"You both know each other but you guys are pretending not to" Luna said breaking into a sheepish smile.
Marinelle blinked twice, trying to process what she just heard.
She was shocked at what Luna just said. Really?? That's all she got??.
Marinelle actually thought Luna was going to say something else like, how wierd it was that both of them were coming back to the room together in the middle of the night.
Vesper heaved a sigh of relief within her and climbed up the mini stairs to her own bed.
Sage was also at ease when she heard what Luna said. She was secretly pleased that neither Marinelle nor Luna figured out anything that was off.
"Oh about that, well yes, I know vesper, we've been attending here since we were kids, she doesn't really talk to me and I don't either" Sage explain with a straight face staring directly at Luna's eyes.
"But why are you guys coming in together in the middle of the night?" Marinelle chimed in.
Sage turned around slowly to meet Marinelle's gaze. Something seemed distant about Sage's gaze.
Marinelle knew within her that things would never be the same between she and Sage.
With the new knowledge she had of Sage, it's very impossible for her to see Sage as the innocent and naive person she knew her as before.
"Well we happened to be pressed at the same time" Sage replied smiling a little bit.
"Oh that makes sense, did u guys get to talk?" Luna asked.
Sage walked to her bed and was climbing up the stairs.
"No we didn't, she was indifferent" Sage said and climbed her bed, covering herself with the blanket.
Marinelle and Luna were left standing in the room staring at each other.
Marinelle gave Luna a sign that they'll discuss better tomorrow, but for now they had to go to bed so as not to be suspected or noticed by Vesper or Sage.
Luna nodded and climbed her bed, so did Marinelle.
Surprisingly immediately Marinelle laid down on her bed, she slept off.
The next day was the opening and welcoming day of the campers.
They were all seated in a large hall, with 200 to 300 people present, seated on plain woodenl benches facing the front of the hall.
There was a rough hewn ston altar on the podium, the stone was grey with brownish stains.
Marinelle peered closer at the alter trying to understand what the stain was.
After what happened last night, she was more cautious of her environment, she was very sure that there was something creepy about the campground.
Normally she would have asked sage about it, but judging from what she saw last night, she wouldn't dare.
There were heavily armed guards situated everywhere in the campground both inside and outside of the building.
Things were getting really scary for Marinelle, those guards were with guns, knifes and swords, looking mean and very scary.
Marinelle kept looking around the campground in fear and curiosity.
"What was this place about?" She asked herself.
Sage who was fully concentrated on looking ahead looked at Marinelle and saw her troubled face.
"Mari, what's wrong? are you okay??" She asked her in a whisper.
"Yes I'm fine, I'm just having a hard time trying to understand what this place is about" Marinelle finally confessed.
Apart from what Marinelle saw Sage do yesterday, she was still her best friend, so she had to ask.
Sage looked at Marinelle deep in the eyes and said "Don't worry you will soon understand in a matter of minutes, just be patient okay?".
Marinelle looked at Sage and then nodded, Sage reached for her hands and gave it a little squeeze before focusing her attention back at the altar.
Marinelle took deep breaths and decided to face everything with a positive mindset.
In spite of Marinelle's exhaustion and fear, she felt a stirring of excitement as she felt a tremendous invisible power within that hall and a responding stirring of power within her.
Incense was burning, filling the room with it's odour, it seems there was some sort of hard drug put in it as it made her a little bit dizzy.
The hall was absolutely silent as the seated figures looked expectantly at the empty stage.
At some unseen signal, many many small hand-held bell started ringing as two women stepped noiselessly onto the stage out of the shadows.
They wore identical robes, the robes were made of satin material.
The first woman wore a black robe, while the other a white robe.
Both robes were trimmed with red around the hood, down to the front edges and around the edges of the long full sleeves.
Each was tied around the waist with a golden cord, their feets were bare. Each carried a scepter about 3 feet long.
At the top was an upside down cross with a serpent curled around it from the bottom. The scepter were carried in the crook of their arms.
Their presence was commanding, even Marinelle felt it, for some reason she found herself envious of them.
She didn't know what they stood for or what they did, she just felt really envious of them.
The woman that wore the black robe came from the left, while the woman that wore the white robe came from the right.
They had two different aura around them, Marinelle could feel it, the first woman exhibited a dark aura, something very dark and deep, while the other woman exhibited a very pure, warm and inviting aura
Everybody in the room watched in utter silence as they made their way to the stage.
The woman with the dark robe stepped forward while the woman with the other white robe stayed behind.
She stepped to the podium, cleared her throat and began.
"Greetings campers....."she paused, looked around and then continued.
"....you are welcome to another beautiful annual camping, we are so happy to have you all back after last year's episode. We hope that this year will be more fun, exhilarating and inspiring than last year's, we hope that you enjoy your stay".
"We have so many exciting things packed up for you this season, we hope that you find this year's episode more interesting than the last".
She stepped back and the other woman with the white robe came forward.
"Just like madam roselle has said, this year's camp will be a little bit different from last year's, we are not going to be grouping you by blood this time, you'll be grouping yourselves, let your instincts direct you" she said with a smiley face.
After so much more Introduction of different staffs and people that will be working in the camp, the students were sent back to their dormitories for a quick rest.
They spent the whole day for just Introduction, Marinelle's mind kept drifting back to what she saw the previous night.
She was still finding it hard to believe, she had tried to understand it from different angles several times with all of them pointing back to her asking if Sage was really who she said she was?.
She tried to brush off the feeling that what she saw them doing wasn't normal but she couldn't deny the dark sensation that washed over her immediately she set her eyes on them.
She felt this bad aura about them, there was something dark about it, she couldn't see it but she could feel it within her.
What baffled her the most was the sudden vision she saw of Luna, why was Sage a part of that vision?.
Was everything really okay?
Marinelle hadn't really noticed anything off about the sorcery camp, apart from the weird gathering she saw of Vesper and sage and the heavily armed guards she saw at the introduction meeting.
Nothing was really off about it, even the introduction part was pretty normal.
Immediately after the gathering, Marinelle turned to her side to talk to Sage so they could go back to the dormitory together.
She wasn't in her seat beside Marinelle, she was long gone, Marinelle looked around hoping to see her amongst the crowd.
"Where could she have gone to?Did she leave without me?" She murmured.
Marinelle looked up ahead and saw an open door, It was wide open with no one guarding it from the inside, she peered intently at the door and saw Sage's silhouette afar off.