Chapter 7(12): Akuani

A soft feathery fabric fell on top of my face, blocking the currents of air. I sat up as if electrocuted. Gasping for air. Haze of sleep fogged my vision as I glanced around,coming face to face with a very pissed Yuki. Oh no....what did I do? No what did Lily do?! 'Hey I did nothing!' Lily yelled.

"Um...good morning, Miss....Yuki?" Her glare deepened.

"Good morning my arse! I've been trying to wake you up for the last two hours!! I threw water on you, I poked you, shaked you, Kristina even electrocuted you! Kina shook the entire building to try and get you awake! Heru made his summoned hounds bite you but you did not respond! We thought you were dead! AND YOU WAKE UP BECAUSE A PILLOW WAS ON YOUR FACE?!" Yuki yelled incredulously. Then I noticed the rest of the squad standing around my bed,all of them looking exhausted.

"Well shit." I say in my home language. They blinked. "Sorry. But did you perhaps feed me with something that goes in line with frog's? I usually sleep like the dead when I eat something to do with them,mostly cause it's disgusting. And the other reason I kind of forgot. Wait...." I fell back on to the bed, shock settling over my features. I actually crossed the bridge again.

"Ah,is she going in to shock,Yuki?" Heru's voice asks. Yuki leaned over me.

"I think so. I would to considering she crossed a bridge made from hell fire." Yuki answers.

"Hai. Give me a minute." I mutter numbly, all these years and I only decided to cross over now. So much had came from these years so much knowledge. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, I sat up and jumped to my feet,bowing my head.

" I deeply apologize for having made you all go through so much trouble for me. How much time is left until we have to start with the academy tests?" I ask straightening. Williams eyebrows rouse until they touched his hair line.

"Missy, your lucky you have thirty minutes left, now get your polite self in the shower, get dressed in those and meet us down stairs." He says and grabbed a pile of cloth before throwing it at me, when I looked up the door slammed closed and I was alone in the room. Huh, Lily materialized in mana form, she looked exactly like me, except her hair was a stary blue and her eyes a dark red and she always had this sadistic smile on her face.

' Ready for the day,Miss Polite?'

'Don't mock them. If I remember correctly than they helped in saving your head from the chopping block. So be nice for once,would you?' I ask as I passed by her and in to the shower room.

' I would be, but they can't hear me, your the only one who can. And half the time you ignore me. Plus they don't remember me.' She says as I began to shower.

'And who,pry tell,fault is that? Any how, I'm sure we'll be able to seperate once we find the ancient library.'

'You know I'll just find someone else to pester. Someone who had me before. You for instance had had me before, you did exactly this. And the person after you. This is just a never ending circle of pain unless you make the most of it, which it seems you are starting to do. Enjoying yourself by pulling tricks like eating that dreaded apple. Playing Liliana's song and enjoying your time here.' Lily says, I paused, Lily has never lied before, no matter what it was,she never lies. If this is a never ending circle than.

'Your saying you can't take a body without a soul?' I ask stepping out of the shower and drying myself off. She nodded.

' That is necromancy. And I can not preform it since I never had such element in my past lives. You on the other hand,may just be able to preform such foul magic.' Lily suggested I made a face and got dressed.

'No way. Necromancy is disgusting. You know how the rising dead look, it's horrible. Let's find another way,how about puppet magic? I could imbued your conscience within a wooden doll and you could live in it.' I reply and combed through my hair.

' It won't work. I need a beating heart, you know that.' Lily says.

' Well then,what? What can possibly help the both of us?' I ask frustrated now as I walk out the door.

' .....I'm afraid I have no idea. And I like living inside you, your mind is spacious even with the millennials worth of information in your head. And you think of the most funniest things at the most weirdest of times.' Lily says as she started to fade when I picked up my bag and walked out the inn room,my face a lot redder than necessary.

' Why do you have to read my thoughts constantly? Can't you keep yourself busy with something else?' I begged.

'Nope. You are way more interesting, Asher. I'm sure I'll never get tired of you.' Lily says. I sigh and shook my head. Silly mad ghost girl. Razé grabbed my hand before I could react and dragged me out of the inn, I stumbled as I tried to keep pace.

"Hey! What's up with you?!" I yell trying to keep myself from falling, we were already on the stairs that would lead to Akuani, the academy itself.

