“Better than I imagine it to be.” Lola answered loudly. “Even the wilderness of Alexandria is better than this prison.”
“Just say the words Master Perim and we will end her.” Kasco interrupted, eager to hurt Lola with his volcanic spells.
“Now now settle down.” Perim said, politely. “I would like to know why our runaway apprentice has returned so spontaneously. Tell me my dear Lola. What has brought you back to me? Was it too hard to live out in the world without the security that I provided you?”
“Like I said anywhere in Alexandria is better than this prison.” Lola answered annoyed and eager to finally curse him and take her belonging. “I simply came here to take the magic rod you have been hiding from me. The rod my father gave me. The rod that would have helped me awakened my powers at an earlier age. You know what I speak of.” Lola took another look at the apprentices that surrounded her. They did not take their eyes of her. They were ready to fire and burn her to ashes if Perim commanded them to. Lola was certain that Perim would not spare her. The danger made her heart pound faster with excitement.
“We rather do things in a peaceful manner.” Dougal said, his voice deep and cold. “However if you prefer violence then I will gladly spill the blood of these imbecile orphans.”
“Oh! I was wondering who the furry horn beast was.” Perim mocked and laughed. “I assumed Lola found herself a loyal pet. I had forgotten I turned you into an ugly beast for your attempt to steal my wonderful artifact. Dougal”
“The rod is not an artifact.” Lola snarled. “It belongs to my father. You lied to me Perim. You told me the rod had been lost but you held it all this time. I will now take it back with either words or with blood.”
For a moment there was silence. Lola glared up at Perim waiting for his response yet she expected no sympathy from him. It was worth a tried, she said to herself.
“My dear mage apprentices. Get rid of this runaway student who dares show her face in my courtyard. Rape her, beat her, cripple her, do with her what you will just make sure she never returns here again and don’t ruin my garden.” Perim spun and walked from the balcony to a room in the third floor.
“Are you satisfied?” Dougal asks Lola harshly wishing that for once she would listen to him. “At least we got to meet our old friends again. Aren’t you happy Dougal?”
“I will be happy when I see them turn to ash.” Dougal said with blue smoke coming from his maw.
“Enough talk!” Kasco yelled and without hesitation, from his bare hands he launched a ball of fire. Lola quickly slapped it away with her rod. The fire ball was heavy but she managed to push its weight. It reflects towards one of the apprentices to her left. The apprentice ceases the fire ball. Suddenly all the apprentices began to shoot fire at her from their rods. Twenty of them. They launched their flame at Lola and Dougal. Lola spun her rod with one hand and then swung it around her area capturing their flame and forcing it dance around her. They all launched fire at her but Lola’s skills were great. She could capture fire and manipulate it with her mana. She redirected their fire and shot it back at them.
Dougal dodge their fire rapidly. He was fast, fierce and a small target making it difficult to hit. He spat his blue flames, it seems as though he sneezed it from his maw. The blue flame bullet was too fast for some of Perim’s students. Some reflected it with their rods and some burned and screamed and panicked. Dougal pounced at them and bit their arms, legs and necks. “Have you become weaker or am I just too strong!” Dougal yell. “Blame it on your Master for turning me into this curse beast.”
Lola was busy with six of her old fellow apprentices. She reflected their spells. Some fell and their souls dropped to Necrovania. Lola cast a fire wall around herself and as they shoot fire her wall would grow larger and larger. “Hasn’t Master Perim taught you anything new?” She taunted them. “You were always a cocky little good for nothing brat Lola.” One of the female apprentices told her. Lola released her wall of fire. Her fire spread burning them, disarming them. Some knew how to defend themselves but had burned to death. Their skin melted off their flesh. Their clothes incinerated.
One of them ran behind Lola. She spun to cast a spell. “Pikan Fahiah!” She yelled. The daring apprentice had dipped and tackled her to the ground. She recognizes the boy. She remembers dueling him. He loved to fist fight and dare hit a girl. He throttled Lola and she gasped for air. “I got her!” The boy yelled alerting his comrades to take advantage. Lola struggled but she managed to hit him with the apex of her rod. She wacked him on the cranium hard enough to heard a thud. She kicked him off and got to her feet. She stomped on the boy and pointed her rod at him. “Pikan Ray!” She shouted. A red beam jetted from rod and pierced the heart of the boy.
