Chronicles of the Blackblade 09
Chapter 9 – Slave Labour
--- Three Weeks Later ---
Zela awoke early, as was her habit. She thought back…
The days had been hard, since when she had joined, the tasks at first has been gruelling, helping in the kitchen, serving the other students, cleaning and scrubbing floors, dusting and worst of all - laundry, she got used to the chores quickly, and spent most of her free time in the library or having fun with the others.
After the first week; those of lesser stamina, or too proud to do such demeaning tasks were sent away, the groups were rearranged to keep the numbers in each group at a steady level, while each group were given more tasks to do.
It had been hard for Rose, she was stuck in a different group from Zela, but from the times they met she could tell she was having a hard time, she ached non-stop and would sleep at every opportunity, the only reason she was still here was her stubborn refusal to give up. The help and support that herself and Mara gave her had nothing to do with it.
Mara didn’t seem to have a problem; usually more of a hinder then anything else, she shortly grew out of kitchen and dusting duties due to the amount of damage that would occur after she was done. Her usual jobs were doing the laundry; heavy duty cleaning or messenger girl.
Synti didn’t stay for long, she was called back to her homeland due to troubles her clan were having.
Gonzo didn’t have any trouble with any of forms of slavery put against him, while more suited to the more physically intensive jobs he got the job done. His most common jobs included the receiving of shipments by wagon or barge from the river.
Dawn managed any and all jobs put in front of her with dedication and efficiency, she never complained about the work, preferring to get the job done without a word. It was obvious she had been through all of this before.
Minus had no troubles doing any of the jobs required, she found herself commonly given the kitchen related duties, while not having a problem with the extreme heat that often arose in the kitchen, her strong body allowed her to get tasks done easily.
Zela headed down into the dining hall, her jobs today were mostly general cleaning and dusting, she planned to be done with them quickly and wanted to join in with a first year elementalist class that she found out about from a newly turned elementalist she met earlier in the week.
After a quick breakfast she was off, she quickly found the hall that was first on her list and closed the door behind her, satisfied that it was empty; she started on her spell, ensuring it was low in power and controllable at will.
“Dust Devil” she finished. A small swirling mass of yellow began to form on the ground next to her, growing in height slowly until it resembled a weak small hurricane, about a foot in height, width and depth it gradually began to lift off the floor as she controlled it around the room, passing though the more fragile items in the room and shelves that collected dust; leaving them spotless.
Only the floor was left now, Zela brought the Dust Devil closer to herself and poured on the bucket of water she had brought, the yellow hurricane turned into a dark greyish brown colour as the sand inside absorbed the water, she grinned as she pushed more of her magical energies into it, watching as it gained more speed and momentum, she used this to apply the necessary force needed to remove the hard muck and grime that managed to find its way onto the floor, a few minutes later the room was clear. Zela slowly dispelled the Dust Devil above the bucket, allowing all of the mucky water and dirt to drain into it.
She smiled as she left the hall, only four more to go.
Zela arrived at the classroom just as the other students were entering; the classroom was a medium sized room, with enough seats to comfortably fit fifteen or so students. Zela felt kind of out of place being four years younger then the class average, a few of the students wondered who she was and why she was there; but didn’t question her on the matter, most came in groups of two or three and proceeded to seats adjacent to each other. Zela took a seat located towards the back and waited.
“Good morning students” the teacher said enthusiastically as he strode forcefully into the room, his teachers elementalist’s robes gliding along with this cape blown by the wind afterwards. After getting the classes attention he began loud and boisterous.
“My name is Maxwell Madderson, and I shall be your elementalist mentor for the first half of this year. Since you’ve all been here for a few years already you know that it is the duty of the first year elementalist’s to keep all of the magical facility’s here charged at all times.” He said the last sentence proudly as if doing so is a great honour for elementalists; the class were quickly infected with his attitude and were keen to learn.
“So lets begin with the class roster….” He began calling out students names with each student in turn replying in some form or another, after he finished and everyone was accounted for, he spotted Zela and marched towards her.
”My dear young lady, it appears that you have came to the wrong lesson, first years haven’t been assigned to classes yet.” Maxwell said. “I know, but I’d like to join in on your lesson if you wouldn’t mind?” Zela asked politely. “Why of course my dear! Its always a pleasure when someone shows a interest in the elementalist arts, especially someone as young as yourself!” Maxwell boasted proudly, “But please try not to disrupt the class if you do not understand.” “Don’t worry, I’ll try my best.” Zela grinned broadly; she didn’t think it would be that easy. “Since you’ll be joining us do you have a name… miss?” “Zela” “Miss Zela it is, so class, let us begin.” Maxwell said as he strode back to the front of the classroom, a few of the other students looking at her as if she didn’t belong there, while others looking on with interest.
Rose awoke at mid morning, she hurt - a lot, her feet and legs hurt from all the walking and running that was required of her; her arms from all the scrubbing and cleaning; her back from all the lifting and her mind from the constant mental battle that she fought everyday to force herself to continue, to force herself to keep going despite all the pain.
