The Beginning Ch. 13-14

"Well," Mr. Ray said, moving to stand in front of me and place his hands on my shoulders, "you know that you can ask me about them any time, right? I'd be happy to tell you anything you want."

I nodded, shooting him a somber smile. He smiled back, patting my shoulders, before walking over to the panel. Reaching out, he hit the third icon, which lit up with a white light. At the same time, the manway seemed to dissolve, a portal of white light taking its place.

"Okay," he said, gesturing at the portal, "as you walk through, remember to hold on to your Power. Don't do anything with it, but just have a grip on it."

I gave him a quick nod, refraining from asking more questions, even though I wanted to. Steeling myself, I tapped into my magic as I approached the portal, unsure of what to expect. A warm tingle was all I felt as I walked through, the light bright enough to nearly blind me. As I blinked rapidly to clear the spots in my vision, I was hit by an intense sense of déjà vu, almost like I'd gone through a similar portal before.

The feeling faded as I finally managed to look around, and realized that I was standing in the hallway of an apartment building. There were no windows, and the floor was tiled in gray stone, the walls an unassuming white. I turned around and saw Mr. Ray stepping through a wooden door that rippled like a liquid, solidifying as soon as he was through. It bore no markings at all, aside from an oval bronze plate with "3X" on it. There was one more apartment, "4X", to our right, and I could see two more doors leading the way to an elevator on our left, and a door marked "Emergency Exit" on the far wall.

"You can let go now," Mr. Ray told me, as he fished out a set of keys from the pouch in his pants and unlocked the door, which opened up into a dark room.

Releasing my Power and walking in behind him, I waited as he felt around for the light switch. Once the white lights clicked on, I saw that the room was unfurnished, floored with white tiles that had golden veins running through them, and with walls that were painted a light shade of blue. There was a single door set into the opposite wall, but I never got the chance to have a look around and see where it led.

"Okay," Mr. Ray said, "it's time to show you another feature of these uniforms. Now, you already know that they have temperature controls embedded in them. Have you ever tried activating that by yourself?"

"Not so far." I answered.

"Okay, that isn't a problem. Has Swati gone over non-contact channeling yet?"

"No, she hasn't. All we managed to do today, was unlock my Power."

"Okay, in that case, the lesson will just have to wait." he said, gesturing towards me. "I want you to focus on a casual outfit you'd wear."

Closing my eyes, I thought of a plain blue t-shirt, denim jeans, striped socks, brown sneakers, and a black denim jacket.

"All done!" he declared.

I opened my eyes, surprised to see him dressed in a button-down checkered shirt, tucked loosely into beige slacks, black dress shoes on his feet. Looking at myself, I noticed that there was a translucent layer around my body, which looked exactly like what I'd imagined.

"This is so cool!" I exclaimed, moving my feet and seeing two different pairs of pants wrinkling as I did. "Why are my clothes translucent, though?"

"They only look that way to you." he explained, "It's a simple illusion spell, and since you're in possession of the medium that cast it, you can see through it. Everybody else will see your clothes regularly."

The illusion reacted just like regular clothes did, wrinkling and flaring as I tried walking around and turning quickly. It was like they actually had form and weight, and I couldn't stop smiling as I tried jumping and crouching, and other stuff to put them through their paces.

"I'm glad you're having fun," Mr. Ray said, grinning at my antics, "but we're late, already. Should we head out?"

I just grinned at him, a little embarrassed, but he didn't seem to really mind. He switched the lights off and locked the door behind us as we left the apartment, and we then walked down the short corridor to the elevator. Hitting the button for the elevator, I watched the small LED panel shift through numbers, till it stopped at "23".

"We're on the twenty-third floor?" I asked, surprised, before it hit me. "Oh wait, never mind. The door numbers substituted floor numbers with alphabets, hence the 'X'. I should have gotten that sooner."

Mr. Ray just nodded, and we got into the elevator car as the doors opened up. Looking over at the button panel, I noted that the building had twenty-six floors, a lobby, and two levels of underground parking. The pattern of replacing numbers with alphabets continued, the parking garages denoted as "-1" and "-2", with "0" being the lobby.

