The next day, Inock and Andre had school. They’d been allowed yesterday off for Inock’s birthday.
The boys still studied at the power-training school next door, taught by the witch Ms Strict. Except, it was now called Last School, the school year before university level education or employment. Last School had started sometime in September as the previous school years, but it would be longer than a year, six months more. Along with the usual school holidays, Inock and Andre would get four weeks off in July. Inock would be seventeen years old at the end of it.
It was the morning and the two brothers were in the sitting room enjoying cereal and orange juice for breakfast.
Their sitting room was a fusion of red and black, with a large, black leather sofa and two matching armchairs, two big, black glass cabinets on either side of the sofa, tall, stylish glass lamps in all the corners of the room and the room centred with a long, black glass coffee table. The 3D television on a wall, that when turned off changed into a painting of a forest, was muted and turned onto a channel showing a Power Trials repeat, Inock’s and Andre’s favourite show where witches and demons took part in challenging trials using their powers. The two boys had matured somewhat over the last few months and therefore did not worship the Power Trials contenders so much anymore; they only watched the show from time to time.
After breakfast, Inock and Andre grabbed their backpacks and left the house. Tehan, Esttia and Torend had already left for the power-training school next door where Esttia worked as the receptionist and Tehan and Torend worked as power-trainers. Both men had a power like Inock’s where they could emulate other demons’ powers, which they used to train demons wishing to learn or excel at their gifts. Tehan owned the school and was one of the best power-trainers in the world; he was well known around the world for it too.
Outside, Inock and Andre descended the white steps that led down from their front door. From their flat, you could see all the way along The Divider to the southern market gate far in the distance.
It was a sunny and crisp morning, and the market was already busy with shoppers and various animals, including gante and gampe. The two boys turned left and walked through light crowds to the power-training school, up the white steps, and entered the wide, glass sliding doors.
The school reception was small with a row of ten chairs lined along the wall, with five students sat waiting. To the left of the space was the receptionist’s desk where Esttia sat writing in a large black book, and beyond the row of chairs, the reception narrowed into a corridor that ended just a few paces further on.
After a quick ‘hello,’ to their mother, Inock and Andre moved to the staircase, which was past the receptionist desk, leading to the next floor up.
Upstairs, they hurried to the classroom since they knew Ms Strict didn’t like to be kept waiting.
The classroom had two desks with chairs by the window overlooking the market. Inock and Andre were her only students; she taught them privately. There was a big desk at the front of the classroom, Ms Strict’s desk. And behind that was a big blackboard.
Ms Strict was sitting at her desk, waiting with her eyebrows furrowed in irritation.
‘What explanation do you have for being late this time, boys?’ Ms Strict tutted and commented in her harsh little voice. ‘You live next door!’ The loose bun of grey hair on top of her head was swaying comically as she said this, making Inock fight back a smile.
‘Sorry, miss,’ Andre said following Inock to the two chairs by the window. ‘We didn’t realise we were late.’
The boys sat down and each extracted a business studies textbook from their bags, ready for the lesson to begin.
‘Well, all right. Just try not to be tardy anymore, boys. You know I don’t like to be strict.’ Inock knew she did very much like to be strict. And Ms Strict certainly looked like a strict boring schoolteacher, though she was a witch. She was old and usually wore long dull-coloured skirts and cardigans. ‘But good time-keeping is important in life. Note that!’
‘Yes, miss,’ chorused the boys.
‘Good. I am sick and tired of having to remind you of this!’ Ms Strict said brandishing her crescent-shaped spectacles at them. ‘Now let us begin the first lesson.’
For Last School, Ms Strict taught Inock and Andre maths and number reading, science and alchemy, languages, world history, business studies, media studies, theoretical agriculture and hospitality and law. (With Ms Strict’s guidance, Inock and Andre had chosen the last four subjects to prepare for university. The boys would take their end-of-school-year exams in the Kasama venator lookout.)
The day’s first lesson was business studies. Ms Strict had the boys read a section in the set textbook then asked them to answer questions at the end of said section after a lengthy discussion.
Halfway through answering the case study questions, Ms Strict had a strange request for Inock. She was sat at the front of the classroom marking the boys’ homework while they worked, when suddenly she looked up.
‘Inock, boy, I have a favour to ask of you,’ Ms Strict said.
Inock was shocked to hear this. Ms Strict had never before spoken to him so casually, let alone ask a favour of him.
‘What is it, Ms Strict?’ Inock asked.
‘Well, boy, it is to do with a rather delicate matter,’ Ms Strict answered. ‘There was a robbery you see.’
‘At your home?’ asked Andre, who was also looking at their teacher with mild shock.
‘No, boys, not at my home. It was a grave; my grandfather’s grave to be exact.’
