I walk out of the infirmary, head down. In front of me, I see Drew and the Ice King talking. They turn to look at me and I see the sympathy in their eyes. It embarrasses me. At that moment they look like behemoths I may never catch up to. I escaped the fight without any serious injuries, according to the nurse that attended to me. Still, I can’t bring myself to feel grateful about it. Keldin had won the fight and gotten what he wanted. My humiliation. The fight was less a fight and more a one-sided thrashing. I heard some of the comments about the fight and they hurt more than the fight itself: ‘What a cringe-fest.’, ‘I didn’t know Keldin was that talented.’, ‘That guy bit off more than he could chew.’… and so on. More than a few couldn’t help laughing when they saw me.
Besides Drew, I can see Lathia and the twins talking, as usual, Emma is silent. They all turn my attention to me when I move towards them. I lower my head, wishing they hadn’t come at all, still I mumble some thanks to them for coming. Drew and Lathia try to comfort me but I make it very clear with my attitude that I don’t want to talk about the fight. It was already late by the time I left the infirmary, so I head straight to the bookshop. I attract more than a few people's attention, and I occasionally hear a laugh from some of them, but I ignore them, falling behind Drew and his team -they had decided to follow me to the bookshop as usual.
They talk to each other but there is some unspoken tension in the air. The twins don’t seem to feel it though, or at least they pretend not to. Lathia looks as if she wants to talk to me but eventually decides to leave me alone. Soon, they all leave the bookshop to go home, all except Drew, who stays behind.
“If you’re cool with it, I could train you,” Drew says suddenly.
“What?” I turn to look at him, a bit confused by his sudden offer.
“Look, Keldin isn’t going to stop being a nuisance now that he’s beaten you up, also, you’re not meant to be an Apprentice at your age. So I thought, maybe training you will make things easier. Besides, you’re not too good at fighting.”
“How? It’s not as if your training will make me a Pre-protector.”
“Actually, it might. Normally it takes three years to get to Protector level, but I did it in two and I’m not even the fastest. Someone has even done it in one year, it just depends on how hard you’re willing to train. Besides, moping isn’t going to do you any good.”
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I stop to think about his offer and find myself warming to it. If he could really train me to Protector level, then why not? Like he said, moping isn't going to do me any good, and if Keldin decides to keep irritating me, the fact that he could beat me up isn't going to do me any favors. Also, some part of me wants to get stronger so I can give Keldin a taste of the medicine he gave me today, and if training can help me do that faster, why the hell not? I take a deep breath and look at Drew. “Okay. When do we start?”
“I’m going to the Lands of Time this weekend, I’ll be staying there for about two weeks, six hours in the real world. You can come if you want.”
“Two weeks?”
“Yup. Better pack your bags when you can. By the way, what’s your number.”
Confused, I stare at him for a moment before realizing he is asking for my phone number; now that I think about it, I don't think we've ever communicated over a phone before. I wonder why. I give it to him and he waves goodbye before leaving. After that, I finish cleaning up the bookshop and head home.
As I enter the house, I see Emily watching something on her phone with a disgusted expression on her face “What the hell is wrong with some people,” she says.
I ask, curious, “What happened?”
She looks up from her phone and explains. Apparently, the police just released a warning to those living in the city that there's a serial killer on the loose. So far, there have been twelve victims, each one having been drained of blood. Also, for some reason, the killer seems to kill four people each time. But what really catches my attention is not the murders themselves, but the location of the last murders. The house I had felt that horrible aura from the night Cassandra invited me to the concert. It doesn't take me long to make the connection that the serial killer can use magic.
“That’s terrible,” I say doing my best to sound normal, despite my rising heartbeat. “I hope they catch the killer soon.” I leave after saying that, giving the true excuse that I needed to rest.
As I walk to my room, random thoughts keep invading my head as I remember one key point from that night. Tahku. What exactly was he doing there that night? Did he know what was going to happen? If he did, why didn’t he try to stop it? When I get to my room I try to figure out exactly what happened that night, reviewing in my head the little that had happened. Tahku had told me he wasn’t there for me, he had also mentioned that the city isn’t safe; yet, when we felt the aura he looked almost as shocked as I was. He probably didn’t take part in the killing but he most likely knew about the serial killings and probably went there to investigate. The only thing I can’t figure out is what he hoped to get from the investigations and why he teleported me away when we felt the aura.
In the end, my ruminations get me nowhere and I decided to stop having grasped one key thing. Tahku was right when he said I was weak, and Keldin had shown me that in the clearest manner possible. Suddenly, I feel glad that Drew had decided to train me. Otherwise, at the rate I'm improving, should I come into contact with anyone who has a good enough grasp of magic, I'm screwed. Wanting to do something to get rid of the feelings of uselessness I am having, I bring out the Basic Noer Studies textbook and begin to study.
Later that night, when my mom came back from work, she visits me and Emily to warn us to be careful for the time being. At least, until the killer is caught. But judging by the aura I felt that night unless the Laen decides to get involved, the killer isn't going to be caught anytime soon.