6. The Tour
They hurried after Alistair and Felicity out of the Dining Hall. Although startled by their sudden arrival, Charlie was pleased that they had Alistair and Felicity to show them round, rather than being stuck in the Dining Hall not knowing what to do. As the rest of the pupils slowly filtered into the various rooms and lifts, casting inquisitive looks over their shoulders at the newcomers, Alistair and Felicity explained a little about Merlin.
“We have a wide age range, I think our youngest is seven, our eldest are eighteen, but people usually arrive when they are fifteen or so. It just depends when your core implodes. Several times before we've had children as young as five coming in. They keep you sedated until the beginning of the next term, so you can slot in easily. Term started on the first of September, so I don't know why they held you back two days, but they must have had a good reason.” Alistair shrugged.
“In each class, there are thirty pupils, so six dormitories worth. The classes are according to age and category.” continued Felicity.
“Category?” said Phoenix.
“There are five categories, according to what your power is and how you want to use it. The colour of the stripes on your jumpsuit corresponds to your category. Blue is Battle, Yellow is Home, Green is Environment, Red is Body and Purple is General. The student population, however, has nicknamed each category: Battle students are Fighters, Body students are Trainers, Home students are Cleaners, Environment students have generously been nicknamed Hippies, and the General students have been nicknamed Psychos. Such a nice bunch of students we are.
“The people in purple are usually quite interesting, as their powers are often quite original – they also tend to be quite weird people, so that is where they get the name Psychos. Trainers are all about powers that change your body, so shape shifting and stretching, body building and so on. Hippies are people whose powers involve nature, so maybe being able to make flowers bloom at a single touch or talking to animals or whatever. Cleaners have powers that assist you around the house, meaning anything that helps you keep somewhere clean, or sometimes 'upgrading' objects by turning them into a better version of what they once were, for example, changing stainless steel cutlery into silver. Obviously, Fighters are all about training and fighting, which can be pretty much any power if used in the right way. You're Fighters – which is obviously the best category.” Alistair grinned. He had blue stripes on his jumpsuit. Felicity had red stripes. “Once upon a time, people would have been trained according to their category, but now it seems like all they are doing is training us to fight, no matter what category we are in.”
“At Merlin, no-one really knows quite how big it is, or how many floors there are. There are five main floors, but all of those have entrances to other places, and it has been rumoured that people have explored over a thousand rooms, and that is only a fraction of the whole place. Anyway, today we’ll only be able to show you the essential places to know. We'll start at the caves. We aren't actually allowed in the caves, because of what is stored within, but we can show you the entrance.” said Felicity, sounding like a professional tour guide.
They took a lift down to the white floor and stopped outside the black door Charlie had seen on his way to Feriador's office. It was an ornately carved titanium door painted black, about a foot thick and jammed shut with a large lock.
“Down there are the caves. It is part of the old school, but since students aren’t allowed down there, no one knows exactly what they keep in them. It's a source of mystery and intrigue to many of the students here, but no one has ever dared venture down there, even if they could get past the door.
