by W. M. Martin
“It's not a competition, girls. Everyone will figure it out eventually,” stated Nancy in an authoritative tone.
“Yes, ma’am,” demurred Alice before stepping back so as to let Nancy move past with Maggie.
Nancy leaned her head down a little toward Maggie and whispered with a faint smile, “You'll be the first to summon your totem. I just know it.”
Mr. Evans approached Maggie and greeted her with a smile, “Good morning, Ms. Bennett. Class will be starting shortly on the second floor, three doors past the monument of the great Eutropius and his faithful totem, Xanthippe, just outside of the Aviary.”
Maggie stared at Mr. Evans, completely puzzled.
“That's the large marble statue of an Athenian warrior and his little owl standing under an olive tree,” Mr. Evans clarified.
“Ah, got it,” said Maggie before leaving Nancy behind with Mr. Evans.
Maggie began her ascension to the second floor on the gilded, spiral staircase and saw Kylie and Klaus talking with Lucy and Alice. Maggie made her way over to her acquaintances from the night before, three of whom were very friendly, the fourth one, not so much. She offered a comely smile as her greeting.
Kylie returned the gesture with Klaus booming a louder than necessary, “Hey, Maggie!”
Alice enthusiastically reestablished her earlier sanguine interrogation of Maggie. “This is the greatest day in the history of, well, ever! Are you ready for this? I know you are! You are, aren't you?”
“I think so,” responded Maggie to her new, excitable friend.
Lucy groaned with a steadily growing repugnance towards her classmates, rolled her eyes and went inside the classroom to take her seat without saying a word to Maggie. When the last student filed into the classroom to take their seat, a very short lady with horn-rimmed glasses followed behind to shut the door. She walked behind a rather large desk, made all the more immense by her diminutive stature and grabbed a piece of writing chalk. She mounted a stool with a few steps on it and spelled her name on the chalkboard.
“I am Mrs. Bonifassi,” the small teacher said before being interrupted by Thomas, from the rear of the class, as he guffawed a little too loudly at her name.
Seemingly out of nowhere a slightly glowing blue jay, which seemed larger than the usual specimen, flew down and pecked the heckler on the top of the head before returning to his previously unnoticed perch in the rafters above the class.
“Thank you, Gaston,” acknowledged Mrs. Bonifassi before waiting for the class to stop giggling at Thomas who was now rubbing his head in the spot where her totem had struck.
“This class,” Mrs. Bonifassi continued, “is your introduction to the greatest gift of being Kindred. Oh, before we get started, I was asked to inform the class that Ms. Decker, from Thieves, won't be joining us today. She will be helping out in this class and others throughout the school year, though. We look forward to having her here.”
She said this while looking directly at Maggie.
Mrs. Bonifassi continued on, “We all have the potential within ourselves to harness great power. Size is irrelevant in regards to just how much power you can attain. Take me for example. I am a dwarf, but I am also more powerful than the largest human and certainly more powerful than any of you. Nowhere near as strong physically of course, but my Kindred power far surpasses simple raw strength. Your totems will grow with you and enhance your natural abilities. In order to utilize your totems, you will all need to be well versed in harnessing them, to call them out onto this plane of existence. In other words, you'll need to summon them. This is the Summons Theory class. As you have all no doubt noticed by the smattering of different colored cloaks and medallions, not everyone in here is an Avior. That is also irrelevant. We are all sisters and brothers regardless of Clan. Every Kindred will take the appropriate classes in order to grow in power with their totems. Any questions? No? Good. If everyone would please open the books that Gaston has kindly dropped onto your desks to chapter one, page one, we shall begin.”
Maggie opened an old book that was titled: Your Totem and You; A Guide to the Ancient Art of Summons. It had a picture of a hand with an open palm holding a swirl of what looked to be a representation of a totem before or after morphing. She flipped past the table of contents which held such chapter titles as What to Feed Your Totem and Should You?, How Do I Maximise My Totem’s Power and Speed?, How Do I Summon My Totem Without Speaking?, Does My Totem Answer Nature’s Call? and Maggie’s personal favorite, Please Help Me; My Totem Won’t Shut Up. Maggie opened her book to chapter one, page one as Mrs. Bonifassi had instructed and began to read to herself. She could feel that Elliot was reading along with her through her eyes as though he were looking out of two sky-blue windows.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Ms. Carlson, if you and Ms. Hanson would kindly step up to the front of the class, you will both summon your totems for us,” Mrs. Bonifassi ordered with an air of firm expectation.
