The Hellfire Conjourer: Early Days

CHAPTER 1: Quake? Stupid Wolf Boy!

         The day was already going sour. The weather was bad so going outside to practice any spells on the first day of school was a “no go”. I looked out the window. It was shaped like an arch, as was a lot of the castle’s design. Who ever designed it wasn’t very creative. If it wasn’t for the carpet and trinkets that littered the teachers rooms the place would feel empty. But I guess I’ll get over that, it’s better then the orphanage I was staying at. There were about thirty kids in the classroom, my seat was in the far back corner, near the window. I hadn’t really got to see the castle, except for when I was walking to the classes I didn’t know how to find. Luckily a kid named Spay had all the classes I did. Spay, apparently was a Sprig, a half human half other. He was a wolf sprig and an orphan same as me. He had wolf like ears on top of his head and a tail sticking out of a self made hole in his pants. It was frizzy. Also his nails are incredible sharp, as he showed me when he easily carved into the stone of the castle. He was also sitting right beside me.
         “Hey.” he said trying to grab my attention.
He was also very annoying. I tried to ignore him.
         “Hey Aura!” he said, I could see him waving his arms in my peripheral vision.
Damn, leave me alone! He was nice, but I really wasn’t in the mood to talk, I wanted to practice magic. Once at the orphanage I got to watch a traveling magician use a spell to light a fire and wanted to do it ever since. I tried once to make fire, but nothing happened, but the next day the barn did go up in flames. It was now I noticed Spay annoyingly saying my name over and over the way a child does for his mothers attention.
         “Aura. Aura. Hey Aura-” I cut him off.
         “WHAT!” I shot up from my chair and screamed, only then I noticed everyone was staring and the teacher was at his desk in the front of the room. Wearing a brown suit.
Gulp! What they hell, did the teacher just walk in. I looked at Spay who was sitting in his seat innocently. I could almost see the halo above his head. He was smiling humorously.
         “Shhh! Class has started Aura.” Spay whispered innocently fully aware why I had yelled.
Oh! You mother-
         “Ah-hum.” the teacher coughed to get my attention. “is there anything you’d like to share with us-” he looked down at his desk at some chart. “Mister Maika?”
         How’d he know my name? I looked at him, our eyes met and I seen a fierceness I had never seen before. I quickly sat down and shut my yap. I was going to get back at Spay. I looked over at him, he was smiling. Oh he was going to get it.
         “Moving on with that..” the teacher addressed the class, looking at me. I was glad when he finally turned away. “We will be starting our lessons in magic, but to be specific, elemental magic, but to be even more specific, the fireball spell. it’s a very basic spell that is most efficient and has many different uses.”
         This caught my attention and shown a new light on the teacher. I was all ears and ready to learn how to use the spell.
         “We will not be practicing any spells until the middle of the year. I must teach you the importance of discovering your magical capacity and the uses and misuses of magic as well as what happens if you break you spirit line using too much magic.”
         This put another damper on my day and the light that was shining on the teacher went dim. I had to wait three months before I am aloud to cast spells. That was stupid and I wasn’t going to settle for it.
         “I must emphasize the importance of not using any magic until you have learned of your magic capacity. It would be most terrible if you cast a spell you could not handle and died.” he said it so, dryly it was like he didn’t care. But he was warning us so maybe he did. Yeah right, the school probably makes him say it. He could care less if we died from our own stupidity.
         We began reading about magical capacity and how humans, besides the Inanes who have no magic capacity, have the lowest. It goes on to say that other worldly creatures have large capacities. I.e. trolls, demons and dragons. Elves have the highest capacity and demons the second. Also goes on to say otherworldly creatures can cast spells humans cant even begin to imagine and how elves separated themselves from our society.
         If a person cast a spell that drains to much energy from them they could lose consciousness and if the spell is way too much for them it could kill them. If a person doesn’t learn how to adapt the energy to form the spell with the chant that goes with it the spell could backfire. Before casting any spell you should know where the power is coming from. In the case of Deva magic, the spells come from the elementals that are always surrounding us in the other dimension known as the astral plane of Devas’.
         Shamanistic magic comes from the astral plane of spirits where it draws on the life force there to damage the sprit, then it returns. It was all very confusing for me since it was my first day but it was also fascinating. I could tell I had a lot to learn and it was going to be an amazing experience for me. It was way better then the alchemy class I was taking and way better then the creatures of the world class. The creature class was interesting, just the teacher spoke with such dryness it was hard to stay awake, maybe that was because of my early start and first day jitters.
