Chapter 11

**Merianna.**

With an aggravated huff I powered on forward and grabbed the floating blasted flag from where it was hovering through the path as if it were Raska on a mission to kill someone.

Raska had imbued the darn flags with her energy!

She knew that if anyone caught a whiff of her essence in the area or saw a glimpse of her doppelgangers, they would be trying everything in their power to stay as far away from her and her energy as possible.

Blast her to Tartarus and back!

With my flag now in hand I felt like I was finally well on my way to beating this insane maze! I was going to earn my spot! I was going to go to the final test!

That was, until I was swept right off of my feet.

Literally.

Giving a shriek of indignation I stabbed at one of the terror Bat's feet that had curled around my shoulders. It gave one of its own angered shrieks and dug its nails deeper in through my clothing until it pierced my skin and scratched me. It gave a jerk that made me lose my grip on the blades. It slipped from my fingers and I watched it plummet to the earth far beneath in dismay.

Hissing I flailed around, trying to somehow loosen its grip on me, but when I looked down again I stopped flailing a little bit, and rethought my strategy for a second.

Right now I was being hauled over the maze several feet above the ground. If the Bat were to drop me now, I was sure that it would hurt once I hit the bottom. Sure, I had control over the elements, but that control was still being nurtured. I could cushion my fall, but it would still hurt. And if I didn't do it right, it could just kill me.

I gave a huff of surrender and could swear that the bat creature grunted in amusement at my expense. I just gripped my shimmering black flag tightly to my chest and waited to see where my next hell would be. There was no way that I was letting go of this flag now. Not after all the torture that Raska had just put me through!

"Raska!!!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. "I HATE YOUUUU!" I shouted with all my might while being hauled through the air.

I dimly wondered if the wind completely snatched away my words or if I might have spurred on some more terror down there. That was, until the bat started diving back towards the ground that was completely covered with mist. I couldn't see how far the ground was from where we were plummeting, panic spiked through me with the thought of imminent impact.

In a long drawn out pitch I cursed Raska in every language they taught me, and I was just in the middle of calling her a few choice names that I had picked up along the way, when the bat suddenly drew up short and let go of my shoulders so suddenly that I didn't have time to think about putting a cushion around myself.

I hit the ground with an 'Oemf' and groaned while I rolled onto my back. I lifted my right hand off my chest slightly and was glad to see that I had not accidentally let my starry flag fall to its demise.

"Not bad demon spawn." I heard a familiar gruff voice say from above my head.

The mist cleared around Noch and I glared daggers at him. He held his hands up in surrender. "What? I did nothing. And besides, congratulations, you passed." He said while walking over to my side and holding out a hand to me so he could pull me up.

I blinked up at him and took his hand.

"What do you mean by 'you passed'?" I asked him incredulously with my brows furrowed in confusion. I couldn't be hearing right. I didn't even make it to the end of the maze.

Noch snorted at the expression I had on my face. "The goal of this whole exercise was to get one of the flags." He pointed to the one that I had in my death grip. "You obviously passed. Also Raska took pity on your poor panicked soul while you were running from Lillian. She decided that she had tortured you enough. Especially seeing as you ran straight towards the flag which might as well have been another one of her doppelgangers. But you decided to take that risk head on. Which as you know, is something she admires. So congratulations on your oh so wonderful victory." He said in a chipper tone before he turned on his heel with the intention of walking off, only to suddenly stop in his tracks and pivot back to me.

"Oh, and welcome to hell on earth for the next trial." He said with a wink, then skipped off to a clearing on the left like a little girl in a field of flowers.

I didn't move from my spot for a few more minutes. 
That was it? I went through all of that, just to get hauled to the finish line by a gigantic Bat-Creature with my hard won flag? Then all he says is welcome to hell?

I give up. I'm done trying to understand Noch and Raska. My head doesn't want to do any more maze running inside or out. Gods forbid that I turn into someone like them in the future. Please, pleeeease, don't let me turn into another Noch or Raska.

I stood on the damp grass for another few minutes or so, contemplating the value of my existence in The Order. Was I here to become stronger for my own gain, or was I just here for Noch and Raska's perpetual entertainment?

