The Turning of Things

So, you want me to tell you a story? Well... I guess I'll do it, but only this one time. Only. This is a story about me. But where do I start the story? The true beginning? No, too long, how about- no, that wouldn't do. I guess I'll just start where the story you want begins, that should do, yes? Good, then let's begin.
•A Warning•
THIS IS A Story about me, an honest one too. But no story can be truly honest, for then it is but barely believable. But this story will not lie, now it may hide the truth, but it will not change what it is. And it will not hide the bad, it will not simply show a hero rise to glory, no... that would be a children's tale. This story will show the good things of our character, yes, but it will not forget his mistakes, it will not hide his evils, for then we would not have our character, for then we would have a fantasy. Anyways, now that that's out of the way, let me tell my story.
•The Flaws of a Person•
MY LIFE WAS Not eventful, or at least, at first it wasn't, I had been born a normal baby, the child of my mother and father, though my mother had died when I was two and I did not remember much about her. I had been named Marlin, a name not most common, but not rare either and had the last name of Alexander. I had been born with shaggy, grey hair and had eyes that had always seemed to be in the state of changing colors. Besides this, I had normal physical features, none of those heroic, handsome features you'd expect someone in a story to have, for that would be a hero, and this story is not about a hero, it's about me. Now I could tell you of my childhood, of how there were the hints and signs of what was to come, of what I was to become, but that would be the true beginning and, like I said before, I was going to start at the beginning, the beginning of the story you wanted that is. So let's skip ahead to a part that's as good as any.

"Ok everyone, the worksheet will be due tommorow," my math teacher, Mr. Freng, said as our class packed up our stuff to leave, "I expect it to be done by then, now have a great day!" He yelled at us as we piled out into the hallway, eager to get home. I had just turned 14 that day, and had just finished the packet that was due the next day, you see math had been one of the few classes I was great at, and some of the other students were not happy about that.
"Move out of the way, nerd." One of the kids muttered to me as he forced his way ahead. Now I was not one to fight at the time, I was someone who was peaceful though it be hard to believe with the way I am now, and had not thought a single word of slight anger towards the student, I merely let him pass.
"Marlin!" My math teacher yelled. I looked his way and he waved to me, asking me to come forward. Turning around, I walked to him, he gestured to inside his classroom and I went inside as he closed the door. Mr. Freng was a man of average height, but he had the face of a classic hero, perfect jawline and all, he even had the perfect, shaggy brown hair with eyes that were blue, like the ocean at calm.
"Marlin," he asked, " are people always like that to you?"
"Like what?" I asked.
"Like... that" He said, making gestures with his hands as if I would understand. I tilted my head, showing that I did not understand what he was trying to say, he sighed at this and recollected himself then continued. "Do people always treat you like that one kid did? You know the one that called you a nerd."
"Some of them, yeah" I shrugged.
"Do you ever do anything?" He asked.
"Not really, I really just let them go on their merry way, I'd rather not do something that's not needed."
"But they just keep walking all over you."
"So? If I were to say something they would just be angered and actually target me, right now they just see me as an annoyance" I explained. Mr. Freng rubbed his face, then stood up.
"You're something else, you know that?"
"Thanks... I think."
"No problem, I guess that's all I have to say, just try and do something next time, okay?"
"Yep," I said as I grabbed my backpack and walked out, "have a great day!"
"You too!" He yelled back to me as I walked home.
After getting outside I began my walk home, you see my house was not too far from the school but it still took a good amount of time, as I lived in a small city, and it was on this walk home that I saw a kid getting beat up by two other kids. They were between two buildings, and were almost out of sight. I stopped for a bit to watch and recognized one of the two kids who were beating up the smaller one, it was the kid who called me a nerd. I was about to go on my way when the victim noticed me, and looked at me and mouthed the words 'help me', it was then that I remembered Mr. Freng's words 'just try and do something next time' and I was about to but I decided it was best not to and just kept walking, even when I heard the kid yell out "HELP ME" I kept walking, staring at my shoes in guilt. You may have thought that I would have stepped in and saved the day, like some hero, but this is not the story of a hero, this is the story of me, and I am no hero, I have flaws. And what I just told you, was but one of the many flaws.
I walked up the steps of my house and opened the door, lost in the thoughts of the recent event, and it was because of this that I was surprised by the shout of "SURPRISE" as my dad and Jenny jumped from behind the couch throwing confetti. I- oh wait, did I forget Jenny? Well she was my dad's wife, and had been married to him since I was 4, she was nice but I had always disliked her, as was expected from someone so young at the time. I had jumped in surprise from their shouts, yanked from my thoughts.
"Happy birthday!" They said to me, smiles radiating joy, joy that could not penetrate the blanket of guilt I had around me. Not wanting to make them feel bad, I forced myself to smile. It felt bland and increased the guilt I already had covering me.
"Let's go eat and then we'll open some presents." My dad said as he waved me over to the dinner table, then we ate dinner, I forgot what it was, and opened presents. As I said thanks to my dad for the presents, Jenny came into the room with the cake. They started to sing happy birthday and I couldn't help but blush, my dad said to make a wish and as I closed my eyes and blew out the candles I heard 5 words from Jenny.
"Your mother would be proud." I opened my eyes and glared at Jenny, she realized what she had said and her face went ashen grey as she began to stammer "I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say it." But it was too late, her voice was already drowned out by the thrum, thrum of my anger. How would she know how my mother would feel? I thought, She didn't know her, and she certainly doesn't know me!
I found myself with my eyes closed and opened them to see the cake splattered over the ground and Jenny crying, I slowly began to realize that I was shouting and closed my mouth, not knowing what I had said or done I went upstairs, stomping with anger I went in my room and jumped into my bed. After a while my dad came into the room, I don't know how long he was there, or what he had said, but when he left I found that a feeling had come in to numb my anger, it took a while but I finally realized what the feeling was: sadness. Realizing this I began to cry, and not the heroic kind either, I bawled and clawed at the blankets, snot coming out of my nose and tears pouring down my face. I don't know how long this went on but after a while Jenny came into the room, getting on my bed and, with a mother's care, put my head on her lap and, by whispering words of comfort, she slowly brought me down to a state of sniveling. After a while I finally managed to stammer out something.
"I- I- I- I'm sorry!" I gasped.
"No, no, no, it's ok, there's no need," she whispered earnestly, "it's ok, everyone makes mistakes, everyone has flaws, it's what makes up the person, it's the flaws, the flaws of a person." And with hearing that I let out a big sigh and fell asleep.
•Through the Looking Glass•
THE NEXT Day I woke up and took a shower, when I got out I noticed this feeling of being deep underwater, it was slightly annoying but after a while it was barely noticeable. As I was getting dressed I noticed something else, everything looked different, now I don't mean the different as in everything was blurry or a different color, I mean it looked different as if I were seeing things and more, it's really hard to explain, honestly. I got dressed and went outside to walk to school, trying to avoid my Dad and Jenny to dodge an awkward conversation that may have to do with what happened last night.
As I walked to school I kept noticing how much more I was seeing, I didn't exactly know what I could really see, it was kind of hard to pin point as whenever I tried to look directly at it, like directly, it would just sort of disappear. After a while I gave up trying to look at whatever it was and just walked to school. As I walked into school the bell signaling the beginning of school rang and, in a hurry for class, I ran into Mr. Freng.
"Woah buddy," Mr. Freng chuckled, " watch-" he stopped midsentence and looked into my eyes. No, that's not right, he looked into me, like he was peeking into the very essence of what I was. I felt a chill run down my spine and the hairs on my neck stand up as if they were rubbed against a balloon. "I'll be damned." he whispered, more to himself than to me. "Marlin, could you ask your dad if it would be ok if I were to come over for a chat with him?"
"Sure, I can ask him right now, when would you like to come over?" I asked as I pulled out my phone.
"Today," he said, "after school." He looked at my phone then at me, waiting for me to ask my dad. I quickly typed in the question and was answered shortly after with 'yeah, sure'. I looked up at Mr. Freng.
"He said yeah." Mr. Freng nodded and gave a short hrumph, then turned around and walked away. Shortly stunned from Mr. Freng's weird attitude, I ran to my first class, barely making it before the tardy bell rang.
"That was close Mr. Alexander," the civics teacher said, " don't let it happen again." I muttered a promise and made my way to my seat. As the class went on I began to get this strange feeling and started to fidget in my seat. After a while I found that I was having the feeling of being watched, and sensed it was coming from my left but the only thing to my left was a window, so I looked around outside until I found the source of the feeling. It was a young man who looked like he was around his mid 20's, he had normal clothes for the warm weather, shorts and a t-shirt, but what disturbed me about him was his eyes. They were a strange red and seemed to grab something inside of me the way you would with a bird. I was looking at the man when a voice snapped me out of the trance I was in.
