The Ragnix Circle

“Thanks for getting me here on time.”

“We’re both getting on the bus,” I said. “It will look awkward if I aint on it.”

We stood at the steps of the pleb dormitory waiting for the large bus that was supposed to take us to the station. We had left my house early enough. The sun was not yet in the eastern sky by the time I managed to hide my bike behind some shrubs. I was glad that we had somehow both resorted to ignoring what had happened the night before in my room. I could still taste the tension in the air as we spoke, but we both tried to ignore it.

“Don’t worry,” Ash said seeing my face. “I won’t tell anyone your secret Ty.” Another train roared past under our feet before I could reply. I looked down in awe as it sped past. After all this time you should be used to it Tyler, I thought.

“What secret?” Norbert came leading the other plebs through the side door of the dorms.

“Not your issue Norbert.”

“Fine,” Norbert said. “Come to think of it, where were you yesterday Ash? Miss Gouger missed you.”

“I was not hungry,” Ash replied.

“Well you kinda missed the communication then,” Norbert said.

“What communication?” Ashlan turned sharply.

“That Le Fay guy’s dad came around with a group of other Ragnix council guys,” Norbert said. “We aint going home Ash. We’re touring the research center apparently.”

“What?”

“You heard me trouble maker,” Norbert said. “I think Alex told on you and blood boy over there’s exploits. So you pissed them off and they gave us a lousy field trip instead.”

“Hey,” I said.

“Filthy pure bloods,” Ash snapped. “So we are actually never going home then, ever?”

“Ash, relax.” I said coming between her and Norbert, knowing full well how she was probably going to react.

“Whatever.” She walked away from us and stood a distance away. I gave Norbert a scathing look before going over to her.

“Are you alright?”

“How do you think I am Tyler?” she snapped.

“Not great.”

“Yeah,” she snarled. “Flipping great. I told you they would not let us go out of this city. But how would you know what I am feeling Tyler, you see your folks every day.”

“That’s a low blow Ash.”

“I don’t care.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Leave me alone Tyler.”

I almost responded, but thought better of it, choosing to go and stand with the other plebs. Most of them gave me an angry and almost accusing stare, but none spoke up against me. Well only one spoke.

“It’s your fault we aint going,” Norbert said to me.

“Sorry.”

“I guess you know what happens when you hang with Ash now.”

“What happens, Norbert?”

“You get us in shit,” he retorted. “Not only yourselves but all of us. Rimmy there,” he pointed to a small boy at the back of the group, “really wanted to see his family. But thanks to you and princess trouble…” He trailed off preferring to let me figure it out for myself.

“We’re sorry you’re all too cowardly to stand up for yourselves,” Ash said coming to stand beside me. “Get over yourselves.”

The bus saved us from any further argument as it came to a halt in front of the dorm. Ash literally marched me to the back of the bus, before any of the others could get on. I sat down and said nothing, not knowing if I’d say anything that she wanted to hear or not. I resorted to looking out the window as the bus begun to move off.

We passed a number of smaller cars as our bus sped past. Most of the Nodrid citizens that saw me looking out the window, gave me disgusted looks. Comes with being a pleb. I hated the way they all seemed to desire to pass the bus and hurl insults at us. I think I even saw one of the girls on a bike using wind magic to make the bus sway from one side to the other.

“Hang on,” the bus driver said.

This part of the city was more bustled up and noisy. The towering structures were connected by thin bridges of metal and brick. The roads zigzagged all the way up, crossing over one another in unexplained ways. The trains in this part of the city were not exactly under the roads because their tracks run side by side with the glass road. The side streets, where different people walked were almost crowded with screaming teenagers and adults. Cafes and restaurants opened into the road and I think I saw Alex and his friends in one of them. However, all the people that saw our bus looked away in disgust. This shocked me but what did I know. I had never been in this part of the city sitting aboard the pleb bus.

As the journey deeper into the interior of Nodrid progressed, a guardian stopped us to give us passes. I looked on alarmed as he handed over small plastic wrist watches to each of us.

“We’ll escort you from here,” he told them getting off the bus.

“I guess you’re wondering why today,” Ash said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “They’re all unusually hostile.”

“School is not this far into the city,” Ash leaned back into the cushioned seat. “School is so near our dorm that we never feel the divide like this. Plebs that work in these parts of the city tend to have pass bracelets.”

