Mira Arvaith
Losing to that screwhead Stravos frustrated me. All the training I've undergone still wasn't enough to defeat him.
But hearing what those branch members said hurt more.
They didn't even know my father.
They didn't know all the good he did in the Valador region despite the oppression of the Slytharion.
He was a great leader and an excellent warrior.
None of them knew what it was like to have someone like that taken from you. To have a terrorist take his life because he got in the way. I do, and I have to live with the fresh scar of his death.
Mother has practically been mute since then and has left me alone. Even Uncle Enzo has been missing for some time.
All of this, coupled with how Professor Cynel teaches, made me dread waking up in the morning. He often stopped me from working on my own projects in the engineering class.
Instead, I was berated with classwork in ore classification for both the physical and astral realm, chemistry, blueprint reading, metallurgy, computer systems, electrical systems, physics, and math.
All because it was essential for an armament tech to know.
It was restrictive.
I was used to getting free rein in my father's workshop. I was more advanced than the rest of my class, but I was being held back. Something I couldn't be if I was going to figure out how to kill Ezra Solaris.
I needed to improve as much as possible, so that I could become powerful enough to enforce justice that the world failed to provide for me.
I sat in the cold, dark manufacturing department of our Isle and flipped through designs of an old dimensional storage that Professor Cynel wanted memorized for tomorrow's class.
They were simple and archaic. I don't think they were even sold in markets anymore.
But I quickly skimmed over them a few more times and went back to my project.
I was working on a scouter to locate magma plumes in the Earth. If I could get it to work, I could find the ore my father used to make his soul armor.
I was just on the cusp of reaching the adept stage, and would finally get my astral forge soon. I just needed to get to the surface to see if my prototype was ready, but that wouldn't happen for quite a while, which caused the majority of my frustration as of late.
After screwing around with some nuts and bolts, I looked at my watch and decided it was time to head back to the training facility.
I had to get better at fighting. Losing wasn't an option for me anymore.
I couldn't stay the way I am now.
Stepping out of the dark manufacturing building, I was greeted by a darkness deeper than even the Xhatal night. The only light came from the faint stars and the glow of the cosmic bridge back to the main isle.
I tread carefully in the dusk environment, using my seismic sense as my eyes.
Across the bridge, I headed toward the south pavilion, eager to get some extra training in with the bots. As I got closer, I noticed a kid was lying on the grass. He had brown skin and curly hair, and eyes that never left the sky.
It was Cyrus.
I didn't know how to read him. I just knew he didn't adhere to the school's cultural hierarchy. I would never tell him, but I found it cool.
His head turned toward me.
"Took you long enough to get here," he said, sitting up and wiping grass from his hair.
"You stalking me or something?"
"No. well kinda. The app you put on my watch wasn't working, and I'd rather not look stupid messing around with the bots."
"And so you decided to star gaze and wait like a dork?"
"It's what my family did when I was young." Nothing was said for a few moments.
"Well, I'm going to train, have fun star gazing." I walked toward the entrance and sensed him through the echoes of the earth, following me.
When I stepped through the doors, several groups of students were leaving. None of them were from my house, but they stopped to talk to me.
Cyrus didn't bother to stay; he took a seat on a bench a few feet away.
"What you did to Gunther during the joint event was awesome," one of the girls in the group said as she grabbed my hand, frantically shaking it with excitement.
"He just pissed me off, that's all."
"He looked like a depressed puppy the rest of the day. I wish I could do that."
"Keep training, and I'm sure you will." The girl and her friends nodded and excitedly headed out the door. But just as the door closed behind them, the girl came running back in.
"Mira, right? Make sure you get back to your dorm before lights out."
I couldn't help but give her a confused look. "There is this rumor I heard from a couple of other students, that kids have been attacked at night at Xhatal Academy in past years."
"Attacked by what?"
"No one knows, just that before it happens, they hear this freakish howl."
"You sure it's not the wind. We are high up in the sky." I responded.
"Who knows, but I don't want to find out."
"Fair," the girl nodded and gave a slight wave before she left again.
The combat facility was quiet. Just the way I liked it. I looked over to where Cyrus was sitting.
"Hey twerp, bring me your watch," I yelled out to him.
His eyes opened slowly. "I have a name, you barbarian." Taken back I stormed towards him.
"Who are you calling a barbarian when I'm clearly smarter than you?"
"That's exactly what a barbarian would say," he said, his arms resting behind his head. Then, suddenly, a watch flew towards me.
Snatching it out of the air, I quickly swiped to the page where the app was.
"The issue was that I updated it with a new patch, and the only way to get the update is for it to be done manually by me."
"How often do you update it?"
"Whenever the school updates its system. So every couple of weeks or so, it seems." Cyrus muttered something underneath his breath, but I couldn't quite catch it.
"Look, take it or leave it. I don't have to do this, you know."
His face sharpened, "But you do. You forgot our deal?" In my defense, I did forget, so much had happened since then that it was hard to keep track. I handed him his watch back, but he stood staring.
"Dude, what are you looking at?"
"Say, Mira, you don't like those Arbiters either, right?"
"No, I don't, why are you asking?"
"Well, I want payback."
I could feel myself brimming with excitement.
"What did you have in mind?" I had never seen this kid smile, but the grin on his face made me wonder whether smiles could be evil.