Rightfully Hers

Many had known that the Forest of Tornuk was a deep lush forest, scattered around with caverns filled with unknown secrets. It was believed that the forest got its name because of a young Arcelon man that saw a blue angel drop from the sky and into the forest. He wanted to prove it but it ended up in him dying in the forest. His face was frozen with a petrified look with a symbol on his forehead made from his own blood. Since then, no one dared to enter the forest. It had become a landmark for people, a place where the blue angel made its mark as its territory.

Within the forest lies many dark secrets, one was a sanctuary. Except it wasn't for the people of Arcelor. The sanctuary lies in an old house, made seemingly out of spruce wood. A woman emerged from the house, an exhausted look on her face with beads of sweat covering her forehead. She clenched up her shaky hands and stiffen up her wobbly knees as she jumped on a tree branch nearby. She glanced up at the sky as she painted to catch her breath. She continued to stare up at the midnight sky, as if she was trying not to blink.

The woman then proceeded to take a big breath and hug herself. She whispered comforting words to herself as an attempt to heal the pain she felt in her heart. She didn't want to close her eyes as all she could head in the darkness were screams of terror, screams that she had tried endlessly to block out. Everyday, everynight, she would be haunted by the past that she had tried so desperately to escape. But yet, her efforts withered into dust.

She sighed, calming her nerves and hopped off the branch and walked back into the building.

The sun had just risen, shining a bright ray of light throughout the land. The light shone through a window in a house, deep in the Forest of Tornuk. Sunlight glazed upon an empty bed, not touching the study table next to it. A woman was humming a gentle tune as she dried her hair in the washroom. The tune was a song that her mother used to sing to her when she was just a mere child. The woman set the towel on a rack as she picked up her clothes and gear with one hand, using the other to grip on the towel covering her body as the knot had almost come undone. The woman changed into the gear with a calm expression on her face, still humming the tune.

Once she finished, she exited her quarters and headed to the main room. Without even having to glance around, she already knew that she was the first one there. After all, she always was. Soon enough, the others started to arrive as they still talked amongst themselves. The woman could feel that she was being watched and knew exactly who it was, but she carried on with tying her black silky hair into a low ponytail.

"I told you that I don't want to talk to you anymore, why do you keep following me around like a lost puppy, Ariane" the woman spoke coldly.

“Please, Louve. Listen to me, it was ju-”

“Just keep it professional. I want nothing to do with you outside work.” Louve said firmly, walking to the opposite corner of the room to get away from her.

Louve took out her dagger from its sheath as a sigh escaped her lips, her back leaned on the wall. She shouldn't have meddled with this in the first place and should've instead stayed away. This was what she gets for getting in the middle of a divorce, an annoying clingy woman and a coworker who now wants to have a relationship with her. She glanced down at her hand, playing around with the silver dagger between her fingers.

The room then proceeded to fall into silence when an old woman walked in the room. Stood next to her was her secretary, clutching a clipboard on his arm as he was hastily scribbling down something on it. He then looked up from the clipboard, did a quick head count and told the old woman. The old woman is the leader of the organisation that Louve works for.

"I assume everyone has received a note of their tasks?" The old woman asked the group and everyone nodded.

"Good. I will now brief you on your tasks. Recently, one of my sources have discovered an enlarging amount of humans meddling in businesses that they should not be involved in. I have assigned each of you to one target and your mission is to observe and find everything you can about them. Mr Farro will be handing you the basic information on your targets. Be warned, these targets have connections in high places. I expect all the completed information on my desk 3 months later, no less or more." The old woman announced to the group as Mr Farro handed each person a brown folder containing papers that the old woman said about, all but Louve.

"If there are no questions, you may begin." Everyone slowly cleared out of the room except for Louve. Once the rest was gone, Mr Farro handed her a black envelope, containing the necessary papers she needed.

"The reason I put you to this target specifically is because I trust that you can get it done. You are the only one with the skills capable for this target. But, I have another mission for you. Along with gathering information on the target, I want you to get to know the target's daughter. My sources say that she plays a very important role in an underground gang that the target owns. Your task is to not only gather information on the target, but also on his daughter and his secret business. I will give you an extension on the due date, till the end of the year which is in 7 months. You tell no one of this, understood?" The old woman spoke.

"Understood." Louve replied, her hand gripping on the black envelope tightly. The old woman nodded slightly and turned around to walk away, but stopped when Louge spoke again.

"May I ask you something, Madam? You said that when the time is right, you will allow me to exact what he owes me. When will that come? It has been over a decade already." Louve enquires the old woman.

"Why did you think I assigned you this target?" The old woman questioned, her back still turned on Louve.

Louve opened the envelope and immediately gripped the papers tightly, the man's photo was plastered right at front. His egotistical smirk and perverse eyes staring right back at Louve's black stare.

"May I kill him, then?"

"After your mission is complete, I will allow you to whatever you want with him." The old woman waved aimlessly at her from behind and walked away from Louve.

Louve's face expression formed into a small sadistic smile. She could not wait to exact her revenge on this man after her mission. No, she won't kill him, not yet anyway. She will make him suffer for the pain he caused her for all those decades ago.

