(A/N: just realised I'll probably have to explain what the Beast class system is. Sorry, completely forgot to do this in the previous chapter ^^'
Okay, so. The Trite class is the weakest class, basically like insects. In the wise words of Viola, they "have a little power, but it's not even enough to bond with." Next is the Familiar class, which most kids choose to bond with. They're not that common but have a little more magical power than the Trites. Then there's the Prime class, basically the Familiar class but a little harder to find and a lot more powerful.
After that comes the Mythic class, comprised of Beasts so rare they're talked about like myths-- really hard to find, incredibly powerful, and will almost certainly attack if provoked. And finally, we have the last class, the Legendary class, with only six in the class itself. They're the most powerful of all, basically, parts of the land themselves, with enough power to cause natural disasters. For instance, they can swallow ships whole, or cause landslides so massive they wipe out entire villages-- or, even crush those same villages under their feet. Cool, right? This will come in handy, I promise.)
As they entered Mandeep's classroom, Barclay was immediately drawn to a milk-white, cobra-like Beast coiling itself around Mandeep's arm. The Scholar had his back turned to the students, scribbling on some sort of black, chalky board, white robes swishing gracefully each time he moved. Though he was behind the lectern, far away from where the audience of students sat, the Beast on his arm still glittered beautifully, every scale shimmering in the light, milky head snaked towards the students curiously.
Tadg pulled his chair out from under the table, the legs squealing loudly against the polished floor, and sat down, narrowing his eyes at the Beast. "I've seen that Beast before," he muttered to himself. Barclay could almost see the gears whirring in his mind-- Tadg knew more about Beasts than anyone else he'd ever met, so it was no surprise he was trying to place this new, mysterious one. "Where . . .?"
While Tadg was completely focused on the unknown Beast, Barclay was very busy trying to be as quiet as he could, not wanting to draw attention to the fact that they were several minutes late. The auditorium did not help this endeavour at all; in fact, it amplified all the noise, making a single cough echo via the curved ceiling and the slightest squeal of a chair leg ricochet through the air. He winced as he sat down, knitting his fingers together anxiously.
The walls were made of strips of glossy wood, looking like ribbons of brown silk running from the stone floor to the ceiling. Huge windows spanned either side of Mandeep, to the left and to the right, letting sunlight pour in and making every facet of the classroom sparkle like a diamond.
Mandeep didn't look an iota out of place in his elegant, snow-white robes, head tilted to the side, black hair swishing around his ears. Barclay could just see the glint of copper glasses through his hair. Pausing for a moment from his activity on the black board, he raised a hand and ran a finger affectionately over the snakelike Beast's head. The Beast purred, arching its white head into the air, smushing itself against its Keeper's hand. Its fangs and eyes, Barclay realised, were made of pure gold.
"What were you doing?" Viola hissed at him, startling him out of his thoughts.
"Wh-what?" Barclay whisper-yelped, so surprised by the sudden, violent whisper he almost fell out of his chair. "Oh. Sorry."
Viola was Runa's third and final apprentice, and also Barclay's best friend. She wore her black hair coiled tightly in two puffy buns, and her scarlet cloak was covered in golden buttons that shone in the light (Mitzi, Viola's dragon, loved pecking at things, so Viola had started collecting buttons in the hope that Mitzi would peck at the buttons instead of her hair). "Mandeep was supposed to start ten minutes ago!"
"Sorry," Barclay repeated under his breath, ducking his head as an embarrassed flush stole over his cheeks. "I guess I lost track of time."
"Uh-huh," Viola muttered. She leaned back in her chair, crossing one leg over the other. "That's quite a lot of time to lose track of."
"Oh, Barclay? Tadg? You're here? Good. Ah-hem! Now that we're all here . . ." Apparently noticing the two had entered the room, Mandeep looked around the classroom. The Beast hissed around at the surrounding students, and for the first time, Barclay realised that it had two separate heads. One of them-- the one Barclay had thought was the only actual head-- watched the students with a wary eye, while the other one, which up until that point had just looked like part of the tail, nuzzled Mandeep's shoulder affectionately.
"To start with, I want to introduce you all to Th'ban," Mandeep began, motioning to the two-headed Beast, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he smiled proudly. The cobra, Th'ban, purred again at the attention, pressing the top of its-- well, one of its-- heads happily against Mandeep's shoulder. "I'm sure you're all wondering what kind of Beast he is."
