The Complete Chosen Trilogy (The Chosen #0)

by N. M. Santoski

  Jenkins whirled on the girl who laughed. “What’s so funny?”

  “She’s a Siren!”

  Ann-Marie blanched. “Like... the mermaid things?”

  Jenkins turned back toward her. “Yes, such as those from Homer’s Odyssey. Most Sirens are harmless... we’ll learn more about that at a later date.”

  He looked again at the giggler in the back. “Your name, please?”

  “Noel Dix.”

  He spread the papers out on his desk to find her card. “An Ignis?”

  “Yes.”

  “Perhaps you should be a bit more understanding, Miss Dix—not everyone is as knowledgeable in their training as I assume, from your attitude, you are.” He turned away from the flushed girl and faced his nephew. “And our latecomer, Nolan Aeron.”

  Nolan looked up. “Yes?”

  “It says here Fulmen.”

  The room broke out in whispers, and Nolan sat up straight to look Jenkins in the eye. “Yeah.”

  “What can you do?”

  Nolan shrugged. “A few things.” He purposefully didn’t elaborate.

  Jenkins, sensing Nolan’s reluctance to go further, ended the conversation there for the time being and made a mental note to bring it up at a later date. He quickly ran through the other students and finally stood in front of them to explain the way the class would work.

  “Your ‘final exam’ will be the actualization of a battle—your Rite of Passage. You will have to do your own research using the techniques you learn in this class in order to size up your opponent. In October we will have the Drawing of the Names, in which each of you will be assigned a Rite of Passage dueling partner. After the selection process, you will spar with other students that have the same numina as your opponent in order to prepare...without allowing you to get used to fighting your actual opponent.”

  Excited whispers broke out among the classmates, but Jenkins ignored them. He glanced at his watch and realized with a start that they were ten minutes over their allotted class period.

  “Time’s up. Be ready to discuss your numina types and what they are capable of on Thursday!” he hollered after them as they fled his classroom, still talking in excited undertones about the Rite of Passage.

  Nolan waited, as instructed, but Gia and Leiani waited with him, both hoping to speak with him.

  “I'll speak with Mr. Aeron alone, please.”

  Gia immediately gathered her things and made for the door. “Find us at lunch, Nolan—we’ll save you a seat.”

  Nolan nodded, but didn't respond.

  Leiani, on the other hand, didn't move. She sat there, smiling brightly at both Jenkins and Nolan, waiting for Jenkins to speak.

  “I said alone, Miss K'Oliu.”

  “You didn't mean me, too, Uncle Robert? We're practically family.”

  “Leiani, purposeful stupidity does not become you. OUT, please.”

  She pouted but did as she was told, trailing her hand along Nolan's shoulder as she did so.

  “That girl...” he said with a sigh. He closed the door firmly behind her and turned the bolt.

  “Care to explain why you were really late?” he asked, his voice a bit warmer this time around.

  “My alarm was mysteriously changed. I set it for 6 AM, and when I woke up it was set for 7:55.”

  Jenkins frowned. “Unusual... Angus is a fairly even-tempered boy.”

  “Am I a liar, then?”

  “Nolan, I didn't say that. You may want to set up a second alarm, or have someone come wake you for breakfast until this blows over. You're the unknown entity... they're testing your limits.” He paused. “I went to speak with you last night, but you were nowhere to be found.”

  “I got lost on my way back from dinner.”

  “How did you get un-lost?” Jenkins asked, trying not to smile at Nolan's petulant face.

  “A guy named Pyrrhus helped me.”

  “Really?”

  “Why do you sound so surprised?” Nolan asked.

  “Pyrrhus... let's just say that he doesn't tend to get along with everyone. He's got quite a temper.”

  “That's okay... so do I.”

  Jenkins laughed and gave him a one armed hug across the shoulders. “We all do—it’s the Jenkins curse. Your brother has seemed to dodge it, for the most part—he’s a lot like your grandfather, to tell you the truth.”

  Nolan nodded and stood. “I can't wait to meet everyone.”

