Time Academy

by Kelly N. Jane

  “Weren’t Valkyries human first?” Orsika scrunched her brow at me as if something didn’t make sense.

  I didn’t know how she knew anything of my sisters.

  “Yes. Odin chooses them the same way those in his army are chosen—those who’ve died heroically or bravely, most often in battle.”

  I realized as I spoke that I didn’t know the stories of my sisters. Because of my unique situation of being born there, living as a human for a breath or two, and then being changed to a Valkyrie, everyone knew my story. Life before Valhalla no longer mattered, so it was never discussed.

  “This medallion was made through alchemy. Power hums through it, but I don’t know from what. It’s disguised as a coin, but it’s much more.”

  Gus and I had spent so much time searching for the meaning of the writing on the coin, it never occurred to either of us that the real importance might be the coin itself.

  Orsika handed it back to me, though she kept her eyes on it the whole time. I watched as her nostrils flared and the muscles in her cheeks tightened as she let go. I quickly slipped it back on and hid it under my tunic again. Whatever she thought it was, her reluctance to let it go unnerved me.

  “There were always those who believed they could turn lead into gold, most hoping just to get rich. Others, though, believed the secret to immortality was within the metals if they could transcend them into the proper liquid and drink them. There’s something different about that coin. It almost vibrates.”

  She stared at me for an uncomfortable amount of time. I brushed my hands on my legs and made to stand up as she continued.

  “It’s the same vibrations you have. The rumors are that the Legion was after you because of your ability to travel through time, and that’s why you came here. Does the medallion help you do that? Or did you bring it here for them?”

  14

  As I trained the next morning, I still fumed over the audacity of Orsika to accuse me of helping the Legion. I’d made it clear that she was wrong before I’d allowed her to leave my room with her fangs still attached. Though I had been forced to admit I’d traveled to different times, I was sure not to reveal anything about the ripples.

  Still, in the middle of building a cocoon of vines around me as a hiding place, I let out a growl and clenched my fists. Could she have been right?

  While I hadn’t intentionally caused the quake, I hadn’t been able to reconcile that it happened when I’d used the quartz Donovan gave me to contact Gertie.

  Since I’d arrived on Breasal, I thought I’d gotten to know him better. He’d explained his presence in the ripple of New York where Gus lived, as well as the Legion members Gus and I had fought. It all made sense, and I hated to think that I could have been fooled so thoroughly.

  I wouldn’t believe it. At least not without proof. The implications were too huge.

  I had the quartz in my pocket so I could ask him more about it when he checked on our class. Until then, I’d have to work through my hostilities with more practice.

  Now that I had creating vines down, Professor Myali had suggested I start using them for things other than weapons. I wasn’t sure there was a point to this type of training, but she insisted. Camouflage could be a weapon, I decided. Having a way to sneak up on someone or hide in plain sight was a distinct advantage in a battle.

  The problem was that it was only helpful outside, and right now, I could only make vines. What if I was in an area where that would look out of place?

  After I perfected the column to hide in, I’d need to try something else. Maybe I could blend it in with a tree trunk? I added thorns to my greenery and kept making the column wider so that a sword could not penetrate them to reach me. It began to feel too cowardly, however, as I stood in the center.

  Letting the vines soak back into the ground, I tried a different technique. I made a wall, but only chest-high. I wanted to see my opponent and laugh at them for their inability to get to me. Once again, I added the thorns and kept increasing the width of the structure. It would take a determined warrior hours to hack through it.

  What if the verdant cords grew around whoever it was? They could get through, but then their retreat would be lost. That would make it easier to dispatch any number of attackers who tried to enter. I focused on the shoots, adding my will to theirs. The idea made me shake my head. Days ago, I hadn’t realized I could manipulate growing vegetation—now it was a simple thing to communicate with the natural environment around me.

  I watched as the leafy strands opened a path and then creeped in from the back, forming a circle within the center of the predatory greenery. It was a thing of beauty, I had to say. The only problem was that I couldn’t test it fully unless I had a volunteer. They’d have to go in and see what happened when I wasn’t keeping control of the vines. It needed to be something I could set and leave in place while I continued my mission elsewhere.

  I'd grown stronger in the last two days. I could slice my target in half with my whip in the time it took someone to draw their sword. But the spells I was supposed to learn were harder for me. There were too many parts to magic. Using my elemental abilities was only the first step. If I was going to pass my second level exam, I needed to put more effort into the other areas.

  I glanced around the field to see what my classmates were practicing. Maybe one of them would take a break to help me out. The idea made me chuckle. Not only at watching them struggle, but that I actually believed those in my class might want to help me. It was such a new feeling, I wasn’t used to it.

  While I searched for a victim, I heard the classroom door open. Donovan was supposed to check in, so I twisted around to grab his attention. I stopped cold as Sabra strode across the grass in my direction.

  I hadn't seen her since she’d raced out the door after our fight. No one knew where she’d been, either. Now she strode across the grass as if nothing had happened, and Professor Myali didn't seem to mind.

  “Miss me?” Sabra asked with a mock snarl, as she walked past me to her own training area.

