RAVE'S POINT OF VIEW.
Each step I take along this beam threatens to wreck my muscles.
It's not just the about the stinging pain resulting from how hot the beam is;
-The painful pressure on my muscles, as a result of the enormous boulder that I am moving along with, does nothing more than to worsen my plight-
I stop to catch some breath, and the fiery sensation under my feet very nearly sends me falling off, so I just move on.
Mr Hooded One sits all the way at the very end of the room, reading a book and humming to himself.
-He's always in an excellent mood when it comes to 'training' me; and his exercises manage to get even more horrible each time-
I let out a gasp as my foot nearly slips from the beam that is no bigger than a foot;
-That was a close call, if I had lost my balance, I would have had to start from the very beginning, and this beam is almost as long as this room-
Somehow, I make it to the end after countless trials.
I am exhausted, and the first thing I do afterwards is to collapse.
Mr Hooded One snickers as he finally stands up;
"Nice..." he flashes a thumbs up at me;
"At least this time, you didn't take an entire day to get the drill right"
I sigh in relief;
-For the first time, he doesn't seem to have any gruesome extra drill under his sleeve-
"Now all we have to do is clear up stuff, you know this is one of the school halls and stuff, so we've got to respectfully leave the place as arranged as we met it..." He pauses,
-And I feel it coming...the extra drill under his sleeve-
"So just grab up that over there, let's return it to it's rightful place" he peeves good-naturedly while gesturing to the boulder that I dumped at a side.
And now we've been walking for over a few minutes to some place where he claims he originally saw the rock.
He hums to himself as we cross right out of the Reverred Headquarters and out along a grassy pathway.
-Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever taken care to explore Huer, the capital city of Pandora-
"Say Rave, where did you find yourself when your village was wiped out...I mean, how did you survive and how did you make it to the Magedom in the first place" Mr Hooded One slices into my thoughts.
I rebalance the boulder that I heaved up on my shoulder;
"A kind old couple took me in" I blurt;
"Oh... so you did get to know some warmth after the calamity-" "It was short-lived" I interrupt.
"One day their son came home, and by the next, they had mysteriously died in their sleep..."
He chuckles;
"And how were their corpses?, did it appear like they had died peacefully...or-" "No... the sight of their corpses alone would rob a joyful man of happiness, they had literally been sucked out of life...to the bone" I cut him in, my voice sombre.
He stops in his tracks;
"Well, sucked out of life is an excellent way to put it actually... but to be more specific, I'd say they were sucked out of their life-force"
I sigh heavily as I seize the opportunity to drop the rock down for a rest;
"Life and life-force...is there even any difference?" I question.
Mr Hooded One chortles;
"Their son must have been a PURLOINER... such a shame that he'd sacrifice his own parents..."
My attention is caught;
"What do you mean?"
He claps his hands excitedly;
"Purloiners are the lowest of the low kind of creatures, people who go round stealing off life-force from other people to prolong theirs... it's actually an Ability of some sort, but it's labelled as UNCATEGORISED because of how shameless and inhumane it is... people's words not mine, after all we humans would all be purloiners if we could" he chuckles.
I let his words sink in;
"Well let's go ahead" he says while tapping my back;
"Also, where did you find yourself after your caregivers died?"
-I am silent as fury rises up inside me, if only I knew this, I could have killed that animal when I had the chance-
"Their son, Zok took me along with him... he worked as a performer and made me join him to perform, our performances were dangerous, daredevil activities and getting injured became a norm..." I pause as the weight of the boulder causes me to stop;
"But I never once forgot how the system robbed me of my loved ones, so when I got the chance to, I fled... and somehow found my way to the Magedom to try my hand at becoming a Mage"
Mr Hooded One nods;
"Right now you'd like to kill Zok wouldn't you?" he asks suddenly.
I clench my jaw;
"More than anything"
"Well, I could amuse you if you manage to climb up that hill..." He points towards a small hill that we have arrived at;
-Compared to the hill he's made me clamber before, this is nothing-
"...with the boulder" he adds in an undertone.
-Of course, it can never be so easy with Mr Hooded One-
"I'll do it..." I say simply.
He laughs out loud,
"Well, let's see you go at it"
THE HOODED ONE'S POINT OF VIEW END.
CAMADA'S POINT OF VIEW.
I jolt upright with a gasp.
-My head feels blank, and I struggle to get a hold of myself-
I look around;
-This isn't my room, where am I?, Last I remember I was...-
"Oh you're finally awake!"
Some guy approaches the bed I am on;
-I don't recognise this dude either; why is he smiling at me?; He looks like he's just coming out from the middle of a storm-
"How are you feeling dead?" he pats my head and addresses me affectionately;
-I am so confused right now-
"Oh, where are my manners?...you obviously don't know me, well, I'm Mage Nox and you've been in my care for a few days now"
-Okay?-
I nod; he comes up in my face suddenly and I am alarmed,
"Your power is amazing, I've never really seen anything quite like it"
-My head throbs, what is he even talking about?-
"You don't remember?, You brought your comrade back to life in just some minutes...do you know what this means?"
-I don't know what this means, and I don't think I even want to know, especially since his expression right now is terrifying-
"It means you're so important that the world is going to be crumbling at your feet for a taste of your ability" he is elated and his sleep-deprived eyes pop open.
-Yeah, I'd love the world to crumble at my feet... but not particularly in the way he seems to imply-
He leans closer; "Aren't you excit-"
-SLAM!, SLAM!, SLAM!-
Thunderous knocking on his door interrupts him, he scrunches up his face as he shifts away and walks out of the room.
As he leaves, I become comfortable enough to properly process his words, and the memories come up to me;
-I actually succeeded in healing someone else-
I sigh heavily as I try to get down from the bed,
-For some reason, I've been restrained by metal cuffs-
The worries become concrete and fear creeps up on me.
CAMADA'S POINT OF VIEW END.
NETYISHA'S POINT OF VIEW.
"So she isn't awake yet?" I ask as he stares down at me oddly.
He nods, momentarily averting his gaze as my eyes meet his.
I sigh heavily;
-It's been two many days, I hope she's okay-
I peer into his room from the slight space he left between the door and the entrance;
-Nah, I'm too traumatized by what I beheld last time to want to venture into that room again-
"Don't worry Rev. Netyisha, I'll take good care of her and who knows?, Maybe help her enhance her ability" he smiles nervously.
-I try to brush off the gut feeling I'm having right now-
"Please, do that"
I turn and walk away and a weird sense of deja vu hits me hard.
NETYISHA'S POINT OF VIEW/ MEMOIR.
"All I do is to provide for this family...and how do you guys repay me?, By being nothing but absolute burdens!"
-Three hundred and five- three hundred and six...-
I desperately try to block it all of off, especially since mother made me promise to not come out, no matter what I hear.
-Today the beatings sound even more merciless-
And something tells me that things may go even more awry without intervention.
I consider running out to call Buster, the neighbour my mother is most chummy with;
-But I promised not to come out-
Buster always kisses mother and treats her mighty fine in father's absence, even finer than Reyton or Kalsh...so maybe if I call them, they could help matters.
But apart from my promise, it's almost like my limbs are frozen solid.
If I go out now, father is sure to rage all his fury on me; it always happens.
-But today's beating sounds more merciless-
And something tells me that things may go even more awry without intervention;
But;
-I try to brush off the gut feeling that I'm having right now-
Mother won't die, father wouldn't kill her...
-Right?-
NETYISHA'S POINT OF VIEW/ MEMOIR END.