Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“It’s exactly what it sounds like. A place where you can think without distractions. The commander can come with us, if you like.”
“Oh... Okay,” I said, resting my palm on her wrist.
We were a quiet trio leaving the headmaster’s office and walking down another oppressively white hallway. The clash was even more glaring after sitting in the dim, black-and-gray hole known as the headmaster’s office.
Madame Remis led us out into the main hall, then through the doors hiding the classrooms. This corridor was much like the dorm hall. It narrowed to push us closer together.
“This way.”
Battle Strategy. History. Self-Mastery. Combat. Field medicine.
I read what my missing course schedule had yet to tell me—the lessons I’d be taking at the academy. In a few hours, I’d pass through these doors again with my classmates, and we’d be one short.
Tears prickled behind my eyes. I was completely human. Completely Aella. And I still got a man killed. Apparently I didn’t need to be a monster to hurt my people.
I was a danger to them all by myself.
“Why did you not recognize the smell and therefore the child for what it was?”
I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know, Galen. I’m so sorry.
We came to a stop in front of a small, wooden door wholly out of place among all the stone, marble, and white. Madame Remis gestured for me to go ahead of her. “Careful on the steps.”
Her warning was understood with a single look down, down, down. A spiral staircase twisted through the bowels of the school, leading to what—I couldn’t see.
“What’s down there?” I asked, backing away.
She smiled at me. “The reflection room, Aella. As we said. No one is trying to trick or scare you.” Remis gently pressed on my back, moving me on. “After you.”
I thought about arguing, but in the end, I picked up my feet and continued down. A place to sit and think didn’t sound so bad right now. It’d give me time to think of a better explanation for Drakos when he asked how that demon died. It would also give me a chance to craft an apology that would never be good enough for the guy who cradled Galen’s body, yelling for his brother.
Another small wooden door awaited us at the bottom of the stairs. I was the one who opened it, setting foot inside a dim, windowless room—
—with nothing inside.
Well, not nothing exactly. There was a lone chair pushed against the wall beside a three-legged table. On it sat a covered plate and a goblet of water. Turning in place, I landed on the metal statue leaning on the opposite wall and kept going. There was nothing else to see.
“This is the reflection room?” My voice echoed strangely. “I’m meant to stay down here. For how long?”
Madame Remis’s smile held. “Aella, please sit.”
I did so, feeling more and more disturbed in the prison-cell space. Was this a trick? Was this where they were holding me until Jason returned with his twenty-man guard to take me to Kuna City? My stupidity got a Titan novice killed. If there was any reason Headmaster Drakos wouldn’t want a traitor around, I just gave him one.
Commander Vasili enclosed us in, heightening my anxiety. What was this? Why was he so quiet and Remis so pleasant?
“Here. You must be hungry.” Remis removed the top off the plate. “Novices often forget to eat in the bustle of the first day.”
“No, thank you,” I said as my stomach growled, betraying me instantly. A plate of seeded rolls taunted me—appearing as warm and fresh as if they were made and placed there minutes ago.
“If you won’t have one, I will.” Remis and Vasili claimed a roll. They ate them more happily than I was, sitting there with my vocal stomach. Hesitantly, I claimed one for myself.
“Now then,” Remis began. “You know why you’re here. Questions have been called into your past. As well as the true circumstances behind Galen Teresi’s death and the end of that demon. By the end of your reflection time, Headmaster Drakos expects full and honest answers to these questions, or there will be consequences. Is this understood?”
“Understood.”
Drakos could have all the expectations he wanted. I would not tell him my past or what was done to me. Let me save one man’s life that day.
“Do you like it?” Remis asked, gesturing to the roll. “It’s Tantalean bread. It arrests your body’s normal functions, and makes it so you don’t need to eat or drink for a certain period of time.”
My jaw froze.
“It also stops the need to expel waste.”
“Excuse me?” I spat it on the ground. “Why would you give this to me!”
“Because,” she said—still smiling, still pleasant. “You’ll be down here for a while. Leaving you in need of food, water, and a bathroom is cruelty the likes of which only a monster would inflict. The bread allows you to reflect without endangering your well-being.”