Part 16 - Introductions

Vysna was tense; although she did not have to leave her family, she had to leave the college. The rest of her education, career and life would be with the Parthams in their world, which was now her world too. It was difficult for her to digest the truth that she was now, like her mother, a Partham. Surprisingly she got a leave certificate easily from her college. Uncle Markand had pulled some strings to get this done quickly and discreetly.

She had found out that she would be studying at a special school for Parthams during the day till 2. pm and then working at Shanka Bali's office from the afternoon till the evening at 6. pm. This was going to be her schedule for a year. She was told that she had to join the school because would need to know about their history, heritage and traditions.

Her entire day was going to be occupied. Joining a new school at her age was like joining kindergarten all over again. She felt a bit jittery thinking about it. New teachers, classmates and friends. Friends? She wondered if she would make any new ones. But her new school was not like she'd ever imagined. Almost all of her classmates were four years younger than her, only fifteen years of age.

Her mother had applied the petition to the council four years ago. And it had taken four years, numerous phone calls, meetings, and emails, to get one meeting arranged with the Council elders. And that too, an entire year had passed when her mother had to meet different Partham Council Elders at different times, trying to convince them to exempt all of them.

Her first meeting was with Siv Lokesh, the senior among all the Council Elders. Her mom had told her that it would be easy to convince him because he had known Leysa since she was a child. Her mother had accidentally revealed that her grandmother and Elder Lokesh were good friends. That's when she found out that she had a grandmother who was not only a Partham but was also alive. Her grandmother had disowned her mom for marrying a human. And her mom had not been in contact with her since. Leysa had made Vysna promise that she would not try to meet or contact her grandmother at any cost. Vysna had promised.

Then, a council meeting was arranged for Elder Siranth Memal, who she thought was one of the coolest-looking Elders, and Elder Meera Surishi, who looked very young to be a council elder, and she seemed nice. They had agreed to exemption immediately.

Then, the last meeting with Biswa Raj and Aveda happened, and everything had gone haywire.

Now that things had come back to something manageable, she hoped it remained uneventful.

Her college was about ten kilometres away from her house. Her mother had dropped her there, for the first day.

Her first day of school was dull. Her first class was History, not the same history which she had learnt in her school. The Partham history was different from that of humans. It was only an introductory class. Then there was a communications class which she knew she would fail as she did when they had lessons with Uncle Markand. After that was a class for Partham politics, council rules and management and the last class was for the Practical elements.

She was the only student in that class as no one shared her element, they didn't even have a professor to teach that subject. So, they asked her to join any other elements class. She decided to join a practical Air class. This was the highlight of her day. There she felt a bit better as she was not the only one struggling.

Shanka Bali's office was about four kilometres away from the school. She decided to take a taxi. When she reached there she was surprised. The building was not what she had expected. She thought it would be a modern building, like a skyscraper, with glass windows, security guards and a parking lot, but it was the opposite.

It was a basalt stone building with long pillars, arching windows, and rounded buttresses at the entryway. A lawn in the front yard and marble statues that looked ancient. The building itself looked old but seemed like it was maintained with care. A few people were entering and exiting the building. Many of them looked quizzically at her.

She held her backpack close and entered through the giant door in the front. Inside the building, the view was no different. High ceiling, a row of pillars and rooms on opposite sides, it looked more like the interior of a fort. The only thing which made it look modern were the lights. They were bright and the designs were practical and the building was probably air-conditioned. The temperature inside the building was cool and soothing.

There was a reception desk on the right-hand side. She walked towards it.

" Hello, I am here to meet Mr. Bali. My name is Vysna Akin, sorry Vysna Bhaskara." She told the receptionist behind the table.

" Oh, Ms. Bhaskara, Sir has been waiting for you. His office is on the first floor, straight ahead at the end, to the left side." The receptionist replied.

"Thank you," she said and started climbing the stairs. The stairs were broad. On the wall on either side of the stairs were pictures. The pictures had illustrations of temples and archaeological sites; some of the sites she could recognise, but some of them looked very ancient. What was she going to work as here, she wondered.

