The World Unknown
Lusio
Chapter Twenty-Three

"Are you alright, I don't know how to heal you quickly, I don't have a wand and—" I continued mumbling apologies to Amber as she began breathing heavy as she held her broken arm.

"It's – fine." She muttered, clenching her teeth.

I covered my mouth as I looked around the classroom, but there wasn't anything but potion ingredients and books on the shelves.

"There has to be a potion that can heal you, right? I-I could make something!" I suggested.

She shook her head quickly, trying to ignore the pain as best she could, "You need a wand for everything here. Even if you got the ingredients right, you need a wand to mix it all."

"What about the door? I did that?"

"That's the exception, you can't expect a first year to know how to do everything right when they get here."

I let out a frustrated groan as I sat down on a chair. There had to be something I could do instead of just nothing. Nongifted or not...

I glanced down at my necklace and clutched it tightly. What if Vlad and I had just fought for the last time? What if he died out there and the last memory, he had with me was an argument over a necklace? Why did he even start all that drama over my necklace? Why in the world would the mind controller make him say such a thing?!

Unconsciously, I found myself asking that out loud, "Why would he want to destroy my necklace of all things if he was being mind-controlled?"

"What?" Amber asked.

"U-Ugh, it's stupid." I groaned out, "It's just that I'm worried about Vlad. Before he went off to help, he wanted to break my aunt's necklace and I got really upset with him."

"What necklace? Why would he want to break it?" She asked in hopes of distracting her mind from the pain.

"This one," I answered as I showed her the green gem.

She squinted before fixing the glasses on her face, "Come closer," she spoke softly.

I did so since the necklace was small and easy to miss from afar, but as I got closer, she spoke again, "You're not wearing a necklace."

"Of course I am, it's right here." I pointed directly at it, but she still shook her head, "No, there's nothing there I swear."

"How can you miss it?" I asked annoyed, "Vlad saw it too, he wanted to destroy it after all."

"Did you lose it on your way here then, because there isn't anything, ________." She proclaimed again, causing me to pull it off to show it to her, "Yes, look –"

A sudden burst of energy suddenly flew through me, causing me to drop the necklace.

"Are you alright?" Amber asked, wiping some sweat from her brow as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"I don't know." I looked down at the necklace and frowned as I pondered its actual sentiment to me.

Without saying another room, I walked over towards Gage and grabbed the wand off the table beside his arm, "L...LUSIO!" A burst of fire came off the end of the wand my hand was gripping, causing me to stumble back and drop the stupid stick.

"That didn't happen last time." I said breathlessly as I stared down at the burn marks that now covered my wand casting hand. Although it stung, a smile spread across my face. That didn't happen last time.

"Amber, I need a wand quick where can I get one?" I asked quickly.

"A wand shop? Agh– help me down I can't take it, my arm hurts too much!" She groaned as she slowly edged her way to the end of the desk.

"No, you need to stay here, hold on and I'll be right back. I'll go get help." I took two steps towards the door before I had a realization, "Can a locked wand still preform spells so long as the holder doesn't drop the wand?"

Amber frowned as she looked over at me, she didn't answer so I asked again to which she gave an uncertain shrug, "Most people drop the wand after the first burns the wand gives them. It's meant to be enough, now help me—"

I ran back over and picked up the wand before running over towards some of the books, picking one at random I scrolled through it only to find myself stopping half-way through it with a hint of knowledge already.

"A healing potion, Amber!" I shouted.

"A healing potion isn't going to heal a broken arm—"

"But it will convince your mind!" I shouted, jumping on a chair to reach some ingredients on the top shelf, "Claro water with unicorn drool mixed with ten drops of lizard blood to help regrow flesh!" I exclaimed, jumping off the chair with everything in my arms. I grabbed a random bowl and began pouring everything in.

"You need a—"

"Cauldron? Yeah, but there aren't any... So, let's improvise!" I grinned sheepishly as I gripped the wand in my hand, "What's a fire spell?"

"Infierno!" Amber hissed as she fell on her side.

I felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of my head as I said it while pointing towards a book on the same table, immediately I could feel the stinging of the flames as it caused my skin to tighten around my wand hand. I couldn't let go however, I had to do this.

