Magi and Djinn World Tour! Student of the Dark Arts –

Chapter 6: School Bells Ring – School House, Rocks!

/

Constantine was woken by rustling papers, a crackle of magic and a boy in front of him in long pants and a uniform jacket. "H- how does it fit? Look! Look…" Roku muttered, scratching his ear. To the door, the knock was Chas as he brought the bag that had been left in his rooms that other evening. "First day of class, chap?"

"Easy, you're going to let them see too much. Timid is how you end up –

"I'm late! You're right, sir!" Raku ran to the kitchenette as he looked for something edible, not until Chas handed the kid a pastry. Vegan, after all. Raku was not much of a meat eater anymore. He'd grown as a wire, maybe to seem less tiny to his classmates. Ignito watched in a smoky cloud by the fireplace as John groaned and sat up. "Should've gotten the alarms set in every room." He yawned

"You were benched, John. Or, Chas said you needed to rest….you never do."

"Evil is active. Humans forget how to be far too easily. Our emotions can best build us and ruin us." John frowned. He then might had cocked a small smirk though. The kid didn't look too pissed off at him. Worried, as his empathic nature told him to be concerned fir all living souls in his life.

~ To keep you alive, John. He needs you as much as you do my Lordship.~ Sniffed the aspect. ~ Raku, a word?~

"Not right now, Ignito." Raku apologized. The spirit seemed midlife, John rolling his back to lift himself from the large arm chair. "Then, who's taking you in? Did Chas volunteer while I was busy nodding off?"

"Yep, so you'll see me after my lessons. I would like to cook tonight, if that would be alright?"

The kid was innocent enough to ask, so John gave his word. "I'll have my eye on any chance to come see you from the gates. Chas? I'm going to stay up this time. Make sure of it, mate?"

"Argh…Johnny, you slay. Are you saying you don't need to have a lazy doze at all?" Teased the other brit as he led Raku to the doorway.

"I won't stop myself from saying I had, so no. I will be there, Raku."

~ Or you'll fail again, magi.~ Growled the aspect in his ear. ~ My lordship should be praised. He took one step towards the sun, not to see you fall to ashes at his feet. That though, would be a sporting image. ~

"I will. No naps. I can sleep tonight."

"Thank you, John." The boy smiled warmly back as the door shut, Chas putting a hand on his shoulder as they vanished. John, left with a grinning menace from the depths of the great void of nothing and all else.

~ Don't become too clingy, magi. I can see how you saw him just now. Pitiful. Stay your distance while I catalog our encounters.~

The spirit left John to himself. The room, big but not without its own presence as the magi got to work looking into Atticus and his big revival.

"Atticus Grey was locked up and vanished soon after from the mystics that had him under their watch. No doubt he has outside aide…" John rubbed his face as he paced the rug at his feet. "Zee told me before that Grey's old council mates are not up to discuss his incarceration. If I were to know where to look…"

He snapped his fingers, running to find a book. A spell, and in it, to create a void as to where he could long distance those that might be of some added, service.

"The school. And my old professor will have a lot to say…"

/

The school Raku was attending knew how to blur the lines quite well. As he entered through the doors of the newly built establishment the world in it didn't look as he'd predicted.

Where were the wooden walls and high ceilings? Raku looked as his eyes started to scam every aura in his path there. Many were boys his age that snubbed him, or the fact that his hair was tightly held in a long tail while one strand fluttered before his face.

Masking uncertainty.

"Ah, there he is!" The man from before. The headmaster, right? Chas was outside, seeing as non wizards ckuld not come through, he simply watched the silhouettes fade out while the headmaster signed an ok sign through the door. Chas put his hands to his pockets, bobbed his head and turned. The kid could connect in an emergency via whatever John had done to his device and his telepathy wasn't just for show.

There was nothing more to do but let John know that the eaglet was to its roost.

That, and John didn't tell a soul because he never knew it either, that an old friend would be teaching the course on magical history.

Zatanna wore out her welcome as her skirt and tights with that long black mane had her discourteous as ever clumsily, bump into Chas on her way in. She then turned to apologize giving Chas a gawking stare. "Hi??"

"E'LLO…" He swallowed. "You're a professor?"

"Temp." She answered. "John?"

"Ye…yes." Chas nodded. "You?"

"Possibly…transfer student. Aide. G – guide!" She blushed. "Is…is it?"

"Yes."

Zee was young, yet her academics had her fat ahead of the curb in this universe. Sge was only an aide abd Raku, well. He was going to do fine with the books yet not with the kids. John had gone to this academy and barely made it out alive.

