It was not as if I enjoyed spending time with Edgar or anything, but that first week there wasn't much else to do. I was beginning to befriend both Jeff and the Scottish girl, Raegan, but Edgar was the one who replied eagerly to all my questions and, even better, sometimes got lost in monologues without me having to ask in the first place.

One day, during breakfast, he told me more of the gods.

"I know humans aren't very forward-thinking when it comes to our gods, so I imagine you only know the basics," he said, even though I hadn't made a fool of myself yet. "People are afraid of what it entails --- powerful beings completely made of magic. In the council of the gods there's always been five of them."

"One for every type of Enchanter?" I guessed. "But then, who's the fifth?"

Edgar narrowed his eyes. "I guess so. The fifth... we'll get there soon enough. Set is definitely the Typhon god, to the point where the black magic practitioners probably got their name from him. In fact, the Greek thought there were many parallels between the two gods, the Egyptian Set and the Greek Typhon."

"Jeff told me Set was not the Egyptian one," I specified.

Edgar seemed even more uncomfortable by my stupidity. "Of course. That jackal you met... do you really believe it was the Egyptian Set, the brother of Osiris, who sent it? No, the gods are named for the figures in mythology that have powers similar to them, as their real names are unspeakable and throughout history humans created myths based on those figures. So, the Egyptian Set takes after our own Set, though our god was named later. And so on.

The healing god, an Enlightener, is named Asclepius. The Jurist one is Tyr and the elemental one, the Hierophant, is Eingana. She has all the powers of the elements, except for light. Tyr and Set are opposites and they always fight, because one is chaos and the other is reason.

Jophiel, instead, named after the sexless angels in Jewish mythology and not after a God, is the fifth on the council. They are non-binary and they are able to create the Void, a space that can keep you out of time and between worlds."

"Did you just say worlds? Like, the plural for world?" I asked.

"Yes," Edgar continued. "I thought you knew there were many worlds, theoretically speaking. It's what space-shifting is about."

"Thank you for telling me," I hadn't figured out yet if Edgar thought I was slow. I wanted to show him that I wasn't. At the same time, he was the only one who was giving me answers of some kind.

"During my interview I said I would have liked to do it in practice, you know, space-shifting and time-changing," I added, happy I had something to contribute to the conversation. "But the Professor got mad."

"I heard that. It would be a brilliant idea. Regardless, it was foolish of you to say that."

"I do read a lot, even if it doesn't look like it," I grinned at him. He frowned, as if he couldn't believe it. "So I am not always saying things just for the hell of it. I really believe that with teamwork and the right sets of rules we could manage to do that."

"I didn't know you were the type to work in teams, or do hard work," Edgar said with a sly smile. He didn't say it in a deprecatory or funny way. He simply stated it matter-of-factly, which somehow struck me as worse.

"Oh yes," I muttered under my breath. "Instead, you're obviously excellent at everything you try to do."

Edgar frowned, but considering the way he had treated me, I didn't think what I said was especially unfair.

"I imagine that my father would like that," he only said, uncharacteristically honest.

I was still furious at Edgar, but I decided to let it go. I knew what it was like to have parental figures who thought of you as a failure.

"Don't think about what I said," he added then. "I spoke without thinking."

I felt a bit better. Then, Edgar Wollstonecraft could say stupid things too.

Later, when we were in the training hall, the biggest and fire-proof room where we used our powers, I talked to Jeff about Edgar and the way he'd been acting with me.

Jake seemed to have heard. He was always the friendliest student and he was very charismatic, but I'd noticed he had somewhat of a mean streak if provoked. Or worse, he was very competitive.

"You've got to admit it's a bit strange, your situation, he smiled lazily, but I could see it was not a real smile. "You're not simply a hybrid. You were born the year Set came back on the council, a year where our relationship with humans became a bit more strained. And you were raised there, by a human mother... It makes some of us wonder who was your father and whose side of the civil war he was on. Living crammed up like that, under the town... We've always done that, but we didn't use to be so secretive. It was not always like that for us."

"The humans might tell you they keep us here to keep an eye on us, but it's the other way around," the Professor added, looking up from the newspaper he was reading. "The first Enchanter who asked to live in the outskirts of the cities, and asked for the Aether Realm to be created, did it to hide us from them."

"But you aren't hidden," I said. "Some of the shops and the houses are above ground. You can even go to the city."

"Some of us work in the city, in fact, but we don't hang out with the humans," Lucretia explained. "Sometimes we go shopping, but that's about it. None of us go to their schools, or to their churches, or their local events. That's why you're so strange. You're one of a kind."

I didn't like the way everyone was staring at me. I wished the Professor would have told them something, instead of adding fuel to the fire.

