Monday 9th September 2019

8:30 Monday

After a very quick breakfast, where I ate so fast I was both choking and crying and trying to dress. I had no shame today, Jillian watched me rush around my room in many states of panic and undress without batting an eye; as I screamed at him. The present from Bluster sat on my table, I had decided I would unwrap it during my 'private time' tonight.

Right now I was late for World History.

I sprint, trying to watch a Youtube tutorial on how to tie a Windsor knot at the same time as avoiding people and tripping over my legs. By the time I had reached the lifts barely a minute had gone by, grateful for my new abilities I collapse in a panting mess in the lift. I had realised that a lot of what I did was a very learned behaviour, I wasn't actually out of breath, just the movements of doing so many things so fast seemed to trigger something in me, that made me have human response to it afterwards.

I glower at the lift attendant not bothering to hide my displeasure, I couldn't tell what creature it was, nor did I care. I even went as far as to stick my tongue out and give him the finger. I couldn't believe I was experiencing Monday for the second time.

"Where to." Said the Mythical creature, he was so short that he reached my knees. Was this a dwarf?

"I don't know. But I have a world history class." I mumbled at him.

He tells me to get on another lift, as the one I was occupying was only taking the spies and professionals. These lifts were not normally used by the juniors in training. We were relegated to a more crappy and unfair means of transport… our legs.

I groan. He said the lifts that were not managed by attendants could be used by the juniors only after 18:00. I pick him up by his beard and demand he at least tell me where I had to go. While I had been shaking him, his arm was revealed, enough for me to spot a Dark Rose mark. I stop shaking him. Only out of respect, as we were both in the same weird cult thing.

He smooths his beard and hair; he proceeds to tell me to go to W.H.S.B 508. Which was not in the main OSS building. I snarl at him, at this point I was beyond the acceptable ten minute late mark, so I decide to just amble to the building with my hand in my pocket.

I found myself looking at a neo-renaissance building, I look up and turn around. The OSS glass building had done its usual disappearing act, I scratch my head. Sighing I drag my self to the history section, I top eight door which was for World History. The lecture room was quite compact, so it meant when I walked in the Professor's silence and the other student's stare made me shift very uncomfortably. I stride to a place to sit as quick as I could without tripping over the narrow step. However, the Professor had other plans.

"Miss Abscond. And pray, why are you late? Never mind that. Stand outside, do not interrupt class. If you are late over five minutes do not bother coming next time." I turn around ready to unleash my Monday rage. Instead I was in awe of the creature standing in front of me.

Dressed in blinding white long silks, and a big gold pendant with an animal engraved. He wore only floating silk white trousers and a long white kimono. His chest was bare, his head supported heavy mighty ram horns, he had some more horns running down his arms and he had a set of beautiful hazel eyes. What was unnerving was the other six eyes that he had tattooed on his face. I bowed respectfully, mumbling an apologizing as I bolted out of the classroom.

When I stepped outside I found myself with Maya, she was Asian sitting on the ground pouting. She looks up at me and both of us grin. I hug her, happy to see she was alright.

"Professor Bai Zu kicked you out too hugh?!" She asks showing me the writing on the floor: Chettiar stay outside, do not disturb my class.

"Ah, so that's your surname I assume." She nods. "He's an interesting creature." Hoping she would elaborate. I was itching to learn more about the Mythical world. It just was more interesting than the human world I had once been part of.

"Oh yeah, Bai Zu is a legend. Literally. It was so hard to track him down. Apparently it was The Don who convinced him to work here. His pendant is his illusion holder, so that human form is permanent and he doesn't need to restock or recharge. He himself doesn't have enough magic for that unlike Warlocks or demons or the Lords. Even the Doctor at our home, he had enough magic to more or less transform. On the other hand Bai Zu is a creature of Wisdom, in that category only five creatures fit in that category: Bai Zu, Salmon of Wisdom, Baba Yaga, Sphinx and Griffin." I bet Rosealinde and the Lords fell in that category as well.

"So do we actually have to stand outside?" I ask smirking sideways at her. Maya looks up at me grinning wildly.

"Do you want to go to the hangout?" She stands up brushing herself down.

