"Learning never exhausts the mind"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

RACHELLE

I walk into the Great Library and introduce myself to the librarian as I was supposed to, and a huge pile of books are handed to me as a form of greeting. It was higher than my head, what the freaking hell?

"You are the one who will be carrying the knowledge for everyone else," the librarian said, her wrinkly face stretching into a smile, "I was there, when the Prophecy was issued. Everyone born after didn't believe me when I said it was bound to happen. All of them dismissed it as a myth. Ha! Look who's laughing now!"

That's one sadistic librarian goddamn.

But I smile at her anyway and thank her. She smiles warmly at me once more and said that I could ask her anything if I had a doubt. I was bound to have a million of those so I thanked her in advance and made my way to a corner of the silent place, taking in the surroundings, millions of shelves of books, running through the long halls.

This was the ultimate library of the Fae. It had documents aging millions of summers. All the copies of birth certificates, marriage license, death warrants, court decisions, all the historic moments resided immortal in this great building.

The smell of hard bound leather books, ancient scrolls filled with the ancient language of the Fae, the steel bonds on the more recent books invaded her nostrils. This place was truly magical.

I felt surrounded by memories, and untold stories, asking me to read them. But I turned to the books in front of me.

No, I am here on a mission. I don't have powers, so I have to be helpful in any way I can. I still don't know why I was chosen. Maybe the Foreseer and the Queen made a mistake. Maybe someone else was supposed to enter that portal.

But here I was, everyone treating me like a Princess before I would go and get slaughtered outside.

Great, just great.

At least I'll die fighting for us. Hopefully I don't slip and fall and break my neck on something and die

That would be embarrassing.

My thoughts drift off to last night. We had been cramped into two rooms. One for the girls and the other for the guys. None of us had talked to one another. The carrier pixies had flown in with our luggage, the housekeeper had fixed all of us with dinner, and had force-fed anyone who refused. O had received a letter from Mother, saying that she was proud that I was getting such an opportunity.

Did she realise I was actually committing suicide here?

We had just watched the Queen's announcement of the situation through a pixie screen after that, and then gone to sleep like we had been instructed to, all of us were still in shock of the situation to talk.

Our names along with our birth provinces were announced, and we were called heroes even though we've done nothing of that sort yet. At least mum got to bask in fame for a while.

I blow the dust off the book on top of the pile and read the cover.

'The Ultimate Guide to Norse Mythology'

Huh.

The one below was Greek Mythology. Then Chinese. Then Egyptian. Then Indian.

Heck there was a book on vampires and werewolves and other creatures of the Night as well.

Why were they making me read myths?

Oh well all of them are twisted in their own kind, maybe I'll have fun reading them after all.

I open the Norse Mythology book and begin reading the weird shit that sometimes people of the same family can pull on each other. So freaking weird. I mean, you have so many people around you, why do you wanna sleep with your sister?

It had hardly been half an hour when I hear the librarians voice speak out, "Young man aren't you supposed to be training?"

"Come on Mildred! I'm taking a break!" came a male voice. I couldn't see them, but I know he was giving her a pleading expression.

"Burying your nose in a book will just tire your mind. You need complete rest, go to your room and sleep," I heard the librarian's authorative voice again.

Mildred...What a typical old-person name.

"Mildred please?"

I am sitting so far away but I can hear every word perfectly. How quiet is this library? I heard that some of the books are enchanted to talk. But Mildred won't let me find out.

"Fine," Mildred huffed, "but if I get scolded by General, I'm never letting you sit in this library again. You've been in here for a day and and you've already come here five times. Calm that restless brain of yours."

I looked back down at my book again, annoyed that these people had just completely ruined my flow.

There is supposed to be complete silence in the library for a fricking reason.

I finally find the line I had been reading before I was fucking interrupted again by the same male voice.

"What you reading?" I heard, the voice asking innocently.

I look up, to see the nose that I am intending to punch, when my eyes connect with warm brown ones. It's the boy who had kept asking to be pinched yesterday night.

He was smiling down at me, his eyes twinkling with curiosity as they scanned the book in front of me.

But what caught my attention was his hair. They were so unusual. Blond at the forehead, slowly fading into ginger at the middle of his head, and finally blending into a chocolate brown at the back, matching his eyes.

