Chapter 35 CHAPTER 35
The climbing session meant that we didn't have to go for another class until evening time and I was more than grateful for that.
I needed to sit my body in one spot for longer than an hour rather than being dragged one way or another for one reason or another.
“Alira, let's go this way,” Erin pulled at my tired and unfamiliar-looking hands, “we have to get you registered properly.”
Trust me, I didn't grumble. It was in my throat, in my eyes and I definitely wanted to scream, ‘let me breathe’ to the high heavens but I'm not an ungrateful person.
So I followed her.
It didn't matter that I'd not gotten the chance to rest for days now.
It didn't matter that I didn't want to be here anymore and neither did it matter that I have been surviving death threats from someone who was literally standing in the same place with me and no one was doing anything about it because he was related to some high and mighty official.
Erin didn't have to help me, but she was, so I needed to suck it up and go with her. I needed to give her back her clothes anyway.
We found the Admin building after a bit of walking.
She spent it all telling me about the way the whole thing worked and who not to piss off.
As if I had a say in who I pissed off in this kingdom.
All I had to do was exist and some random stranger wants me dead.
We got to the tallest building in the Academy, this one wasn't just hewn out of rocks with doors and windows to match, red tar was used to complete it, raising it as high as twelve stories.
“Remember not to speak too loudly,” Erin reminded me, her voice barely above a whisper.
I nodded and went behind her through the large, tall wooden door. The first clerk, a tall man hunched over a large desk looked up to see us and then bent back to continue with his actions.
There were many like him here.
“The scribes” she'd called them.
Men and women who fought hard to protect the history of the kingdom, its secrets, and every important book in the kingdom during the first attack.
The Faes have dragons too and weren't caring for the beauty of Drakkonia, books or otherwise.
It affected their minds so much that they were gifted with the gift of double lifetimes, to keep the records until the end of the war.
It seemed a heavy burden, knowing how long a war was going to last. Knowing that no matter how hard you fought, it wouldn't end until the right time.
These Scribes protected the records and also controlled the Academy’s most important security.
One of the stewards, previous First years who didn't get a dragon and had to pass a different exam to get in here walked towards us.
She wore a robe like the Scribes, it pulled around her feet and I noticed there were very little dragon like features on her, or maybe it was just the fact that she was only visible from her neck up, but there were just small purple scales around her ears and under her eyes.
“What brings you to the Administration Block?” she asked in a whisper, something my former self wouldn't have been able to hear.
I refused to acknowledge all of these changes happening to me yet, because it sort of cemented the notion that I was stuck here and I didn't want to accept that.
Not until I've exhausted every option.
I needed this Pass anyway, I had to do research and I couldn't access the library without Erin.
I didn't want her anywhere near me when I go to search for the solution to my problem.
“My friend Alira is a new student and needs to be integrated into the system. Principal Draco gave his consent a few days ago.”
“And you're just coming now?”
Okay, rude.
“I've been trying not to die since then,” I bit out.
“Shh!” Every lip capable of speaking hushed me, sending a rapid wave of goosebumps through my body.
“Sorry,” I whispered, shrinking into myself.
Slowly, the long hall gradually receded back to themselves, and I wasn't the center of attention.
“This way,” the steward commanded and turned around without checking if we were following.
Erin pulled me forward as I was still too stunned to push my limbs forward.
The first door we entered opened more slowly than most doors here, like it was built before the new ones.
A relic.
“I'll wait for you here,” Erin said and I realized she'd stepped aside for me to walk past.
I've never been so scared to be apart from her before but now, with this stranger and the incident earlier on, my heart beat faster.
I nodded still, walked through the door, and immediately stepped back out.
“Your body will adjust,” the Steward bit out as I looked down at what seemed like a ground of hot coal, like she was irritated by dealing with me.
As though I should have been used to all of this.
Why didn't Erin warn me that I would be walking on hot coals, literally?
“Are you… sure?” I asked, eyeing the ground warily.
“Yes! Now get in, I don't have all day!”
That pushed me forward and the door slammed shut behind me, as though it was also bored with my antics.
I winced as the heat spread across my body from my feet up to my neck and then it stopped.
It was odd how I was getting used to magical things, like the way my body gradually adjusted to the temperature, like I could now walk on fire.
I looked up, finally taking in all of the room.
Obsidian walls pulsed with trapped shadows that pressed against the glass-like surface, reaching for me. In the center, a pedestal of dark stone held a sphere of liquid silver, rotating slowly in defiance of gravity.
"Stand here." The steward pointed to a spot before the pedestal.
She circled around, placed both hands on the sphere until it stopped spinning, then produced a needle of blackened bone.
"Palm up,” she commanded, her voice as harsh as ever.
I extended my hand tentatively and without blinking, she drove the needle deep into my palm.
“Ahh!” I screamed, “a warning next time?” I slammed, anger echoing out of my eyes.
“That anger will be the death of you if you don't tame it,” she retorted, and went to the side of the sphere and watched my angry form deal with the consequences of her actions.
Pain exploded through my hand, white-hot and searching. The needle burrowed deeper, hunting for something inside me.
How dare she think my anger was not justified?
“It's finding your core, relax so your Chi can direct it,” she instructed, her voice less venomous.
I forced myself to take deep breaths, I closed my eyes and slowly, the pain ebbed away, leaving the feeling of iron travelling through my body behind.
It finally found what it was looking for and I knew this because I was pushed forward by an invisible force and I fell towards the Sphere, nearly knocking it off it's orbit.
The Steward ran to catch me, pulling me away from the sphere that had begun to pulse like a beating heart.
“What's going on?” I gasped, holding on to the wall for balance.
“I don't know,” she frowned, “it's supposed to bring up your information and you'll be sent off to get your uniform upstairs. But –”
The door was violently pushed ajar and three Scribes ran in, towering over us and looking around the room.
“What happened?” The first male, with melanin skin and blue dragon scales covering every exposed part of him, even his head.
“She's not normal,” the steward replied, looking at me weirdly.
“Tara don't be rude,” another Scribe, a woman with webbed hands and forked said to her. “Come on child, let's try this again, okay?” she said to me, stretching her hand towards me.
I was like a deer caught in headlights but I still did as she asked, my heart beating as hard as the sphere that was getting louder.
She took the needle out of my right hand and then punched my other hand as Tara had done.
The pain didn't hit as hard as before, maybe due to the shock in my body or I was becoming immune to pain due to overexposure.
But the needle didn't waste time in finding my core this time.
The push was fiercer than before, faster, more mind-numbing.
I crashed into the sphere, my head hitting the steel letters rotating around and my eyes became cloudy.
And as I fell into strange hands, my vision blurred into darkness.