The expected killing blow never came. Instead of claws ripping her open something kicked her sideways as there was a mighty crash above. Rolling with the momentum Seiya knocked into one of the freestanding wooden shelves, using them as a support she clambered awkwardly to her feet, holding her side where the blow had winded her. Two shapes were moving in the dark but she couldn’t make anything out, standing by the end of the bookcase she hoped she was shielded from the demon’s view. Suddenly she was forced to leap back as the bookcase went toppling over with a horrendous splintering of wood. Clamping down on the scream that threatened to escape Seiya could just about make out one demon being pinned to the floor by the other, the broken remains of the bookshelf trapped under his body.
‘Are you alright?’ Seiya didn’t get a chance to respond to the concerned enquiry as a ball of flame hovered before her face. Putting an arm up to guard against the searing heat she stumbled backwards, tripping over books spilled from the broken shelves.
‘You’re a student?’ the fire abruptly disappeared and Seiya was left blinking as she tried to locate the source of the voice. Her night vision had been wiped out by the brightness, dancing flames etched onto her eyeballs. She spun too slowly as she heard the footsteps behind her, a swift kick to the back of her knees sent her sprawling face first into a pile of fallen books.
‘Dismiss your demon,’ the books underneath dug into her stomach as he knelt on top of her.
‘Now,’ something cold pressed against the exposed side of her throat as the arm not pinned beneath her was twisted painfully behind her back. Sweat broke out all over her body as her heart raced, she could recognise the feel of a blade against her skin. The men at the ranch had insisted on teaching her the basics of fighting before she could accompany her father to her first sale. Not that it had done her any good, lying face down she couldn’t even turn to see the face of her attacker.
‘What are you doing?’ she gasped, unable to breathe from the weight crushing her ribs. The blade dug in harder but stopped just short of breaking the skin.
‘People will be coming to see what the noise was about,’ the voice became softer, ‘how will you explain that unbound demon?’ Seiya’s breath caught in her throat, the request summoning had been instinctive with no time for an incantation.
‘What about yours?’ Seiya’s pulse pounded in her ears, ‘you summoned a high rank demon.’
‘To stop your unbound one,’ the voice interrupted her calmly. ‘Think of the number of lives I saved.’ Seiya choked on the overwhelming desire to punch the man above her.
‘Time’s running out,’ a sharp wrench on her wrist made Seiya cry out in pain. ‘Dismiss yours, I’ll dismiss mine and we can pretend nothing ever happened.’ Gritting her teeth Seiya tried to ignore all the sharp edges digging into her body, pinioned like this she was helpless. There was nothing her summoned demon could do to help anyway, the knife would slit her throat long before it would reach her.
‘Thank you,’ Seiya could sense the demon had been following the conversation, its anger flowed into her mind as she spoke to it. ‘You can’t help me with this,’ she said gently by way of apology. With her face pressed to the floor she imagined the gateway forming in mid-air, unable to see she only knew she was successful when she felt the link to the demon disappear.
‘Now tell me why you weren’t scared of the unbound demon.’
‘Let me go!’ Seiya bucked upwards with all her strength but the weight was too great, the knee digging even harder into the small of her back in response.
‘Why did it help you?’ the voice insisted, wood creaking and splintering as the other demon got to its feet. ‘It would be a shame if you died from the wounds inflicted by the unbound demon you summoned.’ Seiya could sense the demon drawing near and felt talons lightly trace a path down the back of her leg.
‘The only demon here will be yours!’ she spat out angrily, furious at the tremor in her voice.
‘Isn’t it amazing that I managed to send back a demon with no help from a Master?’ The fingers dug deeply into the tendons in her wrist, ‘shame I couldn’t save you though.’
‘Alright,’ Seiya wished the tears of pain would stop running from her eyes, the last thing she wanted was for this monster to see her crying. ‘I talked with the demons, in the past they were always summoned without bindings. They don’t mind helping out.’ She stopped talking as she heard raised voices and footsteps in the corridor. ‘Please, let me go!’
