Annd chapter 14.

Chapter 14

A few days pass since the start of term and today I wake up for my first entirely free day. Zan has adjusted to our current rooming arrangements and has been sleeping in his dragon form. He slept with me the first couple days but has taken to sleeping in the study recently. As I climb out of bed I see Zan in his usual attire, a set of white robes with a black cloak other them.

“You look like a girl.” I slur my speech still half asleep, Zan leans against the wall and waits for me to get dressed before we head down for breakfast. Zan makes a “pft'” sound at my remarks, You really do though… He has a thin frame and clear skin aside from the scales. I think I'm justified in calling him at least feminine.

Breakfast is a quiet affair, most of the older students seem to be outside of the tower today. I look around the wide hall for signs of people I know but it seems futile. Other than the sound of Zan's swinging tail against the bench, something that attracts a bit too much attention, we eat in relative silence. “After we check in with Karina and what do you wanna do?” Zan says as he pokes the last remains of his meal.

“Maybe explore the city…” I muse, pushing my empty plate to one side. I've been stuck inside the school for so long, it'd be nice to explore a little. Leaving the hall we climb the now familiar staircase, soon finding ourselves on the eighteenth floor where Karina resides.

Unlike most floors the eighteenth is a hub of activity, students and others darting around its labyrinthine layout. Even today people still litter the halls. Zan takes the lead and we pass through a couple hallways. “Her room was the ninth, right?” Zan looks back at me, asking for confirmation. “Yeah it is.” I answer to him.

When we finally reach the room we find the door already open with a crowd already inside. “Kadimae, Zan! Get in here.” The large Rantor yells at us before dragging Zan in and taking us to a large table. At the head of the table is a shivering and disturbed looking Talon.

Looking around I see that all the noble students are in attendance, but unlike that day everyone has a serious look about them. Even the mellow Hector or the jovial Rantor share the same expression. “You know anything Kad?” Hector says from across the table, I shake my head causing him to turn to Zan. “Me neither.” Zan says as he places his hand on the table a little too forcefully. “So what's going on?” Zan asks.

“I can answer that,” says Karina who has one arm wrapped around Talon as he shivers incessantly. “It seems that dog Castor has taken liberties with one of our students…” Talon keeps looking down and staring at the desk. “He's unresponsive, not talking or moving that much. His aunt saw him and told us to keep an eye out until he snaps out of it.” Karina grits her teeth towards the end before shouting, “Fucking scum!” and punches the desk with her free hand.

“Castor did gods know what to him and he's like this. Well screw him.” Murmurs of agreement come from those gathered around, a girl I recognise as Ellen Varden even cheers. “I want revenge.” Karina flat out states to everyone. “What are you thinking of sis?” Hector asks his sister.

“You first years don't know but a certain ritual occurs every few months. Remember it Hector?” He gives her a knowing look, “You want to kill a couple of his students?” Whoah, this got serious real quick… despite what she suggests no one dissents.

“To explain it, every few months someone offers up a crystal beast core, maybe third or fourth rank and we use it for this ritual. It requires a large amount of mana and summons the soul of a slain crystal beast then places it inside the core, binding it as a familiar.” I listen intently to her explanation, all the while thinking of how I could use that kind of magic to research souls… No not for now.

“However it requires dozens of magicians, and we only have one core…” as she says this I already guess what she means, I say “So we fight for it?” She then answers,”Yes, but not exactly, we summon the souls as temporary familiars to fight. We students shouldn't fight at all, although it usually doesn't turn out that way.”

“Who's the target?” Rantor asks the girl, as he leans further on the table.

“Old man Castor took a new apprentice, that girl Pyrite, she'll be there.” Rantor starts to grin like a sadist and adds, “She'll be a fun kill.” I look around at the people I've acquainted myself with… Getting more than a little dangerous. Despite feeling that I don't flinch, I need these connections. The school doesn't feel all that safe a place to go it alone.

