by A Y Venona
“That I didn’t do the Soul Spell, and the whole dreaming about him was nothing but a reflection of my own desire.”
“Soul Spell?”
“It’s the real name for a Mating Spell, according to Alexander.”
Her eyes turned misty with emphatic tears. “I swear to Deity Zeus, Eli, I thought it was a Mating Spell.”
It was at that time that Professor Melo calmly walked into the lecture hall. I gave Tela a quick nod.
When Professor Melo reached the platform, he raised his right hand to release a silver ball that immediately hovered above him.
“What’s that, Professor?” someone asked from the back.
“It’s a focus ball. At my command, it will empty your mind of worries and unnecessary mental baggage and will keep you instead focused on my voice and my lecture.”
Murmurs of apprehension erupted in the hall but then came to an abrupt cessation when the professor hollered for silence. Professor Melo then followed it up with an utterance of a spell. With the whole class enraptured, the professor started his lecture.
A few minutes into it, he asked, “Is it enough to master the utterance of a higher-level spell and perfect its pronunciation?”
I heard a few who replied with a “yes.”
Professor Melo answered his own question. “The answer is no. It is not enough.”
Case in point—yours truly.
Silence followed.
A few seconds later, someone asked, “So what is the purpose, then, of this class, Archaeolinguistics, if there is no guarantee that we can use it?”
“As for now, young fae, knowledge about the spell and its uses should be enough for you. Your ability to use it depends on how much of yourself is embraced by nature.”
“So having all the correct ingredients and the correct spell doesn’t matter at all if the spell-caster is below the enchantment’s level?” I asked.
“The person who casts the spell is part of the ingredients,” Professor Melo replied. “So yes, the ingredients matter significantly.” He emphasized the word “significantly.”
If his words were the arrow, I would be the bull’s-eye. It hit me right at dead center.
* * *
Several minutes later and after several archaic words forced their way into my brain with zero chance of usability, Professor Melo reached the climax of his charmed lecture and concluded it with the words everyone was most excited to hear: “You’re dismissed.” At this utterance, the enchantment he placed upon us broke, and we were back to our noisy and fussy selves.
Myriads of thoughts that had been locked up for several minutes came back with a vengeance. Today’s lecture had made things so much clearer. There was just no way I would be able to pull off a Soul Spell, for I was not qualified for it. So this meant that Adrian was not my mate. And I was a fraud.
A not so gentle tug at my arm shook me out of my emotional epiphany.
“What?” I said to Tela, who merely nodded in our professor’s direction. I followed the gesture with my gaze and found the professor looking directly at me.
“He called you like more than once,” Tela said. Her voice was laced with concern.
I remembered how to use my feet. I shuffled past the row of already empty seats to get to the aisle. I heard Tela saying she’d wait for me outside.
“Professor?” I said when I reached his table.
“Here.” He handed me an emerald stone necklace.
Befuddled, I accepted it and wore it around my neck. “What’s this for, sir?”
“It’s your identification passage to my workroom. Outside, the necklace will be invisible. You can see it right now because you have not yet activated the Invisibility Spell. The back of the pendant has another stone—press it hard to activate it.”
My mouth opened and refused to close.
“And by the way, Sir Atkin chose you as one of the ushers for the Gatherings. I believe they’ll have a meeting today at the Student Hall,” the professor continued. Nothing had changed with the state of my befuddlement—my mouth was still hanging open. “After your meeting, go straight to my workroom. You should know where it is. I left some instructions for you. All you have to do is follow it. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
“Eli, close your goddamn mouth.”
And to my surprise, I was able to do it with much ease.
“And just a warning, don’t lose or give the necklace to anyone else, not even to your friend. Or else.”
“Or else?” I asked. My voice sounded a little brittle.
“Or, the necklace will choke any wearer that is not you to death. Now go.”
I turned around to leave when I heard his voice again.
“The necklace is still visible.”
Fearing that he might take it back, I brought the pendant close to my eyes to examine it. The design was simple. The pendant held a round emerald stone, and on its back was a smaller version of it. When I pressed it, the pendant disappeared in my hand along with its chain around my neck. I stared back at him with my face saying, “Wow.”
CHAPTER 12
“Where are they now? The elder gods, I mean,” said the dark-headed guy seated across from me at the long wooden table. We were in a chamber—all twenty of us—waiting for the meeting to start. “They have not been seen for thousands of years. Do you think they’re still alive?” the guy continued.
It was an interesting question, and though I was wondering the same thing, I was not at that moment eager to engage in conversation. All I wanted was for the meeting to start soon and end quickly.
“I don’t really feel like talking about the gods. I believe that they can hear us,” answered a girl sitting quite far from my left.
“Deity Fenrir was a no-show last year—will he attend the Gatherings this year?” another of the attendees asked.
“I heard a rumor that he is missing,” Tela joined in. I groaned. “And that—”
“When is the meeting starting?” I asked, deliberately interrupting Tela.
“The presider of this meeting arrived earlier, but then someone called her for an emergency meeting,” answered someone from my right.
