He piled all the clothing into a bulky stack and shoved it into my chest as he walked by me into a side room. I wrapped my arms around the pile, trying hard not to drop anything. Induviae returned with a small black bag with a leather strap wrapped around his wrist.
He began to stuff the bag with items from the nearby shelves. “Soap,” he said, “shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrush…that should do it.” He set the bag on top of my pile and I wobbled for a moment, trying to keep everything under control. “Come this way,” Induviae opened a narrow door next to one of the shelving units, revealing a small room. “Get dressed in here. Put on the pants and long-sleeved shirt for now. Leave your old clothes on the floor, and make sure you put on the boots, not the shoes! Looks like you’ve been assigned to the Necra sect. That means Laureate Altor will be coming to collect you in an hour or so. In you go!”
I stepped into the small room, and Induviae slammed the door shut behind me. I jumped, nearly dropping everything. This room was uncomfortably small. It was only about seven feet long and five feet wide, and the concrete walls were painted a dingy shade of white. There was no furniture except an old wooden bench along one wall. I placed my new belongings down on the bench, let out a disheartened sigh, and unbuttoned my shirt.
~26~
Two hours had passed, and the only activity in the room was the occasional flicker of the fluorescent bulb that hummed above my head. I was starting to wonder if they forgot about me, but then the door opened and the laureate finally appeared. He was an older boy, maybe nineteen or twenty years old, with long brown hair swept back from his face and fastened into a tidy ponytail at the base of his neck. I stood up and tried my best not to seem nervous in front of him.
“Hi,” I said.
“Grab your shit and let’s go. Hurry up,” he growled and then vanished from the doorway as fast as he’d appeared.
“Where are we going?” I asked as I grabbed my pile of clothing and supplies and rushed out the door, trying to keep up.
“Wherever I tell you! I’m your laureate, so what I say goes. Now, shut up and keep walking.”
“But…what’s a laureate?”
He stopped and sighed angrily. “What part about shut up don’t you understand?”
“Sorry,” I muttered sheepishly.
He grabbed the bridge of his nose, squinting his eyes shut as if trying to ward away an oncoming headache. “Look, kid…a laureate is me. I’m the senior ranking potential for the Necra sect…your sect, which means I’m in charge! So, you will do what I say, when I say, got it?”
“Yes, sir,” I replied, knowing it was the only phrase I could utter without getting reprimanded.
“Much better!” he scoffed before turning around and walking even faster than before. “Now, hurry up. I have a lot of shit to do.”
Laureate Altor was much taller than I was, and I struggled not to drop anything as I practically had to run to match his pace. He led me outside and across a long concrete courtyard with huge marble pillars lining both sides of the walkway. Out of a gnawing curiosity, I glanced back over my shoulder at the building we’d just left. It was massive.
The incredibly tall, white cone-shaped structure stretched high up into the clouds. It was so wide that I couldn’t see the coliseum hiding behind it.
“Eyes forward!” the laureate shouted when he saw me staring back at the colossal building. “That’s just the administrator’s building. It’s where the shepherds conduct business for the academy. It’s has nothing to do with you, so stop looking at it!”
His demeanor was starting to make me uncomfortable.
From there, we marched across a well-manicured lawn that went on for at least a mile before we reached the outer edge of a large oval running track filled with reddish wood chips. Once we reached the far side of the track, we walked down a small hill. I saw a long row of buildings, each with narrow black windows. I didn’t know how anybody could possibly see out of them.
“That,” Altor began, pointing to the last building on the right. “…is the Necra sect barracks. It’s where you’ll be living for the next fifteen years, so get used to seeing it.” He flashed a mocking smile, laughing slightly.
He walked me around the side of my new home to a large metal swinging door. As he didn’t bother to hold it open for me, I nearly dropped everything in my arms on the floor when the door slammed into me. I had to spin around and use all my might to keep the door open long enough to make my way inside. He just stood there, grinning manically. It was as if he enjoyed watching me struggle.
I glared at him, but he just sneered and walked away again.
“Look, kid,” Altor said, not bothering to look at me as he spoke. “No one is going to hold your hand while you’re here. You’ve going to have to learn to fend for yourself. It’s just the way things are. So, wipe that stupid scowl off your face before I make things harder for you than they already are. Trust me, it can get much worse,” he finished as we turned the corner at the end of the hallway and stopped in front of a large blackbrass door with a small window.
Altor looked through the window and knocked on the door. Suddenly, the face of the door guard appeared in the pane. After a few clicks of the locks, the door opened for us.
We walked out onto a blackbrass scaffold that swayed with each step we took. I looked over the railing and saw we were standing near the top of what looked like a long warehouse. Below us were two rows of white beds spaced evenly apart and separated by a long center aisle. There was a tall, gray metal locker at the foot of each bed, and strings of white lights ran along the ceiling, humming loudly.
“Laureate on deck!” the door guard screamed, causing an instant commotion in the room below.
All of boys in the dorm immediately dropped what they were doing and ran to a raised platform near the front of the room almost directly below us. They stood there, silently, in three straight rows with their hands by their sides and their chests puffed out like penguins.
