"Abel!"
"Hey, Abel!!"
"ABELLL!!"
I jumped out of my skin, so close from falling off my chair due to the cacophonous voice that was suddenly blaring next to my (very) sensitive ears. I swore I almost get a heart attack.
"What were you screaming for?" I screamed back to Alexa.
Alexa stood in front of me with her hands on her waist. Thanks to the hi-tech medical treatment at the Law Inc. hospital, the petite creature in front of me healed very fast. If she were admitted to other hospital, her wounds might be healed after one month. Meanwhile, with the Law's technology, the doctors here were able to fix her in one night. My broken ribs also had healed about 80% with a half-day treatment. The doctor only had to cast an immovable bandage around the broken ribs for another three days to allow it perfectly fixed.
"I called you for several times!"
"Stop yelling, girl, I can hear you just fine. My broken bones are still healing, what if they got fractured again from the exposure of your cacophonous voice?! I was lost in thought you know...?"
"Oh, so you do have a brain to think in that head of yours?"
I glared at Lior Sebastian. He was another field agent. He had stepped out from his cubical and leaned his slender body to participate in our conversation. His eighteen-year old, young face wore prying expression. He rested his sharp chin on the back of his hands which he put on the cubical partition next to me. His long eyelashes moved swiftly against his pale cheeks as he blinked his thin, almond-shaped, hazel eyes, a very resemblance of cat eyes. Especially, when that pair of hazel eyes narrowed under his low black eyebrows. As for now, his thin-lower lips stretched sideways to form a mocking smile, laughing at his own comment.
"Screw you, Lior! Just scram back to your cubical and shut your mouth!" I yelled to the boy, who ignored me and kept standing at where he was. He stuck his tongue out to me.
"What's going on? Do you have any problem, Abel?" Patricia poked her head out from her cubical. Her cubical was installed on the opposite of mine.
This was exactly the reason why I liked her so much. She had always been so nice and smart. I cracked a smile for her.
"I bet he was just worry over how to explain to Miss B about yesterday's incident," Lior's twin brother, Erwann, interrupted. He had now stood next to his brother and I had two identical faces smile at me like Cheshire cats. The twins were of medium-height and both had identical long faces with sharp chin and soft jawlines. They both had straight nose with high nose bridge on top of thin-lower lips that often smiled slyly, especially if they were collaborating to annoy me. The only thing to tell them apart was their eyes and hair colours. While Lior had raven hair, with equally jet-black eyebrows and hazel eyes, Erwann had dirty-blonde hair and coffee-brown eyes.
"I did not worry over trivial thing like that!" I glared to the twins. "I was thinking about my brother."
"I thought he was the responsible one?" Lior was still grinning from ear to ear. I wished if Santa were really existed I would like to ask him to give Alexa's power to me for a day. I wanted so bad to morph into a woodpecker to peck Lior's head or make a nest on his shining raven hair. Or, I could always settle with pooping on his branded clothes.
"Did your brother ask anything to you?" Pats asked. "Shyu told me that he met him at your apartment yesterday."
I shook my head, so hard, that my nape-long, orange-dyed hair whipped Alexa's chin, drew a sharp protest from her.
"Who told you to poke your face that close to me? Did you hurt your ears too, yesterday?" I jeered. Big mistake, since she started to throw punches to me. "Stop hitting me. This is sexual harassment you know?!" I screamed while trying to stop that tiny knuckles of her.
"So, what's your problem?"
I returned my attention to the previous topic. "Hmm, how should I put it? Yesterday I was accidently overhearing the conversation between my brother and his girlfriend."
"You were eavesdropping on your brother during his courting time?"
"That's pathetic, man..."
"Could the two of you shut your mouth for a bit and let me finish my story?!" I snapped at the twins. This time, Pats and Alexa were on my side. They also threw nasty looks to Lior and Erwann.
"Go on Abel, just ignore them," Alexa said.
