Chapter 2
"That there were other worlds, invisible, unknown, beyond imagination even, was a revelation to him." -Kim Edwards
The five minute warning bell rang throughout the halls of the school as Alex Conner made his way to his first class of the day. But as it was a normal routine for everyone else, Alex sensed that something was different about this morning. Ever since receiving the strange messages on the library computer yesterday, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to really happen. That last message...
We'll see you tomorrow. What did it mean? Who had been communicating with him and what was the strange riddle all about?
Alex found himself excessively paranoid today, looking over his shoulder for any teenage thugs and the usual bullies. He had originally thought the night before that it had to be one of them, trying to play a smart prank; yet the more he thought about it, none of the ones that typically harassed him had the brains to pull that kind of thing off. School computers were well protected and usage was logged. The messages sent to him yesterday could only have been done by hacking; and he couldn't think of a single person - student or teacher - that has such skill.
"Well if it ain't sissy boy," a familiar voice called out as Alex rounded the corner to the social studies wing.
"Just leave me alone, Mitchell," Alex said to the taller, black-haired sophomore now standing in his way. Mitchell had been one of the three kids that had taunted him after yesterday's soccer practice, and the same one that tripped him in the showers.
Mitchell stuck out an arm, face-level with Alex, preventing him from moving around. "How about you ask nicely," he insisted with a snickering grin.
"Why should I have to ask you to leave me alone?" Alex challenged.
"Oh, whoah there, Mr. Tough Guy. Ya might wanna watch that pretty mouth of yours before I stuff my cock in it."
Alex smirked. "What's with you and the gay jokes all the time, Mitch? I'm beginning to think you like me."
Other students in the hall stopped dead in their tracks and turned their heads in astonishment as Mitchell's face lit up with a furious red glow. His eyes narrowed and his fists clenched up. Alex honestly had no clue where those words had come from, or why he was suddenly in a trash-talking mood.
"What d'you say, bitch?"
Might as well finish what I started, Alex thought before saying, "I said... I think you like me."
The young Conner ducked in the nick of time as his eyes caught the blur of Mitchell's fist flying through the air. With the larger sophomore now off balance from the wasted momentum, Alex stepped to the left and placed two hands on Mitchell's side, pushing him away as hard as he could, slamming the idiot into the wall lockers. Now that he had a clear path to freedom, Alex took off in a dead sprint, putting as much distance between him and Mitchell as he could muster.
Just when Alex thought he could slow down, he heard the fast approaching steps of Mitchell behind him and the sophomore yelling, "
Coonnneeerrrrr! Get your faggot ass back here, you piece of shit!"
He didn't know why, but Alex felt himself smile and a fit of laughter broke loose when Mitchell was yelling at him, almost as if this was all some game to him. Of course, the terror returned when he realized that the brute would surely smash his face into a wall for making him look like a fool in front of other students.
Conner ducked to break his momentum and rounded a corner, picking up another sprint with the little stamina he had left, racing down one of the lesser-travelled hallways. His eyes barely had time to register a mop sign and, like something out of a classic cartoon, he felt his shoes lose all traction and his feet fly up under him. When his buttocks slammed on the tile floor, he slid off down the remainder of the hallway, where he thought he got a glimpse of something metallic out of the corner of his eye.
Just when he managed to stop his slide and scramble to recover to his feet, he looked up to see a man with golden hair in a brown leather jacket and jeans smiling at him, leaning against the wall. One hand was stuffed in his jacket pocket, while the other held a metallic rod about several feet in length. The hand in his pocket reached out to reveal a gloved hand, and his index finger lightly brushed against his lips, instructing Alex to remain silent.
Mitchell came barrelling around the corner at the far end of the hall that Alex had just come from and leaped over the wet floor - indicating the kid wasn't so much of an idiot after all - and continued running after him. Normally, Alex would continue running, but the strange man's eyes insisted that he stay put; and just when Mitchell approached the intersection, the man raised the rod up to his side and swung it right in front of the bully's face. Alex cringed, imagining the pain that just impacted with Mitchell's stupefied face.
With Alex's tormentor now lying on the floor, looking to be completely unconscious, the man casually stepped out and off the wall. As he walked toward Alex, the metal rod seemed to slowly vanish from reality from the tip to the end in his palm, with miniscule particles of sparkling metallic dust fading away into oblivion after fluttering through the air around where the rod had once been.
"Alex Conner, I presume?" the man asked.
"Who... are you?" the boy asked, taking a slight step back from the stranger.
