12 Chapter Twelve

"Let the Siege rest for now Bergstrom," the phoenix told him, "you've done well to bring him here before it was too late."

"His friends will be looking for him you know," Bergstrom said.

"But that didn't stop you from bringing him here." the Phoenix reckoned and paused. Then continued when Bergstrom stayed quiet. "Yes, they will be looking for him. But they will be calmed by the truth." Bergstrom tensed up at the mention of the truth.

"I didn't say anything about the truth about you, Bergstrom" Zaraias added to ease the tension.

"Are you proposing I leave the Siege here and leave?" Bergstrom asked. The phoenix raised its head in a motion that prompted some water in the pool to float out and make a circular shape like a frame of a mirror. Images started to form within the shape.

The images were of the four artras that hadn't tagged along on this little excursion. Kendall, Jacob, Isaac and Ciara were in Bergstrom's office. Ciara held a device designed to detect and re-open portals that had been opened earlier and from the looks of it, she was almost done re-opening the portal that Kevin had opened earlier.

Though Kendall was at Bergstrom's desk going through his papers. "C'mon Kendall, leave Bergstrom's stuff alone. What do you think you're doing?" Ciara asked him as she worked on getting the portal open.

"I don't trust Mr Bergstrom. There's something fishy about him."

"You can't blame the guy for being too shady all the time. Maybe that's just how he is," she said back as the portal finally burst fully open. Zaraias let the frame of the waterfall back into the pool gently beside the unconscious Siege. Bergstrom stared at the boy for some time knowing full well that he had to get moving and had no choice in the matter 'Goodbye young Siege.'

"I know how much you care about the boy," the phoenix said, "but the boy will be fine. I have high hopes for this generation of artras."

"Zaraias, I don't want them to split the way.." He stops mid-sentence with a pained expression on his face.

"They won't," Zaraias reassured him. "Their hearts are pure and full of passion." With that said, Bergstrom bid the phoenix farewell and exited the cave only to hear voices at the further end of the magical tunnel that lay between the two waterfalls. 'Nothing an invisibility spell can't fix,' he thought to himself as he turned himself invisible. He continued moving and soon he got close enough to the artras to make out their voices.

"Can you guys stop arguing about Bergstrom being creepy? It's starting to creep me out more than Bergstrom himself," Jacob whined trying to get Ciara and Kendall to stop talking about their creepy math teacher.

"Not really. Kevin misses lunch every day because of him. I stand by my word. Something's fishy about him and I'll soon find out. Why do you think we tracked Kevin all the way to the guy's office? He'd probably given him Sunday detention or something," Kendall added.

"Yeah, but that doesn't explain why Kevin would then open up a portal to Armensia and side-track into this tunnel. Besides, I think Bergstrom's okay. Kevin got an F on that test. Clearly, he needed help. Plus I was in his head during that test, he was messed up," Ciara said.

"That's odd. Kevin is among the best in Math," Isaac said.

"Maybe he's just not as good as you thought," she said.

"What's that supposed to mean," Jacob said.

"I'm just saying..." she looked around to meet their expectant looks which frustrated her, "Oh come on. You can't tell me he's that good at math too."

"Oh. I see. Kevin is the best at math, but that's all he was good at until he got his powers which help him with football," Kendall answered under the assumption that Ciara was looking for a weak spot, after all, she had seen was how good he was at pretty much everything.

Having heard enough, Bergstrom continued back to his office to arrange the mess that Kendall left. The artras continued advancing towards the cave.

"Can I ask you guys something?" Ciara asked abruptly.

"Yes," they all replied.

"What makes Kevin fit to be the Siege? I thought he would be different from what I expected," she said.

"Different how? He's learning his powers faster than any of us are. I don't think there's any need to raise concern," Isaac said. It was only Kendall at this point who realised what Ciara really meant by her question. She appeared to be in constant disagreement on how talented the Siege might just be. Ciara had also begun developing a weak spot for the Siege since the day she had taken the boy's memory from him. They continued the journey in silence and Ciara let her mind wander as she usually did when something was bothering her.

FLASHBACK...

"Dad, couldn't we have stayed home in the city. Miles away from here. I don't even have any friends here," Ciara groaned knowing how futile her arguments were. She knew quite well the reason their family was returning to this small town. Her dad had been teaching her about her role as alpha of the artras and she had been made aware of the urgency of this matter.

"You know there is nothing you can say to get yourself out of this. Now hurry up and get to the orientation. Don't forget what I taught in locating the others. Tell you what. I'll give everything you miss about the city," her Dad replied.

They both knew none of that was the reason she was being difficult. "What if they don't like me, Dad?"

"Hey. Don't give me that. They will be naturally attracted to you. As long as you keep the Siege cold you should be fine," he replied, "now get going."

It was the day of her orientation and she was meant to find the artras then. She already knew she was the alpha. So by default, the magic had woven the artras fates together. They had to meet and they would be drawn to each other. She also knew that not all of them were granted the luxury of knowing they had powers so she had to act normal as though she was an ordinary girl.

She entered the front doors of the huge school and immediately scanned for the artras. She picked up on four of them. 'They are supposed to be five but I guess four will do for now. She walked in their direction and soon she saw a large group of students who all appeared to be freshmen. 'I guess the whole class is here. I better get to them before the teacher starts orientation.'

She finally stumbled upon a group of three boys who were deeply immersed in a conversation. These three were among the artras. 'Wait, where is the fourth? Oh well.'

"So to sum it all up we have to stay clear of the Purgers at all costs,' one of them with blonde hair said when she was in hearing range.

"Uh hi," Ciara said making her presence known. They turned to her so she was able to get a better read on their auras. None of the three was the Siege whose aura was supposed to be menacing yet calm according to her father's description. "My name is Ciara."

"You're new here, aren't you?" the black-haired one said with a hint of coolness in his voice. "The name's Jacob by the way," he said offering her his hand which she took. "The blonde there is Kendall and this here is Isaac."

Isaac had black hair as well which probably explains why his hair colour wasn't hinted at.

"You could have met the other guy Kevin. He's more a special case compared to us," Jacob added with a smirk on his face.

"Hey," Kendall said elbowing him in the stomach, "Ignore him. He's jealous of Kevin because he is the spitting image of what he wants to be."

"Oh, and why is that?" Ciara asked.

"Oh, just because he's smarter than him, plays sports when Jacob is trying to get smarter and failing. He's selfless too and never once has he ever boasted about his abilities," Kendall explained.

"Oh. Then why isn't he here," she asked and watched them all go silent and look away from her.

"Well, no one's perfect. He tends to get into these bad moods of his. They are quite depressing. It's like he makes everything around him sad. During these episodes he keeps to himself," Isaac said while staring at the ground like something there was of more interest. "So you may not get to meet him today I'm afraid."

END OF FLASHBACK...

'Why did that have to come back to me now? I already knew that he was impulsive, but when he blew me off that day. I just don't know what came over me. He was having an effect on me that I didn't like and that made it even more difficult. So I had decided to shut him out and when he finally became jolly again I didn't have it in me to become jolly too. It was driving me insane. How could one person affect everyone around him by just his mood,' Ciara kept thinking.

The artras neared the end of their journey and wound up in Zaraias' cave immediately spotting the floating body of their unconscious comrade and the phoenix tending to it in the middle of a pond at the centre of the cave.

...

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