Chapter 5: The Orientation
"Wake up Kante" Lightning yelled at Kante who seemed to have slept like a dead man with no intent of ever getting up. Kante shrieked and fell from the bed at the sound of Lightning's voice. He was startled by her yelling because he believed he was alone and was certain he had locked the door properly.
"How did you get in here?" Kante asked Lightning, who was now heading for the door.
Lightning looked at him bluntly and said : "I've infiltrated places a hundred times more secure than your room. Get up and get ready, I'll be back in fifteen minutes"
"Get ready for what?" Kante asked, but Lightning paid no attention and walked out of the room. Kante took his bath, had his mouth wash, got dressed and sat idly on the couch,waiting for Lightning to return. He hummed a tune as he waited, his eyes peering across the room. His eyes met with a few paintings on the wall and moved on until another pair of eyes stared right back at him.
"Blimey!" He screamed in shock. "How did I not hear you come in?" He asked Lightning who had walked in on him, stealthily.
"I didn't just get this name, Lightning, you know, it comes with reputation. This can't be compared to what I've done to earn that reputation" Lightning replied. "I see you're all set, so we'll begin right away" she added.
"Begin what?" Kante asked.
"Your orientation" Lightning replied, "I told you you'll be schooled today didn't I?"
"Oh right, I got dressed, thinking we were going somewhere" Kante said, a little disappointment in his eyes. Lightning giggled a little bit to Kante's words. Kante caught the expression on her face and was lost in admiration. Her smile seemed to have mesmerized him; it was the first time he saw her smile. It was really one of the few times she actually smiled. Lightning was very beautiful, that much was obvious to Kante. She was a light-skinned beauty. Her skin glowed as though it were a colleague with the sun. It was as attractive as ripe mangoes, freshly plucked; you'd almost want to lick her. Her hair was as thick as sheep's wool, and cascaded down to her forehead. She had sky blue eyes and her heart shaped lips were blossom soft. She had a shapely figure which was revealed by her tight fitted uniform which she often wore. She was the kind of lady who wouldn't get rest from the sexual advances from the opposite sex. That would have been her case too had she been more approachable. She had a grumpy personality and almost never wore a smile. She always used a harsh tone with her brittle voice. These added with the fact that she's almost always in uniform, except when she's off-duty or when she's on a covert operation, kept the males at bay.
"Hey, snap out of it!" Lightning said in a high tone, when she noticed Kante had been immobile, just staring at her, as though he was in a trance. "It's not the first time you're seeing a pretty lady, is it? Or are there no beautiful women on earth?" She added.
"No I wasn't… of course there are pretty women on earth" Kante stuttered causing Lightning to smile again. "You know you could really smile more often it looks best on you" he added.
"Enough of the chit-chat now, let's get over to business" Lightning said trying not to be friendly or nice. She brought out some equipment from a box and arranged them on the table. There was a projector which was quite different from the ones Kante had seen, pen drives, cables and wires. She made sure everything was properly set up and tested the projector. When she was done with the set up she proceeded to begin Kante's orientation. She was going to teach him everything he needed to know about the mirror world.
"First off, you should know this world, aside from the UIA facilities, is very different from earth. This world is divided into five sectors, what you call continents on earth, namely: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Theta and Omega, all governed by The Sovereign council, a coalition of one member each, of the top-brass of all creach sorts, with a Leader called The Sovereign Lord. Each sector is predominated by different kinds of creaches. You're currently in the sector called: Theta, predominated by the Goblins and Gnomes. Theta is made up of ten provinces, five belonging to goblins and five to gnomes. This doesn't suggest a segregation among creaches at all" she said convincingly as though she knew the thought crossed his mind. "All creaches coexist peacefully though there might be some minor conflicts at times'' she added.
"We are currently in Movo, a town in Asley's bay, the most prosperous city in the province, Airegin. It is predominated by gnomes but plays host to many other creaches. She continued, giving descriptions of the creaches and where they reside. She described Gnomes as dwarf creatures which do not grow taller than 4 feets.
"Most don't even get to that height like the staff you saw in the hotel. Do not joke about their height with them, in fact do not mention it at all for they are known to be temperamental and aggressive at times" she said with a stern look on her face that informed Kante of the seriousness of the statement.
"Gnomes are quite secretive and like to live on mountains and hills or in caves and burrows or underground; you may not notice some of their houses because they like it hidden. They are known to be the smartest creatures in the world and the greatest builders." Lightning kept talking while Kante listened patiently, taking notes and asking a few questions from time to time, to which Lightning gave answers.
