Upon being invited by Elizabeth, Guil sat together with Hector and Katie in a café close to the school, although Guil had his head on the table while his drink was next to him, frustrated about the reveal of his home work.
Katie looked at Guil and asked, "Is your homework really that bad? I found it pretty simple."
"Most Mewpyres struggle with homework from Miss Blackfeather upon the first few weeks," told Elizabeth.
Hector shrugged on that, "I… I cannot tell much about that… well… uhm…"
"You are a class primus," interrupted Elizabeth for his sake. "Because of that, a lot comes easy for you."
"But… not… girls," muttered Hector and sighed loudly, while looking into the distance.
Elizabeth grinned and slapped her friend on the back, "Don't worry! We get you at least some talk with Hope!"
"Are you sure?" asked Katie. "Since Hope is the daughter of an Elder, wouldn't it be a problem? Like thinking he is below her?"
"Hope? Never!" Elizabeth laughed. "After all, her father was is a bitten one as well. Elder Alina is also one of the friendliest Elders."
"One of The friendliest? What does it tell about the other Elders?" asked Guil with sudden interest.
"Well…" Elizabeth stated and began thinking but this time Hector took the lead.
"Let's begin with the two most notorious Elders: Nigira, the Ninja and Saro, the Warrior. Saro is very stern, except when it comes to females which got his interest, then he is demanding. Very demanding, I should say, and only a few are able to resist that, hence why so many Mewpyre children are from him. Nigira is in general much easier but addicted to sex, making her the most baby producing female in the empire. Some people wonder how she manages to keep on doing her duties since she pregnant most of the time… or how baby raising works with her."
"What do you mean?" Katie asked in wonder.
Hector explained, "Only by a handful it is clear who the father is. By most… it is only known they life live in Nigira's castle until they are grown up but that is it. Many are… taking a lot after her and don't care telling, and those being serious are too embarrassed to talk. Next would be Istar and Vladimir. These two are very stoic and mostly bound to their roles. Istar with magical experiments and Vladimir with managing everything that comes into his realm of duty. I think he would not lose his cool even if the universe was about to explode. "
He took a sip from his glass, "Then we have Marren. Being a diplomat he is of course very formal and generous but in his free time he is known for being very laid back."
"And then we have Alina, Hope's mother," Elizabeth took over. "She is friendly but very duty bound. From what I heard, her mate has sometimes a hard time getting her into enjoyable activities. I heard a rumor that Hope and her twin sister Merina are only born because of the Mating Ritual."
"The Mating Ritual?" Katie questioned.
"We Mewpyres seal the bond between us by mating," told Elizabeth. "While we… are relatively open-minded in this subject, we still have a few traditions and rituals to show that two are bonded together as mates. But that will be explained in your lessons."
"So… that means Hope is not snotty?" Guil asked.
"Don't you dare to call her that!" told Hector, surprising Guil that the rather shy Mewpyre was able to show such an outburst.
"I didn't mean it like that," told Guil. "I just stated something I came to conclusion."
Hector nodded to that and calmed down. Giggling, Elizabeth told, "I think she is the only one who gets this kind of reaction out of him. Anyway… the only thing I can tell about her is that her sister and she are very popular… they really take a lot after their parents. I think Merina is running for the School Council."
"Both are," corrected Hector. "Merina for the council while Hope is going for the role of spokesperson."
"Wow! That is a ambitioning," replied Guil impressed then before he noticed something. "Wait… didn't Tyson say Hope was the only one he didn't mate yet? What about Merida?"
"That was because they were a couple sometime ago," told Hector. "That was the only time she let him touch her."
"I see…" told Guil in understanding.
To change the topic, Elizabeth told, "Regarding your homework. , I can give you some help, so you can be sure you have it done by tomorrow and undestand the lessons."
"Thanks Elizabeth," Guil nodded and sighed in relief. "This helps a lot."
"How about Hector and Katie join in as well? As group we should be done pretty quickly," offered the female senior.
Hector scratched himself nervously and told to the other three, "I am very sure, we might be done soon... I have my own homework as well."
