'What did you write?' asked Moira, who had been standing at the back listening.
'Please arrest us, we attack young girls,' Lana said proudly.
Some of the other kids laughed and Liam high fived Lana as Eleanor's eyebrows raised before she spoke, 'These men had nothing to do with Praxos, Lana. They were obviously seriously dangerous attackers. I'll check with the local police to make sure they've been apprehended. Why did you think it was part of the initiation?'.
Sharing a glance, both girls shrugged their shoulders, 'I guess we just assumed it was. Especially after you threw the rope down to us,' Emma said quietly.
'Rope?'
'Yeah, after we'd knocked them out we were looking all over for something to tie them up with but couldn't find anything. And then some rope was thrown down from the top of one of the buildings. We figured it was you,' Lana responded.
Eleanor, Declan, Wilbur and a few of the other Mentors looked alarmed.
'No it wasn't any of us. There was clearly someone else out there who gave you a helping hand,' she said slowly, a worried look in her eyes. 'But we'll worry about that later. Today we will assess your initiations. But don't worry, you all passed,' she said with a smile, 'with flying colours. I was most impressed. Now come, let's go into the white room to begin.'
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
'The purpose of this assessment is not to criticise anything that you may have done wrong, it is simply to demonstrate to each other what you went through, how you did it and what your special skills are. This is about working together because that is something of utmost importance at Praxos,' said Eleanor once they were all settled, sitting scattered around the room, with all the Mentors sitting around them.
'However, before we start, I'd just like to introduce you to the other Mentors in our group,' Eleanor said as she pointed to a small group of adults who sat waiting. 'Declan Alexander lives on a house boat on the Thames. He is currently looking after Lana and Emma. His girlfriend, Saleena Bennett also lives on the boat but she's not with us today,' Declan smiled and nodded his head as she continued, 'Zane and Marian Chambers live on Gower Street not far from here. They are currently looking after Liam and Diarmuid.'
A young couple holding hands, both with shoulder length brown hair, stepped forward and waved with the their free hands, grinning.
'Bryn Cooper has recently joined us from the States where he worked with the Seventh House of Praxos in New York. He is now looking after Cassie and Elliott where they are staying in a converted loft in Kings Cross.'
A tall muscular man with a crew cut stepped forward and backward with a brief salute to the group.
'Habika Buhari has worked with Praxos for many years. She originally came from Africa, as you might imagine,' Eleanor said with a smile to a woman wearing traditional African garb whose smile lit up the room. 'Penny and Nisha are under her care. Habika also lives on a house boat on the Thames. Moira and Imran are being mentored by Oksana from the Ukraine and her Scottish husband Brody McGregor.'
A very tall and beautiful blonde haired woman nodded with a smile, as did the fair-haired even taller man next to her. 'Oksana and Brody have a penthouse apartment in Camden Town. And finally, Ava and Rupert are staying with Megan and Rhydian Llewellyn, originally from Wales but have been living in Waterloo, in the capital for the past ten years.' Megan and Rhydian both had very attractive faces, he with short red hair and she with cropped black hair. They both grinned at the group and said hi.
'Now that we all know each other, let's continue. Right, we just heard about Lana and Emma's experience that turned out to be something quite alarming. An attack on two innocent young girls by two evil thugs isn't something we take lightly. This is exactly the kind of thing we want to help prevent from happening on the streets of London... and elsewhere. It turns out that Lana and Emma did exactly the right thing by subduing the men. In ordinary circumstances, the victims should have immediately contacted the police. At Praxos, however, we cannot always do that because of our secrecy code... Yes, Moira?,' said Eleanor as Moira's hand shot upwards.
'Secrecy code?'
'Yes, because of our unique characteristics, and the true nature of who we are, we cannot let the general public know of our existence. However, we do work in conjunction with certain authorities...'
'So not all police know about us? Then who does?' asked Ava.
'We often work with the British Secret Service...'
'Cool,' added Liam and Rupert who looked across at each other with a laugh.
