ONE

The Exam

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP, argh! Argus hits the touchscreen on his phone with a passion as he flops back into bed. RING RING RING RING. Ahhh, the touchscreen again gets assaulted with an intense passion. But this time it was the answer button to a call, not an alarm.

“Argus, get your pale butt out of bed, you have an exam today!”, jolted as if struck by lightning Argus shot out of bed.

“Oh shit, oh shit, for Oram’s Sake!”, Argus babbled. He had a late night last night working double shifts at the local coffee shop. He was going to be waddling about like a zombie the whole day, and he had a freaking exam to do in an hour. That zombie thing was a matter of speech because, as a matter of fact, he knew a zombie; Arlo who is always bursting full of energy, he was doing a business degree in the same University as Argus and he was one of Argus’ best friends.

“Argus? Argus! Are you asleep again, I swear to Oram”, hearing his mom’s voice, gearing up to go full on high priestess mode, woke him out of his own misery.

“Ma you can’t swear, you’re an Oram freaking high priestess and yeah, yeah, I’m awake, talk later bye”.

“Bu-”

“BYE ma, love your face”. With that Argus ended the call. He whipped his boxer briefs off and darted for the shower, grabbing his toothbrush he shoved it in his mouth on the way. Took care of gentlemanly business whilst brushing his teeth and showering, no one could say he wasn’t a multitasker.

Stepping out of his shower, in his small dorm room on campus, he turned towards the mirror, looking back at him was a slightly pale, tall but a little skinny guy with high cheekbones and eyes greener than an emerald’s rear end. With dark violet hair, short on the sides and longer on the top. He and his adoptive mother always speculated on his hair color, dark cold colors like navy blue and violet very usually indicators that there was a magic user especially a Fae somewhere in the bloodline. He didn’t really give it much thought though, as he definitely couldn’t do any magic. He had a swimmer’s build with tight and compact muscles with a height of 6’1. Which was funny because usually magic users were on the shorter side. Muscles and height were more of a shifter thing.

Even with the hint of dark circles under his eyes because he cut a fine picture he thought to himself because you should love yourself, okay maybe he does that a teeny bit too much but hey people have their flaws, at least he’s not in drugs.

Rocketing out of the bathroom, he put some clothes on and grabbed his backpack. Arlo is already up since he is an early riser, I know right, dudes a freaking zombie but that doesn’t stop Arlo from destroying the stereotypes with his neon orange and pink hair.

“Hey, beautiful”, I said to Arlo as he was in the middle of some sort of pretzel looking butterfly stretch, doing yoga, hopefully, doing yoga, the undead can be weird.

“Hey, sexy, ready for your exam today, you weren’t here when I came home from Cindy’s last night”. Cindy was Arlo’s girlfriend, she was a shy jinn magic user with light blue skin, but fierce as fuck if anyone said anything she didn’t like to Arlo. Yeah, they were at times let’s say, disgustingly sweet.

“Yeah Selena wanted me to do a double shift because she couldn’t find anyone”, I said, still fuming a little from my manager at the coffee shop, I made an awesome cuppa joe, but that was ruined by Selena and her always condescending and passive-aggressive behavior.

“Ahh, the sucks Ary, you should quit, you already have like two other jobs, I can pay for the dorm fees, you know my family is definitely not hurting for cash”, Arlo said sincerely.

That was true, Arlo was the son of the vice president of the Spectra council. They were filthy rich, the undead accumulate a lot of money during their long lives.

Arlo, Zoe and I had been friends since childhood. Zoe was a fledgling mage. They all meet in playschool when Argus was being bullied for being a ‘normie’ a derogatory term used for people with no powers or abilities. Arlo and Zoe had stood at the same time to give Tony Harris a verbally thrashing. Arlo made very certain that Tony knew what he thought about his 3-year-old face and Zoe made a snide remark about a certain someone having accidents in the bed at night. After that, the three of them were joined at the hips. Up until now where Zoe moved to the Heralia Estate where they house the apprentices of The Order in their own little building, she is learning combat magic to serve under Heralia Watson in The Order. But that doesn’t mean we don’t meet up every damn weekend.

“Nah, I’m good, I feel good when I’m the one earning and standing on my own two feet, okay cya after”.

“Fine man, but offer’s always there if you need it, I know I have to remind you every few months. Anyway, Catchya after Ary”.

With that I was gliding through the dorms to the exam hall. It was weird but since I was a boy I naturally walked silently, one had to have shifter hearing to even have a clue if Argus was coming or going. Unfortunate for him his adoptive ma had excellent Jaguar hearing.

In his hurry, as he was getting to the exam, he bumped into someone. Making all their books fall everywhere and landing on top of them. Argus quickly righted himself, he just has quickly realized that he actually bumped and landed on Clara Avery.

Sweet baby Oram. Of all my shittery I had to land my ass on my all-time crush. You don’t understand, Clara is freaking amazing, not to mention boxer-dropping hot, if that’s a thing, whatever boxers and panties to the same things don’t they? Okay getting sidetracked. ARGUS get your gentlemanly shit together. Argus helped Clara grab her books and gave her a hand standing up, which was completely her letting him be chivalrous as Clara was a grizzly bear shifter. Argus didn’t know how a grizzly bear was contained in that beautiful 5’9 compact and petite body, but it was there, a predator ready to destroy whoever dared challenge her.

“Hi Clara”, Argus said, being real smooth, like freaking jelly.

“Hey Argus”.

