《Canyon的魔法师们》塔里

7、魔法师们！

　　-Kate-

　　I was not quiet sober following Miss Lancer down here , and now I seriously doubted that I was dreaming. Sarah Lancer was leaning to one corner of the table, facing us and telling me I was sitting with three top magicians. At first the message did not come through, and I looked like a dumb student trying to make sense of an equation. When it finally sank in, I quickly turned and stared at the three boys who were right behind me.

　　"Wrong guess, Kate,you have one more chance." Sarah was still smiling at me. She was cunning, enticing me to follow her trail of thoughts, but I struggled back to my own.

　　"Sarah,you are supposed to answer my questions."

　　"Yeah, sure! Chill, Kate, we are not some gangster organization," she paid me a sweeter smile, "I promise it's legit."

　　"Magicians What are you talking about Are you guys one of them"

　　"Miss Kate, is it I guess we could use some introduction here at first " A voice coming behind me suggested. I turned and found out the slim boy was talking to me. We had now formed a circle around the table, and Sarah Lancer was standing in the middle, with me on the left flank, the three of them facing me.

　　"I'm Neo. Lee. Alexander, " he gave me a friendly smile, offering to shake hands with me, "it's very nice to have another pretty girl joining our conspiracy." So he was the joker of this group, nice. He had a tan and weather-beaten face, but his eyes were still young and vigorous. His hand felt very coarse,yet he shaked my hand very gently, as if to please.

　　"Hi! I'm Kate Maria Lockwood, it's very nice meeting you, and..." I turned to the tall one.

　　"James Morland. My pleasure to meet you, miss Kate." Morland He was a Morland

　　"Mr. Morland, do you know my friend Paige Morland"

　　"Of course, she is my little sister." He bowed a little as if to show his recognition of me, "She talked about you a lot, I suppose you two are very close"

　　"Yeah! I like her very much, and it is very nice to know you too." Then silence fell on the room. Neither Jin Baili or I had made an initiative.

　　"Kate, eh.. This is Jin, and I suppose you guys have met Here, shake hands!" Sarah was nudging and eyeing him at the same time.

　　"There's no need to play friends, she obviously hates me. " Clearly it was made for me to hear, but he offered his hands anyway to me, out of politeness. For the same reason, I reached out my right hand.

　　I stared right into his eyes. Despite the color of his pupils turned lighter in brightness, I found out his left pupil was tinted deeper than the other one. It was hard to detect it under dim light, but I'm sure any observant person who stood close to him will find out. He was wearing contact, and only on one of his eyes, why So many Whys concerning him. He was like a big fat mystery, and I hated unsolved mystery.

　　"I hope your left eye can see for two eyes." I commented, and he shot me a cold glance. I knew I had got under his skin because he was eyeing me many times as Sarah was speaking and I gladly faked my attention at Sarah.

　　Whenever I see a puzzle, I curse and then patiently solve it.

　　I had to admit that I was a little shocked knowing that Sarah, Jin and Neo were magicians, Magic power was originally split into five categories: Invasive Magic,whose symbolic color was red, Communicative Magic, whose symbolic color was yellow, Curative Magic with green; Manipulative Magic with blue, and Absorptive Magic with black. Because magic power varied from people to people, most magicians practiced one kind of magic, and the more powerful they are, the more powerful spell they could learn to handle. A few powerful magicians practiced two kinds of magic, and as far as I know, no one could do more than three kinds because of human limitations.

　　Here I was, sitting in the room with three magicians. Weird enough, I felt I belonged to them. Yet I felt I should keep my distance. I was born in a magic family, both my parents and both of my brothers are magicians. For my entire life, I was a "freak" in the eyes of my family. But sitting with magicians and listen to them talking about magic sounds so normal to me that they feel like daily routines, they feel like drinking water and eating bread. Yeah, I was excluded from family business because I don't know magic, but this is the chance that I could actually make a difference, make myself useful.

　　"SSSC was set up two hundred years ago right after the magic era ended, in order to protect our students and faculties from supernatural attacks, secretly, of course. As you know, Kate, a lot of magicians still practiced despite the Extermination Rule, and our school had made enemies throughout its history, and the school needed our protection. Usually, only r magicians were allowed to join, but the government needed us to be strong badly now. I'm not the leader of this group, I'm your messenger, I was a bridge between the school and you guys. I heard rumors: something was going on there with the government project "Grand Wall", this is top-secret and I knew nothing about it other than its name. However, it didn't signify, what I am sure about is that the school wanted our group to be as strong as it can ever be. " Sarah was giving a speech instead of making explanations. She had guessed right most all my doubts and questions, and she passionately drew on as we all were attentively listening to her.

