Canaan Club - 17. Chapter 17

The next class was back in indoors, though, it wasn’t located in the main building this time. The first-years traveled to a greenhouse dome, not too far from the gardens.

Rafe grinned down at Andre. “You owe me a hundred bucks if I fall asl-l”

Before he could finish that statement, however, the room began to distort the second they took a step in. The colors of the real world evaporated into darkness before orbs of light dotted the blacked-out canvas. Three-dimensional spheres of different sizes zipped into existence.

Planets and stars.

The group of first-years gasped, heads twirling about as panic began to arise among them.

“The fuck’s happening?” the blond superhuman spun around, fists tensed as if waiting for something for someone to suddenly attack them.

“W-We’re in space!” Joe yelled, and somehow despite being in a vacuum, his voice echoed.

Daeran flinched as he gazed nervously out into the void. “Something’s coming.”

As if on cue, a bright light flashed before them. The illumination was so brilliant that all of them had to shield their eyes in fear of going blind. Fortunately, it receded as fast as it had appeared, but in its place was something out of a nightmare.

“What is that!?” Andre gaped.

Rafe, Joe, and Daeran gawked in silence while most of the other first-years screamed in terror.

Above them were a set of five flaming, golden wheels spinning and circling a white disembodied head, its only facial feature being a single giant, cerulean eye where the bridge of its nose should have been. Its luminescence shined across the galaxy, partly lighting up some of the darkest corners.

“Be not afraid, children,” its voice had a legion behind it, each a soft, smooth pitch but with the same cadence. “I am the bearer of knowledge and the one who will reward you with a great understanding of the true laws of the universe.”

This… “guy” was their instructor? Where did this school find the time to hire a being like this to teach a bunch of preteens about magic? The entity reminded Rafe of one of those otherworldly creatures in some long book he read once when he was bored.

Joe searched below him, blinking at the fact that they were somehow standing on solid nothing. “So… where do we… uh…?”

“Please stand or sit wherever you wish,” the being’s blue pupil flickered over to him, making the noirette superhuman shiver.

With that, he cautiously lowered himself, the others watching him with rapt attention until he sat crossed-legged. His apprehension soon began to fade as he slammed his hand against the “flooring.”

“Holy crap! Is this actual space or just…?”

“Of course. You will be under no false illusions here.”

“It’s beautiful,” a seated Andre stated as he gazed all around him, the other students finding the courage to lie down as well. “Who knew space would be awesome?”

Rafe huffed as he situated himself next to the omé. “I wouldn’t say that. That completely contradicts the horror stories I’ve heard over the years from the astronauts at the Coat.”

Space travel was a part of the Coat program, and the Gold’s bedtime stories were always about how many space pilots in earlier days would leave Earth only to never return.

“Allow me to introduce myself while you gain your bearings,” the wheel and head started. “I am the ancient, magical entity renowned as Rotar and I will be your introduction to the comprehension and management of magic.”

“How’d they get a god to become a teacher?” Rafe had to ask.

Rotar turned his unblinking eyeball on the superhuman, the wheels spinning a bit faster. “Oh, I am no god, Raphael Gold. There are much more intimidating and powerful forces in the gigaverse.”

“Gigaverse?” Andre repeated, voicing the confusion everyone had.

Rotar’s pupil glimmered, and Rafe got the sense that he’d be grinning if he could. “That is a lesson for another date, Andre. Right now, can you tell me your definition of ‘magic?’”

“A major driving energy force of the universes,” the young wolf answered instantly.

“Correct. And do you know beings of the physical realms utilize this power?”

“Um, well, I know wolves use it to let out their beasts and breath fire.”

“It’s potions and spells for wizards!” another student responded.

“Back then, magic meant the fighting spirit of a warrior,” a particular barbarian chimed in, and Rafe glanced back to spot Frodd a few spaces behind them.

So, the first-year had been with them this whole time and avoided detection. Guess he was too scared to face his last night's opponent.

“Precisely, the lot of you,” the eye skimmed the class. “About ninety-eight percent of beings of the physical realms make use of the power known as the arcane.”

