As they both cautiously approached the oversized guard, Alex’s legs trembled like a plate of jelly on top of a washing machine. She craned her head up at the creature like she used to when looking at Foragoon. Through the dark slits of the creature’s helm, two moss-coloured eyes peered down at her. Two human eyes.
The guard's full suit of armour clunked and clamoured as it shuffled to the side, revealing a dark, stone wall, carved from top to bottom with intricate symbols. Directly in the middle of the wall was a circle with two layers. The innermost layer contained a sunken hand imprint.
“Place your hand on the wall and tap into the Source,” a woman's tired, deep voice rumbled. Alex’s eyes sprung open in surprise. She was not expecting the guard to be a lady. But now that Alex looked closer, she could see strands of frizzy, mud-coloured hair creeping out the bottom of her helm.
Alex nudged Link with her elbow as if to say “you go,” but he barely moved an inch. So, she shoved him a second time, harder. He got the hint. Link walked nervously towards the wall. He took off his glove and placed a shaky palm on the imprint which looked wide enough to fit a giant's hand.
After a few nerve-wracking seconds, Link’s hand emanated a golden colour with flecks of crimson. The light pulsated for a few seconds and then spread outwards, slowly filling the wall’s slender symbols with its radiant energy. Once the light reached the second layer of the circle, the layer rotated clockwise around Link’s hand, until it finally came to a stop.
He quickly drew his hand back, startled, as the wall begun to part in the middle, eventually revealing a small flight of stone steps leading to a double door embellished with carvings.
Link walked through the parted wall, stumbling slightly as he gawked at his surroundings, then he turned to Alex and motioned her forwards with a hand. Just as she was about to follow him, the shaft of the guard's spear came down abruptly and blocked her path.
“Wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she warned.
“Why?” Alex asked.
On the other side of the wall, Link looked on in confusion.
“He parted the wall, so only he can pass,” she explained. “If you tried to follow . . . well, let’s just say it wouldn’t end nicely for you. Years of nasty enchantments placed by Rhygma himself.”
Alex’s body instantly froze up upon hearing the name. Rhygma—Kilaydis’ former younger brother. The greatest enchanter in Nocera that had ever lived. The first one to have ventured into the Spiritrealm. Who knew what kind of hidden dangers lay sealed behind this wall? Alex took a few wary steps backward.
The guard lifted the spear that had been pressing against Alex’s chest. Judging by her moss-coloured eyes, she seemed pleased by her sudden fear. “I once witnessed thousands of ice shards, flying out of the entrance like a flock of birds, stick a man all over.” The guard shook her head as if to relive the terrible memory. “Messy stuff.”
Upon hearing her story, Alex took one more step back, just as an added precaution. Both sides of the wall closed in, grating against the stone floor. On the other end of the entrance, Link yelled out her name, his voice heavy with panic. The last thing Alex seen before the wall closed was him running towards her.
The guard chuckled. “Bit dramatic that one.”
“He means well,” Alex said, smiling. “He just has separation anxiety.”
There was an awkward silence until the guard cleared her throat and resumed her neutral position: shoulders back, head straight, and her shield and spear tucked close to her sides.
“Place your hand on the wall and open your Gates,” the guard repeated in a tone that made Alex think she’d repeated it a million times.
She did as Link had and took off the glove on her right hand; she then approached the wall with the sealed enchantments behind it. She extended her arm up towards the imprint and then felt her face go hot with embarrassment when she realized she couldn’t reach it. Alex tried standing on her tippy toes, jumping up and down, but it was no use. Damn my shortness!
The guard stared directly ahead, oblivious to her struggles.
“Uh, excuse me,” Alex said, chewing on her lower lip. “I can’t seem to reach the, umm…”
“Oh right,” the guard said, suddenly springing out of her erect position. She placed her weapons down, dropped to her knees, and then gently lifted Alex up by the hips. Even though she was trying to be gentle, Alex could feel the guard’s gauntlets jutting into the bottom of her ribs.
“Thank you,” Alex said, as she reached towards the imprint.
“You’re very welcome,” she said. “Don’t feel embarrassed, you wouldn’t believe how often this happens.”
