"I understand what you are saying, but are you trying to tell me the Armensians are afraid of how powerful the Siege might actually be?" I went on to ask.
"Yes. They are. And as it may not have ever happened, they fear the Siege might be an even bigger threat if he were to ever turn against them," he said, "imagine a being powerful enough to stand up to the Seven Great Beasts." This pretty much clarified for me what he was trying to say to me this whole time.
This was a lot to take in to be honest. Jekyll always had a way to disclose a lot of information in a short amount of time. I took the time to think over our situation. Technically what I gathered from what he was saying was that even after we defeated the Seven Dark mages, the people of Armensia will still not see themselves as free. Not because they weren't thankful, but merely because we posed a threat which they would be unable to thwart were we to retaliate against them.
"And that concludes today's lesson," he said suddenly wearing a large smile.
"Wait, what. That was quick…." I tried complaining.
""I know, but you need some of your strength. You have a long road ahead of you," he said and with he shoved me backwards causing my surroundings to swirl once more whilst I fell. By the time I landed, I was back in the spot I found him. Right in front of the trophy case placed in the first floor of the school building. It had been exactly two hours since I began meditating and I could tell that it was exactly that time. I could also feel my power over time getting stronger.
I let my consciousness fall back into my body and slowly retracted all my senses. Since my eyes had been closed the whole time, I was quite sure the moment I opened them it would be like flashed a spotlight right into my eyes. I needed my other senses to return to normal. Little by little I felt the magic strain I was letting out lessen. I hadn't noticed but the strain I was putting on myself to keep my awareness over the whole school had been tremendous.
I opened my eyes slowly allowing them to adjust to the light. When I was done adjusting, I looked to the teacher who was paying me close attention. "Good. Now resume time and get to the cafeteria. I can tell you now have a good hold on time magic. So from now on, these sessions have been dissolved into simple consultations. Here is the work you are required to give me to mark tomorrow when you come for this session. I have discerned that you will not need to waste your lunchtime. You have friends that you must spend time with. Now go," he said.
What he was saying was totally reasonable for a teacher, but even as he said it he didn't hide his extra gloomy mood today and it got on my nerves to no end. I got up and went for the door after resuming the flow of time. I internally felt a clock start ticking and could even tell the time down to very last second. It was 1:09:56 pm. Creepy as it might have been, I found it easy to ignore. As I reached for the handle, I heard the professor, "Did you learn much from meditating today?" he asked.
I paused at the door knob. I had a strong urge to tell him that I hadn't learnt anything from it. But he wasn't the one I needed to direct my frustrations to. I opened the door and walked out without giving him an answer to his question. Shutting out my troubles from my mind, I went straight for the cafeteria. For just this lunchtime, maybe I could go through it without having to deal with Ryan. I got my food and settled at our table letting out a long sigh when I was finally seated. I was always astounded and also a bit perturbed at how my friends could always read straight through my moods. At times I wished I could pretend everything was okay, but they had made an effort to know exactly how I act after I came out of rehab those many years ago. At times it felt like they still looked at me like that little boy who had just witnessed his cousin being murdered. The day was still etched deeply in my skull.
"No detention today?" Kendall asked.
"No. He finally let me go. No more detentions," I said trying to fake a smile. This only meant if we ever trained in Armensia, then I would have to fake not being tired. I guess I would have to cross that bridge when came to it. For now I guess it was best to leave the issue be. Once again I found myself trying my best to ignore the staring faces of everyone who wanted to stare at the boy that peaked Ryan's interest.
"Sure you should be seated here. You might get Ryan mad," Jacob said dismissively. Well it was fun while it lasted.
"I am not in any way related to Ryan" I answered irritated. I was about to turn my focus to my food when Cara spoke up.
"Not sure he would agree with that," she said staring off at a different table. I followed her gaze and managed to catch a glimpse of a very infuriated Ryan storming out of the cafeteria, his usual escorts trying to keep up with him. 'Damn, now what,' I thought. I needed to be on Ryan's good side and I had seemed to have pissed him off somehow. I grabbed the apple that was on my plate and excused myself from the table.
"So are you related?" Jacob asked and for the first time since Ryan started claiming we were, I couldn't bring myself to deny it.
"I'm not sure," I replied before leaving the cafeteria in pursuit of my self-proclaimed relative. It wasn't so hard to find Ryan. I just had to ask the first Purger that I found. They always knew where he was. I was directed to the basketball court. Seems these guys liked basketball a lot. It had been my sport with Kendall for a time until we got access to football. Everything changed then. Kendall loved competing with me to see who was fast. I always beat him though, but he never gave up and his hard work always showed. Too bad for him I was simply too simply.
I came back to reality when I heard the constant sound of a basketball letting me know that I had got to the basketball court. I rounded a corner and saw the court come into view. Ryan was in the court alone, shooting flawless hoops. The two girls that always followed him around were nowhere to be seen. I entered the court and walked up to him. I could tell he was still angry at me. That much was visible on his face. Whatever way he thought we were related was beyond my understanding, but the fact that he was the only one who could tell me what I needed to know meant he had a reason to claim everything as he did. And it wasn't like the people I had asked had regarded him in a hostile manner.
"Hey," I called.
"What brings you here?" he asked with a hint of disgust in his voice.
I dismissed his tone and asked while looking around, "Where are the girls you are always with?"
"You mean Mindy and Heather," he said whilst I nodded, "they went on ahead to their next classes," he said watching his first basket go off. I fetched the ball for him before moving on to my next question.
"So you mean you are here alone?" I asked.
"What do you want Johnson?" he asked spitting out my family name.
"I want to know what you know. I can't make sense of any of it. I'm hoping you can help clarify what I'm missing."
He stopped shooting and grabbed the ball. His face glistened with a few beads of sweat and his hair now clung to his face. He looked me straight in the eye and came straight at me his gaze unwavering in intensity. He then abruptly thrust the ball into my stomach knocking the wind right out of my lungs. I doubled over gasping for air. I grabbed the ball like my life depended on it to stop him from retrieving it. He set me down slowly whispering into my ear, "It's a family matter."
"Wait," I said still trying to catch my breath. "What do you mean by family matter?" I asked between breaths.
"We're done here," he said leaving me there to catch my breath. 'Great. I wonder what people will gossip about now. That is f they did see that. Probably something like freshman gets put in his right place,' I thought getting up to go for my next classes. Exhaustion was starting to set in from what Bergstrom had been teaching me. I began my journey to the next class. I wasn't so surprised to see the Purgers were already giving me a stink-eye but thankfully that s al they were doing. What surprised me was how they all knew about that incident with Ryan almost instantly.
'Hey Ciara,' I called mentally.
'Yeah'
'Anything new in Armensia?' I asked as I entered my Physics class and settled in for the lesson.
'No nothing. I contacted Jovenor to fill me in on any new developments but he hasn't got back to me yet,' she replied. I could feel something was amiss. Almost as if she wasn't telling me something. And what was with the novel she was always carrying around now. Almost each time I spoke to her, she either had her eyes on the book or somewhere else, but she was definitely avoiding eye contact. I checked in with the others but they quickly agreed there was nothing they had heard from Ciara and they were also quick to dismiss the question. For the first Kendall wasn't poking around trying to know why I was acting suspicious which was totally out of character for him for as long as I could remember. But I also knew my friends wouldn't keep things from me unless it was for my own good flashing back to the incident with the dead elder dragon. I let the issue slide and continued on with the lessons.