“August Flamel?” Artemis questioned.
“Yes. August… Leigh Silvemist…”
“What about the other Silvemist?” Greyford asked. Artemis shook her head. “Or maybe not…”
“No,” I interrupted. “What happened… It was my fault… I know I can trust Matt…” Greyford nodded slowly.
“Is there not anyone else? The book specifies four trusted people.”
I shook my head. “No, I suppose that you are keeping a spot open for her…”
“I just… I know she might not come back… But…”
“I understand.” Greyford assured me. He sat down in his chair. “I’ll let you explain the situation to them however you see fit, if that is acceptable,” he decided. “Now, if that is all you wanted to talk to me about, then you can go.” he finished. I shook my head. “What’s the problem?”
“It’s… Raven…” I admitted. “I’m worried about her… With Elijah still out there… I know that she’s looking for him… But if she does find him… Then…”
I knew what I was trying to say, but I couldn’t bring myself to actually say it. Not that it mattered. Greyford knew exactly what I was saying.
“If Elijah Blake wanted Raven dead, he would have done it by the lake that day. Remember, she’s his sister as well as yours.”
“I guess… It doesn’t make me feel a lot better though…”
“Of course it doesn’t. You miss her, that’s perfectly understandable. But, as observed, Elijah will not kill her, and she should be able to defend herself otherwise,” he assured me. “You need to try and focus on your own task. Right now, we still have time, but we won’t have that luxury forever.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Greyford’s face turned serious.
“Elijah Blake is, admittedly, quite unpredictable. However, he is dangerously loyal to the Syndicate. His presence, both here and at your home, will have been under instructions from the Syndicate. They are planning something. I don’t know what, or when, or how. But they are working on a plot that could very well spell the end of the crucial separation between Humans and Magicals. And, if that happens, it will only be a matter of time before the Syndicate takes over.” I’m not going to lie; it wasn’t the most promising thing I’d ever been told.
“What can I do?” I questioned. “I barely know magic as it is… I can’t fight people like that…”
“I will train you, and your Circle. I will do all that I can to make sure that you have a fighting chance. And you won’t be alone. There are… Others…”
“What do you mean?”
“There are a lot of people who are concerned about the Syndicate throughout the Magical community. I have allies all over the world. When the time comes, we’ll have plenty of people to help us, I assure you.”
He stood up and walked over to where I was standing. “This is the last chance that you have to say that you don’t want to do this. No one will blame you.”
I looked down at the Arch Stone and smiled.
“You know, I never really felt like I was supposed to be part of anything bigger. Two months ago, I had everything worked out, give or take. I was going to glide through school on passing grades, get a job; Maybe a nurse, like my mum… I was normal… Unimportant. And that was fine. I didn’t ever really think about it. As far as I was concerned, that was just how the world was. We’re born, we grow up, we work, we retire. The circle of life, I guess… But then I met Raven… I learned about magic… I came here… And for the first time in my life, I felt like there was more to the world than I thought. I felt something I’d never felt before; I’m not really sure what to call it… But whatever it is, I’m not going to let it go. Not for anything. I’m not going to give up now. Not without a fight,” I promised, before I really had a chance to wonder where the sudden burst of confidence had come from.
Greyford nodded slowly and sat back down in his chair.
“Well, if that’s your final answer, you should get going. I do believe there are some people that you need to talk to.”
“I guess we’ll see how it goes,” I sighed. “Thank you, Professor.”
“There’s nothing here to thank me for,” he replied. “What I am asking you to do is dangerous, and not something that I take any pleasure in asking anyone, let alone a student, to do. I should be apologizing.”
I shook my head.
“No, you shouldn’t. I could have turned around and ran a mile the second I found that room. I could have done it when I found the stone. Or when I was attacked. I’m not stupid. If I wanted to leave, I would have done it by now.” I turned and walked out of the office, leaving it on another pretty awesome speech. I wasn’t quite sure what had gotten into me. I guess I really was going insane.
17
I spent most of the night trying to find best way to explain everything to my friends. I genuinely resorted to actually having a conversation with the voices, bouncing ideas off them. You’d never have thought that hearing voices would be a useful thing, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but I genuinely don’t think I would have been able to work out what I was supposed to say without it. I had decided I needed to tell everyone at the same time, for convenience, if nothing else.
I pulled August to the side after Beginner’s Magic and asked her to bring Matt and Leigh to Greyford’s office. I couldn’t bring myself to talk to Matt directly. I knew things were going to be awkward after yesterday, and I didn’t want any kind of scene to play out with so many other people around. Once I had managed to reason August down to agreeing to do what I asked, I went straight down to the headmaster’s office.
Matt, Leigh and August eventually walked into the office about five minutes after me. I assumed that it must have taken longer than I expected for her to persuade them to go with August Flamel of all people. I looked at Matt. He looked away. The three people who I had chosen to be my Circle stood scattered around the room, while I sat down on the edge of Greyford’s desk. I caught Matt’s eye.
