“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
- Oscar Wilde
The woman tensed before suddenly throwing a powder with a quick flick of her wrist distracting them before tumbling to the side. The whole person shriveled like a piece of grass in a fire, the skin became grey and taut, everything was wrapped in dark leather and grey cloth, only a few strands of scraggly hair poked from in between the bandages.
And there was no hint anymore as to the possible gender of the creature.
Alyssa intoned a short chant and flickered before reappearing on the opposite side of the enclosure. Raising the hand with her focus she spoke the words for a void bolt.
Mireille turned her hand and the lightning condensed into a blade. “Who...what are you!?”
With a hiss, the being grew two additional arms beneath the original ones and with a movement reminiscent of a four-legged predator rushed forward only to be intercepted by a quick slice of Mireille’s blade a few fingers fell to the ground still flaring with actinic light. A small knife thrown by the grey being sliced into her leg.
Mireille hissed in pain. “Why am I the only…” she grunted with exertion as she parried another blow, “...one…” she jumped backwards onto the wall using it as a platform for another jump, “...who gets hurt...all the time!” She sliced from above but the creature was too nimble and dodged before throwing a fan of small sharp knives after the two of them. A void bolt impacted its torso and cloth, leather and flesh rotted and fell apart causing the being to screech in pain.
Alyssa focused and the smoky crystal in her hand filled with darkness before she finished her chant and a flurry of bolts erupted flying rapidly and accurately at the dark-clad assailant.
Mireille spread her arms and conjured another shield between them catching another shower of sharp-edged pieces of metal.
The bolts impacted one after the other the creature summoned an arcane shield with a crystal tablet and alleviated some of it but bolt after bolt eroded its body. Mireille jumped forward and stabbed deep into the upper chest light flared from the cuts and the mouth of the assassin. Coughing blood he swiped with his right appendages and cut her on the arm. Mireille hissed and stumbled back. A flare of dark flames burst from Alyssa's hand as she simply channeled the void. Flesh blackened and curled in on itself before the creature neatly folded in half, the midsection completely severed. Twitching once it fell still.
“Uh. Warn me next time.” Mireille gagged at the smell.
Cyrus had been at the entrance and looked highly agitated. Alyssa had ordered him to stay back, fearing for his life against the unknown threat.
“We have to warn the guard!” Alyssa ran outside while shouting.
“Wait don’t warn the enemy!” Mireille got up and nervously looked around. “Find a guard...better a knight and tell them. I will look for the academy staff.”
They hurried outside and were greeted by the applause of the crowd. A whirlwind carried a girl aloft and tossed her to and fro it seemed to be the classmate mentioned by Mireille.
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Inside the enclosure, the flesh of the separated torso burst, and a creature emerged, elongated and scurrying on dozens of legs it was a black centipede nearly the length of an arm. The beast crawled for the circle and crossed the glowing lines, magic sparked and burned the chitin but it was not to be deterred finally reaching a crystal and injecting something, for a moment the array flickered and then began to glow again. Perhaps a bit more subdued. The insectoid creature twitched and died, disintegrating into fine sand.
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Mireille clenched her teeth and lightning scorched shut the bleeding cuts and played along her veins cleansing her without her knowledge. She felt dizzy and worried that she had been poisoned. Stumbling she ran for the area where most of the academy staff were sitting. A bald stocky teacher in his forties with sparse grey-brown hair looked at her in alarm. “By Jaros girl. What happened?! Come here, Sarah. She needs healing.”
“We stumbled upon an assassin who killed some guards back at that enclosure over there.” Mireille gestured. “My friend went to look for a knight patrol.”
The teacher nodded and grabbed another colleague listening nearby. “Tell Magister Illimen!” The eavesdropper turned and ran up towards the royal platform. All of that was drowned in the noise from the crowd. The student that had summoned the windstorm bowed and fell to her knees before some attendants helped her to her feet.
“No stamina those young ones.” An older teacher complained near Mireille who grinned and nodded.
