[LET me give you a brief recap of what happened for those who just got here: I got attacked by my psycho sub and her skin stealing lackeys, I destroy my school accidentally, I fought a chimera at my house and some guys come to my rescue, my new neighbors blow up, I wake up in a camp for special people, I fight a very pissed off bull robot, and I meet my aunt who I saw get incinerated. You all caught up? Okay, let's move on.]
Ryan sat in an interrogation room, he had been sitting there for two hours since he had been arrested by his not-so-dead aunt. In the bare room with him was a plain metal table with two chairs at the other side. As he sat there in silence, he tried to wrap his head around what had happened. All the stuff that Jasmine had explained buzzed around in his head. Did he understand it all? Absolutely not. Could he accept it? Sure, why not. But right now, what he was trying to come to terms with was that Stephanie was alive somehow and she was the one who gave the order for him to be held here.
While he was thinking about all the reasons why Stephanie could still be alive, the door opened, pulling him from his thoughts. Stephanie stepped inside with Jasmine behind her. In Jasmine's hands were Ryan's backpack and Draxonn, now reverted back to its hilt form.
Stephanie sat in one of the chairs and smirked at Ryan.
"You had me arrested." Ryan said simply, he still had trouble accepting that,
"I did." She simply shrugged.
"I thought you were dead." Ryan admitted solemnly, "and when I see you, the first thing you do is have me arrested?"
Stephanie's smirk stretched into a full blown grin, "You're not glad I'm not dead? I have to say, that hurts my feelings. I thought I raised you better than that."
"I'd be more glad you aren't dead if I knew how you aren't dead?" Ryan replied, "I saw you get barbecued by our crazy new neighbor lady."
"Well it's good to see you, too." She smiled in that soft, caring way that reminded him of the woman who had raised him, "Well, to start off; that wasn't me you saw get roasted, that was a blank, a body double of sorts in my likeness, designed to protect you when I'm not around. It was activated once the territory was breached."
"Oh, okay. Just going to ignore the whole body double part there," Ryan muttered to himself, "anyway, what are you doing here?"
"I'm the Keeper of this sanctum." She said matter-of-factly.
"And that means...?"
"Well I am part of this organization called the Argus, which-"
"I know all about that stuff; Argus, the Naexis, the war, magi and the realms. All I want to know it what you are doing here."
She looked at Jasmine, "You explained all this to him?"
"Gave him a quick summary," Jasmine replied.
"Well, I'm the Keeper of the Treaty, essentially the overseer in charge of this zone."
"This zone being...?"
"Mostly the continental US and some of the surrounding territory, but there's a bit of a turf war with forty-sixth sanctum about that. So territorial, the forty-sixth, and their Keeper, Michaels? Don't even get me started on him—"
"Stephanie," Ryan interrupted, "y'know that thing you do when you get off topic?"
"Oh, right." Stephanie blushed, "So the Keeper is in charge of their respective territory. When I became Keeper about twenty years ago, I reorganized the entire operation here, it's pretty good if I say so myself, I was able to do so much with—"
"Stephanie, you're doing it again!" Ryan alerted her
"Oh, right, sorry!" she looked at Jasmine, who handed her Draxonn. She placed it on the table in front of Ryan.
"This is an… interesting item you had with you." She said, "A byrd, collapsible, practical, takes years to master… but from the footage I saw, you handled it like a pro. Thin blade but still strong enough to cut through that golem's armor like wet clay. Not really a stabbing weapon though, probably made for hacking and slashing. Quite the weapon you came up with."
"Okay?" Ryan relied, "It was in the basement, it –I don't know— called to me."
Stephanie narrowed her eyes at him, "Under normal condition, there are protocols that say I'd have to confiscate such a weapon, and possibly detain you for testing." She then smirked, "But there are extenuating conditions that allow me to circumvent those protocols and declare this whole matter resolved."
"What extenuating conditions?" Ryan asked
"Nepotism, of course," Stephanie shrugged, she then turned to Jasmine, "thank you, Jasmine, you can go now, get back to your duties."
Jasmine didn't look convinced, but she nodded and walked out of the room.
Stephanie looked back at Ryan and took a deep breath.
"I guess I should explain further, huh?" she said
Ryan gave her a look that said: ya think?
"Very well," Stephanie said as she stood up, "come with me,"
She led Ryan out of the interrogation room. They were on the ground floor of the large building with the clock tower,
"This is called the Main Hall, the heart of this sanctum. My office is in here, and a bunch of other important places too."
As they walked down a corridor, lining the hall were canvases whose images shifted from one portrait or landscape to another.
"The Reins –your father's family— have been an important magus lineage for generations, they were among the oldest known magus families, and were even one of the founding families of the Argus millennia ago. Your father was the last head of the Reins and, as his only child, you're the last pureblood Reins, a valuable asset to many."
"Like Ms. Daedly, or the Newmans" Ryan realized, "they said they were hired to capture me."
"There are a lot of people out there who'd benefit from having you, dead or alive." Stephanie said, "That's why you were raised under my name and under protection, to keep you hidden."
"But why?" Ryan demanded, "what's so important about a family I don't even know?"
"They're after your blood, the Reins blood," Stephanie said, "In magi culture, a family bloodline holds the key to its history; every secret, ever truth, every predecessor. Flowing through your veins is more than just a life source, it's a living record of your entire ancestry. You are the heritage of every Reins who ever lived."
All his life, Ryan had never really cared to know about his father's side of the family. He hadn't really been interested in his family history at all, he was content being a Fairchylde. To know that it was just a kind of protection program had him questioning his whole existence.
He looked at Stephanie, "So what about you? All those stories you told me about my parents, were they even true? Are we even related?"
"Of course we're related." She said, "I am your aunt, your mother really was my twin sister. Our bond is very real, and everything I told you about our family are all true. The Fairchyldes might not be ancient like the Reins, but we too have some history in us; you and me, kiddo, we're stuck with each other."
She showed him around the Main Hall, passing the different offices, and a place known as the CTRN [Central Transmit Relay Network]. Lastly, they stopped at the library, which took up a whole wing of the Main Hall; three stories tall with no back wall, leading into a courtyard behind the building, in the middle of the ceiling was a large sky light. In the middle of the library was a large statue, standing atop a pedestal, it was made of dark marble, and depicted a hooded figure with a long cloak holding a large staff with a lantern in one hand, and an open book in the other.
"He's known as 'Ylka-Ro', the Sage." Stephanie said, noticing Ryan staring up at it,
"So what's his story?" Ryan asked
"Well, he's been known by many names; 'Master of Magik', 'Vanquisher of the Great Darkness', 'Eternal Nomad', and 'Champion of High V'hax' to name a few."
"Wow, so many names, all for the same guy, he must've been something special?"
"He was a legend. He supposedly fought against the great darkness, Osaron, during the Great Chaos War, and that it was he who brought the war to an end." Stephanie said, eyeing the statue with admiration, "There are many myths about this mysterious hero, many still speculate whether he really existed, but there's a statue of him in every sanctum. He represents the dream of the Argus; to seek out the truth, and banish the darkness."
Ryan looked outside the library, in the middle of the courtyard was a small garden, where a large tree stood, its leaves shimmered in the sunlight and on its branches, different colored ribbons blew gently in the wind. Ryan could feel a strong presence coming from this tree.
"What's that?"
Stephanie's smile dimmed, "That's the Emily tree."
"Doesn't look like much."
"No, no it doesn't. but there's a sad story behind it; several years ago, this camp was attacked, by one of our best rangers, Emily Crawford. She tried to take my head and that spot was where I put her down."
"Whoa,"
"Yeah, she hated the camp so much, so a fitting punishment, I struck her down right there, and used all she had; her body, her life even her soul to save the camp. She betrayed all she stood for and that was her punishment, this tree now symbolizes her penance her betrayal."
He looked at Stephanie, "Whoa, that's sort of heavy."
Stephanie tried to keep a straight face, but her lips bent into a smile, "I can't believe you actually believed that!"
"You were lying?" Ryan asked [Of course. Stephanie has a warped sense of humor]
"Yeah, I was pulling your leg. This isn't some dead girl's body; it's called a Nyphen Tree, it's a magik tree that consecrates the land this sanctum is built on."
