A Mysterious Arrow

Chapter Four: The Sendarian School System

Merlin flew onto the windowsill as he saw Galleous squeeze the skin between his eyebrows. "She already reminds you of
Hubris, doesn't she?" Merlin asked. Galleous winced at the name. "Stop," he warned. "What do you even plan on doing with her life now that she's here?" Galleous turned to him with an eyebrow raised. "What do you mean?" he asked. "You're her father now-"

"Her father's dead," Galleous said firmly. "That isn't a good enough reason to emotionally neglect her," Merlin argued. Galleous sighed. "What do you suggest I start with then?" he said with as much sarcasm as his tired body would allow. Merlin ignored his quip and continued. "Your old private school-"

"No." Galleous refused. His private, heavily religious Sendarian school was the worst place he had ever been in in his life. He was always a shadow to his twin brother and would flow behind him like a lost duckling. He had one friend only. Aman Mendoris. The soon King of Mendoria. He had been sent to his school in Ataraxia after being kicked out of his old one. Galleous was never told why. Unfortunately, their friendship was cut short when King Aman was a victim of a lynching 16 years ago.

Galleous took his sudden death hard and swore to never mention such an event again. "I think it will be good for her." Merlin defended. "You think a lot of things but very little of them are true." Galleous shot back. "What else would you have her do?" Galleous had no response. "So it's settled."

"I hate you."

~~~~

The next morning, Galleous had gotten Cora dressed up in her uniform and walked her to school. "I thought schools were just tiny prisons." Galleous rolled his eyes in amusement. "No, school isn't a prison."

    "Can I leave whenever I want to?" Galleous rubbed the back of his neck. "Well it might be sort of like a prison," he admitted quietly. Suddenly, the most bubbly voice that Cora had ever heard called out to Galleous. "Galleous Sendaris!? I'll be damned!" it was a human woman. A human in Ataraxia? It wasn't unheard of, but it was still extremely rare. "Ms. Shirley! Hi!" Galleous pulled a fake smile and Cora choked down a laugh. "Well look at you all grown up!" Ms. Shirley beamed patting his cheek. "And is this your little one?" she asked turning to Cora. "Well- sure."

    "Don't be nervous sweetie, this'll be the best 8 hours of your life." Cora slowly turned to Galleous. "Why do I have to do this 8 hours a day?" Cora asked turning to Galleous with the most emotionless face he had ever seen her in. "Look, every girl you're age needs an education." he tried to explain. Cora furrowed her left brow. "There are boys here too," Galleous slightly nodded. "Well, yes, but most of them end up stupid anyway," Galleous said jokingly and winked making Cora laugh. Galleous patterned a head. "Don't cause trouble," he said before leaving.

    ~~~~

In an entirely different dimension, a queen in black and purple, an amethyst crown, tight eyes, long black hair, and ivory-tainted skin paced in stress in her so-called allies' territory. The Nether. Both rulers had been notified about Cora and they too, had questions. So, the Nether King, Vulcannus Tso had scheduled a meeting with her and the rest of the political figures in the Nether to address this issue. "Queen Abbigail? Her head shot towards him. He was always unnecessarily formal. Vulcannus' skin was a dark grey and his eyes and his markings glowed a fiery red. Abbigail could laugh at the fact that he was dressed in the most kingly things she had ever seen him in. She could also focus on how angelic his hair always looked, being like all four different types of curls at once. She tried his best to break eye contact with him but something in her stomach felt like her hand had fallen asleep and she stared until he said something to her. "Are you alright?" he asked. He had never seen her that nervous before. Unlike Abbigail, it didn't take him long to form a sentence around her, even though it was just as painful. "I'm fine," she choked out, walking past him. Vulcannus followed. "Be honest with me," he pleaded. "Why?" Abbigail didn't bother to look at him. "I know you don't like talking to them,"

    "It's not that,"

"Then what is it?" Abbigail then stops walking right in front of the meeting door and looks right into Vulcannus' eyes which triggers the same feeling he always had around her. He didn't recall the last time he had been this close to her. And, as wrong as it seemed, he wanted to be closer. "I don't mean to sound overdramatic," Abbigail said. "But nightmares."

    "Nightmares?"

"And after those nightmares...my powers...aren't the same." Vulcannus, out of impulse stepped closer, hoping she wouldn't notice. "What's happening to them?" he asked. "Stronger. They're getting stronger...but I'm getting weaker," Vulcannus looked at her up and down. "Does it have anything to do with that girl?" Abbigail looked down. "I don't know."

    ~~~~

Galleous didn't know why, but as soon as he got a letter from the school. He immediately thought something had happened to Cora. "What is it?" Galleous asked frantically. "Nothing happened physically," Galleous sighed in relief. "But I wanted to bring your attention to one of her assignments." When Ms. Shirley handed Galleous the sheet he wasn't anything but a little confused. "I don't see anything," he pointed out. "Exactly. She handed it back to me mad said-" Ms. Shirley looked around and leaned in like whatever she had in mind was blasphemous. "She can't read," she whispered. Galleous didn't know how to respond. This was a key detail that Galleous assumed Cora would tell him before anyone else. But trust obviously took a long time. Galleous agreed to talk to Cora about it, but when they went home, what Cora said to him shocked him even more. "Are you mad at me?" she asked. Her face displayed nothing but utter shame. "What?" he asked. "No, of course not." he kneeled to her level. "Really?"

    "Yes."

"Because everyone's calling me a retard." Galleous expression dropped. He had almost forgotten how discriminatory Sendarians could be. He sighed. "Look, you're not. Okay?" Cora nodded. "No one should be referred to in such a way, alright?"

    "Yeah," before the conversation could continue, Merlin flew to the windowsil with another letter in his beak. "Hold on," Galleous said before he limped to the windowsil which Cora almost immediately noticed. "Since when have you had a limp?"

    "You haven't noticed it before?" Galleous asked reading the letter. "No." after Galleous read the note he addressed Cora again. "Well, good news, you get to skip school for a while."