“Raven…” I reached out to touch the wound, but Raven dropped her shirt down and moved away. “I’m going to make him pay…” I clenched my fist.
“You can’t… Please, just forget about. You’re not strong enough to face him.”
“That’s not true!” I argued. “I… I didn’t tell you something…” I rolled up my sleeve, revealing the stone.
“That’s…”
“It’s an Arch Stone.” I finished Raven’s sentence. “I got it on my first day here… I don’t really know how it works… But it’s supposed to be one of the most powerful Magical artefacts in existence…” I explained. “There’s… There’s a rule… That the person that the Stone chooses as its Guardian can pick a group… The Circle of the Guardian… People who they can trust.”
“You can’t trust me… I already ran away once…” Raven shook her head.
“You were trying to protect me. You said that yourself.” I pushed. “You’re the one person I trust more than anyone else. Please, do this. For me.”
Raven thought for a moment.
“Okay…” she eventually agreed.
I smiled.
“Thank you…”
I saw a burst of light float up out of the stone. Just like with the rest of the circle months before, the light flew around Raven until it settled on her hand. Apart from it wasn’t exactly like last time. A few seconds after the light faded, a strange pattern appeared on her hand. It was an intricate mark, which glowed the same colour as the light had appeared out of the Stone.
“What’s this?” Raven asked.
“I… I don’t know… Nothing happened with the others… Do you feel anything?”
“I… I can’t put my finger on it. It feels… Strange…” Raven tried to explain. “I’m not sure how to explain it.”
The light faded, leaving a faint trace of the strange mark.
“Four…” I mumbled. “Professor Greyford said that the Circle of the Guardian was made up of four people, and the Guardian… What if this is what happens once all four people have linked to the Stone or something…” I
“I suppose that makes sense…” Raven replied. We sat back down on the bench.
“So, why did you come back?” I asked. “You were about to tell me, before I brought Elijah up.”
Raven nodded and looked down.
“I think… I think the Syndicate are planning to attack Foxway… Soon…”
“What makes you say that?”
“When Elijah was talking to me… He… He seemed frantic, especially when he was trying to persuade me to help him.”
“What does that mean?”
“I can think of two options…” Raven replied. “Either they’re underpowered, and needed the help… Or… They’re incredibly powerful, and Elijah was trying to get me away from it…”
“But he attacked you? Why would he be trying to keep you safe?”
“He’s my brother.” Raven shrugged. “Not a good one, but I… I think that he thought what he was doing was better for me…”
“That’s bullshit!” I exclaimed. “There’s no way that impaling you was better for you! You could have died!”
“Elijah... He wouldn’t hurt me...”
“He did hurt you, Raven. That mark on your side didn’t come from nowhere.”
Raven sighed.
“I don’t want to get into this right now... I’m... I’m tired, and I have a lot to do...”
“Fine…” I breathed. “I am glad you’re back, Raven. I’ve missed you.”
Raven smiled.
“I’ve missed you too.”
*
Raven stood in front of the door to her room for about ten minutes before she pulled up the courage to knock. I never really thought that Raven and Mary were that close, but it was clear that she was nervous about going in. Raven took a deep breath and knocked on the door. A few seconds later, the door opened slowly, and Mary poked her head around. She froze when she saw Raven.
“Well, well. Where the bloody hell have you been.” she laughed, as her eyes started to tear up.
*
“So, you were looking for your brother all this time?”
Raven nodded.
“And did you find him?”
Raven nodded again.
“And did you kill the bastard?”
“I… I couldn’t… I mean, I probably couldn’t if I wanted to… But…” Raven trailed off.
“He’s your brother, I get it. He may be a crazy maniac, but he’s family. I get how it would be hard to just push that aside,” Mary comforted her. “So, what’s the plan now? You staying?”
“I think so, yes.”
“Good.” Mary decided. “It’s been weird not having you around. Didn’t miss the mess though…” she joked. Suddenly she stood up. “Right, what do you guys want for lunch? I doubt you’ve been eating properly, have you, Fire-bird?” she sighed as she walked into the small kitchen thing. “We don’t have much… I need to get to the Foxmart at some point…” she muttered to herself. “I can probably do a Sandwich?”
“That’s fine,” Raven agreed.
“Have you been eating properly?” I questioned.
“I’ve… I’ve been eating…”
“That’s not an answer. Honestly, though, you look like shit, so I guess that answers the question.” I bluntly decided. “You can come home with me tonight. I’ll cook. You need a proper meal.”
“No, I can’t… I shouldn’t.” Raven stumbled over her words.
“I’m not giving you a choice.” I asserted. “You’re coming whether you like it or not. Don’t make me teleport you there.” I threatened. I mean, it was an empty threat, of course. I wasn’t ready to move another person yet. But she didn’t know that.
Raven sighed.
“Okay… I will…”
“Cool.” I nodded as Mary walked in, holding two plates and balancing another on her forearm. “You really thought that was the best way to do that?” I flicked together a telekinesis spell and pulled the plate off her arm.