"Hangout… sounds better than waiting for this to end." As we walked I asked her more questions about Bai Zu.

"So what is he?"

"More an it really. He doesn't identify with anything. But he likes the male form. You'll notice not many wisdom creatures are female. Would have been hard to been taken seriously back in the day. Like Lord Emrys, he is male. Most of the Lords are probably male. But yeah, he knows everything, I think. If you have any questions just ask him. I know he has a particular importance in Japan. The Terraforme human world of Japan, were he is also considered a guardian healing spirit??? I'm not sure, maybe I should fact check that with him." She rolls her eyes.

Before we could make it too far Russo was suddenly striding towards us with furious intent. Maya and I didn't need to communicate, we legged it the opposite direction away from him. I could hear the sound of his bones breaking as he shifted, he transformed and I knew Maya couldn't outrun him, he was a werewolf and often werewolves were faster than Lamina Vampires. Also, he had bigger striders. Having zero loyalty to Maya, I outran both her and Russo with ease thanks to my Hybrid abilities. What I wasn't expecting was Jillian suddenly to appear and grab me, he kicked me in the knees. The very audible sounds of my knee caps breaking made me collapse, and scream in pain. Both him and Russo towered over me, Russo had dragged Maya over and he threw her to the ground. He first points aggressively at me:

"You are to go to every single one of your classes. You are to take every punishment. If you try to miss or skip classes again, I will talk to Father time, and you will be experiencing Monday on a loop if you do not get in your head that you are here to study. To perfect your skills. To be a spy. To be of use to your saviour The Don. Hence from now on I will activate the chip in your neck. When you leave or do something that deviates off your schedule without higher authority's consent you will be paralysed and in pain."

He rounds on Maya: "Rosealinde will hear about this." After that he storms off. I notice his secretary and some scrawny kid were waiting for him, they chased after him as he stormed off pulling his shirt back on.

Jillian escorts me back to my room. When there I sit forlornly on the bed swinging my legs.

"Why don't you open your present from Bluster. It sure seems exciting. It has been buzzing the whole time I was here." For someone who had only a few minutes ago been breaking my knee caps, the sudden 180 degree turn in character had me confused. Also… WHATTT???

"Do you just sit here the whole time?" I ask standing up. He looks at me with his violet eyes and head tilted to one side. He nods confirming his strange creepy personality.

"Why?" I demand flustered. What did he even do in here?

"I am not busy." He answers matter of factually.

"Well please get busy, acquire a hobby. Learn to knit or at least clean my room. Do something other than sit in the darkness."

"The darkness resonates better with my soul." I internally groan. Jillian was so different to Rosealinde, that I found their personalities to be too jarring whenever I thought about it for too long. It made my head hurt that for some reason both of them liked to make my life complicated.

"Open the thing please. Then you can proceed with your lessons at 10:00." I practically growl with annoyance before I drag myself to the cage. I kneel down and pull the sheet off. The egg was cracking down the middle, without any warning the whole thing burst into flames. I yelp in surprise and jump far back trying to avoid the fire as it burned the cage and singed the carpet, it continues to spread rapidly around the area of the cage.

Jillian at this point had recovered; quickly threw his hand in the general direction, immediately the fire settled down and started to only smolder before it completely stopped.

"It's official, Bluster wants to kill me." I murmur.

Chip, chip, cheep.

I stare intently as the ashes as a strange noise emanated from it. I slowly crawl towards it, drawn in. Then with blinding light and a gust of wind, ashes were scattered in my eyes and on Jillian's clothes. I was unable to enjoy him panicking about his attire and his girly screams. As I was busy choking myself. Then out of the ashes rose a beautiful bird.

A phoenix??

"Wonderous. A Bennu bird. I am envious of you." Mummers Jillian inching towards the bird. It stood like a crane, on one leg, it had wonderful orange eyes. Big feathers, a long beak that was hooded. Legs that were more golden than orange. And it had a pattern on one wing. It didn't look like the usual fabled phoenix birds I had heard about.

"Interesting. So what do I do with this?" I demand folding my arms. I was no fan of birds, even if they were magical. If anything I was envious of them, they were able to fly, something that I had wanted to do since I was very young. Fly away from all my problems, feel the wind on my skin. But I was trapped to walk everywhere, just like every other bipedal monkey. I growl, Rosealinde. Get the fuck out of my mind.