Grenzwald looked up at the commotion in the academy ranks and saw a red-haired girl being treated by one of the water mages. “Who is that?”
“That? One of the first years. Ah I know it’s the Branded. The one who deserted from the army of Rivenlorn. Disgusting isn’t it? Not even a magician in her own right, a commoner to boot, and still enrolled at the academy. If you need to know what is going wrong you need look no further.” The woman he had been wooing to support his candidacy confided in Taberus who smiled in appreciation. “It seems we think alike, I will do my utmost to preserve the knowledge of our ancestors for those worthy of it. Can I count on your support?”
The grey-haired thin sorceress nodded. Pulling unconsciously on her long black silken gloves.
The councilor leaned to the side and whispered harshly to his servant, “Get down there and find out what is happening.”
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Alyssa, followed by Cyrus, ran up to a knight while two of the palace guard following her turned and stood between the girl and the stern-looking woman. “Wait, please! I need to talk to you!”
“Let her come closer.” The woman was in her late twenties and armed with flamberge slung over her back. Plate mail gleaming, green golden cloak flowing behind her she cut a dashing picture. The helmet with the open visor was clasped beneath her right arm. “What is the matter?”
“There was an attack. There are several guards and a magician dead in that enclosure over there.”
The indifferent face became serious in a heartbeat pointing at two of her guards she said, “You, go and alert the commander. You, alert the patrols. I will ascertain the situation- send some magicians.” She turned to Alyssa. “If that is a prank…” Seeing the earnest eyes she nodded. “Lead the way. Cute beast you have there.” She grinned at Cyrus whom Alyssa scooped into her arms to prevent him getting into trouble in the crowd.
She pushed Alyssa and gave a hand-sign for two palace guards to precede them. Some civilians looked on curiously but were soon diverted by a quartet of magicians opening a scrying window to the southern isles showing endless blue sea and white sand beaches.
They soon reached the enclosure and the knight's lips flattened into a thin line as she saw the carnage. “You did that?” She lifted an eyebrow and looked at Alyssa with a bit more respect.
“I am a void mage, but I had the help of my friend Mireille.”
“You cut him in half.” The knight snorted in amusement before she began to inspect the area. “What for Gesserach's sake was this creature doing here.” She inspected the desecrated magician.
“I think it wanted him to be some sort of sacrifice perhaps?”
“That was a rhetoric question but you could well be right. You did well not calling attention to this. The king puts the greatest importance on this Exhibition. If it has to be canceled because of an alarm he would be furious.”
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The royal platform
Magister Illimen looked at the sweating magician and sighed before gesturing for him to wait and taking a few steps to the side of the throne. “Your majesty?” He respectfully waited as the king looked at him.
Vilander nodded for him to speak.
“There has been an attack, some guards and a mage are dead. It happened in an enclosure for the geomantic formation.”
“Figures. But this could be a distraction. Keep being vigilant, are the guards informed?”
Illimen nodded, “They should already be there.”
“Then lets not bother with such small things. There are bigger problems ahead I’m sure.” The king leaned back and took another sip from the goblet in his hand before holding it out to be refilled.
The magister suppressed a grimace and nodded. “As you wish your majesty.”
Lieseleta looked at the magister talking to her father and a cold sweat dampened her back. She felt highly uncomfortable with all that was happening. Her brother sat an arms length to her right. Alyssa, Alea and her friends were down in the crowd and it was near certain that something bad was happening right now and she did not know anything. Jera squeezed her shoulder before stepping back again. The princess gave her a quick grateful smile. Her gaze could not but fall on her brother.
Carl raised his head and looked at her, the coldness in his eyes was no surprise but there was also regret but it might have been only her delusion as he turned his head looking over the Exhibition field.
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Back with the knight and Alyssa
“Lady Kettra. Of the six circles, there are three where the guards have been slain.”
The lady knight hit the wall with a thud, dust fell where her metal-clad gauntlet crushed the stone. “How could that happen. There are patrols everywhere, wards!” she visibly struggled for control before she calmed down and asked, “What are our orders?”
