The Soul Devourer

XII:

                                   CARA

Cara watched the newbies shuffle down the stairs and into the rooms on their respective schedules. She sighed, loosening her ponytail. Dean and Xavier were leaning against the railing next to her, surveying the atrium below.

As the last of the students disappeared into the room, she said quietly, "Do you ever wonder? What it would have been like.... I mean, if we saw all this stuff for the first time? I think I'd be overreacting by now. I always feel so bad for them."

Dean laughed bitterly, a sharp sound uncharacteristic of him. "Feel bad for them? For possessing the ability to do magic? Wow, such suffering."

Cara was aware Dean knew what she had meant but she was also aware of how sulky he got on the day of inauguration.

"Dean..." She began but got cut off by Xavier, saving her words that would probably have only made Dean angrier.

Xavier ran a hand through his hair as he spoke, "Well, wasn't exactly a privilege to grow up on the academy, was it? But it's more than what people usually get."

Cara thought about it. Would it have been so bad to live like a normal teenager? Be worried about passing the exams and not fighting to survive from day to day. Thinking about teenagers, she remembered Alyssa and started downstairs, Dean and Xavier in tow. The seniors- not in age but so called because they had completed mandatory training, had no lessons on the day of inauguration ceremony so they could make sure the newbies settled in fabulously.

She pushed past the heavy wooden doors downstairs and emerged into a room with arched ceiling, desks lined up in neat rows and velvet curtains pulled tight against the windows. She went to stand against the back wall, where some other seniors stood. It was always strange to see the different expressions chase each other across the faces of the newbies- bewilderment, agitation, excitement, terror, doubt and disbelief. She felt Xavier's eyes searching for someone and stopping on Alyssa, one of the individuals they'd been assigned.

Currently, she was listening intently to the frail Regina Gold whose hoarse voice was carrying over the thirty children crammed in the room easily. Alyssa's mouth hung open, eyes wide and eyebrows furrowed. Xavier stifled a laugh at her expression but Cara elbowed him anyway.

Regina's wispy hair was tied in a neat bun and she continuously brushed back the strands that escaped as she spoke. She was recapping all what Victoria had already told them; that they were descendants of sorcerers, had mana pools which are used to cast spells in dormant form in their blood and after activating them, their potency for magic would be measured after a month. Cara imagined it would be a lot to wrap one's head around, but she had grown up at the academy and little fazed her anymore.

"I think I should be with Miss Victoria. See what the non-sorcerer kids are up to." Dean said, straightening up from the wall.

Xavier huffed out a breath, the only warning before he turned on Dean. "Stop this self pity show. You do this every year and we listen but you're going too far. Why do you belittle yourself so much that you think without having magic you're nothing? We're all in the same boat, magic or not. Are you not ranked one of the best Guardians? Do you think without magic, am I nothing?"

Dean stepped back, his face flushed but muttered, "You don't have to find out, do you?"

They stared each other down, a challenge who would look away first. Cara wasn't going to come between the two because she knew how much they meant to each other and how little fights like these meant. Dean turned on his heels to storm away but slammed into a chest before he could move two feet. Jax steadied him, and brought him back towards their little circle.