After hours of land navigation, came another subject, called rhetoric. Rhetoric is known as the art of persuasive and effective speaking or writing. Something Venos didn't excel at.

She was able to learn the figures of speech, but she still didn't know how to use them properly. She found her days at the academy, quite enjoyable, so far. Not a single professor called her up, unlike her days of primary school.

She almost gave in to the laid-back atmosphere. Almost. Today is her lucky day. The day she gets called up, on rhetoric. The worst part of it, they are practicing good speech.

Not to mention the fact that Venos hasn't slept for days, or at least not peacefully. Her mind is still occupied with nightly terrors. And the voice... is still not there, in her head.

All of this was enough to make Venos absolutely speechless. "You practiced your speech, haven't you?" Venos snapped upon hearing the professor's expectant voice.

"But, of course." They had to prepare a short speech for their last homework. She can't make a fool of herself. She needs to show her professor, that she truly practiced her speech.

"My speech is about..." Venos swallowed as quietly as possible. Should she reveal the name of her true topic or would it be better to just take another one instead? Venos noticed all eyes on her and decided to make up a less complicated one.

"...Trees." That didn't come out the way it was supposed to. She needs to redeem herself quickly. "Yes, you heard me right. Trees! The truth is, we all think we're better than other beings. We don't appreciate what they give us."

In a way, this was like her initial topic. She just replaced the words 'trees' and 'women'.

"Imagine a life without apples, plums, pears, papers, and all the things made from trees. My guess is that you can't. Because there are so many things the trees give us that we wouldn't be able to live without them. But unlike us, the trees are able to live without us. And how do we thank them for coming out of their way to help us? We cut them, we..."

Venos continued listing all the negative things she could think of. "It's not a problem to use trees, but then it shouldn't be a problem to plant them and care for them either?"

For a moment, Venos lost herself in the words and accidentally picked up a wrong topic, her initial one.

"Why don't we let them get schooled and let them make decisions about their own lives?"

Venos mentally slapped herself. "I mean, why don't we plant trees in our schools and decide to make it a must?"

She raised her voice but noticed that this should be an ending to her speech. She shouldn't keep the audience waiting, hence why she decided to finish her speech off with the next words:

"Well, uh, that's- that's all I have for today." She looked around and noticed the approving faces of her classmates and heard the professor's voice, who seemed to be at loss for words too.

"Not bad. Not bad, at all." Venos left a sigh of relief and tried her best to focus for the rest of the class.

At the end of the rhetoric lessons, the professor gave them new books to read for the next week. "You two! I believe you still have homework to finish." With that, Tobias and Bard came for their extra books, that were probably ordered by Faramond himself.

"But, how can professor Faramond give us books if he's a land navigation professor?" Protested Tobias. "That man should really mind his own business!" Bard added. "And you two should really read a bit more and talk a little less." The professor suggested.

When they left a classroom, Bard turned to Tobias. "It's not like these books are gonna change anything, right?" "I don't know, man." "Why? Why don't you know?"

They're soon-to-be-an-argument got interrupted by their third roommate. "Peace." His messy hair, tied in a topknot, moved in harmony with his odd walk.

"Hi, Nuji! What's up?" "Not much. I just-" "Will you help us with our homework?" "No, seeing you can't even listen to me I believe I wouldn't even be able to." Nuji left the scene the way he entered it.

"Aw, come on! Life is so boring." Tobias stared at a certain point on the wall before he replied. "Then why don't we make it interesting?" "How?" "We can do something!"

"Like, pull a prank on someone." Tobias stood still after hearing this. "Yes... We could do that, but let's try to stay out of trouble. Let's pull just some minor pranks. Nothing big."

Bard thought about it and gave a response. "Deal." Tobias' eyes lit up and his lips curled into a smile. "Sweet! Now, where do we begin?"

After a while, Venos unexpectedly interrupted them. "Hi, guys! Where can I find these?" She pointed at the books they were holding. "I'll gladly give you this one," Bard said, already prepared to hand Venos the book he held.

"No thanks! I'd rather have my own one." She smiled, apologetically. "Just kidding, you can probably find them in a library," Bard explained the library's location to Venos, who looked like she was about to pass out.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Thanks, Bard. See you guys later!" "See you!" Tobias frowned. "And get some sleep, man!"

Venos noticed that her walk got slower and her vision got more blurry. She should go to bed, but the problem was, even if she did go to bed, she still wouldn't be able to sleep.

She even thought of confiding in someone, but that would be useless. The students can't help her, but neither can professors. Because the lack of sleep was closely tied to the voice and people don't know much about it.

It took Venos a while to realize that she was in a library and even longer to actually get herself the book she was looking for.

Eventually, Venos got a book and headed to her room. Inside the room, sat Felicius. He turned to stare at the book with a hint of fear in his eyes. "What?" Asked Venos, confused. "Nothing." Felicius quickly turned to look at his hands.

Venos sat on her bed and started reading while enjoying the comfort of the bed. The book is about Urtiaga communities. There's something familiar about them, clearly connected to the Zanna community.

After a while, Venos found herself looking at the last page of the book. 'Urtiaga community originates from the Zanna community. It got established at the time the Zanna forbade educating women.' Venos paused, wondering if that, indeed, was how it went.

'Unlike their ancestors, who turned patriarchal during the Zanna's 2nd massacre in the city of Espan, the Urtiaga established their matriarchy.'

