~*~
I just realized something.
Jaehyun's voice sounded familiar, because he visited me when I was still unconscious in the restraining chamber.
"Juli," Yuta called me and I quickly turned to him. "Are you okay?" Yuta stormed off to where I was and held my shoulder.
I was surprised, he didn't seem to be the type to show sentiment like this. I just nodded slowly. I stared at the floor. "Is Hendery okay?"
Yuta took a deep breath, like he was hesitating to answer. "I don't really know what's going on, since I am not that close with Hendery." He said, with a soft voice. "But we all notice that he has been acting... distant."
"How?"
"He has been avoiding us lately, and Taeyong said he hasn't come to sleep at the dorm at night for days now."
Taeyong?
"Did he really kill someone?" Yuta eyed me, in a serious manner.
"They were—They were..." I felt a tingling sensation on the cuts on my arm, remembering that night. "He saved me."
Yuta sighed, "I see." He said quietly. "Alright, I think the tour is over. See ya around, Juli." Yuta waved at me and walked away.
~
"Jennie," I said, while she was combing my hair.
"Yes?"
"Are you in arts style?"
"Fighting style," she said while looking at me in the eye before turning away to put on her black robe.
"What if I'm not good in both fighting and arts? Don't they have science or something?" I said, while looking at my own reflection on Jennie's mirror.
"Unless you're a waterbender or the son of Apollo, you pretty much have no choice. Even demigods like the children of Apollo are born to fight. That's why they have ADHD, it gives them better reflexes when they're fighting."
But I am a waterbender too.
Something doesn't make sense. Why would Victor want me to say that I am a firebender? I haven't even figured out which element I prefer.
"We have to go now, we are late." Jennie said.
I wrapped my cuts with a cloth to cover it up and Jennie threw me a black robe of my own. I put it on and looked at myself in the mirror.
"Let's go, 'can't wait to introduce you to my friends."
~
Jennie led me to where the dinner was held. Apparently, students here go to the Dinning Hall to have dinner and dance every night.
I couldn't believe it until I saw it for myself.
The Dinning Hall was humongous, gothic chandeliers with tungsten lighting illuminated the whole area with big windows just at the back where, I'm guessing, the teachers and the councils were sitting.
Victor, my uncle, was sitting on the biggest chair in the very middle of the faculty members.
Victor and the other three people were wearing tuxes and dresses, obviously the Council of Four. The rest who were sitting next to them were wearing cloaks like the students, but dark maroon.
I still don't know whether to believe that this is really happening, that out of nowhere I found my relative that turns out to be the owner of this luxurious and prestigious school?
Thinking about it sounds very crazy.
There I was, sitting in this very big room with a sea of people that I didn't know, except for Jennie. She sat next to me and we were sitting with her friends on one of the four long tables. "So this is Juli, and she is my new roommate," she said to her other five smiling friends.
At least they were smiling, right?
"Hi." I awkwardly greeted them, and I already felt like digging a grave for myself.
"So... what style are you going to major?" the girl, with a blonde wavy hair who was sitting on my other side, said.
I chuckled awkwardly, "I still don't know yet."
"What do you mean you don't know?" The girl, who was as pale as Jennie said.
"I'm completely new to this."
"Ahh, a Dummy." The girl with a high ponytail said.
"Seulgi." Jennie hissed to the high ponytail girl. "Don't be so rude now."
"But Seulgi's right. She is a Dummy." The girl with a blonde highlight said.
I frowned at them. Are they really saying I'm stupid?
"What's that supposed to mean?" I said, obviously annoyed.
"A Dummy is a person who has not experimented on what they can do with their gifts. Before coming here, at least us, the Black Velvet have done something with our powers. Therefore, we know what we want to do with our powers, hence for us, fighting." The girl with a french braided dark hair said.
They have so many terminologies for every single thing I could barely keep up with them.
"Don't worry, Dummy, we got your back. We will help you find your style." The blonde girl next to me said.
"Alright you creeps, that's enough. We haven't even properly introduced ourselves." Jennie said. "Rosie, go."
Rosie, the blond girl who was sitting next to me, "I am Rosé and I am a daughter of Aphrodite. My specialty is charmspeak and I'm a level 3."
The girl with blonde highlights snickered, "now that ain't very special is it if every child of Aphrodite can use charmspeak."
"Don't make me use it on you, Wendy. You know there is no one who can use charmspeak as affective as me."
Jennie shrugged, "she's right, that's why we are the A team."
Seulgi smirked. "I guess."
"Who's Aphrodite?" I said.
Then all the girls looked at me, frowning, like I was the stupidest person they've ever met.
"The most beautiful goddess, she is the epitome of beauty; she is the goddess of love and beauty—"
"Hold your doves, Rosie. We wouldn't wanna restart the Trojan War now would we?" Wendy, the girl with blonde highlights said.
"I'm sorry I don't follow—" I said like a lost puppy.
"The Trojan War started because poor Paris had to choose who was the fairest between: Hera, queen of Olympus, goddess of home, marriage, family, childbirth; Athena, goddess of wisdom and reason, battle and strategy; and Aphrodite." Wendy explained.
"Please girls, I am not comfortable that we discuss this matter further. Moving on," Jennie said.
"I'm Jisoo." Said the girl with the braid. "I'm a waterbender, level 4." She smiled at me.
"I'm Seulgi, a firebender, level 4."
"Wendy, daughter of Athena. Level 5" she smirked.