"I get it," told Elizabeth. "Now let's go!"
"Where do you think should we go?" Guil wondered.
Grinning, Elizabeth suggested. "We go to Guil's place!"
"WHAT!?" Guil asked shocked. "Why my place?"
"Because none of us have ever had seen the place of an Elder... and you are living in her place," explained the female.
"Sounds interesting," Katie admitted. " I also would like to go there."
"I am not sure if Lady Istir would appreciate unannounced visitors," told Guil.
"I am sure, that we won't have a problem, when we tell that we are with you due to homework," countered Elizabeth with a confident voice.
"My parents are going to kill me for angering our Elder," muttered Hector in a low voice.
Later, they reach the home of the Elder, where also Guil is living then. They entered the door and they were greeted by the Elder herself, who simply asked Guil, "Where have you been? I expected you to show up at my lessons one hour ago. And who did you bring with you?"
Hector made a audible gulp upon the question, fearing the worst, while Katie was simply tilting her head, wondering what is going on. Guil thought for a moment how to answer it but Elizabeth took the initiative, explaining, "I am Elizabeth, this is Hector and the other is Katie, Guil's partner of the semester. Hector and I are their seniors and are here due to the homework.
"Are you also the reason for Guil being late?" asked Istar with a raised eyebrow.
"Yep!" she told.
"I am talking with you later. Given how important homework are, I give you two hours to do them, then Guil have to meet up for his specialized training."
"Specialized training?" asked Hector. "No magic family Mewpyre got this from the Elder before," he muttered to himself.
Then Istar raised her eyebrow at Hector, noticing he was a member of her bite family… and decided to check on him later.
"I told you what you need to know, now don't waste your valuable time," spoke Istar with a stern voice.
"We should go," told Guil. "Before she gets irritated or so."
The others agreed and they went to Guil's room, starting doing their homework. It was difficult for Guil and Katie, but with some help of Hector and Elizabeth translating Hector's speech, they slowly managed to get their homework done, just in time as Istar had called Guil to his training.
The young Mewpyre was send into a room where he saw two hollow halves of a steel ball with a seat between them and higher up a platform. Istar instructed for him to sit on into the said seat, while having reluctantly allowed his friends to watch with her.
Once he was sitting on, belts strapped themselves around him, forcing him it remain seated for the duration of the test and the two halves closed around him, trapping him inside with only some air holes and a few small windows to let him know where he was.
Then Istar told him through telepathy, "As a Mewpyre you can use magic and psychokinetic. You can use your magic to enhance the latter. Your job is it now to lift the steel ball and place it on the platform up in the air. You are free once you do it or the time limit of one hour is over. But don't think you can just sit this out. You will repeat it until it is done and if you don't put in effort, I have ways to… trigger your eagerness."
Given that Istar wasn't one who would use pleasures for getting eagerness of others, Guil only assumed that the chair might have some nasty tricks, so he thought about what he learned of magic and psychokinetic so far to find out what the magic the Elder might want him to do.
Clearly the ball must be too heavy for him to lift alone, due the factors he is was inexperienced and a relative young being, at least as Mewpyre, so his skills wouldn't be evolved enough to do anything meaningful, which left him with enhancing the skills with magic.
It took him a moment to remember his lessons about enhancing himself with the help of magic, thus starting to concentrate, getting in tap of his magic resources and redirecting its strength slowly towards the other part of his nature, trying to hold the flow while concentrating on lifting the ball.
A part of him wondered why Istar didn't tell him this was a multi-task job and at first the ball only shook slightly from his efforts. Then he felt a slow raise… but nothing more. However, he kept on struggling to fulfill the task of the magic Elder.
In the watcher's room, Katie wondered, "Isn't it straining him? The ball looks heavy."
"It is!" told Elizabeth. "What Istir is demanding from Guil is something I only began learning as I turned 15 in human years after my Mewpyre body had caught on age specific terms of the born Mewpyres."
"I am aware that I am straining him," told Istir. "But on him are high expectations, else he wouldn't have become a Mewpyre in the first place, so I am merely forcing him to evolve his skills to a point it is satisfactory for his human age."
