The doorbell to the Havington mansion rang, and everyone present in the house, which was everyone except Urell, was immediately thrown into mild panic.
Thalorin smoothened his tunic and headed to the door.
With a look back at the rest of them, he pulled the door open and revealed the five Elves standing behind it.
Alex quickly tried to scan their faces; perhaps he could know his fate already.
They were three males and two females.
But they all had the same plain, cold, and inhumanly beautiful faces the other Elves did.
Except, of course, they were older, so their faces were a little more rugged.
Among them, one face stood out. He looked the oldest, and his face was even starting to wrinkle a bit.
Alex didn't need to be told that that was Lucan.
The disapproving look on his face was uncanny. As he stepped into the house, he looked like he would rather be anywhere but here.
"Welcome, guys," Thalorin greeted them without a bow.
Four of them bowed in return, but Lucan simply scoffed. "Let's get this ordeal over with, shall we?"
Thalorin exchanged glances with his wife and with Alex.
"Right," he said. "Well, this is Alex, for whom we have gathered today."
"Spare the long talk, Thalorin," Lucan cut in impatiently. "I want to talk to the boy himself."
Thalorin sighed and gestured for Alex to step forward.
Alex did so, wondering if the council wanted him to stand proud and show no fear in the face of adversity, or if they wanted him to cower and show a little bit of fear and reverence.
When he stopped before them, Lucan gestured his head at one of the female elves.
Her name was Alyssa, and she was an empath.
"Give me your hand," she said to him in a soft voice.
Alex looked back at Thalorin in confusion.
"It's okay. She's an empath, and she will try to see if you're lying or not," he said.
Alex took in a steadying breath, trying to act like the idea didn't scare him slightly.
He gave her his hand, and she wrapped her soft palm around it.
As soon as he felt her palm on his hand, he immediately imagined it somewhere else.
Shut up, you pervert mind! he snapped at himself, appalled at the thought.
Alyssa must have felt the spike in his emotions and what they meant because she merely smiled.
Alex turned red.
"What's your name?" Lucan asked.
"Alex," he said.
Alyssa nodded, and Lucan continued.
"And how did you find yourself here, boy?"
Alex thought it was a little rude to be addressed as 'boy' after providing his name, but he swallowed the grievance.
"I honestly have no idea how. The last thing I remembered was being chased by a group of angry boys back in my world and being hit by a car… then I woke up in the forest here," he said.
Lucan looked to Alyssa for her approval.
There was a long pause, but eventually, Alyssa nodded.
However, after that, she met his eye, and he could read the steely look in her eyes.
She knows! he realized. She knows I was lying, yet she lied to protect me.
Why?
However, he couldn't dwell on the question for long; Lucan was already speaking again.
"What is your ability?"
Alex cleared his throat. This was the make or break part of the interview.
"Uhmm, inflicting," he said.
There was a shocked gasp from the other female elf, Amara.
Lucan's face became so red, it looked like it would explode.
Thalorin and one other elf, named Draven, hid their chuckles.
"What?" Lucan asked.
"Inflicting," Alex repeated.
"Well, this is a rather interesting development, don't you think?" Draven asked Lucan.
"And pyrotechnics and telekinesis," Alex added.
The entire room went dead silent at the mention of this.
Even Thalorin and Draven no longer looked amused.
"What did you say?" Draven asked.
Alex said nothing, sure it was a rhetorical question.
"You have three abilities," Amara said quietly.
Lucan suddenly exploded. "How? How can he have three? Only the rarest and most powerful elves develop more than one. How can he have three?"
"Calm down, Lucan," Draven said. "This is not the time for hysterics."
"I'll show you hysterics," Lucan replied, and turned to Alex. "Let's see just how strong your inflicting is. Break out of mine."
"Wait, how?" Alex asked, but Lucan didn't give him any chance to ask or prepare himself. He immediately inflicted pain on him.
A wave of gut-wrenching pain suddenly overwhelmed Alex, and he cried out in agony.
"Arghhh!!"
"Break out!" Lucan yelled. "Break out of it!"
Alex could barely think, let alone understand what it meant to break out.
He continued yelling in agony.
Then the system came on.
"Yes!" Alex said quickly.
"Whatever, just get me out of here," Alex gritted his teeth.
Then a remarkable thing, something that none of the elves gathered in the room expected, happened.
Alex broke out of the inflicting.
He stood straight as the agony swept away from him.
"I broke out," he said.
Then the agony came back, and he doubled over again in pain.
He had only broken free for five seconds, but it was enough. Lucan's jaw was on the floor, as well as every other elf.
He stopped inflicting on the boy.
"You just broke out of my inflicting," he said, still in awe.
"For just a few seconds," Alex replied, sure he had failed the test.
"You don't understand, you're not supposed to be able to. No one your age should be able to," Thalorin said.
"Wait, Lucan, let's see if the boy can inflict on you," Draven suggested.
"Sure, why not," Lucan said, still in shock.
Alex wondered how he was to activate his inflicting, but the system dinged.