"Mr. Alexander!" The civics teacher yelled.
"Wha- what, what'd I do?" I asked, finally turning to see the rest of the class smiling.
"I don't know," the teacher said, "I was too busy looking out the window, bored out of my mind and unable to hear what you said the first three times." Some of the people began to snicker and laugh. I felt my cheeks redden and muttered an apology, hanging my head.
"It's ok, just don't let it happen again, now as I was saying." The teacher said as he turned around and began to continue his lecture, writing down the key points on the board. I realized that I no longer felt that grip on me and shot a quick glance to my left and saw that the young man was no longer there. I sighed and began to listen to the teacher, writing down notes. Soon it was the end of the class and the bell rang, signaling the end of class. I walked, quickly, eager to get to the next class to save myself from the embarrassment of the jokes that were to soon be fired on me. I was walking through the hallway when a kid slid into my way. It was the kid from yesterday, the one that called me a nerd. I tried to walk past but he just stepped in my way again.
"Excuse me." I muttered.
"What did you say? Sorry, I wasn't listening." He said loudly, a grin painted on his face.
"Excuse me." I said, trying to walk past again.
"Huh?" He said, grabbing me by my shirt and pulling me in front of him. "What was that, did you say something?" He said, standing right in front of me, chest-to-chest.
"Ex-"
"What was that?" He said, shoving me. People had begun to watch and a crowd was gathering. I was about to say 'excuse me' when someone's voice rang out.
"He said 'excuse me'," the voice said, " so I suggest you let him pass." Everyone looked to where the voice came from and saw a man step forward. It was Mr. Freng. Everyone began to go to their classes and the one kid walked away, turning his head to stare daggers in my eyes. Oh great, I thought, Mr. Freng just made things a lot worse. I sighed and began to walk to class when Mr. Freng pulled me to the side, taking me to his classroom, which happened to be empty at that current block. As he shut the door, he turned to me.
"Why didn't you do anything back there? Why did you let him push you around like that?" He asked, a hint of sadness in him.
"Because it would have made a scene, and he would have begun to really target me, though he already is going to thanks to you." I said, the last part with a hint of bitter and anger.
"I helped you!" He said incredulously, " he would have made a fool out of you!"
"Better a fool than a victim!" I replied, "better being made fun of in public with chances of someone intervening before things get out of hand than having the crap beaten out of you in an alley with no one there to help you!" I suddenly realized what I had said and I looked at my shoes in guilt,  after remembering of the past days events. Mr. Freng, hearing this, rubbed his chin, deep in thought. After a while he sighed and looked up at me.
"I'm sorry you think I worsened your situation, I hope this doesn't affect our relationship and that you realize that I have done you a favor, now here's a pass, you can go to your class." He said, handing me the pass. I nodded and took the pass, I said thanks as I left and went to my 2nd block class. The next few classes went by uneventful, as was the time in between them, and after the rest of my classes I found myself in Mr. Freng's math class. After only a while I felt that feeling I had felt in my first class and immediately looked out the window to search for the source, it didn't take long to find it as it was the same man from before. I stared at him and I began to feel that grab on something inside me when he blinked twice in surprise and looked at something in front of me. I followed his line of sight and found it was Mr. Freng, staring at the man, muttering something in a weird language. It was then that I noticed something, one of those things I had only begun to see today. I began to see more of him and I saw this sort of aura around him. After a while he stopped muttering, the weird aura-thing disappearing, and I lost the feeling of something in me being grabbed. I looked outside to see the man gone then looked back at Mr. Freng, he was smiling.
"Sorry everyone, I saw something and I lost myself," he chuckled, "now as I was explaining" he said going on about how to do the new equation we'd learned that day and all throughout the rest of class I found myself looking at him, looking for that- that aura. I think there's more to Mr. Freng, I thought, than he lets on. And, as I thought that, the bell rang.
•The Turning of Things•
AS I WALKED Out of the school and to home I tried to think of how to approach Mr. Freng about what I saw. It was while I was thinking these things through that I was shoved into an alleyway by someone.
"So you wanna call on others for help?" The person asked. I looked up at the person but couldn't see them as the sun was right behind them. "Let's see you call in someone else for help now." He added a kick with the last three words, each one going right into my ribs. The person grabbed me, pulling me onto my feet and shoving me against the wall. It was then that I saw who the person was: the kid who called me a nerd. He swung a wide right but stopped mid-swing when a loud voice rang out.
"He doesn't need to call out for help, it's already here." The kid and me turned our head to the entrance of the alleyway and saw... Mr. Freng. Out of all the people... I thought. The kid tilted his head then smiled and began to laugh.
"Listen here, old man," the kid said, flexing his muscles, "I suggest you turn around and go play some chess at the park or something, cause we ain't on school grounds anymore so you never know when an... accident might happen."
"I'm sorry but I can't do that." Mr. Freng said.
"And why is that?" The kid chuckled.
"Well, you see, I have to talk to this kids father and so I decided I'd walk to his house with him so I could have a chat," Mr. Freng explained, " and I can't do that if the kid is too hurt to walk." The kid laughed at this.
"He can walk, look, he's not that hurt, see?" The kid let go of me and smiled, gesturing with his hands to me, as if I was an invention he was showing off, and I slowly slid down onto my knees, coughing.
"I'm sorry but he doesn't look ok at all, I'm going to have to ask you to stop."
"And if I don't, then what?"
"Then I'll make you" Mr. Freng's face grew serious.
"Well then you're going to have to make me" the kid chuckled. Mr. Freng grunted and walked down the alleyway and grabbed the kid by his shoulders, looking him in his eyes.
"Stop." It was a single word but it held much meaning, it meant 'go away, or be punished'.
"Sorry," the kid chuckled, "but that's not going to happen." And with that the kid threw a punch straight at Mr. Freng's face but it was stopped dead by Mr. Freng's hand. His hand didn't even budge an inch, I thought. Mr. Freng glared at the kid, his eyes, once a calm blue, were now dark and threatening, like the sea at storm. I began to notice something else too; the aura from before was forming around him.
"I am only going to say this once," Mr. Freng explained as he squeezed the kids fist, "don't ever say or do anything to Marlin again or I'll come after you and, I swear, that by the time I have been finished with you, even God himself will shake in fear of my anger." He said each of the words with an air of seriousness, squeezing the kids hand harder and harder until the kid was shaking his arm in pain. Mr. Freng gave one last squeeze then let go, nodding towards the entrance of the alleyway. "Now scram." The kid gave a quick nod then ran. Mr. Freng kneeled down and looked me over as I slowly saw the aura fade away. "Are you ok?" I nodded and slowly got up. "Good," he said as he stood up, "now let's go, I still want that talk with your dad you promised." With that we walked to my house, neither of us saying a word.
As we walked up the steps and opened the door I yelled out as best as I could. "Dad! I'm home and Mr. Freng is here to talk to you!"
"Hello Mr. Freng," my dad said as he walked down the steps, "I didn't think you would be here so early so-" my dad stopped when he saw my condition. "Who did this to you Marlin?" He asked.
"Some kid," Mr. Freng answered, "but don't worry, I've made sure he won't be bothering Marlin anymore." My dad nodded then turned to me.
"Are you okay?" He asked me.
"Yeah, just a bit hurt, that's all" I said.
"Now that that's out of the way, can we have that talk I was promised, somewhere private if that's ok." Mr. Freng said.
"Sure, come in the kitchen and Marlin you go lay on the couch, I'll be back soon." My dad said as him and my teacher walked into the kitchen. Wanting to know what it was that made my teacher be so desperate to talk to my dad, I snuck up to right outside the kitchen and began to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"Now, Mr. Alexander, I was wondering how old your son is." Mr. Freng said.
"He's 14 as of yesterday."
"Yes, that makes sense."
"Why do you ask?"
"Never mind why I asked, what I really want to know is this: what was Marlin's mother's maiden name?"
"Faelin, why?"
"Because, I know about your son and his little... secret."
"I don't know what you-"
"Stop the charade, you know what I know." There was a long silence that filled the air, taking up all of the space until it was broken by my dad.
"I guess I might as well as drop the charade," my dad sighed, "now how did you know?"
"At first it was his eyes, then it was when I saw a Krae trying to mark him."
"Wait, a Krae? Already?"
"Yes, I scared him off but I'm afraid there will be more soon."
"Great, but what does this have to do with this talk, I mean, who are you really?"
"My real name is Deon, and I want to train your son in the arts."
"How do I know you're not with them?"
"Because, I used to know your wife, your deceased one that is, when she was with the Slaers."
"Not many people knew her from then, so I guess you can be trusted, but why train him?"
"She never did tell you, did she?" Deon chuckled.
