Giving the girl, Sun Jie Nu, a cursory glance I tried not to be rude but she looked quite haggard and her clothes were ragged. As soon as I saw her eyes, I flinched. She gave me the stink eye as if she was asking, how I could sit here without her permission.
Better I don’t say anything…
Mr. Rank saw me flinch and let out a snort. While the secretary left, he took the offered letter and opened it. Sun Jie still stood at the doorway, maybe intimidated by the dean or maybe she was just shy.
After reading the content of the letter, Daniel Rank gave the girl a wave and she fully entered the room and sat down on the chair beside me. Afraid to annoy her any further, I focused my eyes on the dean and completely ignored her.
“So you are the Foster child of Fang Tuo Nu,” Daniel assured, “it seems you have traveled quite far.” “Ye-...,” the girl swallowed and looked at my glass of water, “could I have something to drink first?”
A minute later she was about to start again, but looked at me and said: “Does he have to be here? I don’t want him to talk about it while this boy stays here.” Mr. Rank berated: “Girl, if you want to study here, you will need to learn besides him in the following months. So it would be best if you aren’t so hateful”
Sun Jie rolled her eyes, but didn’t insist on the matter any longer and instead recounted her story. After running away from the temple she crossed Kazakhstan, part of Russia, Ukraine, Poland and after wandering through the Czech Republic, she finally arrived in Prague. I knew it would have to be nearly ten thousand kilometers if this Magic World still had the same geography as the Mortal World.
Blurting out, I asked: “Why didn’t you fly or ride a car?” She massaged her temples and sighed, “How could I fly? I am still too weak. Also, the airborne beasts would tear me to pieces.” “No, I meant by pl-,” Mr. Rank cleared his throat, “Theo, there are no planes on Earth, this Earth at least. As long as you are strong enough and can defend yourself against flying beasts, personal flight is possible. Planes couldn’t be defended as easily as a single person or a small group.”
“And Sun Jie,” he looked at the girl, “well done! Not many people are able to cross such vast distances, fight through packs of beasts and live to tell the story. As your grandpa requested, I will coach you on western magic. But you are required to visit the Basic course I am giving Theo.” Before the girl could protest against the decision, Daniel continued: “As far as I remember, you Cultivators are Reclusives. I bet your education doesn’t cover western spellcasting or even the other kinds of magic?”
Sun Jie nodded, apparently, the dean was spot on. Staying silent, I followed their conversation and tried to memorize every detail about the Magic World. It seems that while the general geography of this and my world were the same, the differences in culture, technology, history and the likes, were enormous. The next month would be stressful, as I had to learn about these differences and pass the test. Otherwise, I would have to start at the elementary level and that had to be prevented. Somehow the thought of sitting with seven-year-olds in the same classroom seemed dreadful.
Pulling me out of my thoughts, Daniel started his first lesson by asking a question, “Sun Jie, what can you tell me about the six elements?” The answer came lightning-fast and it looked like the girl didn’t need to think about it. “I don’t know about other sorts of magic, but we warriors use the elements to empower ourselves. There are the four worldly elements and the element of life and the element of death.”
“Okay, stop. Theo, can you guess the four worldly elements?” the dean looked at Theobalt and a gleam in his eyes indicated the fun he had while teaching them both. Hmm, considering that there are four elements, I can eliminate everything from the periodic system. Maybe something more esoteric?! Silently pondering if science, mathematics, technology, and engineering may be the answer a flash of inspiration overcame me and I answered: “As the natural laws as I understand them, maybe circumvented by magic, I think the four worldly elements are fire, water, earth, and air.”
“Bravo. Regrettably, it took you nearly a minute, but let's be lenient here.” Mr. Rank smiled at Theobalt, “The other two elements, namely the element of life and death...Ms. Nu?” Without missing a beat, the girl nearly shouted, “The element of life is wood and that of death is metal.” “And why is that so?” Daniel grinned mischievously. “Aah...I…,” Sun Jie stuttered, “I don’t know…,” she let her head hang down. “Of course you do. Don’t blurt out answers you learned by heart, use your head and think about it,” our teacher scolded. A slight wrinkle appeared on his forehead.