　　"That's why we needed you, James, and Kate. James,you were awarded the most prominent scientific reward at age of 17, for a model that made it possible for moving machines to draw on geothermal energy. We need your creative mind your model-building ability. Kate,you speak all seven languages, as fluent as your native tone, and I should not doubt your acute observation and mental analysis. More over,you ask more questions than any other people in this room, and I like it. " so James Morland was the "geek", but he was nothing like the geek I had in my mind. He was not supposed to have muscles and would wear a pair of thick glasses. However, James Morland stood there, as handsome and manlike as any boy I had ever seen, and infinitely much smarter.

　　"So we are a team now How do we communicate You guys have any set date for meeting" I was adding more questions.

　　"Keep those questions coming, Kate. Alright,you are right, we are a team, so for God's sake, work things out with Jin. We had no set meeting days, but as any one of us had found out something that needs investigation, he or she was supposed to notify all other members using this. " She showed me the bean-shaped recorder again. "It was called the little bean, used for communicating between holders. It had a little screen here right in the middle. By speaking to it, it will send your message to all of us. That being said, don't send message with plain words, use symbols. It was developed by James, of course, as our secret weapon. " She blinked to James, and the shy boy smiled gently back.

　　"So we only have meetings when things come up"

　　"Exactly, little girl, we have to avoid risk as much as possible. Also, try not to act close to each other in school, for people might find out. Magicians, please come early if we are going to have a meeting, because James and Kate are going to wait for the door to be unlocked."

　　I asked more questions about what kind of magic Sarah, Neo, and Jin use, and they were quite mysterious about it, and no one would share their magic powers. I could understand, because what kind of magic they use was the most important information for magicians. I just met them today, and of course they will not trust me with their most deadly secrets. The meeting at least lasted for an hour, and I was feeling a little drowsy. When the permission to leave was granted by Sarah, I was so eager to leave that I jumped from my chair.

　　"Miss Kate, can I have speak to you privately" Jin Baili suddenly strode between me and the exit.

　　"What do you want" I was too tired and wanted go straight to the point.

　　"Very straightforward, I'll go straight to the point then... Do you know Asmodian" He glanced up and made sure that everyone had left the room before he went on.

　　"A little, but I was not as fluent in it as in other languages." I decided I should be honest if we're going to work together from now on.

　　"I need your help," His voice was lowering," can you translate something for me"

　　"What"

　　"I had a message, written in Asmodian for sure, for I had seen its pattern in some of the books, but I cannot find any useful reference book that could help me decode it.

　　"Where did you get the message You don't know it was forbidden You could have been executed for reading Asmodian!" I exclaimed, but I realized I was really in no position to lecture him.

　　"Not that they can't find out about it." He smiled.

　　"Ok, fine. Where did you get the message Why are you even interested" My drowsiness was driven away and my clear mind gradually returned.

　　"From someone close to me, and I need to understand it for personal reasons."

　　"That was not an answer! If you don't want to tell me anything, why would I help you at all"

　　"It was from my mother."He murmured those words, but his eyes stopped looking into mine, as his thoughts were engaged somewhere else. Instead of speaking to me, I felt like he was talking to himself. He was reliving some moments from his deep memory and he dwelt on it until his senses dragged him back. The word "was" touched me to the heart and suddenly I felt deeply, sincerely sorry for him.

　　"Ok, I'll help you." I gave in.

　　Suddenly he looked up and caught my eyes which were now overflowed with sympathy. Through his countenance I knew he had interpreted it in no time, and the gloat of a victor had crept onto his face.

　　How cunning Jin was! He was playing my empathy. I had betrayed my good heart to my enemy, and he had used it. There was no turning back now: I was too honest a peson to pull back. I secretly promised I must get even to him someday.

　　"Thank you! Come down here tomorrow at ten and I'll show you the message. Don't look at me like you are going to eat me alive. Accept it, two defeats, one physically, and the other psychologically. Good night! "

　　He followed me out the library and we went separate ways. I heard his footsteps died down and finally was out of my earshot.