Chapter Three

From what I could tell almost all the first year students were there. Someone walked up and said "good afternoon I am Coach Nelson. Before we start I will give you a basic overview of what this sport is. It is a 15-a-side team sport. The object of the game is to ground the ball behind the opponent's try line, into what is called the in-goal area. Rugby is played both with the ball in hand and by kicking the ball. However, when the ball is being carried in hand it can only be thrown or handed off backwards. You are allowed to move the ball forwards by kicking it. You are also allowed to use any type of magic."

Someone raised their hand and asked " What do we do if we kill someone?"

With a kind of sadistic look on his face Coach Nelson said " Oh you don't have to worry about that. The school has a way to prevent death. You can seriously hurt someone but you can't kill them."

The tryout was brutal. There was a lot of running and dodging. About half of the students dropped out by the end of it. It was very late when I got back to the dorm. I tried to be quiet when I entered my room. Rachal was tossing and turning in her bed and she was whimpering. I tried to ignore her while i layed down to sleep but I could not. Everything that had happened over the past couple of weeks played in my head. Eventually I Gave up on trying to sleep and decided to practice some more magic. A soft light started to admit from my hand. A pain started to form in my chest. Rachal grabbed my hand and asked " What are you doing?"

I lost it and I became a crying mess. " w-w-was that light magic?" she stuttered

I pulled my hand away. Tears started to fall " please don't tell anyone."

She stared at me with her eyes wide open. How was all she asked.

" Something went wrong during my ceremony and I have managed to get two powers. You are the only one that knows about it."

She sat there and did not say anything. I started at my hands while tears streamed down my face. She said "I won't tell anyone but I want you to stay away from me."

After everyone had sat down, Mrs. Brook said " today is going to be a short lesson since most of you have a combat class after this. Today I am just going to explain what magic is. The gods bless us with magic. They give us the ability to use magic. Magic is the use of the natural energy that is inside of us. We use it to do the things that we need. We shape it to our will. We use our words and our intentions to do manything. Each god has their own set of powers. As you grow and learn more about yourself you will learn more about what you can do. You have to be careful. If you use too much of your energy your body will suffer. You can build up your energy by working on yourself."

She dismissed us and we headed to the training ground.Our teacher stood before us and said " I am Mr. Roberts I will be teaching you how to fight . I will not be going easy on you. For today's lesson it will be a classroom lesson but after today we will be meeting on the training field bright and early at seven in the morning."

We followed him to the classroom. He pulled up a power point and started to talk. He said that hand to hand combat is a physical confrontation between two people without any weapons. He went over all the different types of weapon fighting that he teaches. He told us that if there was one that we would like to learn then he would do one on one training. The spears interested me the most. It was several hours of him just talking. He would not answer any questions that people had. After class I walked up to him and asked if I could do the spear training. He handed me a form to fill out and return to him. By the time I got back to the dorm it was late at night. When I walked in Rachal said " there is an envelope on the desk for you. One of the upper class men dropped it off."

 It was my acceptance letter from the rugby team. That rounded out my routine. I would wake up early in the morning for my special combat training. Then I would go to my normal classes. At the end of the day I would practice late into the night. Through the night I would have nightmares about my mom and being accepted by the other gods. That is until one day during magic 101. We were working on our control. She was having us do what we did in our very first lesson. I was focusing on trying to get a better understanding of my darkside. It felt thicker like oil. It also was trying to over take my light side. When I tried to move the energy through my body it caused tremendous pain. I was going to ask the teacher about it but she was busy helping another student. I figured that I was just having a bad day so I pushed past it. It formed a ball in my hand. Little tendrils of darkness formed moving out like they were looking for something. One of them found my hand. It was like Styrofoam to clothing. Every single one of the little arms shot towards my hand. Everything started to fade as the black mass covered my hand. I heard someone say " Mr. Grimm, what are you doing here?"

Everything went dark and quiet. When I opened my eyes it was blurry. " Ahh miss Lightwood you are finally awake."

" Where am I?" I asked groggily.

" You are in my private room behind the library."

Mr. Grimm's face came into focus. " What happened to me?" 

" From what I saw, Your dark magic was reacting to all the other dark magic that was around you and tried to take you over. If I had not stepped in I believe that you would have become chosen by Erebus."

" Can that even happen?"

" When Erebus first took over there were still followers of Rahu. When the chosens ones of followers of Erebus spent too much time around the ones with Rahu's magic their magic would become like his. That is why Erebus and the others eventually put Rahu to sleep."

" what? They put him to sleep?"

" Let me tell you the whole story. As you now know Rahu was the god of darkness long ago. One day Erebus got with Inti and some of the other gods. He gave them all sorts of promises about more freedom."

" Inti said something like that. What did he mean to give them more freedom?" I interrupted

" The god of darkness is the peacekeeper. They are the ones that lie in the shadows keeping tabs on the other gods and goddesses. For the most part darkness and light were equal. They kept each other in check. As you have seen in your lifetime, if the other is not kept in check then war and other things will happen. We have been lucky that only a war has started."

" What do you mean we were lucky?"

