Of Noble Chains (The Ventori Fables)

by Miles, D. L.

  Everyone was looking at me now, some with curiosity as to how I knew the answer and some with annoyance that a human knew more than them. It’s not like I actually knew though, I had just guessed.

  “Succubus,” I said again, barely any louder than before. I kept my eyes down, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone in the room. It was a little strange that I was right, I supposed.

  “Please, louder so everyone can hear,” the doctor’s smile grew wider. Was he enjoying my discomfort or the fact that a human was right about something for once? I guessed it was the latter. I didn’t like talking loudly, or even talking much at all so I looked to Luke and he knew what to do.

  “Succubus,” he said loudly, “Cleopatra was a succubus.” The fact that Luke answered for me seemed to throw the doctor, whose endless smile finally faltered.

  “Uh, correct,” he beamed, “Cleopatra was indeed a succubus. Ms… plus one, would you mind telling us how you knew and perhaps your real name?” He chuckled to himself, amused.

  “Just guessed,” I said, “it seemed obvious.” Luke repeated my answer but never said what my name was, probably because I didn’t tell him to.

  “You just guessed?” Dr. Wineman seemed surprised, enough so that he forgot to ask for my name. I nodded at him, confirming the truth. “Well, an excellent guess it was! But how did you arrive at the answer? There are a lot of creatures out there to choose from, why succubus? Most people don’t even know what a succubus is. And to know at your age…” Why did the doctor want me to explain so much? I inhaled deeply through my nose.

  “Cleopatra was known for her beauty and seducing men at a young age,” I explained, not trying to be heard, “she was also ruthless when it came to killing and backstabbing. Seemed obvious.” Luke didn’t repeat anything this time and the doctor seemed happy with the answer. Then again, he seemed happy all the time; it seemed out of place with his greying hair and distinguished reputation.

  “Very good!” he clapped his hands and began to wander around the room again. “Cleopatra is only one of many famous, or infamous I should say, people in history that were not actually human. How about you all shout out some names and I’ll tell you if they were human or not.” He stuck both hands towards the crowd and flicked his fingers towards himself. For a moment everyone was silent but it quickly changed.

  The crowd began shouting names, most of them celebrities; the doctor ignored them.

  “Nixon!” One man yelled from the center row and Dr. Wineman pointed at him, a large grin on his face.

  “Excellent choice young man,” he said to quiet the others down, “Nixon was in fact human.” Some people laughed, while others were surprised.

  “Hitler!” Another man said from the other side of the room. Not an imaginative bunch here, they were just going for the obvious. The doctor laughed, most likely thinking what I was. It made me wonder how many times he had to go through the same people in this class.

  “Adolph Hitler was human,” he said and some people groaned, “but he did know of demons. He summoned one and sold his soul. Can anyone guess what for?”

  “Power?” the same man who suggested Hitler said. Dr. Wineman shook his head. Other people began suggesting money, world domination, an army. No imagination what so ever.

  “Probably charisma,” I breathed quietly, not thinking the doctor would hear me again. I thought wrong.

  “Correct!” He shouted and pointed once more at me. Suddenly all eyes were on me again. I shrunk a little in my seat, making a mental note not to say anything else. “Hitler had summoned a demon and sold his soul for charisma. Another guess?” I gave a weak smile and shrugged. He eyed me a moment before moving on. “Two more and then we’ll continue!”

  “Elvis!” The woman in the front row said.

  “Yes!” Dr. Wineman said, “Elvis was in fact not human. He was a Satyr. Some of you may be thinking that doesn’t make sense, but it does.” He tilted his head, thoughtful. “Satyr’s are most known for being half man, half goat. I’m sure most you of are aware that Elvis was not this. Over time the Satyr’s evolved, shedding their half goat appearance and Elvis was the one Satyr in a million that didn’t party like his kind or lust after women. One more and then we move on!” I was a little surprised the doctor didn’t elaborate on what had happened after Elvis died.