         I was an orphan until a day ago when some strange man named Porion came to take me away. He was willing to pay a thousand gold pieces and so the runners of the orphanage were willing to give me up without questions. After being raised there for eight years they just gave me up like that.
         I snapped back to attention as a loud ringing surged through the class.  Everyone closed there books and got up and left. Spay had gone to and I had no idea what was going on.
         “Are you not going to your next class?” the teacher said, I guess I missed his name since I had no idea what it was.
         “Um yea I guess. I don’t know where its at?” I said, awkwardly.
         He had that, “if you weren’t looking I’d roll my eyes” look on his face. I held out his hand, “come here ill show you.”
         I walked over nervously, trying not to trip, and guess what, I tripped. I fell on my face with a thud and when I got up he had a smile on his face.
         What a jerk!
         Although the smile wasn’t malicious, it was more of a “aw your so cute” kind of smile, and that was worse. It was an insult, I wasn’t cute. I was strong and brave and manly, not cute and girly. I rubbed my face and handed him the paper that had my schedule on it.
         “Here.” he said, I looked up, he had a napkin for me. I took it generously and nodded as a means of thanks. I dusted off my face and wiped where I thought I felt dirt. While I did this he was marking on a map where my next class was.  I looked down at the confusing map of the school. It had squares and rectangles marked with A’s and B’s and AB’s and numbers.
         Wow! I’m still going to get lost.
         “if you want I can escort you to your next class. I’m heading that way anyway.” he said in a softer, yet still dry tone.
         “Okay.” I nodded, hiding my relief.
         We walked out of the classroom, which was on the third floor, and down to the first floor. Out of the building we were in we made left and a right, then some more lefts and I lost track and got lost. I stuck to my guide like a little kid with a parent in the market district. Finally stopping at a arch shaped entrance. On the other side, the class. I couldn’t recall what class it was, given that it was my first day and my classes were all chosen by the man that took me from the orphanage. I wonder where he is?
         “Here is your class. I’ll see you the day after tomorrow.” the teacher said and walked away. Leaving me alone. I suddenly felt self conscious.
         I stepped into the class room. Wondering what we might be doing in the plain room. It had long counters in two columns and six rows. So a total of twelve long counters. There were sinks in the middle of each counter with glowing blue orbs. I knew they were water orbs the minute I saw them. I had only seen them one time before, someone was trying to sell one in the market district. I wanted to buy it but all the other kids from the orphanage said it was probably stolen since where we came from technology like that was rare. I was looking intently at the orbs when I walked into a desk and fell on my face yet again.
         Damn! This is really embarrassing!
         The room went silent and I knew all eyes were on me.          
         “I’m okay.” I said as I pulled myself up.
         “Nice one.” sneered a familiar voice.
         I looked up to see Spay looking innocent sitting in a chair by a window. This room was relatively bigger then the last and had three windows instead of one. I took a seat next to Spay, not taking time to think about how everyone must be thinking how clumsy I am. And I’m not that clumsy. A short man in a dark green robe with leaf green trimming, popped up from behind a dark wood desk. He must have only been about four feet tall. He wore glasses with small round lenses to match his beady eyes. His hair was thinning on top. Bushy black eyebrows with a large nose.
         “Hello class.” he said with a stuck-up “I’m better because I’m older” tone. “I am Mr. Kroel, pronounced ‘Crow-El’, Kroel.” he said condescendingly.
         “I will not accept “Mr. K” or “Mr. Crow” it’s Kroel or detention.” he added and turned to write something on the black board. But there wasn’t a black board there a second ago, it was a blank wall. I think.
         I’m finally going crazy
         As I looked with awe at the magically appearing blackboard Spay was writing a note. I caught a glimpse of it and it was about “Mr. Kroel”. Just so you know, I mimicked Mr. Kroels’ snobby tone when I wrote that. Spay then  handed the note over to me. I was not about to take that, with my luck the teacher would find it and think that I wrote it. I waved my hand to the note and made a face saying no, but like always (or since the first time we met, which incidentally was today) Spay didn’t comprehend my body language and tied harder to give me the note. Before I knew it the note was in my hand and Mr. Kroel was at my back.
         He did that fake cough people do when they want your attention without coming out and saying it.          “You have something to say to the class?” he said darkly.
         He was clearly mad with power, or with what little power he had. I quickly shriveled into weak, pathetic excuse for a person and started apologizing, with sweat running down my face.