  “It's only a year to get through, Nolan. Go enjoy lunch, and try not to take things too hard... your classmates will come around, I'm sure of it.”

  “Thanks, Uncle Robert.”

  Nolan entered the dining hall for the second time and looked around to see who was there. He immediately found Gia, her back to him, talking to Angus and Noel. His eyes met Angus’s, and the resentment welled up in him again. Noel glared at him, making it obvious that he was not welcome. Not eager to confront Angus yet anyway, his eyes slid away and lit on Leiani, who was beckoning to him from the other side of the room. His decision made, he sat down across from Leiani.

  Before he could say anything, she took his hand across the table. “Nolan, I wanted to apologize for our first meeting. I was so nervous to meet you, and I think I came across a bit… intense.” She smiled, and he couldn’t help but smile back.

  “It’s okay. So…. You’re Keopelani’s daughter, then?”

  Apparently it was the right thing to say, because her smile widened. “Yes! Do you know of us already? How much do you know? How can I help you fill in the gaps?”

  “That’s about it, actually. Your mother is Lady Aqua and you’re her heiress presumptive… and my mother and my brother live at the Water Court with you.”

  “Yes, I’ve known them all my life…”

  As she began to tell him about the family he never knew, Gia finally noticed where he was sitting, despite Angus's best efforts to distract her.

  "How in the hell...? Did he not see us?" she asked, bewildered.

  "He saw us," Noel said flatly. "He chose to sit with Leiani. He must like her better."

  "Noel..." Angus groaned. The corners of Gia's mouth turned under for a few moments before she composed herself. When she spoke, her voice was decidedly frosty.

  "Well, of course he's entitled to sitting with whomever he pleases." Suddenly, her eyes cut to Angus and narrowed. "Angus, did you really shut his alarm off?"

  "No! How low do you think I am?" Despite his words, he wouldn't look her in the eye.

  "Don't accuse Angus of something just because HE says it," Noel snapped. "He probably overslept his alarm and didn't want to admit it."

  "We're going to be late for afternoon classes if we don't go soon," Gia said abruptly, standing up. She made her way to the stairs without looking back.

  The moment she rounded the corner, Noel turned to Angus. "Did you, really?"

  He shrugged, having the grace to look a bit embarrassed. "I just changed it to make him a little late. It was a joke."

  She grinned. "Nice one. Maybe he'll become so annoyed he'll leave before he gets anyone killed."

  "Why do you hate him so much? I can't remember."

  "That's because I've never said. Nice try, though." She, too, stormed off in the direction of the stairs, leaving Angus alone.

  "Gods, give me strength," he said, eyes closed, before following them both.

  Leiani saw them go and couldn't resist a small smile of triumph. "Are you done eating, Nolan? We have about ten minutes to get downstairs."

  Nolan crammed the last bit of food in his mouth as he stood. "Let's go."

  She managed to quash a sense of dismay at his lack of manners and reminded herself that she knew what she was doing.

  The students streamed down the staircase and kept going, back down into the bowels of Caer Anglia. Group B split off to meet with Proctor Jenkins, while the earlier class turned the opposite way and entered what appeared to be an empty dance studio. They filed inside, chattering and wondering where Sensei
Anna was.

  Nolan stood next to Leiani in the back of the room, as far from the full-length mirrors as he could get. Someone sidled up to him from the other side and tapped him on the arm. He looked over... and then down... to find a short girl looking up at him. “You’re Nolan Aeron?” she asked, a bit of a British accent coloring her words.

  “Yep.”

  “Here, will you help me with something? Sensei wanted me to set up the table in the front.”

  He nodded and followed her up toward the middle of the room. Quite suddenly, the girl spun and grabbed his wrist. In the next instant, he was on the floor, looking up at her ponytail swinging in his face as she leaned over him.

  “Always judge by appearances, Mr. Aeron?” she asked cheerfully.

  He looked at her for a moment, then replied, “Not always, Sensei.”

  Her smile grew. “Good. Need a hand up?”

  “I think I’m just going to lie here for a moment and collect my thoughts,” he quipped. He heard someone...Gia, he thought...snort somewhere to his right.

