Media: Ales' character banner

Music: We Rise, Sybrid

Cadence entered the Murka common room to find everyone inside giving her a wide berth. The two girls playing a game of snake and ladders by the door glared at her reproachfully, then grabbed a tile near Cadence away, as if afraid it would be soiled by her.

Confused and slightly hurt, she turned to the hearth where Arik and the rest of her Murka friends sat, whispering softly among themselves.

"Hey," Cadence said as brightly as she could, not wanting them to sense the quaver in her voice.

None of the four lifted their heads. Mara sniffed, then flipped a page of her book loudly. Maybe they hadn't heard her. Cadence tried again.

"Hey."

"Why are you even here?" Feathers looked up. His thick brows were furrowed, and his hands were clenched into fists. Cadence took a small step backwards, just in case he suddenly lashed out at her.

"Where else would I be?" she said. What happened when she was recuperating in the infirmary?

"You've betrayed us, Cadence," Misha said. "You were Varya all along. We trusted you, we even took you on our Tradition. Maybe you were just a stupid spy the Swans placed among us to find our flaws and exploit us. We all know how much you Swans hate us."

"This is a misunderstanding. I didn't expect my Affinity to be triggered, I never thought any of that would happen. If I was a spy the Swan sent, I wouldn't be able to go down the well at the back of the Hall. You said that well is warded against Varya right? I wouldn't be able to go near that place if I was Varya."

"It was just a theory," Mara said. "Nothing was ever proved."

"You surely cannot believe I'm a spy," Cadence said. "We're friends!"

"Friends do not lie to each other. Go back to your fancy house and strut among the Swans. Varya and Murka will never be able to work together." Feathers stood up, confronting Cadence. Move, his eyes said, but Cadence remained rooted to the spot.

"Get out." Feathers shoved her hard in the shoulders. Caught off guard, she stumbled, but caught an armchair just in time.

"Arik," she pleaded. "I am not a spy."

"You're Varya." Arik turned to face her. "That's an undeniable fact."

"I didn't know I was Varya. You all know perfectly well that Affinities cannot manifest until they're triggered. I can't intentionally hide my Affinity."

Their shouts have drawn the attention of the other Murka in the room. One by one, they stood by Arik and Feathers, until there was a group of people standing against Cadence.

"I think you should leave," Arik said, his expression stone-cold.

Cadence did not bother to gather her belongings from the dormitory, she had nothing essential there anyways. She fled the common room, feeling every Murka eye drill holes in her back, silently chanting 'traitor!'.

She slunk into a dark corner and angrily fisted the tears from her eyes. Cadence touched the shadows cast by the opposite pillar which stretched over the wall she was facing. It rippled, as if Cadence had thrown a rock into a perfectly calm pool.

There was so much she didn't understand right now. Why now? She had went through plenty of traumatic events when she was younger—she had almost drowned in a lake after Khazaria shoved her in, was almost attacked by the vicious dogs a nobleman gifted Master Orelik for his fiftieth birthday if she hadn't climbed up and crouched on a tall cabinet, her releasing the Polong, and the most vivid of them all, her brush with death when confronted by the Rakasha.

She let of of the shadows, feeling them bounce back against the wall. There was a small, nagging sensation, as if someone was trying to pull her toward the opposite direction.

It was the same feeling she had perceived when facing the Rakasha—a thin line of Energy connecting her to the shadows and the Rakasha. She heaved, hands against the wall.

I've given you so much more, the Polong's voice scratched the back of her head. So much more...

Cadence's head pounded. She clutched her head. What if she had released something more than just the Polong? What had the vile creature done to her?

Gathering up every ounce of her energy, she banished the Polong's voice from her head. She combed back her sweat-streaked hair with one hand and brushed her robes with the other.

Cadence tried to act as normally as possible when she step foot into the Varya recruit common room. She walked with extra precaution and kept her eyes glued to the floor. Although she made no eye-contact, she could feel everyone in the room had their eyes trained on her.

"Affinity-thief," the Varya whispered to one other. "She has no right to be here with us."

Whispers of "Affinity-thief" and calls for her execution rang in her ears. The structure of the Varya's common room was similar to that of the Murka's, with the same stairs leading up to the two separate bedrooms.

"Look what we have here." Khazaria's arm snaked out and blocked the staircase. "A freshly-bred Varya."

Khazaria was giving her the glare—the one that signified Cadence had done something wrong, and was about to be punished. Although Khazaria was no longer her Mistress, she still held an invisible leash over Cadence, being able to scare her witness with just a curt look.

"I wonder." Khazaria tapped her lips with a perfectly manicured finger. "What else are you hiding from me, Cadence dear? Where did you get your powers? Surely from some poor, unsuspecting Varya, perhaps one you killed in my home?"

"I didn't-" Cadence tried to defend herself, but at the same time, the guilt she had been carrying ever since the destruction of the Orelik mansion crushed her from above.

