Ending is Another Beginning

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Nyra

The ringing sound wakes me up. I see around to find that the sun is already up and the room alarm is ringing at its full volume. I look to the other side of the room and see that Autumn is sleeping with her one leg hanging off of the bed and her comforter half on the floor. I chuckle silently and get up to get ready for my first day.

I go outside and find that all our shopping bags are spread out on the floor. I click on my band to see the time. It’s almost 6 am and I have to be at the headmistress’s office by 7::30 am, so I have an hour and a half. I quickly pick up the bags that contain my clothes and take them back to my room to organize them in my closet. It takes me 15 minutes to sort them and organize them. Then I organize all my parchment sheets and quills and ink boxes on the study table. Then I take all the other bags and place them on the love seat so that others can take them.

Then I pick out the blue slim jeans and grey coloured raw cut sleeve top and head out for a bath. I take a shower in record time and come out all dressed for the day. When I return to the room, Autumn is already up and making her bed.

“ Good Morning.” I say to her.

“ Good Morning.” She mumbles back sleepily. “ You are awfully chirpy for 6:30 in the morning.”

“ Oh! Don’t worry, it is just for today. I am excited and nervous for the first day, that is why I am so active.”

“Oh yes!!! Today is your first day. Let us get you ready for it.” She jumps up and down.

“ And I was chirpy.” I say back sarcastically. She laughs and says, “ Nice choice of outfit. Comfortable and trendy. Now you need to pack a few sheets of parchment and a quill with one or two ink pots. That would be enough for today.”

I pick up the only backpack that I have and pack the things she said. 

“ Any books that I might need?” I ask.

“ Umm.. I don’t think so. Most of the teachers teach from their own notes or practically.” 

“ Okay. Then only one thing is left to do.”

“ What’s that?” She asks with confusion written all over her face.

“ You need to teach me how to use the band so I can actually use it.” 

“ Oh yes! I totally forgot about it.” She takes the new black coloured band out of its box and powers it on. Then for the next five minutes she explains me all the basic stuff like how to save, send, upload and all. Then she saves her, Teagan’s and Rhiannon’s numbers and adds me to the group chat as well. 

“ Awesome! You are all good to survive your first day at Raefiya: school for souls.” 

I laugh and then put the band on my right wrist. Then I go to my closet to put on some eyeliner and a little lip gloss. I don’t wear much make-up, but some is needed as an armour against the cruel world. I put on my sneakers, pick up my backpack and take out the map of the school. Autumn explained me the way to the office but I still took out the map for backup, in case I get lost, which is totally possible. 

“ Best of luck Nyra! We all will meet you outside the office before the classes start.” I give a thumbs up to Autumn and exit the suite to go to the office.

I never used to have proper meals when I was human, so I don’t feel hungry at all. Right now, I am nervous as hell for this ritual. Getting to know one’s element is very important. I have seen the way the girls use their elements and it f*****g awesome. I have also noticed that they all have different attributes that are directly linked to their elements. I wonder what my elements would be.

I reach the headmistress’ office and take a deep breath before placing my hand against the barriers. The barriers vanish in an instant and I enter the room. 

“ Good Morning Nyra. I am impressed by your punctuality.” Professor Azura says. She is sitting behind her desk and has some paperwork open in front of her. She raises her eyes to meet mine.

I smile a small smile and answer, “ Thank you Professor and good morning to you too.” 

She leaves the paperwork and stands up. Then she waves her hand and then out of nowhere a stand appears in front of me. The stand has a glowing transparent ball floating a few inches over it. It's beautiful.

“ It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” She asks.

“Yes” I don’t know why I say it in a whisper and I am unable to take my eyes off the ball.

“ This ball will help us know your elements. For this ritual we need another student as well, so I asked Adeel to come here since you have already met him and you are comfortable around him.” She explains.

Just then the barrier vanishes and Adeel enters the room. He is dressed in black again. 

“Great! He is here. Now we can get started on the ritual.” She says. “ Adeel I need you in the west direction and facing the ball and Nyra, you will be standing directly opposite to him, that is in the east direction.” We do as asked. 

“Perfect! Now, Nyra you need to put both your hands against the ball. The ball will work as a catalyst and pull your magic outside. Adeel is here to provide the extra push if your magic is too deep inside.” I nod as I put my hands on the ball as instructed. 

I have magic inside me. I know it because the barriers open and I belong here. 

I chant this over and over inside me to remind myself that I am not going to be thrown out. That my life is finally gonna be better.

“ Nyra, now I need you to close your eyes and concentrate on the power that you feel inside you.” I close my eyes and take a deep breath and reach out to the well of the power inside me. It takes me a few seconds to concentrate but when I do, I can feel the warm and fuzzy feeling in the pit of my stomach. But it feels out of reach, so I try to approach it. But I am unable to. 

Then suddenly I feel Adeel’s hands around mine and his magic radiates around my hands. I take a deep breath to accomodate to the change and then use Adeel’s magic to reach out that warm feeling inside me. After a few seconds, I am finally able to tap into that well of magic inside me and push it out. Adeel’s magic connects with mine instantly, and it feels like reconnecting to a long lost friend. A part of me is astonished to feel that connection but the other part of me knows what is happening.

I gasp as I feel the power. It is too much. I hear the sharp intake of breath coming from directly in front of me. I open my eyes to see Adeel’s face to see that his eyes are on me. They hold the emotions of awe and utter surprise. 

I am confused as to why he is surprised. So, I look towards Professor Azura to find that she mirrors the emotions of Adeel. I look down at the ball and I gasp at the amount of colours it is showing. I look around to see that the colourful magic is swirling around me as well. It looks beautiful. It is like my magic is made up of every colour in a painter’s palette.

