Obadiah led Arcturus to the dining hall, taking him into the Atrium and beneath the carved archway. Sacharissa paced protectively beside them, sniffing with excitement as they passed through the doors and the scent of food pervaded the air.
The room was filled with low stone tables, surrounded by a dozen servants who scurried around with platters of food. Some of them were dwarves, with thick braided beards and long ponytails. Ulfr was among them, marked out by a purple bruise that must have blossomed on his forehead overnight.
An enormous statue dominated the center of the room: an armoured man with a powerful build and short beard. His stony gaze seemed to fix on Arcturus, following him as he walked deeper into the room. The level of detail was extraordinary, as if a giant had been turned to stone.
Despite the size of the dining hall, only a few tables were occupied, with an assortment of boys and girls who had turned to stare at them. Arcturus could see bacon and eggs piled high, the gamy scent filling his nostrils and flooding his mouth with saliva.
"Good morning, students," Obadiah said, striding ahead of Arcturus to stand beside them. He paused, looking at them expectantly.
"Good morning, Provost Forsyth, sir," the students echoed back dutifully, though the tone was one of exasperation rather than respect.
"I would like to introduce you to our newest student ..." He paused, and Arcturus realized that Charles Faversham was seated with the others, staring at him with hatred in his eyes. "Ah, I see that Charles has arrived at last. Has he filled you in?"
There were several nods from the table and Obadiah smiled.
"In that case, I shall give you a brief summary of the events that have led to a commoner joining Vocans. On his way here, Charles mislaid his summoning scroll. It was stolen by young Arcturus here."
Charles shifted in his seat uncomfortably, before shooting Arcturus another malice laden look. Arcturus realized that the young noble must have neglected to mention that part in his version of the story. Obadiah didn't seem to notice Charles's embarrassment and carried on blithely.
"By some quirk of nature, he was able to summon the demon Lord Faversham had captured for Charles. After proper interrogation, King Alfric decided that it would be in Hominum's best interest to train the boy."
One of the nobles stood up, a tall, heavyset lad with a square jaw and a cap of blonde curls.
"Father, how is this possible?" the boy asked, giving Arcturus a disdainful look. "The gift is passed through the blood, it is not some randomly occurring ability."
"Do not interrupt, Zacharias," Obadiah said mildly, pushing him back into his seat. "But you have cut right to the heart of the matter. King Alfric has posed that very question to me. In fact, I have another announcement to make. I will be leaving Vocans as Provost, short though my tenure has been here. The king has requested that I lead an investigation, to find out whether Arcturus is a freak, or if there are others like him out there."
Arcturus looked from Obadiah to Zacharias, suddenly seeing the resemblance between them. The Provost's son's face had become crestfallen, before twisting into a scowl as his eyes fell on Arcturus.
"Being Provost is far more important. This task is beneath you, Father," Zacharias muttered.
"You think you know better than your king?" Obadiah asked, giving his son a withering look. "Prince Harold, why do you think your father has sent me away?"
Arcturus's heart leaped in his chest as a dark haired boy with piercing blue eyes stood. His brow was ringed by a silver circlet, studded with rubies. The king's own son was studying at the academy!
"Lord Forsyth, the reasons are threefold. The first is that in the last dwarven rebellion, the noble families suffered several deaths, and this could happen again if the ongoing altercations with the orcs become any worse. With commoners to swell our ranks, we will be able to take fewer risks, giving the more dangerous missions to them."
Charles smiled at the prince's words and whispered in Zacharias's ear. Arcturus heard the words, "cannon fodder."
"Very good, Harold. The second?"
"With commoners capable of summoning demons, they become a threat to us. By keeping them close, where we can keep an eye on them, we limit their ability to cause us harm." The prince spoke matter of factly, though he avoided Arcturus's eyes, as if ashamed of his words. "This threat has grown of late, ever since my father increased taxes to cover our recent expenses."
"Excellent! Now, explain the most obvious reason to my idiot son, so he learns to keep his trap shut," Obadiah said, narrowing his eyes at his son. Zacharias's face flushed red and he twisted his hands in his lap.
"A commoner being able to summon means that there may be a way to give the ability to a person who cannot. Therefore, it is possible that we can make all noble children summoners, rather than just the firstborn. We already know that this is possible, given that the Lord and Lady Lovett's second, third and fourth born children are summoners, which was highly improbable. We just don't know why it has happened. Perhaps the commoners are the key to finding out."
Harold glanced down the table at a group of four students, sitting a little apart from everyone else. Three were dark-haired boys of varying ages, whilst the other was a very young girl with long black tresses and round grey eyes that gazed at Arcturus with frank curiosity. He remembered Lord Faversham had mentioned the Lovett family, accusing them of paying Arcturus to steal the summoning scroll on their behalf. If he remembered correctly, it had something to do with not having enough demons for all of their children.
"I hope that this is reason enough. Now, Lord Goodwin will be taking over from me as Provost, leaving his role as your spellcraft teacher. We will bring in a new teacher to replace him."
