thesalemsaga

[thesalemsaga]

𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻 - 𝗯𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀.

there was a twinge of pain erupting from her lower back as she awoke.

falling asleep on your desk is hardly the wise option, although one glance at the sea of papers she laid in, and you might even understand it. and if you knew the drive of seren armsend, it is that the girl with the sunny hair never gave up until all of her fuel was burnt out.

for six cold hours, she slept with her head rested against her arms, which were now growing so numb she felt that the blood had frozen and failed to rush through. her first waking breaths were startled, the panic that settles when you awake in a strange location, outside of the comforts of your bed and your blankets.

her head rose, tired eyes seeing smudged words in black ink and her fingers coated ebony and red from the energy she put into writing these letters last night. in the end, she couldn’t finish them, and everything hurt. she would do a useless job if she were to try again.

in her wake, her orange hair fell from the grips of a pin and fell down her back, tickling her skin which had grown cold over the night. her teeth shattered, breath trembled, and so she quickly moved to find a sense of warmth. it took a moment to notice the sun pouring through the windows, hiding behind dark curtains which seren threw open with all her might.

her heart was palpitating, like it does when a special day has arrived, one which you’ve been awaiting for quite a long time. her thoughts moving slow, barely awake, seren didn’t realize what it was until she went over to her desk once more and saw something which was not there before.

a card, and a wooden butterfly.

a knock came from the door, and after a few seconds of silence, it opened. her father stepped in, the respected headmaster who also held a gift box in his hands. his smile, rarely seen, was instantaneous when he spotted his daughter looking so curiously at him.

“ hardly how i expected to see the birthday girl today. ”

he carried himself over, limping with his cane in hand, and stood in front of his daughter. over the years, she had grown slightly taller than him. and especially after what she saw and fronted given her adventure, he felt as if she was fifty feet tall. he could see it in her posture, her eyes. yet sweet seren remained sweet, sugar-sweet.

“ sorry, i just woke up ”, seren mumbled through a sleepy hazy, gathering her thoughts to realize she was turning nineteen today. nineteen years on this earth and it felt like she had mentally aged five years since she returned from beyond the walls. “ did you get anything from mom? ”.

“ actually, this is from her. ”

the woman who has been absent from seren’s life for many years often still had time to send her a gift but it didn’t come with every birthday. it was no wonder seren thought her father was kidding as he handed her the wrapped gift and told her to go get dressed.

as he moved towards the door, seren’s curiosity peaked. “ she said she would be in india this month. or at least, that’s what i was told from . . . the letter. ” notes from mrs. armsend were rare, and seren kept an entire collection within an old shoe box she keeps under her bed. the february letter was her most recent one, a clear white envelope stacked with others in yellow and brown.

“ i’m not sure. still, she had time to send you a gift. oh, mine is on the kitchen table. hurry up and get dressed or you’ll be late! ”.

“ l-late for what? ”.

the response never came, seren was left in her room, clutching the wrapped present, turning it in her hands and shaking it to hear a rattle, for clues of what it could be. it didn’t dawn on her that she could open it, it was her birthday after all.

she went to her bed, sitting on the edge and with a wavering sigh, ripped the present open. usually she would take her time, it would drive her father mad, but given how difficult it is to wrap presents, she didn’t want to make a mess.

what was revealed from the box was a gift seren wasn’t quite expecting. usually her mother would sent trinkets, small things to remind the girl that her mother was always thinking of her. last year it was a pair of tap-dancing shoes, seren’s old tap dancing shoes from when she was a kid.

this year, it was a sweater. and it smelled nice.

‘ it’s washed, don’t worry. thought it would fit you, ’ read her mother’s note.

knitted with beige wool and smelling like her mother’s flower garden. seren felt as if it was the first proper gift she had gotten in a long time and that is not to insult her mother’s tastes. it was the first gift that one could say meant a lot to a girl who hasn’t seen her mother in over seven years.

she held the sweater to her chest, almost as if to grasp and hold the woman she misses dearly. she missed her by an inch when she was beyond the walls, they were a week apart from meeting, but salem’s downfall called and seren couldn’t stay for too long.

seren’s eyes, blue and curious, moved to the desk where she had first seen the clues related to her birthday. the wooden butterfly, carved carefully as if the artist molded it with the hands of a god. and she knew alexander rather well, he was not one to do something half-assed.

a blue monarch, painted blue and thin to the point where you might not even recognize it to be a mere illustration of the animal. jewels glued into the wings, glinting under sunlight and bringing a smile to seren’s lips. she was yet to open up the letter, figuring she would collect them through the day and open them when she’s tucked back into bed.

it was only through looking at that butterfly that seren realized what she was late for.

and like a burst in the wind, she threw on casual clothes along with her mother’s sweater, braiding her hair quickly on her way down the stairs and apologised quickly to the maids for getting in their way. “ dad, you could’ve woken me up sooner! or like, had martha come wake me up with a bucket of cold water! ”, she whined.

“ sorry, love! but i was quite distracted myself. don’t forget your gift! ”.

as the headmaster, he had a lot of things to do and seren tried to star clear from his path. she quickly swung back and took the gift box, it wasn’t that big but it didn’t matter, but it was heavy, it left her confused at first, to the point where she turned to her father to ask him what was inside. but one glance at the time and she made haste out of the room.

the walls of valhalla weren’t bleak this time around. a tuesday morning in the midst of mid-term vacation, she wasn’t expecting to see any students. most would’ve taken the train down to the capital and spent time with their family. some may have even paid a fortune to be flown out beyond the walls, which, believe it or not, were actually being deconstructed.

seren squealed slightly as she slid, just barely missing the turn to head up the stairs to the cafeteria. she hated being late, tying it in with being disorganized and messy and she liked to think of herself as anything but that. she couldn’t be late for a birthday celebration, especially knowing who would be there.

she burst through the cafeteria louder than she was expecting, gaining some attentions of students who looked over their shoulders and shook their heads with distaste yet the girl carried on walking. until her table was visible in the corner, just by the exit, near to the tall glass windows.

a pair of excited eyes stared back at her. perseus’s eyes. met with romeo’s excited cheer as he stood up and ran towards her for a hug, which she fully accepted. only, the impact was a little worse than she was expecting.

“ happy birthday, girlie! look at that braid-- do you need help finishing it? ”.

seren chuckled softly, pulling back from the warm hug, “ i’ll do it, don’t worry. and thank you. hardly feels like i’m turning old today. ”

“ have you cried yet? ”, perseus asked, gaining a minor head tilt from the redhead. “ no? oh, just me, then. i don’t know, i normally get emotional when it’s my birthday. it’s either due to pure sadness or gratitude. ”

evangelos grunted beside him, dressed rather gloomily for such a pleasant spring day. “ from now on, it’ll be of gratitude. no use being sad when we have an entire world out there to explore ”, he pointed out, bringing his arm under the table and then putting something on top for seren to see, a gift box. “ gifts out, gentlemen. ”

seren sat in between alexander and romeo. alexander was rather quiet today, more quiet than usual. she didn’t hear a peep from him until she nudged him slightly and smiled at his curious, innocent eyes. “ happy birthday, freckles. i hope my gift is being taken care of ”, he uttered.

and seren thought back to the blue butterfly and beamed gently. it was in her room, on her desk, perched in between her pencil case and her portraits. three portraits; of herself and her sister, of herself and her mother, and of herself and these gaggle of idiots.

“ you bet it is. ”

the table, previously barren and rid of any rubbish, found itself covered in a sea of colored wrapping papers, so many colors it made seren’s eyes hurt but not as much as the gifts which were brought forward, some so beautiful that choking back the tears was proven harder than facing salem.

and as the commemorations went on around her, the birthday girl merely observed her treasures in silence.

seren gazed lovingly at the glass rose, watching the flow of stunning lights filtering through it like fairies dancing from within, and if she was not careful, she could fall into a hypnotic trance. it reminded her so faintly of her snow globe from her early childhood, a fragment of a memory revived in a glass rose given to her by someone she never took for a romantic, even if his name would suggest otherwise.

navy eyes fell onto the gift beside it, perseus’s creation. a caricature, a rather comic one, too. seren pinched her lips together and smiled sadly. although the image of her sister never ceased in her mind, nothing beat seeing her in a physical sense, even if it was the size of a figurine. yet what mattered was the love that was invoked out of her, overflowing. her sister’s magical hair and eyes, chasing a butterfly in a field.

to avoid crying, seren then stared at a gift of an absent member. or at least he said he would meet them at the town square later. levi’s love of the hunt and liking to the crafts of man led to the gift seren wasn’t expecting, but loved regardless. concealed in a glass case, a frozen dagger, quite literally wrapped in layers of ice and fog that gave it an almost clear appearance. an ancient craft, a rare, cultural gift. seren smiled, though, wondering what might’ve caused levi’s love of knives so much.

in her arms, she held kailen’s present, wondering where the boy was at the same time. an album, composed of pictures they’d gathered over the months, from the adventure all the way to now, to just yesterday, where they had some fun at the beach. she would open the album and gloss often the dozen pages. so many memories, many which she kept close to her heart. kailen’s paternal instincts breezed with this gift, leaving seren feeling safe.

and the final gift, a bow. a simple, wooden box around the size of her small hands but it contained the most stunning gift of all; music. evan had sharp ears, knowing a song which would bring seren peace, and threw it into a music box, and when she opened, revealed engravings onto the wood of the lid, and as she spun the wheel and let the song play, she would think of those blue memories from their adventures, up until now.

seren felt delicate fingers through her hair, sensing a bow being tied to her braid by kailen’s hands. “ we hope you like it. took a while to choose each gift but the result was good, by the looks of things ”, was he referring to how seren was struggling to keep the tears at bay?

she sniffled, chuckling sweetly. “ they’re perfect. it’s just . . . the first time i’ve felt happy on my birthday. and it’s thanks to you idiots ”.

“ we’re not idiots! we just care a lot about you ”, perseus squeaked, reaching over and flicking her chin playfully. “ cheer up, pinkie. you still have to deal with us idiots till the end of the day. it’ll be magical, we promise. ”

with that, seren smiled. they didn’t even realize it, that every moment with them was magical. and that she was happy so long as she had them.

she owed the blue memories to these silly boys. these silly, but special boys.

#bonus chapter !

[thesalemsaga]

lore q.o.t.d — how does valhalla float?

in case you missed bits of the story, valhalla is a school that floats, hanging above the empire at least a dozen feet in the air. it can be very much seen from afar even outside of the walls and is the biggest attraction of the city. how does it float, though?

scattered around the islands, there are enormous propellers placed on the side of the buildings that allow air to filter through. with the fans spinning quickly, energy is generated and powers the entire school. so yes, air is ironically what keeps valhalla afloat. 

light and electricity in valhalla is all due to renewable energy, as after the world was lost, humans couldn’t just venture off to find materials, so they had to improvise. as the empire is placed on a tropical island, you’ll be quite pleased to know that energy running out has never been a problem, and valhalla is perfectly safe. hover train systems have been created as a form of transport for the students to travel down to the city and the ride only takes a couple of minutes.

in conclusion : valhalla floats through wind power.

#lore #qotd

[thesalemsaga]

𝟳 — 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝘁𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗻

—   𝙨𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙝 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙢 𝙨𝙖𝙜𝙖.

𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 : 7.7k words

𝙨 : after losing their ship, it has become obvious the journey they’re due to continue will be a tough one. however, they come across merchants, people beyond the walls, and find themselves hunting a creature that apparently stole their precious trade.

“ does anyone have some water they can spare? ”.

the only stroke of luck they had that night was that they would not have to tread through a desert. it still didn’t take away from the fact that they were short on resources, some of which were still in the ship and they didn’t bother to recover them. they were short on water, short on food, and when night began to fall on them, found themselves short on shelter.

truth be told, they had been walking for hours ever since the incident. they might have lost their means of transport but they all still had feet to carry them forward, and after a full hour of getting kailen back on his feet and finding their means of direction, they finally began to travel north east like they intended.

seren was knackered. years of training had never prepared her for hiking for at least four hours, without a break, mind you. the temperatures were cool, they didn’t have to deal with heatstroke but her feet were aching and her muscles were tense, not to mention that she was too shy to request some treatment from alexander. she could carry on!

above them, the heavens had darkened, clouds had pooled, and the winds became colder. kailen was still struggling to tread on despite the spells alexander put on him. the doses, as you could call it, had to be weak in order for the male to be healing whilst awake. if alexander did a full spell, it would send kailen to sleep, and nobody, except for evangelos, was willing to carry the boy.

their surroundings had moved from a rocky bay to a solid, grassy path, encountering a few meadows and streams and based on how romeo was smacking his arm and complaining about mosquitoes, they would soon be entering the tropics that kailen foresaw.

“ alright, let’s stop here for tonight. ”

seren groaned and collapsed onto her knees before she could ever look around her. their path had become slim, a path in between large rock structures that either belonged to temples or were meant to hold some sort of symbolism to the old world. regardless, they provided cover in the case of rain, and protected them from any watchful eyes from above when they lit their fire.

evangelos had been cradling firewood in his arms for a while, so when seren caught sight of the splinters on his forearms after he put them down, she frowned. he could have shared some of that burden with her, she wasn’t exactly the strongest but it would mean he wouldn’t be hurt.

setting up camp was rather easy. they mostly sought out grassy grounds so they didn’t have to lay on rocky surfaces. they removed most of their heavier clothes like the cloaks and jackets to be their ‘sleeping bags’, and whilst evangelos and alexander worked on the fire, seren approached kailen with a level of concern. “ if you’re going to ask whether i’m okay again ”, he began with an amused tone.

the swordsman knelt in front of him and smiled delicately. “ of course i’m going to ask you whether you’re okay. you’ve been struggling to stay awake for four hours. i just hope you rest well tonight ”, she said, thoughts drawing back to the moment where she was certain she was never going to see kailen again.

it was not the first time she saw the dead in front of her, yet the most horrifying detail about the issue was that she saw the color draining from his skin, the blueness on his lips and how lifeless he was. it was a horrid image she was most likely never going to get out of her head.

“ i’ll sleep like a rock, definitely. with a fire and maybe with a belly full of . . . cereal bars, bread and water ”, he laughed and sighed, resting back against his cloth bed and paid the girl another smile. “ i never got to thank you for saving my life. how rude of me. ”

seren shook her head furiously, “ i was only doing my duty as your teammate. i was just faster than the others. and i wasn’t going to let you die. ”

it’s not something someone can easily comprehend, staring down at a friend whose life is slowly draining away, dying breaths escaping from their lips in seconds and feeling powerless to stop death from yanking their soul from their body. it hit her hard because she had looked upon the body of someone she couldn’t save, and when the opportunity came, she didn’t hesitate the save the life of someone whose time wasn’t supposed to come so soon.

kailen had a lot to look forward to beyond the mission, seren was no soothsayer yet she could easily tell you that his time hadn’t come. saving his life didn’t give her a self-esteem boost even if it should, it just made her regret leaving him in the grasp of danger to begin with.

seren glanced back when a faint crackling came from behind her. the campfire they had made was small, but the heat was enough for her to shiver and for the tiredness to come creeping up her skin. the girl ultimately stood back up and turned to her backpack, where she took out her dinner for the night.

bread and water.

but at least it was milk bread!

settling down to eat, she observed the group of boys and how they went about settling in for the night. kailen had fallen fast asleep as soon as he finished eating, alexander putting a jacket over him before turning to his book. romeo was having a tender discussion with evangelos about guns. immediately, seren began to look around for the missing perseus.

she tried not to jump when she heard a minor grunt beside her, with perseus taking a seat beside her and flashing her a small smile. “ you look seriously tired, how are you still awake? ”, he questioned.

was it obvious? the warmth from the campfire was causing every muscle in her body to pause and rest after hours of exercising them profusely. she had begun to unwind and hadn’t even noticed it until her blinks became longer and her head started to nod off.

yet a part of her remained restless. she couldn’t exactly sleep when there were many things ahead of them, and seren was definitely the type of person to have a mental breakdown at midnight for no particular reason.

it was salem keeping her up. it was kailen’s injury keeping her up. it was the fear that they would encounter something bad tomorrow keeping her up. yet her body fought violently for rest, and as the others began to lay down, she and perseus were the only ones still sitting up.

seren’s head fell on his shoulder in an instant, drawing a long sigh from her lips. “ a lot of things. mainly the issue with kailen, but also the plans of the adventure as a whole. we got the fuel but what use is it if we don’t have a ship to go with it? ”, the matter remained rhetorical. being beside perseus was making her feel warmer, and as a result, sleepier.

and by the looks of things, with the way his body grew limp and how his breathing had drawn to a steady and drawn out sound, he wasn’t doing any better than her at remaining awake. why did she feel the need to lean against him suddenly? she certainly did not regret the decision. his voice also soothed some of the doubts and worries she continued to have in the dead of night.

“ if all that’s happened up until now has happened, well, i firmly believe it was supposed to. maybe this is a good wake up call for us. ditching the ship was on the plan anyway. we just didn’t know when “, the artist insisted on seeing things with a positive light. seren envied him. not even a self-proclaimed optimist like herself could do it. all she knew, based on this small conversation, was that perseus ursa did wonders to the soul.

nonetheless, seren withdrew her head from his shoulder in fear of burdening him. but turned it ever so slightly to face him, to admire his features under moonlight, to study his condition and figure out a way to send him to sleep. he was half way through and needed a small push. “ can i ask you a question? “, he spoke suddenly, meeting her gaze.

“ sure “. seren stretched her legs out against the ground and hunched forward slightly.

“ your hair . . . is it naturally like that? “.

natural pink hair? his naivety brought a giggle to build in her throat. she would like it to be true, her pink hair had been her favorite color since she was first ever allowed to mingle with hair dye. after going blonde and brunette, she settled with this waterfall of cotton candy. it drew too much attention, something she sought out purposefully. it’s difficult to be a person who wishes to be admired, only to receive little to none of it. maybe her hair could get her some recognition since her attempts of befriending people doesn’t do the trick.

in response to his question, seren chuckled and shook her head. “ i’d like it to be. but no, i’m afraid it’s not. i dye my hair for the sake of sparing my father from looking at me and being reminded of my mother “, she didn’t wish to open up to anyone about her family. but perseus was not one to judge, as it appeared to her. he could carry a secret. “ i’m an exact replica of her. “

“ do you have a picture? “.

indeed she did. her father knew little to nothing about the things she kept surrounding her mother, he was only aware of the sword she carried. but edged into her tiny purse which she carried everywhere, was a minute photograph. marks of folds cursed the corners despite her best attempts at keeping it flat, but the quality of the picture remained relatively the same. you could thank the woman in it for that.

because even as she pulled the photo out and placed it into perseus’s capable hands, seren was smitten by the woman smiling on it.

orange locks curled and drooping over bare, fair shoulders stained with some freckles. cheeks round and pink, also met with the familiar markings that seren was lucky to inherit, although not in the same amount. the eyes are the windows to the soul, and her mother’s was green; adventurous, wild, free. her expression was settled between a pout and a smile, a cheeky one at that. how old was she in this picture, seventeen? it’s easy to say that she was gorgeous inside and out from the moment she was born, and that beauty thrived when she became a woman.

did she charm perseus just like she did with nearly anyone lucky enough to catch sight of her? through the way he viewed the photo, his lips apart, perhaps she had worked her magic. and that brought a grin from her daughter.

“ i thought you almost gave me a picture of yourself “, he said after a couple moments of silence. seren lingered beside him, admiring the art piece within his fingers along with him. he turned his head and paid her a long glance. “ you’ve got orange hair, then. “

the dreamy tone which dripped from those words were enough to make the girl blush, for the first time in a while.

there was still a lot she wanted to say. the presence of a moral soul beside her brought an overwhelming surge of feelings of sensitivity. she wanted to speak up about how her father crumbled when her mother had enough. she wanted to muse about the gaping hole in her chest at the loss of a sibling. she wished to pour her heart out to sweet perseus in hopes he could present her some guidance. but that would be a burden, would it not? she couldn’t begin to comprehend what he felt, being away from home, from family, thrown into a strange environment that he couldn’t have ever dreamt of. 

she would simply have to carry those burdens for a little longer, until she could dump it when she reached her limit.

“ well, considering we’re far from home, i suppose i’ll be seeing that natural hair “, perseus said just as he sunk his fingers into her locks and then flicked them, watching as they settled down her back like a downpour of pink. could he do that again? that felt lovely. “ you know, despite what you say, i reckon your old man would be happy to see you as you naturally are . . . do you cover your freckles with make up? “.

seren’s head fell. guilty.

there was a time, early into the days where her mother decided to leave, where seren began to despise the girl in the mirror. she despised the orange hair, the freckles that coated the back of her hands and her cheek bones. she was a replica of the woman she hated, until of course she began to understand why her mother took her leave to begin with. yet it became a habit, to cover those markings in worry of upsetting the one hurt by it all the most; her dear father.

it was an incredible need to rid herself from any burdens, because if she didn’t do it now, perhaps she would become one as the journey progressed. seren was useless when her head was heavy.

“ i won’t cover them anymore. “

“ good. “

perseus grunted whilst lifting himself up, grasping his rags and bag. he was probably heading off to bed, and seren ought to do the same. yet she couldn’t put her kind to rest just yet, she wanted to ensure everyone was sleeping before she could do the same. it was just a habit, wanting to see them asleep or composed before she could lay down herself.

after seeing perseus settle down a few steps away from evan, the swordsman stood up with her own frail legs and tread around. kailen was knocked out at this point, sleeping deeply that not even her footsteps could wake him. alexander seemed to be out cold, his book placed over his face. romeo and evan, too, settling in for the night and cutting their conversation short. and perseus dozed off slowly only moments after settling down. from her observation, all these exhausted ‘pups’ had nestled in. this meant she could sleep with some liberty.

what seren first noticed about her surroundings, was the sky above her. star dusted, clusters of lights engulfing a sea o black behind them like a painted canvas. she would only see these sights from her balcony back home, and now she could see them for what they were in this cloudless night. and she couldn’t miss the crescent moon smiling down upon them, glowing faintly like her sisters that flicked to her as if to bask in her beauty; truly the prettiest moon of all.

what would tomorrow bring them? would they be sleeping under the stars again? would there be a roof above her tomorrow? how many nights would she sleep for until she got to salem?

questions that would be answered within the passing of time, nature’s enemy and ally. time that would bring the morning to them soon; and with that thought in mind, seren could almost put her mind to rest, craning her head to the side and settling under her cape serving as her only blanket. they were safe here, she hoped.

time skip . . .

they were up early the next morning, and seren was struggled to move an inch of a muscle.

truth be told, she felt like she had been smashed between two boulders repeatedly, her legs were equivalent to jelly and she couldn’t even think to take her sword out in case of an impending attack. everything hurt, but what aches her more was the thought that there was more to tread ahead, thousands of steps to be taken before she could think of growing proximate to salem.

kailen said they needed to keep heading north east if they wished to reach the rainforests of the peninsula. the idea of a dense landscape of damp trees and running streams put her mind at rest, but not completely; what gnawed was a slight trepidation directed to the wild. 

animals. wild ones, ones you wouldn’t think would exist until you set your feet into the real world and saw it for yourself. it was a worry that she shared with the first person who she thought looked awake. and that was romeo. he was also the gunner who knew of animals.

“ so, you’re asking me what kind of animals we’d find in a rainforest? “.

seren pouted, now she felt like an idiot.

romeo hummed and adjusted the straps of his gun hanging from his back. “ that’s a tough question, seren. but what i can tell you is that there are a lot. usually tame ones like monkeys. there are quite a lot of predators, though; crocodiles, big cats, snakes. “

“ and what’s the chance of us running into one of these predators? “, she was sure it was pretty much a hundred percent.

“ i’m bad at math but i can tell you; a lot. “

yup, she guessed right.

yet it didn’t bother her as much as it should. animals with a note of fear in their body would know better than to advance on a big group of intelligent mammals who are also armed. but she remained suspicious of the animals that weren’t on national geographic documentaries, the ones belonging to ancient tomes collecting dust down in the private portion of the valhalla library.

mythical beasts. romeo had failed to mention the chance of a run-in with them. and maybe it was for the better.

throughout their pacing, they traversed miles and miles on foot through dips between cliffs, following a path of savannah and a dry wind that just grew warmer as time went on. her throat was starting to ache, but she was far too timid to ask evan for water when kailen needed it the most. he still looked as pale as yesterday, hence why they made more stops than before. seren held gratitude for alexander in that prospect, he was the one timing and leading the way, and was more merciful than evan who wanted to carry on until they ran into something.

what she can tell you, though, was that small dips of water were scattered around as they progressed, with palm trees growing taller and bushes growing denser and the sound of water running growing louder. it even allowed for a chill gust of wind to blow against her face, and by god, was it the most refreshing feeling. never would seren believe that there would be an oasis in these parts, up until now.

as the sixth hour of their walk rolled in, perseus took note of something that brought their steps to a slight halt.

“ look up. “

half expecting there to be a military ship floating above them, seren went to grasp her weapon. but lowered her hand in an instant once the tone of perseus’s command dawned on her. the sky, which had previously been blue and raging with the sun’s blaring heat, now grew grey, clouds swarming to hide the yellow face teasing the melting youths below.

cloudy and dense skies; that can only mean one thing. they were getting closer.

the group grew closer to what seemed to be the final oasis in their path, this only half an hour after they stopped in the last one, which the swordsman could see in the distance by throwing her gaze back. had they really gotten this far? it felt like they were still back at the start, just seconds from seeing their ship being dragged into the ocean. and if not due to their quick thinking, their team mate would’ve gone down as well.

“ uhm, guys . . . what’s that? “.

ripping her gaze away from the plains behind her, she saw romeo pointing out towards the path they’d been following. there, right at the end, she spotted what appeared to be a cart that had been toppled over, vibrant in color and most importantly, swarming with what seemed to be people.

yes. people.

suddenly, salem became the last of her concerns.

what perseus had said just yesterday was a possibility she rendered as unlikely. she didn’t want to gamble but seren’s bet of seeing humans beyond the walls was set on being an absolute zero. nothing. she was set on seeing animals and wild beasts that had crawled out of the pits of hell when magic awakened, and seeing people . . . it rendered her immobile for a stretch of many seconds until she heard evan unsheathe his weapon. “ evan— “.