"You're Rachelle, right? I don't think you know my name, I came through the portal before you. My name is Dai. Dai Jing Yao, but you can call me Simba," he said, holding his hand out. I put my hand in his, expecting a handshake, but he turned it around and pressed a kiss on the back of my hand.

Um...okay.

I'm completely okay with random boys kissing my hand. Definitely not the first time happening to me.

Why am I being sarcastic to myself, what the heck?

I pulled my hand back instantly, "Um hello. You can call me Elle. Or Rach. Whatever floats your boat.".

My voice sounded so calm. I'm proud of myself.

He opened his mouth to reply, when the librarian's voice rang out again. She was weirdly loud for a librarian.

"Not you too! Go back and train!" She said loudly.

"Come on Mildred, can I stay just for a little while?" came a deep male voice.

"Argh, just go. I don't know why I bother with you two anymore."

My eyes shift to Simba to see him looking at the shelves blocking our view. He walked away from my table, and then his voice rang out, "Kai!"

Why was everyone's voice amplified here?

And then Simba is back in my view, dragging along with him another boy, taller than both of us combined, with long dark hair in braid, and the most intense electric-blue eyes I've ever seen. My eyes connected with his and it felt like he was looking into my soul.

Hey! He's the guy Simba was asking for a pinch.

"Rachelle, this is Kaito," Simba said cheerfully, "We're both from Gleriana!"

The boy didn't say anything, just nodded at me as I gave him a smile in greeting. At least he knows not to scream in the library unlike the other two occupants.

"Why are you reading mythology? Don't you have to train?" Simba questioned, after sitting on the same table and pulling the book of Chinese mythology towards himself.

"I... don't have any magical powers to train," I say, facing downwards. I don't know why I feel embarrassed of that. It's not like I had control over that, right?

"Oh," I hear Simba's voice, "but why are they making you read mythology?"

"The humans might be considered stupid, but they do have great knowledge and intuition sometimes," the librarian said, as I turned my head up to see her standing next to where Kaito was sitting.

"You heroes are going to be travelling among the realms. Who's to say what kind of creatures you're about to face. Although many of the myths they made are somewhat inaccurate and way too imaginative, every story has a lesson to learn, and a mistake to avoid. This knowledge is very great to have in your bag, don't you think?"

So she is trying to make me street smart eh? Not that I mind.

"Damn right you are, Mildred!" Simba replied cheerfully before giving Mildred an unwanted high five.

Why is he so happy and loud? It's making my head hurt.

I think Kaito was having similar thoughts as I caught him frowning at Simba as well.

"Kaito dear, you should go rest. You look tired to the bone," Mildred said, casting a worried glance at the blue eyed boy.

"You were with Professor Coral in the morning, right?" Simba questions.

Okay, so Kaito is very clearly a Water User. The boy nodded at Simba's question.

"What did he make you do?" I find myself asking.

"Enhancing our magical shields," Kaito replied curtly.

"Ah shields are supposedly the most tiring to make," Simba said with a smile. Can he not make shields?

"Professor Igneous just made us burn some very innocent dummies to a crisp," he continued with a smile.

Fire user I see.

"If both of you imbeciles are so tired then why are you troubling the cute girl and me?" Mildred huffed, "I command both of you to leave immediately."

"Did you just call me an imbecile, Mildred?" Simba says, faking an expression of hurt.

"The library is a sanctuary to me, like the shores of Gleriana," Kaito spoke up, "the building makes me feel at peace. I have always wanted to visit the Great Library but wasn't allowed, so I'm trying to spend as much time as I can, now that I am allowed, because I don't know if there will be a next time to visit this place ever again."

He looked at all of our expression, shocked because he had spoken for a whole minute.

His cheeks tinged with red and he looked down, effectively shutting everyone up.

◆●◆●◆

AUGUSTINE

"Why do you think he's called all of us to train at once?" A boy fell into step with me as I made my way to Seawater Lake. He is almost the same height as me, with short strawberry blonde hair and bright orange wings which could give you a migraine if you stared at them too long.

"Who cares," I tried to sound nonchalant, like I have no interest in talking with him.