"So what's with the ribbons then?" Ryan asked
"It's a camp tradition, those ribbons honor fallen heroes. Every magus who has given their life in the line of duty has a drop of their blood on one of those ribbons, so their valor is absorbed by the tree, strengthening it further."
"Now that's hardcore," Ryan said,
Stephanie nodded, "C'mon, let's go to the Mess."
They walked away from the Main Hall, following the path towards a large lodge-style building made of wood, stone and glass, with several chimney stacks at the rear.
They walked up thick oak steps to a wide front porch with tables and chairs like an outdoor café, and passed the entrance. Inside was huge, with dozens of long dining tables arranged in rows and booths along the walls. Hanging from the ceiling were wooden chandeliers. There was even a second deck towards the back, with a balcony overlooking the whole pavilion. There were several buffet tables with a wide assortment of refreshments and snacks, as well as drink dispensers and vending machines.
On opposite walls hung lone animal head trophies, they looked like some sort of big cat, like a panther with two large antlers sticking out of their heads. One had a fancy moustache and beard that looked very posh, while the other wore a pair of of bifocal spectacles, perched on its nose.
Despite how they looked, the strangest thing about them was the fact that they were animate. Their eyes scanned the pavilion watchfully, the one with the spectacles suddenly turned its head to one direction and spoke;
"Lucas, stop your shenanigans with Katelyn at once!" it barked towards a guy who was getting cozy next to a girl. It spoke with an eloquent British accent.
Stephanie caught Ryan staring at the head, "Don't worry about Benjamin and Bartholomew, they're the monitors of the Mess."
"I have so many questions," Ryan said, then his attention shifts when he sees Jasmine walking up the stairs.
"Jasmine!" he called out as he ran towards her, he was getting closer to the stairs, when Bartholomew, the one with the fancy mustache, intervened.
"Oh no you don't, you young hooligan!" it barked
As Ryan was about to go up the first step, a plank from the wall, popped out and hit Ryan square in the face. He fell back and everyone burst out laughing [it was the kind of laugh that suggested that I had done something that hadn't happened in a while]
The board retracted to its place and held. Jasmine looked down at him from the top of the stairs.
"You're not allowed up here." she said, a thin grin pulling on her lips as she watched him on the floor.
Ryan got up, rubbing his aching nose, he glared at Benjamin, "Dude, what was that for?"
"You were about to go up to the special section" the cheetah-deer said, "and as miss Sumner has obviously stated; you do not have authorization to be up there."
Ryan walked out of the mess, still a bit sore in the nose, Stephanie came out after him,
"You're not mad, are you? Benjamin just gets a little carried away sometimes. You were lucky; there was this one kid who fell through a trap door by the foot of the stairs." She said
"Why would you put a trap door by the foot of the stairs?"
"We didn't, after it closed, the trap door didn't exist anymore, Peter washed up by the shore three weeks later and never spoke of where he went."
Then, out of the ground in front of the mess, a skeletal hand burst through, then another, they clawed their way out of the earth, pulling the rest of the skeleton out. It started to stand, dislocated bones fixed themselves. As it was standing, dark haze wrapped around its body, solidifying into black shoes, faded black slacks, a gray shirt and a trench coat, on top of the skull a black fedora appeared and the eye sockets were covered by thick black tinted sunglasses.
The skeleton stretched, and Ryan lunged at it, not waiting for it to attack.
Stephanie called to him, "Ryan no, that's—!" but it was too late, Ryan had drawn Draxonn and the black blade went through the skeleton's bony neck, lopping off its head. When the skull landed, it was still at first, then, it started screaming. Ryan reeled back in surprise.
"What the hell?" the skull demanded, in a British accent, "Can't a guy go out for a drink anymore?"
Stephanie ran to the skull and picked I up, "Oh my god, G, I am so sorry for my nephew! He's new!"
"I didn't even hurt anybody yet." It said as Stephanie helped reattach the skull to the body.
"Ryan, this is the security chief, G."
"I appreciate you refraining from making a 'head of security' pun just then," G said to Stephanie,
"How does a skeleton end up chief of security?"
"Some moron decided to play necromancer and bring me back, ripping my soul from the underworld and binding me to my old bones into this godawful existence. Then the brat goes and gets themselves killed before releasing me, now I'm stuck here for who knows how many more centuries."
"But how'd you end up here?"
"What better punishment is there for an undead like me than to be in-charge of protecting living ingrates like you? I'm cursed by the high fae, binding my soul to this territory, so I can never leave this accursed place." he growled,
"I'm really sorry," Ryan said, "I saw you coming out of the ground and it was really scary."
"Geez, people see you rise from the earth, they think; 'oh no, this creepy looking skeleton dude is trying to kill us'. That's the thirteenth time my head has been sliced, blasted or shot off, it's not easy to find suitable replacements!"
"Well maybe you shouldn't be geo-surfing so close to the mess," Stephanie said
"what-surfing?" Ryan asked
"Geo-surfing," G said, "something I devised with earth-type magik, quite revolutionary,"
"It's a dam messy way to travel is what it is." Stephanie huffed,
Once G's head was on properly he leaned in to see Ryan's face, "Hmm, you're an interesting one, aren't you? The Reins boy I've been hearing all those rumors about. So, are you the one?"
"Rumors?"
"G," Stephanie warned, "We are not bringing that up now."
"But what if he is the one, then the oracle-"
"That's enough G!" Stephanie snapped, "we aren't going to discuss this any more,"
G rolled his bony jaw in what might've been a smile… or a scowl, "As you wish, Keeper Fairchylde."
Then he walked through the doors and disappeared, leaving Ryan and Stephanie alone.
"Why does he need sunglasses?" Ryan asked, "He doesn't even have eyes."
"He's… complicated, and a bit of a total jackass." Stephanie sighed, then she smacked her forehead, "Oh! I almost forgot your room assignments!"
She pulled out a stick device from her pocket, and a ring of light appeared around the tip, flashing green twice as she held it out, "Ah, looks like your room is ready."
As Ryan soon discovered, the compound was very large, so getting around was always sometimes an issue. Walking was the most common means of transport, but there was also geo-surfing, as G had displayed, another mode of transport were trolleys, autonomous carriages; you just sat in one and told it where to go.
When they arrived at what could be classified as the residential area, Ryan noticed that not only were there about a dozen large dorm buildings, each with a large letter above the main entrance, but also smaller accommodations; like cottages and condos. The residential area was truly the largest part of the entire camp. They walked through the first dorm building with a 'J' over the entrance.
As Ryan walked up the stairs to the porch, he met two girls with yellow skin in bikinis walking out, one had blue hair with blue eyes, and the other had green hair with orange eyes, one of them winked at Ryan, gestured for him to join them, but then Stephanie stopped him, "You are certainly asking for trouble with those two."
"They seemed nice."
"You're too young for their kind of nice."
"I am eighteen,"
"Well they're fifty," she said
"What?" he blinked
"Yeah, don't let appearances fool you around here," Stephanie cautioned
They continued walking down the east wing of the ground floor to the end of the hall, "You're in room 09C on this floor, it's just over there" she pointed
Ryan opened the door and saw two girls, one with red skin and black hair, the other with blonde hair and a tail, both were in their underwear, they screamed simultaneously as they saw him.
"Sorry!" Ryan said as he closed the door
Stephanie checked her device again, "My bad, you're in room 09D."
Ryan gave her a glare, then he went to the right door. Inside was like a hotel room, but better, it had a flat screen TV on the mounted on the wall, a coffee table in the middle, then he saw the catch, there were two beds, there were two closets, one was stocked full of clothes and other stuff, there was a fully equipped bathroom and at the far wall was a sliding door that led to a small patio.
Ryan turned around and faced Stephanie, "I have a roommate?" he asked like the word was sour. He then noticed the two name plaques by the side of the door, just under the room number; 'M. Reins' & 'C. Piper'
"You're technically a civilian, so you're stuck here. When you join a division, you can move over to one of the special dorms,"
"So why don't I get a division now?"
"That's not how his works kiddo. You need to spend some time as an initiate first, then we'll see about assigning you to a division." Stephanie explained, she looked at the glint in his eyes, "Ryan, no need to be so glum, you'll get along with your roommate."
"How do you know?"
"You get along with everyone."
Ryan sighed, "Why didn't you tell me about any of this, why did you let me live my life as a mundane?"
"Your mother asked me not to." she explained, "She believed that you deserved a chance at a normal life, and I tried to honor that. To be perfectly honest, she didn't ever want me to bring you here."
