Chapter 6 - Part 2

["Now, get some rest. You're lucky your injuries were minor and you can get back to class tomorrow. And remember, you can always come to me if you need to talk about what happened." With that Master Rwoy left through the white drapes and Haiden dozed off thinking of fresh flowers on a sunny open field. ]

Haiden jolted awake, his eyelids fluttering in the unusually bright light. Once adjusted his alerted amber eyes darted across the room. Nothing was white anymore, the green room only held a wardrobe, a desk next to a window, two doors, and the comfortable bed in which he laid in. He let go of his breath in relief. It was his room at the Academy.

"It was just another nightmare." he told himself. It seemed that the torturous dreams started again after he was cowardly attacked by the mysterious figure, whom for the past few days remained elusive and anonymous. The occasional sensation of someone fixing their gaze on Haiden was unmistakingly real, but he could not for Creator's sake point where the onlooker was located. This daily occurrence made him paranoid that someone, of high status, pugnacious, with mousy hair and green eyes, whose name was somewhat reminiscent of a metal alloy, or for the lack of a better word Bras, was out to get him.

"Shit!" just as he was about to relax from the unbalanced train of thought, that if cotinued would have drove him into insanity, he noticed the position of the sun in the sky through his sole window. "I'm late!"

Haiden dressed himself as fast as he could and rushed out the door, jumping stairs and sprinting to class, but not without him clumsily bumping into a few walls and almost tipping a couple of busts off their socle due to his uncoordinated nature. Today was not the best time to enforce his tardy behaviour as he had no intent in taking the month long cleaning duty off the shoulders of the unfortunate student that will fail Master Rwoy's examination. Haiden didn't even bother shielding himself from the cold air as he weaved through and out the courtyard, luckily the sky was clear and there was a fake sense of warmth hanging in the air. The frost on the skeletal shrubs and bushes began to melt mimicking the early return of spring, just for it to freeze again into crystalline adornments the next day.

Once in front of the closed door of the classroom he took a deep breath to muster the courage of interrupting and pushed through the door. Once on the other side he locked eyes with Master Rwoy who curtly nodded for Haiden to come in.

The class erupted in a sea of gasps and chattering. It seemed that word of his attack spread like wildfire. Haiden gazed over and saw Malitcia and her malign gossiping flock of worshipers that would attack anyone who would come within a few paces of them laughing and pointing at Haiden, whispering to each other snyde remarks no doubt. Behind them Bras with his two buffoons held their laughter. The smug look on Bras' face was enough for Haiden to decide that he was the attacker the other night. Finally on the other side of the room were his only, albeit recent ,friends, the only ones who gave the smallest hint of concern.

"Well, look who decided to join. Don't just stand there, take a seat. You arrived just in time for the examination, these sparkling howlers won't bloom themselves." Master Rwoy disrupted the overwhelming murmur of whispers.

Camila and Maree waved their hands for Haiden to sit next to them.

"Where were you!?" Camila asked in a hushed voice. Her worry was written all over her face.

"Sorry I overslept." Haiden said truthfully.

"You overslept? Must've been one hell of a dream to ignore two people pounding on your door." Maree said, turning his back to Master Rwoy and pinning Haiden with his gaze.

"Cut it out, Maree. We were worried, thought something happened to you, again! And even checked the infirmary. You know, just in case. We never know with you, it seems."

"I'm fine! Really. Sorry for making you two worry." Haiden confirmed and finally sat down, turning to face Master Rwoy waiting for the examination to begin and added a final "Hope you two practiced while I was gone." before falling silent. Maree gave him a dirty side look and turned his head in overly dramatic way while Camila just laughed it off.

The thick tension in the classroom was as heavy as a mron held over their heads and palpable as velvet. Master Rwoy, having a flair for theatrics, made the students wait in silence as much as possible to add to the strain on their psyche. A malevolent move on his end for the poor students who were not prepared for the task at hand, especially for one in particular that sat in the back. Apparently the anticipation was too much and his face started to turn the same color as the robe of the lady in red that protected the gates of Elo'yn, so Master Rwoy decided that was enough. And with a raise of both hands a swarm of glassed sparkling howlers floated on the desk of each student, and they breathed in false relief as the examination just began.

The wave of static washing over Haiden was dizzying, like a swarm of millions of insects was passing around him in a whirl of confounded chaotic buzz. Haiden grabbed his head trying to concentrate but it was futile. He never experienced such a large group wielding before, he could tell whose emanation was whose by simply feeling the static on his skin, each one had its own unique frequency. After a few moments of agony he managed to concentrate on just himself, on his own frequency. This muffled the static coming from other students and he was able to breathe in relief. Once fully certain he could hold his concentration Haiden looked at his own desk, but waited to remove the glass in the favor of glancing around over the classroom to see how his fellow students were fairing. His first target was, of course, Bras and his two dolts. Bras' face was contorted in concentration,much like Haiden's moments ago, with his hands on either side of the sparkling flower. It seemed he had managed to open a pink spike but there was no fully formed flower and no seeds being released just yet. The other two already had their hand up for Master Rwoy to send another pair of glassed plants their way, in front of them there were two sad gray dust mounds behind glass domes.

What imbeciles, he thought.

He shifted his gaze to Malticia who already had seeds sparkling away in her bowl. With her smug grin, she glazed over the classroom behind her eyelashes looking down upon her classmates. She seemed satisfied that she was the first one to complete her task and leaned back in her chair now looking expectantly towards Master Rwoy, who was doing everything in his power, so it seemed, to ignore her insistent stare. Not even Master Rwoy wanted to deal with her.

