Investigating the Anomalies

The air in Cora Amauta, usually buzzing with the excited chatter of students and the hum of ambient magic, felt thick with an unsettling quiet. It had been two days since the incident in the potions lab, two days since poor Santiago had been found amidst shattered vials and a lingering, acrid smoke, his arm burned by an explosion that no one could quite explain. And before that, Ayani’s near-fall from the ancient oak in the courtyard, a fall that seemed to defy gravity itself. These weren’t the usual clumsy missteps of young mages; these felt… deliberate.

Emiliano, his brow furrowed in concentration, tapped a quill against a worn parchment. We were in the quietest corner of the library, a place usually reserved for ancient spellbooks and hushed research, but today it felt like a sanctuary from the growing unease that clung to the school like a persistent mist. “The report says Santiago was adding dragon’s breath to his sleeping draught,” he murmured, his voice low. “But the quantity he supposedly used… it would have vaporized the entire classroom, not just singed his arm.”

I leaned closer, tracing the faded ink of the official incident report. “Exactly. And Ayani’s fall? The levitation charm on that branch was supposed to be foolproof. Professor Eldrin himself checked it last week. It’s like someone tampered with it, or… or something else was at play.” My fingers tightened around the parchment. The message about the Centenary Jaguar flashed in my mind, its chilling words about impurity and judgment echoing in the sudden silence. Was this the beginning? Was the legend already weaving its deadly threads through our school?