Thorne grinned at Xander.
"I am pleased to hear you are interested in taking part in the exam," he said. The headmaster continued; "exams at this school are simple mock battles in one-on-one situations in terms of student versus student, and in some circumstances student versus teacher."
Max looked excited after hearing this. "I'll be participating in one of these mock battles. Learn from watching me and you'll be fine," he boasted.
"Hold on, I don't even know how to use magic yet. I can't fight someone who does. I might need a little more than just watching a pro." Xander stated.
Kylo answered, "You should already know, seeing as how you did it during the fight in the alley two days ago."
"Wait, what?" Xander was confused. He didn't remember using any kind of magic. The thought of it kind of scared him, but he was curious nonetheless.
"Yeah, do you not remember? You did pretty well considering you've never done it before. Anyway, using magic is different for everyone. Your overall connection with the magic itself can make it easier or harder to channel at first. Though, you start by feeling it in your soul; in your very fiber of existence. Meditate and try to clear your mind of everything when you get the chance tonight. Once you've done that, it should just be there."
Xander looked confused. "I got the soul part, but why meditation?"
"Meditation is an exercise that clears the mind and relaxes the body. Once the obstacles between you and your soul are removed, you should be able to view your own soul and harness your magic. It is a process, but eventually, you'll be able to draw upon your own power whenever you desire without needing to clear a path. It's just getting a feel for your soul's gift of sorts, in simpler words."
Max and the headmaster both nodded in unison. It was a subpar explanation but it did its job and Xander understood it, conveying that by nodding to Kylo affirmatively.
"Got it."
"Exams will be held tomorrow morning. I pray you have an easy time understanding magic and discovering your hidden abilities. We will not postpone such a momentous occasion for one mere person," the Headmaster spoke with a stereotypical "wise old man" voice.
"Understood," Xander said while trying to replay the events of two days prior in his head. Had he really used magic? "Kylo said I did well, so maybe I don't have too much to worry about." he thought. "Oh, what am I thinking? I have to fight someone who has probably been using magic for years, or maybe even their whole lives. I can't keep up with them. I don't even know if I can do it, much less how to do it. I might not even be accepted into this school," Xander was losing hope before the exams even began. However, Max and Kylo were both there to make him feel better.
"Come on, you'll do fine," Kylo said, reading the look on Xander's face. "With the amount of natural talent you showed earlier in the alley, I think you'll do great." He smiled.
This cheered Xander up slightly. "Thanks, Kylo," he said. He was still very confused about what Kylo had told him, but he believed his friend. Regardless, he barely remembered using magic. Everything was a blur, he couldn't blame himself even if he was being confusing.
"Alright, alright, let's get this over with, shall we?" Max exhaled. Kylo groaned.
"What? Get what done?" Xander asked.
"The fancy-pants tour we get to take you on around the school," Max replied. "You may not be enrolled yet, but it's tradition to show you around beforehand. Get ready for the rest of the day to be stolen by the staircases in this building."
Xander laughed. "You guys can't just use magic to fly around the school? Or make platforms move on their own?"
"No, no you cannot." Kylo lowered his head in disappointment.
The way these two were acting made Xander feel uneasy about this "tour."
"Let's just go…" The three of them started walking.
Xander thought the exterior of the building, as well as the large room he was in earlier, were bizarre and beautiful enough, but it seemed that every room he was shown had been just the same. Each had their own unique feel to them, while still feeling like they were all connected. There were hallways going in every which way, with grand windows lined what seemed to be every inch of the walls. Strangely enough, it all had a strange sense of organization to it.
The trio walked by numerous students, several of whom were of countless indescribable appearances. Despite being a huge mix of races and creatures, humans were the most common.
"Even here, the language is the same, and so are the customs, from what I have gathered from my little time here so far," Xander thought to himself as he walked, observing the intricate architecture of each hallway, staircase, and… well, everything.
"I know the school on 'normal' earth is, uh, normal to you. Don't let the size of the building fool you, but this is a school just like yours." Kylo looked at Xander, who was too busy gazing at the interior of the school.
