The Iron Rose: Volume 1

Gudomlay hurried past the striped students to get to her side of the academy. The sea of grayish dark greens and blues turned to one of snow white and beautiful gold. Even the grounds reflected a kind of grand beauty on this side of the academy that the stripes lacked. She paused to gaze at it, feeling as if she ought to pause and appreciate the glamor of something so refined and dignified.

The paths were white stone and washed to keep their sparkle. The grounds were primly trimmed, and the lawns green as mint leaves. She looked up at a sakura in full bloom, their petals waving softly in the breeze and letting a few loose. At that she pushed back her hair with a smile. Even looking up at the sky seemed different here. It was bluer, clearer. It was as if some barrier around the star class’s side made it all pristine and wonderful. A pocket of paradise outside of reality...

She glanced back at where the stripe students were gathering, looking troubled. It didn’t seem right.

“Gudomlay!” Gudomlay looked away from the other side of the academy and grinned when she saw her friends Tapp and Britta. She hurried over, glancing between them. And they pivoted around to walk with her to the school’s entrance.

Tapp was the tallest of them with her long elegant limbs. She had rose-red hair set in curls, blue eyes, a soft face, and tall arched eyebrows. She was as clean and pressed as the grounds, sparkling in every way. Britta was between her and Gudomlay in height, athletic, blonde, a bit on the silly side and always full of winkles. If the two weren’t so easy-going they might not have ever gotten along.

“Did you give your dad that icky fish?” Britta asked. She was always forgetting that Gudomlay never referred to him as her father out loud. And sometimes, she didn’t even know if she thought of him as a dad.

Despite her oversight, Gudomlay grinned. “I did.” Though remembering her meeting with him made her frown.

Tapp stared at her. “Something wrong?” She asked when she noticed her mood.

Gudomlay shook her head, not looking at her. They approached the main school building then. It was rectangular with a courtyard in the center of it where there were paths. A fountain was at its middle too with a gorgeous lawn and flower beds surrounding it.

To the building itself, there were three main floors. Though plain in its structure, it was magnificent and beautiful. Full pillars, arches, and towers. It was symmetrical and proportional. The entrance was great and tall with a set of doors that were too big to be opened with manpower alone. Over it was a pointed triangle-like arch and long windows on either side. The building itself was white with golden trim as if reflecting the pristine beauty and color of the star student’s suits.

They went inside, the many boots of the students within echoing over the white marble floor, and merged into the easy and sufficient flow of traffic. From there, people went into their designated classrooms for the first hour without problem. And then they moved on when it was time to go to the next class.

Gudomlay’s first two were political philosophy and fencing. But her favorite period was third hour when she was in Wild Land studies. There were few students in the class. After all, not many entertained the idea of leaving the city protected by its great wall. And even fewer wanted to know what was out there.

Gudomlay sat, her fingers tapping silently on the cover of her books as she listened intently to the professor. Kaja was a tall intimidating woman with a strong jaw and long yellow hair. She kept it in almost dreadlocks that were usually pulled back in a ponytail or something similar. Her dark eyes, fiercely intense, made many students believe she could set things on fire with them. That was the rumor anyway. She’d been in one of the science labs at one point four years ago. The students had been in detention under her watch and when one of them got riled up, she simply glanced at the thermos beside him and it exploded. And unlike all the other professors on the star’s side of the academy, she wore clothes more like the stripe students. They were gray and pale blue with metal trinkets attached that only few knew could be used as weapons.

“We will be discussing the Orsgar tribes today,” she was saying, showing an image on the screen of a man. He looked like herself save that he wore clothes that were medieval. It was also much closer to armor than everyday wear. She turned her gaze from it to the students in her class. “Does anyone know where the Orsgar originated?” She asked, her gaze sweeping across them with an unexpressive face.

Gudomlay’s hand rose into the air along with a few others. Since this was an optional class, the students there were actually interested in the topic. It wasn’t an elective one could skim through and hope to get an easy grade in either. If you weren’t raising your hand, you failed.