She then went back to her quarters and took out a bag that she frequently used in missions like these. She packed the necessary items, money, and special equipment. As she was packing, something she had not seen in a very long time poking out of the wardrobe. Louve smiled as she picked out the small stick with many engravings on it. It reminded her of memories of her childhood. Back then when she was just a young witch, so clueless of the world she should have been born in.

She decided to then pack the small wand as a reminder of the past, to not get lost in her quest for revenge. She picked up the bag full of her stuff and proceeded to head off. She exited the house with many others, each quiet and calculating their own plan on how they should complete their mission. Each of them have their own style, but what matters is that you get to the end of the path, no matter how dirty or wrong the path was.

Louve walked out of the forest, using the path she knew by heart and decided to head towards the city to start. She hadn't even looked thoroughly at the papers yet as she needed a secluded and private space to do it. Soon, Louve arrived at Marcelo City, the biggest city in Arcelor and where many would be able to make a name for themselves in this wealthy city. She had an apartment room here that she rented to use whenever she had no missions or completed them already.

She did her usual rounds, bought food from the grocery shops, looked at the book displays, bought new clothes and headed to her apartment. But first, head to Mr Garry's office and apologise for not paying rents and pay him the rent for the last 4 months. Me Garry just shrugged it off as he knew that this was her usual routine, disappear for months then came back and paid him double the fee. The room is in a 4 star apartment with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living area and a small kitchen. There was also a balcony with a view of the rest of the building and a shared olympic pool below.

After restocking her kitchen and throwing out spoiled food, she could finally relax in her room and plan out what's next. She plopped down her stuff on the table in front of her TV and relaxed on the couch. She decided to now look carefully at the papers.

<=>

NAME: RAYMOND SONIAN

AGE: 58

KNOWN FAMILY: CALISTA SONIAN (DAUGHTER), EVELYN CLATE (SPOUSE, DECEASED)

BUSINESS: MERLOYD ACADEMY C.E.O

OCCUPATION: C.E.O

<=>

Under the short profile, there is a small passport size picture of the man. His sleek grey hair was pinned to the back of his head, his brown perverse eyes staring at her along with an egotistical smirk on his face. Louve then turned to the next page, which was a few more pictures of him along with a very detailed description of his daily life.

She skimmed through everything till she came across a profile of his daughter.

<=>

NAME: CALISTA SONIAN

AGE: 27

KNOWN FAMILY: RAYMOND SONIAN (FATHER), EVELYN CLATE (MOTHER, DECEASED)

LOCATION: MERLOYD ACADEMY DORMITORIES

OCCUPATION: TEACHER

<=>

There was also a picture of her, but she looked much more innocent than her father. She was smiling happily in the photo, her flaming red hair cascading down her face. Her cerulean blue eyes shining in the picture almost made Louve feel bad for her. Either way, it has to be done. She looked through the papers again and found out where the Academy was. Even if she doesn’t have a teaching licence, she could still teach in that school. All it takes is a miracle.

A gust of wind was blowing against Louve's face as she stood in front of the school. She had her sling bag on her shoulder containing everything she needed. She stared at the big mansion-like Academy known as Merloyd Academy, its big brown gates reminded Louve of something that she could quite not remember.

The school was named after the skillful Merloyd Sonian, the greatest teacher known in all of Marcelo City. Over the years, Merloyd’s heirs took care of the school and made it their own, soon forgetting the true purpose of its creation. But Louve didn’t care about any of it, that wasn't her purpose of being here anyways. She entered the school, ignoring those fools that kept staring at her stupidly and headed in to the Headmaster’s office.

She knocked on the door and then entered when she heard a voice yelling at her to do so. Inside was the man behind her despair, pain and the one she had so desired to kill for so long, Raymond Sonian. Raymond was staring at his computer, typing out something quickly and not even glancing at her. Louve sat down, keeping the cold look on her face as she waited for the man to be done. Finally, he was and when he looked up at her, his eyes widened. He couldn't believe that such a beautiful woman was sitting in his office. Louve’s piercing yellow orange eyes slightly intimidated Raymond but he didn’t show it. He cleared his throat, showing off an award winning smile that would’ve made any woman swoon for him, but not Louve. She just stared coldly back at the man reaching into her bag to get her teaching licence. Unbeknownst to Raymond, the teaching licence was a fake. Ryamond would have noticed it and not skim through or check if it was fake if he wasn’t so mesmerised by the women in front of him. Louve sighed, wanting to get it over as soon as possible so she could and continue with her plan.

The interview went as normal and soon after a few minutes, she got the job. She requested to start working today and Raymond even allowed it. He assigned her to the English Department and became an English teacher. He initially assigned her as the homeroom teacher of class 10 Gamma, a class of Year 10 students or 16 year olds. But she persuaded him to change her to the homeroom teacher of 11 Delta to be closer to Calista as she is the homeroom teacher of 11 Beta. He obviously agreed and Louve exited the office and headed to her class. As she was heading there, she remembered something about the school system. This unique school system was the first ever and invented by Merloyd himself. No one outside of Merloyd Academy knows about the school system and how it has had the most successful and wealthy people as its alumni. Everyone has to sign a contract to never reveal the school’s secrets, even Louve.

