A Simple Darkness (The Young Ancients: Tiera) (2 page)

It seemed like a good plan so she reached up and triggered her own, which hadn't kicked on yet. They were handy that way, but you had to think something was a real threat to you for that part to work. The effects varied. A bowl of poison wouldn't do it, not for her, since there was no way she'd eat it, was there? It was gross now, but she had to admit that it did seem to be green and yellow mucus in her food when she glanced at it.

She aimed at the kids again.

"Hostages. Sir, I suggest you come along peacefully, if you don't want their innards scattered over the building next door." This came out as a growl, but the large bald man raised his eyebrows and made a face.

"Sorry, your application to resign has been denied, since you're being a silly twit. Good idea, using the others as hostages, but right now you're blowing this situation so far out of proportion it's almost not funny anymore." He smiled then and pointed with one finger at the weapon in her hand. It was a good one, designed to dominate an entire battle field. "So weapons away,
now
."

"Are you stupid? I just quit and have these people under arrest. I can do that." Because, obviously, she had the drop on them. She didn't know if she had a
legal
right to do it, but the Headmaster sighed at her.

"True, you
can
do that, however Instructor Kolbrin is correct. This situation, while a thing that would make anyone angry, is being blown out of proportion. I think we can safely assume that this is about your rather harsh treatment of their fellows, instead of an actual attack on your person. It wouldn't serve to let childhood squabbles become major issues."

Clenching her jaw Tiera had to glare at the stupid man a bit.

"You mean like trying to infect a person with a disease?" True, it wouldn't work, since she had the Ancient pattern, which made her pretty much immune to such things, but it wasn't about it being a
good
attack, just an attempt to harm her. "We can test them under Truth Amulet. Then have them put to death. Or at least in prison." Possibly in a mine. There was always need for strong young workers to get at mineral resources.

Farlo moved back to the table and picked a single amulet out of the mess on the table, one of the few that was obviously made by Tor himself, a white focus stone piece with a glowing pink sigil on the front. When she tapped it, holding it in her hand, an aura of gold and white surrounded her. For some reason it had stripes of gold with a cream colored background. It was what her brother had made, but she didn't know why he'd picked that pattern at all. A simple glow of either color would have worked after all. It was kind of showy, but pretty enough really. It would produce an ugly black streak when they tried to lie however.

The other Conserina looked at her, making direct eye contact, even as the explosive was pointed at the tall girl's midsection, ready to end her for all time.

"I didn't try to harm you. I didn't warn you either, because you've been very rude to several boys here. It isn't good to be a Doretta and you've been walking around here acting like you're the Princess of the Realm, instead of just another school girl. It's stupid and is giving you a bad name. I suggest you correct yourself before you start a
real
problem." Then she stopped, the field never so much as flickering.

Sam took it next, still looking highly embarrassed about being naked, which she could see. He wasn't ugly or anything, but just average in build, and in other areas, though he didn't cover himself overly.

"I didn't have anything to do with that boy spitting in your food. But you deserved it, and
more
. I did however pull strings so that you were in nearly the back row of Lyn's wedding at the Palace the other day. Just so you understand why that was. No one likes a Doretta."

She knew what a Doretta was, that being the noble term for a bad man or woman that was rude to others in affairs of the heart, but she hadn't really done anything like that. Her little brother Timon had mentioned something like that too, but she'd explained it to him. She had a duty not to bog herself down with poor and ugly boys. They weren't good enough for her. Regina had explained it all to her on the second day, after she smiled at a few of them in the commons. They could get the wrong idea and think she wanted to have sex with them, or even get married. They didn't have a chance, and letting them go on that way could get them hurt, and not just emotionally.

After all, Count Lairdgren might get mad if she were connected to unsavory people, right?

The others went too, the small man, who turned out to be named Guide, of all things, seemed particularly upset with her for some reason.

"Going around acting all high and mighty, what did you expect? Now you stand there and threaten to kill us for taking you to task for it, as if you have a
right
to treat people like scum?" There was a bitterness to the words that didn't make sense. She hadn't turned
him
down after all. That would have been silly. He was good enough looking and about her own age. She did like slightly older boys, but he was a builder and had good prospects.

The other guy, Mark, just shook his head when it was his turn after stating he hadn't done anything.

"Still, there is a point here. You've gotten some slack, because people like your brother, but that's not going to hold out a lot longer. We get that you come from... A different situation, but Farlo said she talked to your other brother, Tim, and
he
said that you knew not to act like that..."

Her jaw hurt from clenching it so hard. Holding out her left hand for the Truth amulet got a baffled look from the boy. She had to take her shield down first, but he handed it over easily enough.

She growled at them all, for not understanding what she'd been doing.

"I
had
to protect those boys.
Obviously
. They can't marry me and if people thought they were trying to have sex with me, they might be hurt for it. People keep saying I was rude to them, but it wasn't about me thinking I'm better than they are, just that I have a higher social position and that could cause problems later. For
them
..." The light didn't flicker for her either, which got the others to stare at her like she'd just announced that she was a cow. It didn't make sense.

The tall Instructor nodded a few times. "Alright. Why do you think that? I have it on fairly good authority that no one that knows you would respond that way. Do you think that your brothers... might
they
harm them do you think?" He seemed pretty baffled, but she rolled her eyes.

"Well, of course. But the Count, my grandfather might too. Or even the King. I'm a Conserina after all. I have to think about more than just my own feelings and desires. Regina explained it to me." It had made sense at the time, when her roommate had told her about how The Rules were really just for nobles and that the common people had to be treated differently, since they had their own special situations that varied from place to place.

