I Sold My Soul for Chocolate

Chapter 8

Raum didn’t waste any time. As soon as the scroll had touched his hand, he was walking towards the front door. I shot the headmaster a polite smile and muttered a quick thanks before pulling Liney and Jeff after Raum.

“Shouldn’t we open the scroll first?” I asked.

“No.”

I didn’t dare to question him further, so I swallowed my pride and walked outside after him. The front yard was full to the brim with the others who were carefully studying their scrolls, and I felt extremely uncomfortable, because they kept casting glances towards us.

“Let’s move away from the vultures,” Raum offered, and the three of us huffed in agreement. We followed him as he led us right of the house. The groups moved out of the way without us having to even lift a finger, and we found a calm spot fairly quickly, with the house on our right and the fields on our left.

Raum stopped and fad opened the scroll as the rest of us flocked behind him and tried to get a look at it without having to stand too close.

“That’s not English,” I said in confusion. The script looked normal enough, except that it wasn’t.

“It’s Cyrillic,” Liney said, and Raum nodded, making Liney visibly tense.

“That’s like Russian?” I asked.

“It’s old church Slavonic. Last time I’ve used it was back in the 12th century.” I gulped, and shared a look with Liney. Twelfth century? He was alive back then? I mean, of course he was. Why wouldn’t he have been. Totally normal.

“Anyways, it says here that we must make our way into the forest, where the trial will begin. The follow-up instructions will appear as we progress. The last 10 teams to finish the task will be eliminated.” He closed the scroll and turned around to face us, his gaze stopping on each of us judgementally.

“We can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way. Follow my instructions, and this will be a breeze. Disobey, and life will get very hard for you.” He was looking at me as he spoke, and I nodded quickly, acknowledging his threat.

He began walking towards the forest, and the three of us walked behind him, too anxious to speak. Liney even grabbed my wrist a couple of times when Raum made a change of pace, and my heart skipped a beat every time he moved his head around.

I absolutely had to pass the entrance exam. I didn’t care if I looked like a coward if I obeyed Raum like a loyal puppy. Once this whole ordeal was done, I’d get a small chunk of his power and continue my life at the Academy with Lin, and sneak out to visit Argal all the time, and then we’d get jobs at the Supernatural Defence Organisation, where we’d fight crime and risk our lives every day.

All I had to do was obey. Just this once.

Raum stopped at the entrance of the forest, right by a narrow, dirt path that I was sure didn’t exist a moment earlier.

“Stay behind me. Elementalist, you go last, protect the powerless ones.”

Ouch.

I ignored the sting and motioned for Lin to just go when she tried to stay and comfort me. I walked behind Raum, and Jeff was behind me. I felt him reach for my hand, but I purposely evaded it, feeling too embarrassed and on edge to be a source of comfort.

As soon as we entered the cover of trees, things got creepy.

At first, the forest appeared to be darker. Then, I realised that what was once surely oak and beech was now pine. When I looked behind me, I couldn’t see the exit, only more trees, and eventually, darkness. Below my feet was no dirt path, but rather dark grass.

This time, I didn’t try to evade Jeff’s hand. I grasped it gladly.

“Check the scroll,” I said. Raum actually listened to me, and he opened it. More of the foreign script appeared.

“Exit the forest,” he read calmly.

“I was a scout for a year, I bet I could get us out!” I proclaimed proudly. All three of my team members shot me a look full of doubt.

“I don’t think-” Liney began speaking, but Raum interrupted her.

“Alright.” We all looked at him in shock. He agreed? “Entertain me, human. Your Voxomancer powers could even come in useful, should you figure out how to use them.” Raum gracefully moved aside and motioned for me to take the lead.

Nervous sweat enveloped me instantly, and all the confidence I had felt left me. Charisma coffees were not good substitutes for actual confidence and self-esteem.

“Of course.”

Even if I knew how to use his powers, how would I even go about applying them? I just had to rely on the normal, human skills for the time being.

“Right. I’ll just, um, mark this tree...” I took off my backpack and pulled my jacket out before wrapping it around a tree closest to us. Liney and Jeff seemed worried, and Raum seemed to be enjoying my display of cluelessness greatly.

“Well, this forest is definitely enchanted,” I noted as we began walking again.

“Oh, you don’t say? I would have never guessed,” Raum replied condescendingly.

I tried to remember the terrain around us, but everything seemed exactly the same, except that a low mist was slowly rolling out towards us from the depths of the forest. I had a feeling something bad would happen if we allowed it to reach us.

After only three minutes of walking, we came upon a tree that had my jacket tied onto it.

“Ah, I see your skills are proving to be quite useful,” Raum mocked as I stopped to think, my cheeks red in embarrassment.

We were definitely going in a straight line. I doubted that our perception got twisted enough as to make us go in circles. Which meant that the forest was looped. And we had to break the loop.

“Well, walking won’t do us any good.”

“Excellent observation.”

“Let’s wait for the mist to roll in.”

“Hmm, sounds like a great plan. Let’s.”

