Silvery Grace

Silvery Grace:Chapter 3

"Have you got it?"
"Not yet, but believe me. I will."

Sofia and Felicity ran back to their rooms, squealing. They sweeped up their meager belongings and work into boxes and tidied the rooms. As Sofia brushed under the bed,Sofia's hand brushed against a small box the size of her hands. She pulled it out and stared at it. "Maria Castell's cryptex," she whispered. She gently opened the lacquer box and marveled at the hand crafted cryptex inside. It was golden, with leaves and branches carved into the golden marble. It bore a small inscription.
tantum ut vera eccelesiae infernum aditus potest monstrum liberari

"Tanner!" Said a very, very familiar voice.
"Sofia!" Yelled Tanner. He stood in the middle of a battlefield, breaking into a sprint to Sofia.
"Help me!" She yelled. He ran as fast as he could, but didn't reach her in time.
"Nooooo!" He screamed, as he watched her dissipate into nothingness.
Tanner woke up, sweating.
He cried like he never had before.

Anissa woke up in the hospital.
Where am I? She thought, groggily. She had almost no recollection of the past few days, other than a blinding white light that she couldn't currently identify. She spied water on the table.
Water.
Suddenly, everything came flooding back to her. The assignment, the bullet wound and the explosion. She realized she was scarred all over from deep cuts, bruised and aching. She slowly turned her gaze to the right, settling on her shoulder. She whimpered when she saw the wound.
As she looked at the water again, she felt scared.
I never want to go into the water again.

Sofia and Felicity heaved their things through the corridor.
"So, who do you most want to meet in the first cohort?" Asked Sofia. May as well have a chat on the way
"Oh, I so want to meet Sabrina Chessler! She programmed the first electronic weaving loom!" Chirped Felicity.
"A woman who programmed a electronic loom got into the first cohort?" Asked Sofia, slightly surprised. She had made herself a electronic loom and programmed it to make her whatever clothes she needed.
"Did I mention she has an IQ of 217 and mass-produced clothes then gave it to the poor?" Asked Felicity, with an obviously fake wondering face.
"Oh!" Sofia blushed. She regretted sounding so high and mighty.
"Sofia!" Said a lady wearing white clothes with the Regium "I'm a nurse at Regium Capital Hospital. Your friend Anissa requested you."
"What?! She's injured?" Asked Sofia worriedly.
"She was hurt while attempting to explode Malumnian ships," said the nurse. "I hope you don't have anything to do right now." Said the nurse.
"Umm.. I really need to move these boxes right now. I'll go the the hospital when I'm done," replied Sofia.
"You know the way? You can go on your own?" Asked the nurse.
"I'm in the First Cohort Intelligence," replied Sofia, calmly.
"Oh," replied the nurse, sheepishly. She left, running in her white stilettos.
"Sorry Felicity. I guess we can't go to the stalls after moving in," apologized Sofia.
"Who's Anissa?" Asked Felicity. "Is she a friend of yours?" Asked Felicity, jealously.
"Oh yeah, before I joined the Intelligence I was in the Jeova Institute. She was my buddy." Said Sofia.
"Oh," said Felicity. "Can I come along?" She asked,brazenly.
"I don't know if Anissa would like that.." Said Sofia, nervously. It sounded like Felicity was upset, maybe even jealous and she wanted to make sure that Anissa wouldn't over exert herself.
"Err.. I don't know if Anissa would like it," replied Sofia, slowly
"Why? Am I irritable or violent or something?" Asked Felicity.
"No, not at all. You can come, I guess." Said Sofia. They reached the front doors of the Upper First Cohort dormitory and breezed in.

Tanner breathed heavily. Did I really like Sofia? Or is this my brain regretting joining Malumnia? Wondered Tanner. He wondered if his constant dreams about Sofia actually meant something, or if they were just him trying to hold on to his memory of her.

