A Blessing and A Curse (A Bane/Talia/OC Fic)

2.New Life

"Time to get up." I was thrown to the floor, as the blanket I was tangled in, was yanked from my body.

Confused, I opened my eyes to see Talia standing above me. I looked to my right to the window of the small room to see that is was still dark out.

"What's going on?" I asked weakly, rubbing my eyes that were blurry and now tearing up. I tried to adjust to the light that was glaring in my face.

"It's time to start your training." She answered simply.

"Now?" I asked.

She threw something towards me. "Yes. Change into this and meet me in the courtyard."

I looked at the piece in my lap, quizzically - a thin grey long sleeve shirt and dark grey cargoes. "You have two minutes," was all she said, before stepping off.

I just laid there with my head on the ground.

Is this what my life would be now? Waking up at the crack of dawn to train like some Olympian? I've always hated gym class - and to know that I would have to wake up at God know when to do God knows what.

Sigh. Train - that can't be the only thing people do here. Ducard said something about fighting corruption and whatnot. I imagined government assassinations and covert missions. I groaned. I was too young to do any of that stuff anyway, so I guess training was what I was stuck with for now. I hope she wouldn't make me run laps.

Never mind the fact that I was living in a foreign country where I didn't even speak the language - something told me that I wouldn't be going beyond these walls any time soon.

Talia would be training me - and she was obviously someone who didn't mess around. I didn't want to get on her bad side. She was beautiful but she could also be very intimidating.

Ducard had said she would be mentoring me. I assumed it would be mean that when I got older, I would be doing something similar to what she does now.

Why did they need someone like me - or Talia for that matter, when they had that huge man I saw last night? If anyone saw him in a dark alley at night, they would probably just run in the other direction. I didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to mess with him.

This woman, though she was young, was strict and no doubt didn't put up with any bull-crap. I dreaded to find out what I was in for when I got to the courtyard - wherever that was.

***

After I dressed, I stepped out into the hallway outside my door. I didn't know which way the courtyard was so I took my chances and chose to go left. It lead me to large room that surrounded by railings that overlooked an open practice floor.

I looked down at it from the railing. It was filled with men. A lot of men. They were dressed in all black, with their faces covered - only their eyes bare. They had black chest plates attached to them.

They were attacking each other with swords so fast that it was beyond me how none of them were cut. These men were fierce. What in the world was I doing here? I was just a kid.

I looked across from me, to the opposite railing. There were doors on the other side that could lead me to the courtyard where Talia was, but to reach them I had to step down the stairs and into the sea of warriors. That didn't look like a good idea unless I wanted to get a blade through my skull. I decided not to.

I turned around to head back. Instead ,I bumped into a black figure that towered over me. As he looked down on me, I saw that his eyes were a striking, steel-blue. He was dressed exactly like the men below. I glanced around and saw that some of the men had noticed me.