"Well. You've got everything hand-

"Wait!" She stopped him. "John, is he…really taking that boy on as a student? Why here? Is, is everything ok?"

"He's solving a case on the side. Pretty gory thing, at that." Chas covered.

"T- tell him I'm in town. Off Sundays. I stay on Saturdays to help around, gain more influence. Might go full time." She smiled weakly.

"I will, Zee. You as well. John is excited yet cautious. All with his track record with teens."

"Zed was fine, she was an adult –

"Won't try to tell the boss that. Then, I'll be off. Raku is in good hands. We'll be back to collect at four."

"He's my responsibility." She grinned, determination blooming under the surface. "Past, present. He's going to be one heck of a sorcery major when we're through."

Chas parted ways as Zee squeezed down at her watch. "Late?? First day, oh my…gotta fly!"

/

Raku looked to the lockers and found something of a different system. He took out the one he'd purchased back in Tokyo as the other kids looked on over their shoulders. The girks seemed a bit calmer, yet the boys had competition."

"Aren't you a transfer student, bloke?"

"Mikey, drop it. The teachers are –

"Wait, I have to tell him."

The three boys had a leader. A blonde with a coiffed style. A suit much pricier as Raku looked at the lock, trying to raise his eyes. If he did, they'd see him for what he was.

He was, not sure –

"You're mucking up the halls with your energy. I could feel it. Like a bloody mouse. My familiar by the way, eats mutts like you for supper and lunch. So, turn it off."

He towered, Raku not walking but falling back with his books, including the lock. "Get up, go down that way. Farther from our lockers. You really tick off my –

"I'm not a mouse. My…my familiar, is strong. I have two." Raku breathed. "And you really should apologize to them." He warned it. Fearing Ignito would intervene and make matters worse. The bell rang as the boys left him, cussing under their breath while the only person to offer a hand was a teacher. He took their hand then saw into her eyes.

"Hiya, I'm Miss. Zattaren."

He let go, his eyes caught on the faces surrounding them. "It's ok. Cone on. I need you a moment office work, last part?"

He nodded, away from the sounds, the colors as he spied the familiar that this Mikey or Michael had.

It was, a dark wolf with two colored eyes. The rogue of the school. Raku had the owl. The sand dragon. Neither could hurt these children as his last experience had been particularly brutal as a child. ( wattpad story tells tale)

Marcus was in the limbo he never deserved. Never fixed as Raku walked solitarily to the office with Zatarra.

He knew, yet couldn't process if he'd be picked on much more because of her newly founded presence.

/

John pushed buttons to connect and got through, a vortex on the rug a wormhole for his banter.

Chas didn't disturb the man as he worked on uncovering why Atticus was not in his chains as he'd been held to.

~ Constantine? My word, you….look like shit. ~

"I agree wholeheartedly that, my work took me for a fool; who knew that the underbelly had need of my services? But that wasn't a reason to call. No, it was about a person I last ran to have a chat with…"

He ran on about Atticus, Raku and his promise of the thing never getting out. That the boy was traumatized for centuries by a demon that had since left their plane be.

~ Grey was, indeed a trouble to us all. When we found he'd become a vampire of souls through some force that…~

"Wait, hold up….vamp?? As in, energy, not blood recycling?"

~No. The realest of demons, I'm afraid. It was how he kept the curse of his immortality in check after it ran dry. He wanted a part and found it again. The boy's past may be connected. I will contact the other elders about this matter. Where is the child this second? In the academy? Who is guarding him??~

"An alumni and my last student. Yorktown her for her acts around the country. Her father allowed that much, having just gone in and out of college. She's there, I made sure there were no loose threads." John sat with fingers laced in the armchair. "Not when it comes to demons like Atticus is now. Who is the head, was their evidence that it helped him to escape his cell?"

~ The possible cults with any in that dimension were under lock. Yet John. This was…two years prior. He had falsely been in and out of his body to allow whatever using his lifeforms to do as it needed. ~

"And that….creature, is walking while he waited to be freed." John set his eyes to the rug below his feet. "I thank you, Margaret. It's a shame that I can't visit often."

~ PLEASE! You were a jokester then as well, and for the love of your new base of operations, the Queen of this country might forgive and forget. Raising the dead during a transmutation session. I do wish it not to be the case by that b –

"He's gifted, because….his father was a bloody deity in ancient middle eastern folklore. No chance I can ever surpass it, I only want to help him become a Guardian like he wants, that's all."