  “Now, Mr. Aeron. I didn’t flip you that hard.” She extended her hand to him.

  Nolan finally realized the rest of the class was staring at them and accepted her help. She hauled him to his feet with ease and turned to face the rest of them.

  “Thank you, Mr. Aeron, for that little lesson. How many of you thought I was a student? Oh, come now, be honest!” she protested when only Nolan and a few others raised their hands. The rest of the hands rose accordingly.

  “I purposely avoid the younger set for precisely that reason. That’s what we’re here to prevent. You may notice that we have very few comforts in this room. That was intentional. No padding on the floor means you’re not shocked the first time you hit a stone wall or concrete floor, back first. A low ceiling means you learn how to flip a six-foot-tall man such as Mr. Aeron with precision. The mirrors help us observe both one another and ourselves for the first weeks of class. Rest assured, within two weeks, those mirrors will be gone. You won’t have a mirror to help you spot your enemy on the outside. My name is Anna Stone, but you’ll never use it. I’m ‘Sensei’ in here, at Caer Anglia, if I run into you in the Village ten years from now, anywhere. I don’t know how the Proctor began your year, but this class begins now. Line up in rows of four, please, arms straight out at your sides for spacing.”

  When they didn’t move, she gave them a look. “Do you think I’m kidding? MOVE!”

  They scrambled to do her bidding. She gave them a minute to finish moving, then made her way up to the front of the class.

  “I want you to stand as you are, arms out—-fingertips within one inch of the other person’s. Good. Now, stay that way as I outline the year for you. Rule number one: you will do as you’re told. If I tell you to stand on one foot and recite, “Mary had a Little Lamb” backwards, you will comply. Every task I set you serves a purpose. Rule number two: I will allow you to move forward in coursework only as you are prepared to do so. If I see a person attempting something they are not authorized to, they will no longer be welcome in my classroom. I remind you that passing my class is a requirement to compete in the Rite of Passage, so I suggest you get used to it quickly. Rule number three, which really encompasses the former two, is as follows: I am supreme authority within these four walls. I do what I do for your edification. It is my hope that—-pick up those arms, miss!” Sensei barked at the girl on the far end of the last row, whose arms were drooping.

  The girl muttered something under her breath, and Sensei broke from her position to stand in front of the girl.

  “Stop staring, the rest of you, eyes front!”

  Everyone snapped their heads forward, all the while straining to hear what was going on behind them.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Elizabeth Kenneri, Sensei.”

  “What did you say under your breath?”

  Elizabeth was sweating. “It hurts, Sensei.”

  Sensei peered into her face for a moment, then nodded.

  “I don’t care.”

  They heard Elizabeth gasp.

  “Do you think that when you’re battling someone, whether hand-to-hand or with weapons, that your opponent will care if your arms are tired? That’s what they WANT!” She stomped her foot in her exuberance. “I’m here to get you to move past the pain, and there’s no time like the present.”

  “Why does it matter?” Gia called from the middle row, keeping her arms out and eyes forward.

  “Who said that?”

  “Gia Disanza, Sensei.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re training us all the same. Our opponent will be one of your students. If they learn the same methods, what good will it do us?”

  Sensei moved up to stand in front of Gia. She studied her for a moment before snaking her arm out and poking her lightly in the gut. Gia grunted as her abdomen muscles contracted involuntarily, but fought to keep her posture straight and her eyes staring forward. Sensei nodded once.

  “Good question. Good questions are always encouraged in this room—although I usually have a Q&A at the end of class for them, Miss Disanza. The truth is, when fighting another one of my students, at least you will not be at a disadvantage. The world of the numen is not always as clean cut as that of human beings. You never know when you will be called on to defend yourself.”

  She moved back to the front. “Now, as I was saying, it is my hope that your time here will prepare you for what is to come. Over the next year, I will teach you discipline. I will teach you defense and offense. I will teach you weaponry, numina, and stealth. In short, I will teach you survival in a world of uncertainty. Let’s begin with stretching.”

