Chronicles of the Blackblade 05
Chapter 5 – Prime Real Estate
Rose entered her room; she got lucky, very lucky. It was more of a mini apartment, two bedrooms, washroom and a central living room, she looked around, it was suitably furbished, apart from them book cases, they stood out of place in the main room and bedrooms, I mean, who would want to read that many books, either way she laid claim to one of the bedrooms – with its luxurious double bed, fluffy pillows and temptingly soft mattress.
Her room was in the east wing of the academy, she had no idea if the other rooms nearby were as nice as hers; neither did she care, she was informed that she may have to share the room with another student sooner or later, not that Rose minded, there was ample room to hole herself up in her own room with privacy if needed, she checked the lock on the bedroom door, satisfied that he could be strong enough not to get kicked in easily, she returned to the main room.
She gazed inside wardrobe in her room, it had few uniforms and dresses for each gender, noticing from the mirror that her own dress was ripped, she looked for something to change into, refusing on the basis that there was nothing suitable for her, she checked in the other students wardrobe, there she found a black skirt that she was willing to wear, by tucking up the ripped fabric of her dress, she would use the new skirt to cover the ripped parts and at least be partially presentable – until her belongings arrive.
She was part way looking at the row of books for anything that sounded interesting or familiar, she found one of the book cases full of books about history and about the land she lived in, the next case contained books about the professions that are currently all the range, these she guessed were what was taught at the academy, she herself couldn’t really see herself being a warrior, nor infact anything of any real heroic value, she wanted to learn enough to keep her going, not thinking ahead for being a hero or anything of the sort.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock of the apartment door, the student from earlier was collecting students to show them the way to the dining hall, Rose fell in with the rest of the students and followed to the dining hall.
Dawn entered her room, shortly followed by another male student, the room was small, barely furnished, it contained two single beds at opposite sides of the room, with only a small walk in wardrobe; more like a changing room – without a door, the boy was the first to speak.
“Well looks like we’re sharing rooms, I’m Jake.” He said, while eyeing Dawn up and down, a snide grin upon his shifty face, “Dawn.” She replied bluntly; feeling uncomfortable having the boy there, the thought of having him sleeping in the same room as herself sent shivers down her spine, infact, the way he was looking at her made her cringe.
Dawn remembered what the older student had said, he asked everyone to change into more comfortable clothes – since some of the students came fully dressed in uniforms or other proper presentable items, they should change into something more fitting.
Dawn looked in the wardrobe; she noticed the boy had sat on one of the beds, out of view of the changing block. There was only a cream robe suitable for her to wear, being of priestess status this limited the type of clothing that she was permitted to wear, while some priests and monks are allowed to wear skimpy clothing, or even none at all; if they are tattoo coated, Dawn’s abbey frowned upon such actions.
Dawn was just deciding if she should change or not, her priestess robe that she wore was still in a good condition, just needing a dust off, when she noticed a shadow moving on the wall behind her, she turned and waited, giving her robe a tussle.
It was a few seconds later, Jake’s head popped around the corner, as if trying to see something he was not meant to, his gaze was met by a stern look from Dawn; as she stood there fully upright, arms crossed, looking down at him as if he got caught stealing candy, he quickly disappeared from view with a “Uh oh.”.
Dawn wasted no time in exiting the room, she quickly found the older student who had lead them to their rooms and confronted him about the problem, “Hello there; I’ve been put in room C12, but it appears another boy has as well.” “Yes.” He replied, “Room C12 has space for two people sharing, the boy in question is to be your room mate.” Stating the obvious as a matter of fact. “Well I’m sorry but I just cannot share with that boy.” “And why exactly would that be miss?” “Because he is a disgusting sick boy, who needs to learn some discipline.” “Need. I. Remind. You. Miss, that sexism is NOT accepted in the academy, you would do well to learn this.” At this, he turned and walked off, completely cutting off any other attempts to resolve the problem.
Dawn remained calm, at the abbey she was taught that anger helped nobody, she pondered the situation, there was nothing she could currently do, she would need to seek out someone with more authority that could deal with the problem at hand, surely someone could do something about it.
She waited in the hallway for the other students to finish changing, and joined in with the crowd heading to the dining hall.
