Harlan and Adina were on their way to warding, he kept a constant glare that kept others away from them.
This was more for their protection than his, if he had to block one more person from knocking Adina over he would resort to violence.
“Harlan… about what you said, how would you know that?”
“The part about the gods? I’ve spoken to The Darkness. I have no idea if she is really good or evil, but she has helped me.”
“Can… can you show me around the academy later? I don’t know where to find things yet, so I’ve just been following you and trying to remember where things are.”
“Why don’t you read your map?”
She stopped in her tracks and despite the difference in size, weight, and power, he found himself pulled backwards like she was made of stone due to his own softness around her.
He could feel that she was angry and confused with some sadness in the mix.
“Are you joking with me?”
She sounded hurt by his words.
“I’m sorry? Did I say something wrong?”
She took her glasses off and Harlan saw her eyes for the first time, they were pure white, without iris.
Suddenly it clicked in his head that she was blind, that was why they called her broken.
“Why haven’t they fixed it?”
Harlan’s mouth was faster than his sense, but she seemed relieved that he wasn’t treating her differently now that he actually knew.
“My soul is broken, healing returns the body to some natural state. Even if they made me completely new eyes any healing magic might just blind me over again.”
They started moving with the flow again, Harlan noticed some people had been snickering or outright sneering at his clear weakness while dealing with the girl barely 5 foot tall and with arms like twigs.
“So, because your people consider souls something not to mess with they can’t fix your eyes with soul magic.”
“Correct, and if you offered I would refuse. I have only my family and my faith in this world, to allow myself to break our tenets for selfish reasons would cost me both of them.”
“What about friends?”
“Every friend has left me, I hope you don’t as well.”
She giggled as if it were a joke.
Harlan could feel that she was sad but trying to keep it out of her mind, not unlike him and his anger, his sense kicked in before he made an embarrassing moment in the hallway trying to comfort her.
Warding was taught by Archmage Blackwall, he began the class when he was done with headcount, not bothering to wait for the appointed time.
“Good morning. I am Archmage Blackwall and you should refer to me as such when you ask any questions. First, how many of you have cast a ward? Raise your hands.”
Every hand was raised.
“You, back of the room with red hair. What is a ward?”
Without hesitation the girl answered.
“It is a spell which is cast and hangs into the area in which it was placed, fueled by mana at the time of casting and or fueled by natural absorption of ambient mana. It is then activated by a criteria set by the caster.”
“You failed to mention warding objects. Most arrays are freestanding while most wards are placed in or on items, a warded object has the effect of the ward, not unlike enchanting, but that ward is part of the object and the breaking of the ward breaks the object and vice versa. This distinction is internal vs external wards.”
Normal looking sticks suddenly appeared on everyone's desk.
“Ward your stick with whatever you believe is necessary to prevent me from snapping it in half with my unaided strength. I am placing no restriction on mana use or warding scheme, though you only have 10 minutes to do so.”
Harlan poured a great deal of mana into his ward, though he was not experienced by any means and he was sure others could’ve done so much more with less mana and time.
Blackwall walked to each desk and tried to break a stick, most of which he couldn’t. Then he moved back to the front of the class.
“2 of you pass. Claude Dyad, Ar’Yanik Whitehorn, congratulations, you are naturals. The rest of you failed.”
There was outcry from nearly every student, Blackwall simply raised his hand, placing a ward that blocked the sound of everyone until they settled down.
“Each of you who complained will receive a mark on your record. You will not win an argument with me based on the feeling that I have wronged you. The reason why you all failed was cost and function. Some of you even warded against fire and darkness despite my saying I would only use my unaided strength. A ward must balance cost and time with function, you are all wasteful with your mana. You should ward with what is necessary and not with the idea of too many further threats. You would not ward a castle like you would ward a chicken coop.”
Another stick appeared on each desk
“Do it again. Getting better at warding is all about assumptions on what you can get away with cutting. Stone naturally resists fire, so you can use a less costly ward of flame protection, just enough to help it fight sticky fires. Wet wood is a similar case, and sometimes it is best to pair it with an array that will keep that wood damp which can be better than warding for fire in the first place. A ward that burns out too quickly is almost as bad as one that was never placed at all.”
The redheaded girl from earlier raised her hand.
“What question do you have?”
“Archmage Blackwall, I am a little confused. I thought that you would just be teaching us wards and how they work? Couldn’t I just have stayed home and warded on my own time?”
