Some people loved being able to fly in the skies with their animal spirits, Others loved running faster than olympic sprinters or having eyes better than trained snipers. However, the best part about my animal spirit was that I could breathe underwater, and even better survive the pressure that could destroy a normal man, it was nothing to me. It was weird at first when I found out I had this power, I could make a pair of gills on my neck when I needed too. There was something about sinking as deep as I could in the amazing tasting and crystal clear waters that surrounded the island was relaxing to me. I could and often would allow myself to just rest at the bottom of the ocean. To points where the light of the sun could barely reach me. It was the best place in the world to think, these extreme pressures acted like a blanket to me. It helped me focus on what was important.
My foster mother, Diana Patronymic, had given me a letter about an hour ago. I was invited to a dinner with two members of the council of five. Lord Edward Clearwater, our lord of education, a pretty laid back and cool headmaster in my opinion, and Lady Penelope Hearthstone, Lady of Trade. I had never met her before but if her beauty is as wonderful as people have told me, then I had a reason to actually attend this meeting. My main question in my mind was what did they want with me, the letter was very vauge in detail. Just that I was to attend a dinner tomorrow evening to discuss a job offer. What was even more confusing was that I had gotten a call from a girl that many confused for being my little sister. Sarah. She was 12 years old, five years younger than me but her attitude sometimes made her seem like she was as young as seven or eight. We were found in the same place and I had been taking care of her until we got separated in Nigeria. She had lost her mom and dad during a bad civil war that started and I had nothing from the beginning. My shock to discover that I could use this nature energy and was taken to this odd island was one thing, but when I saw Sarah on the first day of school. I think I missed my first class of the day as I just stood in the hallways clinging that girl to my chest. I had let her go once and now that she was back in my life, I would never let her go again.
We both got the same letter and I was starting to wonder why? If this was some job offer then why accept me and not just Sarah. I know that sounds backwards, but Sarah was a genius if I was being honest. I was in 11th grade nearly a senior and she was taking senior and entry level college courses at the age of 12. Maybe she was getting a job and I was just there to be her protector like I had been for so long till we got seperated.
I was taken out of my thoughts as I felt something wrap a tentacle around me. Now for most being near the bottom of the ocean and feeling a tentacle wrap around them would probably send them into a panic. Perhaps the kraken or some other sea mother had grabbed them and was gonna murder them. However, the kraken was very real and I called him friend. I opened my eyes to find a massive beast of squid in front of me, it was longer than any living relative that scientists have found on the mainland. I freed one of my hands to grip at the gemstone around my neck and a moment passed before my thoughts were connected to his. “Can I help you, Oscur?”
His one large blue void of an eye blinked before I heard him speaking to me. His voice was much like mine, just a bit deeper. He could be summoned on the mainland and mostly just float behind me but like many animal spirits that loved water, they liked it much better being summoned in the deep. “Why do you always do this?”
“Do what?”
“Doubt yourself?” Oscur explained. “Ever since Diana showed us this letter all you think about is how it is probably more for Sarah than anything else. Why can’t you think that maybe this is about you and her working together rather than her being better than you?”
I sighed heavily, sending a large cloud of bubbles scurrying towards the surface. “Come on, brother. I doubt this has anything to do with me, Sarah is probably.” I winced as Oscar squeezed me a bit harder. “I can’t breathe,” I mumbled.
“You can breathe water so you are gonna be fine.” He loosened his grip slightly before pulling me closer and wrapping another of one of his ten tentacles around me. “I get tired of you doubting yourself every chance you get. Your smart too, and a more skilled fighter than a lot of people in your grade.”
“I’m barely in the top 15 brother.”
“Out of 50 juniors that is really good.” Oscar began to swim back towards the coastline. His speed even while holding me was impressive, the water parted around us in a cone. This was way faster than riding in a car or flying across the skies in my opinion. “Believe in yourself and your abilities, brother.”
“Easier said than done.”
“Let your past sins go already.”
“Easier said than done.”
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPTi7IDgs8Z
We probably swam like this for a good 20 or so minutes until we finally arrived on the northern coastline. This was were a lot of the bigger businesses and the only mall we had was currently located as well as the academy which was a 30 minutes walk from this beach. Oscar slowly lifted me out of the water and onto the beach drawing some attention from the many kids that were here enjoying the usually tropical weather. “Xavier!” I braced myself for impact as a young girl came sprinting towards me, she was wearing an adorable pink one piece and her long green and golden hair was darker probably from swimming. She leapt up and wrapped her arms and legs around me before staring up at me with one golden eye and one green one. “Hi,” she said cutely. It was almost hard to believe sometimes that this girl was considered to be the smartest student on the island. SHe was just a kid, barely could be called a preteen but in the classroom she was absolutely amazing.
