Chapter 10: Chapter 8: The Beginning Arc

The following morning, a bit before dawn, I started hearing footsteps coming towards my room. The door got rammed opened, and the woman who came from it instantly turned towards her right, aiming both hands towards the bedsheets.

“Hey, hey, hey, wa-ke up!” Rubia shouted, pulling the linens out, realizing that nothing was there. 

Upon that, I declared softly with an innocent expression while raising my right hand as a greeting, mostly to declare my presence that the young woman failed to notice, “I’m over here...”

Her head turned around, scared, making me feel awkward about it, realizing that the look on her face had been one made by the ones before in the orphanage.

‘Rubia finds me creepy too...’ 

It was the unmistakingly commonly used gaze that the innocent sheep wore around Josie. All of them directed towards me, turning my person into their scapegoat. With the caretaker’s personality in question, it’d allow the lambs to stay safe whilst my body suffered the share of pain that was originally meant for them. 

“Sorry about that girl. It’s kind of dark in here. Should’ve brought a lamp, but didn’t want to waste a candle..”

I sighed and nodded to the sides softly while calming myself. ‘Everything is fine, there’s nothing to be afraid of...’

She questioned me, embarrassed about her mistake, “did you sleep well?” Her quick-witted words allowed some of my own to formulate.

“Yes. Thank you for your care.”

The young woman chuckled while taking a step forward, while feeling amused. 

“No need to act so formal around me. You’re one of us now, not sure which type yet, but we’ll find out soon enough.” 

I tilted my head to the side, dumbfounded by such words, and unconsciously blurted out my thoughts, “was there a type?”

The woman continued laughing, wiping the tears from the corner of her eyes gently with the tip of a finger. “You’re just way too funny! A bit awkward, but certainly hilarious. Did you already forget? The named and unnamed?”

At that question, a lamp inside my brain lit up, making me embarrassed and fooled by such an obvious thing. 

‘I should really start to think before spouting such nonsense. If it was back in the orphanage, she’d be already beating me up for being retarded.’ Without waiting for my answer, as the expression told Rubia all the information she needed, her body turned around towards the exit. 

Before she left, the young woman’s face peeked above her right shoulder, “it’s time for you to meet the master.”

“Ah...” I gripped my hand, feeling nervous about such an important event. 

After that, she started walking outside as her voice got louder, “I wouldn’t dare make him wait. He can be very scary.” 

My innocent light blue eyes gazed softly at Rubia’s back, and then my body started reacting, walking in her direction. ‘I hope he’ll be a nice person...’

The heart within me raced violently, weighting up on my stomach, causing waves of turmoil in it. Very much like a boat floating on top of a violent sea. I felt unsure of my future, but even worse as a memory of the chief’s face popped into my mind.

As I took my first step out of the room, Rubia stopped turning back at me, “you’re not for real, are you?”

I instantly fretted, growing more and more nervous, feeling that once more I had done something awfully wrong, as always. And then she took some steps towards me, making me close both eyes as I had done before so many times before being hit. To my surprise, all I sensed was a gentle touch on top of my head, causing confusion to grow within me.

“Hey, hey! Don’t go on falling asleep while standing still. And don’t you ever fucking dare to go downstairs while wearing a pajama. I’m pretty sure I left some clothes in the closet. Didn’t you look at everything in it by now?”

Air flew off my mouth as I relieved myself of the anxiety that dwelled inside, bursting everything away, leaving my lungs empty. As I tried to reply, my body reminded me to breathe some air, as it couldn’t function properly otherwise.

 “I’m sorry Rubia, I’ll go change right away.” I turned around in a haste, almost tripping by hitting my right foot on the left one, followed by hitting it again soon after on the wooden floor.

‘What am I doing?’

I slapped my cheek softly, waking up from whatever trance my mind was in. My hands reached out for the wardrobe noticing a lot of clothing, enough to dress ten similar teens such as myself. None of it looked dirty or ruined, like everything I wore before. In fact, I realized upon removing my clothing; the pajamas were in a good condition. Not in a perfect state, as someone probably used them, but certainly sufficiently enough for me to estimate them. ‘

I mustn’t be rude to them after the food and clothes they gave me.

I got myself into black pants and a brown shirt, closing the big rigid door of the closet and placing my forehead on its cold wood. Tears flowed down my cheek, moved from having something that I never dreamed of before. Mixed with happiness and sorrow, knowing that good things never lasted forever, I wiped my tears with a right-hand motion. My eyes glanced through the entire room before departing, finding no mirror but a window that could reflect my attire. As close to zero self-esteem as I had, a sparkling curiosity reverberated deep within to be satisfied.

The moment I arrived, my vision became slightly blurred once more. ‘I should stop being such a crybaby. They’ll certainly hate me for it.’

With my eyes a tad red, I took a couple of deep breaths, faintly smile at how I looked in such clothing and turned around slightly proud of its appearance.