“Fantastic—she double-booked herself!” I said.
“Well, something probably came up that was really important. I wonder what it was,” someone said, but I no longer cared who it was.
“In that case, why don’t we just go ahead and introduce ourselves?”
“Good idea! I’ll start. I’m Gani Crin. I’m level three, majoring in Herbology. I’m very excited to have been chosen to represent Pershiane University for the Gatherings. If you don’t have any questions for me, then that’ll be all,” said Gani with a grin. He was wearing a white tunic top with gray sleeveless outerwear and light green breeches. This ensemble was the new trend in fae fashion, and so everyone was wearing the same fashion styles with slight variations in coloring. Even me, unfortunately.
“I’m Dara Dafni. Level three here, majoring in Science of Spells. I’m really looking forward to meeting the delegates from Alpha Academy,” she said, smiling. Everyone gave her a polite nod. In fact, everyone looked polite and graceful, except, of course, me.
“I’ll go next!” Tela said, smiling excitedly. “Tela Grayson. I’m level two, majoring in Enchantment. I love reading books about theories and speculations. I’m a subscriber to both Mirror and Insider. I know about lots of stuff like Deity Fenrir being missing.” A different variation of grumbling echoed in the room. “I swear it’s true!”
“He probably joined the rest of the deities in, I don’t know, heaven? By the way, I’m Rani Saret. Level three and majoring in Art of Defensive Enchantment.” Voices of admiration met the announcement of his major. Art of Defensive Enchantment or ADE was a course that led to knighthood, the faes’ fancy word for joining the army.
What followed was a mini debate about the deities’ neglected responsibilities for more engagement in human affairs. Someone said something about “the deiti
es might be listening” and that they didn’t want to commit a sacrilege. The majority agreed and then resumed the introduction. By that time, I had stopped listening. I was so far gone inside my head that I did not notice the shift in the attendees’ attention.
“Well?” someone said, followed by a loud, intentional clearing of the throat.
Tela slapped my arm.
“Zeus-fucking-Hades!” I said, finally paying attention and realizing that all eyes were on me.
“Introduce yourself,” Tela said.
“Well—Elian Gustan. Level two, majoring in Herbology,” I said.
“We’re actually wondering why you’ve been chosen to be here considering what you are. No offense intended,” Dara said casually and then tried to take the sting off her words by putting her palms against each other and then pointing it toward her chin as she nodded. A gesture of apology. For a race known to have delicate personalities, faes could be mean harpies. But I was used to them. It was just so hard to act like them.
“You can address your question to Sir Atkin,” I answered.
“I heard you still can’t do a decent spell at your age,” Rani said.
“So you already knew me? What was the introduction for, then?” I answered.
“I’m not trying to offend you, but I’m just wondering how you actually managed to advance to level two when you can’t do the Basic?” Gani said.
“By looks and great personality,” I answered, grinning.
Irritated glances were being cast my way when the door opened. The presider walked in and hastily perused the scene before her—grimacing faces, which I believed she assumed meant for her.
“I apologize. I’m Mali Aiara. Something really important came up,” she said, walking up to the front of the table. She was wearing a white tunic and green slacks, typical semiformal clothes worn by faes on special occasions. “All right. This is how it’s going to be. Here’s the list of the delegates. Each one of you is assigned a school to usher. You’ll be their contact point.” She handed over the sheets. I glanced at mine and rolled my eyes.
“Hera’s hair! Why am I assigned to the Beta and Gamma Academy delegates? They’re the crassest of the bunch,” Dara complained.
“Whatever it is you don’t like about a certain institution or race, please let it not hinder you from doing your responsibility, which is to make them feel welcome. They are our guests and must then be treated with due hospitality,” Mali explained.
“Oh, Zeus! Mine is the University of Droom,” said Rani.
Laughter echoed in the room.
“Do you want to exchange with mine?” Tela said.
“What’s yours?”
“University of Northernia,” she answered.
“I wish to get the alpha delegates. But that’s okay. Here.” The two exchanged their sheet assignments.
“So who got the Alpha Academy?” Dara asked.
With a well-planted smirk on my face, I raised my hand.
* * *
After a few missed turns, opening wrong doors, and riding a wrong elevator, I found myself standing in a chamber huge enough to be a rich man’s mansion. My hands clamped over my mouth. My eyes bugged out of their sockets. My jaw dropped. My heart stopped. All the clichés that resembled a caricature in the cartoon section of the morning paper, all the hyperbolic statements whose meanings people tended to disregard—all of that described accurately how I felt seeing for the first time Professor Melo’s workroom.
Surrounding me were walls upon walls of books, which I assumed to be all about spells. The midsection of the workroom was divided into four galleries—potions, herbs, charmed stones, and the artifacts. Each gallery was enclosed with crystal-like walls with protruding ledges.
Because no one in Pershiane had ever seen this—save for me now—Professor Melo’s workroom had ascended into a mythical status. There were speculations, of course. There were fibbers and falsifiers, but their tales were quickly dismissed at a mere mention of being given access to the workroom.
