Chapter 11
George watched as Kael moved about the room. He had no idea what had gotten into Kael. He already suspected that the boy was dumb but he was the only company he had gotten in years.
George watched as Kael tried to move the bed from its position. Kael had little strength. He was lanky so there was no way he would be able to do it except maybe with a spell. And George suspected Kael hardly knew any spells. He looked like a greenhorn. Scratch that, George was sure Kael was a greenhorn and he had some mental issues. The boy was nuts.
"What do you think you are doing?" George asked as he watched Kael struggle with the bedpost.
Kael huffed. "What does it look Like I'm doing?"
George shrugged. "Struggling?"
Kael paused. He turned to look at the bedpost and then back at George. "It does look like I'm struggling right?"
George rolled his eyes. "I already said that."
Kael sat on the dusty floor. "It would be better if I knew some spells that could help me."
George tsked. "you do know that the greatest magicians do not need spells right?"
"Do I look like I'm a great magician?" Kael asked George.
"Nope," George said immediately. "You look like someone who has no idea what magic even is. Do you even have a core?"
Kael felt insulted. Everyone except those without any affinity for magic had a core. The cores appeared around ages six to eight and for some people, it closed completely around that age while some took longer.
The fore also helped to determine what nature of magic one would be attributed with. Red and orange signified fire magic. Blue signified water. Green signified plants but it wasn't that common. Brown signified earth.
"What colour is your core?" George asked Kael.
Kael hated answering this question. When he was little, everyone thought he was an anomaly. No one could identify what his attribute was. Kael's core simply had no colour. The same way it had come was the same way it had closed up.
"Do you even know how many cores there are? Do you even know what each colour signifies?" George asked Kael.
Kael felt offended by what George said so he told him all he knew about the cores. He thought that would be enough to impress George and perhaps shut him up but instead, George gave him an unimpressed stare.
"You really are dumb," George told him.
Kael frowned. "But everything I said was correct."
"Yes, but that's not all. Surely you've been educated on this right?" George asked him.
Kael stared at George. He had no idea what the ghost was getting to. And while he may have dropped out of the magical Academy in his past life if that was even his past life, he still wasn't sure- he was sure he paid attention in class. He had also searched for books in his past life. Books that could explain why his core had no colour but even the total library had nothing. The only colours recorded were red, blue, green and brown. Orange was the only other colour he had seen that wasn't common. Only one book had listed it and that book was the reason why he was trying to push the bedpost.
He had discovered the book when he was seventeen. It had been a mistake and he was throwing a tantrum because his father had decided to lock him up in this room once more. All because he had refused to show up when some delegates from another country had come to visit.
If he had really come back to the past, he would see that book exactly where he had kept it hidden. Although he had no idea how he had been able to get the book down there. Once more, Kael stood up and with what little strength he had left, he pushed the bedpost. He tapped the wooden floor. He knew one was tampered with. It wasn't long before he discovered it. With skill, he held the plank on one side so it could fall over.
George was expecting something else. He was not expecting that there would be a hole beneath the floor. Kael picked up a book. It was black and it looked old. Some parts were torn but Kael did not care.
George watched as Kael flipped to a page. It was like he was looking for something. Kael picked a paper that had been folded into a boat from the book. George did not understand what was going on but he watched as Kael nodded in affirmation.
"You say I'm wrong regarding the colours right?" Kael asked George.
"Yes."
"But it says here that there are only five colours…"
"And who the fuck wrote that book?" George asked him.
Kael turned the book over to check for the name of the author but only the author's initials were present.
Kael made a sound of frustration. How was he going to show George that he knew exactly what he was talking about?
"Only the initials of the author are present," George observed.
Kael placed the book on the dusty floor. "See, I don't know why you claim I'm wrong but even the books in the library show that there are only four colours. This is the only book that showed five."
"And you believe there are just five because it was different?" George asked him.
Kael sighed in annoyance. "Then pray tell, how many colours are there?"
"Who knows? With time people discover more colours. But in my time there were at least six or seven. No one had ever seen the last one manifest in any child except me that is."
Kael doubted what George was saying but he kept listening. He had no idea why but he just could not stop himself from listening to George.
"What are the colours then?" Kael asked him.
"Red and orange for fire. Green for plants. Brown for Earth. Blue for water."
"That's five. What about the rest?"
"Stop trying to pressure me. I'm getting there." George grumbled.
"Then we have grey. Have you ever heard of that?" George asked Kael who frowned.
"And what exactly does grey signify?" Kael asked him.
"Have you ever seen someone who uses magic as a form of bodybuilding? Enhancing a part of their body? This isn't common because the kingdom of Alvara hardly has combatants but I believe a neighbouring country has enough like this." George told him.
Kael immediately thought of Percival. He had no idea what colour Percival's core was but if what George said was true, then Percival's core was grey. So there was one more but no one still explained his core to him.
"Then the rarest of them all, a colourless core," George said.
Kael turned sharply. He stared at George suspiciously. Was it possible that George knew what colour his core was and was taunting him?"
"You don't believe me?" George asked Kael who shook his head.
"No. That's not it. I just want to hear what you have to say regarding the colourless core." Kael said to him.
George shrugged his shoulders. "No one knows much about it except that it was common among the Elven tribe."
"But you said no one had ever seen the last core manifest in any child except you so how is it that you know nothing about the colourless core?" Kael asked him.
George scoffed. "I'm talking about the Elven tribe here. Do you think anyone knows anything about them?"
"But you said…"
"I know what I said and now I'm telling you to listen to what I'm saying," George told Kael who looked moments away from strangling him.
George smiled broadly. "Now, what is the colour of your core? I'm sure that test was done a long time ago."
Kael watched as the ghost's face lit up with interest. Kael sighed. Was there any point in hiding the colour of his core? He felt George knew more than he was letting on evidenced by the smile he plastered on his face.
"It's…"
Kael was about to respond to George when the door opened and a knight stood with anger written all over his face. Kael had no idea who the knight was but he recognised the clothes. He worked for the royal family.
"You've been summoned." The knight said with a glare.
There was no greeting as a sign of respect to a prince. Instead, the knight looked at him with undisguised disgust. Kael could feel the hatred bleeding from the knight. He found it funny instead of infuriating. Who would have thought he would get to the point where he found disgust for him funny?
Kael ignored the knight and continued scrolling through the book. He was also ignoring George who had now taken comfort on the bed. Not that he could sleep on it. He just floated around it. The movement irritated Kael but he was not about to talk to a ghost others couldn't see.
"Did you not hear me? You have been summoned?" The knight growled out again.