Justice Keepers Saga - Books 7-9

Excerpt from Justice Keepers Saga - Books 7-9

Three windows in a white wall allowed the drab light of a gray afternoon into the classroom. You might have expected to find desks worktables or computers, but most of the floor space here was taken up by twelve duroplastic easels positioned in a circle.

Rael Carrins, a tall string bean of a man with wings of gray in his dark hair, walked among his students, inspecting their work. “Well done,” he said to Savra Najen, clapping her on the shoulder as he passed her station.

Anna wasn't quite ready for him to see what she had created.

The painting was fairly simplistic in her estimation: just a ring of flames around a black centre, like you were staring into the eye of a tornado made of fire. She wasn't sure what had inspired her to paint that of all things – she usually went for landscapes, and the tiny nagging voice of her inner critic insisted that she should have played to her strengths – but there it was.

Tapping her lips with a red-tipped finger, ignorant of the paint she left behind, Anna squinted at the canvas. “Not quite right,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Bleakness take me, why did I go for this?”

“I think it's stunning.”

Spatial awareness should have warned her that Rael was coming up behind her, but she had been so focused upon her imperfect creation, she hadn't even noticed the man's approach. “Breathtaking, really,” he said. “The anger you've captured here…You've really broken out of your comfort zone, Ms. Lenai.”

Anna smiled into her own lap, her face suddenly burning. “Thank you,” she said, nodding once in appreciation. “But it's really not that impressive. The colour blend along the edges is all wrong.”

“Nonsense.”

He thrust a finger at the canvas, pointing at a spot along the edge of the ring. “The pattern you've made here,” he said. “It's exquisite in both colour composition and texture. You should consider submitting your work to galleries.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, and…You have paint on your lips.”

“Thank you very much,” Anna mumbled. “But there's no way my work is good enough for that. This is just a hobby for me.”

Instead of pressing the point, he just squeezed her shoulder and moved on to look at the next student's work. Only when he was gone did Anna realize that she was feeling a touch of anxiety, and for some reason, Seth was curious about her emotional state. Most likely, her Nassai couldn't figure out why she would have a hard time accepting praise.

With the tip of her brush, she performed a few light touch-ups on the painting. It was probably time to take a step back and accept the fact that this piece was as good as it would ever be – there inevitably came a point when further tweaking only diminished the overall quality of your work – but she was feeling like a perfectionist today. Maybe it was because this was the closest that she had ever come to doing anything professional with her art.

She told Rael that painting was just a hobby because that was what it had always been for her. Her mother had always insisted that she had the talent to go pro, but Anna had put that part of her life aside when she became a Justice Keeper.

This class was supposed to be fun and relaxing – a way to forget the stresses of her actual job for a few hours – but she was surprised by the amount of theory that she had to learn. There were tests and everything!

A couple minutes later, Rael took his place at the front of the room, smiling as he addressed his students. “Everyone,” he began. “Everyone, can I have your attention for just a moment?”

A hush fell over the room.

“I'd like to say that you're all progressing quite well,” Rael went on. “And I should tell you that the university has asked me to choose work from some of my best students to showcase at an amateur exhibit next week. Of course, participation is voluntary, but if they're willing, I would like to submit pieces from Adria, Ty and Anna.”

People clapped at that.

Once again, Anna was blushing, and she wasn't entirely sure how to respond. She had been in high school the last time she submitted a painting to an art show. It wasn't a fear of criticism that made her hesitate; oh she was merciless on her own work, but she had done this a few times. She knew what to expect from the judges.

The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she couldn't quite put her finger on why she was so apprehensive. Which probably meant that she should just suck it up and agree to do the show. “Sure,” her mouth blurted out before her brain could decide if she really wanted to commit to this. “I'll do it.”

Of course, no one else had spoken.

It dawned on her that she was probably supposed to wait until after class to confirm her participation. Thankfully, Rael didn't seem bothered by her outburst. “Great!” he said. “We'll go over the details later!”

When class was over, she found herself walking down a long white hallway with windows on one wall that looked out on Vinton Street. Raindrops on the glass created a blurry image of people walking up the sidewalk with umbrellas.

There were people in the hallway as well, students on their way to their next class, most gossiping or laughing with each other with just a little too much volume for an indoor setting. Anna blended right in, of course. Though she was at least five years older than most of these kids, she still looked like a college student, and she would continue to look like a college student when she was pushing fifty. Or at least like someone in her mid-twenties.

“Hey!” Melissa called out.

A quick glance over her shoulder revealed the young woman coming toward her in black pants and a gray short-sleeved blouse, her long dark hair tied up with two of those Chinese stick things some Earth girls liked. “I was hoping I'd catch you. Feel like getting an early dinner?”

Anna spun to face her friend with arms crossed, smiling and shaking her head. “Oh, that depends,” she teased. “Are you gonna tell me if he finally worked up the guts to kiss you? I mean really kiss you.”

Melissa went red, closing her eyes and turning her head to hide her embarrassment. “Not yet,” she said. “I just saw him twenty minutes ago. We had Advanced Legal Ethics. It was actually an intense discussion.”

“Yes because that's way more interesting than the hot guy who has taken a liking to you,” Anna said. “You gotta work on your gossip skills, girl.”

She linked arms with Melissa as they continued up the hallway. It was fun having someone to chat with after class. Bonding Seth at the age of sixteen meant that she had been several years younger than most of the other cadets, which didn't exactly make for the most fun social life. Even Melissa was one of the youngest students in her program, and she had just turned eighteen less than two months ago.

Anna had never really had the college experience, not even the truncated version of it that most Keepers got. So, this was like reclaiming a missed opportunity. “You know, I have an idea,” she said. “Let's make tonight a girls' night.”

“You really wanna party with a teenager?”

Pressing her lips together, Anna felt her eyebrows shoot up. “Well, it's a policy of mine,” she replied. “You dodge bullets with me, you get to party with me. Really, honour demands no less!”