by Spoor, Garry
The new boy was taller than Kile, but then most of the boys in the room were. He had long blond hair that he wore pulled back into a pony tail, dark brown eyes and a slightly crooked nose. He smiled nervously at Kile, and Alex just rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, I’m all right. It’s not me he’s mad at… this time.” Alex replied. “Kile, this is Daniel Leary, Danny, this is Kile Veller.”
“Oh… uh… nice to meet you.” Daniel replied as he wiped his hand on his pants before extended it to Kile, she smiled as she shook it.
“You two know each other?” She asked looking from Daniel to Alex. She didn’t know anybody here and felt like the odd person out in more ways than one.
“Yeah, we’re all from Procton, Me, Daniel here, even Carter over there.” Alex said as he shot a thumb over his shoulder, indicated another boy standing some distance away. He turned to look in their direction, probably when he heard his name mentioned.
Now he was more of what Kile had expected a cadet at the Academy to look like. Good height, strong build with short brown hair and stern dark eyes. He looked over at the three of them, fixed his gaze on Kile for a moment before quickly turning away.
“I don’t think he likes me much.” She replied. “What is it with all these people, did I do something wrong? Am I not wearing the right clothes or something?”
“Well… no… not exactly.” Alex said, stifling a laugh. He seemed like a good natured boy, even if he spoke rather quickly.
“It’s not that you did anything wrong, it just… who you are is… wrong.” Daniel added with a slight shrug.
“I don’t understand.”
“Well, basically, you’re a jinx.” Alex blurted out, which earned him a slap on the back of the head from Daniel.
“What… how?” Kile asked.
“Not a Jinx, not exactly, more like… bad news.” Daniel amended.
“Oh, that makes me feel a lot better.” She replied. Being referred to as bad news wasn’t all that much better than being called a jinx in her book.
“Maybe that’s not exactly true.” Daniel said.
“Oh, you think?”
“It’s because you’re a girl.” Alex replied.
“That’s only half of it, but it’s a big part of it.” Daniel added
She knew it was going to be difficult, she didn’t realize how difficult.
“The thing is, we’re being watched, everything we do and say is being studied.” Daniel replied. “Nobody here thinks you’re going to get through the examination so nobody wants to be seen talking to you. They feel that it will look bad for them if they’re discovered talking to someone who… failed.”
“Guilt by association.” Alex added.
“Yeah, Carter really wants to become a Hunter so he won’t do anything to risk his chances, he’s a good guy, but kinda… superstitious.”
“Great that makes me feel a lot better.” Kile replied, not only had she been labeled a bad news jinx, but they had already determined that she was going to fail the exam. What other parts of her life have they already figured out for her? It would be nice if someone could tell her, then she wouldn’t have to be surprised in the future.
“Wait a moment.” She said, looking from one to the other. “If I’m such bad news… why are you guys talking to me. If I’m such a jinx, aren’t you guys afraid to be associated with me? My failure could rub off.”
“Not really.” Daniel replied with a shrug. “I’m not all that interested in becoming a Hunter.”
Well, that wasn’t the answer she had expected as she gave Daniel a second look. It was true that he looked as out of place here as she did, well, maybe not that out of place, but she wanted to be here. Why would anybody put themselves through this if they didn’t want to become a Hunter?
“Danny’s really gifted.” Alex replied as if reading Kile’s mind. “He’s influenced by the sphere of water in the art of healing, I’ve seen it.”
“Sphere of… water?”
“Yeah, Daniel is a natural healer, he works with Quigley back home, but he can’t really learn much more from him. There are only two places where you can really hone your mystic skills. One is, of course, the mystic tower; the other is the Hunter’s Academy. It’s nearly impossible to get into the tower with only one sphere of influence, so the only place he can learn to control his art is at the Academy.”
“Even if I don’t get in, if I can get noticed by the mystics they may teach me anyway.”
“What do you mean by… spheres of influence?”
Alex looked at Daniel, and Daniel returned the look. There was something in that look, and Kile wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know what it was. She suddenly felt stupid and didn’t know why. There was so much about the examinations that she just didn’t know. It wasn’t for lack of trying but information was so scarce back in Riverport, and no one took her seriously enough to try to explain anything. She had come into this blind.
“You don’t know about the spheres of influence?” Alex asked, as if it was such an obvious topic that every child born would have been taught it, but Kile had never heard of them. She knew very little about the mystic arts, only enough to know that she didn’t really trust them.
“Well, simply put.” Daniel started, and Kile knew this was going to get complicated. “All of the mystic arts can be divided into the four basic elemental spheres of earth, fire, wind and water. I’m influenced by the sphere of water, which give me skills in the art of healing. Alex is influenced by the sphere of wind, which gives him the ability to create illusions, just like Carter over there.”
“Yeah, but mine are better.” Alex added, and no sooner had he said it then a small dog appeared in the boy’s hand. It couldn’t have been more than a couple of inches long, and if it wasn’t for the fact that it was semi transparent, Kile could see where someone could mistake it for being real. He quickly closed his hand and the dog was gone.
