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ORPG, gedichten en schrijvers < Virtual Popstar

ORPG | Lenathor & Xesther

Anoniem
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Onism schreef:

TW: Kan heftige onderwerpen bevatten

~We gaan de hele ORPG opnieuw uploaden,
omdat de vorige topics verwijderd waren door Oeps, foutje~
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Aeria Fervous - 23
Xesther: Magical armour

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World map
----
Moodboard Xesther

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Team:

Thirza Vermorse
Marcus Canbell
Leo Gronzing - ✞
Echa Procher - ✞

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"Oeps Foutje" anywayyy...

Louella Lux Louissaint - 26
Lenathor: Sister of life and light

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World Map
----
Moodboard Lenathor

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Team:
Aeyenwyn Aquila Liberace - ✞
Morwen Mearl Lissums - ✞
Zomos Zahank Luhtil
Firreri Ferre Lesanada

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I feel my breath stock as we arrive in the Big Halls of the Odulixium. The halls are covered in white with golden details and I feel close to home in these colors. I am used to pretty hallways and golden details but these ones take my breath for a second. The idea of all the history that was made in these very halls is chilling by itself, and here I am, making my own part of history here.

Aeyenwyn grabs my hand softly. "We made it," she whispers into my ear and I feel a shiver go down my spine and the realisation of her words. The halls are empty - apart from the six of us: our team and our Elder - and her voices echoes through the halls, making it all a little extra magical. Aeyenwyn lets go of my hand and makes a little pirouette in the middle of the halls, her white soft dress dancing along in the wind with her. My eyes tear up at the pretty sight. "We made it," I whisper and look at my team. It was hard to leave my parents and our City behind but it is such an honor that I am standing here to represent our Sister and our entire City. We stand in front of the Big Hall and wait for the other Teams to arrive.

The big door opens and a bright white light enters the halls. Six people from Elleshall enter the room and we watch them look around the room in amazement, just like we did a few seconds ago. When they notice us in the room, they glance over to us and fake a small smile, but say nothing. "What an honor," Aeyenwyn whispers over to them in respect - like we always say at home - but all they do is nod back and I can see she's kinda of hurt by that. At least she tried. Elleshalls team walks into a far corner of the room and the whole room goes awkwardly silent. A short while later the entire team of Vizrabel enters the room in silence and they look around the Big Hall in deep honor and respect like we all did before them. Their floaty vibes catches me everytime I see them: they're so magical to see, their floating appearance makes my heart skip a beat. Truely wonderful. I catch eye contact with one of the teammates from Vizrabel and know in my heart I have to walk over to them now, so I do. Luckily Aeyenwyn follows me. Vizrabel and Lenathor are close with each other compared to the other City's so we have to keep our honor against them. They have some abilities that are somewhat like ours and our Sisters used to be pretty close as well. Their team walks over to ours and we greet each other with a kiss on the cheeks and a short "What an honor". Elleshall says nothing and stands in their little corner. The disrespect.

Slowly the room gets more and more crowded, after Vizrabel came in two Wizards from Zhora entered, making loud noises and walking past us all without even looking at us. I hold my head a little higher when I notice their behavior. The Elder from Lenathor walks over to me: "You'll have to get used to people ignoring you if you want to make it through this Tournament," she whispers into my ear and I nod my head in respect. I know she's right but back at home I am used to the two-sided respect people have for each other. Zhairan and some Wizards from Tasina enter, greeting everyone loudly but no one says anything back. I jump up a bit when the team from Xesther enters. Their armor makes more sounds than all these Wizards combined and their loud talking is extremely disrespectfull and distracting. I look over to them from the corners of my eyes and directly feel a slight disgust to them. I straighten by back and look into the distant, trying to not let them bother me. When you think about it, Xesther is probably one of the most dangerous competetors, seen the fact they will slice everyone in pieces without a doubt. They're brutal killers and I wonder how the fourth Sister ever got her hands of a type of magic like this.

After a while most of the wizards are united in the Big Hall and I look around for a bit. Illemis looks terrifyingly quiet, but then again so does Vizrabel and they do actually have high standards so maybe they're not that bad. Our alliance with Vizrabel might come in handy during the Tournament since the best Wizards from Vizrabel can see small clips from the future. I smile at the idea and make note in my head to try to get to know them better. All of a sudden there is a loud noise in the back of the room and I look over my shoulder to see what's going on. Someone from Tasina lays on the ground and a few Vriasia bend over her, kicking her in the sides. Someone yells: "You spend years in our City and now you show up here?" And kicks her in the face. I grab Aeyenwyns hand and look away. "You're fighting for something that is no longer, you don't even have a City!" I hear someone yell angrily. I used to believe that Vriasia was one of the 'okay' City's but hearing them like this I was definitely mistaken.

I already miss the peace and quiet from back home but I try not to give in to the thought: I am here because I was one of the Chosen ones and I will make them proud, I will show them what I can do and I will not doubt the fact that I will return home with the Title. I will show every Wizard here how powerfull Lenathor is and how powerfull I am since I am her family.

Two Elders came between the fight of Vriasia and Tasina and just when it became quiet again, the lights flicker. I feel a shiver go down my spine at the creepy sight of these Halls in the dark. These Halls are supposed to be bright and shining, in the eri dark they're just terrifying. Then I realise that Fayralen entered the Big Hall. They bring a shadow as they walk in and their looks terrify me: their blood stained faces and the dark horns on their heads are enough to give me nightmares for the rest of my life. My mom was right when she said Fayralen is the Devil herself. They for sure look like it and their abilities aren't that God-like either. I shiver as they walk behind us and I wonder why you'd ever develop in a type of magic like that. "They're terrifying," Aeyewyn answers my thoughts quietly and we hold hands again. Aeyewyn bring a sort of comfort with her and it feels good to have her here in this Competition.

When finally the peace, the quiet and even the bright light is fully restored in the halls, you can feel the tension in the room. I have never been in a room with so many Wizards from different City's. You can feel the hatred towards each other and I feel my heart beating in my throat. Just as I thought my nerves couldn't get any worse, one of the Elders that will lead the Tournament enters the room. And it is not in Lenathors favour: It's the Elder from Fayralen, it's the Wise of the Death.

And although the Elder should look a bit 'neutral' in order to lead the Tournament, he surely has chosen a side already. On his cheeks are big bloodstains and it takes me a little bit too long to for me to realise that these are not just bloodstains, they're shaped like hands. I feel sick and look away. It shouldn't be allowed for something so Devil-like to enter such sacred Halls. The same shadow that the Teammates from Fayralen brought with them, hovers over this Elder as he walks to the stairs in the middle of the Big Hall.

He begins to speak: "Welcome everyone," he says in a deep, low voice. "I hope you will enjoy your time here in Oduldale, although for some it might be shorter than for others." We have heard this speech many times of the years, it is said every Tournament but now a Fayralen speaks it, it feels different. The grin on his face doesn't make it feel friendly at all. "Before the introduction tonight, we will all eat together on third floor." When these words leave his mouth I realise how hungry I am. "You can get there by going up these staircases or.. in any other special way you might think of." And with these words the doors to all the Wings on the sides of us, open up. When I look over to the staircase again, the Elder is already gone.

Anoniem
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Onism schreef:
I'dhave to say that Oduldale is a very pretty city, but too polished for my
preference. I like it when things are raw, they look like they have a history
and have imperfections. This building, this city and these people inside this
hall don't have that. They look polished, fake and want to be perfect, but no
one is perfect without learning from they past mistakes. Hiding those mistakes
get's you no where. Ofcourse I shouldn't underestimate these people, they have
been chosen for a reason and are probably are very powerfull in their
magic.

Together with my other teammates I walk into the Odulxilium. My sword proudly
in my right hand and my armour glattering together as I walk. I'm not wearing
an helmet, I never wear an helmet. I let my blond hair flow through the wind
even in battle, no opponoment has ever been able to get close to me anyway. My
magic is too powerfull, I've won every war I've lead and my soldiers trust me
with ever step they take. That's a thing only my teammates will know
ofcourse, In Xester we are ranked like an army, the more powerfull ur power the
higher ranked you are. At least I think only my teammates will know, since I'm
guessing that most of these participents in this Tournament haven't researched
every single city and their traditions.

As I walk in I laugh with Thirza about how polished all these people look, they
seem like they've never even had a magical battle in their life, poor souls
don't know what they're in for. Especially those from Lenathor and Vizrabel,
with their floaty dresses barely covering their skin. I don't even spare them a
look when I walk past, in battle my blade will slice them up easily, they've
got no defense at all. In the hall I stand next to people form Zhora lock
eyes with one of them, a guy I give him a respectful nod and he does the
same. At least the people from Zhora know to cover themselves up, wear a cloack
or some thick leather. Their magic might be dark, but they know they dont have
to look like princes and princesses.