“Zhi,” Kaja called. She nodded at a young man with strawberry blonde hair, gray eyes, and glasses. Despite his lighter coloring, he was of Jyukai descent who were usually dark haired and dark eyed.

Gudomlay glanced at him. Zhi. He was probably the smartest student in their class, handsome too. Though he was also quiet and soft and kind--often times to a fault. He was one of the other few students who didn’t bully the stripes. Catching her stare, he gave a small kind of self-conscious grin. She didn’t make any kind of reply and waited for him to give the answer. He looked back at Kaja.

“Orsgar are people from the northern seas. They inhabited several islands. But they also had dominion over a large portion of the mainland we now live in,” he explained.

“Good,” Kaja said, turning to the board now. She lifted an electronic pen and started writing above the board. In response, the light sensors in it drew an image of what she wrote. It was the islands he’d spoken of just now. She tapped on one and it zoomed in until it showed a village. “This was a common homestead,” she said, gesturing to the little house in a green field. “Most of the people were farmers until the raiding season came. During that time, they would venture out and steal from richer countries.”

“Miss Kaja. When did the Orsgar stop their raiding parties?” A student asked.

Kaja glanced over her shoulder at him and smirked. “They haven’t.”

“But aren’t the Orsgar located near our city?” He went on.

“They are. As are the Jyukai.” She started writing the name of the second group. The other population of people their city was most concerned with. “Who remembers where the Jyukai originated from?” She asked, zooming in on a second island so it showed up next to the village of the Orsgar.

“They came from a small island in the south,” Gudomlay said, tilting her head. “Since their transfer to the mainland, they’ve tripled in size. They’ve also crossed populated with the Orsgar.”

“Thank you, Gudomlay.” Kaja glanced at the others. “But can any of you tell me why the Jyukai were relocated from their home?” She asked.

“It sunk,” Zhi replied, drumming his fingers once. “There was a massive earthquake two hundred years ago that tore it apart. The tsunami that came immediately after totally buried it.”

“The survivors were taken in by the Orsgar,” Gudomlay went on thoughtfully. “But...if they’re savage nomads, why would they do something so generous?” She asked. It’d always made her wonder. There were so many things they were taught about the Wild Lands that didn’t seem to add up. Not to the way they were supposed to be now. Though pirates by necessity, the Osgar welcomed the Jyukai into their homes and even helped them to build and settle. If they were really savage and terrible as they were said to be now, what happened in history that turned them from such a giving nature?

“That was two hundred years ago,” one of the students called. “Time changes things.”

But the look on Kaja’s face as she turned her gaze onto Gudomlay made her think there was something else going on. Something that maybe the professor wasn’t allowed to explain.

Then, suddenly, the lights went out. One of the female students shouted in alarm, and Gudomlay frowned. Without having to think, she tapped a code into the band on her arm so a globe appeared in her palm. She whispered a word, and it illuminated the class in a faint blue light. She blinked.

Miss Kaja was gone.

Then the room filled with a rotten smelling smoke. Gudomlay gasped. She threw the globe up over her head and tapped in another code. A face mask appeared. She drew it over her nose and mouth and then jumped out of her seat and grabbed the globe hovering over her head.

“Headcount!” She called, her voice muffled by the thing around her face. The gas mask pressed into her skin uncomfortably, but she didn’t adjust it. She’d rather it be too tight than not tight enough.

The students called out their names. All save two had done as she had, which meant the two were unconscious. She turned her orb around until she found the two students who were passed out. She sighed. It seemed that they either hadn’t memorized the necessary code for a smoke attack or were too slow.

“Get down!” Zhi shouted suddenly. He came at Gudomlay then and threw her to the ground, falling on top of her from behind as an electric pulse shot throughout the room overhead. The zapping sound it made was terrifying, and the effects painful against those who hadn’t been prepared for it. It happened all so fast Gudomlay didn’t even have time to think about Zhi’s warmth pressed against her as she clamped her eyes shut. And then she lifted her head even as everything was still happening.

Some of the students shouted and cried out in pain as they convulsed and then collapsed. The others who had seen it coming also kept low to the ground. The electric blue light came and went in an instant. And in that instant, several of the students who’d gotten their masks on had passed out.

