Five o'clock finally rolled around.
I couldn't wait to get to my room, it would mean I could either take a nap or get ready for supper. Thanks to the time difference between my hometown and Doom Valley, my body insisted it was not only past my bedtime, but I'd missed supper by several long hours.
A bell tolled. A cloud of sickly green smoke rose up on the far side of the room, it cleared and Lady Plague stood before us. Getting up we got closer to see what would happen next.
“Who does not have a room?” she asked, without any preamble.
Thirty or so girls raised their hands.
“Why don't you have a room?” she asked.
One girl who had a black eye, stepped forward. “They were stolen from us.”
“That is not my concern. You should have gotten them back by buying them, asking for help, offering your services, theft or some other means. I'm sure you could have thought of something if you had tried,” the sorceress said. “Still this was expected. All of the roomless girls come to the front.”
The group nervously moved forward. A door appeared on the right wall, beyond it was a large room with several rows of beds, enough for at least fifty girls, each one had a small trunk at the foot of it and a small bedside table.
“That is now your room. We can't have you sleeping in the hallways, that would be a fire hazard,” Lady Plague said, ignoring the groans and protests.
Once there was silence, the sorceress smiled. Somehow her smile was even more unnerving than her normal expression. “Now how many of you have more than one key?”
Several girls stepped forward, looking quite pleased with themselves.
“Come now,” Lady Plague said, “I know there are more of you. Come forward to be congratulated.”
More girls came forward. Some were holding five or six keys like trophies. Others, probably the smarter ones, knowing this school, were much more cautious. All told I'd guess there were about fifteen of them.
“Why do you have so many keys, girls?” Lady Plague asked.
“More keys, means we have more power!” the bald barbarian shouted.
Another girl spoke up, “I heard a girl say that if we had more keys we'd get a reward.”
“Did a teacher say you could have more keys, children?”
“Sir Drago said we could take the keys if we wanted to,” the girl riding a tiger said.
The sorceress's smile got wider. “No, he did not. He said you could trade them to get a roommate you wanted or a better room. We expect you to make friends here, forming groups and alliances so that later on you can work together and take over the world, rip reality apart, or have trusted advisers for your endeavors. We also expect you to question things and look at them closely. The keys are enchanted as your first test. When you got them, within five minutes you heard an illusionary voice saying that having more keys is a good thing. You need to learn to verify what you hear, rather than trust rumours and gossip.”
Many of the girls started grumbling, not only the bullies, but the girls who had had their key violently taken from them. Lady Plague grinned, her voice dripping with glee, as she said, “Having more than one key is breaking the rules.”
There was a roar of outrage, which was quickly silenced by a bit of lightning knocking the loudest students off their feet.
“I'm afraid I'll have to take those keys back. You girls have proven very inept about how to get what you want. For that you can stay together and discuss your shortcomings, in your own room.” Lady Plague pointed at the left wall, and a door appeared with a room exactly like the dorms for the keyless girls. “I'm sure you'll all have so much to talk about at night as you sharpen your swords, and polish your wands.”
She looked at the rest of us, most of the remaining students were in little groups. The swarm of fairies were circling a purple haired fairy who had demon wings, long claws, and was sitting on a girls head, while three more girls were on their knees with their heads down. The witch in the pink dress who liked turning people into sheep, had seven girls standing behind her. There were quite a few pairs, some looked like friends, others not so much.
“For those who have a single key and were smart enough to gain minions or allies, good work. You can keep your rooms.”
This got a relieved sigh from all of us, which was instantly silenced by the ominous boom of thunder. With silence once again prevailing, Lady Plague continued. “The rules for having a room are quite simple.Only people who have permission to enter the dormitory may enter your room, or the monsters will eat them. The same goes for you visiting other dormitories. We've already had to extract one student from a monsters stomach because of this, don't get yourself added to the list. You cannot trade your room without permission. You will keep your room clean, if it becomes an ogres den, you will lose it and sleep in a more appropriate place. Lights out at ten thirty, after that time you may go to the bathroom and your room. If you deviate from the path, the shadow monsters will punish you. Finally, if you do not have a room, it is possible to get one by impressing a teacher. So do try to improve yourselves.”