"I think he wants us to get familiar with each other," said a short dark haired girl, joining into our tiny group. She too had wings, but they were a dark purple, like a petunia.

Damn those wings are gorgeous.

"By the way, I'm Rey," she continued, and then pointed to the boy, "And this idiot right here is my bitch Mikaello."

I know him. His bed is beside mine.

"I'm not your bitch," the boy grumbled and I bit back a laugh. I could tell straight away that they had years of friendship among them.

"Well you do what I say, that makes you my bitch," she said with a shrug, "I love your hair by the way," she smiled at me.

A small smile tugged at the corner of my lips, "Thanks."

"What do you mean? It looks like he stuck his head into a cotton-candy machine," came a voice from behind me.

A small flame of anger grew in my pit as I whipped my head around to behold my well-wisher. An extremely tall boy with messy brown hair and green eyes stared back at me.

"And who are you?" Rey asks him.

None of us had time for introductions last night, all of us had gone to bed right away.

Though I did have a training session with Dai, Avalkyra, Coral and Augustus.

"Zarren, and if you wanna walk slow then stay out of the way of others," the boy said before pushing between us and walking ahead of us.

"Oh how I wish I could trip him," Mikaello said beside me.

Rey laughed, "That's the worst you can think of?"

"I've seen him in Mediocris before, always standing outside class as a punishment," Mikaello provided.

"I can imagine that," I muse as we turn the corner of the meadow and now face the Seawater Lake.

Yes I know it sounds weird, but it's a marvel to behold.

The huge lake stretches out among the mountains surrounding and separating Mediocris from other territories. Except it doesn't have still water.

The water comes out in waves to the surface and then is pulled back into the lake. It looks like something is sitting in the center of the lake, pulling and pushing the water time to time.

"This lake gets me every time," a girl said beside me. I turned to face her, and took her appearance in.

She stood with her hands on her hips, like an uptight little princess.

"Who might you be?" I ask.

"Arbor. And you are the boy who fell from the portal, Augustine."

Good to know that people link me with that little mishap.

"Hi August! I'm Meenakshi! But call me Meena," The girl beside the uptight girl said. Glad to know all earth users are not uptight and rude.

It was good when I had to stick to the fire bunch of Mediocris.

"Uh, hi!" I tried to match her spirit.

"My nickname is August. Give Pink Boy something else," said the Soul Boy, walking up to my other side.

Ugh why Pink Boy?

And why is everyone out here taller than me?

"August doesn't suit you, Golden boy," I spit back, looking around for his shimmery golden wings which were nowhere in sight.

"We can call one August and one Gus," Meena chimed in, clapping her hands excitedly.

"Since when did we all come to a nickname basis?" Arbor huffed.

"Calling Pink Boy 'Augustine' is way too tiring, Sugar" Golden boy offered.

"Well you solved that problem for yourself by calling him Pink Boy, right?" Rey said, walking in behind me.

"Can you all stop calling me Pink Boy?" I whine.

"Gus suits your better. It sounds cute!" Meena says, walking in front of me to put her arm around Augustus's shoulder. He scooted away from her, more towards me.

The look in his eyes was enough to tell me that he would die rather than have that nickname. August sounds cool, Gus makes you sound like a big fat mouse.

"Enough chit chat! Gather around me!" came General Atticus' voice. All of us snapped our heads towards his direction and began walking in sync to where he was standing in the sand.

We made a circle around him, Golden Boy on my left and a girl with yellow wings on my right.

"Okay, so this is an advanced technique, but you will need to know this for your journey. As you know, to use your magic, you need internal energy. And it depletes faster than light. Now, nectar takes a little time to kick in, and in the battle field you may not have this kind of breathing time. But you can transfer energy among yourselves. For this, find a partner."

My eyes drift to Golden Boy but he's already talking to Coral about being a partner. And the poor girl is just nodding along with whatever he's saying.

I look ahead to see Dai partnered with that tall dude...Kaito I think. Darn it.

Rey and Mikaello obviously chose to partner up. And there Arbor and Meena were partnered up.

I look for Avalkyra but she's already standing with a blonde girl I had not seen before.

