I went back to my dorm room. What else was I supposed to do?
I didn't think it was past midnight; still, I didn't want anyone to see me.
Not only because there was a curfew for students in Acomet, but also because I must have been covered in blood.
I was sore and hurt all over.
That woman really did a number on me.
I didn't enter the dorms by the front door; instead, I was standing below Lightbane's and my room's window.
It was open. We made a habit of leaving it open. The girls usually entered there because girls are usually not very welcome roaming around the boys' dorms.
I jumped up and entered. I almost fell down while doing so.
With the armor absorbed inside me, a soft landing wasn't possible, and being wounded made it even less of an option.
I saw Lightbane sitting in a chair, also not looking all too well.
"What happened to you?" He asked when he saw me.
"You don't want to know," I said.
"You might want to look in a mirror."
I turned my head and saw that I was almost completely covered in blood and open wounds. My face got the worst of it. It was red from the blood and blue and yellow from all the bruises.
I had swollen eyes and busted lips. I also guessed a broken nose. I wasn't looking good.
And my hair and clothes weren't spared; they were caked in dirt and blood also.
"Can you heal me?" I asked Lightbane. "I'm way too tired to cast a spell."
"Sure," he said. He reached out a hand. "Eir-Pana-Tuo."
I could feel all the tiredness and pain fade away.
I exhaled deeply. It was a very pleasant feeling. "Thanks."
Lightbane leaned back. "I guess all that blood means you killed someone? Or several someones?"
"No," I said. Strangely, I said that I was both relieved and anxious.
"No?" he said, surprised.
I gestured at myself. "I guess most of this is mine."
I didn't sit down, instead choosing just to stand in the room.
If I sat in a chair or lay in my bed, I'd stain them very thoroughly.
"Looking at you," I said to him, looking at the extravagant outfit he had taken from my wardrobe. "Did you get married?"
"No."
"No?"
"No," he said again. "I got really close to marrying. Kissing too, but in the end, I just couldn't do it."
Jokingly, I wiped my forehead, though I just smeared some blood around. "Allegations averted."
We were silent for a moment.
"I guess that's it then," he said matter-of-factly.
"I guess so," I said, and then I sat down in a chair. It wouldn't matter if a chair got splattered with dirt and blood now.
"What now?"
"I don't know," he said.
We looked at each other and then at nothing in particular.
Lightbane then stood up and went to his closet. He opened it, pulled out a guitar, and closed it.
He sat back down in his chair, holding it. "I got this for the music club with Elizabeth. Not that I can play any songs, but I can strum the strings in rhythm. That should be good enough."
"What are you going to play?"
He thought about it and then picked a few strings and strummed them in rhythm.
It was clunky, of course, and he had to try multiple times to get it right. Even though there were a few instruments missing, I recognized the melody.
While he provided the guitar, I sang. Just something simple.
"I thought you died alone, a long, long time ago. Oh no, not me; I never lost control. You're face-to-face with the man who-"
And then midnight passed.
I was spirited away from my dorm room to somewhere outside. I didn't know where it was, but it wasn't the first time I had been here.
The place was a long, flowing meadow. There were spears, shields, swords, and every other type of weaponry lying on the ground.
The place smelled of blood - or I was just smelling myself, because I still hadn't taken a shower.
The sky and clouds above me were a deep red, and I stood alone.
I felt light. I assumed that it meant that I didn't have my armor with me, and when I tried to bring it out, nothing came.
A bad sign.
Then I heard footsteps, ones that I knew. They were heavy, really heavy.
It was like something enormous was approaching from the distance.
When they stopped, I knew I just had to turn around to see what it was.
And I did, and there she was.
Kyregash, the goddess of war, and current bane of my existence.
Things were really not looking good for me.
When she looked at me, suddenly I felt very, very small.
Automatically, I knelt, with my face almost touching the ground.
"Moral," she said. "You failed."
How did it all go so wrong?
