Page 15

Fifteen

D ays turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months.

Kamine had been giving it her all in her classes, and spent every other idle moment either hanging out with Janina and Zoya, or in private lessons with Grimot. Her friends supported her exploring this budding dynamic.

Grimot only allowed her to call him Professor when he was deep inside her. If she did it outside of that occasion, he would get hard in seconds. It was a fun trick sometimes, to walk by him in the halls and whisper that forbidden word. One time, when it was just the two of them, he’d pulled her into a small alcove, bent her over, and thrust right into her. She was at his mercy, and she had loved the lack of control, how she was at his whim. It was a nice reprieve from trying to control her own powers—which had strengthened considerably.

She could now wear her shoes, and also walk, as she made the ground beneath her bend to her will. She was even able to isolate her powers enough to shift a specific area more than the rest. Her body had also transformed with all the training and lifting. Sometimes Kamine looked at it proudly, sometimes tears fell because she feared she would hate the way she looked once she got out into the sunlit world, and could wear her dresses again.

Grimot staunched those fears by kissing every inch of her naked body.

Now, with it only being a week before the Undertaking, Kamine was especially anxious with anticipation for the big event.

The school always put on a showcase before the Undertaking, as a way for each student to demonstrate their skills, and everything they had learned. It was the morning of the showcase, but surprisingly, Kamine wasn’t dreading it like she thought she would. Grimot had instructed her to keep her power under wraps, so that she could reveal her progress at the showcase. She found herself actually excited at the opportunity.

The best part? Her father and little brother were in attendance. All immediate family were invited to see the progress and give the participants one last hug or word of advice before the Undertaking. Damien had jumped and waved when he’d seen Kamine. She waved back, and caught a small pebble he had somehow thrown all the way to her. His powers would one day change the world , Kamine thought.

Lycaster stood at the center of the classroom with his hands in his pockets. He paced in a circle, slowly, dragging his feet. One second there was a pile of rocks behind him, the next he had thrown them to hit the center of five different targets. The crowd applauded.

Zoya went next. Her long hair was flowing down around her as she sat on the floor with her legs crossed. At first nothing happened; then rocks fluttered around her head and started weaving her hair into a braid. Once it reached the bottom, she tied it up. More applause.

And they kept going, until it was finally Kamine’s turn.

Kamine entered the center of the room, the watchful eyes of familiar and unfamiliar faces grounded her to the here and now. The one benefit of just barely discovering her powers was that she didn’t need to do anything flashy. Grimot told her to keep it simple, a small movement would cause a rumble in the crowd.

She cracked her neck and waited. She wanted to build suspense. Janina and Zoya held hands, as if they anticipated their whole world spinning.

It was a loud silence, but Kamine’s mind calmed as she let that mental wall down. One second everything was standing still, and the next, a gasp split through the crowd as the vibrations built beneath Kamine’s feet. Rocks tumbled off their pedestals and crashed to the classroom floor.

Then, concentrating, Kamine quieted the world again. A roar of applause hit as everyone got their bearings again. The entire cohort all congratulated her. Zoya presented her with the knitted blanket—the colors vibrant, just like Kamine had expected it to be. The entire affair was joyous, and carefree.

Damien ran towards her on his wobbly feet, and handed her a dandelion weed he must have picked at some point before arriving at Skola. She bent down and accepted it, and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek that he immediately rubbed off. She laughed. Her father came up to her with a tear in his eye, and hugged her tightly.

She knew he had been nervous about her participation in the Undertaking from the beginning, even if he would never admit it. Now, alongside his fear, she could also sense his pride.

“I love you,” he whispered in her ear. “I’m so proud, and she would have been so excited for you.”

“I love you, too,” she said, ignoring the second half of his words. She didn’t know if she believed them.

She twisted the bracelet on her hands, unable to look her father in the eye. Sensing her discomfort, her father jerked his head towards the hallway, and she followed him.

Headmistress Dritoria was holding Damien, and she nodded her acknowledgement as the both of them left. Grimot narrowed his eyes at Kamine, concerned, but she waved at him, letting him know she was okay.

Her father weaved through the halls with ease, and Kamine had forgotten that once he was a student that had learned to navigate them, too.

They found a secluded room, where her father sat down, then patted the seat next to him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, worried that he had bad news to share.

“Nothing.” He shook his head, his brown shaggy hair bouncing as he did. “I wanted to tell you a story. The story of my, and your mother’s, Undertaking.”

Kamine swallowed, completely unprepared for this moment. For years, Kamine had pestered her father to tell her what happened during their Undertaking. Every time, he refused, revealing that he promised his wife that he would keep it a secret. Kamine learned long ago to stop expecting any answers. That fact that he was finally willing to spill the truth now meant something big.