“We gotta get out of here!” One of them shouted as he lifted himself cautiously.

“No chance! We’ve been locked in,” another said as he pulled at the door. It wouldn’t budge.

“We don’t want to go out that way anyway,” Gudomlay shouted at them. “It’s likely booby trapped.” She slowly got up when Zhi fell off her and gave him a nod in thanks. He nodded back and then took in their surroundings. Only five of them were left.

“Don’t you think an electric pulse is going a little too far?” The student that had been at the door crawled to them where the others had also gathered.

Gudomlay remembered Kunagi’s work in the dungeon and made a face. This was nothing compared to what she’d seen him do. But she couldn’t tell them that. There was no way she could mention spikes, fire, beasts, traps, poisons, and other vicious things these guys would likely never have to face. They wouldn’t believe her even if she could talk about it.

“Rafters,” she said with a nod upward. She looked that way, keeping her cool. She couldn’t see the ceiling well, but her orb’s light outlined it well enough that she knew they could get to them.

The others glanced at her. “You want to climb all the way up there?”

“The ones in this classroom are exposed. It’d give us an advantageous view of our surroundings and possibly a way out,” Zhi said with a nod. “The schematics of this building also shows that there is a loft in the next classroom that has a window. If we can get through it, we’ll be able to get to fresh air before our masks run out of juice.”

“We’re just going to take this lying down? Aren’t we supposed to be fighting back.”

“You can’t fight an enemy you can’t see,” Gudomlay argued. “C’mon!” She started for a corner of the room where one of the beams above was at its lowest. With a hand from one of the others, she was able to reach it and pull herself up. The boys followed her, and they were soon balancing on the wood posts of the rafters.

That’s when the door was thrown open with a careless bang. The others held their breath and stared down as the attacking team entered in also wearing masks. Most had a rifle in hand while a few others held hand guns. Seeing them in all black and keeping their faces mostly covered had the others scowling, but Gudomlay knew. These guys couldn’t afford to have their identities revealed.

“We’ve got ninety-five percent of the class,” the leader called to his team. His voice was low and held no surprise for their success. It was almost as if he were bored and found this whole thing trivial.

Gudomlay squinted, trying to see him through the fog of sleeping gas. It was fading away so it was easier to make the people’s forms out. And since she’d spent so much time watching these guys, she was able to identify most of them without having to see his face properly. That’s when she gasped. The leader was Kunagi’s top fourth year student. She narrowed her gaze and glowered. He would send him into her class? What a rotten guardian!

“Who’re they?” One of her classmates whispered.

“Sh!” Zhi clapped his hand over the student’s mouth and the others grew rigid. They watched as the leader paused and shifted his eyes. And then he waved behind him.

“Plant the flag,” he called. “This was too easy,” he sighed and started out.

“Tch.” The student Zhi held quiet started struggling, getting ready to shout insults.

Gudomlay thinned her lips and gave him a kick in the shin. He shut up with that, and she wondered at the others. They didn’t know these were striped students. Stars never associated with them and so wouldn’t know who was who. To them, they were combat strategist the school hired to test the stars on a regular basis. It was only meant to keep them in shape and to test their abilities in real life situations.

To the stripes, however, this was child’s play. She peered at them harder, realizing that most of them were first years. She rolled her eyes. Trust first-year stripes to take out a bunch of third-year stars. Though that they were being led by a fourth year put them at a strong advantage.

“Let’s go. They haven’t won until we’re all caught,” Zhi whispered.

The others nodded and started climbing to the backside of the room. They were able to pull one of the panels of the wall off and climbed into the loft above the classroom they were next to. Zhi led them from there on, going toward the window he remembered seeing in the school’s blueprints when he’d been studying them. Together, crawled out of it and onto the roof. Once on top, the others shouted in triumph. As they did, Zhi helped Gudomlay out and made sure she was solid on her feet before glancing around. Once in fresh air, they typed a code in their bands and the masks were teleported back into the student’s inventory.

“All right. Time for phase two,” he said.

Gudomlay gave him a pitying look but nodded. If only he knew...