“Stand down!” Altor said with a slight air of cockiness in his voice.
The boys relaxed their stances, but stayed where they were, watching us anxiously as we approached the steps leading down from the scaffold.
Altor descended the stairs easily, but I knew I would have some trouble. The stairs were so steep that I couldn’t see the first step from behind my armload. I slid the front of my foot forward to find the edge of the platform to estimate where the next step might be. Thankfully, I guessed right, and the first step caught me.
“Today would be a lovely day to join us, Vigil,” Altor called out sarcastically as I carefully inched down the stairs.
I tried to hurry, but four steps from the bottom of the stairs, I stepped out too far. My heel caught the edge of the step below, and I tumbled to the floor. My clothes, my soap, and everything else Shepherd Induviae had issued me rained down around me as I hit the floor. Everyone on the platform burst into laughter. I wasn’t hurt, but my pride took a hefty beating.
“Well, pick your shit up and get over here!” Laureate Altor commanded, trying to contain his laughter.
I quickly scrambled to get my things in order and rushed over to join him on the platform in front of the other boys.
“Everyone,” Altor began, “…this is Vigil Voronto. He’s the newest member of Necra sect. He’s also the only new member of our sect this year.”
“Really? He’s it?” moaned a boy in the front row.
“Yeah, so make him feel at home, okay?” The other boys smirked. “Ownie…front and center,” he called out.
Immediately, a smaller, gangly kid ran from the back row of the group to stand directly in front us. He had blue eyes and dirty brown hair, and his expression showed a hint of fear as he stared up at the laureate.
“Yes, sir!” Ownie said loudly.
“Ownie, since you’re the oldest Tier I potential, you’ll be guiding Vigil around for the rest of the day. Tomorrow, he’ll be on his own just like the
rest of us were when we first got here. Show him where to put his shit, where he’ll take a shit, and all the other shit he needs to know so he doesn’t make us look bad.”
“Yes, sir,” Ownie said proudly, and I felt my stomach turn. The last time somebody was assigned to show me around, it hadn’t ended well.
The laureate let out a long sigh before continuing, “Also, since this year’s crop of new potentials is only half of what it normally is, everyone that’s on kitchen duty will be starting their shifts an hour earlier from here on out, including Vigil.”
I could hear grumbling from the boys in the back row in response to their new schedule.
“Enough!” Altor barked, causing the room to go silent once more. “Now, then—”
Altor was interrupted by three thunderous knocks at the entry door.
“Shepherd on deck!” the door guard shouted. “All at attention!”
Altor quickly nodded for Ownie to return to the back of the platform as he pulled me into the front row with the other potentials. The laureate’s facial expression rapidly changed from arrogance to nervousness as he glanced up at the door scaffolding, anticipating the shepherd’s arrival.
I looked around and noticed the boys had once again locked their frames straight and tall, eyes facing forward, as a short woman with shoulder-length black hair walked in and made her way across the scaffold.
“Good evening, gentlemen!” she shouted. Her shrill voice echoed everywhere.
“Good evening, ma’am!” the group shouted back.
Almost immediately, she noticed me. “Well, well, well…I know it’s only Fall, but looks like we have ourselves a brand-new snowflake! I thought they’d run out of kids for the Necra sect…shows what I know.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but everything about her told me it wasn’t good to be singled out by this woman; her piercing voice, her stern face, and the fixed stare of her black irises that bored right through me. She descended the stairs and stood in front of me on the platform.
“Look at you…not a clue in the world.” She laughed, shaking her head dismissively. “Oh, Ein save me. I love snowflakes! They’re so stupid.”
“I’m not stupid!” I shouted at her.
There was a quick gasp from several of the boys in the rows behind me.
The woman put her hands on her knees and bent down to look me straight in the eye. “Yes, you are,” she said coldly. “You don’t know shit about what goes on around here! Now, I suggest you lose that little attitude and learn how to deal with things better than saying the first thing that pops into your stupid little brain! Is that understood?” she roared, her nose inches from mine.
I nodded, intimidated by her dominating gaze.
“I can’t hear you, snowflake!”
“Yes,” I said meekly. My face was on fire with embarrassment. Falling down the stairs in front of everyone was nothing compared to the humiliation of her singling me out and shouting at me.
“Yes, what?” she bellowed.
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Holy shit!” she shrieked as she stood back up. “Looks like this snowflake has a brain after all! Gentlemen, give him a round of applause!” The other boys didn’t know whether she was being serious until she cried out, “I said clap!”
They all clapped for me. I was mortified.
“All right, knock it off!” she barked at the group before she returned her gaze to me. “What’s your name, boy?”
“Vigil…ma’am.”
“Work hard here, Vigil…and keep yourself in order. Under my control, you will become the most efficient and dedicated shepherd possible. Under my control, you will learn to serve our most esteemed patroness Necra with all the respect and dignity she deserves! Screw up, and I’ll have your ass in a sling before you can even so much as cry to go home to your momma!” Her last comment stung. I still missed my mother terribly.
“Yes, ma’am!” I shouted through the pain in my heart, trying to regain some of my dignity.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” She nodded, offering me an approving smile, and crossed to the stairs. As she walked across the scaffolding, the woman called out, “As you were, gentlemen!” and exited the dorm.
