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TRAINING WAS HARD AGAIN. I GOT PUNCHED SO
many times in the stomach by Max, so much that I even blacked out. When they brought me back, my left eye was pounding and I could only see a small amount through it. This really sucked.

Still, Max did the gentlemanly thing, something I was positive he didn’t know he had in him and took me to the nurse’s office.

Half an hour later I was back to normal. Leigh didn’t show up this time when I dosed off, and my biggest fear was waiting in the lounge when I got back home.

Selene.

“Hi Chas, come sit.” Fox had a welcoming smile on her face.

“No, let her grab something to eat. She must be starving from all her training.” Selene still sounded friendly.

“Sit, I’ll go make a sandwich, you need to speak to Selene.”

“She doesn’t know?” I whispered softly.

Fox just smiled and walked away.

I took a deep breath and walked over to the lounge.

“So, Chastity, I heard something pretty amazing happened to you last night,” Selene said as I sat in the chair opposite her.

I squinted as I saw the puffball on her lap.

“Yeah, apparently I’m a Tula.”

She laughed. “A Guardian and a Tula, always a good combination. My best Guardians are all Tulas, but don’t tell Fox I said that.” She looked around. “So, where is this special animal?”

I heard a laugh and saw the cat with closed eyes on her lap.

“Shut up,” I whispered.

“Excuse me?” Selene asked, taken aback.

“Not you, sorry.” I apologized and felt like an idiot. The cat laughed again, but it didn’t show on his face.

“He’s right here.”

She looked again.

“On your lap, Selene.” I spoke softly and hated every minute of taking something as precious as her cat from her. She looked at me, and then back at Mr. Grey.

“Is this true?” she asked Mr. Grey, who didn’t pay any attention to her whatsoever.

“I think he’s still upset about the way I reacted last night.”

Selene looked at me again and then started to laugh.

“You’re not mad?”

“No, Chastity. How could I be? He’s finally found his Tula. You are one lucky girl though. He has been such a pleasure to have around and I’m sure going to miss him.” She ruffled his face and made him look at her.

“Oh, yeah, I’m sure going to miss you too, Sunshine,” Mr. Grey said in the grumpiest tone he could muster, jumping off her lap and onto mine.

“So that is it, I guess the trade is complete.”

“He can visit whenever he likes,” I said. I felt stupid saying that.

Selene smiled again. “He does whatever he wants, you are going to learn that the hard way, Chastity.”

“I bet.” I smiled back.

I picked up the cat and stood up as Selene picked up her jacket just when Fox entered with my sandwich and a glass of Coke. “Leaving already? Stay,” she begged.

“I can’t. Revera doesn’t run itself.” She looked back at Mr. Grey lying happily in my arms. “Take care of him Chas. He’s not a bad cat.”

“I’m sure he isn’t,” I said through clenched teeth, teasing him slightly.

“Don’t start with that crap,” he growled at me which made me giggle.

“You already hear him?” Selene’s eyes were huge and I nodded.

“He’s not one of the friendliest cats though.”

She laughed. “Who could’ve known. I’d always wondered what sort of personality he had. Guess Grumpy was right.”

We all laughed as Mr. Grey jumped out my arms and ran straight up the stairs to what I assumed was my room.

“Cats,” Selene said and gave me a one-arm hug. “Take care of yourself, and please, I would love to know Mr. Grey better. So treasure all his snarky comments until we meet again, Chastity.”

I giggled. “I will.”

We said goodbye and she disappeared through a door that I’d thought was a broom closet.

Fox just stared at me as I tried to make sense of all of this. “I really thought she was going to be pissed.”

Fox smiled. “Selene is extremely understanding when it comes to things like Tulas. She knows it doesn’t matter what she says or does. Tulas this side, Chas, are extremely special and you will see, nothing can break them apart. Not even a Somnium.”

I giggled. “You don’t want to know what he said when she said goodbye.”

“What?”

“He’s seriously grumpy and extremely sarcastic.”

She laughed again.

“Cats.”

I FOUND MR. GREY INSIDE MY ROOM SITTING ON THE ledge when I entered.

