Chapter Twenty-Two

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Media: Shadows, anyone?

Music: Unstoppable, E. S Posthumus

Cadence was standing in a deserted hallway. The walls were empty, completely devoid of tapestries, adverse to the Moskavan culture of displaying as many sigils of power as possible. Mists swirled about, curling around her feet and stretching out toward the end of the corridor.

A man had his back against Cadence, his black cloak sweeping in the invisible breeze.

It was a dream, again. There was no sight of burning mansions, people crying or being slaughtered. Feeling braver, she took several steps toward the man. "Hello?"

The man turned around. He was dressed in a dark kubah, so blue, it was almost black. His brown hair was combed back neatly, and he had trimmed his beard into a shadow. In one hand, he clutched a black mask and in the other, a glittering sword.

It was Varis, the man who was burned to death.

Varis regarded Cadence with his hard, brown eyes, like an eagle surveying its prey.

"Why are you in my dreams?" Cadence asked him. "Who are you really?"

The man did not reply. Instead, he walked toward Cadence. He point a finger at Cadence and traced it to the open skies outside the window.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

The fog was accumulating in thick clouds. Varis splayed his hands to both side, embracing the fog as it covered him, swallowing him whole.

From the distance, Cadence heard an Ancient roar. It was a full-throated roar of fear. Suddenly the entire corridor was on fire, the smoke turning into skulls which clattered onto the ground. Cadence backed into a wall as two small human skulls, barely larger than both her fists put together rolled toward her feet. Small bones skittered from the fading fog and toward the skull, reattaching themselves to form two small skeletons which stood in front of her.

The perverse clattering of bones increased. Cadence looked back to find a whole army of skeletons reassembling their bones. The skeletons locked gaze with her before they clattered their teeth together and lunged at her.

She screamed, running for the opposite end of the corridor. There was no other side, the corridor kept on stretching. Whenever she reached the end of the corridor, tiles would magically appear, arranging themselves faster than she could run.

It was an endless race. Cadence ran until she felt her lungs burn and her legs scream. If skeletons could snarl, those most certainly did. They gnashed their teeth together and flailed their skeletal limbs at her. The faster ones over-ran the ones at the front. Cadence could hear the cracking and crushing of the bones even with the wind roaring against her ears.

Cadence was human, her energy was limited, but the skeletons were not. The first cold, skeletal hand closed around her shin, yanking it back. She kicked it as hard as she could with her other leg, shattering the skeleton's hand. Cadence managed to dodge the first assault, but her delay caused the pile of skeletons to crash upon her. She felt as if she was hit by a stone wall.

Bony fingers gripped her limbs tight. Hands reached for her hair, clawing at her face. One sank its fingers into her left eye. Cadence screamed and struggled as red clouded the vision in the injured eye. The pain was excruciating. As more skeletons piled up, Cadence's will and energy to fight back decreased until it fractured completely.

They crushed her, and dug out her organs alive.

Before she died, she heard a female voice whisper in her ears.

Varis. Arialle. Never forget.

*****

Cadence woke up feeling like death, and far earlier than any of her other recruit counterparts. She took a quick, cold shower, despite it snowing outside, and felt much refreshed after. The water burned her, bringing her back to her dream scene where the raging fire consumed the woods. Cadence felt as if there was an enormous shadow blanketing her, as if an Ancient was flying right over her head, pressing against her shoulders.

Varis. Arielle. She turned the names over and over in her head, then turned them over on her tongue.

When she emerged from the bathroom, the girls in the room had begun to stir. While she changed, she felt the obsidian Ales had given her press against her thigh. She slid her hands into the pocket. The cold sting of the obsidian felt reassuring. Cadence decided to keep it with her.

The nightmare was still fresh in her mind, as vivid as it was real. Cadence inhaled deeply, trying to ease the tension and she walked into the common room.

She wasn't sure where to go. There was a small group of Varya recruits walking out of the room, conversing among themselves. Cadence decided to follow them.

