Apprentices: Third Quarter

The Elite

I stare after him in surprise as he turns around and head towards the gate. As I realize Marcus is moving too, I finally force myself to keep it together and go after them. I’m not offended. But being put in front of the mirror wasn’t exactly nice either.

We slowly approach the group on the left side, and my jaw almost drops again as I realize I’m staring at the full Elite, gathered in front of my eyes. They all glance at us in expectation as Cyrus joins them and they notice us walking behind him.

“This is Evelyn, the apprentice with blood magic and this is … Marcus. A werewolf,” Cyrus explains to his colleagues. I don’t know why, but I’m suddenly feeling nervous. He then turns towards us, introducing his colleagues in line. “These are Lucian, Ahmose, Ling and Vinay,” he explains, his hand gesturing at them from left to right.

“It’s nice to meet you, Your Highnesses,” I say, remembering to mind my manners. The other four are all rather old men, which is why seeing Cyrus as their colleague is a funny picture. He stand out like a sore thumb.

Lucian raises his eyebrows in a patronizing way. “I wish I could say the same,” he remarks, taking me aback with his open rudeness. I already have something on my tongue, but he already gets scolded by Ahmose, who seems to be the leader of the group. Even if they claim they have no leaders.

“Lucian! That’s no way to talk to the youngsters. They’re welcome here. Their minds bring a fresh perspective, which is much needed in these times,” he hisses at him. His crooked nose in combination with a deadly glare makes him look like a hawk, that is about to attack. “Go get some refreshments for yourself,” he then practically shoos him away.

I stand there awkwardly, already thinking that I’ll be in the middle of a fight soon. But Lucian straightens up as much as an old man can, then walks away proudly without glancing at us again. What a strange man.

“So, what’s … What’s the progress?” I finally dare to break the silence as Lucian is far away enough. I notice Cyrus tense up as he realizes how comfortable I am, asking questions, but I get a response soon enough.

“There’s none,” Ling tells me simply, before putting his hands together only to make a ball of light form inside them, as he pulls them apart. I watch in awe as I realize I’m seeing something new. This is not fire magic. This is …

I look at Cyrus to check if I’m right about this. He simply tugs a corner of his mouth slightly upwards. It’s barely noticeable, but it’s there. A silent confirmation of my unspoken question. This is one of the original elements.

I gasp as Ling throws the ball of light into the membrane, making the whole surface, even the one above the schools, light up like the sun. For a moment, I can see everything around me, as clear as in the daylight. But in the next moment, the dark magic already sucks the light inside, making our whole world turn black again.

I look back down after a long moment, watching Ling, completely mesmerized by his powers. This must be the sun element. “Showoff,” I hear Cyrus murmur into his chin, making my gaze shoot at him in horror.

“Young man,” Ling says in a warning tone, but as I glance at him, I realize he’s smiling. Huh. Okay. I guess I misread that situation. I look at Marcus and we both smile at each other, realizing that this won’t be so bad. At least my mentor didn’t shoo me away the moment he saw me.

In the next fifteen minutes, Cyrus fills me in on everything they’ve tried to break the spell until now. I get lost somewhere around the part he starts talking about advanced magical forms I haven’t even heard of. But he quickly gets me back on track and I listen intently, my mind already trying to come up with things they didn’t try just yet.

But by the time my mentor finishes, my face almost falls as I realized there’s pretty much nothing they didn’t try. I slump my shoulders in defeat, starting to shake my head. I stare at the blackness, trying to figure out what was going through my mother’s mind as she did this.

I take a few steps towards it, suddenly having Cyrus’s hand grab me and hold me back. I send him an annoyed look. “Don’t worry, I won’t touch it. I saw what happens to you, if you do that,” I assure him a little more harshly than I intended to.

He lets go off my forearm as if I just burned him, nodding in response. “Just be careful. We don’t know how close is too close. Maybe you don’t even need to touch it to get sucked in,” he explains, sounding like he’s trying to justify touching me.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I respond, then turn back to the wall in front of me. If I reached out with my hand, I wouldn’t even have to fully straighten my arm to touch it. I close my eyes to focus, looking for the element that I’m trying to conjure inside my conscience.

The moment I lift my eyelids, a tiny flame already dances in my palm, lighting up the blackness, so I can take a closer look at it. I only move my hand a palm’s length closer to the membrane, because I really don’t want to get sucked in. However, what I see, knocks the air out of my lungs.

This … thing … is alive. It’s the only explanation for what I see. It’s like the whole black membrane is some kind of a skin. I can see outlines of veins and tiny pores on the surface. The worst part is, I swear I just saw it move! Like it’s … Like it’s breathing!

I stumble backwards, letting the fire die in my hand. As I turn back around, there is surely pure horror written all over my face. “That thing is alive!” I exclaim, making quite a few warrior witches turn their heads towards us.

“Really? You still didn’t manage to cool her down?” Lucian remarks just as he comes back into the picture, making all of us look at him. Seriously, what problem does this dude have with me?

“We forgot to mention that part,” Vinay quickly says, turning his face towards me and completely ignoring his colleague. It’s a good thing he does, because if he didn’t respond to my observation, I’d probably jump at Lucian’s throat. Now, I have an excuse for venting at someone else.