To Seiya’s relief the grip on her wrist relaxed and the weight lifted from her back. Suppressing the urge to jump on her attacker she ran towards the doors. In the gloom she could see the outline of the lantern, obviously the other summoner had been using light from a fire summoning. Inspired by desperation she lit the lantern and hurled it across the room to where the other summoner was standing, preparing to dismiss his own demon. Assuming she had already fled he was caught off guard as the glass smashed on the stone floor, the resulting pool of oil instantly setting alight. Seiya was shocked to see he didn’t look much older than her, more like a student than one of the apprenticed summoners. The fury in his eyes took her breath away, every line of his body stiff with rage as she forced herself to meet his gaze. At least now they were even; she knew who he was.
Opening the door as little as she could she crawled out on all fours; if anyone was in the corridor they’d be looking at head height to identify the culprit. Two Masters were down at the far end of the corridor, her impulsive move with the lantern seemed less brilliant now that the light spilled out. It was far too dim for anyone to see her though; slipping out into the dark and keeping hunched over as she ran she was already turning the corner when she heard the other two exclaim as they saw the light. A smile spread across her face, let the summoner try and talk his way out of that one.
Chapter Nine
Wincing as she stepped away Seiya wished Gorbacov would give up on the practice session. For the fourth time the Master roared the dismissal command across the room, seemingly oblivious to the fact he was bellowing right by her ear. Her head ached abominably from where she must have hit it last night and the wild she was holding still insisted on fighting her even after hours of being summoned. For once she felt little sympathy for the demon, admittedly it sported a few cuts from where she had to use it to restrain the loose demons but considering she was trying to hold down wilds of equal rank it was getting off pretty lightly.
‘Do you have any intention of passing the exam tomorrow?’ Gorbacov was thundering at a shocked Kirinya. ‘Are you even trying?’
‘It’s not my fault!’ Kirinya looked ready to burst into tears and Seiya was horribly tempted to send her demon towards the girl. She was hungry, the others had headed down to dinner ages ago but Gorbacov had insisted she stayed as he continued to try and get a successful rank eight summoning from Kirinya and Freiden. So far it was two failures a piece, after the first disastrous attempt they had been banned from summoning until the others had finished their training. Seiya glared at Gorbacov but his attention was firmly fixed on the exhausted pair in front of him. He had claimed he needed her to restrain the demons while he dismissed them but Seiya was certain he was punishing her for still refusing to fight.
‘Once more,’ Gorbacov gestured for Freiden to step forward and Seiya tried to suppress a groan, she couldn’t understand why Gorbacov thought they would be successful as they became more worn out. Kirinya had only conquered rank seven summoning a couple of days ago and Freiden had called his first rank seven only yesterday afternoon. The huge increase in power for the rank eight demons made the result pathetically predictable.
‘This is your last chance,’ Freiden’s eyes widened at the ultimatum and Seiya was pleasantly surprised to feel his woven pattern for the gateway hold together with a strength previously missing. It was a strength born of desperation though and hardly sustainable, his chest heaved as sweat poured down his face. She readied her demon as she felt the surge of power as Freiden’s summoning
crossed the gateway… and it stayed stationary. Seiya hovered her demon within arms reach, prepared to pounce the moment the bindings broke. It was a huge improvement, if you ignored the physical state of the summoner. The only issue was that Freiden seemed unable to relax the bindings, no matter how much he imposed his will on the demon to fight it was physically impossible if he also held it bound to the spot. A small ripple passed through Freiden’s net of power and Seiya shrugged philosophically, in the end it had been too much to hope for. Freiden’s bindings were starting to fluctuate and in his exhausted state there was only one possible outcome.
‘Dismiss it,’ the weariness in Gorbacov’s voice showed he too accepted the inevitable and couldn’t be bothered to pick up the pieces. Freiden sagged with relief and the summoning collapsed in on itself, an uncomfortably tight race between the bindings failing and the demon vanishing back through the gateway.
‘Go on,’ Gorbacov waved for Freiden to leave as he beckoned Kirinya forward with the other hand.
