Evan met back up with Jed and Emillia at the entrance to Castle-Coterie’s fifth floor. They were observing the computerised hole-in-the-wall.
“Hey dude.” Jed looked up as Evan joined them. “This map says our new training chamber is on this floor, right?”
Evan leaned between Jed and Emi’s shoulders and pointed at the map on the computer screen. “Yep. Look, it’s next to that vending machine a few corridors away.”
“I told you Jed, you dumbass,” said Emi.
“You’ve got the gall to call me dumb?”
“What gall?” Emi asked.
“See, you just illustrated my point perfectly.”
“I didn’t draw anything,” she complained.
Jed and Evan shared a grin as they all set off.
When they reached the right passage, they saw their classmates already filing through the door. They quickly followed after.
Evan was irritated to find they’d be sharing this class with Fenik and Firk as well. The two boys smiled as they saw him enter and Fenik waved condescendingly.
Plush red carpet covered the chamber’s floor and the walls overflowed with pictures and ornaments. Gold railings had been set an inch away from the walls, much like a museum.
The ornaments, ranging from ancient guns to exquisite pieces of jewellery, gave the air of being impossibly expensive. It looked like the bedroom of a medieval king. At the end of the chamber were a few modern items, however. A red sofa and table stood beneath a portrait of an old manor house by the sea. The sofa was angled toward a large TV.
In the corner of the room was a slightly ajar door. Through the crack, Evan saw a colossal four-poster bed. He knew that most Masters had bedrooms adjoining their training chambers. As there was no Master present, Evan assumed this Magoris was in there.
The only other furnishings in the gargantuan chamber were the small desks for the Realmers.
As Evan took a seat he was surprised at how uncomfortable the chair was and how cheap the desks looked compared to the rest of the room.
Emillia sat beside him. Jed, however, stared at the ornaments on the wall. As he went to touch some sort of ancient musket, the railing shot up and slapped his hand. There was a flash of electricity and Jed leaped back. “Oww, what the hell?”
“Keep your filthy hands to yourself!”
The Apprentices all turned to see the speaker. Evan could only surmise that this was their new Master. Magoris entered from the side room, slamming the door shut behind him and glaring.
The Master of Extended Sorcery was fatter than he was tall, immensely bloated and barely five-feet tall. He wore one big white robe, filled to bursting with his weight and which fell right down to his pointed gold slippers.
He was extremely ugly. Evan felt bad, but there was no other way to put it. His head was huge and round, like a pink bowling ball, decorated with greasy strands of grey string that passed for hair. His eyes were tiny and filled with loathing for everything and everyone. His acne-ridden skin was flushed and his upturned pig-nose flared with fury.
Master Magoris smirked at them, his teeth yellow and rotten. A distinct odour radiated from his obese body, stale sweat mixed with wine and meat.
“First things first,” Magoris began. “The items in my collection are for me only. Vanderain would not permit me my own treasure vault, despite Veneseron’s vast size, so I must keep them here. Don’t even look at them if you can help it. They’re astoundingly valuable, not for nasty children.”
Jed shot an incredulous look at Evan, whispering, “What a dick.”
Magoris’s unpleasant smile changed to a genuine grin as his eyes clapped on to the newcomers.
“Ah yes.”
Three small Novices struggled into the room, carrying platters of food. They set them down on Magoris’s desk as he scooted forward eagerly.
“Careful boy,” he snarled at one Novice when he almost dropped one of the plates.
Magoris waved the Novices off without a word of thanks, before settling down to his vast meal.
Evan couldn’t believe it as the Master began stuffing his face.
“What’re you all staring at?” Magoris noticed most of the class looking at him.
“Get on with your notes. Can’t a man eat in peace? Oh, how I loathe teenagers.”
“Why did you become a Master then,” Jed spoke up.
Magoris’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t become a Master willingly, believe me. I’d rather be anywhere than here, training ungrateful Ushks like you.”
“You can’t swear at us,” said Jed.
