I unsheathed my blade a few inches and examined the color of the metal. Where it had once been a dull grey it now had a bright reflective surface. There was still no sign of the oil slick sheen that the weaponsmith talked about. The red glow seemed to be an indicator of the amount of magic the blade had absorbed. Had it ate the staff’s magic?

Even with the blade only slightly unsheathed, I noticed a slight pull in the air towards it. The room must be thick with magic for the blade to absorb. This assault may have inadvertently given me an excuse to have my sword out and feeding during class.

After class a number of students approached me to express their concern and profess their distaste for the way the teacher had treated me. I shrugged it off like it was nothing. No need to pull them in to what was a growing vendetta I had against the faculty.

Miss Orica asked for me to stay for a moment in what I assumed would be her trying to patch things up. There is no way that my seething had passed her mental detection. I decided to humor her, as a way to show her that a simple sorry wasn’t going to fix things.

‘Miss Rye, I sense an aura of hostility around you. I assure you that what was done was for the good of the class.’

‘That’s a pretty crappy way to say I’m sorry. And you people seem to have a habit of sacrificing me to strengthen the masses.’

‘I never apologize for my teaching methods. I choose the path that is best suited for the class and I take it. I had hoped that you would understand that what I do is for the benefit of everyone.’

‘Ya, well forgive me for not wanting to take one for a team I didn’t sign up for to start with.’

‘Miss Rye there is much more at stake then you realize. We are at war with forces you can’t even imagine. We are all enlisted to battle against that enemy. With the skills you possess you could be a great tool for single handedly pushing back those forces and saving countless lives, but you would rather kick against the pricks.’

‘Well from what I see it looks like this world deserves to burn to the ground. And I’m not anyone’s tool to be used and neither should these kids. The greater good should never be an excuse for localized tyranny.’

‘Don’t be foolish. Sacrifices always have to be made.’

‘As long as that sacrifice isn’t you, right?’

‘The Headmistress won’t unseal your memories. Rooting yourself here is the only chance you have for survival. Bond with your fairy and take your place on the front lines.’

My face was flush with anger. I had no clue what she thought she would accomplish by instigating me this much but I decided to turn the tables before leaving. I walked over to one of the desks and sat on it. I retrieved another apple from my locket and took a bite and sneered at her.

‘Ah, Victoria. How is she doing after our last talk? You know, it’s funny. Yesterday I was sitting in the apple grove by the training ground when I had a memory. I realized that my favorite food was apples. I remembered walking through a grove of trees covered in them. Remember talking with the class about my resistance to bindings? If I recall correctly you mentioned that my resistance may one day become an immunity. What do you think will happen to the Psychic Veil when that happens?’

Her eyes went wide with the realization that I had already begun to chip away at the Veil. She now knew that they were racing against an invisible clock to convince me to make my bond. The panic that was darting in her eyes was satisfying to watch. I took one more bite and dropped it on the floor to roll to her feet. Then I drove in the final nail.

‘And don’t kid yourself. If I ever bond with my fairy, it will be for the purpose of burning this place and the entire faculty to the ground. I wonder what happens when that shiny resurrection circle gets destroyed. And how much will all of these kids remember when dear old Victoria’s power is removed from their minds?’

I turned to walk away as Miss Orica stood there in silence. I had made it almost to the door when I had one more thought. I turned back around to face her one last time.

‘I’m an inferno burning out of control and you people would rather feed me fuel then throw me away. You will only have yourself to blame when it all blows up in your face. So, Have a good evening Miss Orica. I’ll see you in tomorrow’s class.’

I waved to her and headed out the door.

-

My next class was simply practice at the training grounds. Miss Aurach had passed on that I was not allowed to practice for fear that I would be injured. So I had to sit out and watch as the others got into their parties and sparred against each other.

The combat was quite eventful, as it looked like something out of a cartoon. The girls had shouted some transformation phrase nonsense which changed them into costumes that I can only imagine they were told were effective battle attire by Miss Puffin. The bright colors, frills, and materials were seemingly accented with patterns that emphasized what their abilities were.

The girls had to yell ridiculous phrases to activate their powers which practically announced their strategies before they were executed. Most of the girls were inexperienced with melee combat and so many of them wound up falling over or getting their weapons stuck in the dirt. Several times a stray arrow almost hit an unassuming girl in a separate sparring match. It was all painful to watch.

I settled in a tree where I could watch Blue and her group in action, careful to sit in a position where I wasn't exposing myself. The group consisted of Blue as the defensive vanguard with her giant shield and a mace. Candela, the girl with the pearl colored hair, stood behind her waiting for an opening to strike with her rapier. Green stood in the back holding a recurve bow.

Beside her stood a petite girl with grey hair cut to a bob except for two tufts of hair that angled upwards and made it look like she had animal ears. Her outfit was overly frilly and mostly black with gloves that made her hands look like giant cat paws. She even had a long slender tail on the outfit.

