Beckoning fates, p.2
Beckoning Fates, page 2
She was only thirteen… right? I had a hard time believing what I was seeing.
Tess—whom I couldn’t think of as being anything other than a kid—had matured enough to catch me off guard. Her face still contained a childish innocence, but the way she carried herself made me doubt that this was the same girl I had known since I was little more than a toddler.
She was taller than Lilia, but still quite a bit shorter than the serious-looking guy next to her. Her posture, however, made her seem bigger and grander than everyone else on the stage. Taking a deep bow, she straightened up, tucking her hair behind her pointed ears, her face emotionless as a doll’s.
“My name is Tessia Eralith, and I am honored to stand here as this academy’s student council president.”
44
You Dare?
When Tess walked in, she had single-handedly changed the atmosphere inside this entire building.
When she bowed and introduced herself, a roar of applause erupted as all the students in the room cheered with admiration. Next to me, a scrawny human boy spoke excitedly to his friend beside him.
“That’s the Princess Eralith I was talking about. My brother said she’s been on campus since last year as a direct disciple under the Director and will start formally attending this year with us.” He had leaned into his friend in an attempt to keep the conversation between them, but the volume at which he spoke betrayed him.
“That means she was the first non-human to set foot on this campus. Wait… she’s only a first-year and she’s already the student council president? Is that even possible?” His friend, whom I couldn’t see, spoke louder and louder with each word, until we could all hear their exchange.
“Yeah, I’ve heard of her as well. She’s supposedly some sort of super-genius, right?”
“She’s so damn pretty, and talented as well? This isn’t even fair…”
“I wonder what I would have to do to get her to even look at me.”
The audience was filled with chatter about Tess; for the boys, it revolved around what an unobtainable star she was, but for the girls, it was a mixture of admiration and envy.
Sylvie was going crazy on top of my head as she recognized Tess onstage. “Kyuu!” ‘Papa! That’s Mama! She’s down there! Let’s go say hi!’ Sylv was jumping up and down so I picked her up and wrapped my arms around her.
‘Who’s your mama?’ I sighed in defeat at her excitement. After hatching, Sylvie had become pretty close to Tess, and I knew she was fond of her—but ‘Mama’?
“Whoa.” Elijah, whom I had stopped paying attention to, firmly gripped my arm with both hands, as if he needed my support to keep him from fainting. “Whoa,” he repeated. As smart as he was, he sure acted like an idiot at times.
“You okay there, Elijah?” I lightly nudged his head but it just bounced like a bobblehead toy.
“…Art, I think I’m in love.” He suddenly released his firm grip on my arm and linked arms with me, as if imagining I was Tess.
Okay, this is getting out of hand. Sylvie? Some help? My bond promptly locked her jaw on the top of Elijah’s head.
He yelped, more from surprise than pain. “Oh, sorry…” With Sylvie still dangling from the crown of his head, Elijah let go of my arm and returned his focus to the stage below.
As the crowd settled down enough for Tess to start speaking again, Director Goodsky silently disappeared.
Tess spoke eloquently enough to surprise even me. She was only thirteen, yet she had the ability to draw the crowd’s full attention with her words—which, while simple and direct, were filled with maturity. She spoke about the principles of this academy, how this was a holy ground where students should feel safe to walk around freely. Tess emphasized that anyone who hurt another student outside of a consented duel would face strict discipline, her voice firm and unwavering.
“While I am also a first-year, like all of you, I have had the privilege of being inside the academy a year longer. This has made it all too apparent to me that there is deeply embedded discrimination against the scholar mage students. I, for one, will not tolerate any sort of aggression or bullying based on the trivial fact that one is a scholar mage instead of a battle mage.”
The crowd grew a little restless at this statement; everyone present had heard rumors of the hardships scholar mage students could face.
“The uniforms and advanced courses will continue to be different. Starting this year, general education courses containing both scholar mage classes and battle mage classes will be mandatory for the first two years, to foster stronger integration of students in both focuses and allow you the opportunity to build relationships with your battle or scholar mage counterparts. After the two years are up, students may choose to switch their education specialization by taking a test, although it will be quite a difficult one.”
This last statement drew a dissatisfied murmur from the crowd. While Elijah and I had been admitted without testing due to my special connection with Director Goodsky, most students, regardless of background, had to test for either a scholar mage or battle mage position.
To get in as a scholar mage, an incoming student only needed a basic foundation of magic, which was mana gathering. While they had to take a written exam to assess their mental acuity, the practical portion of the exam was much simpler.
Battle mage students, however, had a much stricter practical exam and actually performed basic spells or techniques, depending on whether they were a conjurer or augmenter. It may have seemed like a cakewalk for someone like Elijah, Tess, or me, but I had to admit it could be quite a challenge for someone who had just awakened.
The tall, stern-looking student stepped up next, silencing the crowd with a wave of his hand.
“That’s the firstborn son of the famous Graves family,” the boy next to me said. “Make sure you don’t get on his bad side.” The volume of his ‘whisper’ defeated its purpose.
