SAGE
Giselle looked at me as if I was an unpleasant piece of dirt on her new shiny shoe and then frowned.
“What are you doing here?” She asked me with a stretched smile.
“Me?” I coc.led a brow, “What are you doing here? This is my room and yours is down the hall.”
Yet just seeing her smirk I already knew the answer. Wow, they worked fast here. My room was one of the best in the academy and Giselle was always envious of it. Her being here was a bad sign.
“No one told you?” She giggled, covering her face with a fan. Even though no one in this world used fans anymore. They were seriously out of fashion. It was her ‘thing’ and it looked stupid. “You don’t live here anymore.”
“Says who?” I gritted my teeth, trying to control my facial expression.
“Says the whole floor!” Giselle cackled. Cackled!
From the corner of my eye I noticed that both my roommates were inside. Scarlett and Ingrid were there and they… were not doing anything.
“And what did you think?” Giselle arched her golden brow, clearly enjoying the moment as a few doors next to us opened and girls started poking out of their rooms to see the show.
Just two days ago, any of them would have eaten from my hands if I had offered. And now most of them were sneering at me or trying to avert my gaze.
However, it was the silence of my best friends that hurt the most.
“No one here wishes to share a floor with a daughter of a traitor!” Giselle said as loudly as she only could.
“Understandable,” I sighed, “Well, what can I say? Good luck finding another floor because this room was already paid for in advance. And I am staying.”
I tried to push through inside to at least make this conversation private, but a magical barrier stopped me. It was invisible but it was definitely there. And it shocked me even more, because the barrier was supposed to let me in as one of the owners of the room. Just what did they do exactly?
“I understand that the last days were probably stressful for you, Sage.” Giselle murmured in the sweetest tone. “Your father turned out to be a gruesome traitor, your fiancé dumped you because he fell in love with someone else… It’s a lot. And it probably affected your ability to hear and comprehend information.”
I heard a few laughs here and there as she continued, “I repeat. You do not live here anymore. We got permission to sign you out of this room. It’s done.”
My eyes went in the direction of my now probably ex-roommates.
“How could you?” was all I said and Ingrid started fiddling with her dress, while Scarlett finally looked me in the face. She came up to Giselle and crossed her hands on her chest.
“My family can’t be meddling with traitors. You know our crystal-clear reputation and honour. I am sorry, I just can’t ruin it for you.” Her every word was like a slap. She was the daughter of the Amber Marquis, lord Cesare Duvall and was proud of that fact. She was also always very proud and vocal about how happy she was to be my friend. But I guessed that now when my father lost his title and was arrested, that friendship was over.
“Crystal-clear reputation and honour?” I snorted and rolled my eyes. “What are you even talking about? You are betraying your best friend at this very moment of the most challenging time in my life. Do you even know what honour is? Do I need to spell it to you? Maybe I can explain about loyalty as well?”
“Speak about loyalty when your father betrayed the whole kingdom! Such a traitor should never…” Giselle was spraying her poison around and I couldn’t tolerate it anymore. Fern shifted slightly and looked at her, growling angrily. The blonde in front of me yelped and stepped back.
“Is it alive?” she screamed and Scarlett looked at her with a shade of annoyance. The three of us never liked Giselle.
“Of course, it’s alive!” I rubbed Fern’s neck and she purred, tickling me with her bushy tail. “Why would I kill someone so cute?”
Ingrid glanced at us with interest. She was an air mage but loved animals a lot. However, I wasn’t going to introduce her to my pet. She still didn’t say a word in my defence even though she did not look hostile.
I still couldn’t believe that they voted me out of the room and chose to live with Giselle instead.
Oh, well. The joke would be on them, since she had always been annoying and unpleasant.
“What is going on here?!” I heard a familiar voice and turned on my heels to see Professor Selena Xargor. She taught us General Necromancy for one semester last year and I was always one of her top students. I was a bit relieved to see her, hoping that maybe she would help me to sort all of this out. But the first thing that I noticed was that she wasn’t wearing an emerald bracelet my father gave her as a gift for Winter Solstice celebration last year. It was probably an inappropriate gift from a student’s parent to a teacher, because it was clearly a bribe, but she accepted it and always wore it with pride.
But not today…
I suddenly had a very bad feeling about this.
Yes, the bracelet was a bribe “to keep an eye on me” as Father phrased it, and I hated it at the time. But beggars couldn’t be choosers and now I could use a little bit of help.
“Professor Xargor,” I looked at her with hope in my eyes, “they…”
“Are you causing trouble, adept Satorr?” she looked at me as if I was public enemy number one.
Then again, I probably was. To all of them.
“Of course not,” I shook my head in protest. “They took my room and…”
“This is not your room anymore,” Professor Xargor cut me off sharply and I held her gaze. For some reason, there was so much hatred in it and I didn’t know where it came from. “The girls asked for their roommate to be replaced with someone more suitable and the whole floor signed the petition that they didn’t want to live with a traitor.”
