by D. Levesque
“All right.” I put my hand out and she just looks at it at first, but then she reaches out and takes my hand as well. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Welcome to the M.A.G.I. Kevin, and good luck with the training. Did Marrisa tell you what to expect?”
“Not really, I was just told two weeks of training,” I tell her, starting to get worried.
Again, Pathy laughs and slaps her desk. “Damn, you are in for an experience. I remember my training, and I never want to go through that again, but it has saved my life more times than I care to admit. Now, go,” she says, shooing me towards the door behind me.
“Thanks,” I tell her with a sickly grin. What does that mean?
Walking out of her office, I head down six flights of stairs until I am on the main landing. I reach into my pocket and take out the Portal stone, and then I ask it to bring me to the training area. Suddenly I feel as if something is being drawn out of me and beside me is a Portal, just like the ones Marrisa had been calling up. But this time it’s me doing it!
My elation is short-lived though, as I remember Pathy’s words and how I hate going through Portals when I have no clue where I am going to end up. Taking a deep breath, I think to myself that they would not send me to a training for two weeks that would kill me, would they? I shake my head to get rid of all the thoughts that come with that question, and then lift my shoulders high and walk into the portal.
Chapter Seventeen
“You can open your eyes, human,” I hear a female voice say, though there is something odd about her voice. It’s almost as if she is singing.
I had closed my eyes when I walked through the portal, hoping I wouldn’t see my death coming. Slowly I open them and look for the person who had spoken. I’m in a large room, with just a door and a desk. Sitting behind that desk is the person who I assume had greeted me. I stare at her, my mouth agape. She’s got long blond white hair and cat-like eyes, but what catches my attention are her ears. They are Elf ears. She is staring at me with no expression.
“You’re,” I begin to say, but she holds up her hand to stop me.
“Yes, I am an Elf,” she says in that singsong voice. “Now, let’s not waste our time? We only have you for two weeks. I have been instructed on what to give you in the way of information.” She pauses here and scowls, although the expression somehow looks beautiful on her Elven features. “Though, why so much information for someone like you, I have no clue. But if he wants to kill you, even better.”
“Kill me?” I ask her, taking a step forward. I look for a chair but don’t see one, so I just stand there.
“Yes. It seems that Magus Targun has asked us to give you the full course in two weeks. So that is what we will attempt to do. If you can survive all this training and information in under two weeks, I will be most impressed, even if you are a human.”
She shrugs. “Now, behind that door is a bed. Lie down in it. Then your training will start,” she says.
“What? Lie down?” I ask her, confused.
Sighing, the Elf pinches her nose and closes her eyes before saying, “Room. Inside. Bed. Lie down. Training will start.”
“Wait, you want me to just lie down in a bed and my training will start?”
“Yes,” she says in exasperation. “Now go lie down.” She waves her hand towards the door, which suddenly opens.
“Hmm, I was told my bag was delivered here?” I ask her.
“Yes. We have looked it over and it’s in there. We removed those hmm, Oreo cookies,” she says, and I see her blush.
“Did you eat them?” I ask her with a raised eyebrow.
“They are contraband!”
“Wait, cookies are contraband?” I ask her incredulously, noticing that she didn’t confirm or deny eating them.
“Yes!” she says, averting her eyes, her blush deepening. Yeah, talk about a guilty look.
Jesus, do all Magical people like cookies? I think I might have to invest in freaking stocks. Or at least keep them handy. I might be able to use them to bribe a Fairy, and apparently an Elf as well. Though I didn’t see Marrisa go crazy over them. Is it just some races?
Shrugging, I head to the door and look inside, but don’t go in. I see a bed, and next to it is my bag. That’s it. The walls are all made of wooden beams, like I’m inside a cabin, and there aren’t any windows. There is no light source such as a lamp or candle in the room, and the light seems to be coming from the walls themselves.
“So I simply lie down?” I ask her again, not looking back. What’s that going to do?
“Correct,” she says
“And Magus Targun approved this?” I ask, now getting nervous.
“Yes. He did.”
Sighing and taking a leap of faith, I walk into the room and over to the bed. I take my shoes off and get on the bed, lying down on top of the comforter, which I see is a dark brown. Once on the bed, I position my head on the pillow to make myself comfortable. Actually, the bed is pretty soft. Hell, it’s more comfortable than mine, even though this is a single bed, and mine at home was a queen.
“Like this?” I ask her, but without warning the door slams shut and the light in the room changes from its natural white glow to red. Shit.
What the hell? I’m about to get up, but suddenly the dark brown comforter wraps itself around me and cocoons me tightly so that I can’t move.
Then the lights in the room begin to flash in a steady red strobe for a good ten seconds, before changing to yellow. The pillow that I have my head on suddenly begins to shift and wraps around my head, covering my forehead, but keeping my face clear. I try to struggle to free myself, but I can’t even move an inch. It’s as if the comforter turned to solid steel.
I can feel my heart start to race now, and my fear is suddenly through the roof. Abruptly, the yellow strobing stops and the light in the room now changes to green. I’m panicking at this point, but suddenly it doesn’t matter, as without warning everything goes black, and I am no longer even aware.