Matriarchy? Venos raised her brow. Is that the opposite of patriarchy? Where, instead of men, women are the ones in control of a family, village, city, etc.

It didn't sound bad to Venos. After all, it would be nice to see a woman in charge, for a change. She closed the book and prepared herself to study.

Hours of studying and practicing passed on and Venos finally decided to go to bed. She couldn't help but notice Karlo's absence. What was so important that he has to leave the academy so often? It would've been easier to sleep if she had someone talking to her to the point of exhaustion.

Felicius is here, but he just isn't the one to talk. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths. Soon enough, she found herself witnessing another series of memories and flashbacks. Those memories were not her own ones. They belonged to the voice, it was the only logical explanation. 

Before she knew it, a violet dragon hybrid stood right in front of her. The dragon faced another dragon hybrid with dark red scales.

"I told you this wasn't a good idea! Do you know how important that stone was to those people? It didn't only hold sentimental value, it was protecting them from nature's disasters."

The red dragon smirked. "You have told me. But you never stopped me. You even had the guts to help me and share the prize. You are only protesting now. Now, that you know we'll get the same punishment."

"You're right! I am a self-serving creature, but if I ever come back to the land of the living, I'll correct this mistake."

Silence fell upon them, while they gazed at the famous volcano, known to end lives in all kinds of mysterious ways. The violet dragon swallowed and mumbled. "This terrible, terrible mistake." 

Before the scenario ended, appeared another one. This time, a woman stood in front of Venos. Her posture was so still, one would think she was paralyzed. Her expression reflected a horror on her face. Tears escaped her empty eyes as she whispered, "They're dead, they're all dead."

Before she had a chance to finish her speech, came another scene. Each new scene, more terrifying than the previous one. Somewhere in all that mess, Venos heard a woman shouting. "Wasn't the idea of the whole Zanna's existence to let women have equal rights as men!? If women can't get schooled then I'm out of this community! Out, I'm telling ya!"

The last thing Venos caught before waking up, was a woman holding a sphere and abruptly breaking it. "Forever you will last, Zanna!"

Venos stretched herself, before going to the bathroom to finish her morning routine. Where is that voice?

'Aww, you miss me?' 

'VOICE! Wha-how-when... did you just come back like that, after being absent for days?' 

'I thought you needed some rest.' 

'Sure. Come on voice, what was the real reason?' 

'I don't know. I guess it took me some time to recollect myself. You know, I haven't seen a hybrid like that for a long time.'

'For how long? Nevermind. Do you want us to meet him?' 

'Yes, I would like to know more about their social status these days.' 

'You seem to have ties with them.' 

'Oh kid, you have no idea.' 

'Well, I would if you just told me.' 

'No chance.' 

'Why?' 

'Too early.'

"Venos, are you coming or not?" She turned to stare at Karlo, who appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. "Oh, greetings Karlo. Haven't seen you in a while." His smile widened.

"Then why don't we have a talk at the breakfast?" His eyebrows danced. "Of course, you can wait for me, I'll be there in a moment."

'Alright voice, please don't make this too difficult for me.' 

'Of course.'

Venos didn't like that answer, but she hurried to breakfast, anyway. Breakfast tables were almost empty, which made Venos wonder.

"Uhm, Karlo? Where is everybody?" Karlo looked at her, confused. "Venos, you're so silly! It's the weekend." Venos' cheeks turned a bit red. "Right. But then, why are you here?"

"Oh well, I heard my roommates are gonna be staying here, so I figured we could spend some quality time together." "Great! Speaking of roommates, where is Felicius?"

Karlo shrugged his shoulders. "I think he needs to finish something, but I dunno. He'll come back later, he told me."

"Oh, ok." Venos occupied herself with eating, while Karlo asked her some questions. "Have you done your religion homework yet?"

Venos didn't want to speak with her mouth, full of food, so she waited until she was finished. Leaving Karlo in uncomfortable silence. "I guess. Is that the subject where they teach us all kinds of different religions and cultures?"

Karlo stared at Venos. "No. Why would they do that?" "Why not?" "Because this city is ruled by the Roman Catholic church. Everything else is just considered heretic."

Venos didn't quite understand these words. "Christianity isn't everyone's religion, isn't it?" "Of course not, but I think you would have a hard time explaining that to the church."

Venos thought about it. 

'Voice, I don't know anything about this. I actually forgot we even had homework.' 

'Great job, kid.' 

'Voice, please.' 

'Just ask him to help you with the homework.' 

'Oh, right.'

"Hey, uhm, will you help me with my religion homework?" Karlo chuckled. "Man, it's too easy. You only have to write the Decalogue." Karlo noticed the silence around him and decided to explain a bit. "You know, the Ten Commandments."

The silence was still present, which made Karlo pale a little bit. "You are not a Christian, are you?" Whispered Karlo, as quietly as he managed.

'What do I say voice?' 

'Just tell him the truth. I mean, what's the worst thing that can happen? Him telling his royal family about you, which can easily result in you getting burned at the stake."

A cold sweat escaped Venos. "No." "Damn it. That's not good." Karlo looked around as if to check if anyone is near. "Listen, I'll help you, but we should keep it as secret as possible. You wouldn't want the church coming at your doors."

Karlo thought about his last sentence. "But, that probably won't happen. I mean, religion is too easy. Even if you do mess up, you can just say that your family isn't very religious."

'I'm kind of scared right now.'