Chapter 5 EVE

It's been 3 years since my life turned upside down. For the longest time, I was tagged as a parasite, slaved away in a Royals farm for eleven years, and then discovered that I might be some sort of hybrid between two species, basically, a weirdo. The Royals wanted nothing to do with me, so they handed me over to me the Healers. I guess you could say welcome to the crazy mess that was me.

Unfortunately for me, things got worse, much worse. After a horrible year at the healing academy, I couldn't save an ant, even if I wanted to. My failure as a healer was ground-breaking news in Urania, leading to the summoning of the Healing council. It was then decided that a re-evaluation of my sect, or what it was supposed to be, would be carried out.

Each sect council comprises of 12 members and the general council comprises of 40 members.

This re-evaluation was done by the 1st Healer herself, who then declared that I was indeed a Healer, just a horrible one. This news had pleased the Royal so much because my reading had a singular result this time. It would have been bothersome to explain to the general council why someone with royal traits was sent to the Healing academy. The result of my reading 3 years ago had been very confidential because of its abnormality. It was never reported to the general council. I was then sent back to the Healing academy to continue my training even though I had made no progress.

I took a personal decision to put in more effort this time. It was the least I could do for myself and Archie, especially for Archie. He was under a lot of pressure and scrutiny from onlookers. They all questioned why he agreed to take me in. All I seemed to do was bring shame to his title as 10th healer.

Things calmed down after I made progress and showed signs of improvement in healing. I guess everyone remembered their problems and got tired of dealing with mine.

Archie then made matters worse when he began insisting that the result of the reading done on me three years ago was accurate. He said he had also arrived at the same result when he checked me personally at the time. He maintained his stance on his opinion even when he was summoned to the healing council.

Insisting that my reading three years ago had been right meant he was insinuating that the 1st healer was wrong in her current reading of my source. It had been a complete mess at the time, but thankfully things were much better now. Archie was fined for the uproar he had stirred in the council. And the incident was never reported to the general council. I guess the huge fine Archie had been mandated to pay shut him up completely to things patterning to the topic.

It took me three years to learn what my colleagues learnt in a year. They all graduated two years ahead of me, leaving me in school with a set of juniors who then graduated before me.

The only good thing about this weird experience was that I found Archie, but to be more accurate, he found me. I was suspicious of his intentions towards me initially, but through these past years, I learnt to trust him. His constant support and encouragement these couple of years did the trick for me. I could rely on him, and that was enough for me.

For the first time, I was exposed to the politics of Urania, and let's just say the power struggle was messy. I knew nothing about it while serving as a parasite. In a way, you could say we were exempted from it, but right now, being at the centre of it all, it was all too glaring.

There were 12 royal families all competing for the title of 1st. The present 1st royal family have had the title for the last millennium, leaving the other eleven feeling marginalised. All the other families in the different sects did everything they could to appease the 1st Royal family, increasing the jealousy the other royal families had for the 1st. To get any position of power, the 1st royal family must have approved it. Their authority was supreme.

There are 25 different Healing families, of which Archie was the head of the 10th, granting him the title of 10th healer, 32 different Electric families, 13 different Leaders families all fighting for the same political space.

The Leaders were the dominant members of the general council, while prominent members of the independent individual sect council could be elected to join. The council in each individual sect was usually headed by the first four families in its sect. Although they were independent of each other, the ruling of the general council overruled whatever decision was made in the sect council, making any sect that wasn't a member of the general council powerless as they had no representative to speak up for them when decisions were being made.

It was the survival of the fittest around here, scheming and deceit was the order of the day. I thought my life was hard as a parasite, but these people didn't have it easy either. The pressure to outperform your peers was very real. It could consume you if you weren't careful. It's no wonder they depend on the pill like their next breath. All this madness would naturally speed up the decaying process. Most times, I try to act like the pressure hasn't been getting to me, but in all honesty, it has, mainly because whatever I do or don't do, reflected on Archie.