That was my routine for the two weeks that followed. The first time I crawled out of bed after coming to, I felt as if a Mac truck had hit me from all sides. The pounding of my head was the worst. But somehow, I knew stuff. It was just there. All this new information about not just eight races, but more, had appeared in my head.
That’s right. There are more than eight races. It’s just that some of the races had tagged alone with those main ones when leaving Earth. The eight races who went to their own worlds were the Changelings, the Beasts, the Vampires, the Elves, the Dwarves, the Werewolves, the Fairies, and the Goblins. Though the only reason the Goblins have their own world, is because they were such good helpers to all the other races that they banded together at the Goblins’ request and gave them their own world. Aside from those eight, there are hundreds of different creatures out there. Magical creatures. Most followed the eight races to their worlds, but many are still back on Earth, hidden from humans.
The other stuff is hazy. It’s there, just out of reach. I now know some spells and how they work. I know things about Demons, how to break their circles, and how to cast a spell to call a Demon to do your bidding, which evidently is super dangerous unless you are very powerful. At the very least a level six or higher Magus.
I know how to create a shield around myself using Magic. And that if I add a sprinkle of juniper dew from the first morning’s sun to batwing powder in a glass vial that had been sitting in the full moon for at least three hours, it will create a potion that will allow you to see in the dark for three hours.
I also got information on the Gods—the Gods of Earth. I received a crash course on them, from old Gods to new Gods. From the one that is the antlered one, Lord of the forests and animals, to the Greek Gods such as Zeus, Pan, and Hermaphrodite, to name a few. I learned about the Gods that Indigenous people on Earth follow. Not followed but follow. It seems they are real and still there and still worshiped. And the information I received came from first-person accounts. Fr
om people who had actually seen them or met them. With some of the information I learned, I could even call up the Gods to either hear my plea or give me strength to fight enemies for them. Jesus H. Christ. And speaking of that name.
One God that was absent from all my teachings was God. As in the Christina-Judeo God. Also Allah. Not there. No mention of either one of those names, except to say they were never seen by any of the other Gods. So the Magic folks don’t believe they are real. And while I can’t agree or disagree if God is real, I know for some people on Earth he is their salvation. But I have also seen what evil has been done in his name. So I won’t bother to make an opinion. I have too much information in my head as it is, and that was day one.
When I got out of bed that first time, I had to pee so badly. I opened the door to talk to the Elf but was surprised that instead of the room I had been in originally, I was looking at a bathroom. I had stood there and stared at it with an idiotic expression for a couple of seconds before my bladder screamed, who cares! And so for two weeks, it was rinse, repeat. Rinse, repeat. It was almost like learning as Neo did. The information was just there when I woke up.
It seemed I would come out of training and rush to the washroom. When I went back into the room, I’d eat the meal that had appeared on the bed in my absence. Then I’d lie back down in bed and fall asleep, and who knows how many hours later something would wake me up. Then the red strobing lights would start again, before going to yellow and then green, and then I would go under again, to learn more stuff.
After the last day, although I didn’t know when I had fallen asleep that it was my last day, I wake up and the lights are not strobing. I yawn, confused. I was so tired most of the time that I rarely woke up unless something woke me up. Not seeing the strobes, I wait on the bed with the lights up for a good ten minutes. Nothing. As I get up off the bed slowly, I feel like I had run a marathon, boxed with the top boxer in the world, and then fought an M.M.A. fighter. Oh, and done some sort of gauntlet run. I make my way to the bathroom to pee, but when I open the door, I get a jolt.
The room with the Elf lady is there. The same one. Has it been two weeks already? She looks up from her desk and there is something in her eyes that wasn’t there before, but I can’t figure out what it is.
“Do come in, human Kevin Johnston, of Earth. Grab your bag of clothing,” she says quietly, looking at me.
Nodding, I go to the bed, grab my bag and zip it up, and throw it over my back. I look around, making sure I didn’t forget a shirt or something, and then I head back into the room. Marrisa had been right. While I was here, my clothes had been washed when I was done wearing them. I would leave them in a pile on the floor, and the next day they were returned, washed, pressed, and cleaned.
I walk back into the office with the Elf lady, and the door suddenly slams shut behind me. I continue walking until I am in front of the Elf woman, but this time I notice there is a chair there. Being polite, I wait, standing up.
She looks up at me approvingly. “Very well. I must say, I had my doubts. But honestly, you went above and beyond my expectations. If anything, I owe you an apology of sorts, Mr. Johnston.”
“You do?” I ask her, confused.
“Yes. While we had you here for two weeks of training, we were meant only to give you the full magical course we would give a new recruit. That usually lasts four hours a day. In your case, I kind of pushed you, hoping,” and here she shrugs, “to break you much quicker. But it seems no matter how much we pushed into you, you took it. I essentially gave you, instead of the basics, a full course on Magic that would usually take four years at a Magic school and then much more,” she says cryptically. “How do you feel?” she asks me suddenly, sounding nervous.
“Honestly?” I ask her, and she nods.