There was a pop then silence, then in the same moment, fire came bursting through the end of the wand as it shot at the book. Once I was certain the fire was enough, I dropped the wand and collapsed on the floor in agony. I had to finish this however and crawled back towards the wand, then the bowl. I set the bowl directly on the fire but knew I'd have to work quickly unless I wanted the fire to engulf the potion ingredients. I held the wand tightly and began to move it in circular motions above the bowl. Though the ingredients were by no means boiling like they were meant to, they were getting hot and so was the wand as it began pricking at my arms.

Seeing the potion turning a light pink however, I decided it was enough and grabbed the bowl from the flames before kicking the wand into the stone floor where it was going to die out on its own.

I pushed the wand behind my ear before grabbing the bowl with both hands and running towards Amber, "Drink this quickly." I said, pushing the hot bowl to her.

She pushed herself up with her good arm and with my help, she was able to drink most of the potion. It took a little more than fifteen seconds before the effects began to kick in and she slowly began to poke at her arm before cringing, "Wow, it actually did something."

"I know," I replied grinning as I took the rest of the potion, "It's not close to as warm as it's supposed to be though, so its effects will end shortly. Let's go find someone with a wand then, come on."

"But we're supposed to be watching him here, so no one can come and wake him up—"

"Fine, you can stay here alone with him if you want but I can't just sit around while the others are risking their lives out there." I protested, heading to the door only to pause as Amber called out after me.

"If you know how to make a proper healing potion, I'm taking these with us, we might be able to find some fire out there since yanno it's a... blast." I punched her broken arm.

-

The sound of the explosions kept us alert as we ran down the stairs, "Let's see if Antonio is free." I said, pulling Amber in the direction of the Talian room.

As we made our way inside, we saw multiple students huddled around and whispering in groups. Although it was a bit of a crowd, I managed to make eye contact with Antonio who quickly proceeded towards us.

"What's wrong?" he asked while carrying something.

"Amber's arm is broken; can you fix it?"

"O-Of course... And what's happening out there, who's attacking—"

"I can't say for sure," I replied quickly, taking note of the growing audience around us, "I have to go back though."

"Your arms, what happened to them?" He pressed on.

"Gage's wand is locked—"

"A locked wand wouldn't do that kind of damage to a nongifed though. Tell me what's going on, _______."

I sighed, pulling him to a corner of the room to get some distance from the others, once there, he waved his wand over my arms, casting Curatio under his breath and removing all the burns, "Someone is mind controlling Alfred to cast the exploding jinx out there, I just want to help however I can."

"You want my wand... to help?"

"Yes, I think some memories have been coming back to me ever since I removed my necklace earlier."

"Necklace?" Antonio asked, a bit wide-eyed, "Okay we're losing time talking here, so... Lucy!" He called over to the blonde girl from before. She chirped up upon hearing her name, "Can you take care of Amber? She's got a broken arm. I'm going with _______ so I'll be right back."

"Ah... I won't pretend I'm okay with that idea," she said, eyeing me nervously, "but Antonio, be safe."

"I will," and turning towards me, we made our way out of the room.

Antonio, who still looked as if he were clutching something finally explained, "I think I was wrong about Gage here."

"What do you—"

He shoved the object in his hands into my arms. As soon as the invisible object touched my hands, I could tell it was a cloak of sorts, "I heard the explosions and I can't even remember what I was looking for anymore, but I found a few of these."

"Invisibility cloaks," I murmured, "In that case, we need to—"

I stopped myself as around the corner, I saw Alfred trapped in a cage like the one they had cast around Gage, he was being carried by Elizabeta, Ludwig, and Vlad. Although he looked exhausted, he seemed to lighten up as he met my gaze.

"Vlad!" I exclaimed, unable to hold back my eagerness.

He gave a wave before coughing into his arm and pointed up the stairs, meaning that they'd be placing Alfred in the same room with Gage.

My fingers gripped the soft fabric of the invisibility cloak as I focused my attention back onto it, "This is proof then."

"Proof that Gage didn't steal the egg." Antonio said bitterly, "But a bunch of invisibility cloaks alone aren't going to be enough to prove Gage's innocence, is it?"

"No, it won't be enough... That's why I need you to gather a few people as quickly as you can and bring them here, please?" I asked, turning to face him as I made my way up a few of the steps.

Antonio nodded, "Who do I need to find?"