"My name is Nathaniel Kenway. You spoke with one of my associates yesterday in the school library."
Alex's eyes went wide. In the instance of being chased through the halls, he had momentarily forgotten about his previous contemplations over the strange messages. Of course that would happen; right he let his guard down. But was this man a threat? Other than the recent engagement with Mitchell, Alex typically had good judgement; and nothing about this man really gave him cause for concern.
"Yeah," he finally replied after looking the man up and down. "I'm Alex. What was that about? Yesterday, I mean."
"Well, to be frank, the organization I work with has had their eye on you for quite some time, now. I'm what some call a 'headhunter'. I look for potential candidates to fill empty roles. And
you, Mr. Conner, are a perfect pick."
Conner raised a brow. "What 'organization'?" he probed.
"Ah! Nate!" a voice cried out from down the hall. Alex and Nathaniel turned to see Mrs. Cercie hastily walking toward them. "There you are. I see ya found young Alex."
"Scat," Nathaniel replied. "It's good to see you, again."
"Mrs. Cercie? You know this guy?" Alex asked, suddenly feeling a lot more comfortable that a friend and a staff member was there with him.
The Irish woman waved a hand as she dismissed the very notion of not knowing him. "Of course, sweetie. This man is a long-time and dear friend o' mine. Of course, that's not taking into consideration that he still owes me a good ten doubloons."
"Scat, that was back in, what- seventeen thirty-one?"
"Thirty, you scatter-brained nincompoop."
"Well, I don't think you'll be getting those back anytime
soon, considering Isabella II replaced that currency with her own in the 19th century."
Alex raised his hands to stop the two. "Can we just, focus here, or something?" He looked to the librarian and said, "I thought your name was-"
"-Aislin Cercie?" the woman finished. "Sure, it is; but him and the rest of the lot call me 'Scat', short for Scathach."
"In Irish lore," Nathaniel said, "Scathach was a mighty and deadly warrior. Aislin here could down a hundred men with a Metal-forged sword in a matter of minutes."
"Still
can," Scat corrected, narrowing her eyes at her friend with a sense of pride as she crossed her arms and shifted her weight back on one foot. There was a sudden, barely audible groan and the three looked down to see Mitchell's head turning on the floor as he began to wake up.
"Hmm," Nathaniel began. "I guess I didn't whack him hard enough."
"Alex, dear," Scat said, getting the boy to look her in the eyes. "Trust Mister Kenway. He'll get you to our home, safely; and then all your questions will be answered. Who we are, the people we associate ourselves, and the things we can do. If you like what you'll soon see, you can even become one of us. But you have to open your mind."
"Wait," Alex said, "you were in on this? You had something to do with the messages on the computer?"
"Yes, that I did. But there's no time for that now. Go."
There was a surprising gust of wind that came out of nowhere and Alex whirled around to see Nathaniel standing in front of a black void that seemed to form a tear in the air behind him. What his eyes saw was unfathomable. It was though he was looking into a black hole. Small arcs of electrical danced around the tear, where violet hues of all shades seemed to radiate outward until disappearing. Nathaniel's golden hair and his leather jacket was being blown around in a wind that seemed to come from the rift.
"Now's the time to make your choice, Alex," Nathaniel shouted over the rumble of the anomaly. "You can come with me and learn what's going on outside this fragmented world. Or you can stay here, and continue to put up with your tormentors."
Alex turned to look at Mitchell, was now trying to sit up while holding his head. So far, the kid's eyes had been turned toward the floor, and he didn't appear to very aware of anything that was happening around him. If he stayed, he would surely have to deal with him later; and by the sound of it, this was Nathaniel's only offer. If there really was something beyond that thing behind him, this was his one and only chance to find out.
"I'm in," Alex stated, nodding his head in confidence as he stepped towards Nathaniel and grabbed onto the man's outstretched hand.
Nausea. That was the first thing that overcame Alex as he and Nathaniel stepped out of the rift. Shortly after he was burdened by a pounding headache and tasted a strangeness in the air around him. He began coughing and wheezing.
"Steady now," Nathaniel said, patting the boy's back as Alex knelt down on the ground. That's when he noticed they were outside. "Steady breaths, Conner. You're breathing in an untainted and unsullied atmosphere, so it'll take a bit of time for your lungs to fully adjust. You won't find any air pollution where we're at now." He reached an arm around Alex and helped the boy back to his feet. "Open your eyes, kid. Take a look."
