CHAPTER FIVE
Iwasn’t wrong in my prediction. Day number one wasn’t at all the worst. It was merely the beginning.
I was now one week into Xalbia. It sometimes shocked me that I hadn’t given up. I’d come close to it a few times.
Right at this moment, I was tired. Cold. Naked. And I badly needed to relieve my bladder.
I also badly needed to sit, but I’d been ordered to stand in place in the corner of the shack. This kind of prolonged positioning was not new to me. I was familiar with the relentless ache in my lower back, the harsh stiffness in my knees, and the persistent throbbing in the soles of my feet.
“People on Ob-duty often have to stay in the same position for long periods,” Ajax had told us. “You’d all better start getting used to it now … if you can.”
Much as it was killing me to not move right now, I was grateful that Vesper—who lounged in a chair opposite me, reading a book—had only asked that I stand. It was harder when she ordered you to either squat or raise your arms and hold them in position.
Did I care that I was naked? No. I had the first time. And the second. But after that, I’d managed to push past the feelingsof vulnerability and humiliation, just as I’d so far managed to push past everything else.
What I’d learned was that Xalbia wore you down to the extent that you could only depend on your will and drive to push on.
Day one hadn’t ended with the ingestion of the apple.After lunch, one of the officiates had given us a lesson on the various beasts that inhabited Reaper’s Pines. Lessons he’d given us in the bathhouse, while every candidate sat inice-cold water. After dinner, we’d been tested on what we were taught. Tested whilefencingwith officiates.
A scythe had been my weapon of choice, since I’d trained with it while practicing forms of fighting arts at Phoenixia. I wielded it well. But I’d never gone up against godkin before.
Was it a surprise that Keyes knocked me on my ass? No. I’d expected it. I’d also hated it. And I’d jumped back to my feet.
He’d knocked me down again. I’d pushed to my feet again … only to eventually get put on my ass once more. But I’d gotten back up.
I always got back up.
That was more than I could say for some.
The other candidates hadn’t hit the floor quite as often as I had, but they hadn’t done swimmingly well at fencing either. Well, having to split our attention between fighting and answering questions meant that we hadn’t performed well at either.
Day two had been more rigorous. After breakfast, we’d been taken outside the city walls to hike around a jungle-like area of Reaper’s Pines. It. was.Hot.My clothes had clung to my sweat-slicked skin. The scorching air had felt so muggy and oppressive it had weighed me down.
On day three we’d trekked around the rainforest-like area of the Pines where there were constant thunderstorms. Theoverly strong wind had whipped at me, the heavy rainfall had slapped down on me, and the booms of thunder had all but deafened me. Drenched to the bone with my sodden clothes feeling like heavy weights, I’d had to walk through deep puddles and slushy mud.
We’d spent day four in the garrison, where we were again taught aboutmorebeasts within the Pines. This time, the lesson had occurred in the bathhouse … and those baths had been filled with bugs.
Yeah,bugs.
After dinner that same day, we had again been tested—this time while fencing Keyes. To no one’s surprise, I’d found my butt on the ground several times. But, as with our last round of fencing, I had repeatedly gotten back to my feet. I’d never once tapped out.
We’d finished off day four with a lesson in combat that had sapped us of what energy we had left … which had made it even harder to rise when we were woken at an ungodly hour on day five for a trek in the snowy parts of the Pines. Day six had involved a long walk around the swampier area.
On the days we hiked, we were always made to dosomethingshitty after returning to the garrison and having dinner. Stand in awful positions for a long-ass time, fence while blindfolded, drink the venomof Deimos’ creatures to start building a tolerance to them, or endure a rigorous exercise routine. By the time the latter was over, my muscles were always sore, my skin was always slick with sweat, and my lungs were always burning for air. Afterwards, I would collapse into my hay-bale bed, dead to the world.
Now I’d arrived at day seven, which was thankfully almost over. It hadn’t started any better than it was ending. I’d been woken unreasonably early, forced to jog around the courtyard while an officiate taught us more about the Pines’inhabitants, and then had fenced with Vesper on a narrow shaky bridge as I was tested on what I’d been taught.
Passing the test hadn’t earned me anything. Never did. That wasn’t how it worked here. The only real reward you had was not passing out.
After my evening meal, I’d been sent to the storage shack near the bathhouses to see what Vesper had in store for me, which happened to bethis.
So, in sum, the days were grueling. Our food and water rations were small when we were trekking, which made it harder for everyone to keep going. And it certainly didn’t help that we didn’t get much sleep.
Sometimes we were woken at three am, sometimes at six am, sometimes somewhere in between. And we wereallfeeling the physical effects of how little rest we got.
But I was still here. Although I was physically weaker than the godkin, I hadn’t cried foul as some had. While strength and speed and suppleness werereallygood to have, they provided no certainty that a candidate wouldn’t decide they were ‘done.’ You couldn’t rely on physical strength when so fatigued. It was mental endurance that kept you moving when your body cried foul.
Or, in my case, it wasthe prospect of undergoing ‘tests’ at the hands of the Sovereigns.
