As the next day came about and the sun rose over the horizon all the four of them were up and about early waiting for their mentors considering it was the sixth day of the week. What they did not anticipate was the fact that all their mentors had gathered outside their house at the same time, so when a knock was heard on their door and Sonya answered she did not expect to see all of them at the same time.
Tere asked her to get everyone at the same time, Sonya raised an eyebrow in suspicion but did as requested. Erica who was still giving Tere a bit of a cold shoulder marched outside, "This better not be some bullshit sudden mission." She sneered at the mentors considering they were all gathered very rarely.
Tere almost flinched from her apprentices cold behaviour but accepted it. Seeing that they all had come out of the house at that point - Tere finally opened her mouth to explain. "We are all going to a special place to train, I promise! No missions without giving a heads up!" Tere was hoping Erica would give in after time had passed but she seemed relentless.
"Special place?" Samuel chimed in the question they all were thinking. "It's a bit of a secret place, we had no intention of bringing you there! But we received our order from someone at the top." Bregane explained and gave them a shrug indicating that he seemed to be confused as well. Only Tere'he seemed to know the details, she was a mentor like the other three, but she unbeknownst fully to the students, held a higher rank than the other mentors.
"We are not supposed to talk to anyone about this place, not for a few years at least! It's supposedly under construction still, but there are a few areas that are 'prepared' or something like that." Bregane had decided to spare Tere from more annoyed looks from Erica, so he decided to explain to the others. "But then again, you are already under confidentiality about this entire college, so whats one more thing thats slightly connected to it." Bregane waved his hand to make everyone follow.
The walk started off to get to the main road of the place. But when they veered left instead of right towards the house of dimensions the students became very confused. "By now you are probably gonna ask me why we are going towards the main college building where the last years normally study. Like I said, confidential place, so the first portals to this place are in more secure locations and by secure I mean secret." Samuel had meant to ask him where they were headed and then about the security, he remembered that the house of dimensions was always the most guarded building on the entire island.
Bregane had looked at him first, which made him shut his mouth since Bregane knew exactly what kind of questions he had. The unusual walk towards the largest building on the entire island and the largest college building in the entire mage city was truly a marvel up close. It's elven and Rejuan architecture combined was truly wonderful to behold. The yellow white building material and the green roof tiles made it seem like a place out of a fairy tale rather than anything else.
Samuel, Erica & Ulma lost pace several times while Sonya was just following suit. She had been there before several times after all. She did however start getting confused as they were climbing more and more stairs however.
She had been up several times, but she didn't realize the portal would be so high up as well. While Samuel got a bit confused, a few times they had been stopped by guards on the way and Bregane had showed them some kind of weird token, and what was weirder was the fact that the guards in full plate carried symbols of a rising dawn compared to the regular mages and elite soldiers that guarded the lower levels. He had seen plenty of these guys from afar but never up close.
They wore full plate, that was almost yellow and their helmets did not show much of their face except for a visor, the helmets also adorned two large wings. Most of them had the same gear, finely crafted spears and large tower shields while wearing one or more weapons at the side.
Their capes and shields were the ones adorned with the symbol. One could definitely think they were just a pompous order of overdressed knights if not for the fact that they all moved like veterans. One of the first things that Faleah had taught Samuel to see was notice the moves of his opponent to gather information on how good of a fighter they were. How they carried themselves during duty would often betray most people that were confident in their skills versus those that were just idiots flailing around swords.
"Woah, Woah, Woah!" Sonya suddenly blurted out as they started walking up a final staircase. "These are the highest floors! My fathers office is up here? Just how secr-- Important is this place." Ulma had nudged her ribs. Their mentors kept walking, ignoring the question for the time being. Samuel and the other two who had never been up here before got quite the view as they reached the top. It was an almost completely open balcony at the top of the stairs, that seemed to arch all the way around the buildings top.
There were of course a few more insignificant things on roof access, but other than that - this was as high one could get with, they overlooked the entire island city from up here. It was quite the sight to behold and the mentors also couldn't help but take a stop and look out with their apprentices. There was a very strong sturdy railing protecting the edge and the entire walkway around was enough to fit fifty people walking side by side around it.
So after a few seconds of looking, Erica quickly scurried off close to the wall feeling very wobbly. Feeling like she would fall off just by being too close, Tere quickly offered her a hand which she gratefully accepted and all of them continued their walk around before ultimately stopping before a pristine door that seemed to ooze of power.
Bregane quickly knocked on the door and it swung open. Expecting there to be some kind of guard on the other side that had opened it Samuel and his friends were shocked to see that it had swung open of its own accord. "Enter" A booming voice came from within the room.
They all quickly entered the room and felt the aura of powerful magic as they saw the headmaster Vazal Boo sitting behind his desk and writing on something. They all almost stood at attention while looking around the room.