She looked at us to make sure we understood. “There is a school store where you may purchase anything you need. The canteen is free, simply give a drop of blood at the stone bowl in the entrance. The school clinic can heal most damage, please don't consider this a challenge, if you annoy them healers do love to play pranks. There is a book explaining things in more detail as well as a map on your bed. Read it closely. Meals are at seven in the morning, noon and seven in the evening. You may relax for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow you will choose your classes and have a guided tour by an older student, then the fun begins.”
With that Lady Plague vanished in a puff of smoke.
The girls who had been roomless scurried into their large dormitory before the bullies could get over being angry at the school and take it out on them. Ella, Naomi, Calci, Clarice and I went to check our rooms, and put our bags away.
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My room was at the very end of the ornate hall with polished silver doors, Ella opened it and my jaw dropped. The room was huge, at least as big as my parents and my room combined. There were two walk in closets on either side of the room, the beds were made out of a dark red hardwood, inlaid with ivory carvings of dragons and other monsters, and were covered in black silk sheets. Despite being underground there was a huge window opposite the door, showing an amazing icy landscape. A chandelier full of fiery light elementals lit up the room. The thick carpet was covered in runes and every step was like walking on a cloud. There was even a bathroom attached to the room, with a huge tub and everything looked fantastic.
“Oh my god! Is every room like this?” I asked.
“No the lower the room number the simpler the room. My siblings told me to get the highest number possible, so I spent some money and got the best room in the school. I'll take the left side,” Ella said.
“Yeah sure,” I said, still staring in wonder.
Putting my bag and clothes in the closet, the bed called out to me, but Ella was heading back to the common room. “Come on Petra, we need to make an appearance, people will start making alliances now that things have settled down.
Looking at the wonderfully soft bed, I yawned and followed her back out. We made ourselves comfortable on our couch again, and were soon joined by the other girls.
“How does everyone know about you Ella?” Clarice asked. “I've never heard anything about you.”
“Oh my Mother really likes me. So she sent a message to all the big shots with children here, saying if they bothered me, Daddy would invade their kingdoms and personally watch them being tortured for an entire week,” she answered, giggling happily. “Then when I got here, I just made sure everyone knew who I was.”
I had to ask. “Would your father really do that?”
Ella shrugged. “I don't know, it would depend on his mood when he found out. He likes to keep people guessing, and his sense of humour is... odd.”
“Wow, all my Mentor did was give me a hammer,” Calci said.
“My Dad gave me a spear and a couple of lessons on how to use it. I could have used a few more lessons,” Naomi said, rubbing her black eye.
Clarice pulled out a book from her bag. “I got The Morons Guide to Controlling Minions as a going away present.”
“I got a one way ticket here,” I said.
That statement got me a hug from Naomi and Clarice, while Ella and Calci patted my knee. Having never been hugged by a girl before, my Mom doesn't count, I went beet red, and decided that being a girl definitely had some advantages.
The light suddenly dimmed as fairies surrounded us. The demon fairy flew down to land on the table looking very imposing despite being all of six inches tall. “Greetings Ella of Arp. I am Princess Blood Wing, the daughter of Margo'Tchwan the Succubus and Holly Berry the Fairy Necromancer.”
“It's a pleasure to meet you, Blood Wing,” Ella said.
“Tell your minions to get us some refreshments, there is much for us to discuss.”
Ella gave a very apologetic smile. “I'm sorry Blood Wing, but these are my friends, not my minions.”
The fairy looked at us in disbelief. “But they're so useless? Why not break them to your will?”
“They have their uses.”
Blood Wing rolled her eyes. “Fine! Number 1 get us some drinks.” A skinny girl with light green bangs, and coffee brown hair nodded once and took off at a run. “See,” the fairy said, “minions are so much better.”
Still smiling Ella said, “Well if you wish to become my minion I do have an opening I'm sure you could fill.”
“What?! Me! Be a minion. Hah! As soon as I'm done here I'll help my father to take over the other fairy kingdoms, and then THE WORLD!!!!”
