Original Souls (A World Apart #1) (32 page)

The power of a lone flame carried great historical significance in Hyperborean. A place named for the fact that i
t’
s so far north of all the other Worlds. The blaze of the flame against the stone walls made the stones shimmer. There was silver pixie dust, mined from the Silver River, or Rio Plato according to Sena. Hendrix, mixed into the concrete. The gleam of the dust persevered the stones, and warded off dark magik. Aurora Boreal had many lines of defense besides the force field surrounding its outer perimeter.

From Concordia Nova, Sen. Bernard led the three children over the Oeste skywalk. The mini-sky-bridge glided across and over the grounds below, connecting only to the twelfth floor of Olympia. Bernar
d’
s quarters and office were over there. H
e’
d just taken the automated skywalk, or rather run, from Olympia over Oeste when the other students came looking for someone to help their fellow screaming mates.

They silently crossed into Olympia now, and the scenery changed drastically. Olympia was the oldest building on school grounds, yet it looked the most up to date. That's because every single stone, metal, and even wooden board was constructed wholly from silver dust. That meant they'd never waiver in esthetics or luster. The integrity of the structure was forever locked in. The other buildings must be manually repaired, because the Rio Plato is running low on pixie dust. Conservation methods had to be employed for the silver pixies to survive, and continue to replenish the magnificent river.

Bernard's office was at the edge of the Southeast hall of Olympia. Not so many doors down from Corinth's room at the end of the South hall, overlooking the Olympus Grounds. The four of them continued on around the Main hall of Olympia. This circular hall connected all the eight directional halls. They were passing the storage room that Hendrix converted into a dorm for her grandson when they heard a loud, nearly ground shaking thud.

Bernard stopped and looked around, backward and forward. Then focused in on Corinth's dorm door. There was nothing in the circular Main hall with him, except the three children he was escorting to his office. They were hopelessly clinging to one another. "Did any of you hear that, as I did?" He looked down at them with absolute authority. They all simultaneously shook their heads to agree. He didn't know what to make of it, so he walked past Corinth's door. But as he moved closer to the next door, he was overwhelmed by a strange tingling feeling. He sensed some powerful magik emanating from the door he'd just walked away from. Which, of course, was Corinth's. He saw nothing and heard nothing else, but that door number was now stuck in his mind. #23.

<*>

Only moments ago, Corinth, Emmy & Emma, and Anvard were looking outside the one window in Corinth's dorm room. They spied as best they could on Sena. Hendrix as she argued in the grass fields with Walker. They'd been at it for quite some time.

After Hendrix sent them away, they all signed up for affiliates that looked the most interesting to them. These extracurricular programs were additions to their normal class loads.

Anvard for: Levantarse, Societies

Corinth for: Deaves, Megazine, Spheres

Emmy for: Deaves, Megazine, Republics

Emma for: Explorers, Megazine

All of them were really excited for their Affiliates. They figured they'd be a fun break from ordinary school work. Once the school year really started to get tough.

Sena. Hendrix and Walker had finally given each other a rest. But they argued long after Corinth and the others walked away. Sena. Hendrix left at first to find out why the committee had approved Walke
r’
s Deaves petition. Then she came back to the Olympus Grounds and argued some more with the head Librarian. All in all, it had been about four hours since they were sent away by the Grand Ministrant.

Now Corinth had a full-fledged deck of Deaves, and was about to begin learning the rules of the battle and trading card game. But before he could dive into that, he had to figure out how to explain to his three new friends, why his dad just dropped from the ceilin
g
… into the middle of his dorm room.

Emma was-released by Sen. Bernard, not before getting a week of detention and cleaning detail, of course. And even though she saw a great deal of strange things when she wandered into Bernard's quarters and stole that map this morning, she was still startled by Corinth's even stranger father. "What...the heck...jus
t…
happened," with a flat monotone she looked down at Criston with shock and agitation all rolled into one feisty little package.

Corinth anchored to his father's side. "Are you okay?" He tried his best to lift his dad to his feet. But Cris was a big man. Six-foot-two and muscular. Corinth stumbled, but Anvard came to the rescue. But instead of grabbing Cris, who had just face planted when he dropped from the ceiling. And not onto the bed he brought with him. No. He hit the hard surfaced floor of Cor
y’
s small dorm. Still, Anvard helped Corinth only, leaving the bo
y’
s father to fumble his limbs again.

"I gotcha!" he said, as he lifted Corinth to safety and let his dad fall a second time since h
e’
d unexpectedly entered the room.

"Well, thanks a lot, young fellow," Cris said while getting back up, one contracted knee at a time. He used Anvard's nearby shoulder to lean against once he fully erected his body. "Nice to know you have my back." He playfully winked at Andy, but no smile came from the young gentle giant.

"Who are you?" Anvard said, like he was the man of the house.

"That's my dad." Corinth slightly lifted his arm to point at him.

Criston brightly smiled. Somehow, his dark tan skin face showed red marks, while his eyes were rolling in the back of his head. Cris tried to make a joke of it, going with the odd feeling in his gut. He attempted a jig to break the uncomfortable tension in the room. It didn't work. The kids just thought it made him look even older and less cool than he already did. Corinth just covered his face, and smirked beneath the cloak of his hand. A blind willingness to look stupid was one of his favorite things about his father.

