Zakore Academy

Apollo Keating

“Kneel you trash.” And with that, he shot to the floor, the ground began to crack beneath him. Before I was unable to control the area in which I used my gravity magic, so it evenly dispersed within a certain range. Now I was able to control the area where I used it. How wide, how much, and how long, none of these were issues for me anymore.

Another fun part about it is that unless they were like me who had trained their eyes to see aether. All they saw were random purple streaks in the air, a boy crying on the ground, and the ground splitting beneath him. For me, I could see a circle of aether reaching into the sky pushing down on his frail body.

“P…p…please stop.” I released the magic, his body relaxed, then began to spasm. He had been fighting back with every muscle in his body and now it was taking its effects on him. He made it to his knees just in time to begin vomiting all over the concrete as well.

“What the hell is going on here?”

We all turned to see a group of two students and several knights behind them approaching. The one who had spoken to us was a female elf. She was maybe a year older than I was but walked as if she was in her twenties. She had long white hair that almost seemed to glisten in the sun, mauve-colored eyes, and she wore the same capelet as the rest of us. Something I did notice is that her ears seemed a tiny bit longer than the other elves I had seen.

“I asked what was going on.” The twins seemed to have backed up a bit, and even Mia turned away as if to ignore her gaze. The third idiot kept puking on the ground.

“I don’t see why that’s any of your business.” I decided to be the one to speak up since everyone else seemed too scared or cowardly to do it.

“Excuse me, who do you think you are speaking to in such a tone?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m talking to you unless it was one of the knights behind you who asked me that question.”

Mia scooted closer to me, “She’s the daughter of the Minir family, the royal family of the elven kingdom. Oh and also the President of our school.”

“Oh is that all?” I turned back to the princess who was clearly irritated at this point. I guess from her point of view, all she saw was me using magic on some unfortunate kid. As President, she has no choice but to step in the same way I stepped in for the dwarf boy. If I explained to her the situation, she would more than likely be understanding (images of her shaking my hand and thanking me flooded my mind). However, princess, President, whatever she is, I could care less.

“Sorry, but last I checked we aren’t on campus and I have no obligation to tell you, nor do I want to.” A dumbfounded look crossed her, the twins, and all the knight's faces. Mia, who wasn’t surprised by my decision, just shook her head. I put my hands back into my pocket and walked away before I was stopped again.

“Whether we are or not it shouldn’t matter. You were using magic against this young man which isn’t allowed outside of school grounds.”

“Last I checked, we were on our way to orientation so I didn’t know that yet. And Secondly, I stopped him from discriminating against another race. Now, unless you support racism and such, I’ll be on my way.” I gave her a smile and was off again. Her face was flustered red with anger. She tried to open her mouth to speak but no words came out. Instead, she stomped off in the other direction.

“Sorry about that your majesty!” Mia yelled and waved before chasing me down. “Really smooth man, I couldn’t picture that going any better than the way it went.”

“Sorry, but I don’t need some princess walking around thinking she has free reign over me. I could care less if she gets flustered, and if she does maybe she shouldn’t be the student body President.”

“You really are something else huh. If I was in your position I would have apologized and chatted it up with her. You must admit she was very cute.”

“I could care less if she’s cute.”

“So you admit it.” I smacked the back of her head and she let out an angry grumble. “I just don’t want to see you obsess over being strong and a soldier your entire life. Everyone needs to have something else besides their psycho dream.”

“I have my best friend don’t I?”

She smiled then wrapped her arm around my shoulder, “Solid point bestie. Together we will conquer this school and rule over it as the true Presidents.”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“Maybe I do need another hobby.”

Kira Minir

“Who does that brat think he is!”

“Kira, you need to calm down. It isn’t good to stress like this and besides, he wasn’t completely in the wrong you know.” The boy speaking was the other elf, Calvin.

“It shouldn’t matter, it's a respect thing. I’m his senior, school president, and a princess nonetheless.”

“Really modest of you.” He gulped in fear as I began to cast a torrent of water in my hand.

“Just who the hell does that human think he is huh.”

“Human? Oh that’s right I forgot you can’t sense aura yet.”

