“We have a plan. I want you to meet the people who will help you on this journey, come with me.”
“Wait a minute! Shouldn’t we be in a hurry? Soon, mom and Auntie Eva will be at home, they’re going to be desperate!”
“Time here goes by slowly. Believe me, we have a few days until we run out of time in your world. You can’t go to Leike without being prepared, you would be easy prey. We must bring you back safe, otherwise Elof will destroy everything.”
My head was in danger, along with my father’s body. Despite the fact he wasn’t the most loving person, he was still my father, I had to save him. At least I wasn’t going alone, Nefarious had a troop to go with me.
We went down the stairs, walking to the opposite side still inside the castle. This was the first time I went in Valkyrie. It was the main hall, the school yard where all students got together before classes began.
“Allow me to introduce you to the Valkyrie’s Apprentice School. Where the prisms with the gift mark learn and specialize themselves to work in our community. All the students must go through two levels of neutral classes and two more specialization levels. We have five essential courses needed for the Kingdom’s correct functions.” We were in the middle of the room surrounded by students wearing brown uniforms, some with the symbol of their occupation embroidered on the chest, while Nefarious explained, using this little fire coming out of his hands looking like an image projector.
“We have the Keepers, They are warriors who care for everyone and everything about security. They go through a high-performance training to develop all the major abilities. Their classes vary between Weapons Manipulation, Self Defense Techniques, Mass Attack, Body Fight and some others. You saw them coming back from training a while ago, that’s the vigilant group, they already graduated.
The Farmers. You also have seen them in action, working at the vegetable garden. They are our food scientists. They study things like Soil and Minerals, Seasonal Planting, Strategic Irrigation, Sun Studies 1 and 2. They are always at the laboratory or in the field.
The Advisers. The name of the course is Royal Administration. These are the ones who work for the Kingdom and our people. They are responsible for the Parties, Sports, Village and Castle Maintenance. In this course the study matters are close to the ones in your world, another time I’ll show you.
The Doctors. Prisms medicine is not for everyone. You need to have a strong stomach. I, myself, don’t have it. They are our doctors. They are always ready to answer to any prisms in need.
And, at last, the Masters. This is the most complex course at Valkyrie because it requires one more eclipse of specialization. This is my graduation, I’m a master from the first class at Valkyrie, with your grandfather, King Persus. We learned all occupation theories, and it was not easy. But for me it was great learning, which allows me to be the dean today.”
“You must be overloaded with so many positions to fill. You rule the Kingdom, you are the college dean… you need to catch your breath!” I admired the white beard even more than ever.
“Well, my dearest. These last eclipses have been heavy. You know, after your eightieth eclipse of life you lose some of your vitality…”
“I’m not going to even ask how many eclipses (years) you are, I don’t want to be impolite.”
“I appreciate that.”
We passed a group of students wearing white vests in Valkyrie’s hallway. They followed a professor dressed the same way who was giving instructions about a patient they were studying.
“Wow! I wanted to be a doctor, but I’m freaking scare of needles…,” I thought out loud.
“That’s why we never base ourselves on decisions made in the moment. Your career must be decided by your gift, what you were born to do.”
“And how do you know it? In the first dimension a lot of people with many working years still aren’t sure that they are doing the right thing.” I had a lively example at home. My father hated his job, but never made a move to change it.
“The ones without the gift mark until their sixteenth eclipse can choose the job which is more aligned to their interests, they can help in all the occupations. Here, prisms with or without the mark are as recognized as everyone else. But the ones who the gift mark shows, our mission is to develop it. It is the sign that your student life at Valkyrie will begin.”
“Gift mark. I never saw…”
Nefarious rolled up his left-forearm sleeve, as he’d done to enter the black magic room, and showed me. He had a living tattoo of a zodiac symbol and a square root which were intertwined, shining like embers.
“This is Nefarious’s family symbol, it represents the cancer sign. The square root is the master career symbol, Lola. See? The mix of both is the representation of my identity as a prism. The family mark appears when we are born. The gift marks are according to your gift. Mine appeared when I was fifteen eclipses, more or less, age can vary a little bit. As a master and despite my age, I still teach the last year of Masters and Advisers.”
The harmony among the drawings made a very interesting mark. I started to look around, all the students had marks on their left forearm.
“But, if one person doesn’t want the profession which they were gifted to? Can they change?”
“Well, they can. But I have never seen someone wanting to change. I understand you asking this. There is a treacherous element to bring up this kind of doubt, we are not based on it. Our mistakes in general happen when we give all our ears to this thing you call ‘self.’ Here, since we were little, all the prisms have classes of emotional intelligence to deal with it. The self is the pioneer in unsatisfaction, envy, greed, and frustration. If you are born with the gift to heal, this is inside your heart, you will be happy to be able to do it. You won’t be doing it for status or prestige. The gift mark is not imposed on the prisms, it is only the externalization of your inner skills. Everyone is born with a gift, here or in Sweden, that beautiful and chilling place where you live. We must pay attention and follow it to give meaning to our life.”
It seemed right but didn’t really get into my mind. Maybe because I was born without any gift, at least that was how I felt.
We were interrupted when a white pigeon landed on Nefarious’s shoulder. It had a papyrus in its body. Wiky was on his other shoulder and didn’t want a companion, giving a short peep which made the pigeon go away. Nefarious couldn’t even give his thanks for the service, the frightened pigeon flew away, out of the window. Right after it, a tumult of students entered and all of them walked out in the direction of the back of the castle. He finished reading the letter and said, “Oh, of course! I forget today is the eliminatory to the Spring Ocean Turf competition! Let’s go to the polo field, the race starts and ends there.”
“But I have to go get my father…”
“Dearest, why are you so anxious? I guarantee Elof won’t do anything with your father, at least for now. Remember he wants you, not your father. While you still alive, he will be safe. We will prepare you for this, you won’t go in blind. Now, come with me, I want to introduce you to someone outside.”
Reality in doses, why do I never hear something comforting?
My world was falling apart and Nefarious wanted to show me a game! I’d rather get it done already. I have bitten off all my nails. But I tried to be less anxious and trust the things he was telling me. It was too much information for a human brain, I took a deep breath and followed him.