They were expected to succeed. It was not a request.
“Me?” asked Sara as she nervously tapped on her medallion.
Mrs. Bonifassi answered with a haughty laugh, “Yes. Unless there is another Sara Carlson in this class that I'm unaware of, then I'm speaking to you, Ms. Carlson.”
The class laughed at Sara’s reticence to be the first one called forward. By the time Sara made it up to the front of the room, Kylie was already there and she was whispering to herself trying to pep talk her totem, Augustus.
“Come on, Gus, we can do this. Let's show everyone here how you are the most beautiful emu that there has ever been,” praised Kylie in an attempt to coax her totem out.
Maggie waited, as did the rest of the class, with bated breath, for Kylie’s giant emu or for Sara’s tiny kiwi to appear before them.
“Simply visualize your totems and call out to them. Feel their presence. Know that they are here. You only need to reach out with your heart and your mind. Isn't that right, Gaston?” Mrs. Bonifassi asked in a calm, soothing voice to her totem who was still perched in the rafters over head.
“Oui,” Gaston replied simply in a thick French accent.
Sara blew her wavy, red hair out of her eyes and took a deep breath, concentrating hard on the image of her totem, Mikey, the kiwi.
Kylie was now audibly calling out, “Come on, Gus!” while straining so hard that her face was the color of a strawberry.
Sara released the breath that she had been holding for what seemed like an eternity and bent down, dizzy from the strain and grabbed her chest with her hand as though she were suffering from a heart attack. Mrs. Bonifassi was not fazed in the least.
“Thank you, Ms. Carlson, you have failed spectacularly. Next time try and remember to breathe when summoning your totem. It’s a rather important function. You may take your seat. Stop heaving like that or you're going to be sick. No, no, don't try and speak. Just lay your head on your desk and breathe slowly. Thank you, Ms. Carlson,” intoned Mrs. Bonifassi.
Sara did as instructed and placed her shaking hands on the back of her chair, sat down heavily in her seat and then promptly laid her head down on the desk with a defeated thud.
Kylie, still talking to Augustus, had almost given up and was at this juncture yelling, “Let’s go, Gus!” while flailing her arms wildly as though her now frazzled hair were on fire.
“You can do this, Kylie! You can do it!” Maggie called out to her classmate in a show of solidarity.
The rest of the class, with the two exceptions being Lucy, who could not care less and was laughing at the scene playing out before her eyes, and Sara who still could not raise her head from exhaustion, chimed in after Maggie in a chorus of support. Kylie had concluded her attempt, achieving the same lack of success as Sara before her.
“That will be all Ms. Hanson. If you would kindly take your seat we shall let two more try,” Mrs. Bonifassi said, shaking her head in disappointment.
Kylie sat down rather hard and sighed to Maggie, “Good luck. You're gonna
need it.”
“Ms. Pennington and Mr. Stapler, please step forward,” requested Mrs. Bonifassi.
Alice took the front of the class with a boy named Nigel who was wearing a dark green cloak clasped with a square, diamond medallion which held the likeness of a rattlesnake coiled and prepared to strike. Nigel was from Clan Sauropon and he had raven black hair which was cropped short, and he had a rather nice smile. He held many of the girls’ attention as he strode confidently to the front of the room to stand with Alice.
“Please begin,” instructed Mrs. Bonifassi.
Alice strained for a second, and then her right arm lit up ever so slightly and the image of a small, magpie-like bird appeared for a moment and disappeared. She groaned in frustration and looked over at Nigel who had managed to get his totem to appear a little more obviously than hers had, but his disappeared also.
“Geez, this is tough,” complained Nigel.