Alex reached out for the cold stone and scrunched her eyes shut, searching for the Gate she had opened so many times before. When she jarred the entrance open, she was surprised to find her hand glowing a lime green colour with swirls of bright yellow. Then, just like Link’s energy did, it spread outwards and filled the symbols like new buds in springtime.
When the outer circle rotated, unlocked, and the wall parted open, the guard lowered her down and resumed her position by the wall. Alex waved her goodbye then walked through the entrance. She was met by a flustered Link.
“Are you OK?” he asked, holding either side of her cheeks like a worried mother. “What happened?”
“I was only gone for a few minutes, Link. Calm down.”
“You’re right; you’re right. Sorry.” He dropped his hands and then let out a deep sigh of relief. “So, what was the colour of your Mark?”
“My Mark?”
Link looked at her as if her head was hollow. “Yes, your Mark. You know, the colour of your Spirit? When you opened the wall.”
It all made sense to her then. That was why Link had different colours when the symbols lit up. In their book, other than Elemental, one of the most fundamental branches of magic to learn was a branch called Spiritwielding. It was where the wielder would directly utilize their spirit, converting it into energy and using it for offensive or defensive purposes. Just like no two faces were alike, every Gifted had a unique assortment of colours, called a Mark, to represent their spirit.
“Well?” Link asked. “What were they?”
A big smile spread across Alex’s face when the realization came to her. “The same coloured Mark Taytora had in the book.”
Link shoved her shoulder playfully, “See? What did I tell you? We are Taytora and Deonis. We may not be as good looking, but we’ve got all their freakish, God-like abilities. They’re just buried somewhere deep, deep down inside of us.” He smiled at her goofily. She couldn’t help but smile back. “We’ve got this in the bag, Alex. They might as well throw us both in the finals right now.”
“Whoa, whoa,” she said, holding her hands up. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
“It was a joke; lighten up.” He turned around and eyed the new set of doors in front of them. “Ready for your first day of school?”
Alex readjusted her bow slung around her shoulders. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
Alex followed Link as he leaped up the stone steps two by two until they were facing a carved door bound by golden hinges. He reached out for the polished brass knocker, rapped it three times, then he fidgeted with the gorlac brooch on his cloak as they both waited in silence.
After a few seconds, Alex could hear the door being unfastened from the other side, and then they swung outwards to reveal two gold cloaks and a furnished, marbled hall with numerous archways leading from it.
“Proceed to the desk,” a dusty-haired guard said, beckoning them forwards with a gracious smile.
On the left and right sides of the hall were enormous tapestries bursting with colour. Looking closely, Alex realized they depicted tellings of some famous battles. There were fireballs blazing through the air, giants swinging their clubs and horses being charged into a wall of spears.
Alex was so infatuated over the artwork, she didn’t even realize Link had abandoned her and was standing by the large desk at the end of the hall. She quickly power-walked towards him, her eyes still studying all the magical warfare as she passed.
“If you would be so kind as to follow me,” a timid, mousy-faced man behind the desk said when Alex had finally caught up to Link. They followed him wordlessly through one of the archways and up a winding staircase, only stopping when they reached another set of doors. The man knocked twice, waited for the approval of the person on the other side, herded them through the door and then disappeared.
In the chamber, behind a cluttered desk full of scrolls and tablets, sat a plump, pompous little man by the name of Hilsbry. He informed Alex and Link, in between sips of wine from his goblet, that he dealt with all the new students at Baylor and that here they honed the mind before the weapon, so he would be signing the two of them up for literacy lessons right away.
Alex told Hilsbry they could already read and write, but he wasn’t convinced, saying he was a cunning fox who could not be so easily deceived. To prove her point, Alex had to physically get up, walk across the chamber to one of the many bookcases he had, and start reading one of them. Hilsbry spat a mouthful of wine all over his white doublet before Alex could even finish the first paragraph.
After it became apparent to Hilsbry how capable they were at reading and writing, he lead them out of his chamber and back down the flight of stairs, followed by some heavy oak doors bound by golden hinges.