"Tell me what?"
"Her family was destined to have a child that would end the war, and your son looks like he has the power to do it."
"Wait, that war?"
"Yes."
"Then I need to hide him."
"You can't hide him, you don't know what to do, but I can, I can take him to the Academy, I can give him the training AND the protection he needs." There was another long silence that was, once again, ended by my dad.
"Alright," my dad groaned, "but if he gets hurt-"
"I know, it's on me."
"No, if he gets hurt, you're dead, and don't think I don't know enough of the turning of things to do it."
"I believe you know enough, and trust me, he'll be safer this way."
"Don't make me regret it, now let's go tell him."
"Yep." Realizing that was my que to be on the couch, I ran into the living room.
•Oh, oh, oh it's Maegic•
I RAN- Er, hobbled over to the couch, jumping on it and pulling out my phone, trying my best to look nonchalant.
"Hey, Marlin, me and De- I mean Mr. Freng want to tell you something." My dad said as he walked into the living room with Deon.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Well, you see-" my dad began to explain.
"There's no need, he already knows." Deon interrupted.
"How'd you know!" I said, forgetting to pretend like I didn't know.
"Because," Deon explained, "you couldn't have been laying on your right side for the time me and your dad had our conversation, unless those kicks to the ribs didn't really hurt you that much." I sighed and shrugged my shoulders.
"Well in that case, are you ok with the agreement me and Deon came to?" My dad asked.
"Sure, that is, if you explain what the heck is going on?"
"I will," Deon said quickly, "but we have to go, now."
"Why?" My dad asked.
"Because, the Krae are closing in, and it isn't one of their feeble lackies." Deon said.
"But I don't have anything packed!" I said.
"We'll buy you new clothes, but until then, you're going to have to make due with what you have right now, now let's go" said Deon pulling me out of the house.
"Good luck son!" My dad yelled, "you'll do great! It's in your blood!" And with that the door was shut and my old family cut off from me.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"The Academy" Deon answered.
"Well, duh, but how are going to get there?"
"My car."
"But that's all the way at the school! And it's dark and aren't those crab things coming after us?"Deon stopped and turned around to look at me.
"Ok, first off: too many questions, if you're going to be my student you're going to have to learn to ask only the right amount of questions. Second: those 'things' are called Krae, NOT crabs. Third: my car isn't at the school," I heard a car honk and saw it pull up beside us, "it's right here. Now, get in the back." I got into the back of the car and Deon followed inside.
"Wait, who's driving?" I asked.
"I am" said a man in the front, I tried to look at his face but my eyes just couldn't look at him directly, they kept being pushed away somehow, like there was an invisible barrier. I gritted my teeth and tried to force myself through the invisible barrier until I could finally look at the person. He was a young man who had a black cap on, he looked like he was in his late twenties, and his skin was perfectly tan, or it would be that is if it weren't for the collection of pale scar lines that covered his face. My eyes began to hurt and my teeth ached so I looked away, realizing I had begun to sweat. "Haha," the man chuckled, "this one has quite the fight in him, that's the first time I've had a kid, let alone someone without any training, be able to look at me. Who is he?"
"He's part of the Faelins family, he's the son of Hayley." Deon explained.
"Wow, that explains a lot about the Krae. So where are we going?"
"Academy, ASAP."
"For training? He's a bit young, ain't he?"
"I know Maers who would have struggle being able to see as much as he can, let alone look at you." The driver grunted and began to drive, speeding down the street. I turned to Deon.
"Now that we're safe and sound, explain what the heck is going on" I demanded.
"Well, you see," Deon began to explain, "for a long time, longer than anyone can remember, there has been a secret war between two groups of people with mastery over Maegic over an ancient artifact known as the Eldron. It is said that this ancient artifact is able to grant its holder the ability to take others Maegic. This war had been going on so long that the people on our side had begun to lose hope, or at least that was until one of the people who could see the future saw a possible future where a boy of the Faelin family would bring an end to this war. And that boy is you."
"Ok, even if that's true, what is magic?" I asked.
"No, not magic MAEgic" Deon said, emphasizing the beginning of the word.
"Yeah, magic."
"No, Maegic, may-gic" he said, sounding it out slowly.
"Ok, Maegic, now what is it?" I asked.
"Maegic is everything but at the same time it isn't."
"What?"
"The Grand Maegs will probably explain it to you, until then I suggest you sleep, it's gonna be a long ride." Deon said as he turned his back to me and fell asleep. Sighing I turned to the window and slowly drifted off to sleep.
•Down The Rabbit Hole•
WHEN I Woke up from my sleep I looked around and saw that I was in a barely lit room. Pulling myself up, I stumbled around looking for the door and found it, cracking it open slightly when I heard two people whispering.
"Come on Hayley," I heard a man say, "move to the Academy, you need to protect your son, he isn't safe here."
"No, I won't take away what chance he has for a normal life, I'm not moving, I can protect him" I heard a woman say, I cracked the door open a bit and gasped when I saw that the woman was my mom. How can this be? She- She's dead, I thought.
"Okay, but if you ever need help-"
"I know Carl, I'll make sure to call you."
"Alright, well I'm gonna go, tell your husband I said hi." The man said as he walked out the door. I was about to leave the room and talk to my mother when a wall exploded into dust and a man walked into the house. I saw my mother get knocked into the ground and the man, Carl, run to her, looking at the new man.
"Where is the boy?" The man said in a deep, guttural tone.
"I'll never tell you!" My mother cried as she lifted her hand up, twisting and moving her fingers in patterns as a purple aura shot from her fingers and hit the man, a shock wave spreading from the point of impact, but the man didn't move an inch.
"You think your little tricks can harm me?" The man asked, he took a step forward lifting his gloved hand up as my mother's body raised with his hand also. Carl took a step forward but the man waved his other hand and Carl was swept across the room and through a wall into another room. My mother sobbed and cried out, "forgive me for not being there Marlin!" And with that she shot her hands straight out to her sides, screaming in a old language as something dark and red began to come out of her in a mist, covering the man in it. I slowly realized it was her blood and cried as I witnessed my mother's death. "No!" The man cried out as the mist completely covered the man and, in a flash, he disappeared. I ran to my mother's body as it fell, falling onto my knees and crying over her body. I frantically searched for a pulse, my hands shaking, and began to choke on my sobs when I couldn't find a pulse. I felt a hand on my shoulder and heard a voice, "Marlin, Marlin, Marlin!" I turned around and was in the car again.
"Are you okay?" Deon asked with a concerned look on his face. I swallowed down the snot and tears and faked a smile.
"Y- yeah, just a nightmare" I said.
"Must of been some nightmare," I nodded, "well, we're here. Welcome to the Academy."
I turned around and saw the giant mansion that was the Academy. I will find out what happened to my mother and I will find that man, I thought to myself. And I did find that man and I still regret it to this day.
The Academy was a giant mansion that was about three stories high and 4 to 5 miles long and stretched back for miles. It had a huge green lawn with playgrounds and gardens and was surrounded by a giant wall with thick forests around the outside that stretched on for miles and miles. As the car rolled up to the front gates two gaurds stepped forward.
"ID please" one of the guards asked.
"Here you go" the driver handed the guard an ID card. The guard read the card and handed it back to the driver.
"Welcome back Mr. Freng, hope you enjoy your stay" the guard said as he and the other guard opened the gates. I looked around as the car rolled into the giant driveway. I noticed there were no cars and then saw that there was this big garage door and realized that they must keep all their cars there. The car rolled to a stop and Deon opened his door, turning to me.
"Alright, I want you to know, right now, that some things are going to seem a bit... strange here and that it's normal to be a bit overwhelmed at first so don't let it deter you from talking to people." Deon smiled "Okay?" I nodded "Good, then let's go. Oh, and make sure to stand behind me until I sort everything out, OK?" I nodded again and we got out of the car and walked into the front entrance. Now one of the first things you see when you walk in is this giant wall with a set of stairs on each side leading up to a hallway that led off into two directions, and in front of this wall was a desk with a woman sitting at it. Deon walked up to the woman and smiled.
"Hello, sir, and you are?" The woman asked.
"Come on, Megan baby, it's me Deon, remember me?"
"Sadly," the woman sighed, "yes, but what about the boy, why did you bring him here?"
"Oh, you know, for the normal stuff," Deon waved his hand casually as he explained, "training him in the ways of Maegic, protecting him from the Krae who are out to get him because he might be able to end the war and save the world... hey, by the way, did you do something with your hair? It looks great." Deon flashed a cheeky smile and tilted his head.
"No," the woman glared, "I didn't."
"Huh, I could have sworn it looked different the last time I saw you. Anyways, in all seriousness, I'm going to ask for a meeting with the Grand Maegs, it's very serious and has to do with the boy." Deon said with a straight face.
