Emotionless (The Emotionless Book 1) Page 2

  I nodded once. Just a firm and straightforward nod that let her know that I agreed with her.

  In the middle of next year, I will send in my forms to Mage Academy, and by the end of that year, I will see if I have been approved. Mage Academy is the world’s best high school in the mage world. Every mage aspires to go to Mage Academy. However, they select the best of the best to attend their school. Silas was accepted because he thrived within crystal work, which was hard to accomplish. Not that many have the mentality and patience to sit with a crystal for sometimes over two days with minimal breaks.

  I, however, will know I will be accepted with ease. Aside from being the Heir to the Frost family, a lot respect me as an individual. I am not only atop of my class but the entire school I go to for that matter. I have been told that my rune work is one of the finest. I am basically better than some teachers, even. I also have a significant social group that doesn’t stand out that much, and they aren’t cruel or consistently gaining attention or getting in trouble. Which when the Headmage reads my file will know that I won’t break any said rules of his Academy. Everything matters, not just the grades. That’s why I am here tonight with my mother and father. I am here to be noticed, not to support my brother.

  When we rounded the bend onto the left, I glared ahead, but my heart pounded very fast at the armoured knights that marched in my direction. It was always scary to not sidestep or move out of their way. No matter how strong my willpower is, I still stiffen when they suddenly shift to the side themselves and weave around the mages that walked in the same direction.

  A sigh escaped my lips, and immediately I felt the silver orbs of eyes flicker to the right where I walked. Mother was watching me intently. To her, even the simplest of hitches of breaths can be seen as a sign of weakness that could be exploited. That was how much she reads into things. Nonetheless, I shouldn’t have sighed after the magical armoured knights went past. I shouldn’t have held my breath. If anything, if they bumped into me, they would have been stripped of their magical rune and be nothing but a pile of steel armour pieces on the ground.

  On the right of the hallway, before the entrance of the cafeteria, warm yellow light illuminated from inside. Mages formed around the door and were advancing inside. When we got there, I heard the soft murmurs of mages whispering between one another. Their voices became more apparent when I looked inside the great hall of Mage Academy.

  It was always breathtaking entering their hall: Pictures of graduated students were framed and around the entire walls. Long banners with the Mage Academy symbol flowed down from the top of the ceiling. Tainted glass stained the roof of the hall, where I could see twinkling stars and the big, brilliant white orb of the moon outside.

  Father pushed my shoulder delicately. I moved forward and down the row of seats. Every seat had squishy fabric embedded with fine golden print on them. All were of a beautiful floral design.

  Mother turned into the row of seats fifth from the entrance. While I shuffled inwards, I looked out the front. Atop the podium, on the third last seat, Silas sat, and he looked nervous. Whenever he was nervous, he would tap one foot repeatedly and stare at nothing, really. He did notice us but didn’t wave. There was a hint of a smile, one that most certainly said, ‘I am freaking out and can’t wait for this to be over.’ If I could smile like that, I would as well, for I couldn’t wait for this to be over and done with as well so that I could go back into my room and summon my guardian.

  Most mages found their seats when an elderly greying bearded man walked out and across the podium and towards the centre. He had a glittery cloak on that rested along his shoulders and flowed down to drag across the brick floor. Once he stood in the centre with his staff poised before him, grasped within both hands, the murmured voices simmered down until silence enveloped the air.

  “Good evening, Mages,” the Headmage bellowed. His voice echoed through the entire hall. “Tonight, we celebrate the graduation of our year twelve students. After tonight these students you see before you will become adults. They still have years to grow and develop and master being mages, like we all.” Laughter filled the air at his words. “Some will become teachers at the finest schools and carry on what they have developed to the younger generation. Some might open their own businesses and rise within the social game. Others may even work side by side with our most powerful of mages at Organisation.” A howl of cheers erupted, and that made the Headmage laugh and raise one of his hands to hush the crowd. “The point I am trying to say is that all of these students graduating today will aspire to do phenomenal things.”

