Cris opened his eyes slowly, gazing out the window of his new dorm room towards the dull, gray clouds above Babylon. It would clear up soon. Cris had noticed in the short time he’d been here that the weather was almost always ideal for the season. Another advantage of spirit magic being thick in the air of course. The city still contended with elements he’d been told, but nothing severe.
He rolled out of his bed. It was comfortable, just as the hospital bed had been. The first night he’d used it, he’d sunk into it and slept straight through until morning despite the stress of meeting the council. And every night since he’d slept almost just as well. It was unnerving.
Cris’ eyes went to the bedside table, landing on the sole possession he had remaining from his old life. Not even something of his own, really. David’s old and unusable cellphone sat there accusingly. A painful reminder that while Cris was alive and well, comfortably sleeping in his own room after three square meals a day, David would never do such a thing. David was supposed to be the one living this life. Cris was just a pretender. Even the council could see it.
His feelings about all this were complicated. He still grieved for David. He bottled it up around the others and then allowed tears to come in his alone time. But he couldn’t deny he was enjoying the comforts here. No rotting takeout food for breakfast, chocolate cake for dessert instead of a chocolate bar for lunch, a bed with no lumps and fresh clothes every day.
Trust didn’t come easy to Cris, however, and he wasn’t sure how he could trust the people here. Maybe those like Heidi, Finn and Elsa truly were trying to help. Although with Mara around, could Cris really be sure of what he knew and believed in? If anything, the one thing he thought he could trust in were his own instincts, and supposedly those had been dulled since their group had come to his school.
And then there was Mr. Rainier and the council. The only council member that had fought against the idea of Cris being in these…Academy Games was Eleanor. And while Rainier had opposed it, he wasn’t doing much to stop it. In fact, Cris had a sneaking suspicion Rainier was interested in seeing how it played out.
Although Cris couldn’t deny that a part of him wanted to do it, too. A part of him was motivated. He had fought those demons the night David had been killed. His pretty miraculous recovery also suggested he was a part of this bizarre world. And he was beginning to feel…different. And perhaps…perhaps learning to fight these demons was in his interest. Perhaps it was one small way to get justice for David.
Cris sighed, standing up and looking around the room. It wasn’t big. It didn’t need to be. And it wasn’t decorated. It didn’t need to be. Aside from the bed and bedside table near the window, there was a small desk on the other side, a bookshelf and chair and table. There was also a small fridge, and in the small hallway leading out, there was a bathroom. There was no kitchen. Meals were held in a hall with all the students.
Cris headed over to the chair where he’d draped his new school uniform over. He wasn’t thrilled about wearing it. It was a dull brown vest with a white undershirt, red tie and black pants. He felt ridiculous just looking at it. But he supposed he would play along. It was his first day of classes after all. Maybe he would figure out something.
As he was finished getting into his clothes, he heard a knock at the door, followed by a light cough. “You can come in, Heidi,” he called out, easily recognizing the hesitance.
The door opened, and Heidi stepped in slowly and uncomfortably. She was in her own uniform, similar, but she’d opted for a skirt instead of pants and a ribbon instead of a tie. She still wore her beret atop her head.
“G-Good morning, Cris,” she said awkwardly. “Are you…ready for today? The uniform looks like it fits okay.”
“If I’m not ready, I guess it doesn’t matter, huh?” Cris said, rolling his eyes. He noticed Heidi glance away as he said that, though, and felt strangely bad about it. “Er…yeah, the uniform fits. Thanks for getting it ready.”
That seemed to brighten her up, and Heidi smiled excitedly. “Great! I know it’s kind of weird wearing them, but it makes it more like you're one of us. That’ll show the council!”
“Right.” Cris gestured to the door once he’d slipped his shoes on and the two of them stepped out. There were quite a few other students in the hall. Cris supposed this was the busiest time. There was an entire tower devoted to dorms for the students. Not all rooms were occupied, but there were definitely enough students to consistently be running into them. Up until now, though, Cris had been moving around during less crowded times.
“Do you want to go down for breakfast?” Heidi asked as they headed towards the stairs. “Finn and Elsa were going to meet us there.
“Sure.” Cris tried to hide his eagerness for food. Meal time was probably his favorite thing about this place so far.
