"Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach."
~ Aristotle

                                                                        ________________________

I hurtled down, screaming like a banshee. I was sure in the next two seconds I would be nothing but a flattened and bloodied meat sack.

I braced for impact...but it never came. It took me a second to realise I was no longer plunging downwards but instead, I was hovering in the air, millimeters away from the marble floor. I was so close that I could see my haggard breath fogging the floor. I breathed a sigh of relief when I gently slumped down on the ground, all my body parts intact and functioning. But my heart escalated again when I realised the numerous pairs of eyes trained on me, one of the stares particularly heavy. I scrambled up on my feet, spotting Mr Blackwell standing just a few inches away from me. Somehow, I knew that he was the one who had saved us.

Vanessa, Josh and Kace – all three were up on their feet, their heads hung low and eyes downcast. I swallowed and stood a little closer to Josh than necessary. But I was much too afraid. I felt my palms sweating as the weight of everyone's gaze burdened me down. When the silence seemed to stretch on for forever, I dared to chance a peek to Mr Blackwell's face. I instantly wished I hadn't. It wasn't anger that I saw. It was the immense disappointment in his kind grey eyes and the subtle downwards tilt of his lips that made me feel worse.

Finally, Mr Blackwell spoke, "All four of you, come with me. The meeting has been adjourned for now."

As the four of us shuffled behind Mr Blackwell, all sorts of scenario ran through my mind. What if he exiled me from here? What if I was never allowed to return to Morlea? Would he do that? He couldn't, right? He couldn't just send me away from snooping a little? Oh god, but what if-

I was snapped out of my thoughts when I realised we had reached Mr Blackwell's office. It oddly felt like going to the principal's office. Mr Blackwell went and leaned against his oak desk, after hanging his deep burgundy cape along with his formal jacket on the peg right beside the doorway. He adjusted his square glasses and sighed, scrutinizing us from behind his flashing spectacles, his expression unreadable.

"Well, I am honestly not even surprised," Mr Blackwell started. "You three, Kace, Josh and Vanessa have always been quite the troublemakers. But what did surprise me was you, young lady." His gaze turned to me. I swallowed audibly.

"It wasn't her fault", Josh said quickly, making me stare at him in surprise. He was defending me?

"We convinced her to come with us," he continued.

"That's right," Vanessa chimed in readily. "We just wanted to know what was going on. Really, she didn't even want to come..."

Mr Blackwell silenced them with a look. But my heart was swelling with gratitude. I blinked the moisture in my eyes.

"But she agreed, didn't she?" Mr Blackwell said. "Which means she is at as much fault as you all are." After a pause, when no one argued, he continued, "I warned you three, didn't I? Don't you remember last time? I can't believe after barely escaping punishment last time, you still decided to break yet another rule and disgrace your parents. Three of my brightest students and yet here you all are, wasting your time..." Mr Blackwell shook his head. "Snooping around is one thing, but spying on a highly classified meeting is plain outrageous. I don't even know what sort of punishment would be adequate, not that it would deter you. It never does, does it?"

My skin prickled at the word 'punishment' but I didn't dare open my mouth.

"We're sorry, Mr Blackwell," Kace mumbled.

"I don't even know where to start with you, Mr Walker," Mr Blackwell said sharply. Uh-oh, he was using Mr and Miss now? "Thought you could use woodland magic and get away with it?"

Kace gaped at him. "How did you know?"

"I am a warlock, Mr Walker, if you haven't forgotten. I can sense magic just as well as I can use it."

Abruptly, Josh and Vanessa's head snapped up and they exchanged a look. I may even have detected a hint of a smirk in Josh's face before he quickly morphed it into a serious, morose expression.

"Mr Blackwell," Josh began in a glum tone. "We are sorry, truly. Give us a chance to redeem ourselves from this grievous mistake that we have committed without caring for the consequences."

Was that sarcasm that I heard?

Mr Blackwell's lips twitched, as if he himself was fighting off a smile. "Well, I hope you understand your actions would have some serious repercussions."

"We will gladly accept any punishment handed over to us," Josh said.

I looked back and forth at the exchange taking place in front of me, no longer sure what to make of it. Were they even being serious? What was up with the sudden 180 degree turn?

"Remember, you brought this upon yourselves," Mr Blackwell warned. "Since you all are quite the spies, I want you to go underground and question some of the dwarves about the sort of weapon that might have been used to create the wounds on the skin of the victims. But you mustn't reveal to them too much. Already the Guardians are in panic as it is. I don't want the others to start thinking that they are in danger, especially the dwarves. I don't think I have the time or patience to handle the ruckus they create."