Last Saturday night, everything seemed peachy, but now?
Back then, in my room, I thought I should go to bed early and catch some sleep. I thought I'd have a lot to do.
Lightbane decided to stay up late.
We talked some, and then I said goodnight and slept.
But when I woke up, I wasn't in my bed anymore.
The first thing I noticed was the cold, and as groggy as I was, I tried to pull on my bedsheet, but there was none.
It was dark, and the wind was freezing.
Then I tried to sit up, but I was already standing. I heard my footsteps clinking against the ground when I almost tripped.
I realized that I was wearing my armor, the full proper black set.
"What the hell?" I thought.
Looking around, it was clear that this wasn't the door.
I was standing in the same meadow as I am right now.
At first I thought I must be sleepwalking, but I have never sleepwalked my entire life. Not once did I wake up somewhere I don't remember going.
And yet here I was.
My first instinct was simple: get back to the dorm before anyone saw me.
I took a few steps, unsteady as I was still half-asleep.
But then I stopped.
I saw someone. A woman.
She wore armor. It wasn't ornate or ceremonial, but not entierly practical in its design. What it was - I couldn't really settle it in my mind.
It was like it was a part of her, almost grown rather than made and worn.
It was dull and had no sheen, with many scratches and chinks in it.
When I tried to focus and get a good look at her, I could only look at her eyes.
They were like a constant roaring fire. Death and glory, sweat and blood.
"You are far from peace," she said.
Her voice was that of absolute authority.
Just looking and listening to her made me sweat and feel angry, like I needed to fight something. Anything and everything, but her, because I knew I would lose.
I swallowed and went to one knee without thinking.
I had to force out the words. "Who are you?"
"You know gods," she said, and a shudder went through me. "You know the one who plays at stories. You try to please him often enough."
"Geshich?" I said.
She stepped closer. The ground shook.
"I am Kyregash. What Geshich is to stories, I am to war."
I couldn't even force myself to look up.
"And why am I here?" I asked.
I could feel something invisible settle around me and start to squeeze.
After a moment, it became a crushing sensation like I had never felt before.
Even the armor couldn't stand against it.
"Because you are disappointing," Kyregash said. "Geshich may like what you have to offer him; who knows what is in his mind? But to me, you have no worth. It was a god that gave you a second chance, but what if one just doesn't think you're interesting? You had years and years, and I waited, but you haven't delivered."
"Delivered what?"
"Blood," she said simply, "proof of your second life."
I didn't know what to say, so I said the first thing that came into my mind.
"I killed! In the woods, with lightning, and more than just one person."
I wasn't proud of that, but it was a fact.
"That wasn't you," she said.
I frowned. "I did."
"Another self," she dismissed. "Another will, another mind. Not you. That does not count."
She took another step closer, and I could see her armor's boots.
"A dark lord who had killed no one. What a joke, and it grows stale quickly."
I clenched my fist, but I couldn't do anything.
"I want you to rectify this. Four days. In four days' time, you will have killed. The more the better," she went on, conversational now. "And I would prefer if they fight back. A grand fight with blood and broken bones. This is the price for my support in your second chance. Geshich may have spun a new thread for you, but it can still be cut."
My heart pounded hard enough that I could feel it in my throat.
"What if I don't?" I asked defiantly.
"Then you lose. The borrowed life you live. The reprieve. The story you are pretending you get to edit so leisurely. The book of your life burned to ash, worthless as it ever was."
I strained myself to turn my head to look at her. Her eyes had an endless fight in them.
And then she disappeared. I could stand again, but it took me a while to get over the whole ordeal.
I stood there and found myself back in the academy ground in the middle of the night.
My breath was heavy, and I was sweating buckets.
I had two things on my mind:
Huh?
And: Son of a fucking bitch.
Back in the present, with her before me, I thought it was over.
Another shudder came over me.
She looked at me and surprised me. "That was a good fight," she said.
And now I had another thought: What?