Even after a month, I still had no clue where Foxway was, geographically speaking. It could be anywhere from the middle of the Sahara Desert to the middle of the Lake District and I don’t think I’d be surprised at either. I had planned to ask Greyford about it at some point, but I honestly had more important things to worry about. The sky was grey, for pretty much the first time since I’d got here. I laughed a little when I realised that. It was almost as if the weather knew that everything had gone to shit and had decided to match the mood.
I had, by that point, completely phased out from whatever was going on in the lesson. That meant it genuinely made me jump when the bell went to end the lesson. I definitely didn’t need that. With my brain as it was, I was already jumpy enough, so I didn’t need anything making that worse. I stood up and walked straight out of the classroom. The voices tended to get worse around lots of people, almost as if they were trying to compensate for the noise.
After spending lunch alone, by the lake, of all places, I found myself in the library. I had a session scheduled with Artemis, but she had someone else to worry about until about 20 minutes into the lesson, so I stayed in the library for a bit.
I scoured the shelves for anything that might give me more information about any of the half-a-dozen questions I had constantly bouncing around my head at that point. Some information about the Arch Stone would have been nice, but I honestly wasn’t expecting to find anything. And, to be honest, there wasn’t really anything that told me anything more about what the stone was, or what it did, or how it did it. But I did find one that sent me on my first journey down to Greyford’s office for a month.
I pushed the door open and dropped the book down on the table.
“What does this mean?”
“Hello, Miss George…” The professor turned around in his chair to face me. He looked down at the book and picked it up. “I see…” He flicked through the book.
“What does it mean?”
“Did you read it?”
“Yes.”
“Then you tell me what you think.”
“It talks about some kind of Guardian…”
Greyford nodded. He snapped the book shut and placed it back down on the table.
“We know very little about the exact purpose of the Arch Stones, but what we do know is that they have a certain amount of… Not quite sentience, but…” he trailed off. I don’t think I’d ever seen him do that before. It worried me slightly. “When someone touches an Arch Stone, and it accepts them, it… Well, it does what it did for you. It chose you and made you its holder. But there’s more than that. You are in possession of one of the most powerful magical objects in existence, as you know. But you need to be more than just the holder.” he explained. “What did the book say?” he tested me. “What did it say that the Guardian is?”
He handed me back the book. I opened it to the page that I had read through.
“The Guardian… It’s…” I scrambled, looking through the book for the answer.
“It’s exactly what it says.” Greyford chuckled. “The Guardian’s job is to protect their Arch Stone. We may not understand the Arch Stones, but we know that they are powerful. And there are many groups of people who would kill for that power. And that isn’t an exaggeration,” he warned. “The Stones grant their Guardians the power to protect the stones, but there is a limit to this. The Stones are powerful, but you cannot rely on its power. You must be able to protect that object around your wrist with your life, and with your own power. Do you understand?”
I looked down at my hands. They were shaking. You’re scared? The voice asked.
“I’m not scared… I’m just… surprised…” I lied.
You’re not scared? You really should be…
“I’m not scared…”
Yes, you are…
“Okay, fine, yes, I guess I am…”
“Are you okay?” Greyford asked. I had kind of lost it there, I think. I just started talking to myself again. I kept doing that. I mean, I guess I had an excuse, but I still looked crazy. I shook the voices off and nodded.
“I’m fine. Just…”
“Your voices?” he finished my sentence.
“Yeah… I’m fine…” I repeated. “What were you saying?”
“Do you understand what you have to do?” Greyford asked again.
“I…”
“You need to be able to protect yourself. And you need to be able to protect the stone.”
“I… I don’t know how I’m going to do that…”
“As you are at the moment, you can’t.” Greyford replied. “We will have to train you.”
“Train me?”
“As you are at the moment, you have no chance of protecting yourself from an attack from, well, anyone. We need to train you to an expert level, both in combat magic and traditional hand-to-hand combat.”
“Fighting?”
“One month ago, one of the most dangerous Magicals we know of made his way into the school. You almost died, and that was just when he was attacking your sister. Now, Elijah Blake knows that you possess an Arch Stone, people will come for it. For you. You need to be able to protect yourself.”
“Why me?” I asked.
Greyford sighed.
“Truthfully? I’m not sure. You were given the chance because of your ability to keep an open mind; that was how you were able to get past the seal that we put over the door. But as for why the Arch Stone accepted you? I don’t think we’ll ever know. But that isn’t important. What is important is that you have been chosen, and that, because of that, you have a responsibility to protect the Stone. So, will you let me train you?”
I looked down at the stone tied around my wrist and clenched my fist.
“I’ll do it.”
*
I walked out of the Foxmart, on the way back from school. I said goodbye to the woman who worked there and started to make my way home. That was when shit got very, very serious. And I’m not talking ‘Someone stole my bag’ serious, or ‘creepy drunk guy hitting on me’ serious. Oh, no, nothing like that. This was the kind of serious when I walked into my front door to find a man sitting on my sofa.