‘Shouldn’t make Rubia’s master wait for a long time...’ I hastened my steps towards her, forgetting to close the door. She waited for me patiently at the end of the hall, near the staircase that led downwards while analyzing my looks from afar.

We descended together after getting a nod of agreement from her towards the clothing, along with a compliment on how well they fitted me. It made me happy, but as soon as my feet touched the first stair I forgot about that emotion, having to worry about more important matters such as what would happen once I met the old man. A few moments later, we went through a hallway to the right, leading to another staircase.

‘The house has one floor upwards. How can we go further down?’

Feeling confused, I took a glimpse towards the woman’s expression, regretting it fully the moment my eyes saw it. Vile it was, with a hint of seriousness and coldness, a degree I was familiar with, and of course, it made my non-existing scars ache.

‘Where are we going?’ Despite questioning myself in my mind countless times, my lips remained sealed. Too many questions and you get beaten. It was like that back then, and possibly still was in the present.

The moment we reached underground, very soft sounds came from further away. On the floor, I noticed a lot of white mice hastily running away from us, and at times as we walked towards the voices, the little bigger and grey ones passed by, ignoring our tall figures. ‘Are those mice too?’ I considered for a while as they looked a little terrifying, distracting myself from the scary path that Rubia was leading me to. I gripped both hands tightly and clenched my teeth harshly. ‘It can’t possibly be worse than the orphanage, right?

Soon she stopped, and distracted I was till the moment my face bumped cleanly into her back, causing my nose to suffer harm on its tip.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to...”

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Rubia turned around and shushed me, quickly placing her hand in my mouth and nodding slightly up and down.

Upon calming myself, as it didn’t look like I was going to be beaten up. No, in fact, her expression made me realize it contained a hint of fear.

‘I’m not scary!’ My mind told me, as if telling Rubia that I was no ghost. From her actions, a second thought bothered me. ‘The door? Could it be what’s beyond? The master?’ I looked at Rubia’s hand, becoming a knuckle and rising to shoulder height.

‘Oh no, she’s really going to beat me!’ My feet froze on the floor, scared, and her body turned around casually. The next moment, knocking sounds echoed through the underground passage. From within, I could hear some grumbling, but not clear nor audible enough for my ears to interpret their meaning. To the woman, who was closer to it, it seemed to be far clearer since her hand decided to rotate the handle, pushing the brown piece of wood, causing it to scrape on the floor, making a nasty pitch.

‘Ugh, that was annoying.’ It gave me chills in all sorts of manners. I noticed a slight tremble in Rubia’s body. Perhaps she too had suffered from it.

“I’ve brought the girl, master Ryhn Alankhazar.” She started walking and with a gesture behind her back, a little index finger waved a few times towards the door, allowing me to understand I was being called. My feet passed the woman ones, allowing my eyes to gaze upon a strangely eerie place. Inside the room, there was a circle dyed in white, lots of candles surrounding it, and in the middle, there was my friend Esteban Rucal. It made me happy to meet a familiar face, but at the same time I held back, for the expression of the elder behind him was not one to celebrate.

“Girl, bid farewell to this boy. It’ll be the last time you’ll see him.” His words were cruel, and they devastated my emotions completely, heart, flesh, and scars, all mixed in a soup and smashed to pulp.

As I was about to question the reason, my body sensed a soft yet hurtful pinch in my right arm. My eyes took a glimpse while holding in a little shriek, noticing the young woman’s fingers. ‘Rubia’s telling me to not ask him, isn’t she?’

It was tough and hurtful. Despite everything, I considered him to be my one and only friend, or at the very least, the closest thing to one. Some times he hurt me with his words and actions, but at others, the boy had also saved me. My knees reached out for the floor, stone cold it felt to me, despite my body being used to endure such low temperatures. A hug, then followed, coming from Esteban, which I didn’t reject along with a whisper, a reassuring yet confusing one. “Stay safe with this man and do what he tells you to do. For sure, he won’t throw you away that way. I must return to my ro-“

He bumped my forehead, causing me to let out a little squeak like a little mouse, followed by one of his own a little louder and less pitched, causing some pain to both and my head to get some distance. A part of the wooden long stick from the elder I noticed. ‘Did he beat him up with it? Is it related to Esteban?’

Thinking back on it, he had a name yet was in an orphanage. The boy always told me to never tell them about it, which I didn’t...’ And so there must’ve been something special to it. But clueless as I was from the customs of the kingdom, it wouldn’t be now that I’d find out.

“If it’s meant to be, we’ll meet again, white-haired girl.” He rose from the floor with my help and the elder who pulled him by the sleeve.

“Take the boy hunter. If he struggles with his dark affinity, kill him.”

To such words, one of the two closed doors of that room opened whilst Rubia’s stood still in an opened one, the entrance we took to such a place. A tall and muscled man I had never seen before emerged from it. Strong was the word that’d define him the best, followed by handsome and sloppy towards the face’s beard and mustache that wasn’t shaved nor arranged, compared to Rival who was quite egocentric about both, and yet there was some charm in his measly appearance.