“Good, you’re here.”
I turned around so fast at this unexpected vocal intrusion and saw the professor standing in the crystal-walled gallery where all the gemstones were. His gaze was fixed on a red stone in front of him.
“I want you to inventory everything that is in the workroom. I have a list somewhere in here. It’s a white book with a crystal stone symbol on the cover.”
I glanced around. The bookshelves covered the walls and extended way up to the ceiling that may have been two stories high. “Professor, is there a specific location where I can find this book?”
“Huh?” the professor replied, his gaze remaining on the red stone.
I gulped, scared to ask again. But it was a necessity. “Uhm, is there a place I can start to search for the inventory book?”
I thought it was rude for him to talk with his attention somewhere else. But when he shifted it to me, I realized that it was better when his gaze was elsewhere.
“Why are you asking about the location of the book?” he said. His face showed genuine confusion, which in turn confused me.
“So that I can start the inventory?”
His eyes narrowed; then he tilted his head sideways. I stood at attention, holding my breath.
“You don’t know how to summon a book?”
“I…” I paused. Would he revoke my internship? “I…I can’t summon anything.” Oh, Zeus! Please don’t change your mind.
He turned his gaze back to the red stone and then back to me again. “Huh, fascinating.” He paused, and then after stroking the short beard on his chin, he continued. “Every book has a unique symbol on the cover that serves as an identifier when you summon it. All you have to do is visualize its symbol and then command it to appear to you.”
“I’ve never ever summoned anything in life, though not for lack of trying. In fact, I did…I mean, I tried many times…and failed.”
Now he looked even more bewildered as though he could not grasp the idea of me not having the ability to use a summoning spell.
“All right,” he said as though he had made a decision. My heartbeat started racing again. “But first,” he continued, and as soon as he opened his palm, a necklace with a small green stone for a pendant appeared on top of it. “Here.” He threw the object at me, which I clumsily caught. “Wear that.”
Another necklace? I did as told but not without a little hesitation. “What’s this for, Professor?”
“It guides your mind and tames your mouth.”
Which meant…what exactly?
Understanding my confusion, he said. “I’m the only one who knows about which symbol is for which book. That necklace will prevent you from revealing to anyone anything I don’t want you to share.”
“Just like the Secrecy Spell potion.”
“Better. The potion is limited in scope. The necklace contains a whole list of prohibited words and thoughts, and you can’t answer yes or no questions either.”
“But what if anyone takes this necklace off me?”
“Try it, then.”
I took it off. Easily. But it disappeared from my hands and then within seconds reappeared around my neck. I was perplexed. He was amused.
“Although you can see it, the necklace is not really there or even here with us.”
“Ah, what?”
He smiled. “Think of a television. You can see the image inside a box, but the real one is somewhere else. It’s the same principle.”
“So this is being transmitted from somewhere?”
“Something like that.” He closed his eyes. Then a huge book suddenly hovered above me. “Watch out,” he said, grinning. But it was too late. It hit my head before I was able to catch it.
“Dragon shit! This one could easily knock me out cold!”
He raised his brows. “Boy, you grew up in an alpha household, I’d expect you to have a quicker reflex than that. Now, start working while I figure out who shut down my Protection Shield.”
/> My stomach dropped. I turned my gaze back to the red stone Melo was closely examining. The keystone at the castle gate in the An-Kian Forest suddenly flashed in my mind.
CHAPTER 13
It was almost dinnertime when I came home, and the presence of the guardians at the dining table caused a resurgence of the familiar knot in my stomach. The An-Kian Forest incident was becoming the bane of my existence. It would haunt me for the rest of my life.
To prepare for what I was planning that night, I feigned exhaustion and sleepiness. Adrian threw me a concerned look but did not question it.
Less than an hour later, as I had anticipated, the earplugs in my ears came alive with Adrian’s and Anthony’s voices.
“If Melo was able to rebuild the Protection Shield, then our work here is done. Closed.”
“No, our investigation has just begun. We need to know who, what their motivation is and their next course of action, especially since the Gatherings is just a few days away.”
“The Gatherings. It has to be all about it.”
I sensed a real wariness in Adrian’s voice despite my confession to him that I may have caused the shutdown of the Protection Shield. On the other hand, he had been adamant that there was someone there other than me.
The guardians’ conversation went on, and this time, they were joined by Sara’s.
“…likely that they are planning to attack armed with level-three magic or higher. Just like what happened in the academy two years ago. The Shield was shut down, and then shit happened.”
“Zeus balls! Sara, how could you be so casual about it? That hell better not be happening here in Pershiane.”
“That’s why we have to put in place all the necessary measures to prevent it from happening. Anthony, you go with Sara. You two need to mobilize the Alpha Force and detain everyone who bought a magical weapon, level three or higher.”
“Detain?”
“As far back as a year ago.”
“Well, then we’ll need a bigger jail.”
“I believe Alpha Academy is opening the dungeon for them.”