A World Of Decree: And The Seven Laws

The night dragged on for an eternity for Rina and Laena, both of them had too much to think about, preventing them from falling into a deep slumber. Once the sun finally rose, it penetrated the windows through the thick walls of glass that stood between the outdoors and the room.

Rina and Laena had no idea when they ended up falling asleep, but whenever they did, they knew it wasn't long ago. They both stood up, dragging themselves to the restrooms to see the numerous bags of fatigue under their eyes. Neither of them drank coffee on a regular basis, but they knew today was an appropriate occasion for one.

It was early in the morning, with half the students still asleep due to there being no classes that day. The plaza was quite empty as well, only filled with the usual morning risers either eating or doing homework.

Rina shuffled to one of the morning beverage stands, noticing Laena approaching from the distance as well. They both noticed each other, only able to give an effortless grin to one another. They were too tired to yell out each other's name, a wave was enough for both of them to catch each others attention.

They ended up grabbing a seat at their normal table, surprised to see Cartuja already there demolishing plates of food down his throat.

The girls sat two seats away from Cartuja with only a cup of coffee and a piece of fruit. The seats next to him were filled with food and other plates of breakfast essentials.

"Yoo! You two are up early today, what's good?" Cartuja said while putting his food down.

Neither of the girls had much energy yet, but Rina managed to at least muster a good morning in response, "Why are you up so early?" she yawned, "It's like seven, are you usually up this early?"

"Everyday!" he started laughing while a few chunks of food were firing out of his mouth like popcorn on a hot pan.

"Wow… Anyway, we plan to have a meeting today at noon at our table. If you see anyone else can you let them know?"

"Yeeeee."

Rina looked at Laena, both trying their best not to laugh at Cartuja's typical personality. He finally finished his meal while they all talked about schoolwork, notifying the girls he'll see them at noon.

"Where are you headed off too?" Laena asked as he got up with his stomach still looking surprisingly empty.

"No classes today, so only really two things I can do. Go to the girl's hall… Or train. Noones awake yet, so I'm off to train."

They were both quite shocked by this statement, Cartuja was the last person out of their Guild they would expect to actually train on their own.

"You actually train?!"

"Ye, usually for like a couple hours every day in the morning. I think."

"Oh… Well, good luck I guess."

Right before Cartuja left he turned around to ask one more question to Rina, expecting a slap in return, "Well me and you can go to my room instead. Everyone still sleeping aha-hahaha."

Rina's face dropped its alertness, "Of course! In your dreams."

Surprised he didn't get slapped, Cartuja walked off waving goodbye with his other hand planted in his pocket.

"Not the first time he's asked. Can't be too surprised." Rina laughed with Laena, giving them the wakeup call they needed to start the day. At around 9 am, Calvin called upon each and every member of the guild to his office, explaining the lockdown and why they are placed onto it.

Cartuja was surprisingly the only one that got angry about this, claiming it would interfere with his "personal life." Which made Calvin question the fact he even had one. Cartuja explained it was mostly time spent with other girls, either in his room, or theirs.

Leo gave him a fistbump of approval while the girls just sighed in annoyance. Cartuja wasn't annoyed by their response, but took it as an opportunity to get Paris fl.u.s.tered,

"Yo chill out, I'm just living life, getting some action," he laughed along with Leo, "Don't tell me you've never gotten freaky? Ahha-aha-haha."

Paris tried to scramble the appropriate words to make a comeback but realized she took too long with everyone staring at her and bolted out of the room in embarrassment.

"Cartuja!" Calvin reminded him he was standing right in front of him.

"What's good Cal?"

"Okay how many times… Never mind. Can you go and apologize to Paris, I kind of need you all here right now."

"Yeee."

It took Cartuja nearly 3 seconds to catch up to paris down the hall, "Yoo, uh…" Cartuja quickly tried to remember her name, despite being friends with her and the rest of the group for months now.

"Paris? Ye Paris."

She turned around, confused for a moment, "Did you forget my name asshole?"

"Nah… uhh, Cal told me to a-p-o-l-o-g-i-z-e... so my b." Within a second of finishing that sentence he was gone, back to the room saying she didn't accept the apology.

Calvin questioned his response, "Really? She really didn't accept it or are you just saying that?"

The door swung open before Cartuja responded, with her arms crossed Paris walked in.

"Can we get on with the meeting?" Paris seemed less embarrassed, not letting Cartuja's childish words get under her skin.

"Indeed we shall."

Calvin finished any details he had remaining, making sure to specifically not let anyone else know about this. He explained all the information they managed to find on the laws, concluded by a simple theory on who is which law, and why exactly they might be the new ones.