And Elder form Fayralen walks up the staircase and does the same talk they tell
the participants every year before the tournament, which is that we need to get
ready for the dinner and can head to our wings in the Odulxilium. The doors
open and the Elder is gone. ''Do you see those two Lenathor girls holding hands
over there?'' Thirza says and points at them, I laugh loudly in repsonse. ''God
they are scared shitless just looking at the Elder, they've never seen anyting
in their life have they?'' I say and we both laugh as we walk towards our
wing.

Since I have to go through the crowd to get towards the Xester wing I transform
my sword (which is also my wand) into a small axe, ofcourse to minimize the
risk of any of these other participants being clumsy and blaming me for holding
a sword. All five of use walk into our wing. The wing looks just like home,
brick walls and a old wooden plank floor. ''Thank the sister Xester that al
least our wing doesn't look like a polished up dollhouse.'' I say loudly and
hear the other laugh behind me. I decide not to change armour for the dinner
and just chill while I wait untill it is time.

When it's finally time we head towards the dining hall on the third floor. The
spiral staircase in the middle is just wide enough to have room for one person
going up and one person going down, which isn't ideal design if I'm being
honest.

But looking at the dining hall I've got to say that the staircase is not even a
little problem. The dining hall has 5 large round tables and each table has ten
chairs. You'd think, that isn't too bad now is it? You can just share a table
with another team you would think, well no not really It's a little different.
The chairs are assigned by name and this way you will sit at a table with 10
people each from different cities. I walk towards the chair that has my name in
shining letters written above it and sit down at the round table. A guy from
Elleshall was already at the table as well, because we are a bit early I'm
guessing the others will join us later. I change my axe into a battle knife and
hang it in my belt under my armour, guessing I won't be needing it here anyway.

A few minutes later everyone is sitting at the tables, a complete silence goes
through the hall. I look at the table next to mine and see my teammate Thirza
uncomfortably sitting between a guy from Lenathor and a guy from Elleshall. I
laugh out loud and she gives me a death glare, which makes my laugh even louder
and it echoos through the silent dining hall. ''At least they are decently
looking.'' I say out loud in our language and wink at her.

She avoids my gaze and say's:''Oh shut up Aeria, go talk to that half naked
girl sitting next to you.''

I wanted to repsond but get cut off by an Elder walking up the staircase. It's
the same Fayralen Elder as earlier. ''Welcome everyone, to the first diner of
this Tournament. We will be eating dinner like this all the upcoming days, so
i'd recommend you get used to your table companions. Let the dinner begin.'' He
says and with those words all different kinds of food appear on the table.

While everyone is waiting for someone to take the food first I smile silently.
''How humble of all of you to let me choose first.'' I say with a grin and use
magic to let the food float on my plate. To my own amusement no one responds
and the other people around the table just silently follow my lead, just like
my soldiers back in Xester. Sadly there is a big difference between my home
city Xester and this dininghall here. The people are silent and shy. At home we
would have a feast after a day of training, battling and planning, we would
celebrate another day and prepare for the day ahead of us. But here, there is
no feast here. It's more like a graveyard, we eat in silence.

After a few minutes some people finally start to talk a bit. People from Zhora
talking to the Fayralens and other people also just having some friendly chats.
Atleast the dininghall becomes a bit more alive this way, which makes me feel a
bit more at home.

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The dinnertable-thing is something that frustrates me. It is a slight relief that I sit on the head on the table, menaing I don't have to sit directly next to someone. Besides me is a guy from Vriasia and everytime he tries to say something, I shiver. His voice is so incredibly deep and eerie and I wonder if all Vriasia speak like this or wheter they can also change their voice just like their appearance. On the other side of me is sitting a very silent girl from Illemis and next to her an older guy from Fayralen. He creeps me out deeply when he talks to a girl Zhora but she doesn't really respond to him. It's then that I realise we are sitting in the same order as the Wings are placed. I hope the table's will get changed up because some people are already on my nerve.

No one has the nerve to start eating first, but then a Xhesters says out loud: "How humble of all of you to let me choose first!" She fills her plate but no one responds to her, me neither. I hold my head high as I watch the other Wizards collect some food after her as well. The silence might have been awkward but now there is some small chatter and it is somehow even worse. The Zhora at the table is having an awkward conversation with the older guy from Fayralen and I want to talk to the girl I met earlier with day from Vizrabel but she's all the way over to the other table.

"You're quiet as well," the young girl from Illemis says to me in a very soft and low voice. I smile at her as I get some food on my plate and start eating. The Xhester at the table is making really loud noises.
"Wouldn't it be a bit more practical to at least take of the armor during dinner?" The Zhairan at the table asks. The Xhester doesn't seem to be bothered tho. "And are you never cold?" She says with disrespect in her voice.

"I'm sorry?" I ask.

"She can talk!" The Xhester says out loud and I see the Fayralen grin.

"You think that's funny, red one?" I ask the Fayralen.

"If that's the worst insult she can think of I wonder if she'll even make it to desert," the Fayralen answers under their breath but some people heard it as well and laugh.

Without saying anything back I eat my dinner.

"I'm not so powerful with words either," the Illemis tells me in a whisper, "Just show them what you can do during the Tournament, that's all that really matters."

She's right but I have a hard time admitting that so I just smile politely. I look around to find Aeyewyn and she seems to be just as uncomfortable. I wonder why they decided to mix the tables by purpose, no one feels comfortable with it. I miss my home already: I miss the big dining halls, the white marble floors and the silence during dinner. I miss the music that is always playing there, the rooms so open that the wind can flow through every room. Here I just feel locked in.

"Deep in thoughts?" The guy from Vriasia asks. I look at him, wondering if he means it or if he's trying to make fun of me.

"The food is delicous, don't you think?" I aks him back politely.

"Yeah, it's fine," Is all he answers. "I just think it's weird that everyone is trying to be friendly here, while at the same time everyone is competing."

"I believe that outside of the Tournament we can be respectful to one another."

"People are gonna die here, wake up!" He says a little too loud. Everyone looks up at him. He looks scared. He stands up and leaves the Dining Hall.

And then, everyone looks over to me. I feel my cheeks getting red and I eat in silence.

When finally dinner is over, I look for Aeyewyn and we go for a walk outside. "What was up with that guy from Vriasia?" She asks when we walk into the dark air. "Everyone heard him."

"I don't really know, he said it was weird that people were trying to be nice to eachother, I believe." I sigh and let my hair dance in the wind as we walk.
"Tomorrow is the announcement of the First round. Are you gonna pay a visit to home tomorrow?" She asks.
"Yes, I realise I miss the people already. Back home everyone is so respectful to eachother and here.. I called a Fayralen out during dinner," I admit in a small laugh.

She giggles with me. "I called a Zhairan 'a simple scientist," she giggles.

After would walk we head back to our Wing, where we talk with the rest of the team. Everyone is curouis what the First round will be and we really are looking forward to it.

Anoniem
Popster

Onism schreef:
I'd have to say that the dinner was more entertaining than I would've thought it
would be. To my surprise the Lenathor girl was being so nice that the guy from Vriasia
couldn't handle it and stood up to leave the dinner. Very amusing I must
say.

After the dinner has ended I lock eyes with the Zhairan guy who was crying
about my armour being too loud. ''Well now that dinner is over, I guess I'll
change into some different armour.'' I say and smile when he looks at me
confused. ''Forema'' I say out loud and magically my armour transform to be
partly black leather and my wand changes into a long sword (dressimage). ''Have a great night sir, can't wait tosee you again at our dinner tomorrow.'' I say as I turn my back to him and walk
down the staircase with my head up high.

Down at the entrace to our wing I meet up with Thirza and we stand in the hall
while we talk, watching all the other participants creep back into their wings
in the Odilxilium, like scared little cats with their tails stuck between their
legs they run from social interaction.

''How was the dinner, did anything amusing happen at your table?'' I ask and
lean against the wall behind me.

''There were some interesting converstations I'd have to say,'' she admits,
''The guy from Elleshall called the Fayralen a bloodsucking animal killer.''
She giggles just telling the story again and I laugh with her.

''A bloodsucking animal killer, really? Your table is so much more amusing than
mine!'' my laugh echoos through the hall.

After talking for a bit longer I decide to spend my evening in the library on
the 4th floor. I grab some books that hold information about all the different
cities and spread them across the table im sitting at, this information is
very valuable if we as cities ever go to war in the future, and it will
also teach me more about the different participants.

I basicly spend the whole evening just reading in the library, sometimes
another participant walks in, grabs a book and walks out again. There is also
one guy from Tasina reading in the library with me. I'd have to say that the
people who pass from Tasina are very interesting. They are always the ones to
be picked on, they have no real home and they are basicly always on their own.

I see him taking notes from some books and my curiousity grows with the second.
''What are you studying?'' I decide to ask and he looks up from his notes.
''I'm taking notes on Lenathor's magic.'' He almost whispers, scared to answer
me. I just nod in responce, deciding not to bother him further.