Raising her eyebrows, Eleanor continued, 'the Prime Minister is well aware of our existence, of course. So, in the event of something like this ever happening again, you are to contact me, or your Mentors, immediately so that we can alert the necessary authorities. Due to last night's initiations, it is perfectly understandable that you, Lana and Emma, assumed that it was our doing. You absolutely did the right thing. In fact, you worked so well together, I think you deserve a round of applause,' she said with a cheeky smile, small dimples appearing in her wrinkled cheeks.
Both girls blushed and laughed as the room exploded with clapping and cries of 'well done'.
'Now, while we're on the subject of Lana and Emma, let's talk about their initiation. Girls, talk us through it. Why don't you start, Emma?'
'Well, it started with being trapped in the tunnels that were, like, seriously dark. All we had was a sealed letter from Praxos and we couldn't even read it, it was so dark. And then we remembered what happened to me when the tattoo appeared... when I fell in the Thames...'
'You didn't fall, Sis. You threw yourself in,' laughed Lana.
'Oh, yeah, I guess. Whatever. When I was in there and it was dark and cold... and wet...' she laughed nervously, 'I realised my body kind of glowed, giving me a sort of light, letting me see all around. Well, in the tunnels, we decided I should try and make that happen again. Thankfully it worked and we could see!' she said as the rest of the group clapped.
'Unfortunately when we opened the letter, it was completely blank...'
'Yeah, that happened to us too,' said Diarmuid.
'And us,' Moira added along with Elliott, Rupert and Nisha.
'So I'm guessing you figured out the water then?' she asked as the others all nodded enthusiastically.
'Anyway, we then...' Emma continued to explain what had happened to them until they arrived at the dilapidated hall where they'd fallen asleep.
'Something kind of weird happened to me in there,' Lana said, recalling her dream like state.
'It did? You never mentioned it,' Emma whispered.
'Yeah, I did. I told you about it. You know, I thought it was a dream...?'
'You should always question these things during the initiation, and afterwards of course,' interrupted Eleanor, 'Because it is often another skill, or ability whatever you want to call it, revealing itself to you. Tell us what happened, Lana.'
'Well we were sitting having a break in this dilapidated old hall. It was easy to see that it was once a beautiful and grand place where wealthy people would have dances and stuff. Anyway, Emma had fallen asleep and I began to hear things, music and voices, feet tapping on the floor as if people were dancing. I could even sense the scents of mingling tobacco, perfume and sweat...'
'Sounds lovely,' cringed Moira with a giggle.
Lana smiled, 'Yeah, I know. But it began to feel real, you know? An image popped into my head of all these people having fun. It was kind of surreal which was why I just figured it was a dream.'
'Can you describe what the music was like, Lana? What the people were wearing?'
Nodding, Lana said 'Hm hm,' before continuing, 'There were sounds from a harp, a violin and erm, oh yeah, a harpsichord,' she closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the images in front of her eyes. 'There was a woman in front of me, her skin was all white, and she had a black beauty spot just above her lip. Her hair, decorated with feathers, was piled high on top of her head and it looked like it had been powdered white too. She
wore a long azure blue silk dress which pulled her waist in so much it must have been difficult to breathe, and then it fanned outwards at the sides and back. It was cut so low that her cleavage was well on display, with a bundle of little pink roses pinned to one side of her top. She was flirting with two men who sat beside her...'
Lana seemed to have zoned out and was talking, barely taking a breath while the others sat silently listening in fascination.
She could hear the same music, chattering and people dancing. As she watched the scene unfold before her, she continued to describe all that she saw in real time.
'The woman is standing up. She's walking to the nearest window. It's a door, actually. She pushes it open and walks outside to get some air. She's fanning herself with a pretty pink fan made of feathers. She's leaning over a bannister, there's a staircase below her. A man walks up to her. He's not someone I noticed before. She turns to him and smiles. She's kissing him passionately and ... oh,' Lana stopped abruptly, her eyes shooting open in absolute shock.
