It was August. Like all other months in Russia, it was cold reaching a temperature of 2°C. The lake's water was cold and dark. Akagi stood at the end of the lake while Aleksei walked inside it. It went deeper and deeper as he moved ahead. He closed his eyes and felt the energy inside the water. It was brimming with spirit energy, a very strong one.

"You know, Akagi, this might not be something demonic. Well, not at least this lake. That garden has a different story though," Aleksei said. He got out of the water and looked up at the sky. The sky was rumbling again. "Aren't you cold?" Akagi asked.
"Not really," He said and sneezed three times consecutively, "I guess I need a change of clothes."

After changing, Akagi and he sat on the stone table on the other side of the mansion, right opposite to the rose garden. Akagi had prepared some chrysanthemum tea for him and boiled water for himself.
"Boiled water?"
"I like it." Akagi took a sip.
"You've got a weird taste."
"Water has no taste."

Aleksei was drinking his tea while Maks went somewhere in his car.

"I want to go to the woods." He told Akagi.
"Sure." They walked out of the gate and reached the woods. As the leaves crushed under their shoes, they walked through an old path in the woods. Arborvitae trees covered the place densely, but it was a dry coniferous forest.

"Seems like no one has come here for years"
"Why would anyone bother visiting the woods?" Aleksei stopped and looked at what looked like a stone tiger. He sat on his haunches and looked at it closely. He was about to touch it when a huge gust of wind pushed him back. It was a dust storm. Akagi covered his eyes. Aleksei looked at the leaves and unveiled through the ground. Something shone brightly in the sun, like a bottle cap. He walked towards it and picked it up. It was a ring.

Akagi moved his hands away from his eyes and looked at it.
"A spellbinding ring." He whispered.
"It looks like the size of a kid's finger," Aleksei said. Akagi looked at the ring and used his Sila to look through its memories, "Vierne will be happy after this. She can feel normal again,"

He heard a woman. She had platinum blonde hair and sat beside a man who had the same hair as hers. He looked just like Lict. They were inside the rose garden, with the same blue roses blooming beside them. She had a white piano before her and a ring in her hand while he had a white violin in his hands.
"Let it be a surprise for Vierne's birthday." He smiled.

Then, Akagi saw fire and blood dripping down the blue roses.
"The mansion is on fire!"
"Hurry up, save Vierne!" He heard.
"There are days when I feel that I'm not in my body. Because I can see myself sleeping on the couch and when I look at myself, I hate what I see."

"Don't go, Laura. You said we'd raise her together!"

Then, he heard a screech and a gunshot. Someone came to the woods with the ring in their hands, and a shawl wrapped around them. They threw the ring into the forest, the mansion was still burning and so was the forest. The mansion looked much bigger than what it was today. One of the wooden towers it had, had a huge cross hung over it. As the fire burnt down the wood, it fell towards the forest and the cross dug itself into the ground partially. Akagi was back in the present.

"Akagi?" Aleksei said.
"Follow me," They walked further into the woods and saw a huge cross, partially dug into the ground.
"Wow, it's huge."
"They had a church within the mansion,"
"So, I guess Vierne's family were Catholics."

"Does it matter?"
"They must have baptised her. She's safe in that case, Lict can't harm her. Not until lunar eclipse at least."
Aleksei looked at the spellbinding ring, "Her parents got this for her. Ever heard of the black blood tragedy of the Obolensky family?"
"I have."

"It sent shivers across my spine when I first heard of it. I was eleven back then. The bodies of her parents are still missing."
"I heard they went back to heaven?"
"I have a strong feeling that this ring is related to that."
"That isn't important currently. What about Lict? The lunar eclipse is in another month."

"Yes, so to keep a close watch on Lict, I would be joining the high school as a student."
"Can you trick other kids into believing you're one of them?"
"You doubt my Asian genes?"
Akagi grinned, "Of course not. You could even pass for a twelve-year-old with a face like that."

"I wouldn't take that as a compliment."
"That's because it's not a compliment,"
"You—"
"Milord, I'm back. Let's go, the head priest has called you." Maks said while standing at a distance, on the road.

"Alright!" Aleksei shouted and turned back towards Akagi. He passed him two thick sheets of paper with "Isolation" and "Aleksei" written over the respective ones in vertical, Russian calligraphy.

"For now keep this amulet. It will protect you when you want. Use the other one to call me."
"I can use a phone."
"Just keep it. I won't be around for a while, take care."
"Alright, thanks." Akagi took the amulets and showed him out of the woods.

"Did you get the ink?" Aleksei asked while sitting at the backseat as Maks drove.
"I did. But that's a lot of ink for you to use, Milord,"
"There's a lot of writing to do too."

Akagi went back to school, to begin with the class.
"Okay, so in today's class, we'll learn about the three kinds of magic," Akagi said as he drew a flowchart on the board, "Magic is something that every magical being possess, in demigods, we call it a Sila while in star spirits it's a Magixiya. There are differences between a Sila and Magixiya, can someone tell me what it is?"

Vierne raised her hand.
"Yes?"
"A Magixia has spells and forms, Sila in itself is a spell."
"Excellent,"
"I guess now I know who I'm going to hate in this class," Slavik said.

"Let's continue," Akagi ignored him, "You have three kinds of magic—Formative, protective, and destructive. Formative are the ones that create a resource or convert one resource into another, example Lict's first magic, protective is the one that is based on conservation of some resource and controlling that resource, like my magic and destructive magic is the one that use one resource to destroy another like Vierne's magic, focus here!" Akagi threw his gun on Slavik's head who was about to sleep.

"How dare you sleep in my class?" Akagi said.
"I didn't!"
"Tell me what kind of magic do you have?"
"Fire?"
"That's your sila, I asked which kind of magic."

Slavik looked at the board, "Destructive! I destroy everything that comes in my way!"
"No wonder you have no friends," Belka said.
"At least my answer is correct."
"The answer is protective," Akagi said.

"What?! That sounds so gay—Slavik has protective magic!"
"Any questions?" Akagi ignored him.
"Sir, I can exchange souls so what kind of magic is that?"
"Protective. Majority of people have protective magic."

"But I want to be an exception!" Slavik said.
"Stand out of the class—You'll be an exception since everyone else would be sitting inside."
Lict did a little cough of laughter.
"Now, start taking notes of what you understood," Akagi announced.

"This is so difficult," Vierne whispered.
"Yes, but you can do it!" Lict whispered back with a smile. The bell finally rang and Akagi got up, "Homework! If you don't do it, I'm going to whip your ass." He left the classroom and everyone began packing up.

"This is our math class, right?" Vierne asked.
"Yes, Milady," Lict followed her.

Aleksei sat inside a room, dripping a paintbrush inside the inkpot and slowly putting it on the piece of paper. The room was quiet and water was flowing in the small fountain outside it. Maks sat beside him, putting the papers to dry.

"You've made dozens of amulets already, Milord. I think it's enough." Maks said.
"Bad times are just starting, Maks. We have to be prepared."

-To be continued

Maks
Dear Ms Lady Demigod