Today has been pretty crazy. It all started when Daniel approached me after lunch.
"B, there's a meeting after night classes tonight. Be there." And he walked away.
Earlier that day I had successfully disarmed three straight opponents in all three of my weapons classes, earning the award of "the triple triple." Only nine other people had done it, which I found weird considering that it was only disarming three consecutive people. But when I considered how many people took all three weapons classes, it began to make sense. Because of this happening, I thought that the "meeting" thatt was tonight was for me.
Boy was I wrong.
I walked into the library, expecting to see teachers or maybe some kids from advanced weapons. Instead, I saw a small group of underclassmen standing near one of the tables, a mixture of Fleshies and Spirits.
"Hi, Bellerophon."
Greta and Zoe walked towards me, both glad to see me there.
"What is this?" I asked.
"It's a get together of famous names," replied Greta.
"And you want to know if people here live up to their namesakes?"
Zoe and Greta frowned.
"Yeah... how did you know that?"
"Because, Zoe, of your interest in my name."
Greta frowned again, and turned to the rest of the group.
"Why don't we get started."
A collection of weapons lay upon the table, and as I gathered around, I noticed that they were all real.
"Advanced weapons agreed to let us borrow some of their training weapons. We're here to see if you live up to the names you have been given."
Michael was first. He took a medium sized sword and actually set on fire. He then proceeded to take apart the training dummy.
Achilles took a short sword and launched himself through the air and stabbed the sword though the heart of the dummy.
Various others went after, and then suddenly the attention turned to me.
"Greta, do you have any flying horses?"
Everyone laughed. Except Greta.
"No, but I have a bow."
She threw a longbow at me a little harder than was necessary. I strung the bow and then picked up an arrow off the table. I notched the arrow and walked to the other side of the room. And then I started. It got easier every time I aimed a bow. I focused on where I wanted the arrow to land. I drew the bow, careful to stop my breathing. The dummy appeared to float right in front of my face. And then I imagined myself reaching out and stabbing the arrow exactly were I wanted it to go. I released, the low thrum of a longbow filling my ears.
A gasp issued from the group. From across the library, almost 75 yards, I had put an arrow through the mouth of the dummy.
The meeting was pretty much done after that. I quickly left the library, but as I passed some of the Fleshies on my way out, I heard one of them whisper to his friend.
"He will silence those that doubt him."