“Keep patrolling. There will be mages assisting with strengthening the wards.” The guardsman with a great white mustache answered respectfully.
“How did you realize that he was suspicious?” The knight, Kettra, asked Alyssa.
“I can see void energies. He emitted some sort of dark light.”
“Could you find others like him?”
“Probably?”
“Congratulations, student, you have been deputized to the royal knights. What is your name?”
“Alyssa Miner.”
“And your friend, where is she and can she do something similar?”
“Mireille Annirstochter. She is very good with lightning magic but I don’t think she could detect something like that. “
“She has fought them and came away alive which is more than can be said for the poor souls that perished already. So tell me where she went and you two will accompany me. I like my head attached to my neck and fulfilling my duty. You will help with both.” She smiled and grabbed Alyssa with a heavy hand pulling her along.
Mireille felt dizzy. “Do you really think there was nothing on those knives? They looked like the bad guys in the street plays you know? Those who cackle madly and paste green apple juice on their wooden daggers? What if they didn’t use apples this time?”
Sarah the healer, a rotund woman of nearly fifty years could not completely stop herself from laughing. “I am pretty sure. I cleansed the wounds and you used lightning which is good at dispersing dark energies.”
“That’s the first I heard of that.”
“Lightning is fire and wind but there is also a lot of energy in it. There is a lot of light magic in lightning.” She grinned.
“I usually don’t listen when it's something I don’t need for a test.” Mireille honestly remarked.
“I’m a teacher too. Don’t talk such nonsense around me.”
“Bah. You are nice and more important I don’t have a class with you.” Mireille breathed deeply and the dizzyness got less severe.
Sarah inspected her pale complexion worriedly rubbed her chin and then said, “Perhaps it was simply the adrenaline and blood loss?”
“Maybe?”
A group of palace guards five persons strong accompanied a female knight who dragged a flustered-looking Alyssa.
“Alyssa!” Mireille got up and hugged her friend.
“That’s my part. Are you alright?” Alyssa looked her up and down before sighing in relief. “After we separated I worried that you might be poisoned and I sent you off alone. Thank the gods that did not happen.”
“You are Mireille?” The knight asked her skeptically.
“Yes, that’s me.” Mireille looked at her.
“You are a hell of a lot smaller than I thought. I wonder if I should rather let you stay where it’s safer.”
“I go with Alyssa. And if there are other monsters like the creature before I can help with that.”
“We will see.” Kettra gestured. “Come with me then, stay back if there is fighting to be done defend yourself and Alyssa first.”
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The spectator stands. Student's area.
Alea looked increasingly worried as her friends did not come back. “Iseret?”
“I know. I will go look, rely on Butler One and please stay with Vivienne and Valens too.”
Vivienne looked at them and nodded.
The snake woman frowned slightly. If only it were night-time already then Vanessa could be here too. With all the visitors checking each and every one thoroughly was impossible. But that went for the opposition too. ‘Why did they not cancel the Exhibition. There would have been time after the threat of Ulsolm had been mitigated.’
Iseret wove through the crowds and finally spotted Alyssa and Mireille walking with a knight patrol. “Excuse me!”
“Oh, that’s Iseret our...maid.” Alyssa coughed.
Kettra looked at her snake eyes. “Open-minded of you.” She raised an eyebrow, ”Mh. Armor?” She took a step forward and tapped Iseret on the shoulder.
“There have been attempts on milady's life lately. I am the maidservant of Alea von Graufurt, she sent me to make sure everything was alright.”
“We ran into some trouble and are now accompanying the lady knight Kettra.” Alyssa stumbled a bit over her lack of knowledge regarding the knight's surname.
Kettra grinned. “Kettra of Saltmarsh.”
“Pleased to make your acquaintance. I will tell my lady, she might insist on me following you, would that be permitted?”
“Certainly. The more the merrier.” Kettra nodded generously.
