Charles king lonely hope part 1
Chapter 20

It’s the last school week of November and it’s guild week, I would have been pondering who if anyone has offered to teach me but this month has been bizarre, it started somewhat well regardless of how the general public has been treating me, it’s hasn’t gotten any better but at school, no one is insulting me, well they might have behind my back but I can’t hear them so I am happy with that, and I haven’t had anyone purposely walk into me too, even some of the teachers have become responsive to me, but as the month began knocking days off things got worse, dad was coming back to the guild covered in cuts and bruises, the battles with the rebels throughout the whole Europe has become disturbing, more deaths, more people and kids reported missing, beasts being mind-controlled into evil doing. I have been told not to worry about any of that though because there is nothing I can do to.

Wyatt has become more of an unbearable tool, he has ramped up his insults on me now and is the only person to do it, he has even taken it a step up, he has been having a crack at trying to hit me with spells. Last Thursday something hot hit me clean across the back of my head and my ears had slime pouring out of them for an hour. Miss Betty had to fix it for me. I guess saving his dad’s and little brothers’ lives means nothing to him.

What was weirder is Grace has completely stopped talking to Charlotte, Ethan, and Tori, we don’t know if they have told anyone about what I was going as to the Halloween event. Kevin replaces this hilarious.

“Grace, your best friends here,” Kevin said when Charlotte walked in late to form class,

“Shut up,” she said back to him. Charlotte took her seat, she smiled at Grace who stared at Mr Ridgewell,

“Everybody Quiet down!” Ridgewell said, “Today is the day I know you are all looking forward to, guild week, before I had out these” Ridgewell held up a stack of envelopes with both hands and chairs squeaked and students sat up straight, “Now that I have everyone’s attention, these are your offers, everyone has at least one, those who have more than one will have till the end of this form class to decide, you will have two regular classes like scheduled and then you after brake you will meet us in training hall B that’s the one where we practice basic magic on the first day when I call out your names come get your offer” Eager silence fell on the form room as my classmates stepped up, my table was last to be called up, and I was very last, “Charles king” I walked it Ridgewell dressed in his normal blue Tracksuit on. Not-so-quiet whispers could be heard pondering how many offers I got,

“Oh Charles, the one that’s scratched off is from Louie Allard, he got in touch this morning and said he couldn’t commit to the week, something about being needed against the rebels, and he asked us to send you his apologises and he hopes to meet you in the future” I could not be happier in this moment. All my classmates were stunned and the number one guild member in the world the guy I had been reading about in magazines for years wanted to teach me, I was officially buzzing with delight, I sat down, and Kevin punched me in the arm, I smiled and opened up my envelope and took out a thin white piece of paper, I had gotten two offers the first, the guild of Louie Allard, New Noble. They shot up the rankings out of nowhere and established themselves as the best around, everyone wanted to join them, but my second option was below it, a guild called Ravenshonor,

“Ohh”. Charlotte let out by mistake I quickly looked at her to see if she would explain what that was or if she knew the guild, but she turned her head quickly. That would be a no then. I don’t think I have heard of them before.

“How many did you get?” I asked Kevin, he began counting them one by one.

“11” He soundly proudly. And then showed me his list.

Hollow foxes

Holy saints

Black shroud

Rogue jackals

Red wolves

Dashing heart

Crimson paradox

High warfare

Stone tips

Red thorns

The pain of the ram.

“you’ve got some good choices here, who will you go for?”

“I don’t know yet, what about you grace?”

“Ermm” Grace slid her paper across, I turned it over and saw one guild there, impure outlaws, an all-female guild known for being one of the best female guilds out there they recruit early and will not take any male member.

“This is a really good guild Grace” I said, “well done”.

“Yeah well done” Kevin said he lightly punched her arm. Grace’s face turned tomato red. She matched her hair and put a stride in her mouth. The bell rang, and we stood up and made our way to the next class. I had elemental class, I have begun to like this class,

“Charles!” Lincoln shouted across the hallway, a few years stopped in their tracks, and he moved past them, “How many did you get?” straight to the point, my brother doesn’t change.

“1” I said, Lincoln’s eyebrows touched, “yeah Ravenshonor, I have never heard of them”.

“Hmmmm, I have to go” Lincoln patted my arm and walked away, he can be strange sometimes.

“Hello Charles, Good morning” headmistress Simmons said, sitting on the table like normal and dressed in one of her normal suits. “Take a seat”. I sat down in my normal seat in front of her. “Before we begin I would like to say congratulations, you got two very good offers, from two exceptional guilds, I know Louie Allard had to pull out, but you still have your other option, which is a very, very good one”.

“I have never heard of them before,” I said honestly. Simmons smiled at me.

“You wouldn’t Charles they aren’t out in the open, there are different types of guilds as I am sure you know, The first one is the public ones, for example, your parent’s one. they are the face of the guilds, for the good and the bad ever the public thinks of guilds at any time, they take the brunt of it. But the other type of guild is a private one, you have to do your research to even know about them, usually private hire or they work under the government”.

“So, it’s like a secret guild?” Simmons laughed.

