Knight of the Black Rose

by Nissa Gordon

  All the stone heads moved back into place and returned to their normal size along the top of that side of the wall they had all come through; and then a door appeared and Professor Eldamar walked through and straight up to the teachers table, right along to the empty spot next to the man that had stood making the students fall silent at his appearance.

  He was an older man, with purplish dark hair, and dressed in metallic blue robes with a rich blue suit underneath; he cleared his throat before he began. "Good evening, and welcome to Burnaby Advanced School of Magical Arts; I am your Headmaster, Professor Asher Odin. I want to thank you all for being so patient this year, as you must have realised, our first year group is much larger than normal, due to the events on Earth at this time. This year will be a little different, as there are more students at the school and as I mentioned with the events unfolding on Earth; if any of you have any problems or questions with what is happening, all you have to do is speak to either your head of estate, or you can come to me. My door is always open to you all. Now, for a few introductions for our first years. The head of estates; Pallas, Professor Promise Kendra, one of our Charms and Language teachers." A young woman in her twenties stood, she had long curly blond hair and was wearing a cream short sleeved shirt and a black skirt. “As you've already met, Professor George Eldamar, Deputy Head, Head of Disa and he also teaches Defence." Eldamar briefly stood up again and then sat back down. "Cadell, Professor Adrian Hunter, who also teaches Defence." He stood up slowly from next to Methos' dad, he was also only in his late twenties; and quite handsome dressed in a basic shirt with a waist coat and tie. "Clarus, Professor Rose Haregrave; she teaches Runes and Numology." She stood up and waved at the students smiling, she was older than the others with short greying hair, and was wearing a long flowery dress. "Punga, Professor Roden Prewitt; he teaches History...a very important subject, especially at the moment." A man two seats over from Haregrave stood up briefly and then quickly sat back down; he was probably about the same age as she was and was wearing a worn brown suite. "And Lastly, Garmond, Professor Otar Ravenal; he teaches Transformations." Three seats down from Hunter another man stood up, he was taller than them all and looked as though he worked out with his shirt barely stretching over his muscles.

  "Oh my god...have you seen the size of that guy," Libby whispered, but they all heard her because the hall was so quiet.

  Troy, Alex and Will all lent across the table, as did Lucy, as they all wanted to see as well.

  "So...what do you think he is?" Alex asked.

  Lucy pretending to look as though she was thinking, not wanting to be the first one to say anything, mainly because she was already drawing too much attention to herself, she didn’t need them knowing the truth; she would be in so much trouble if they found out.

  "Werewolf," Troy said excitedly.

  "They're allowed to teach here?" Jessica asked worriedly, as she found them kind of scary, the idea of a person being able to change into a wild animal.

  "Of course," Lucy answered dismissively.

  "He could be," Will agreed, as he thought that he was big enough to be one.

  Lucy shook her head, as she couldn’t believe that they hadn’t figured it out yet, and it wasn’t like she couldn’t say it, they’ve guessed already. "Demon,"

  "Considering how big he is...he could be a werebear," Alex said, wanting to be right for a change. "Troy's dad said that he works with one, and he's huge,"

  "You mean Jonny?" Lucy asked.

  "Yeah, that's the name," Alex said.

  "How do you even remember all of these things?" Troy said shaking his head at her.

  "Now, you all know who your heads of estates are if you ever need anything, they are all here to help you," Professor Odin continued. "There's just one more important rule that I must tell you before we eat. Every student and teacher at this school and within the Alliance Worlds, and of course out; should all be treated with the same respect. We are all equals, no one is better than anyone else, no matter what sort of back ground, race or family they come from. In this school, everyone is excepted for who he or she is; and it is one of the agreements that we all take when we enter this school. First years especially, I know that this time is hard for you, especially those who have come from non-magical backgrounds, but we ask of you to keep an open mind to the races that you will encounter during your stay. Just as those who come from magical backgrounds keep an open mind about you. Now, enough said for now; we have all waited long enough...it's time to eat."

  Before any of them could ask where any of the food was coming from, the tables filled with platters full of every type of food you could think of, including some that they have never seen before. They all filled their plates with whatever they wanted and ate, forgetting for a while to speak until they seemed to realise that the food wasn't going anywhere, in fact it would refill itself once emptied or change into another dish; even some desert dishes appeared on the table.

  "This is so cool!" Philip said as he grabbed more food. "Do you think that we'll be eating like this every night?"

  "That's a good question," Alex answered as he poured himself a drink.

  "No...I don't think so...my sisters said that we only all get together for special nights," Troy told them. "At least they told me something,"

  "See you did know something," Lucy teased.

