After floating in a cold and dark void which slowly froze him up, Joaquin's body heat up substantially as rational thought returned to him. He was getting flashbacks of the day prior but nothing stuck out from it. So he wondered where the tiny hint of loneliness came from.
His eyelids rose letting no light in at all, Joaquin's window was blocked by blueprints and let little to no sunlight in. There were loud knocks at the door which Joaquin addressed with huge groans, a few seconds later his alarm clock went wild.
Rrrring!
Joaquin rapidly stood up and looked around the room frantically. It was big and so was his bed, there were books as far as the eyes can see and a number of weapons on the wall opposite the bed. The weapons were priceless relics that he found on expeditions with the family and sometimes the class.
"Jojo!" the voice was sharp and went through the name quickly.
Joaquin ignored it and picked the alarm clock to switch it off. "I've never been woken up by this before." He got out with a hand holding his head in one place and went to let Ruben in.
"What are you doing here? Aren't your dorms down that way?" he said slowly as he pointed Ruben to the direction of his dorms.
"Why do you look like shit? Normally by this time you're already at the field jogging, I knew I had to come for you when a minute passed and you were still a myth." Ruben said as he looked down on him.
"One minute passed and you immediately assumed I was dead? You must be eager to see me…"
"Oh hell no!" Ruben pushed Joaquin and walked into his room. "Get dressed we are going for our morning workout."
"Our? Last time I checked I used this time to get some time to think, but you started following me out. To be honest you're kind of creepy." Joaquin slammed the door, walked past Ruben to the closet, and began changing into his tracksuit.
"You have to admit, having me around has its own benefits. You have a free sparring partner and someone to talk to."
"I don't have anything to talk to you about unless you understand the basic principles of alchemy."
"Metals?"
"I thought so." After changing Joaquin grabbed all the other necessities like a bow and some arrows and a dagger. "Besides, isn't it waste for you to be practicing with me?"
"Not at all. I do everything I do to help you graduate and that is a bigger gain than everything."
Click.
Ruben heard the door lock, and when he looked back at it, Joaquin was nowhere to be seen. Ruben sensed his energy outside the room walking to the stairs. (Even though they are bigger than the labs, the dormitories don't have elevators.)
"The school rules advice against the destruction of school property. Though fine to do if you can pay for the damages I trust that Jojo won't leave me locked up his room." Ruben mumbled to himself while walking towards the door.
Seconds turned to minutes and finally an hour passed while Ruben waited for Joaquin to come back. 'Do I really mean that little to him, I mean I know he doesn't like people but damn. Me too?' he thought as he rubbed his non-existent beard.
He finally accepted that Joaquin wasn't going to return until after another hour so he decided to at least help him tidy up. Ruben knew that he was normally tidy and whenever his room was this messy he was close to creating or discovering something amazing. So instead of moving everything around, he just marked the books that were lying around and put them back into the shelves. He also removed and folded the blueprints from the window creating a light but sealed it off with normal curtains.
"The floor is moped, the books are in place and apart from the test tubes and magic circles all over the place. This looks decent." Ruben sat on the bed and observed the room, there were beanbag sofas he had got for Joaquin. In the middle was a short coffee table previously buried under piles books and sheets of paper.
To his left right before the entry to Joaquin's bathroom was a bookshelf and it was filled to the brim. But at the top right was a childhood photo of both Joaquin and Ruben in matching attire. The photo was given a lot of breathing space along with a worn-out ball and some metal which was squished together. The wall opposite the bed which held Joaquin's weapons and trophies also had a mini television mounted on it. Ruben knew that it was most likely not a normal television but at the same time he did not let his curiously get to him.
As much as he did not like not knowing what Joaquin is planning he also didn't like digging into his secrets. Ruben checked his tablet and decided that it was best he headed back to his dorm right now, there was no telling how far Joaquin was going to take this.
He walked over to the door and placed his hand on it. 'I can do it,' he took a deep breath in and released some energy from his hand started moving into the door. He wanted to safely open it using his ability but it exploded. A little bit that is.
Ruben exhaled and opened his eyes as the door swung open.
Behind it stood Joaquin.
"You're going to pay for that," Joaquin said as he shoved him to the side.
"I can fix it."
"No, you can't. The creation side of your ability tends to make things worse when dealing with smaller objects." Once in the house, Joaquin proceeded to push Ruben outside.
"Fine, I'll go report myself to the DC and pay for it later."
"No need, I can fix it myself. As for the tokens I'll be taking them after school. You should also stop sucking up to the DC, nothing good will come out of it."
Ruben tensed up and stopped moving. Joaquin noticed the increase in his strength and let him go, he grabbed the door handle and tried closing it. The two of them shared the same physical build although Ruben stood an inch or two higher.
"Is that what you think I am doing? Jojo, you know very well that I am going to become a knight after school. A knight's duty is to protect the kingdom and its people, a knight can only achieve that by knowing the laws and enforcing them. Only when citizens understand to follow the laws will their lives, dreams, and futures be safeguarded."
"You're narrow-minded, that and you don't seem to know what you mean when you say only." Joaquin closed the door and proceeded to the shower.
Ruben stood mounted at the front of Joaquin's room, he was not thinking about what he just said. He smiled, 'one day you'll understand that laws are the only thing keeping this world from falling apart.' He left. On his way out he came across a few students who immediately moved away when they saw him and some even bowed. Ruben nervously tried to tell them to stop embarrassing him.
Before getting in the shower, Joaquin's mind picked up where it left off during training. There was a void in his mind felt by his heart. He trembled and got Goosebumps as he tried to remember, red smoke surrounded him but he did not notice.
It was an unhealthy feeling for someone like him who was known for his excellent memory. 'Maybe stress is starting to get to me, I blame Ben. He hopped in the shower and got ready for school, today he was not feeling like breakfast so he just stood face to face with himself on the mirror.
In full uniform and with some time left before school, Joaquin stared himself down on the mirror as if he was waiting for something. His mind was devoid of any significant thought, it was curious as to why he was doing this. It wanted to know why his heart was pounding faster and louder.
Nothing.
Nothing happened and the unease grew in Joaquin's mind. His eyes were heating up and some veins showed on his hands as he gripped the side of the basin as if he could rip it off. That is when the smoke returned.
Joaquin noticed it this time. At first, he thought he was imagining things, but after rubbing his eyes a little he decided to accept that it was there. He was unarmed and knew that the first thing about smoke is that you can't fight it. That's because on seeing it Joaquin thought that it was an intruder, and since the energy it emitted felt familiar he was even more convinced that it was an enemy.