But before I can admire the beauty for sometime more, everything abruptly ends. The magic around me immediately goes inside the ball and the connection between me and Adeel is snapped. 

“ What just happened?” I ask breathily. Somewhere along this, apparently my breathing increased and sweat broke out all along my body.  

“ Nyra, relax. I need you to sit down and listen to me.” Okay this seems totally normal. I take one of the two seats and take a visible deep breath to show that I am relaxed and listening.

“ So? What is going on?” I ask.

“ Every soul has magic and their magic has affinity to one or more elements. Either this or they have the ability of healing. Most of the souls have either one or two elements. Powerful souls have three elements. Very rare souls have affinity to all four elements. You are one of those rare souls, Nyra.”

“ What?” I almost shout out.

“ You have affinity to all four elements. That means you can control air, water, earth and even fire. Not only this, you have immense power inside you. This is very rare. This kind of soul arrives in this realm once in centuries.” 

My head spins with this much information. I can’t believe this.

“ So you are saying that I can control all four elements and I am powerful?” I know I sound stupid repeating all the information Professor just told, but I need to confirm it. 

Since I died, everything is like a dream come true. I got into a school that teaches legit magic and then I got three perfect suitemates. I have money and I have friends on whom I can spend it. Not only this, I came to know that even I have magic. The story felt like it was straight out of one of my fiction fantasy books. And now I am being told that I am one of the rare souls with affinity to all four elements. 

“ Powerful? You are very, very, very powerful Nyra.” Adeel says. 

“ Okay, so what does this mean?” I ask, coming right down to business.

“ Well, it means that you will be attending classes of every element in addition to other mandatory classes.” Professor Azura as she starts typing on her band. Then a few seconds after that my wrist vibrates to indicate that I received a message. 

I click it open to see that the Professor just texted me my schedule for this year. It is jam packed with a few free hours scattered here and there.

“ Your schedule is more packed than others considering that you have all the elements. But I have tried to give you as many free hours in the week as I can. The classes are from Monday to Friday and the weekend is off.” Professor explains. “ Also, since the elements that one holds are directly related to one’s personality traits, it is totally possible that you have a hard time adjusting to them. Not only this, a soul's magic is directly linked to his or her emotions. So intense emotions can make you really, really volatile, unlike other souls considering that you are still new and hold all four elements. So I suggest you take help from your friends as much as you can to control your emotions and your magic. You can approach me anytime you like. I am always here in my office.” 

With that she dismisses me. So I get up and walk out of the room in a daze. 

“ You okay?” Adeel asks me as he exits the room with me. 

“ Yeah. It is just a lot to take in. I was still adjusting to the fact that I am here and now I am a rare powerful soul that arrives only once in centuries. My mind is reeling.” I answer him, honestly.

“ Yeah, I understand. Well, I am here if you need my help. Anytime and anywhere.” 

“ Thank you Adeel. I appreciate it.”

“ Nyra!” I turn around to find that Teagan, Autumn, Rhiannon are waiting for me at the end of the corridor. I wave to them and turn around to say goodbye to Adeel but see that he is already gone. Strange, but I shrug it off and go to my friends. 

"So? How did it go?" Autumn asks as soon as I am close to them.

" Let's talk while moving. I need to eat something." Rhiannon says and we all start moving towards the dining hall. I narrate the whole incident to them as precisely as I can. 

They are all shocked to hear that I have all four elements with me. And I am told that I should really get used to this kind of response.

" Now what?" Teagan asks after I complete my story. 

" Well, for now all I have to do is take up every class and learn how to use and control all my elements." I say as we enter the hall. It is filled with people eating their breakfast before the classes start. "Professor Azura specially warned me that  intense emotions can make me blow up or something." 

"Yeah, that happens a lot with the new souls. The emotions can help you control magic but when you lose the control, it's a disaster." Autumn explains.

"But since you are powerful and have all four elements, I think the blow up can be huge." Rhiannon adds on.

"That's totally comforting." I reply back in sarcasm. 

"What? I was just stating a fact or a hypothesis." She defends back. 

We all take our food and move towards an empty round table at the far end of the room. We all take our seats and dive into our food.

"What is your first class?" Teagan asks in between the bites. I open the schedule from my band and read the class aloud.

" Beginner Water Magic 101, taught by Professor Quinn in room number 15."

"Oh! That's awesome." Autumn exclaims. "Professor Quinn is an awesome teacher. You will have fun in that class.”

“Yeah? I am already excited for classes though.” I answer back.

Then we all finish our food and collect our stuff and start moving towards the classrooms. The building that has classrooms is situated on the opposite side of the building that has dorms and is separated by a huge lawn. So we have to cross the whole lawn to go to the classrooms. 

The sun is out and the weather is pretty hot. The field is covered with lush green grass that is mildly wet. There are students walking in groups towards the classes, some are sitting on the grass enjoying the sun. 

We enter the building and the first thing I notice is that we entered a huge room which then diverges into different corridors. I tilt my head up to see that the ceiling is made up of different coloured translucent barriers and right now, the sunlight is reflecting those colours on the floor of the hall. It looks awesome. 

“ Okay! Room 15 is on the first floor, while my and Teagan’s first few classes are on the ground floor. So this is where we part. Meet you at lunch.” Rhiannon says. They both wave at me and Autumn and then turn around to go to their classes. 

“ My first class is by the outdoor pool. As soon as the first class ends, I will come outside your class and then I will walk you to your next class.” 

“ Cool.” And with that, we too part ways and I make my way to my first class.