Chương 77: Chapter Seventy Three: Hate. Anger. Pain.

I hate it here. I hate you. I hate Niathe. I hate myself and I hate that damn Penguin! Someone save me! I ran until the tears became a treasured source of water for me. Sweat dried, and my hair stuck to my scalp. My clenched fists caused my nails to make red half moons in my palms. I ran until my fat cried with me. I want to lay down right here and become one with the earth. A large bell rang and I perked up. What is that? It sounds like a dinner bell. The woman on my heels stopped walking and called out.

"Come back you lazy motherfuckers!" I stopped and almost doubled over. Spots danced in my vision as I breathed harder than a walrus.

"Go find your supervisor or wait in the hall. Just get out of my sight!" No need to tell me twice, just like that I limped away from her. The hall became a beacon of hope and freedom as I dragged my trembling body towards it. One more step. One more. Step. My entire body ran on the fumes of my negative emotions. Cage was waiting impatiently when I got to the hall. Hands crossed, slumped next to her sister in the craft. Quill was sitting on the bench behind her when I got there.

Other girls who got the easy job of working here, instead of being tortured outside, wiped down tables, cleaned the dishes, and mopped the floors.

"So?" A lazy voice urged.

"How was it?"

"… Awful. Fucking awful!" Unsurprised, Cage nods to herself, and Quill giggles. Cage sits down on the bench and beckons me forward. Little legs stomp forward, and she helps me climb up the bench. When she can't quite meet my eyes due to the height difference, she sets me down on the table like a teddy bear. Moving my arms and legs so I can hold up my own neck without falling over. Cage scratches her cheek and looks over to Quill.

The cloaked girl lifted her hood slightly and pinched my cheek a little before going on to give me a crumb of wisdom.

"As you know. This house is dedicated to training witches. Our noble sacrifice... requires sacrifice." I want to wash my armpits in my own tears. Sacrifice my ass. Quill gapes at me. Blinking slowly due to the stickiness of my own bodily fluids I realized I said that out loud. Cage interrupted seeing that Quill was too shocked to continue imparting on me to he secrets of the universe.

"That was your first class of the day. All day today, I am going to personally escort you to each of your classes."

"When your schedule changes, I will also escort you to those classes. After that, you'll have to get used to getting there on your own." I hummed and cleared my dry throat.

"When is it over?"

"The day? Time is tricky here due to her influence. Just follow the others around. Quill here is going to give you a temporary buff." Quill uses her wand to write a series of complicated golden runes in mid air which solidifies into magic. Golden words that I don't understand surround me, and most of my fatigue disappears. I'm still hurting from the excessive exercise they made me do but I feel like I just downed an entire tank full of coffee. The rest of my day was still horrible.

I arrived late to the same instructor's second class of the day. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. She made us run too. Run along the freezing blue sands of the beach while the waves slapped against us. Every other minute, she called out a name, and that person had to fly. Fly and then fall to the ground to keep running on command. Luckily, I avoided such treatment since she didn't know my name.

After that, I had to sit back and watch as they all sparred with each other. No magic or any other influence helped them as they rained down on each other. Blow after blow until someone fell. Those who failed to succeed against their competition trailed behind the drill sergeant and ran to the tree line next to the beach. Everyone else headed back to their dorms or to the mess hall. Confused, I followed the line towards the hall. They were all waiting for me at a table. Food was already polished off their plates.

After a quick meal that made my insides protest, I was taken to one of the garish caves.

"For now, you'll just watch me. Next week, you'll have your assessment, and you'll be given runes yourself." Cage held me close to her chest as she ventured into the pitch darkness. A room with the faint smell of sulfur was carved out of the walls. Someone waited around the corner, shadow cast across the ground, and Cage ignored her. Even with my sharper sight I could barely make out shapes. Finally, Cage set me down at the entrance and opened a mat. Sparks flew from her hands.

