Chapter 1

The blessed.



Jude hated the rain. But it always rained in Tirin. The rain seemed as though it was chasing him, ever since the incident. He sighed heavily pressing his forehead against the wall, but kept his right eye on the window, he knew it impossible but he thought the rain might just break the window just to embrace him. he placed his hand on the window pane and watched as the water droplets pounded against the glass, and then, as if drawn by magnetism, the water droplets shot to where his fingertips rested on the other side of the glass. It'd been nearly a month since that started happening, he figured it was just the rain getting impatient.
Jude left the library without a book that day. He stalked down the old greek hallway paying no heed to his many classmates stumbling to spend their precious free time. He escaped into his room and shut the door tight. His room was white walled with shut windows and lamps lighting it. His few furnishings were a bare desk, a bed, a bookcase, and a chair. He collapsed on his bed. He heard rain drumming on the roof, and smothered his ears in a pillow and slept. He saw the yellow lights of the keepers blaring as soon as his eyes closed, and the men in silver coats shielding the drenched boy from the rain in their umbrellas. He looked back at the house, or where it used to be. When he awoke he heard knocking at the door. He slumped out of bed and answered the door. Outside the door was the last person, or thing, he wanted to see, Archimedes.
“Greetings, Jude.” He said in his usual emotionless tone. In front of Jude was Archimedes, a living statue. He was a tad taller than Jude, his skin wasn’t skin at all, rather a smooth flexible stone. He was carved in old greek fashion, hardly skilled in Jude’s opinion. “I believe that the master wishes to see you.” His stone face looked like it would crack as a slight smile appeared on his face.
“What? Why?” Jude said slightly annoyed.
“The master wishes to see you in his office, I  can say most assuredly that he will tell you the reason.” Jude scowled and ran his fingers through his dark hair, down to the back of the neck.
“Alright I’ll go see him in a second.”
“Best not to keep the master waiting, mind.” The statue made a clicking sound and vanished out of the hallway without so much as a flash, most likely he had gone back into the courtyard where he stood inactive as decoration. Jude stumbled back into his room. He washed his face and pulled on a different shirt, ran his finger through his hair, then donned the deep green jacket with the Tirin insignia. He played the scenarios through his head. He thought it might have been about the the strange outbursts he’d been having during the day, randomly his temperature flared up and he broke into a sweat. His grades? No, he got perfect scores and he worked weeks ahead of the other students. His shoes made an ominous sound as they tapped on the stone floor. He was alone. He plodded up the stairwell. Prehaps it had to do with the vist from the households. nearly seven were coming over the weekend, which was a big deal for Tirin. He couldn’t recall ever seeing more than one or two household leaders in the province much less the school. He was now on the fourth story, wind billowed into the open hallway making him shiver. Finally he was near the door. The great oak door stood strong and straight. As if it had stood resolute through a thousand years and never been breeched. He turned the brass knob. The door opened heavily as he pushed it, not letting it swing open. It was surprisingly not quite as heavy as he’d thought, others had always opened it for him. The brass was cold in his hand but that hardly bothered him, he was far too distracted by the room. It had several large windows at the back of it but curtains closed off the view. The room was lit in candlelight instead of lamp. A great oak desk stretched across the room, on it numerous candles dwindled in a mass of melted wax. in the center was an oak chair. On this chair sat an odd man. His name was Berns, but most called him master Berns. He had a thin, crafted mustache, and a bald head. His garments were arranged so messily that you couldn’t quite tell what was robe, what was tunic, and what were trousers. But he sat dignified book in hand and intrigued eyes stared into its contents. Once Jude opened the door master Bern’s eyes looked up. Jude closed the door quietly and bowed his head. Bern stared at him for a moment and then returned his eyes to the book. Jude stood there for a moment before Bern glanced back up.
“Well boy aren’t you going to sit?” Bern cocked an eyebrow and nonchalantly waved a hand at a wood stool on the opposite side across from Bern. Jude nodded his head again and sat in the chair. after a moment Bern placed a purple ribbon in the book and set it down. He drummed his fingers on it again and then picked it up, opened it and resumed his reading. They sat there for what seemed like five minutes, though it may have been scarcely more than one. Finally Master Bern spoke “Jude, now may I ask, do you know your parents?” Jude swallowed and blinked a few times “ No, no I don’t know sir”
“So you're record reads, you were raised in a home assigned to you by the government before your talent would be trained?” Jude gave a curt nod “and the home was lost in an unfortunate incident.” Jude shuddered a little but did his best to hide it, he nodded again. He kept contact with Master Bern, who kept a glittering eye on him. Master Bern sighed. “Now the professors, and some frightened students have reported you having odd, episodes.” Jude spoke up now
“Yes sir”
“And they describe these episodes as, spastic bursts of heat, temperature changes, and most notably, slight bits of electric matter at the fingertips.”
“I don’t know about ‘electric matter’, sir, but my body has been acting in an... unorthadox fashion.” Master Bern placed a fingertip on his temple and muttered something to himself. then he turned to Jude
“Jude, as you know several households will be visiting the school, they may want to adopt students into the discipleship.” He paused to ensure that Jude was paying attention before he went on. “I am sorely tempted to put you before them.” He let that sink in. Jude didn’t know what to think about that, it would mean graduating early and getting a headstart in devolping his abilities. He wasn’t too sure if he cared about that but they might be able to do something about his strange episodes, and maybe he’d escape the country by working aboard for the households as an assistant diplomat or something. On the other hand that life in discipleship is hard. There are massive amounts of traditions, rituals, and duties that the disciple must perform and he wasn’t too keen on that. Master Bern continued “The idea of putting a student as young as yourself is risky enough without these episodes, now Jude, let me be frank, are these episodes a real problem?” He was leaning forward now, eyebrows knit, searching for his answer as if Jude were another one of his cryptic books. Doubt seized Jude, every part of him wanted to scream yes.
“No,” Jude said, “It’s not a problem.”

Author's Note

the dialogue is rough, and so is the majority of the writing. This is an old project I stopped working on last april. I want to reboot the story, so tell me what you think