"Are they though?" I blurted.

"What do you mean, Miss Young?"

"Are they in danger?" I asked.

Mr Blackwell's expression turned grim. "We all are. But let us not make haste in coming to conclusions. If this situation escalates even more, we will have to warn the others. But right now, I don't think it concerns them. The demons have so far only targeted the Guardians. We need to ensure our safety but we also need to end this murder spree as quickly as possible and for that we need to cover all grounds that might provide us any sort of clues. So, I hope you understand when I say the job I've entrusted you with is very important. We need to figure the weapons used. Somehow, I have got a feeling it is a vital part of this entire...scenario."

All four of us nodded somberly.

"All right then, you all are dismissed. But..." Mr Blackwell's turned stern. "I must not find you three-er, four now, I believe, snooping around. And that reminds me I really need to get rid of the storage room above the Council Hall."

"You got it, Mr Blackwell," Vanessa said. "It won't happen again. You've got our word."

I could see the disbelief in Mr Blackwell's eyes, as if he knew better than to trust us with our word.

When we all were outside, I finally exhaled in relief. I might have kept quiet for the most part inside, but now I was ready to launch a barrage of questions to Josh. I grabbed his arm before he could walk away. He turned to face me, an eyebrow raised.

"What happened back there?" I asked. "He didn't even give us a punishment!"

"Um, he did. Didn't you hear? We have to go and question the dwarves."

"That doesn't really seem like a punishment to me."

"No, it doesn't, I guess. But you should be happy. At least we don't have to clean those filthy stables again."

"But it was like you knew he wasn't serious when he said he would have to punish us."

"It was the part where he said 'I can sense magic' that gave him away," Vanessa said, beside me.

I looked at her, perplexed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that if he could sense magic then he already knew we were there when the meeting started. He could already sense Kace's woodland magic. He could've stopped the meeting and pointed us out at the very beginning."

"Yet he didn't," I said, realisation dawning on me.

"Yet he didn't," Vanessa agreed. "He wanted us to hear what was going on because he knew we could help him with all this."

"But why?" I wondered aloud. "Why would he do that?"

"He trust's us, Ava," Kace said. "We've helped him before and he knows we have potential. Plus, he firmly believes that kids need more than textbooks if they ever have to learn how to handle real life situations. He has a habit of putting us into random dangerous positions without any warning whatsoever to see whether we have it in us to survive, to fight. But the other Council members wouldn't have agreed, you see, to send us on a mission, doesn't matter if it's dangerous or not. Anyways, I'm sure he has a good reason for sending us to talk to the dwarves. I can also bet when we return, he would tell us the lesson we learned or something. Oh god, remember that time when he threw Vanessa into the lake so that she could get over her fear? Like literally."

I felt my eyes widen. "He threw you into the lake? Why?" I asked Vanessa.

She blushed. "I had an unnatural and irrational fear of water as a child. Don't ask me why, but I was terrified of it. I would avoid the lake with a ten-mile radius. Until one day, Mr Blackwell cajoled me to accompany him to the shore. He promised we would just see the sunset. I thought it would be fine as long as I didn't touch the water itself. So I went. Then he pushed me inside. I remember the fear threatening to overwhelm me. I thought I would drown. I was sure of it but I didn't want to die, not so soon. I remember this strong feeling of determination taking over. I knew I had to get out and I knew I could. Ever since then, I don't fear water. At least not as much. The fear might always linger but I've learned to push it back to the corner of my mind so that it no longer matters."

I shuddered a little. I was starting to wonder if all these years had screwed up Mr Blackwell's brain and he wasn't quite as sane as he appeared. "All right. But I don't see how this helps. You might have drowned. You could've died."

"But I didn't. That's the point. Anyways, he wouldn't have let me. He would've come after me if I was truly in danger. I had to trust him. That's one of the first things he teaches us. Trust. Trust your family. Without trust, there's no point."

Josh and Kace nodded in assent. I decided not to argue with that. After all, I remember quite clearly when as a child, mom would sit me down in the parlour of our home, beside the fireplace and tell me stories. The stories could be anything but at the end, when she would tell me the moral, it was always the same. Trust – the most crucial element of a person's life. I could see where the inspiration came from now.

"All right, guys," Vanessa said, cutting me off from my thoughts. "We need a plan if we are going to go question them dwarves."