Chapter 9

Three Years Later

Merianna

"Oemf!" I went flying to the ground with my wooden sword smacking against my forehead. The blast that Noch caught me with was like a magical bull butting its big head into my mid-section in full gallop, the wind was knocked out of me and my teeth rattled in my skull as I hit the earth. Dirt went flying up everywhere and I sputtered as I tried to spit out the grit that I inhaled.

"Give up yet demon child?" Noch taunted mockingly while he stood so cheerily 9 feet away from me, leaning his weight on his own wooden sword.

I wheezed as I shifted myself up onto my elbows and gave him a baleful look. "That was cheating!" I wheezed. "You said you weren't going to use any spells!" I huffed as I got onto my knees.

"Oh come now, don't always believe what your opponent tells you. It might end up getting you killed. Hasn't Raska taught you this little detail already? And besides that wasn't a spell it was a blast of pure energy, learn the difference child!" He prattled while frowning yet also smirking at the same time.

I flinched inwardly but outwardly I gave a heavy sigh. Raska was one of my instructors here at the Order in close combat, assassination and stealth. I shuddered as I remembered one of her favorite and most recently incorporated twisted games, called hide and shriek. All because about 3 years ago she saw me and Nelia playing hide and seek in the castle.

Of course her instructor's mind, not having seen or interacted with children in who knows how many decades or centuries thought this would be a brilliant platform for stealth training.

Just remembering that I have to keep an eye out for any limbs or eyes popping out of the leaking shadows in her training maze in about 2 hours from now made the hairs on my neck stand up.

Raska was a brilliant instructor, no doubt about that, and she was beautiful to top it all off. She had hair as black as the night sky and eyes as silver as a fresh blade of steel. Her humor was something left desired to all the other newbloods though. All the poor newbloods that have sought out the Order for training. Her favourite pass time was randomly making mock assassination jumps on unsuspecting victims in the hallways, as well as scaring the living daylights out of you during training. And when she trained you... she never played by the book.

"Don't remind me. I thought at least that with you I'd be able to have a common understanding of sparring, silly me." I grumbled getting back onto my feet.

Noch snorted. "No chance of that happening child. Your skills with weapons are good, but you are among witches here in a world where we are hunted. You are a witch yourself since you decided to stay here with your sister. You have to use every advantage you can find." He lectured as he turned around and put his wooden sword back underneath the overhang that housed the training weapons next to the sparring circle.

It was nothing more than a glorified lean-to attached to an old barn that had been reinforced and modified to be able to hold the training weapons that were being used by the trainees and members that crawl about the place. The wooden weapons were housed more to the entrance of the barn and mounted under the lean to for easy access.

While the more deadly weapons were hidden deeper in its depths, bladed swords, daggers, hooked chains, scythes, spears, staffs and so on. Of course the imbued weapons were all hidden deep in the bowels of Noch's smithy or attached to their owner's hips.

I supposed this was the end of sparring for today. My eye twitched irritably as I followed Noch back onto the grass to mount my wooden sword back onto the lean-to's wall. I still hadn't been able to land a single hit on him! Blast it all!

Noch turned back to me and gave a smirk. "You might want to go visit your sister before you go to Raska's class. If you feel as wreaked as you look she'll exploit that and revel in it." He snickered as he sauntered off.

I glowered at him but still gulped because I knew he wasn't lying. I made a beeline to the infirmary before Noch could say another word. As I stalked away I could hear his obnoxious laughter behind my back all the way.

Walking down the big halls of the Order now after 3 years of living here was like walking through my own home. Sure, the training was tough, some of the people might be a little off their rockers, but everyone was family now.

I smiled to myself as I wound down the big stone walls and huge windows that spanned down my left side as I neared the infirmary. The portraits of various witches, creatures and passed members greeted my eyes yet again as I walked, each portrait was spaced between random doors on the right that led to rooms and storage areas. The sun was streaming in through the windows and the cloudless blue sky contrasted beautifully with the bright green of the neighbouring woods and glorious hills. Smiling to myself I couldn't help but think that this is the place that I most definitely belong to.