There seemed to be an excited skip in Heidi’s step as they made their way down. Cris supposed she was feeling like she was making a breakthrough with him or something. He was being quite pleasant so far this morning. Maybe this place was softening him up too much.
When they reached the dining hall, it was more crowded than Cris had seen it so far. Nonetheless, there were still plenty of seats, and he and Heidi noticed Finn and Elsa right away. They sat down, the other two greeting them happily. Cris once again fumbled, greeting them in kind, his mind too focused on the large plates of bacon, sausages and eggs on the table as he started scooping some onto a plate.
“So, Cris, feeling up for your first day?” Elsa asked, absentmindedly rubbing her shoulder. She was probably still feeling tender from the demon attack. Cris still felt some soreness in his gut as well.
He swallowed a mouthful of his food before answering. “I don’t think there’ll be any problem. What am I supposed to do? Be nervous?”
“Er…yes?” Finn looked stunned. “Isn’t that like…a normal thing?”
Cris shrugged. “I don’t know a bunch of stuff, so people will tell me what I don’t know. Or is this school stupid enough to expect me to know it already?”
“No, they’ll tell you…it’s just…you’re really not nervous? You’re the new kid. So like…what about that?” Finn looked like he was the nervous one.
“What’s that gonna do for me?” Cris swallowed another mouthful of food. “I’m guessing I’m not the first new guy you’ve ever had here.”
Heidi seemed quite pleased by Cris’ attitude towards the situation. “Cris is right. It won’t be so bad. Besides, Daedal Academy is a lot more casual than a normal school. Difficult topics are repeated regularly with new students in mind. And since students go on missions sometimes, plenty of things need to be reviewed for them as well. And if you get to A Rank, most classes are optional.”
“What classes do you have for today?” Elsa asked, appearing a little uncomfortable as attention turned to her with the mention of A Rank.
“Spirit Magic Basics and Magical Supports,” Cris answered. Glancing at the piece of paper with the class names and locations. There were just two classes a day, although they were two and a half hours each.
“Basics is for C and D rank students,” Finn pointed out. “So you’ll be with us.” He gestured to himself and Heidi. “And I’ll be in the Supports class, too.”
“Supports is actually optional once you’re used to things around here,” Elsa explained. “Regardless of rank. Not every spirit is suited to using supports so some people opt to spend their time training in something else.
“What are the other classes?” Cris asked, looking at his schedule for the rest of the week. Some were basic classes taught at any old school, but there were other unfamiliar ones specific to here. “Two different kinds of training?”
“Close Range Training,” Finn began to answer, “is pretty straight forward. First you’ll learn basic close range fighting. Hand to hand combat, self defense, martial arts…whatever you want to call it. As you get better, you start integrating your spirit magic into it.”
“It’s Elsa’s specialty,” Heidi pointed out.
“My Spirit Guide is suited to it,” Elsa muttered. “Anyway, it’s a good class even if you don’t use your Spirit Guide much for combat. It’s still good to know how to fight…as you’ve seen.”
“And Long Range Training uses Spirit Guides a bit more. We train for situations where we need to keep a distance. Not just in combat, but also reconnaissance.” Finn grinned. “My specialty.”
“We also study a lot of mythology in our history classes,” Heidi explained. “Not just for mythical spirit guides, but learning about past conflicts resulting from spirits and demons.”
Cris frowned. “Past conflicts?”
Heidi shrugged, appearing unsure. “Just things like old wars where it’s believed spirits and demons were involved. Many of the old Greek myths for example involved spirit users fighting demons.”
“Even more modern wars,” Finn said. “Supposedly World War Two had a major battle scrubbed from the records that was solely between spirit users and demons.”
Cris tilted his head in confusion. “How does that make sense in a war between humans?”
Heidi looked away uncomfortably. “Well…it can be a little more complicated than what you’ve seen so far.”
That was an unsettling thought, and Cris didn’t ask anything more about it, instead opting to finish his breakfast in silence. And before too long, mealtime was over, and the students around them began to shuffle off to their various classes. Heidi and Finn led the way towards a nearby tower which would hold their first class.
