Chapter 8: The Theia Family

It was as the first flight, hours. Twelve to be exact. I didn't know how exactly but there was a tally of time in my mind. From the moment I dropped in, to the predicament I was in. As I consulted my mental expanse, I soon stumbled across a book called "Time", inside revealed two hands ticking away and twelve digits, it was a clock and not even a second escaped its grasp, even with the time dilation. Though instead of the usual tics and tocks of a conventional clock, its hands seemed as if they were being held back, only having enough strength to break free every other second.

Mrs. Francis was right when she said I would remember everything, even before I got perfect recollection. To keep track of time on this scale was truly mindboggling.

As I continued to wonder the unseen halls of my mind, I stumbled upon an "Events" book, or rather I was drawn, the book seemed like a sky scrapper in a village, luckily there weren't any shelves to dictate its size. As I skipped through the pages all the events of my life were unfolding before me, even the ones I wanted to forget. I also couldn't help but notice the timestamps at the bottom of the pages, it was exact to the second at times, and others not. It detailed the time I spent in every well, event, from conversations to my trials.

Though the time before the world I was currently in didn't have those timestamps to the second but instead seemed like estimates, it was too far back, but even without the timestamps being precise, one chapter of the book didn't disappoint. The chapter called "Abuse" carried on for a while. It filled most of the book, though I couldn't see the time on that one, I knew how long it was, seventeen years. The book soon corrected itself and at the timestamp, instead of precise numbers only seventeen years stood. In all the commotion I almost missed a specific chapter I didn't think existed. It was happiness, it had so little pages... no, my words were wrong. It had a page. It contained a moment I didn't expect, me falling through the wormhole, though the rest were expected. The time I had spent with my friend in the forest, and the time I spent with Ms. Francis

Though I had not chosen the opportune time to start exploring my mind, as soon the sound of touching down took me out of my trance.

"Were... heere... Uhhhh." She said hung over, prying herself out of the seat, eyelids moving like the oceans tide, back and forth.

As we disembarked the plane, we were met with maids this time, it was relieving. The attire they wore resembled a full black maid's attire with their faces obscured by the same black fabric, a golden tiara like headband holding it in place, fading as it went back under their hair. An insignia in red could be seen on the fabric, a kite with an anvil in its center.

"Well come home my lady." The four maids said in tandem, bowing themselves to her.

"Yeah." She said, barely being able to stand. "This is Count Chaménos... Psychí Francis... he'll be under our care." She stumbled over her words, taking deep breaths in-between.

They soon turned their heads looking up into my face. "It is an honor to make your acquaintance, please feel at ease in our care. " Again they spoke as one, I was left wondering about their humanity.

"Thank you?" I said not knowing how to properly address them.

We soon started to walk towards the main house. The trek reminding me of the first time I went to the village. Only this time it did not look like a sea of murky waters as the villages field, but instead one of blood, the flowers before me were foreign. There petals were akin to that of the trees in the forest, curtains, but in the middle where I expected to see pollen, I saw something disturbing. It looked like a developing fetus covered in blood.

As we walked one of the maids soon noticed my gaze and soon corrected my misunderstanding.

"It's not what you think, there not actual fetuses, its an illusion. But you can probably guess their names." For once one of them spoke alone. Though words alone couldn't convince me and noticing this as we walked, she crouched down and picked one. "See for yourself." She said as she raised my hand and lay the flower inside.

Now that it was closer it didn't look like a fetus instead it looked like origami, as the flower folded in on itself.

We had landed on a designated area, far enough away for security reasons, or so I thought.

Though now looking down on my hand, my focus shifted, there was the usual road, that looked like sand but felt like asphalt leading to the house, but this time it looked like the infinite dark of night.

As we approached, the gate and walls came into clear view, they stood about forty feet tall the wall having an occasional budge about every forty feet. The gate was a black sheet of metal with the top having a design resembling a flame. In the immediate center was the same insignia the maids were sporting, a kite with an anvil in its center, red. The gate met the walls at either side, red, I was noticing a trend.

As we approached the gate opened, or rather receded into the floor. Surprisingly absolutely no sound was heard, this surprised me as I expected to hear the creasing of metal, and even the sound of chains. It was then I remembered where I was and how I got there, and the veil my mind kept over the world to convince me I was on earth had been lifted. As I looked around at the sea of blood and at the plane that flew without engines, this reassured the fact. I expected to have a panic attack but to my disbelief I was fine.

As the last feet of gate fell, it revealed a lone man, he was standing In a courtyard, below him the pavement continued to the walls, no more flowers were seen. He was covered in soot and covering his eyes were googles, his body wrapped in a black overall, with red lining OfCourse.

"Father." She said as she walked towards him, collapsing in his arms.

"Haaa..." He sighed." Drunk again huh, I can't understand why she won't leave alcohol alone, their clearly not compatible." He shook his head as he spoke.

In all that had happened what surprised me was not Rose's collapse but the man. He didn't look a day over twenty, yet she called him father.

The four maids soon knelt on their knees and in union once more spoke. "Task completed master, awaiting further instructions." Though they were maids and I expected them to speak this way. They sounded robotic, not there tone or voice but their grammar.