Mrs. Bonifassi was steadily taking notes, no doubt in order to chastise the class and make examples out of their continued failures. After Nigel and Alice’s attempts bore no fruit, Mrs. Bonifassi instructed the rest of the class to come forward, two at a time, to try their hands at summoning. As time wore on, the only two remaining were Maggie and Lucy.
Mrs. Bonifassi said, “Ms. Min and Ms. Bennett, please step forward and summon your totems for the class.”
Lucy walked by Maggie and whispered behind herself to Maggie, “You're going down, Bennett.”
“We can do this, Elliot,” Maggie said, trying more to convince herself than her totem.
Maggie got up from her seat and met Lucy at the head of the class. Lucy met her gaze with an arrogant smile. Maggie was trying her best to ignore her, but Lucy could tell that she was getting under Maggie’s skin. Both of the girls shifted their attentions away from one another and focused on Mrs. Bonifassi as she began her instructions.
“Now then ladies, please summon your totems for us,” directed Mrs. Bonifassi with thinly veiled enthusiasm.
The entire class all seemed to lean forward in their seats, at the same time, as though they were one being. The quiet excitement in the room was palpable as no one had been able to summon their totems yet. Everyone, including Mrs. Bonifassi, were eager to see if one of the two Legacies would be able to achieve the feat on their first go, if not both.
Maggie raised her sleeve on her right arm as did Lucy. Lucy’s arm lit up almost immediately and the shape of a crow swirled into form on her forearm. The glowing tattoo began to slowly raise up from Lucy’s skin and Maggie noticed a bead of sweat rolling down the side of Lucy’s face. She was straining just as hard as everyone else had been. Maverick was almost fully formed when all of a sudden he melted back into Lucy’s arm. Lucy angrily lowered her cloak’s sleeve back down and in a show of frustration stomped her foot. Maggie wondered to herself if perhaps everyone else had been going about trying to summon their totems in the wrong way. Ignoring her head which was telling her to force her totem to be summoned, she instead listened to her heart and felt that there was a better way. A right way.
Maggie closed her eyes, tuning out everything around her. There was no classroom, no peers, no teacher, no academy, no strange world away from the earth. There was only a peregrine falcon. There was only Elliot.
Maggie slowly opened her eyes and breathed out softly, “Elliot. It's time.”
With that statement, a bright light engulfed her arm and suddenly a falcon swirled to life and flew out of the mystical tattoo. Elliot flew around the classroom to everyone’s delight except for Lucy. He swooped past Gaston and then the fierce looking bird gave a loud cry of victory. He flew downward and landed on Maggie’s outstretched arm.
“You did amazing, Elliot,” Maggie said, beaming with pride at her feathered friend.
Mrs. Bonifassi was clapping her hands rapidly and declared with glee, “Wonderful, Ms. Bennett! Just wonderful! Ms. Min, you may go and take your seat. Wonderful! Please, Ms. Bennett, tell the class how you summoned your totem!”
Maggie shrugged and said, “I had noticed how everyone was trying, sometimes loudly, to order their totems to appear. It just felt like if I tried to control my totem then I wouldn't be able to summon him. Instead, I let Elliot feel how I knew that he was ready and that I was ready for him to take his proper form. I knew he'd come because he wasn't forced. I told him that it was time, but I didn't order him out, he chose to come out on his own. I know it doesn't make a whole lot of sense and I don't really understand it, but I feel it.”
“And that,” Mrs. Bonifassi said with a smile, “is why you have succeeded. You felt the power of your totem and instead of trying to control it as its master, you received it as your equal. As a part of who and what you are. Very, very good, Ms. Bennett.”
Lucy was seething at her desk and watching with steadily rising jealousy as the rest of the class was heaping praise on Maggie. Praise which Lucy felt should have been hers by right.
Mrs. Bonifassi clapped her hands to gather their attention and called out to the students, “Alright class, settle down. Ms. Pennington, please let Ms. Bennett breathe. Ms. Min, stop sulking; it’s unbecoming. Everyone pair up and work on summoning together.”
Each of the students in the classroom stepped away from his or her desk and paired up with a classmate to work on summoning with one another. They worked to summon their own totems in the fashion which Maggie had described, hoping to achieve the same results. Before long Mrs. Bonifassi’s classroom was alive with the chorus of excited, talking teenagers coupled with the sights and sounds of their totems.
