Chapter 14: CHAPTER 14: Rest
'Weak,' Yvaine thought as she grimaced at her vomit.
"Will he be all right?" came a female voice. Yvaine looked up to see a beautiful freckled face full of concern. Another familiar recruit. But Yvaine couldn't pinpoint who at the moment so she just nodded wearily.
Her mind was still swimming. Keys had a fifty-fifty chance of living. Yvaine was certain that his life will never be the same. Those black tendrils by his neck should be an indication. A Vilkasvarg bite always spells certain doom.
"Was he bitten?" the girl asked.
Yvaine nodded again. The girl cupped her mouth and sobbed bitterly.
In the last three years, Yvaine had personally witnessed eight recruit deaths from Vilkasvarg attacks. But none this close. Five died on the grounds, immediately torn to shreds, beyond help. The other three came from bite complications. One died from the venom in the infirmary. The other two were put down because they were beginning to mutate.
Keys's chances were slim. A shoulder wound is difficult to isolate from the rest of the body. However, Keys was a Noble. Perhaps he'll live.
A hand violently hit Yvaine's cheek. It took a moment for her to realize that it came from the girl. Her teary eyes glared at Yvaine.
"It should have been you, Lowborn! If anything happens to him, you will answer for it!"
The girl turned and stomped away, leaving a bewildered Yvaine. Her fatigue and the recent conflict clouded her mind and everything happened so fast it took her a while to finally register the girl's identity.
Keys' secret lover. The princess Priscilla Merleon of Maceria herself.
And Yvaine just drew the princess's ire simply for being, fortunately – or unfortunately – spared from Keys's fate.
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In the dark corner of the Lowborn ladies' dormitory, Yvaine silently cried.
Keys died from the Vilkasvarg venom an hour after the attack. The Clerics tried to save him but he passed anyway. A part of her mourned Priscilla's loss. But a bigger part of her was grateful for Keys's sacrifice. Indeed, it could have been her.
The dormitory was abuzz with talks about the recent attack and Keys's death. Fortunately, nobody made the effort to confront Yvaine the way Priscilla did earlier.
Still, that did not make her feel better. She knew they were talking about her in hushed voices. When the stewardess passed by to signify the bedtime, everyone settled down. But some still remained. Why the Vilikasvarg chose Keys instead of Yvaine, who was just a few paces behind him – and consequently closer – was the most recent topic of the hushed voices that made it to her ears.
"I bet she has Akharu blood," one recruit whispered. Yvaine easily recognized Bella's voice.
"Bull," replied another. Elia. "Akharu cannot Torrent. And she would have long melted under the sun in Martial Class."
"But nobody really knows that. What if they can?" another voice piped up – Laroa.
"And I'm not saying she's Akharu. Maybe just a descendant of one. And that could be why she's always last in Martial Class," insisted Bella.
"Think about it," Laroa added. "Vilkasvarg are known to attack indiscriminately. They don't choose their prey."
"Did you really see Keys overtake her?"
Yvaine was grateful for Elia's attempt at defending her.
"We were all facing the wall. Keys could have been a few paces behind, or the Vilkasvarg could have come from the side. We weren't really lined up."
"Ser Marcus said so," Laroa said.
"Ser Marcus also said he barely managed to get there in time. And another Vilkasvarg almost had her."
"We could hear you, you know," an annoyed girl's loud voice broke the quiet ambiance.
The girls finally quieted down and shuffled into their blankets. Finally, silence.
Yvaine barely knew him, but Keys was Yvaine's anchor. Selfish as it may seem, Keys was also physically weak like her. Yes, he was Highborn, while Yvaine was not. Not anymore – she'd like to think. Half of the classes in the Academy require physical movement and Yvaine had always been physically weak. So with Keys around, she was not always alone at the bottom. Now she's all alone again.
Priscilla Merleon also visited their dormitory earlier that night and the exchange was not pleasant.
"He was going to take me away."
The princess tried not to stir a commotion among the other Lowborn girls, keeping her voice so low she practically hissed at Yvaine. Although standing up to Highborns is not encouraged among Lowborns, it would seem that the Highborns do tread lightly when they are in Lowborn territory.
"If I am to suffer as that pampered prince Godric's wife, then I will see to it that you end up as my brother's concubine!" This one she did not bother keeping down, but she immediately turned and walked out of the dormitory before anyone could retaliate. But Yvaine knew no one would dare. Everyone just sat in their beds for a while, stunned, then proceeded with their respective night routines.
Yvaine always tried to avoid being in their sights.
Priscilla arrived at the Academy a few months ago, exactly a year after Keys's enrollment. She was never a particularly good Torren. She could barely wield Aerium during Torrent Theory practicums. She just happened to be at least physically stronger than Yvaine in Martial Class and have Noble blood.
Then there was her brother, the crown prince. Azeikhar Merleon was an upper-classman who has eyed her since she first arrived. The only thing preventing him from having his way with her was the Academy's strict laws against the sexual harassment of its female students. Azeikhar is particularly unsavory and Yvaine would rather not end up with him.
Regarding the crown prince, Yvaine used to dismiss the threat he posed. The Academy's law protected and will continue to protect her. Now that she has the princess's attention, Yvaine's security began to waver.
She tried to dismiss the worry from her mind. Tomorrow is going to be another day and she badly needed to sleep. However, despite the physical exhaustion her body suffered earlier that day, her mind kept wandering.
Ser Marcus just reminded her that it was her last chance at Revenation. What happens if she fails she does not know, but she was told that those who did were never found in the Academy again. The other option would be to willingly submit to Azeikhar Merleon. Yes, she'd be a concubine, but she would be safe. She might even have a comfortable life living in a palace. However, the Merleon patriarchy was quite infamous for its tyranny and disdain for Lowborns. She would suffer at their hands. Worse than working as a prostitute.
Yvaine felt stuck. Her physical limitations held her back. Maybe Bella was right. Maybe the sunlight does make her weak because she has Chaos or Tenebra running in her veins. But if that was the case, then why didn't she feel any stronger at night?
Why was she cursed with such a weak body, anyway? Yvaine never knew her parents. She grew up in a brothel. So her mother could have been one of the prostitutes and her father one of the customers. But she always liked to believe the words of her matron.
"You are a princess, sweet thing," the kindly woman once told her when she asked about her heritage. "Your mother left you under my care when you were a baby because of some Noble war back in your kingdom."
"But why didn't she come back for me?" she had asked.
"Probably because it's not safe there yet."
So Yvaine believed in that childhood fantasy. But nobody ever came for her. Then Yvaine manifested her Torrenting abilities by accidentally burning a woman in outrage. The Torrens arrived just a few hours later and took her away to the Academy deep in the mountains. Whether that was a blessing or a curse, she was yet to decide. But she is decided on one thing. She will become a Torren. She will get out of this prison. And she will find her family.
"I will find you," she whispered in affirmation. Darkness finally enveloped her consciousness as she drifted to a fitful sleep.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
antonvalentyne
antonvalentyne I hope you enjoyed this Chapter.
PS. I got some advice regarding the length of my chapters and decided to split them for better digestibility. So here we are.
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