Cad x Peacle - Pandora's Keepers

After a while, Viridia had returned to the room quietly. Suddenly feeling a rush of exhaustion, she curled up onto the bed, somehow not bothering to change her clothes, before she began dozing off.

 

Daylight came early, and Rowena was already out of her room. She went down the hallway, only to meet her father.

"Oh, good morning, Rowena."

"Morning, Father." Rowena regarded him in a slightly frosty tone as she greeted him.

"I will begin training you in the grounds. Will you see to alerting Miss Serafine as well?"

Rowena only nodded as she went to Nuria's room and knocked on the door. "Nuria? My father summons you."

 

Rowena waited at the door as she thought back to how she spoke to her father. Usually she did not employ such a frosty tone. Was it because of Aisling? She never knew.

Meanwhile at the training grounds, Viridia was hungry when she awoke, and quietly left the room as she explored the training grounds, while carrying her briefcase.

 

"Morning. Let's get moving." Rowena addressed them both as she led them both down to the training hall where they could see Viridia being teased over her briefcase.

"Hand it over, there's a good girl." A man with seemingly good looks but a bad attitude had his hand snaked around her briefcase, as she tried hard to jerk it away from him.

"Let me go!"

 

The man just looked at Lori and Nuria who were both trying to intimidate him. He only smirked as he let go of the briefcase, letting it drop onto the ground, Viridia frantically picking it up and checking for any damage. The briefcase opened to reveal two revolvers.

"Shame. a scaredy cat like you shouldn't be carrying around guns like that." Was his only parting words until he caught sight of Rowena.

"I suggest you clean your act, or it won't go well with you." Rowena made an attempt to scold him.

"Whatever, just because you look like that old man, doesn't mean you can boss me around."

"You---" Rowena held in her anger as she watched him march off.

 

Viridia quickly shook her head as she took the offered hand. "Thank you. And no, he didn't touch me..."

"The way you are, he would have done so sooner or later." Rowena scowled at the parting figure before turning back to the new girl. "Oh, I'm sorry---I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Rowena Heulwen."

"Viridia. It's a pleasure meeting you." She beamed at Rowena and Nuria, while giving Lori a wave.

 

Rowena walked to Lori and asked. "Where does it hurt? I'll get that for you." She closed her eyes and muttered an incantation as the pain subsided just slightly to a more bearable state.

Viridia looked at them. "You all seem to have great powers! I..." The glimmer in her eyes dulled a little. "I came without knowing. Mother died before she could tell me what my power was. But they say Rosario was a sharp shooter with bullets formed by her own body and said mine was the same...Ahh! Sorry I went off track! That's why I am here."

 

Finnian then called for everyone to the main hall to give a briefing of introductions. Aisling stood faithfully by his side, eying Rowena as she gave a smile that seemed too spurious.

Once Finnian separated them into groups of four, he had grouped Rowena, Nuria, Lori and Viridia together. To the chagrin of Rowena, Aisling was their supervisor.

"Now focus your energy onto this one item." Aisling was levitating an inanimate ball in front of them. "This is a hallmark for you to show what kind of powers do you have."

Unfortunately for Rowena and Viridia, their powers are not taking effect, as the ball was relatively intact and inanimate.

 

Rowena glared at Aisling as she focused her magic on the crushed ball from Lori while Aisling was visibly proud of Lori and Nuria. "I guess it goes to show you two will be valuable in a fight."

Viridia was clueless and was almost at her wit's end. She took a glance at Rowena and focused on her intently, watching her mend the ball.

Unbeknownst to her, she could feel that she could see Rowena's personality in the form of a faint mist. She felt that Rowena, while she seemed charismatic, hated it when her flaws were exposed.

"What are you doing?" Aisling cried out to Viridia, whose gaze snapped back to her own ball, the veil surrounding Rowena seemed to vanish.

What was that?

 

Now it was Rowena's turn to get confused, as she squeaked while being pulled into a hug. "Uh, I usually can fix broken items, but those as simple as that ball. Mostly I heal people, things...less so." When Lori mentioned the veil, how was it that people can see but not she herself? "What veil? I can't see what you mean..."

"M-maybe I am just hallucinating, but y-you do have a slight veil of gold around you, Rowena. That much I can gather from observing...I think?" Timidly Viridia squeaked. "Though I have learnt that usually people don't see their own aura, others usually can...I don't understand why though..."

"Then perhaps you should try it on me?" Aisling questioned as she stood in waiting, causing Viridia to gulp.