Auctioned off to a School for Magic

Chapter Eleven: Officers and Morals

Ruth’s P.O.V

“You can do it Ruth.” Officer Natalie said to me confidently but I didn’t feel very confident. Today she was probably asking the most of me. 

I groaned in frustration and let go of the three items I had been levitating. “Ugh I can’t lift the entire room Officer Natalie.” She’s been trying to get me to be able to do more with my abilities. She’s really pushing me and I know it’s what I need but sometimes I think she thinks I can do more than I’m capable of. In other sessions she's want me to levitate something for as long as I could and that never seemed as hard as what she's asking of me now.

“You’re thinking too much. You’re seeing all these objects as if they’re too heavy but when it comes to telekinesis the weight of an object shouldn’t matter. Think of everything in the room as weightless.” She instructed and it sounded helpful but it was difficult to actually do because they're not weightless. When I try to lift a pencil it's easy because it's so small that if feels easy but a desk seems so much harder.

I sighed. “Okay.” I tried my hardest to think of everything as weightless but again I was only able to lift a few more objects up. “Can we move onto something else for now?” I asked. 

Natalie nodded. “Okay what about reading minds?” 

I frowned. “I don’t like doing that.” I’ve read minds before on accident but I’ve been able to restrain from doing it now. 

Natalie wrote down some notes in her notebook. “I’m giving you permission to read mine. If you were to become an officer in the future or-”

“I don’t think that’s the path I’m going to take. Do you read students' minds?” I asked.

She sighed. “I don’t read students' minds but I do read minds of anyone who’s a threat to others. Sometimes on missions I have to so I can complete the task. It’s a useful skill to have in combat and even when you need to know who your allies are. I used to be required to read the minds of new officers so make sure they were loyal but The Order doesn’t require that anymore.” I guess that’s a good thing. “Only if we have reason to believe there is a trader.” I just don’t know if I believe in exceptions with reading minds. “Why aren’t you and Jezebeth interested in becoming officers? We do good work.”

I sat down on the couch and looked away. “I don’t really want anything to do with the organization my mother helped find.” I shrugged. “I also don’t need to be a part of an organization to do good.”

“Your perspective is a lot different than your sisters.” She said because my sister Red praised our mother and her legacy. Red thinks the Order has come a long way and I agree but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let them groom me. “We get to choose what good we do and we're supplied with the resourced to do so. Sometimes on your own you don't have the right resources and that's when being apart of an organization comes in handy.”

I scoffed. “You push your ideas of what we should view as good so when we become an officer we value the same things as you do. That way when you give the officers the jobs you want for your agenda they don’t deny them.” They want us to believe we have freedom but they won’t even let Jezebeth leave because of her potential to make them stronger.

“What’s so wrong with our values Ruth?” She asked.

I looked at her. “What if I didn’t share your values? Would I even be asked to be an officer? I don’t see the same things as threats as you guys do. I don’t want to be an officer if it means I have to think a certain way as the rest of you. You guys didn’t even question all of the corrupt s**t going on when the previous head officers were in charge. You didn’t question buying a student from their families or forcefully taking away from their families because you deemed as a threat.” Officers of the order blindly followed their superiors even when they're not doing good so it wasn't something I wanted to ever do. I sighed. “I’m done talking about this.” 

“I’m sorry you feel that way Ruth, really. I’ll see you tomorrow okay?” She ended the session early. I nodded and hoped she didn’t take anything personally because it wasn’t. I liked Natalie as an individual person but it was The Order that I didn’t like. As I was getting all my stuff together I got a look at a file cabinet and one of the small compartments was labeled, “Advanced Students’ parent information.” My curiosity peaked but I just left. 

I left and walked around the building until I saw a group of kids leave the library. I noticed Jezebeth right away and walked to her. “Jeze.” 

Jezebeth smiled when she saw me. “You’re out early, h-how was it?”

“It was okay I guess, how was the study group?” I asked since it was her first time with them.

“It was good, they were nice, and I think we all really helped each other.” She answered and I was glad things went well for her. “When do you think we’re going to go on a mission with Officer Natalie?” We had already turned in our slips to assist her on some jobs.

I didn’t want to think so much about Officer Natalie because I kind of felt bad about what I said to her. She’s one of the head officers so I don’t want her to feel responsible when The Order is kind of a lost cause. I don’t think any group of head officers could fix it. “I don’t know, why?”

She chuckled. “I was just starting to think it could be fun since some of the girls in the study group have assisted an officer and they make it seem pretty cool.” 

I started being afraid Jezebeth would want to become an officer and abandon all we’ve worked for. What would I do then?