CHAPTER FIVE
I don't have nightmares. I am the nightmare.
"Wake up, quick, there's an alien invasion going on outside!" A voice whisper-yelled into Avy's ear, waking her up.
She didn't even need to open one eye to know that it was Jin. Who else would talk about an alien invasion happening in the Lost Cities? After all, only humans were dumb enough to come up with these theories, and speak of such nonsensical things.
Avy smirked internally, planning her next moves.
In a blink of an eye, she had shot out of her bed, pulled Jin's wrists behind her back and pushed her over the bed, her elbow digging into Jin's ribs.
A shocked and pained yelp came from Jin, before she groaned, and turned her head to stare at Avy. "What in Eternalia was that for?"
"How do I know that you're not one of the aliens?" Avy replied, coldness in her tone, but the smirk on her face betraying her true intentions.
"You're evil," Jin mumbled under her breath, huffing in annoyance as she squirmed under Avy's grip. "Anyway, it was just a fun way to wake you up. You were going to be late if it wasn't for me. So be grateful."
Avy smiled at her crazy friend. Honestly, if it weren't for Jin, she'd probably have gone insane by now. But she simply stuck her tongue out like a childish five-year old human, and fortunately for Jin, decided to finally let her go. "It's your fault for being an idiot," she retorted playfully, as she shoved Jin out of her room to change. The door slammed shut.
Avy sighed heavily as she opened her closet. For some weird reason, whoever stayed in her room before her had came up with the brilliant plan to cover the closet walls with mirrors. It reminded her of Dame Alina's office.
Speaking of Dame Alina, she remembered the mission she went on yesterday in the late afternoon after the new kid's initiation.
She was once again in the Lost Cities in her disguise, ash-blonde, long wavy hair, that was the result of a, thankfully, not permanent Elixir from Slurps and Burps, which she moved to her left shoulder. While she did nothing with her eyes and skin tone, she was sure that no one in the Lost Cities would recognize her, especially since only Neverseen members had seen how she looked like in the past twelve years.
Roaming around Lumeneria, she had heard some juicy information that Dame Alina, the headmistress of Foxfire, was making a very important speech.
She instantly took out her pathfinder and leapt to Foxfire.
Keeping close to the walls so that few would see her, she walked down Foxfire's hallways to the Assembly hall. It was then that a master plan suddenly popped up in her head.
Dame Alina was one of those stuffy nobles that Avy could not stand. And she was so in for a shock.
While the students were all rushing to the Assembly Hall, Avy took a little detour that led to Dame Alina's mirror room of an office.
She sure loved to look at herself a lot. Such an egotistical noble.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a boy with cayenne-coloured hair and dark blue eyes that were watching her before he vanished into thin air.
A Vanisher.
She didn't care that he was most likely following her. He'd just be part of the audience for the magic show she was about to perform. Even if he tried to turn her in, he'd just sound crazy and Dame Alina would probably think it was him who did it.
After all, she did not exist in Foxfire. She did not exist in the Lost Cities. She had been banished nine years ago, and now, she was just a little ghost secretly roaming through the empty Foxfire hallways.
She recognised this place— she was in the territory of the Level Sixes. The level she could have been in a few years ago, if she hadn't been banished. Sometimes she hated returning to the Lost Cities, because everything there just reminded her of what could've been.
So Avy made it her goal to prank at least one of the stuffy nobles whenever she came to the Lost Cities to search for information that could be useful. A spy, you could call her, although she prefered the term 'covert operator'.
Earlier that afternoon, she had put an elixir in Lord Cassius Sencen and Quan Song's drink when they had their usual meet up. The elixir would make them become bald, which she was sure the two stuffy nobles would appreciate. Avy wondered whether their sons would turn out like them when it came to their hair.
She quickly arrived in front of Dame Alina's office, and she flicked her wrist and stomped her foot at the same time, making the shadows around her come towards her and stand up tall and dark, covering her from the vision of anyone in the Lost Cities, elves who knew nothing about the elven skill of night vision.
