Which group was a hard choice?

The pixies would gladly do something but it would be like tempting children with candy. Their innocent nature would allow them to be used but their fragile bodies would mean a high body count.

As far as I can tell there were two types of beastmen, the carnivores and the herbivores. The carnivores would probably be happy to fight but they would be brutal and kill as many as possible, innocent or not, they just needed a reason. They liked wars but they had a treaty with our royalty. The herbivores seemed more human. At least they were more outgoing and willing to talk. I was unsure if they liked combat like their counterparts, they never talked about it.

Both groups took honor as an almost religious deity. They would not break their word, period. That is assuming you could get them to swear an oath. Once they did they would keep it until it was broken by the other party. So, to get them to fight I would have to understand the oath they took to be here as well as get their oath to not kill everybody in the way.

The person I had seen in my town was not a full beastman, like I thought. Maybe he had beastmen blood or something. I was not sure but these beastmen on campus had the full features of the races that they came from. Examples of this were the Ratmen who had the ears, whiskers, tails and short fur that rats would have and the deer girl who had little nubs where antlers would grow and I saw that the back of her skirt moved from time to time. It was super adorable. I did ask her about the nubs while apologizing if it was rude. I thought only male deer had antlers, you see, but it turns out she is from a mountain area prone to snow so as she put it "She's special" from the normal deer beastmen and was proud of her antlers.

The elves were too hard to read. My best take on them was that they were ultra-violent environmentalists but that was based on only one interaction. I just do not understand them enough to even think about bringing them into a fight.

There were gnomes and a dryad that lived in the garden area of the campus. I didn't even know she was a dryad at first. I just thought she was an older student. I saw her, a beautiful girl with green hair and dark skin, every time I passed by that area she was sitting under a tree. She would talk to anybody that was friendly to her and I had my share of asking for directions when my map failed to have a new area I was supposed to go to. Like I said she is super nice. It was not until somebody clued me in and I asked her that I found out she was the spirit of the tree she sat under and was as old as it. Erring on the side of safety, I did not ask her about her age.

The gnomes I have never seen. There were students that said they were around but so far nothing. They were described to be tiny men and women that tend the gardens here. Since they weren't warriors, I did not think I needed to find them today.

When I was on the roof tops, I saw harpies and gargoyles. I thought the harpies were monsters in the school when I first saw them. It later turned out that they were not "those" type of harpies. I was not sure what the difference was but since they were super friendly, at least to me, it did not matter. Their upper bodies were that of pretty girls and their lower halves were of different birds, from owls to ravens. Their feathers covered everything. If one looked hard enough you could make out their forming breasts because the feathers were thinner and smaller there and I imagined that as they grew older those feathers would not be covering much. The interesting thing, to me, was they all used types of wind magic innately.

The gargoyles never moved, and I thought they were just statues. The fact that students said they were alive was probably just a tale told to younger students to keep them on their toes. 'Don't break curfew or the gargoyles will get you' type of things were said to the freshmen. Either way I was not going to talk to a rock. I would not even know where to start.

There were other groups of races but those were the main ones. The others didn't have enough people in the school to guarantee they haven't been compromised. I only saw one dwarf for example. There might be more but it was too risky without knowing.

I was hiding in an unused classroom trying to decide on who to go to first; the harpies or beastmen. Since I was on semi-friendly terms with the harpies, I was leaning on going to them first. When I finally decided on the harpies, I heard a voice coming from the doorway here say "That is not going to work" coming from the doorway. The chubby kid from the caravan walked in as he was saying it. I had picked this room because it was bigger and had two doors so I was not trapped as far as I knew but I was not amused.

"What do you mean by it will not work and who are you?" I might as well get his name. If he was a friend a name would be better than 'hey you'.

"I mean whatever you just decided will not work. My name is Bentley Graves. My friends call me Ben and my magic allows me to see chances or possibilities. I cannot see what you decided to do just that the chance of it working is not high." His chubby face tried to look serious. Regrettably, it was one of those faces that always gave off a friendly look so he looked more constipated than stern.

