Figment of Dreams
Chapter eighteen: First lessons

Kai had not made it to my dorm last night. He also couldn’t text me since I had no phone or a Telvice as they called it here. I figured he didn’t want to wake me so he let me get some good sleep. I had kind of missed him in my bed though.

I had checked with Skylark and she had no problem with him staying over. She added casually that she would have a problem if I took home one of her twin brothers. Which was kind of a weird statement, since for one I didn’t know them at all. They were about ten years older than me and my professors.

Why the fuck would I go there?

The first class of the day was Geography. Which I was looking forward to since I still didn’t know enough about this world. It made me realize that our Galaxsleaze teacher was busier with her cookie than with our education for all those years of ‘Rainer class’.

The teacher was an old Rainer, with big red glasses on his generous nose. He was wirily framed and smelled like musk and whiskey.

Skylark and I had this class together so she walked me to the correct classroom. It was a small auditorium, like everything at this college it was dunked in a white paint bath and lined with metallics and silver. Upon entering I spotted Melixes and one of the Sebastian goonies with bright red hair in the far right corner. I learned from Sky that his name was Dexar and he was one of Sebastian’s most loyal friends since childhood.

Dexar, Sebastian, and Kai used to be an inseparable group of three. Now he was replaced by another one named Otto, the one with black hair I also had spotted last night on the dancefloor.

That one was not in this class though. We were with only twelve students and none of the others I could remember meeting last night.

I sat down next to Sky, grateful for her bubbly presence in my life, and tried to learn as much as I could from this first class of my college year. Which the fae timed perfectly I might add. Destroying the earth right before a new term started.

I must admit most of this introduction class to Geography has been covered by our earthly Galaxsleaze teacher.

They have three continents on Caros. I was currently in Terra, the biggest continent of this world which stretched as far and wide as if our entire America had been combined with Oceania. It was also named the Earth Continent, Rainers born in Terra were most likely to go to earth than all other Rainers of the other continents combined.

We were on the far right on the map of Caros and looked like a giant heeled boot, Rivellin was apparently in the lowest region, the tip of the shoe. Smack in the middle of the world map was a continent called Sheo. This one actually looks like Australia, but ten times its size. Surrounded by nothing but oceans, hence it was nicknamed the Water Capital of the world.

On the left of the map, a narrow L-shaped continent lay, connecting the two ‘Artics’ of the planet. That was the continent of Yuna, the fire continent they called it. Apparently, temperatures were always up there and unquestionable things lived on their soil.

I noticed underneath our boot as if it was standing on a box, was a smaller island. Which our Professor hadn’t mentioned at all. I nudged Sky and pointed.

She hesitated a moment before answering. ‘That’s Faerie, Lux.’

‘We live right at the border?’ my eyes widened, I had no idea.

‘We do but..’ Sky glanced forward a second before turning to me again. ‘What you see on the map isn’t all of Faerie. It’s much bigger than that box-shaped thing. Way bigger.’

I couldn’t press her on that since the Professor suddenly had me in their sights and I couldn’t continue but I would ask her about that later.

The lesson continued and focussed on Terra. I already knew we had thirteen Regions on Terra since their Senate was called the Tertin. Maddox had already told me that. Rivellin was the capital city of the state of Moira and had four districts in its state. All four were ruled by, you guessed it, the Paramore’s: Skylars, Welkins, Briareves, and Barringtons. I sure as hell found it a strange coincidence I happen to have met two of the four Paramores of Moira on earth.

At noon Skylark had to enlist for her favorite sport, named Helix. Something similar to our cheerleading I gathered from her explanation. I had no such ambitions yet, having to first adapt to this new planet before I decide to go on a limb and take some weird new sport on.

So I decided to find Kai. Since I had no Telvice yet I could not text him. We had agreed to meet at the courtyard bench at midday. As I was waiting on him Jax joined me.

‘Here you go.’ He gave me a Telvice that looked like a mixture between an iPad and an iPhone. Way too big and way too fancy looking. It had a bright pink cover and I hated Jax for this. I was not a pink type of girl at all.

‘Now you can reach us. I have already programmed all of our numbers. In case of emergency, you dial 1 and it will send an SOS to me and Kai. We will come running. I have given your number to Sky as well.’

I was staring at the gadget, trying to figure out where the contacts were and how to access them.

‘Thanks, Jax!’ I added but he was already gone.

Great.

I got my first text immediately.

Kai: Babe I’m running a little late. The first class of the day was a hoot.

Lux: Don’t worry about it. I’m on that bench in the main courtyard enjoying the two suns.

Kai: (Smiley face and a kiss face)

I beamed at it. Glad to have that form of contact available to me again. I got another text.

Sky: girl, we need to check out that ballotin board next to the stadium. They have some crazy group outings we can join. Such as a trip to the Sapphire Bank or the Snowmountains.

I had no clue what any of that was but I answered that I would love to check it out when a shadow fell over my Telvice and I blinked up. Blocking out one of the suns with my left hand.

