I smiled into that bright blue sky. It was a gorgeous formation. They looked like the full-grown versions of what they would eventually grow into. It was an amazing spectacle.
"Wow. That looked amazing Professor Farley." I patted my chest in appreciation.
He gave a startled screech and turned towards me.
"Oh my Goddess, you scared me. I didn't know there was anyone behind me."
I turned to him and choked in a gasp.
His cheeks were wet with tears.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't realize I scared you so much that it made you cry."
"You silly girl," Professor Farley chuckled, wiping away his tears. "I just thought they looked so amazing. So magnificent. They would make such an amazing windsurf team."
"I'm sure most of them will try out for your team in the future, Professor Farley."
He turned back to the northern skies with a sigh.
We stood in that dazzling blue summer sunshine for a long while, simply drinking in the view atop that rounded golden hill.
The glittering, golden city of Topaz spread out below us in splendid opulence. The architecture was distinctly Topazian, with all those tall spindly spires rising amidst the larger fatter towers.
Most of the larger buildings used the dark granite stones that were quarried from Topaz Mountain itself. Their gilded domed rooftops had colorful flags fluttering in the gusty Topazian wind.
Even from this distance, I could make out the burgundy of House Bainsworth, the gold of House Monteceto, the green of House Osiris, and the Blue of House Imara.
And right smack dab in the center of all this bright profusion of color was the dazzling white reflective limestone surface of the megalithic pyramid, set at the epicenter of Topaz.
It was the heart of the city. As long as it beat, the city was alive.
Beyond Topaz, the ocean sparkled and shimmered, a gradual gradation from greenish-blue aquamarine, to the azure of lapis lazuli, all the way to the distant sapphire depths.
For a brief moment in time, I understood Professor Farley's penchant for being outside. It sure beat being cooped up in a classroom all day teaching the mathematics of levikinesis to a bunch of pre-teens.
I had taken levikinesis with Professor Farley in the past and I was ashamed to admit that I was barely able to grasp the concept of levikinesis; namely the lifting of forces in combination with the maintenance of stability.
To be fair, it was all formulas and calculated numbers on paper for me.
My lack of magikal powers prevented me from practicing out on this golden field with a real hoverboard what it meant to provide an upward 'blast' force sufficient to counteract gravity.
I had no way to play with gusts of wind coming from different directions that provided the extra lift needed to maintain stability so as to ensure that the hoverboard did not spontaneously slide or flip into a configuration where the lift is neutralized.
I had been assured by everyone that it sounded more complex than it really was when applied to the riding of a hoverboard but that was something I was never going to know.
The magik of levitation was beyond my capability to experience.
"I'm glad you're here. Come with me."
"Where are we going? Aren't you going to wait for the boys to come back?"
"No. I sent them away."
"Sent them away? Where?"
"There is an Academy to the north called Crystal Academy. I sent them there for more training."
"Is it like…a summer camp?"
"Yes, something like that." He waved a hand. "Come. I need to give something to you to give to the Osiris boys when you next see them."
I followed him back to the Levikinesis Shack with only one thought in my mind.
How was it that everyone knew I was hanging around with the Osiris twins? As far as I was concerned, I had barely made contact with them last night.
Professor Farley threw a blue electric bolt at the door and it opened without much fuss. He entered and held the door for me.
The inside of the Surfer's Shack was much like the outside. It was artificially weather-beaten in the same colors of coral and aquamarine that Professor Farley loved so much.
The floor was rough hewn wood boards that looked as if it would leave splinters on bare feet. Along the walls were surfboards made of painted wood, created to mimic the look of the full-size hoverboards that the windsurfers used.
Professor Farley reached into a large cabinet and withdrew two small wafers.
"These are two classic boards that have been in existence for a very long time. Please give these to them for me." He handed the wafers to me.
I fingered them. They didn't feel special or amazing. "Is that all you want me to say to them? Will they know what these classic boards are?"
"Oh you bet they will. They've been salivating over these boards ever since I've known them."
I nodded and placed them with care inside a zipped pocket of my messenger bag. "I'm going to be meeting up with them this evening at 6 pm. I'll give it to them at that time."
"Oh? What's going to be happening at 6 pm?" Professor Farley seemed especially curious.
"We will be meeting up with Professor Blackstone for dinner. He said he wanted to talk with us about something important."
Professor Farley nodded. "Stick with old Blackstone and do as he tells you, no matter how odd it may sound."
"I will." I assured him.
"And stick with the twins. They are Wizards First Class. They are also a couple of our best warriors. If there is anyone who can keep you safe through all this turmoil, it will be them."
"How did you know I was hanging out with Corwin and Connor Osiris?"
Professor Farley laughed. "When you fly on the surf winds, the entire community knows."
"How is that possible? I have only been with them for a very short time"
"All those hoots and howls you hear coming from the surfers above you may sound as if they are a cacophony of harsh discord, but it is a real language with its own idiomatic rules of grammar."
He reached out and patted my head. "We've been hearing about you and the twins all morning long."
He cackled. "Of course, most of us can't tell them apart so we don't exactly know which of them you were riding with, but we know you were with at least one of them."
"Both."
"Pardon me?" He looked at me with puzzlement.