“What about Eric?” Kile asked. Surely not everyone here had skills in the mystic arts.
“Fire.” Daniel replied almost instantly.
“You sure?” Alex asked.
“Yeah… well, I think so. I saw him light a lantern once, of course that was some time ago, and I could be mistaken.”
“So does everyone have some form of mystic arts?” Kile asked, although she really didn’t want to know the answer. It was just one more thing that would keep her from her goal of becoming a Hunter.
“Not everyone, if by everyone you mean the entire kingdom. Sure everyone is influenced by at least one sphere but not everyone can manipulate that sphere, only a real select few, but in order to become a Hunter you need some knowledge of the mystic arts. They call it the Hunter’s Edge. It’s that one thing that separates the Hunter from… say… a common mercenary; it’s the thing that gives him his advantage.”
“And every Hunter has one?” Kile asked. “Has there ever been a Hunter without an… edge. What about Erin Silvia, does she have an edge.”
“Of course she does, she’s a Hunter.”
“What edge does she have?”
“Nobody knows that.” Alex replied with a look that clearly defined Kile as being as stupid as she felt.
“What Alex means is that Hunters don’t tell anybody about their edge, not even other Hunters.” Daniel replied. “They say that the only two people who will know a Hunter’s Edge, is the Hunter and the mystic that trains them in it.”
One more thing, Kile thought, this was one more obstacle that had to be overcome. Could she fake it? Would they know? If nobody but the mystic and the Hunter knew what your edge was, could she get by without one? The only problem with that little scenario was that she would have to convince the mystic to lie for her, and somehow she didn’t think that would be possible.
“It’s okay if you don’t know it?” Daniel replied, obviously seeing the concern in her face. “Not everyone knows what their sphere is, not until they’re tested.”
“But you guys know.”
> “Well, Yeah, but we have a mystic back in our town that tests all the kids when they turn two. He can tell if they have any real talent and what sphere of influence they fall under if they do.”
“Yeah, but by now she should know if she has any talent, otherwise, what’s the use in taking the exams?” Alex remarked.
Thankfully before Kile could reply, the doors on the far side of the room opened slowly with a loud grinding sound that silenced what little talk there was in the room. Each of the cadets turned and stared into the darkness beyond the open door, each wondering what the next stage of the exam would be.
As she watched she could just make out the shape of a man. The shadows appeared to swirl around him, cloaking him in darkness. It picked up dust from the floor which outlined the very edges of his robes giving him definition and form. It was as if the room was sketching him into existence. When the artwork was done, the dark robed mystic hung over the threshold for a moment, then stepped down into the room and raised his arms.
“Enter.” Was all that he said, and then he was gone, the dust falling to the floor, the shadow slipped back into the darkness, and the man was no more.
Kile hated the mystic arts.
She followed Alex, Daniel and the other boys into the next room, but as she stepped over the threshold she lost sight of them, lost sight of everyone as she stood alone in the center of a small square room with a single desk and another Mystic. This one was draped in purple robes. There was a large book open before him, along with an inkwell and an assortment of quill pens. He slowly picked one up, dipped it into one of the wells and began to write.
“What just happened?” Kile asked, looking around the room. There wasn’t a door behind her, so she couldn’t have come in that way. Then she realized that there wasn’t a door on any of the four walls. There was no physical way in or out the room. Had she failed the exam already? Did they find out she wasn’t sponsored or that she didn’t have a sphere of… whatever it was? There were so many things that could go wrong it was just a matter of time.
“Name please.”
“Where am I? Is this still the exam?”
“That's not really your name… is it?” The Mystic asked without looking up, his pen poised over the blank page of the book.
“Sorry… it’s Kile, Kile Veller.”
“How old are you Miss Kile Veller?”
“Fourteen.”
“Date of birth?”
“The nineteenth of January.”
“How tall are you?”
“Pardon?”
“Tall… as in how far is the top of your head from the bottom of your feet.”
“Oh… I guess five and three.”
He didn’t so much as write down what she said, as his hand just moved across the page and the words formed, not words that she recognized, but words nevertheless.
“Eye color?” He asked.
“I don’t know… green I guess.”
“Aren’t you sure?”
“Well, yeah I’m sure… don’t you know?” She replied as a note of annoyance crept into her voice.
“They’re not my eyes.” The Mystic replied.
“Yeah, but… you can tell by looking.”
“Not really.” He said as he lifted his head, and she saw for the first time that his eyes were wrapped in a purple bandage that matched his robes.
“Oh… I’m… I’m sorry… I… I didn’t know.”
“There is nothing to be sorry about; you did not take my sight… that was my doing.”
“Yeah, but I was… well kinda rude.”
“No, you were being young, and youth lacks the wisdom to be rude. What is your hair color?”
“What… oh, it's red… or kind of reddish brown.”
“I believe it is referred to as… auburn”
“Really?”
“That is what I understand. I can at least put down that you are female, since I do not need to see you to know that. Now, where do you come from?”