“ isn’t it weird that the first people we run in just so happen to be lost merchants gathering around a toppled car? “.

he was suspicious, that was a given but seren couldn’t bring herself to feel the same. in fact, her mind was entirely settled in reaching out and checking if these travelers needed help of some sort. 

and thankfully, in the most fucked up sense, help was definitely going to be needed when a woman let out an ear piercing scream, following by the scattering of the group running off in all directions.

what was she going to do, sit there and watch the danger unfold just like she did at the academy? seren was the first to take off running, followed swiftly by evan.

when she group took off running in various directions, seren took notice of the sort of people they were. men and women and children of all ages, and when her eyes came across that of a child no younger than eight who was crying out for help, she had to use her semblance, despite being a shift away from collapsing.

a snarl erupted behind her just when her arms caught the child, followed by the click and push of evan’s gauntlets and a shot gun behind fired. she didn’t dare look, in case she saw something that would stop her from getting this child to safety. upon shifting again, seren found herself standing some metres away from the fallen cart, buried within tall grass with a small boy in her arms.

why wasn’t she fighting? that was what she was trained for, she could’ve grasped her sword and done something, helped her teammates, but her mind froze, going in a loop of painful memories that led to those nerves being pulled. she basically grasped the boy out of danger like a reflect action, and couldn’t help but sense embarrassment at that. 

just as she was about to glance down at this tiny figure and ask him whether he was okay, a shadow began to loom over her, and seren was fortunate to roll away just seconds before a corpse to a creature landed just where she had been laying.

scales, talons, claws. a reptilian creature of some sort that carried a repugnant smell that went to the back of her brain.

“ seren! are you alright?! “.

kailen’s cry reached her seconds later, he peeked at her from behind the cart and rushed over, observing the creature and pulling out an arrow that had been etched in its neck, seren shuddered at the sound of shifting glands and skin. “ y-yeah, fine “, she replied and sat up.

the boy she had managed to rescue was trembling in her arms. he had just barely managed to tuck his face within the crane of her neck where he cried and cried, and although it seemed to gain a shudder from kailen, seren didn’t mind. she had to deal with this at some point, with another child drooling and sobbing and fussing. she felt almost thankful that there was no repetition of those actions in that moment.

it ran through her mind that perhaps this boy didn’t speak the same language as them, that maybe the people beyond the walls had adapted something of their own, so communicating through words was not an option for the time being. she only shushed him softly and patted his back, glancing at kailen and furrowing her brows. “ where are the other merchants? “, she quizzed.

“ we’re rounding them up. i think the mom is looking for the kid ”. and with that being sad, seren decided to let him go. it took a couple of seconds, for the boy was clinging hard to her and struggling to contain his tears.

it was just for a moment, but seren was able to look into the kid’s eyes. and saw familiar fear. shock. rightfully so. but he seemed to be totally unaware that he could’ve been squashed in between the cart and the ground, and he only continued to cry out for his mom when her voice called out for him in the wind. at that, seren picked her up, and dusted her grimy uniform.

after paying a small glance to kailen, she went to where alexander appeared to be healing a man’s knee that was deeply cut after the run-in with the creature, that still went unnamed and unnoticed. was it only her that was incredibly worried by it, perturbed that something this vicious would be out in the plains when the rainforest was a couple miles away? clearly not, since romeo rushed over to investigate what it was.

“ there’s more of them. ”

it was relief that washed over seren when a man’s voice reached her ears, in a language she could definitely understand.

upon looking, she saw him sat on the ground, dirt and grime coating his face as a young woman pressed a damp towel to his cheek and nose. seren tried not to take notice of the blood, only of what he had said. “ more? w-where did you see them, if you don’t mind me asking? ”, her tone slowed in something caring.

“ down by the forest ”, the woman beside him replied, accent heavy. she clenched her jaw and nodded in the direction of the path they would’ve continued to follow had this accident not interrupted them. “ we were coming out of there and heard some noises. we didn’t think anything of it at first, until something jumped on top of our wagon. we managed to kill one, and the rest ran off. ”

“ with our stuff, no less. ”

seren heard steps shift behind her and turned, seeing perseus giving her a sympathetic smile and then returning his attention to the bleeding man and the woman who continued to nurse him. “ you’re merchants, i figured. but these creatures seemed to hold bad intentions. and they’re intelligent. what did they take? ”.

the injured man grunted, “ just about everything of value. we were going to sell some of it down in the market in the south. a week’s journey. but they took all our silk and gold, and our food. we have kids traveling with us, we can’t let them starve. and the animals . . . we don’t know if they’re safe to hunt. ”

if she could cast her memory far enough, seren could recall a lesson she had with doctor oz. he was a brilliant man who knew of animals in a way that not many did. he was infatuated with studying them, and he once proposed an idea that gathered some laughs. until now.

the idea was simple; that through the course of salem’s reign, animals were being affected the most. normal animals, animals you’d find to be a native of anime landscape. they were consumed by this sort of nervous tick and anger targeted towards humans, something he had observed when he was allowed out to tuscany. when he’d managed to kill a bird, he examined it. and it was rotten from the inside.

of course, you wouldn’t really be able to tell with sight and touch alone. and that was why he figured that even animals which had survived ragnarok, were becoming a threat to humans.

a kid could some part of an animal body for dinner and then never wake up the next morning due to failing organs. the thought alone made seren sick, which led to her eventual conclusion.

they were going to get those items back.

“ absolutely not. ”

“ don’t be an ass, evan. ”

of course, when she brought the idea forth to her team-mates, the reactions were mixed. but her concern was on the merchants. the fact that they’d come across humans beyond the walls no longer really stunned her, the feeling of excitement and curiosity faded the moment she realized she could be responsible for their deaths if she didn’t try to help them in some way.

maybe she was just being far too naive, too much of a pacifist for her own good. but ever since the fall of valhalla, there was a thought gnawing at the back of her mind telling her something rather simple. 

even if you didn’t cause the harm, you will bring more at the refusal of helping.

“ we don’t know them ”, evan put it simply. “ our time is short, our resources are short. if we agree to this, we could be delaying our journal for a good couple of days and we’re already running low on resources. we could be putting the very nature of our journey in jeopardy at the sake of helping these people. ”

seren disliked seeing the wavering expressions, the hisses between teeth and the tuts. why wasn’t anyone immediately jumping in to counter evan? why? why?! had they not learned anything about valhalla?!

at that point, seren didn’t care for the majority. this time, she turned on her heel and began to make haste down the path they’d been treading towards to begin with and it didn’t take long before romeo was calling after quickly, rushing to catch up. “ woah, woah! seren, you can’t just go alone! ”.

“ if you arrogant idiots aren’t gonna move your asses, then i’ll move mine! ”.

maybe she wasn’t thinking right. maybe this was a bad idea, heading in alone. what if she was swarmed by a number of those monsters? but she couldn’t just continue on with her adventure when that boy’s face was imprinted in the back of her mind as a reminder that they weren’t just here to complete one goal and leave. this was a journey that would test their training, and perhaps valhalla hadn’t taught her about sympathy and being the hero for the people but small conversations with her father had.

he would be disappointed if she turned a blind eye, and that’s why she progressed.

so despite feeling ill after smacking romeo’s hand away, seren turned to look back just once to see if anyone would join her, anyone with just a little bit of courage left. and no one moved an inch. that broke her heart in half.

but it didn’t stop her from going by herself.

after the first few steps alone, seren began to feel a little certain that her lone adventure would end well. they could wait behind her and she could bring the stolen goods back to the merchants and they would be on their way. most importantly, the travelers would be content and healthy enough to get to safety and that was all she wanted.

her only concern was that night would fall and she was useless in the dark. her semblance may be speed but she could very much run face-first into a tree trunk if encountered with an enemy. not to worry, though! with her semblance, she would make it back in no time.

time skip . . .

the only rainforest she’s seen before is the one in the valhalla atlas, and it was nothing like the one she was currently going through.

through the gaps between the dense trees dancing above her, seren could count the remaining hours of daylight, and it only added to her worries. it was hot, humid enough for her to have to remove her coat and shove it into her bag if she had any hope of surviving through this intense environment.

every bush she brushed against, she would shudder at. it was the impending fear that she could fall into thorns and blind herself or just badly hurt her already aching body. she regretted not staying behind to see if someone would join her, but it just gave her a form of entertainment; grumbling about boys.

“ i have to everything myself ”, the pink-haired girl mumbled, smacking her rapier against another couple of bushes with a sense of irritation that was digging into every nerve in her breathing body. she still couldn’t believe the audacity of those boys standing there, claiming themselves to be self-righteous heroes, liberators of the empire, when they couldn’t even help a group of troubled, stranded merchants.

yes, she did want to agree with evan’s claim. they were limited on time, having to reach their enemy before she can launch a predicted attack on the island of crete and eradicating every possibility of humanity re-constructing itself. but that doesn’t mean a good deed along the way is going to be a heavy burden on them. so as much as she understood, she couldn’t agree with the notion.

which brought her further confusion on how all of them had agreed to stay behind.

well, her only option was to put it behind her. her skirt was covered in mud and soot and she was tempted on removing it and walking around only in her cycling shorts that she always wore beneath. it wasn’t going to do any harm.

whilst she was pacing through this endless jungle, that was soon losing its sense of tropicalness and began to soon resemble a normal forests. the sound of birds singing soon reached her ears, the rushing of streams grew quieter and her steps were replaced by the crunching of leaves and pebbles being kicked as opposed to mud. she wondered, if she looked in the mirror right now, would she be able to recognize herself?

nonetheless, the grounds were becoming far more plain, and she didn’t nearly twist her ankle every time she walked on. seren was beginning to grow thankful for this lonesome adventure, her ears could use a break from hearing those boys bickering. albeit annoying, she did feel prone to danger without that light-hearted heckling.

it felt . . . dangerous.

and without kailen’s watchful eyes on her back and romeo flinching at any odd sounds his sensitive ears could pick up, seren felt more open for an attack than ever. and it could come at any moment, but until now, she had to worry about the stolen goods tan she did about whatever creature from before attacking her now.

and as luck would have it, she would not have to wait for long. at least five minutes after entering a new section of the forest, where she could see the blue sky above her, seren spotted something on the ground that twinkled under the sun’s grace. a golden coin, a currency that she immediately referred back to the merchants.

she crouched and picked it with delicacy, brushing the bits of dirt covering it and squinting to see whether she could recognize the symbol. she couldn’t.

knowing nothing of the civilizations beyond the walls, she most definitely didn’t expect them to develop their own currency when so much was at stake. and it goes to say that the human race will always find a way to survive. and she allowed them to put her mind at ease, if only for a second.

seconds after placing the coin into her pouch, seren heard a clatter. followed by a grunt. and footsteps. and another grunt. all coming from a couple of trees ahead of her, so the swordsman immediately crouched and rolled behind a wide tree to hide her body.

upon peeking, it was quite hard not to gasp audibly at what she had managed to see.

the goods. she could see every fruit, bread, and drink tucked in large sacks that were behind heavily guarded. and how does she know that? well, for the two giant animals circling it and staring off into vacant spaces of the forest, shifting their sharp gazes in short seconds and snarling at anything that moved.

it was the same monsters that had attacked the wagon back in the dirt road and seren was only a couple of feet away from them. she didn’t get to see how the first one attacked, how it moved, whether it was fast or slow or had some sort of wicked power building up in its lungs. she’s never felt this scared of an encounter before.

now, her chances of taking them both out quickly was low. she wasn’t a sneaky attacker, she came in head-strong like most swordsmen with her style. this is why she needed someone relying on stealth on the team . . . this is why she really needed the team!

her heart began to palpitate when one of the monsters suddenly shifted its gaze to the tree she stood behind and she only managed to hide a millisecond later but perhaps that was too late. with her breathing starting to grow erratic, and steps growing close, seren didn’t know what to do. for the first time in forever, the mind she relied so much on did not cooperate with her when she was seconds away from being eaten by a lion-and-goat-headed, snake-tailed, winged beast.

but she could hide.

through the shift up the tree, seren looked down through thick branches at the monster now looking around the tree. it could smell something off, she knew, and if she so much as breathed too loudly, it would hear her. and it could pounce, fly, and reduce her to shreds.

her eyes were hot with tears, one snap of a tree branch and she would be falling into the beast’s mouth. that would be her life, over. salem alive and destroying the world. her father in danger. her friends lost in the middle of nowhere with no means of re-tracing their steps. why couldn’t her stubborn, passive butt just stayed back there?!

a roar rang, and seren’s heart stopped.

in those lingering moments, she saw her soul leave her body only to be sucked back in by another roar, a cry of pain from the beasts below that seemed to have diverted their attention to something, or someone, moving so quickly that she could hardly keep up.

“ seren! ”.

that was perseus calling her name, and seren mistook it for an angel welcoming her into the afterlife. her weak legs barely managed to stand among those branches as she peeked and saw kailen’s arrows shoot by in a trail of flashes that left her blinded. evan’s gauntlets started glowing again, and at that point, she had to look away.

her mind was racing with what could’ve been that suddenly shift of a shadow she saw moving in between those beasts before the boys came in to help. it was still down there, weaving in between shadows, waiting, and then launching into another attack, cutting a limb and rushing back into an abyss casted by trees.

the only thing she heard next was alexander screaming romeo’s name and then a shot being fired, followed by a roar, followed by silence.

in the trees, seren trembled. shocked to the core, tears at the verge of spilling over the edge just like it did the night valhalla fell. yet again, she had chickened out. she had avoided danger for the sake of saving her own skin rather than diving into action and being the hero she always wanted to be. she just waited, for the sound of death, and prayed for god to send an angel. and that he did. but how many would he send every time seren decided to be the world’s greatest coward?

seconds of silence continued, and her body finally went limp.

with a hiss, she felt her right arm slam against a branch on her way down and she held her breath, waiting for that long awaited fall which she wished would be her wake-up call. maybe by fucking her head up, she could actually start being useful when she was back on her feet.

but no impact came, unless if you count be caught as one. personally, seren felt as if she had landed within a pool of feathers, her head recoiled forward when she dared to slip into the darkness as her eyes fell closed. but then snapped back open and found herself being held, arms encasing her body in an almost bridal fashion. it took her many moments to recognized that these arms did not belong to any of the fellow men joining her adventure.

as her arm throbbed in pain, her head followed as she turned it and looked upon an unfamiliar face. it looked far too unbothered for her to see it as the knight in shining armor, a pair of cat-like eyes staring into her own which invoked a shudder of fear.

small, pouted lips. fair skin. feline eyes with a scar running down the right. slicked black hair. she recognized this man as the one who had landed the first blow on the chimeras that had nearly brought her at death’s door.

and now she was in his arm and she’s never felt more awkward in her life.

“ i was expecting a thank you, but . . . ”.

taken aback by his voice, seren found herself being placed back safely on the ground and a fraction of a second later, was yanked back into romeo’s arms as he squeezed her into a hug. it was the first time she’s seen him look so troubled and worried before. “ are you insane?! don’t ever try something like that again! if we hadn’t come in in time, then . . . ”.

“ no, we did jack shit, romeo. we owe our thanks to this fellow. ”

upon hearing alexander speak for the first time in a while, seren turned back after being freed from romeo’s painful embrace. now that she could see their savior better, she felt herself growing exceedingly embarrassed.

whoever this man was, she owed him a lot.

he appeared to be the same age as them, if not just a bit older. wearing dark clothes and giving off the air of being unapproachable, seren was quick to classify him as the assassin type the moment her eyes landed on the sword and dagger tucked into sheaths behind his back. he was a hunter, most definitely. and it was thanks to him that the merchants were getting their goods back.

“ uhm, thank you . . . ”.

“ who are you guys? ”.

the unpleasant tone baffled the young girl, she shared a long glance with this assassin before she stepped forward and cleared her throat. she was the head of the party, should she do the introductions? “ w-we’re from behind the walls . . . uhm, we’re here to collect the goods for the stranded merchants back in the main road . . . ”.

he rolled his eyes, “ yeah, i figured that much. came a little late, don’t you think? you shouldn’t keep starving people waiting. ”

oh, the nerve it took her not to glare at evangelos.

the assassin coughed into his hand and turned to the bagged foods and poked them with the tip of his boots. “ look, i was gonna give it back to them when i first witnessed the attack. but these chimeras are hard to hunt down. i suppose i owe it to pinkie over there for distracting them for me ”. pinkie?

looking at the expressions between the boys, no one seemed pleased enough with this encounter. even if they did owe a lot to this young man . . . at least she did.

“ that aside, who are you? ”, it was the first time seren has heard perseus come across in such a blunt manner.

the dark-haired gentleman pursed his lips and stared, “ levi dain. ”

levi . . . seren repeated the name beneath her breath and nodded, growing the courage to speak to him again without feeling intimidated. “ listen, levi . . . y-you can take the credit for the goods being returned. b-but we hoped that perhaps you could point us towards . . . uhm, russia. ”

“ russia? pft, are the people from the walls finally deciding on tourism? ”.

he was becoming more insufferable to talk to than evangelos and alexander combined and that’s saying something. with the way the others grunted, levi decided not to linger on the joke; no one laughed.

he hummed, rubbing his chin. “ i’m afraid i don’t have a map nor any resources to help you lot . . . but i know someone who can. that is . . . if you’re patient enough to talk to a deranged, lonesome hermit leaving deep within the woods ”.

“ fine ”, evangelos snapped. “ lead us to the man. ”

levi smirked. “ pal, balthasar is no man. nor human. not after that wicked witch got him . . . ”.

#chapter seven #original writing #fantasy #adventure #dystopian #futuristic

[thesalemsaga]

“ trying to find some heart from you is like draining blood from snow . . . ”.

#playlist #tss soundtrack !

[thesalemsaga]

𝟲 — 𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗯𝗮𝘆

—   𝙨𝙞𝙭𝙩𝙝 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙢 𝙨𝙖𝙜𝙖.

𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 : 6.4k words

𝙨 : they’ve left the walls, and now it seems like they’re unstoppable. however, having to make a short stop, they soon uncover the savagery that has taken hold of the world, putting their training to the test.

“ doesn’t your eye-sight hurt? ”.

alexander peered up once seren’s voice caught his ears.

she had been sitting at his side for a good hour, glancing over his shoulder whilst his index finger trailed beneath the lines consisting of runes and symbols that she had never dreamt of seeing before. for the first time she took knowledge over how his fingers were tainted with ink, red from hours of writing, pouring every last pint of energy he had into his studies.

seren had seen copious books thrown in front of her when exam season hit the calendar, but nothing could compare to what this boy probably had to sit through to be a qualified cleric. she took to admire alexander for how he persevered, it didn’t seem like it was labor for him, he must enjoy it to some degree. even now, when he could be talking to the others, growing closer to them, strengthening bonds, he continues reading as if to never give himself a break from the school they probably wouldn’t see for a while.

yet, the more she thought about it, the clearer it became. maybe it was for the very reason that they would not face their school for some months that he clung to the only thing that might bring a sense of normalcy. school is hell, albeit the only thing they’ve ever known within the walls. it kept them grounded, centered on something. even seren, an avid daydreamer, allowed herself to be consumed by her studies and let it became the center of her life.

now she realizes that she has to distance herself from the only life she’s ever known and replace it for one she could not control, where the laws didn’t bend at her will, because nature kneels to no one. 

alexander was wise, though, to keep something to occupy his mind. who knows how long it’ll be before they start to lose their ways and begin to cave into the reality of the world outside?

“ m-my father got me these at the start of the year after . . . some glasses that made my eye-sight worse. these ones have steadily improved it, though ”, he replied after a moment, immediately drawing his attention once more to the book he grasped within his hands.

seren hummed, swinging her feet slightly. “ is your hair also always like that? ”, she questioned. she found herself in a very questioning mood that day, maybe it was an attempt to distract herself from the utter boredom she might face during this flight to egypt.

“ like what? ”.

“ that bowel-shape cut. ”

his face suddenly incredibly pink, red rising to the tip of his ears. seren’s eyes widened for a moment with slight realization, “ w-well, you get what i mean. always the same style, quite conservative. do you ever switch it up? ”.

“ how? i find it unnecessary. and a waste of time, if you ask me. ”

chuckling, the girl rested her back against her seat and ran her fingers through her own hair, “ not exactly. i find that boys switch up their hairstyles more than girls on some occasions. have you seen percy? one day he has a perm, the next he’s wearing a beret. ” it was super cute.

alexander appeared timid all of a sudden. “ well i’m not percy, seren. i find that i quite like my look. sure, the glasses can be fussy and the hair is hard to cope with in the morning, but it’s my signature look. like your hair bow ”.

seren defensively grasped her ointment, “ i have my bow but i still style my hair differently on occasions. i customize it, explore my way of dressing. it’s actually a great way to learn to appreciate your looks, looking at yourself in different ways. ”

alexander seemed unwilling to counter, attention on the book once more. taking a deep inhale, the girl smiled and reached over. he had a signature look himself, that face. his entire face was a signature because his features were so firm and bold and beautiful, it would still be him even if he chose to wear something different or styled his hair.

she found herself removing his glasses, ignoring the fuss he appeared ready to put on, and messed up his hair, bringing the locks hiding his forehead and pushing them back. thankfully, they fell right into place. capturing a glance at him, seren felt like she was looking at a different person, she smiled to herself, content with the transformation that had occurred under her doing.

“ w-what? ”.

seren shook her head slightly, “ you look good. you look even better, actually. people never realize how beautiful they are when others are looking at them. you still look like you, in case you’re wondering. but just without the glasses. stop squinting~ ”.

“ s-sorry ”, letting out a small laugh, alexander raked a hand through his locks and seren was barely able to contain her excitement, he seemed to be liking it! “ i just really can’t see without my glasses. contact lenses are hard to wear, as well, i tear up and people think i’m constantly upset. ”

seren peered at the frames in her hands and hummed, “ can’t you enchant yourself to fix your own eye sight? or are long-term conditions out of question? i hear only a witch doctor can do that. ”

“ percy could. he’s a mage. the magic i access is limited only to healing and enchanting things that might bring people at death’s door. a stab wound, i can deal with. a cancer or a chronic illness, i’m afraid i can’t deal with that. believe me, i’ve tried ”, he countered, flipping aimlessly through his pages. seren’s eyes suddenly frowned. “ i would ask percy but . . . it’s too much to ask. it would demand a crazy amount of mana. ”

seren held her breath.

she’d witnessed it herself, the moment percy went pale the night before and for just a split second, it felt like he went totally limp before managing to catch himself. mana was the fuel source for anyone dealing with magic, and if you drain it, it eats your energy away in chunks if you use your magic excessively and recklessly.

alexander pushed on, “ besides, he could end up panicking and blinding me for life. i know he feels slightly reluctant when dealing with his magic. he hesitates all the time in magical art lessons. it’s like he’s scared of what he’s capable of. ”

“ well isn’t everyone? having that much power should scare anyone ”, seren shook her head, staring at her feet. “ magic is serious business, that’s why i felt lucky to not have inherited it. because as a swordsman, i have control of who my target is. as a mage, i might end up burning a whole village to kill just one man. ”

the aircraft suddenly shifted, and the girl caught herself in case she went overboard. it wasn’t turbulence, it seemed like they were going to start to make a descent into the territory they’d dreamed of stepping into. she stood up, clinging to the security railings on the roof and walls. “ what’s happening? ”, she called.

perseus peeked his head out of the cabin door with his cheeky, boxy grin. “ we’re about to land! ”, he replied over the sound of the engine roaring, but as they neared their descent, all that she could hear was the whistle of the wind. beyond the windows, she saw red. well, red soil.

the landscape in which they’d landed resembled a savanna region which you wouldn’t have expected to find in egypt a long time ago. the dirt paths were overtaken by spreading grass, tall acacia trees scattered around but not close enough to resemble a full forest. no animals in sight, as expected. and if there were, they probably fled when they heard the aircraft landing.

landing in a desolate terrain that a human being has probably not stepped into yet was a thrilling idea, albeit terrifying. because if there weren’t humans roaming then there had to be something else, lurking, aware that something strange and out of their world had just touched down on their soil.

it felt forbidden, like they shouldn’t be here.

“ are we in the sinai peninsula? ”, seren quizzed.

at the shake of kailen’s head, she was growing confused. “ i made an emergency landing because i need to figure this compass out. if i try to do it on hair it’s just going to waste fuel. we might as well pause here until i get this thing working. ”

“ well, what do we do in the meantime? ”.

“ explore for a bit, i suppose. ”

romeo was the first one out once the hatchet opened. seren stepped out and landed on the grass with her two feet. the sensation was albeit the same but knowing that they were no longer caged within stone walls and now roamed the wild, it was no wonder her heart felt heavier, blood pumping with excitement.

what she did notice was how unbearably hot it was, the sun smiling down at them, toasting the girl beneath her dense military clothes. they only weighed her down, and if she was going to traverse through desserts and dry lands, there was no point wearing it.

after ripping her jacket off, she felt a massive improvement, loosening one button of her white shirt and slipping her gloves off. “ s-seren, what are you doing? ”, she heard perseus stammer behind her. she blinked at him cluelessly.

“ i’m burning hot. besides, these things are only going to slow us down. we’re not representing valhalla out here, we’re by ourselves. ”

pacing forward, she began to investigate her surroundings with a little more liberty. time was of the essence, but they were not expecting to reach salem within a week, that was very unlikely. so whilst tying her hair back with her ribbon, she took to admiring the trees, the landscape, the mountains in the distance.

“ from what i heard ”, alexander began suddenly, crouching down to take a sip of his water. “ the peninsula became densely populated with trees. it used to be more of a dessert, mountain range. now it’s practically a rain forest. most of the middle east is a rain forest. ”

which would mean that there would be less dessert to traverse, which the girl was thankful for. she’d heard rumors that during the apocalypse period, the world underwent a series of freezes that meant temperatures drastically cooled down and even countries that used to be in the line of the equator became sudden areas stained with trees and wildlife. egypt was one of them.

and with cooler temperatures, trees and humidity, the wildlife can be, well, wild. the girl realized that after spotting something on the dry dirt just after a patch of grass. something that seemed to resemble footprints, huge ones.

whoever they belonged to, the creature had hands resembling a human being if it wasn’t so thin and so lanky, and she was certain she had just come across claw marks embedded into one of the nearby acacias. crouching, the girl ran her fingertips over the prints and hummed.

“ you okay? ”, romeo asked.

she motioned him over and pointed to the foot prints, measuring at least at three metres in length. “ what kind of animal would you find in the middle of these plains who could have such a claw? ”, she questioned. 

“ dragons, or some sort of lizard-resembling creature ”, the gunner replied, grazing his fingers over the marked dirt. “ these aren’t new footprints, though, they have most likely been here for at least three or four days. they’ve not faded yet because of the lack of wind. ”

seren frowned, looking off at the set of mountains in the distance. casting her memory back to when she met alexander in the library, she had pulled out a book on the creature at hand. it spoke of the domains dragons took to, and long mountain ranges were some of them.

hopefully we’ll be out of here before such dragon can spot us, she prayed.

