"Congratulations, you completed the exam with five minutes and thirteen seconds left." The girl spoke, echoing throughout the clearing like an intercom.
Ronan shook off the pile of rocks and sat up. The whole maze melted away, revealing a grey undercoat that enveloped Ronan and his cat. Small details and colors tinted the grey, morphing it into a bright room. The same grey room he'd been forced to enter by Red.
"Thank God..." He sighed.
"Unfortunately, I am having troubles in giving you a proper rank. So am I permitted to ask you a few questions?"
"Rank?" Ronan's tone twisted to caution, still shaking with fear. "Sure..."
"How much experience with lumience do you have?"
Ronan took a moment to remember what lumience was. "I jumped off a cliff without going splat... And I turned a purple stick translucent..."
The girl chuckled cynically, continuing with her questions. "What is your fighting style?"
"Fighting style?"
"Yes, I found yours odd. In a sense of your recklessness and extreme panic."
Panicked? He thought. What reason did he have not to panic?
"I was being chased by half a dozen giant stone wolves, what did you expect me to do? Smile cheerfully while running for my life?! Those things were trying to kill me!"
"Kill you?" The girl said through choked laughter. "You thought they were trying to kill you!?"
"Well... Yeah. The sign said eliminate, and that last molve was...." He scrunched up his brow in confusion, thinking about the gooey purple tongue that had nearly violated his face for all eternity. "That last molve was pretty freaky..."
It was his assumption that when a giant ferocious looking creature starts chasing you, it wants to kill you. In terms of common sense, it was a pretty good one.
She finished her laughing fit, then cleared her throat. "The molve was trying to lick you, that's how you get eliminated. We do not allow our molves to attack any of our applicants with fatal intent, that only happens when hiring some of our staff or elites. Any bodily harm sustained during this test was caused by your actions alone."
Ronan open his mouth to protest, but no words came out. Looking back at the exam, the molves hadn't caused him any harm, and the licking would explain why the last molve decided to snake its tongue out and drip its saliva onto his nose, but why licking?
"Now, about your fighting style." The girl continued. "Because you defeated two molves with lightly empowered daggers, one with the entrance examination sign; of all my applicants that was a first." She made a noise equivalent to clicking her tongue. "And then here's the best part, you utterly decimated three by overloading a flashlight with a fireball... A flashlight."
"I guess my fighting style was close combat and a lot of luck." Ronan folded his arms. "And you call that thing a flashlight? It's more like a multi-purpose hand grenade!"
"Hand grenade? I'm not sure what that is, but if you're referring to its explosive attributes there are better, and safer, ways to cause an explosion of that magnitude... Trust me." The girl pondered her next question, throwing it out like she was reading off a list. "What is your native tongue?"
"English and some French."
"Alright..." Her hum of approval stopped dead as she let out a choked cough. "English? Where are you from?"
"Canada?" Ronan said, yet again remembering he wasn't on Earth anymore.
"You're from Earth? How did you get here?"
This was his chance, whoever that girl was she could know a way to get him back home, all he had to do was explain his predicament. "I was kidnapped."
"Kidnapped? By who?"
"Red." Even with the evil smirk plastered to his face, his irritation leaked through his voice at the thought of that name.
The girl sighed. "Blonde demon spawn. Anyways, despite the fact you successfully completed the exam, due to your inexperience with lumience your current rank is B. Here's your slip."
A blue slip materialized in front of Ronan's face and he threw his hands out a couple times to catch it. A large black B was plastered in the middle of it, followed by the words first year and his name in small print. The fearful lump formed in the back of his throat again. "Actually, I don't plan on staying here, do you know how to get back to Earth?"
The girl hummed disapprovingly. "Unfortunately I can't help you. Trans-world travelling is rare, you'll have to talk to Red about how he got to Earth in the first place."
There was a dry click as white lines crawled across the wall opposite of Ronan, forming the shape of two rectangles. Silver colouring filled in the shapes, morphing the rectangles into the double doors Ronan had entered through. "There's the way out. In the meantime, please consider attending Cobalt to try it out... And you should get that concussion and your other injuries healed."
"Thanks." Ronan whimpered, rubbing the dried blood clinging to the back of his head off with a sigh. He stuffed the blue slip into his pocket and reached to open the door, but stopped. "Oh! Wait." He slid his hand into his other pocket to remove the sack of smoke balls, but they had vanished along with any dust or pebbles that had been clinging to his uniform.