"I'll call them and tell them right now, that good enough for you?" The woman asked as she picked up a phone and began to dial in a phone number.
"There couldn't be a better way" Deon smiled. The woman smiled back and turned around, beginning to talk on the phone, and after a few 'uh-huhs' and a couple 'yeah, really important', she hanged up the phone and turned to Deon.
"Alright," the woman said, turning to Deon, "they're ready for you, walk in whenever you're ready."
"Thanks Megan, I'll see you later baby, have an amazing day!" Deon yelled as we walked away. The woman scoffed but couldn't help but smile, she turned around and began to talk on the phone again to someone else. We continued to walk down a series of hallways and eventually we stopped in front of two giant doors.
"Okay," Deon said, turning to me, "I'm gonna go in there and talk to them. You stay out here and do nothing, alright?" I nodded. "Come on, man, say something."
"Alright" I said.
"Ok," Deon smiled, "time to go, see you later." He said as he opened one of the doors and walked into the room, the door slamming shut behind him, leaving me with only the quiet as company, and with that I waited, eager to learn, eager to find the man in my dreams. Little did I know that it would be that eagerness that would ultimately lead me to something that I would regret finding to this day.
•A New Life•
AS I SAT There and waited I let my thoughts slowly drift away into the realm where you think of the most random things. It was while my thoughts were in this realm that I heard a quiet voice whisper out, "so you're the new kid, huh?" I turned my head towards the voice and saw a little kid, about 12 years old, standing there.
"Yeah, uh, I guess, how'd you know?" I asked.
"News travels fast here," the kid smiled, "so you're of the Faelin family?"
"Yeah, I never thought that it would- wait, how did you know I was of the Faelin family?"
"You know, these walls," the kid said, looking at the walls, ignoring my question, "are very old, they are almost as old as your family line. If only your mother had went for the protection of these walls and had not stayed home, maybe then she wouldn't have died" the kid turned to me, still smiling.
"How the heck do you know about my mother? And who are you?" I said, standing up and over the kid. He opened his mouth to answer when a voice interrupted him.
"Who are you talking to Marlin?" I turned around and looked at the person, Deon.
"This kid right here," I said turning to the kid, except the kid wasn't there anymore, "where'd he go, he was right here" I looked at Deon.
"It's ok," Deon reassured me, "this place can mess with your head sometimes if you don't watch yourself. Now come in here, the Grand Maegs want to talk to you." He waved me inside and I walked in and, as I walked in, I heard the kids voice whisper, "you are going to have many challenges in the future, Marlin Alexander, and no walls are going to keep you safe from them". Shaking my head, I looked around and saw the Grand Maegs. There were nine of them in total, all of them sitting in this row of seats that were raised up above the platform I was standing on. Only two of them looked really that old but the rest looked to be around their early 30's to late 20's. The one that seemed to look the oldest was in the center and had a seat raised slightly higher than the rest and, from what I gathered, seemed to be the leader.
"The Grand Maegs hold this meeting," the leader said in a routinely manner, "over the admission of Marlin of the Faelin family. All Grand Maegs here?" all of the men muttered and nodded. "Good, now we know that Marlin here needs protection and we're willing to offer it, but the Grand Maegs are a little hesitant to admitting him into the Academy at such a young age. I mean, even if he had any Maegic, does he even have the slightest ability to use it? And I know for sure that he doesn't know the turning of things, not at such a young age with no training at all." Some other Grand Maegs were nodding in agreement along with him. Deon took a step forward and spoke.
"He does have Maegic plus he does have some ability in using it, I mean, he was able to look at Nathan for a few seconds." A couple of the Grand Maegs eyes went wide and a few looked at me a bit closer, then there was one of the older ones that glared, stood up and shouted.
"You think that we're stupid enough to believe you when you say that this boy could look at Nathan for even a second!?" He yelled, starting a whole string of arguments until the leader shouted in an old language and pounded his fist on the table, a flash of light coming from his fist with every pound on the table. After everyone was calm and had sat down the leader looked at the man that started the arguments.
"Grand Maeg Hanz learn when to talk and what to say when it's time to talk, because you just totally spoke out of your place, I don't want to see it happen again, understand?" The leader asked Grand Maeg Hanz.
"Yes, Grand Maeg Lan" the man grumbled.
"Good, now," the leader said turning to Deon, "as you were saying."
"Well," Deon said, trying to remember his spot, "besides having the ability to use his Maegic, if you look at his eyes closely you can see he has sight. It's amazing really, he was able to see one of the Krae and was also able to see me bend." The leader had begun to nod along, stroking his beard in thought. "I know he's young and that he doesn't have nearly enough training as most people do but, please, let him in, he belongs here more than some of the others do" Deon pleaded.
"Fine," the leader grunted, "but if this kid has anything to do with your little crazy belief about there being one chosen to end this war-"
"It's not crazy!" Deon interrupted, "It's true, I mean why else would Castle himself try to get the boy, it's-"
"We don't know if it was really Castle," the leader retaliated, "all we know is that someone attacked Hayley, and she died protecting that boy."
"But Carl said-"
"Carl," the leader said, anger edging into his voice, "had head injuries and could barely see for 5 weeks after the incident. Now that's all I'm going to say about this topic, I will hear no more of it." He said in a tone that showed he knew his say was final. After a long silence he grunted and nodded to himself, satisfied with his decision. "The boy will be admitted into the academy," Hanz coughed causing Lan to scowl at him for a few seconds before resuming, "but he will not be treated above anyone else, he will be granted the same rank as anyone else who has just been admitted."
"Wait," Hanz finally said, "we're not going to at least see if the boy can actually do what this man says he can do?"
"Deon has been a good friend of the Academy for a long time, so his word is good enough," Hanz gasped, "I will not hear anymore of your whining, this meeting is over, Marlin of the Faelin family has been granted admission and protection of the Academy. Congratulations Marlin, I expect that you'll live up to your family name." He said looking at me. And I expect to find the answers I need, I thought as I nodded and flashed a smile.
"Great, now that that's over with I'm going to go direct him to his family room, I assume it's still there?" Deon asked, Lan nodded. "Great, well have a great day guys, and I'll see you all... never I hope." Deon grabbed my arm and pulled me with him, waving to the Grand Maegs as we walked out of the room. After we left the room Deon said he was going to take me to my new room and started walking, me following him in suit. After a while I started to notice that I hadn't seen any students of any kind and was about to point it out when we turned a corner and I saw a bunch of students talking and walking in and out of each other's rooms. "This is where the students rooms are at, well the male students that is, now girls are allowed here just not late at night, same with the girls wing too. So I better not see you getting into any trouble having to do with being in the girl's wing when you shouldn't be, alright?" I nodded and smiled, "Good, now come on, we're almost there." He said walking forward, nodding to the occasional student who happened to recognize him and say hi. Now, of course, the kids stared at me, whether or not they recognized Deon, as I was a new face and no one knew my story. After a while we stopped in front of a door with the name Faelin inscribed in the wood and laced with gold. "Now this room has held generations of the Faelins throughout the existence of the Academy as the Faelins were here since before the beginning. So I hope this room seems comfortable for you. I'm gonna go and sign you up for classes." Deon turned around to walk away but I grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
"Wait," I said, "the Grand Maegs never explained Maegic to me."
"Right, I'll go get Maeg Luke, he'll explain it to you."
"Don't you mean Grand Maeg Luke?"
"Pfft," Deon waved his hand as if pushing the question to the side, "you only need to call them that when they're all in a meeting together, outside of that, calling them just Maege Luke or Maege whatever-their-name-is is good enough. But I'll go get him, you stay right here and DON'T move, okay?" I nodded and he said good then gave me a key. "Now this is the key to your room, go in there and don't leave, I'll be back." And with that he ran away leaving me to wait for his return. Waiting a few seconds after he ran out of my sight, I opened the door and looked in the room. It was about the size of a hotel room, and I don't mean those small ones with just a bedroom and a bathroom, it had a living room and a kitchen and all those other stuff, the stuff like the refrigerator, T.V., and oven were modern and pretty new but the stuff like bed and couch were pretty old. After taking a good look around I took my items out of my pocket, put them on the table, and sat down on the couch, waiting for Deon to return. Then, after about two minutes, I walked out of my room and started wandering around because, well, I was a teenager and I didn't like being bored.
