THE GRANDARION CHRONICLES - CHAPTER 2

ORPHAN
2024

Alec sat upright in his bed. Today was the first day of the rest of his life, he pondered for a few minutes while he was supposed to be packing for the Academy. He had just received his marks for his matric year, it wasn’t the most breathtaking of results, no distinctions, but everything was in the sixties. The paper laid on his bedside table along with his letter from the Magi Department, which stated that he needed to attend four years of compulsory class at the Academy. He didn’t care too much for this, at least he didn’t have to pay for it, being an orphan since the age of six had some perks. Well, if both your parents died at such a young age, the world did owe you, at least a little bit… The government had taken up the tab for tuition of all students who could not afford to go to the Academy. This had obviously raised taxes quite a bit and had only made the South African population even more bitter toward the magical community.

He couldn’t remember the details of the crash very well, it’s as if with each passing year another layer of mist was drawn over the memory, but one thing stayed with him to that day. He didn’t know whether or not it was just in his imagination, but there had been something else with him that night, a presence filled with malice, cloaked in black. It was as if this presence saved his life that night in the car just to play some cruel joke. A joke that had been going on for the past twelve years.

The TV downstairs in his foster parents’ living room was on the lifestyle channel, with his foster mother watching a rerun of Toddlers in Tiaras. He just rolled his eyes and continued to the kitchen where he poured himself some ProNutro. The cereal sucked up all the milk he threw in like a black hole. His coffee tasted like the sweet release from the prison of tired eyes.

“You better be ready to go to your little school for misfits,” came a shout from the study. Tony, his foster dad, was a real douchebag, he kept degrading him and took pleasure in humiliating him whenever he got even the slightest of chances, and finding out that the kid he had taken in was of magical descent only fueled his snide remarks.

“Yeah, I’m ready,” Alec shouted back. He had packed his bags before he came down for breakfast. He’s ready to be rid of these two. A grunt came as reply from the door of the study. He was so glad to finally be able to move out. He didn’t even have to return, ever again, seeing as he was over eighteen now and could make his own decisions in life.

The trip to his new home went quite slowly, Alec just sat and stared out the window at the landscape, before he was told that he was forced to attend a magic school, he would’ve loved to become an architect. Buildings had always fascinated him, the way people used them, abused them, worked in them, moved through them, trashed them, decorated them, demolished them and built them.

They finally arrived at their destination, the Voortrekker Monument, to great fanfare. Protestors were blocking the road up to the gates, with signs saying such things as: “WHY TAKE OUR TAXES TO TEACH THEM TO KILL US?!” and: “GO BACK TO WHEREVER YOU CAME FROM!” as well as an illiterate: “FUK OF AND DEI.” They finally managed to get through the crowd and drove through the gate and up the hill, past the memorial gardens all the way to the endless stairs leading up to the monolith that was designed by Gerhard Moerdjik.

“Now you’re someone else’s problem, finally,” Tony said with a chuckle, as he reached into his pocket to take out an envelope.
“Yes, indeed, finally,” Alec replied, placing emphasis on ‘finally’ and saw how Tony’s smile retracted into a stern look.
“Your fucking lawyer gave me this this morning to give to you,” he said.
“What is it?” Alec asked as he took the flat envelope.
Tony simply made a circle with his thumb and index finger and placed it over his nose before he said, “Now piss off you poes,” and drove away as soon as Alec was out of the car with his stuff.
A few other people were there, not many, but enough to make the glorious landscape look busy.

“Good riddance,” Alec breathed.
“Sorry?” A voice behind him asked.
“Nothing.” He said without turning around and put the envelope in his pocket, he didn’t care much for introductions, he wasn’t planning on making any friends, he didn’t need them, never have, never will. Besides, small talk was the biggest waste of time on planet earth. He wasn’t in the mood to repeat something he had obviously said to himself.

But something in him suddenly forced him to look around, he couldn’t quite explain why, it was some sort of compulsion. The face he was met with seemed unimpressed at his impoliteness.
“I’m so sorry I’m such an intrusion,” the face said sarcastically. It was a woman, also still studying by the looks of it. The face had a pale complexion. Within the face laid two huge blue spheres. Brown hair flowed down the shoulders on which the face was mounted. A small, somewhat pointy nose extruded from the middle of the face. Pale red lips rolled over the mouth of the pale, blue eyed face.

“Why did I turn around?” Alec asked her earnestly, he was new in this world of so called magic and didn’t know whether or not the face had something to do with it.
“Because I told you to,” she answered with a stern expression. This was by far the most bizarre situation he had found himself in thus far in his life. Fighting to stay level headed, he extended his hand to her to shake.
“Alec Gregory,” he introduced himself, getting himself into the same small talk he was trying to avoid like the plague.
“Melissa Pretorius,” she replied, looking down at his hand and hesitantly extending her own. They shook, “new here?” She asked him.
“Yeah, the latest member in the loony bin school,” he replied.
She looked him up and down then began to smile, “I think you’ll enjoy yourself immensely.”
Alec returned the favor by looking her up and down as well. She had a stunning body, if he had to be honest, she was wearing a short skirt so he could see her well-formed legs stretch from her feet to her thighs. She had an hourglass figure par excelance.
“If you’re finished admiring the view, I suggest you make your way to the entrance,” she said after a while.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Alec said as he shook out of his trance and returned to his mind’s feet.

He simply frowned and moved around her and started to climb the stairs upward, he didn’t need her drama right then. But as soon as he made it to the doors of the monument, he remembered that he had no clue what to do, or where to go. The brochures didn’t tell him how the hell to get to varsity.

“Lost now, are you?” Melissa’s voice came from behind him, she had followed him up.
“Yes, I am, I have no idea how to get to the insane asylum I’m supposed to call a school,” Alec replied.
“Follow me,” she said with a painful smile.
“Lead away,” Alec extended his arms into a ‘ladies first’ gesture.

They got into the lift all the way up to the uppermost part of the monument and from there went outside onto a balcony where a few people were standing, some of them were saying their goodbyes to their children. He looked over to the dome and saw someone standing close to the oculus. What is that idiot doing? He wondered, but his wondering turned into sudden confusion when the person jumped into the oculus, suddenly disappearing, the oddest thing was that the person was way too weighty to have fit through.

“Through the rabbit hole Alice,” Melissa whispered next to him.
Alec didn’t reply to her obvious taunt, he simply walked up to the hole in the roof. Fuck it, he thought and jumped through. A sudden feeling of claustrophobia settled over him as he ironically fell through nothingness. But it was all over as soon as it had begun.