“I… Really didn’t think of that…” Mary sighed as she handed Raven one of the plates. I took a bite out of the sandwich and coughed. “What’s wrong?”
“What the- What did you put in this?!” I spluttered.
“Ham, cheese…” she trailed off, after mumbling another ingredient.
“What was that?” I asked as Raven peeled open her sandwich. A strip of sliced, red chilli pepper was laid out on top of the rest of the ingredient.
“Is that it?” Raven shrugged as she took a bite of her sandwich.
“Chilli! Who puts that in a sandwich?!”
“I like the taste.” Mary shrugged.
“How are you okay with this?” I asked Raven.
“You get used to it surprisingly quickly,” she explained. “She’s been making them since First-year.”
I put the plate down on the bed and coughed again.
Why didn’t you warn me! I can’t feel my tongue…” I groaned. “What were those things...?”
“Nothing that bad. Scotch bonnets, that’s all,” Mary nonchalantly explained.
“Oh, nothing that bad… Just one of the hottest peppers in existence…” I remarked as I took a gulp of tea. “How about you warn me next time…”
*
Mum almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Raven that evening.
“And where have you been the last six months?” she asked, almost as if she was talking to me. “You used to come over every weekend in the first two months, and then nothing!”
“I… I went away for a bit; I took some time off school. After the accident, I needed some time to think things through…” Raven explained. I was impressed by how easily she seemed to be able to tell the truth without telling Mum she was looking for her insane, murderous brother. Actually, I say impressed, but it was a little worrying that she was so used to bending the truth like that. I suppose it’s something you get used to after a while.
“She came back a few weeks ago, but she’s been catching up with all of the work she missed over the weekends.” I quickly added. It seemed more believable for her to not have only just come back.
“I suppose that makes sense…” Mum shrugged. “Whatever it was, it’s nice to see you again, Raven.”
“It’s nice to see you as well, Miss George.” Raven replied. Mum sighed.
“I do have a name, remember?”
“Sorry… Lucy…” Raven apologized.
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” Mum smiled. “So, have you made dinner yet? I’m bloody starving.”
“I was about to make fajitas. You can help,” I decided.
“Oh, come on…” Mum groaned. “I’ve only just walked in…” She dropped her coat on the sofa and rolled her sleeves up. “Alright, let’s get on with it then.”
21
To say that the others were surprised when Raven walked in the next day would be an understatement. There was an almost constant whisper everywhere we went through the whole day. Raven may have been more infamous than popular, but people knew who she was, and it didn’t take long for people to notice that she was gone. So, now she was suddenly back, there were constant murmurs all around us. Honestly, I didn’t feel that different for me. My entire day basically consisted of putting up with imaginary people whispering in my ear. I think it scared Raven though. I mean, people were always talking about her, but there was something different about it this time.
“I’m… I’m sorry about all of this…” Raven apologized.
“If they’ve got a problem, they can deal with it!” I replied loud enough for everyone around us to hear it. Raven laughed. “What?”
“You’ve changed a lot since I’ve been gone, haven’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You seem… More confident, I think. Stronger, maybe.”
I thought for a moment.
“I guess I’ve had to. I’ve been training almost non-stop over the last few months.”
“Training?”
I nodded.
“Professor Greyford’s been trying to train us to fight against the Syndicate.”
“Us?”
“Me, Matt, Leigh and August.”
“August Flamel?”
“I know… But I… We can trust her. I promise.”
“She wants to kill me.”
“She did want to kill you. I sorted that out, remember.” I reminded her. “Wow… That was six months ago…”
There was a pause; neither of us were really sure what to say next.
“So…”
“So…”
“Have you got work to catch up with?”
“Probably… I haven’t been to any classes since I came back,” Raven admitted. “Professor Greyford told me I should take a couple of days to settle in before I start again.”
“You’ve talked to the Professor?”
“I came and talked to him last week.”
“Why didn’t he tell me? Why didn’t you?” I interrogated.
“I asked him not to tell you. I… I didn’t know… If I could face you...” she explained. “I was afraid that you wouldn’t…”
“That I wouldn’t want to speak to you…” I finished her sentence. I put my hand on her shoulder. “That would never happen, okay? No matter what happens, you’ll always be my sister. Got it?”
Raven smiled.
“Thank you…”
“Any time.” I assured her. “Now, I need to get to class. I’ll see you later, okay?”
Raven nodded.
“Yeah.”
*
The day seemed to go past faster that day. I don’t know what it was, but it felt like training came sooner than ever. When I got to the sparring hall, everyone else was already there, and when Raven walked in, the entire room fell silent.
“Hello, everyone.” she greeted nervously. Matt raised his eyebrows. Leigh smiled. August was somewhat less enthusiastic.
“What the hell is she doing here?”
“She’s the fourth member of the circle,” I explained. August looked down at her hand. The same mark that had appeared on Raven’s was on her hand as well. I looked at Matt and Leigh. Their hands had the same mark on it. “When did those appear?”
“I dunno… Yesterday, around midday, something like that,” Matt replied.
