After getting directions from Cole on how to find my room, I stashed my gear and left for the Vitus Hall. I wasn't too concerned about checking the room out. It looked pretty basic from the quick glance I got. There was a bed, a nightstand, a dresser; the essentials. I figured I'd have plenty of time to give it a thorough once over after classes. Right now I had to join back up with Alnar and my dad. I had learned long ago that Brackus had a short fuse and I wasn't about to try his patience.

The main doors of the Vitus hall had to be at least ten feet tall. They were large and wooden with silver loops instead of doorknobs, like they had been transferred from a castle. Another one of those weird symbols was chiseled into the stone above, looking like harpoon or drooping plant with two lines through the shaft. I sighed to myself. It was going to be a while before I got used to this school. Maybe I could find that girl from before and have her explain things to me.

I pulled the doors open with mild difficulty, thankful for all those times I went to the gym. I stepped inside and was surprised with what I saw.

The school wasn't a typical one, that was for sure. And while it looked old and mystical from outside, the inside was even more so. Spherical lamps like they had at the dorm could be found hanging helter-skelter along the corridors. The stones that made up the foundation were all of an odd, blue-tinged variety, making it seem like the building was underwater. The classroom doors were absent, leaving the noise free to travel and I wondered how any of the students could focus with such hubbub.

"Ah, Adam." Alnar appeared in a doorway off to the right, my dad joining him a few seconds later. "I trust you found your way alright."

"Yeah," I said sardonically. "No trouble at all."

"Your father and I have finished finalizing the details of your enrollment. This is your schedule." He handed me a piece of paper. "Period one is about to end, so when you're finished saying goodbye, you may head to period two. Shall we see your father out to his car?"

"That will not be necessary, Alnar," Dad said. "I'm quite capable of leaving by myself."

The principal wouldn't hear it and started bustling us to the doors. "But it's impolite not to see someone off. And besides, the halls will be crowded with students changing classes soon. You wouldn't want to bid farewell to your son in a mob, would you?"

He ushered us to the sidewalk where my father's car was waiting by a meter. He grasped Dad's hand, giving it a hearty farewell shake. "It was good to see you, Brackus. I hope you'll come visit Adam every once in a while."

"So long as he stays out of trouble, I don't think that will be required." His eyes darted to me in a warning before going back to the principal. "But it was good to see you too, Alnar. Thank you again for taking my son into your school."

"It was my pleasure. I'm sure he'll do wonderfully here," Alnar retracted his hand and turned back towards the Vitus Hall. "Well, I'll let you two say goodbye in peace. Have a safe journey, Brackus."

There was an awkward silence as my father and I were left standing alone. We weren't so good with goodbyes.

Finally my dad put his hand on my shoulder. "Study hard and stay out of trouble."

"I will," I said.

"Good," he removed his hand and went to the driver's door. "I'll call you around Christmas." And with that he got in the car and drove away.

I was used to these kind of curt send-offs. Brackus wasn't my real father after all. He had taken me in off the streets and shaped me to be a strong and respectable member of society. He was more of a mentor than a dad, and it seemed that he didn't really know how to act like a father at times. But he did what was best for me, and that's more than I can say for my real parents.

I looked over my schedule as I headed back to the Vitus Hall. The class that I had missed that morning had been English, which was just peachy considering I hated the subject. Who really needs grammar anyway? Not like I'm going to be writing things when I'm in the military.

Period two was Biology. I figured that wouldn't be too bad. Dissection was kinda cool.

I wandered around the halls, looking for the room number, 104. But to my chagrin, the classrooms were all numbered the same way as the ones in the dorm and I had no sweet clue how to figure out which combination of ovals and lines was "104". To make matters worse, the halls were empty. Guess the whole school was made up of keeners who wanted to get to class a.s.a.p.

I groaned and leaned against a wall. What the hell was wrong with this school?

"Hey, are you okay?"

I looked to my left to find a girl staring at me. She was small –at least a couple feet shorter than me. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a ponytail and she wore a dark green dress that set off her jade eyes. The strangest part about her was these bulky boots she wore on her feet. Dark green to match her dress, they looked almost mechanical, with blinking lights and some stray wires.

