The Spiritguard

 "We're going to take a little quiz, to test what you know about the Spiritguard. This will let us know where you're at as a group, and also help us identify who'll be needing extra help to catch up before they're left too far behind."

Those are his words, and they don't sound encouraging. It makes me want to do as well as possible because the thought of having to stick around with him for that extra help is terrifying. Maybe that's the idea?

 "My name is Haimark Copper," he says. "That's Copper to you, or Instructor Copper, or Mr. Copper, or whatever the hell you want to call me. Quite frankly, I don't give a damn if you call me Princess Lollipops, as long as you're learning something while you're in here. Cuz trust me, kids. If you aren't learning, I'll have your ass out of here two seconds from Wednesday."

 "P-Princess Lollipops?" the female Instructor gives him a disgusted look before turning back to the class. "I've met most of you yesterday, but for anyone who doesn't remember my name, I am Bella Borden. You can't call me Princess Lollipops. Ms. Borden or simply Bella will be fine. And watch your language, Mark, these are still kids you're talking to."

 He grumbles something to her that I can't hear. "Anyway, here's the exams," he starts passing out papers to the front row. "Seven questions. Nothing to get worked up about. Put your name at the top of the paper for identification purposes. If you ever neglect to put your name on anything, we'll consider you as having willfully neglected to do the assignment and you'll be accordingly punished. You…do all know how to write your names, don't you?"

 Kael hands me a pen to write with (oops), and a few moments later I'm handed the exam. It's a good thing he got me a pen, because honestly I had forgotten all about that. He knows me so well!

 "Okay…" I say to myself as I stare at the paper. Test time. "Sigmund Felice. Good. Now…"

 "Shh," Kael elbows me. I sigh and look down at the paper. Okay. I can do this. Question number one. What is a Spirit? Well, that's insanely easy. A Spirit is, uh…a thing from the Spirit World. Yeah. That sounds good.

 Question number two. What is the Spiritguard? Another easy one. If this keeps up, I'm going to be a straight-A student. A Spiritguard is someone who kills Spirits. Done.

 Question number three. Hoo-boy. What are the three primary learning objectives of the Spiritguard Training Program? Um…this one is a bit tricky. I know one of them right off the top of my head. To kill Spirits. Two others? Uh…to identify Spirits, and uh…to learn how to swordfight. I'm sure those are the answers.

 Question number four. List five different types of Spirits. Oh, another easy one. Uh…Spirit Pawns, Knights, Barons, Counts, and Marquises. There, I even did them in order. I bet nobody even knows that. 

 Question number five. Before one channels Animus energy, what must one make sure they do? That's a good question. What the hell is Animus energy? I think I'll leave that one blank. That's obviously the one question they threw in here to trip all of us up. There's no way we could know that.

 Question six. What is the Day of Darkness? Duh. It's September 9th. That was a quick answer. I'm totally acing this!!! I start snickering out loud until Kael punches me in the arm to get me to shut up again.

 Question seven. Spirits are able to blend into the natural world and disguise their presence. How does a Spiritguard detect a Spirit? I look at this question for a moment. I'm not entirely sure, so I just write something down. I know I got at least five of these right, so if I miss this one it's not a big deal. I write that Spirits glow in the dark.

 When I look up, I see I'm the first one finished. I wait for everyone to wrap up, and then Princess Lollipops goes around and collects all of the papers. He hands them off to the female Instructor, whatever her name was. It looks like she's an assistant to him, and she won't actually be a main teacher. I wonder what kind of stuff she'll actually do. She starts to rapidly grade the papers as he speaks.

 "I'll go over the questions," he says as he picks up a blank copy to read off of. "That way, you'll all be able to see how you did, and we can also make a lesson out of this. Question number one. What is a Spirit? Do we have any volunteers from the audience?" he smirks.

 Nobody raises their hands, probably because they're too shy. As such, I decide to be the hero. "It's something from the Spirit World," I say matter-of-factly. The Instructor looks at me, blinks, and then looks back down at the paper.

 "And?"

 And? I didn't have anything ready for that. The Instructor shakes his head. "A Spirit," he begins, "And let me advise you all right now. Take notes. You'll need them. This test was just for practice, but this is all basic information that you need to know. A Spirit is two things. The first part, and the most important, is that the Spirits are collections of negativity. There was a war, once, some three hundred years ago. It was a bloody war, fought between all of the great nations. They were fighting over this soil that you're standing on right now. This was something of a promised land to the great nations. Everyone sought to conquer it, because this nation, this continent - has more natural resources than all others combined. A terrible, terrible war was fought on this land, and the blood of millions of people was spilled here. All of the negative feelings of every civilian and soldier who died here were collected, and those turned into the Spirits that we have today.

 "The other proper answer we're accepting is this. A Spirit is an immortal soul that cannot die, but it can be defeated and sealed. Simply saying a Spirit is from the Spirit World is not enough. That's like defining a cow as 'something that lives on a farm'. It is incorrect."

 I suddenly feel bad about raising my hand, and I look over to Kael. He's scribbling down everything the man is saying, but I have a feeling Kael already knows about this. He's a huge fan of reading, and he's read just about every book in the village library about Spirits. There's no way he doesn't know it all. Even I learned something new there, I have to admit.

