Sophia spent the fourth day of the exam catching up on sleep. Leon and Zain had been seen to and the Healing Knight said they would both be fine, so Sophia finally allowed herself to relax.
When she awoke, she found both boys seated at her bedside. Apparently Major Major Dylan had repeated her summary of what happened after the second day to them. Zain, even if it seemed somewhat grudging, thanked her for saving his life. Not that she thought he would have died from that snake bite, just suffered a lot of pain until it was properly treated. Leon had congratulated her on winning the fight against the team of Knights and even robbing them of their weapons.
“How exactly did you manage to take on those three Knights all by yourself, Soph?” was Leon’s first question, which he added quickly, “and what the hell happened to your hair?”
Sophia subconsciously raised her hand and ran her fingers across her short hair. “I had to cut it because it got tangled in some bram
Sophia grinned happily when the proctor announced her as the winner. Just by looking at the watching crowd, she could tell that only her three mentors believed her capable of winning. Everyone else thought the poor little brown haired girl was going to be crushed by one of the strongest Knight left in this competition. But she had shown them. She went to the upper level to watch the rest of the preliminary matches with her team, quite glad she had gone first. Now she wouldn’t have to wait and bite her nails worrying about who she was going to be paired up with. The brunette reached her teammates. Leon tackled her in a bear hug and spun her around in circles, yelling at the top of his lungs. Major Dylan rescued her, setting her on her feet. He ruffled her hair and gave her his signature close-eyed smile that said he was proud of her. Even Zain, still mad that she had finished the second exam for him, awarded her a small smile. Sophia leaned against the railing
Sophia knew she had a lot of work ahead of her as she prepared for the final part of the High Knights selection exam. She needed to learn more long range magic, increase her magic reserves, and keep up her training in illusionary magic and hand to hand combat. She was waiting on the platform for Major Dylan along with Leon and Zain. She still couldn’t believe all of Team Dylan had made it to the finals. Just thinking about the tournament made Sophia anxious. Leon and Zain would be fighting each other in the first round, and the intensity of their rival made her worry. One of them would have to lose, and the loser would probably be bitter. Or at least Zain would be if he was one to lose. It also made her wonder what Major Dylan would do about their training. There was no way he could train both Leon and Zain, and it would be completely unfair for him to pick one over the other. She briefly thought that he would train her, so as to not favor one boy over the other, but
The ten finalists of the High Knight selection exams stood in a line behind the examiner. Sophia was between her two teammates, Leon on her left and Zain on her right. Behind each contender was their sensei. Aside from the teams she didn’t know, which had one mentor between the three of them, and Asher Jean who stood between Jackson and Finn, each Knight had their own. All of Sophia’s mentors had agreed that Major Dylan should be the one to stand with her on this day. Major Laina stood behind the examiners, Leon’s uncle was behind him and Zain’s older brother accompanied him. “Thanks everyone for coming to the third and last part of the High Knights selection exam! We will now start the main tournament matches between the ten participants that made it through the preliminaries,” the Head of the Knights Association welcomed. He acknowledged the presence of the High Knights and the King’s family. Sophia thought they were nothing special. They looked like just t
Sophia had to restrain herself from biting her nails as cerulean blue eyes clashed with dark onyx eyes. Leon extended his right arm, hand clenched in a fist; Zain mimicked him. And then they bumped fists. That was when Sophia let out a sigh of relief. This was just going to be another spar between them. A match between rivals. The brunette relaxed her posture and got ready to enjoy the fourth match, wondering who would come out on top this time. The two of them had fought so many times, but the record of wins and losses was pretty even. Zain was faster than Leon. He had a better aim and could strategize, which Leon seemed incapable of. Leon, however, had numbers on his side, along with his creativity, ability to think on the fly, and his pure stubbornness. Sophia had no way of predicting who would win this fight. Her teammates put on an impressive display. Zain’s control of fire magic had gotten even better, and he had shown off some basic lightning based magics as w
Sophia came to with a groan. She was greeted by the familiar walls of the infirmary that she had practically lived in for the last month. On a normal day, she didn’t mind the bleach white walls, the scent of disinfectant, or the bright lights on the ceiling. However, this was not a normal day, because today she was the patient, and not the visitor slash trainee. To someone who had just woken up, the absolute whiteness that was everywhere, from the lights, to the walls, to the floors, to the furniture, was blinding. Sophia was starting to understand why the older generation of Knights hated having to go to the infirmary if this is how they were treated. Being blinded after being healed from whatever had landed you in the infirmary was no fun. She also thought the enclosed space did nothing to help a Knight’s natural claustrophobia. Being trapped in a single room with a smaller than average window and only two exit routes just wasn’t safe when you were a Knight
Sophia was torn when she arrived home. She didn’t know whether to be angry, hunt her teammates down in a rage and tear them apart, or completely break down and cry. The apartment she had grown up in was destroyed. She wondered if this was why Major Dylan had bought a new black dress for her. Even if he had come here to collect her own, he would have been unable to do so. Sophia felt she could have handled that if her parents weren’t gone too. ‘How could they not have told me this?’ Sophia was mentally exhausted at this point. The High Knight selection exam, the invasion, the Head of Knight Association’s funeral, and now this. She had no clue what she was supposed to do, so she just stood, rooted to the spot, outside what had been her home for twenty-one years, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. All she could think about was that her teammates had not told her, not even her best friend Caiden, that her parents were dead the moment she went missing in the
‘What a troublesome event.’ Caiden knew he couldn’t bring home a girl to his mother, much less a random girl he’s never spoken to her of, without some sort of reaction. But fainting was not one of the possibilities he had even thought his annoying bossy mother was capable of. It baffled him because he honestly expected for her to start yelling at the top of her lungs like she usually did whenever he and his lackadaisical attitude was concerned. What was even more troublesome was the reaction his mother’s fainting caused. The thump when she hit the wooden floor brought his father slinking into the entry room. Andre Mournflame’s eyes quickly took in the scene, from his unconscious mother to the brown-haired girl on his back to the late hour and to the lack of groceries, which he had been sent out for. “Who’s the girl?” It was the only question his father needed to ask because she and his reason for bringing her to his home were the only unknowns in his
Sophia fidgeted uncomfortably under the stares of Zain’s father and older brother.They had been seated at a really fancy table. Brandon Anderson sat at the head and his wife was at the other end. Sophia had elected to sit on the Anderson matriarch’s right, and Zain was beside her. Directly across from her was Leon. Kai, as family heir, was sitting at his father’s right hand.Sophia had picked to sit next to Mandy Anderson because, one, she was the only other female at the table, and two – and most importantly – because both Zain’s father and older brother intimidated her just by standing in the same room as her. She was sure if she sat next to either of them, she would end up acting like a scared little girl unable to speak.But that seemed to be the case anyway because both Brandon and Kai were staring at her with dark onyx eyes and impassive faces that were making her twitchy.“So, Sophia,” Zain’s m