Once again Kirinya’s gateway for her final attempt was her strongest weaving, though she looked to be straining less than Freiden. Her cheeks were flushed but Seiya couldn’t see the girl pushing herself to the point of actually breaking a sweat. She had more power than Freiden, that was clearly evident as the demon crossed over but she lacked either technique or focus, Seiya couldn’t tell which. Her bindings felt awkward and badly formed, they held the demon well enough but Seiya had little faith they could endure for any length of time. Kirinya’s brows nearly met across her furrowed forehead as she concentrated and Seiya could imagine the girl desperately smoothing away the lines if she could see them, never had she seen Kirinya expend this much effort.
The demon’s arm swung down as Seiya felt the physical bindings lift, Kirinya had relaxed them too fast and her willpower wasn’t strong enough. Slightly slow to respond the demon took a decent swipe at Gorbacov before she could grab its arm. The Master turned to give her a withering look and Seiya nearly dismissed her demon right then and there. Let him ask one of the others to hold a rank eight wild for nearly three hours! Her initial pleasure at Gorbacov’s faith in her abilities had quickly turned to annoyance. Fighting or not she had more training than all the students combined, she longed for a brief summon holding for no more than a few minutes.
‘Re-establish the bindings,’ Seiya rolled her eyes as Gorbacov kept encouraging Kirinya, it was obvious the girl couldn’t put the bindings back in place, the demon’s power was blocking all her attempts. Her stomach growled loudly as she thought of the food the others would be eating; by the time she got there she’d be lucky if there was anything left.
‘Enough.’ Seiya let out a huge sigh as Gorbacov finally admitted defeat. Her demon winked away seconds after Kirinya dismissed hers and she set off for the door at a run.
‘Seiya!’ she half considered ignoring Gorbacov yelling after her but paused long enough to spin on her heel.
‘What?’ she shouted continuing to walk backwards towards the door.
‘You must fight tomorrow.’ Seiya stole a glance over her shoulder to make sure she was on the right trajectory.
‘Maybe,’ though still unwilling to commit herself her reservations about letting the wild demons be hurt had slowly been eroded through the day’s training. If she could finish it quickly then it would probably be less hassle than refusing.
‘Promise me!’ Seiya frowned as Gorbacov’s voice hovered between command and desperate plea.
‘I said I’ll see,’ she replied irritably. Her annoyance at the way Gorbacov had used her today exhausting her patience and stripping away any hint of politeness. Reaching the doorway she didn’t wait for his response and sprinted down the corridor, she wanted food!
Seiya plonked down her tray just as the others were about to finish. Both Lyam and Calvin smiled, though the emotions they represented couldn’t have been more different. The first she returned, grateful for his amused sympathy at her extended training; the latter she ignored, wanting nothing more than to wipe the superior smirk off his face. Calvin was by far the strongest of the group in terms of raw summoning power and so found level four relatively easy; basking in his own sense of importance he seemed to forget it was only because Seiya refused to participate.
Engrossed in her food it took Seiya a while to notice the conversation amongst her classmates had abruptly faltered into silence, all of them staring at something behind her.
‘What is it?’ swallowing her mouthful of tepid stew she turned to find herself looking up into the face of the man from the library. Boy, she corrected, seen clearly and without fear affecting her judgement she suspected they were actually the same age. The eyebrows rose as his eyes rested on the red band around her arm.
‘Level four?’ Seiya assumed the question was rhetorical as the boy covered his surprise with a smile, trying to ignore her growing anxiety. ‘The exam should be interesting.’ His lips curled contemptuously and Seiya felt a sudden need to escape, the smile on his face reminiscent of a predator regarding its prey. She still had no idea what rank demon had come to her in the library, from the flicker of relief in his eyes she assumed he had thought her a higher level. She nodded at his earlier comment, choosing to ignore his snide remark she noticed his own grey band that denoted a level five; the same as Jamen.
