‘Why didn’t he say the last name?’ Leo asked his friends during the general’s private conversation with Light. Everyone noticed how the general had refrained from saying the name of the twelfth warrior.

    ‘It must have been the name of the missing warrior,’ said Ursula.

    ‘Didn’t Erick say that she is already in Hozafia?’ asked Neil. ‘Why do you think she isn’t here yet?’

    ‘Do you think she was kidnapped, and they don’t want to tell us?’ wondered Ursula.

    A few seconds later, the general returned to the centre of the theatre. The general waited for everyone to calm down again before he apologised for the delay and announced the beginning of the marking. The general went to the fire pit that stood on a three-legged stand at the centre of the theatre. Seconds later, a warrior holding several short sticks made of black metal with wooden handles came and put them inside the fire pit.

    ‘They should’ve called it a barbecue?’ sneered Andy, but then the general explained.  

    ‘At the end of each one of these twelve, very special rods there is a different symbol for each of the twelve signs. We place them in the fire and wait for the first rod to turn red. Once it does, its symbol will be engraved on the hand of the warrior to whom the sign belongs. That warrior will be known as the least powerful warrior in your group. The second rod that turns red, its warrior will be known as the second least powerful one, and so on. This is also how we chose a leader from your group and for it. The leader will be the one who has the greatest amount of talent among you, whose marking rod will be the last one to glow. From that moment forward, that leader will be responsible for the rest of you and will report to the head of all leaders, warrior Vigour Reed.’

    Everything was set, the rods were in the fire pit and everyone waited in anticipation, especially the new warriors, for one of the rods to turn red. The new warriors fearfully rubbed their hands together and wished it was not yet their turn, for they understood now that the marking meant being stamped by a red-hot poker in the hand. It was only then that Leo understood what the mark he had noticed on Erick’s palm was and why it looked very different from the one their mother always had, the one that looked like an upside-down letter Q with two twisted tails, which he and Ursula always thought to be a very strange looking birthmark, but now he knew where it had come from. A few minutes later, a marking rod turned red. The general took the rod out of the fire and looked at the red-hot symbol at the end of it, with which a warrior from the list was going to be marked, forever, as the least powerful among their group. Then he looked at the list Light was holding for him and announced the name of the warrior.

    ‘It is sign number Four; cancer. Warrior Claudia Sailor,’ the general announced. Claudia stood up. ‘Come over here, please.’ Claudia walked slowly to the middle of the theatre and stood by the fire pit in front of everyone. The general asked her if she was right-handed—she confirmed.

    ‘Would you hold out your right hand please?’ Apparently, the general was going to do the marking himself. Claudia fearfully pulled her long-sleeve back to reveal her small, frail hand. ‘This might hurt a little, but I assure you it is not dangerous, and we have here all the medical care we need.’

 ‘Wouldn’t it be better if it was a tattoo? It certainly wouldn’t look as ugly as that mark,’ said Ursula, following her friend with her eyes fearful.

    ‘It would’ve been prettier but it probably wasn’t going to hurt less,’ Mellissa assured her, showing her elaborate, crown-shaped, finger tattoo. 

     Claudia shut her eyes, there seemed to be no running away from that, and even if there were, she wouldn’t want to disappoint her parents back at Celavia. She wouldn’t want to return to them empty-handed and without the education they wanted for her, and that was the case for the rest of the warriors. She put her wide-open hand forward to be marked. The general fearlessly and without waiting, put the red-hot mark on her right palm. She bravely held her scream but the expression on her face made the others fear their turn. Nevertheless, one by one, all the warriors walked to the middle of the theatre to be marked on hearing their names. The next name after Claudia was Ursula and after her came Terri, then Andy, Linda, Melissa, Patrick, Oliver, Neil, Virginia, and finally, there were only two marking rods left in the fire pit. One of them was Leo’s and the other one was for the warrior with sign number three. The one that did not come with them from Curtlane town. The one they did not yet get to meet. Everyone including the general waited, in suspense, for one of the two rods to show them who was the most powerful among the new warriors. Nearly everyone wished Leo to be the leader, except for Andy and those who didn’t care. Then finally, one of the two sticks turned red, and the general picked it up at once.

    ‘It’s sign number five, Leo. Warrior Leonardo Donner.’ There was cheering, though some were disappointed that Leo wasn’t going to be the last warrior to be marked, which meant that he was not the group’s leader. The general invited Leo to come down to the middle of the theatre. Leo, who was a little disappointed himself that his new gift didn’t win the contest, walked cheerfully to the middle, quite pleased for being the second-best. He extended his palm to be marked, the pain was excruciating, but indeed, after hardly holding his scream and his eyes from watering noticeably, he became a true warrior, like they said, holding his power in the palm of his hand. There was cheering again, and Leo who appreciated being the centre of attention, the place in which he adapted instantly, forgot about the pain and raised his palm in the air in a victorious manner to show it to the cheering crowd.

    The general stopped Leo from returning to his seat. Once again, the crowd gradually calmed and waited for the last rod to turn red, which indeed did change colour, but in vain, there was no warrior to be marked as the leader of the new twelve, and so the same silence kept ruling.

