A Darker Shade of Sorcery - - (leveled readers .txt) 📗

of our castles has ten floors, if you hadn’t noticed already. Most people are Apprentices as it’s really hard to pass the trials and become a Mid-Realmer. You’ll rarely see Arch-Realmers as they’re always on missions.

They’re the real experienced warriors.”

“Tyrell, Lok and Arantay must've been Arch-Realmers,” Brooke thought aloud.

“Oh, did they recruit you then?”

“Kidnapped, more like,” said Brooke, remembering how scared she’d been.

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“Yeah, they don’t waste time do they?” Elijah said. “So you’ve already seen Arantay? Bit strange looking isn’t he?”

“You could say that.”

“Most people here are scared of him,” Elijah continued. “Well, most of the girls are fascinated by him. He gives me the creeps though.”

Arantay had looked strange, but he definitely hadn’t given her the creeps.

Elijah continued to lead her through the vast castle, down staircases that changed drastically from one another. One staircase was bronze, whilst another was carved from fluffy green dough and one staircase appeared to have a different substance for each step.

Through corridors they went, some lit by flickering torches; others by fluorescent balls of light within the walls themselves. Some passageways had levitating balls of electricity that lit the area from up high.

They passed a Victorian gas lamp in the corridor. Opposite the lamp stood a statue of Anubis, a Norman crown placed atop his head.

Elijah noticed her looking. “Earth is Veneseron's closest neighbour realm. Many chambers here are inspired by Earth's historical periods. Our bathrooms are neo-classical Greek and Roman. Some rooms reflect realms you'd never have heard of before. Master Padrake's training chamber resembles his home world. Valkyries built our towers and the Xulian race (the guys whose eye colour changes depending on their mood), helped--”

“Okay, stop.” Brooke laughed weakly. “Too much information at once, dude. I'm a bit of a dumbass anyway. I won't recognise many historical periods.”

They made their way through so many different doors, archways and cloisters that Brooke wondered how anyone could find their way around the place.

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All the while Elijah talked, apparently not pausing for breath. “There are ten types of missions we can be selected to do.”

“Ten!”

“Yeah, there are: detective, exploration or battle missions, also rescue, recruitment and peacekeeping, then hunting, undercover, guard and artefact-finding missions.”

Brooke blinked rapidly, trying to take everything in.

At last they emerged outside onto a black and white tiled courtyard, like an enormous chess board, which was a flurry of activity. An older boy clad in scarlet uniform was juggling balls of fire. A girl was extending her fingernails to ten times their natural size, then shrinking them back again. Two boys threw a leather ball in the air, as one cast ice from his fingertips to turn the ball into a solid block, the other cast flames to melt it again. Most shocking was a boy riding a giant lizard. He was unfazed as his lizard-steed scuttled across the courtyard onto the fields beyond.

Elijah grinned at her reaction. “Takes some getting used to. C’mon, I’ll take you to Ethanc’s. You’ll love it.”

Elijah led her up a steep slope to a bridge which joined two of the castles together.

Lucky I’m not scared of heights, she reflected as they walked across the narrow bridge.

In the courtyard below two Venators in armour wielded scintillating swords, duelling ferociously. One of them was Tyrell, he and his opponent fighting like their lives depended on it. Their swords were a blur of motion, sparks flying sporadically as the two weapons choreographed a deadly dance.

She pointed this out to Elijah, worried about Tyrell, but he just laughed. “They’re only training.”

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Brooke watched the furious swordplay ensue as she crossed the bridge. It was amazing how skilled they were.

She thought Elijah was taking her to one of the other castles, but then he turned down a narrower bridge that led towards a single tower.

“This,” Elijah said as he pulled back the glass door, “is Ethanc’s.”

The tower’s interior was mesmerising. Everything in the oval-shaped room was made out of glass, in all shades of blue. Even the bar was glass, and one wall was a huge aquarium, filled with bizarre creatures she'd never seen before. Another wall had a plasma television screen set in the middle, with what looked like a gnome news reporter speaking to the camera. “Are vampires choosing to feed on people with high cholesterol? Could eating your greens now save you from a vampire attack? Find out after the break.”

A chubby child with curly ginger hair stood behind the crystalline bar, sliding mugs to waiting Venators.

“It’s one of the places for us to chill out,” Elijah explained as he sat at a bench.

“Ethanc's is just one of our bars.”

The window beside her gave a fantastic view of Veneseron. The huge forest sat in the north, the tops of its trees like a patchwork quilt from this high up, with an array of colours from silver to purple. Barely discernible, the forest appeared to evolve into a jungle further north, but it was too far away to see properly.

The city sprawled to the west, towers gleaming proudly as its streets writhed with activity. She was shocked to see a beach to the east, its shoreline just visible beyond the many fields surrounding the Fortress. More shocking still, the beach appeared to have emerald green sand and the sea itself was violet.

“The usual?” the chubby child asked Elijah.

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Brooke was confused by Ethanc’s scraggly ginger beard; he looked like an eight-year-old.

“Yep. Cheers, Ethanc. And one for my friend.” He then whispered to her, “Don’t stare.”

“Why’s he got a beard?” Brooke whispered back.

