Chapter 22: The Entrance Exams
- Choices
Standing in the vast central atrium of the colosseum and looking up at the balcony where the captains, and others, stood was exhilarating. For Amaya, the feeling of wanting to prove herself strong and worthy of knighthood was one of pure equality and justice, brought about by her fathers dismissal of her warrior behaviour and dreams. On the other hand, Sarai simply stood arms straight at her sides clenching a spear in both hands, and a sword strapped across her back.
"Entrants..." The voice of Captain Nozel Silva enunciated, "the colosseum staff shall now begin handing out broomsticks for each of you. As Mages and Knights, you shall be expected to know how to fly a broom... so go ahead and begin flying. That is unless you don't know the flight spell. In which case, you fail task one and have to solely rely on passing task two".
Just as the Captain had stated, hooded and robed individuals began handing out broomsticks to each participants. Who in turn began preparing the right ingredients and uttering and, trying to master, the dark magic incantation for flight. Sarai and Amaya were not particularly knowledgeable in dark magic, the sisters believe that the only magicin the world that deserved to be called such, was Primal magic. Too them dark magic was an unforgivable sin against nature, usually resulting in or preceding actions of betrayal or malice.
Also, noticed by Amaya and Sarai, there were about twenty or so other entrants that remained standing still not bothering with the first test, obviously heeding Captain Silva's words about placing their bets upon the second hand to hand task.
'I think we should be getting some sort of notice for this...' Amaya signed to her sister. 'Those that do not use dark magic should be treated with a tremendous amount of respect'. Sarai chuckled softly as she replied, elbowing
Amaya, 'don't you think you're getting a bit ahead of yourself?'
The younger sister pouted, brushing a strand of her hair out from her eyes, before seeing her chance for a bit more teasing. 'He's here you know', she signed motioning upward at the assembled captains and their staff. "Shut up, sis!" Sarai stuttered, barely holding herself together as she caught sight of the faintest of glimpses of brown hair and a familiar side braid, staring at her from beside the Golden Dawn's captain.
'You soo like him...' Amaya nudged, her eyes flashing with a hidden desperate need to tease. Turning her head to the other side, Sarai became aware of many, dark, magically gifted applicants belittling those participants whom were standing out the first task. "Hopeless, worthless runts", one person sneered, as others disdainfully mocked the 'low class commoners'. She was about to intercede and berate these 'bastards' for impugning the resolve and wishes of anyone to join the knights ranks, when she was beaten to the punch by the appearance of a blonde haired boy slamming his fist into the main antagonists face.
"Don't you dare mock us! We may be commoners who don't stoop to using dark magic, but our loyalty to county and our resolve to become knights is just the same as yours!" Standing above the downed older male student, whilst his cohorts helped him up, some other people came forward and backed up the blonde boy. "Do you know who I am!" Yelled the older boy, wiping blood from his nose. "I am Marcus Aurelius, the grandson of General Sir Richard Aurelius..."
"I don't care! You're family may be a big time military family, but you have no right to look down on your fellow countrymen!"
As the older students walked away caring to their bruised egos, and snarling unpleasantness after them, Sarai walked over to the blond boy who seemed to be grinning amongst his friends. "You're amazing Thorfinn!" A girl with dark brown hair stammered, "standing up to those pig headed nobles".
"Yeah well... it was still reckless", a red haired boy added, rolling his eyes in dismay. "Oh come on, Jovick", Thorfinn responded. "It wouldn't hurt you to be a little more supportive. Gyda and I are getting through these exams and becoming knights, we'll leave you behind otherwise".
Appearing from the groups blind spot, Sarai, and Anaya, made the three jump as she introduced herself. "Excuse me..." she spoke, momentarily stopping when three sets of eyes shot towards her. "I saw your... message to those nobles..." Sarai was immediately interjected by Amaya bursting forwards, grinning madly and sighing 'which was cool!'
Sarai would have scolded her sister had it been for the boy, Thorfinn, not grinning as well and signing back 'I know right!'
She rolled her eyes and gently swatted her sister on the back of the head, 'please restrain yourself. We want to pass the second test, not get ourselves expelled'.