The three of them stepped out into an immense arena buzzing with activity. Alex noticed the field was segregated into different sectors, just like spokes on a wheel. And each of those sections was filled with different surroundings. There was a sector covered with wild trees and grass taller than her head, another full of sand and rocky terrain, one spotted with blazing torches and straw dummies, and then one sector that was a giant lake with stone columns peeping out of the water.
Directly in the middle of the arena was the statue of Baylor, reaching up into the twilight sky, looking bigger than Alex ever could have imagined. And all throughout the expansive area were hundreds of students sparring with one another, and mages conducting lessons, even though it was nearly dark.
“You will be staying at the bottom levels of the sword,” Hilsbry said as they walked briskly across one of the paved pathways that segregated each sector.
“The sword?” Link asked, spinning around as he gaped at the different scenery.
“Yes, the sword,” Hilsbry answered, annoyed.
They passed by a huddle of students all dressed in blue surcoats, each wearing a different mix of armour. In the middle of the cluster was an old man with five straw dummies surrounding him. Silver hair was swept behind his head, and he wore a royal blue cloak with white trimmings. Alex had never seen those coloured trimmings before. She wondered if they were allocated to the master mages of the academy.
The group of students suddenly retreated backward, and her jaw nearly dropped to the ground in shock. The silver-haired man was now covered head to toe in a dark purple and blue Mark, the energy flickering all over his body like tongues of flames.
In the blink of an eye, five tentacle-like arms lashed out from the man's aura, beheading all the straw dummies simultaneously. The tentacles retracted back to the mage and then his energy faded away as quick as it came.
The crowd of students burst into applause, wolf whistling and cheering in approval at their mage’s technique. Alex felt like clapping herself until Link tugged her forwards and told her to keep up. But she didn’t care if she was holding up Hilsbry and her brother. She knew she had just witnessed her first display of Spiritwielding.
To Alex’s surprise, when they walked closer to the statue of Baylor, she realized it wasn’t a statue at all; it was a gigantic, stone castle. Now that she looked up, she could see hundreds of chamber windows lit by flickering candles, and students pouring in and out of doors that were positioned at the arches of its two feet and the tip of the sword sticking into the ground.
Hilsbry guided them to the sword’s entrance and up a spiralling staircase that seemed to never end. He finally stopped on the seventeenth floor and bent over, frantically trying to suck in air like a goldfish out of its bowl. Alex found it amusing considering she had barely broken a sweat. That might have had something to do with the fact she had inherited Taytora’s stamina, though.
“This is your stop, Taytora,” Hilsbry said through huffs and puffs. “Your chamber is down that corridor, third right.”
“What about Lin—” Alex cleared her throat. “Deonis?”
“Your brother is on the twenty-third level,” he answered crudely, his face slowly turning from a bright red to a light pink as he got his breath back. “Boys and girls have separate dwellings here.”
Alex stared at Hilsbry in disbelief; suddenly, she felt physically ill. He couldn’t be serious, could he? Link was the only person keeping her sane. If he were to leave me— she felt like curling up like a child right then and there.
“You should be thankful I even managed to fit you both in,” Hilsbry continued, wiping away beads of sweat from his forehead. “It is July, three months out from the Golden Gauntlet. Baylor’s is always near full capacity this time of the year.” He wrinkled his nose as two tall boys passed by, laughing and pushing one another. “Yes, this place is practically writhing with children trying to get their grubby little hands on some prize money.” He cleared his throat and then forced a smile. “No offense, of course,” he added on.
“There has to be something you can do,” Alex said, panic now creeping into her voice.
“I am afraid not,” Hilsbry said, placing a pudgy little hand on her shoulder and trying to look sympathetic. “Would that I could. Would that I could. Now, a few guidelines before I depart. Here at Baylor’s, all our students are regarded as equals. Whether you are a lord, a singer, a farm boy, a beggar—your status prior to entering this academy is irrelevant. As for magic, you will be permitted to wield it in classes only; any Spells used outside of that and I will see to it myself that Mereen gives you a good kick on the way out of the academy.”
“Mereen?” Link asked before Alex could.