~ That may be, yet from his records he is prone to becoming a vessel. See that, whatever is guiding him will not stray off the path. Including what you intend of his career after his time at the academy…~

"I intend to put him on the archives; see if he has potential in cartography magic. He is an archivist and his mother was a story teller seer in her hereditary line. The fact that a god wants to be more than average means he won't leave when things get tough. I'm here to be sure of that, the support he needs is right here."

/

Raku swung his feet until a cleared throat of one staff was the cue to stop. He did, his body restless as his mind was taking on every detail.

"He, he was bullied in the hall over his pre –

"Where is it?"

The staff member that had stopped Raku's bad leg habit turned to a box on the desk. "This bracelet is for students that exhibit potential that van be, distracting at the wrong times. You'll learn to let it off when you're well into your lessons. Mr. Zattaren, will be between courses and here to help."

"I don't think that is, won't I become an even larger target?" His accent of his home was on there, peeping out. Zee felt badly as the boy in essence, was cautious of his life.

"You're not wrong to want independence. Yet, there are other things to worry over. Your grade average would have you in Cleveland yet this is a start. You're still only fifteen, correct?"

"For as long as he, stays that way." Z told them. "We know about that ability. Raku? Are you ok with aging just a bit? It might help to keep you –

"Seventeen." Raku said. "I've wanted, to know what it was like before. It was the age my life was stolen from me, and I didn't grow any taller…" He turned red.

"That coukd be the djinn origin, sir."

"Very. Raku…when you step back through those doors, this…Will not be the school you walked into, dear boy." The headmaster said, sympathy in his tone. "This is a guise that protects the magical and like you, the arcane. When you van therefore see this academy for what it is, I know you won't have any extra added doubts." He put out his hand to shake, and Raku sensed good faith in this person.

Lime Z, he trusted it with caution, yet he still took the hand. Blinking, he let go. A contract?

"The admission process. No, don't look at me like that." Chucked the headmaster. "This place won't cage you. Cone to this office if you need to contact your guardian. We're only doing this for your sake. John may be a good friend of the school, yet he's not the only one who studies here' Or has. "

Raku gasped, his eyes up as he saw memorie if John's time clowning around in the cafeteria. Of the pranks he pulled and the loves he had lost…

Yet, it felt…ok? He couldn't put it into words, so he smiled a thank you and went to turn the knob.

The world. Was more like his world than ever in a thousand years.

"Welcome, Raku." Z smiled as Raku saw brooms at the sides of young witches and gremlins holding lunch bags. Of banners being brought higher up for an event by pixies.

"To, Cromwell; Academy of Sorcery and, the mystic rites of our time."

( I made it up but will change history once I know more. Graphic novel takes from this route.)

/

Raku had guidance, yet so did others still acclimate to their situations outside of other realms. A fae crowd had a more Gothic appeal yet was still warm to welcome a head bob in hellos.

The sprites were mixed with sorceresses on the Hex – Rider cheerleaders' team. They were the richest elites, so Raku took note from Zee. He even thought a girl with long braids and citrus blossoms in her hair had seen him from across the room at lunch. Raku had, mixed feelings. This felt much more, forgiving than back then at the Isles where Marcus Borges had…well, met a fate far worse wasn't the way to put it.

Lilith had done enough. This was his time, he decided with a smile from his dear Djinn counterpart as it astrally was only seen by him. Ignito slapped a book shut, waking Raku from his daydreams.

~ Chin up, young sorcerer. If you have decided it be so, then pay heed to your very caste. They are not all as they seem. ~

Surely, he meant….

"Raku, right?"

The boy looked up to see the girl with flowers in her hair, smart eyes and a curious nature to boot. Like a small fox, she looked him up and down. "Is she your guide? You're by far the most esteemed of our school. A prince from a foreign time! It's right out of a novel!"

She was…

Raku realized. A fan, of anything fantasy.

/

John tapped his pen onto a blank sheet before swapping to a dingy yellowed and torn map of the city. Years ago, the map told a story as he hoped it wouldn't have to again. With a breath, the words fell and blood red stained x's revealed the killings of not just their foe.

Yet –

"John?"

Chas bobbed the door open as the magi threw back his head. "Was I quite clear before-

"It's time to contact your pupil. He's waiting at the gates with her. You hired her to step in, why?"

"Zee is, not like me. I scare brats like that and…was banned from setting foot for much longer than a few minutes inside of that school. We only went through to the office on a day when that was permissible." John admired into his hands. To his dear friend. "I was not like her. I left, I never stuck around and because of that. I was rogue, dejected and….well, Atticus took pity. Said I needed a firm hand to guide me back. That if –

"John, whatever this is, it's time to grab the boy and have supper. That's all." Chas said there with a shrug, a nod and a wave to get going "Now, are you going to see the boy for his first day, or not?"

