Corruption

I wake up naked and sore, and soft morning sunshine streams through the cracks of the window curtains. I stretch and sit up, keeping myself covered by my blanket. Lilly’s sitting on her bed, her legs stretched out and her back against the headboard. Her iPad sits in her lap, but she’s looking at me.

“Good morning, you have fun last night?” she asks me, a knowing smile on her face.

“You could say that,” I say.

I get out of bed, taking my sheet with me to cover my nakedness, and go into the bathroom. I shower and fix my face, and when I’m done I step out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel to get dressed. I put on the school uniform and then sprawl onto my bed, spread eagle on my back with my legs dangling over the side.

“So,” Lilly says casually. “You and Tristan.”

I sit up and look at her, resting on my elbows. “How’d you know?”

“You woke up naked,” Lilly says bluntly, looking at me like I’m stupid. “And when I came back he was putting a shirt on to leave.”

“Oh,” I say, my face heating slightly.

“Wanna go get some breakfast?” she asks me, putting her iPad on her cluttered nightstand.

“Sure,” I say with a smile.

We go to the Dining Hall, meeting up with Reika and enjoying a wonderful breakfast of all kinds of foods. I sit with my friends, laughing and joking around, and I’m truly happy to be here.



Time passes uneventfully, and soon enough it’s the Saturday before my first day of classes. I’m excited, but also nervous. For days I’ve been fidgeting constantly, slightly terrified.

“You’ll be fine,” Lilly says over breakfast in the Dining Hall.

“You get your tomes yet?” Reika asks before biting into a breakfast sandwich.

“Tomes?” I ask.

“They’re like textbooks,” Lilly says. “Yuh know, for your classes?”

“I didn’t know I needed them,” I say. “Where do I get them?”

“You can buy ‘em from the Academy Store,” Reika answers through her mouthful. “It’s in the Break Hall.”

“Alright, how much are they? I only have, like, twenty dollars with me.”

Lilly looks at me in bewilderment, a crease between her eyebrows. Reika looks at me with sympathy.

“Tomes are normally around twenty thousand Souls,” Reika says.

“What the fuck is that?” I ask.

“Look,” Lilly says, putting her bag on the table top. She pulls out her purse, and takes out some money. She puts a few coins on the table, and lays two bills beside them. The money is beautiful, but I’d never seen anything like it.

“This is a Luna,” Lilly says, holding up a small coin, about the size of a nickel. It’s silver with a black ring at the circumference, and crescent moons are engraved on both sides. “It’s worth ten Souls, which is roughly one cent in US currency.” She sets it down and picks up another coin, about the size of a quarter. It’s a light blue with a silverish sheen, and has a white half moon on the front. The back has a black half moon, facing the other direction. “This is a Lunarchip, it’s worth one hundred Souls, about ten cents in US currency.”

“And that’s a Solarchip,” Reika says, pointing to a goldish-silver coin with a sun engraved on it. She turns it over, and the other side has the Elemental Cross engraved on it. “It’s worth one thousand souls, or a dollar.”

“I’ve never seen any money like this,” I say, picking up one of the bills. It’s a brownish color, like yellow-ish copper, and it has a metallic sheen. A purple “10,000” is in the center, and black Elemental Crosses are at the top left and bottom right corners. I flip it over, and there’s a drawing of mountains in the center.

“That’s a BronzeSlip,” Lilly says. “Worth ten thousand Souls. And this is a SilverSlip,” she says, holding up a slightly different version of the bill I’m holding. It’s silver and has a “50,000” in the center instead, and when she flips it over there’s a drawing of a beautiful girl. Both the drawings are slightly darker than the bills, like normal money, but the girl’s eyes are purple.

Lilly takes the BronzeSlip from me and places both bills on the table, face down.

“According to legend, witches originally were savages, enslaving humans and fighting for territory. There was no peace, no hierarchy, and no order.”

“Until Lementa came along,” Reika says, pointing to the woman on the SilverSlip. “She saw what chaos was doing to our race, making us wild animals, so she set out to change that.”

“She went to this mountain,” Lilly says, pointing to the Bronzeslip. “As it radiated magic she had never felt before. When she got there she pleaded to the elements, asking them to help her. They granted her a gift, a legendary animal. It was a wolf the size of a bear, with raven wings and panther eyes and claws. They also gifted her with the ability to control all four elements. With her gifts she created the Tribes, and everything else we know today.”

“That’s amazing,” I say in awe. Witch history is so much more interesting than Mundane.

“There’s also a GoldSlip, which is the same thing as the other two but gold and worth one hundred thousand Souls. It has the Elemental animals on the back, like the mural on the ceiling of the temple,” Reika says, standing up. “You can borrow some of my money for your tomes. We should probably head out now, before it gets dark.”

“Okay,” I say, rising from my seat.

We leave the Dining Hall out of the east door, which I had never used before. Ahead of us I can see a few buildings, the closest one being octogonal. We head that way, following the sidewalk.

