herself. Though she had no real proof, she could in no way believe that her run in with the genie's lamp was a coincidence, not when Martin's past had such a strong tie to Cecelia's.
Of course, Petra had been the only likely target at the time. She had been the only one with any sort of suspicions that Cecelia wasn't what would be called your average girl. She wondered if her friends or any of the other students would get the same dark vibe from Cecelia's mansion that she had during her visit those many months ago. She could still vividly remember the uneasy feeling that had crept into her core and stayed there until they were safely back at the school.
Though she very much never wanted to set foot in that place a second time, something told Petra she hadn't seen the last of it. Whatever was going to happen with Cecelia, she was going to be involved. She was almost certain of it.
It was time to start preparing. This time around, there wouldn't have to be any secret trips to the library. She wouldn't have to spirit her friends away to an abandoned part of the building, though just a touch of sneaking would be required.
There was still a part of the school she wasn't sure she was allowed to go to, yet the current situation seemed to necessitate that she go there. She would do it that night when dinner had finished. Petra was going to make a return visit to Rosebury Academy's records room.
This story is also posted here on FictionPress.com.
Description: Petra Price was a perfectly ordinary girl until she got sent away to Rosebury Academy, a school that would teach her all about magic. It's a brand new life, with new friends and a new power to be harnessed. An enemy is soon revealed. What will Petra do?
Mister Glover went ahead and informed Miss Blake of all that had transpired. He had no choice, since Cecelia would be staying at the school with them from then on. It had been clear to Petra for some time that the girl they had thought to be Cecelia was up to something. Having the real girl around the academy only served to confirm the copy's bad character. She was much worse than Petra had been able to imagine.
What remained to be seen was whether Miss Blake was to be trusted. For all intents and purposes, she was placed up front as their leader and Petra still didn't know about her. Having incidentally had the chance to test the spell she and her friends had learned about, it was finally time to put all the extra studying they had done to use.
As soon as she thought their absence as a group wouldn't seem too conspicuous, Petra arranged to meet her friends in the abandoned floor of the dorms that had been claimed as their own. She gave them all a short explanation of what happened when the honesty spell was cast. They did a final check of the questions they would ask before deciding that they would all do it in one big go. Five wands were held high and they recited the incantation one by one. Just as before, the glowing form of a pixie blossomed from the end of Petra's wand. It was soon joined by four peers.
The pixies chased each other around for a little while before coming back to do their jobs for those whom had summoned them.
“I want to know if Miss Blake is good or evil,” Petra told her pixie.
“I want to know why she's brought us all here,” Marnie followed her lead.
“Are we all safe?” was Hilton's question.
Budgerigar came after him with, “I want to know how long she's been alive.”
“Does she know more about Cecelia Craft than she's let on?” They had gone around the circle. With Martin's last request, the five tiny, glowing forms swirled around excitedly before shooting off together, the closed door of the room not barring their way.
“What now?” Marnie asked, glancing at Petra.
“Now, we wait.”
The room was sparsely decorated. They all had chairs to sit in and that was about it, except for one small table that they all had trouble fitting around when they were trying to study. Petra assumed the pixies from the spell would return after a few minutes at most and thought they might as well wait together. She set about trying to make the room a little more friendly, as they were rather better at casting spells than they had been when they first decided to use the space. She made the furniture more livable and cast a spell on the walls to give them a nice cheery color. Her friends joined in and their special area had improved quite a bit. It took several minutes before they once again relaxed into their seats and still the pixies had not returned.
After a few more minutes of anxious waiting, the five glowing forms returned in a swirl of color. Without explanation, all but Petra's disappeared into the wands that created them. Petra's, looking much the same as the first and only other time she'd cast the spell, paused to speak to her.
“Mission unsuccessful. The woman you sent us after is not truly a person and therefore we couldn't get a read on her.” With that, he was gone. His voice managed to stay around a moment longer than his body, “She followed us.”
There was time for nothing more than an awkward, worried glance at each other. There was a soft knock at the door and then it swung open. Miss Blake allowed herself admittance into the room without delay.
