The Wright (Friday Updates)

Result

"Rafi!" I screamed again, lurching against the hands pushing me back. Why was nobody helping him? There were hundreds of us gathered, maybe thousands. If we all moved as one, we could overwhelm Kinnut and save Rafi, did no one see that? Was everyone too afraid to try?

The Portaler finished opening his doorway, touching Rafi on the elbow and causing him to jump with fear. He looked like he was going to be sick, terrified. The whites of his eyes flashed as they moved from Kinnut to the Portaler and back all while the fiery-haired man spoke to him calmly. Rafi eyed the matrix of light that had parted before him and then to his parents.

I could not hear anything over the loud, ringing tone in my ears.

"Do something!"

Rose's green eyes flashed again, her Maganer magic threatening me. She did not want me to embarrass her at this critical moment. It was already a scene and she was doing nothing to help save her own student!

Rafi stepped through with the Portaler. He did not look back at me. Spots were covering my sight, blotches of darkness and color while my skin was cold and flushed at the same time. There was a light tugging on my arm and the backs of my thighs hit the bench. Someone was fanning my face.

"Clia?"

Moving my hands that felt as if they had been dipped in ice water, I dug my nails into the tops of my thighs.

"Clia?"

I blinked hard, forcing my pupils to take in light and shape through the haze of nausea. The student seated next to me, a burly male with a beard and a tangle of brown ringlets on his head stared at me. "I think you fainted," he said.

Swallowing, I forced myself up from where I leaned against him, his hand still waving through the air to waft it my way. "Thank you," I said. I did appreciate it. "W-what happened?"

There was another student being Tested and only a low level of noise and hushed conversations were taking place. Rafi was nowhere to be seen, but I did not see any blood, nor hear anyone crying. What had I missed?

"They...um...they took Rafael. The Portaler took him somewhere. He has not returned yet. It is almost your turn," he said, gesturing to my right where only one student was left between me and the moment of Truth.

Ribs tightened beneath my corset. "Oh," I breathed.

Kinnut was still standing patiently on the platform, watching the proceedings with a professional air of attention. He was faced toward the Headmistress and graduate, though his odd, silver eyes were fixed at the bottom of the stand that held the basin, somewhere far from the Testing or perhaps concentrating on everyone around him. Was he controlling Rafi from this place?

The student beside me rose and I sucked in a deep breath. This was too much stress for me. I did not feel well and wanted to leave, unable to inhale because my throat was tight with Rafi's loss and unable to exhale for fear that I would fall into that dark tunnel once more.

Another blink and the Bell sounded again. I stood slowly this time, putting one foot in front of the other, the space between the King and I closing. There was no way out of this event, but at least I would not be obligated to shake his hand. A bead of sweat trickled down my left temple as a tear fell over my right cheek.

I swiped it quickly away and threw my shoulders back for my friend as Rose called my name. Tense, drawn tight, and angry enough that I wanted to make an attempt on the King myself, I put one foot in front of the other. I would not cow down before this murderer.

Ignoring him completely, I made it to the top of the steps, trying not to see the unbelievable number of people beyond the stage and filling each side street. They were all watching me now. Even Kinnut's attention was on me, running through every cell and connection, measuring my strength even as he continued to stand motionlessly.

I would not know if he looked at me, as I gave him my back and began washing my trembling hands. Oftentimes, I was shaky and chilled for hours after fainting, but there was no time for tea or a comforting bath. Fighting through the floating and heavy sensation of low blood pressure, I met the Headmistress' beckoning smile with a tight one of my own.

Her eyes held no warmth for me, not after I had added to the commotion, but they held so many other emotions. She wanted me to Test well for her own sake, for the prestige of her lineage. I could see the doubt of it, too. Even if I was as strong as my mother, I would never be quite good enough in her eyes.

The water of the basin was surprisingly warm, probably due to the number of hands that waited for answers within its curved edges. Willing the world to fall away, I stared at my palms, made slightly yellow by the blackness all around it. The Bell sounded, the same song it had cried many times already that day, but this time was for me. The waves of it tickled my skin, water pushing and pulling, shaking the essence of me out like a sieve.

In the ripples, a white rabbit stretched and contracted, circling the rim.

A rock shot across the space, hitting the side of a boy's head, an embarrassing reaction on my part from him calling me a name when I was small. My mother had healed it, but there was no way to repair the guilt I felt any time I remembered his cries of pain.

A deep viridian bloomed from beneath my knuckles, running up the length of an arm and covering the fingertips of a different youth. This boy had harassed me for weeks, touching me, groping at my arse, making lewd comments. I declined his every advance politely, even though he deserved less. One night he had caught me walking back to the Academy alone and tried to corner me within an alley. In self-defense, I lashed out with everything I had physically and magically, fearing what he would do to me. From elbow to fingers, his flesh had turned green. His shout of alarm and agony still haunted me, but the manifestation of what magic I had bought me my escape and possibly my life.

I caught the pattern of sun shining through a leaf of my potted plants, highlighting its veins in gold. Those delicate branches stretched across the space as faces appeared and faded. My mother's kind smile, Pa turning away from me to leave out of the front door, the sharp, ugly sneer of my grandmother, and an image of a shackle that I broke free and threw far away all tumbled simultaneously in the trembling water.

The tiny waves leveled out, the golden veins crawling in circles, searching and diffusing into streaks that slipped over my fingers, through them, trying to squeeze something out of me. I begged it to find anything, to declare my scraps of strength as the witch I wanted to be. They swirled and swirled, losing color, until all that was left was the sunlight itself sparkling on the surface.

"Uncertain," the Headmistress said from behind me. My stomach sunk as if a cold rock had been dropped into it. Her voice was clipped, but did not give away her true disappointment. There was no point looking at her as I knew it was there. She had clearly seen my dislike of her in the basin and now I had sullied the image of our family.

Professor Rellatora still gave me an encouraging smile, ever the teacher to bolster spirits and stay positive. She patted me between the shoulders and handed my diploma to me even though I felt that it was now just a useless scrap of paper and not proof of my training. Rose called the next student behind me.

My legs felt numb and wooden beneath me, eyes on the ground as I walked like a zombie to where I thought Ma and Pa still might be. They found me, adrift as I was, embracing me with firm reassurance of their love. I could form no words at this pinnacle of failure. This day that was supposed to be cause for celebration had turned into a tragedy, tears pouring free. Behind my self-talk and forced positivity, I knew this would be my designation and I had known it would be for a long time.

Still, the years of effort to be more were all in vain. Time wasted. I knew my duty, but it was embarrassing to finally be labeled as an Uncertain. I was basically human. My father would be wounded most of all and I could not bear to lift my head and see it.