My greatest joy in being here was seeing Nelia really flourish with her talents. She was brilliant with herbs and healing which was why she was now stationed mostly in the infirmary, learning everything she could about the art. At 15, she was already almost ready to perform surgeries, both physically and on energy lines.

I swung open the heavy dark brown infirmary doors and was greeted by Nelia's blooming smile. Her hair was as curly and wild as ever and now hung down to her waist even though it was in a messy braid. I loved everything about being at the order, I loved everything about being able to see my sister every day. Everything except...

"Meri! What in the pits of Tartarus have you gotten yourself into this time?!" She shrieked and streaked over to me. Before I knew it, she caught me high before I could dodge and she managed to catch my head in a hug that squished me to her already blooming chest.

...constantly being reminded that my own chest was still woefully behind schedule.

"Hey Nelia." I managed to muffle out. I already knew that it was useless to try and pry myself out of her hugs, so I just patiently waited until she let me go to examine me. "It was just another sparring match with Noch, I still can't get a hit in." I sighed heavily with an irritated scowl as she led me to one of the ceramic basins the Ga's had managed to scrounge up from who knows where. Quite frankly, I didn't want to know. The Ga's might be brilliant, but they scared the living daylights out of me on occasion.

The Ga's were Nelia's mentors. Helga,Olga and Hilda, and yes Hilda doesn't have a "ga" in her name but saying The Ga's is just easier for everyone than just trying to know the one from the other. The funny thing was that these senior healers all had red hair, green eyes and practically looked identical on every level. They even had the same way of speaking and the same small habits. It made life extremely confusing in the infirmary for Nelia, and even stranger was the fact that the Ga's weren't even related to one another. If I remembered correctly, Helga was from Norway, Olga was Éire and Hilda came from England's side.

"Well he has who knows how many decades of experience still over you. All we lowly new witches can do is practice and hopefully one day kick their dusty behinds back into the past." She said with a grin.

I smiled ruefully at her and let her clean up my cuts, bumps and bruises. She worked swiftly and expertly, taking this salve or that ointment and applying it where needed. She didn't bother bandaging me up, already knowing that I'll probably get them ripped up anyway in a little while, but by the time she was done I knew that all the injuries would be fully healed come sunset.

"Are you going to get yourself all battered again during the day?" She said while giving me a dry look.

I couldn't look her in the eye so I settled for letting my eyes wander up to the ceiling, and clasping my hands behind my back while rocking back on my booted heels. "Oh hey look, I didn't know that stain was there." I uttered as if that stain on the ceiling was the most interesting thing in the world.

"The ceiling is all rock." Nelia deadpanned.

I nodded affirmative. "But, I swear that's a stain up there and not part of the actual rock itself."

I still didn't look down at her face because I knew what her face would be saying to me. It would be saying 'You are going to get yourself killed one of these days. Come and be a healer with me, you also have the talent. I hate seeing you get hurt.' All that she eventually let out was an exasperated sigh.

"Fine. Try and kick Raska's rear this time." She said instead and gave me a playful punch on the shoulder. She knew well enough by now not to try and change my mind, we had been down that road far more often than was probably deemed necessary.

I gave her a reassuring smile. Not that I would actually be able to get the upper hand on Raska. There is not a single twinge of hope that I would be able to be that amazing with shadows.

I don't have a prayer of winning.

Well... that's what it felt like now in any case...

I'm going to get pummelled...

Squishing down my slight panic I gave Nelia a hug. "I'm planning on giving it my best shot." Flashing a wicked grin and a wiggle of my eyebrows I sped off out of the infirmary, passing the stiff beds that comfortably lined either side of the enormous room.

I made my way down the corridors of the Order on my way to the Maze that was nurtured and raised for centuries in the forest behind the castle close to the stable's side. The Maze was Raska's favorite platform for "training" a.k.a torture...

I had to admit, it was fun running around in the maze. I usually run around in there during some of my free time. It was an adventure when you didn't have a mad teacher almost literally nipping at your heels, and screeching in your ears, and tripping your feet, and throwing weapons at you, albeit harmless weapons made of energy, and scaring you half to death every time she found your hiding place.

