"My office." The hot voice spoke sternly again, escaping from the rocky lips of a molten rock structure. "Now."
The room's tension drastically fell over every student's shoulder all over again, seeping into their bellies and coiling up with uncomfortable heat.
Mr ignis stood with his arms now folded as he watched the new student slowly rise from his seat, the desk chair scraping loudly behind him as he pushed it back.
"Aww teach, 'didja have to ruin it? I was just about to see fire magic for the first time."Fenrir whined, being the only one stupid enough to joke around in the headmaster's presence.
"Fire magic?" Mr Ignis asked aloud, his fiery expression dimming into something visibly confused.
His one rock eyebrow raising curiously, with an audible grinding sound, whilst he looked over at the approaching Julius.
Julius was silent, not just in dialogue but in nature. Every step was graceful as he carried himself elegantly in quiet steps across the room.
"Yes. Fire magic." Mrs Hatch confirmed in a bright tone with just as bright a smile, her hands folded one over the other neatly Infront of her. "I was about to let Julius demonstrate it for our lesson on basic fire magic."
At once Mr Ignis's rock brows furrowed, as if two tectonic plates shifted rapidly together.
His gaze ran back over Julius who was silently standing a few inches away beside him.
Julius's posture was upright, his gaze drifting away from the conversation beside him as he waited patiently.
Then all at once the tension in the rocks eased up, Mr Ignis breathed a long sigh of exasperation which came out as a small cloud of ash. "Mrs Hatch, fire magic in class could get out of control very quickly. Please follow the safety regulations." Mr Ignis explained in a deep voice, although softer with politeness.
"O-Oh of course, headmaster." Mrs Hatch immediately broke into nervous laughter, nodding in acknowledgement. "Julius being the son of Surtr, I thought it best to let someone experienced give a firsthand demonstration to the class." Mrs hatch explained timidly, her smile visible but wobbly.
Mr Ignis's expression shifted uncomfortably, the carved lines of his rocky face slowly shifting, his face audibly scraping as each rocky part dragged into place.
"Son of Surtr, eh?" Mr Ignis breathed to himself in exasperation once again, immediately sighing once more as he ran his hot gaze over Julius.
Julius's unbothered eyes dropped quietly to the floor, his expression still as distant as when he stepped into the classroom.
"Right. I'll be taking this son of Surtr with me then." Mr Ignis mused sternly with a trace of sarcasm, turning away tiredly and stepping out the classroom as Julius silently followed behind.
The walk to the headmaster's office was deceptively quiet as Mr ignis marched forward with his forearms bent and folded behind his back.
Julius indifferent gaze continued where it swept along the glossy floors.
Julius looked up from the linoleum floors once, only to catch one searing coal peering over at him from Mr Ignis's shoulder.
The heat from that one ember-for-an eye was palpable on Julius's skin, Mr Ignis's fiery gaze burning into him.
Only then for Mr Ignis to suddenly catch a gaze that reflected his own in intensity.
Something undeterred and dark that narrowed toward Mr Ignis.
Something impressive for one as young as eighteen years of age, with human eyes, nonetheless.
With another ashen sigh of exasperation through his nose, Mr Ignis turned to face forward again just as they reached his office door.
The door to Mr Ignis, the headmaster's, office was wooden and a dark chocolate shade.
The door bent inwards ever so slightly at the top half in four split panes, with a rectangular golden nameplate engraved with "Headmaster."
Mr Ignis reached toward a round golden doorknob.
His dark stony hand almost scratching the paint, if not for his purposeful softness, then pulling it open.
The office was spacious but dark, the walls painted an extraordinary faint shade of navy blue.
A faint sparkle unnoticeably flicking across the dark wall.
In the centre of the room lay some sort of colourful furry rug splayed over the floor, with a stuffed lion head of a wingless chimera attached to the skinned fur.
On the far-right side of the room stood bookshelves lined over the walls, in languages most couldn't read or with topics most couldn't understand.
Another flick of sparkling dust that caught Julius's attention, his chin instantly turning toward the bookshelves.
Julius's eyes imperceptivity narrowed on the books, his gaze sweeping past the rug, as he ignored the glowing woman hovering in the centre.
Instead recognising the titles of "advanced magic theory" written in some long-lost forgotten magic as well as several alchemy tomes.
Something flew past the shelves, flicking across the room at imperceptible speeds.
On the far left of the room sat the headmasters desk.
Much more a slab of cooled magma than a desk.
Its edge sloped down into an L shape that continued like a trail, until it was parallel with the desk above it.
"Ahem." The glowing woman finally cleared her throat, she looked irritated as though she had a headache upon seeing Julius...or something else.
