As much as Mackenzie loathed her home, at least she got to sleep in.
Here, not so much.
A screeching siren of an alarm jolted her awake from her slumber. She cursed whoever set the alarm and threw of the bed covers, muttering and giving said person a shockingly filthy middle name.
She dragged herself out of bed. Her roommate, some girl named Jynhue something-or-other, had long woken up and left the room. Typical. Last one to wake as always.
After tugging her black with yellow highlights hair into ponytails, she pushed open the door and ran down the winding stairs. She shoved aside other students, impatient with their sleepy steps.
She ran through the hallways, gesturing rudely at anyone who tried to stop her. Arriving at the canteen, she threw open the doors and sauntered in.
Today was the first day of training and she, Mackenzie Pengyi was going to leave her mark, make her impression on others that she wasn’t someone to mess with.
Here I come, loud and proud.
She grabbed her tray, loaded with food, off the counter, glaring at the students behind her, annoyed at all the impatient whispering. If looks could kill, I’d have a hill of dead bodies.
Mackenzie scanned the room for Harker, or the kleptomaniac brothers Farou and Rouale – some might call them friends, but Mackenzie preferred to say that they didn’t infuriate her as much as everyone else.
Once she spotted them, she marched over to the table, slamming her platter down and shoving Harker aside to make room for her.
She waited for him to snap at her – part of our ‘friendship’ – but he seemed lost in thought. His food, which was being stolen by the sneaky pincers of the brothers, was barely touched. He frowned at the distance, letting his spoon drop with a clatter.
“What’s up?” She questioned, poking Harker with a webbed finger.
“He’s dad came back yesterday,” Farou said, with his mouth full, much to her disgust. “After he left.”
“So? Your daddy comes home, and suddenly the skies are dark and life has no meaning?” Her tone was sarcastic, but deep down, she had an inkling to why Harker seemed so distracted, based on what she knew…
Harker glared at her, his claws making deep cuts onto the metal table. “He came. Stayed for a few hours, than left.”
Mackenzie would never have guessed that Harker had an emotionally raw side. Something snapped in him and he let his hand drop, putting his face to the table.
“He didn’t even bother to say anything to me,” He murmured miserably, talking to himself more than the others. “Probably didn’t even remember I was leaving. But, he never did pay me attention, did he?”
Mackenzie turned away. She had no words to say, and for once, kept her mouth shut. Ironically, she should be the one understanding, with her family. Mine’s the height of dysfunctional.
“What are we doing today?” Rouale said casually. The brothers were ignoring Harker – because they didn’t care, or they knew Harker wanted to be left alone, Mackenzie couldn’t tell.
“Oh, the usual,” Farou said dreamily. “Maybe we’ll break the doors, so whoever opens them will make it fall. Maybe pour sludgy slime down the halls. Put pins on chairs would be cool too.”
His brother smacked him upside on the head, much to Mackenzie’s amusement. “No, dummy! I like the ideas, but I meant what class!”
“Ah,” Farou nodded. Suddenly, he held up Harker and Mackenzie’s armbands. They dared to steal my stuff!
Farou tapped his, Mackenzie and Harker’s armband. Three projected screens showed up. He crammed food in his mouth and tried to look at all three at once, only succeeding at crossing his eyes.
“You’re an idiot,” Rouale said candidly. “Our class is doing scroll magic, but I hate writing things; Harker’s class is doing Technology and Engineering, which I suppose is fine if you like your hands getting stained with oil; and Mackenzie’s getting Combat magic! Oh man, wish I’m attending that.”
“Scroll magic! Ugh, could this day get any worse?” Farou moaned. “I left my things in the room! And our room is on the topmost level in the tower!”
Mackenzie snorted. Sure, the brothers were dumb as rocks, but they were great comic relief.
It was great to have something to distract her mind from the last conversation – more like a shouting match – she had with her mother…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Are you Luke Criollo?”
He turned around, looking for the speaker. It was the boy who had argued with him at the mountain yesterday. “Yes.”
“Humph.” He went back to fiddling with something under his desk. Then he apparently changed his mind and looked up again.
“Echalo Freru.” He stuck his hand out but didn’t look at Luke. This whole conversation was weird. Luke shook it anyway, bemused.
“Any siblings?”
The way he said it made Luke feel suspicious, like he actually knew the answer, but asked to see his reaction. “Younger sister.”
“Nice try. You’ve got a brother too, don’t you?”
Luke didn’t understand why anger flared up at that, but it did. How does he even know that?
“If you know the answer, why did you ask?” He demanded. No one was supposed to know. Not now, not ever.
“I just do,” He smiled devilishly, obviously enjoying Luke’s reaction.
“Well then, shut up,” Luke snarled, unsure where all the anger was coming from, yet willing to use it.
Echalo turned up his nose with a superior look and turned away, fiddling with whatever was under the desk.
Luke buried his head in his arms. He was ashamed of the crazy outburst, but he still felt defensive and suspicious. How did he know? I’ve never met him before. He couldn’t have met my twin either.
The only answer was that Echalo must have found out from someone. Luke wondered if Echalo lived nearby his home. He was fairly sure he didn’t; he would’ve known.
Velias knew Luke had a twin. However, he didn’t know Luke’s complete story. But there were too many holes in that theory. One, why would Velias tell Echalo anyway? Two, if Velias did tell, and Echalo knew, why would he ask Luke about it?
He searched his mind for someone else who knew. He flashed back to the conversation at the tram compartment. Zeke. Though Luke hadn’t known Zeke very long, he trusted him enough not to go around spilling family secrets to strangers.