After reading about Lenahtor specifically I have decided that I will visit
their polished up city tomorrow. It might give me some great insights about
their weaknesses as people. Ofcourse I've already noticed they are horribly
naive and at the same time also very stuck-up. Now I guess it's time to head
back towards the Xesther wing in the Odulxilium. I stand up and but the books I
used back in the places I took them from. When I head back towards the stairs I
see the guy from Tasina still busy taking notes. ''Take care.'' I tell him as I
am about to go down the stairs. ''See you in the Tournament.'' Is all he
responds and gives me a friendly smile, in which I respond with a smile back.

The next day is the day we get to explore, can't wait to go visit that city
full of powdered up dolls, note the sarcasm. And for the soul purpose of just
irritating the citizens of that city, I will wear my daily full body armour. Me
and Thirza decide that we will head to Lenathor together. We go through the
portal after showing our blade tattoos to the guards and head into
Lenathor.

The city is basically fully white, the light just reflects off of the
buildings. But I guess that what I could've guessed from Lenathor, Sister of
Life and Light. All the female citizens in this city just walk in white, long,
flowly dresses that get picked up by the wind with every breezy, so you could
say that me and Thirza stand out quite a bit in the crowd. But then again I'd
feel like we would be more respected here than if a Fayralen or Zhora tries to
look around the city.

As we walk around I can feel the gaze of all the citizens of Lenathor follow
me. I hold my head up high and sometimes respectfully nod to one of the elderly
citizens. After all I'm not here to cause trouble, I'm here to gain information.

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When I wake up I head to the living room and take place at the big glass table, where Aewewyn is reading an old testament while drinking some hot water. "These are all the tasks from Lenathor and the order of winners, like, ever," she whispers and she shows me the piece of paper. I read the paper in big lines and ask her where she found these. "I found them in the library, this morning." She starts reading it again. "This one is a bit weird tho," she says softly without looking up from the paper. "A few Tournaments back, a girl from Illemis won the Lenathor round as one of the first Wizards by using water magic.. She was the first one done after the Lenathors themselves."

I sit next to her and try to find where she is reading, and then I find it. Her name was Ecith Ane Desari and she was indeed from Illemis. "Since when do they specialize in water magic in Illemis?" I ask her and I frown.

Faraine, an older Wizard from our team, takes place on the table as well and we don't really talk about it after. "I have been thinking," I tell our team as we all sit on the table with our hot water. "Since Visrabel has very special powers and are our closet allies, maybe we should invite them to come visit Lenathor." As soon as the words leave my mouth I regret them, I know inviting a different family into your city is a disgrace. Everyone looks up from the cups a bit weirded out. "And why would we do that?" Faraine asks someone confused.

"The only round we know for sure we are gonna win, is the Lenathor round. All the other rounds are gonna be pure guess until we hear what the tasks are gonna be exactly. So, I was thinking, if we can bond a bit with Visrabel.. They can see bits of the future, you know?" Aewewyns smile gets wide as she hears what I have in mind. "I love that!" She says excited, "Maybe they will eventually tell us a bit more about what the rounds are gonna be."

The others at the table are a bit uncomfortable at the idea of it, but they also realise that it is the perfect way to show Visrabel how respectful we are to other people, how gorgeous or City and Sister are and we will also gain some insight information on the Tournament. "It is kind of a win-win situation," says Faraine eventually. And so the plan is born.

During breakfast I sit next to the Illemis girl and the guy from Vriasia, that walked out the other day, is missing. "Think you scared him away real good," the Xesther says outloud and the entire hall can her hear.
"I am not the one here talking so much," is all I say in respons.

I have some small talk with the girl from Visrabel and after breakfast we invite them with us to view Lenathor and meet some of our Elders and powerful Wizards. They agree to it directly.

We all head back to our own Wings where we get dressed and ready for the day. We meet eachother at the portal. The guard, dressed in Lenathor clothes, checks our tattoos as we go through the portal. My skin shines in cristals, pearls and diamants as I walk through the portal and I breath in the clear air of Lenathor as I open my eyes.

I can't deny that the tattoos from the Wizards from Visrabel are absolutely stunning. On their skin appear entire milkyways and it looks gorgeous. I watch them look aroud the city as they open their eyes in amazement. I can't imagine what it must feel like to see the white marble floors for the first time, the white walls and the bright sun. The sky is clear blue and it is the perfect temprature. "Wow," says one of their Wizards as he looks around. "You surely weren't kidding when you said it is perfect." I smile bright and honored as he says this.

We walk through the beautiful streets on the way to training temple. There, we visit three Elders who are giving training to young Lenathor trainees. The young wizards look amazed as they see us walk in: "What an honor," they all say in union out of respect and even the Visrabel wizards can't hide their smile. It feels good to show the purity and goodness of Lenathor to the other Wizards.

After the training temple we head over to visit the Elder who brought our team to the portal and who trained some of us our whole life. She tells the Wizards about the history of Lenathor without going into too much detail because we don't want to make the situation awkward at all for the Visrabels.

The day flies by and I even got to see my parents and brother real quick. When we head back to the portal I feel absolutely blesses and ready to hear what tomorrow will bring.

Back in Oduldale we head directly to the Oduxillium where we get dressed for dinner. In the halls my white dress dances in the wind and I feel so pretty. At dinner the guy from Vriasia, who was missing earlier at breakfast, is back. I am afraid to get called out on again, so I decide to not say anthing at all to him, which feels somewhat direspectful. As I look over to the girl from Illemis I wonder if I should ask her about the water magic but then an Elder of Lenathor walks in and the dining hall goes quiet for probably the first time since we got here.

All the Lenathors bend their head and say "What an honor," as we always do but the only respons we get is some laughter from the other wizards.

Anoniem
Popster

Onism schreef:
CiteerTheday flies by and by the end I don't really have gained much information.
Visiting the city is nice, you get a good feel for the people and how they
manage. But you don't learn much that can help you in the tournament if you
don't talk to the citizens. I would've loved ot have some converstations with
the Lenathor Elders or other citizens, but that's difficult if they have their
pride and and assumptions so high that they won't even talk to you at all. Then
again we all are from different sisters and we are fighting against each other
to show that the sister you are born from is the most powerfull in this world.
The blood of Xesther herself runs through my vains and I will make her and my
city proud when I win this tournament in 20 days.

Me and Thirza go back through the portal again and head towards the Odulxilium.
Because it's a more important dinner tonight I decide to change into a
luxurious red dress with armour pieces all over (dressimage). Ofcourse it has less defensive armourthan I would normally like to wear, but for this special dinner I will wear it.
Ofcourse I've got many different types of armour, some I can change with magic
and some I can't and have to put on like normal clothing. This dinner will give
us information about the first tournament round in Lenathor and I must say, I
am quite excited what the first challenge will be.

Once we are all seated at our table the Elder from Lenathor walks onto the
staircase and looks over us. The hall goes silent once they see him. To my
surprise all contestants from Lenathor bow their head in respect and say ''What
an honor,'' in union. This little gesture gains a lot of laughs from the other
participants but I nod my head in approval. ''At least they understand to
respect the people who rank above them.'' I whisper out loud to myself more
than anyone else. Respecting the people who rank above u is very important in
Xesther and this little gesture has shown me that Lenathor might be a little
less bad than I thought they were.

"Welcome," The Elder speaks at a slow tone but loud enough for
the entire dininghall to hear him clearly. "To the very first
announcement of your very first game in this Tournement. Brought to you by the
Very First and Greatest Sister Lenathor.'' He says and spreads his arm in pride
and the white cloth of his clothing shines brightly in the sun, Sister of Life
and Light ofcourse.

''The Sister of Life and Light has always kept the darkness away, she has
always shined down upon us and she has blessed us Lenathors with her powers.''
He says and I can hear the Fayralen and Zhora at the table slowly lean back in
their chairs in disgust for this man. I show no emotion at all while I follow
his speech closely.

''Tomorrow you will follow in her footsteps, you will create light and save
yourself from the darkness in this world. You will all start the tournament in
the Lenathor temple undergrounds. You will have to use the power of light to
find your way up to the highest point of the Temple's Tower. The power of light
will show you to the correct doors which will lead you to the staircases going
up. Choose the wrong doors or take too long to find the right path towards the
top? You will be eliminated from the tournament and you will be a shame to your
family.'' The whole hall is completely silent, just all taking in his words and
what this challenge means for us tomorrow.

But the Elder gives us no time to think and speaks up again, a powerfull light
comes through all the windows, it's almost blinding. ''Let the Light of
Lenathor lead the way to victory, make her proud.'' He says loudly through the
hall, so loud that his voice echoos.

Then the blinding light is gone, and so is the Elder, it's almost like he has
never stood there and his whole speech was all a dream. As I am collecting my
thoughts the food appears on the plates and the dinner has now officially
started. No one at the table is moving yet, like everyone else we are still
rethinking the words of the Lenathor Elder.

''I'd suggest we let Lenathor pick her dinner first, seems like a honourable
agreement since the day will be in honour of Lenathor tomorrow.'' I say to my
table in a serious manner. The contestants from Visrabel, Elleshall and Illemis
nod in agreement while the other contestants just stay silent.