“Where exactly are we going?” I ask my friends.

“The Break Hall. It’s connected to all the classroom buildings,” Reika says.

“We’ll give you a tour and then buy your tomes,” Lilly says with a wink.

Soon enough we reach the Break Hall. It’s an octagonal building made of the same dark bricks as the main building. We step through the door and enter a huge room with rectangular and circular tables placed evenly. There are two booths, one on the eastern-most wall and another across from it. The one to our right looks like a bar of some sort, with a couple people sitting at it drinking from cans of pop or eating snacks. The one to our left has a counter with a cash register on it. We turn to the left.

“Hey baby,” Reika says as we approach.

A girl stands behind the counter, and I immediately notice she’s gorgeous. Her hair is vibrant, an electric blue, and her eyes are a soft light brown. She’s pale but not to the point of suspected illness, and when she smiles in reply to Reika it’s heart stopping.

“Hello beautiful,” she says back.

Reika walks to the counter and leans forward, pecking Brook on the cheek. “Aradia, this is my girlfriend Brook. She, obviously, works at the Academy Store. Brook this is Aradia Hollow, she’s new here.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” I say with a smile.

“Likewise,” she replies. “What can I getcha?”

“Tomes, I guess,” I say, looking at Lilly for help.

“You’re going to need Elemental Beginnings, Connecting with the Spirits volume one, and The Ingredient Guide,” Lilly says, ticking each item off on her fingers.

“You got it,” Brook says, then disappears through a doorway.

After a brief wait she returns, carrying three thick books. She puts them on the counter and types some things into the cash register.

“Do you have a discount card?” she asks.

I furrow my brow in confusion, but Reika puts a golden card on the counter.

“She can use my black card,” she says.

“Okie dokie,” Brook replies, swiping the card. “Your total is three hundred and fifty-seven thousand Souls.”

That sounds like so much. I immediately feel bad, but Reika laughs.

“I thought it’d be more,” she says, handing Brook three BronzeSlips and six Solarchips. “Keep the change babygirl.”

“You got it,” Brook says with a wink.

Behind me I hear Lilly scoff. “Blech, lesbians.”

I laugh at her then walk to the counter, picking up the books.

“Thought they’d be heavier,” I say, easily carrying the tomes.

“They’re charmed so they’re light,” Reika explains, then kisses Brook goodbye.

“Catch yuh later beautiful,” she says as we walk away.

I look back at her to wave and she winks at me. Getting a bad feeling in my gut, I turn forward to keep walking. As we leave I feel a fire blaze on the back of my neck.



Reika and Lilly showed me around, taking me to each building. It was pretty simple with everything being connected, and I go to bed feeling comfortable. My nerves were still crazy, but I strangely fell asleep easily. My dreams, however, wasn’t very restful.

”You have to help me!”

I’m standing in a cave, watching a woman standing in the center in a shaft of light. Her eyes are a light blue, her hair a white-blond, like mine. I look up and see a cavern, opening up into the sky. A full moon rests directly above the opening, allowing the column of light.

”Please, whoever you are, I’m begging you!”

“We are creators, destroyers, devastators and lords,” four voices say in unison, creating an eerie effect.

“I have sensed your power. I do not ask for it, only your help. My sisters are fighting, destroying the world we inhabit. Please, aid me in reaching peace!” the woman shouts.

Wind howls throughout the cave viciously, though the woman remains in place.

“You are strong, young witch,” the voices say. “But why should we help you?”

“If you are creators, help your creations! If you are destroyers, why allow lesser beings to do it for you? If you are devastators, show your ruling over my kind! If you are lords, help your people as a true ruler should,” she says, growing breathless as she finishes.

The wind dies, but intense heat replaces it.

“You and your sisters have used us without our permission, you are the ones who owe us!” the voices cry angrily.

“Then allow me to amend you! Allow my sisters and me to pay our debts, but we cannot do this unless we overcome our wars!”

The heat dissipates, and silence follows. The woman’s eyes fill with tears, and I feel her failure, self-hate, and disappointment. But then something happens.

“We gift you the true power of us, of the elements in our world,” they say.

Wind rushes down from the cavern, almost visible. It circles around the woman then dies, but the power and aura of it enters the woman. A line of fire twists down next, again entering the woman. Earth and water follow, and as each element enters her she radiates more and more power.

“Th-thank you,” she stutters, her power overwhelming.

“We also gift you our greatest creation, our only one able of immortality. The Elemental Beast shall now follow you, so long as you live,” the voices say.

Out of the dark an animal emerges. It’s a snow white wolf, it’s size and fur that of a bears, with wild panther eyes and claws. Raven black wings rustle along it’s back, and it looks at the woman with obeyance.

“Be warned, witch,” the voices hiss. “Your kind’s crimes are great, and the price of our gifts is high. Once you have reached your goal, your soul will be your payment. Do you accept?”

“I do.”