He finally came up with a workable theory. Echalo must have seen him somewhere with Zelean – maybe at the City – and overheard him talking about Leonard. He did talk to Zelean about his twin a lot.
He heard the door opening and straightened up. Professor Pirelou was very strict about sleeping in class. Even putting your head on the table could earn you punishment, as Velias discovered yesterday.
The general racket of nineteen other students quietened down to hushed whispering. Several of them hastily made themselves presentable.
Luke heard whoever was coming in before they actually entered, due to the loud bang of the door flying open and hitting the wall.
Someone rushed in, arms full of papers, combat boots stomping the ground. It wasn’t the stern professor though.
She dumped the stack of papers on the desk, nervously tapping a device next to her pointed ear. She whirled around to face them. Her cheeks heated up, realizing that she was in a room full of people.
Luke judged her to be an Eshenqi and Human half-blood. Her dark blue hair lengthened at the front, half covering her face. She had the usual red symbols and grey markings of an Eshenqi. Her collar and bangle was decorated with gems, her dress intricately patterned. Strangely, instead of the usual golden irises associated with the Eshenqi, her eyes were milky white.
“Oh, um, hi everyone,” She said with a nervous laugh. She tapped the device again. “I’m Professor Pirelou’s assistant, Taryon Matuit. She’ll be along in a minute.”
“Oh, and, I’m blind, so I can’t see a thing right now, because my device broke,” She added. “I hope you won’t try to take advantage of that.”
Meanwhile, Julian hadn’t been paying the slightest notice to Taryon. He lazily flicked a paper air plane at someone. He must’ve figured Taryon wouldn’t have noticed.
He was proven wrong.
At an impossible speed, Taryon suddenly thrust out her hand and caught it, in a blink of an eye. Impossible – how did she know it was there?
“I may be blind, but I’m not stupid,” She said briskly, crumpling the paper. Julian stared, open-mouthed. “Did you think I wouldn’t hear you flick?”
“I’ll be seeing you later,” Professor Pirelou’s voice echoed. Unnoticed by everyone, she had already entered. She glared at her son, who slouched back.
“Today we’ll be doing Combat magic,” She began, Taryon slinking away into the shadows. Professor Pirelou snapped her fingers.
Out of the blue, all the tables and chairs sank into the floor and reappeared at the side, creating ample space in the center. Most students jumped up at once; the rest fell on their bums.
“You will be paired up. Both of you will duel. But do not worry, none of you will get hurt. I have invited Taryon to come as she is an expert healer,” Professor Pirelou began. “Now, kindly check your armbands for your partners. Go find them and find a place where you will not interrupt others. You may start.”
Luke tapped his armband, which projected a screen. Just my luck, stuck with Julian. Not that Luke had anything against him, but Julian seemed like too much of a slacker to take this seriously. I’d probably beat him in three seconds.
He wrung his hands, residue sparks flying. Fire, water or electricity? He could already feel power building up, ready to blast out. He looked up as Julian came over. Both of them faced each other. Okay, I’ll go easy on him.
Julian grinned, raising both his hands. “Ready or not, here I come.”
In a flash, a glowing avatar of a Qweylon surrounded him. The fiery lizard-horse-combination animal shimmered a bright red, screeching and shrieking. It threw back its scaly head, ready to charge.
Julian pointed at Luke, who gawked at the avatar, too stunned to react. He hadn’t expected this. Sure, he knew Julian wasn’t completely stupid, but to summon an avatar this big?
Instantly, the avatar galloped forward. It lifted up its forelegs and brought it down hard, causing a tremor throughout the room, centering on its target. The quake knocked Luke off his feet. Okay, maybe I won’t beat him.
He got to his feet again, resolving not to get distracted. He summoned his power, electricity encircling his hand. Julian’s hair stood on an end, but he didn’t look bothered. He simply turned away to watch others, leaving his avatar to do his dirty work.
The Qweylon avatar’s tail whipped past Luke’s head, who ducked just in time. He snatched at the tail, electrocuting it. A screech sounded. Lightning flashed. The avatar dissolved.
Unfortunately, Julian had seen that coming. While Luke had been fighting the avatar, he had called up another one, bigger and better.
It ran toward him, faster than the first, and cuffed him on the head with a tail smack, making him fall back. Luke thought the avatar was just an image, but the cuff felt very, very real. And it hurt. A lot. He could already feel the splitting head ache coming on.
He groaned, no strength to get up. The bump throbbed painfully. He saw a pair of boots next to him and looked up. A stricken Julian had called off the avatar. “Man, I didn’t think- never mind, I’m sorry. Taryon should be able to heal you though.”
“Of course I can,” An indignant voice replied. “Move off now, go tell your mother. I’ll handle this.”
Taryon kneeled down next to Luke, after shooing Julian away. Up close, Luke noticed her eyes weren’t completely white, as he had supposed. They were an interesting color; like they were gold once, but washed out too many times until it faded away, showing a blank canvas, left only with traces.
“Let me see that,” She muttered soothingly. She touched his forehead, the red markings starting to glow. Shimmering golden threads crept up her arm, gathering at her fingers and spreading across his forehead. In a matter of seconds, it was healed. “Not a big injury, anyway. At most you’ll just have a migraine, since this is magic.”
Luke gingerly touched his forehead. It didn’t hurt anymore. “Are we going to get hurt all the time from now on?”
She cracked a grin. “Oh, many times. Magic does have its side effects. Maybe you will gain a metal arm, scar your face, lose your hearing or even have your powers cut off.”
“Please tell me that won’t happen.”
She laughed. “I’m kidding. But of course, you never know. Welcome to the world of risk.”[Ma1]