We both sat silently and using my trusty brain, I soon found the answer, at least I believe it was the answer. “Is wood the element of life, because it is actually alive? And metal therefore of death, because metal is used to destroy wood?” The dean nodded, “You are partly correct. While wood uses all four elements to live, metal can be used to smother the four elements, including wood. Actually, children need to memorize this small rhyme.”
“Earth is the pillar on which live stands. Air, deciding were its children expands. Water, nourishing the new fruit lands. Fire, burning, creating new sands.”
The rhyme may have been good to remember the four elements, but I didn’t want to hear another embarrassing rhyme on metal, so I quickly asked my next question: “What about light and darkness? Aren’t they also elements?”
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Mr. Rank looked at Sun Jie Nu, but she was silently shaking her head. “The temples education seems to have declined since your grandfather,” Daniel scoffed. “Light and darkness belong to the fundamentals. As does gravity, time and space.”
My eyes opened wide, “So mages are able to travel through time, ignore gravity and teleport through space?” I couldn’t believe it. While elemental control or creation might be explainable. Fundamentals were on quite a different page of this whole insanity, called magic. The Dean laughed, “Yes, mages are able to do all this. But during all my travels, I’ve never met anyone able to do this. You need to know...to be able to use an element, you need to have an understanding of it. For acolytes, the knowledge, that fire burns is enough to create a small candle flame. Of course, knowledge can be circumvented through raw power. But the bigger the magnitude of the utilization, the more power is needed.”
I nodded, while Sun Jie opened her mouth. “So mages are able to use their power outside their bodies?” Instead of answering her, Mr. Rank summoned four small balls, circling above his upturned palm. One of them looked red, one blue, the next one brown and the last one had no color, but the swirling and a light sucking told me, that it was air.
The girl gawked. One moment it seemed as if she was pushing the air around her away, the other, vapor rose from her body. Daniel shook his head, “No, not like this. But I’ll show you later. Otherwise, it would be unfair for dear Theo here.” Sun Jie gave me a stink eye again but didn’t say anything else.
“Ah, Mr. Rank, what are acolytes?” I asked, unfamiliar with the new term. “Hmm? It is the first of the five tiers of mages. You, for example, are no acolyte yet, as the boundary is, being in training and controlling at least one element.” The dean continued, “Magister would be the next one, but right now it is pretty uninteresting and unnecessary to know. Sun Jie, what tiers are for your internal way?”
The girl appeared zoned out and it took another question from Mr. Rank to get her back. “Sorry, I really am tired...Mhm, there are three unofficial tiers, as we don’t truly care about ranks. There is the warrior and it is achieved as soon as you end your survival training and live. Then there is the elder which is more or less a nomination and of course Buddha, as soon as you reach Enlightenment also called Nirvana.”
Daniel agreed and smiled at me: “Theo, the information was mainly for you. You should at least thank her for sharing her knowledge.” Grumbling, I did as told. I don’t want to thank that girl for sharing something that useless. Her angry glances at me are rubbing me the wrong way. What did I do, to deserve this treatment? As if he could read my thoughts, the Dean added: “It appears as you both don’t like each other. I don’t care about why. I want you to work together in the future, at least until my crash course is done!”
Staring at me, Sun Jie harrumphed and averted her gaze uppity. “What is your problem,” I yelled at her, “just say it, or are you a coward?” Hating conflict, my normal reaction would be to leave it be, but over the last week my nerves were on edge and this girl's behavior didn’t help the least.
“I am WHAT?” now it was Sun Jie’s turn to shout at me. “You bumpkin with no idea of nothing dare to spout such bullshit?! If I was at home, I would pave the ground with you.” I laughed, “but you aren’t at home!” Breathless and eyes wide open the girl screamed: “YOU…!” Before she was able to jump at me, the Dean clapped loudly. “ENOUGH.”
