"Where's the girl that was with you before?"
Mishal looked back to see Conleth analysing, her or rather, the space behind her. It was Friday, so students didn't have any classes, except for elite classes, and Auretta always had to be in a meeting. Mishal gave a small smile, Conleth was horrible with names.
"Dahlia?" She grinned.
"Yeah," Conleth answered in a gruff voice. He always sounded like he was in pain.
"Survival thing."
Conleth furrowed his brows, "She's in elite survival?"
"Why? Jealous?" Mishal smirked.
Conleth was the only one of the teachers who had an actual sense of humour. Even though he was ruthless and mean, he never sent you to the office, or gave you detentions. He just came at you with a sword and that worked for her.
"Out with you, or do you have no friends to play with, Brantley?"
Mishal was already hurrying away, she felt like Auretta was avoiding her these days, and she was going to talk to her.
Mishal walked to her dorm. Kenna was sitting there. Kenna had long black straight hair, with a streak of red. She was wearing a yellow top and faded jeans. She had pale ivory skin, her lips were rosy red, and her eyes were so dark brown they looked black.
"What is up with you?" She called out as Mishal slammed the door to the bathroom.
"Nothing."
"Right." She said, she paused and then added as an afterthought, "what did the poor door ever do to you?"
"It stubbed my toe once." Mishal replied.
"I remember that, your toenail came off and-"
Mishal turned the tap on and tried to drown out Kenna's voice. Her hair was frizzy, knotted and dirty. She had cut her forearm. Mishal went into the shower, it was ironic, that she loved showers so much. Being a fire spirit and all.
She walked out of the dorm expecting a comment from Kenna, but she wasn't there.
She walked out of the fire dorms and into the air hallway, she walked down to the Auretta's room. She knocked on the door and Auretta opened it.
"I don't want to see you." She said.
Mishal's heart sank but she put on a smile, "I realised that, I just thought you were being subtle about it."
"Not anymore, just go!"
Mishal took a step back, "What? Why? What is your problem?"
"I can't believe it was you. They warned me. They warned me this would happen. Just leave, don't come back!"
Mishal ran out of the corridor and back into her dorm, pushing back tears. She slammed the door shut behind her.
"I don't remember that door stubbing your toe." Kenna drawled.
Mishal looked up to see Kenna looking at her. She was sitting on her bed reading and she put it down. Mishal sat down next to Kenna and told her everything she'd said.
"Auretta isn't like that," Kenna said drily though she looked a little pale, "She never gets mad."
Mishal didn't answer and Kenna took that as a cue to carry on.
"She's delusional. I'm telling you."
Lynn
"Now, the endless war, it went on for thousands of years. It was endless. No-one thought it would ever end. Now who knows what time we're talking about?"
Lynn sat at the back of the class, she had her papers in front of her but was reading a book under the table. She looked up as Azalea asked a question, praying she didn't pick on her. But she didn't need to because as usual Zinnia's hand shot right up and Azalea nodded at her.
"Pre-life ages." Zinnia replied in her cheery voice, "It was about a hundred years after the Last War."
Azalea nodded and continued talking, Lynn looked back at her book, trying to drown out the teacher's voice with the story. But Azalea's cold voice penetrated the room and Lynn looked back up with a sigh.
"...there were no casualties of the war. Because all the spirits were equal. Not one could exist without the other. Not one was superior over the other, but this war did cause a hatred to grow among the spirits. The spirits were not unified. The first life spirit was born, a small girl called Evka, though people called her Claudia, her middle name, as it meant 'lame'."
A few of the spirits laughed upon hearing their teacher say lame but Azalea continued on untroubled.
"She was called Claudia often because she hadn't had any powers in any of the elements. And why was that?"
Mishal's hand shot up in the air. Lynn sat up straighter in her chair. Mishal hardly ever answered questions because she knew the answer.
"Because she was Claudia, Ma'am, lame."
The class erupted into laughter and Azalea gave her a hard stare.
But it was Zinnia who spoke. "Hardly. A name cannot affect your powers. It was because she was a life spirits, and she didn't have any powers in the known elements."
Azalea spoke quickly now as the bell was about to ring.
"She was a life spirit. The very first. She became their leader and united them once more. Now what happened afterwards?"
Bryony answered this time, "All of Evka's descendants became life spirits. Evka then created an academy. This academy. Those who show early signs of great potential can be admitted into the academy."
Lynn resisted the urge to roll her eyes. They'd heard this all about a hundred times. The spirit academy. Fulfilling your potential.
"Very good Bryony, that will be all. You're dismissed."
She had combat next and she groaned as she stood up slipping her book and papers into her bag and shuffling out of class.
"You're perfect!"
Aren't exactly the words you expect anyone to ever say to you, ever in your life. Much less when your clothes are torn and dirty, your honey blonde hair looks like it's been through hell, and you have an icepack on top of your head.
Guthrie was looking at her with a mixture of shock and excitement.
"Please don't tell me, Brantley is involved in any of this." The nurse muttered.
Lynn laughed, "What are you talking about? Mishal's plans are the best."
The nurse shook her head, "Well, have fun, but I don't want you back here anytime soon."
"You're perfect!" Guthrie repeated.
Lynn didn't know Guthrie well, but she remembered the infamous trio, Brie, Nie, and Rie. And then Makani had disappeared.
Lynn looked at Guthrie with a bemused expression, "For what?"
"You'd do it right?"
Lynn smiled politely, she was doing that a lot lately, "Do what?" She repeated.
Guthrie smiled, "We're going ice-skating, you just have to freeze the lake!"
"You know, that has got to be one of Mishal's craziest ideas."
Guthrie frowned, "There was that one-time Mishal tried to burn Mr. Barkos's hair,"
Lynn smiled remembering, "She said he'd used way too much gel,"
"Oh god help that girl..." Guthrie said, "So you'd do it right?"
Lynn bit her lip, "I don't know... I don't think I'm powerful enough... I can freeze a cup of water, sure, even a bathtub, but a lake?"
"Come on, please, please, please."
"Okay," Lynn said, but there was an unsettling feeling in her gut that told her everything was not going to be okay.
Dahlia
Dahlia's eyes flickered open. The sun hadn't fully risen yet. The forest was a euphony of noises, the chirping of the birds, whistling of the wind, the soft padding of an animal, the crackling of the fire and the lapping of a nearby river. Dahlia watched the sun rise, it was so peaceful, and beautiful. The soft yellow of the sun mixed with the pale blue of the sky it created a warm orange beneath the clouds. Milo was next to her, she could feel the warmth coming from him, the rhythm of his breathing.
She closed her eyes momentarily, then stood up, Milo got up from his sleep, as if sensing she had woken up. Betha was still sleeping but her wolf was pacing around her.
Dahlia picked up her daggers and slipped them in her belt. She folded up the map and stuffed it in her pocket along with the compass. Milo barked.
She turned and saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned around.
A hand came over her mouth. The hand was calloused and scabby. She tried to twist away but she felt like she was getting weaker. The hand pulled her back, she could see Milo barking and growling. Dahlia tried to scream but no voice came out. She tried to kick but her legs were getting heavy. She tried to bite the hand, but her mouth was frozen. Her eyes were getting droopy. Her body went limp. And the world went dark.