'What happened?' asked those surrounding her, 'Lana, what happened?'
'It's quite all right, Lana. I'll finish for you. The man pushed her down the stairs, didn't he?'
Lana sat bolt upright and nodded, 'H... how do you know?' she breathed while Wilbur suddenly appeared by her side with a cup of tea. 'It will make you feel better. It's sweet, for the shock,' he added. She took it gratefully as Eleanor continued.
'What you've just described is the murder of Countess Dolly Van der Bergen in 1754. Unfortunately there were no witnesses to the actual event and so it was deemed to be an accident. I had my doubts, of course. I always suspected it was her husband who pushed her.'
'Did you know her, Eleanor?' asked a suitably impressed Nisha.
'No, not personally, but I knew of her. She was quite well known in London at that time. It was very sad. Her husband was killed in an accident himself some years later. A horse riding accident, I believe. But that's by the by.'
'But how come Lana was able to describe the event?' asked Emma.
'I do believe that the initiation helped establish one of her other abilities. Lana is able to visualise things that have happened in the past, whether it be yesterday, a year ago, ten years ago or a hundred years ago. Certain things will trigger images, sounds, smells all to overcome her, allowing her to literally see the whole event, almost in a movie-like sense, I believe. Is that right, Lana? Did you see it as if you were watching a movie?'
Lana nodded, 'It started off that way but then it was like I was actually there. I could see everything around me. It was weird.'
'Carry on Lana, continue with what happened during the rest of your initiation.'
As she spoke of what they experienced for the rest of the evening, the group listened intently until she'd finished.
'Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? Anything they'd like to add?' asked Eleanor.
Penny's hand shot up into the air.
'Yes Penny?'
'Earlier on, Lana and Emma said that something kicked in and they turned into ass kicking ninja chicks...'
The group laughed.
'Well, how come that didn't happen to me or Nisha? I want to be able to do that.'
Eleanor smiled. 'Unfortunately not everyone will develop the same skills...' an audible sigh filled the room before she continued, 'however, we will train you so that you can fight. But I'll get on to that bit later. If there are no other questions for Lana or Emma, we can move on to the next group?'
'When you were swimming in the Thames... didn't you get covered in sewage?' asked Rupert, who kept his face completely serious.
'That's enough Rupert,' Eleanor scolded as she tried not to laugh. Emma shook her head while Rupert pinched his nose and pretended there was a bad smell in the room.
Declan stepped forward and gave him a gentle slap on the back of the head as the group giggled.
'Right then Rupert, seen as you seemed to have gotten everyone's attention, let's hear about yours and Ava's initiation.'
'Oh, okay then Miss...'
'Please don't call me that, Rupert. My name is Eleanor, not Miss. Well, it's Eleanor when I'm like this but you can call me Ellie when I'm young, if you like,' she smiled with her eyebrows raised. 'Continue.'
'Okay Eleanor,' he said sounding her name out slowly for added effect. 'Well, Ava and I began our initiation in the centre of the Thames, on a little boat. Like you we just had the blank letter for information....' and he continued to tell the group about how his and Ava's ability led them slowly and surely back to Praxos, where they were greeted by the same thing the girls had been confronted with: Wilbur in his more unusual state.
Rupert's special abilities not only include him being able to see through solid walls, but he can also walk through them.
Whereas Ava can hear things from miles around, able to focus on specific sounds far in the distance. She can also make herself be heard in people's minds who are miles away.
After a few questions, it was Cassie and Elliott's turn. Cassie confidently stood up and explained how they'd been plunged into darkness in the tunnels beneath the city. Elliott was able to use his fingers like a lighter, making small amounts of fire from his fingertips, which helped to light the way, while she could move at the speed of light. With Elliott holding on to her, they were able to move beneath the city quicker than anybody else. But when they were faced with a massive wall of ice which they couldn't break through, Elliott's gift was accentuated so that he could create a constant source of fire to melt it.
Imran shyly stood up when it was his turn to speak.