“Nice to see you too,” I scooped my first friend up in my arms and sat her on one of my broad shoulders. I was a pretty big guy now, I had gone from once skin and bones practically, to broad shoulders, a strong and muscular body. My once bald hair now held a sea of dreadlocks dark brown and blue in color. “Sorry I was late, I had to do some thinking.” I carried her back over to her own foster mother, a wonderful woman named Millicent Springchaser, who was practically a 2nd mother to me. She had deep red hair that spilled around her shoulders like waterfalls and a matching pair of eyes. She was sweating shorts and relaxing underneath an umbrella. When our foster parents found out about our connection, they did everything in their power to make sure we could be together as much as possible. I had become this woman’s favorite hire for babysitting. I often took Sarah to and from school, helped her study (even though she really didn’t need my help), we now lived in the same part of the city, our folks buying two new houses so we could be closer. We often trained together, if we were closer in age we would probably be even closer than this. While our skin colors might be different, as far as I am concerned she is my little sister now and forever more.
“What are you think about?” Sarah asked me. “Is it about the letters we got?” I nodded my head prompting her to start speaking more. She could go on and on all day if you let her do so. “What are you worried about? We get to be on a job together, maybe we are gonna be special agents or go across the mainland studying stuff together. Or maybe, Headmaster Clearwater and Lady Hearthstone want to congratulate us on good grades.” She lifted off nearly 10 more suggestions till we finally reached Mrs. Springchaser . “Mama, tell Xaiver not to be worried anymore.”
I set Sarah back on the ground prompting her to go running in the other direction back to where a lot of her other friends were playing. I looked at the woman and simply said. “I am not worried, she never lets me say otherwise.”
“Then what is bothering you?” She asked.
“He thinks this more about Sarah being offered something and he is just there to be her bodyguard or something. He doubts this is an opportunity for him.” I hadn’t even noticed that Oscar had appeared on my shoulder in a much smaller form now only a few inches in size.
“Thank you for that Oscar, why don’t you tell her all of my deepest and darkest secrets while you're at it buddy.”
“He is afraid of-”
“I was kidding!”
A sweet bit of laughter started to fill the air and I turned to look over at Mrs. Springchaser. I couldn’t help but laugh along with the woman I considered a 2nd mother. Once her laughter relaxed she began to speak a bit more. “Xaiver, when are you gonna stop being so negative about yourself? You are a bright young man, your knowledge in underwater history and relics is almost next to none. I wish you would start trying a bit more, son, and start believing in yourself more.”
“I know… it’s hard to try when you're afraid to fail.”
“Everyone fails, no one is perfect, the second you accept that, the better your life will become.” She took my large hand in hers and gave it a few soothing pats. “Regardless of what this meeting is about, I am glad that you are gonna be by my daughter’s side.”
I gave her a smile but on the inside I was frowning. The last time I had been protecting Sarah I suffered the greatest loss of my life and thought I would never see her again. Finding her again on my now home island, I had a second chance to right that wrong. However, I was afraid of what would happen if I failed to protect her again.
Failure is harder when you have something to protect.
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnP7VctPC3L
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw27bDdi7ru
“Jesus Christ…” I whispered as we stepped into this absolutely amazing dining hall that had been set up for us. Bright golden torches lit the room in a calming warm glow. The entire room was made of some kind of dark golden brown wood, so clean that I could see my face in it. The table was already set with spotless plates and utensils, the entire temple of five was amazing so far, and if this was how good the dining room looked. I could only imagine how good the food would taste. I looked over at Sarah who was now dressed in a smooth pink dress with a white lining, a bow was across her chest, and hair was done up in many curls. I remembered when I first found her in Nigeria, my old home land, she was just five and I was ten. I took care of her as best as I could, she used to be so skinny, nearly skin and bones back then, her hair was shorter and unkept. Her eyes used to be so dark but now shine brighter than the stars.