Anissa waited patiently for Sofia to come, as she knew that she had been promoted to the upper first cohort. Lucky her. Already with the greats. She almost jumped when she heard three knocks on the door, in their secret knock beat, but restrained herself.
"Come in!" She said. She saw Sofia come in and smiled, but it disappeared when she saw the blond girl come in. She looked like one of the mean girls in Anissa's school before she left to the Jeova Institute.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Sofia's roommate and friend, Felicity Neveu." Said Felicity. Anissa could automatically tell that she was marking Sofia as her friend, and telling Anissa to back off. That might be a better option right now, considering my physical state, thought Anissa. She forced a smile. "I'm Anissa Green, Sofia's buddy at the Jeova Institute." She said.
"Anissa, are you getting better?" Asked Sofia, worriedly. She had noticed the conflict between her two friends, and it didn't seem to be getting any better. They were fighting over her!
"I'm going to the bathroom. Don't miss me!" She fakely chirped.
"Okay. I hope you understand that Sofia is my friend and my friend only," said Felicity, once Sofia exited the room
"Yeah right. I'm the one who was her friend first. Without me, she would have never adjusted to the Jeova Institute. What have you done?" Replied Anissa, regally.
"I helped her win the code contest!" Answered Felicity
"I'm the original. I can safely bet that she's not truly your friend. I know her. She would always be jealous of girls like you because you have beauty and brains," said Anissa, smugly.
"Sofia is plenty pretty," replied Felicity, angrily. How dare this injured swimmer insult her like this! She will pay!
"Oh, she probably is only co-operating with you to get into the Upper First Cohort and meet her idol, Victoria Brooks." Drawled Anissa.
Little did the girls know, but Sofia had never gone to the bathroom. She had stayed near the door, listening to the girls' conversation. Why are they fighting over me? I'd be free to be friends with both of them.
"Well, I think you're being stupid. Why, I could just punch you right now in the place where it would hurt most!" Felicity yelled. She raised her fist over Anissa's shoulder.
Sofia swung the door open. "Hi guys, I'm back!" Cheered Sofia. She breathed in relief that Felicity had not harmed Anissa.
"Err, it's not what it looks like," stammered Felicity. She had frozen with her hand poised just over Anissa's shoulder.
"This...rugrat tried to punch me!" Yelled Anissa." Sofia, did you have to bring her in with me?"
"I'm not a rugrat, you....scarred skitzo!" Screamed Felicity. With that, she stormed out of the room in a most French sort of huff.

Amore dressed herself in a dark shade of red.

This better be worth it, sis

Sofia walked back into her new dormitory. She and Felicity had yet to meet their new co-workers who would be undoubtedly be older than them. As she stared into the mirror and looked at her startlingly grey eyes and fingered her wavy brown hair, she realized something:
The silvery haired woman looked exactly like Amore.

Felicity huffed back into the Upper First Cohort's living space. However, she was so angry she took a wrong turn in the halls and ended up going straight into the common room where older teens and adults were chilling by the fireplace.
"Well, look who it is!" drawled a woman. She was undoubtedly Victoria Brooks, and she knew that because of Sofia's lengthy descriptions of her and her talents. She had straight, chestnut brown hair pulled into a pristine ponytail, hazel-gold eyes and a red plump smirk right on her face.
"I would think, being counselor you would know who I am, Ms.Brooks," replied Felicity. Already she could tell Sofia would be terribly disappointed with the Upper First Cohort's head counselor.

Sofia pulled her hair back into a high ponytail and daubed on some lip gloss, which she would normally not care about but she wanted to make a good impression on her new co-workers, especially Victoria Brooks. Sofia walked into the common room and saw Felicity standing in the room ,confidently looking at Victoria.
"We have two runts coming?!" She shrieked.

Solemnly,Amore pulled off her red coat.

"Hello, sister."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Sofia Grace," she said. Victoria rolled her eyes and shook her outstretched hand. Felicity came and stood beside Sofia and hissed. "Sofia, Vicky here is a piece of work!". Sofia's eyes widened in surprise.
"Kay, now that the two newbies are here, let's introduce ourselves. I'm Victoria Brooks, counselor. This is Sabrina Ches-"
"Victoria, I believe I can introduce myself. Nice to meet you, I'm Sabrina Chessler." Sofia could now see why the woman appealed to Felicity. She had white-blond ringlets that fell neatly in front of her shoulders, bright blue eyes and a warm smile. Sabrina made Sofia wonder why she was idolizing Victoria.
One by one, the Upper First Cohort members introduced themselves. There were roughly twenty including Sofia and Felicity. A kindly looking old Chinese professor, a nerdy looking teen, a serious looking and large man were among the many. Sofia made herself a cup of cocoa with loads of whipped cream and sat down on the sofa to listen to Victoria.
"Our next assignment is to make invisible water sensors to be used in the Aegean Sea, due to its borderline characteristics to both Malumnia and Regium. It will automatically detect Malumnian ships and send warning signals to HQ. Here are some blueprints of the sensor I have made." Victoria began passing out blueprints and drafts of her sensor.
"You know, Victoria, if you changed the nichrome wire to copper wire your sensors could be connected to each other at a far larger range," said Sofia. She felt the need to impress Victoria. However, Victoria's reaction was what she definitely did not expect.
"Hey, newbie. Nichrome is better." Said Victoria.
"Nichrome has a higher resistance!" Said Sofia.
"Nichrome sounds........ cooler." retaliated Victoria.
"I thought you were meant to be smart!" yelled Sofia.
Victoria turned red and tried to slap Sofia. However, Sofia had taken martial arts lessons when she was young and was a black belt. She caught Victoria's wrist.
"Bitch." growled Sofia. She stalked out of the room, not before she had sharply flicked Victoria's wrist and let go.

"So good to see you again, sister," smiled the silver haired woman.
"Same to you," replied Amore.