Mystik Realm: Celestinia Academy

Five: Mystik Realm and Sad Tales

The place I land in is a dense green forest, different from all the forests I’ve been in, which are made up of gum trees and native Australian wildlife. It smells different too, like a lightly moist soil smell mixed with animal scents and flowers. It's somehow greener or more fresh than that, the scent of morning dew still in the frigid air. Even the trees are different and I doubt you’d find them anywhere in Australia, maybe even the whole world. Not this world of course, because for some reason I can immediately tell I'm not on earth anymore, what exactly I'm not sure, it just feels different.

The trees are amazing, most of them have a million berries hanging from each branch, and each of those berries are a different colour, I can see a gold one and a magenta one right next to each other.

The birds also look spectacular, not that I have much range to look at, the only birds I can see are a flock of birds with long colourful tails of green and yellow, slim bodies of crimson or royal blue, and a head that is striped like a zebra, I can’t see any other wildlife. They sing to each other from tree to tree, it sounds like a lullaby played by a flute, though not any lullaby I’ve heard before.

I look back down, Demi is nowhere to be seen, and neither is Mara... Mara, oh, my god. Is she actually dead? I can barely complete the thought without my eyes welling up with tears, I can only hold them back with the force of my will, and a lot of blinking. I bring my hand up to wipe the tears away, but I can't, my fingers are sticky with blood, Mara's blood.

A crack of a stick breaking and a huff of breath, and suddenly I’m aware that I am not alone anymore, I turn around to see a creature so magnificent it steals my breath away.

The creature has dark leathery skin that looks soft yet hard at the same time, she (I don’t know how I know it’s a she I just do) has deep turquoise eyes that seem to pierce my soul. Dark leathery wings are tucked gracefully against either side of her body, they resemble what I’ve seen in pictures of dragon wings, her long, lean legs stand steady in front of me. Her face somewhat resembles a horse but with one main difference, instead of just having ears like a horse she has two short spiralling horns that are only about six centimetres long as well as ears.

Atop the creature is Demi, I have no clue how she was able to get on her so quickly, I only got here a few seconds after her.

She is with someone that I assume is Dale by the similarities between the two, though his hair unlike hers is a light brown which is in messy waves on top of his head, instead of Demi’s ultralight blond in similar waves down her back, their eyes is what really gives it away- they have exactly the same shade of dark blue, like the night sky. A lot of their facial features are the same too, the same nose and eyebrows.

“He’s beautiful isn’t he?” Dale gestures at the creature.

Yes, you are beautiful, I add in my mind unintentionally then recover quickly as I realize I’m staring at him.

“She, not a he, and yes she is gorgeous,” I answer him pointedly, pretending I didn’t just check him out. I reach out and stroke the creatures silky nose with the back of my hand as to not get blood on her.

He smiles, chuckling lightly while looking away into the woods as he nods his head considering my words, “Yes I believe you are correct, would you like to ride her?”

“Yeah, I would love to ride her, what’s her name?”

“Ebony, I na…”

“Where’s Mara?” Demina cuts in and my eyes fill with tears instantly. “And why do you have blood on your hands?” Dales gaze snaps to the hand I was still holding up to pet the creature.

“She… she...” My breath catches in my throat, “They got her,” I whisper in a hoarse voice turning away to hide my tears that are already streaming unrelentlessly down my face.

“Ho… how?” Demina’s voice breaks halfway through the word and I glance at her and see the wetness in her eyes already welling.

Dale looks blank but hands me some water from a canteen to wash off the blood. I scrub vigorously to rid myself of the dark red-brown blood on my hands.

***

Demina Calvarain

“Sh-she got sw-swallowed by one of th-those, those things then she, she disappeared?” how can she be swallowed then disappear? I think, but… wait… it could be possible if, if…

“Swallowed then disappeared? How does that work isn’t it one or the other?” Dalus says- I scoff in my head and I am reminded of the quote, great minds think alike...

“I don’t know… she was being engulfed by a mass of dark shadows then she thr…” Ally trails off and spins around dislodging some dirt from the ground and leaving a small hole in the leaves coating the forest floor, she appears to be searching for something, her eyes frantically moving from place to place.

Ally runs off towards a silver blade I hadn’t noticed before, it glows purple, she picks it up off the ground muttering ‘Amfidel?’ or something along those lines.

“Sh-she threw this to me, then just be-before the shadow things e-en-engulfed her co-completely, she faded an-and d-dis-disappeared…” Ally continues her voice quavering unsteadily through the tears trailing tracks down her face.

‘Fading then disappearing altogether sounds like what happens when you get summoned, though you have to accept the summoning to get transported to the summoner either that or it was a forced summoning which I have heard is really difficult to perform.’ Angelica says, her sweet voice ringing through my mind.

