Chapter 6: The Lies

Later that afternoon, Xiao found herself crossing the little fences back into the Monastery's territory. It was a lot emptier than she'd expected, the guards are nowhere to be found near the ground.

The young witch only dared to get out of the woods when she's inside the territory, so when any guards catches her, she's already inside so they have no proof that she went anywhere else.

There's class time after lunch, so less people around, thus Xiao made her way to the female dorm with relative ease. She arrived at the fifth floor balcony, and she gently placed the old broom back into the closet. The clock hung on the wall made her wanted to cry: it's already 4:30 pm, and she effectively missed all her classes today.

The dull ache coming from her abdomen reminded her of why she came back. She sighed and walked to her room. Once she reached her destination, she knocked on the door.

"Who's there?" A familiar voice yelled from the other side. She can already pictured her cousin's frowning face. 

"It's me," The young witch responded. "Xiao."

Both of them got similar traits from their mothers, wavy chestnut hair and round black eyes on pale peachy skin, both are below average height, but Xiao just had to be the shorter one of the two. Uncle David is the proudest man alive when both of his nieces got into the top ten overall rank in the Monastery.

XiaoLan is the youngest compared to her four other cousins who are currently attending the Monastery's Academy. Her roommate Yin is just a year older than her, and she too came to the Monastery at thirteen.

The Devinsky Family has been a court advisor in for the royal family Mistichestor for centuries, and currently her father Issac Devinsky is the head of the family since he's the oldest of his four siblings, in this order: Issac, Eric, Noah, David.

Uncle David is blissfully single, while Aunt Noah had a kid out of wedlock, but all is well now because her cousin Raxithak is also here in the Monastery somewhere.

This is where her family tree gets complicated. See, her father Issac married her mother MingYi, and Uncle Eric then married her mother's younger twin sister MingHua. Unfortunately for her father, his younger brother gave birth to a pair of twin boys before he could even conceive. Those twin boys are known as Jacob and JinQiu, because that's what happened when you let an interracial couple name their twins. A year later, Uncle Eric and Auntie MingHua had another child, and they named their daughter YinHong, who is currently Xiao's roommate.

Blood is thicker than water; the dorm mistress thought roommates would get along better if they're relatives. 

Her head hurts whenever she thinks of her family. Her little brother Gideon is going to join the Monastery next year, and he won't be the last one. She'll pray for his poor soul to not room with cousin Raxithak because he's a cut throat student, the current number two in the overall rank.

The door opened and her cousin looked at her, frowning like she expected. She knows that look, it's one of concern, but Yin always use a mask of anger or indifference to hide her true emotions. 

"What's wrong?" Xiao asked. Then, Yin pulled her by her arms into the room, kicking the door shut before giving her a tight hug, not caring about her dirty clothes. 

"Oh my god, you went missing for a whole night and day, and you have the audacity to ask me what's wrong?" Yin squeezed her shoulder, her nails digging into Xiao's skin. "Look at yourself! Your clothes, there's a tear in your shirt! And your skirt... How can we even wash that stain off it?"

"I'm sorry, I got into an accident." The lie slipped out of her lips before she could even stop it.

"Accident?" The color on Yin's face drained when she noticed the bandages underneath her cousin's shirt though a hole in her abdomen.

Her slim fingers reached out for Xiao's dark blue skirt which stained black in some spots. Yin immediately let go when she realized it's blood.

"Oh, lord..." The older witch sighed, her eyes full of pity. "We need to report this."

"But, I'm okay now. See?" Xiao reassured her cousin but taking off her messenger bag and swung it around. "No big harm done. I only need a bath and a quick meal."

Her cousin gave her a look, then rolled her eyes before letting herself smile. "I'm sorry. You've been through a lot, and I'm being a bitch right now." 

"It's fine." The young witch put down her bag and started taking off her boots.

"No, it's not, Xiao." Yin watched her cautiously. "The bandage on your wound. We need to get it checked out by a nurse."