This fourth girl held a two foot wand in her hand and seemed to be performing a support role by healing team members when injured and using a small set of commands to strengthen her allies and hinder her opponents. The wand trailed Maroon stars out of it as she waved it around casting spells.

During a lull in practice, Blue led the team over to the tree I was propped up in and had them rest in its shade. She smiled and put her hands on her hips as she yelled up to me.

‘So, what do you think? Pretty good, huh? We just went three rounds and haven’t had to rez a single member of our team!’

I continued watching the next group that had occupied the battle ground, refusing to look down at the winded group. I pulled an apple out of my locket and took a bite.

‘You were sloppy and uncoordinated. Not dying is a low standard to set for doing well. You’re all too busy worrying about yourselves to even start to work as a team. Honestly the only one with any teamwork is the tiny cat girl.’

‘Tiny?!’

Green and Candela looked offended. Blue put her hands on her hips and pouted.

‘Hey, we are not that bad!’

‘Green, what is your biggest problem when attacking the other team?’

‘Oh, great. I get a nickname too.’

There was a brief pause as I waited for Green to respond. I looked down at her and she slumped her shoulders and sighed.

‘Well, Marina’s water wall makes it really hard to see.’

‘No way! I put it up to block incoming magic as we push in closer!’

‘Ya, well it blocks my line of sight so I don’t know where to shoot.’

Blue clicked her tongue and looked back at me. You could tell she took pride in their combat ability. She was looking a little frazzled.

‘Anything else while we are at it?’

The cat girl seemed confused that the rest of her team was consulting some random new kid in a dress up in a tree. She also didn’t seem to be over the tiny comment yet.

‘Why are you all taking advice from some hussy skipping class all of a sudden? Let’s get back to the tables and talk over some strategies.’

Candela spoke up first. She had a grin on her face and was eager to see the new girl’s reaction.

‘Because this girl has almost killed two teachers on her first day. Kathrine, meet Sam Rye.’

Huh, I should have guessed the girl’s name would be Kat. Her eyes went unfocused while she seemed to replay all of the rumors and stories she had heard about me. I saw a spark in her eyes and she got a sort of hyper smile on her face.

‘Please, tell us everything we did wrong! Tear apart our strategies and reveal our weaknesses so we can wallow in our own inexperience! Punish us for our flaws so that we can be made strong!’

‘Ohhhhhhhhkay.’

This girl seemed a bit masochistic but her head was in the right place, I guess. If I can’t participate in the bloodshed then I might as well give a few words of wisdom to the rookies. I jumped out of the tree and started to walk over to a picnic table nearby when I heard Blue’s voice.

‘They were black.’

I felt my face blush as I turned to stare daggers at her. She was grinning like she had just won the lottery. I exhaled the stress away and we all convened at the table.

‘Alright. Blue, instead of creating a wall of water, what if you did this?’

‘Oh, I can do that!’

‘And Candy, you’re too passive for the vanguard. Use your skills to get in their face and throw them off guard. Try to get behind and attack the rear guard if they leave it open.’

‘Yay! I got my nickname!’

‘Alright, now Green and Kat, the two of you will need to work together to do this…’

-

I continued to coach the team for the rest of the afternoon. We then went and had a lively dinner at the cafeteria. They invited me to some nightly activity, but I had other plans. I excused myself and headed over to the front gate.

The gate was easily two stories tall and the bars were thick enough that I could barely touch my fingers when gripping around them. They had that rainbow oily look to them that told me they were probably made of Fairyite. The lock on the gate and the opening mechanism were tied to the guard house.

As I got close to the gate, I could feel a strong repulsion. It behaved as a non-Newtonian fluid, repelling stronger the harder you pressed. I gingerly pushed my way through and up to the gate until I could touch it. The locking mechanism was complex and outside my knowledge on how to crack. I would have to get inside the guardhouse for that.

On the other side of the gate was a brick road which stretched for a few hundred feet before taking a turn. Both sides of the road were dense forest consisting of mostly evergreen trees and thick underbrush.

I started to inspect the small shack when a bunch of students following a teacher I didn’t recognize walked by. I decided to give it a rest for now and try to learn more about the guard house tomorrow. They have to open the gate to get supplies some time, I assumed.

I traveled back to my dorm and prepared for bed. Standing before the mirror, I primed myself for the worst as I touched the gem on the choker. My lower body emitted a bright light and I closed my eyes. I could feel I was wearing a new set of underwear with a silky cover over the top. My heart couldn’t take it so I just fumbled my way to the light switch and then stumbled to my bed like I was blind.

I climbed under my covers and opened my eyes. The night gown was very soft and actually quite comfortable. In the dim moonlight I chanced a look under the covers, only to pull it back down quickly and feel my face burning in embarrassment. Oh hell.