Tiera knew it for a fact, since the rules she'd grown up with, in Two Bends, had been very different. It took a few minutes for her to explain it all, tapping her foot at how slow everyone else was being about it all, but trying not to act like she was better than they were. She was probably smarter, but there was clearly something else going on here. A thing that raw intelligence wasn't going to instantly fix.

Farlo rolled her eyes and then grabbed her head like it hurt.

"Crud." She started grabbing her amulets then and dressed instantly, student browns that looked like heavy canvas appearing suddenly. The others followed suit when they realized that they weren't about to all die instantly.

Mark looked at the other Conserina and closed his eyes.

"Yes,
crud
indeed. Someone has been misinforming you, Tiera. It might be for any reason, including just using a few mistaken phrases, but... I can see now that this is
my
fault." He bowed to her then, which, for some reason got Farlo to do the same, followed, if slowly, by Sam, who nudged Guide into doing the same thing after a few seconds. "I apologize. I should have been more attentive and not assumed the worst about you. I owe your family a great debt and asserted, to myself, that I'd look after you, but let myself be sidetracked by what I thought was bad behavior. Please forgive me?"

He didn't seem all that torn up about it, and the others didn't speak, since they probably didn't feel the same way, but the rule was that if someone apologized to you, a good person tried to accept it. Her mother had been pretty clear about that. She bowed back and spoke, trying to keep her anger out of it.

"I understand that I was in error, though I don't know how yet. Not precisely. I take it that no one was really in danger at all? I... Please forgive me for distressing you then." An awful feeling came across her then, since these, clearly, weren't the wronged parties. Her jaw clenched again, since the only thing to do now was to debase herself publically and apologize to everyone that she'd wronged, even though she'd thought she was protecting them.

Short of being beaten it was about the worst thing she could imagine happening. It had to be done though, since honor demanded it. Then she'd quit and move back home. Obviously she wasn't nearly as ready for this world as she'd hoped. She was supposed to be popular and loved, not...
this
.

Kolbrin looked at her and waved at the weapon again, which got her to put it away finally.

"Good. Well, that's sorted and you can fix it later. Go on to classes now, everyone. We have the morning sessions to attend to. The Headmaster will look into this and see to fair punishments. Even if you did deserve it Tiera, spitting in the food is a punishable offense. Someone is going to be in for a time, I think."

The old bearded Headmaster agreed with that easily enough.

"So, I take it we don't all need to report to prison?" It was said lightly, but with that air of a person that actually knew that they were dodging something serious.

That kind of surprised her, but it only made sense. She wasn't happy about the whole thing, her being wrong. It was horrible actually. Had Regina done it on purpose? She didn't want to believe it, but the girl was a noble. They did love to mess with people like that, didn't they?

It was tempting to run off and see to that instantly, but the big bald man patted her on the back gently then let his hand linger. She could feel the warmth of the contact and wondered at what it meant for a moment. Did he like her? Vain or not, no one had
ever
claimed she wasn't pretty. The giant's hand brushed at her hair a little. For a few seconds she stiffened, ready to tell him it wasn't appropriate, even under The Rules, but the man sighed and tugged at it.

"You have lovely hair, nearly down to your backside. Probably the envy of every girl at the school." Drawing it back he gave a hard yank, which caused her shield to kick in, but her hair, already blindingly tight thanks to the attack, caught in it and didn't move, leaving her head pulled back and eyes watering.

"Ahhh!" The sound was a pained one, and came until she got her shield off.

Then the bully did it again. After that she ran a few steps away from him, down the stairs, even as her head was at an awkward angle, yelling the whole time. She turned her shield off and then spun, to see that he still had a handful of it.

He did let go then, smiling.

"First lesson then, get rid of anything that can be used against you. I expect you to cut your hair and have it short enough it can't be drawn through your shield easily. You have to tomorrow to fix that. If you don't do it,
I
will, which won't be artful at all. Well, you see how I do my own?" He smoothed his bare scalp with his right hand. "Second lesson, run away. You had an escape, but you stopped. If you do that in a real fight you might just die. We'll work on that later however. Today I want to introduce you to someone. She's going to be your new trainer. Do
everything
that she says. You won't like it, but it has to be done and we don't have time to coddle you. Orders from your brother."

That got her to stop dead. Did this man know something about Tor? He was in hiding, since an army of Austran assassins was after him. He'd just left one day, but at the wedding in the Capital the other day there had been a huge magical display in the sky, like fireworks, but
clearly
his work. Maybe this man had been with him, she felt excited for a few seconds, but he shook his head without waiting for her to speak.

"No.
Tim
. He filled me in on the current threat, and that you were mentioned by the Larval that took him as a potential target as well. There are other things going on too, so you need to be constantly on guard. Luckily that shouldn't be hard, since you've already managed to alienate half of the people on campus and the others will no doubt come around soon enough if you don't make an effort to correct the damage. We'll have to see if it was on purpose or not. Dean Hardgrove will be seeing to that, I don't doubt."

Tiera felt a little clueless for a few seconds. She got that the man meant to train her to fight, that was his job after all, to see to such things. Most girls her age and size didn't have that kind of thing at the school. Actually, as far as she knew,
none
of them did. It didn't sound like fun either.

"I'm not exactly a fighter." She didn't want to sound weak, but the idea was a bit intimidating. Not that she couldn't learn the moves, but she wasn't a giant and never would be. If she got a few inches taller she'd have to count herself lucky.