“Ah, Miss Price. I very much expected you and your friends to be behind the little interlopers that just came to my office. I believe I would have been slightly disappointed if it had been anyone else, but that can stay between us.”
Petra was unsure of what to do or say. Miss Blake settled the matter for her with a flick of her wand, making another chair appear in the room. The Principal sat primly and looked around at all of them.
“There's no magical trickery needed to know what I'm about, I'll be glad to tell you anything you wish to know. I really hadn't thought anyone would think much of me. I thought my promises of shiny new magical powers would distract everyone from paying attention to the woman behind the curtain.”
Everyone was still and silent until Miss Blake pointed her gaze at Petra. Petra gave herself a little shake, “I'm sorry about what we tried to do. There's no such thing as being too careful, and after all that's happened with Cecelia Craft... One of the pixies said they couldn't get to you because you aren't human. I think we should start there.”
Miss Blake's chair was close enough to the wall that she could reach out and touch it. She did just that for a moment, closing here eyes. Petra assumed she was collecting her thoughts.
“This school was once just a building, an extraordinary building beneath the ground but a building all the same. It wasn't until it was finished and full of people that it started to absorb things. If the walls could talk, and perhaps they can, they'd have so many memories to share. Not only memories fill every hall and corridor. This academy has been soaking up bits of stray magic since the first students came to learn about their powers. They were much like you, all things considered. The outside world charges ahead at such a different pace.”
Miss Blake paused. Petra tried to take in everything the woman had been saying. She didn't really know where Miss Blake's explanation could be headed.
“That magic compounded over the years. There's quite a lot of it now, I don't think all of it could be used up. The school staffed itself by creating the teachers you know and love with its magical stores, and it created me as well.”
This confession produced a gasp from Marnie, who then promptly covered her mouth and blushed. Miss Blake gave her an indulgent smile.
“I came first,” Miss Blake carried on, “When the others turned up, it wasn't long before I knew I was a much different specimen. You witnessed it yourself on your first day here how Mister Glover and the others grew from a child-like state with remarkable speed. I never had such a time, I was simply fully formed. My recollections were very fuzzy at first. I functioned under the impression that my duty was to repopulate this school. I would always find things to guide me, books and documents. It wasn't until you were all here that the facade started to break down. While I had long suspected I wasn't like the rest of you, I had no idea just what I might be until the school let me in on it. I am not simply another creation, but part of the school's magic itself. The magic itself created me as a conduit to fulfill its wishes. Were this place ever to be destroyed, I would vanish with it even if I was not within its walls at the time.”
“That's a lot to take in, even for me.” Martin said after a little while.
Miss Blake chuckled, “It was a bit of a shock for me, too. I was actually a little upset about it for a while, finding out I was some kind of tool or pawn for something so ridiculous as a school that had become lonely. Then I realized that I wouldn't exist at all if not for that and I made my peace with it, especially when I began to noticed the friendships that you students have been forming.”
“I think you've just about covered everything we wanted to know.” Hilton was grinning.
“And then some,” Petra added. “It's so nice to finally know why I'm here and to know that there isn't really a catch, besides the occasional misadventure. Cecelia's double is a bit of a menace!”
“I'm quite sorry about that, Miss Price. I haven't been able to make the school the safe place I had hoped it would be. That seems to have affected you most of all.”
Miss Blake then invited them all to her office and gave them a bit of a talking to for sneaking around and trying to use magic on a school administrator. Her words carried no real bite, as she wasn't very upset with them. The point she seemed to want to get across was that they could come to her in the future if there were any problems concerning the school. Petra did feel a little bad for having mistrusted the woman for so long. Miss Blake assured them that it was all in the past.
Petra was the last to leave Miss Blake's office. The principal had given them all the answers they needed except for one.
“It's Cecelia Craft, Miss, or rather her double. Do you know what she wants? What we should do about her?”
“I'm afraid, Miss Price, that I've as much information regarding that girl as you do.”
Finally having some real information about Miss Blake and Rosebury Academy didn't give Petra as much peace as she would have thought. Every time she saw the real Cecelia Craft around the halls or in a classroom, she felt like she was once more put on the offensive. The girl Petra had started to get know presented no danger but there was a girl out there, a girl that looked just like her new friend. The other Cecelia, whom Petra was starting to wish she had another name for, meant some kind of unknown harm to her and more importantly to those she'd come to hold dear over the past few months.