Hilsbry rolled his eyes. “You could not have missed her. That vile, half-giant that intimidates all the drunks and beggars away from the academy. Rather dim-witted creatures, giants; nevertheless, put a few stones in their hands, and they can build you a city wall.” He giggled at his own joke, looking rather pleased with himself.
“I happen to like giants,” Alex said, squinting at him in annoyance.
Hilsbry exaggerated a chuckle. “My dear girl, if you ever happened to cross one, I daresay you would not be singing the same song.”
The blood pounded in Alex’s ears as she tried to contain her rage. “I have met one. And if it weren't for him, Deonis and I wouldn’t be standing here right now. He fought off three horriks and—”
“Quite the imagination,” Hilsbry interrupted curtly. “Now back to important matters. As both your reading and writing skills are surprisingly beyond average, I have skipped the literacy lessons and enrolled you straight into the fundamental classes. You start tomorrow.” He reached into the pocket of his wine-stained doublet and handed Alex a folded piece of paper. “Your timetable. Do not lose it. The books for all your classes are already awaiting you in your chamber. I suggest you begin reading them immediately. Here at Baylor’s we like to hone the mind—”
“Before we hone the sword,” Alex finished with a teasing smile.
To her pleasure, Hilsbry glared at her, looking as if he had just downed a shot of alcohol. “Yes. Well then, we best be off, Deonis.”
He gazed up at the staircase apprehensively which continued to spiral upwards and out of sight. “On second thought, my good lad, you don’t think you could find your own way to your chamber, do you?”
“I think I could manage,” Link answered, clearly annoyed.
Hilsbry sighed in relief, then handed Link his own timetable. “Hailsi have mercy. I am really getting too old for this. Twenty-third level, Deonis, eighth door on the right.” And with that, he waddled back down the staircase.
Link looked at Alex anxiously, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. Unlike Hilsbry’s, his was a caring and heartfelt gesture. “Relax. Just breathe. After what we’ve been through this past month, sleeping six floors away from one another will be a walk in the park.”
“Almost forgot,” Hilsbry said, panting frantically as he reappeared from the staircase. “Dinner will be ready in the Great Hall shortly.”
Link’s fingers tightened on Alex’s shoulder upon hearing the voice, leading her to believe he disliked Hilsbry just as much as she did. “And where exactly is the Great Hall?”
“Baylor’s belly, ironically,” Hilsbry said with a sheepish grin before disappearing.
After the two had said their temporary goodbyes, Alex lumbered to her chamber and put away her weapons and belongings before dinner. The first thing she realized was she was all alone.
A fireplace crackled at the far end of the room and two straw beds and two desks pressed up against either side of the grey stone walls. Mountains of clothes and belongings layered the left side of the room. As Alex looked closer, she was confident she could see the silhouette of a rat nibbling on something under the bed. But that wasn’t the worst thing. Among the dirty clothes on the ground, there was a chamber pot filled to the brim with what she presumed to be pee. She turned her head away in disgust.
Great. Looks like I have a slob for a roommate.
Alex walked over to her side of the chamber, shrugged off her cloak, bow and quiver, then sprawled herself across the bed, stretching her cramped muscles. After camping out in the wilderness and sleeping on jagged stones and thorny bushes, this bed felt as if she were on a giant cloud.
She nestled her head into her pillow. If her belly wasn’t rumbling so loudly, she might have even been tempted to have a little nap.
“Comfy?” A voice whispered from across the room.
Alex immediately shot up and snapped her head towards the noise. A scrawny girl stepped out from a shadow in the corner, eying her suspiciously. Her head was tilted to the side, her dark, tangled hair flowing all the way down to her knees.
“Hello, you must be my roommate,” Alex said politely, trying to hide the fear in her voice.
“Roommate?” the girl asked, tilting her head on even more of an angle. “What is that?” She had a strong lisp, sounding like a snake hissing when she spoke her S’s and T’s.
“Never mind,” Alex said, getting out of her bed and approaching her. She danced around the cluttered objects on her side of the room, feeling as if she was walking through a minefield. She extended her hand out to shake the strangers. “My name’s Taytora; what’s yours?”
“You talk funny,” the girl hissed, retreating into the shadows. “Weird tongue. Stay away.”