When she reached the first floor the view had changed. There were no rooms here. It was a long hall with numerous windows. At the end of the hall was a single room on the left side. She wondered why it had been designed this way.

She knocked on the door and heard a voice calling her inside.

Shanka Bali was sitting at a large redwood table underneath a dome-shaped archway. His office was almost empty except for a few chairs in front of his desk and a long table at one side with books spread across them. It was a closed room with only one large window on the right. He got up from the chair and greeted her with a smile. He was wearing a light blue plaid shirt and dark blue trousers, he had slick back hair and was wearing rimless spectacles.

"Good afternoon, Ms Bhaskara," he said," or should I call you Vysna, is it okay if I call you Vysna?" He asked her.

She nodded.

"Please, have a seat," he said, gesturing to the chair in front of him.

She sat down.

" So, how was your first day at the school?" He asked.

Horrendous, she wanted to say," It was good." She ended up saying with a half-hearted smile.

"Good, good... These are a few forms that you will have to fill out; I am in no hurry; you may submit them by evening." He placed a few papers in front of her on the desk. " Firstly, let me just welcome you. I am extremely glad that your mother agreed to send you." He said gleefully.

As if she had a choice, you all had almost brought her to a breaking point. The words were dancing at the tip of her tongue, but she didn't verbalise them. She smiled at him.

"About fifty people are working for me at this office and eighty more work remotely. We have teams of ten to twenty people who work on-site. I have appointed you to one of those teams." He said as he picked up a phone from his desk. " Lara... is Reeba here... Ok then send her to my office." He spoke on the phone.

A few minutes later there was a knock at the door.

" Come in. Reeba, I want you to meet your new team member, Vysna Bhaskara," he said, looking at the person behind Vysna at the door.

Vysna got up from her seat and turned to see who he was talking to. A woman in her early twenties was walking towards her. Her curly dark brown hair, bronze skin, v-neck black ribbed t-shirt and dark blue jeans made her look like some kind of a model walking straight out of a magazine. Vysna was enamoured just by looking at her. She extended her hand to greet her.

" Hi, my name's Reeba Shesha." She said.

She smiled at her." Vysna, Vysna Bhaskara, " she said and shook her hand.

Aaden was waiting at the Renaissance Junior High School campus gate, he reached there at exactly 5:50 am.

He was too anxious to sleep and had gotten up without an alarm. Why did she call him here? He looked around, there was nothing significant about the place. One could see a regular college campus. A large entry gate and adjacent to it was a parking lot. A few bikes and cars were parked there but nothing noteworthy.

He checked his watch for the fifth time. 6:10 it showed. He then decided to walk past the gate to the other side. You are an idiot, at least you could have asked for her number. What if she is waiting at the other gate? He cursed himself.

" Aaden..." He heard someone call. He turned to see who it was. A girl sitting on a bike was waving at him. He didn't know who she was as she was wearing a helmet.

" Um hi?" he said.

"Hop on..." She said.

" What?" he said.

" Come on we are already late." She said.

" What about my bike?" He said, pointing at his bike.

" Oh, then come along... Hurry." She started her bike and waved at him.

He got on his bike and followed her inside the gate. The watchman at the entrance was snoozing and didn't bother to stop them.

She took a sharp left and Aaden followed suit. At the end of the road was another small gate which seemed to lead to a garden. They parked their bikes there, with several other bikes and cars. He saw the plank that hung above the gate which read, RJHS botanical garden. They walked through the small gate. After walking for a while on what seemed like a jogging track they reached an opening. Where he saw a few people gathered in a circle. He recognised Neela immediately and waved at her.

She waved back and smiled.

" The fuck, Sid why are you always so late. You overslept again, didn't you? Said a guy from the circle.

" No I had an assignment, I swear." The biker girl said.

" We know you too well, don't bluff." Another girl from the circle said.

" Okay everyone, this is Aaden." Neela interrupted. " His elder sister got selected as the legacy."

Then she started to introduce each one from the people standing.

