Shrieks of terror befall my mind, thoughts of the past haunt my dream. Tossing and turning in my sleep, the night was long. Dream felt like eternity, only leaving me an hour of peaceful rest. Thinking about my past mistakes recently has brought up memories that I would have preferred to have stayed locked in the prison of my mind.

  Images of my mother surround me in my dream, my mind taunts me. Strange faces I haven’t seen before break the image of my mother. They speak to me in an old tongue, their tone sounds of warnings. I can’t make sense of it. The faces are all human, their eyes glowing with the same color of mana that the stone flashed when Enrique spilt his blood.

  Before I could attempt to make sense of these faces, I quickly pulled out of my dream by shouting in the real world, “SHRUGS WAKE UP! We have a meeting to attend to.”

  I jolt up and look at the door to see Leah. Who tossed clothes at me, “We are leaving in 30 minutes to go and meet the professor Mika mentioned.” she sniffs the air before plugging her nose and turning away, “You stink, go bathe.” she said, leaving the room. She didn’t close the door.

  I yawned and stretched in my bed, adjusting the boxers I slept in. The dream I had lingers in my mind. I sat up and stretched some more, before looking out my window. The air outside was thick of morning fog.

  Enrique passes my door in a hurry, he was wrapped in a towel and his hair as wet. I got up from my bed and walked into the hall, “Frank, where are the towels?” I yawned out.

  “They are in the closet right next to the bathroom.” Frank shouts from downstairs. I nodded and went over to the closet. I opened it and grabbed a soft yet heavy black towel from the closest. I sniffed it, it smelt of the perfume Leah has been spraying around the house.

  I held my face in it, letting my mind fully defrost from the grips of sleepiness. It felt like I woke up a second time. I looked up from the towel and went into the bathroom. I notice how it is similar to an old bathroom from Japan, reminding me of the time that my family went on a vacation to Japan.

  The bath was large, and the water spout had runes on it. I studied them, and gave up on trying to figure them out as soon I as did so. “Leah!” I shouted from the bathroom, “Come help me with the bath, please!”

  I hear footsteps coming up the stairs and down the hall to the bathroom door, the door knob jiggles, “I am coming in, don’t have your junk out.” Leah’s voice says as she opens the door.

  Thankfully I was in a towel. She opens the door and looks over at me, “Thank you. Enrique was naked when I came in earlier, so I had to make sure that I didn’t have to get an eye full of you.”

  She walks over to the bath and moves her hand over the spout, first activating a blue rune, then a red rune. “I am gonna guess that since you are a null, you can’t use runes for now. So for now just call me or Frank for help.” she says as she quickly left the bathroom to go back to whatever she was doing.

  The spout’s runes produced hot water. I allowed my towel to fall to my feet, where I stepped out of them and felt the bath with my finger. Just the right amount of heat. I let myself right in, slipping into the refreshing water.

  I only spent 15 minutes in the bath, as I didn’t have much time to get ready. After I finished my bath, I quickly got dressed into the clothes Leah threw at me. They were fairly fancy, something a mid class merchant would wear.

  After spending time in my room grooming myself, I hear Leah call up to me from the living room, “Get down here twerp! We are leaving.”

  I exit my room and meet with the others downstairs. Everyone was waiting at the door, Enrique was dressed in the same outfit as me, but in an emerald green rather than my royal purple.

  “Was the bath hot enough for you?” Enrique asks while he throws the hat he bought me in the village.

  “It was good enough.” I said putting the hat on. He nodded back to me.

  “The journey won’t take too long, as the college is in the closest city.” Leah explains to the group, “It should only take 3 hours by the wagon. Then, if you guys get enrolled, I’ll give you an item that can transport you to set locations.” she further explains.

  Frank opens the door and leaves the home, twirling in the sunshine. He smiled a good smile, enjoying the sunlight, “Today is a great day to travel.” Leah says seeing Frank’s enjoyment of the fair weather.

  The group of us leave for the wagon, which had two burly horses attached. Both of them seemed to be of a gentle nature. We all get into the wagon and begin our journey to the city. The road was bumpy, but it was manageable at the speed we were going.

  Enrique and I spent our time telling Frank about the other world, he was very interested in how there was only one humanoid species in our world. Time flew by us as we chatted, and before we knew it, we were outside the city.

