The World Unknown
Chapter Fifteen
An Argument

We had ended up discussing some of the memories I had of my life back in the small nongifted town of Chamberlay, both Dylan and Alfred looked astonished by the stories of the times I spent there. As I went on, recalling my days, Dylan seemed to be wondering the same thing I had wondered ever since I heard the news that Melissa and Zyan were in fact, not real.

"If it was an Illendotter, I wonder how you were able to see it? Isn't it that only we can see them, Al?" Dylan asked.

"That's what Allistor said," answered Alfred, making short glances upwards at the kids who seemed to have completely forgotten we were even there as they were so engulfed in their own duties.

"Could it be that you're adopted by nongifted? But your real parents are gifted, and that's why you can see them?" Dylan asked, "Because, I think that explains why you could see that beast. Plus, it would make sense why none of us know you. Even if you had come to this school for like a week, I'm sure someone would've recognized you after all."

"But not everyone is here, Dylan. Probably ninety percent of this school has gone home for the summer." Alfred reasoned, "in any case, there's no way she ever came to this school, a nongifted is still a nongifted."

"Isn't there a way to prove it?" I asked, feeling particularly curious now. This was the second time I had heard that only a gifted witch or wizard could see an Illendotter, today.

Alfred and Dylan frowned at one another as if in deep thought.

"What about a broom?" Alfred asked, glancing down at the broom that lay beside him.

"Even if she could steer the thing, I don't know the differences between nons and us, really." Dylan spoke, still in thought as he scratched his ear with his wand.

"C-Could I see that?" I asked, sitting upright as I stuck my hand out towards him.

"What?" Dylan asked, but as he followed the trail my eyes left, he looked down at his brown and scratched up wand. "Oh," he said breathlessly. A moment of hesitation later, he handed it over with great caution, "wave it straight upwards and say, 'LUSIO' and remember that the pronunciation is important!"

I looked down at the wand in my hand, it felt unnatural, but heavier than it looked. The wood of the wand seemed to carry a lifetime of stories within it, stories which I was not allowed to read. Regardless, I raised my arm out and followed Dylan's instruction as I exclaimed, "LUSIO!"

To my disappointment, but to no surprise of anyone else, the wand did not act. Instead, it lay motionless and innocent as if I hadn't just tried to cast it. It mocked me.

"Brilliant." I muttered, handing Dylan his wand back and glancing over at Alfred who kicked the broom towards me, "If you fly, I can ask Allistor if nongifted are able of it."

I grabbed the broom, compared to the wand, it was light and as I sat upon it, I wondered how in the world anyone was supposed to find it comfortable. I gripped it tightly with my two hands as if at any minute, it would toss me into the air with a sudden jerk, but it didn't. I hopped in place thrice as if it would tell the broom to soar but stopped seeing Alfred and Dylan cover their face and turn away. The two boys above, meanwhile had come to a complete stop as they stared down at my embarrassing attempts to fly on a broom I was never meant to fly upon.

I shoved the broom back onto the spot beside Alfred and nodded awkwardly as I turned my back on it, "I think I'm going to see what Vladimir's up to." I said solemnly while the feeing of shame covered my shoulders like a dark and heavy blanket.

"Oh, come on, you can't let that defeat you!" Dylan said, trying to lighten my spirits, though we both knew that was in vain.

"It's fine, at least I can open the Talian door – somehow." I sighed, thinking back and wondering if that was even me in the first place, or Gage controlling me. As I wondered, I began to ask myself why would he do that anyways? As if, in the moment, that was my biggest concern.

"I'll be seeing you two later, right?" I smiled, waving them off as I exited through the appearing door.

I was on the hall that lead to the Hets garden, just around the corner when I had heard the voices of two people. It was Gage and Hayden.

I peered around the wall that hid me just out of their sights and saw that they were right outside the door of the garden. Gage and Hayden were facing each other and even from where I stood, the tension hit me as I stared on.

"Even if I did, which I'm in no way admitting, that's irrelevant to everything going on here." Gage hissed.

"Calm down," Hayden began, "I don't want you forcing me around like you did Antonio at your interrogation yesterday –"

"You know about that?" Gage asked quickly, "How do you know about that?"

"Never mind you, how I know, just know that I do. If I see anyone else acting as they shouldn't around here, know that I won't hesitate to apprehend you, Gage. That's dark stuff you're doing." Hayden replied, and though he stood shorter and far less intimidating than Gage, he didn't back down. He stood his ground as Gage continued, "What are you insinuating here?"

"I'm not insinuating a thing. I'm just stating that if you try to hurt any of these students, you will have to answer to me."

Whether Gage inhaled so loudly to silence his anger, or the empty hall magnified the sound, I could not tell, "Gold." He began curtly, "you know quite well I would never hurt anyone –"

"Don't say you'd never hurt a soul, you know very well as do I, the history of you and Antonio. I know the crowd you're friends with. They are neither good nor innocent, Gage."

"Oh?" Gage laughed as he took a step back before grinning manically and glaring at Hayden whose once bright purple eyes looked dark and focused. Gage spoke, "YOU'D know all about that crowd, wouldn't you? Pathetic house traitor!" With his larger frame, he had taken a step forward and shoved Hayden hard against the wall, I quickly covered my mouth so as to not scream out to help Hayden, but as I did so, the shuffling of my clothes, though I thought inaudible, seemed to have gained the attention of both boys as they quickly glanced over. I leaned back against the wall quietly and closed my eyes, hoping that if by doing so, I'd become invisible.

