A bunch of things happened after I made my decision to accept. Mr. Forrest excused himself and two more people came in. One was a tall woman with platinum blonde hair, done in a long braid. Her eyes seemed to be a little larger and wider apart than normal. She introduced herself as Azu’ria, with a strange throaty pause in the middle. The other was a short, broad man with a dark, medium length beard but bald on top, who introduced himself as Ni’tral. He had tall, pointed ears which curved outwards at the tips, something I’d only seen before in movies or books. His head looked slightly larger than it should be, but his face was smaller. They both had interesting accents, kind of like a cross between Scottish and German. Ni’tral was especially hard to understand.

Somehow, another chair was there, so they could both be seated.

They said they were there to witness the contract agreement but wanted to be certain that I knew what I was agreeing to and that I wasn’t under any duress, undo pressure or other obligation. Answering all of their questions, I was able to reassure them.

Next, we all stood when Mr. Forrest came back in. A new table appeared near us with what looked like a low pyramid on it. They called it the Attestor. We each placed a hand on a side of the pyramid, which lit up on the side that we each touched. I was on one side, Mr. Forrest on the opposite side and the two witnesses on either side of us.

After they prompted me on what to say, I stated, “As a student, I, Keyva Leota, agree to the Azure Academy student contract.”

Then Mr. Forrest stated, “I, Gailen Forrest, acting as a representative and provider, agree to the Azure Academy student contract.”

“I, Azu’rea, witness this contract between Azure Academy and Keyva Leota.”

“I, Ni’tral, witness this contract between Azure Academy and Keyva Leota.”

I felt a warm feeling inside, almost like a glow, if it’s possible to feel a light. Along with that there was a faint buzzing sound, then a click and the buzzing stopped.

[Welcome, Keyva, to Azure Academy.] No one spoke this verbally. I was a little worried I was hearing things inside my head? They were all looking at me, but I wasn’t sure what to do next?

[I am your personal agent,] I heard. [You may give me a name, so you can address or invoke me in the future. Would you like to do this now?]

“Sure,” I said.

Azu’ria smiled and said, “You do not need to speak to your personal agent verbally. Simply think of the words or concepts in your mind, and it will hear and understand. Also, we are finished with the Attestor, so you may remove your hand.” Everyone else had removed their hands. It disappeared from the room once I did also.

[What name will you give me?] it asked. [Something unique is usually better, to avoid confusion.]

I started quickly thinking about everything I had learned so far. Hmm, how about I call you ‘Pawg’? It is an acronym for Personal Agent with Gaia.

[Very well. Just state my name, Pawg, to address me with your questions or commands.]

Everyone was still waiting on me, so I said, “I gave it a name. What do I do next?”

“Now that the contract has been completed, I officially welcome you as a new student to our academy,” Mr. Forrest said. “With that, we are finished in this room. Please come with us.” We all walked out, exiting to a wide hallway. We passed several more doors along the hall. I saw Ivy Jackson waiting near a glass doorway. I could see a nicely groomed lawn outside, with some trees and walkways between more buildings. It looked like the sun was starting to go down as we all stepped outside. There were various students and adults walking around on the sidewalks between buildings.

“I will turn you over to Ms. Jackson again, who will take you on a tour of our campus.” Mr. Forrest shook my hand once more before he and the others left.

“Congratulations, Keyva,” Ivy said, giving me a one armed hub. “I’m so glad you decided to become one of us. I will show you around our campus. We just left the Christensen Building, where we have meeting rooms. That building where the others went is the Lemons Building, where the administrative offices are. You can find Mr. Forrest and myself there much of the time.”

I had a question. “Can I ask you about Azu’ria and Ni’tral?” She stopped and nodded. “I don’t recognize those names at all, and their accents were really strange.”

“Do you remember when I talked to you about the number of stars in the galaxy, and how we deal with truths here, not theories?”

“Yes.”

“Well, the truth is, they are not from this Earth. They are from other planets.”

“You mean they are aliens?”

“We don't use that term. In fact, we find it a little rude. Extra terrestrial is better. But a more polite term for them is Visitors, with a capital V. Azu’ria is from a planet called Fiel’un, and Ni’tral is from Norams’ti. We have Visitors here from other worlds all of the time. In fact, some of our faculty are Visitors. I guess you could call them Resident Visitors.” She smiled and winked at that.

“There have been Visitors on Earth for many years, but only in the last 50 have they decided we are ready and started teaching us humans their advanced technology and helped us to create the Aether Academies.”

“Wow, why do they let the public think such incorrect things about aliens, then? Wouldn’t it be better to come out in public, now that they are here teaching us?”

“They would like to, actually. Other worlds welcomed Visitors without much struggle, because of the great advancements and technology they shared. But we humans asked them to wait until we have prepared enough students around the world. Governments, and even some corporations, here on Earth are too aggressive and warlike, even though we are supposedly at peace in most countries.

“Augmentum needs to become much stronger, so we can protect them and ourselves from aggression, subterfuge and espionage. We can’t allow one country or corporation to have an unfair advantage from our knowledge and technology, which would lead to war and destruction. That is also why we have to be so careful with our students. We can’t allow sabotage from within our ranks, either.”

She paused. “Well, should we continue the tour?”

“Yes, please. Sorry for all of my questions.”

