Chapter 1

Selene Helryx trained her eyes at the dreary sky.

Whenever someone mentioned the weather now, all that came to her mind was the bleak gray overcast as she sat on the steps to the unused sports equipment store room while the girls sat in groups in corners of the basketball court while the boys strutted around playing fancy shots trying to grab their attention in the name of the game.

This would be the fourth year she would be spending sports hour alone �" another difficult friendship lost.

She leaned against a pillar as she remembered the awkward conversation during recess.

***

“You’re an Alchemist and I’m someone who failed eighth grade for the second time. If I’m ever to get through high school I can’t be seen with you.” She stated. “The girls in this year aren’t as vicious as the ones in �" well, your year. I hope you can understand.” She stood motionless as she saw yet another lunch mate walking away, leaving her to eat in solitude in the classroom.

Julie Myers sat next to her with her trademark genteel expression.

“I see you’re just picking on your food, Selene.” She said with a well-practiced tone of concern. “Is everything alright?”

“I’m fine, Julie.” She replied, keeping her voice and head down. “Mom just packed a little extra is all...”

“Well, you know we’re always here for you to share it with.” She said, placing a hand on her shoulder. Selene had long ago given up the urge to slap it away. She also knew the invitation was in name only, having made the mistake the first day of school. Julie Myers’ lunch group was the paragon of high school glory. Every member of the group was supposed to laugh along with her as she dished out insult after insult towards everyone she hated �" teachers, students, parents and most of all the Alchemists of the Empire �" upstaging her meant social suicide.

Selene had bluntly defied her.

***

Heaving a sigh, she sat straight and dusted off her arm. She had been relegated to this area the second week of school when they outright avoided her.

She remembered when she went to Julie’s place after she had volunteered in front of the whole class to help her make up for the classes she had missed before joining and the abject humiliation of furiously copying her notes sitting on the porch next to the doghouse while Julie’s mother muttered “That’s where you belong, you freak.”

She had long given up telling her parents about it �" nobody dared to speak up against the influential Myers who held a constituency seat ever since the Republic of Bantam had formed after separating from the Empire.

Selene stood up as the bell rang, signifying the end of sports hour and joining the end of the line. The teachers announced the lineup for the sixtieth Annual Republic Day celebrations next week, naming Julie Myers and Jaken Honda as the representatives for Year Nine. Idly she thought they made a fitting couple as they clapped for their new representatives. Julie was the typical blue eyed blonde high school girl who excelled at everything she attempted with the charm of a celebrity. Jaken was the high school heart-throb with styled black hair and sharp black eyes, counted on by the school to make them proud be it in sports, academics or public speaking. It also helped that the Honda family had a flourishing real estate and media business which they used to propagate the views of those they supported �" who coincidentally happened to be people like the Myers.

If there was ever a time to be an Alchemist living in the Republic of Bantam, this was most definitely not it.

 

 The fifteen minute walk back home was the highlight of Selene’s day. With most of the students either using school transportation to get home or going to entertainment arenas and malls, the by-lanes connecting the residential areas to the school grounds remained unused at four in the evening. It was this fifteen minute stretch that let her escape the constant torment of school and fights at home.

She thought of the Capital where she spent the first ten years of her life. Her closest friend Celeste still continued to call her every month to regale her of adventures that fifteen year olds would get up to. Every month she would smile and hum noncommittally at the right parts and assure her with a smile that everything was indeed alright. Every month Celeste would hold back her tears and tell her she missed her, breaking down at her friend’s lies after disconnecting the call. Every month she would lock herself in the bathroom after the call and wash her face to hide the signs of a long crying session.

She took a deep breath to steady herself as she crossed the road to walk through the public park that led to the residential apartments.

“That was quite a look you were giving me back then, Helryx.” A menacing voice laughed.

“Honda…” she nodded, eyes on his black boots.