         “I-I don’t ha-have anything to s-say.” I managed.
         Damn! This bastard had me cowering.
         “Now now Aura don’t be modest.” Spay said.
         I went as pale as a lich who lost his crown. I was at a lost for words. Fear took over. Mr. Kroel snatched the note from my hand so fast  I got a paper cut.
         Ouch!
         I quickly sucked on my finger where the cut was made, never taking my gaze of the short man. He opened the note with a wry smile and read what was on it. He blushed so red I though he would explode, then his eyes widened so much I thought they were going to fall out. He stormed out of the classroom so fast that I swear I saw a breeze blow around some of the students hair.
         I sat back down, in shock mostly. Then anger took over when I remembered Spay. I turned and looked at him with his smiling face. I was so angry I clenched my fist so hard they went numb. My nails bit into my palms. I think my eye may have twitched. By this time all sound was drowned out by my heart beat. Loud thumps took over like a metronome. Spay was trying to say something but all I could think about was how he got me into trouble, twice. The outer edges of my vision blurred. I hadn’t noticed that the room had cleared, even Spay was gone. But I was stuck like this, in this trance. The large windows began to bend and shake. At first I thought it was my vision, but then the shattering of glass snapped me out. All three windows had exploded, the glass blown shattered and as if someone had thrown a chair out of each one.
         I jolted up and realized that the ground was shaking.
         An earth quake!
         I ran out of the room and found people lining up out side, a ways from the building incase they should fall and squish them. Some people were stumbling and falling. I made it to the field where they all were watching the school buildings with curiosity. I wave of drowsiness hit me so hard I fell to my knees. All I could think about now was how soft the ground was. I thought about making a pillow out of grass but fell unconscious soon after.







CHAPTER 2: All My Fault? Wake up Franky!

         “Do we have confirmation that it was an astral attack?” asked the man dressed in fancy tuxedo.
         The other man was dressed in a brown suit with a white dress shirt underneath. He looked close to his mid twenties, but was in fact much older. He had short dirty blonde hair and leaf green eyes.
         “Yes, from the astral plane. It was more powerful then anything recorded, with exception to the resurrection of Stone-Maker Grusch.”
         The man in the tux rolled the answer in his head for a few minutes. Then sat down in the dark room. A slight light from a light orb in the street meagerly lit his face through the window.
         “And do we know who or what caused it?” he closed his hands together and lifted his brow. He already knew the answer.
         “No, not yet. But I do have a lead. A student of mine, very clumsy, but he has a distinct aura I’ve only seen once before.”
         The man in the tux gave the man in brown a curious look.
         “And when was that?” he asked coolly.
         “The Dark Lady.” the man in brown replied, with a sense of coolness that would have sent chills down the backs of anyone who knew the name. But not the man in the tux.
         “Ahh, I see. You know what this means. He might be-” the man in the tux was speaking with utmost curiosity, until he was cut off.
         “Do not say it. Do not say the name. Something that may prove to be an inconvenience may hear.” the man in brown stated wryly.
         “Does he got a name? One we CAN call him.”
         “Ironically, Aura is his name.” the man in brown said with a handsome smile.
         The man in the tux smiled as well. “Should we begin?”
         “No not now. Whataya know, three N’s. No, it’ll be more interesting to get to know him. Maybe have a little fun while were at it.”
         “I like the way you think, brother. We may look exactly the same, but you’re definitely the smart one.”
         The man in the brown suit smiled at the comment, looking deeply into the eyes of his twin.



         I woke hours later, my head was throbbing like crazy and everything was blurry. I started to lean up, but that made my head hurt even more, so I fell back down defeated.
         “Easy now.” said a familiar voice.
         Who was that?
         “Excuse me? Who are you?”
         “You do not remember your own teacher.” said the unfamiliar blur. I did make out the brown suit.
         “Sorry. I can’t really see.”
         “That should ware off soon. Why did you pass out?” he asked, with a slight curious tone, but also with a “trying to make small talk” tone.
         “I don’t know. Fear maybe.” truth was I didn’t know why I passed out. I don’t really remember all of what happened after arriving to my classroom.
         I looked around the room nervously. I wasn’t really liking the fact I couldn’t see what he was doing.
         “I hope you get better soon.” he said with a hint of sadness.
         “Thanks.” I smiled and watched his blur slowly fade out. I kind of felt bad I didn’t know his name still.
