Battle Camp: The Rebellion V. 2

Hello friends, I am here!

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Chapter Four
Shorlorn


Shorlorn walked into the magic classroom, still slightly miffed about losing the fight to Talon. He didn’t show it, but he was a sore loser. Shorlorn tried his best to put all thoughts of what went wrong out of his head so he could focus.

He didn’t know if Luke or Rora had noticed, but there was more to Talon than what met the eye. He had revealed this briefly before entering the Training Room to all of them, but Shorlorn had seen it right after he woke up. The way he knew they were in a mine, or what used to be a mine. They way he counted everyone in the room and made assumptions. It seemed like he was always weighing the odds of doing something before he did it. Every step he took he had already decided where to place his foot. It was almost unnerving.

Shorlorn watched Talon very closely as he entered the classroom. Talon saw everything from the alphabetized bookshelf in the back of the room to the neat and orderly desk in the front. Then he analyzed our teachers. For this class, there were two of them. Shorlorn could not remember seeing them among the mages when he first woke up, and one look at Talon’s face confirmed this. Talon paused at one of the desks and decided to shake both of the teachers’ hands before sitting down. He was really trying to get on people’s good sides. Once he had done that, he sat down. Shorlorn took the seat next to him.

“Welcome to Magic class. You will report here every day after training,” said a man with brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard. “We are going to split you up into two groups. If you possess magic, sit on the left side of the room. If you do not, please move to the right side. My daughter will be instructing you.” A girl with the same brown hair nodded.

Shorlorn stood up, crossing over to take Rora’s spot by Luke on the left side while Rora took his. Judging by the way she refused to look at Talon, Shorlorn gathered that Talon was going to need to apologize. Apparently Talon realized this too. He glanced at Shorlorn, his eyes pleading for help. Shorlorn smiled and gave him a friendly wave, feigning obliviousness. Talon’s wide eyes narrowed into a glare. He faced the teacher again.

“Hi, I’m Stephanie. The first thing I’m going to do with you two is make sure you do not have a magical ability. Sometimes you have one without knowing it. I’m just going to place my hand on your head and have a look around, okay?” Stephanie didn’t proceed to do what she described until she received a verbal understanding from both Luke and Shorlorn. After she had rifled through both of their brains, she spoke again. “It looks like neither of you have a drop of magic. That means I’ll be teaching you about magic theory, okay?”

“Okay,” Shorlorn said. Stephanie smiled and looked to Luke who was staring off into space. Shorlorn elbowed him in the side.

“Huh? Oh. Okay,” Luke said, and promptly zoned out again.

“Magical theory is very important for everyone to understand. It doesn’t matter if you can’t perform spells; you still need to know how magic works. For example, if you know what a mage needs to perform a type two transportation spell, contact, you can prevent that mage from transporting you by staying away from him. This differs from a type one transportation spell because the mage…”

After listening to this, Shorlorn decided that Luke had the right idea and decided to stop listening. He glanced over to see if Talon and Rora were suffering as well to see an exact replica of their teacher that Rora had created. They were creating illusions. The teacher nodded to Talon who took a deep breath and created his own version of the teacher. It was clear that Rora had the better magical ability. When the teacher prepared to give feedback, Talon held up one finger and scrambled the illusion into sloppy letters that spelled out “Sorry Rora.” Their teacher proceeded to give feedback on both of Talon’s illusions while Rora held in her laughter. It seemed that all was forgiven.

Shorlorn felt an elbow hit his side. He turned to Luke, who was calmly turning the page of a large musty book titled Magical Theory. Shorlorn saw that he had his own volume in front of him and opened it to the painfully long introduction. He wasn’t four pages into it when they heard the ringing of a bell.

“All right, you two,” Stephanie said as they closed their books. “I expect you to have read up to chapter two by tomorrow.” They were getting up to leave when Stephanie said, “Oh! One more thing. I’d like you to write a report on the basics of magical theory and how it can be useful in a battle situation. Three pages, minimum, please.”

Shorlorn nodded and walked out of there as quickly as he could. He didn’t care if he seemed rude; he just wanted to get to his next class.

“That was brutal, huh?” Luke said and he caught up with Shorlorn.

“Yeah,” Shorlorn agreed. “I just hope the next class will be better.”

“Please! How can it be worse?”

