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Vienna slowed to a stop as a sudden thought crossed her mind. She hadn't realised it earlier, but the magical object that Sky had described sounded a lot like something Farah had shown her years ago when she had begun to access her powers. A device that could be charged up with magic to aid a fairy who had trouble accessing magic.

"Shit," she swore under her breath as she realised who exactly would benefit from a magical fairy battery. She rapidly shadow-travelled to where Beatrix was being held, stopping just outside the doors due to the wards surrounding the building. To her dismay, she found the two guarding specialists unconscious and slumped against the floor, meaning anyone was free to go inside, and anyone was free to leave. Without a second thought she burst into the room, and was greeted with the sight of a large cage.

A large empty cage.

"You have got to be kidding me," she hissed as she bolted back out of the building and dematerialised again, heading straight for Bloom's suite on the other side of the academy. She quickly materialised into the shared common room and hurried over to each door in an attempt to try and locate the girl.

Unfortunately for Vienna, the suite was completely empty, and she couldn't even locate any of Bloom's friends to question where she could be. The girl sighed and ran her hands down her face, before swiftly going back to her dorm in her shadow form to grab her various blades.

She materialised into her bedroom and quickly moved to the chest of drawers by her bed, haphazardly throwing the bottom drawer open to grab her swords.

"I will never get used to you just appearing from nowhere."

Vienna looked up to find Natia leaning against the doorway, her arms crossed as she smiled down at her.

"Be glad I haven't started scaring you yet," Vie spoke with a soft laugh as she slid her swords into place and stood up straight.

"I didn't see you at training, where were you?" Nat questioned as Vienna walked out of the room and into the shared common area.

"I was helping my dad out with something." She stopped in the doorway leading out of the suite and turned towards her friend. "Listen, you guys should probably arm yourselves."

Nat raised her brow slightly. "Why, what happened?"

"There's something happening near the barrier, and Beatrix has also escaped from where she was being held." Vienna revealed with a frown. "My bet is that Bloom helped her. We'll probably be safe within the school walls anyway, but keep weapons on you just in case."

"Got it," Natia nodded. "What are you gonna do now?"

Vienna sighed softly. "I'm gonna try and find Bloom before she does anything else that's stupid." With a final nod Vienna left the dorm and raced down the corridor, weaving through the various students standing around in the halls.

The lights above them began to flicker, causing the girl to look around in alarm. The hallway began to fill with confused chatter, with students not understanding why the electricity around them was wavering.

The school was powered by one magical source of energy, the Stone Circle, and if the heart of the academy was failing... They were in huge trouble.

Moments laters, the lights fully went out, cloaking the academy halls in complete darkness as cries of panic echoed off the walls. Wasting no time the shadow fairy put her magic to use, instantly dematerialising and morphing in the dark shadows that seemed to overpower the hallways. She moved throughout the school as fast as she could, her shadows branching out to act as her eyes and ears as she scouted and attempted to locate either Bloom or Beatrix.

Her blood ran cold as a scream reverberated through the empty halls of the fairy suites, and instantly found herself in the location she had heard it from.

"Shit, Sam!" She exclaimed as she materialised back into her corporeal form, dropping to her knees beside the boy as he screamed and writhed on the stone floor. To her horror, she found a large gash across his torso, with all too familiar black veins running across his body.

"Burned.. One," he managed to strangle out through gasps of pain, the movements bringing back painful memories of Vienna's father when he had been infected.

Vie quickly pulled one of Sam's arms around her shoulders, and grunted as she tried to pull him to his feet.

"Terra's suite," he hissed, and the two of them tried to move as fast as they could towards the earth fairy's dorm.

As soon as they made it to the door, Vienna pulled out a vial of zanbaq and shoved it into his hand. "Give this to Terra, she'll know what to do."

"What about-"

Before he could ask any questions, she gently pushed him towards the double doors, and watched as he morphed straight through and out of her sight.

She took a deep breath before pulling a sword off her back, one hand pulling out her phone to text anyone for backup as she quickly rushed towards where she had found Sam.

Adrianne

Vie: SOS, Burned One in the school.
Vie: Meet me in the fairy dorms.

Her ears strained as she tried to listen out for the creature, her shadows also creeping along the walls to scout ahead. After a few moments of stealthily walking along the hallway, her shadows tugged her towards the left.

Vienna froze as she moved around the corner, her eyes connecting with the glowing eyes of the Burned One. She couldn't describe the fear she felt in that moment, but she knew she couldn't let that distract her. If she didn't kill it, Sam would die, and she couldn't let that happen.

The creature lunged towards her with a snarl, and she did what she did best.

She fought.

She imagined she was training again as she slashed away at it, the creature roaring every time she sliced her blade through its limbs. Not that it had any effect. It only made it angrier.

She dodged and attacked over and over, ferociously trying to bury her blade deep into its core to destroy it. But it moved faster than she had anticipated. She had never fought a Burned One, real or fake, on her own, and she realised very quickly that she couldn't do this by herself.

She gasped as the sword got knocked out of her hand, the weapon clattering loudly as it fell to the floor. By instinct she went to grab the other one from her back, but she wasn't quick enough.

With one swipe from the Burned One, her back painfully collided with the floor, but that pain was nothing compared to what she felt across her torso. It felt like her body was on fire.

Her eyes glowed a vibrant purple as she threw her hands out despite the pain, and watched as the shadows darted towards the creature which was seconds away from slashing her again. The midnight black vines curled around its limbs, straining and threatening to snap as the Burned One fought against it. For the moment, the creature was restrained, but there was no telling how long Vienna could hold it for.

She gritted her teeth as the pain from the wound passed over her in waves, all while she tried to hold the creature back. A few tears ran down her face from the sheer pressure she felt along her outstretched arms. She could feel the shadow vines slackening as the pain from the gash on her stomach grew stronger, and so Vienna finally let go, her arms falling to the floor as she closed her eyes in acceptance.

Acceptance that the creature she had been training to fight against was about to gut her, and she couldn't do anything about it.

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Hey besties sorry about the delay. Writers block hit me like a truck this chapter. Hope this extra long chapter makes up for it even though there's an interesting cliffhanger and dodgy description of Vienna fighting.

Also wtf???

Number two in MAGIC???? This is absolutely insane, thank you guys so much!!

Hope you're all well!! If not, I hope tomorrow is a better day!! <3 I love you all, I hope you're drinking enough water. Take care of yourselves!!

A x