As I entered the office, through the mirror, I immediately saw two familiar faces while near the mahogany desk there was someone who I had not yet had the pleasure of meeting. He was staring at me with a serious look on his face."I"m the headmaster, Shen Qilni. Do you know why you are here girl?" he asked.
"Not really, your minions here are not good at their job, they didn"t explain much."
"Minions? What a disrespectful metin rae," Viktor said as he grinned.
"Well, if you don"t like it then, stop calling me a metin rae. My name is Sarah."
"Shen, I told you we should stop, she"s probably a very skilled tersen. She"s tricking us to make us believe she"s a metin rae, so we wouldn"t kill her," Viktor shouted.
"Metin rae, tersen, half of what you are saying doesn"t make actual sense," I said.
"Sarah, nyraes are humans, people who don"t have magical abilities, they can"t see us or our world. Tersens, on the other hand, are humans which sold their own soul to have abilities like us, they are distinguished by their emerald awakening, while metin raes have eyes like ours. They had to sell their freedom without their consent to serve demons, but they got to keep their soul. Why they seem like us still remains a mystery. A metin rae is rare, the last one was during Nyr"s era," Mr Qilni said.
"This is too much, how can a human sell their soul?" I asked.
"Demons, they are far worse than the ones told in human stories and sometimes they come in our world if they are summoned," Mr Qilni said.
"n.o.body summoned any demon. I wouldn"t even know where to start," I said.
"We just need to do a test and if what you"re saying is the truth, then you have no need to worry. If you have a soul, we"ll see it straight away," Mr Qilni said.
"But if you are a soulless being, I"ll enjoy killing you with my Ien," Viktor said, while he licked intensely the tip of the dagger he held in his hand.
"Sarah Wilson, you should stand at the centre of the circle," Mr.Qilni said.
While I stood still, I saw several inscriptions lighting up and as I raised my head, I noticed others on the ceiling. I tried to decipher them, but it was nothing I knew or anything remotely similar.
"Everyone take your place. Sarah are you ready?" Mr Qilni asked.
I looked at Robert mainly for comfort, I could read his lips a.s.suring me he was there if I needed him. I knew if I had him by my side nothing could have gone wrong.
"I"m ready," I said.
"Brothers and sisters, we can start the tersen trial, hama azit h.o.r.en," as he said those words I felt as if I was in a trance, I still could not understand what they were saying, and I was not able to move an inch of my body. One by one they made a slight cut with their daggers on the palm of their hands and dropped several drops of blood inside the circle.
"With air, we free the missing souls," Viktor said.
"Through fire, we burn the evil ones," Mr Qilni said.
"Through earth, we save the pure ones," Rayleigh said.
"And water to heal them all," Aaron said.
Nothing happened, other than my body was paralyzed, unable to move a muscle. Mr Qilni stood in front of me with his eyes still bright as gold, quite hypnotic. The air was getting colder, I could feel it in my lungs as every breath I took was painful. The room seemed to become darker, I could sense the light drawn away from where I was standing. In an instant, I felt as if I could not be happy or feel any joy.
"Sarah," a voice whispered.
I slowly turned my head to see where the noise came from, but strangely what I saw was me? Or rather a doppelganger of myself. The only difference was her eyes, black as pitch, they appeared with no life and a golden ring bordering what seemed to be the pupil. Suddenly her eyes were filled with tears of blood as she stared at me.
"We may never open the doors until a sacrificing soul worth of your loyalty will find you, and re-open it once more. Until this day comes, I pray for us all that the blood of innocents may not be spilt once again. Like the past, the future is filled with blood and death," she shouted.
"Get away from me!" I screamed. My mind was in disbelief, I did not want to proceed with this nonsense of a test any longer. Everyone was stiff, like time was frozen, every time I tried to get out of this circle there seemed to be an invisible barrier preventing me from getting out. It was as if it was made to imprison me in this nightmare.
She remained still with her hands full of blood. However, as she raised her right hand I felt as if she was strangling me. The cold air was already making it hard for me to breath, but now I sensed my impending death, while every bitter and sad moment came into my head like clips of a movie.
"Blood will be on your hands, death will be your destiny," she said constantly, as I felt my mind fade away and my vision blurring bit by bit.