“ hey, i think i found a lake or pond! ”.

they immediately stood and walked on over to where evangelos stood and pointed. there was certainly a body of water, a stream of some sort that most definitely belonged to a greater source, perhaps something verging off of the nile river. “ it’s pretty cool, i’d suggest maybe getting clean water or cooling down before we head back ”, perseus called.

seren did just that, crouching over the edge and taking the water in her hands, holding it to her nose. no funny odor, and based off of how evangelos was drinking, it had no funny taste either. and it wasn’t pristine, yet she could at least see the bottom of the pond. 

she refilled her water bottle and set it to be cooled, and then splashed her face a couple of times and instantly felt better, headache simmering down with each passing second until it stopped. “ you’d never would have thought the world would be peaceful like this after stepping outside ”, romeo began, grinning to himself. 

“ this won’t account for the rest of the world. for all we know, the rest could be filled with monsters of all sorts trying to kill us. but it’s nice that there’s a safe haven here, minus the dragon footprints ”, evangelos ran a hand through his now damp hair. “ i asked kailen. we’re apparently very close to cairo. we might even be able to see the pyramids if we fly low enough. ”

“ seriously? ”, seren gasped and beamed. “ that’d be so great! but . . . we’d be best off staying on higher ground to avoid being spotted or alarming anyone we don’t want knowing we’re here. ”

it was unknown just how for salem’s hand stretched. eastern europe was occupied completely by her henchmen and it was why they advanced so easily down into the balkan countries. the empire military was being forced back into greece as their defenses fell, their greatest fear being that salem would find crete soon enough, and the last set of human beings would be crushed under her wrath. 

earth would have to start again, smaller, weaker, with no means of fixing what they had since it was going to be stripped from them anyway. seren’s blood boiled, it came to a point where she was done questioning the morale of a person like salem, of why people go to these lengths to pursue things for their own benefit. evil people just exist, they don’t need a reason.

she would be damned if she let the woman get close to her home. having been spotted in russia already probably had her hiding out in fear, but fear brings panic, and in the midst of panic, she might do something catastrophic and seren promised her father the woman would be dead before such thing could happen.

“ do you think . . . there are human beings outside of the walls? ”.

seren turned to perseus and rose a brow, “ separate populations? ”.

the boy nodded. “ yeah. people who weren’t given a chance of treading into the walls like everyone else, people who isolated themselves. people who saw the wild as their home and never thought to abandon it. different languages, a different culture. i think it’d be nice if we came across something like that ”, he suddenly chuckled. “ though, let’s hope they’re not aggressive. ”

“ for all we know, they could also believe they’re the last people on earth. we’d surely give them quite a scare, being armed to the brim ”, evangelos stated, tilting his head. “ human beings can be sympathetic despite their differences. i don’t think we’re going to get killed at the hands of people like that, though. that’d be a waste. ”

it was never said whether there were humans beyond the walls. seren knew the government worked hard to expand the walls at the same pace that the population grew, allowing people to situate their homes in zones they deemed ‘safe.’ never was it said that they made contact with other people, and if they did, they kept it as a very, very good secret.

they suddenly jumped at an echoing sound and threw their gazes over their shoulders to find kailen at the open hatchet, waving them over with a grin. “ i’ve fixed it! ”.

romeo grumbled, “ about time. ”

once inside the ship, seren found alexander tapping away at some control buttons on the board, the compass glowing green and seemingly working pretty well. kailen had pulled out a map of the old world, and he prayed that the land structure hadn’t changed exactly.

“ it seems like we’re going in a more north east direction. as soon as we get into sinai, we’ll start treading through the middle east, and even more east just to avoid the baltics. from what i heard, salem doesn’t have much control over china and mongolia. so we have to enter through there ”, kailen spoke whilst running a red pen, tracing through path and drawing what seemed to be a border around the baltics. it was a good tactic, avoiding where the enemy’s front line was. he looked back at seren who stood just behind him. “ what do you think? ”.

the girl shook her head, “ it’s perfect. what we have to be mindful of is not disturbing any of her minions in the area, but we can worry about that later. how much fuel are we on? ”.

kailen winced, lowering his head. “ three hours, at least. t-though, i hear there is a place where we might find some . . . ”.

time skip . . .

the flight wasn’t too long, but it was long enough for the girl to catch another nap. the seats were incredibly uncomfortable, the components of the seat belt digging into her torso and waking her up when the airship would shift at times. the feeling only relieved when she had an idea.

evangelos had been sitting beside her quietly, doing what appeared to be doodling on his phone. valhalla students were given school phones that aimed mostly at giving them a better experience in their classes, and they had longer lasting batteries, which is why evangelos seemingly whipped it out. some adjustments made by alexander meant that the school could not trace them.

the seat beside the male was free, and the seat belt component was lowered which meant that what she had in mind could work, it was just a matter of whether evangelos would be comfortable. seren bit her lip and sat down beside him regardless, he lifted his gaze and glanced at her. “ what’s up? ”.

she didn’t say a word, resting her head against his shoulder and finding herself feeling way more comfortable as opposed to before, smiling softly to herself. evangelos merely held his breath, but made no attempt at moving or pushing her away. you’d think she would be more cautious around him of all people.

in reality, she would have felt awful for avoiding him because of that dueling incident. her arms were still recovering, albeit slowly. and the burn marks became heavily obvious in the daylight, hence her attempts at hiding them as best as she could. 

and she probably to avoid making evangelos feel bad.

“ comfortable? ”.

the girl nodded, crossing her arms over her chest and pursing her lips slightly. she was bothered by the marks she saw on the dirt road despite romeo’s reassurance. in all honesty, she was far more concerned with the idea of there being a dragon roaming the heavens than getting to salem.

kailen had stated there was a nearby bay area on the coast of northern sinai where human dealings had stained. some sort of power plant from a long time ago had exploded, leading to the area becoming unstable and too toxic to support human life. after many, many years, it looked as if the toxicity levels were low enough for the fuel to be deemed safe enough to power the airship’s engine.

what didn’t bide well with the girl was the lack of a hostile presence ever since their journey began. they had not encountered one enemy aside from clues pointing to a dragon terrorizing the nearby area, but to come face to face with an abnormal creature was still on their to-do list. it was silent, peaceful, nothing she was complaining about but it drained the thrill from the situation and made it feel as if they were sneaking out to a party rather than, you know, saving the world.

that would only mean that whatever they encountered soon was going to shake her to her core. hence why apprehension to easing down and resting too much, but she found evangelos’s shoulder to be comfortable. his presence radiated that of protection aside from intimidation. and he was warm.

seriously warm.

“ did it hurt? ”.

“ hm? ”.

his fingers grazed gently over the surface of her arms. his touch was delicate, not an ounce of mal intention with it. it was perhaps the most docile thing she had seen from evangelos from the moment she met him. her thoughts drifted once more to the duel, to the internal shock she experienced after that impact, the agony that came from the burns, the way her bones rattled in fear when she realized her weakness.

“ well, of course it hurt. but does it still hurt? ”, he sounded concerned, and a part of her ached on his behalf. to have everyone glance at you as if you’re some sort of monster when your anger builds and you act upon it must be something nobody wants to necessarily deal with. she hurt for him. and she didn’t see a reason for holding a grudge against an injury that will heal. sure, the marks will always be there. but they will never be a reminder that evangelos was a violent person. ever.

seren glanced at his hand and chuckled, patting it gently. “ it did. but what hurts me most is that you’re still hanging on. it’s healing, as most injuries do. i just want you not to worry about it when there are other things we have to heal ”, she said.

and that was not her attempt at shutting down the conversation, it was simply a way to reassure evangelos in case his thoughts were scrambled, in case he somehow considered himself as the monster people painted him as.

“ like . . . the wounds of people who might have been denied a home within the walls. the wounds of people who never got a chance to be saved. if they’re out there, then we have to help them heal. isn’t that what heroes are supposed to do? ”.

evangelos started, “ y-yeah, but . . . ”.

“ my wounds will heal. memories stay but it’s how you remember them that counts. i don’t remember it as an attack. i remember it as a mistake. and we all learn from them. ”

it was clear she wanted to say more to nurse the situation, to put his mind at rest but she was cut off when the engine began to roar a little louder. upon listening out, it became apparent it was not the engine. but rather, waves crashing against each other. an ocean. a beach.

when the ship landed and the hatchet opened once again, seren felt a chill crawl down her spine when the pristine blue sky she had seen previously turned bleak, grey. lifeless. something you’d expect to see on a cold island in northern europe, not in a tropical region blessed with greenery and life.

upon stepping out, it felt like entering another planet.

craters of sharp rocks and dips made the landscape, the waves thrashing roughly against the shores. it was violent, turbulent, as if a storm slowly crept above them. it was a phantom menace, one that would bare its fangs and strike the rocks with pummeling strength. it took her a couple of steps back suddenly to avoid getting hit by a wave. when her back hit kailen’s chest, she let out a minor squeak.

but he applied a firm hand to her shoulder and nodded to the others, “ alright, there has got to be an oil source nearby. the toxicity will not kill you since it’s harmless at this point. but still be careful. fill the tanks as best as you can. if there’s any sign of movement, don’t wait. just act. ”

the tanks he mentioned weren’t large but it was enough for each member to carry one individually. kailen had suggested that he stayed in the ship whilst they went off to get the oil before quickly returning.

but seren was apprehensive to leave him alone. “ are you sure you don’t want someone to stay behind? ”, she quizzed as they prepared to leave. “ you know we can’t exactly communicate without alerting the academy of where we are, what if something happens to you? ”.

kailen gave her his usual comforting smile, one which causes every suspicion or worry to practically vanish. but it didn’t work this time around on seren. “ i’ll be okay. you just hurry back. it’d be nice to get going before night fall. ”

there was no use convincing him, of course.

seren hurried just like everyone else. it was in their best interest to hurry in order to avoid enemies, but her worry remained grounded on kailen who had stayed in the ship. and although he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, he might not be able to resist a mob of enemies, in whatever form they manifest themselves in. dragons, goblins, maybe even the very henchmen from last night.

“ kailen can handle himself, seren ”, romeo briskly reminded her with a quick pat on the back before hurrying her along. “ he’s an archer, sure. but his semblance won’t fail him in an attack if he gets swarmed. trust me, he will be okay. ”

seren chuckled, “ it’s a habit of mine to worry. i was even concerned when he was with alex fixing the compass. i suppose i feel anxious when we’re not in a group, if you can understand that. ”

romeo hummed, and swung the tank in his arm in a childish fashion that incited a grin from the girl. even if they were escaping mortal danger and running towards the enemy, he still acted as if it was a walk in the park. “ i don’t. but i reckon it’s due to the fact that i know their skills. and i know how strong they are individually. don’t worry, you’ll only exhaust yourself if you keep panicking during the journey. ”

to a great extent, she agreed. but this was also a habit that she has had from a young age, like her habit of taking the blame when it wasn’t hers to claim. unhealthy habits, as one might call it. it was going to take her a lot more time to grow distant from that constant worry. it wasn’t as if she was doubting their skills, they were in higher ranks than her and had stellar combat performances. yet . . .

a whistle from alexander caused her attention to shift. it seemed as if he had found something worth checking, so they hurried over.

what they stumbled across was a bunch of iron barrels with some sort of symbol on them. not the danger symbol, not the flammability symbol, but something else, a mark of manufacture. it was long faded, something that belonged to the old world yet it still sent shivers down her spine. part of the past stood in front of them.

perhaps the most bizarre detail to the scene were the skulls.

skulls.

ribs, skulls, arms and feet. as if a graveyard had surfaced from the soil, the barrels might have been a metaphor for a gold mine but the apparent human remains was what stunned seren the most. and even as the boys moved to fill the tanks, she remained with her feet nailed to the ground, her concern growing tenfold.

there was no use asking for what they believed happened here when it was somewhat clear. it had been a previous power plant, as kailen stated, and after an accident, nobody ever came to look at what remained of the location. craters of oil remained, yet what appeared to be the bodies of the workers also stayed. it was a disturbing sight of which she thought she’d only see in movies.

her steps brought her beside perseus who was studying one of the skulls closely, gloves slipped on and eyes narrowing in thought. “ notice how there is what appears to be bite or scratch marks near the top. that wouldn’t happen if it was a power plant accident, except if they were making monsters instead of oil, which i doubt ”, he stated, looking up at her. “ what do you think? ”.

seren brought her eyes towards the ocean, angry, thrashing, crashing, battling for what seemed to be a victim to pull into its grasps and yank it back into unknown depths.

“ i believe . . . it could have been a monster of some sort. maybe some animals that moved to the area and thought it would be nice to feast on the remains but the toxicity should have killed them and there are no animal bones . . . ”, she spoke, looking around. “ my bet is that it’s a monster. ”

evangelos suddenly grunted as he filled up the tank and screwed the lid shut. “ if there were monsters, they might have showed up by now. those marks look new, if we had the equipment we might have been able to locate the origin. but if it’s monsters, i suggest we hurry up ”.

but what kind of monster would attempt to dig their fangs into a human skull and then leave it aside. it would be normal if the flesh of the bodies had rotted and joined the soil beneath their feet, yet seren was uneasy. it felt too good to be true that this bay, dark and grey, was radio silent aside from the waves crashing ahead of them.

it was a horrible sensation, ignoring that worry gnawing at the back of her mind and then proceeding to fill up her tank with as much fuel as it could carry. she strained to lift it from the ground after screwing the cap shut but she heaved it up and sighed, following romeo who offered the way back to the ship.

with fuel in hand, they will be able to travel a longer distance before sundown and probably find themselves within the rain forest quickly. it would mean that they will be exposed to new danger but it would keep them hidden from any eyes from above trying to track them down.

“ where’s the ship? ”.

huh?

surely enough, when seren glanced up from the ground, her hand suddenly trembled and the tank met the floor within seconds as the ship had vanished. gone, as if it had never been there to begin with.

her first reaction was to believe that kailen might have left them. but if it had been the case, they would have heard the airship taking off and would have come running back long before their current return.

when they heard kailen’s scream, though, they all acted.

romeo suddenly bolted towards the edge of the rocks where he soon spotted the airship being dragged down the rocks, constantly being engulfed by violent waves that they couldn’t stick too close to. what was dragging the ship into the ocean?

seren’s worst nightmare.

mermaids, in mythology, are often depicted as beautiful creatures. alluring, tropical, ethereal. with perfect teeth and hair and stunning voices that will drive a sailor mad, inviting you in with docile smiles and large, curious eyes.

the mermaids that were dragging the ship into the ocean were far from it.

they were scathing around like wild animals, screeching and screaming loudly. there were dozens of them, seren was driven dizzy by the waving tails and the blunt force they used to drag the ship, pushing and pulling and screaming repeatedly and it felt like her ears were going to start bleeding soon, yet she gasped and reached for iron thorn the moment romeo fired a shot from his weapon.

“ kailen’s there! don’t let them get away! ”.

the ship was probably long gone, half submerged under water with kailen in the hatchet, motionless. seren’s food rose to her stomach in heaps yet she managed to fire some essences of ice from her blade, and it reached at least five mermaids, enveloping their tails and pulling them down into the rocks, keeping them from grasping at kailen.

but that still left at least twenty of them that evangelos and perseus were trying their best to blow away with the shots they could fire. evangelos was re-loading consistently, looking fed up by the second and perseus struggled on remaining on his feet. “ kailen! kailen, come on, man! kailen! ”, alexander yelled over the edge, flinching back when a mermaid jumped from a wave and tried to claw at his face. it was only then when seren realized that their nails were razor sharp.

with each stroke of ice and fire, the mermaids seemed to scream their way into the waves but when they began to drag kailen, alexander finally jumped into action and motioned with his hands. when the faint glow swarmed kailen’s body, the mermaid pulling him down shrieked and clawed at him. when alexander began to lift kailen’s body, seren was hopeful he would make it all the way.

when a mermaid jumped and suddenly grasped his ankle, romeo ran to keep the male on the rocks but kailen’s body began to fall back into the waves and seren did the only thing she could. and threw her sword that then pinned the fabric of kailen’s cape against the rocks. and then bolted, running the curve and launching her body over the edge and grabbing him roughly.

and soon, with the little strength she had, heaved him up, caring not for her sword that was probably going to fall into the waves.

“ perseus! ”.

seren busied herself with removing the tight jacket kailen wore as well as the chest coat and yet he made no attempt in breathing or moving. her blood began to run cold and when she began to apply her weight onto his chest, compressing a dozen times, she didn’t notice the hot tears spilling down her cheeks.

she was crying.

“ kailen? kailen! come on, wake up, wake up! breathe for me, kailen, please, we can’t lose you now! ”.

she grunted and pressed harder at a steady pace, her compression only becoming sloppy when she began to realize it wasn’t working. he wasn’t breathing. he wasn’t breathing! choking back a sob, seren pressed harder and felt someone grasping her shoulder but yanked their hand away and brought herself closer to the unresponsive boy. “ kailen, for fucks’s sake, stay with us! please! ”, she cried.

it was only when seren moved over him, pinched his nose and covered his mouth with hers, followed by two steady inhales, that she felt the boy flinch beneath her and jumped back to see the life rushing back to him.

kailen looked pale, coughing up the sea water that had been trapped within his lungs for some minutes. he was drenched, in some sort of pain, groaning through every cough and when he came to a stop, he panted. looking at the concerned faces looking over him, bringing his attention to seren and then looking around, as if to look for the ship.

“ w-what happened? w-why did i black out? ”, he grunted, moving to sit up but being pushed back down by evangelos who removed his jacket and wrapped it over the other’s shoulders. “ where’s the ship? o-oh god, did i lose the ship? ”.

seren’s lip quivered whilst she wiped the tears from her eyes, grimacing at the thought of having lost a team mate in the midst of something like that. the mermaids came out of nowhere, and through the way they shone their teeth at her, they were not good mermaids, not the ones she wold read about in stories and fairy tales. they were monsters. 

and they had almost killed kailen.

if they hadn’t arrived faster, kailen would have suffered the same fate as the remains of those people they had come across near the iron barrels. he would have been eaten.

“ they dragged the ship into the ocean. there’s no way we’re going to recover it now ”, romeo voiced with a sigh. seren glanced up when perseus gave her iron thorn. her heart sank once more. if she had lost kailen and her weapon . . . she gave the boy the best smile she could manage and nodded in gratitude, looming worriedly over the boy. “ looks like we’re gonna be walking. ”

kailen sighed and met eyes with seren, smiling timidly at her. “ sorry if i scared you. but thank you for acting so quickly ”, he managed through another cough.

“ y-yeah, it’s no worries ”, seren said and smiled back at him.

but they had a lot to worry about. the day had seemingly grown darker. they had faced possible carnivorous mermaids and they had also lost their ship.

night would fall soon.

they would get hungry.

they lost their direction.

they lost their means of travel.

they were lost. officially.

#chapter six #original writing #fantasy #magic #futuristic #dystopian

[thesalemsaga]

𝟱 — 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗻

—   𝙛𝙞𝙛𝙩𝙝 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙢 𝙨𝙖𝙜𝙖.

𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 : 5.7k words

𝙨 : the attack on valhalla has left everyone shell shocked. not to be discouraged, the team gather themselves and decide that they might need to hijack a military airship in order to attain a start to their journey.

fifty students died. and seren found it to be her fault.

out of all the horrors that had struck her in her early life, none left her quite as stunned as this did. her innocent mind when she was growing up could not comprehend certain things, but at the age of eighteen, she began to comprehend it a little too well. and every moment she spent thinking about the night, the harsher the digs in her heart became.

since the two henchmen fled, the school was eventually locked down by military officials who came around to investigate. where were they when the kids needed them the most was uncertain, but they easily took control over everything and sent many of the students to their dorms or dismissed them to go home as they attempted to fix the torn situation. 

most of the teachers were with police officials, identifying the bodies of fifty young first year students who were shot down from the emergency train just as it was departing. a few students were injured whilst at the platform, but no casualties came aside from that of the train that fell.

and landed on the roof of the town hall. thankfully, nobody was in the building that night.

but regardless, fifty teenagers, children, had lost their lives in a situation nobody thought to expect. a silence had fallen over valhalla over the span of a few hours, by the time the sun rose it was like a ghost town with nobody in sight. the cafeteria was up and running earlier, serving food for the officers investigating and the students who needed comfort food.

while the casualties might have no severely damage the minds of others, it did a lot to an impressionable seren who was tempted to admit all of the fault, even if she could have done little to control the situation.

jester and annakin had left after nearly collapsing the roof of the training arena over them, leaving evermore chaos in their wake like they awoke a plague or another state of ragnarok. whilst the world around them carried on, as people worked to fix the situation, to soothe grieving parents, to work to fix the missing part of the school, seren’s world was very much still.

she had been sitting in the outdoor yard for a good hour. seren had alerted that she wanted to get some fresh air, but despite roaming among the clouds and blueness of the sky, the suffocation continued, surrounding her throat as a bitter sensation of growing guilt.

she could have stopped it.

if it hadn’t been for that minor earthquake, if she had managed to grasp a hold of that demon’s spear then the lives lost would have never been lost to begin with. kids would still be alive. and the sensation, albeit not the one people tend to experience, reminded her plainly of her young self when she lost her sister. but it felt like it had been multiplied by fifty.

still in her sleeping robes, her hair had fallen out of the braid she’d secured it into and it was far from a nice mess, it was a big mess. seren made no attempt to fix it, wrapping her arms around her frail figure in an attempt to nurse the empty hole in her chest.

some valhalla students were transported down by military airships and were brought home if they so demanded it. as far as she was concerned, nobody on her new team had made just request, meaning that she would have to look at them in the face eventually and come to understand the severity of the situation together.

“ how long have you been out here? ”.

her dead gaze was pinned to the ledge of the railings securing people from falling into an endless sky, and it lifted only to glance at the approaching figure of evangelos. he appeared to not have gotten much sleep, hair tousled and bags weighing heavily under his eyes.

the girl held his gaze for just a moment, which she couldn’t have imagined herself doing previously, not after that dueling class. maybe it was the numbness that made her aloof to those previous feelings of fear when roaming around evangelos.

“ a good hour or two ”, she replied, and etched to the side in order to give the boy space to sit. he made no attempt in moving, she still left space in case he found that his legs were tired. “ are the others okay? anyone slept? did you sleep? ”.

evangelos sat down after what seemed like a brisk moment of silence. he grunted and rubbed his thumb against what seemed to be knuckle burns on his hands, possibly caused by his gauntlets overheating. “ romeo crashed eventually after kailen got us some food. alex went back to reading and percy . . . he’s fine ”. 

seren had a right to be worried about her teammates. it was probably the first time any of them had come to face with any real danger that could fight back and resist them, it put their training to the test and with the results that came, it didn’t seem as if anyone was pleased with how they all handled it. the strategy would have worked out, but they were too naive, too careless for the details, and mistook henchmen for weaklings.

if they couldn’t stop annakin and jester, what good were they going to be when coming face to face with the mistress of evil herself? seren prayed that their journey would cause them to develop thick skin, thick skin that would help them through trials and tribulations so that when they get to the real issue, they won’t struggle.

her gaze fell once more, jaw clenched. it still stung to know that fifty young people, some of whom didn’t get to see the age of sixteen, had lost their lives in an accident that could have been prevented.

“ are you blaming yourself, armsend? ”.

the girl nodded. what was the use in lying to someone who could read her mind? evangelos could look in and see her thought process, and he might end up feeling very annoyed as the girl has the habit of blaming herself for every minor inconvenience and even when it’s something big, when lives were lost, and it wasn’t directly her fault, the guilt will linger enough to traumatize her.

she heard a sigh from the male beside her, followed by him edging closer to her and soon found a hand raking through her hair. and then patting the top of her hair in an almost warm fashion.

it was comforting, something she would never expect from evangelos having known him for such a short time, but still, comforting.

the girl closed her eyes, “ you can’t blame me. i’ve always been like this growing up, even if it’s never directly my fault. i just find that sometimes people are afraid of taking the blame, and if nobody is going to assume some responsibility, then i might as well carry it if they won’t. ”

“ but you do know that plenty of the other students are blaming themselves as well? plenty of teachers, even your father? ”, evangelos’s voice was surprisingly nurturing. “ i can imagine the military also got a major wake up call because they were up drinking and only came about an hour late after the breach first happened. ”

when his hand eventually untangled from her hair, seren let out a small sigh and adjusted herself slightly in her seat to face the male who stared curiously back at her. though she couldn’t find a reason to not take the guilt like a chug of alcohol, it was relieving to have someone approach her with comforting words, usually her father would be screaming and pinging off the walls.

evangelos continued, “ blaming yourself for the death of others when you didn’t have a chance to even save them is not good for you, okay? ”.

the girl looked alarmed. “ i-i could have saved them, evan! ”.

he began shaking his head, and her heart grew heavier and heavier. because maybe he was right. she had always fed herself the expectation that had one thing been different, then a situation could have been avoided.

yet even if she had managed to get a hold of that spear, jester would have had something else up his sleeve. if she had chased after them, they would have still shot the train down. and if she was being honest, had she gone after them, she might have not lived as well, joining the toll.

evangelos was right, and she hated it. there was going to be a tragedy tonight whether she liked it or not.

“ let me tell you one thing. when you blame yourself for the death of another ”, he paused, letting his eyes wander elsewhere and up to the blue sky above them. “ you’re just carrying a burden you think you’re carrying alone, when in reality, many more people are hurting. it’s why when a tragedy strikes, we aim to avoid it from happening again. ”

seren deflated, peering down at her lap yet evangelos sought her gaze with a look of concern on his features, “ a-and we will, it will never happen again. sometimes it takes a tragedy to start a journey, to get the ball rolling. this is a wake up call for everyone but especially for us. this is more than enough to send us treading forward, searing. ”

glancing at him, she fought back a slight laugh. “ searing? ”.

evangelos’s face dropped, “ is that not your name? ”.

“ it’s seren. ”

“ oh . . . w-well, i stand by what i said. you know i’m right. ”

with a huff, evangelos turned back to the view above them. seren, though smiling now, felt uplifted. he was right, this was more than a wake up call for everyone but it was like a starting shot for them. they had a mission and they had been brought together by a purpose they were yet to fulfill and whilst the world below them mourned, they had to brush it off and tread on.

they had a lot of work to do.

time skip . . .

