STELLARIUM(BOOK ONE)

Chapter 24: Earth SEID & SOID II

"Xander welcome, you may sit. I hope you enjoyed your journey?"

      Xander felt his approach was friendly, "Yes… yes lord Celeste." He bowed to show reverence. Celeste held him up, he looked at him surprised.

     "Why did you do that? What did the Solaract say to you? Or did this come from Solstice?"

    "Both… "

    Celeste smiled calmly, "I see, well come on. Let me show you in," He took Xander with him upstairs to his room. He continued talking, "so tell me, I heard of your accomplishments and your wisdom. What did that feel like?"

      Xander walked into the room, "well it felt good, I finally got some form of respect. But if I may, the solaract mentioned something about this realm having trickery? Could you throw more light on that?"

        "Xander, I am the trickery."

     Xander turned to him, surprised at his words towards him. Celeste opened the door and ushered him in, "come on, there's a lot I need to show you. Your room's already arranged and I've set your timetable for your feeding and your reading and of course your training."

       Xander closed the door behind him, he admired the blue and gold design. It gave a touch of royalty indeed, he dropped his bag on the bed. He walked towards the written plans, he picked one of the plans to read.

      "So, I'm sure you are aware of my strict policies already. You'll have three days to rest and regain yourself from your journey, after that we'll start with the potions and power classes before we tap into your mind."

      Xander asked, "my mind? What's my mind doing here?"

      "Xander, the person you'll be fighting in the next ten years will have more mind powers than you except, we are leaving any stone unturned. Good luck, if you need anything, just write it on the piece of paper there and burn it. I'll receive it."

       Celeste walked out and locked the door from the outer side, his side. "What did they say about me to you too?" Xander said and thought.

      He dropped the paper, he sat by the table. He took a bite out of the apple, and walked to the window. He saw the strange woman again, this time he ignored it and walked back to his table to eat.

      As he ate, a voice spoke, 'Xander' this time he was irritated. He spoke back harshly, "you know what? If you are not gonna let me see your face then you should leave me alone."

       The voice stayed silent, he continued eating and when he was done. He gulped down a large quantity of water, 'Xander!' this time the voice yelled louder. It wants a reply.

       "Who are you?"

   'Aurum sphere.'

      "How did you get into my head without me using you to do that?"

      'That can't be the question you'd ask, you should ask why I'm trying to contact you.'

       He asked, "Why are you following me around? What do I need to know?"

        'The ring and the compass, use the first three days in this room to prepare for the powers. Celeste isn't as calm as you think, you were wise to bow and show manners. He'll never tell you when he's pissed at you, he'll just test you harder or drill you even more. You need to learn how to use the ring and the compass within the three days, change the compass right now before he finds it, Solstice made you see the library on purpose. Change the compass to a gold pill and swallow it, with this you'll always know where to go and you won't fall for his trickery, take the ring and never take it off. If you fail a test here, your rank will reduce till you are left with nothing. You'll start all over again from Apex. Be wise.'

       Xander takes the compass, he couldn't joke about the warning he just received from the aurum sphere. He took it and covered the compass with his palms, he meditated on it and he turned it into a gold pill. He swallowed the pill with water immediately.

       He stood waiting for something to happen to his system and of course it did.

      He felt a weird turn in his stomach, he fell to the ground. His knees hit the ground making him grunt, he started sweating and breathing heavily. He felt like he was tricked and he just made a mistake but he didn't. The feeling stopped.

      Within a quick glimpse, his mind could see all the earth realms, the galaxies, the powers, creatures and it went back to him in the room, standing alone.

       'Good, you adapted quickly, now read the books on the shelf. Explore every inch of this room, you can read the books he planned for you later. This is Earth SEID, what you may see may not be what you need. Always look behind the scenes with Celeste. He's always got something up his sleeves. Like he said, he is trickery. Be on the lookout. Watch like you've never watched before. He will send tests your way.'

      "Thank you. I will." The voice stopped speaking.

     He walked to the shelf, he took the only three left. He wondered why Celeste would bring out three books and leave three behind, that's the manipulation tactic.

       He glanced through the red book first, it has a gold symbol on it. He saw nothing but blank pages, he flipped through the pages slowly, then continued quickly till he got the end of it. He saw the symbol at the end of it.

       He dropped the book and he looked through the black book, he noticed the exact same thing from the beginning to the very end. He dropped it.

       He took the blue book, he saw the same thing. He walked over to the reading table, he opened the books and he got the exact result. His eyes ponder on the pages trying to see if his eyes could go through any invisible writing if there was.

         To his greatest surprise, there isn't.

     The aurum sphere spoke, 'are you surprised? You shouldn't be. Read it again, use your real eyes.'

       "Okay." He tried it and it worked, he stayed reading till the sun went down. He dropped the books appropriately and stepped into the bathroom. He saw two bathtubs. One black and the other white.

       He sunk into the white bathtub, when he did he noticed the bathtub was a gateway. He took a swim through it and discovered another earth. EARTH SOID, he noticed the fire and the brimstone from the far glance he took.