v e r s i o n 1 - b l u e

back to Mirin-Selcea
Every Inoiead in the Great Hall sat in a very pregnant silence with wild expectations of what to expect. None knew what would happen to them, nor why they sat before so many students and staff.
Norui jumped as her name was called out. She walked before everyone and stood in front of the old man from the day before. he looked deep into her eyes, and she shivered. he opened his whisker-laden mouth and said,
“Torel.” A man came forward. Norui guessed that this was the face to the name ‘Torel’. She sat in an empty chair beside him, and watched the others.
“Cássië.” She came forward and copied what Norui had done. The old man stared fixedly at her eyes. His own pair widened and glanced at her gloved right hand. He then regained composure and returned his gaze. “Beruthie.” He said finally, and a catlike woman came to take her to her seat.
“Mattias.” the prince of Earth felt more than a little queasy as the old man looked into his eyes. he felt as if her was being searched and evaluated. He didn’t enjoy knowing that this man could reach his innermost thoughts. The old man took a while longer than usual to answer. “Nadaza.” He concluded hesitantly. “Yes, Nadaza will do nicely.” A strong looking dark man came to take the boy to his place.
“Caran.” He walked up and stared back at the old man unflinchingly. “Fentiá.” This man looked shrewd, but not in a bad sense. He looked the type who would prefer to use cunning over brawn if ever caught in a match.
“Maia.” She walked up a little shyly, but nevertheless not lacking purpose. Her hands shook a little when he stared at her with an intensity she had never before experienced. “Venin.”
On and on it went. Finally they all sat with their teachers, and after a welcome speech and some other activities they were to start their first day of studies.
...
Beruthie took Cassia up to the top of one of the tallest towers. She opened the door, peeked inside, then entered.
“Last year my teacher wanted us to practice in here, but we weren’t fast enough. She told me it was really nice to learn in here.” After her dreamlike voice faded, Beruthie looked around. Her teacher was right; it was nice, as well as spacious and clean. There wasn’t a lot of noise interference either. Beruthie seated herself on a cushion, and her student mimicked her movement. “So, you’re Cássië then.”
“Yes, Cassiopeia, Cassia, or Cássië.”
“I’m Beruthie, and as you probably know it means ‘cat’. One of the things we do here is we give and go by second names. Usually our first level instructor gives them to us.” She laughed a pleasant laugh. “Knowing your origin, and just by looking at you I would call you ‘fish’, but we already have an ‘Esen’.”
“I know someone named Esen, well, that’s just his nickname. His full name is Esekildar.”
“That would be him.”
“Really? Esen is Etabol!”
“Yes, he’s amazing...almost a legend around here. He skipped half the levels or something.”
“That’s amazing! I never would have guessed.”
“He was apparently very shy, and rarely used his powers.”
“Yes, that sounds like him. He teaches my sister and I fencing..or he did..before we came here.” Cassia trailed off into a reflective silence that her instructor honoured, but before long both realized that they had to get going.
“All right, we should actually start something now shouldn’t we?” She laughed again. Cassia thought that she would like Beruthie; she seemed like such a nice person to be around. “Well...I’m supposed to teach you the rules. You are NOT to be in a male student’s bedroom, you are NOT to be in other teacher’s classrooms without their permission, you are NOT to be in the kitchen unattended, and you are NOT to leave school grounds without an authorized supervisor. And just a bit of advice...do your homework. A lot of the time you won’t have any, but make sure you get it done when you have it; it makes life just that much easier for both of us.” She smiled a smile that matched her laugh.
“Sounds like you had those drilled into your head fairly well.”
“Yeah, well...let’s just say I never have liked rules all that much. I ... broke...um...” she paused to think for a while, “all of them at one time or another.” They both laughed. “that doesn’t mean you can go breaking them. You have to have a good reason.” She winked, and Cassia laughed.
“I’ll remember that.”
“So..moving along. Why are you wearing gloves? I know it’s not exactly Mercury in here, but it’s not Pluto either.”
“I...have them for...a reason.” She realized that she should trust her newest friend, and so she removed them. “Do you know what that means?” She inquired as she extended her hand to the cat lady. Beruthie studied it for a while, and a look of intense thought came over her face.
“It means you will leave your planet, and family. It won’t be by death, but by some other means. It will be of your own free choice, which is why you have been marked. If it was to be against your will, the pattern would appear in a different order. I don’t think it means bad times. Well, that’s all I know.”
“I’ve heard a lot of that before, but you put it in clearer terms. Thanks.”
“Oh, and a word of advice: don’t show that to your parents.”
“Why not?”
“You haven’t, right?”
“No.”
“Good. They’ll...let’s just say they’ll get a little bit over excited.”
“I can definitely see that happening.” Cassia tittered a bit.
“Moving right along...how’s your mind?”
...
Emily and her instructor were already far into the day’s work. Her teacher, Beniar, was trying to ready her for emotional warfare. He said that physical was the easy part, and he wanted to start hard and get easier. He kept causing her to relive painful memories so she would learn to lock away her emotions for a while.
“The tricky part Ems, is that you really shouldn't completely lose touch with your emotional side...just be able to tuck it away for a bit. Let’s try again.” AFter she nodded assent, he conjured up another in her mind.