"Uh-huh..," Xander quietly said, affirming to Kylo that he might have been listening, still looking around before suddenly stopping before he ran into Max's back.
"We're here," Max said, looking at a giant arch-shaped wooden double door that reached up to the top of the expansive room's wall proudly. He turned around to face the duo. "The gym. As Kylo already knows by now, the exam battles will happen here. You can also use this space to practice your skills and spar your peers. If you want, Xander, I can help you learn how to use your magic later today after my unofficial tour is over." Max grinned a grin bigger than the door before walking off, back the way they came.
Xander began to think about something just as Max began to walk off. "Max, I don't even know what my magic is."
Continuing to walk, Max spoke in an unconcerned, calm voice; "I thought you said you used wind that one night, right?"
Xander nodded.
"So it isn't an issue."
Xander sighed and sped up to match the pace of Max and Kylo.
Kylo spoke up; "It was funny to imagine two wind users fighting. Though I don't think Xander was doing much fighting. I found him lying on the ground." Kylo laughed as Xander rolled his eyes.
"Whatever the case," Max continued, "we'll need to give the newbie a good idea of how magic is used, regardless of its type. There is a universal method for drawing upon any magic you may have."
The trio turned to go up one of the middle flights of steps, turn at the semicircle landing, and continue up the other half of the steps. They found themselves in another hallway. It seemed as if the second floor had almost no life in the hallway, as there were just about zero students in it. Xander had a confused look on his face.
"Don't worry. The students up here are just in class. The ones downstairs will be as well," Max said, sensing Xander's confusion.
"Or you could be like me and ditch-" Kylo began before being cut off by Max, who did a hand-chop to Kylo's head.
"Do not be like him," Max said, closing his eyes and smiling, slightly tilting his head as he fixed his gray robe.
"Buzzkill…" Kylo muttered before fixing his fluffy dark red hair.
"Xander, you'll be in my class. Which is also Kylo's class. I'm a teacher here." Max stated.
"You're a… teacher?" Xander exclaimed, still confused.
"I know I have a bit of a youthful charm to myself," Max chuckled childishly, "but I am twenty-three years old." Max put his eyes between the fingers of a palm-out peace sign he had made, to which Xander sighed and looked at the ground.
"Let's get into class and introduce you to your peers."
Maxmillian Lacuna opened the door and a barren classroom with only three students among thirty desks was inside.
"Where is everyone?" Kylo sounded disappointed as if he wanted to see someone.
"Ah, yeah. It'd make sense you wouldn't know, as you've been posted on the other earth for a while to keep watch over Xander," Max said, "after you left here from your break from watching over Xander, the school sent out a group of volunteer students into the wilderness to find materials for the alchemy classes, as well as potential ingredients for special dishes in the kitchen."
Kylo nodded slowly.
The others in the room slowly stopped talking and began to look at the trio.
"HEY MAN, HOW'S IT BEEN?!" yelled a red-haired boy wearing a red, white, and orange mage cloak, who could be no older than Xander, running up only to attempt to tackle Max. The girl wearing a wintery-looking coat, with icy blue hair on her head, who he was standing nearby, watched with a faint smile, giggling when Max remained upright as if nothing had happened.
"Hey, Apollo," Max said, smiling and shaking his head.
"Who's this guy?" Apollo inquired with an aggressive undertone, pointing to Xander over his shoulder.
"He's the boy you might've heard about, from the mission Kylo and I have been tasked with."
"Oh. Is he strong?"
"Don't know. We were going to test that tomorrow." Max said as he walked forward, placing his hand on Apollo's shoulder only to move it when he got beyond his reach. "Xander, introduce yourself and the others will do the same."
Xander stood still, unmoving. Kylo began to give Xander a little push.
"What's the matter? Scared?" Kylo laughed.
Xander nodded.
"Well, I have the fix for that," Kylo said confidently.
"?!-" Before Xander could speak, he was at the front of the room. "What just happened?!" Xander was confused.
Max and Kylo were laughing hysterically, leaning against each other.