“You monster!” Yelled another apprentice. It was girl that used to bully Lola when she first arrived at the mansion. “You have become a monster!” Yelled the girl.
“I will never be as good as you.” Lola responded. The girl launched the same spell on Lola. “Pikan Ray!” And Lola absorbs the spell with the ruby gemstone at the end of rod. Her rod absorbed all the mana from that one spell. The girl gasped in awe at Lola’s new skills. “Had you not bullied me I would have spared you.” Lola told the girl. Suddenly Lola’s eyes turned pale white as if she had become zombified. Her pupils became a vertical dash in her eyes. “Burn in the deepest pits of Necrovania. Harlot!” Lola thrust rod and a black foggy sphere left her rod and swirled in the air towards the girl that had bullied her in her youth. The sphere was unavoidable. It struck the girl and she immediate caught on fire. It was no ordinary fire. It was black fire. It burned quickly and consumed faster than regular fire. The black fire devours the girl and she screamed and squeal like a pig being slaughter. Within a few seconds the girl’s body was nothing but burning flesh and the black fire would not stop. Lola watched as the girl burned with a solemn face. Like watching the fireplace by a hearth with no emotions or facial expression. A part of Lola immediately felt regret and yet satisfied. She felt her hunger for revenge fading away.
“You will pay!” Lola heard Kasco shout from her right. She turned to face him. The time was perfect. Most of the other apprentices had either run away or died. Dougal had finished most of them. Burned bodies lie dead on the grass of the courtyard. Some of the statues by the entrance had caught fire. The garden by the front of the mansion had been utterly burned. Dougal growled at Kasco but Lola held her arm out to stop the wolf from making any moves. “He is mine, Dougal.”
“As you wish.” Said the wolf and stepped away from Lola and Kasco.
“You will pay for every life you have taken here today Lola.” Kasco threatened. “I will make sure you suffer for everything that you caused since the day you decided to run away from the very man that raised you with his love and security.”
“The way I see it. Death is better than this prison. Not only that but the boomerang is returning for all those times you made me suffer.” Lola’s voice was cold and deep. She said it as though she had been holding it for so long. “Remember how everyone in the mansion would humiliate me. The girls would steal my clothes and I would walk around naked around the mansion. They would hold me down and give me embarrassing haircuts. The boys would verbally abuse me. I was shy, timid, scared and on the edge of suicide. I would try to tell Master Perim about all that my fellow apprentices would do to me but he would either not believe me or everyone else would frame me. Had it not been for Dougal I would have killed myself. All you orphans are miserable children. Perim only uses you so that he can profit from the king.”
Kasco hesitated to speak but he remembers what his friends would make Lola go through. He was one of them. He felt fear slowly rising in his body. A chill moving up his spine that made him nervous to look at the Lola. “No one liked you. You were a brat. A liar and a….”
“Spare me the rubbish!” Lola bellowed not allowing Kasco to end his sentence. “Everyone in this cursed mansion is a liar. You are all too scared to leave thi
s mansion. Regardless of everything that Master Perim has given us, it was all for his own benefit if you know what I mean.”
“Shut up!” Kasco yelled launched a red beam at Lola. She quickly absorbed the spell with her rod. She drained Kasco’s mana. The spell ceased and Kasco stared at Lola with eyes filled with fear. He ran towards her and Lola shot a bullet of fire. Kasco deflected the spell and grabbed Lola by the neck. He knocked away her rod and throttles her. Dougal pounced at him to defend Lola but Kasco shot a red beam and pierced the wolf’s shoulder. The black wolf fell on the stone path of the courtyard. Dougal struggled to get up. He moaned and howled in pain. “Lola!” He yelled helplessly and limping.
