Using her left hand, she conjured lightning sorcery again. She used her right hand to grab the electricity and pull it into a rope of sparks. As the two Onlekks staggered to their feet, she flung the lightning rope hard. Her magic wrapped round both monsters, tying them together before the spell erupted. The explosion caused a blinding blue light and the body parts of the Onlekks to spray across the house.
“Nice spell,” Hynd commended. “You’re quite powerful, but I’m afraid I must still take you.”
Ria swore at him, weaving air magic and striking him before he could move. Her air spell seized two of the table’s chairs and launched them. Both chairs struck Hynd’s chest, but bounced off harmlessly. Hynd didn’t even uncross his arms.
Panic tore through her, but she shoved it away as she snatched her dagger back up and ran toward the Dread Lord. He flung his hand out then and Ria found her body suddenly suspended high in the air. A second later she was slamming down on the table which snapped and splintered. She wheezed as she tried to stand, the wind had been knocked out of her. Hynd was walking forward slowly, his five eyes leering.
With a hiss Ria summoned a vicious energy spell and shot it at his grotesque face. The scarlet jet froze midway however as Hynd held his palm up. As she tried to plunge her dagger into his chest, he sent Ria’s spell back at her. The jet smashed into her forehead, making her head whip back as she hit the ground.
Immediately Ria attempted to get to her feet again. She knew Hynd was too strong for her to kill, but she had to escape and find Damen. Unfortunately, she couldn’t move anything at all. The hum of sorcery buzzed in her ears and she knew Hynd had created a spell to paralyse her.
“Yanigan,” Hynd called out.
“My lord?” said a voice. A voice with an unearthly echo.
Ria tried to see the newcomer, but she couldn’t even move her eyes. She wanted to scream.
“We may not catch the other one by surprise.” Hynd said. “The girl was strong. I don’t want to have to deal with her brother later. Stay here Yanigan, and kill him before he knows you’re there.”
No! She could feel angry tears prickle in her eyes. She had to get out of here. She had to get to Damen. She couldn’t let him die.
“It is done,” Yanigan replied in his spectral tone.
“Good,” Hynd said. She could sense the demonic bastard’s gloating grin. “I’ll likely get the same reward from Akirandon for returning one of her children, as for two.”
Akirandon? He thinks I’m this person’s child?
“Let me go now! You stupid dread lord. Let me go and I won’t burn you to ash.”
“Dread Lord,” he tittered. Hynd came into view, standing directly over her head and peering down at her smugly. “I’m much more than that, dear. I’m one of Ezanathul’s chosen Disciples, silly little thing.”
Ria had no idea what Ezanathul was or why he called himself a disciple. You’ve got the wrong people. Her mind screamed. Let me go, you fool!
Hynd pulled out a Rambrace and summoned a portal.
No! Ria struggled to break free of her paralysis with everything she had. Don’t take me through there. I’ll never see Damen again.
“Correct.” Hynd smiled at her. “You won’t.”
Chapter 12- Unwanted Warnings
Sypher had been banned from all Arengi games in the rest of the tournament, but that was a paltry punishment in Jed’s opinion.
“I can’t believe it,” Evan exclaimed that morning at breakfast.
“Too right,” he agreed. “That Ogi Sypher summoned knocked out both of us, and would’ve done worse if Taija wasn’t such a super hero.”
He grinned at Taija, who tried to return it, but the smile didn’t match her eyes.
Well done, mate. She probably doesn’t want special attention drawn to her.
“It’s Oni, actually, not Ogi.” Brooke pointed out. “But you’re right. Sypher definitely did it all on purpose.”
Xavier leaned across the bench, whispering so the few hundred other Venators in the chamber wouldn’t hear. “Do you think it was to try and get you to use your demon sorcery?”
“Definitely,” said Evan. “Something Sintian’s already attempted.”
“Yeah, I hate for us to be teacher’s pets,” Jed said, “but I think you might have to tell Vanderain about this. About both Stray brothers, they’re off their rockers.”