Alex pulled back her hand, realizing approaching her wasn’t such a good idea.
Is my American accent startling her? And here I thought I was doing a good job at masking it.
“Why aren’t you in the Great Hall?” Alex asked, trying to spark up a conversation. “Won’t uh, won’t dinner be ready soon?”
The girl giggled wickedly, which gave Alex goose bumps all over, and then pressed a cylinder-like object to her lips. At first, she thought it was a flute. But then there was a sharp “tha” sound, followed by a shriek. Alex looked down to find a needle skewered through the rat that had been under her bed moments ago. That’s when she realized the girl was holding a blow dart.
“Who cares?” the girl asked, re-emerging from the shadows and holding up the dead rat by the tail. “Got food already.”
****
“I’m telling you, Link, she’s got screws loose,” Alex said, as they walked up the staircase she presumed to be positioned in Baylor’s left thigh. “You know what she reminds me of? That girl out of ‘The Grudge.’ That’s who I’m rooming with, Link—the frigging girl out of ‘The Grudge.’”
Link scuffed up his hair as he studied the timetable in his hands. “You think you have it bad? I’m sharing a chamber with a fourteen-year-old boy that won’t shut up. Just keeps going on about how he’s the only Gifted in his family.”
“At least he talks,” she countered. “This girl just dwells in the shadows, watching my every move. This must be Hilsbry’s sick way of getting revenge—rooming me up with her. That pretentious little—”
“Enough,” Link said, holding up a silencing hand.
They continued to follow the masses of students as they climbed the last flight of stairs. As they reached the top, the floor plateaued out into an enormous hall, twice the size of the one they walked into when they had first entered Baylor’s. The hall was filled with six rows of varnished, wooden tables, crowded with hundreds of students squabbling over the food laid before them like a flock of seagulls at the beach.
Alex’s mouth was practically drooling at the variety of meats she could see on offer: goose, ox, venison, duck, hare, boar. Then she spotted wheels of rich cheeses and fresh batches of thick bread.
This is just like Thanksgiving all over again, Alex thought.
Just as she was about to head towards a table with a couple of free chairs, Link mumbled to himself.
“You can’t do this . . . Because it’s unfair and you know it.”
Alex frowned at him, wondering just who in the heck he was talking to.
Link pursed his lips, looking like he was about to lose his cool at any moment. “You’ve caused enough havoc already; you can’t interfere with the plot . . . . Why? Because you can’t just change the story around whenever it suits you . . . No . . . No, I refuse to play your stupid games anymore.”
That’s when she realized he must have been talking to Xavier. Her hands formed into fists. “What did he say?”
Link scratched a spot above his forehead as he tried to act natural. “Nothing. Just Xavier being his usual pesky self.”
Alex whacked him on the arm. “Link, what did he say?”
“He said . . . ” He let out a sigh, rubbing the spot where she had just hit him. “He said he has created a character in the academy—a character so strong he could take out the entire competition without even breaking a sweat.”
Alex’s heart almost came to a complete stop. “What? He can’t do that, can he?”
Link’s eyes darted from student to student, almost as if he was beginning to weigh up the competition. “Apparently, he can. His world, his rules—or so he put it.”
Alex chewed on the inside of her gums. Never in her life had she felt as powerless as she did then. If Xavier could just create characters out of thin air and change the whole structure of their story whenever he felt like it, then just how were they supposed to finish the book and defeat Kilaydis?
As if we didn’t have enough problems already, Alex thought.
“Who’s the character?” Alex asked her brother, her voice almost breaking.
“He’s not telling,” Link said. “All he gave me was a riddle: ‘If unmasking Xavier’s character is all you seek, unravel the serpent before things get bleak.”
Alex turned to him, her eyes narrowed. “That’s it?”
“That’s it,” he echoed.
She eyed off the students, repeating the riddle in her head until she knew it off by heart. She tried to look for the most threatening student—the character a diabolical psychopath would be the most inclined to create. But something told her it wouldn’t be as easy as picking one out of the crowd. Over three hundred students and they had to narrow it down to just one?
The first day of school is always the worst.