Most of the students were gone but there were a few who were in their rooms talking to each other and most had the door open. After a while I soon found my way out of the dormitory wing and was walking aimlessly when I heard shouting and cheering. Interested, I walked in the direction of the noise and found myself in front of two double doors, the shouting and cheering at its highest. After building up the courage to follow my curiosity, I opened one of the doors and walked into the room and saw a crowd of students surrounding a table with two students, each sitting on opposite ends, the two glaring at each other intensely, each covered in sweat. There was one specific student who was looking back and forth between each of the two students. I didn't know what he was looking for when one of the students lifted his arm, causing the other student to frown and let his shoulders sag. The crowd started cheering even louder and the student who had been looking between the two kids pointed at the kid who had raised his arm and said 'Winner!' The winning kid smiled and both of the students got out of their chairs and walked off into the crowd.
"Alright," the student who I assumed was the referee shouted, "who is next?" the crowd looked around at each other, waiting for someone to step up when a guy yelled out, "I'm up!" The crowd parted and the guy walked forward.
"Ok, Alex, and who is willing to go up against him?" The crowd simply stood there, no one even daring to look at each other.
"Fine," the kid Alex yelled, "I'll choose the person. Let's see, how about... you." He pointed at me, a smile spread across his face.
"M- me?" I stuttered, "Uhm, sorry but-"
"It wasn't a request," he chuckled, "now get up here and sit down." Not knowing what else to do, I walked up and sat down in the chair, Alex sitting at the opposite end.
"What's your name kid?" The referee asked.
"Marlin" I answered, my own thoughts far away.
"Do you know how to play?"
"No."
"Well, what you have to do is lift your arm but you gotta make sure Alex there doesn't lift his arm. And you can only use Maegic, I don't want you being an idiot and grabbing his arm okay, take this battle seriously."
"Wait, what?" I said, my thoughts brought back down to earth, "how am I supposed to keep him from lifting his arm if I can't even touch it." The referee tilted his head, as if I had asked why we had to breathe to live.
"You use Maegic" he said as if it was the most obvious answer.
"He's stalling, just start it already." Alex had an annoyed look on his face and was flexing his arm.
"Alright, ready," the crowd was tense and quiet, everyone waiting to see how things would turn out, "set... go!" As soon as he said go I tried to lift up my arm but it wouldn't move, it just felt numb, as if it had fallen asleep. Alex was grinning, looking at the crowd as they began to cheer and scream. He's messing with me, I thought, he knows he can win right now, but he won't do it, he wants to show off. I realised it was hopeless and so I stopped struggling and relaxed, letting out a deep breath and closing my eyes. I felt something around me change and opened my eyes and I saw more, I saw... it's really hard to explain but I basically could see what made up people, what made up their existence, their feelings, their lives, I saw what made them do what they do, and it was beautiful in its complexity. I looked at my arm and saw this... clog in it, preventing the signals from my brain reaching my arm. I looked at the clog and was thinking of how to get rid of it and then I don't know how but I suddenly saw more of the clog, I saw what made up it, I saw the string that connected it to Alex and I imagined the string being cut and, like that, the string was cut and the clog gone. Feeling the ability to move my arm, I instantly lifted my arm and the crowd went wild, Alex's eyes went wide and his face flashed mixed emotions, ranging from awe to anger. The referee pointed to me and shouted out, "Marlin is our winner!" I smiled and my head was swimming, at first I thought it was because of the joy of winning but when I stood up my vision blurred and I felt myself falling as people rushed to catch me and I fell unconscious.
•The Chills•
WHEN I Woke up I looked around, instantly regretting it as every millimeter I moved my eyes a jolt of pain shot through my eyes and sent chills down my body. After a while I noticed I was shivering and I realized how cold I was. I lay there for a while, shivering and cold, staring at the ceiling, not moving my eyes in fear of the pain when I heard someone walk up to me.
"You just couldn't stay still, could you?" I realized it was Deon and couldn't help but smile at how things had turned out.
"I got bored" I chuckled, glad to find that talking didn't cause me any pain.
"Oh, so that's what kids do when bored nowadays?" He asked rhetorically, "I thought that they would do something safe and not dangerous like play on their phone but I guess that, nowadays, what teenagers consider fun is getting the chills and falling unconscious."
"What do you mean the chills?" I asked, Deon sighed.
"You'll learn what it is later in one of the classes I signed you up for. Until then, get some sleep, you look like crap." He said.
"But I'm not tired" I said as my eyes began to close along with the sound of Deon walking away until I fell asleep.
When I awoke again my body felt a lot better and it had no longer hurt to move my eyes. I propped myself up on my elbows and looked around, seeing that I seemed to be in some sort of hospital part of the Academy. After a while I decided that it was time to move and, after stretching a bit, I got up and began to walk towards what I thought was the exit for the hospital. I was about to walk out when I felt a hand on my shoulder and had a guy walk in my way.
"Hey kid, go back to your bed and rest, you still look a little pale." The man said, nodding back to the bed. Great, I thought, just when I was about to walk free.
"Look," I said, "if I'm good enough to walk then I don't need to rest, thanks for the offer though." I said as I shouldered the guys hand off and walked on. I had expected him to grab me but instead he simply glared and walked off, grumbling to himself. I opened the doors and saw that I was in what must have been a check-in room. Trying to look casual, I strolled out of the room, careful to not look at anyone lest I draw attention to myself. As soon as I got out of the room I found myself in one of the many hallways of the Academy. I ran down a few hallways for a bit, in fear of having someone try and look for me, until I was sure that I was safe and decided to continue exploring. I had continued to wander around, nodding hello to the occasional student I saw, when I began to get hungry and decided to look around for the cafeteria that this giant building had to have. It was while I was looking that I had walked into a student leaving one of the rooms.
"Oops," the kid muttered, "sorry about- hey! You're that one kid! The one that beat Alex in a battle!" He exclaimed when he saw my face.
"Heh, yeah," I said, feeling my face blush, when I had an idea, "hey, you guys have a cafeteria right? Can you show me where it is?"
"Y-yeah, of course, I was just going to get lunch, follow me. Hey, are you new here?" He asked as he began to walk.
"Yeah, just got here today."
"That explains why no one has heard of you before, my names Arthur by the way." He said putting out his hand.
"Marlin," I said shaking his hand, "my name is Marlin."
"You know you really chose the wrong person to mess with on your first day, Alex has a lot of power here, his family is one of the first to have ever gone here." I wonder if his family went here around the same time mine did, I thought to myself. I then realized what he was implicating and I swore at myself.
"Great," I groaned, "why can't I just go unnoticed."
"Well if you wanted to go unnoticed then you did a piss poor job of it buddy." He said. It was then that I noticed his accent.
"Hey, you don't sound like you're from here, where you from?"
"Heh, finally noticed eh? I'm from Ireland, I used to go to the Graelin but I wanted a better education so I came here." I looked at him and noticed he had red hair and a slightly muscular face with grey eyes.
"The Graelin, what's that?" I asked.
"What school did you go to before here?" He asked as if I had asked what way was up.
"I went to a public school, North West New York." I said, taking a step back from the slight aggressiveness in his voice.
"Wait, so you've never gone to a school teaching in the ways of Maegic?"
"No, I thought this school was to train us in the war for the Eldron." I shrugged, Arthur shook his head.
"Please don't tell me you believe in that crap." I realized that this guy thought I was joking and, not wanting to risk losing this new potential friend, I lied.
"No, no, I was just joking" I chuckled. If this place isn't for a war that apparently might not exist then Deon has been lying to me, I thought, making a mental note to ask Deon later about what he's been lying about to me so far.
"Ha, yeah then what school did you go to?"
"Oh, you know, a ways from here." I trailed off, hoping to steer away from the question.
"Oh, I know what school you mean," he said, nodding along, "your tuition must be pretty decent, I mean it being your first quarter ever even trying out here and being strong enough to beat Alex."
"Yeah," I lied, "it was pretty decent, not too much, I am glad I had Deon there for me."
"Wait, Deon, as in Deon Freng?" He asked.
"Yeah."
"No wonder you beat Alex! He is one of the best Maegs there are! Though he is a bit weird."
"Yeah," I chuckled, "you could say that."
"Well," he said, stopping in front of two doors, "we're here, let's go and get lunch, I want to introduce you to my friends." I nodded and entered the room and looked around, it looked like your ordinary cafeteria just WAY bigger and louder than normal. We stepped in line and got served lunch, as we got lunch I could feel the eyes staring at me, Arthur walked me over to a small table in one of the corners and sat down with two other guys.
"Hey Mike, hey Nick." He said to them, they both nodded in return.
"Who's the new kid?" Mike asked, Mike looked like the oldest out of the three of them, he had a big grey beard with bushy brown eyebrows and green eyes, his hair was brown with grey streaks in it and what little of his face you could see was pasty white.
"He's the kid that beat Alex" Nick answered, Nick seemed really young and looked like one of those people who always seemed to be happy, from the white smile to the energetic eyes that were blue like lightning. "Your names Marlin right? News traveled fast, the entire school has probably heard about how you beat Alex."
