CORRUPTED FILE [Lumina Chronicles Past Drafts]

Level Fifteen

[KINDLE'S PoV]

For the millionth time in the past two hours, Blondie stepped on my foot.

"Left foot," I prompted.

"Sorry." Her mouth twisted in concentration, and her hair was matted to her forehead with sweat.

The others stood in a circle around us, taking turns quizzing Blondie on various topics.

"What does this say?" Serpina asked, holding up a piece of parchment with Luminous script scrawled across it.

"D...Dord?"

"Lord, Maggie. Lord." Serpina sighed. "As in 'who is the Lord of Penrhyn?'"

"Why does your L look like a D?" Blondie caught her heel on the train of her practice gown and narrowly missed kneeing me in the groin as she regained balance. "Sorryyy."

"Stop comparing Luminous script to your native alphabet, you'll only confuse yourself." Serpina flipped her honey blonde braid over her shoulder and stepped neatly aside as Blondie wobbled past her in an attempted twirl. "That was a serious question by the way, who is the lord of Penrhyn?"

I braced myself then spun Blondie back towards me. She somehow managed not to elbow me directly in the ribs this time.

"Um, where's Penrhyn again?"

Serpina huffed. "It's the peninsula to the north of the Canthic region, come on, this is simple stuff!"

"There are way to many regions for me to keep track of them all!" Blondie whined.

"We're trying to pass you off as Luminous nobility though, you would know this! I know this!"

"You know everything!"

"She's got you there, Pina." The shrieking was giving me a headache on top of all the bruises I'd sustained from Blondie's remarkable ability to turn waltzing into kickboxing. "Just tell her the answer and move on."

Serpina sighed and flipped her braid again. "The Penrhyn peninsula is controlled by Lord Mihail Kúreki. Em, you're up." She turned the parchment over and pulled a piece charcoal out from behind her ear to write down a new word.

Emrys stepped forward and held up two spoon. "Which is a soup spoon?"

Blondie, trying to get a good look at the spoons while also spinning rapidly, lost her balance yet again and stumbled backwards to catch herself on my arm. "Ummm, the left one?"

Emrys smiled gently. "Very good."

Inari, in a dress for the sake of lessons, put a hand on her hip and rolled her eyes. "Babe, that's not fair, those are both soup spoons. Don't go easy on her just because she's pathetic."

Blondie flushed bright red.

Emrys shrugged and whispered, "I was just trying to be nice."

"Nice won't teach her anything." Inari smiled in the way only Emrys could make her, then stuck her leg out and tripped Blondie.

Luckily, I was quick enough to catch her around the waist before she face-planted on the stone floor of our makeshift ballroom. "Nar," I warned.

Inari didn't even bother to hide her smirk. "Woops?"

Blondie managed to keep her composure, impressively enough, though I could feel the rage heating her skin as she gripped my arm a little too hard. "Inari, would you please demonstrate the steps again?"

"Actually," Faye piped up. She entered the room with a tall stack of fabric balanced in her arms. "It's getting close to lunch time, we should take a break and put the tables back."