The rest of the meeting is mostly arrangements for the new term, which rooms we've booked and the like. Zan spends most of it on dragon form being stroked by Ellen before disappearing during the final minutes.

Zan left without me? I my eyes flit along the hall searching for a sign of my scaly friend. May as well go have a look in the city. With that thought in mind I begin to descend the floor, without incident, until I reach the fourth floor.

“Boy, come here.” A woman shouts from within the grand door of the fourth floor, leaning against the pillar she glares at me. I look around to find myself alone, She really means me? Before I cautiously approach her.

The mana about the women is chaotic and how she holds herself radiates a certain power in itself. The amount of bare skin she's showing however is the most abnormal thing, wearing nothing above the waist and only really covering her crotch with a kind of red dress. Or at least I think it's a dress… I realize I've been staring a little too much at her figure and say “Uh sorry miss.”

She rolls her eyes, “If being gawped at bothered me I would wear more, move.” Although I’m taken aback slightly by her response I still decide to join her, not based on any solid reasoning but a hunch. I walk into the cavernous fourth floor and she joins me, taking my hand.

“Why did you call me?” I ask her as we walk leisurely along the path. “My master bid it be.” She says, before adding that “He says we share a common talent.” Master? I take the hint and look a little closer at the woman beside me, a silver tinge and ever so slight translucence. A time attribute crystal beast? Here?

“You are the Archmage's familiar?” I inquire, to which she nods and tells me. “My darling and I used to spend so long together, alas he feels guilt at his impotence. So here I rest.”

“Impotence? In what way?” The archmage is hardly weak… why how else could he be archmage. The woman laughs bitterly, “A story for another time, don't dwell on it.”

As we walk around the fourth floor we eventually reach a depression in its floor, creating a large bowl in the ground, where she leads us. “Welcome to my humble abode.” Leaving me standing she sits down and lies on the slope. “So little boy, what time magic did you discover?” I hesitate for a moment when she asks but I'm already in her lair, may as well go all in.

I produce a mass of silver mana and invoke the mystery, for five seconds, causing my perception of time to shift. Sitting on the slope she nods knowingly, “Hm, separating the passage of time with perception of time. It's very interesting, that much is true.” After saying that she looks at me some more, examining the aura.

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“False, the mystery is probably false.” She says with a firm conviction, causing a wave of horror to come over me before I settle. It's not the end of the world… I think but I was happy to discover that time magic before, to now know it's false makes it feel rather hollow.

“Don't mope, your mistake is pretty simple to make. You did good for a novice magician.” She says trying to cheer me up, “It's fine, I was just proud of discovering it before…” She jumps forward and slaps me in the face. “Idiot.” Before standing above me and sighing.

“It's still impressive boy, it's just you made a mistake in your line of thought. The world exists independent of how we perceive the world, but we can only view it from our own subjective viewpoint. Changing the nature of one's viewpoint is nature attribute based magic, mental thaumaturgy I think it's called. Affecting the flow of the objective world is time magic.” Taking her words to heart it feels as if a revelation has come over me, on a whim I produce nature mana and try to enact my magic again. The wild mana feels alien in my hands as it courses over my skin.

Once again for five seconds slow my perception of the world, I immediately feel the difference. It uses less mana, maybe just over half as much. I could probably cast the spell over a dozen times in its current state, compared to two or three before. “Good work, but back to time magic.” The woman says while I stand amazed.

“No one here can teach time magic, no one knows it. Only you and I have felt the ebbing of its course.” She extends her hand out, “Will you explore it with me?” I escape my daze and grab her hand, “Sure, nice working with you.”

“Good! Very good! It's been too long since I've had help, let's get you up to speed.” Our hands already grasped she throws me into the air. Her hand evaporates into a silver mist and she becomes a silver phantom. As I reach the peak of my throw I overcome my fear and look down, emerging from the silver fog is… A white tiger? I see the appearance of the very same tiger that almost jumped me during the exams and after a few seconds I land on her with a thud.