Julius's attention finally turned back toward the centre, to face the glowing woman as he finally stepped inside the office.
In the centre of the room hovered a bright burning figure, her skin a shade of bright molten, as if a blacksmith freshly pulled her from a forge.
Around her skin danced an outline of gentle flames that stirred gracefully around her, her hair a thick swish of burning gold in a somehow fixed ponytail.
"Sol." Julius mumbled under his breath, his disinterested eyes running over the sun god with familiarity.
"Jules." She breathed back with a dramatic sigh of exasperation, the kind of sigh a parent gave when informed their child was misbehaving again.
Sol's glowing arms were folded one over the other, her arms of flame however physically contacting each other like physical matter.
Her presence, although so close, never gave off any dangerous heat toward Julius.
In fact, Julius couldn't feel even the slightest hint of warmth coming from her, whereas he could from Mr Ignis.
"Apparently this one is Surtr's offspring." Mr Ignis scoffed as he entered behind Julius, stepping aside to the doorway as if blocking off the exit.
"Is that so?" Sol mused in a smooth voice, one of her fingers now tapping against her elbow.
"I supposedly stopped the students from witnessing Julius's display of fire magic." Mr Ignis added in his usual stern voice, though there seemed to be a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Mr Ignis then crossed his heavy arms, his limbs audibly grinding together as his rock arms folded over, even causing a slight spark to spit from between his wrists as they slid over his other forearm.
Sol's lips of fire parted, breathing another sigh, yet no flame followed with it.
Her posture still straight where she hovered an inch over the chimera fur rug, casting a faint glow over the colourful fur.
The office was silent for a moment, Sol and Mr Ignis stood gazing at each other as if waiting for the other person to speak.
There were no more remarks from Mr Ignis.
Nor an explanation from Julius.
instead the sun god spoke, in a calm and sincere voice. "Jules, why did you tell everyone that you were the fire Jotun's son?" She asked curiously.
The room fell silent once more, save for the occasional flicker of embers dancing around Sol's body.
Julius breathed an angsty huff through his nose before twisting his gaze away from the floor and toward Sol.
"I'd rather not appear weak to a room of teen demi-gods." He breathed casually, speaking almost clinically, calmer than a pond without ripples.
"Is that why you stole the vault? To seem powerful to the other students?" Sol questioned again, the velvety smoothness to her voice never faltering whilst she questioned him ruthlessly.
The room fell silent with the sudden accusation.
"How did you get the vault from the saferoom, Jules?" Sol asked calmly, her curiousness palpable, her smile deceptively softening.
Mr Ignis stood a little straighter, his rock body grinding audibly again as he shifted slightly, his burning eyes focusing on Julius.
Julius's expression, almost as rock solid as Mr Ignis's, never faltered.
His hands were pocketed as if he were finding the amount of resignation he left in them.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Mr Ignis asked in a curious tone as he subconsciously leaned closer, audibly grinding again as his body shifted.
"That's a bold accusation." Julius replied in a stone-cold voice, pausing before continuing.
He spoke calmly, his eyes narrowed cautiously. "What proof do you-" At once Julius was silenced by a weathered piece of parchment that Sol procured from thin air.
Written in golden cursive on the torn parchment were the words "Julius Sparrow stole the vault."
"Signed personally by the sisters of fate." Sol mused with a taunting smile that was mockingly soft.
"Your headmaster is more familiar with me than Halbert, thus I offered an audience with the sisters." Sol explained smoothly with an angry glint in her fiery eyes that betrayed her calm tone.
Julius breathed a long sigh through his nose, his gaze turning away for a moment.
The sister of fate, responsible for overseeing and managing the thread of time, were nothing to be taken lightly.
Many things flooded Julius's mind in this small slip of time, what was merely a moment to Sol and Mr Ignis was to Julius a mind-numbing sense of thoughts.
How credible was this claim to have come from the sister of fate?
Though upon closer inspection, Julius noticed the page was torn at the edges.
Thus even more worrying question began to plague Julius's mind.
Was there a bigger parchment originally?
Did Sol see the original parchment?
How much information was on that original parchment?
"No. Sol has the title of a god. It's very possible she could have spoken to the sisters." Julius thought to himself calmly. "Though if there was more information, then I wouldn't have been asked about how I got the vault. She also thinks I want the students to know, even though none of them know at all, so she was looking for motivation." Upon realising this, Julius smiled deeply within his heart.
Then Julius remained silent.
The shifting of rock as Mr Ignis awaited a verbal defence that never came.
Mr Ignis grew more restless, his short molten hair glowing with his anger, loudly huffing a tiny cloud of ash in anger before reaching out as he yelled. "Where is the vault-"
Suddenly the rock arm stopped in its pathway mid-air toward Julius, as if the arm met against an invisible wall.