Rose had been a regular at the bathhouse located at the rear of the academy, the first time herself; Zela and Mara had found it; they dove straight in, now it had became a part of Rose’s daily routine, first thing in the morning and just before bed she would soak in the hot baths, allowing it to relax tired muscles and provide relief from the day gone by or preparation for the day ahead.
She now partially understood about the training, when she had arrived she had been a thin and weak girl, now after three weeks she was beginning to show the signs of muscle under her flesh, the soft skin now replaced with toughened worn skin and she felt healthier then she ever had before.
Rose thought back to the initial introduction, after her confrontation with Jeremy the ranger who was her groups leader, she had introduced herself to her group mates, now only two of the original ones remained, one was a shy and timid monk by the name of Dawn. The other, a complete wacko named Ellard, every time Rose had seen him, he had always been dressed in weird clothes made of leaves, Rose wondered if he ever changed. The rest of her group had dropped out or had been changed around so much that she didn’t know them.
The times that Rose had seen Dawn outside of the group meetings, she was always in the presence of another student by the name of Gonzo, Rose had hardly spoke to him, but he seemed like a friendly enough person, if you could get past his burly looks. Rose wondered at their relationship, but left off commenting about it.
Rose only saw her roommate of an evening, or on the occasion when she would accompany her on her own duties. But every morning without fail, Rose would find her breakfast waiting for her outside of her room. Rose knew that she didn’t have to do, but could not figure out why the girl did such a thing.
Mara always seemed to be hanging around with a smile on her face, happy to pitch in whenever help was wanted, or more often then not – when it wasn’t. Working all day or not Mara was always full of life, childish laughter and childish intelligence, which more often then not ended up making Rose want to throttle her.
“So for our first lesson you will be learning how to charge the different orbs located in the academy, before we begin I will give you a demonstration and then you can try your own.” He began handing out an orb to students, throwing them towards the students at the back of the class, he was going to skip giving one to Zela but she held her hand out to accept an orb as it was passed around.
“Now students, these orbs are like the ones you find built into the walls of the keep, they give off light using the magical energy that has been charged into them, as you can see these are all empty at the moment, when charged they give off a glow like so.” Maxwell proceeded to hold the orb between his hands in front off him, suddenly the orb began to glow, softly at first then slowly it grew brighter and brighter, until it was a steady ball of light.
“Now I’d like you all to try. Focus your magical energy on the orb, don’t worry if it turns a different colour, for now just see if you can charge it.”
A buzz of conversation started in the class as the students tried to charge their orbs with power, Maxwell strolled around the class, giving help to those students who were having problems, some managed to partially charge their orbs with a taint of colour based on their preferred elements. After he was satisfied, he approached Zela’s seat and stopped in his tracks, looking at the brightly glowing ball of white sitting upon her desk, he found Zela with her back to him, kneeling on her seat, leaning forward talking to the student behind her.
“Try holding it completely covered in both of your hands, and close your eyes.” Zela was saying to the male student. “O.k.” he answered, unsure of himself, unsure of taking advice from someone four years his junior. “Now, concentrate the energy into your hands.” “Uh huh.” “And then push it into the space between your hands.” Zela watched as the orb slowly began to turn dark brown instead of gray, the student’s brow furrowed in concentration and perspiration began to form on his forehead. It was at this moment that Maxwell appeared at their sides.
“What’s going on here?” Maxwell asked in his loud and proud voice. The student immediately snapped out of his trance, dropping the orb to the table with shaking hands, the brown color inside it dissipated quickly as it returned to its original color. “I was just er asking um Zela for…” “I was just trying to help him out Sir.” Zela covered Maxwell looked at Zela sceptically, before pointing to the glowing ball on her desk “Where exactly did that come from?” he asked Zela made a show of being confused, “Sorry sir?” “What happened to the orb I gave you?” “That is it sir.” Zela replied, a smile creeping onto her lips. Maxwell narrowed his eyes at her, while she half-turned to face him. “Jonathan.” Maxwell called to the student sitting in front of Zela “Your orb wasn’t charged that much, are you trying to show off in front of this young lady?” The class laughed as Jonathan blushed while he quickly tried his best to unsuccessfully deny it, “But sir! I didn um.. er.. do.. anything.” Bumbled Jonathan. “No he didn’t.” Zela replied “I done it myself.” At this the class went silent, no one wanted to admit that a new student had out performed them. Maxwell picked up the now gray orb on the desk that Zela had been leaning on, and dropped it into Zela’s waiting palm. “Show me then.” He grinned at her and Zela wondered why, as she looked at the orb in her hands she realized why.
The box of orbs that Maxwell brought with him didn’t all contain *easy* charge orb’s like the one she was given, this was one of the larger capacity ones – which also required much more energy and skill to charge, no wonder some of the students were having problems!
Zela sighed, she’d been had.