"What do you mean? Why didn't she want me to be a part of this?"
Her face darkened, "Ryan, your mom went through a lot to give you a chance at a normal childhood, something we didn't get to have. I don't agree with everything she did, but I swore never to discuss it."
The look on her face told Ryan that she was resolute to take whatever secrets she had to her grave, but it also told him that she was very uncomfortable with it. Ryan decided to let the matter die… for now.
He walked over to the free bed, it had white sheets and was neatly folded, the other bed was also neatly folded, the bed sheets were yellow and the blanket was purple with yellow smiley faces.
Ryan touched his bed, and the sheets changed color, his blanket turned red and the bed sheets turned blue.
"That's memory foam, it scans your memory and shifts to color and feel of your most preferred bed style, everything down to the last details."
Ryan dropped his backpack on the night stand and laid on the bed, it felt exactly like his bed back at home.
Stephanie was hovering by the door. Ryan looked at her, "What?"
"Nothing," she shrugged
"Then why are you still here?" Ryan asked, "Don't you, I don't know, have work? You've been with me most of the day."
Stephanie clicked her tongue, like she was reminded of something she didn't want to think of.
"Alright, I'm going. If you need me for anything, and I mean anything, I'll be in my boring ol' office, top floor of the clock tower."
"Will do" he said, then, she closed the door.
Ryan closed his eyes for a few minutes, the events of the last few days raced through his mind, all his life, he felt he was different, and it turns that out he was.
Then, the sound of the door opening woke him up. He hadn't even realized that he had fallen asleep. At the door was a girl, she had pale skin with short blonde hair and green eyes hidden behind thick glasses, she was dressed in a knee length skirt, and a white blouse, she held a bulky book close to her chest she seemed half startled by him and half expectant. She walked briskly to the other bed.
Was this girl Ryan's new roommate?
Coed dorms, Ryan thought, weird, but okay.
Ryan stretched out his hand, "Hi, I'm Ryan!"
She set the book on her night stand, "I'm Christie Piper." She shook his hand, "I'm your new roommate, or I guess you're my new roommate since I was here first."
"Christie, I think that's a great name,"
She blushed.
"Say, do you know where I can find some clothes?" He said. He got up and went to his closet and opened it to find it stocked with his clothes, "Oh, never mind"
Christie smiled, "they brought those in a little while ago, some of them were a bit burnt, so I'm curious about what happened to you."
Ryan gave her a crazed smile which he guessed made her slight scared, "Well, if you really want to know, my house blew up, after my school collapsed." He said as he crashed back on his bed and took the remote off the coffee table and turned on the TV, "how many channels do we get?"
"All of them," Christie answered, "There doesn't really seem to be a limit,"
"You had me at all of them." Ryan said as he sat on the bed and started channel surfing.
Sometime later, a loud gong could be heard echoing over the entire valley, Ryan looked up, "What's that?"
"That's the clock tower," Christie explained, "it goes off at the start and the end of the day,"
"End of the day? But it's only about 3PM," Ryan said, she looked at him, "I have a great sense of time,"
"Well it seems your internal clock is out of whack, it's 6 O' Clock." Christie pointed out.
"What?" Ryan demanded
"You must've dozed off." Christie mused
Ryan's stomach grumbled and he realized that he hadn't eaten in days.
"C'mon," Christie offered, "I'll take you to the mess."
As Christie led Ryan of the residence, they got talking. Pretty soon, she lost her shyness around him and was laughing and telling funny stories.
The two of them walked towards the mess, Ryan opened the door for Christie, "Why thank you," she giggled, "such a gentleman."
Ryan and Christie found a booth near to the back of the mess. As the passed the entrance, they saw a large signboard that said;
Dinner Special: Pizza Night
As they took their seats, Ryan noticed how there was a cool haze around the pavilion, not enough to impair vision, but enough to give it a foggy atmosphere. From the back of the pavilion, where the kitchens would be, shadowy figures emerged, darting through the fog carrying large trays. As they passed down each table, they dropped plates in front of everyone seated there. When a plate was deposited before Ryan, he looked down and saw a steaming deep dish pizza, topped with chicken strips, bacon, sausage, barbecue sauce and splattered with melted cheese. [The slaughterhouse special; my favorite pizza from back in California]
"What's with all the theatrics?" Ryan asked taking a slice from his plate
Christie explained, "We call them smoke spirits, they're the service staff. They serve everyone unique dishes suited to their preferences and needs that match the theme."
Ryan looked at her plate, there was a veggie pizza with lots of peppers and greens.
"Where do I have to go to get seconds then?" Ryan asked, his face already stuffed with pizza.
"They cycle round a few times to collect empty plates and serve new arrivals, if you want seconds they'd bring it then." Christie said, "There's also the service points."
"Good to know." Ryan said, "You're a great help,"
She blushed, "Yeah, well you get used to the order of things once you've been here as long as I have."
"How long have you been here?"
"Over nine years."
"Wow,"
Christie lowered her head, "Yeah, my mom was a magus, when I was eight, she brought me to the sanctum, said she'd be back in a bit with my dad,"
"What happened?"
"I don't know; they never came back." Christie said sadly, "I don't even know why we had to run in the first place,"
Ryan nodded, "That sucks, I lost my parents when I was young too. Though I can't compare my situation to yours, since I never really knew them."
Christie smiled, "Thanks, people always say how sorry they are when I tell them, but it's nice to have someone who understands."
"I'll be right back"
Ryan walked over to the service point, sure enough, there was a vending machine, and also a soda fountain. Ryan took a cup from the stack and put it under the tap, letting the carbonated liquid fill his cup. As he walked back he took a sip of the drink.
He got to the booth, "hmm, tastes like lemonade."
As they chatted and ate, G walked in to the middle of the mess with an announcement, "Listen up, you brats! We are happy to welcome a new face in our midst, Matthias Ryan Reins!"
There was a lot of chatter around the hall, G silenced them. "As you know, the House of Reins has been thought extinct for almost two decades, until now. Young Mr. Reins has already proven he knows how to fight during the golem incident earlier today, if any of you are wondering, he was the one holding the black sword!"
More chatter, Ryan tried to stay hidden in the booth, but then, he suddenly found himself by G's side.
"This is the infamous Mr. Reins!" he boomed and everyone looked at him. Ryan felt odd, being the center of attention made him feel uneasy.
"Mr. Reins is new, so please try to show him the ropes so he doesn't get himself killed too quickly. Mr. Reins, you may return to your seat."
Ryan went back to his booth, trying not to notice the eyes following him.
"Well, that was embarrassing!" he said as he rested his head on the table
Christie looked at him with a look that Ryan couldn't place.
"If you glare at me any harder, I may just give up," he said, "I mean, if you hate me like that now…"
"What? No, Ryan I don't hate you, whether or not I'm scared of you… it's too early to decide. I was just… surprised," she looked around, "everyone was surprised, there hasn't been a Reins here since…"
"My dad?"
She nodded, "After he died, everyone believed that there would be no more pureblood Reins."
"What does that even mean, pureblood?" Ryan asked
"Well, it means any magus born from two magus parents, the older the family line the more of a pureblood you are,"
"So, I'm guessing there are other types?"
"Well the half-bloods are the most common, with one magus parent and the other is not." Christie said, "Then there're the new-bloods, a kind of half-blood where humans or necreans who suddenly discover a long dormant magus heritage, those are the rarest."
"How rare?"
"There's only been five cases in the last three hundred years. Anyway, the House of Reins is said to have generations of powerful magi in its bloodline."
"House? That's a fancy way of saying family, right?"
"Kinda." Christie said, "in magus society, the House includes all branches of a family line, even associates that share loose blood ties."
"Are you a part of a House?" Ryan asked
"Not really, it's pretty common for orphaned half-bloods to not identify to any House," she explained, "Those kinds of connections are mainly tracked by pureblood nobles."
As the two of them talked, two girls walked over. One was green with red hair while the other had gray skin with purple hair. Looking at them, Ryan wondered how they wouldn't stand out in public, the Veil probably had something to do with it. The green skinned girl spoke to Ryan.
"Hi there, you must be Matthias?"
"No! For a second there I thought my name was Kevin!" Ryan said sarcastically
Christie chuckled at the quip, but the other girls looked uncertain.