“So what, what the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“He’s not only a human, he is part elf too.”

“Absurd, our people couldn’t be so classless and rude.”

“Well, would you like to hear his name? That may prove to you who he really is and give you a reason as to why he seems a little arrogant.”

“Who?”

“Apollo Keating.”

I paused for a few seconds as I started gathering my thoughts. My face probably looked a little weary as it finally clicked in my head who he was. “Keating, do you mean like Luna Keating? The half elf half human monstrosity who is now a major in King Steele’s family?”

“That would be the one. And if his sister is like that, I’m sure he isn’t too far off of the same thing.”

I began to mull over all the thoughts in my head. Strategizing what the best course of action to deal with such a person would be. This continued for the next several hundred yards up until we were right outside of the academy. I turned to him with a devilish smirk. “Alright, I have the perfect plan to knock him down a peg or two.”

We entered the loud auditorium to begin the orientation. Calvin went to sit with the second class he was a part of. This academy is for two years. Each year brings in ten people per class to make each group size twenty. The second advanced years were to help the younger ones and gain more experience in a leadership role. I was the first year-one school President selected due to my negotiation experience as the only elven royal family.

This year was going to be more of a power struggle. At Zakore we now had the son of King Steele, both of Paxton's children, Thorne’s daughter, and apparently Luna Keating’s younger brother. “Ughhhhhhh.”

“What seems to be the issue, young one?” I looked up to see Rina Shem, class one’s aether control teacher standing beside me with a smile.

“This year is going to be a chaotic game of who has the biggest…” She cut me off with laughter knowing what I was about to say.

“Five royals, a possible monster, and even a genius amongst them. Yes, I suppose your work is cut out for you.”

“You mean us, you are still my advisor after all.” She smirked.

“That is true, but I feel like you need some more experience alone. Besides, you get to select a Vice President. So you should be fine with Calvin.” A vision of her with a serpent tongue crackling appeared, witch.

“Who says I was going to select Calvin as my Vice President? Maybe it was going to be Steele.”

“Though that would keep more peace between nations, it is better to select the person you are acquainted with the most. As you saw last year with your former Vice President Pike, teamwork is a very strong tool.”

“That was a disaster, that greedy dwarf didn’t want it to be fair. He wanted dwarves to be how humans are now, on top.”

“Well then make sure Calvin isn’t going to end up like that.” She walked away to the podium, leaving me waiting for the orientation to start. I caught glimpses of the Paxton kids, Keating, Thorne, Steele, and even some faces that seemed to be popular with people but I didn’t recognize them.

“We will now begin the orientation. My name is Rina Shem. I am of elven descent, however, I have lived in Atlantis for the last twenty-nine years. In those years, I have served in this nation's military and taught here. I am Dragon Class’s aether control teacher because I am the best there is at it.” A few people chuckled at this remark, mostly those in silver.

“I am looking forward to teaching my class, but also learning more and meeting every single one of you. Knowledge is a tool to a path of greatness, use me as your tool. I will now pass things on to your student President to go over some things.” A lot of cheers filled the rooms, as well as a few snickers and comments.

I made my way to the stand, caught my breath, and began.” Hello everyone, my name is Kira Minir of the Minir royal house. However, I don’t believe in that title as some do.” The Steele boy glared at me with disgust from this remark and the Paxtons visibly weren’t too pleased. “I am your student President and because of that, I will put all of you first no matter what. No matter what you need, I am here to assist all of you. In doing so, one thing I will never tolerate is racism towards any race. Discrimination due to this will be cause for immediate expulsion.”

This caused some murmuring and exchange between students. “I am only one person as you know, so I will be selecting a Vice President to assist me in my endeavors to make this school a better place.” Kestrel Steele sat up in his seat as if firmly believing he had the position on lock due to this family. The twins pushed each other jokingly, idiots. I looked down at Calvin who smirked back up at me. It wasn’t the same smirk of knowing they’ll be chosen like Kestrel’s though. It was a friendly, do it, kind of smirk I had already been expecting.

“As of now your student body Vice President will be Apollo Keating.”