Yep, this was my new life. This place was a world on its own, a dimension removed from all others. Literally... you could be walking right through it without knowing it was there, the only way to really reach it was through a trick that only we Order members knew. It is the same concept the Fae use to still be able to live on the human plane of existence while still being able to slip into their own world through 'trods' and 'gateways'.

Fog came up with the idea when he found the castle and decided to utilize and reform it. Since he had some Fae heritage he was able to work around the intricate dimensions and incorporate his witch side to create a whole new pocket dimension for us to train and live safely in.

A sudden explosion erupted out of the open door to my left that I was just about to walk in front of. I jumped faster than I thought I could move and stuck myself to the wall closest to me in an attempt to avoid any more eruptions and possible causes of death.

Pieces of glass and cauldron metal had shot out of the door and embedded themselves into the grooves of the stone wall on my right, cracking the glass windows that were on either side. Heat rushed out from the door and engulfed the hallway in grey smoke and thick bits of dark grey soot. And that smell!

Blinking I suddenly realized which door archway I was plastering myself against. This was Nana Ara's working room...

Cautiously I peeked around the opening and saw Nana cursing and sputtering in a cloud of foul smelling smoke, her arms were flailing about as she kept on cursing and muttering.

I didn't mind Nana's cursing and sputtering, I have heard far worse than what she was spewing all over the stone walls at that moment. What I was having trouble getting over, was the astoundingly gigantic gaping hole in the wall on the other side of the room that showed off a good portion of the middle courtyard. What shocked me even more, was seeing that the fountain in said courtyard was basically unscathed... basically... except, that now it was missing a very handsome face... which I assumed was most likely the pile of marble rubble that was scattered on the opposite end of the courtyard now.

"Nana?" I asked cautiously.

Ara whirled around and held her arm at the ready like she was about to throw a dagger into some poor bastard's heart, yet, there was nothing but dust in her hand. "Oh!" She smiled which revealed her strong white teeth through the dark grey dust that was caked onto her like volcanic ash. "I didn't notice you coming around dear! It's so nice to see you!" She prattled on as she swiftly made her way towards me. I ducked quickly before she could enfold me in an ashy hug. Nana Ara being overly friendly was always a bad sign.

"What did you do this time Nana?" I asked skeptically as I made sure to keep both my eyes trained on her dusty hands and body movements. I really didn't want to have to scrub my fingers raw with washing this week. Getting blood out of my clothes was hard enough as is.

"Oh what are you on about?! I did nothing!" She said, trying and failing brilliantly in selling her claim.

"Nana..." I said in a warning tone. "If you did something to disrupt any of the wards again Fog will have your hide... again, and this time I don't think he will be nearly as lenient about it as he was last time."

Ara's face took on a pained expression that turned into a leering glare just as quickly. She gave a half-nasty smile as she looked down at me. Caked in as much dust as she was, she looked comical with her dark hair sticking up at odd ends that were held there by the dark grey ash. Her dress was also covered in grey from the bodice to the waist with only a few grey streaks continuing on downwards to her slipper encased feet.

"Oh now my favorite little child. You won't tell Fog about this now would you?" Ara said with a nasty grin on her face as she leaned in closer to my face.

Even though Ara insisted on me calling her my Nana, she was far from looking like a grandmother of any sort. She looked only a little older than she did when I first met her, the creases around her eyes a little more prominent than in the past but that didn't slow her down in the slightest. She was still as kooky, fast and deadly as ever.

She still tried to intimidate me like this every once in a while, especially when she did something wrong. It still had no effect, however Raska's classes were a different story...

Giving Ara a deadpan look while trying to still my heart for the event laying ahead, I lifted my eyes to hers. "Nana, I don't think it's necessary for me to say anything to Fog for him to find out what you did. The evidence is quite damning in itself." I lifted my hand in a wave goodbye and rushed off through the rest of the rounding hallways towards the main entrance and into the gardens towards the maze where I saw everyone already standing ready to go inside the maze with their weaponry.

Just as I expected I heard an angry Fog yelling Ara's full names in the distance along with her scrambling footsteps and loud curses. I smirked and ran faster to the training armory, passing the rose garden and the greenhouse that was at the far left of the Order building, a very safe distance away from the deadly maze. I neared the Maze that was more to the right and bordered the forest's edge.

