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StLQ Chapter 2 - Lokora’s Magic Academy
🕑 Added 2025-08-10 11:04:01 +0000 UTCThe bell rang a few minutes later. Mrs. Camila paused her lecture mid-sentence, surprised about the passing time. Students began rising from their seats.
I was thinking of my next course of action for surviving this odd situation, when two hands slammed on my desk, making me flinch. It was Joshua, my friend. His shoulder-length dark hair leaned down alongside him. He stared at me with a look that said, “what the hell did you just do?”
Two more friends showed up around my desk, locking me in on my seat. I recognized them with surprising clarity. Isaac was a tall boy with messy blonde hair and a mature, reserved look always on his face. Higu was a smaller boy with glasses. He looked more smart than nerd, though internally, I remember him being the latter. That was why we became friends in the first place.
“Kai, since when?” Isaac asked.
“Since what?” I asked.
“Since when could you channel mana like that!?” Joshua blurted out. “Did you cheat?”
I leaned back, uncertain on what the proper response was. A lot more classmates were listening in behind my friends. The blonde girl, whose name I didn’t remember, and at least five others.
“I’ve, uh… been practicing?” I said.
Luna passed behind my friends. My eyes followed her. She walked straight for the exit, giving a quick sideways glance in my direction before passing. She disappeared.
“Fucking duh, Kai, of course you’ve been practicing!” Joshua was saying rather loudly. “I’m asking—”
Mrs. Camila cleared her throat behind him, and Joshua’s mouth snapped shut. His posture shot straight.
The teacher scowled at my friends before turning to me. “Kai, you will discuss your actions with the headmaster tomorrow. Show up in his lantern before classes. Miss it, and we will discuss a suspension.”
“Ah, yes,” I said. “Of course.”
The response came automatically. Even years after school was over, my brain still responded to teachers the same way.
Mrs. Camila nodded, her spectacled eyes lingering on me for a moment longer. “Out to lunch with you lot. And Joshua, watch your tongue.”
“Yes, of course.” Joshua smiled awkwardly.
With the teacher gone, my friends were back to staring at me, as if I was some sort of puzzle to solve. My brain worked overtime, trying to figure out what the hell I was doing back in time. The vision had nothing in common with regular events of lich sight. Could I really have gone back in time? Without caveats? To start my life over again?
The thought seemed ridiculous. Those kinds of dreams just couldn’t come true.
“So…” Higu asked amidst the silence. “Lunch?”
“Agreed,” Isaac said. “I’d like to have a table today.”
Joshua let out a deep sigh. We stood amongst the last to leave.
Stepping into the hallway, I didn’t make it one step before memories froze me in place. A warm sense of longing flooded through me. The hallway was odd, yet instantly recognizable.
And one could expect the academy to be recognizable, considering it was quite literally built inside a gigantic tree.
The hallway was shaped like a tube with uneven proportions, walls thicker in some parts than others. We were inside one of the larger branches. The ceiling at its highest was three times taller than me. Floorboards made the floor flat with the occasional singular stair to keep the ground even, as the branch was slightly slanted.
The decorations and ornaments on the walls were still embedded in my memory. There was a small gallery, or museum, of staves from ancient twig-like wands to modern spellcasters. There were pictures of old headmasters, watercoloring artwork, odd decorations—all the liveliness I remembered from the academy.
“Kai?” Joshua asked incredulously, seeing my expression. “Seriously, what is wrong with you today? What did your mom put in your porridge?”
“Something very potent, Josh,” I said. I began walking after my friends, still admiring the walls. We crossed the long branch and all its classrooms, toward the trunk of the World Tree.
I tried my best not to be awed as we entered the larger hall. If this could be called a hall at all. The trunk of the World Tree was just grand. We stood atop a spiraling stairway that circled along the edges of the tree nearly a dozen times. Looking down past the thick railing, we stood around five hundred feet from ground level with another five hundred feet worth of steps to cross upstairs.
My friends were shouting something at me. I looked around at the tree. Ornaments lined the walls. Chandeliers, steel chains, and various odd items hung from the ceiling to make the middle of the tree look less empty. Uniforms were passing left and right, filling the hallways with enough noise that I couldn’t hear my thoughts.
The trunk of the tree was essentially a giant stairway—a hub connecting the branches, where actual classes were held. If students picked a class at the lower branches and chose a class at the top right after, they had no choice but to walk, or run, up the entire tree in between classes.
A fitting place for a magic academy, all right, I thought.
And also, an easy location to trap people in during a fire. An easy place to cause chaos for a potent lich transformation.
The sight of the charred insides of World Tree flickered in my head. The destroyed remains of the academy that once used to fuel my dreams. Some time in the future—I wasn’t sure what day it was right now—all of this would be destroyed, burned down, with the academy’s disbandment.
I pushed aside the thought and followed my friends. Above one of the doorways leading to a branch was a drawing depicting a witch’s cookpot full of purple liquid. We descended about a hundred steps to reach it, and we entered the cafeteria.
