Chapter ???

William was pretty good at seeing in the dark. Well, not pitch blackness, but he was able to get by quite alright in very dim lighting. That was how he spent most of his time whenever he snuck into the restricted section at night, not wanting to make too much light which might bring attention to himself. The large windows in the library let in plenty enough moonlight for him to be able to find his way around, and he would make a very small purple light in his hand in order to actually read the pages of the books properly.

Many of the students of the academy often talked about how unsettling or even spooky they found the ancient castle to be at night. They even shared stories amongst themselves about seeing spirits or otherworldly beings in certain shadowy places when they were alone. The restricted section of the library had a particular reputation for being haunted, only William didn’t believe that any other student had actually been able to get into it before, so he didn’t put much stock in those particular rumours.

And besides that, William didn’t believe in ghosts, so he wasn’t worried about them at all. He certainly had never seen any himself around the academy; never run into any inside the hidden tunnels or even in the restricted section itself. To him it was all a bunch of superstitious nonsense from a collection of slightly paranoid overactive imaginations. There were plenty of dangerous monsters out in the world that he had read about from books in the library, but the academy was probably one of the safest places around.

This is why William didn’t mind visiting the restricted section by himself so often in the dead of night. Sure, it was more fun if Cornelius was willing to come with him, but that was a rare occurrence, and Will wasn’t concerned about going on his own. He would sit for hours in the quiet dark there, reading happily, perfectly comfortable in the solitary silence. Considering that Cornelius was his only friend, Will had become quite used to his own company throughout his lifetime, often even preferring it to being bothered by others.

This night wasn’t all that different from any of the others William had spent here. A bit past midnight he had set out from his room as usual, and made his way through the secret passageways until he reached the still and silent library. Then he started exploring yet more of the many shelves that held countless old tomes that were locked away from all eyes but those of the Grand Magus. It would probably take Will many months to read every volume, and he had a feeling he would most likely get caught again before then. Therefore, he tried to pick out the most interesting books to read during each visit, especially any that might lead him to wherever Alexavier was keeping his brother’s gem hidden.

One particular volume had caught William’s eye due to the fact that it was bound in leather straps. It was one that had piqued his interest early on during his visits, though previously he had not been able to get it open. The way the book was sealed was no simple lock, instead the leather straps that wrapped tightly around it were covered in glowing runes. However, since his first visits Will had done a lot more research on dark magic, and he had begun to learn ways to counteract the light wards such as those that sealed that book.

During his last visit William had managed to break about half the wards, though had been too worried to take the book with him when the dawn light chased him out of the library, in case the magic that sealed it could be traced and lead to him getting caught. He didn’t think the ‘I just found it laying around’ excuse was going to work twice, especially since Alexavier tightened the restrictions on access to this section. So now he quickly retrieved the volume again and took a seat at one of the small desks that were scattered between the shelves, to keep working on unsealing the tome.

It took a while, perhaps a few hours, William was not sure as he was terrible at keeping track of time. But eventually he managed to break through the final ward, the last of the glowing runes going dark, and the leather bindings around the book falling slack around the cover. A greedy expression on his face, Will quickly slipped the bindings off the tome and opened the cover, looking down at the first page eagerly.

William stared down at the empty page in front of him. He was surprised for a moment, but then remembered that some bookbinders liked to leave the first page empty, so he quickly turned to the next. Also blank. Will kept turning more pages, looking down at the blank paper before him with his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. What was this? Some kind of joke or prank? Or maybe a trap set for him by the Grand Magus that was going to leave some sort of magical mark on him, so that Alexavier would be able to tell that he was breaking into the restricted section?

William was about to snap the empty book shut when he saw something that made him take pause. A small black wriggly line had suddenly appeared on a previously blank page. Will leaned in to look more closely at it. It seemed to be an ink marking, but he was surprised to find that it was moving. William blinked rapidly as the ink twisted and turned, forming itself into the shape of letters. Will tried to read the words that were forming, but they unspun as quickly as they were formed, the ink shifting and swirling to make new words.

It was happening so fast that William barely had a chance to catch a glimpse of any of the words, and the fact that they were written in a very scrawly, almost illegible cursive didn’t help matters. Will desperately tried to pick out whatever he could. Some words that he thought he saw included darkness, shadow, spirit, and sight. Some runes also formed from the ink, mixing in with the words, but Will had no hope of properly identifying any of them before they vanished.