“Not a problem. We are here to teach you many things. Questions are the best way to show us what you are ready to learn. Okay, these two buildings on the left are the girls and boys dormitories. Only those who choose to stay here full time have assigned rooms. Have you decided for yourself?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Yes, I’m going to live at home, and travel or, I guess, port here for my classes.”

“That’s fine. The building on the right is the Hansen cafeteria. You are free to eat with us at meal times, but since you are living at home you may not want to. You should consider it, though. The food here is excellent, much better than you would get in a normal cafeteria, and they serve some exotic foods from other planets.”

I saw a few students leaving the building as a group, talking to each other. One of the girls waved at us, so I waved back. I could smell something delicious as we walked by. Wait, was she waving at me? Now I’m embarrassed.

“I… I’ll think about it. I’m not a big eater, and if I eat here I won’t be hungry when I get home.”

“That’s true. The large building on the left is the Sorensen Gymnasium, and beyond that is the outdoor track. You will discover what we do here physically is much more advanced and unique than anything you have seen before. Speaking of which, I need to tell you about your starting augments.”

“Augments?”

“Yes, you will be learning to control the aether in various ways in your classes. That takes time and will require much study, experimentation and practice. But, besides that, Gaia can bestow augments, or enhancements, on all of our students. Some are physical, others mental, and some are skills based. Your augments will grow and improve over time as you exercise and use them. And you can receive more each school year and as you advance in experience. I will cover all of them when we finish the tour.

“Those two buildings beyond the gym are VanCamp and Morrison, classrooms and laboratories respectively. And this last building across from VanCamp is the Petersen Portal. That is where most of us port to and from campus. And that is the end of the tour. Let’s head inside now.”

We walked into the portal building. Several people followed us into the building, but went a different way than we did. She led me to a small room that contained a desk and some chairs. We each sat in one of the chairs, ignoring the desk.

“I’m going to go over each of the augments available to you as a new student. Study these more at home. Just ask your personal agent for more details.”

Below is the list that she went over with me.

* Physical

* Agility

* Allure

* Dexterity

* Flexibility

* Hearing

* Might

* Smelling

* Stability

* Stamina

* Tolerance

* Vision

* Vitality

* Voice

* Mental

* Charm

* Confidence

* Creativity

* Imagination

* Persuasion

* Prescience

* Resilience

* Retention

* Wisdom

* Wit

* Skills

* Arrangement

* Art

* Clothing

* Construction

* Defense

* Dance

* Design

* Engineering

* Food

* Mechanics

* Music

* Organization

* Strategy

* Weapons

“You have 3 points in each category of physical, mental and skills. You may choose to allocate your points however you wish. It's not exact, but think of a point as a 20% improvement in the attribute. Points in skills give you more of a knack for it, but not instant knowledge. You must still learn and practice the skill. Also, within each skill are many specialties. There is no hurry to allocate your beginning points, but the sooner you do, the sooner you can experience the improvements.

“Since you will be living at home, and still going to your old school, I need to caution you. After you've received augments, you will have an advantage over other students there. You need to be careful and wise about how and when you use your new capabilities. For the first year, since the available augments are relatively minor, we allow you to interact normally with other students, and even compete, if you choose.

“However, for your second year and beyond, we strongly advise against it. What would happen if, without any training, you suddenly started setting state, national or world records? It would draw too much attention, and be impossible to explain without revealing us. If we find out this is happening, we will do whatever is necessary to put a stop to it. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I nodded. But that made me think. Mom is my gym teacher. I always try to do well in her class, though I'm pretty average. She would definitely get suspicious if I suddenly started doing better than everyone else. But a little improvement should not be a problem. I'll just have to be careful.

“Now, let's talk about you starting school here. Your first day is next Wednesday. Your agent has all of the details on your classes and classrooms. You will be one of a new group of students starting that day. You will come here in the morning, before the first class starts. Just arrange your port through your agent when you are ready to leave. After classes, we will return you to the same time and place that you left. Do you have more questions?”

“Yes, if I spend the day here and then go back and spend a full day at home, aren't I going to get tired very early?”

“The port will automatically adjust your circadian rhythm when you return to the same time, but it still takes time for your body to get used to the longer days. You will need extra sleep, especially at first. So plan on it, by making arrangements to go to bed earlier than before. Most students living at home need about two extra hours of sleep.”

“Okay, I guess that could work. My niece goes to bed early. I'll just have to do the same. My family might think I'm sick though.”

“I'm sure you can figure something out. If things don't work out at home, we can make arrangements for you to live here full time.

“Before I send you home, I need to teach you a little more about your personal agent. You can think of it as a very advanced, intelligent computer. It can talk to you, show you things, even do limited information gathering work. It is connected to the Internet but also to Gaia, which is its main information source.

“It can also handle communication, like making and receiving voice or video calls and texting. The person on the other end may be on a cellphone or they may have their own personal agent. You won't need your cellphone any more, except when you don't want to confuse others.”

“How would I use it to browse the Internet or make a video call? There is no screen.”

“It is part of you, connected to both your hearing and vision. The display overlays what you see, as if there is a screen floating in front of you. You can even close your eyes and still see it.”

“Wouldn't that make me not able to see beyond it?”

“Yes, but you can use hand gestures to move the display to a different position, so it doesn't block what you want to see. Just direct your questions to your agent. It will do all it can to help you teach you about itself.”

“Amazing! This just keeps getting better and better.”

“There are downsides as well, but that's a discussion for another day. Now, it's time to send you home.”