         I fell back to sleep soon after, my vision still blurry. I dreamt about a man in brown whose face I could not see. I woke from the dream with a start when he kissed me. I jumped up, hurting my head and spitting out the fictional taste from my dream.
         Eww!
         What the hell was up with that… it was a man. Why would I dream about a man like that? I noticed, now, that Spay was in the room. Sitting in a chair, staring at me with his knees to his chest. I felt an anger rushing to my head. That made my head hurt, so I tried to calm myself down, but as soon as he spoke that was over.
         “Only girls faint. Are you a girl?” he asked semi-mockingly.
         DAMN! My head started pounding.
         “NO! I am not a girl.” I snapped and the chair he was sitting on wobbled. He jumped off the chair, higher then any human could and landed on all fours. He stood up and started at the chair, then back at me.
         “You did that?” he pointed to the chair.
         “I don’t know. Why?”
         “Because that was kind of cool. Can you try it again?”
         I rolled my eyes, but I was actually interested in the idea. So I tried to move the chair by will. I focused, imagining the chair wobbling. Nothing. I closed my eyes and tried imagining the chair floating. Nothing. Then Spay added his two cents.
         “You stink. I thought you were cool.”
         That’s it.
         I shot my anger towards the chair and watched it shatter and splinter.
         “Now that was cool!” he said excited and jumped in praise. “Do it again.” he added.
         “I don’t think so. I’m not sure what I’m doing.”
         I really didn’t.
         “Come on.” he put his hands together and begged.
         I sighed. “Okay.”
         I deduced that anger was the trigger for the power. So I thought all about what happened today with Spay. Oh I had never felt such anger. The entire building began shaking, and at the second I knew I was behind the earthquake. The anger quickly subsided as I thought of all the people I could’ve harmed.
         “Whoa, your one messed up kid.” Spay spat and cart wheeled out of the room.
         I stared blankly at the window.

         

         
         The creature stumbled out into the cold night. It’s vision, blurry and hazy from waking a sleep that no one is meant to wake from. It’s figure stood about eight foot with evenly proportioned limbs and such. It’s skin looked frail and translucent in the moonlight, but in truth its capabilities where unknown and unrecorded. The man who had worked on the monster kept it locked away in a hibernation cell to keep the dead flesh from rotting. It had not yet been given life. But and unpredicted earthquake set off the magical technology and infused the monster with pure life force. 
         Using its’ superior strength it broke free of the abandoned facility. There it met watchmen of the forest that boarders the Una B’ed Estroi’d school, named after the Orc princess who founded it, and the lab the monster was kept.  The watchman was scared to stupor and froze in fear, The monster reached out and grabbed the mans neck and slowly the merging began. Filling an unconceivable feeling in its stomach. The creature was hungry, even though it just ate. It would quickly discover that it had an insatiable appetite for anything living. Unable to comprehend, it continued to stumble until it reached a small cave, where it came upon a bear and her cubs.
         Licking its lips out of instinct, the creature pounced onto the animals and absorbed them. The grotesque sight of the fur and flesh merging into one would have made the strongest of men throw up there insides. With the absorption of the bear and cubs, came the instinct to sleep and  hunt. The creature fell into a deep slumber, until the next hunger would wake it.



CHAPTER 3: The Headmaster Porion? The Secret Library!

         After having been released from the hospital wing I managed to find my room on my own. I say my room, but really it was a large corridor with many rooms. At the ed of the corridor was a large gathering room where the other boys could meet and socialize. (they kept boys and girls separated) I snuck into the social room to see what was up and there a I met a nice, handsome young man named Fri. He was an elf and about forty five years old, which is like an infant to the elves. He looked young and probably would not show signs of aging any further then eighteen until his hundredth year. He explained to me how the schedules work and how to use the maps, which came in handy. I found out that our schedules alternate so we can get more classes in. Like today I had alchemy, creature study, basic spells and the class I missed after the earthquake, swords study. Tomorrow I would have magical procedure, enchantment and hexes and finally, business. Then the next day I would have the first set. See, it alternates. We had weekends off to ourselves and one day out of the month we got to visit one of several towns near the school, which I discovered was named after an orc, but I can’t recall what it was.
         Later that night I found my dreams were filled with images of a man in brown with horned rimmed glasses.  He was always leaning in for a kiss, I was holding onto him. I woke seconds after these unsettling revelations with disgust. After the fifth dream I decided not to fall back to sleep. I stayed up for the remaining hours before sunrise reading the book I got for basic spells. All of it was pretty interesting and I was surprised at how easily I understood it. I couldn’t wait to cast the spells, but I was also equally worried I would kill myself. So I decided to wait until Mr. Whatever-his-name-is instructed me on the matter, or until I became to impatient.