“Amazing,” her eyes were more focused on a moral that was on one side of this dining hall. It was made of watercolor paints and was separated into eight parts, all of which told the story of the island as we knew it. The first five clans arrived on the island after being run out of Jerusalem. The Sempiterne, the everlasting wolves. The Dawnbreakers, the bright falcons, The Blackthorns, the black serpents, The Hearthstones, The Trading Swans, and finally The Cardaillac, The Heavenly Dragons. Those five founded the island and made it a sanctuary for the jepei users across the world. However, The Blackthorns had other ideas, they wanted to raise an army to conquer this world rather than live in hiding. They tried to conquer the island but lost the battle, they were exiled from the island until their leaders repented for this sin and came home. However, they never did and founded a group that had many names but most knew them as The Dark Order. After the conflict, Tarun began to grow and the first members of the council were decided and we have been here ever since.
Sarah had been staring at this moral for a good minute before turning back towards me. “Xavier, do you think The Blackthorns are ever gonna stop being mean and come home?”
I walked over to stand beside her eyes, my mind drawn towards the image of their first ruler. A powerful and blood thirty man, Lord Cain Blackthorn. Even in just this painting, he looked darker, his eyes black as his jepei aura was so dark it seemed no color could possibly get inside. “I don’t think so,” I answered firmly. “Not after what happened a year ago.” Last year thanks to a member named Katherine Blackthorn. The island was attacked and nearly invaded by the dark order. We lost many lives that day and if Alona Ameko, a girl a year younger than me hadn;t arrived and used her animal spirit's amazing gift to keep healing our front line. Than I might not be having this conversation right now.
Sarah nodded her head at that looking a bit saddened from that answer. “Do you think they can ever be forgiven for that and maybe their members can come home.”
“Maybe one day.” I placed my hand on her shoulder, holding back the urge to ruffle her hair like I usually do. Her mom made it very clear that if I messed her hair today, that she would cut my dreads off.
The door that we entered opened up. We turned around to see a very tall and large young woman come walking in. I knew her from my own classes but have never spoken to her before. She had short brown hair and was wearing a nice white dress. She had a large frame and I knew from experience that she was incredibly strong and fit, a lot faster than some would think. Olivia Hearthstone, the daughter to Lady Penelope Hearthstone, her oldest child. “Xavier right?” She greeted me in a kind and strong voice. “It’s nice to at least see one familiar face today.”
“I-It nice to see you too, Olivia.” I greeted walking over to offer her a hand to shake. I winced a bit as her larger hand wrapped around mine and squeezed tightly. “I am guessing that you are here for this dinner as well, do you have any idea what this is about?”
“I do,” Olivia answered.
“Can you tell us?” Sarah asked, I held back a chuckle as my small friend was standing on her tip toes to try and look bigger, but even then she barely reached the waist of the taller girl. “Cause I am tired of waiting and I really really REALLY wanna know.”
Olivia chuckled a bit at Sarah's overzealousness before lowering down to her level. “It isn’t my place to ruin surprises now is it? What I can tell you is that you along with myself and three others are gonna be offered a very special job. One that all of us are gonna work together to accomplish.”
“So I actually was chosen to help and not just guard Sarah.” I thought to myself feeling a bit of relief run through my body.
Before I could ask my next question the door opened again and stepped into the room where two more teens were. One was a boy and the other was a girl. The boy had messy hair and seemed uncomfortable in the nice red and black suit. He had dark red eyes and a bored look on his face. The girl beside him slapped his hand away from the red tie he was wearing, she was leaner with mixed skin, and light blue eyes that matched her jepei color, she was not wearing the more fancy clothes we were wearing, chosening for a tight pair of jeans and a nice polo shirt. Olivia looked at them and turned to fully face them. “Daniel and Unique correct? I am so glad you two could make it.”
The boy seemed to roll his eyes as he took a seat across the table. “Ignore Daniel,” the girl spoke up in a shy and light voice. “He is just annoyed with the tie around his neck. You're Olivia Hearthstone right?” Her voice seemed in awe at the last words and she stared up at Olivia, she was a bit taller than Sarah even though her head only reached the other girl's chest. “It’s an honor to meet you.”
“Please, I deserve no honor.” Olivia offered the Unique a hand to shake and she seemed to shake it more gently than she did mine. “I read your report on The Aztec empire, you have quite a knowledge on that subject and your findings has helped our own researchers discover more about ancient jepei users in that area than we could imagine.” THe younger girl’s face took on a pink hue as she shyly looked away.
“Is that why we are all here?” I asked Olivia. I had a bit of knowledge of my own in history as it was my favorite subject, specifically history involving the waves and oceans. “Because we all have good grades in history.”