"I don't really know how to put it... Err, Danzel has always have this expressionless face and cold attitude, but he's quite friendly if you get to know him better. He also has always been polite to others. I've never heard him raise his voice. But yesterday, toward his girlfriend, he was so rude. He didn't raise his voice, but his every single word was razor-sharp and quite insulting, frankly. He accused his girlfriend cheating on him and broke up with her. That girl tried to explain, but Danzel was adamant that she was just lying through her teeth all the way. He, then, sent the girl away, still wearing that rude manner."
"To be honest, I often have goose bumps whenever Danzel stared at me with his pair of black eyes, as though they could pierce and peek at my deepest thought or they would know if I'm lying. That's why I was thinking, could he really possibly know if someone was lying to him?"
My story reduced my colleagues to silence. They were pondering upon my question until a few minutes later Pats broke the silence.
"Abel, are you sure a hundred percent that your brother has no super power? You do know that ESP trait is family heritance. For example, as you know, Lior and Erwann, also Miss B and her brothers. Their supernatural powers running down in their family. You clearly are an Esper, what made you so sure that your brother isn't?"
Pats' question made me ponder once more. Indeed, I had thought of the possibility that Danzel had ESP power when we first met. Thus, in the first months, I had been watching him closely, waiting for any sign of his power. However, I never found it and Danzel had never said anything about super power or special ability as well. So, I assumed that my brother was a 'civilian'.
"That's why I told you that you're an airhead," Lior scoffed.
"I'm not done!" I snapped. "I'm no idiot either! I've used my radar vision to scan him, but I found nothing."
"When did you scan him?" Pats asked.
"On the first three months we started living together."
"It was quite a while ago," said Erwann. "You do know that Esper power could develop in short amount of time under right stimulation, just like grow spurt. Why don't you try to scan him on these days...?"
That was the main problem. Danzel was very sharp and aware for any attention given toward him. "Not to mention if he saw the change of my eyes colour. How should I explain that to him?"
Alexa smirked. "I think you're just full of excuse. You could wear sun glasses for heaven's sake."
I glared to my partner. Why did she never stand up for me?
"Abel, in my opinion, you really should scan him. You do know there is a schemer category amongst the types of ESP power, right?" Pats said.
"What's that?" Alexa, the twins, and I asked in unison.
Patricia's eyes bugged out almost comically, stared at us in disbelieve, before she finally shrugged her shoulders helplessly.
"I knew that you lot would only read books with pictures on it!"
"That's sort of insulting, Pats," Erwann scowled.
"But truth is somewhat bittersweet, Bro'," Lior patted his brother's back.
Pats ignored them and went to toss around things inside her desk drawer. She pulled out one small CD and threw it onto my desk.
"You can read it yourself at home. In short, we, Espers, have categories for the type of our power. From the most obvious: Miss B, Brenna, Basil and James are the Brains. They have high intelligentsia far above others, and have ability to manipulate the technology. Second category is the Aggressors, like Abel and Alexa, also Aeronwen, Scarlett, Anthony, and Shyu. You have aggressive power to engage enemy in real combats. Then, there is the Schemers, like me, Erwann, and Hannah."
"I don't understand," Erwann interrupted. "To be honest, up until now I've never really grasp the reason why Mr. Law recruited me. I don't have any power if Lior has no lightning power in him."
"Conversely, Lior would not be able to use his power if you are not there to 'make' him. That's how the power of a Schemer works. We have channel to enter one's mind and access their box, to make them do as we commanded them to do. This so-called box is stored inside each creature's subconscious and contains information of every single knowledge and power that the creature ever exposed to. There is Schemer who can access every creature's box, like me with my singing voice. If I access a sorcerer's box, I could read their chants and use my singing to break it."
"You can access trees and animals' box too?" Alexa interrupted and was answered by a nod. "No wonder your singing was so moving..."
"I still don't understand about my own power, Pats."
"Erwann, you are the other kind of Schemer, who could only access certain people's box. You only have access to Lior's box, to guide him to cast out his power, as you're intended."
"What about Hannah? She's power proof," I asked, letting myself absorbed in the thought of our colleague, Hannah. She was another field agent. She was in her early twenty, although her chubby face and big, round, emerald-green eyes made her look like a fifteen years old or a doll, especially since she styled her curly, copper-blonde hair framing her face perfectly with fringes.
