Where The Dead Ones Go Book 1 -Magistracy-

Chapter 4

"Born yesterday, huh?"

I looked at Morris who is sitting on my left as we ride the bus that will bring us to the testing site from the entrance of the Hellenic Citadel.

"Well, Athena sprung fully grown and armed from the head of her father. I guess her children can do the same. But it doesn't make it sound less amazing, right?"

He nodded and smiled, "Indeed. To think that she was just a day or so old and already helping others in need is nothing short of astonishing. Though it is a shame that she cannot help us further, huh Vivet?"

"Well, Athena is not fond of cheating and unfair advantages. I guess we just have to power our way through it," I answered quietly as I looked at the other buses that are now either bursting into flames or freezing over, "No wonder they forbade us to use magic while inside the bus. It is really far more powerful than what it should be compared to the outside world."

Morris laughed and sighed as he looked at his hands, "My  earth magic is serviceable at best and the most I can do with it is open a hole deep enough for me to curl up on it."

"Compared to my barely even useful fire magic that can't even produce a proper flame for heating during the winter season, your hole is better than what I can even squeeze out of my ability," I said frankly that made him smile a little as we watch some of the busses stop because either it is too damaged by the aspirants or its driver and conductor are too injured to go on, "Judging by your confident look, you don't seem to be too worried about the examinations."

He nodded a little and smiled, "I'm not. Seeing that you are also almost always out and about, you are aware that there are a lot of things you can learn just by being in the streets, right?"

"Of course. But will our street knowledge be enough?"

"I guess we will soon find out, Vivet," he said expectantly as our bus finally reached its destination and our fellow Auralian aspirants started to disembark ahead of us, "At the very least, I can finally have a decent meal after many years. I heard from the ones at the back that there is a lunch buffet prepared after the examinations."

I chuckled and nodded after we got off as I looked at the imposing white building ahead of us, "That is something to look forward to, Morris. Consider me motivated."

"Perfect. Now, let's just grab a seat next to each other and be done with this," he said as hundreds upon hundreds of examinees are sitting down on the chairs behind the steel desks with folders and pens on top of them, "I bet that's the proctor for this part."

I looked at the elderly woman in a crisp school teacher uniform wearing glasses and serious expression as she walked to the platform under the pedestal where a large ivory statue of the Goddess of Wisdom is standing and holding an owl and a fly which symbolizes her mother, Metis, the Goddess of Deep Thought.

"Settle down children! Settle down!" she shouted loudly and all of us in the large room quieted down, "Good! I am Celica Augmir, daughter of Polyhymnia Muse of Hymns and Hellenic Citadel's Head of Examinations Department. There are only three rules that should be done and followed if you want to pass the first part of the examinations so listen carefully. One, no erasures. Two, achieve the passing score of more than half. Third and last, don't get caught. After you are finished answering or finally gave up, put your papers at the foot of Lady Athena. If it disappears, then you have passed and will go to the door of her right where the second part of the examinations will take place during lunch break. If you fail, however, the paper will burn into ashes and head for the door on her left where the busses that will take you back to the Aurapolis where a complimentary buffet will be awaiting those who failed. You have an hour, begin!"

I opened the folder and saw the first page of the written examination. After putting in my name, I started answering in earnest. It is a bit easy but I know that this is just the beginning. Morris is also busy scribbling away.

The moment I reached the nineteenth question in the middle of the first page, Gala and her siblings stood up from the far left corner of the room and confidently walked towards the proctor who smiled at them expectantly.

They put their papers at the feet of the statue of their mother and it disappeared in a blink of an eye and they head to the door to the right congratulating each other.

"Unbelievable. Not even five minutes after the start of the test," Morris said in disbelief as he scratches the back of his head in confusion, "And the questions are starting to get difficult."

I was about to answer when I heard him speak again but this time, he spoke directly in my mind, "Can you hear me?"

"How? What? In my head? Why?" I thought in confusion as he returned his gaze on his paper.

"Act natural, Vivet. I don't know why but I just found out earlier when we began our test that I can hear your thoughts. No idea how but we can talk about it later. What's important is we pass this test and we can do it together," he whispered calmy in my mind as I began to receive his train of thoughts regarding the examination questions, "My knowledge for all its worth is at your disposal. Go on, answer quickly. We have to use this weird link of us to our advantage."

Fine. If that's what he wants then don't mind if I do.

Thanks to his help, I managed to breeze through the first page without a problem. I guess this is the reason why the daughter of Athena took a shine on him earlier. He is clearly an intelligent, person and knows a lot more than what his looks suggest.

"Ouch, Vivet. I resent that," he laughed in his mind when he read my thoughts, "Believe it or not, your own fresh take on the basic knowledge of our history helps a lot past the question number thirty. Oh, wow, those nine kids. Those are the children of the Muses, no doubt."

