Chapter 71: The New Normal

As he entered the Maze, Ciaran was thinking about who he should start with, but he was surprised to feel himself freezing.

Before he could even react he was frozen in a block of ice. His body was frozen, and his mind was unable to comprehend the situation he had found himself in. His soul on the other hand was free. It could not feel the Wind, but it was free.

Unlike the drawing, this time Ciaran didn't like the feeling one bit. His body and his consciousness were trapped, he wanted to get out, and so he pushed.

He pushed with all he had, and when he failed he begged. He called out for help and pleaded for mercy, the feeling of helplessness was slowly creeping in. Verdania didn't want to push him too hard and she was about to let him out, but before she could the outside of the block of ice cracked.

The Wind had heard, and it had answered. It was slamming itself into the ice, trying to free the boy. Every second it got stronger, with every push it got louder. The female dryad was very tempted to wait just a few more seconds, just that one extra push, but she didn't. She made a promise, and she intended to keep it, lest she is cut out of the boy's life forever.

She broke him out, and slowly she began warming up his body. He was in a state of hypothermia, and a sudden change of temperature wouldn't go so well for him.

After a solid twenty minutes of this, he woke up, still shaking.

"What the hell was that? It was God-awful! It felt like I was in a trap, no in two traps." He said and panted, the experience had really shaken him.

Verdania was surprised. He had reacted in a very similar manner as she did when she started practicing when it came to the drawing exercise, but the freezing one seemed to be quite the predicament for the young boy.

He looked at her with fear in his eyes. Still shivering even though, his body had long since warmed up.

"Describe what you felt, I want to know what we are dealing with here."

The boy nodded and looked back at the ice shards on the ground, remnants of what used to be his greatest hurdle yet.

"I didn't feel my body. My brain worked, but my thoughts didn't, it was just noise and instinct. And I felt the Wind, I called it, and I could feel its answer, but it never came." He said disappointedly.

'Kid, even if I was going easy so I don't hurt you, if you could break free from my spell, after less than a year of being a Novice, you would be the biggest monster on this planet.' She wanted to tell him, but she didn't.

She wanted to praise him, but she knew him. One of his biggest flaws was that he was too strong and too capable for his age, and he knew it too well. It made him prone to hubris, and it had, on more than one occasion, gotten him in trouble.

"It's ok, you will learn in time. But I have bad news for you, the ice challenge would be repeated, and you will have to do it until I am satisfied."

At her words, his face paled, and he wanted to protest, but she raised her hand.

"No whining now, if you are going to push your classmates, someone has to do it to you too." She said as she laughed at his miserable expression.

The room around them was changing, and a familiar waterfall appeared. The water was not colorful anymore, but it otherwise looked the same.

"Go under it and meditate." She said.

He looked at her funny.

"What, not going to make me deliver milk with a heavy backpack before my bath?" He asked sarcastically.

She glared at him and reformed the ice block.

"Meditate for an hour under the waterfall, or you get an hour of 'jail time', I am feeling generous today, so the choice is yours." She said and flashed him a smile.

'Cold bitch.' He thought, perfectly aware she was reading his mind. And then he went to meditate.

She was planning to be nice and had made the water warm, but after his little comment, she decided to entertain him fully. Now the waterfall was just cold enough, so he wouldn't go into another state of hypothermia.

While Ciaran was busy getting punished for being rude to his mind-reading teacher, the other kids had it rough as well.

Most of them were throwing a tantrum. The usual Trial time was thirty minutes, and that was long since passed.

And of course, since Ciaran was going to mess up everything for everyone, he also decided to employ a little nepotism.

His friends got very challenging trials, but they were all handcrafted by Eleftherios to fit their needs. His class got hard trials meant to push them to their limits, but they were generic, and in no way suitable for the kids, there were of course lucky exceptions, but those were few and far in between.

The students who were not in any of the classes of the twenty-two teachers who Ciaran had marked, got difficult trials, which meant more to exhaust them, not to teach them anything.

And finally, the condemned, the ones who had to be taught that staying in their current class was nothing short of torture got a music puzzle.

They were placed in a tunnel with barely any light, and there was a big door with giant letters spelling EXIT on them. At about their shoulder level was a square, and within it there were four squares. In the beginning, one of the four would light up and make a noise, when they pushed it increased to two, and then three, and finally four.

After they were done, it reset. They had been at it for hours, and it would just reset, over, and over again. They tried breaking the door, and the walls. They tried to dig, and they even tried to bust out of the ceiling, but the only thing they got as a reward for their hard work was a big arrow pointing at the square.

Rayon, Clara, and Sunny got out in ninety minutes. Their other classmates took three hours, but they still had plenty of energy left. The other students also took three hours, but they were very exhausted.

Everyone was wondering what was going on. They were worried they would have to do more Trials before they were let out, and then they heard a voice.

"Welcome to the new norm. From now on everyone would have to go through this every day, and no, it does not give you credits. Good luck~ " Ciaran said, and went back into the Maze.

They wanted to protest, but they also had a big chunk of their time stolen, and they had to make up for it. They all dispersed, and only two people were left, Sunny and Clara. Rayon wanted to be there as well, but as soon as he was out, the soldier responsible for escorting him to the base dragged him away.

"Listen here Mr. I want to sound mysterious and all-knowing, you have three seconds to come out before I go back in there and I beat the answer out of you," Clara shouted at the Maze.

She got to two before the boy walked out, he wanted to call her a barbarian, but lessons about insulting vengeful women were learned today, and he held his tongue.

"Did you not enjoy your day ladies, what seems to be the problem?" He asked.

"The Trials were fine, but the sheer amount of chaos and crying I have seen today had made my whole month. You are the best Rony." Sunny launched herself on his neck and gave him a little peck on the cheek.

She was never a physical kind of girl, but the sheer amount of mental torture he had dished out today, was enough to even give her stomach butterflies.

"Talk!" Clara was much harder to satisfy. She wanted answers, and he wasn't leaving until she got them.

"The Maze is sentient, I made a deal with it to get to floor two. We have been friends ever since. Now I got him to help me deal with my little cockroach problem. Simple as that." He said, with a serious expression on his face.

If Rayon was here, he might have held back a little, but he wasn't, and these two were too smart not to have found out the existence of magic after having been granted access to floor two.

"Do you mean it's m –" Sunny was about to ask.

"First of all, as I stated, HE is magnificently sentient. Just because he isn't human, doesn't make him any less of a person Sunny, please remember that. More than this, we will talk about in there.' He said as he pointed back at the Maze.