Cris was somewhat relieved to walk into the classroom and see that it was relatively normal. It was a little old fashioned with the stone walls of the tower and the mahogany desks. Other than that, however, students seemed equipped with regular notebooks and pens and the teacher even walked in with a laptop.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Cris was also surprised to find that he was being greeted quite warmly. Heidi and Finn didn’t seem that well known around most of the school, but in this class, they seemed to be quite popular, and thus, he was noticed as well. Maybe it was the mission that had made them popular, or perhaps among the C and D Rank students they were simply the ones with most potential. He had no idea. Regardless, they attracted attention, and brought it to him as well.
“Nice to meet ya, man,” one boy greeted, introducing himself as Sam Dayal. He exuded cheer and joy, immediately making Cris uncomfortable. “No offense, dude, but I’m glad not to be the new guy anymore. I mean, no one was mean about it-”
“Other than Levi and Mara,” Finn pointed out.
“Yeah other than Levi and Mara,” Sam continued. “Other than that, though, no one was mean about it. But still, it’s weird being the new guy.”
“How long have you been here?” Cris asked, curious what the rate of recruitment was like around here.
Sam tapped his chin in thought. “Well, I got on the radar about three months ago. Then I was visiting family in India when shit started hitting the fan and that was a bit complicated so…guess I’ve been a student for two months.”
Cris’ eyes widened and he looked at Heidi in alarm. “Took two months for you guys to get a new student.”
“Well, it’s unusual to go that long,” she said. “And between Sam joining and finding out about you and David it was more like a month…”
“Seems like I’m hearing things are unusual a lot lately,” Cris muttered. “Do people here actually know what they’re doing or not?”
“You know…maybe they don’t,” Sam said, not looking particularly bothered. “But what the heck, right? The food is great. And the girls. And the city is pretty badass.”
“The city is, indeed, badass,” Finn agreed, nodding sagely. “As are the g-g-g…” He paled as Heidi glared at him. “Gates. The g-gates are cool, too. The coolest gates I’ve ever seen.”
Even Cris couldn’t hold back a smirk at that, shaking his head as Sam headed off to his seat. Meanwhile, the teacher seemed to be getting ready, standing up behind his desk and gaining the class’ attention as he raised his hand for silence. As everyone quieted down, he immediately looked towards Cris, nodding in silent greeting
“Good morning, class. I hope everyone had a good weekend.” He was a fairly average looking man, but Cris noticed the same strange quality he’d seen in Rainier and a couple of the councilors. The almost…ageless quality in his face. Like he was old and had seen a great deal, but didn’t show it. At least not in the same way a regular human might.
“It’s the spirit magic,” Finn whispered, apparently figuring out what Cris was noticing. Cris blinked, looking away in case it appeared like he was staring too much. Finn continued nonetheless. “It’s so pure that it slows the aging process. Well…maybe it doesn’t slow it exactly. Changes it, anyway.”
The teacher had been talking as Finn was whispering. And apparently he was aware of it. “Anything you’d like to share Mr. Murphy?” he asked, smiling towards the ginger-haired boy.
“No, sir, Mr. Flint!” Finn said, saluting quickly.
The teacher, Mr. Flint, gave a short laugh. “Would you care to introduce us to our new classmate, Mr. Murphy?”
Cris wanted to roll his eyes. This really was like an ordinary classroom now. Regardless, Finn hopped to his feet and did as asked. “Hi guys,” he said happily, gesturing to Cris in the seat next to him. “This is Cris Parker. He’s…er…a boxer? And…er…a track guy? Much better at it than me. And…he hates music.”
Cris had no idea where the hell Finn had gotten all that from. He’d never boxed or done track in his life. And while he wasn’t one to listen to much music, he didn’t hate it. However, he had the strange impression the class understood something else in what Finn was saying. Many of them nodding respectfully at him as he glanced around, and some laughing at the remark about music. Sam in particular seemed to go into a fit.
“Everyone knows your story by now,” Heidi whispered. “Finn just means…”
“The demon punch and the running…right.” Cris sighed. What a weird group of people. He wasn’t sure what the music thing was about, though.
“Well, Mr. Parker,” Mr. Flint said, “would you care to tell us anything about yourself?”
