The Golden Awakening 9 Sarah

I walked through the hall, constantly shaken by the sudden idea of what I would have had to expect, while Mitsuko was still persistently holding my hand. How much of a coward were I in this very instant? The thought of her reading every concern of mine, which was going through my mind, made me feel beyond vulnerable.

As we suddenly stopped near an enormous gate, where four dragon heads were attached to it, I could see their eyes as they followed my every move.

"Here we are, girls. Robert Ukreni and Nathan Zirken are already inside," Ms Frehall said.

All I could think of other than this absurd Syrda's test was her pointy ears and mystical grey eyes.

"I am an elf if this is what you are wondering about."

"What? I mean no. I wasn't thinking you were, an elf?" I asked.

"Yes, I am a light elf, pointy ears, grey eyes, immortals. Aren't these signs ringing any bells to you?"

"If I might add, you're quite stunning too," Mitsuko said.

"Of course, how didn't I think about it before," I replied.

"You grew up in a nyrae society, we don't fraternize with them, so you've never seen one of us before, but for future reference don't stare at our ears. It's considered rude," Ms Frehall said.

"Sure, I might have missed it in my etiquette cla.s.s on don't stare at pointy ears, I'll make sure to remember it."

"Ms Aleinher will explain everything once you're both inside."

As she went away, I could see dirty gazes coming from Mitsuko.

"What did I do wrong now?" I asked.

"Elves don't understand sarcasm," she said.

"I wasn't being sarcastic. I didn't know there was an elf code such as don't look at my ears."

"And it's not the only one."

"What is the other one? Don't stare at them in the eyes or they might slay you?"

"Yeah, something like what you said. Are you ready?"

Was I? I already completed one test, it was appalling the experience I had to go through and now I was going to do another one, which might have been quite similar.

"Sure, I'm so excited! I hope this test won't kill me," I said.

In an instant Mitsuko's hand lightly touched the dragon heads.

"The pa.s.sword?" the dragons asked.

"Arait, liren, fesin el sarien aclumit es vertes," she said.

As she finished saying those words, all four of the dragons, one after the other breathed air, fire, earth and water, which opened the gate, as they closed their eyes becoming once again lifeless. We steadily entered the room, it was pitch dark and for every step we made fire would light up our path.

"Since everyone is here, we can start the contract," Ms Aleinher said.

"What is this?" I asked as a parchment appeared in front of my face.

"Every one of you is obliged to sign Nyr's parchment. We will start with you, Ms Wilson," she said.

"I don't have a pen."

"Silly metin rae, you sign with Syrda's Ien."

"A dagger?"

"Ms Wilson, this is not simply a dagger. It is an Ien, it has part of Syrda's soul in it."

"It does seem like a dagger to me."

"We are not here to discuss whether you think an important artefact is a dagger or not. We are here to commence Syrda's haras. Please sign before my patience runs out."

"I would sign if I could, but a dagger is not a pen."

"You must do a little incision in your hand with the Ien and sign it with your blood. Is it difficult to understand?"

"I sometimes forget you people have strange tendencies with blood around here."

I wounded my hand, the Ien steadily absorbed my blood as if it was ink. I tried to sign the parchment as fast as I could, to get away from the unpleasant glances which Ms Aleinher was giving me.

As I finished, Mitsuko signed hers and Robert after her. Nathan was the last one, his chestnut eyes kept on staring at me, which gave me a dark but subtle impression as if his main goal was to kill me and break my neck in minuscular pieces. I might have gained a personal stalker or perhaps I was overthinking too much, not everyone would have been here to murder me. Was I perhaps wrong?

"You screw this up metin rae and you'll live to regret it," Nathan whispered in my ear.