“I feel like I got hit by a meteor. No, I feel like I was the meteor, falling from the sky and hitting the ground. I feel sore all over. My head hurts. I feel like my brain is pushing itself from the inside.”
“That’s it?” she asks me inquisitively.
“I mean, I’m parched. I would kill for a beer, and I would love a damn shower. I can only do so much with a sink, washcloth, and a towel,” I tell her with a small laugh.
At that, she smiles. “Sit. Let us discuss your next assignment. Or more accurately, your partner and the world you shall be working on. By the way, my name is Luitta. Please. Sit.”
“Thanks, Luitta,” I tell her, sitting down on the offered chair. “So, where am I being assigned? Since I’m sure I already know who my partner is.”
“Ah yes. You are married to Marrisa Lalouton. Magus Targun’s daughter,” she says, steepling her fingers under her chin and regarding me. That thing I saw in her eyes earlier is there again, and now I see what it was. Calculation. Finally, she nods and says, “You will be assigned to Earth.”
I stare at her, at first not sure I heard her right. “Wait. Did you say Earth?” I ask her, puzzlement in my voice.
“Yes. Is that a problem?” she asks me with that glint again.
“No. But has Marrisa been made aware of this?”
Luitta breaks into a massive grin and barks out a laugh that’s just as musical as her voice. “No. That we are leaving for you to do.”
I stare at her, not knowing if I should be looking at her in horror or laughing my ass off. Instead, I just shake my head and say, “Great. I’m sure she’s still pissed at me anyhow. Might as well add more fuel to the flame.”
“Now, let’s finalize the paperwork, shall we?” Luitta says with a big smile on her face. “I must admit, I am now looking forward to seeing how your career will go. You have more information inside you than most M.A.G.I. Bounty Hunters possess before they come on board. It will be fascinating to read your reports.”
“Shit, reports?” I tell her with a sigh. “I at least thought I had gotten away from those. My last job was just report after report.”
“Good, then you know how to write one already. See! You are already more advanced than a regular recruit.”
And for the next ten minutes we go through more paperwork, finalizing my training. What really shocks me is that I can read it without the translation spell, which I now know how to cast if I need it. Ok, I love Magic.
Chapter Eighteen
After leaving the school and walking through the portal, I look around to get my bearings. Luitta had told me that I now have access to some more Portal locations, just not all of them yet, as I am not fully trained with live training. What I have is basic training. Actually, after saying that and then blushing and saying sorry again, she revealed I had much more than basic training, but I haven’t had a chance to use it live.
When I asked her if what I had was say, what Marrisa had in terms of training, she kind of looked nervous. She made me promise not to reveal it, but I was taking in the information so fast, and as she said, she was trying to break me, so she ended up giving me access to stuff that only advanced students have access to. She said that some of it I would have received later on if I joined groups like what seem to be special forces, but for now I am overtrained. But it’s all theory, I have no experience using it.
The room I end up in after I walk through the Portal is not one I had ever been in before. It looks like the entryway to a building. An apartment building like you would see in my world. Though this one is more upscale, and there is a front desk manned by what I assume is a security guard. The guard is a Beast. Not as large as Bower, but still large enough. Bear as well, if I’m guessing right.
Walking up to him in confusion, I say, “Hi, I just finished my training and they deposited me here.”
“Name?” he asks me politely in a deep voice.
“Kevin Johnston.”
He looks down at a clipboard, scanning the names there, and then finally he looks up at me and nods. “Go on up to room 205. I have your key. Welcome to the building, sir. If you could sign here for the key, that would be great.”
“Sure,” I tell him, not sure
what is going on. I take the offered pen and sign where he says. At least this time it’s not in blood. After taking the pen back, he hands me the key.
“Stairs are right there,” he says, pointing to his left. “Have a good day.”
“You too,” I say, although it comes out sounding more like a question.
Nodding, I head to the stairs and climb up to the second floor. When I get to the landing, I look back down the stairs and think, what the hell is going on? I turn around and look for a door that says 205 on it. When I finally find it, I stand there and look at the key. What? Do I just open it and go in? Shrugging, I do precisely that and put the normal-looking key that I would find anywhere on Earth into the lock, turning it until I hear it unlock with a click. I open the door, walk in, and stop dead in my tracks.
“Surprise!”
I stop, stunned at the image in front of me. The apartment is scattered with balloons, and there is tinsel and even those streamer things everywhere. In the room are Lori, Magus Targun, Mavin, and even Preeka. Marrisa is there as well, but she has a scowl on her face and her arms are crossed. Yeah. I expected that.
“Thanks?” I say, unsure.
“Welcome home, young man. I heard you passed with flying colors,” Targun says to me, holding out a beer bottle.
Lori says, “I heard they kind of went overboard?”
“Yeah, you can say that.” I rub my head, remembering the headaches after each training session. “But I survived. Wait, did you say home?” I ask.
“Yes. Since you are married to Marrisa, you can’t be living in a small one-bedroom apartment like that. So we got you this apartment. Though, I had to help with the down payment,” he says, waving his hand.
“What down payment? Isn’t this a rental?”
“Nope. You own this place. Well, you and Marrisa do.”
“Can’t I pay for the down payment with my bonus?
