Ch 40. Michael eventually

Michael eventually wiped away all traces of tears on his face before pulling away from Julie. His once tearful face was replaced by a warm smile.

“Are you hungry?” Michael calmly asked. Julie nodded her head; she did feel hungry.

“Wait here, I’ll get you something to eat, and let everyone know you’re awake.” He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. “You’ve been asleep for the entire day, they’re awfully worried about you.” Michael headed for the door with calm steady steps.

“Okay.” Julie smiled and remained in bed.

The door closes, Michael entered the room next door and informed Dr. Galil about Julie waking up. The doctor immediately went to check on Julie who greeted him with a smile, seeing her smile he nodded his head and checked on her condition.

During this time Michael raced downstairs only to see the surprised look on his face as everyone was making way towards his direction. The moment he saw them they too saw him.

“Michael? Where are you going?” Arthur asked. Michael looked at the group of people who was blocking the stairs in front of him. He steadies his heartrate and calmly replied, “Julie is awake.”

Before anyone could show an expression, Michael quickly added “She doesn’t remember what happened during the test.” An audible gasp could be heard from Boss as he shuffled his way forward.

“Y…you mean she doesn’t know anything?” Boss stammered; Michael just now recognized that Boss was here too and nodded his head. He assumed Boss would have left after lunch. Arthur gave everyone a confused look and asked. “What? What?”

Shelly quickly pulled Arthur over and whispered in his ears detailing what this signified. The expression of confusion on Arthur’s face was slowly showing traces of shock as he continually darted his eyes in Michael’s direction.

Seeing that everyone finally understood what this meant Michael continued “I don’t want her to know that I know. Can you guys promise me not to tell her?” Michael spoke with the calmest voice possible.

Seeing the hesitation on some of their faces Michael tried the keep his emotions in and asked. "Please?”

Sigh

“Okay” Everyone unanimously agreed. Pebble walked forward and leaned into Michael’s ear “I’ll agree since it’s not my business to tell her, but if what I’m told is true, you probably shouldn’t follow them to the Tillowisk Empire.”

Michael shook his head, “Wherever she goes, I’ll go.” Seeing the strong look of conviction on Michael’s face Pebble knew he couldn’t persuade him otherwise. It wasn’t in his discretion to do so anyways.

“Alright, then you should go get ready to meditate.” Pebble replied, Michael just realized it was already almost evening and agreed, if he wanted to be with her, he had to get stronger and finding his internal energy was the only way he could even start to learn how to harness the energy within him.

Realizing why they were all walking upstairs at the same time Michael asked, “Were you guys here to get me?”

“Yeah, we were going to get you for meditation and seeing of Julie was doing okay.” Arthur replied.

“She’s fine, Dr. Galil is with her right now, I’m going to prepare her something to eat, you guys can go to her first.” Michael stated. He was about to continue to walk forward but Boss stopped him. “Let’s all go, the servants can make food for her.”

Gran pulled a servant over and told them to prepare some food for Julie. Seeing Boss and Gran’s decision Michael relented and brought everyone into Julie’s room.

“Julie!” Arthur hurried over and gave the girl sitting upright on the bed a warm hug. Everyone else slowly crowded into the room and greeted her.

“Is she fine doctor?” Arthur asked. Dr. Galil assured everyone that Julie was in perfect health and there should be nothing to worry about. He even stated that Julie could join them for meditation tonight too before excusing himself to monitor Roselyn. Gran, Pebble and Cobble followed Dr. Galil out.

Seth didn’t know whether to follow Cobble out or stay with Boss and the rest, unfortunately for him he didn’t get to decide as Boss closed the door. Being stuck in the room Seth made small talk with the rest anxiously waiting for an excuse to leave. Boss this whole time never brought up the fact that he knew who Seth was.

Luckily for Seth a maid walked in with a tray in her hand with Julie’s lunch. He excused himself during this moment and left the room. Who knew that after he left, Boss, Shelly and Arthur, also walked out of the room and followed him?

“Seth!” Arthur shouted causing him to stop in place.

“Yes?”

“We’re gonna go practice our meditation, want to join?” Arthur stated. Seth was about to reply when Arthur continued. “Boss told us it’s better if we started early than waiting for the Chief.”

The little boy with sunglasses nodded his head and took the lead “let’s go.” Seth didn’t even have the option to excuse himself anymore.

In the meditation room Boss sat there and stared at the three who were meditating, or well one with two being confused and fidgety.

“Seth and Arthur, stop thinking. You just need to empty your mind and find the energy source that is your internal energy. Especially you Seth, you can’t even reach the starting point if you don’t meditate correctly. Arthur, you’re lucky you’re an Exotic at least once you hit puberty, you’ll be able to sense it and learn to control it.” Boss’ voice irked them both but they couldn’t refute and tried to empty their mind.

It was harder than they could possibly imagine as they found it difficult to obtain peace. Seth was constantly in conflict with every spectrum of emotions whereas Arthur kept recalling the nightmare he had.

Boss glanced at Shelly who was expressionless the entire time she was meditating. Only a cold dominant aura exuded from her from time to time. He then returned to look at the two who were struggling.