  I began to contemplate over Elvis the Satyr. Satyrs were immortal beings weren’t they? So then he really didn’t die, he was still alive, somewhere; which would explain all the supposed sightings of him, or at least most of them. Crazy would have explained them better pre-revolution. My eyes began to drift upwards again as I became lost in thought, thinking about immortality. Luke gave me another elbow to the ribs to pay attention.

  “Amelia Earhart,” said the girl in front of me. She didn’t shout like the others, in fact, she was rather quiet. That didn’t stop Dr. Wineman from hearing her though.

  “Ah, Ms. Earhart,” he said, “she is a mystery, even to us.” By “us” he must have meant Eidolon’s. I found it interesting that even they didn’t know what had happened to her. Unless they did know, and they just didn’t want anyone else to figure it out. I wasn’t going to be surprised if it turned out she wasn’t human, or her disappearance had anything to do with Eidolon’s.

  “Let’s continue on then,” the doctor said as he walked over to the projector. He began to fumble with it, confused as to how it worked; like all teachers were. Next to me Luke pulled out a small note pad, ready to take down anything he thought should be remembered. Apparently the fact that Cleopatra and Elvis weren’t human was not note-worthy to him.

  “Do you have a pen?” he asked me, not as prepared as I had given him credit for. I reached into my handbag and handed him a purple gel pen. He grimaced and I gave a small smirk to myself, still watching Dr. Wineman work on the projector. “Thanks.”

  I had a feeling this was going to be a long three hours and an even longer six weeks.

  The Warden in the Gates, the first two chapters:

  Discover the world of the Wardens and follow Des as she tries to escape her “destiny”

  Prologue

  The Warden that had to Die

  My Placement was the most anticipated day of my life, as it was for everyone else that lived inside the gated community of Eclipse. But when I woke up that morning I had never anticipated how it would end; the day of my placement was the day I died.

  Everything had gone according to my plan. I woke up, had breakfast with my mother and father, and then left for Eclipse Academy, my future home away from home. I had helped set everything up with the seniors, preparing the chairs in the auditorium for my future classmates, putting signs around the school should anyone get lost and I even got to watch my father place out the Runes for the ceremony.

  And despite the fact that my father was the Dean of the Academy I waited with my friends in the auditorium and we squealed over what our placement might be. Honestly though, I knew where I would be.

  My name was called, and I had my ceremony and I was placed. My parents had never been more proud of me. I had never been so happy in my life, and to celebrate, I decided to show my five-year-old cousin just what I was capable of.

  I didn’t think I would really do anything; I had originally planned on doing a magic trick, pretend like I was growing a flower out of the ground and when she wasn’t looking carefully enough, I would slip one from my hand to amaze her. I had never thought that something would actually grow, merely an hour after my placement.

  My cousin, Desdemona, had screamed in delight over the small tulip I brought forth. Both my father and my uncle stood behind me, jaws dropped. Even mine was hanging open. But that wasn’t where it ended.

  My darling little cousin, with her big grey eyes and golden hair, wanted to show me what she could do as well.

  “You haven’t been placed yet, Dessy,” my father told her, “you can’t do anything just yet.”

  “Can so!” She pouted and stepped away from me. She t
hrew her arms into the air and took a deep breath. Somehow, she had managed to take the attention away from the flower I had created, and we all laughed at how cute she was. Until a cloud appeared overhead.

  Quickly and violently, black clouds erupted above us. My father was already pulling me backwards towards my uncle’s house while Desdemona stayed on the lawn. It wasn’t long until the first flake fell.

  Millions of snowflakes followed after, blowing around in the harsh breeze around my tiny cousin, who was still dancing around in her sundress. She loved the snow, she always had and that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing now if it wasn’t the middle of August.

  And soon the snow stopped falling, leaving us to stare at Desdemona. She was giggling and kicking the white fluff around in the yard, perfectly happy with what she had done. That was when we noticed it.

  On her foot, just at the base of her ankle, sat a swooping line; a mark that had never been seen before. I had never seen it at least.