The sarcasm in his voice was insane. I kept trying to think about how I could use the power to help us, but in truth, I didn’t even know what a demon could do. I knew that he could close doors and make magical hoods disappear. That was telekinesis. He was likely telepathic, as well, as he could share his power with me.

Maybe the mist was sentient?

“So, you’re a demon, right?” I said awkwardly, looking away from the mist to look at him.

“Indeed.” He replied, his voice receiving a dangerous undertone, sending me a sideways glance with narrowed eyes. Liney and Jeff both looked ready to kill me, and then themselves. I hoped the pleading gaze I sent them would make them trust me. 

“Can you read minds?” I asked.

“I can,” he said, actually sounding intrigued. I nodded.

“Right.”

“Kay, are we seriously just going to wait?” Liney said from the end of the line. My pleading gaze did not work.

“Shut up, I’m concentrating. I got this,” I said, and Liney raised her eyebrows in surprise, but she shrugged and shut up.

I wasn’t sure why she trusted me.

In books, using magic was usually described as finding the power within you, and then imagining the thing you wanted happening.

However, when I closed my eyes and tried to find a power within me, there was nothing. Just a bit of fear, anxiety, and a sense of impending doom.

But wait...

The power wasn’t technically mine. It was Raum’s.

I opened my eyes and looked at the star-shaped mark on my wrist. Then, I touched it with the other hand. Only then did I close my eyes, and I tried again.

After a couple of seconds of deep concentration, I started feeling something. It felt like a bundle of power just sitting inside of the scar. That was it! I freaked out from excitement and lost the trace of it for a second, but I managed to calm down and grasp it again.

Now I just needed to figure out how to use it to read minds.

I opened my eyes while keeping aware of the connection to the power in my mark. I looked at the mist ahead, and I closed my eyes again. Demons surely had some sort of... radar, or something, to see other sentient beings. It seemed like a power a demon would have. So, I plunged into the power of my mark. I kind of... let it loose, by imagining an EMP shock.

Suddenly, it was as if a radar had gone off in my head. I could feel other presences. Two behind me, kind of tiny. One gigantic right beside me. I was unaware that Raum had gotten that close.

And all around us, a big, long stretch of being. I couldn’t follow its movement, since I only released one ‘radar wave’, but I could feel that it was still there. All that was left was to actually enter it.

I felt the presence with my mind. I couldn’t even describe how it felt... it was like another sense. Like a sixth sense people talked about, but amplified. I could feel thoughts swirling inside of the consciousness when I concentrated on it. And the more I concentrated, the less of a jumbled mess they were. After a few more seconds, I could make out separate thoughts and ideas. Pictures swirled by me, as well as whispers, waiting for me to grab onto one to hear it or see it. It was incredible, and it took all my self-control not to get too excited and have to start over. I reached out with my mind and snatched a thought, a whisper, from the hive.

Left on three, and twice left again, the sunflowers will turn sideways and pirouette.

That made no sense. I let it go, and picked up another.

 Left on three, and twice left again, the sunflowers will turn sideways and pirouette.

I tried not to get annoyed, and tried again. But it was the same. And we were running out of time.

I opened my eyes, and all the magic and connections I had made disappeared. I blinked several times, and then looked at my audience. Raum was standing uncomfortably close, looking at me as if he were reading me. In fact, I could feel his breath on my hair with each exhale, and it tickled, but I was too terrified of him to react to. Lin and Jeff just seemed amazed and intrigued, and quite a bit away from me, and Raum.

“I read the mist’s mind, using one of the spells the Headmaster gave me. It’s a puzzle. Left on three, twice left again, the sunflowers will turn sideways, and then pirouette.”

“Good job. I wasn’t expecting you to figure that out, human,” Raum said calmly, finally taking a step back away from me and leaving my un-comfort zone.

I grinned at Liney, who had her jaw hanging open.

“Holy s**t, girl, you actually did it! You actually used magic!”

Liney ran at me to hug me, but Raum interrupted her. “Stop. Don’t move.”

We all froze, and I realised that the mist was only a few feet away.

“Let’s do what the riddle says and be done with this before it touches us. Kay, you found the riddle, so you lead.”

I nodded and gulped, feeling strangely honoured that Raum allowed me to actually lead, although I knew it was from s******c reasons, as he was likely hoping I’d fail.

“Right. So, it’s straightforward enough. Left on tree, that’s probably three to the left.”

“But left of where?” Liney chimed in. I stopped to think.

“The sunflowers will turn sideways. Sunflowers face the sun. We will turn left twice. Which means, the sun has to be on our right. Let’s go,” I said quickly, brainstorming the problem in my head.

Without waiting for approval, I positioned myself and began the steps.

“One, two, three.” We faced left. “One, two.” I turned towards the sun. The mist was nearly touching my feet.

“What’s a pirouette?” Jeff asked in a panic just as I was about to order them to pirouette.

“Just spin 360 degrees on one foot,” Liney answered quickly, and I gave her a nod of approval.

“Right. Okay, three, two, one, go!”

I spun on one leg awkwardly, and when my other foot touched the ground, we were no longer in a forest.