  "How do you all know each other?" Philip asked.

  "We all went to school together," Will told him.

  "At least I'm not the only one from a normal family," Libby shouted down the table.

  "What's normal mean?" Selena asked. "We all consider ourselves normal,"

  "You know what she means," Jessica said. "And anyway...I come from a mixed family...but that doesn't mean that I know everything about all of this,"

  "We probably know more than we should," Troy said smirking.

  "Yeah, thanks to Lu..." Alex agreed.

  "What my house isn't good enough?" Will asked mockingly.

  "You know what we mean...she lives here," Troy said.

  "And her house is huge," Alex added.

  "I know...what's with that...there isn't any other house in the area that big?” Jessica asked.

  "Oh..." Troy said wiggling his finger at Lucy. "That's not very nice...she's supposed to be your best friend,"

  "It's my dads fault," Lucy told him.

  "He is strict," Alex agreed.

  "What?" Jessica asked confused.

  Lucy turned to Jessica. "You know that there's other safe worlds...whatever...anyway, that's what they mean,"

  The three of them burst out laughing at her.

  "That’s not...even an answer..." Troy told her.

  "Whatever...I'll explain in our room later," Lucy told them.

  "I want to know about these other worlds as well," Libby told them.

  "What do you mean...other worlds?" Philip asked somewhat interested but also distracted by all of the food. "You can't really mean other planets?"

  None of them said anything, which really answered his question more than actually saying anything.

  "That's not possible," Philip said not convinced at all, and just thought that they were playing a joke on him. "We were on a ship...on the sea...not a space ship..."

  Methos leant over the table and said loudly. "You might as well just tell them that we're all aliens,"

  "Way to keep the big secret," Troy said sarcastically.

  "We're on a different planet, I think they would have realised," Methos told him.

  "The sky is a different colour," Eddie added.

  "They have a point about that," Lucy agreed.

  "No one actually looks like an alien," Philip said not really believing them.

  "And what do you think aliens with magical powers look like?" Lucy asked him seriously.

  "Well I always thought that aliens would be like little green men," Philip told her.

  "Well, I'm a girl...and only my eyes are green," Lucy told him smiling. "But everyone looks th
e same, so they can pass,"

  "Meaning, if you work hard enough, you'll be able to learn to change your appearance," Selena told him, and then added as an after thought. “Well, maybe...not everyone really has the power to do that,”

  "That's so cool," Philip said excitedly and looking at them all in a new light.

  "I want to learn to change into some sort of animal, now that’s cool," Troy told them.

  "That can take years to learn, and you have to be powerful to be able to pull something like that off," Lucy told them. "They probably have ratings on us all,"

  "Ratings?" Libby asked.

  "You mean they can test to see how powerful we all are?" Philip asked.

  "Yeah, you have to be at a high level to begin with to be able to get in here, so don't worry about that," Eddie told him.

  They talked about this and that for the rest of the meal until the plates and trays stopped refilling themselves and quite a few people were becoming restless around them and at other tables.

  Professor Odin stood once more and waited until everyone fell silent. "Well then, it appears as though everyone enjoyed the welcome feast. Now that we've all been fed we should retire for the night, back to our dorms for the evening, get some well earned rest before classes begin in the morning. Everyone knows the way back to their dorms, first years will be lead over by Monitors; a list of your room assignments will have been posted, each door marked on with who is to stay in it. If there are any problems with the arrangement, please do see your head of estate in the morning, but we hope that you don't have any problems. We all hope that you have a stimulating and knowledgably year here at Burnaby Advanced."

  As he finished the students from the higher years all began to make a move, leaving their tables in groups and going for the far doors which had opened for them all to leave; the first years on the other hand stayed where they were while they waited for these students who were supposed to be showing them to their dorms. They didn't have to worry about waiting long on the Cadell table as two older students made their way over to them through the crowd; they were two older boys dressed in the school uniform like everyone else.

  They came over to their table towering over them, the boy on the left must have been at least five and a half foot tall already and looked as though he actually worked over; he had dark shaven hair and light pastel brown coloured eyes. The other boy wasn't as taller but he looked as though he worked out as well, with his jacket straining across his chest; he had long bags of dusty coloured hair that fell over his amber eyes, and he was smiling at Lucy.

  "Hi Lu...finally made it,"

  "Hi Lewis," Lucy said smiling back at him.

  "You know her?" the other boy asked a little confused.

  "She's Jake's little sister," Lewis told him.

  He nodded accepting this. "Oh...okay then,"

  "So, how many people do you actually know here?" Troy asked her as they all started to get up to leave.

