“Good afternoon Calavia. Do you have a moment? I need to discuss something with you quickly.” Arthur said as he brought Calavia over towards the empty part of the building where he hoped that he would remain unheard be everyone else in the clinic.

“Of course. What is it that you wanted to tell me?” Calavia said as she followed Arthur. ‘I hope this isn’t something really serious, he looks really worried about something.’

Once Arthur was certain that they wouldn’t be overheard by anyone he sat down on the nearby bench and began telling Calavia of what happened. “Today I received an offer from an old friend to join her mercenary group for an upcoming war with the Empire. They are having a tryout in a week for me and a few other people that they have an interest in, and I wanted to ask what you think I should do. I know you don’t like talking about what happened just before we met, but your experience would be helpful for my decision.”

Though Calavia was trying to hide it Arthur could see that she was just as worried as he was, perhaps not for the same reasons as her brother was in the military and would be fighting the empire on the front lines, but it was somewhat comforting to know she understood the situation. “What do you want to do Arthur?”

Calavia kept her voice down as she asked, but Arthur could hear it clearly. “I honestly don’t know. These are people I know and I would consider friends despite not seeing them for quite some time. I want to be with them and help them, but I haven't been in a war before. I doubt it would be anything like hunting down bandits in a forest, or killing goblins.”

The two sat there for around a minute not saying anything while avoiding eye contact. The atmosphere around the two was saddening and worrying with both fully aware of it.

“If you decided to go and join them, then I am going as well.” Calavia broke the silence and gave Arthur a massive shock at the same time. “What about your job? I know this wasn't your first choice, but I know you enjoy helping people.”

“Well what about my brother, if I go with you I might be able to see him and keep him safe. I might be able to keep both of you safe, I am a conjurer in the mages guild after all. I have been one for almost a year now, casting tier three spells is something I used to do on a regular. The only reason I stopped is because several people I cared about died while we were in that ruin.” Calavia’s voice trembled as she recalled what happened in those terrible ruins, but she didn’t break. She still had her brother and family, and now someone else.

“I might not have been able to do anything against that thing, but I won't be fighting against anything like that. We will be fighting people, and I know it is a lot easier to kill people than things. I don’t care what you are thinking, if you are joining, so am I.”

Arthur was taken back by her words and demand. While he could tell she was fearful it was only because he had been such good friends with her for such a long time. She was telling the truth when she said she was coming with him and he could tell she wasn’t going to take no as an answer. “Alright, you can come with me, but I don't know what they are going to say. I will of course vouch for you, but the final choice will be theirs.”

Calavia smiled at these words, her previous demeanor of fear and worry hidden by false bravery near instantly melted away and was replaced by a small happiness. “Thank you Arthur.” Suddenly Calavia reached in for a hug surprising Arthur in the process. “Just let me know when the tryout is so I can take that day off from work.”

********

One week later on the eighth of Granite Arthur followed by Calavia arrived at the address listed on the bottom of the letter he was given a week before. They found themselves at a manor in the northern district decorated with a small flower garden and a few banners depicting a mage cloaked in a blue robe wielding a staff with a purple gemstone on the end with a white background.

The two slowly walked up to the door looking around for someone as this was the first time either had arrived at the home of a noble. When they found themselves at the front door made from thick dark wood Arthur gave a few loud knocks hoping that was what they were supposed to do, after a few seconds they could hear the door being unlocked from the other side and an older woman dressed as a maid opened it.

“I assume the two of you are here for the tryouts.” The maid said as she ushered the two inside. “Just follow the hallway down to the back door and walk through it. You will find the misses out there waiting for you.” Arthur and Calavia quickly thanked the maid and began walking down the hall. The hall wasn’t all that large, but it did give them both an opportunity to take a peek in each of the rooms they passed. On the left side of the house was a living room that looked to be worth many gold coins, and after it was a small library. On the right side was a kitchen with a small amount of cooks moving about followed by what appeared to be a pantry which likely shared a door between where neither Arthur nor Calavia could see.

Like the front door the back door was made from a thick and dark wood, but it was open allowing the two to see that there were several people out there already waiting. Lyro and Citro were standing to the side while a group of around ten were standing around chatting.

Upon seeing the two Lyra waved Arthur over with a smile, but once he was close enough that they could whisper the smile quickly faded. “Hey Arthur, I’m not trying to be rude but I only invited you to take part in the tryouts. So why did you bring a friend here?”

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“Sorry, but she is a close friend with a history of dead friends and some trauma from it. She made me promise to bring her along if I were to join you, she is also quite a capable mage herself. Around a year ago she became a conjurer within the guild, so her skills are definitely up to par. Just give her a chance like you are giving me one.” Lyra looked to Calavia and back to Arthur with a hint of suspicion in her eyes before she finally answered. “Fine, but I will be putting her through just as much as I am putting you all through.”