Mr. Ray hit "-2", and we stood in comfortable silence as the elevator dropped down to the last level. Surprisingly, nobody else got on, and a little less than a minute later, the doors slid open. We walked out into a well-lit, concrete parking garage, and I saw that each apartment had two parking spaces assigned to it. This level seemed to house spaces for floors "N" through "Z", with half the spaces to our right, and the rest to our left, arranged into two rectangular configurations, a throughway between them.

Turning to the left, we walked over to the spaces assigned to "3X", though only one of them was currently being used. A white, expensive-looking sedan occupied that spot, the indicators flashing as Mr. Ray unlocked it remotely.

Walking over to the passenger's side, I opened the door and got in, immediately noticing how luxurious the interior of the car was. The leather-backed seats seemed to embrace me as I settled in and pulled my seatbelt on, the little screen set into the center of the dashboard coming to life, as Mr. Ray hit the ignition button. He scrolled through the radio presets before finding something he liked, a song in a language I'd never heard playing over the speakers, before reversing into the throughway smoothly.

We followed the signs to the exit ramp, going up through one more level of parking, before emerging onto a tarred road. I got my first glimpse at the apartment complex itself, a little disappointed that it was as drab on the outside, as it was on the inside. Rows of windows faced the exit lane and the low gate we were driving towards, which led out onto a busy main road.

"Welcome to Bengaluru!" Mr. Ray announced, as we merged into traffic.

And man, there was traffic! I'd never seen so many cars on the road, or pedestrians on the footpath, as I saw that day. As we drove along, I even saw a couple of cows meandering across the road, and numerous dogs lazing along the pavement. Vehicles were crammed together like sardines in a can, with no regard for minimum distance. Any space between cars was promptly filled by people on bikes, some of them even clipping the side view mirrors on some cars as they rode down the lane divider, barely sparing the other driver an apologetic glance. I was expecting someone to step out and berate them, but the car drivers didn't really seem to care, and neither did the few policemen I saw.

I'm not too proud to admit that my heart was in my mouth for the entire journey, and I had a death grip on my seatbelt, my calves and thighs clenched. There were so many times that I was sure we were going to ram into somebody, or that somebody was going to ram into us, but miraculously, nothing happened. Mr. Ray stayed cool through it all, smiling and singing along with the songs playing on the radio. They'd play an English song for every two songs in the other language, and I really wished it'd be more often, as hearing the familiar tunes helped me relax for those few moments.

More than an hour later, Mr. Ray pulled over in a residential neighborhood, and turned the car off. We were parked in front of a cobbled boundary wall that had an ornate black gate set into it. I slowly let go of my seatbelt and relaxed my legs, heaving a sigh of relief as my heart slowed down.

"How did you like your first experience in Indian traffic?" Mr. Ray asked, shooting me a cheeky smile.

"I didn't." I answered, sullenly, willing my breathing to return to normal.

"Well," he said, unbuckling his seatbelt, "can't sit here all day. Come on."

I followed him out of the car, walking over to the gate. Like the wall it was set into, the gate was over eight feet tall, embossed with motifs of peacocks in profile on either end, their tail feathers spread out majestically. Mr. Ray pressed a call button embedded in the wall next to the gate, waving at a camera above it that I hadn't noticed. The gate slid open slowly, giving me my first glimpse at Vaishnavi's house.

It was an opulent three-story house, capped with a shingled hipped roof. The house was surrounded by a verdant garden, a pebbled driveway leading to a standalone two-car garage on the right. Light fixtures had been placed strategically all around, which meant that we could see clearly. It took us nearly two minutes to walk from the gate to the front door, by which time, Vaishnavi was standing in the doorway, smiling widely at us.

I didn't know whether or not it was an illusion, but she was dressed in a flowing white top that went down to her knees, baggy blue pants patterned with flowers, and a similarly patterned blue shawl, which hung like it was pinned to her right shoulder. She was barefoot, and I understood why as we got closer, and I noticed a line of slippers to the left of the door. Following Mr. Ray's example, I added my own pair to the lineup, the illusion around them fading as I took them off.

Vaishnavi gave each of us a hug as we walked in, and remembering how motherly she'd been the last time we spoke, I couldn't help but feel like mine was a little awkward. I knew that she was married and had kids, but a part of me was still infatuated with her.