After his stomach settled and his lungs opened back up, he allowed his eyes to take in the picture around him. They were standing at the edge of a dense evergreen forest, where in front of them, on a hill, was a massive and high-reaching fortress of old stone. The sky above was a brilliant blue with pluming white clouds. Birds sang, rabbits skipped and hopped along the forest floor, and the tall grass ahead of them swayed ever so delicately in a calm and cool breeze.
By far, the most extravagant image, however, was the fortress. Alex didn't know much about medieval architecture, but judging by what he was able to see, it had to be centuries old. Tall towers and large gothic roofs sprawled the massive complex visible beyond the walls. Somehow, though, the entirety of the structures seemed perfectly in tact, almost as if the fortress was recently constructed. No weather damage, no discolouration from time, and no ruin or debris lying around.
"Welcome to my humble abode," Nathaniel said. "Or, mine and others', anyway."
"You mean you
live, here? Wherever the heck this place is?"
"Yup. You just took your first journey though a nether realm portal. People like me can create them at will with special, silver objects; most of them are pendants or medallions of some sort. Where we're at is called the Shadow; it's one of many nether realms; other tiny worlds
within the world you know."
"Why 'the Shadow'? It seems pretty bright and warm where we're at."
"Not bad, kid. I knew I picked a smart one," Nathaniel commented. "We called it the Shadow because it exists as a plane that is separated from the normal world in the same way that a blinding light separates an object into two halves; the object itself, and the shadow it casts. Confusing, I know, and probably over-thought back in the day when they named it, but-"
"Who are 'they'?"
"The Sagens," Nathaniel replied before leading Alex out of the forest. "Myself, the people I work with, and the ones that came before us - many of whom are still alive - are all called Sagens. I'll explain more when we get inside."
When Alex and Nathaniel approached the main gate to the wall, two guards adorned in brilliant golden platemail, with chainmail and white cloth underneath, and a white cape draping down from their shoulders, met with them in a stern manner, blocking their entry before the portcullis. Each of them held a long pike, made entirely of some sort of pale metal, noticeably the same as the rod that Nathaniel had used to knock out Mitchell.
"Who's this, Kenway?" one of them demanded.
"A new recruit. That's all."
The armored hulk stepped over to Alex and leaned down slightly. Alex could see the man's brown eyes through the slit in the golden helm, slightly narrowed as the man examined him. "This runt is your new recruit? Just how old is he anyway?"
"Fourteen," Alex answered for him. "And I'm not a runt."
There was a long pause as the man's eyes continued to bore into Alex. Suddenly, the guard stood back up straight and started laughing. "This one's got some balls! I'm just messing with ya, kid." After the guard calmed down, he said, "My name is Lorence. I'm one of the Sentinels of the Citadel. Welcome to the Shadow, kid." The two men stepped out of the way, allowing Nathaniel and Alex to continue on through the portcullis.
"That was... weird," Alex commented. Nathaniel only laughed.
The courtyard beyond the gate was a vast plaza of gardens, brick walkways, and four fountains arranged in a diamond pattern. In the center of the plaza, in between the fountains, was a tall bronze sculpture of two helmed knights. Each bore a shield in front of them: with one shield bearing the easily recognizable Templar Cross; and the other bearing another famous cross insignia, the Knights Hospitaller.
"The Templars and the Hospitallers," Alex said.
"Correct," Nathaniel replied. "You're a history buff, aren't you?"
The boy shrugged his shoulders. "Not really. Just trivia I picked up from movies, video games, and history class assignments."
"Huh. Well, several knights of these two brotherhoods made up the first Sagens. That sculpture is a dedication to them."
Looking around the plaza, Alex saw that there were many people of all ages moving about, carrying on conversations, running errands at shops located on the outer edges of the plaza, or otherwise just strolling about in the gardens or relaxing at the edges of the fountains. He also took note that almost every one of them were wearing an odd set of clothes that matched a handful of others in the plaza. The design and tailoring of the outfits were the same, but some differed from others in their color scheme. The closest matching group of three individuals walking in front of Nathaniel and Alex wore red thigh-length coats with orange accents at their neck collars and the ends of their sleeves. The orange also carried down the centerline of the coat where a zip was presumably hidden underneath an overlying flap of the material. Two of them wore black pants that went down to their ankles, covering the tops of black boots, while the third wore black shorts, revealing that the boots protected his shins.