“That is not my place to say, I am sure my mother and Lord Clearwater will explain this matter to all of you as soon as they arrive. For now we need to wait for the last of us to arrive, Emily Walker.” I had heard that name before, she actually was in one of my classes even though she was just a sophomore, very bright student in mathematics.
I took a seat on the other side of the table not really speaking but just letting Sarah do what she did best and lighten up the room. Her ability to somehow make anyone smile was working wonders on getting us to relax. She was always so curious about other people wanting to know their live stories and could always get them to talk most of the time. Well it worked most of the time, however I could see that the boy in the red and black suit seemed to be growing more and more upset. I couldn’t tell if it was because of Sarah or because of something, however my question was quickly answered as the boy suddenly called out. “Will you please shut up already!”
The entire room went silent and Sarah flitched a bit at the boy’s harsh tone. She did what she always did when she was frightened or worried and quickly came to my side. “She is just making conversation.” I spoke up, drawing his dark red eyes from Sarah and onto myself.
“No, she is mostly talking and it is getting annoying.”
“It is fine, Daniel,” Unique spoke up.
“Just tell her to shut up.” Daniel repeated. “Tell someone to come and get their kids out of here before someone slaps her.”
“What your mouth!” I snapped. “She has done nothing wrong, so how about you take the stick out your ass before I shove my foot down your throat. Being disrespectful for no fucking reason.”
“I am not being disrespectful, I am just saying what everyone wants to say.” The shorter boy slowly stood up and began to walk around the side of the table towards us. “And I would love to see you try and shove your foot down my throat.”
I stood up so quickly that my chair nearly fell to the floor. I took a few steps until I was towering over the much shorter boy. “Please try me.”
“Throw the first punch, big man.”
“How about we take this outside, fuck the dinner and I kick your ass.”
Daniel leaned forward and very carefully said to me. “Bring it on.” His dark red jepei seemed to pulse out for a moment creating a bit of sparks as it came into contact with my dark blue jepei.
Before I could grab this boy by his neck. I heard Olivia call out in a firm voice. “Can you two please stop this nonsense!” I could feel her own jepei aura starting to spread throughout the room. “Sit down and shut up.”
“I am,” Daniel started to say, but in a flash of dark brown jepei, Olvia was know holding onto her famed three sectioned staff. I had sparred with this girl once and I knew how well she could wield that staff.
“Sit down and shut up, please.” Her voice left no room for argument. Daniel shot me one more glare before going back to his side of the table and slumping down in his seat. This sudden sternness that appeared seemed to fade away as she looked behind, and now I could notice a nervous looking girl with long white hair and very white eyes standing in the threshold to the room. “Emily walker.” Olivia began in a friendly way. “Please, sit down and I am sorry you had to see that.”
Emily had long white hair and looked amazing in the soft golden dress she was wearing, the sleeves looking like golden vines woven together. She looked around for a moment before taking a seat beside Olivia and across from me and Sarah. As she began to speak with Olivia I turned my attention back towards Sarah. “Are you okay?” I asked softly.
My little friend nodded her head a bit more quiet than she usually was. “I didn’t mean to-”
“Don’t do that,” I said firmly. “You have nothing to be sorry about, that little brat,” and I turned towards Daniel who was rubbing his arm from where Unique had just finished pinching. “He was being a jerk for no reason, you weren’t bothering anyone else.” I took the edge of my thumb to wipe the single tear that was threatening to fall down her face. “Keep being you and I will always be here to keep you safe from jerks, okay?”
Sarah cheered up slightly and before she could speak. Two very powerful auras began to fill the area and on instinct we all rose to our feet. Except for Sarah who often choose to get on her knees whenever a member of the council made an appearance. The doors opened once more and two figures stepped in. One I was sure everyone knew in one way or another, the newest member of the council and current headmaster of Tarun Academy. A skinny but athletic man with dark blue hair, and was in a good looking suit. Lord Edward Clearwater. The woman beside him was flying in on a pair of beautiful light yellow wings. I had only seen her on the news and in books, but I had never seen the beautiful Lady Penelope Hearthstone, the mistress of trade as some called her. She was taller than I thought she would be, her skin tight dress showed the curves that most men wanted in their woman. The sides were opened showing off her powerful looking and flawless legs. Her hair looked perfect and was a light blond color.
As they entered the room rang with one of the many greetings that we gave the council on pure instinct. “The five protect, the five maintain and the five love. The five talons keep us safe, keep our enemies away and our allies strong, we trust you, we love you, and we will fight for you.”
