Seeds of Chaos: Chapter 43 (Reunion Part 2)

 Chapter 43

Miranda stood up and opened the door. Outside she saw a young girl with red hair pacing back and forth restlessly on the corridor.

“You’re finally here,” Miranda teases seeing the red-haired girl’s nervous expression.

“Big sister Miranda… Is she inside?” The brown-haired girl asked while fidgeting.

“Yes. She’s inside waiting for you…“ Miranda replied looking quite amused. She then turned around and spoke to Rennel, “the person you’re waiting for is here.” She said.

“It seemed that we have to cut our conversation short, Miss Rennel.  How about we continue our conversation some other time?”

“I would like that,” Rennel agreed to Miranda’s proposition before looking anxiously at the door.

Seeing this, Miranda smiled and made herself scarce. She then playfully gave Pina a wink as she walks out of the door

Pina nervously entered the room after Miranda left. Inside she saw a beautiful girl with silver hair and black eyes.

“Rennel… is that you?” Pina asked the silver-haired girl in disbelief. She couldn’t help it; the Rennel in her memories is a lot different from the Rennel in front of her now. Of course she could still see some similarities in their facial features but it was like she’s a whole different person with how much she had changed.

“Pina! It’s really you!” Rennel excitedly run towards the red-haired girl and gave her a big hug with tears brimming in her eyes. “Yes, it’s me, Rennel!” She added.

Rennel recognized the red-haired girl, Pina in one glance. Although she too had changed a lot physically, and had become a lot prettier, her facial features were still almost the same as the girl she remembered years ago.

“I’m so glad that you’re okay.” Rennel stared at her best friend with reddened eyes. Seeing her healthy and safe had completely erase the worries that was weighing in her heart.

“I’m so glad that you’re okay to, Rennel. I can’t believe I was able to see you again… It was like a dream.”

Just like Rennel; Pina’s gem-like blue eyes were also brimming with tears. After being secretly sold to the slave trader by her own parents, her future became bleak and uncertain. And after finding out what happened to the other missing children of the village, she grew very worried for her best friend that she left behind in the village.

The two girls sat on the couch while still holding hands – afraid that the other person would suddenly vanish if they let go. As they stared at each other’s reddened and puffy eyes, the two girls could not help but let out a giggle.

“You’re still a crybaby. Look at you, you’re eyes all red!” Pina teases after calming down.

“Hey, you’re not any better than me you know? So how dare you tease me like that?” Rennel playfully argued back.

Seeing that no one wanted to give in, the two girls laughed out loud. Their laughter sounded like that of orioles; sweet and pleasant to the ears.

Once the two girls stopped laughing, they could finally converse again. The very first thing thy converse was their experience in the last three years. After all they have a lot of things to catch up with.

Rennel started first. She told Pina what happened to her in the last three years. First and foremost she told the red-haired girl how she was able to prevent herself from being chosen and sold for three whole years.

Then she told Pina how some information about Chaos (the unimportant ones). As she had an agreement with Chaos, Rennel could only gloss over some important details – telling only the ones she was allowed to tell. Although she’s feeling guilty not telling the whole truth about her teacher, there’s really nothing much she could do.

“Sigh. We’re lucky… we meet good people that changed our lives,” Pina sighed inside her heart. “I’m sorry Rennel. I really wanted to warn you what the villagers were doing to the children. Unfortunately, I’ve only found out about it when I was sold off.”

Pina looked at her best friend with guilt. In the village, Rennel was known as the quiet girl. If Pina didn’t befriend the silver-haired girl, Rennel would be like an outcast in the village due to being very different from the other villagers.

After all, besides her father who died due to a hunting accident, her only relatives were her aunt and uncle who treated her coldly. As for her mother… no one really knows the woman that her father married. And judging by her rare silver hair, her mysterious mother might not even be a commoner.