  It was flowing well. After the Headmaster’s speech, one by one, students went up to him and held out their hands. My eyes lit up, and I was enchanted with every single staff that rested within the student’s palms before they walked off and back to their seat. It was a magical moment to be presented a staff to state that you are now an adult. A staff holds unimaginable powers, and within their owner’s grasp, the staff can amplify its power and be hundreds of times stronger than just using your hands and illuminated veins. A staff draws all the Mage’s power to the staff, and that is how the magic amplifies.

  It was now Silas’s turn to stand up and go over to where the Headmage stood. He was a nervous wreck now. Immediately, when he stood, he tripped on an invisible wire and stumbled. If Donte and Nixon were here, I would have believed that there was invisible wire because they are that diabolical. However, it was just Silas being nervous. He never liked crowds, and that was the reason as to why he would never be Heir to the Frost family.

  Silas stood before the Headmage and raised his hands flat like he was waiting for the Headmage to drop something small in them. Both hands flat and arms stretched out, the Headmage went to raise his hand when the ground shook. Silas stumbled back and away from the Headmage. Mages around me stood and looked up at the glass ceiling. When I looked up, the glass shattered and rained down. Mages cried out and ran, protective bubbles circled around mages to protect them.

  “Son!” Father cried out.

  When I looked back towards the podium, a gigantic beast landed on the Headmage. The Headmage’s protective bubble shattered, and he was trampled on.

  My father was suddenly with Silas. He had a crystal within his grasp. A second later, the crystal shattered and they were no longer within the vicinity.

  Wailing screams and cries tore out, and mages pushed and shoved one another to escape. The fire burned and engulfed the air and shot out towards the left side of the hall and at the rows of seats. Mages burned and turned into ash with one breath of dragon fire. In awe, I looked up and stared into the eye of the purple-eyed dragon that fell from the sky. Its scales shined a violet in colour, and it had long, sharp black claws, and a pointed tail that lashed out and broke the brick interior walls. The fire began to spread, and cries of agony and pain filled the air.

  Suddenly, Mother came into focus. She grabbed my arm and tore me towards the doors. I tried to follow her, but I never excelled in any level of exercise. I was never trained to be the greatest at sports. I was always taught to stand or sit around and look pretty. It was also even harder to run, other mages pushed and shoved me.

  “Watch out!” Someone screamed.

  When I turned, I gasped at the dragon that glared at the entrance of the doors to the hall. The dragon opened its mouth, and a fiery orange colour began to form deep within its throat. Before the fire breathed out into my direction, I was forcefully grabbed and ripped from my mother’s grasp and towards the cafeteria. Fire suddenly engulfed the doors and blew a hole in the wall outside of the doors. Bricks cracked, broke and crumbled down and created a pile-up and blocked the entrance.

  “Are you okay, Ms Frost?”

  I looked up at a Highborn Mage that I know well. He was a teacher at this school and speaks highly of our family. Mr Umar always shows up randomly at our home with more books for Silas to read. Whenever he does come over, he stays for coffee and has lengthy chats with my father. He was
a lovely man.

  I nodded the slightest, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Scratching the top of his bald head, I noticed flesh peeling from his arm from where he was burned. I went to reach for it when he lowered my arm and stood.

  “I will heal myself once I get you to safety. You are lucky I grabbed hold of you. You wouldn’t have made it and that dragon would have burned you.” I stood myself and looked at the large detritus that had fallen down and blocked our way.

  “I cannot believe A Mages War appeared here,” Mr Umar said, shaking his head in disbelief. “We need to leave before both the mages in the war find each other and battle some more. I could only see the dragon, though, so I wonder where its master is, or the other mage and Guardian for that matter.”

  Mr Umar was lost in thought once again. Whenever I sat with my father in the living room while Mr Umar was there, Mr Umar would tell the strangest and in-depth of stories and become lost in his own world. The reason I liked him so much was that he reminded me of my grandfather sometimes. My grandfather would always become lost in his own world and talk about the weirdest and most bizarre of things.

