Lura Syllana
I follow behind them as we’re joined by the girls down the hall. The one girl… Charinva? She still has a book in her hands with her nose buried in it. We make our way up the stairs and continue up two floors and come out in a vast corridor. Halfway through is a large doorway with two huge carved wooden doors depicting a feast of angels. The doors are open, and beyond is a giant hall with many rows of tables running vertically from the entrance. I follow the girls as we enter a line to get our food. Discussion breaks out between them as we wait.
I can’t help but drift away as I look out at the busy hall where clusters of people in brown and yellow robes settle in groups. Oddly, the groups aren’t separated by the color of their robes. Some yellow robes sit with the browns and vice versa. As we get our food, which is prepared for us and provided, I follow them to a group of others in both brown and yellow robes sitting next to each other.
They all seem to welcome us warmly. Chalia speaks up. “Hey all, meet the new stray, Lura. She’s rooming with me now.”
“Nice to meet ya. Welcome to the club,” a brown-haired boy says, raising his goblet. He wears a brown robe.
“Thanks,” I say.
“That’s Hubys,” Chalia says. “No point in telling you everyone’s name right now. You won’t remember them all. You’ll just have to get their name as you meet them.”
“Fair enough,” I say.
“So, little pup, did you come here by choice, or were you here because you have to be?” an almond-skinned girl with deep blue eyes asks. She wears a yellow robe, which tells me she’s Accepted. Then she laughs. “What am I saying? We’re all here because we have no other choice. That’s why they call us strays. Let me guess, you used magic without a permit and went a little overboard?”
I shrug. “Something like that.”
“I think you hit the nail on the head, Voborrie,” a dark-skinned boy with dark black curly hair says. He’s tall, even sitting down. He wears a brown robe, claiming he is a Novice.
Voborrie shrugs. “Call ‘em like I see ‘em. Besides, most of us are here because of that. We all got greedy or overconfident and went a little too far.”
“Not all of us,” a thin girl with dark brown hair says. She also wears a brown robe. “Some of us just want to help people. I grew up in Mid Town and was inspired when Damaris healed my sick little brother. She saw the potential in me and I accepted her offer to learn.”
“We get it, Therlu,” Ochilysse says with a long-exaggerated sigh as she twirls her butter knife around her fingers. “You’ve told us this story a hundred times. We all know you have your nose so far up Damaris’s arse; it’s covered in turds.”
“I wasn’t talking to you, Ochilysse, I was talking to the new girl.” Therlu’s eyes thin into slits as she glares at Ochilysse.
“And I’m sure you’ll remind her of it a hundred more times,” Ochilysse mumbles under her breath.
“Come on, Ochily, don’t be mean,” Charinva says while reading her book and munching on her vegetables.
“Easy for you to say, Page Turner,” Ochilysse says and mumbles under her breath. “And don’t call me that in front of everyone else.”
“Don’t worry, Therlu, I like your story. I have a similar one with Damaris,” Hubys says.
“And here we go again. Why don’t we all just share our stories while we’re at it? Heck, how about I just give the gist of it since I’ve nearly memorized them from all the times you’ve told them,” Ochilysse says, rolling her eyes before taking a big bite out of her meat. Then she tries to talk with her mouth full but gets interrupted.
“Come on, Ochily, don’t speak with your mouth full,” Charinva says, not lifting her eyes from the book. Ochily glares at Charinva, mumbling incoherently under her breath.
“What’s gotten up your bum?” Hubys asks.
“Oh, she’s always this way before a test. She’s trying to pass level three,” Charinva says, as she looks closer at something in the book. “I don’t know what she has to worry about, though. I’ve been helping her study for the last few days and she knows everything she needs to. She’ll do fine.”
“Especially with the notes we all can see within the books,” Hubys says before earning an elbow and a sharp glare from Voborrie.
“You’re not supposed to talk about it,” she says as she looks over at me.
“Ochily won’t have to worry, she’ll pass easy enough,” Charinva says as she turns the page.
“You don’t have to talk to me like I’m not here, ya know,” Ochilysse says before she chews off a piece of bread.
“You don’t have to behave like a child, acting out,” Charinva replies.
“I’m not acting out,” she says.
Charinva places her finger onto the page of her book and looks up at Ochilysse with a single eyebrow raised.
“Okay… Maybe just a little. I’m sorry. There! Is that better?” Ochilysse asks. Charinva smiles at her and returns to her book.
“So, Lura, what’s your story?” Therlu asks.
“There’s really nothing to tell. I grew up in Tent City and had an accident where I used magic and was arrested for it. And thanks to Damaris’s intervention, I’m here instead of being sold to slavery or worse,” I say, skipping the details, praying they don’t ask for them. But it seems to have satisfied her.
“Heard that story many times before. It’s basically every low-born’s tale,” Voborrie says.
Two really tall, handsome boys walk up and take a seat across from us. Both with brown robes. The one with a chiseled jaw and a warm honey complexion waves at us all. “Hey everyone. The little pup here just had his first run-in with Mother Chaetris.”
Everyone lets out a collective oooh. A darker skin girl in a yellow robe with thick black curly hair that seems fluffed out speaks up. “Well? What happened?
