5.

‘How did you enjoy the lesson, Mrs. Marshall?’ he said. ‘Something different than going outside and fighting, isn’t it?’

I blinked. Those were friendly words for someone who was ready to fight May and me the day before—

My eyelids narrowed against the backdrop of light. His smiling lips were trembling a little, and his nails scratched the side of his cheeks.

—hhm. No, that’s not wholly true, is it? Fahim had tried to avoid physical conflict as much as possible. He only accepted it after the others caged us in.

So, I folded Mother’s schedule and put it in my pocket. Though May would still want to punch the ego out of him and assert her dominance, I had no personal grievance with him and wouldn’t deny the opportunity to grow closer. He was an S rank. Maybe we could help each other in the upcoming group battle.

Which was a statement I meant as light as possible. We got left for dead the last time we tried to join others.

‘Djina will do,’ I said. ‘You can say that again. It’s so much theory I think my head might explode.’

After the two-hour lesson, my notebook was already a quarter of the way full. I’d need a new one soon.

‘That’s the fun part, don’t you think.’ He chuckled.

I watched as all his bones shivered with the reverberation. From the thick, v-shape dent visible in his neck to the network of sharp edges on his foot that his open sandals did a bad job of hiding.

My lips pursed. Shouldn’t one of his friends tell him he needs to eat more? It was his life on the line here.

Fahim took my silence and concerned expression as a sign of discomfort and raked a hand through his ponytail.

He exhaled deeply.

‘I’m not good at these things…but I came here to apologise.’

‘Apologise?’ I said, caught a little off-guard. ‘For yesterday you mean?’

He nodded.

‘It was never my intention to start a fight. Let alone a war.’

I chuckled.

‘And so you made us public enemy number one.’

His shoulders sagged.

‘I know. Sorry. It’s just—’ another big sigh left his mouth ‘—you ever had every good thing you try do backfire? The sentry was the same thing.’

I hummed and rested my elbows on the table, supporting my chin with my hands.

The grooves on Fahim’s face had darkened, and the bags underneath his light brown eyes told a story. Turning out to be one of two S ranks in our year had put him right in the spotlight. Every student looked towards him—either in judgement, help, or both.

May and I would’ve been in the same boat. Yet we’d dodged the bullet by disappearing for two days. The unintended side effect of that was that Fahim drew even more scrutiny to himself.

I felt for him.

‘Was there a reason you didn’t act against the sentry?’

That single move had lost him the support of over half of the Rankers after all, turning his admirers into executioners.

Fahim didn’t respond right away. He half-turned, facing the rising star outside. When he spoke next, he spoke slow, minutely shaking his head as he did.

‘I wasn’t meant to be a leader.’

The loaded sentence didn’t take its time to sink in. It was a meteor crashing through the atmosphere, blowing a crater in the clouds above us. The sun exploited that opportunity, and the way the dim light fell on his lanky frame was an embrace. A halo of golden beams that cocooned a chosen child of the heavens.

My breathing slowed. I had a moment like this before, I thought. With May, in the forest as I tended her wounds. If I pounced on the angle and asked now, he would speak—of his background or upbringing or whatever it was that ailed him—I knew this for certain.

I rotated my neck, and my eyelids drooped, noticing the sharp gazes on us. The time and place weren’t right. And—more than anything—I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get that deeply involved in another person’s affairs.

My mind was already clogged as was: the curse, training (which I needed to do more of according to my mother’s schedule), the target on May and I’s back, the assassins...maybe if it was possible to join Fahim’s group for the test. But he’d already found a fourth member and five was the maximum.

No, I decided. May’s worries were enough. For now. So, I let the moment go.

The clouds rallied and blotted out the sky again, killing the sun, which took the picturesque view with it to the grave.

I let the silence sing before I spoke up.

‘What happened, happened, Fahim. I don’t see you as an enemy. But then I’m not the one you need to convince.’

He turned to me, raising an eyebrow.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

A glint in his eyes that’d been there before was gone, and a knife burrowed into my chest. Did I choose wrong? I could still salvage it if I was quick.

But I shook my head inwardly. Let it be, Djina. Hesitating after making a choice is worthless.

My soft voice filled the silence before the quiet turned awkward.

‘May’s going to pummel you and Taran. It’s just a matter of how often. And how hard.’

He laughed. The sound rang hollow.

‘That’s fine. I won’t take it laying down, though.’

I shrugged sympathetically.

‘Your choice if you want to make the beating worse.’

He only smiled. I suppose this was where you let the conversation die and moved on. Yet there was something I wanted to ask him. One of the worries in my head we could maybe still tackle together.

‘I had a question by the way,’ I said.

He waited.

‘“Losing a single person on the first day is bad enough”,’ I quoted. ‘That’s what you said when we met on the field, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ he said tentatively. ‘Why?’

‘Does that mean we only lost Kite on the first day?’

He paused to consider, and what I feared became fact when his head bobbed up and down.

‘We asked around,’ he said. ‘But no one reported any deaths. Besides Kite and yourselves, that is.’

Damn. So, we were dealing with an extra body. A missing body.

‘One more question,’ I said. ‘For you and your groupies.’

A frown stretched like a maze over his forehead.

‘That’s rude, Djina. They’re not my groupies.’

I innocently tilted my head, causing him to snort. Then, I asked:

‘Was there anyone who did a headcount of who went out to hunt on the first day?’

His feet shifted in place as his brain made sure he’d heard right.

‘You’re asking pointed questions,’ he said. ‘Why? I won’t condone hunting others down for their hard-earned rewards. Not anymore.’

‘Obviously,’ I said.

The centre of his cheeks reddened, and I gave him a cheeky grin.