She slid through the huge open gap of Dame Alina's office, wondering how much of an airhead she could be to leave her door open. There were Vanishers in this school who could easily sneak in just as she had, just as she was sure the boy from earlier had.
She quickly went over to where Dame Alina was, projecting her voice into the Assembly Hall.
Avy took a quick glance at her desk, on where she knew the information she was about to tell the school was.
Sora Heks: Banished, for she was incapable of controlling her ability
Soreas Heks: Banished, for following his sister to the Neutral Territories
Avy was instantly surprised at this information. Heks. As in Jin Heks. They must be Jin's siblings! And banished? For the exact same reason Avy herself was banished too. And just after she was told that there would be two new Waywards tomorrow too. Guess she found out their identities.
Avy found herself getting excited to meet these kids that were so much like her in certain ways. Maybe she could somehow convince them to join her organization.
She was instantly snapped out of her daze when Dame Alina's voice streamed into her ears, signalling the start of her morning assembly announcement. She instantly let light break through and shine directly into her mouth, a grin appearing out of nowhere, like the Cheshire Cat from that human tale Alice in Wonderland.
"Sora Heks and Soreas Heks h- Ahhhhhhh!" Dame Alina screamed when she saw her creepy wide grin— and screamed yet again when Avy plunged her into darkness with the shadows in the office, making sure it was pitch black.
Removing the shadows covering her, she used them to make strong shields for Dame Alina, her, and where she thought the boy was standing, and the rest hovered over the mirrors, ready to break them into millions of pieces.
With a snap of her left hand, that was exactly what happened— thousands of shards of mirror glass flying everywhere. At the same time, she concentrated on not breaking the shadow shields and the shadows covering Dame Alina's sight, and reached out her shadow to the boy, shadow-whispering, 'Having fun?"
A mental image of him jumping in fright surfaced in her mind, but in reality, she saw him lose concentration on staying invisible. She knew the shield, although strong, was not thick enough to block out his vision of her so she smirked at him, before strutting over to where Dame Alina was screaming and pounding on the shadows.
"This is Dame Alina speaking, sorry for the long wait, there were some... complications," Avy said into the projector, mimicking Dame Alina's voice perfectly, and making her sound completely not apologetic but crazy instead.
"I thought I saw a— Hey! Don't eat the yellow crayons, you eat the black ones! — herd of flying sheep appearing in my office all of a sudden, turns out they were just stuffed toys. I love them by the way, they are so cute and soft, I'd be sure to sleep with all of them tonight, together with my old stuffed unicorn, can't find it. If you see a stuffed toy that looks like a unicorn around here, pass it to me, would you? Oh, and it has a horn, it's so different from other unicorns. Hahaha. I love all of you guys, so classes are cancelled for the week, have a wild break, and just a little advice, homework can be done much faster and more efficiently if it's done by a neon green kitten that you own," Avy rambled on and on and on, trying not to burst out laughing or break her concentration.
She let the boy out of the shield and waited for him to leave before she walked out and slammed he door shut.
They walked side by side towards the Assembly Hall for a while, before he broke the silence, asking, "You new around here?"
Avy stopped for a moment before she continued walking. "I guess you could say that."
"And you're a Shade," he remarked.
Avy raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, I ain't no Vanisher."
The boy smiled. "I reckon we'll be seeing more of each other soon, Miss Shade."
Avy didn't reply. Instead, she turned on the heel of her boot and walked off in the opposite direction.
"The gym's on the other side of the hall." The boy called out, stopping Avy in her tracks.
She just stared blankly at him. "What?"
"It's held in the gym, didn't you know that?" he asked, stopping to face me, confusion written across his face.
"Oh, yeah. My memory would probably be the end of me," Avy joked— terribly at that.
The boy looked amused as he told her, "For a girl with long blonde hair, you sure don't act like a girl."
