"Get him!"
"Out of my way people, there's a juvenile on the run."
Rilan laughed at the police attempts to get people in line. What did they think going after him in a market? Out of all markets, Racks market. One of the biggest and most populated of them all. Anything could be bought here, so everyone came here on a daily basis, even royals.
He could teleport or send illusions to them, but those were sage level tricks and he didn't want the rectrix regulators to get involved. He especially had bad blood with the head chief. The man had just been waiting for one more fess up, or worse, they could contact his mother. That was literal death; even the head chief didn't want that for him.
So, he decided to just send them off with cheap magic tricks, so he jumped to the tallest building and started running on the walls. Their reaction was on the money.
"Oh gosh chief, he can walk on walls!"
"Why in the ten kingdoms did I come to work today?"
"I'm so tired I'm hallucinating, a boy walking on walls."
"Ah, so what a cheap magic trick or two doesn't make one a sage."
Ah, that saying, unfortunately it was going to work against them. The seven policemen tried to throw ropes at him while still pursuing him from ground level. They were sweating so much he could smell it, and very clumsy too. And the market people weren't making it easier.
"Dear policeman, I would interest you in a pair of nice black sneakers that would make your chase a lot easier, I mean look at those shoes." A man with a shoe booth said, hindering about two of the force.
Rilan found this particularly funny cause he was barefooted. Also, the look on the policemen faces were enough to make his pop. He jumped to another building and he ran to the top. When he saw that he had lost them, he closed his eyes, a Xerix appeared over his head. Then he willed it into his body and then he leaped to the ground, entering the ground like it was nonexistent.
It was density rectrix, his mother taught him. It was a skill that was new among sages, a gift to the kingdom for distant lands and he was fairly good in it. He had the ability to distort the density and chemical composition of objects including his own and to mix their physical matter. He could mess with the atomic structure of materials making rock like water. And in instances like this, he could make his density and atomic arrangement to match those of objects around him, like permeability.
So, he was swimming at high speeds towards the central city. When he got to the central city, he jumped out of the ground. He looked like a fugitive but it was just an act. His hair was long and in dreads covering his rich brown face all over. He wore a black long sleeved top with black joggers. This wasn't how he looked though.
It wasn't a sage ability or anything, because no rectrix could see through it. No one could do it too. His true form though, was different. His hair got even longer, thicker and smooth, like a cable, covering his face the more. His skin got a little lighter brown, and his brown eyes turned rich blue. This was his true form that he used mainly. His mum claimed he got his from his father, whom he had never met.
He needed to lay low for a while, a day or two. He needed to look respectable to be safe in the central city. Looking at his feet, he knew he wasn't off to a great start. Firstly he brought out an octagonal amulet, made which a rich precious stone that changed colour every minute. It was surrounded by emerald and encases in a golden case connected to chains that hanged it around his neck. There were two chains, one of pure gold, and the other, silver and thicker. This was the symbol of who he was a sage; a wielder of rectrix – the energy force that flowed throughout their planet connecting them with matter and energy on a new level. People called it magic, but the trained ones knew better.
Wearing it on his neck, he felt like a sage - person of authority. His silver chain depicted his rank, a master sage, at the age of 15.
He then placed his hands together as if gathering chakra with his thumb, index and middle finger of his two hands connected, and then a xerix appeared on the floor. He was in a park at the border. A xerix was a shape of pure rectrix that a sage used to connect with energy around him. It made them able to use rectrix to manipulate the world around them, both energy and physical factor. Not everyone could focus rectrix to make such shapes though, so not everyone had such prowess. His rectrix was an octagon with discreet runes surrounding a star in the middle. Inside that star were a cross and four smaller stars. Each xerix was different to each person.
The Xerix glowed blue and light shone above it like its reflection. The light morphed around taking shape and it formed an elegant blue cloak with a white fur edge that draped itself around Rilan. He summoned two shoes too; they were like boots, blue, soft and adorned with gold, and with a white sole. Now, he was respectable, so he teleported and appeared in a street. The central city was filled with luxurious buildings and skyscrapers. He had appeared in front of a house were a young woman was just driving out her car.
