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And Chapter 10 at last! From here, things will probably get slow as Will gets acquainted with the school(google you better have given me the right word). Also trying to make each chapter slightly longer, so bear with me if things get slow! Comments and criticism are welcome!(Also, I'm considering going back to third person narrative, but haven't decided. Does anyone have any opinions?)

Chapter 10: Polar opposites and schools

Will

When I opened my eyes, I was lying on my own bed. I tried to sit up, but fell back. My limbs were still shaky. I remembered seeing a demon that looked a lot like my brother stabbing Shax in the back, and then I fainted. I was apparently back home, but then, I've read about illusion spells, so I supposed that this could be an another trap.

"Will!" at that point I was crushed by my brother, or someone who looked like my brother. I tried to push him away, and he moved me around a bit, allowing me to sit up.

"Are you really my brother?" I asked. He looked surprised and hurt.

"Will, of course I am! Why would you even ask that?"

"Umm, because you ran through a demon while having a demon wing, not to mention that there's a thing called an 'illusion spell'?" I snapped.

He sighed and sat back. "I don't know if I should be proud at you for being prepared, or mad at you for not trusting me." he spoke with a thin smile. Suddenly, he put a paw over his heart.

"I swear upon my heart and soul that I am your brother. Well, adopted brother." as he spoke, a muted white glow came off from his chest, at the spot he placed his paw over. "You do know about the Oath of Heart and Soul, right?"

"Nope, never even heard of it."

"It's basically an oath that bets my heart and soul. If I was lying when I said this, than I will die and I go to hell. This is a real serious oath, Will. Not even demons lie when they make this oath, and _they_live in hell."

I didn't know about this oath, but I relaxed a bit. "Well, I guess I was wrong. But then why did you have a demon wing?"

He looked rather nervous. Then he took a deep breath, and that made me nervous too.

"The thing is....... I kinda have demon blood." he looked at me cautiously, as if I was the one who said that. The only thing I could say was, "But demons can't leave Spheres."

"But they can stay in the Spheres, and if someone approaches them, or if they find someone they really like..... I think that it's self-explanatory." he ducked his head, looking embarassed.

"But you were an orphan like me. How the heck did you know?"

"I said that I was looking for my family, didn't I? Well, it turns out that my mom was.... raped by a demon while she was fighting one. She ditched me because she couldn't bear the idea of having a half-demon kid."

That just made me curious again. "Not trying to imply that you shouldn't exist or whatever, but why didn't she... well.... do an abortion or something?" looking at his face, I hurried on. "I... I didn't mean anything by it! I was just curious..... And I'm sorry if....."

He gave me another smile, while looking sad. "I get it, and I'm not mad at you, Will. I don't really know, but I think she just couldn't bring herself to do it, since I was technically her kid too."

"So, how does the family treat you? Do they treat you like one of them, or do they hate you?"

"Some hate me, and they let me know it. Others..... they try to act as if that doesn't matter, but I can see that they're afraid. Only Sara and a few others are really friendly." he tried to look as if he didn't care, but I could see the sadness in his eyes.

"Hey, I'm here for you. So if you ever have problems, we'll work them out together. I don't care if you're half demon or not, okay? So don't look like that." I tried to pat him, except that I still felt weak. He gave me a teary look and gave me a back-breaking hug.

"Thanks..... Anyhow, you don't have any permanent damage. You're just slightly exhausted. Whatever you did strained you a lot. So don't use it." Arthur spoke as he went out. My limbs felt a little better, so I just lied down and fell asleep again.

Arthur

After using the demonic energy in my body, I felt exhausted. Not just in body or magic, but in spirit as well. Using demonic power was like walking a tightrope between heaven and hell. If I lost the fragile balance between them, I would either be locked out of my powers or be devoured by them. It was an exhausting process, in which I had to avoid the temptation to toss away the dark powers, and at the same time, to let them in enough so that I could protect myself. And the worst part was that it was so alluring. It would be easy to let the powers take over, just let it handle everything.......

I slapped myself as I went down. "Dammit," I whispered as I went down. I retrieved a tablet from my bag, and started to search the magicnet. It was pretty much internet for magicians. I don't know how it worked, except it was one of those rare technology-magic unions. The reason why I was doing a search? I wanted to find a school for Will. It was upsetting to know that a demon entered my house despite all its wards, and the fact that I wasn't there to help him. It was humiliating and upsetting, but I knew this; I couldn't protect him, not when I was busy for most of the days. There was also the matter of his education; Will was self taught, and while he was talented, I figured that he couldn't get far with a few hours of random training. What he needed was protection and good training.