“Don’t say that. None of it was your fault. Besides, it’s not like a child could actually go against adults.” Rennel gripped Pina’s hands tightly as if trying to transfer the warmth of her body to her friend’s hands. “We’re just unlucky that the village we’ve grew in was like that.”

The eyes of the two girls dimmed after recalling the kind of place their village was. Although they’ve reunited and are now safe, they still couldn’t forget the resentment for their former home, and the people that lived in it.

“Let’s not talk about that place anymore,” Sensing the atmosphere becoming heavier Rennel smiled and urged Pina to talk about something else.

“Yeah… they’re not worth it. Whatever happened to that place had nothing to do with us.”

****

After leaving the two girls, Miranda climbed the stairs of the tower until she reached the top floor.

“Sigh. We really need to do something about those stairs,” Miranda breathe out some complains as she massages her lower back. “The Sorceress’ Tower might look grand and intimidating from the outside but it posed a very serious problem to those living and studying within its walls.”

I can’t be helped. It’s a 10-story tower after all so going up and down between floors would be a huge pain in the neck – or back, or legs.

Even Miranda who had lived in the tower for many years was still plagued by the almost endless (in her opinion) stairs. Not only Miranda, all of the servants and stay-in students often complained about it too. The only one that seemed to have no problem with the stairs was the tower master herself. Basically, it’s just the Sorceress Cassandra who liked using the stairs for some reason.

“It’s good for keeping fit? Not all magicians are like you teacher,” Miranda complained in her heart. “At least install some artifacts that would allow easy access to the floors. After all, only women are allowed in the tower!”

Indeed. Sorceress Cassandra’s tower is only open to females. No matter who it was, even if that person was the king or the emperor, that person would not be allowed access to the tower if he was a man. It’s not that the sorceress was a misandrist but the magic she practices and teaches was better suited for women. And since she wanted her students to focus in their studies instead of love or relationships, she made the rule that forbid men from the tower.

Miranda stopped at the door of Sorcerer Cassandra’s office. But as she was about to knock on the door, she noticed that it was slightly ajar and thought that her teacher might have forgotten to close it properly. As she was about to push the door open, she heard her teacher speaking to someone.

“My apologies for not noticing your presence late, my lord,” the sorcerer said in a humble voice.

“Don’t worry too much about it. I purposely hid my presence.” A neutral sounding voice answered.” I’m actually more surprise that you could detect my presence with the bit of the aura that accidentally leaked. No wonder you’re called the sorcerer – you have strange methods.” The voice praised.

“You honor me with your praise my lord.” Despite the sorcerer’s humble words, one could hear the joy in her voice if one listened carefully. For Miranda who’d known her teacher for so long, the joy was very obvious.

“Is that a man’s voice? No… it doesn’t sounds like a man’s voice. Neutral should be the right term. Also, teacher would not break her own rule and allow a man in the tower as a guest. Still, why was I not informed of the arrival of teacher’s guest?”

Miranda wasn’t sure if her teacher’s guest was a man or not unless she went inside. But if Rennel was there instead of Miranda, she would instantly recognize her teacher’s voice!

Indeed.  The one conversing to the sorcerer right now was none other than Chaos whose presence was made known to the sorceress due to the miniscule aura leaking from his body. And upon noticing that Sorceress Cassandra had noticed his presence, he sneaked out of the room while Miranda and Rennel were having a discussion earlier. He even passed the red-haired girl, Pina running excitedly in the hallway.

Another thing that baffles Miranda was that she was not informed of the arrival of another guest. As the first disciple of the sorceress, Miranda was responsible for almost everything in the tower – making sure that the tower runs efficiently. It was her teacher who pushed all responsibilities to her.

But despite complaining a lot about it from time to time, she still did a stellar job in running the tower. So if a guest arrives, she would be quickly informed by the gatekeepers. But this guest seemed to be different. What’s more the timing was really suspicious…

“You can come in now, Miranda.”

While Miranda was in deep thought, she suddenly heard her teacher’s voice telling her to enter much to her chagrin.