“We will have our parts in the afternoon.” Mireille reminded them while Alyssa gave Iseret a short outline of their encounter.
“That’s still some hours hence. So let's get to work.” The knight clapped her hands and they were off.
Iseret leaned towards Alea and spoke softly, “They apprehended an assassin, killed him, and are mostly well. No serious injuries as far as I know.”
Alea stiffened and then nodded. “What do you think” she whispered back, “Is it better for you to accompany them or stay with me?”
“They are quite capable but also still very young. I would nevertheless remain with you if possible. I think you are most likely to be targeted separately as a supporter of Lieseleta.”
Alea nodded, “Thank you. I know you are only with me to help Vanessa.”
“Don’t think too much about it.” Iseret kept her eyes on her surroundings as she talked. “She wants to protect you too.”
The smaller girl smiled gratefully, “Then I can only thank her when I see her, and you too.”
The Exhibition continued. The magic circles were inspected but despite some misgivings there seemed to be nothing wrong.
Alyssa rubbed her neck and looked around. There had not been anything noteworthy- except for the feats presented in the Exhibition of course. That made her nervous. Mireille was chatting with the knight and both seemed to have a lot of common hobbies, sword-fighting for example.
Alyssa felt like a third wheel.
Glimpsing something to her left she searched the crowd for what had caught her attention. There! Another flash of entropic power. Asandria had been quiet because of the heightened scrutiny but now she hissed, “You can use the spell I taught you to sharpen your senses.”
After speaking the spell for the Eyes of Entropy a fine shadow coalesced on her pupils before she exhaled sharply. “That man over there.” She motioned to get the attention of Kettra and the rest. “He is bathed in void-magic!” Privately she thought 'there was something cloaking him from more casual observation.'
“Then let's take him in for questioning.” Kettra looked pleasantly surprised. “I feared that you were simply lucky the first time. Men, with me.” She strode towards the man who was biting into a ham sandwich. He was dark-haired and slight of build with a bookish appearance and a hooked nose. Teary blue eyes saw them coming and widened before he jumped up and ran.
“After him!” The knight called and drew a wand which she pointed at the fleeing man. She losed two bolts of greenish energy. The man panicked and threw a serving platter and more by lucky chance intercepted both of them, the tray was soon covered in thick spider webbing and made a dull clanking sound falling to the ground. Kettra ran after the palace guards that had already overtaken her.
Mireille looked from one to the other shrugged and activated her lightning magic. Dashing forward at great speed she soon reached the fleeing suspect and simply kicked him in the knee from behind causing him to fall heavily. Screams sounded all around as spectators tried to gain some distance.
Kettra arrived shortly after the guards and they quickly shackled the man before one of them produced a wand and began to inspect him for hidden magic.
Mireille proudly puffed out her chest, “Am I still too small?” She grinned.
“No, that was well done. You can be as small as you like when you can fight like this. You are branded, am I right?”
“Yes.”
“Strange choice to go to the academy then, but it's none of my business.” She pointed at the bound and shivering man, “What’s the matter with him. Is he the one you saw?” She questioned Alyssa.
“Yes. He still emits this aura. There is something seriously wrong with him.”
“Get him to the mages.” Turning to the surrounding people she called, “Everything under control, you can return to your seats. Have a nice day.”
Some of the onlookers nodded gratefully while others smiled and applauded as Mireille waved at them.
Continuing with their patrol it soon became noon and they were hungry. Kettra distributed some rations and shrugged. “Not the tastiest but it will fill you up.” Grinning she bit into the packed bread with herbs and some strips of dried meat. “The trick is to break off a smaller piece and soften it up before chewing, otherwise you might lose a tooth. Don’t say I didn't warn you.”
“Do we know something new about the man we caught?” Alyssa asked.
“No. It's got nothing to do with us anymore. They will do what is necessary.” Kettra unconcernedly replied.
“Mh. He did not seem like a criminal. He was so timid when we caught him.” The white-haired girl frowned.