Pats flashed her patented sweet smile, seemed exceptionally happy with my exceptional question.
"Actually, Hannah is like me. If I access other's box with my singing, she accesses the box by making eye contact. After the eye contact had been established, she could ask her target to 'cancel' his/her attack. It's as simple as that."
We were deeply enlightened, like a bunch of students after sat in the class of a very brilliant professor.
"W-... wait, I think you haven't categorized me anywhere..."
"As for you Lior, you are unique."
"Unique how?"
"I think you can be categorized as an Avatar. This type of power is very rare. Avatars could not use or cast out their power on their own. They need a Schemer's help, like you need Erwann to pull out your lightning power. Without him, you are no different with the Civilian."
We were nodding together once more, but this time the twins glanced at each other, smiling. They must had been having the so-called twins psychic bonding moment.
"And..., according to you, my brother is a schemer?"
Pats shrugged her shoulders. "Based on your story, if Danzel really has super power, the most make sense category for him is Schemer. He may have power to tell if someone was lying. I won't be surprised if his power could evolve to the state where he would be able to pull out any truth he needed straight from his target's head, or even to force a lie as truth to his target."
I bugged my eyes, surprised for the explanation. Could that be the case? Danzel might be that powerful? If he were, then to what extent had his power developed?
"Abel, I think you really should take time to scan your brother," advised Erwann.
"Could it be, Abel had been infected by his brother's power, so he had been hypnotized and accepted the lie that his brother isn't an Esper as fact," Alexa said promptly, made me slap her head.
Of course, the sassy petite girl would not be pleased with the treatment. Her tiny fist immediately swung, as it tried to hit every possible spot on my body that she could reach. To face a berserk Alexa, the wisest thing to do was to flee. I deserted my cubical and ended running around the office.
Our office was like a hangar, but instead of a plane stood in the middle of it, there was a pillar of giant computer with dozens of monitor screens. The three Brains were sitting on their magnetic chairs, observing the screens, like planets revolving around the sun. Their chairs were held in place using magnetic field planted around the computer. They could go up and down by adjusting the magnetic power on their chairs.
The field agents were stationed at cubicles, about three meters far from the mother computer. Alexa was chasing me around the cubicles, so I fled to the computer, disturbing the brains on the process. We were awarded with Brenna's curse when Alexa ran in front of the monitor she was observing, and I was with James' pen that he threw at me when I almost bumped onto him. I then fled to the pantry at the corner of the room. Anthony and Hannah were having lunch there. When they saw us whirl down approaching, they promptly saved their lunch, before we had a chance to knock it over.
I was about to flee to the rows of the warp machine installed at the opposite side of the pantry when I felt my body entered a vacuum space. My body lost its weight and my lungs were cut short of oxygen. I could feel my consciousness slowly leaving me as I tried to break out. My limbs were moving wildly like I was swimming. Still, I could not break out from the vacuum, made me almost get panic attack. I caught a glimpse of Alexa who was in the same state as I was from the corner of my eyes.
"Do you think I opened a playgroup here, so you could play tag?!" A sharp voice snapped me back to reality when I was in the brink of passing out.
As I gained my consciousness back, I saw our commander, Aeronwen Joshi, and her majesty, Miss B. Miss B stood next to the platinum-blonde haired man with her hands on her curved waist. Her pair of misty-grey eyes glared at us, so wide that it gave stark contrast with the heavy smoky eyes make-up she wore. Her black brows frowned so deep on her marble forehead, while her oval lips had formed a bow under her small nose.
Next to her, Aeronwen stared at us pointedly with his prominent, sterling-grey eyes, just under his arched black eyebrows. Part of his fringes were hung so low until they nearly reached his thin lips, which now pursed tightly under his narrow nose. I realized that the vacuum space I was in just then was his doing. That commander of us was half Nepalese and half Latina, and he was an Aero-master, the kind of Esper who could manipulate any gas in the atmosphere. He could create powerful explosion using cocktails of gasses or to create vacuum space like before.
I could only grin like an idiot when my boss and her second returned and caught us red-handed, running around in frenzy.
