The next step in Mr. Silver’s master plan was more training, but this was unlike anything they had ever performed before. There was no way of telling night from day when hidden in the tunnels, so it became easy for them to lose track of time. Victor suspected that a week had passed when bacon began to taste normal again. This made him sad, but alas it was an inevitable truth. Once they each had their ‘sea legs’ as Caesar named it, they were schooled in how to master their new etheric abilities.
Where once Victor could barely turn himself invisible, soon he was able to make not only groups of people, but large items such as tables vanish from sight. They were able to bend light and cast illusions on a grander scale, or reforge physical matter in the blink of an eye.
“They’re good,” Ling admitted to Silver one dim afternoon. “Better than I was at their age.”
Silver agreed. “Times were less dire back then. People appreciated us. We weren’t forced to hide in the shadows.”
“Do you really think this will all last? Without us here?”
“I don’t expect the academy to live on after we leave.” He gazed upon the masses of hunters that remained of the academy. They had set up their desks and their contract boards and established an armoury, but the fight that approached was beyond their abilities. “Their only purpose now is to distract Elizabeth long enough for us to do what is necessary. We no longer need them.”
“Are you going to tell our initiates?”
Silver shook his head. “They still think they’re human. They are not ready to know everything just yet. If they learn that truth before we make the crossing it could jeopardise everything!” He paused. “How are they, by the way?”
“Well, they’ve adapted well enough. I kind of wish I had eaten more delicious meals when I was initiated; they made that bacon sound like something else,” she laughed. “I think they are ready to try casting an astral shadow.”
“Very well, show them how.”
Ling went off to find the students. Silver remained, unmoving, deep in thought. Jumping between worlds was a risky business. It required supreme confidence and yet for the first time in half a century he felt uncertainty rising from deep within.
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