“Wasn’t that class just wonderful?” Rora asked, skipping to them with Talon just behind her. Rora had a massive stack of books in her arms.

“Whoa,” Luke said, staring at the books. Shorlorn suddenly found joy in his assignment. “You have to read all of those?”

“Has to? She wants to,” Talon said, finally catching up. He carried nothing but a slim volume in his hand.

“Come on,” Shorlorn said. “There’s no way you can find that class to be fun, can you? It’s torturous.”

Talon nodded in confirmation. “Not only does she like it, she’s already talking about the next time we have to endure it.”

“Magic isn’t that bad,” Rora defended. “And why shouldn’t I be thinking about the next class? I am the mage, after all. With any luck, you won’t have to use your magic at all.”

“I certainly hope not, because that apology was crap,” Luke said. “Who writes an apology when you can just say it?”

Before Talon could defend himself, Rora stopped in the middle of the hall and said, “I thought it was endearing. I doubt either of you would have apologized to me. I bet you would have though you did nothing wrong.”

Shorlorn could hardly believe his ears. She thought Talon had made that decision himself? She thought that Talon thought he did something wrong? Shorlorn had known Talon as long as she had and he could see that this was not the case. He doubted that Talon had ever felt the need to apologize in his life.

Talon was clearly not going to correct her, so Shorlorn decided to do it himself. “Wait,” Shorlorn said. “Did I hear you correctly? I thought you said—” Before he could finish, the bell rung.

“We’re late,” Talon informed, not seeming to care himself.

“Where are we even headed?” Luke asked, taking his map back from the top of Rora’s pile of books. “We weren’t told where to go.”

“I think he said the Tactical Strategies room, or something.” Talon looked over his own map and pointed to it. “It just down the hall, come on.”

Talon led the way to their next class. He stopped at door and checked his map one final time to make sure that this was the right place, and then he opened the door.

“You’re late,” a voice from inside the room said. “Come in and sit down.”

As Shorlorn took his seat he flashed back to when Luke said that this class could not be any worse. When he looked up at their teacher, he knew that Luke was wrong. They were being taught by the man in the flowing black cloak.

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Goodbye friends, I am gone!

 

You guys are all way too kind to me. I'm blushing! :*)

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Chapter Five
Talon



“The next time you are late, you will be punished. Seeing as this is your first day at Battle Camp, I will excuse your tardiness.” Talon was surprised to see that this man would be teaching them. He had seemed to be the one running the show, not simply a teacher. Perhaps he wanted to observe their education closer than his normal position allowed him to, Talon considered. “Now, for our first lesson, I want to see which of the four of you are competent enough to answer a simple question. If you and one other person were scouting out the area of an enemy camp and saw ten enemy warriors before they saw you, what would you do, Shorlorn?”

“Um, I guess I would charge in and fight,” Shorlorn said, not sounding too sure of himself.

“No, you and your partner would surely die.” The man didn’t seem surprised that Shorlorn couldn’t answer the question. “What about you, Luke?”

“I would send my partner out to distract them while I snuck up from behind.” Unlike Shorlorn, Luke seemed very sure of himself.

“Your partner would die, but you might be able to get away. What a hero you would be.” The cloaked man gave a wry smile and moved on. “Rora?”

Rora looked like a deer in headlights when she was singled out. “I don’t know.”

“I didn’t suppose you would, but you have to answer the question,” the man said, a false niceness coating every word.

Rora flushed an angry red. “I’m the mage!” she exclaimed. “I shouldn’t be the one to decide these things. That’s Talon’s job.”

“I suppose that is the truth,” the man admitted. “Talon, seeing as your teammate has nominated you to make all of the decisions, why don’t you have a go.”

Talon, who had known the answer from the beginning, smiled. “I’m glad you have decided to trust me to make the decisions, Rora.”

“I haven’t decided to trust you yet. Get this question right and you’re one step closer to earning my trust.”

“All right. Deal,” Talon said. “It’s quite simple, really.”

“Enlighten me,” the man in the black cloak said, sitting in his desk at the front of the room. He folded his hands and waited.

“First of all, you’re a scout, guys. Your job isn’t to fight, it’s to report,” Talon informed his team. Shorlorn didn’t look too thrilled to be receiving another lesson from Talon, but he continued. “So, you would retreat and inform your commanding officer, which would most likely be me,” Talon paused to indulge himself with a smirk. “You would tell me about the enemy warriors, and I would decide what to do about them. See, simple.”

