Chapter 1

Past Tense: When we were Younger

THUD!

Something heavy hits Ryan Arrowny in the head. In response, he pulls the thick covers on his bed up and totally over himself, and goes back to sleep. This works well... for a moment...

THUD!!

Something heavier hits him.

Ryan sighs, and lazily reaches an arm out under the covers to find the flying objects. His hand brushes against a large book. He runs his fingers over the cover, and, by the raised pagan artwork etched into the front, that it is the copy of the true 'Dante's Inferno' that he is supposed to be reading for homework.

Not the watered down version that most people think of... but the actual book that Dante wrote, which tells of the many demons that exist in the hell dimensions. Strengths and weaknesses and powers and such... but Dante was rather long winded... and Ryan has yet to get around to it.

The second thing his hand hits is an even larger book. It contains detailed descriptions of every weapon known to man or demon, and has a large cross referenced section detailing each individual fighting style that can be effectively used with each one.

More than a little confused as to how these books fell on top of him when his bookshelf is on the other side of his room, Ryan pulls the covers down ever so slightly, just to take a quick glance around and see if anybody is sneaking around.

... nobody is in the room...

Ryan shakes his head and sighs...

“Rob...”

There is a small bit of laughter from the other side of the door. Ryan gets up, throws on his actual day clothing, and heads over to pull it open.

Rob, a smallish kid in his early teens, is standing there, holding back a fit of laughter, and at the same time, having a look of self pride run across his face.

“Did I get you?”

The angry flash in Ryan's eyes answer Rob's question.

“Wow... I'm getting pretty good at this whole thing.”

Rob waves a hand at the room behind Ryan, and the two books slowly raise off the floor. They waver in the air for a moment, and Rob looks very happy at his control...

... then the books suddenly fly sideways, and crash through the window.

Ryan turns to face Rob, and just shakes his head.

“Before I beat you for throwing two very expensive books, which I checked out of the library and am now responsible for the cost of, out the window, would you like to tell me why you're here, throwing books around?”

Rob looks down at his watch.

“It's three o'clock.”

Ryan shrugs with confusion.

“So?”

“You told me to come wake you up at three.”

“Why would I do that? It's Saturday... I don't get up until four on Saturdays.”

“Yeah... but... today you're supposed to meet Donald for some extra training... at three fifteen exactly.”

Ryan lowers his head...

“um... damn.”

They take off running. Ryan knows he's going to be late... the Wolfville Academy is rather large.

It is more or less a castle located on the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. Not like, located somewhere along the shore of the Bay... actually out on the water, almost directly between the towns of Parrsboro, and Wolfville (which is the only place it can be accessed from, hence the name).

This place teaches young mages how to become useful members of society... but unlike other better known magic schools, this place deals almost exclusively with what would be called 'trouble students'. That's not to say students that are trouble makers. It means students that have inborn magical abilities that they cannot totally control. Sometimes this can be something as mild as the kid floating around when they mean to be walking... and sometimes, as in the case of Ryan Arrowny, it means that they blew up their hometown, and killed a few hundred people with a spell that they didn't know they could cast.

When Rob's magic based telekinesis came to the surface, he brought his entire house down in what was reported to be a very localised earthquake on the news the next night...

They rush down the hallway from the dormitories, and nearly fall down the stairs to get to the ground floor. Then it's down through another hallway, passing through various students doing their various weekend activities.

As they turn down the connecting hallway toward the classrooms, they run into another student, who looks a nasty shade of green in the face.

He stops them, holding up his hand to get their attention.

“Ryan... man. I don't think Donald is going to be able to train you today.”

Ryan is very confused by this.

“Um... okay. Any reason for this Jason... or just a general guess?”

Jason takes a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves.

“Well... he's sort of on the next floor, dealing with the two dead students in the middle of the hallway.”

After a moment for this information to sink in, Ryan races off down the hall to the stairway leading up to the second floor. As he runs, he can just hear Rob shouting that he's going to wait around with Jason, and avoid as many dead bodies as he can.

As Ryan makes his way up stairs, he can see the heads of Donald Gilbert, his trainer, and the Principal of the Academy, Charles Alexander Maxwell, standing tall over the gathered children. Most of the kids are pushing to get away, but a few of the 'stranger' ones are pushing forward, trying to get closer to the bodies.

Ryan just pushes through the lot of them, and doesn't stop until he can see the bodies... or the singular 'body', and the pile of goo that is splattered all around the walls and floor of the hallway.

He glances down at the body... a young girl, about eleven years old, with a large hole in her stomach. The skin and clothing around the wound are burnt black.

Donald looks down, and seeing Ryan there, motions to the girl...

“Did you know her?”

“Um... she just came here a week or so ago, right?”

Charles Maxwell nods...

“She did. Her magic powers were... well... explosive.”

“Charles...” Donald turns away from the scene, and faces the Principal, “What happened here?”

Charles glances around at the gathered children.

“CLEAR THIS FLOOR!”

It is a very commanding voice... and it has the desired effect. In only a minute, the children are gone, leaving Donald and Charles to talk. Actually, only almost all of the children are gone. Ryan is still standing there.

“Donald... perhaps we should discuss this in a more private atmosphere.”

Donald looks confused. He follows Charles' gaze down the hall to Ryan.

“Listen... he's going to be a Protector. He needs to know about death and such. It's better for him to learn now than when he makes his first kill.”

Charles just shakes his head, knowing that he would be fighting a hopeless battle if he started to argue.

“Fine. From the witness accounts... Maddlin, the girl with the explosive powers, and the other child got into an argument. Maddlin blew the other one up, and then turned her powers on herself.”

Ryan steps forward, and looks carefully at the detonated bits of humanity which cover the hallway.

