The Ghost of Vermil

Apple's morning started with the difficult decision over which pair of shoes to wear. She would try one pair and admire it in front of the mirror. Then she'd try one with the velvet vamp. Then the other one with a pink buckle. Then the other one. She took half an hour just to see which of them best completed the regal blue coat of Demach.

She did not have such a dilemma when she only had one dirty old pair of brown leather shoes Father crafted for her. She still kept it in a box inside her luggage. It smelled but it did not bother her.

Left with barely any time for breakfast, she picked a banana from the cafeteria and made herself a cup of tea to wash it with. She shuffled out of the dormitory in quick little steps, her peach leather backpack hung over her shoulder. There was an excitement in the air she could not quite explain. Perhaps because it was the first time she would be attending a school. Or perhaps it was because she would be doing it with a new group of friends.

The air in Demach smelled of traces of dew and petrichor despite being surrounded by the filthy cobblestone streets of Gallenport. She greeted everyone she met as she skipped along the brick-covered trail in her gleaming white boots. The day could never be more perfect.

That was what she thought before she found Lucas in rumpled clothing. Yuri's words only fueled her fury. She felt anger rise within her. Suddenly all she could whiff was the rust of the door hinges, the dust on the corners, the staleness of unwashed fabric, the malodor of sewage from beyond the walls of the Academy.

Breathe out the bad smells. Sniff the good ones, focus on them. Remembering Father's words, Apple exhaled with force. Then she tried to breathe in any hints of fragrance lingering in the air. She found Yuri's subtle perfume, and the banana in her breath. She let herself take in the smell of divine power flooding the room.

"You should stay, you cannot let them push you around," she encouraged him.

"I'm truly sorry, Apple, but I cannot cause trouble here. My brother would be disappointed of me," he said with worry. Still, he seemed calmer than she was.

"I'll catch you on lunch then."

He walked away as he fixed his coat.

Apple walked up to Diana who pretended to ignore her by exchanging giggles with her friend.

"Do you look down on us?" Apple asked her.

Tossing her red hair, Diana stood up from her seat so that she looked down on her. "I do not."

Apple took two steps up the auditorium, leaving Diana below her. "You think you have the right to hurt other people because you were born lucky? Because the heaven favored you with wealth and power?"

Diana's pug-nosed friend snapped at her, "Know your place. You dare talk to her like that."

Apple's nostrils flared. "Shut your mouth. I'm not talking to you."

His face flushed ruddy with humiliation. "I'm the son of a —"

"Of a bitch. I know."

She heard Yuri laughing, and some others. Diana's glare would bore a hole through her head if it could. Hannah glided to her side, whispering, "Apple, you're stepping over the line. Be careful."

Apple glanced over to her friend, saying, "Thanks Hannah, but they crossed the line first." She turned back to the ginger head. "Will you let this frog talk for you? Ribbit, ribbit," she teased. Yuri was doubled over on his stomach, holding his laughter.

Diana sighed, "I don't have time for this. I don't know why you're even friends with that... menace."

"Your words are worthless to me."

Diana rolled her eyes in distaste. "Your concern is misplaced."

Apple spotted Diana's badge number. 278. Her power is much greater than mine. And her Die of Fate posed an unknown variable. But her pug-nosed friend was 287. He probably only outdid me in the written test.

She picked up a crumpled piece of paper and threw it squarely on his forehead. "I request a duel with you." 

He flinched, mouth agape at both the insult and the challenge. "You're a worthless peasant, why would I waste my precious talent on you?"

It was Yuri who said, "A request to duel cannot be declined if the challenger is of lower rank."

The frog's eyes rounded even more. "There's no such rule."

"There is," Apple said flatly. She did not care even if there wasn't. She would keep humiliating him until he had no choice but to fight her in order to regain whatever spit of honor he held.

Their homeroom instructor found them all marching to the training grounds. "Goo — what is going on?" She threw her hands in the air.

"It's a duel," a student answered, enthused.

"You cannot interrupt lessons—"

Her discouragement fell on deaf ears. They were well out of the building.

Apple led them with brisk steps to a nearby training circle where the marble henges were few in number. Diana's frog followed behind fuming, knuckles fisted. The rest of Aleph trudged along, muttering and murmuring speculations on who would triumph. Most of them had seen neither of the two of them in action before.

"This is a good enough place to beat your ass," Apple swirled to him on her pristine boots.

"You're going to regret this," he muttered through his teeth while Diana shook her head in weariness. "I'm a Lest-"

"I don't care who you are! Let's start."

"How do we know when the fight ends?" He said, delaying time.

"When you can't stand anymore!" Apple chanted, "SONG OF CREATION!"

"SHIT!" He hissed, releasing his own holy energy.

She called forth a familiar flower from a small village in the marshes of Torinto where she spent close to a year. Rose mallows. Flimsy and soft. Some blush-pink. Some magenta. Carrying a mild fragrance that does not seek to overwhelm. Flaring like pink suns in the dark green marshes. Mallows bloomed around Apple's feet in one beautiful spiral. She grinned, proud of her work. With the gesture of her hand, they rose and circled around her, dispersing their petals until she was covered in a pink storm to the waist.

Then like a charmed snake, the petal storm grew a filament that followed the dance of her hand.

"Go get him!" Her friends cheered as others beheld the beauty of her talent with amazement, whether they had seen it before or not.

"You're just showy!" The frog croaked. "VIRTUE OF FORTITUDE !" He condensed his holy power into a halo of light over him, its light surrounding him in fractals like a diamond. THUD! When Apple's petal snake made contact with it, it scattered into its pink fragments.

One more. Thud. One more. Thud. Each attack seemed useless against his barrier.