         The sun rose quickly, I hadn’t even noticed until the light fell across the room. My eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. I could roughly make out the small cabinet where I put my close, and the table beside my bed. I decided to get up and explore. School started a few hours past sunrise, so I had time to look around before I got ready for class. I threw my legs across my bed and dashed over the basket where I kept my dirty clothes. I had only a few sets of clothes, but the man that had brought me to the school had left plenty in my room. That was way better then any thing I got from the owner of the orphanage.
         I tripped and fell on my face.
         Damn!
         What the hell could I have tripped over. I searched by my feet for some clue as to what tripped me, but with the lack of light my eyes started hurting.
         Where’s the damn candle when you need them!?
         With that thought a burst of light appeared on the ceiling. The sudden illumination caused me to shut my eyes. I let my eyes adjust before I looked up at the light. It was some sort of orb, made of glass I believe. There was light coming out of it. Now that I think of it, I had seen some glass orbs on the walls of the school, I just thought they were for decoration.
         “Beats candles.” I said out loud. Candles were all we had in the orphanage. I didn’t find what I tripped over. I put on my dirty leggings and undershirt and went into the hallway. I was surprised, yet again, to find a lot of students wondering about. They seemed to be muttering to one another. They all had that glazed over look that insomniacs have. I listened acutely.
         “Man, I can’t get my orb to shut off.” said an older student in a groggy tone.
         “I hear ya. Me too. I think there’s some kind of power surge, but I don’t know what could be causing it.” said a smarter sounding boy who didn’t seemed bothered by the early awakening.
         “What the hell his going on!” the voice sent chills up my spine. Spay! “Who the hell lit up the orbs?” I turned and seen him. His hair looked more ruffled then usual and his eyes were beat red. I couldn’t help the smile creep across my face. Sweet vengeance.
         “We don’t know, but yelling isn’t going to get the problem solved.” said the smarter boy from before.
         Shut him up. Spay looked angry and sat down on the floor in the hall. I was soaking in the pleasure from seeing Spay get his just desserts, when people started whispering. The word quickly spread to me. Mr. Uhtrab (pronounced ooh-trab) was heading over to the wing. I had no idea who Mr. Uhtrab was, but people seemed intimidated by him. Then the people in the hall started parting like they were trying to crawl along the edge of a cliff side. Down came a familiar brown suit.
         That’s Mr. Uhtrab! Wow, I such at names. You’d think I would remember a name like that. Sounds dwarvish. The man marched with a haste that made it obvious he had was on a mission. Unfortunately I was apparently the mission, because he approached me and looked at me sternly.
         “Mr. Maika, may I have you for a moment? In my private office please?” he said more demanding then asking.
         I looked in stupor at the faces of the students, who were as clueless as I was. I looked at Mr. Uhtrab to study his face for what emotion he might be feeling. Nothing.
         “Um, sure.” I said shyly, shriveling up to my pathetic excuse for a human. He led me down that hall, we were walking at a fast pace. I overheard some of the students, they were saying something about how Mr. Uhtrab had never been married. I didn’t listen to keenly, I was trying to keep up with the teacher. As we ventured through the “castle school” I found that all the lights were lit up. All of them. I mean looking out one of the windows, that lights on the other side of the school were on.
         Then I started wondering why the hell Mr. Uhtrab would want to talk to me. Then the whole lights deal caused an orb of light to go off in my head. (I had an idea) Spay, this was another one of his tricks that I’m getting blamed for. We arrived at a large red door. The door had some gold trimmings and golden handle. He opened the door with a large silver key he magically summoned between his hand. Inside was a large study with several tables littered with paper work and books in languages I didn’t know. He sat down at a less “littered” table and pushed the papers off on to the floor.
         “Please have a seat. We’re still waiting for the Headmaster Porion.” he said it too casually, something was wrong. As it took in what he said, I realized he said Porion was the Headmaster. Porion! The guy that took me away from the Orphanage.
         “Okay.” I said and sat down at the chair across from his. I stared at the floor, noticing that Mr. Uhtrab was starring at me. I felt unnerved, and at the same time a sudden burst of anger.
         “Can I help you!” I said in a smart-ass tone. He jumped, taken aback by my comment. Wow, I cant believe I just said that.
         “Excuse me?” he asked with curiosity.
