Vallen: The Marking (Vallen series #1)

Chapter 28

It was now clear to me that the students weren't allowed to visit me in the town. The moment I laid down in bed in the infirmary it was flooded with classmates of mine, even a few teachers that came to thank me. Professor Swilthin brought along some sweets for me to eat behind the nurse's back.

In a strange way, the fire had been a good thing. I thought no one would mourn me if I died, I thought I hadn't left an impact in anyone's life, but they all cared enough to come visit me. Victorine even hugged me, even though she had clearly hated me for my parentage before. I finally felt welcomed into the world of the Vallens.

The thought about having to go back to classes tomorrow didn't stop anyone from enjoying the feast. Instead of the usual round tables that occupied most of the cafeteria, we now had five long tables, with another two in the centre of the room for the teachers to eat on.

I wobbled out of the infirmary with Aviana, who had been in there for about as long as I have. During the fire she severely overworked her gift, causing her to go in what the Vallens call 'the long sleep'. I thought it just looked like a coma, but they assured me she was just sleeping. She finally woke up this morning, excited to hear about the feast, and to see that I lived.

"We couldn't find you." She explained to me as we walked through a deserted hallway. "A couple of guys tried going after you upstairs, but most of the steps were already on fire, they couldn't go through them."

"Professor Swilthin must have controlled them when I was sent away." I realized. "I thought I just got lucky."

"We all did." She sighed. "There hasn't been a fire even in the town for the last five hundred years. No one knew what to do." She bumped her arm against mine. "Except for the human of course."

"Well being constantly scared of everything did prepare us quite a bit." I laughed. We entered the main hall and were greeted by two older men. They both looked like they were somewhere in their forties, but what stood out most was the tattoo they both had on their face. A little underneath their right eye they both had a white feather tattooed.

"Name?" One of them asked us, not hiding the boredom in his voice.

"Aviana Levitt and Eira Lovell." I told him. He looked over a list and pointed us to a table near the teachers. It was mostly occupied by the people that I recognized from the fire, as well as some people I didn't know at all.

"Why did they have those tattoos?" I asked Aviana.

"Oh, they are cowards." She said casually. "They were convicted in the Vallen court for minor offences. Instead of being sent to prison they get sent to schools and other places where they have to do tedious jobs."

"Convicts get to work in schools?" I asked her. That would never be allowed in a normal human high school, the parent board alone would have a fit.

"Only if they prove that they're not actually horrible people." She continued. "Family name and all that. Plus they won't allow murderers or anything here."

I glanced around the room to spot Alaric, who was sitting with both his brothers in the far corner of the room. At least they seemed to be getting along again. They were so deep into their conversation that they didn't even seem to notice anything that was happening around them.

We sat down at our table and were immediately greeted by the rest of the lost puppies. This time however we were all in proper clothes, not half asleep and not terrified. The atmosphere was completely different, everyone was far more relaxed.

"I'm Byron." The boy next to me said, shaking my hand. He was the one that came up with the idea of looking for professor Swilthin.

"Eira." I smiled back at him. He looked kind of... cute. He had light blue eyes and a cheeky smile, like he was up to some mischief. We talked some more, about the weather and other mundane things, until Professor Woodville stood up from his seat at the teacher's table and ordered the room to be quiet.

"Welcome students." He started, folding his hands together in front of his chest and glancing around the room. "In a few moments we will be enjoying a lovely feast, but first a few honorary announcements must be made." His eyes landed on our table. "Tonight we honour the students who were brave and smart enough to face the flames, and save our school." Everywhere in the room people raised their cups at us. "With a special thank you to Eira Lovell for being one of the first responders. To Anhin Dowe for leading the water benders and to Professor Swilthin, for ensuring that none of our colleges were burned to death." 

I met Alaric's eye, who immediately smiled broadly at me. I felt extremely uncomfortable in the face of all this attention. I had tried to lay low for the last few months so that no one would comment on my humanness, so being the centre of attention was definitely new.

"I am sure that you are all eager to start eating now so-" He tried rounding it off quickly, but was stopped by Eldon.

"What about the cause of the fire?" He shouted. More people joined in when Professor Woodville tried to make a quick exit, almost forcing him to stay standing and answer the apparently dreaded question.

"Well." He said. "We found no evidence that it was either natural or started by a person with malicious intentions." This time he didn't let anyone stop him and quickly walked to the doors. He turned around before leaving.

"Enjoy the feast students. May it taste better to those who were brave than to the cowards."

People started pouring in carrying trays of food. Our table was the first to be served, closely followed by the teachers. The people that did the serving had the same feather tattoo under their eye as the two men before.

"So he's an asshole," Aviana said to me. "I mean my sister told me before how he could go from sweet to an asshole in two seconds, but I thought she was just over exaggerating."

"She wasn't." Byron laughed from beside me. "He's trying to prove himself to the rest of the staff. Especially to Rhys." I remembered hearing that Rhys took a leave of absence in the first week of the school year to taunt the new headmaster. "It's not like he's got a lot to prove. The previous headmaster was a pushover. He didn't care if someone did torch half of the school. He was probably looking forward to dying anyway, to finally leave the school behind."

"Why didn't he just retire?" I asked.

"Vallens don't do that," Aviana explained, once she saw that Byron was looking at me kind of funny. "We work until we die, there really is no reason not to."

"So this school is stuck with him until he dies?" I asked back. "That's just great."

"That or if he has a son with a ridiculously high gift," Byron added. "But he's not even married yet, so that's not happening any time soon."

The food was absolutely delicious. We had chicken wings and mashed potatoes, but also things like pizza and lasagna, we got to choose from it all. Aviana told me that they took food from all over the world to please everyone's heritage, but to me it just meant that I got to eat a bunch of horrible food that would later kick my ass in PE.

I was enjoying myself. Aviana and Byron got into some heated discussions about all sorts of Vallen things, with an occasional break to explain to me what they were going on about. It wasn't until later on that night that I noticed how Aviana played with her hair and how he was trying to flex some muscles every time he moved. They were flirting.

Following the conversation only got more fun after that realization. It almost reminded me of one of those wildlife documentaries we watched in biology class back home. The male is trying to show the female that he is strong enough, the female is trying to show the male that she is interested. Except here there was an added surprise of some teenage hormones, so I don't think either of them realized that the other one was into it.

A tap on my shoulder took me out of my documentary. I had never seen the woman before, but she looked kind enough, even though she did have a single white feather underneath her eye.

"Eira Lovell?" She asked. She was much older than the oldest Vallen I had seen so far. Humans look so much weaker when they are old. Yet this woman still looks like she is ready to hike or kick some ass. "The headmaster asks you to go to his office. Do you know where it is dear?"

"N-no." I stuttered, well aware that the table around me went quiet. Oh god, did he hear us gossiping about him? Aviana looked about as horror-struck as I was.

"You can follow me then." She turned around and started heading for the door. As I got up I noticed that the teacher's table was also quiet, with most of them staring at me.