Kamine curled the metal bar towards her chest. The weight of it burned her arms, but at least she felt something, at least her body could dosomething.
Her head, on the other hand, pounded. Her lesson with Professor Grimot was a disaster. He didn’t provide any words of advice, and she refused to beg him for any. She wouldn’t let him see her as more of a weakling than he likely already did.
Kamine followed her usual routine for trying to make her magic obey. Every time she tried to use her powers, she would move her arms, say words, and strain her mind. She even twitched her neck like Franciz had done during class. But none of it worked.
Roz grunted. Her pink hair was tightly coiled into a large mass on top of her head, not a single strand of hair out of place. “Are you trying to get private weight lifting lessons, too?” Roz asked, as she gritted her teeth. She lifted a large rock above her head, held it, and dropped it. Being in a large mountain, one could barely feel the impact of it.
“Pardon?”
Roz wiped her nose, her face flushed. “I just noticed that you barely carry anything of substantial weight. I was just wondering if that was on purpose. Are you trying to get more alone time with the professors?”
Kamine frowned. “Of course not. I just have weak arms.”
Roz grumbled, “Of course, that’s it.”
Janina and Zoya were both in a corner spotting each other as they took turns lifting the weights. Kamine could hear that they stopped and watched her now, ready to jump in as needed.
“I’m confused why you care so much,” Kamine said, careful to not be too loud so that the rest of the cohort couldn’t hear their conversation. Professor Sandomir was preoccupied with another student, fixing their form. “I would think you’d be glad I’m so bad at this. It’s one less person to compete against for the Heart.”
Because to all them, that’s what mattered. Even if Kamine were strong and powerful, she still would have different priorities. Her father’s and brother’s lives being the most important ones.
“I would just think that the offspring of an Undertaking winner would be preparing their whole life for this, that they’d be the best. It seems like you never cared to bother, even though it would be obvious to anyone that you’d be voted as your village’s participant when you came of age.”
Roz’s patronizing tone wouldn’t give her what she desired: a fight.
Kamine shrugged. She was rolling the metal bar with her feet, the movement methodical. The exact thing she needed to keep calm. “Who's to say I don’t have other methods of protecting my village?”
“We all know nothing else will work besides using your powers to stop the boulders from falling down. Other methods have only led to more deaths.”
Roz was right. There were accounts of participants hiding villagers in shelters made of rock. Unfortunately, a large boulder always seemed to fall on it. The structure crumbled and all under it had died, because the Gods considered it cheating.
“Yet you’ll likely be running straight for the Heart instead of helping your own village,” Kamine shot back.
As the years went on and the Undertaking had become more of a competition than a test one worked to pass, participants had been more likely to ignore the plight of their villages. Kamine had been witness to it. A few years ago—thankfully, before Damien was born—their village's participant was nowhere to be found during the Undertaking. As bystanders, villagers couldn’t use their powers to save themselves. Granted, they had limited powers left at that point as the court was practically depleted of it, so the only way not to die was to dodge the oncoming storm of rocks. It was scary as fuck, and even scarier when you had a mother who showed no emotions as the storm of rocks raged, a mother who would try to escape the house to be outside in the storm. Kamine’s father had to carry her back inside to keep her safe.
Professor Sandomir approached them both.
“This isn’t a gossip session. Get to lifting,” he said, then started yelling at a group who were seconds away from seriously hurting themselves by showing off.
Kamine bent down and picked up the metal bar again. Her hand was cramping from all the lifting, but she wouldn’t allow herself to complain.
“I would never leave my village to fend for itself,” Roz whispered to Kamine as she laid back on a bench. “I want my family and neighbors alive more than anything.Morethan the Heart, even.” Then, her sad face became neutral again. “I just think I have the ability to do both, because I’m that good.” Roz grabbed the bar above her head, adjusting her grip. “Now, spot me, weakling. I know you’re stronger than you let on.”
Kamine couldn’t help it, a smile crossed her face.
Eight
Yet again, Professor Grimot completely ignored Kamine during their lesson, reading his book, and writing notes within it, instead. She at least hoped that he was reading something interesting. Perhaps he was learning new ways to torture students without getting blood on his hands. She could imagine him back in his room, testing out how long he could place a large rock on a person’s chest before it would suffocate them, or maybe, a way to force pebbles down someone’s throat, choking them.
“I didn’t tell you to stop.”
Kamine snapped her head up to him. She didn’t realize how distracted she had become.
“How did you even know I had stopped?” she asked.
“Because,” he started, leaning back against the wall. He was practically laying down at this point, with his long legs outstretched all the way, and his pants riding up to reveal boring, black socks. His shoulder-length hair was down today, and she could see he had trimmed his beard, a light stubble shadowing his face—not that she was paying him that muchattention. “You either move your hands, your head, whisper to yourself, or stare so hard at the rock that your eyes tear up from not blinking for so long.”
She supposed that was true, but she hated how easily he could read her.