  Walls of the city looked to be as tall as mountains. The gates to the city had a line to it, a decently long line, but not long enough to make the wait dreadful. It only took us ten minutes for us to get through the gate, the guards were super efficient.

  We enter the city, people everywhere. The streets are crowded, but are somewhat easy to get through. All sorts of people and animals cross over the streets, Enrique swears he saw a Griffin, but I doubt it.

  The college was the centerpiece of the city, like a jewel in a crown. We quickly made our way to the road that lead up hill to the campus. We had to cross a bridge to get up to the college, the water below was some of the clearest water I’ve seen.

  After we got onto campus, we made our way to admissions. Staff member was waiting outside for us. The staff was an older lady with pepper’ed hair.

  The woman studied the wagon as we approached. “Hello, you guys must be the family Mika was talking about.” She said as we pulled the wagon up near her, “Yeah, I am Leah.”

  “Oh, it is good to hear you’ve made it. Professor Gilbert is waiting for you, and he is not a very patient man.” The lady explained to us, “If you leave your wagon here, staff will move it and your horses into the stalls.”

  Leah dropped the reins and hopped off the wagon, we all got off after her. The older lady bowed her head, “Please, follow me.”

  She opens the door to the admissions office, letting us in first. After we all crowed into the hall, the lady locks the door and turns around to face us, “Professor Gilbert made it clear that no one shall be allowed into admissions while you guys are here.” she explains her action.

  “His room is the second floor, the farthest room to the right.” she points over to the stairs down the hall.

  “This seems like a trap.” Enrique blurts out.

  The lady scoffs, “ReKeller College isn’t an institute that deals in the shadows.” She says, her words feel like she is spitting at us for a grave insult.

  “Sure.” Says a doubtful Enrique.

  Leah chops his head, “The staff here are trustworthy, kid. It’s one of their core values.”

  Enrique rubs his head while Leah apologizes to the lady. The woman forgives Enrique, “I will be staying right here while you meet with Professor Gilbert.” She bows before gesturing us to leave to the stairs.

  Leah nods and leads the group to the stairs. The stairs are made up of cobbled stone, and they wind up to the next floors, like a snake coiling up a pole. There was a window that overlooked the campus’s main courtyard. As we made our way up the stairs I peaked out and saw two women that looked to have been in an argument.

  The calmer looking one was a taller woman with short white hair and pointy ears. The other was a Demi-human with short black hair and red eyes, who really seemed to be giving the other a talking too. I kept watching for a moment, before Enrique slapped my back, “You are holding up traffic, pal.”

  I snapped back to it and finished going up the stairs to the second floor, where Frank and Leah were already waiting. Down the hall we heard yelling between two people, a male voice and a female voice.

  This did not stop us from making our way to the room. The closer we got, the clearer the conversation was.

  “YOU ARE SUCH A SCUMBAG! I FUCKING HATE YOU!” the female voices screams out.

  “Calm down honey, it isn’t what it looks like.” The male voice replied. There was a pause in talking for a moment, “…actually it is what it looks like…” the male voice said in a softer tone.

  This made the female voice even more pissed of, “SHE IS A STUDENT IN YOUR CLASS! WHAT THE HELL D-DO YOU THINK YOU-” the woman’s voice faded into sobs, clearly going through it. “I fucking hate you…” we hear, before the door to the room slams open, and a woman in tears rushes out.

  A man peeked out from the doorway, “Babe, please, It wasn’t like what we have!” he attempted to save whatever was happening.

  The woman shoved by me, her tears falling to the ground like rain on a rainy day. “Cheating piece of shit like always, Phil?” Leah asked as she approached the man.

  “Leah!?” Exclaimed the man, clearly not prepared for us. “It’s been a while, how’ve you been?” he asked.

  “Shut up already, you know why we are here.” said an annoyed Leah.

  Before we could fully make our way to the door another woman comes out, holding her clothes to her chest and private area. She turns to the Professor and slaps him hard before charging off. “Not you too!” he said to the woman.

  The professor pinches the bridge of his nose and took of his glasses, “Why are you here Leah? And who did you bring to me this time?” he asked, his tone taking a new more stern form.

  “Did Mika not talk to you?” Leah asked glaring at the man.