“Riverport.”
“What province is that in?”
“Province… I think it’s the Shai Province.”
“Yes, I believe that to be correct at the moment.”
It was not uncommon for someone to not know what Province that they came from, since it was something that could quite literally change overnight without the inhabitance of a town knowing about it.
“Immediate family?” The Mystic asked.
“Yes.”
“Obviously, please elaborate.”
“Oh, Sorry.”
“There is still no need to apologize.”
“Oh yeah, sorry… I mean I’m… Father, mother and one brother.”
“Father’s name?”
“Harold Veller.”
“Mother’s name?”
“Beth Veller.”
“Brother’s name?”
“Leon Veller”
“My name?”
“W-what?”
“Just seeing if you were paying attention. You will be taking the written part of the examination next. You will exit through the door on your right, you will take a seat, once everyone is seated the exam will begin. Do you have any questions?”
“Well… yeah, what written examination? What’s it about?”
“Please proceed to the next room.” The mystic replied as he directed her to the door that suddenly appeared on her right.
“You asked if I had any question.”
“And it is obvious you do, but I did not say I had any answers.”
“Funny… very funny.” She mumbled as she turned to the door. She was beginning to wonder if it wasn’t so much the mystic arts she disliked as it was the mystics.
***~~~***
2
When Kile stepped into the room, she was grateful to see the rest of the cadets. They all look as dazed and as confused as she felt. She could only assume that they must have gone through their own little interrogations with their own little purple mystics, or in this place it could have been the same purple mystic. What did she know?
The room was laid out like a normal classroom or as normal as this place could get, with rows of desk, rows of chairs and a sort of raised platform in the front for the instructor to stand on. As with all the rooms in the tower there was nothing on the walls, it was obvious that mystics didn’t go in for decoration and therefore must lead a rather simple and boring life. That would explain why most of them don’t appear to be all there, she thought as she looked around for a place to sit.
“Kile, over here.”
She saw Alex pointing at an empty desk beside his own, and she was all too happy to sit next to somebody who didn’t think she was a jinx. As she took her seat she noticed Eric on the far side of the room. He didn’t seem to notice her, or was just ignoring her. Either way, as long as he stayed over there, she had nothing to worry about. Daniel was sitting on the other side of Alex and on the other side of Daniel was Carter.
“So, you made it.” Alex remarked as Kile sat down.
“Made it? Was that part of the exam too?”
“No, not really. That was just information gathering, nothing all that important.”
“How do you know?”
“Mystics that wear the purple robes are historians. They observe history as it happens. They write it all down and force kids like us to read about it in school.”
“Well, I don’t know how good an observer mine was, he was blind.”
“They all are.”
“Are you serious?”
“All the historians are blind, that way they can’t be influenced by what they see.”
Kile wasn’t sure if she was ready to follow that line of reasoning, but she didn’t have to think about it for long as the door in the back of the classroom opened and the silence was disturbed by the scrapping of chairs on stone as the class turned as one to see who had entered.
It was the first man Kile had seen since she had arrived at the tower who was not wrapped in the
robes of the mystics. Instead he was dressed in a dark green tunic, brown pants and a gray wool coat. He wore high leather boots that ended just below his knees, and a wide leather belt with a bronze buckle. He was a tall man, rather thin with a good natured face. He had short black hair, a neatly trimmed beard and silver blue eyes, the color of which were disturbingly familiar, although she couldn’t exactly remember from where.
He looked around the room once, smiled and proceeded up to the raised platform. His movements were so fluid that Kile was sure his feet never touched the floor, and the cadets turned with him as he passed. There was something very strange about this individual but Kile couldn’t put her finger on it. Before he even reached the platform, the door opened again, and again the class turned as one to see who else had entered.
The second man wasn’t so good natured. He was a large broad man with a flat topped haircut, dressed in brigand leather and sporting a long sword at his side. His face looked more weather beaten and harder than the armor he wore. He looked around the room, focusing on each individual face as if burning them into his memory. Each boy he looked at could only hold his stare for a few moments before having to look away. When his eyes fixed on Kile there was a change, ever so subtle, but it was there. He didn’t like her; he didn’t want her there and at that moment Kile didn’t want to be there.
He moved along the back wall of the room, almost as if he was trying to blend into the shadows. His eyes never left the cadets. He was like a cat stalking a mouse, just waiting for it to make a move so he could jump. He stopped in the corner, turned to the man on the platform, folded his rather large arms over his chest and stood in silence. Kile was finding it hard to concentrate with him standing there.
The door opened for a third time and again everyone turned to see who was joining them, and this time Kile was surprised to see who it was.
Her short black hair, her bright green eyes, and the way she walked, the way she moved, the way she smiled, Kile remembered it all. Erin Silvia had just entered the room. She moved with a subtle grace as she approached the man on the raised platform. The boys were nearly falling out of their chairs as their eyes followed her every step. She glanced around the room casually, looking at each of them in turn, and when her eyes fell upon Kile, she winked.
