Test of Character: Riven

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from the Winx Club.

Applying to Red Fountain, Riven finds out that some lose ends from his past won't let him go, namely his old mafia family and the emotional baggage he left behind.


The universe is full of crap, this was Riven's belief. People who paint themselves with good intentions are often misled by the idea that peace is attainable if one had a large enough wallet and the weapons to subdue their enemies into surrendering. People who call themselves honest are liars.

Riven would have loved to call himself virtuous but he knew that was not the case. It was just horrible that that was the kind of people Red Fountain was looking for though. He had no allusions that it was a very real possibility that he was not going to get the scholarship unless he lied.

He had next to no money, no notable family or a place to permanently call 'home.' He worked a laborious job at a more than shady business, simply hauling things and making deliveries to other warehouses. There was the occasional side job. So long as he didn't ask questions or talk about his job to anyone, the pay was good and he stayed alive. It was all fine with him.

He had been in Magix for a year. He had vowed that he would never go back to where he had been before that, he would not even remember it.

Riven stepped out of the elevator into a large and long arched hallways. The floors were marble, one side was made of bay windows and the other was lined with outdated metal armours and stone statues. The place was rolling in money and history. And this was only the administration for the medical wing.

He was here for an interview, the infamous Test of Character. He followed the door numbers and name plaques.

W206. Captain D. Laoh, M.D.

Under it was a piece of paper taped to the door requesting applicants to be quiet.

Riven knocked after ascertaining that he was at the right room. The door opened by itself. The wall to the right was made of glass with a door that filtered out the sounds of a labyrinthine administration on the other side; it was like watching a life-size TV. The other side of the room was a solid wall with a thick door that looked blast resistant.

"Come in." A woman, the secretary, sat at a computer typing away furiously. She wore a stiff grey military uniform. She was a commissioned officer from the Magicite Forces Land Force Command. Her grey wedge was right beside her keyboard.

Riven entered.

"Are you here for the interview?"

"Yes."

"Name and application number?"

"Riven Kemp-Kersey. KEMR86101590."

"Thank you. Please take a seat and look at this document. It's a nondisclosure agreement for the interview. Considering the nature of some of our recruits, applicants feel much more comfortable when they sign a document that…shall we say, puts them outside of the reach of the law of Magix during the interview. Read it and sign at the X. The captain should be almost finished."

Riven read the document intently. It was not written in a fashion so diluted that no one could understand it. It was a simple list of bullet points with even simpler sentences.

Riven exhaled heavily. This was not what he was expecting. He was expecting that he had to lie through his teeth but the document was telling him, "No, no, no, we want only the truth. If you've done something unsavoury, we don't mind…for now."

He did not trust it.

He signed the contract anyways. He was going to go with his original plan.

Just then, the door from the hallway opened and a blond man in jeans and a blue button up shirt came in. He wore an unconcealed shoulder holster and smiled somewhat nervously when he sighted Riven as the redhead sighted the gun.

"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to cut the interview for the Prince of Eraklyon short. We have a schedule to follow and you know how it is…"

"They should be done now," the woman said. She got up, politely knocked at the door and opened it. "Sir, the bodyguard has returned. The prince must get going."

Prince? Really? Riven was a little dubious.

There was some murmuring and then a muscled hazel-haired man in black slacks and a pale green silk shirt, stepped out of the office laughing at some joke. His hair was parted to the right with long bangs. The man looked like he could seriously pose a threat to Riven with just sheer strength alone. Those muscles were probably just for the ladies.

There was no way that the scrawny blond guy could protect this prince. What a bunch of crap. People who had money did not need scholarships. Assholes.

The two guys left and the secretary turned to Riven. "Good luck."

Riven entered the captain's office, wary of something unexpected. He was a civilian enrolling straight into a paramilitary academy. It did not happen often. Most of the applicants, Riven saw, were already enlisted in their own military forces. He could not deny how awkward it had been when he had written the philosophical dissertation on Rousseauism. Rousseauism was not the problem, just the fact that he was surrounded by people who were evidently his equal made him extremely aggressive.

"Well, good afternoon. You may just call me Doctor. Just give me a minute to prepare some things," the captain said. He looked tired. Both men took a seat on either sides of a desk.

