The Iron Rose: Volume 1

Gudomlay came into Kunagi’s dungeon and glanced around for him. It was humid, making her feel sweaty so she squirmed. He’d told her to meet him as soon as classes were over, but he had this sixth sense thing that made her wary about what’d happened just an hour ago. Would he know? Would he question her? Would he blame her? The academy had strict rules about keeping the stripe’s secret a secret. And she’d not only allowed it to slip out Albert’s mouth, but she’d explained it.

“Gudomlay...” Gudomlay tensed, her shoulders cowering when she heard Kunagi’s sinister sing-song voice. He knew. He only called her Gudomlay when she was in trouble.

She slowly turned around, cringing when she saw the sheen on his glasses. His silver hair--up in a kind of messy half ponytail that did a poor job of keeping his hair out of his eyes--had turned a dark gray. A sign that he was upset. She didn’t know what would happen if it went all black, but she’d heard a rumor from the stripes that it was bad. Really very bad.

“Hi, Kunagi,” she managed, trying to smile as she clutched tightly to her books.

He, in his chair, paddled his feet so he rolled toward her. When he was sitting near enough to look up in her face, he snatched her arm and pulled her so she was bent over. Then he raised his hand in the air and smacked her bottom so hard she yelped.

“I’m sorry!” She cried, her eyes shut tight. “It was Albert’s fault. He let it slip! And Tapp. She had questions. I just--couldn’t not answer them!”

“Stupid girl,” he drawled, readjusting his glasses on his nose. He let her go so she stumbled a few steps and then watched as she turned to face him with a pout on her face. “I was referring to the eel in the refrigerator. You know we don’t eat that stuff. Just because we live in Black Eel Academy does not mean we partake of said elopomorpha.” Gudomlay blinked. He was using those words again. “It’s murderous and cannibalistic!” He went on, his voice raising with passion. He stood out of his chair so fast then it knocked over and toppled him off his feet with a clang and humming of his wheels rolling to nowhere.

Gudomlay blinked and stared as he went down with a thunk and clatter. For all Kunagi was smart, he was anything but graceful on his feet. It was partially why he rolled around on that old chair, but it sometimes acted against him as it had just now. She watched him sit right and then look up at her from over the rim of his wired glasses. His expression had turned incredibly serious.

“But Tapp knows the stripes secret now, hmmm?” He asked.

She swallowed when his hair turned a little bit darker. “Kunagi, I’m sorry...”

He slowly stood and brushed himself off and then crossed his arms and looked down at her. “What are you going to do about it?” He asked. She blinked, staring up at him. Kunagi was always serious. But now there was a sternness about him that wasn’t so much fatherly as it was commanding. It was as if he’d never been a father but a superior she admired and respected.

She swallowed. “She knows it’s a secret, and she gets why. I mean. She doesn’t like it, but she won’t say anything. I think...” She scratched her cheek, looking off to the side. “I think she likes Albert.” She sighed, her shoulders sagging. “No. I know she likes Albert,” she said, remembering her vow to make him hate her so much he’d never die. That was some declaration, even if she hadn’t meant for it to be. “She won’t say anything that will jeopardize his position at the academy.”

Kunagi stared down at her a little longer, contemplating. Then, he shut his eyes and nodded once. “Very well. I will trust your judgment on the matter.” He picked up his chair, spun it in his hand, and sat in it so his arms rested over its back. “Now. About your grades...”

“My grades?” Gudomlay blinked, her arms relaxing a little. “Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?” She tilted her head. She’d gotten the feeling that the subject he’d been thinking of was a totally different thing. Something she’d imagined to be much more daunting.

He was silent a time, staring up at her. He bowed his head slightly and then kicked his feet up so he rolled away towards his desk. She stared a moment and then went after him, pausing when he opened his drawer and pulled an envelope out. He then revealed the paper inside. It was thin, the typing see through with the lights of his computers shining through it. But he wasn’t looking at the thing as he glowered up at her.

“One hundred and sixty-nine points for political philosophy. Two hundred points for wild lands studies. One hundred and fifty-eight in public relations. An eighty-two points for fencing. And fifty point two in hand to hand combat,” he deadpanned, his look deadly serious.

