The following morning, Galen restrained an exasperated smile as he walked toward the school entrance. Artem was following with a heavy frown. Soon, the younger boy muttered grumpily again, “It’s dangerous to leave the school without any escort.”
The twins were stuck in this argument since Galen announced during breakfast that Artem wouldn’t accompany him to the competition. Galen looked at their fairies, who were flying around. At this point, ignoring his brother’s ranting was the only solution. The twins didn’t have the money to pay for Artem’s transportation, so discussing this decision was a moot point.
“You know that there are other ways to ensure Galen will be safe,” Lyra told Artem when she felt the twins’ disagreement reached a dead point. As Artem fell silent, she addressed Galen, “I’ll handle your brother, like I handled you when he went on his field trip. You can concentrate on your competition.”
“Thank you, Lyra.” Galen knew he could trust his CSI. She had proven to be a precious ally in the previous weeks, be it because of her talent or advice.
Unbeknownst to him, a conversation went on between Artem and Lyra. At the end of it, Artem was smiling and tapping a message on his connected bracelet. Galen raised an eyebrow at the sight. “Care to share your secret? You calmed him down in an impressively short time!”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Lyra gleefully answered. Galen didn’t want to begrudge her the pleasure of holding a secret over him. He turned his attention back to his fairy flying around.
Lucia swatted toward Ayden. The Fire Fairy was having fun teasing her sister by randomly looping in front of the Light Fairy. Lucia gestured authoritatively at Ayden, who looked unaffected by her sister’s scolding. The Fire Fairy back-flipped. Her hair hid her face, but Galen was sure she was laughing.
The young pharmacist relaxed. He would have loved to have Artem and Ayden with him during the competition. His brother’s presence always steadied Galen, and Ayden would have cheered enthusiastically.
Artem escorted his brother all the way to the mini-bus that would drive the students from the advanced pharmacist elective class to Dahi High School – the place where the competition was being held. It was another high school from the Center. It was equipped with the best laboratories and could easily host the hundred students coming to compete.
As Galen climbed into the bus, he saw Anan sitting upright in one of the front seats, his sheep lying at his feet. When the boy nodded at Artem through the window, Galen understood his brother’s plan. Of course, Anan would be there to protect Mahlon since the Ruh Family could afford it. So Artem contacted his fellow warrior to ask a favor out of him. Galen let a smile bloom on his face. It was a suitable solution.
Galen answered Mahlon’s handwave when he passed by him but chose to sit alone. All the pharmacist students were soon aboard and the mini-bus left for the competition’s venue. Lucia came to sit down on Galen’s shoulder, and the boy distractedly patted her head. The competition wouldn’t be easy, and there was no guarantee that he would win. He was a good pharmacist, but the students coming to this competition – especially those from Dahi High School, Uspeh High School, and Yahsun High School – weren’t weak in any way.
His thoughts were disrupted when he felt someone sitting next to him. Galen turned his head to see Melanie with her spider in her lap, looking at him earnestly. Her long black hair was tied up in a messy bun at the top of her head, and although she was wearing her uniform properly, her crooked tie showed her appearance wasn’t her priority. Without any more preamble than a nod in greeting, she said, “I did some research on the Zmiya Family last night.”
Galen didn’t know how the different factions would react when they learned this case was becoming known again. Hiding his discomfort, Galen nodded at Melanie to go on.
“What I found most interesting was a description of the snake the criminals were feeding humans to. The beast’s venomous qualities were mentioned. Some reports even stated that it could spread diseases.”
“Wow, what?” Mahlon suddenly exclaimed from the row in front of Galen and Melanie. His head appeared above the back of his seat as he knelt to look at them. “Venom and disease! Awesome! It could be a good fit for my Family. This pet has a name?”
Galen hadn’t spent much time on this aspect of the case since it was the Nebe law that interested him, but he knew what Melanie was talking about. It wasn't a comfortable subject for Galen. However, he couldn't ignore his classmates. “Well, the Zmiya Family did specialize in earth and water pets like yours, Mahlon. But did you hear Melanie saying that the snake ate humans?”