The Varya group led her into a grand dining hall. Cadence couldn't believe that this was the dining hall of the Varya, for there was no way, a dining hall for recruits could be so ostentatiously elaborate. The ceiling was made from stained, rose glass, shaped in the shape of a sun extending its sharp edges from within and outward, framing the glass dome. There were five, long rows of tables arranged in the middle of the hall. Varya, a mixture of recruits and the seniors, sat according to their Affinity at their assigned tables. The last row, the tables for the Walkers, was empty. Cadence could imagine Walkers once sat in this hall with the other Varya, eating and making merry, until the Great War razed them down into nothing. At the end of the hall was a raised platform with a fair amount of chairs and tables, presumably for the Masters and Mistresses, but it was too early for any of them to want breakfast.

There was only one person sitting at the Oracle table. His robes were cleaned and well starched, and his brown hair was combed backwards in a typical Moskavan fashion. He was spooning gruel into his mouth with one hand, and balancing a thick book with another. Subconsciously, Cadence brushed imaginary dust off her robes and walked toward the Oracle table.

She cleared her throat.

"Good morning," he said without lifting his head from his book at her. "Have a seat. The bread is good."

Cadence sat down opposite of him. Feorhs wove in and out of the tables, carrying trays of food and drinks and setting them on the tables. A Feorh placed a plate of baked potatoes and bread in front of Cadence at once.

"Thank you," she said. The Feorh didn't acknowledge her and continued with its business.

"Did you just talk to a kitchen Feorh?" Eli looked up from his book, his creased brows suggesting amusement.

"I can't?"

"You don't talk to kitchen Feorhs, Cadence. Their life motivation is to serve and nothing more, that's how their creators made them for."

"Oh," Cadence said sheepishly. "I didn't know."

"You've a lot to catch up on."

He returned to reading.

"What are you reading?"

"This?" Eli pointed at the book. "It explores an older generation physicians intrigue toward the human mind and outside stimuli. Different parts of the brain reacts differently to-"

"Moskavan, please."

"Basically it's human psyche and their reactions."

"Can you interpret dreams?"

"I can Heal many things, but sadly, witch-doctor craft is not my specialty. Why the question?"

"I've been having peculiar dreams lately, but it's nothing, don't worry about it."

"What type of Varya are you?"

"Oracle."

Eli rubbed his chin. "Healer, Rune Caster, or Mind-shifter?

"Mind-shifter."

"Well, since you're Oracle, I can say that it's normal for you to experience queer dreams. Dreams come from the Spirit aspect, and we're more connected to our Spirit compared to the other Varya. Or you can ask Kashimi, that man is a genius." Eli's face lit up when he mentioned Kashimi—the look of a person looking up to another with extreme awe.

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you."

Cadence reached for the butter knife, then dropped it when something exploded in the air above her.

The explosion came from the Naturam table. Several Naturams were having the time of their lives playing with the candle flames. Streams of fire shot to and fro, while the other Naturams watched with a most unimpressed look on their faces. Fire-based Naturams are unable to conjure fire up from thin air, they needed a spark, like how a pile of wood would need a flint and a rock to ignite. One of the fire-based Naturams shot the streams of fire into the air, clapped her hands, and the flames exploded into fireworks. The entire hall, now getting increasingly packed with people, cheered. The Naturam who closed the act stood on her chair, bowed, and then sat back, laughing.

"Get used to it," Eli said. "Naturams are the rowdiest of the bunch. It's a miracle they hadn't burned down the hall yet."

Eli closed his book, stabbed the last of his potatoes and swallowed it in one gulp.

"So, Cadence. Where do you hail from?"

"Azrapol, Region of Elements."

"I've yet to visit the Region of Elements, but I've read about its grasslands. The books boast about their grasslands, claiming that they are the greenest and the most beautiful in the whole of Moskava."

"I've never been there either. Azrapol is a small town tucked away in the mountains. It's very wet, and it plunges down to a complete freeze during the winter." She glanced out of the window. Azrapol would be blanketed by a thick layer of snow by now. The servants would spend their entire day shoveling snow out of the Orelik mansion's front porch, only to wake up and find it coated again the next morning.

