章 15: Faragonda, the woman of the hour

Faragonda wasn't a paranoid woman. Those days were long behind her and she hoped never to remember that part of her life again. The position of the Headmistress at Alfea helped her see just how bright the future of all Magix could be, especially if it was led by her students. But when Griselda said that two Grounders had asked for an audience with her and that one of them was a fairy – presumably not an Earth fairy as she claimed, it was simply impossible – her paranoia returned with a vengeance.

The problem wasn't that she didn't trust the two Earthlings, or the inhabitants of other planets in general, the problem was the obscurity that they had brought with them. No one in the entire Magix had a shred of information about – Faragonda glanced at the message from Griselda and ran her eyes over the names of the visitors – Nicholas and Bloom. No last names, strange, usually her Deputy was more attentive. Some individuals in high circles will definitely not like this and try to sniff out everything about their lives, right down to the color of their favorite panties.

Yes, for both of them.

Collecting information on people from non-magical worlds was terribly easy and almost impossible at the same time, it all depended on the level of development of the planet. Any magical being or creature could get all the information they needed from the present technology or minds of the planet's inhabitants, that was the easy part. The tricky part began when the government found out about an unauthorized visit to a planet and began to wonder why. Undoubtedly, when the government finds out about the arrival of Earthlings in Alfea, someone from the Planetary Relationship Regulation Department will come knocking. Or worse, the witches of the Threat Assessment and Removal Department will.

But Faragonda didn't survive countless Dark Lords shaking in fear and looking back at every shadow, no. She survived by creating solutions to the problems that surrounded her. And now she had to understand whether two unknowns would be a danger to her students.

There was a knock on her office door and Faragonda waved her hand, allowing her magic to open the lock.

Griselda entered the office, her scowling face and straight posture unchanged from the commencement of the welcoming ceremony. "Headmistress, I brought Mr. Nicholas and Ms. Bloom," she said, and two people entered right behind her.

The first was a fairly tall man with long, ash-blonde hair. He would have easily passed for a Red Fountain student with his physique, but the parts of rune tattoos on his arms that stuck out from under his leather jacket spoke of his involvement in the magical world. They oozed magic.

The second was a red-haired girl – a teenager – with wide blue eyes. She looked around with undisguised interest, trying to see as much as possible.

'It's all new to her.' Faragonda thought, 'she didn't know about her powers until recently. Most likely, Nicholas was her door to the magical world. Him or Stella. They arrived together, after all.'

"Good afternoon, Mr. Nicholas, Miss Bloom. Would you like a cup of tea?"

Bloom shook her head, still looking around, if Faragonda had doubts about the origin of the young lady before, now they disappeared. Nicholas was much more confident in that regard.

"Of course, never had tea on another planet, will be a new experience," he shrugged and pushed the seat back for Bloom, allowing her to sit first, only after that he sat down himself.

Griselda walked around the table and stopped on the left side of the Headmistress. Seeing that both teenagers were waiting for her to speak first, Faragonda decided not to torment them.

"Well, first of all, I'd like to welcome a new student from a distant planet. We haven't had a fairy from Earth for a very long time, to tell you the truth." She waved her hand and a teapot with already prepared tea and three cups appeared on the table. Even if Bloom refused, Faragonda did not find the strength to leave her without tea. It was enough that Griselda categorically refused to eat in her office.

At these words, the girl snapped to attention, her cheeks slightly red. The girl had been lost in her thoughts for too long. "Um… Thank you-" and just now it dawned on her what exactly Faragonda had said, "student? Does that mean I'm in?"

"Of course, we are not going to leave any fairy untrained. Not applying in advance is just a small problem that I, as Headmistress, can easily fix."

Bloom breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed in her chair, now thinking that a cup of tea sounds like a good idea right now. She had been too panicked before to think about Faragonda's question, but now the idea that tea was an interuniverse drink stuck in her head forever.

"I hope you'll like our school." The old fairy smiled. "Now, I have a question for you, Nicholas, what are you seeking here? This is a school exclusively for girls, so I doubt you're here for learning."

Faragonda didn't even know how wrong she was right now, but not that anyone was going to correct her.

Nick snorted. "I am here as a negotiator from the magical community of Earth. You are the only known contact with a bigger world than us."