The other boy who must be a “pup” just like me speaks up. He’s quite handsome. Strong jaw, silky brown hair, and kind eyes with a light complexion. “She is truly awful. I just don’t understand why they let people like her become priests. Isn’t the point to spread Light?”
They all snicker. “You’d think. She’s like the void of Light. She sucks in all the joy and happiness from everyone else.”
“It’s strange because she wears a smile and acts so proper,” the pup says between shoveling the food into his mouth. “But then she talks to you and she makes you feel like you’re less than sand.”
“Yep. She’s so condescending. Always talking down to you as if you’re a stupid child,” Cheyoise says, picking at her food.
“She’s the worst,” Inhepireth says as she stuffs her mouth full.
“How she achieved the rank of Mother, I will never know,” Chalia says as she takes a sip from her drink. “By the way, Ralodan, looks like you have a fellow pup to study with. This is Lura. It’s her first day here.”
The brown-haired boy takes a break from devouring everything in sight and smiles at me, and I feel my face heat up. He’s got a really brilliant smile. So warm and welcoming. Particularly when you overlook the piggish way he eats. “It is very nice to meet you, Lura. I’m definitely going to lean on you to learn this stuff. I’m not good at studying.”
“Yeah, sure!” I spit out. I hear several sighs, and one girl mumbles under her breath how handsome he is and I’m hit with instant jealousy. “I would love to study with you.”
That earns me a few side-eyed glares from the other girls. One girl I haven’t got a name to speaks up. “Maybe you should study with someone who’s actually passed the test.”
“Oh? That would be a good idea. Let’s all study together,” he says with a smile.
“I wish we could marry,” Therlu breathes softly, but just loud enough for me to hear.
“So, I don’t understand. Are we not allowed to have relationships?” I ask without thinking.
“Why? Do you want one?” Voborrie asks with a smirk.
“No… I was just wondering. That’s all,” I say quickly, trying to regain face as I pick at my food.
“Unfortunately, you’ll learn that attachments are forbidden. This means relationships of any kind, physical or emotional, aren’t allowed. At least anything above a friendship. Duty is our responsibility as servants of the Light and attachments can make it difficult for us to perform our duty. Especially if there is ever a situation where we have to choose between duty and our attachments,” Charinva says without looking up from her book. I swear, I didn’t even think she was listening.
“I think that is stupid. Love doesn’t get in the way of duty and neither do attachments. If I had someone I love to fight for and protect, it’d make me fight harder,” Ralodan says.
“They say that all the texts from the Angel Akrasiel himself preach about love. The one the Light sent to guide us in the time of the breaking when King Volodar left us. The time when darkness, corruption, and greed took over. Where demons attacked, nightmares became reality, and the dark took over the day,” Charinva says, actually looking up from her book.
“Oh, come on, you actually believe that dung?” Ochilysse says, tossing up a grape into the air and catching it with her mouth. “demons, seriously? That’s a load of camel turds.”
“That’s just what I read. In fact, it’s documented in many different texts,” Charinva says.
“I don’t believe it. demons don’t exist. Neither do void wraiths nor dark fiends. It’s all just a bucket of goat piss they make children drink to make them behave,” Ochilysse says.
“I believe it. Something in my gut tells me it’s the truth,” Ralodan says.
“Does your gut tell you that the sky is green? Because it ain’t,” Ochilysse says.
“No, right now my gut tells me I’m full,” he says as he leans back in his chair and pats his stomach. I can’t help but laugh along with the rest of the girls. Aside from a few, including Chalia, Cheyoise, and Inhepireth.
Charinva snaps her book shut. “Well, I gotta go put in hours. Still need twenty-seven more.”
The other girls stare at her with wide eyes and gaping mouths.
“You’ve only got twenty-seven hours left? You’ve hardly been here for more than half a cycle,” Chalia says.
“What do you mean by hours?” I ask.
“Each Novice has to do one-thousand hours of manual labor before they can be Accepted. Along with completing the ten levels,” Charinva says as she pulls out a small hourglass and sets it on the table. This time it’s my jaw that drops in a wide-eyed expression.
“This hourglass is charmed to keep track of hours. You just turn it upside down and place your finger on the top. The hourglass starts counting hours. It also can tell if you’re actually doing chores too. It’s another charm. I believe these hourglasses are connected to another hourglass and that must have our total. At least, that’s how I would do it if it were up to me.”
I pick my jaw up from the table. “One-thousand hours!”
Ochilysse snorts. “Why do you think there are so many Novices and so little Accepted? The weak ones can’t make the cut.”
“They get free labor, but since they’re allowing us to sleep here with free food and everything else, we need, it’s a small cost to pay. I’ve been doing about five or six hours a day, so it only took me over a cycle to get them all done,” Charinva says before she takes off.
“Six hours? Where do you get the time!” Ralodan asks, but Charinva is already halfway to taking care of her tray. “It’s not so bad,” Chalia says. “If you start now, you can do an hour a day and have it done in just under two cycles. Besides, it’ll take you at least that to get to level ten anyway, unless you’re Charinva. She’s not normal.
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