There was an audible groan from the table, though whether that was because Lord Goodwin was popular or unpopular was unclear.
"Arcturus, please join your fellow students. After your first lesson come and see me. There are some questions I must ask you before I leave." With those parting words, Obadiah spun on his heel and strode out of the room.
Arcturus stood for a moment, cringing under the gaze of the nobles. There was a gap between the Lovetts and Zacharias, so he squeezed in and spooned some bacon onto his plate. Sacharissa installed herself beneath the table, searching the floor for food that might have fallen.
"Something reeks," Zacharias complained, shifting away from him. "Is it the Canid or the pleb?"
"Both," Charles said gleefully, pinching his nose with his fingers. "They smell exactly the same. Like wet dog."
"Dogbreath. That's what we should call him. Much better than Arcticunus, or whatever it was," Zacharias laughed, and Charles snorted, spraying the table with egg. Another boy joined in with them, a sallow-faced noble with lank black hair tied in a ponytail.
"Good one, Zach," the noble guffawed, slapping Zacharias on the back.
"Oh, leave him alone," Prince Harold moaned, rolling his eyes at the bullies. "Last time we went hawking together, you three smelled twice as ripe, especially after the hike back. Sweating like pigs, you were."
Arcturus smiled gratefully at the prince, realizing the young royal was very unlike his father. Harold gave him an apologetic shrug and went back to his meal. The three glowered at him, but Arcturus ignored them and began to eat, trying to stop himself from devouring it like a wild animal. It had been a while since he had last put food in his belly, and though he was used to hunger, he knew he needed to keep his strength up for the challenging days ahead.
It was not long before the rest of the table began to talk among themselves. Arcturus was keenly aware of the fact that he still needed to wash, especially after the comments the others had made. He looked up from his food, wondering if there was time to go before the others had finished breakfast.
A fair-skinned boy with scruffy black hair sat across from Arcturus. He noticed Arcturus's gaze and leaned forward.
"Edmund Raleigh," the boy said, holding out his hand and giving Arcturus a firm handshake. "We've all known each other since we were toddlers, so don't worry if some of the conversation goes over your head. Let me introduce you to everyone. You've already met Charles, Zach, and Harold. The boy on the end with the long hair is Damian, but everyone calls him Rook. It's his surname."
"Like the chess piece, not the bird," Rook said, then wrinkled his nose. "You probably don't know what chess is anyway."
Edmund pulled a face at him, then turned to two girls on his right. "This is Alice, and this is Josephine, from the Queensouth family. Don't bother trying to tell the difference between them, you'll just get confused."
"Hello!" the girls chorused. They were twins, with long blonde hair and large expressive eyes, giving them a doll-like appearance. Edmund was right, they were almost identical. But the one Edmund had introduced as Alice had given Arcturus a bright smile before going back to her meal. Edmund wrapped his arm around her and kissed her on the cheek.
"We're sweethearts, so don't get any ideas." He winked, before turning to the remaining students to his left.
"This is Baybars Saladin, the fiercest swordsman you'll ever meet," Raleigh continued, pointing to a dark-skinned boy beside him. The boy gave him a polite nod before returning to his meal.
"As you've probably guessed, these four are the Lovetts. This is Fergus, Carter, Arthur—"
"And I'm Elaine!" the girl piped up, beaming up at Arcturus. "I love your demon! Is it a boy or a girl?"
"A girl, her name is Sacharissa." Arcturus smiled at her. She looked far too young to be a summoner, thirteen at most. Perhaps her parents had sent her there early, to be with her brothers.
"She's so cute!" Elaine said, snatching some bacon from the table and holding it out for Sacharissa to eat. The greedy demon immediately forgot her animosity to everyone who wasn't Arcturus, and lapped it up shamelessly.
"Elaine, that's not polite," said Fergus, the oldest of the Lovett boys.
"Oh, all right. You're such a worrywart, Fergus," Elaine moaned, before sneaking a rasher from Arcturus's plate and dropping it surreptitiously to the floor. A few seconds later, Arcturus heard snuffling and chomping from under the table.
"That's OK. She's barely eaten in days. I wasn't even sure that demons ate our food."
"Gosh, you do have a lot to learn," Edmund laughed, standing up. "Good thing you're here! Come on. It's time for our first lesson of the year. Let's find out who our new spellcraft teacher is."
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Thanks for reading Chapter 7. Lot's of characters in this chapter! You'll see many of them again as adults later in the series, even if they only made a small cameo now.
Did you know that ORIGINS continues with a full novel called THE OUTCAST? You can read ALL of Arcturus's story in May, 2018, coming to a store near you or available online in all the usual places!
The sequel to this book, THE NOVICE, is out RIGHT NOW all over the world! You can pick one up in most bookstores including Barnes and Noble and Waterstones. It's also available online on Amazon, Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook and Google Play, to name but a few!