"You've never explored beyond the town?"

Cadence pushed her plate away, suddenly feeling queasy. "I was a servant girl, my father was sick, getting out of town is a luxury I never had."

Eli's expression did not change, but Cadence noticed he was now fidgeting with his signet ring. It looked like the one Derek wore, except his bore his House's sigil.

"I've answered your questions. It's rude for one side to give information and the other to hold back.

"Well said." Eli's finger was still tracing the gold sigil carved into this emerald ring. If Cadence sold it at the flea market, she was certain it would fetch at least two thousand Suns, given the size of the gem. "I'm born in the Hall of Spirits, then was brought up in the Khavarosk Mansion. After the Great War, I was the only next generation Khavarosk to survive, and I was held in close scrutiny under my mother's eye. This is actually my first time out here alone. As it was the Law, my mother had no say in stopping me from drafting. I learned of the outside world through books and illustrations, and it had never stopped fascinating me."

Eli seemed as if he was immersed in a memory or thought, his had broken his eye contact with Cadence, and was staring with a glazed look in his eyes at the window. Cadence could feel a small nudge of recognition, the mutual feeling of being trapped in a place, controlled by other people of power, never being able to leave until certain events tore their lives apart, which in Eli's case, was the draft, and hers the death of her father.

"We should get going." Eli wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood up.

"Wait." Cadence stood up after him. "I don't know how to get to the Affinity training hall."

"It's nearby," Eli said. "I'll show you the way."

Cadence followed Eli toward the hall where Affinity training took place. He walked with the pride of nobilities, and something more—a quiet grace. Other nobility bragged about their Houses at any given chance, flaunting their heritage and the power behind them. Eli, however, touched his House only when asked, like a dragonfly skimming across a lake.

The door to the training hall was open. Eli strode in while Cadence hurried after him.

The hall resembled the other training Hall she had been to for combat training, but instead of weapons, this hall resembled a war zone. Across the wainscoting ceiling, wooden beam criss-crossed like a labyrinth with ropes falling from them. There was an actual fire pit, as well as enormous weights for the Warriors to train with, a large stretch of earth with towers built from blocks of stone, and a water pool. From the surface, it looked like a training area for Naturams only, but then Cadence noticed the smaller details of the training room—a curtained area presumably for Healers to work with, another area with racks filled with heavy, metal discs and wooden darts. At the far end of the corner, there was an area that was sealed off from the rest with red rope.

It was a warning sign, telling people to back off. Yet, Cadence felt an inexplicable tug toward it. She left Eli's side and found herself walking toward the sealed off area.

The sealed off area encompassed a large, rectangular platform made entirely from obsidian. Unlike the flat platform designed for Warriors to run and hurl things across, this one had a massive pillar erected in the middle. Circular metal rings framed the pillar, one thin layer after another. The layers of rings were placed so precariously on one another, one soft push was all it took to spin all of them into motion. Cadence didn't want to imagine what it would to do someone trapped in between the shifting blades, for the edges of the metal ring glowed sharply under the winter light filtering from the glass dome above them, so sharp, Cadence could feel them cutting her into pieces.

"What is that?" She whispered to herself. What kind of Varya could possibly train with something so dangerous? Varya were powerful, that was an ascertained fact, but they weren't suicidal. Moskava depended on them too much.

"This is a shadowsinger. Walkers use it to train." Eli had followed her toward the taped off area. "Looks grisly, right? I don't want to imagine what an accident involving this would look like."

Cadence could understand the obsidian, since it was the stone Walkers resonate with the most, but not the pillar of rotating blades. Why would Walker use this torture device to train? She added a mental note to the countless mental notes in her mind to ask Ales about the death machine later.

Three Masters and a Mistress showed up in the training hall. Cadence had expected one to conduct the class, but Eli explained to her that different Affinities required different mentors to guide and teach. Theirs was a stout man with a beard far bushier than a squirrel's tail. He had a large, protruding stomach, which reminded Cadence of a teapot, but she was too polite to point it out.

