Chapter 4: The Avatar & the Talismans
965 Words
Key for this chapter:
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*Rinzen's Thoughts*
Anyone Else's Thoughts
'Old dialogues memories, spoken out loud thoughts, the past in general...'
///Memories///
POVs
""Not an Actual Speech or Thought""
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Warning: Alternative POVs
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1-04-2113
(It's one in the afternoon, somewhere in the world!)
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Ray stared at him; "The what of the what now?" he asked equally shocked.
Rinzen frowned at him confused, "What what-what?" he asked and then pausing and rephrasing, "I mean what has everyone so befuddled", he asked baffled.
Ash stepped forward, "I think what he meant is, what do you mean by the sentient form of a building?" he asked confused.
Rinzen stared at him, and then looked around the room at everyone's twin expressions of confusion, except James's who just looked like he was expecting it to happen—the man almost looked smug;
"Please tell me you're joking?" he asked everyone present and then shot James an irritated look, "Quit looking so smug, old dog!" he huffed and then sat down on the floor too exhausted to even pretend he had any strength left, he face-palmed with his left hand and then pinched the bridge of his nose, warding off an oncoming migraine.
*How is this my life?!*
Sighing heavily with an exasperated roll of his eyes, he eyed the teens. "Them, I get?" he pointed at the rest of the teens, "Why do the mentors seem equally baffled?" he wondered idly, and then with another heavy sigh, he hummed;
*Seriously no one is this dense, right?*
"When we got our letters, the envelopes had our names on them, our full names, our birth names, our True Names", he said finally answering with an air of vexation. Deliberately pitching his voice listing every variant of 'True Name' out there. "I'm fairly certain every single one of them was marked and signed as Yours Sincerely; Ms. Danielle Harris — Vice-Principal", he reminded them humming when they all nodded a bit puppet-like, "I'm not sure where the name 'Danielle Harris' comes from, but she doesn't speak, she doesn't have much of a personality—and I tend to forget she exists sometimes, which for me is a bad thing given how hard I've trained to be observant—
James coughed, "Hypervigilant!" he corrected.
"Paranoid", Ash and Red muttered in unison.
Ignoring them Rinzen continued, "—she phases through floors and walls, she isn't holding that tray, but it's hovering between her hands", he pointed out and they all turned to look;
continuing Rinzen added, "Now given that this is a magical school and we live in a world where magic is rife and alive and practically a part of our ecosystem, all those things can be coincidental hokum, and happenstance or just plain magic", he added dryly, "But I stood next to her, she isn't breathing, my hand doesn't pass through her so she's not a ghost or an apparition or a spirit or whatever else you want to use to justify her existence as real, and mostly in part she feels like magic, she feels alive, but not really alive", he paused, "I can't explain it", he shrugged, "But I'm not Normal if I chose to decline to be one of the Ascendants I would have remained as a Mundane which mean I inherently can sense magic, I just couldn't, wouldn't be able to really do anything about it", he confessed easily.
"I've never really met a mundane", Zee murmured awkwardly into the silence.
"Not much different from being a Normal", Rinzen answered, "It's just if anyone casts a spell around you, you'd notice, I'd notice, or if you walk past an area that just used a heavy-duty spell toward something, kill something, capture something or just did something, I'd be able to sense it, in short, I'm a glorified bloodhound except more like a magic hound", he paused and then shook his head.
"That's, uh...I don't know what to say", Zee turned to Ash and Red, "Wha-whu", they shook their head shrugged, and turned to James, Jasmine, and Ms. Harris—the school, apparently and hummed, "So what did you choose?" Zee asked bringing the topic back to head.
Rinzen shrugged and leaned his head back on the pillar behind him, and closed his eyes briefly. A few seconds passed in silence when he hissed, "I wouldn't", he warned head turning towards Fiona who was apparently doing something, eyes firmly closed.
"But how did you—"
"Fiona, honestly girl I'm disappointed in you", Marcia sighed, "I think it's in everyone's best interests if you sent your brother forth, and to think—"
"Wait", Ray raised his hand, "I'd like her to mentor me", he requested quickly.
Red nodded, "That does make sense, you want to learn how to use emotions", she stated, not noticing Ray flinch, as she eyed Fiona warily.
"That's probably not the right way to phrase it", Bell murmured, "I mean Ray is kinda clinical in his speech patterns, but at the same time not really", she said, "There's a word for it, I don't know how to use it", she muttered to herself.
Rinzen hummed, "Heedful is the word you're looking for, or chary if you want to be pedantic. Maybe because of the circumstances when his folks were stupid enough to let him go, those idiots–", he cursed, "–he developed a tic where everything he says is carefully laid in front of him, that probably means he takes a few seconds to work out the speech inside his head and calculate the outcome of everything he says so he doesn't come of cumbersome", he told her listing to one side, half-asleep. "Ashie… I'm sleepy", he whined voice slurring, as he nodded off.
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TBC...
- Writer