“Both of you. With me. NOW!” an angry pulsing vein was visible on his temples.
“As you are both clearly not able to work together, you will need to get off the edge,” Mr. Rank declared. We were following him through the corridors and halls of the academy and after five minutes we reached our destination.
“This is the arena. Students normally learn to fight with their spells against each other, before they are sent outside to fight against beasts. To lose steam, you both should fight against each other, and maybe you are able to reconcile.” Even if she is trained, I am nearly a head taller, have more reach and should at least be as strong as her…
Following this thought, my eyes wandered around this ring. It looked like a classical box-arena and on this small ground, my success should be certain. The girl entered the ring faster than me and after raising my fists, we neared each other. It was as I thought before. While she was faster and had clearly better skills than me, my longer reach balanced it.
“That is all?!” the girl taunted. Angrily stepping forward my next punch targeted her head directly. Before, my fists mostly tried to catch her off-guard and hit her in the stomach or on her arms. Suddenly my whole body seemed to slow down and it felt like pushing against a mire. The girl stepped right into my blow, but before it hit her, she ducked slightly out of the way, still going forward and her next punch hit me right in my guts.
“UFF” staggering back and trying to catch my breath, Sun Jie continued her taunting: “A child could wipe the floor with you. This will be no fight, this will be a trashing. But thanks for the opportunity.” With a laugh, she jumped forward and before I was able to react her next fist hit my upper leg. My leg buckled down and lost nearly all feeling. Nearly, because burning pain spread through it and tears welled up my eyes.
Thirty seconds later, the girl stopped, but not because she wanted to, but because Mr. Rank gave a sign. He stepped beside me and started to funnel healing energy into me. “Sorry Theobalt,” he whispered, “but you must understand, that on this earth, might makes right. At least outside the city. Also, I hope to give you an intermediate goal, you must reach.” With that, he looked in Sun Jie’s direction.
“I wanted to continue with the different kinds of magic, but as you are tired and Theobalt should rest too, we pick this subject up, tomorrow.” His small speech finished and my body healed, Mr. Rank left the arena.
Sun Jie Nu was on her way too but before she stepped out, I caught up. “Now that you had your fun, would you at least tell me, why you are so hostile?” She turned and looked me straight in the eye, “How would you feel, when you cross five countries, running for your life, fighting every day or sneaking away from beasts, able to swallow you down in one piece, finally arriving and then being watched with lecherous eyes by some city idiot?”
“S-Sorry,” I stuttered, “I didn’t mean to be rude or lecherous...I” She snorted, “Whatever, I don’t care. Maybe you have never seen someone like me, or worse, your parents taught you bullshit about us, after the war…” “What war?” I interrupted. “What wa-? Are you dumb,” then she focused me, “You aren’t from here, are you?” Oh damned, I mustn’t say anything
Turning to the corridor on my right and clearly not caring if this was the right way back to my dorm, I started walking. Sun Jie ran after and looked dumbfounded at me. “So this is your secret...I wonder…” Before she could say anything else, my hand covered her mouth and panicky my eyes wandered from left to right. “You mustn’t tell anyone. This secret…” I didn’t want to tell her, how much this meant and that she had nearly absolute power above my life.
Should I ask Daniel for help? How can I stop her from using it against me? My thoughts circled around with no way out. “Hmm,” the girl grinned, “I may forget it if you do something for me” Oh god, after all this mess, this is how it ends. Furrowing my brows, I asked: “What do you want?” The girl laughed, “Don’t be so dramatic. I think I know how much this means for you and what this secret may be worth to you. But calm down, I am, in a sense, in a similar situation…,” her head sank down. “Uhm…” I didn’t want to invade her private life and didn’t know what to say.
“How about this,” Sun Jie raised her head again, the bad thoughts apparently banished, “I tell you about my situation and my life in the temple, and you tell me about yours, wherever you are from?”