Professor Edelman continued, with growing vigour, to explain about the structures he had mentioned before in great detail, and as the normally dazed and dozing faces of the students turned to ones livid with focus, Ginger realised that many of them hadn’t quite heard about these structures either.
“In our Primordial Histories, they are known as Revenant Relics – because they are from times before us, of course, dead times. It has been rather difficult to cultivate a proper system to gauge their worth. In fact, finding these Relics can be an arduous ordeal indeed. They release no trail of energy that can be consistently traced, though there have been instances of lesser races having mysterious trances about them. These are unreliable at the best of times. When it comes to rating the value of a Revenant Relic, judging their size is useless as there can be nothing of note within one as large as the Frost Mount’s Tooth. Smaller ones could also be devoid of anything valuable, or be full of interesting treasures,” the straight-backed dragon said as he paced among the students, some of whom had their interest piqued even more.
A hand whipped itself in the air.
One short girl was itching to ask the Professor a question. Edelman loathed this kind of behaviour mid-sermon… mid-lesson almost as much as Ira hated letters, but he stomached the interruption just this once.
“What kind of treasures can be found in these… Relics, sir?” the girl asked after being picked.
Professor Edelman wore a strange smile that seemed to teeter between politeness and devilish evil.
“I’m getting to that, young lady,” he said through his teeth and whisked himself back to the front of the class. “As I was saying, we have no good measure for the worth of Relics with technology or supernatural abilities. However, there is something that has made the job a little easier: Condemned.”
The class reeled.
Condemned?
Professor Edelman was suddenly in his element. Very rarely did he manage to grab the attention of the students like this.
“Unlike Blighted – as I am sure you are learning from Professor Aarons – Condemned are much more treacherous in nature. They are creatures driven by immense greed and they have an affinity for anything with value. It is something of a supernatural sense for them – a dreadful curse. Many have long speculated that Condemned, while stronger and, of course, smarter than Blighted, cannot do much else with their intelligence because the majority of their mental faculties are drowned in fantasies of gold and lust for whatever else is prettier,” Professor Edelman said, now creeping among the students as though he was telling a scary campfire story. “By trailing some of the stronger Condemned, dragon kind managed to find these precious Revenant Relics. These Cinder-Born are attracted by them, drawn to them.”
Ginger was heavily intrigued.
Condemned…
He thought back to the Beginner’s Den; to the exercise he had been participated in.
It stood to reason that Blighted were used because they were weaker, but at the time, he hadn’t put too much thought into it. He wondered just how much more dangerous the Condemned were when comparing them to the Blighted he had fought; those that hadn’t had their first growth spurt.
Hums of interest echoed through the class as the students talked amongst themselves but some of the more eager ones beckoned Professor Edelman to continue.
“I know, I know. You are quite interested in what can be found in these Relics,” the older dragon said with a dignified smile and a wave of his hand. “Well, the—”
“Ahhh! Ooooh! Ouch! It burns!”
The Professor was cut off by the scream of a dragonling sitting in the right corner.
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He had stood up from his desk and was leaping in place as though the floor beneath him was suddenly full of pointed nails.
The boy was Nicolas Onasis. Smoke was jutting out of nostrils freely and tiny sparks of flame dropped from them, making it seem as though lumps of hot coal were attached to the mucousy insides of his nose.
To this, most of the students didn’t panic at all. Some of them broke into laughter while only a few dozen or so were a bit alarmed and rose to get a clearer view.
“Relax, boy. Stop dancing!” Professor Edelman yelled, his brows knit together with a mix of annoyance and fury. He zoomed towards Nicolas and grabbed ahold of his arm. “It’s normal to have a reaction like this after refining your Kardia. I’m certain you have seen a few of your upperclassmen show the same traits.”
Ginger was also amazed by what was happening to Nicolas, but he quickly realised that he had seen this happen to a student before, though likely not by accident.
Zale, the Third Year who ‘recruited’ him and Reiss for Kartile had a habit of spewing smoke from his nose.
‘So that’s because of Kardia getting refined?’ the plump dragonling asked himself.
A sharp elbow poked at Ginger’s side.
Reiss leaned in close and whispered:
“That’s so cool, isn’t it? I wouldn’t mind being able to snort smoke anytime I’m mad.”
Ginger was stunned. He thought his friend was joking until he saw the broad smile on his face.
“I will be taking Mr. Onasis to the Golden Wing for a check. Settle down, I will be back soon… hopefully,” Professor Edelman said as he pulled Nicolas out of the classroom. He then poked his head back in and added, “Do behave yourselves.”
He might as well have asked a school of fish to grow pairs of legs.
The students of First Blue immediately leaped from their seats and started chattering among themselves, some so loud that one would wonder if they knew where they even were. Most expressed disappointment, blaming Nicolas for ruining the reveal Professor Edelman had been about to spill.
Ginger and Reiss did not shy away from doing the same, but of course, they couldn’t express themselves freely with Caron among them. Instantly, it was as though the trio were back to the point before Professor Edelman had disrupted their tense interaction earlier.
Reiss didn’t hesitate to resume the discussion. He gave Caron a sharp look and raised his brow inquisitively. This much would have been enough for Caron to understand what he meant, but the dwarfish dragonling added vocally:
“So? Are you going to confide in us or not? If it’s the latter, you might as well continue treating us like you did two days ago.”
The sharpness of Reiss’ tone as well as the harshness of his words seemed a bit overkill to Ginger, but he couldn’t have stopped his friend from saying them anyway.
Caron donned a deep frown and looked between Reiss and Ginger.
Swiftly, she got up and left them to go sit elsewhere.
“Can you believe this?” Reiss said with a shake of his head, his eyes not leaving Caron who slammed her books angrily on her new, chosen desk.
“No,” Ginger replied, but he moreso meant he was surprised Caron could get angry at all.
Why was it so hard for her to talk about what was going on? Didn’t she need any help?
As his thoughts reached this point, Ginger felt a guilty contraction in the pit of his stomach.
He wasn’t exactly innocent when it came to secrets. He had his own which he had been keeping from Reiss despite dubbing him a best friend.
Because of this, Ginger barely said much in response to Reiss’ furious outbursts about how Caron was unbelievable and unreasonable.
“Hey, Ginger,” the plump dragonling heard from his side and he turned to see a familiar face.
It was Kairos Fayer, a dragonling from his class whom he’d never talked to, quite like most of his fellow classmates. He was a bit taller than Ginger with an eerily gaunt face, shockingly vivacious, satin grey eyes and short, dark hair.
Quite like Reiss, Kairos had a bit of a reputation as one of the smarter dragonlings, and also like Reiss, he was quite reserved, shying away from attention and friends.
The boy leaned against Ginger’s desk.
“Hey,” Ginger said uncertainly. He couldn’t find a reason as to why Kairos would want to talk to him.
“Is it true? About your family, I mean?” Kairos asked with an even voice, but his eyes betrayed his immense interest.
Ginger felt as though he had swallowed a cup of ice-cold water.
What…?
His family?
“What?” Ginger asked.
Reiss frowned, listening closely.
“I heard…” Kairos said, getting impatient, and he leaned in closer, “I heard you’ve got parents, siblings and everything in the Wild, and they are all Halflings like you. Is it true? Oh, is it also true that you were all tutored by this human Sorcerer. Well, Shaman, I suppose. I heard that’s the right ter—”
“WHO TOLD YOU THAT?!”
Before Kairos could finish his sentence, Ginger had shot up from his seat and shouted at the top of his lungs, his hand gripping at Kairos’ collar.