“I won’t…die…by your hands…Kasco.” Lola gargled with Kasco’s hands tight on her neck. She felt her mana being drained by Kasco. He was using a draining spell. Fire magic ruled by the sun, the largest source of energy. Fire magic can also drain the energy of other living things and certain objects. Fire consumes and so does its spells. Lola was experiencing a dangerous and slick side of fire magic. She becomes weaker and not only does her body loses its strength to move and walk but she was also being stripped of her mana. Lola did not fear such spells. She was aware of the power of fire having studied it for so long but she had an even more powerful weapon that she had fused with her new powers.
“You…will…burn…with the flames…of …Necrovania.” She gargled. Kasco saw Lola’s eye’s change. Zombified pale white eyes with a vertical dash for pupils. He noticed fangs in Lola’s teeth as she clenched her jaw. Suddenly his tunic caught fire. It was no regular fire of volcanic red colors but black fire that crackled and consumed his clothes. It was a terrifying sight. It was as though darkness itself was trying to devour him.
He let go of Lola, freeing her. He tried to stop the fire but it quickly burned his clothes. He dropped and rolled on the grass. The grass then caught on fire and the black fire spread even more. The grass only stoked the flames. Kasco screamed desperately and squealed with pain. He then rolled on to the cobblestone path trying to stop the flames but it was futile. Lola and Dougal watched him burn with stones in their heart. No expression on their face but a cold stare like that of a statue.
“He always did think he was the best.” Dougal remarked in a low tone as he watched his old rival burn. “I only wished it was my fire that burned him.” Then finally Kasco’s screams ended and his soul fell to Necrovania with the rest of his friends. Lola called back the black fire and her eyes returned to normal.
“It did not have to be this way you know.” Lola said voice low with regret.
“You prefer they burn you alive.” Dougal replied. “You saw what they were going to do to us. It was kill or be killed. Don’t get soft on me now. We are going to need that rage of yours today. Better yet your tantrum.”
“You know me too well.” Lola smiled and surveyed the courtyard. Dozens of them lay dead on the floor. Bodies burned to crisped flesh and ashy bones. I only wanted an apology but they wanted blood. She turns away and heads for the front door of the mansion. Dougal walked by her side.
At the front door Lola grasped the knob and slowly twisted it as if she was nervous. What kind of traps awaits us, she thought. They hate me. They all know I am here. There are more of them waiting to kill me under Perim’s command. Except you Jazelle. I hope you are still on my side. I will spare you. No. I will take you with me. She pushed the door and Dougal leapt into the spacious lobby. There was no one in sight. Lola slowly walked in, all sense awake, her guard highly raised. The mansion’s lobby had two snakes of stairs elevating up. Everything was in maroon, dark blues, blacks and different shades of reds. Black Chandeliers of candles hanged from above. The carpet in which she stood had designs of flames and illustrations of mages holding fire. Paintings of Perim hanged on the walls and other portraits of people related to him. “He is obsessed with himself” Lola whispered.
“When had he not?” Dougal added pacing around the lobby gazing at the decorated ceiling.
Memories slithered into Lola’s mind. Four years in this place. Sure Perim had provided her with shelter, food, a bed and trained in the arts of fire. She remembers being pushed down the stairs by Lynn. She remembers being chased around the mansion by the boys. She remembers how scared she was of her own roommates. She would tell Perim of how the others would treat him but all he would say was. “Don’t worry they will be punished” and never bothered to stopped the bulling. Since Lola was the only outcast Perim did not pay much attention to the bullying around the house. He kept most of his apprentices under control and heed mostly to his favorite students. Lola was depressed most of the time. She felt imprison even though she lived in a luxurious home. She would spend most of the time reading in the library or hiking in the misty woods. Back then she thought about escaping but she feared being by herself. She was afraid of being rape and unable to survive by herself. She depended heavily on the support Perim gave by living in the mansion. Her father was dead and she never knew her mother. Lola always wanted to escape but she promised herself she would do it when the time was right. When her magic was powerful enough to defend herself against anyone who would try to harm her.
The only person she felt safe around was Dougal. In the mansion they would read books together, practice their magic together and tell stories at night. The rest of the apprentices would chatter and spread rumors about the two of them.
They were all orphans. Children who lost their family at a young age. Perim found them and took them as his own children. He had the wealth and security to protect and raise them all. However Lola soon found out that Master Perim was building an army of mages. An army that he could profit from by doing missions for the chancellors, the kings, wealthy associates and aristocrats. Lola discovered Perim’s secrets.
