Chapter 6: Chapter Six—Canvas of colour

I ran my fingers along the glossy oak surface of the desk that sat in the corner of my room. The wall-sized window overlooking the city below illuminated my living quarters as the sun approached noon. Edwin was giving me special treatment, and I wasn’t sure if I liked it. I worried it would bring unwanted attention to me. What I wanted was to blend in and not go against the grain. But Edwin insisting on treating me like royalty was overbearing and annoying. 

“How do you feel?” Edwin asked again, walking over to the window and looking down at the buildings below. Cars raced down the roads, and people filled the sidewalks. Edwin turned to me as I sauntered over, staring out the window with him. The jungle of metal structures filled with glass windows beneath looked out of this world, or rather my world. I was hard-pressed to find anything that wasn’t built out of some sort of copper mixture. While this city was impressive, it felt like it’d lost its innocence in becoming a metal metropolis; the buildings were the same design, just varying sizes. 

“Like, shit,” I sighed, “and it’s been over four months.”

“You’re caught up with the books?” Edwin asked, strolling over to my desk and flipping a book open. The highlighting on the pages was clear, and it caused him to smirk. 

“Yes.” 

“And Doctor Federine has been keeping up with—”

“My injections, yes,” I snapped, walking over, making my bed aggressively.   

Edwin stayed quiet for a moment. “You understand why I requested them.”

I fluffed my pillow and sighed, “Yes, because I was underdeveloped.”

“You’re upset,” Edwin frowned, sitting in my leather desk chair. “What do you need to make you more comfortable?” 

“Freedom and May,” I responded, sitting down on the edge of the over-size bed.

“Which you will have soon,” Edwin said, crossing his legs.

“When is soon, Edwin?”

Edwin let out a long sigh. “If I let you see May now, will that keep you happy until school resumes next week?” 

“Yes,” I said as Edwin stood up, leaving the room. I sat on the navy blue bed sheets waiting patiently; this bed was way too big for me. Everything in this room was excessive. Edwin had told me it was a professor’s quarter. 

A few hours passed as I stared out the window from my desk chair, spinning a pencil around my fingers. I was unsure why Edwin insisted I stay in this room. I was no longer contagious and had been fully vaccinated for months. However, the hormones that were being given to me made me anxious at times. Maybe a little aggressive, but I wasn’t sure if that was from looking out the window at people living while I was a bird trapped in a cage.

The door handle turned and May walked in wearing a black and red plaid skirt. She wore a black jacket, buttoned only halfway with a golden serpent logo on the chest and a white undershirt. A red tie was tucked into the coat neatly.

May stopped abruptly, looking at me like she saw a ghost. “You’re alive…”

I stumbled a few times with my words. Something was different; I was nervous about May. I felt odd while looking at her. My eyes travelled over her body with interest, which was unusual. I quickly snap back to reality. 

“Yeah, surprisingly.”

May ran over, throwing her arms around my body. She seemed shorter. Her grip tightened every second the hug lasted. I put my arms around her, holding her as close to my chest as possible. The smell of her flowery hair filling my nose relaxed me. If there was one thing that could make me toss all my worries away, it was May.

“Edwin said you were fine, but I couldn’t believe him,” she said, looking up from the hug. “I’m so happy.” 

“I missed you.”

May smiled. “You’re a lot taller… like a lot.” 

“Well, Edwin insists I take these gigantic pills and have a needle shoved into my ass twice a week.” I sighed. “I feel better, at least.” 

May let go of me and surveyed the room. “This is a charming room,” she said, walking around and touching the furniture. 

I found her skirt distastefully short as it swished around, but that didn’t stop me from staring. May halted at the desk, leaning on it as she bent down, adjusting her black knee socks before glancing up at me. 

“Staring much?” she said with a grin.

I spun around, walking towards the dark blue couch in the middle of the room. I sat down, staring off in the opposite direction. “Have you been participating in classes?” I said, as May gently sat onto my lap, trying to fluster me further.

“Yep,” she said with a coy smile, slowly placing her hand on my chest while her silver eyes fixated on me. “The church seems uninterested in me, which means maybe the church’s laws don’t apply.”

“That’s unfortunate—” I tried to say as she straddled my lap. It made me uncomfortable as she pressed herself against my crotch with some unnecessary movements. I feared she might misread a possible instinctive response to this; tossing her off did cross my mind, but I didn't act on what would be a rational thought.

May ran her finger down the collar of my button shirt. “I am going to be honest. You’ve gotten quite handsome over the past months. Not that you weren’t before.”