“Yeah, right,” Rora said. “Simple. I doubt you’re even right.” Rora looked to the man in the black cloak for confirmation.

“Actually, he is correct,” the man said.

Rora groaned. “No way.”

“Quite. Retreat is what your position would have you do, and it is the only way you and your partner would survive.”

“Trust me yet?” Talon asked.

“Not even close,” Rora said. “You really have to earn my trust.”

Talon glanced at Luke and Shorlorn. Shorlorn was just shaking his head, but Luke seemed to be confused. The man in the black cloak also seemed to notice this.

“Do you have a question, Luke?” he asked.

“Yes, actually,” Luke said. “You said that retreat is the only way that both you and your partner could survive, but sometimes sacrifice is necessary.”

Luke’s words ignited a fire within Talon. When he spoke, it was almost a yell. “Sacrifice is never necessary. There’s always a way to get everyone out alive.”

Their teacher seemed very surprised about Talon’s outburst. Talon dared him with his eyes to disagree with him. The man seemed neither discouraged nor encouraged to do so.

“Do you truly believe that, Talon?” he asked.

“I do,” Talon said with passion.

“Then there is a chance that you can manage this. A very slim chance, but a chance.” The man paused to check his pocket watch. “You will receive your assignment at lunch with the other three teams. The bell will be ringing shortly. You are dismissed.”

The team of four exited the room led by Talon. As soon as they were out, the bell rang. The four of them walked in silence, following their maps to the dining roomed. From its position on the map, it seemed to be the room they woke up in. Once they made it, Talon knew that this was the case. The previously empty room now contained four tables and sixteen chairs. They were the last group to arrive. Someone had gotten the idea to push all of the tables together so they could discuss their first day in Battle Camp.

“Did any other protectors have to fight their commanders?” Patrick, the protector of the first group that was called, asked. “Because I beat the crap out of mine!”

“You did not!” Alex protested. “You barely beat me. It was simply luck!” Talon observed the other commander. He was tall with dark brown hair and an average build. He looked intelligent, but also cocky. Perhaps his confidence was based on actual skill, but Talon was sure he could hold his own.

“I had to fight my commander,” a girl with curly black hair said. “I’m Alta by the way.” Talon noticed that Alta seemed shy, but willing to make friends. So far, no one that he had observed seemed aware of anything wrong here when there was so obviously something… something… Talon couldn’t figure it out, but he promised himself right then that he would.

“Did you beat your commander?” Luke asked, drumming his fingers on the empty table.

“Yeah, she beat me,” a boy said, sounding unwilling to give up the information. “I’m Derrick.”

“Don’t sulk,” Alta said. “I’m sure all of the protectors beat their commander.”

Talon coughed and scratched the back of his neck, pretending to be uncomfortable.

“What?” Alex asked, examining Talon almost as closely as Talon had examined him. Almost. Now, Talon was sure he could take him.

“Go on,” Rora said. “We know you want to.”

“Well,” Talon said. “If you insist. I happened to beat my protector, Shorlorn here.” Talon swung an arm over Shorlorn’s broad shoulders. Shorlorn clearly did not appreciate the attention. “But, you know, it could have been a fluke.”

“You’re clearly suggesting that it was not,” Alex observed.

“Don’t,” Rora groaned. “Just don’t say another word. He’ll take it as a compliment.” Talon grinned and shrugged noncommittally.

“You’re a real piece of work, aren’t you?” a girl with skin like cream and hair like honey said.

“That’s for you to decide… uh…” Talon’s charm faltered when he realized he had not yet learned her name.

“It’s Ari,” she said, smiling.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Ari.” Talon leaned across the table to shake her hand. Ari turned pink.

Talon realized that he was laying it on a bit thick, but he decided only to trust his team. He would play up his charm to get everyone else to trust him. After a little more discussion, servers came in with platters of food, one for each table. Between bites of food, an archer named Bennett offered up some interesting information.

“My team didn’t do anything today,” he mumbled through a mouthful of food. “The guard called it a day off, and everyone gets one.”

“Yeah, it was pretty awkward being stuck in that room all morning long with my team. I’m his commander, Cassie.”

