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

cannot do

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1. Time Travel

2. Forcing emotions (Such as hate and love.) 3. Reviving the dead

Well, I guess love potions are a myth, Brooke thought. She turned back to Emi, before noticing that Emillia was already at the end of the corridor. She was still talking animatedly, this time to thin air, oblivious to the fact Brooke wasn’t there.

“Hey, wait up.”

When they’d reached the weaponry courtyard, the instructors were already barking orders. She and Emi lined up amongst the other Novices, as Mistress Casselle gave a speech about how important magical weapons and armour were on missions.

Whilst Casselle spoke, Brooke saw Apprentices training with laser guns metres away, whilst several Arch-Realmers on the other side of the courtyard were partaking in a knife throwing competition.

The first boy fell short of the circular target, although Brooke doubted any normal teenager could throw a knife that well. The next knife smashed dead centre into the bull’s-eye with such force the hilt quivered. Tyrell smiled modestly as the others clapped him on the back.

A silver blur hit the target next, smashing through the knife already in the bull’s-eye, splitting the wood of the handle and causing Tyrell’s knife to clatter to the ground. The shock on the Arch-Realmers faces echoed Brooke’s as they turned to see who’d cast the throw.

Early evening shadows sculpted his perfect form as Arantay stepped from an alcove between two castles. He walked through the crowd to retrieve his dagger, before approaching Casselle.

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Brooke felt her heartbeat quicken as Arantay joined them. Emillia let out a squeak.

“Novices, this is Arantay, he will be one of the Arch-Realmers assisting your training,” said Casselle. “Show him the same respect you would me, his weaponry skill is equal to none but Urkzal himself.”

Brooke nodded along numbly with the other Novice’s.

She noticed the other girls couldn’t keep their eyes off him. Brooke was purposely trying not to stare, she didn’t want to meet that red eyed gaze. She'd come over all nervous and jittery.

As she attempted to keep calm, Casselle handed out wooden swords. Brooke took hers anxiously, the weapon felt bizarre in her hands.

Casselle then commanded the Novices all pair up and spar with one another.

Brooke and Emillia proceeded to touch swords clumsily, both embarrassed at how bad they were.

Casselle sighed, “You all need much work.”

She called over several Arch-Realmers, enough for each Novice to train with separately. Each Arch-Realmer began picking a Novice to train. As Brooke waited to be selected, she heard a cough behind her.

As she turned, Brooke swore her heart stopped beating for a second. Arantay stood before her. His eyes took hold of hers and a subtle smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

“Hello again,” he spoke, his voice soft but powerful. His eyebrows creased for a moment as he thought. “Brooke, right?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” she replied breathlessly.

He nodded, hefting his wooden sword and beckoning her forward. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

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Feeling stupid, Brooke lunged forwards, aiming to hit Arantay in the ribs, but not wanting to hurt him.

He evaded easily, turning his body to the side so her sword met air. She stared at him uncomfortably, wishing she was anywhere but here.

“Again,” he said.

Brooke slashed for his head this time, but he dodged back with liquid agility.

“Again.”

Soon her shirt was slicked with sweat and her arms were hurting, but Arantay showed no signs of slowing down. She noticed Arantay hadn't once attempted to attack her back.

“Don’t be afraid of hurting me, you hang back at the last second. I can take it, I promise.” He smiled at her then and she felt herself flush.

To mask her blushing, Brooke surged forwards. Once more he weaved away. She tried a back-handed swipe, but he leapt aside just in time.

“That’s better.”

Brooke arced her sword in an overhead strike with all her strength. Her target, Arantay’s head, vanished as her sword sped towards it. As the sword came down, she tripped over her own feet and fell, smashing her nose against the flagstones.

Arantay kneeled by her side. “Rueda. Are you okay?”

“Yeah just let me…” she trailed off, putting a hand on her bleeding nose and concentrating. Slowly, she repaired the damage and stopped the blood flow. Even so, drops of it had splattered everywhere, speckling her face and neck. Arantay delicately wiped the blood away with his sleeve. The touch of his fingertips shot thrills through her body.

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Why does he have to be so attractive? She could feel his breath tickle her cheek and see the concern in his eyes. His hand moved down to her neck, his fingertips stroking the flesh as he wiped the red drops away. Her breathing quickened. Despite her blood surging, her nerves tingling, she'd never felt safer and secure as she did then, with him leaning over her, protecting her from anything.

Abruptly, Arantay’s eyes snapped up from her neck and met her own. At that moment, she felt compelled to kiss him. She yearned to touch him as tenderly as he'd touched her. But then Arantay was standing and pulling her to her feet.

“Thanks,” she said, shocked by her feelings.

“No problem,” he replied, his hand lingering in hers for a second.

“Teach her footwork,” Casselle called as she passed. “We can’t have Venators dying because of their own two feet.”

“Sorry,” said Brooke.

Arantay flashed her a devastating grin. “No need to be sorry. I’ll have you a master swordswoman in no time.”

She smiled back at him, unable to help how she felt.

“But that’s enough for today. Tomorrow we’ll do footwork,” he said, placing their swords in the pile feet away.