'I can play with time,' he smiled cheekily, 'and I was able to stop, rewind or fast forward time, giving us an added advantage of extra time to fulfil our duties. As long as Moira held on to me, she came along for the ride.'
'Which we really needed because my gift happens when I sleep. Through dreams, I can see what I must do next...' she continued, telling everyone what they had done, finally summing up, 'So once we were at the bottom of Big Ben, I simply went to sleep for a while, which led us to our next clue, which we kept doing until we eventually found Wilbur,' she smiled.
'Awesome, can you imagine that? Being able to manipulate time, that's seriously impressive, Dude,' said Liam with a high five.
'Nisha, tell us what you got up to last night.'
As she stood up, Nisha looked around at her colleagues and smiled, a little embarrassed, 'You could say that my ability is kind of creepy. Basically, I can see dead people.'
'Oh, that sucks man,' Liam said with a grimace.
'It is not too bad actually. Most of the dead people I have seen and spoken to so far have been nice enough. And the ones I saw last night were very helpful. Our initiation began in the cemetery, where we had to follow clues on some of the headstones until we eventually reached a group of dead people who were waiting for us.'
Penny continued the story, 'Which totally freaked us out, of course. I couldn't actually see them at first but once Nisha began communicating with them, their spirits appeared to me too. But only while she was speaking to them. And then it was over to me. You see, I can make people speak the truth, which certainly comes in handy sometimes. Well, I had to speak to the spirits last night to find out our next clue. They wouldn't tell Nisha but they told me,' she smiled. 'And then we went on to...' and she continued talking until she eventually finished where they met Wilbur.
'Thank you girls. Now there's just one group left to tell us about their initiation and that's Liam and Diarmuid.'
Diarmuid suggested Liam go first, who grinned at Lana as he stood up proudly, leaning against the wall casually.
'We were given the letter the same as you guys, and then left in that tunnel under the Thames Barrier where we saw you all last night. It was completely dark. Although Diarmuid can light himself up from the inside, he wanted to use his other talent instead, which is to manipulate electricity. It was totally sick as he managed to switch on most of the lights do
wn there... with his mind. Sick yeah? Anyway, as we moved along the tunnel, we soon realised we were completely locked in. A huge boulder had been put in our way. I mean it was like, massive. It wouldn't budge, we tried pushing it but there was no where for it to go so I started punching it and sure enough, I eventually managed to make a hole big enough for us to get through...'
'You punched a hole in a massive boulder? Dude, that's epic,' said Rupert, nodding his head in respect.
'I know man. But once we got to the other side we were faced with a wall of electricity. I didn't realise it until it was too late. I got a shock like never before, man... it threw me back about ten metres, knocked me out for a couple of seconds. When I came to, Diarmuid was standing with his arms outstretched, pulling the electricity into him. It was unbelievable,' Liam said, still trying to understand how it was done.
'Wow,' said a few of the group.
'I know, wow, yeah?'
Diarmuid interrupted him then, and Liam sat back down. 'All in a day's work,' he said with a smile which melted Emma as she sighed quietly to herself.
'But it wasn't over yet. Once we'd got through and out of the tunnel, we had to make our way back upriver to Praxos. We found a small rowing boat and Liam literally rowed us there in just a few minutes. The speed was something else. It was like being in a speed boat. That guy has got some serious muscle,' he chuckled as Lana grinned at Liam who winked back. It didn't take us long to figure out the way back to the Foundation and that was pretty much it, I think?' he said, looking over at Liam who nodded.
'Well, I think everybody here deserves a round of applause,' Eleanor announced as she and the Mentors stood up while the room exploded with clapping and cheers.
When it had quietened down, she smiled and began again, 'Relatively simple initiations to bring out your true skills. That was the purpose of last night's challenges. We already had a pretty good idea of what you were capable of but we needed to know your strengths and weaknesses before we could continue on this journey with you. Now that is over with, I'd like to discuss something very important with you. Your education,' she said, as she walked slowly from one side of the room to the other.