"That will be all, stand by." The man said whilst checking his daughters pulse. "On second thoughts, One take her to her room." Immediately one of them rose from their knee and took Rose from off his hands. His gaze shifting over to me.

"Ahhh... a promising young man indeed. Come! we don't have much time he said walking away." He didn't look back, I was expected to follow. As I looked back the three girls had disappeared.

"Excuse me?" I said catching up to walking beside him.

"The name's Rockwell Theia, blacksmith, scientist, soldier. You name it that's me. Rose may have told you we have a week, what she didn't tell you is that it starts today." As he spoke, I couldn't help but think they were following a script, each playing their part, as no one hesitated to do what was best for me.

We came upon two buildings, one was a giant metal dome that absorbed all the suns light with it's matt black, large bolts holding its plates together. A similarly sized door at the front, or rather just a frame.

The other though... the other left me speechless. The black Herculean pillars held up an enormous slab of black limestone that slanted from the pillars going all the way back into the ground. Walls met the sides of the limestone, red, and littered in a step by step fashion were windows going up to six floors, penetrating and passing through the slab giving the lower three floors an overhang. The very top of the building had sculptures, there were four of them, they were overlapping one pair over the other, like a dragon protecting its head with them. They encompassed the roof, it seemed impenetrable. The door at the front was a large circle and as expected black, but outlined by gold, two garage door sized windows on either side going from the ground to the slab. The central window above them being shaped like the insignia, it took up the entire top half.

We walked towards the dome. Though there was only one thing ringing through my head and it was the emptiness. There seemed to be only five people apart from myself, and the plane had no cockpit.

We soon came upon the dome and I followed him inside. It was as I expected metallic, but there was only problem it was empty, a large rubber like floor as far as the eye could see, until.

"Rose pull up all the lesson plans for kindergarten to college year one. " As soon a he said this the center of the room raised up and became a table, and soon after it opened to reveal an orb that started to float.

"Affirmative." It said in a feminine voice and soon projected in mid air was a spread of documents.

"Day one, commit to your mental expanse all the information before you, after that, tell Rose to call me." He soon left me with the orb, midair. As I stepped forward toward the table the projection shrunk and came up in front of me.

"Let's finish this quickly..."I thought to myself.

There was no need to object, first of all I needed all the information I could get my hands on and secondly, I would be just as knowledgeable if not more than the people my age.

I started to read through the documents and after two hours I found it tiering. I soon hatched a plan to just hover over each page and see if the books would still appear in my mind. It worked, each book started to pop up one after another, and in great detail as well. With the pace I had I was finished in another five hours and was soon feeling hungry.

"Rose?" The voice soon echoed back a response.

"Request?"

"Well not a request per say, I'm done."

"Twelve hours ahead of schedule, Pinging master." A few minutes after these words were heard Mr. Rockwell came barging in, he now had a cart and on top was a bottle of water, a liter and what looked like a balanced meal. There was a spread of salad with nuts on top, of which variety I could not tell, then a slab of meat, strips of what looked like bacon, a bowl of rice and yams .

"You must be feeling hungry its been several hours after all." I knew this well as the tally in my mind kept reminding me.

"Yes sir."

"Good, listen well this is two birds with one stone, first your hungry now and second this is the start of your diet, you'll receive a hard copy later. While I can't get you in tip top shape in a week, I'll still introduce you to the regiment you'll be on whilst at school. This will lessen the stress and start getting you in shape."

He soon rolled the cart towards me and went towards the table and began tapping away. Then out of nowhere.

"Thirty seconds each question, a sentence for each answer is required."

"Ok." I said slowly making my way through the challenge before me.

"The four Great Spirits?"

"The four great spirts are Anemos, Gin, Aquarius and Fortia." It was easy to respond, I actually had a minute after all. It was also not to be mentioned that once I thought about what I wanted the books would reshuffle giving me what I needed.

"Three types of magic?"

"Three types of magic are; alchemy, elemental and spirit manipulation." The only thing that bothered me was the fact that he did not confirm my answers but immediately jumped to the next question.

"Four magic affinities?"

"Four magic affinities are water, air , fire and earth."

"What is an artifact or treasure and what are two classes?"

"Artifacts or treasures may be anything from a pencil to a chain that has been enchanted or blessed by a spirit to carry out a specific task or gain an attribute, be it a weapon to fight or a device to warm water, Two classes would include A and B tier artifacts."

"A gift is?"

"A special attribute, skill, affinity or otherwise that has been obtained from a spirit and allows the gifted to do something they couldn't do before."

Soon the flurry of questions stopped and the machine bellowed once more.

"Passing grade has been awarded, one hundred percent."

"Good, just what I was expecting from you." He said a sinister laugh escaping his mouth.

"So what now." I said finishing the last yam.

"Well training of course, from basic spells to making spells and enchantments, not to forget physical training. We only have one week to get you ready for this cold and unforgiving world and I won't be the reason you fail in it, I couldn't do that her."

He soon removed his googles revealing his lime green eyes, as he pulled them off his blonde hair spilled from inside the overall. He really didn't look a day over twenty, he actually looked like a model.