“Matt… I’m sorry… About yesterday…”
“Forget about it. It’s not important,” he interrupted. “So, what are we doing here?”
I took a deep breath.
“Matt, Leigh. Do you two remember that party you took me to on my first day here?”
“The Nightrain one?” Leigh questioned. I nodded.
“While you two were at the party, too drunk to even try to talk to, by the way, I slipped away to explore the dorm. I ended up finding this… This room. And… that’s where I found this-” I pushed up my sleeve, revealing the stone. “This is an Arch Stone. It’s… I’m honestly not sure what it does. All I know is that it’s a powerful magic artefact. When I touched it… It… Chose me… As its Guardian,” I explained. “I’m supposed to protect the Stone… But I can’t do it alone. Not anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Leigh asked.
“Two days ago, the man who was responsible for the accident broke into my house and threatened me.” A look of shock moved across the people in the room when I said that. “I know, crazy, right?” I joked. The look of shock turned to pure disbelief. “Have you guys heard of the Syndicate?” I asked, trying to move past the awkwardness.
“They’re that anti-Human group, right? The ones who want Magicals to be in control?” Matt questioned.
I nodded.
“The man who threatened me is one of their strongest members. And they want this stone.”
“What’s that got to do with us?” August asked.
“I… The Guardian is allowed to choose a group of people who they can trust to help them… People that they can trust without hesitation…”
“And that’s us?” Matt asked.
“Yeah…” I didn’t think that there was any need for an overly complicated response to that. “I chose you because I know that I can rely on you. It might be dangerous, and I don’t even really know what’s going to happen, but I can’t do it without help… So, will you help me?”
Eventually, Leigh stepped forward.
“I’m in. If you need my help, then you’ve got it.”
“You’re a real pain in the arse, you know…” August muttered. “But I know what that thing can do. I’ll do it.”
I looked at Matt. He sighed.
“Matt?”
“I’m the one who told you to rely on your friends, so I can’t exactly say no, can I?”
“Thank you…” I said quietly. Suddenly, I felt a strange sensation coming from my arm. I looked down, to see the Arch Stone glowing. The light shot from the Stone and split into four, and stopped in front of Matt, Leigh and August.
“What’s this?” Leigh asked.
“I… I don’t know…” I admitted.
Matt reached out and touched the light. It started to move again, spinning around Matt before it eventually shot into his hand and disappeared.
“What the hell was that?!” August asked.
“I don’t know…” I repeated.
Leigh hesitantly touched the light as well. It did the same thing as it did for Matt.
“Do you feel different?” I asked. Leigh shook her head.
“Not really… A little shocked, but apart from that…”
August slowly reached out and touched the light that was in front of her. Just like the other two, it flew around her body and shot into her hand. The last light fizzled out, with nowhere to go. After this, no one really knew what to do. We just kind of stood in silence, not sure what to make of what had happened.
“What just happened?” Matt asked.
“The Stone was recognising you as members of Emilie’s Circle,” Greyford explained.
“What does that mean?” Leigh asked.
“I haven’t a clue,” he admitted. “I hope you know exactly what it is that you have agreed to, though. As the Circle of the Guardian, you may very well be put in incredibly dangerous situations. I’m sure that Emilie has already told you, but we believe that the Syndicate will be putting a plan into place very soon, and we need to make sure that our last line of defence against them is as strong as they can be. All three of you are very promising students, as far as your skill in Magic is concerned, but, you will need more. From now on, all four of you will be training with me after school. I will do everything I can to prepare you to fight. You are the people who Emilie feels that she can trust unconditionally, who she thinks she can rely on to help her protect the Arch Stone. She has put a lot of faith in you. I hope you can understand that.”
“I’m not going to pretend that I know exactly what’s going on with any of this. The Stone, the Syndicate, this Guardian thing. I don’t get any of it. But you’re our friend, Emilie. I’m not going to let you down!” Leigh promised.
Matt smiled and nodded.
“The Syndicate… They’re the people responsible for James’ death… I’m not going to let them take anyone else. It might be dangerous, but I’m going to make sure that they pay.” August clenched her fist.
“See, you’re doing what I told you to do. You’re relying on the people who care about you,” Matt remarked. “I’m glad that’s us.”
Greyford sat down at his desk.
“You four should go and get some rest. We’ll begin your training tomorrow.”
Again, no one really had any idea what to say, or even if they should say anything. So, we just kind of awkwardly stood in silence before we slowly started to make our way out of the office. On the way out, I held back, and pulled Matt back with me. Leigh looked back, realizing that her brother had suddenly vanished. I feel like she must have known what was going on more than we did, because she just turned around and walked away.
“What’s up?” Matt asked.
“I just… I wanted to apologize properly for yesterday.”
“You don’t need to apologize, Emilie. You’ve got enough to worry about without having that driving you insane…”
“I know… I don’t want to keep bringing it up… It’s just…”
“I get it. It didn’t mean anything. Don’t worry about it.” Matt interrupted. “Come one, we should catch up with Leigh.” He walked away before I had the chance to say anything else.
