Sharmin was ordered to take a month's rest at home after the incident at Einhovant's. Classes were cancelled in both schools as the Ivory Tower sent mages and guards from Aden to investigate the crime. It had been over twenty years since there was a murder anywhere near Talking Island Village, and the entire place was alive with gossip. The dual-wielding man had apparently returned to Einhovant's to retrieve his sword from the headmaster, and a series of books detailing the components of magic, and how to counter them from the locked bookshelf had disappeared with it. No one knew where he had gone since then, but traces of him had been found in the library of the old Elven Magic School (commonly known now as the Elven Ruins) on the northwest part of the island.
Towards the end of her second year, Sharmin had been chosen with a group of students to protect the harbor, as a small band of Orcs had decided to try and conquer the place. Although not quite strong enough to take on the Orcs by herself, Cedric had wanted to her to accompany the group in hopes of stiffening up her resolve. She showed amazing potential against when fighting against mere Keltir and the occasional wolf, but her stomach and emotions were still too weak to be completely dependable in a real battle. The shock from her attack in Einhovant's had shaken her so much that for days after it happened, she had woken with nightmares as she tried to sleep at night.
Komugi, Koyori, and several other Einhovant's students helped with the battle, Komugi and Koyori being the primary healers for the students who would get wounded by the occasional arrow or sword swing. It seemed to Sharmin that the two girls had some sort of unspoken rivalry going on between them, as they would turn to cast each other a dirty look while the other's back was turned.
"I'll get him!" they both said in unison as a student fell, an arrow lodged in his chest. They both turned to glare at each other, Komugi bearing sharp fangs. It almost looked as if they were shooting bolts of electricity at each other. Another student fell, and Koyori scampered off to tend to him, leaving Komugi with the first. Sharmin smiled, proud of how strong her sister was. It didn't seem to bother her to be in the midst of battle one bit, even though sometimes an Orc would turn on her and wound her as she tried to help a fallen student. No one ever got seriously injured, and if it looked as though someone were going to be, Cedric or the new Einhovant's headmaster would step in and take over killing the Orc.
Sharmin turned away from the battle as the harbor bell dinged, signaling the arrival of a ship from Gludin. She gave a worried look to Cedric who regarded her with a tight-lipped smile.
"That's what we're here for, girl. Those passengers will be fine, the Orcs attention is focused on us." he said, answering her unspoken question. Sharmin nodded slightly before turning back to watch the passengers slowly wander down the path towards town. A few had frightened expressions as they came past the battle zone, while others ignored it. Today, Sharmin noticed, there was a light elf warrior wearing top novice quality leather armor wandering among them. The light elf, a girl, had silver hair that layered about her face and fell nearly to her waist. She was not as pretty as the elf in the church, as her skin had a green tint, and her cheeks and eyes seemed sunken in. She paused for a moment on the side of the road before leaning over and vomiting in quite an embarrassing manner.
"Ugh, not again." a young man said, hurrying past Sharmin. "She's been doing that since we left Gludin." Sharmin pursed her lips for a moment before leaving the field to wander over to the elf and offer her a hand up.
"Are you all right?" Sharmin asked, holding her hand out. The elf looked up at her with bleary eyes and sniffed. Her face seemed to be the same green as her armor.
"Yeah...I'll be ok. I jus' get seasick..." she said in a weak voice, taking Sharmin's hand and allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. Sharmin gave her an amused half grin and took her elbow, helping her walk down the path.
"Why didn't you take the Gatekeeper then?" she asked with a chuckle. The elf looked at her with swollen eyes and sniffed again.
"You think I have that much money? Heck no!" she exclaimed suddenly, then winced and put a hand to her head. Sharmin blinked, surprised at her manner of speaking. It was incredibly human-like. The elf glanced over Sharmin's shoulder at the battle, and then at Sharmin. "Shouldn't you be out there too?" she asked, walking a little straighter. Sharmin sighed and gave her a tight-lipped half smile.
"Nah. I'm kind of on break right now." she began, and then sighed again. "I'm beginning to wonder if I'm really cut out to wield a sword after all." she said more to herself, her voice soft. The elf frowned and raised an eyebrow at her, but didn't say anything. They walked in silence for a while, the elf's face returning to its normal color. She still seemed too weak to walk on her own, as she allowed Sharmin to continue to help her.
"Narlafayn." she said suddenly, causing Sharmin to jump, startled. Sharmin blinked a few times before it registered as an introduction to her.
"I'm Sharmin." she responded, smiling nervously. Narlafayn paused and took a deep breath, standing straight as she let it out. She stretched, and then wandered around Sharmin, looking her over. Sharmin blinked in confusion, watching Narlafayn with a raised eyebrow. Narlafayn paused by Sharmin's left shoulder, putting two fingers to her chin in thought. She then reached over and prodded the exposed skin of Sharmin's back through her shirt, causing Sharmin to yelp and jump away from her. "What are you doing?" Sharmin demanded, covering her chest protectively with her arms. Narlafayn tilted her head in confusion.
