Cassandra

9: Preparations

I don't know how long I was unconscious or how did I get in the Academy. I woke up with Lisie and Daniel right next to me. When Daniel noticed that I was up, he hugged me. Lisie became aware. "Thank God!" Lisie said. "You were down asleep for one and a half month." Lisie explained. I was still feeling lightheaded. It took two months to regain all the blood that I had lost when I was kidnapped. Apparently, the coffee shop was one of Lobos traps so Jill and other high official had it shut down. I never talked. I can't. Daniel left to update the doctor while Lisie kept filling in details when I was asleep. Apparently I have a month left before the Cup. Lisie told me that they now have the journal but no one read it, they knew I would want to be the first time to read it. Suddenly, Jessie, Franco, Chloe all went in and they all apologized in unison. Where's Alex? I thought. Daniel finally returned and told me that she can now go back to my own room to take some rest. The school is also allowing me to have a week off from studies. Daniel asked this, I felt it. But I never used a single day of that week to rest; I used it to practice on my own. I would visit the library in the morning; teachers would usually compliment me for this and no one suspected. I would take down notes because borrowing Legacy books would make it suspicious and during the afternoon and night, I would practice in different places. I knew I couldn't let my friends down. They're depending on me and I wasted two months of the preparation. My friends insisted for me to rest but I kept on sneaking out. I sacrificed her health and sadly, Daniel. We never got the chance during that week and whenever he visits my dorm, I was always away.

I also started reading the journal. It was a tough read because a lot of words were ancient and hard to understand. I used the translation spell that was taught back on my first month in the Academy in order to read everything. I took note of everything important. The journal was full of magic spells created by Henry Valle. I tried to look for some journal about my real family but there were none. Unfortunately, there is one part at the end of the book where the translation spell didn't work. One day, I decided to tell Lisie about the unreadable page. Lisie and I knew that the journal is like a puzzle. It will never be complete as long as one page is missing. Every magic taught is indeed important to execute the next ones. The powers and techniques learned from studying the first ones is important to the following ones. "Maybe this is why my parents failed," Lisie said, "not only they are not Legacies but even though they were, they will never execute it successfully." And from that on, Lisie was determined to know the last page as much as I was. "Maybe Alex knows." I said. "Oh, no one told you?" Lisie said. "What?"

"Alex's gone. He went to the Salem."

"Since when?!" That is oceans away from here, I thought. Salem is land far from Labyrinth. I never thought it existed because no one ever talked about it. They said no one wants to hear about Salem because the Nerida hated the Arez family – the one that rules the Salem. I remembered from my History class that Soraia Arez – the queen - used to be a Nerida until she married Lorenzo Arez. Simon once told me at one private conversation that Neridas are not the strongest ones because they used to work under the supervision of the Arez family. "Why is that?" She asked. "Don't tell anyone but I heard that the Arez family has a secret weapon that scares Dante." Simon explained. Salem was built after the first war - between Legacies and the rest - by the ancestors of Lorenzo Arez because they never liked the reign of Salazars. Arez bloodline is the first Lost to set free from the Salazars before the Neridas. Instead of fighting off the Salazars, they escped. "As you can see, they're kinder than Neridas." Simon said before.

"When you got here, he left." Lisie said. I could see the sadness on her face. "But why?" I asked. "He said he was sent there by Dante." At first, all I could feel was sadness because Alex never said goodbye before leaving but then she realized what he did to me so the feeling became hate. I stopped asking after that. The week ended with me having enough knowledge about everything, except, of course, for the last page.

Wow! I really did miss a lot, I thought as she listens to her Force Class. Jessie and Franco welcomed her like nothing happened. Mr. Devaughn welcomed me back too and so does my other friends. Daniel looked at me like nothing matters except her, I felt it. He ran towards me and hugged me. "Good to have you back!" He said happily. I sat next to Daniel. Lisie and the others didn't mind our relationship anymore. They knew I would never let him do something about our plan.

"Argh!" I cried. Jessie was trying this torture spell on me for my preparation. They mustn't know I am a Legacy thus our last practice focused on controlling my Legacy blood. Before I knew I was a Legacy, all magic that was casted upon me were effective and now, in order for the magic used directly on me work, I have to ignore the fact that I'm a Legacy. It wasn't easy at first because there are spells that actually freaked me out and I guard myself against it; an instinct perhaps so I had to practice a lot. Jessie tried casting random spells on me and most of it affected me without fail and that's the time I felt ready for the Cup. Franco wanted to try his magic on me but Lisie didn't allow. She never explained why but I noticed that whenever Franco starts insisting on using his magic on me, she would panic. I tried asking a couple of times but Lisie just ignored me.

The night before the Cup, Jessie visited us in our dormitory. Lisie let him in and I invited him inside my room so we could talk about the Cup. Lisie was actually sad that Jessie didn't let her come. Jessie sat next to me on my bed. "Hey, what's up?" I said. "Honestly, this is not about the Cup. I'm sorry, you know, about Alex. I know it's already been months since that happened, I'm still sad about it though." Jessie said. Jessie actually never hurt me, it was Alex. "No, don't worry. I'm fine. But why would he do that?" I asked. Jessie took time before he answered. "He likes you." I'm not sure if I heard it right or he said the truth but one thing I'm sure is if Alex likes me, why would he want me to fall in love with Jessie. "I don't know if I can tell you but always know that Alex has a good heart and he would never hurt someone like you. I hope you'll forgive him soon." Jessie knew how much I hated him. Whenever his name is brought up in our conversations, I would keep quiet and wait for them to stop talking about him. Sometimes I would force them to change the topic or be the one to change the topic. Everyone knew what happened and I don't know who told them, maybe it's Jessie. I did not answer Jessie; he just stared at me. After a few seconds, he finally spoke. "I'm sure you're wondering why now but you have to know this before the Cup, we don't know what might happen tomorrow and this is the only time I could tell you." Jessie said. I started to get worried. It is like I'm going to die tomorrow; hopefully that's not the reason why he's telling me this. "You're making me nervous, Jessie." I confessed. Jessie just hugged me and left. I cried that night. Alex doesn't like me, I thought. I forced those words in my head. I just can't believe it. He's probably the coldest person to me. I remembered the time we both found out I'm a Legacy... NO! Cassandra, stop! I fell asleep as I argue with me heart.