"Sorry, I'm just being stupid," Ryan said, extending his hand, "just call me Ryan,"
"Okay, Ryan, I'm Kathie, Kathie Waybright." She introduced, shaking his hand, "I'm sort of the welcoming committee for all new purebloods. I just wanted to let you know that if you need anything, anything at all, don't hesitate to-"
"Well Kathie, thanks for the offer, but I already have my own welcome wagons right here," he gestured to Christie
"Her?" Kathie asks curiously
"Yeah, she's cool and funny, and smart as hell." Ryan said,
Christie blushed
"Alright," she said, "but, it's just that we're both pedigree purebloods from strong houses, so I just thought that there may be some things that half-bloods like her can't help you with. I mean, they're not on the same level as us, right?"
Ryan raised an eyebrow at what she said, gauging Christie's reaction before he gave his response.
"Listen Kathie, I'll think about it, okay?" He said politely before he goes back to his dinner.
Sensing that the conversation was over, she awkwardly walks away from the table with her friends.
Once she was gone, Ryan talks to Christie,
"Was that a bit too harsh? I'm not so sure about her,"
"Well Kathie is nice enough, but she's not really that keen with mixing with half-bloods, especially those without houses."
"So she's prejudice?" Ryan asked incredulously
"No, not exactly. It's more like she doesn't know how, as a pureblood, to relate with half-bloods. She's not a radical purist, but its part of her upbringing so it comes out unintentionally,"
"Really? It doesn't seem like such a big deal" Ryan said
"No, but to them it is." Christie explained, "You weren't raised in this environment so you wouldn't notice, but there is a big distinction between purebloods and half-bloods. It's not as bad as it used to be, but most purebloods still treat half-bloods differently. And there are still those who think that half-bloods like me as inferior."
"Well I think those people are stupid." Ryan said, "And I'll drink to that; to stupid people."
Christie giggled, "To stupid people."
Then they toasted.
After dinner, Christie decided to take Ryan on tour around the camp. She showed him the race track, the arena, the outdoor amphitheater, the beach and boat yard, the rec. center and other places around the camp.
As they were walking, they ran into a pair of rangers.
"So," one said, "This is Quickstep's kid, eh?"
"Quickstep?" Ryan asked
"Your old man's ranger alias," the other said, "he was the fastest man alive."
"Matthew, was a great man." the first one told Ryan, "And your mom was Julia, right? She was very popular at the sanctum, everyone loved her. There would never be another pair like the two of them."
"Thanks." Ryan nodded. He hadn't thought much of it, but both his parents were a part of Argus too, weren't they?
After their talk with the rangers, they went back to the residence. He crashed on the bed and drifted to sleep almost immediately.
The next morning, Ryan woke up to the sound of an alarm. As he looked up, his vision blurry, he saw Christie's bare back put on a track suit top, then jog out the room, an hour later, she came back, sweaty and breathing deep, she looked at him as she went to the bathroom,
"What are you waiting for?" she asked, "Get up."
Ryan raised his head and looked at her, "Five more hours." Then he buried himself in his blanket.
Thirty minutes later, Christie tried to wake Ryan up. He grabbed her by her shirt and, somehow, ripped it off her torso, all while in his sleep. She screamed in his ear and woke him up, then, she slapped him.
"OW!" he said falling off the bed.
Christie's face was red, "How did you do that?" she grabbed her shirt and ran into the bathroom
"What?" he asked getting up.
… )]≥( …
After Ryan had showered and gotten dressed in black shorts, a gray shirt and loafers, and apologized to Christie, several hundred times, they walked to the mess for breakfast.
"Again," he said, "Sorry for the whole, stripping-you-in-my-sleep thing."
She blushed, "It's alright, are you sure you didn't see anything?"
"Nope, between you making me temporarily deaf and slapping me off my bed, I didn't see anything. Why? Got any embarrassing tattoos I should know about or something?"
Her cheeks turned a brighter shade of red,
"Oh my god, you have an embarrassing tattoo? Where is it? Is it on your butt?"
"No Ryan, I don't have an embarrassing tattoo on my butt," Christie said, "I'm just a little embarrassed about my body."
"Embarrassed? Christie, you have a rockin' bod' if I do say so myself."
"Did you just say' 'rockin' bod'?" she asked chuckling
"Well, yeah, I guess. We're friends, right, so I can tell you that you're not too bad on the eyes."
She giggled, "Is that your way of saying you think that I'm pretty?"
Ryan found himself in an awkward position, "Oh look," he said turning away, "Breakfast!"
She rolled her eyes as he walked on.
They sat in their booth, and Ryan sat across from Christie. Breakfast today was waffles and pancakes, Ryan got chocolate-chip waffles with bacon and eggs, while Christie had strawberry pancakes with a cheese omelet.
"So, what do we have planned for today?" he asked, taking a sip of his coffee
"Well, you're an initiate, so you have studies." Christie replied, with a glass of orange juice.
Ryan winced, "Ugh. That sounds like school." Ryan said with disgust
"Well it's necessary. Until you get assigned to a division you'll have to do general course studies, it's your evaluation from these studies that determine what division you'll get sorted into."
"What about you?" Ryan asked,
"Oh, I'm not eighteen yet, so I can't be assigned to a division, but I have been taking special electives for the Custodians." she explained, "If you have a particular division in mind you can choose special electives."
"Wow, so I can choose what classes I take?" Ryan beamed,
"Unfortunately no," Christie said, "You're new here, you barely have any knowledge about even the basics of magik. You'll have to register for the beginners course, and work your way up to my level."
"Awesome, and to think I was a few months away from graduating high school, only to basically start it all over again," Ryan heaved a sigh,
After breakfast, Christie directed Ryan to his first lesson of the beginners course; Magus History. He had expected to find the class full of teens who had just started their studies into magik, but surprisingly, there were a few other people around his age present who were also doing the beginners course. At class, he learned the basics of magik; how the art of performing magik was known as casting, and how all casts require a combination of arcane glyphs known as sigils.
"All magik is determined by numerous factors we call 'circumstances'," the instructor explained, "circumstances can be external as well as internal, and as they are constantly changing, they also affect your casting, which is why the mental state of the caster is one of the most important circumstances."
"Why is mental state so important?" someone asked
"Well, when you're focused and rational, you can compensate for the shifting external circumstances, making the cast more stable. We call this type of casting Sacred magik as it is drawn from better understanding of oneself and their surroundings." the instructor said, "However, when you're too emotional or impulsive, your magik becomes more erratic and unruly, more subject to the fluidity of the situation and thus, unpredictable. We call this type of casting Wild magik, as it is drawn from a more primal and instinctual side of us. Sacred magik is comprehensive and logical, whereas wild magik is more dynamic and spontaneous."
The instructor then went to a whiteboard, "Now, most magik we can use are broken down into base attributes known as the ten basic natures; flame, water, earth, wind, sound, light, shadow, space, mind and life. All other forms of magik are derived from these ten natures, and any nature that is developed from these ten basic natures is called an advanced nature, we don't need to go into those yet." The instructor wrote down the ten natures in their glyph script, and Ryan was excited when he found out that while he could actually translate the glyphs, he could interpret them well enough to understand which nature they represented.
"Now every magus has a different affinity for each of these basic natures, and we have classified these different affinities into three major disciplines; the elementalist, the cardinalist, and the internalist. Also, as a point of note; all living creature inherently possesses the life-type magik nature, which makes everyone an innate internalist and connects every discipline together."
"Can someone pick what kind of magik they use?" some beside Ryan asked
"It's complicated. You see, the magik discipline a person has is influenced by their bloodline. Your discipline gives you a natural affinity for those natures, but that doesn't mean that you cannot use other natures, but it is harder to work with natures outside your discipline. Sometimes, there are people born with special advanced natures that were passed down from their bloodlines, these are called blood gifts. Blood gifts are primarily found among pureblood families. These gifts are very diverse, some can be unique to a single family, while others can be present in a whole subspecies of magus."
"Wait… subspecies?" Ryan called
"Oh, you'll discuss that in a later class." the instructor said
The class ended not long after and they proceeded to their next lesson.
Ryan's next class was about the principles of magik casting, where a petite girl in her twenties was leading the class.
"The art of casting magik is basically about using your own internal energies to affect the Naexis and create change in the world around you," she explained, "To do this, we use sigils, glyph formulas that serve as catalysts to focus the power and trigger the cast."