“Ow, some warning please next time.” I say but she just gives a grunt of indifference, I grab onto her fur and she climbed out of the bowl. After a few seconds we reach the highest part of the floor, directly opposite to the stairs and she sets me down there. Only then does she retake human form.

“Time magic governs the flow of the world, the natural progression of everything and causality.” She says as she looks on down at the grass below, I follow her line of sight and see a couple eating on the grass. “Come close and look.” She takes my hand and pulls me close as we watch the two below.

A shimmer of light, a silver thread and a shiver through my very soul. The world beyond is tinged grey but only very slightly, I can see slow steps as they dance on the grass. A familiar yet astoundingly different feeling comes over me. This is time? A couple more seconds pass before the grey recedes and her spell ends.

I am left speechless by her performance, staring out onto the field. “That is time acceleration, at nearly twice the speed of normal time.” I look back at her but instead of speaking I begin to stare. The luster of her skin is gone, revealing something akin to a grey plaque within her translucent veins. A breeze of mana floods towards her and I feel as if I stumbled onto something personal.

“You saw it?” She says, her warm demeanor becoming tepid. “That grey stuff?” He closes her eyes and turns away a moment before returning to normal. “Yes that.” I don't know what to say… I think while she does not seem to wish to talk about it at all. “Research the life cycles of crystal beasts, it'll become clear.”

Her own death? I understand why she doesn't want to talk about it…

“Can we get back to magic?” I ask her hoping to move away from this touchy topic. She nods and we begin to descend down a gentle slope.

“Did you get a feel on the flow of time?” She asks me, not even turning to look at me. “A bit, is that all you know?” Just after saying that I realize it may sound like I'm belittling her, luckily she does not appear to take it that way. “I have hints, but no way to carry on. It's apart of the nature of we crystal beasts.”

“While impressive, time acceleration is a low level mystery. We can learn mysteries of our own attributes by gleaming directly from the natural laws.” That sounds amazing… like as if you had an all powerful tutor for every form of magic. My second thought however is, This sounds too good to be true. “It sounds too good to be true.”

“You'd be right.” She chuckles, although different from earlier, now her expressions feel fake. “You require a soul to learn higher level mysteries, something I sorely lack. I cannot realize any of this myself, which is where you come in.”

“I don't have enough mana.” I retort.

“But you will, I see it as inevitable that you one day shall have the power to do so.” She gives me a moment to think before saying, “Once I saw a time magician, you know.”

“What was he like?” I ask in my curiousity.

“She, and she was a proper sort, from old blood and all that. From across the shallow sea.” The sea to the south? Only one kingdom exists down there… Aeteria. “Her magic made it so wounds would disappear, as if they never happened.”

“I would have liked to understand it.” She says, leaving us to another awkward silence. Neither of us wanting to offend nor pry. This continues as we descend towards the ground level.

“Who's the kid?” The voice of a man comes from above, standing on the air. Someone who can fly? As interested as I am about how he does that I'm more curious as to who it is. A faint glimmer comes from his skin, revealing strange structures beneath. Is he another crystal beast?

“Kadimae, meet crow. The Archmage's other familiar, and my long term friend.” Crow gives me a glance before looking at his fellow familiar, “I felt your mana wane, did something happen?” He asks with an unchanging expression although his voice reveals worry.

“It's nothing, I was showing him how to slow time.”

“Just a mere demonstration, is it truly worth the risk?” Crow retorts but she seems to ignore it. “The boy has the talent for time magic, little Rey asked me to teach him.” After she said that Crow finally looks back at me in surprise, “Are you that Seteri boy we've heard of?”

“Yes, I'm Kadimae Seteri…” I say, not trying to conceal my current annoyance.

“Hm interesting, don't hurt yourself Tiger.” Crow says before he takes his leave, being enveloped in a red haze before becoming a giant crow.

“Reynold was really lazy naming you two.” I casually remark, causing her to smile briefly. “He was young, as were we.”

We continue for maybe another hour before I depart from this floor.