SORRY THIS IS SO LATE I'VE BEEN SUPER BUSY LATELY!
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Thorne
Over the past few weeks of surviving werewolf-induced massacres, making assassination attempts, and sabotaging the headmistress' side-projects, Thorne had come to a conclusion:
Being blind sucks.
Everywhere he looked all he could see was black. Not even the faintest outlines of his surroundings. Just an endless, whole and complete blanket of black. It was like his eyes were permanently closed, only without the colourful spots dancing across his vision when the light changed. He'd hoped that, over time, his other senses would grow super enhanced so he wouldn't even need his sight to know what his surroundings looked like. But apparently several weeks isn't enough time to be able to suddenly pick out individual odours. Damnit.
"Okay, so we've just reached two hallways. The one on the left has a picture of Bathilda Bagshot, and the other one has a picture of Jannali Coal." Cress's soft voice whispered to him.
Thorne nodded. "Right, right. Who are they again?"
"The old half-bald lady with the liver spots on her face and the lady with the fake purple eyes." Jacin's impatient voice snapped.
Thorne glared at him, or at least, glared where he thought Jacin might be, though the descriptions were helpful.
Cress gently tugged Thorne along, leading him down the hallway with the picture of… balding lady? That was Bathilda Baglady or whatever her name was, right?
"I smell magic." Wolf's rumbling voice said, "Lots of it."
"Well, we are in a magic school." Kai reasoned.
"This isn't just residual magic. This is active magic. I think there's another fight up ahead."
"But that's the fifth one already!" Thorne cried.
"There are a lot of centaurs living in the Black Woods." Wolf reminded him.
"Yeah, but there aren't a lot of teachers in the castle after-" Thorne stopped himself before he could mention the attack, but judging by the thick blanket of silence that suddenly fell over the group, they knew perfectly well what he meant.
This was one of the parts of being blind Thorne hated the most. He could say something, and not know if the person was offended, hurt, sad, angry, or anything. All he had to rely on was his imagination, and what he knew of the other person's personality to make a guess. Something that was really, really hard to do when he didn't know the person that well. Like Wolf.
Okay, so Thorne knew he was sensitive about his condition, and usually grew depressed when it was brought up. So, maybe he was standing awkwardly, staring at the ground, shoulders hunched to try and make himself look smaller. Maybe Scarlet had her hand on his shoulder and was glaring at Thorne for daring to make him sad. That seemed like the sort of thing she would do. And the others… the others were probably looking everywhere but at Wolf and Thorne. Cinder might be giving Wolf a sympathetic glance, and Jacin was almost definitely glaring at Thorne, but the others were probably just trying to stay out of it. Yeah, that seemed about right.
"I don't suppose you know any shortcuts to the dungeons from here." Kai sighed.
Thorne bit his lip. "Well, there's a passage behind the dragon statue, but it's kind of a roundabout route."
"They're all roundabout routes." Scarlet grumbled.
"And there's a chance that they'll all be pointless in the end." The new guy's voice (what was his name? Kinney?) added.
"Well, aren't you Mr Optimistic." Iko grumbled.
"I'm just saying we don't even know if Professor Erland is in the dungeons. Just because Iko and I didn't see him firing hexes at a centaur doesn't mean he isn't in the thick of it somewhere."
"And it also doesn't mean he's not in the dungeon." Iko retorted, "So stop being Mr Grumpypants and let's get going already on Thorne's roundabout route."
"Hey, don't call him Mr Grumpypants!' Thorne protested, "That's Jacin's title!"
Thorne could just imagine him narrowing his ice-blue eyes at him in a glare as he replied, "Why couldn't Levana have taken your voice instead of your sight?"
"Hey, someone has to keep everyone in school from turning into more yous. Imagine, hundreds of kids all with the same grumpy disposition in one building because I'm unable to actually keep the humour alive in this dump. Talk about a nightmare!"
"I thought your nightmare was wearing business robes."
"Oh, will you two quit it already?" Cinder hissed sharply, "You're going to bring the staff and the centaurs down on us!"
Thorne rolled his eyes. Why was everyone so opposed to having a little fun today?
It felt like hours before Thorne finally recognised the damp, musky smell of the dungeons. The footsteps of the nine teenagers echoed eerily off the metal doors and stone walls, like strange, discordant set of drums. The group was moving faster now, and Thorne was struggling to keep up as his feet awkwardly stumbled over cracks and growths that he couldn't see, but he didn't dare ask for them to slow down as Cress dragged him along. And besides, if it all went to plan, he wouldn't have to worry about not knowing where his feet were anymore.
