There is a big commotion and a loud voice yells out "QUIET!". It isn't a teacher, nor a student. It is the Swister. Its voice rings through the school, loud and clear, through our minds and into our hearts.
"WE WARNED YOU ONCE AND NOW IT IS TIME. THE FALLEN WILL RISE AND ALL OF YOU WILL PERISH. THE END IS COMING AND ALL YOU CAN DO IS WATCH! WAS IT WORTH IT? NO! THOSE OF YOU THAT WISH TO LIVE, COME OUTSIDE OR STAY INSIDE, AND DIE."
A hush falls over the school as some of the kids stand up from the stairs or turn from their friends, apologizing and weeping silently. They have chosen to leave the school, to fight against us. They have chosen to live, condemned us. They cross the entrance and walk outside. Helicopters rain down from the sky, picking up their new recruits. They leave soon, after they get all of them, and still no one speaks. No hushed whispers or frantic screaming for the victim.
A teacher goes out and picks up the limp body of Katrina, the victim. She is taken to the infirmry and the rest of us at this school, my new home, are sent to our rooms. Almost 75% of us are gone. Only 7 of us are left as Protectors. Nightshade goes to her room. We hear her sobbing. Katrina was her friend and there are no news of her yet.
Diego goes to his usual chair and sits there, staring blankly at a space on the wall, off in some far off place that I cannot see. I sit in the purple velvet chair next to him and study his eyes. They are green and blue, with a yellow splotch in one. They look full of knowledge and it is as if he knows too much.
"Diego, who was that? What are they talking about? Is there some sort of war going on that I haven't been told of yet?" I ask.
"That is exactly it, Zaira. There is a war and there is no way we will be able to win. No chance."
"This is pathetic! I am here for two days and I am going to die? No! Everyone here is going to sit down and not fight for our lives?" I sit down again, not realizing that I had stood up during my rant.
Diego turns to face me, annoyance and impatience in his voice and on his face. "This isn't a war we can fight! There are not many kids out there like us. With magic. Even here, at this academy, a lot of people don't even have magic. They are only here because they can see the monsters! There are thousands of the other side and there are only a couple hundred of us, and now less."
"I thought this was a school for magic! Why are we fighting anyway, and who is it against?"
"It is a school for people who know about magic, not neccesarily those who have it." he pauses and breathes out deeply and in again. All of the annoyance in his voice is gone and he looks at me, directly in the eyes. I can see clearly the scrapes and bruises he has from the other night. "Zaira, we are fighting monsters so ancient that we don't even know how to kill them. Some of the books here don't go back that far. They have the advantage. The person who brought them up...must be really powerful, strong and wise. We don't know who it is yet but we have been getting warnings and extra attacks from them ever since last year, right about this time of year, actually. They want all the magic to harvest and then they can rule our kingdom, through the Portal."
The Portal. I have heard only stories of it from my father. He would tell me of the great castles and how kind the people there were. The villages were filled with people, all living happy lives, not having to worry about monster attacks. King Alden and Queen Mirabelle were the best rulers that Yealia has ever seen. They have a beautiful daughter, named Princess Claudia, who is to be married to a man named Dante, the most noble knight the King has ever had. My father told me many stories of the Kingdom but I always thought it was a tale, even though my father claimed to live there when he grew up. I would laugh at him when he told me how beautiful the Princess was, but could never match the beauty of my mother. The King and Queen had a son too, two years younger then Princess Claudia, named Prince Isaac. He was a trickster my father would say. He told me about him many times and about the Princess, the peasents, the noblemen and servants and how he would sneak into the castle kitchen and grab food for his family. My mother worked there, and he would always pay her for leaving food in special hiding places.
The Kingdom always interested me but I never thought that they could be real. Being 15 now they seemed so imaginary, even though I knew about monsters and magic, things that happy just didn't exsist. If the stories are true, then Princess and Prince must be at least 18 and 16. They were just little kids about when my dad told me about them and my father told me he had just recently moved out of the Kingdom with my mother because they wanted see this world, have an adventurous life.
"The Portal? That really exsists? Well, the jerk that wants it for himself, is a-" Diego cuts me off.
"He wasn't a jerk! Maybe he just wants what truly belongs to him!" I notice the past tense in his sentence, but don't say anything.
"Diego-" again, he cuts me off.
"The King had a brother, a brother that was supposed to have the throne! That is who everyone suspects the person trying to take over the Kingdom is , but that is impossible because he is dead."
"Diego" I start again."Why are you taking this so personally? He will kill all of us if we don't first! You are acting like you know him!"
"I-I don't. I was just sticking up for him because I know what it is like to be pushed out of the way of glory." he stands up, stalks down the hall and goes into his dorm, number 9, and slams the door.
I stand up, stunned at the piece of information that Diego unknowingly just gave to me. "The King had a brother, a brother that was supposed to have the throne!" Diego was right. The brother of the King can not take over the throne, because he is dead.
But his son can.