"You are still healing, yet you've goofing around like this? What if your wounds re-opened?" Aeronwen scolded us, but I knew he was trying to ease down Miss B's anger by poking on the raven-haired woman's compassion.
Miss B glanced her right-hand for a beat, before returning her attention to us. "Meeting room. NOW!" She said, to all of us.
**
Our meeting room was located just outside of our office, next to the elevators. There were two meeting rooms there, one was bigger than the other. Miss B's 10 cm high heels tapped loudly on the ceramic floor, as she walked to the bigger room. Behind her were Aeronwen and his partner-slash-lover, Scarlett Rosendale. The woman was older by a year than me, same age as Miss B, 23 years old, and younger by one year than our commander. She had fiery-red, wavy hair that enveloped her body like a piece of red garment. She was as beautiful and stylish as always. Today she was wearing tight, faux-leather black pants, perfectly hugging her long and slim legs like second skin. On top, she wore dark green blouse that brought out her jade-green eyes and allowed her red hair became even more stunning.
When we entered the meeting room, somebody had been sitting inside it. The man was sitting on one of the chairs with leg crossed and he stood up once Miss B entered the room. He seemed older than me by a year or two, although he was much shorter by 15 cm than my 183cm height. His skin was marble-pale, complemented with light-blonde short hair, which made him look even paler. He even looked like he was almost transparent in his white outfits. His outfit was a long sleeve with Mandarin collar white coat, buttoned up to the last button under his chin. His coat was knee long, so I could see that he also wore white silk trousers and white leather shoes. In short, he was white from top to toe. What caught my sight when I first laid my eyes on him was the symbol of Mandalas and other magical patterns sewn with black threads on his coat sleeves and on the back.
I frowned and alarmed when I noticed thick golden aura of the stranger in my green world.
"Sorcerer!!" I hissed and turned off my vision in disgust.
The stranger pivoted sharp glance to me with his pair of icy-blue, deep-set eyes. His blonde eyebrows frowned, as his celestial nose twitched a bit and his thin lips smirked. He seemed displeased with my action and exclamation.
"You have the 'heaven's eye'?" He asked. His voice was soft, but it contained scolding tone. "Don't you know that it was impolite to scan others without their permission?"
"I don't have to be polite to rotten sorcerers like you," I spoke back.
"Abel!" Miss B gave me pointed look, as if she wanted to eat me alive. "Mind your mouth in front of Mr. McAllen."
"Since when do we have to bootlick the sorcerers, Miss B? If it wasn't because of their kind, there would be no Balin phenomena that had harmed so many innocent civilians!" Lior looked like as if he would breathe fire.
Miss B glared back to Lior. "Do you think I went all the way to Norway for two whole days and nights for what? Sight-seeing?"
"You did not tell us, how'd we suppose to know?" Lior was absolutely had no rival when it came to bicker.
"Lior, Miss B took me and Scarlett to Norway to participate on a closed conference with the sorcery community. They have heard about our department and they are also alerted on Balin phenomena. They contacted us, because they genuinely realized that the phenomena could lead to chaos if it's not handled properly and promptly. They also acknowledged that the craft used to make Balin is a forbidden craft that should be destroyed and the sorcerer that had accessed the craft should be persecuted. The conference sealed with a pact that stating such decision. Miss B as the representative of Mr. Alpha Law, the head of Esper community, and Mr. McAllen, as the head of the sorcery Orders hegemony, had signed the pact."
"You could imagine, a quarter from around two million of sorcerers all around the world had agreed to support our effort to put an end on these Balin phenomena. With this, won't half of our burden had already lessened?" Scarlett added.
"How would we know if they're really trustworthy?"
"We have our pride too," said the sorcerer calmly. "I won't ask you to trust me, but I inform you nevertheless, that we certainly will execute everything we've promised, especially when the promise had been sealed with our real name."
The meeting room was instantly buzzing with our voices. It was no secret that each sorcerer had two names; one was the name they used daily, and the other was their real name. Every sorcerer would only reveal their real name to their parents and spouse or future spouse, because if their enemy got hold of their real name, it would be equal with sentencing them with death penalty. Their enemy would be able to control or defeat the sorcerer by using the said sorcerer's real name. Therefore, a sorcerer's real name was as vital as their life.