“Bracelets?” I mused looking at the plastic thing round my left wrist. “I thought these were watches.”

Ash thought before speaking. “Well as you can see there’re plastic.”

“They go round the wrist making them bracelets.”

“Yeah,” Ash said.

I just looked out the window again, realizing Ash was still seething with anger. I was not ready to prove myself right and so chose the safer route.

“Sorry for my outburst.”

“It’s cool,” I turned back. “I understand you really wanted to go to a place where magic can’t over exert itself.”

“Something like that.”

The bus stopped at what I thought was the exact center of the city, or somewhere close to it. I looked up through the window, but the sky was blotted out by the piercing towers, roads and railways around us. If it was not for the floating lights, I would barely be able to make out the different cars parked at the side. There was a guardian outpost up ahead, blocking the way of the bus. I saw three of them come out and make their way to on the bus. They scanned us like criminals.

“So pleb kids,” the largest of the trio said after they had ransacked the bus. “I’m gonna take a roll call to make sure all of you leave this facility after your tour.”

With those words, he begun calling names from a small hollow pad he held in his hands. I waited patiently for my name to ring out from his lips but his accent was slow and drowsy. I looked out at one of the blank surfaces of the nearest tower. Three men in long white robes emerged through the wall, holding bottles of some kind of liquid I had never seen before. I tried to feel what was in the bottles with my magic, but at that moment Ash nudged me in the ribs and I realized my name had been called.

“Bennett,” the man raised his voice.

I raised my hand and cringed as I saw him exchange a blood thirsty look with one of the other guardians. I watched agonizingly as one of the other guardians came at me. He raised his gun butt to smack me but thought better of it. Instead he decided to take a drink from one of his canteens. I knew it was some magical portion because of the smoothness of the leather round the container.

“Be attentive pleb,” he smiled menacingly. “Unlike you we can use liquid magic.”

Some force hit my chest forcing me back into the seat as the guardian’s smile widened into a joyful grin.

“Stop it,” Ash said.

“What was that little girl?” the captain looked at me and shrugged. “Leave her be Mika.”

“Sure boss.”

I wished I dint have to hide my magic for the first time, I would have really disciplined the arrogant guardians.

“Stay alert,” the commander said. “Bennett here has shown you what happens if you day dream.”

After a short while, we were ushered off the bus and made to form a single file in front of the sliding glass doors of the building just behind the guardian outpost. I clutched my chest where the pain inflicted on me by the guardians was fading away. As we passed through the space, we were issued a long over coat, just like the one I had seen being worn by the three men that had emerged from the wall.

The main reception of the building was almost triple the size of the school mess. There were five doors in each wall as well as one directly opposite us. The marble tiles of the entrance hall sparkled in the bright light of the floating bulbs. The crisp white walls hummed with silent electricity. It seemed like the whole hall was a generator, supplying itself with a rare current, one that I had not felt since I entered Nodrid.

“Ah,” a voice rung out from behind our group. “The plebs have arrived.”

“Yes Master Avian,” the guardian who had used magic on me said.

“Then that will be all corporal Hunnings,” the voice rung out. I looked around for the source of the voice and was astonished to see a hollow apparition of a short aging man behind us. His oval glasses hung loosely on his hawk like nose. The thin moustache brought attention to his red painted lips. “Now little vermin,” the apparition addressed us. “Turn yourselves round and we begin this tour. I’m Chief Alchemist Avian Grey and I will conduct you through this research center.”

“More like an apparition of you,” Ash mused in a low tone at my right.

“Please walk straight ahead if you may,” the apparition ordered.

I was about to start walking when Ash pulled my hand. I turned to look at her and was somewhat alarmed at the excitement in her eyes. “Let’s tour the place on our own,” she said.

“We don’t know our way round and what happens if they leave us behind?”

“You have magic right,” she whispered. “Then you could like track Norbert or anyone else’s movements to warn us when the tour is ending.”

“This is dangerous Ash.”

“Come on,” she uttered. “How many plebs will ever get into this facility and see things they are not supposed to see?”

“None,” I said weakly.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity Ty.”

“I guess I see your point.”

“Just say yes,” she insisted.

