Mariana had trouble believing that this would be the first time those two were sparring. If they worked together, they must have sparred before… Unless they hadn’t worked together for as long as she had assumed.

  The two mentors stood at opposite ends of the training area, their eyes locked in a playful stare. Devin raised his hand, blue crystal sparkling in the setting sun over the academy. The air trembled as an enormous dog materialized behind him. Mariana had seen Laelaps in action back in Sofia, so her interest in that Ispoleen quickly faded.

  Her eyes immediately flickered to her mentor, who stood on the opposite side of the training area. Kaira smirked and taunted Devin as she cracked her knuckles before adjusting a ring on her middle finger.

  Darkness exploded behind her. Lilith, that was Lilith the Shadow Claw.

  Mariana’s heart dropped as a pair of leathery wings flapped out of the darkness. As Lilith stepped out into the light, shiny black scales glistened in the sun. A single silver claw on Lilith’s front leg was the Ispoleen’s only offensive characteristic. A pair of glowing white eyes fluttered open and fixated on Laelaps.

  Mariana scrambled to unclasp her Magidex. She navigated to the scanning feature—she had to learn more about that Ispoleen.

  —

  Lilith, the Shadow Claw

  Attack: 1

  Defense: 7

  Type: Primal-Dark

  Utility: Summoner

  Size: Large

  Special Ability: Nightmare Cage - Locks a being in a nightmare cage until someone attacks them.

  —

  Simon looked over her shoulder to read the description as well. But their attention was soon back on their mentors, who had started circling each other.

  Those two were having too much fun showing off. Their control of the Ispoleens was immaculate, as they moved in sync, Ispoleen and Guardian, to cover their weaknesses. Until…

  Lilith lunged forward, jumping over Kaira and Devin with her claw extended, darkness exploding all around her once again. But Laelaps quickly dodged, causing the Primal Ispoleen to stumble.

  Devin laughed, taking a step toward Kaira, closing the distance between them.

  “You’ll have to do better than that,” he taunted her.

  She grinned back, her eyes glinting in the setting sun. “Oh, I plan to,” she replied, her hand tracing a pattern in the air as Lilith began to take on a more menacing form, stretching her wings.

  Devin sensed the shift in energy, and Laelaps’ ears cocked as he grew more alert, the dog’s body tensing in preparation for the Primal’s next move.

  “Flash-bulb,” Kaira hissed, and a flash of light blinded everyone in a hundred-meter radius, Mariana and Simon included. Maybe even some of the other Guardians who were practicing in the other training areas.

  Mariana could only see the shadow of two humans colliding in a flurry. They could have been fighting… or making out, judging by how they were ogling each other before they launched at one another. Whatever they were doing, it was quickly over.

  Darkness consumed the light—Lilith was behind Laelaps in a flash, claw making an impact with the back of his neck, and the dog was stunned. His eyes were blinking, but he was unable to move another muscle. Lilith flapped her wings as she hovered above the dog, waiting for further instruction.

  Focusing back on the fight between the two mentors, Mariana noticed that it was already over, too. Devin lay flat on his back on the grass.

  “You’re no fun.” Devin laughed, getting up from the ground.

  Kaira grinned, offering him a hand. “Oh, I think I can be plenty of fun.”

  This time, Simon was the one with his jaw on the floor, and Mariana made a point of elbowing him in the ribs to get back at him for earlier.

  “I think I finally understand what you meant by that bi-panic of yours, Mari,” he finally whispered.

  She would give it to Simon. This was totally a bi-panic moment. And this didn’t feel like something they were supposed to be watching. Their mentors had something going on between them, and Mariana was now sure of it.

  Simon couldn’t believe that it took only a doctor’s visit and a show match for Mariana to go full-on fangirl mode for Kaira.

  Devin tried to brush his defeat off, saying that he let her win, but Simon knew that even his mentor didn’t believe what he was saying. He looked differently at Kaira because of it, and that was apparent.