Avy just stared at him. "Are you calling me a boy?"
The boy eyes widened and grew flustered, "No, no, just ignore me."
Avy continued walking to hide the smug smirk on her face.
They walked into the assembly hall and many kids were clustered inside, whispering and laughing, no doubt because of what had just happened.
Avy's eyes widened in horror as she realized that she still hadn't released Dame Alina from her shadows.
She quickly pictured Dame Alina's mirror office before she stomped her foot, slid it sideways and then kicked it up, hoping that it would work despite the distance between them.
She looked up to see everyone staring at her like she was crazy.
Not that she wasn't actually insane.
Avy just gave them a small sheepish smile as a Mentor she didn't recognise approached her and asked her, "New prodigy?"
"Kind of, I joined when the new school year started, but I'm in the Golden Tower," Avy explained before mumbling softly to make sure no one could hear, "Those who are never seen are never found."
Instantly, a sheet of paper appeared in her hands. At the bottom was a perfect imitation of Dame Alina's ugly signature. Avy was certain that she had just scribbled something to pass as a formal signature.
"You're a Conjurer too?" the boy asked incredulously. Avy looked at him in surprise, but before she could say no, she realized that if people thought she was a Conjurer, there was no way they would suspect her.
So Avy smiled at him, nodding, before she groaned at the sight of the mountain of splotchers heaped before her. Of all the days she had to come, it had to be the day of Foxfire's famous annual Ultimate Splotching Championships. No wonder that boy was here, even though he was wearing a golden cape like the other Year Sevens.
Of course, as a Wayward, she was trained very well in her telekinesis, but she'd rather never do anything with it. She was no Telepath, so her telekinesis skills certainly weren't as strong as theirs.
"Well then, Miss Ombré, welcome to Foxfire." the Mentor said, smiling down at her warmly.
Avy saw the boy stare at her in curiosity, saying, "You remind me of someone I once knew. Maybe that's why I chose to watch your prank."
Avy, being used to the annoying rhymes that she saw from the Black Swan, rarely got confused by normal elves nowaday. But this boy didn't make much sense.
Then again, he probably wasn't a normal elf.
"A Shade with one of the strongest concentration and control I've seen in a long time, and a Conjurer as well. You're stronger than you think, Miss Ombré." The boy said, calling her formerly because of the lack of knowledge of her name. Or at least, the name she went by here.
"So… what's going on today? It's not everyday we have lessons in Foxfire, leaving the Golden Tower." Avy asked.
"We're holding the school-wide Ultimate Splotching Championships. Usually, they leave the elite prodigies out because they want us to have more time to study, but this time, they want to emphasise on school spirit."
"Well, good luck to them then," Avy scoffed her reply.
The boy's reply was drowned out by the commotion of the amphitheatre. They joined the crowds of prodigies swarming in, and Avy's stiff and new uniform stood out immediately among the sea of colourful wrinkled uniforms, worn from years of wearing them. Everyone seemed to be staring at her, but even though Avy wasn't used to having so many people surround her, she did not to let it bother her.
The Mentors strode into the amphitheatre carrying huge sacks of tiny, brightly coloured balls, and as they walked in, everyone cheered. Except for Avy, that is.
"Who's ready for the Ultimate Splotching Championship?" One of the Mentors shouted. She was compelled to clap along, but she felt that she was anything but ready for… whatever this was.
She eyed the coloured balls dubiously. "Are those tiny balls… splotchers?"
The boy nodded in reply, confirming her guess. "Yes, we push the splotcher at each other with telekinesis," he explained, "and whoever gets splattered loses. The winners play against each other until there's only one left, and that person wins. You're joining in too, I suppose. Well, then let's pair up with each other."
"Wait, what?" Everything was happening too fast for Avy to process. All she got from the boy's talking was that they had to make use of their telekinesis powers— and that was easy. Telekinesis was her forte, due to the fact that she used it almost everyday.
