THESE HIDDEN WINGS

[17.1] ORIGINS CLASS 521: WHITE (part-one)

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"The Kings Trials."

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MR. OGUSTUS CLOSED the door, hobbling towards us. Taking his usual spot leaning against his desk with his cane propped beside him, he released a sigh, folding his large arms, "Questions?"

Every hand in the room except mine shot up, but even so, I had questions of my own. It seemed we all wanted to know what we had just witnessed,

"Lovely," he grinned, skimming through the classes, "Aiden?"

It amazed me how fast he memorized each one of our names in 8 hours. I only knew two other people excluding Claire and it was solely because they loved to ask questions.

Naaka and David, David and Naaka.

Aiden sat beside me to my left, in the last row, beside the wall, directly by an open window that showed off the Crown Court.

"I do not understand what I had just seen, sir." he quite plainly put.

"Is that so?" Mr. Ogustus chuckled.

"I mean, why do we even have such...sports? If I could call it that? It was bloody and violent I'm not sure we should be participating in things as horrific as that," he trailed off, his sandy blond hair falling over his face as he asked, paired with intricate light blue eyes that looked almost grey.

He was good-looking in his own right that was for sure. How I hadn't noticed him till now was a mystery to me. It just went to show how captivating Mr. Ogustus' stories were.

"It seemed..." he trailed off, "dangerous, wrestling and boxing matches are safer than that."

Well, Aiden had a point because the whole close hummed in agreement. It was then I noticed the unsure expressions of my peers. I believed I knew what was going on in their minds as it was going through mine.

No part of what we had witnessed was humane. It seemed like an illegal underground fight.

"The Arena is not a sport," Mr. Ogustus explained calmly, his eyes trailing over everyone as if understanding our displeasure, "but yes, it is dangerous, especially if done outside the Dome."

He paused, as silence fell around him.

"Most of you, however, will be relieved to know you do not have to participate in the fights that happen there, at least not full-on forced ones like the one we just witnessed. I assure you all who participate in the King's Trials come of their own accord and are rightly trained."

My eyebrows furrowed at this, still with questions of my own, as did others whose hands went back in the air.

Mr. Ogustus raised a hand and the rest fell. He grabbed, his cane moving toward the board, taking a piece of chalk,

" I believe each one of you knows why you are on Kingsland," he jotted a word down.

Society.

"That is what you wish to become a part of. You desperately want to fit back into it and the only way to do so, the only way you were told was possible is by going through Kingsland." He paused trailing back to us, "The outside world looks to Kingsland to train the convert population into normal law-abiding citizens..." he placed both hands behind his back, wise eyes skimming by each one of us, "That is what you must become, law-abiding, but if you still believe in normal, pity is all I have to offer."

He turned back to the board jotting a list of words. When he finally turned and I could see what he was writing I was curious to find out what these were.