Cris sighed, not actually interested in doing such a thing. Of course, as he opened his mouth to say so, Heidi nudged him, obviously trying to encourage him to do so. So, he sighed again, trying to make it clear what a bother it all was, and he stood.
“Hi,” he said quietly, although it was loud enough for the now quiet room. “I’m Cris. I’m gonna be here till the Academy Games, I guess. Maybe more if whatever those are don’t kill me or out me as some demon in hiding or whatever it is the council is freaked out about. I don’t really have anything to say, but good to meet you, I guess.”
That wasn’t so bad, Cris thought proudly as he sat down. He nodded at Sam, seeing the boy giving him a thumbs up. Most of the others were quiet, though.
“Er…Mr. Parker, best to leave council matters private in the future,” Mr. Flint said awkwardly. “A-Anyway, I suppose we should get to today’s lesson. Since we have a new student, I think it probably best to go over some of the basics surrounding the processes of Stirring and Awakening.”
“I thought you said they knew my story,” Cris muttered, turning to Heidi as Mr. Flint began scrawling some things on a blackboard.
Heidi glanced around uncomfortably, seeing the many eyes now on them. “Well…I thought given what the council said…it was kind of obvious that wouldn’t be shared.”
“Right…right…because it’s unusual,” Cris said, rolling his eyes. “Boy, everything sure is unusual. Somehow it’s the fault of the guy whose best friend just got ripped apart. I wonder if maybe this unusual stuff might be more related to the things that do the ripping apart rather than the one they tried to rip apart.”
“Mr. Parker.”
“Huh?” Cris looked up, seeing Mr. Flint glancing at him uneasily. “What?”
Mr. Flint sighed. “I’m wondering what you know of the Stirring and Awakening process. What could you share with the class?”
“Just that it’s the beginning of people connecting with their Spirit Guides. And it has something to do with an event in someone’s life.” Cris shrugged. “And Spirit Shock or something…that’s pretty…bad, I guess. It wrecks your soul or something.”
“It certainly does,” Mr. Flint said, nodding. “Or it can. Not every case is the same.” He pointed to his blackboard, where he had the key phrases noted down. “Spirit Shock is just that. Shock. Think of it like a jolt of electricity. But this jolt doesn’t travel through anything physical. It passes through your very soul. And thus, it can kill the very thing we’re all aiming to, first, awaken and connect with, and second, work with and channel power from. Even now, spirit energy in this city is buzzing through the air. It’s why we’re protected from demons. We essentially have a large bubble of it around us. Someone who isn’t Awakened or, at the very least, Stirring and reasonably on their way to Awakening, could walk into this city and it could essentially be like hugging a lightning rod during ten of the worst lightning storms you’ve ever seen combined into one.”
Cris got the point, and he was fairly sure that was said for his benefit. He had still wondered, even after Rainier had explained it, why he and David couldn’t have been brought earlier. Supposedly it had still been risky to bring him when they did. Although the demon punch seemed to suggest he had enough power to survive the shock. Plus he’d been about to die anyway. He was confused about one thing, however, and he was surprised to find himself raising his hand like a normal student.
“Yes?” Mr. Flint said, nodding encouragingly.
“You said something about spirit energy surrounding this city and protecting it from demons. I thought they fed on the stuff?” Cris was pretty sure Rainier and the others had mentioned plenty of things about demons feeding off of potential spirit users and this causing the nightmares.
“That’s an excellent point, Mr. Parker.” Mr. Flint pointed outside, and Cris noticed the sun poking out of the clouds now, the weather clearing up as quickly as it usually seemed to in this city. “Plants need sunlight, do they not?” Cris nodded. “And what happens when they receive too much?”
“They burn or dry up…” Cris laughed shortly. “Wow…”
Mr. Flint nodded. “Essentially it’s overwhelming. Just the same as it can be for us with Spirit Shock. It’s why it’s so necessary to keep others out of this city as well. Your companion from your extraction. Miss Keres? She will have ensured that none in your old school remember you. You’ll be, at most, considered a runaway. None can be on the lookout for you. They likely would turn back due to other protections in place, but a determined enough person could potentially get too close for their own good.”
