Ghost in the Roses

We’re the last ones to arrive and a lone medical team meets us. Kai is passed out and without addressing us, the nurses with horns peeking out from their white caps load my friend on a stretcher with a firefox leading the way. Nina and I follow them. I have a million questions, but keep my mouth shut. That would only delay things for Kai.

“He’s a mortal man! Get the appropriate medicines ready!” the doctor gives the orders.

I linger like a lost puppy, a pathetic pet that’s left behind in the waiting room. Feeling useless, I sit on one of the lined-up chairs and pray for a doctor to come back with hopeful news. The weight shifted in a chair next to me.

“Hey, he’s going to be alright,” Nina sits down.

“For how long was he unconscious?”

“Pretty much most of the way. He passed out a few minutes after take-off,” her lip cringes with regret.

I let out my frustration with a growl. My hands rub my face as if trying to erase what happened to Kai.

“Thank you for all your help,” I look up from the depths of my palms.

“Noir Jakins,” she says.

“What?”

“It was Noir Jakins. He hit your friend.”

“Why?” it’s the biggest ‘why’ I’ve ever asked about anything.

“You two were one of the first ones in the air. He saw you as a threat.”

“You know him?”

She signs, “Yes, I do. We went to the same school. He’s really competitive. He tried to knock me out of the sky first but failed. He went looking for someone close who wouldn’t see him coming. I followed him, but I was too late.”

“I’m going to kill him,” the thought slips out effortlessly.

“Don’t kill him. Report him. Those drill knights will do much worse.”

“It will be our word against his. I don’t know how we are going to prove that this was his fault.”

“We’ll think of a way,” Nina seems to have much more faith in justice.

“Either way, I just hope that Kai will come out of this.”

“Agree. That’s the most important part.”

All of a sudden, a scream comes out of those doors.

My cold hands squeeze the chair’s hand rests. What are they doing to him?

At last, the swing doors move and produce a doctor. As he walks towards us, his orange pointy ears switch and his wet black nose sniffs the air. He is studying us. Nina and I spring from our seats. I’m about to say something, but the doctor is much quicker than me.

“You must be Kai’s friends. I’m Doctor Orlov. I’m in charge of his case. Kai suffered a concussion and that would take some time. Also, a dislocated shoulder. As you might have heard we already fixed that. He’s conscious now, but I must insist that he gets to rest and no excitement. We’ll be keeping him here for a couple of days and if the tests are good we’ll discharge him by the end of the week. You can come to see him tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you, doctor,” I say.

“Now excuse me, please. I must write his parents and I’ll have a nurse retrieve his placement ribbon for him. I think it will be a good idea if you go down to the West Lobby and get yours,” he nods at us to leave.

“Of course, Sir. Thank you.”

“Very good. Good night then, I’ll send word for you if anything changes,” the doctor put his hands in his pockets and turns away to leave.

I watch his fluffy fox tail trailing behind him and disappear behind the same doors he came from.

“Come on, let’s go,” Nina takes me by the shoulder.

At last, it’s midnight, the time for the ceremony to start. The time to make it here by a dragon has run out. I wonder if anyone has been left behind and is still at the station. But, it doesn’t matter. Now, where is that son of a bitch, Noir Jakens?

I can’t start my investigations just yet. Like all hundreds of cadets, I’m to fall into formation with my assigned class number 9 at the West lobby. Nina is too, assigned to the same class as mine and Kai’s and is already lined up next to our brethren' flights. I stand still, but my eyes can’t help but wonder. For all I know, Noir Jakens could be standing right next to me. But as I’m looking at everyone around, I begin to admire the great hall.

The ceiling is adorned with gilded angels and other celestial creatures. By some kind of enchantment, the painted clouds slide across the stone above us. The entire ceiling moves like the sky. And maybe it’s my mind playing tricks on me, but for a moment it looked like a Scorpio’s tail flexed its sting. I look away, only to make eye contact with a smiling angel. She wasn’t smiling before.

I escape her gaze between the column rows. The tall structures’ resemblance honors the wheat stocks of an excellent harvest. This reminds me of a time when kids from my neighborhood and I would fly our kites in the fields of golden grain.

My eyes work their way down to the floor under my freshly polished boots. The tiles are lined like a chessboard. The truth about my future is right under my feet. We’re the pieces for the queens and kings to move and the knights are the last line of their defense. Life is a game. A complex game and I’ve been placed in it. I hope I’ll be playing well.

Somewhere in mid-ceremony, my name is called, and just like that, I am moved from my place. This is my fate’s first strategic move and I’m pleased to see that the color bestowed on my ribbon is purple. Same as my mother’s. She was a knight of The Violet Domain but then asked to be honorably discharged when she became pregnant with me.

On the next name call, a nurse accepts Kai’s ribbon and his colors match mine. Well played, fate. Nina gets hers next and oh boy, does she glow with pride to wear the color of The Blue Domain.

The only name that doesn’t get called is the name I’ve been dying to connect a face to. There is no ribbon for Noir Jakens. Did I miss it? Damn it! I want to see whose limbs I’m supposed to tear apart. But my ears are not wrong. I didn’t hear his name being called, because it hasn’t been. Noir Jakens definitely doesn’t question it.

After the council announces their congratulations and dismissal, that’s when it’s made perfectly clear that his name will not be called at all. Everyone begins to head on over to the dormitories.

“Council! Council! Council!!” I hear someone yell in the back.

“Yes?” One of the knights raises his head from the scrolls he was wrapping up.

“Council! I must point out that a mistake was made.”

“That’s quite unusual. The Academy takes the placement ceremony real seriously.”

“Council. It’s just that my name wasn’t called!”

Finally, the crowd clears enough for me to see the face and I wait for my suspicions to be confirmed.

“Really? What’s the name?”

“Noir Jakins!”

“Oh. Noir Jakins. No, no mistake was made. Your name was crossed out from the scrolls.”

“Are you sure, sir? Can you please check?”

“No need. I was there when your name was crossed out.”

“I don’t understand!”

With pleasure I watch this Jakins grow frustrated.

“You didn’t pass the test. In fact, you failed miserably.”

“I got on that dragon just fi..”

“The dragon? Is that what you think this was all about, sir? Excellence. Valor. Honor. This is what this establishment stands for. Do you really think that the fog was coincidental? Just when you thought no one was watching, you went after your own fellow cadets who trusted you. You don’t care who lives or dies as long as you come out on top. You're a coward and have no honor. Your excellence lies in being a self-serving backstabber. We have no place for the likes of you, so your name was not called. It will never be called. Now, get your bags and get the hell off these sacred grounds and back to the wormhole that you came from!”

Noir clenches his teeth. He knows better and holds his tongue.

“What are you looking at?” so, he snaps at me instead.

“Just watching you fall on your ass this time. By the way, Kai’s doctor says he’ll recover just fine.”

He knows what I’m talking about. Our stares are fixed, but break when one of the guards pushes him to get going.

The pawns are always the first to go and the ways of the test spotted one. But I know that the search for the cream of the crop is far from over.