Miss Howl stood in front of the classroom, looking pleased with herself as she looked over our not exhausted expressions.
“I managed to convince the admin to move this lesson so you would actually be conscious for it rather than having it smack dab after Dr Jacq’s monstrosity of a lesson plan. Especially for this topic,” She began, looking excited. “A topic that still impacts us to this day! I am, of course, talking about the Call of the Darkness festival, which happens every four years.”
There was a slight murmur throughout the class, curiosity permeating each of the students. The Call of the Darkness festival was a celebration of negative emotion in a safer environment. It was held in one of the kingdoms every four years and consisted of creative works that were written to instil fear and tragedy to help the population work through these emotions so they did not fester and grow.
The festival consisted of many parts, such as horror attractions, creative work screenings, and occasionally controversies that otherwise were deemed dangerous to reveal. Plus, personal celebrations typically take place, such as celebrating the recently deceased.
All of this was allowed as Mythics from across kingdoms travelled for the festivals to deal with the Shades that the event lored towards the kingdom. The festival served two purposes: to cull the local Shade population, advertise new protective technology, and show the might of each kingdom and the second purpose was to allow the release of pent up negative emotion so that the kingdom’s mental health is better supported as it had been shown that repression and stress caused adverse health outcomes.
Miss Howl waited for the chatter to quiet down, “The origins of the festival started with the fall of the Kingdom of Vercult, where the kingdom was overwhelmed by masses of Shades. What was the cause of such an unprecedented swarm is hotly debated in the literature, but all you need to know for this lecture is that it happened and that the other kingdom’s leadership met and discussed how to prevent similar circumstances from happening in the future.”
A student that I recognised but didn’t know put their hand up and I felt a flash of dread on what they were about to ask, I tried to rationalise my thoughts in that it was recent history; It obviously will come up. Despite the fact that just hearing about it shouldn’t matter, I just did not want to think about it.
She spotted him, “Yes, Max, do you have a question?”
“Yeah, if the festival is supposed to limit Shade populations, then why was the Blackout such a disaster?” My heart rate spiked; I just needed to push the emotion back down. “As in, why were there so many?”
The rest of my team noticed that I was uncomfortable as it was clear on my face and breathing. I did not like this topic.
I heard Mathew’s voice in my mind, “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine; you don’t need to worry.”
It was clear from his face that he didn’t believe me, but he left it there.
Miss Howl answered the question, “While yes, the Blackout was a massive tragedy, based on historical precedent, it is argued that its magnitude was greatly lessened by the festival. Although there are many who argue that we should reduce the amount of time between the festivals from four years to two as only reducing the Shade population for each kingdom every twelve years allows too much time for them to build up.”
“Then why don’t we?” Max replied.
Miss Howl sighed, as she had clearly expected the question, “In a perfect world, we’d be able to; the main issue is the expense of the festival. Administrative costs are extremely large due to the difficulty of inter kingdom travel, and the number of Mythics that are needed means that there is a cost in regular protection, not to mention the difficulty of populations outside kingdom walls.”
“Of course, in more recent years,” she continued in a more positive tone, “Improvements in technology have reduced a lot of the expenses, with easier communications helping both sides of the festival as creatives can work with more people outside their respective kingdoms and Mythics are easier to contact. As I’m sure you’ve heard, Light Industries are also finding a solution to the issues with travel, which hopefully means that we will be able to celebrate more regularly.”
Alex put up his hand.
“Yes, Mr Eye?”
“While yeah, technology is great, but doesn’t it also make everything more difficult as well as make things easier? With online leaks to the other kingdoms, causing more attacks in the less protected kingdoms. Every innovation has its benefits and negatives.”
“Good point.” Miss Howl answered, “While you are correct in that over the last couple of festivals, there have been a few issues with some of the creative works spreading further than their intended audience, the increase in attacks is small enough that they are within each kingdom’s regular defensive abilities. Plus, encryption technology is improving to help stop unintended access, but I will admit it is a cat and mouse chase between those who want to leak it and those plugging the leaks.”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
She looked around at the students, “If no one has any more inputs, I’ll continue, though feel free to interrupt if you have any more questions,” She waited a beat before continuing, “The festival, overall, seems to have been a success as on average Shade attacks have reduced in magnitude compared to before it was started. Of course there are some who disagree and believe that the magnitude would have decreased even without the festival, they are in the minority of the literature. That hasn’t stopped those who agree with them being incredibly vocal.”
