GLASS || The Catalysts Series, #1

Part 3 || XXIV || City Of Leatia

PART THREE:
THE BORDERS
The City Of Leatia: The Bridge And Beyond

"Oh boy," Roen says, smacking his face and then after realising his hair is suddenly untidy, runs a hand through it in an attempt to smoothen it. "Stop him."

"Right," Neesha agrees, blinking out of her own stupor. She shakes her head, then grabs both Lena and Roen by their arms. "Let's go!"

"What?" Lena protests, trying to flail her arms away from Neesha. "Where are we going?" Please not to Caelus who has just unleashed his fury.

Neesha pulls Roen and Lena through the gates of Arcane Academy. As they do, Lena feels a horrible wrench in her gut, and her head spins. She doesn't look at her surroundings as they pass through a new dimension. When they are at the other end of the gate, Lena takes several moments to pull herself together. Her hands on her knees, she has her eyes shut tight. The vertigo is unbearable.

This will take some getting used to, she reminds herself, before opening her eyes to the majestic sight of the City of Leatia.

Although the City of Leatia isn't like Arcane Academy's fifth dimensional world, it looks just as beautiful. Lena still finds herself awed at the advanced region, the Static. City of Leatia itself is already too impossible to fathom. The Static, the very centre of the city, is ever always on the move, bustling with adventure.

"Caelus!" Roen calls, and Lena snaps her eyes away from the view and towards where Roen's voice leads.

Caelus looks slightly mystified to see him. "What are you doing here?"

"Classes are cancelled," Neesha explains. "We're heading home, too."

Glinting purple eyes study Neesha, Roen, and then Lena, whose heart stops. It's as if he is trying to make out if they are fooling him. "Great. Will classes be cancelled for the entire week?"

"Does it matter even if they cancel? You hardly attend either way," Neesha states.

Roen gives a thoughtful look. "You know, that kind of reminds me. Neesha, Ms Iparis is already getting on his case, isn't he? She's saying, 'If I don't see that boy in my class, I'm going to have his privileges revoked', something like that."

To Lena's surprise, Caelus flinches even as she thinks he'll shrug it off. But in a matter of milliseconds, he returns to being himself. With a hint of annoyance in his voice, he says, "Let her do as she pleases. She doesn't have the slightest authority."

Caelus suddenly tenses and frowns. His eyes narrow as he looks somewhere to his right, then glancing briefly to Roen and Neesha, ultimately landing his gaze on Lena. His eyes widen ever so slightly, and in a very quick gesture he brings one of his hands up and closes his fist, as if he's caught something. Lena thinks she hears some clicking sounds, but it's so faint and inaudible that she doesn't know what the source is, and it is too easily dismissed. With that fist still closed and near to his chest, Caelus uses his other hand to silence a questioning Roen. Only after about roughly a minute does he let his arms fall to his side, his shoulders relaxed and carefree once more.

He takes a step back, and the way Caelus glares Lena in the eyes tells her although he has agreed to help her, he doesn't seem to acknowledge her as a friend just yet. Or, it seems, does not trust her at all.

"Don't stand too close to me," he says pointedly, and to her, her specifically.

The words are rolling off Lena's tongue before she can think, as they always do when someone makes her temper flare. "What makes you think I want to stay near you? Why don't you back off?"