"That would not be Rosealinde. As you are the owner, or 'mother' to the bird it has connected with you mentally. It is your familiar. Rosealinde has gone to extremes to acquire you such an extinct animal… almost. Hmm.. maybe she made it?" Jillian stares at the animal with curiousity. I look at wondering why she had given me a bird.

"Name it." Says Jillian. I throw my hands up in the air annoyed. I barely had the ability and imagination to name myself. An animal though was so far out of my league, I grind my teeth together.

"Can I just call it Bennu?" I demand folding my arms over my chest.

"Its not like there are many out there, I doubt it will be too confused."

Jillian glared at me before looking at the bird.

"Ask the bird what it wants to be called, maybe it has some ideas." I roll my eyes irritated.

"Do you like the name Bennu?" I demand flatly and slowly. I was not expecting it to shake its head and smoke to come from the beak. It fixed its eyes on me.

"Name it quickly to 'tame it'. The only way to strengthen the bond between familiar and person is to name the animal quickly and that both are on the same page. Also just a quick side note, this means when it has decided that you can connect you will share the magic in its genes. It has control over its magic, this helps a lot with new or young magic users. This is why many witches or wizards' bond with animals. Having something like a Bennu bird that is magic in itself; it will give you a bit of extra magic, more control. Extra benefits will also be it can carry you everywhere, so you will be able to fly. It will make it harder for people to access your mind as he will be protecting your mental barriers. I really can talk about this topic for ages. Just go to class. And I will freeze time in your room so as to conserve your relationship, otherwise it will turn savage or wild. Either one is not good." I find my jaw hanging off its hinges as Jillian explained roughly and as quick as he could the base reasons as to why Rosealinde went to such lengths to get me this.

I didn't doubt Rosealinde had a good reason, I was complaining only for the sake of complaining. All in all it had been great, because it meant Jillian had told me something. Had I not complained he might have not said anything. Also this meant I got to witness someone freezing time.

"Leave." Jillian says firmly, he stretches and plants his feet firmly down.

"I have only learnt this rather recently, Rosealinde isn't too happy sharing these sorts of secrets. Also, I might freeze u in this time as well." I roll my eyes.

Pathetic, this is why Rosealinde rules and you suck so hard.

I quickly scamper off to first Ancient Language and then Shaolin Martial Arts, before my break. I was only excited for the second lesson. However, I was discovering very quickly that the teachers for all of the lessons were interesting people in themselves. I wished they just talked about themselves during the lesson, instead of Maya whispering about our Language teacher being a demon goddess that sucked blood and could transform into a cat. It all sounded creepy and fascinating; much better than her teaching us hieroglyphics. That made me question when I would ever be using it, other then the time Rosealinde had dragged me to the desert.

I bounced to Shaolin Martial Arts class bursting with excitement. Again magic out did itself. Somehow, after walking through the waterfall where Esmeralda's nonna lived and walking up so many stairs that had I been human I would have been suffering from an asthma attack, even though I didn't had asthma. The temple was floating above the flat ground, some islands were hovering in the sky. Our instructor stood there wearing appropriate attire. His orange robes made him shine amazingly. I noticed I was the first one up there, it hit me that maybe Rosealinde hadn't been punishing us by making Maya and I run up and down the steps. It made me ahead of my class, in a way.

We all bowed before he barked at the people who were late to go up and down again for the rest of the hour. He pulled me to one side and handed me my robes and flat black shoes. After that he made me fill up a well. I ran down the stairs to the waterfall, gathered water then back up and put it in the well. I was well aware this was a test of both patience and obedience. Having done this in my previous training with both Rosealinde and the human me. So as much as I wanted to throw the bucket at him and scream and wail, I just did the task. Admittingly annoyed with the world.

I had an hour break from 13:00 to 14:00. I had lunch that Jillian had given to me. Going to the café raea meant I would be too faraway from my next class: weapons training.

