Chapter 12 #2
He steps back onto the field without any shoes, and it doesn’t even look like he’s broken a sweat.
“I think we covered everything. You all need to spend the rest of the day working through your sequences. Just because we’ve finished here doesn’t mean we’re done.
In an actual situation, you don’t get a break.
This goes on until there’s only one winner.
I don’t care if you train individually or as a group.
Next time we’re together, I expect to see obvious improvements.
Your attacks were sloppy, defenses were abysmal, and none of you got anywhere near our Nom. ”
For some reason, seeing the professor half undressed scrambles my brain. His words float in one ear and out the other. Nothing sticks, and I keep staring at the fact that Professor Cane doesn’t have shoes on. Even more shocking, all I can focus on is how much more attractive he is with bare feet.
Someone clears their throat, and I snap out of my daydream and back into the real world just in time to see half the class rolling their eyes but not moving an inch. The other half all turn to look at the person. Unsurprisingly, it’s Seraphina.
“Is there something you wanted to add, Seraphina?” Professor Cane asks, his voice getting a growly edge to it.
She focuses on the ground, looking deep in concentration. You can see she’s not, she’s simply angling herself so he can’t see when she hides her mouth and stage-whispers, “Bet now.”
Seraphina grins right at me as she hides her words behind a fake cough.
Around us, people catch on to her bitchy taunt, but since they’re not the target, they all grin or laugh.
Sickeningly, she radiates under the attention, pulling her shoulders back and standing taller.
She even bats her eyelashes innocently at him, pausing as if she’s weighing whether to say anything at all.
Except, of course, she was always going to.
“I think my team and I should get additional credit for nearly taking the Nom out in the first attack, sir. If she were your Kleis…”
“Our Kleis wouldn’t have been at risk,” he bites back defensively.
His voice rumbling low in warning. “Emrys shut you down and ended your weak threat without the Nom being injured. I watched, and Em didn’t even try.
Unlike you. Go practice your heralding because if that was your best, I’m more worried than ever we’re going to lose the war. Dismissed.”
I guess the guy with the platinum hair is Emrys, not that anyone introduced us. He goes to walk off, but twists around to me, the same nonchalant look on his face. “You might want to work on your shields. You would have been the first death if this were real.”
Although I hear what he says, I’m distracted by the fact that there’s an actual war happening.
These beings suck. Orion said training is part of the schedule in case there is war, but no one had mentioned an actual war is taking place right now.
But then again, I’m not surprised that I literally know nothing about it or anything here.
Since Master Maddern first walked me to the dorm, I’ve been left to fend for myself.
Everything I have discovered so far has been on my own.
Sure, Orion has been there helping where he can, but at the same time, he’s trying to survive too.
Noms really are at the bottom of the supernatural world. I actually think, as a society, the supes have more respect for humans. At least they view them as worthy adversaries. All their training proves and reconfirms that we’re nothing but fodder in their world.
The field clears of students while I mentally work through everything, realizing again how trapped I am at Thales. I’m not human enough for the human world and not other enough for this one.
“And you desperately need to shore up your defenses. It’s lucky Emrys was close by. And luckier he wasn’t injured saving you, or we’d have issues. Do better.”
I jump a mile when Professor Cane snaps at me. He’s lucky I didn’t pop my fist into his face, because I’d been so caught up in Emrys’ words, I hadn’t noticed him until he was right behind me. I never let my defenses down like that. Except, apparently, when it comes to the Professor.
He’s right, but I don’t tell him, because screw him. Admittedly, he also doesn’t give me the chance to reply; stalking off as soon as he finishes snarling in my direction. His friends walk alongside him, the three of them falling into a deep conversation, leaving me as the last person on the field.
They take their noise and aggression with them, and I crash out.
I slump down onto the ground and imitate a starfish baking in the sun.
I watch the clouds, forcing myself not to think about what happened until I’m ready to face the next round of bullshit.
It takes a while because Seraphina’s trick has left me with a headache, while the weird threads keep messing with my vision.
Or it might be a lingering effect of the professor’s friend, Emrys’ presence, but either way, I focus on not thinking about how I’m feeling.
Visiting Rodderick is the only thing I can come up with that will be a good and hopefully safe distraction.
Using the dining hall as a compass point, I only have to backtrack a couple of times until I find the maintenance shed.
But the large doors to the service area are pulled down, and the maintenance vehicles are parked behind a locked gate, showing nobody is here.
The sense of achievement from finding his work area outweighs my headache. When I walk away from the maintenance area, I’m feeling more like myself. And the plus side is, next time I have a few spare minutes, I’ll be able to get here quicker.
After stopping in at the dining hall and picking up a collection of offerings from the Nom station, I think about this shielding everyone keeps talking about.
The books I’ve found on the subject talk about the reasons a person should work on theirs, but so far, none of them describe the actual process.
I take a couple of detours to avoid the pockets of students enjoying the sunshine.
Professor Cane was right; these guys wouldn’t last half a day in the real world.
They’re so absorbed in what they’re doing and so trusting in their surroundings, anyone could have snuck right up behind them before they even realized.
My awareness as I walk the rest of the way to Nom House stays heightened, probably ramped up by their ignorance. Yet as I get to the front door, I don’t think for a second I’m safe.
I pull the front door shut, the lock clicking into place echoing as I race up the stairs.
The hazmat tape blocking Orion’s floor stops me from going further, but I shoot off a quick message asking if he wants me to sneak in anyway.
When my message stays unread, I walk down the corridor to my room, feeling less anxious with every step.
Inside, I take a loud sigh of relief before spending an ungodly amount of time on the floor of the shower.
As I let the barely lukewarm water wash away today’s humiliations, I also make a promise that I’ll teach myself how to shield, since no one else will.
If nothing else, the motivation of not being drawn into, or hurt by, the stupid supe dominance games at play is a good reason.