The next day

Will

When I woke up, I felt okay, except for my arms being a bit sore. After a quick stretch, I went down the stairs. I saw my brother looking at a tablet, absentmindedly eating. When I sat down, he just grunted and kept on scrolling through whatever he was seeing. And then he dropped the bomb.

"Will, have you ever thought about..... going to school?" he asked nervously, fiddling with his paws.

"I thought you said that going to school was a bad idea, since we tended to attract demons." I replied, peeking at his tablet. I could make out something about a school and a picture of its buildings, but before I could say anything, he coughed and spoke again.

"The thing is, it's not really a normal school. It's a school devoted to magical education. So you can study magic more methodically, and the whole place is very well protected, even more than my home. So I think that it's best...."

"Hold on. When did you decide that?" I asked. When I got here, he told me that I'll be staying with him. I had no idea why he would change his mind, except that.....

"Is this about you being half-demon again? I told you, it doesn't matter to me."

"It's not about me being a half demon, Will." he sighed and looked at me straight in the eye. "It's about yesterday. I thought that my home was safe enough, but it wasn't. You nearly got kidnapped by a demon. I hate to admit it, but it's better off if you go to a school. They can give you extensive education, and protect you. Whereas my place?" he waved his paws around. "It's rather well protected, yes, but yesterday just showed me that it's not enough. And I'm not being a good teacher. You're smart, but I don't teach you that much. I just feel that I'm dragging you down, not to mention that I'm gone for almost two-third of a day."

I thought about it. A part of me wanted to stay. I didn't like the idea of being all alone in a place I've never been in, but the more logical part of me knew that what he said made sense.

"I.... I'll go. But where could you find a boarding school exclusive to magic?" I asked. As if he anticipated my question, Arthur slid the tablet over to me before I finished my question. I picked it up and looked at it. It showed several large buildings, connected together. The whole place was pretty neat, with swimming pools, a wide lawn, and a football field. Below, the school name was written in a fancy penmanship, which took me several seconds to read. I never could read or write penmanship well.

"Round table Academy?" I asked as I scrolled through. Apparently, they took their name from the original school from England. And of course, the whole school was named after the Round table knights, who supposedly fought in the last demon wars or something like that.

"It's a pretty good academy if you're considering a magical career. It is also one of the safest places in the continent. I had a talk with the principal and he said that he's willing to admit you. And it's not so far that we can't see each other; I can come over during weekends." Arthur looked nervous, twiddling his fingers. It didn't look too bad of a school, and to be honest, I was pretty bored on my own, stuck in the house all day.

"Like I said, I'll go. Promise you'll come over at least once a week, okay?" I asked. He gave a faint smile, looking rather relieved.

"Sure! anyhow, let's pack up." he went up the stairs before I could say anything. I think I saw him look a bit sad.

The next day

Arthur

It took us several hours of driving to get to the school. While we left at the crack of dawn, it was nearly noon when we came to a halt. It was in the middle of the city, which initially seemed a bit weird. However, I was reassured when I realized that the whole area was actually inhabited by weres and magicians.

"I don't get it. This place clearly takes up tons of space, even more than the market we went to, and no one notices anything weird?" Will raised his eyebrows as we went up to the school gates.

"Well, for the most part, weres here are pretty quite. Not much magical activities. Besides, the place is actually very well protected. Didn't you sense all those spells hanging over the place? Even if a were ran around the place in his animal for and started shooting spells, normal humans would view them as a random person going around with a water gun. Not to mention several mind spells that makes normal people leave this place pretty fast."

"But doesn't that take loads of energy to keep those spells active?" Will asked. I just smiled and replied back with an answer. "We have enough."

When we reached the gate, there was a phone hanging from it. When I picked it up, there was only a single button. When I pressed it, a monotonous voice spoke.

"Round table Academy, please state your name and business."

"Arthur Norton McKnight. I already have an appointment with the principal."

After that, the door opened. As we went through, I took a quick look. The place was quite nice, with wide lawns. It was very wide and inviting, and if I didn't know, I would've said that this was an university. After a quick consultation of a map, we managed to find the principal's office, which was more of a building.

"Do I have to see the principal?" Will asked nervously as we went up the stairs. The little guy was looking nervous, and I couldn't blame him.

"Apparently he insists on meeting every student if possible." I spoke. When we came to a stop, we were in front of a large door, which was rather imposing. I pushed open the door, and came in. When I had a good look around, I started to wonder if we came in the wrong place. The place wasn't anything like I expected. I expected a sort of a library with a venerable old man sitting behind it, not some lab of a mad scientist. Or at least, that's what it looked like. Some weird liquid bubbled in beakers and there were explosion marks and stains all over the place, not to mention magic circles and charms everywhere. The bookshelf was mostly empty, with books littered everywhere. And a stag was standing over the beakers, dropping bits of who-knows-what into it.