“ did you get any sleep? ”.

seren had only managed to get a couple of hours and by the time she was awake again, lunch had been served but nothing new had come out of anyone. her father was still away, conducting some meetings with the mayor and she was starting to grow impatient on when he would officially return to see her off.

yet by the looks of things, it seemed as if they were treading more on seeing each other properly only after she had returned from the journey that lay ahead. which saddened her, the last thing she wanted was to be unable to say goodbye to her father when it might be months until she comes into contact with him.

the girl had showered, changed, and found herself in the cafeteria where she found kailen and perseus sat at her table. she paid a smile to both the boys, yet it was clear it was half-assed. “ about four hours ”, the girl replied and took a seat beside perseus, peering at the boys curiously. “ are you guys okay? ”.

kailen hummed, “ not too great. they’re not letting us outside, most of the teachers are just sending us to our dorms. but i’m getting sick of it, surely this is the time we should be acting. ”

seren was going to comment on what kailen said, nodding briefly but then brought her attention to perseus, his face full of solemn that she could pin point the origin of. he had lost the grip of the spear, and it led to the two henchmen escaping. she could only wonder the battle going on within his thoughts at that moment. 

“ you okay, percy? ”.

the boy rose his head, that was the first time she noticed his eyes. amber, sad. he looked absolutely shattered and it took many pauses on her impulse to hug him, but she reached out and grasped his shoulder, rubbing it gently. “ it’s, uhm, weighing on me heavily. those poor kids . . . ”, his voice cracked slightly. “ i’m sorry, i’m really sorry. ”

“ hey ”, kailen began, looking at the boy. “ it’s nobody’s fault, or rather, it’s our responsibility to take the blame or feel guilty when we still have the power and time to make sure it doesn’t happen again. defenses are down, military is all over the place searching for those two from last night. w-we could start today. ”

“ our mission? ”.

kailen nodded.

seren bit back a smile. twice, she’s been suggested the idea and it wouldn’t be long before she was on board with it. she had been wandering about their route, the way they could take in order to reach salem. she had wandered how much fuel would be required to make enough progress before they have to carry on foot. she wandered just how much time they’d be away for.

all the plans had bubbled in her head in a series of nights, and she put it all down with pen and paper, yet she was way past looking over notes when they had the chance to act now. her father was nowhere to be seen, yet a part of her, the part that fiercely believed in her old man and that he still had an adventurer bone left in his body, that he would approve of their plan.

he wouldn’t mind if she took off. because it was for a good cause.

perseus seemed to ease down. although horrified, it looked as if a flicker of determination had returned to his eyes. seren smiled slightly and looked ahead at kailen. “ well, we shouldn’t waste anymore time. evangelos seems quite willing to go as well so we’d best get out of here before someone notices we’re gone ”.

when they collected their stuff, they walked off and gathered in the lounge, which was unexpectedly empty, until she remembered most students had gone home or were in their dorms as instructed. she dialed a call to the others anyway to alert them about the short meeting they would have in the lounge, one which would determine their plan.

as they waited, perseus thought it would’ve been nice to turn the t.v on, which was deemed to be a mistake.

because they were broadcasting the incident on the news. they were showing the wreckage, and upon realization of how badly it truly was, seren couldn’t bear to look. or listen. she took to looking at her watch instead in hopes that time would pass quickly and that they could leave as soon as possible.

romeo came through first, immediately throwing a sneer towards the t.v screen. “ oh turn that shit off, percy. i don’t think anyone wants to watch it ”, his words soon brought in evangelos, who took the remote of his friend’s hands and switched the device on. not before patting the boy’s head, though.

“ where’s alexander? ”.

“ didn’t see him in the library nor in his dorm. i asked ted-ee to give a look around and lead him here ”, romeo replied, taking a seat on one of the couches and sneering at the sight of what appeared to be goblin blood that had not yet been cleaned on the floor. “ yuck. ”

seren held her breath for a moment, plotting, speculating. she wondered just how they were going to get to their starting point, it being a small, abandoned port somewhere in the coasts of what used to be egypt. of course, they were in no condition to take a boat, it would simply take way too long as opposed to taking an aircraft.

a military aircraft.

sneaking into military headquarters was out of question, they were on high alert, and if they dared to sneak through, they might end up being shot down on the spot. and the girl was in no condition to lose people, especially when they hadn’t even started their journey properly.

“ what are you thinking about, seren? ”.

the girl looked at a curious kailen and hummed, “ just how on earth we’re going to get to our starting point. we can’t just get on mainland europe and just cross through the balkan countries to get into russia, it’s probably swarming with salem’s minions. we’d be better off scaling across the middle east, through to asia, and up into russia. ”

“ sounds decent. but how are we going to get across? ”.

seren rose her gaze. it was obvious what she had in mind. perseus suddenly sat up. “ you’re not . . . seriously thinking about stealing a military airship, are you? ”.

the girl adjusted herself in her seat and leaned forward, “ it’s the only chance we have. you really think they’re going to allow us to go beyond the freaking walls? ”. she shook her head. “ no, they won’t. they’re on top security at the moment, they’re not letting anyone in or out unless if its one of their own. our best chances are to get on an airship and, well, overtake it. ”

“ great ”, romeo grunted. “ we’re gonna disappear for a long time but not before telling the government to kiss our ass before we go. ”

“ it’s . . . an insane idea and it’s unlikely we’re not going to be in some trouble, but they’re going to thank us later. they should be the one doing this, not us! and if a couple of kids can do it, that’s going to say a lot more about them than it’ll say about us ”, seren continued to persist. it wasn’t a matter of how they’d be seen before they leave, it’ll only matter when they return. 

“ that still leaves the big question, how in the world are we going to get inside one of these vehicles? ”.

seren suddenly stopped, and glanced over towards where she’d heard movements suddenly halt. alexander now stared back at the group, hair tousled, glasses tilted to their sides, and mattress marks against his face; he definitely looked as if he’d come out of a nap.

“ what? ”.

time skip . . .

they shouldn’t be doing this.

the military uniform was only to be used in special occasions, like public assembles or school marches or even championships, and it would definitely look suspicious if they stepped out looking the way they did, armed, fully equipped with the heavy clothes and badges pinned across their jackets.

but alexander, after spending a good hour convincing him, had come up with a plan that would most definitely work if conducting with precision and if they prayed for a stroke of luck.

valhalla students were often asked to make appearances in order to settle any tension downstairs in the city. whenever there was a robbery or a murder, they would often flock and conduct minor shifts, it established a sense of safety within the people of the city and you could request to be put in these shifts if you wished to. hardly anyone did it, it was too much of a hassle. doing it now couldn’t be the best time to do it, however.

“ we can’t let this fail ”, alexander reminded them. they had flocked to the lounge after getting changed, arming themselves with their weapons. it was the first time seren got to see the two war fans that perseus owned, and the heavily bracelets around alexander’s wrists that enabled him to conduct all of his spells. seeing them all in gear excited her, made it feel like the mission was official. “ i don’t think throwing a military pilot in the ocean is a really good idea but we can’t bring one with us on our journey. it’s supposed to be secret, after all. ”

“ you just conduct your sleeping and anti-gravity spell and make sure he gets back to shore. don’t fail that memory charm, either ”, kailen instructed. “ the last thing we need is him remembering that six kids just stole an aircraft in order to wander off on their own. ”

seren grunted whilst attaching the sheath to her health, “ for a good cause. ”

“ for a good cause. ”

perseus suddenly entered the room, “ the airship is ready for us. don’t make it too obvious, they’re taking us to southern part of the city. from there, we might just head straight down and wind up in egypt. ”

whilst everyone gathered more things, sneaking food into their satchels and bags and making minor adjustments to their uniforms, seren looked down the hall to where the elevator to her father’s office would be. he was most likely not even in the school, and if he was, he was doing a good job at ultimately ignoring her. the girl bit her lip slightly. it would be lie if she said it didn’t hurt.

“ you’re not going to say goodbye? ”, alexander asked. 

seren shook her head, “ it’s expected of me to face these things coldly. not many people get the chance of saying goodbye to loved ones. but i plan on returning, it’s not a final goodbye. ”

with that said, they took off to one of the open yards. conveniently enough, this one had a parking site for airships if they had to do an emergency evacuation, and on those sites, there was a military aircraft. pristine, slick and firm, it only fueled the girl’s excitement. but it was reduced merely to fear when the pilot came into view, standing at the ramp, tapping his foot impatiently.

“ lieutenant carter, thank you so much for letting us come onboard. ”

“ i’m only letting you kids off near by the coast. you better stay in your seats ”, carter demanded, and though romeo dared to answer back, he received an elbow in the ribs by a tense evangelos. “ come on in. ”

the shuttle was no bigger than a train carriage, and within, seats with seatbelts were strapped to the sides, with a giant space in the middle that could have carried crates or any heavy cargo. the floor was stripped bare of anything of the sort, which benefited them this time around.

seren shared a quick glance over her shoulder at valhalla, peering at it for what would be the last time she’d see it. for a while, at least. when she returned, it would possibly be near graduation. if she was being honest, she was no going to miss this place too much.

“ i want everyone sat down while i’m flying you over. if you start anything funny, i won’t be happy ”, carter called.

this time, romeo made no attempt at saying anything.

whilst everyone sat down and adjusted their seat belts, alexander inspected his spellbook very quickly before he followed in suit. “ you should have had that memorized by now ”, kailen hissed under his breath.

“ i forget when i’m under pressure! ”, alexander hissed back and strapped himself in. “ anyway, it’s not like he’s going to get pissed about me doing some light reading. ”

seren chuckled slightly and shook her head. this had everyone on edge, but it didn’t seem to impact the group as much as it did with alexander. the boy looked horrified when they talked him through the mission, and for a moment, it seemed like he was going to drop it all, give up.

but they had only just started, to give up now would be the greatest disappointment of her life. finding your purpose and then giving up on it shortly after has to be upsetting, especially when it’s something great and you had to drop it for a small thing. now, however, they were going at full speed.

metaphorically and literally.

she didn’t even feel the shuttle shake when it took off, only hearing the hum of the engine moments later after coming out of her thoughts. what she tried not to think about was that she was high up in the air, in a plane. living in a floating school was alright but when they faced the danger of crashing, circumstances changed severely.

the girl chewed on her bottom lip, trying to distract herself somehow. “ when we come back ”, perseus suddenly began, gaining the attention of everyone. “ how do you think things are going to be different? ”.

romeo snorted, “ aside from the fact that we’ll be allowed beyond the walls and not have to face evil minions sent by a crazy witch? not much. soon, this planet is gonna go back to the way it was in the beginning. with no reason to keep them from hiding, they’ll soon go to war amongst themselves, countries will form, cultures will form . . . it’ll start all over again. ”

it was a never-ending cycle, as romeo had described it. as soon as humanity is rid of the danger that pushed them into hiding, they would look for something else to fear, and it often came in the form of what they could not understand. wars would rage within the next century as they fought to reclaim land, repopulate. what seren wished, though, is that a repeat of what happened will never occur again. 

“ we’ll be allowed to lead our own lives ”, kailen added in a lighter tone. “ marry the person we love, start families. return to our families, travel. build, destroy, rebuild. it’s hard to say just what’ll happen. but let’s just hope it’s all done with good intentions. ”

“ i would agree except for the marriage part! ”, romeo yawned and stretched his arms high above his head. “ marriage to me is just a waste of time. you could just live with the person and call them your wife or husband, it doesn’t matter. ”

evangelos grunted, “ marriage adds to the fantasy, romeo. the magic, as some would put it. but you might get lucky and not have five kids, fight and get divorced three years later. your finger can’t be rotten when you’re picking your spouse. ”

“ seren, what do you think? ”.

the girl looked up, “ about marriage? ”. then paused and gathered her opinions. “ well my mom and dad have a good marriage even if they’re not always together. marriage or no marriage, who cares if the love is there? ”.

just then, the pilot’s voice came into the intercom. he announced that they would be landing in around six minutes, which was enough for evangelos and alexander to rise from their seats, kailen unbuckled himself from the seat belts and seren found herself holding her breath.

“ the cabin door is locked. seren. ”

she didn’t skip a beat, drawing her sword and throwing it to evangelos who caught it immediately. she tried not to hold her breath too much seeing as someone, who wasn’t her, was holding her sword. evangelos, no less, the person who still terrified her after that dueling lesson. but she caught him the unlocking trick, and it seemed like he got the grasp of it.

from where she sat, she saw it all unravel. she watched the door silently slide forward and alexander and evangelos jumping at both sides to avoid being spotted when the pilot looked over the sides to peer, confused. “ someone close that door, no kids in the cabin! ”, he called.

evangelos chucked something into the cabin, a grenade-like object that puffed up and the pilot suddenly deflated, growing limp. “ now! ”, evan cried and alexander formed an odd gesture with his hands, before snapping his fingers when they glowed with a blue hue.

when the hue engulfed the pilot, evangelos whistled for kailen who came storming into the cabin, holding his hand over his nose and mouth to block himself from the gas. and he leapt and took over the controls before they accidentally crashed into something.

“ i got him! ”.

“ quick, put those spells to use, alex! ”.

evangelos and alexander brought the male to the seating area where they all were, struggling for a moment as the man wore heavy gear. stripping him from his weapon, alexander crouched beside the man. “ i-i’ll use the memory charm now. and the anti-gravity one, i’ll activate it just before we throw him overboard ”, he stated.

nobody seemed willing enough to distract him, so they let the boy get to work. perseus and romeo flocked to the cabin where kailen was struggling slightly with the controls, and seren unbuckled her seat belt and knelt down beside alexander as he worked his magic, not wanting to leave the male alone.

it was a show of colors, a show of rustic tones that she could never imagine existed, words that didn’t claim any language aside from the ones she’d seen on the scrolls he studied nearly every day in the library. she admired alexander for taking the job that hardly anyone wanted to take it. too boring, too complex. most heroes would die on battlefields if not by the blessings and healing of clerics. she knew that if she ever fucked up in battle, alexander would be there to ultimately fix it.

“ does it hurt? ”.

alexander shook his head, “ it feels like a slight migraine when i use too much of it. but that would mean that i would conduct at least fifty spells before that happens, so you won’t have to worry about me having a headache when you guys need me the most. ”

watching his hands light up and the magic seep through and cover the pilot was bizarre, it was unlikely anything she’d seen up close. he was a good healer, she was fortunate to have convinced him to join them. “ you’re not under pressure right now, are you? ”, she quizzed.

“ no, why? ”.

“ it doesn’t seem like you’re forgetting anything. ”

alexander laughed, though it was short-lived. “ no, i suppose i’m not. well, it helps having someone who isn’t always yelling in my ear. i’d prefer to have a companion like you rather than romeo or maybe evangelos. ”

seren felt flattered. she always thought herself as a soothing person who couldn’t get angry like other people, though she was quite annoying when she was really happy. but on most occasions, the girl acted mellow, quiet, kept things to herself when she found it best fit. instead of complaining about her silence, alexander complimented it. much appreciated.

“ yo, searing, catch. ”

seren barely flinched when iron thorn was chucked over at her, catching a hold of the handle and putting the blade back into its sheath. “ did kailen get control of the ship? ”.

“ eventually ”, evangelos grunted and looked at the pilot. “ we’ll be flying over the sea soon so be prepared to drop him off. you better start warming up that anti-gravity charm, alex. ” the boy hummed in return.

it must have been a good seven minutes when evangelos and alexander had grabbed the pilot once more. kailen had opened the hatchet and the wind from here was furious. grabbing tightly onto some railings, seren watched the two boys bring the man slowly over the edge just as when the beach came into view. and the moment they threw him was when the water began to grow darker in blue. 

seren closed her eyes, she could not bare to watch something like that. knowing the man was going to be safe did nothing to nurse her worries that he might end up slightly hurt. when she opened her eyes once more, the hatchet had closed. they had just managed to infiltrate a military airship.

“ woohoo! now it’s time to put this show on the road! ”, cried romeo. 

she advanced into the cabin where kailen was, and was welcomed by a vast ocean that would soon meet the coast of egypt in some hours. “ i don’t know if we’ll be able to refuel, but i can almost bet we’ll run into some jungle with food. that area grew vastly in terms of trees and there’s a rain forest somewhere near sinai where we’ll cross into either jordan, israel or saudi arabia. ” kailen looked up at her. “ it’s your choice. ”

“ we’ll decide once we’ve landed. we don’t really have a time limit. but it’s best if we got out of africa within a week and started to advance through the middle east eventually. salem’s next attack could be . . . at any time. she doesn’t know we’re coming simply because we took a route she doesn’t control. nothing controls these parts, from what i heard. so it’s likely we’ll only get slowed down once we cross into asian territory ”, seren recalled what her father stated.

salem had control of eastern europe, all of russia, and some of asia and that included china. it was why seren intended on entering the cold country going up through the middle east and entering through kazakhstan, territory she couldn’t exactly control since some of the imperial military had gotten there before her.

“ you think we might run into monsters? people? people and monsters? ”.

that was something that didn’t cross her mind, and she didn’t want to allow it to cross her mind until they had actually landed in their first check-point. seren gulped and smiled down at kailen, “ nothing we can’t defend ourselves from. three years of training for this, are you ready to put it to the test? ”.

kailen shrugged, “ as ready as i’ll ever be. ”

looking back at the ocean they now flew over, seren didn’t realize that they were soon going to go past the walls. she saw them nearing in the distance, marveling at the immensity they carried but from above, they looked smaller. so small that she could taste freedom at the tip of her tongue.

when they flew over them, she couldn’t help but smile.

the journey was starting . . . this was it.

it had begun.

#chapter five #original writing #fantasy #magic #futuristic #dystopian

[thesalemsaga]

𝟰 — 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹

—   𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙢 𝙨𝙖𝙜𝙖.

𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 : 6.5k words

𝙨 : the team is officially assembled, but this is far from the end of it, it’s only the beginning. it seems like things were going according to plan, they were even tempted to set off. but a sudden explosion in the training arena ruined everything.

“ you should’ve risked breaking iron thorn than your arm. ”

but it was all worth it in the end.

seren was ecstatic at that moment, that much was obvious from the way her eyes creased and cheeks bloomed with a pink hue almost matching her hair. she was overjoyed, because it had all gone according to plan.

her father’s reaction wasn’t one she was expecting, though. the way he smiled when she told him caught the girl off guard, a girl who was used to seeing a stone cold man mostly nod through trials and tribulations and relied mostly on a poker face rather than smiling or laughing. getting that sort of reaction out of him made the girl feel somewhat proud of herself.

the only issue he disapproved of was her minor sacrifice injured in the midst of the dueling lesson. he heard of her burnt forearms and immediately requested for her to return to her dorm where the nurse would visit her. according to the kind woman, she would heal eventually. but the scars would remain, possibly as a reminder of her foolishness.

“ i know ”, seren countered.

they were sat together for dinner. he had approached her at the end of the school day to ask her about her injuries and she eventually revealed that she had accomplished her goal. at that moment, he proposed they ate together before going to bed. it was awkward, her father was a cold man and he hardly had time for these sorts of things, often hiding out in his office till ungodly hours. sitting across from him at a dinner table was a foreign sight for his daughter.

their meal had been a minor stew served with a few slices of bread, though seren found her appetite to be particularly short that evening. whether it was caused by her injury or the fact that she now had a full functioning team was unknown, but she felt no hunger peering down at her food. what didn’t help was the way her father was peering at her.

“ iron thorn can be replaced. it can be fixed without much of an issue. had you shattered your arms, i wouldn’t have been able to pay to get them fixed ”, he stated, taking a bitter sip of his wine. a shiraz, no less. “ you begged lockhart to keep evangelos out of trouble. ”

the girl hated being reminded of what happened. dwelling on it made her recall the flicker of guilt that breached through his usually cold and bleak face, and it just made her feel worse. she had been foolish with her actions and it might have cost someone their reputation or their sense of self-respect. no good feeling comes from hurting someone unintentionally, and when the expression on his face settled for just a few seconds, seren felt worse.

the girl gulped, “ it’s not his fault, it was mine. he was countering when he knew he was going to get thrown down. it was his final move, and had it been another enemy, it would have been fatal. maybe he thought he was in a real fight, that is what we’ve been trained to do ever since we’ve started in this school. ”

“ you’re seriously making excuses for the boy, seren? ”.

“ y-yes! well, i’m justifying. he didn’t do it intentionally, i know that. had it been intentional, i would have most likely be in the hospital ”, her tone went grave, but she continued speaking her mind. “ it was a duel, that was what lockhart said. he wasn’t playing dirty and he didn’t do it on purpose. evangelos is innocent, it’s most likely my fault for not being fast enough to jump away. or i should have sacrifice iron thorn but . . . ”.

she was attached to the weapon.

in actuality, it was the only relic she had left from her mother. celine armsend had spent years of her life making weapons and by the time she married arthur, she had made a reservoir of blades that would never be used. upon realizing she had married into a noble and traditional family with customs relating to war, celine picked the best blade and gave it to seren. it was the only true gift she received from her mother. after that, it was just post-cards on birthdays and jewelry on christmas.

it was a valuable gift. it had been by seren’s side longer than her mother ever had and it had aided her in many disputes, many duels, and it was likely she was going to bring the rapier with her on the journey when they choose to leave. she couldn’t leave with a broken blade.

arthur held the brim of the glass between his lips and hummed, returning the glass to the dinner table. “ well, the scar will stay. but at least you didn’t fracture anything ”, the girl nodded at his words and presented him a comforting smile, it was clear she wanted to change the subject. “ in other news, congratulations. you have your final five. ”

it was a victory the girl was going to take long to come down from. an accomplishment like this wasn’t easy, and it was unlikely she was going to grasp the opportunity to celebrate it when tides were changing. they needed to make a move soon. 

“ thank you ”, she said. her attention was brought to the shorter locks of hair that had been reaped off. you wouldn’t really be able to tell until you got a better look but it made her feel uncomfortable. it was going to serve as a reminder until it grew back, which might take a while. seren told herself many times not to rake her hand through her hair so much. “ i hope you’ll let us off soon. the sooner we leave, the better. ”

her father nodded, “ of course. but i need to ensure that you’ll make a safe route to salem’s whereabouts. i haven’t spoken to any of the military generals yet, i fear they might refuse even with my influence in the situation. ” the girl gave her father a questioning look. “ what? ”.

“ n-nothing ”, seren replied. and then tilted her head. “ it’s just odd to see you being so willing to help me out of this. don’t get me wrong, it’s mostly because you don’t really let me do stuff. ”

he knew that very well, so seren didn’t think to put it down lightly. he knew that he didn’t keep his promises, he knew that he tended to be rather cold and kept the girl inside on most occasions. what made her curious was whether he ever did it for a reason, and if so, if he ever felt guilty for it.

arthur shrugged softly, “ it’d be wrong to refuse this from you. you’ve finally found your purpose and your willingness to complete it is admirable. you also found some decent people to accompany you and even injured yourself for the sake of it. it would be rude of me to refuse something you worked hard for. ”

a warmth flooded within her suddenly. arthur, a difficult man, had his moments of true love and protection for his daughter. you’d think she would grow to hate him after a number of years of being sheltered and constantly held back from things. she never did. the thought never crossed her mind, to hate her father when he had never done anything to hurt her, only protect her. seren admired the man for handling things so well after all that happened.

when celine decided to take herself out of the armsend family and surround herself with nature and learning, it left arthur alone and looking like a terrible husband. it brought shame upon his family name, and he was always being invigilated, people constantly waiting for him to make a wrong move. and after his older daughter married and the youngest passed away, he was left in shambles trying to recover his reputation as not only a principal, but as a member of society.

and he had done well. he had managed to clean a tarnished name and managed to protect his only heir without the help of his wife or any other armsend relative. now, to answer your question, could seren hate her own father? no.

“ thanks, dad. ”

arthur sighed after finishing his glass of wine, stood and walked over to his daughter. upon pressing a kiss to her forehead, he smiled again that evening. was it due to the beverage he’d been drinking? regardless, it had seren smiling from ear to ear. “ no worries, kiddo ”, he mumbled, spotting the shorter locks of her hair. “ when are you going to dye your hair back to your normal color? ”.

her cheeks burned, “ if i dye it back, the shorter hairs are gonna be more obvious. it’s better with pink for the time being. ”

“ evangelos did this? ”.

“ dad, give it a rest! ”.

it had to have been the fifth time that month where her father has requested this from her. unbeknownst to him, she dyed to save him from immediately heartache. she was a replica of her mother, and if she were to remain with her natural color, she would catch the sadness in arthur’s eyes and wouldn’t be able to handle it.

he shrugged and lifted his hands up in a surrendering manner, “ i’m just worried. you can’t blame me. ” grazing his fingers against the bow on her hair, arthur sighed and patted her shoulders. “ go to bed, kiddo. i’ll have you and the others inside a classroom tomorrow so we can discuss your journey. ”

after that, he sent himself straight to bed. whenever he drank, which was rare, he happened to stumble into a state of sorrow. especially when he spoke about topics relating to his wife and his family. celine armsend was still very much alive, hidden within the wild, hunting and learning and risking her life almost every single day and it seemed unlikely that she would return to the aristocracy she’d been forced into when marrying arthur. she was born and raised in the wild, it was unlikely she would have stayed within the walls for long.

though she was glad to see him head to bed and not up to his office, where he would most likely spend the rest of the night in deep feelings and thoughts and they were rather harmful. arthur managed to be cold, but it didn’t mean he had a weakness. and that was his wife.

the girl spent a few moments at the dining room, offering to help the maid bring everything bad to the kitchen but was instead sent to her room. the maids didn’t like seeing her up late, and she loved to pieces, having never refused the advice they give her.

by the time she got to her bed, it was nearly midnight, an ungodly hour to be up both as a teenager and as a student that used up all of her force in the day. she had to be rested up, yet she found that sleeping did not come as naturally as it did prior to all these changes in her life.

seren was day-dreaming of those grassy plains and shattered pillars and abandoned castles and chapels, she wanted to see the world with her own eyes and return with tales to feed the thousands. story-telling had never been an interest, often finding that she couldn’t raise her voice high enough with sufficient interest to be deemed a good story-teller. which was why she had bought a notebook already, to make notes, to draw. she was tempted on borrowing her father’s camera to take some pictures, yet the worry of being robbed or losing it deemed the idea unfit for their journey.

as she lay in bed, seren couldn’t help but wonder of the journey ahead. yet, she was not prepared for the turbulent obstacle she would have to face beforehand.

time skip . . .

the school fell silent by midnight. the library had closed down, locked by the temperamental librarian. the cafeteria was empty, lounge rooms rid of any light. the only sounds that came were the whistles of the janitors who had just finished their night shift and were briskly preparing to take a yggdrasil line train back down to the city, returning to their normal lives.

seren was fast asleep. never had she looked quite so peaceful despite the day that she had. her braided locks fell against her pearly white pillows and her blanket fell over her figure, though it would be on the ground by the time she woke up. she would not have time to dream and kick her sheets to the floor as she usually does, however. because dead at night, when the city downstairs seemed like it was always going to bed, and the only sound in the background was that of the wind, something disrupted her sleep.

it started as a bang. one which awoke her with a start, sitting up from her previous position, groggy and tired in every sense of the world. she could feel her heart skipping in her chest. she wasn’t expecting such noises late at night, and her father was one to be asleep by now.

when the second bang came, it was louder. it felt like the ceiling and floors shook. and it wasn’t until she peered at her chandelier hanging in the center of her room that she noticed that the room was shaking. trembling, everything began to tremble. the jar of water began to swing until it tipped over the edge of her desk and fell into the carpet.

was the school collapsing? seren gave a startled yelp when a sound she was familiar with erupted. similar to the explosion that came from evangelos’s gauntlets, the shots he fired when he cut through her hair. it wasn’t the exact same sound, but it was still an explosion. an unnecessary one, one which should not have happened.

there was no emergency drill scheduled for that week, not that she knew of.

covering her ears, the girl braced for another explosion but it never came. what came instead was a booming voice treading through the walls of her bedroom, the sound of lockhart’s alarmed tone tannoy through the loudspeaker.

