COMPLETED Remembrance of Self | Fantasy | LGBTQ

Chapter 8 - Part 1

The air outside was deceivingly still and warm, while the winds beyond the Academy's walls rebelled in frozen fury against the unnatural forces of the surrounding barrier. From the inside, it looked like everything was calm and white, not even the maddening roar of quick winds and hail could be heard. It has been blizzarding for two days before it started affecting classes. Headmistress Vice decided that not even the will of the Creators will meddle with the education of the future Wielders of the Empire and with not even the faintest of sign of strain, simply by raising a hand, she created the barrier that now stood between them and the frozen hell outside, protecting them continuously for over four days. Thanks to her amazing abilities as a Wielder, which only enforced her role as a leader and headmistress of the Academy, students could now go back and forth from classes without being knocked out by hail the size of a fist.

The smell of ink and fresh parchment filled the classroom while Master Parvell rambled mindlessly on about the first five tribes of men in written history, while leaning in his chair with his feet gracefully placed on his desk. Not as excited as the history of the Empire itself, but alas, he had to close the chapter and move on to the next. And so, he quickly summarized the history of the tribes and a few traits that distinguished them from each other.

The Hundui tribe, known for their peaceful way, spirituality, and communing with the fallen. The Az'teh tribe, known for taming the awakened ones that shared hidden ancient knowledge of the Creators with them. The Yunubur tribe, war driven and merciless, is said to have the strongest wielders of all. The Numui'y tribe, known for their prophecies and clairvoyance. The Ulo'ma tribe, known for their abilities to levitate and soar through the sky along with the mighty Balastor giants. Legends of the Ulo'ma speak of powerful Wielders who reached the three sisters and settled on them, away from all of the senseless wars spurred by the Yunubur.

"Master Parvell!" a girl in the back raised her hand and drew his attention.

"Yes, miss Nola?" He raised his eyebrows and peaked through his unnecessarily small spectacles.

"What tribe is the Empire?" She asked.

"Oh! What a fine question, miss Nola! Quite unexpected," he said under his breath, used to the obviously idiotic questions the young woman would frequently ask in his class. He took his feet off the desk, planting them firmly on the floor preparing for a long lecture. "The Empire's origin is thought to stem from the Yunubur tribe, powerful, relentless, and fearless - at the very least the latest discoveries located the ancient tribe within Empire territory, however, a very long time ago, the five tribes' borders and population slowly merged forming one united nation, known as the era of peace. It's still a mystery to this day why such peace ensued on E'a and because of it, there is no way of knowing what tribe we actually came from or what exactly happened, as E'a became a melting pot of cultures that gave us the modern nations we see today. I think that we should be thankful of the...." Master Parvell droned on about the tribes and how they started the greatest Empire in all of E'a in a never ending tangent that, to him, was more interesting than the actual lesson. Haiden stopped paying attention again, his mind kept drifting to the other night where something had happened that was purely inexplicable. An unknown force had come into his room and showed him, after many tries of his own, the exact page where the information he sought resided. The force had just as mysteriously vanished without any trace, but the faintest trail of static. Haiden does not know who or what it was, but he sure was grateful. Now, all it was left, was to understand what all of it meant. Regor, the sparkling howler, the book, everything. He had spent many nights trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with the information from the book. He read the page over and over again, and only mentioned the sacred flower of mother E'a, or Hana'E'a, through which the Hundui tribe communed with the dead. Haiden assumed that the Sparkling Howler was a much more modern name for the same plant, hence his inability to find it by blazing through the book just looking for the words. The book stated that the Hundui people in sacred ceremonies would surround themselves with the flowering plants and the spirits would reveal themselves to speak their final peace.