It was a very large room with several sofas and tables, plenty of food and people could fit in there, but what was really amazing. Was the amount of magical devices and circles around the room as well as all the books. It was like a mini library alone with some books reorganizing themselves - floating from one shelf to the next. The seconds quickly passed and the headmaster continued writing his work without looking up.
After a minute or so had passed Bregane cleared his throat to get his attention. "Lord Archon! We have arrived." Vazal looked up confused for a few moments and looked them over before his scaly features slowly started relaxing. When they had been admitted they had not seen him so up close before and now that they were close his shiny azure blue scales were extremely beautiful and mesmerising. Although the mentors didn't seem to mind it.
Vazal's eyes stopped at Sonya and he smiled and got up from his seat and walked all the way around the desk and down to the floor they were standing on. His small work area was slightly elevated to represent his power as headmaster, but it didn't tower over his visitors like a king or someone else in high power would prefer it. Just a slight little reminder that he was the headmaster but that he was humble.
"Dad!" Sonya couldn't help herself and rushed forward and jumped into his arms. The big group gave them a few moments of hugging without intruding on their space. Vazal took a step back and place her at arms length. "I hope you are doing well in your studies and taking care of yourself. But alas now is not the time for that. You will haveto wait until tomorrow and we can both go home, I know your mother is very excited for a fact." The headmaster looked at the rest of the group.
"I will send you to a place where you have been requested by two people, normally I wouldn't but since the two of them hold the same position as me and they insisted then I could not deny them." Vazal spoke with his voice sometimes crackling like lightning.
"We have more than one headmaster?" Samuel asked and all the mentors visibly facepalmed, his teammates felt like facepalming at the statement but they also wondered since he had mentioned the same ranking, obviously he was referring to something else and Samuel was just too innocent to think that far ahead.
Ulma couldn't help but giggle a bit at his naivety sometimes. Vazal snapped out of his own stupidity, "Not headmasters kid. Leaders of the Dawn Keeper council. "An order that safeguards nations from evil monsters and cults. To put it plainly and thats all you need to know from me. I am the headmaster of this mage college, I am also the Archon of the mage council of Rejuan. But I am only one of several leaders in the Dawn Keeper council. Please do not ask about anything more!" Vazal turned around and walked over to some bookshelf and started touching one book after the other.
"Come now!" He half shouted to the group and turned around to make a large carpet hover out of the way to reveal a magic circle underneath it. He pulled out one last book and suddenly the runes of the magic circle started glowing bright as the entire group quickly moved to stand on it.
"Good luck with your studies young ones!" Vazal place the book back and in the next second over the group was standing in a large landscape filled with redwood trees that stretched far into the sky.
Ulma's heart hurt at the sight, it was like her home... beautiful huge trees surrounded by magical nature, the entire forest felt like magic to all of them. Every breath they took confirmed it, Tere and Bregane having been the only ones to visit this place before took point and guided them all forward.
Soon enough they reached a larger slightly open area where it looked like an entire city was in the process of being built. There were plenty of guards and mages around that were building. The city looked like it was being built with nature in question, several houses were built next to trees or had trees as support.
Tere and Bregane led them partly through it and continued onward towards a small path that led deeper into the forest. The forest itself felt ancient and creepy at times, but mostly it felt warm and full of magic and life. "Do not ever go venturing in this forest... and if you do! Find a path, any path..." Bregane said in a stern voice. "That should not be a problem, I can see the wildpaths.. they are everywhere!" Ulma said without a single trace of concern and all the mentors exchanged looks for a few moments, seemingly thinking the same thing.
After about 10 minutes of walking they reached a large glade, filled with ponds of clear water and plantlife and animals of all kind. In the center of the glade stood a large tree that stretched far above any other with several branches. It had a few doors indicating that one could walk inside it like a treehouse.
There were two people in the glade when they reached it. One sitting on top of an old log cleaning some equipment, the other sat in front of what looked like a makeshift altar of the forest, with an archway made out of flowers.
The person sitting on the logs Samuel recognized as Alsian pretty quickly when they got close, the chestnut hair and his clothes were easy to recognize, especially now that he didn't have his hood on or facial mask pulled up.
The person in front of the altar was a female elf.. with hair as white as the moon, almost the same as Ulma's hair, she had several tattoos on her arms. From their studies the students came to the conclusion that she had to be some kind of druid.
The main door to the tree opened and a third figure stepped out, what looked like a human with white hair and cherry blossoms tied or adorned into his hair and a weird mage robe and a unique staff. He looked very young but Samuel swore that there was something about the man that seemed familiar and he squinted his eyes in suspicion but in the end he couldn't put his finger on what was bothering him.
"Welcome to the glade of the sun and the moon!" Alsian was the first to speak and he walked closer stopping in front of them all and gave them a welcoming nod.