The girl made a questioning hmm towards Ronan, and he turned his head, falling back into the dark pit of contemplating his current situation. "Never mind."
He pushed open the silver doors, walking into the lobby that was now shady to his eyes that had been exposed to the lucid grey room. Red was leaning against the wall and intercepted him on his way out.
"So? How'd it go?"
Ronan glared at Red, cautiously keeping his distance. The last thing he wanted was to be taken control of by him again. "Take me back."
Red looked at him blankly and tilted his head to the side. "Back? Back where?"
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Draven, Veronica, and Maria watched as the quiet boy Red had brought with him, grabbed him by the collar and threw him up against the wall. "You know damn well where!" He tightened his grip as Red slowly shrank into his shoulders like a turtle. "Back where I didn't have to worry about rhinoceros sized stone wolves trying to flatten me! Or vampire bats trying to eat me!" He snapped, feeling the heat rising in his head, and the constant beating in the back of his skull grew again. "Wow he is stronger than he looks." Draven cooed turning his gaze to Ronan. "What? Didn't do so hot on the exam?" He glared at Draven and allowed Red to drop from his grasp. "Okay, let's calm down." Red said patting his shoulder with a cheery smile. "I thought you'd like the exam. What rank did you get?" "First you'll promise to take me back to Earth, then I'll show you that stupid rank," Ronan snapped, sticking his hand out for a deal sealing handshake. Red stared at Ronan's hand for a couple seconds the
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"Here we are." Draven announced, motioning towards a doorless room full of students.Veronica smiled with forced politeness, and went through the empty doorway. "Thank you for taking us here, we don't need your assistance anymore.""Harsh." Draven folded his arms and leaned against the wall in relaxation. "Sorry ma'am, I'll be waiting here. Don't wanna be facing the wrath of your sis like Red is."Veronica rolled her eyes and looked at Ronan. "Come on, follow me."The room had the same same stony texture as most of the building's interior, but Ronan noticed the red carpet paving the lobby and main hallways didn't reach into the other rooms, or smaller corridors. This room didn't have skylights either, since there was another level above. Instead it was lit with multiple floating blue balls of energy.Veronica walked to the other end of the room, where adults in formal wear sat behind large wooden desks. Whenever a teenager approached them, they would greet them with a smile, take thei
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Maria let out a scornful sight. This was unbelievable. She had given him the simplest task, the task she thought no one with a half decent brain could possibly screw up. Yet there stood Draven, hoodwinked by two teenagers."You lost them... How in the name of Tesirus did you possibly lose track of them!?""Well, simply put. They just disappeared," Draven replied, acting as though his answer was perfect.Maria tugged on Draven's arm, so they both stood in the doorway. "You can see the whole bloody room from here! So don't give me that, 'they just disappeared' crap.""The tour will be starting soon, they've already sorted the newbies into their groupings." Red scooped Ragdoll off the ground and attached a little metal clasp to her ear. She jumped out of his arms, looking at him with an intelligence unfitting for a feline. "Track him down Ragdoll, and tell me when you've found him."She nodded, darting away into the crowd of people.Before Maria could question Red's actions, he stuck his
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Sonya looked around the expanse of dandelions, they were dancing in the evening breeze without a care in the world. She couldn't share in their whimsical freedom, swallowing the panic constricting her throat as she stared at Ronan's house, a distant and chilling sillhouette of wood mixed with sharp grey stones.She pushed herself off the large rock behind her, going as fast as her feet would carry her to close in on her friend's sanctuary, vaulting the iron fence and throwing her arms out to collide with the door and halt her momentum. After tossing the door mat to the side and snatching the spare key she fumbled with the small object, finally stilling her trembling hands to jam it through the lock with a click."Ronan!" she burst, her voice crawling back into her throat as she stared at the torn up room. The scarce pairs of shoes once neatly lined together were thrown to the walls, along with multiple racks, bins, and a few chairs, all in a chillingly perfect circle."Ronan?" she whi
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A symphony of mellow clacks came from around the corner, it wasn't just someone, it was a large group of someones. The two jumped away from the wall, going with the natural adolescent reaction by instinctively fixing their clothes and hair to erase any evidence of their troublesome behaviour. An entourage of casually dressed teenagers came around the corner in a disorganised group, two students in black uniforms streaked with silver manned the front, and another two held up the rear. The two in the front were clearly visible with their distance. One was an tall and nimble caramel skinned girl, with her thick black hair tied back in a braid, and the other was a prestigious, pasty looking boy, dwarfed by his partners towering figure. "What are you two doing wandering the halls alone? You get lost?" the girl called, marching the group of students towards them. Veronica put on a mask of innocence and smiled politely, curling a small strand of hair along her finger. "Yeah, we were looki