He almost crashed into whoever was in front of him (maybe it was Iko?) when they came to a sudden stop. Someone knocked on a door, filling the corridor with the sound of clanging and banging, followed by an ear-tearing screech as the door opened.
"What are you all doing down here?" Professor Erland's unmistakeable sharp voice demanded, "Can't you hear all the fighting? Go back to your dorms, where it's safe!"
"Hate to break it to you Professor," Cinder replied, "but I don't think anywhere in the school is safe for us anymore."
Thorne expected the Potions Master to protest, to insist that Artemisia was perfectly safe, and to become all outraged when Cinder told the "lie" about what Levana did to them in her office. Instead, he just sighed and said, "Got in trouble with the headmistress?"
Silence. Thorne could only assume that Cinder was nodding.
Professor Erland sighed again. "Very well. Come in."
Thorne's eyes widened in shock as Cress gently lead him through the doorway. That's it? No accusations of lying? No attempts to murder them on the spot for daring to defy the headmistress? Either this was a trap, or they'd become incredibly lucky over the past thirty seconds.
Somehow, Thorne doubted it was the latter.
"Well, if you want protection from Levana, I'm afraid I won't be much use." Professor Erland said, "Really the only place you'll be safe is in another country, and even that's a maybe."
"We're not trying to run away." Cinder told him.
He snorted. "Well then I've clearly overestimated your intelligence, because that's the only way you're going to live to see your twenties."
"Not if we take her out first." Scarlet said.
Professor Erland groaned. "Merlin's Beard, I have seriously overestimated your intelligence. You can't fight Levana! You might as well drive a dagger into your own chest which, by the way, is probably the way she'll kill you."
"We're very well aware of what Lunars are capable of-" Kai said.
"And also well aware that not all of them are total scumbags!" Thorne interrupted loudly.
Kai sighed. "Yes, that too. But we have a plan."
"Is your plan, "Jump headfirst off the Astronomy Tower"? Because it might as well be." Professor Erland snapped.
"Thank you for the vote of confidence." Cinder grumbled.
"If you want encouragement, do something less foolhardy."
Iko groaned. "Look, we didn't come down here for you to criticise us."
"Oh? Then what is your great purpose?"
"We were hoping you'll be able to do something to help with Thorne's blindness." Cress's gentle voice whispered.
There was a pause that stretched out a little too long, before it was finally broken by a sigh. "Very well. Bring him over here, I'll see what I can do."
Cress nudged Thorne in the right direction, and he tentatively made his way over to the teacher. A hand grabbed his chin and another one pulled his left eyelid up.
"Uh, a little warning would be nice." Thorne protested as he fought to wrench away from Professor Erland's grip.
"You're sixteen, not a five-year-old, I don't have to baby you." The teacher muttered as he continued to examine his eyes.
It took every scrap of willpower Thorne had (which wasn't much) to stay still as the older man pulled at his eye lids, had him look in different directions and turned his face this way and that.
When he finally let go, Thorne stumbled back several steps, hoping desperately that he was now out of reach.
"I can cure him." Professor Erland announced finally.
Thorne grinned with relief and someone-presumably Cress-squealed and clapped their hands.
"There are two possible remedies I can use." He continued, "I can use essence of dittany for an immediate-though not permanent-cure, or I can use phoenix tears to permanently restore your sight, though it will take about a week before you start noticing the effects."
"Will the permanent cure still work if I took the immediate cure?" Thorne asked, "Thing is, I kind of need to be able to see now, but I also don't want to be blind for the rest of my life."
"It should still work. Phoenix tears are an amazingly versatile substance." Professor Erland answered.
"Alright then. I'll take the essence of ditty, or whatever it was called."
Professor Erland sighed and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "idiot".
Thorne fought not to twitch as the teacher dropped the cure into his eyes. It felt strange, both cool and warm at the same time. He blinked as his eyes sucked in the liquid, and with each blink everything became more in-focus.
At blink one, he could make out the differences in light and dark.
At blink two, he could see vague shapes in the darkness.
At blink three, he could make out colours other than black, white and grey.
At blink four, the shapes became more defined.
At blink five, he could finally see the world as he used to.
And suddenly he understood Cress's tendency to get hung up on the little details.
After weeks of seeing nothing but pure darkness, the world of light and colour, even if it was only the dreary colours of the dungeons, suddenly seemed breathtaking.
"Thorne?" Cress said. Thorne's heart seemed to swell as he could finally see her face. "Did it work?"
He grinned and nodded. "Who's ready to find a secret passageway?"
A/N: Yes, I know, I haven't been updating, it's not because this story's dead, I've just been really busy lately, so stay tuned for more updates!
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