Page 60 of Cerulean Truth
I nodded, not really feeling the need to explain I could only project when my life was in danger. True, the closet did feel a bit ominous but I was hardly in any life or death situation. Plus, James had instructed me to keep my mouth shut when it came to my translation, so that’s exactly what I would do. His current asshole-ness notwithstanding.
“Okay, let’s go then,” she urged impatiently. I followed her out of my room, closing the door behind me. We'd ventured a few feet when she decided to grace me with her wisdom.
"Behold, the majestic bathroom of this fine floor,” she announced. Unless seven showers in a row were to be considered “majestic,” I was catching her sarcastic drift.
“There are fourteen other souls trapped here with us,” she continued. “Prepare yourself for a symphony of grossness, as our fellow gentlemen like to embrace their inner Neanderthal. But fear not, for we are graced with the divine decree to make them magically scrub away their disgusting debris once they’re done."
I nodded, this was not all that different from what I considered to be “normal”.
“As you might have figured already, you have four sections in the Universitas,” Enya explained. “We find ourselves currently in the Winter Palace, our living-quarters. A place where the architects had a stroke of genius, deciding levels five through ten should be reserved for dorms and bathrooms. Just like your regular five-star hotel, really."
I nodded in mock awe, pretending this was indeed a revelation for the ages.
We started ascending a staircase and Enya continued, “Apart from dorms and bathrooms, levels eleven and twelve contain personal training rooms. Normally, students up to sixteen years old use the ones in the Scola, and those over sixteen utilize the training rooms in the Academy. However, we keep two levels of training rooms here for recreational use."
“Like a personal gym?” I inquired.
Enya squinted for a moment, then slowly nodded. “I guess.”
We walked past some of these training rooms on level eleven but I couldn’t make out anything special about them. They were the epitome of minimalism: empty rooms, white colored walls, no equipment, nothing which would indicate any training at all.
"You've got a few transportation options for these amazing levels," Enya explained, her delivery drier than a desert during a drought. "Portals, flying, or the good old-fashioned exercise of walking up the staircases. We've got stairs leading up to every floor for those fitness enthusiasts among us."
I bit my lip, trying to keep myself from uttering a sarcastic retort.Exercise? How positively barbaric.
"Now, on levels thirteen and fourteen, we have the in-house restaurants and, for some inexplicable reason, an Irish pub. They’re all…themed…” she continued, her tone betraying her disdain. Clearly, she wasn’t big on themed restaurants.
“What do you mean themed?” I asked, fighting a smile. I was starting to enjoy Enya’s grumpiness.
“You have your regular French food pretentious crap; there’s a lean, green, tofu and bean cuisine on thirteen, that’s stinking up the entire Palace…”
I stifled a laugh.
"And foreign cuisines on fourteen," she finished, her nose almost audibly upturned. "But if you value your life, ask someone else to be your culinary tour guide."
I smirked. Enya and her grumpy sarcasm were really growing on me—though I liked foreign cuisine and even the mean green thing didn’t sound too bad.
As we walked back downstairs, she added, “There's an indoor swimming pool on the highest level, level fifteen. Feel free to check it out in your own time. It's a pool, you know, like those human ones, but it does change form to accommodate your swimming needs, whatever those may be."
What? A form-fitting pool? What the…
“That’s as high as you’re allowed to go. There’s a level sixteen but that one’s reserved for a more…important person. Or so he believes himself to be.”
“I don’t understand.” I frowned.
Enya sighed impatiently.Well excuse me for asking.
"The sixteenth floor is a loft, occupying the entire floor, reserved for our First Offensive. The guy you spotted at the Grand Hall, surrounded by his usual entourage?" she continued.
I shot her a dark look. "You mean mister arrogant who thinks the world revolves around him and his boy band?" I replied with an edge to my tone, still upset at James for ignoring me.
She nodded. "Yes, exactly. He's our First Offensive, essentially the one who keeps them all in line. Which is neither easy nor unnecessary, I’ll give him that. Anyway, he saved a high-ranking idiot from something, and now he's being groomed for Leadership here at Cyclos, even though he's still in his first cycle."
I frowned again;what?
"I'm sorry, I don't know what that means... Being groomed for Leadership?"
Enya rolled her eyes again with her lovely talent for patience. "Right, well, I won't bore you with the whole political structure of our world, but every three hundred years, each Collective changes Leadership. It's like a president but..."
