The scar reacted to the escort touching it with a burst of multicoloured light which quickly changed into a black hole. It responded very similarly to the portal formed two weeks ago when Neo arrived two weeks ago. As the escort passed through, sending a ripple out like a stone in a still pond, but it reformed before anyone else walked into it.

Finally, it was Neo’s turn. He looked towards Bethany, and she sent him a calming smile. The moment was ruined as the rock spoke up, annoyingly pointing out that if they didn’t hurry the portal may collapse.

“Thanks, Gie, I really needed to know that,” Said Neo as he looked back at the unapologetic hunk of rock.

Bethany laughed, “It very rarely happens, as long as you trust the people not to close it. Otherwise, the only other way it’ll close is if there is a disruption in the Bubble!”

The rock nodded in agreement. He seemed to be sweating a little under the blazing gaze that Bethany was exchanging with him.

Smiling, Neo nodded before stepping through the portal. There was a moment of darkness before bright psychedelic colours assaulted his eyes.

The path ahead was straight as an arrow and black as night. The bubble way was aptly named as the walls around the black path were spherical inshape. Each sphere connected with another, creating a tunnel. The bubbles had multicoloured swirls that pulsed with life. The entire structure contrasted with the black path.

When Neo looked closely into the multicoloured bubbles, something shifted and the bubble way seemed to fade slightly, giving way to a white world where golden colours blew past them. It was like the wind was yielding to the bubble way.

Looking back, he saw the vast sphere that was Beacon City. The huge bubble seemed to consume a small part of this golden wind.

Neo’s mouth was agape at the magnificent sight that he was observing. Gie patted him on the shoulder and brought his attention back to the multicoloured bubble way. “Hurry up, stop gawking.”

The group had finished coming through and everyone had started walking away from Beacon City. Neo caught up with them, somehow ending up back in the middle of the group.

After the initial shock and awe, the bubble way turned into a never-ending assault on the senses. The walk was long and uncomfortable. Everyone else seemed to ignore the colours, or perhaps they were just used to it.

The multicoloured light show made him dizzy, but thankfully, Neo could finally see another black portal, which appeared to be the exit, up ahead. The group slowed and waited for the escort who had entered the bubble way first to step forward. He again stepped through the portal and the rest of the group followed after.

As Neo stepped through, blackness surrounded him, but then the world brightened, and he covered his eyes while waiting for them to adjust.

What he saw was amazing. A crystal clear lake with a beach was right infront of them. Along the shore in either direction, the beach gave way to cliffs that encircled the lake. But, it was the floating hunks of rock that seemed to pull the lakewater up and around them that captured Neo’s attention. The water seemed to leap in spouts that gripped the floating rocks. Neo wondered whether the academy was attached to them. Just think of all the academies and schools that are attached to precarious places in stories and games.

Awed at these humongous flying rocks, there were about a dozen lazing around up in the air over the lake, the group walked down to the dock where a few men were sitting around in armour.

Neo nodded to the group as we continued straight onto the dock where a young man was sitting near the water’s edge.

Neo wondered how they’d get up to the floating rocks and was excited to see how they would go about doing it.

Once they reached the young man, Old Warm Hands talked to him. The young man then went to a green copper pipe that bent down into the water, he rang it just like a bell, though there was no noise coming from it.

As the man continued ringing it the water slowly boiled. Neo’s anticipation was similarly roiling. What would it be? A rocket, a flying machine that would defy gravity, or maybe a flying creature to whisk us away into the airborne academy.

His hopes and dreams were dashed when the top of a ship broke through the surface of the water. It looked like an old war galley with its lower decks missing.

Neo could tell that the ship had been cut in half as the upper half was sitting on top of a giant, green glowing jellyfish.

As the waves caused by the surfacing rippled out, the people on board pushed out a bridge, connecting the dock to the giant jellyfish as it moved a little under the waves of the lake.

Old Warm Hands stepped up on to the bridge and looked back “Come lad, only those allowed will be able to come along.” Neo looked around and saw that Bethany, Gie, and Jane had already moved to thefront while the escorts had stepped back to watch.

As Neo caught up with the now much smaller group, he looked at Bethany, “How are you allowed in?”

Bethany laughed while blushing, “No, I’m here for you.”

“I’m sorry for being such a pain in the backside. You could be doing your job,” said Neo.

