[h1][u]Ciara Ventura[/u][/h1]
[i][color=gray]Wingram Academy, Girls' Dorm[/color][/i]
[@Nanaya] [@Psyker Landshark] [@Sifr]
[hr]

[h3][i]Selfishness.[/i][/h3]

She stared at the word written on the scroll as her inner world lay bare. Disturbingly bare.

She could pretend she was calm, collected, and acting out of pure intentions to her fellow classmates who fought alongside her. But alas.

Dark laughter echoed in her mind. [i]"It's true. We [/i]want[i] them. If we had it our way, there would be no discussion, just silence, and sated Hunger."[/i]

[i]"You know we can't do that."[/i] She thought.

[i]"But [/i]you[i] want to, don't you?"[/i]

She was silent at that, trying to hide the flush in her cheeks and the uneasy pit in her stomach. She wasn't used to having her inner thoughts... [i]exposed[/i] like this. She was used to having everything perfectly controlled behind a mask of indifference, or even kindness.

The Head Advisor pointed to the list with her emotion on it, along with other written words, presumably from Iraleth and Hildegunde. [i][b]"You will need to convince me that it would be a wise choice to make."[/b][/i]

Ciara's eyes tightened. Was it a wise choice...? Could she be honest with herself and say she wouldn't get tempted in the middle of the night to attack them when they would be at their most vulnerable?

The Voices merely laughed again, knowing how sick and tired she was of 'buttered toast,' the plants she had packed with her.

[i][b]"And do tell me how the words on this scroll might perhaps alter your plans, if at all?"[/b][/i]

Her eyes closed, trying to come up with something, anything, to make her appear more innocent, to make this seem like the right choice. And how would she explain her selfishness..?

That's when she remembered one critical detail.

She actually owed the two her life.

Back in the auditorium, when time was ticking down, and the great giant was unleashed, Iraleth took the brunt of the attack, allowing Ciara to move across the battlefield unhindered and unharmed. Ciara knew even one strike of the golem, if it had locked its mechanical eyes on her, would have finished Ciara right there and then. They might not have won, then.

When she was bogged down by Mannekin, and took the lightning meant for Iraleth, severely delayed so much that Gulliver might have gotten the upper hand and squashed them, Hildegunde saved her. She blasted out the remaining lights, along with Otis' fateful bullet, that ultimately drowned the auditorium in the darkness she needed to eradicate the Mannekin for good. Without Hildegunde's intervention, the Mannekin could have overwhelmed any one of them, and they would have never turned the tides of the battle.

[b]"Head Advisor," [/b]she started, her tone quiet, yet purposeful, [b]"I won't be able to sleep unless I am with the ones I fought alongside with. There's no one else I trust, so I am acting out of a selfish desire to [i]protect myself[/i]."[/b]