What in hell?

Chapter 2: A warm welcome

It was his first day at the academy, he needed to look good so he brushed his short dark hair and brushed his teeth. He made sure his clothes were not wrinkly and the silver symbol was shiny. He was ready. The day before he tried to get to now the public transportation system, the entire day. They were no language barriers but they were rather technological; his region was not as modernized as Nova Lucia in any shape or form. They were trains, but they didn't function under the ground.

When he arrived to the place in which he would pursue his studies, his eyes shined with passion. It's name was Santa Deos Academy, the best and the most prestigious academy for those who wanted to follow the Faith of the Good Book. Elijah was one of those people, and he was lucky enough to get a scholarship.

Santa Deos was a complex of various buildings, some of them were out of limits for the students or certain ranks. The boy was a Silver Crest, the lowest rank that was admitted into the academy, a first year student. In order to get to the golden crest he needed to minimum have five full years of training, a duty that most of the apprentices never would achieve. Most people in the field just attended some years and then they would go back to their local temples to keep spreading the word of The Overseer.

Elijah's plan was to make it to the Platinum level, an ambitious objective, but for him it was clear. As he walked down the hallways to his class – with the help of the directions given by some upperclassmen- his shoes made a pleasant sound against the marble floors. The door to his room was open.

The room felt warm and welcoming, maybe it was the cheerful murmur of the students introducing themselves, maybe the golden decorations all over the walls. Despite everyone wearing the same tunic, everyone looked different: the toasted skin tones from the coastal regions, the copper haired of the green deep forests in the northeast, the tall ones from the hot areas in which the Semper desert's sand covered the neighborhoods ...

Elijah tried to look for someone who looked like a northerner like him; short, pale and withdark hair.

"Hi!" Said a voice behind him while he felt a tap on his shoulder.

Elijah turned over and saw what he was searching. It was a young man, a bit shorter than him, dark brown hair. A fellow mountain kid.

His voice sounded a bit shaken, but trying to stand a bit straight and calm he responded "Um,hi!"

"My name is Antonio,nice to meet you."

"I am Elijah" He smiled sheepishly

"I just saw you and I was like -Whoa, a Snowfall mountain neighbor!-. I am from Frigus and you..."

"Oh, that is nice! I am from Culmen Nix."

"My uncle was from there! Isn't the world small?"

And with that simple conversation, Elijah already started to feel like at home, he knew the town from which his friend came and seeing someone from somewhere so close to home made him more at ease.

The classes started and being the first day it was calm, the teachers introduced themselves and gave a rundown of the contents for each subject. Papers were given, text's where highlighted and tips where written. The time flew and it was the moment to go back to the dorms.

Elijah decided to make his way along with Antonio, who had to get off the metro two stops before him.

In their way home a group entered in the wagon. They wore bright clothes, their faces were painted in the same luminous shades and blasted a kind of music that seemed to be composed by random noises in a chaotic way, they moved their bodies smoothly to the beat without saying a word. It was almost hypnotic.

Getting his mouth close to Antonio's ear, Elijah asked gently "Who are they?"

"The Outsiders, haven't you heard about them?"