As the shadow got closer to the boobrie’s tribe one of the alarms, that the Deviant had setup up for invaders, started making noise somewhere in the bushes next to the shadow. Startled the shadowy figure moved back to the tower again, its movement was concealed yet graceful and it didn’t make a sound over the course of its journey. When it finally reached the tower it jumped inside a shadow and disappeared to one of the rooms inside.
The shadow appeared and started sighing, it was about to trash the room when the clouds moved just a little so that a ray of moonlight was shining through the window of that specific room.
With that tiny bit of moonlight the shadow was revealed. Inside the room stood a slender figure with long pitch black hair, black cloth robes, pale white skin, ghastly green eye’s that shined in the moonlight and slender fingers with long pointy nails in the same green tint as her eye’s.
If Ayana could see her, she would have vaguely recognized her as Vayentha who stayed in the room besides her in the tower. Quickly Vayentha hid herself in the shadowy parts of her room, where the moonlight could never reach.
…………….
The next day, Ayana was woken by a loud voice accompanied by loud, rapid banging on her room door.
With a still half sleepy head she heads to the door to open it, as soon as it opened, two people rushed inside, it took her a couple of seconds to realize who it where, namely Liesel and Winfred, the two wing man of the apprentice leader Corwin. Apprentice leader Corwin was still guarding by the door while his henchmen where trashing about in her room.
Al books where taken of the shelf and opened to check the inside, the bed turned upside down, the trunk on the end of the bed opened and rummaged through. “Hopefully they don’t look on the bottom of it” were her only thoughts. Luckily before they got to that they stopped and walked back to Corwin. “Would you mind telling me what this is all about?”
“last night one of the alarms was triggered, Wilson asked me to find out who it was. So that’s why we are searching everyone’s room.”
With that they moved out of the door frame and Ayana slammed the door shut. First she checked all her belongings, books, still there, as she puts them back she remembers her trunk. Hastily she moves to the trunk to look in the secret compartment, as she starts going thru all the things in there. “I did not hear any alarms last night…… wait…… could it be……? Vayentha?”
As soon as she made the hypothesis, the same thing that woke her started happening at her neighbour’s door, Ayana opens her door again just a tiny bit and looks in the direction of her neighbour. “let’s force the lock” Winfred suggests, “Fine, fine” is Corwin’s reaction. As he reaches for the master key, he has one to carry out Wilson’s orders, the door suddenly opens.
As soon as the door opens Corwin forces it to fully open, but misses some green nails that were on its way to his throat. It is a direct hit and his carotid artery. He stumbles back to the hallway, while blood is gushing out of his neck he tries to reach for a potion in his storage belt. The second he takes the potion out of the belt, Vayentha licks one of the droplets of blood from her fingernails.
After she swallowed the droplet, Corwin started ageing, wrinkles appearing all over, his skin drying out and last he turned to dust, while Vayentha started getting a little color in her cheeks. Wilfred who could not stand blood very good fainted from the horrifying scene.
“hmmmm maybe my experiment has worked, finally someone who assimilated with the stuff and did not die”. A deep voice sounded all around. Water started forming into an eccentric form before solidifying and forming into the one and only: master deviant Wilson. As for his deviant rank, Ayana had no idea as of yet.
He points to Liesel. “you are the new apprentices leader”, next he looks to Vayentha, he points with his right hand to where she is and water starts forming around her ankles, wrists, neck and a couple of joints, eventually solidifying into shackles. “you are coming with me, I want to have a little chat with you”.
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After chaining up Vayentha and promoting Liesel to be the new apprentice leader, his body turned back to water and so did Vayentha, before all the water disappeared again.
Liesel, still in shock from the whole ordeal, after slowly regaining his thinking ability, suddenly thinks of something and starts moving toward all the stuff that was left behind when Corwin turned to dust. He picks it al up and stuffs it, without even looking, in his robes.
Winfred slowly awakens after the whole ordeal and looks at Liesel. “where did she go? What happened after I passed out?” “nothing much, I am the new apprentice leader. o and Wilson took away Vayentha.”