"The little scrat deserves it." Mike grumbled into his drink.
"Yeah," Arthur nodded, "oh, where are my manners, this is Mike: one of the oldest students here and still just a lowly Syre." Mike grumbled at this and looked at me.
"I still know more than these two nitwits combined" he explained, Nick laughed at this.
"And then there's the innocent Nick with his ever existent smile." Nick waved to me and chuckled but then he noticed something behind me and frowned, the color draining from his face.
"I want a rematch, and this time I want a real battle." I heard someone say behind me, I turned around and saw that it was Alex. Oh great, I thought, now this. He was crossing his arms and was tapping his foot impatiently, I looked around and saw that the entire cafeteria had went quiet and they were all staring at me waiting for my answer. I decided why not and went ahead and answered, "sure, I'll-"
"You'll what?" I heard someone behind me ask, "Whatever it is it better not be against the rules." I turned around, yet again, and saw one of the Grand Maegs standing there, his head tilted in question and a smile painted across his face.
"Of course not, Grand Maeg Luke, we were just talking and I had asked if he'd like me to show him around." Alex grumbled, glaring at me the entire time.
"Please, just call me Maeg Luke," Maeg Luke chuckled, "and I think Arthur here would do a better job of showing him around, right Arthur?"
"Y-yeah, sure, I've already shown him his way to the cafeteria." Arthur stuttered, caught up in the confrontation.
"Excellent!" Maeg Luke perked up, "Well, before you do that I'm going to need to grab Marlin and take him to Deon, see you all later, and make sure you behave Alex." Maeg Luke said as he grabbed my arm and pulled me away, Alex glaring at me still. Maeg Luke leaned in and whispered into my ear when we got out of the cafeteria, "Good job there buddy, I think we got them fooled." I turned to him and he flashed a smile.
"How did we fool them?" I ask.
"Duh," he said as if it was obvious, "we fooled Arthur into showing you around and not Alex" he explained as if we had both planned it all along. This man is crazy, and I'm stuck with him! I thought to myself.
"Sure..." I said, trying to look away as we walked.
"Anyways," Maeg Luke coughed, leaning back, "let's go see Deon, I bet he'd love to hear about what you've done." My eyes widened when I thought about how Deon might react and I felt the blood drain from my face. "Don't worry," Maeg Luke chuckled, "he may look like an intimidating person but he's just a big softy once you get to know him." My mind flashed back to the kid in the alley and how Deon had crushed his hand.
"Yeah, a big softy" I joked, faking a smile.
"I don't know," I heard someone say, "I can be pretty mean, especially when someone has disobeyed me... twice." I saw who it was as we rounded a corner and saw Deon standing there.
"Don't worry," Maeg Luke said to Deon, "Alex was challenging him to a battle but I saved him."
"Great," Deon groaned, "another bully, you need to stop depending on others Marlin, you need to stand up to them. At least you can finally ask Maeg Luke about what Maegic and the turning of things is."
"Yep," Meg Luke, "so which would you like me to explain first?"
"What I really want to know is what happened before I passed out, what was that thing with lifting my arm and why couldn't I lift it?" Maeg Luke sighed and rubbed his head.
"Never ask the easy questions do you? Well you see the turning of things is something I must explain first, now what the turning of things is is basically what everything is, it's what everything would be, could be, can be, and will be. Depending on how strong your sight of the turning of things is, you can be able to see even the most well hidden of enchantments or curses, you could even see through walls."
"Maybe even into the future" Deon chimed in.
"Yes, maybe even into the future, you see it is said that if you have a powerful enough of sight you will be undefeatable for no opponent would be able to surprise you."
"Okay, but what about me not being able to lift my arms?"
"That was Maegic, it was one of the many forms of Maegic that exist in fact, now I could tell you them all but I'll leave that to the other teachers. So what you did was use your Maegic to cut him off from his Maegic, an amazing thing really, not a lot of people do that as most of them don't have sight or as good of a sight and so can't be as precise as you."
"How'd I do it?" I asked.
"Simple, your brain" he said, tapping his skull, "your willpower and ability to focus on it allowed you to use your Maegic. You probably shouldn't try it again as the last time it gave you the chills. I recommend that you instead slowly build up your power so you don't over extend your mind next time you try something like that." I nodded along, beginning to slightly understand what was happening, now you may think that my reaction is ridiculous, that I am lying and that I had actually been freaking out or arguing with the person or something else but listen, when you've gone through learning that your mother was murdered and that most of what you thought you knew was a lie, then get told what I was told, you aren't going to really going to think of arguing with it. So after deciding to leave that question answered I went ahead and asked the next question that I had recently come up with.
"Ok," I said, turning to Deon, "now explain to me why people here talk about this war you told me about as if it was a fairytale?" I asked, already feeling my anger growing inside of me to the thought that he may have lied to me.
"Well you see," Deon began to explain, "the war does exist, it's just that it is a very well hidden secret, even to the people that know of Maegic."
"Okay, then what is this school for?" I asked.
"To teach of course," he chuckled, "and there are many other schools like this but this school has a secret part, a group that helps in the war."
"What is this group called?" I asked, Deon opened his mouth to answer but Maeg Luke cut him off with a quiet voice.
"The Slaers." He whispered it, trying to avoid eye contact when he realized he had been heard.
"Yes, the Slaers, a group of Maegs trained in hunting down the Krae." Deon said, nodding along, Maeg Luke snapped his head at the word Krae and glared at Deon.
"Don't call them Krae!" he growled, saying Krae as if it was something in his throat he was trying to spit out. "They're not Krae! They're people!" His face expressed anger but his eyes gave a clear window into the pain and sorrow he was truly feeling. Deon looked confused then frowned as if he were a student who had gotten a D on a math test.
"Oh, I'm sorry Luke, I forgot about what had happened, I am so sorry, he probably never even had gotten involved with the Krae, I'm sure of it." He said, trying to calm down Maeg Luke while comforting him.
"That's what my parents said," he choked, his pain leaking through the cracks in the mask of his anger. "They kept saying, 'he was probably never involved' or 'it was probably an accident, what happened', never letting me see the report, but in the end I saw it," he began to sob, his shoulders racking with every wave of pain as the mask finally fell away. "He was with them, he was even the one that had attacked- a- attacked Jenny" he cried out, sobbing for a few minutes before he finally regained his character and had stopped crying, he stared at me and spoke out, his voice a dead, serious tone. "Know this, kid: This war is something you don't want to get involved in, this war will take everything from you, and will leave nothing left but a husk to warn others. So heed this husk's warning and avoid getting involved." And with that he turned, walking away. Now you may think this would have scared me, that this would have left me deterred but it only helped reassure me that I was on the right track and reminded me that I had to be careful. Now you may think that this was only a child's fantasy, me finding this man, but I held this fantasy with a belief that could move mountains and it would not be shaken.
"I'm sorry about that," Deon said, turning to me. "His brother had gone down a dark path and had lost his life doing it, but not before taking out Luke's fiancé when the Slaers had stumbled upon the Krae and had battled them. It was funny, Luke had asked Jenny to not go on any patrols, begged her, but she said she couldn't, she had to go out there, to find Luke's brother." He stared at his shoes and muttered to himself, "I guess in the end she did." We stood there for a while, the silence soon becoming a part of the conversation when Deon let out a big sigh and moved the conversation along. "Come on, let's go find that kid Arthur so he can show you around."
"Wait, how do you know about Arthur?"
"Maeg Luke texted me dummy, now come on." He said, walking away, I shrugged and followed him and after a short while we had found him going to his next class.
"Arthur, come here, it's time to show Marlin around." Deon yelled to Arthur, ignoring all subtlety.
"But I have to go to my next class" Arthur explained, surprised by Deons way of approach.
"Whose class?"
"Grand Maeg Devon's."
"Right," Deon grunted, "I'll explain to him why you were absent, now go show Marlin around." Arthur nodded and grabbed my arm, pulling me away telling me to follow him. After going down a couple of hallways we eventually found ourselves at the front of the Academy.
"Right," Arthur said, "welcome to the Academy, let's show you around, yeah?"
•The First Day of School•
"THIS IS The front of the Academy, where everyone signs in and out, to the right is the Grand Maegs living quarters plus the meeting room, then to the left is faculty stuff, now I'm guessing Deon already showed you the living quarters for the students?" I nodded "Great, and you already know where the lunchroom is."
"And the medical wing or hospital thing." I piped in.
"O-k, don't want to know why but it does take out another good chunk of showing you around, do you know what classes you're in?"
"No, Deon chose all the classes for me."
