Magelore Book 1: Smoke and Fire

Chapter 3

Akira

I could barely breathe. Not her. Of all the people I could have had to live with for the next five months-
"Akira!"
I turned sharply and almost crashed into my best friend, Maximus Lee. He was tall, with dark, curly brown hair and his face was covered with freckles.
"Hey, Max!" I exclaimed. I hadn't expected to see Max here. He lived halfway across the world, in Oracle City. We used to go to school there, but then my mom died, and we moved out here, to the mountains.
"My mom was a bit... hesitant to let me learn Water magic," said Max. "You know, after..." He trailed off. There was an awkward pause. Max was like a brother to me. He had loved my mom almost as much as I had, and when she died, it had scarred him and his family. He'd stopped talking to me for 4 months straight. That was part of the reason we'd moved.
"But after I heard you were coming here, I convinced my mom to let me go too!" He grinned widely. I smiled too.
"Let's go sit down," I said, turning toward the tables in the middle of the room. As we walked through the dining hall, someone caught my eye. Raven.
"Actually, let's sit somewhere... more private," I said quickly. "We need to talk." Max looked at me, confused. Later, I mouthed.
We found a seat in the corner where no one else was and sat down.
"What's up?" Max asked, looking a bit concerned.
"So... I got my partner!" I said nervously.
"I did too!" said Max, smiling. "Their name's Riley. They're awesome!" Riley. I hadn't heard that name in my class. Right, Max was learning water magic, so most of his classes were different than mine. "So what's wrong?" he asked.
"It's my partner..."
"What's their name?"
"Raven."
"Why is that a problem? Do you have something against birds now?" Max teased.
"No, it's..." I sighed. "Raven Almex. Her last name is Almex." Max gasped.
"Wait... that Almex? It can't be... But they must know what happened, right? I'm sure you can change your partner..."
"My class is small. It only has a few groups. Even if I was allowed to change my partner, I wouldn't be able to," I grumbled.
"Fuck!" Max cursed. He'd spilled his cup of tea all over his pants. "I'm gonna go clean this up. Hang in there, alright?" He shot me one last grin before running across the huge dining hall to grab some napkins to clean up the mess.
When I had first entered the dining hall, I could barely think. Getting Raven as my partner and seeing Max had taken my mind off the beauty of the school. But now, sitting alone in the corner, I was able to admire the beautiful architecture. The dining hall was huge, 300 feet wide and 700 feet long. The ceiling seemed impossibly high, covered in beautiful paintings of powerful mages showing off their abilities. The entire floor was filled with bench after bench, except for near the back wall where food was being served. There were massive wooden doors beyond that, leading to the kitchen, I supposed. The food, however, was not how I'd expected it to be based on the beauty of the dining hall. I'd had meatloaf before, and it had never been this... liquidy?
Tentatively, I took a bite of the "meatloaf." Blergh. It tasted weird, like it wasn't meant to be eaten. Was that a hint of... soap? Whatever it was, I definitely shouldn't have been eating it. I spit it out into a napkin and threw it away. Just as I sat back down, Max returned with two cookies in his hand.
"There's dessert," he said. "Want one?" He held a cookie out to me.
"I'm good," I said. Max laughed.
"'More for me, I guess." He tried to eat both cookies at the same time. One of them fell out of his mouth and hit the floor. He swallowed the first cookie, then picked up the second one.
"Dare me to eat this?" he asked.
"Fuck no, that's a floor cookie!" I exclaimed, disgusted. Max snickered and shoved the cookie in his mouth anyway.

Back in my dorm, I sat on my bed, drawing in my sketchbook. It was a thick leather bound book, with my name written on the front in intricate black lettering. The sketchbook had been a gift from my mom  before she died. I remembered back when I was little, my mom and dad used to take me to the beach near our home in the city. I'd loved to draw shapes in the sand, complex patterns and designs. That was why my mom got me the sketchbook for my eighth birthday. The year she'd died.
Just then, there was a loud BAM! I jumped, dropping my sketchbook in alarm. It hit the hardwood floor with a CLUNK. I whirled around to see where the noise had come from. Raven Almex stood in the doorway.
"What the hell was that?!" I asked.
"I just...opened the door a little too hard, that's all," she grumbled. "Sorry."
I sighed and picked up my sketchbook. Raven sat down on her bed, staring at the wall in front of her. I looked at her and for the first time, I noticed that her hair, which I'd thought was pure black at first, showed a little shimmer of dark green when the light hit it. It looks kind of pretty, said a little voice in my head. Wait, what? Pretty? I couldn't be calling this girl pretty. After all the pain her family had caused me?
I leaned back, lost in thought. And then a memory came flooding back to me.
I was just nine years old. It was a hot summer day, and as usual, my dad and I were at the beach. I was drawing animals in the sand with a stick when a girl with dark blue eyes and a long scar on her cheek came up to me. "Nice drawings," she said. I thought I recognized her, but I didn't know where I knew her from. I turned to my dad, who was lying in the sand, reading.
"Dad?" I asked him. "Do I know that girl from somewhere?"
He turned slowly. When his eyes met hers, they went wide with surprise.
"Uh... let's go home, Akira," he said, so shocked his voice was barely audible.
"But why?"
"Akira, if you ever see that girl again, tell me right away, you understand?"
I sighed. "Yeah, Dad."
"Good. Let's go home, sweetie."