Gonzo entered his room, it was medium sized, suitable for a single person, a lock on the door made it secure if needed.
He counted the furniture in the room; a queen-sized bed; rather large wardrobe; chest of drawers, bedside cabinet, and a trunk at the end of the bed. He quickly riffled through and found a change of clothes to replace his partially tattered peasant clothes, a pair of brown trousers and a pale red tunic done the job, suitable that he was presentable, and richly dressed from what he was used to, he left the room and followed the gathered students to the dining room.
Zela awoke with a start; she sat up from her lying position, knocking over a bowl that was laid on her chest; but quickly returned to it as her head swam, the bowl smashing on the floor next to her causing her to grown at the noise.
A woman came in to see what the noise was, noticing that Zela was awake she moved around the bed, “How are you feeling my dear?” she asked, brushing a strand of red hair out of Zela’s face, her voice was soft and soothing, caring and gentle, yet there was a hint something else hidden at the back there somewhere. “Urgh.” She grumbled, “My heads pounding and I feel disgusting.” “Yes you will do, after that nasty accident you had, your lucky to be alive you know. Your head will clear soon, but you may ache for a few days, I’ll be sure to let the instructors know to go easy on you, just hope you don’t have Bennett for your first few classes.” “Yeah, my heads beginning to clear, but my body aches still.” “Well of course it will; what did you think; that the second you get inside a walled structure that all your aches, pains and injuries disappear? Well whatever next, being able to change location at will to wherever you’ve been before?” she walked off sighing at the youth of today.
Zela sat up; she noticed that she was wearing nothing but an overly large shirt, she looked around trying to find her red dress, but only managed to find the remains of it sitting on the cupboard next to the bed, she wouldn’t be wearing that again in a hurry. Wondering what she could wear she spotted a blue shoulder less halter top and blue skirt on the chair to her side, rather skimpy for her tastes but it was better then a giant white medical shirt.
She tested her weight on her feet and found she could stand, abet painfully, she dressed herself and pushed her hair behind her, she didn’t have anything to hold it back like she usually would, she glanced at herself in the full length mirror that was located a short way down the corridor, she was still rather pale, but she didn’t look too bad in the skimpy outfit, infact she thought to herself; when she got older she might infact fill it out quite nicely….
Zela proceeded to the front of the infirmary, the woman was scribbling rapidly on a piece of parchment, but stopped and gave Zela her full attention when’ she approached. “I’m surprised you’re up and about already, I didn’t expect you to move until sometime this evening.” “Well, I have a pretty quick recover time, nothing can keep me down for long.” Zela said, a smile crossing her lips, “oh, by the way, I’m Zela Argala, Nice to meet you.. ?” she questioned the woman. “Miss Surane, I look after the infirmary here, and occasionally take classes if necessary, although my arts focus on what monks can’t heal.” “Well that sounds..” Zela trails off, as she catches the scent of something on the air, her stomach recognizing the smell before her brain does and proceeds to let out a loud gurgle, Zela stood there, her cheeks turning red, embarrassed at what happened and miss Surane bursts out laughing, shortly joined by Zela.
After their laughter subsided, “Ok then,” she calls to the girl, “Lets go get some lunch, they should be ready for us in the dining hall about now.” As they both head off to the dining hall.
Dawn’s group was one of the first to arrive in the dining hall, she had seen halls before, but not one like this, glowing orbs on either side of hall were dotted along the wall, providing light, but were not painful to look at.
Four rows of tables were setup for students to sit at, it appeared that while they tried to keep students to their own age group, there was no set rule that was enforced, such that anyone could sit with anyone else, the floor that the tables were on were solid stone, old but sturdy, she guessed that the hall could also be used for other activities if the tables were moved to a different location, the huge solid oak double doors at the far end leading outside to the courtyard only enforced that idea.
Dawn looked around, where the orbs were glowing; they seemed to fit with the murals painted on the ceiling of the hall while others painted stories to the minds eye, bright clouds swirled past forming shapes of different shapes and sizes, often they would take the form of a temple of some kind, yet disperse before the details could clear; or figures would form, humanoid in shape yet with wings, these angels would fly around in the puffy clouds before joining with them to make yet another shape.