"Everyone, on your marks," The same Mentor ordered. Another Mentor, a lady this time, approached Avy and the boy and handed the boy a splotcher. "Get set!"
The boy lifted the splotcher with his mind, rather shakily in Avy's opinion, and tossed it toward her. Avy caught it easily, and pulling on the power deep within her core, she pushed the splotcher toward the boy, with a bigger force than she'd intended to. Miraculously, the boy managed to catch the splotcher, but he…
Dropped it.
Avy groaned, and the boy slumped his shoulders, saying, "Well, that was an uneventful loss. See you around, and good luck, Miss Ombre."
"Yeah… thanks, see you soon too." Avy said, feeling the lie slip past her lips. She watched wordlessly as the boy melted into the crowd, leaving her standing all alone.
She'd never intended to get herself in such a big situation. She'd only wanted to prank Dame Alina, and hopefully, dig out some information which might be relevant to her— which she did, but then again, it wasn't really the most useful information, but now, she was stuck in Foxfire's amphitheatre with thousands of prodigies pitting against one another.
She wondered if she could somehow slip into the shadows and run away, but there were too many people watching. Then again, she probably should keep up pretending to be a prodigy. After all, she attended all her classes in the Golden Towers. The school held the most interesting secrets.
Surprisingly, it wasn't an order from the Neverseen, the group she belonged to. She knew her parents would want her to attend Foxfire, even if she didn't attend classes on most days— that was made possible with a pretty good lie and a forged signature for an excuse for her absence, of course.
Besides, she could already see a Level Seven prodigy make his way toward her.
"Hi, I'm Elian," the Level Seven greeted. He had a golden cape pinned around his shoulders, like the boy.
"Wil." Avy nodded back to him, not bothering with the usual 'hello'. She shouldn't have said anything though, because the boy—that sneaky little prick! —took advantage of her being distracted and pushed his pink splotcher towards her.
The boy named Elian smirked a little, but not in the spiteful manner Avy was used to. "Sorry. But don't worry, you look pretty in pink. See you later!"
"Ugh," Avy muttered, feeling pink goo drip from her wet hair and land on her shoes, deciding to ignore the boy instead of getting more attention towards herself by trapping him in her specialty, a shadow cage. She walked over to the little bleachers set on the sidelines, her eyes scanning the fallen prodigies. She found the boy sitting at a secluded corner, separated from everyone else. There was still green goo splattered on his face, a stark contrast to his dishevelled cayenne hair.
She made her way over, marvelling at how nobody tried to trip her as she walked past, and moved to sit beside the boy. "Hey. I lost right after you."
The boy looked up, and blinked. "Oh. It's you. You lost to Elian? Really? That guy has one of the worst control over his telekinesis powers."
Avy rolled his eyes. "He took advantage of me while I was distracted, that's why." But I'm kind of impressed too. "I guess this was harder than I thought it would be. Who usually wins these stuff?"
"Who? Oh, it's Matteo who's good at Splotching. Matteo Orimos. I mean, this is the Elites' first time joining, yes, but it's definitely going to be him. Before he went into the Elite Levels, he was the six-time champion of the Ultimate Splotching Championship. He's like, legendary. But… people say he only wins because he Mesmerises them into dropping the splotcher, you know?"
Avy tried to look bored, but inwardly she was intrigued. It sounded like what someone from the Neverseen would do. Take full advantage of what they could do so that they come up on top. "Huh, really?"
"Yeah. In fact, he's who everyone's watching now. Look. He's facing off with Elian. Elian's his best friend. The best paired off with the worst? Obviously we know who's going to win."
Avy turned her attention to the match the boy was discussing. Elian was standing a distance away from a boy clad in the shimmering silver Level Eight uniform. The look was completed with a long silver cape that almost reached down to his ankles. His back was facing Avy, so she couldn't catch sight of his appearance.