I looked up and saw nine graceful and lithe teenagers standing up victoriously at the same time and walked towards the proctor who beamed at them as they submitted their paper at the foot of the statue and it all disappeared shortly.

They did a bit of a victory dance before heading for the right door.

"Good for them," I thought quickly as I looked down on the third page of the test paper where the hard part really starts, "Oh joy. Essays and explanations."

"I know the answer but I'm not good at expressing them in paragraphs. What to do?" Morris thought as he scratches his head before tapping on a poppy flower on his desk, "Someone is looking at our answers, Vivet. What should we do?"

"Let them. It's not like we can do anything about it..."

All around us, the aspirants are doing everything they can to pass the examinations and to avoid being caught cheating. 

Scythians erected an earthen dome around their corner so they can copy each other's answers without the proctors getting even close to check upon them.

The Pagosians, however, decided for the direct approach and freeze completely the poor proctor assigned to them as they exchanged notes hurriedly.

I saw four great dogs of monstrous size appearing from nowhere and chasing after a proctor all around the room as swarms of bees and flocks of doves pester the proctors near the children of Aphrodite and Aristaeus, God of Honey.

It looks more like a battlefield than an examination room the longer the test goes on. The children of Ares are bullying their proctor as their siblings and countrymates cheated. Other mortals and demigods are also doing everything just to make sure that they will pass the test.

Suddenly noxious pollen wafted around me and Morris from nowhere that made the proctor coming in to check on us step back and sneeze uncontrollably.

"We're not the target of this, Vivet," Morris thought as he looked around us, "It is a deliberate attempt to stop the proctor in his tracks."

"Yeah, I can see that. But why?"

Suddenly, a petite and beautiful girl wearing an assorted flower headband appeared next to us with a tall and thin boy with striking cyan eyes who discreetly slid their papers to us.

"Go on, look at our essay answers. We are copying from you two as you well know and we realized that you're having a problem in the last part. Consider it our payment for what we got from you in the first pages," the girl said as she blew more pollen from her mouth towards the proctor who now turned his back on us to seek medical help.

The boy nodded quickly and tapped on the papers, "Hurry. Just paraphrase, reword, jumble and rearrange the answers to make it look different. We will distract the proctors for as long as we can."

I glanced at Morris who nodded quickly and we quickly read through their papers and formulated our own answers based on theirs as fast as we could.

The boy walked briskly towards the incoming substitute proctors who managed to wade through the girl's pollen and talked to them in a way that they seemed to forget what they are about to do and just gave him their whole undivided attention.

"Wow, all their answers are spot on," Morris thought as he hurriedly made several adjustments and changes to their essays, "I don't think it will be good for us to take any longer than we already did, Vivet. A few moments and this place will become a real battlefield."

A series of small explosions erupted from the corner where Hephaestus' children are sitting and it's enough for me to believe that it's high time we made ourselves scarce and proceed to answer the remaining questions as fast as I can with the help of the two who are making sure no proctors will come near us.

In less than three minutes, we managed to finally finish the accursed test and stood up as we returned the papers to the two and ran for the statue of Athena and putting our papers at her feet and hope for the best.

To our surprise, it disappeared completely without a trace. 

"Hurry you two!" the petite girl screamed as a big explosion shook the whole building as Ares and Hephaestus' children began to fight each other while Aphrodite's children are cheering them on.

She ran towards the door to the right as the frail guy shoved us behind her.

The moment he closed the door behind him, a huge tremor was felt on the room but the smiling usherette nodded at us as if everything is fine and normal, "Congratulations on passing the first stage of the entrance examinations. The second stage is not actually a test but a grand buffet where you can eat all you can and hopefully, manage to make new friends. Please, help yourself and absolutely no violent use of magic whatsoever inside the dining area. My mother, Demeter, will have your head."

Morris and I thanked her for the information before proceeding to the corner where all sorts of delicious-looking foods from all over Gearth is located.

My companion understandably grabbed a plate as fast as he can before piling dishes upon dishes on top of one another on his plate. I decided to get a plate of my own too and try the cuisines that I haven't tested yet.

Living under the care of Ms Irene, I am well accustomed to different delicacies and expensive meals she sends on my apartment from her home. Even if I am her foster daughter, I still insisted to live on my own. Though she relented, it didn't stop her from sending daily meals straight from her kitchen.

I just realized how lucky I am that there are only less than five dishes here that I don't know of and most of them are from the Republic which for some odd reason, she doesn't prefer the foods.

"I'm Narcine by the way," the girl with flower headband said as we sat next to each other after we got our foods, "Narcine Regis from the Cretonian Democratic Union. Daughter of Persephone."

I accepted the right hand she is offering and nodded, "Vivet Viviere of the Viceroyalty of Auralia. Nice to meet you, Narcine."

"The pleasure is mine, Vivet."

She then glanced at Morris who returned with her companion each holding plates with mountains of foods on it.