On the way to their next class, at the Secarn Clan enclave, Lester and Alice had decided to hang back from the crowd. No doubt, Maggie thought, for Lester to get some alone time and try to get to know the object of his very obvious infatuation.
“So, Clan Secarn teaches us about weapons, huh?” Maggie asked Nigel, the boy from Clan Sauropon.
Nigel answered her with a shrug, “That's what Mrs. Bonifassi said. I asked the girl sitting next to me in class about it, her name is Stephanie, and she told me that we would learn about different weapons and which ones suited us best. It's called “Bracing”. She’s a Secarn of course; that was obvious by her dark yellow cloak and ruby medallion. She was the girl with the butterfly totem. She called it a blue morpho. She named him Max.”
“Max? I suppose I can't really laugh, my falcon’s name is Elliot,” Maggie said with a grin.
Nigel replied, “Elliot, huh? I have a cousin named Elliot, and he’s a human. He’s on my mom’s side of the family. They’re all humans.”
“What's your totem’s name, Nigel?” Maggie asked.
“Her name is Cersei. She's actually kind of funny. You wouldn't think that the words “rattlesnake” and “funny” would belong in the same sentence, but she makes me laugh,” answered Nigel.
Maggie giggled at Nigel’s observation and then asked him, “So, Aviors excel at summoning and Secarns are all about weapons. What are Sauropons notorious for?”
Nigel answered with a hint of pride, “Armor Envelopment!”
Maggie looked at Nigel quizzically, and he elaborated for her, “It’s when we form our armor with our totems. Everyone will create armor that is unique to them just like their totems. Let's say that you have the same totem as someone else in your Clan, their armor will have similarities to yours, but it will be different because you are different. No two people or totems are completely identical. Your armor will be special. Like you.”
With that statement, Maggie blushed and Nigel realized how what he had just said sounded and turned an equal shade of red. When he raised his head and dared to look her in the eyes, he was pleased to see that she was smiling. The class had merged with more students in the Macrocosm Chamber and was splitting up again to go to their next lesson when Alice and Lester finally caught up with everyone.
Thomas playfully chided his brother, “It’s about time, Les. We were about to send a search and rescue team to go and find you tw
o.”
Alice gave a sheepish smile and Lester laughed to try and diminish his embarrassment.
“You're an idiot,” Lester jokingly told his brother.
“Let’s get going,” Lucy said, brushing by everyone else.
“She speaks!” Thomas said, poking fun at her.
Lucy stopped and turned, slowly, to face him. The fire in her eyes branded a searing message into Thomas’ soul. Lucy Min was not to be trifled with. Thomas swallowed hard, betraying the fact that he found Lucy a little bit intimidating.
“When we’re all finally allowed to spar with each other, I’ll be testing my weapon forms on your face first, Thomas,” Lucy said with a devilish grin. She then turned and continued on toward the Secarn enclave.
“You play with fire, my friend,” Klaus laughed.
“Me and my big mouth,” Thomas said, shaking his head in agreement with Klaus.
The large and winding hallway that led from the Macrocosm Chamber to the Secarn enclave had a series of living murals like the Avior Hall had, except in the place of all of the birds in the world, there was every kind of insect. The fact that Maggie found the murals repulsive did not detract from the awe and reverence that she noticed her Secarn peers held for their Hall. She consciously tried to keep the shudders that racked her body from disgust to a minimum in an effort to respect her Secarn brethren. It was an exercise in futility.
An enormous pair of diamond shaped doors, made of solid rubies, barred the way to the enclave. Two guards, one on either side of the crystalline, scarlet doors, were present. They stood vigil over their enclave just as the previous pair of guards did for the Avior enclave. Maggie figured that this must be standard protocol for each Clan. Their armor had a red hue, reminiscent of the diamond shaped, ruby medallions that Secarns wore. One guard’s totem was clearly a scorpion due to the fact that the crest of his helmet was formed like a large scorpion’s tail. The other guard’s totem was a beetle. Maggie had seen wildlife documentaries before and thought that perhaps the beetle was a scarab.
