Broken Souls (Book 1 of Seasons of the Cycle)

Chapter 33 - Lura Syllana

On the way back to our room, we run into three other girls. Two with red hair and one with blonde. They stop as soon as they see us. "Oh look, it's one of the strays, and it looks like she found a friend."

"Don't listen to them," Chalia says. "They're just stuck-up nobles who think they're better than everyone else because they come from wealthy families."

"We are better than you," the blonde-haired one says.

"Sure, Irlinda. If that's what you need to tell people to secure your ego, go right ahead," Chalia says.

"Says the bastard child. Did daddy not love you enough?" the taller of the redheads says.

Chalia clenches her hand into a fist. The blonde one named Irlinda looks at me. "Let's see... Copper skin and yet you have pure golden hair... Odd. You have the skin of a low-born and the hair of a noble. Are you another bastard? If you're a noble, you certainly don't want to be seen around with the likes of bastards and low-born filth. I don't understand why we let the gutter trash in here to dirty the purity of the church."

"Clearly you know nothing about grace and humility," I say, and that gets a laugh from Chalia.

Irlinda lets out a huff, tosses her golden blonde hair over her shoulder, and pushes past us with her friends on her heels. We enter our room and Chalia helps me get settled in. I have little, so it doesn't take long.

"So, what did she mean about bastards?" I ask.

"Who knows. Irlinda is always trying to belittle others." Chalia avoids my eyes as she walks over to her bed and starts to straighten it even though it's already pretty smooth.

"So, here's the basic life of a Novice. We have classes every day except for the days of rest, and they're all about the holy sacred texts, the core beliefs, the history of our church, and all this other boring stuff. We also have to learn different languages, especially dwarven and human languages. Then we have chores we have to do on top of that because, apparently, hard work builds character, or something like that. Then, many unfortunate souls are assigned to help a Sister or Brother do such boring monotonous tasks. Thankfully, I'm with Damaris. I doubt you'll be so lucky," she says as she opens her drawer up and pulls out a bag of dried fruit, and starts chowing down on it.

"Isn't supper soon?" I ask.

She shrugs. "They like to feed us small portions because, apparently, it builds character." She says sarcastically. "You'll want to avoid getting caught doing anything you shouldn't be. Punishments suck. They'll take a switch to your bottom and then you'll have to do a lot of monotonous manual work."

"You'll also get buried underneath books upon books to read," she says as she pulls out a giant book with a dusty green binding. "Hopefully you can read and write because if you can't you'll have to waste time you could use for advancing in the levels to learn those skills."

"I can do both," I say.

"Good, now get comfy. We've got a little while before supper," she says.

"Can I borrow a book?" I ask.

"By all means, have your pick. You'll get your own soon enough," she says without looking up.

I grab a book called Creatures of Aratheon and open it up. As I skip through the pages, one in particular catches my eyes. On the parchment sits a rather hideous creature with antlers that has long arms and crotches on his hindlegs. Its eyes seem hollow and its flesh is rotted with nasty patches of fur covering it. It's called a Wendigo, and it's a creature of the dark. The light hurts it. It feeds on anything living. Its teeth and claws are vile and can poison the flesh, but there is a cure in the Luminescent Emerald Mushrooms that can enhance the senses and heal the body of almost any poison, cut, and even broken bones. They're found deep in caves of mountains.

The book also has several rumors about these Wendigos. That they're created by a Witch of the Dark, or witches. It's not clear whether there is only one or many. These witches, or witch, are rumored to be very powerful and live in total darkness. Of course, these are just rumors and there's no evidence of such witches or witch. Some think the creatures are from the Dark Realm itself. Of course, many think the Dark Realm doesn't exist. I snap the book shut as another catches my eye.

I grab one that says Known Artifacts and dig in. It's a thick book, and there are loads of different artifacts. It talks about the Divine Sword, Jophiel's Holy Everlight Staff of never-ending sunlight to shine away the darkness, an Amulet of the Sun, the Dagger of Dread, a Pendant of Strength, and several different hammers, one being the Sacred Hammer that's important to the church. It was once the hammer of Lord Angel Akrasiel, and only the pure of heart or Akrasiel himself can use it. There's also a hammer from some dwarven pagan builder god, a Hammer of Justice or something, and of course, it talks about the specific ways you can use them and the requirements for each of them. Like the Hammer of Justice can only be used in seeking justice, to no one's surprise. Why are there so many hammers?

They also mention these orbs of energy which I find truly fascinating. There are several different kinds of orbs for different types of magic. These orbs contain a nearly unlimited amount of magic that can be drawn upon by the wielder. Of course, even though they have an extraordinary amount of power, there's a limit to how much you can draw at once, but, over time, the orbs actually replenish themselves through some kind of fusion process that I don't quite understand. There are blue orbs that use Arcane Magic, white Divine orbs, red Demonic orbs, purple void orbs, black dark matter orbs, elemental orbs, and so on and so forth. It states that one only needs a trickle of magic within them to use these orbs, which nearly all life has. In order to channel one, you have to have a high level of concentration on the orb and focus on what you want to do with the flow of energy from it. I would love to get my hands on one.

I skip to the rings to try to find one that resembles mine, but before I can really dig in there's a knock on the door and it opens with the girls from across the hall barging in. The darker-skinned girl, I think her name is Inhepireth, speaks up. "You two coming to supper?"

Chalia snaps her book shut and practically leaps offher bed. "Yep, let's go, Lura! I'm starving."

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