         “You keep starring at me.” I jolted my eyes away from his. I shrunk back into the pathetic person again.
         He thought for a second then started to answer, but was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a man. He had an old countenance, about forty or fifty. His hair was paper white and he wore leather armor. His hand was on the hilt of his sheathed sword. His eyes were strong and hard from years of fighting and he had a small scar on his left eye. His right eye was blue, the left white, probably by whatever gave him the scar.
         “Ruse, it’s been awhile. I didn’t get to see you yesterday. Had to drop off this lad and head off to Billbay to meet a client.” he said in the way old war buddies would talk. Mr. Uhtrab, or Ruse, smiled and stood up to shake Porion’s hand.
         “Yea it’s been a year I believe. You’ve been busy taking on all those jobs.” I felt lost, or unwanted. So I just blended into the scenery, or I tried. Porion was the one who foiled my plans.
         “So what’s the problem with the child?” he asked not even looking at me. I felt my skin crawl when he called me “child” like I was some disposable scroll or something.
         “Nothing bad, or I should say he’s not behaving badly. Kind of a trouble maker as I’ve seen. He made Semaj turn red, thoughy he was going to have a stroke.” he said it with utmost satisfaction.
         “Oh, you don’t say. Well Krowel had it coming. Behaving like his title made him a god or something along the lines. So now then, what’s the problem?” Porion’s reply made my heart lift a little. At least I wasn’t in trouble for what Spay had done.
         “Well you see. He is very powerful like you said in the letter you left me. That was why you chose him at the orphanage, correct?” Porion answered with a nod.
         “He almost burned down the place, so said your letter. Well it seems his power is manifesting quickly. I believe we must start advanced training immediately if we hope for success. I don’t’ think he will be able to control it if it goes on any further. The earth quake he caused almost brought down the Una research facility.”
         I looked dumbfounded. I caused the earthquake. I caused the fire at the orphanage. Me? The nobody. Me? The weakling who shriveled into nothing when confronted. I did all that?
         “Excuse me?” I said, apparently not loud enough.
         “Well if it cant be helped. I’d like you to start training him on the weekends. He’ll need his normal class schedule as well to make it in the world. Be careful and watch him.” Porion said, ignoring me.
         “Excuse me.” I said a little bite louder.
         “Yes of course. I’m glad you could come Porion.”
         “No problem for an old friend. You did save my life after all. Also I’d lie to see your results.”
         I had enough.
         “Excuse me!” I shouted. The room shuck and the tables all flipped over. One table almost hit Porion, but he deflected it with a spell he didn’t even have to speak. Books flew across the room and a few of them made Ruse their target. They flew through him. Yes through him, like a ghost. Everything came to a stop when my anger subsided.
         They looked at me speechless. Ruse and Porion both fell to their knees.
Apparently the surge of power was too much for them.
         “Such power.” Porion said out of breath. Ruse climbed up to his feet and dusted himself off. Porion followed.
         “Yes training will begin this weekend. Until then you mister Maika will have to watch your temper.” Ruse said, turning to me. “Don’t tell anyone what has happened here or about your special training. Also, don’t mention your little anger problem to anyone.” he added.
         “I just want to know what the hell is going on.” I snapped, a vase by a window shattered.
         Porion and Ruse looked confused and the mess I had made seemed to fit their facial expressions.
         “You’re a witch, my dear boy.” Porion said with a grandfatherly smile.
         “A what?” I asked, lost.
         Ruse put on a smile that made me shiver. “A witch. The last of a forgotten people. The first ones to use magic. Before the elves, before the demons and before the elementals themselves. Magic is said to have come from them and here you are, the last one.”
         He said it with such wonder and calmness that I wasn’t sure to be excited or bored.
         “Okay so what does that mean?”
         “We’ll explain later. You come with me I have something to show you, then you can get ready for class.” Porion said enthusiastically. He sped off out the door and I quickly followed him. There were more people up and about now, no longer looking like freshly awoken zombies. Some students were drinking coffee and chatting, while others were dragging their feet.
         We came to a large double wooden door. It had intricate designs on it that may have been hieroglyphics. There was no handle and by the looks of it, wasn’t a swinging door.
         “This is the great library. Inside are numerous books on spells, monsters and rituals. Every book about sorcery and magical history. You seem like you have a knack for reading, if you can manage to open this door, you can read whatever books you find inside.”