Elian threw the splotcher, and Matteo rebounded it back immediately like a boomerang. It whizzed through the air in lightning speed and hit Elian smack in the face.
Everyone cheered, but Avy's sharp ears sieved out an undercurrent of jeers and boos. It appeared that the boy was right about the scandalous rumours. Beside her, Avy heard a Level Six girl tell her friend, "He's just a cheat. What were the Mentors thinking, letting him join the championship so he could have it his way for the seventh time?"
Avy pretended not to hear, even as the girl kept gossiping on about Matteo.
Before Avy knew it, almost everyone had been eliminated from the championship, leaving only Matteo, and a Level Five girl standing in the center of the amphitheatre. It seemed all too much like a battlefield, Avy thought. Now that she could see Matteo's face, neatly styled copper hair and electric blue eyes, Avy was a tad disappointed. He just gave off the goody-two-shoes vibes.
The Level Five was determined, but as expected, she wasn't up to Matteo's standard. She was quickly finished off, and the Mentors announced Matteo as the winner.
In the corner of her eye, Avy noticed the Level Six girl that had been sitting beside her rise from her seat and make her way down the steps of the spectators' stand. Normally, Avy wouldn't have paid her much attention as she could just be going to the washroom, but there was a purposeful way in which the girl held herself, like she wasn't just going to a simple trip to the toilet. But her attention was soon drawn away from the girl, as a lady Mentor called Matteo down for him to receive his prize.
As the prize— a pardon—was being handed over to Matteo, everyone in the amphitheatre clapped loudly, cheering for the silver-clad prodigy. Avy didn't bother, instead choosing to watch as Matteo received the pardon with both of his hands, bowing his head respectfully to the Mentor presenting him the prize. The pardon now in his hand, he started to walk away from the Mentor when—
—Suddenly, the pardon was knocked out of his hands by a seemingly invisible force. Telekinesis, Avy deduced, as Matteo recoiled, shocked, the abrupt disruption eliciting a plethora of scandalising gasps from the onlooking prodigies. They're using telekinesis.
The Level Six girl emerged out of the chaos, her arm outstretched as she concentrated on levitating the pardon. With a flick of her wrist, the pardon fell into the Level Five girl's hand, the first runner-up of the championship. The Level Five girl, who was looking a little teary-eyed from her defeat, looked up at the Level Six, stunned.
Glaring at Matteo, the Level Six said, "Why, cheat, are you trying to get pardoned for cheating in the Splotching Championship? Did you honestly think you could get away with it?"
The Mentor stepped forward. "Now, Miss Cheng, I don't think this— "
The Level Six whirled on her. "Don't you see, Lady Alexine? Matteo only won because he was using his ability as a Mesmer to mesmerise us into dropping the splotcher! He is not the rightful champion of this competition. Cerlyn is."
Beside Avy, the boy muttered, "Considering the fact that Cerlyn is her sister, I think she's just trying to make her sister the winner. Besides, everyone knows she's just going to snatch away the pardon from her to get out of her weekly detention."
"So you don't think Matteo is really using his Mesmeric powers?"
"No, not really. Please, Matteo is one of the nicest people I know here. And there aren't a lot of nice people in the world."
His tone darkened, and Avy shot him a sideway glance. There were more layers to this boy than she had originally thought. Had he been hurt before too, like Avy?
"Sorry to interrupt," an idyllic voice called out, drawing everyone's attention away from Matteo and Cerlyn's sister and onto them.
Avy looked on as Elian stepped up from the first row of the spectators' stand, and walked to stand beside Matteo, slinging an arm around the older boy's shoulder.
He stared coolly at the Level Six as he told her, "Please leave Matteo out of this. He has never Mesmerised anyone out of bad intention, and he never would. You're the one who's trying to play it up to your advantage by accusing someone who's completely innocent. You can't accept that he's so good that he wins every time? Well, that's not his problem and he shouldn't feel obligated to listen to you. Just work harder next time. Who knows, maybe if you had, you'd probably have been able to beat him. But you didn't, so that's for you to deal with it. You leave us alone, and we'll leave you alone, alright? We don't need to fight."