Talon pondered this information. He could do a lot of investigating on a day off. How he would get around unnoticed was going to be a problem, but he was sure he would manage somehow. The moment the last bite of food was swallowed, the doors opened to reveal their Tactical Strategies teacher.

“If you’ll all follow me, please, I will give you your assignment.” Chatter dissolved into the air as everyone stood up and followed him out of the room. “You’ll be expected to report here every day after lunch so check your maps.”

Talon did, and saw that they were headed to a large wing of the camp called the Battle Room. When they got there, they met up with the physical training teacher who began to speak.

“Welcome to the Battle Room! This is the most important room in all of the camp. You’ll come here in your battle uniforms, found in the bottom drawers of you dressers, and battle the other teams. Take a good look at the room.” She paused to let everyone look. Talon saw that crates were strewn around the room randomly. Some were stacked three high, and some were half torn down.

“Every day the crates will be arranged differently,” the man in the black cloak said. He picked up a stack of parchment from the top of a crate and handed it out to all of the commanders. “This will be the crate arrangement for tomorrow. Your assignment is to come up with a strategy.” The diagram had crates stacked two high in the middle of the room, separating one side from the other. There were holes between the crates big enough for one person to slip thorough. In the very center of the room, there was a stack of crates that was three high. Talon passed the map to Shorlorn who showed it to the rest of his team. “Good luck,” the man in the black cloak said, his tone suggesting dismissal.

Talon didn’t need luck. He already had a plan forming in his mind.
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Aaaaaaaahh! What will happen? Such anticipation! Much excitement.

Love you all!

 

Whoa! She is back and posting--during NaNoWriMo??? What kind of insanity is this?

The answer is that she is procrastinating! WHAT A CONCEPT!?!??//!?

Sorry about my craziness leaking through. November is a crazy month. I have a test in two days and 2/3 of a packet to fill out if I want to pass. And I'm about 350 words behind on my NaNo novel. *whimpers* And I just watched the current episode Supernatural, but that's self-explanatory.

Okay. Moving on. The reason you're here:
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Chapter Six
Rora


Rora could not sleep that night. She couldn’t pin her restlessness onto any one thing. There were a number of things bothering her, the main one being the stupid mind block. She hadn’t found time to continue breaking it down and the thing seemed to have regenerated the little progress that she had already made. Rora decided that she needed to tell Talon about it. Perhaps it could help him with… with whatever he planned to do about their situation.

Rora slipped out of bed and slid the cloth divider out of the way. She walked barefoot across the cold stone. She leaned over Talon and reached down to nudge him awake, but he grabbed her wrist before she could. Rora let out a soft hiss. His grip was tight.

“I’m not asleep!” he said, sounding like very much like he had been asleep. “Hey, Rora. What are you doing?”

“What are you doing?” she asked through gritted teeth. “Are you trying to break my wrist?”

“Break your wrist? Wha…. Oh. Sorry.” He released her hand which was sure to be bruised.

“Gosh, Talon,” she said, breathing heavily. “Trust issues, much?”

“I think it’s unwise to trust anyone who sneaks up on you in your sleep.” Rora nodded. Talon may be insufferable at times, but he had a few nuggets of wisdom in his brain. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“I wanted to tell you something.” Talon looked at her expectantly. “First, I have to ask you something. Do you want to get out of here?”

In the dim light, Rora saw a thoughtful look cross over Talon’s face. “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “I don’t trust Mr. Cloak Man or Mrs. Ma’am teacher, but I don’t know if escape would be wise. What if they’re telling the truth? What if there is a battle that we’re needed to fight in?”

“Well, they could ask politely instead of kidnapping us and taking our memories,” Rora said bitterly.

“What? Taking our memories? What are you talking about?” Talon asked.

“That was what I wanted to tell you, but I can’t exactly tell you it. This is something you need to see for yourself.”

“Okay,” Talon said. “Show me.”

Rora led Talon through the steps to detach his consciousness from his body. It took him quite some time to get it right, but once he did he found the wall pretty quickly.

“Oh, wow,” Talon said in awe once his consciousness was reattached. “What was that?”

“It’s a mind block. It holds our memories at bay, keeping us from accessing them. What I don’t understand is why they didn’t just wipe our memories.” Prompted by Talon’s confused look, she added, “Wiping our memories would erase them completely from our minds. The only reason they would block them over wiping them would be because they planned to give them back to us at some point.”

