Asural, Desmond, 10416 P.C.

Stephanie knew she wouldn't get along with Colette. The girl, who seemed to be a year or two older than her, was nothing but grating. She showed Stephanie, Todd, and Bethany to their rooms, declaring them their 'new home' with a dramatic sweep of her hand and then adding, "Get some sleep. You look horrible."

"Gee, thanks," Stephanie muttered. Todd only gave the girls a weary look before he disappeared into the room Colette had pointed him to and closed the door behind him. She heard the lock click. She didn't blame him.

"You're welcome." With that, Colette turned and walked away.

Stephanie shook her head and turned into the room she was to share with Bethany. It was a humble room with a bunk bed on one side and a crudely made desk along the other wall with a mirror above it. A tiny closet had a couple clothes hangers. It made her realize that she didn't have a change of clothes other than the gambeson and armour she wore. She'd been wearing them for the past three days. Suddenly, she felt dirty and grimy. Looking into the mirror, Stephanie realized that Colette was right: she was a complete mess. Her hair was a disaster of choppy, knotted locks and leaves, and her freckled, branded face was smudged and smeared with dirt and blood. Half-moons beneath her eyes showed just how little she had slept as of late. She hadn't realized how disastrous her appearance had become. She probably smelled horrible.

Bethany had crawled up onto the bed and was already asleep. Stephanie noted that she, too, was rather haphazard in appearance. They'd have to shower after they slept. She only assumed this place had running water.

She shed her armour, dumping it in a corner of the room, grateful to be rid of its burden. The simple shirt and pants she had worn beneath it would be comfortable to sleep in, she decided as she climbed onto the top bunk. She flopped down onto the mattress, letting out a loud sigh as it creaked beneath her. Once at ease, her muscles ached. Exhaustion set in heavily. She closed her eyes.

The next thing she knew, she was sitting straight up, gasping wildly, a scream dying on her lips as her heart raced in her chest. Todd was at the foot of the bed, perched on the bottom bunk, his hand on her leg.

"Stephanie, are you okay?" he asked, clearly concerned. He had creases on the side of his face from sleeping, and his hair was sticking up in all kinds of directions. It looked like he had just woken up.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" she gasped out, still trying to calm her heart.

"Bethany got me. You were screaming in your sleep."

Stephanie looked down, catching sight of Bethany standing below. The child looked up at her with wide eyes full of worry.

"Nightmare?" Todd asked.

She looked at him, nodding quickly. "Yeah. I'm okay."

"You wanna talk about it?"

Stephanie closed her eyes, visions of her nightmare plaguing her mind. The Veiled Lady had been chasing her through dark woods, soaked in blood not her own, taunting her as Marcie screamed and screamed...

"Love makes you weak."

"No," Stephanie whispered.

"Is there anything I can do?" Todd really was sweet. There he was, utterly exhausted, and yet he still cared. What he lacked in physical strength he made up for in heart, truly.

It sounded weird, even wrong to ask. She'd grown up training with boys but only training with boys — everything else was strictly kept separate, as any kind of romantic feelings were shunned during their training years. Boys stayed in the boy's dorms and girls stayed in the girl's dorms. That's just how it was. Was it the same here? Colette had given Todd the room across the hall, not one in a completely separate area. Then again, even if there had been rules, Stephanie wasn't following any rules as of late anyway.

"Can you stay?" she whispered.

He nodded. As if sharing one mind, they wordlessly dropped the mattresses onto the floor and dumped the blankets on top. Todd brought over the blankets from his room, and together, the three of them settled down on the two mattresses: Todd on one, Stephanie on the other, and Bethany snuggled in the middle. Somehow, it helped. Their presence comforted her, and before she knew it, she was waking up from a dreamless sleep feeling quite refreshed.

She groaned, though, when she found Colette standing at the foot of their mattresses. "Benjamin says to wake you up for supper. If you sleep any longer you won't sleep tonight."

"I could sleep for three days," Todd replied, his voice muffled by his pillow.

"Look, you three are cute, really, but what even." Colette kicked at the mattress. "Slumber party?"

Stephanie didn't want this girl knowing about her nightmares. She was about to snap a witty reply, but Todd raised his head, squinting at Colette. "Jealous?" he asked.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Hardly. Up now. You've got an hour before supper is served. I suggest you get cleaned up. The bathrooms have showers and — thank goodness — soap. Use it." With that, she marched out.

Todd looked over at the girls. "I think she's implying that we stink."

Stephanie took a deep breath through her nose before wrinkling it. "Mm, maybe. I don't really care what she thinks."

"Me neither." He smiled. She almost returned it, feeling the twitch in her lips she had often seen in Marcie's.

Marcie. She sobered. "C'mon."

