New World

Chapter Twenty-nine

Life at Exillium didn't get any better.

Ziphora and her regular retinue, Zara and Skye, continued trying to bully Savi, though failing miserably. They couldn't so much as get to her.

Savi moved to her next lesson, appetite suppression. Looked like she was going to be going hungry, but that was alright. Pain she could handle.

Skye looked like she wasn't used to starving, and she was swaying from the hunger, gripping her stomach. Goldie, who was supervising the lesson, watched her mercilessly. At the side, Silva, who'd been teaching another batch telekinesis, smirked at them.

Even Ziphora couldn't keep up her strong face for more than five hours without food. Savi was hungry too, but she hid her emotion of hunger deep inside her head. Cerulean started swaying after eight hours and she gripped his arm.

"I'm fine," he promised.

She snorted. Like that was believable. He was obviously starving. She was too.

The exercise was ten hours, so just two more hours of starving.

At the ninth hour, Skye fainted.

"You see?" Goldie asked, holding up Skye's limp body for everyone to see. "This is what will happen if you don't learn this skill properly. Or else like them-" She pointed to Ziphora and Zara who were both leaning on each other, bawling, "or him." This time she pointed to Cerulean who was almost completely reliant on Savi to keep him standing.

She, in turn, was holding him with telekinesis.

"One more hour," Goldie said firmly. "As for her, you there, Saffron."

It took Savi about thirty seconds to realize Goldie was talking to her. "My name is Savannah," she corrected.

"Saffron, Savannah, same thing, take her back to the girls' tent."

Seriously? After Skye had spent the week tormenting Savi with Ziphora and Zara? Savi wrapped her arm around Cerulean's shoulders to steady him before letting go of her telekinesis on him and using telekinesis to hurl Skye into the girls' tent. Skye flew through the entrance flap and crashed into someone's bed.

"That was mine," one of the girls said accusingly. One of the girls who'd gotten her blanket stolen by Ziphora on the first night. What was her name? Lacie? "Me," the girl repeated, "Lucine."

Oh, Lucine. That was her name. And that meant that the girl next to her was Belinda. 

"Just take Skye's bed tonight," Savi responded airily, using telekinesis to steady Cerulean again.

"And sleep between Ziphora and Zara?" Lucine asked. "I don't think so. Your bed is nice and secluded."

"Want to go the same way as Skye?" Savi asked, almost itching to use her telekinesis again.

"No talking!" Goldie snapped, repeating the rule she'd emphasized so many times.

"Alright, Goldie," Savi snapped, "no need to yell."

The Gold Coach glared at her through narrowly slitted eyes. "You, Lucine. Back behind Belinda, chop chop."

"You alright?" Savi asked Cerulean tentatively. He was breathing, but his eyes were closed.

"Never gone without food this long," Cerulean murmured softly.

"You'll be fine," Savi promised. Empty words. She hoped he would be fine, but it wasn't a guarantee. "Half an hour more."

He groaned softly, and she shifted her grip on him, using telekinesis to steady him once more. For an elf who'd grown up with the Neverseen, he hadn't learnt many of their techniques.