  “Not even a little,” I said. “Didn't think they'd let you stay, now that everybody knows you're just a big house cat.”

  Sabra smirked at me as she rolled her neck and stretched her arms in preparation to begin her training. “If you’d like another demonstration to remember the size of my claws, I can oblige.”

  The tone of her words held no actual threat. She seemed to enjoy the banter, as did I. It felt nice to have that with someone, again. A pain squeezed my chest. I needed to visit Gus, but willed myself to stay strong for the time being.

  “Anybody with a little bit of catnip and a piece of string can take care of you.”

  “Was that what you were thinking as I jumped over you—when you squealed like a little piggy? It seemed like you were trying to figure out how to outrun me so you could hide. I must have been wrong.” She smiled and crouched down to sink her fingers into the ground.

  It burrowed under my skin that I'd squawked in fear. But she had sliced through my leathers with ease, her claws as long and sharp as the talon on the end of my wings. The one I’d only used once, in a fight with the traitor Jemma.

  I turned back to the wall of vines I’d made, watching as the thorns grew longer. When the tips were as sharp as any dagger, I smiled.

  “That’s impressive. Can you do that to an individual thorn?” Sabra asked behind me.

  Something like that had never occurred to me. Could I just create a part of a plant?

  I closed my eyes to visualize what a thorn dagger would look like, and felt a weight arrive in my palm. When I peeked, my hand held a green knife. The handle formed into a shape perfectly fitted to my hand, and the blade was at least as long as my forearm. It was light and balanced.

  “Like this?” I spun slowly around and gripped my new weapon as if ready to use it.

  A wide grin split Sabra’s face. “Just like that. Your skills have improved. Have you been able to try any magic work?”

&n
bsp; “I’ll get there, don’t cause yourself a hairball.” I laughed at my own joke.

  Sabra shook her head and stepped closer. “I ask because I might be able to help. I’ve learned how to create a glamour. It’s a matter of creating the image in your mind and projecting it through the element you can manipulate.”

  I wasn’t sure why she was being so nice. There wasn’t anything that necessarily bothered me about the leopard shifter, it was just odd.

  “What’s in it for you?”

  “Nothing, I just thought I’d offer.” Sabra sighed and looked out at the others before returning her gaze my direction. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

  Her sentiment was unexpected, and it stunned me. I stared for a few seconds before I could respond.

  “You didn’t, I healed fine.”

  She nodded and gave a small ghost of a smile. “That’s good. Sometimes it’s hard to keep my mental clarity when I’m in my form. I didn’t mean to do that . . . It just happened.”

  “Can you not control it?”

  “Keep practicing, ladies.” Professor Myali’s voice echoed off the dome at the two of us.

  I startled and looked up, and Sabra crouched as if ready to spring into action. Now, within every motion she made I could see her cat-like qualities.

  I snorted a laugh.

  “You were startled, too,” she growled at me.

  “I know, I just realized how funny it was that my first reaction was to look to the skies, ready to take flight. You looked ready to pounce.”

  A genuine smile split Sabra’s face. “I guess we are who we are, no matter what happens. To answer your question, yes, I can control my shifting—normally, anyway. But not that time. I don’t know what happened.”

  She kneeled down, still facing me, to work her hands back into the soil. I created a vine belt with a sheath for my dagger and put it away on my hip.

  “You flickered in and out. Does that usually happen?”

  “No! That’s what was so weird. I could feel the change and fought it, but something was forcing me to shift. I haven’t felt like that since I was little and didn’t have control yet.”

  I began working on different sections of my vine wall, making some parts higher and others lower. It didn’t feel like an important skill, but I wanted to appear like I was working as I thought about what Sabra said.

  “Do you think anyone would be able to force me to shift against my will? Someone in here?” she asked.

  I could feel my forehead bunch as I thought about that. We were all working on building our skills. Learning new forms of magic was part of the training process. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that someone could’ve used their powers on her.

  “Who do you think would do that? It’s a pretty rotten thing to do,” I said. “I would think we’d need someone’s permission before practicing our skills on them.”

  “That would be the wisest course of action. If I find out it was someone in here, I’m liable to shift and tear them a part.” She stood with a glass throwing knife in each hand.

  With a grin, I formed a body-shaped target in the distance, like I used when I practiced with my whip. “Can you hit anything with those?”

  Sabra let them fly at the same time. Both hit the center of my created target, lodged side by side. She’d used both hands.

  “Are you ambidextrous in everything, or just throwing?”

  “All things.”

  I raised my brows and nodded, impressed. “Can you really show me how to do that glamour?”

  “I can try.” She turned her focus to my vine wall and stared at it like she was trying to see through to the other side.

  I watched as the wall disappeared. The air shimmered, but the wall was gone. I could see the grass as it swept down the field and up along the side of the dome into a knoll.

  “Impressive. What did you do?”

  “I’m projecting a wall of glass in front of it, willing it to seem transparent, but keeping it opaque to block your wall from view.”

  She sighed, and her shoulders slumped as the shimmer disappeared from the air and my wall came back.