‘But who would summon her? she has barely any magic, she was known for her combat skills, Lynor got almost all the magic,’ my other voice, Demonica my dark half replies.

Being me, half dark, half light elf, I have two parts- a demonic side, and an angelic side, sort of different consciences, or like little irritating mini fairies stuck inside my head, normally if you’re a full elf of either dark or light you only get one of them, sadly I'm not that lucky. Normally it doesn't affect people with physical characters inside your mind but due to my mother….

I turn to my brother and try to convey what I figured out about the summoning thing but also telling him not to tell Ally in case it ends up being a false hope- I’ve been given false hope before and I think it best that she doesn’t know of the possibility of Alamara still being alive. My brother nods almost imperceptibly in agreement and helps Ally onto the to three-month-old Pericyron.

We head toward the edge of Enwelle forest, our manor is just at the edge. No one will be there at the moment, mum’s probably still in the human realm and dad, well dad’s just unreliable.

Silence is our only company as we ride slowly towards my home, silence meaning the company of our breathing, and the occasional bird call or scuffle of movement from small creatures on the forest floor.

When we finally reach the outskirts of the forest I can vaguely see the outline of The Calvarain Manor. I look back at Ally, sleeping fitfully on the back of the pericyron I turn back to face the manor, I regret not telling her who she was on the car ride it would have made some things easier than they are now- Alamara told me everything except about Ally’s parents, in case of a situation like this.

A deep breath wakes me from my dismal thoughts and I look over to find Alya now looking peaceful on the Pericyron, her face is calm and it looks as though she is free of all her troubles.

I smile softly at her and whisper, “Everything is going to be okay,” in her ear that I have noticed has a slightly elongated look and she has slight points to them. Her faerie side is showing, I wonder what type of wings she has.

“Demi, does Alya have a boyfriend?” Startled I look up to Dale, who I find is also looking at Ally, although his face has a cheeky grin instead of the sad look I would probably see if I looked in a mirror right now.

Decidedly annoyed at Dale, I give him an incredulous look, “How can you be thinking about that? and now of all times? Couldn’t you be even a little bit more subtle? or even just sympathetic, she lost her aunt literally just under an hour ago!?” He shrugs sheepishly looking a little guilty.

“Nope. I am after all, of the male specimen,” he says popping the P, then smiling broadly at me he says, I must have imagined the guilt, I roll my eyes at him.

“Hmmm I wonder, is she a virgin?”

“Dale!” I gasp disapprovingly, my tone expressing my shock at his straightforward approach.

He grins, a question in his eyes, so??

“Fine,” I say mildly resigned to deal with Dale’s hormones, maybe if I actually tell him he will bugger off.

“She isn’t, and no she doesn’t have a boyfriend anymore,” I sigh.

Startled Dale asks, “When did she lose hers?”

“Two seasons ago, in Autumn, we went to a teen party full of horny bastards like you, she got drunk and had s*x, she doesn’t remember though so she thinks that she’s a virgin.” I’d hated that night, I had to use magic to get us both home, luckily she was too drunk to remember anything, I, however, still remember how much she'd been crying and…

“Oh,” Dale interrupts my inner ramblings, to which I’m grateful. He frowns but doesn’t ask me anything else, so we continue through the stretch of grassy plains surrounding the manor.

We reach the mansion and enter I'm dreading the moment I have to tell her about who she is. At the same time though, I want to tell her so badly that it might end up tearing me apart if I don’t tell her in the next ten minutes.

Dale picks her off Ebony and carries her into the living room, setting her on the couch, where she immediately snuggles into a pillow, hugging it as though her life depends on it. Dale leaves the room and comes back a few moments later to trail a warm blanket over her. Sometimes Dale is kind like this, other times he’s a horny teen, I prefer this side, who wouldn’t?

***

Alya Goldain

Oh, my god everyone is crazy, well at least Dale and Demi are, anyway, how can I be a Fae/Faerie it’s just not possible. and part demon? I don’t like the sound of that, I’d rather not suddenly become ‘Dark Alya’ and kill fifty people unawares. What is wrong with these crazy people? Is what half of my mind is saying after Demi explained my origins. The other part is reminding me of school and the ice incident both of which don’t seem quite human- and the wings? I have a hard enough time as it is controlling four limbs let alone six???

Demi also explained I would begin developing powers, I’ve had water and air already according to Demina, air having enhanced my senses at school on my birthday, and the ice thing with Demina’s water fountain was a way to control water. Most Fae gets one to four abilities with the elements, elements not just meaning Air, earth, fire and water but also electricity or lightning, darkness, light, and spirit. Those are the seven main elements but there are plenty of sub-elements Demina said somewhere between two-hundred to five-hundred.