I whistled softly as I took in the inside of her home. A set of beige leather sofas that looked like they could seat fifteen people comfortably, were arranged in a u-shape around a dark brown coffee table, facing a fifty-inch TV took up the entire left wall. The spacious room extended into an open-plan kitchen, featuring a breakfast island and a large dining table, which had six high-backed chairs arranged around it.

"Uncle Ronald!" two voices called out in unison, Sneha and Rahul running out through the only other door in the room, "Chris bhaiya!"

The two of them ran up to him, and he dropped to a knee to give them a tight hug, and I did the same as they hugged me. With a start, I realized that they looked really similar, which was accentuated by the fact that they were dressed similarly, in flowing blue tops like Vaishnavi's, and white pants.

"You're twins!" I exclaimed, standing back up as they let go.

"They are," Rishi Vashisth agreed, walking into the room through the same door, dressed in a dark gray and white variation of the same, "and were supposed to be training with me until summoned by their mother."

"Rishiji." Mr. Ray greeted him, bowing, which I copied as well.

Rishiji held his hand out, palms towards us, saying something in a language I didn't understand. We straightened up as soon as he was done.

"I see you've been learning our ways, Chris." he said, smiling.

"I've just been copying what Mr.- Ronald does." I replied, sheepishly.

"Wise is the man who knows how to lead," Rishiji intoned, "and wiser yet, is the man who knows when to follow. What does that make you, Chris?"

"Um," I mumbled, "I'm not sure?"

"Paa!" Vaishnavi chastised him, "Stop teasing Chris and come help me with dinner. Ronald, Chris, would you entertain these two demons for a bit? Dinner will be ready soon!"

Mr. Ray nodded, and she pulled Rishiji to the kitchen, leaving us alone with the kids. Rahul brought over a popular board game that involved dice and climbing up ladders or sliding down snakes, and we had a great time playing. Rahul and Sneha were both great kids, and I settled into an easy banter with them in no time at all. Rahul and I would team up to tease Sneha, or vice versa, while Mr. Ray just watched and smiled, occasionally butting in to rescue one of them.

"Rahul, Sneha, come set the table!" Vaishnavi called out, as we were midway into the game, "Dinner is almost ready!"

We left the game as it was and walked over to the kitchen, a number of delicious aromas tickling my nostrils. It seemed that Vaishnavi had cooked for us the mundane way, which was a bit of a surprise to me.

"It's her way of honoring her guests," Mr. Ray whispered to me, just as I was about to ask.

"I have another question," I whispered back. "How do Wielders age? Sneha told me that she was eleven when I met her this morning, and after that game, I'm sure they're actually eleven years old. Aren't Wielders supposed to live longer and age slower?"

"I guess we weren't clear enough about that," he answered. "Wielders age normally till they hit adulthood. That's when we start aging slower. We stay at that peak physical shape till we're about forty years from dying, which is when we start aging again."

"I mean no offense when I ask this," I said, "but why do you and Vaishnavi look like you're different ages?"

"Hey, Vaish!" he called out, "Chris wants to know why I look so old, while you look like a teenager!"

"Uncool!" I exclaimed, my cheeks heating up as I blushed fiercely.

"It's alright," Vaishnavi said, laughing, "though I don't think the answer will be as mystic as you'd hoped. We look different simply because Ronald has always looked older than he is, and I have always looked younger than I am. When we were still teenagers and ventured into the mundane world, people would often ask him where he was working, and ask me what I was studying!"

All of them had a laugh at that, and I chuckled along, feebly. I was sure my face was still red, but I decided to focus on dinner, instead. Mr. Ray washed his hands at a small sink that was set into the back wall— separate from the kitchen sink, which was set into the island— and I copied him again, before we walked over to the dining table, which was laden with food. He took one of the side chairs and gestured for me to take the other, Rahul and Sneha taking the chairs opposite us. Rishiji sat at the head of the table, but I noticed that there were no place settings laid out in front of the last chair.

"Chris," Vaishnavi said, standing next to my chair, "I'd like to welcome you into my home, and hope that you visit often. Please feel free to eat as much as you'd like, and if you need anything, just ask."

I nodded and she shot me a wide smile, before starting to serve all of us our food. We started out with some sort of flat bread, accompanied by a cauliflower dish. The main course was a rice dish like the one she'd had at my abode, though this one was tolerable, in terms of spice. It had a tangy sweetness to it, which, I was informed, was because it contained something called "tamarind". Desert was fried balls of dough, steeped in a viscous, sugary solution.