She tore her gaze away from the flowing mural’s, the rest of her group were stunned as her, she marched onwards and took a seat at the far end of the hall, it seemed for the first meal, all of the new comers would sit together closest to where the instructors would sit.
Students strolled in gradually, each group was stuck by the awesome image of the dining hall, and each holding up the ones behind as they slowly entered and took seats, a familiar figure strolled into the dining hall, he didn’t take too much notice of the sights of the dining hall, perhaps he had seen it before, he spotted Dawn, shortened the gap and took a seat opposite Dawn.
“Hey there,” Gonzo started, “Hello,” Dawn was happy to have someone she knew to speak to. “How are you finding the hall? Its really great isn’t it,” “Yes, it is, so many things to look at, seems like everyone is having the same feeling.” “I’ve seen it before, I’ve came here a few times while helping out my foster mother.” “ahh, that’s why you didn’t seem too bothered when you entered.” “Yes, that’s right, I also know my way around too, which room are you staying in?” “C12.” “Isn’t that a shared room?” ”Yes it is, a rather small one as well.” “So who are you staying with?”
It was at this moment that Jake made his entrance, planting his arm on Dawn’s shoulder and crouching down keeping his arm along her shoulder, “Hi there, I’m Jake, Dawn here’s room mate. And you are?” the greeting was said in a confrontational possessive manner, Gonzo replied with only a mean glare; after seeing the uncomfortable look on Dawn’s face. “I don’t remember giving you permission to lay your hands upon me.” Dawn stated, she shock her shoulder forcing him to remove his arm or risk losing his balance, he chose the former, standing; he gave a brief nod of the head and walked away, not before causing Dawn’s stomach to turn with the words “I’ll see you later in our room then darling.” And with a wink he was gone.
When Rose’s group arrived at the dining hall, it was already half full, a buzz of conversation was in the air, she looked around for a seat, there was enough space left, she spotted a corner seat and made her way towards it, on the left most table she sat on the corner closest to back of the hall, she looked around, recognising some of the noble boys that survived the brutal race, and also noticing the three boys that tripped her earlier, she kept looking around the huge hall, even at her own noble estate they didn’t have a hall this big, the glow orbs placed around were a nice touch, she’d had them at home, all it took was a touch to turn them on and off, though she didn’t know how they worked, she remember that you have to turn them off every so often or they break.
It was the ceiling that grasped her attention the most, clouds of swirling darkness of different shades forming patterns but disappearing before she could actually make out what it was, it seemed like some kind of game, but yet it would change again just as she thought she had worked it out, some of the images resembled ghosts and ghouls, tattered remains and strange creatures.
Zela arrived at the dining hall just as the last students was sitting, none of the instructors had yet arrived, she assumed they was to be last to arrive to make a nice entrance, the hall itself was huge, glow orbs stuck to the walls around the room provided the light required, she guessed that these were the manual charge variety, and sure if she was to look closer she would find the energy stream that they used. She glanced at the ceiling, she saw swirling images of reds yellows and blues, forming images of dragons and humanoids, she paid no more attention to it after that, knowing it was enchanted to reflect upon the viewers current attitude and mood; affected only by their imagination.
She spotted some space part way down the middle table and started towards it, but then realised it was a mistake, she should of sat at one of the edges, maybe next to that girl dressed all in black at the edge of the room; she looked like she needed a bit of cheering up, there was also space next to a foreign looking girl with the long red hair on the right side of the room, people also seemed to shy away from the very pale white girl with black hair on the left, she looked quite ill really.
Zela was about half way to her target seat when suddenly someone stood up towards the far side of the room, they was on the small side, wearing a pink frilly short skirt and top, they began walking towards her, slowly at first then building up speed – followed by volume.
“eeeeeeeeeeee” the small girl squeaked as she got closer, running at full speed, in short order she reached Zela and took her into a running embrace, knocking them both to the floor, “ohmygoshareyouokimsosorryididntmeantoareyouhurthowareyoufeeling-“ the small girl gushed as much as she could, until her lungs cried for air and forced her to stop speaking, she was laying upon Zela’s chest, her icy blue eyes looking upwards towards Zela’s face, tears forming in her eyes as her lower lip started trembling.
Zela brushed the tears away from the girl’s eyes and sat up into a seating position, this was going to take a while…
