Page 22 of Fortune Academy: Year One
“You’re a one,” she told me, “a dud through and through. Your awakening will take some patience, but we’ll get you there.” Miss Williams gave me a flat smile that I think was supposed to be encouraging.
I was glad to see that Olivia was a one as well. The rest were twos or threes and had shown enough glimmer in their orientation verdicts to be placed in less “ambitious” awakening classes, whatever that meant.
It felt good to walk with Olivia through the crowds. She felt safe, whereas Dante had made me want to jump his bones just by the proximity of his heat and Logan just had me confused.
“Are you nervous?” Olivia asked as we followed the color-coded map Miss Williams had given us. Finally, I didn’t feel like I was going to get hopelessly lost on campus. I’d missed the miniature lights in the street entirely that marked which branch of the circle we were on and where we needed to go.
I turned and followed the trail of lights that would take us on the opposite side of Central Hall. We had to take the long way around the spire, but I didn’t mind. It gave me some time to think. “Not nervous,” I admitted. “Just ready to figure out what I am.”
She chuckled and clutched her map to her chest, subtly showing me that she trusted me to guide us in the right direction. “You and me both. I’ve been here nearly a week and no one will talk to me ever since I was announced as a dud.” She presented her arms. “I mean, did they tattoo it on us? It’s like everyone knows.”
I smirked. Little did she know how close to the truth she was in my case. But in her situation I knew what it was. She slunk around and kept her head low as if she had something to hide. Every other supernatural in this place was cocky and knew where they belonged. Her body language said it all. “Any idea what you might be?” I asked, trying to strike up a conversation.
She shrugged and fell into step closer to me, as if just talking about her potential supernatural powers put her on edge. “Not really, but I do have these really weird dreams that I’m drowning. It’s pretty messed up.”
Poor girl was probably stressed. I squeezed her shoulder. “Well don’t worry. I’m sure those are just dreams. Once you find out what you are then you can show all those douchebags what they’ve been missing out on.”
She grinned. “You mean wecan, right? We’re totally going to be our own alliance.”
I laughed. “Dud alliance. I like it.”
The trail of lights eventually led us down Demigod street. Luckily our classes were closest to the Central Hall and I wouldn’t have to see where Orion holed up and have that thrown in my face. I pictured a miniature Olympus with floating cherubs or some shit. There was no way I was a Demi and I wasn’t interested in being one either.
We met up with some other level one duds in the lobby and were eventually greeted by a panther shifter come to fetch us. Unlike the wolves, she wore an immaculate fitting of her uniform and clearly didn’t shift unless she absolutely had to. The only damning evidence of what she was showed by her sliced pupils that cut through emerald irises. “Level one duds with me,” she said, her words having a low rumble to them as if she wanted to be anywhere else but here.
Olivia and I shared a look and then followed the panther shifter until we arrived at a classroom.
I wasn’t sure what I expected. Maybe some desks and a whiteboard like any other typical classroom, but that’s not what waited for us inside.
This looked more like a gladiator ring. Weapons of all sorts lined the walls and the center had a sandpit with a wide ring around it. The boundary had spiked pins sticking up from the floor, promising anyone thrown out of the ring would pay for that failure.
“The hell is this?” I muttered to Olivia.
The girl hugged herself and looked at her feet. “I’ve heard about the Awakening process. It’s... partly why I pretended I couldn’t find Miss William’s office for so long.”
“Welcome to your Awakening,” the panther shifter said dryly and she rubbed her ear with the back of her hand, then seemed to catch herself in the non-human motion and put her hand firmly at her side. “Professor Payne will be here to walk you through?—ah there he is.”
A miniature man I might have mistaken for a dwarf sauntered into the room. I knew there were undocumented supernaturals, but I wasn’t so sure about fairytales come to life.
Professor Payne sure fit the part, though. He glowered at all of us through beady eyes alight with determination that we were going to leave here “awakened,” or die trying. “Okay, duds,” he said, his voice booming through the room as he stalked towards what looked like a glorified highchair. He settled himself onto it and gripped both armrests as he frowned, the gesture making his beard puff out like a spiked animal on full alert. “You have supernatural heritage or else you wouldn’t have been accepted to Fortune Academy.” He leaned in, glowering at us. Some of the duds cowered closer to the wall, but Olivia and I stood our ground. The small defiance awarded us with the professor’s full attention. “What is notso fortunate is that your minds are suppressing your supernatural gifts.” He leaned back, seeming satisfied with the chastisement. “This just means we need to retrain your minds to accept who and what you are. All will be revealed in time. It will take pain. It will take effort, and it will take a heavy dose of fear.”
“Fear?” Olivia squeaked.
Professor Payne nodded. “That’s right. Survival instincts are what will trigger your defense mechanisms, so we need to bring those out. We could poke and pry using magic, but the simplest and most effective way is to force you to defend yourself.” He pointed at the arena. “You two. Fight to the death.”
Olivia and I froze and a gasp swept out behind us as the other duds pressed even harder against the wall.
Death? What kind of Academy was this?
“Forgive me for asking,” I said, taking a step closer to the professor in his mighty highchair, “but if we fight to the death then doesn’t that sort of defeat the purpose? Not much “Awakening” to be done if we’re dead.”
He chuckled, sending his beard puffing in new directions like a happy dog that hadn’t had a haircut all his life. “This is a magic room. You can’t actually die here, but it’ll feel like it.” He waved a hand at the weapons and they began to glow. “Each of these are imbued with powerful spells. The dark mages fuel the Awakening trials with their gifts. It’s part of the contribution of blood duty given as demerits to other students.”
I hadn’t had a chance to read my welcome packet yet, but I made a mental note to scour it for information. Blood duty... Dante had mentioned that before to Hendrik. By chopping off his hand Hendrik would have enough power to be exempt from blood duty for a week, whatever that meant.
The cat shifter clapped her hands. “Enough wasting time. We need to kill at least half of you before lunch, so chop-chop.” She smirked at her terrible pun.
Rolling my eyes, I walked into the center of the arena. Olivia trailed after me with her feet dragging lines in the sand.
