A small orange circle lit up by the doorway. Patience sighed: barely four minutes passed since she entered her room, and already she was summoned. A golden line started at the beginning of her bed, and went out the door. Patience guessed that to be the way that no one except her and Dean ever became lost. She followed the trail to a pure white arch, three corridors away. It was decorated with golden ruins, and designs several centuries old.
"Come on in, Patience." One of the Professors beckoned her to come through. Patience noted that there were two new people standing by Dean, and another woman stood by the four Professors.
"I do believe that a few introductions are in order," said Niveus. "Everyone, this is Patience Quiet. She is the fourth of the Star of Light. Patience. I think that you know Dean Parrish by now. On his left is Hallie Letrit, and on the right is James Bellen. The four of you make up half of the Star. Next to me stand Professors Austin Reeono, who will train the warriors, Marlin Rachee, who will teach the mages, and finally, there is Ellyn Estav, and she will teach the transformers. I plan of training the elemental." he paused. "As you may or may not have noticed, the doorway behind you has closed off. It will not open again until twenty-four hours are up, but here, the twenty-four hours will be equivalent to about a week. We will use that week to get you familiar with your powers, and begin to try and take control of them. Now, feel free to explore this portion of the mansion. The door to your left will lead to your sleeping chambers. You will find that the doors have your names on them, and your rooms are exactly how you left them, along with all your things. Hallie and James, you can decorate your room as you wish. It is all yours now." With that, the adults left them alone in the main room, each heading in a different direction.
James tuned off after Niveus introduced the Professors, and took the time to look around the room. It was white color all over. There was a fireplace, a small library in the corner, a few tables, countless chairs, beanbags, couched, poufs, and pillows, all in the lightest, practically white, shades of blue, green, red, purple, yellow, and silver. The same went for the furniture. Whom ever decorated the room, seemed to have a thing for white. Four doors lined the far wall, each leading to a different wing of the house (or whatever it was). On closer inspection, the area where the wall connected with the sealing was carved with any animal that you could imagine (white of course), and the huge bay window, seemed to show whatever the gazer wanted it to.
"James?" Hallie said.
"Oh sorry, I guess I spaced out for a bit there. What did you say?"
"We asked you whether you wanted to come and explore this…wherever we are with us." Dean supplied.
"Sure, let's go. Patience, are you coming?
"I suppose." Her voice was soft and dreamy.
"Let's see the library first, it's the closest thing anyway." said Hallie eagerly.
The library corner turned out to be huge. The small corner from before expanded into a three-story chamber filled with shelves upon shelves of books. In the space that was not occupied with books, stood ten tables by another fireplace. A single book with a blank black cover lay on the table. The foursome opened it just to find it completely blank, though some of the pages were worn. Patience spotted a number of runes on the cover that they skipped before, but could not make heads or tails of them
Dean wandered off, awing at the way that the library was organized. Each row of books belonged to the same topic, and was sorted by date, starting from the early 1130s to present. The books were then organized further by secondary subject, then focus, then author, then series, and then finally by title. Dean suspected this to be a research library, for not one fictional title was present.
"Hey, you guys! Come over here! I figured out how to work that black book." Dean resisted to tell Hallie off for shouting in the library and turned back. Once everyone was once again at the table, Hallie continued. "I was thinking about a book that I was reading about the evolutionary war, and when I looked back at this, there were about six pages of tittles of books that related to that war. I think that all you have to do is think of what book you're looking for, and it will tell you where to find it."
"Let's try it," exclaimed James.
"This library doesn't have many, if any at all, fictional books." said Dean, remembering his observations.
"Alright then." Patience closed the book and put her hand on the cover. "How about famous authors of the 1500s to the 1700s?" Even as the spoke, a golden light flashed between the pages, and the book opened. "Look they have so many biographies. Samuel Johnson, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson…"
"If in a year or so you feel like closing that book and moving on, tell us, won't you?" James was clearly not a book person.
"Alright, I guess I can always come back." Patience took no offence at him mocking her interest in books.
Several wrong turns later, they were back in the main hallway. The door to the far left was the teachers' wing, and they unanimously agreed to stay away. For now at least. The next door was locked, as was the one after, but the fourth was their living quarters. The hall way was white, as everything else, and there were eight doors leading out of it, and there was a third fireplace. Three of the doors were closed, and bared no name. They were assumed to be the ones for the three remaining members of the Star of Light. One was a common room, much like the main chamber, but smaller, and had a closet full of games and other things to entertain them. While Patience and Dean stayed to play a quick game of chess, Hallie and James went to decorate the room with their name on it.
Hallie's design was that of a winter scene outside. Soft snow was falling from the ceiling that now resembled a cloudy sky. The snow was real in every way except that it was quite warn. The furniture was much like what she had at her old house, but bigger, blue, and covered with snow. Everything in the room was illuminated, yet there was no one source of light. When Hallie was satisfied, she crossed the hall to see what James had thought of.
James chose his room to be almost exactly like the one he had at home. The walls were an off white, and James added the carved animals as her saw in the other rooms, only his were able to pace back a forth, Making the room seem alive (which it probably was). The furniture was bright, and cheerful. Nothing too strange, and a lot like home.
"James, are you done?" asked Hallie.
"Nearly." James added an ordinary round lamp on the ceiling. "There, it's perfect."
"Come on then, we still have one door to try." They entered the common room, where Patience was losing quite spectacularly to Dean.
"Check mate." Dean said with a triumphant grin.
"Ok, so you've won. It was dumb luck anyway. No need to rub it in."
"Come on, let's go we still have another door to explore. Hey! That Rhymes!" said James.
"Be a poet some other time." Hallie said. "Like when I'm not around." she added in a much quieted voice.
She they were almost out of their living chambers, Dean held up his hand and motioned them to be quiet. There seemed to be an argument between Professors Estav and Reeono, and they were making no effort to keep their voices down.
"WE CAN'T TELL ANYONE! HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU NEED THINGS REPEATED TO YOU?" Austin bellowed.
"WELL WE CAN'T JUST FORGET ABOUT IN NOW CAN WE REEONO?" Ellyn's voice rose to match his.
"OH, SO WE'RE ON LAST NAME TERMS NOW, ARE WE? WELL THEN, ESTAV, I SEEM TO BE UNDER THE IMPRESSIN THAT I WAS LEFT IN CHARGE, SO BE SO KIND AS TO LISTEN FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!"
"I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE IN CHARGE OF THE WORLD! IT DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT!" A door slammed off to the right, and all was quiet.
'What was that?" Hallie mouthed.
"I don't know," mouthed the rest in the same fashion.