There was this one silent, pristine second in which everyone in the amphitheatre seemed to be holding in their breaths. And slowly, all the onlooking prodigies began to clap and cheer. Among it all, the Level Six stared at Elian for a very long time, then stared at Cerlyn, silently pleading with her not to fight anymore, and finally returned to gazing at Matteo.
She took in a deep breath, held out her hand and murmured, "I'm sorry. Truce?"
Matteo smiled, shaking her hand affably. "Truce." And everyone applauded again, much louder this time, as the two elves smiled at each other, their past conflicts forgotten in that precious moment.
With the apparent huge commotion over, Avy sighed and dragged her legs for whatever class she had next all the way in the Golden Towers. Although Avy would much prefer seeing an elf destroy the school and blow up some stuff here and there— preferably Dame Alina's office of mirrors, who knew Foxfire could be so eventful? As for blowing up Dame Alina's office, Avy was hopeful that the day would come eventually.
Avy growled as she walked past endless rolls of dresses and gowns she had to wear during covert operations. She hated having to be stuffed into frilly dresses that made her feel like she was the meat in a human sandwich. How humans could eat meat, something from an animal that once alive? She had no idea. Avy may have killed people, but she could never imagine killing poor, innocent, little animals who could not defend themselves against bullies, that being the human race.
She started to feel like she was walking down an endless hallway even though she did this on a regular basis. She kept telling herself not to put her usual clothes all the way at the back, but yet she found herself walking forever a few times a day.
About a million light years later, Avy finally found her Exillium uniform stuffed in between a shelf of perfume. For once in her entire life, Avy was actually grateful to whichever elf that created perfume. She could not believe that humans thought they were smart enough to come up with such a brilliant invention.
Everyone in the Lost Cities knew that the Exillium Uniform stunk like unicorn faeces, even if they never came into contact with either before.
She sighed at the terrible fashion sense of the Coaches. She may not be girly, but even she couldn't stand terrible fashion sense. It may have been her favorite color, but the design of their uniforms was way too ugly.
Avy made a face as she wore the Exillium uniform for the 1634th time. She then adjusted her mask and threw on her hood, taking a sideways glance at her reflection in one of the mirrors. After making sure her appearance couldn't be seen, she strode out of her room and looked around at the empty corridor, heaving an exasperated sigh.
"Where is that guy?" she muttered, folding her arms across her chest crossly. They hadn't really talked since their first conversation, much less discuss about where to meet, but Avy assumed that he should be gentlemanly enough to meet her right by her room. Even though it would be a little creepy of him.
Suddenly, two hands clamped onto her shoulders, making Avy turn around in shock, to see a boy who did not even bother to wear his hood correctly, with the hood coming out below, and his mask turned upside down standing there. There was also an obvious bright white stain covering half of his front.
Avy stared at him incredulously, before bursting out, "Are you kidding me? What are you, five? Wait, is your left shoe on your right foot? And what in Eternalia is that white stain. It looks so much like… Hey! You dye your hair white every morning!?"
He scowled at her accusation, before quickly changing the subject not so subtly, "Come on, we're late."
Avy shook her head at him, "You ain't even wearing your uniform correctly. Go get changed, and stop being so ridiculous. You sure you're an elf?"
"Hey, I'm the one with two abilities. Not like a certain someone who only has one." He retorted, and Avy didn't need to be an Empath to know that he was embarrassed.
Instead of replying, Avy simply stomped her foot on the ground, making a bunch of shadows wrap around him as darkness obscured his sight. With that, she spun on the heel of her boot, left him there, and went on her merry way to Exillium.
AUTHORS' NOTE
Yo people, we're back from Neverland.
Hope y'all enjoyed the chapter. Bye~