I was a bit ashamed I hadn't learnt to keep my anger under control. The kind of impulse that made me snap every time I talked to Mister Winter was still there. But it wasn't my fault he was such a pain in the ass.

"Just let it go," I finally said. "I'm not hiding anything. If you don't believe that, you can ask Mister Locksley, my stepfather. He's one hundred percent human and he's never liked Enchanters. That's all there is to it. Isn't it enough I decided to give you a chance? I'm starting to wonder if he was right."

"Ryan, did I tell you to leave that attitude in the Human Realm where you found it?" Professor Winter asked, like he was scolding me. 

I clenched my fist. I was ninety percent sure he wasn't being insufferable on purpose.

Unable to control what I was holding inside any longer, I slammed my fist upon the yoga mat and walked away. The odd thing was, the lights were flickering like they did the day before.

At that moment, the track lighting on the ceiling that light Hierophants used to practise exploded.

"Don't stare at me. I know it's not like any of the controlled, graceful powers you have," I explained stubbornly. 

"We shouldn't be so hard on you," Sean, the student with the best personality when it came to trouble, smiled. "It mustn't be easy, as a hybrid, to learn how to control your powers in so little time."

The only good thing was that nobody got hurt.

But I didn't know if I bought the part where my powers manifested like that because I was a hybrid. My powers seemed to be.... destructive.

"No, there's something else," I said, gritting my teeth. I didn't care if they would hated me for it. "Something the Professor knows, and he's not telling me. The reason why you all seem to walk on eggshells when it comes to me."

"Ryan, you must know. You are a Hierophant, but you also have another power..." Professor Winter commented. He was looking worriedly at me.

"Wait. I thought an Enchanter could only inherit one power."

"I guess there's no easy way to break it to you," Ohda commented. "Ryan, you're a Variation."

At first, the words hit me in the guts and I couldn't speak for a while. I'd been called some form of mutation or other my whole life for being a hybrid. Figures that when I finally find other Enchanters, I was a freak even amongst them.

When someone tells you that you are a mutation whose powers might be a weapon of destruction — run.

But if you don't have anywhere to go, sitting down and listening to the explanation at magic school sounds good as well.

In my case, I didn't have a choice.

"What is my second power?" I tried to pester the Professor later that day.

"I don't know. I can only guess that you're a Variation because I see the signs. It doesn't always manifest in the way your powers work, but rather on your little control on them. The second power is sometimes a vary rare one, almost unheard of, so looking into your family tree might not help us. Still, if you're looking for a place to start, I'd begin to wonder who your father was if I were you."

He didn't look too happy about it. It couldn't help but remind me of the way the Aether Realm was torn from the inside with all the prejudices and the different sides of their civil war, the one humans didn't even know about.

"Speaking of family, you're Jeff's maternal grandfather, I've heard," I said.

"Paternal," Professor Winter said.

"You do not share the surname."

"The surnames of the Enchanters can be meaningful. Winter is an old and important family. Sometimes, a family member can be stripped of their surname."

I was happy Jeff wasn't there to hear. I wonder what his father might have done to deserve such a treatment.

When Professor Winter excused himself and darted down the aisle, presumably not to be questioned any further, I saw Jake making his way towards the garden.

"I've heard you saying Edgar Wollstonecraft has it out for you," he smiled at me. I still remembered how passive aggressive he'd been before, though. "You have to know it's not personal. Last year, four of us went on a quest and I'm not sure he was ever the same since he came back."

"Do Enchanters go on quests?" I asked.

"The cards choose you," Jake revealed. I imagined he meant the tarots I'd glimpsed at before. "I'm not saying Edgar has any problem --- he's the real brainiac around here. But last year was hard on him, and I'm sure it's taken its toll. He doesn't really know who to trust. I'm not sure anyone who saw the things we've seen..."

He shrugged. 

This reminded me of something else I'd heard about a student, a friend of mine. "Did Jeff start to suffer of amnesia last year, too? Was he one of the four students who went on the quest?"

Jake simply smiled begrudgingly at me. "I am afraid I'm not allowed to speak of the health of other students."

Which I took as a yes.

"Listen, I know you've got your reasons to be secretive," I tried a different approach. "And after what the Professor told me, I think I can understand why everyone was being strange to me. Besides having been raised by humans --- that's a taint I'm probably never going to wash off. But you don't fool me. I've seen the way you spoke to me today. You pretend you're not like the rest of them, all stuck up and arrogant, but you are, perhaps even more than you know."

I couldn't believe I'd said all that to a person I barely knew, not to mention the only other friend I might have besides Jeff and Raegan. But Jake looked at me worriedly and refused to be offended.

"Oh, Ryan," he shook his head. "You really got it all wrong."