“Damn… I forgot about teacher’s inhuman ability to sense other people’s presence.” Miranda cursed herself. She could not believe that she had she forgotten one of the abilities that made her teacher famous.

“Please pardon me, teacher.” Miranda took a deep breath before pushing the door open. And inside the room, she saw her teacher, a beautiful woman with mahogany-colored hair and light brown eyes wearing a somewhat revealing magician robe sitting behind her desk and no one else.

“Eh? What’s going on? Where’s teacher’s guest?”

 Miranda was confused. She looked around the office with her eyes but saw no other person except her teacher.

“Teacher… where’s your guest?” She asked in confusion.

“No need to look for him. He’s no longer in the room,” the sorceress answered.

Hearing her teacher’s words, Miranda turned towards the window. Did he left using the window? But the tower is 10-story tall…

The Sorceress Cassandra put a palm on her forehead and stared at her disciple as if she was a fool, “he didn’t leave using the window. He leaved using the door like how a civilized would.” Knowing what her student was thinking, the sorceress decided to scold her for her rude thoughts towards her guest.

“What?! But I didn’t see him leave! I’m listening behind the door so it’s impossible that I wouldn’t notice if he left using the door, right?” Miranda argued, shocked by her teacher’s words.

“That’s natural. He’s not a person after all. And if you couldn’t see him then the fault lies on your lack of talent in that area,” the sorceress explained. “Let’s talk about that later. For now I wanted to know if Pina had met her friend.”

“Ah? Ah, yes. They’d already met.” Miranda answered somewhat still in daze.

****

After calming down, Miranda told her teacher what she had known so far, including what they had discussed, her expression of the silver-haired girl, and so on. The sorceress on the other hand listened in the most serious expression that Miranda had seen so far which surprises her a little. Sorceress Cassandra would even nod from time to time.

“How strange… Is she that interested in that girl?” Miranda found her teacher’s interest towards Rennel a little baffling. It won’t be strange if the silver-haired girl was talented but was without a teacher as the sorceress appreciates talented girl like her. But the problem was that Rennel already has a teacher, and if her assumption was correct, her teacher should be one of the elders from the Council of Elders.

“Is that all?” Noticing that Miranda had stopped talking, Sorceress Cassandra turned to the girl if there’s more that she had not spoken of.

Miranda nodded her head as if indicating that that’s everything she knows about the girl. “Pina should know more. Maybe you should ask her instead teacher?” She suggested.

“Yes… I’ll do that later.”

Sorceress Cassandra rests her head on the headrest of her chair. Moments later she looked at her disciple. “You must be wondering, why I’m so interested of the girl, right?” She asked.

Hearing her teacher’s question, Miranda nodded her head and answered, “Yes.”

“I am indeed interested in her but I’m more interested in her teacher?” The sorceress started.

“You’re more interested in the girl’s teacher? You mean the elder from the Council of Elders?” Miranda asked with a baffled look.

Sorceress Cassandra smiled at her disciple before shaking her head. “No. I’m referring to her other teacher – the mysterious guest that I was conversing with earlier.”

“What did you say, teacher? Are you telling me that the person you’re speaking to earlier was Rennel’s other teacher?”

The black-haired girl, Miranda was taken aback. She had made many guesses about the identity of her teacher’s mysterious visitor but none of them hit the mark. To think that it was actually the other teacher of Pina’s friend.

“But teacher, I was the one who lead the girl to the tower earlier… I swear I saw no one there with her.”

Miranda didn’t really doubt the sorceress words but no matter what she does, she couldn’t understand how she could have missed the silver-haired girl’s teacher if he was with her.

“Have you forgotten what I’ve said earlier? Her teacher wasn’t a person…”

Bang!

It felt like something exploded inside Miranda’s head after hearing her teacher’s reminder. Not a person… She finally understood. Indeed, the girl’s other teacher was not a human!

****

To be continued

Previous Chapters: https://read.cash/@beastion