Thorfinn held his hand outwards as a sigh of greeting and shook both sisters hands, followed by both Jorvik and Gyda. "I take it you two are commoners like us then", the blonde boy continued. "Yes", she began, "I am Sarai and this is my sister Amaya, we lived in a small forest village out in the countryside before... before moving to outside the capital". Sarai didn't not notice the the slight glance that Thorfinn and Jorvik sent one another, upon hearing the slight pause in her story.
The manner of her families upheaval from countryside to town living still weighed heavy on her heart, not that she had ever confided of such with her mother or sister. They didn't need to know how much she hurt due to killing her own father.
"We too come from the outside the capital but we are orphans, abandoned by our parents and raised in a workhouse of the local authorities, on the border with Evenere", Gyda spoke. "We were raised to believe in human kindness and the power of hope that the knights protect. And well, here we are, wanting to join their ranks to assist in the protection of the Pentarchy".
The groups conversation was interrupted by the announcement from above that 'task two would be beginning'.
"All applicants, including those who chose to sit out the magic test of round one, will now be assigned random partners and be assessed on their fighting prowess", a different softer voice spoke. Looking up at the gallery above, Sarai saw the masked visage of Captain William Vangeance speaking, with Zeren by his side.
Noticing that the said boy was looking towards her, with a kind smile plastered on his face, made her heart rate increase and a furious blush spread across her face. Which only further increased Amaya's giggling from behind. "Do you know that guy?" Jorvik asked trying this red hair back into a wolf tail, in preparation for test two. "He looks like a royal or a high noble", Thorfinn added, disdainfully. "Best to avoid such people, they only look down on our like..."
"Even if he is", Sarai frowned, "Zeren is not like the rest of them. I may not know royalty or nobility but when I first met him there was an intense pain within his eyes. Good luck in your fights", and with that said Sarai away trying to show to her new friends that her friendship with Zeren was nothing they thought about high nobility.
As she stood before the nine captains, with her named opponent facing her and with her sister and new friends cheering behind her, Sarai shivered as she suddenly heard Zeren's voice enter her mind. "You're gonna do well, I believe in you!"
Fighting against her desire to look up towards the boy, she forced herself to grip her spear and then launch forwards into a powerful strike which caught her noble opponent off guard, allowing her to disarm him of his sword and then swung the butt of her spear around and strike the opponent straight in the face.
Seeing the brown haired girl disarm a noble, stunned Thorfinn, Gyda and Jorvik. They had already been able to sense that she was strong enough to match them in armed combat, but seeing her fight was something else, and that was before they even got to Amaya. Sarai had a dexterity and agility that was impossible to outmanoeuvre, and it made Thorfinn blush. Amaya, on the other hand, was more refined in her strikes. She was constantly poised and ready for any and all of her opponents moves, like a professional knight. Sarai was unorthodox but was nothing short of brilliant.
After nearly seven hours of examination, the coliseum moderators began to read out each participants name for the captains to raise their hand for, if they chose to or not. With almost two hundred entrants, the task of reading out names took a long time but eventually the moderator, finally, uttered "candidate Amaya". Steeling herself, Sarai watched in trepidation as her younger sister stepped forwards into he centre of the coliseums atrium. Amaya didn't have long to wait for a judgement, as immediately the hand of Captain Charlotte Roselei went up cementing her place within the Blue Rose Knights.
Following, immediately next, in quick succession, we're Thorfinn, Jorvik and Gyda. Gyda attracted the attention of Captain Dorothy Unsworth and Captain Rill Boismortier and chose to join the Coral Peacocks, delighting Captain Dorothy. Whilst Jorvik and Thorfinn chose the Black Bulls over the Green Praying Mantises.
Finally, her name was called: "Candidate Sarai". Stepping forwards, she saw her friends giving her thumbs up and grinning as they clutched their new knight squad robes. Initially, no one raised their hands but then suddenly all nine captains raised their hands, bringing the entire colosseum to a standstill silence of utter shock.
Blinking back tears of joy, Sarai suddenly found herself lost in the mismatched green and violet eyes that were staring down at her. That was all she needed to know where to go, "I would be honoured to join the ranks of the Golden Dawn", she announced.