He was in his early twenties. He had jet-black hair. He was wearing a long black coat, and had a red crystal tied around his neck.
“You look familiar…” The man remarked. “I just can’t think of where…”
My eyes widened, and I froze in the spot.
“That’s who you look like! My sister! I wonder if you know her…”
“You’re…” I rasped.
“Elijah Blake. Son of the great Enchantress Evaline Blake, adopted brother of Foxway’s most promising delinquent, and probably the most dangerous man you’ve ever met!”
“What… What are you doing here?”
“You know what that is, around your wrist, right?” he asked, ignoring my question. I looked down at the Stone. It was glowing again. Another stone, this one a menacing red, was hanging around his neck, glowing as well.
“Archaeus… Invoco… Elementum… Gelus…” I chanted, as ice covered the Arch Stone. It was the only thing I could think of doing to protect the Stone.
Elijah laughed.
“Don’t be so dramatic. I’m not going to take the Stone. Not right now.”
“Then what do you want?” I asked, trying not to scream at the top of my lungs.
“We are of a powerful breed, you know. We have Magic. We are far superior to normal humans! We shouldn’t be living in secret like this! We could be kings! We should be the rulers of the world! We are going to make that happen.”
“And your point is?”
“I want you to join us. Join the Syndicate.”
“Go fuck yourself…” I grunted defiantly. Elijah laughed again. His laugh was piercing, just like you would expect an evil villain to sound like.
“I like your spirit, Emilie George.” His face suddenly twisted from his mocking smile to a worryingly serious look. “But know t
his. The Syndicate doesn’t like to be disappointed. You should watch your back. And you should probably keep an eye on everyone else’s as well. That is your only warning.”
Elijah stood up and jumped out of the window, much to my surprise. I heard a vague buzzing noise from outside, and when I looked out of the window after him, he was gone. I collapsed onto the floor, every part of my body shaking. I was completely speechless. I had no idea how to deal with what had just happened, and I still had no idea where the one person I could talk to about it was. I looked out at the darkened sky.
“Raven…”
16
The next day, I turned to the library for some peace and quiet at lunch.
I leaned against the wall, on the balcony on the third floor, trying to eat. After the last few days, with everything that had happened with Raven, the whole ‘Guardian’ thing, and, Elijah’s threat from yesterday, my appetite had almost completely gone, and I was basically just forcing down as much as I could, because, well, food is kind of important.
Once I had eaten as much as I could manage, I just sat looking over the balcony. And then I saw someone waving at me. I looked closer, and realised that it was Matt. Just Matt. That was a strange sight. I don’t think I’d ever seen him without Leigh in the month I had been at Foxway, so it genuinely scared me for a moment. I cautiously waved back, and then he disappeared into a library. After a couple of minutes, I heard footsteps behind me.
“You know, you can eat with me and Leigh?” Matt reminded me.
I sighed.
“Yeah, I know… It’s just… It’s loud in the lunch hall. The voices…”
“Yeah, I get that. Well, I don’t, but you know what I mean,” Matt replied. “You know, you could always just tell us. We could easily bring lunch up here and eat with you.” He sat down next to me on the floor.
“I know… It’s just… I don’t want to have to make people go out of their way to help me.” I admitted. “I’ve had all this shit happen to me… And I don’t want to have to make you guys deal with it for me…”
“You’re worried about being a burden or something? That’s cliché…” Matt laughed, then sighed. “We’re your friends. We want to help you.”
“I just-”
“No!” Matt interrupted sharply. “You’ve been through hell the last few weeks. The accident, the voices, your sister. You can’t deal with all of that on your own. Try relying on someone else for once!”
I stopped, not really sure how to respond to that.
“I…”
“Please, Emilie. Just let us be your friends. Even if there’s nothing specific that we can do. Even if all that we can do to help is just eat lunch with you up here. Let us do what we can to help you.”
I smiled, for the first time since Raven had left.
“I guess you’re right…” I confessed. “I never really had a lot of people looking out for me growing up. My mum is amazing, but that was it. I grew up as an only child, and all of our family all live abroad, so we don’t see them much… My friends were great, but even then, they weren’t the sort of people I could rely on, not for anything serious… With all that, I guess that I’m not the best at leaning on others…”
“Thank you…” I eventually acknowledged. I looked at Matt. He stared out into the distance. “Matt?”
“It’s fine. We’re your friends, Emilie.” he assured me. “I’m your friend.” he amended. I was about to say something (Not that I was sure what) when he stood up.
“No…” I suddenly blurted, without even thinking.
“What?” Matt questioned.
“Can… Can you stay?” I asked. Matt chuckled and sat back down.
“Sure.”
We ended up talking for a good half-an-hour until the bell sounded the end of the lunch break. Matt shifted to stand up, but I grabbed hold of his arm.
“What’s wrong?”
