Four months had passed since I learned the Star Rage. During those months my skill and strength has seen a qualitative improvement. I am now able to last five minutes against the sparring doll, although I still have not been able to hit her, never mind beating her.
I wondered if the speed of my improvement was natural and First stated that the dormant shimmer in me was the reason of the speed of growth. She also said that the rate of growth will increase further when I am able to awaken my shimmer and circulate it throughout my body. Once my shimmer is active, using tian will give me enhanced strength but without a chalice, I would burn through all of it and would just be wasting it.
In the half year that I've known First, I have gotten used to her presence. My apartment seems empty without her now. She rests languidly on the lounge chair that she made. She is dressed in a sky blue off-shoulder sun dress her white hair tied into a messy bun. Her beauty no longer surprises me but I still find myself staring every now and then. Even while sparring my eyes are drawn to her figure.
My horizontal slash missed the doll's neck causing me to lose my balance. It takes advantage of my mistake and sweeps me of my feet with a low spinning sweep. I land hard on my back and the doll aims it's sword at my neck. "Pay attention Faye! you can't be distracted during combat. Without focus you will meet a early grave." First scolds.
"You must block out all the useless thoughts in your head, and concentrate on the information the enemy in from of you provides. sense their movements, the contracting of their muscle fibers, the beat of their heart, the vibrations of their steps as they run towards you." she adds.
I stab my sparring sword into the mat and used it as leverage to stand up, wiping the sweat off my brow.
"I can't do that! that's way to advanced for me and besides does the doll even have a heart to hear?" she glowered at me
"That doesn't matter, the point I'm trying to make is there are better things to be focusing on than my appearance. like parrying your opponent's blade"
Embarrassed, I lifted my sword into a inside left stance and face the doll once again. The doll met me with a low guard. we circled each other, watching to see who would attack first. Impatient I sprint towards her opening the fight with a thrust. she easily parried my blade to the right and sent a thrust to my face in return. I duck under her weapon and swung horizontally at her ribs.
She parried my blade once again and sent me stumbling back with three consecutive sword strikes. I swung my sword diagonally at her face to break the rhythm of her attacks. She flipped backwards avoiding it while kicking me in the chin. I held my aching jaw as she gamboled around me.
"fuck! that hurts!"
The doll sprinted towards me with her sword raised. I stab at her missing as she pirouette around me and slashed at me horizontally. I lean back barely dodging the attack. she attacks me as I struggle to righten myself.
"Don't rush forward blindly, there is a rhythm to her movements. you must find it." First chimes.
The doll assault me with a storm of strikes keeping me on the defensive. She dismantled my guard as if she was ripping through paper. She aims a horizontal strike at my neck. I slide under it and used the momentum to land a hit on her waist, It connects.
"I finally hit her?" I muttered in surprise. I turned to see if First saw what happened and she stared with a frown on her face. Behind me, I hear steps running and turned around. I see the doll with her right leg raised above her head, when I realized the danger I was in, I was kicked in the top of my head knocking me out cold.
*****
It happened again. Another kid was adopted by some random person. The caretakers always makes a big deal of how being adopted is such a great thing, but I'm not stupid. The kids that leave aren't seen again. They refuse to let us visit them and none of our letters get responded to. Every time one of us get chosen the orphanage gets a generous "donation" and we get to eat a little better.
I'm not stupid, donations only happens when one of us leaves, so those bastards were selling us. The orphanage is four floors tall with about fifteen rooms on each floor. There was a old rusty play ground in the back of it and a small shed filled with books as a library. The technology was out of date and the lights barely worked and anything new belonged to the caretakers. There were about fifty of us living there along with twenty caretakers.
The floors were wooden and the walls were a blue plaster. There was three public bathrooms on each floor. was only one sanitation tube, so we all had to rush to clean ourselves first. The top two floors was reserved only for the caretakers, we weren't allow there unless we were sent to the punishment room. Since the caretakers took up two floors the kids had to be two a room.
The spare rooms was left empty in case more orphans arrived. the was a cafeteria and a assembly hall on the first floor
The building was shaped in a U around a parking lot in front of it with a electric fence around the perimeter. Free Sky Orphanage was painted in blue hologram on a arc shape sign above the front entrance.
I stare at the exit gate as the hovercraft that Charlis was in drove off. She had been at Free sky as long as I have and this will be the last time I see her. I wasn't very close to her but it is still sad to see her go. All of the caretakers had shit eating grins on their faces as they left, all except Miss Kathrine. She seemed close to tears as she watched Charlis leave.
"Finally! she's been here far too long" Indira said amused. "She had been a strain on our pockets causing all sorts of chaos."
Indira was the one who controlled the cafeteria. She was a fifty year old woman with graying blond hair. she wore a black dress with buttons running up her back and a lace collar. A lanyard carried a hologram card with her face and name on it. She wastes her money on rejuvenation surgery to make herself look younger, because of this her face looks like a twenty year old. The rest of her still old and decrepit.
"Agreed. She was far too feisty to have any fun with her" Aloes barked mockingly. Aloes was a tall man with a twig like appearance wearing a white t-shirt and jeans and greasy black hair and black eyes. He had a habit of being too handsy with the kids, he disgusts me. He smiled and turned towards Kathrine.
"You raised her from a baby, huh Kathrine?" She glared at him. Aloes laughed and raised his hands "Alright, alright, if looks could kill I'd be dead by now. I know how much you care for the little brats"
He walked closer and put his arm around her shoulders and whispered loudly in her ear. "Don't act innocent. If you truly cared so much about them you would have been left by now. The warden told you not to get attached but you never listen."