  “I’m still learning, and it takes a lot of energy. You try. Think of something in your mind that you don’t want others to see, and try to create a bubble around or in front of it so it hides that thing,” Sabra explained.

  I thought about it, and the next thing I knew, a tree had grown up in front of me, hiding me from the rest of the class. That wasn’t what I’d wanted to do, but wishing no one could see me at the same time I was trying to do a magical glamour probably wasn’t helpful.

  “Are you behind the tree or in it?” I heard Sabra ask. I rolled my eyes and stepped around the tall oak I’d created. “Ah, I see.”

  “That’s not what I meant to do.”

  “Let me help you,” she said.

  We spent the next half hour working together. I made tiny bits of progress until at last, I’d figured out how to hide something by making it blend into the nature behind it. Fatigue settled into my bones, but it was a good feeling, one of accomplishment.

  The idea of how to go about making friends, or why I would want to, had always baffled me. As I laughed and practiced with Sabra, I realized more than ever what I’d been missing.

  15

  The end of the daytime lessons came fast, and Sabra and I were headed to the dining hall for dinner. As we strolled through the hallways, Carlos met up with us and tagged along.

  I’d avoided him all day in fear that he’d seen me the night before. So far, he hadn’t seemed as if he had, but maybe he just didn’t want to talk with Sabra around.

  “That was good work on the glamour, Niasa,” he said in his quiet voice.

  He startled me, and I wasn’t sure how to respond.

  “Thanks.”

  The rest of the walk to dinner was awkward and silent. I didn’t know what to talk about, Carlos went back to his usual reticence, and Sabra seemed to withdraw. To make matters worse, Orsika joined our little uncomfortable group.

  It didn’t get any better once we made it to the table, either. Luca was irritated with himself over the air shield he’d fumbled, and when Jacob arrived in good spirits, it caused tension between them.

  We ate in silence after that, even though Georgia Anne kept trying to engage in conversation to no avail. It was obviously testing her patience, because she began to huff and grumble under her breath. I liked that the chatterbox could spit some fire.

  “Y’all enjoy the rest of your evening in training. I’ll be in my room reading . . . By myself,” Georgia Anne huffed. She took her tray to the waste area and stomped away.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Orisika twitch a slight grin and finish her last bite of nearly raw meat.

  “She’s a funny little thing,” Sabra said. “I like her spunk.”

  That got a smile from all of us. Annoying as she could be, Georgia Anne was probably the most honest person in the room.

  We were all finished, and I’d just stood to leave when Aurora entered the room. Silence descended without any need for her to ask for it.

  “We have learned that the event that we experienced has affected all of the realms, and enemy forces have begun to infiltrate the human realm at a rapid pace. There are only two days left before the trials. Those who wish to participate must be prepared. We will be condensing the trials, and only those who can move at a rapid pace will continue on to missions. The training rooms will now be open at all hours for those who wish to practice outside of class—however, a master must be present in order to maintain safety. Anyone caught not following that rule will be eliminated from consideration for the trials.”

  With that, she turned and left.

  No one said a word or moved a muscle for two heartbeats. Then the room erupted into a cacophony of rushing bodies and tense chatter.

  I took a quick internal inventory of the skills I’d acquired as I left my tray in the proper pile and hurried back to class. I could form my
weapons, though I needed to increase my proficiency. The glamour was there, but only if I concentrated and took my time. I couldn’t do it quickly, and there was no way I could form one under pressure. According to what I’d witnessed during Macy’s exam, I still had to learn at least one other use of magic to pass level two.

  I needed to get some advice from Professor Myali.

  Donovan walked next to Carlos as we all headed down the hall to our class. It grated me to see them together. I wanted to know what they’d been up to in that workroom, but I couldn’t ask without exposing my spying. The quartz was still in my pocket, but I’d need to find another time to ask about it.

  For now, my focus was on passing this level.

  I cracked open my eyes and groaned; it was still dark out. I couldn’t have slept for more than a couple hours.

  Training had gone on until late because no one wanted to be the first one to leave. Since there was no longer a time limit to our classes, everyone wanted to pass. Two more girls had taken their tests and moved on to level three before Professor Myali declared that the rest of us were too tired to maintain safety for those around us. We were ordered to sleep for a minimum of two hours.

  I wasn’t sure I had, but since I was awake, I needed to get moving. I hurried into my clothes and was halfway to class when I decided to take a detour.

  I’d never made it to my visit with Gus. With everything so tense and busy, I hadn’t been able to make time. But I needed to see him. Even if it was only for a moment. Since he still hadn’t roused from his strange slumber, he wouldn’t even know I was there, but it would help put aside my worry.

  When the hallway split and I turned left toward where he rested, part of me tugged at the urge to find Donovan’s workroom again. But I couldn’t risk getting caught and being left out of the trials.

  Gus’s room was lit by a single sconce on the wall near the door. It was a cozy space, with incense wafting a blend of chamomile and sandalwood into the air. I shuffled over to a chair along the wall across from his bed. It was too far away to touch him. I’d been so annoyed on Midgard to have to maintain my hold on Gus. Watching him now I realized how much I missed holding his hand.