Ash could feel her body running but everything was dark and she was out of breath. How much longer she could run, she couldn't say. But there was a stronger desire to run as far as possible. She wasn't running away. She was leading away. Who? What? She couldn't say, she couldn't remember. All she could remember was that she had to run. Run as hard and as fast as possible and reach the chancellor's mansion. She ran up the staircase and and turned a tight corner. The area of the information desk was flooded with light. Great morning light.
It's been a while since she had seen the morning light. It hurt her eyes. She hesitated to step in it. The dark was safe, the light would expose her. The darkness clung to her back, protecting her from view, protecting her from being a target. The light would pull her into view. They would see her. She wished it was dark outside, the feeling far too stronger than it had ever been. And the clouds moved for her. Thick and thunderous rainclouds that darkened the day and pelted the ground with a heavy rain. In a few breaths, the lights outside were muted and the rain had reduced any visiblility.
"Thank you," she whispered and the darkness hanging on her back moved away. "Go and protect him," she said and the two of them split. The dark shape moved across the reception to the dorm on the opposite side and she rushed out, throwing herself in the deluge.
As soon as the felt pelting hit the back of her head, her eyes flew open. It wasn't the rain that had shocked her but the cold. She liked the darkness and its comfort, its warmth. The cold came, very unexpectedly.
"You are awake. And your are late for your classes." The warden said beside her.
Ash moved out of bed quickly, then paused. The warden held a butter knife in her hand and small plate. Instead of food, it had dry flakes of mud in it Ash looked at her arm and found the mud had dried and had been scraped off, leaving behind teeth marks, deep and red but uninfected.
"thank you," she told the warden who shook her head. "I should have been more alert. But it happened while I was sleeping."
Ash smiled, moving her arm freely to see if there was any pain. "You are one strong seer, watching over me for so long. I should be the one thanking you. But even seers are not goddesses."
With a little comfort, she asked, "how exactly does your visions work? I know each seer is different. Some stronger than others."
"I usually watch over the entire campus for any big incidents but for such a large scale, I can only look very little into the future. Then, I watch over the girls' dormitories, so I have a little more bandwidth during the morning hours but if I look into one person, I can far and wide. However, for your, I can only look a little into the furure, as if you have the power of the entire girls' dormitory."
Ash knew the warden was joking to make the conversation lighter. Yet, she found herself explaining. "I was born resistant to magic and its influence to some extent. So that might be the reason. Apologies if that is making your work difficult. And I can handle myself." She dusted the remaining flakes of mud from her skin.
The warden smiled. "That might be, there are people worried about you."
Ash asked of the first person that popped into her head. "Where is Mayra? How is she?"
"Besides herself with worry and berating herself."
Ash stood up, still in her clothes from yesterday, "I will see her now."
The warden moved to the door and opened it. Mayra was right outside, in her pajamas. Ash looked at the window. It was bright and sunny. The dream came back to her. She was protecting someone in it while serving as a distraction.
Mayra rushed in, hair a mess and face pale, eyes sunken deep. "Old Madame. She..." Mayra huffed, "she stablised. Come on."
Ash jumped out of her bed and followed after Mayra, half running, half walking.
"How are you?" outside, Mayra asked.
Ash extended her arm, "as good as new."
Mayra scowled, "almost as good as new. You be lucky that the mud mark did not spread. I do not want to test the limits of your resistance. Anyone else in your position would have turned into a golem by now."
Ash took her friend's hand, "then I am glad it was me and no one else. Now listen Mayra. I want you to keep your eyes and ears open. Alright?"
Mayra frowned. Ash explained, "make a mental note of anyone who asks about my resistance to magical influence."
Ash had an inkling the attack of the golem wasn't a random incident. She was a target. The one controlling the golem had set some measures in place to resist Mayra's siren voice. They had either known Mayra was coming or they had looked into her friend. If Akiye hadn't saved her at the last moment, she would even had suspected the newly appointed representative witch.
Mayra asked, "you suspect foul play? The MoonBlessed?"
"Cannot say. Unless we know the reason behind it, or the person who made the golem, there is no telling why it happened."
Mayra had the same conclusion, "no one was behind him. If they were, I would have made them slip out."
But some of them had responded to Mayra, a witch and warlock, someone who spotted Akiye far away, even Karn and Vance, who were at a distance had heard and responded to Mayra's words.
They passed the empty reception area, down to the usual path and cut right to the chancellor's mansion. Through the trees, she could see the early gathering of the dwarfs who were picking their tools, chattering with their fellows and laughing about before setting off to work. Some of them looked at her and Ash bowed slightly, "good morning."
"Good morning to you too princess." one of them called, and another piped up, "fancy seeing you again."
Ash cut in, "unfortunately, I have been summoned and am in a hurry. I will stop by on my way back."
"Eh? Summoned you say?" another ones grunted, in a sarcastic tone. Ash was not deterred by him anymore.
"You made some acquaintances." Mayra whispered. Ash nodded. "I met the dwarfs on the first day accidently. They were they were taking a break at the time. Quiet the hard working folks."
Mayra nodded. "I have never met one myself but I have heard they are pretty straightforward and hard working folks."
"They are. Nice too. You will be pleased to make acquaintance."
Mayra smiled in her insinuating way again and Ash had the urge to groan. She waited until Mayra had gotten the words off her chest. "Someone will be jealous."
Now she outright frowned. "Who?"
"Karn and Vance." Mayra whispered.
Ash groaned. In her heart. She pointed to the chancellor's mansion. "We are here. How did you find out that the old Madame had woken up?"