 "Question two was this. What is a Spiritguard? Any takers? You, there, what do you think a Spiritguard is?"

 The Instructor points to a girl who is sitting in the row right in front of me. I can't see her face, but I can tell she has hair that's dyed a light, frosty blue. She's in the process of sipping a straw that is in a bottle of Vitarine elixir. She pulls the straw out of her mouth slowly, and I can tell she's no normal person. There's some kind of untamed energy there that's making me a bit nervous, honestly.

 "A Spiritguard is a soldier trained to fight Spirits," she stresses each word in a certain way that probably allures every man in the room…well, except Kael. She leans over her desk as she continues. I can't look away. "They're trained to be able to recognize and categorize Spirits, and they are also trained to use weapons and Animus energy to fight these Spirits. Above all, a Spiritguard is the boundary between our world and the Spirit World, and they minimize the interference of the Spirits with modern life." 

 "A great explanation," the Instructor nods. "Yes. A Spiritguard is in fact all of those things. Question three. What are the three primary learning objectives of the Spiritguard Training Program?"

 I wrote to kill Spirits, to identify Spirits, and to learn how to swordfight. I wonder how close I was here. So far, I missed the first two pretty badly.

 The girl near the door, Kavella, raises her hand. I'm interested to hear what she has to say. "The first primary objective is to be instructed in the use of weapons to eradicate Spirits," she says. So far I'm good. "The second is to use Animus as a tool to bolster strength and to analyze and eradicate Spirits," that doesn't sound too good. She must be mistaken, huh? "The third is to learn how to cooperate with one another on assignments, in order to better facilitate the eradication of Spirits. To put it plainly, Combat Expertise, Animus Mastery, and Teamwork."

 "Right out of the books," the Instructor smiles. "I see we have some pretty bright students this time around. Question number four, then. List five types of Spirits. Let's try to come up with at least ten, huh?"

 A student up front raises their hand. "Imps," they say. The instructor nods. Whoops. I thought they meant ranks, not types. I botched that question up nicely.

 "Ghost-type!"

 "Wolves!"

 "Foxes!"

 "Humanoids," I mumble. They're the scariest types. Spirits that roughly look like people. Some can even speak our language. 

The class continues to go on, and they identify a bunch of other types, from Spider Spirits and Moth Spirits to Bird Spirits and Gremlins.

 "Next question. Before one channels Animus energy, what must one make sure they do?"

 Kael's hand shoots up. This was the question I thought was the hardest, so it makes sense that Kael offers to answer. I know he's a secret genius, so proving he knows the answer to the hardest question is his way of meekly showing off.

 "You. What do you think it is?" the Instructor asks Kael.

 "If you're going to attempt to channel Animus, or Spirit energy, you need to have a very clear understanding of what you're going to actually do with the energy. If you just channel Animus without any sort of clear goal, it could cause a lot of harm to your body and those around you, because the built-up energy can create a small, localized explosion." He's talking so animatedly, so fast. He really loves showing off his bookworm status.

 Oh, and Animus is Spirit energy. I, uh…probably could have thought a little harder on that one and figured it out.

 "Correct," the Instructor smiles. "There are a few techniques we will teach you that use Animus energy. You should always have one of those techniques ready and in mind, before you start to channel Animus energy, or the results could be fatal. Explosive, some might say. Next question. What is the Day of Darkness?"

 Easy, I think. That's the one I answered in seconds. It's September 9th.

 "Just saying it is September 9th is not an answer," the Instructor says suddenly. "The question asks WHAT the Day of Darkness is, not WHEN."

 Damn…

 "The Day of Darkness," he continues, "Is the day when the Spirit World and our world are closest. Because they are so close at this time, rifts open up between our worlds for Spirits to slip through. These gates are unintentional, and are not opened up by Spirits. There are some intelligent Spirits, though, that know when the Day of Darkness is, and use the close proximity to open up portals for themselves. It is on the Day of Darkness that many of the Spirit Nobility are able to breach into our world. There are 'hot spots' if you will, where the Spirit activity is particularly high during the Day of Darkness. Usually, those are battlefields fought in the war three hundred years ago. We send Spiritguards to those specific 'hotspots' so that they can cull any Spirits the moment they come through. Alright, last question. This one may have caught some of you up, so I'll go over it right now. Spirits are able to blend into the natural world and disguise their presence. How does a Spiritguard detect a Spirit?

 "I'll tell you the answer to this because this is what we will be studying today. It is an Animus technique known as 'Bright Eyes', the most important technique in a Spiritguard's arsenal. By channeling Animus to the retina in your eye, you will be able to detect anything that is made out of Animus energy for a short period of time. This is useful because Spirits have been known to disguise themselves as things such as a fallen log in the forest, or perhaps a Vitarine elixir in an abandoned store. They put a lot of thought into their disguises, so having the ability to see a Spirit is extremely useful. I will also add this…Spirits will disguise themselves as people more often than you think, so you should be wary of others, and if someone seems suspicious to you, don't hesitate to use this technique. So, without any further ado, let's begin."