Before he let everyone off, Calvin had one more thing to comment on as they prepared to leave, "I should also mention, because you are all on the lockdown until we acquire the full details on whether or not anyone of you are the actual laws, none of you are aloud to venture off onto Guild missions without me. Most require you to leave school grounds… Well, not that any of you do them anymore anyway…"

Paris jolted up in frustration, "What are you talking about! I do them every week!"

"Yes, you are one of the only one…"

Everyone started to look around the room as if not trying to get called on before Calvin finally dismissed them from his office. Since everyone was together, Rina brought up their secret meeting at noon, letting everyone know to be there and not spill any information.

They all agreed, letting the next three hours fly by with a breeze of doing other activities. It was Saturday, no one had any classes, only homework to accomplish.

Once the sun stood at the peak of its rotation, and all the clocks struck that 12 o'clock line, one by one everyone slowly showed up to their classic table. Once Cartuja finally showed up, Rina slammed her palms on the table, "Alright everyone. We need to talk."

It didn't take her long to catch everyone up on the writing written on the paper, the mysterious people they met during the festival, and all the clues they've acquired about the four lines that only she was able to see.

Faibel was back to his old self, smart, but an asshole, "Based on what Laena said and whatever those words mean, it should be pretty obvious...

'Something sturrs in the depths below,

Glass will break, so enter slow

Darkness crafts the gate of snow,

Deep within, the walls will show,'" Blank stares reflected back at him, not a single one had any idea what he was talking about, "Come on, this could be completely wrong, but Laena said her father went to the mountains right? The only mountains that are even remotely close to Princewood that have snow are the Tetrad mountains. They have four peaks, each said to symbolize the four hors.e.m.e.n of the apocalypse. However, from what I've heard, no one that travels there for the night ever returns."

Faibel had everyone's attention, waiting for someone else to hopefully provide some information that could be useful. Instead, Leo jumped from his seat, swinging his fist through the air sarcastically yelling, "Woohoo, that means it would be perfectly safe for 7 teenagers to go there with absolutely no experience or backup plan while also on a school lockdown to possibly die without finding out anything!"

Everyone laughed except Faibel, but even he agreed that Leo had a good point. Cartuja ran to go grab a plate of food, coming back in seconds while everyone was still laughing. He sat back down and stopped everyone's laughter with his remark, "What if it's all bullshit," the laughter died down. "I mean, what if it's all a joke? Like, why would we be the new laws? It doesn't make any sense man.. We're like... no one."

Although it seemed kind of rude and unsupporting, he wasn't wrong. Everyone fell silent, thinking about the situation in their heads.

"Cartuja and Leo both have a valid point. For once," Faibel self-hatedly admitted, "We only have three options. The first, we do absolutely nothing and don't break the rules here at Princewood. The second, we figure out what the words mean and go to the location it's talking about. And the last, we tell Calvin everything we know and see if he would go with us."

"Seems like the logical option is the first, but who really wants to do that, am I right?" Atlas received dominantly agreeing responses in return to his remark. Waiting for someone else to contribute to the conversation.

Laena cleared her throat before showing her interest in the conflict, "Well, uhm, if we do decide to go. The Tetrad mountains will not have snow for at least a couple more months. That's what my father always told me before he left…"

"She's right. It only snows through the months of December and January. If we go now we would only find dead trees and dry grass on the landscape." Faibel claimed with his intelligence once again. However, they all agreed, deceiving a plan to escape the school grounds in two months once the first flakes of snow pierced the ground.

Every part of their escape involved a precise target to hit. From leaving directly after a lockdown meet up with Calvin, to the closest possible rift location to the Tetrad mountains. Gear was prepared, and no one else would be told.

Just like that, two months went by with typical annoyance from Trey and his group of delinquents, a growing friendship between Paris and Griffin Blood, and no participation in any Guild mission or battles in the time being.

The two months were spent studying and learning every possible scenario of the meaning of the words, finally able to come up with a conclusion that was agreed upon by everyone. However, the only way to test their hypothesis of the situation came on the day of their escape.

It is now December 22nd, three days after Midterms were taken, and two weeks after the first snowfall. Everyone was either sleeping off the cold days of winter, or enjoying their weeks off on school grounds on a bright Sunday morning. The day of the week Laena's father disappeared, and the day of the week Rina's sister went along with Calvin on a borderless mission, only to be succ.u.mbed by an unknown force by the depths of darkness.

The group met up at one of the lounges from the dorm halls. They were all huddled around a fire, burning bright in the shadows of the room. The sun began to set, and the windows started to render the fluorescent colors of the sun sinking below the horizon.

Everyone sat down on the scarlett sofas placed in a perfect circle around the fire roaring through a small, cobblestone vase planted in the ground. They were all ready for what's to come, geared with bags of snacks and heavy-coated jackets incase of a blizzard.

Leo's gaze shifted from the fire onto the group, more excited than he's ever been in his life, "So… Is everyone ready or what!?"