''Go ahead.'' The girl from Illemis tells the girl from Lenathor, and just when
she is about to pick her meal the guy from Vriasia speaks up; ''I'm not waiting
for her, I don't care for your equal respect.'' And while he says it he chooses
his food and let's it magically float to his plate.

Anger kinda starts to consume me by this guy's horrible manners, but I refrain
from showing it.

''Very well then, enjoy your meal.'' Just as the words leave my mouth I let
three arrows shoot down from the celing onto his plate, the plate scatters when
my arrows contact it and the food is pinned stuck to the table. I can everyone
around our table gasp in surprise and in the corner of my eyes I can see the
girl from Illemis giggle in approval.

I turn my head towards the girl from Lenathor and show no emotion to the scene
I just caused. ''The first bite is all yours.'' I say and give her a respectful
smile.

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When the Elder disapears from the staircase, I look over to Aewewyn. She is probably thinking what I am thinking: we have been in that temple before. No doubt this is still gonna be a challenge, since the temple is massive and it's gonna be completely dark but I know in my heart that all the Lenathors will make it through this first round. It felt good to see an Elder from Lenathor here, it almost felt homelike.

And I feel even more at home when the Xesther girl at the table, right across from me, suggests for me to eat first. "That is truely respectful, thank you," I tell her sincerely. I can't help but wonder if all Xesthers are respectful like this, I must say I never really thought of them this way. They always make loud noises and like to disturb everyone with their clinking armor and loud humor. But she seems truely sincere. "Go ahead." The only other contestants that nod in agreement are the girl from Visrabel, obviously, the man from Elleshall and the young girl from Illemis that sits next to me.

Just as I grab my small, pointy wand to make grab some of the food the older guy from Vriasia speaks up: "I'm not waiting for her, I don't care for your equal respect." The food is already on his plate before he finishes his sentance. I feel my eyes water from this absolute disrespect but try my hardest not to show it. I am not used to people being this harsh, especially not during an hororable dinner. I sit back into my chair, almost defeated, when the Xesther girl shoots three arrows from the ceiling right into the guys plate, making it shatter to pieces and the food stuck between the table and the arrows.

Everyone at the table gasps, even the Fayralen and the Zhora. The girl from Illemis lets out a giggle and I look over to her in disbelieve. My cheeks feel red when I look back over to the Xesther girl. She is something else. "The first bite is all yours," is all she says, giving me a respectful smile.

I am a bit lost for words but let out a small: "Thank you, you didn't need to do that." I can't help it but to feel somewhat flattered. Never in a million Tournaments would I have thought about a Xesther sticking up for me during dinner.

The Vriasia guy, though, is not so flattered. And the whole arrow-thing did not go unnoticed: the entire dining hall is looking over our table. "I-I am s-sorry," I tell him, sincere. I can't imagine what this must feel like for him, although he was being absolutely disrespectful.

"You ain't sorry for shit," he says, looking directly at me. "Just eat your fucking food. The next time we talk, you're either dead or going back home." He looks over to the Xesther girl. "And you.." He stands up, walking over to her and bending himself over her. "You won't even make it through the first round. And if you do, I will make sure you'll die before the second round even started." And when these words leave his mouth, everyone in the dining hall, even the tables all the way across the room, jump up and run over to him. A massive fight breaks out. Vriasia's are figthing with Xesthers, Fayralens are Sister knows why defending the Xesthers and everyone is yelling at eachother. In the chaos I look for Aewewyn, who is still at her table. As I walk over to her, someone grabs my dress and throws me to the floor. With terror in my eyes I light a bright, shining light from my wand and blind the person on top of me. Someone pushes the wizards of of me and helps me stand up. It's the Xesther girl.

She looks at me, smiling. "I didn't exactly mean for," she looks around, "all this to happen." She giggles and I do too. She is special. But maybe that's just how Xesthers are.

The massive fight gets broken up by some Elders and quiet a lot of magic. We are send back to our Wings without eating dinner.

In our Wing I explain everything that happened. The Xesther girl offering me to eat first and the response from the Vriasia guy and the arrow trick from the girl. "Xesthers really are someone else," Faraine says when I am done telling my story. "She seems honestly a good person."

"She threw arrows into someone's food! She could have killed the guy!" The older guy from our team says, angry.

"She's Xesther, she know's what she's doing."

"Either way, it's weird."

Before we head to bed we do a collective prayer in front of a shining statue of Lenathor, the Sister. As I lay in bed I keep praying that tomorrow will go in peace.

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A fight breaks out as soon as the guy from Vriasia starts to threathen my life
while he stands over me. Gosh I did not wear the right clothes for this after
all. People form all corners are lunging for each other and magic spells are
flying all around. I see the Lenathor girl stand up from her seat and walking
towards another Lenathor girl, but she gets jumped on her way there, it's a guy
from Zhora. She blinds the guy with a bright light from her wand in panic. I
quickly change my wand which was a bow into a shield and use it to push the guy
off of her. I take her hand and help her stand up while I look around the
dining hall.

''I didn't exactly mean for all this to happen.'' I laugh and she laughs in
response. She might not be so bad after all, she just needs to show everyone
around her that they can't just walk over her.

A few seconds later Elders start gathering from all directions and break up the
chaotic fight and we get sent back to our own wings in the Odulxilium. I get
pulled aside by one of the Elders. ''You are the death threatend contestant
right?'' He questions and I nod in reponse, ''yes Sir.''

''The contestant from Vriasia who threatend you will switch positions with
another Vriasia contestant for the upcoming dinners, and we will let you go off
with a warning for now. Battling magic is not allowed during the dinners. You
can now go to your wing freely.'' He tells me, not expecting an aswer from me
as he is already walking away.

I head back to my wing and as soon as I walk in Thirza want to know all that
happend. ''You shot arrows from the ceiling to refrain him from eating his food
first?'' She just can't believe the story I just told her.

Marcus, the older contestant from Xesther stands up, thinking about my
descisions. ''Aeria you need to let go of the Xesther traditions a bit, actions
like this can get you into bad trouble.''

''I accept your concern Marcus, the arrows might have been a bit reckless I can
see that. But my point has come across and his deaththreat were just words
without any meaning, he doesn't know who's he is talking to.'' I answer
sternly, knowning well enough that I would not let myself get scared by such
meaningless words.

''Just becareful Aeria, he is not the problem you are fighting against, it's
the Elders who might take his side.'' And with those words he heads into his
own bedroom and I follow his lead and head into my own bedroom as well.

I spend my evening thinking about the tournament round tomorrow, and all the
information the Elder had given us about it. We need to let light show us the
way to the right doors, and the right doors will lead is towards the
straircases which will bring us upwards in the temple's tower. The tower will
probably be pitch black and you wouldnt even be able to see the other
contestants, but if everyone is going to use light spells they might get mixed
up. If I'd have to guess the problem wint be greating light which will lead the
right way. The problem will be that you won't know which light source is
actually yours, it will get mixed up with the other contestants and chaos will
come forth.

So how does one create a light source only one person can see, only one person
can follow. Getting away from the other contestants will be key in this
challenge, the faster you are away from the crowd, the more you can focus on
getting towards the top of the temple's tower. But then again, can't you just
cheat, create no light and follow the Lenathor's path? This challenge might be
more difficult than it sounds.

After spending most of my evening thinking and planning ahead for the
Tournament tomorrow I decide to let it go. It's almost midnight, but instead of
going to bed yet I decide to head towards the balcony and let my hear flow in
the wind. I look up to the bright stars filling the dark sky with their light
and then sunddely it hits me, I might have found a way in which I can let the
light lead me tomorrow. I head back to bed soon after deciding not to overthink
it too much and just get a good rest.

The next morning I wake up and get ready, deciding to wear my normal magical
armour I wear on the daily (die van de foto in 1e bericht). This armour gives
me many possibilities to change and is for sure one of my most powerfull
magical armour set, even though it doesn't look like it. I walk into the
livingroom of out wing and see Marcus clamly sitting at the massive table.

''Why are you just staring at the wall?'' I ask a tad confused. ''Just thinking
about the tournament round, how do you think it will go down?'' He asks me and
gestures that I should join him at the table, which I do. ''Chaos will consume
them, just like yesterday evening. They let their emotions run their actions,
they don't think with their brains.'' I answer simply and he nods. ''I was
thinking the same thing, don't follow in their footsteps though Aeria, they
will drag you down with them.''

''I will not let my actions be run by my emotions Marcus, that's not the way we
can lead our soldiers and that is also not the way I will lead myself.'' I
answer simply and my short answer tells him that I don't want to further
discuss this with him.

We head towards the breakfast a few minutes later and I can already see that
the Elder his word was true. Because a girl from Vriasia is now sitting in the
chair the previous guy used to be sitting in. In comperison to the dinner last
night, the breakfast is very silent and collected. Everyone seems to be lost in
their own thoughts thinking about the round ahed of us. I turn to look at the
girl from Lenathor, the dinner last night must've affected her a bit.