Evan nodded glumly, yet Jed saw anger in his eyes, something he certainly wasn’t used to from his best friend. He was supposed to be the hot-headed one.
“On a brighter note,” said Elijah. “At least Joelle won her Jewelball game, eh?”
Joelle just sighed. “I hardly think me winning makes up for Evan and Jed nearly getting the brains beaten out of them.”
“Yep, sorry, good point,” Elijah backtracked.
He noticed then that more than a few Venators around the Banquet hall were looking over at Taija, or else pointing her out to their friends. Taija had noticed too.
“Oi,” Jed shouted at a nearby bench of Apprentices, “haven’t you got something better to do?”
Taija smiled at him gratefully.
“Sorry,” Evan apologized to her, as if it had been his fault. But that was Evan, he always felt guilty about things he wasn’t responsible for.
“I mean,” Evan continued. “If I hadn’t let the Oni knock me out, you’d never have got involved to save me. Thanks again for doing it though, I, uh, appreciate it.”
“Can you speak anymore awkwardly.” Jed chuckled into his food.
“You don’t need to say sorry,” Taija muttered. “or thank you. Any one would’ve done it. I just didn’t know I’d… do that.”
“What was it again?” Emi asked the table at large. “I mean, I know it was a portal, but Taija didn’t use a Rambrace.”
“It was incredibly powerful sorcery,” said Elijah. “Taija inadvertently used advanced energy magic to create her own portal, one that differs from our travelling portals because it literally pulls things into it, whatever’s nearest.”
“So I could’ve caused a lot more people to follow that Oni into another world?” asked Taija, her face pale.
“Yes, but you closed the portal before that happened, so good job.” Elijah grinned warmly, but Jed noticed Taija could barely return it.
“Oh, lessons have started,” Evan said out loud, watching as the two statues marched over to stand at the balcony overlooking the chamber. One statue held a huge cymbal, whilst the other raised his club and bashed it.
The majority of the room started filing out before the cymbal crash had even faded.
He and Brooke said their goodbyes to their friends as they had Astral Projection, whereas the others had Illusion.
A fine sprinkle of snow, tinged green, fell from the sky and dusted the walls of the castle like icing on a cake as they made their way to the forest.
He and Brooke soon parted ways, however, as Jed’s next lesson was weaponry training, which consisted of target practice at the shooting range. Today, Jed managed to melt a dozen targets with his laser pistol, two more than Elijah, to his immense glee.
During his lunch break, he decided to take time off playing games in the rec room and head to the laundry room. He’d already left it the last minute, with three sets of dirty Mid-Realmer uniforms to wash, but at least he was being responsible when he still had the set he was wearing clean.
The students could clean their clothes with magic of course, but they needed to conserve their sorcery for training, or else were all out of magic from the training. Besides, bunging his uniform in the washing machine didn’t take a lot of effort, it’s not like he bothered with ironing or any of that other fancy stuff, Emi and Xavier did.
Jed balled together all of his clothes now, hurrying into the washing room before any of the many girls he fancied might see him wandering the corridors with armfuls of dirty clothes.
The laundry chamber was a white tiled room, which resembled a normal launderette. Six rows of
washing machines lined the room, each line a dozen machines long. The only thing out of the ordinary was that the liquid inside the machines was a bright blue, and that the machines hummed like high-pitched bees, rather than the usual drone.
Elijah told him once that the liquid was enchanted to get out all the supernatural stains their uniforms might incur, such as demon blood or residue from certain spells. Which was handy, as he’d spilled grape Ruresin soda on two of his shirts already, and apparently no normal washing machine could get the purple stains out.
He found Xavier and Zeke were already in the room, Xavier fussing over a new cloak he’d brought, unsurprisingly.
“No, no, no, Izekiel. I know you’re a Yurod alien, but to think you’ve never heard of dry-cleaning is absurd,” Xavier held his cloak protectively. “This can be dry-cleaned only, a normal wash would ruin it. I’ll have to have the djinn merchant clean it for me.”