Leaving the affectionate head to cuddle with Mandeep, Th'ban and opened its other mouth to hiss at the audience, revealing vivid red gums and a gaping, shadowy maw. Its hood slowly unfurled, revealing an inner working of shimmering gold scales that curled around another like some of the latticework Barclay had seen on the metal gates around the university, all crisscrossing patterns, swirls, and spirals.
"It's so pretty," Barclay whispered under his breath, mesmerised.
"It's a snake," Shazi, the girl sitting behind Barclay, shivered. "How pretty can it be?"
"Th'ban is an Abok," Mandeep continued fondly, stroking the Beast. Th'ban made a low, pleased rumbling noise and bumped one of his small noses against Mandeep's knuckles. "Abok are Prime class Beasts. They're not that powerful, but one of the rarest finds in the desert. They're tough to spot, you understand, and don't reproduce easily. The secret is removing one of his heads."
Seeing their horrified expressions, Mandeep laughed. "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt him. The head grows back quickly, too. As a rule, they don't have blood, so it's not quite the gory procedure you're thinking of. In fact, the cycle happens naturally sometimes-- for example, Th'ban here was born when his predecessor happened to anger a more powerful Beast."
Hasu, a short, brown-skinned girl from the Jungle, nervously stuck her hand in the air. Mandeep nodded at her, and she fidgeted quietly for a moment more before speaking. "E-excuse me. You said we'd be talking about something called the Nocturnal Waste, right? I'm not sure. . . does Th'ban have something to do with that?"
Mandeep smiled. "Excellent question! The answer is quite simple. All Abok actually come from the Nocturnal Waste. Their species originated there, as far as we can tell, and they have some interesting connections with the Waste's existence.
"Now, I'll start talking about the Waste itself. I'm sure you're all eager to hear about it, but I must tell you: I was not planning on giving a lecture on the Waste at all this year." His expression grew sombre, and Barclay felt a chill run down his spine at the sudden change in atmosphere. "In fact, I was hoping to never even have to warn you away from it. But, as matters go, it happens that one of the students wandered away from the school and came across it.
"The student is safe now, of course, though he is resting in the infirmary and will be doing as such for the next couple of weeks until he can fully recuperate. Since several other students have also gone missing, we've given some Guardians the mission of going into the Waste and retrieving those who may be missing inside its walls."
Barclay shivered at the warning, suddenly feeling slightly cold. Several other students looked around at each other, murmurs starting to rise among them as they wondered just what the Waste was. How dangerous was it? How close was it to the school? How easy was it to get lost and die inside?
Mandeep cleared his throat, putting an end to the whispers. "The Nocturnal Waste is made of huge stone walls reaching far into the sky. No light at all touches the ground since the corridors are so narrow and the walls are so tall. What the Waste is is essentially a huge, stone maze-- nobody knows why it was made, even. It's very easy to get lost in its depths, and not even the most knowledgeable Scholars know how deep it really goes."
Mandeep paused for a moment, letting that sink in. Through the windows, the wind brushed against the walls, blowing sand through the air in trailing ribbons of sandy brown. The student body started to murmur again, even Viola looking somewhat nervous at the idea of such a dangerous structure being so close to the school.
A huge maze, filled with unknown dangers and a complete lack of light? A place where nobody knew how to escape once they got lost? A dark, dangerous set of twisting corridors, probably with crumbling bricks and strange Beasts and any other manner of ways a student could die?
Barclay decided he was very glad that Mandeep had decided not to take them all on a field trip.
All of a sudden, Mandeep cleared his throat again, drawing the student's attention back to him. Th'ban stretched his maw wide open, letting out a tiny snake yawn and revealing a pair of elegantly arched golden fangs. The inside of his mouth was, startlingly enough, bright red.
"Ahem. After a description like that, I would hope that all of you-- seeing as you've been able to get this far into your school year-- are smart enough to not wander close to the walls of the Waste. But just in case of . . . extraordinary circumstances . . ." Mandeep's eyes swept over the students, pausing on a few students who were looking almost excited at the idea of such a dangerous place. "I will be showing you how to conduct yourselves inside of the Waste.
