4 It's Real!!!

Amar realized that there were 5 more people with Nio in their group. He was walking side by side with Julie with Nio in the front guiding them and the rest of the 5 hooded people surrounding them both in a tight formation.

"Where do you think they are taking us?" he quietly inquired with Julie who seemed to be walking in a daze.

Looking at him, she replied, "I don't know. Probably their base or something like that."

Her answer did nothing to ease the feeling of dread that he had since meeting the group, still if they could go back to their home then it would be worth the trouble.

Just then, Nio ordered, "Stop! You two youngsters, stay where you are and do not try to move lest the terrible consequence that befalls you."

His serious voice stopped them dead on the track. Looking towards the rest of the group, he saw that all of them were standing still, not moving an inch. While everyone froze still, Nio removed something that looked like a scroll from inside his cloak and showed it in front of him, as if there was someone standing ahead of him, checking it.

A moment later, Nio shouted, "Let go!" Quickly everyone moved with Nio.

As Amar moved a couple of steps ahead, he felt something brush against him, as if there was an invisible curtain in the air and he was parting it. It felt really weird to him and glancing at Julie's face told him that it wasn't just his imagination and she had felt something too.

Few minutes later, they exited the forest and came across a clearing. Looming ahead of them was a huge walled castle.

"Whoa!"

"Whoa!"

They both exclaimed and looked at each other. Amar could see that Julie had some burning questions regarding their location as well as about the castle. But before they could ask, Nio stopped and turned around to face them.

"I know you have some important questions regarding the castle and everything that's happening here. The castle is a bit far away but we have an office building near so that's where your questions will be answered."

Saying this he turned again and started his walk again.

Amar and the group arrived at the front of the office building shortly. It was a 4 story building that looked quite old. Outside, there was a board hanging in the front saying "Magic Recruitment Center" which felt a bit weird to Amar.

The group went inside the ground floor which was an office space with cubicles and regular office stuff. However, no one was present inside the building and the lights were still on. Nio led them to what looked like a meeting room with a circular table, chairs, a projector, and a screen.

Nio motioned Amar and Julie to sit while the rest of the group exited the room after nodding to Nio.

"Now that we have arrived here, I will answer some of your questions."

Amar looked at Julie who was sitting in the chair next to him. She encouraged him to first explain what happened to them and how they got on the island. Taking a deep breath, he explained what happened to Nio. From the flight to the plane crash, Amar explained while Julie interjected regularly to fill her part of the story. Nio kept listening seriously without giving any remarks. Soon, Amar and Julie finished their side of the story and looked at Nio expectantly.

"Sigh. I thought as much when you mentioned about plane crash and survivors. Hearing from you both made it much clearer what had happened."

He stopped for a moment, thinking deeply before continuing, "I better show you first before explaining some things. You will understand things much easier."

His words made Amar feel a bit uneasy though without knowing why.

Suddenly, a ball of fire appeared out of nowhere in Nio's hand. The ball of fire was a bit bigger than a baseball, eliciting a surprised reaction from both of them.

"What the fuck!" Amar exclaimed.

Julie's reaction was pretty much the same as Amar. She first thought this was some sort of trick, maybe a prank but as she looked carefully, she saw that the ball of fire was actually floating a few centimeters away from Nio's open palm.

"I know you are very surprised with this and your mind probably is making all sorts of explanations about what is happening. Let me tell you the truth. Magic is real and I'm using it to generate this fireball."

Just as Nio finished saying this, he closed his palm and the fireball extinguished without leaving a trace.

"Cool!" getting a bit excited she said.

"Yeah, it's very cool. Later on, I don't think many will find it as cool as they did in the beginning though," Nio replied dryly.

Amar who was silently listening to the talks added, "While knowing that magic is real is really great. I still don't understand how we survived, where we are, and what is this place?"

Julie too wanted to know the answers but the fireball had distracted her thoughts and she momentarily forgot about those questions.

(Although finding out that magic is real is freaking exciting. What Amar asked is also very important to know about. I shouldn't forget about that.)

"I am getting to those parts. You youngsters really are impatient. You both seem to have the potential to use magic. Every human being has an internal source of energy but only some humans have enough of it to harness it into magic. It appears you both survived the crash thanks to your internal energy. We call that internal energy 'vim vitae' or as most mages like to say V2. It manifested due to the life-threatening event that happened to both of you and protected you from danger. You are really lucky because you happened to arrive on this island as this is one of the recruitment and training centers for mages. So, we caught a disturbance in the magic field that surrounds this island and I and the rest of my team were sent to check out and thus, we found you both. And you both really had more than average V2 seen in a mage. So, I decided to bring you both here to recruit."

Julie saw that Amar was digesting the things that Nio had just said. Being an actress plus a geek in her teens helped her take all this information much easier than Amar. Still, she didn't expect to get a recruitment offer for a mage society.

Gathering her voice, she said, "So we can learn magic here?"

"Of course if that's what you want. If not, then we will erase what happened here from your memory and send you to the US."

(So at least both options are pretty good and it doesn't sound too bad learning magic.)

While thinking, Amar closed the distance and came near her, jabbing her arm and asking, "What do you think? Should we take his offer? I personally am very interested to learn about magic. What do you think?"

She too wanted to learn about magic, so she agreed with him.

Finally, Julie answered, "Okay. We both agree to join you and learn magic."

Nio gave them a big smile and with over-enthusiasm joked, "Congratulations. You are a wiz-," a knock on the door interrupted him.