“I Glarqing well can,” Magoris snapped. “Detention for you, sonny.”
Firk and Fenik grinned like gargoyles from their seats.
“What for!” Jed shouted.
“For answering back.” Magoris bared his horrible teeth. “The other Masters are far too soft on you lot. I’m telling you now that crap won’t fly with me. If you don’t do exactly as I tell you, I’ll make your lives hell.”
Evan gave him a warning look and Jed reluctantly fell silent.
“It’s not worth it, Jed,” he whispered. “We’ll never get to hang out if you’re in permanent detention.”
“Now then.” Magoris sat back in his sofa and turned on the TV.
Evan and the other new Apprentices exchanged looks of disbelief as Magoris settled down with his bowl of Pixie popcorn and started sniggering at the gnomish sitcom.
“But Master,” said Sabine, “what are we making notes on?”
Magoris paused his TV irritably.
“From the books in the back-cupboard, isn’t it obvious? Summarise the chapter on creating Holographic items from the tome Extraneous Sorcery for the Elite. The curriculum says you need to learn how to conjure your own Holograghs, so reading about it should be good enough.”
All of the Novices groaned under their breath and did as they were told.
*
Jed slouched on the chair in Evan’s room, doing something Evan had never seen him do out of class, reading.
“Damn it.” Jed looked over at Evan in frustration.
“What is it?” he replied sleepily. Just sitting on his bed made the exhaustion from training hit him.
“You know there’s loads of other strongholds for Realmers besides Veneseron, well, I was sure Elijah was lying when he told me about some of them. I bet him that I could prove him wrong, but the little know-it-all was right. This book says that one of these strongholds is in a realm named Ellarunda, which is almost entirely ocean. Listen.” Jed bent closer to the page and quoted, “Blutopolis is situated underwater, like a giant aquarium. It's a beautiful place, even with all the Sea dragons.’ Crikey, you hear that? And look at this stronghold, it’s called Sygorn Palace and floats in the sky. Oh, man, and this other stronghold is a giant spaceship!”
Evan got up and leaned over Jed’s shoulder to check, the first line he saw read, ‘and then there is Falcia Fortress, which is four interlinked pyramids situated in the middle of an ice jungle.’
“Whoa.” He grinned at Jed. “And we thought Veneseron was weird.”
“Oh Dude, I forgot to mention,” said Jed, snapping the book shut. “Did you know there are hot Brazilian twins in this establishment? Forget other strongholds, this is even better.”
“Great,” Evan grunted, sitting back on his bed awkwardly.
“Oh I forgot. Have you gone off girls since the last one turned out to be a dangerous lunatic?”
Evan flinched.
“Sorry,” Jed dropped his easy manner for once. “I’m still learning you can’t joke about everything. How are you with it…Cera, I mean?”
Evan shook his head, struggling to find words. “It feels like a sick joke. The whole time I meant nothing to her. I was just someone she needed to make trust her so she could deliver me to a Dread Lord.”
“As payment, so she could continue borrowing his magic, right?” Jed asked.
“Yeah, she was willing to sacrifice my life so she didn’t h
ave to live hers as a normal person. Well, in her Father’s eyes she would’ve been a freak without sorcery, but you can’t change the way you’re born.”
“Agreed,” said Jed, “I mean I think having sorcery is awesome, but I wouldn’t sacrifice some other dude to demons for it. Well, maybe Sintian… just kidding. So do you still fancy her?”
“What! After what she did? I know this Falawn was the one who let the demons in, but she could’ve stopped it. Cera put all of our lives in danger too.”
“I know, I know,” Jed said, “but they always say in movies you can’t stop loving someone and all that rubbish.”
Evan thought for a few seconds. “No, I don’t think I fell in love with Cera. Maybe I would’ve done, providing she wasn’t a terrible traitor I mean. She was my first sort-of-girlfriend though. Well, I’d never even been on a date before her. Hell, I’d never kissed a girl before Cera.”
