The Apprentice's Trial

Arrival

Alex POV

I leant over and tapped Gabby twice on the shoulder, my way of letting her know we had taken off. Finally she released my hand that had thus far been held in a grip of iron. Gabby pulled her knees away from her chest, sitting up straight and opening her eyes. She was still pale from her fear of flying. She let out a long shaky breath, so I turned to gaze out of the window.

I loved flying, in stark contrast to my sister. She was such a wimp at times. The clouds looked solid enough to walk on up here, it was truly magical. The sky seemed bluer, the sun brighter, the clouds fluffier. I had only been on a plane once before, in fact I had rarely travelled, but I was loving every second of it. Gabby, however, really wasn't, and neither was Sky, though he was handling it better. They were like carbon copies of each other. I suppose the same held true with me and Matilda.

We were flying first class, and we were sat in a four seat section, so the grown ups could 'keep an eye on us'. Not that Gabby needed someone to keep an eye on her. She had closed her eyes and was swaying back and forth, clutching the armrests so hard her knuckles were white. Sky, sat opposite her, was pretending to read a book. But his eyes were focused on one point and he hadn't turned a page the whole time we'd been on here, so unless it was a well disguised 'Where's Wally?' book, he wasn't feeling great either. And no book was able to disguise his white face.

Matilda shot me a grin, then glanced at the other two and rolled her eyes. I responded in kind. The flight to Spain would only take half an hour now, so they wouldn't suffer for much longer. Matilda leaned towards me.
"So, kid, got any questions? Nows as good a time as any. We've got quite a bit of time to kill."
"What's the food situation gonna be like?"
"Really? We're on our way to your first ever conference, and you think of your stomach? I knew I picked you for a reason." Sky gave a wry chuckle, though his heart wasn't quite in it.
"All food and drink is provided, and it's usually pretty good, though it'll be all Spanish cuisine." I nodded. I liked paella.

"Any other questions, or is that the extent of your concern?" I was tempted to say it was for a joke, but I did have other questions.
"What about the lodgings?"
"Five star hotel all the way."
"What are the conferences like?"
"Really boring." Sky tutted, but Matilda waved him off and he was too ill to protest.

"However, I feel like this one will have a twist at the end!" I was intrigued.
"Go on. I'm listening."
"I reckon that this conference will end in us being split into teams and sent after various dark magic groups. So bite your tongue and sit through all the boring political junk and painfully polite small talk and you might just see some action. In all seriousness though, make a good first impression. All the Guardians and apprentices will be there, so this is a good time to make some allies!" She said, her usually jovial tones taking on a more serious note.

"They'll all speak different languages though, won't they? I know that most of us either speak or are learning to speak the Guardian tongue, but that varies across the world. How will I understand them?"
"A lot of countries have English as their common language, and most apprentices are taught English as well. Besides, you've got your linguist of a sister to help you out, don't you?" That much was true. I poked Gabby in the side.
"What?" She hissed, clearly tense.
"How many languages are you learning again?"
"Besides English? Ten. Latin, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Polish, Cantonese, Japanese and Dutch. I can also hold conversations in all of them bar Latin."
"Swot." I muttered, but she didn't react. Matilda raised her eyebrows, clearly impressed, and Sky flashed Gabby a proud smile, not that she saw it.

"Please fasten your belts, our descent will begin shortly." The announcement came. Sky sagged with relief, but Gabby tensed more. Neither of them had undone their seat belts to begin with, so all Sky needed to do was put his book away. I redid my seatbelt, and looked at Gabby. It was rare to see her so scared. I slipped my hand into hers, and she clutched it like a life line.
"Do you know that most crashes occur when the plane lands? And those tend to have total fatalities?" She whispered.
"Could you not, Gabrielle?" Sky said, and I saw that Matilda had taken his hand as well. I pulled out my camera and took a snap. That would be good blackmail materiel.