“Alright lads,” Jed called over to them as he walked the rows of machines, nearly all of them were taken up, spinning away merrily.
Zeke nodded over to him, whilst Xavier was too busy worrying about his clothes to greet him.
“Hey, I don’t blame you, Zeke,” he said. “I’ve never dry-cleaned anything in my life.”
“Animals.” Xavier rolled his eyes.
Finally, he found an empty washing machine and started flinging his clothes in. Once he was done, he pressed the button on top of the machine, which sounded like a doorbell. At once, the hatch high on the wall, swung open and a little pixie hurried out, climbing down the miniature stairs and leaping on top of the machines.
“Afternoon Venators,” the pixie sang in a sensationally high voice, before hurrying over to Jed’s mission and pulling off his little backpack. Inside the pixie’s bag was the bright blue powder used to clean. The pixie sprinkled a handful through a hole in the top of Jed’s machine, before resealing it tight.
“Thanks buddy.” Jed flipped him a scion shilling coin.
“Us too, please,” said Zeke.
“At once, sir,” the pixie scurried over to Zeke and Xavier’s machine too.
Jed was just preparing to leave when Xavier started to panic, quickly opening the washing machine door and diving headfirst inside.
“No Zeke, you can’t put my red undies in with my white gloves and scarf. You Neanderthal.”
Xavier emerged from the machine with bright blue suds all over his face and hair, but at least he’d saved his undies. Jed was still laughing when he reached his next lesson.
In Earth Element the trainees were learning to control plants once again, particularly how to bend them to their will and wrap around the feet of potential attackers. At the end of the lesson, however, the Master informed Jed. “Oh, Jagger. Elorian wishes to see you in his chambers right away.”
Ushk. What have I done wrong now?
Jed nervously made his way to Elorian’s quarters. To his growing confusion, Joelle had also just arrived outside the chamber door. Then it clicked.
“Joelle?” He cried, unabashed at his happiness at seeing her. “You and I are going on a mission together? Awesome.”
Joelle groaned. “This is gonna’ be hard work.”
“What, hard work trying not to throw yourself at me the whole time?”
“You wish,” she shook her head, but smirked. Jed knew she liked him really.
He was less pleased to see his other companion. As they entered the chamber, Sabine Silcorn was already there.
“Afternoon,” Elorian beamed. “Take a seat.”
“Great, I can’t wait to be bossed around the whole mission,” he said, sitting between the two girls.
“Are you calling me bossy?” Sabine frowned.
“Course not, you’re the shyest and most humble girl I know.”
“Now, now.” Elorian strode around his desk and leaned on it before them. “You should all be excited. I’ve got a fantastic mission for the four of you.”
“Four?” Joelle replied.
“Indeed?” said Elorian. “Ah, and here he is now.”
They all turned to see Bane Madagant stride through the door.
*
Brooke grew steadily more frustrated as she and Emi tried to decipher the spell. They both laid under the shade of one of the giant mushrooms, the book, A Guide to Illusion: What am I seeing here? spread out between them.
“So,” Emi said, “it says here how the darker it is, the easier it is to cast a camouflage spell?”
“Of course. That bit makes sense, it’s the line saying you can somehow camouflage yourself against multicoloured backgrounds I’m confused about.”
Light gusts of emerald snow swirled above them, but Brooke was completely dry underneath the fungi canopy. Besides, the rec rooms had been too noisy to study, what with the intense tournament of Realmadon taking place. And to be honest, she and Emi were both too tired from Weaponry drills to walk all the way to the Archives.
A thin layer of snow had settled on the field nearby, like a thin blanket. The sight of tiny imp and gnome footprints in the snow made her smile.
“Well, I guess it’s something to do with light,” Emillia ventured. “Lots of illusion magic is just manipulating light into a different colour. I dunno, Padrake could explain it better, obviously.”
“I don’t get it.” Brooke shook her head. “I wish I was smarter, like Elijah or Evan.”