Soon Kasco caught her sneaking into Perim’s dormitory and looking through his scrolls and his journals. Kasco tried to blackmail her. He threatened her and made a deal that scarred Lola permanently. Kasco told her that she must lay in bed with him or else she would tell Master Perim of her sneaking around his bedroom. Perim was sure to exile her or any student that entered his room. It was forbidden and Lola knew she had nowhere else to go. She did not have the confidence to survive on her own. She lie in bed with Kasco against her will. She remembers how painful it was and the thought of that bastard Kasco taking away her purity. Lola did not sleep for days after that night. However it was that night that made her stronger. It was after that corrupting experience that she decided to become stronger and stand up to Master Perim. It was after that night that she began to awaken her hidden powers.
Lola went up the stairs confidently and fearlessly. She knew there were more of them ready to kill her. She gazed up at the top of the stairs and saw Lynn with three other apprentices standing by her side. “The brat brunette. Lola Raven.” Lynn mocked. She stood with one hand on her waist and a rod on the other. Her eyes narrow leering at Lola as her rival went up the stairs. “You know, black hair is rare in the country of Alexandria. You were always the black sheep and you are still the same little crying brat. Kasco should have blackmailed you that night but instead he wanted to taste your naked beauty.”
“Shut up!” Lola bellowed. “Three years ago you would me push down these stairs and humiliate me in front of everyone. But today I will smite you asunder.”
“Smite me she says.” Lynn repeated with a cocky tone and a confident postured. “I will enjoy slapping the ugliness out of you once more.”
Lola pointed with her rod about to cast a spell but then her eyes bloomed with awe at the unforeseen retaliation. Lynn’s rod chirped with sparks and suddenly a ray of lightning bolted from her rod. The lightning hit the apex of Lola’s rod, she tried to absorb Lynn’s spell as she would with fire but the energy was highly irritating. She could not handle the aggression of Lynn’s lightning spell so she redirected the spell and shot it to the ceiling. Chandeliers fell from above to the first floor in pieces. Rubble and large rocks fell from t
he ceiling leaving a hole.
Lola’s body became stiff and moving her muscles hurt. She had never seen anyone in the mansion learn lightning. Perim never taught anything but fire magic. How had Lynn learned this spell? Lola had never dealt with lightning spells but she knew it was in the fire category though she never bothered to learn it herself.
Lynn ran down the stairs and kicked Lola with high heels boots. Lola fell and rolled down the stairs just like she did three years ago. “Just like the good old days my dear raven.” Lynn mocked and laughed. Dougal pounced with blue smoke leaving his maw. Lynn strikes him with her rod fused with lightning. Dougal took the hit and flew outside of the staircase. One of Lynn’s friends shot a bullet of fire at Dougal once he hit the ground.
“Master Perim will surely punish us for ruining the mansion like this.” Said one of Lynn’s friends.
“Worry not. This damage can be easily fixed. Master Perim only cares that we get rid of this ugly broad.” Lynn replied and paced towards Lola. “Didn’t see that coming did you?” Lynn said with a wide smirk as she walked down the stairs staring at Lola. “Master Perim only teaches his lightning spell to his most trusted apprentice. With fire magic one can create lightning but I am sure you know that already. Ugly black hair raven.”
Lola chuckled as she stood up. Her legs wobbled and her muscles stiffened. She chuckled with a smile showing her fangs. Her eyes changed again. Zombified white pale eyes with a vertical dash for pupils.
“What are you laughing at raven?” Lynn asked annoyed pointing her rod at Lola.
“Raven.” Lola repeated. “That is the name Perim gave me because of my black hair compare to everyone else. Blondes, red heads and brown heads and I was the only black hair girl in the mansion. Is that why you all bullied me? Are you so prejudice? Is black hair so rare in Alexandria that it means an omen to you?” Lola got to her feet, she stood up with her legs and arms trembling. “I am no longer Lola Raven. You can now call me Lola The Black.”
Tales Of Lola The Black Page 3
