The sun had began its slow decent from its perch in the sky to its resting place beyond the roof tops, casting shadows across the ground. Nathanial sat outside in the garden with Ms. Lutyens, who examined the young apprentice's latest sketching with a grim expresion. Frowning slightly, she turned to the boy. "Please Nathanial, would you at least try to concentrate? I know that you can do better than this." The tutorors blond hair fell infront of her face as she bent over the drawing, examining it carefully. She bid the dark haired apprentice little attention as she sought to point our what the boy had done wrong.
Nathanial couldn't handle such presure. As of late, he had gotten little sleep, for reasons unknown to even him. He was exhausted, and his vexation was clear. The boy shook his head in frustration. "I do try Ms. Lutyens, I just-"
"Sorry I'm late."
Nathanial and Ms. Lutyens pivoted around to face a girl around Nathanials age. She caried with her a plain white hand bag, which looked dangerously close to wripping from the seams and spilling its every contents onto the ground.
"Ah, take a seat miss Romelian." Ms. Lutyens smiled politely, guesturing to an open seat next to Nathanial. The girl obiediantly ensconced herself upon the bench, giving a yawn as she began extracting the needed materials from her book bag, glancing at Nathanial. It was apparent that she rarely came in such close contact with other children her age, for she did not seem to know how to react, nor did Nathanial for that matter.
Nathaial gave his teacher an inquisitive look. Never before had another person joined them in a lesson. Ms. Lutyens caught his glance, slapping her palm to her head. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I not tell you that from now on miss Romelian would be joining us for our lessons? Of course I didn't... Oh, I'm sorry. Well, young Underwood, this is Miss Romelian. Miss Romelian, this is Mr. Underwood."
Nathanial shook his head, turning to this, 'Romelian'. "Pleasure to meet you." he muttered.
The girls dark brown hair caught in the sunlight as she swiveled around to face the boy. She was rather pale, with emerald green eyes that seemed to be hued with steel gray. Though she looked very enervated, she still had a certaint aura of power about her. She nodded. "Pleasure to meet you as well..." her voice trailed off. "Er, I'm sorry, what am I supposed to call you? Mr. Underwood just doesn't seem quiet right..."
"Oh, right..."
Ms. Lutyens chuckled at the eleven year olds' delima. "I think that nicknames are appropriate at the moment."
Nathanial had never been very fond of nicknames, nor had Adriane, as she was called, but it was better than reffering to eachother as 'hey you!' all the time. Adriane bit her bottom lip. "Well... I dunno." she muttered.
Ms. Lutyens nodded, pushing herself to her feet. "Allright. You two can discuss it while I go get a cup of tea. Would you like something? No? Allright then." and with that, she walked from the garden and into the house, chuckling to herself as she did so.
Once she was quiet sure Ms.Lutyens was out of hearing range, she set her notepad aside. Nathanial glimsed a detailed picture of vines, entwined around eachother as they dispersed in every direction along the side of a wall. It was so good infact that the apprentice nearly forgot it was drawn by an eleven year old girl. "Allright well..." casting her eyes about, Adriane lowered her voice, "I probably shouldn't be doing this but... well, can I trust you?"
Nathanial blinked in suprise. "Erm, yes, you can trust me I suppose... even though we've just met and all..."
Rolling her eyes, the girl respoded "I would just rather call you by your name rather than by some nickname. I suppose I shall go first," Adriane cleared throat in an executive sort of way, drawing herself to full height. "I'm Adriane Romelian. And you?..."
Wow, this girl is stupid.
Still, Nathanial couldn't help but admire her courage, even if it might have just been stupidity that had driven her to revealing her birthname. She should know not to let any magician know her birth name, but still, she had trusted him, and there was something very trustworthy about her...
"Nathanial." replied the young magician with a small smile.
Adriane returned the smile, trying her best not to look to perplexed. "I didn't think you would actualey trust me enough... oh well." she laughed. "I'm certaintly glad you did Nathanial."