While she knew she should leave any danger to the school in the capable hands of Miss Blake and the other teachers, she'd been operating under the radar for so long that it had almost become second nature. She couldn't just sit idly by while an evil force was plotting against them.
Petra ended up feeling restless. She was itching for a fight, a feeling that had never come over her before, and there was nothing she could do. A small part of her longed to storm Cecelia's mansion and demand to know what its owner was up to.
It wasn't until the real Cecelia Craft made her preference known that just a little portion of the confusion in Petra's mind was able to clear. The girl insisted on being called Darlene, her middle name, in an effort to distance herself from her nefarious counterpart.
It was the first conversation Petra had had with her since she'd joined the other students at Rosebury Academy. Petra's curiosity finally got the better of her.
“I hope you won't mind my asking, but why do you take classes with the rest of us? I should think from the way that girl carries on that you'd be as advanced in magic as she is.”
Darlene blushed a little, “Oh, my only education came from the school here. I'm quite normal in terms of skill. Once my Father discovered that she was more agreeable to certain family traditions, he started to teach her all manner of things. She was never allowed here at the school, you see, except for the day she was sealed away with me. She can study like I never could. I went off to school, I imagine I was only allowed such freedom to prevent suspicion, and when I returned home I found that she'd surpassed me by leaps and bounds. I'd say I'm about level with you, seeing as I only just finished a year here myself and my memories of that time are a little fuzzy.”
So Cecelia was the smartest witch left standing. The only thing Petra could suss out from that information was that their enemy liked being powerful and wanted to stay that way. Petra already knew that Cecelia liked to have someone to lord power over. Her family had once held power over Martin, a power she had tried to abuse again recently. She also had servants, ones who didn't work for her by choice but because she had created them. There was a similarity there between Cecelia's mansion and the school. Mister Glover and the other teachers were also magical creations conjured by the school or Miss Blake, or perhaps a combination of both. The difference being that Petra had no reason to believe they had any real obligation to stay and that they could leave the school if they wished.
Petra felt the least that could be done was to warn the other students that there was someone out there that was up to no good. She took this idea to Miss Blake. The principal agreed with Petra and made an announcement while the students were assembled for dinner that night.
“We seem to have developed a tendency to draw in the remaining members of the magical community,” she smiled warmly at Martin and Darlene, “I'm sure you've all been getting acquainted with the new student that has most recently joined us. What you may not know is that she is not the girl rumored to have been rescued from the records room earlier in the school year. That girl has been revealed to us as an enemy. She successfully abducted one of our own over the break. If any of you recall anything suspicious from the holidays, please feel free to come to myself or one of the other teachers at your convenience. Now that you've been informed of this matter I expect you all to be very careful.”
With everything out in the open, there would be less of a chance that someone would accidentally show Cecelia the way to get into the academy, or that she would get a chance to steal away another of the students like she had Martin or Petra herself. Though she had no real proof, she could in no way believe that her run in with the genie's lamp was a coincidence, not when Martin's past had such a strong tie to Cecelia's.
Of course, Petra had been the only likely target at the time. She had been the only one with any sort of suspicions that Cecelia wasn't what would be called your average girl. She wondered if her friends or any of the other students would get the same dark vibe from Cecelia's mansion that she had during her visit those many months ago. She could still vividly remember the uneasy feeling that had crept into her core and stayed there until they were safely back at the school.
Though she very much never wanted to set foot in that place a second time, something told Petra she hadn't seen the last of it. Whatever was going to happen with Cecelia, she was going to be involved. She was almost certain of it.
It was time to start preparing. This time around, there wouldn't have to be any secret trips to the library. She wouldn't have to spirit her friends away to an abandoned part of the building, though just a touch of sneaking would be required.
There was still a part of the school she wasn't sure she was allowed to go to, yet the current situation seemed to necessitate that she go there. She would do it that night when dinner had finished. Petra was going to make a return visit to Rosebury Academy's records room.