Two and a half months. No action till then. No action till then.
SPIRIT ARISEN
One month left for graduation, and we were just about to go into finals soon. I woke up ready for my morning training with Alberta. I had long caught up with my class but Alberta insisted that I continue lessons with her in the morning.
And it was fine with me. I would train outside school curriculum time even if she didn't force me to.
It was the afternoon and few people were around, the sun was yet to set. I spotted about 2 other dhamphirs who were in their final year running around the track. I joined them after doing my warm-ups.
I was faster than them. I did this every day and today was my first time seeing them here. I soon was approaching them, and when I did I heard their voices come to a stop.
"Hello Jonathan. Hey Shane." I by-passed them easily while they gave me slightly guilty smiles.
Obviously talking about me. Again. It had been over a month. People needed to get over my departure already. Geez.
I breezed through ten laps before heading towards the gym, stopping for a bit of water along the way. Alberta was already waiting for me at the gym.
"Okay. Let's get today's lesson over with. I want to cram as much as I can in, so be prepared." She warned me.
"Why? We still have a few days." I was confused.
"We have to prepare things for visitors coming during your finals."
"Oh!" I got excited, would any high ranking dhamphirs come to watch our exams?
"And that's all I'm telling you," Alberta gave me a strict look, "You're going to have to find out at the pre-exam briefings."
"Fine." I resigned from even trying to get more information, "So is today our last lesson?"
"Unfortunately, yes…" She had a motherly look on her face.
"It's been fun."
"Yes, it has."
And our morning training begun.
"Morning." I greeted the people at our table.
Lissa, Adrian, Christian and Eddie looked up from their breakfast.
"Hey!" Adrian grinned, "How are you this morning, beautiful?"
"Oh, just a pocketful of sunshine." I replied sarcastically. "I found out today that it was my last morning training with Alberta."
"I heard." Adrian put an arm around me and I couldn't be bothered to shrug it off, "She's in charge of the safety of the arriving guests that are coming to see the guardians and Moroi finals."
"Speaking of finals, today is our guardian briefing." Eddie finished his last bite of cereal, "We don't have many practical classes."
Probably about alchemists I thought to myself before nodding in response. I chewed thoughtfully on my toast, wondering if there was anything else new I'd find out about. It was going to be a long lecture after all, it couldn't just be about alchemists… Or could it?
No point in thinking too much I figured, I'd find out eventually. As soon as I finished, Eddie stood up and we said our goodbyes before leaving for the lecture theatre. It was hardly used by us novices, mostly by the guardians for meetings.
Eddie looked quite excited, and gave off a feel that he was ready to learn just about the job of a guardian. I just hoped the news of alchemists wouldn't give him and the rest of the novices a heart attack.
We slipped into the theatre and immediately several eyes snapped to our direction and followed us as we found seats in the back row.
"Just ignore them." Eddie muttered to me and glared at a few of our staring classmates.
"I already do, Eddie," I sighed, "I already do."
As soon as we sat down, Alberta and other academy guards entered the theatre. A hush came over the place as Alberta and a male dhamphir, who I'd never seen at the academy before but looked familiar, walked up to the podium.
Alberta was decked in the standard guardian gear, while the male dhamphir was decked out in an expensive looking dark blue pinstriped suit. He was slightly taller than Alberta, and his build looked more similar to a Moroi's than a dhamphir but had muscles that Moroi didn't develop. He had short blond hair styled in a twist which had well done light blue highlights, a seemingly odd colour combination but looked good nonetheless. His dark brown eyes surveyed the crowd with curiosity and vigilance.
The few female novices blushed as he rested his gaze on them, but he seemed to be either oblivious to them or ignoring them. As his eyes met mine, his eyes seemed to be familiar to me. Just where had I seen him?
"Good morning to you all." Alberta said from her position at the podium, "I'm sure you are very excited to be here today, as all the guardians are excited for you."
I looked around, but the guardians didn't seem extremely excited. They wore guarded faces and I couldn't really tell what they were thinking.
"I'm sure most of you know who I am." She gave a smiled at us, "Some more than others."
I gulped. Yeah.
"And I'm sure all of you at least find this man beside me familiar in some way or another, and you should." She gestured to the blond beside her, "This is Jeremiah Klovinski."
Immediately gasps of realization were heard throughout the theatre. Even some of the guardians seemed shocked. The legendary Jeremiah Klovinski!
He was known best for being the previous king's best guardian. Having senses and abilities far greater than even some of the best guardians.
But recently with the induction of Queen Tatiana, no one seemed to know what he had been doing. The man whose techniques, theories and abilities we had all come to study and analyze, was right here. So close to us!
The previously jealous male population now stared in awe at the blond head man. The female population, I swear, were giving out gasps and sighs of admiration.
I observed him as he came up to the mike, "Hello to all of you. The new generation. As you know now. I am Jeremiah Klovinski, and I'm sure many of you have studied me in your classes. But I am not her today to teach you the many techniques to kill Strigoi effectively. Or even instruct you on how to efficiently protect Moroi in groups of individually.
"I am here to teach and tell you about things that as a novice, you wouldn't know."
The lecture theatre fell silent, before there was another buzz of whispers. But I felt calm and cool. It was probably about alchemists. As expected. I sighed.
"Some of you may think you know what I'm speaking about and won't pay attention," Jeremiah looked straight at me, "But there are things every single one of you doesn't know about. And it is through today that you will find out what these things are."
Really? Things aside from alchemists? I don't really know about that…
"As most of you know, I have been off the radar for quite some time." He dived straight into topic, not giving anyone a chance to start talking again, "I have in fact been working for an extremely important person. One with a lot of influence in both the human and vampire world."
"Who's he talking about? Not many Moroi have influence in the human world." I heard one of the few other female novices ask her friend who in turn replied, "Maybe that Austrian guy we studied."
Jeremiah surveyed the theatre for a while before tapping the mike, "I would like to introduce you all to Ancients."
A hush fell over the room. A what?
"I would talk more but I would like to introduce you to the person I work for. Who I have a lot of respect for and who has helped me through my period of suffering."
Alberta suddenly stepped up to the mike, "Our academy has the honour of the visit of an Ancient. They rarely make visits to academies and even most of the guardians present here today have never seen an Ancient. Behave yourselves." Her voice took on a harsh tone, "I want no fooling around. Show some respect."
The doors to the lecture theatre creaked open slowly and everyone, even all the guardians, turned their heads to face the direction of the grand double doors.