"Um..... Are you the principal?" I asked. Normally, a person alone in the principal's office would be considered as a principal, but then again, he wasn't like any principals I've ever seen.

"Yes! Call me Mr. Everain. And I suppose that this young fellow is the one joining us?" he shook my paws real hard. Like he was powered by a motor or something.

"Sit down! There is a chair over there." he pointed to the chairs, which looked like someone threw acid over them, and then proceeded to throw paint all over it.

"I...'d prefer to stand, thank you." I stepped backwards, unconsciously dragging Will back with me.

"All right. Anyhow, can I have some time alone with this young were? I have several questions to ask him before he joins our academy." I wasn't too crazy about leaving Will with a mad scientist principal, but Will gave me a look that said, 'just humor him.'

"Okay..... I'll wait outside." I spoke and left the room.

Will

I had the overwhelming desire to follow my brother when he left. The principal-or so he said- looked kind of scary, with the whole room giving off a mad scientist look.

"Now then, I think I need to learn more about you. Tell me about your age, name, and how long you've studied magic." he spoke while going back to the desks.

"My name is William. I'm 15, and I've studied magic for only about a few days." I spoke. Then I jumped as one of the beakers exploded, showering the area with glasses. The principal lazily swiped his paw, and the shards stopped inches away from him.

"Can I ask what you're doing right now?" normally I don't really care for other people's business, but his business was so strange that I couldn't help it.

"Oh, just a simple experimental potion that's supposed to boost the powers of any magic circle you use without using any additional magic from yourself." he spoke airily. "Anyhow, how many spells do you know?"

"Just some basics, like summoning lightning and fire. Also making shields. I'm better at using swords than them."

"Hmm....." he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well, that's more than I expected. Normally it takes a few days to properly master a single spell, never mind several. I suppose that you'll take the novice course for now, but if you continue to show the same talent, than we can move you upwards."

"Uh.... Thank you?" I didn't really know if there was anything to say. It was more manners than anything else. Then he went over to a computer. After several seconds of typing and clicking, he printed several sheets of paper, stapled them together, and handed them to me.

"Your class schedules, school rules, your dorm, and everything else that you might need to learn to stay here. Now go! Your future friends await you!"

As he spoke and made dramatic gestures, I had to wonder if he was crazy. But then, no one in their right minds would let a lunatic be a principal. As I grabbed the doorknob, he suddenly threw a question my way, which was totally unexpected.

"By the way, did you ever have dreams about a white lion?"

I considered telling him that a white lion indeed visited me and taught me in my dreams, but then I remembered his last words; never to tell anyone about him.

"Nope. Is that someone I should know, Mr. Everain?"

"Hmm..... I thought everyone knew him. Oh, well. He isn't someone you should be particularly aware of. But I'm surprised that you don't know him. Anyhow, off you go! I have work to do!" he made a shooing gesture at me. I went out of the office, immensely relieved.

Arthur

"So, what did he ask you when I went out?" I asked as we came to a stop at his new dorm. It was rather humble, being five floors high. On the other side of the street, there was the girl's dorm.

"Just some simple stuff like how much magic I knew, my name, age, and all that stuff." Will shrugged as he opened the car door. I went out and helped him with his luggage, which just consisted of two trunks and a backpack. We only packed some clothes, toiletry, and books.

"Where was your room again?" I asked as we entered the building. Its interiors were rather simple, with an elevator in the middle and a stair right next to it. The elevator and the stair separated the building into two. There were at least 10 rooms on the each side of the hall.

"Room 310." he spoke as he went up the stairs, lugging one of the trunks with him. I followed him, carrying the other trunk.

Will

I didn't know what I expected from my new room, but the room itself was fairly nice. There were bunk beds on each end of the wall, with four desks meeting in the middle. On each side there was a bathroom, and a bookshelf on the other side, again one for each side. There was a window, with a clear view of the street. There were two other kids in the room. One of them was either a human, or he just liked being in a human form. He was slightly older than me, with blond hair. He looked pretty friendly. On the other side, my other roommate was a red fox, with green eyes. He looked like he could be in college.

"Are you looking for someone?" the fox asked.

"Umm..... I'm supposed to be your new roommate." I spoke, flipping through the papers that the principal gave me. After I handed him the sheets, they both flicked it through, looking at it.

"Well, welcome to room 310! My name's Todd, and the human is Jonas." the fox smiled and threw his arm around the other guy.