He ignored my question and continued on " the other gods agreed that Rahu should be replaced. Since a god can only be killed a certain way they demoted Rahu from a top god to a minor god. He was still able to bless people but with not as much power."

" I am sorry to interrupt so much but you are saying that their are minor gods that can bless people"

He chuckled and said " I do not mind the interruptions, it means you are listening and learning. But yes there are other gods. They hardly ever bless anyones and they don't have any followers but at the time that Rahu got demoted he was still well known and had many followers so they kept asking him to bless them and so he did."

" And that made Erebus mad right?" I asked

" Yes it did. So Erebus found a way to put Rahu asleep. And from what I have been told when Erebus started his war Inti went and found a way to wake Rahu up."

" So all of this to say since I am around the ones chosen by Erebus my dark magic is trying to be more like them? And in turn is trying to destroy my light side. Is there any way that I can stop it?"

" I can give you some training but for the most part you are on your own. It is a battle of your will. You have to decide if you're going to let the dark take over you or if you are going to let the light win."

" What happens if I choose just the light?"

" I honestly don't know. You are the first child of the prophecy."

" You have got to be kidding me." I said " First I am thrown in a way as a spy and your saying I am a part of some prophecy crap?"

Magnus had a sad look on his face. " Unfortunately, yes. For now do not let that bother you. Focus on controlling your power."

With a heavy sigh I said " What is the first step I need to do?"

" go to your room and rest. I have informed your teachers that you have the next two days off."

" What about practice? I have a game in two days."

" Just worry about resting for now. You will be fine to play in the game."

I tried to actually get some rest while I was off but with everything that had happened and with my nightmares it was not useful. I was like a zombie the day of my first game.It was very nerve racking we were up against the Lionon dorm.. We huddled up and our coach said " Give them hell. There is a barrier up to prevent death so use your powers as much as you want. I want those light users to suffer."

Everyone on my team cheered. And soon the game started. The lions were pretty good. They used their magic to keep themselves healed. They also blinded us as we played. I thought only our team would play this rough but then again when you are up against the ones that have been killing your kind and have actively called for war you would not go nice on them either.

 By the end of it most of our team had some type of broken bone. It was the last play of the match. I stood face to face with the lionon's team captain. He smirked and said " Look at your team now. I bet you thought that you were going to win this. That we would not retaliate for all that you have done right?"

" Actually" I said " I knew something like this would happen eventually. I just did not think that you would be worse than the followers of Erebus."

I knew that I was adding fuel to the fire but with how smug that guy was I could not help it. As soon as the whistle blew The air was knocked out of me as the captain tackled me to the ground. He twisted my arm above my head and shoved a white light into my eyes. " Take what you said back. We are not worse than you scum" he screamed in my ear. "

I felt something come over me. I looked right into the light he was shoving in my face tryon to burn me and said " And yet here you are trying to burn someone. I get that you hate dark users but you allow yourself to be just as bad as they are. If you want people to know that you're not like us then start acting like it."

I used my other hand and grabbed the burning ball of light, using my darkness I snuffed it out. I heard the whistle blow as soon as the captain of the other team started to pound on my face. It hurt like hell but I couldn't help but laugh. Here was the captain of the light team, the good guys and he was beating up an already defeated enemy. I felt him being pulled away but my eyes were almost swollen shut. Someone helped me up and led me somewhere. There was a gentle light and I was able to see better. After the game Rachal came to check on me. " How are you feeling?" She asked

" Tired and hungry."

" Is there any way we could talk?" She asked

" How about lunch?" I suggested " It takes me a lot out of me when I get healed so a nice hot meal will go a long way "

She said " Alright. I will wait for you outside."

After being healed we walked to the food district. "I want to talk about what happened in the dorm that night. I want to know how you have the power of both."

" There is a lot to the answer." I replied " I can tell you what happened but I don't think that you will believe me but. If you want I will explain it to you."

We chose a nice little cafe that hardly had anyone in it. She went straight to the back of the room. With a stern look on her face she said " Tell me everything."

I told her that Mr. Grimm was the school founder and he had told me that my darkness was trying to take over my light and that there was some type of prophecy about me.She sat and listened without asking questions. The only time I stopped talking was to order our food. By the time our food came out I had finished the whole story. We ate in silence. I was scared that she would think I was crazy. After telling her everything I realized that I wanted a friend to be able to talk to her about anything, maybe just maybe someone will be able to understand what I am going through.After finishing her food she sighed and said " So pretty much you have a mini fight going on inside of you. You are trying to fight between two personalities and things are just being thrown at you left and right."

" That is pretty much it. Honestly all I wanted to be was a light user like my mom. But seeing how she abandoned me without a second thought just makes me mad. And then with what happened in the game I am just very confused."

" I get that. I will be honest, I am scared to be chosen by Erebus. He has asked me to do something and I don't know if I can. None of the others in our dorm were given a task nor does any of them want to help me. They are here to destroy the lionon dorm."

" As I have already told you I am pretty messed up. Perhaps I can help you if you tell me what it is."

She sat and thought about it for several minutes and then said " I am not ready to tell you just yet. I want to see if I can trust you. I don't want your light side to win and you go and tattle on me."

" I completely understand. On a less serious subject do you want to go and do some shopping?"