“The academy is the largest gathering of knowledge, we have the most extensive library on the continent. But the real reason for you to be here is to learn from your elders so you don’t make simple mistakes just because no one told you better. Ideas formed in the dark by single individuals who think they know what they are doing will never beat those made by melding minds with people who have already passed those hurdles and, most importantly, are willing to help you pass them. Mages rarely share without either asking for contracts or other personal spells. A few words can save you hours or even days of work because you approached the problem from the wrong angle. No more questions until the end of class.”
The rest of the class was Blackwall walking through the rows of desks and giving out advice as he saw fit. By the end of the class only 10 more students got his approval, Harlan was not among them. Though he did not tear down those who failed, instead saying he hopes to see them tomorrow and giving out advice before they left.
Though Harlan did need to ask a question.
“I just wanted to double check, but your warding ability isn’t the same as internal warding, right?”
“No, my unique ability lets me place a ward in an object and then use that object to place wards. Internal wards on the other hand cannot be removed without dispelling the ward, and if that is done roughly then the object breaks. I’ve would liken it to a brush by which I can draw wards of different sizes and shapes into an area, even your soulsmithed items cannot do that. Warding is- Sorry, I’ve gotten off track, make your way to your next class before you are late.”
Then it was off to basic arrays.
The teacher was a young woman with messy red hair and intense but tired green eyes that watched the clock like a hawk, starting the class at exactly 11.
A student sat at a desk near the teachers with a notebook.
“Good morning, I am Archmage Aria Shifting. You may call me Aria. A show of hands for those who have cast an array before?”
There were no hands left down.
“Good good…” She muttered to herself.
“Fomoria. What is an array?” She said as she suddenly pointed towards him.
“A spell that reacts to something the caster has defined and can be placed in an area or object. It causes effects whereas a ward stops effects.”
“Now, make a light array above your desk that activates based on whatever you want. I will show you the movements and words then you have 5 minutes..”
Harlan played it safe, making an array that gave off a uniform light whenever anything entered the area.
As he waited for the testing phase he just looked around the room. He had never seen so many people casting magic together, warding didn’t cause so much distortion since they were focusing it into an object, he could see the mana swirling and being drawn into shapes in front of the other students, he thought of the dancing the night before they left for the academy.
When the time was up Aria moved her hands and the arrays were pulled towards her one by one. Harlan had never seen anything like it, he was pretty sure a large part of why people used wards and arrays was their difficulty in being influenced once cast.
She spent a few seconds with each array, moving her hand in and out, then waving a stick though it, followed by her casting a privacy veil around herself, ending it with a small fireball hanging inside the array, that she changed in size and intensity. Several arrays burnt out with a bright light as the fireball grew too large for it. Harlan was surprised at the speed at which she worked, testing the 200 first year students arrays in just a few minutes, then sorting each of them in a way Harlan didn’t understand.
“Fine work. These ones activate based purely on movement through them, a very basic way to do it, but the obvious issue is how sensitive they are. You don’t want an array that turns on every time a bird or a leaf flies through it. Which brings me to these over here, they activated through heat, you, tell me why you made such a choice?” She pointed at a pale boy in red robes.
“Vamp- No, my people have a lower body temperature than normal humans. I have been taught to tune an array to the temperature of a human as a detector.” He received some harsh looks from the students of Reino as he called vampires his people, they were being fairly peaceable, though only because the academy had started to actually go against the country to stop their bullying of non-human races. They hated to be reminded of their own weakened state allowing those they barely consider people to openly attend.
“Take notes everyone, because this is what arrays are all about. Tuning an array to do exactly what you want and to do nothing at all when you don’t want it too. An array which can be tricked can be taken down far more easily and is less likely to get your target. I’ve seen more than enough deer set off an array and torn to ribbons because someone tuned it for weight or size without taking into account local wildlife and I have seen enough arrays safely drained because someone let them turn on when something activating them when they shouldn’t. Now, the last set of arrays here are ones that check light levels and turn on when the dark comes. These are most commonly used as nightlights for children who are afraid of the dark.”
Some of the students who made them blushed in embarrassment. The reason they knew how to do such a thing was written on their faces.
“By the end of the class I would like everyone to get at least one of these other methods working on their own arrays. Warders are expected to be more specialized, but arrays are more of a general skill, another tool in your belt. Knowing how to make the right array, even a simple one, can be the difference between life and death. I will be free after dinner should any of you wish to speak with me, simply set an appointment with the receptionist at the staff building behind the academy.”