"That's Marshall." A tall, lean boy who looked in his early twenties moved ahead and held his hand forward for a shake," My name's Allen Marshall. But they call me Marshall," he said.

" You have already met Sid, Siddhi Joshi." The biker girl waved.

Then Neela pointed at a girl, who looked about sixteen years old.

" That's Shashi NA, She's non-applicable." She laughed.

" That's a bad joke, Neela." The girl said and nodded at Aaden.

" He is Sammad, he likes to cuss a lot," she said. The boy gave her a look and smiled at him.

Then she introduced a few more people from the circle a girl named Sharja Kini and a boy named Dhiraj Raghavan and Naren Sircar.

" I had a senior named Sharvee Kini. Who left college last year." Aaden said.

" That's my older sister, she got selected as a legacy last year. I miss her, I haven't met her since." Sharja said.

At that time Aaden realised how lucky his family was, and how diligent his mother had been. If not for her steadfastness Vysna would not be with them now.

" So what do you think?" His thoughts were interrupted by Neela's question.

" Are you all running a cult or something?" Aaden asked with a smile.

Neela laughed. " No, we are not. This is The Seconds club, all of them have not been selected in the legacy tests. And none of them wants to lose their powers. So, they practice together and maintain their abilities."

Aaden was amazed now it all seemed to make sense." How does this work? How do you all maintain secrecy?"

" That is our first rule, we keep it all undercover. We started this about four years ago." Marshall said," Me and five more of the unselected legacies from my batch. This is kind of a rebel group."

" We think it's unfair that someone else decides our destinies. Who are they to decide whether we belong there or not." A boy named Naren spoke.

" But one thing I want to make clear to you. We do not cause any trouble, not to the council or their sub-agencies. We keep to ourselves and train only to maintain our abilities." Marshall's tone was firm.

" Neela said that you are very talented and that your abilities are strong. It would help us tremendously if you joined. We can help each other out. If you are not interested, you are free to go. But we need your word that you take this secret to your deathbed... But if you are interested then," he extended his hand forward. Aaden took it in his hand," welcome," Marshall said with a smile.

After a couple of hours of talking and discussion, Aaden and Neela left the garden.

" So, how did you find out about this club?" Aaden asked her.

" Marshall and I lived in the same neighbourhood... We dated for a while," she said.

That pinched him a little.

" But his ideologies are different than mine. So it didn't work out." She cleared it out.

Relief washed over him. " What confused me is that you are not a...a half-blood then how do you know about this club?" he asked.

" Oh, well a few years ago my dad was in charge of the tests. He told me about Marshall and his brothers and that Marshall's younger brother Samuel was selected as a legacy. Then one day me and my friends were out on a picnic near Sambra Hills, I met him there. That's when he told me about this group. He didn't know that I was a Partham when we were dating. But when he found out he was angry, not at me but the system and told me why he and his friends had started this group." She sighed," I think it's a great idea. I don't know how it feels like to lose your brother or sister. To forget about them, never meet them. It's unfair. So, I told Marshall that I would help him find people who might be interested in this group." She slowed down," I truly thought that you would get selected. But it's okay at least this way you can keep your abilities and also...we get a chance of meeting again... Perhaps?" She said looking at him intently.

" Sure... I mean it's great. Thank you for introducing me to this group. I owe you," he said.

" You owe me what? A coffee?" She asked, smiling at him.

His eyes widened, he would have loved it but," um... Maybe some other day." He was with Nidhi and he couldn't do that to her. Even if he badly wanted to take Neela out on a date. He wanted to since he had first met her two years ago at the college. But he wouldn't cheat Nidhi.

They parted ways at the main gate.

Aaden couldn't believe his luck. He was ecstatic till he reached his college and then it dawned on him. He will have to keep this a secret. Hide it from his family and siblings. How on earth was he going to do that? He felt guilty for it.

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Hello, my beautiful readers ❤️

I finished editing both the stories on Saturday and was supposed to update this last night but I dozed off.

Hope you all like the new chapter.

What do you think about the characters? Are they interesting? Do you like the story so far? Please give your feedback in the comments.

Loads of love 😘

RTW