‘Amaran?’ Seiya groaned inwardly and couldn’t believe her bad luck. ‘What has she done now?’ The disagreeable voice was unmistakable and Seiya briefly wondered if her thoughts had somehow summoned him; Jamen stood at Amaran’s shoulder, glaring down at her. Seiya dearly wished she could stand and face the pair eye-to-eye, but that would be blatantly confrontational.
‘You know her?’ Although Amaran addressed Jamen his eyes never left Seiya’s.
‘Yeah,’ Jamen spat out the word as if it had a bad taste. ‘She’s a trouble-maker who doesn’t know her place and shows no respect for tradition.’
‘How very appropriate,’ Amaran mused, his voice so soft Seiya doubted those across the table could hear, ‘for someone who lets the demons do all the work for them.’ Seiya paled as Amaran smiled viciously down at her, he was enjoying her discomfort. Thankfully no-one else who heard seemed to understand what he was talking about.
‘Good luck then,’ he raised his voice so the whole table could hear before walking away, Jamen following with a confused look on his face. Seiya forced herself to start breathing again, unaware she had even stopped. How had Amaran got out the library? And why hadn’t she heard anything about the destruction they had caused? She was oblivious to the eruption of noise around her as the others all started talking at once, until a screeching voice cut through din.
‘Why was Amaran talking to you?!’ Kirinya demanded shrilly, slamming down her tray of food at the place Cynthia had saved for her. She didn’t even notice her friend jumping at the loud crash.
‘Hm?’ Seiya glanced towards Kirinya, not really listening she simply turned her head towards the source of the noise.
Hands thumped onto the table with a jolt that rattled the plates. ‘I said how do you know Amaran?’ Kirinya’s eyes were blazing and Seiya wondered what had made the girl so angry.
‘I don’t,’ Seiya spoke firmly but kept her voice as passive as possible. Shovelling in the last mouthful of food she pushed herself up from the table, standing up she was a head taller than Kirinya and she was tired of people looking down at her.
‘He just came over to wish all of us good luck in the exam,’ there was enough truth in the statement that a couple of others nodded uncertainly, not that Kirinya looked as if she believed a word of it. ‘Who is he anyway?’ Seiya directed her question at Lyam, ignoring Kirinya’s outraged expression.
‘He’s supposed to be one of the most powerful summoners in the school,’ Lyam looked surprised at her ignorance but answered regardless, ‘he’s tipped for becoming the next headmaster.’ He angled a sly look towards Kirinya, ‘he has quite a fan following, especially among the girls.’ Seiya suppressed
a smile as Lyam suddenly found something interesting on his plate, avoiding meeting Kirinya’s eyes. So the school’s golden boy was doing something in the library that meant he felt it necessary to set a demon on anyone who walked in?
‘I’m tired so I’m having an early night,’ she was too weary to think on it now, the events of last night had caught up to her hours ago, now she was pretty much sleep-walking. Picking up her tray she turned her back on Kirinya, the girl getting ready to continue demanding an explanation.
‘You should rest before the exam tomorrow,’ she spared a look over her shoulder and saw Kirinya flush an even deeper red, her cheeks already pink from her angry outburst. Her advice was actually kindly meant; she was concerned for the two who had struggled so badly, never had she seen Gorbacov push his students so hard. Putting that together with all the cryptic comments and Amaran’s vindictive smile she had a very bad feeling about tomorrow.
Chapter Ten
Whatever bad feeling Seiya had the night before paled in comparison to the overwhelming apprehension she felt now. Gorbacov had been tense when they all entered the classroom; demanding silence he had led them out from the school building in subdued single file. Seiya scanned the terrain as they marched onwards, the bright sun warming her back and clear blue skies made her sense of dread seem incongruous. Her eyes lighted on their destination as it rose out of the ground to meet them, even though it was over ten minutes walk from the main school Seiya was still surprised she had never noticed the huge encircling stone wall creating a giant ring. It rose to nearly four stories, the massive stone doors standing open at the bottom were easily twice her height and looked impossible to move. Steps spiralled round the outside, jutting out from the smooth circular walls to end in what appeared to be a walkway on top. At least this had waist high walls either side judging from those already up there.
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