  “Eileen!” Mother called my name from the other side of the fallen, crumbled stones. “Eileen, are you alright?”

  “Mother,” I said and heard her intake of breath of relief. “I am with Mr Umar. He saved me. I am grateful for his company as well.”

  “So am I now. I shall repay him for saving you.”

  “There’s no need,” Mr Umar spoke bashfully. “I will do anything to protect the Frost family.” Mr Umar then sighed. “Look, I don’t think that we can unblock this exit in time. I can still hear the dragon inside the hall. Ms Frost and I will go through the cafeteria doors. We will meet you down the stairs of Mage Academy.”

  “Mr Umar, my family is indebted to you.”

  “Please, Mrs Frost, it is the least that I can do. I shall escort Ms Frost now. Stay safe, Mrs Frost.”

  Mr Umar touched my shoulder, and we walked through the dense, suffocating and thick dirt. Shadows of mages flew past us, or limped and moved towards the stairs to the cafeteria. Some were on the ground, leaning against the stone walls that were still intact. Yellow or green orbs floated around their wounds and were repairing them. Others laid on the ground and weren’t moving at all.

  We went up the stairs and into the cafeteria, the doors were open, and mages were filing out when another rumble shook the ground. I reached out and grabbed hold of Mr Umar’s black jacket and flinched when a phoenix landed right outside the doors of the cafeteria. Umar gasped and went to turn back towards the way that we came when the pile-up of stone broke free, and the dragon appeared from behind us. The sudden determination must have kicked in for Mr Umar. He raised his hand, and his veins lit through his jacket. I could then feel the air compress when the Phoenix flapped its fiery orange wings and flames, like flying torpedoes, flew towards us. Within a blink of my eye, I was then someplace else.

  At the stairs that lead up to the classrooms, when I looked back into the cafeteria, mages that expected their defensive mechanisms to work, or for even their Guardian’s to save them turned into nothing but flying ash in the wind. It was horrific how strong these two Guardians were that they were killing mages and other Guardians with ease.

  My mother did tell me when A Mages War started that this would be the strongest of ones. The mages that joined A Mages War have all excelled students from Mage Academy that recently turned Eighteen, for that was the required ago a mage had to be to enter. Not younger or older. Of course, my older brother declined to join. He wanted no purpose in it, and no Frost ever did aside from my grandfather. Only one survives, and these two were the last ones left, and they decided to battle it out here?

  “Come on, Ms Frost. We are going up these stairs and to the nearest window.”

  “Okay?” I questioned.

  “We are going to jump out. It isn’t safe here any longer.”

  I agreed with a nod, and we went up the spiral staircase to the second floor of Mage Academy.

  It was dark up here. The only form of light was of the green and blue orbs that bobbed around. As well as mine and Mr Umar’s veins. Some other mages were also up here and racing down the corridor.

  Mr Umar went to reach for the first classroom when a bright pink light shimmered into focus. Glittery pink dust burst and a slender woman in a pretty, vibrant and pink dress came into focus. Mr Umar’s Guardian, a blossom fairy, appeared.

  “Master, you are wounded. Why did you not summon me? I can be of assistance.” The blossom fairy then looked down at me, and her face softened. “Ms Frost, good evening.”

  Blossom fairies are entirely oblivious to surroundings. They are not good fighters, but they are very good with healing and growing medicine and defending their masters. Right now, she did not ask nor seem to care about what was happening around her. All this fairy cared about was healing Mr Umar.

  “Blossom, we need to leave this place. There is no time for healing me. A Mages War is happening right under our feet, and they do not care for innocence. Remember, we are in their way, they aren’t in our way. To avoid a collision, we must escape.”

