I finally got to the teacher's classroom while he was going through some consultations with some students. I sat on my usual seat and waited a few minutes before all the students were done and had left. Mr Bergstrom stayed seated on his desk going through some of his papers before he looked up at me expectantly, "What are you waiting for?" he asked.
"Oh sorry, I thought you would have noticed by now that I cannot access my magic at the moment," I stated what I thought must have been the obvious to my teacher and supposed mentor.
He stopped going through his papers and turned to me. "When did this happen?" he asked.
"I noticed yesterday when football practice started, but I think I lost the magic much earlier," I told him.
"Okay, I think your void just closed then. I knew Kalifa had pushed you too hard," he said.
"What causes the void to close and you never did explain what the void is all that well to me," I said.
"Well, the void is where everyone's magic comes from. On magically dormant countries, the void is simply closed for all beings on it as you know on earth," he explained, "By now you must have noticed feeling in your gut as magic is being released for a spell. That is the entrance point for magic in the body and the faster you can deploy magic from the void, the faster your spell casting gets, but this doesn't mean that the magic in the void is inexhaustible. It can be exhausted, the food eaten by all magical beings or for all beings in magically active worlds, a part of it is converted into magic which is then stored in the void."
"I see, but that doesn't explain why the magic of the artras is a lot," I said.
"Some voids have the ability to absorb magic from the surroundings which is then kept," he said.
"What about the Siege and the Homage?" I asked, "and not to mention the alpha."
"Well those are exceptions, they all have the ability to exploit magic at a faster rate and have a capacity to store much more magic," he said, "without wasting any more time, close your eyes and meditate, your main focus is to access your void. Don't force it, just keep breathing regular and make sure you stay focused." He said.
I did as the teacher said, though I couldn't help but sense the urgency in his voice. I kept my breathing regular and started searching for the feeling in my gut. Slowly but steadily I began feeling the all too familiar feeling of magic start to flow back into my body getting rid of half the pain from the training the day before until it was back to the ordinary aches I was used to. I opened my eyes and regretted it immediately as the light was too bright.
"I see your senses are back up," I heard the teacher's voice as he had noticed my rushed action to seal my eyes from the light.
"I hadn't noticed a difference," I said to him.
"That is simply because you have never had your void close in your whole life," he said. A loud ticking sound began to echo inside my head. I immediately pushed it to the back of my mind to slow the impending headache it was bound to cause. The internal clock was back up again immediately notifying me that I had already used nineteen minutes and six seconds on my lunch hour. I would have almost said that everything was back to normal, but that wasn't the case. Before I knew it, more magic was pouring out of my void than I meant to let out and my consciousness was expanding its limits along with the magic. I became increasingly aware of a lurking danger, but the worst part was that I couldn't tell what it was and it soon became clear that this feeling was the one that was having my magic acting out.
"You feel it too, don't you?" the teacher asked, "the feeling of calm before a storm."
"What's going on sir?" I asked him now worried.
"Tomorrow marks eight hundred years ever since the Great White dragon was subjected to that horrid spell," Mr Bergstrom said.
"This also means that in two weeks' time Travas and the other Dark Seven mages will finally be able to access the powers of the Great Beasts with almost no restraint. All these years, we have battled the Dark Mages, but none of them was ever truly at their full power. Today, you will not be training with me. Instead you will be helping your friends. Make them aware that you can help them. As of right now, you are more powerful than all of them except Ciara, and they are going to need your help. And remember this, when you deploy the spell that Kalifa and I have been teaching you, the power of the elements will be within your grasp. Now go for lunch," I shook my head at the end of his awe-inspiring speech.
"Did you just end such an awesome speech with 'go for lunch'?" I asked speechless.
He laughed at my comment before ushering me out of the classroom. I was in much better spirits after that. The events of my morning regarding Gary were far at the back of my mind. I got to the cafeteria and sat by Kendall after getting my food. "Hi guys," I chirped in a cheerful tone. Despite the cheerful tone I was displaying on my face, I couldn't shake the feeling of dread that I had got ever since I got my magic back.
I was constantly aware of everything around me within a ten metre radius. Thankfully a field of consciousness this low was much easier to contain compared to the Artarak that Kalifa had forced me to cover the day before. Come to think of it, a field of a radius of ten metres wasn't something I could easily hold before today. I guess Kalifa had actually helped raise my abilities. I didn't even have to focus to keep up the spell of this magnitude.
"Someone is back in his cheerful mood," Kendall commented.
"Uh huh, so what did I miss?" I asked beginning on my mission of stuffing myself with the awesome food our cafeteria served.
"Nothing much, but are still going to practice today?" Kendall asked abruptly.
"Why do you ask?" I asked him.
"You don't look so good after what coach did to you yesterday," Kendall said whilst pretending to simply be thinking out loud.
"You want my position that bad, huh?" I told him nodding my head in disappointment.
"You have no idea. I don't like being in defence, bashing heads is not my style," he said which raised a lot of red flags in my head.
"You may not have to try so hard if I just quit the team," I began feeling like negotiating.
"No, you can't quit," Jacob spoke up before I could go any further almost like he had been electrocuted. "We can't lose. I am not attending a single match if I know we have a chance of losing the game."
"You know Jacob, I love how much faith you have in me. And since when does taking me as the receiver mean us losing anyway?" Kendall grumbled the last part.
"Don't let it get to you. I know your fast, but there is no way you are as fast as Kevin. This way we are just guaranteed to always win," Jacob said before allowing a smirk to cover his face, "besides we all know that you have never managed to beat Kendall at a single race in your life."
"Yeah, I'm sure. We have seen enough of those defeats," Isaac blurted out laughing, his eyes glazed while he recounted the number of times I raced against Kendall.
"Wait, how many times has he challenged Kevin?" Ciara asked.
"Too many to count," Isaac said still looking up at nothing while he went through the flashbacks.
Jacob suddenly burst out laughing when a certain detail came back to his mind, "I remember one time Kendall tied Kevin's leg to a chair secretly and started the race abruptly before Kevin had time to realize it. It was a dirty trick, we weren't going to even consider that race," Jacob said.
"What do mean 'weren't'?" Sonia asked not believing her ears.
"The freak git his leg untied and beat Kendall to the finish line and still made it look like he wasn't trying. That was the day I truly got frightened by his speed," Kendall finished the story, "I never challenged him again after that."
"Don't feel so down. I think you were made for bashing heads. You have never lost a single time in wrestling," I told him grabbing him in a sideways bro hug.
"That only sounds like you are calling me a mindless brute," he mumbled from beneath me.
"I don't know. To other people, it could sound like you can protect yourself while Kevin would only be good at running away," Sonia pitched in smirking at her comment.
"Hey, if you are trying to cheer up Kendall, don't bring me down just for that reason," I said releasing Kendall from my hold. Come to think of it, it was Kendall who had stopped me from beating up Jacob the past week. he had never failed to restrain anyone if their temper rose. He was such a formidable fighter that he had never even had to use his fists to solve a feud. If anyone got violent, they would quickly and effortlessly find themselves on the floor where he would hold them until they had cooled off.
"Hey, bro, take that one for the team, you coward," Kendall began trying to drive me into the same shame boat he was in.
"Not you too," I groaned, laughter erupting at our table. The conversations sprung from here on and the table was like this for the entire lunch hour. I could honestly say that this was the first normal lunch we had had since we became artras. Ryan seemed to be keeping up his promise. I wished it could always be like this.