"If I was just over there… And I'm here… wait-"
Wiping a tear from his eyes, Kylo continued to laugh.
Xander sighed. "Those two are just immature." Looking forward to the rest of the room, Xander gulped. Quietly, "I'm, uh…" Xander trailed off.
Max sighed playfully. "We can't hear you."
"Thanks, Sherlock." Xander opened his mouth again. This time, although he stuttered, it was audible. "I…I'm Xander Gray from… the other earth." After giving a single sentence to a small crowd, Xander was done. He sighed and slouched a bit, relieved he got it over with.
"What is your magic?" A strong-sounding voice questioned from the doorway. Xander looked up. It was the boy named Apollo.
"What is with him and this stuff?" Although Xander had known him for a mere minute or two, Xander could already tell that Apollo was eager to play rough.
Xander slowly opened his mouth to answer, not sure what to say, when Kylo interrupted and answered for him; "We're pretty sure it's wind."
"Gross." Apollo pointed to his mouth and pretended to throw up. "No wonder you all had to go to the other world to protect him. All he's good for is flying a kite when there's no natural wind."
"I just learned that I even possessed magic not too long ago," Xander tried to make the situation a little better, in hopes that Apollo would cut him a little slack.
"Even more pathetic," Apollo laughed. "Fodder."
Xander stood expressionless.
Kylo whispered into Xander's ear; "Don't worry. He's just like that. You'll get used to him."
"Yeah, right."
"Alrighty then. Would anyone like to introduce themselves next?" Max asked the whole room of five people, excluding himself.
Apollo stepped forward. "Me," he boomed.
"Go ahead," Max smiled.
"I'm Apollo Armoni, I am sixteen years old. My magic is fire blasts. I've been training every single day." He spoke with an egotistical tone. A fire began to spark on his shoulders.
"Awesome." Max seemed completely unbothered by the countless acts of pride coming from one of his students. Actually, his brightened face spoke volumes of encouragement for it.
Xander looked at Apollo, who was standing there, quite literally on fire.
"What're you looking at?" Apollo demanded, before looking at his shoulders. "Oh, yeah. You've never seen anything this cool, haven't ya? Well, just a side-effect of my magic, fire can appear on my shoulders sometimes."
"It appears when he feels a strong enough form of emotion," Kylo added. "Just then, he felt great about himself and the fire started."
Clapping his hands, Max spoke; "Who's next?"
The ice girl raised her hand and spoke in a gentle voice, yet loud enough to be heard by the room. Walking to the front of the room, she introduced herself.
"I am Aspen Armoni, I have ice magic. I look forward to getting to know you." She smiled as she stopped next to Apollo while looking at Xander.
"Armoni… Apollo Armoni… Aspen Armoni… they're siblings?! How are they even related, they're so different from even the basics of one another!" Xander had a confused look on his face as he stared at the twins in front of him.
"The last student currently present in the room is you, so why don't you introduce yourself?" Max spoke to the girl in the very back, nearly asleep at her desk. She raised her head from her arm. Her face was very drowsy, only to be covered by her dark purple hair falling over it, which she delicately brushed out of the way.
"Hmm.." she quietly thought to herself. Her head fell back down to her arm on the desk.
"That's the usual Jinx," Aspen giggled to herself. "I'll introduce herself for her, I'm sure she wouldn't mind. Her name is Jinx Sille, she is seventeen and a hex magic user." Aspen folded her arms behind her head, satisfied with her introduction.
Xander couldn't help but stare at Jinx. Time stopped for him. There was a strange feeling about her he was sensing, and it intrigued him. Kylo noticed and gently smiled. The atmosphere fell when a loud knock suddenly sounded from the door. It bursted open. The boy from the beach, Adrian Thorne, entered.
"Haha, you're late. I guess I'll have to write you up," Max jokingly commented.
Adrian rolled his eyes. "Shut it." Aspen seemed to tense up as he walked by. Adrian, with a defiant stride, hands in his pockets, walked to his desk and sat on the surface, slinging his bag onto the desk beside him. Kylo muttered something to himself and sighed.