“You don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to,” I said and he turned his head and looked at me.

“House of Lords is not so bad. They’ve got a parrot who is just going to taste…mmm uh mmmm.”

“Forget about Charlie.” I scowled at him.

He chuckled. “I’m only kidding Chas, you need to learn how to lighten up.”

“Yeah, practice what you preach, Grumpy.” I giggled at the grunt he made. “Sorry about last night. I didn’t know, okay? And I feel pretty stupid about everything. It’s going to take a while to get used to you.”

“Used to me? You’ve known me since the Domain, Chas.”

“About that.” I went to sit on my bed. “How did you find me?”

“Bond, I guess,” he said and looked out the window again.

“She left through the door, the broom cupboard one, not the front.”

“I don’t care,” he said grumpily, and if he was a human, I swear he would’ve pulled my curtain away to see more.

“Then what are you looking at?” I got up and went over to the sill to look out the window too.

“Made you look,” he said and jumped off the sill and onto my bed.

“You really have a strange sense of humor, you know.”

“Yeah, so I’ve been told.”

I laughed. “By who, your mom?”

He chuckled too.

“Promise me one thing though,” he asked.

“Sure, what?”

“Don’t ever talk to me like Selene did again.” He shivered and I giggled.

“She didn’t know Mr. Grey?” I realized then that his name could be Dick for all I knew. “Hey what is your real name anyway?”

“Mr. Grey is fine.”

“You sure? Now is the perfect time to change it if you want.”

“And build up another reputation? No thanks. Mr. Grey is cool. I liked Shades too. You really thought I was a girl?”

“Well, you looked like one, so yeah. Sorry.”

“It must be my beautiful shiny coat.”

I giggled once more. Who could’ve guessed, a cat talking to a human, and one that had a sparkling personality too.

Only in Revera.

TRAINING AT THE INSTITUTE WAS HECTIC. AT LEAST Natalie hung with me now that I was a Tula. The fact that the Anitule was Mr. Grey made the news in the Casting Times, Revera’s daily paper. They did a huge piece on Mr. Grey, the cat, and I was astonished at what he was capable of. I scanned through a couple of things and froze at one of the previous headlines about him. He’d brought down one of Selene’s advisors, a William Withowzer, who was in fact a Shadow Caster.

If the cat could sense that, I was in deep shit.

He was about ten years old, and had won like three bravery awards a couple of years ago.

They just mentioned my name. No picture, nothing. Just a name.

On the third day of my new life here in Revera, my classes changed. Natalie told me that the first two days of each week, we just do Guardian training, the other three days, they’re mixed up with other subjects.

The classes were different from what I was used to though. From wielding your sand into dreams, to how to create enhanced objects out of trinkets. History, Math and all that other Domain subjects made it in there too, but it only lasts up to grade three, which is equivalent to a Level One Dream Caster. In third grade you can choose four subjects with Guardian and Casting Dreams as your main two subjects.

I knew one thing for sure, I wasn’t cut out for any of this, except the fighting part.

My mom had been right. Fighting was in our blood and I thrived on the adrenaline.

Designing looked hard, but I was thrown off when I walked into the classroom with Sophie.

The teacher reminded me so much of Mom, the one I’d grown up with. She was a bit fruity, over excited about everything, and extremely eccentric with her hippie skirts and flower bands on her head. The classroom didn’t have any tables but big fluffy pillows were strewn against the wall.

The woman smiled at me when her gaze locked on mine.

“Please, sit down. We have plenty to do today.” She spoke kindly and Sophie led me to the pillow right in the corner and plonked down right next to me.

“Welcome to Designing, Chastity,” the teacher said softly. “Would you like to introduce yourself to class?”

I stood up. I didn’t really want to but I probably had no choice. Carpe diem.

“My name is Chastity Blake, I came from the Domain.” I smiled softly and started again when the teacher cleared her throat. “My mother never told me what I was, and I guess she never knew as I have no idea who my real dad was. So yay me.” Someone in the room laughed. “But here I am.”