Her eyes widened when she saw him outside, and coincidentally, he was taller than her. You would think he was a tall teenager, but one's opinion changed when you see his mates.
"Master Sage, what brings you here?" She asked.
"I'm sorry; I'm looking for a place to spend the night." He replied dignified, his arms crossed and his body leaning on the white fence of the mansion.
She looked at him assessing his clothes, but she was trying to be subtle by using the corner of her eyes. Though, he saw right through her. He didn't get offended though because he didn't sense any haughty energy around her. The central city was the capital city of the Thranic kingdom. It was the largest and most expensive city to live in, so giving someone hotel recommendations would need a quick once over. And the slight smile that slowly adorned her face after her evaluation, told him he passed. His clothes were already quality, just casual and a sage can never smell bad. It was just normal side effect of interacting with rectrix every day. Top that with gold and royal blue, and you're good to go.
"I happen to know one to suite you perfectly, Royal Blue suites. The hotel just screams you master, might I take you there?" She asked when she was done.
"No need, can you get me the exact geographical location from your toner?" he asked instead.
She shook her head slightly confused. Of course she was confused, how would he be asking for the longitude and latitude of a place on the earth's surface in this century. It made teleportation much easier though.
"Ok, why don't you show me a picture of it then." He conceded.
And she did, she used her toner to look it up and she showed him some of the interior pictures. He committed the picture of the reception to memory, made a small bow of thanks and disappeared.
He appeared in the lush reception, it had white walls, with blue leaves painted all over. Expensive art work, exquisite structures and high technology, blue royal indeed. The place wasn't too comfortable though, lots of people were sitting on the lush blue couches around frustrated. These were the kind of people who always emphasized that their time was money – royals, business tycoons, billionaires and the likes.
It seemed the problem was with a customer at the table. She had dark green hair that reached her mid back. It wasn't fake though, and her clothing was made to adorn that hair.
"Ma'am sorry but at 16 years, I can't let you have any range prisms ma." The receptionist said.
"Oh really?" the girl sneered.
Why was a receptionist handling this kind of problem? And what was a range prism? Besides, he was getting exhausted.
Most of the couches were occupied, and they were all occupied by an individual. Though, he didn't want to share a couch with any of those guys. Though there was one person he might though. The third person in the room in his age bracket, with his arm strategically placed on the couch to reveal the exquisite gold wrist band with a stone very similar to his in the middle. It was the sign of a mage, a fellow rectrix wielder.
"Mind if I seat with you?" Rilan asked the mage.
"Of course, you can." The boy replied. He was a pronctix, a high level mage. Rilan's mother became a pronctix at 21 years. This guy seemed barely 16.
"Wow, and I thought I was a prodigy." Rilan muttered under his breath as he plopped down.
The boy smirked hearing his comment. The sage was of a high rank too, but he wouldn't admit it. Though, his satisfaction was short lived when the cranky girl's toner buzzed for the fifteenth time, maybe trying to get her 'daddy'.
"She's been at it for how long?" Rilan asked.
"Not too long, about 30 minutes." He replied.
"Can't we speed things up?" Rilan said with a strange glint in his eyes. Though, they were hard to see with that hair of his.
The mage considered it; it was pretty hard for people like them to get into trouble, so maybe why not. Besides, everyone here would be happy that they were doing them a favour.
"Pretty cool an idea for a sage," he said finally.
"The name's Rilan, Master Sage Rilan to you though." Rilan huffed annoyed.
"Wynn, High Mage Wynn to you,"
They both got up majestically. Rilan's cloak flailed in sync with Wynn's brown long coat. They approached the desk like they owned the place.
"Well, what's going on here?" Wynn asked leaning on the counter.
"The thing is that, whenever I ask for a range prism I get referred around, from the manager, to the bartender, to the store, to the CEO himself and back to this receptionist. Why can't I get my freaking range prism?" the girl said. The girl was actually stunning with dark green hair, gold eyes, a pink tank top, with denim jeans and jacket, which was tied around her waist; and to top it all a trendy white sneakers with gold embroidery.
Her gold eyes blazed with intensity that for a moment almost deterred Rilan, but Wynn's sigh was all it took to bring him back to humanity.