"Vivet, this is Taurei Pavonious," my friend said as he glanced curiously at the frail guy much thinner than him sitting beside a formidable and voloptous-looking young girl around our age who is eating rather solemnly a few seats away from us on the same table that looks awfully empty before we got here, "He said he's from the Republic of Pagos and a mortal like us."

I nodded and subsequently introduced the daughter of Persephone to him whom he treated like a princess, "I am honored to meet you, Your Highness, Princess Narcine of the Underworld."

"Charmed, I'm sure," Narcine said half-jokingly before letting the homeless boy kiss her hand, "Kidding! No need to treat me like a royalty. I mean, I am at the bottom of the food chain. Am I right, Princess of the Seas?"

The girl whom Taurei is pestering raised an eyebrow to Narcine, "Excuse me?"

"You are Amphitrite's daughter, right?" Narcine's companion asked which made her raise her other eyebrow at him, "I mean, it's obvious that Poseidon and his wife have called dibs with the Emirate recently."

The scary girl took a deep breath as if trying to control her temper, "Well, I guess you already know who is my mother, I don't think there's no reason for me not to introduce myself properly since you are all getting all touchy-feely with each other. Let me indulge your cordial bearings, for formality. I am Rebie Wilkins, Emirati Retainer and yes, firstborn daughter of the Queen of the Seas, Amphitrite. A pleasure."

"Wow! A firstborn. A demiurge in the flesh!" Morris said excitedly as he shook the hands of the Emirati who looks absolutely bemused by his reaction, "If I am not mistaken, you are also a demiurge, right, Narcine?"

The daughter of Persephone nodded shyly as she blushed innocently, "I am, Morris. Though I have awakened several years ago, thankfully."

"Demiurge? Awakened? What?" 

They all looked at me curiously as I honestly tried to grasp the new words that just got said earlier.

"You don't know what is a demiurge, Vivet?" Taurei asked quietly and I nodded quickly, "Truly? Well, I guess demiurges are a rarity this day and age but to not hear about them completely is quite an outlandish thought to say the least. It is after all a part of basic homeschooling education regardless of our countries."

I smiled lopsidedly and bowed my head, "I have amnesia when I woke up a year or so ago. I don't remember anything about my past and my current knowledge is given to me by my foster mother and workmates. So, what is a demiurge?"

"Well, a demiurge, Vivet, is a mortal who is a firstborn child of a deity," Taurei explained clearly and slowly, "Being the first mortal child of an immortal, they exhibit power far beyond what normal demigods can unleash."

"Wow, and Narcine and Rebie here are demiurges?" the daughters of Persephone and Amphitrite nodded at the same time which brought me to my next question, "What is an awakening then and how it is connected to demiurge?"

It's a stately and proud-looking boy who suddenly appeared beside me who answered in earnest, "An awakening is a rather dangerous process for demiurges in which they unleashed their godly power that transcends what their mortal body can do and for a moment, they are the closest thing a mortal can be to the gods and goddesses."

"And you are?"

He looked at Taurei who asked him rather rudely before answering quickly but I saw annoyance in his eyes for a second which he too, quickly hide rather professionally, "Zenith Mycenae, son of Zeus, Magistracy of Pagos."

"Oh, I see," Taurei said as if the fact that the son of the King of the Immortals is before us doesn't bother him the slightest.

The rest of us paid our humble tributes to Zenith who seemed to take everything to stride but he offered his hand last to Taurei who busied himself with eating.

Morris have to nudge him meaningfully with his elbow to get his attention before looking pointedly at the waiting hands of the son of Zeus.

"A pleasure to meet you," Zenith said quietly as Taurei accepted his hand boringly, "I can feel ice element from you, a Pagosian?"

Taurei just rolled his eyes and nodded, "Obviously."

And then all of a sudden a single streak of electricity appeared from the hand of Zenith which travelled quickly to Taurei's hand and we are all expecting him to be quickly electrocuted but to our surprise, he just looked at the electricity with utmost interest until it faded away harmlessly off his wrist.

"I expect your services for the last part of the examinations," Zenith said curtly before letting go of Taurei's hand.

"I am honor bound to, Your Highness. You can expect as much," our companion said nonchalantly before returning to eating.

We bade farewell to the prince who proceed to visit other tables to introduce himself.

I looked at Taurei again with renewed interest that even Rebie is eyeing her talkative seatmate who resumed bombarding her odd questions to which she answered amusingly as if like me, she is seeing him in a different light.

"I didn't want to pry earlier but the chasm of memories in your head that I can't explain means that you don't remember anything from your past at all, Vivet."

Morris talked again in my mind while he is eating quietly and I smiled despite myself, "Well, that is what it is. My earliest memory is Ms Irene waking me up and carrying me into her office after she found me unconscious near her main office building. Though limited, it is a poignant and heartwarming memory that I hold most dear."

"I wish mine is as coherent and understandable as yours though."

And before I can reply, my mind's eye saw something from the homeless' boy's head that made my jaw drop.