The Partham Chronicles

Part 16 - Introductions

Vysna was tense; although she did not have to leave her family, she had to leave the college. The rest of her education, career and life would be with the Parthams in their world, which was now her world too. It was difficult for her to digest the truth that she was now, like her mother, a Partham. Surprisingly she got a leave certificate easily from her college. Uncle Markand had pulled some strings to get this done quickly and discreetly.

She had found out that she would be studying at a special school for Parthams during the day till 2. pm and then working at Shanka Bali's office from the afternoon till the evening at 6. pm. This was going to be her schedule for a year. She was told that she had to join the school because would need to know about their history, heritage and traditions.

Her entire day was going to be occupied. Joining a new school at her age was like joining kindergarten all over again. She felt a bit jittery thinking about it. New teachers, classmates and friends. Friends? She wondered if she would make any new ones. But her new school was not like she'd ever imagined. Almost all of her classmates were four years younger than her, only fifteen years of age.

Her mother had applied the petition to the council four years ago. And it had taken four years, numerous phone calls, meetings, and emails, to get one meeting arranged with the Council elders. And that too, an entire year had passed when her mother had to meet different Partham Council Elders at different times, trying to convince them to exempt all of them.

Her first meeting was with Siv Lokesh, the senior among all the Council Elders. Her mom had told her that it would be easy to convince him because he had known Leysa since she was a child. Her mother had accidentally revealed that her grandmother and Elder Lokesh were good friends. That's when she found out that she had a grandmother who was not only a Partham but was also alive. Her grandmother had disowned her mom for marrying a human. And her mom had not been in contact with her since. Leysa had made Vysna promise that she would not try to meet or contact her grandmother at any cost. Vysna had promised.

Then, a council meeting was arranged for Elder Siranth Memal, who she thought was one of the coolest-looking Elders, and Elder Meera Surishi, who looked very young to be a council elder, and she seemed nice. They had agreed to exemption immediately.

Then, the last meeting with Biswa Raj and Aveda happened, and everything had gone haywire.

Now that things had come back to something manageable, she hoped it remained uneventful.

Her college was about ten kilometres away from her house. Her mother had dropped her there, for the first day.

Her first day of school was dull. Her first class was History, not the same history which she had learnt in her school. The Partham history was different from that of humans. It was only an introductory class. Then there was a communications class which she knew she would fail as she did when they had lessons with Uncle Markand. After that was a class for Partham politics, council rules and management and the last class was for the Practical elements.

She was the only student in that class as no one shared her element, they didn't even have a professor to teach that subject. So, they asked her to join any other elements class. She decided to join a practical Air class. This was the highlight of her day. There she felt a bit better as she was not the only one struggling.

Shanka Bali's office was about four kilometres away from the school. She decided to take a taxi. When she reached there she was surprised. The building was not what she had expected. She thought it would be a modern building, like a skyscraper, with glass windows, security guards and a parking lot, but it was the opposite.

It was a basalt stone building with long pillars, arching windows, and rounded buttresses at the entryway. A lawn in the front yard and marble statues that looked ancient. The building itself looked old but seemed like it was maintained with care. A few people were entering and exiting the building. Many of them looked quizzically at her.