“Why wasn’t the church interested?” I asked as her hands found their way to my hair, running her fingers through it. She was… persistent today. 

“The Divinity has already been found, and I wasn’t close to being second in line for the Grand Priestess—your hair is so long,” she said as her hands stopped at my shoulders. My hair had grown a lot. I considered asking Edwin to cut it soon. It was getting annoying to take care of. “It’s so wavy. I like it,” she said, wrapping her arms around my neck. 

“So, you’re in normal classes?” 

“Yes,” she replied quickly, not seeming to be interested in my questions, “the church sends their enchanters to the academy… anyway.”

“What’s the ‘Divinity’ you mentioned earlier?” I asked. 

May’s eyes fell to my lips. “Edwin said we have two hours—uninterrupted.”

“Why would he say that?” I tried to deflect her attention from the mood she was inviting.

May’s smile faded. “Really, Cyrus?” 

“I am sorry. Did I say something wrong?” I asked as May slid off my lap to the couch, looking down at her hands. 

“No, my love, you didn’t,” she quietly patted my hand. “He was just making sure we had time to catch up.”  

May acted awkwardly for a bit before relaxing, and then went on about how great the school was and how much she liked it here. She really did light up when she described the grand library and the colossal tiered classrooms. May had made male friends, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

“Oh my goodness, I missed your birthday,” May said as her hand fell over her mouth. “Mister Sixteen now huh,” she grinned. 

“I missed yours too,” I said awkwardly, putting my hand on her leg just below her skirt. I felt like my lack of touching her before upset her, so this was my attempt to be less frigid.

“You know I like it when you touch me, right?” May announced, glancing away from me, which wasn’t needed because I was already staring out the window. She would have given that look, which made me uneasy. 

“I know. I just don’t want to… upset you or seem perverted.”  

May touched my hand, sliding it under her skirt, “You can’t upset me—,” she mumbled, as the door abruptly opened.  

My gods, was I happy Edwin came in. My hand was up May’s skirt, which was embarrassing, and Edwin looked equally uncomfortable. I couldn’t even stand the idea of what would happen next; this was a much more acceptable awkwardness.

I slowly pulled my hand out, standing up. “Edwin, how are you?” I said, thoroughly trying to brush off what looked horribly indecent. My few minutes of freedom and Edwin clearly thought I had used it to touch May inappropriately.

“Maybe we should lower the hormones,” Edwin coughed, looking around the room like he was looking for evidence of some obscene act.

May stood up, irritated at Edwin, “You said two hours.” 

“I said maybe a few hours,” Edwin said, motioning me towards him, “It’s time to let you out.”

Edwin’s quick shift was odd, but I didn’t complain as I walked to him. I turned back, not entirely making eye contact with May. “Can we hang later?”

“Yes, Cyrus,” she replied, walking past me slowly and annoyed. She left the room without an effort to close the door.

Edwin let out a sigh realising he’d had to manage damage control.  

“I could get in trouble for this stuff,” Edwin said, rubbing his neck, “I know you’re at that age—”

“You are not about to give me the talk,” I said walking past him through the door to the massive hallway. When I was in a wheelchair, I was pretty out of it, and I haven’t left since, so this was all new to me.

Edwin jogged to catch up with me. “Where are you going?” he asked, and I stopped, causing him to run into me, which almost sent me stumbling. 

“I know what May is doing, okay? I just…”

“You’re worried it’s going to make things awkward,” Edwin said with a look of empathy. He had experienced something similar, but I wasn’t looking for pity. “Playing dumb will not make it any better,” he added, putting his hand on my shoulder. “It will be unfair to her at some point.” 

“Before, it was easy to ignore it, but now… it’s not unpleasant,” I said, looking up at the tiled ceiling letting out a sigh. “Do not let her come to my room alone. I need time to decide how to proceed,” I said as Edwin took the lead and we continued down the marbled hallway in silence.

I couldn’t play dumb with myself anymore. I knew what May was doing. She was attracted to me, and I was trying to put off that talk since the boat. She had just gotten a lot more aggressive than before. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do things… I was nervous.

“You have my word,” Edwin said as we came to large wooden doors. He grabbed the silver handles, looking back at me. “Please keep that tongue of yours under control. You are about to meet The Lord Magister of the Archon Domain.”

Edwin opened the door to a vast room with a blue rug running down to a desk at the end. I half expected it to be a throne with how it presented itself. The room had pillars and paintings lining the walls the whole way. A massive stained glass window sat at the end, allowing coloured light to blanket the desk. The man with long, wavy white hair looked up as we approached. His hair lost its colour, but he wasn’t old enough for that. He looked to be in his early forties at most. 