Suddenly it felt like a massive gust of wind hit William from the side as it rushed through the room, rustling loose pages of the volumes on the shelves. The small purple light Will had summoned to aid him in reading quickly flickered out, even though he had not dismissed the spell himself, and the room became darker, as though the moonlight through the windows had been blocked out by clouds.

All of this startled William out of his trance of staring down at the page, and he jerked upright, quickly turning his head to look at the rest of the room behind him. In such a darkness, which almost had a thick, heavy feeling to it, even he wasn’t able to see much around him. But he soon picked out some wavering movement amongst the shelves, which sent a rush of adrenaline through his body. Had he been discovered? Yet, if there was anyone there, they were not calling out to him, and surely other wizards would have brought candles, lanterns or other lights with them if they were searching this area?

William held himself still, hoping if there was anyone there that they might not see him in this oppressive darkness. As he kept glancing around the room, his eyes started to become more accustomed to the dark, and he was able to pick out the shapes of the shelves more readily. And the shapes of what was moving as well. Suddenly, the wizard’s heart was in his throat.

Partially translucent, shadowy figures filled the dark room. They were humanoid in shape, though their only features were exposed teeth on the lower half of their face forming into twisted smiles, and empty, soulless eyes on the upper half. They moved in a shambling manner, their elongated arms swinging by their sides, fingers shaped into long claws.

As William stared in shock at these apparitions, he realised that they were starting to look back at him, as if his looking at them had caught their attention. Then he started to hear whispered voices, though what they were saying was not distinguishable, as these shadowy figures started shuffling towards him.

His wide terrified eyes darted around the room as William watched the spirits slowly head towards him from all sides. His fight or flight response was triggered, but there was nowhere to run, and how would one even fight a ghost? So instead, he just froze in place in fear, unable to do anything as the spectres surrounded him.

Then William’s attention was suddenly grabbed by a slightly louder whisper coming from next to him, where the book sat on the desk. Will somehow managed to tear his eyes away from the apparitions that were headed his way and look down at the book again. In the middle of the book was a shadowy face, just like the ones of the spirits that filled the room, smiling up at him with a crooked toothy grin. Will stared dumbfoundedly into the void of its empty eyes. Then suddenly, it lunged upwards towards him.

William let out a shriek as he lurched upwards in his bed, sending the covers flying. He was blinded by panic and the morning light for a moment as his heart felt like it was ricocheting around in his chest. Panting heavily, Will blinked rapidly, the shapes of his bedroom slowly becoming clear. However, as he calmed, the vision of the shadowy face he had seen still lingered in his mind.

Soon his mind became rational enough to think properly. Had that just been a nightmare? But he didn’t remember climbing into bed the previous night, as he had planned to sneak into the restricted section again. Though perhaps he had fallen asleep at his desk as he often did, and then Cornelius had dropped by and put him to bed as he sometimes did. Yeah, that made sense. He had not been getting much sleep after all, with all his nights occupied by studying, and there was only so long his body could go before collapsing. Perhaps the nightmare had been his body’s way of telling him he was pushing himself too hard.

His heartbeat mostly returned to normal now, William started to untangle himself from the bedcovers and get to his feet. He stretched out in the morning light that poured in through his window, warm on his thin body. He was already fully dressed as he had fallen asleep in his clothes, saving him time as he just straightened them out a bit. Then he was quickly grabbing up his class books and heading out into the corridor.

William knew he had probably slept through at least some of the morning and was late to class, he really was terrible at keeping track of the time though, so he hurried off to where he thought he was probably supposed to be at the moment. Despite seemingly sleeping through the night for once he still felt really tired, and thought he might try to get some rest during class so that he would be ready to sneak back into the restricted section again that night. He wasn’t going to let some silly nightmare put him off going. Nothing was going to stand between him and his goal, especially not some stupid ghosts that weren’t even real.

As William approached the lecture hall he slowed down when he saw who was standing outside the door. Since Cornelius was there waiting for him, he can’t have been too late, else his friend would have already gone in without him. But it wasn’t Cornelius that had caught his attention so much, it was who… or more like what, was also standing nearby.

William stumbled to a halt, his legs feeling weak as he stared at the shadowy apparition that was lingering near the doorway not too far from Cornelius. It looked exactly like the ones from his nightmare, with the clawed hands, toothy grin and empty eyes. It appeared to be aimlessly wandering about, dragging its feet across the floor like some sort of shambling corpse.

“Will? Are you alright?” Cornelius asked as he stepped over to Will, looking down at his friend with heavy concern lacing his features.