  Blossom slackened her hold on Mr Umar’s arm and nodded. Her bright pink hair shifted to the front of her face, and her pink pointed ears twitched. When Mr Umar opened the door, Blossom suddenly moved so that she was in front of the door. Blinding white light shot out, and Blossom gasped. Pink specs of blood coughed out through her open mouth, and I saw the light in her pink eyes begin to fade.

  “Run, Master,” she choked out before she shattered into pink dust.

  “Blossom!” Umar wailed.

  My eyes shifted down to his right hand, where the throbbing pink gem was engraved into his skin. The light faded inside the gem and then fell from his skin. All that was left was an indent of where the summoning gem was located.

  I have never seen a Guardian die, aside from television, but they always made it so dramatic that it was hard to believe if that was how Guardians really died. Now that I have seen, I know that it was overly dramatic.

  “Heh. I thought it was Mika. My mistake. Where the heck is that kid, anyway?” The voice was low and musky. The one that was inside of the room sounded irritated. “Oh! Mr Umar, how are you?”

  “Timothy, you do understand that it is graduation night?”

  “Yes. Do I really care? Eh, not really. I am here for Mika. The sooner I kill him, the sooner I gain a free wish. Have you seen him? You were his favourite teacher when it came to crystal work. You wouldn’t happen to know where he is and is keeping his location a secret from me, would you?”

  I could sense this sudden power from both of them and stepped further back until I was back at the flight of stairs that led down to the cafeteria. I couldn’t see the mage that was inside of the classroom, Mr Umar was in my way. But I could feel his magic, and it was undeniably powerful and very frightening. I shuffled back even further when I noticed another flight of stairs that led up. I hid behind the wall and peeked out to where Mr Umar stood.

  “No. I know never to interfere in A Mages War. It is frowned upon to do so,” Mr Umar replied. “But I did see his Phoenix down in the cafeteria, perhaps he is down there.”

  “I have been down there. My dragon is also down there inspecting every room and hidey-hole that it can find. Mika isn’t down there.”

  “Then he must have left Mage Academy, and I suggest you do the same as well.”

  “No. I can smell him… wait, Mr Umar, are you trying to get rid of me?” The man laughed, and that made me flinch further back behind the wall until most of myself were hidden. “I knew it, you are hiding him!”

  “I am doing no such thing, Timothy.”

  “Where is he? Tell me?”

  “I don’t know where Mika is, Timothy!”

  “Whatever. I don’t need you. I will tear this Academy apart brick by brick if I have to.”

  A blinding white light flashed, and Mr Umar collapsed on the ground
and fell into the pink dust that littered the floor. I gasped, turned and ran up the flight of stairs as quickly as humanly possible.

  It was much darker up here. There were no floating orbs, only the distressed light of my veins that throbbed and illuminated my skin.

  Up the stairs, I was now in a small hallway and at the end of the hallway was an old antique door. When I went up to it, I grabbed the hinge and pushed it inwards. The door creaked, and that made me wince at the sound that it made. Inside the room, I pushed the door shut and flicked the latch so that it locked. The door didn’t light up, so that means it wasn’t bound by any magical power. Therefore, that means the door can be easily broken.

  Darting a look around, I went to the first table and chairs and dragged the table to the door. Once the table was pressed against it, I stepped further away and to the back of the room. I hit into shelves, and a container dropped and the lid opened. I swore under my breath and crouched down to pick whatever was inside up when powder rubbed against my hands. I picked up white chalk. A thought suddenly occurred to me, but that meant I needed to act fast.

  I took hold of the chalk and stood and went to an open enough space to work on. That free space was in the centre of this old classroom that must be in one of the towers.

  I knelt down onto the ground and held my hand firm enough and drew the design I had imprinted in my mind from what I drew earlier this evening. The memory of the loops, curves and flicks before I swirled it around to an activation circle. The colour of the circle and rune turned a brilliant blue colour. It was the perfect colour. Then, my hand touched the outer layer, and my veins throbbed, and the chalk sparked. My arm moved around until it made a circle whole. I stood and looked at the summoning rune that faded, but was waiting for me to call.