“See you tomorrow,” she said half anxiously, half eagerly.

Arantay waved at her before disappearing from view, merging with other Venators leaving the courtyard.

*

186

Thoughts of the demon attack lingered in Evan’s thoughts throughout the week.

Paranoia and anxiety plagued him and the nightmares of the shadow-woman with purple eyes haunted his sleep more and more.

The fact demons were hunting him was turning him into a nervous wreck. Evan tried to push it to the back of his mind, but the dark thoughts kept streaming back.

He tried to focus on his training instead. His first lesson that morning was Creature-Study, where they sketched various creatures that had been brought in. To Jed’s dismay, none of the nymph models who posed for them did so in the nude.

After that was Anatomy training, where Evan enjoyed learning to transform his fingers into keys to unlock any door. Once he had his fingers back to normal, he headed for a recreational room in Castle-Coterie.

He’d never been in this particular rec room before, but the giant TV on the wall aired a soap opera about an orc and a goblin embarking on a passionate, but forbidden, love affair.

“So other realms have their own television channels?” Brooke said as Evan approached her.

“A few,” said Elijah, “it's not too popular amongst many races, but goblins love their soap operas, and elves are mad for the theatre.”

“Change the channel Emi,” Xavier shouted. “I wanna' see if my Jewelball team won their match.”

“No, put it on the news,” said Nena. “I need to know if our Arch-Realmers destroyed the trolls planning to invade Mongolia.”

As he sat down, Jed and Brooke began playing the Venator game Where's Wendigo. A large tome was spread between them as they looked through a picture of Veneseron city, trying to locate the hidden Wendigo.

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“Mate, we need to check out the city in person,” Jed said. “I still haven’t visited.

Vamps, ogre’s, gnomes, you name it, they all live down there.”

“Me too,” Brooke said. “It looks incredible.”

Evan agreed, whenever he glanced to the valley below his eyes drank in the fantastic vista, it was like something out of a dream.

“When can we go though?” he said. “We’re nearly always in training.”

“Umm, the day after tomorrow,” Jed decided.

“Yeah, I’ve only got to help Sniglog in the morning, then I’m free until weapon training in the evening,” said Brooke.

“Er, I’ve got physical in the morning and that’s it. I might have Extended Sorcery, but not until late,” Evan added.

Jed grinned from ear to ear. “Excellent. I’ve got cleaning in the morning, weapon training all day and then magic training afterwards, but I’ll come anyway.”

Brooke and Evan laughed loudly as Elijah said, “You’ll need me then, or at least one person who knows their way around, otherwise you’ll get totally lost.”

“Awesome, I can’t wait to see what it’s like. I bet it’s even freakier than this place,” Jed said eagerly, glancing at the yellow grasshopper by the window, which highlighted his sentence by emitting a smog-like gas to combat the fairy teasing it.

“I’ll inform Gettelung that we’re going,” said Elijah.

“You should check out Veneseron Zoo,” said Emillia.

“No, no you should go to the museum,” Xavier advised. “They've got the bones of the most intriguing monsters.”

“Nah,” Izekiel said. “You need to go to the gaming arcades and casinos.”

“Right, I’ve got a lap around the Fortress to look forward too.” Brooke smiled as she stood up.

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“Yeah and I've got Astral-Projection training, Apprentice rank only.” Elijah grinned.

“Oh, boys we've got theatre club in five minutes.” Emillia addressed Zeke and Xavier.

“See ya” he and Jed chorused as they departed.

Evan knew additional training like magical theatre was on offer, but it wasn't compulsory. Apparently, the theatre instructor was a Tryclops. Like the mythical Cyclops, except he had three heads all with just one eye each. Supposedly one head was a method actor, whilst the other was a mime artist and the third was very flamboyant. The three heads were constantly arguing.

As Brooke and the others left the room, Cera entered. Evan sat up, straight and alert.

“What’s wrong with you mate, oh-” Jed cut off when he saw Cera walking over.

As she stopped at their sofa, Jed shot a look at Evan, wriggling his eyebrows up and down.

“Is it alright if I sit with you guys?” Cera asked, her big green eyes focused on him.

“Er-” he started.

“No problem,” Jed broke in, gesturing to the seat beside him. Cera took the seat beside Evan instead. Jed took one look at Evan’s face and his grin grew wider.

“How come you guys aren’t training?” Cera asked.

“Er-” Evan started again.

“We’re supposed to be cleaning some random hallway, but Veneseron’s got robots for that, so we thought we wouldn’t bother,” Jed answered again. “What about you?”

“Oh, I just finished an Illusion session. We were working on glamours today.”

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“So, not been here long then?” Jed asked, gesturing at her Novice attire, which contrasted starkly with Cera’s flawless dark skin.

Evan was furious, that'd been the question he'd been plucking up the courage to ask.

“Oh,” Cera winced. “No, I’ve lived in Veneseron all my life.”

“Huh?” Evan regretted the noise the moment it was out of his mouth.

“Well my family live in the city, all of them have been Venators. My blood line is pretty