Melanie merely tilted her head as the boys turned their attention to her. She was a quiet girl. Now that the conversation had started, she was content just listening. This didn’t deter Mahlon. With a carefree wave of his hand, he blew away Galen’s concerns. “Some precautions will have to be taken, of course. Protocols and all that boring stuff my mother enjoys. But venom and disease!” Mahlon paused for a short time to look intensely at Galen. The dark-haired boy could almost see his eyes sparkling. Without any patience, Mahlon asked again, “So, you have its name?”
“The line of this beast hadn’t been found again since the Zmiya Family died out.”
“I don’t believe that you don’t know more than that. This pet could spread disease! You had to look more into it!” As usual, distracting Mahlon from things he was interested in was a fool’s errand. A quick look at Melanie confirmed she was as much invested in knowing more about the beast. And Galen insisted on calling it a beast, not a pet. It was a man-eating beast. That was the reason the fools from the Zmiya Family used indentured service to reduce people to slavery and then have these people fed to the beast.
“Most agree that it was a legendary beast, but its name is unsure. The closest they could infer was the Giant Pestiferous Swamp Adder.”
“How sure are you that this is its real name?”
Galen shrugged. He didn’t want to speak about it anymore and tried again to divert the conversation. “So, are you both excited to go to Dahi High School?”
Mahlon shot him a glance, indicating he knew what Galen was doing. Still, he said, “You bet! I wish I were studying there. I’m seriously jealous of Rachel.”
“Rachel?”
“My cousin. She’s the one who got to study at Dahi High School while I’m stuck in Dascalos High School.”
“Oh, did your Family use the argument that Dascalos was the most prestigious and traditional school?” Galen recalled his mother arguing with the Third Elder on this subject.
Tana Eos had expressed her low opinion about high school education – and now that Galen knew more about how the teachers were recruited, he could only agree. His mother had wanted to convince the Third Elder that her own teaching would be enough. However, Tana had respected her Steward’s expertise in communication and politics – or more likely, she had realized her busy schedule wouldn’t allow her to teach. She had been slightly pouting at the time until she had thrown Galen a bright smile with the comment that, at least, studying at Dascalos High School would give her children bragging rights.
“Prestige and traditions are overrating. Do you know why I was sent to Dascalos High School? It’s because it was speculated that I had more chance to get a notable talent than Rachel. What a rotten reason!”
“Rotten, but understandable for Families looking to defend their image and reputation, and from what both of you are saying, attending Dascalos High School is all about image,” Lyra said.
Intrigued by Lyra’s comment, Galen turned to Melanie to ask why she was studying at Dascalos High School when Dahi High School would have been a better fit for her family’s business in pills, balms, and potions – poisonous or not. Although, now that he was thinking about it, he was almost sure that her family’s shop was in the Second Circle.
“For prestige and our shop development,” Melanie answered. “First, my parents were betting that I’d managed to awaken. Second, we are trying to get customers from the Center. Attending Dascalos High School is a drain on our resources, but it is a good investment if I believe our marketing advisor. And while I would have loved to attend Dahi High School instead, it was deemed unnecessary.” She made a bitter face before going on. “My father thinks that our recipes are good enough and that our researchers have a good grip on new advancements. I’m not sure I agree with him.”
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Galen could understand Melanie’s skepticism. Dahi High School was a private high school founded by two minor Turkish Families – the Yaratilis Family and the Yenilmez Family. Galen was familiar with them because they were allied with the Eos Family and part of the Balkan Families. In particular, his mother had been collaborating with the Yaratilis Family – who specialized in diverse craftsmanship with the help of light and earth pets – for several pharmaceutical projects, and his father had been soliciting the Yenilmez Family for their talent with mounts of the fire and light types.
Under these two Families’ influence, Dahi High School offered several highly technical courses. Thanks to their training, students could get a job even without going to College. As such, Dahi High School was especially renowned for its pharmacists, alchemists, armorers, and riders classes. However, it also produced artists and performers, contributing to the school’s fame and developing its image as a creative and artistic institution. One of its particularities was that its beast-tamer students weren’t gathered in one class and only worked on their specific skills during their elective classes and some week-long special courses, contrary to Dascalos High School.
