˗ˏˋ Halfway to the End ༄ Chapter 5 ˎˊ-

Instructions

┍━ ⋆⋅⚝⋅⋆ ━━━━━━━━━┑ Halfway to the End ┕━━━━━━━━━ ⋆⋅⚝⋅⋆ ━┙ Chapter 5 ┍━ ⋆⋅⚝⋅⋆ ━━━━━━━━━┑ Vienna led me through the doors and WOW. The main lobby was HUGE! The floor was black marble with a massive bronze compass outline set in it. The dark ceiling was held up by several large, black columns, and thin, silver-and-bronze threads hung from the ceiling at different lengths. A few, small circles of armchairs were set besides some of the columns, and some Threats were sitting in them, talking quietly amongst themselves. A few other Threats wandered the lobby, cloaks swirling. Set against the far wall was a big, heavy desk made of black stone. It was set on a slightly raised podium, so that as we approached it, we had to crane our necks to look at the woman sitting behind it. Her black hair was tied back in a tight ponytail, pulling the white skin on her face taught. Her icy blue eyes were fixed on a book that she was writing in, her black cloak settled around her shoulders. "Miss Auden." Vienna bowed her head respectfully. The woman looked up, her face slightly annoyed. "Names and Ranks, please." She said in a clipped tone, pen at the ready. "Vienna Sukola, Pre-Trainee, Coriander Fallon, Recruit." The woman scribbled something down. "Right. I'll have to ask the Threats in charge of the Tallies this year to add her as a Pre-Trainee." "Oh, there's no need, Miss Auden. I sent a messenger ahead to do that." The woman frowned, like she smelt a bad scent in the air. "Very well then. Coriander Fallon, Pre-Trainee. You can both go." Vienna turned and led me to an empty circle of chairs. We both sat down and were silent for a few minuets. "That was Miss Auden, the secretory. She's not very nice, but don't make her mad." I nodded, wishing that I had some paper to write all this down. "So where do you guys stay until training starts?" "There are some rooms with beds where we sleep. In two days time, we'll get sorted into one of three houses - Ink, Coal or Stygian. After that, we'll move to whichever house we're put in's Hall, so if we were to be in the Coals, we'd move to the Coal Hall. It's basically a dormitory type thing. You'll see." I nodded. The lobby had this hushed echo around it, you could hear the tap of feet and the mummer of voices amplified in this strange, misty way. Vienna stood up. "Come on. I'll introduce you to the other Pre-Trainees." I followed her down a wide hallway, which led into a cafeteria. The walls, floor, ceiling, columns and tables were also all in black stone, but there were trails of bronze inlaid everywhere. A large hole was cut out of one wall, behind which two very bored-looking chefs stood. Threats sat at tables, booths and on tall stools. Dark green tendrils of some strange plants grew from cracks in the wall and curled around columns. Small water features poured from more cracks into bowls carved in the walls and floor corners. Vienna led me over to a tall bar table where 7 other Threats were sitting. She hopped up on an empty stool and patted the one next to her. I jumped up next to her. "Oh! Vienna!" One of them cried. The others all smiled and greeted her. "Who's this?" Vienna glanced at me. "Oh, right. Guys, this is Coriander Fallon. Cori, these are my friends, Bebosta, Jaelyn, Nevaeh, Madelyn, Diego and Italy!" I smiled at them. They all seemed to be around my age, and most of them seemed friendly enough." "Hi! I'm Bebosta!" Smiled a girl with long, dirty blond hair and dark violet eyes. A small clock hung on a necklace around her neck. The girl sitting next to her, Madelyn, nodded at me. She had brown hair in a single braid down her back and blue eyes. "I think you'll like it here!" Jaelyn - who was sitting across from me - smiled kindly. Her straight hair was dark brown and her emerald-green eyes sparkled. Jaelyn was pretty small, but I guessed she was fast. Another girl butted in. "Yeah, we've only been here for a few weeks at most, and it's already great! We haven't even started training yet!" Nevaeh had brown hair tied up with a strip of cloth and green eyes. Like Jaelyn, she was also quite small, but there must have been a reason for them both being here. The Senate would not have chosen them otherwise. The last two - Diego and Italy - were the only ones who said nothing. Italy gave me a half-hearted wave, but they both seemed pretty dejected. Italy had long, ragged brown hair and olive skin. Her eyes were golden-brown. Diego had feathery, dark burgundy brown hair that curled around his ears and stuck up at random angles. His olive skin was a bit paler than Italy's, and his eyes were wine purple. The cafeteria - like the lobby - was echoey and misty, like a funeral home, but colder, with less plush walls and carpets and more hard, dark, stone. Less light, creamy colors and gleaming wooden shades, and more blackness. More fear. ┕━━━━━━━━━ ⋆⋅⚝⋅⋆ ━┙ ┍━ ⋆⋅⚝⋅⋆ ━━━━━━━━━┑ This chapter is dedicated to Violet! ┕━━━━━━━━━ ⋆⋅⚝⋅⋆ ━┙