I cast a sideways glance at my mentor. “You knew that this is a breathing creepiness and you just let that out? Did you think I wouldn’t notice it sooner or later?” I ask him, hearing another sigh coming from his mouth.

“I didn’t think you’d get this close to it,” he finally says, all but admitting that he hid this from me willingly. How fun. I thought we didn’t keep things from each other, Cy. I don’t say that out loud, of course. But I do try my damn best to make him read it inside my eyes.

“Well, now that I did, it helped me understand much more about what we’re dealing with here,” I respond to his tiny confession, making someone snort. I don’t even have to turn my head in that direction to see who it is. I know it’s Lucian. His Highness Lucian. That title has never fitted anyone better than him. I’m sure of it.

“It’s dark magic! We all know that. Your input is pointless. You’re just a schoolgirl and I don’t know why we have a werewolf here. We don’t need physical protection from the new wards,” the said jackass speaks up, making me send a nasty glare his way. Oh, he may talk over me all he wants. But there’s no way in hell I’ll stand by and listen as he picks my boyfriend for his next target.

“Excuse me, Your Highness, that werewolf happened to come with me, because I’m the daughter of the lunatic, who put this thing up in the first place. And the said lunatic wants me either by her side, or dead! Do you understand, why physical protection is here now?” I burst out, unable to control my temper anymore.

The man stares at me in shock and I can tell I’ve left all the others speechless too. Well, except for my mentor. I can just feel him shooting daggers at my back with his eyes. I’m sooo going to hear it for this. He’ll lecture my ears off.

“She barks, I bite,” Marcus adds fuel to the fire, winking at the man for good measure. Oh, if he wasn’t all flushed in the face, I’d be laughing my ass off by now. But he looks pissed off. He throws his hands in the air, then points his finger at Cyrus.

“That’s it! I’m out of here!” he announces, storming off and leaving everyone even more stunned. But Cyrus quickly pulls himself together and calls after his colleague.

“Lucian! Don’t be like that! You’re needed down here!” he tries to reason with the man. I already think he won’t even turn around, but he does. And when he does, he points his finger at my mentor angrily.

“As long as she’s here, count me out of the picture!” he hisses back, then turns around once again. And no matter how many times my mentor calls after him, he doesn’t give him the satisfaction of responding.

I hear a sigh to my right and in the next moment, Ahmose rushes past me, his stick hitting the ground in an unsteady rhythm with his legs. He tells something to Cyrus, then goes after Lucian. He’ll clearly try to catch up with him and make him see reason.

As my mentor returns, I almost feel bad. Almost. “I’m sorry,” I mumble as he stops in front of me. He shakes his head like he’s incredibly disappointed. But I don’t know if it’s sleep deprivation or what, but I can see amusements glistening in his dark eyes. They’re literally black now, in this faint light that the fire casts upon us.

“No, you’re not,” he murmurs, but he doesn’t seem angry. Just tired. “I should’ve seen it coming. Lucian is … Well, he isn’t supportive of young people in general,” he explains, sounding like he’s trying to defend him. I frown. Why is he trying to defend someone he barely knows?

“Yeah, I noticed,” I remark dryly, making Marcus chuckle beside me. I glance up at him, before looking at my mentor again. He clearly never moved his gaze away from me.

“But you two did a great job handling him. It’s been a long time since someone made him storm off like that,” he chuckles. “Well, at least that’s what I’ve been told. Isn’t that right Ling, Vinay?” he then adds, looking at his colleagues for confirmation.

“Definitely,” Vinay chuckles warmly, making me feel a bit more at ease. It’s okay. The others clearly don’t hate me, so it shouldn’t be my problem, that Lucian is acting like this, right?

Never mind. It’s time to focus on the issue ahead. The living thing that sucked itself on our wards and doesn’t let us in. What if … My eyes widen in horror as I come up with an idea of what might be going on. I turn towards the infected wards again, my head starting to spin.

“f*****g hell,” I murmur into my chin, hearing Cyrus let out a meaningful cough behind me. I ignore him and voice my thoughts instead. “What if it’s alive … Means that it feeds on everything that touches it?” I speak up, turning around to look at the remaining four that are left.

Cyrus, Marcus, Ling and Vinay all stare at me blankly. “Well, that’s the theory, yes. It’s not so difficult to figure it out,” Ling responds to my question. But I’m sure he’s not ready for what I say next.

“Then why don’t we just let it starve?” I wonder, making them all grow silent. The only thing that can be heard is the chatter of the warrior witches, who are still working on their own theories.

Cyrus is the first one to start thinking about my words. “Are you trying to say that we stop giving it anything to feed on? Including spells? And light?” he begins questioning me and I nod.

“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting. If it’s a living thing, it has to feed. And as we clearly realized that it feeds on whatever you throw at it, isn’t it only logical that its food is also magic? And the light?” I continue talking. I can see that the other two present members of the Elite are stunned by my ideas, Cyrus is seriously considering them, and Marcus looks like a proud boyfriend right now.