The academy’s cafeteria always reminded me of a cramped basement restaurant in a city where business owners had to fight for space. The cafeteria was atmospheric and long, spanning from the start of the gigantic branch all the way to the end. The ceiling of the first floor was low to fit a second floor. Long wooden tables poked out from the ground, as if they grew straight from the tree.
A buffet table awaited at the front. I instantly recognized the scents. Corn soup and jerky. Joshua’s expression revolted, seeing it.
Fourteen year old me would have been right with him. We’d probably consider skipping lunch. At most, I would have eaten a few pieces of jerky and left with that. The academy’s meals were okay. Even if magic was the subject, we were still in school. Cheap food was prioritized over anything actually good.
Still, I hadn’t smelled either meal in years. I loaded up a full bowl of soup and a hefty stack of jerky. Might as well experience this vision to its fullest… I told myself.
My friend snatched an empty table. I joined last, sitting next to Isaac. My movements were thoroughly observed, as if my friends still expected me to say something crazy.
“Guys, I’ve just been practicing,” I said with a sigh.
They said nothing. I faced my steaming bowl of soup and tasted a spoonful.
That’s… actually not bad, I thought. In all honesty, it was better than my own cooking. And way better than Nelly’s, my sister’s, cooking.
My friends were glancing at each other now with seriously suspicious looks. “Kai…” Higu eventually said. “I like mysteries, but I do feel like you owe us an explanation.”
“Which headmaster have you dallied with?” Joshua asked. “Did Donovan offer trade a lesson for a favor, Kai?”
“It was just a candle-sized flame, guys. It's nothing serious.”
“Ah, yes, nothing serious that you’ve suddenly skipped a year ahead of us in terms of skill, Kai.” Joshua leaned forward and frowned at me. “It’s cruel to betray your friends, you know. Since when have you been a goddamn prodigy?”
I ate another spoonful.
Joshua’s eyes followed the spoon. “You’re eating this shit? Seriously?”
I chuckled lightly as I took another spoonful. “This is heavenly compared to my sister’s cooking.”
“Your sister’s?” Isaac asked. “Isn’t she like three?”
I paused. I’d gone back thirteen years in time.
My sister, Nelly, was four.
Four years old.
And my mom was alive.
“Is your mentor a ghost?” Higu asked with a serious tone, looking at my face.
“Wouldn’t be a surprise,” Joshua said. “Something is fucked in his head. Knock knock, anyone there?”
I smiled as Joshua tapped on my head. He hadn’t eaten any of the three pieces of jerky on his plate yet. You’re just as I remember, Josh, I thought. An honest laugh escaped.
Joshua was one of the many that died in the disaster. He burned during the aftermath from what I heard.
Chatter continued around the table. Slowly, the topic shifted from me to more regular nonsense. I focused on eating, occasionally laughing at whatever jokes were funny to us fourteen year olds. There was a lot of swearing, and gossip regarding girls.
The tables around us filled up as more classes joined lunch. A group of girls from another class sat next to us, which prompted my friends to quiet down and talk with slightly fewer swearwords.
Only one table was left entirely empty. Luna’s table a few rows to our left.
The young Lich Queen sat alone in the corner. She held a small piece of jerky with both hands, nibbling tiny bites at it. Her posture was straight, though her head pointed down. I could never tell whether she was confidently alone on purpose, or if she was actually lonely. I’d always assumed the former.
“Kai. Kai!” Joshua was saying next to me.
I blinked, taking my eyes off of Luna. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
Conversation had paused, and attention was back on me again. Joshua leaned forward like a detective who’d found out who the killer was. “Uh-huh,” he said. “I see now. You’re not haunted at all. Is this why you’re trying to become a prodigy?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You’re trying to hit it with Luna?” Joshua blurted.
“What?” I said out of reflex. “No?”
“Seriously?” Isaac said with an amused look on his face. “You’re crushing on Luna?”
Goddamned kids these days! I thought, wanting to pull my friends’ hair out. That girl right there killed me just an hour ago!
“Kai…” Higu said, sounding concerned. “Luna rejected Sainz Edingar and two more city nobles already. Nerds like us won’t stand a chance.”
“To be fair, the nobles have been asking her out as a challenge,” Isaac said. “She has a right to reject them.”
“She’s just plain weird, though,” Joshua said. “Why her, Kai? I get that she looks good and is good at magic, but she’s bad luck. You’ll be cursed for life with ghoul children or some shit.”
I sighed. “I don’t have a crush on her. I just need to talk to her about something.”
“Well, she’s alone,” Isaac said. He leaned back with his arms behind his head. “Why don’t you just talk to her?”
My head perked up at that. I smiled. “You know, that’s actually quite a flipping decent idea.”
I took my tray and stood. My friends paused. Clearly, they hadn’t expected the suggestion to actually be followed.
“Really? You’ll talk to her?” Higu asked. “Are you crazy?”
I was already on my way to Luna’s table. Her unfocused eyes glanced up at me, surprised for a second.
“Hey,” I said with a smile. “May I sit here for a minute?”
