A Tale Of Shadows (Wattys 2023) - REPLACED BY DIVINE ASCENSION

Chapter 5 - Lesson One

The following day, Melinda woke up with the roosters. Yawning, she rubbed her eyes as she sat up, her sight adjusting to her surroundings. At first, she was so drowsy that she didn't know why she'd slept on the floor or why the room was completely different from her own, but then she remembered what happened the day before and began to sob uncontrollably. She didn't want to sob at the moment, but guilt and helplessness weighed on her heart because of how horribly she'd failed. Had she done better, she wouldn't have ended up there. However, there wasn't much time for melancholy, so she stopped crying after a couple of minutes and started getting ready for the day.

As soon as she was done with it, Patrick came in without knocking. She'd been expecting that, but what surprised her was that he was carrying a man tied with ropes, complete with duct tape on his mouth, throwing him on the ground the moment he faced her. On his face was plastered a smug grin, the same as always, and he stared at her unflinchingly for an entire minute, waiting for her response. Seeing that she had none, he began to speak:

"Miss Grey, it's time for your first lesson. I know it may seem a bit quick to you, but time's a limited resource, so we have to use it carefully. You'll learn a spell that I'm sure you've never seen before in your life, as is the standard here, and he'll be your subject. Let us begin-"

"What exactly is going on?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, but he simply raised his hand in the air.

"As I was saying," he continued, trying not to let his impatience show too much, "you'll learn a new spell today. You'll be learning a new spell every day because the dark side of magic is rife with spells, and there's no way for you to refuse to learn. Here, I'll show you."

Since the sun was shining brightly through the thin pink curtains, the man's shadow was easy to spot. It enabled Patrick to capture it with a flick of his hand. He then proceeded to clench his left hand into a fist and draw a triangle with his right one, the immense effort he was putting in expressed clearly on his face. Focusing all his wrath and hatred on the task for an impressive amount of time, he forced the man's body to twist into the possible closest shape to a triangle and spin around the floor in circles in that cruel form, looking completely carefree the instant he was done, leaving the poor victim to writhe in unimaginable pain. Melinda didn't let her pity show too much, but its gleam was still visible in her eyes.

"It's your turn now," he said coldly, staring right at her as she refused to move.

"Come on," he barked a moment later, not at all impressed by her resistance. "Don't play games with me. Remember that you'll suffer terribly if you don't give me what I want. Besides, what trouble is it to you? You're a warrior, therefore it's your job to cause your enemies pain. And you really do cause all your enemies much pain on the regular, almost as if you don't see them as living beings. What's the difference between this room and the battlefield, huh?"

"I do it on my own terms," she responded in a voice bereft of emotion, not knowing what other explanation to give.

"I can't believe it," he said, shaking his head. "Just do it already."

With a solemn nod, she did it. She did exactly as she saw. She captured the man's shadow, clenched her left hand into a fist and drew a triangle with her right, and his body was contorted all the same, spinning around the floor in a vaguely triangular shape. But something was missing. Her wrath and hatred weren't all that present in the process, and her victim hardly seemed to be suffering at all. Patrick observed it all carefully, his anger and impatience increasing with each passing second.

"Do it again!" he yelled out of nowhere, taking a golden whip out of his pocket, and she restarted the spell with a barely noticeable flinch.

She hated him more than she could fathom at the moment. It immediately gave her an idea. She relieved herself of the overwhelming negative emotions associated with his mere presence in her life by painstakingly clenching her left hand into a fist for an entire minute after she drew a new triangle in the air, digging her nails deep into her skin, her face red with the fire of her fury.