"Introduce yourself to Xander, please. He is a new student here with wind magic. I believe you ran into him on the beach." Max chuckled to himself as he repeatedly played the image on the beach in his head.
"Has he already forgotten that this Adrian kid was harassing a kid on the beach?" Xander thought to himself, feeling negative about his teacher's inability to remain serious about anything.
Adrian glared at Xander, like a wolf eyeing its prey. "This loser? I'm sure he remembers how great I am, don't you?" Adrian glared at Xander with a sly grin on his face.
"Just a simple introduction will do," Max said, ignoring the rising tension from the boy.
Adrian angrily sighed before giving in and speaking. "If you insist. I am Adrian Thorne, the eldest son of the headmaster. I manipulate water and can even generate it, which basically makes me better than all of you losers. Full control over the most abundant resource."
Apollo laughed to himself.
"What's so funny, shithead?" Adrian snappily inquired.
"I'm stronger, though. I'll burn your water any day."
"Burn water? That doesn't even make any sense!"
"If a fire is hot enough, it can burn anything."
"Whatever," Adrian said. "You're still a lot of nothing."
"Tch."
Xander was annoyed by the childish dispute, but showing such feeling would do next to nothing but make it worse. He instead turned and walked to Max, who was fidgeting with his hands.
"Max," Xander began.
Looking up, Max gave his attention to Xander.
"When can we go to the gym and you show me how to use my magic on command?"
"Oh, yeah. We can go now."
"Don't you have a class to prepare for the battles-"
"I think they'll be fine," Max replied nonchalantly.
Xander's mouth hung open. "What."
"Alright, guys. We're done for the day. Go do whatever, don't die, blah blah blah." Max waved his hands around and began to walk towards the door.
It was nearing sunset and the duo, Max and Xander, were standing in the middle of a now-empty gym. Xander looked worn out.
"Remember, Xander. You can feel your magic within your very essence. Here, let's take a break for a second."
"Tha.. thanks," the fatigued Xander said through deep breaths.
"A good practice to access your magic whenever you want is to start by trying to get a feel for your soul."
Xander cocked his head to the side, confused.
"It's hard to explain, but the simplest way I know to put it is to relax your brain and imagine yourself in your happy place. Then, you come closer to your soul and can pull out the magic within yourself. Doing this exercise a few times will eventually allow you to use your power at your discretion."
Xander nodded and sat down. He closed his eyes. He began to close out the world around him, just as he had done countless times on his home earth, and sank his mind into the beach. It calmed him and took away all of his worries.
He gave up on tensing his muscles and slowed his breathing, sitting on a serene sea's shoreline. In his mind, he opened his eyes and looked out on the horizon. Seagulls cawed, palm trees swayed, the sound of waves crashing over one another constantly in the background. Xander felt like he was really there. He felt himself become lighter, sensing every square inch of the endless shore.
He began to sink into the sand, slowly. He didn't panic, however. It felt relieving. Stress left his body as he descended deeper into the soft sand. Once his eyes went under, he didn't see darkness, and it wasn't suffocating. He saw streamlines of color revolving around themselves, scattered about in an organized way. He drifted around without a thought in his head. Logic began to give way to spirit.
He drifted by some colors, and they started to warp towards him, stretching out with their vibrant hue. They didn't interact, nothing in this space was tangible, not even Xander. The space began to expand and contort beautifully, in a way in which words fall short of describing. The intangible colors wrapped around Xander as he continued to drift off into nothingness. Xander began to fall asleep, and so his sleep caused him to fall awake. After he woke, he saw. Indescribable to words, Xander remained thoughtless yet he knew. Knew what? Nothing. But nothing is everything. Suddenly, Xander began to drift up, faster and faster, the colors following him. Up out of the sand and into the sky, and suddenly Xander snapped back to reality.
The wind began to pick up, as semi-powerful gusts of it spiraled up to the ceiling from the center point, being Xander.
"That was strange."
Laughing out of pride for Xander, Max agreed, his robes flailing about in the updraft.
Xander stood up, and the updraft died down.