  Four hours later, they left the classroom drenched in sweat. “Wear old clothes next time!” Sensei bellowed after them as they practically fled.

  The rest of the night passed with little fanfare. After a long, hot shower, his muscles aching, Nolan made a big show of taking his alarm up into the upper bunk with him, setting it up next to his pillow before passing out.

  Chapter Ten

  The next morning, things went off without a hitch, and he found himself in a more traditional classroom setting, listening to Dr. Avis Castillo begin to talk about their history and how it affected them in the here and now. After a few minutes, however, it became increasingly obvious that the woman standing in front of him was very anti-Aeron. At any available opportunity, she spent her time specifying how the Swordsmith had failed them one way or another, all the way back to Gaius Aeronius. Nolan kept his head down and took meticulous notes, ignoring every pointed barb she sent his way. After an hour or so, she stopped trying to needle him directly, but continued her skewed lessons.

  Lunch couldn't come soon enough.

  Again, he sat with Leiani and, this time, Pyrrhus joined them. Gia looked hurt but resigned as she sat with her usual friends.

  "How are your classes going, Aeron? Learning a lot?" Pyrrhus smirked, spearing a piece of carrot off of Leiani's plate and ignoring her swatting hand.

  "Oh, yeah. Our last class was very... particular."

  "Castillo is just not a fan of your grandfather," Leiani hedged. "I think he taught her."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah, I'm pretty sure your grandfather taught almost everyone that age."

  "Interesting."

  "So..." Pyrrhus said slyly, "How's Alan, Leiani?"

  "He's fine—keeping busy, helping my mother while I'm gone."

  "You and Alan are close, Leiani?" Nolan asked.

  "You could say that," Pyrrhus snorted. She glared at him and clarified, "We were raised like brother and sister."

  "That's cool," Nolan said, watching Pyrrhus carefully as he rolled his eyes and went back to his food.

  Their afternoon class was Biology. "18th century numen are really the reason we can exist alongside humans in the present day," Dr. Matthew Graves lectured, leaning backwards against his desk. "During this era of medical rediscovery and
documentation, numen doctors made certain to autopsy our kind in front of humans, establishing certain traits as family specific deformities. Our particular anatomies were entered into medical journals and are still studied in medical schools today. Of course, some of those autopsies were eventually fodder for the 'freak show' people written about in the rags of the mid 19th century, such as the strongman or the fish girl."

  Leiani raised her hand. "Sir, why did they believe such a ridiculous thing?"

  "Miss K'Oliu, the decision to allow humans access to those autopsies in the first place was made by the European Subcouncil in 1753, one year after Great Britain’s Parliament passed the Murder Act of 1752. The Murder Act allowed the bodies of murderers to be autopsied by the medical colleges. Like all subgroups of human beings, numen had their murderers, and they were put to death just like humans. Doctors were intrigued by the occasional body they received that was anatomically incorrect, as far as their knowledge went."

  Dr. Graves began to circle the room, still speaking. "Throughout our history, numen have slowly dispersed information to the human race in order to make our lives a little easier. The Council was always one step ahead, and usually three or four steps ahead. We will be dealing strictly with the medical and biological ramifications of those decisions, and our own biological history. We will cover each numina and its subcategories, devoting as much time as we need to each. My hope is that the innate understanding of each numina will assist you in your Rite of Passage, and in dealing with other types of numina in your lives—for example, why it is so terrible to trap a Zephyra underground, or to trick an Ignis into a body of water."

  He gave them a brief overview of their unique physiology and how to explain it if they were ever in a normal hospital situation. He showed a diagram of the way a Zephyra's wings were folded in along the lines of the spine, and how an Aqua's gill structure was almost invisible on the skin level, but was obvious to any doctor who was looking in the right places. He showed Nolan how his Power abilities meant his nerve endings were larger than usual and ended in strange little knobs. All in all, it was a fascinating class, and at least the teacher seemed a bit more even keeled.

  As Nolan ate and headed for bed, a group of his classmates were gathered in an empty room. Michael Warrington's son was the first one to speak. "Well? Has anyone talked to him? Angus, you're rooming with him, right?"