Chapter 8

    Xana’s Thoughts

“How could he do that?” The young wolf Infurnal yelled as she threw her bag into the corner of her dorm room and fell onto her bed. Grabbing a pillow she screamed into in an attempt to relieve more of her anger. 

“I was going to prove myself today! I was going to show those humans not to look down on Infurnals and that asshole goes easy on me?” She rolled over onto her back, looking up at the stone ceiling of the room. Glancing around the room at the bare walls, she could feel the anger starting to ebb away, but it wasn’t going to leave her entirely. Not any time soon as the warning voices of her neighbors, friends, and family continued to echo in her head. “Probably thought I was too stupid and wouldn’t notice him hesitate at the start of the fight.” 

She continued to lay there, stretched out on her bed and as her eyes refocused on a single spot on the gray stone ceiling for what felt like hours but couldn’t have been more than ten minutes. A grumbling hunger rose from her stomach and it dawned on her that she had been too nervous to eat before the sparring session and too angry afterwards to grab a bite to eat.

Groaning at having to acknowledge her own body’s needs, she got up and walked to the door. Gripping the handle and resting her forehead against the door as she took a deep breath, she enjoyed the cool metal against her before stepping out of her room.

Making her way down the halls, she did her best to ignore the eyes and the whispers of the other students. She knew she was different from everyone else. That her being an Infurnal was dangerous around humans even in a school that was meant to treat all kinds equally. Her village she loved so much may have been small and far from most of human society but that didn’t make her naive. Her parents as well as many of her neighbors had always warned her of the dangers she would face on the path she had chosen.

“Humans are dangerous.” Her mother would say in hushed whispers whenever their kind was brought up.

“They don’t see us the same as they see each other.” Her father would remind her with his deep voice the few times she asked to visit a human city when she was younger. “There’s only a few good ones, and it’s hard to find them. It’s safer to just keep to yourself.”

“You’re mighty brave, going off into a world run by humans.” One of her older neighbors had commented as she had begun talking about her dream of becoming a Caster.

So she was doing just as her father had instructed. She was keeping her head down when she had to. Since she had arrived she had been keeping count and knew there were roughly 300 casters going to this school, and there was maybe one Infurnal to every ten humans at best. It didn’t matter how safe the school claimed to be or how much the teachers attempted to keep the students in line. That was easily proven earlier during the duels when the curly haired human had berated the Infurnal tiger.

The anger from earlier was starting to build back inside of her at the memories. She was able to show off her abilities some, but if she could have gone against one of the others it could have meant more. If she could have fought the boy with the greatsword, or the other boy with the hammer, she knew they wouldn’t have gone easy on her. After seeing them dueling one another, she knew the twin sisters Fashryn and Tasha would have made amazing opponents as well. They all would have given her their all and she was confident she still could have beaten them. Proven that Infurnals weren’t inferior to the cocky humans overpopulating their own cities.

She couldn’t help but smirk as she thought back to Glenda and how angry she was to be reprimanded by an Infurnal teacher for talking down to another Infurnal. A soft smile came across her face as she remembered the conversation she had with Mrs. Einfeld before the duels.

“You’re not alone here. There are other Infurnals here.” she had said to her reassuringly. When she had seen the wolf girl didn’t take much solace in that, she had continued. “And I’m not just referring to students.” She had proceeded to raise her arm a bit higher to lift her cloak for her. Xana had been surprised to see the cloak was actually created by Brigitte’s very own bat-like wings wrapping around her before she had made them apparent to the rest of the students. She wasn’t just an Infurnal, she was an Infurnal in a highly respected role as an instructor at the Caster school.

A surge of pride and hope ran through her and she smiled to herself as she began to imagine herself one day reaching such high standing. Her thoughts were distracting her as they often did when she felt a bump against her and heard a whisper that caused her smile to vanish.

“Watch it stupid Fur.” The voice was low and she looked back but only saw the backs of a few students heading the opposite way. She couldn’t figure out which of them said it, and she looked back down at the gray and black speckled stone flooring beneath her.

One day I’ll be like Mrs. Einfeld. One day I’ll be the one in power and they’ll have to respect me. One day, maybe, they’ll respect all of us.

She managed to find a lone table out in the yard of the school after getting her tray of food. It felt nice for her to be outside, the cool wind blowing through the yard as she listened to the birds chirping from the top of the school where they nested. She knew it was likely that it was because of the village she was raised in, but she had always enjoyed the company of wild animals as they happily lived their life. They always seemed to be so happy, living their life naturally and having so little to deal with beyond their daily needs. A part of her felt a little jealous at the idea of living such a simple life. 

Eating the meal, she enjoyed the time she had alone like this. While it could feel lonely at times, she didn’t trust any of the humans besides Miss Allison and Mx. Valda; and the other  Infurnals had already found their own groups within the first weeks of coming here. Most of which included at least a couple humans; by choice or not she wasn’t too sure.

So this was her life at the school now. She was lucky enough to talk to Valda about everything, thanks to Miss Allison’s encouragement, and that conversation led to her being allowed to have her own dorm room. Not making friends was easy enough, thanks to her Infurnal heritage, and so it wasn’t difficult for her to be able to keep to herself.

Her thoughts drifted back to the duels that had happened previously that day. Certain students really stuck out to her. She was certain Ressio, the tiger Infurnal, would have been able to show impressive stuff if the fight had been allowed to continue. Solias and Grant both really proved themselves in their matches as well, but she felt a bit of a nervous feeling in her stomach when she thought about how rough and merciless Grant had been and the serious look in his eyes she had caught that only showed while he was fighting. Then her thoughts drifted to the two sisters fighting one another. She felt a heat rise in her cheeks slightly as she remembered their dance in combat and how beautiful they looked. Fashryn was quick and fast, wasting no time in her actions. Tasha was strong and smart, seeing an opening and going for it without hesitation. A knot twisted in her stomach as she thought about them for another minute before forcing herself to focus on her meal again. 

Stabbing at the last remains of her meal with her fork, she stared off into the horizon. The sun was already lowering and a beautiful orange and red was beginning to paint the skies as a fresh cold breeze flew past. “Next time.” A determined look crossed over her face as she finished off the last bite of her meal. “I’ll train hard, continue to focus hard in class, and next time I’ll be able to truly prove myself.“

Next Chapter: Wands and Magic Bullets