“Oh, I’ll tell Xavier you left him out.” Emi grinned back.
“Don’t you dare, I’d never hear the end of it from him and all his big words.”
“Screw it then.” Emi slammed the book shut as they both laughed. “We’ll just tell Master Padrake we didn’t understand our assignment and hope he doesn’t give us extra work or anything.”
“Slim chance of that.”
“I know, I just wanted an excuse to stop studying and get you to answer me this time. So, how did your date go last night?”
Brooke pulled her jacket tighter around herself to ward off the chill. Since winter had descended, they’d all been given coats, the colour matching their rank. Her own emerald jacket was lovingly warm, due to the fur inside and around the hood. The fur came from unicorns, who shed their tails once a month. The city stable gave the left-over hair to the Fortress where it was repurposed.
“Hey, I didn’t avoid answering you,” she chuckled. “I told you nothing happened, the truth.”
Yesterday she’d bumped into Lok at lunch, where he’d told her that things were over between him and Lyella. He’d then asked if she’d wanted to hang out later that evening. Without really thinking about it, Brooke had agreed. “Besides, it wasn't really a date,” she corrected Emi. “Just a drink at Ethancs.”
In truth, Brooke had no idea if it was a date. Lok had been his usual charming self, although he had asked her quite a few odd questions.
“So you didn’t even make out?” Emillia was flabbergasted. “Damn, I’ve lost my bet with Joelle. Didn’t he indicate he’d like to go out again, say anything?”
“No, he mostly asked me about this place, actually,” she mused. “And how I liked being a Venator.”
Emi’s blonde eyebrows knitted together. “Really, I thought he’d be putting all the moves on you.”
“Maybe he’s a changed man after splitting from Lyella,” Brooke suggested.
Emi shook her head ruefully. “Don’t ask. Lyella’s been a state ever since he broke up with her. She keeps saying it’s only temporary, and Lok only split with her because it’s interfering with his overall plan or some nonsense. Lyella cornered me last night, demanding to know if Lok cheated on her with you.”
Brooke tensed. “Ushk. A murderous Lyella is all I need. I hope she and her fan club don’t assault me again.”
“I told her you weren’t even interested in Lok. Although after your date, word will get back to Lyella and she’ll assume you stole him away from her. Don’t worry though, I told Lyella I’ll rat her out to the Masters if she goes for you. Lyella then told me she’d
wished she’d left me to be a slave on Sarume for all the loyalty I’ve shown her, but I think she’ll leave you alone.”
“Really? Oh my god, Emi.” She reached out and squeezed Emillia’s hand. “You didn’t have to do that. I’m so sorry Lyella said such a thing to you.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” Emi grinned surprisingly. “Lyella’s said similar to me about a dozen times before.”
“Still, you didn’t have to do that for me.” She leaned over and hugged Emi tight. “Thank you, you’re a great friend.”
“Calm down,” she pushed Brooke away playfully. “We’ll continue being friends so long as you keep letting me copy your homework.”
“Why would you copy me for? I’m near the bottom ranks in all the training.” Brooke’s laughter died on her lips as she looked up to see someone had approached without either of them noticing.
“Arantay?” she uttered, sitting up, her stomach lurching. She hadn’t spoken to him in weeks.
“May I speak with you for a moment. Alone.” He turned to Emi, “nothing personal.”
“Oh…uh, sure,” Emi said, her cheeks blushing, likely due to the fact Tay had barely ever spoken to her before.
“I’ll see you in a bit.” She nodded to Emillia as she left, her nerves stretched tight. Why would Tay want to talk to me in private?
Arantay had been different ever since they’d returned from saving London from being torn apart by a war between vampires and werewolves. She knew murdering his brother would affect Arantay, but she didn’t know how badly.
He wore the same clothes as usual, a simply Arch-Realmer shirt, as scarlet as his hair, and light trousers and boots. She supposed the cold didn’t affect him as an Elfpire, but a shower of snowflakes had caught in his long mane.
Angels and Elves- Act I Page 19