"Besides Asley's bay, there are a handful of other cities in Airegin, the prominent ones being Sogal and Ajuba where the best school and largest library in all of the mirror world where situated respectively" Lightning projected the images of the school, some sections of the library, gnomes and others, then the picture of a green creature came up and Kante asked: "Is that a goblin?"
"Yes, indeed, the only creaches with green coloured skin, though wood fairies sometimes appear green too. Look out for these ones, they are very crafty and cunning and are oftentimes, up to no good. I personally dislike them and I'm sure other creaches share the same sentiments. They have caused more conflict over the years than any other creaches. Their words are like poison coated with sugar and are soothing to the hearing but with disastrous outcome. They are really greedy and would do anything to swindle you off your gold" Lightning replied, the look on her face giving the impression that she was absolutely disgusted by the goblins.
"They dominate the provinces to the east and south of Theta, but believe me there's no place in this world where you won't find goblins except maybe the land of the fae," she continued. "Well that's Theta. On to the other sectors now. Gamma is the closest sector to Theta. To get there you will need to travel by ship. You can board a ship from the docks in any of the cities in the provinces of Theta. You'll find one in Eganoy, the next town in Asley's bay".
Kante continued writing, scribbling so fast, as though he didn't want to miss any word; at this point his pen would probably be screaming for help if it could speak. Lightning went on about the provinces, cities and towns in Gamma and the creaches that inhabit the land. Kante's eyes widened in awe when he saw the projected image of the Centaur, the fearsome halfling of man and horse. It was just as Kante had imagined a centaur will be. It had the muscular body of a man, with the abdomen, legs and ears of a horse. Similarly the faun, the other creach which dominated the provinces in Gamma, also had a man's body but with abdomen, legs and ears of a goat and horns on its head. Lightning went on for a while and only took a break when the hotel staff brought up lunch to Kante's room. Kante was surprised when he saw the food prepared for him. It was the same kind of food he ate while on earth.
"I didn't know you guys ate earth's food here, last night I ate something called… can't remember what it's called, but it looked weird though it tasted great, gnome food I guess" Kante said.
"Of course we eat man's food here, we were once on earth too remember? And yes, everything here tastes great" Lightning said as she munched down a spoon of rice and a bite of the chicken from the chicken casserole served.
"Verdillac, huh. You must be lucky not to be a vampire, for you wouldn't have been able to enjoy this" Kante said.
"Haha, vampires can eat food too but it doesn't affect their blood cravings though" Lightning replied. They finished their meal, rested a little and Lightning opted to continue the lesson. Kante cursed under his breath, lamenting and asking why it couldn't be left for another day because they've been at it for hours and he was tired. Lightning promised to rush through the rest of the orientation adding that it must be done today. Kante reluctantly agreed, not that he had any choice in the matter though. Lightning proceeded to talk about Alpha, the largest Sector and location of the UIA Headquarters. She smirked as she spoke of it and called it home. It was dominated by vampires, verdillacs, werewolves and Hybrids but also played host to a large number of every other kind of creach or magical in the world. Kante was curious to know more about these creaches so he asked Lightning to say more about them. Lightning was excited and proceeded to speak about her species, the Verdillac. She told Kante that Verdillacs were the products of a union between a Human and a Vampire, especially a male human and female vampire. She told Kante the difference between the two species. She then talked about the Hybrids, the product of the union of a vampire and a werewolf, probably the most powerful creach there is.
"Like verdillacs and vampires, hybrids look just like humans, although hybrids look more like humans compared to vampires; they are devoid of any of what the humans called unnatural looks. Unlike a werewolf which can transform into a full wolf only when there's a full moon, a hybrid can transform into wolfman and full wolf at will and they still possess the abilities of a vampire. It is said that one bite of a hybrid could kill a vampire or werewolf" she said as she filled a glass with coffee from the coffee machine in the room. She talked a bit about an unending animosity between the vampires and werewolves, saying it's the reason why there are only a few hybrids in the world. She said the UIA was to be thanked for the peace in the provinces of Alpha, without the UIA the werewolves and vampires would have ripped the sector apart. "Verdillacs prefer to avoid conflict though we are seen as vampires by some werewolves and are victims of hate too" she said as she drank her coffee, sipping and slurping. She spoke a little bit more on alpha before moving on to Beta; the land of the fae, as she called it.
