Chapter 10
CARINA'S POV
How many times has this scene been replayed? How many times have I taken that hand as it beckoned me into the unknown? How much longer before the next door she opens leads to hell?
The light through the open wall was blinding, brighter than any of her teleportation spells, I feel a loud ringing in my ear and a low throbbing in my head, a strong feeling of dizziness crashes over me followed by a sharp sting at the back of my head
"... in...." I hear a voice in the distance, a low hum, almost a whisper
".... arena..." What is it trying to tell me?
".... Car..ina.." is it calling to me?
"Carina" a loud smack lands on my back forcing my eyes open and my body to stagger forward, Thank God I chose to wear the Converse otherwise I would have toppled onto the ground
I find my balance as I turn to glare at the source of my pain who rolls her eyes in amusement
"Ooh, don't give me that look, I've called your name at least times and you didn't respond, what was I supposed to do?!" she shrugs innocently
7 times?! Had she called out to me seven times?! I did hear her voice but it sounded so distant, never before had teleporting felt so, so, so.. unnatural, my body felt like it was disappearing, and didn't like it
Whatever reason she might have had it wasn't enough to hit me so hard!!
"Apologize!" I demanded
"Alright, I'm sorry, can we go now?" she apologized without a hint of remorse, flat as it might have been I still accepted, it was better than nothing
"Where are we?" I ask when my anger finally subsided turning around and looking at the scenery, what a scene it was
Lush fields of green stretched out in every direction, and all walls of grass hedges ran straight, symmetrically side by side creating a maze, behind us was the door we walked in through, it looked nothing like the mass of bricks we saw the alleyway, instead, it looked a large dark brown wooden door which glistened with varnish held up by golden hinges, besides it was an array of similar doors side by side stretching out in all directions, the sky above was a shade of blue I could not put my finger on, the light and darkness both battle to overwhelm each other trapping the entire field in a state of eternal dusk, it was beautiful
"Welcome!!" a voice came from nowhere forcing me to jump back as a woman appeared out of thin air
Her voice soft and airy, her hair a bright shade of blue, and her skin so pale it was transparent
Literally
This woman is transparent
Is she a Familiar?
"Hello.." Felicia replied thankfully, I was still in a state of shock trying to process the last 15 minutes
"Welcome Felicia and Carina Leblanc, we have been expecting you, right this way please", she says with a smile leading us into the maze of grass her steps are light and subtle, her movement calm and simple she seemed to float as she walked, her steps so light she left no footprints
"Thank you" Feliaccepteddher gestures and followed her without question as did I, moving further away from the doors we disappeared into the grass hedges, I caught a glimpse of white light from the corner of my eyes as more figures from various doors walking beside us through different rows of grass hedges
"I take it you are here for the Entrance Exams Ladies Leblanc?" the woman asks her voice sickeningly sweet
"Yes we are" Felicia replies, was this the Margovich College's way of welcoming visitors? is this normal?
Felicia and the woman talked back and forth every step of the way, walking and chatting as we passed rows and rows of doors embedded in the grass hedges some looking newer than others, the carvings and inscriptions on some more legible than others, while some just looked at a worse for ware and were decayed on the verge of collapse
"Here we are!!.." the woman beams as we stop in front of a dark red oak door with the carvings 'Gal beem Var ga took' on top of the door frame which if I'm correct translates to, "For those who dare seek the unseen", I remember it because it had a rather interesting story behind it
"Thank you so much" Felicia thanked the lovely woman as she walked ahead and grabbed the door pushing it open and leaving me to trail behind her, right before I passed the threshold I heard a small ".....Good luck" odd as it might sound I felt a warmth pool in my chest at the small gesture
On the other side, it was vastly different from the large field we first emerged, For starters, we were no longer outside, we appeared in a large room with dark Mahogany walls on all sides, a deep brown tiled floor, and rows of crystal Chandeliers hanging off the ceiling stretching down the large rectangular room, the air was thin, not a window in sight, and the room was packed with... people? if you can call these individuals people
Some of them didn't even look human to begin with
"Here put this one" Felicia reaches into her purse pulls out a pair of black leather gloves and hands them to me
"Why?" I ask but still, take the gloves
"Put them on, I figured we would be fine as long as no one touched you but looking at these numbers avoiding people seems impossible no matter how hard we try, so our best bet is limiting how much of your body they can come in contact with, there's no guarantee what will happen once someone grabs you and you slips through their fingers..."
I listen to her words of caution as I unfold the black Leather gloves slipping my hands through, the material felt slippery and glistened under the orange crystal light, the inside was lined with soft cotton and the gloves went all the way up my elbows
As my hands passed through the soft fabric I felt a strong surge of mana race through my body, the enchantment on these gloves was insane
To think she spent so much time worrying about this that she made something this powerful, it's moments like this that I remember just how capable she is
"They look good on you.." she says taking my hands into hers and rubbing her thumb over my palms smiling fondly
"Thank you, the enchantment on them is incredible", I tell her which deepens her smile further while her eyes fill with sadness
"...I'm sure it is, they belonged to my sister.." she releases my hand walking around me placing her hand on the small of my back and leading into the crowd ".....come, let's go take our seats" she ushers me into the fray giving me no time to protest nor question why she gave me something so precious
Her hands remain on my back as she leads me to two empty seats far ahead in the hall, as we walked I felt all eyes turn to us, eyes filled with so many emotions, eyes of disbelief, eyes of envy, eyes of shock, eyes of curiosity, eyes of malice, having worked in the service industry for so long I learned to pick up slight shifts in emotions, finding joy in a crowded room, pinpointing longing, spotting curiosity and my greatest achievement no matter how minute, I could always find traces of malice
I understood why everyone stopped to stare at Felicia, she is exquisite, skin like flaking bronze and cheekbones so sharp you could cut yourself, the clothes she wore today had an attitude of their own, I and that poor Barista understood verily why she would be getting so much attention, and judging by how long she has lived with the addition of her God awful personality I also understood why she would get one or two nasty glances, completely understandable
What I didn't understand was why I was getting the stink eye as well
With the way some of these people were sneering at me, one would swear I killed somebody
I look over to Felicia hoping to get some form of explanation or at the very least gauge her reaction to this less-than-welcome reception, I don't know why I was so stupid as to expect anything from her, she glided through the hall never once sparing a glance at our onlookers as if their malice bounced off her like rubber
Steel will like that was terrifying in and of itself
We found a place to settle down, two seats at the end of the row which was perfect because we wouldn't have to squeeze through anyone, now I just needed to get through this presentation, take this exam, and be done with today
But it's never that easy, is it?
"My, My, My, Look who we have here?"