Russo was my weapons training instructor. And he didn't let me touch anything, he spent the hour showing me everything that the Spy company had at its disposal. From bubble-gum that could explode or track someone when stepped on, to pencils that when u drew a hole, they became black holes that sucked everything into them. He showed me some traditional things such as knives and guns, he also showed that guns had bullets that were glowing and on impact the went through the victim growing bigger and eating the flesh. Again it wasn't a boring lesson, even if I didn't touch anything.

Modern languages were a bore, Professor Steve Mclore was annoyingly boring. Also, Rosealinde had forced me to learn most of the 'modern languages'. I groan and palm my face rubbing my nose intensely.

Luckily, I had private training at 16:00 for an hour, so I took myself to the library to find more on Bennu birds. But there were no books mentioning it too much in detail.

"What are you looking for little one." I hear a soft voice say.

I turn around and jump to see Bai Zu standing behind me, his pale skin and white Hanfu clothing sweeping the floor. He had his two eyes close, as were his other six, they previously were open.

"Um…"

"I hear you asking yourself about your bird. You have a Bennu bird. Such fascinating creatures." He was silent before telling me "the name appropriate for such a being is Wbn. Ancient Egyptian for rise in brilliance or to shine."

I blink a few times. And because I had no reason to say no I nod stiffly trying to figure out what to do with him now that he was silent and staring expectantly at me.

"Do you know Rosealinde?" He asks bluntly. I immediately lie.

"I know of her; she's a super star isn't she." He was silent looking at me, I knew he knew I was lying. But he doesn't call me out on it he just shrugs.

"improve your lying skills child. You will need to lie better to people on that topic." I fold my arms and make my face as blank as possible. I wasn't going to say anything, I had a feeling it would make the situation worse.

He floated away…his feet didn't touch the ground. His long hair fluttered behind him, his horns shone a bit when the light caught certain areas. All in all he looked like he had come out of a Chinese drama.

"Wbn? Weeben?" I tried to figure out how to pronounce it. I spent ages mumbling to myself as I walk to my room. I walk in and was hit by a strange chill. The room was dark, utter black. There was no light source from the outside. All in all everything was frozen. When I blow air out, my breath came out in swirls. The Bennu bird's pupil wasn't moving but it didn't look dead. I picked up a book, it immediately drifted back to where I had picked it up from.

"Wbn?" I murmur quietly walking around the bird. Almost immediately the bird moved, it stretched its long neck, shaking its magnificent orange and red feathers on the top of its head. It looks at me with an intense stare.

I reach out and touch the long beak, it blew smoke on my hand warming me up. As I rested my hand there I felt something spreading, warmth was spreading through my chest. I suddenly felt my hands burning slowly, before they full on burst into flames. I yelp.

Screaming, I jump away from Wbn. I felt the room jerk, it was like when something stopped abruptly before starting again. It threw me off balance and I land on my bum looking at Wbn who was curiously peering down at me.

"Your mummy's dumb." I say smiling. I touch its beak again rubbing it. When sparks flew again between us, I stopped not wanting to start a fire in my room.

I did meditation with Wbn in my room, I did it on my bed. Wbn did it on its legs with eyes close. With our connection, I was able to focus on what it was focusing on. Wbn's mind was exploring space, seeing stars and planets. For the first time meditation was fun. I finished at 18:00.

From 18:00 till 20:00 I had Religion study and magic study.

During magic study I learnt I was an elemental, a primal elemental. I was told that I would be able to be a secondary and tertiary one, but they didn't have enough resources dedicated to one single student. I almost started to laugh. Rosealinde was probably going to fix that problem by tomorrow. But it essentially meant that I could only use fire if there was already a source nearby. And my source was Wbn. Secondary meant I was the source; I could draw it from myself and tertiary was I could take it from Gaia. Which was the most powerful option. An elemental was a magic being who drew from the elements.

Happy the day was over at 21:00 I drag myself back to my room where food was prepared for me by something, as well as some fruit which I tossed at Wbn. After looking through my homework and struggling to understand the English used in describing what they wanted me to do. This led me to give up. I dragged myself away towards the big bed. Wbn immediately followed and wrapped its wings around me. I kept trying to tell him I was too hot, he wasn't having any of it. I fell asleep. And it was undisturbed, peaceful and gentle.