"Wow, they're dead serious," Alexa whispered.
"Little girl, do you think we would be wasting our time to attend the conference if we weren't serious?!" The sorcerer chastised Alexa. The ice-blue eyes glazed coldly to Alexa's. "Our community had always been a secretive one. We had been living behind the shadow, inheriting our ancestor's lifestyle and arts. However, recently some of ours, presumably the young wizards, had accessed one of the old and forbidden crafts. They were making ruckus everywhere, threatening all the Orders' existence. If we let them be and do nothing, they will attract further unwanted attention toward our community, which may lead to witch hunt frenzy all over again. We certainly could not overlook that kind of possibility and just waiting until everything had been too late. No, they must be stopped, and I definitely will see this matter brought to the end by myself. Do you understand now, Little Girl?"
Alexa diverted her gaze from McAllen's and pouted. I knew she felt like crap to get a lecture from a sorcerer. I never liked their kind, because almost on each of my encounter with them gave me ugly impression toward their community. However, after listened to McAllen's explanation, I came to realization that this Balin matter would threaten most of the sorcerers' livelihood, up to their very existence. Most of them were not expecting such attention to be drawn to their community and as eager as we did to put it on stop.
Miss B raised her hand to ask for our attention. "Now if you've understand, quickly and quietly sit yourself down. I did not invite Mr. McAllen here today to squabbling with you lot. He has important information to tell you, so pay attention!"
We obediently walked to the rows of office chairs(that surrounding the long, oval-shaped meeting table(and took our seats slowly. The sorcerer waited until all of us seated, as he observed us intensely, one by one, with that kind of appraising look. After the last person sat, the sorcerer walked to the front of the meeting room. A big transparent monitor became his background.
"My name is Cody McAllen. I am a first-class Warlock, the head of Magellinian Order that locates at Pacific and Atlantic region. I am, too, the leader of Sorcery Orders Hegemony."
McAllen paused as our buzzing sounds filled the room. I quite stunned by the fact. That sorcerer (or as he said, warlock) was still so young, yet he acquired such magnificent power and status for his age. According to our manual, Magellinian Order was one of the five strongest sorcery Orders in this world.
"Today I came here to represent my community, as well as to show our determination to wage war against the Balin creators. This objective aside, I also have personal interest for your report on the last incident at Scotland, where a Balin became master of other Balin," McAllen carried on after the buzzing sounds subdued.
"It was my partner and I who handled the case. Do you have further information about it?" I raised my hand to interrupt.
"I'm sure you have learned that our community is categorized into four classes of sorcerer type. First class is the warlocks like me, witches and the master alchemists; second class are the conjurors; third class are the mages and the last class are for the novice wizard and novice alchemist. In theory, only the first class could master the craft of Balin creation, because only this class possesses adequate power, skills, and experiences. However, our latest investigation revealed to us that recently even the second and third class' might be able to master it."
The buzzing started to break out once more. We looked at each other in horror at that information. If what he said was true, then, our work surely would be twice as great.
Shyu raised his hand. "Mr. McAllen, you said that theoretically, only the first class' sorcerer would be able to meet adequate requirements to do the craft. But why the other classes have now also able to do it, as they certainly would not meet such requirements?"
"Before answering that question, I think it's best for you all to know that the craft of Balin creation itself was mysterious. No one knew who the creator of the craft was. We only knew that the craft first used around a century ago, by one of the oldest and strongest orders of ours. It had been created significant turmoil in our community. Therefore, the first hegemony was established to make an end of this matter. There was no record whether their efforts were futile or not, but the craft eventually disappeared from circulation and the turmoil died down. No one had ever seen or heard about the craft anymore, until recently. According to rumours, the craft would not merely demand a sorcerer to meet the three requirements, but also obligates the said sorcerer to make commitment, since they have to take care of their creation afterward. That kind of commitment also requires them to put more effort, time and energy, something that the lesser classes usually don't have as adequate as the first class does. However, the lesser classes found their way to sail through with collaborative effort and implementing a special orb that has power to boost their lack of energy and skill."
