Chapter 549 549 To The City
Chapter 549 549 To The City
Professor Moon was ready to go first thing in the morning, and she was at Ella’s door even before the main cafeterias opened at six in the morning.
“Lady Ella, it’s time to get moving, I’m expected in the city first thing after business opens.” She whispered as she knocked, while using wind magic to make her voice carry inside.
“One minute, just let me fix my hair.” Ella mumbled as she rolled out of bed.
Gone were the witchy dresses that most of the residents of Forest Grove preferred. Likewise, the fancy armour spell that Wolfe had created for her was tucked away on a necklace, and she quickly ran a brush of Wind magic through her short blue hair before activating a thin layer of Air Armour and pulling on a set of mechanic’s coveralls and a pair of work boots.
That would let her blend into the lower levels with ease, as a mechanic or repair person could realistically be almost anywhere in the entire city and look the same.
She stepped out of the room, looking like the same girl she had been before she left for the Academy, and the Professor looked momentarily stunned as her aura seemed to vanish, hidden with a charm so that she wasn’t immediately detected by both the students who woke up early and every witch within the Fortress City.
“That’s so eerie. It’s like you vanished from my sight, even though you’re standing right in front of me. But we should go, I’ve got breakfast from the staff cafeteria waiting for us in the truck, and the driver has everything prepped.
We head into the city twice a week to make deliveries of potions and such that the students have made, and sometimes do healing or other services for the lower levels. They’re used to seeing me and this vehicle coming in, so they shouldn’t be concerned at all about the contents.” Professor Moon explained.
The vehicle in question turned out to be a lightly armoured delivery van, only slightly upgraded with more aggressive tire treads for the outdoor environment. The farms around the city used dozens like this every day to bring product into the city, so once they were past the first line of guards, nobody would question their presence at all, not like the usual armoured vehicles that the Academy used.
Professor Moon sat in the front with the driver, while Ella tucked herself in the back with the crates of product, which had been arranged to give her a somewhat comfortable seat behind the metal partition that would keep her from easily being seen from outside the van.
“You really have worked on blending into the lower levels, haven’t you?” Ella asked as the vehicle rolled out of the Academy compound.
“I like to think so. This is my personal van, I brought it with me when I transferred to the Academy from the farms. Hugo is one of the Fortress City’s guardians, appointed by the previous Coven Leader as the driver for the deliveries from the Academy, and he’s been reliable for years. The system moves pretty smoothly, and this isn’t the first time that we’ve moved someone in or out quietly.
Usually, it’s Professor Ashcroft, though. She does most of the in-person work for the Academy when they’re dealing with other Witches, since my power level isn’t high. Or at least it wasn’t before Wolfe came to visit us a few months back and cleansed the curse from everyone. I’m one of the younger Professors, so it still had a fair bit of effect on me, and I can feel that my Aura is growing faster now.”
“That’s good to hear. With the threats that the other continents have been making, it is better that we have more competent witches soon. They use a high ranking magical beast to awaken their witches, and it can push them to Rank Two and even Rank Three, where we have to do it naturally, so we’re at a disadvantage in power.
lightsΝοvel But we have home ground advantage, and the human nations still have plenty of nasty tricks available to them. But I think that we all know about those by now.”
Hugo and Professor Moon both chuckled ruefully at the reminder. There was still a camp full of aura damaged witches outside the city, supposedly recovering from the gas attacks. Most people understood now that they wouldn’t be recovering quickly, if ever, but very few knew what Ella knew. That was, that the Noxus Family had been cleansing the damage from them using Wolfe’s instructions, and most of the gas attack victims should have recovered a good portion of their aura by now.
They couldn’t explain that to the Witches in the city when so many who weren’t in the camp still suffered, so they were playing at being crippled while helping out on the farms and staying out of sight.
If she was unable to get a ride in, that was going to be Ella’s way into the city. The men from the farms went in and out all the time, and bringing one mechanic with them was a normal occurrence.
Ella’s senses picked up monsters in the distance, more powerful than they should have been, already in the low Rank Two range.
[Reaper, go take care of that, and see if you can find a Cursed Talisman. If they’re dropping them through Coven Territory as well, we are going to have big problems.] Ella mentally directed her Familiar.
The Reaper flowed from her shadow and out of the door, then moved through the shadows to the trees and took the head from the badger beast with a single strike.
There was a clear path where it had come from, so the now happy undead followed it back until it got to the end of the trail where the beast had been walking down the hard gravel road that led into Sylvan Coven.
[It seems lost, I don’t sense any evil magic.] He pouted as he returned to Ella’s shadow.
[That’s alright, we will keep looking to make sure there are no Talismans being dropped here.]