“Huh..?”

“I’m still alive?”

Although his vision was still covered by darkness, Ben could still feel his mind operating as normal, no pain, no discomfort, and he could even feel himself freely moving his limbs, and from the feel of it he was currently standing up?

“What’s going on?”

[Hoho, he actually passed the test!]

[Indeed, he did, doesn’t this make him our first?]

[What took him so long? the test only lasts a month]

[That guy didn’t mess up again did he?]

“Erm, e-excuse me! Who are you? what’s going on? Why can’t I see anything? Where am I?” Noticing that people were having a conversation not far from him, Ben shouted out to get their attention and get some answers to his current situation. While he couldn’t understand their speech, he was hoping they could at least somewhat understand him.

…

A long silence rang out throughout the unknown space, before finally someone spoke up.

[Ah... he’s awake?! Isn’t he supposed to be unconscious for at least a year before he wakes up?]

[That’s what Merlin told us; he did say there were some special cases but even then the earliest one to wake up was still 7 months...]

Amid the panicked voices, a loud rip sounded out, followed by a new voice.

[My students wouldn’t happen to be slandering me again would they?]

[Ah! We juniors greet master Merlin!] x3

After hearing a new voice join the conversation, the three strangers suddenly became quiet and voiced their respect.

Even though he didn’t understand the language, the rules stayed the same; all names were pronounced the same no matter what language you spoke, and a shockingly familiar name appeared, wild thoughts began to sprout up within Ben’s mind “Merlin… that Merlin? There’s no way... right?” While the rest of the words were incomprehensible, the name Merlin stood out clearly as did the respect in their voice.

Still hoping to get some answers from these strangers Ben once again spoke out to them “Hello? Is there anyone here that can understand me? Hello?” After his voice sounded out, he finally heard a response, although it was not from any of the three younger sounding voices.

[Oh? English? Now that’s a language I haven’t heard in a while]

An older sounding voice emerged from the distance and entered Ben’s ears, but this time it was in English, but it was rather strange, it was almost like he had no accent to his words, each one was perfect, and crystal clear, as if he was speaking directly from his mind rather than his mouth, and while it might sound trivial, it was a rather surreal experience to hear a word with perfect clarity, almost as if one word carried the meaning of entire sentence.

Recalling the moment he heard the voice he became incredibly shocked as he realised the speaker only verbally voiced the letter O “H-how did you do that? Who are you?” Fear of the unknown made his voice crack, but the excitement and curiosity of who this man was far overshadowed this fear.

“...What are you?” After several seconds of silence another question emerged from Ben’s lips, after just this small exchange with the man in front of him, he began to realise this person might not be human, no human could carry such power in their words alone.

[Hmm... my aren’t you a smart young man... well you made it this far and my students still need some time to mature so I’ll walk you through it this time, first let’s open those eyes of yours]

“Huh? But I’ve tried, I can’t ope- oh” before finishing his sentence a small breeze swept past his eyes, almost immediately after, the faint sound of glass shattering resounded in Ben’s ears and his eyes shot open, only to be instantly blinded by a dazzling white light, after taking a few seconds of squinting to adjust his eyes to the striking white light stinging his eyes, he slowly opened them until he could see clearly and began to scan his environment.

Infinite white.

That’s all that could be used to describe the room he was currently in, everywhere he looked was simply white and there seemed to be no end to it, no matter where he looked he couldn’t find a single seem or shadow to show the presence of a wall or door, it was just simply white space with nothing inside, with the exception of a small, simple wooden table and chair set, and finally Ben’s eyes fell upon the four other people in front of him.

The first one he noticed was one of the three students, this man’s appearance was the most striking of all those present; he could almost be called the personification of fire, he looked to be a middle aged man in his 40’s with rough, dark skin and a Cross-shaped scar covering most of his left cheek, and even possessed a set of dark red eyes that flickered with bright red light. His stature was… unexpected, the other two students were all sitting down but he was standing beside them... and he was still shorter than the shortest of the other two, making him less than three feet tall and almost as wide as he was tall, with such a stature anyone would accidentally let out a burst of laughter but that was quelled by his most predominant feature, his hair; his hair was rather long, flowing over his shoulders and stopping just short of his waist, on closer inspection you’d realise his hair was made of pure fire, blood-red fire, constantly moving as if it had a mind of its own and possessed a fierce heat that Ben could feel even though he was over ten feet away from him.

Dragging his eyes away from the strange man, Ben peered towards the other two students, who were for the most part relatively normal, apart from the hair colour of the only female of the four which was a vibrant green that seemed to all radiate some form of light and even reflected light in a similar manner to metal.

Finally placing his eyes onto the oldest member of the four, he was the most unremarkable of them all, simply having the appearance of an old man, with an oddly long beard and simple grey robes, reminiscent of a magicians cloak from the majority of fantasy movies.

BOOM!!

The moment Ben’s eyes met his, an explosion resounded throughout the white space, originating from the old man’s body, and immediately after the space was filled with a strange, blue-white, cloudy substance, one that could be seen but not touched or manipulated, but the moment Ben inhaled his body was instantly refreshed, he felt completely revitalised, almost completely forgetting about the horrendous experience he just went through, but strangely while Ben was feeling better and better, the three students behind the old man began to keel over and heave like they were suffocating, sweat pouring down their faces and their complexion turning a shade of white nearly matching the space they were in.

Ben could only stare at them in confusion, he couldn’t tell if they were putting on an act - if this substance could make him feel so refreshed, why were they suddenly acting like they were being strangled?

[Ho, you truly are a remarkable young man, that didn’t even phase you, it actually became beneficial to you instead] the old man suddenly flinched and then proceeded to let out a sigh [looks like I’ll have to take you up to the Glass court. Come, let’s be on our way!]

Ben could hardly react before he was dragged away by the old man, only managing to steal a quick glance to see the three students manage to regain their composure after the old man retracted the strange substance back into himself.

The surroundings suddenly became a blur and everything seemed to distort as the old man gently waved his hand in a downward motion causing a large crack to appear in the air before jumping through it with Ben being dragged behind him; in the next instant Ben’s vision blurred momentarily before refocusing and with a quick glance he realised he was now inside what seemed to be an extremely luxurious room, intricately carved animals such as wolves, and birds were carved to perfection from both the golden ornaments and wooden furniture, each one looked incredibly lifelike; a beautifully woven rug spread across the floor perfectly combing with the various colours of wood and metal to create a truly comfortable atmosphere.

While Ben still stood in awe of the room features, the old man had already walked ahead and sat down next to one of the several tables within the room, choosing to sit upon a chair that resembled a sleeping dragon, before giving Ben a gesture to come sit with him.