‘That’s terrible!’
‘I know,’ said Ms Strict. ‘Terrible business!’
‘And disgusting! What was stolen?’ asked Andre, looking horrified. ‘Not the corpse, surely!’
‘No, not the corpse, young ones, but something from the corpse. A ring,’ Ms Strict explained. ‘You see, I recently visited the grave and was told by the graveyard caretaker that it’d been desecrated. And on further investigation, I learned that something was taken from the corpse, only one thing, the ring I mentioned.’
‘Was it an expensive ring?’
‘No, but it was a magical ring. My grandfather requested to be buried wearing the ring and that wish was met. Now his grave has been vandalised and the ring stolen. Hence the favour I need to ask of you.’
‘What do you need me to do, miss?’ asked Inock.
‘Well, I can’t imagine it’ll be easy, but I need you to investigate, find out who broke into the grave and stole the ring. It is rather important that the ring be recovered. My grandfather was ever so dear to me and my family.’
Ms Strict laid a hand on her chest and seemed to force herself to carry on talking.
‘I have attempted to investigate myself and found out from the graveyard caretaker in Ettaka Village that teenagers were seen idling at the gravesite. Would you boys manage to speak with the caretaker and see what you can learn? Perhaps you might get further than I have. Do you think you can do this for me, boys?’
‘Yes, that’s fine, miss, we’ll try,’ Andre answered politely.
‘Excellent, boys!’ the teacher said, seeming to cheer up somewhat. ‘I am indeed pleased to know that you’ll help.’
Inock and Andre turned back to their work but their teacher went on to say, ‘Furthermore, there is another matter I wish to discuss with you two.’
‘What is it, miss?’
‘It is to do with your further education,’ said Ms Strict. ‘I understand you both intend to tour Unatia University soon as a potential university. I mean to advise you, you must be fully prepared. Ask the right questions, meet the right people and be thorough in your investigation of the place. You do not want to choose Unatia University and later feel dissatisfied with your choice. Do you understand?’
‘Yes, miss. I think we’ve prepared well for it though,’ Andre said. ‘We’ve already checked out Kasama University and—’
‘Yes, we did, but it’s not in a great city like Unatia,’ interrupted Inock. ‘And it was small and not at all impressive. There were cows and sheep on campus!’
‘I’m glad to hear that, boys,’ Ms Strict said with a smile.
‘Yes, Inock, it was small, but I thought it was okay,’ spoke up Andre. ‘Their curriculum looked okay to me … And it is a lot closer to home.’
‘Yes, I suppose,’ said Inock.
‘Then very well done, boys,’ said Ms Strict. ‘And do remember to be thorough in your investigations of the universities you visit. Big and flashy doesn’t equal quality, remember that. As they say: Wake up to make up!’
‘What does that mean, miss?’
She answered: ‘You must rise to the occasion to achieve. That is all it means. Do you understand, boys?’
‘Yes, Ms Strict,’ chorused the boys.
‘Are you ready, Inock? Time for another power-training lesson,’ came Tehan’s voice.
It was lunchtime and Inock, Lalita and Andre were sitting on the school steps enjoying homemade vegetable cakes when Inock’s father appeared through the school doorway. (Lalita knew the boys’ timetable so she usually found them on the school steps having lunch to hang out.)
Tehan had been power-training Inock for months, but did not do it very often. (Esttia had taken Inock off the power-suppressing potion some time back.)
Inock’s father had trained him in many powers, and he was getting quite good with them. With energy manipulation, he could now fire off multiple bolts of electricity from his fingers that could knock a being, human or animal, unconscious for a while. He could create and hurl energy balls but his aim needed work, and he could conjure up reasonably powerful energy shields. Tehan had tried to teach him to fly but Inock could only hover over short distances. With Andre’s power, Inock could now turn into many animals. He learned how to create strong winds and manipulate water. Inock was really pleased to learn how to will darkness into existence that could overpower sources of light, and how to enhance light sources to make them shine brighter! (That power was quite rare.) And of course, Torend had taught Inock many powers before like invisibility and telekinesis. Tehan always encouraged Inock to train hard, saying he could be really powerful if he mastered most power types.
Inock rose from the steps with vigour.
‘Yes, Father. I am ready!’ he squealed, making Tehan smile at his eagerness.
‘Come then,’ the tall man said. ‘Let us head into the orbiis.’
So, the power-trainer led the way into the school reception, past two waiting students and through the door past the staircase into his power-discovery room. Torend had a similar room upstairs. The power-discovery room was a spectacularly long, windowless room. It was split into eight equal sections, each about the size of a bedroom; each section was a different colour. There was a tall wooden cupboard full of boxes of potions, books and other power-training gizmos in the far corner of the white section of the room. Next to that was a table and two chairs.