Sol's fiery eyes widened, her head turning over to look around the room.
Julius's expression never changed, his expression now more rock like than Mr Ignis's arm where it seemed trapped in the air.
Mr Ignis's rock arm trembled violently, vibrating as he resisted against the unfathomable force.
"How are you doing this!" Mr Ignis roared with a voice that meshed confusion and desperation together all into one.
Mr Ignis grunted as his rock face shifted audibly. "Your files said you were unable to use-"
"it's not him." Sol interrupted to correct loudly, her tone clear and calm.
She stood still where she hovered, her head raised slightly where her chin pointed away from Mr Ignis's arm.
Her eyes narrowed into tight balls of flame at the corner of the room, where a bundle of bright starry sparks began to assemble into something round and complicated all at once.
At once both Mr Ignis and Julius turned to face the corner, Mr Ignis's eyes widened whilst Julius's expression shifted into a scowl.
The delicate balls of light, like fragments from a star, began to circle and overlap one another as it formed into something unimaginable.
Soon the sparks took shape of something oval, its surface coloured a blinding celeste blue.
The shape flipped horizontally, growing until it was half the size of Mr Ignis.
Pearls of starry blue were floating into the shape as it grew, as if absorbing each ball of light.
Then finally the blinding oval had a slight divide running horizontally in the middle of the bright shape.
The divide suddenly parted vertically, the surfaces of the oval peeling back up and down to reveal something starry and endlessly cosmic.
The oval, now a huge floating eye, was like looking into infinity.
The surface of the eye was nothingness, instead like looking into a transparent pocket of infinite stars and galaxies.
The iris was a ring of starry pearls, slowly circling the pupil.
The pupil was a circle contained by the ring of stars, inside were a plethora of illuminated starry sparks.
Each spark glinting unnaturally at different intervals of time with the rest, as if pulsing with separate heartbeats that cast a light from the eye which faded in an out.
A voice tutted suddenly, it was male and comically upbeat. "Ahh, ahh, ahh."
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once. "You won't be doing anything like that to him anytime soon."
Mr Ignis's face froze, for once there was no sound of shifting rock, the fiery light in his eyes dimming like how a human's face would pale with enough shock.
Meanwhile both Sol and Julius stood normally, Sol seemed to breath another sigh as if regretting had ever showed up today at all.
Julius however, as aloof as he always was, suddenly seemed irritated.
Annoyed even.
Mr Ignis had never seen anything like this before, even after seeing as much as he has in his time as headmaster in the academy.
His wide burning eyes, that shot out lights like lanterns, finally blinked with some resemblance of understanding.
Finally he had finally recovered.
His arm, now free from whatever force trapping it a moment ago, slowly relaxed back to his rocky sides.
Mr Ignis finally spoke, his stern voice replaced with something lost in the presence of something so ethereal. "W-What is-"
"His father." Sol answered in synchronisation with Julius, her voice low and unbothered.
"My father." Julius answered in synchronisation with Sol, his voice harsher than normal with irritation.
Mr Ignis stood up straight, subconsciously touching the wrist of the arm that was trapped earlier with his other arm.
Mr Ignis had read about Julius's parents before; he had just never met them until now.
It was Sol who enrolled Julius on behalf Julius's guardian, who Mr ignis hadn't met either, hence his confusion upon seeing the cosmic eyeball.
It was at this moment that Fenrir chose to barge into the office, pulling the door open as he walked in, only to freeze at the sight of the cosmic entity.
At once everything that Fenrir came in to say had vanished in the face of the blinding entity.
The original idea he had of coming to purposely ridicule Julius mid-lecture, was now long forgotten in the eye of this unfathomable being.
Fenrir, who was much younger than Mr Ignis, hadn't experienced nearly as much as the headmaster.
Therefore upon seeing the starry-eyed-apparition, Fenrir's body immediately paled.
His body already tilting back slowly before comically dropping toward the floor, before suddenly falling unconscious into Mr Ignis's arms as he caught Fenrir.
"You said the boy wouldn't be any trouble..." Mr Ignis grumbled in a stern voice, peeking up to glare at Sol.
Between the cosmic eyed entity, the sudden truth thrown out and Fenrir's unconscious form; the vault was now long forgotten.
Until a swirl of black began to spin into existence in the empty corner of the room.
"About time..." Sol murmured with another sigh of exasperation, raising a palm to her face.
"How could this get any worse..." Mr Ignis mumbled under his breath.
Julius slowly turned away from the eyeball without acknowledging it, his eyes focusing on the black swishing that suddenly appeared.
The gazes all fixed onto the black void, waiting to see what would happen next.
end of chapter 2