Good idea. Last she checked, stitches done by the demon are ugly, but they work.

"Alright." The witch gave her cousin a small smile. "Let me take a shower first."

"When you come out, you must tell me what happened." Yin bit her bottom lip, but then she said her thoughts anyways. "You look like shit, Xiao. More than usual. And you didn't come back last night. The dorm mistress let you off the hook only because she thought you fell asleep at the library again."

After a half an hour long refreshing shower, Yin took Xiao to the nurse's office in the female dorm. The head nurse's daughter, a pretty girl with long shiny snow white hair, greeted them both warmly. 

"Hello. What brings you here?"

"Hi, Resany. Can you give my cousin a–" 

Xiao silenced her cousin's voice by lifting her blouse just enough to show her wound. 

Resany didn't waste any time and bended down to inspect it. "Let me see... It doesn't look infected, but the stitches are pretty crooked."

The young witch let out a sigh as another lie roll off her tongue. "I hit a tree in the woods."

"You were flying on a broom." Yin frowned as she put her hands on her younger cousin's shoulders. "Elijah and Ezra saw you flew."

"I was." Xiao turned to meet her cousin's eyes. "But I went into the woods, flying underneath the trees. Now I know why it's a bad idea."

"How fast were you flying?" Resany squinted her eyes.

The nurse sat the young witch down on one of the patient's seats and started her work of undoing the stitches. Xiao winced at the pain, but she didn't complain. 

"Yin, can we go to the supply office after dinner?" The witch asked her cousin to distract herself from the pain. "I need a new wand."

Resany began restitching the wound and mumbling healing spells.

"What happened to your wand?" Yin blinked and looked at her cousin.

"It's... Broken." Xiao managed to say.

Resany finished her job by apply a layer of ointment over the scar. "Oh. So, how are you feeling?"

"I'll recover." The witch shrugged, and the nurse nodded.

"Why is your wand broken?" Yin physical pulled her cousin's attention by tapping her shoulder.

"Same reason as yours did." The third lie is easier than the first two, and Xiao wanted to bang her head on the wall. "Fragile thing gave up when I needed it most. When I hit a tree at my top speed, a branch was conveniently there to kill me, and I fell on my bag and passed out. I could've healed myself if my wand isn't broken."

"You passed out?" Her cousin sighed and squeezed her shoulder. "You slept in the forest for the whole night?"

"I'm not dead, and I'm fine, right?" Xiao looked at Resany to save her, and the burse pressed her lips into a hard line, but nodded anyways.

Then, the nurse began writing her a blue letter. A blue letter is the nurse's letter, an excuse for her mistake of not attending her classes today.

Xiao thanked Resany profusely. The letter just said "accident" and not explaining anything about Xiao's stupidity of flying at her top speed in the woods. Since it's from Resany, the authorities would accept it without questions. Thus, no one will send a letter to her father telling him that his daughter is an idiot.

Dinner passed in a blur, and the witch was reminded of how much she hated the cafeteria. It's always too crowded even though there's a seat for everyone, and it's always so loud. Yin's seat is next to Xiao, obviously. However, the older cousin is the only who talks to other people at their assigned table while the young witch stays quiet every meal.

Gossip spreads like wild fire, and Xiao is no stranger to listening in since it's free entertainment. It's less fun when the gossip is about her.

"One of the Devinsky girls didn't come to class this morning." A blond boy mumbled to his friend.

"I didn't see her either." His friend shrugged.

"Man, I saw her going to the nurse." A girl, whom Xiao recognized as their neighbor living on the same floor, said to the boys as they walked out of the cafeteria.

"I heard that she went missing." Another girl chimed in. "But then I heard from the nurses that she had an accident?"

"Ooof, that's rough." The blonde boy laughed. "Maybe she'll drop from the top ten rank."

"Hopefully." Another boy added, and they laughed.

Xiao could only pretend that she doesn't hear that. No, she won't fall from the top ten. She'll make it into top five soon.

None of them have to know that she agreed to have free tutoring from a demon.