“ attention, a breach in the training arena has been detected. requesting all teachers and staff members to the cafeteria. all students are asked to stay within their dorms and are not to come out. i repeat . . . ”.

seren fought through her blanket and bolted towards the balcony door, throwing it open. her view fortunately had sight of the training arena island that was due west of the main tower. normally the roof of the arena would be closed, but tonight, the girl caught smoke rising through a vacant hole that had been blown through. someone had breached in. intentionally. that didn’t look like a mere accident.

when the girl recalled the conversation she had with her father that friday evening, she felt a chill ride her spine. salem is going to counter and do anything in order to slow down the attempts at finding her, her father’s voice echoed.

“ d-dad! ”.

seren ran back into her room, threw the door open and flooded out into the hallway where she saw some of the maids huddled in a circle in the living room. one of them stood up when a worried daughter came looking for her father, “ w-where’s my dad? is he still in his room? w-w-what’s happening?! ”.

“ there was a breach in the training arena ”, the youngest maid said, at least two years older than seren. “ i-i don’t know a lot but i heard some teachers say there were two men there and they’ve managed to lock them inside the arena. but the security won’t hold up for long. they’re trying to cut through the door. ”

two men? two henchmen, more like.

seren knew she was advised to stay inside her dorm. but she needed to see this for herself and confirm her theory. and as she raced back to her room, she worried about whether salem had found a way to penetrate through the walls of valhalla, whether these two men carried the intention of hurting someone, and if so, how many lives would be claimed tonight if nobody did anything.

and that was why she quickly found her sword tucked under her bed and slipped on some shoes and bolted out of the dorm whilst the maids were elsewhere. she was putting herself in danger. soon enough those two men were going to break through the arena door and they would start claiming lives and if she was lucky enough, she might be able to stop utter catastrophe from occurring or at least reducing some of the possible casualties.

she forced down the hall with slight apprehension, hugging her sleeping robe tightly to her body. she had put on some tight shoes in case she engaged in combat, and it didn’t dawn on her that she was half asleep and was likely going to hurt herself until she reached the end of the hall.

seren was going to turn back around in fear that her father might look out and see her and she did not want to spoil the previous chat they had at dinner. so she took a step back, only to squeal when her back hit someone’s chest.

“ w-woah, you okay? ”.

when she recognized perseus’s fruity tone, her heart race reduced exponentially. of relief. she almost thought that she had ran face first into the enemy and that her life was going to end tonight. she quickly turned around, mindful to not end up swinging her sword and cutting his face. “ perseus ”, she mumbled. “ what are you doing out here? ”.

“ trying to find the others. i’m alone in my dorm and i feel like the school could use some help ”, he sounded very tired, it was clear by how his eyes were falling closed a couple of times. seren set her hand by his arm in case he fell forward. “ y-you heard what they said over the loudspeaker, right? ”.

his tone was grave. nobody had expected something like this to go down. but seren had always told herself that salem would always try to have the upper hand, inciting fear with every chance she could because fear would be what kept people away and what enabled her to distance herself from those who wanted her head on a stake.

“ i did ”, she muttered. her figure hunched slightly, almost deflating. “ these men . . . they most likely have a connection with salem. i knew something like this was bound to happen at some point. ”

for a moment, it was silent. she paid a good glance at perseus and offered him a smile despite how shaken to the core she felt. she had expected to run into trouble on the battlefield, but never did it cross her mind that the threat would reach home, breach through the walls of the school. it perturbed her, made her grow even more impatient and willing to step out beyond the walls and finish it for good. for the sake of everyone.

as she faced perseus, she became aware of a growing anxiety rooted within her out of nowhere. it crept up like ivy, puncturing through every organ in her body in a series of pricks and jabs of fear that could not be explained. and that was when she noticed something. something behind perseus, down the hall, and although it was dark, she saw it gleam.

“ p-percy! ”.

he threw a glance over his shoulder and pushed the girl back and rose a hand. at that moment, a cold beam shot through the palms of his hands, a shard of ice hissing through vapor and spearing through whatever had tried to attack them. upon closer inspection, seren recognized it to be a goblin.

a goblin.

“ we need to find the others, now ”, he claimed, his voice orotund yet also exhausted. magic spells require a lot of mana, which drains energy from your body. seren stood there marveling at the bleeding creature that had seemingly come from nowhere. lockhart did not mention that one of them could summon smaller, more annoying minions. like goblins. there were going to be more, much more.

so they took off running. the halls were dark, only a small hue of light emitted by the lines on the ground that would only light up at night and lead students elsewhere if they needed something. seeing as how nobody really came out at night, seren was perturbed by the darkness, by the silence, it was chilling in the very least.

they didn’t have to wait for too long before they encountered most of those feisty minions. this time, there were about five or six of them huddled on a table at the lounge, hissing and snarling at each other and upon seeing perseus and seren, they pounced.

of course, seren wasted no time before shifting in between spaces, meeting each goblin half-way and tore through their small bodies with the blade of her sword. what she found unpleasant was the putrid odor that erupted, something like a polluted swamp with something seriously rotting in its waters.

their green blood spilled on the carpet in ounces, seren continued to run through the lounge just a few steps behind perseus, throwing a glance over her shoulder and locking the lounge door in case anymore spawned and tried to trail after them. it would be of no use since they could spawn anywhere, but at that moment, seren was doing anything to take precautions.

“ we’re almost by romeo’s door! come on! ”.

if they had their gunner, it would be much easier. if they had their entire team, she would be able to breathe properly. but her nerves were scattered everywhere. her thoughts lingered on the goblins, on her father, on the maids that she had left with no protection unless if they’d locked themselves in. where was her father, where were the others? and last but not least, where were the two men responsible for tonight’s breach?

it didn’t take two pounds on romeo’s door for the boy to slip out, his gun in hand. seren took a moment to marvel at it, it was a vermilion red and she couldn’t help but gaze at the sword handle available at one end. it was unlikely that he would ever have to engage in close combat, but that was a marvelous idea. focus, seren! this is not the time to drool over guns!

“ we’d be much safer if we found the teachers and staff members in the cafeteria ”, romeo stated, bringing them into his room for a moment and seren got an immediately whiff of cup noddles and some sort of soda. “ but if we’re seen, we might get sent to our dorms. ”

perseus frowned, “ who cares? they need all the help they can get. half the staff members are unarmed and the security officers have probably been locked out in another section of the school. if we leave them alone, they . . . ”.

his gaze fell heavily on seren, who pretended not to notice it. she knew where the end of that sentence was heading, what he meant by such a phrase. her father was among that crowd and although he could handle himself, he may not know what he’s dealing with and he cannot face it alone.

just then, the loudspeaker boomed. lockhart came through.

“ attention, students. please ignore previous orders; we implore you arm yourself and prepare for the worst. please move steadily towards the main hall where we will dispatch you down to the railway. if you encounter something bizarre, don’t resist the urge to fight it. you are not alone tonight. ”

romeo rolled his eyes, “ well, here goes nothing. ”

it wasn’t long before students were flooding into the halls with their massive weapons, friends clinging to each other and third years in particular aiding the younger years through the right directions to safety. they hadn’t found the others just yet, seren became worried that they might have encountered some trouble. that was until she saw a towering giant through the crowd. her voice broke, “ kailen! ”.

the archer caught sight of her and jogged over, evangelos and alexander joining him. seeing them all brought her a temporary sense of relief, they were still in danger but as a full group, they might be able to get to safety, well, safely . . .

“ anyone else encounter the goblins? ”.

“ goblins? ”.

“ in the main lounge, we found some just piling onto the table. we figured they were being spawned randomly, something to do with one of the men in the training arena. even if they can’t break out, they will find a way to harm the students. ”

just when evangelos was about to propose an idea, the ground trembled once more and for a moment, it seemed like the world was tilting. the building gave a minor lean before righting himself, and it probably settled on the minds of everyone, on how the world they were managing to make so much damage, how they were making the school shake, and just what they were doing in that training arena.

“ if we can take them down, we might be able to reduce casualties. and who knows, we might be able to understand what they want ”, kailen spoke, nodding towards the hall that would take them up to the training arena quickly if they were willing to job.

alexander shook his head, “ we might just end up making everything worse. we’d be better off heading down like everyone else and avoid any harsh injuries. ”

“ where’s your heroism, alexander? ”, romeo spat. “ we don’t know what’s in there, sure, and we’re most likely never going to find out unless if we get off our asses and seek them out. we could stop them from advancing until reinforcements come in. we could reduce casualties but if we stay here doing nothing, it’s not going to matter! ”.

“ well let’s just go then! ”.

seren managed to bellow out the final word, which brought everyone out of their complex panic and sent them moving towards the training arena, resisting the wave of petrified students who just wanted to get to safety. the girl felt sorry to see the pale faces of first year students, innocent and naive youths who were most likely the targets of tonight.

student casualties would strike the heart of valhalla and shatter the school spirit, possibly putting arthur’s leadership into question and the military’s defenses into skepticism. nobody would be happy regardless but they could resist, they could try to resist it.

soon, the wave of students broke and their steps quickened whilst darting down many halls. one convenient hall gave the view of the training arena from a lower level but she could still see the smoke rising and what seemed to be like lights sparking within the huge, cracked dome.

“ they’re trying to explode their way past the doors! ”, evangelos called.

seren’s semblance kicked in, she pushed past everyone and reached the front of the group. “ kailen, evan, you’re with me. we’ll take the longer way to establish a forward attack plan. the rest of you, you need to go via the elevator and each put up your defenses on those doors. do not let them out, and if they do kick through the doors, keep pushing them into the arena! ”, she instructed, and this time around, nobody seemed willing to counter.

the longer way was through a staircase leading to a top entrance of the arena. the others would be heading into the lower bounds and could take up their positions by exit doors and whichever door they broke through, somebody would be able to push the men back. there were three exit doors, which she thought would be the only stroke of luck they would have tonight.

from what she knew, alexander could break out of his healing capabilities and access security buffs and probably enchant the doors. perseus could wrap a door in ice, and romeo could stun them with grenades if they breached out. they had strong defenses, which meant that her, evan and kailen would most likely come into the offenses.

it was just a matter of luck. a lot of luck, because they were entering through the stands and would have to be beyond quiet, quieter than silence in itself to not raise any alarms. and strike from above.

easier said than done.

“ do we have any information on these guys? ”.

evangelos’s question brought seren out of her thoughts quickly and she darted to respond, “ one has a summoning semblance or some sort of summoning magic. the other man, i have no idea about. they’re hearing laughs from the arena, so i’m assuming there’s a maniac in there. ”

kailen grunted, “ two, if we’re being honest. ”

the last thing they needed to deal with was a mad hatter, and yet she was certain that was exactly what they were going to be dealing with. an insane jester of a henchman with tomfoolery behavior. and as they reached the end of the stairs and bolted down through the entrance hall towards the stands, it became a lot more obvious.

the maniacal laughter could be heard from the other side, followed by the tremors of explosions and summoning spells being chanted. they were brewing up a storm within the training arena and were ready to unleash it through the halls and attack the heart of valhalla before all the students could be evacuated. but seren could not stand the thought of her home being destroyed, of this monolith falling from the sky.

because if it did fall, it would crush the city beneath them.

“ great, how do we get in without making it obvious? ”.

seren held her index finger to her lips, experiencing a sudden stroke of genius. she rose iron thorn’s acicular tip and pressed it against the lock, and with a minor click, the door swung silently open, and they flooded in before the light could see out.

in the arena, sound traveled more than anything. and in this instance, the maniacal laughter that came from the center of the closed dome covered every atom in the space. though seren crouched behind the arena seats, she would peek over and she had caught sight of two, simply put, demonic figures at the center. one throwing what seemed to be explosives in the shape of colored balloons, and another using what seemed to be druid magic.

“ oh, isn’t this fun, annakin? just you and me and these steel doors! ”.

seren was horrified when she got a closer look at the jester. he was tall, six feet in height. well, she couldn’t tell if it was a he or she, it was an it. because there was no way it was human. it didn’t have a head. rather, in place of its heard, there were two masks. two french theater masks, one wore a smile, whilst the other wore a saddening frown. it wore what seemed to be a medieval court jester outfit, simple, with a satchel tied to its waist, where it seemed to have been taking out its balloon grenades.

and beside him, stood something to completely contrast an almost theatrical henchman. a horned demon, seven feet in height, wearing dark robes, wielding a spear which glowed every time it chanted. annakin, as the jester called it, was the one behind the goblins. seren could hear that disgruntling laughter of those inferior forest vermin in the sea of green that annakin brewed and summoned them from, placing them around randomly and it explained how they ended up in the lounge room.

the girl heard evangelos utter something under his breath, and turned to see him crouching in close proximity to her, she gulped slightly when her heart gave a small jump in her chest. “ i could crash the party and give everyone outside an alert to come in ”, he dropped his voice lower than a whisper and she still managed to hear him over the chaos downstairs.

seeing as how he relied a lot on his anger to moderate his more powerful attacks, she didn’t hesitate before nodding at him, it would be very effective if he went in with the surprise attack and if she followed suit, kailen staying up above to strike anything or anyone down.

evangelos moved quickly, pacing down the steps until he reached the edge of the stands. if he moved, he’d drop. and that’s exactly what he did. oh, he lunged, gauntlets fired up, flaring with that same red glow from yesterday, throwing himself over the edge and whistling in the midst of his fall.

seren actually flinched when the impact made the ground, she grasped onto a chair but followed suit, crouching behind the small wall of the stands and peeked over to where kailen stood, bow stretched, arrow ready to strike.

“ sorry to invade your party, boys! just kidding, i’m not! ”.

“ why, you little-- ”.

when seren pushed herself over the edge, the ground quickly met her feet and she shifted, soon finding iron thorn against the jester’s throat, glowing with the faint blue of an ice essence that was ready to freeze everything in her line of sight. and that excluded nearly nothing.

jester turned but made no further attempt at attacking. the frowning mask appeared to fold in more sorrow, and panic erupted through its voice. “ p-please, don’t hurt me! it takes such a long time to sow me back up again, i don’t want to be a burden to lady salem ”, it cried.

seren blinked slightly. that was when she noticed the cloth-like appearance to an almost animated figure, it was far from human and it didn’t seem all too magical. it was probably why it trembled under the weight of iron thorn’s blade. 

what struck her was that this dumb doll had just given everything away. this was salem’s doing.

when the exit doors suddenly exploded, she made a harsher attempt at keeping this jester in place, digging the tip of her rapier deeper against its chest and pushing it towards the center of the arena.

“ would you look at that! a demon and a clown, how . . . anticlimactic as fuck ”.

romeo would have incited a laugh out of seren that time around but her expression remained grim, never once did she rip her gaze away from the monstrosity that now fell to the ground, scrambling as if searching for mercy.

“ if you’re working with salem, you’re going to be really valuable for us ”, evangelos sounded psychotic, but he had a reason to. they had struck horror within the school that night and nobody wanted them out more than the students did. but they would be valuable if kept under surveillance and forced to talk. “ drop your weapons before it gets ugly. ”

it took them a moment to listen. annakin gave a grunt, hesitant to hand his weapon over even though evangelos’s gauntlets were gleaming at this point and alexander seemed ready to bring in a deterioration buff. jester also made no attempt at moving until iron thorn began to glow again, seething with ice.

“ a-annakin, drop it! ”.

he didn’t. which was why perseus suddenly launched his hand forward and a yellow hue engulfed the spear the demon clung so tightly on, and when the boy began pulling as if to shake the spear from his grasp, annakin held on tighter. “ we’re not joking, drop the weapon! ”, romeo cried. 

perseus grunted and pulled harder on an invisible rope, and it seemed like he was almost there until jester suddenly pounced and removed something from his pouch and launched it at perseus when the boy’s defenses were at their weakest point. one of the balloon grenades flew directly towards the boy and only seren saw to it in time to cut through the grenade, and unfortunately, was thrown back by the impact of the explosion rattling against iron thorn. and like a repeat of the dueling lesson, smoke engulfed them.

rather, the jester. alexander cut his hand through the air and a strong current of wind blew through the smoke, brushing it aside quickly but by then, the jester had already vanished. and the spear was back in annakin’s grasp and suddenly he was brewing up something they could not stop.

because when he dug the tip of the spear into the ground, the building shook once more, enough to throw all of the students to the ground like an earthquake found them while they were airborne.

“ they’re getting away! ”.

this time, seren couldn’t stop them even if she tried, battling against the immense vibrations on the ground that made it impossible to stand up, like a giant tap dancing on the floor, the world around them seemed to be shaking with no intention in stopping.

when annakin grabbed jester, they bolted towards one of the exits, and the clown made no attempt in stopping the terrors of tonight when it grasped another balloon grenade and threw it up at the ceiling. the contact was inevitable and whilst the henchmen escaped, the dome began to cave in on them.

seren saw the ceiling breaking into chunks, one descending right on top of her and she closed her eyes, preparing herself to be crushed. and she swore, for a moment, that she heard the collapsing horn of a train outside.

it never came.

all she heard was an explosion directly above her and felt two arms scoop her up, wind against her skin, before she was back down on the floor. upon opening her eyes, she was met with the eyes of a concerned evangelos looming over her, and even through her ringing ears, she could hear him asking her if she was okay.

the girl was unresponsive as she glanced over to see her teammates safe and sound, nobody got crushed. 

the tears came flooding in like a dam bursting.

seren turned her head softly back to evangelos, bottom lip quivering, jaw clenched, soul aching. “ the railway . . . t-the emergency train . . . ”, her voice came out in a weak excuse of a pained whisper.

“ seren? ”.

“ t-they shot the emergency train down . . . ”.

#chapter four #original writing #fantasy #magic #futuristic #dystopian

[thesalemsaga]

BEACH EPISODE PLS PLS PLS

“ would you mind helping me give these out? don’t drop them! ”.            ⌜ ☾ ⌟   ―――   𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻 as you might know, seren had a sheltered upbringing, meaning that she didn’t get much of a chance to leave her room much. but when given the chance to visit the beach, she’ll let it develop into one of the most special memories in her life. we know she’ll definitely put on an adorable bathing suit, probably polka-dotted with a frilly top or maybe those ones with a tiny skirt. although she’d love to swim, seren will stick to sun-bathing and probably sitting down by the bar making something for everyone to drink. the only way you’ll get her in the water is by throwing her in, so good luck!

“ i’m getting my beauty tan, don’t interrupt me! ”.

          ⌜ ☼ ⌟   ―――   𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼

we know romeo, he wouldn’t miss it for the world. it would be a good chance to catch a wave and probably show his abs off but he would mostly be there to be with everybody else. he would be shifting between different activities, but he might tend to some sports like volleyball or some football ( soccer for you americans. ) the peak of his performance will be when he returns from his swim to sunbathe, and it’s best to leave him alone. but also don’t he might end up laying there for too long and burning himself. expect them not to wake him up when he dozes off, though.

“ w-would you mind if i just did some light reading? ”.

         ⌜ ☆ ⌟   ―――   𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿

alexander? heat? maybe those two won’t go too well together, and he’s not as active as everyone else. so you’d find him under the parasol making company for both seren and romeo, possibly entertaining himself in some light reading and getting ready to kick someone square in the jaw if they try to throw him into the sea. it’s not that he dislikes the sea, it’s just that he’s used to sitting quietly. expect him to wander off and get people some drinks, maybe dump cold water over romeo to wake him up when it’s time to go. if someone approaches him after they came out of the sea, you might see him sneer and shoo them away with his book.

“ i’ll swim once i’m finished, i promise! ”.         ⌜ ❁ ⌟   ―――   𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲𝘂𝘀 you already know perseus is bringing his best painting supplies to the trip. just because it’s a trip elsewhere doesn’t mean he can’t get his artistic skills improved. he’ll possibly paint a landscape or choose one of his teammates to replicate into pure art on his drawing pad. similarly to how alexander will stay under the shade, its possible you’ll see him wander to draw a palm tree or something. and if he has his equipment, expect to see him snorkelling, he really loves that. he usually comes back with bright ideas once coming out of the ocean.

“ dry your hair, you’ll catch a cold! ”.        ⌜ ❁ ⌟   ―――   𝗸𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻 as opposed to the rest of these lazy idiots, kailen would be up and doing a lot of things. but he’d be mainly out there to enjoy himself like everyone else, begging them to join him in a game of volleyball and getting super pouty if they say no. he’d be spending the most time in the ocean, probably only coming out if it was time to eat. if he wasn’t swimming, he’d be roasting up a lovely barbeque for everyone. if they’re coming out of their swim, he’ll run over with their towel to keep them warm. just a stressed out dad, if we’re being honest.

“ just one more wave, i promise ”.       ⌜ ❁ ⌟   ―――   𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘀 you might not know this but evan has a slight fear of big bodies of water, so it’s likely he won’t go in for a swim, and he might punch someone if he’s pulled in. you might see him settle to listen to some music or play a sport with the others, he might even help seren with the drinks but he’ll go nowhere near the sea. he might be the first one suggesting they go home, mostly because romeo’s complaining started to annoy him. he may ask someone to build a sandcastle with him, though.

#non canon !

[thesalemsaga]

𝟯 — 𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗻

—   𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙢 𝙨𝙖𝙜𝙖.

𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 : 5.9k words

𝙨 : getting the final three people to join her is proven to be much more difficult than realized, and along with that, seren is forced to deal with some realities before she comes to her final decision.

“ alright everyone, settle down, settle down! don’t keep me waiting! ”.

it was a monday morning, and dueling was the first lesson on the enormous timetable. it was why her nerves were much more jumpy than usual. it was also probably because her final candidate was present in the room with her.

the dueling classrooms were much bigger than most, huge as a lecture hall with a ten metre mat in the center where the demonstrations took place, where the teacher would often invite someone down for a short lesson. regardless of your class or semblance, it was not optional to skip dueling class.

it was perhaps the best subject seren had, as alchemy and engineering often tired her brain out to an extent where she would be unable to talk. she much rather preferred facing off a classmate in a clash of swords than anything else.

but her quest today was much more simpler than just a fight. in reality, seren’s attention was nailed to someone in particular, someone she desperately needed on her team to make this entire plan work. without a healer, they were as good as dead, regardless of their status and skills as trained fighters.

romeo and kailen had made their attempts at convincing alexander sallow to join them, both came back with disappoint written on their faces. and to add fuel to the fire, the last two members would only join if alexander managed to make it into the team.

it was all left to seren in the end.

the teacher who led the dueling lessons was no other than master lockhart, a close friend of the principal and a personal favorite of the girl, mostly because he often skipped her when it came to demonstrations. she could handle a fight like the next person but being observed critically perturbed her. the fear mainly manifested at the worry of messing up and being laughed at, which happened five or six times in the past three years and people tend not to leave her alone because of it.

today, of all days, however, they were speaking of something to do very closely to her semblance, as shown on the board behind lockhart.

speed vs power.

“ today, we’ll be doing something a bit different ”, lockhart announced. he, a man in his late forties, fortified as he carried himself with strength and purpose, truly could not be disliked even by the most complicated students. he was a fun teacher, one to leave you alone if you were uncomfortable and to accept if you were enthusiastic. he was a rather handsome man, with his blonde hair slicked back and a mediterranean smile dancing over thin lips. his eyes were truly remarkable, though. grey, a color of a wise man.

seren didn’t see any unfamiliar faces that day. she had actually walked to class with kailen and romeo after having breakfast with them, purposefully avoiding her father yet again but without ill intent, she just needed to stay focused. 

among those faces, she also spotted the final three candidates, evangelos and perseus sat beside each other and alexander sat at the front, seeming rather uninterested.

seren didn’t get to peek for too long in fear that he had some sort of psychic semblance, but she got the impression that he was silent, distant and far from someone who could easily be convinced to join such a mission. but even though he looked stubborn, she needed the results. she needed to impress him, to get something across, and if it didn’t work, then she would have to approach him. and she wasn’t planning on being gentle.

lives were at stake, and if he didn’t want to join, then it was his loss. but it was worth trying.

“ speed and power, two opposing forces, as some would put it ”, lockhart began, motioning to the board. “ you can either have one or the other and when faced with someone with the opposite skill, you might find yourself struggling. because at the end of the day, they cannot top each other. ”

seren had heard of two soldiers in the past. one blessed with immense strength and the other with speed, and they made a rather impressive due what with the number of criminals they managed to take down. they left the military to become solo hunters, and ended up reducing crime rates when the people of the empire started to lose some of their previous morals.

the professor turned and glanced over his students, “ when these two meet in a fight, it is unlikely that one is going to top the other. they can both do some wicked damage against each other, especially if they’re at equal quality. so if you have two trained fighters representing one of these, and you force them to fight, they will not come out with at least some injuries. ”

someone behind seren suddenly blurted out a question, she recognized it to be a girl from her alchemy class. “ why are we learning about them, sir? most people tend to side with one skill anyway ”.

