The next month passed slowly.

  It took Madeline another day in the hospital for her to finally convince the nurses and Professor Taran that she’d made enough progress to be released back into the wild. Talia had brought her a change of clothes and underwear - thank the Rot - and she’d used the communal shower in the hospital wing to clean and apply her makeup. Not for the first or last time she marveled at the Saberwyn Academy’s vast resources.

  She’d missed enough theory lessons with Professor Herbert to make her feel anxious but between Talia’s dramatic reenactments of Herbert’s mannerisms and Hayden’s notes which she gave freely, Madeline worked hard and came out not too far behind. Herbert lectured primarily on Rotdens, their construction, the horrors within, their difficulty levels and general strategies on how to defeat them.

  Herbert explained, according to Hayden’s notes, that the Rotdens had ten difficulty levels marked by stars imprinted in the ground when the Rotcrate began to break down. These were impossible to see, of course, until physically entering the Rotden which could be disastrous if timed incorrectly. Hayden’s notes contained detailed drawings of cracks in the Rotcrate that could be seen from distance with different patterns connected to different star levels.

  In the practical application of her skills, Professor Walcotte continued with the eggs until they all were capable of casting a shield capable of stopping them. After Madeline’s hospitalization, Professor Taran’s words proved prophetic and she cast a shield the very next lesson she attended. The combination of Walcotte’s visualization technique and the internal knowledge that she’d cast a glimmer based on nothing more than want gave her the confidence to be successful on her next cast. Willow, perhaps spurred on by Madeline’s success followed, then Stefan, Talia, and finally Hayden who understood the theory better than all of them combined but struggled mightily with application.

  After the eggs, Walcotte moved to actual fireballs. Small fireballs, but fireballs nonetheless. Madeline grew bored with the lessons she’d come to view as easy despite the rest of the class having their shield violently shattered by the fireballs each time. Talia in particular had come off rather badly one practice session, the small fireball smashing through her shield and singing her shirt right at the cleavage. She wore Madeline’s coat back to the Warrior Wing that day and complained that if her breasts were permanently singed she would get Professor Walcotte to explain it to Lane.

  Madeline went back to the post tower - during daylight hours - once more, collecting another tiny metal piece and hiding it away in a different drawer of her wardrobe, not that anyone would see the connection between two random and unrelated metal pieces. She’d gone alone that time, not by choice as she’d polished her Aunt Leticia lie until it made too much sense to question and she was eager to test it on anyone that would question it besides. No, as the days went on, Talia and Lane Jones spent more time together, sometimes hours at a time away from each of their friend groups. When Talia returned from spending time with Lane she always returned giddy and ready to spill details.

  That’s how she found out things about Lane she didn’t really need to, including but not limited to the way he apparently twitched when Talia kissed his neck and more intimate things that made Madeline blush even in the dark. Talia told her everything, showing Madeline a level of friendship she’d never experienced before in her life which only made Madeline feel a measure of guilt that began to weigh on her more heavily by the day.

  Talia also mentioned - nearly every time she saw Lane - that Florian asked after her. Nothing weird or strange or untoward, just making sure she’d been well. Despite Talia’s protests that she should join her on her next date with Lane and the four of them could go for a walk or a drink or have an orgy (“Talia!” Madeline exclaimed at that one) Madeline remained steadfast in her wish to tell Florian nothing about her. It wasn’t a personal thing, if anything the opposite rang true. She had a connection with Florian, one that frightened her, one that threatened to point her away from her goal and toward another softer one. Her decision could only be made with dispassionate separation. He was a distraction. She ignored all distractions. But gods, what a distraction, she mused.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The lack of Talia’s presence meant Madeline spent more time with Willow and Hayden or when she could manage it, alone. She liked both Willow and Hayden - Hayden especially seemed to understand Madeline - but if she took on any more guilt she’d collapse onto herself and Rot only knew what might happen then. So, she kept them both at arms length as much as possible.

  But, despite Talia following through with Madeline’s request to keep Florian at the same distance, he remained the worst part about the next month. They’d only spoken once - she thanked him genuinely for the flowers, for visiting her in the hospital and they found a way to laugh about the night in question, which led Madeline to a profound feeling of not wanting the conversation to ever end - but from that point she rebuffed his every attempt to speak to her. Still, every time he smiled at her or waved or even looked in her direction, her heart dropped through her feet. He’d done nothing wrong yet his face, his oh so beautiful face, reminded her of a different future she would never have. He seemed to understand her need for distance inherently which shouldn’t have frustrated her but it did, mentally scolding him as he had absolutely no right to understand her without explanation. Who did he think he was?

  Madeline tried to follow Bettina Lawrence in her newly minted role as the Academy Second to no avail. Less. She knew less about the woman now then she did during her entrance exam which only served to enhance her feeling of helplessness. The only time she saw the woman came at mealtimes and half the time not even then. It seemed that whatever duties fell under her purview as Second kept her busy but grudgingly Madeline admitted the promotion agreed with the woman. Where Madeline might have expected someone who took on a new role to show signs of wear, bags under her eyes from sleepless nights, weight loss from skipping meals, Lawrence looked better than ever.

  Perhaps most devastatingly, Madeline missed the first voyage into town. She’d arranged meetings with former Inspector Bray as part of her planning before applying for entrance to the Academy and she missed the first one. She knew that the one time Inspector had long since slipped from relevance - the case of her parents murder driving him to the bottle, then the brothel then who knows what else - but she’d convinced him to work some of his old contacts on a continual basis under the guise of turning his skills toward private enterprise. She hoped against hope for an update on a case long cold or perhaps even the case file, a carrot among sticks.

  She’d also resolved to ask him about the thief and what she suspected about him based on the small amount of information she had on him. She thought, given his confession about knowing Florian, he could have some connection to the Quinn house. It might not be a large head start, but it was a start. She couldn’t do everything all at once however, and indeed among her priorities this one secured last place.

  Still, not that she’d expected anyone to update her on the pursuit of the thief, but the man had threatened her in a brutal, leering way, it would have been nice to know he’d been caught. And maybe he had. Maybe he had. She tried to shuck off the insults the man threw at her as the ramblings of someone who knew he’d been caught doing a bad thing but the thought that an ‘open market’ for girls like her existed made her shudder.

  The Prime hadn’t updated anyone on…well, anything since his opening address which likely meant the Rotcrate in the middle of the Rotden hadn’t shown any signs of cracking. Madeline further learned from Professor Herbert’s theory lessons that Rotdens didn’t spawn enemies immediately. They overtook the location they spawned, completely flattening anything that stood before it, be it people, shops or nature. One second could be a bustling market and the next could be a hollowed out soon-to-be battle zone with one or even several crates at its center depending on the star level.

  Herbert said the dens didn’t typically spawn in areas loaded with activity, the prevailing theory held that their ability to spawn with ease inversely correlated with the amount of life in the specific spawn location which made the Rotden spawning in Saberwyn City evermore bizarre. Madeline didn’t even know what type of crate spawned, much less how many. When it started breaking, she surely would know, information like that couldn’t be kept from the rumour mill no matter how hard the Prime tried. If he’d even try.

  They settled into a rhythm only broken by a nonsensical order from the Academy Second.

  They were to begin physical exercise training.