Chronos

Fortress of Alamut

"So, we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
                         — F. Scott Fitzgerald

CHAPTER 1

"Did you hear of the fight?"
"Ya. She marred her opponent in practice and destroyed half the west wing this time. The Guardians had to pull her off"
"Nothing less from Rune Doom. She's going to fail her secondaries"
"I've already locked my bet in," 
Rune heard someone say as she fumbled with the lock.

She rolled her eyes 
"Morons- at least I passed the primaries" she whispered under her breath, hearing the lock catch.

"She's barely good at anything, I heard the only reason they brought her in was –" the voice drowned as the force of a door closing revibrated down, and they all looked up.

"Wow, look at you with those big fancy words," it was Kal, making his way down to their floor.
"'Marred' eh. Who knew you had that in your vocabulary Ami"? 

From where she stood near the end of the hall Rune could make out that it was Ami and James, the self-proclaimed Barbie, and Ken of Alamut. 

Nobody liked them so they stuck to each other. 

"Kal, I don't know what your problem is, but mind your own business," said James, coming to Ami's defence. 

"Awe, down boy," Kal mocked, biting at James and chuckling.

Ami's nostrils flared as she stared up at him, her fists clenched by her sides,

Rune could tell a fight was about to break out and she was in no mood to play backup to anyone.

Not after the primary she had this morning. 

But she had to walk past them to go down the stairs or even reach the elevator. 

If she waited any longer, she was going to be late for her computer science class; it took approximately 20 minutes to get from the dorm to the campus.

Rune stood outside her door for another second, trying to rationalize skipping, but the thought soon left when she realized she was already behind, it was only day two of the semester; and Duchess was not a laid-back instructor.

She let out a heavy sigh, and pulled her book bag up and made her way towards them.

"Hello everybody" She nodded and coolly walked past them towards the stairs. 

Half way through she stopped and looked over the banister yelling "Oh, Ronan!" 

"Can you come up? I want to show you something wrong with my door," loudly.

Ronan was the Dorm keeper, he made sure everyone was in line, following house protocols.
Making sure no one was dying or getting hurt off campus. 
Suffice it to say nobody wanted to be on his bad side or any of his sides for that matter.

Behind her she heard footsteps shuffling and a door slam.  

"Rune, you abandoned me," mumbled Kal, catching up to her.

"You know I don't need you to come to my defence Kal, in fact, I encourage you not to..." She said flatly and made her way down the stairs. 

"Wow," he grumbled at her heel.
"Someone got up on the wrong side of their cage this morning," He added under his breath. 

"I may be badly bruised, covered in cuts and slits maybe a dislocated rib," she patted her right side 
"But don't get it twisted Kal, I can still take you on" she hissed back. 
"Also, you're welcome" she pointed to the empty lobby and sped to the elevator not wanting to go down another set of stairs.
"Idiot" 

"Oh," he said following her into the elevator.

"Why are you still here, planning on skipping class?" 

"Well, unlike you Rune, I am quite good at the sciences, so yes, I am in fact skipping," he said, touching a spot on her face that was aching and could only be a bruise that was turning purple no doubt. 

She swatted at his hand and rushed out of the elevator and outside, breaking out into a jog, making her way through the thick morning fog.

"Slow down speed racer, I had something I wanted to ask you," he said catching up to her.

"What?" 

"I need you to cover me, in Boris's class" 

"HA,
Why in my right mind", she slowed to glare at him and make her point.
"Would I put myself through that. Boris is a blood-sucking demon disguised as a human.
I would never go out of my way to talk to that willingly" she exhaled  pointedly

Boris was the defence teacher; assigned to their unit from when they began at Alamut. 

He single-handedly championed the title of ass teacher every year, including the one year we had a substitute for him. 
Ronan was also his watchdog, keeping an eye on us 24/7, any hope or joy we had left was Boris's  mission to destroy – Hence the most hated instructor at Alamut. 

"Because Rune, I am the love of your life, and you would do anything for me?" Kal said confidently.

"You know what Kal, honestly; I don't know where you get that level of confidence and inflation from. But if you want me to lie, you know the rate."

"And just for that extra bs you spewed at me, it's going to cost you 10 extra cades, so 20 cades and we have a deal" she paused and then added

"actually make it 25 cades since it's Boris we are dealing with" they had arrived the academy gate. She took her card from her bag and swiped it at the pillar that connected the wrought iron gates to the singular door leading inside the Academy.

"Wait what" he stopped and grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop outside the door.
She hissed at him as fresh pain shot down her arm.
"Rune. 25 That's insane" 
"How about 15 cades?" he insisted.
Rune eyed him curiously, taking in his appearance. 
He was dressed in semi formal attire; a crisp white button up tucked into navy-blue dress pants which stopped just above his ankle. 
He was even wearing beige loafers which was weird because she had only ever seen him in some form of sneakers or flip flops.

She raised a brow, "Where exactly are you going,  dressed like that?" 

They both eyed each other in silence like a  predator sizing up their prey before attacking.

It was Kal who broke the silence and offered submission. 

"Fine if you stop with the interrogation, I will pay you 20 cades, and I will tutor you in computer science, and you" he raised a finger and pointed at her
"cover for me in Boris's class"
"And let's be real you need the tutoring," he flashed her a sinister grin.

Rune considered for a moment – she knew she could push him for more.
But she heard the first bell ring, which meant there were only five minutes to class. 

"Well,"
"I suppose out of respect for our old and deep friendship I shall accept the offer," she agreed with a smirk of her own, flashing her teeth. 

"Old friendship my ass," he scoffed under his breath. 
And passed a twenty in her hand and walked off. 

Rune stood amazed at the 20 cades in her hand.

Asking  for 20 cades was unreasonable, especially because it was hard to come by.
We had our own currency at the academy which meant we had to earn it,  it was granted to us only when we successfully completed a given assignment or task.

She looked up from the bill to where Kal walked into the fog, he never let her rip him off.

Something was definitely going on she thought and swiped her card at the pillar again and walked inside Alamut Academy.