  "I know him because he's my brother’s friend," Lucy told him as she walked around the table.

  "Who do you think we'll get to share a room with?" Libby asked nervously as she quickly caught up to Lucy and Selena.

  "You'll find out soon enough," Lewis told them. "Oh, this Ca'von,"

  "Is there a gym here?" Alex asked looking up at him.

  "Kind of...but everyone here has to work out in some way or another," Ca'von told him as he made his way to the front of the group, so that he could lead them out and also make a path through the rest of the students, that didn't seem to care that they were supposed to be letting to the first years through in a group so that they wouldn't be separated and get lost on their first night.

  "What does he mean we all have to work out?" Libby asked confused.

  Lucy wasn't completely sure herself, but she could only think of one answer. "Well...err...I guess...you know back at your old school you did PE or gym, whatever you called it...they must have something here,"

  Lewis looked back over his shoulder grinning broadly. "You could say that, but I'm sure that you'll do just fine,"

  "Wow..."Libby whispered. "He's..."

  "He can hear everything that you say," Lucy told her.

  "Spoil sport," Lewis teased.

  "All you like, is knowing that every girl in the school adores you," Ca'von said scowling as he moved a couple of students out of his path. "Do you mind?"

  The students looked back and decided that they should make a path for him after all, clearing the way towards the door; the whole group following close together so that they wouldn't be separated.

  "My sisters said this place is huge," Troy told them. "We'll never remember everything about it,"

  Alex's face lit up at this. "They're challenging us already?"

  Ca'von stopped suddenly and turned around. "You can't leave your dorms after lights out...the latest you can return to your room as a first year is nine o'clock, unless you have permission from a professor to stay out,"

  "Nine o'clock isn't a bad starting point," Alex said.

  Ca'von stared at the two of them as though he was trying to read their minds and what they were actually planning, but in the end he turned back around and carried on walking seeing as the crowd behind them was growing somewhat impatient. They made their way out into a large lobby that had several corridors leading on straight ahead, then there was another open door to their left, which Ca'von and Lewis lead them towards.

  "It's a bit of a walk to our dorms, but you'll get used to it," Ca'von told them.

  "And you don't have to worry, it isn't that often that we all eat together in the main hall...just a couple of times a year," Lewis told them.

  As they approached the door they could already feel the cool breeze from the outside, but they still followed even though none of them understood why they were going outside, after only seeing more trees when they had arrived. They walked out onto a stone path with buildings on the other side, but they didn't go over to them; they looked like they were at least four story high and there were quite a few of them, which some of the students behind them were heading over to them.

  Lewis pointed to the buildings that they were passing. "To your left as you can see, are dorms; these belong to Pallas. There are two blocks for each year group, boys and girls, with a bridge connecting them at the lounge level,"

  "There's magic up stopping guys from entering the girls room...it's painful, so I've been told," Ca'von warned them.

  They were passing a large building on their right which was connecting to the one that they had just left by one of the corridors, there appeared to be several doors allowing access and windows evenly spread out on each of the six floors.

  "How big is this place?" Troy asked.

  "Where's the actual school part?" Will asked.

  Lewis stopped suddenly. "This is only the estate, this side is half then it's mirrored on the other side with the other three estates,"

  "The school is separate, you'll have to take a ride on a coach every day," Ca'von told them. "The whole area around the estate is surrounded by forest and enchantments so anyone who doesn't belong with the school can't get in,"

  They carried on walking with Lexis pointing buildings out as he went. "This building on the right, has arenas so that you can train and practice spells. There are also club rooms, enough for everyone; seeing as there's six floors. There's three of these buildings, meaning that you have to share them with another estate. This one is for Pallas and Punga. Just behind it, in the middle is the teachers offices and quarters; so they're at reach for everyone. To your left again, that large building is for Pallas and Punga as well; it's their joint food halls and lounges."

  They all walked behind him in silence taking this all in, they had known that it was going to big and impressive but this was completely something else, and they haven’t even seen the school itself yet, which according to their guides was another coach trip away.

  "As you can see, these are the dorms for Punga," Lewis told them. "
Just behind them, very important; is the transport hanger. The transport hanger as you've gathered is where all the vehicles are kept, there's also another one for the other three estates. That's where you have to go every morning to get your coach to school."

  "They're magically timed...you should get schedules with your class timetables," Ca'von told them.

  They were getting to the end of the building with the arenas and came to a large open space that had seating evenly spaced out and a water fountain, set back was another building that was connected to the middle build that they had been told about; then as they carried on looking, they saw that it was connected to another building and then it was connected to another.