She raised her hand and faint green energy flowed from her hand to form a sigil in the air in front of her.
"Casting is done primarily with the hands," she further explained, "when you use one hand to cast, you are only able to craft simple sigils, which are great for fast casting, but are pretty limited in both structure and output. However, when you use two hands to cast, you can get fancier with your sigil crafting, the more elaborate your sigil the more complex the cast."
She then raised her second hand and joined it with her first, the green energy around her hands swirled and the sigil expanded. The class watched in awe as the glyphs rearranged themselves to form new smaller sigils within the greater sigil.
"For a magus, drawing sigils is relatively easy; it starts in the mind, we are born with a naturally able to comprehend and interpret the glyphic script, in a way, these glyphs are kind of our first language. When you cast, a part of your brain becomes active, converting your intent into a sigil through the combination of glyphs." the instructor said to the captivated class, "When casting, controlling the flow of energy is vital to build your sigil, it is a delicate balance between your own energy and the ambient energy from the Naexis, and if you're not mindful of that balance, you may lose control and cause the magik to run rampant. That can have disastrous effects on the caster and the surroundings."
After her explanation, the class then spent the next dozen minutes practicing crafting sigils. While he understood the basics of constructing a sigil, for some reason whenever Ryan tried project his sigil, it fizzled out.
"It's alright," the instructor told him when he failed to hold the sigil for a fifth time, "from what I've been told you haven't had much experience with magik. Here, maybe I can help." she said
She held Ryan's hands in hers,
"What are you doing?" Ryan asked
"I'm going to try to stimulate your inactive energy channels, maybe that would get your magik flowing again. Sorry about this in advance."
Before Ryan even had a chance to ask her what she meant, her hands were glowed with her green energy, she then grabbed the backs of Ryan's hand's and he felt her magik force its way into him. He stifled a gasp as he felt the foreign energy run up his arms, it was an odd tingling sensation, very uncomfortable but not exactly painful. As the tingling sensation dissipated, he then felt a reaction, a jolt of power pulsed from his core, travelling through him, down his arm, to his fingers.
"Get down!" Ryan warned instinctively,
The instructor must have felt it as well, but could move in time, as a second later, she is shot backwards by electrical discharge that knocks her into the far wall.
As she stumbled back to her feet, her short hair standing frazzled from her electrocution, she looks at Ryan wide-eyes.
Ryan rushed over to help her, but she flinches back
"D-don't!" she yelps, "I've never seen a reaction like that before, best not to risk a repeat."
"I'm sorry," Ryan said, "I don't know how that happened,"
"I do," she said, "you magik wasn't just inactive, it was stagnant. It's luck you didn't blow up."
"I could've what?" Ryan demanded, alarmed
"Ryan, you really need to get yourself checked out by a specialist," the instructor cautioned, "or you could seriously get somebody killed."
"Alright," Ryan said
After the incident in magik casting, Ryan went to the medical ward for an examination, and after a myriad of tests, they were able to determine that he suffered from magik energy stagnation, and due to this his energy channels were atrophied. However, during his birthday his stagnant magik inexplicably began to circulate, but with his channels in such a sorry state, his magik is now misfiring. Fortunately his channels will recover with time, and his ability to use magik should normalize as well, unfortunately, the only way for him to recover was for him to continue to circulate his magik energy, which meant a few more weeks of random magik misfires.
While this was going on, he still had to attend his courses.
So, some days later, Ryan showed up for his new class in principle of magik casting, apparently, Stephanie had pulled some strings to get him into some more advanced courses.
"Alright you bunch of pansies!" yelled the first instructor, a large beast of a man with rippling muscles and a mane of blond hair, "there are two ways to cast; directly and indirectly. You—" the instructor said pointing at a random student, "—tell me the difference between the two!"
"Uh… um," the girl stammered
"Uh and um aren't differences!" the instructor bellowed, spooking the poor girl to tears
A second instructor, which seemed like the younger sister of their first instructor, interrupted, "the difference between the two is that direct casting is how a magus usually channels and deploys their magik," she elaborated, "but indirect casting, involves the use of a medium to focus the magik energy through."
She nodded to her colleague who picked up a weight discus and poured magik into it. The class watched as a simple sigil lit up on the surface of the discus, then the instructor tossed it like a Frisbee. As it spun, the air seemed to cling to it, increasing its spin, it curved sideways before it embedded itself into a wall after decapitating a practice dummy.
"When using indirect casting, a medium is prepared with a simple sigil already inscribed onto it, so all you need to do it infuse it with your magik to trigger the effect." the male instructor stated. "Many weapons have sigils inscribed onto them for added effectiveness. We generally refer to any item that has been inscribed with a sigil as a conduit."
After an hour of that, the instructor took them to what could only be described as a training room.
"That's enough lectures," the first instructor said with a grin, "Now pair up and spar! You'll be given conduits to train with."
Ryan was paired up with a skinny kid with pale skin and a mop of brown hair, they were both provided with Bo staves to spar with. The sigils on his partner's staff glowed with orange energy and the ends of the staff lit up with flames. Meanwhile, Ryan's staff flickered with blue energy but did nothing else.
The start was called and they faced off. Needless to say, Ryan didn't do very well.
"Get up!" yelled the older instructor, as Ryan picked himself off the floor, "You're not done until I say you're done. And I say you're not done!"
"C'mon," said his sparring partner with a sneer on his face, "is that the best you got? Maybe the Reins weren't as hot as everyone though?"
Ryan got up and took his stance, he focused his energy into his staff and readied himself. His sparring partner tried the same move again, but this time, Ryan was ready. In his childhood, Stephanie had signed Ryan up for junior martial arts, it had stopped once he became a teenager, but he still had what he learned.
He surged forwards, delivering some quick blows that caught his opponent by surprise, all the while, Ryan was forcing as much of his energy as he could into his staff. As the two of them crossed staves once more, Ryan's staff cracked from the high current of energy surging through it. As a crack appeared through one of the engraved sigils, the staff shattered as a massive energy pulse blasted both fighters away.
As Ryan sat up, groaning, he looked over to the instructors, who looked equally as shocked as him.
"What the hell was that? That was a sneaky cheap shot" the big guy said, he then pat Ryan on the back, "Well done, kid. There's hope for you yet!"
He then turned to the others in the class, "Remember; in a fight to the death there's no such thing as a clean win."
"Hey," the other instructor chided, smacking him upside the head, "you're supposed to be training them in beginner combat, not death matches."
After that, Ryan went to two more lessons, and later on, he went for his final class of the day, ravager combat, which was in a clearing in the middle of a fenced off part of the woods.
Ryan was especially psyched for this class because, his earlier exploits with a certain pet chimera and a bronze bull had earned him a bump up from the beginners' class, plus he got to use his wicked sword, Draxonn. He was getting fond of that name.
"Ravagers are monstrous creatures born from the abyss." Their instructor said, he was a surfer type dude with sandy blond hair, Ryan was meeting a lot of blonds today, "Their bodies are made from chaos matter, so they are highly unstable. Manage to hurt one bad enough and they can no longer maintain their presence and thus combust, that's the only way to destroy them."
The class looked at him, silently with their weapons of choice out and ready,
"All ravagers share an innate desire to destroy anything with magik, particularly us, so they possess an oppressive aura of miasma, that induces a state of fear and panic in those that are susceptible. Prolonged exposure to miasma can cause blight, and would kill a mundane. They are all living weapons that corrupt the very space they occupy." he said, "Now, there are a few dozen ravagers loose in the immediate area here, we keep them around to help build a tolerance to miasma."
"Doesn't that increase the risk of blight?" someone asked
"Relax, these ravagers give off weaker miasma; it's still enough to put you on your ass but it won't taint you on your first meeting." The instructor said, "You'll be doing some live combat training, learning how to defend yourself against them while you build your tolerance. You will be up against a variety of different species of ravager, each with its own wonderful way of making sure you die horribly. Your job is to make sure that doesn't happen."
"And you'll bail us out if we get into trouble, right?" a girl asked
"I'd like to say yes, but that'd be a lie," the instructor informed them, "You'll have to destroy the forty or so ravagers in this area to be let out, good luck." And with that he shot into the air.
"Okay, that wasn't concerning at all," Ryan said sarcastically,
Then, they were startled by deep growling and snarling noises coming from all around them, the entire class huddled together, suddenly feeling the weight of their predicament.
