The Chronicles of Guertanna: The Sword of Light and Shadow

Chapter IV

Rinna insisted that it was nothing to worry about. But this time even Leyla joined Trey on knowing what's going on. She wasn't supposed to tell anybody about it, it would panic everyone, and the news will spread really fast in the Academy. Every rumor is spread easily there. But at the end, Rinna had to tell both of her friends the situation with the empress. Both reacted just as she did, shock, incredulously. The fact that the empress was in a weak state was shocking for her reputation of living two centuries without any difficulty. Rinna tried to explain that they were not sure what caused, and decided not telling them about the rumors of having the Shadowland involved.

  After giving the new, the three of them reminded silent, but their worry could be felt in the distance. The next class was the battle one and the worry made themselves doubt about their abilities. The room was again filled with students in comfortable clothing. Something changed, though, in the center of the battle there were three black portals. Ms. Dragonia was standing next to her Dandelion, this time the wild wolf was more alert and serious than before.

  That could only mean one thing.

  There was going to be a Shadowland simulator. It happens around five times in a year, where the battle teachers use their magic to create a simulator of the Shadowland. The simulator included shadows of that place, creatures and unknown places. Nothing of it was real; there was nothing that could hurt a human, but the experience felt like living in the same black hole. Rinna has been inside one of them once; it was exciting to be inside. The teachers choose whenever have groups of people and going to hunt the creatures, individual fight, or individual or group maze. The maze was about getting out of it affronting different creatures in the way.

  Students need to have a lot of practice and be able to fight, because if not the simulator could be a total nightmare for the student

  Rinna, Trey and Leyla sat in silence in their seats, listening to the whole noise of the others waiting for the teachers’ instructions. Rinna scanned the room to find Kenor Breaker in some edge of one of the rows. Alone, as always. His arrogance and stupidity to be mean to everyone who passed him cause his own loneliness. How can someone be so alone, unhappy and arrogant at the same time?

  “Are we all here…?” Ms. Dragonia said checking the seats while looking at her attendance list. “I guess yes,” She said and looked up. “Today, as you can see, we will use the simulator.” The students quickly started murmuring their fears or excitement over the assignment. The three friends stayed in silence, trying to clear their minds from the recently shocking new.

  “Alright! Today’s challenge will be Couples Escape!” Mr. Ratoo announced nodding in excitement. He was always excited to see the battles and assignments, however he was too pushed to move his big arms like he was going to throw something, Ms. Dragonia simply smiled with tenderness and patiently waited for Mr. Ratoo to calm down.

  “I’m guessing everyone knows about the Couples Escape?” She asked to the audience but this reminded silent.

  The Couples Escape consisted on having three couples entering the three simulators. They will appear in some random stage and have to fight over different creatures. They will only escape when they had already killed all the creatures in the room. Only at the time the last creature was killed, a shining white light will appear and they will be back to the field. The thing about the assignments in simulators is that all three of them were different. It’s not possible for anyone to be aware of what’s going to happen.

  “We are having five rounds of three couples today,” Ms. Dragonia said and showed one of her lists, “And we have already decided the couples.”

  Assigned couples? Rinna wondered with whom she may be partners with. Her eyes darted directly to Kenor, who could feel her sharp gaze on him and moved his eyes to look at her. She quickly looked in front to the instructors already saying the names of the couples. There was the name of Kenor Breaker, next to a random student that Rinna had seen in the Academy but wasn’t really close. Then Leyla was called with Rinna.