Prophecy of the Nexus

Chapter 14

Having witches on site was a strange change to the scenery of the Mantle. Next to the short cut hair and straight backs of the soldiers, these eternal people eyed each centimetre of concrete with distain. There were only a handful of them, representatives from the village to aid in relations and sharing intel. The woman witch, Molta, and Fextar were part of the small group. Fextar seemed to be Molta's ward or whatever equivalent there was to a Squire.

The witches spent most of their time in the wooded area near the Angelway meaning there was no chance to speak to Fextar. I wanted to ask so many questions about witches, their lifestyles, and anything else they knew about my prophecy. However, there was just never a good time. Still, I could always look out the window at night as I held my demonheart and see seven spots of light moving around in the forest. A reminder of our new guests.

I didn't wear my demonheart during training, mainly as jewellery shouldn't be worn while exercising. So, I stowed it away in my bag during the day. Only when I was alone in the dorm room would I get it out and examine it. It was just a simple jewel but the fact this was made with magic and not a blessing was incredible to me. However, my wonder was often broken by someone coming in and so I had to pretend to be looking for something as I threw the demonheart under my bed.

The oddest thing about it was whenever I carried my demonheart, I had a creepy feeling I was being watched. If I ever had the crystal in my pocket when walking to the Mantle or the Matrix, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I would always turn to see who was following me but no one was there. I just guessed it was a side effect of the jewel.

Unfortunately, the arrival of the fascinating witches couldn't make up for how unpleasant the next few weeks were for me. I spent most of my evenings slaving out in the kitchens, helping the staff with washing. I didn't mind though; it was a worthy punishment. The worst part of it was I didn't get to hang out with the other Squires at night. They had all been waiting for me after my meeting with Sir Atticus. They crowded around, wanting to know every detail of my encounter with the elders. Ewan and Travis had their mouths wide open at every word I said. Jesse gasped at my description of the elders' demented forms. It was Lex and Marcus who brought the story to an end, though. "Still, running after Sir Atticus was stupid," Lex said, shaking her head. My stomach twisted in guilt. These were my friends who had been training for years for this job. And here I was treating it like a joke.

Marcus had leant against the wall. "It wasn't clever, Sara," he added, looking seriously at me. It was worryingly similar to how Sir Atticus how looked at me. "You can't try to prove yourself like that. You could have gotten yourself killed."

"I wasn't trying to prove myself," I mumbled. "It was just instinct."

"Whatever it was, you need more training to get that instinct under control," Lex said.

And more training is exactly what happened. Both Sir Atticus and Sir Petra seemed to push me a lot further now. Once, we had done the same exercises over and over again until I barely sweated. But now, Sir Atticus was really pushing. I had to force myself to keep going as my muscles burned under the extensive exercise. And as soon as I walked into the Matrix, Sir Petra announced we would move on from mental manipulation.

"You must know offensive, as well as defensive," she stated simply, drawing a line on a blackboard. She listed all the defensive blessing we had practised so far. My ears ruptured under the incessant squeaking. "What offensive blessings do you think there are?" Sir Petra asked.