“Well, I wouldn’t know,” said Joe. “Superhumans don’t use magic, right? They have that bio-soul thing, yeah?”

“Of course. However, would you believe me if I told you that even that – the bio-soul energy of the superhumans – is an energy source that originated from its magical counterpart?”

“You serious?” Rafe questioned.

It sounded made up, but the blond could almost believe it. It was always so strange how the scientists back then just happened to stumble upon the formula to granting humans with abnormal abilities. Magi were most likely involved, which meant that all the credit given to them was mostly underserved and bullshit.

“Quite,” Rotar’s wheels started to slow down for some reason. “Bio-soul energy requires only a point decimal of esoteric control. The gigaverse, which is the collection of universes in our proximity, and all other gigaverses are derived from a form of magic, either remaining in its natural, raw state or transmuting into other forces down the line, such as your bio-soul energy which you superhumans harness.”

Magic. Everything came from the force they knew today as magic. As the class went on, the entity went into more detail about the beginnings of their universe and even itself, describing itself as a “causa sui,” or a being that had molded itself into existence from a collection of energies throughout the cosmos.

Rafe briefly recalled the bet he was about to make with Andre and inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. He would have owed his friend a hundred dollars because the lecture about powers and forces beyond comprehension was just too interesting to doze off on.

“Each of you has the potential to awaken the magical force within you if you haven’t already,” Rotar said, “and that is why you are here. If you are already adept at your usage, there is always a well of latent abilities waiting to be unlocked.”

The wheels surrounding its head abruptly froze before they started to glow the same light that brought the causa sui before them.

“First, however, it is imperative that you get to know your inner magic before anything else. Initiating ‘Snapshot!’”

And before Rafe could even think of asking what was about to happen, his surroundings, all the planets, stars, and space debris in the background, promptly blipped out of reality.

Although, this time, he wasn’t in total darkness. Everything was now… gray. The superhuman shot up and looked around frantically, coming face to face with the same texture in every direction.

“What the…? Andre? Andre!? Joe!? Where the hell did you go!?”

His voice didn’t echo, the sound encased in wherever he was and making his ears ring a bit. Still, he shouted as loud as he could.

“Hello!?”

Nobody answered his calls.

Despite his agitation and claustrophobia beginning to rise, he reached out and touched what he thought was the background. However, he was shocked to find his hand stop short and press against a hard, gritty surface.

“What in the world is this? Stone?”

“Help!” a horrified voice penetrated the trap he found himself in, sounding as if it was on the outside of it.

That voice, though…

“Andre?”

“Somebody help me!” the omé screamed, and Rafe started to panic.

“Andre!? Andre, where are you!?” Rafe pushed at the stone walls, running around the small space in hopes of some other inexplicable thing to occur, but nothing like that happened. “Shit! Get me the fuck outta here, man! I need to-”

His fist flew forward, putting all his strength into it. The prison trembled under the weight of his power but nothing beyond that.

“Rafe!” the omé’s cries increased in volume.

“Hey, Ro-guy! Let me out of here! My friend’s in trouble! Are you fucking listening!? He needs my help! Get me out!”

No one responded other than the pleas of his longtime friend. Rafe threw punch after punch into the seemingly unbreakable stone.

“Come on, come on, come on!”

With his anger and fear on the rise, he felt his eyes well up, though, not with tears. The superhuman glared at the spot he’d been beating, easily letting loose a pair of cyan lasers. It didn’t do anything, but he was a little surprised that he could use them so simply like that.

“No, please! No!” Andre’s voice began to tremble, a note of terror Rafe has never heard before in it.

“Fuck! Andre!” he tried everything. Slamming his shoulders into the wall, trying his green lasers, and even scratching at the stone, but nothing would budge. He was completely and utterly helpless. “You son of a bitch! Let. Me. Out-”

He was about to smash his head in when everything came back, and the blond tripped to land on his hands and knees, his breath labored.

“Woah, Rafe! Are you-” Andre kneeled beside him.

When Rafe noticed his friend, he was immediately on him, hands cupping the young wolf’s face and wild eyes examining for any signs of injury. Although, the brunette didn’t appear harmed.