"Well you seem rather cut out to wield a word to me. You've got great muscles for a girl." Narlafayn stated, putting her hands on her hips. "I don't even have muscles that nice." she pursed her lips and looked away, adding "At least here I don't."
"Excuse me for having large muscles." Sharmin glared, offended. Narlafayn blinked at her, raising her eyebrows.
"Well it's not as if they don't look good on you, so don't get all offended. I'm just saying, since you've already gone this far, it'd be a waste to just go back to living a villagers life and loosing all of that." Narlafayn stated, shrugging. She turned away from Sharmin and walked ahead of her, waving as she went. "I think I can take myself the rest of the way to town. You'd better get back to your battle; they probably need you out there." With that she was gone, leaving a bewildered Sharmin alone on the path.
"I thought you were gone back to town." Cedric said in a hard voice as Sharmin returned with her brow creased in thought. She shook her head and looked at the headmaster square in the eye.
"I want to become a Knight." she said, squaring her shoulders. Cedric's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before crinkling with a wide grin.
"The three of you always seem to follow each other..." he chuckled to himself. Sharmin blinked at him and tilted her head.
"Sir?" she asked, confused. Cedric shook his head and then motioned to Komugi who came trotting over eagerly.
"Komugi, I want you to follow your sister with whatever she kills and keep her healed, you understand?" Cedric commanded. Komugi frowned at him.
"Did my teacher ok this?" she asked stubbornly.
"While you're out here in battle, you're MY student, understand?" he said in a no-nonsense tone, looking down his nose at her. Although her expression remained stubborn, Komugi retreated away from him and over to Sharmin. "Go out and find whatever it is you wish to train on, Sharmin, until you feel stronger." Cedric said in a lighter tone. Sharmin blinked stupidly at him a few times until Komugi grabbed her by her wrist and led her away from the battlefield.
"What a jerk." Komugi grumbled a bit later as Sharmin hunted large toads around the river. "How can you stand being taught by someone like him?" She leaned against a tree twirling her hair.
"He's not that bad." Sharmin said, slightly out of breath. She stood after finally managing to land a killing blow on the toad and wiped sweat from her brow. "He's strict, but he means well. Everyone who's been directly under his tutelage has advanced quickly and risen to be great sword wielders." She scanned the riverbank for more toads.
"Yeah whatever." Komugi scoffed, tossing her hair behind her shoulder. Her hair had grown out to where she could pull it back in a high ponytail. Her bangs framed her heart-shaped face, and set off her bright green eyes. Her hair was now a very light red, almost rosy pink in some lighting. Sharmin frowned, as her sister was already very pretty and just turned ten years old. The still-feminine part of her stomped it's feet in jealousy, as although she had lost the glasses and long hair, she still looked very mousy.
A goblin wandered behind her and snorted, digging in the ground with his club. He paused and looked at the girls before snorting and returning to his task. Komugi frowned at it.
"Are you going to kill it?" she asked, pushing herself from the tree. Sharmin's lower eyelid twitched as she stared at it, and she gripped the hilt of her sword tighter. She wanted to take it on, but her muscles seemed to have frozen. "Oh fudge it, I'll do it." Komugi finally said, and then quietly chanted a wind spell.
"Komugi, wait!' Sharmin said, turning towards her sister. Komugi let loose a ball of wind, blowing the goblin over. It pushed itself to its feet quickly, running at Komugi with its club raised, shouting. Komugi calmly ignored it and began chanting her ice spell next. "KOMUGI!" Sharmin yelled, the goblin reaching her and thwacking her upside the head with its club before Komugi could finish the spell. Komugi cried out and stumbled. She tried to smack the thing with her staff, but missed, another blow hitting her stomach. Without another thought, Sharmin charged forward and lopped the creature's head clean off. As the goblin's body fell, Sharmin knelt beside her sister and inspected the forming bruise on her temple.
"Are you alright?" she asked, looking into her eyes. Komugi gazed back at her, tears of pain falling. Her eyes seemed a little glassy, but otherwise she wasn't in any immediate danger. Sharmin sighed and hugged her close, relieved. It was during this tender moment that Sharmin's sword arm began to shake in uncontrollable tremors. She stared at her hand for a moment before clenching it into a fist and sat away from Komugi.
"I should ask you that." Komugi said, casting a simple healing spell upon her temple. "You just killed something that wasn't on four legs for the first time."
"Don't remind me." Sharmin muttered, trying to fight the shivering that had come over her.