"The Fae are creaches who have an arcane connection to nature. There are three faekinds: The Elves; unwinged fae, The Fairies; winged fae, and The Merkind or Merfolk; aquatic fae, and they all lived in Beta. Beta is divided into 3 lands: The Elven kingdoms; land of the elves, Fairytopia; land of the fairies and Oceania; world of the merfolk" Lightning said.
"Elves and fairies look alot like mankind, but there are a few notable differences. Elves have long pointy noses and leaf shaped ears, that makes their hearing more sensitive. They have just four fingers and toes on each palm and feet. Their hair is fine and long, flowing down to the armpit level, running in hues from silver-white to black or blue. They are slender, graceful yet strong. Elves possess extraordinary abilities, superhuman agility, keener senses and intellect and are resistant to diseases" she continued, "There are three elven races: The shadow elves; blue skinned elves whose abilities are connected to the moon's energy, the silver elves; light skinned elves with silver, white and blonde hair color, connected to the sun's primal energy, and the forest elves; brown skinned elves with earth based abilities" Kante repeated the names in an undertone as he wrote them down.
"Fairies are also called skyfolk and are literally elves with wings, if you ask me, though their noses aren't long and their appearance differs from race to race. There are also three races in fairytopia: The starlight fairies; pale and blue skinned fairies that usually sleep through the day, with butterfly-like wings and the ability to sense other fae, the wood fairies; fairies with a partial reptilian skin and wings made of tree branches and leafs, with the ability to change their skin colour for camouflage or to show emotions, and the winter fairies; silver-white fairies who live in the frozen mountains in Fairytopia and have the ability to manipulate ice" Lightning said.
Kante almost got a headache from trying to assimilate the names of the different fae races. He was complaining in his mind not knowing there was more to come. He almost screamed when Lightning mentioned that the Merkind had 4 tribes.
"The Merfolk or Merkind are the last kind of fae. Their males are called Mermen while females are Mermaid. They are man-fish humanoids who live in Oceania; The Merworld, under the sea. The Beta sea was the largest in all of the mirror world, it's as large as the Pacific ocean on earth and in are the 4 kingdoms of Oceania: Atlantis, Tritonix, Mermaidia and Aquarius. Atlantis was the kingdom of The atlanteans: an amphibious tribe of merfolk, that look like humans that breathe underwater, the only differences being the gill openings below their cheeks and their webbed feet and palms. Tritonix was home to a tribe of only mermen, the Tritons; followers of the demigod Triton, son of the god of the sea, Poseidon. They are also amphibious (can live both on land and water) and have blue, scaly skin and a dorsal fin that stretches from their head to their lower back. Their ears looked like fins, they had pectoral fins at the elbow and they had webbed feet and palms that were long and sharp. Their mouth is shaped like those of a fish and they had the dentition of a monster fish as you can see in the image" Lightning pointed to the picture projected.
"Mermaidia was the kingdom of the Sirens, a tribe of mermaids that have features similar to those of the tritons. Unlike tritons however, Sirens do not have a dorsal fin but a fin that replaces their hair, moving from one top of the neck, over the head to the other top point on the neck, looking like a tiara in a parabola shape. They are blue skinned but are not scaly like the tritons. They could look like the female version of tritons but they do not have legs but rather possess a fish-like tail, covered in glistening scales of electric-blue. Their mouths are like those of humans but like tritons they possess the dentition of a monster fish. They are known to have a powerful enchanting and hypnotizing singing voice. Mermaidia is believed to be a sacred city, as it is where the temple of Amphitrite, the goddess of the sea, wife of Poseidon and mother of Triton" she said as she pushed a button on the controller to switch to the next image.
"Aquarius is home to the Aquarions; merfolks with the upper body of a human and a scaly fish-like tail that glistened in shades of silver, blue, and brilliant green. They looked like the demigod Triton who also had the upper body of a man and tail of a fish, but were led by Aqua, a giant Merman who looked like the Tritons'' she looked at Kante who looked surprised at what she just said and raised her hands as if to say "I don't know" and went on talking. "Merfolks are powerful fae and have different abilities ranging from common ones like aquakinesis, agelessness, aqua-respiration, speed swimming, tracking evasion, to tribe and gender specific abilities like echolocation, enhanced strength, land crawl, sonokinesis, sonic scream to rare abilities like cryokinesis, sea life mimicry, bioluminescence, aqua-teleportation, to extremely rare abilities like shape shifting, enhanced senses, atmokinesis, haemokinesis and others, which differ from merfolk to merfolk'' she said, wrapping up on Beta and moving on to Omega, the last sector.