“That certainly is confusing,” Talon admitted with his forehead wrinkled in concentration. “We should wake Luke and Shorlorn and let them know. That’ll give me some time to think this over.” Talon went over to wake Shorlorn.

“Right,” Rora said. “Because five seconds is enough time to form a plan.”

Rora shook Luke awake and told him to join everyone in Talon’s section. Once they were all sitting on the floor, Talon spoke.

“Rora has discovered something. We all have mind blocks in our brains that are keeping us from remembering anything before this morning. We have got to do something about this.”

“So are we going to try to escape?” Rora asked. She was shivering as the cold from the floor sunk its teeth through her dress’s thin fabric.

“I can’t make a decision right away.”

“What?” Rora exclaimed. Talon was crazy. “They kidnapped us! They probably want to use us as cannon fodder or something!” Now, Rora was cold and outraged. Not a good combination if you wanted to survive with your head.

“If they did, why would they be training us? We have to think strategically. Every possibility must be considered. At the moment, there are too many possibilities.”

“So, you have no plan. Just great! You’re supposed to be our commander!” Rora yelled. Luke and Shorlorn cringed at the level of her voice, but she didn’t care. It was Talon that she wanted a reaction out of. If he didn’t sit there with that stupid straight face, Rora might not be so mad!

“I never said I didn’t have a plan,” Talon said. “I just said I couldn’t make a decision based on the information we have now. My plan is to gather more information.”

Rora wanted to argue with him. She wanted to from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes, but she couldn’t. He was right. Rora had a feeling that she would be thinking that a lot around him. She made one final attempt.

“Okay, fine. But how are we going to do that? Are we going to walk up to Mr. Cloak Man and ask, ‘Hey, this thought just happened to cross my mind the other day: where’s the exit?’ No. We aren’t.”

“Okay, I may still be half asleep, but what you two are saying is that we have no memories and we’re going to find out why, right?” Luke asked, looking kind of dead.

“We want to find out anything we can about the situation we’re in,” Talon affirmed.

“Just throwing this out there,” Shorlorn said, “But isn’t that kind of stupid?”

“Is it stupid to try and find out about the man who kidnapped us and took our memories?” Talon asked.

“Point taken,” Shorlorn muttered.

Rora noticed that everyone seemed tense and realized that it was probably her fault. She had been yelling, so she should remedy this situation.

“How about we come up with a name?” she asked, trying to sound upbeat.

“A name?” Talon smirked. “I don’t think so.”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Shorlorn agreed. “Luke?”

“I’m game.”

Rora looked at Talon, a smirk of her own threatening. “Ah, fine,” Talon said. “How about the Investigators?”

“Excuse me?” Rora said. “How about not?”

“I never said names were my strong point,” Talon said, defensively.

“I’m thinking Lost and Found,” Luke said. “Like, our memories?” He looked to Rora and Shorlorn for agreement. He found none. “What would you suggest, Shorlorn?”

“Don’t look at me. My idea would be worse than Talon’s, if I could come up with one.”

“It’s fine,” Rora said, grinning. “I’ve got the perfect name.”

“Which would be…?” Talon asked, looking ready to disagree with whatever she said.

“The Rebellion.” She was suddenly self conscious and unsure. “Do you like it?” she asked.

“It’ll do,” Talon admitted. “But don’t go getting a big head just because you came up with a good name.”

“Like anyone’s head could get as big as yours,” she sniffed jokingly.

“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” Talon said.

“You do that,” Luke yawned, climbing back into his bed. “Meanwhile, I’m going to try and salvage what’s left of the night and sleep like a baby.”

Rora crawled back into her bed. This time, she could sleep. The mind block didn’t bother her so much now that she knew something would be done about it.

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Soooooooooo cheesy, I know! But I couldn't get the cheese out of it, and I've rewritten this scene like, four time. UGH. I should go write some of my NaNo novel before I collapse of sleepiness. IT'S ONLY DAY FIVE, HOW WILL I SURVIVE?

Btw, quick question. Who do y'all ship Rora with? Just wondering. (But it's an evil, authory wondering. Nothing I do is ever innocent.)

X's and O's,
Lady

 

Sorry about the wait. This month has been incredibly hectic. Interesting fact of the day: I am trying to determine my personality type. So far, I have deduced that I am an INXJ, although I think I lean more towards T.

