A wide corridor that spanned around 10 meters echoed with students' hurried footsteps as they followed the long stride of the old woman with a purple and pointy velvet hat.
'Trii, keep on recording everything to the map.' Gyro asked the system spirit. Place mapping was one of the functions which he had discovered in the last six months. However, it was limited to the places he saw or had been to. Before they left Zelleor City, he had instructed Trii to record everything. So he had an initial outline of the region from Zelleor City to Ziroth Island.
«Yes, Host!»
'Good!'
They stopped before a huge rectangular silver metal door engraved with bizarre runic symbols. Gyro recognized a few but most were new to him. They looked ancient and mysterious. Then he saw the old woman traced a pattern on the these symbols with her right index finger.
Shua! Shuah!
Rumble...
As the runes lit up, everyone heard a mechanical rumbling and the huge door had magically segmented into four, sliding to each direction, revealing the majestic hall. The students crammed at the front trying to have a better view of the hall inside.
"Behave now freshmen. Stay in line!" Barked the old woman.
As they paraded in, the first group of freshmen brought by Hover Bubble Z2 were already waiting for them.
'Woah! Magnificent!' Gyro was astonished seeing the orbs of lights floating on the lyceum ceiling, forming eccentric shapes like constellations in the midnight sky.
As they lined up in the center of the great hall, the clamor of the senior students sitting aside the four long banquet tables quietened.
'This great hall is huge enough to accommodate around ten thousand people.' Gyro observed.
Glancing ahead, Gyro then noticed several men and women sitting behind a long table on the 1-meter-high podium facing the students.
The old woman signaled for the freshmen to stop, then she proceeded to the stage, nodded to the men and women sitting there and whirled around overlooking the freshmen with sharp, strict eyes.
"Freshmen!" She started, "I, Maxene Faulk Seinhall, formally welcome you to Ziroth Academy of Mystic Arts. The start of school year banquet will begin soon, but all of you shall be assigned to your respective houses first. As I call your name, elemental affinity and house, you should step forward and find your seat among those four tables." She paused, pointing at the long tables with rows of seats and senior students.
"As you noticed, each table has different color signifying each house: Crimson for the House of Fire, Azure for the House of Water, Gray for the House of Wind, and Amber for the House of Earth. These four houses were the foundation of our academy representing the four basic Mystic Essence." She explained.
Gyro was confused because he didn't belong to any of the element. Then he noticed a table half the length of those from the four houses at the far right. Nodding to himself, he guessed that it could be the table for students with different affinities.
"Steilla Banner, Wind Element, House of Wind!" Professor Seinhall was clutching a scroll as she began the roll call.
A petite blonde girl with a freckled face stepped forward and skipped excitedly toward the gray table of the House of Wind.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Ting! Ting! Ting!
A cacophony of silverware and table slapping reverberated in the great hall as the House of Wind senior students welcomed their new member.
On the stage, a middle-aged woman with a toothy grin and thin face also celebrated. She was Professor Wendylyn Sooner, the House of Wind House Master.
One after another, the new students found their house and seats.
"Monsor Schneit Luksford, Wind Element, House of Wind."
Gyro's ears perked up when he heard the name. He shifted his focus away from the rows of senior students to the youth with silver long hair, and well chiseled handsome face. His almond shape silver gray eyes matched well with his hair, and from his full lips escaped a charming, kind smile. He had a well-proportioned slender body which towered over everyone at 6 feet.
Gyro held his breath seeing the youth for the first time. The youth was emanating a warm and kind aura.
Then, Gyro's head began to spin, and he almost fell on the floor as his knees buckled. He then felt a nettling sensation assaulting his mind. Fortunately, Zyra and Bart caught him in time, assisting him to stand straight.
"Gy, did your old headache recur?" Zyra asked, full of concern, holding his arms tightly.
"Yeah! Sorry guys—urgh!" He clamped his head with two hands as torrent of information surged through mind. 'The traitor?' Gyro was in disbelief. The youth radiated with kindness and congenial personality but the memory of his predecessor told him otherwise. 'Beneath the handsome face and kind appearance hides a treacherous mind.'
"Markuz Kirkland, Water Element, House of Water."
Gyro was interrupted by Professor Seinhall's sharp and cold voice.
The roll call continued for one hour and a half and the 800 new freshmen gathered across Aventhor Kingdom had been called aside from the students with rare elements, Gyro being one of them.