What was left unsaid, which Elizabeth didn't realize since she had only had basic lessons in magic, Katie couldn't know due her naivety and of course the fact she wasn't very old as Mewpyre either. , but Hector on the other hand was quite aware of it, but too shy to speak out: this type of exercise would drain Guil's blood reserves at a rapid state, due to the fact that he wasn't a trained Mewpyre, hence no control of his untamed magic and blood usage. Most Mewpyres only learn enough to make themselves blood empty from casting even the most trivial spells, but members of the mage bite family gain excessive, throughout and early training to ensure their magic would be controlled and the blood usage of magic reduced to a minimum. So that suggested that, the exercise was meant for more experienced mages who were training to reduce their blood usage and enhance their skill.
Hector realized that Guil had either more experience in magic as he carried on, what he somehow doubted, or the Mewpyre's blood reserves must be enormous. And if the latter was the case… then Hector grew nervous about the implications, especially what it would mean for Guil's future within the empire.
Istir was also aware of everything that Hector had thought of… after all, she was the equivalent of an arch mage within the empire. But from all the tests she performed on Guil, she deduced that the Mewpyre, while perhaps not finishing his task on the first try, would still enhance his skills to a satisfied level, while ensuring that Guil got a good exchange of stored blood. Every Mewpyre has to spend their entire reserves one or twice in a year for a quick check in case an infection, wound or Mewpyre specific sickness hiding in there. While she has had doubts that Guil had caught anything, she just needed an empty blood containing to check it out a bit for her research.
Speaking of which, Guil was starting to have a headache from all the concentrating and the fact he was burning up blood very quickly, and of course, he also grew thirsty but the time wasn't up yet and he only managed to move the iron steel ball a few centimeters into the air, in a very unstable position.
Thinking he was just not trying hard enough he attempted to spend more magic on lifting it but suddenly he heard Istar saying, "Stop! We are cutting it short now… you are low on blood. For a first try it was not bad but we make some extra exercise to reduce your blood consummation. Now get out!"
Guil relaxed and let the ball fall down, which opened up and released the belts which were holding him on the seat. Once he took a deep breath, he heard Istar once more, "Get at the examination room for one more check up and then restore your reserves."
Guil listened at the order and moves at the examination room where Istar and two of her assistants were already waiting. They held a device on him before they told him to lay down. Afterwards, he was put on a breathing mask and before he knew what is going on, he fell asleep.
The assistants cleaned Guil up and disinfect the room before Istar cut the young Mewpyre open and examined his blood storage closely, telling a few things to write down about it and ran two tests she couldn't have done otherwise. Once she was satisfied, she closed him up, cast few spells so he wouldn't have a lasting scar and woke Guil up with a pile of blood bags.
Very thirsty from his spell castings and waiting, he dug in while Istar went out to his friends, which had been waiting in a room from where they couldn't watch her doings and explained, "He is now restoring his blood reserves. You can talk with him afterwards but remember to leave in half an hour. I expect him to get ready for dinner."
The three nodded and waited still wait as the Elder left and Guil came out soon enough, telling, "How was it?"
"Given it was your first try, neat," Elizabeth smiled and Katie shrugged her shoulders. "Wasn't very impressive as you didn't get up high."
"That is because you do not know better: lifting that thing up must be quite a workout for any Mewpyre."
"In fact…" told Hector meekly. "This test is for… experienced Mewpyre mages. It is incredibly hard and dangerous due to the high consummation of blood… I… I'm surprised he… managed to hold out that long…. Anybody else would have been… blood dry after mere seconds, given his inexperience and his untrained body."
"Really?" asked Guil in surprise and Hector nodded. Katie tilted her head. "Doesn't it mean Guil have a very large blood container?"
"That… should mean it," replied Guil in surprise.
"Still… what expectations does Istar have on you?" asked Elizabeth. "Nobody would press on getting somebody better that much if these were not really high."
"Well… she told me something but I'm not sure if she downplayed it," told Guil, not sure what else he should tell them. And he also asked himself how the school year would keep running if episodes like this repeated themselves.