"Get a move on will you, this prank was your idea. Not that I see any point in it." I huffed as I made my way through the darkness towards Keera's chambers. Jet had, had one of his not so brilliant plans to try and sneak up on Keera, it was so tedious, it never worked. I wouldn't have even bothered coming along if I didn't have something to talk to her about. We are both Elder Guards, well apprentice Elder Guards with only one real job, to protect the Elder Mages of Thane.
Thane was made up of four tribes, the Airwalker Tribe, the Earthen Tribe, the Tribe and my tribe the Inferno tribe. I twisted the giant ruby around my finger, the Inferno power gem, as I waited for Jet to catch up.
I was very proud to have been chosen as an apprentice, they worked you very hard but it would all be worth it in the end. I did miss some home comforts, like the heat, but nothing was worth giving up this opportunity.
"Alright, should we get this set up then." Jet said as he finally reached the door to the chambers.
"Well go on then, I want no part of this." I said pushing him through the door. I left it ajar slightly to tip Keera off that there was someone inside. I knew she had been to a tough training session tonight and had no time for idiotic games like this. Jet was crouched in the dark in the far corner of the room and I placed myself behind the door.
After about ten minutes I could hear footsteps coming along the corridor. "This is it." I muttered to myself as the door started to open slightly. As I began to see Keera's outline sliding through the door I felt the air shifting around me. He has blew it I thought to myself, I heard the cracking of tree roots shooting up through the floor followed by the thud of Jet hitting the ground. I ignited a flame in the palm of my hand and stepped out from behind the door. Keera turned round, her green eyes meeting mine and she smirk, obviously very proud that she had not been outsmarted.
"One of these days your practical jokes are going to get you into serious trouble Jet" Keera said as she slumped into on of the arm chairs.
"Ah! But I had you going for a minute. Admit it." Jet replied as he clambered to his feet, brushing his hand through his blonde mane. I rolled my eyes at him, though I secretly did not want to admit this had been his best attempt, a lot better than any of his previous attempts.
I began to ignite the lanterns around the room, it was pointless sitting in the dark. "It would have worked better had you not used your magic, it gave you away" These two were my best friends, Jet a member of the Airwalker tribe and Keera a member of the Earthen Tribe, we were such an unlikely bunch but we were all really close.
I sat down on the hearth of the fire and began making the flames dance between my fingers, the warm so soothing.
"So did you come for a reason other than to torment me?" Keera asked, looking between the two of us.
"Gyn has some juicy gossip" Jet announce in what I thought a far to excitable tone.
"Oh!" Keera sounded excited at first but then it her face changed to a more sombre expression as she must have read mine. She turned and glared at Jet.
"I wouldn't call it juicy more along the lines of worrying." I said shifting uneasily.
"What do you mean?"
"Well during my diplomacy lesson this afternoon with Sir Vector he was telling us the usual protocol when travelling with a delegation when Sir Marthol interrupted the lesson. I couldn't hear the whole conversation but I understood enough to work out that apparently Shadow Mages have been sighted in Thane." I turned back to the fire and ran my hand through it once more as if to take the chill away from the news I had just delivered.
"But Shadow Mages never leave Karox, they haven't since the great invasion hundreds of years ago when they were defeated and banished back to Karox." Keera edged forwards on her seat, worry etching her face. None of us had ever had dealings with Shadow Mages, we had heard plenty of stories and studied hundreds of books during our training to prepare us for this yet I still couldn't help feeling very under prepared.
"I know but I'm just telling you what I heard and we had better hope that I had heard wrong." I stood up to leave, my news passed on it was time to leave before lock down. We bade goodbye to Keera and then headed back to our own chambers. Jet escorted me to mine, for all the fool that he was he was still a gentleman and would not see a lady walk home in the dark, no matter how much combat training she had, had. I entered my chambers and hung my cloak on the wall and I walked in the door. I poured myself a glass of water as the bell rang signalling lock down, I hoped Jet had made it back in time.