Chapter 6
To say the cleaning part of the day was simple would be an understatement. Aubrey had never been through anything so invasive, well besides the cervical smear test she had a few months back. This was a whole new kind of invasive for her though. Every inch of her body was scrubbed raw before she was told to jump into the first of three pools. The room was big enough for a large swimming pool but had instead been divided up so that there were three round pools each shining in the sunlight filtering through a hole in the roof. A stream passed into each of the pools, topping them up with clean water while a hole visible in the bottom of the pool no doubt drained away the excess.
Dipping into the first pool, Aubrey felt her face flush in an instant and her hair become a frizzy mess. The pool was stiflingly hot and made her head swim at the sudden heat but she didn’t get a chance to protest before a huge brush was being scrubbed over her body, a fragrant soap soon filling the pool with bubbles. By the time she was allowed to get out, Aubrey’s skin had finally managed to achieve the same colour as her hair for she was now decidedly red and resembled a very cooked lobster.
An arm tugged her to the second pool which didn’t even have a wisp of steam rising from the glassy blue surface. She turned to ask the stern looking woman behind her if it was hot or cold but chubby hands just pushed her into the water. Kicking to the surface, Aubrey spluttered and took deep gasping breaths as she tried to recover from the freezing temperatures all around her. It had soothed her red raw skin and left her entire body tingling but, at the same time, she could feel her fingers going numb.
Teeth chattering against each other, Aubrey glared up at the short, stout woman with a eyes that could burn through metal. The woman was unaffected; she curled her lips up in a sickly sweet smile though her eyes told Aubrey that she was enjoying this more than she should.
It was another two minutes before Aubrey was pulled from that pool and allowed to get into the final pool. The water was tepid, barely at room temperature but against her frozen skin it felt like it was steaming hot and she let out a sigh of relief. She did wonder briefly if it would kill her with the cold blood rushing to her heart but then she remembered that she was already dead and something like that was hardly going to affect her.
The water swirling around her smelt like her favourite things, vanilla, rose petals and freshly cut grass. For a geek she loved the scents of outdoors though she was never one to spend a lot of time out there because of her fair skin and the chance that she would burn or worse get skin cancer from over exposure. Besides she never wanted to look like those old people with leathery skin, it was gross and was definitely not worth looking tanned over.
“Out,” The horrible woman’s voice barked at her. Aubrey was momentarily astounded by how gravelly it was and wondered briefly if the woman was a 40 a day kind of woman. She didn’t get to mull over it too much because to iterate her words, the woman wrapped her fingers around Aubrey’s arm so tight that it would probably leave bruises and then proceeded to pull her from the water. Trying not to blush at being exposed to the world, Aubrey took the offered robe and quickly covered herself up from the searing glare of the woman.
The pile of clothes that the matriarch had given her, were then tossed in her direction and without being told what to do, she quickly slipped into the clothing. It was strange because there was no bra or panties in a manner of speaking, the support she needed was sewn into the clothing but she had never felt so exposed because of it.
The top was a weird black tunic with red leather sewn over top to create a low cut but extremely comfortable sleeveless top. Aubrey desperately tried to pull the top upwards to cover her cleavage which looked fuller than ever but, because of the way that the top had been designed, it fit snugly to her body like a second skin and barely moved an inch. The bottom was no better; she had the choice between weird warrior skirts or some trousers. Not liking the idea of going commando and giving everyone a free show, she opted for the black and red skin tight leather trousers. These two were made up of two layers of clothing; the red leather attached to the bottoms was made up of panels so that they were easy to manoeuvre in and wouldn’t split at the slightest movement. Aubrey still wished for a pair of panties though, even granny pants sounded good to her at that moment.
She had barely finished lacing herself up when the sound of Tiberius’ voice echoed throughout the room a moment before the man himself appeared in the doorway. He looked clean and fresh with his damp hair slicked back from his face revealing the true extent of the scarring on his face. His uniform was polished and he looked as fierce as ever, even if his usual scowl was tempered with a polite smile directed in Aubrey’s direction. Grateful for the opportunity to get away from the grouchy woman, she smiled back in response and hurried towards him, only just remembering to pick up the pair of leather boots and the hick socks on the way out.
Stopping to slip them on, Tiberius stood and watched her struggle on one foot to maintain her balance while trying to pull on the boots. His lips pulled up at the corners before he checked himself and allowed his stoic façade to return. When she finally was back on two feet, her hair was sticking out in all direction and her cheeks had regained their pink flush.
“Come, they are waiting.” Tiberius informed her as he allowed his arms to fall to his sides and proceeded to stroll through the corridors at a brisk pace. The two of them maintained a silence but sensing the anxiety coming from the younger woman, he took pity on her and filled the silence with words of advice which he knew would do little to prepare her for what was to come. Everyone reacted differently because no two initiations were the same and he couldn’t help but think that the Matriarch would have a helping hand in making this one even more traumatic for the fledgling.