''Hope you are feeling alright after the chaos last evening, my apologies
again.'' I say to her and she turns to look at me as well. ''I'm very well
thank you, your apologies have been accepted.'' She answers calmly with a smile
and I give her a small nod in repsonse, ''I'm vey glad to hear that.''

After the breakfast we head back to our wing and make the last preparations
before we head to Lenathors portal. Once we are all at the portal we go in 1 by
1, showing our tatoos and waiting on the other side for the other contestants
of our group. Once we are all 5 together an Elder from Lenathor leads us
towards the Temple and I can already see the tower come into view. Gosh they
couldn't have chosen a smaller tower could they? The tip of the tower is not
even visible as it is above the clouds. Then I get broken out of my own
thoughts by the Elder speaking up, ''I will now lead you towards the
underground, you will all five stay in a closed off room. The round will start
as soon as the walls fall down, which will create a large hall where u will
start with the other contestants. Understood?'' We all nod in response and say
''Yer Sir.''

We follow his lead down a long spiral staircase into the ground, once we are
down he opens up a door and leads us into a room. ''The round will start in two
minutes when the walls fall down, let the light of Lenathor be ur guide to
victory.'' Is all he says and he leaves us five alone in the empty pitch black
room.

Our room is completely silent as we all just wait for the round to officially
start. I hold my sword tightly in my right hand and prepare myself for the
chaos that will come. The suddenly a loud sound can be heard and the ground
starts to move, I may not be able to see it, but I can feel the walls sink into
the ground around us. Then the feeling stops and the round has offcially
started. It is still pitch black and silent for a few seconds and then all
chaos starts. Different magic spells are being cast all around and the rooms
slowly becomes more visible, there are doors all around us, it must me at least
30 doors in total on this floor alone.

As I am trying to figure out what the room looks like I can see a lightning
bolt come right towards me. ''Clypeus'' I say quickly and me sword changes into
a large shield with which I block the lightning blot from hitting me. I need to
get out of this room as soon as possible, just to get away from the other
contestants.

So I take my original plan into action. I try to pin point the middle of the
room and stand in that exact spot. Around me I can see people from Elleshall
summoning fireflies to help guide them the way, people from Zhairan brewing
potions and putting droplets in their eyes, possibly for nightvision. I need to
let go of my curiousity and focus on the task ahead of me. ''Arcum'' I whisper
and my shield changes into a large glowing bow. (bowimage ignore the outfit).

''Dirigentes stella'' I say and a glowing arrow shoots up towards the ceiling,
then explodes in the air and changes into a small falling arrow. I follow the
arrows path down and it lands right in front of one of the wooden doors. I look
around me and see that all the other contestants are just paying attention to
themselves, some contestants are going through doors and other are blindly
following. ''Confordere'' I say and change my bow back into my normal sword.
And quickly I go through the door and close it behind me again, heading up the
stairs hoping I chose one of the correct paths upwards.

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The Temple is even bigger than I remember. All the contestants create so much light that no one can really keep track of their own light sourse. Back in Oduxillium we talked about an old trick that we learned when we were trainees and we decided to try that out in this round. It's really simple, apart from the fact that there are so many other people walking around with their light flashes but because of that light, it less dark in here and thereby less scary.

The five of us split up, dividing ourselves over the 25 first doors, so we all have five doors to check. I grab my wand as I walk over to my first door. Instead of shooting a massive bight light from my wand like the other contestants do, I make a small, minimum light bulb that sparkles a little bit. I hold it close to the doorknob of the massive door. "Luceat," I whisper soft to my wand, making it almost an IV light, no fingerprints on this door. I walk over to the next door. I see some contestants looking over to me, wondering what our Team is doing. "Luceat," I whisper again, but this door has no sign of fingerprints either. I look over to see how my teammates are doing, but is doesn't look like they found something yet. So, I walk over to the next door and try again. Some slight fingerprints appear on the doorknob. The next step now is to check the floor. And yes! Foodprints appear when I shine my wand over the floor underneath the door. I send a mini sparkling lightrocket over to the others and they understand the sign. They all walk over to me and we get through the first door. Our theory is: if someone walked out of this door, it's most likely this is the way out. This way we don't admit to the chaos and we will not lose our light sources. When we walk up the staircases, we hear someone whisper behind us in the dark: "Yes, this is the way they were going, com'on."

Sounds like a Zhairan. We hoped this wouldn't happen.

In the next hall it's pitch black and I feel a shiver go down my spine. Lenathors are not used to the darkness, especially not to this haunting darkness. I shoot a light into the centre of the ceiling, making everything a little bit more visable to see. Behind us are indeed three Zhairan wizards. "I think that's cheating," Farain tells them but they don't answer.

We do our technique once again and this time Farain finds the door. But this time we are smarter. We wait until the light at the ceiling gets numb and in the darkness we hide through the door, leaving the Zhairan behind us. "I don't like this darkness. The Temple is a beautiful place it should be covered in daylight," I say more to myself than to the others. In the next hall we do the same thing. And although there are only ten doors now, it takes a little longer. We go through the door that Aewewyn finds and make sure no one is following us. We hear some wizards talking in the room behind us, making sure they are catching up. We try to do the next room a bit faster and decide to keep the lights out so we look for the doors in darkness, which none of us likes but this way we make sure we won't be followed.

After doing this technique for quite some more rooms, we see sort of a pattern into the doors, telling us we are doing it correctly and that we picking the right doors. The voices behind us get numb, meaning we are catching up. After some more doors the halls get less dark so we know we are close to the top.

Finally we get into the last hall which we all recognise really fast. This was one of the Halls we got training in, so we know which door is way out. When Aewewyn opens the door, my eyes hurt when they are trying to get used to the bright light. Then we hear a voice: "Congratulations, you have all proven yourself worthy and have succesfully finished Lenathors challenge!" The Elder from Lenathor is standing at the door. "What an honor," we all tell him and we take place at the pillows which are placed at the ground. Here we wait for the other contestants to get out of the door as well. But for now, I am so happy we all made it and we congratulate each other with our win. And not only did we win, we won before anyone else did. We made it as the first five. Our family will be so proud.

Anoniem
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Onism schreef:
Up on the next floor I see a few morecontestants in the dark, there still is the same amount of doors. Little
flashes of lights spark up in a few places, but it surely is not as bad as the
first room. ''Arcum'' I whisper and my shield changes into a large
glowing bow once again. I use the same spell as before, ''Dirigentes
stella'' and watch the arrow drop like a falling star before one of the doors.
Then suddenly a Zhairan grabs my attetion, he is standing in the dark just
watching the other participants and not doing any spells himself. He is just
waiting untill one of us goes through the door and will probably follow them,
putting in no work himself. There's nothing that I'm going to do about it
though, as long as he doesn't follow me. Through the dark I make my way towards
the door where my arrow fell down and silently go through it, making sure no
other participants will follow my path this way.

The staircase goes up once again and I walk into a new room, less doors this
time. Pitch black and there's no one inside I'm all alone, which is either very
good or very bad. I decide to just keep the same tactic for the rest of the
ucoming rooms. No one is with me anymore at this point and the further I
progress up the tower the less doors I come across in the halls. The rooms also
start to be brighter, meaning that I'm not underground anymore, I'm surely
going the right way. Then I'm in a hall with only five doors left, I choose the
door and a very bright light greets my face. ''That's something to get used
to.'' I mumble softly to myself.

"Congratulations, you have succesfully finished Lenathors challenge!"
A Lenathor Elder greets me. ''Thank you very much Sir.'' I say and nod my head
down respectfully in repsonse. I'm definetly not the first to finish, my tactic
was very slow after all, but it surely got me to the right location in the end.
I see Marcus and Thirza already sitting on some uncomfortable pillows in the
room and walk towards them. Thirza instantly notices me, ''You made it Aeria,
I'm so glad! Time is running out, only half an hour left to go. Marcus and I
we're scared something happend to you and the other two.'' She says and hugs me
happily.

''Wait, the others are still in there? They can't let Xesther down like this. I
know puzzles are not our expertice, but I guess it's just a time problem. I'm
sure they will make it'' I answer and look up towards the screen showing how
the tournament round is going. Only thirty minutes left on the clock, no wonder
I didn't come across anyone. The room is filled with other participants who
already finished, from what I can see we're only still missing 3 people from
Zhairan, two people from Zhora, one from Vriasia and ofcourse the two people
from my team, Xesther. Then the end of the round is announced, only five people
did not make it. Two people from Zhairan, one from Vriasia and the two people
from Xesther.

''How did they not make it? It's the first round!'' Marcus says angrily and
stands up from the uncomfortable pillow.

''Calm down Marcus, something must've happend. There's no way they would just
lose because of time shortage.'' Thirza says, laying a hand on his shoulder to
calm him down.

''It's not like we will know anyway, we will just get escorted back to Oduldale
in a few minutes. They won't tell us if anything happend and they we're also
nowhere to be seen on the live screen for the past 30 minutes. No need to worry
about them now, they've let Xesther down, which means that us three need to
show that Xesther is the most powerfull of all.'' I say proudly, Marcus and
Thirza nod in response.