"Great, well there's my excuse for not showing you the minor classes, now that leaves the advanced classes and the rec rooms. Alright, let's go." He nodded forward and walked up the stairs. We walked for a good while, showing me where each of the classes were, I'll tell you later, and after going to the rest of the rec rooms it was about 11 pm and so he led me back to the living quarters and we said good night, parting our ways. I walked down the halls to my room, looking for the name Faelin, and had just found it and was going to open it when I heard a couple kids talking and looked up ahead to see it was Alex with his little posse. I quickly ducked my head and was about to open the door when I heard Alex say something that I knew was directed towards me.
"What are you doing back here kid? Oh, so you're a Faelin huh?" I tried to ignore him and opened my door but had it shut in my face by Alex. "I said," he leaned in getting up close to me, the smell of cologne and breath mints oozing off of him almost as much as his sense of superiority. "So you're a Faelin, huh?" Realizing that there was no chance of avoiding confrontation, I turned to him.
"Yes, I'm of the Faelin, why?"
"Because, I heard that the last Faelin died, leaving a kid, probably you, and a father all alone." He chuckled, looking back at his friends. "But I bet what really happened," he said, turning back to me, "was that she realized what a failure you were going to be and left you and your father, probably married a rich man so she would never have to work, let alone see your face ever again." His friends behind him were laughing now and Alex had a giant smile painted across his face, people had begun to come out of their rooms and were watching our confrontation. I finally had had enough of being walked over and had revolted.
"Yeah, well at least it was one of my parents, I mean look at you. Both of your parents probably sent you here so they wouldn't have to deal with you. I was sent here for protection from people outside the Academy, but what I really need protection from is your face, I mean I already feel sick just looking at it, oh! By the way," I said, leaning in and whispering loud enough for everyone to hear, "the large amounts of breath mints and cologne aren't very complimenting of your looks." People had begun to chuckle and were elbowing each other, pointing at Alex. "Now if you need me, and please don't, I'll be sleeping, I recommend you do the same, for yours, and everyone else's, sake." I said as I went into my room and shut the door behind me, jumping on my bed as I realized I had probably just made myself an enemy, but the thoughts were quickly swallowed as I fell asleep, ready for tomorrow.
When I had woken up I heard knocking and slowly went up to open the door and saw Arthur there.
"Finally! I had to annoy like five kids to find you, come on, breakfast is almost over, and you look like you need some food in you." I groaned and rubbed my eyes, looking at my watch then groaning again when I saw it was only 5. After grudgingly following Arthur I got breakfast and sat at the usual table, nodding to Mike and Nick.
"Hey, I heard about what happened last night between you and Alex," Nick said to me, "good job roasting him."
"Thanks, I just had finally had it with people walking over others." I muttered, slowly eating my cereal.
"Well so much for going unnoticed," Arthur said, "because Alex is not one to leave others alone, especially when they have done what you did."
"He'll learn to back off eventually" I said, trying to play cool.
"Ha, good luck with that, this scrat will just get rid of you, there once was a kid who had spread rumors about him, next thing you know he gets expelled for apparently having contraband in his room." Mike explained.
"And?" I asked.
"With that kid you'd be more likely to find out the pope was atheist than see that kid with contraband."
"So it was planted?"
"Yeah, and Alex made sure everyone knew it was him that did it."
"Then why not tell the Grand Maegs?"
"Because he didn't do it directly, he paid someone else to have another person have someone plant it. So even if you had told and had somehow been able to find out who planted it it still wouldn't have led the Grand Maegs to him, just some random guy trying to make a quick buck." I just shrugged trying to play it cool, and I kinda was, I mean I had gone through so much that I wasn't really bothered by what this guy can and has done. Mike laughed at me and looked at Arthur. "This kid has quite the pair on him, where'd you get him?"
"He found me." Arthur explained, smiling at me.
"Kid, you have quite the pair, that will never be brought into question, but why are you doing this?" Mike asked, his tone growing serious.
"Because," I groaned, trying to come up with the words, "sometimes you need to stop waiting for others to step in and help you, ya know?" Mike grunted and agreed with me, he then looked behind me and nodded towards something behind me.
"Your little guardian angel is here for you." He said.
"What?" I said, turning around to see Maeg Luke walking to me, a white smile on his face.
"There you are Marlin." He said to me when he got up to me.
"It appears so," I said and Maeg Luke chuckled, as if the events of yesterday had never happened. This guy is legit crazy, I thought to myself.
"Deon wanted me to show you to your classes seeing as how I have none to teach at the moment and he is currently busy with something. So if you could please come follow me, I have a list of your classes." I got up and said goodbye to the others and began to follow Maeg Luke. Nothing like the first day of school, I thought as I went to my first class of my new school. After passing a few familiar rooms from my tour on the way to my first class, Maeg Luke finally stopped in front of a classroom, just as the bell had rung.
"Alright, well now that you're at your first class you can have this," he said handing me a slip of paper, "it contains all your future classes, enjoy." He said, turning around and walking off.
"Wait, how am I supposed to find the other classes?" I asked.
"Ask for directions." He said with an arrogant smile.
"But I thought you didn't have any classes at the moment!"
"Oh, I don't" he chuckled, "but I would much rather see you struggle then actually do work." I was going to say something else but gave up and decided to just go into the class and find a seat. The classroom was like a small-ish theater with elevated seats around a stage. The only difference there being was that the seats had been repurposed to function as desks. Most of the students had found their seats and I had decided to sit up in the front away from all the other students. I didn't care about drawing attention to me anymore but I didn't want people to become too interested in me in fear of them interfering with my plans, an irrational fear yes, but still a fear by itself.
The tardy bell had rung and a few students had come in late, smiling when they realized that the teacher still hadn't arrived yet. After a while the students began to talk, passing by the time when the teacher came in, his robes billowing.
"Sorry, I'm late, I had to deal with a certain problem. My name is Hanz Beal but of course you all know me by Grand Maeg Hanz, welcome to- oh," he stopped when he noticed me and an evil smile began to spread across his face. "Well if it isn't our little gifted Syre, where are your papers boy? Or are you so amazing that you don't need to take notes?" I heard a few kids behind me snicker and I felt myself blush.
"Uhhm, I don't have any papers or a pencil to take notes with." I muttered, finding my shoes very interesting to look at.
"Well I guess we'll have to change that, won't we?" he asked rhetorically as he reached into his desk and pulled out a stack of lined papers and a pencil, slamming them on my desk and sliding them to me. "Is that ok for you Syre?" he asked.
"Yes," I muttered.
"Great!" he said, his ears perking up. "Now as I was saying before this is the class on the basics of Maegic. Now does anyone know what the different kinds of Maegic are?" He said, his happy face quickly replaced for a stern, serious one. "Anyone? Come on! Where's your passion for learning! For knowledge!" He said, trying to spur up the class but failing. Eventually someone finally spoke out.
"I don't know all of them but I know that there is five and that they are all mainly based on the extent of your mind." The person said, making the last part sound like a question, as if they were asking if what they knew was good enough. I turned around and saw that it was a girl that looked to be about a year or two older than me and seemed to be embarrassed.
"Ah, thank you young lady for that information," he said with a smile, "but that is not what I am looking for" he said, his smile turning into a stern frown. "Now who really knows?" The classroom became silent once again until someone answered.
"The five parts of Maegic are mind, body, matter, heat, and last Maegic all together." A guy said.
"Yes! That's right, now thanks to the young girl we also know that the power of Maegic is based on the extent of your mind." Maeg Hanz said, flashing a smile to the girl as he paced around the stage.
"But how is their different kinds of Maegic, like, how is one type different from the other?" Someone asked. Maeg Hanz stopped and looked around the crowd for the person who had spoken.
"Well, you see," he began to explain, looking for the person who had spoken. "If we go back to the beginning of Maegic when people had first started to use it, let alone learn it, the people first thought that there was just one kind of Maegic but then people learned of sight and once they looked they saw that there were different types of Maegic, separated by planes."
"So they're in different dimensions?" The girl from earlier asked.
"In a way: Yes, you see once you take hold of a type of Maegic in your mind you can't use it to manipulate something outside its 'plane', and every type of Maegic manipulates something."
"Ok, I can guess what each type of Maegic manipulates, except Maegic itself, what does that manipulate?" Someone asked.
"Glad you asked, now Maegic manipulates the other types of Maegic, but in no way does it allow you to manipulate the things they manipulate. You see when you manipulate something with Maegic there's a tether between you and what you're manipulating and that is what Maegic manipulate. Now you may be asking yourself 'What's there to gain by manipulating a tether?' well the answer is simple: everything, for when you can manipulate that tether you can prevent someone from using Maegic which can render someone powerless. But this can overextend the mind and cause the chills, does anyone know what the chills is?" No one answered so he just sighed and answered it himself. "When you over extend the mind you end up sending most of the blood to your head to help accomplish the task and this ends up leaving your body without blood this leading to the chills." He stopped pacing and stood in the middle of the stage looking at the silent class. "You're supposed to be writing notes you know." The entire class was immediately filled with the sound of pencils scribbling and the teacher smiled then continued, though I hadn't written notes yet as I was entranced by this information. "If a person who gets the chills does not receive immediate treatment, death is a large possibility so make sure you know your limits."