"Don't be so cocky now, Wendy. There is no daughter of Athena who is above level 5." Rosé said, then she turned to face me. "I'm with the lowest level in this group because I just came here 2 years ago, the last to join the group."
"And what do you do?" I asked Wendy.
"I can wield any kind of weapon before even practicing in advance."
"Cool." I grinned.
I could feel Rosé was rolling her eyes next to me.
"Will you guys cut it out? Please, continue." Jennie said.
"I'm Irene." She raised her eyebrow at me, like she was judging me.
And she must be a vampire.
"And I'm a vampire. Level 4." She continued.
"What does vampire do, by the way?" I asked, then I looked at Jennie.
"Unlike demigods whose powers are according to their godly parents, we vampires can possess any kind of power." Irene smirked. "I can freeze anything with just my breath and also touch."
Naturally, my eyes were drawn to her hands, which were covered by leather gloves.
"Is that why you are wearing gloves?"
"No," she said, to my surprise. "I am a level 4 and I am completely capable of controlling my power." She raised her gloves. "This is just a fashion statement." She smiled.
I smiled back to Irene, then I turned to Jennie.
"How 'bout you, Jennie?"
I saw Jennie's glowing orange eyes lit up at my question, "well, dear roomie. I guess I haven't fully introduced myself. You know my name already, I am a vampire, which I guess you already figured out, and I am a level 5."
"What do you do?"
"Ohhohoho, this will be good." Rosé smirked.
"Come on, Jennie. Tell her." Seulgi grinned.
"What?" I said.
Jennie let out a sigh, "I can create an illusion on someone's head that they are in pain." She said gravely,
"Burning, excruciating, incapacitating pain." Rosé emphasized. She forked her baby potato and put it in her mouth.
I gulped nervously.
"There are flaws to my gift, of course." Jennie's voice was suddenly cheerful again.
"What about the 127?"
Again, like when I asked who Aphrodite was, the girls all eyed me with a are you kidding me face.
"Now why would you ask about them?" Seulgi brought her eyebrows together.
"They are nothing but a bunch of show-offs with big mouths and is overrated." Rosé snickered.
"Well, not to our dear Juli here. I think someone's got a crush on one of the 127."
"Goddamit Juli!"
"Shut...up!"
"Are you serious?"
They all said in unison and I just stared at them blankly.
"Why would you say that, Jennie? I have no crush on anyone. I just got here."
"Oh please don't let it be Yuta! I swear he is the worst!"
Yuta? The nice guy that gave me a tour? He can't be that bad.
"Yuta was actually nice to me."
Jisoo looked at me with an opened-mouth cringe. "What the hell did he do to you to make you think like that?"
"He is the worst—" Seulgi paused. "He thinks he is an Air Nomad."
"He always fights like an airbender eventhough he isn't one. It's really a disgrace." Jisoo said.
"Wait, he isn't an airbender?"
"Of course not, someone as evil as him cannot be a gentle Air Nomad." Jisoo said.
"Then what is he?"
There was a tense air on the table. Everyone was waiting for someone to answer, like no one was willing to do that.
"He is a child of a major god, one of the Big Three." Rosé said, quietly.
"Why? Is it a bad thing?"
"Yes, yes it is. They aren't supposed to have any children. They swore on River Styx not to have anymore children." Wendy explained.
"Who are the Big Three? And what the hell is River Styx?"
"Okay Juli, tomorrow, you are so going to Intro to Magical History class with professor Natsumi." Jennie said.
"The Big Three are..." Wendy looked around as if she was expecting someone to attack or something. Then she leaned forward closer to me, and whispered: "the king of Olympus and Heaven, god of the sky, thunder, Zeus; Poseidon, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes, droughts, horses, you name it; and Hades, god of the dead and wealth, lord of the underworld."
"So who's Yuta's father?"
"The lord of the sky himself. That's why he has the power of the wind." Seulgi said.
"People say he grew up in eastern air temple, and learned the way of the Air Nomads." Jisoo said gravely.
"And the River Styx? Why would the Big Three swore to never have children anymore?"
"The River Styx is a sacred river that separates the land of the living from the realm of the dead located in the Underworld. It is sometimes simply referred to as the Styx. Oaths made by this river bring something 'worse than death' to the Oath Bearer if not fulfilled. They swore an oath because their offsprings are too powerful and cause too much turmoil on the mortal world." Rosé said.
After that, there was a long silence on the table, as every one of us was chowing down on our food in silence.
"Well, that was one hell of a talk." Jennie said. "Dinner is supposed to be a therapeutic moment for us, let's hurry and finish up our dinner so we can dance!"
My attention naturally was drawn to the sound of the melody that was coming somewhere near the Council of Four. There were musicians playing cello, a big looking trumpet, drums, tambourine, and there were students dancing in front of them.
My eyes wandered again and it landed on that familiar purple hair, Yuta.
They were sitting at the table next to us, which means they were sitting behind where Jisoo, Wendy, Irene, and Seulgi were. To my surprise, Yuta caught my gaze for a second and looked away.
I was looking for a particular person on their table, but I couldn't find him. I looked around, hoping that he was here and he was just not sitting with his group, but he wasn't anywhere.
I got up from my seat, "I have to use the washroom."
"That way," Jennie pointed out to where we were coming from. "Take a left turn and you'll see it after a few minutes of walking."
How is everything so far here? How big is this institute?
I shook my thoughts away mentally and exit the Dinning Hall.
I wasn't actually going to the washroom, I was going to look for Hendery.
~*~