Would it hurt?
Did it matter?
Did I have a choice?
“Fine,” I grumbled with a sigh and shuffled over to the table. The pain in my body remained, though the soothing presence of Myel seemed to have helped mitigate it somewhat. I’d have to ask him what he’d done. As much as I didn’t like the thought of him secretly drugging me, the pain-relieving element was nice.
I reached the table and put both hands on the orb. It was about the size of a bowling ball and had the same smooth feel. As soon as I touched it, the silvery color swirled and mixed with an inky blackness.
Was that supposed to happen?
I looked at the others. They were all focused on the sphere. I guessed this was normal and kept my hands steady as the silver vanished completely and swirling blackness slowly shifted in shade to a dark purple. Then it tinged to a dark red, then bright red before the shifting color began to slow. The color finally settled on a fiery orange, filling the ball once more.
Was that… good?
Did I pass?
Did I want to pass?
I heard a heavy sigh behind me and looked over my shoulder to see Myel with a pained look in his eyes, shaking his head. What did that mean?
He mouthed the word,sorryat me.
At the same time, the man with the extremely tall pointy ears announced, “Orange. Pass.”
Pass meant… I had to remain here, right?
Fuck.
“No. There must be a mistake. I’m not orange, whatever that means. I can’t pass. I can’t stay here! I have alife.” It wasn’t much of a life, but it was mine and it was normal.
Unlike the past few minutes.
“You have no choice,” Svokol said, voice hard. “Unless you can cast a gate spell to get yourself home?” His eyes shifted from me to the orange globe. “With that little anima, I highly doubt it.” He laughed. “Consider it something to work towards.” Then he turned to Pointy-ears. “She’s all yours. I’ve done what I must.” He turned and left.
Wait!
What?
I turned to Myel, the only one here I remotely trusted, even if I didn’t know why. But as I did, Pointy-ears pronounced, “You two may go, I’ll see to her.”
Myel gave me a pained look, like he wanted to stay, but he filed out after the muscular woman. I got the distinct impression he had as little say in what was going on as I did.
Though he, at least, probably knew what the hell was happening.
“This way,” Pointy-ears said with a resigned sigh as he passed me. “Let’s get you enrolled.” He sounded like that was the last thing he wanted to do.
“Enrolled?” I asked. “Like in a school?” This place had reminded me vaguely of Harvard. It had a similar air to it, even if these buildings seemed a lot fancier.
I’d thought myself done with school. After high school I hadn’t been able to afford college. A part of me had thought I could take some courses in the evenings once I had a job, but given how damned expensive simply living was these days, that had been a pipe-dream.
But now…
“Of course. Don’t you know where you are?” Pointy-ears asked with contempt.
“No! No one’s bothered telling me anything!” I burst out.
“Oh, well, all will be explained in time,” he said, dismissive. Apparently, he felt no need to explain thingsnow.