An unpleasant silence hung in the office. Faragonda and Griselda knew perfectly well that the earth was as magical as the nearest stone by the river. Almost completely empty, except for the remnants of residual magic.

The planet has been emptied of magic for a long time, so to hear that there was a whole community full of magic… It was hard to believe. Especially considering that no one knew the reason for the disappearance of the fairies.

Faragonda was not a paranoid woman, she reminded herself of this quite often. But now she felt as if a fire had been lit under her. So many questions and problems arose in front of her – and in front of the whole Magix world – just because of the arrival of two people.

"... Interesting." Faragonda eventually said. "I think we should discuss this in more personal manner. Griselda, take Miss Bloom to her room, please."

Griselda and Bloom left the Headmistress's office a minute later. Faragonda felt a thin line of magic leading from Nick to the red-haired girl, a tracking spell of some type. This was another problem with Nicholas. Faragonda knew he definitely had magic, but it didn't feel like the magic of fairies or even the magic of sorcerers, who Saladin was. Nicholas' magic didn't even feel like… His magic.

"Is your office protected from eavesdropping spells?" Nicholas suddenly asked.

Faragonda had already heard such a question from countless visitors in her office, but the fact that Nick asked about it said a lot about his thinking.

"Yes. Why such secrecy?"

The man – he couldn't have been more than twenty years old – just shrugged his shoulders. "Paranoia was hammered into me even when I didn't know about the existence of magic. Saved my life many times after that. Would you mind if I put up a couple of my own protection spells? Nothing permanent, I assure you."

After thinking a little, Faragonda nodded and a half-meter magic circle appeared in front of Nicholas and a second later, the Headmistress office was cut off from the outside world.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Nick and Faragonda left her office only a few hours later, when the sun had already set. The sorcerer felt exhausted both mentally and physically, he'd been up for about fifty hours and his only wish was to find a bed or die. It didn't matter what at this point.

After a while, Griselda joined their conversation, providing an interesting amount of knowledge about the laws of Magix and the organization of different states. It was only after that Nick began to see death as an alternative. The amount of political information he forced into his head was phenomenal. The fact that he had to retell all that to Marie later was just a cherry on top.

Not only did Magix was a union of hundreds of magical planets, each of them had their own interests, ideas and desires. It was like a World history of conflict on heavy drugs. What Nick couldn't decide was which drugs this story was based on: mephedrone or heroin. Both options were equally bad.

"Well, that was a productive conversation, I think." Faragonda said with a smile. "Tomorrow at breakfast we will announce an open class covering a new type of magic, Professor Fyre."

Nick just mumbled something incomprehensible in response before he started talking normally. "Do you have apartments or rooms for teachers on campus? I think if I try to open a portal to Earth right now, I'll end up in Ohio, or worse, in Omsk," he shuddered, rubbing his hands together. "I barely made it out last time, I don't need any repetition."

Faragonda and Griselda looked at him strangely, but did not say anything about his strange words. "We have some spare rooms for the staff." Griselda said, adjusting her glasses. "You can take the apartment next to Professor Palladium. He's the elf you saw at the opening ceremony." She glanced at the clock that hung on the wall and frowned. "Forgive me for the interruption, I need to check if all the students are in their rooms."

Griselda took out a list from the inside pocket of her vest – which was definitely too small to hold such a large piece of paper - and frowned even more when she saw five names glowing red. "Five students off campus on the first day, first years too. I haven't seen such disrespect for Alfea's rules for a long time."

"When does the curfew start?" Nick asked.

"All students must be on campus before eight in the evening and not leave the apartment after ten." Griselda replied. "Huh, two of the students are your acquaintances, Professor Fyre, Miss Stella and Miss Bloom. Most likely they left the campus together with Flora of Liphena, Tecna of Zenith and Musa of Melody."

Nick also looked at the clock, which showed close to midnight. He couldn't know what had delayed the girls, but the tracking spell he cast on Bloom was active and showed that she was moving towards Alfea. In fact, she wasn't that far away.

"I think we won't have to wait for their return for a long time." as soon as he finished speaking, five students entered the gates of Alfea, quietly whispering among themselves. Bloom and Stella were at the front of the group, with three girls behind them. Nick was too tired to remember their faces, only noticing that all five had different hair colors.