Harlan found the other methods easy, his second array could react based on heat and darkness,
his third could detect soulsmithed items, though it was very specific and only activated when that item was used on it, making them more of a novelty than a useful array.
Aria was quite happy to see him moving beyond what was asked of him, though as he started getting lost in his work and making arrays until they were getting dangerously close to other students work she had to bring him back to reality.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“If you don’t care for any of your other classes I would be glad to have you join mine. Or even just a chat every now and then?”
She saw some of her own self destructive nature in him, she had abused anti-sleep elixirs in the past when she felt she was near a breakthrough. But she knew Harlan barely needed to sleep at all, so she thought
‘I could use someone who isn’t so afraid of a few weeks without sleeping.’ She knew she couldn’t force him to join, so if nothing else she wanted to chat, putting seeds in his mind she hoped would bloom into a love of arrays.
“Yeah, I might just do that. By the way, how did you move those arrays?”
“That is my secret. I became an archmage for it, but I will never teach a soul to do it. The dangers of wards and arrays being made useless against an attacker is something I cannot do.”
“Don’t you need to give up knowledge to be an archmage?”
“We can have a chat about what it means to be an archmage another time. I need to grade this last batch of wards then you need to eat your lunch. Wouldn’t want to wear yourself out now, would you?”
Harlan didn’t feel particularly hungry until she mentioned it.
He still wasn’t fully recovered from his mana abuse overnight, worrying about his habits once again.
He waited outside the door to the classroom for Adina and then headed towards the cafeteria.
He could feel two people following him, at least he believed it was two people, they seemed to blend in with the crowd, but he knew that they were focused on him in particular at least.
For lunch they had smoked fish and assorted vegetables, though the servers all warned not to eat too much since melee combat classes were soon.
Harlan never had much fish, the oceans were far off and the local rivers had more small fish than large, making them poor for eating. That got Harlan thinking about where the academy got their food. He hadn’t seen supplies come in yet, though he hadn’t been there long. He was awoken from his food and logistics when Adina finished her silent prayer and spoke to him.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Where does the academy get its food? I’m sure they just bring it in on carts but I’ve not seen it happen yet.”
“Does it matter?”
“No, not really. I just wonder about these things.”
Harlan went back to eating his food.
There was little chatting as they were all digesting their lessons from earlier.
Eventually a bell rang, the sign that they should head to their classes.
As they walked to the first year sparring room he noticed that outside of a few cases, the vast majority of people who were bumping into them intentionally were from Ragne.
He expected a lot more hostility from everyone, but barely any student of Reino had so much as spoken to him beyond Adina. He would’ve thought it was just because of the truce between the countries, but he still saw the small bits of bullying by them towards beastkin, sneers and stepping on their feet, harsh words and strings tied on the beaks of birds.
Though they did retaliate at times, stepping on feet or bumping didn’t work so much on an Ursa or a Minos, even if they were the same age they had at least a foot and 150 pounds on any student around them. That mixed with the more tight knit, less poisoned by internal politics community that the beastkin had was turning it from a problem between individuals into a problem with a group.
Harlan ruminated on their retaliation, thinking it justified, but it wasn’t really his problem.
They entered the sparring room. Harlan was impressed by the magic that was needed to make such a thing, it must’ve been 1000x500 but from the outside the room shouldn’t have been more than 200x100.
But more important than some spatial magic was Selen, she wore her Nightwatchers equipment in place of the normal teachers robes.
He could feel her mind, she was happy, as for why? He couldn’t tell, but it set him in a better mood anyway.
“Good afternoon. I am Selen, professionally known as the Whitewhip of Aine, formerly known as The Red Wind, feel free to call me by either name, I am not a stickler for such things. Now, before we start I am going to say that any students of Reino are not required to participate in this class unless they choose to. We here at the academy understand the needs and creeds of every student. If you are not going to take part in soul defense then you may either sit at a bench or spar in the rings to pass the time, though you should keep in mind that we will be doing melee combat classes after this class, so do mind your pace.”
There was some grumbling but the students of Reino stayed, apparently some soul magic was acceptable to them.
Selen nodded her head and raised her hand, the many rings she wore came into his vision. She shifted the ground of the room into seats and a work table for students, each group of 2 would share a table, Harlan guessed the rings were to do things like this, the spells that made a class better, light projections, teleporting class materials in.
