Ashes of the Elite-Chapter 74: Well What Now?

We move away from the churning mass of Luxor students, the air behind us buzzing with all the posturing and chest-thumping you'd expect from cliché bullies. They're already sorting themselves loud voices, pointed fingers, and the gleam of entitlement in their eyes. I can practically hear them staking out a pecking order, each one desperate to be the first rooster on the dung heap.

Elijah falls into step beside me, his hands jammed deep in his pant pockets, shoulders hunched against the chill that's already creeping in from the open fields. All around us, the other houses are starting to merge into loose clusters: Vespera's lot some of the giants over there looking like they were on a camping trip; Melruth kids all looking pissed and annoyed; Umbra students nervously moving towards the very edge of the crowd. There's a nervous energy thrumming through everyone, a sense of disbelief that the proctors just left us.

A Vespera kid stumbles into me, jostling my arm hard enough to make me take a step back. I shove him off without thinking. "Watch where you're going idiot." My glare is enough to make him blanch and scurry away, muttering something under his breath. I sneer as he goes.

Elijah snickers, his lips twitching at my expression. "You know, any threat out here in the wild is going to take one look at that permanent scowl of yours and run the other way. You'll scare off wolves and other weird ass animals. And if monsters do exist out here they may think you are one of them."

I look at him deadpan "I don't have a scowling face," I grumble outraged but he just laughs harder.

"Whatever you say, man," he replies, utterly unbothered.

He's got this easy way of laughing at things that ought to make him nervous, and I have to admit it's infectious. I find myself smirking despite the situation we find ourselves in.

We keep walking, putting a little more distance between ourselves and the chaos behind us. The field is rough, grass up to our knees and scattered with low, thorny bushes. What shit area.

Ahead, I spot a group of students gathering near where the proctors' platform used to be House Apophis, by the look of the patches glinting gold on their uniforms. Elijah points with his chin.

"That's us, right? We should probably go meet our new family."

I bark out a laugh. "Family, huh? If they start singing songs around a campfire, I'm out."

Elijah grins, and we angle toward the group. I keep my eyes moving, scanning the crowd for trouble. I glance west, the sun's just kissing the tips of the distant grass, and the sky is already bruising purple.

"Not a lot of daylight left," I say quietly. "Shelter's going to be a problem."

Elijah nods, his eyes following mine. "Yeah. I hope someone in our house has a useful mark. Mine is mostly utility. Not much help currently."

I shrug, keeping my tone light. "Mine is combat-oriented as you know so I feel you there"

No one's said anything about my name yet, or connected me to the three marks and I have no intention of bringing it up myself.

"Good to know," Elijah says, his grin crooked. "If we get attacked by a wild boar or a mountain lion, I'll hide behind you."

"Coward," I mutter, but there's no heat behind it.

We reach the Apophis gathering, the students chosen by our proctors as potential Spellbreakers. A tall girl with flaxen hair and bright blue eyes.

"We need to set up some type of camp. There's nothing out here but grass and rocks, and I don't intend to walk around in the dark."

Someone else a boy with a hooked nose and sharp blue eyes snorts. "Yeah? Got a plan? Or are you just stating the obvious because you like to hear yourself speak?"

She glares, but before she can retort, another girl dark skin, gold eyes, and tall steps in with quiet confidence. "We don't need this drama. We need to move with purpose. If anyone has a mark of power for water or rock, now's the time to speak up."

There's a pause.

Then a hulking figure steps forward from the edge of the group. This guy isn't just big he's massive, with shoulders so broad they look almost comical under his uniform and robe, and biceps that may be bigger then my torso. He could easily pass for someone's dad, or more likely a bouncer at one of the rougher taverns in Lusa.

His hair is a shock of white, braided down his back thick as a rope, and his eyes burn a wild, blazing orange that almost gloats in the firelight. He grins at us, teeth gleaming with a kind of feral cheerfulness, and announces, "Name's Bragg. My mark of power is telekinesis." freēwēbnovel.com

Everyone in our little circle including me turns to stare. There's a beat of silence, the kind that always follows when someone casually drops that they can bend the world with their mind. Bragg's grin only grows wider, and he flashes his teeth like he's posing for a portrait.

"It'll be useful, I think, for our camps and stuff." His tone is so damn cheerful it's almost infectious.

He flexes his thick fingers, and the air seems to tighten. Suddenly, the ground a few dozen feet away shudders, grass flattening as if caught in a sudden wind. There's a deep, groaning sound, and then the earth rips upwards in a rough arc. Dirt and mud tumble together, grass weaving through the mess, and in seconds maybe a minute at most Bragg has pulled the ground into the shape of a gigantic igloo. It's crude, but the walls are thick, the ceiling rounded, and the entrance wide enough to crawl through.

A stunned silence settles over the group. I can't help myself I let out a low, appreciative whistle. "Well, there's the first big issue solved," I mutter, mostly to Elijah, but loud enough that the others hear.

Bragg just grins, looking absurdly pleased with himself. "Should keep the wind off us, at least. Might not be pretty, but it'll do the trick till morning." He dusts off his hands, like he's just finished a simple chore, not casually manipulating a few tons of earth.

I catch the eyes of a few other Apophis students. There's a mixture of relief and calculation.

Even Elijah, who's usually just makes a joke, just shakes his head and lets out a low laugh. "Remind me to stay on his good side," he mumbles.

"Yeah," I reply, "I'm in no mood to deal with that mark either"

I nod at him as I pass by, giving him a small, genuine smile. "Nice work.