The conversation died down as the bus arrived at the venue. A lot of students were already milling around, their origin recognizable thanks to their uniforms. Galen and his classmates followed Mrs Bousrani as she went to finalize everyone’s registration.
Wanting to reassure his brother through Lyra’s spying, Galen stayed close to Mahlon and Anan, with Lucia sitting on his shoulder. Mahlon's Purple Frog jumped on Anan’s Earth Sheep to get a free ride while Mahlon strolled along, looking around with curiosity. Galen followed his gaze and noticed very few of the surrounding students seemed to be beast tamers.
Mrs Bousrani stopped in front of one of the five tables set up to act at registration desks on one end of the hall. She handed the written forms for her eight pharmacist students to the man behind the desk. He checked each paper carefully while typing the information he was reading on his tablet.
As the man reviewed the last registration form, he suddenly raised his head to look around. Seeing Galen, he locked eyes with the boy and exclaimed, “What do you think you are doing here?”
“I beg your pardon?” Galen asked, even though he knew perfectly what this was about. “What do you mean?”
“This is a respectful institution. We won’t allow Tana Eos’s son to compete here!”
“So, you’re saying that your competition is ringed from the beginning, seeing as you’re judging contestants on their background and not their skills,” Galen answered in a voice loud enough to be heard in the hall. As he expected, some students began to whisper while glancing their way.
“Don’t slander our competition!” the man said as he stood up in anger. “The judges are fair, and all processes are open and honest.”
“You’re obviously lying since you’re judging me using my mother’s identity before I even compete. Why even bother with this farce of a competition? Give the reward to Zeki Yaratilis directly and spare us the hypocrisy!”
“Don’t you dare badmouthing the young master!”
Galen narrowed his eyes as he understood that the receptionist was a member of the Yaratilis Family. He knew there was a high chance of this being the case, which was why he had decided to throw Zeki’s name around.
Zeki was the heir of the Yaratilis Family, and he was the same age as the twins. Since the Eos Family cooperated with the Yaratilis Family, Galen was familiar with Zeki, although they never became friends. He was actually kind of glad for this lack of friendship since it made it easier to follow his mother’s advice not to trust any Family.
“The teacher is right!” a student from Dahi High School cut into the conversation. “You’re a criminal like your parents. You have no right to be there!”
“Excuse me,” Galen said calmly, “I need to make something very clear. Are you accusing me of anything?”
The student took Galen’s answer as an invitation to insult him and the Eos Family. Galen let him go on for a while before saying, “Thank you for your collaboration in making things obvious. You are slandering me. As such, I can sue you.” Galen turned to look at the man from the Yaratilis Family. “Oh, by the way, sir, what you were doing is called stigmatization as stipulated by the Nebe Law, and I can also sue you for that. So, can I have both of your names?”
“That won’t be necessary,” a firm voice said.
Galen looked over to the youth who was walking toward them. A rare Pure White Horse was trotting by his side, and several students from Dahi High School were following him. He had the upper part of his hair long enough to be held in a ponytail, while the rest of his hair was trimmed very short on the sides and the back of his head. Zeki Yaratilis elegantly nodded at Galen, who responded in kind. Around them, the students fell silent.
“My condolences for your loss,” Zeki said in a serious voice. Feeling his throat tightening, Galen just nodded again. Then Zeki gestured toward the receptionist. “Murat here reacted emotionally and misspoke in his agitation.” Zeki paused briefly to throw a glance at the man. Understanding his young master, the man hurriedly bowed slightly and murmured an apology.
“Of course, you are allowed to compete. Who your mother was is irrelevant in Dahi High School’s pharmacist competition.” Zeki paused again to look around at the students watching curiously. “Although most of our staff are assisting with menial tasks and some supervising, the main judges are eminent pharmacists from Researches Institutions. They do have the final say in judging the contestants.”