"Mistress Valeriya informed me that we have a recent addition?" Cadence almost giggled out loud. A man his stature must have the customary deep voice, but his came out more of a squeak that a man's deep timbre. She restrained herself, set her face straight, and raised her hand. "Here, sir."

"Welcome to the team," the man said. "I am Master Calaeno, and I expect you to train as hard as your other teammates. No slacking off because you're new."

"Yes, sir," Cadence said, still unable to take the man seriously.

Master Calaeno frowned at the sphere of doom. "What are you two doing here? This area is taped off for a good reason."

"Oh, I was just looking," Cadence said. "I've never been inside this hall before, it's fascinating."

Master Calaeno chuckled. "I hope you'll say that at the end of the day, come on, our training area is in the front."

Eli and Cadence shared a look, and they followed the short Master toward the Oracle's training area. It was nothing deluxe compared to the Naturams' training area. There was already countless explosions issuing from the fire pit. Theirs was the rack with the circular weights, wooden spikes and darts, as well as wooden pillars where long stripes of paper were nailed onto.

There were around six other Oracles waiting impatiently for Master Calaeno to arrive. A few had already started pulling out the weights from the racks and whizzing them around.

"What did I say about touching the training objects before I come?" Master Calaeno said crossly. "You could have killed someone if you weren't careful."

"We're careful," a boy replied, as crossly as Master Calaeno had been. "No one is dead yet."

"Yet," Master Calaeno stressed.

He steered Cadence in front of the other Oracles. "Folks, we have a new addition. Her name is Cadence Novik, and she's here to stay."

"Another girl?" the boy said. "Why can't we get more guys for a change? We already have five girls!"

"Ask the bloodlines, not me, who am I to judge."

"Don't talk back to me," the Master snapped. Cadence was starting to question the man's authority. What use was a Master who couldn't even control his students?

"Now," Master Calaeno said. "Rune Casters to one side, Mind-shifters to the middle, and those who can Heal to the left."

The small group of nine people split up with three Healers, four Mind-shifters, and two Rune Casters. The Healers vanished behind the white curtains after a brief lecture from Master Calaeno. Eli gave Cadence an encouraging nod, and left her with the other Mind-Shifters. Master Calaeno handed the Rune Castors a roll of parchment containing a few new runes which they excitedly grabbed and headed toward the parchments on wooden pillars.

"Alright." Master Calaeno rubbed his beefy hands together. "Since we have a new student today, we're going to help her get started. Mind-shifters are able to move things with their mind, in the words of the Invokers, it is called telekinesis. Let's start small. Master Calaeno directed a hand at one of the smallest weights, floated it out of the rack and hovered it in front of Cadence. Draw Energy from your Core, and try to levitate this."

"I bet you a Sun she can't lift it." The boy snickered.

"You couldn't even lift squat when you first came here, Husun, the other Mind-shifter girl folded her arms. "Let her try."

Husun grumbled under his breath, while Cadence held the small disc in her hands. It was heavier and most definitely bigger than her obsidian bead. She started to doubt herself.

"Cadence, are you with me?" Master Calaeno's kind squeak brought her back to focus. "Build up your Energy in your Core, but don't release it in one go. Feel and measure, push the object and feel its resistance before deciding how much Energy it is required to move it. Go ahead, try it."

Cadence placed the disc on the ground in a way that the light would bounce off its surface and cast a long shadow. Cadence flipped the disc's shadow, causing the original object to repeat the shadow's motions. She pushed the shadow, it felt like shoving a wall with her arms, causing the disc to skitter across the platform.

"Not bad for a first try." Master Calaeno nodded in approval. "Next, I want you to levitate it. You can start with this one, then move on to the heavier ones as you progress. Start small, don't skip the basics."

Cadence spent the rest of the class moving the smallest discs about. It wasn't too hard, for the discs

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