This morning was funny. And I don't mean funny ha ha I mean funny weird. First of all, instead of being so sore I couldn't move, I actually felt better than yesterday morning. I was more energetic, I was quicker, I was stronger, I was things I shouldn't have been. I sat next to Dvarek at breakfast, and he noticed it too.
"Seems like you're skipping the freshman hell week."
"Yeah, it kinda creeped me out this morning."
"It might just be that you're life aligned, but I don't know."
"Yeah I don't know either... so, what is there to do around here when class isn't in session?"
"Hehe well, the die hards hang out in the weight room or at the track. Some go to the library to learn, others go to try to pick up spirit mage girls."
"What about Fleshy girls?"
Dvarek snorted into his cranberry juice. "You have any Fleshy sisters?"
"Nope."
"Well that explains it. Fleshy girls are either ugly or viscious. Period."
"That's bullshit. There have to be some in between."
"None that I've seen."
As we turned back to eat, Tjaden walked up to Dvarek. "Dvarek, today at 12:30. Usual place, same rules."
Dvarek laughed and turned to me. "Eat up, B, you're skipping lunch today."
I wasn't sure what to expect, but Light weapons drove the questions from my mind. It was strange, I knew the shrimps weren't taking it easy on me, but it was a lot easier to keep up than yesterday. And in medium weapons, I actually put the small kids on the defensive and was par with the big guys. I still got the shit beat out of me, but I dodged more, blocked more, and landed some good hits. Stamina class was way too easy, and I was worried that something was wrong when a thousand sit ups felt like 700. First Aid was so boring it wasn't even worth mentioning. I was still thinking about morining classes when I walked into the Mess Hall.
"Kay B's here, let's go."
Dvarek grabbed my shoulder as he and the other guys walk out of the Mass Hall.
"So Dvarek, what exactly are we going to? And where?"
"We're headed to the library for the fights."
"Who's fighting?"
"Occasionally there are some guys with beefs, but most people go for the girls."
"Fleshy girls fight each other there?"
"And Spirits. Today the headliner is actually a Fleshy on spirit."
"I did not expect that."
"It is pretty rare. That's why so many people are coming."
As we walked into the library, I saw the crowd of people. There must have been hundreds, a mixture of all three classes. They stood in a circle around an area cleared of all tables and shelves. The seven of us shoved our way to the inner most ring of people, and Tjaden hopped up onto the table nearest the center ring.
"Are there any who wish to enter their own fight?"
The crowd was silent.
"Then let the main event begin!"
A Fleshy girl walked out from one side of the ring. She had brown hair and soft features not at all unattractive. That left viscious. She was graceful and sure, walking around the ring with a confident air. The Spirit girl walked in from the other side of the ring, gliding around as though her feet weren't actually on the ground. She had blond hair and had hard lined features. Her silver and gray robes gave away that she was a Spirit, not to mention the disdain she showed for the Fleshy girl. She also circled the ring, as if to show off. When both were at opposite sides of the circle, they stopped. Tjaden stood up once again and spoke.
"Place bets!"
I turned to Dvarek, shocked. He laughed at my ignorance and replied, "That's the whole point of these fights."
"Is this allowed?"
"No killing is allowed, so... yeah."
People flooded to the table by Tjaden. Bets were going both ways, and it looked like even odds. Once all those that were betting had finished, the contestants squared up, preparing to fight.
"Dvarek, who are those two?"
"I haven't seen them before, they must be freshman."
"What alignment is the Fleshy?"
"How does she walk?"
"Smoothly."
"And what can you deduce from that?"
"Either walking is easy for her, meaning she's speed aligned, or her muscles are working at maximum efficiency, making her endurance aligned. Or she could be both."
"Good work, my friend."
The two contestants faced each other, and the fight began.
The Spirit made a handsign, a beam of light shot from her palm. The Fleshy easily dodged, sliding into a leg sweep. With a surprising amount of agility, the Spirit flipped over the leg, signing in the air. When her kick missed, the Fleshy spun around and clipped her thumb, drawing blood and forming summoning symbols. At the same, the two fighters summoned creatures. A shadow cat, a smaller feline version of a shadow wolf, by the Fleshy, and a glowing, erethreal tiger by the Spirit. The two creatures lept at each other, and exploded in a huge flash. A cheer went up from the crowd. But then something strange happened. The Fleshy walked up and gave the Spirit a high five. The crowd died. I started laughing and turned to Dvarek.
"Looks like we found a good looking, level-headed girl Fleshy."
The two girls walked out of the library and turned left. I quickly shoved my way through the crowd and went out the side entrance of the library. I caught up to the pair just down the hallway.
"Hey."
The Fleshy turned to me and I realized that she was in my Stamina class.
"What?"
"I just wanted to say that that was a great show, and way to blow the minds of everyone in that room."
Both of the girls laughed.
"I told you everyone would be surprised, Zoe."
The Fleshy huffed and turned away from her friend.
"Whatever, Greta, people are so closeminded."
They both laughed again.
"I'm Zoe, " said the Fleshy.
"I'm Greta," said the Spirit.
"I'm Bellerophon."
"You mean Bellerathorn?" said Zoe
"It's the Greek version," said Greta.
"Yeah."
"So you're Bellerophon, slayer of the Chimera?" asked Greta?
The two girls looked at each other. Greta nodded to Zoe. Zoe leaned over and whispered in my ear, "We'll be contacting you," and then she and Greta walked away. Puzzled, I realized that I was almost late for Proffessor Long's.
The rest of the day passed with out event, except in creation we learned about implanting summoning marks rather than actually working on our constructions.

Zoe and Greta still have me worried.