And so from then on, Adriane would come over every day for lessons, and she and Nathanial would chat. It was the begining of what would be not just a strong friendship, but a legendary team.
They were each highly skilled magicians with great potential. They each sensed this, and though their friendship only grew, so did their competiveness, thus causing them to become more and more weary of eachother. It was only when Ms. Lutyens had went inside for a cup of tea that they could act normaly, and everything was forgotten. That was the times they enjoyed the most: When they could just be friends, not trying to out-do the other.
And so it was one of these times when Nathanial told Adriane of his plot to steal the amulet.
"Nathanial, I admire your ambition, but frankly, I think you're suicidal."
Nathanial respired. "So, you aren't going to help me?"
"Help you? I certaintly would like to, but-"
"Good, then you will?"
"I didn't say that."
"If you're my friend you will help me."
Adriane sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "What does helping you mean I'll have to do?"
The sky overhead was clear. Birds chirped merely from nearby trees, and a light breeze rustled the golden leaves that now littered the garden walk way. All in all, it was a lovely day. Who would have known the scheming that was taking place by two eleven year olds?
"You can help me get everything intact, you know, make sure I've made no mistakes on the pentacle. I also need help choosing a demo-"
"Bartimaeus."
"Pardon?"
"A powerful djinni."
"Where?"
"No." Adriane chuckled. "I mean that is the demon you should summon. In olden times he was summoned by magicians to repair the walls of Prague. Its said he spoke with Solomon, watched over Zimbabwe, helped prince Ptomely of Egypt, etc etc." she replied, standing up and walking absentmindedly to a bush nearby and picking a flower from its stem.
"Bartimaeus will make Simon Lovelace pay for all his mistakes." she crushed the flower in her hand and allowed it to fall to the ground. Her eyes followed it as it decended through the air, until it landed on the brick 'nieth her feet. Idly, she raised a foot and stomped on the flower, averting her gaze to Nathanial.
The boy was impressed. "Good. Then that is who I shall summon. Lets hope this Bartimaeus is up to the challenge."
Adriane had recieved a new name that day. Artemis Charday. It should have been a happy day, but it wasn't. She paced back and forth restlessly, glancing at the clock every now and then. Nathanial should have contacted her by now. She respired in frustration, her hands curling in her fist as she collapsed in her bed.
The twelve year old's bedroom was actually quiet nice, considering she was only an apprentice: A mere guest in the house. The walls were painted a rich, vibrant red that made you think of a bundle of roses set upon a table of deep burgandy, with romantic music playing in the backround.
No?
Actually, it was just virbant red. The cieling was left white of course. A bed was positioned in the corner. The bedspread had squares of different shadows of red and orange. A worn oak desk was placed alongside that, and parrallel to that was a bookshelf, overflowing with thick leather bound books. All in all, it wasn't the best place to try and relax. Artemis of course had gotten no sleep in the past five days, for she had stayed up going through the plan in her mind. It seemed fool proof. Nathanial seemed determined to summon Bartimaeus himself. Perhaps he thought it was the only way he could get avengance on Lovelace. Perhaps he just wanted to outshine Artemis. Which ever it was, Adriane couldn't be sure.
The raven-haired girl was about to have a temper tantrum when her door was flung open. She gave a start, leaping back in suprised, taking up an imediant fighting stance-
To see Nathanial standing in the door way, clearly out of breath.
"You even know where my house is?" she queryed, striding towards her friend. Nathanial nodded, doubling over as he clutched his side. "Y-y-yes." he gasped. "I ran...and then... you've no... follow!" was all he could manage. Turning on heel, he began down the stairs. Artemis was careful not to slip on the tile, but Nathanial was not quiet so lucky. He fell flat on his face as he reached the bottom of the stair case. Picking himself up, he turned to Artemis, nose turned up. It was obvious that his pride was hurt. "Er... right... well, follow me and the summons shall begin..." he rubbed his forehead as they exited the house, setting off down the street at an impetuous gait...
((Tune in to chapter two!))