Moonveil Academy: Trapped With The Five Kings

Chapter 77: First Successful Spell

Elara:

It turned out emotional wreckage really was the key to unlocking my magic, which was probably the most ridiculous discovery I had made since arriving in Starfall.

On Monday afternoon, Professor Elowen examined my seal again while Professor Fenrith observed from the side, and the moment they finished, Professor Elowen gave me the first genuinely good news I’d heard in what felt like forever.

"The seal has loosened approximately thirty-five percent," she announced.

I stared at her.

Thirty-five percent. It was far from completely gone, but compared to the barely cracked seal I had arrived with, it was enormous progress.

Professor Fenrith immediately added that it was more than enough for me to begin practicing simple spells properly. Apparently, all that anger, humiliation, fear, and emotional chaos from Friday night had somehow forced more of my magic through the cracks of the seal. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to learn that emotional suffering was apparently my personal magical battery, but at least I finally had something to work with.

I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing until my head hurt, and eventually Violet helped me work through the locking spell Kairo had taught me. It took several attempts, a lot of concentration, and more than a little frustration, but this time the magic actually responded strongly enough. A faint shimmer spread across my dorm door, followed by a subtle pulse of energy that disappeared into the wood. The lock spell held.

I stared at the door for several seconds before a small smile finally escaped me. At last, no one was going to casually walk into my dorm anymore in my absence and create more chaos.

Well... hopefully.

Because apparently the universe had decided I hadn’t suffered enough yet.

The irony was that the dorm had been damaged again over the weekend while I wasn’t even there. I had returned from the mansion with Violet and Myra expecting nothing more dramatic at least until morning arrived, only to find Mrs. Carter and several members of the academy’s maintenance staff standing outside my dorm with buckets, mops, towels, and the expressions of people who had just been summoned to deal with a natural disaster.

Water was flowing beneath my door and spreading across the hallway, soaking the floorboards and creeping toward the neighboring rooms.

"What happened?" I had asked, completely stunned.

Mrs. Carter had immediately rushed toward me, telling me not to worry, while one of the maintenance workers explained that a tap inside my bathroom had been left running before I stepped out.

For several seconds, I had simply stared at him. Then I had looked at Violet. Then Myra. "But I wasn’t here." My voice had come out almost embarrassingly calm considering the circumstances. "I left on Friday evening."

That had been enough to make the people standing nearby exchange uncomfortable glances. One of the girls who had been watching from her doorway finally muttered that she had seen me leave the academy on Friday. Another confirmed it. Within seconds, the accusation that had clearly been forming in everyone’s minds collapsed under the weight of basic logic. I couldn’t have left a tap running if I hadn’t been inside the academy since Friday and returned just now.

No one said it directly, but the realization spread quickly. Someone had deliberately entered my dorm and turned the tap on. Again. And once again, nobody apologized. They simply disappeared behind their doors as soon as they realized they had been wrong.

I had stood there watching them leave while Violet’s expression grew increasingly murderous.

"Give me five minutes," she had muttered. "I’ll drag every single one of them back out here and make them apologize."

I had actually laughed despite myself. "Don’t. I don’t want another academy-wide spectacle."

In the end, Violet, Mrs. Carter, Myra, and I spent the next hour dealing with the mess. Without Violet’s magic, we’d probably have been there until midnight. Watching Mrs. Carter and Myra work themselves exhausted because someone had targeted me made me feel guilty enough to want to cry. I hated dragging innocent people into my problems. So when I finally managed to place the locking spell on my dorm, I promised myself it would be the last time anyone entered without my permission.

And strangely enough, it was.

The days that followed passed in a way I hadn’t experienced since arriving at Moonveil Academy - peacefully. No garbage mysteriously appeared in my dorm. No taps were left running. No objects flew around me. No one set my belongings on fire through illusions. Liliana didn’t approach me, and neither did Reign or Alaric. Even the random whispers seemed to die down.

At first, I was slightly relieved. Then I became suspicious. Very suspicious. Because nothing in my experience at this academy had ever been this easy for this long. The silence felt less like peace and more like the pause before a storm. I couldn’t shake the feeling that my enemies had finally realized their little tricks weren’t breaking me, so they were planning something bigger. Something that couldn’t be solved with a mop, a locking spell, or a sarcastic comeback.

I hated admitting it, but every single one of their previous attempts had affected me. I had acted fearless when people mocked me, but that didn’t mean their words hadn’t hurt. I had acted calm when they tried to humiliate me, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t gone back to my room and replayed those moments in my head.

I had fought back because surrender wasn’t an option, and not because I was made of stone. And I had no intention of becoming some grand example of what happened to people who crossed Moonveil’s uncrowned kings and queens. I was tired of being their entertainment. So while I remained alert, I decided not to let the possibility of another attack consume my life.

I focused on what I could control instead - my studies, my magic, and learning everything I possibly could about Starfall. Every spell I learned was another weapon in my arsenal. Every piece of knowledge made me a little less helpless. And for the first time, my magic was actually responding.