Cris started to get some of his wits back as he stumbled to attention. "Okay, okay. I get it. I'm not cool, because I'm older than you. That's fine, just don't come knocking on my door when you need someone to get you into a R-rated movie," Cris laughed loudly, but not even Corinth joined in this time around. But funny enough, Emma did join in.

She poked Corinth in the side and said under her breath. "Your dad's cute." Strange, she did
n’
t mention the word -
funny
, even though she was steadily laughing at his ill-fated joke.

He shot her a look of pure disgust then said, "are you kidding me, he's like thirty or something."

"Oh, grow up! Your dad's a hot fudge sundaesupreme. I
t’
s not the end of the world, ya know."

"You're twelve!" he shouted as the others turned and looked at the two of them. They stood dead center in the room, adjacent to Corinth's unmade twin bed.

They were both stunned for a second. Corinth looked down at the two-tone floor, embarrassed, just before Emma whispered, "and a half."

Oliveto walked over to Criston and took a sniff. He circled him, then took in another sniff. Cris looked over to his son, and he threw his hands up. Expressing that he hadn't a clue to what the mid-size puppy was up to. The mangy animal circled quite a few more times before finally jumping up on his hind legs, reaching for Cris' upper body. He loved dogs with a passion, so he bent down on both knees to pet Oliveto. He got his fill of warm hearted licks for getting so close to the animal. He loved it.

This gesture from Corinth's pup made Anvard rethink his attitude toward Cris. Andy wasn't an animal lover, no he was not. The Fielder family, like most Lirians, didn't view animals as pets. Not because of animals rights or something mildly noble like that, but simply because they didn't want to clean up after or cater to any other beings besides themselves. This mentality was simply passed on generation through generation. Everyone seemed to develop their own reasoning for why they could
n’
t get along with domestic animals today in Lirio. Anvard's reason was his fear. He respected animals for their intuition, but feared what lurked behind their little non-smiling -faces. He always told himself that if an animal comes along that could smil
e
… that would be his first pet. Though afraid of Oliveto, because he didn't know what the pooch was thinking from minute to minute, he still liked him. And he thought;
if Oliveto trusted Corinth's dad, then Corinth's dad must be trust worthy
.

He walked over to Sen. Gambit, extending his hand. "I'm sorry about the way I just behaved. I should have known better to disrespect my elder. Please, accept my apologizes."

Cris looked at Andy as he seemingly bowed before him. He wasn't used to teenagers with such poise and humility. "Well, you're a bit too formal for my liking, kid, but you definitely won me over earlier with that Corinth grab. He's always worth saving before me anyway." Cris looked over to Cory and winked as he grabbed Anvard's hand, but instead of shaking it, he pulled him in for a great big hug. It made Andy smile monstrously. First, because he wasn't expecting it. Second, because even though he always gave people handshakes, he was more of a hugger himself. Cris pulled him out from the embrace and noticed his huge grin. "Now that's more like it," he said as he hugged Andy again.

Emmy too donned a bright expression as Criston introduced himself to her. But none could match Emma. She played herself to be quite the little queen. Something Cris noticed, but couldn't begin to try to care about. No love lost though. Emma figured she'd land her hits next round. A crush like this couldn't be defeated so easily.

They all talked amongst themselves for a bit. Corinth questioned why his father hadn't gotten him any cool sneakers to wear out. Cris looked around, throwing things across the room, but couldn't find the skater sneaks he'd picked up for his boy. While he was shifting the contents of the extra bed now in Corinth's already small room, they all heard muffled screams.

"Is everybody else hearing what I'm hearing?" Emmy asked the room.

"Yeah, it kind of sounds like screaming. But from far away," Corinth added.

"Couldn't possibly be those crazy kids I scared an hour ago, could it?" Cris chuckled. Then his memory suddenly kicked him back to reality. "Oh crap!" With great vigor, he threw Cor
y’
s clothes, notebooks and anything else in search of his unconscious friend from La Ropa.

"Hey! You're turning my dorm into a pigsty," Corinth sounded genuinely pissed at his pop.

After packages of white socks and undershirts were tossed aside, Cris found his submerged companion.

"Ahhhh! Ahhhh!" The now, conscious fellow, screamed in terror as Cris pulled him from beneath the remaining mounds of school supplies.

"Calm yourself. Everything's fine, you're safe here." The man freaked when he saw Cris, and immediately punched him square in the nose. "Wha
t—
th
e—
what!" Cris shouted as he hopped around like a kid on a pogo stick.

Anvard wasn't as mystified by the hidden fellow as were the others. He quickly pulled out his gold encrusted llave, and it began rotating before his chest like no other. Smooth and easy, quick and sleek. "NOX!" perhaps he over annunciated his desire to put this man back to sleep. The suspicious guy closed his eyes gently, then crashed against the floor just after Anvard yelped his spell.

"Ew! That's got to hurt," said Emmy. She looked on, slightly disinterested now that the belligerent captive was stone cold asleep and snoring loudly.

"Who was that?" Anvard asked while Corinth plugged his dad's nose with a dirty, ripped up sock of his.

"A friend," Cris said with no emotion.

"Well, it seems he doesn't like you as much as you do him," Anvard offered as he checked the guy out.

"Well, he wouldn't be the first," Cris said as he smelled an odd odor. He looked over to his son. "Where'd you get this cloth, Cory?" Corinth just shrugged, and Cris raised an eyebrow, but didn't really know why. He tossed the rank sock to the floor and walked the few feet over to his, not so beautiful, sleeper. He patted Andy on the shoulder. "Good job. Quick thinking too."