William couldn’t pull his eyes away from the apparition, which had now turned its attention towards the two of them. Will thought that he saw its eyes move slightly, as if widening with interest, and soon it was shuffling towards them. Fear radiated throughout Will’s body, but he felt frozen in place, unable to do anything but stare at the spirit.

“Will, what’s wrong?” Cornelius asked with increasing worry in his tone, resting a large hand on Will’s shoulder.

“D…Don’t y-you see that?” Will asked in a shaky tone, raising a trembling arm to point at the approaching shadow.

Cornelius quickly glanced around at where William was pointing, and then looked back at him. “See what?” he asked with genuine confusion.

“You… you don’t… ha… of course you don’t…” Will muttered, his hand dropping back down by his side, then his own eyes widened as the apparition drew close to him. It stopped inches away from him and then stood in place, staring at him with its empty eyes and tilting its head slightly as it appeared to examine him. Will swallowed nervously, continuing to stare back at the spirit.

“Will… what do you see?” Cornelius asked gently, squeezing Will’s shoulder in reassurance.

“I… it's nothing, I’m just tired,” Will said dismissively, closing his eyes for a moment and shaking his head. It wasn’t exactly a lie; he did indeed feel exhausted. Though when he opened his eyes again the thing was still there, eerily watching him, its shadowy form flickering.

“Were you up all night again, you know where?” Cornelius asked in a hushed, slightly chiding tone.

William rubbed at his eyes and nodded in response. It seemed as though it hadn’t been a nightmare after all, he really had visited the restricted section last night and opened the book, which had either unleashed an army of shadow people into the academy that only he could see, or given him the ability to see what had always already been there. The second option seemed more likely, especially given the fact that the apparition currently staring at him didn’t seem very hostile, more curious. Perhaps it wasn’t used to being perceived by mortals.

“Will… you need to rest properly, especially if you are starting to hallucinate! That’s a very bad sign. Please, take a break tonight from it, okay? Get some sleep… for me, please?” Cornelius implored desperately.

William nodded again. “Alright… I’ll take a break,” he agreed without any argument. He wasn’t going to mention the fact that he was now too scared to return to the library after what had happened the previous night. He couldn’t even remember what happened after the ghost had leapt out of the book at him, or how he had even managed to get back to his room. That part of his memory was completely blank.

Cornelius seemed slightly surprised that William had agreed with him without any fight. Though that surprised look turned into even deeper concern. “Perhaps you should go back to your room and rest now?” Cornelius suggested lightly.

Will glanced between his friend and the spirit. “Er… n… no, I’m fine really. I don’t want to arouse any suspicions after all by skipping class,” he explained as an excuse, though the more important reason to him was that he didn’t want to be alone around these spirits right now.

“Alright Will, but after class you have to take a nap, promise me?” Cornelius looked at him beseechingly.

Will nodded in agreement. “Sure, now let's hurry up and get inside before we are chided for being so late,” Will encouraged, pulling out of Cornelius’ grip and darting around him and the spirit, heading towards the door. He glanced behind him and saw both of them following him, the shuffling movement of the apparition sending a shiver down his spine.

During class several spectres had slowly gathered around William, and he found it very hard to try and ignore the fact that they were standing there staring at him, the wizard doing his best not to freak out about it. Eventually they started quietly whispering at him, though whatever they were trying to say was incomprehensible.

After class had finished, William had returned to his room, telling Cornelius he was going to take that nap he had promised to. Though once he was alone, he turned his full attention upon the spectres, which had shambled in through the walls of his room to gather around him once again. Will examined them carefully, trying to puzzle out exactly what they were. Were they the spirits of dead people, or some type of dark being, like demons? Or were they just hallucinations conjured by his exhausted psyche?

William had attempted to speak to the apparitions, but with indeterminate success. They didn’t appear to acknowledge that he was speaking to them, instead just continuing to whisper to him. So, he tried to listen carefully instead, to pick out any words he could from the incomprehensive chorus of voices. This did yield some results, and he was pretty sure he caught a few words like ‘power’ and ‘gem’, and also ‘darkling’... whatever that meant. Perhaps that’s what they were?

The first two words were interesting. Were the spectres referring to Kazamir’s dark gem, the one Will had been seeking? Did they somehow know about his plans? And if so, what were their intentions behind whispering about it to him? And why did they keep futilely trying to touch him? William knew one person that could possibly answer these questions he had, but he wasn’t about to go telling the Grand Magus about all that had transpired. He would just have to try and figure things out on his own.