"What kind of special orb was that?" Aeronwen asked.
McAllen gave a CD to Miss B, who passed it to James. That brunette, curly-haired colleague of ours was a brain with ability to read and show any data stored inside any data storage, such as USB and CD, without first plug it into a computer. The said brain took the CD, placed it on his right palm as he closed his amber eyes and concentrated. It did not take another second before the data were shown on the screen behind McAllen.
"Well, that's impressive," McAllen cracked his first smile. "This is the picture of the orb."
Our gaze fixed on the picture of a violet-yellow coloured ball, as big as an adult man's fist.
"There has no official name for this orb, since its creator had not yet come forward to announce its creation. However, based on its function, we agreed to call it the wisdom orb."
"Don't you know who the creator is?" Miss B asked.
McAllen paused for a bit, his blue eyes wore a sad expression, which he immediately dismissed. "Was," he replied without further elaboration and waved his hand to James, asking the man to show the next picture.
Once more, my eyes met the royal-blue eyes of Liam Rourke.
"Liam Rourke," Alexa whispered beside me.
"His real name was Ivan Aramanth. He was also a first class Warlock and the leader of Trevelyan Order of the Western Europe region."
"Are you saying that the Warlock, Ivan, sent a lesser class' to resurrect him with his own orb?"
McAllen's marble face stiffened upon hearing my question. The same sad expression that I saw previously re-appear on his eyes. This time, it was accompanied with anger.
"Mr. Lee, Ivan was my childhood friend. We played and learned our craft together. I could assure you one thing; Ivan had always hated the type of craft like the Balin creation the most. He created the orb not for that purpose, but to help himself to improve his own skill, so he could extend his life-span and to be with his lover for a little longer."
"However, then, ironically and tragically, the orb's secret fell into the perpetrator's hand. They even used Aramanth as their guinea pig, resurrected him and his lover as the first gay Balin couple ever exist."
We promptly turned our head to the alien voice. We were stupefied to found another stranger was sitting amongst us. The guy wore same style outfit as McAllen's, but his long coat colour was deep purple, while the Mandala and magical patterns on it were sewn with white threads. The patterns themselves were different with McAllen's. The stranger's thin lips threw a smug smile when he noticed our expression, while his pair of almond-shaped, violet eyes shone wickedly under his thin-arched eyebrows. He had a diamond-shaped face, which now screened partially by his wavy, chin-long, dirty-blonde hair when he cocked his head side-ways. He was slim and tall, and now had sprawled his long legs on the meeting table, as he sat next to Anthony at the farthest end of the table.
Our brunette co-worker, Anthony, could only look sheepishly to the taller man. His perfect, proportional lips forcedly cracked a smile when the sorcerer winked at him. However, Anthony's slanted, oak-brown eyes, as well as his handsome, oval face, had only shed confusion for the sudden development and for the appearance of the uninvited guest.
"You're late, Campbell!!" McAllen reprimanded the other sorcerer.
The said man shrugged his shoulders. "I came ten minutes ago in invisible magic, just when you started your blabbering. It's not my fault that you lot were way too engrossed in the discussion that you didn't sense my presence."
"Hey McAllen, is he your lap dog?" Lior asked harshly, seemed upset since none of us acknowledge the new sorcerer's presence. I felt him, since if that sorcerer was enemy with ill intent, won't us be dead ducks?
"Mind your tongue, Boy!"
The taller sorcerer opened his mouth as his hand shot geomancy wave toward Lior. Fortunately, Erwann was deft. Even before we could scream in horror or react, he had 'made' his brother to rise his hands and formed a shield out of his lightning energy. The sorcerer did attack in full power since the twins had to use a huge amount of energy to maintain their shield and defend themselves. Their chairs were pushed backward when the two energies clashed.
"Mind yourself, Campbell!" McAllen warned.
Campbell clenched his teeth. Murder was still on his violet eyes, but he obeyed the warning. He threw himself back to his chair and crossed his legs again on the table.
"My apologies," McAllen said to Miss B.