Emily was reliving the night Esen almost died. She saw in horrific detail everything that had taken place. It was too much for her, and she finally broke into a fit of ferocious tears.
“There there Ems. You’re all right.” Beniar put one arm around her shoulders, and then hesitantly a second. He felt uncomfortable, but it was for her; she needed him right now. “You’re all right Ems; it was only a memory.” He patted her head and gave her a squeeze. She stopped her tears and just rested her head on his shoulder. He never stopped comforting her.
“I’m ok now.” She murmured with a sniff.
“Perhaps we’ve done enough for today..hanky?” He offered her his handkerchief.
“No thanks...I’m ok now.” She dried her eyes. “You’re right, this memory stuff is tiring.”
“Why don’t you go have a nap before lunch? It’ll help you feel better.”
“I think I will.”
“Meet me here tomorrow after breakfast. You have the rest of the day for your ‘homework’ which is nothing by the way. If I was teaching you the physical stuff I’d ask you to come back after lunch, but I know how taxing this is.” He smiled and received a grateful look from her in return.
“Thank you. See you later.”
...
This lunch was possibly the most nourishing meal Anika had ever tasted. She had just spent the morning working with believing in herself. She hadn’t accomplished anything much by physical standards, but now she certainly took herself more seriously. There’s something about creating a gust of wind from nothing that is very good for the self-esteem. The morning’s exertions had left her famished. Her instructor hadn’t looked like a trustworthy person, but Anika had warmed up to her during the course of the lesson.
Her instructor was barely a year her senior, but she had started young. They got along quite well, but Tarlita had very high expectations. Some might even be considered unrealistic. She had started by teaching Anika how to tiuliarch into the power of Raleazar. Anika understood how to do that almost right away, but it was doing anything with that power that gave her trouble.
Anika sighed. And Tarlita wanted her back to try gain after lunch.
...
Mattias found his attention drifting away from his food; he had already eaten his fill. Nadaza had taken a very physical approach to teaching. They warmed up with some physical things, but moved later on into mental exercises. He was to show up again after lunch to review what he learned in the morning, and after that he was free to do whatever he pleased. his gaze drifted around the room, but rested upon a familiar person.
‘She looks utterly worn out.’ He thought as his eyes landed on Cassia. her shining aqua locks were dimmed slightly and mussed. Her eyes of grey-green-blue were half shut, and it looked as if she desperately wanted sleep. Beneath her right eye was a small cut that looked as if it had been bleeding. He found himself hoping that it didn’t hurt too much. He never thought about it before, but she was actually quite beautiful.
As soon as he began thinking so positively of her, he immediately chided himself for it. It was silly of him to think that way of her. He didn’t know why, but it was.
...
Theodora was probably the least tired of everyone. She had also been working on mind control, but she found it fun and rejuvenating. Yassë had told her that it was because she was from Saturn. She learned a lot about her powers, and her planet from the Dairuë’s point of view during the lesson. Yassë was also from Saturn, so they had a lot in common, and a lot to talk about.
After she had mastered her mind, she was to learn to master her body. The princess wasn’t exactly happy about that; she knew strength wasn’t exactly her forte. Maybe it could be though. It was an interesting thought that she entertained herself with throughout the remainder of lunch.
...
Feeling somewhat rested, Eirien went back to her teacher. She was going to go over what she learned before lunch one more time. She was also working on mindwork. She found that she got tired easily when she was doing this kind of exercise. She noticed Emily going back to the dormitories.
“Emili, where are you going?”
“I don’t have class after lunch.”
“I do...but only for around an hour.”
“Well, have fun then.”
“Thanks.” With that, she sped off in the direction of the room labeled ‘Nienna’.
The second part of her lesson was not nearly as strenuous as learning everything for the first time.
“Very good Eirien. I just want you to work a little bit on blocking for me. Maybe see if there’s someone to practice with. If not, then just go over everything in your head. Make sure you go over everything at least once. See you tomorrow.”
“See you.” Eirien left the nondescript room. All the rooms in the fortress seemed to provide whatever was needed or wanted. she wished her room at home was like that.
...
Caran looked at Fentiá exasperatedly. He was trying to get him to outsmart him, but Caran was more of the fighting sort. Not that the prince of Mars was stupid, he just preferred combat to thinking, and as a result, they weren’t getting anywhere.
“You’ve had enough, I can tell. We’re not going to do any better today. I’ll let you go now. see you after breakfast tomorrow.”
“See ya.” He left the room to find Norui smiling at him mischievously. In somewhat an irritable mood “What are you so happy about?” he snapped at her.
“I know your secret.” She giggled and ran off.
“This stupid school.” He muttered. “They shouldn’t be allowed to let her find out things like that. It’s just not fair.” He grumbled the rest of the way to his room, and then relaxed.
...
Eimly was not the only one being tormented emotionally. Maia was also being instructed to keep her emotions in check. Venin caused things to happen that would affect her emotionally, and she was to show no sign of it affecting her at all.
She left the room with her eyes itchy from crying, and her sides aching with laughter. As she went to the dorms she caught sight of Nedelhia; the poor girl looked terribly battered and tired. Maia went into her comforting bedroom and washed herself up.
...
Nedelhia was almost too tired to think. Anabeth was starting her with physical combat. She stumbled back to her dorm room and promptly fell asleep.

-:- back to Mirin-Selcea -:-