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The group continued to thoroughly explore the academy, and Ronan was wondering how the students got around without using a map. His assumptions on its size were correct, it was massive and full of stairs, large rooms, and long halls, all the while spreading its blue and grey theme throughout the school.There was one area the guides talked about, but didn't explore much. A large room at the back of the school with five separately coloured and themed doors, yellow, red, silver, green, and purple respectively. On each door was a unique beast, embellished with blues, blacks and whites, to create a beautiful emblemed appeal.The yellow door had what Ronan assumed to be a winged wolf-like creature, with slim pointed ears, and prominent canines. The red door had a Phoenix on it, judging by the red flaming feathers covering the bird's body, and the same silver dragon on his pin sat prestigiously on the silver door. The second to last door had a scaled stag, like the one that had snuck up on
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Veronica sat on her bed, stuffed like a spring hen but still buzzing with birthday energy. She had only played with one of her gifts throughout the night, a dinged up wooden dagger that she'd managed to hold away from her mother until the gazes of the guests forced her to allow the gift to remain in her hands. She had looked for Mr. Bunny afterwards to show him her new prize, but Horus had informed her of his early departure.She knew that they had planned for today to be their last, but the disappointment lingered nonetheless. She still had one last gift she had hoped to give him.Veronica sighed, grabbing for a fairytale on her shelf instead of the books that had piled from Jackling's tutoring. She had gotten a few new stories to read Cinder before bed, but the phoenix had taken a particular liking to the golden lettering of one title."The Adventures of Locke Lanbrellhande..."She stopped at the small tap that met her ears, glancing at the side of her bed where Cinder was still per
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It was all wrong.The corridor was too tight. The guards were too close. Too tall.It was too cold, suffocating.He was meant to be in the room to at least give him some time to think."Are you alright?"The boy snapped to the voice. What was a blink to him, was long enough to land him on the ground, palms to the floor to keep his entire body from shaking. He didn't know how long he had blanked out for, but the king had taken a knee to come closer to him, washed with concern as a few of the surrounding guards hovered over the scene to see where they could offer help."Come lad, can you stand?"His gut twisted at the way he tried to help him up, but with Vera bracing his other side he couldn't very well squirm away from the king. He doubted that he'd even have the energy if he decided to. But he knew now with the scene he'd caused that he would have to respond with more than a nod.Cilvren would have had his translational enchantments up to date, but there was a standing risk of a few
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The door opened, the boy squatting lower into the tub as Veronica peeked in. She flaunted the tiny beginner's book like a sack full of slivs, tiptoeing up to the tub with a devilish smile."I found it.""You don't have to whisper, we put up a sound block enchantment.""You guys have to teach me!" Veronica piped. She quickly landed on the bar of soap in Horus' hands, putting two and two together at the suds popping in the boy's hair. "Horus, that's soap.""Yeah...""That won't do, it makes your hair all icky." She grabbed a tray full of mysterious pots, smearing at least five of the creams together before her mysterious concoction was complete.No amount of dodging could save the boy from being her test dummy, but the smug way he simply let Veronica rub the bubbly concoction into his hair irked Horus to no end. She grabbed some more of the secret spread, only stopping when not a single black hair could be send through the froth of rose bubbles on his head."You're never going to smell
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Veronica barreled through the halls, a shiny steel bowl tucked over her head as she carved a clear path to her destination.Adrian's room was so far from her own, privileged to the same hall as her mother and father's bedchambers, and nearly as grandois. When Horus and Adrian weren't scrapping in the courtyards, they were almost always doing something in there.Veronica confirmed her theory as she pressed her ear to the door, letting herself in at the sound of Horus' voice.Adrian was quick to call out her trespassing, stepping out of the hold he had Horus in to cross his arms and slap a sour glare on his face."Don't touch my door.""It's not yours," Veronica snipped back, clutching the bowl tighter as her brother took a challenging step. She quickly stole Horus' attention. "I need your help."Adrian scoffed at her caked shoes. "What's with all the mud? Mom's going to have a fit.""None of your business, I need Horus to help me.""We're practicing. Go get Maria or Jackling to help yo