From her understanding, Merloyd Academy was the first to divide students of each year into different classes. Each year will have 6 houses which each has 50 students in. They are Alpha, Omnicron, Beta, Delta, Epsilon and Omega respectively in order. Each class divides the students of the same year into categories depending on their knowledge and capabilities. Class Alpha for the best and Class Omega for the worst.

Alpha houses the gifted and most all rounded students of each year. All Alpha students are in the Gifted Program, which means that they have the opportunity to pursue anything they want in life and will have to support the school's support. Those students are even provided with the most expensive tools and materials, not to mention a scholarship. Omicron students are those who are all rounded and moderate overall. They are good in both academically and creatively but aren’t the best, like the Alpha students. Beta students house all who are talented in the arts and in creativity like story writing or drawing pieces. Delta students house students that are academically smart and score within the top 100 every year. If they don’t, then the student who did score within the top 100 will get transferred to the Delta house. Epsilon students are those who barely pass within the minimum range. Omega students are the bottom 50 students of the school. They receive the worst materials, teachers, and basically everything, even classrooms. Usually, students from the Omnicron house were given second hand supplies from Alpha house as they have the highest chance of being in the Alpha House.

The school even has a lot of unusual rules under its belt. One of them was that Alpha House students were prohibited from interacting with the Omega House students, that was why both house’s dorms and classrooms were at the complete opposite sides of the school campus. But that rule was never enforced and was soon forgotten by everyone.

Louve entered her class, seeing groups of kids together chatting away. She cleared her throat, slamming her bag on the table which caught the students attention. They all immediately closed their mouths and went back to their seats.

"I will be your homeroom and English teacher for the rest of the year. My name is Ms Sullivan and I will be addressed as so. I do not want anyone to fool around in my class, you are here to learn and I am here to teach and guide you all. Any foolishness and I will directly send you to the Headmaster to get expelled immediately. Am I clear?" Louve spoke authoritatively, making eye contact with each and every one of the students. Everyone nodded in fear of their new teacher and no one wanted to mess with her.

"Good, shall we begin. Who is the Class Representative?"

"I am, Miss. My name is Zara." A brunette haired girl from the back stood up, showing the dark blue tie on her grey collared uniform. Louve noticed that she was the only girl in the class that wore pants like the guys as the others were wearing skirts. Everyone was wearing their grey shirt uniforms and black pants or skirts with it.

"All right, thank you. Let us begin with the lessons for today." Louve said and everyone began to take out their books.

Throughout the lesson, Louve noticed how Zara would easily answer the questions before everyone. Zara even solved the harder questions that were normally given to Alpha students and even real world problems. Louve felt very impressed by the girl and wondered why she wasn't in the Alpha house, but that decision was not in her place to make.

The loud bell rang as the students began to exit out of their classrooms to go for lunch. Friends from different classes and years were all chatting together in the hallways. Louve decided to head to the teacher's lounge to eat, even though she didn't feel hungry. As she headed there, she noticed that amongst the groups and crowds of students, little to no Alpha House students were in sight. She could tell as even though all students had the same uniform, Alpha House students had a red band on their forearm. She figured that the Alpha students would be at their dining hall as they had a separate but smaller dining hall than the rest.

Before Louve entered the teacher's lounge, she decided to take a walk in the private garden to clear her head. The garden was only available for Alpha students and teachers. She had no lessons after Lunch so she wanted to explore the school later. As she walked through the beautiful garden, she heard 2 girls talking near her. She took a closer look and saw the 2 girls happily chatting and playing around in a gazebo. One was an Alpha student with blonde hair and was laying on the other girl's lap. Louve decided to take a closer look on who the other girl was and was shocked to see that it was … Zara.

"I thought Delta students were not allowed here?" Louve interrupted them as they snapped their heads towards her. Zara widened her eyes and immediately stood up and pushed the blonde of her with a tint of redness on her cheeks.

"A-ah, Miss Sullivan. I'm sorry about that, I'll be on my way now. " Zara responded and was about to walk away but was stopped by the blonde holding her waist, which made Zara redder in the cheeks and divert her gaze to the ground.

"Apologies, Miss Sullivan. Zara is my best friend, and I invited her here. There's no rules against Delta students being invited and having permission to enter by Alpha students, is there?" The blonde asked innocently and Louve did not respond.

"You should get back, we don't want anyone else to see you here now, do we?" The blonde asked and Zara shook her head.

"I'll be off then, see you after school?" Zara responded and the blonde gave her a kiss on the cheek and walked away.

Louve just watched the interaction between the 2 girls, feeling a slight ache in her heart as she remembered the feeling she tried to forget. She looked back at Zara, who was avoiding her eyes.

"I won't tell, but I hope you be careful next time. Anyone else who might catch the 2 of you might not be so lenient with it like I am right now." Louve told her and walked away from the girl. There is something special about that girl, like she had a higher potential. The magic blood in her can feel something different in her than from the human blonde. Louve decides to keep an eye for the girl and watch over her to make sure she comes to no harm.