  The professor lifts his chin and adjusted his glasses, “She did, but I was looking at her servants tit’s the entire time, so I wasn’t paying attention.” he smirked.

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  “Fuck you, don’t defile Nia like that, she is too pure for your gaze.” Leah says getting in his face.

  “So her name is Nia? That's good to know.”

  Leah backs off, as if she is holding herself back from beating the shit out of this womanizer. “We are here to talk about the two kids behind me.” She flicks her thumb over her shoulder, pointing at me and Enrique.

  The professor thinks for a moment, before coming to a realization, “Oh right. Mika did say you were looking to enroll two kids.” he turned into the door and walked into his office, Leah followed.

  He plopped down onto a rather comfy looking chair. Picking up underwear the woman left behind, which he promptly put into his pocket and smiled. Leah ushered us to come in and sit down somewhere, while she herself sat on the other side of the professor’s desk.

  “You never change, don’t you Phil?” sighed Leah as she relaxed into the chair.

  “Actually, I recently became a man of god.” Replied the professor as he got out a stack of papers.

  “That's a lie.” Leah blankly called him out.

  “Heh, you’re right.” he said as he sat the stack of papers on his desk, “So, are you going to tell me why you need these kids enrolled?” he asked, “I thought you were against schooling. With all the stuff that happened to you here and all that.”

  “Did Mika not explain anything?” asked Leah.

  The professor shook his head no. Leah sighed and gave a lengthy summary of what has happened with in the past week.

  “So you are telling me you kidnapped the transported? I know you are a crazy bitch, but that’s a bit far, even you.” Said Phil as he grabbed a cigar from his desk and lit it up.

  “Whatever. They needed saving, and I was the one who stepped up.” Leah said, brushing his comment off.

  “Has any of them opened the first mana gate yet?” he asked, taking a big puff from the cigar.

  Leah looks at him, as if she had just remembered something very important, “I haven’t even told them about mana gates yet.”

  Phil chuckles, some ash falling into his lap. He pats it off, becoming quiet. “You haven’t even told them the basics?” he asked in a rhetorical tone.

  “Never crossed my mind. We’ve been too busy.” Leah says, propping her feet up on the desk.

  “Not even at the shrine?” asked Phil.

  “Nope.” blankly replied Leah.

  Phil sighed and looked over and Me and Enrique, we were playing bloody knuckles to pass the time. He then looked back over at Leah, “You realize that Null gates are very different from normal mana gates? If he is to enroll here I would have to personally teach him-”

  Leah looked up at him and grinned.

  “No. I am not taking a transported in on my own. It’s too much work.” the professor got real stern.

  “You don’t have to take him under your wing fully. Just teach him how to control it and how to use normal mana.” Leah tries to reason with him.

  “Hell no.” He says taking a large puff from his cigar, “Even if I did, what if the state caught on, and I was put to trial? That would ruin my family.”

  “You’ve already ruined your family, Phil. Besides, don’t you want to be remembered in history books?” asked Leah.

  “If I am remembered, people will find out about everything I do behind the scenes. And that is a legacy I do not want.” Phil explained, taking a smaller puff of his cigar.

  “How much will it cost me?” asked Leah, “I am willing to pay a lot for enrollment.”

  Phil’s ears perk up, and he looks Leah up and down with a creepy look. He then looks away, “You aren’t my type… But if you are willing to do something for me, I am in need of relationship mending.”

  Leah’s ears perk up on alert, “What do you mean by relationship mending?”

  “As you saw,” he began to explain, “My wife just caught me in the act with one of my students. I know she isn’t willing to listen to me, so I want you to use some of your old mana tricks and get her to come back to me.” he put it bluntly.

  “Woah, always an asshole, aren’t you?” asked Leah.

  “You don’t have to do it. But if you don’t, I won’t teach your kids.” Phil sits owards in his chair, setting his cigar on the ashtray.

  Leah sighs and her ears droop down back to normal, “Fine, but after that I don’t want anything to do with your ‘relationships’”

  Phil smiles and leans back, “Great. You go do that right now, and I will fill the transported in on the basics of mana.”

  Leah stands up, “I will only bring her here for you to speak to her, nothing more, where is she?.”

  “She is probably in the courtyard on the bench.” Phil told Leah.