“That’s not what I meant at all…” I whispered to myself as I slowly followed after him and Leigh.
*
I couldn’t stop thinking about Matt while I was on the bus. I know I had more important things to worry about; Raven was still missing; I was about to start learning magic to defend myself against people trying to kill me; there was a group of crazy wizards wanting to take over the world. Yet all I could focus on was Matt Silvemist. I was doing everything I could to put my mind off it, but my mind was fighting back. I just couldn’t work out where I stood with him. He didn’t seem angry about the day before. But was that just him trying to be polite? Was he telling the truth, and genuinely just didn’t want me to feel bad? Or, fantastical as it seemed, was he acting off because it did mean something. And, if that was actually the case, was that even something that I wanted? I know I was the one who kissed him, but was what he said true in the first place? Was it just me getting caught up in the moment? Was it meaningless? I couldn’t work it out. I had voices throwing just about every angle I could think of at me, from every direction. And it was bad. As I’ve already pointed out, the voices tended to get louder the more emotional I got. Which meant that at that point, they were almost cutting out the real world altogether. It got to the point where I ended up just closing my eyes and letting them do what they wanted. It just felt like, sometimes, it wasn’t worth fighting it.
When I got home, the house was empty. It was a nice improvement from two days ago. You’d never guess it, but it’s comforting not having the person who almost killed your sister and practically caused your un-diagnosable mental health clusterfuck sitting in your living room when you get home. I walked through the door and dropped straight down onto my bed.
“What the hell is all of this… This doesn’t happen in real life… I should be going to parties, doing homework, talking to friends, not learning magic to defend themselves against dangerous criminals, or asking my friends to potentially risk their lives for me!” I shouted to no one. I screamed into my pillow. I knew that I couldn’t change my mind at this point. I didn’t want to change my mind. But there was still a pretty substantial part of me that was simply pissed off that I had been forced to make that choice in the first place. I looked out of the window and thought about Raven.
“Where are you…”
18
The next day went past like a blur. I couldn’t really focus on any of my work, and there wasn’t really anything special that I needed to talk to Artemis about, so everything just kind of drifted by until after school. And, of course, this was when our special training began. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect, but I figured it couldn’t be as complicated as Reality Magic. I could just about manage short-distance teleportation by that point, but concentration was so crucial with Reality Magic that it was almost impossible with the voices, especially when they were at their worst.
Me, Matt, Leigh and August were told to go to the sparring room, off the side of the sports building (Totally normal, non-magical sports, as well) for our training.
“What do you think this is going to be?” Leigh asked.
I shrugged.
“I mean, my gut instinct is Battle Magic…” August admitted. “But that’s incredibly dangerous… Would they really teach students that?”
“Students, no. But we’re not being taught as students right now,” Matt noted.
“A very good point, Mr Silvemist.” Greyford agreed as he walked into the room. “And, unfortunately, a correct one. I take no pleasure in having to teach the four of you this, but I have been left without a choice. The Syndicate could attack at any moment. Having the skills to defend yourself is a necessity. I can’t promise you that you’ll be completely
prepared, but I will do everything in my power to give you a fighting chance,” he promised. “Magicals take up specific types of magic for a good reason. It allows you to focus on refining your skills. It allows you to develop those skills, make them your own. So, I will not be teaching you many new forms of magic. Rather, I will be training you to fight using the magic that you have already started to learn. Helpfully, your chosen specialities, on the whole, will be of great use to you in a fight. Miss Flamel, for example. Your Card Magic is, on the most part, a solely offensive form of Magic. You channel energy directly into your cards and use them as projectile weapons. Mr Silvemist, your Geomancy can, with enough training, be one of the most powerful forms of Offensive and Defensive Magic in existence. When you know how,” he asserted. “Today, you will show me your magic at the strongest level that you are capable of. We can work on developing those skills from there.”
In the minutes following, we all showed off our magic to Greyford, who decided that August needed more hand-to-hand training, Matt needed to just focus on developing his Geomancy further, and I needed to focus more on using my ice for combat, as well as hand-to-hand combat.
Leigh was a little harder. There wasn’t really any way that her reading magic could be used in a fight, at least not for any type of attacking. Greyford said he’d think about how else to do it, and decided he’d just focus on hand-to-hand for Leigh as well, for the time being, at least.
“This is going to be…” August trailed off.
“It’s going to be hard, no doubt about it,” Matt agreed. “But if Greyford’s right about the Syndicate, we’re going to need the extra training. We’re going to need to be able to fight.”
“At least you guys can…” I heard Leigh mutter under her breath. I pulled her back, stopping her from walking ahead.
“Are you really that upset at not being able to fight?”
“It’s just… I’ve spent so much time developing and refining my reading magic… I specifically picked Reading Magic because there was never going to be any need for me to use any kind of fighting Magic anyway… But now there is, and I’m useless…”
The Arch Stone: Foxway Academy: Book 1 Page 12