Fire bloomed from her palms like they were just a part of her. Wild, strange symbols made from the flames lit up the room. Wild as her. They danced in no apparent rhythm as she ran through the motions fluidly. Yet somewhere deep inside, I could feel what they were saying. It wasn't words at all. I spent hours watching her perform her wicked dance of fire in those caves. When she was finally done, she led me back to the mess hall. We ate together, walked back to her dormitory, and got ready for bed.

Large tubs were filled with hot water boiled on the stove in the kitchen. Modesty didn't have a place here, and shame wasn't welcome. Everyone scrubbed the day's work off their skin and poured it out into the dirt when we were all done. My days continued in the brutal way of the witch folk. All work and no play. Until what I assume was the weekend. Our course load is lighter on those days and filled with things that are somewhat interesting to me. Anything's better than running and lifting. Actually.

There is one thing. When I'm allowed to sleep I dream of my old life–lives. Particularly the one where I was served hand and foot.

"Today, we will be memorizing the histories of cursed objects." The cave we were in was massive. Filled with lamps, desks, chairs, and bookshelves. Quill placed a book of her own on the chair so I could see over the desk. Why do I recognize that instructors voice? Hypatia's voice echoed off the walls as she taught us from scratch.

"What is a cursed object?" Quill raised her hand and answered.

"An object that has been tainted by the Contagion. It may grant the user who wields it power in exchange for something. For example... The Plenty Goblet. In exchange for keeping itself full with whatever the user desires... The user must offer the blood of loved ones to the goblet." Hypatia nodded, and her gaze landed on me momentarily. Frozen, I frowned and tried to meet her gaze. She glanced away from me to the rest of her treasured pupils and continued her lesson.

"Cursed Objects often appear to those who are most vulnerable to them. Sites of great famine, tragedy, catastrophe, loss, fame, or poverty. One of the first documented encounters was during the First Famine of the East. A young man..." She tells the tale of a boy who wandered away from his village and towards a recently formed hole in the ground. He was originally looking for food. Instead, he found a sword. Stuck inside the sand. Scorpions surrounded him, and in a panic, he withdrew the sword from the ground.

Instantly, he was imbued with great power. He cut down his enemies and took the scorpions with him to his village. They celebrated him and his valor.

"A month from that night, he murdered his entire village with that same sword. Then he went on to kill thirteen more before he was finally stopped."

"A brave witch sacrificed her life to cut his arms off his body. Only then did he wake up from the dream he was in..." Her fierce gazed fixed itself upon me.

"The sword lies to its user the more it is used. It plants paranoid thoughts in their head. Until everyone around that person becomes their enemy."

"..." Jesus. Silence settles over the entire hall as everyone digests that story. Still... I raise my hand sheepishly.

"What about the sword? Is it gone now?" I hope I don't get in trouble for this, but I have to know. That's such a good fable. Hypatia hummed before answering me.

"Yes. It is gone now. It was destroyed by a Divine Relic. The only object capable of completely erasing the object from existence." Relics? I raised my hand again.

"What's a Divine Relic?" She crosses her arms and takes a deep breath.

"Relics... Are objects imbued with divine power. That's enough for today." Class was dismissed, and I was taken to lunch at the house. Fallon cooked today, and it showed. Boiled. She just boils everything. She doesn't even use salt or any kind of condiment. I sipped my drink and picked at my small serving. Just eat it. Come on. I shoveled the food into my mouth and swallowed it all down. After that, I had Rune Class with Cage and finally... Potions.

"Welcome..." A young unveiled woman with charcoal and frosty hair thrown in a half-up and down hairstyle greeted me at the entrance of the cave. Cage helped her out.

"Eira." Her veil was completely thrown back, and her face was made available to all. She must be pretty talented to be an instructor at her age. She smiled in greeting at me and beckoned me inside. Light silver eyes glowed with joy. Cage waved me off, and I winced. This was one of the few classes I was going to have to attend alone.

"You can call me Madam Phiomen. I'll be..." Phiomen? That sounds vaguely familiar. She led me inside to her classroom, which was really just a huge medicine room. Her class was also pretty small in comparison to the others. Including me, she has eleven students in attendance.

"Let's get started."