“Ok,” I said. “But if we get into trouble, you’re taking the fall.”

“Trust me; these douche bags won’t notice we are gone.”

I sighed using my magic to cast a tracking spell on Norbert and some other girl, knowing they would be among the first out of the facility and it would give us time to get back to the group. We walked on with the group and quickly darted behind a set of canisters near the door the rest seemed to be going through. We waited as the last of them disappeared and the door closed behind her back.

“How about, getting us a map Ty?” Ash asked.

“It’s just magic, Ash,” I snapped. “I’m not sure I can do that.”

“Relax,” she said. “I know you don’t want to use it, so I guess it is mindless wandering.”

“Yeah.”

“Ok,” she sneered. “Come on pure blood.”

We wandered through the entire complex, seeing things I was sure no pleb had ever seen. Or if they had seen them, they were long dead and buried somewhere. The alchemists and charmed ones really carried out endless research and I have to admit some of their projects were amazing. They really got me thinking that Ragnix was not all bad and there were parts of it that had potential of helping everyone if the people in power were not so stuffed up.

The wind charmers had developed some kind of wind mining method. We saw it at work as some rare minerals were plucked from the ground in some locked chamber, we had sneaked into.

“That’s awesome,” Ash said.

But before I could reply, the thing we thought was awesome changed its purpose. The rare mineral that was removed from the ground was placed in one of the canisters lying around in the chamber. Two women with an affinity to charm fire heated up the canisters and the explosion that rippled through the chamber was massive. I thought none of the researchers survived but as the dust cleared, I saw that the researchers were actually holograms and apparitions of themselves, which meant that they were elsewhere in the zones or city later on in the complex itself.

“I take that back,” Ash whispered.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards one of the doors at our side. I led us straight into another large room. Canisters were all over the floor. Silver and glass tables lined the walls, full of potions and holographic tablets.

“Get down,” Ash hissed, shoving me down. I looked at her angrily but she put a finger to my lips and motioned with her head to look up. I did as she urged. There was a large group of men and women, standing with what I the real version of the chief Alchemist, Avian. One of the men seemed in a deep conversation with the chief alchemist. His sharp eyes lingered on the alchemist in an almost impatient fashion as he listened to the old fellow.

“Who are they?” I turned back to Ash.

“The council.” Ash could not remove her eyes from the group. “Pure bloods and look, they resemble their kids in most ways the one.”

“As in the Ragnix council,” I repeated.

“Come on,” she said crouching behind a pair of lab canisters. “Let’s get closer and see what’s going on.”

I followed as she stealthily made her way towards the glass door separating the room we were in and the one they were in. The voices grew louder the closer we got and I had to stop Ash getting any closer. We watched and eavesdropped on the scene, hiding behind one of the metallic tables.

“Avian,” one of the women said. “Nina tried it out and it worked.”

“Nearly,” one of the men hissed.

“Your children used the blood magic?” the ancient man asked in surprise.

“Yes,” the man who had been conversing with the alchemist said in a cold voice. “I made sure the girl saw us and she tried it out. Alexander assured me it nearly worked. If it hadn’t been for that girl, the pleb boy would have been Nina’s vessel.”

“Le Fay,” a man in a pin stripe suit said. “If it has worked with our children, then I think we should start doing it on a massive scale.”

“Bringing in more people when we are not sure is not a good idea,” the woman said.

“But when they know the potential of this magic,” another woman croaked. “Then they will accept the half manners.”

“By massive,” the alchemist said abruptly. “You mean destroying the plebs.”

“Yes, Avian,” the woman snapped. “Once we are sure that you and the charmed ones can do it, and then we will start rounding up the villages and schools. The dorms will be the key to all this.”

“How?” the old alchemist asked.

“That new drug we are having you experiment with,” the pin stripe suit guy said, “if you look at it under the right conditions, you shall see that it is a simple sedative. Or should we do everything?”

“Perhaps a demonstration and I see if I could figure out a way to get a potion to make it happen.”

“Yes old man.” The Le Fay man smiled. The cruelest and fear striking smile I had ever seen in my life. “It’s good I cancelled the annual trip. The center is teeming with pleb children. One of them shall suffice.”

“Yes,” the alchemist’s eyes brightened. “Very good, I shall have the guardians bring up one of them.”

