Obscurati city center (15.7.9973 AS)
Tristan was standing in front of the Obscurati ‘Portal Main Station’, located in the heart of Umbra’s capital city. Tristan was there with the maid who had been taking care of him since he was two: Nana. Nana had a sad look on her face. Today was their last day in the Capital. It was the day she and Tristan had to move to Nocturnio so Tristan could attend the Guardian Academy.
Nocturnio was the southernmost city in the continent. With its 28 million habitants it was the second biggest city of the continent right after Obscurati. The city had grown so big thanks to the location of the gates to the other realms. This made the city the most important trading spot for human technology. That was the reason why the city was also known as ‘Door of World’.
“What are we waiting for? Shouldn’t we get going? The earlier we reach Nocturnio, the faster the paper work for the academy can be done and the more time we have to explore the new city.” Tristan said pulling on Nana’s long skirt.
“How many times have I already told you to not rush things? Are you sure you don’t want to take a last look of this city? Next time we visit it you might have already a beard.” Nana answered faking a smile. “Also, we aren’t traveling alone. We have to wait for our travel companions. Haven’t I already told you? Today is the first time you see your future wife. Please make sure to behave.”
Tristan looked confused. “I’m five! I couldn’t care less about women. I guess it can’t be helped though. I will be spending a lot of time with her from today on, won’t I? Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to embarrass myself. Also, I don’t mind leaving this city. It’s not like I have any emotional connections to the city. I’m getting chased away from ‘my so called home’ on my fifth birthday by my own parents. So yeah, I don’t really care about this city.”
“I’m sorry. You act and speak like an adult so I always forget that you are so young.” Hearing those words from the boy left a deep mark in Nana’s soul.
“Don’t worry. I know, I know. I’m special in that regard. No one expects a five year old to reason like an adult.” Tristan smiled at Nana.
“Look, they are here!” Nana pointed at a group of people at the entrance of the building.
Tristan and Nana walked towards them. They seemed to have noticed and a girl and a woman did split from the group. The young woman introduced herself as Dolores Verheerung and the young girl as Laura Verheerung. Tristan presented himself as Tristan Halblicht and not as Tristan Schatten, like his mother ordered him to.
Together they entered the ‘Portal Main Station’. It was a gigantic, dome shaped building from where people could not only reach every ‘Portal Stations’ in Obscurati and its surroundings, but also be connected to every City on the Continent.
Inside the Portal Main Station there were two big time tables. The bigger one had names of locations in and surrounding Obscurati on it as well as the platform and time the portal was closing. The smaller had the names and departure information to the other Cities.
They were just on time. The portal to Nocturnio was closing in 15 minutes. They barely managed to enter the line of people heading to the City. They were lucky enough to have a first class ticket, so their line was shorter and they didn’t have to fear to be left behind.
Portals are the best way of travelling long distances in Umbra. Portals are the product of a high level spell only specialized Spellcasters can cast. Because this spell was really draining no portal can be opened for more than 20 minutes. It also takes two connected catalysts to open a portal. These catalysts are big arc shaped like rocks. No one but the owners of the ‘Portal Stations’ knew how the connection between the catalysts worked. Ergo no matter who you were, you had to use the portals at the ‘Portal Stations’ to travel fast from one city to the other.
Tristan and Co. gave their one way tickets to the man controlling who was going through. They entered the Portal in Obscurati and walked seconds later in Nocturnio out of it.
Lead by Nana the group of four was headed to the temple affiliated to the Guardian Academy. As they walked out of the Portal Station all of them finally realized they were in another city. Opposite to the Portal Main Station of Obscurati who had been surrounded by old buildings in gothic style, the Portal Main Station of Nocturnio was surrounded by new, futuristic looking buildings.
After reaching the temple they were led inside the garden of the Temple by a priest. While Dolores, Tristan and Laura stayed behind in the garden, Nana had to go and talk to the priests.
The female priest who also stayed behind to keep Dolores company, allowed the children to roam freely in the big garden. This meant that Tristan and Laura had time to explore all they wanted. Tristan was very interested in the architecture of this place. Unlike all the gardens he had been to, this one was inside a building made out of glass.
On the other hand, all what Laura could care about, were the flowers and the insects interacting with them. She pulled Tristan to her and proudly showed him the insects she had found. “You see this thingy here? It is called ‘Redeyes’” She showed Tristan a big beetle. It had two big spots on its back that looked like eyes. “Mommy told me about them. You know they are pretty common. If you ever run into a situation where you don’t have food and need something nutritious, then you can eat them. Just like this,” she peeled of the legs of the beetle and ate it in one go. “It’s so crunchy!” she said.
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Tristan looked shocked at her. He was disgusted. He turned around and tried to forget what Laura had just done. The clueless Laura pulled on Tristan’s jacket. He turned around towards her and she showed him a garish green beetle. “You know if you are hungry, you can eat this one” she said smiling.
This was enough reason for Tristan to run away from the innocent girl. ‘What the heck was Dolores teaching to this poor soul?’ ‘Am I really supposed to marry some like that?’ Tristan looked over to Dolores and back to Laura. ‘Even if she isn’t the smartest one day she will be quite a beauty maybe that will make the marriage work?’ Tristan wondered.