"The others tasked me with taking you to the academy, the council called and they need their help." Razé replied and slowed down slightly,:" And I really don't wanna be beheaded before we arrive at the academy." Razé says with a sheepish smile. I giggle.

"You should have just said so! Get on!" I say squatting down. Razé stared at my back before sighing and shaking his head.

"Your crazy you know? We could die if you miss a step." He pointed out,folding his arms in front of his chest.

"Me? Crazy? Never. Get on or I'll show you crazy." I say 'serious'. Razé paled before clambering on. "You believed me. Wow,I said I'm not crazy,you should have listened!" I yell as I took off running up the stairs. His arms tightened in a deadlock, his eyes tightly shut and his face green. I weaved between the few people on the streets so quickly I was sure that all they saw was blurry images that nearly crashed in to them. In the distance the image of the academy became bigger the nearer we came. The towering walls of the academy jutted out like pillars, the walls were painted a deep cyan and shades of gold to emphasize the patterns on them. Tower tops peeked nervously over the walls and on to the city scape, pulsing a mystic pink and red. There was a lot of young people at the gates of the walls, each standing perfectly still as Gáókay scanned them with their staffs to sign their names on the academy list to keep track of their performances within the tests and if they should pass- in the academy. Gáókay are graduates who chose to further increase their knowledge in the elements and the histories of the world's meet. They teach younger generation about their powers,the bridges and the various different species in them. Once you cross a bridge your body stops ageing, well not completely. When you cross the process slows down to a crawl, when you could have lived a measly hundred years your potential goes up to a thousand. Only if your strong enough though. The oldest person is Liliana who's more than just a few thousand years old,but they don't know that yet, though it's not because she crossed a bridge that her ageing slowed down to such a level, it's because she crossed dimensions. That's where the first generations of the Cristina came from, each of them are able to live longer lives than the average person but because of disease, because of the demons and beats, it's impossible for them to live so long, constantly being in a state of worrying, constantly in a state of fear is not healthy,for anyone. Razé climbed off with shaking legs, his complexion several shades lighter than before with a light tinge of green. I crush my lips in a thin line, trying not to laugh. I leaned forward smiling now.

" Come on,that wasn't even as fast as yesterday." I point out.

"I know....but....you were running upwards.....on stairs....twisting and turning almost every second....." His cheeks began to swell, I backed away.

"Don't you dare throw up, Razé!" I say going pale as well.

"You two,come here!" A Gáókay called glaring us down. Oh, please don't throw up in front of this person, Razé, or we are so dead, I don't particularly fear it, but I seriously don't wanna repeat the past few days. Razé walked alongside me as we stepped closer to the white robed teacher. He had classes pushed far up his nose, pitch black hair with hints of red in it's strands,cut to the point that every little piece stood in all directions. And he looked angry as hell.

"State your names." He says. Ah?

"Asher Dawn,Sir."

"Razé Tri Su,Sir."

"Ages." The Gáókay asks.

"17,Sir."

"27,Sir." I blinked and stared at Razé he doesn't look a day over 18. He shrugged at my expression.

"Potential elements?" The man broke our little staring contest as he spoke.

"Music,Sir." Razé answer.

"Don't know,Sir." I say. Gáókay narrowed his eyes as he stared at me.

"How can you not know?" The man asks.

"Because I crossed my bridge about three days ago,sir." I say. He looked shocked at this.

"Then how can you speak wanzo?" He asks.

"My world has various bridges with which we regularly do trading with, some of them have already came here. So they taught us how to speak wanzo as a second language,sir." I reply. He nodded and raised his staff, two white lights passed over us both.

"Well then you might not make it to the third round, but you may yet pass. Try again next year if you fail." The man gave me and Razé each a crystal mine being transparent and his being a soft jade. We exchanged looks before walking towards the gates.

"I hope you pass." Razé says.

"I hope so too. And also that you pass. But I'm sure the last seven to eight years of studying hadn't been for naught, right?" I say grinning at him as we paused at the ornamental gates. He grinned back.

"Definitely not,miss Dawn." He says mock bowing. I curtsey in turn lifting the skirts of my uniform. We grinned wider at one another before stepping through the gaping opening of the gate.