Hell began today. First, in Light Weapons, we paired up to fight with staffs as a basic training tool. It wouldn't have been a problem except that almost everyone who takes Light weapons is either speed or endurance aligned, meaning I got the crap beat out of me by shrimpy kids that moved so fast that they were hard to see. In Medium Weapons, the heavier training swords slowed down the small kids, but the strength aligned guys hit hard. I wasn't being hit as often, but the hits did some real damage. I stumbled out of the class carrying some serious bruises. But when I walked into heavy weapons, I about shit my pants. Those guys were huge! I was easily the smallest guy in the room, and the grins on the other guys faces told me that this was not going to be fun. For not being trained, those guys were strong enough to hand it to me with almost no trouble. Even though they were padded, the practice war hammers did everything but break bones. Dodging only worked for so long, and those guys were strong enough to just deflect my swings. Stamina didn't help any. Running four miles and then concentrating on a fly was not my kind of fun. Then we did 1,000 sit-ups and practiced releasing adrenaline and other chemicals.
I crawled into Long's room, not sure what to expect. A small Asian man stood in the center of the room. He was compact, built like a fighter,with a surprising amount of muscle packed onto his lean frame. Once I had entered, he turned to me with a smile.
"Hello, Bellerophon."
"Hello proffessor."
"I bet you are wondering why you aren't scheduled for this class?"
"Yeah, I wasn't sure as to why the note was disguised, but not to any flesh mages."
"You have been chosen to enter the Death Fist."
I felt the color leave my face.
"What's the Death Fist?"
"It is both a martial art and a group that operates in this school. The most skilled fighter in the Advanced Martial Arts class is asked to enter. You have been chosen based on other skills you possess. Since you haven't gone through the classes and Death Fist doesn't meet until second semester, you will be training with me until then."
"What skills do I possess that make me desired for this group?"
"You will start to understand tomorrow morning."
"Oh."
"Why don't we begin?"
And so for the rest of the hour we trained. Proffessor Long taught me quite a bit for one period, and I felt like I retained most of it. And although we did strenuous work, I didn't feel tired by it at all. I felt better in First Aid, and I actually healed some of my bruises. Creation made me want to vomit, but was utterly cool at the same time. We began to construct our first creature, and at first I was overwhelmed. I had decided to make a shadow wolf, and even though it was only a medium-class construct, I had to work my hardest to keep up with those doing easier projects. The shadow wolf is the same general shape as a wolf, except it is about five feet at the shoulder and extremely muscular. Mine had black and brown hair, large fangs, and red eyes with yellow irises and black pupils. Even working at high speed, I was only half finished at the end of class. Summoning was interesting, but the teacher creeped me out. He was short and greasy looking, and was unclean in both hygiene and language. Ranged weapons was the probably the most fun thing I've ever done. It seemed like all we did is throw and shoot stuff at targets. It seemed that I carried my namesakes skill with the bow. Screwing around throwing knives at cutouts with the seniors was something that I looked forward to doing for the rest of the year.
When I finally got back to my room, I realized how tired I was.
I hope tomorrow is better, but I'll probably be so sore that it will be horrible.