“My name is Clive Graves and I am your student council vice president. As the president mentioned, this year will bring many changes. Along with the integration and freedom to switch between the two student types, there will also be a change in the criteria for graduation.
“In the past, students could expect to graduate from the academy after four years of attendance. However, it is becoming more and more apparent that many graduating mages’ capabilities are less than satisfactory. Therefore, the director has declared that graduation from Xyrus Academy will no longer be determined by attendance alone; students must meet certain standards, and pass a graduation exam.
“While the conditions for graduation have become many times harder, the academy will allow up to ten years for a student to meet those criteria. In that time, we fervently hope to produce top-class mages in both theoretical and combat fields. We welcome you all—humans, elves, and dwarves alike—to Xyrus Academy.” Clive bowed, the rest of the student council following suit.
The last part of the announcement wasn’t exactly news for any of us. It had been announced quite recently though, which made me think that it had something to do with the new continent. Had the academy been tasked with producing higher-quality mages in case of a future battle against our newly discovered neighbors?
After the ceremony, all the new students were dismissed to their dorms. Filing out of the auditorium, my eyes unconsciously looked for Tess, but she was nowhere in sight. Outside, the trees arched over the marble walkways, producing small showers of brightly-colored fall leaves. The students were all excitedly chatting to one another, getting to know their peers. As we walked deeper into the campus to where the dorms were, a few female students passed by Elijah and me, doing a double-take to look back at us and giggling with their friends.
Elijah sighed. “I feel like I become significantly less good-looking when I’m next to you.” Elijah’s shoulders hunched as we walked along side by side, Sylvie patting his head pityingly from her perch on top of mine.
“Well, even if most of the girls come after me, some of them will eventually have to settle for you, right, buddy?” I teased, giving him a playful wink.
“Screw you.” He hit me in the stomach as we both laughed.
Suddenly, a loud explosion startled us both, as well as the students walking nearby. Something was happening at the end of the marble walkway. After exchanging a quick glance, Elijah and I shot off.
“I don’t see how a short-ass dwarf like you can even hope to be a proper augmenter. Why don’t you stick to forging weapons for real warriors like me?”
“What the hell did you say? Who d’ya think you are, anyway?”
I realized what was going on from a good distance away and stopped running, shaking my head. It was just stupid posturing between two students. The explosion had been made by the human, hitting a nearby tree with a mana-enhanced fist.
“Couldn’t this become dangerous?” Elijah looked around. Some of the students were making a wide berth around the two of them, just in case they started fighting. We had been among the last to leave the auditorium, so most students were already deeper within the campus or in their dorms. There weren’t many people around, but if these two did start fighting, some of the students in the vicinity might get caught up in the mess.
“They wouldn’t dare fight on the first day, right? Let’s just go.” I tried to nudge my friend to take a roundabout route and avoid the two arguing students.
“Come on,” Elijah said. “We have nothing better to do anyway, just unpacking. Let’s see how good they are. Look, the human looks to be a second-level augmenter.”
The dwarf and human both wore battle mage uniforms, but the brawny human had two stripes on his tie, while the dwarf only had one.
“Declare the duel, short-ass, so we can start! My name is Nicolas Dreyl. Or are you all bark and no bite?” The human smirked, placing his right hand on the badge pinned to his left breast.
“Tch! You’re gonna be sorry.” The dwarf was a head shorter than his opponent, and with his bulky build he looked awkward wearing the blazer uniform. But he carried his giant battle-axe with an ease that told me he was more than what the single stripe on his tie indicated.
The dwarf placed a hand on the metal badge pinned to his blazer and chanted, “I declare a duel between me, Broznean Boor, and Nicolas Dreyl!” The metal badge on his chest began to glow, as did the badge worn by his opponent.
“I accept the duel.” The two badges glowed different colors until they synced together, producing a loud ‘ping’ sound.
The badge on the battle mage uniform, and the pocket watch on the scholar mage uniform, acted as artifacts for the dueling system, creating a barrier around each user that could withstand a certain amount of force. When one party’s barrier broke, the duel was over, and the other party the winner. It took a full day for the artifact to recharge to produce another barrier, and during that time dueling was prohibited. To keep it fair, mages weren’t allowed to issue a challenge to anyone at a lower level than themselves, which was why the human had to taunt the dwarf to initiate the duel.
The human mage withdrew dual swords from his dimension ring and took his stance, while the people watching started backing up to avoid getting caught up in the fight.
“Go, Broz!” Elijah shouted, cheering on the dwarf, which earned him some dirty looks.
I studied the two augmenters; the level two human was a red core stage mage, while the dwarf was still at black stage. This should be interesting.
The human student gave a mighty roar as his two broadswords began glowing dim yellow, and the earth surrounding him started trembling.
“Jah!” The dwarf leaped up and propelled himself forward by pushing off of a nearby tree, charging his own battle-axe with earth-attribute mana.
“Ooh, both are earth-attribute augmenters, Art!” Even more excited now, Elijah leaned closer to watch the fight, while Sylvie curled up, sound asleep, on my head.
