Mercy Chapter 6

The next day was as busy as Talia told her it would be.

She spent the morning taking tests in mundane subjects like Math and English so they could place her in the proper classes. Then they sent her to the campus store to pick up textbooks and other supplies with a line of credit given to her by Mrs. Carson.

She was somewhat embarrassed by this, especially when she found out she was to be given a small laptop computer as well, but the woman at the campus store assured her that she wasn’t the only student who had come to the school with very little, and donations from successful former students more than covered the costs involved in helping her get started.

Once she returned the supplies to her room, she went to what turned out to be a flying class. She soon discovered that although it was telekinesis that allowed her to fly, her wings seemed to help a lot, especially when she wanted to do tricks in the air.

After the class was over, she had a quick shower and was getting dressed when a small flying girl flew over the top of her dressing stall door, landed on the small bench beside Faith, and said “You were amazing out there!”

Faith squeaked, covered her breasts, and asked “Who are you?”

“Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Tink.”

Faith looked at the small girl, and realized that she was stark naked.

“Can we maybe have this discussion after we’re both dressed?” she asked.

Tink looked down at herself, and went “Whoops. I was about to have my shower and saw you and wanted to meet you and I guess I got a little over-excited. I’ll talk to you later!”

With that, she zoomed over the top of the stall door and was gone.

Faith suddenly realized she had been covering her breasts the whole time, and sighed to her mother, “Another girl habit I seem to have picked up without knowing it. A guy wouldn’t worry about covering his top half.”

“At least it’s a useful habit, hon.” Her mother whispered.

“Yeah, but am I losing who I was before I became a girl?”

“I don’t think so, You may have some new habits that will help you ... blend in as a girl, but that’s probably not a bad thing. And boy or girl, you’re still my child, and I’m proud of you.”

Faith sniffled. "Thanks, mom.”

Faith finished getting dressed, and Tink was waiting for her.

“I just wanted to say sorry for barging in on you.” Tink said.

“It’s okay. But I do have to go to my next class.”

“Okay. By the way, you’re a pretty girl. If you ever want to consider modeling, I run a little club for girls with extraordinary features, like your wings. You’d be a great subject.”

“I’ll think about it” Faith stammered, and fled in the direction of her next class.

Faith’s next class was self-defence.

She went to the teacher, and said, “I’m the new student, although I’m not sure why I’m here.”

“Well, young lady, the information discovered by the young woman at the magic department, that your powers seem to be drawn from a very aggressive and violent people caused Mrs. Carson to want you to take self-defence.”

“I’m not sure I understand. Isn’t self-defence kinda ... well .. violent?”

“But its first and foremost about control. Controlling your emotions, controlling your mind, controlling your body, and then taking control of a situation. Those are the things I’d like to focus on teaching you.”

“Okay. What do I do first?”

“Today, let’s focus on learning how to stretch and loosen your muscles. I’ll also get you to focus on your breathing.”

For the next half-hour Faith learned to stretch properly while breathing deeply and regularly. She was pleased to discover that her still-new-to-her body was very flexible, and that she seemed to pick up the training very fast.

After a half hour, her instructor called her over to a large area where a young woman was going to give a demonstration with what looked to Faith to be a Native American tomahawk.

She watched the girl create what looked like a dance, full of grace and speed, and alternated between feeling amazed and feeling somewhat jealous.

Once the girl had finished, and the applause died down, the instructor went and pulled out a large number of weapons, and asked if anybody else wanted to do a demonstration.

Suddenly, Faith felt a need for a weapon. She walked toward the pile of weapons, and considered them. Her hands reached for a short sword, but then she heard a voice in her head say “No! Not a blade. The staff, girl. The staff!”

Faith managed to move her hands past the sword and grasped a wooden staff. The staff was about three feet long, and the ends were covered by hard plastic caps.

Even though she had no idea how she was doing it, Faith found herself being able to thrust, perry, spin, block, sweep, to use two hands or switch from hand to hand like an expert.

“Faith. You can stop now, Faith.” Her instructor said calmly but forcefully.

Faith blinked, and realized that she had unleashed her wings and was currently floating about a foot above the ground. She landed, pulled in her wings, and said, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

“That’s okay, Faith. But I want you to put away the staff now.” The instructor said.

Faith looked at the staff in her hand. The idea of putting the staff away felt like asking her to take off her arm and leaving it behind.

“I ... can’t ...”

A voice in her head said, “You can. Where do your wings go?”

The staff vanished, and Faith clutched her right arm in pain. Then she looked at the arm, and saw a tattoo of the staff on her forearm going from her wrist almost to her elbow.

“Remarkable. Are you alright, Faith?” her instructor asked.

The pain eased in her arm, and she replied, “I think so. I don’t have a clue what I just did, though. And I think I heard a voice in my head.”

“Perhaps one of the students should take you to the infirmary.”

One of the students stepped forward. “I’ll do it.”

“Excellent, Saphira.”

The young woman took Faith’s arm. “Come on, hon. It’ll be okay.”

While on their way to the infirmary, the girl said, “That was a cool demonstration.”

“It would have been cooler if I had actually known what I was doing.” Faith said.

“I know how that feels. When I manifested, I turned into a dragon. I thought I was gonna be stuck like that for weeks.”

“A dragon?”

“Yeah. I’d show you, but I don’t want to wreck my clothes. Anyway, here is the infirmary. I hope you feel better.”

“Thanks.”

The nurses checked Faith out, and told her to come back the next day when someone would be in who was an expert in avatars to find out the source of the voice Faith had heard.

Faith was leaving when Talia ran up, and said, “I heard you had something happen, are you okay?”

“Yeah. I have a new tattoo, and I seem to be a natural at stick fighting, though. And what are you wearing?”

Talia twirled, showing off the bikini she was wearing. “It’s a replica of the bikini Lea wore in Star Wars. I was going to wear it to the showing of the new movie tonight.”

“Where is it showing?”

“At theater in the little town just down the road from here. But I can go another time if you need me.”

“No, go. I’m going to go eat, then try and make it an early night.”

“Okay” Talia said, and took off.

Faith made her way to cafeteria, and grabbed a salad, a drink, and a bowl of soup. She sat down on the table, but before she could take more than a bite she was interrupted by Arwen.

“Faith, you have to go after Talia.”

“What? Why, Arwen?”

“I just had a vision. She’s going to be attacked at the movie theater in town. You have to save her.”

“But I’m not supposed to leave the campus. That shadow-creature you saw cant get me here. Cant we find someone else to go?”

“No, its got to be you. But I believe you can win, as long as you remember your codename.”

“I ... don’t understand.”

“You will. But go. Hurry.”

Faith ran ...

To be continued ...