Alkalians Read online

  “Ah, welcome to biology!” she warmly greets him. “I just did roll-call, and there was just one missing, so you must be Matthew Calamos?”

  “Uh, yeah, that’s me. I’m Matt.”

  “Wonderful! Please come in, take the empty seat over here.” She gestures to a seat at the front of the room, and Matt hastily makes his way there, trying to avoid eye-contact with the other students as their eyes follow him before looking back to the professor. “I am Professor Amanda Malkia, and we were just talking about everyone’s favorite kind of plant or animal. Do you have any plants or animals you’re fond of, Matt?”

  Visibly caught off-guard being put on the spot, he eventually gets out, “Well, um, I don’t know much about plants, but, uh, I suppose I like the horned bear, or slag raptors.”

  To Matt’s wonder, some of the students, and even the professor, briefly stir uneasily at the mention of raptors, before she says, “Ah, is that so? And what do you like about them?”

  “Oh, they’re just great to look at, I guess. And occasionally fight against.”

  “Um, what do you mean by fighting them?”

  “Well, uh, back where I live, in the mountains, I’d go hiking to observe the wildlife, and every now-and-then I’d see one of them, or they would stumble upon me and attack me. But, it wouldn’t take much for me to strike back and scare them off.”

  “Oh. Well, that’s very interesting, Matt! So, who else would like to mention their favorite plant or animal?”

  As a girl near the back of the class speaks up and mentions something about tigers, Matt looks away to a corner of the room, scratching the back of his head while he tries to calm himself. One part of him says he has completely freaked out the professor and other students, but the other says he may have impressed them, and that felt good to him.

  ***

  Once his first hour class ends with Prof. Malkia sending them off with wishes for a good day and good night’s rest, Matt finds himself caught and whirled about by the herds of students milling by him before he realizes, once again, he’s completely lost. Soon, feeling like the only poor soul left wandering the halls, he finds a map again, locates the room of his next class, and hurries through the corridors, down some stairs, and around a corner to the room. Pausing to take a deep breath and calm himself, he then opens the door into the room, and immediately wishes he hadn’t.

  While his interruption of Prof. Malkia’s class had been greeted with a warm reception and environment, this first impression is a complete opposite. The room itself is dark, its only lights being provided by the faint glows from large, rune-like patterns along the walls and ceiling, and the air feels cold and damp. As soon as he opened the door, all the students and the professor, a man in a black suit with long, messy black hair, turn their heads to him with cold, piercing glares. Gulping from instant terror of embarrassment and uneasiness, he is considering spinning around and running away when the professor says in a nonchalant, yet sinister, tone, “Ah, a straggling freshman, I presume. Come in, and close the door behind you.”

  Obeying, Matt enters the room, carefully closing the door behind him, before turning back to the chiseling glares. “You can take that seat in the far corner, over there.” With a long, bony finger, the professor points to an empty desk, made of stone like all the rest, in the corner to his left. He timidly makes his way there and sits down, all the while with the professor and students still staring at him.

  After a long moment of silence, as if they are testing him to see if he would have a panic attack, the professor strolls up to his wide desk at the front of the room, with the wall behind it and the desk itself covered in complex-looking runes, and picks up a sheet of paper, peering down at something written on it. “So, as I have already taken attendance, I am going to assume that you are…” His azure eyes leer back to him over the paper. “Mr. Calamos?”

  Matt, after glancing about and realizing he should say something, gets out, “Ye-yes, sir. Professor, sir.”

  “Hmm, indeed.” He sets the paper back on the desk before slowly making his way towards him through the rows of student desks, his black shoes causing clacking noises on the stone floor with each step. “Tell me, Mr. Calamos, how much do you know about runes?”

  “Uh, they’re some kind of ancient writing. Hieroglyphs, I think, sir?”

  “Hmph. At least you have some idea of them. Yes, some may think of them as mere scribbles on the walls of ruins, but they were, no, are, much more than that.” Coming to a stop by his desk, he places his right hand down on it while bending down to be face-to-face with him, and asks, “And what do you think of the runes in this room?”