“Less secret more private, we will talk more about this in our next class for now” Simmons snaps her fingers and a dummy materialised to the side of her, “you will be practising your aim and your shot, go stand by the whiteboard, I walked over to the board and turned, and I raised my right arm and aimed, “Charles with dark magic please”.

“What?” I said, “Miss, I can’t do that”.

“You haven’t tried yet, and there is no time like the present”.

“Hmm, miss, I don’t know about this” I held my arm and felt the familiar sensation travel down my arm, I thought as it travelled down my arm, maybe I can do it like a blast ball, I do what I would normally do when creating a blast ball but with dark magic, black smoke puffed out of my palm.

“Again” Simmons ordered.

I did the same thing, and I got the same result, puffs of black smoke,

“again”

More black smoke, and then I accidentally fired off a blast ball that hit the wooden target clean in the face.

“I see, you’re attempting to make a blast ball, but a dark magic one, that won’t work, you’re attempting to combine spell Charles, and at your level that isn’t possible, you don’t have the magical control over both elemental and neutral magic, you need to focus on hitting the target with your dark magic”.

“Okay, okay” I shook my arms and jumped up and down. Dark magic let’s do this, time to ping that thing in the head.

After several attempts and puffs of black smoke suddenly what looked like a stick fired from my hand before it fell to the floor with the limb.

“Was that a stick?” Simmons asked, looking puzzled, “What are you thinking while attempting this?”

“I’m going to ping that target on the head”.

“The stick makes more sense now, Let keep going, this is the start of a new spell it can only be developed from here”. we proceeded at this for the rest of the class and by the end of it, my right arm was cold and beginning to feel numb, with a ghostly chill to it. I had English next with Kevin and Grace thankfully; we have learnt that Grace’s light magic can be warm, and she has started to warm my arm up after my elemental classes.

“Why does it feel like your arm has been dead for a week?“. Grace asked, blowing into her hands before they started to glow brightly. “Look how pale it is!”

“It feels like it’s been dead,” I said.

“We need to become friends with a fire mage” Kevin said, “then we can revive your arm faster”.

The English finished earlier than what was expected because we had to hand in our forms of who we would be picking for guild week, Kevin chose Crimson Paradox, a good guild, known for dark guild hunting. After the break, we have to go to our form rooms.

“My arm is still cold!” I complained and took a seat and it seemed to have become our regular table in the cafeteria, in the middle of the cafeteria, not too far to walk for a drink and the toilets are about 10 metres down the wall from where I normally sit.

“Cold is it” a new voice said I looked around a saw a fifth-year goth girl, with jet black hair, dark eye makeup caving in brown eyes, nose earrings, and several earrings in both ears. She leant over and sat down next to me, the group of by the look of them heretics, she grabbed my arm, and pulled up my sleeve and then put her spare hand on it gently and it warmed my arm up, a comfortable warmth spread out through my arm.

“Ruby!” a voice at the end of the table boomed, e goth girl jumped and let go of me, I could swear her heretics stood on attention. “Get away from him!” I looked at the girl who demanded that ruby let me go, she had a blue blazer on, and blonde hair and she began to rub the back of her neck, her scrawl and deep frown lines reminded me of someone from the guild, Mrs mirage, this must be her daughter,

“Bye king” Ruby said, in a sweet voice and stroked my cheek she stood up and left.

“I don’t know how to feel about that,” I said.

“Bye king” Kevin mocked.

Little Mirage came over to me and sat down between Grace and me, “hi, I’m Michelle” she said and shook both mine and Grace’s hand, “I haven’t been around the guild much been busy with school stuff, and I got an internship and will be helping out with the guilds, but never mind that you” Michelle rounded on me, “stay away from Ruby, she is bad news and think you’re some prophecy of something she believes in don’t know but stay away from her”. I looked at like for a moment it was the first time I had gotten a real good look at her, she looked so much like her mum but younger, her blonde hair fell below her shoulders, and her blue blazer had a brown dragon on it, I think that’s because her mum has earth magic and that is normally symbolized with the colour of brown, and she is in the eternal dragon guild—brown eyes with a speck in her right eye, small nose.

“I don’t think I was going to” I said, “I’m only 13, and she scares me” Grace, Kevin and Michelle all laughed, a tray slammed on the table, it had drinks and sandwiches on it. Tim was standing above it,

“Where were you?” Michelle demanded of Tim. “she finally got to him”.

“No way!” Tim said and then let out a hearty laugh “What happened?” this was Kevin’s cue to give Tim the low down, with impressions and actions to go along with it. Now Tim can’t stop laughing, Grace is hiding behind a purple can. Michelle doesn’t look too pleased though.

“Timothy!” she growled and stomped her foot.

“Timothy?” Kevin said with raised eyebrows.

“Shut it” Tim barked at him. Kevin turned to me and mouthed Timothy and then pulled a face, like he didn’t look like Timothy.

“You what she is like” Michelle said, I think out of all the fifth that I have met, Michelle would be the boss of them all. “We promised Bella we would keep the nut jobs away”.

“I didn’t know that” I said completely shocked.

