Indigo's door portal had taken her home to the Eastern Campus, home of the Witchcraft and Artificer Departments located on the distant outskirts of the city. The campus was carefully shuffled away from any 'important' parts of the city; both departments were inclined to have a... negative effect on their surroundings. High concentrations of Witchcraft occasionally made the laws of reality stop working: one could walk for miles only to come out next door, or accidentally wander into next week. Meanwhile the Artificers loved reckless experimentation. A lot. Loud noises and explosions were commonplace, and having bits of metal rain down on one’s head wasn’t very popular with the locals.
It made for the perfect combination of things city officials and any student with a reputation to uphold want nothing to do with. Why they decided to put explosions and empathetic magic right next to each other was a complete mystery, but the witches and artificers compromised by splitting the campus in two with an impossibly thick wall; thick enough that the witches didn't have to constantly hear explosions and the artificers didn't have to worry about their constructs suddenly developing a terminally depressed consciousness.
The door portal conveniently linked to another door right outside Aqua’s tower; a pudgy round thing that jutted out of a yellow brick two story house. The roof was lined with mossy clay tiles, and a wide variety of colourful vines raced each other to the top of the tower. The property even had its own little garden surrounding it, growing a wide variety of herbs and flowers that were far rarer than they looked.
The structure was old; Aqua had built it nearly two hundred years ago when she settled down as a professor. Located right on the edge of a huge open field and a collection of buildings known only as The City, one would never guess that it was built right in the heart of the Witchcraft's side of the Eastern campus. In fact, if one were to fly over top of the campus one would see nothing more than a compound of buildings no bigger than a city block, with a small garden of crops and an orchard.
But space worked differently within the Department of Witchcraft. Up close, things quickly lost any sense of logic. A small cottage might contain an enormous lecture hall within it, or a huge warehouse might only contain enough space for a mysterious chest. The small garden of crops suddenly became enormous fields of wheat and corn, and the orchard transformed into a dark magical forest full of secrets.
At its core, witchcraft was not a logical nor sympathetic magic. It was an empathetic magic, one that imprinted the wide variety of wants and fears of the campus’ residents on the very fabric of reality. It created a place that was alive, constantly shifting forgotten corridors and abandoned rooms around. It was a nightmare to navigate for outsiders; even if one knew the secret to navigating it, it was still a difficult task to not get drawn off course and accidentally discover a secret garden or two.
But Indigo loved this place. It was her home, and the home to many other witches; some of whom had nothing better to do than to hide in their cottages and sneer at the younger witches accidentally stumbling into their ‘secret’ gardens.
Such as the gang of half a dozen men and women who were currently crowded around the entrance to Indigo’s newly inherited home. From a distance they looked like a crowd of lost pallbearers thanks to their black robes and depressing cloaks, but their pointy hats gave away their true nature. Indigo’s gut lurched as she drew near; she already felt exhausted from her meeting with the President and this gang of troublemakers was the last thing she needed right now.
The dour looking witches were banging loudly on Indigo’s iron black door as she approached, their shouts and screeching loud enough to chase off the pair of nesting owls that lived under the eaves of Aqua’s- no- Indigo’s tower.
“You can’t hide up there forever, Indigo!! We have a right to answers!!” yelled a tall, elderly woman with a hook nose covered in carefully cultivated warts. “Aqua would never choose an apprentice to take over her council seat!”
“Ah, actually I-I graduated four years ago… I’m a proper witch...”
The crowd spun around as one at Indigo’s quiet answer, sour expressions of shock and surprise on their faces.
“Wha- How did you get over there?!” shouted an elderly balding man at the back of the crowd.
“She clearly walked there, Slate!!” snapped back the hook nosed witch. She eyeballed Indigo as if daring her to deny it.
“Uh- Yes, I walked here. Umm… Miss Oxford, were you folks here for the letter again?”
“Yes!” shouted the witch, marching up to Indigo to jab a finger at her. “As the elders of the Caeruleus Sect, we cannot sit idly by as a mere amateur attempts a coupe deetat right from under our noses!”
“Ah, I think it’s pronounced coup d’etat actually-”
“I don’t care how it’s spelled!” Indigo couldn’t stop herself from flinching as the older woman practically screamed in her face. “Or pronounced, or whatever! I demand you show us the letter Aqua left in her office! And if you can’t…”
The witch stepped back, a sneer on her face. “Then it means she never wrote one, because you disposed of her and stole her seat!!”