I'm late! I quickly cursed just like Ara under my breath and dove through the training armory grabbing a few daggers. I cringed inwardly as I grabbed a mace. It was the only other good weapon that was left in the small hut.

Shrugging off my disappointment I sprinted in behind all the other trainees and tried to blend into the crowd as much as possible. Everyone around me were somewhere in their mid-twenties or thirties, or older but still looked like they were in their golden age like Ara, Noch, Fog and others.

Here I was with my sister at the Order and we arrived here when we were 12 three years ago. Sure we might be a bit more advanced than most witches at our age (15) but it was still sometimes a little hard to make friends when everyone was so much older than you. Maybe us being more advanced was the reason why? I couldn't care less though.

I've tried on multiple occasions to chat with some of the other trainees but to no avail. So now I've given up on trying to make nice with the others and just barrel on through them during some of the classes we share, and sometimes barrel through them literally. Just because I can't land a hit on Noch yet does not mean that I cannot beat someone into the ground and leave a bloody mess behind.

Besides, we can go as roughly against each other as we want during training. Even severed limbs is not a problem here at the Order with the amazing Healers in tow, and we all have to go through mandatory healing training as well. So, as long as you are focused enough while writhing in absolute agony, you can heal yourself enough to reach a proper healer at least.

I jumped a bit where I was standing at the back of the training group. Everyone was taller than me, blast it all. Usually I would be lucky enough to end up in the front because I can slip past everyone, this time I was a bit late...

I spied Raska in the very front and then I heard her starting to talk.

"All through this maze I set up a few flags!" She said loudly so everyone would be able to hear. "I see you have all geared up! Good! Because you'll be needing it!" She said with an evil smile that I caught when I jumped once again. I decided to stop jumping after that.

"No teams today! No helping each other today! No holding hands today!" She said pointedly and somewhere towards the middle I could see a man and woman reluctantly dropping their hands away from each other. "Today!" She announced with vigor. "It's a free for all."

Ooooh boy, I could practically hear the glee dripping off from her lips. I am so dead. Especially if she is planning to be an obstacle...

"You don't need to grab every flag you see! If you are successful in grabbing one flag and making it out alive you pass! If you make it out without a flag, you can be sure to deal with me later! If you don't make it out at all... then may the pits of Tartarus have mercy on your soul." She said in a dark tone and I groaned. "I have set up a few... surprises along the way! I will be evaluating your progression from outside the maze!" I could practically hear her evil smile crawling over her beautiful face. I heard multiple loud gulps around the group and saw a few faces pale and then there were the few that let out breaths of relief. Me on the other hand, I was grinning from ear to ear. She's not going to be in it! She's not going into the maze! I might just get through this thing in one piece this time!

I was so elated because I was pretty sure that nothing could be as bad as getting jumped on by Raska, not even the possible creatures she would let loose in there. For some reason she always seemed to jump at me more than the other trainees, hence my fear of training with her in the maze. Where most of the trainees probably experienced four or five of her sneak attack charms, I have experienced them all by now... and some of them more than once.

"Your final test is almost upon you! If you cannot survive today, then you might as well take what you know already and seek a different coven elsewhere!" Raska said in an ominous tone.

Oh blast! I almost forgot about that! The final trials are almost here! My heart rate sped up at the thought. Not in anticipation, but fear. I did not want to leave the Order. This was my home, and sure Noch and Fog can tell me all day long that even if I fail the trials that I can still stay here, it won't feel like I'd have earned it. It won't feel like I am worth the effort they went through to house me and my sister for the past 3 years now. It just won't feel right to keep staying if I fail the trials. I HAD to succeed.

I gripped the mace so tightly in my hand that I could feel crackling pulses underneath my palm.

"I hope you are all prepared..." Raska said as she moved deeper into the shadows and vanished with the darkness.

Suddenly the whole mass of trainees surged forward, heading straight into the maze without much thought. Some of the men and women yelled out battle cries as they charged in, while others silently melded in with the mist and shadows. Me? I ran into the maze with my heart in my throat and my hopes extremely high. Maybe foolishly so.