|| Day 6 Semi-Finals||

The Real Question

"Good thing first year winners go straight to the Grand Finals." Robin commented idly as he played with the sheets that covered my bed in the infirmary.

After passing out due to exhaustion from the battle, I had regained consciousness to darkness outside with Meraella still asleep in the next bed over. But when I woke up in the morning, she had been gone.

I glanced at the empty bed again, wondering where she had went.

"Why're you so worried about her?"

Robin had caught me looking at what had been Meraella's bed. Instead of giving him any sign that I had heard him, I turned away. I hadn't forgotten what he did to Meraella just yesterday.

Putting her through that suffering and pain to win was barely worth the win. But seeing as Robin was heartless; I supposed that didn't matter to him.

Bringing the covers to my chin, I shuffled so that I was lying on the bed again, back turned to Robin. He pulled the covers back down and I huffed in frustration, crossing my arms and refusing to face him.

"Are you seriously throwing some sort of silent temper tantrum?" He laughed incredulously, "I can guess what you're angry about but trust me- that's the least of your concerns right now."

The least of my concerns? He had no idea that protecting Meraella from him was my number one concern.

I heard the chair creak as he stood up.

"You better be at training today- the Grand Finals are only two days away." I could feel his gaze trained on my back but I resisted giving any sign that I had heard him. His footsteps on tile echoed softly throughout the infirmary hall.

They paused for a moment, perhaps just by the ornate door.

"You know... she deserved it."

**

Robin's words echoed in my mind as I stared at the battle dummy. Its blank wooden eyes stared back at me, as though taunting me to practice on it.

Meraella... deserved it?

I sighed. I didn't trust Robin- there was no reason to ponder over his words.

I was in a discreet part of the training room, surrounded by a range of different training dummies. Robin had asked me to come but he was nowhere to be seen.

I half-heartedly hit the side of the wooden dummy, attempting to move it.

It didn't budge.

"You're going to have to hit harder than that."

I whipped around to the sound of an unfamiliar voice, eyes wide in surprise. A boy with chocolate brown hair stood at the door closest to me, a genuine smile on his face.

He was small and slight- almost smaller than me- and had unusual amber eyes. I felt like I had seen him somewhere before...

"I'm Kade Merain, pleased to meet you." He said walking towards me with his hand outstretched.

I tentatively accepted his handshake, wondering at the peculiarity of his greeting. This was the first time that a student from another year had approached me.

"Uh- I'm Nightingale..." I responded softly, trailing off as I let go off his hand.

Kade gave me another bright smile and I smiled back. He seemed like a happy guy... but what was he doing here at this time? The match between the fourth and fifth years were in progress now and being the semi-finals, it was rare to see that someone would miss it.

"So, what are you doing here?" He cocked his head and took a seat by the sidelines of the room.

I looked at the wooden dummy, and resisted blushing as I recalled that he had seen my feeble attempt.

"T-training." Turning back to him, I saw that his face was furrowed in thought.

"I'm supposed to be training too- with semi-finals and all this afternoon... but I have no idea where my partner is." Kade sighed before grinning again.

I stifled a gasp as realisation dawned. Kade Merain and Leon Targyen where the third years who had fought only a few days before. The match had been neck-to-neck when I had left, but he was training for the semi-finals today. Did that mean he had won?

"Have you seen a guy with blonde hair around? Uhh, and cute blue eyes...?" Kade looked slightly perplexed as he tried to describe Leon, "Wait- I meant baby blue- not cute, like, because babies are... cute, yeah."

His cheeks were bright red and looked so embarrassed that I couldn't resist laughing.

Kade smiled sheepishly at me, "Sorry, I'm so awkward..."

I shook my head, suppressing more laughter as he blushed further. I forced myself to answer his question about his partner. Even if I found it hard to talk to people, I still wanted to avoid being rude.

"Um... I haven't seen him around," I replied, glancing around the room, as though Leon could have been hiding under one of the benches.

"Oh, alright- thanks anyway." Sporting another huge grin, he got up and headed towards the exit.

He paused just by the door as though contemplating something, then turned to face me. "This might be a weird question but... what's your power?"

I gave him an embarrassed smile, "I, um, don't have one."

"Oh." Kade looked confused as he looked me up and down. "But I swear I can see..."

He trailed off again, leaving me curious. What was it that he could see?

As though sensing my unspoken question, he laughed uncertainly. "Along stopping someone's powers with my touch, I can also- I guess- see the aura of their power around them."

My eyes widened in surprise. That seemed like an interesting power to have. Had he seen something in my aura? But wait, since I didn't have powers- wouldn't that mean I wouldn't have one?

"It's sorta... yellow." Kade commented, eyes still drawn to what I had thought had been my body, but apparently in the space around it instead.

"It's probably your potential power or something like that," He grinned jovially, "since you're bound to have powers eventually, your aura must be from that."

