Chapter Five: Rooms and Puzzles

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Sitting in a small room with Thania twenty minutes later, Briar was excited to finally get some answers.

After being told she had potential or some crap, she had cornered her grandmother.
"Explain. Now." She had demanded, and Thania knew she wasn't getting out of it this time. When it came to getting answers, there was little Briar would not do.

Once situated, Briar looked to Thania. "Drop the theatrics, drop the riddles and mystery, and just give me some straight answers. You've dragged me into this insane mess, the least I deserve is an explanation. Preferably start with why you tried to kill me."

Thania exhaled, thinking for a second. Probably about what to exclude without making Briar mad. Finally, she began to speak. "We wanted your powers to manifest. It wouldn't have worked if you didn't think we were trying to kill you. You were never in danger, any punches Opal threw she knew would miss."

Briar raised an eyebrow. "You pretend to try to kill people to make their powers manifest? Isn't there an easier way?"

"Unfortunately no, this is the easiest way to do it quickly. Sometimes they manifest on their own, but we don't have time for that for most initiates. You can also trigger them through intensive training. Which you will have to go through, might I add. But for most, we try to avoid that."

Great.

"I'm sure I'll find all about that soon, but please elaborate on something else. Angels?" Briar desperately hoped Thania would finally give answers. It had almost become a game between the two of them, Briar trying to figure out what to ask to get the most answers while Thania tried to figure out what to answer without giving away everything and without making Briar mad. But after everything she'd been through, she didn't have the patience to play.

"Firstly, they aren't technically called angels. That is the human word for what they consider to be some all-powerful God's messengers. We are descended from a creature named the Vendari. As far as the records have found so far, they were placed here by a wandering god who may have taken to the humans. They were spirits of protection, made of universal energy."

There was a pause as Thania let her mull over this new information, and consider her next question. And thus the game is started.

"Were? Where are they now?"

"The Vendari are gone, and have been gone for at least a hundred years. We don't know where they went, and most of records we have found are from libraries and ruins they left behind. We are simply their descendants, the Vendarin, and we try to attend what they left behind"

"So..... if the Vendari are just energy, how do we exist?"

"We don't really know how it works. What we do know is that all creatures are a small part made of energy, but the abilities it grants isn't as noticeable as ours, because we have more concentration of energy. Theirs is what humans call 'Sixth sense, " she elaborated.



"Why do I have to go through intense training if I already have the ability to fly?" Briar asked, gesturing to the wings.

Thania shook her head. "The wings aren't your ability. All Vendarin can summon their wings, though the more the Vendari blood gets diluted, the harder it gets for us. Most can only summon them using a lot of energy and through extensive meditation. The fact you could summon yours so easily is impressive, you must be powerful. We'll have to train you to use them."

"Are they permanent?"

"No, but it will take a little effort to dismiss them. You should go and try, then rest. Tomorrow will be a long day." Briar went to get up, and then paused.

"Wait, what about the Nemo and the Nicha or whatever?"

"The Pnevma and the Nychta. They are Simply other groups of Vendarin. We.... don't always get along" A small bit of regret flashed through her eyes, probably because she knew Briar would pick up on the hesitation. Which she did.

"Going to explain what you meant by that?" She asked.

"No." Uuugh.... Briar thought.

"Fine."

She'd have to get her answers somewhere else.

*🗡*

After a few days Briar began to fall into a rhythm.

They'd let her sleep until seven thirty, at which someone would come knock on her door until she came and opened it, dreary eyed and hair a mess. Not caring that she was half asleep, Briar would only have fifteen minutes to make herself presentable and be at her door again.

After being led from place to place for days, Briar noticed that the doors were not all identical, but had different symbols on them that she had missed her first time wandering through the halls.

She would then eat breakfast with her mother once she reached the mess hall, a large room made of the same stone as the rest of the place, with twenty large tables. All the rooms gave Briar the sense that many more people used to live here.

How Marie was awake at eight in the morning was beyond her, but her mother didn't look much happier than Briar. They hadn't known about nor been asked to be swept into this life.

She'd chat with her mother quietly for an hour, then be dragged off to a training session which would last for hours. Thania had been correct when she said they would be intensive.

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