At just the implicit mention of the protests, there was a feeling of irritation felt by the majority of the students. A lot of moral panic had been surrounding the festival as some people felt that horror material had detrimental effects on the population and inspired depravity. Arguments have broken out over how those who partake put everyone in danger despite studies showing the opposite, with those who consumed the media having a lower overall likelihood of attracting Shades as they had experienced the emotions in a more controlled environment.
“While yes most of their claims are refuted by the data, traditionalists do have an impact on celebrations; therefore, some accommodations are needed. Most commonly, it is Mythics who have more crowd control legacies to try and calm situations before they break out of control.”
She continued onto a slightly more contentious part of the festival, “A similar protocol is also needed in difficulties that typically arise when the festival starts in a kingdom. With the extra protection afforded against Shade attacks, there is a larger amount of controversies that arise as public outcry is easier to manage. That is also why you see a lot more charity work or typically temporary direction changes with politicians and companies to pre-empt the backlash. Some believe that the protests are partially funded by these people to either distract or to voice their views indirectly, but there hasn’t been any evidence to support this claim.”
The bell rang to signal the end of the lesson.
“Ah that seems like it’s time, if you have any questions I’ll be here a few more minutes, but I covered what I wanted to cover. There are extra readings online.”
***
“Are you sure you are ok?” Mathew asked after the lecture.
“Yeah, it’s just old emot-” My perspective warped, “Nope, but he’s just trying to repress the memories. Trust me, as someone who was accidentally forced into them, there’s a lot of unresolved trauma in here.”
He patted my head like it was the boot of a car.
“Hey! I’m fine, I dealt with it ages ago, no one needs to worry about it.”
“He’s saying that he appreciates the concern, and he wants to talk through it with you guys as he can trust you as a team.”
“Stop saying words with my mouth!”
“Kid.” He thought at me with a more serious tone, “As someone who also went through traumatic shit as well, talking helps. You may not have gotten therapy yet, but you’re getting therapy whether we have to force healthy coping mechanisms or not.”
I regained control of my body, “As I was actually saying, I’m fine. It’s just old emotions.”
Alex replied, “It’s fine you can talk when you’re ready, I’m sure any of us would be willing to listen or even any of the Legends. We’re your team, and friends were supposed to support you.”
“I’m fine.”
“Ok, we’ll leave it there.”
***
After that intervention, we went back to our room, as history had been the last lesson of the day. I decided that the best course of action to deal with the free time was to extend my aura pattern to my arms. It also let me just keep to myself more after the lesson.
After double-checking my timetable to make sure there weren’t any lessons that required my legacy or even the use of my arms in case there was a repeat of last time but luckily, according to what I read from the book, Dr Keter lent me the difficulty peaked with the torso, and the second most difficult being the head. I likely had an advantage in dealing with my head, as I was able to almost get an outside look with Edward. I just thought doing my arms was a safe bet, as it had the least amount of risk. Was it smart to mess with the pattern so soon?
Anyway, I looked at the instructions one last time before I started the first step of the process, which was grasping the ‘thread’ closest to my right arm. I kept the mental association of a cooking recipe to make sure the threads were not too defined as they were previously, and I pushed the aura into loops as I covered the length of my arm. The hazy blue and defined red flowed into the pattern as my concentration increased, and I got into the repetition of the actions. I could, in the back of my mind, feel Edward following me behind, correcting small mistakes that made the whole thing more cohesive.
I finally got to the last loop as I reconnected my right arm back to the torso pattern. The exhaustion hit me; it wasn’t as draining as it had been the first time, but still, my arm was dead. It felt like it was going to be stronger with time, but incredibly weak at the moment like I had just lifted heavy weights for hours without breaks. I didn’t even know your forearm could become numb or even that you could be aware of it. It made me aware of muscles I never knew I had.
The mental exhaustion was also considerable; I didn’t think I had the mental fortitude to go through it again. I just didn’t have it left in me. I could tell Edward was also tired, as when I told him that, I could tell he heard, but he didn’t react.
Edward did seem to be handling it better, though. I assume this was due to the fact he hadn’t needed to help me as considerably as before. Don’t get me wrong, he still seemed exhausted, but he was more defined than he had been after the torso. That being said, he, too, didn’t seem fit enough to go through it again for the left arm, so we’d have to leave completing the arms to another day.
This just meant that I’d just have a stronger right arm for a couple of days, which, I hoped, no one read too much into.