  Daring to look away and view them again, Matt replies, “Um, they look interesting, professor.”

  “Indeed.” Taking his hand off the desk, the professor walks past him to the wall closest to them, saying, “Since you missed it, Mr. Calamos, I shall repeat my introduction for you, but only this once. I am Professor Kaloss, and in this class you shall learn about the history, uses, and even the process of how to create runes. For you see, Mr. Calamos, even in a world today with machinery and ‘advanced’ technology, runes are an important part of Alkalian history and culture, and they are not to be overlooked as merely ‘ancient writing.’” Gesturing to the blue-glowing rune near them, he adds, “As you should clearly see, there are runes in this room, on the walls, ceiling, and even on my personal desk. Do you know why they are glowing, Mr. Calamos?”

  “Uh, they, they are, um, active?”

  “Very good, Mr. Calamos. These runes are active, glowing with stationary energy, until one comes along and…” Brushing his hand across the blue rune, it then brightens with energy before a cold wind suddenly blows over Matt, causing him to shiver much more than he has already. “Accesses them. Runes, Mr. Calamos, are much more than hieroglyphs. They are inscribed sources of power, capable of storing and recycling energy for long periods of time, that act with and react to other sources of energy, whether it be an Alkalian or another rune, or the environment around them. Some runes, like this one…” He touches the rune again, and again Matt feels bone-chilling cold. “Are simple runes. Simply written, for simple purposes. Other runes…” He points with his left hand to the runes near his station at the front of the room. “Are complex runes. They can do a few or many different things, but only through the correct coordination and manipulation of chain activations throughout them. For example, with the runes over there…” He swiftly moves back to the front of the room, the students’ heads whipping around to follow him, and places a hand on his desk. “I can access the rune…” The runes upon his desk radiate with multiple colors, a shimmering aurora, before the rune beside Matt blasts him with cold air again. “Next to you. Do you understand me, Mr. Calamos?”

  Trembling from the cold assailing him and the humored looks of some of the students looking at him, Matt replies through chattering teeth, “Ye-yes, pro-professor.”

  Then, to everyone’s surprise in the room, someone laughs out loud, bringing their attention to a brown-suited man a few seats ahead of Matt. His narrowed eyes glaring upon him, Prof. Kaloss asks in a tempered tone, “And what is so funny, Mr. Wyseinburg?”

  Laughing a little more before answering, Sean replies, “Oh professor, why do you always gotta be so mean to the incoming freshmen? Give the poor guy a break, so he was late to your all-important class the first day of school. Is that any reason to make an example of him?”

  Almost stomping over to him, Prof. Kaloss remarks, “I will run my class however I want, Mr. Wyseinburg. I am the teacher, and you are the students. I do not need advice on how to deal with tardy individuals. Is that clear?”

  Staring right back into his leering eyes without fear, Sean gives a thumbs-up and says, “Yep, loud-and-clear, professor. By the way, looking forward to passing your class this year, sir!”

  Yet glowering down at him, Prof. Kaloss replies in an obviously sarcastic tone, “As am I, Mr. Wyseinburg…” He returns to his desk, activates
the runes, and a faint-blue rune above Sean’s head pulses before dumping water all over him and his desk. “As am I.”

  While the rest of the students sneer and giggle at the intentional act of humiliation, Sean shakes his head about to throw off access water like a wet dog, upsetting the students immediately adjacent to him. Satisfied, Prof. Kaloss’ grim voice begins to lecture to the whole class, and Sean looks back to Matt over his shoulder and gives him a thumbs-up and toothy grin. Completely confused by Sean’s upbeat behavior in this cold and dark class, Matt can only hope that he would be able to help him survive it for the fall semester.

  ***

  Once Prof. Kaloss’ class concludes with him giving the class homework of getting the required textbooks for the study of runes, Sean, now understanding Matt would get left behind again, tells him to stay close and follow him. They make their way through the crowds of students as they migrate through the halls in the same direction, and just as Matt begins to recognize the area, they are back in the cafeteria for lunch. He had been so caught up in adapting to his first two classes that he didn’t realize half the day had already gone by, and he is just about starving. Still following Sean closely, they get into the line of students going before a buffet, serving all kinds of hot foods and cold drinks, and they retrieve their respective meals of choice. Matt takes a few pieces of fried chicken, Sean grabs a sandwich, and they both get a bottle of soda.