"Huh, is that all you've got?" He taunted her.

Apple squinted her eyes in realization. "Heh, you can't cast a counterattack. So, I see now."

He scowled at her. She was right.

"Well, I can just wait until you run dry." She called her petals back to her, intending to make a bed to lie on.

"Get a taste of this then. VIRTUE OF COURAGE!" The halo over him took on a more menacing look. Turning crimson, sharp thorns shot out off of its side. Then it began to spin with a whirr. "Eat this!" He shot the toothed halo with a flick of her hand.

"Watch out!" Yuri yelled from the crowd.

"We should stop this."

They underestimate my flowers. The spinning ring of death traced a serpentine arc as it came for her. Unlike the last time, she did not plan on skimping on volume and strength. SONG OF CREATION. More rose mallows bloomed instantly on her feet, feeding the growing mass of petals around her.

FLICK. FLICK. She intercepted the whirring halo with a barrage of small petal discs, slowing its momentum so that as it sliced into her rose mallow shield, it could not pierce through. CHUCK! The ring buried there, motionless.

Now I'll cripple him.

With the halo immobile, the frog had lost any ability to counterattack or defend. He's too weak. Apple had seen an exorcist use five haloes of virtue at once.

"Don't move or this is going to hurt more," she sneered at him.

The petals shot out tentacles akin to the cursed tumbleweed, but this time it was coming only for the boy. 

"VIRTUE OF FORTITUDE!" With his measly holy power, his attempt to materialize another halo failed. 

Whack! A whip sent him to his knees. Apple slowly stepped toward him, sending the petal tentacles after his back, his arms and his shins, leaving him screaming in terror.

"Yes, smack him!" She heard Yuri roaring. He punched the air with every hit she landed.

No one but Yuri cheered at the brutality anymore.

"I surrender!" The frog croaked.

Whack! She sent another whip to his face, sending him rolling. "Sorry, I didn't hear," she said, smirking to herself.

"I surrender!" He shrieked, laboring to breathe.

"Oh, I understand." She let the petals drop in a slow entrancing cascade. 

Ding. Their badges sounded. The frog fell by one rank while Apple ascended to his former rank: 278.

SONG OF CREATION. She materialized stalks of white lilies in her hand.

"Please, stop!" The boy flinched while Diana yelled, running to intervene, "The match is done!"

"I know." She laid the white buds on his chest as one would on a dead person.

Yuri and Hannah began applauding her. Others joined. It was their first time to witness a Demach duel. Whether it was done right or clumsily, it had been a spectacle.

Apple noticed that older students had flocked to the commotion. She spotted at least one professor.

"I'll challenge you next," she told Diana, amusing the crowd once more. Not until I'm sure I can win, though. I have to see first what other weapons she can use. "Just you wait."

Diana twirled a stalk of white lily in her fingers. "I don't know how he charmed you, but you're mistaken about him. I understand. He acts like a damsel pining for your sympathy. It's unfair to you." She scanned the crowd before stepping closer to Apple, making her back a step. Diana spoke more softly, "Meet me at the Guardian's bum, after dinner. Don't tell anyone."

"Why would I trust you?" She could be luring her into a trap to hurt her.

Diana wrung her head in frustration, "I'm trying to help you, you bitch." She turned and helped her friend prop himself up.

* * * * *

Aleph filed back into the building with newfound vigor. After witnessing a duel, each student felt they could engage on one themselves. It was the quickest way to climb up.

Apple walked behind the blue swarm, thinking about her first win. She did it for revenge, but the taste of victory elated her to a different degree. She felt like she could dance.

"You overtook me before the day even ended," Yuri muttered beside her, flashing a sheepish grin. "You were pretty strong back there. How can I even catch up to you now?" His rank fell to 290, where she previously was.

"Your talent was so pretty. I knew you could beat him," Hannah said, praising her in her sweet lilt, "It wasn't even your best."

"That should keep them at bay. What is going on?" Their classmates were gathered at the door. There was a glowing barrier of light at the threshold, preventing entry.

"Why wouldn't she let us in?" One student said.

"Well, we literally left her alone."

"But there was a duel."

"On the first day, on the first period. On her very first class. I think I understand where she's coming from."

"But who's she teaching then? Let me look."

Apple felt only a little guilty that she had ruined their first day of instruction in Demach. She felt she would do it again if she could.

"Apple, it's your friend," Yuri nudged her.

Apple stood on her toes to look past over the students' heads, glimpsing the beret-topped pallid lad sat inside the auditorium all by himself while the professor pointed something on the board. Why is he inside?

They waited on the two of them for about an hour. Some watched while others sat on their haunches. They couldn't even hear what they were discussing there. When it looked like the professor was finished, she disabled the barrier with a clap. They all rushed inside.

"Is that the first lesson?" They gaped at the board.

"Doesn't look like Defensive Charms to me."

The professor did not wait for them to settle down. She announced, "I'm going to deduct 10 points from each of you."

They froze. "That's outrageous," one of them blurted.

"Well, you're all outrageous. See you tomorrow. You can riot here for all I care." She gathered her materials and stomped out of the room.

Apple ran to Lucas who was hastily scooping up his things, wary of the unwelcome gazes about to come his way. "Lucas, so, you came back!"

"Hi Apple. Well... she dragged me in here after seeing me loitering at the cafeteria."

"But what did she teach you?" Apple gazed at the board.

"She just asked me what I wanted to learn."

There were lines all over the board with names on them. It was a map of the Kingdom of Araya and half a peninsula of Handilen next to it. It was basic Geography.

She faced him with a smile on her face, "I can teach you too. I've been to some of those places."