“ ah! but that’s exactly the problem. these two are just minor examples of an issue certain people have when finding their style of fighting ”, lockhart was quick to respond. “ they think they have to choose something to fit their look as a fighter. only fire magic, only ice magic. only big guns, only small guns. only power, only speed. folks, you’re missing the point! ”.

seren felt herself leaning against her desk a tiny bit more. lockhart’s lessons are the ones that tend to light up a flame in any ambitious and resilient fighter such as herself, she could see it through the eyes of her other classmates that the message was growing more interesting as the man spoke.

he carried himself to the center of the fighting mat, yet his speech never ended. “ the gift of being a hero is not just playing by the rules you see in old rpg games where you have the ice mage and the fire mage. no! reality is so much more fun, you can be anything you want and you don’t have to separate skills into two boxes ”, he looked among them and gave his usual smile. a comforting one, that of a man who had aged well and knew things that not many would imagine knowing.

“ you can easily have both. which is what i’m about to show you. i’m going to show you exactly what happens when you end up using these attacks together ”, he paused and looked among the students, and although seren quickly sunk back into her seat, it didn’t stop him from settling his eyes over her. “ miss armsend, if you’d please step up. ”

the girl sucked a breath in. the immediate shift of all the wandering gazes in the classroom landing on her triggered a dread in her stomach, yet seren could not simply reject the teacher’s demand if she wanted to keep being the perfect dueling student that she’s always been. her father wouldn’t be happy, and that was something she was not going to risk.

gulping, the girl settled with a smile and rose from her desk. teachers had access to the weapons that were kept in separate lockers, and since iron thorn had managed to find itself within lockhart’s grasp, something within seren told her he was going to pick her all along. he was a kind man, but not so when it came to dueling.

as she descended down the steps and paced onto the dueling mat, lockhart went around searching for someone else. “ as miss armsend has a speed semblance, i will need someone who majors more on the strength aspect of combat. maybe another swordsman, or a brawler . . . ”, whilst he contemplated, the girl familiarized herself with the grip of her sword, trembling in her uniform.

“ mr chrysanthos? ”.

oh you’re joking, right?

murmurs flooded out between the students, most of the attention turned to the boy sitting beside an amused perseus. seren glanced over her shoulder and settled her own eyes on evangelos, whose face gave nothing away. and that just made her tremble with a lot more fear.

evangelos was a brawler, and a fucking good one. tall, packed to the brim with muscle, and from what she was told, was always angry. it was why he could reduce people to ashes with his gauntlets, releasing out an ounce of anger through every punch and kick, trained seriously in martial arts and from what she could tell, he could crush her with his bare hands.

and the fact that the male stood and began to walk down to the training mat just made seren grow increasingly apprehensive. she was accustomed to facing her old man with his cane, and even at the age of fifty, years of experience in the military and a keen eye in combat, arthur armsend intimidated her less than evangelos.

one might say, she didn’t have to worry because she would not be fighting evangelos when he joins the team. the punches will not be directed towards her, yet seren was shocked to the core of fucking up here and spoiling her chances of impressing the male and losing a candidate. and with him, probably perseus as well.

she couldn’t lose this.

“ five minutes. i want to see a normal duel. knocking the person out is not the intention here, but pushing them to the ground is. regardless of power or speed, you’re useless if you’re on the floor ”, lockhart handed evangelos the gauntlets, which he equipped quickly. “ the rest of you can observe, and try to imagine what these two forces would be like when put together in a formal duel. ”

evangelos stood far from her, jaw clenched, disinterested as always. he seemed to have a similar strategy to her, of coating his emotions behind a poker face. however, it still felt like he didn’t have any worries to hide. he didn’t see seren as a threat.

and for obvious reasons, she felt the insult like a punch in the gut.

“ ready, set, and . . . begin! ”.

an explosion erupted long before seren could prepare herself and that came from evangelos lunging forward. he was quick! but what worried her more at that moment was how those gauntlets flared up with a red color.

with no armor or shield, seren relied on her speed. no essences were allowed to be used, so she shifted quickly. her semblance acts, well, quickly. you won’t really see her move, you’ll just find her in a different place at the blink of an eye. upon shifting, she found herself behind the male, but he cut through and turned right back to her. every bone in her body rattled with fear.

when the gauntlets collided with iron thorn, a sound thundered and shook the classroom, rendering both fighters stunned for a moment. thankfully, neither weapons showed signs of breaking, iron thorn was perfectly sharp and far from beaten. and nobody showed any signs of falling just yet.

given the position and the proximity, seren’s eyes widened when she swung the rapier hard enough to create that same auditory ripple that sent evangelos pinging back into the other side of the training mat, landing on his two feet, but not without some of those dark locks coming out of place.

thirty seconds in and seren felt like giving up. especially after seeing the seething rage erupting from the boy’s gaze, it could kill.

neither moved for a second, contemplating their chances and their moves and when they did move, it was in unison.

when evangelos threw his fist forward, she was expecting him to lunge, but he didn’t. from the other side of the training mat, seren witnessed a spark and cursed briefly under her breath upon realizing he had a ranged weapon, of which the shots resembled a shotgun, two that barely missed the girl, one cutting through a few locks of her pink hair.

when the third shot rang, seren was ready to receive it. the bullet came and almost within a sudden slowness in time, she lifted the sword in her hand and cut through it, and recoiled away just in time for the explosion to go off. had she stayed, it would have most likely shattered iron thorn in half.

the smoke cloud created engulfed the girl long enough to look down and peer at her sword, gleaming and steaming from having cut a shotgun bullet in half. in all honesty, she was not expecting the bullets to pack such a punch, and she could only imagine the damage it could do when facing it up close.

coughing through the smoke, seren prepared to be jumped, or prepared for someone to expect her to jump. yet she remained perfectly still, thinking deeply. her goal was not to demonstrate how speed could bide well with power, her only goal was to bring the boy to his knees and she could only do that with the skill she had. which was fine by her. 

“ come on, armsend, i don’t have all day to play hide and seek! ”.

no response.

the next movement came in a series of blinks. the grey in which she had surrounded herself with was not disturbed when she breached through and spawned beside the male, before shifting again, and again, drawing a circle around him, almost as a taunt.

a taunt that most certainly worked, especially when the male groaned, turned to where she was going to shift again, and threw a fist. seren felt like she was going to feel the punch for the rest of her life, yet it never came as she expected.

because she shifted once more, this time, behind the male, fast enough to kick the soles of her school shoes against his back and sending him plummeting forward. 

evangelos was not done, though.

to others, it happened at normal speed. but seren saw everything. she saw the way he turned before he could fall for certain, the way the gauntlet suddenly glowed with a heavy red, and the way the heat traveled in her direction. and if she blocked with iron thorn, she would have no weapon. so her forearms did the work.

the impact shattered against her forearms, first through the impact of the solid iron of the gauntlets, followed by a burning sensation that incited a bellow of anger from a usually silent seren.

as evangelos eventually met the ground with a grunt, seren felt her back scrapping the floor until she came to a stop. and when she did, the burning settled and with the lack of her blazer, the injuries became more obvious. students loomed over their desks and gasped.

her forearms were glowing with a bizarre redness, throbbing with agony that words simply couldn’t explain. the girl smacked a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming, yet once lockhart ran over to loom over her and check on her, he made the mistake of pressing his cold hands against the burning skin, and seren could not help the scream this time around.

“ relax, relax! it’s okay, come on, stand up. ”

despite the encouragement, the girl couldn’t go through with it. it hurt, it hurt like a bitch, it felt like someone had dropped lava over her arms and she was beginning to feel it in her bones, the tears had miraculously stopped before they could breach through the surface. 

she had managed to complete the task but not before getting two giant burn marks of her forearms when trying to defend herself. great.

seren did not find the courage to look up once she was pulled to her feet. she already heard the gasps, the tuts, some laughs, and it was humiliating, to say the least. the redness in her ears could not match that on her arms. 

evangelos had gotten himself up to his feet, face blank as always. the girl wanted to apologize for something so foolish, it was her fault for throwing herself into such an attack that she could have blocked with her weapon, but it was either her arms or iron thorn, and she was not sacrificing her rapier.

“ regardless of the injury, you saw it, folks ”, lockhart continued with the lesson regardless, keeping the two students on the dueling mat as he turned to everyone else. “ you saw the vibration that came from two powerful weapons coming into close contact, you saw how she was able to cut through an explosive and give herself cover, you saw how he slowed her down with those bullets. now, think of attacks like those put together. think of improving your speed to strengthen your power and vice versa. ”

seren didn’t look up when he motioned to her.

lockhart pressed on, “ many people have managed to incorporate both those skills into their weapons and fighting style. you will end up in teams one day and if there’s no one with those skills, you will be able to do wonders. there’s no use separating these repelling forces from each other, especially when you want to be a stronger fighter. ”

as they were allowed to chat amongst themselves, lockhart approached seren, clearly struggling to keep the tears in. he looked upon her red forearms and sighed, “ do you want to go to the nurse’s office? ”.

she quickly shook her head.

“ seren. ”

“ i-i’m fine, sir, really. it’ll pass. i’ll just ask someone to put some ice on it. ”

suck it up, nobody’s going to feel bad for making you cry on the battlefield, her father’s voice rang in her head louder than usual. she was a sensitive soul, she couldn’t mask her feelings as easily as others, most definitely when she was injured. her arms were burning and aching and she would rather someone chopped them off than have to face with it for any longer. yet seren stood, biting her lip, choking back the tears.

lockhart didn’t push. “ alright, return to your seat. thank you for your cooperation, miss armsend ”. with a nod, the girl kept her head down and shuffled back to her seat, walking past evan in an apologetic silence. when she sat down, only one person turned to her to ask if she was okay. she didn’t know how she managed to keep the tears in, but she did. smiling and nodding.

she was fine.

and besides, it seemed like her mission had made some progress.

from her seat, she could see alexander sitting down at the lower row, peering back at her with quizzing eyes. choosing not to stare him down, seren offered the boy a sweet smile and turned back to her books, even if she had no reason to. she was in desperate need of a healer right now, and this would repeat at some point in the future. she would need a healer then as well. 

she needed alexander to be her healer. and injury or no injury, she was going to get him to join.

time skip . . .

“ i swear to fucking god, i’m going to kill evangelos! ”.

seren laughed shyly.

it was lunch time now, and her afternoon class got cancelled once her father heard of her injury. he said that he didn’t want her near anymore fire and so was willing to bring her out of alchemy class. it was embarrassing, she didn’t want it to be a big deal. it was her fault, anyway.

chatter had mostly died out yet some would occasionally look over at where they sat, most would roll their eyes. especially now. kailen sat beside her and was wrapping up bandages around her swollen forearms, listening as romeo rambled on and on through his meal, unhappy with the state of things.

any other party would claim she did it for attention, which she got, especially since she was being patched up by a pretty boy. yet her issue remained on evangelos.

she saw the frown on his face, a building frustration that made her quiver in fear. she would hate it if she got him into trouble, and it was why she came up to lockhart after the lesson and begged him to keep evangelos out of trouble and let her take the blame. because it was her fault.

she did it because of an inner quarrel of possibly breaking her weapon or breaking her arms and she chose the latter. if iron thorn got broken, she might as well just die on the spot.

“ he was going to fall anyway, so he saw it best to give her something else to deal with. a final move ”, kailen spoke for the first time since they arrived at the cafeteria. seren watched him go about his work quietly. “ it was just badly timed. it’s no one’s fault. ”

seren frowned, “ it was my fault. ”

a groan came from romeo.

“ seren, love, hear me out. nobody knew you were doing it to protect your weapon. looking at that sword, i can see it costs a fuck ton of money and time. i would rather throw myself in front of evangelos than have someone nearly break my beauty in half ”, he was speaking about his riffle, of course. “ and who asked him to throw that much of a punch? he was going to kill you! ”.

thinking about it now, seren couldn’t help but laugh.

she ran a hand through her hair and suddenly stopped when a few locks ended short. she recalled the bullet that had cut through her hair and her stomach was filled with dread again.

“ it was a duel, and that’s his fighting style. it just looks intimidating because that’s just how he fights ”, seren was quick to come to evangelos’s defense. he carried himself strongly through the fight, it was admirable albeit terrifying. “ it’s funny, something tells me iron thorn could have survived that. ”

kailen tied the ends of the bandage on her left arm and peeked up at her. “ then why didn’t you use iron thorn? ”.

“ because i wanted alexander’s attention. ”

that would have sounded very creepy if they didn’t know the context.

romeo’s jaw fell for a moment, almost to the point where the water in his mouth spilled. he choked and coughed suddenly. “ h-hold on ”, he gulped. “ you’re telling me you nearly shattered your arms because you wanted that idiot to consider joining? ”.

“ sympathy goes a long way. ”

“ seren, you sociopath. ”

the girl gave him an apologetic smile. call it stupid, something a sociopath or maniac would do, but seren could handle the pain if it meant she would have the results she wanted. sacrificing her comfort at the price of making the world safer was something she was willing to repeat a dozen times. she knew the injury would heal, especially if there was someone capable on the team to do just that, and it was why she was not worried.

she would be worried, however, if they didn’t have a healer. and the one she wanted was alexander, a boy she hadn’t formally met just yet but she knew she would eventually, especially after today.

the consistency of leaving the walls had been obvious within the top ten, and she doubted only one person would break that streak. they were young dreamers, surely he would show some interest. and from what kailen told her, he did hesitate before declining. alexander just needed a small push in the right direction, and she was willing to offer that.

“ all done. ”

snapping out of her thoughts, seren was met with bandaged arms and a fruit juice carton being held towards her by kailen. chuckling, she accepted it and enjoyed the short amount of time they had left till lunch was over. the two boys had to continue on with their lessons, meaning she would be left alone. it was alright, though, she could head off the library.

and when the bell rang, that was where she went.

the valhalla library was immeasurable in size, stacked to the roof with books of all sorts, most were history books detailing accounts of the old earth before the period of ragnarok fell upon them. ranging from world wars to killer epidemics that nearly rid the earth of humans, there was a lot on history but that was not what seren was searching for.

seren was not searching for knowledge nor aid in her exams, nor the comfort of a fictional adventurous or romantic tale. rather, she was searching for someone who had claimed the library as his domain.

the shelves were the same mahogany as her father’s desk, polished every day by the valhalla companions who were capable of floating or climbing or flying. she spotted ted-ee 012 carrying a seat of hovering books behind him, waving at her when they spotted each other.

non-fiction section, desk beside the window without a curtain. those were kailen’s exact words from yesterday and the girl made an attempt at not forgetting them, bringing herself to the said location where she hoped to find the boy who had been hiding from her this whole time.

and what do you know, he was there when she approached.

alexander had been the only boy she had not approached or spoken with, mostly in fear of being turned away. and after the day she had today, she didn’t want to struggle more than she already had. she wanted to leave the library with a smile on her face, and possibly get some rest for tomorrow.

being a healer, alexander and many others were posed with books and ancient scrolls with many enchantments, buffs and spells to learn that would come into effect when they came into combat with their teammates. it required time, energy, and a behemoth amount of patience as they cannot just be learnt overnight.

seren hated to interrupt him, so she didn’t. rather, she turned and reached for a random book within the shelves, and retrieved a book on monsters. dragons, to be more specific.

alexander’s table was empty of people, but it was covered in scrolls and sheets of paper in languages that she could not recognize, possibly ancient or made up ones related mostly to the work regarding clerics. ( another fancy word for healers. ) when she pushed the chair back and sat down as quietly as she could, the sound of her setting her book down still seemed to disturb the boy.

when she looked up as well and met his gaze, she offered him another sweet smile almost identical to the one she had offered that morning, and the boy swiftly returned to his studies. seren looked back, not wishing to disturb him.

the girl had the intention of talking to the boy eventually, but she allowed the comfortable silence in and began to enjoy the book she had randomly selected. the first few pages talked about the origin of dragons, the cultural depictions of them, versus the real life ones that people have begun to encounter.

they spoke about the different colors, the different breeds, the different sorts of treasure that the scaled beasts guarded, and the rarity of a golden dragon. seren had the imagination of a mere child, it was no wonder she began to daydream about her adventure even if it wasn’t happening for certain.

the grassy plains, the abandoned and crumbling pillars, abandoned castles, dense forests with trees of all colors, not to mention the dozen creatures they could encounters. faes, nymphs, maybe the very dragons that were so rare to find. maybe a unicorn, maybe a pegasus, maybe an alicorn. 

seren read so many fantasy books growing up that she wasn’t certain any of those creatures did exist or if it was just a rumor spread around by bored military soldiers. but she remained hopeful.

fifteen minutes into reading, alexander suddenly cleared his throat.

“ does it hurt? ”.

seren took a moment to recall the burns. she closed her book for a moment, surprised to have finally gotten the male to talk. she lifted her two forearms with a curious tilt to the head, only to confirm that he was talking about them. when he nodded, she chuckled. “ no, not really. well, it did in the beginning. but now it’s kinda numb now that it’s swollen ”, shouldering the pain as she always does. in reality, she could still feel it aching perhaps ten times more than before.

alexander hummed, peering down at his papers. he seemed uncertain to talk, so she looked down, not wanting to take up any of his time. if he was forcing himself to talk to her, then she wouldn’t be happy with herself.

“ i’ve . . . uh, been working on this new healing spell. ”

seren immediately started shaking her head. “ please. i think i deserve this injury this time around. but hey, if we’re ever in a battlefield together, you can definitely help me then ”. was that too direct?

based on his confused reaction, it was. alexander looked puzzled, “ t-that’s weird, kailen and romeo both came up to me the other talking about the same thing. they want me to join a team or something. ”

“ yeah, they do. i am the one who asked them, after all. ”

the small oh from alexander caused a laugh out of the girl, the first proper laugh that day. his entire reaction was comical, from the widening of his eyes to the minor blush around his cheeks.

“ though ”, she continued. “ i will not be upset if you say no. well, i will, because i wouldn’t have the most qualified healer on the team. i would have to look for someone else, and lord knows how long that will take. and maybe by then, it would have been too late.”

with a minor pause to wince at the injury when she moved her arms, seren pressed on. “ i know the time and effort that goes into learning all of these spells and the pain of being seriously underestimated afterwards must suck. healers are essential ”, she voiced.

alexander mumbled softly, “ it takes me two nights to learn five spells. ”

“ see? it’s a lot of hard work ”, seren smiled softly and leaned back against her chair. “ we could use a healer like you, alexander. you’re powerful as hell, you’re second on the ranks, do you know how powerful that is? ”. the boy suddenly appeared shy. “ a prodigy like you belongs in a team of other prodigies. ”

“ i’m far from a prodigy. ”

“ oh, please! you’re amazing, alexander. my father talks about you all the time. but believe me, all this hard work is going to be for nothing unless if we don’t get up and do something ”.

their conversation came to a stand still when the librarian, a small and petite woman with a seriously receding hairline came over and shushed them whilst putting some books away. seren smiled apologetically and turned back to alexander.

she sighed, “ i’d love to have you on the team, alex. what good is a fighter without a healer to watch his back? ”.

the boy was conflicted, and she could very much understand why.

leaving the city would mean abandoning all previous beliefs of how the world worked and preparing yourself for what might be a major shock in your life as you see the planet for what it truly is, not for what others say it is. you’d face challenges that will deal with the mind, the soul, something that goes beyond bodily injuries.

and yet, she was able to shrug all of those worries off when she put her goal in mind. she wanted this because it would mean she could have a life when she made her return. a life of her own, not something relied on the decisions made by her superiors. it would mean freedom, freedom of choice. seren was willing to go through hell for that.

but some people weren’t, some people were scared but there was no use casting them back to their origins and letting them be scared for the rest of their lives. overcoming challenges such as these was the only way a human being can get out of the life they lied. and she wanted to encourage the boy.

“ i’d . . . i’d just feel scared of being out there. ”

“ as would i. as would anyone, these walls are the only things we’ve ever known. have you ever just thought about what lies on the other side? ”. the boy didn’t answer that. “ it could be paradise or hell. whichever it is, it won’t last for long with a wicked witch on the loose. and it’s going to take six idiots wearing their school uniform and carrying flamboyant weapons, so be it. ”

that was the first time she had seen alexander smile, and she had to admit, it was a pretty sight. she had manage to carve an opening through the timidity and glimpsed upon a boy who was just like her, but was scared. she wouldn’t mind helping him, though. they weren’t going alone, after all.

“ you’re very good at talking, seren ”, he said.

the girl shrugged, “ that’s odd, i’d say it’s what i’m worst at. i’m not even that great at holding a weapon properly. i’m not that good, believe me. i’m just really stubborn and really stupid. and really want to change the world. ”

he was the missing piece to all of this. she had gone through nights without sleep spent planning entire missions and methods of escape, hours negotiating until her voice was gone, and now her arms were burnt and swollen and she wasn’t going to give up now when alexander was right in front of her. if he said yes, then she would allow herself a sigh of relief.

if he said yes, then the journey would only begin. it wasn’t the end at all, nor even the very beginning, it was all preparation for something bigger, grander, far more important than anything she’s ever have to face in her life. she wanted to leave, she wanted to venture out, she wanted to carry herself with her own purpose rather than one that someone else had handed her.

seren wasn’t going to rest until this mission was complete. it was her purpose, she’d found her purpose and to give up on it now would be the biggest misfortune she could inflict on herself.

“ fine. ”

shooting up from her seat, seren grasped the boy’s hands and held them tightly. her eyes were glossy with tears already, “ really? ”.

“ y-yes, really. it won’t be easy. but i won’t be alone. and if it’s for a good cause -- ”.

“ -- then it’s all that matters. ”

her smile had never been brighter, eyes turned into crescents and cheeks looking rosier by the second. if happiness was embodied into one person, it was framed in seren’s figure at that moment.

alexander gave a smile of his own, though it verged more on the appearance of a smirk. “ so ”, he began. “ when do we leave? ”.

#chapter three #original writing #fantasy #magic #futuristic #dystopian

[thesalemsaga]

𝟮 — 𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻

—   𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙢 𝙨𝙖𝙜𝙖.

𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 : 6.9k words

𝙨 : in order to go beyond the walls, seren will need to assemble the best of the best to tutor. of course, they may be proven to be a little more difficult when she sees the personalities she will have to clash with to get what she wants.

the breakfast menu changed daily, and for the past three years in which she has been attending this school, seren has never changed what she ate.

it was a saturday morning, so most students were out of the school, enjoying a brisk weekend visiting family downstairs in the city, going to the beach or just enjoying the blissful feeling of being away from school. of course, to be allowed out of school on the weekend, you would have had to be on your best behavior. if you haven’t, then you’d have to stay.

but even with the choice of heading into town, some students chose to remain in their dorms and enjoy the access they had to the library and the training chambers. third-year students especially were willing to sacrifice their weekend in order to prepare themselves for upcoming exams. and since seren basically lived in the school, it is very rare not to see her in the cafeteria eating breakfast on a saturday morning.

as per usual, she had gone and chosen french toast and eggs, along with some fruit juice to sustain her for the morning. a good meal like this one would usually keep her satisfied until lunch time, that is if she didn’t have training lessons in the morning. she had a lesson later that day, and usually after it, she would flee to do something she longed for. tap dancing, going shopping, watching a movie.

today, however, it didn’t seem like she was going to catch a break.

that night before, she could barely sleep. because her father had accepted her offer, but the job had only just started. seren had proposed the idea of building up a team of the best students and take them beyond the walls to perhaps fix the issue regarding salem. it was a lot to ask, and it was going to be anything but easy, yet seren loved a challenge.

through the chatter and orchestra of cutlery echoing through the enormous cafeteria, the principal’s daughter sat alone at her usual table. the windows surrounding the place were immense, allowing a clear view of the sky outside and if she rose from her seat, she might have been able to peek at the ocean. but her gaze remained nailed to the screen of her student tablet.

seren had been glancing through student profiles, accessing deeper files that her father gave her the permission to look into, in order to find the ideal people to help her complete her mission. yesterday, she had suggested the role that the top ten could play, but even in the top ten, there would be some people who wouldn’t be too resilient for something like this.

hence why she checked some teacher feedback, looking for anyone who might be slightly courageous or reckless, who had a history of being able to protect themselves, who could be trusted to cooperate with others and maintain a good relationship with teammates.

although she had written some names down, seren had crossed them out at least five times before coming to a firm, final decision. although looking at profiles was useful, it would be perhaps better to look at these people in action, to approach them and talk to them and make her own judgement instead of relying on teachers who might be picking favorites.

“ shit, this is difficult ”, seren was not the type to curse, but finding the right people to help her save the world was proven much more difficult, you can’t expect her not to feel the pressure. and if she were to give up, she might suffocate on the feeling of seeing her father’s disappointed face.

the chatter within the cafeteria didn’t really matter to her but she looked up and tried to recognize any faces. she saw some people who were in her alchemy class, none of whom seemed to be in the top ten.

but then she suddenly stopped.

one of the faces stood out to her the most in particular, a handsome face laughing among a circle of friends enjoying a conversational breakfast. if seren wasn’t mistaken, she had seen this face whilst looking at the top ten students. perhaps it was why she had stopped instead of grazing over it. she was glad she hadn’t.

romeo yahontov, rank four, gunner. he had a particularly slim face with hollow cheeks and a sharp, defined jaw, and his eyes appeared rather kind. since it was a weekend, all students were out of their uniform, and perhaps it was why seren at first didn’t see what the big deal was about this fellow, until she recalled some of the comments teachers made and just the type of gunner that he was.

if she were to pass this opportunity, she would regret it. and although surrounded by friends, seren thought that his care-free attitude would bind well in helping her recruit more people. he had that friendly face, and he seemed assertive enough. please, let this work.

seren did not want to assume that everyone shared the same ambition as her, but she was almost certain that romeo, looking at him now, wouldn’t exactly say no. teachers called him a daredevil, albeit a rude one at times, but still someone who sought out adrenaline and did not lack any resilience when it came to trying new things. this was no class demonstration, though; this was a dangerous mission.

the girl peered at her empty plate and set her tablet aside and rose, feeling her summer skirt brushing briskly against her ankles. what she became cautious of was the fact that she couldn’t raise any suspicions among the other students, this was supposed to be top secret. and she never really approached her classmates to talk to them, so she would have to think of an odd way to pull romeo aside and really talk to him about the plans she had in mind.

the table was filled mostly by third-year boys except for one girl who seemed to one of their girlfriends. seren really didn’t want to interrupt their conversation but it had to be done. she hesitated and then after debating something within her own troubled mind, proceeded towards their table, crossing over without backing away or giving up.

they didn’t seem to take too much notice of her when she eventually walked closer until she had cleared her throat. romeo was the first to turn. the surprise in their eyes was, well, no surprise. seren hardly spoke to her classmates, which many have claimed comes with the narcissism of being the daughter of the principal, but it was just that she never knew what to say to them, how to befriend them. but this time around, she had reason to pull romeo aside.