"Look missy, I don't think range prisms are even open to our age bracket. So, if you have a problem, lucky you we're in the central city, go meet the king. Now, can you let us book some rooms?" Wynn commented his dead gaze neutralizing hers.
"Oh, someone's getting haughty," she sneered her eyes threatening.
"Uhm, ma'am, I don't think you address these young men this way." The receptionist commented as she was already stylishly pressing the red button underneath the counter signaling the end of her shift. She didn't want to get caught up in something like this.
But the girl didn't back down. She looked at the two boys with daggers in her eyes. It looked like a staring match was about to start but she brought out her phone and starting dialing someone. Rilan didn't like that actually, so he used telekinesis to grab the phone from her. Why would someone have both a phone and a toner?
"Hey, give that back," she said jumping to catch the phone floating above.
"Nah, unless you let us book our rooms." He grinned cheekily.
"I'm going to rip your hair out, you freak!" she yelled.
"Okay, have it your way." He sighed and her phone disappeared.
At first there was silence and then she freaked out. Everyone watching had to wear noise cancelling headphones and crank their volumes really high just to LOWER the volume of her scream in their ears.
"You are dead meat weirdo!" she screamed as she launched at him. But he easily caught her, grabbed her hand and pinned it at her back. She was tall for a girl, almost reaching his height. He teleported them to the roof of the thirty floored building, right at the ege near the huge highway below.
"Are you trying to threaten me, freak?" she hissed.
"No, I'm a sage. I can throw you down if I want; no problems. So can you please keep it down, I'm really tired and want a room." He said almost pleading. The wind was blowing his hair in his ears and her struggling was too much.
"Do your worst!" she spat.
He shrugged and let her drop. She plopped at high speeds and in instances where other humans would have screamed or cried, she just bit hr lips. She was calculatedly looking down as if she had some magical ways to break her fall. Rilan was truly impressed, maybe the girl was a sage, soldier or something.
Back in the reception, things were proceeding well, especially with Wynn still leaning on the counter. Though, the receptionist eyes widened when she saw the cranky girl plummeting down towards the highway. The ground floor was almost entirely glass, even parts of the high ceiling, which made it easy for her to view the girl. Wynn caught her gaze and followed it. When he saw that, he chuckled, what a crazy little sage.
Rilan saw that they was no sign of her giving up, so he spread his hands and two xerix appeared, he muttered some words he disappeared. The girl looked at her certain death, muttering that this wasn't the way she expected to go down. She closed her eyes for impact but when she felt herself still falling, she opened her eyes. She was in a dark void and the cheeky sage was floating beside her. She realized, she could stop herself from falling and so she did and now she was floating.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"A pocket of space that I keep around." He replied simply/
Her face scrunched up in confusion. He sighed, of course she wouldn't understand. It seemed he needed to spend some more time with non-science and magic related people.
"Never mind that, let's get back to the hotel." He said. He closed his eyes and they were back in the hotel's now empty reception.
The receptionist was shocked to see them but she attended to them professionally. The mage was still leaning there waiting for him.
"So can I get you a room, master sage." She asked.
"Yes, what are your … ouch!" he was cut off by a punch to the stomach – a really hard punch to the stomach; a really hard gutting punch to the stomach.
He looked down and saw green hair scattered over pink with that pale skinned fist still connected to his stomach. She looked up and their faces were close.
"That's for the nice trip down sage freak." She smirked, and then she straightened up and left.
"What a woman," Wynn muttered shaking his head.
Rilan wiped his cheek, blood was actually dripping down. He smiled and licked the blood, his wounds glowed and instantly they were healed.
"As I was saying, what room options do you have?"
"Regular suite for a thousand thacs per night, classic for two thousand, royal for two gold coins, and supreme for an stellar emerald." She recited professionally.
At first Rilan was shocked at the exorbitant prices, two thousand thacs was a bank tellers salary per month. But of course, this was central city, only royals had stellar emeralds, they were among the highest known currency in the entire world, owned by few and very precious stones were used to make it. He didn't want to waste his gold coins so he went for a classic.
"I'll take one too, here's 2500 thacs, keep the change for your inconveniences." Wynn said too.