“No one insisted that they should,” I raised my chin and looked down on all of them. Most were trying to avert my gaze. “I am not a traitor. There are no such accusations against me.”
“You know what we mean!” Giselle chimed in. “No one wants to risk their safety and reputation while living with you! Just accept it!”
I clenched my fists, looking at the bags that I had with me and at the coachman who was still there. I forgot that he was helping me at all with all the drama. I wished that there was at least someone who could help me. Someone, who could be fair in this situation.
And right when I thought about this, the Keeper Spirit appeared right next to the professor.
“Samarah!” Selena smirked as the academy’s demon spirit, who looked indifferent as always. “Adept Satorr is creating trouble and tries to get into the room that does not belong to her without being invited. What is the punishment for that?”
The punishment for that was harsh. I knew that too well after that day when a very drunk Neil tried to get into our room. He had to work in the dining hall as a cleaner for weeks. This was the last thing that I needed. I could only imagine how I would be treated in that grey dress dining hall workers were supposed to wear and how everyone present here now would add to my humiliation the best way they could.
“She cannot be punished for that,” Samarah stated calmly and we all looked at her in surprise.
“And why the Rupture not?!” Selena glared at the demon spirit while I gaped.
Samarah looked like she was in her early twenties when, in fact, she was probably thousands of years old. Rumours had it that she used to be a demon general back in her day. She fought many battles and was feared. Until one day she lost a battle to our headmaster and he formed a contract with her. She swore her eternal loyalty to him until the day he died. And thanks to that he gave her a chance to be reborn after that happens. It was not a rare thing to do so between demons and humans. But most demons were much weaker than Samarah. Rich households had Keeper Spirits but none of them would be able ti run an academy. Yet Samarah did that with ease.
I looked at her from a whole new perspective now. She never seemed to care about anyone and never went beyond her responsibilities. Yet now she… protected me.
At least that was how I felt. Or maybe I was wrong…
“She wasn’t informed,” Samarah rolled her eyes, tossing her sleek long ponytail back. Her ebony black hair was ridiculously long and shiny. And she had this edge to her, predatory beauty, that made it really hard to take eyes off her.
“Big deal!” Selena scoffed. “I inform her now!”
“Then if she tries to get into the room now, I would punish her,” Samarah looked at her nails, checking them out as if she wasn’t interested in all of this at all.
Everybody snapped their heads at me and I let out a little nervous laugh.
“Nah, I am good!” I shot a victorious glance at my Necromancy teacher. “But where is my new room? My father paid for it already.”
“Yes,” the demon chimed in, “And from the records I see that he paid for elite accommodation. This means that the academy should provide something equal in comfort for the lady. Otherwise, you will have to pay her compensation equalling to triple of what was paid for.”
“Me?” Selena almost choked on her own breath, “What do I have to do with anything?”
“It’s your signature on the papers about lady Sage Satorr eviction from her current room.” Samarah said and I could swear I saw a hint of a smile there.
“There are no more elite rooms!” Xargor insisted angrily. “We just can’t make other elite students tolerate her.”
“Then pay the money and give her a simple room,” the Keeper Spirit shrugged her shoulders and I wanted to hug her and kiss her, but Fern started to act up a bit and I had to take her into my hands. Everyone was so busy that no one even cared about my pet. However, it was a good thing as I wasn’t sure they were allowed.
“I can’t pay this ridiculous amount!” the woman almost shrieked.
“Then give her one of the rooms in the East wing,” Samarah polished her nails over her clothes, which was ridiculous since she was a ghost and all.
“But those are…” Selena mumbled.
“There are two left and each would cover for what you owe her,” the feline demoness finally looked at the professor.
“Fine!” Xargor said through clenched teeth, “Give her one of those.”
“Very wise decision!” Samarah grinned and then turned to me, “I don’t have much time, so let’s go.”
I took one of the bags but she clicked her fingers and all of them disappeared. Keeper Spirits could transport things from place to place.
Today was suddenly getting better. She started walking and I waved to the coachman, who was happy to leave us finally.
I had almost left the long corridor feeling everyone staring at my back, when I heard Giselle.
“No wonder he dumped such trash as her!” she said and a few other girls giggled.
I stopped and turned on my heels.
“He didn’t dump me,” I said loudly, “He betrayed me after he swore his love and loyalty to me for years. Good luck marrying this guy! I really do hope that this time he gets to the wedding, because the two of you really deserve each other!”
With that, I walked out proudly, trying to hide that my whole body was shaking with anger.
“What a show!” I saw a young guy with golden curls and amber eyes descending the staircase with his hands in the pockets. He seemed a bit too young for the academy. And his eyes were solemnly on Samarah.
“What are you doing here!” the Keeper Spirit did not seem pleased at all.
“Meeting an old friend, of course, Sam!” he chuckled.
“We were never friends, Ash!” she narrowed her eyes at him. “And even if we were, you never visit friends! Because you don’t have any. So, what the Rupture are you doing here?!”
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Look who arrived! Did you miss him? I even came up with the chapter name myself lol.
Aksara