  She walks over to us, “Go speak to Professor Scumbag, he’ll give you what you need to learn.” she then turns around and leaves the room, “I’ll be back in an hours time.” she left.

  I look over at Phil, who is pulling up another chair to his desk, right next to the one that Leah sat in. “Come and sit, we have one hell of a crash course to go through in an hour.” he says, sitting back in his chair and puffing his cigar.

  Enrique stood up first and sat down in the chair that Leah sat in, I followed him. I sat in the wooden chair he picked out. I tried to get a good seating in it, but it still hurt to sit in.

  “This will be a long one, boys. I say you better get comfy.” Phil sees how his choice affected me. We both adjusted ourselves in our seats, preparing for a long lecture.

  The professor took a long puff of his cigar, before setting it down on the ashtray, blowing the smoke in our faces, “Alright, so. There are 8 gates of mana, each one is about twofold stronger than the last. The first gate is opened within the body when the person learns their first spell. Most gates open when the person expands their magical abilities to the next level. For an example, when someone who only has gate 1 open learns a few intermediate spells, they have the chance to open the second gate.”

  He picks up his cigars and puffs on it, “The more gates you have opened, the harder it gets to open another. Most professors at the college have 5 gates open. I fit this general rule of thumb. Most of the students fall in gate 2-3, some may be on gate 4. There are also a few students over gate 5, and those few are considered to be future leaders in mana.”

  He flicked ash into the tray, “The dean is a former hero, he has 7 gates open, making him one of the strongest mana users in the country, probably the world.” He stops for a moment, “Any questions?”

  I spoke first, “Does this apply to nulls?” I asked.

  “Nulls?” he asked himself, “They are a bit different, as most of the spells for people of null magic are destructive. For a null to learn normal mana, they need an item that brings their mana level above zero. If you do enroll, you will be provided with such item. After that you will need to attend normal mana classes, then join me after school for null training.” he explains.

  Enrique raises his hand and the professor points to him, “How does someone cast mana spells?” he asked.

  “First you start off with incantations. Then, when you’ve gotten the basics down, you can cast without incantations. Most people stop using incantations around the third gate.” Phil explains.

  So far, everything adds up in my head.

  The professor puffs his cigar one more time before going on to explain a bit more, “There are five main schools of magic, and countless sub-schools. The schools go: Alteration, Conjuration, Restoration, Illusion and Destruction…”

  “Alteration is the school that uses magic to manipulate physical objects. Common spells are things like levitation.”

  “Conjuration is the school that uses magic to summon things either into this world or teleported from another part of the planet.”

  “Restoration is mainly just healing and detox magic.”

  “Illusion is complex. To sum it up, its basically playing tricks on people. But not. I don’t know, I have never and will never teach it.”

  “And my personal favorite, destruction. It’s what you think of when you think of combat magic. You got your lightning bolts, fireballs and stone bullets.”

  He took a puff, “Those are the 5 main schools. They are used with the four basic elements; fire, water, ground and air. But as I said with houses, those are the basic elements, there are way more than I could name off in a short period of time.”

  “Any questions so far?” he asked us.

  Enrique and I shook our heads' no.

  “Alright, I guess that’ll have to do for now, as I hear people coming down the hall.” He points to the open door.

  A second later Leah and Mrs. Gilbert appear in the doorway. Mrs. Gilbert clearly going through it. Her blue eyes are red and tears are dried to her soft complexion. “I got her, Phil. You better hold up your end of the deal.” Leah says, her tone sounds a bit drained.

  Phil stood up and nodded, picking up two papers from his desk and walking over to Leah. He handed the papers to her, “Those are the enrollment papers. Can you leave while I handle damage control?”

  Leah nodded and took the papers, “You really never change, Phil.” she said as she looked at me, Enrique then Frank. Gesturing for us to leave with her. We got up and left with Leah. As soon as we left the door slammed shut behind us, and we could already hear a woman’s sob from the other side of the door.

  We left shortly after that, taking back our wagon and horses from the stables. By the time we got back to the sun was setting. We quickly made our way into the cabin. Leah made us a meal, and we went to bed. Leah seemed out of it after the whole thing with the professor’s wife.

  I fell face-first into my bed after stripping down into my boxers I passed out nearly instantly, ending the first day I have ever seen the campus of ReKeller.