Kade nodded to himself, proud that he had solved the mystery of my aura. Glancing at the clock on the opposite wall, he paled.

"Oops, I have to dash- preparation for the match and all that. See ya!" With another blinding smile on his face, he ran off.

I wondered if Kade always smiled that much, all the time. During his battle he had been a far cry from jovial. Then again, who was cheerful during a fight?

With Kade gone I was left alone again, slightly annoyed that Robin still had not turned up. Stretching my arms above my head, I let out a small yawn. I had not slept very well in the infirmary, too caught up with my worry for Meraella.

Speaking of Meraella... perhaps I should go find her as it was still a mystery to me to where she had gone.

The door banged open and I turned to face it, thinking that Kade had come back.

It was Alistair.

"Night," His face was creased with worry and he looked slightly out of breath, "there you are!"

My brows furrowed in confusion, had I missed something again?

As Alistair neared me, I heard him exhale in relief, "You disappeared after your match and I went to the infirmary when I heard you had passed out but you weren't there either..."

He was speaking a lot faster than usual, anxiousness turning his eyes a stormy blue-grey.

"Do you have any idea how worried I've been?" Alistair sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "After Robin's display of violence during the battle, I was afraid that he might have been out of control."

He seemed to be waiting for a response, but I had no idea what to say. That Robin hadn't hurt me but had instead visited me in the morning? The part that I was unhurt was obvious, I didn't need to assure him of that...

I bit my lip and inspected my shoes as my thoughts ran circles in my head. Why was it so hard to answer him? I berated myself internally for being so slow.

"I passed by Meraella along the way, she must've not been as hurt as I had originally thought..." My head snapped up at that piece of information, eyes wide in surprise.

Alistair gave me a small smile. "I think she was heading to the West garden."

I nodded my thanks, already out the door and heading towards where Meraella was supposed to be. I needed to check if she really was alright; her injuries had been severe but she was already out and about. I frowned as Alistair's words came back to me- he had said that Meraella's had not been as badly hurt as he had originally thought...

I glanced around my surroundings, confused. I had been heading towards the gardens but this was nowhere near my destination. This section of the Academy was unfamiliar and I was sure I had never been here before.

The hallway was similar to the History corridors, but it had an mysterious air and there were strange artifacts lining the walls. There were classrooms on the left and what I assumed to be the teachers' room on the right.

Figuring that it was best to ask a teacher where the gardens were from here, I headed right. As I approached the plain cedar door, I could clearly hear voices from within.

"Dreams and voices?" A sweet feminine voice made its way into my hearing.

There was a pause before the second person replied. "Yeah... and the one last night was one of the... longest ones yet."

I recognized that voice! It was slightly distorted through the door, but I knew that I had heard it somewhere before.

"Can you describe them to me?"

"The dreams are vivid- to say the least. They seem to be trying to tell me something... I'm not quite sure what it is yet, though..." The familiar voice was deep and struck me with a sense of familiarity.

"They may just be normal dreams, however the voices makes me think otherwise. Is it alright if you tell me what they say?" The sweet voice of the woman drew me in and I leaned in closer towards the door.

"To..."

I bit my lip in frustration as the voice dropped, leaving me in suspense. Who was having vivid dreams and voices? Before I could tune back into their conversation again, my mind did a backtrack to a few days ago. Dreams and voices...

Robin!

He had talked to his father about it and was told to go to an Augury teacher. Realisation hit my right in the face- that voice was Robin's! How could I be so slow? Looking around me again, it suddenly struck me why this place was so unfamiliar. Since Augury wasn't a subject first-years took, I had never been to this part of the Academy.

"Something to do with one of your friends?" My attention snapped back to the conversation. The dreams had something to do with someone close to Robin?

"Not friend..."

There was a shuffle of papers, as though someone was taking down notes.

"Lover then?" The woman asked, in a perfectly serious tone. As though it was common for fifteen year-old boys to have lovers.

"What? No!" Robin sighed heavily, "Just... the voices and dreams... I'm sure they're about two people actually."

"Oh? What makes you think-" The peal of a bell echoed in the distance signalling the end of a match. "We'll continue this on another day; I have to get down to the arena for the third and second-year matches."

"Okay, thank you for your time Ms Phoenix."

Ms Phoenix? What a strange thing to be named after such a majestic creature. I had a sudden urge to giggle but suppressed it. I didn't pick up her response and gave up trying to eavesdrop anymore of their- most likely- confidential conversation.

I pondered what two people Robin had mentioned. If this also had something to do with Argentane and Leander one of them may be Meraella. These dreams and voices seemed to be similar to my hallucinations and if it was what was causing him to act so aggressively to Meraella, then I needed to stop them...

But the real question was, how?  

A/N: yaay thanks again for reading :D 2k reads!!! YAAAY thanks to everyone who's still with me so far <3 feel free to drop a comment and vote!!