Gudomlay blinked, her face a little pale as he glared at her. She swallowed and opened her mouth to speak when he let out a great burst.

“On a two hundred point system that is deplorable!” He shouted. “You go from first and second bracket in your studies to fourth in your physical application! You should be all in the first bracket! This is just like your anatomy class you had to retake,” he growled. He tapped the paper with clenched teeth and an irritated glare up at her. He looked like a pissed off dog.

“The professors are such sticklers for perfection,” she tried while turning her head away. Now was not the time to mention that his breath smelt like the salmon eggs she could tell he’d eaten earlier. “Besides. Forty points in each bracket seems pretty ridiculous to me. It ought to be ten.”

“That’s for regular schools,” he hissed. “Not for ones that holds the lives of its graduates in its hands.” He held up his hand and closed it in a fist over her grade reports. She winced as she watched it crumple, the edges pulling in by its center being bunched into a crinkled mess. Though she knew it was stupid for this to cross her mind, she couldn’t help but think she was glad it was the paper being crushed and not her.

She frowned, sighing. “I know. I’m sorry. There’s just been other things to do.”

“Like sneak out to the wall and try to look over it?” He drawled.

She gasped, looking at him wide-eyed. “You know about that?” She’d been so careful. With the academy near the wall cutting off access to the Wild Lands, the temptation to get a look at what was on the other side often got the best of her. Having done it several times now, and he not mentioning it ever, she thought she’d been getting away with it with him none the wiser.

“Of course, I do,” he said, leaning back and wrapping his legs around the neck of his chair to cross them. “I’m the smartest person in this city,” he explained while also complimenting himself.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. Kunagi was not only harsh but thrived on praise, even if he got it from no one other than himself. “I just want to see what’s out there,” she said with the turn of her head and a pout.

Kunagi blinked, looking up at her. “M’lay,” he said, his voice low and cool so she looked down at him. “You will never be sent into the wild unless your scores are perfect,” he said.

Gudomlay frowned at him and lowered her gaze. “I know...” She said quietly.

Kunagi pushed himself off then to his computers causing Gudomlay to look up and watch as he flipped on a switch. There was a low hum and the room lit up. She glanced at the tube-like glass room in the center of the dungeon and stared as the doors slid open. With that, Kunagi turned to her and nodded.

“Get in,” he said. Gudomlay made a face of uncertainty and stared at it, rubbing her arm. “I have a special opponent for you. Beat him and you will pass your hand to hand combat class.”

She twisted her head around at him and stared with surprise. And then, she set her textbooks aside and went to the room. When she entered through it, the doors slid shut behind her so they disappeared into the wall with a click. She glanced back, giving Kunagi a nervous glance before she heard a surprised grunt. When she looked back, Albert was lifted into the room from a platform that’d come from somewhere below.

“For letting the stripe’s secret slip. You, Albert,” Kunagi began, typing furiously at his keyboard. “Will train M’lay until she can pass her hand to hand combat class. If she fails.” He pushed on a button with a sense of doom and finality. “You don’t get to graduate to fourth year.”

Albert stared wide-eyed at Kunagi. And then he slowly turned his head to meet Gudomlay’s sheepish stare. He swallowed. “What bracket...?” He asked hesitantly and dreading the answer.

She thinned her lips together and looked off to the side. “Fourth...” She glanced at him, her gaze still sheepish. “Barely.”

“Aw shi--”

“Fight!”

They spent the next two hours trying combat. But Gudomlay was so weak and uncoordinated that Albert was in a panic. Every punch he threw had to be no less than a mere tap or it would hurt her. He had to slow everything down, learning with his first throw that she couldn’t block anything unless it was in slow time. And everything she did in turn was a pathetic response.

“Have you been practicing at all?” He cried, staring down at her as she took her tenth breather since they started. She looked up at him, her brow shining with perspiration.

“I have better things to do!” She shouted. “Besides. I don’t like doing things I’m not already good at,” she said, reaching to grab a warm bottle of water to drink from.

“You don’t get good at anything without practicing,” he cried. “You’re not even trying!”

“What does it matter? I’ll be assigned one of you. What’s the point in being able to fight when I’ll have a bodyguard anyway?” She whined, falling back to lay down. There was a moment of silence in which a sudden ring of tension filled the room. Sensing it, Gudomlay blinked and looked up at Albert, surprised by the hurt expression on his face.

“You must think very little of us if that’s the way you feel,” he said, his eyes cold. She lowered her brow and sat up, craning her neck to stare at him. “We thought you were different, but you’re worse. You know our fate and yet... Instead of being able to help your partner, you’re just going to let him die for you.” He swallowed, Gudumlay’s eyes widening and his hands tightening into fists. “Tell me. How many of us will have to die for you before you get it?” He snapped, glaring down at her with a mean expression she wasn’t used to. Though they’d not ever been close, Albert had always been nice to her. Now, he seemed more like the intimidating stripe he was being trained to be. Distant, standoffish, and brutal.

She gasped, her chest tightening with guilt and pain. She hadn’t thought about it like that!

He shut his eyes and then lifted them to look across the room at Kunagi. “Professor, I would like to return to the dormitory please,” he said, his voice tense but quiet.

Kunagi, his face expressionless, nodded and pressed a button. The floor opened with a hum to reveal the same panel Albert had ridden up into the training room. He went to it and stepped on, turning his eyes on Gudomlay again.

“Stripes aren’t bodyguards, Gudomlay. They’re people.” And with that, he descended to the stripes dormitory beneath the dungeon with his back to her and eyes on the floor.

Gudomlay sat there, staring at the ground. One by one the lights shut off until all that illuminated the place was a single overhead lamp and Kunagi’s computers. She frowned, wondering at her own stupidity. Then she heard the sound of Kunagi’s chair rolling across the room and coming nearer her. She shifted her gaze toward where she knew he sat on the other side of the glass, her face glum.

He stared in at her, his arms crossed over the back of his chair and his chin resting on his arms as he looked down at her. For a moment, he looked less like a cooky professor. Right now, he seemed more like a solemn warrior who’d known the terrible feeling of loss.

“Do you understand?” He asked. Even his voice sounded less crazy. “You’ve been selfish, M’lay. You want things without having to work for them. You want others to do the hard things for you while you reap the benefits of their application. You have the knowledge. That’s important. But you need to be able to protect yourself as well as your partner.

“You understand the theory of combat. Otherwise you would have never passed first year. And you can at least perform at some level or you would have never passed second year. So... Why are you holding back?” He asked, peering down at her with a relaxed face.

From where he sat, he could see his image reflecting on the glass. It was as if he had a twin, looking back at him much in the same way he was gazing down at her. Admonishing him for the same mistake he’d once made a long time ago. The mistake of wanting something he should have never wanted, like her desire for the Wild Lands. A desire that made him make stupid decisions that had resulted in a miserable end.

His story was over. That, he assumed, was why Gudomlay was brought to him. Because she was much like him, and he was the only one who understood how it would affect her if she didn’t try to change her fate.

Gudomlay frowned, lifting her knees up to hide her face in them and her arms on them. “I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she whispered but in a tone that he could at least hear.

“M’lay. If you don’t learn how to fight, people won’t only get hurt. They will die. Besides…” He shut his eyes, leaning back and sighing. “That is a lie.”

She gasped and looked up at him and then turned to stare down at her feet. Clutching her sleeves tightly, she then got up. She staggered a moment, her face hidden in shadow. And then she bunched her hands into fists.

“Can I have dummy set three?” She asked, her voice tight and shaking.

The sound of Kunagi rolling away toward his desk made her take a breath. And then she heard the mechanical humming of the machines on the walls laser in on the floor. She glanced at the one nearest her and watched as the lasers picked at the particles in one of the panels. Then, a dummy rose from the floor. When it and two others were completed, it lifted as if taking a breath and then took on a fighting stance.

With that, Gudomlay swallowed her nerves and attacked.