Wizard Blood

Chapter 20

The next morning, we were woken up at a regular class hour. Incredibly, for the first time we were going to wear our formal uniforms. The death of our Imperatriz Puternic demanded it, we were all assisting to a special ceremony in her honor today. All students were required to go, we were all meeting at the gym. Kennedy and I were getting ready, I could see in her the same expression from last night, a ghostly one, just a sad one.

"I'm sorry," was all I could think to say.

"It's okay. I mean...I wasn't very close to her, but she was still part of my family," she said staring at the reflection in the mirror. "What if it's my mother next time? Or my father? Someone else from my family, even Uncle James?"

"Let's try to not think about that," I said trying to cheer her up. "If they try something else again...I'll be able to warn you."

"Sure, just like you did this time," she said flatly. I just flinched at her comment. "Sorry, you know..." 

"It's fine," I said.

During the night, I didn't stop asking myself one single question. What was the point of seeing the future if you didn't know what it meant, and you couldn't do anything? My ability wasn't a gift at all, it was something that made my life more complicated and miserable.

We met with the rest of our friends in the hallway. Bryan went immediately to Kennedy and hugged her. That left, Miguel, Nataly, Ivan and me. I told them about the book my father told me about, and we decided to look for it in the afternoon after all this ended.

The gym was full of white flowers, and everyone was wearing black. Even our teachers, they used a similar outfit to our uniform. We suddenly found some open seats in a corner and we went there. On the other side to my left, I could get a glimpse of Lily and Edward sitting with their friends. Soon, the ceremony began.

"As you all may know by now, Imperatriz Puternic has been murdered. Yes, murdered. She has been cruelly assassinated by only God knows who," said Ms. Salvishkov with such conviction and assurance. "She was found last afternoon bloodstained lying on the floor, with the life escaping from her in each drop of magic in her blood, giving her last breathe. Whoever did this! Did it without any consideration and heart! Only a soulless wizard could have done this immoral act! Nobody from our society could had dared themselves to do this kind of thing, it wasn't any of our people. Some intruder came in and took the life of a grandiose, divine, impeccable woman. Our First Lady, the wife of our most powerful authority is now dead."

She paused, took a deep breathe, and a drink of water, and kept talking. There was something strange in her eyes. Hate, desire for revenge, fear, power, I couldn't really tell what it was.

"You young magic users should all know that we keep you here for a reason. We keep you here for your own safety, for our own safety, to keep ourselves alive. To prevent events like the one of yesterday! To not let our numbers fall even more! To prevent vicious humans from misusing our gift, our magic! To prevent more traitors, and wizards who give the back to their kind! To prevent the darkness from reaching us! We don't keep you all here because we want to, we do it because we need to. What happened yesterday was the most cruel event ever, an event that has been marked in our history. If someone has already dared to kill an Imperatriz, how can't they dare to kill some of us? Think for a moment, the enemy might be between us right now, be part of our own family, be the next traitor. And think for another moment, in how many ways a traitor can be made?"

On the white blank wall in front of all of us, on the other side of the gym a spinning light appeared. It slowly began to open, and then I saw what it was. It was a projection of the ceremony taking place at the Imperial House. The projection opened itself big enough to fit in the wall, then Ms. Salvishkov said a few more words, and shut us all up. We were being part of an Imperial Ceremony. It was terrifying, it was all terrifying. Having to see Imperatriz Puternic in that coffin, with her eyes gently closed, I could easily see her long eyelashes. Her lips were passionately red, the same exact color of blood. But her skin didn't have any color, she was pale, white. She also had soft pink blush in her cheeks, they prepared her to make her look beautiful. Even death wasn't enough to take away her beauty, she was for a reason the chosen one for the Emperor.
Some wizard guardians were carrying her coffin, a pure white one with thousands of small diamonds around it making a line. Emperor Puternic was in a black elegant cart being pulled by mustang horses; he was just behind his dead wife. Many people followed behind him, all in black. They were all heading to the main church in the Imperial House. Then the mass began, then it ended, and they left, and finally buried her under a statue of herself. By the end of all this, some were crying and some others were just trying to be strong.
Suddenly, I noticed someone was crying very hard. Vanessa. I didn't see her with her family because she was here, and I just realized that until this moment. Kennedy was by her side, as well as other imperial girls and boys.