The receptionist was stunned. Rilan was aggravated. Oh so he wants to play the rich cool guy now, well two can play at that game.
"Here, have 700thacs for your trouble too." He offered.
Now, the receptionist's eyes were as wide as saucers. Her impression of sages and mages were powerful citizens who served the cities in areas even normal abilities and powers couldn't operate. But she didn't know they were, well, this!
"I'll give you one thousand thacs." Wynn increased.
"Two thousand" Rilan countered.
The receptionist cleared her throat to bring them to reality. They glared at each other, dropped the bundles of cash on the table and disappeared. She didn't even tell them their room numbers, but checking the system, it seemed they got the right rooms. She rubbed her forehead wearily, today had been a stressful day, but at least she got 3000thacs for her trouble; that would cover this year's rent.
*********
Rilan appeared in his room and surveyed it. It had sky blue walls with wooden floors that had fluffy rugs all over. Straight ahead was an entertainment unit with nice white couches all facing a humongous TV and the glass wall with the city side view on full display. At the left side was a curtained arch that led to the bedroom with a large bed with royal blue and white sheets. The room smelled of mint and flowers and the humidity was perfect. He sighed deeply in satisfaction.
He clicked his fingers and a suitcase appeared. He clicked again, and his clothes changed to a white baggy top, with dark blue shorts. He practically floated to the bedroom which was larger than the other parts with its own TV too, oak wood furniture, a book shelf and lots of pillows. He turned on the TV and took out his toner. He saw that the police had put up his case; his case was actually not even legally based. He just miffed the upper divisions, but he had a reason for coming here. Till he found what he was looking for, he needed a job. Not that he needed the money, he needed the qualification. To be a pronctix, he needed recommendation, experience and proof of service to the state. He had been mainly focused on studies that he hasn't really worked as a sage yet, and since fate brought him to central city, he might as well start from here. But that would be tomorrow, the time was just 7:00pm and he was oh so tired. Two yawns later, he was out.
He was woken early though, before sunrise but zapping sounds. He blinked groggily and rolled over to come face to face with a large hole where the right side of the bedroom used to be. He instantly jumped awake to see four masked men in black on the floor groaning. He jumped down onto the floor in a fighting stance.
"Who are you, and what do you want?" he demanded.
The men stood up in obvious pain, but they held it down and leapt at him. His eyes glowed and a xerix appeared like a shield in front of him, while the wall served his back. He bumped his fists with his thumb outstretched and touching and the xerix started spinning and it extended to a web-like structure that covered the men and restrained them.
"Ecyterz," he muttered and the energy net began to sting them. He stopped to see them more clearly. He crouched to the floor where they lay. Three men; fully masked and clothed in black…
Wait, three men, weren't they four…
A sharp jab to his neck took him out and he fell, face flat on the floor blacking out. Everything was woozy and groggy and he couldn't focus.
Rilan was now suddenly underwater. A man was in floating in front of him of him that looked just like him, thin with the long hair and the brown skin; his eyes though concealed glowed blue. He reached out to him.
"Who are you?" he asked.
There was silence. Only the creatures swimming around that could be heard.
He swam closer and tried touching him, but the man was suddenly some feet away.
He tried again, but it was the same thing. The water was getting heated up, and zigzag lights danced around. He tried and tried again but now, it seemed even the farther the man went. When he tried for the last them, all those zigzag lights gathered around them, shining brightly, expanding and threatening to explode till he heard his name.
"RIlan!"
"RIlan! Wake up, what happened?" Wynn shook him vigorously.
Rilan blinked repeatedly for a while to adjust to the light. The light was too bright, even for the hotel's large windows. And wasn't the thick curtain covering most of it anyway, and why did his alarm know his name.
One more shake brought him to his senses and he saw the large hole where the wall once was.
"What happened?" he asked the mage.
"I think an attack happened. In the camera footage, there was a knock on your window and then a huge blackout, and the reason why is cause the camera's got fried. But how could you sleep through something like that?" Wynn explained.
Rilan thought about it too, he wasn't that deep of a sleeper too. What had happened, who would dare attack a sage in such a location?