“Magister,” Edwin greeted, doing a slight bow, “This is the boy I told you about.” 

The Magister stood up, putting his hand out across the desk with a smile. “Hello, Mister Reed.”

I nodded, shaking his tight grip. He had a short white beard that just left the stubble stage. The Magister was wearing the typical suit attire, but with a cape of sorts draped over his shoulder. When his hands returned to their resting position, the cloak glided forward, covering his arms. He wasn’t tall, but his presence felt like it towered over me. 

“Nice to meet you,” I greeted, and he pointed towards the chairs in which Edwin and I took our seats. “Edwin has told me much,  and surprisingly nothing at all,” he said, leaning back in his desk chair.

“Well, there is not much to tell, I suppose.”

“To tell no… but to discover yes,” he replied, and I already couldn’t stand his way of speech. People who talked like this always seemed more self-important than necessary. “You seem unsure or rather not clear of my intentions.” 

Edwin glared at me, and I was unsure if he was angry. I knew I would say something stupid, but I guess I didn’t need to speak to do that.

“I am wary of new people.”

“Rightly so, child. As this world is full of poor actors and manipulators, but I assure you that is not going on here,” the Magister replied, folding his arms under his cloak. “You seem to possess an unknown element and a sign of durability. Both of these make you useful, academically and militaristically.”

“He’s also brilliant,” Edwin added, “irritatingly so.”

The Magister laughed, “sounds like someone I know,” he said, grinning at Edwin. He turned his head back to me, “Edwin never put his energy into someone like this. You should really take his generosity as an honour.”

I didn’t reply as Edwin and the Magister made small talk. The Magister’s desk was full of trinkets like a glass globe I stared at for a while. There was a ring around it that rotated slowly. I put my finger out, touching it as the coil loses its shape before constituting back to its original form. I wasn’t sure how it worked, but I found it fascinating.

“I want one of these,” I said, disturbing the ring again.

You are reading story Shattered Darkness at novel35.com

“It’s yours,” the Magister said with a smile, “if you listen to Edwin.”

I glanced over at Edwin. “I don’t think I’ve ever not listened. Just complained a lot.” 

“You do complain a lot,” Edwin repeated, huffing. 

The Magister glanced over at me. “You will take the open entry examination, but I am confident you will be placed high. Hopefully, we can have you graduate early.”

They continued talking about the logistics of my entry for a while as I got bored and zoned out. May and I were too old even to take the exam, but exceptions were being made for us. The cut-off was twelve, and some students had already been in the school since they were toddlers. From what the Magister said, the older one becomes, the harder it is to hone their anima. However, Edwin was unconcerned; at least for me.

Edwin and I continued our way back to my room, not speaking. Most of our walks were quiet. I had no desire to talk, and Edwin was a taciturn and morose man without his interest piqued. This often worked out for us. Rarely did we get caught in unnecessary conversations. 

We came to the door, and he stopped, pausing at the handle like he always did before saying something profound. “You better take that exam seriously,” he said, glancing back at me.

“Of course.”

*** 

“Are you shitting me?” Edwin said, throwing the paper onto my desk. There was a seventy-two per cent written on the top in red.

“Man, it looks like I am not as smart as you thought,” I said, shrugging. 

Edwin put his hand to his face, “Cyrus….”

“May scored a seventy-four, correct?”

Edwin took the paper, tossing it in the air before aggressively sweeping everything off my desk, leaning cross. “Stop.”

“I am not doing anything? And I appreciate you not breaking my stuff,” I said, looking over to the Magister’s globe. “If that broke, I don’t know what I would do.”

“Cyrus, you’re embarrassing me. I’ve stuck my neck out for you, and this is how I am repaid.”

I point to myself, “What have you done but—” I say, stopping myself before sounding ungrateful. I wasn’t going to get into a pissing contest with Edwin. “You have improved my life, yes. And I am sorry that I’ve embarrassed you. I want to be close to May, not near. I promise you I will not embarrass you from now on.”

Edwin stood up, straightening his green suit jacket, “Good. You start class tomorrow with May, as you wanted.” He left my room in a storm of irritation. 

Edwin seemed respected, and anything that might erode that caused him to let anger leak. So I wouldn’t push him anymore, at least for now. 

