8. Dreams and reality

Name shouted.

She held her head: it was intact.

She was out of that nightmare.

Kein stared at her from the other end of the room, he seemed to want to say something, but he remained silent.

For a moment, just for a moment, she felt her skull crack.

She had felt the blood spill.

The sudden pain, the fear, no, the terror.

It had all been true, all too true.

Yet it had happened in her head.

Did that mean that the woman in the other dreams was also her imagination?

No.

No.

It was real.

Name trembled, breathless, trying to catch as much air as she could.

She moved in bed, back and forth.

Fera must not have heard her, after all when she slept she was a like a rock.

Once again, Name wanted to cry, but for some reason, even though her eyes filled with tears: none came down.

She wanted to cry, shout, scream again, sleep, remember.

Finally she got up, sitting shakily under the window.

At least the moonlight would soothe her, even though she was actually sitting below in the shadow of the light.

I can't do it.

How many tests did she still have to go through? How many challenges, how many people?

She would never go on, she would never make it.

Someone would kill her right away.

Even in her dreams it was like that.

She sniffed several times, she couldn't even see anymore, it was all hazy, all distorted, all wrong.

«Hey.»

With unbelievable calm, Kein sat down in front of her, she saw him blurred.

«I'm sorry.» Name interrupted him immediately, she had most likely woken him up.

She didn't deserve to carry someone else to the bottom with her.

«No. Don't apologize, it's annoying.»

Name stared at her feet.

«I had a dream. It felt real. It was real. I was killed.»

She spoke without thinking, was Kein reliable? Not really, but right now she needed something, anything that even for a moment made her think of something else.

«Ok ...»

Kein then grabbed her hand, gently, and began to massage the wrist in circular, between the two arteries.

«My mother used to do it. It calmed me.»

Name was amazed at that attitude.

Seated, being taller than Name, he was hit in the face by the moonlight. He didn't look bad, his crimson red eyes no longer reminded her of blood.

She considered Kein on the scales of enemies, but now she was confused, with that small gesture that calmed her in a few minutes.

She stopped shaking, her eyes dried and her heart stopped beating so hard in fear.

«Thank you.» now she could see him more clearly, even if she didn't have time to see what expression he had.

He released her wrist and, without another word, went back to sleep.

When he stood up, for a moment, Name felt a feeling of emptiness.

Calmer, but still shaken, she went to bed.

Each time she closed her eyes, the darkness seemed oppressive.

Name spent the whole night awake, looking at the light.

-

«Fera! Fera!»

Name was shaking her friend, trying to wake her up.

Unlike her, she must have had slept very well, you could tell from the little trickle of drool.

Kein was brushing his teeth, watching the whole scene lurking on the bathroom door jamb, scratching his belly.

«Ice cream ... yes ...»

What kind of dream did she get into?

Name giggled: Fera's lightness made her think of something else.

Luckily she had already changed and washed, which made her think about other things.

She had left her hair down, and she had put the fate leaves back in her hair.

She climbed down the wooden ladder, going to fill a glass in the bathroom.

She had checked her Pass, it was a little before six, so she poured a drop of water on Fera, to wake her up.

«You can't be gentle when you try to hurt someone.» with these words Kein took her wrist and tipped the whole glass over Fera.

In the end, it was successful.

Kein lifted his lip slightly in a half smile, then darkened again.

«Did I really deserve it?» Fera spoke, completely wet.

«Yes.»

«I'm sorry...»

Soon they both came down for breakfast.

It all seemed much quieter than the day before.

Everyone seemed to be fine, no one was injured.

Sky greeted her by shaking his hand in the air.

Mr. Xulio entered again with a knock on the door and its ticking.

«Come on, I don't have time, first lesson: theory.»

Name quickly drank her warm milk before following everyone else into the class.

It was a simple, high room with a wall made of square windows like the library.

The floor was wooden, there was no furniture.

«I'll be brief, come on, everyone in line.» sig Xulio placed himself in the center.

Name still wasn't sure if and with whom to talk about her dreams.

She had spoken to Kein on the spot, but he seemed to have completely forgotten the night before.

Who would believe me?

Name lined up next to Fera, Aldien stood next to her, causing her to shiver.

«Clearly, the further you go, the more challenges you will face. To switch from one minor circle to another, you will need to face an exam, most of the time it will be physical, yes. Combat.»

He stared at his watch.

Why does he stares at it all the time?

«There are, therefore, 4 main positions. The so-called 4 angels. Combats are mainly fought in groups of three though. Anyway: Stategists, Conjurers, Strikers and Key Holders.»

Mr. Xulio started pacing back and forth.

«Stategists: the word describes them.They are the thinking head. The guide. Most of the time, someone who is a strategist takes another position, but that is something you learn as you level up. They use ancient books related to their elements to assist Conjurers and Strikers. A defense, a plan are their specialty.»

«Coming to these two, very similar, both are attackers. The Conjurers rely mainly on their magical power, emitting it, the Strikers on their physical one, reinforcing themselves or their weapons. Often the Strikers are also Conjurers and vice versa. Very often they are very different.»

Mr. Xulio touched his beard.

«Oh yes. The Key Holders.»

«The rarest of all. The last recorded Key Holder was seventy years ago. The Key Holders, unlike the others, do not rely on their own magic, but on the blessing granted to them. The Key Holders are in fact able to create doors, exits: puncture the space as they like. In short, to take advantage of the power of one of the gods to a minimum. Space. They have the key of it. Questions? Quick, I don't have time.»