"The fault was on my side too," Miss B replied airily, giving the Sebastian twins a pointed glare.
Erwann got the hint and nodded. His face was still pale, surprised with the sorcerer's power. Lior even got paler than him. I think he got the shock of his life. And later on, even until the meeting was dismissed, that raven haired boy was not able to take another look at the taller sorcerer. I took a glance to Alexa, who was looking at me too. We were laughing up Lior's sleeve, but tried our best not to show it on our face.
"Ladies and gentlemen please meet Mr. McAllen's partner, Campbell Timofei," Miss B pointed the taller sorcerer. "Starting from tomorrow, the two of them will be joining our department."
The room once again filled with the buzzing sounds. However, this time, it was the buzzing of dissatisfaction.
"Miss B, why are you inviting these sorcerers to join us? Won't we have the wolf by the ears by doing so?" I protested.
"If you've signed the pact with them, then be it. There's no necessary to let them join in!" added Alexa.
Aeronwen stood up and raised his hands to silence our protests. "Guys, please calm down a bit. Miss B did not agree with Mr. McAllen's request out of the blue. Why don't we give Mr. McAllen a chance to tell him his reason first?"
We finally held our complaints and gave Cody McAllen chance to speak. The sorcerer was putting us under the scrutiny of his blue eyes, intimidating us with his charisma as he was doing so. I had to admit that he could be a charismatic leader despite his young age.
"As I told you before, Ivan was my best friend. I personally against the Balin craft, yet someone turned my best friend into a Balin. Don't I deserve to have a say on this matter? To be honest, what I wanted the most at the moment is to revenge the culprit for all their doing to Ivan and Jonathan. I also have to find back the wisdom orb. They cannot have it, or they will be making more Balins. Be it for my own personal interest or for my community's, my objectives are no different with yours. So, instead of working separately, why don't we join hands to put down this matter to its end?"
"That's why, until we could root this problem out, we will be working with you," Timofei added.
"So, it's a temporary thing...," James looked relieved.
"Will you put them in new team, Miss B?" Basil asked, drawing our immediate attention to the eleven-year old. A single thought arose in our head.
"They can't be put in one team, Miss B!" Alexa said.
"Clearly can't. Who'd know what they'd do on the field," Scarlett joined in.
"Sorry, but we don't trust them, Miss B," I carried on.
Calmly, Miss B stared at us one by one. She cocked her head and asked. "Then, which team shall I break down to be teamed up with them?"
We were caught in immediate silence and could only glance to each other. No one seemed willing to be teamed up with the two sorcerers. Well, that was to be expected, considering our ugly past with their kind. I felt a tug at the end of my hoodies. I glanced to my partner. She didn't look at me, only stared lily-livered to the smooth surface of the table. She might not even realize what her hand was doing. I chuckled silently to the revelation how my partner was treasuring our partnership. Even if her mouth would never admit it, Alexa liked to be my partner. Hell, who won't be?
"Break down our team, Miss!"
We now turned our head to our brunette colleague. Anthony was raising his hand, while Hannah nodded on his side.
"Are you sure Tony, Hannah?" Aeronwen asked.
Hannah was nodding once more, firmly than before. "Lior and Erwann are inseparable, as well as Shyu-Pats and Aeron-Scarlett. If either Abel or Alexa were to be together with a sorcerer, they certainly will be in constant argument and bickering with them. Hence, we are the most make sense of choice of team to be broken down."
Miss B's oval lips, tinted with dark-red lipstick drawn into satisfied smile. Stood just next of her was McAllen, who was also flashing a thin smile.
"Then, I'll be with the pretty boy, and Cody, you go with the doll," Campbell raised himself from the chair and offered a handshake to Anthony. "I hope you won't mind."
Our medium-height colleague shook the sorcerer's hand and smiled. "It's Anthony Lotsano, not pretty boy. I hope we can work together well."
"Then I'll be with...," Hannah flashed a sweet smile to McAllen, who was also smiling to her and nodding to her word.
Next to me, the tug on my hoodies had been loosen. My ears still caught the relieved sigh came from Alexa.
**