Riven waited. The doctor cleaned the piles of files that had accumulated on his desk. He finally came upon Riven's file, which was somewhat thinner compared to the others.

"I'm a little scatterbrained today," Laoh began. "Do you mind if I call you Riven? We don't need the 'yessir' formalities with me since you're a civilian. I could also use a break from the tediousness of it."

"Alright."

"Just to confirm some things: you are Riven Kemp-Kersey, you are sixteen years old and you are a graduate ofMerckFrosstUniversity? You are also applying for the Wings Programme, right?"

"Yes."

"You've specified that you have a degree in science. I won't lie to you, I hate how schools never mention the field of study. It's not as if it's a waste of ink. What was your field of study?"

"Aerospace and applied science."

"Makes sense." The doctor was quiet for a long moment and began to haphazardly write notes.

Riven had taken note of the office earlier. It truly looked like a doctor's office than an officer's as it was stocked to the ceiling with medical supplies and books. He was expecting to find a space of wall just devoted to whatever degree this man had earned. He did not find any. Instead, he saw a purple-ribboned medal framed near a poster denoting all the possible emergency scenarios for the academy and the codes for it.

Riven knew very well what the medal was and what kind of price it could fetch legally: a Medal of Sacrifice, the highest medal of military distinction in Magix. Those medals were given almost never. Only thirteen medals had been awarded in the last century.

Riven could not see this doctor meriting the medal. Sure enough, he could see the dedication written under the medal to a Captain D. Laoh.

"So tell me, Riven, you do realise that you are a university graduate at sixteen years of age, right?"

"Yes."

"And you don't see anything wrong with this? I also looked at your thesis from Frosst."

"…I know it's out there."

"Riven, there isn't a problem. Call me 'suspicious' but you must realise that what you've accomplished so far is incredible? I don't mean to say that your degree is fake but it is rare."

"…"

"You have no official military experience but you are academically one of the strongest in the pool."

"…" Riven waited. He was expecting more than just that statement. Most of what Laoh had said was "true."

"You seem be very familiar with certain rifles as well as blades. In particular, you favour smaller arms and you've done splendidly on all the athletics tests. You could use more form but that is nothing practise can fix." The doctor seemed to be skimming the file for his accomplishments. All of them were true. "You have also worked for the Hew family and have done some less than savoury things."

Riven's hands furled into fists. He tried to remain calm. "Where did you hear that?" he feigned innocence.

"Riven, we are Red Fountain. I think you understand very well the nature of some of the things we do here. No lying, no covering it up with another story, please. Tell me, how did it happen?"

Riven kept quiet. Meticulous planning was going to waste and Laoh's lackadaisical attitude was annoying. He thought that he had been careful about cutting his ties. How did they find out? He had been so careful arranging his new identity to seamlessly fit into his persona.

"Riven, you should understand that we don't base your application on a standard of black and white morality. Not everyone is good and we don't force our students to do that. You've heard of the tyrants that we let graduate from this school as well as the heroes. I will not judge you."

The cat was out of the bag. What could he do?

"Riven, I also know that your name is not at all Riven Kemp-Kersey. So far, you've done pretty well in creating your new identity."

Frustrated, Riven said, "What do you want from me?"

"I want to know what you want. I believe that you have come very far in the examinations because you've merited it but that can only count for so much."

"I don't believe that. You obviously want something else from this. Knowing this place, you want dirt on the Family." Riven gritted his teeth. He believed that he was making the worst decision he had ever made in his life.

He was not going to let his past haunt him forever. He had started a new identity and life in order to get away from it.

He stood up and walked away.

Laoh stood up abruptly. "You walk out that door and you are a dead man, Riven."

Riven turned. His brows furled in fury. How dare they! "Is that a threat?"

"No, that is the very simple truth. Did you know that the Hews are looking for a missing boy called Red, Riven? Apparently, they heard that he might have gone to Magix and they have an agent in Magix under the pretence of studying at our female specialist school Themiscyra looking for him."

Riven glared daggers at the doctor.

No…why would they hunt him down? What did he know about the Family?

He knew too much about them.

"You might know her as Blue."


This is a reinspired rewrite of an old piece called the "Test of Character." You can find it in my profile.