Moonlings: A Clash of Meteors and Mages

Raii Shin went to the library as usual.

Despite her taking on the task of observing Ma'am Ague, she was still not exempted from her night duty. Tonight was the last appearance of the Worm Moon, finally. After it, she could finally focus on her teacher. 

Rex, Sophos, and the others were assigned to different areas to make sure that no one will disappear on the last night of the full moon. They would be using the Sensus, a technique of the moonmages where they can see the energy of the humans in their area. The energy will help them determine their target audience which for now were the young adults aged nineteen to twenty-one.

It was a taxing magic to use and for them to apply it to a large population, they needed the power of the moonlight. It was an advanced power which unfortunately, Raii Shin still didn't learn so she had no choice but to be left out and just focus on her usual duty.

Raii Shin sighed as she sat at her usual spot. She was feeling this slight disappointment knowing that in reality, she wasn't really on par with the other moonmages despite all their kind words telling her that they were just one step more experienced than her and that she was catching up pretty fast.

Of course she knew that it was because she was young and it meant that she could learn more. Still, she longed for the time when she would be able to fight with them side by side. Her part-time job gave her more life than her studies and she was tempted to tell Sir Tanori that she should just ignore college and go full-time but she knew she would just be reprimanded.

She tried to sleep but thoughts of wanting to be more useful flooded her mind. After more than fifteen minutes of not being able to really rest, she lifted her head up.

She had to do something by herself.

The people at the library walked to and fro but with minimal silence. That was where an idea came to her mind. The library of Jazel Academy for the Diverse Ethnics or JADE was nominated as the Best Library for three consecutive years. It was known for its completeness as well as having the highest number of people utilizing it, compared to the other schools.

If it was that complete, then she could find something here.

Raii Shin stood and stretched, her muscles cracking. She then proceeded to the catalog screen and started to read the labels. This should be easy with the help of technology.

Raii Shin had to find anything relating to the kidnappings during full moon phenomena if they had already happened before. 

There had to be something here, she could feel it in her moonmage instincts. If not, she would just go back to sleep.

Since she was looking for news, she headed to the bookshelf with newspapers. It was on the far end of the library and it was obvious that it was the least touched because of the dust. Modern technology provided news through the internet so of course, you couldn't blame the humans if hardcopies were already being neglected.

Raii Shin reached the first stack of newspapers, baffled that they didn't have any further labels. There were also one-piece articles, old magazines, and everything that was present during the 1900s. Did she have the time to check them one by one?

As she tiptoed and attempted to reach the uppermost shelf, her fingers brought down an entire stack of old papers because they were so packed messily that they gave way with the slightest brush of Raii Shin's touch. Raii Shin looked around to see if anyone saw her disorganized a bunch of papers but the librarian was writing at her desk and the students around were either sleeping or playing games.

And as if by the moon's grace and fate's favor, her eyes went round at the sight of a picture as she picked the papers. Her hand shuffled them until she saw it and couldn't believe her eyes.

The picture had a bunch of words underneath it which read About the Author.

The messy pack of papers she just picked were parts of a book and interestingly, it was a book written by none other than a very young Ma'am Ague.

***

''This is quite interesting. The type of paper used, the measurements and the wordings--it's from the 1800's.''

Everyone in the room could feel like they were being joked upon but Amethyst's serious expression told them otherwise.

This time, it was only the eight moonmages plus Amethyst and Sir Tanori. They were seated around a circular table with the book of Maam Ague being 3D-projected in front of them. 

''So you're telling us that this woman who is teaching now in our year 2022 has authored a book dating back two centuries ago?'' asked the moonmage with the name Lupus. His eyes suited his codename well. His grayish blue irises were referred to as 'wolf eyes', one of the rarest in the world.

''That's her, all right. Look at the percentage of the old and modern picture. It says it's 95% the same. So, yeah?'' Even Amethyst was obviously unsure as she didn't believe her own words and kept on rubbing her knuckles, her habit when she doubted something.

''How is that possible? I mean, that couldn't happen for a hu...man.'' The others looked at Sophos as they heard the sudden soft shift of her tone, like she just realized something.

Sophos looked at Tanori.

''Director, would you label me as crazy if you're thinking what I am thinking?''

Tanori just sipped on his coffee.

''Nothing was ever normal here. If we are thinking the same thing, then you have my salute.''

Sophos, the military woman blushed at that. Raii Shin felt a little envy at that. Being complimented by your boss was a big deal.

''This Maam Ague of yours, Raii Shin.'' Sophos turned to her.

''She's not human. She's a Moonling.''