It was a great meal, filled with light conversation, and the twins' antics. The oddest thing about it, was that Vaishnavi didn't sit down or eat, at all. She just hovered around, refilling our plates with food and our glasses with water, and berating the twins when they got too rowdy. It wasn't until we'd loudly declared how full we were, that she finally sat down on one of the sofas.

"She's waiting for dad," Sneha told me, in a conspiratorial whisper, noticing my confused look.

Rishiji took his leave, then, saying that he had things to take care of. Mr. Ray and I settled in to finish our game with the twins, Vaishnavi watching us and joining in on the banter. We finally finished the game after a while, with Sneha winning, and myself coming in last. Vaishnavi sent them off to bed shortly after that, which was my only indicator that it was late.

"Are you sure you won't eat?" Mr. Ray asked her, once the twins had hugged us goodbye and gone to their rooms, "You don't know when Byrav will—"

"It's alright." Vaishnavi answered, "I'll wait. I think the two of you should head back, though. I'm sure Swati will want Chris back at the same hour tomorrow."

"Right," I groaned, "I almost forgot about that."

"Sneha will come get you, again," she said, smiling kindly, "though it won't have to be quite as early tomorrow, considering the fact that you can Wield now, and should be able to teleport to the dimensional barrier."

"I thought you said we couldn't teleport!" I exclaimed, looking at Mr. Ray accusingly.

"She doesn't mean it that way." he replied, holding his hands up placatingly, "Since the abodes are contained within their own sub-dimension, there are pathways you can access that allow you to travel between two linked points, like we did when we left the academy. One of those points is your own front gate, while the other is the barrier that surrounds the abodes.

"If a mundane or dormant Wielder tried to use these pathways, they'd be scoured away by the raw energy within. Remember how I asked you to hold on to your magic as we walked through the portal today? That was why.

"We were lucky when we took you through the gateway to the academy for the first time, since some of the Power you released when you Emerged was still coursing through you. If it hadn't been for that, I don't think we'd have been able to get you through."

"So," I speculated, "Sneha couldn't do that with me this morning, since I hadn't unlocked my magic?"

"Exactly." Vaishnavi said, nodding.

"Makes sense," I conceded, shrugging, "though I still think teleportation is possible."

"It very well may be, Chris," Mr. Ray said, standing up, "and like I said earlier, you may be the one to discover how to do it."

I nodded in agreement, standing up as well, as we bid Vaishnavi farewell. She stood at the door as we left, the gate slowly sliding open again. Turning to give her a wave, I followed Mr. Ray out onto the road, and to the car. As I was getting in, a sleek black hatchback pulled up to the gate, someone opening the driver's door and getting out, as the car idled in front of the gate.

The man who walked over to us was tall, easily over 6', and was actually quite bulky. As he got closer, it became evident that his bulk was all muscle, a fact that was accentuated by the skintight, black polo shirt he wore, over skinny black jeans, and black combat boots. Short, buzz-cut black hair topped a clean-shaven face that looked like you could break a board against it. A hawkish nose sat above stern lips, bordered by defined cheekbones and a chiseled chin. He definitely looked Indian, and his bronzed skin cemented his fulfillment of the "tall, dark, and handsome" cliché.

"Ronald!" he cried out, pulling Mr. Ray into a tight hug, "It's been too long, my friend. I'm sorry I missed dinner."

"Don't worry about it!" Mr. Ray said, hugging him back.

"And you must be Chris." he continued, walking over to shake my hand, "I'm Byrav, Vaishnavi's husband. I've heard a lot about you."

"All good things, I hope," I said, with a smile, clasping his hand.

The smile died on my lips as I looked into his brown eyes, catching the look of disdain he tried to hide behind a haughty smile, as he squeezed my hand. Hard.

I did not like this man.

"I look forward to debriefing you tomorrow." he said, imperiously, as he let go of my hand.

"Oh, I can't tomorrow, sorry," I responded, impishly, a little pissed, "I have this thing called 'training', and I'm sure Swati wouldn't—"

"Leave Swati to me." he said, with a dismissive wave of his hand, before turning around to walk away.