Dax slowly blinked awake, feeling surprisingly refreshed. He wasn't sure where he was, but it was a bedroom of some sort. The walls were bland and white, and there wasn't any furniture other than the bed. He could see a bathroom at the end of a short hallway, and another door that he assumed led outside. There was a single window, right next to the bed.
He stretched, pulling himself into a sitting position, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He assumed that Geoff guy must've taken him here, but why? He'd agreed to be a warlock, so why did he knock him out?
"Good. You're awake." Dax jumped slightly, noticing the serious-looking man standing in the doorway.
"Am I dreaming?" Dax wondered out loud, but he doubted it. He usually dreamed about being a pirate, not teleporting into weird rooms.
"No. This is the Brampton branch of Warlock High. You will reside and train here for the next 5 years, unless you die. My name is Mac." Mac stepped inside the room, frowning slightly as he noticed Dax's posture. "I am your handler. Get up and come with me, please."
Dax shrugged, figuring there wasn't really a reason not to.
He had to jog slightly to catch up to him. "Hey, do you know that Geoff guy?"
"Yes. That is my colleague."
"Why did he knock me out? Do you guys do that with all new students?"
"No."
"Huh?"
"There is a reason Geoff does not do recruiting. He doesn't enjoy it, and he is not good at it. He was only sent to recruit you because he specifically requested to be able to do so, and because of his familial relations to you.:
"Ohhh, yeah!" Dax placed his finger on his chin as he remembered Geoff mentioning that offhand. "He's my Uncle! I forgot about that…"
"If I were to ask him why he knocked you out, I assume he would mention he found it humorous. Come, in here." Mac pushed upon a door at the end of the hallway, and Dax followed him, stepping inside.
There was a large table in the center of the room, and a massive blank sheet of paper, covering the entirety of the back wall. Opposite of the map was what seemed to be a small projector. Sitting at the table was a guy about Dax's age, his eyes a deep brown, his golden hair tied back in a small ponytail. He barely looked up as they entered the room, his head resting in his hands.
"Anthony," Mac picked up a pointer stick that was resting against the wall, and moved to stand next to the paper. "Please turn on the projector."
The boy, Anthony, sighed, slinking out of his chair. As he neared the projector, he made eye contact with Dax, and narrowed his eyes. Then he pressed the 'on' button.
"This," Mac started as the paper lit up with an image of some abandoned building. "Is what the Greenville and William Davis courthouse currently looks like. And this…" Mac tapped the sheet with the pointer, and suddenly the image switched to a much better looking building, the windows sleek and clean, the paint fresh and well-done. It was pretty obviously the same building, just a couple decades apart. "...Is what it looked like a week ago."
Dax felt a small shock rumble through his skeleton. A week? How could that even be possible? There was no way a building could deteriorate that fast, especially one as important as a courthouse.
"The humans say there was some sort of parasite or bug that caused the building, made of stone and glass, not wood, to deteriorate. We believe it is a summon."
Anthony snorted. "Not much different from a parasite…" He whispered to himself.
"No humans have died, which suggests this summon is weak. You two are to find the summon, and wipe it out. This will serve as Harrison's initiation."
It took Dax a second to realize Harrison meant him. It'd been a while since he'd heard his last name. "Uh… initiation?"
Anthony rolled his eyes. "Yes, fool. You don't get to be a warlock just because you can interact with majik. Every student has to be initiated first, by completing a mission along with a student who has already been initiated."
Mac sighed. "Yes, Anthony, you are correct, but please leave the teaching to the adults."
Anthony rolled his eyes, folding his arms across his chest.
Dax stood up straight, clenching his jaw. He pumped his fist. "Alright! All I have to do is kill this summon? Okay! I can do this!"
The building looked even worse up close.
It was odd, considering everything around it was still polished. The grass was greenish, there was a normal amount of trash on the sidewalk, there was a group of geese chasing pedestrians… it wasn't clean, but it was normal for Brampton.
The building, which looked like it could crumble any second, definitely was not normal.
Dax followed Anthony as they walked up to the front door. He glanced behind him, where Mac was still parked in his car. "You've both been given a warning device. Tap that button, and I'll assume you're in danger. Otherwise, I am unable to intervene." Dax felt the device in his pocket, being careful not to press the button. Would he really need it?
"Is it really safe to enter?" He asked, but Anthony didn't answer. He just rolled his eyes and pushed the doors open. They ground loudly, the rusty hinges shaking as they were forced to move.
Inside, everything was covered in such a thick layer of dust it looked grey. It wasn't even possible to tell this was the courthouse anymore. There were cobwebs everywhere. It took about 5 seconds before Dax got one in his mouth.
"You take the ground floor," Anthony said, not even bothering to look at Dax. "I'll search the upper floors."
"Okay!" Dax agreed, grinning. Then, he realized something as Anthony took his first step onto the stairs. "Hey! There's one ground floor, and there's multiple upper floors! You just don't want me to fight the summon!"
"Just do it." Anthony grunted.
Dax kicked a pebble on the floor, grumbling to himself, but didn't say anything more.
Somewhere, hidden deep in one of the dozens of rooms, a summon's stomach rumbled.