“Matt… Thank you… For this… I needed it…” I muttered. Matt relaxed and sat back down. He put his hand on my head. I shrank into myself. I wasn’t sure why, but I couldn’t help but feel… Something. I wasn’t really sure what it was, but something about being there with him felt right. It was almost romantic until the voices decided to add in their opinions. Nothing new there though.
You can’t trust him… He doesn’t like you… Especially not like that…
I tried to push the voices back, telling myself that I didn’t care if they were right or not anyway. I mean, I didn’t really like him in that way. Did I?
I didn’t have that much time to think, honestly, given that I stupidly decided to turn around and kiss him. Good job, Emilie. It took all of about 5 seconds for me to realize what I was doing. I stopped, awkwardly letting Matt move back.
“I’m… I’m sorry… That was…” I stumbled. Matt just kind of shook his head in disbelief and embarrassment. “Matt…”
“No, it’s… It’s fine… I just… I’ve got to go…” he stuttered as he stood up and walked away. I watched him disappear down the stairs and dropped down onto the floor.
“Good bloody job…”
You really screwed that up… He’s never going to speak to you again…
“Could you please, for once, just give me a bit of peace and quiet?” I begged the voices. I closed my eyes. “Shit…”
*
I dragged myself into the counselling room and dropped onto the sofa in the corner of the room.
“Make yourself at home, by all means…” Artemis remarked. “What’s the matter, Emilie?” She sat down on the chair next to the sofa.
“I… I did something stupid…”
“And what sort of ‘stupid’ is this?”
“I… kissed Matt…”
“Silvemist?” Artemis’ eyes widened for a moment, before she shook it off. “Why did you do that?”
“I don’t know… I have no idea what came over me…”
Artemis sighed.
“If I had a pound for every time I’d heard that…” she muttered. “How old are you, Emilie?”
“That’s... Kind of complicated,” I replied. “There was no date of birth when I was adopted, so we’ve always called the day mum brought me home as my birthday, but I found out my actual date of birth when I looked into mine and Raven’s birth mother.” I think I was avoiding the question. “I’m eighteen.”
I swear I heard her mutter ‘Why did I miss that’ under her breath, but that may have been the voices.
“My point is… You’re a kid. Not for much longer, mind, but a kid all the same. And, not only that, but you’ve been through an awful lot over the last few weeks. Don’t get yourself worked up over a stupid little mistake that I’m sure a hundred-other people are making this second.”
“A hundred other people don’t have more important things to worry about. A hundred other people aren’t looking for their missing sister. Or training to be a Guardian. Or worrying about a psychopath going after their school, friends and family.”
“What?” Artemis interrupted, suddenly shifting away from the discussion. “Who threatened you?”
I looked down, shaking. The voices were having a little debate in my head, of whether or not to tell her, but I ignored them.
“Elijah Blake… He broke into my house… He asked me to join the Syndicate…” I explained. “When I said no, he threatened me… Told me to watch my back…”
Artemis calmly stood up.
“Shit…” she grimaced. “We need to talk to Professor Greyford immediately!”
Artemis walked me to Greyford’s office, where I explained what had happened to both of them in full. When I was finished, Greyford stayed silent. After a few seconds, he punched the table. I almost jumped out of my seat; it was so sudden. I’d never seen the professor act like that.
“Damn it…” he grunted. “Is that everything, Emilie?”
I nodded. “If you could wait outside for a moment, I need to discuss this with Miss Artemis.”
I worriedly nodded and wal
ked out of the room, sitting myself down on one of the chairs. I could hear them through the door again.
“This is going too far, Max. We can’t keep her involved in this… She’s not ready. She’s not even an adult…”
“I can’t say I disagree with you. But we don’t have much of a choice. I can’t really see any alternatives.”
“She’s been threatened! And by him of all people! You can’t seriously be thinking that there’s nothing we can do!”
“Don’t you think I know all of that? But can you really think of anything that we can do to change any of that?”
“We could…”
“What?”
“Do you remember what it says in the last chapter.”
“You mean?”
“The Circle of the Guardian. Yes.”
I heard pages flipping, probably from the book on the Arch Stones.
“‘The Guardian, being as important as they are, may, from time to time, require support. Although they may have people supporting them already, there will likely come a time when they will require people who they can trust unconditionally to come to them in times of need. These people are the Circle of the Guardian.’” she read. “I would say that this could be a good way to go.”
“And who, exactly, would you consider for this?”
“That would be up to her, to an extent. But I think I can predict who she would choose.” Artemis replied. “What do you say?”
“I don’t like the idea of getting even more children involved with this. But I can’t see any other way. So be it. Bring her back in, we’ll explain everything to her.”
The door to Greyford’s office opened, and Artemis gestured for me to come back in.
“I was listening to the conversation,” I confessed. Greyford chuckled.
“I had a sneaking suspicion…” he admitted. “So, the Circle of the Guardian. Your Circle. Who do you think you can trust?”
“I…” I tried to think. I mean, Raven was an obvious choice, but she was gone
“August…”
The Arch Stone: Foxway Academy: Book 1 Page 11