The surrounding students began to gossip again, but the tone was different this time. Zeki fully turned toward Galen to say in a lower voice, “It was a bit mean of you to imply that our competition isn’t impartial.”
“Ah, Artem must have been influencing me with his philosophy that offense is the best defense,” Galen answered in a light tone. However, he worried that he had no way of knowing if the jury would really be impartial or if another member of the Yaratilis Family wouldn’t retaliate against him later. There were a lot of ways to do it, from messing with his ingredients to accusing him of cheating.
“I’ll keep an eye out for these kinds of things,” Lyra said to reassure him.
“Thanks, Lyra,” Galen thought to her while he chatted politely with Zeki. “But if they really want to keep me from winning, what can we do?”
Satisfied that the situation had calmed down, Zeki led the twenty students from his own school inside the main room of the venue to prepare for the first part of the competition. It wasn’t surprising to see a large part of today's competitors were from Dahi High School. Galen knew there were more than twenty students in their alchemy and pharmaceutics classes, so these students had to be a selection of the best among their special classes.
“An impartial competition,” Lyra muttered as she watched them leave. “Yeah, right!”
Without any more fuss, the receptionist finished registering the students from Dascalos High School, and they entered the competition area.
A hundred small mobile laboratories had been set up in the large room, forming a big square. It was surrounded by several ranks of chairs placed on stands on two opposite sides of the square, one for the spectators and one for the contestants. Around twenty members of Dahi High School staff were busy in the square, placing ingredients on each laboratory before covering them to keep the contestants from looking at them. To the front was a stage with a sturdy table. Half a dozen seats were placed behind the table.
Galen, Mahlon, Melanie, and their classmates went to the left side, as Mrs Bousrani, Anan, and the students’ pets went to the right. The rules were clear: in the first part of the competition, no pets and no talents would be allowed. Several beast tamers from the Association had been recruited to act as invigilators and enforce these rules.
Some times later, as all the contestants were seated on the right side, the members of the jury went up to the stage and took their seats behind the table. Despite Zeki’s assurance that the jury was impartial, Galen’s doubts surged again as he recognized Beren Yaratilis. The man did belong to one of the most important Researches Institutions, but he was also Zeki’s father and the current head of the Yaratilis Family.
A man introducing himself as another member of the Yaratilis Family came to the front of the stage to give a speech as the dean of Dahi High School.
“Can you tell me again why you are competing here?” Lyra said in a dark tone as she unhappily watched this display of the Yaratilis Family’s heavy presence in the competition. Galen didn’t give her any answer. He wasn’t any happier than Lyra.
The dean ended his speech with praises for the Yaratilis and Yenilmez Families and the Researches Institutions who all were financing this competition. Then, he explained the specifics of the first part of the competition.
Each contestant needed to produce a pill using five ingredients from the selection of twenty unidentified ingredients provided by the school and their sponsors. They would be evaluated on their skills to identify and choose their five ingredients, the difficulty of their chosen recipe, their skills to prepare and produce the pill, the quality of their final product, and a writing report they needed to provide alongside the final product. They would be given two hours to complete this first test. However, all along, the invigilators had the authority to ask a contestant to leave if they were judged to be cheating, wasting ingredients, or producing dangerous mixtures.
Once the rules were explained, the contestants were called one by one to come down and pick up a random number from one of the staff before being guided to one of the small laboratories. Their number was to be kept secret to give anonymity to the final product and its accompanying report for the jury’s review.
Galen got the number eighteen. He was then directed toward one of the laboratories at the front. As Melanie, Mahlon, Zeki – and other students Galen had seen with a pet – joined him, it soon became obvious that all the beast-tamer students were gathered on the first line of laboratories to be more easily monitored.
Five beast-tamer invigilators circulated between the stage and the front row, their attention pined on the young beast tamers. Since he couldn’t do anything about the scrutiny he was subjected to, Galen didn’t waste his time on it and observed the equipment before him. It was of good quality but very basic. It looked like Dahi High School wanted its competition to be a real challenge because students who were used to relying on high-tech machines would be penalized.