Chapter 3: No Way Back

As Ateek walks on, his mind slips back to his confrontation with the young man out on the road. well he should've expected it, the school rumoured to be harvesting evil fiends and there are reports of missing people in the city, the school was never going to met with an universal approval. There had even been protests about it, although not too close to the school buildings themselves.

One can see the logic in it. When their natural predator—no matter how unnatural they are—suggests that they'd like to spend a bit more time together, suspicion and wariness can be considered survival traits rather than social faux pas.

Of course, other people had supported the school right to an education and further integration into Algosty society. The people of Algosty had fallen on both sides of the issue, mostly because both sides made decent points.

And while Ateek can admit that fear of individuals capable of ripping him in half, literally, but it's a rational one, it's not like humanity itself has been perfect.

When the fiends first started feasting on humans, humans blamed the each other and started a divide in their kind. And the fiends had their own kind of beef between them, Even though there are millions types of fiends, there are only three groups in their kind, there's the Mylokas, they were the type of fiends that like to drain blood of their preys , there's the Walokas, they are the types of fiends that like to eat the meat of their preys, but they don't attack the humans as much as the Mylokas do and there are the neutrals, who don't follow any clan or ritual and just fend for themselves. For centuries the Walokas had a beef with the Mylokas. Of course, the two groups had their own disagreements stretching back centuries before, but the point remains: there are no clean hands, and now the various groups need to decide what sort of future they want.

Like for example, for one to know which is which between a Walokas and Mylokas members is simple, all Walokas have blue eyes as they were attained by their rituals, and Mylokas have red eyes because of the amount of blood they consume.

There are different types of fiends in the Walokas and Mylokas, it is common for the fiends that like to eat meat of their preys join the Walokas, and it's common for the bloodsucking types of fiends to join the Mylokas.

And there are those in the between, who likes to drain blood and eat meat as well along with those who don't eat any of those things, they are automatically put in the neutral category.

the academy is supposed to be one of the first steps towards a future that everyone can live with.

It's still too early to tell whether it's going to work or not.

to be honest all of those stuff might just be stupid rumors and the school is just as normal as any other school.... Right?

After Ateek was done with his thoughts he finds himself at the center of this great political debate, arriving here because his aunt happens to be Madame Astargard, headmistress of the Academy. Not that Ateek's attendance is politically motivated. His parents' work taking them to a prestige school for six months, coupled with an inexplicable reluctance to leave his at home unsupervised for half a year, is the cause of his current relocation.

"So here I am. Armed with nothing other than a perfect academic record in sneaking out of school undetected" Ateek says and after that he sighs.

It's not long before the driveway comes to a halt, leaving him standing at the end of the paved stone.

It takes Ateek a moment to get hishead around what you're looking at. He can't remember the last time he has seen anything so unusual.

To his left, looping around to enclose you, is a wall at least five feet taller than you. As he turn to see where it leads, Ateek slowly rotates to look back the way he came from.

The driveway isn't there anymore. The wall is right behind him, barely ten steps away, in the space that he walked through. It completely blocks his view of the way back. Once again, the word "impossible" is on its way to his mouth, but Ateek doesn't don't say it. because It would be a lie.