The Rink of Time

Chapter Fourteen

There are so many places to be and so much to see.

DEXTER BARDO

Everything about this place is frankly unimaginable, it's almost like some sort of fairytale. And Elijah said that we didn't fall into a fairytale. Pfft.

It's like we dived right into fantasy land, even their school looks like a palace, everything feels like it's moving so fast, it's like one second, we were bashing Skai for her crappy taste in guys and the next we're about to enroll in a school in a whole other world—as sprites???

I still haven't gotten over the whole 'you might be mythical creatures but that's just an assumption' thing.

Besides, I thought sprites were funny looking, me on the other hand, I'm not funny looking in the least bit.

Right, we have to stay focused on our goal here; find out where we come from and then find a way back to earth.

As nice as this place is, earth is our home, New York is our home, and our family back home is probably worried sick.

So rather than sitting around and swarming my mind with thoughts, questions and theories, I'd rather take action.

How hard could it possibly be?

The school stood tall, basking in the sunlight, the walls of stone and concrete seemed to tell stories of thousands of lives, seems to have seen thousands of lives, if not years.

The windows itself, the manner in which they shone proved that they were no ordinary windows, some were almost the length of the building others were normal sized windows positioned orderly through the building.

"It's giving Diamond Castle" Skai gasps.

"No, Princess and the pauper" I tell her, that castle was magnificent.

"No, this is definitely princess charm school" Emily gapes.

"If you guys are done drooling, we actually have to go inside" Amari snickers.

We shake off our initial shock and began to climb the steps that led into the school.

If I thought the outside was gorgeous then I'm not sure I had any words to describe the inside.

It was like something out of a movie, the stone walls possess gold linings in between each brick, there's an arch in the hallway every few feet and in the middle of every two arch there is a dimly lit chandelier, the walls have little light bulbs lining up the hallway, but they are also dimly lit like the chandeliers.

It's quite cinematic, if you ask me.

"The magnus magister is who you register with, his office is just up the stairs" Delta explains as he leads us up a myriad of stairs alongside his little sister to what I am assuming is the office of this 'magnus magister'

"Who's that?" Elijah inquires, laying out the question that was going through all our minds.

"To put it simply, he is in charge of Lucrari" Delta explains "I don't know if you will understand that"

"We're unfamiliar, not dumb" I hear River mutter, causing me to stifle a laughter, earning both of us nudges from Elijah.

Emily turned around and gave us all a death glare making us to shut up.

"The Magnus Magister is always around, rumor has it that he lives underneath the school." Amari giggles, clearly not hearing River's little input.

"You see those buildings?" Delta pointed at about 10-20 tall towers out the window we were passing. "Those are where the elite students live" He says with a big smile on his face "They're people that are good enough to either work with or be a part of the great council"

"What's the great council?" Skai asks.

"They make all the big decisions here, the great council is composed of individuals with the rarest powers, a wise mind, the monarchs or just people who have proven themselves worthy, members are chosen every 700 years" he explains.

"700 years?"

"Don't they die?"

"That's incredible"

"700?"

The words flew out of all our mouths, except Emily but she still seemed pretty astonished.

"Death?" Amari asks and they both look horrified.

"Our people don't really die" Amari let us in on that "Not naturally"

"At least we've never met anyone that died naturally, we've heard stories of course but one has to live for at least a millennia before death knocks on their door, when people hit the millennia mark they take them to a special island to enjoy their last couple hundred years, they retire from working then" Amari explains.

"But no one really knows if they really die or just retire, people have of course died in the cities but we don't know them personally and 67% of them were due to skill mismanagement." Delta adds.

"Interesting" Elijah and Emily both mutter.

"We're here" Delta informs us as we arrive in front of the huge thick glass double doors, above the doors was a golden rectangular plate with the words 'MAGNUS MAGISTER' inscribed into it, He lifts his index finger up and presses a button on the diamond door knob.

The door automatically slides open, and we're faced with a middle-aged man, he looks nothing over 40 years, he's sitting at a big rectangular wooden desk in an even bigger room.

"Hello Bolveras" He pauses "and strangers"

"Blessed morning, Magnus Magister" They both greeted.

"Yes, 'tis a blessed morning indeed,how may I help you younglins?" he asks

"They are here to enroll, Magnus Magister" Delta spoke up.

We were instructed by Mrs. Bolvera not to say anything, to let her kids do all the talking, a little condescending if you ask me...but beggars can't be choosers as the saying goes.

"And who are they exactly?" He asks, his voice stern.

"Our distant cousins, from Alpinel" Delta answers calmly, I could never lie that easily.

I can't wait to get out of here, everything here seems so fragile, I miss my guitar and skateboard, it's so boring here.

"And they came all the way from Alpinel to Thairo because?" he trails of in question, waiting for a valid answer I suppose but isn't that personal information? what does that have to do with him?

"Their parents went on a voyage round Ardeneon so they needed a place to stay"

"And you want me to believe that they all come from the same parents?" He pushed.

Amari stepped forward.

"If I may I would like to tell you something privately" she speaks up and he nods.

She walks over to him and whispers something in his ears then his eyes open and he seems to understand.

"Okay then" he pauses rummaging through a drawer, before taking a paper out and placing it on his table "put your names down here" he instructs and we walk towards him obliging, following that files were created and schedules were assigned.

We begin to exit his office when he stops us just as we made it outside "You can collect your uniforms at the beginning of the following week" he calls out as the doors close behind us.

"Uniforms?" Skai asks alarmed.

"You guys didn't say anything about uniforms" I was just as unpleased as Skai about this arrangement.

"Well, you didn't ask" Amari giggled, this little girl seemed to be enjoying seeing us struggle a whole lot, and she's not even trying to hide her amusement.