Jed chortled. “You’ve only kissed one girl in your life.”
“How many have you then?” Evan said.
“Oh too many for me to remember, my friend,” Jed sighed, as if reminiscing.
“Sure.” Evan wasn’t convinced.
“Okay, it’s around thirty, I know that much,” Jed admitted.
Evan raised his eyebrows.
“All right, it’s about twenty.”
Evan raised his eyebrows higher.
“Okay, okay, but it’s definitely ten.”
Evan chuckled, “At least that’s nine more than me.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it, mate. It’s all good. I mean, yeah your first and only tongue-lashing was with a traitor to everything we stand for, but she was pretty damn hot. Every cloud eh?”
Evan picked up his pillow and threw it at him.
Just then the door burst open and Elijah tumbled in.
“Guys, have you heard?” Elijah asked breathlessly. “An Apprentice girl has been kidnapped!”
“No way,” Jed yelled.
“Are you sure?” Evan leaped upright.
“Not entirely,” Elijah admitted, “but she’s gone missing. Well, she left a note in her room saying she’d decided to run away, but…”
“For Rueda’s sake, Elijah,” Jed sighed. “You exaggerate everything. I thought you were being serious.”
“I am! The note is a lie. I’ve known Cece for years and she would never run away.”
“I didn’t know people could run away from Veneseron,” said Evan.
“It’s almost unheard of,” Elijah said. “On the rare occasion a Venator wants to leave, they talk to the Masters and get a sorcery chip, but…”
“I just saw Cece yesterday,” Jed interrupted.
“Oh yeah, she’s in a few of my new classes.” Evan realised.
“Exactly,” said Elijah, “Cece and I were Novices together. She’s been here for three years and always seemed happy. There’s no way she’d sneak through the city portal and go into the realms without finishing her training.”
“Is that what the note said?” Evan asked.
“I’m not sure. Her brother Enzo has told everyone he found a note in Cece’s room. The note said she’d run away because she didn’t want to be here anymore. But even he didn’t believe it. If Enzo says his sister has been kidnapped, then I believe him.”
“Did he say Cece had been kidnapped, or just missing,” Evan asked.
“Well, he didn’t use the word kidnap,” Elijah hesitated, “but that’s what happened, I know it.
“By who?” Jed asked. “Dark-Venators, demons? That’s impossible with Vanderain back.”
“I don’t know,” Elijah admitted, “but Cece’s note was a fake. Something happened to her. And I’m going to find out what.”
“Sorry Sherlock,” Jed muttered.
*
“More Dread Lords will come after Evan and Brooke,” Vanderain said by way of greeting. “The disciples too, should word spread that the demon-spawn truly exist.”
Tarensen struggled to control the emotions that had been boiling inside him, ever since he learned of the spawn. His father was going about this all wrong. He doubted Taretta would side with him either.
The three of them were in his quarters. Tarensen had demanded Vanderain speak to him after failing to find his Father in his own quarters several times already. He sensed Vanderain had been avoiding him ever since he returned to Veneseron.
Vanderain and Taretta had taken their seats, but Tarensen paced furiously, trying to hold his temper.
“Why so irritable?” Vanderain asked him politely.
“I want answers,” he said.
“I’m afraid I don’t have all the answers, Taren.”
Tarensen snorted, “Or you just keep them to yourself.”
“My boy, you sound like a sulking child,” Vanderain replied with good humour.
Tarensen ground his teeth, biting back the insult he longed to throw.
“What I know,” said Vanderain, “is hard to express to others. When you have lived as long as I memories often blur and merge together. Many things I have forgotten, but none have been completely erased. I still remember whispers, and now these whispers are returning. I vaguely recognise fragments of things I ought to remember. There’ve been many signs throughout the worlds, all pointing to one thing. Something is coming, but I know only a fraction of the puzzle.”
“More riddles. What can you tell us?” Tarensen urged.