"First of all, the problem of light." Mandeep reached into his desk and pulled out a wax candle, a match, and a small chunk of what looked like rock. Barclay wasn't sure what it was, actually-- no matter how much he squinted at it, he simply couldn't tell what it was. It was like a shadow occupying a small, rock-shaped piece of reality.
"Now. In the case that you were visiting the Waste-- which I'm sure none of you will ever attempt--" Mandeep cast those among the students who looked somewhat excited a dark, forbidding glare-- "You would probably try and use a candle just like this so that you could see where you are going, correct?" He let the students murmur about for a bit, then, looking amused, shook his head and dropped the candle on the table. "I'm afraid that, for you, it won't work."
Another moment of silence descended upon the students, this time, one of surprise rather than puzzlement. Finally, a student Barclay identified as a girl named Deirdre stuck her hand in the air, seeming quite befuddled. ". . . what do you mean, 'it won't work'?" she echoed.
"Here, let me show you." Mandeep lifted the rock a little higher. "This is a piece of brick from the inside of the Waste. I'm sure all of you can see something is wrong with it. It doesn't quite look normal, does it?"
He set the rock down on the table and picked up the match, striking it against the table with a sudden stroke. Fire burst to life on the scratchy surface of the match, grasping at the air with hands of gold and orange.
Mandeep brought the match close to the stone, and after a few seconds of squinting to try and see what was happening that was so mysterious, Barclay suddenly gasped. His hands flew to his mouth. The sound was quickly echoed by dozens of others as more and more students realised what was going on.
The light did absolutely nothing to illuminate the rock Mandeep held: it remained black as anything, doused in shadows apparently too deep to be lit.
Barclay stared at the rock, mesmerized. "How . . ."
Mandeep glanced up at the students, a faint smile crossing his lips. "As you can see . . . the Waste is completely dark. And no matter what we've tried, it has always remained that way-- at least, until a couple of years ago.
"No matter how many times you try and light a candle in the Waste, or no matter how many times you try and use your Lore, it simply won't work. Nothing works. The light appears, of course, but as you and I have both seen for ourselves, it won't illuminate anything at all. And this is where Th'ban comes in."
"How does a snake have anything to do with not being able to see?" Hasu called again, her eyebrows crinkling in confusion. "Wait, can Th'ban even see? He has gold eyes!"
"Well, it's an Abok," Tadg muttered to himself. Barclay glanced over at the other apprentice, who was leaning back in his chair, one leg crossed carelessly over the other. Now that he'd figured out what Th'ban was, he'd apparently gotten bored with the lesson. "It has--"
"Yes, thank you, Murdock, but I'm afraid I'm the professor today. Th'ban here--" Mandeep smiled at Th'ban, who stretched his maw open, letting fire curl from between his long fangs like a glowing tongue-- "makes use of some beautiful fire Lore. Though it's not very powerful, there is one special thing about it. Can anyone guess what that is?"
Now Barclay stuck his hand in the air. He was fairly sure he knew the answer, but when Mandeep called on him, he still paused for a moment, wondering if he was going to embarrass himself in front of the whole class.
He swallowed hard, flushing bright red, and answered best he could. ". . . can he light up the Waste?" he asked.
Mandeep grinned brightly at him, and Barclay let out a sigh of relief. "Yes, indeed! Without an Abok, you'll have no way at all of traversing the pitch-black hallways of the Waste. With one, you can see your surroundings as clear as anything. Actually, Abok themselves don't technically produce fire-- they make firelight, which in my opinion is even more useful since it allows them to even shine their light underwater. Now you know this little tidbit, Th'ban does seem a tiny bit more useful, doesn't he?"
Th'ban purred as Mandeep fondly stroked the Beast's scaly heads. Then he looked up, scanning the huge mass of students. "Now," he said briskly, returning Th'ban to his Mark, "we'll have more time to learn about the dangers of the Waste-- and we'll look more at Th'ban as well-- after a quick quiz over what you all learned the last time I talked with you."
Barclay slumped in his seat, letting out a groan. At Barclay's obvious reluctance, Tadg rolled his eyes. "You'll be fine. You read books for fun."
"Does that mean I have to like tests?" Barclay muttered.
Still, he sat back up as Mandeep passed the papers out, not wanting to be caught slouching. Glancing down at the quiz, he soon realised that Mandeep's definition of 'quick' was not shared with anyone else in the room.
It was going to be a long day.