With another person taking part in the tryouts Lyra and Citro had to spend a little bit more time getting everything ready, but once they did they quickly separated the mages from the non mages with Citro taking the non mages and Lyra with the mages. Arthur, Calavia, and the other five mages followed Lyro over to the left side of the house while the others followed Citro to the right side.

“Alright everyone, I will be testing your skills as a mage through several different means. I am assuming that you have a good grasp over the four evocations and that is what I will be testing, we will be starting with pyromancy. Does anyone have any questions?”

Unsurprisingly no one said anything allowing Lyra to continue. “Very well then. I want each of you spaced out and to conjure up as much fire as you can control above your head, like this.” Lyra raised her hands above her head and conjured up a massive ball of fire, larger than anything Arthur or even Calavia could do.

Once she quickly ended her demonstration the seven mages quickly found their own spot and quickly began conjuring up as much fire in the shape of a ball as they could. Unsurprisingly Calavia was the best of the seven in all the evocations with Arthur ending up in second place overall by a few points which Lyro handed out. Those who failed to meet her expectations for even a single evocation were quickly disqualified and made to leave leaving only four mages left.

“Since we have a nice and even number, why don’t we have a competition to see who is best and test how skilled you are in putting your magic into combat.” The third and fourth ranking mages looked towards Arthur and Calavia with a bit of worry, while they didn’t know them specifically they understood that they must have had some sort of combat experience just based on their own expressions. While Calavia looked rather calm Arthur looked more stoic in their eyes.

Lyro quickly mixed them up so that Arthur was with the fourth place woman and Calavia was with the third place man. Lyra had Calavia and the third placed man go first in a first strike style competition where the first hit would result in an out regardless of if it hurt at all. This way they would prioritise keeping themselves safe over rushing into combat and getting themselves killed, a common result that happened with young mages in Lyra’s experience that she wanted to snuff out as fast as possible.

Standing around five meters apart from each other Calavia and the third place man both took a stance preparing themselves to conjure up their chosen evocation at the moment they needed to. ‘Since this is a first strike match casting complex spells wont do all that much good, we will both need to conjure up something as fast as possible either for offence or defence. I am betting that he knows he can't beat me in a drawn out fight, so odds are he will try and take me out quickly with a few small attacks before I can fight back.’

Calavia took note of her opponent's stance, the way his hands and body were positioned would allow for him to more easily propel the earth below his feet towards her. He on the other hand didn’t even appear to be looking at her stance, instead he was staring at her like this was his first fight, which it might have been.

Snapping her fingers and creating a small spark and crack Lyra signaled the beginning of the match, and like Calavia expected her opponent immediately went to strike using the earth below his feet to do so. She quickly did the same but used that earth to form a wall that easily blocked the attack. Calavia then used the earth that she used for her wall and split it into several small pieces along the top before propelling them forwards with a forward gesture from her hands.

This quick counterattack caught her opponent off guard and left him unable to defend himself, he was hit with all of the pieces of earth in rapid succession with the force of something their own size being thrown by a professional. He fell to the ground clutching where he was struck and shouting. “Ow ow ow ow!”

Calavia didn’t say anything, she just took a deep breath and stepped back to where both Arthur and his opponent were standing. Both of them looked at Calavia with shock and worry in their eyes, and Arthur was a little worried about her display. ‘I don’t think I have ever seen her do anything like that. Was it a mistake telling her about this?”

While Arthur was having second thoughts about Lyra walked over to the third place man who was still crying from being hit by the earth balls. She first casted that appeared to do nothing to the man physically but told her something as her face showed, then she touched his chest and casted a tier one restoration spell. “You were hit quite hard, you would have had several bruises all over your chest the size of grapes if we just left you there.”

The man looked at Lyra with tear filled eyes and gave a small smile as he felt the pain slowly subside. “Thank you, it was really really painful.”

Lyra just smiled and casted the levitation spell on the man to carry him off to the side where he would be out of the way for the next round between Arthur and the fourth place woman.

The two took a similar position to what Calavia and her opponent did roughly five meters apart. Unlike the man before her, the woman before Arthur was checking his stance to see what he was going to do and he did the same, though neither really knew what to look for. Arthur had a very basic understanding of tactics, but that was mostly limited to melee fights which he hadn't done in quite some time.

Just in case Arthur decided to go with a defensive stance like Calavia did and hopefully try and defeat his opponent without leaving her on the ground and crying. Like the time before Lyra snapped her fingers creating some sparks and a crack signaling the beginning of the match, both contestants immediately used the earth below them to create a wall for their own defense, surprising each other. For a moment everything went silent as they both tried thinking of ways to attack each other without leaving themselves vulnerable.

The woman decided to try and brute force the fight and simply began throwing everything she had at Arthur. She used both the earth around her and that which she conjured to try and overwhelm him. Arthur was thus forced to reinforce his wall and shaped it into a sort of wedge that would prevent the attacks from putting all their force directly on, this would hopefully reduce the force applied and allow it to keep its structural integrity for longer.

With a decent defense created it was time to think of a way to counter attack that was sure to either leave her at the disadvantage to take her out entirely.