“Yeah!” “Thief!” “But I thought she was inside the tower...”
Miss Oxford’s triumphant smile was joined by a variety of jeers from the crowd, as well as Slate’s confused mutters.
The lump in Indigo’s throat tightened as she stared at the witch in shocked bewilderment, astounded by her train of thought. The idea that Indigo had the motive to ‘dispose’ of her own mother, let alone that she was powerful enough to even attempt such a thing was absurd, not to mention offensive. There was nothing in the world that Indigo wanted more than to have her mother come home and take this terrible weight off her shoulders.
“Miss Oxford- I have the letter, but I can’t let you read it. There’s confidential-”
“Trying to cover up your guilt won’t work on me! If you can’t show us the letter, we’ll have you removed from office!”
“I-I-” stuttered Indigo. Removed from office? She hadn’t even gotten started!
“W-what if you talk to the other council members? Like Lady Rust! She can vouch for me!”
“And trust a member of another sect?! This is an internal matter!” Miss Oxford sighed and shook her head, somehow managing to look even more insulted than before. “What an outrageous suggestion! If that’s the best you can come up with, you’re undoubtedly unsuited for this job!!”
“W-wait, that’s not-” tried Indigo.
“Hmph!” “Indeed!” “What a disaster!” “Wait, does that mean she wasn’t in the tower when we got here...?” The gang of elderly witches promptly followed up like a pack of well trained dogs, except for Slate who was still a little confused.
“Clearly what this Sect needs is stable, wise leadership! In this time of crisis, we must turn to our elders and seek their guidance!”
Miss Oxford snapped the fan shut and pointed it like a weapon at Indigo.
“Miss Indigo, you cannot prove that you did not unjustly steal the seat of Sect Leader away from Lady Aqua! As such, I demand a hearing! Tonight, at the stroke of midnight, the wisest members of our great and ancient Sect shall form a coven to determine your guilt!”
Miss Oxford smirked, her victory self-assured. “We’ll have you expelled and install a proper wise leader.”
“W-what?!” Indigo couldn’t believe her ears. How was any of this fair?! “That’s not- you can’t just accuse me and-and not give me a chance to defend myself!”
“Then prove your innocence tonight!” Miss Oxford stuck her nose in the air and began walking away, her posse of followers trailing behind. “We’ll be waiting to see what kind of excuses you come up with.”
“Excu- what?!” Indigo sputtered in astonishment as the morbidly dressed gang of ‘elders’ made their way back into the city, throwing sneers and faces at her as they went.
Once the last one had disappeared, Indigo let herself collapse to her knees and stared up at the giant old house. She had once called it her home but now it felt more like an enormous burden.
“Oh… hell.”
The situation was absurd; beyond absurd and well into the realm of insanity. It was almost like Oxford and her gang were on a different plane of existence. But as ridiculous as this whole situation was, she needed them on her side. The Caeruleus Sect had around sixteen active witches; decent for a medium sized sect, but small enough that the fuss those six were causing was a problem. Not to mention the fact that eight of the Sect members were spread out across the continent, effectively giving these ‘elders’ even more leeway to do as they wished.
Indigo choked out a sob of frustration, rubbing her eyes in a vain attempt to prevent her tears from escaping. It was just so… unfair. She hadn’t asked for any of this, and yet everyone was suddenly demanding she prove herself to them!
Proof… she needed proof. She couldn’t reveal Aqua’s letter; not only would that destroy her mother’s reputation and have her condemned as a criminal, but Indigo herself might end up implicated. But Oxford and her gang were a stubborn bunch; once they had latched on to an idea, only a cold hard slap of reality would make them let go. A decisive blow…
Wait!
The letter wasn’t the only document Aqua had left behind; there was another letter, one Indigo had delivered to the Council herself: Aqua’s letter of resignation.
Indigo leapt to her feet and began sprinting for the Council Chambers. Theoretically the letter had to still be there; academy policy was to keep any and all documents, whether it was a letter of resignation or a receipt, in the campus archives. But the Council was notorious for being disorganized, and even such an important document could have easily been shuffled into the wrong pile. Or worse, it was already destroyed by Miss Oxford. Indigo’s heart leapt into her mouth as she considered the possibility- No… it had to be there. It was her only chance.
Got to love internal power struggles.