Chapter 16: Chapter 14: The Warmage Pupil Arc

The last light of the day reflected in my eyes almost as if an orange sphere fell down slowly while surrounded by an upper hue of purple. A sight I got used to watch from this past year, the sunset by the seashore, full of light, and intricate colors that changed every day. A sigh left my mouth as I got up from the somewhat comfortable seat, uncomfortable initially, but now my ass was numb enough to handle it.

There were some rules that everyone had to follow, but the most important one was to never stay outside during the night. Never. I glared at the darkness of the sky that was filling the beautiful view in front of me while wearing a smile, a dangerous one. Nonetheless, footprints began appearing in the sand as my feet went through swiftly. “Need to go faster...” My legs began running like a deer escaping their predator, the sapphires that oscillated my pearly white skin, danced to the sides, and at times towards my back, as my head turned around in fear. “The shadows, they’re coming for me!”

Laughter burped out of my mouth as I escaped the incoming of the night towards the brown door of the main building. My hand stretched towards it, and without wasting a breath, I turned the handle, entering inside forcefully. “Fuh...” I exhaled some air as my back rested on the entrance. “Ah...” And then a bump, then two. My body quivered in fear from the beating, and the handle, it turned.

My body gained some distance from the door, always locking my gaze onto it distrustfully, but to appease my worries, Fafia entered it casually. I shook my head to the sides, regaining my composure, and calming myself down. ‘It’s all in your head, Aura, it’s all in your head.’ I repeated these thoughts endlessly, since seeing things that didn’t exist was the norm for me, who carried traumas from darker days.

“What are you doing standing there?” Before my lips had a chance to give her a proper reply, the young woman continued. “Come, let’s grab something to eat before hunter gets it all.” She winked at me with a faint smile, while waving her right hand for me to go along. Without a moment to waste, knowing how a much of a glutton Timothy could be, we soon took a seat at a long table, big enough to take eight of us. Rarely were all the seats filled at a single time, and today, that was also the case.

Once I took one of the chairs to myself, my hands grabbed the fork and the knife, and aimed towards the plate in front of me. In comparison, Fafia, who took the place next to mine, stood on watch, gazing towards the bulky man who rarely said something during meals. “You came home surprisingly early... hunter.”

Brute like his muscles, his arm stretched and grabbed a big piece of meat barehanded, quickly gnawing on it with a big and crude bite, turning his head to the side, ripping the flesh easier out of the wide bone where it belonged. To that I cut the potato into four slices, allowing the steam to leave between its cracks. I was now used to eating warm meals. In fact, during the first months, there were plenty of times where my old habits of eating too fast took the best of me, burning my tongue in the process. 

Carefully, I lifted it in the air and blew some cold air at it, causing the whitish fog to be blown away, ever so temporary as it seemed like the potato contained endless amounts. The two of them crossed gazes. Their eyes met, and the tender look on Fafia’s face couldn’t be cuter. I curled my arm around the plate the moment the hunter gazed at me. He had a bad habit of stealing food from those around. Often he said that other people's food tasted better than his own, something I couldn’t comprehend nor accept. Usually, protecting it was enough for him to give it a rest, and to my surprise, he didn’t seem willing to fight me for it as his hand quickly moved elsewhere. Given the free chance, I took a bite of the potato piece, melting the heat with my saliva that humidified it plentiful enough to not harm my inwards. It tasted splendid, without the need to ask. My palate knew it was Rubia's cooking. It had to be. 

“I...” His voice grabbed our attention and the moment we shifted our gaze to him, his own turned to the side as he muttered. “I got to finish it earlier.”

I heard a sigh coming from Fafia. It was obvious to the both of us that was the cause, though I wasn’t sure of what else she wanted to hear from him, since the rules forbid us to talk about the missions. ‘A storm is brewing tonight...’

The pace that I consumed my food hastened before all hell let loose upon this room, since the hunter was excellent at being insensible towards her. “Is that all?”

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Fafia’s fork hit the plate. The clatter was prominent; it matched the hint of coldness in her voice. It warned me that danger was approaching, and so, without thinking twice, I got up and took my plate with me upstairs. Once I turned my back to them, I heard him. “Yes, what else would it be?”

Just like the prophecy in the revelation book, armageddon befell on the kitchen as Fafia commenced complaining and yelling at him for never talking with her normally, a friendly tone, a kind compliment, even a tiny greet, many were the statements she used, to what hunter as always didn’t bother to fight back. It was at times like this one, where I wondered what she really wanted from him. 

‘That’s not the way to befriend someone, Fafia.’ I left such a thought in my mind, since getting into their quarrel was the last thing I wanted for myself. Especially so, when making friends was something I was incredibly bad at. 

“I bet Esteban already forgot about someone like me.” From my master teachings, I got to understand that our worlds were of completely different dimensions, that in reality he was older than me, that he had lied to me about not only his age but also during many conversations we shared. My heart loathed him for it, for he had been the closest thing to being my confident, someone I felt I could trust.

‘I’m young and naive, just like my master says...’ My bottom found its place on the chair closest to the desk of my room on the upper floor, where I resumed eating. I glanced outside through the close-by window. It was a bit darker than before, but that was it. The hallucination from before was now clear. Nothing was after me, and I knew it well.

“This meal really is good.” It tasted like deer, slightly tender and well cooked, with a pinch of salt spread on top of it, simple but delicious, enough to put water in one’s mouth. I took the food taste to get rid of unwanted things from my mind. It took a lot from me to handle them. From the nightmares, the things I heard, the ones I saw, and even a few phenomena that my body felt, and smelled, it all pointed towards being real, but with enough time passing, they all vanished. Once I finished my meal, I stared at the bone, picking it and examining it. “One of the unnamed likely hunted it, as we don’t have this type of animal in the farm.”

With the night now at its darkest peak, my sapphire eyes peeked into it, noticing the figures moving hastily from one point to the other. “They’re back.” The rule for us newbies to not venture outside meant the utmost secrecy for those who came with cargo, at times things that would replenish the following day's basement. From my months here, I grasped this and other pieces of information, such as finding enormous bags and boxes with utensils and other things used by my sisters. Four of them were unloading some cargo from the wide cart that was attached to a black horse. ‘Yet another one has fallen into his hands.’

I closed the curtains, and then the entrance, sitting on the corner of the bed, with my back towards the room walls while hugging my knees. “The bodies in the basement...” My body shivered and with it a cold sensation crawled upon my back as I spoke with myself. “Yes, Aura. The rotting in a cesspit of despair by its victims.” We smiled, antagonizing the good side we once had, for the two of us were sinners, and our hands shed blood and pain, hatred and screams. The two of us were the torturers under the command of my master, and we knew how to make others confess. This had been one of the many things the almighty warmage Ryhn Alankhazar had educated us with, to strip us of our weak selves, to portray a proper successor, the incapability to feel emotions, and so I had divided into two, my heart split, but worse than that, my mind too, had not survived, chain reacting into something unknown to me and to them who were clueless about it. Something that went deeper, that was as toxic as it was crude, intangible and, without a doubt, dangerous. A version of me capable of killing. That was the first tool I collected under his guidance, and that was the thing I honed to greater lengths.

Like many times before, I could hear the loud steps coming up. They came for me, and the moment their fists knocked on my door, my expression was no longer the one I wore before coming into this haven. It was a defiant and distant one. I left the bed with hazy eyes, and my feet took me to them, to the ones who served the master, and one day me, my brotherhood.

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