Cris could see the logic in that, but something in what Mr. Flint had said made him clench his fists. He could hear Heidi groan upon seeing it, but he didn’t care. He stood up, breathing somewhat heavily. “What did you say Mara did?”
Mr. Flint looked a little surprised. “I’m sorry, I thought you would be aware. Mr. Rainier would have assisted as well of course. Any trace of you will have either been scrubbed from the record or at least altered.”
“And my friend? David?” Cris narrowed his eyes. “He got killed because of…” Cris shook his head. “He’s not even worth remembering?”
“Cris, that’s not it at all,” Heidi said pleadingly, lightly touching his arm. “No one is forgetting David. It’s just…”
“Just what? Can’t have his foster family looking for him?” Cris laughed darkly. “They didn’t care. No one did, but me and a couple others. You guys said you did. You let him down, but the least you could’ve done was cared. Remembering would be a good start.”
“We don’t forget, Cris…”
Cris turned on her, eyes widening angrily. “Really?! It sure as hell seems like-”
“We remember them all!”
Cris blinked in surprise, stepping back slightly at Heidi’s yell. “What?” He didn’t ask with anger. Just curiosity. Because he was curious. What was Heidi so upset about? And who was she referring to when she said “all”?
It was Mr. Flint who answered, however, pointing to his blackboard. And there, Cris saw two words he hadn’t noticed yet. “Traumatic Event.” Mr. Flint gestured for Cris to sit, and he did so, Heidi settling down as well.
“I understand your loss, Mr. Parker. Believe me, many of us do.” Cris waited, starting to see where things were going, and feeling a pit in his stomach as it was dawning on him. “The event that can create a Stirring, and ultimately an Awakening, is often a very powerful one. An event that shakes a person. Shakes them to their very…”
“Soul.” Cris closed his eyes, shaking his head. “So you’re saying…”
“Not in every case,” Mr. Flint said, “but in many cases. Yes, many of your fellow classmates have suffered loss of friends or family. Many have been harmed themselves.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t…” Cris felt like the biggest idiot in the world. He glanced at Heidi. “Who…who did you…?”
“My mom…” Heidi smiled weakly. “It’s okay, Cris. Just…you’re not alone, here. And we’ll never forget them. Never. We’re on your side.”
Cris nodded, his head swimming with the new information and his chest tightening with shame and embarrassment. “So there are people out there having nightmares because of demons eating away at their spirit energy or whatever. And they think it’s because they’re traumatized from a death or something else, but really it’s because they’re about to die?”
“Well, people do have nightmares due to trauma, and the Stirring may not be occurring in all cases,” Mr. Flint said. “There are, however, cases such as that occurring, yes. And the way demons feed during their kill makes it appear as though the individual does it themself.” Cris remembered David’s bloody arms. “It’s almost…intelligent. They manage to hide their presence when they haunt so many. That’s the reason why there are so many theories about…well…that’s a topic for another day.”
Cris was curious about that, but he had another question that was beginning to stir in his mind. He wasn’t sure if he should bring it up considering what Heidi had said about the council, but since he’d already embarrassed himself, he decided to just spit it out. “So how does Triggering fit into all of this? The council said my participation was in the Academy Games was something like a monitored Triggering.”
The class began murmuring in surprise at that, causing Finn and Heidi to look around nervously. Cris didn’t care, though, focusing on Mr. Flint, who seemed just as surprised, but managed to maintain some level of composure.
“Er…I’m sure they don’t mean it in that way,” he said, coughing slightly.
“They said it, not me,” Cris pointed out.
“Right…” Mr. Flint sighed and wrote the word on his blackboard. “Well, Mr. Parker,” he said, “Triggering is a nasty piece of business. In your case, you can’t be fully Triggered, as you’ve already escaped Spirit Shock and appear to be at least well enough along in the process of Stirring. But in any case…Triggering is essentially a forced Awakening. And, given what we’ve discussed on what tends to lead to such a thing…”
Cris’ eyes widened. “You can’t be serious.”
“It is outlawed,” Mr. Flint pointed out. “And I’m sure the council doesn’t intend to even have a minimal one. But yes, a Triggering is, for lack of a better term, torture.
“A forced traumatic event.”