"I see." Do I trust him or do I ignore him? I needed allies but this could be a trap. I knew he took bets on the trip so his main power probably was what he said. I could not make up my mind and I must have taken too long because I heard him talking again.

"I know there is something wrong with the school. I also know that you have the biggest chance of fixing it. If I was working with whoever or whatever was the issue I would not have talked first. Just because my main power is precog I still can use minor magics in other elements and could have hit you with a fire attack or froze you in time long enough to stab you." He said something in another language and then he was gone. It took me a minute to realize he was standing behind me holding a dagger but not moving. "Believe me now?"

Shit! He was a time mage and I knew he had the chance to stab me if he wanted to. "Ok, Ok put the knife away. I believe you," I wanted to stop there but continued, "could stab me." I was not completely sold on him not being turned but what could I do. "I will try and work with you but if you betray me I will do what I can to make you regret it."

He smiled and said, "It will do."

We spent the next couple of hours together, which mainly consisted of me thinking of ideas and him shooting them down before I could even voice them. I was going through all the races and it was not until I got to the Dryad that he confirmed a chance of success.  "Whatever that one was will give us a chance. We should build off of that." Ben said. I nodded. So we needed to talk with the dryad. But why? She could not leave her area so she could not go with us to try and free the captives.

"We will need to talk with Silvia. I do not know why." It was his turn to nod and with that we made our way over to Silvia's tree.

When we got there other students were sitting around the tree. Some were studying, some were chatting with their friends and others just resting their eyes taking in the sun. I knew this place was popular and settled down to wait for the others to leave. It took hours before the area was empty enough for us to talk with her privately.

I started once I got close to her, "Silvia, I need to ask you some questions if that is ok?" I waited for her reply and when she gave an "Okay" I continued. "Do you know what is going on with the school?" Thinking that was too vague I added, "With the captives." I saw her face crumble and a sad look replaced the "happy" look she always had. I knew then that she had knowledge about the secret trouble the school was in as soon as her face crumbled.

"I do." Her voice was meek and held endless sadness. "My roots run deep and wide. I can see or hear everywhere they are. I heard their plans.

"You know their plans?" I could not keep the excitement from my voice.

"I do" she said while nodding. She smiled at us while continuing, "Why don't you make yourself comfortable and I'll explain." She gestured to a worn patch of grass next to the trunk of the tree where she normally sat.

I began to move only to be held back by Ben. I looked at him and I saw a very tiny shake of his head. "Sorry Silvia but we are in a bit of a hurry.  If you could just explain it to us quickly we will be on our way."

She did not look happy when he declined but after a second she started her story. Her story took around an hour but I will sum it up.

It began about two years ago. That metal flower we found on the fake Gideon was one of many. They were sold to students with the lie that it would help them secure marriages from the people they wanted one from. All they had to do was put a potion on it and think of the target while near them. Sadly, the flowers were made to corrupt the users.

The next step was to use the retainers of the nobles along with some of the hired help to begin to drug the noble's food. This by itself would not have been enough but they again used dark magic. Weakened from the drugs they stood little chance of resisting. Those that gave in were turned to help 'recruit' while those that held out were taken to the basement of the faculty building.

The teachers caught on too late and by the time they did they were over powered or drugged and taken away. Those in the basement are held with anti-magic chains so there was no way to escape by themselves.

She continued to add onto the story until a bunch of students and a teacher showed up behind us. "It is about time. I have been stalling for the last hour." Silvia said to them. I took a better look at the new group but they were people I have never seen before. We were outnumbered and that is assuming I could trust Ben.

"So Ben, this was the good odds you were talking about?" I was planning on taking out the dryad first so I might have a chance to fly away. So, I was facing her when I heard more voices.

"Tsk, Tsk Alice look at you having all the fun and not inviting us."