“Tremor Smash!” the dwarf shouted, placing his left palm on the head of his axe and making the dull glow condense.
With a resounding boom, the power of the dwarf’s blow forced the human to skid back, even though he blocked with both swords. He grimaced, arms shaking.
The human student lowered his swords and dashed toward the dwarf, who was already in a defensive stance. The dual swords scraped along the ground. As he got into range he swung up, and a trail of earth followed along, creating twin blades of earth after each sword.
Not bad. It wasn’t surprising that the dwarf could already use his earth-attribute element, but I was impressed that a human in the red stage could already augment his earth-attribute to that degree. He was talented in that sense.
“Shatter!” The dwarf’s body glowed yellow as he stomped his right foot hard onto the ground, creating a ripple around him that broke the approaching earth blade into fragments. The dwarf blocked the human’s two actual blades with his axe, but got a little scrape on his arm from the upward swing.
“Earth Pillar!” the human, Nicolas, exclaimed. Following the upward swipe, he stomped hard with his leading foot directly in front of the dwarf, raising a fragile column of rock from the ground to hit the dwarf squarely in the stomach.
“Oof!” The dwarf’s body was lifted into the air by the force of the blow, and his shield broke with a loud shattering sound, signaling that the duel was over.
Cheers rose from the humans who were gathered around, but the dwarves in the audience groaned in embarrassment.
Elijah just sighed and turned to leave. As I moved to follow him, I saw a slight smirk on the human’s face as he once again imbued mana into his two blades.
That fool wasn’t planning to let it end there. He was going for the final blow.
If I interfered directly, everyone would know my face, but if I used a long-range technique to stop him, it would create even more problems. I was frustrated that Elijah hadn’t realized the human was going to cast another technique. It would be more natural for Elijah to interfere with a spell, since he was a conjurer.
But there was another way. Sorry, Tess.
“Is that the student council president I see? She’s coming over!” I deliberately yelled louder than necessary, to startle the human boy.
Just as I anticipated, he hurried to put his swords back into his dimension ring, looking around nervously for the president. The crowd that had been watching the duel, analyzing it and talking amongst themselves, also started looking around for Tess.
Elijah craned his neck above the crowd to look for her. “Where is she? I don’t see her.”
“Oops! I must’ve been mistaken.” I just shrugged and turned to walk away, but a hand firmly grasped my shoulder.
“Are you picking a fight with me or something, brat?” It was the human who had been dueling—Nicolas.
“Yeah! What the hell, man? Getting us excited for nothing!” A wave of disappointment rolled through the crowd; apparently I had underestimated just how strongly the students here had come to idolize Tess.
“I thought I saw her. My apologies.” I began peeling his hand off my shoulder, giving him a wink.
“Yeah, you’d better apologize.” He snatched his hand away, then spat on the ground at my feet before he walked off.
“You know, a bit of advice if you want to graduate: I don’t think killing that dwarf boy would’ve done you any good.” I stood still as Sylvie spat directly at the back of his neck.
He instantly whirled back around, both swords in his hands once again. I could see a vein bulging out of his forehead cartoonishly.
I made a sputtering sound, then thought, Oops, I shouldn’t laugh in this situation. I took a quick glance back; Elijah was just shaking his head, knowing it was too late.
“You dare—?” The thirteen-year-old boy with swords too large for his immature body dashed toward me clumsily, preparing to cross-chop with his two blades. His face was bright red in anger.
I raised an eyebrow as I lifted one hand up to stop the blow.
Just as I prepared to shatter his swords, a voice stopped him in his tracks. It was a voice all the new students had heard not too long ago, a voice many of them had probably fallen in love with. It was also the voice of my childhood friend.
“Do you dare?”
45
Not Quite as Planned
The boy’s face visibly paled as he froze at the unmistakable voice. I turned to see the whole student council walking toward us. The students standing around the scene parted as if the king himself was walking through.
In the front, moving with calm but rapid strides, was Tess, her doll-like face expressionless. Behind her, I spotted Lilia, who gave me a worried look.
My attacker immediately recalled his two blades into his dimension ring and gave the council members a respectful bow. Sweat beaded down his forehead.
“What is going on, Arthur?” Jarrod was the first to speak, making everyone in the crowd raise an eyebrow in surprise.
“Looks like the scholar mage knows someone from the student council.”
“No wonder he was acting so cocky just now.”
“Pfft. Did you see him raise up his arm like he was going to stop the attack with his bare hands?”
I rolled my eyes at the whispers from the crowd. Even though they were preteen children, I had expected them to have some degree of manners since they were all from influential families.
“No, nothing much happened, although you should go take a look at that dwarf student lying over there—Broznean, I think his name was.” I pointed over to the tree where the dwarf was still groaning and clutching his stomach.
Elijah walked toward me, hoping to defuse the situation. “Hi, Lilia. Sorry—we ended up getting caught up in this little scuffle after their duel ended. No harm done!” He gave a slight wave at her as he spoke, but directed his words at Tess, her face still shrouded in a mask of indifference.