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Chapter Seven
Luke

Luke was startled awake by the bell. He almost fell out of his bed, and it took a moment for him to remember where he was. He was at Battle Camp. Luke dragged himself over to his dresser and put on a copy of his outfit. The fabric felt odd against his skin. It looked identical to the one he wore yesterday, but there was something about it that felt off.

Luke knocked on the edge of the divider to ask for entrance into Rora’s section. Rora mumbled something that sounded vaguely like “Come in,” but Luke couldn’t be sure. He knocked again.

“JUST GET IN HERE ALREADY!” Rora shouted, clearly not in a patient mood.

Luke hesitantly opened the door to see that Rora had not gotten out of bed. Just by entering her section of their shared room Luke felt a significant difference in temperature.

“Did you heat up your section?” Luke asked, slightly miffed. Magic was useful and all, but Luke thought that this was going a bit too far.

“Did I?” Rora said, pulling the covers from her body. “That’s too cool. Didn’t know I could do that.”

Luke was suddenly glad that they would have Rora on their side during the battle. A girl who could heat a very specific section of a room in her sleep had to be incredibly powerful. Luke nodded at Rora, who didn’t bother changing. She just used magic to clean off her dress. Once she was done, she stood up.

“We’d better get breakfast, or I’m going to take Mr. Cloak’s head off,” Rora growled.

“That would be unfortunate,” Talon said, sliding his divider back into the center post. “Considering it is Black Cloak Man that we are trying to get information from, I don’t think that killing should be the first thing on our agenda.”

“Okay, guys,” Shorlorn mumbled entering Rora’s section. “We have got to get this nickname straight, or it’s my head that Rora will chop off. By my order.”

“I’m the one who gives orders around here,” Talon said, pouting over-dramatically.

“When did my room become the meeting room?” Rora asked, agitated.

“Do we get breakfast, or don’t we?” Shorlorn asked, only adding to the chaos.

“Can’t we do this in Talon’s section?” Rora said, not giving up.

“Guys!” Luke shouted. Once he had all of their attention, he pointed to the soldier who had been watching them for a while.

“Do you have something for us?” Rora snipped.

“Um, go down to breakfast when the second bell rings.” The bell rang. “I guess that’s now.” The soldier walked away, muttering, “So glad I’m not a recruit.”

“Hurray!” Rora rejoiced. “Breakfast.”

“Did anyone else catch that?” Talon asked.

“Did anyone not?” Shorlorn countered. “We get to eat three meals a day! This place isn’t so bad after all.”

“No, not that part,” Talon said, annoyed. “The part about the recruits.”

“I guess that would be us,” Luke inferred.

“Thank you,” Talon sighed. “These are the kinds of hints we’re looking for. Little bits of information that can help us get to the big picture. Of course, they aren’t all going to come to us. Eventually we’re going to have to seek them out.”

They all pondered over this for a moment.

“I think breakfast is a pretty important piece of information,” Rora said. The bell rung and she stood up for the first time that morning. She grabbed her books and the others did the same. “Let’s go!”

Luke followed behind Rora, who was skipping barefoot down the hall. Apparently shoes were optional wherever she was from. The other teams also came out of their rooms although they seemed actually sleepy. Luke wished he had been put on one of their teams. He didn’t think that their mornings started out with an argument. He also doubted that they were woken up in the middle of the night to discuss memory loss and names for their group.

Breakfast was quiet. The only sounds were Rora’s complaints about the bland porridge they were eating and the scraping of spoons on bowls. It nearly lulled Luke back to sleep until the bell rang again. Luke jumped up, his spoon flying into the air. It landed perfectly into his bowl, but Luke suspected that Rora had something to do with that.

“I guess we go to the Training Room,” Talon said once they were out in the hall. “Remember; keep your ears open for anything that…. Just listen for anything.”

“Thanks for narrowing that down, commander,” Rora said.

They walked into the Training Room again. Luke determined that their teacher was too perky for the time of day, and she didn’t even try to tone it down when Rora complained (loudly) about it. In fact, their teacher pretty much ignored Rora, Luke noticed. It made sense because Rora was a mage and didn’t really need to learn to wield a sword, but Rora noticed and wasn’t pleased.

Although Rora didn’t like it, Luke could tell that this was going to be his favorite part of the day. While his teammates practiced archery, he threw his knives. It soon became clear that the range they had set up would be no challenge. As he threw knife after knife from the back of the room, he wondered why he was so nervous in the first place. It was almost as if he was born to do this.