“I’m working, I’ve been asked to be the contingency plan with Gie. Incase you do something wrong, we can work on it!” Answered Bethany.

“Or kill me,” Neo said, looking at Gie. Gie just snorted in response.

Bethany ignored the two of them and continued to the jellyfish ship, “Come on Neo, get on before we leave.”

Hopping onto the giant jellyfish, and excited at what was about to happen, Neo had a quick look around. The ship didn’t have a mast, just a wooden post with symbols, otherwise it was a regular ship. On second glance, however, while the crew got to preparing to set off, Neo noticed that there were symbols all over the boat, carved into every corner.

They moved away from the docks, and his anticipation grew with what was about to happen.

As the ship moved away from the docks, Neo felt himself get lighter. He grinned, but was horrified moments later as the water started to rise. It rose past the rim of the deck and kept going until it had formed a dome around the ship.

The suddenness of the dive had left him surprised and light-headed. Looking around at the others, Neo found most of them sitting around looking bored. But Bethany and Gie where looking at him with a smile on their faces, or at least Neo imagined that Gie was smiling, since having Gie always staring at him was like have a blade at his throat.

"Not quite what you expected?" Bethany asked.

"No, it wasn't, I thought we would be flying up to the floating rocks,and that's where you would have a magic academy.I wasn't really expecting that it would be in the lake," answered Neo.

"Yeah, I was surprised when I first came here, too. But it's still cool," said Bethany.

"How'd you end going to the academy?"Asked Neo

Bethany touched the side of her eyes, "Anyone that is born in Beacon City who exhibits magic or magical abilities, like telekinesis or truth seeker abilities, join for free. In order to learn how to control those powers and make good use of them."

Nodding in understanding Neo came up with a question, "So… will I have to pay to attend the academy?"

"Yes, but you shouldn't worry about that. A few dragon parts will easily cover the cost of your entire education. It’s considered an elite school for the rich merchants. Nobles and royalty send their children, too. As all nobles breed for magical power, almost all of those in that social class have magic to some extent. There is really a huge power gap between the nobility and the middle and lower classes." Bethany said. She had spoken the last part in a pretty cold tone.

"So, should I expect a cold welcome from said nobility?" Asked Neo.

In an equally cold tone, she replied, "I can pretty much guarantee it!"

'Oh joy,' Neo thought, 'self-important people, the bane of everyone else's existence.'

"Anything I can do to avoid them?"

"Nope, the only two states they are ever in are either the position of power, or the supplicant position. The first one will ridicule you and the second one will bow and scrape for your attention. Both are equally annoying."

Smiling Neo replied with curiosity, "What did you do to get to know both reactions?"

The question put a smile on her face "I challenged one of the nobles to a duel, which I might add is legal in the academy. There is a rule that while they are students, they are all of the same standing as everyone else. They might be powerful within their own country, but here they can't order you around or command your death like they would in their kingdom. It does mean that I cannot go to some kingdoms, though. Just incase they haven't forgotten the beating I laid down on them."

“Haha,” Neo imagined Bethany jumping around on her stilts, flinging out her wand and shooting fireballs out of it.

“So, you beat someone and then everyone respected you by bowing and scraping.”

She shrugged, “Pretty much. It was more than one though. I lost some, won a lot, and I was respected but never allowed into the top tier until my last year.”

“So… how close will you be staying?” Neo asked.

Gie replied from behind him, making Neo jump, “Be right …behind you …every second …of day …watching every …move.”

Neo glared at Gie, “I hope not, I still need the toilet and I can promise I don’t think you’ll need to be there?”

Bethany spoke, “No, we’ll give you your privacy, mostly anyway. We will be joining you for your classes, and anywhere else you go, but while inside your room we will be outside. I will only tell you that we’re just here to watch you. We have been asked to only interrupt the schools ongoing classes if you somehow go mad and start killing people. So yeah, no getting out of school politics.”

‘Right’, Neo thought. He had been hoping that he would be able to use the fact of their existence would make him immune to would-be annoyances. Well, hopefully he could still make them think a little before doing anything. He was already getting a headache from all of the possible politics and group interactions he’d have to endure.

‘Distraction time’ he thought ‘stop thinking and react to it when it happens if it happens’. Nodding he turned to Bethany, “How long does this journey last?”

“Anywhere from an hour to two hours, it depends.”

“Depends on what?”

“Whether the current is strong, if we take the shortcut, or if the Jellyfish goes in the right direction.”

