In The Metorium
As I step out of the portal, the first thing I see is Drew, arms spread out, a wide smile on his face as he says, "Welcome to the Metorium!" And behind him, a city.
That's the only word that can be used to describe the place. A city. The place is huge. But at the same time, small. Small in the sense that the tallest building I see is only five stories. It is a weird mix of the modern and medieval.
We are standing in front of a huge stone arch in the center of a very wide courtyard. Surprisingly, there are far fewer people than I imagined there would be.
After my initial surprise, I realize that the Metorium is a bit of a disappointment to me. I hadn't been sure what to expect, but I had still been expecting something like Xavier's School. People flying around, doing magic, and so on, but contrary to my expectations, things seem normal – when you get over the medieval feel of the place.
To make it worse, there are not as many people as I expected. I had expected to see a place brimming with all kinds of magical people, instead, what I get are a few scattered groups of people here and there just talking to each other. The only strange thing is that every one of them is wearing white robes, with black strange looking designs that remind me of runes at the hems. There is a large symbol on the back of the robe which is different for everyone. The only anomaly is that there is always a person with gold instead of black designs.
As we step out of the arch, almost everyone around turns to look at us. Drew does not seem to mind, but it makes me a bit nervous.
Drew seems to notice my disappointed look. "It's the holidays," he says, "so there are not as many people as there will be when school starts."
"School?" I ask with a look of confusion. He begins to walk away and I follow.
"Yes, school. We have classes during summer vacation. That's mostly when we learn to use our magic. It's mostly Protectors who come to the Metorium when there are no classes, and sometimes Wranths."
I immediately understand what he is saying. When normal people have school, the Laen's are on vacation. When we have a vacation, they have school. So they basically have twice the amount of school normal people have. Crazy.
We leave the courtyard and begin winding our way through the city. As we walk I see that some of the buildings seem new compared to others and it's a bit weird, because the new ones seem to be part of the old ones. I even spot a building that is half old half new. I wonder what happened to make the Laens make such a patchwork of buildings.
As we walk we meet a few people. Every single one of them knows Drew, greeting him as he walks past before giving me weird looks. For his part, Drew returns every greeting with a smile.
As we walk we move closer and closer to the largest building in the city. A grey medieval-looking cathedral with two spires piercing the heavens. I soon begin to suspect that that's where we are heading.
"Is that where we are going?" I point at the building.
Drew nods. His expression has slowly become serious, and I can't help but wonder what could make him like that. I look at the building and finally feel the magnitude of what I am doing. It didn't hit me before, but now that I'm so close to my destination it does. I'm about to do something that will probably change my life forever.
At this point I ask myself, am I sure I want to do this? Do I want my memories wiped or do I want to become a Laen like Drew? My answer is nothing but confusion. It is too late for me to go back, so asking myself if I want to do this is pointless. I definitely do not want my memories erased but at the same time, I am not sure I want to become a Laen.
I suddenly realize that ever since the night of the party, I have had little to no choice in what happens to me. It's been others who have been calling the shots. From 'Taur using me as a way to escape capture, to my memories being erased, to this. It seems the Laens are determined to control everything magical.
We finally get to the building. I stop for a moment and look up at the massive building. As I look up at the building, with its spires reaching to the sky, I can't help but admire it. It has a certain majesty and splendor to it and gives the feeling that it has always been and will always be here.
I look away from it and hurry after Drew who is about to enter it. We walk through the door and into a large open cubical space. And for the first time since I came here, I see something truly magical.
In front of us is mostly empty space, but on each of the four walls are multiple passageways, leading to God knows where. But the strange thing about these passageways is that there are no steps leading up to them. Instead, I see people get to them by standing on circular platforms which then fly to the passageways.
I start moving towards one of the platforms only to realize that Drew is going somewhere else. There is a little booth to my left, behind which a girl is sitting, head bent and completely oblivious to the world.
"Hey, Lacey," Drew says stopping in front of the booth.
Lacey looks up sharply, a slightly panicked look on her face. Once she sees Drew she relaxes and smiles a bit."Drew, what's up."
"What's under the table?" Drew asks teasingly.
"Nothing."
Drew obviously doesn't buy it."Really?"
What happened next was too fast for me to catch. Drew looks down at the table, almost as if he was trying to look through it, then the girl raises her hand, her thumb, and ring finger touching as she speaks a word. A faint blue light traces her hand for a brief moment, before abruptly disappearing. Drew hisses in pain as he quickly looks away from the table, his eye shut.
"Not cool," he says. She only snorts in reply.
They used magic, I am sure of it. The fact that magic was used in front of me excites me to no end. I almost ask them to do it again before restraining myself. I doubt Drew would want to repeat the experience.
After a few seconds, she finally notices me. Her eyes glow blue for a swift second, and shortly after that, she frowns a little.
She opens her mouth and speaks, but strangely no sound comes out. Weirdly, Drew seems to be able to hear her just fine, judging by his change in expression, despite the fact that his eyes were still closed. This is no doubt another display of magic.
Drew replies to her, with no sound leaving his lips as they both engage in that strange soundless conversation. It leaves me feeling strange and a bit left out.
After a few exchanges, a look of understanding dawns on her face and she shoots me a curious look. She then reaches under the table and brings out a squarish stone tablet with strange-looking runes around the edges but an oddly blank and smooth center.
Drew finally speaks out to me."Put your hand on the tablet. It's something we have to do before we can gain entrance to the Center."
I do as he says, placing my hand on the smooth part of the tablet. It is oddly cool and far more smooth than it looks. The tablet heats up under my hand and I feel it release something into me. The things go around my body before flying back into the tablet. A few runes flash briefly and then the tablet returns to its original lifeless cool state.
I take my hand off it and take a step back as Drew goes through the exact process I just did.
"Okay," Lacey says as she places the tablet back under the table."Bye."
"What?" Drew says feigning surprise. "Do you want to get rid of us? Not gonna happen."
Lacey narrows her eyes."Don't make me do something you'll regret."
Drew ignores her threat."I wonder what it is under the table that could make you behave like this? Maybe, no! Lacey have you –"
Before Drew could finish whatever he was saying she raises her hand. There is a flash of light and then Drew is flung away from the table by an unknown force. Surprisingly he manages to land on his feet, several meters away from the booth.
"Are you trying to kill me?" he shouts looking flustered.
I glance at the people on the platforms wondering why they didn't seem to care about what was happening here.
"I will if you don't leave," Lacey replies coldly.
"Fine. Ian, let's go."
I jog up to him as he heads to where the platforms are.
"Hey, Drew!"Lacey shouts when we are a few steps away from the platforms.
"What?"
"Kane has been looking for you. He says you should see him once you have the chance."
"Okay. I will."
He then moves forward to the platform and waits beside it for me. I follow after him when suddenly I feel as if I am passing through a transparent barrier.