“Ah, ah…” he mocked. “Eyes up here, babe…”

Steeling herself, she looked up to face him. Jaken and two of his stooges were still in the school uniform of white shirts and gray trousers with their red and gray pattern ties loosened and collars undone. Jaken had rolled up his sleeves and was leaning against the park fence.

Pushing himself away, he sauntered over to her as she tried her best not to flinch at his invasion of her personal space.

 “I saw the look in your eyes. You looked like you wanted to gobble me up.”

One of the henchmen let out a wolf whistle as he chuckled. “Julie likes her boyfriends to be romantic, who can wax poetry at the snap of her manicured fingers while my father likes my girlfriends rich and influential. What I like, however…” he said, grasping her chin and bringing her face near centimeters apart from his “…are honey-toned raven-haired Alchemist beauties with glimmering black eyes just begging me to have my way with them.”

She turned her gaze away from him, struggling against his iron grip on her chin.

“I’ve seen quite a couple women at my father’s holiday mansion. He always said Alchemist women are rather electrifying in bed.”

She had no time to fight against two set of arms holding her in place while the leader ran his fingers over her chin and neck, trailing over the tie and stopping over the center of her chest.

The surge of electricity from her five-pointed star locket for protection and restraint made him stagger back.

His henchmen held her in place as she kicked and screamed to escape.

“You do know that it’s illegal to possess any signs pertaining to the practice of Alchemy, don’t you Helryx?” he smiled.

“We’re not in school anymore, Honda. Let me go!” she cried out.

“Oh, but you’re still wearing the uniform, and as a student of New Republic High School, you have to uphold the school conduct.” He spouted out Julie’s lines. “Carrying around signs related to such unscientific practices is surely against the principle of scientific temperament. Julie would be very displeased with the both of us if she ever found out what happened.”

“Keep your hands off me!” she tried to kick away from him as he removed her tie and unbuttoned her collar.

“What I say goes, babe. Now let’s take off whatever that tried to electrocute me, shall we?” he said.

Before he could get any further, he was surrounded by a crackling column of light. Honda let out an excruciating scream of pain, scaring his henchmen into unhanding her and rooting Selene to the spot.

A leonine male figure appeared from the wisps of smoke as Honda collapsed. Dark jade orbs connected with raven black ones and greeted them with a smile.

“It seems like I made it in time �" how very heroic of me. He chuckled.

The sound of two other bodies dropping snapped Selene out to the reality.

“It sure took you some time, didn’t it Wheeler?” the man quipped.

Wheeler said nothing as he walked away to stand behind the man, putting his hands inside the pockets of his royal blue trench coat with white lining over blue pants.

“Pleased to meet you, Lady Rathbone.” The man smiled. Wheeler gave a nod of greeting, his amber eyes calculating and fierce as his orange hair.

“You’re mistaken.” She replied. “I thank you for saving me. Please let me through.”

“Oh, but I’m not, dear Lady.” He smiled, taking her hand in his gloved one and pressing his lips against the back of it.

When she pulled back her hand and covered the back of it with her other hand, Wheeler’s eyes went wide in surprise. “You seem to have gotten it right yet again, Alpha.” The bright smile on his face complemented the caramel tone of his skin.

“The lotus and crescent star sign is one of the most revered ones in the Valley. It’s a shame to cover up those marks of pride.” Alpha said.

“Stop it!” Selene cried out as the images assaulted her. She shook her head, trying to chase the nightmare away. “I’m no lady and I’m sure as hell no Rathbone either.”

“Please wait.” Wheeler said, handing out a shimmering card. “Please keep this with you, in case we could ever help you.”

She threw the card away. “Leave me alone.”

“We could help your brother.” Alpha called out as she left, making Selene stop in her tracks.

“Help us in our mission, Lady Rathbone. We could help your brother in return for helping us help other Alchemists in the country.”

She ran to the safety of the apartment gates across the road from the park, paying no heed to Alpha’s calls. 

Author's Note

Grammar check through MS-Word.
All suggestions welcome.