The pain came at Leah Cheretesha like a battering ram, but she avoided its gaze, must avoid its gaze, because if she did not, the people now sat like Kings above a commoner all around the beige, hexagonal hall, ready to exercise their right to judge her for something they were too weak to do themselves, would use it too in their malice, in their hubris, in their embittered process of eliminating someone they deemed unworthy. The top rank novitiate avoided its gaze but she did not avoid their gaze; those below her who saw a way up a rung on the ladder of school politics. She looked them all in the eye, the glutton Teresria, the gray-haired Lenodrius, even the ten year old prodigy, Cassia. Three among ten of the most vicious, vindictive, and ingenious brats the Realms of Oshveperthe would call leaders one day. She gazed up at the fourth. One among the blue pebbles, but as powerful as an average [city.prince]. Leah’s equal in all but the Arts she’d learned before journeying to this educational hellscape. A rival like no other with more reason to rid them of her than anyone else in the slumbering room, because if she managed to get a unanimous vote for expulsion here and now, the top spot they both shared all of a sudden became a whole lot more lighter. The [Geomancer] student, Mackenzie Goldenblade.
A red droplet ran down Leah’s cheek but her gaze did not waver. “Are you sure you want to do this now, Cheretesha,” the Blue Pebble bleated with a grin. “Go home, rest for the week. Maybe have that cut checked out, make sure you don’t go feral because of it.”
She considered going feral now, dashing across the room and giving the fool cuts of her own. Instead, Leah took in a breath before saying, “I’m good, Macy. Nothing like an act of kindness to start the day.”
“Kindness. You call what you did to my brother, kindness?” A voice from behind her asked, the calmness in it betraying any notion of its speaker sparing any love for a ‘brother’ he hadn’t even known before the day had started, courtesy of both students being sired by the most promiscuous [Sky-elf] this side of the Goldbladed Mountains, neigh the entirety of Oshveperthe.
Leah turned to look at him, fifth in their little meritocratic student council of backstabbers, the Half-Elven Darunayus. “Considering what the embarrassment was about to do, to his own novice, to the treatise? How could I not, Daru?”
“You should have Informed the instructors, any instructor close by, instead of jumping into the fray like a [Hero] of Old,” The Seventh, a [Faerie] from the Northern Continent of Ula’Temvhea, squeaked out. Granted, they were actually an aspiring Scholar, and like their mother, would probably come to lead the Harubridge Teaching Guild in time, so their grievance was most likely a sincere one.
Leah sighed, “If I did that Cross, the [Prince] would be dead,” she said, turning to Daru, “your brother, who you definitely care for, would have turned into a scapegoat, or worse,” she eyed her one true enemy next, “their would be war among the Oshveperthians once again, a war your mountains might not survive this time round,” she turned back to the [Faerie]. “And your school’s reputation, your mother’s reputation would have never recovered from being the origin of the avoided misdeed. I did what any of you should do in my place. If you disagree, then maybe you don’t deserve to sit up there, to be instruments of [Oshvepertha].” They all instinctively kissed their thumbs and raised them in the air, in honor of the dormant [Soul.System].
All of the presiding six looked convinced, all but Daru. Not that they needed to be, they came in to this meeting with a desire, and it was not a philanthropic one. On the other hand, if they expelled her, and she appealed to someone more powerful, someone above their parent’s stations, like the [pirate.queen] whose son Leah had saved, perhaps, or the people of Oshveperthe, making them see the error of not acting when she did, the red pebble could return and those who were responsible for the ousting of someone who prevented a war, they might end up being the ones on the chopping block.
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A fool of a [Sky-elf] proclaimed, “Let us vote, then, and hope your kindness is enough to assuage any of us from what truly matters, human,” And there it was, the reason they all hated her more than they did each other, the reason being better than them made most of her schoolmates bitter beyond understanding. She was human, they were not. Once, the world was filled with people like her, human beings. Then the last hero had died, and in their hubris, the old [Kings] had tried to climb up the Pillar of Cho, to see her, the one they called mother. Three wars later, a beaten and battered Oshvepertha, before entering a long sleep, had cursed what was left of the human beings, having found them unworthy. Any born after the beginning of the mother’s slumber no longer belonged to the race of humanity, not until Yurathea, the [pirate.queen] and the few who followed, including the [prince] who was attacked, including the [commoner] who saved him from his fate. All magnets for any manner of insults and blame the rest of the realm could throw their way because humanity cut the mother; even though any that lived this day were descended from the Overthrowers. Even though some hoped the return of humanity heralded a far more sacred coming; the awakening of the Sovereign, all felt, however deeply, they had failed. Even Leah. Even Darunayus.
“Is this the part where I throw you off your chair, Daru?”
“Have fun fighting boars in your forests or whatever you Kedetharuxians do. For I vote in favor of your expulsion. Cassia?”
The girl did not spare a look for her former mentor, gazing Leah’s way with a pitying look, instead. “Maybe I could visit sometime. Pillar-of-Cho! I will miss our games of Tyrannic.”
What does he have over you? “You’ll love the pigs. Though you should know, these ones don’t fly.”
Ever the politician, Cassia avoided a snort she would have gladly let out in a more casual setting. “I vote in favor of your expulsion.”
And so it went across the hall and its thrones and those who sat upon them, all voting against their still bleeding, still resisting fellow, until at last, a Goldenblade sang in glee. “How does it feel, Cheretesha, to stand at the edge of a cliff,” the blond haired Geomancer asked. “To know all that stands between you and a fall into the abyss is me.”
“Honestly, Mace. Very exhausting, so do your worst. I’ll be coming back.” She considered.
“I bet Max was terrified, wasn’t he?”
Max can eat it. “Still holding onto the past, are we?”
“Only a fool forgets.”
“Only a fool.”
Mackenzie then stood from her chair, jumping off the dais before she walked toward her. “I’m a trader at heart. Convince me.”
“Mack?” Daru chided.
“Hush,” Mace pointed. “What are you waiting for?”
“Who says I tried to save the [Prince] in my lonesome?”
Nodding, the Blue Pebble inspected her leather-sheathed dragon-scale sword, Flame Point. “I was there, was I?”
“Some say we even arrived at the park together, fought them side by side. That you even dealt the final blow. The legends will be most auspicious. So would the boons.”
Rolling up the sleeves of her white shirt, Mace walked away, two students under her who were spectating the little show hurrying towards the swordsmith as she reached the door.
She handed one her sword. “Never say the Goldbladed mountains never pay back their debts.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, Mace.”
“I vote in favor of your continued instruction. Can’t have us newly enlightened comrades separated for too long now, can we?”
They hadn’t been comrades for a long time, not since Max, but despite that, a human nodded her thanks, a Goldenblade fled the scene, and not before long, their quorum was ended.