The Sky Realm

Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

    Never, ever, ever, ever say that to Dominika again, Aaliyah chided herself.

    She blamed herself for the situation that she was in. When she had said, “Let’s do this,” with bustling enthusiasm, she had hoped to convince Dominika of her eagerness to inherit Parto. Instead, it seemed that her words had given Dominika permission to torture the girl however she pleased.

    She should stop portraying herself as an eager student, she decided. It was her greatest ability and her biggest flaw. All of her teachers in Shankshaw always complimented Aaliyah on her eagerness. They would be delighted by her energetic response when they would introduce something new to her. Her desire and her excitement to experience something new would always influence her teachers into thinking that Aaliyah would somehow excel. Of course, they weren’t to be blamed. She would always start her task with an air of expertise, but when things didn’t go her way, her frustration and anger would prevent her from trying again. She could still hear her teachers saying, “Aaliyah is a very eager student. Always the first to participate in a new activity, but…”

    She used to dread that “but” when Grandmama and her teachers would talk. It never resulted in anything good, and now, here she was again. She could almost feel the “but” coming at her, and she did not want to know what came after that.

    The entire day had been nothing but training exercises, without Parto. How was she supposed to learn how to wield the sword if she wasn’t allowed to touch the sword? To make matters worse, every time she had voiced her views on sword training, Dominika gave her a harder exercise and congratulated her on earning it.

    She didn’t know how long they had been training. Was it four hours? Five hours? Eight hours? She didn’t have time to count.

    When the sun had finished pelting her with its harsh rays and gone down for the day, Dominika had dismissed the girl for dinner. Aaliyah all but fell on the ground with exhaustion and relief.

    Finally, she thought, this stupid day is over.

    Her entire body felt like it was breaking as she sat down to eat her dinner for the night. She had rolled boulders back and forth, ran against the water current, and—the hardest of them all—she had to hang from a tree branch.

    She would have felt better about herself if she had succeeded in any one of these activities. She was so incredibly slow at moving the giant rocks across the field that Dominika had revoked her lunch and demanded that she could not rest until all five boulders were on the other side of the field. That had taken her well into the afternoon.

    Next, she was told to run against the water current of the lake, which had somehow refilled itself overnight and was now more alive than ever. Dominika had ordered Mika to use her element to make the current as ruthless as she possibly could, knocking Aaliyah down every three waves. As the afternoon hours passed, the pressure of the waves increased, and the temperature of the water decreased. Aaliyah’s teeth chattered profusely and the only way to stay alive was continuous movement in the water.

    Her third task explored her weakest trait: her limp arms. Dominika had told her to hang from a tree branch for a complete five minutes. The rough bark cut into her hands as her legs dangled five inches above the ground. At first, the pain was bearable, but as the seconds turned into minutes, Aaliyah felt a stinging sensation in the muscles of her shoulder, running through her outstretched arms.

    Soon the stinging turned into heat. The heat was slow and warm at first, a pleasant sensation, but a split second later, it transformed itself into a raging fire, spreading itself along the length of her arms. It wasn’t long before her fingers gave in as she let go and fell to the ground.