  Kaira didn’t waste time and took Mariana aside so they could practice her skills with her Fire-staff, which left Simon alone with his mentor again.

  Devin cleared his throat once they split up. “Now for the important things. You have to learn to call upon your Ispoleen.”

  Simon quickly learned that Devin was a lot like Kovács in that he had a set way he thought things should be done. Unlike when Mariana was explaining magical stuff to him. She always made it a point to give him all the different techniques he could use to cast a particular spell.

  It made Simon wonder if there was a difference in which way you learned it, and if there was a reason why both Kovács and his mentor were set on their techniques for a reason.

  “Get the crystal out and hold it in your hands,” Devin instructed.

  Simon dropped down to the ground, settled on the soft grass, and did as he was told.

  “Now focus on your power core like you did to materialize the sword today.”

  The small ball of viscous magic in Simon’s chest stirred, and something almost… sparked as he was waiting for the next instructions. They didn’t come for another minute.

  “Now imagine a string of your power snapping to the crystal in your hands.”

  He focused on the ball of magic again, and as it stirred, he felt a shiver go through his whole body like the time he had presumably bonded to it back in Sofia. As the magic stirred, he saw the spark again, but he forced it to start weaving itself into a string of light. A gust of wind blew past his core and yanked at the string he had been working on.

  You’re an interesting one…

  Simon’s heart dropped—was that Revaeros talking to him?

  Yes, I’m talking to you, dumbass. Do you have someone else occupying your head?

  No, no, he didn’t.

  If you want to summon me, all you have to say is ‘Spread your wings, Revaeros.’

  Simon wondered if it was really that easy.

  Yes, it is that easy. For how long you’ll keep me summoned, that’s a different question. Go on, I want to stretch my wings, I haven’t been out in your world for a decade.

  “Spread your wings, Revaeros!” Simon said through gritted teeth, concentrating all of his energy on the string of light between his core and the crystal that he held in his hand. Wind swirled around him, so he opened his eyes.

  In front of him, a black wyrm floated in mid-air, slowly blinking at Simon.

  “I… I did it?” He reached out to the wyrm as he got up on his feet. The Ispoleen coiled around his outstretched hand as if to show him he was real. He then flew up into the sky before coming down.

  Devin slapped a hand on Simon’s shoulder to congratulate him. “And here I was worried you weren’t a natural.”

  Before Simon could form a thought, Mariana had jumped on his back, locking him into a hold.

  “Eeeeeeee!” she screamed in his ear. “You’re a proper Guardian now, Simon.”

  A proper Guardian… Simon wondered what she meant by that as she got off him and skipped over to inspect Revaeros. Simon realized he felt different, too. There was something more to his magical core now.

  That’s me, he heard in his mind.

  Revaeros had dove back to eye level and nodded to further prove his point. But as soon he did, he turned to mist. A blink later, Simon felt the air get knocked out of him, and his body betrayed him as he tumbled to the ground.

  “There it is.” Devin clicked his tongue. “Not bad for a first summon. That was a solid two minutes.”

  Mariana helped Simon up from the ground.

  “I’m so lucky you are the perfect height for an elbow rest,” he joked as he leaned on his friend. She would’ve let him fall to his face any other day for that, and he knew it. She was too proud of Simon right now to do that, though.

  Kaira had also come over to congratulate him. “You can’t be the best at everything on day one. You’ll have to work on your bond with Revaeros. Still, good job.”

  That was the most he could expect from her, he realized.

  “Let’s get you up to your room, so you can rest before dinner.” Devin nodded back to the gray castle of the academy.

  Mariana was immediately on it, and Devin helped her drag Simon inside. Kaira had stayed outside, saying something about letting Vixair out, whoever that was. When the three of them got to Simon’s room, Devin left him and Mariana alone. As they opened the door, Simon stumbled inside but had to catch himself before collapsing on his bed.