"It's ok sissy." Komugi said in her childish voice, "You did great when you didn't think about it. I've never seen you that powerful before, it was kind of cool!" Sharmin looked at Komugi who grinned, her compliment honest. They both perked up and turned their heads as the sounds of fighting met their ears. Ryonai was out in the field facing off against a Werewolf Chieftain that had chased him from the woods. He was covered in scratches, but was still in good form.
"He's not bad." Sharmin found herself saying in surprise. Watching him was inspiring and made her wonder how he could face off against those beasts when one injured him so gravely before.
"Yeah...he's great." Komugi said in a dream-like tone. Sharmin looked at her skeptically, and she quickly cleared her throat and stood. "I'm going to go heal him for a bit. Why don't you take a break for today?" she offered maturely, which caused Sharmin to stare at her evenly, one eyebrow still raised.
"Sure." she said flatly. Komugi giggled lightly and waved before turning on heel and trotting over to Ryonai who now sat in the grass, catching his breath. She watched them for a bit before standing and wandering back to the beach near the magic school. She paused, looking into the door-archways leading into the main hall. All was dark inside the school, as the school was temporarily set up for classes at the Training hall since the murder. Sharmin shut her eyes, remembering the dark shadow she'd seen run across the now-tapestried window. She knew her fear of killing anything bipedal was from that night, but she couldn't understand why. Taking a breath, and feeling inspired yet from watching Ryonai, Sharmin forced herself to walk stiffly towards the school and through the dark archway leading into the main hall.
It was deathly silent inside, the sounds from outside seemed to be reflected by some invisible barrier. Not even a cricket chirped from the grass. Sharmin's breathing was the only thing that echoed off of the walls. The memory of the strangled cry flashed through her mind's eye, and she held her temple in pain. Another flash of memory, seeing the dead headmaster and the Gladiator came next, causing her sword arm to shake, which she gripped tightly at the wrist trying to quell it. Another flash of the Gladiator chasing her, and then slowly stabbing her with his sword, his other hand gripping her tightly around her throat came next, and she fell to her knees.
"Oh hello there, may I help you?" a voice came. Sharmin blinked out of her state of trauma and focused on the body the voice came from. A Dark Elf stepped from the shadows, a staff held in one hand. Sharmin scrambled to her feet and put her hand on her sword, as she'd heard Dark Elves had a bizarre fetish of killing people for the fun of it. The elf chuckled and put his hands in the air in a motion of surrender. "Whoa now, I'm not here to hurt you. The Ivory Tower sent me to inspect the crime scene." he said. Sharmin relaxed a bit, taking her hand from the sword hilt, but not moving it away.
"How can I believe that?" she challenged, hoping her nervousness wasn't visible in the gloom of the darkened school. "You're in here in the dark, there's no way you're inspecting anything." she said, trying to swallow the rasp from her voice.
"I'm a Dark Elf, we perform better where there's no light." he said simply. "My name is Amari, and you are?"
"Sharmin." she said, still not fully convinced. Amari's eyes lit up suddenly and he came toward her, causing her to back up a few steps.
"Oh! You're the one!" he said, his tone suddenly excited. Sharmin kept stepping back as he stepped forward. Her eyes widened in surprise and she glanced over her shoulder quickly as her back hit a rough wall. Amari advanced until he was within touching distance of her and inspected her face with oddly eager eyes.
"The one what?" she asked uncertainly, trying to suppress the nervous shivers that threatened to start.
"The one who tasted Vlad's blade and lived to tell the tale!" Amari said excitedly. "Tell me? Where did he stab you? Was the pain burning or cold? Did he really intend to kill you or was he just trying to cripple you? Please, do tell!" Sharmin's eyes were now wide with bewildered fear.
"You're...mad..." she said, her voice choking in her throat. Amari's excitement melted away and he stepped back, mulling the accusation over.
"Mad? Oh no, quite the contrary." he said intelligently. "I prefer to call myself a 'genius'. You see, Vlad is someone I've been looking for quite some time now." he began, pacing back and forth in front of her. "It's quite bizarre that he would leave someone alive, there must've been a reason." he said more to himself than her. He paused in pacing as an idea hit him, and turned back to her, getting quite close. "Do you have any magical powers of strange origin? Something that could be used to conquer a small nation?" Amari asked, his eyes once again back to its eager excitement. Thoroughly creeped out, Sharmin threw her hand out, smacking Amari. She pushed him away with this motion and ran back out through the archway. She yelped as she ran into a body, that grabbed her to keep her from falling.
"What the heck Sharmin?" Gatz said more than asked, bewildered by her state of panic. "What's got you so upset now? And why were you in the school?" Sharmin attempted to draw in enough air around her panicked lungs to explain, supporting herself up by holding onto his forearms. She looked over her shoulder with wide eyes as Amari emerged from the school calmly.
"That wasn't very nice." Amari said, rubbing his cheek and frowning. Gatz stood up a little straighter and pulled Sharmin closer to him, glaring at Amari.