As Tristan was busy thinking over his future with Laura. Nana entered the garden. She was accompanied by five priests. She called the children back to her. Once she had made sure they were listening she told them what she and the priests had been talking about.
“To enroll in the Guardian Academy you are required to be able to use your magic. This means you are at least seven years old. You two are just five” She pointed at Tristan and Laura who had been listening closely. “Which means your magic is still sealed.”
The magic of demons was sealed during the initiation ceremony once they reached the age of two. The magic stayed sealed till they were considered mature enough not to mess up and kill themselves or others with their magic. If they were mature enough to handle their magic was determined by a test. Only children older than seven were allowed to take the test. And most of the candidates failed the test at that age.
Tristan and Laura could only take the test because of the pressure Ray had put to the academy, as their main benefactor. “So you two will have to take a test to determine if you are worthy of your magic” Nana told the children. Laura looked uneasy. The last three years she had spent most of her time studying with Dolores but she never managed to pass her tests no matter how hard she tried. Tristan on the other hand was excited. Was today finally the day he would be challenged by a test? He looked over his side and saw the dark expression on the girls face. He grabbed her hand, put on his best smile and said “Let’s do this. We are definitely going to ace that test!” After hearing Tristan’s words, her expression lightened up.
Tristan and Laura were led to a big, dark room in the basement of the temple. It was filled with over 100 old tables. The large room was built in a gothic style, unlike the rest of the temple that was built in a modern style. The only sources of light were candles. There was one candle on every table.
The children were urged to take place. Tristan sat down in front of the table next to Laura.
The priest that was already in the room when they entered stepped forward. “Welcome dear candidates. Today you are here to break the shackles of the child safety seal. Before we can do that you have to proof you are worthy. Therefore, you will have to take two tests. One is a written exam the other is an oral exam.”
He pointed at the paper sheets on the tables the children were sitting. “You will have two hours to solve the written part. Afterwards you will be lead into separate rooms and you will take the oral exams. If there are no questions you may start.” Tristan nodded.
Tristan read through the questions. He expected the exam to be challenging unfortunately for him it wasn’t. The exam was sectioned in four parts.
The first part was made up of questions to check the general knowledge of the children. There were questions like: ‘What is a passive?’ ‘Why are catalysts important?’ ‘How many habitants live in our realm?’ etc.
The second part of the exam consisted in questions about the dangers in magic and how to avoid them. There were questions like: ‘When shouldn’t you use magic?’ ‘Why shouldn’t you use your magic on friends?’ ‘What is a magical backslash?’ etc.
The third part of the exam was just a logic test. It consisted of questions like: ‘Continue this numerical sequence!’ ‘Point out the difference between the images!’ ‘How many triangles can you count in this image?’ etc.
The last part was full of religious questions like: ‘Who is our main god?’ ‘Why is it important to visit the temple regularly?’ and so on.
To Tristan this kind of questions and problems were a child’s play. To be able to use his passive ability ‘Checkmate’ to its fullest one day, Tristan’s body had started developing in a different speed of others. Especially his brain had developed really fast. So fast he could already be counted as one of the smartest beings in the realm by the age of five!
After thirty minutes Tristan had already finished his test. He handed over the test to the priest, who recovered the test with a smug smile. The priest thought Tristan had already given up. Nevertheless, he asked another priest to take Tristan to the oral examination.
As Tristan walked past Laura he couldn’t help but notice how bad she was doing. She was sweating and out of breath. ‘Is this test really that difficult?’ he asked himself. He came to the conclusion that the test would have been really difficult for normal children under ten.
And he was right. The fail rate for seven years old that tried to pass the test was over 90%. Even children at the age of ten had still a fail rate of 45%! Children could take the test every year after reaching their seventh year. If they failed three times, their powers would be sealed for good. This was made so no psycho could harm people.
The oral exam was a test of concentration and will. Tristan sat in front of two chocolate bars. He was asked to eat one right away. However, he wasn’t allowed to eat the other bar. After Tristan was done eating the first bar the priest left the room. Before he told Tristan, he would give him two bars if the chocolate was still there when he was back.
The room was empty besides the table with the chocolate bar and the chair Tristan was sitting on. So there was nothing to do in the room except to look at the chocolate.
The priest returned to the room after 40 minutes. He saw the chocolate bar on the table and smiled. He gave Tristan the two bars as a promised and told him he had passed the test.
During the 40 minutes the other priests had already checked Tristan’s written exam. And to the shock of the chekcing priest, Tristan had aced the written test. No one had ever aced the test. Tristan had even pointed out typos.
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After waiting for Laura both of the children were led to the ceremony room of the temple. Laura had barely managed to pass the test. They had to stand inside two separated magic circles and eat some medicine. Then priests started chanting and the circles started glowing.
After a few seconds Laura’s body was full of shining symbols. Those symbols started wandering towards her feet to the ground. One minute later the symbols were out of her body, leaving Laura behind a strong headache and the urge to vomit. This was normal when the seals were released.
The same thing started to happen to Tristan, but much slower. However, as the last symbol left his body, Tristan fell down. He started holding his head, crying and twitching around. Soon after he lost consciousness and foam started to come out of his mouth.