“But... which student is this? Who did she kill? And... why? She was only here a week... how could she make an enemy this quickly?”

Charles laughs...

“Ryan... you weren't here for more than a day before I had to break up a fight between you and one of the other children.”

“Yeah... but I'm inherently violent.”

“True. As for the other student, we don't know who it is yet. We're going to do a head count as soon as we're done here and find out. About her motives though... I'm afraid we will never know.”

* * * * * *

“She killed herself?”

Rob loses concentration at this, and drops the very expensive crystals that he was trying to float around the room in a synchronized pattern. They shatter on the floor, and he winces, knowing that he's going to get hell for breaking them. Everybody in the library turns to give him a dirty look, some because he broke the crystals, and some because he actually spoke out about the incident quite loud.

“That's what Charles said.”

Ryan leans in close to the table, motioning for the rest of the group to gather round so they can hear him whisper without attracting any unwanted attention.

“The thing is, I can't think of anything to say against that. I didn't know this girl at all.”

Jason shurgs.

“She didn't seem like a depressed girl.”

Ryan and Rob laugh at him.

“Didn't seem like it?”

“And you know this because of all the time you spent with her?”

A small blush comes to Jason's face.

“Well... there was this time... or two... in one of the supply clostets... she seemed happy enough.”

Ryan shakes his head a little at this...

“Man... she was only here a week.”

“So? Not everybody shows up when they're eleven years old like you and Rob did. She's our age... nothing wrong with it.”

Ryan just shrugs.

“Well... whatever. It looks like she did it herself. So really, we don't need to think that much about it.”

“RYAN!”

Everybody at the table looks up to the entrance of the library, where Donald Gilbert is standing, tapping his watch, and waving off the complaints of the librarian, who is trying to tell him to be quite.

Ryan, realizing that he's late for some training, and he rushes off, leaving Rob, Jason, and the rest of the table to continue the discussion.

* * * * * *

“Donald... why would somebody kill themselves?”

Ryan and Donald are having a mock fight. They use wooden replicas of actual weapons, rather than the real thing, for the obvious reasons. These sticks are made up to be as close to actual katana's as any artificial weapon could be. They have the right curve, the right weight, and the right balance. They do everything the real thing does, except cut.

What they don't use is any kind of protective equipment. Have to keep some element of reality in it... otherwise, they won't take it seriously.

Donald takes advantage of the momentary distraction asking the question causes Ryan... he swings low, and clips Arrowny in the knees, sending him to the floor.

“Don't get distracted Ryan... focus on the fight.”

“Sorry... didn't mean to get distracted by the murder suicide. Won't let it happen again.”

“It can't happen again. You're going to have to fight through a lot of distracting things in your life Ryan... think of your mission! When the time comes, do you want to be the Protector that let your charge die because you were distracted?”

“My charge won't die.”

Donald smirks, and helps Ryan to his feet.

“What makes you so sure? That's a future that each of us has to face.”

Ryan steps back, and with a confident look on his face, he takes his attack stance.

“My charge won't die... because I'm going to be a hero!”

“You're going to save them, eh?”

“Sure am!”

“Show me how!”

Donald lunges foward, swinging wide. Ryan blocks the attack, and spins around, kicking Donald in the back, and forcing him to stumble a few steps.

When he turns back to face his student, he gets blasted in the chest by a lightning bolt. Donald drops to his knees as the electricity runs through his body, making it numb.

“I've got the power Donald. I can do this... I'll save everybody.”

“No Ryan... you won't.”

Donald rolls forward, and slashes at Ryan's stomach, forcing him to double over. He then brings his training blade down across the back of Ryan's head, knocking him to the ground.

A swift kick in the gut flips Ryan over to his back, and Donald brings the point of the training weapon down into his ribs, hard...

The wood of the weapon cracks... as does one of Ryan's ribs.

“You can't save everybody Ryan. You never will... and chances are, you'll end up being the one to kill the ones you don't. You can't be a hero, and save the world at the same time... the two just don't go together. Someday, you'll learn that.”

Donald helps Ryan get to his feet. This is a little hard, as the broken rib gives him trouble, and doesn't let him stand straight.

“Ryan... get to the nurses office. Training is over for today.”

It takes Arrowny a good long while to make his way from the classroom wing all the way to the nurses office on the other side of the Academy. He reaches the door of the nurses office, but stops short of opening it, as he can hear the muffled voices of the Principal and one of the instructors.

He opens the door just a crack, and is surprised to see Rob passed out on one of the chairs.

The instructor, Mister Davidson, who is in charge of the chronologics research and development department, looks worried. Rob works with Mister Davidson on his off hours, using his powers to help with some of the more dangerous experiments.

Davidson is talking quickly to the Principal.

“I asked him to get something from the supplies closet. He made a wrong turn in the basement, and tried to open the... locked door.”

“And... do you think this had anything to do with why he passed out?”

“I couldn't say for sure. But, sir... there have been a lot of strange things happening at the Academy since... well... since you know when. I mean... sir... we've had four of these murder suicides in the last two years.”

“That's nonsense Davidson. What is in that room could not be responsible for those events. Besides... only the incident today officially happened. We were lucky that the others were in private rooms within the Acadamy. Nobody knows about them... and as long as we keep quiet... nobody ever will. Now... get the nurse to see to your student.”

Ryan hides in the nearby shadows as Charles leaves the office...

... four other incidents like this? Eight other dead people at this school in two years? And... what locked door? Ryan's managed to find his way into most of the rooms at the Academy at one point or another during his stay... why hasn't he run into a locked room in the basement yet?

And... why the hell is he standing here, when his ribs are broken, and hurting very, very much?

He waits just a few seconds, and then hobbles into the office to take a seat and wait his turn to get fixed.