"Vance and Karn sent for the high priestess but she was already on her way to the chancellor's resident at the time. She came to check on you, said you were out of danger and went running to see the old Madame. I went with her. The old crone is really out of danger. Still comatose. But there are no sparks or sudden burst of lights from her body. Everything has calmed down around her."
They entered through the side door and made their way to the front. Mayra asked, "how many times have you been here to get in through the side door?"
"Enough times to learn the layout of the ground floor on this side of the house." Ash said. Around the front, the stairs led up. Their steps hurried. On the landing, the door to the far end stood plainly. No light streamed out of the cracks and corners.
Ash opened the door and found the chancellor, his curved back, hunched even more over the old Madame's bed. The high priestess stood by the seer's head, hand extended, light focused in an orb around the seer's head. There was still light streaming out of her eyes, nose, ears but it was faint. Unlike before, it was constant and unlike before, it wasn't streaming out of her body, it was streaming in, filling into the orifices' of her face, pushing into her body. The light streaming out of her body had stopped.
"Thankfully, we contained everything into the room. When did she start absorbing it back?"
"Last night, around midnight. There was shriek." The chancellor said, never looking back. I came up to check but the room was unreachable then. I checked again this morning and no light was coming out."
The high priestess said, "he called me in and we contained the light in the room, before coming in. That window was broken."
That's when Ash noticed the window shades were fluttering slightly. The entire pane was missing Ash walked over curiously and poked her head out of the window. Something zoomed away from the window, flying around the corner. The same thing she had seen the last time. The little flying messenger.
Ash pulled back in and asked. "Did someone in the room send a message?"
The chancellor looked up and looked back down, eyes still intent on the seer's face. The usually serious lines around his wrinkly face were all deep folds due to anxiousness. He was a warlock, born to a selkie and a human. He had lived a human life, supporting the supernatural all his life. Ash felt it was an honorable life. There was only one thing missing in his life, his love, the old Madame.
Ash looked at the high priestess who shook her head. Curiously, Ash asked, "are there any creatures that can shield from your natural ability?"
The high priestess frowned. "Lesser beings, like a golem, a selkie in her original form, or creatures who are too far underwater or further away from me."
Ash asked, "fairies? Fae?"
The priestess shook her head. "their body anatomy shields them from non tangible magical influences. The only thing that works for fairies, both of dark and light, is the words. Why do you ask?"
Ash shook her head. The fairies were tied by a magical agreement to the university's counsellor. it was likely they were listening in for someone else. Ash asked the high priestess. "What happened with her? How did she become like this? And suddenly got better?"
"Not suddenly. The full moon."
"Whatever ailment had taken her body must have weakened under the old seer's power that awakened during the full moon."
"What of the window?" Ash asked.
The high priestess asked, "what of it?"
"Isn't it unusual that the window is broken? As if someone came in or went out?"
"The pane must have fallen off. It's an old building." The chancellor dismissed it and Ash did not press the matter. Something did not feel right.
The golem, the fairies listening in around the chancellor's mansion, the old seer's window broken. All of it happened too fast. Ash did not know what it meant. There was an unease in her heart.
"Calm down." the priestess said quietly. Ash smiled brightly, "when will the old Madame wake up?"
"When she has absorbed all of this light."
Ash and Mayra stayed there for some time until the old Madame absorbed all the light in the contained orb. Then the high priestess took a chair in the room, beads of sweat on her temple. "now we wait."
The chancellor sighed, pushing off of his knees as he stood. "Now all of you go and rest. You need to go back to your classes in the evening. Get some rest. I will call for you when she wakes up."
Ash was still by the window, keeping an eye out. As soon as the chancellor said that, she pulled her phone out, "call me, not call for me. We have a phone for a reason."
The chancellor pinched his eyes. "Right. Right. I will call you. Much faster."
Ash narrowed her eyes, "where is your phone?"
"In the office."
Ash looked at Mayra who turned swifly, left for a moment and came back with his cell phone.
"Do not send any message through the fairies please. Call. I insist."
The chancellor smiled a little. The folds in his face shifting slightly, "does it make your highness uncomfortable to have fairies carry your messages?"
"Yes." Ash said straight. She did not want anything important falling on fairy ears. The chancellor asked, "why?"
"Simply the idea of someone popping on me uninvited and uncalled for does not sit well with me. And what of my private moment, sleeping or baths? Just call." Ash gave a simple reason, diverting their attention away from the matter. The old man laughed, a breathless, sharp sound.
The high priestess said, "I am off then and I will take the girls with me."
As the three ladies walked out, the high priestess asked, "see a healer for that wound on your arm. You are lucky the golem wasn't able to put force its way under your skin."
Mayra sighed, "truly lucky."
Ash knew she was anything but. The golem's jaw had sunk in. An independent golem's attack could force her body into more golem-like by the next moon and if the golem was under a witch or warlock, then her body would start loosing its control to the witch or warlock controlling the golem. If she was a common creature of the shadows, her body would be turning over to the golem. And her as a puppet would be highly useful.
Ash slowed down close to the dig site and the high priestess looked in the direction of the dwarfs.
"Interested in some architectural studies? they are the best around. We are blessed to have even some of them come to study with us on campus. Most of them prefer the rainy areas or tropical forests to reside in, where their expertise shines best."
"We made acquaintance yesterday. They keep morning hours so it is rare for us to meet."
"And yet you have met twice in two days already. Must be destined to an acquaintance."
The dwarfs were picking up their tools when a shivel slipped off its shaft, barely missing another's dwarf's foot. Mayra whispered, "if you are going to chat, then I am coming with you."
Ash parted ways with the priestess and headed towards the dig site.
"Are you alright?" she asked.