  Phooka was spread out on it and was enjoying the giant sunspot that had formed on it. Mariana scooped him up and moved him to the sofa as Simon finally lay down on the bed.

  “Now I understand what you meant in spells class, about the sword recall and the Ispoleen, and the crystal—” Simon heaved, then slowly got himself to lay down.

  Mariana sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at him. Her mouth was scrunched up, trying to suppress a smile. “We should celebrate your first Ispoleen summon. In my family, we usually celebrated with a bonfire. I doubt I can ask Jansen for something like that.”

  Simon doubted that as well. He was still excited that he had done it. And Mariana’s smile was contagious. She seemed truly proud of him. The moment quickly became awkward, and Mariana excused herself to the sofa and started petting Phooka. The Ispoleen started purring in his sleep.

  But one thought had been on Simon’s mind since spells class—there was no reason for him to be doing this well, and summoning Revaeros was the last nail in the coffin. He was supposed to be ranked ninth in the class.

  Still lying down, he unclasped his Magidex from his thigh. There was one thing that they had that no one else at the academy had. At least, he assumed it would be so. He navigated to the search program, but his query proved useless—he had no access to information about the Onyx stone that the rings he and Mariana wore were made of.

  “Can you pass me my father’s Magitome? I want to check something.” Simon pointed to the shelf it sat on.

  Once Mariana dropped it in his hands, Simon started flipping through it, looking for the section about the difference between Onyx and Obsidian properties. If Mariana’s Onyx ring was powerful enough to alter her affinities and hide her powers, could it—

  “If you want more information on the Onyx ring, I think you’ll have more luck in the Auclair archives,” Mariana advised him. This time, she had lingered to look over his shoulder.

  “And how are we going to get access to that?” he asked, waving his hands over his father’s Magitome he was already reading.

  “I can summon a copy of the Auclair Magitome. How do you think I’ve been studying by myself without a Magidex until now?”

  She was right. It was stupid of him to assume that if the Union had Magidexes and his father had a personal, even if it was archaic, Magitome, that the Auclair wouldn’t have something like that. Simon blinked at her, waiting for further explanation.

  “Magitomes are normally a part of a web of multiple devices—the original Auclair Magitome is buried in a dungeon somewhere. Auclairs can call upon that tome and summon a temporary copy that can be used to access and add data.”

  “Like the Union has the information crystal that sources all the Magidex devices?” It finally clicked in Simon’s mind.

  “Tome-call,” Mariana whispered and clapped her hands, her eyes snapping shut.

  As her hands moved away from each other, red lightning flickered between her palms. The lightning was shaping up into a book with every second until Mariana opened her eyes.

  When she did, the Auclair Magitome dropped into her hands—a device made entirely out of a red magical aura given a physical form.

  She handed it over to Simon. “So, are you going to tell me why you’re looking up the Obsidian and Onyx properties? Are you planning on trying to make a new device?”

  Simon had to give her credit. She knew where his mind would’ve gone. But it wasn’t that, this time at least.

  “No, that was what I was thinking about last night—Obsidian and information crystals don’t mesh well it seems, so that idea quickly sank. Right now, I need to know how your brother’s ring is affecting my powers.”

  He was now typing away on the Auclair Magitome, searching for a full list of Onyx properties.

  “That ring doesn’t affect your powers; only mine was enchanted as such,” Mariana tried to tell him.

  “I’m not talking about enchantments. Look here.” Simon pointed to the page he had pulled up from the Auclair Magitome. “I knew there was something fishy. There is no way I could’ve done this good today, Mari.”

  He was ninth in the class on the power scale, after all, and he wasn’t acting his rank. And there was the answer, it was spelled in that Auclair archive entry in bold letters.

  Onyx synthesizes the power of a Guardian and streamlines the friction between the magic core and the Earth realm.

  “We’re cheating having these rings,” he declared.

