A Bothersome Allie

Apollo Keating

Kestrel made his way into the room with that sinister smile of his. It reminded me of the same one General Cook always had on.

“I do hope I didn’t miss any important information.” He sat down at a chair and began playing with a pen on the desk.

“No, we were just making introductions.” Kira had an irritated look before making her way to the seat at the head of the table.

“Well I took the liberty of looking into all four of you on my way here, and I assume you already know who I am.” He started looking at his nails before creating a nail file out of the aether.

I sat across from him, kicked my feet up, and yawned, “Nope I have no idea, and to be honest I don’t care.” Though it wasn’t the full truth, it also wasn’t a lie. I only knew him by name and the stories Mia told me of him. But I knew that it would get under his skin.

“What is with these disgusting manners? Feet on the table, yawning when your superior speaks to you, what kind of brute did your parents raise?”

“The kind who doesn’t take too kindly to being told what to do, especially by someone like you.”

“Ever since that day at the theater, I knew you would be a pest.”

“Glad to know I’ve had an admirer for the last four years. But I don’t feel the

same towards you, so please stop.”

He finally stood up and slammed his hand on the table, fire started to warp

around him. “How about you and me take this outside?”

“Didn’t I already say this, I don’t listen to people like you.” I gave him the same

The wide grin he had on when he had first entered the room.

“Alright that’s enough, quit bickering like children. We have to talk about the upcoming artifacts creation event coming up and we can’t do that if you continue arguing like this.” Kira was now on her feet flushed with anger.

“Tsk” Kestrel sat back down. I just chuckled and leaned further back.

“Alright then, as you all know it is held in front of the kingdom, or at least anyone who wants to go. We have at least seven students from our academy participating, and several from other schools. However, the main advisory will be from the Dwarven kingdom. They have a supposed prodigy artifact creator participating in the competition. As well as a few good creators I know of from the Elven lands.”

“We don’t have to worry about the other kingdoms, I’m sure they pale in comparison to our people.” Kestrel continued filing his nails. Though he didn’t directly say it, we all knew what he meant. Onyx wanted to speak up but decided to keep his mouth shut.

“Well as you know Kestrel, your father would like to use our academy’s lower courtyard as the venue. So we have to set it up, I’m sure you have no issue with that.”

“I can throw some intelligent ideas in there to help you out.”

“I’ll pass on the labor part, but I can deal with the costs.” Wesley continued to write things down in his notebook.

“WE AREN’T PAYING SO WHAT COULD YOU DEAL WITH!” She waved her fist at him in anger as he continued to sketch.

He finally set it down and looked up at me. “Apollo, these fools have no idea how the real world works.” I gave a slight cackle, the kid was growing on me more and more. He turned back to Kira and started to list things off on his fingers.

“Visual artifacts to stream it, bleachers for those in attendance, equipment to make the artifacts, a stage, audio equipment, entertainment for before and after. Now unless you planned to sing for us and scream out to everyone all these things cost money. Yes, we may not be paying for them, however, if we leave it to someone else they might cheap us out on things, so I deal with it. I ensure we have the proper stuff so it’s not too cheap, but not too unneeded it costs us a fortune. Do you get it now?”

“He makes some good points Kira, maybe let him do his thing.”

“Don’t egg him on!”

“Besides me and Onyx can do most of the heavy work anyways. I wouldn’t want his royal majesty to harm his nails.” Onyx started laughing and hitting the table.

“Hard work like that for me is a no anyways. It doesn’t befit a prince like me, I’ll make sure to be there for the commentary.”

“Of course you will, Apollo do you have anyone else who would be willing to help out with setting it up.”

Sorry best friend, “Yes I do have someone in mind.”

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“I nominate the Paxton twins as well, they’ll do it if I tell them.” Kestrel had finished up with his nails and moved on to his hair.

Wesley leaned forward giving him a dumbfounded look, “I have never seen someone so interested in their appearance. Even my sister acts more like a man than you do.”

I raised my hand, “As does mine.”

“A King must always look his best for his subjects.”

“God, you disgust me to my core.” Kira made the throw-up motion.

“Don’t be so rude princess, though you may not be my subject. You and I will be running these countries someday, we should work together now. Build up some good team chemistry and maybe even some other chemistry.” He winked at her and it made me sick to my core.

“You wink at me again, and I will remove your fingernails. “This one caused me pain in my core.

“For a prince, you have no shame do you.” Onyx shook his head crossing his arms.

“Oh come on big guy, we are all on the Student Council are we not, we are allies in this. We can’t sit here and argue as the good President said earlier, we should all be friends.