  “Allie,” my father said. “Come with me.”

  It was only a few hours after the incident that I had died. I had to die though, because of what I had witnessed. This was the only way I could protect her, my little Dessy. This was the only way she would be safe…until she turned sixteen at least.

  Chapter 1:

  The Warden in Disguise

  “What do you think it’s like?” Anna flicked her wavy red locks behind her, drawing the eyes of the crowd that shuffled past us. I pulled at the edges of my shirt, feeling as if the people were watching me; they weren’t. Anna was what they couldn’t look away from.

  Standing at 5’10” with long, shining hair and legs that seemed to go on forever Anna was incredibly popular with the guys and oddly enough with girls as well. I, on the other hand, lived in her shadow. Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t care less if I lived there, she was my best friend. I just wished people would stop saying that to me, since nothing in this world could make me resent her. But still, everyone asked if I was jealous of her. I wasn’t.

  “Des?” Anna asked, taking her eyes from the colourful baubles on the tablecloth before us. The Solar Festival was always filled with the best baubles that seemed like a good idea when bought but were absolutely pointless when taken home. Still, I had a tradition of buying one every year, keeping them together since I was about three years old. This year I was hoping to find a nice set of wind chimes, preferably ones that had birds on them.

  “What?” I picked up a small dragonfly necklace and inspected it under the midday sun. It glinted in the rays, reflecting a rainbow onto the cloth beneath it. I had a hint as to what Anna was talking about but I wasn’t absolutely sure.

  “EA!” she exclaimed. “Remember? The school, that we’re going to, in, like, less than a month?” My eyes widened, as did the woman’s behind the table. She began to wave someone over, bracelets jingling against her skin, but I didn’t stay to find out who.

  “Shut up Anna!” I threw the necklace down and yanked her away from the booth, dragging her to a quiet spot on the sidewalk. Hunched over to avoid any eavesdroppers her red hair mixed with my own blonde strands in the air. “Do you want to get expelled before we’re even placed?”

  “Oh, come on.” Anna rolled her eyes. “Nobody here cares.”

  “Well obviously you didn’t see how that woman reacted back there,” I said, thrusting my thumb behind me. “She looked like she was about to—“

  “Call her son over to get him to ask one of us out? Yeah, that happens all the time to EA students. We might as well get used to it while we can!” Anna shoved me off of her, walking back to look at more jewellery. Roasting in the heat of the sun, I followed after her, not wanting to lose her like I had every other year. I was not going to lose her to Eli again.

  Anna and I had both turned sixteen this year, which meant we were being given acceptance into Eclipse Academy, one of the most prestigious academy’s in the…well in most of the world. Yes, it had sister schools on other continents but we were still considered better. Oh, look at that, I was already thinking “we”. And like Anna, I was just as excited to get in; this was the moment I had been waiting for all my life.

  I thought most teenagers would hate having to transfer schools at sixteen, but since everyone that went into EA was previously homeschooled nobody cared. Anyone that went to EA lived in the Eclipse gated community, sitting on the edge of the actual town, Eclipse. Well, I guess you could say that the town Eclipse was on the edge of the gated community. Or even both sat on the outskirts of the academy. Nobody really knew how it worked so most assumed the town came first; they were wrong.

  This whole town was built in the middle of a forest, around the school a little over a century ago, with the founding families living within the gated community. Anyone living outside the gate we labelled as commoners; a nickname that made us sound mean, but when compared to us, they really were common. Not that they knew the real reason we called them common, though.

  “Hey, over here,” Anna called as she waved me over to view a sidewalk artist drawing an immense scene on the concrete. It appeared he was starting some sort of waterfall there, using the chalk in ways I couldn’t even imagine; it looked like we were about to fall into the water. We stood on the side so as to not get in the artists way and to allow some other people to watch too.