“What shortcut?”

This comment made Bethany smile, “Maybe you’ll find out!”

Neo shrugged when he couldn’t get any more from Bethany. He thought about asking Gie, but then decided not to. Knowing what he did about Gie, the chance of anything helpful coming from him would be like getting blood from a stone.

Neo went to the edge of the protective sphere and observed the sea creatures, both fantastic and mundane, that swam past. Long and thin fish darted past, leaving red blur line behind them. It seemed that all of the creatures had that same glow as the jellyfish.

There were spiky balls that floated lazily around giving off an array of colours throughout its spines.

Something was moving in the shadows, too. They weren’t bright or glowing, and they moved fast, but that was all Neo could see of them.

A bouncing Bethany made her way over with abroad grin, bringing Neo's attention back to the ship, “Hey guess what Neo!”

Smiling at her childlike happiness he replied, “No idea, do say?”

She continued bouncing around before replying, “We’re taking the shortcut, we’re taking the shortcut, Yay!”

“What’s the shortcut?” He asked without any of the excitement that was evident on Bethany.

“Hey, the shortcut is exhilarating and fun, I swear that you’ll be surprised and it’ll make your heart pound,” answered Bethany.

It was a few minutes later when the crew popped back up on deck and started pushing a plank out past the sphere that was holding back the water. Instead of bursting, the bubble merely extended around the plank letting someone walk onto it.

It wasn’t until the plank had been extended out that Neo could actually hear the sound of gushing water.

However, there wasn’t any flooding, the water was just rushing past. Slightly above and further out, Neo could see a buoy of some kind floating with a bell-like instrument underneath it.

Bethany excitedly spoke, “Are you ready?”

“Ready for what, I don’t even know what’s going to happen, how can I be ready?”

Shrugging, she called back to Gie “Hey Gie, if he doesn’t follow in a few minutes, make him walk the plank.”

Gie nodded and stared at Neo, meanwhile Bethany had jumped up and down on the plank in excitement. Jane and the Old Man were waiting behind him. With a few casual glances, Neo assessed that they weren’t at all bothered by the fact that Bethany was about to jump into the water that could crush her. ‘There must be something about that buoy that’ll protect her’ Neo thought.

Neo was wondering what she was waiting for, but he had his answer shortly when a green light lit up the buoy. Bethany gave an excited laugh before whooping and pelting at the rushing water. With a hiss of steam and a slightly manic laugh she jumped in.

Within a few seconds, her red and blue glow was gone from sight as she sunk like a stone.

“That… that’s terrifying. Also, I think Bethany’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie,” Neo spoke aloud without thinking and got a reply from mister warm hand.

“Yep you’ll probably live, but seriously do you think we’d be using it if it wasn’t safe?”

‘Yes, you probably would get rid of the weak and scared ones. That, or it’s a really good hazing.’ Neo thought, but he didn’t say anything and just looked at where Bethany had been and decided, ‘I have to trust someone sooner or later, might as well make a leap of faith.’

Getting into position to run, he took a deep breath and tried not to think about it. He ran forward and inelegantly splatted into the wall of water.

As the frigid water ran over his body, he felt a heavy weight pulling on him and he rocketed downwards. He somehow managed to orient his face to see where he was going and found light. A bright white light was at the bottom of the lake.

Neo’s hands were frozen and he shivered as the white light quickly came towards him. Relief flowed through his body as he exited the water, quickly slowing as he did. He looked at his hands, finding that the water that he had brought with him out of the lake was flowing up his body and leaving in trails to re-join the lake above him.

He continued falling slowly, as the water left him he started rubbing his hands, butthe trip hadn’t ended yet. He couldn’t see Bethany above or below him.

'I really need to make sure I can land,' as he thought this there was an increase in his speed as gravity gripped hold of him again.He lookedback up to see moving stars within the watery blackness.

Looking down he saw buildings. There were arenas, forests, fields, and flying fireballs.

‘Wait, what? Why are there floating fireballs?'

The air around Neo was becoming a little hot. As he passed the fireballs his clothes quickly dried and he noticed that the fireballs were actually several rings of metal with writing on them.

Once past the fire-rings, with a few splotches obscuring his sight, he could really feel that he’d started to pick up speed as the wind whipped past his head. He'd ended up going head first. Seeing the ground get closer, Neo covered his head with his hands and screamed.