‘Dark affinity? What’s that supposed to mean?’

A soft tone of joy came from behind, interrupting my thoughts like a sharp ax that cut a trunk in half with a single swoop. “That’s our eldest brother, Tymothy, the hunter. He was also the one who saved you while you were unconscious.”

An explanation well received on my part as I intended to thank him, had it not been for my friend, who was being taken by the very person whom I owed my life to.

‘Can I do something about this situation?’ As my heart raced while my eyes looked at everything around me, an order called upon me.

“White-haired girl, it is your turn to sit in the middle of the circle.” As I analyzed the circle below, I noticed something peculiar, words written in it. While I got up to seat myself in the middle, I read them in my mind from the top one going clockwise. ‘Light, spirit, air, lightning, darkness, water, earth, and fire.’ 

Before I went down with my bottom towards the floor, a word and a circle remained in between my feet. ‘None?’

As I was about to think about what everything meant, possibly out of kindness, Rubia explained, “the orb around those words that you see will lighten up if you have an affinity for any of them. The middle one means that you’ll remain unnamed forever, and utterly useless to the master’s cause.”

I became shocked while a door shut down close by. Noticing this, my mind understood that the chance to save him was gone.

“Don’t bother with him. He’s not going to die anytime soon.” The elder spoke with a rough voice, annoyed as the element result didn’t favor his necessities. At those words, a relaxing wave poured down on my body, allowing me to take a seat in a stable way. As I did, on the very top of my head, in its center, he placed a thick finger, causing all the candles to increase their brightness.

Without a warning, a chant then began, “entities of the world and the heavens above, we humble servants implore for enlightenment towards the aptitude of this soul. We beseech thee, oh guardian of the gateway.”

For the first time since I was born, I heard the words that composed a chant, which were things that Rival and Josie deemed too valuable for my ears to attend. But the sensation of hearing such a recital felt extraordinary. I sensed the weight on top of me alleviating and the sphere with the word none under me shine. I glanced down at it and as I was about to cry.

The old man started rubbing the left side of the face on the cheek, easing my mind, “everyone starts from there. It means you’ve reached the gate of aptitudes. Now close your eyes and let yourself drown in whatever you can sense.”

I did as told, feeling calm with a hint of nervousness. ‘Will I really find anything within me?’

Time passed inside my mind, eventually, I lost the sense of it. Slowly but surely the sense of wax melting, the odor of mold and humidity. Even the one I found the most annoying, the itchiness that came with a great quantity of dust. The old caretaker had a habit of telling me that some people were allergic to certain things. I told her that perhaps I was one of them. We used to laugh. She was a good woman and one who possessed a beautiful affinity. One time she gave me this ice sculpture which was designated as a crane. It certainly looked like a bird, but never once did I see one. Rebeca was an old lady, careful and sharp. Not once did she break the rules of the orphanage, much less showed me the brilliance of the water element that belonged to her and the ways to use it.

‘Where am I?’ Stuck in a surreal dimension, as all who went through this initial phase within their minds. I found myself confined within a room of grey with 8 similarly toned doors around me. A very quiet murmur reached me from time to time as my five senses were close to disabled.

“Grey means unnamed...” The voice felt familiar, a hint of it surely from my most recent taker, sister Rubia, as she self-proclaimed herself casually with a smile.

“I do not wish to remain a weakling, nor be stuck in this place for the rest of my life!” I shouted loudly in my mind, pouring all the strength I had in my lungs. At least, that’s what it felt like at the time. Void, emptiness, and nothingness.

“Let me out of this weird place!” I attempted another scream, waiting steadily, gripping my hands to the point of causing my nails to pierce the skin, feeling anxious and nervous as my fate would change depending on this stupid ceremony. A drop of blood from my self-harm touched the floor and strangely enough, it disappeared, absorbed by the whiteness itself. In front of me, two of the doors’ hue started to change, slowly, mysteriously.

It looked beautiful, but weird as one became blue and the other white, “does this mean I have some sort of talent?”

As I tried to approach them, I sensed a strange pressure on my head. It stung similar to a bee needle. My eyes closed and then they opened.

“What the?” I was back in that underground room, but a lot changed as I immediately saw something familiar. After all, two different words were shining from the circle emblems, water, and light.

Suddenly the old man in a fancy robe grabbed my hands filled with happiness, spreading the wrinkles through his expression. He began clamoring in joy, “at last! A successor!”

I gazed at Rubia confused by the entire thing, but the smile that I recently got used to catching from her and Maia wasn’t there. In its place, a serious expression awaited, and then it happened.

She knelt in front of me as if it was the most natural thing in the entire world. Perhaps it was for them, but undoubtedly not for me. It certainly didn’t make much sense. Once again, it hurt deep down, as it felt like I lost a possible friendship.

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