***

It took hours to decide what to wear the next day. The school uniform was dull, and while I enjoyed May in it, the design was mediocre and boring for the men. I ditched the slacks and put jeans on with a white-sleeved shirt. I took the black undervest and tossed it on before rolling my sleeves up. Reluctantly, I slid the cross necklace May gave me over my head. The silver had a pretty intense shine that was very noticeable in natural sunlight. I wasn’t religious in the least bit, but it made May happy—could anyone blame me, though? My life has been a mess since birth. If there was a higher power, they were clearly laughing at my expense. 

I stopped at the mirror, lightly oiling my hair back. May liked it long, but I had to find a happy medium. The care at shoulder length was too much. I had hoped she would accept this. I hadn’t seen her in three days, and even in that short time, my mind played games, telling me she didn’t like me anymore. That was my biggest fear, May losing the love she held for me. I had never been so scared to lose something in my life. May’s radiance was not something a mere night candle could replace. Obsessive, I am sure that is what people would call it, but it wasn’t hurting anything, and May seemed more than happy to indulge. Who could judge if both parties were willing?  

After loosening my belt a little, I grabbed the notebook off my desk and headed out of my room and to the professor's hall towards the Elevator. Arrived at the academics floor, I walked towards the classroom with everyone in the crowded corridor staring at me. It shocked them that the native boy was walking among them in the sanctuary of purity. And the fact I was mixed probably instilled more disgust.  From the teachings of my father, I knew exactly what they were thinking, “Abomination,” I was sure of it. This assumption would be correct in the royal land, but like the train station, I began seeing races from different cultures. Skin colour didn't seem to matter here; not that I saw any other outland natives. Maybe I judged the Archon Domain too soon. However, Toleration and acceptance are two very different things.

Arriving in front of the classroom’s spiralling stone arches, I looked at the numbers above, 3479 in gold, indicating I had found the right place. I stepped into the amphitheatre room with stairs of seats flowing towards the top. A maroon flag with a golden serpent and stars sprinkled around the dragon, representing the colonies of the Archon Domain, hung in the front of the room.  

May waved, and luckily, she was at the bottom grabbing my attention quickly. Moving swiftly, I took my seat next to her. 

The teacher sat at the front, writing on a notepad at his long oak desk that had textbooks and paper stacked off to the side. His skin was very dark, and this made me relax for some reason. The difference was a welcoming thing in an unknown land. I knew, however, there was more of a stigma for natives as we were uncultured and unintelligent animals. The reality was, we lived in an unfavourable location with storms, and it gave the crown little reason to go out that far. This created a lack of information movement, putting us decades behind and even centuries to the Archon Domain. The only benefit was that other nations didn’t see a reason to fight over us. 

“Cyrus,” May said, staring me up and down worriedly. “That is not the uniform.”

I just shrugged and opened my notebook. “I’ll be fine. I put the vest on, at least.”

A book slammed down in front of me. “You’re allowed to be in here, however, Edwin has instructed me to make sure you’re learning,” the bald teacher said with an oh-so-serious face. “I know it seemed like you could fool the adults with that test, but here you can’t.” 

“We’ll see about that,” I replied with a smile as he rolled his eyes, returning to his desk. The book he tossed down was a top-level of mathematics. I flipped the book open, looking at all the equations I didn’t know. I might have been a little interested in solving them.

May’s hand moved to my leg, and she squeezed it slightly. “What was that about?”

“I did badly on the test so we could take the same classes.”

May gave a strained smile. “Stop spoiling me, Cyrus. You’re wasting your potential.”

“You’re the most important thing in my life, and I want to be around you as much as possible,” I said, and May got embarrassed, but she kept her hand on my leg. I didn’t quite mean it to come out like that, but I wasn’t taking the words back.  

A girl leapt over the long curved table in front of us, landing next to May with a huge grin. Her brown eyes were so dark they almost looked as if they were black. She pulled her dark hair into a ponytail and grinned as May’s hand quickly left my leg, which annoyed me.

“He’s hot for a native boy,” she commented, and a man took a seat by her that looked like an identical male version of her. 

“Danelle, that’s racist. He is a good-looking man in general,” he corrected, shaking his head.  

May fidgeted with her pencil nervously. Which made me feel as if she might be embarrassed by me. “This is my… friend Cyrus,” she said, looking down at her notebook with scribbles on it. 

I put my hand out. “Hello, nice to meet you,” I said, and the girl’s eyes widened. 

“He speaks perfect English,” she said, gawking at me like I was a rare species. 

“For god’s sake, Danelle,” the man said, leaning across her, shaking my hand. “I am Covic,” he said with a smile. He had some sort of thin black colouring around his eyes that piqued my interest. “Sorry about my sister, she’s… unique.” 