“It wasn’t something we planned,” Tim said then taking a sip of his drink, Kevin had devoured most of the sandwiches on the plate, “we overheard Ruby and her group talking about you and how you’re the child of prophecy, yandere anyway they wanted to talk to you about being their leader and something, it didn’t sound good”.

“so, we told your mum and we promised to keep her away” Michelle said, “and she wants to invite you to Cotillion as well say no”

“What?” Grace asked, her mouth fell open.

“Yeah, believe It or not, Ruby is high society” Michelle and Grace look like they are gossiping now, “she is from a wealthy and well-connected family”.

“I’m shocked,” Grace said,

“So was I when I found out”.

“You could do a lot worse Charles” Tim winked at me.

“I will kill,” Michelle told Tim.

“what’s a cotillion?” I asked. Both Michelle and Grace turned out, and for a moment I was fearful for my life.

“It’s a special day” Michelle said, “a big event, you have to learn a day get all dressed up, and your family comes, and you walk down the steps with your walking mate, and you’re being welcomed to high society, I loved it, I done it last year” she turned back around to Grace, “my walking mate was meathead over there” she pointed at Tim.

“Yo,” Tim said and gave a stupid smile.

“it’s one of the big dances, in your final three years of school, the first dance is in your friend year, and that is a Sadie Hawkins dance, where the girls ask the boys to go with them” I don’t think I have ever seen grace by more attention to anything in my life, I saw someone first and second years girls in earshot move closer to hear better, “the second is the cotillion that’s in your fourth year, if you’re high society you will already be invited, but sometimes they ask girls and boys from lesser well-known famous to participate and the other people they ask are normally do something to become famous, so he will be asked” I got pointed at, Grace’s head appeared from behind Michelle to look at me and all those paying attention to Michelle did too, a dozen girls both sitting and standing at the table next to us glanced at me. “Ruby fell sick last year so she will be doing it this year, that’s why he needs to be careful. And finally in last year’s prom, boys ask girls”.

Apart from the news that I’m in the eyes of the heretics it was an okay break, it was fun seeing Michelle and Tim argue, and when Michelle realised that whatever she said was being listened to by the girls next to us, she began to have some fun, declaring that any girl who doesn’t have boyfriend by Christmas is automatically a no for during her school team, and they must be able to bring her and her teammates drinks and sweets daily, no less then 2 minutes later a drink appeared in front of her, given to her by a nervous brown haired girl. The bell rang and we headed to our form rooms I thought I better say thank you to Tim and Michelle for helping me even though I never knew, neither of them would accept it.

We got to our rooms and took our seats and Mr Ridgewell came in a minute later holding a piece of paper.

“Settle down class,” he said, ” guild week is about to start, you will have no classes after this only working with your guild apart from break and lunch obviously, please do remember that others are still in classes so have respect for them, we will be sat here until your guild comes and collects you, so we have nothing to do but wait”. Mr Ridgewell sat down, and the class was silent, it suddenly burst with conversation Grace even engaged Charlotte in conversation I know she must be super excited about that, there was a knock on the door and Mr. Ridgewell stood up and answered, everyone was standing up to try and see who it was. I couldn’t get a peak.

“Kevin, grab your stuff,” Ridgewell said. Kevin jumped to his feet eagerly.

“Show time,” he said, “see ya”.

“Good luck” I yelled out to him. One by one people were called, and they left, sometimes two people were called at once. And then finally there were three people left, Myself, Grace, and Charlotte, and it was awkward. No one had said a word for the last minute. Even Mr Ridgewell was looking at us, probably wondering why no one was saying a word. The door knocked again, please please let it be me.

“Grace, Charlotte, grab your stuff” Ridgewell said, Grace and Charlotte looked at each other and thought that they would be working together for a week. And now I’m completely alone, well me and Mr Ridgewell. He surprised me by coming over and sitting at the end of the table,

“How are you replaceing school?”

“Good thanks sir, I’m getting used to it”.

“that’s good, I hear your elemental class are going well, Learnt anything new?”

“No sir dark magic is difficult” isn’t that the truth I don’t think I have struggled much with magic before even as a kid I usually come to terms with the spells that I have learnt before, even in our basic magic lessons, I have had no problem turning switches on and off and pushing items away or slowly pulling them closer.

“So, I have heard” the door knocked before he could say anything else, ” that will be for you, Grab your stuff”.

“Thanks, sir” I grabbed my stuff and left for the door, I opened it up, and stood there was Nate’s dad and Lincoln. “hello”, Lincoln had the biggest grin on his face I had ever seen. Nate’s dad looks a little beaten up still, but he is dressed immaculately, stainless white shirt that looks like it was bought today, a blue suit jacket under his arm, his sleeves have been rolled to his elbow, his tie has some metal bar in the middle of it. He has a look of superiority about him.

“Hello Charles, before we go I didn’t get a chance to properly thank you for saving my and my son’s life” he then bowed his head for a moment, “My name is Bartholomew Walkerstone and I will be your teacher for this week” that look of superiority his sons have the same one, the same blonde hair, only Barty senior seems nicer than his other two sons, not Nate of course, he is cool.