         I looked in awe at the door, imagining what lay beyond it. I  imagined shelves and shelves of books . Shelves as tall as the school, with ladders to match. I placed my hand on the door, it was cold like metal. I turned to ask Porion a question and he was gone, just like his appearing trick back at Ruse’s office.

         After Porion’s subtle departure, I quickly made it back to my room, I had miraculously memorized the map. Some students were in the social room talking and preparing for today’s schedule. I took a shower and was dumbfounded when I saw the blue orb in the shower, I had no idea how it worked. I guess water was supposed to come out of it.
         “Water.” I said commandingly. I felt stupid at the same time. The orb glowed a light blue and a weak spray of water started to emit. Okay, so maybe the amount of water is connected to the amount of command put into the request.
         “Water!” I said a little overly commanding. The orb glowed so bright I had to shut my eyes and water exploded from the place where the orb was. My room was filled with water, literally, I had to get out of the room for air. Why the water was not leaking out, I assume there was some sort of enchantment keep it all in the room. I also assumed that opening the door would deactivate it.
         I swam past my bed and reached for the handle of the door. I tried to pull it open but it wouldn’t budge. I was running low on air. I planted my legs on the wall and pulled with all my might, but no success. If the door won’t open by force, then I’ll use magic.
         I swam away by the bed and sat down, all while submerged in water. I focused on the door. I let the event of the past few days consume me. Spay and his jokes and how Porion and Ruse didn’t let me in on what they knew about me. I closed my eyes for better envisioning. When I opened them, a blast of force displaced the water and shattered the door to pieces. The current of water rushing into the hall pulled me out of the room and into the hallway. I hit the brick wall, pounding and throbbing pain almost knocked me unconscious.
         I finally managed to get up and seen many pissed students looking at me with discontent.
         “Oops.” I said innocently and smiled as charming as I could manage with all the pain in my back.
         “Oh man that is awesome. You know Aura your not too bad at pulling pranks.” Spay said enthusiastically, jumping up and down like a little kid.
         I sighed and laid down on the soaking floor.

CHAPTER 4: Hexes? Oh my!

         So the day was boring, well with exception of everybody talking about how I flooded the boys dormitory. All we did in very class was fill out information cards, which was boring for me because I had no family to contact for emergencies. I sat next to Spay in all my classes. He was surprisingly less distracting today, I think he had a new found respect for me.
         “I know you must all be eager to learn hexes.” announced a small lady. She was beautiful in a smart way. She was heavy set and wore a lot of black and pink. Her hair was in pig tails that reached the floor. Her socks were pink and black stripped and went up to her knees. She looked young, in her early twenties.
         “I am Ms. Es Ruc. Yes it is elven and no I am only descendent of an elf.” she said sweetly. I liked her, she was nice.
         “Before we start reading I must express with utmost importance that cursing and hexing is strictly looked down upon. Not only can a hex or curse backfire horribly, they must be cast with most delicate perfection.” she paused.
         “You,” she pointed at me. “You have a very peculiar aura about you.”
         I blushed. “Okay?”
         “Hmm, yes I see. I want to teach you in private. See me after you end class today.”
         I nodded and she continued to lecture on the looked down upon performance of cursing or hexing and how it could be the deciding factor of victory or loss in battle. She also said that a curse-off would be the semester test to see what we learned. Aside from that we would also be learning about counter-cursing and dispelling. After the first semester, which is about half of the year, we begin learning enchanting. So far this was my favorite class. We opened our text books and began reading, before I knew it I was on the last chapter as they finished the first. I still remembered it all. I was amazed at how well I was taking in the information.
         “Whoa. Did you really read all that?” Spay asked shocked.
         “Yeah I guess I did.”
         “Oh, I hate reading.” he added, trying to make light of the feat I just performed. I rolled my eyes, in a friendly kind of way this time.
         The bell went off for class to end.
         “Oh yeah Aura. Mr. Uhtrab wanted me to tell you after business I’m to take you to the sword study class so you can get what you missed. I get to be your partner.”
         “Oh halleluiah.” I said sarcastically.
         “I know isn’t it great.”

         Business was actually pretty good. We were going to learn how to haggle and make wise decisions with our money. How to talk to merchants and how to dress for business meetings. Spay found it incredibly boring, I caught him snoring lightly on one occasion.
         After business I followed Spay outside the school and around to the stables, where the sword study class was. The teacher was an old war vet named Olympus, or Oly for short. That was for the adults, student had to refer to him as Colonel, or Colonel Olympus.