“Andre! You’re… you’re…”

“Hey. I’m okay, buddy,” Andre gently grabbed the blond’s arms, smiling up at him to assuage his dread. “You look like you’ve run a marathon, though. What just happened?”

What just happened, indeed. Rafe turned and found Rotar’s eye pointed at them. He glowered at it, spitting, “You. What the hell did you just do? I thought…”

“Raphael Gold. You felt… trapped, did you not?”

“You know what happened! What did you just do to me?”

“The more confined one feels when coming face to face with their latency, the tighter the lock you have on your magical capabilities. We can work on that together no matter the padlock we need to discover the key for.”

There were no more snapshots for the rest of the class, but Rafe still felt on edge. He was glued to Andre’s side, his anxiety only mollified if he was physically touching him. And the omé let him, their knees touching and occasionally brushing arms.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Rafe asked again as class finally came to an end, exiting the greenhouse. “I just… I heard you screaming, and I…”

Andre rubbed his cheek against the blond’s shoulder. “Yeah, I’m good. Honestly, mine wasn’t bad at all. I was just in a dark-looking place, and I was walking toward a campfire, I think, but it wouldn’t get any closer.”

“There wasn’t anything… or anyone else… yelling?”

“Nope. I’m sorry you went through that,” the omé dramatically puffed his chest up. “Nobody can get one passed this big bad wolf.”

“Mine was so freaky, bro!” Joe exclaimed, waving his hands excitedly. “I had, like, two left hands and I had to open a door, but my fingers kept slipping on the knob.”

“You didn’t just use your actual left hand?” Andre questioned with a raised brow.

“I couldn’t. It wouldn’t move,” the Ares superhuman gazed behind them. “What about you, Daeran bro? What was your thing like?”

When no reply came, they spun around to find Daeran a few steps away from the group, silent and shaking like a leaf in the wind.

“Daeran?” Joe sauntered toward the other boy in concern. “You okay, dude?”

“N-N-”

Daeran let out a shaky breath. He must have seen something worse during the whole “snapshot” thing. Something that their probably not going to know about for a long time if ever.

“I-I’m sorry! I have to…” he stammered before abruptly going left and speed walking away.

“Hey, man! What’s wrong?” Andre went after him, and the other two followed along.

While Joe and Andre tried to get the boy’s attention, Rafe’s hearing picked up on the words whispered so quietly under his breath.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Who was he apologizing to?

“Daeran. Let’s talk about th-” Joe was cut off when his roommate suddenly bumped into someone else just before entering a random Ironward monolith.

Daeran looked up apologetically at a tall, wire-muscled woman with golden-red hair in a ponytail and pale eyes holding a beige satchel in her gloved hands. He was about to make another apology when the girl thrust the bag at him, and the first-year instinctively held onto it. And before he could question what just happened, the girl smirked before vanishing completely, not even leaving a puff of smoke.

“W-Wha…?” his eyes darted from the heavy satchel to the spot where the girl had just occupied.

The other three quickly caught up with him as he sputtered, throwing out question after question.

“Who was that? Someone you know?” Andre wondered.

“And what did she give you this for?” Joe added.

“N-No, I just… I…”

Rafe couldn’t keep the taut tone in his voice as he sighed. “What the hell’s up with you, man?”

Daeran winced before muttering, “I… I can’t get into it. I just… it was too much. Sorry.”

“That’s all you had to say,” Andre placed a comforting hand on his tense shoulder. “You don’t have to tell us anything if you don’t want to.”

“Agreed,” Joe nodded. “But we are here if you need an ear, bro.”

His roommate stared back at them in hesitation, but only found kind, patient smiles and an accepting frown from the trio. Daeran sighed in relief and closed his eyes.

“Thank you.”

“So, what’s in the bag?” Rafe asked after a few seconds of silence.

Andre sniffed the material. “It smells kind of funny.”

Though, before they could ruminate any further on the contents of the bag that was suddenly dropped into their lap, Zoel Wulfrot suddenly barged out of the building Daeran was about to wander into, his expression livid as he took in the four stunned first-years.

“Of course, it had to be you fuckers!” he spat.