    ‘My dear first-year warriors,’ started the general as he picked up the last rod from the fire. ‘I’m pleased to announce, that the sign of your leader is the sign number three; the leader of this group is a Gemini.’ Certainly, with no warrior to fill the place of the leader and be given the most important mark of the twelve, there wasn’t any excitement worthy of the celebration the academy looked forward to. ‘Since that warrior is not present at the moment,’ the general continued, ‘this rod will remain red-hot even after time extinguishes these last flames. It will remain this way until next year’s marking or until the Gemini warrior is marked during this year. Meanwhile, and because every group should have a leader you will consider the Leo warrior—Leonardo Donner—your leader who will be responsible for you and who will receive this badge now from me.’ The general held up a golden, round badge, which Light had given him. It had an engraving of the fire symbol topped by the leo sign. ‘This is the badge of leadership. Wear it with honour and pride because you deserve it. It is a badge that bears your sign but you will only wear it until the real leader retunes, always remember that,’ said the general as he pinned the badge to Leo’s shirt. There was cheering again around the theatre and General Sebastian’s was the most excited among it.

    ‘When will the real leader come, sir?’ Andy raised his voice with the question.

    ‘We still don’t know for sure,’ the general answered vaguely.

    ‘But sir, we deserve to know who our real leader is. Will you please tell us more about them? And why isn’t that person here with us tonight?’ Andy pressed. There was absolute silence all of a sudden as everyone waited for the general’s response, apparently, Andy wasn’t the only one who was curious about the twelfth warrior.

    ‘All you deserve is to have a leader, and it’s warrior Donner,’ said the general impatiently. ‘Now,’ the general started before Andy could speak again, ‘after you all became technically Hozafians and officially enrolled in the academy I want to answer a question that might have occurred to you. Some may think that the four elements are universal and that there is no life on earth without them, this is true; however, all the warriors here are Celavians more specifically from Curtlane town and not from anywhere else in the world. Do all the Hozafian warriors come from Curtlane town? The answer is yes because your roots originally started here. The great-grandparents of most of the families in Curtlane town Celavia, including your families, are Hozafians. Centuries ago, there was a war; a big war that took place on this side of the world, a war that practically destroyed Hozafia. It became unsafe for its people, especially for warriors. They were threatened to be used by the enemy. One of the outcomes of that war was the construction of the Tunnels Net. The warriors of the past found it essential to find a way to travel secretly without the knowledge of the enemy.

    ‘Now, the story is passed from generation to generation that during the digging of the tunnels, a secret gate to another world was discovered. We still don’t know how that discovery took place exactly, but it was the greatest discovery in our history nonetheless. They discovered a different world, with different people and different powers. It was a world that the enemy was completely oblivious about, so the idea presented itself. The idea was to secretly make Hozafia’s most powerful warriors disappear from the kingdom and from the cosmic world altogether. So they made the only passage to the new world—the Dark Tunnel—the most guarded secret of their existence and they called that other world the non-cosmic world. It was where the warriors of the past safely settled—in Celavia. There they lived and worked hard to abide by that new world’s rules of normality. Unfortunately, these warriors couldn’t come back to their homeland all the time Hozafia was dominated by the enemy, and that took quite a long while. During that time, those warriors gave birth to children who carried their parent’s genetically powerful traits.

    ‘One thing those warriors cared for more than anything and that was never to mix their blood with the people living in that world, to keep their treasured piece of Hozafia living among them: their gifts. Their children grew up and gave birth to their children. By the fifth generation, it was announced that Hozafia was safe for warriors to return and that the Warriors’ Academy was back on duty, and ever since then, each year, old warriors gently broke the news of their origins to the newly selected twelve gifted warriors. Until it was finally your turn to come here today.’

    Right after the general’s speech, the celebration started. There was food, there was music, and the students enjoyed carefree dancing. The Zonica Street Circus was there with their fireworks and their funniest clowns’ entertainment. Though still overwhelmed with the historical story that the general had told them about their origins, which they could not stop talking about, and even though their hands were wrapped in bandages and were still hurting, the new warriors were so much willing to enjoy their celebration with the other students. They were in a strange territory; everything around them was new and unheard of, but evidently, it had to do with who they truly were and they were willing to embrace that. They were curious to learn more. 

    ‘Now you believe us?’ General Sebastian asked his nephews who were thrilled to see him so soon. His cheerful mood was quite apparent.

    ‘When did you come here?’ asked Leo.

    ‘I left Curtlane town right after you did,’ said the general.

    ‘I still don’t understand how you were able to keep a whole world a secret all those years,’ said Ursula.

    ‘The cosmic world is already hidden; all I had to do was shut my mouth.’ Their uncle smiled at them but Leo couldn’t do the same.

    ‘Great uniform,’ Leo remarked.

    ‘Thank you! I believe you may get measured for yours this week,’ said the general. ‘I wasn’t planning to come tonight but I came to check on you; I heard what happened in the tunnels.’

    ‘We’re okay, but I think it’s better not to tell mum,’ said Ursula.

    ‘News travels fast, and your mother keeps good relations with the Rest House keepers, nothing gets past them.’ 

    ‘So there was something we should worry about,’ said Leo.

    ‘I didn’t want to scare you,’ said the general. ‘You’re safe now.’

    ‘Are we really going to be okay in here?’ asked Leo.

    ‘This place is all about following the rules. If you can just do that, you’ll be okay,’ said the general.