"I've ridden with both of them."
Professor Farley hooted. "You do realize that there's a long established but hidden rule for guys."
I shook my head.
"Basically you don't let girls ride together with you on your hoverboard unless they're your babe and you're ready to announce it to the surfing world."
'Babe?" My face grew hot.
"Hahaha. It's super strange since neither of them had ever taken a girl on their board before and then suddenly they each took you for a ride on the same day."
He pursed his lips. "It's pretty tricky though, having to balance two people on the board at the same time. I'm impressed they were able to do it so easily."
Professor Farley's eyes twinkled. "Well—I wish I could stay and talk with you, but duty calls."
He slid a cap on backwards and fitted eye goggles over his face.
"Duty?" I followed him out of the shack.
"Yes. I've been called into reserve duty. I have to be there by noon."
"You too?"
He pulled out a thin wafer and snapped a finger.
Immediately, a board sprang from the wafer and hovered a few feet above the ground in front of us.
"A few of us more able-bodied mages have been getting calls a bit earlier than others."
I nodded. "Professor Pomello is still here teaching the kids. I just came from her class. She was wearing her mage gear bodysuit too."
"She will probably be called in soon."
He hopped onto the board. "You take good care of yourself. Stay close to Blackstone and stay close to the twins. They will take care of you."
With a wave goodbye, Professor Farley ascended into the sky and disappeared from sight.
I stood alone on that golden hill for a few minutes more enjoying the quiet sounds of the birds twittering in the distance and the wind whistling through the canyon.
Then I made my way back to the dining area. It was noon and I was getting hungry.
By the time I was able to make my way back to the dining hall, it was ten minutes past noon.
The dining hall was mostly deserted. Of the normal buffet Kitchen Primate group, there was none.
I reached out with my mind searching the back kitchens for any primate life but none of the Kitchen Primates were there. They were most likely all congregated at the Primate Compound.
In their place was a skeleton crew made up of the kitchen staff of the non-primate variety. I even saw a few dwarves and one or two celadons mixed in with the regular Topazians.
After my quick lunch of a tasteless sandwich and a boxed juice drink I went to my next assignment.
I had been summoned to the astrolab to meet up with Professor Jonesbarry.
The astrolab was a large dome type of structure with a viewing room that was near the top of the hill. It jutted out on the side of the mountain facing away from the city lights so the glare would not affect night view too much.
On a normal day, there would be dozens of Professor Jonesbarry's staff and hundreds of his students running around with stacks and reams of calculations that he used to figure out the mathematics of it all.
Today, the place was almost deserted.
I made my way up to the top floor of the astrolab where his office was located and was about to knock on his door when it swung open on its own accord.
"Ah there you are. My favorite student." Professor Jonesbarry's soft voice called out.
I stepped into his office and smiled. "I was probably one of your worst math students."
"I can't stand my best math student, so you have a big lead over him." Professor Jonesbarry said with a gentle smile.
I looked around his office.
It was a bright and airy space filled with light streaming in from a large circular window. The walls were painted a cool dove white and on the floor was wall-to-wall carpeting in a deep mushroom color.
The window was singularly the most spectacular thing in the office. It was sectioned into four pieces and had numbers painted backwards around its inner perimeter.
At the center of the quartered sections was a small circular mechanism housing a variety of different sizes and lengths of swing arms. The arms were moving in counter-clockwise with the precision of a clock.
This looked strange from within the office but from the outside of the circular window, it was a very large working clock.
In essence, the astrolab was a huge time-keeping device that was tracking at least a dozen different cycles. I was not familiar with any of the cycles except for the 24-hour cycle of the sun.
Aside from his desk filled with various instruments and papers, two other large console tables held various instruments made of shiny metal gears and mechanical parts that were moving to their own rhythm.
There were shelves running the length of one wall filled with books and scrolls. The left corner held a comfortable couch and chair and a full-length scrying mirror hung on the wall of the far right corner.
Professor Jonesbarry always looked the same. His bright lavender eyes were full of warmth and gentleness. Today, however, his usual jovial light-heartedness was missing.
He was sitting behind his desk, rolling something around his fingers that looked suspiciously like a tiny skull.
"What is that?" I could not contain my curiosity.
"Oh this? This is the skull of a tiny monkey that came from the jungles of Celadonia. He was my beloved pet a long time ago but he died of old age so I keep him on my desk as a memento of a dear friend."
He placed the apple-sized white skull down and picked up a gold watch on a chain.
"You're right on time."
"Yes. It's in the middle of the day, Professor. Where is your staff? Where are your students?"
"I sent them all home my dear." Professor Jonesbarry rose from behind his desk and went to the large circular clock window overlooking the side of Topaz that had no residents.
"Not that there is any safe place to go to right now." He gazed out into the distance.
The view out the clock window was desolate. Not much lived on that side of the mountain.
It was a flat grayish sandy desert that resisted most attempts at taming. A few blighted yellow scrub brushes stood in the dusty distance, their tops wavering in the breeze.
"Professor, why is the clock facing into the desert? Who is out there that can see the clock?"
Professor Jonesbarry gave a sad poignant laugh.
"It didn't use to be a desert."