Epilogue
Julius Bluestone sat on a bed in an otherwise barren white room. The bed's sheets, blankets and pillow were also white. His pajama-like clothes were white as well, matching his thinning hair and beard. The only thing not white in the room apart from his slightly tanned skin were the books stacked next to him, a small form of mercy by his prison warden.
It's been several days since agents of the Magic Council came to his living quarters at the school to arrest him. They took him straight to a room above this one by a couple of floors using teleportation magic, where they made him change clothes before escorting him to his new home.
The room was, of course, riddled with devices and enchantments to seal away Julius's own magic power to prevent him from escaping. Not that he had any intention of doing that. He knew his plans were evil in the pain they caused to children who did nothing to deserve it. And he was man enough to take whatever punishment he deserved for his villainy.
That said, he wondered just how long the Magic Council planned to keep him here. No one told him when the trial would be, or whether or not there would even be one. Knowing how the Magic Council did things, Julius would not be surprised if he ended up spending the rest of his life in this room without anyone saying anything.
He was leaning his back against the wall, eyes glued to a thick volume of the complete Sherlock Holmes series when he heard a knock on the wall and looked up. A section of the wall melted down to expose a small clear glass window. On the other side of that window was Viceroy Kevin Lin's face.
"Well, this is a surprise," said Julius. He placed a red ribbon between the pages of his book to mark where he left off and set it aside before walking up to the window, feeling the cold touch of the floor tiles against his bare feet. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, Mr. Lin?"
"There was some unfinished business I wanted to talk about. It's about the Waller twins' mom."
"I was telling them the truth when I said I don't know what happened to her."
"Yeah, I can see that," said the walking lie detector. "But there was something weird I wanted to pick your brain about."
Julius raised an eyebrow. "Weird?"
With a nod, Viceroy explained, "You see, I had a go trying to use magic to track her down."
"Let me guess," Julius cut in. "The magic spell led you to a random place in the school, only for that place to be empty? It was the same for me, and her former teachers and school friends."
"It did," said Viceroy. "I thought her corpse might've been hidden under the floor or in the walls of the school."
"Goodness, man! That would be horrid!"
"But then I noticed something from one of the enchantments I used." From his pocket, Viceroy pulled out a sheet of paper that he unfolded and held up. "Here. Take a look."
Julius bent down closer to the window and squinted. And then his eyes flew wide open. He looked up at Viceroy and in a hushed tone, asked, "Is that . . . ?"
His voice trailed off, but Viceroy knew what the old man was asking and answered with a nod.
The sheet of paper Viceroy had brought was a map of the school. And along the halls and pathways, through the doors and around the various rooms of various buildings was a single line.
Confused? Then maybe this will help.
Rewind time by two nights . . .
Viceroy Kevin Lin sat in his chair in his room, behind an office desk that, instead of his laptop, had a crystal ball.
Aloud, he spoke to himself, but as if explaining to someone else.
"So, I just cast a magic spell for fortune telling to see if I could find Eddie and Viv's mom. Tried it out on Lily, and it worked find. But when I cast the spell to find Mrs. Waller, or Mary Ann Duskbell, the crystal ball shows me a random room that is clearly part of the school. And that room is . . . "
He took a peek at the crystal ball.
" . . . empty."
He put his hands over his face and covered his eyes as he leaned back with a groan.
"Okay! So this could go two ways. One, I messed up somewhere and the spell is a dud. Or two, I need to call the police about a murder mystery. Personally, I'd rather it be One and not Two."
But when he took another look at the crystal ball, a third possibility showed itself.
"Huh? What's this? Why's the image changing like the crystal ball's showing me what someone else is seeing while they're walking?"
Slowly, view of the random room shifted to the hallway outside. It showed a pair of boys talking smack about their annoying algebra teacher and turned away to a set of stairs leading down.
Viceroy watched, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"Could it be?" He wondered. "I need to double check!"
He rifled through the drawers of his desk, finding a black gel pen that he set by the crystal ball before digging into the cabinet by his right leg. A minute later, he pulled out a map of the school. It was a bit outdated, but it was good enough for Viceroy.
After moving the crystal ball out of the way, he spread the map across the tabletop. He held the pen up over the map and said, "With this pen I assign the role or Mary Ann Duskbell Waller! Wherever she walks now, so too the pen travels!"
And then he let go.
The tip of the pen struck the paper and stuck to it while the pen stood upright without any help. A puddle of black ink spread up to a millimeter in diameter from the source.
Almost immediately after, the pen started moving on its own, tracing a path around the school. Sometimes it paused for a while. And then it started up again. Some pauses were short while other pauses were long. The pen was like a living person wandering aimlessly around the school with nothing better to do.
Back at present time . . .
Julius Bluestone, of course, knew exactly what sort of magic spells the history teacher used. The old man had more than two hundred years to learn every single enchantment under the sun. And the moment he laid eyes on the results, he understood what they meant.
"Eddie and Viv's mom is still alive," Viceroy concluded. He stared straight into his former boss' eyes, certain of his words. "And she's in Bluestone Academy."
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