/

Raku was not quiet enough, in fact, the opposite was true. He'd learned of a spell to put his energies in a small box as he spoke to avoid like before on his way from the airport. "It turns out, Amber is a fan of the same authors I am. She even read the ghost-written work I had done that was published for a short time. There was also a class that turned things into animals, so I used a staff with an owl that they said I had high marks for transmutation. Instead of messing up…" Raku felt weepy as he rubbed his face. "I was, alright. No one wanted to hurt me there. They are fae and wizards, so many different worlds I had no idea –

"And like your time, in their times, the tension may have gone through similar scenarios." John explained on their way around the corner. John nodded to Chas as Raku's aid had told him that he'd have little homework for the first day in to see if he would do better tomorrow. Tonight, John opened the door to a restart wkth a homey British appeal.

"Wulf and Lamb is the spot we'd decided on. Best dishes and yes. They have a vegan menu if you were going to be –

John didn't even have a chance to finish as Raku leaped out and hugged him like a happy child. The magi was having a hard time. The kid, opening up….

And Ignito by the bar, glaring as he materialized a goblet and stirred to intimidate the magi.

~ Any closer, and one of you might shatter.~ The aspect warned. John cleared his throat; back in the moment to this present day, as Raku was quite a hugging expert. "AH…let's find us a place to sit!" John said in a scratchy , high-pitched voice.

/

They sat as three. Two grown adults as care givers abd Raku, a teen who didn't act at all his age. He was swinging his legs for one, regressing as if he'd skipped a childhood and was reliving a good moment with his mum in the present. It, felt off…

"Evening, gents, oh! He's a sweetie, isn't he? New? John, you didn't adopt - you had us worried you'd never try my dishes again. Haha, well, did you?"

She was a motherly, older woman that made Raku wonder about Grandmother Sarah. If she would have liked to hear stories about such a time. "Actually. Not to be too up front, I'm Raku. I transferred here from California. I lived with family there, but my studies here were more so temporary. I'm taking up Ancient history and anthropology, philosophy. It is very wonderful to know a friend of John's!"

"Well. You deserve desert on the house for being so sweet as sugar and cream. My ,my!" She was not a bit rougher in her tongue as she even pinched his cheek out of admiration. Raku had to laugh at that as he felt, good about today. He should. Then…

He looked across the table as Ignito sighed for it all. He knew the boy too well.

Raku could see John's aura flickering.

He wasn't alright…

"What can I get for you dears, then? Same bleeding drinks for the bloke, or were you changing your tune for the child, I wonder?"

"A pint for me, something nonalcoholic for them. A juice or water. Raku?"

"Do, you have any teas?"

Both men looked at the boy, then each other as the owner broke out in a giggle. "He's a spray one, you've weaned! I hope he knows that enough from your nightly run ins to my bar!"

/

He loved it right away as the blend made his toes curl. John put up a pm, finding this enthusiasm a bit off putting "Hold it back. I know you're a fan –

"I've only had what was in the house…aroma, aged….fourteen months. About …Burma, …no wait…"

Chas gawked. "Good buds on his tongue, eh? Are, you sure "philosophical thought" is what you'd like as your career choice, lad? This is more a strength if you'd learn to cook. Maybe on the side I could teach you what I know."

"And John?"

Chas chucked. "He can't even fold over an egg. Don't ask him to whip you up a late-night snack if you're smart to avoid it."

"Burnt. Toast. One, bloody time –

"HEY. Hey, you two. Play nice. The food is here and ready to be… served. Raku? Are you a fan of Wulf pies?" The owner asked with her eyes on the kid's expression.

Raku soon found out that the vegan version made him feel too happy. Too happy and stuffed. "We'll pack up your seasonal torte to go. Vegan, right?"

"Yes please…" Raku suppressed a small burp as he tried to see if there was anything else to clear off of the table.

They waved goodbye and John had a smile out to the car. He didn't try to ask Raku about the day. He was quiet , in thought as Chas watched John fo off to bed. By himself, alone.

"Did…did I upset him? Should I raise the funds to –

"No." Chas shook his head. The bag in Raku's arms was for tonight so he could go over some study guides for the next day. "Am, I reminding him of someone?"

Chas looked to the clock, changing the subject. "It's late. Set up and get into bed and washed. Then, I can give you my word on what you need to hear. About Astra. About our mistake."

/

So, Raku was given a celebration supper but John may be connected to Atticus after all?? Find out! ZEE IS A TEACHER!!