13
Ruva and Arra were sitting in the food court with all the other first years. The whole room was buzzing with voices, everyone from the first years to the apprentices wanted to share what they did in the summer. Ruva was eating a vegetarian rice dish, listening to her classmates and trying to learn more about them.
Jaiden and his friend weren't anywhere near Ruva, but Ruva could still hear his mean snicker as he laughed about someone. Leo was opposite to them, but he was looking at a boy to his right. Ruva was thankful Leo wasn't looking at her, she would've become too embarrassed. Dinner seemed to be stretching out, Ruva just wanted to finish eating and leave the crowded room. She had just finished her plateful and was starting to get up, but Arra pulled her back down.
"You can't leave yet; our potential hasn't been tested." Ruva nodded and sat back down.
Right on cue, lollipops appeared in front of all of them. Ruva put the lollipop into her mouth, Marselle having briefed them earlier on how the potential test worked.
"How do you think your results will turn out?" Arra asked.
Ruva shrugged. "I think I'll do well in PE and Equestrian Skills. I don't know how I'll do with Chemistry and Combat; I haven't done anything like that before."
"I know I'll do well in Archery, we once went on a holiday to a farm, and they had an archery course there. I did really well on it, better than Pip and Tim…"
Ruva listened to Arra talk, sucking on her lollipop until only the stick was left. She took it out of her mouth, and a bag materialised in front of her. Ruva put the stick in, and the bag disappeared again.
Everyone was silent, a nervous anticipation building in the air. Ruva was almost bouncing in her seat, what was taking so long? Finally, a small sheet of paper appeared in front of everyone. Ruva looked eagerly at her schedule. Alpha for Chemistry and Combat, Gamma for Archery and Delta for PE, her results were looking good. The one thing she was confused with was Equestrian Skills.
It said she was Karana for Equestrian Skills. What was Karana? Did she miss Marselle telling everyone which potential level Karana was? Ruva tapped Arra on the shoulder.
"Arra? What does this mean?" Ruva showed Arra her timetable.
"Karana? Is that a mistake? I've never heard of Karana before," said Arra. "Why don't we go ask the headmaster? He's sitting over there." Arra dragged Ruva over to the teacher's table, stopping in front of Marselle.
"Excuse me, sir, but I think there's been a mistake with Ruva's schedule. It says she's Karana for Equestrian Skills, but Karana isn't a potential level," said Arra.
"May I see it?" asked the headmaster. Arra handed it over. "Hmm, yes, I see what's happened here. Just come up to my office and we can sort this out. Thank you for showing me this, Arrabella, you can return to your seat."
Arra looked at Ruva, checking she was okay with this, then she turned around and headed back.
"Now Ruva, come with me up to my office." Ruva nodded and followed the headmaster into the tower. She climbed flight after flight of stairs, thinking they were much longer than she remembered. Once they got into Marselle's office, Ruva noticed it had barely changed from when she saw it five years ago.
"It's hard to believe you're the same girl I met five years ago, Ruva. You've grown physically and mentally, embracing what life has thrown at you."
"Thank you, Headmaster," she said politely.
"Ah, so you do have a voice. I was beginning to worry you were like that poor voiceless child, Leo. Your voice is very sweet, almost angelic." Ruva sighed inwardly, mentally adding Marselle to her list of people who compared her to an angel.
"Now, I must tell you about your potential test for Equestrian Skills. Karana is a potential score, the highest and rarest you could ever achieve. The last Karana level student was at the academy fifty years ago, before I was headmaster." Marselle paused and brought up a screen. His fingers swiped across the keyboard too fast for Ruva to follow, and smiled when a file popped up.
"There have only been five recorded Karana potential scores since the academy was founded thousands of years ago. You are the sixth ever student to receive a Karana potential score, and the first to get it for Equestrian Skills."
Ruva's eyes widened, realising just how rare her potential score was. Out of thousands and thousands of students who've come and gone to Akarnae, only six have ever scored as high as she had. She must have looked as shocked as she felt, because the headmaster gave a merry laugh.
"You look shocked, Ruva." 'Shocked' was an understatement. "I know this is surprising, and this is the second time you've exceeded my expectations. Might I ask, do you feel comfortable talking about your second gift?" Ruva hesitated, then nodded.
Marselle smiled. "You've been a mystery since I first saw you, Ruva. You rode in on a wild horse, not knowing where you were. I asked the Wardens to keep an eye on you, and half a year later I received a two-hour long interview. That explained most of the mystery, but it didn't tell me one of the most important details…" Ruva gulped, already knowing what Marselle was going to say. It was the same question he asked five years ago.
"How did you end up with two gifts?"
Ruva sighed, she still didn't know how it was possible. "I-I don't know. I only had one gift up to when mum and dad died, but after that, I had two," said Ruva. The question had been nagging her for years, it wasn't meant to be biologically possible to have two gifts, but somehow she did.
The headmaster sighed. "Do you have any ideas or guesses that could help us find out about it?"
Ruva shook her head, and Marselle sighed again.
"You can go now, Ruva. For Equestrian Skills I'll put you in with the Epsilon class, and Tayla can give you more difficult challenges if you find things too easy. Have a good night." Ruva nodded and left, still in disbelief that Marselle implied Epsilon Equestrian Skills would be too easy for her.
When Ruva left the tower, she realised the food court was closed. Her talk with Marselle had taken longer than she thought. Ruva walked towards the dorm building, hoping that Arra wouldn't be worried about her. Ruva stopped at the stairs. She could hear people laughing downstairs, and she wondered if Arra might be in the Rec Room. She was about to go down, but she yawned, and realised she was very tired. Ruva decided against going down, she wanted sleep more than anything else. She continued up all five flights of stairs, and walked down to her room at the end. She opened the door to find Arra sitting at their shared desk.
Ruva changed into her pyjamas and hopped straight into bed.
"You going to sleep already? It's only eight-thirty." Arra turned away from whatever she was working on to concentrate on Ruva.
"Yeah, I'm pretty tired today," Ruva yawned.
"Well, I suppose all angels need their beauty sleep," joked Arra. "By the way, why did you take so long with Marselle? He was just fixing that mistake on your timetable, wasn't he?"
"He told me about that, but then he asked me about my gifts."
Arra stopped what she was doing. "Gifts?" she repeated.
"Yes, gifts."
"Gifts, as in, more than one?"
"Yeah, my animal speaking gift and my ribbon-seeing gift." Ruva was too tired to notice the brazen way she revealed her second gift.
"WHAT?!" Arra shrieked.
Bur Ruva didn't hear Arra's response, she was already asleep.