I looked up at the horde of fairies who were buzzing around on dragonfly wings. I'd seen a few fairies before, they were happy little things, always ready to smile and to make others smile. these ones looked like their rabid cousins, with the mouse fur armour, tiny spears, and bloody face paint.
Trying to get things back on a less bloody track, I said, “That is really interesting Blood Wing. Is there anything we might be able to help you with?”
“Ah yes! Your minion, ahem, friend knows her proper place at least,” Blood Wing said, eyeing me with slightly less disdain. “I am very powerful, as are you, Ella of the Arp Empire. But this school is full of powerful people, some of whom may even be almost a match for me. I propose an alliance. If someone comes after either of us, we attack them with a united front, you from the ground, I from the air.”
“That is a wonderful idea Blood Wing. But I don't want to fight if I don't have to,” Ella said. Before Blood Wing could explode, Ella continued. “However, sharing information, providing help with potions, magic, and similar things until we get to know each other better, is definitely something I could get behind.”
Blood Wing snorted. “I didn't take you, the daughter of the Arp Emperor, to be a coward. But if that's all you can provide, very well. If we hear of something of interest to you we will share the knowledge, provided you do the same for us.”
“Thank you Blood Wing. And once we've worked together a little, our relationship could become closer. I'm always looking for good friends.” Ella held out a finger for the fairy to shake.
“With that done, Ella, daughter of the Arp Emperor, I'll take my leave, there are many more people I must talk to.”
I watched the fairy and her entourage fly away, as the green and brown haired minion rushed after them carrying a tray with several glasses on it.
“Why didn't you make the deal with her?” I asked.
“She's crazy,” Ella said simply. “She'll be in a dozen fights by the end of the week. She'll probably win them because of her fairy minions, but I don't want to be dragged into it any further than I need to. She's just smart enough to be dangerous, and that is very, very bad.”
Clarice looked around at all the girls who were mingling and talking in hushed voices. “So what's our plan for surviving?”
“I'm important enough that people can't ignore me. So we wait here and make ourselves friendly with everyone we can. We don't offer to join a group or make an actual alliance, instead we offer to trade our services and information,” Ella explained. “I want us to become known as the people to go to for information, advice and services, to the highest bidder of course. While a few people will try to shut us up, most will pay us to learn what they can or to keep our mouths sealed.”
“And what if they decide to shut us up by force?” Calci asked.
“That's where the fifth member of our merry band comes in, she's actually your roommate Calci.”
Calci scratched her beard in confusion. “All my roommate did was collapse on the bed and fall asleep. I don't think she even noticed me.”
Pulling a thin whistle from her pocket, Ella blew into it, but there was no noise. Suddenly a very thin and scrawny looking black haired girl appeared. She was eating a hunk of meat. “Hi,” she growled.
“This is Ivy. She's a very talented young lady,” Ella said.
“Where did you get the food?” Calci asked, rubbing her stomach.
“A servant,” Ivy said.
“You just have to ask a servant? I didn't know that.”
“Don't ask, just take. They scream and cry for a while, but eventually they shut up.”
I resisted the urge to throw up as the girl kept eating her raw goblin. It seemed that everyone else felt the same as I did from the way they covered their mouths.
“Ivy here is a very talented werewolf. Who graciously decided to accept my offer of employment,” Ella said, looking just a little pale. “If we run into trouble we can ask her for help. Otherwise she's our friend and companion, and we'll help her with her homework.”
I'd thought that all werewolves were ravenous beasts who could barely string two words together. But this girl was dressed, could speak, somewhat, and looked bored more than anything. “It's really nice to meet you Ivy. I'm Petra.”
She just nodded, grunting a little.
For the next hour or so, people came over to us, asking to make deals and giving an occasional threat. Ella kept to her plan, offering to trade information and other things, but refusing to help someone in a fight. When someone got too loud with their threats, Ivy would growl, revealing fangs that grew to be as long as my thumb, and letting her short black hair grow a little, covering her face and hands. That shut most people up pretty quickly.
Finally it was suppertime, and we all eagerly got to our feet.