The Virtues' Magecraft

Page 81: The Beginning Games

Staying home for a handful of days, with his mother at work and his sister at school, meant being alone for a solid chunk of Alexander's waking hours. Being alone meant having no choice but to mull over each of his memories and experiences, the painful and agonizing seconds and minutes he went through in hell.

He had already seen Keiran's face and heard his voice in his dreams at night. Well, in his nightmares. From that alone, he packed his bag and sent himself to school in the morning to distract himself.

Of course, that meant having to go through his friends, who all but one had thought he had remained dead. Expectedly, there were cries of shock and confusion, and calls for explanations from them all. Leonard even fell to his knees and wept.

Thankfully, Alexander wasn't a messiah of any kind. Coming back before the third day helped that notion.

As he explained his circumstance, he helped Leonard up and forced the conversation to move along to something else. Of course, it was difficult to talk about something else when a dear friend had died and been reborn.

Concentrating in any class would prove to be the same kind of trouble. For better or worse, the whole school would be crammed into the auditorium for a presentation. Mr. Tucker only alerted them by sticking a sign to his door of where to go.

And so, all they had in the morning was to make their way to the auditorium. Already filled, they were forced to find seats in the back, distanced from the speakers.

Nearly half of the teachers of the school had been summoned into the auditorium as well, sitting at an assortment of grey and plastic tables in front of an immense screen that covered nearly half of the building's wall. It was shut off, but considering its size, Alexander guessed those in the back like himself would have no trouble seeing what it could display. 

Alexander, having missed days from being imprisoned and in court as well the two days of literally being dead, had not heard a single thing of the branch battles this year. Liam filled him in with whatever he had to know, which was plenty, considering that Liam had undergone these same battles two years prior.

"I'll just clarify right now to you," he whispered. "I'm surprised New York won that year. Because I did horribly. Like, I weighed everyone down. That's why I ended up being a Grade 5 magician for a year and a half."

Alexander's eyebrows instinctively furrowed. "You used to be a Grade 5?!"

For the past year that Alexander had known Liam, he had always thought his friend was a young man of immense power. After all, he was. Liam had cultivated his magic to reach astounding speeds and incredible strengths. It was almost saddening to consider that he had not always been of that caliber.

Liam shushed him immediately. "Don't share that. But yeah, I was. This kid named Keith Miler knocked me out. Same guy that bruised up Gabriel yesterday."

Alexander turned to the side and once again looked into Gabriel's black eye. No demon had beaten him that badly before. He shuddered at the thought of a single man, no, just a student with such a gap in strength with Gabriel Archibald.

Even as the teachers spoke of the battles and their formatting, Alexander's focus remained nonexistent. Unfortunately, Alexander's mind lingered away from his hearing and drifted to Adam and the sword he brought into the house.

Alexander had overcome death itself, and Adam arrived only on business matters. Nothing of his son. Alexander didn't care for it, or so he told himself. He quickly moved on from those 'matters and wrapped that blade in the same crimson blanket first, and a white towel second. He tied it together with some string and hid it under the sofa. From there, he only prayed he could forget its existence altogether and move on in life.