The Professor has the Head Acolytes take the reserved seats in the front row to his right, so Cloud chooses to take the one at the end, simply grateful to not have so many eyes on him anymore.
However, upon looking over his shoulder, Sky catches his eye, sitting three rows back on the opposite side of the room with her legs crossed.
The Professor clasps his hands together before raising his voice to address the students. "Now, I have a few notices to give out. Firstly, as you know, the Academy exists both on Earth and on Eden. To move from here to there an Acolyte must first defeat five of their peers from a faction other than their own.”
Cloud looks up at the giant board on the far right wall as a list of their names appears, currently listed in alphabetical order.
“Now not all of you will be able to achieve such a task, and not all of you will need to, but there is less than month before you will all be joined by the Years above who will all be gunning to finally make it to Eden, so I suggest you make your move now, whilst the prey is still fresh.”
“There he goes again.” Sammy mutters. “Is it just me or is he giving serial murderer?”
Justin shudders, his eyes flickering as he stares at the giant cloud of dark mist swirling around the Professor with his white glowing voids for eyes, sensing the tendrils of his power running deep within the bones of the school itself. “Trust me, It's not just you.”
“Now the curriculum is split between the ways of the Initials and the ways of the humans. For those born native to Earth, at the end of your time here you may decide to remain and for those of you born elsewhere, like Eden or Sirenia, this is an opportunity to learn that you are not at the centre of the Nine Realms.”
Sammy stops scribbling down notes on her pad of paper to raise her hand, her pink pencil reaching over the heads of the people in front of her, eventually catching the Professor's attention.
"Yes, to the pastel pencil in the back.”
Sammy ignores the snickering, rolling her eyes at fluffy pom pom on the end of the pencil she borrowed from her sister Sarah. "I heard that channelling of school grounds is prohibited, is that correct?”
She can tell she's stepped on a sore spot even before the reply, sensing the sudden shift in the room from all but especially from the Professor whose smile looks like it just almost shattered.
“Ah, yes, Gallo, would you mind?” He says, deflecting the question onto his subordinate.
Gallo takes centre stage, carrying a pen and tablet tucked safely underneath his armpit, reminding Cloud of every coach he's ever had but missing only a cheap plastic whistle around his neck to complete the outfit.
“As students of Silver Oak Academy, you are all granted the privilege of practising your craft and knowledge of channelling, an honour that very few are ever granted. However, it is true, the use of magic outside of the Olympia or not used in service of the Valkyrie Corp is prohibited.”
“Why exactly Is that?” Sammy inquires, quickly getting the impression that none of the faculty are comfortable with answering the question once the room falls into an awkward silence.
“It's all about the control of power.” Topher replies, standing up to help boost the clarity of his voice. “The rich and powerful decide who gets to channel and how they do it. Like with the Olympia, creating glorified heroes and superstars to cash in even more money from the people they already reign over.”
Gallo's jaw tightens, looking to the Professor, but not receiving a signal to shut things down. "The Olympia was made to ease the pain of the people after the sanctions were put in place to broker peace with our allies in Valaria. It was a solution-”
"-I have to disagree. It wasn't a solution but simply a bandage covering up a bullet-hole. Like you said, it was made to ease, not to fix.”
All heads whip from Topher back to Gallo, wondering what rebuttal he could possibly give after that.
"Although Topher is correct in some of his arguments, the Olympia is no different from what actors or sports stars do here on Earth." Sky remarks, standing up herself in an attempt to smooth things over. “Not everyone can grow up to be an astronaut or a movie star.”
“Well why not?”
“Because it's not realistic! It just…isn't!” she replies, feeling herself falling into his hands even just by engaging. "Look, magic can do many amazing things, I mean we've built entire continents using it, your own parents at the very forefront of the revolution, but, power is dangerous and in the wrong hands it can destroy lives.”
"And I’m guessing you’re certified to decide who has the right and wrong hands?" Topher scoff. "Aren't you next in line for a throne?”
His words cut deep, enough to make Sky squirm under his lens for a moment before collecting herself.
"I'm sorry, maybe I wasn't clear. I didn't mean it can destroy lives. What I meant to say, is that it has ended the lives of millions!" she retorts, digging her nails into the palm of her hand.
"Neither of us will ever understand what it's like to constantly live within an anti magic field and to never have access to the very thing that makes each of us special.”
She sighs, upset with herself for letting him get her this riled up. After all, this isn't the first time they've received criticism from Outworlders and Edenborn alike. It's a topic that is frequently brought up and widely debated amongst the Capitals, especially in the last year or so.
“So it might not be perfect, but without it, without the Olympia, the spirit of who we once were dies.”
There’s a resounding silence around the room that weighs heavy on each of them, a hopelessness of generational proportion.
“Whatever helps you sleep better at night.”
“Alright you two, break it up. If you want to take out your frustrations then I suggest you do it in our debate programme.” Gallo utters, finally drawing a line. "Isa, I believe you have your first two students.”
Isa, a mentor in her third year of teaching at the Academy, smiles, her blond hair bobbing with her as she nods enthusiastically. "Excellent, I'm always looking forward to seeing students with strongly opposing opinions challenge each other.”
Although the conversation quickly moves on to other topics, the tension never quite leaves the room, the lines separating each individual from their neighbours having been drawn after that discussion.
“Now who wants lunch?”
YOU ARE READING
The Initials | Nanowrimo 2023
Fantasy[Book 1 in the Displaced Angels Series] "You took the life of my best friend, made her life a living hell...so I took your building and everything inside, and turned it into ash." °°° Being abducted the first time was already crazy enough, but twice...
