Calluna

Chapter Seven

The Flower

My schedule remains the same for the next two weeks. Wake up, get ready, eat, train, eat, sleep. My body has slowly become accustomed to the bruises and the soreness and the aches that it's left with every day after training. I've gotten stronger and even smarter at deflecting blows from Nico's wooden stick, but I don't feel any closer to gaining a power than I was two weeks ago. I'm glad.

            I haven't seen or heard from the wicked prince since the first day I arrived. And I'm even more glad for it. I still hold out the hope that he's lost interest, maybe moved on to another colored eye girl who would enjoy being small, weak, under his thumb. But not me.

            When I walk into the training room, Theron and Talia are battling in the arena. It's a common occurrence among the others. Instructor will pair up two of them and see how well their skills progress. It's basically a test who can beat who, simply who can come out on top. Briar—the shapeshifter—has won all her battles, unsurprisingly. Nico and I stay away and work on my training usually. I'm not ready to battle yet, Instructor says. A small relief.

            Today, though, I stop to watch for a moment, seeing the slice of steel through the air and the returning object levitating back. Theron, I've learned, has the power of telekinesis, which was explained to me as the ability to lift objects and manipulate them. I'm still not exactly sure what it means, but I can tell Theron will win this battle. He's using Talia's own metal manipulation power against her, seeming to do it so easily, he's become bored. I wonder why the Instructor would pair the two together when the winner is so clear even for me to see.

            But Talia—the metal manipulator—hangs on to the offensive for longer than I imagined she would. She hurls blade after blade so fast she's able to get in one good cut across Theron's arm.

I walk closer to the arena as a blade rushes towards Theron but is easily blocked and sent back, only to come straight towards me. I flinch, but the blade bounces off the force field Alder created when the battle began, in order to protect the rest of us and to keep the weapons in play inside the arena. Alder—the force field creator—sees me flinch and laughs. I stick my tongue out at him and walk to Nico, who patiently waits by our usual training spot.

            "Curious?" Nico asks, laughing.

            I sit down next to him and roll my eyes, keeping my head down. "I haven't seen Theron battle anyone yet. It doesn't seem like he's a fair battling partner against Talia."

            "Yeah, well, Instructor likes to put some difficulty on us at times. And Talia was complaining about something yesterday. Instructor doesn't put up with anyone's crap."

            I laugh quietly. "What is Theron's ability? I know he can levitate objects or something like that."

            "Why don't you ask him yourself?"

            I look over and Theron and Talia are both walking towards us. Theron smiles triumphantly as he wipes his head with a towel. His arm's still bleeding, but so is Talia's knee.

            "Get a healer," Talia yells at a poor brown-eyed servant, who runs swiftly from the room. Then she turns to Theron. "Well, why don't you tell her?"

            He rolls his beige eyes and turns to me. "Well, it's not exactly 'levitation' but more similar to moving objects with my mind. It took me forever to master, you have to concentrate extremely hard or the objects will drop. It's an uncommon power, but it's super effective."

            Talia hits him harshly in his wounded arm and he yells before punching her back. "Able to manipulate things with your mind," Talia says, laughing. "Like father like son." No one else laughs.