Cyrus Solaris
It took all I had not to laugh as the Arbiter screamed like a little girl.
But now I'm surrounded by his housemates, led by the academy favourite Stravos.
"We will not tolerate defiance from lesser positions." One of them said, stepping closer to me. I disregarded him, my eyes locked on Stavros.
Placing a hand on the Arbiter, I activated Gravity Well and forced him to kneel, as I spoke directly to Stravos.
"So this is what you think being a leader is?"
"Of course, I'm here to make decisions and demands," he said, as he sat back down on the couch.
"Abuse and oppression are not the choices you should be making."
"What's your surname again?"
I gritted my teeth, knowing I can't reveal my real one. "Bennu."
"Yeah, never heard of it. What would someone like you know about leading?" He said, turning up the TV.
"I was raised by the greatest conqueror and leader this generation has ever seen."
"That helped you so much during the totem games. Who did you lose to again?" I shot back, as I commanded my stress ball to levitate once again.
The remote snapped in his hand.
I knew I struck a nerve.
He hated losing as much as I did.
"It was a fluke."
"Then prove it. Right now."
"Because if you don't stop me now, I will make it my mission to embarrass you and everyone in your house during the joint house exercise, because I will not tolerate bullies."
"I don't care about your feelings," he said, as he placed the broken remote on the stand next to him.
Then he got back up. "But I will make sure to crush you and your house. I want everyone to know what happens when you oppose me." He said, leaving the TV room.
"Let's go, or would you rather stay here and get manhandled by an Astronomer for Pantheon's sake?" They scurried on behind him, even the one with a dramatic limp.
I wanted to believe my bluff. But I knew Stravos wasn't someone I could just take on blindly. I had only seen his display during the evaluation test, and even then, he destroyed the machine.
I couldn't get a proper read on him. I also knew very little about his titan and what his constellation was capable of.
Right as I was getting ready to leave the rec room and head to my house, Voen stopped me.
"Thanks for the help back there. I would have been in bad shape if you hadn't shown up."
"I didn't do it for you. I just hate bullies." I said, focusing on my floating stress ball.
"Sure, that's fair, I guess. But can we have a conversation about what happened during the totem games?"
"We had a deal, and I left you in a better situation than I found you."
"I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about what you did to Sora."
"What about it?"
"Usually, I wouldn't care, but they helped me out in a desperate moment. And what you did was messed up."
"Like I said earlier. I did what I needed to do."
"If that's the case, that makes you like Stravos and the other Arbiters."
"Bye, Voen," I said, heading towards the bridge connected to my isle.
I made my way to House Mulanu's dorm. The dorm was shaped in a peculiar way. There was a giant metallic ball sitting in the middle. Five rings hovered around it. In those rings, ten small cabins floated and slowly orbited the metallic sphere.
Professor Rhondall often played tricks on us. Some nights, he would ramp up the orbit's tempo, sending multiple students flying out of their floating rooms.
No one liked it. We already struggled to recover from long days at the academy.
He said he did it because the environment could change at any time in a rift or in the astral realm. I believed him, but messing with my sleep was a deal breaker. Next time, I was going to anchor my room to the ground if he did it again.
After timing the cabins' orbit, I finally made it into my only comfort space. I hit the button on the wall, and the roof retracted.
I set up the telescope, Gramps got me, and practised classifying the stages stars were in. Looking at the stars, I realised the telescope didn't do them justice compared to how they looked in the astral realm.
In the astral realm, they felt closer and displayed colors that were hard to put into normal words. A part of me missed being in the astral realm, even though most of my time was spent in a life-or-death situation.
Part of me missed that, too.
But I really missed my dad. He had been the only pillar for me the past two years. The image of his innards spilling out on the sand still plagued me. Reminding me that everything dear to me has been taken away from me.
It's been tough to stomach, but I will be closer to getting revenge soon. I just had to stick this out.
I put my telescope away, then my watch dinged. It was the house group chat.
The Arbiters proposed a wager. Whichever house finished with the highest points in the joint exercise. Gets full control of the rec area.