  “You really shouldn’t advertise about that,” I scolded, “not everyone in town is super accepting to it. Besides, if you brag too much they’ll kick you and you won’t get Placed.” I tried to stress the seriousness of not getting Placed, or being taken out of Eclipse Academy; something that brought immense shame to your family. I had never heard of anyone not getting Placed, but Anna tended to be the first person to do…well, anything really. She had been first to join a commoners soccer team, date a commoner (only two dates but it was unheard of), and she had been the first person to get a job (something which lasted as long as the commoner boy).

  “Oh, you know where I’m gonna get Placed.” Anna laughed. “Everyone in my family has been in…they’ve all been in the same section so I will totally get in there too.” I grimaced, knowing that there was more to it than that.

  EA had seven defined sections, which usually went down into four because they were all called something different in other places; everyone still stayed with their original section members, from what I heard and when you graduated you just stuck with the seven still. The school halls were divided among the four, ensuring less contact with the others. All of Anna’s family had been put in the Vale section, also known as the “easy section”. I had a feeling Anna would be put somewhere else, but I wasn’t about to tell her that, to get her hopes up and be wrong.

  “Still, you can’t talk around the commoners,” I said. A group of people next to me shot me a glare, not liking their nickname. “It’s against the school rules.”

  “We haven’t even gone to orientation,” Anna mentioned with a roll of her eyes. “What am I going to say that won’t get me Placed?”

  “You’ll say something, I’m sure,” came a voice from behind us. We turned to see Elijah strutting towards us, hands in his jean pockets. A few common girls watched him come towards us until somebody elbowed one of them in the ribs, telling her we were soon to be EA students; they immediately walked off, not even making eye contact. They were always like that, as soon as they realized you lived within the gates. Their parents or even grandparents wanted their kids involved with the gated community, but the actual teenagers didn’t think so.

  “You’re not funny, Eli,” I said, “this isn’t something to joke about!”

  Eli held his hands up. “Sorry, sorry. But Des is right, Anne. Let’s stop talking about it before a senior comes and beat us up EA style.”

  All of us knew what “EA style” was, thankfully nobody around us would.

  “Agreed,” I breathed. I didn’t want to risk not getting Placed, not when there were only two and a half weeks till Placement. “Did you guys want to go on the Ferris w
heel?”

  “That’s for two people only,” Elijah told me. He feigned a pout, probably already knowing how this would end.

  “That’s the point.” I arched my eyebrows, telling him I wanted to hang out with Anna alone today. He didn’t take the hint and followed us over to the line.

  It took less than thirty seconds to reach the front, and I had assumed that Anna and I would ride together and Elijah would ride with someone else. I assumed wrong.

  Sitting on the plastic chair I crossed my arms with a huff. Some best friend she was, leaving me to sit with a commoner. Waiting in line was a group of them, each one whispering with small glances at me. Perfect, now I was becoming a spectacle because nobody wanted to sit with me. Once I started classes I would never leave the safety of the gates, I was certain.

  “Pick someone already,” the gruff ride operated ordered and the group shoved one forward. A tall boy slid his feet on the ground before reluctantly approaching me. He took a seat next to me, grimacing the whole time; I tried not to care, since I was doing the same.

  “Let’s get this over with,” he grumbled, “you aren’t exactly who I wanted to be at the top with.” I laughed as the ride operator secured the bar in front of us.

  “Hey, I don’t want to be here with you either.” The car behind us erupted with “oohs”.

  “Yo Des!” Elijah cheered. “Better be careful, he looks frisky.” The boy groaned and covered his eyes, leaning on the side. I did the same.

  While we made our rotation I noticed that my unwanted companion was watching in front of us, gripping the silver bar with his left hand too tightly. I followed his line of vision to see a couple that he had been with in line, inching closer and closer together.

  “You wanted to be with her, then?” I asked, hoping a bit of conversation would make the ride go faster. Though I did tend to look down on anyone that I didn’t grow up with, I wasn’t opposed to conversing with them about more normal things. Talking with them allowed me to get a better perspective of their lives, basically teaching me how to blend in easier. It was a valuable learning experience for when I graduated.