~27~
“Who was that?” I asked Ownie as the group dispersed.
“That’s Shepherd Diabelle,” he began. “She oversees everything involving the Necra sect here at the academy. You’ll be seeing a lot of her.”
“Great,” I said in a sarcastic tone, which made Ownie laugh.
“Yeah, she’s tough, but there’s no other shepherd I’d rather follow. Trust me.”
“Okay.” I smiled, finally hearing something positive about this place. “Why did she call me snowflake?”
“It’s a name the shepherds usually give to the new potentials during their first year here. You’re new, so you’re all delicate and fragile to them, just like a snowflake. The easiest way to shake the name is to do exactly what they tell you to and fall in line with everything as quickly as possible.”
“I can do that.”
“That’s good, because the last thing this sect needs is a troublemaker,” he hinted as he walked toward the rows of beds and lockers in the middle of the room. “Come on. Let’s find your bed.”
Ownie led me over to a large bulletin board in the back of the room, quickly explaining what it all meant. He stressed how important it was to check it on a daily basis. Everything I’d need to function at the academy was laid out before my eyes. Class and exercise schedules, kitchen duty rosters, laundry assignments, mandatory meeting times; even the location of my bed and locker.
Next, Ownie took me over and helped me put away my things in my wall locker. Even though my mother had worked tirelessly to teach me how to make my bed and keep my clothes clean and neat, that training was mild compared to the rules and regulations of the dormitory. There was a particular order for everything. Clothes were to be folded and placed a certain way; all the toiletries were to be stacked in very specific places in the lockers; and my shirts and pants were to be hung on thin, black wire hangers to make sure there was not a single wrinkle on them. It was unbelievably intense, but the more I worked with Ownie, the less my anxiety became. At that point, I couldn’t exactly call him a friend, but it was very clear to me that he wouldn’t be another Biklish, and I was grateful for that small victory.
Once we’d finished getting everything I needed to know and do at the dorm settled away, Ownie took me over to the chow hall to begin my first night of kitchen duty. From what I learned, kitchen duty was the responsibility of all Tier I potentials; those who were in their first six years at the academy. Both male and female divisions from various sects worked together in rotating shifts, three times a day. All the cooking, serving, and cleaning up after meals was done only by potentials; never the shepherds, which I felt was a little odd, yet everyone else seemed fine with. I had no choice but to get onboard with the way things were.
As we walked in, I noticed two other potentials from the home following around their respective trainers. They seemed as disoriented and confused as I was—drifting through the chaos with a fearful expression and eager to fit in as quickly as possible. I had to admit I was a little disappointed when I didn’t see Eeliyah there. I’d come to enjoy our walks from our brief time working in the High Fields, and now that those days were over, I felt a bit nostalgic about the little time we did have together.
“Now then, this is how it works here,” Ownie began as we stopped by a long row of hot well stations wafting tiny trails of steam through the small openings in their lids. “Depending on the schedule, both the boys and girls of our sect will work and eat with two, sometimes three other sects for that month. Then, the sects rotate. This is chow hall number four.” Ownie pointed up to a plaque on the wall by the entrance. “Next month, we might be working in a different chow hall, so make sure you check the schedule back in the dorm to know where you’r
e supposed to be when. Got it?”
I nodded.
“The serving line is always organized in order of oldest to youngest.” Ownie walked over to the long maze of ropes at the end of the hot wells to demonstrate. “All the potentials who are twenty-one line up here…boys first, then girls. Next, the potentials who are twenty, and so on. Once everyone has finished eating and goes back to their dorms, then and only then…do we get to eat what’s left over. Tonight is our special Festival of Ein banquet, so I’m guessing there won’t be as much left over as usual because it’s the one day of the year we actually get something decent to eat.”
I could tell by the tone in his voice that he was just as disappointed about the pecking order as I was, but he seemed to have already accepted it, so I knew I had no choice but to do the same.
“Put these on,” Ownie said as he handed me a long tan apron and a brown paper hat. The apron was so long it covered my feet, but then I watched Ownie pull the bottom half of his apron up toward his waist and tie the strings around it so he wouldn’t trip. I did the same with mine. When I was properly dressed, he took me to the kitchen and showed me around and what my responsibilities would be.
I learned quite a lot in those first few hours, but as time went on, the smell of the freshly cooked meats and baked pastries made my stomach growl painfully, as I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. It was torture to watch the food that I’d help prepare get wheeled out of the kitchen the moment it was finished, only to return as empty metal bins that I knew I was going to have to scrub and wash later on.
“Let’s go, people!” Shepherd Scullery howled, clapping loudly as he burst into the kitchen. He was a large man, round from decades of sampling his own creations, and right now he looked furious. “The other three chow halls are moving much faster than you are. Pick up the pace!”
“Yes, sir,” everyone groaned in unison.
“Listen to you all! No wonder you’re behind…you’re lazy! Worthless and lazy!” Scullery scoffed after hearing our unenthusiastic response. “Ownie!”
Burden of the Blessed Page 14