"Alright, the coast is clear!" Stella said, but as soon as she stepped onto the campus, she noticed Griselda, Faragonda and Nick. "Heeey~ fancy seeing you here, professors," she let out a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of her head.

A girl with dark hair gathered in two short tails covered her face with her hands and quietly howled in second-hand embarrassment. (honestly, same)

"Young ladies!" Griselda began sternly, "we were worried sick! Go to bed immediately, and tomorrow we will discuss the school rules again!"

Bloom looked at Nick, worried out of her mind, but he just waved her off, silently telling her to go to bed.

"...Nicholas, are you sure Bloom is a fairy from Earth?" Faragonda suddenly asked, looking at the departing students.

"Hmm? I didn't get into her soul and didn't turn out all her secrets, but she spent all sixteen years of her life on Earth. Saw her parents too, nice people." He replied, rubbing his eyes.

"How strange…" she mumbled back. "In any case, the time is already late and not only students need sleep. Griselda will show you the way to your room."

Griselda and Nicholas went deep into the campus, eventually disappearing behind the heavy doors of the building, leaving the Headmistress alone with her thoughts.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Nick had never felt so rested. Not after he collapsed from exhaustion after the Verdun Battle, nor after finishing his magical arts training. He had no idea what the fairies were doing with the beds, but he really wanted to know. If he can copy that…

Unattainable dreams aside, his day started like everyone else before – with a huge cup of scalding black coffee in his hand and a message for Marie. He briefly outlined their situation, and it was not an easy one and was waiting for a reply message or call later in the day.

"... In short: no one wants to accept some backwater planet in Magix without proof of magical presence and whatnot. To enter this strange parade of planets, the entire population of the Earth must know about the presence of magic, which, as you know, is problematic. In addition, almost every planet in this dimension has a single ruler, often a monarch, whose daughter is most likely a fairy, and whose son is a specialist." Nick spoke into the magic circle to record his voice.

"By the way, they have a strange militaristic system here tied to the superiority of magic over everything else. Specialists and other interesting personalities from non-magical schools can do little against fairies or witches. So I have no idea how no one particularly stubborn has crushed the state – after all, all rulers are mostly people without magic, and fairies are considered only protectors of planets. The title is honorable, but it carries almost no political power, because all the protector fairies usually are princesses of their worlds."

Nick rubbed his face and continued to dump out a ton of new information for Marie, silently thanking his late teacher for turning his brain into a steel trap – if something gets inside, it won't get out again. He told about several organizations under the control of the state, which included both fairies and witches, and also named the approximate number of magical creatures, which, according to Faragonda, exceeded millions.

The only salvation from a bad mood was that his migraine passed, and his muscles stopped hurting. So, with a calm soul, he sent a message to Earth and went out into the corridor to search for breakfast, where he successfully met Professor Palladium.

"Oh, I wasn't aware that we have a new member among our ranks." The red-haired elf said in surprise when he spotted Nick. "I'm assuming you're a professor who was recently hired?"

The Palladium looked very un-elven for an elf. He did not have indescribably beautiful features, especially tall stature or grace. A normal, slightly awkward and insecure, but rather attractive man with pointy ears. 'Meh, talk about ruined expectations.'

Nick tilted his head, considering the question. "Yes. May I ask how you came to this conclusion?"

The elf shrugged nervously. "Well, the protection on the rooms for the faculty members will not let just anyone through, so you are not an intruder. You don't look like a student of the Red Fountain or Malacoy Paladion Academy, especially considering how much magic I feel from you. And it's hard to take you for a disguised witch. Hence the conclusion: Headmistress Faragonda managed to hire a new teacher while no one was looking."

Nick nodded in confirmation of the words of a fellow professional misfortune. He couldn't help but notice that Palladium, although he was saying clever things, was expressing himself like a teenager. A smart one, but still a teenager – or a young adult who has not fully understood how to communicate with other people.

"I see… Say, can you walk me to the dining hall or whatever you have here? Unfortunately, no one gave me a map."

"Sure," and so, they went on a quest to find food. At least it felt like it for Nick.