The cigarette smoke drifting toward me was my first clue. ’What’s the little human up to?’ Sebastian smirked, sat down too close to me and his unruly brown hair flopped forward over his temple, brushing his cheeks. His thighs were touching mine. He was clad in a dark red suit with a flamboyant red and dark blue paisley silken shirt underneath it, slightly open. It revealed some chest hair, some more tattoos, and a golden necklace of a bird. He was also wearing dark brown leathered formal shoes with a long tip.

I scooted a little further down the bench. My heart clenched at the sudden weird feeling he gave me. I didn’t feel unsafe, but I felt seen somehow. It was difficult to explain. It felt like he could see straight through me and read me like a book and I didn’t like that one bit. Not with my feelings all over the place from the destruction of my life of late.

Melixes was probably on her way too, to add more insult to my peculiar current situation. He grabbed my Telvice out of my hands and I started to protest. He put a tattooed finger on my mouth which smelled like cloves and smoke and was strangely simultaneously exciting and a violation of my personal space. ‘Hush now.’ His English lilted accent gave it a strange twirl.

He went through it in silence and threw the Telvice back at me so suddenly I gasped. Only then did he remove his finger from my lips. I saw his blue eyes flick to them quickly and back up to my now widened eyes. ’Now you have my number. Please do stay in touch little bird.’ His smile turned cheeky and he flicked a cigarette from his jacket pocket and put it between his full lips before lighting the thing. He glanced my way once more and placed one of my stray hairs behind my ears and whispered in my ear. ‘Little bird, the way you are staring at me all flabbergasted.’ He sighed. ‘You are very attractive, I must say. For a human girl.’ His English accent heightens each syllable and makes the hairs all over my body stand up. I couldn’t repress a small shiver and he definitely noticed but didn’t comment on it. With that backhanded comment, he left me on that bench, completely stunned. Sebastian Barrington, the emotional vampire. The perfect description for that man. Rainer. Whatever.

A text came two seconds later. The sound was that of a plane taking off.

Sebastian: little bird, I would not mind a little pic now and again of that pretty face or body of yours. Or both. Preferably without those clothes on.

I instantly got offended by his crude behavior. As I was trying to find the block contact function Kai arrived.

With a sigh of relief, I slid close to his side and hugged his arm tightly. I had missed him. He laughed and put it around me while kissing my forehead.

‘What’s wrong babe?’ I showed him the text and he rolled his eyes at it. ‘That dude, really? Next time I’m letting Jax pummel him into the ground.’

‘Good choice.’ I snorted.

‘What class do you have next?’ he took my list out of my backpack and was clearly done with giving Sebastian any more attention and I was fine with that. ‘Oh, you have that private session with Oak next.’

‘I do? I thought that was tomorrow?’ I grabbed the paper and confirmed that indeed I had that lesson with Oak. For some reason, I found Ash easy to talk to but Oak gave off a more standoffish vibe, even though we did have that heart-to-heart by the pool at that party. It may be the black hair and tattoos that reminded me of Sebastian that made me feel that way. It also didn’t match the very neat, English vibe and polished look he had going on. He was a strange duality of extremes, which did make me uncomfortable a little.

Kai walked me to Oak’s office. Apparently, I would be having the private lessons at and kissed me goodbye. I was ten minutes early but decided to knock anyway.

‘Come on in miss Elmrose.’

I couldn’t help but suppress a slight giggle at the fact that his white-haired twin brother was the exact opposite of this guy. From the way, he spoke to the way he looked. He was always so formal while Asher was so open and coarse in his statements towards me.

‘Please call me Lux.’ I added. He nodded and offered me a seat in front of his neatly cleaned desk. It had a few papers and a paperweight on it. Nothing else. Yet his bag was full of paper, some crumpled some folded in half. Wrappers of half-eaten candy bars sticking out. Duality, I’m telling you.

‘So Lux… do you know what we will be doing here for the next year?’

I shrug my shoulders. ‘I have no clue, sir.’

’Oak… you can call me Oak. No need for sirs.’

I blushed and he continued.

‘I will be teaching you all the basic things you need to know when living here. We will go through some of our history, geography, languages, and habits. While in my brother’s class you will be receiving some defense classes.’

‘What? Defense classes? As in fighting?’

‘Yes, indeed. I suppose that will not be a problem since I’ve been informed that you’ve been trained from a young age onwards.’

It was true that Jax and I had been taking Krav Maga classes since we were six years old. I had dropped out shortly after our falling out. But I’ve had nearly eight years of training and I had reached brown belt level. Jax would be a black belt by now I assumed.

‘Why would I need fight training?’

’Lux, we are living in a world where we are facing constant threats. We are still in the long war with the Fae and although there haven’t been many incidents lately on our planet, it is still not a completely safe environment. You being human is an extra motivation to get your training back on track.’

I understood and I knew I still had much to learn.

As the lesson progressed I learned a bit about their origins and how they became what they are now. We would first dive into the history before we could learn all the other basics.

I left the private lesson with my mind swirling with new information. I really needed to take it easier because at this tempo I would be crashing soon.

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