"Don't you dare try to stain my name like that. You've no proof I'm Noir and I don't enjoy your accusations, so stay out of my way from now on. You might too, be a prefect, Gold, but we are not equals." Gage had spat at him in a voice much deeper than his higher pitched voice.

After hearing footsteps disappearing, I peered around the corner again.

It was empty, all except for me.

-

Once entering the Hets garden, I noted quickly that the beast was still asleep, halfway between the beast and the door, stood Vlad and Arthur who were talking. I quickly made my way towards Vlad who's face lit up as he saw me, "She doesn't have ears because her last owner cut them off for profit, ya know?" Vlad spoke before I could even open my mouth.

We all glanced back over at the monster who had its three large tongues protruding through its open mouth, onto the grass around it.

"That's terrible." I said as my eyes met the holes on the side of its head where it still had fur growing back.

"She's had a tough life, I'm saying, so whoever took her egg has either a twisted sense of humour,or is a monster who should be expelled." Vlad spoke, his tone was harsh.

"Do you have any theories?" I asked quietly, still studying him.

"I don't want to theorize, it'll only make me angry and one lesson that I've learnt from studying beasts like her is that a levelled head will get you far." He replied.

I glanced back at the creature, then towards Arthur who didn't seem as invested in the current conversation. I wondered whether it would be a good idea to talk to Vlad about Gage and the argument he just had with Hayden just outside the doors.

I didn't get the chance to speak before Vlad spoke again, "I'm glad you came to visit me, Arthur isn't very good company."

"Oh, piss off you prat." Arthur hissed, only half focused on the conversation now that his name was called.

"I would've been here earlier, but I had to tell Alfred about last night." I admitted, "He didn't know until now, but I think it'll be alright."

"What happened last night?" Arthur asked, though Vlad seemed to understand.

"I thought I saw you two together earlier. I wish I had visited him in the wing." Vlad reminisced, "Oh well, is he feeling better then?"

"Yes." I answered quickly, deciding now was not the time to ask him about why since Arthur was here, and the argument were still fresh in my mind. On top of that, he too seemed more concerned with the detinkeller and hope that her egg would be found to begin to talk about his past.

"Are you going to come eat lunch with us?" I asked, "It's not for another few hours, but we'll be sitting at the Talian table with Amber."

"I actually haven't had breakfast yet." He said, suddenly raising a hand to his stomach, "I'm not really hungry though..."

"What if I bring some food for you in here?" I asked.

He smiled again and gave a nod, "I would go out there with you, I'm just scared to leave her alone."

"I'm sure they'll find her egg, Vlad." I said, wanting to pat his shoulder, but accidently punching it harder than I meant to.

He furrowed his brows at me as he rubbed his shoulder and as I muttered a stunned apology, Arthur finally spoke up, "She's got a large nose, doesn't she?"

My hand unconsciously jolted up to cover my nose as I whipped my head around to glare at Arthur before he quickly corrected himself, "T-The monster, not you, shut up."

Vlad nodded, "Great scent, it makes up for her bad eyesight. She used to have some really large ears –"

He was about to continue gushing about the beast's beauty when Arthur cut in again, "Shut up, I'm thinking."

Vlad and I exchanged looks when Arthur finally gave a slow nod as he studied the scene before him, "I think whoever stole her egg didn't come in here today when she started screaming."

"There's no way to know who all came here, though. There's a ton of us." Vlad reasoned, though he too seemed to be considering this.

"I know that, but I'm just thinking. If we could make an organized list of all the students who came out here, we might be able to uncover who came to this garden while she and the rest of the school were asleep, then not only managed to slip her egg away from her, but also managed to leave and hide it somewhere before she woke up and woke the whole school up." Arthur spoke.

"House of wisdom," Vlad said, raising his brows, "you might not be a complete fraud, Arthur!"

"I'm serious." Arthur spat, glaring at Vlad.

"Woah now, calm down –" Vlad laughed, though as he said that, my mind immediately went back to Gage's argument earlier. "I really think you're onto something, but I won't leave her side."

"I can!" I exclaimed as I turned towards Arthur, "Amber can too, she's really good at lists, believe me!"

"I do love lists." Arthur said, beaming, "I'll go fetch some scrolls, can you two meet me at the library?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you there!"

"Brilliant." Arthur nodded a goodbye towards us both before he practically skipped out with glee.

Once he was gone, I turned my attention back to Vlad who was looking at me with the same amount of curiosity.

"Vlad, I have so much to talk to you about." I said, finally surrendering into my theories.

"I do too, actually. Just, not here, not now." He said in a tone just as serious as mine. He suddenly came closer and put his hands gently on my face and put a thumb over my lips as he came in close. He made the movement so suddenly I wasn't sure how to react, "Please help Arthur find that egg as soon as possible, meet me in the boy's dormitory tonight while everyone's at dinner, we need to talk."

From afar, it would have looked as if he had just kissed me, but in truth, he just whispered as if there was someone watching. As my face slowly cooled down, I nodded, "I – um – right." I didn't know why I was stuttering since the situation felt even more grim now. I nodded again and furrowed my brows before stiffly turning away and heading towards the doors.

I now had to go find Amber again.