"Alright, the remaining freshmen all had rare elemental affinities. All of you belonged to the House of Curio over there." Professor Seinhall pointed toward the table on the outermost right side. Although the academy was primarily built to train Mystician's with affinities to the four basic elements just like their four founders, they had welcomed new students with rare elements over the years.
Gyro had already said farewell to his three companions earlier, so he awaited his name to be called alone.
"Larenth Luksford, Lightning Element, House of Curio."
'Huh?! Another Luksford... Hmm, he is my predecessor's cousin? Ohh... And they have a good relationship... Does Luksford House have lightning affinity?' It appeared so. Gyro regained a few memories about Luksford House. He thought of hatching a plan to approach Larenth Luksford and investigate more about his predecessor's family.
When his name was finally called, Gyro stepped forward and minced toward the white table of the House of Curio. He chose a seat away from everyone else while observing his new housemates.
While on his way toward the House of Curio table, Gyro didn't notice a pair of eyes secretly following him.
Monsor Schneit Luksford was startled when he heard Gyro's first name, thinking it was all just a coincidence. Seeing Gyro's appearance told him that his imagination really ran wild. He was confident that the guy he was thinking about had been dead for about a year, so he had no reason to suspect the youth before him.
Meanwhile, Gyro kept his silence as he sat.
"Hey, new guy... come on man, stay here with us..." One senior student noticed him at the edge of the table.
"Err... I— okay..." Without a choice Gyro transferred seats.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
"Everyone, may I have your attention please." Professor Seinhall, who had taken her place on the stage stood and caught everyone's attention. "Our Principal, Professor Ares Shadersphere would like to say some words." She gestured toward the old man sitting at the center of the podium.
With his billowing heather-violet robe, Principal Shadersphere shot up and surveyed the sea of students below. His piercing, yet warm black eyes was deeply sitting on his triangular face aside his pointy, long nose, on it perched a wire-rim clear spectacle. He had a long, bushy silver hair which hung over his broad shoulders.
Standing at 6 feet and 4 inches tall, he loomed over the students as they were expecting a long speech from him.
"Ahem! Old and new feting to explore the mysteries of the world... Congratulations, first years for your successful entry to the Academy and welcome back senior students. Another term of learning, adventure, and camaraderie has come. We will start anew amid the blistering Fyr month and will end renewed on the breezy Dwin month. Yet another whole year of struggle and success. Study well students... Let the feast begin—"
Principal Shadersphere smiled and clapped his hand.
Shuah!
Suddenly, a marvelous sight appeared before everyone. The empty dishes were now filled with food. Seeing them, made Gyro realized how famished he was and the bread he had eaten seemed ages ago.
It was his first time seeing such a sumptuous food since his rebirth. Before him lay veggies and meats such as: lettuce, spinach, peas, mashed and boiled potatoes, carrots, roasted lamb, roasted chicken, roasted pork, roasted beef and other strange food he didn't recognize.
"Hahaha...Oi, first year, the food won't help themselves into your mouth..." The senior student beside Gyro cast joke.
"Oh! Sorry, it's just... Thanks!" Gyro craved for the food in front of him, taking a bit of everything into his plate.
Seeing his full plate and hurried eating, the senior student commented in between full mouth, "Teek et izy man... Da fud wun ranawe..."
"What?" Gyro asked, taking a sip of a sweetened licorice pumpkin juice.
The senior student just shook his head.
Around twenty minutes later, everyone was caressing their bulging belly, fully satisfied with their meal. It was at that time when Principal Shadersphere stood again and addressed the students, "Now that we all had been stuff, it's time to rest for the night. Whisked away now—"
"First years, Follow your House Representative." Professor Seinhall reminded.
As if on cue, a 20+ girl with three stripes on her shoulder took over, "Follow me guys..." Martina Voz Frozenbell was a Silver Junior Mystician and this year's House of Curio Representative. She had a round hazel eye, sitting outward her oval face. Along with her lustrous snow-silver long hair, she had a pale snow-white skin.
If the other four houses occupied the four towers of the Academy, and the students had to climb the magnificent granite staircase which seemed to move on their own as they approached, the House of Curio, on the other hand, was located in a dungeon like dormitory two stories underneath the northeast of the castle.
They reached the platform with a tubular compartment that could house around 50 people. On its entrance was the runic ID scanner and only students belonging to the House of Curio would be allowed to access it.
After scanning the IDs imprinted on their wrist, the first years began pouring in the tube. The first batch of 50 occupied it, then it vibrated and slid down in a blink.
