A Darker Shade of Sorcery (Sample of now published novel.)

Chapter Twenty Four

"Phew," Elijah wiped his head in-between explanations as they walked. "I'll almost be glad when summer's over."

"Why isn't it?" Brooke asked. It had been autumn at home.

"Oh, our seasons last nine months here."

Elijah laughed at her expression.

"Anyway, as I was saying, Veneseron Fortress is like a cross between a school and a training facility. I've been here years myself. All my family are Venators. For ages I thought I'd never be one. I had a weak aura and couldn't do anything magical. Then a year ago I set Xavier's hair on fire by accident. It was the happiest day of my life."

"But why is this happening to me now?" Brooke asked, partly distracted by the beautiful tapestries and paintings on the walls, depicting landscapes where the sky was green and the grass black, or cities floating in the sky or underwater. Something Padrake had said about other worlds made Brooke uneasy.

"Didn't Lanky Larry tell you anything?" Elijah said, exasperated. "Sorcery is dormant though, until you hit puberty. It's rare for it to be triggered when you're really young or an adult."

Brooke observed Elijah as they walked, looking for some bizarre quality to his appearance like Arantay or Padrake had. Part of herself still told her this was all a mistake, she was a normal person, yet Elijah looked normal too. He wasn't different to anyone else she'd met, apart from the fact he lived in another world full of sorcery, and that he could use magic of course.

Elijah carried on speaking. "Don't worry if you haven't actually performed sorcery yet. That's why the Masters are here, they'll teach you everything you need to know."

"What if I don't want to know?"

"Are you saying you don't want to learn magic?" He asked in disbelief.

"Well, I guess..." she trailed off, shrugging.

Elijah blinked at her, nonplussed, his eyes like two golden coins. He shook his head and continued down the corridor. As they turned into another passageway Brooke was surprised to see it was flooded with teenagers, all of them chatting loudly as they made their way to and fro. Elijah took it in his stride, engaging many of them in conversation:

"Tristan, long time no see."

"Hey Hazim, nice to see you got rid of that Orc acne."

"Shakara, you're back. How was your mission? I heard you and Byron were helping the fae in their war with the valorcs."

The other teens greeted Elijah in turn, many of them staring at Brooke curiously.

"This is going to be worse than being the new girl at school, isn't it?"

"Naa. We get new recruits all the time, more than ever recently. You're the fifth this month. Besides, at school they don't teach you how to behead demons and ride dragons."

Brooke watched as a large cluster of boys moved down the corridor, passing a larger group of girls as they turned the corner. "Just how many kids are there?"

"Oooh, quite a few," Elijah responded. "I believe there's seven hundred Novices right now. I'd guess a thousand Apprentices for sure, almost eight hundred Mid-Realmers, five hundred High-Realmers and three hundred Arch-Realmers."

"How do you fit them all in?" she asked, amazed.

Elijah chuckled. "Well each of our castles has ten floors, if you hadn't noticed already. Most people are Apprentices as it's really hard to pass the trials and become a Mid-Realmer. You'll rarely see Arch-Realmer's as they're always on missions, they're the real experienced warriors."