Short Story: Kilcoyne's Throttle

Kilcoyne was at it again. Acrya grew weary of the constant disputes between Kilcoyne and everyone that held an opinion. She overheard snippets of the conversation, but rarely had she interjected. It wasn’t interesting enough to keep her captivated nor did she think it was worth her time. Her head was propped up by her fist as she blew a few loose strands of hair from her face, and with the other hand she picked at the leftover vegetables on her plate.
She glanced across the room, Dirge was staring blankly at his meal; even though it was extravagant in comparison to everyone else’s; due to the fact of him being a prodigy. Dirge was a Stage 4 Rithe. Rithes level up every ten years, in some cases longer, and every once and a while exceptions are born. Stage 5 Rithes must stay still while casting and cannot be touched, Stage 4s have a 15 second cool …show more content…
As many of you may know, Dirge is quite an exception to the Laws of Stages. Which I’m sure most if not all of you are familiar with right?” The children shook their heads in a disheveled unison, “Today I am going to have you all pair up. Since there is an odd number of you all, Dirge gets to partner with one of you.” Dirge’s heart leapt for a second. He wanted to show Acrya what he was capable of, “Kilcoyne, why don’t you take Dirge as your partner; you seem to be a capable student. I could not have a dissenter such as Acrya be a pair with our prodigy.”
Now this agitated Dirge. He remembered why he abhorred Allister-as if he could forget-he was an annoying higher-up that had no qualms about anything he said. He was a straightforward airhead. A simpleton that was just a pawn in the larger scheme of things. Dirge wondered how this man could just live so comfortably teaching kids that were obviously unhappy and be just so ignorant. And now there was this vexing conformist that he had to partner with. He wondered if this day could get