Gyro was on the 2nd batch. The transport was too fast — it only took a few seconds. As they exited the tube, they found themselves in a cozy circular common room of the dormitory with three 5 spacer couches, two oak tables with four seats each. Several armchairs were stacked at one corner, waiting for a student to take one if he or she needed one.
In the room's wall was a fireplace which only had the remnant soot from a long extinguished fire. The season was still at the middle of the summer, so it wasn't needed just yet.
"Alright, first years, the boys' rooms are on the right wing and the girls' rooms on the left. Each room accommodates 5 students, and your roommates had been decided by the Academy so you can't change them even if you wanted to. Here's the list of the rooms and its occupants." Martina flicked her wrist and the scroll listing all the rooms was pasted on the common room bulletin board.
"After you determine your room, you could directly proceed to it. Your ID will grant you passage on its door... Good night everyone." She strolled away along with her friends.
Gyro craned his neck to see which room he had been assigned to. Seeing the room number, he didn't tarry any longer and walked toward it. 'Hmm. Here it is, room 1C09.'
Seeing the room, Gyro accessed the map of the castle. The 3-D map displayed his position in a blinking blue dot, above ground he saw a few green dots, but he hadn't found any red dot. He only saw a red dot earlier at the great hall, indicating his predecessor's enemy.
The castle's map displayed the top view as he had made Trii record it when their Hover Bubble descended earlier. Also recorded in it were the Hover Bubble docking field, the Academy entrance and everything he had seen as they walked toward the great hall earlier.
He closed the map and returned his eyes on the room before him. It had a black stone door with engraved runes on it — security runes. He aligned his wrist over the core of the runes, then it blinked with a bluish light.
Thud!
The door slid with a thud, revealing five beds distanced 1 meter with each other. Only the center bed wasn't occupied as Gyro's roommates already claimed the others.
"You're late dude, you suffer the consequences." A portly youth with baby-pink face and pouty full lips grinned. His fat seemed to bounce as he spoke.
"Hahaha. Where were you earlier? At least you can take the center bed." Another guy with bushy black hair greeted him with a hearty laugh.
Gyro nodded and entered the room. He didn't have much choice in the matter, so taking it wholeheartedly was all he could do.
He unslung the rucksack which contained a little of his few things and dropped it on the bed with a purple sheet. There was a cabinet for their things, but he was too lazy and jaded to set his things right now.
"Dude, I'm Piero Saint Paz; I have stone element affinity. Weird right? It's a variant of Earth element. I should belong to House of Earth but here is okay as well." The fatty was friendly and a chatterbox.
"Gy-Gyro. Lightning element." Came his short reply.
"Oh! Wow! You're one of a kind dude... There hasn't been a lightning mystician in our kingdom for... Ahh... can't remember, but it has been too long already."
"So, I heard. But there is another lightning element student earlier... Peter Spaulstein, Cyclone element, also a variant of wind element." Another roommate butted in. He was tall at around 6 feet and had a broad shoulder. His bushy black hair almost covered his silver gray eye.
"Oh! Buddy, your power will be very destructive when you reached a high level on it." Fatty Piero acknowledged and Gyro nodded with him.
"How about you guys?" Fatty Piero asked their other two roommates.
"Hausen Gallerick, Ice element." The guy had an arctic blue eye and hair. His personality matched his element — cold.
"Jasper Treelance, Wood element." He was a calm and calculating youth with basil green hair and slitted hazel eye. In contrast to Fatty Piero who seem to have no neck, he had half longer neck than normal.
The new roommates listened to Fatty Piero babbled for a while before succumbing to tireness and fell asleep. As his listeners were gone sleeping, Fatty Piero had no choice but to enter his dreamland as well.
• — • — •
He had been running for hours, but his pursuers were gaining on him... Due to tiredness and poison in his body, he collapsed on the forest floor filled with all foliage.
When he awoke, he was back in the mine. He was feeling cold and hungry. In retrospect, it had been two days since he had eaten — or drink at least.
The mine was called Moonstone Deep. Located at the southern most region of Zelleor City.
"You think you can escape from our watch? Hmpp! You must be dreaming." A voice outside the cell interrupted him. This cell was of the few constructed to imprison slaves who committed violation.
"Why do you keep me here? My father can pay more than that traitor could..."
"Hmmp! Do you think we're doing this just for money? Sooner or later what's yours would be ours and Young Master will rule the..."
• — • — •
"What?!" Gyro woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. He had another nightmare. Fortunately, his new roommates were sleeping soundly, snoring, so his scream hadn't awoken them.
'It wasn't a just a dream. It was a memory.' Gyro felt like there was more to that betrayal.