"Perhaps." Khazaria's finger had wandered to Cadence's cheek, tracing the scar. "You exchanged my father's life and the rest of my servants and riches to be Varya, but that's just silly to assume, isn't it?"

Cadence hoped her silence was enough to keep Khazaria from continuing to taunt her.

"Never make an enemy of a House of War." Khazaria tapped Cadence on the nose. "Let that thought sink in, nice and slowly."

Khazaria withdrew her arm from the wall and sauntered off, leaving a shaken Cadence behind.

Cadence forced her trembling legs up the stairs and into the female dormitory. There were much less occupied beds in this chamber than it was in the Murka's bedroom. On one of the beds in the middle of the hall was a stack of books, a ledger, and a few folded robes which Ales had promised he would have someone bring up for her. Cadence scooped them in her arms and ran blindly to the last bed at the end of the hall.

She wasn't accepted in either division. The Murka hated her for being Varya, the Varya hated her because she was Varya, but weren't all Varya Murka once, before their Affinities were triggered?

Her head was pounding. Kashimi had warned her not to get herself worked up, for the Energy in her Core was still unstable. Not wanting to faint, Cadence crawled into the bed and placed her head on the pillow, hoping that the pressure will assuage the throbbing in her head.

It helped a little. Cadence wished she had asked Healer Omin for something to help with her constant headaches. Surely there were some herbs which would do the trick.

She flipped to her left side and held the pillow down against her head with one hand, blocking out the light from the windows. The headache grew more intense, as if someone was jabbing her head with knives. She cried out, curling into a tight ball, praying that the pain would go away.

It didn't. The stabbing in her head came back in constant waves, each one stronger than the last until white light exploded before her eyes.

Cadence found herself standing in a forest. It looked just like the one her home was built in in Azrapol, except there was a blurry quality to the forest—the sun was too bright, the leaves on the trees too dark, and there was the smell of burning wood in the air.

A rider burst through the bushes in front of her, leaping right at Cadence. She screamed and threw up her hands before her face in a futile attempt to prevent herself from being trampled over.

The rider passed right through her, as if it was made from smoke.

Disorientated, she swung toward the rider. Trees sprung up around her like mushrooms as the rider tore through them like an arrow from a bow.

The rider was a tall man. Cadence couldn't see his face, for it was wrapped in black silk with only one slim opening for the eyes. His hood was thrown back from the wind, the tail of his cloak singed from the roaring fire around him. Two small bundles were slung across his shoulders. One of them was twitching madly, while the other bundle was silent, unmoving. Loud, fearful cries emitted from the struggling bundle, the cries of a terrified baby.

The man kicked the horse's sides again, harder this time. It neighed and broke into a greater spurt of speed. Suddenly, the forest was on fire. Flames leap from tree to tree, consuming them almost at once, letting burning branches fall to the ground, spreading the ravenous fire. The smell of burning wood was suffocating. Cadence rubbed her eyes, coughing and coughing.

A burning tree fell in front of the horse. The horse reared up, its horrified whinnies were deafening. It shook violently to the side, throwing off the rider and the two little bundles. The man fell on his back, his arms wrapped protectively around the bundles. There was a crack, followed by a grunt of pain, the man groaned rolled to his side.

"Don't worry," he whispered to the two babies in his arms. "I will not allow anything to happen to you, I promised your mother."

A dark shadow fell upon them. A pair of large, powerful wings extended above, and the air shook from the resonance of a full, deep-throated, roar.

The man swore and scrambled painfully to his feet. The baby's cries grew louder and louder, and the man's attempts to sooth the baby was of no avail.

The largest Rakasha Cadence had ever seen dropped from the air and landed in front of the man. While a common Rakasha was the size of a baby elephant, this Rakasha was the size of a house, with green scales glimmering like emeralds on fire, towering horns that curled from its head and twisted backwards, aquiline claws so long and sharp, they could behead a person with just a swipe. Its amethyst eyes were large, deadly, and burning with fiery intelligence.

An Ancient. Cadence was staring into the eyes of an actual Ancient.

"Moriya," the man whispered. "It is I, Varis."

The Ancient, Moriya took a lumbering step forward and lowered his head. "Take the left path, leave the Region of Spirits and never return." Its deep voice was the most powerful thing Cadence had ever heard, it held the raw power of the Orishas themselves. It made Cadence want to cower, hide in a dark cave and never emerge again.

The man, Varis, nodded, and ran in the other direction just as a group of Varya soldiers broke through the trees. White and gold armor—Oracles.

"Get him!"

Moriya's mouth yawned open, a great burst of green fire exploded from his maw and blasted the Oracles apart.

"Go. I'll hold them back."

"I'll never forget this, Moriya, thank you."

The Ancient and Varis locked eyes one last time before Moriya took off into the air, his wings beating gracefully against an air of black smoke, death, and falling arrows.

Varis ran into the opposite side of the woods. Cadence let go the breath she didn't know she was holding, but then the man's screams pierced the air. The babies cried, then silence blanketed the area.