‘Because,’ I said, ‘I think someone is doing exactly what you dislike. Just worse.’

The embarrassment wiped off his face. It seemed space around him darkened.

‘Worse?’ he said. ‘How much worse?’

I leaned forward and whispered gravely:

‘The killing kind of worse.’

A moment.

There was a chance Fahim was one of the assassins. But weighing the risk versus the possible advantage of asking him for help made the decision easy. He was the only one out of our year who had a solid shot at having any leads. Besides a certain someone, that is, I thought.

‘Someone?’ Fahim said slowly. ‘You mean Gaef?’

Think of the Devil.

‘Maybe,’ I said.

I still couldn’t wrap my head around Son being the one in control of the entire sentry. But if he was, that certainly made him suspect number one for being one of the killers. If not him, then someone under him. Since he would no doubt have learned a few techniques from his father to help him “convince” subordinates.

But solely if the assassins are real, I added. The dots on the graph were there. Yet the straight line through them could be a hoax my chaotic, paranoid brain drew as a joke.

‘I don’t have any suspects,’ I said. ‘I only know someone died. That’s why I want that list.’

Fahim nodded. He rubbed his chin and said:

‘Taran, maybe. He looks tough but he’s as paranoid as is—I noticed him stalking the gates on the first day…Evelyn was with me the entire time, so it cannot be her.’

I swallowed my huff. Were they truly boyfriend and girlfriend, then? Aunt Clavis told me the academy didn’t allow stuff like that before I came here.

Fahim looked up at the ceiling, clueless of my questions.

‘I’d have to ask some of my groupies, as you so eloquently put it,’ he said. ‘But I’ll give you an answer tomorrow at the latest.’

‘That’ll do.’

We stood there for an instant longer. The absolute silence in our surroundings yelled at me, and I glanced around. Besides Elder Chinju, who was absorbed in a book, the classroom was empty.

Darn it. The feet of my chair screeched across the wooden floor as I pushed back from the table and gathered my stuff. Physical Cultivation was but twenty minutes away at most. That meant no lunch for me.

Fahim noticed, too, and he rushed to strap his gourd to his back.

I quickly glanced up.

‘Let’s run together?’

‘It would be my pleasure,’ he said.

So, we speed walked towards the exit together and bowed towards the elder before leaving.

‘Initiate Marshall,’ Elder Chinju said, hooking my attention.

She waved me forwards, and I hurriedly paced over.

‘This was your first lesson, correct?’ she said.

‘Yes, elder.’

The elder went into one of the drawers of her desk and removed a small booklet.

‘Here you go,’ she said.

She took one of my hands in her own and handed me the pamphlet.

‘An encyclopaedia of the creatures in the valley. Every new student of my class gets one.’

My eyes lit up.

‘Thank you, elder.’

This was exactly the type of thing I wanted out of this lesson.

I pulled away—

The elder’s grip tightened, holding me in place, and I looked up into her dull gaze.

She leaned forward.

‘Always weigh the benefits and drawbacks of being selfless or selfish,’ Elder Chinju whispered. ‘Neither is wise or foolish on its own.’

My brows pulled together. What was she—I sucked in a breath. It can’t be, right? Did she notice that…

The elder let go of my hand and smiled that grandmotherly smile.

I wrenched myself out of my shock and bowed low.

‘This student heeds your words, elder,’ I said.

Her lips spread more.

‘Good day, dear,’ she said.

Then, I was out of the room.

6.

Fahim and I spoke a little on our way to Physical Cultivation, but as time was short, we speed walked more than we spoke.

We made it just in time, and Elder Kang’s earth-shattering voice roared over our whole group within moments.

I could honestly say that classes were worse than on the first day, which I hadn’t thought possible. Elder Kang had noticed improvement amongst several initiates. Those students were singled out and forced to work harder. I was among them.

‘I think I’ll break,’ I groaned when Elder Kang told me to contort my back in a manner I hadn’t seen an underwater snake do.

‘Then break!’ he boomed over the field. ‘And rebuild yourself. That’s what a pipsqueak like you needs to stand a chance at all!’

The elder crouched beside me.

‘Or did you think doing a few push ups was enough to one day reach my level? Did you, Marshall?!’

‘No…Elder Kang,’ I said through my teeth.

My arms were at the absolute edge of dying. Pushing maura into them did nothing but make it worse. I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs either and my head…Lord, my head was feeling so light.

‘Then hold it!’ he said, his spittle landing on my cheek. ‘If you cannot hold it another ten seconds, forget the group battle and don’t bother coming back to my lessons!’

Logically, I knew he was saying that solely to motivate me. But. His tone of voice. Deep in my gut I couldn’t shake the dreading sensation that he’d really expel me if I failed here. So, I held it. I lowered to the floor against my will, but I strained my muscles like it was the last thing I’d ever do.

‘Fifteen,’ Elder Kang said. ‘Sixteen, come on! Hold it! Seventeen—’

I crashed to the floor. Or I would’ve if the elder had not caught me and carefully unfurled the twist my body found itself in to keep me from injuring myself.

Status updated!

D rank physique unlocked!

Recalculating hunter rank…

…

Unavailable!

I closed my eyes as he put me down, resting my head on the hot sand, steam pouring from the top of my skull.

‘Levelled up, did you? Good work,’ the elder said. ‘Rest for a minute, then do it again.’

That was all the encouragement I got from him.

He whirled around, creating a gust of wind so strong it rolled me over.

‘Fahim!’ he yelled. ‘What are you resting for?! You good for nothing skeleton—’

My mind shut down. I don’t know how I did it, but I dragged myself through the exercises until the end of the lesson.