Ragnarok: Creed of the Forbidden Guild

Early morning headaches

The morning found her staring out of a wood paneled window, one of the hundred others punctured throughout the buildings of the Academy. Littered at her table and feet were different books opened at random pages. The sun has now stood to a considerable height, yet she was still in her night dress, no to mention her golden locks uncombed, too.

Oddly enough, her green eyes show no sign that she had just woken up, rather than sleepiness, they reflect uneasiness, even fear.

There was nothing scary or disturbing to be seen outside though, two wizard teachers walking along the school hallway, a gate man in a heated discussion with an old scrounger by the college entrance and a family of sparrows nested on a tree branch close to her window.

Both of the parent sparrows were grooming for the morning flight. Soon, one of them hopped out, skipped some more, and flew. The insistent chirping of the hungry younglings at last drove the other parent to postpone its feather fixing ritual and with a regretful Tweet! finally took-off. For a long while, she watched as it soared into the fresh azure firmament.

There was a knock at her door and it opened before she could answer.

"Good morni...Goodness! Diamede, what have you been doing? Why are you still dressed like that? Breakfast is ready; do not keep your food waiting. Why? Can you not return these books to where you got them?"

Martha's lectures hardly caught the Great Wizard's attention, the next thing she knew; her nurse's bulk form was stooping down to fetch the tomes at her feet. The attendant had barely begun her task when another knock was heard at Diamede Parvi's door. The two women looked and saw a figure mostly of disarranged long gray hair paired with thick glasses and a ragged cape, which they soon realized as the tower keeper.

"I'm afraid the Great Wizard cannot entertain you on your visit," again it was Martha who spoke before Diamede could open her mouth, "you can leave when you find it fitting."

After these words, neither of the three uttered a sound, Martha resumed to her drudge and appeared to be unconcerned, but the school head, looked more anxious than before. Her view shifted from her aide to the keeper and back. Outside, the jocular chattering of students as they walked to their classrooms was now audible.

"Yesterday, a student mage angrily raised his voice at me for a reason I neither knew nor incited. Then your guard tried to push me away from my former home, and now, your nanny talks to me without the slightest regard. Tell me, are these all you have accomplished after two long years as the current reigning, respected wizard?" The old man's peculiarly cold voice was enough to dispel her from her trance-like state, but the content of his words made sure she was more than awake.

"Don't you realize..."

"Martha. Get out. I'll handle my own conversations, thank you."

The attendant was cut short, but she dared not complain. In all her years serving as the Great Wizard's nurse, prior even when Diamede held the title, she had learned to recognize the kinds of tones Diamede use, and the mirthless, edgy modulation of her last sentence suggested she should do as she was told.

Diamede gazed out of her window again, seeking refuge, if not help, but found no redemption. Instead, she saw the previous gate man, lying beside the remains of the now destroyed front wall and gate, clutching his chest and breathing very shallow. I could tell even from a distance she thought, his agony must be great. She was further angered, but could not meet the keeper's glare.

Before Martha could step out, the weary wizard gave instructions to immediately see to the fallen soldier's condition and to report it later. The nurse cast a last look at her mistress, and flinched. The look on her master's face stabbed her heart as vulnerably as a pin does to a cushion. And with the thought that it was partly her fault, the pins pricked her twice more.