Arrianna - Part Four

...still preparing for her Testing, yet despite her stubbornness, knowledge may be soaking into her head after all...

Seven days had now passed and Arrianna had spent almost more time in the penitent cell then she had spent in her small, dingy room. Her Testing was still a week away and she was certain she would be spending a lot more time in the cell. She had long since given up the childish daydream that her parents would suddenly come crashing in to take her home, and punish all those that had made her suffer so. She forced herself not to think about her old life at all.

With her hair as straight as it was likely to get, Arrianna put the brush down. Her room was small compared to the great lavish bedroom she used to call her own. Only four spans to a side, the square room’s only furniture was the desk and chair, the bookcase, and a bed with a clothes box on one end. The room was cold and she was thankful for the bearskin in the middle of the stone floor and the feather-filled comforter they had at least provided for bed-coverings. The chamber pot was in the corner behind the door, as far from her bed as it was possible to get. They had permitted her only one glow-light, which she kept on the desk.

Most of her time (when she wasn't whiling away hours of boring punishment in the penitent cell) she spent in her room studying…which was just as boring. The high point of each day, though she was loath to admit it, was the one hour of exercise she was given each night. After the same meal of bread and fruit and water, Neath would arrive and escort her through the complex maze of corridors to yet another chamber. Reed mats covered the cold stone floor. For an hour Neath would guide her through a variety of breathing and muscle-stretching exercises, designed to help prepare her mind and body for the ordeal to come. The first night Arrianna had asked what sort of ‘ordeal’ she would face during her Testing. It was a perfectly ordinary question to ask, as far as she was concerned. Her only answer was an hour spent in the confined space of the penitent cell.

It was during these sessions that Arrianna encountered others such as herself. She counted twenty-nine other young men and woman evenly split between gender and all accompanied by their own black-robed shadows. She studied them surreptitiously but they seemed no different from any other random group of seventeen year olds. She didn't recognize any so she assumed they were all from lower Tiers. Not long ago that alone would have stopped her from wanting to converse. Now she would gladly have sat and talked with a Tier Ten lout, so starved was she for companionship (she didn't count the old woman Neath as a companion, of course).

They were jogging in a group around the chamber the second night, the tutors gathered in the center like a murder of sinister crows, when Arrianna had introduced herself to a girl beside her. The girl was pretty, her braided auburn hair in a complicated bun in a style Arrianna had never seen before. Neath, despite her advanced age, obviously had the eyes of a crow as well as the appearance; Arrianna spent another hour fuming in solitary confinement for that innocent transgression.

From then on Arrianna kept her mouth firmly shut, at least during the exercise sessions.

From the corner of her eye, the gold-embossed scroll caught her attention. With a sigh, she rose and fished it out. She lay on her bed and prepared to study what was sure to be another boring convoluted discourse.

Never had her mind been worked so hard then in the last week. She had read so many scrolls and leather-bound books it was a wonder her eyes hadn't become permanently squinted. What she really wanted was information on the upcoming Test but none of the material she had read so much as mentioned it, and any verbal query on her part would simply earn her punishment. Most of what they gave her to read was incomprehensible, or plain boring. It would have helped if the subject matter had at least been interesting. What did she care about the ancient history of the Azmorae, and how her people came to reside in caverns under the mountains? It was thousands of years ago, and long forgotten as far as she was concerned. What interested Arrianna were other places, cultures, birds, animals, and even trees! It was all out there in the great Outside! None of the books mentioned other people and cultures and she earned a trip to the cell when she had specifically asked for such. She would have thought that actually showing an interest in wanting to learn something would earn her praise, but she was mistaken. Why did she need to understand the workings of glow-lights? They gave off bright light for twelve hours every day and then dimmed to a barely discernible glow for the other twelve hours. With no glow-lights, everyone would be stumbling around in utter darkness so what else was there to know? What did any of it have to do with the stupid damnable Test they were forcing her to perform?

Every morning Neath came into her room and questioned her about the previous days study. Her understanding was virtually non-existent so Arrianna assumed most of her answers were wrong. Neath gave no indication either way, which to Arrianna seemed a strange way to educate someone. The crone would leave another book or scroll, usually with instructions to pay particular attention to this chapter or that page and then she would leave Arrianna to her own devices. Reading said pages and chapters, Arrianna had found nothing about Testing and no indication as to why Neath had wanted her to pay attention to them. It was all so frustrating!

On a lighter note, Arrianna thought with a feeble attempt at humor, she now had quite a collection of reading material to peruse. She shuddered to think what her friends would think of that…

No! 

She took firm rein on her thoughts and emotions. It was easier if she just pretended she had no former life. Therefore, she tried to convince herself; she had no friends, no life and definitely no parents. 

This was her whole existence now.

Reviews

[JR Darewood]

Oh my god, she's a grad student studying for her comprehensive exams!!!!!! Except we're locked in our cells for way longer than 2 weeks.

This chapter was great. If you ever feel like sticking an extra one in, it might be nice to watch her get broken in that first day or two.

one note: when you described the wood in a previous chapter, she was bored by histories and accounts of the Outside, now she likes it. I can see why her mind might change once she's forced to read, but without an explanation it comes off as incogruous.

[AJJordan]

Mmmmm...I guess I'll have to re-word a few things here to make it clearer.

Arrianna detests the histories of her people, who have been underground for eons. Most Azmorae believe their people have always lived underground.

BUT, there is an entire world populated by other races in other kingdoms (re: Azkis in the deserts of Goerthirus and Haris in a small dukedom of Tirenus). Although the Azmorae are an insular lot, word of the Outside will leak in. This is what really interests Arrianna. This is what the Azmorae call the Outside.