“Our Undertaking was like any other. The cohort was separated to each of their villages to defend it. As expected, some participants chose to find the Heart. I chose to run to mine—your mother.” Her father cleared his throat, and Kamine rubbed his shoulder. “We were from neighboring villages, so I was still able to defend my people as I ran. On my way to her, a rock blasted from behind me, and knocked me to the ground. I was struck unconscious until your mother found me and shook me awake. I was bleeding badly. Your mother was trying to comfort me, but the pain was unbearable, and I was losing a lot of blood. No one had yet found the Heart, so rocks continued to rain down. Your mother left me to find it herself, to put an end to the Undertaking, so I could get help. I told her to not go, because with me injured, our people needed someone to defend both of our villages. She refused to listen.”

Kamine took in his words, a deep ache opening in her chest at the difficult circumstance they had endured.

“She found it quickly. I have no idea how, perhaps the Gods took mercy on us, but even her speed did not end the Undertaking before her family was killed.”

Kamine’s world halted, and her ears began to ring with the shock of her father’s admission. “What?” she breathed out.

“Your mother was never the same because of it. She believed herself unworthy of living.” True tears spilled down her father’s face. “I tried convincing her otherwise. I tried reminding her that it wasn’t her fault. But it wasn’t enough.”

Her father pulled back her sleeve to reveal the gold bracelet that Kamine had such difficulty parting with. He slid his finger over it, feeling the ridges of the small gold leaves that created a long, never-ending vine. “Your mother craved life. That’s why whenever she was pregnant, she came back to herself again. That’s why I gave her the reminder on her wrist that there was a whole living world outside.”

“That’s why she always looked out the window,” Kamine finished.

Her father nodded. “She loved you so much, Kamine. I understand why you might not believe that to be true, but she did. When she decided to leave this world, she left this bracelet for you, so you would always have that reminder of her, and to keep living when she no longer could herself.”

Kamine didn’t cry, only stared at the bracelet on her wrist.

Her father pulled her into his chest, and she let him, offering him the little comfort she could while accepting the little comfort he offered.

The tunnels were the same, but different. The dark walls hadn’t changed—they were still lifeless and barren. Each step through led her to the same locations she had learned to navigate. The difference was in her.

No longer did she view Skola as a trap. It was instead a dungeon, before an inevitable execution. One that each of them—and every village—accepted it to be.

Her mother, even as determined as she was to protect her village, still left this place a shell because of the decisions she had made. Every participant who had been voted in, and entered Skola ready to restore the power of the court, left with something taken from them. All in the name of the Weather Gods.

When Kamine made it back to her room, Janina and Zoya were already there, asleep on the ground, tangled in Zoya’s yarn. The burst of colors were a stark contrast to the rest of their surroundings, and it was another reminder of everything they had to lose.

At the sight, a loud sob escaped Kamine. Both her friends awoke at her cry, immediately scanning for the source of the sound. When their eyes landed on her, their faces softened.

Kamine fell to her knees, the plush rug and her friends catching her, and crawled between them.

Kamine finally weeped for the mother that had been taken from her.

The anger she had held for her mother now turned to guilt, a feeling that coated her skin. For years, Kamine could barely spare her mother a kind word because of the rage that brewed deep inside her. An anger that had been unjust.

“We’re here,” Zoya whispered.

The words only caused Kamine to cry harder, as a fear for the future of her friends mixed with the storm of emotions surfacing. She had no idea if her friends even knew why she was crying, but she appreciated them for simply understanding that she needed them.

“She deserved better,” Kamine sobbed. And she wasn’t just talking about the Undertaking, and what it had taken from her mother. She deserved a daughter who would have been more understanding. Not Kamine, who only grew to resent her mother’s emptiness, until it festered into such a blockage it stopped her powers from fully manifesting.

“You both deserved better,” Zoya responded, rubbing her back.

Janina pulled a blanket off Kamine's bed, and draped it over all of them. From her pocket, she pulled out a bag of sugared nuts from the reception. “Sugar usually helps me.”

Kamine’s mouth gaped at the simplicity of the offer, and the beauty of it. How even in the darkest times, her friends’ light could so effortlessly comfort by just being there. It would be a long time before she untangled every coursing thought running through her, but as she lay there with her friends, she had no doubt it was possible to find the other side and thrive.

Kamine snatched the bag from Janina, saying, “Thank the Weather Gods—at least they are good at creating something .”

All of them laughed, and Kamine thought that the sound was joyous enough to shake all of the shadows from the world.