Winfred face changed to a sickly color green, not from sickness but from envy, he desperately wanted to be the new leader. Liesel looks at him and continues: “come on we have to hurry, we must tell everyone as soon as possible there has been an accident and that I am the new leader.”
---------
At dinner that evening everyone already had learned that they had gotten a new apprentice leader, nobody was surprised that it was Liesel and not a single person even asked what had happened to Corwin. That alone already showed the indifference they all had to each other.
Ayana who did not like these kind of openly selfish and arrogant people could barely remain calm with Liesel proudly proclaiming that he was the new leader. “Something like that should be earned, not given” those where her thoughts, but alas, not everyone agreed on that thought.
Sssssshhhhhhhiiiiiiieeeeeeekkkkk. Right when Liesel wanted to start with his first speech as the new leader, the door of the dining hall slowly but steadily opened. When it was sufficiently open, someone came thru it.
“Vayentha!” was Ayana’s first thought. Indeed, she was the one walking into the dining hall. Under whispers from all corners she walked to the food counter and ordered the only thing possible for today.
After she got her meal, she paid for it and started moving for a seat somewhere in the hall. Ayana was a little caught of guard with her quick return. But regained her composure in no time at all.
Vayentha stopped walking when she was at the table Ayana was sitting, strangely enough she took place at my table, “what do I do next”, Ayana’s head was filled with confusion. So she looks up from here diner plate and suddenly feels her arm tinkle. So she focuses on the tattoo on her left shoulder. After barely a second, a menu pops up in front of her eye’s.
Still looking trough the stats, she is flabbergasted, “are these Vayentha's attributes?” still a little in shock she looks to the top of the menu and confirms that it are hers.
Name: Vayentha
Estimated rank: advanced apprentice
Age: 22
Strength: 4.3, Constitution: 3.5, Dexterity: 2.7 Spirit: 16,4
Elementium affinity: Death energy
Known spells: create undead, drain life, fury of spirits, hymn of sorrow, body of beryl.
Known skills: magic reading, dark vision
“woooowwwww, last time I saw Vayentha see was only an intermediate apprentice, but in this short couple of months she has become an advanced one” goes thru her mind with her mouth still agape she keeps looking at the attribute window.
“is something happening to you or something?” Vayentha askes and like a bubble that burst, Ayana regains her composure, “no no nothing wrong with me, but how are you ?” she askes while she thinks “well I guess she doesn’t see the window that I just saw”
Vayentha had joined the tower as a noble’s daughter, slender and with brownish half long hair, she mostly stuck to herself and once in a while she would be seen in the dining hall. But today she looks like a whole other person.
Those of the apprentices who had only mastered one or two magic and possessed a spirit attribute of 10 or less, are ranked as beginner apprentice deviants, classified as the lowest of the lowest in the deviant system.
While those of the apprentices that mastered three to four magic spells and had a spirit level of 11 to 15 are classified as intermediate apprentices, in the eye’s of the real deviants still an ant but for just the apprentices already a reasonably strong power.
Finally, those who mastered five or more magic spells and cultivated their spirit above the 16 points, they are classified as advanced apprentices, also know as the current elite of the tower.
Once the spirit attribute of an apprentice reaches 20 points, said apprentice is almost done with their apprentice journey, but not quite yet, so they are called pseudo deviants. Once someone reaches that point, the stationed deviant would give said apprentice a special treatment in preparation for his or her advancement ceremony.
Vayentha still had a slender figure, but her hair changed colour and grew longer, her robes are still the same look, but her nails and eye’s stood out so much more, those deep dark green eye’s are so intense. New to the appearance is a faint smell of death.
“well I feel fine, but let’s taste dinner, I hope it still tastes the same.” “fine……” and while she starts eating, Ayana remembers something and asks “What happened while you where taken away?” “well that is a story for after diner, dear” and with that they start eating.
“bleh, everything tastes al the same, just like some sort of in between meal that has been pureed and stored in a glass jar” where Vayentha’s first thoughts after she chewed and swallowed a spoon full of tonight’s diner.