“Nice to meet you Chastity. Name’s Sy,” one of the guys, more or less my age, said. He had typical ass-and-abs, good looks and a sheepish grin on his face that would melt any other girl’s heart. He lost about a gazillion points when he started to scan me up and down as if I was some product at a check out.

Still, I waved at him.

“That is so nice of you Siegfried,” the teacher said and everyone started to laugh. “You can call me Mrs. Delvaga. Number One Dream Caster and Designer of Revera.”

“Whoop, whoop,” the class shouted and she curtseyed.

“Is she for real?”

“She’s a bit eccentric, but you should see her dreams,” Sophie said.

“I hope you all have done last week’s assignment.” Mrs. Delvaga asked the rest of the class, and scanned the entire class with her eyes rested on me. “Chas you can observe.”

Thanks for that as I have no idea how to design anything, except once, a dagger, from my dreams
.

The others started to take out devices, they were all different and looked like something that didn’t belong to this world. All of them reminded me of kitchen appliances but they looked like nothing that should belong in any kitchen. Why a kitchen jumped into my mind, I didn’t know.

Then the demonstration started.

Sy was first and I watched him get up and walk with a puffed up chest to the front where a table was stationed for all of us to see. He had scruffy light brown hair, huge blue eyes and very strong arms. I hadn’t seen him in Guardian training before and he must be into enhancing gadgets, creating things. I thought Mark had said something about everybody wanting to be a designer, yep, that was it, so Sy must’ve been in that department.

As he began his demonstration, his thingamajig, made a horrible noise, which he apologized for as he turned a couple of knobs on the gadget. When the noise stopped it produced a creamy brown liquid that he put into a cup – see kitchen – and offered to Mrs. Delvaga.

She smelled it first, and by the sound escaping her lips and closed pink glittered eyes, I knew it must’ve smelled divine.

“Boring,” Sophie yelled and the class laughed. I smiled at her. One thing Natalie had been right about was that she hardly said a word and disappeared when Mila and her gang came near.

Mrs. Delvaga lifted up her finger at Sophie and took a sip, followed by another one. I was sitting on the edge of my pillow waiting patiently. After a couple of minutes, I agreed with Sophie. I still had no idea what the glorified cappuccino maker did or how it was related to the dream world.

Then Mrs. Delvaga opened her eyes.

She looked around her, up to the ceiling and back down again. I followed her gaze and looked up too. Nothing happened.

The teacher smiled.

“This is amazing Siegfried. How on earth? An A+.” She looked everywhere except at Sy. “Did everybody see the same thing?”

“No, my mom saw flying pigs.” Everyone laughed.

So flying pigs was a myth, even in a place like Revera.

“My father, well he was more of a blood, guts and war freak, so he found himself at a battlefield. He had so much fun and it was kind of funny to watch, a lot of stuff broke.”

I knew more or less now what their homework was all about, to create their dream world through a gadget, and they’d created it in less than a week. I was so in over my head with all of this.

“Sophia,” Mrs. Delvaga said and the girl next to me took a huge breath with a slight smile on her lips.

“Wish me luck,” she whispered.

“I doubt that you’ll need it.”

She giggled, got up and took one of the contraptions that were stacked in a row with all the other masterpieces.

“So, I decided to make mine more visual, and share it with the entire class.” She smirked at Sy.

“Hear, hear,” Sy remarked and the entire class broke out in laughter. She didn’t shy away this time and something told me that she was in her element.

Her small contraption had so many levers that I wondered if she knew how to even operate the thing.

She pulled the first one and I jumped in shock as a string of colors poured out of a nozzle and filled the entire classroom.

We all gasped.

Colors swam past me and just like the time I’d entered Revera, I had to find out if I could touch them. Soft sparkling granules prickled my palm as I held it in the orange mixed with pink and when I took my hand out, small orange and pink sparkles were all over my palm.

When I looked up the walls of the room and the roof had disappeared. The entire class was sitting on a rainbow that stretched as far as I could see.

It was simply amazing and I even had to pinch myself to know I was awake.

“I call this Rainbow Land,” Sophie said.

“Extremely original Soph, like always,” Sy chirped.

“Well at least everyone can experience mine, Siegfried,” she said in a mocking tone and pulled the next lever.

