Three: The Journey Home

“Grehits?” I questioned. “Are you coming with us to the academy? You are an inspiration to be a high priest, but also a vampire.”

“No, no, no, dear child. I am very sorry to say, I am not. I cannot come with you. It may be amazing, but I will never get any respect, it’s just the way I achieved these amazing powers.”

“Do you mind telling me, Grehits?” I heard Claude ask him. It was a surprise, because he usually keeps to himself, and never says anything.

“Of course,” Grehits replied, “I was a high priest under King Benjetta I, the high priest of Gangest Central before me.

“What is Gangest Central?” I inquired, “I’ve never heard of this place before.”

“Oh yes, I forgot, you’re a bit younger of a vampire than me,” Grehits told me with a smile. “Gangest Central is what the Kingdom of Benjetta is today. You see, before King Benjetta I, there was King Pilot, a very generous man, however, he made a very bad mistake.”

“What did he do?” Claude asked another question. This is quite uncommon for him to do.

“He took a young boy under his wing. A boy named Benjetta Aaron Shift. However, this boy was not normal. He came from a different planet. The planet he came from was strange. One thing, it took his planet about three hundred and sixty-five of our years to make at least one of theirs, meaning naturally, he had a very long life span, and was able to stay young for a very long time. He ruled for hundreds of  years, until one day, his new high priest, yours truly, confronted him on his tyranny. When I came into his chamber, he was already aware of my plans to kill him. He was sitting pompously upon his throne, with his body guards at his sides. Then, his body guards approached me and…changed. I realized they were vampires in disguise. They jumped onto my back and bit me several times, draining much of my blood. Being a high priest, I was able to restrain them. Then I cast a spell of sealing upon King Benjetta. He was turned to stone, and I inherited all of his powers. My wounds instantaneously healed, and I felt many elements flowing through my body. Usually, a person can only master two elements in their lifetime. There are only a few Elemental Mages that have mastered all five in their life. But this was different, aside from all five elements, he also mastered light and dark. Usually this is impossible, I haven’t met anyone besides myself to master it. And if I didn’t take his powers, I would have died.”

“How would you have died?” I asked. “So what? You’re a vampire, that should have strengthened you!”

“No child, I’m a high priest. Being a vampire would have contradicted everything in my body. Luckily I was able to seal Benjetta away, and steal his powers beforehand.”

“What is this spell, Grehits?” Claude questioned again. This makes three times. “It has to be very powerful to seal him away.”

“Ah, yes, yes, child, but none of you would be capable of casting it, even if you were able to learn it,” Grehits said, chuckling a bit. “It would be impossible for a vampire to do it, and it’s a spell only known by a high priest. I got extremely lucky at casting it. It’s almost impossible to do. There’s only a one-in-one-hundred chance of it being successful.”

“So is that it?” Claude asked, almost yelling. “What happened after that?”

“King Benjetta came back,” Grehits said with a sigh, “but after sealing him again, he decided to come back again. After that, our small group discovered we had made an error in judgment. We stupidly sealed away the person who could have destroyed all evil, however, after he came back for a third time, we threw him into a portal into his own world. We sent his friends back soon after the death of King Pilot, but he stayed behind and claimed the throne of Gangest Central, renaming the kingdom, Benjetta. However, he didn’t like the name Benjetta, he usually went by Aaron Shift. But that’s how he was known, then he had a son, Benjetta II, and now they’re down to King Knox Shift XVII. It seems we’ve been talking for a while. I believe it would be wise for us to set up camp here. We should arrive at the academy in the morning, but I’ll just be passing through, I won’t stay long.”

“Okay guys,” Jasmine said in her happy-go-lucky voice, “we have a long day in the morning, and I don’t want any of you men sleeping in!”

“Well, Little Miss Fallenangel, it seems you’re the only one who chooses to slumber in the dark hours, we would actually prefer to travel during night.” Claude snapped at her.

This is getting quite peculiar, he’s never this talkative. I wonder what’s going on.