"Now Alistair, you should be very careful. Students don't like to feel like their chance at getting noticed by an ascended has gone down in any way. With an unknown cropping up in their class, it won't be long before you are targeted."
"But how will they know I'm an unknown? Aren't we the only ones that know right now?"
"No, there are students here more powerful than some teachers. It would not surprise me if one is listening in right now."
"But if they are that powerful, they wouldn't mind a weakling unknown like me right?"
"If you are at the top waiting for recognition and you see a potential threat to your throne, do you just ignore it as trivial? That's how some think."
Alistair feels a chill run down his spine at this realization and then looks around nervously for signs of someone ease dropping. His teacher sees this and tries to put him at ease.
"Don't worry, no one is here in the room. They would be listening in through some other means. However, it's very unlikely that anyone knows this. They would have to be on guard against you in the first place enough to track your every move. I think you should be fine for now."
Hearing this, Alistair gets flashbacks to standing out in his other class and the scary figure who saw the fight with him and the two boys in the hallway. He gulps down a mouthful of dry spit and tries to think of ways to protect himself as fast as possible.
He gets the idea of going out on missions that take longer to complete and to come back when he is stronger. Without being able to think of anything better, he commits to that idea and sullenly waits for the conversation to be over so he can leave.
After a few motivational speeches falling on deaf ears, Alistair says his goodbyes and heads to the mission hall to attempt to gain more points for materials. He knows the materials he needs to use to strengthen his body are hard to find and expensive, so he is hopeful for a mission that satisfies both of those criteria.
On his way to the mission hall though, he feels a sudden force pushing on his shoulders. He sees a group of kids that have ganged up on him with the tall boy who he fought with being one of them.
They push him into an empty classroom and all surround him. there are so many that Alistair gives up all hope of winning in a straight fight. He silently puts himself on guard for the first sign of attack.
Suddenly, a young man walks in from outside of the group. He walks in front of Alistair before taking a seat at one of the desk chairs around him. After a few discerning glances from the young man, he flatly says two words.
"Join me."
Unprepared for the sudden request, Alistair takes a moment to process it. Before he collects his thoughts though the tall boy from the crowd shouts,
"Don't keep Ahmed waiting, and thank him for taking you in! He's one of the top students of the--"
The young man then looks at the tall boy who spoke and mumbles a few syllables that a human should not be able to make before a dark see through box materializes around the tall boy. Inside that box, the boys body starts quivering and then he lets out a high pitched scream before falling to the floor foaming at the mouth.
"I did not ask for the help of someone else's lackey to handle my own affairs."
The Ahmed then looks back at Alistair and says,
"He is right though. Don't keep me waiting. Either join me or be destroyed. Choose."
Alistair looks over at the boy left in a quivering mess in the see through box before turning back to Ahmed. He remembers what the teacher said about his power. His body rejects magic.
He thinks back to the magic that his body ate away at and comes up with a hypothesis that he decides to risk his safety on.
"If I join you, will I be required to do anything I don't want to do?"
"You ask too many questions. I will make you swear a sacred oath to me and if I find that you do not follow my commands, there will be consequences."
"What kind of consequences."
Ahmed smirks and points to the tall boy still foaming at the mouth unconscious.
"No more questions, decide now or 'that' will be you every time I see you."
"Ah.... Could you give me some time to think about it? It's a very big decision."
A familiar transparent dark box starts to appear over top of Alistair as Ahmed leads the students in his group out of the room. Alistair starts shaking and then falls to floor yelling. Ahmed leaves a few words behind as he is walking away.
"Take some time to think about it. I'll ask you again whenever you regain your sanity. Better hurry though, I heard a strong girl appeared in your class that I'm ready to give your position to. Hopefully she will be quicker in her response."
"I'll be back for you later so in the meantime,"
He signals for a girl with a buzzed Mohawk to cast a spell on the door.
"Learn to be a good lackey and memorize my first command, 'Stay'."
They close the door and leave Alistair and the tall boy in the room alone. What Ahmed did not realize due to his own confidence in his abilities though was that Alistair remains unaffected by his magic.
If Alistair's heart could beat faster, then it would be going at a mile a minute by now. His gamble paid off. He didn't think that Ahmed would leave right after casting it though. He was prepared to act as long as needed.
With the source material right next to him, he would know the proper ways to react whenever needed. With Ahmed leaving though, he just stood up and looked at the box around him.
"It seems like magic that is outside of my body is repelled, while magic inside of my body is purged. I would much rather not risk my own well-being to discover these traits, but beggars can't be choosers."
With as much effort of walking through a wall of mushy oatmeal, Alistair effortlessly escapes the box and looks at the door for any sign of them coming back. After making sure that they were gone, he slightly relaxes himself.
"Gurgle gurgle"
He looks over at the tall boy still foaming at the mouth. Although he feels pity for the state he wound up in, he does not feel enough to free him of his torment.
"I'm not nice enough of a guy to be the bigger man... However..."
He walks over to the tall boy and pulls him out of the box. After getting out, the tall boys mind regains a form of hazy clarity of his situation. He sees Alistair helping him out of the box and walks him to the door and thinks to himself,
"He's willing to help me even after what I did to him? Heh... What a fool... This doesn't change a thing. I still have to-"
He is interrupted by Alistair suddenly chucking him into the door. The moment his body touches the door, an electric current runs through his body.
The impact of the throw was enough to break the door open though, allowing Alistair to walk right over the charred, once more unconscious, tall boy.
Alistair steps on the boys body, afraid that the door is still electrified. While standing on his body, he swears to himself to get revenge on Ahmed for trying to control him.