He was so into throwing his knives that he was startled when the teacher said, “Oh! Looks like I wasn’t paying attention to the time, again. Clean up and get to your next class!”

Luke suppressed a groan as he pulled each of his knives from the target. It was unblemished this morning, but now the center of it was shredded. Luke followed a still barefoot Rora out of the Training Room and to their Magic classroom.

“Finally!” Rora exclaimed. “I thought we’d never get out of there.”

“It’s not so bad,” Talon said. “I bet that Luke and Shorlorn feel the same about magic.”

Rora stopped and looked to Luke and Shorlorn, surprise written all over her face. “No,” she said. “That can’t be true. Magic is the best thing ever!”

“Maybe if you can actually do it,” Luke said.

“But all we get to do is study theories and read thirty page introductions!” Shorlorn moaned.

“Newsflash,” Rora said, holding out one of her books. “That’s what we do, too!”

“How many times did you actually see us do magic?” Talon asked.

“Well, one,” Shorlorn admitted.

“Exactly,” Talon said. “We have to go through the same torture you do.”

Rora hit Talon over the head with her book. “Not you, too! Magic is great!”


“Ouch,” Talon said, rubbing his head. “That hurt!”

“If you admit how much you love magic, I could use magic to make it feel better,” Rora taunted.

“Nah, I’m okay,” Talon said. “It doesn’t hurt anymo— ouch!” Rora hit him with her book again. “I’m fi— ouch! Stop that!”

“Tell me how much you love magic.”

Talon ran ahead attempting to get away, but Rora was relentless. “Hold these,” she said, handing her stack of books to Luke. Rora caught up with Talon and hit him with her book again.

Shorlorn raced to catch up with them, leaving Luke to stagger along with Rora’s books feeling like a pack mule. When he finally caught up with the rest of his team, Talon was yelling, “I love magic! I love magic more than anything!”

The door opened, their teacher appearing in the entrance. “I’m glad you feel that way, Talon,” he said not seeing Rora’s smug grin.

“Make my head feel better,” Talon hissed to Rora as they walked into the room.

“I’m sorry, that was a onetime offer.” She took her seat without looking back at Talon.

“I should have never apologized to her yesterday,” Talon told Luke and Shorlorn. “You guys talked me into it.”

He pulled out his chair and sat in it with as much anger as you would expect from Rora in a similar situation.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he asked, “Can you tell me anything about memory blocking techniques?”

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Here's my attempt to type my characters on the fly!

Talon: XNTJ (What can I say? Near self portrait or not, you've just go to love him!)
Rora: IXFP
Luke: XSFP
Shorlorn: ISFJ

For those of you who don't know anything about this, don't worry. It's not very prevalent to the story. Just know that an X means that I don't have time to ponder over which letter should go there. But this is a tad interesting for those of you who are familiar with mbti.

 

Oh my goodness! I had forgotten I'd left you with such a suspenseful ending. Nothing like Sherlock, though, am I right? Yeah?

Ahem.

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Chapter Eight
Shorlorn

“I’m just curious,” Talon said. “I was flipping through one of these books last night after finishing my magic assignment.” Talon gestured vaguely at the stack of books sitting between him and Rora. “I happened to come across the subject and I found it absolutely fascinating.”

There was a tangible tension in the air that caused the hair on the back of Shorlorn’s neck to stand up. Apparently, neither teacher felt it.

“Ah, yes. Mind blocking is a fascinating subject. I suppose we could set our current lesson aside and discuss this instead. Since we don’t have any subjects to test on, we will simply be discussing theory and technique.”

After spending the majority of the time trying to comb through the dull discussion with a fine tooth comb for anything Talon would deem useful, Shorlorn decided to ask a question of his own.

“What about unblocking a person’s memory?” he asked. “Is their memory blocked for good?”

The team of four held their breath.

“No, no,” Stephanie said. “If that were the case you would simply wipe the person’s mind and be done with it. What makes blocking the memory so interesting is that you can choose what you want them to forget, and unblock it if you feel the need.”

“How would one go about unblocking another’s mind?” Rora asked. Now, the teachers seemed to get uneasy.

“Well, only the creator of the block can unblock it,” Stephanie said, hesitantly.

