«Verinette, you lazy bum! Wake up!»
The young girl buried her face into the pillow, trying to forget again the world existed and another long day was ahead, ready to be -mandatorily- lived. She was way too sleepy to accept reality, however beautiful and exciting it was.
«C'mon, dear, get ready! We are going to miss breakfast, if you oversleep, and I have no intention of waiting until lunch to eat.»
«Give me a break, Gloria... it's your fault I haven't slept tonight...»
«Don't tell me you regret it? Eheh...»
Groaning dissatisfied, Verina hurled out of the bed, falling on the ground with a dull noise. As the first lights of a new spring dawn disappeared behind the cover of the adjacent bed, the young witch tried her best to forget her tiredness.
Master Zanko blurted out a few insults, looking at the pair of silly girls opening the door of the classroom. The two, accustomed to his tantrums, casually reached the rest of the class without a care in the world, one with a large smile, and the second with very noticeable eyebags. A few friends giggled, imagining what had led to such a poor presentation that day.
«...whatever, as long as you attend...» the teacher dismissed the situation with a final sigh, knowing all too well those two would have never changed. «The Tournament is approaching, and I want you all prepared for it, is that clear? I get a bonus if you get good placements, I expect at least a couple of you to make me win some cash, have you understood?»
Teri pinched Verina's cheek lightly, with a chuckle «He's talking about you, darling!»
«Indeed I'm talking about you, Miss Verina. So please, sleep a little this week, ok? I need to buy a ring, that shit's bloody expensive...»
«Yeah, Master Zanko, I'll do my best...» replied the young girl from Tardeburgo, while the random thought of forfeiting victory out of pettiness arose and disappeared just as quickly in her clouded mind.
«You heard that, Gloria?» whispered Teri with a sassy smile, taking out her quill ready to start the lesson. «I can't promise anything!» replied the other, from Verina's left, sticking out her tongue playfully.
The University was a really secluded and strange place. At the center of the continent, not distant from Mount Whitepeak, stood the white tower that pierced the skies. Built more than four thousand years prior, it had developed into a sort of unspoken "independent country", where all magic users of the land concentrated and lived.
It was divided into two parts. The administrative center was the Tower, whose tip disappeared among the sea of clouds; the Headmaster, residing there, and all other offices presided over the life of all other inhabitants, as well as allowing students to learn the principles of magic inside designated classrooms. But the real University, where life flowed and people forged lasting friendships, was underground: accessible only from the tower, and completely separated from the surface, was a loose attempt at recreating the strange way of living of Shendu: the interconnected reality of those living 'below the surface' created a special bond between all those magicians, young and old. Illuminated by the reflection of a sun too distant for their eyes to see, with a self-sufficient economy that produced basically all that consumed, most had been subconsciously led to believe they were all just a big family -with its problems and rivalries, of course-.
That day, under the endless dome of white marble, and its myriad of golden stars painted in the memory of a nightsky that place would never see, a group of friends was leisurely waiting their turn to use one of the three special arenas of the city for their training.
YOU ARE READING
A Curse and A Kiss - Volume 1
Romance«...who knows, the same kiss that halts the curse, may make our love bloom...» A cozy and sweet sapphic romance between a young princess and the powerful witch entrusted with curing her from a dark curse. A soft, medieval-fantasy slice-of-life... wi...
