The Mistyard Academy

Tattoo Man Says Something

Once the eight of us are gathered we all head down to breakfast as a big group. The great hall is already filling up with students when we arrive though our regular table in the corner is still unoccupied. The breakfast spread was set out on a long table against the wall opposite us. It was huge and with so many different things, I chose to get a light breakfast of fruit and scrambled eggs (I put some Furikake on the eggs) because combat training is right after breakfast, really who decided I should get thrown into a wall after eating?

Brielle who is stuffing her mouth with eggs pokes me and points over at Reina and Lawrence who are leaning over the giant stack of homework together, "Look at them so romantic."

"I know they were even bantering earlier, one- sided," I whisper back through a laugh.

"How does one banter one- sidedly?"

"Well Reina made a comment about how the homework that Lawrence was doing was optional and then he glared slightly then stopped like he remembered he loves her."

"Oh, they really are romantic. When do you think they will finally get together?"

"Who knows I've only known them a day, so I don't know if they've made any progress. Maybe if there's a dance or something but Reina will probably be the one to ask him out or some random day, they'll just be holding hands and be like 'hey we're dating now!' then we'll all 'what' and they'll be like 'yeah we just realized we like each other'."

"I think the second one is a definite possibility, it sounds like them."

"Hey, I noticed that you got a private lesson," Effie interjected, "and with Meredith too! You seemed like you really liked her last night."

"Yeah! She was cool, and I'm excited to have her for private lessons. What about you, you're with Madame Augustine, one of the best Whisperers ever."

"More like one of the only Whisperers ever."

"Still."

"I know, but 'the best' is redundant when there's only ever been like ten."

Ok, so I knew Whisperers were rare but only ten in about 600 years, it's hard to even imagine. It must be so lonely having such a rare power and one that's so dangerous and powerful.

Once we finish our breakfast all of us head down to the training area in the sprawling grounds on campus. There are large mats spread around the space where we will all start our combat training. The teacher, coach whatever introduces himself as Braims, he is a heavily muscled ex-military looking man in his forties who is a relation of a Mystikal but is not one himself and grew up at the academy.

It. Was. Rough. I could barely move after we were done. How I will be able to do this every day for the foreseeable future. Braims spent the whole time telling me to do it better, go faster, punch harder and I wanted to punch him harder by the end of the session.

After the session we all limp off to lunch and flop on to the benches. There are plates of sandwiches, chips and fruit stacked high on every table. I grab a turkey, cheese and tomato sandwich, a bag of barbecue chips and a whole lot of watermelon. None of us say anything for at least fifteen minutes and just stuff our faces with food.

"Is it just me or was Braims really working us harder today? It felt harder today," Brielle asks leaning dramatically on my shoulder.

"I don't have a frame of reference," I say, "but it felt like he was trying to push all of my buttons."

Reina answers, "Yeah he's always like this with new students, I think it gives him great joy."

"Oh, this class should be a real joy."

"It's not joy it is the bane of all our combined existences and this class will shadow you for the rest of your days and haunt the prophetic dreams that only you have," Lawrence deadpans.

Brielle and Reina burst out laughing, leaning on each other and wheezing once they finished. We all look on them amusedly as Lawrence scowls at the reaction to his probably not intentionally funny statement.

When we finish our lunches all of us traipse out of the Great Hall and back to our dorm hall common room to lay around for the hour before ability training. We all just sprawled out and lay in an almost catatonic state until it was time to find our way to the training rooms.

Ryan offered to take me to my training session because his was close by. Our classrooms were pretty far away so we had to leave a lot earlier than the rest of our dorm mates. The hallways changed from theme to theme, and it was incredible how they still all seemed to fit together even though they are so different.

"Hey, Ryan since you're a Libero and your ability seems to come naturally, how do you train it during your sessions?"

He responds almost hesitantly, "Well... there are other things we can do with our ability only with training, like just being able to mesmerize almost everything we can see. Also, it is possible to be able to learn to translate things directly from our mind to paper kind of like a human copy machine."

"That's actually really cool, are you able to do it?"

"Yeah, but it is difficult still and I can't do anything really complicated yet."

"Wow, that's still really impressive, that would so cool to be able to do."

"I guess I still have a lot to learn and- oh this is you."

"Oh, thanks for showing me the way."

"No problem, see you after session."

"Bye."

I open the large wooden door in the forest themed hallway, it opens into a candle-lit room. Inside Mrs. Hopkins was sitting in a wooden straight- backed chair, there is another identical chair directly across from her.

"Come in and close the door behind you," Mrs. Hopkins snaps, her silver- streaked hair glinting in the candlelight.

I hurry to close the door and go to stand by the chair across from her, "Sit." I sit.

"Alright let's get started, first of all, did you dream last night and if so, what did you dream of."

"Well, um," I start my words shaking a little, "I was in a dark candle lit room and there was a sort of buzzing in my head, the buzzing was building like pressure in me and after a while the pressure released and it opened up into a brightly lit room with a lot of people standing around in it."

"Good, good. So today we will be testing a theory of mine about how to start your visions, and based off of last night's dream this theory is mostly likely correct. I and some other teachers believe that you only have these visions when you are sleeping because while you are sleeping you have no mental or environmental distractions, and it focuses on something else like something in the future. So, we will dim the lights, and I will project a sort of mental silence into your brain that will simulate sleep, this I believe will kick- start a vision."

"Whoa, that sounds a little intense. Do you think that because I know that method will work that it won't and what I saw won't happen?"

"That is not feasible, if this were true if you learned how to do it you would never have a dream again and abilities don't just go away suddenly because you know how it works."

"Ok, Ok, I just wanted to make sure."

"Alright," she states, shaking back her sleeves, "let's get started now." I take a deep breath to calm my nerves before nodding to Mrs. Hopkins, I'm ready.

She closes her eyes in concentration and within seconds I feel the now familiar whispering in the back of my head. It's the same thing over and over 'sleep... sleep... sleep'. The buzzing sensation starts to build in my ears as my brain strains to shut down. The pressure in my head threatens to pop, until- light floods in my eyes, I am in a brightly lit room full of people. It is where my dream ended, but this time it continues on showing that all of the people are heavily armed and have a symbol like a triangle crossed like in 'a' on their bicep. As usual the dream doesn't have any sound but, I can see a heavily tattooed man who looks like he's addressing the crowd. Tattoo man says something, and all the people raise their weapons and seem to shout the same thing.

The vision starts to blur and darken until it feels like I'm falling out of the dream.