  Mariana was still reading the passage. Once she finished, she looked up and met his eyes. She was chewing the inside of her cheek before she spoke. “Simon, this is not what you think it is. It’s not—”

  “You probably don’t feel it, because you’re already good enough not to need it,” Simon concluded. “But for me, summoning Revaeros was the last straw. I couldn’t even feel him yesterday, and today with the ring, I could suddenly summon him. We have to tell Devin and Kaira.”

  Mariana nodded reluctantly. “Right, whatever. They’ll tell you what I was going to: this isn’t cheating. Guardians have no problem bringing the magic over to this realm. Drawing on the power coming from the Ispoleen Realm is the hard part.” She explained. “But you’re going to keep the ring in case something happens. You need the gear, Simon. It’s the best defense you can get. Promise me.”

  There was a weight on Simon’s chest that had become heavier, but he understood Mariana’s worry. He would be asking the same thing in her shoes.

  “I promise,” he mumbled.

  Mariana left Simon alone in his room. She told him she was going to change clothes before dinner. Simon took the time to do the same, once he could stand up without getting lightheaded. He opened his closet and dug through his backpack. He then proceeded to put on the first decent thing he could find—a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt.

  He traced the Onyx ring that he wore on his index finger. He knew he wasn’t ready to summon Revaeros again today—that was why he was feeling like shit after doing it anyway.

  He had some time before he had to leave for dinner, so he did his best to sort out everything that happened to him in the last few days. He must have spaced out for longer than he realized, because Kaira was banging on his door when he came to.

  “Come on, we’re going to be late!” she shouted.

  He rushed to the door. “Sorry, I—” he stuttered.

  When he took his attention off Kaira, she started muttering something under her breath.

  Closing the door behind him and pocketing his key, Simon wanted to ask Mariana about where her room was, but the drained look on her face made him reconsider. As they walked into the dining hall, Simon spotted Devin at one of the tables in the corner of the room talking with Headmaster Jansen.

  “You two get your food, then come join me,” Kaira instructed once she turned around to face them.

  They did as instructed, walking up to the buffet. Once they were out of Kaira’s earshot, though, Simon broached the subject. “What’s gotten you so… spent?”

  “No, I… My roommates are… It will take me some time to get used to my roommates…” she admitted, filling her plate with some vegetable mix.

  “I’m jealous, to be honest. I was kind of looking forward to living with other people. I was alone at my dorm in Sofia, too…” he admitted.

  Mariana rolled her shoulders back and seemed to relax. “I got the bed next to the bathroom.” She laughed. “And all the girls already know each other…”

  “I doubt it is going to be that bad. But if it does, you can complain all you want to me,” Simon tried to cheer her up. “It’s a new place, Mari, a perfect time to reinvent ourselves.”

  “That only works in movies, stupid.” She elbowed him in the ribs as they moved down the buffet. “You’re still so lucky you got your own room. Maybe if I complain to your mom, I’ll get one too.”

  “You can come to visit me any time.” He smiled, but it immediately got him a glare in return. She chuckled a second later.

  They had already gone through the whole buffet setup when Simon realized he only had a salad on his plate, being too engrossed in their conversation to pick up anything else. He quickly added the two closest things to him that seemed edible—some kind of meat stew, and rice with vegetables.

  When they were both done, they looked around for Kaira, who was waving them over to the table where she had joined Devin and Jansen. But as soon as the two friends got there, the headmaster started getting up.

  “Good luck at training tomorrow,” Jansen said to them and walked away from the table.

  They sat down and Devin immediately started talking to them while the two dug into their food.

  It was amusing to see those two try to give this talk, whatever it was. Simon couldn’t quite understand their dynamic yet. They seemed sensible, but even Guardians like them probably didn’t see eye to eye on everything.

  “I get you’ve been friends for a while, but the academy will test a lot more than just your personal limits; you will need to work on your teamwork eventually. I expect the two of you to cruise through the Newbie Clash next week, given how you dealt with the agents in Sofia. I personally don’t want to be shackled to the academy. And field missions are the best way to learn, anyway.”

 

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