"Who are you?" he asked in a voice bolder than most 14-year-olds could muster. Amari stopped, his eyebrows rising in surprise.
"Are you...Leon?" he inquired. Sharmin felt Gatz' grip tighten on her elbows. He drew in a sharp breath through his nose.
"What if I am?" he asked back. Amari stared at him for a moment, his forefinger on his temple and his thumb resting under his jaw in thought.
"No, you can't be Leon. I'm told he's much more serious." Amari decided, turning away from the pair and heading back into the school.
"Wh...WHAT? What makes you think I'm not Leon?" Gatz stuttered, letting go of Sharmin and stepping forward. Amari paused to regard him coolly over his shoulder.
"Well for one, Leon would've put the frightened girl behind him to shield her from any attacks I might've thrown, not leave her unprotected like you did." he said smoothly. Gatz froze, clearly unable to think of a retort, as Amari retreated back into the darkness.
"He really asked you that?" Gatz asked incredulously as he and Sharmin made their way back to the Training Hall. Sharmin nodded, hugging herself in the sudden cool breeze that blew. "'ve had bad luck this year." Gatz breathed, pushing a piece of his hair behind his ear.
"I'm seriously thinking of just going back and being a normal villager." Sharmin said, her teeth chattering slightly from cold.
"No, you can't!" Gatz suddenly exclaimed, stopping. Sharmin turned to look at him in confusion. Gatz cleared his throat and diverted his gaze from her, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean...you've already come this far." he said. Sharmin shrugged.
"I haven't really when you think about it. I can't kill anything past a wolf without getting scared." she said in a low voice. Sharmin turned and began walking up the long stairway entrance to the Training Hall, eager to be out of the cold.
"I'm...really sorry...about killing that Elpy earlier this year..." Gatz apologized, coming up beside her. Sharmin shrugged.
"Why are you sorry? It's what you were supposed to do." she said, her teeth chattering a little harder. Gatz' brow furrowed and he pursed his lips, looking away from her.
"Yeah, but you seemed really upset..." he said. He walked around to stand in her way, stopping her from entering the Hall. Sharmin looked up at him in confusion as he took a breath and put his hands on her shoulders. "Sharmin..." he began, swallowing nervously. Sharmin glanced over his shoulder as she saw movement from the side of the school. "For a while now I..." Gatz continued, and then paused to take a hand from her shoulder to rub the back of his neck. Sharmin squinted at the shadows as she identified two figures that appeared to be... kissing? "What I'm trying to say is that I like yo..."
"KOMUGI!" Sharmin shouted, stepping around a bewildered Gatz and towards the shadows. Komugi suddenly jumped away from the wall with a sheepish look, her cheeks pink. "What the hell are you doing? You're ten years old!" she shouted, waving her arms.
"Calm down Fish Face, you're going to get us in trouble." Ryonai said, stepping out from behind the wall. Sharmin's eyes bugged out.
"R...Ryonai?" she stuttered, shocked.
"That's my name..." Ryonai said, sticking a finger in his ear and turning it.
"You...You...You... I can't even think of a word for you!" she exclaimed. "What on earth possessed you to kiss my SISTER of all people? She's still a kid! You're 14! This does not work!" she said, crossing her arms in an x-shape for emphasis.
"Oh come off it, Sharmin. It's just a little kiss." Komugi scoffed, shifting her weight to one foot.
"Just a little kiss?" Sharmin repeated incredulously. "Do you even comprehend how wrong this whole situation is?"
"Sharmin." Gatz started, reaching for her.
"Uh-huh. You're jealous because I've gotten farther with Ryonai in a month than you have with Leon in two years." Komugi sneered. Behind Sharmin, Gatz lowered his hand, his eyes widening and his lips parted slightly. Sharmin's face turned pink and her fists shook at her sides.
"That is none of your business." Sharmin said in a tempered voice. Komugi tossed her hair and grinned at her.
"No, but everyone in the magic school knows you like him, it's so obvious with how you watch him. I'm surprised no one else here noticed, but I guess that shows how dim most swordies are." she paused and gave Ryonai a shining smile. "Except you of course."
"Get out of here, Komugi." Sharmin seethed, pointing a shaking arm towards the village. "I don't want to see your face for a long time."
"Ok." Komugi said, shrugging. She began walking lightly towards the village. "Oh, by the way." She stopped give Sharmin another smile. "Leon and a bunch of students are leaving for the mainland tomorrow. You would've been with them had you not had such issues. Sad for you though, I guess you missed your chance to tell him." she waved sweetly and skipped her way back to town. Sharmin breathed heavily a few times through her nose, her jaw clenched tightly shut. Hot tears stung her eyes and she whipped around and ran into the Hall. She ran directly to her dorm room and threw herself on her bed to bury her face in her pillow so she couldn't hear herself cry.