“And as members of the council, we will do our best to live and die to protect our people, to rule with kindness and joy, be firm but fair. This is our promise to you, so help me God.” I lifted my head and held back a chuckle at Lord Clearwater, when people introduced him with that phrase. It always made him feel uncomfortable. “Now, can we please sit down and let’s have dinner.”
“Yes, this dinner is to conduct business and you are our honored guests today.” Lady Penelope took a seat at the head of this large table. Her voice was light as the air and as sweet as honey.Olivia walk to the other side of the table and pushed her mother into her space. “Thank you, darling.” The woman’s large hand reached up to pat Olivia's cheek tenderly. “Now shall we begin over the first course?”
“The first course?” I said to myself as eight sevens came walking into the room and seat a metal tray in front of us. The top was removed revealing a delicious smelling and even better looking rice and shrimp dish. “This is gonna be nice.”
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHfoHyvS88z
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNEv47DnYht
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡorUJpIlTll
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0fmM2aSDoF
I sat back in my chair trying to take all of this information in as best as I could. Lady Hearthstone and Lord Clearwater had been taking turns explaining what all of this was about. Apparently we were chosen to be the 15th generation of people that go into the mainland and gather information for the not-no secret library underneath the academy. We would go out and discover ancient relics, papers, and treasures that the mainland might not be able to find thanks to our gifts. Apparently this team only had people that had mystical animal spirits and that it was because of those animals that we had, that gave us our almost odd knowledge in history. Suddenly a lot of questions I had about myself we answered as they kept explaining this mission. All the while I just keep eating this risotto, more focused on this information than I was with anything else. I think at the moment most of us were shocked, even that brat Daniel that held a straight face but even I could see his eyes widening every once in a while.
However when Lady Hearthstone had explained what our first mission was going to be. It was Emily Walker that spoke up first. “You want us to find The Tower of Babel?”
“What is the tower of babel?” I was not familiar with that place.
Emily was the one to explain. “In the bible, after the great flood, the world wanted to build a tower to heaven to see the glory of the lord. However, my father saw that their motive changed from seeing his glory to building the tower for their own glory. So instead he decided to switch all of their tongues so they wouldn’t be able to understand each other. That is what caused the different cultures to form and spread across the world.”
“Isn’t that just a story?” Daniel questioned. “I mean the bible isn’t really a credible source of information.” I noticed that Emily tensed a bit at that but she held her tongue.
“Actually we have information that that story is more true than some might think.” Lord Edward explained. “It has come to our attention that not only did this event happen nearly 110,000 thousand years ago, or even later. It is our idea that the tower was destroyed when another event happened. When God used the Behemoth to separate that supercontinent and separated those people from each other.”
“Hang on a second?” I spoke up. “The Behemoth?” In our culture we had another story of creation, it lined up very much with the bible and also involved three creatures that are the only ones that we jepei users believe were myths. The Lord of the Land, The Lady of the Skies and the King of the Beasts, otherwise known as The Behemoth, The Phoenix and The Leviathan. “Are you trying to tell us that The Behemoth is somehow real?”
Lord Clearwater and Lady Hearthstone shared a look with each other. “Those are not myths, but are very real.” Lady Hearthstone said. “We have been looking for them for a very long time, to find the shards of the netrix stones as well as the chosen that rumored to be across earth.” The Chosen were rumored to be two people that held half of those beasts' power. It was a way to make sure they could never fully be reborn, those creatures held powers that made some dragon users look like babies. “What we are gonna tell you is confidencial.” Lady Hearthstone began. “Do you remember the deaths of Grandmaster Ooan and Master and Professor Ion Barret and the loss of the crew including their young son Bylur.”
The entire air seemed to grow sad as most of us nodded. The day we found out that Professor Barret, his wife and child died on a shipwreck near Antarctica sent ripples across the island. All three were loved very much, and not only them but the crew that went along with them were cared for. All jepei users on this island loved each other, we shared the same gift and often went through the same pain.
Lady Hera went on. “They were sent to look for a fragment of the behemoth’s gemstone and lost their lives in the process. Master Barret’s animal spirit, his killer whale managed to get back before fading away to join his master in the afterlife. He gave us this.”
A moment passed as Grandmaster Matsomoto or the keep of the temple came in. She was once lean and athletic but she had gained some weight as she was pregnant with twins. She was carrying a small black box that was redating an ancient and powerful aura, a deep brown in color. She set it before Lady Hearthstone before bowing and leaving. The blond-woman reached out and took the lid off the box and I had never such a powerful jepei aura before in my life! Inside that box was a dark brown shard, like a diamond covered in dirt. The amount of jepei that poured from that one little shard was unnatural. I felt Sarah wrap around my arm and I was sure her eyes were as wide as mine were right now.
