Cohort

Cohort
Katherine 

I kept my head down toward the floor, my mood jumping aimlessly around. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder pull me back and slam me against the wall, knocking the air out of me.
“Where is it, you fucking dirt-blooded imbecile?”
My eyes widened in surprise. What was she talking about? I wished I would wake up from sleep, but it didn’t happen, sadly. There wasn’t very much to hope for something about.
“What is it?” I dared to ask and instantly regretted it. I felt heat by my face and knew it was witch’s fire before I turned. They would burn my face off, I thought, fear blooming so wildly in my heart.
“Please,” I whispered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t understand. Please tell me so I can know.”
“It speaks,” one of them mumbled ,  a large wizard called Orion. He was mostly the leader of the group, the group that found it so interesting to make my life a living vision of Tartarus.
“Let her go. Maybe she truly doesn’t know what it is we’re talking about.”
“Oh, come now, Orion.” His big, fanatical raptor arms flexed around his muscular biceps. She looked up, her pretty eyes focused on him, her long lashes fluttering about like butterflies’ wings. “You know she’s lying. She’ll always find a way to make herself look better afterward, wouldn’t she?”
He shrugged out of her grasp and walked closer to me. “You really don’t know where it is, do you?”
He leaned closer, standing nearly a full foot taller than me, forcing me to give. I met his eyes for one second and then looked down, afraid that his golden-coloured eyes would singe me until I was nothing but ash.
“What is it?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest and still staring down at me as I felt his eyes boring hot holes into my heart.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But being that it sounds important, I would guess it probably will want something.”
I felt his hand forcefully under my chin, pulling my head back until it hit the wall. I let out a soft gasp as pain exploded through the back of my head.
Now his eyes bore holes inside mine. “Hold my gaze, dammit, you little squeamish thing,” he growled in front of me.
I held his gaze just for a fraction of a second, and then I knew what his family power was ,  they could bring out the truth from anyone. They could see secrets. I had none to keep, but I hated the fact that he would see through me. He looked and looked until he let go of my chin, stepped back, and shook his head.
“She has no idea what I’m looking for. This is an exercise in futility,” he announced, causing his group of lackeys to back off.
No witch would surely have something against it ,  except Francesca, whose book was the largest fan. She pulled her clothes together, letting out a gasp with a small, shy smile on her lips as though she expected a kiss. I thought he would do it ,  in fact, a couple of small crowds beside me also thought he would.
“Open your fucking eyes,” he said.
Her eyes snapped open, surprise evident on her features. He read through her too, and then she shut her eyes tightly, shaking her head.
“Whatever you see, it’s not true,” she said. “It’s her, I promise. It’s her!” she pointed at me.
He let go of her neck and wiped his hands on the nearest wall as though he had touched the most disgusting surface known to him. Just as he was about to speak, the door opened, revealing Master Cadence.
Master Cadence knew the scope of everything. Nothing happened amongst her apprentices and interns that she wouldn’t know about. Her eyes found mine, searching me for injury, and when she didn’t find any, she walked in.
Master Cadence was not impervious to my predicament within her small academy, but neither was she interested in stepping into it. She believed we would sort out our issues by ourselves and believed that the young would always sort things out among themselves. It was beyond her to meddle in the affairs of those less than her in age.
“You were all in attendance, yes?”
There were mumbles of affirmation.
“Then I wouldn’t have to trust this matter any longer.”
She looked around the room and slowly sat down behind our large obsidian desk. The room was alit with trinkets, lined with large bookshelves, and was nearly as large as my parents’ home by the beach. It was everything I had ever hoped or dreamed to see, being here, generally, in front of her, it was a dream come true. Unless, of course, my tormentors could be counted as part of it. Then again, which dream was not complete without one or two tormentors?
“You all will be joining the efforts,” she said slowly. “Quickly, you’re going to have to be graduated from apprentices to interns. You will all go on your quests, some of which will be within the other side of the continent, amongst the werewolves. As you well know, some of them have witches as their kingdom guides; others don’t, seeing our kind as meddlesome.”
She said the words slowly, as though she believed them herself. She knew I believed them to be so. But our presence amongst the packs of the Lycans should be nothing but purely educational. We could not hope to rule over them in any case whatsoever. But there were many witches who acted out of the opposite, believing that the werewolves were nothing more than dogs that should be led around by their betters.
No such views were seen to be acceptable to have. Those who held such opinions were a small minority that didn’t have much to go for them. The views of the vast majority were that those who sympathized with such beasts deserved to be subjected to the same treatment as them when the need arose.
“I understand that this might be terrifying to some of you.” Her eyes roamed the room, and then landed on mine. “Some of you need at least five more years of intensive study before I can even dare to send you out there. You see, the world outside is cruel. You don’t just need to be strong, you need to be fortified within and without. Your weakness will be noticeable, and some will come after it. There are many evil witches, there is much evil in the world,” she said. “The Dark Faction, for instance, the Dark Tower, they will not let you live. I think it best if you have some more time.”
She looked away from me. Of course, she spoke to me directly. None other in the room was as wet behind the ears as I was.
“Which is why I have decided to group you all into separate cohorts of three.”
I could hear subtle murmurs around the room. Everyone had already picked whom they wanted from the start, it was no hard thing to see. Of course, I would probably be relegated as far back as possible, not choosing anyone but being forced to be grouped with others.
“I will be picking them at random.”
I heard a collective gasp and fought the urge not to smile.
“Catherine.”
I heard my name called. I brought my head up with wide eyes.
“Master,” I said in a timid voice.
“Orion.”
My heart skipped several beats.
“Aizen.”
“The three of you will be one.”
The other names floated off in my mind as I focused on whom I had been paired with. Orion? Why?