That is when I feel a tap on my shoulder. The yellow winged girl is looking back at me with wide eyes.

"Buddies?" she asked.

Oh wow I can't say anything but yes to those eyes. They are bright yellow, like a mixture of the colours of mustard and poppy flowers. Matching her wings.

So I do as my mind tells me and nod slowly.

She gives me a wide smile, "I'm Lia!"

"Augustine," I reply, and I couldn't help but smile back. Her grin is contagious.

"You don't have a partner?" I hear Atticus' voice, "Come on, demonstrate with me."

I direct my eyes towards Zarren, who was looking at Atticus with an embarrassed expression.

The prick deserves it, to be honest.

My hair do NOT look like cotton candy.

"Now, to transfer energy, you need physical contact with the your partner."

I hear Golden Boy snort beside us. Atticus shoots him a glare and continues.

"Be touching your partner, preferably holding their hand. The partner needs to will their energy to be transferred to you, and you have to absorb it, pull it out of then. Like this," he says, then grabs Zarren's hand.

"Now boy, I'm going to use my powers, but I'm taking energy from you, so don't be surprised, okay?" Atticus asks, and Zarren plainly nods.

I watch as Atticus closed his eyes and opened his other palm, shooting a fireball in the sky where it burst open and sent a shower of glowing orange embers around him and Zarren. What I had failed to notice was that their hands, which were connected, had been glowing with a yellow hue, which was now fading.

Zarren's eyes were wide, and he looked violated. I fought to smile at his expression.

"Valerie!" Atticus said loudly, "Do the same with your partner."

The girls nodded at each other before both of them closed their eyes. Their connected hands glowed and a moment later, a silver shield glimmered around the both of them, slowly moving around them in waves, created by Valerie of course.

Atticus sent a burst of fire at the shield and both their expressions tensed, Avalkyra looking worse. Finally when the girl collapsed to the ground, Atticus stopped.

Valerie knelt down and handed Avalkyra a bottle of nectar.

"Well done you two, now Meenakshi!"

Well the two Earth girls failed miserably. They got an earful from Atticus.

"Augustus!"

When Golden Boy moved to take Coral's hand, she flinched away.

"Sweetheart I don't bite," he said, still offering his hand. She slowly put her hand in his, her hand looked so small in Augustus' gigantic hand.

"Now just force your energy into the bond between our hands, come on, you can do it...," He encouraged her, like a parent would do to their child.

After a moment or two, their hands began glowing. Augustus smiled at Coral, who had now gone bright red in the face.

He shot his palm up at the sky and dark clouds began to gather. He closed his eyes and his palm began glowing with a golden light before a bolt of lightning struck close to where Lia and I were standing.

She yelped and backed into me, and my hand flew out of reflex to her shoulder to steady her.

I shoot Golden Boy one of my best glares, and the jerk simply smirks, eyeing the both of us.

I realise my arm is still around her and I let go hastily. Lia's face looked identical to Coral's this very instant.

I coughed and straightened up to meet eyes with General Atticus.

"Lia!" He called out.

I hold my hand out towards her and she just stared at it. I clear my throat and she jerks, as if I woke her up, and put her hand in mine.

I close my eyes, imagining my energy as a tap inside me, and a pipe joint to it, passing through me into her through our joined hands, willed the tap to be open, and felt my energy flow out of me towards her. Our hands grew warm together and I opened my eyes to see a sphere of winds surrounding both of us.

I looked around to see everyone looking at us, but not directly at us. I turn my questioning eyes to her and she smiled.

"We're invisible right now," she said with a smile before raising her fist in the air and opening it with force.

The winds dissolved into tiny particles of golden light which then showered around us.

I looked around in wonder as the light surrounded us, making the entire experience surreal.

The whole thing looked so delicate. In fire training, everything was fierce and rough, every flame looked and felt deadly. But here, surrounded by Lia's magic, I felt light.

And extremely exhausted because she used almost all my fucking energy for her little spectacle, but it was worth it.

◆●◆●◆

Here you go guys! How was it?

I tried to make Lia and Simba as adorable as I could, hope I did it fine.

Next chapter - Augustus and Valerie's POV where the training continues. And oh how I love writing one on one fight scenes.