"Well, I'll be leaving now, Will. I'll see you the next week. Take care, okay? And don't do anything stupid." Arthur carefully placed the trunk down, and gave me a hug. After he left, I turned around, staring at them both. The seconds of awkward silence started to turn into a minute of silence.

"How old are you?" I asked.

"Todd's 21, and I'm 17." Jonas spoke with a smile. "Our other roommate is a wolf named Jake. He's a jerk, but don't let him get to you. He's 25."

"I was curious. Are you really a human?" I asked.

"Yeah. Werebeasts are more likely to be magicians than humans, but there are several humans that can use magic. But we generally are fewer."

"Anyhow, we've got to go. Your class schedule doesn't have anything for today. When school's over, we'll show you around. And we've gotta go!" Todd yelled the last line over his shoulders as he and Jake ran down the hall and the stairs. I've started to unpack, and for the next thirty minutes or so, I've kept busy setting this place up. It wasn't difficult to find where I should put my stuff, since I just had to choose the empty bed and the wardrobe. As I was putting the last book in the shelf, I heard a sound behind me. When I looked back, I saw a black wolf. He was way bigger than me, almost as tall and big as my brother. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, and by the cold look he gave me, I figured that he wasn't thrilled to see me here.

"And who are you?" he rumbled. I tried not to feel nervous, but I couldn't help but to feel a little bit scared.

"William McKnight. I... I'm supposed to be your new roommate..." I muttered, holding my paws out.

"Whatever. Just keep out of my way." he snarled coldly as he went by me- ignoring my paw- and snatched up several books from his desk. Before I could say anything, he stomped out, ignoring me again.

"Jerk." I muttered as I sat down. I pulled out the school rules and the map again, going over them.

Several hours later, away from the dorm

_ _ "And this is the bookstore, and that building over there is devoted to potions and magic items!" Todd exclaimed as he flung his paws out. Several hours after Jake went by, Jonas and Todd came in. They weren't surprised when I told them about Jake. Apparently, he was like that all the time. I've also learned that he was supposed to be a big prodigy, and he was also an Andelvel, which sort of explained his behavior. I remembered Arthur telling me that the Andelvels were usually arrogant. When I asked them about their lineages, they both told me that their family was pretty small, only producing wizards every once in a while.

"Where do you guys have dinner?" I asked, looking around. I felt really hungry. It wasn't surprising as I had a really small lunch and breakfast.

"There's a cafeteria in the basement of the building. Now, today's dinner is on me!" Todd exclaimed as he ran.

Back at the dorm, basement

"So there's also a recreation room, a sparring room, a vending machine, and some washing machines here?" I asked through a mouthful of chicken. It was fortunately vegetable free. Apparently, werebeasts sometimes were influenced by their animal counterparts, which made vegetables unbearable for most carnivores. The same thing also applied to herbivores, and many vegetarians around the world were actually herbivore werebeasts.

"Yeah. If you need anything, just come to the basement." Todd spoke through his mouthful of chicken.

"What about my textbooks? I don't know what kind of books I should buy." I asked after another bite.

"Well, you're taking the novice course, right? Than you can use mine. I've kept my old textbooks, but I don't really need them anymore." Jonas replied. Apparently he was a vegetarian, which was awkward considering the fact that the rest of us were mostly carnivores.

"Thanks." I spoke, my voice muffled by the last of the chicken. After the last bite, we went up the stairs.

"Just remember; ignore Jake. He's always like that. You'll get used to him in a while, and he isn't the person you want to lose your temper at. Our previous roommate got into a fight with him, sparred with him, and decided to leave." cautioned Jonas while he was twisting the key in the lock.

"Well, well. Had fun?" Jake spoke, glancing over his extremely thick book, which had an extremely long title.

"Yep. Anyhow, you know Will, right? He said that he met you earlier." Todd cheerfully spoke as he pushed me forward.

"Yes. Excuse me." Jake suddenly went out brushing past me.

"Where is he going?" I asked.

"Eh, that's Jake. He usually leaves when we come in. You can find him on the roof or in the study hall, but who would want to find him?" Jonas joked.

After a quick bath(Todd taught me a neat little spell that dried my fur within seconds), I stuffed the books Jonas gave me into the backpack I brought.

"Do we have a curfew or something like that?" I asked. It was almost midnight, and they were both messing around. Just my luck, I ended up on the bed above Jake.

"We don't really have a set curfew. The whole dorm has bunches of students who have different level education, so they just give us free rein as long as we don't cause a disturbance." Todd explained. "But you'd better go to bed, otherwise you'll sleep in tomorrow"

"O...okay." I spoke, yawning. "Good night."

"Night." they both spoke, and returned to whatever they were doing. I fell asleep, exhausted after wandering around for hours.