''Congratulations, all of you. You have passed the first and most important
round fo the tournament. Showing that u are capable of letting yourself be
guided by Lenathors light. An Elder will guide you all back towards the
portal.'' An elder from Lenathor says loudly and out of nowhere other Lenathor
Elders appear and we walk back with them towards the portal.

In Oduldale we walk through the city back towards the Odulxilium. On all the
streets people cheer for us, happy so see that the participants from their
family are still competing. Once we are back in the Odulxilium we head straight
to our wing, not congratulating other participants. I sit down at the table and
take an apple from the fruitbowl. ''How did we lose those two in the first
round?'' I mumble to myself, frustrated that we've already lost two people from
Xesther.

Marcus sits down next to me, ''We will just have to prove it instead of them,
we will fight like real Xesthers and we will be victorious.'' his words are
powerfull and I nod, ''You are right Marcus, we won't let this drag us
down.''

When it's time, we head up the staircase once again to have dinner. To my
surprise there's actually no one from our dinner table that is missing. We
still have ten participants sitting at our table, one of every family. I sit
down at my usual chair, waiting for the usual food to appear and start the dinner.

''Glad to see you all survived the first round, wouldn't want to miss any of
you at this dining table. I would almost say this dinner has become my
favourite part of the day.'' I say with a smile, because just as usual, no one
else dears to speak up first.

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Back our Wing we celebrate our win with some expensive champagne a young Lenathor girl gave us back at home. "I miss those white streets already," says Aeyenwyn soft. "But the champagne makes up for it," she smiles as she raises her glass. "To Lenathor!" She says loud.

"To Lenathor!" We all say after her and we drink. It feels so good to be the first contestants to win this round. We put on some slow music and we dance in our Wing. The champagne tastes so good and the dance make me miss our home and traditions deeply.

When we head to the dining hall Aeyenwyn walks up to me. "I think it's just so unfair that even when the five of us won as the first five, we are still seperated during dinner. We deserve more than that," she says quietly. I throroughly agree with her but I guess thats just the way things go now.

I sit down on my table as one of the first and slowly the table gets filled by the other contestants. To my suprise I realise that no one from the table is missing. Everyone made it through. The Xhester at the table seems to read my thoughts as she says a little too loud: "Glad to see you all survived the first round, wouldn't want to miss any of you at this dining table. I would almost say this dinner has become my favourite part of the day." Her smile is so big and maybe even genuine. That is until the Fayralen says soft but grim: "That makes you the only one."

I can see that the Xhester wants to fire some words back but then the food appears and we eat in an uncomfortable silence. I don't thing we ate in complete silence before and I cannot wait for the day that this table is almost empty. Whoever came up with the idea of eating surrounded by other family's clearly never tried that themselves because it makes me sick every time. Maybe it's a technique to weaken eachother: you can't fight without some food in your stomage.

Dinner goes pretty quiet, obviously besides the Xhester, who just had to shout to the other Xhesters at the tables all across the room. I swear, one day I'll lose my hearing and it's because of these respectless Xhesters. But after the Zhora asked her whether or not her mom ever thought her how the behave, she became quiet, which I think was a first. "Think they found her weak spot," the Illemis girl whispers so quietly that I am the only one to hear her.

After dinner we all head back to our Wings, where our Team gathers at the balcony and we danced in the soft starlight until the sun came up again. We headed to breakfast, where the hall smelt like cinamon and coffee, which reminded me of home and my eyes filled up with tears. "Oh, what? Is even cinamon disrespecting you now?" The Zhora at the table laughs when she sees my tears.

"Oh, please, that's called tears of happiness, guess that's just something you'll never experience, do you even know what happiness means? I mean, when I'd be locked up in a massive, dark castle all my life without ever seeing daylight, I'd probably go mental as well." I see the Illemis girl smile but she tries to hide it.

The Xhester heard me and says way too loud: "Little louder next time, lighting girl!" And she laughs a horrible loud laugh.

After breakfast me and Aewewyn go the library, where we read a lot about all sorts of lighting potions. These potions feel close to home and back in the temple we used to learn a lot about these type of potions. Not a whole lot later we decide to visit Zhairan, the Sister of Potions. Before we do so, we get dressed in some darker clothes, so the citizen will not notice we are Lenathors right away. It feels weird to hide our identity but we all realise that this is safer.

"Oh, no, I look like a Tasina! I am not leaving our Wing looking like this!" Aewewyn cries. "This is so disrespectful to our Sister!"

We all know she is right, but then again, this is way it's safer to enter the city. A couple of Tournaments ago a Wizard was found dead in a city from an other Sister. After te incident, Wizards rarely visit other cities.
As we head through the portal, we don't walk in on the other contestants, because it's already pretty late and if other contestants headed to Zhairan, it would have been directly after breakfast. We show our gorgeous tattoo's in the bright light of the portal and we are led into the City of Potions. When I open my eyes I immediatly long back for Oduldale. I was not made for this type of city. The dark streets terrify me and the smell here is absolutely disgusting. "This was a bad idea," I whisper but we decide to head through any way.

The locals give us weird looks and we enter all sorts of potionshops where we are absolutely not openly welcomed. We ask some questions about specific potions but barely get any answers, so after a short walk we decide to go back to the Oduxillium anyway.

Back in our Wing we all feel defeated about our failed tour in Zhairan but after a cold shower, we all feel better. We get dressed in our usual clothes and immediatly I feel calm again. Before we head to the dining hall we tell each other that no matter what the task is going to be in Zhairan, we will make it through. That we got this.

Walking up the staircase I feel my heart beating in my throat. A bunch of 'what ifs' wonder around in myhead and I am so lost in thoughts that I almost tremble on the stairs. Aewewyn sees it and grabs my arm, walking into the dining hall together. The other contestants at my table are making me even more sick. I guess all I can do is pray, so that is exacly what I am going to do. I close my eyes and tilt my head up to the high ceiling of the hall. I whisper some words that the other contestants are not likely to understand and when I open my eyes again, an Elder from Zhairain is standing on the staircase. He looks serious and scary. His bright orange hair and his dark green eyes make me shiver.

"Welcome everyone," the Elder starts and the room gets deathly quiet. "Tomorrow you will follow into the footsteps of Zhairain: Sister of Potions. In our City you will face a great fear: the fear of drowing and seeing others around you drown. You will create a potion to save yourself from a certain death. Bringing your wands is simply not allowed. There will be a box filled with all ingredients you could possibly need.

Goodluck to you all." And with these words he leaves. Everyone starts talking at the same time and no one understands what will happen tomorrow.

"How are we supposed to make ourselves ready for tomorrow?" Someone yells. Other people are yelling as well: "We don't understand!" "We need more than this!"

I look around our table, everyone seems confused.

"Fucking Zhairans, am I right?" The Fayralen murmers.

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The next day I need to decide if I'm going tovisit Zhairan or not. Together with Marcus and Thirza we do decide to visit the city, this time in our normal most comfotable armour. Since in a past
tournament incidents have happend in Zhairan and we've decided that we want to
be on our guard. For Lenathor we changed armour to fit in a bit more with the
citizens, but we won't do that today. We going to stick out like a sore thumb
in that city anyway, so it's better to come prepared than to try and be even a
little bit nice.

Zhairan has always been a city that interested me very much, I've read
interesting things about it, that it's fully underground, made out of metal and
machines and that fumes and different gasses consume the city itself. After
prepairing ourselves we headed out into Oduldale and walk towards the portal,
where we showed our tattoo's in the light and we're allowed to go through. Just
as expected, the city was like nothing I've ever seen before, their city being
fully underground was an amazing defense tactic and the fact that alsmost
everything built was out of metal was simply spectaculair.

The guards of Zhairan noticed us instantly as we got into the city and took
everything in. The walking noise of our armour was almost unnoticable because
of all the loud noises that the machines made. Automatic potion makers, sewer
pipes and large metal bars went from left to right, sometimes even cutting off
different pathways. The city was honestly a very spectaculair looking mess. As
we walked around many citizens gave us dirty looks, their different neon bright
eyecolours staring into our souls as they unwelcomed us in their city.

We decide to head into one of the bigger shops and as soon as wel walk in the
unwelcomed feeling greets us personally, ''Oh great Xesthers, if the Zhora's
weren't awefull enough.'' I hear an old lade voice sigh from behind the
counter. I look her way and my eyes widen slighty at the sight of the woman,
she notices and faintly laughs. ''Oh, do I not look like how u expected?'' She
grins and moves some bottles on the counter. ''You look beautiful ma'am.'' I
answer and give her a soft smile as I walk along the shelves towards the counter,
taking in all the ingredients and bottles she's selling. As I move closer I get
a better look at the older lady, her hair gray with white strands tied up, her
skin a slightly green tone and her eyes a dusty red. I've never seen a woman
like her before, so looks dead, but alive at the same time. (The old lady).