Ryan could tell from how tense and anxious everyone was that they were afraid, very afraid. Ryan turned to the girl on his left, who was holding a spear in her trembling hands,
"Hey, we're gonna be fine," he said trying to console her, "just keep it together, I'm sure they gave us easy monsters to fight."
"We're up against ravagers," she snapped at him, "you just don't get it, you haven't seen one up close."
"Actually," Ryan said brandishing his sword, "I have."
From the thick vegetation, a large black lizard with a barbed stinger at the end of its long tail, its eyes glowed a poisonous green as it exhaled a poison green mist from its wide maw full of dagger-like fangs.
"A black stinger komodor,"
The girl recoiled when the komodor turned its venomous gaze towards them, Ryan took the initiative and lunged at the monster, sidestepping when its stinger lunges at his midsection, clipping the appendage with a swipe of his sword. The ravager screeched in pain as hideous green fluid spilled from the wound as it recoiled, and while it was still distracted, he brought the blade down on its head before it could claim revenge. Draxonn's blade bisected its skull, briefly allowing for a view of its inner workings before the whole mess erupted in a burst of dark flames that reduced it to dust, even the blood streaks on the blade were gone.
Whenever Ryan held Draxonn, he felt like he could do anything.
More ravagers began to emerge, things that looked like the kind of monsters from a D&D story. Along with Ryan, other trainees also stepped up to face against them.
"Alright you ugly bastards," Ryan said brandishing Draxonn, "Come and get some."
Both sides clashed, with ravagers using claws, fangs and tails, while magi used swords, spears and magik.
"What the hell?" Ryan complained after some time, beheading a ravager kobold, "I thought these things were supposed to be weak?"
"Didn't you listen?" the girl Ryan helped earlier replied impaling another kobold with her spear, "these ravagers have weak miasma but they're still ravagers."
All of a sudden a massive worm-like monster shot up out of the ground beneath where Ryan once stood.
"Use some of that special Reins magik your family is so famous for." The girl snapped as she stabbed at it with her spear
"It would be really nice if I could." Ryan retorted back, as he slashed at the worm with Draxonn. This ravager was tougher than the kobolds or the black stinger komodor, it was slippery, even Draxonn's blade couldn't get enough traction to leave a deep cut.
"Move!" someone yelled over at the two facing the worm
Turning his head, Ryan saw a guy his around his age with sandy blond hair, he didn't appear to carry any weapons, but his arms were glowing an icy blue as magik energy danced around him. A sigil glowed on each hand. A blast of cold mist shot from his hand to the worm, covering it in a thick layer of frost, then, then the iceman closed his hand into a fist, the entire frosted section of the creature froze over, before shattering into icy chunks and then disintegrating.
"You're welcome." he said to them as another girl, ran up to him
"Great work, Noah." she said
"I know," the one named Noah acknowledged as he grinned,
The two of them approached Ryan and his new friend.
"Thanks for the help." Ryan said, "But I had it handled,"
"Didn't look that way to me," Noah retorted, "vorgi are notoriously hard to cut with their skin covered in so much mucus,"
"Ugh, disgusting," the girl with Noah recoiled,
"Anyway, don't thank us yet." Noah said with a sly grin, "Now Amy!"
The girl with him, used a pair of brass knuckles and punched the ground, and sigil appeared on the ground below her fists.
The ground trembled before several other vorgi burst out, surrounding the small group.
"Only wide surface attacks work on them," Noah said, "Can I count of some special Reins magik for support?"
"Don't bother," Ryan's partner said with rolled eyes, "he's a dud on magik."
"Less talking, more fighting," Ryan barked, feeling his frustration at his inability to control magik growing.
As he slashed at one of the giant worms, he felt his skin tingle familiarly as his magik was riled and on the verge of another misfire. This time, he tried to focus the power through his blade and into the worm thing. With Draxonn acting as the perfect conductor, he electrified the worm, and it shrieked in pain before decomposing.
"What?" Ryan's partner demanded
"Focus!" Ryan yelled at her, directing her attention back to the worm she was facing.
She looked at her spear and hissed, "This is stupid,"
She raised her spear and a sigil appeared around it. Wind gathered around the head of her spear, then she thrust the spear at the ravager worm, the compressed air acting like a sort of drill that tore a wide hole clean through the ravager's body. As is disintegrated she backed away, panting heavy from exerting a lot of effort.
Ryan was by her side when she looked like she would collapse,
"You alright?" he asked
"I won't be doing that again for a while," she replied as she balanced herself against her spear.
"Alright, how many have wee killed?" Ryan asked
"Destroyed," Noah corrected
"Huh?"
"The correct term for dealing with ravagers is 'destroyed'," the girl, Amy, said, "Ravagers are technically immortal and can actually be reformed after-"
"Oh my god, I don't care," Ryan snapped, "just how many we've taken down so far?"
"Not enough," Noah answered
"Aw hell," Ryan said,
More ravagers came forth into the clearing to attack the trainees,
"C'mon" Noah said patting his shoulder, "no rest for the wicked."
Hours later, the instructor returned to the clearing to find the trainees tending to their wounded, while piles of ravager ash littered the clearing.
"Everyone alright?" he asked
"A lot of us are wounded… a few are very bad," someone reported, gesturing to the three people who had lost limbs, and the one girl who had gotten mauled, but was still holding on.
"Well, at least no one's dead," he huffed
A lot of the trainees looked embittered at his comment, but couldn't rebuke him; they knew how dangerous it was.
"Alright," the instructor said, "We'll stabilize the badly wounded here, then get them to the infirmary for further treatment." Along with the instructor were a few healers who came to administer first aid to the wounded.
After getting treated Ryan went to the arena to practice his sword fighting. there was an elective on the sword happening there that he wanted to check out.
The instructor was a burly guy, with dark skin, brown eyes and dreadlocks, he was about six feet tall and had huge muscles, he held in his hands a great sword, "Alright, any of you want to take me on in a match?" he asked the group of sixteen, Ryan raised his hand. "No surprise there, let's see what you can do."
Ryan drew Draxonn and the instructor flinched, just for a moment, then regained his composure, he then charged Ryan with a wide swipe, Ryan countered but it wasn't easy. When Ryan was young, Stephanie used to take him out on these random excursions where she would teach him some interesting skills, from some special kind of martial arts, to spelunking, to camping, to even hunting, of course, the older he got, the less they went on these outings. His swordplay was rusty, but he still remembered the basics, and his was quickly relearning the rest. Ryan was good, but not as good as his opponent who had no doubt been training for years and had way better form than Ryan did.
"You're good." The instructor said, "But you're not that good." The instructor locked swords with Ryan, then, maneuvered his sword in a way that it flung Draxonn in the air, using the momentary advantage, the instructor swept Ryan off his feet, toppling Ryan over. Then he put the tip of his blade to Ryan's neck, "You have potential kid, but don't ever think you're better than your opponent."
Ryan conceded, raising his hands in surrender,
"Alright, why don't you lot break into groups and spar," the Instructor said,
As they began their group sparing, Ryan's group approached him with trepidation, getting a sense of his skill from his previous bout. It was around that time when Jasmine walked in on the lesson.
"Jasmine, I didn't know you signed up to be an instructor?" the instructor mused
"I didn't," Jasmine said, she pointed at Ryan, "I just came to borrow him for a bit,"
"Sure, I don't mind," the instructor shrugged,
Ryan followed her out of the arena, but they stopped by the entrance to the building.
"Whatever it is you think I did, I swear I didn't do it." Ryan said,
"Relax, you didn't do anything wrong, yet." Jasmine said, "I just wanted to check in on you,"
"Huh?" Ryan asked
"I heard about what happened during your ravager combat class," Jasmine said, hugging her arms, "the death of a comrade isn't something one ever gets used to, especially when facing off against a ravager in a controlled setting, but it's an eventuality that needs to be prepared for."
"Yeah, I guess some of these combat courses come with a casualty count, huh?" Ryan quipped
"It isn't a joking matter," Jasmine chided him, "these courses are to prepare you for some harsh realities. We've done our best to reduce fatalities over the years, but the threat is still there, don't let your guard down."
Ryan gulped, "Understood."
"Alright," Jasmine nodded, "Here, I thought this you'd want this."
