The words left my mouth, the oath, and the golden coin fell into my hand, my name engraved onto the side, Arya. No last name. Even I didn't know that. I could have frowned but I was too excited about the possibility of joining something more, to find a purpose, a meaning. My fingers glided up the metal chain and I pulled it over my head, around my neck, the medal slipping under my worn down shirt. "Cadet" I spun around with a small smile, I felt good like this, powerful. I bit my lip and my eyes rested on the dark skinned woman that I met last night, the one, if I remembered correctly, had smiled at me in passing, though, now I doubted my memory, as the woman wore a face of steel, hand posed behind her back and I was sure I'd never seen anyone stand as straight, besides the general. "Mhm?" I mumbled. "You speak to me. If you're going to mumble. Go home." The woman replied. "Alright. Okay. Sorry" I nodded, not entirely meaning my words, but she was pleased to hear them. My eyes followed as her hand came from the side and gestured towards the door. "I'll be taking you to your unit"
I smiled, my unit. I hope they were nice. Thoughts filled my head and by the time I could even acknowledge where I was I was walking down the corridor and into what resembled a fairly spacious bedroom, where three other girls stood, now all staring at me. One with a stone cold expression, one with a warm smile, and one just looking confused as hell. I held back my smirk. "Cadets. This woman will be joining your unit." She said. "Anacostia...!" The cadet with the cold stone face complained, so that was the name of the woman who had escorted me, she seemed to be close to the general too. Not that that was any of my concern. "Enough bellweather" she snapped making me flinch, with a scowl on my face, though I tried my best to ignore it, I was still wearing my scruffy old clothes, clearly the bellweather girl didn't approve. Anacostia turned to me and rest a hand on my upper arm, giving it a little squeeze. "This is the bellweather unit, and as general Alder said, you'll be safe." She nodded her head and turned to the door. "There will be a uniform provided shortly, and the first work will be practiced in an hour. I expect everyone to show up" anacostia said with displeasure as she eyed up the blonde. As soon as anacostia left I saw the dark skinned girl snap her head to the blonde. "See collar! Now we're being punished!" She snapped.
"Hello, hi." The redheaded girl walked up to me, the one with a bright smile on her face, I could tell she was full of eager, her eyes wide with enthusiasm, I snorted, she was definitely the one of them ones who'd been wanting to go to war college since she was a little girl. "I'm tally" she held out her hand and I took it, shaking it firmly, she pulled back then saw my top and shook her head. "What happened?" She asked, I clenched my jaw and struggled to think of an answer. "Tally, c'mon" the blonde said, she'd been arguing with the bellweather girl and I knew she was desperate to find an escape from the hothead. "Here" the blonde girl said, she unbuttoned her cadet shirt and passed it to me since she was wearing a vest underneath, I took it off her and slid it up my arms, giving my shoulders a shrug to set the cloth into place, I didn't bother with the fastenings. The bellweather girl stood forward and nodded, she carried herself a lot like general Alder and anacostia did. "I'm Abigail. Abigail bellweather." She said, emphasis on the last name, like it was supposed to have meaning. "this is tally craven and raelle collar" she introduced, the two other girls smiling. I seemed much more fascinated with the collar girl, I swear I'd heard that name before. "...collar?" I asked before I could control it. "yeah.." she was shut up quickly by the girl in the middle. "I'm a bellweather. Do you know what that means?" She asked tilting her head to the side. "No" I replied.
I heard the two other girls laugh at that. I guess her name was something important then. Abigail shook her head and stormed out of the room, though no doubt I'd see her again within the hour when we had training, she didn't seem like the person to miss it. I walked towards the bed and tugged the jacket closer to myself, I was a little cold, and I wanted to make a good impression. "Did I sense some tension in here when I walked in...?" I asked, looking at raelle briefly before I saw tally turn to look at us both. "I didn't show up for training so, yeah...she went all hotheaded and a control freak" she shrugged sitting down on the bed next to me. "Yeah, but come on Rae, we perform well as a unit, we all have to be there for each other, you know this means a lot to Abigail" tally said softly, she was definitely the kind hearted one. "So... bellweather...?" I mumbled, my voice slightly hurting.
Tally sat down opposite both of us. "She's from a long line of serving witches in her family, leading all the way back to her ancestor who was a former slave, she fought under general Alder. All of her aunt's and grandmothers have fought served before her, her mother, Petra bellweather is a general. You'll probably see her at some point too." We both nodded, and I turned to raelle as she spoke. "I heard...I heard that one of her ancestors led the infantry charge during battle of Juarez and sacrificed herself to provide cover for Madeline Swythe."
"That's why I have to go to war college"
Our heads collectively turned to the door and we saw a slightly upset Abigail. "Because it's not just the spree that is happening out there. They're a main problem, but that's not the only threat. Jem bellweather led that infantry charge, and lost her life, both my grandmother's died, one in the air when her salva ran out, and the other rotting in a tent crawling with plague rats." She said, almost emotionless, but I could hear the anger behind them. "That's why I need to make it through basic, to serve my country, to serve my mother, serve under the great general Alder. Make them proud. All my ancestors died a honourable death, and I need to do the same" she whispered towards the end. I stood up and walked towards Abigail slowly, it was a wierd moment for me, I reached out and wrapped my arms around her, holding her close, I hadn't hugged anyone for a while, and it felt nice, and she hugged me back. I had a lot of questions on my mind, what was salva, why did we have to answer the call, why general Alder was so important, but these were shut down when I felt two other sets of arms around me and Abigail, raelle and tally joining in.
I heard the noise of a thump behind the group after a minute and I looked up, there was a uniform on the bed. I let out a small breath, beginning to shrug off raelle's jacket that she so kindly leant me, and pulled away from the hug a little. "I guess that means it's ready to train"