I'm in my new room which I will soon be vacating to start at Celestinia Academy for magical creatures and gifted people- I can’t quite put my head around what's happening it’s all going too fast. There is a school for freaks like me?

I can hear Dale and Dem chatting worriedly about me wherever I go- it’s starting to get on my nerve, and how on earth is there such a place called The Mystik Realm-oops that wasn’t the best way to phrase that since I'm technically not on Earth.

The way she describes it is there are many layers, the mid realms are where the humans live, unaware of the veils of the reality. The Under Realms, home to the dark and demonic, according to Demina it is perpetually sunset and the realms are like pockets of space with tunnels leading between them, but she said they're not physical tunnels? Whatever that means... The largest pocket is what humans call Hell, Hades or The Underworld, the biggest realm, the size of all the over realms put together. It's still ruled by Lucifer, though there are too many misconceptions on his personality to know much of what he does.

The Fae Realm is above the mid-realm and the Mystik between that and Earth. The Over Realm is where the angels live, God died millennia ago so Michael rules what humans call Heaven. Very complex I know, I hardly know how I still remember any of it.

To think that God was real at all is weird, I was never the religious type, I was more a believer of science. According to Demi, there are also minor gods, some are still alive, those gods like, Poseidon, Thor, Ganesh, Osiris and all the other gods from other religions, though they are not as powerful as some stories described, however some of the heroes that were claimed to be demigods probably were, so that is pretty cool, the rest however, not so much.

The school term starts in three days, which is weird as that means I somehow got here just in time to start the new school year like someone wants me to be here, which is a scary thought. I’ll be moving into the dorm in two, I'm not really excited. The only good thing is that I’ll be leaving this place which is way too big for just three people and a couple of pets like I said, Demina’s parents aren’t around much as their work involves a lot of travelling between realms.

I wonder…. Can I do magic- like I don’t know… with a wand and pixie dust maybe?… that’d be kinda crazy. I lift my hand and it grazes the necklace I am wearing and I remember Cora, I open the bottle and sniff.

Strange, it has no scent -like it’s empty or something, I close it again and walk leave my room to go downstairs to eat something from the kitchen.

***

“Do you know what this is?” I ask Demina at dinner that night.

“Yeah, It’s pixie dust….” she answers in a somewhat ‘duh’ tone. A couple of seconds later she bursts out laughing, “The look on your face! You should've seen it-it was priceless!”

I stare at her uncomprehending-what the hell??

“Can’t a girl joke every now and then?” she sobers up at my unsmiling face.

I just stare at her then hold out the bottle of green-grey powder, “And this what is it actually?”

“Oh yeah, that's Cerindust a whiff of that and you’ll pass out in a few seconds.

“But it doesn’t have a scent??” I say remembering upstairs in the bedroom.

“Well angels are immune to demon substances unless you come directly into contact with the live demon yourself then it’s more potent and makes anyone with an ounce of angel blood in them become intoxicated with pain, and it’s somehow more harmful to an angel than any other magical creature- most probably has something to do with purity of the soul mixed with a vile hate for anything moving which ends up being a toxic match. Some demons have a similar effect without the pain when you touch evil.”

“Yikes… sounds painful,” I think me and her are on some road to recovery because of her lying and stuff things haven’t been great between us so hey maybe things will be back to normal by the end of the week.

“But hey, I have demon blood in me shouldn’t that mean that it doesn't hurt me?”

“Yes and no, only the particular Demon species you are related to will not be able to harm you in any way, if you can’t find out which demon you’re related to you could just walk straight into hell and get attacked, and one of the demons shouldn’t be able to harm you, except you’d probably die anyway.”

“Oh, what a pleasant picture you paint Demi, blood and gore, my favourite type of movie,” I say sarcastically.

“What were those shadow creatures that attacked us?” I become more serious again and shudder at the memory of the inky black creatures.

“Those shadows were ‘Shade Demons’ second from the lowest form of demons, they’re basically servants of the lord and by “lord”, I don’t mean Jesus. If you compare them to Preliminary demons they look like tamed dogs.”

“What are preliminary demons?” I ask curiously, with the obvious follow-up question.

“The highest form of demon and they’re very intelligent, I don’t know what part demon you are but it’s unlikely to be a preliminary demon,” I let that sink in before asking another question that’s been nagging at me for a little while.

“I'm curious, is or was Celestinia a person and was she the founder of the academy?”

“As far as I know, she was the founder of the academy over one hundred years ago, but on her thirtieth birthday she disappeared and hasn’t been seen since,“ she says, somewhat ominously.