The Oracle

Chapter 4: The Torches We Bear

SORA

The next morning whenever I woke up, I headed over to the headmaster's office to pick up my wallet, my uniform, and my schedule. I then went back to my room to change into my uniform, which consists of a black jacket with a white shirt, a red and gold striped tie, a red belt with silver loops, and black slacks with black and white Vans. The belt and Vans were personal choices of mine and I also chose to leave my jacket open instead of closing it. Additionally, they let me pick out red and gold rope bracelets to wear around my right wrist. All in all, I guess the outfit isn't too bad. In fact, it actually kind of looks nice on me.

After getting my outfit together, I looked at my schedule to see what classes I'd be attending. The schedule lists the classes, room numbers, and instructors. Whenever I got mine, I noticed a few slots were either skipped or left blank and only general courses were filled in. The schedule itself is a white card-stalk type of material with a shiny golden octagonal stamp in the corner and it has eight different spots on it for classes. Not too different from regular high school, I suppose. Although, I never attended regular high school. I only attended public school up until eighth grade. After that, my dad pulled me out to home school me, so I never really got the high school experience. I missed my friends a lot but over time I got used to it just being me and my dad. After all, my home life was always that way anyway, so it wasn't much different.

"Alright," I sigh to myself as I stand at the bottom of the staircase near the headmaster's office. "Now, where exactly do I go?"

My first class of the day is Tactics 101, followed by History 101, General Education, and then Aptitude Training. The other four slots have been left blank, most likely because I'll be picking specialized classes after today to fill in my schedule.

"If you're lost, maybe I could help you," Evory says and I turn to see her walking down the stairs in a white lab coat paired with a white button-up, a chain necklace with a lavender crystal hanging on the end, a black pencil skirt, and black flats.

"Thanks," I smile and she smiles in return.

"No problem. Where do you need to go?" She asks as she comes up to me and leans around my shoulder to read my schedule. "Tactics 101, gotcha. That'll be with Gambit in the hall of sins."

"The hall of sins?" I raise a brow.

"All of the sins have their own wing to teach lessons and the virtues have a wing opposite of them," Evory explains. "If you walk down the hallway to the right and then take the stairwell on your right you should arrive in the general corridor where you can see both wings. The hall on the right is the hall of virtues and the hall on the left is the hall of sins. Each classroom will have a symbol above the door and a banner hanging from an archway. These symbols each stand for a certain sin or virtue, so you'll easily be able to tell which room belongs to who in the future."

"Got it," I nod. "Thanks, Evory."

"No problem. I'm off to breakfast now. They have the most delicious muffins," Evory smiles before she makes her way to the dining hall.

After Evory heads off, I follow her directions and find the stairwell she mentioned. The stairwell goes up about two or three flights before it comes to the center of a golden floor with a giant golden sigil in the center that looks identical to the one on my schedule except it has more runes swirling throughout it and curving into delicate lines, almost like foliage. Across from the stairwell is a giant set of dark wooden doors that stretch taller than any I've seen in the building this far. Meanwhile, the left hall has multiple stone archways that form into triangles where different colored banners hang down and different wooden double doors are lined up along the hallway. The hallway on the right is set up the same way and I can't help but marvel at how beautiful it all looks.