Before I could ask why he was acting all mysterious again, Edgar appeared from behind Jake. He was about to tell him something, but he looked startled to see me.

"You need to come with me," he decided, and tugged on my sleeve, practically dragging me to an unused room.

Jake looked at us amused. "Well, I'll take it as a sign to join Alice in the garden," he said. I'd noticed the redhead Enlightener, Alice Wilson, was not only Flora's daughter but also Jake's girlfriend. Lucretia, apparently, had an unrequited crush on him.

I followed Edgar reluctantly, though part of me couldn't help but recall what Jake had said.

"Don't worry," Edgar told me. "I think everyone will go easy on you now. Not only they must be tired of it by now, but I know the Professor. If he pushed you so much, it was probably something he'd already planned to see your powers in action. It's the kind of person he is."

"I'm not saying that I agree," he added defensively when he saw the look on my face.

"Did you go through all that trouble just to tell me all that?" I was flabbergasted. Edgar barely seemed to notice it.

"Of course," he added. "I am not going easy on you. But being hard on people is kinda my thing. There's something I found out with my powers, and I wanted to tell you about it."

Edgar's powers consisted on creating portals, changing his appearance and locating people and objects, I remembered. I really didn't want to know if he was some kind of spy who snuck out after school hours, so I didn't ask. The second thing I realised was that if he was telling me, perhaps he didn't have a lot of friends.

"I am telling you because Risa was kidnapped, and you care about her," he added. I deflated a little. Then, there was no hidden reason, no way we could become friends after that.

"She was kidnapped by Set, that's true, you all saw the jackal, but it's not the common Enchanters the god is angry at," Edgar had the look on his face of someone who almost wanted me to figure out what he was about to say and interrupt me, but I was too confused. "He's fighting a war against someone else. Did you see the news, when men with dark red hoods were seen near the crime scene?"

I nodded. I didn't watch the news of the Aether Realm, but I'd seen that one because those people had gone near to harming humans too.

"Those people are called the Reapers, as they wanted to be called after the tarot card of the Reaper," Edgar continued. "And they are a terrorist group of Enchanters who studied black magic. They are the ones who caused havoc in the city. I knew that the god would never risk showing his face to humans, let alone invade their territory!"

Edgar looked particulary happy of his eureka moment, but I could barely follow his reasonings. "They started it, of course," he added, for my sake. "The war against Set. Those two sides are one against the other. And after listening to one of their conversations, I think I know what it is they want."

"Whoa, wait," I couldn't help but say. I was reminded of Jake's words a little too late --- my next sentence was already about to slip from my mouth. "Are you crazy? I mean, that was stupidly brave and I thought you were a Mind Mage or something, so of course you should know better. Did you track them down, followed them and listen to what they were saying?"

"Only bits and pieces of it," Edgar frowned. "I didn't want to be found out. They talked about power. A lot. I think they want to steal the power of the gods."

"Can one do that?" I almost felt as if the room was spinning all around me. "An Enchanter would never be strong enough to host it."

"Did I say steal? Well, what I meant is that they want to take it away so the gods don't have it anymore. I'm not sure why they would want to do that, though... Have they thought about what they're going to do with all that power once they have it? It can't just disappear, magic, even if you somehow managed to drain it from another person."

"Still, that's what they plan to do," he polished his sweatpants, part of the training uniform. It was the first time I noticed that during the conversation he'd knelt next to my chair, and our faces had been eerily near.

"We should really tell the Professor," I said. I didn't care about the gods. I didn't worship them, I never met them and no one had told me anything of importance about them yet, like who they were and how inhuman they were. But what the Reapers wanted to do was dangerous, and it put at risk humans, too. Besides, I didn't want Edgar to snoop around again and get caught.

"As soon as I find any excuse as to how I gathered all of those information, yes," Edgar looked like the perfect grade A student again. I didn't know how he managed that. "Perhaps we should make him focus his attention on what's happening, now that he probably won't go after you anymore."

"What a comforting thought," I supplied. I secretely hoped Edgar was right.

I wondered if there was any way Edgar had lost his mind after the quest. Maybe his accusations had no real basis. But I could begrudingly admit that most of what he'd said made sense, and that he didn't seem like the person to rush into things unless he believed he had a reason to.

"Why did you tell me?" I finally asked. "It's not just because of Risa, is it?"

"I don't have many close friends," Edgar faltered. "I suppose Jeff is nice, and so is Sean, but I couldn't tell Jeff. "It's because of his father. He was stripped of his surname because he was considered mentally unfit to be a Winter. And the last thing that he did, in the years before he died, the thing people mocked him for, was to embark in a quest to stop other Typhons that were on the wrong side of the war back then. He said that he was going to find an object, called the Empty Mirror."