Snow poured from the nozzle this time, and soft snowflakes drizzled on everyone. It fell everywhere on the rainbow covering all the colors.

It changed the scene from Rainbow Land to a snowy day. Trees appeared in the distance topped with snow and even a hulking mountain stood solid on the horizon. I reached out and touched the snow that was covering my feet. It felt so real, but it didn’t feel cold.

“Let me guess this one,” Sy said, “A Snow Day?”

Soph ignored him but picked up a snowball and it spattered all over Sy’s face. All of us jumped from our pillows and started pelting each other with snowballs. Even Mrs. Delvaga got in a ball or two.

Laughter filled the entire class. Okay, so I had to admit, we’d never had a class like this back home.

When Mrs. Delvaga had enough, she quieted everyone down and we all took our seats on our pillows.

With a pull of the next lever a bunch of butterflies flew out. Thousands of them, not one alike, filled the classroom. The entire class snickered as for some reason half of them came to sit on me. I guessed it was a Tula thing.

The snow disappeared and we were left in a meadow with millions of butterflies around us.

“Can you guess this one Sy?” Soph batted her eyes.

“Butterfly Cove?” The class laughed again as Soph had an annoyed glare on her face. She didn’t say anything.

“I’m right, aren’t’ I?”

“Just shut up.”

“She might not be original with choosing her names,” Mrs. Delvaga said, “but I absolutely adore her creations.”

Sophie smiled and pulled the last lever.

We all ducked as flying candy came our way and when it was all done, we were surrounded by candy houses and a road made from candy.

Mrs. Delvaga clapped her hands. It was simply amazing.

“Candy Land,” we all sang and Soph just shook her head and took a bow.

All of us clapped as the candy land disappeared and we were back inside an extremely dull and normal classroom again.

Three more creations were shown and I had to admit that Sophie’s was the best.

When the bell rang, class was over. I had no idea what time it was but by the two suns still shining brightly I knew that it was still a long time before lunch.

WE ENTERED MR. DINGLE’S CLASS AND TOOK OUR seats when the bell rang.

He was sitting behind his desk and my eyes met Max’s again as he got up and walked to Mr.Dingle’s desk. Margot, who followed her brother, flashed me a glare and I looked away.

Sometimes I could swear she knew that I was carrying dark sand, but then again, she would’ve said so a long time ago. She wasn’t the type that kept things to herself.

Natalie fell into the seat next to me. “How was your first Designing class?”

“So awesome,” I whispered back. “Sophie is really good.”

“I know. She blows everyone’s minds away. She should be in Designing.”

“Why isn’t she?”

“She chose to be a Guardian. Said there aren’t enough Guardians to begin with…she has a good heart.”

I liked Sophie more and more. She might be a geek, but they were my favorite kind of people anyway.

I admired her for her brilliant mind and hoped that one day I would be able to create something like that myself.

Mr. Dingle was speaking softly to Max and Margot. I could still hear today’s events getting passed from teacher to sub-teachers but what they said specifically I didn’t quite make out.

They each picked up a paper and took their seats.

“Good morning everyone.” Mr. Dingle greeted the class. “I hope you had a good night’s rest as today you will be spending time with Leigh.”

“We will?” I looked at Nat who had this huge grin plastered on her face, she didn’t reply.

“Yay us!”

We broke and walked over to another room at the back of the class. It reminded me so much of the one in the compound, the only difference was that this one had a gazillion tables and chairs.

We all took a seat and Mr. Dingle left the room.

Nobody made a peep and Natalie lay back in her chair with eyes closed as if she was going to take a nap.

I started to think about Dingle again and what Fox had said. Had he really wanted to be a Shadow Caster and if so, why hadn’t Leigh told me about this? He had warned me about everything else so far. Having a Shadow Caster for a professor fell in the danger category, sort of.

As I lay there, I yawned and my eyes started to close for no reason.

Bright light woke me and I found myself with the rest of the class inside a ruin structure. Part of the roof was still intact with lights seeping through the holes where the ceiling used to be. The floor was cement and the walls were partially dilapidated.