The bathrooms not only had showers, but changes of clothes for each of them. Stephanie guessed that Benjamin had made sure of that. The tank top was a bit snug, but the plaid shirt was a bit big in the sleeves and baggy everywhere else. The pants were comfortable. The lavender soap left her nose twitching from its strong scent, but at least she smelled nice. The cloudy mirrors in the bathroom still revealed how crude of a haircut she had given herself. It was short in the back and long and jagged in the front. She already regretted her rash decision to chop it, missing her long, dark locks. Maybe if she evened it out, it'd look okay. Right now, even after showering, it looked like a rat's nest.

After helping Bethany get all of the cleaning product out of her long tangle of hair and getting her dressed in the clothes set out for her, they left the bathroom. Todd was out in the hallway, dressed in well-worn black pants and a plain blue t-shirt. His hair looked darker when it was wet, proving that he was actually a brunette and not a blond like the lighting often teased him to be.

"I feel weird," Stephanie immediately admitted, tugging on the fabric of her plaid shirt. "We always wore uniforms as Trainees."

"Always?" Todd asked curiously. He seemed a bit more awake, refreshed at least from his shower. The cut on his cheek had scabbed over, now the only imperfection on his otherwise clean face. She hadn't noticed how strangely flawless his skin was. Not a freckle or a birthmark or a scar. Compared to her freckled, branded, marred face, his looked perfect. She found it so strange.

"We were always training, so uniforms were a must." She looked down the hallway. "Which way?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I think we came from this way." Todd took the lead as they started down the hallway in the assumed direction. "So you were always training? Like, constantly? No days off?"

"Training, studying. Studying was our time off from training and training was our time off from studying."

"Wow."

"We sometimes had holidays," Stephanie continued as they stopped at a new hallway. "We could go 'out on the town', as you would. Marcie and I..." she tried not to falter, but she knew he had heard it in her voice. "We'd go to Noe's. A cute little diner. Noe'd make the best banana splits." What she didn't add was how much she missed it. That life was behind her. Marcie was gone, and she was a deserter. She would never again be able to walk back into Zusia or Noe's Diner and pretend things hadn't changed. Things had changed, and they'd never be the same again.

Todd put his hand on her shoulder, looking down at her with concern in his eyes. "You okay?"

She stirred herself out of her gloomy thoughts. "Um, yeah. Which way now, do you think?"

"Where are you guys going?" They turned around to see Colette standing at the far end of the hallway, in the opposite direction they had chosen. "The food is this way!"

"I guess I was basically sleeping when we came here," Todd commented.

Stephanie snorted.

Colette led them to the cafeteria, which was bustling with noise and voices. Her heart did weird flips as they stepped into the doorway. Before them was a room crowded with children, from little toddlers to teens like herself. There had to be at least two hundred. When they entered the room, much to Stephanie's discomfort, heads turned and voices hushed. They were staring. They weren't staring at Todd or Bethany, though.

They were staring at her. More specifically, at the dragonmark on her face.

Colette marched right into the fray. "Alright, alright, nothing to see here, keep on eating!" She said it with authority, but none of the kids listened to her. They still stared.

Todd, who had a keen eye on him, muttered to Stephanie, "Ignore them." Then he set off after Colette, holding Bethany's hand. Bethany reached for Stephanie, beckoning, and Stephanie timidly accepted the girl's hand and followed them toward the kitchen. They had to weave in among the tables, amidst the children, and Stephanie wanted to close her eyes to avoid the stares. They stares weren't the worst of it: the whispers were.

"... dragonmark..."

"... she's a soldier..."

"... Motch's little spy..."

"... Benjamin ought to throw her out!"

She had heard enough. Pulling out of Bethany's grasp, she wheeled around and started for the door.

"Steph'nee!" Bethany called after her as Stephanie broke into a run. She ignored Todd's call as well. Running the whole way, she found her way back to her assigned room and slammed the door, sliding down it and putting her face in her hands. The mark on her cheek burned and she dragged her nails down the sides of her face in humiliated frustration.

Why had Annabella thought this was a good idea? Didn't she realize that these people wouldn't trust Stephanie as far as they could throw her Then again, Annabella hadn't trusted her either. So why bring her here? To humiliate her?

A soldier. The enemy. That's what they saw her as. That's what the dragonmark defined her as. It declared her Motch's property.

Crawling to her feet, she approached the mirror, staring at her reflection, at the mark. She hated it. She hated it so much. It was a permanent, constant reminder of the hold Motch had over her. She had escaped, but she was never truly free.

And, she knew, it wouldn't be long before the Veiled Lady found her. Found them. There was only so far one could run.

Stephanie sat down on the mattresses but did not sleep.