It didn't matter if they were male or female, all of them wore the same outfit. Only the colors differed. As Alex continued to follow his guide through the fortress' inner complex, he continued to sight other strange things around him. As they walked by another courtyard hidden behind a low wall with rose vines creeping up the side, he caught a glimpse of something extraordinary. A person wearing an outfit of two shades of blue was standing at the edge of a fountain and staring into a wave of water that seemed to standing still. Alex could see the ripples on the surface of the water, but the wave never dropped, nor did it move in any direction. The young man standing in front of the anomaly was only holding his hand up to it, but not touching it.
"Alex," Nathaniel said, dragging the boy's attention away from the courtyard and back to him. "It's rude to stare. That man is practicing his technique; we should leave him be."
"What was all that?" Alex asked as they continued walking, crossing over a small bridge that had been built across a stream flowing through the fortress.
"I suppose it's pointless to keep you guessing," Nathaniel admitted. "That man, as well as everyone you see that looks similar to him, are all Sagens as well. As Sagens, we are gifted with the ability to control the elements."
"So... you're magical?"
Nathaniel stopped so suddenly that Alex ran smack into his back, his nose taking in the leather scent of the man's jacket. "Gah! What the-?!"
"It's not 'magic', kid," Nathaniel insisted, looking down at him like a disappointed parent. "It's
elementalism. Magic doesn't exist."
Alex rolled his eyes as soon as Nathaniel turned around and continued walking. "The difference being?"
"One is folklore and myth; the other is the ability to manipulate energies and tangible matter with the power of divine intervention."
"Magic." Alex grinned.
"Kid, I'm about to smack you silly."
"Hey, at least I'm not wigging out over all of this."
Nathaniel stopped again, but this time Alex had kept his distance and even jutted backwards a bit in his step. "True," the man replied. "Most new recruits have trouble simply coping with what they've seen thus far. I hadn't stopped to realize that you're handling everything so well."
"Well I do still find it all slightly..."
"Weird?"
"Yup."
Nathaniel smiled. "You'll get used it soon enough. Come on, I'll explain the rest in detail once we're inside the Sanctorium."
"The what?" Alex asked as they pressed deeper into the complex.[/hr]
In the dark shadows of the alley outside a single night club on the city strip, William silently walked toward a rusted metal door spray painted with graffiti that spanned half the length of the brick wall. Carefully, trying not to mess up his polished Mezlan loafers, William stepped over and around the scattered trash bags that had more than likely been sitting and festering in pools of unknown liquids for days. It was a strange place to be wearing a black, two-button Vinci, even if he chose to sport an open collar.
He was a tall man, and anyone that knew him would say he carried himself like a gentleman of true bearing. His body was thin, but despite his lack of muscle, many have witnessed an uncanny strength capable of lifting a car with one hand. His skin was always fair; a stark difference from the deep brown of his eyes. All that he has ever said and done has been with graceful tact; but the Cardinal knew, there was much to be feared about the mysterious gentleman that sat before him, casting an ominous shadow across the polished granite floor.
Crystal blue eyes looked back at him under the strands of a few loose blond banes. His face was the embodiment of innocence, but his eyes contained an entire history of both pain and wisdom. The kid was dressed in the white and gold robes of an Elite Sagen. In his hand, he held a cell phone, rapidly sliding his thumb across the screen.
Both boys looked over when they heard a pair of clapping hands and saw Jason walking out from the shadows of the shaded pathway that surrounded the courtyard. "Surprise and overwhelming speed. That's how you throw your opponent off balance should you ever wish to take the offensive, Alex." When approached the two, he held an open hand toward the other boy with messy white hair. "Alex Connor, meet Kyler Reigns."
A knock came from somewhere inside the house; the kitchen, probably. Alex's eyes snapped fully open from the sound and then grew wider when he saw the tiny orbs of bright light above his hand. He sat up on his bed and brought his palm closer to see the orbs up close. There were four or five of them, each would occasionally fade away into oblivion and then reappear a second or two later. They were swirling around above his hand effortlessly through the air, bringing a warm feeling when one or two would dip low to just above his skin.
The sound of heels clacking against the wood surface of the hallway furthest from where he sat caught William's attention and his eyes looked up to see a spitting image of the woman he saw on the book cover from the other other night. Long blond hair fell down over her left shoulder, and she leaned against the cutoff of the wall with curious brown eyes. She was tall, but not a giant; and had, in William's opinion, perfect curvature. He had to brush a finger just below his bottom lip to ensure that he wasn't drooling, faking an itch while not looking the woman in her eyes.