"Yeah," I said finally. "I'm just a little lost, that's all."

"New guy, huh?" She smiled. "Having trouble with the numerals?"

"If that's what you call the dumb symbols around here, then yes."

"The numerals are just the number symbols," she explained. "Here, let me see your time table." I handed it to her and she lit up almost instantly. "You've got Biology with me!"

"Great," I said. "You can tell me where the room is."

"Forget that, let's just go!" The girl snatched my hand and dragged me down the corridor. I struggled to match her pace so I wouldn't fall on my face. She walked fast in those enormous boots! Finally she stopped outside a classroom. "This is it. Room 104, Biology. Let's hurry up and find some seats before they're all taken."

I followed her into the class. A few students sat around the room, talking idly to themselves. High tables made of the same blue stone as the rest of the school littered the floor and had two wooden chairs per. Glass beakers and vials covered the countertops and chemical jars could be seen locked in cabinets. Near the front of the class was a table of microscopes. Though rustic, it still looked like a typical biology lab.

"Hey, over here!" The girl called, waving me over to a table. "We're in luck, two seats!"

As I had nowhere else to sit, I joined her. She hopped onto a chair, excitement gleaming on her features. "This is so awesome. I've been looking forward to biology since middle school, but because it's a third year course, I couldn't take it until now. Admittedly I'm only in grade 10, but because I've got good grades, Principal Alnar let me in." She grinned at me. "I'm Kara, by the way! What's your name?"

"Adam," I said.

"That's a nice name! So, Adam, how come you're transferring to RaDos in the middle of the term?"

"I didn't like my old school much."

"Oh, that's too bad. So, what do you think of RaDos instead?"

"It's alright. Though I've got to admit the symbols kind of piss me off."

Kara smiled encouragingly at me. "Don't worry, you'll get used to them."

I laughed hopelessly. "I doubt that."

"We've got some time before class starts. Why don't I teach you about them?"

"Uh, sure." I could probably use a lesson or two. "Okay."

She seemed pleased as she got out a piece of paper and pencil from her bag. "We'll go over the numerals first, since you seem to be having trouble with them." She drew four separate lines, each with a different amount of dashes through them; one, two, three and four. "The first set is easy. The number of strokes through the center of each line represents the number it stands for. Like this one," she pointed to the one with three lines, "is three."

Next she drew an oval with a dash on the top and on the bottom. "This is five, and this," she copied the same symbol but drew a stroke through the center, "is ten. You couple them together like Roman numerals to make higher numbers." She sketched a five and three side by side. "What's this one?"

"Eight," I guessed.

Kara beamed. "Good!" She drew three more ovals, one with two lines, one with three and one with four. "These are the fifty, one hundred and five-hundred. You do the same thing with them as with the lower numbers. Just combine them to make different numbers. Got it?"

I chuckled. "Yeah. By some act of a miracle, I do."

"Great! Now," she started scribbling some of the symbols I had seen before, "I bet you had trouble finding your dorm."

"You have no idea," I smiled.

She grinned. "The buildings here are named after the nine sigils of power from an old religion studied by some people called the Gatashin Monks. The founder of the school was a monk himself and Principal Alnar studied the religion in university as an elective. The main hall is 'Vitus'," she pointed to the harpoon-ish symbol from the front of the building. "It means renewal. The other eight are split between girls and boys. The girls have 'Sum', 'Ogama', 'Yan', and 'Altas', my dorm," she said, pointing to each symbol as she said their name. "The guys have 'Nega, 'Dako', 'Yin' and 'Infinis'. Each is paired with its symbolic opposite, but that's not really all that important. All that matters is that you match the sigil with its name. If you can do that, you'll be able to get around the campus no problem!"

I blinked a few times. "Would you mind going over them again? I may have zoned out during the first half."

She giggled. "Here, I'll write them all out for you as a cheat sheet."

"Thanks, Kara," I said, taking the sheet. "You're a life saver."

"No worries. Just don't expect any crib notes for tests!"