Magia: Eli's Awakening (BxB)

Chapter 10- Payback

The dining hall was marvelous, the same white and gold walls, the cedar wood tables lined out, there are buffet tables and circular tables, occupying most of the space. Seemingly to accommodate a couple hundred students.

Sitting there at a circular table was Mr. Donia, for the first time, not in a suit or a dress shirt, but instead donning a t-shirt and and jeans, his hair pulled into a messy bun. The normalcy didn't suit him, it made him look somewhat awkward.

"Hey Mr. D." Eli said and he slid onto the bench.

"Good Evening Eli, I figured it was a fine night for some chinese." He said lifting up a bag that did in fact contain chinese food.

"Is that from the mundane realm?"

"Yes, I visited earlier, a little after the training session." He responded taking out the food from the bags and placing it on the table.

"Why?" Eli asked, looking through the bags hoping to find something that looks especially appetizing.

"No reason in particular, I just really like the realm, it's... quaint, and the untalented are kinda fun to watch."

"It's fun to watch people?"

"Somewhat... I tend to fabricate stories in my head, just thinking of what each person's life is like, trying to guess their entire existence." Mr. Donia took out the chopsticks and started eating his portion of the food.

"That seems like something old people would do, by the way, how old are you Mr. D?"

"110 years old if we're talking human years."

Eli choked on the rice he was swallowing and hit his chest repeatedly trying to swallow down the lodged foreign object and the information he just heard.

"Are we immortal?" Eli asked his eyes bulging out, he didn't know if he could deal with immortality.

"No, we just age slower than the mundane. For every three years a human ages we age only one, these effects normally take place after your 21st birthday, so you should age slower in three more years." Mr. Donia said calmly just eating his food.

"How did you not tell me this before, this is something I should've known from the get go!" Eli said as he stood abruptly.

"Sit down. It slipped my mind, there's only so much an old 110 year old man like me can remember." Somehow Eli chuckled at that joke but he wasn't calm, he sat and began worrying. His family, he'll outlive them all, that is, if he had one.

"It's really the main reason why we don't associate ourselves with the mundane, other than the magic of course, nobody wants to outlive a friend or relative, so we stay away." The last bit having a sharp edge definitely sending across a message that Eli heard loud and clear.

Stay away from the Mundane Realm. This old man has another thing coming if he thinks I'm not going back there.

Finishing up his food, he smiled and thanked Mr. Donia for the dinner and went back to his dorm to retire for the night. Luckily he avoided seeing Javier as he probably would've said something else that he would've regretted.

***

Another morning he rose, taking a shower, making his coffee and eating his breakfast and heading out to the field is the routine Eli has fallen into. As he made his way to his teacher he can't help but wonder what was wrong with Javier recently, he'd been very moody and it was kind of making him a little on edge as well.

"Morning Eli." Mr. Donia's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he smiled as he greeted his teacher and friend.

"Did you practice the technique last night?" Mr. Donia asked rolling his sleeves up and discarding his tie.