“ romeo yahontov, may i borrow you for a second? ”.

if he was confused, romeo definitely did not show it. he simply peered over his shoulder at the female with a slow smirk encasing his lips. the letter man jacket he wore didn’t make things any better, he truly looked like a walking stereotype of a jock. 

“ sure thing, i wouldn’t miss it for the world, being able to talk to an angel. ”

based on the reactions from his friends, groans and faked gags, even a light punch on the arm, the comment wasn’t exactly appropriate. seren didn’t really understand why for a moment, angel? she didn’t get it. if there was a joke, then it had gone right over her head.

not to be discouraged, the girl nodded and watched the boy stand up with a level of enthusiasm she’s never really seen in someone before, before leading him out of the cafeteria, out of anyone’s ear shot. as she said, top secret. if someone came to her father complaining about not being invited to the mission, she’d be dead meat.

romeo paced alongside her with his hands tucked into his pockets, pleasantly whistling until he stopped and hummed, “ where are you taking me, angel? if it was a confession spot, you could have just left a note in my locker. it’d be a little bit more romantic. ”

seren stopped in the midst of her steps, peering at him with raised brows. “ sorry? ”, she questioned, shaking her head. “ no, no, i’m not doing anything like that. ”

having met the male for less than five minutes, she did not expect to see his face suddenly burn pink with embarrassment this early on. was she too curt? if she hadn’t approached him so timidly, maybe he wouldn’t have gotten this idea. “ o-oh ”, he voiced, scratching his cheek slightly. “ oh, so you’re not confessing? ”.

seren shook her head quickly. “ i-i see . . . what did you call me here for, then? ”.

he appeared to have gotten himself together and out of his previously embarrassed state. seren felt comforted to start talking, seeing as how the hall was empty. she still took a step closer just in case. “ i’m . . . i’m assembling a team of the best students in the school ”, she revealed. “ top ten, preferably. it’s for a mission, you could say. ”

romeo raked his fingers through his hair, “ and let me guess. you want me to join? that sounds like fun, what kind of mission is it? ”.

seren would have been happy to hear his willingness to help if he hadn’t been so loud. the word ‘mission’ tumbled so clumsily and loudly from his lips that it did make some passing heads turn, and she was glad to have stopped him. she smacked her hand over his mouth and shushed him, brows knitted together.

he held up his hands apologetically, but seren didn’t remove her hand. “ it’s a secret one that only my father knows about. and it’s good that he remains the only person in the school body who knows of it. it’s a journey . . . beyond the walls ”, she dropped her voice to a mere whisper, yet the shock seemed to impact romeo regardless. his eyes widened suddenly. “ i know, i know. it’s an insane idea but i feel like if we wait until graduation to do something about salem, we won’t see many days of happiness after leaving. ”

the boy murmured something incoherent.

“ sorry? ”.

romeo chuckled and then grasped her wrist, removing her hand shielding his mouth. “ i said that’s dark. but you’re right ”, he claimed, sighing slightly. “ to be honest, i don’t think i’m gonna get much action in this school aside from tournaments. and we all know how boring they are, always fighting the same people . . . it’d be nice to leave this place one day. ”

finally, someone who shared her ambition. she thought that due to sheltered up-bringing from stiff parents scared of sending their children out, that people would repel from the idea of venturing out and seeing the world for themselves. but it some were resilient like her, and for that, she was grateful for.

“ so, will you join? ”, seren raised, only then realizing that the male had still been holding her wrist and she quickly motioned for him to let go, which he did. “ i know i ask a lot and it’s probably not going to be the smoothest ride but, if it’s for a good cause, we’ll just have to sacrifice comfort for the greater good. ”

romeo shrugged, “ why not? it’s better than being stuck here having to deal with awful lessons and worrying about what path i wanna take after graduation. hell, if we’re lucky and come back with good results, i might be able to choose my own path. ”

though not one to ask people personal questioned when dealing with something professional, seren couldn’t help it this time. “ what path do you have in mind?”.

“ open up a club or a bar. maybe help my mom with some stuff at home. anything but selling my soul to the military so i’ll get killed off in the midst of a useless expedition ”, he answered, giving her a meek smile. “ to have a life of my own is what i dream of. so, yes angel, i’m in for it. ”

in all honesty, seren was not expecting such good results in the beginning. but something within her now said it was only going to become more complicated from that moment on, yet she was willing to persevere. she wasn’t going to grow discouraged if someone said no. yet she could not help the sigh of relief. 

“ who else do you plan on having on this team? ”, romeo inquired.

that, she remained uncertain of. she didn’t have too much time to waste, she had to approach many more people within a short amount of time to get what she wanted, to convince them to join. her negotiation skills weren’t too flawed but perhaps she would be able to use some help from romeo now that he had agreed. she knew some people wouldn’t take her seriously since she did not come off as the confident or stubborn type. 

appearances deceive, however, because she was burning to get this mission to work.

having looked at the list all too many times, she had become familiar with the names and skills of certain people. people whom she thought were eligible for the role. and if they were going to be as easy to charm as romeo was, then it wouldn’t be too much of an issue. but in the case that they weren’t, she didn’t mind getting physical.

and by physical, she means the pleading dance.

“ i have a few people in mind ”, the girl spoke, and brought her speech to a slight pause when a name rang in her mind, seemingly awakening a part of her mind that had completely shut down. the very person who brought her to come to this decision, the inspiration for it. the moment she looked at him, she had her epiphany. seren abruptly gasped. 

“ w-where would kailen cassius be today, right now? ”.

time skip . . .

finding the boy who had sparked the idea to begin with was proven to be a difficult task. according to romeo, kailen would be in school around this time and if they were fortunate and quick enough, they might be able to stop him before he goes into town and then have to wait till monday to bring the subject up once more. 

seren was hopeful that the journey would start on monday, yet with the struggles that they had already faced to find kailen told her it was going to take much, much longer than that. ted was unavailable on the weekend because he was enjoying what one might call a ‘spa day’, so she could not ask him to lead them to kailen.

the search had started early in the morning, and after asking around, checking in the library and cafeteria twice, searching all of the floors on the elevator even to the platform where the yggdrasil railway stopped and running through the outdoor yard at least twice, it was noon. and the girl was famished, exhausted and in dire need to find this boy.

kailen was an archer, someone with a keen eye and attention to detail, he would be a perfect addition to their team. from what she knew, he didn’t have a complicated or big personality, meaning he would work well in a group. or even help keep the group solid. he had to be in this, he was the one who helped her come up with the idea, so she had a lot to thank him for.

still, when the bell rang for lunch, there had been no sign of him.

romeo had settled on the bench of the yard outside, yawning loudly. “ it’s no use, seren. you’ll just have to wait until he comes back from town, or something. he probably went to buy a cook book, he likes that sort of stuff ”, he stated, stretching his limbs. his gaze flicked over to her. “ but you won’t be able to wait, right? ”.

was it that obvious? seren was on edge, pacing in a slightly circle, chewing on her bottom lip whilst her hands trembled. when she starts to panic like this, the universe usually has some mercy and blesses her with something to ease her down, but nothing had happened as of it. maybe all of the predominantly negative thoughts in her head were attracting, well, bad things. and that took shape in not finding the right candidates for her quest.

“ god, i’m sorry ”, the girl eventually sighed and took a seat on the same bench, adjusting her skirt. “ i just really wanna get this done. it’s too early to get this anxious but the quicker we assemble a team, the less time my father will spend contemplating his decision. ”

romeo appeared confused, “ wait, so he hasn’t said anything yet? are you doing this without his permission? ”.

“ i-i did ask for his permission. he said that if i could gather the right people since it was my idea, he’d allow me to go through with the plan. but i know my father and i know that it takes him ages to reach his final verdict, and it’s likely he’ll retract all that he said ”, seren confessed, groaning and tilting her head back to peer at the blue sky.

it is easy to get discouraged when your father uses these tactics to get things to work in his favor. as stated, he was a man of honor, but the honor would not always come from humble intentions and it is very quick for the man to break a promise. it has happened countless times in the past. and that is what upsets seren, the inconsistency in his words and the inability to completely throw her trust on the table when dealing with her father.

yet she had witnessed something different yesterday, a different approach to something which she has never seen some out of arthur armsend. he seemed almost willing to complete her wish, possibly because he knew she was going to counter, and argue and argue until his ears were practically bleeding. on most occasions she will give up if the matter is not important, but this was major. this was a big deal, and he knew that.

he knew his daughter was going to have her time of taking her fate into her own hands and he would be unable to stop her.

still, even if he rejected the request after she went through all the work of gathering these people, seren would go against his wishes. she would sneak out if it was necessary, but she was not going to let her old man get in between her intentions to nurse the world and save it from the grip of another destruction.

“ if he does not give you permission, you probably won’t give up either way. ”

“ of course i won’t. ”

having had rested for a minute or so, the girl stood once more as if willing to continue her journey, she wanted this so badly, she couldn’t just stick around any longer. upon rising from her seat, she turned to romeo and smiled. “ well, there’s no time to waste. we’re not finished looking ”, she stated.

romeo let out a faint hum, “ there is one place i failed to mention, a place most don’t visit but that is where we’ll most likely find our favorite archer. ”

the place he was talking about was none other than the ranged shooting range that was embedded in between one of the many lower floors of the school, a hall for archers and gunners and mages alike who wanted to train their accuracy in peace. and that was where they went.

seren allowed herself to relax on the walk to the said location, feeling hopeful that this would be the place she would find the male and have a bit more luck. she hoped he would be easy to convince, he was the one who inspired the idea to begin with and she could feel her heart begin to drop if it were to go wrong, if he were to say no. he was a likely candidate. 

when they entered the chamber, it was like entering an indoor arena, with ranges stationed and spaced away from each other to allow students to conduct whatever crazy maneuver they wanted so long as they hit the target at hand. nobody was really around except for the tutor who was away in his office, and upon seeing an arrow claim its target square in its head, they became aware that they had come to the right place.

romeo spotted kailen on the middle range with his bow in his hand, rather eccentric in color but it looked like it could do a lot of damage. he was the best archer the school had, not to mention the semblance that he had which made his hunting almost too powerful. seren didn’t feel intimidated when she first saw him the other day, but looking at him now, there was a pang of apprehension in approaching him.

his eyes were particularly cold as he stared ahead, but upon noting of the two approaching figures, not to mention romeo excitedly calling his name, he dropped his bow, the holographic arrow disappearing and so did his frown, replacing it with a warm smile.

“ romeo. what brings you here? ”.

“ my friend here has a question for you. ”

when she felt herself being pushed forward, seren was reminded of her primary school days, in which the unwanted attention would always be on her. whether it was for her wealth or her father’s status, it always felt like people were watching her, waiting for something, maybe a chance for her to mess up and then mouth her off for as long as they could. 

but this would be different in some ways, because she was grown up. she was no longer lost or really all that alone, she had at least someone who could look out for her, that person being romeo. she felt like in the short hours that they had known each other, he would be someone she could approach even if this went wrong.

the girl rose her meek gaze to meet the archer’s and smiled softly, “ kailen cassius? ”.

his gaze seemed to soften, some pinkness flooding to his cheeks that she didn’t know the origin of. what is bad she had said his full name? it sounded as if she was going to scold him, she probably should’ve just been more direct.

this isn’t going well.

“ y-yes, that’s me. ”

seren smiled, “ i’m . . . going to ask something crazy of you that might make me sound like an insane person, but it’s something i’m very serious about and i was hoping you’d be able to help me. ”

“ sure, what’s up? ”.

keeping herself calm and trying not to verge too much on her enthusiasm, the girl proposed the same idea she had given romeo. she didn’t miss a single detail, she touched up on the idea of doing something good before graduation and perhaps being part of a group that could change the fate of the dying planet, that could nurse it back to its original state, that could rid it of this parasite leaching off of it.

the more she thought about the possibility of accomplishing this ambitious goal, the more she wanted to do it, the faster she wanted to make it happen, the braver she felt to leave the only place she had ever known growing up, albeit not alone, but still, putting distance between herself and her home.

and upon seeing the reaction that grazed the boy’s face, something similar to romeo’s, with that flicker of imagination and hope in his eyes, seren felt like it was worth it all along. she wasn’t just pursuing something she wanted, she would be pursuing something many more people wanted but didn’t know where to start from.

kailen looked to the side with a hum, setting his bow aside. “ are you sure you’d want me on your team, though? ”.

“ yes ”, she quickly replied. “ you’re a very capable archer. you’re known for being good with teams and cooperating, even leading in some instances. i can’t imagine someone best fit for the role. ”

she heard romeo grunt behind her, “ careful, you might boost his ego too much. ”

she was clueless as to what he was referring to until she peeked at his face and saw a redness pooling around his cheeks that made her believe she had said too much. it tends to happen when she gets too passionate, too involved. she just really wanted the male to join in, and she wasn’t just saying these things to flatter him. they were not empty compliments, they were very genuine.

kailen appeared to struggle slightly to respond, rubbing the back of his neck. “ you don’t have to say these sorts of things to get on my good side, seren ”, he mumbled.

the girl suddenly stepped closer, not realizing she might be getting in his face in almost aggressive manner. “ i’m not ”, she stated with a minor pout. “ i don’t say things without meaning them. i want you on this team. ”

“ i’m not qualified as opposed to others, though. ”

“ kailen, for fuck’s sake, just say yes before the poor girl starts crying. ”

it was too late, the girl had teared up ever so slightly. it was obvious how important this was to her, but at the same time, she could not force this down people’s throats and she realized it now that she might have come off as way too aggressive and maybe was scaring him off.

bottom lip quivering, seren lowered her head, embarrassed to the core. “ i’m sorry. i-i’m certain you don’t want to be risking your life for what some might claim to be a child’s fantasy, b-but it’s for a good cause . . . for me, at least ”, she voice, going more and more reluctant by the second.

a sigh came from above her, and only when she looked up did she realize how tall the male was. she felt like an ant beside him.

“ what other people are there on the time? ”, kailen posed arms crossed over his chest. “ i’m assuming romeo is going to be there. ”

from behind, romeo threw a peace sign and gave a cheeky grin, “ you bet your ass i am. the party doesn’t start till yahontov walks in. ” 

kailen chuckled, amused, before rolling his eyes and bringing his attention to a conflicted seren. “ listen, you don’t need to make that face. it’s clear you’re passionate about this, and it can’t be easy having to sit around and not having the means to make things happen ”, he spoke in such a sympathetic tone that it made her want to cry properly. “ you really want me on your team? ”.

the girl nodded eagerly, she might end up giving herself whiplash if the boy keeps asking the same thing. she suddenly squeaked when she felt an arm being thrown around her shoulder, recognizing romeo’s happy hum.

“ you heard the lady, cassius. and trust me, when a pretty girl comes up to you with a deal like this, you don’t want to be the idiot saying no ”, he argued, peering down at seren with a toothy grin which she struggled to return, mostly because of the physical contact, it made her shy. “ seren here is best thing that’s going to happen to you in your miserable teen life. so say yes, man. ”

“ my life isn’t miserable! ”.

“ you’re gonna tell me you’d rather spend your weekend firing at the same thing over and over again, instead of heading off into the wild with some friends and a cute tutor by your side, kicking ass and saving the world? ”.

seren hummed, lips pouted. cute tutor?

if kailen had been slightly shy talking to seren, then he became ten times more timid in front of romeo. because he posed the real questions, in a fashion that made kailen look like a fool. but seren didn’t think he was, he was just contemplating, he was allowed to make his choice even if she really wanted him to join them.

the archer mumbled softly, “ i mean, my cook books . . . ”.

“ kailen! ”.

“ alright, fine! ”.

kailen turned to seren and beamed down at the girl with a level of energy she had hoped to see previously and seeing it now nursed her worries and doubts quickly, “ i’ll join you, seren. thank you for considering me, and believe me, i won’t let you or the team down. ”

the loyalty radiated off of him in such a pleasant way that she couldn’t help but smile brightly at both him and romeo, who gave her a tight side-hug, content with how things had turned out.

time skip . . .

yesterday had been a success for seren. if she slept only four hours friday night, then she slept zero hours last night, too excited to even think about hitting the hay.

on a sunday morning, you might see her going about something that meant she would have a little time for herself. that often came in the form of tap-dancing or doing some online shopping since she never really left her room on the weekend. however, that morning, she looked over at tap shoes with dismay, not particularly interested.

she had been dancing since she was rather young. a fondness for dance that started a ballet and turned into tap after a major injury that left her with a minor limp for many years. if you see her running, you might witness the limp. an operation had to be done, and it impacted the way she walked. it was something seren tried not to think about too much.

after getting changed into her jeans and warm cardigan and converse, the girl left her room and her dorm and didn’t think to bother her father as he would not be in his office. sundays often meant he was away playing golf with some of the teachers, the only time he was free to be a normal man his age when he was not being the leader of a revolution.

it was her intention to get breakfast first, so she aimed to reach the cafeteria before her seat got taken and before the food got cold. there was a skip in her step, she was just so content that things had gone down so smoothly yesterday, that two strong people had agreed to help her on this important journey. with the way romeo accepted it so easily and how kailen showed a little more reluctance, she was not expecting things to be so easy.

she still needed three people to complete her team, and she had some names in mind, though it was a matter of seeking them out or letting lady luck make her move like how she did yesterday when she found those two boys. seren glanced about the cafeteria in search of any new faces, but instead, she was met with romeo beckoning her over. was he sitting at her table? that was a first.

“ morning, angel. did you sleep well? ”.

seren chuckled, “ i didn’t sleep at all. ” placing her food down, she sat opposite of romeo and took a quick glance around. “ where’s kailen? ”.

“ said he had something to do. but listen, i think we’ve just found some people who might be able to help you out ”, romeo stated. seren’s eyes grew in size and hope. “ don’t get too hopeful, though. they’re prodigies, but they’re going to be hard to charm. ”

of course, her theory was right. seren stared down at her plate, letting her mind run with possibilities. the worst thing that could happen is every single one of them turning the offer down, but as she stated yesterday, she was not to be discouraged. she still had an impressive gunner and archer in her team already, she just needed more people. and if the top ten wouldn’t do, she was fine looking elsewhere.

“ two of ‘em just walked in, no don’t turn around. one of them doesn’t like being stared at. ”

seren remained staring ahead, following romeo’s advice. what was so bad about them that she could not look back? “ w-who are they? ”.

“ the yin and yang duo ”, romeo replied, catching her furrowed brows of confusion and quickly adding on. “ they’re insane fighters. one’s actually one of the rare mages within the school, the other is a brawler you will reduce you to dust if you get on his bad side. okay, you can look now. ”

seren tried not to make it obvious, peering over her shoulder ever so slightly as if to reach into her bag even though she didn’t have it. she caught sight of two boys walking beside each other, one radiating a pleasant air, and the other radiating something equivalent to the feeling of being suffocated. 

the tall one was intense, his eyes were intense, his posture was tense and he seemed to have quick eyes, which is another way of saying that he was one to pay attention to detail.

the other, slightly shorter, wore a smile on his face and carried what seemed to be a drawing pad against his chest. his clothes were a little warmer in color. seren understood why romeo had referred to them as yin and yang, they didn’t seem like they would be friends at all but they were talking, seemingly sharing a pleasant conversation.

“ evangelos chrysanthos, fuck that’s a mouthful, and perseus ursa. apparently they know each other quite well, even if they look like they belong in separate worlds ”, she heard romeo say, eventually ripping her gaze away. “ evan is the brawler. and percy is the mage, they’re a killer duo together. did you see their double duel in last year’s tournament? ”.

seren blushed and shook her head, she wasn’t really seen in school events of the sort.

“ come on, armsend, get with the times ”, he groaned in response and took a sip of his coffee. “ listen, if you can get those two on your team, you might just end up having a four member equivalent of an army. but we’re lacking something. ”

“ a healer. ”

romeo nodded.

even if you had a tyrant-like force behind you kicking the ass of every creature or man who dared to pose a challenge, they’d be nothing if not for a healer watching their back. they were essential to a group and they were seriously looked down upon despite the time and effort it takes to learn all of the enchantments and all of the healing spells applied to combat. 

seren knew that regardless of a swordsman, a gunner, an archer, a brawler and a mage, it would mean nothing if there wasn’t someone who would be healing them on the sides, saving their lives.

“ have you got anyone in mind? ”.

“ there’s only one person. rank two ”, romeo spoke, tilting his head. “ alexander sallow. ” of course the name rang a bell, her father would never stop talking about the male during his staff meetings. a healer in the second rank was almost unheard of, yet he managed it effortlessly. 

she needed him on this team.

“ kailen went up to him the other day. he turned it down immediately, said it would just be a waste of time, energy and a reduction of five men that could be added to the army ”, romeo suddenly grunted with clear hostility. “ i’ll show him one day. ”

seren gave him a desperate look, “ can you give me good news? ”.

romeo’s eyes appeared to soften. “ kailen also went up to the yin and yang boys. and i won’t lie, i think they’ll be interested a lot more when they see who they’re working with. two handsome and strong men, not to mention an adorable tutor such as yourself ”, he stated, motioning towards her.

this time, she did blush.

“ if they’ll be easier to convince than alexander, i’m content with the chances we have. they seem like good players, so i’m happy ”, seren said with a meagre nod and smile. “ you and kailen are doing god’s work. i would freeze up if i were to go up to them . . . they seem really intimidating. ”

a chortle came from behind her.

“ do we now? ”.

oh, how far her stomach dropped. seren turned slowly, feeling as if she had just found herself in the midst of a horror movie scene. but it was only perseus and evangelos standing behind her, peering down at her and romeo. she gulped and turned away.

“ fellas! how lovely of you to join us ”, romeo called excitedly, motioning for them to sit down. only perseus made the effort to move, settle his hands on the back of an empty chair beside seren. she tried not to look. evangelos, meanwhile, remained where he was. and even though her back was to him, seren could feel his eyes digging into her like daggers. “ you’ve been acquainted with our tutor, have you not? ”.

seren only looked at them both, and waved shyly in greeting.

“ you didn’t say it was going to be principal armsend’s daughter ”, evangelos grunted. “ you sure miss out on the important details, romeo. ”

“ hey, i said it was going to be someone of importance and someone cute. there’s only one person who fits that criteria ”.

“ i’m failing to see the cuteness aspect. ”

ouch, evangelos! seren tried not to flinch at how deeply that wounded her.

romeo sighed, “ listen, she’s gone out of her way to beg me and kailen to join in. she just wants a team, man. and i think you’re going to be complaining less when your name goes down in history as the person who led a mission that brought salem’s reign to an end. ”

perseus suddenly spoke, “ that’s the reason behind the journey? ”.

feeling the attention shift to her, seren kept up her act as best as she could. she was not as strong when faced with difficult personalities.

“ salem is hidden somewhere in russia, probably planning her next move and we don’t know whether this one is going to be fatal. we’ve trained a lot for this and all we’ve been told is that we’ll use the skills in case there’s a war. but there will be a war regardless, one which we can prevent if we get up and do something. ”

silence settled over the table. she had repeated the same thing she had told her father the night before, and it was because people needed to be reminded of that. the world was not going to grow or continue in this period of peace if they stayed cooped up within these walls.

“ you said you needed five people ”, perseus recalled. seren had the courage to lift her gaze and look at him properly for the first time. “ who’s the fifth? ”.

“ alexander sallow. ”

evangelos snorted, “ good luck with that. ”

at that moment, it was clear the tension needed to be broken. and as stated, she could not handle it by herself when they were so critical. romeo sensed her troubles quickly and cleared his throat, “ okay. she’s managed to convince an idiot like me to join, and an insecure soul like kailen, as well. if she can do it to someone as annoying and stuck up as alexander, no offense to him, then you two have to join. ”

it was a good deal. but it meant she would have to deal with the most difficult personality across the board, someone who had sent kailen away when he so kindly approached him with the idea. seren would have to do at some point, and if doing so granted her the final two people needed to complete her group, so be it.

and it seemed to be a plan both boys seemed to be on board with.

“ looks like you’ve got a lot of work to do, armsend. ”

the scathing comment from evangelos didn’t bother her too much, she was accustomed to the underestimations. she was just ready to get all of this done and get the engine running.

the clock’s ticking, however. she really does have to get to work.

#chapter two #original writing #fantasy #magic #futuristic #dystopian

[thesalemsaga]

𝟭 — 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿

—  𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙢 𝙨𝙖𝙜𝙖.

𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 : 6.8k words

𝙨 : salem, the mistress of evil, has been made aware of a resistance group being made within the walls of the empire academy, valhalla. meanwhile, young seren has a bit of an epiphany.

the most unfortunate thing about the mistress’s palace, is that nobody will ever hear you scream.

in the black mountain, the darkness hardly distinguishes day from night. and they say that after losing a track of time, of days, going on without gazing at a clock or a calendar or even getting a peek at the stars, can drive a person to mere insanity. that was what many claimed happened to the witch when she was confined into this palace and was left to her own accord.

although light never shone once through those tainted, ebony windows, life still continued within the monolith. although not the healthy life that one might expect, not the life with clear morals or allowing a faith to carry you through your good doings, not even that flicker of passion towards pass-times and careers that keep you up and moving, nothing of the sort was ever seen in these walls. rather, it seemed like everything about humanity had abandoned the creatures from within. 

the seemingly natural and human way of living had been lost within their countless decades here. time was not even a concept, they weren’t sure what use it was to count the hours and days and years you spend there, you’d just make it worse for yourself within the hope that tomorrow you will escape. and if not tomorrow, then in a week. and if not in a week, then in a month, two months, three. upon realizing that time might never come, you peer at those tallies drawn on the dark cobble walls and sneer and scream into an empty vacuum of space where nobody will hear you and save you.

it’s no use getting out either, not without the witch’s permission.

but even if you go out and are asked to return, you must pray to whatever deity remains on this cracked crater of a planet, in hopes that you return with good news. if not good news, decent news. but never bad news. bad news like, the fact that soldiers from the empire front seemed to have located the traces of one of salem’s henchmen.

yeah, good luck getting out of something like that.

inside one of the many halls of the dead palace, a sudden sound erupted. the scout wheezed and coughed as his head was lifted from the pool of water. tangled through raven locks and pulling and yanking, the gloved hands of the witch minded him like a puppet. they leaned over what could have been a pool, but the water was far from pristine or blue, it was a sea-weed green and at certain times, you might just spot a fin breaking through the surface before submerging once more.

this had been going on for nearly five minutes, but it felt like hours. having your head being forced down this certain pool would attract something ugly that lies in the deep end, the mere scent of your blood will put you in danger. but one could hardly care for the life of a mere scout when the mistress of evil has some minor, and by that, major problems on her hands.

