4
"You okay?"
Dia checks on me soon as she reaches me.
"Yeah." I nod, avoiding any eye contact with anyone including her up to our supposed line.
On the field are the initiates line up as usual but for us non-potential, we are missing a count than we are supposed to.
"Where is Tris?" I ask Philip in front of our line but he answers me with a stare as if he is consoling someone. Ash is on his side. He is hiding underneath his hood but his sniff is apparent which tells me that he is quietly sobbing.
"Where's tris?"
I don't want to assume anything so I asked again, but at the same time, Maiden Ora voices us to be quiet which left me unanswered.
"Two decades. Two decades since our protectors set an example for us to put an end to dark morality. For all of us be guided to light. But then, someone neglected their sacrifices and studied void magicks herself."
The initiates around start buzzing towards one another. I once caught the smirk of Max towards us.
"I, myself, saw what these void advocates can accomplish to fulfill their cruel aim to lay down the law. " Maiden Ora continues as a young dame is being dragged up to the stage.
The sight of her faints everything perceivable to me. I even walk unconsciously, trying to confirm that those chocolate jagged, uneven edges and natural waves of short hair don't belong to Tris.
"Era." Philip clasps my arm and steps me back to our line. I can only hear my unstable panting and realized that I'm breathless the whole time after I saw Tris. She's still wearing her black robe, our own distinct clothing. But her accessories and piercings were gone, her quarter's definite peculiarity. Obviously, they took everything from her.
"Tris False." Maiden Ora speaks which confirms everything.
That name rings through my ear. Why? Why her?
"She has been studying void magicks and contacted spirits from the underworld–a demonstration of forbidden morals. The investigation of the quake led us to her. Yes, she is the cause of it." Maiden Ora stops and looks at Tris. "And now, she got possessed."
The crowd howls in amusement. It's their first time to behold this kind of apprehension but for us four, we are not. Professor Ton fueled us in the first place.
I look at Philip who is still on my side and weakly whispers what's on my mind. We know she didn't cause it.
"I know." Philip murmurs.
"She disobeys the Light Morals and that transgression inflicts damnation." Maiden Ora softly speaks that reverberates throughout the field.
"Behold this Light Supremacy."
The phrase chills and freezes me. Ash's sniff becomes heavy and constant.
"No." I escape.
Philip pats my back. He knows I'm furious. We feel the same way but we're useless to move for her.
Two maidens are holding her and place her at the centre of the stage. They put her on her knees, while all maidens start to circle her. Her chest moves frantically like before, when we were about to jump at the edge of a cliff. She's still the Tris I know... She's scared.
The maidens start to recite words we heard for the first time, later Tris' scream filled the field and I can't help myself not to run and breakout Philip's hold. But Tris suddenly stares at me, as if she knows what I'm about to do and then she nods implicating that I must stop and it's okay. She stopped me from moving before Professor Ton grabs me and pulls me on the side.
Tris' nod makes me think of her last words when she walked me to my dorm.
"Hey." She began. "No matter what happens, don't forget me."
"Have you done something–"
"No, just..." She stops and hesitates.
"What?"
"Remember you are the only person that I befriend with. The most honest person I've ever met. Of course, forgetting those guys." She says.
"You are saying weird things these days, what are you up to?"
"You know I'm a curious cat and a weirdo." She giggles.
"You sure are." I seconded.
"No-el." She whispers, squeezing my hands.
"Good night, weirdo. Bye." I say in advance.
"Bye, Era!" She shouts then walks away, waving at me.
"No-el." She mouths at last.
Her goodbye was real.
"Forever we'll be loyal..." the maidens chant now our daily prayers. "To the lawyers of Light Morals."
Tris' skin begins to glow but it is consuming every piece of her and the pain outcries through her broken voice.
"To Aire and to Our God."
In a flash, Tris vanishes, burned in a fierce fire that came from herself.
Professor Ton once lectured us how a man's dark soul devours its own life and I would not have thought that Tris will set an example for that.