Mage Knights: Childhood's End

Distrust

Walking through the halls of the Instructory, Crowlin received more unkind glances than he would’ve liked. Most of the glances came from mage knights that were assigned to the Instructory; there were no students to glare at him with animosity, since the spring term had let out a week and a half before and most of the students had returned to their villages to work for the summer. Ignoring the glances, Crowlin continued on to the lab where the body of the dead attacker lay in stasis.

Reaching the lab, Crowlin moved to open the door but found the way barred by the two mage knights set to guard the room. “I’m afraid we can’t allow you in there without supervision.” one said roughly.

“Supervise me, then.” Crowlin snapped, knocking their arms out of the way with a flick of his hand. Pushing open the door, he stepped into the room, one of the knights following him.

Within the room, the dead assailant was kept suspended in an alcove, encased in clear blue crystal. Walking up to the crystal, Crowlin pressed a hand to the surface and spoke a word, which sent a ripple across the surface. The crystal began to regress into the alcove, and Crowlin stepped back.

“What are you doing?” the mage knight demanded.

“Did you expect that I would just stand here and stare at him through the stasis crystal?” Crowlin demanded in return. “What am I supposed to learn from that? I need answers, and staring at him isn’t going to help me get them.”

“You can’t just take him out of stasis!” the knight protested.

Crowlin whirled on the knight. “I have just lost all my mentors and forty-six of the students I helped teach! Do you expect me to do nothing?”

The knight relented with some embarrassment. “Of course. I didn’t mean to be insensitive.”

Crowlin glared, then extended his hands, levitating the corpse of the masked man over to a table. “Has anybody examined him prior to this?”

“Yes. The magic specialists in our company went over him this morning.”

“And they found no spells guarding his body or any of his possessions?”

“There were a few, but they disarmed them.”

“Alright.” Crowlin said, rolling up his sleeves. “Time to get to work.”