A/N: Hello! New update! Please comment/PM about plot and mechanics!
I woke up at dawn again to apply more healing salve to my back, grimacing from the pain. The wounds from the whip were nearly gone, but I would have nasty scars. As Ella woke up, I tossed the tube to her. "Morning."
"Good morning to you too," Ella said, wincing as she dabbed salve onto her lash marks.
"Do you think that we'll get in trouble because we healed so fast?" I asked her.
"No, I don't think so. All the other people who went to the Trouble Room stopped walking in pain a few days after. The only thing that we've done wrong is stealing the salve. I don't think that they'll apprehend us, though. We could've brought the salve from home," replied Ella. "Oh, by the way, happy New Years Eve. We should rig up a ball drop."
In New Talleme, Sirotren's capital city, every New Years Eve, they'd send a ball of safety fireworks that had a holoball inside of it up in a hovercraft. Right before the crowd counted "one," the hovercraft would drop the firework ball, which would explode in a shower of red and gold- Sirotren's national colors- and the holoball inside would show King Nicholas and Queen Christina (or whoever the current monarchs were) shouting "Happy New Year!" But you usually couldn't hear them over the roar of the crowds. I'd only been to the celebration once, when I was twelve. It had been a sort of congratulatory gift for me and Kiara for getting into Viventi. I could still remember the fireworks sending a wave of red and gold into the sky, illuminating the giant flags of Sirotren- a golden phoenix on a red background- hanging from the buildings of New Talleme Square.
"We won't actually be using fireworks, right?" I asked in mock concern.
Ella rolled her eyes and shot the sarcasm right back at me. "Of course not. We'll use glitter bombs. What do you think I am, dumb?"
"So we're literally just going to drop a ball?" I laughed.
"Come on, we've got to do SOMETHING! It's New Year!" cried Ella.
"Fine, fine," I relented, holding my hands up. "Anyways, we should probably wake up Kiara and Tessa. We need to recruit."
"This seems so stupid," grumbled Ella. "What can we do against the freaking Order of Chaos? We can barely defend ourselves when the Chaotals come knocking on our door!"
I cocked an eyebrow, both at the strange term and Ella using a curse word, even though it was minor. "Chaotals?"
Ella blushed and scowled. "It's what I've taken to calling them in my head."
"Sounds better than 'Chaos members,' at any rate. We should just call them that," I suggested.
"All right," Ella agreed. "It does sound better than 'Chaos members.'"
"Cool. Let's wake up the sleepyheads," I said as I walked over to the closet and grabbed the air horn.
At around seven forty-five, the four of us walked to the dining hall for breakfast and immediately split up in the massive horde of students. Our goal was to invite trustworthy students to come to our room at ten o'clock tomorrow, and there, we'd inform them of our cause. I spotted an old friend from Glasgow Prep, Emilia Larsommen, and immediately told her about our aim. She agreed to come, and the next half hour was a blur. I informed eleven people of the gathering, and by the time breakfast was over, I was exhausted. I wolfed down a quick meal of a sausage biscuit and banana with Kiara, Ella, and Tessa. Then Tessa proposed what might have been the most insane idea she'd ever come up with. "Let's snoop in Professor Almerwick's office."
"You mean the one that's CURRENTLY INHABITED BY MISTRESS?" I hissed.
"Yup, that's the one," Tessa replied nonchalantly.
"We'll get caught!" Kiara whispered.
"She'll KILL us!" Ella screamed under her breath. "She'll feed us to the Catrops!"