Argus wanted so badly to ask Clara out, but even though he could go up to Heralia Watson himself and call him out, or punch an elephant shifter in the face, albeit not with any success or effect. He just could not bring himself to ask her out. His mind always made excuses. He was one very rare people with no powers or under the jurisdiction of no council, he just didn’t belong, he couldn’t use magic, shift into an animal or not-breathe whilst having super strength.

That’s the reason he gets so much shit in his everyday life, he is nothing. Argus usually uses his humor, snark, and sarcasm to get through life, but inside it always gets to him.

With one-word Clara could figuratively rip his heart out, or more physically could probably rip his balls out and then bench press him until he bleeds out. She was also practically shifter royalty has the next heiress of the family who heads the Were Council. So, no one will bat an eye at her, even if she walks around with my intestines splattered all over her legs.

Around them was a crowd gathering up, Argus couldn’t hear much but something along the lines of “look isn’t that the normie”, “He can even walk straight”, “He’s so useless”. “Didn’t his parents leave him”. Argus didn’t even react, he was above that desensitized since his childhood. To him they were all squeaking rats, at least he pictured them as naked squeaking rats.

“I’m so sorry. Uh, I’ve got to go...exam”, Argus spluttered.

“That’s okay”, Clara said softly.

“Oh, okay then ... I, Uh, I’ve got to go…exam”, Argus continued, having resumed his smoothness.

“Okay, um, well you can take me out to coffee as an apology after”.

Argus gaped at her, did she, did she just ask him out? His mouth was open in an ‘o’ shape for so long that a fly could have flown in laid eggs and started a minor civilization in there and he wouldn't notice or care.

“Yeah, hmhhmh. Yeah, I would love to take you out to coffee”, Argus finally said, in the now very quiet hallway.

“Okay great see you at 7”, she said as she turned around and walked, no if Clara was doing it she was obviously elegantly sashaying away. In Argus’ eyes, she farted rainbows.

“Mr. Knight, you are late.”

Argus looked at his professor, still blissed out by his earlier interaction with Clara, he decided to refrain from his usual bullshittery.

“I’m really sorry professor, but I’m prepared for this exam, if you give me a chance then I could really turn this around”, Argus said, sincerely. Which was so uncharacteristic of that is was borderline absurd, The might Argus apologise? Na uh.

Professor Garrow trying to hide his gawking reaction let Argus in, telling him to be better at managing his time next time.

Finally doing this Oram forsaken exam. Argus skimming through the leaflet. It was pretty straightforward, they to write essays about clinical and neuropsychology and psychology in legal practices. Now, this he could do.

Halfway through his three-hour paper Argus started having a funny feeling. He didn’t know how to describe it. Like an itchy feeling all over his skin. He could hear the throb of his pulse over the scribbling noises of pencils driven by other students.

He stood up, finding it hard to breathe, dozens of different colored blotches appeared moving up and down his skin.

“Mr. Knight the exam is not over, please sit down”, Garrow said, clearly Argus is up to his usual troublemaking antics again, just when he thought Argus getting some maturity.

“I can’t bre--”, Argus’s whisper faded, as the blotches of color became more pronounced, they illuminated casting colorful lights throughout the entire hall. Some 400 students’ attention was now on Argus having noticed the light show.

A slight wind picked up around Argus, which was noticeable because they were indoors.

“This is ridiculous”, Garrow finally said. “I don’t know which magic user friend of yours you roped in this prank, but interrupting an exam is a severely punishable offense, you can get rusticated from the university Mr. Knight”.

Just as Garrow finished saying this the lights got brighter in to full-on mist circling around Argus, with him inside the torrent his eyes closed.

BANG. Suddenly many figures in black appeared from the door and some breaking through the windows.

“GET BACK”, a figure that looked like they were in charge shouted.

'The Order?', Garrow thought. Granted interfering with official examination was a serious offense but surely so many enforcers and such important looking enforcers were not necessary.

“Enforcer Sir, it’s really just juvenile prank from a student, nothing worth The Order’s attention, the dean can handle this, with an academic probation or maybe even a rustication”, reasoned Garrow. All the students were gathered at the edges of the exam hall, looking at the drama unfold, a lot of them had their smartphones out filming the entire thing, thinking it a stupid prank by a desperate student, some were even live streaming on social media.

“We will handle this professor”, the enforcer said calmly. Garrow was just starting to insist that the dean could handle the disciplining when Argus’ rainbow glow coming through the mist around him started to intensify even further the mist like a cocoon around Argus. Then he started to lift off the ground. Suspended in mid-air in a rainbow must cocoon Argus started seizing violently.

Screams tearing themselves out of his throat, all the while he was semi-conscious.

Garrow stared at his pupil, what kind of magic student can do this? This was going too far, is it a prank gone wrong?

The authoritative black figures meanwhile, formed themselves in a tight circle around Argus’s seizing body. As the seizing came to an end the glow intensified at its apex and loud thunder cracked just above them, even if there was no raining and the skies were clear. Suddenly there was a booming voice not much unlike the thunder before it.

“AWAKEN MY HERALIA”.

The booming statement of Oram himself echoed throughout all of Geas. It was an awakening. However, many of the youths who were present where in their twenties and didn’t know what this meant. Hell, even a lot of older people didn’t know what this meant.

As the thunderous statement stopped echoing the colorful mist solidified and exploded outwards, the fractals of the once mist fading before hitting anything living but leaving some dents on the concrete floor.

Argus’ body then plummeted down to the ground.