But this wasn’t the space they’d train in today. They would train in a far more impressive space, the orbiis!
After giving Inock a potion to drink that would temporarily enhance his powers, the Validus Valeo potion, Tehan led the way to the other end of the room, uttered ‘ESRA-IN!’ and something simply wonderful happened.
A huge, circular chunk of the violet wall began to slide slowly out towards them, bricks loudly scraping against each other. The wall stopped moving after several inches, then it cracked down the middle, splitting into two halves. Each half slowly slid aside revealing a dark, empty space. A round hole just big enough for Tehan and Inock to enter had been created, with bricks poking out around its edges.
‘Follow me in, son,’ Tehan said to Inock before walking through the hole.
Inock did as he was told and followed his father into the exciting darkness.
The dark space ahead of Tehan and Inock slowly illuminated, and at the same time, the wall behind them slid back into place, sealing them in.
They stood at the edge of a great silver dome the size of two football pitches. The wall behind them was a curved silver one. The ground beneath them was the only flat surface in the whole space and it felt a little colder than it had been in the power-discovery room.
A ball of light hovered at the centre of the dome, its light reflecting on the polished walls, making the vast space glisten incredibly; Inock knew the light ball in the distance worked by magic. It was always wonderful to behold, like the light balls in venator lookouts.
Tehan led the way further into the great chamber.
‘Son, today’s lesson is energy manipulation,’ Tehan turned and said after a minute or so. ‘Take twenty paces away from me and fire an energy ball at me. Let us improve your aim, then perhaps, time allowing, move onto energy shields.’
The lesson had begun!
Inock did as he was told and walked twenty steps away from his father. He then turned around and conjured up a decent-sized energy ball twice the size of a football. As always, Inock got a thrill conjuring the sizzling ball of energy. It always got him excited to focus and will the energy to gather above his palm; then he had to maintain the shape of it keeping it spherical with just his mind, not to mention he had to regulate the constant energy flow into the deadly ball, and it was certainly mesmerising to look at; the thing sizzled and the energy all around it roared.
Inock hurled the bluish ball at the power-trainer. He missed him by five feet.
‘Try again, son,’ Tehan said aloud, his voice echoing off the silver walls.
So Inock tried again and again and again. But he just kept missing. The first two flew to Tehan’s left and the third zipped past his right.
The power-trainer walked to his son, and laying a large hand on his shoulder, gently said: ‘You need to focus, son … concentrate. You did well on the third try but you overshot. Remember what I told you about your wrist work. Do not twist the wrist just before you release the ball. I do believe that’s why your energy balls have a slight curve to them. Now, let us try again.’ And he walked about twenty paces away from Inock. ‘Conjure and fire, son!’
Inock did as he was told and summoned an energy ball above a palm and fired it, keeping in mind his father’s advice. It took him seven tries to hit the target, though the power-trainer simply conjured up a blue energy shield between himself and the hurtling ball of energy just before it hit him and it exploded there with echoing bangs, showering the silver floor at his feet with sprinkles of energy.
‘Well done, Inock!’ Tehan bellowed. ‘You succeeded! Let’s keep the rhythm going and try that again!’
So, they practiced like that for the next half an hour; Inock managed to hit the target many times more, though disappointingly, he missed more than he struck.
Then, before you could say, ‘a venator and his onis,’ Tehan announced they had run out of time. The lesson was over.
‘I’m afraid we won’t have time to practice energy shields today, son.’
‘Already?’ Inock sulked.
‘It’s okay, son,’ his father said with a slight smile. ‘We’ll try energy manipulation again soon.’
The power-trainer then led the way to the orbiis entrance, and at uttering ‘ESRA-IN!’ a large chunk of the curved wall slid towards them, split in half, and the two halves slid aside revealing the long, multi-coloured room beyond, the power-discovery room.
‘And don’t worry, Inock,’ Tehan said when they were back in the school reception. ‘You’re getting better each time we practice together.’
‘Thank you, father,’ Inock said with a giggle and a grin.
‘And do be careful when you practice with your friend Lalita. I don’t want either one of you to get hurt. Remember what I told you when we started your power-training; always use your powers responsibly. And always keep the Three Fundamental Demon Laws in mind when doing so.’
‘Yes, father.’
‘Can you remind me what the laws are, Inock?’ asked Tehan, looking at him.
Inock recited, ‘One: You shall not harm yourself by demon nature. Two: You shall not harm another by demon nature. Three: You shall not cause disorder by demon nature.’
‘Perfectly done, son,’ said the power-trainer. ‘Now head to class.’
Tehan then walked to the reception desk and asked his wife which student was next.
Inock went upstairs to afternoon class, feeling significantly elated.