"How do you find those limits?" Someone asked.
"Very carefully" Maeg Hanz smiled. He then stood there for a while waiting for the scribbling to stop and after it did he finally continued. "Now let's begin learning the use of the first and easiest of the Maegics's: Matter. So who'd like to go first?" No one answered so he looked around. "I know, how about you." He said, looking at me.
"Me?" I asked.
"Yes, you, and don't worry, I just want you to simply make that pencil roll, that is all." He said, pointing to the pencil on my desk. I looked at him in confusion and he simply smiled. I knew there was no way getting out of it, this was his way of getting revenge. I took a deep breath and stared at the pencil and slowly calmed down until I began to see the turnings of the pencil. I heard Maeg Hanz gasp and I couldn't help but smirk. I then tried to imagine the pencil magically rolling but it didn't work. I then imagined me pushing the pencil and it rolling but it didn't work. Realizing that I had been holding my breath I let out my breath and took one in, feeling tiny beads of sweat beginning to roll down my forehead. I looked up at Maeg Hanz and whispered, "I can't do it." Maeg Hanz laughed and looked up to the students and said loudly, "What? You can't do it? But you must be able to, you are part of the Faelin family, are you not? Hmm, I guess you're not what Deon made you out to be. Alright, how about you," Maeg Hanz said, pointing to a student, "yes, you over there, yes I'd like..." The rest of the class was spent with every other student bending some form of matter, and all the while Maeg Hanz had a smirk on his face for he knew that he had won that round, and so I simply sat there, at the front of the class, seething in an ocean of frustration and humiliation.
The bell finally rang and the class ended. Instead of going to my next class I went looking for Deon and after a half hour of angrily searching I finally found him talking to someone. I was angry but I didn't want to interrupt his conversation as there was a chance that he wouldn't have fully payed attention to me. After a while they said their goodbyes and I waited until Deon passed me and then walked up to him from behind.
"Deon" I said. He stopped and turned around.
"Marlin what are you doing here," he asked, "did Luke not show you to your next class, I should have guessed, come along, follow me." He said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me, but when he felt my resistance he turned around and looked at me. "What is it Marlin?"
"I don't think I belong here." I said, shifting my feet at the embarrassment of what I had just said.
"Why do you think that?" He asked.
"Grand Maeg Hanz asked me to make a pencil roll and I couldn't even do that, all the other students could but I couldn't. I could see its turnings but I couldn't move it. He said I wasn't what you made me out to be and I think he's right, I don't think I should be here."
"No, no, no, no, no," Deon said, grabbing me by my shoulders and looking me in the eyes, "don't you realize? You did something that I bet none of those students could do; you were able to see the turning of things. That is something that is not very easy to teach, especially compared to something as simple as rolling a pencil, and remember: you were able to manipulate Maegic, sure it gave you the chills but it was still an impressive task, a hard one too as Maegic in itself is one of the hardest of the Maegic to manipulate. Don't you see? You do belong here, more so than some students who have been here for years, and Maeg Hanz is just an annoying teacher, so you just ignore him, and, hey, how about you meet me outside at the front entrance during his class, every day, and I'll teach you things he could never teach you, that okay?" He asked me.
"Yeah, sure" I said, my mood brightened by his encouragement.
"Good, now what class do you have next?"
"Alchemy" I said, looking at my list of classes.
"What? How, that's way too advanced of a class for you" he asked, putting his hands on his head.
"Well you are the one who gave me my classes in the first place" I said.
"True, true. Ok, I guess I'll have to send you to Maeg Luke, he can help you with the basics."
"But he's crazy" I complained, uneasy by the thought of being taught by the weird teacher.
"He's just different and trust me he's a good teacher. Anyways, what could possibly go wrong." He chuckled.
"What could possibly go wrong?" Maeg Luke asked me as I stood at the opposite end of his office.
"A lot of things really, for starters you could hit me and cause me to die or leave a permanent scar on my face." I answered, when I had entered his office telling him that Deon had sent me to him so he could help me manipulate matter he had smiled. He then had pulled out a knife and said that he had just the way to help me.
"Don't worry, I won't hit you, I never miss, all you gotta do is stop the knife before it hits something, the only thing you have to worry about is that something being you." He explained.
"Ok,  and have you ever done this before?"
"Nope," he chuckled, aiming the knife, "but what could possibly go wrong." The next thing I knew there was a blur of silver and a dull thud.

"Ah!" I screamed in a rather high pitched voice.
"It's alright, I didn't hit you" he laughed.
I looked around me for the blade and saw that it was a mere centimeters away from hitting me.
"Would now be too late to say that I think I have something to do?"
"Yep." Maeg Luke said, flicking his wrist and having the knife fly back into his hand. "Now, this time," he said, lifting the knife in the air, "I'm going to have it cut you slightly on the neck."
"What? No! Don't cut me! That's bad! Very bad!"
"All the more reason to stop it" Maeg Luke smiled and then there was a blur of silver and a dull sting on my neck. I let out a slightly higher shrill and looked down to see that the blade had indeed cut me.
"Come on, are you even trying? Because, if so, then I'm going to have to cut you more, and more, until you finally stop it" he said, flicking his wrist once again, enjoying the situation I was in.
"But won't you eventually kill me" I said, trying to give reason to why this 'lesson' should end.
"No, not really, we have the best doctors here in the entire world, in fact I could basically put you within an inch of life and have them heal you entirely." He said and, without warning, threw the knife at me once again. This time there was a deeper cut and the dull sting had become a sharp pain.
"I guess I'm going to have to have to throw it more to the left, how does two inches sound?" He asked, I groaned and thought that I had had enough of this and tried to make a run for it, only to have my body frozen in place. "Oh, no. You're not getting away" Maeg Luke laughed. "Not until you stop this knife." I began to sweat, realizing there was no way out of this, and tried to focus and calm down, though it was pretty hard seeing the situation I was in. Eventually I had somehow managed to calm down enough and was able to see the turning of things and saw the lines of Maegic keeping me in place. "Don't even try to mess with the Maegic, I'm much more stronger than Alex and you'd probably just knock yourself out with the chills." Realizing that he was right I looked up at the blade, I focused on it, looking at it, eventually I began to see more of it and smiled like you would at seeing an old friend. "There you go, now... catch!!" I saw the blade flash forward and closed my eyes waiting to feel the pain of the blade... but it never came. I slowly opened my eyes and saw the blade floating in midair. "Good job, I told you it would work" Maeg Luke laughed.
"You almost killed me!" I said as the blade wobbled.
"Woah, woah, focus" Maeg Luke said, examining me. "Good, good, your form is good, your connection is great, we just need you to practice to where you can do it without having to focus entirely on it." I tried to not ask him how we were going to do that when I blinked and finally lost my focus, the blade falling on the ground. I sighed and turned to Maeg Luke.
"And what kind of practice are we talking about?" I asked.
"The fun kind" Maeg Luke smiled, flicking his wrist and having the knife fly back into his hand. "Now let's continue."
6 hours later I stumbled into my room, covered in sweat with dried blood on my neck and a nosebleed, I had spent the rest of that day practicing my Maegic and I had done it, I was able to hold a blade in the air while still being able to do something else, from shuffling cards to being able to be in the room next to the one the blade was in, I had done it, and my pain may have had been great but it couldn't do anything to wipe the smile of pride off of my face as I plopped onto my bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
•A Different Way Of Teaching•
THE NEXT Day I woke up with a pounding headache, covered in sweat and blood. I turned my head to the clock and saw that it was 3:30 in the morning. Groaning, I got up and turned on the light to see a pile of clothes and some soap on a dresser with a note next to them, I picked up the note and read it. It said
'I hope these fit because I'm not buying any more.
                                               ~Luke'
I grabbed a pair of clothes and took a relatively quick shower,  then I put on the pair of clothes and walked to the cafeteria. I walked in, getting my breakfast and going towards my new friends.
"Hey, guys," I said as I sat down at the table they were sitting at. They all muttered their hello's.
"So," Nick said, leaning forward with a grin on his face, "how was class with Maeg Hanz?" The other two snickered but quickly hid their smiles.
"You know about that?" I asked.
"Everybody does, kid," Mike commented.
"Yeah, it looks like Alex isn't the only person here you're going to have to look out for," Arthur said.
"Don't worry, once you graduate from a Syre you'll be fine," Mike said.