"Ajtony!" Kamu's angry voice shook the room, causing the two Zovárds to immediately flinch. "Wasn't you about to teach him theory?" The leader of the Immortal Mist asked in a whisper, as he leaned into the poison-mixing sword ghost's face, who swallowed a huge one.
"But then..." He began to defend himself.
"Don't take me for an idiot, Szotvard. That's a cauldron over there and you're mixing poison, you don't learn." The Ishán put his hands on his hips.
"Okay, we got caught, but it was really your fault for bringing us to a place where we could have free access to a cauldron. You should have expected this." Ajtony shrugged, causing Kamu to close his eyes and sigh heavily.
"Okay, you're right. I really should have seen it coming." He shook his head. "Next time we will practice in a place where you can learn too." He announced. "Now!" Here he grinned. "I will steal you away for a little training. The Teles need to rest for a while now." He chuckled as he put his arms around Suk and led him out of the room where the two Teles were sleeping like rocks, exactly as Kamu had expected. He still remembered perfectly how tiring it was to initially come back from the Shadow World, so he knew what his relatives were going through.
Finally, the Ishán of the Immortal Mist gave Suk a special training session in the Mist center, then let the boy go, who grumbled under his breath to find Teveli so that he and his friend could return to the Athamans. But no sooner had the two of them arrived at the house where the team was staying than the door opened and the future preacher Santi entered the room.
"Greetings to you." He greeted to the team.
"Hello, Santi. What's up?" Rahul asked, sitting up on his bed and blinking curiously at his former friend.
"I have a small task. Are you all here?" He asked and looked around the room to see if he could count the team.
"You're lucky Suk and Teveli got here just now, barely a minute after Wandi." Citar smiled at the danovus sitting next to him.
"Perfect!" The blond boy clapped his hands. "Then I'd like to ask you to follow me. The director wants to see you and since I didn't have anything else to do, I offered to find you." He finished his talk and flashed a silly grin at the team.
"I think it's better if we don't keep the director waiting." Razvan stood up slowly and looked at all the Athamanas to make sure they knew they had to follow him. That's how it was that in a few minutes, nine young people had already rushed to the office of the director of Floating Air Barracks.
"Ah, here are the gems of our school. Thank you for bringing them here." The director greeted the team, then smiled at Santi.
"It's really nothing. See you later, guys. My the Onegod be with you, director." The blond boy waved to the team, and after a nod to the director, he left the room. After he left, however, silence settled over the office for long minutes and the people inside just stared at each other.
"Santi said the director was looking for us. How can we help you?" Rahul finally broke the silence, when it had already started to get awkwardly long.
"Ah, yes, yes. You are here on a very important matter. Yes." The man nodded, but all he achieved was to make the Athamanas look at each other and try to figure out what could have gotten into this madman. "So first of all! The school will hold a big feast tonight in your honor and to celebrate the fact that Floating Air won the Barracks Cup. You are all guests of honor at this dinner." The director looked at the team, smiling.
"Why do I feel like there is something else?" Achilleus asked suspiciously, and Weruh Sesanti only smiled wider at his question.
"Because there is. Considering your exceptional performance, the teaching staff, with my leadership of course." He put his hand on his chest. "Decided to grant you a special honor." He finished the sentence.
"What special honor?" Razvan asked back, frowning.
"Because we all saw how experienced and talented you are as students. Therefore, the faculty and I have decided that, given your participation in the Barracks Cup, you can move up to the senior class without taking the exams and as such you will receive your first fieldwork assignment." The director grinned as he pulled out a sheaf of papers and held it out to Razvan. "Considering your age, you can also take an accompanying teacher with you. Don't worry, it's no big deal, just a little diplomatic trip to the land of undersea-walkers. You need to find out if the undersea-walkers know anything about the surprisingly strong waves that have been frequent in the North Sea lately." He explained the task as Razvan took the papers from him.
"We can choose anyone as an accompanying teacher?" Rahul asked.
"Of course, even me." Weruh chuckled, raising his hand to his mouth. However, as soon as he said this, the team immediately looked at each other and each of them nodded.
"I think we already know who our accompanying teacher will be, Director." Wandi spoke in a serious voice.
"Oh, really? So who will be the lucky one?" The Director of Floating Air Barracks tilted his head to the side curiously.
"Professor Tele Tete." Teveli spoke in a serious voice.
"Oh, our new summoning teacher." Werud Sesanti nodded. "Actually, it's not a bad choice. I wouldn't have thought of it myself, but it's not a bad choice." He held his chin thoughtfully. "It's definitely not bad. Tete is a very skilled cultivator, with him you will be safe, no matter what lies ahead." He turned his head to the side for a moment, as if he had remembered something, but finally he just shook his head and turned back to the team with a smile. "So be it. Then your team will leave in two weeks. Until then, I'll take care of everything for you. Just get yourselves some clothes for the trip, don't worry about the price it's on the school." He clapped his hands here. "But now, scatter children, the feast is about to start. You don't want to miss it." He ushered the team out of his office.
"Okay, I'll be the one to ask. Tell me I'm not the only one who doesn't understand what the Fene an undersea-walker is?" Benkó clapped his hands on his hips when the team returned to their room.
"It's a country of men in the north, but that's all I know about them. They don't really talk about them. They're considered strange people." Rahul shrugged.
"So no one knows who these people could be. But I know who we could ask about them." Teveli spoke up, drawing attention to himself.
"That's brilliant Tev! If anyone knows anything about them, it's them." Suk grinned too.
"Hey, we missed something!" Achilleus noted.
"The Immortal Mist." Suk and Teveli said at the same time.
"That's not a bad idea. Next time we meet them, we'll ask them about the northerners." Razvan nodded.
"Ah, no need to look for them! I bet they'll be flocking to your team tomorrow afternoon. At least, if I know Kamu well." Etele appeared and threw himself on Rahul's bed.
"Grandpa might be right. I noticed they were interested in us. Oh, and I remember we have to visit the blacksmith tomorrow too." Rahul noted.
"Why?" Citar grimaced.
"Because Marianne will be offended for life if we don't have her make our clothes for our field work." The chüvigh boy sighed.
"Well, it would really be better to avoid that." Citar shivered. "That woman can be scary when she's grumpy." He added, making the group laugh out loud.