“Tina had gone mad, ain’t she?” said a girl whose blonde hair was tied in a ponytail, watching as Tina Goldstein passed by them and sat in an opposite chair in the Filling Realm, eating rather fast without a care in the world.A girl sitting next to her narrowed her eyes. “I think so, too.” She nodded, as though it settled the matter. “Have you heard to what she did to poor Merinda when she pranked her two days ago?”“Oh, yes, I did. Why shouldn’t I? It was a big scandal, ain’t it? The League was almost involved, but they did not, hadn’t they? They, too, are acting pretty weird. Usually, what Tina had done would merit her a reputation the likes of Janna’s sister, yet she did not. But I do think no one had forgotten how she had almost killed Merinda with nothing but a pen.”

The news about Tina facilitating the last day of the exam with the League traveled faster than she could reach her dorm. Speculations and rumors immediately bloomed and everyone that had known Trina was banking on her to become one of the League itself. It was, after all, what happened when the League started to give out the task to outsiders that they themselves were doing. In this instant, what Trina had done to the poor Merinda and even her supposed madness was erased in a jiffy, as though she didn’t just attack her own friends, as though she had not almost killed anyone. Everywhere she went, students were whispering, pointing at her. Some were braver than anything she’d expect that they would stand in front of them and ask her if what they thought was right. Of course, because of the League’s gesture toward her, the knot to Hera’s patience had become rather thin and anyone who dared to go near her got a resounding snap and a threat if she could help it. “Hera or

Mastering body-thieving was a dream come true. But being able to escape the life and the body Hera’s been accursed with was beyond her reality. Even after it happened, she was hunted by the fact that she had to go back, that death was the cost she had to pay with the desire to leave the destiny she’s been born with.So cruel, so unfair, but nothing less than she expected. That’s how life worked. Everyone was given a path they’d have to walk through and defying it was a noble yet futile act. Perhaps it’s about luck or a criterion of which she’s yet to discern; one way or another, someone was to be born with fortune as their middle name. It just so happened that she got the end of the stick, and so, the legacy with which she inherited was nothing more than a residue of flaws and a punch of misery. She 

The tent’s only source of light came from the pea-size flame dancing in the candle and the biggest of the moon that had been raised on the horizon that year. Hera followed the dance of this fire, the breeze of the wind caressing her whole being as what Mang Kanor had said echoed inside her head. She didn’t want to perceive her mother other than the picture of what she should have been, but every time she contradicted herself, the memory of her mother yelling at her father who’s doing nothing but to apologize spiraled in her thoughts, never-ending.“Happy birthday, Hera,” said her mother, the widest of smiles caressing her lips.It’s been over an hour since she arrived. Thousands of times she questioned her about the whereabouts of her father, but she’d only

Once Hera went out of her dorm, she was greeted by Kioven who was sitting cross-legged beside the door, his palm facing his lap, his eyes closed. Hera was fazed for a moment, frozen in her track, her mind couldn’t quite process what he was doing there.  Blinking rather rapidly, she made to move past him, but she stopped once again when he spoke. “You went out at last.” She didn’t know if she should feel relieved that someone was waiting for her to come out in the open or disappointed that life was yet again giving her a reason to see a ray of light. Truth be told, she’s tired of misreading the signs. One moment it seemed that she’d be able to grasp and grapple all of her fears and in the other, it just seemed to be the only real thing.  “Are