“There was this weird feeling, and then the mark appeared,” Leigh added. “What do you think it was?”
“I assume it has something to do with the completion of the circle.” Greyford suggested. “Now, firstly, I would like to welcome you back to Foxway, Miss Blake.”
“I’m glad to be back, Professor.”
“Secondly, the rest of you have been training for a few months now. And you have made a lot of promising progress. However, from today I will be bringing in a specialist to help you further your training,” he explained. “Mr Sokolov?” A large man walked into the room. I flinched. I recognised him. Raven did as well. The earthquake man, from all those months ago. She did a little more than flinch. She charged forward, called her fire, and went to attack Sokolov. He sighed and stepped out of the way.
“Miss Blake! What do you think you’re doing?!” Greyford shouted.
“He… he attacked Emilie! The night we met!” Raven replied.
Sokolov’s eyes widened.
“Luka…”
“Luka?” I questioned.
“My twin brother… He’s a member of the Syndicate. I can only assume that he was the one who attacked you…” Sokolov sighed. “My name is Ivan Sokolov. My I extend my apologies on behalf of my brother.” The man added. He really did look exactly the same as his brother. Large, tall. Actually quite intimidating.
“You don’t have anything to apologize for.” Raven assured him. “I know what it’s like…”
“I see…” Sokolov muttered. He was Russian, unlike the man I had seen at the beginning of the year. I figured that the brother had lived in England longer than Sokolov. Or, you know, I was just too traumatised to think about accents. That was probably it.
“Mr Sokolov is an expert in defensive magic.” Greyford explained. “Your combat skills have improved a remarkable amount over the last few months, but there’s more to fighting than just attacking your enemy. They’re not going to stand there; they’ll fight back.”
Sokolov stepped forward.
“As you all know, Magicals are able to perform magic through the manipulation of energy. What I will be teaching you over the next few weeks is how to use this energy to create Defence Spells,” he explained. “Your Specialities will play a small part in this, but this work will require you to put more effort into Source magic. Understood?”
“Source Magic? There’s no way that child’s Magic is going to be any use to us…” August remarked.
“Oh, really?” I challenged. “Do we really have to settle this one again?”
August smiled and flicked out a handful of cards.
“Bring it!”
“You two, chill!” Matt shouted. “You can screw around another time.”
“Sorry…” I muttered. August grunted as she crossed her arms and leant against the wall.
“As I was saying… True Defensive Magic isn’t really as simple as constructing a spell. For example, take myself. I am a specialist in Reading Magic-”
Leigh jumped when she heard that. Sokolov noticed.
“Are you okay, Miss…”
“Leigh Silvemist, sir… It’s just… My speciality is Reading Magic as well.” Leigh nervously explained.
“Remarkable. It is a rare talent, Miss Silvemist. The ability to read any aspect of an object takes concentration and a lot of intelligence.”
“But how can it be used in a fight? How’s it supposed to protect me?”
“Ah, that is a simple solution,” he chuckled. “If you read the spread of Magic energy around you, then it takes little effort to use magic to form a protective barrier. There are on
e or two spells to learn, but they are not hard,” he assured her. “Anyway, that is enough talking. Now, we start training.”
I wasn’t sure what to think about the defence training. On the one hand, it wasn’t really anything I hadn’t already done before. For me, at least, it was just forming my ice into a shield. Matt had a similarly easy time, just using his Geomancy to build walls as shields. August, for some reason, decided the best move was to try and form her cards into a shield. It looked cool, I admit, but I think we were all confused as to why she wasn’t just forming the energy into the shield. We all agreed it wasn’t important. I was still confused.
*
I stared out of my bedroom window at the sky. It was the middle of the night, and the sky was completely clear. You could see the stars perfectly. But something felt off. I wasn’t particularly superstitious, but I always felt like the stars were important, somehow. It’s a hard thing to explain, but I guess it always felt like they were lucky, to me at least.
“Archaeus… Invoco… Elementum… Gelus…” I muttered under my breath. I stretched out my arm as the ice spread over it. “What am I doing...?” I asked myself for the billionth time. I stared at the strangely coloured ice. I could see the soft glowing of the Arch Stone inside it. “Why did I end up with all of this…? A year ago, I had no idea Magic even existed. It was just stories…” I had gone through this conversation so many times in the last few months. I was starting to get bored of it. But despite how many times I’d thought it through, still none of it made sense. Just the fact that me and Raven had met seemed too perfect, too coincidental… I cared so much about my sister, but I couldn’t help but feel that our meeting hadn’t been an accident. I shrugged off the idea as usual and closed my eyes. I felt the ice slip away from my arm, disappearing into the air. I didn’t get a lot of sleep. The voices made sure of that.
22
“Stop laughing and help me out of here…” August’s muffled voice drifted out of the bin. I wiped my eyes. “Seriously!”
“Sorry…” I wheezed. “How on earth did you manage to do that?”
“I don’t want to talk about it…”
“If you don’t tell me, I’m not getting you out.”
The Arch Stone: Foxway Academy: Book 1 Page 14