Visions of Reality

"Uri..." The young man woke up in his room as he heard his name be called by that same voice he had heard weeks earlier in his dream, "Uri..."

"Who is there?" A droplet of a familiar glowing liquid appeared on the ground, announcing the presence of his dream guide, "Am I dreaming?" He touched his face and began feeling around his room, "I am not dreaming?"

"They are coming..." The voice replied as it ignored his question, "There is little time..." He stood up and watched as the droplets headed towards the cloak that Kelly had helped him turn into an invisibility cloak. Uri quickly changed out of his pyjamas and grabbed the cloak and pulled it on. He knew it functioned and walked out of his room calmly before leaving the life dorm in the dead of night, "The knowledge..." He knew what the voice was talking about but the headmaster had said that there was no seventh floor in the academy's library.

"There is no seventh floor in our library," He mumbled to himself as he walked calmly in the night along the path that would lead him to the library, "In our library, there is no seventh floor," Whatever the headmaster had told him the weeks before had made the guiding voice sound like it was just some sort of twisted imagination. Against his better judgement, he entered the library and was glad to find that it was empty, no light and not a single person. After all, it was nearly midnight, why would he have company in the library? The droplets of light began leading him down the stairs as they had done during his dream but this time it didn't seem like one, this was too real to be a simple dream. His invisible guide continued to lead him down the large wooden stairs of the library, further than he had been before in the library.

"Open the door..." The voice said as they arrived in front of a wall on the sixth floor. Uri looked at the wall and wondered if what the headmaster had said was true and in fact he was just hallucinating. From above he heard the doors open, "You have no time..." He then heard voices.

"Asahap indicated that someone entered the library," He heard the voice of the headmaster, Uri was in trouble if he didn't do anything, "We need to find this intruder," Uri closed his eyes and tried to remember what he had pressed of activate the doors and then reached out from under the cloak and pushed on the brick that should've activated the door. To his surprise, it worked, the bricks moving aside and opening a path for his invisible guide and himself to descend into the hidden parts of the academy. Uri turned back as the bricks began to return to their initial position.

"How am I going to get out of here?" He asked his droplet guide as they headed down an unfamiliar familiar staircase, "Are you just leading me to my death?"

"The knowledge..." Uri rolled his eyes as he moved into a room that was nearly identical to the dream he had a few weeks earlier, "Find the book..." The droplets moved around the room as if looking through the bookshelves as the young mage did so as well, "Surviving depends on your powers, Uri..." The book was in the same place as it had been when he had touched it during his dream. However, unlike in his dream, he did not blackout as he withdrew the book from the shelf and then pulled up his cloak to blow off the dust. A thick puff of dust came off of it as he blew on it as only the bright droplets could light up what he was seeing. It was the right book, the 'Dominator's Magic', "Take it... Understand it... Use it..."

"Why?" Uri asked as he wandered around the library, "What else is here?"

"The old world's knowledge is here..." Uri looked around in awe at the bookshelves, "Forbidden knowledge... A curse..."

"How is it a curse? What does this curse do?"

"The curse of knowledge..." The droplets began to head towards a wall in the room before a door was pushed open, "Escape..." Uri hesitated before deciding that whatever the 'curse of knowledge' was he didn't want to have it. The young mage hurried down the hallway as the door closed behind him and the droplets vanished quickly after speeding ahead of him and creating a path of lights for him to follow.

"What do I do now?" Uri asked as he pushed open a wooden hatch and found himself on a forest path behind Mage Haven Academy, "What am I even preparing for?"

"Study... Prepare... Learn... Protect... Survive..." The voice seemed to fade into the wind as it finished speaking its warning to the young mage who still held the old books that he had stolen from the hidden library floor.

"There is no seventh floor in our library, our library," Uri realized that whatever the headmaster had told him wasn't a lie, if the voice was true, that seventh floor wasn't part of the Mage Haven Academy library but of whatever was there before it. It must've been some sort of magical archive that held the most powerful knowledge in the planar system, two texts from that archive were now in his hands and his curiosity would not be kept at bay for very long. The young mage made his way back to his dorm, removing the cloak and wrapping it around the books to make them invisible under his arm, "What did you get yourself into, Uri?"