“The least vocal will suffice.”

“As you do that Avian,” she smiled. “Damien,” the woman said touching the Le Fay guy’s shoulder. “The problem of Sam is still looming. I think he will find out we took the text from his dead wife’s family.”

“He shall be dealt with in time,” Le Fay laughed. “It is a simple matter of placing a little chaos in the school and Turner shall run to his master without a thought.”

“Another problem, we need a magical being in charge of the school,” she retorted. “Turner is too much of a wall.”

“All in time Monica,” Le Fay cooed. “All in time my dear,” he touched his chin thoughtfully. “We’ll deal with one problem at a time.”

Their conversation was cut short as a guardian matched in holding Norbert. I exchanged a worried look with Ash as Norbert was brought to the center of the group of older magic users.

“What’s your name boy?” Avian asked.

“Norbert.” His voice came out like a girlish squeal. The Ragnix council laughed thoroughly enjoying the fear in Norbert’s voice. We saw the Le Fay guy move towards Norbert and stroke his chin thoughtfully. “I did nothing sir, I only looked round. It’s those two that are the problem. Ashlan and Bennett. Not me. I only do what I can to make sure the magic users are happy.”

“Don’t worry child,” Avian mused. “Those two shall be dealt with in time. You’re here for a much more important task. How would you like to be one of the agents of change in the world?”

“I’d love that sir.” His more than obvious desire to coo up to the magic users got my blood boiling.

“Very well,” Avian smiled. His yellow teeth shone out from under his red lips. “Take a seat right here.” He moved a small stool right next to Norbert and turned to the Ragnix council. “Shall we begin then good sirs and ladies?”

“Right.” Le Fay pulled off the black slim fitting blazer he was wearing and rolled the sleeve of his red silk shirt up. Unlike, Ariel he just waved his hand over his exposed forearm and a long deep line of red appeared, staining his otherwise perfect skin. Seeing them doing it to another sent a chill through my spine. I wanted to hurt them or at least stop them. I watched as Alex’s father put his red soaked palm on Norbert’s shoulder. I might not have liked the guy, but he did not deserve to have someone take his energy away from him.

I watched Norbert’s eyes lose their focus as a small white light begun to illuminate his chest.

“That’s what I saw happen to you,” Ash whispered.

I remained silent as I kept my focus on what was happening. Norbert’s body was becoming pale as the light round his chest brightened forming a ring of light round Norbert’s torso. It all seemed to be constricting like one of the wild boa constrictors in the animal preserve center before forming in a concentrated place round Norbert’s chest, near his heart. That was until just like that, the white light disappeared.

“Stand,” Le Fay commanded. Norbert’s body moved without hesitation getting to its feet. I looked at his empty eyes. Gone were the vibrant dark green orbs, replaced by white blank and pupil-less balls. His hands hung limp and lifeless down the side of his body. There was no sign of heaving from his chest.

“Impossible,” Avian said. He walked round Norbert, probing him with his frail fingers at each turn.

“That is blood magic,” Alex’s father said. “If there was any family that knew how to use it, it was the Aperdians. The thing is that all families can use it and blood magic magnifies all the magic you wish to partake in. But as you can see here, we have an empty vessel and can do a lot with it.”

“It is that powerful.” Avian was awed.

“Dangerous,” Le Fay corrected him.

“So the boy is your vessel?”

“No brain, no senses and best of all no pain,” Le Fay smiled. “Once all plebs are like this, I have a plan to obtain both power and immortality for ourselves.”

“The Genesis project,” someone among the council said.

“Yes,” Le Fay mused. “We need another vessel and we shall have a demonstration. With this kind of power we can restart the world, erasing all plebs from existence replacing them with something totally different.”

“Genesis,” Avian said slowly.

“Yes but it requires a lot of plebs and a lot of energy,” Le Fay said thoughtfully.

“Should we get another of the plebs?” Avian asked. Anyone could see the excitement radiating from him from a mile away. Was he that evil and heartless to not care what happens to plebs?

“No, we shall get another soon and bring that pleb here,” Le Fay said. “It shall be done at the school and that Turner man will have nothing to do about it.”

“Keeping the vessels…”

“Come on let us get out of here Ty.” Ash said pulling me away from the dangerous scene.