She fished out a card from her pocket, she handed it to him.
He inspected it, it was an old photo of a young couple. The woman was young, looking in her mid-twenties with a mane of dark hair, with a silky texture and fell effortlessly off her shoulder, she had stormy gray eyes that were soft and caring and lush lips that were bent in a killer smile that could make hearts melt, she had high cheek bones and olive complexion with glyphs tattooed on the side of her neck that disappeared beneath the gray shirt she wore with a pair of shorts. She looked elegant and graceful without trying and was similar to a young Stephanie.
Beside her was a guy that looked a little older than her, he had chestnut brown hair with a neatly trimmed goatee and sky blue eyes, his smile was bold and confident. He was muscular and wore a blue shirt with black trousers. The couple held hands as they looked at the camera in the background was the Main Hall and there was a diamond ring on the woman's finger.
Ryan felt a connection to them, one that made him happy and sad at the same time. On the back were two names and a date;
Matthew Reins & Julia Fairchylde. June '91
"My parents?" Ryan said
"Yeah, when they were with Argus." Jasmine said, "I found that in an old journal from the great library, thought you'd like that."
He stared at the picture, "Thanks, that was very nice."
"Yeah, but if anyone asks, you didn't get it from me."
Ryan snorted, "Yeah, yeah sure. I found it."
"Good, now get back to training," She punched his arm hard and muttered under her breath, "Idiot."
As Ryan returned to the arena, the sound of a loud gong echoed across the valley, signaling the end of the day. It was already 5PM? Ryan hadn't even noticed.
"Hey, Reins," the instructor called as the others walked passed them, "Good work out there. you're a natural."
"Thanks," Ryan said, "but it was just luck really, I haven't swung a sword before this week in years."
"Yeah, anyway, it won't hurt to get reacquainted, I'm Mark Dunsk, I teach this elective whenever I'm free."
"Nice to meet you." Ryan said as they shook hands
"Be careful with that sword though," Mark cautioned, "a sword like that can be just as dangerous to the user if they're not careful."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ryan demanded
"It means; I don't know how you swayed the Keeper to okay it, but be careful." Mark said, "Night iron isn't commonly used for a reason."
Ryan sighed and followed the crowd towards the Mess.
When Ryan entered the Mess, he started looking around for Christie, finding her in a booth. He approached, but discovered she was with a small group of similar academic types, they were laughing and talking and Christie looked perfectly at home. When she saw Ryan, she smiled meekly,
He nodded his understanding, bowing his head slightly, then moved on.
Now alone, Ryan wandered through the pavilion until someone grabbed his shoulder. Turning around he saw Noah, the guy from ravager combat course,
"Hey Matthias, you free?" he asked, "you should come sit with us."
"Uh, it's Ryan, actually." Ryan groaned, "And what us?"
Noah led him to a table around the middle of the pavilion, where a group of people were gathered.
Ryan looked at them as he approached, he recognized a few of them from courses he advanced in, but some of them were strangers.
The girl, Amy, looked Caucasian with sandy blonde hair and deep purple eyes, similar to Noah. His partner during the ravager combat was also there, she had short orange hair and green eyes, beside her was a girl that looked like she could easily outshine a cheerleader for a professional football team, she was that insanely hot. She had honey blonde hair and an unusually pale complexion that could pass for normal if you weren't looking directly at her, which was almost impossible because of how gorgeous she was, she looked at Ryan with lavender eyes bright with mystery and intrigue.
"Guys, you remember Ryan?" Noah introduced as they arrived, "Ryan, these are the guys."
"Hi." Ryan said
"Ryan, it's good to meet you," the hot girl said as Ryan was sat beside her.
"Yeah, uh…"
"I'm Helen," she introduced, "Noah and Amy's older sister,"
"With sisters like you, what the hell happened to Noah?" Ryan joked,
"You're quite handsome yourself," Helen said gazing into his eyes,
"Yeah," the other girls agreed.
"Thanks," Ryan blushed,
"Don't let that get to your head," Noah said, "they think Chris Hemsworth looks better than me,"
"He does," Ryan said, "He looks better than me too, he's an objectively handsome dude."
"I'm Maya, by the way, since you were asking," his partner said suddenly,
"Sorry," Ryan apologized for ignoring her, "Nice to meet you, Maya, Ryan Fai- er… Ryan Reins." Damn, it was going to be a while before he got used to his new name.
"Yeah, we all know who you are," Amy said, "G wasn't exactly subtle in introducing you."
"Yes, I still remember the embarrassment." Ryan commented
"What's there to be embarrassed about?" a guy who introduced himself as Will asked, "you're a freaking Reins, a lost prince. If I was you I'd tattoo it on my chest."
"Will dear, you barely need any excuse to get another tattoo." Helen commented.
Ryan found Helen distractingly gorgeous, the way she batted her eyes, the slight gestures she made, even the way she ate spoke exuded an odd sensuality he found it impossible to look away from.
"Helen, looks like you've got another admirer," Amy teased, gesturing to Ryan
"Huh?" Ryan blinked, realizing he'd been staring, "Sorry,"
Helen giggled, even her laugh was heavenly, "I don't mind, really."
"You just got charmed," Noah snickered, "charmed by Helen's pretty face."
"Charmed?" Ryan said, "Sure I was staring, but I wasn't charmed."
"You actually were," Helen stated, "It's a thing with me; I have a unique magikal aura that attracts people, whether I want to or not, I charm them. It's called the Venus factor."
"You're messing with me, aren't you?" Ryan asked
"Afraid not," Noah said, "It's actually gotten her in a lot of trouble over the years, which is why she's got these special glasses that are meant to obscure her aura."
Helen sighed, pulling a pair of thick grandma glasses from her pocket and putting them on. All of a sudden, she didn't look so impossibly beautiful anymore, she was still just as attractive if you looked at her, but Ryan no longer felt so compelled to stare.
"Like Clark Kent, eh?" Noah declared, "Only it makes her, slightly-less-attractive girl."
"You think you're so funny, don't you?" Helen scowled at Noah
"Oh, I'm hilarious," Noah boasted
"Well, you certainly have the face for it," Amy snickered
"What's that supposed to mean?" Noah demanded
"That you have a funny-looking face," Ryan replied, "At least that's what I understood from how the conversation was going,"
"That's right, Ryan," Helen commented, leaning uncomfortably close to Ryan
Ryan smiled nervously, "So anyway, Noah, that was some awesome moves you did at the ravager course, you have ice magik, that's an advanced nature."
"Yeah, I was pretty awesome, wasn't I?" he bragged, "I'm a genius with a natural advanced nature."
"Stop bragging," Helen scolded, "It's a blood gift and you know it,"
"So you're all purebloods, then?" Ryan asked
"Yeah," Helen replied, "Our dad's a half-blood but our mom's a pureblood from the House of DeTroy, so we took her name."
"Wait… so you're Helen DeTroy?" Ryan asked, "Like Helen of Troy?"
"Ah, I see someone isn't just a pretty face?" Helen smirked at him, "Yeah, I see the irony in my name. Like her, my beauty can spark a war, which is why I need these ugly glasses."
"So Ryan, what's the deal?" Maya asked, "I was expecting some awesome Reins magik during the exercise, didn't figure you for a dud."
"Yeah, especially with all that power coming off you?" Helen asked
"What power?"
"You have a potent magikal aura," Helen explained, "it's a little hard to miss."
"Helen is sensitive to auras," Amy explained, "she's very good at gauging a person's magik."
"Well my magik is seriously jacked up," Ryan said, "When I try to channel magik it misfires. I don't even know what my discipline is."
"Maybe I can help?" Helen offered,
"How?" Ryan asked, shaking the inappropriate thought that just popped into his mind.
"There're all sorts of tests that can tell you how your magik works." Helen explained, "I'm a Magistrate-in-training, I've helped administer the tests before, I can give you one myself. We can go to the Main Hall after dinner."
"Are you sure?" Ryan asked, "I don't want to get you in trouble,"
"Please, it's just bending the rules a little here and there," she scoffed, "What's a little reprimand between friends?"
"Oh, so we're friends now?" Ryan asked
"I sure as hell hope so," Helen smirked, "I'm risking a lot helping you out."
"Thanks, Helen," Ryan said, "I really appreciate this."
"Don't mention it," Helen winked at him, "what's a small favor between friends?"