"Omega is divided into two regions: the north and south regions. It is also called the land of the magicals. Magicals are of two main groups: The Wizards and the Mages, though there are other kinds within these groups. Wizards for instance could be psionic, enchanters, charm-casters, seers, healers or could be of the dark arts like warlocks, sorcerers, necromancers, conjurors and the likes. Wizards and mages are basically humans born with the ability to do magic. Wizards use magical artifacts and objects like wands, staffs, chakrams, rings or grimoires, to perform their magic though some can do free magic, without any object. Wizards study magic in order to get more powerful, the more knowledge they get, the more magic they know how to do. Mages, on the other hand, practice elemental magic, drawing their power from one of the four elements: water, fire, earth and air. Unlike wizards they do not need artifacts to perform magic, though it can enhance their power, and they do not need to study to know how to do magic, for their skill is inherent and only gets better with focus, practice and experience. Warlocks and sorcerers are powerful rogue magicals who practice the forbidden dark arts'' Lightning said, adding that no one knows exactly where the warlocks or sorcerers hide.
"So what's the difference between a warlock and a sorcerer?" Kante asked.
"Well, a sorcerer is either a wizard or mage who uses the dark arts to do unparalleled dark magic but warlocks aren't originally magicals, they weren't born with the ability to do magic but found an uncanny way to do it. Their magic doesn't come from any of the known sources. There's probably more to it but that's all I know for now" Lightning replied.
"I believe we're done right? We've covered all five sectors and I'll leave my questions for tomorrow cause it's getting dark already" Kante said. Lightning was just realizing that they've been at the orientation for so long. "Oh right, I didn't realize how long it's been, we still need to talk about the magical beasts and where to find them though" she said.
"Oh I'm sure we can treat that along with my questions tomorrow" Kante said, yawning and stretching his body and his fingers which had almost gotten stiff from writing. Lightning tried to stress the importance of learning about the magical beasts but Kante ignored all she said, walked to the music player in his room and turned the music on, raising the volume so he wouldn't hear her speak anymore. He could faintly hear her scream "Hey, I'll be leaving then" and he rushed to stop her from leaving. He held her back and asked her to stay a little longer and keep him company. She refused and was about to leave when he said: "weren't you asked to watch over me and take care of me? You wouldn't be doing that by leaving". Lightning sighed and said: "I wasn't asked to do that but I'll just stay a little anyways". "Great, dance with me" Kante said, taking her hand and pulling her towards him. She couldn't refuse, for Kante wouldn't even give her the chance. They danced to the Jazz music playing, laughing, jumping and goofing around. Lightning couldn't believe she was doing these things. It's been so long she did anything that could be described as "having fun" but something about Kante made her give in and she felt so free. They danced till dinner was served, then they ate and Kante brought out alcoholic drinks, pouring a cup for himself and Lightning. Lightning initially refused the offer but found herself gulping down shots when Kante insisted. They talked, drank and laughed while soft music played in low tones in the background till they eventually fell asleep.
In the dead of the night, Kante was awoken by a strange noise. He got up to go check what the noise was. He walked right past Lightning who was fast asleep and moved to the window. He saw a bright light shining in the garden around the hotel. He went down the stairs silently tiptoeing so as not to wake anyone. He went out of the hotel and walked toward the bright light. Lightning got into a frenzy when she woke up and couldn't find Kante. She looked out the window and saw Kante walking towards the light. She ran down as swift as the wind to stop him. In a flash she was bursting the exit door of the hotel but stopped by something that felt like hitting an invisible wall. The force of impact due to her speed made her fall with a loud thud. Kante heard her fall and turned around to run towards her but two men in black appeared from the bushes and restrained him. Lightning tried to get up but couldn't cause her head hurt a lot and she felt dizzy, all she could do was watch as the men tried to drag Kante away. Kante struggled to free himself from the men's grasp and he let out a loud cry. As he screamed there was a burst of wave from his body that sent the men rolling in the air and falling with a terrible thud at a good distance. Lightning was dumbfounded, she couldn't believe what she just saw. Kante wasn't sure how to react and was almost freaking out when the bright light came up to him. He looked at it and saw a floating parchment, glowing as bright as the stars. He knew better than to touch but found himself drawn to it strangely. He reached out his hands to hold it and Lightning screamed: "No!" in a very loud voice but it was too late. Kante touched it and immediately disapparated along with the two attackers leaving Lightning lying deadbeat on the floor with her thoughts running like a tap and a heavy downpour began.