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Commander Vasili enclosed us in, heightening my anxiety. What was this? Why was he so quiet and Remis so pleasant?
“Here. You must be hungry.” Remis removed the top off the plate. “Novices often forget to eat in the bustle of the first day.”
“No, thank you,” I said as my stomach growled, betraying me instantly. A plate of seeded rolls taunted me—appearing as warm and fresh as if they were made and placed there minutes ago.
“If you won’t have one, I will.” Remis and Vasili claimed a roll. They ate them more happily than I was, sitting there with my vocal stomach. Hesitantly, I claimed one for myself.
“Now then,” Remis began. “You know why you’re here. Questions have been called into your past. As well as the true circumstances behind Galen Teresi’s death and the end of that demon. By the end of your reflection time, Headmaster Drakos expects full and honest answers to these questions, or there will be consequences. Is this understood?”
“Understood.”
Drakos could have all the expectations he wanted. I would not tell him my past or what was done to me. Let me save one man’s life that day.
“Do you like it?” Remis asked, gesturing to the roll. “It’s Tantalean bread. It arrests your body’s normal functions, and makes it so you don’t need to eat or drink for a certain period of time.”
My jaw froze.
“It also stops the need to expel waste.”
“Excuse me?” I spat it on the ground. “Why would you give this to me!”
“Because,” she said—still smiling, still pleasant. “You’ll be down here for a while. Leaving you in need of food, water, and a bathroom is cruelty the likes of which only a monster would inflict. The bread allows you to reflect without endangering your well-being.”
Thebreadspoiled on my tongue. “So it’s true. You are trapping me in this room. Why call it a reflection room when there’s already a name for it: prison cell.”
“We are not trapping you in this room, girl,” the commander said. He moved to the iron statue and flipped a latch I hadn’t noticed before. The calm, immortal woman split from her body. “We’re putting you in here. This is the reflection room.”
Cold leeched into my bones.
“It’s nothing like a prison cell.”
Because it was even worse. Lethal sharp spikes lined her dark, hopeless insides.
The reflection room was an iron maiden.
“N-no,” I whispered. “No! You can’t put me in there. I won’t go!”
I raced to the door, hand closing on—
“Sleep.”
Black crowded my vision. The world went dark.