The door opened again as Gran walked in. He noticed the people who were already meditating and silently greeted Boss. Michael and Julie arrived shortly and sat down beside each other.

“Empty your mind, whatever fear, hatred, passion you feel, don’t run from it, but don’t embrace it either. Become a spectator. That’s how you’ll find your powers” Boss’ stated his final worlds as he got up and walked out of the room.

Gran saw the departing back of the figure and turned his eyes towards the people who were struggling with their meditation after he had left. It was obvious to him that meditation meant you had to empty your mind, it seemed like the three boys didn’t even realized this. He shook his head and waited; the meditation test will begin shortly after.

An hour passed by in a blink of an eye as Boss chatted with Pebble and Cobble about the festivities they’ve thrown for the returning kids, the town of Asmar, and what he should prepare for once they arrived at the other side of the world.

The door opened with the usual lineup of people with Gran in the lead, followed by those who got smacked from least to greatest. Today, Gran decided to smack them. It was time for him to disrupt their peace.

Shelly, Julie both had visible marks left from the stick on their arms, even they couldn’t completely control their peace. Arthur, Seth and Michael all had 60 marks all throughout their body.

“How was it?” Boss asked.

“Difficult, not enough control.” Shelly replied. Boss then glanced at Julie who had more markings. “What Shelly said, everything was more erratic and didn’t follow a rhythm.”

It wasn’t surprising that the test was difficult for these two, Gran decided that during the meditation to split the groups up between the boys and girls. Since Shelly and Julie already knew how to extend their internal energy outwardly while meditating. He aimed to increase their control while extracting both the quality and quantity of the energy they had.

His swings were variable in speed and power making it difficult for them to sense and avoid what was coming to them. They had to increase both the concentration of energy they harnessed and expand it outwards further.

The boys on the other hand still suffered from not being pressured enough, so every swing while still consistent, started to hurt.

“If today wasn’t a warning for what’s to come, then you’re in trouble. I will make it harder on you all for the rest of the time I have with you. Every day from now on will progressively get harder and you will get hurt, meditating with me is a test. Meditating outside of that room is just practice for the test.” Gran left immediately after stating what he had to say.

“I’ll continue to create mazes for you guys on your way back to the hotel, the faster you all make it back the more time you have to meditate tonight. Otherwise, tomorrow is going to look rough on you.” Boss already hopped off of the sofa and took the lead to the gate.

There was no time for them to talk with Pebble or Cobble, everyone bid them goodbye and left for the Inn. Seth was also forced to come along since he had no reason to stay.

The moment they made it to the gate Seth wanted to leave right away as he took the lead. However, after teleporting back to the front and looking around like an idiot. Seth recalled the situation at the staircase and realized that it was caused by Boss. “Alright, now that Seth knows the situation, go.” Boss waved them off as he sat with the gatekeeper and began to play more chess.

“You seem livelier than yesterday, did something happen?” The gatekeeper asked as he moved a piece.

“Progress is being made.” Boss countered and removed a piece on the board. The gatekeeper shook his head. “That’s good, but you’ll need to make more progress to beat me.” The gatekeeper returned removing one of Boss’ piece.

Thirty minutes was all it took for them to beat the maze Boss had made for them on their third day, did they improve? Not really, the maze was the same as the one he made for them yesterday, the only difference was the directions they had to take.

The brown-wigged kid was standing at the entrance of the Inn, who knew when he had gotten there. “Congratulations, today is an easy one since it’s getting dark, expect to suffer more in a few days.” He left and walked upstairs.

Seth was extremely confused, but he didn’t have time to ask questions as everyone was already following the boy. Seth too picked up his pace and made it to his own room.

Riley, Mason, Gerald, and Sampson all greeted him upon his arrival, asking him how training went and why there was so many marks all over his body. Seth explained to them what the training was like and made the normal people thankful they didn’t go.

Riley and Mason wearily looked at each other, the training Seth was in was far tougher than the entrance examination for enrollment. They wanted to ask Seth some more questions, but he had already sat cross-legged on the bed and began to meditate.

Seeing Seth meditate, they too all followed suit and began meditating.

Boss was tossing a bright ball in their room when a person appeared before him. Her green hair was a mess and the bags underneath her yellow eyes were noticeable. She glanced over at Michael and Arthur who was already meditating and revealed a bright ball with a handle on it to Boss.

“I finished making a bright ball that could turn off.” She handed it to the boy before him. “I call it Bright Ball Version 2, Turn Off Edition.” She stated.

“Such a weird name.” Boss replied while pressing the switch that caused the bright ball to turn off and on. What the switch did was introduce a third component that would automatically turn off the bright ball.

“Do you have a better name?” Orchid asked, she was annoyed that the kid before her didn’t even look all that amazed at her new invention and cared about the name.

"Pfft, of course I have a better name, they don't call me master of names for nothing." Boss replied.

"Oh yeah? Then tell me little mister master of names, what should my invention be called if not Bright Ball Version 2, Turn Off Edition?"

“Hmm... How about, flashlight? Cool name huh? I made it up myself”

"Flashlight..."