  Walking away from the end of the buffet, Sean leads him past the many tables, some rectangular and some circular, throughout the cafeteria already taken up by students until they get to a small, circular table at the far side of the vast room. As the walls shine in shades of brown and gold, the tall windows along the wall they sit next to appear to be open gaps showing the grounds outside the campus building, with the sun beaming through and the open fields of grass all around.

  “So, amigo,” inquires Sean as he takes a bite of his sandwich, “how were your first two classes of the day? Well, besides the ‘cold’ reception in Kaloss’?”

  “Oh, well, Professor Malkia’s class seemed alright. She was much more, uh, happy to see me than Professor Kaloss was. How about you?”

  “Bah, I got history class, with a Professor Roskin. Crazy little man. Wouldn’t stop talking the whole two hours, he just kept rattling on, a mile-per-minute. He might as well have told us the whole history of our kind in that first class, but no, all he talked about was how great and important history is! And then guess what he does? Right near the end of class, he gives us two whole chapters to read before tomorrow! Pff, history’s going to be a real drag this year.”

  “Uh huh,” Matt replies while munching on his crispy chicken. “But what about Professor Kaloss? He didn’t seem as happy to have you as he did me.”

  “Nah, we’ll be fine, in his class,” assures Sean with a wave of his arm. “He’s actually not that bad of a guy to get along with. Well, as long as you don’t do anything stupid, like misuse or ‘disrespect’ the runes. Sure, every now-and-then he’ll pick out someone to make an example of, most likely me, but he’s honest, and he will be pleased when you complete your assignments. Even if it doesn’t sound like it. But trust me, as long as you follow my act, and by that I mean working with the runes and not my behavior in-class, you should be alright.” He takes another bite of his sandwich before finishing, “Kaloss may not like certain individuals, but he wouldn’t dare overlook those ‘sacred’ runes we’ll be working with, and he’ll give credit where credit is due. You understand, yes?”

  “Uh, I think so.”

  “Good! Don’t ya worry, Matt, we’re gonna have a blast in that drone’s dark little lair this year!” He grins cheekily while twisting off the cap to his bottle. After he takes a drink, he begins to say, “Now, I wonder how-” before his eyes spot something behind Matt, and he exclaims, “Ah, there she is! Hey, Rose, over here!” While Sean waves with a silly look on his face, Matt turns in his seat to see Rose come over to them with a grateful smile and sit down at the table, her entrée consisting of a bowl of soup and a bottle of fruit juice. “And how was your morning?”

  “Oh, it went by fast, I’d say,” she replies, and continues between ingestions of spoonfuls of soup. “My first class was mechanics, where we will be learning about and working with machinery and how they are used in our society. And my second class was musical instruction, where we’ll be practicing and performing music.”

  “Music!?” Sean marvels. “You play music?”

  “Yes, Sean, I do. On the flute, before you ask. And how did you guys fare?”

  “Oh, well, we’re still in one piece. We could be in for some bumpy rides in my history class, or in our runes class, but we should be fine!”

  “Ah, that’s good.” The three continue to eat their meals without much talk for awhile, until just as they are finishing Sean asks, “So Matt, what’s the next class on your schedule?”

  “Oh, uh, hang on.” He fishes out his folded-up class schedule from his jacket’s pocket, unfolds it, and finds the name. “Alchemy, with a Professor Loske.”

  “Aw, bummer, I don’t have that class!” Sean pouts as he pounds the table. “Man, that guy is funny, in a weird way. He gets all gaga over the whole scientific processes and experiments, and sometimes, it can be a little creepy. And yet, he is a nice guy.” He turns to Rose. “What about you?”

  After she downs the last of her juice, Rose says, “Well, actually, I have that same class, too.”