“You will speak only when spoken to. Follow the instructions carefully otherwise you might get hurt. And don’t panic. The Matriarch will act like the process is life threatening, in truth only one person has ever died during this process and that is because he came forth with a false heart. He pledged his allegiance to the Atlantian ways but his heart was only filled with deceit, lust and greed. None of these qualities were acceptable to the source, the entity that is neither good nor evil but gives us the ability to maintain the balance between the two.” He rattled off some more and as such did not notice that Aubrey had dropped behind and had paled somewhat.
What if my heart isn’t pure enough? Toying with her lip she stared anxiously around her, looking for any kind of escape but Tiberius just took a few steps backwards and proceeded to drag her along yet another nondescript hallway. She tried to lag and slow their progression but he only tightened his grip on her arm and growled some words in her direction. Seeing no other option, Aubrey picked up her feet and tried to match pace with the grouchy man beside her. To think that she was stuck with him until she finished training or whatever it was she had to go through.
Arriving at a relatively nondescript door that looked like every one they had passed, Aubrey was shocked when Tiberius paused and straightened his back and pulled his shoulders back so that he stood tall and proud. Sending a quick glance her way that did nothing to reassure her, Tiberius brought his hand up and knocked three times on the door.
The sound echoed down the hall for a long minute before there was the sound of movement on the other side. Trying to copy Tiberius, Aubrey lifted her head and tried to ignore the fact that her hair was a frizzy mass on top of her head and instead stared straight ahead. When the door opened and hooded man stood before her and looked at her pityingly she knew that any attempts she had made to look brave had obviously failed but she didn’t let that put her off and she instead pulled her shoulders back and waited for them to do or say something.
The man smiled slightly and stepped to the side letting the two outsiders pass. The room was dimly lit, like candles had been placed about the room but something had been put over them to dull the light. It gave it an eerie feel but not as eerie as the aura that was being emitted from the centre of the room. There upon a pedestal was a thick brown leather bound book. As a person who worked with books for a living, Aubrey could honestly say she had never seen anything quite like it. Sure the covering looked normal enough but it seemed to breathe, it seemed almost- dare she say it- alive.
The Matriarch stepped forward claiming the attention of all of the occupants with the way that she flounced to her position beside the book. With a dramatic wave of her hands, sparks shot from her finger tips and bounced around the room. Eventually they hit the floor and created a circle of purple flames that ignited the stone but failed to even singe it. The ying and yang symbol emblazoned before Aubrey, the light reflecting perfectly off of her wide eyes so that her irises were seemingly created from the same purple fire.
“Step forth and take the oath or remain behind and never achieve what has been laid out for you.” The Matriarch beckoned with her hand at the same time that the flames grew in size so that they were practically ten feet tall and were licking the unusually high ceiling. It was as if she was trying to scare the new recruit away.
Paling slightly, Aubrey closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths before she simply shrugged her shoulders and took several steps forwards. Her chest ached from holding her breath but she kept her eyes closed as she winced while waiting for unbearable pain. However, the brief brush of heat over her body was the only sign that she had walked through fire.
The Matriarch cleared her throat causing Aubrey to unwillingly open her eyes and stare up at the woman that she was beginning dislike even more as the minutes went by. The look now on her face was a mixture of anger and happiness. Not knowing how the woman could be both at the same time she just stared and waited for blonde to tell her what to do like Tiberius had instructed.
“Do you pledge yourself honest and open and a willing servant towards the source? Do you pledge to maintain the balance at all costs even if that cost is your life? Do you pledge to uphold the values of the source with whose power you are imbibed and promise never to use the gifts to harm the balance?” The Matriarch continued to fire off question after question at the red head. She barely had time to think of an answer let alone respond to the questions. The blonde paused for a long while as if she was expecting answers but the smirk on her face only showed the mischief behind her actions as it was only when Aubrey opened her mouth to respond that she started to talk again. “Do not answer with your lips, answer with your heart.”
Before she could question what the kooky woman meant, with a swish of fabric and a glitter of sparks, the Matriarch left the circle as the same time that the flames turned a violent angry red. Panicked, Aubrey stared at Tiberius for help but he just kept his face blank and stared on with no emotion. For a moment she thought that he had abandoned her to the weird fire but just when she thought about giving up and letting herself be consumed by flames, she heard his voice inside her head.
“Be not afraid; let the source see your heart and you will be fine. Just do not fight; it will only hurt you if you do.”
His words were quickly followed by the roar of the flames as they started to swirl around her getting faster and faster until she was standing in the middle of a blazing vortex. Biting her lip, Aubrey forced herself to keep her eyes open and looked into the fire. This is it, she thought to herself as the vortex started to morph and change colours before her very eyes.
The air felt as though it was being sucked from her lungs as the vortex pulled inwards, closing the distance between Aubrey’s pale skin and the flames that licked closer and closer to her. After a moment’s hesitation the vortex paused as if it was summing up its prey before it closed in upon Aubrey and coated her in fire so that she completely vanished from the witnesses’ sight.
When the flames ebbed away, Aubrey was gone.
Hopefully it won't take me so long to upload this next time. Hope you enjoy the chapter. It's unedited but this is me so you all should know what to expect by now lol . Enjoy x