Haiden then looked at Maree and Camila who seemed to be struggling a bit, but they each managed to open a spike and Camile almost had her flower fully bloomed. They were trying their best and it seems they had practiced with the instructions Haiden gave them.

He couldn't postpone it any longer, Malticia already finished and from what it looked like a dozen more were almost done.

That should do it, he thought, thinking back to what Master Rwoy warned, to not show off and draw attention. A bit late for that, he added mentally slapping himself for his carelessness with Brass.

So, with a deep breath he removed the glass dome and looked down to his sparkling howler. If it weren't for its vibrant pink spikes it could have passed for a plain weed.

As always, Haiden checked for the locked door in his mind, and then pulled on the endless river within. His hands buzzed with static, though this time, the tingling sensation was more intense to the point where it brought discomfort and pulsating pain. His own static seemed to clash with that of the surrounding students.

Fuck, this will be harder than I thought

In preparation he first tested out if he was able to send a constant stream of fios before going to his subject. He wanted to make Master Rwoy proud by succeeding from his first try, failure wasn't an option. After tweaking his energy output to a constant flow, he turned his attention towards his subject, the sparkling howler. Starting with an almost unpreceptable amount of energy he incrementally increased the intensity. His eyes never wavering from the plant to see any minute change be it good or bad, so that he could adapt. In minutes he could see the pink spike opening up, soon it was a full bloom. The yellow stem with dark spots started releasing it's seeds almost immediately and surrounded him with tiny specks of fizzling light. He directed the seeds to his bowl, but in his excitement he had missed one too close to his face, accidentally inhaling it through his nose. Haiden immediately rose from his chair in panic.

"Fuck! That fucking hurts!" he shouted, grabbing his nose he grimaced in pain. The unexpected journey of the rogue seed lit its progress through his sinuses until it was too far gone. By the time the seed vanished Haiden had hit the floor.

"Haiden! What's wrong!?" Camila jumped to his aid immediately while Maree rolled his eyes.

"I saw a seed going up his nose, not much of genius now is he, huh?" Maree chided earning him a slap over the head from Camila.

"Haiden!" Master Rwoy rushed to his side. "Can't this boy just not get in trouble for one moment. I swear he'll...." his voice faded into silence. Haiden's eyes were wide open and could see everyone huddled around him. His ears didn't register any sound even though he saw the people surrounding him move their lips. There was an intense ringing in his mind that made him unresponsive to even Camila violently shaking him.

A sudden familiar presence overwhelmed everything else and darkness fell over the world. He could feel it behind him. Staring. Watching. Waiting. Shifting impatient from one foot to the other. It was there for what seemed an eternity.

Haiden wanted to turn around but he could not bring himself to do so. His body was limp as a corpse, all of his senses dulled, but he could clearly feel this presence . Once it started inching closer and closer, Haiden's mind flared with panic rushing with thoughts of dread and despair.

Anticipation and fear bubbled in the pit of his stomach. There was no sound or displacement of air to indicate the presence was moving but he was certain of it. He felt it just like he felt Master Rwoy's shields. Heck, he could almost see the thing with his mind. A shapeless figure moving at a glacial place, impatient, eager, it wanted something.

The presence ultimately got so close Haiden could feel a coarse hardent breath on the nape of his neck. If Haiden would still have his bodily functions, he would have long pissed himself from sheer fear. His eyes were wide open, darting all over the place trying to see something, but the black velvet curtain that fell over his senses was too thick. All he knew of the world in this moment was him and that thing that was pressed against his back.

For a fleeting second the presence stopped its hardened breathing and Haiden could feel its lips on his neck trying to say something. He could feel its lips were chapped as it scraped his skin.

To Haiden's surprise the presence let out the most deliciously familiar voice that he had been craving for for many months.

~Free me~ it said softly.

Regor! It can't be! Regor, please let me see you! Haiden begged in his mind.

~Free me!~ now shouted, Haiden feeling its lips moving harsher on his skin.

Tell me how! REGOR! PLEASE TELL ME HOW! He begged.

~FREE ME!~ the presence snarled with such force its teeth scratched at Haiden's neck.

"...run me into the ground!" Master Rwoy's voice boomed over Haiden. The shock pulled him back from the darkness and everything came back crashing down.

His body started convulsing from Camila's shaking. The jumbled voices of concern hurt his ears as the ringing had stopped. Ultimately his feeling in his limbs came back, and he could move his body again to stop Camila from shaking his brains out.

"I'm fine!" he said looking around at everything. "I'm fine! Creator's sake" he added in a whisper.

"Alright everyone, let's give him some space to breathe." Master Rwoy started shooing people back to their desks and helped Haiden up. "You sure you're alright, kind?" he asked concerned.

"Yeah, it was just...I just...there was..uh...nothing, really. I'm fine." Haiden thought better than to tell anyone what happened. The last thing he needed was to think everyone he's out of his mind.

"If you say so." Master Rwoy didn't believe him one bit. "Let me check for the seed then, and you can take the rest of the day off." Haiden felt Master Rwoy's static, it was a warm comfort to what just happened. He didn't find the seed anywhere in his body and he just passed it off as possibly having it expelled after it fizzed out and didn't notice. "Camila, be a dear and escort Haiden to his room."

"Yes, Master Rwoy." she immediately griped Haiden's arm and her eyes narrowed in suspicion at Brass and his goons that started a glaring contest.

"I'm not a child! I can walk by myself. Let go, brute!" he yanked his arm from Camila and stormed off with her on his trail like a bodyguard.

"He's so snappy," added Maree as they left.