“No offence taken—what is the ebony around your eyes?”  

Covic smiled. “Eyeliner.”

“I like it,” I said, and he turned to May.

“I approve of Cyrus,” Covic said, sitting down. “Don’t insult him anymore, Danny.”

Danelle puffed out her cheeks, pouting. “I wasn’t insulting him. I was calling him attractive.”

The teacher coughed, writing on the board. ‘Doctor Victor Rangrez’ was written on the chalkboard in white as he stepped away. The doctor went over maths that I had learned on the boat, and I found myself yawning as I opened my book, studying the equations I would never need to know. They kept me amused while I watched May peek over at me every so often. In retrospect, Edwin having me self-teach was probably a better idea. My grasping of concepts was so fast that explaining the material took longer than just reading and figuring it out on my own. 

Class ended after a gruelling four hours. I couldn’t have imagined sitting and listening to Doctor Rangrez talk for the entire time. He ended up giving homework, which I did as he explained it, sliding the paper to May as he dismissed us. Honestly, it was a little disappointing that May couldn’t do this level of mathematics already. 

“What’s this?” she asked, tilting her head.

“It’s homework. I figured we could go out into the city later if you didn’t have any. They have trapped me in my room for a while, and I would like to see the city with you.”

“Cyrus, he handed that out like ten minutes ago,” May said, shocked, and I saw Covic raise his eyebrow. 

Danelle leaned across May, looking at me with a sparkle in her eye. “Can I copy it! I want to go into town with you!”

I saw Covic shaking his head, packing his things into a satchel. 

I glanced over at May for approval, and she nodded. “I suppose that’s okay,” I replied. The teacher didn’t seem to pay attention, which was good considering Danelle was not quiet with any of her words; she was just a loud individual. 

May had lunch tutoring, which left me with nothing to do. She insisted I not go with her; I needed to make sure this didn’t happen again. So, I would tutor her on the weekends.   

***

The hallways of this school were massive, much like everything else. It seemed like a waste of copper and space, but that didn’t stop the Archon domain. I read they got most of their resources through the Kulalduhr, which came cheap, since the Archon was more willing to share technology with them than the crown. The reasoning behind this was clear; the empire was aggressive with its military and the Archon Domain commanded power that was recognised by their technology. A nation would not give away the thing that keeps them in the top position. So, a suggested imperial rule was the best the Empire could hope for. 

I bumped into a girl as I zoned out, causing her to tumble to the ground. She looked about ten and was not happy with my carelessness. 

“Pay attention to where you’re going,” she snapped as I looked down at her fiery green eyes. I bent down, picking her books up. She was carrying way too many for her size, and there were advanced books at that. 

“I apologise,” I said, offering my hand for her to swat it away. This insulted me, of course, but I remained calm.

She got up, dusting off her black dress that resembled the school uniform but wasn’t the same. “Give me my books back,” she commanded. 

“Let me carry them to where you’re going,” I offered as she took a moment to process if she wanted my help. The time it took her to decide was a bit offensive, to be honest.  

She stared at me for a moment longer. “Why?” 

“Because I ran into you?” 

“But why would you care?”

“Because I did something rude?”

“Yes, but you could just move on after saying sorry.”

I paused for a moment. “It is a gesture of apology, I would assume.”

“Gesture that is not needed,” she replied, and my head spun with this pointless conversation. Then, she started walking off randomly, and I stood there with her books in my hand.

I followed her until we came to a classroom, and she put her hands out, “Okay, apology accepted.”

“These are some high-level books,” I said, placing them in her arms. She stared at me for a moment as I had just spoken some unfamiliar language. 

“Yes, too high for you to understand,” she replied.

“I read them close to a year ago,” I said, and I saw her curiosity piqued. 

“Is that so?” she said, turning around and walking into the classroom arches, but she halted. “What is your name?”

“Cyrus Reed.”

She merely stared at me for close to a minute, like she was burning my image into her memory; this girl was strange. “I am Rachel Croft,” she finally said, entering the class with her light brown pigtails swaying.

The exchange left me feeling socially drained and I made my way down the marble floor halls to the cafeteria. Maybe some food would do me good. I hadn’t eaten all day, and Edwin would lecture me if I appeared even a little skinny. 

You can find story with these keywords: Shattered Darkness, Read Shattered Darkness, Shattered Darkness novel, Shattered Darkness book, Shattered Darkness story, Shattered Darkness full, Shattered Darkness Latest Chapter