“ m-my lady, please, show mercy! ”.

when she forced his head back down, salem’s eyes appeared fit to kill. two vermilion spots lacking any source of previous humanity, but even with the eyes, you wouldn’t take her for having been once a beautiful woman. the horns on her head were curled with ends as sharp as a double edged sword. her complexion was as lifeless as ash clouds summoned by an erupting volcano. salem hardly looked like a witch, she seemed fit to be a demon, a horned one, at that. and perhaps a part of her had some relation to the beings dwelling in the fiery pits below, especially once glancing at the limits of her ire.

minutes prior to this, the same scout she had sent out with about a dozen goblins had returned with news she had not been expecting. news regarding the empire, the people who have tried to take her down for the past two decades. there had been no success although salem was hardly an idiot, she was not one to underestimate the passion of vengeful humans, she was a vengeful human herself. it wouldn’t be long before they charged in with torches and pitch-forks to burn the witch.

resistance groups were growing within the walls, according to the chatter of some military men wandering between the boarder of what was the ukraine. the scout, a good fighter as well as an idiot, could have escaped without alerting the men of his presence and that of the dozen goblins he had brought with him, but he did not. the mere rustle in the bushes alerted the soldiers of a darker presence listening into their banter, and although killing was not on salem’s demand, it had to be done.

what could have been tyrants avoiding giving their status and identity away instead became an altercation that left one soldier cubed to pieces whilst the other fled, and to add salt to the wound, a stupid goblin who went after him was seen by the patrol ship they had parked in the area. checkmate for the empire soldiers.

to make a long story short, salem was fucked.

salem’s berserk force yanked the man’s head out from the mermaid pit and just a small flicker of pleasure manifested in those dead eyes. if there was one thing that she did love doing ( and she doesn’t love many things ) it was ensuing a well-taught lesson on consequences. and she was a rather strict teacher when it came to that.

“ listen to me, you filthy pig ”, she spat, sneering as the man found to catch his breath. her grip on his hair only tightened. “ you had clear instructions. you had them fucking written down, i even took some remorse since you have a god-awful memory and you want to tell me to have mercy, when you just fucking gave a major clue away to those empire fuckers?! ”.

the man continued to cough and wheeze as salem’s spat pure venom, “ what is it with you men, huh? can’t take orders from a woman? is your superiority alarm blaring so hard that you just won’t adhere to the fucking orders because a woman gave them to you? answer me, you pig! ”. he couldn’t. “ d-do you know how fucked i am? well not in the best way, i’ll tell you that. all of my efforts to make my location have gone to shit because you couldn’t keep your lousy ass out of trouble for five minutes. five years! five years stuck in this cold shithole and you gave it all away, you filthy animal. oh, i’m not going to show any mercy at all. ”

although the currents were disturbed by the abuse brought upon the scout, the waves did not fail to suddenly grow rampant, as if enraged. and around the same time, salem shoved his head down far enough for the water to engulf his shoulders. and it was not her who pushed him into the water, rather it was an unseen force yanking him into the depths. 

as the witch rose and paid one last glance at the pool over her shoulder, she took note of a red hue that rose to the surface. after that, silence.

elsewhere . . .

principal arthur armsend was a man of honor.

being a principal and leader to a new era of the world, leading boys and girls and what lies in between into a new age, a renaissance period that would take the world from being a dark and bleak place that they were no longer familiar with, into the peaceful planet they had known it to be a hundred years ago. and he did so by a sharp discipline he gave to all of his students.

classes started at eight o’clock and go on until about four, and every day, something new is taught. from alchemy and martial arts, to care of mythical creatures and history. three meals were held every day at the immense cafeteria, free time started after classes in which students were able to enjoy the open-air yards of this floating monolith in the sky. in fact, they were so high up that you might reach over the edge and touch a cloud.

 as opposed to many schools, the academy of valhalla was not one to waste time fooling around. third-year students and first-year students alike worked around the clock in order to harness the best skills in their arsenal in case the possibility of being sent out into missions came. and usually, when you were prepared, you might end up having the best results. students were told to be precise, to never make foolish mistakes, and to always remember why they were here.

although, nobody got it as bad as the principal’s daughter.

you’d expect the privilege to be very obvious; the ability to skip classes, to get out of trouble, to be an immediate social magnet, to be allowed out of the school and into the city to enjoy what it means to be young. any good parent with a somewhat loose way of raising their kids would spoil their child when they had the position they had. but for her, it was anything but that.

“ back straight, seren! ”.

she’s been at this for three hours. not joining her peers in the usual classes would mean that she would have to be doing something a little more different, a little more suited for her, and whilst many might role her eyes, they’d feel their stomach drop when they see the state that seren armsend is reduced to when brought into these private lessons.

at this point, her knees scrapped and legs clearly trembling, fatigued to the core, anyone could tell that seren was going through hell. these lessons tended to last three to four hours, but every time she so dared to look at the digital clock on the wall, her tutor would threaten to extend the time to fifteen minutes. ‘you wouldn’t take your eyes off your target in a real fight to see how long you’ve been at it’, he had said many times. and although it pained her, she had to agree.

her tutor, however, was none other than her old man. at the age of fifty, arthur still managed to maintain a certain posture to his stand whilst in battle that would trick anyone into aging him down a couple of years. he was a petite man, shorter than his daughter by two inches, and that most definitely did not stop him from butchering his daughter and bringing her to her limits in these training lessons.

how many times would seren have to be here a week, you ask? five times. fridays were generally the days in which she would have two of these sessions, one in the morning and the other placed right after lunch and she would only be back in her dorm at seven o’clock in order to crash, rest, and prepare for more lessons on a saturday morning.

iron thorn was clasped in her hand, arms tensing and aching to rest, her entire body ready to collapse the mere snap of the man’s fingers when he allowed her to rest but it wouldn’t be anytime soon. her training gear made her feel ten times heavier, and it was hot, boiling hot. but an armsend does not show struggle in the midst of a duel, they prefer to keep their enemies unsure of their condition to scare them or taunt them. you could only collapse once you’d finished what you started.

privilege, my ass. this is torture.

the clock was ticking towards the final bell which would dismiss all students but the ones in detention, and seren. “ finish what you started, come on. gaze up, for god’s sake fix that shoulder, and stop shaking your leg, you’ll stumble as soon as you lunge forward ”, she was used to receiving these comments, and she would take the feedback in an instant, because she knew arthur armsend when he was angry, a burden she shared in being his daughter.

iron thorn gave a minor whistle as she prepared to lunge once more, no essences were allowed to be used for the time being. if she did use something, the room might collapse. but she was tempted, oh young seren was tempted on pulling the trigger against the handle of her rapier and bring the ceiling to the ground. it would give her at least a minute to escape through the debris and run. 

even upon lunging with a perfect posture and speed, the blade clashed against the cane her father wielded. stabbing, withdrawing, lunging, withdrawing, flicking and withdrawing. each set of movement took a mere second because of her semblance, yet her father caught everything and she was beginning to grow slightly discouraged. although not as many could fight as well as him, she knew that there would be someone out there who could. one person. and if she were to cross paths with that person, she cannot steer to being passive. even though it was meagre simulation of a fight, seren was asked to treat it like a reality. and that, she did.

arthur bore a sudden attack that left seren scrambling to get out of her thoughts, darting in withdrawal with a backwards somersault and landing clumsily on her feet, her legs nearly rendering her weak enough to collapse yet she still had a bit of sharpness left in her to know that landing on your ass would certainly mean a scolding from your father later. 

this time, however, she did not have energy to raise her weapon to him as he pointed the end of his cane against her neck. she merely lifted her head and glanced upon his gaze that seemed rid of any emotion, meaning he was thinking, analyzing, arthur just wasn’t the type of man to wear his feelings on his face. he knew better than that.

seren didn’t. “ what was with that frown i saw? you know how many times i’ve taught you not to make your thoughts and emotions obvious on your face, your face has to be a blank canvas ”, he went on to say, lowering his cane and pressing the end against the ground. his posture straightened and he seemed to have dropped his defenses. she was not going to attack, however. “ seren. ”

“ m-my apologies, father ”, the girl gasped softly and blinked, verging dangerously close to the point of collapsing. something kept her awake, a part of her subconscious that wanted to keep her alive, her fight response. if not for it, then she would have perhaps been disowned or sent away just like her older sister.

now the only capable of heir in the family with the ripe age of eighteen, soon graduating from the academy, seren would have to carry the legacy of the cold armsend women who never once brought themselves close to failure. she would have to probably join the military route upon parting ways from valhalla, leading young soldiers to restore their lost land. although, if you ask her, if she had the choice, she would have picked the exploration route. unfortunately, being born in this family means that your fate is already decided for you from the moment your presence in your mother’s belly is announced.

needless to say, you have to stay on the route of perfection.

arthur sighed, it was clear he wasn’t happy. “ we’ll cut the lesson short today. you will make up for it with an extra hour tomorrow after class ”, he decided, and in order to avoid angering the man, the girl pursed her lips together and nodded. if one stared for just a moment, they would notice the trepidation in her eyes.

her tutor, father, and principal turned and left the training chamber they had been in for the past four hours. now vacant, the only sound echoing being the pants emanating from her cracked lips and although she wanted nothing more but to lay down on the floor, seren only averted her tired gaze to the immense windows giving her perhaps the best view she’s had of the world outside in a while.

although the empire had seen better days, the mountain of crete was a good place to re-build a city and make the public feel safer inside the walls. there weren’t many who wanted to venture out, probably because they had everything they could ever want in here. technology meant that they could produce food by cloning and distributing it to millions, money never seemed to be an issue as there were jobs for everyone, though it was said that there lived some people outside of the walls, in mainland greece who took care of farms and cattle and had a somewhat older way of living that would have been seen in the medieval times. they were closer to the truth of the world, and the fact that at least a dozen would apply annually to move within the walls said something.

but the talk of the wild never petrified seren as it did to others. they had returned to a time where they believed society was safer, and as soon as you stepped into a zone with no laws or mentions of morals, you’d be in danger. yet she’s read stories of people who lived just fine in these conditions, monsters or no monsters. and though she shared some fears with the general public, the wild was not one of them.

if anything, seren was infatuated with the idea of going outside, of seeing the world for what it was and not for what others claimed it to be. they hardly showed images captured by the military when they leave the walls and attend an expedition, only returning in a week after taking geographical calculations and hurriedly leaving. hardly the military you want protecting you.

seren claimed that with her father in line, things would change. the third year graduates from the year before had gotten good results, one of them had succeeded in establishing a base in almost every continent that remained. and although hardly anyone visited those bases, they were there in case you found yourself lost and in serious need of help. many other alumni valhalla students made technological advancements towards transport and population control, others went more of a political way and started working alongside governors to change the shape of their monarchy. 

it was almost a guarantee that those who leave valhalla are destined for good things, but it felt as if seren would not be able to join her peers in that sense and it pained her to such an extreme where she wanted to jump out from those balconies, land in cold water and swim her way out of the city. yet she would have to return at some point, there is always a way back home after an adventure, even if it’s a short one.

seren looked down at her sword and tapped the floor with the tip for a moment, the blade had never once been blunt and yet it seemed like it was in desperate need of a recovery. it must have been caused by the countless daily training that hardly left her any time to catch up with her other subjects. her father was tempted on making a fighting machine out of her, and although she loved a good duel, seren was not a natural fighter. she was more of a diplomat, if you ask her.

lost in her thoughts, seren didn’t exactly hear the beeping sounds emitting from the door of the training chamber until it had come to her side and then began to feel a sensation against her leg. upon looking down, her frown disappeared and her eyes turned to crescents.

“ hi, ted. “

valhalla was known for having ‘familiars’, little creatures often used to advise students and although you couldn’t own them, you could befriend them. seren had known ted since he was made, which was roughly twelve years ago. he has been her friend long before he got signed up to be a companion to her school. at the age of six, ted was the robot she played with when she was alone.

smart, short and oh so adorable, ted-ee 012 mostly helped doctor lin with matters in computing lessons for those who lean more towards the technology route. but he was far from the war machine the school fabricated and more of a health robot, charged by water and able to detect sadness from students. it was probably why he had approached seren to begin with, pulling at her leg with his small hands.

he let out a happy beep as he waved at her, his eyes as pleasant and polite as always. “ i wasn’t sad, you know, i was just thinking ”, she said, crouching to his level. he stared at her, blinking for a couple of seconds with a disapproving sound. “ what, don’t believe me? ”. and then it clicked. “ oh, you got upgraded, didn’t you? ”.

ted hardly got any enhancements done to his figure, as he didn’t really have any flaws and his feedback from the students was always exemplar. but this time around, it was useful. because the upgrade enabled him to tell whether people were lying or not and it worked well during exam season where many would be asked whether they cheated or not.

seren let out a minor chuckle and shook her head, “ well there’s no point lying to you. but you never tell anyone, so i suppose it’s fine. ” she patted the top of his smooth head and then stood, holding iron thorn to her and then tucking it back into its sheath. “ care to get some fresh air? ”. on a happy note, seren left the chamber, ted hovering after her.

the halls of valhalla would usually be empty after classes were over, most students tended to flee outside and look for something fun to do, which was mostly seen in throwing frisbees, playing chess, going sunbathing. some returned to the lounge and played games or watched movies. others returned to their dorms to rest, and a small percentage fled to the library for some extra time studying.

a part of seren was almost glad that there weren’t many people to see her tired state. ted had offered her a mirror through his digital face and she was quick enough to adjust her cotton candy hair and adjust the blue bow pushing the locks of her hair back. she was boiling under this training gear, but she would be out of it sooner as her lesson was cut short, but it was clear she was going to owe her father an apology afterwards for her wandering mind. little things upset her father, but what majorly puts him off is when seren is not focused. it was the reason for most of their arguments and disagreements.

the dorms were in the lower parts of valhalla though the girl took a small detour outside to catch her breath. in the midst of a sunny afternoon, the sky was beginning to turn into hues of pink, purples and oranges as the sun thought about setting. the wind batting against her skin was all that she needed, especially as she neared to the open air yards with artificial grass, smooth concrete paths leading students around the perimeter of the entire yard that seemed to go on for miles and miles. some benches and picnic tables were scattered, mostly occupied by first years who wanted to catch up after their lessons.

seren hardly steps outside, held inside by her tasks, but stepping outside was a freeing sensation, her arms folded and rested against the balcony railings, the wind was best from where she stood and she could have stood there for hours if she didn’t keep telling herself to return to her dorm and get as much rest as she could.

out of everything that caught seren’s attention, a game of football stole it in the end. most of the boys tended to be relatively active and sporty, that was a given as they had to be active if they wanted to carry heaven guns or broadswords with them in battle. seren became immersed in it for a moment, not the type of person to find kicking a ball around for ninety minutes particularly interesting but this time around, she couldn’t really help it.

what mostly caught her attention was one of the boys playing, and as far as she was concerned, she knew who he was. not the person to read the ranks too deeply, seren would only glance at the names and the pictures and this one was one she recognized. kailen cassius, rank number six, an archer. perhaps the most remarkable thing about him, however, what his height.

he had an air to him, though, that of someone who could handle things himself but also relied on teamwork and seemed to be about unity and working things out in a more collective fashion rather than being selfish all the time. he seemed like a good person, she thought. someone she’d definitely befriend and would be able to trust when faced with danger, but being alone didn’t permit her to join any teams. her father said that the only time she’d ever really join her peers in something of the sort was if she served as a tutor.

seeing as how so many of the students were set into groups, she wandered whether being in one would ensure that she would leave and tread beyond the walls, but she doubted anyone would really want to be in a team with her unless if they wanted extra credit or wanted to dump all the work onto her. and since seren wasn’t one to say no to people so easily, she might have to deal with being the one carrying all the work since she had the skills and smile as everyone got the best results despite having done nothing. it happened once in her primary school, and it was what shaped her into the timid, goody-two-shoes of a person that she is.

but say if she were to tutor a group. she’s seen third-year students do it mostly with second-year students who needed some help, but it would work and be the only time where seren might be able to use her position to get what she wants. it might make her father trust her just a tiny bit more, but she never knew exactly when it came to arthur armsend, he wasn’t one to be pleased so easily.

still, she was willing to give it a go.

when ted suddenly beeped, seren was drawn out of her thoughts once more only to realize that she had potentially been staring at kailen based on the way that well, he was looking right back at her. she had totally zoned out and had not managed to snap out of it when she felt the confused gaze of the boy on her. thank god for ted, otherwise she would have made much more of a fool of herself than she already had.

seren blinked and leaned away from the railings as soon as she began to feel her ears and cheeks burning pink. ted let out a confused noise, “ why didn’t you snap me out of it as soon as i started staring? ”. the robot tilted his head to the side with a level of confusion. “ he probably thinks i’m a total weirdo now! ”.

when ted let out an apologetic sound, seren sighed and risked a look back at the boy who had returned to his game, seeming more carefree but not before their eyes locked for a moment and she felt a wave of realization.

seren is hardly one to have an epiphany, but what she will tell you is that the feeling cannot easily be described. connecting the dots, her blank expression was replaced by that of surprise as her eyes grew in size and her pursed lips parted only for her to turn on her heel and start pacing quickly back inside, ted following in suit with some confused beeps.

the top six students are all third-years, and although the top student was often taken out of lessons to engage in more practical work outside of valhalla, that still left five people who were very capable of what she had in mind. she thought the tutoring idea would be pointless, but after her thoughts rang in that training chamber, after she stepped outside and looked towards the walls, after realizing that the world might end up caving in on itself if nothing was done, after such an epiphany, she couldn’t possibly sit there and do nothing.

seren knew her father would never let her out to do something like this on her own, but she knew she could perhaps impose an idea he could not deny. he wanted a daughter that would make changes, and after the death of one possible heir and the marriage of another, the fate settled on seren when she did not wish for it. but she could not change this about herself. but she knew that if good results came out of this, if her epiphany was right and she had perhaps hit the gold mine, that the world would somehow improve. and that was something she was taught from a young age.

her mother left when she was eight but the moral lessons stuck with her for ten years and it is probably why her thirst for knowledge of the outside world and the drive to better things was not leaving her anytime soon. the action of doing good things was deeply embedded into her, perhaps it was a genetic thing or the way her mother shortly raised her. she was a rebel without a cause, a woman who ventured out and never cared for the warnings she got or the many injuries she returned with. because at least she was helping. 

so perhaps it was time to start being a little selfish on her end. seren knew her father wouldn’t be in the best of moods after their lesson that afternoon, yet her blood remained boiling, adrenaline causing her heart to race after and her steps to quicken until ted stopped following her and let her run off on her own.

her father’s office was at the top floor, and after a long elevator ride to the top, seren stumbled into the room.

the porcelain tiles she stepped in were drawn with art she had never quite been able to name before. perhaps it was a renaissance-style painting, what with the figures and halos and clouds. every time she entered her father’s room, it felt like entering a museum. he was an archaic man with older, more traditional principles despite being inclusive. but he was one to separate his inclusiveness from his professional way of working, because no matter what you were, he still extended a hero out of you.

the mahogany desk was usually empty as he would have meetings on a friday evening but she had caught him seemingly before he could prepare for said meeting. he seemed to have turned on his record player, appearing blissful whilst listening to an opera piece seren has heard all too many times. the china cup in his gloved hands saw steam rising from what seemed to be his usual chamomile tea. three cubes of sugar, no less. 

the minor ding of the elevator made him raise his head when seren approached his desk. he paid her a mere glance, raising a brow. “ why are you not changed? i thought we’d be having dinner together ”, he stated, blowing the steam from his cup gently. “ don’t waste time, seren. ”

“ i need your permission for something, father. ”

arthur let out a sigh. when seren approaches him with a request as such, he often knows what it will be. permission to head to town for the weekend, permission to continue her tap lessons, permission to head to the beach. almost all of those requests were never really granted for the mere reason that he did not want her attention diverting to something else when so much had to be done. but he seemed to sense something was different, he knew his daughter well known and one thing he was unfamiliar with was the glistening pair of eyes like his wife’s staring back at him.

“ although i may be only seven in the ranks, i feel like . . . i-i feel like i know what i want to do before i graduate ”. she quickly took her seat in one of the chairs facing him across his desk. she took notice of his cane resting on the side and gulped.

days ago, he had mentioned that her older sister had one final act as a valhalla student that marked her as a significant alumni. although she married shortly after, she still made history by being the student who uncovered many lost articles and items in other continents, items rich in cultural value as they carried history of their dying planet. and she had done this before graduating. arthur imposed the idea that seren should do something similar.

seren proceeded, “ might i suggest gathering the top five students and allowing me to tutor them? ”.

“ seren. ”

“ let me finish, p-please! ”.

the girl clasped her hands together and forced a meek gaze down, “ i have all these skills in my arsenal and i highly doubt i’ll ever be able to use them because i can’t apply them to the world outside like the others. but perhaps i can let someone else take the lead for me. i-i could teach them what i’ve been taught and hope that they’ll carry it on, l-like a legacy if they choose to step outside of the walls. ”

arthur put his cup down, clearing his throat. “ is this just a reason for you to step outside? you know what i’m going to say, seren ”, his tone appeared highly disinterested, but she was not going to be discouraged this time around.

“ father . . . you and i both know that we have the people needed to do something about what’s happening to the world outside ”, she inquired, still no response. silence lingered until the apprehension faded. “ you found salem’s whereabouts, did you not? ”.

the principal, although he didn’t appear shocked, gave it all away through the way he dropped his spoon into his cup. he rose his gave with a clenched jaw and peered at her, possibly questioning how she’d come to such a conclusion. but it was no rumor, it was true. the general said the men found one of her scouts spying on them near the ukraine, meaning she couldn’t be too far. five years of hunting salem after her escape, only to finally discover the continent she hid in.

“ seren, listen to me closely ”, he warned, leaning over his desk slightly with a grave tone. “ i understand you wish to be a hero. but you will not be the hero who died trying to kill the witch that brought the world to its end. no daughter of mine will do something of the sort. ”

seren continued to fight back, “ but i won’t be the one doing it, it’ll be five qualified people doing it on my behalf because i taught them what other teachers do not. ”

“ seren. ”

“ and you act as if the years of training has been for no reason. what, am i just going to have these skills at my disposal and never use them? did i just waste nearly sixteen years of my life being taught something in case there’s a war? ”, she spat. she had never spoken to her father like this, and in a dark corner of her mostly innocent mind, she was enjoying it. she felt like her mother. “ father, there will be a war regardless. especially if we stick around doing nothing about the clear danger. i’m going to have to use these skills but i could also use them to prevent it all. ”

the man grew quiet. somewhere in his mind, he probably felt something similar. she had heard the stories, her father wanted to be the valiant one in his family to carry the armsend name, but he was the one who deeply injured himself to the point where he had to give up his heroic hopes and let it become mere fable. he didn’t want the same thing happening to seren, but he knew that this time, matters would be different. she would have help.

and sending your kid into a world that is unknown to even the smartest men in the world was a horrifying thought, but it is in like every tale, the one holding the hero back will always have to let them go. that is how the best heroes are made, the ones who were given the chance to chase after their happy ending, not he ones ho were held back. what good is a sheltered hero?

besides, she might end up finding the worthy opponent she had always dreamed of meeting. and if it was salem, so be it. call her reckless or obsessed with heroism, but seren knew she wouldn’t be able to stay within these walls for much longer.

her father knew this as well, even if it was clear he didn’t want to.

“ are you certain about this, seren? ”.

no, she wanted to say. she had hardly given any logic aside from her own hopes and expectations which could be mistaken as mere childish fantasy and desperation to be outside, but it is better not to ask her how she knew it would work out. she just knew.

“ yes ”, the girl breathed and bit her lip slightly. “ i think mother would have wanted to me to do this. i’m an explorer just like her, father. you know that very well. ”

arthur chortled, glancing bitterly at his cup of tea. “ i wish you weren’t. i wish you were more like your older sister, at least you’d stay out of trouble. but you’re the only heir. after ophelia, i’m highly uncertain that there’ll be anyone else ”, he spoke. she felt her blood run cold. but when he looked up at her, he grunted. “ but you don’t have a single cowardly bone in your body. you’re not like isabella and not like me. you’re an explorer, as you’ve stated. ”

“ father . . . ”.

arthur rose a hand and stood, cup in hand and cane in another. he brought himself up from his chair and moved steadily towards the tinted windows, peering outside into a twilight sky. “ you ask a lot of me, seren. not only might i lose my daughter, but i might also lose five innocent lives if all of this goes wrong. and i will not let it be for your fantasy and mere childish heroism. and yet, a part of me knows that soon, salem is going to find a way to harm everyone . . .”

the indecisiveness from the man was making the girl think much more deeply about the matter than she was intending. if someone got hurt, it would be her fault mainly for putting them in danger, but that was why she planned on training them. they were capable fighters, whoever they were. it was a matter of luck and precision, two opposing forces that might have to work together to make all of this work.

“ seren. ”

the girl lifted her gaze to see the man she so dearly admired and loved, the father who was a professor as well as a friend and a leader. she loved him so dearly that she would not think to ask something like this unless if she one hundred percent meant it. and she did.

“ if you can convince them to join you, i will grant your request. but be weary of the time, because it has become of the essence.”

and so, her adventure begins.

#chapter one #original writing #fantasy #magic #futuristic #dystopian

[thesalemsaga]

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 — 𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘀

— EVANGELOS CHRYSANTHOS, known as the brute.

class : brawler

age : eighteen

rank : five

semblance : psychic’s puppet

#original character #male oc #story character #original art #jaebum faceclaim

[thesalemsaga]

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 — 𝗸𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻

— KAILEN CASSIUS, known as the hunter.

class : archer

age : eighteen

rank : six

semblance : eagle eye

#original character #male oc #story character #original #rowoon faceclaim

[thesalemsaga]

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 — 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲𝘂𝘀

— PERSEUS URSA, known as the bard.

class : mage

age : eighteen

rank : three

semblance : art manipulation 

#original character #male oc #story character #original roleplay #taehyung faceclaim

[thesalemsaga]

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 — 𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼

— ROMEO YAHONTO, known as the jester.

class : gunner

age : seventeen

rank : four

semblance : telekinesis

#original character #male oc #story character #original #san faceclaim

[thesalemsaga]

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 — 𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿

— ALEXANDER SALLOW, known as the wise.

class : healer

age : eighteen

rank : two

semblance : healing

#original character #male oc #story character #original #eunwoo faceclaim

[thesalemsaga]

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 — 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻

— SEREN ARMSEND, known as the heroine.

class : swordsman

age : eighteen

rank : seven

semblance : speed

#original character #female oc #story character #original #sana faceclaim