I probably should have moved already. I was covered in Lillian spittle, I was cold, I was dirty, probably bleeding too, and also mentally exhausted from all the circles that my mind had been running since the moment I woke up this morning. I could also swear that I probably had worms crawling around under my shirt and leather trousers. Please just don't be in my hair.

Flailing a little from that mental image I quickly moved from my spot with my flag tightly in hand and wandered in the foggy direction that Noch took. I was pleasantly surprised when I soon found Nelia with a warm cup of tea waving for me to join her. Nana Ara was also there close by, as well as Jasnine and Fog.

Jasnine was our incantations and runes instructor. But to me and Nelia, she was more like and aunt. She had taken up her role like Ara had taken on her role of grandmother for some odd reason. Jasnine was fabulous as she stood next to Fog. Her light brown hair fell in abundant waves down her back and past her narrow waist, her green eyes were glittering with mirth as she whispered something to Ara that made her guffaw in a quick burst.

As odd as it sounded though Jasnine and Raska got along with each other very well. Often a person would find the two eating together with heads bent in mutual mischief, even while Jasnine was the complete opposite of Raska.

Jasnine was more caring and kind than Raska could ever hope to be on a good day. She would often take both Nelia and I to the greenhouse to help her or just take us with her to the waterfall in the woods to have a picnic together on the moss covered ground.

I was pulled from my reminiscing when I felt a ping of energy. I froze and shot a glare up to one of the Maze walls and spied Noch and Raska sitting on the top grinning like idiots and toasting a glass of wine while they watched the throng of other trainees scream and run for their lives.

I knew it...

Every once in a while I would see someone getting spit out from the wall of leaves down the left or right by the maze just to get assisted and carried to the infirmary by other members of the order who all had sympathetic faces on.

They were spat out of the Maze almost like the Maze itself didn't like the way they tasted and thought that it was just too much effort to chase them around anymore.

In the infirmary they will be treated and checked out by the Ga's, no one would be limping for too long in their care. Scary as they might seem to be when they come up to you with their wands, scalpels and potions.

I grumbled to myself under my breath as Nelia came running down to me and handed me the warm cup of tea she had prepared.

"Congratulations!" She said shoving the cup at me. I gratefully took the cup from her and downed its contents in a single gulp, wishing that I had some ale or mead to down like that instead. The tea worked surprisingly quickly and had me feeling refreshed in a minute.

Giving a sigh of relief I smiled at Nelia. "Thanks Nelia, it wasn't easy. I should learn to never trust a single word that ever leaves Raska's mouth. I should just expect the unexpected every time there is something going on that involves her." I said with a glower up at Raska and Noch. As if they could hear me, they both turned around to look down at me and gave me identically evil grins.

An involuntary shiver of foreboding trickled down my spine, I made a noise of discomfort and grimaced. Nelia gave me a sympathetic smile.

"I don't know how you can stand it Meri. I would not have lasted even a second in there. Or anywhere within the vicinity of those two actually." She also gave an involuntary shiver at the thought after she spared a glance at the two on the top of the maze. It was true, she wouldn't last a second in any of the trials or training classes that I am taking.

She was definitely not built for violence, and I would like to keep her away from it for as long as possible. It's one of the other reasons why I'm taking these trials. I would be the hard one. I'll be the one to protect us while she can train the skills she loves, and keep on taking care of everyone with her gentle touch. She was better off in the capable hands of the Ga's.

I laughed at her comment. "Well Nelia, you should hope that I live a very long life so that you can keep me as a shield against those two. Heavens forbid you should one day lift up a wand and whack people senseless with it until they die on a battlefield." I laughed again when she slapped my shoulder.

"One day you'll regret those words when I save your life with a good whack on the head!" She tried to sound offended and angry, yet she couldn't stop the grin from spreading over her face.

I grinned back at her. It was wonderful to know that I made it through the trials. And by the sounds of Noch and Raska's evil laughter it seemed like most of the other participants hadn't found out the trick to the flags yet. Judging by all the fluctuating energies that I could feel flapping desperately around on the inside, they were doing everything they could to avoid Raska's energy signatures.

I pitied their poor souls...