         “So you’re the little trouble maker I’ve been hearing about.” he said with an hint of malign. “Okay grab a sparing sword from the wooden pile and go stand in the circle over there.” he pointed to the stables where a bucket full of wooden swords were placed. Then to the white painted circle out in the dirt field.
         I got the sword and to the circle, where Spay was standing opposite of me.
         “Ready. Go!” he shouted.
         What!
         Spay came rushing at me so fast I couldn’t react. He bashed me across the stomach, I fell in pain.
         “What the hell! I wasn’t ready!”
         “In war you don’t have time to get ready.” colonel replied with an accomplished tone.
         I bet he said that to everyone.
         I stumbled up to my feet and Spay was already running up to me again. I brought up the sword to block his, but he dodged to the right and smacked me across the back.
         “Damn! Why are you hitting so hard?!” I shouted even angrier. I heard the sound of splintering wood. I saw Spay’s sword explode. My eyes widened and I hoped I didn’t hurt him.
         I stood up sorely and limped over to him. He had some splinters in hands and face, but nothing too bad.
         “What you do that for?” he asked. Damn, I forgot he knew about my power.
         “I’m sorry, I just got so upset with you hitting me and all.” I tried to explain, but it just made me feel worse.
         “No sense in crying. We do what we can to win on the battle field.” colonel said wisely, “but know this. If you ever use magic on my field with out permission I’ll work you so hard you’ll never be able to lift you arms again.” he said with such malice I almost fainted.
         Then I felt a snap inside me. A sudden anger clouded my mind.
         How dare he threaten me! He has no idea what he is dealing with!
         I tried to pull it back, but that anger was too over powering. I looked up at the colonel, our eyes met. He must have seen something so horrible, so terrifying in my eyes that he couldn’t take it. He started screaming and fell to the ground. Clouds quickly gathered and made everything dark and malice. Colonel started convulsing. Someone from the stables quickly ran over to check him out, they ran back to the stables and sounded some alarm and suddenly there was a medic from the hospital wing out. The clouds faded and I felt whatever snap inside me unsnap.
         I let out a loud sigh and fell to the ground exhausted. I blacked out.

         When I woke in the hospital wing I overheard Ms. Es Ruc (Ms. Es) talking to Ruse. I kept my eyes closed and listened attentively.
         “It’s a very powerful curse. I will not be able to fully remove it. I recommend calling in an expert from the ARC.” she said without losing her perky charm.
         “Yes, I see. It was an accident, or so says Mr. E’tat. I don’t want to involve the government so the ARC is out of the question. Do what you can for the Colonel.” Ruse said coolly. (E’tat is Spay’s last name by the way)
         I felt a a sickness growing in the pit of my stomach. What did I do to the Colonel. Then the images of what had happened flashed inside my mind, so fast I had to pop my eyes open.
         “Ah, you’re awake Mr. Maika.” said Ruse, with a tone that made me uncomfortable. “I’m glad to see you’re okay.”
         “Yes, very.” added Ms. Es.
         I smiled and gave a faint nod. I wasn’t up for talking just yet.
         “Please, Megenza go do what you can.” Ruse said, turning his attention to Ms. Es. She nodded with acceptance and quickly left the room. I’m assuming to go help the colonel.
         “How is he?” I decided to ask to break the silence.
         “The colonel? He’s not doing to well, but you heard us talking didn’t you?”
         I gave an innocent look and admitted to it. “Yea.”
         “The truth is, we’re not sure what kind of curse was put on him. All we know is he won’t stop screaming and hasn’t stopped since the incident. We had or healers try to heal him, even combining their power wasn’t enough. This forces me to hasten our training so I am moving you to my advanced class. We need to put a cap on the power of yours and that little anger problem.”
         I felt lost among the information he revealed to me. Like there was so much to do and little time to do it.
         “I’m afraid.” I confessed. And I was, I possibly irrevocably cursed our swords master teacher. What if it had been Spay. The though made me shutter. I needed control, and I would do whatever it took to find it.
         “I know,” he walked over and sat on the bed beside me. “But I’m here for you. I won’t let you go through this alone. I promise.” he placed his hand on mine. The warmth made me feel lighter, like the weight I had been carrying was lightened. I let his hand rest on mine for a few seconds, until I realized it wasn’t right, and that he was a guy. I retracted my hand quickly, and his countenance took on a hurt look.
         “Thanks. Were is Spay?” I asked, desperately trying to get rid of the awkwardness of the entire situation.
         “Where do you think? Stuffing his face at the dining hall.”