Luines - Book 1

Chapter 03: A Morning March

"Experimenting with new potions? You appear quite ghastly and pallid today, Hal. It doesn't suit you." Reeg Myrkvi said, after he puffed his infamous cigar. "Do you mind?" He pointed at the golden doors of The Gamil Castle and blew another smoke.

Hal shook her head and let go of her held breaths. Even if this was his morning ritual, she couldn't get past Reeg's awful smelling cigars. This gray one smelled like old socks soaked in sulfur, then rinsed in canal water. It was that bad. She coughed, "I'm not into that. Besides, being this tan has advantages."

"As long as you aren't turning into a shade of purple or gold, that would be sufferable. Please, don't be a walking aubergine or a wretched capitalist unit of measure. I'd definitely abhor your very visage." He puffed another circle of smoke, that Hal had geared away from, after gulping a hefty amount of oxygen.

In a flick of a finger, Hal commanded the scarab knobs to turn, and the heavy doors of the Gamil Castle screeched open. Reeg Myrkvi went in as Hal Cruz and Zee Nakaji followed. No matter how many cigars he smoked, Reeg Myrkvi maintained his flawless glassy pallor. He said once that his roots were from Svalbard and the smoke was his version of their fog. He brushed his side swept cobalt hair away from his forehead, and hissed. His cold blue eyes squinted, "This crowd gets more moronic every year! Why on bloody earth did they result in spawning such mundane vermins in our midst?!"

"Get over it, Reeg. There's nothing we can do to trump that. You live in our world, remember?" Hal said.

"This grandiose entrance would be our insurgence of this desecration!!" Reeg's tone rose but that didn't break the crowd.

Zee whispered in her ear, "He's just furious because Philip didn't give him his goods this morning. It was that gold fae who provided them."

"No wonder he's cranky. He didn't see his muse but got gold allergies instead."

"I thought he'd get over his allergies easily," said Zee.

"Nah. After getting crazy hives and purple blotches, he wouldn't get close to anything gold." Hal surveyed the surroundings, hoping the dark elf wouldn't be there. She had enough of mourning in the morning and wanted to have a normal one today. Luckily, Reeg's morning rant worked perfectly for her. She needed that push towards normalcy.

She blew a sigh of relief as they stood by the main corridor. Leaning by the brick walls that lined the hallway, she toyed with the vintage lamps, sparking them like little fireworks. With a flick of her finger, the lamps dimmed, setting the stage of their routined morning march.

Reeg was on his fourth stick, that the smoke trickled beneath the feet of the growing populace. Temperatures began to drop as his last puff turned into an eerie fog. He grinned devilishly, "Shall we?"

Hal rubbed her hands, and slammed them with an ear-deafening force, "'Tang ina, move!"

She swept her arms over the alarmed population, and divided them like Moses with the water. However, she wasn't as friendly as the biblical character; her methodology had a little kick and pain to it. The students clung to their life as they hung on invisible hooks. Zee and Reege walked through the divided populace and Hal followed. She thrived on that adrenaline rush; their morning marches were her way to release all of her pent-up anger.

As soon as they got to the end of the hallway, Hal waved her hand, releasing her hold on the student populace. They vanished like rats into their dark nooks, avoiding any eye connection with the unfathomable three. She stood by Zee, "So, have you seen the dark elf?"

"Lizard and Byagi are searching. They're by the Summoning hall." Zee informed them, and led them in the main atrium. Reeg followed immediately while Hal had a strange tingling someone was watching her.

Turning back to the hall, Hal almost fell to her feet, seeing a pair of crimson eyes blinking in the darkness. She panicked, setting the lights in a serial explosion. The dark elf was so near and her eyes were as blood shot as the red moon in her dreams, as bloody as the eyes of her dad's in the police photo. The hallway settled into darkness, as she clung on her nerves. The crimson eyes gazed at her for a long time until they disappeared in a blink.

Tang ina. Her jaw was aching from so much clattering teeth, as she went to the atrium. One thing was for sure, fate was delivering the answer right before her.