She smiles at me after my compliment, ''you flatter me young Xesther, my skin
has turned a green colour from all the potion fumes over the years and then u
still compliment me. I give u 3 minutes to look around ym shop freely, then I
will force you out just like I did with those awefull Zhora's.'' She says and a
sinister smile kreeps up onto her face. ''I think we might leave before that
moment comes ma'am.'' Marcus speaks up while holding a blue potion in his hand.
The old lady just silently smiles in response, I would be lying if I said that
she doesn't scare me, because she most certaintly does. We head out of the shop
a bit later, not wanting to find out how the old lady would scare us away.

Back in Oduldale I feel a relief come over me, I was on my guard the whole day
in Zhairan because even though some people seemed friendly, they surely were
not. The dinner tonight will tell us what the round of Zhairan has in store for
us. I would lie if I said that I'm good at brewing potions, I'm most certainly
no expert. The most knowledge I have ever learnt about potions is how to make
them effect my armour, that's also the only use I see in them. After being in
our wing for a while we head to the dinner, where they will announce the round.
Not too long after everyone is seated the Zhairan elder walks in.

"Welcome everyone," the Elder starts and the room gets deathly quiet.
"Tomorrow you will follow into the footsteps of Zhairain: Sister of
Potions. In our City you will face a great fear: the fear of drowing and seeing
others around you drown. You will create a potion to save yourself from a
certain death. Bringing your wands is simply not allowed. There will be a box
filled with all ingredients you could possibly need. Goodluck to you all."
And with these words he leaves. Everyone starts talking at the same time and no
one understands what will happen tomorrow.

"How are we supposed to make ourselves ready for tomorrow?" Someone
yells. Other people are yelling as well: "We don't understand!"
"We need more than this!"

People all around the tables are yelling in confusion and while that happends
the food appears on the table. As last time I know my manners and at least
untill the person from Zhairan at our table has chosen his food. ''Oh so you're
not letting Zhairan go first? Why the change of plans?'' The Fayralen says and
looks up to me. ''Can't blame people for theyre bad upbringing with no
manners.'' I answer and just give her a soft smile while I continue to eat my
food and think about the tournament round ahead of me.

I ignore most of the talk at the dinner table that evening, there hardly was
any though. Most people we're just being confused about the explanation of
the next round. Soon after I go up to the library, just like most people and
search a book from Xesther about armour for travels ons sea, that might give me
answers. After finding one in the Xesther language I sat down and studied the
book, trying to look if it says anything about potions anywhere. Frustrated I
flip through the pages of multiple other books about the subject untill I find
something that mentions potions. It says something about affecting your armour
in such a way that water can't do anything to the wearer. I skip through the
pages about it and find that the warnings and dangers page about this
armour is ripped out of the book. I look through the book if I can find anything
else about it, but there's no explanation. I decide to ignore it, the side
effects of the potion can't be that bad.. I decide to copy the recipe and how
to make it form the book to read through in the Xesther Wing.

The next morning I wake up, ready to go to Zhairan once again. The three of us
get escorted to the Zhairan portal and after going through a Zhairan Elder
leads us to the location where the tournament round will take place. We pass
the potionshop from yestersay and I glance inside while we walk past, the old
lady notices and stares right back at me with her now dusty blue eyes. I ignore
her stare and decide to just keep walking with the group and following the
Elder.

As we walk into a large room they take away our wands, in my case my sword and
lead us to a square on the floor. Once I step in the middle a clear see through
barrier forms around me and closes me inside. I look at the contestants next to
me an the same happends to all of them. Didn't they say we we're going to
drown? Why are we being caged in by see through boxes? I ask those questions in
my head but just keep calm on the outside and wait to see what is going to
happen.

As soon as all the contestants seem to be closed in a Zhairan Elder comes
forward again and speaks up. ''Welcome to the second round of the tournament,
representing Zhairan. Today you will have to survive as the box u are currently
standing in will slowly fill with water. You can use the chest with ingredients
in front of you and the small kettle to ur left.'' Just as those words leave
his mouth the chest and kettle appear out of thin air. ''It will take only a
small 30 min for the box to fill fully up with water and once the water has
reached the top you will need to survive for another 60 minutes fully
submerged. Escape your death by using Zhairan her magic. Let the
tournament round begin!'' He says and as soon as those words leave his mouth
the first few droplets of water form at the bottom of the see through cage.

Okay focus Aeria, remember the potion and you will survive. I open the chest
and searched for all the ingredients of the list. Gathering them all I laid
them down on top of the closed chest and turned towards the kettle. As I
started putting in the ingredients like I remembered it the water slowly started
creeping up. Time was running low and I needed to finish this potion before it
was too late. As I put the last ingriedient in the water was at the hight of my
waist already. The potion was finally finished and I put the brewing liquid in
a small potion bottle.

I wanted to drink this potion at the last possible moment, if I drank it too
early it might not work well since the potion takes effect when the water fully
submerges me. I look around and see contestants mostly still brewing, stressing
out and trying to fight against the creeping water. As minutes go by the water
is finally at my neck and I drink the potion. Nothing is happenig, paniced I
look around and look at my armour. Why is nothing changing?

Then I take a deep breath and as the water covers my mouth I can feel my armour
shift around. My helmet creeps over the top half of my face, my cape goes away
and changes into a blue cloth skirt flowing with the water, As I feel my armour
change, becoming tighter around my body I can't hold my breath anymore and the
water starts to fill my mouth, gasping for air I try to move to the top of the
cage, but my armour refrains me from moving anything. As I am gasping for air I
slowly feel my body lose all control it has and everything becomes black for my
eyes. (What the magical armour looks like).

Then all of a sudden I wake up, I gasp in all the air I possibly can and open
my eyes. I'm still underwater in the cage, but I can breath? I try to move my
arms to swim up, but my armour won't let me. My legs move without my mind
actually having any control of it. I am floating in the water like it's the
place I have always belonged. But it's not me being in control, it's my armour
keeping me alive at this very moment and I can't do anything. I have lost
control over my own armour and all I can do is watch from inside of it.

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As I step into the glass box, my heart drops. I do not think I have been this close to my death ever before. In Lenathor we praise life over anything else. We value life at the highest standard and will never do anthing to risk it. It feels so unnatural to risk it all.

I look through all the other boxes and look for Aewewyn. She looks just as frightend. Maybe even more. I feel so bad for her, I know how scared she was for this round. I can't say I wasn't scared. There is something with these Zhairans that scare me off, always has been. Maybe it's their creepy eyes changing color whenever they brew something, maybe it's their unnatural love for liquids. How does one value liquids over life?

Just as I mouth the words you will be okay to Aewewyn, the floors starts to fill up with waters and the ingredients appear in a chest. The only thing that rushes through my head is the list of ingredients I will need, on repeat. I spend the entire night repeating the words, scared I would forget them when I needed them the most. Quickly I gather all the ingredients: frozen apple rasp, several types of weeds, three lightyears old stardurst, the heart of an Araminta, two hairs of a lightfairy and last but not least a tooth from a Fryrvainat. Luckily all the ingredients are here. It takes me some time to find the hairs of the lightfairy, because they are so small there are almost invisible.

I heat up the kettle and put in the ingredients in the correct order and way. The water rises so fast, it scares me. I haven't brew this potion a lot of times, so I will need some time in order to get it perfectly right. I cannot mess this up.

My potion has to sudder for exactly 4 minutes and three seconds, which is a lot of time. I now have time look over my shoulder to Aewewyn and see she is brewing her potion as well. Next to me is a Zhairan, she bends over her kettle, her eyes bright blue, smiling. On the other side of me is the Xesther from my dining table, she seems a bit worried. The water now rises to my waist. The Zhairan already drinks her potion and she suddely shapeshifts into a fish. I see that a Vriasia has done the same thing: kind of unfair when the one thing you can do is shapeshifting. On the other side I see a Vizrabel simply making the chest with ingredients float in the air, so the ingredients are not getting wet.

When the 4 minutes are over, I take the kettle of the fire and instead of drinking the potion, I threw it out, in the water. I see two people looking a bit confused to me, but I smile calm. I see Aewewyn do the exact same thing and another Lenathor does this as well. We are gonna win again. I was so worried about this round and eventhough there are still a lot of things that could go wrong, this a good start. The water is almost at my shoulders now and I shiver because it is so cold. Luckily my clothes are very light and don't weigh me down, like the Xhester next to me.

The water rises and rises and my feet leave the floor as I swim upwards with the water, trying to catch a last breath. I can feel in the water that my potion has worked: it feels softer, smoother. The water almost hugs me instead of trying to kill me. When the box gets so filled with water, I take one last quick but deep breath and then the tank is completely filled. There is no air left. I am slowly starting to panick as I look around me. One dead Tasina, two dead Tasina's, three dead Tasina's.

My lungs burn and I realise I cannot keep holding my breath if I want my potion to work. I let the air in my lungs out and choke on the water. Now my entire body hurts, my feet feel numb, my head gets heavier and everything burns. At the same time though, I feel the potionwater hugging me, flowing through me, flowing through my lungs. I might not be able to breath but I am alive.