I really, really pitied them at that moment, me finding a flag instead of a Raska doppelganger in that mess was pure luck. I was ready to either be smooshed into the ground and become Lillian droppings or fight off Raska's doppelganger to the best of my abilities and then run like the living bubbling pits of Tartarus were right underneath my heels all the way to the nearest hedge wall, and try to throw myself out of the game in any way necessary.

Not that the hedge itself or my two demented mentors would have allowed me to do that in the first place but, oh well. It would have been a lot better than having to spend time with Lillian.

At that point; Yes, I needed to win a flag or make radical plans for me and Nelia to stay as we were within the order. I would much rather have the flag, since I couldn't ever think of a good enough plan to have them keep us in the Order permanently without being useful.

And yes I would have thrown those dreams right out of the window of the highest peak of the Order's towers if it meant that I had to be within the same vicinity as Lillian.

I hated dark world creatures. Especially the ones that were huge, squishy, eyeless, deadly and not to mention smelled like 10 000 rotting corpses. I did NOT even want to be within spying distance of them if I could help it.

"So, what happened in there anyway?" Nelia said, sounding curious. She hadn't mastered following energy patterns like I had yet, and even I still had to focus hard to be able to make out the individual energies and map them out in my head like Fog, Ara and Jasnine was seeming to do from a few feet away from us.

I turned my gaze to them to see their eyes moving restlessly on the maze's walls from one side to the other while their mouths either twitched in amusement or they grinned at random intervals. I assumed that they were watching the initiates scrambling all over the place.

I gave a heavy sigh of pity and turned back to Nelia.

"Oh nothing much. It's fun to run for your life through a living maze while everyone is diving for each other's throats so they could be one of the lucky ones to find the illusive flags that had been doused in Raska's energy and made to move like they had been possessed by the resident poltergeists while obviously running through a fog that is so thick you can't see three feet in front of you, as well as running away from Raska's oh so friendly pets that keep trying to bite your head off around every corner that you take as well as Raska's armed doppelgangers." I looked at her stoically once I was done with my condensed version of events.

Her eyes were huge as she looked at me. She stood so still that it didn't seem like she was even drawing a breath. She didn't even blink.

"Nelia?" I asked frowning.

She just kept staring at me. I didn't see her chest move.

"Nelia?!" I asked a little more panicked when I saw her lips going a little blue.

"Nelia! Snap out of it! I'm fine, I'm here, I'm in one piece!" I said shaking her shoulders.

She finally seemed to take in a breath and blinked. Then she suddenly dove at me and hugged me around my chest so tightly that she lifted my feet right off of the floor with my arms pinned to my sides.

"I'm so glad that you're safe!" she wailed while burrowing her face in to my sternum. How that could have been comforting or comfortable was beyond my understanding as she kept squeezing and nuzzling me.

"Holy Aine! What would I have done if something happened to you?!" She sobbed and rubbed her face over my bony chest some more.

"Ne-lia. Stop, hugging- me." I tried to wheeze out through tiny gasps.

She stopped abruptly and let go so suddenly that I fell flat on my back on the damp grass.

"You are alright, right?" She said bending over me and proceeded to examine me with her eyes while sniffling and barely touching me now.

"Now that I can breathe again I am, yes." I said dryly as I stared at her silver-blue eyes that were bright with tears of worry.

She scrunched her face and cuffed me on the shoulder, hard.

"Ouch!" I said jumping into a sitting position. "What was that for?!"

"You made me worry!" She yelled at me.

"I didn't mean to! You jumped to conclusions! And I didn't even say which one of Raska's pets she had going after me in the first place." I said muttering the last sentence softly to myself.

"What was that?!" She asked holding up a stick that she had presumably found lying on the ground.

"Nothing!" I defended quickly bringing my hands up in surrender.

Suddenly we heard laughing coming from behind me and looked up to see who it was.

Fog stood there chuckling to himself as he tried not to look too obvious. Ara was snickering not even trying to hide her amusement at our expense. Jasnine stood there with a big grin on her face while shaking with her chuckles.

Nelia and I pouted at the group.

"Come on, let's go and sit over there." I said to Nelia as I stood back up. I took her hand in mine and led her back to them.

I was glad that we had decided to stay here when we were given the option of learning to become witches or going back to the normal humans and creating a normal life for ourselves. This right here, was much more entertaining.