"Let's see if you can do it on command, or at least begin to," Max said.
Xander nodded. He got in a ready position as Max walked over to the bag of gym equipment once more. "The stakes are pretty low, it's just basketballs and bats and such, but still, try your best."
Max hurled a basketball at Xander. Xander gritted his teeth as he searched for his power. The ball made contact with his hands and bounced to the ground, rolling back to Max.
"That's ok. You don't have to get it on your first try." Max threw another, only a little slower.
Not needing to think about reacting to this as it was moving slower, Xander instinctually created a breeze from his hands, which slowed the ball, before it fell backwards without bouncing off of anything. Xander smiled.
"You're not done yet," Max said as he quickly threw a baseball bat at Xander as if it were a boomerang.
Xander took what he had done with the last ball and remained thoughtless. All he wanted to do was stop the bat from making contact with him or moving beyond him. The second the bat was in the air, the wind picked up a little violently, the bat zipped past Max, and slammed into the far wall behind Max.
Max opened his eyes wide and started laughing hysterically. "That was… strong. I guess you can't control your output levels yet, but you can at least create some form of a gust."
Xander pumped his fist into the air victoriously. He hadn't fully grasped how to scale output, but he at least figured out how to use his power in some capacity. He felt powerful for once. "I think I might be ready for my battle tomorrow."
Max nodded. "Okay."
The duo walked out of the gym and parted ways after saying their goodnights. They went their separate ways. Xander walked off to the dorm room he had seen earlier during the tour.
He opened the door and nobody was inside, so he felt relieved that he had nobody to deal with and could just go straight to sleep. He slid into his bed and took one look around the room before drifting off to sleep.
It was breakfast time and Xander had a dish he knew very well: eggs and toast. The dining hall was busy, with people coming and going. Almost completely subconsciously, Xander sat alone. He was still used to his old way of life. Upon finishing his meal, he got up to throw away his tray and left the room.
He began to walk to the gym where he learned the very basics of how to use his wind ability, passing by students on their way to classes. It was like his normal high school. Lay low, avoid people and get what you need to do done.
After a trek of a considerable distance, he found himself at the entrance of the gym, doors closed. Next to the doorway stood the peers he was with yesterday. Apollo and Adrian were standing on opposite sides of the door, looking as if they had just gotten out of another dispute. Jinx and Aspen were sitting on a bench by a window together. Jinx actually looked interested in talking for once but still had a tired feel to her look. Xander stopped about twenty feet from the four and looked at the doors, nervous
There were two sets of footsteps behind him. Then, an elderly voice spoke up; "I see we have everyone here. I believe we may proceed with the examinations of each student, including the inexperienced Xander Gray."
Xander turned around. It was Headmaster Thorne. Max was tagging along behind him.
"Allow me to read off the list of the battles which shall be happening today. First up is Apollo Armoni versus Maxmillian Lacuna. Next is Aspen Armoni versus Jinx Selle. Third is Kylo versus Cain. Finally, Adrian Thorne versus Xander Gray."
Adrian ran forward and got close to his father. Angrily, he shouted at him. "Is this some kind of punishment? Why do I have to fight that kid? I am obviously going to crush him. I need someone of comparable skill to my talents, not some weak trash with nothing to its name. What kind of insult is this?"
Headmaster Thorne sighed. "Adrian, my boy... I pray you understand this one simple notion. Young Xander is trying to get into this institution. Through this examination, he just might be able to."
Adrian looked even more pressed but submitted to his father's will. "This still doesn't make fighting him good for me. I demand a stronger opponent afterward. Everyone must hold witness to the power of Thorne!"
Caspian Thorne slowly shook his head and sighed. "If we have time, I may allow it. Let us head inside now. Cain is waiting"
As if voice-activated, the doors began to rumble open. Light from the windows near the ceiling inside the gym poured out in bright rays. A buff figure wearing only baggy black sweatpants was already inside the room. He placed his fist in his other hand in front of his chest.
He huffed out of his nose and grinned. "I take it we are ready to begin?"
Chapter 4 END
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