I knew that healingwater is strong, but I never knew it was this strong. Everytime I feel like I am going to faint, the water keeps me going. I am trying to let go, to lose the pain, but the potion keeps me awake. My lungs keep buring and I start to scream under water as I see the Elleshall next to me float around in his box, dead but with his eyes wide open, staring right into my soul.

It does not matter how powerful the potion is, if I stay here like this for an hour, my body will not be able to handle all this pain. Just as I thought my body was going to give up, I faint. I sink away in a deep sort of unconsiousness.

**

Next thing I know, I am floundering on the ice cold floor, panicked and desperatly trying to catch my breath. My lungs hurt and my head feels light but all I can do is trying to get as much air in my lungs as possible.

A lot of people are standing around me, which makes me feel claustrophobic. I catch eyes with Aewewyn but do not have to the time to be happy she made it out: I am too busy gasping for air. Someone kneels down next to me, the Elder from Zhairan: "Congratulations, we thought you didn't make it," is all the creepy Elder says and with these words he leaves. When I realise I made it through this round, that I survived, I can finally feel something else besides the pain in my lungs: pride. I did it, again.

After a short while I stand up, still short-breathed but my pride takes over. I walk over to Aewewyn and hug her tight. "We thought you were dead," she whispers and I hear her tearing up.

"Is everyone okay?" I ask her. She stays silent. "Is everyone okay?" I repeat as I let go of our hug and look her in the eyes. She starts crying.

"Morwen drowned," she cries and she hugs me tigher. "I saw it happen," she says into my shoulder. "I couldn't help her."

We cry together until someone picks us up and we head back to Oduldale, Aewewyn and I holding hands the entire trip.

When we finally get back into our Wing, we directly head to bed and try to sleep. We don't get out of ours beds until the next morning; missing dinner.

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In this box filled with water, time passes very slowly. I have to stay like this
for an hour, not in control just standing here looking at the other contestants
and their way of winning or losing this challenge. From what I can see there is
already 4 dead contestants, three lifeless bodies of Tasina's are floating in
the water and the same goed for an Elleshall, dead with their eyes wide open. I
look around and see two Vizrabels panicing, holding their breath as the water
has reached the top. Did they not make their potions in time? A few minutes of
struggling goes by and then just like the Tasina's, their bodies start floating
without any struggle, dead.

This tournament is deadly and after the first Lenathor round people seem to
forget what this Tournament is all about. We're here to fight till the death,
how all of Odium that our power is the greatest and these contestants act like
this is just a fun little game, but this game will cost their lives. That's
what real battles do, they don't go easy on you, you should find every way
possible to survive, to win, to show them that your are not below them.

I try not to focus on all the other dead contestants and look around to see how
the living ones are passing this round. The soft Lenathor girl catches my eye,
she is the one at my dinner table. Her wite dress floats around her in the
water, looking almost magical. The water she is in has turned a slight white
with sparkly yellow dots floating in it, she put her potion into the
water. But she is just floating there, as if she's dead. Is she even
alive? Did she drop her potion on accident?

Minutes pass by with me just standing like a brick at the bottom of this filled
box, my armour not moving and just letting me watch the other contestants die
one by one. But for some I can't tell if they are unconscious or dead, I
guess we will hear that after this round is over. Time passes by and I try to
just focus on myself, thinking about how I am going to take controll back over
this armour. My armour is the reason I can breath right now, but it is also the
reason I can't move, it won't let me, I'm just like a brick which sunk down
into the depths of the ocean. I slowly feel my armour changing at my legs and
feet, but I can't see what my armour is doing, it won't let me look down at my
own feet, the helmet is sharply staying in the same spot.

After a long 60 minutes the water slowly get's drained and the glass walls are
gone in a second, grating Elders the opportunity to escort the confirmed dead
contestants out of the room immediatly. I try to move my arm, or any body part
but even with the water gone the armour won't let me move or take controll.
''Oh f*ck this isn't good.'' I whisper too myself and make eye contact with
Thirza who is next to Marcus, he's on the floor coughing out water, just like
other contestants all around us. ''I need my f*cking wand.'' I say to no one
in particular. ''

Then out of nowhere an Zhairan Elder speaks up: ''Congratulations contestants,
you have passed the Zhairan round, showing all of Odium that u can control the
seconds sisters power. Just like each rounds, there are winning contestants and
there are losing contestants. At this moment there are nine confirmed deaths,
but we still have unconsious people among us as well. For all citizens watching
at home, you will be shown the deaths and winners when we have confirmed each
single person.'' And with those words he ends his speech and everyones
attention is back to the contestants that are still on the floor, not moving
and some not even breathing.

Thirza catches my eyes and this time runs towards me, but as soon as she comes
too close the armound moves my hand up to stop her, not moving its legs but
just it's arms. ''I don't have control Thirza, you have to break my armour!'' I
yell and she looks at me in confusion. ''Can't you just use the Forema spell?''
She asks, ''No because if I give this armour my wand, without me controlling
it... I don't know what it will do Thirza, you have to destroy it!'' I say and
she nods her head slowly.

''Stand comepletely still Aeria!'' She says and holds her bow and arrow up
towards my armour. ''Intermissum'' She whispers and shoots the arrow right into
the place where the heart of the armour is. Intermussum is a Xesther spell that
only high ranking wizards and witches get taught, it will slowly destroy all
the magic in the armour and then it will fall apart. From the part where the
arrow hits the armour it slowly starts to fall apart into pieces and fall to
the ground. With only my underarmour still on I step out of the amour suit,
from which the bottom half is only still standing. The sight of my amour is sad
and I stare at it in disbelief, ''I can't believe you survived!'' Thirza says
and puts an arm around me.

''Yeah I can't believe it either, that armour was letting be breath, but also
slowly taking over my body. It's like it had it's own soul, it was overpowering
me while I was inside of it.'' I whisper and her eyes widen. ''You put an
armour curse on yourself to survive?'' She says in disbelief and I slowly nod
my head.

''I guess I'll have to go to Xesther tomorrow, I'm guessing the Elders who have
seen the tournament round noticed my state as well and might already be making
me a new magical armour set. I'll wear my non-magicalclothes tomorrow untill I get there.''

After the round we get escorted back to Oduldale, where us winners get our
congratulations form the Oduldale citizens as we walk back through the streets
to the Odulxilium. I don't feel like I've earned this, I've broken my armour,
which ofcourse happends a lot. But magical armour is expensive to make, the
armour needs to have an ingredient that is also in your wand, otherwise the
wand will not accept the armour set. In my case the ingredient is an tooth of
a Sandsaber, arare species that lives in the desert part around Xesther, incredibly hart to
get and also very dangerous. I grip my sword a little bit tighter as we walk
through the streets, I can't believe I've f*cked this up so bad that they need
to make me a new set, I should've known it was an armour curse and would have
to be destroyed after.

In the odulxilium I change into my non-magicalarmour set, which is as expected a horriblearmour set, my thighs are out in the open and the leather won't hold any weapon
back, but at least it's something. In the wing we get the results of the round
from an Elder, ten total deaths this round. A lenathor, two from Vizrabel, two
from Illemis, one from Zhora, one from Elleshall and three from Tasina. I
recognize a few from their faces, but ofcourse not by name at all.

Later that evening it's time to head towards the dinner, which is now a lot
emptier than usuals days. From my table three people seem to be missing, the
Tasina, the girl from Illemis and also the Lenathor. I'm confused why the
Lenathor isn't here, only one death in Lenathor and all four of the other are
also nowhere to be seen. With the seven of us at the table we eat in silence,
which as always I full heartedly dispice so I talk with Thirza and Marco in our
Xesther language across the tables.

''You're being awefully loud again.'' I hear the Zhairan at my table tell me
with a slight irritation in his voice. I turn to face him and with myelbow on the table I lean my head into my hand Ilook him dead in the eyes. ''Well if you all would be a little more entertaining
for once that wouldn't happen now, would it? But since you guys like to keep
all your thoughts to yourself I just choose to enjoy myself and talk to other
people.'' I answer him and give him a slight irritated smile back.

''Alright then I'll tell you what were are all currently thinking, why are you
dressed like a fucking Tasina that lives in Xesther?'' He says and I see the
Zhora and Fayralen at the table hide their laugh in their hands.

''Quite a simple answer really, I'm getting a more powerfull armour set
tomorrow, that way it becomes easier for me to shove my sword up your arse in a
future round.'' I answer and forcefully take a bite out of my apple. ''Oh yeah?
We'll have to see about that, I'll poison your drink before the next round ever
starts.'' He says back and takes a sip of his blue wine to taunt me. ''Oh just
you wait you Zhairan, I'll make your death the least honourable I can, killing
you slowly and painfully.'' With those words leaving my mouth I stand up from
the table and walk away. I turn around to give him one more smile before I go
down the stairs back to my own wing.

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