88808, 88809, 88810, 88811, 88812, 88813, 88814, 88815, 88816, 88817, 88818, 88819, 88820, 88821, 88822, 88823, 88824, 88825, 88826, 88827, 88828, 88829, 88830, 88831, 88832, 88833, 88834, 88835, 88836, 88837, 88838, 88839, 88840, 88841, 88842, 88843, 88844, 88845, 88846, 88847, 88848, 88849, 88850, 88851, 88852, 88853, 88854, 88855, 88856, 88857, 88858, 88859, 88860, 88861, 88862, 88863, 88864, 88865, 88866, 88867, 88868, 88869, 88870, 88871, 88872, 88873, 88874, 88875, 88876, 88877, 88878, 88879, 88880, 88881, 88882, 88883, 88884, 88885, 88886, 88887-
Pausing, I stared up dizzily to what I waited me the second I took the last step of the pathway up Draki Mountain, finding countless eyes on me, all probably thinking the same bloody thing, looking at my hair and thinking of the bloodline I belong to, the bloody past of my family.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped up on the top of the mountain, "88888," I whispered under my breath, refusing to collapse even if that's what my entire body is screaming for. Forcing myself to stand up, feeling sweat only starting to glisten my skin now, since I'm painfully used to extreme temperatures like this heat, I took my bottle from my bag, hands almost shaky, chest heaving. Opening the life of the bottle I took three of the four remaining sips, each enough to half fill my mouth.
"Hah, seems like you really are a Madalverel," I heard an elderly voice, female, "you're the 888th and you got here as the 280th," she exclaimed, "Grace!"
Jaw clenched tight, I tried to put myself together, the tiredness of my limbs taking a tool on me. Taking eight steps into the top and further away from the edge of the damn cliff, I sat down, looking up at the woman, trying to see if I recognize her ebony black skin, her sharp features, big doe ocean blue eyes, or her buzzed silver hair. I don't think I've ever seen her before.
She says I'm the 280th, that means 608 kids died for me to take the spot, if added to the 350 that died between me, Percy and Barbie, that's 958 dead from the top 1240 out of 11111. If only 8888 will survive, a total of 2223 will die. If that many already died, that means 1265 are still to die. Had this been happened before, the old me would have felt a little bit of compassion for them, but not anymore, everyone cheered when my family was brutally murdered by those who now sit in power, they could all fucking die for all I fucking care.
It's a pity that Sage didn't die, though I knew he wouldn't. Annoying.
"Grace?" The woman called for me.
"Yes, ma'am?" I huffed, holding onto my backpack and putting my bottle back in it to keep the last sip for when I make through that damned hanging bridge, I'll have my water as a reward, because that will be fucking hard, it'll kill more of us than the climbing did and is still doing. Eight thousand will die trying to cross it, while those fucking young dragons will be having fun. "Who are you again?"
She smiled mischievously, "I am Gléowyn Celebrimbor."
Oh, "My mother's academic rival," I mumbled, hating all of this.
"Did she talk about me?" Her eyebrows rose softly, surprised.
"Yes," I clenched my jaw, staring at my hands, "she admired your power for being able to rival her in here," sigh, fuck, I hate talking about this. "It was quite the hard feat to make when she was in her highest." By my peripheral vision, I saw as Barbie and Percy got to the top, both shaking and clearly scared, running more than ten steps into the top and collapsing in the ground, their legs probably nearly falling off with tiredness. "Commander of the 4th Watch Tower at westernmost."
"My oldest son Léofred, took my position late spring after I got injured in battle, I am now a mester in Arkhane," she exclaimed. "You look cool after it all."
They probably expected to see me pathetically fainting afterwards, "Hm."
"You're not even sweating, Marena was dripping with sweat back then."
Is she trying to provoke me bringing mom up? "With all due respect, I am not my mother, Master Celebrimbor," I said through clenched teeth. "Besides, you must know very well that I'm far too used to extreme temperatures after all I was put through," in the void, that may have felt like 2 years to them, but to me it was way, way, way fucking longer than that, each minute here was a year of suffering in there, and none of them would have fucking survived it. "Mother wasn't."
It all ended in a December.
Then came the six months of torture in their hands.
After breaking me in a way I'll never be able to rebind back, as they were not satisfied with how I had kept my mouth shut about the secrets my mother passed down to me per the tradition of our bloodline that goes from firstborn daughter to firstborn daughter, they opened the veil of the void and threw me in it.
When they took me out of it, two years ago, I was an empty shell of who I had once been, I was burnt beyond where their eyes could see, the void poisoned my veins and my very soul, in an endless suffering that lasted 525,600 years to me, something that not even the strongest of the dragons could withstand, something that lasted long enough to corrupt the very chemistry of my fucking bones. I was only able to keep a thread of sanity inside of me because I counted every second of it, every minute, every day, every month, every year.
The number that rolled out of my lips when the veil was opened again by the ones responsible for doing this to me was 276,255,360,000, as I counted the endless seconds in my mind, I kept myself function by saying the minutes out loud. Dividing that for the amount of minutes in a day out here, and then for the amount of day in a year out here, it handed me 525,600 years, because each minute out here is a year in the void. Two years out here, nothing.
As they intended, my power was dormant because of the antimatter of the void, that corrupts what was holy, such as the magic we're born with. When I came back after crossing the portal they opened to get me out, I was catatonic and so, they threw me in a facility for mentally ill and unstable people under Von Damme. I was then an orphan, and it took me 6 months of recuperation to be able to act like a normal human being and not a fucking freak, as they took me for, and they were not kind to me, they were evil, but the pain they tried to inflict on me was nothing close to what I had gone through, I was left numb.
On the 7th month after my return, I learned about what the perpetrators of my trauma had done to my baby siblings, wiping out their memories and separating them, throwing them in different parts of the Empire. That was enough for me to ignore all my pain and guilt and focus on what mattered, which was finding them, getting them together, recuperating their memories, and keeping them safe as their older sister. But for that, I needed what the scribes had hidden: their location.
The scribes are a division of the Von Damme scholars, so, I decided to go to them, for that, I focused on studying everything I could get my hands on in the facility under Von Damme, all I could do to pass the test for the College. There, I planned to climb the ladder for the first two years, and to use the connections I'd gather by the third year to get a way into the scribes archives. But the Emperor and his disgusting underlings knew what I was doing, what I wanted, and he didn't want me to get to them, probably scared that I'll get their memories back and get together with them for revenge.
That wasn't it, even if I did and do want revenge, I won't go for it, because my siblings are my priority and my enemies know where they are, they could hurt them, could torture them like they tortured me, I can't let that happen. My siblings are innocent, and I won't let them be used by them to get the information they want from me, that also cannot happen, I'll never break my mom's trust on this after all the disgrace I brought to our bloodline. But now that's out of my reach.
In the worse scenario, the void interference inside me will make so all the dragons will avoid me and I'll be left behind, doomed to repeat year 1, incessantly, and my siblings won't even come to Arkhane War or Von Damme Colleges. In the best scenario, I'll get a bloody dragon, get through the years, and our blood will run thicker than water, making my siblings fated to be picked for the Arkhane War College in two and four years from now, when I'll be in the 3rd and 5th year. That would get them under my sight, and I would be able to work to get their memories back again, even if I didn't want it to go like this.
To make it worse, students in Arkhane can only go outside in the 3rd year, once I get through that fucking bridge, I'll be imprisoned here for 3 years.