Kathrine tried to push him away but he tighten his grip on her "Lucky for you, I'm a gentleman. I can't stand idle when a woman is in distress." he moved his hand down to her lower back. "If you want a baby so much, I'm happy to oblige." His hand jerked down and grabbed her butt.
Kathrine yelped and shoved him off her. no longer able to hold her tears in, she slapped Aloes and growled "You're a evil, conniving, repulsive man. I hope you rot in hell." she turned and ran inside the orphanage.
Aloes burst out laughing. "Doll, hell don't exist so you're shit out of luck." He yelled.
We all started heading inside the orphanage after that.
Cackling, Aloes spoke with other caretakers. "She's a spitfire ain't she? No matter, I will have her in my bed soon enough. The ladies can't resist me." The caretaker to his right laughed at that. I nevered cared to learn his name. He had a all black janitor uniform with a cap to match. His eyes were a brown color and his hair a dark brown . He was over weight and had a misshapen beard.
"Don't forget about me I want a turn as well."
I turned my head away from their conversation. I had enough of listening to their filth. Miss Kathrine would never give those two the light of day. As we walked to the door, Indira spoke.
"Line up! The shows over and you've said your goodbyes. We're not staying outside all day"
We were guided back inside "Go to your rooms there's no reason for yall to be wandering out."
One of the younger kid complained " but it's still day out, I want to go to the library."
Indira walked in front of him and slapped him hard. The force sent the kid flying to the floor.
"That wasn't a suggestion, go. to. your. rooms."
The kids scrambled through the halls to make it to their room fast incase Indira wanted to hit them too. I didn't linger either.
I walked into my room in silence. The room was about twenty-five square feet with twin beds on both of the walls. There were two dressers on each back corner of the room and a bookshelf on the back wall. I flopped on my bed exhausted from what happened earlier.
I turned to see my roommate still in her bed hugging her knees. Her name was Cecilia. She had sand colored hair and eyes with flecks of gold in them. She had a beautiful face on the softer side that made her look like a small animal. She arrived at the orphanage three years ago.
She is around the same age as me about nine years old. She ended up here after her mother died. When she arrived she was rowdy and outspoken but ever since she was sent into the punishment room she rarely speaks.
"Is it over?" She asked timidly. I nodded
"Yes...Charlis is gone." She tightened her grip around her knees. Charlis and Cecilia were very close before they left. Hell, she's the reason Cecilia started speaking again.
"D-do you think I could write to her?" I shook my head "No..... they'd never mail it."
She stumble over her words as she spoke
"T-then m-maybe I could visit her?" I stayed silent for a while then answered her
"You know the answer to that"
She wiped her eyes and Iayed down on her bed with her back facing me. I lay down on my back and stared at the ceiling drifting off to sleep. Before I fully fell asleep Cecilia spoke again.
"Um Faye?" She asked timidly. I grunted in annoyance. "You won't leave me right?" I sat up and looked to her. "No, I won't. In fact you'll never get rid of me" she smiled softly. "It's a promise then. Goodnight Faye"
"Goodnight Cecilia"
I wake up to Cecilia crying. I got out of my bed and checked the time. 2:15.
She noticed me up and froze.
"Did I wake you?" She asked. "Yeah"
"I'm sorry"
"Don't worry about it. Can't sleep?"
She shook her head
I stretched and yawned. "Come with me I want to show you something" she looked confused. I gestured for he to follow me as I slipped out the room. As we walked out I put my finger to my lips. She nodded and followed me. We drifted through the empty halls of the orphanage hiding if we heard anything till we finally made it to a wardrobe.
I opened it and reached pass the clothes to the back. I press a hidden lock and slid the back out of place. Behind the wardrobe was a small tunnel, Cecilia followed me inside the tunnel crawling for two or three minutes. After we crawled out of the tunnel we found ourselves in a crawl space under a trapdoor. Once we open it we found that we were in the shed library.
"Wow, we're outside?" Cecilia said startled. "Yeah, it's a old tunnel charlis found while she was here. Whenever she couldn't sleep she used to drag me out here." I toss a blanket to her. "Come on we're not there yet."
We opened the shed and walked to a hill nearby. I grabbed one of the blankets and layed it flat on the grass. "Come sit" I said as I patted the blanket. Cecilia sat next to me and I wrapped our second blanket around us.
"When I can't sleep, I like to watch the stars. Seeing them always made my day a bit better. Charlis liked to count as many as she could but I like the colors."
"The colors?" Cecilia asked Confused.
"Aren't stars only blue?"
"Most are, but if you look closely they are others that are red, yellow or even white!" I exclaimed excitedly
"Look over there" I pointed to the sky
"That star is green, don't you see it?"
Cecilia squinted her eyes as she looked then nodded slowly "yeah, I see it".
I smiled and chuckled softly. Cecilia looked at me eyes still squinted and I explode with laughter. "What is it? Why are you laughing?"
"Because, you looked so seriously." I smiled at her again. "Green stars don't exist although it would be cool of they did."
She frowned and turned her head away from me. "What's the matter?" She stayed silent.
I poked her. She stayed silent. I poked her again and she turned towards me pouting. "You're laughing at me"
"My bad my bad, it was a joke" I laughed out.
She glowered at me. "Alright, I'm sorry, it was a bad joke." I looked up at the sky again
"You're feeling better?" Cecilia looked at me then grabbed her knees. "I can't believe she's gone." We looked at the stars in silence. "Me neither "