Lady Hearthstone closed the box and I was surprised to see that even she looked drained from being so close to this gemstone. She set the box down and quickly took a sip of her wine to probably calm down. She held her hand up and I turned to see Olivia had started to rise to her feet. “I am fine, sweetheart.” She confirmed. “That is what was found in the frozen south.”
“That,” Lord Clearwater began. “As well as this.” Lord Clearwater reached into his suit and pulled out clear plastic cylinder with what looked to be an old piece of paper inside. “Sarah,” he spoke up before handing it to the server who brought it over. “I believe your expertise is best suited for this.”
“Expertise?” Damina asked.
“This young lady can read any written language.” I held back a smirk as Daniel looked at my friend in surprise. “She might be the youngest but her gifts are very valuable and in a better home have been honed safely.”
When I first found my friend she stunned me by speaking my native tongue perfectly. Even at the age of five she could speak 10 languages with nearly a perfect accent. It's how we got a lot of money as orphans, we would bet travelers that she couldn't understand their native tongue. She loved learning new languages and could read nearly every one just from reading a book on them in a few days. Sarah opened this cylinder and took out the papers inside, handling them with more care than she handled her toys sometimes. From what I could see it was a written language of some kind, it looked like Egyption or maybe Arabic. Sarah looked over the words for a moment, her bright green eye sparkling brighter and her tongue came out of her mouth, the same it always did when she was focusing. “I-I can’t read all of it.” She said stunning me for a moment. “It’s very old, Hebrew but some words aren’t hebrew.”
“What does it say?” I nearly jumped out of my skin as Emily was now standing behind us with Unique.
“It looks like an account of what happened that day. From what I can read in this…” Sarah trailed off and I watched one of her hands starting to draw on the table like a pen. She kept dipping her finger in the sauce of this risotto and was drawing on the white table cloth. She used to do this in the dirt and sand, or used the juices of fruit and vegetables when I first found her. Now she had endless amounts of notebooks to do this back home. “It says that this was the last place a big monster was scene, that destroyed the tower… that tore the world… that took us home.” Sarah set the paper aside and took a deep breath.
“Easy there,” I said, placing my hand on her shoulder, it was a side effect. Her mind was still young and damaged and translating information often brought her bad headaches. I looked over at Lord Clearwater who was walking over with a glass of ice water. “So you want us to use our collective intellect to find things like this?”
Lady Hearthstone spoke. “That is the point of this team, to use your gifts to find what even Lady Hera cannot find, and you six would also have another gift for this job. The right to enter the library underneath the school for the rest of your lifes, without needing a master or grandmaster rank.”
“Really?!” I looked over at Daniel who shouted that out he now seemed far more excited than I had seen him today. “Like anytime we want, like if I accepted right now, i could leave and go right there.”
“Well it would take us a day to let the librarians know that is the case.” Lady Hearthstone said calmly. “You would be bringing us back information for that library, it is only fair that you are allowed to enter. To study whatever you want, with no restrictions.”
Lord Clearwater spoke up, his blue jepei aura washing over us like a soothing towel. “I can see it in most of your eyes, I can see how excited most of you are. To explore the world, to find information and probably to find answers that you have been looking for for most of your young lives. You are the six brightest minds we have and the island will consider this a great deed done for us, it would be your job for your entire lives. Of course you would still get your education, you would have time to rest in between these missions, we will take care of your every need from now until the day you die. If you say yes, than we will get you prepared to set off in as early as two weeks or as late as a month.”
“However… there is one thing.” Lady Heartstone spoke up looking much better now than before. “Although your parents would know, we would ask that you do not tell a soul aside from them and any new members of the council what you have found. We keep this information to keep our people safe, until we are sure they can handle it. It is why you are just now finding out about this. That is all we ask, and if you want to retire, you can leave at any time. That is our promise to all of you. So what do you say, do you accept this job and do you want to become a member of this project? One we are calling E.X.O.D.U.S?”
I looked down at Sarah who was recovering from her headache and her eyes were firmly locked onto that cylinder. I knew her answer before she could even say it, and wherever she goes I go. So my answer was of course going to be yes.
Part of me wishes I said no.
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQYYDJdTUVl
