•|•|•

"So, what is your dilect?

•|•|•

THE DOORS DINGED open before me, revealing the wide lobby that resembled the five-star hotels I used to visit whenever I accompanied Mom and Dad on state visits.

Well, that's if you added a touch of medieval to it.

More people were moving in and out of the large doors, whilst others made their way through the left and right halls that circled the reception area.

I noticed; however, no one was using the elevator I was in. No one was going up. The lobby just seemed to be some sort of intersection for the students. Either turn left or right.

Everyone was dressed in smart red uniforms, the girls in skirts and the guys in trousers. Each had a matching jacket that draped loosely around them, with a white shirt underneath. A red bow tie for girls, and a normal tie for boys.

I walked out of the elevator and stood idly, feeling more out of place than I had ever been in my life. Partly because I was on a freaking island I hardly expected to ever be on, amongst converts, and for the first time in my life, I was truly alone. I was used to feeling alone on the inside, but it was different when you could trap that feeling deep inside so nobody could tell, but here I was also physically alone. No servants, no bodyguards, no mom, no dad, just me.

Just me.

To make matters worse, I began to receive odd stares as people passed by me making me more than self-conscious of myself. The last thing I desired on this earth was attention. Being the heir to a country was the epitome of attention, but my parents had shielded me well enough from the public eye, sometimes I wondered if my people knew I did exist.

Looking down at my body I figured the stares came because of my white Armani gown now gorgeously stained brown in a few areas. I touched my wild hair realizing I probably looked like a wicked witch that fell from the sky after a broom malfunction, rather than the fallen angel I thought of earlier. Awkward was the best term to describe my current situation and embarrassing would be a close second.

My bare toes peeked out and I sighed. Make that a barefoot witch.

"Excuse me!"

My eyes snapped up to see a girl walking towards me with a package in hand. Her long blond hair bounced down her shoulders in wavy lengths, the red attire she was wearing snuggled warmly against her more than generous figure, her light green eyes peering at me inquisitively.

I unconsciously tugged my sleeve as she approached me, a half-smile on her face.

"Uhm, Talanda?" she asked giving off a rather readable look as she stared at me. The pronunciation of my name was way off, but I honestly didn't expect her to get it right, she was not of my tongue, she sounded for the most part American. She was bound to get it wrong.

I nodded tugging at my other sleeve, drowning in the habit. Her eyes traveled up and down my whole length yet again before looking up again and offering me another kind of smile.

"Yes, these are definitely for you," she zeroed in, handing me the brown package.

I glanced at the package questionably, feeling the roughness between my fingers. After falling from the sky, I was sure a bomb could be in there, waiting to finish me off. However, Gravis had informed me I was more than safe here, though it didn't stop me from looking back at her questionably.

"Well, go ahead," she urged.

Slowly, I opened the package and as luck would have had it, a pair of plain navy blue pumps.

Yep, these were definitely for me.

I slipped them on, happy I didn't have to feel the cold floor anymore, actually surprised they were a perfect fit.

Then I remembered Gravis. Of course, he knew my size, he was required to know.

"A fit?" she asked.

Nodding and avoiding eye contact, I was about to crumble the wrapping when I felt something poke me from the bottom. Opening it again, I stuck a hand in, pulling out a plain pink notebook, staring at it for a second.

I could guess why I needed a notebook with a dangled sparkly pen attached to it.

"Let's get you cleaned up. You need a shower by the looks of it," she continued, as we began walking toward the entrance of the lobby, "I'm Daya by the way, Daya Lawrence" she introduced, side-glancing my way.

I acknowledged her statement with a nod, opening my notebook, and carefully jotting down the words as we walked nearer to the entrance, aware of her questioning stare as I handed over the book. She looked at me, glancing over at me.

"Talanda Karu," she mumbled, a slightly better attempt than her previous one. Her eyes stared up at me from the book, "you can't talk, can you?" she asked.

Images of me falling from the sky, my voice pushing up as the scene unfolded, flooded my mind. I tugged on my sleeve, pursing my lips, refusing to meet her eyes so I didn't have to see that judgemental look in them as I shook my head.

Her footsteps slowed at my confession, I could tell because I hadn't yet plucked the courage to see yet another face, condemning me. I realized instead of seeing it now, I could feel it.

"uh-okay,' she stuttered, her voice surprisingly trippy, before stepping out into the sun, "probably for the best," she muttered.

My eyebrows hunched at that statement but quickly vanished as I stepped outside into what seemed like a courtyard. Marveling at the width of the place, the curved buildings surrounding me on either side felt like stoned guardians, hovering over me.

The whole courtyard was littered with students, dressed smartly, some lounging on the sheltered hallways off the green grass, strutting on the pavement, others seated under the few trees, strategically placed. In the center of the courtyard was a large fountain shaped like a sword, a large crown surrounding it.

This was the Kingsland emblem that I knew. Every time Miss Akhana Amir was speaking on TV, this symbol would be behind her.

I turned and noticed that the students were giving me weird glances as I walked by, beside Daya. Keeping my eyes to the ground, I kept my head low, not at all amused by the fact, this is how I looked at first appearance.

"Daya!" someone called.

I side glanced up to see a group of boys a good distance away. All seemed to be in pretty good shape however, the middle one caught my attention.

He was taller than the rest, with fair almond skin, and long curls that reached down his shoulders.

"I'll be back Luca!" she called and I noticed him nod, his eyes trailing to me, raising one of his perfect eyebrows as I instinctively lowered my gaze once again.

We kept on going, my head down trying to pretend I didn't notice the curious stares people were giving me. I didn't fit into situations like this. Usually, Mom and Dad would be by my side and I seldom went into the public eye and now suddenly it's like I'm thrust into it, without any help or proper guidelines. I felt exposed, to say the least. It was moments like this I wished I was a Disney princess. Preferably one locked up in a tower with a library of books at my disposal. No outside world interference, no stares, and no duty.

It certainly didn't help that Daya seemed to be quite popular around here because everywhere we went someone seemed to be wanting her.

To my untold relief, we finally left the courtyard walking down the pavement to a more open area. As we trudged along, I noticed that there were even more students, mostly to the right in the luscious fields than to the left where the fields seemed dead and even...Scorched?

How many students were there in this place?

As we walked on, four large buildings came into sight. The pathway we were headed on led directly to the entrance.

The building seemed to be a dorm, partly because there were many females in this part, their stares were even more undesirable and judgemental than when I was in the open and an ultimately more visible target.

More people greeted Daya as we walked on, and I have to say I was quite relieved when we finally came to a stop in front of a brown door with the number 216 engraved in cursive gold.

Daya took out some keys from her uniform jacket pocket, unlocking the door. The room was nothing fancy, to say the least. Smaller than what I was used to, with admittedly less color despite the light pink walls.

There were two single beds, placed opposite each other, and two wardrobes, two tables, and two chairs I guessed were used for studying, thanks to the heavy books placed on one, accompanied by a half-empty glass of water.

Another package similar to the one Daya had given to me, was neatly placed on a bed, two suitcases propped near one of the wardrobes.

"That wasn't there when I left," Daya frowned, moving towards the package as I stood there awkwardly in the middle of the room. She picked up a note that lay on the package, "seems like it's for you," she said, handing the paper to me.

I glanced over the words.

To: Talanda Karu.

Struggling with the wrapping, I pulled out a uniform sealed in see-through plastic warning me of how new it was. A golden name tag on the top left with my name and color, red.

Daya loomed behind me as if trying to catch a glimpse.

"red..." she trailed off, "could be a coincidence," I heard her lowly mutter whilst moving back to the other side of the room and sitting on the bed. Crossing her long legs, she gave me a curious look.

"So, what is your dilect?"

I looked at her in surprise picking up my notebook and pen, jotting something down before handing it over to her.

"Mbunda, Luchazi, and ..." she trailed off shaking her head, "I won't even try to pronounce this one."

She unknowingly did me a favor.

Watching her try to form those words in an American accent was painful.

"What's this?" She asked lifting the book. I walked back shyly to her jotting another thing down, handing it over to her.

"My language, or tribe- dialect" she read out loud. She chuckled seemingly amused, "I forgot. You are yet to take Origins class," She reasoned rolling her eyes, " By dilect, I mean your super ability, like..." she trailed off getting up, "some people have control over the four elements, fire, water, air, and earth whilst others can lift things with their mind. Whilst others," she trailed off moving towards the half-empty glass of water, "are a little more unique," she hummed, pushing it off the side of the table.

I involuntarily winced, expecting to see it shatter into a thousand pieces, but it didn't. My eyes widened at the sight of the cup dangling in mid-air, seemingly to be stopped in time. Even the water that was spilling from the cup seemed to have also frozen. I had only a few times seen a Convert power at work, but never this close.

It scared and fascinated me at the same time, marveling at how one human being could stop the flow of time- I furrowed my eyebrows, enlarging on the cup and its contents, realizing they weren't frozen but in some form of ultra-slow motion.

I looked up at Daya and realized her eyes seemed to have dimmed to forest green. I couldn't stop the icy chill that traveled down my back at the sight of a convert using their ability not a meter away. Gravis I could trust, to some extent since he did save my life and is a regular occurrence in my life but I didn't know Daya at all.

She moved down to the cup, picked it up, trailing the water back in, and her eyes brightened to her normal color, returning the glass to the table as if nothing had happened.

"I know what you're thinking, can I stop time?" she asked with a slight scoff like it was such a limited opinion to have. Taking a seat on the chair this time, her fingers played with her long blond locks, frowning, "No, not really, it's more like I slow movements of any sort," she hummed, then she turned back to look at me, "I'm a yellow by the way."

My eyes caught sight of her name tag right beneath the sword and crown symbol as she said this and I nodded

"So..." she proceeded, "what is your dilect?"

My heart thudded at this question. I didn't have a dilect that was for sure. It suddenly dawned on me that I was here to pretend, that I had a color beneath my name sporting the illusion that I was one of them, which I certainly was not. I stood there like a statue not knowing what to say.

A thousand curses to Gravis for putting me in this position.

How did he expect me to pull this off?

I didn't know the first thing about going 'undercover' if you could even call it that, and if you could, I was going to blow it before whatever it was, ever even began.

She frowned at my silence, clearing her throat as she looked at me carefully as if now seeing me in a whole new different light.

I could feel my hands shake, not knowing what would happen if she found that I didn't belong. I knew Kingsland was the safest place for my mother and me, but the one thing I didn't know was how to play the part. I possessed no talents that could even mimic that of a convert.

"Maybe it's for the best, you don't say anything," she finally said much to my surprise. I masked my surprise with a nod, unable to stop the question from flooding my mind.

Why did she brush it off so quickly? Did she know? Probably not, but was she suspicious of me? Why did I feel like part of Gravis' game was for me to not be raising any suspicions here?

I stood in the center of the room, tugging at my sleeve for a good full awkward minute before she suggested something I very much needed. Both to take me out of this moment and to in general make me feel better about myself.

"I think you should take a shower."

•~•
Enjoying the story? Please vote and leave a comment to let me know! Join my discord channel (link in bio) for on going conversations!
•~•