Dvarek took one glance at my schedule and let out a low whistle.
"This is some very advanced course work."
"Really?" I asked, my voice betraying my worriedness.
"You're taking Light Weapons first period, Medium Weapons second, and Heavy Weapons third. And second semester you transfer to the advanced courses for them. Fourth period you have Stamina first semester, and... Advanced Stamina second? Only Stamina aligned people take Advanced Stamina, and if you were you wouldn't be in Heavy Weapons."
"Well, I--"
"What are you aligned to, anyway?"
Flesh magic is divided into seven branches according to certain abilities of the human body: strength, speed, stamina, which is also called endurance, mind, life, death, and creation. Any flesh mage can use any of the types of magic, but every one has a branch that they are stronger at, or "aligned" with.
"I don't know which I'm aligned with."
"What, your parents didn't know?"
"They wouldn't tell me."
Dvarek looked at me with a suspicious glint deep in is eye.
"Let's see... lunch, obviously, and fifth period you have an open period. Those are rare, cherish them while you can. Sixth period you have First Aid this semester, and... Advanced First aid second semester?! Why the hell is a freshman in Advanced First Aid?!"
Dvarek spun his head to me, fear and pity mixing on is face. The bottom of my stomach fell out.
"What's wrong with Advanced First Aid?"
"It's for seniors and skilled juniors. By then they've gotten good enough at blocking pain to take the course."
I gulped. "Blocking pain?"
"In First Aid you learn to reattach severed body parts. In Advanced First Aid they remove internal organs and have you reattach them."
The color drained from my face. I looked to Dvarek, scrambling for a way to get out. Dvarek smiled a weak smile in an attempt to reassure me.
"You wouldn't be in that class if you weren't capable. You'll be fine."
"I guess... what about ranged weapons?"
Dvarek laughed. "You don't take that until you are a senior." The grin vanished from his face. He flipped over my schedule and looked at the back. He glanced to me and then back to the schedule. "Night classes."
"Which ones?"
"First Creation this semester and Advanced Creation second, then Summoning first and Advanced Summoning second, and finally Ranged Weapons first and Stealth/Assassinry second."
"No martial arts?"
"Nope. Wait, what are these..."
He looked at the bottom of the page carefully reading something. He handed me the schedule.
"Read those."
Strange symbols were written across the bottom of the paper.
"What are those?"
"Runes," replied Dvarek.
"But I can't read r--" Suddenly, the runes resolved themselves into words that I could read normally: Please report to Proffessor Long's room fifth period.
I looked up to Dvarek.
"Proffessor Long is the martial arts intructor."
"So why write the note in runes?"
Dvarek looked up the table.
"Daniel, come here."
A tall, broad, muscular boy walked over.
"Yeah?"
"Can you read these?"
Daniel looked at the paper then at me.
"Yes."
Dvarek once again looked for someone at the table.
"Adam, take a look at these."
A medium build blond pretty boy lithely slinked to where we were sitting.
"Do these show themselves to you?"
"Yes."
Dvarek nodded his head, as if his hypothesis was being proven.
"J--"
"Already here, Dvarek."
Dvarek jumped about a foot in the air. "You have to stop doing that, Joshua."
If a flesh mage could look nerdy, Joshua did. His eyes betrayed a very advanced intellect.
"Yes, I can read those runes."
Dvarek quickly counted off on his fingers.
"George. Tjaden. Come here."
George was a skinny guy with bright eyes and a bounce in his step. Tjaden was thickly built with a strong German nose, and as he got close to me, I realized he smelled faintly of cooked meat.
"Can you two read these?"
Both nodded.
Dvarek turned back to me.
"Runes only allow themselves to be read by those the writer feels worthy to read the message. We represent all of the branches of flesh magic except death, of which there are no students at the academy right now. Whoever the writer of this message didn't want to read it, flesh mages are allowed to."

The rest of my day passed boringly enough. That night as I got ready for bed, I wrote in this entry in this journal.
I hope tomorrow goes well.

The boy slept quietly, his mother fearfully sitting at his side. The stranger continued his whispered conversation with the father once he had settled by the fire. "Well?" inquired the father, nervousness scrawled on his face, "where do his skills lie?"
"That's just it. The apptitude tests are inconclusive," replied the man.
"So he isn't skilled at anything?"
"No. He's skilled at everything."
"My God!" The man glanced at his wife, and continued in a whisper, "what does that mean?"
"It means he could be the one. He could be... the Arbiter."

I looked up at the huge stone building, stoic and overbearing. I approached the front gate, glancing at the latin motto: Sis Vivo, Instrou Morior.
If you want to live, prepare to die.
I entered the cold, stone courtyard, passing the loitering upperclassmen as I made my way to the front door. Etched in the arch above was the name of the school I was to begin my education at. Academy of Veneficus. The Academy of Magic.
The front hall, while brightly lit, appeared old and worn, like this castle had existed even before the Romans. Flesh mages like me, masters of the human body, walked quickly through the hall, their fit, muscular bodies exuding power form every pore. Spirit mages, masters of the mind and of the Aether, the nothingness between worlds, glided gracefully, some not hiding their disdain for me. Even though I had only been in this building a few seconds, I began to feel like I knew where everything was. I went through the second set of doors and into the Mess Hall.
Two huge tables ran down the length of the room, flesh mages sat at one, spirit mages at the other. At the far end of the tables was a much smaller table where a handful of runewriters sat. Using runes written on their bodies, runewriters wove many types of strange spells.
I sat down next to the friendliest Fleshies I could find which was more difficult than you might think.
"Hello."
"Hi there. I don't recognize you. Did you transfer here?"
"No, I'm a freshman. But the headmaster's letter asked me to come today and skip the orientation tomorrow."
"Ugh. Don't remind me. A whole pack of freshies all in one spot."
"I wish I could still learn about some of my teachers before class starts."
The upperclassmen grinned at me. "I'm Dvarek."
I replied, "I'm Bellerophon. Strange name, I know."
Dvarek laughed. "Well, Bellerophon, why don't I take a look at your schedule?"
And so I handed it to him.