*Simultaneously* “Pass.”

Kira stood up and held her hand up to the painting behind her. “I think it’s about time we turned in, don’t you? We’ll meet again to talk about this in a few days, keep up with your classes.” She waved her hand and the painting moved to the side. A passageway appeared leading to another room with five different doors, each one with our names above them.

“These are our quarters, each one has its own bathroom and some other amenities you can find inside.” Kira stepped into her doorway, “Don’t be late for class tomorrow any of you.” And with that she shut the door behind her.

The others didn’t say anything else before going into their rooms as well. I’m sure everyone wanted to get away from each other and get some rest anyways. I walked into my room and was surprised at how big it was. The doors weren’t too far apart so I had figured the rooms were smaller. But instead, I was greeted with something even bigger than a master bedroom.

The room was an off-gray with black pillars dispersed around. A few dressers along the walls, some with books, some with clothes, some with just small trinkets laying about. The bed was a king-size with a comforter and several pillows, and under the bed was my suitcase I had sent prior.

“I need to find out whose magic can manipulate the whole school like this.”

“Honestly who the hell cares, it’s just magic.”

“You seem to be as grouchy as ever, Neo.” The boy who had always been there with me came walking out of the bathroom. Besides his steel-colored hair, we were almost a mirror image of each other.

“Well, what did you expect me to be happy with being stuck in your tragic brain?” His visits began to come more and more often over the years. Whereas before it was more of a dream or if I was physically exhausted, now it was more whenever I was alone. He was no longer in the background, instead more of my devil's advocate.

“When are you going to finally leave me alone, your company isn’t needed.”

“Leave you alone?” He set down the object he was looking at and began walking over to me. He poked me in the chest, “You killed me remember.” Before I could open my mouth his finger turned black and boney, piercing my body. I coughed up blood and began to get flashbacks of my birth. Images going too fast to make any sense we’re appearing in my mind.

He pulled his finger out and the whole thing sealed up. I came to and he was gone once again.

“What in the hell are you trying to show me, I don’t have any memory of you. I’ve killed a lot of people which I am trying to atone for. So why do you choose to torment me!” However my words fell on deaf ears, he had already gone back to wherever he hid. I struggled to my feet, grabbing onto the bed frame to help myself stand.

When I had finally caught my breath I looked at the clock on my wall to see it was midnight. “Did I pass out during whatever he showed me, or was I running through images for that long?” Though I suppose the answer didn’t matter.

Once I had collected myself I held up my hand and created an Aether orb. It began to swirl as an image of the artifact room appeared inside of it.

“No one is in there huh, why do I not buy that in the slightest.” I used my bracelet to pull out the transmission crystal my father had given me some time back. Using it I transported myself into the Artifact room. It was dark but there were traces of aether around. Near one of the empty workstations, I could hear the sound of something dropping. I assumed it was out of the shock of appearing randomly in the room.

I walked around the desks towards the one that the noise had come from, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I began to look around to find traces of Aether, and there they were. Almost as if an invisible curtain had been made out of it.

“You can trick most people, but not me.” I reached up to the corner where a small tip of a sheet was and ripped it down. The magic curtain came down to reveal a girl with a desk full of equipment staring up at me in awe.

Once she fully realized I had caught her she let out a small screech before falling off the chair. As she collected herself on the ground I looked at both sides of the sheet. From her side she could see perfectly fine through it, and the side I was on made what's behind it transparent.

“Please Vice President, I am so sorry for being here so late. I’m so so so so so so…”

“How did you get something like this?” I held the sheet out to her.

She snagged it out of my hands and held it close to her as she stood up. “I made it myself duh. Who do you know that has the mind to create something like this?”

“You made it yourself? It truly is an amazing piece of work. Though for people such as myself who can see the flow of Aether, it’s easy to find. I would recommend starting the magic at the corner and letting it spread down, then fold it in on itself a little bit so the edges can’t be seen.”

“That… That isn’t a bad idea.”

“What are you doing in here so late anyways?” I looked over at the desk where she had been working.

“Well the Artifact competition is coming up and I haven’t really slept because of it. I need to make the perfect tool for it, something that will show the kingdom how useful I am. Something that will wow everyone, and show you don’t just have to be some muscle head to do good.” She had her hands in the air as she stood up as if gazing into her dreams.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, that is a refreshing outlook compared to everyone else around here. What have you come up with so far?”

“Well… nothing. I have tossed every idea I have started.”

I had told myself that I wouldn’t bring any direct thing from my previous world into this one. But I’m sure if I did something small with a minor adjustment it wouldn’t do too much harm. “Mind if I give you a hand?”