  “What!? Aw, double bummer!” Sean grimaces before giving a sorry look to Matt. “Hey, I was hoping to help you get to the next class, as I’m quite sure you’ll probably get lost again looking for it, but it seems you’re gonna have to go at it alone.”

  “Oh, he can go with me, I know where it is.” The guys look to her as she explains, “I passed it on my way to mechanics class and back.”

  “Really? Oh, yeah, I suppose that’s where it is. Then we’re all set! You two will go to alchemy, I’ll be in biology, and then we’ll meet back up in gym!” Before either of them, with curious surprise on their faces, ask him how he already knows their last class of the day happens to be gym, he gets up from his chair and adds, “Well, we better off, the crowd’s on the move. See y’all later!” As he hustles away to join the masses of students leaving the cafeteria, Matt and Rose are left to look at each other, each a bit flustered, before they stand up and head off as well.

  ***

  A minute or so later, having managed to work their way through the clotted corridors of students, Matt and Rose arrive at their next class and slip in with other students of various class ranks. Upon entering the room, Matt is reminded of the dark atmosphere from Prof. Kaloss’ room, but there is something less unsettling about it. As two, bright patches of light from the sun gleam through the windows on their right, the teacher’s station on the far side of the room looks more like a miniature laboratory with different sizes of glass vials filled with different colors of glowing liquids and multiple pieces of paper cluttering the wide desk alongside miscellaneous samples of rocks. Deciding to take their seats near the window at the front side of the room, they wait while more students make their way in and settle into their seats before a soft, chiming sound announces the beginning of class.

  A moment passes with the students waiting for their yet absent professor, some of them whispering to each other in side conversations and others showing impatience, before a wooden door off to the left of the mini-lab bursts open and a tall, lanky man in a white lab suit with long, white hair hurries into the room. He scans over some of the potions brewing in their vials, examines the rock pieces between his fingers, and scribbles notes on some of the papers before breathing out a long sigh and turning around to greet the students with a smile.

  “Sorry about that, everyone, but I had to check on some of my current projects, behind me.” He chuckles a little to himself. “Anyway, I am Professor Jeremiah Loske, and I shall be your instructor in the arts of alchemy this year. Now, how many people here
know a little something about alchemy?”

  While only a few among the several in the room grunt or nod yes in response, one individual, a young man in a blue suit with long, purple hair a few seats away from Matt and Rose, stands and replies courtly, “I think it would be safe to say I know my fair share, professor.”

  Looking directly to him, Prof. Loske lights up in glee, and says, “Ah, James, how wonderful to have you again! I could really use assistance from one as experienced as you. Please, please, come forward.” As the man strolls forward to stand beside him, he announces to the rest of the class, “Everyone, this is James Iroshen, a wonderful young man of noble heritage from the state of Tirez. He’s had my class quite a few times during his college career here, and so he’s become something of an ‘assistant’ for me, helping me to conduct some of my experiments and manage classroom activities or projects. And so, I would be the first to advise you to not be afraid to ask him for any help or guidance with your assignments.” James nods with a smile while everyone applauds him before returning to his seat, and Prof. Loske continues. “Now then, I would like to just, uh, give you all a fair idea of what we will be…Oh, yes, young lady?”

  Having been the one to raise her hand, Rose asks loudly, “I’m sorry, professor, but were you going to take any attendance before we get started?”

  Laughing, Prof. Loske replies, “Oh no, there’s no need for that. I will learn all of your names and faces as time goes by, and then I’ll have no difficulty knowing if one is absent or not. But anyways, in this class, we are going to be studying and experimenting with the wonders of alchemy, a science that defies all other sciences, a reality that changes all reality! For you see, alchemy is the process of instantly changing one element or compound into another, and there are many ways in which this process is utilized. One famous example is how one could, oh…” He turns around, his hand hovering over the desk, before he grabs a rock and shows it before the class. “Take this dull, cheap piece of granite, and…” Closing his hands over it, he focuses upon it while muttering some unheard words before revealing the rock again, having gone from a pale gray to a gleaming yellow. “Change it into a flashy, rich piece of gold!”