School of Sorcery

Chandagnac said:

He waves a hand in the direction of the maddened crowd. 'You've seen them, I assume? Did you notice who their leader was?'

Thinking back, you try to remember if you saw anyone who looked as if they were in charge of the rest, but you don't have a clear image in your mind. There were a few big men standing in the middle of the crowd, you suppose: was one of them their leader?

You shake your head. 'Sorry, I didn't.'

'I wouldn't expect you to. I doubt you saw him for longer than a few moments back then,' Anthikares said gruffly. He sighs heavily. 'Slippery Nik. That's who it is.'

'Who?' You frown, remembering the name. 'The loanshark you owe money to? Didn't Green Flame nearly kill him?'

'Yeah. I guess it took him this long to recover. Now, I assume this is his roundabout way of coming to collect on the debt. Ballsy of him. It may seem stupid, but… there's a pretty good chance that our esteemed headmaster will give him exactly what he wants, just because he can't be bothered to deal with any of it.'

You glance dubiously at him. 'Prentigold would do that?'

'No doubt. On the other hand, I reckon that there's an even better chance that our esteemed headmaster will lose his temper and vaporize the entire crowd.' Anthikares shrugs. 'Either way, I don't need to be a soothsayer to foresee terrible trouble ahead.'

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You briefly contemplate doing nothing; this has nothing to do with you, not really, so why should you risk your neck because of Anthikares' foolishness? However, you soon realise that there are a lot of innocent people who could get hurt or killed if this goes badly. It is entirely possible that you could be one of them.

After you have reluctantly decided to help, you spend a few minutes trying to work out what you should do. Would it be best to hide Anthikares in a safe place – such as the secret room you found – until the angry mob goes away? Should you inform one of the teachers? And if so, who?

You are sure that Green Flame could blast all of the protestors to ashes without much difficulty, but she is less well-equipped to resolve the situation peacefully. You cannot predict what Headmaster Prentigold will do when he finds out about the agitated crowd blocking the entrance to his school. That leaves Professors Kunrath and Glossoloria. You don't know any of the other teachers well enough to have any confidence that they would listen to you, or that they would deal with the current problem without making matters worse. Kunrath is your favourite teacher, who is a genuinely wise and decent person, so you decide to go to him. Not that you don't think Glossoloria is a very capable woman, but you know less about her. Maybe you'll go to her if your first choice isn't available.

'I'm going to get one of the teachers,' you tell Anthikares.

'Who?' he asks, looking worried.

'Professor Kunrath.'

He nods. 'A good choice.'

You don't really know where to find Kunrath when he isn't in his laboratory, so you check there first. You're in luck. He is sitting at his desk, marking a stack of handed-in assignments. Knocking on the door, you wait for him to say "come in" before you enter.

'Ah, Dorian. What can I do for you?' he asks, looking up from his work.

'There is an angry mob at the school gate. None of the teachers seem to have noticed yet, but… I'm worried that someone might get hurt,' you say.

'How many people are there?' he asks, putting down his quill.

'I don't know exactly. About a hundred.'

'This has happened before,' he says thoughtfully. 'Living in close proximity to a wizarding school has its dangers. I try to keep a careful eye on young alchemists to make sure that none of their experiments will explode, release clouds of toxic gas, or result in ghastly abominations which shouldn't exist, but I haven't always been successful in preventing them. Especially not when my students hide things from me. I'm sure all of the other teachers could tell you similar stories. So yes, there have been plenty of times when people have come to the school to complain. It doesn't usually escalate as far as them acting like an angry mob, though.'

'I think someone has deliberately riled them up,' you say. Then, you go on to explain what happened between Anthikares Neroth and Slippery Nik.

'I see. They are being used,' says Kunrath. 'It would be for the best if someone persuaded them to disperse before they get hurt.' He pushes his chair back and stands up. 'Don't worry, I'll do it.'

You follow him as he leaves the laboratory, walks down the path which leads to the school gate, and stands before the crowd of protestors. Although his tone is mild, you are somehow able to hear him over the shouting of the mob; although they are determined not to listen, his voice nevertheless seems to penetrate their angry wall of verbiage. One by one, they fall silent.

All he said was, 'I wonder if you've thought this through.'

One of the protesters hurls a brick at him. Seeing that, someone else chucks a bottle. Kunrath's hands move, quick as an eyeblink – did he have a strange grey powder which he tossed into the air ahead of him? – there is a sudden flash of light and a whoosh of flame. Then, when the smoke clears, there is no sign of the objects that were thrown at him. It is as if they were reduced to dust.

'I am not the most powerful wizard at this school,' Kunrath says, his voice ringing out clear as a bell in the silence which follows. 'But if all of you attacked me at once, forced me to defend myself or be killed, I think I would give a good account of myself. Some of you might survive, but not many. And there are at least a dozen others as skilled as me, to say nothing of the older students who are almost full-fledged wizards in their own right.'

He sighs and shakes his head. 'Think about what you are doing. Do you truly believe that this will end well for you? Even if, by some miracle, you were able to burn down the school and kill everyone within, do you think the regional governor would take kindly to your destroying one of his major sources of revenue and prestige? Most likely, he would have all of you hunted down and publicly executed. Is that what you want?' He pauses, surveying the agitated mob, one by one. It doesn't take as long as you might expect: ever since his trick with the fireball, the crowd has been mysteriously thinning. Barely half of them remain. 'What exactly do you hope to accomplish here?'

'You've been releasing poisonous fumes onto the streets!' cries one of the protesters, braver than the others. 'People have died!'

'I know that has happened in the past and I am sorry,' Kunrath replies. 'But that hasn't happened in years, not since I tightened up the safety regulations. Why are you protesting now?'

'You've been releasing mutated lizard people into the sewers!' yells someone else.

'Even if that was true, what does it matter to you? The only proper sewer system in this city is in the noble district, where it was converted from the old catacombs. None of you look like nobles to me. Why do you care if a bunch of spoilt aristocrats have to worry about lizard people popping up out of the drains?'

'It's the principle of the thing!'

'Nik said…' At that, the protestors gasp when they realise that their leader – the demagogue who was trying to turn them into a bloodthirsty mob – has disappeared since the beginning of this conversation. 'Nik said… Wait, where the hell has he gone?'

'I think that's something you need to sort out for yourselves,' says Kunrath, walking away, satisfied.