“He’s two hundred years old.” Elijah looked at her in bewilderment. “Oh, he’s a Halfling,” he chuckled. “I keep forgetting how much you don’t know about this place.”

They were joined by two Novices who’d detached themselves from another group.

Elijah introduced the newcomers: Emillia, a bubbly girl with blonde ringlets and Xavier, a short and skinny boy with spiky black hair.

As Elijah went to the bar to collect their drinks, the Novices stared at Brooke with interest.

“So,” Emillia said excitedly, “what’s your story?”

“Er-I don’t know. Last night everything was normal and now I’m here in this…

place, filled with who knows what and in an entirely different world. And I’m being told I can do magic but I’ve never done anything magical before in my life. I don’t know why they took me.” Brooke thought she'd blurted out too much, but the Venators didn’t look alarmed.

“Loads of us feel that way when we first arrive,” Xavier explained. “I didn’t do anything magical before I was taken, but the Masters taught me. I thought I was going crazy at first. But now, now it just feels right.”

Brooke thought she understood, but until she performed sorcery herself she couldn’t truly believe it. She couldn’t deny everyone else around here could do it though.

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Elijah returned with drinks similar to the one that’d been in her room earlier.

“What is this?”

“Mavla. It’s an energy drink,” said Elijah. “It’s useful for some of the longer training sessions.”

“Too right,” added Xavier, arching his back in pain. “Urkzal had us on an obstacle course today. He made everyone complete it twice and wouldn’t stop until we’d all finished.”

“How come you’re not training now?” Emillia asked Elijah.

“I haven’t got any lessons until this evening.” He grinned, his teeth astonishingly white.

“When do you start?” Xavier asked Brooke.

“I- I don’t know,” she said, a little embarrassed.

“As there are so many Venators, we wait until there’s around a dozen new Novices ready for training before we chuck them in,” Elijah said. “It saves the Instructors explaining their particular form of sorcery to every single newbie. I reckon there are enough new Novices now, you’ll probably start tomorrow.”

That soon! Brooke’s stomach fluttered.

“I’ve got to say, I’m glad my Novice days are over,” Elijah added. “Veneseron is amazing and everything, but I hated cleaning, it’s a girl’s job.” Elijah smirked at Emillia and Brooke as they threw him dirty looks. “Just kidding.”

“What’s so bad about being a Novice?” Brooke asked.

Xavier answered, “As Novices, we're expected to help Sniglog with the cooking and the droids with the cleaning. You also have to help lay the tables in the Banquet chamber sometimes.”

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Brooke must’ve made a face at that, because Elijah said, “It’s how we work with one another. Novices serve all the other ranks whilst the higher ranks, especially Arch-Realmers, help the Masters with the training.” He leaned back, smiling blissfully. “In my opinion Apprentice is the best rank. You no longer have to clean, but neither do you have to help train anyone else. You’ve only got to worry about your own training.”

“You’re lucky though,” Xavier told her. “Your aura is strong for a newcomer, you could move up to Apprentice in no time.”

Brooke snorted. “That’ll be hard for someone who’s never done sorcery.”

“You will,” Emillia promised.

*

Elijah walked her back to her room in what she'd discovered was Castle-Coterie.

As they reached Brooke’s door a beaming Padrake bounced into view.

“There you are. I was worried you might’ve run away,” he proclaimed. Brooke tried to keep a straight face, noticing how Padrake gesticulated dramatically whenever he spoke.

“I see Mr Gold has been looking after you. Did you enjoy the grand tour?”

“I guess so.” Veneseron was truly breathtaking, but everything was just so bizarre.

“Ah, as I thought,” Padrake continued, she didn’t think he’d even heard what she said.

“Right,” he said brightly, clapping his hands together. “You begin training first thing tomorrow. You’ll find your Novice uniform in your wardrobe. I’ve spoken with

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Gettelung, you’ll be doing strictly magical training for a while, just to see what you’ve got. Then we’ll draw up a proper schedule, depending on your talents.”

Brooke nodded wordlessly.

“Well if that’s all, I’ll be off,” he declared, already strolling away.

Brooke turned to Elijah, who’d been sniggering as Padrake spoke. “What did he mean by schedule?”

“Well they’ll test you first, then decide what kinds of sorcery you’re best at, and combine your magic learning with the physical training we do.”

“There’s physical training as well?”

Elijah nodded as he walked her to her bedroom. “Yep, they randomly assign Novices to either magical or physical first as it would be too much at once. Training takes up most of our days, but we do get time to chill out too. Maybe we can hang out once you’re free tomorrow?”

“Sure.” She smiled, waving goodbye as she stepped into her room.

As Padrake promised, there was a Novice uniform in the wardrobe.

Her jacket, which Brooke thought resembled a pirate jacket, was white, but with red collar, cuffs and buttons. Similar to how Arantay’s jacket had been red but with black collar and buttons and Elijah’s had been blue with gold buttons. Brooke guessed the colours signified each rank here.

She noticed her jacket also bore what had to be Veneseron’s symbol sewn into the bottom left-hand side. The symbol had a golden background and was three-inches-tall. It depicted an armoured Venator, the right hand clung to a sword, whilst the other held a fireball.