After they left the Mess, Ryan followed Helen to the Main Hall. Most of the different offices had closed for the day by this time, with only a few exceptions.
Walking down a side corridor, Helen stopped at one office door, it was locked, but she had a key and within no time they were inside.
"Alright," Helen said flipping the light switch and drawing the blinds closed, "Don't make too much noise, we don't want to get caught."
She went to the far wall which was lined, floor to ceiling, with cabinets. She pushed one drawer in then it would hiss open, "Now where is it?"
"Uh, what are you looking for?" Ryan asked, wanting to help.
"A thing," she said cryptically, "Proper magik tests would take too long since there are a lot of moving parts to that procedure. However, there are also speed tests, not as accurate in what natures you have a proficiency in but they're super easy and can be done quick and dirty… Yahtzee! Here it is."
She pulled out a scroll from the drawer, unrolling it and laying it on the floor. On the page was a diagram with a large circle surrounded by three smaller circles, on the large circle was a glyph.
"That's glyph script for 'life'." Helen explained, "Now you just need to bleed on it."
"Come again?" Ryan asked
"Well these tests need blood to work." Helen explained, offering him a small stiletto knife she pulled from somewhere. "I did say 'quick and dirty', didn't I?"
Ryan took the blade from her and cut across his left palm, clenching his fist for a moment to squeeze as much blood out as he could, then he opened his hand and slapped his palm down on the center circle. It stung a bit as the page seemed to hiss, then he removed his hand and saw the life glyph was glowing a deep blue through the bloody handprint. Then the circle directly above the central circle lit up with the same blue and a sigil glowed to life, one.
"There you go." Helen declared, "You're an elementalist."
"Elementalist?" Ryan echoed, "like the four elements; fire, water, earth and air?"
"Yeah," Helen said as she tore up the scroll, "Elementalists deal in the physical. Congrats, you are part of the largest demographic of magi."
"Why did you rip it up?"
"It's useless now," she said, dumping the torn scraps into the trashcan before snapping her fingers and lighting the scraps on fire. "Alright, let's get out of here before someone catches us."
"What happens if someone catches us?" Ryan asked
"I'll likely get fired," Helen confessed, "this isn't the first time I've snuck someone in here after hours… if you know what I mean."
"Oh," Ryan knew what she meant
"I've been warned about it before and I don't really think I can charm my way out of trouble this time," she continued, "so I can't really risk another scandal, especially when nothing's happened between us yet."
"Yet?" Ryan echoed
Helen just smirked, "we really should get going."
… )]≥( …
It had been a little over a month since Ryan came to the sanctum, and he had quickly acclimated to life here. He had gotten a better understanding on the fundamentals of life as a magus, and although he now knew his discipline, he was no closer to properly commanding his magik, the random misfires had gotten better, but had yet to completely stop. The healers had told him that they would subside in their own time.
Outside, the collapse of his school and the explosion at his house were reported as two separate tragedies. Apparently the explosion at the house was officially reported to the mundanes as a freak gas leak, all their neighbors and other witnesses would be paid a visit from the Custodians to have their testimonies taken and memories altered. It didn't feel right having everyone they knew forget about them, but it was Argus protocol not to leave any loose ends when removing a subject from deep cover.
One evening, as Ryan and Christie met at the Mess for dinner, Christie was with one of her friends from the Magistrate initiates. As they saw Ryan approaching, both girls giggled before her friend walked off.
"What's so funny?" Ryan demanded as he sat in their usual booth. around the Mess Ryan could see the different cliques grouping together.
"Oh, nothing," she chuckled, "is it true that you blew up in Fundamentals of Magik class?"
"Hey, they gave me this magik crystal thing-" Ryan defended,
"It's called materea," Christie corrected him, "it's a mineral that naturally stores magik energy."
"Right… that," Ryan said, "anyway, I had the materea in my hand, then my magik misfired, and it kinda blew up."
"Your misfire must've overloaded it," Christie noted, "What is up with your magik? Besides the occasional misfire you still can't cast?"
"Not a spark," Ryan sighed, "maybe I am a dud?"
"No, no one would have as much magik energy as you do and can't use it." Christie said, "maybe there's more to that blockage inside you than initially thought."
"Yeah, too bad the healers can't tell me what caused the blockage in the first place," Ryan grumbled, "or what's clearing the blockage now."
The smoke spirits started serving dinner, Ryan got a pair of double cheeseburgers with a side of fries, while Christie enjoyed a tofu burger.
"So, how'd you become a vegetarian anyway?" Ryan asked
"You'd be one too if you knew where that meat really came from." she said with a smirk
"No thanks, I'm just gonna shut up and eat this beef burger of lies, y'know, savor my ignorance." Ryan said, taking a big bite of the burger
"Well, as long as you like living a lie." she said
As they ate, some rangers walked into the Mess. They looked disheveled, most of them were sporting bandaged wounds over their bodies. They silently passed by and walked up to their terrace.
"Whoa, what happened to them?" Ryan asked
"A scouting mission gone wrong would be my guess." Christie said, "There're a lot of things out there that don't like us, and lately they've been out in greater numbers than usual."
"Hey, can you tell me about how the divisions work?" Ryan asked,
"I'm pretty sure there's a class for that," Christie said
"But you're much better at explaining stuff than a boring ole' lecture," Ryan replied, flashing her a charming smile,
"You are really good at that." Christie grumbled, "Okay, so Argus isn't the monolith most people think it is, it's a conglomeration of a lot of different entities united under the Treaty. There are three main bodies, which we call the divisions, each with their own subdivisions. The Ranger corps are the military arm of Argus; they handle law enforcement, field operations, and direct engagements with hostile parties." Christie explained, "The Magistrates form the administrative branch; they handle the governance and legislation, and they're the ones who make sure our way of life is preserved and can adapt with the changing of the times, they are the ones with the most subgroups. Then there's the Custodians, the support services; they're in charge of logistics, constructions, transport, health-care and the like, they're the true backbone of Argus and magus society as a whole,"
"Someone sounds pretty biased," Ryan teased
"Is it biased if it's true?" Christie defended,
"Yes, it is," Ryan replied
"Anyway, each of these divisions has their own sigil and designated color code; red for the Rangers, yellow for the Custodians and green for the Magistrates."
"I've noticed,"
"Acolytes, like you, are at the bottom of Argus' pecking order, and you join a division at the bottom and work your way up to the elite officers. It's your basic meritocracy; rank is dependent on skill and accomplishment, and knowing the right people helps in your climb."
"But how can I get into a division?"
"You just need to apply then go through the evaluation, but if you have a recommendation from at least two senior officers, you can be fast-tracked directly into a division." Christie said, "Rangers have the hardest evals, as far as I know; only one person has gotten handpicked for the Rangers by Keeper Stephanie herself, and was promoted to a ranking officer from acolyte, and at the age of sixteen no less."
"Who's that," Ryan asked, just as Jasmine walked past his table, and Christie gestured with her eyes, "Oh."
"Acolytes range from the ages fifteen to twenty, and they can apply for the bi-annual evaluation exams."
"There's an evaluation exam?" Ryan questioned, "when's the next evaluation?"
"In a few months, but be careful though; the Rangers have the highest rate of washouts, and more than a fair amount of casualties." Christie warned,
Ryan shrugged, "that sounds like a challenge."
"I'll admit, you're good in a fight, but it takes a lot more to be a ranger, you need to be smart, have a good sense of tactics, a strong aptitude for magik. You only just got here, why do you want to get yourself killed?"
"If I didn't know any better I'd say you were worried about me," Ryan said
"I'm serious," Christie said, "my mom was a ranger, and it's why she disappeared."
Ryan could see the concern in her eyes,
"Alright," Ryan sighed, "I'll give it some proper thought. Maybe I can try the evaluation after I've had time to properly adjust."
"Thank you, that's all I ask."
"Geez, we aren't even dating yet and you're already nagging me." Ryan quipped,
"H-huh?" Christie squeaked, her cheeks flushing in embarrassment
Before Ryan could even comprehend the awkwardness of the situation, the ground below them shuddered, then from outside, came an explosion, followed by the sound of alarms.
"What the hell?" Christie demanded as the lights flashed red, and on the TV screens and monitors around the Mess a message flashed; ALERT!
"What's going on?" Ryan demanded
"We're under attack!" Christie replied, as another explosion could be heard.