“Really?” Rora asked. “Because I read in here that the person with the block can undo it if they have sufficient magical power.” Rora opened a seemingly random book to a seemingly random page.

“Yes, well, these occurrences are… rare and far between. There’s no way to tell if the blocked person undid it themselves or if the block unraveled by the fault of its creator.” The two teachers looked at each other nervously. There was an awkward silence until the bell rang. “There is no assignment today. Leave.” It was said almost as a plea and not a dismissal.

“They said too much, and they know it,” Talon said once they were a safe distance away from the classroom. “My guess is they will tell Mr. Black Cloak at some point.”

“Well, maybe not,” Shorlorn said. “Maybe they’ll be too afraid to.”

Talon considered this for a moment. “There is a possibility, but I think that they’ll be more afraid of him finding out before they tell him.” Talon opened the door to the Tactical Strategies classroom and walked confidently inside. “Good morning, Sir,” he said taking a seat.

Mr. Black Cloak, as was his current nickname, gave Talon a slight grimace that said he wasn’t impressed with his charm. Talon just gave him his winning smile. If nothing else, Shorlorn had to admire Talon’s guts. He hardly had the courage to look Cloak Man in the eye, yet Talon was doing just that and asking about their lesson today, and isn’t that a nice cloak you’ve got on. Does it contain any secret information vital to getting our memories back? Maybe he didn’t say that last part, but Shorlorn wouldn’t have been surprised if he did.

Cloak Man seemed to know that Talon was the only one that could get his questions right, but he asked everyone else before him. After struggling through an answer, Shorlorn would have to listen to Talon give a brilliantly simple one without any effort. Sometime during the painful lesson, Rora had begun reading one of her magic books. She answered a repetitive “I don’t know,” to every question without even trying. Shorlorn began to wish he had a magic book to read, and this disturbed him.

“I can’t say I’m surprised that none of you but Talon knows any answers, but I am disappointed,” the man in the black cloak said. “What if Talon was dead and one of you had to give the orders?”

It took Shorlorn a second to realize that this was not another one of his lessons. What would they do? Shorlorn certainly wasn’t going to volunteer to take his place.

“My dying would imply that one of my plans went wrong,” Talon said. “And my plan would surely have gone the way I wanted it to go.”

“Someday an enemy will surprise you, Talon.” the man said, staring deep into Talon’s eyes. Talon showed no discomfort.

“My plan would go the way I want it to go,” he insisted once more.

“I never said it wouldn’t, but if a sacrifice had to be made, I don’t see you putting one of you teammates in the position of compromise, do you?” This clearly hadn’t occurred to Talon, and he sat very still, thinking about this. Rora closed her book, to see his reaction. Very slowly, Talon shook his head. “I didn’t think so. It’s time for lunch. Good luck in your battle.” The bell rang.

“Thank you,” Talon said, getting up. “I expect to win it. And without any sacrifices.”

Once they got to the lunch room they helped push the tables together again. Once they had settled into the conversation, the man in the black cloak entered and the words that were about to be said died in the throats of the recruits.

“I want you to choose a name for your team. After lunch is over, you will go back into your rooms and change into your battle uniform. Then you will come to the Battle Room. Understood?”

Everyone nodded. As soon as the man left, conversations erupted at every table. Shorlorn overheard Alex telling his team that they were going to be “Dragon” because their uniforms were red, but Ari disagreed, wanting the name “Fire” instead.

While the other teams argued over their names, Shorlorn’s table didn’t say a word. They had done all of their arguing last night.

“I’m thinking we should be Lost and Found,” Luke said, referencing his idea last night.

“Nah, I think The Investigators is a really great name,” Rora said, sarcastically.

Talon just took Rora’s book from her and hit her on the head. She laughed.

“But seriously, we’re The Rebellion, right?” Shorlorn asked.

“Yeah,” Talon said. “I think we are.”

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Ugh! But this chapter is sooooo short. It doesn't nearly make up for all the waiting you had to do. I will try to update more often, but I cannot make any promises. Finals are positively abhorrent.

Real talk, now: Thank you all so much for the kind words and reviews! I live for them, and I squeal like a pig whenever I see them. I wish you all eternal happiness. (Yes, even the lurkers, you cutie pies. And to those I know in real life--YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE--I curse you seven times over for not showering my story with kind words).

Forever your humble writer,
Lady