Vanderain paused for a moment, deep in thought. “I’ve no problem divulging anything to you two, I trust you. I don’t know how all this will turn out long-term, but I have an immediate plan going forward.”
“Which is?” Taretta asked.
“I will teach them,” said Vanderain, “I will teach Evan and Brooke how to harness their power so they cannot hurt themselves or anyone else.”
“That’s preposterous,” Tarensen growled. “You should take their sorcery away, permanently.”
“You can’t be serious?” Vanderain stared at him.
“Aye,” said Tarensen. “They are too much of a danger left unchecked. Do you want Evan or Brooke to accidentally start ripping the souls out of their fellow Venators?”
“Of course not! That’s why I will teach them how to use their powers correctly. Like we have taught all Venators here, for millennia.”
“That’s not the same,” Tarensen said. “Veneseron has instructed countless young magic-users throughout history, but we’ve never taught a Venator who could wield demon sorcery. We don’t even know if you can train them. In all your years, Father, you’ve never encountered a demon-spawn. You must block their power using what you do know. You’re strong enough for that at least.”
Tarensen paused before speaking, he didn’t want to voice it, but he knew it had to be said. “If you cannot block their demonic side, we must kill them.”
A chill hung in the room, Taretta appeared to be holding her breath.
“I will never harm one of my Venators!” Vanderain yelled, his face white with fury.
“You must see reason,” Tarensen replied. “If the prophecies are true, demon-spawn could be the destruction of entire realms. Regardless of prophecy, demon magic is evil. Evan or Brooke could accidentally slaughter their fellow Venators. And what if Evan and Brooke decided to turn against Veneseron? Don’t pretend none of our Venators have ever betrayed us before. Look at the Sangel girl recently. If the stories are true, demon-spawn could not only destroy whole worlds and millions of lives, but they could be the key to resurrecting Ezanathul.”
He saw Taretta flinch when he spoke the demon god’s name, but his father remained stone-faced.
“And what if it’s true that Ezanathul can be resurrected?” Vanderain said. “The other prophecy claims only a demon-spawn could kill Ezanathul again if he ever returned. And you would have us kill what could be our only salvation?”
“If Evan and Brooke are destroyed, Akirandon or any other won’t be able to sacrifice them to bring Ezanathul back,” Tarensen countered.
“There are other spawn she can use for that,” Vanderain said, “and we will still have slain children, and our own kind, over mere superstition.”
“You’re both right,” Taretta said suddenly, stepping between them. “But Tarensen you are too harsh and Father you are too naive. You must accept that Evan and Brooke are now a great risk, mostly to the other Venators safety. Yes, you should block their demon powers, but there is no need to kill them.”
Vanderain looked crestfallen. “But they can use their powers for good. Just because they are demonic does not mean they are inherently evil, they could-”
Tarensen cut across. “They could also use their power against us. Hell, they could be stronger than you one day! You see the good in people far too much, father. Like Taretta said, you’re naïve. For an immortal you should know better. What are two lives taken when it could spare millions?”
“We have no reason to believe they could cause millions to die,” Vanderain cried. “They’re teenagers, just Venators in training.”
“Enough,” said Taretta. “Block their demon sorcery, father. You’ve done it to Dread Lords, I’m sure you can do it to them too.”
Vanderain sighed tremendously. “I’ll ask them. If they choose to let me block their powers, I will. But I’ll not force it upon them, like a muzzle to a dangerous animal.”
“They don’t have a choice,” Tarensen growled.
Vanderain glared at him, but the glare softened to a look of great sadness. “After it’s done I will focus again on looking for more information on demon-spawn, so I can teach them about their powers.”
Tarensen made to cut in, but Vanderain spoke over him.
“Tarensen, can I trust you to start searching for the other spawn, and not to kill any should you find them, I mean it.”
Tarensen nodded, “Of course you can. I’m loathe to harm any Venator as much as you, I’m just being logical. Regardless, I wouldn’t do such an act without your counsel.”
Moonlight War- Act I (The Realmers Book 2) Page 11