Under the light of a candle in his room, he placed the invisible, cloak-covered book on his desk and changed back into his pyjamas and decided that going back to bed was what he needed. In the back of his mind, he hoped that his cloak would have protected him from detection in the library. With a small puff, the flame of the candle went out and he closed his eyes, sleep was all he wanted at that moment.

The next morning, as he walked down for his breakfast, he spotted the headmaster talking with Michael. The headmaster talking to the fifth year representative of the life branch couldn't be good news with what Uri had done the night before. The young man tried to ignore them as he sat at a table and heard that the chatter was about the headmaster showing up, "Good morning, Uri, do you have an idea of why the headmaster is here?" He looked at the headmaster then back at Charlotte.

"No clue, do you?" She responded with a shake of her head as Uri began eating, "Do you think someone is in trouble?" Uri shrugged before the headmaster began walking out of the dorm building and Michael returned to his table and started eating again. Uri was confused at what had happened and confused that the headmaster hadn't pointed him out but had come to the life branch.

"Class is starting soon," One of Uri's yearmates tapped his shoulder, "Ms. Rosewood wanted us early apparently."

"Alright, I'll be done soon," Uri replied.

He met up with Kelly once their schedules matched up to give them some time off, "Hey Kelly, how are you doing?"

"I am alright, did my father come to your dorm this morning?" Uri nodded, "I didn't expect him to be in the fire dorm today, did he tell you anything?" Uri shook his head, "He didn't tell me anything either."

"How can you ever read an expression on that man?" Kelly shrugged, "No? Nothing?"

"My parents aren't the best at showing what they are thinking, that is what they have from being at the head of the Academy and being the storage place for a bunch of very important documents that are only for authorized eyes," The tapping of a staff made Uri turn his head, "Who is there? Oh, hi dad."

"Hello, Kelly and Uri, do you mind if I take him for a few moments?" Kelly shook her head and Uri stood up, "Thank you."

"What is wrong, Headmaster Solven?"

"What were you doing last night?" He asked as they walked towards the headmaster's tower, "I have to admit, I don't normally talk to students about the security system that guards the academy, especially when there is an issue."

"What happened?"

"You left your room just before the malfunction of the system," Uri nodded, "What were you doing?"

"I went for a walk, I had a bad dream and couldn't sleep."

"Where did you walk?" Uri pointed towards the fields and towards the lonely bench, "In the forest? Well, at least you aren't lying about that," Headmaster Solven spoke with a calm tone, "I also have something to ask you about, please, follow me," They entered the tower and there were three other people in the room, Owliver included. It was Ms. Hollow and a person he didn't recognize, "I know you are familiar with Ms. Hollow but this is our head of security, Jeremy Eldvesh," He shook Uri's hand, "Go ahead, Jeremy."

"I know this is a private matter, but I have been indicated by Benjamin Solven that you were part of an Oik family," Ms. Hollow had no reaction to the information about him being an Oik, she had probably been told for security reasons, "We picked up a word that came before the security system went down that potentially you know or have heard of," He handed Uri a piece of paper. He read it and then froze, a chill running down his body. The word was Teltovig, "Does this ring a bell?"

"Um, can one of you cast a spell?" The three of them looked at him confused, "I know what this is, it is a spell."

"Alright," Ms. Hollow began casting a spell and Uri mumbled the word. The spell that was being written out shattered and Ms. Hollow seemed to instantly know what had happened, "It is a break spell that doesn't need to be cast."

"It is an," He looked at the headmaster, "An Oik spell," The three older mages looked at each other, "An Oik has been trying to break the security of the campus, Headmaster Solven."

"Thank you for that information, Uri, please return to your day and don't talk about this with anyone, panic is not the solution," He nodded and walked out of the room. It was clear, the voice in his head and the guide in his dream was serious, he really needed to get to those books and prepare himself for the worst.