Name looked around, Aldien for some reason looked at Mr. Xulio menacingly, gritting his teeth.

«Excuse me?» a girl nearby raised her hand, it was Lynn.

«Is it true that the Key Holders are a lineage of descendants of a son of a God?»

The ticking had stopped.

«Gods can't have children, you shouldn't believe all rumors.» he used a deep tone, as if he were warning them.

«Questions?» he repeated, his watch began to make noise again.

Name raised her hand, unsure, but curious.

«Who decides what their position is?»

«Oh yes. It's quite simple.»

Mr. Xulio pressed a small button near the door and 4 glass cases came out of the floor.

One contained a sword, another an open book, written in a language that Nome did not recognize, another contained a long stick, coiled on top on which he placed a glass sphere floating. Finally, in the last there was a bright circle, with the edge of incomprehensible writing and the inside the symbol of a key.

«They will choose you here.» in the meantime, Mr. Xulio had taken from somewhere a sack full of hand-sized glass spheres.

He released them into the air, each floating in front of a person.

Slowly each sphere began to glow one color for each, to some it shone two colors or more.

Aldien covered his with his hands.

«Wait! You have fire magic!» Fera pointed to Kein's sphere, dyed red.

«No, not at all.» why did he deny it?

The only one that took no color was Name's.

It hadn't remained transparent, it had turned a faint white.

A few seconds later, all eyes were on her.

«Agh, old gadgets, they don't work like they used to.» Mr. Xulio replaced the sphere, but the color didn't change.

White.

Why doesn't it work?

Then he exchanged it with Fera's.

Her sphere turned green.

The sphere of Fera, in front of her, turned white again.

«What ... What does it mean?» Mr. Xulio didn't give her an answer, she heard whispers not far away.

«Nobody move.» he thundered, before grabbing Name and leading her out of the room.

«W-what's going on?» he didn't answer her again.

He took her to the end of the corridor, but turned right, towards the stone wall.

He kicked a stone high to the knees.

Then he pushed Name against the wall.

The girl almost screamed, remembering the dream, then realized that ... she had walked through it.

Such as...

Mr. Xulio entered after her, they went down a wooden staircase and found themselves in a sort of underground office.

The floor was wooden planks, damaged, as was the desk and the carpet. There were many books.

Mr. Xulio put down his watch, the ticking stopped and sighed.

«First. Do not disclose this place to anyone. Second, don't tell anyone what I'm going to tell you.»

Name nodded, slightly frightened.

«Magic has a different color for each of the 12 powers. Now, there are many shades, but I don't think this is the case. Here.» Mr. Xulio turned, taking something under the desk: another case, smaller, dusty, with a hole in the side and four red sticks at the corners.

«The hand, inside.» Name obeyed.

From her hand, white light began to flow out, with no exact consistency.

It rolled into stick after stick.

She almost didn't feel it, what was that?

«Out. Out!» the box pushed her away, sending her flying backwards.

There was no box left, it had exploded: a piece of plastic had scratched her face.

Mr. Xulio, strangely unscathed muttered something.

«As I suspected. This is magic, pretty damn powerful if you will, can fill the box in seconds. But it's an unknown magic.»

The man leaned against his desk, putting a hand on his forehead.

«I'm pretty sure Nelsea noticed that from the start. Or maybe she knows something else.»

The pink lady.

Name bit her lip.

«Is it so bad that it's unknown?»

The man looked at her.

«Yes. And why do you ask? Do you know who has powers other than 12? The gods, and do you know who else?» Name shook her head, ignorant.

«Who has reached the center of Deorum. Oh, no one has reached the gods, no one has become a God, only the Four, but whoever comes to the Center, not only gets infinite non-aging, but also a power. At their choice. But this is not a conferred power, it' a natural power.»

He paused, looking tired.

«A thirteenth power.»

Mr. Xulio walked over to her.

«This. Clearly, it will be between you and me, do you understand? I will help you to keep it at bay, but you'll have to say that you have magic of light, it's normally yellow, but it's the closest, even if the density itself is another thing. The colour could be misjudged as magic of rock... or even air, but of course, you can't control those, or the box would have pointed it.»

Name tried to hide the shaking in her hands as she nodded.

She clenched her fists.

Before, I just wanted to know who I was. Now I have to understand ... what I am?

Mr. Xulio put a hand on her shoulder.

Up close, he could see that he was sweating and tired.

«Child. Your life is at stake, trust no one.»

Then he nodded to himself.

«Well. Let's go back to class.»

When he picked up his pocket watch, it began to tick again.

Name didn't want to go back to that room, she didn't want to lie.

"Your life is at stake?"

What life?

She felt helpless.

«The reality is this, be content that you haven't already been killed.» the man said, before opening the door to the classroom.

Some were seated, others remained exactly where they were before.

She saw Fera staring at something on her cheek with concern, surely the cut that was bleeding.

«What are you looking at, brats? If you care so much about someone else's life, the girl's magic here is of light, I've seen it myself with a Casket. It's just a rare deviation. Now...»

Name returned to her seat, causing her white sphere to flutter again, Mr. Xulio moved between the glass cases.

«...One by one. Your main position will be decided right now. Come on, I don't have time.»