“Now, for starters. No spells are to be cast on others in this class, in fact-” She snapped her fingers, causing arrays to spark into life in his mana sense.
“These arrays will stop any attempts to cast any spells on another person.”
Two more snaps of her fingers, which Harlan was absolutely sure were for show, shuffled students around to keep them out of reach of one another, then an array appeared that he didn’t recognize.
He was too caught up in looking over the simple runes he could see vaguely formed in the air denoting an active array that wasn’t protected from snooping to notice that something was coming at him like a distortion in the air.
“I was told that you basically invented this. I am supposed to tell you not to mention anything about this process to the other students, ignorance of what they could do with it will be a safeguard from them hurting themselves or others.”
Then she was out of his mind; he needed to ask her how she could do such a thing over a distance.
“This first class will be entirely about soul searching, which is to say finding your own soul.”
She said some words about resonance and souls being forms of stable contained mana but Harlan knew all of it already, this first class was almost entirely worthless to him.
That is, until she actually gave out the spell, speaking words clearly and moving her hands slowly.
Most mages spoke in barely a whisper, some didn’t even make any audible sound at all to avoid making it easier to replicate their magic. To hear such clear words was almost foreign to him at this point, Autumn and Amber moving beyond such things while he was gone. At that thought, when he was gone, when he was taken away. He froze in the middle of his spell, having to focus so he could calm himself a little, turning down his emotions though Lugh did warn him to be careful doing that.
He replicated the spell on his 1st try and improved it until his 8th.
It felt wrong to him at first, the mana chased his will in a sluggish manner compared to what he could do even unstructured. He shifted his hands and changed the accenting on the words until it felt right, he would’ve started working on trying to make a new spell with this as the base but it was getting to be time for the class to start doing real work.
Once she felt that the students could soul search well enough she ended the class, praising the students for all getting it in the timespan of a single class.
Harlan thought that she was just trying to build confidence in them.
Eventually the melee classes would be starting, a golem came over with a bucket and moved the gore around him into it, carrying it back through the gate they came from.
Harlan tried looking past the gate, but a veil had been set up to avoid seeing beyond it.
Selen clapped her hands, causing rings to form and the desks and chairs sink into the ground.
Harlan couldn’t see any deformation in the floor like he would expect, he wondered if the walls were turning hollow, where were they getting the materials to make these things?
“Alright. Now, first things first, each of you will be sorted with an opponent suited for you based on what we already know about you. The goal will be simple, knock your opponent down or make them otherwise submit. You will be given wooden weapons shaped after your own weapon of choice, for those who don’t have a usual weapon you may go to the racks near your ring and pick something out, feel free to also switch between rounds if you feel a weapon is not suited towards your style. If we believe excessive force is being used you will be warned, and if you continue you will be reprimanded, this is a spar, not a duel. Magic can be used only if it can be used with a single word or a simple movement, for example.”
She lightly kicked her foot and a gust of wind blew low on the ground, it could be felt but it didn’t ruffle anyone's robes.
She then started pointing at students, their robe would faintly glow in pairs and they were pointed towards a numbered ring.
Generally speaking beastkin fought beastkin of a similar build to them, girls were paired with girls, people who had no idea what weapon to use were paired up.
It was all similar skill levels and or physical attributes.
Then there were 2 people left, Harlan and a Golden boy, maybe it was one he met before? He couldn’t place his name.
“Instructor Selen, I don’t believe that I have anyone left on my level, it would be better for the two of us to do physical training.”
“That is true, Harlan is a bit above you but I think it will be fine for both of you to spar. Please go to ring 100. Please don’t argue. Harlan, this is Delmet. Please avoid harming him.”
The boy was fuming but followed her command, her tone left him no room to argue without getting a mark on his record.
They spoke no words between them on the short walk but Harlan already felt like he knew him since hearing his name knocked his memories back in place. Arrogant, thinking himself above others because they aren’t what he is, not who he is, likely he had been praised instead of shunned because of this.
Harlan was spiraling, inventing events in his head to be angry over, wondering what if he had been a Golden instead of a Fomorian? Would he have even been taken away? Would he have lived a more normal life, heading off here at the same age but without all of these other things clouding his mind? Would people still want him dead? Would, would, would.
He didn’t understand where these thoughts were coming from and tried to push them away due to them feeling natural but not like they were from him.
They stepped in the ring after grabbing their wooden weapons, Delmet held no real weapons, only sloped shields on his wrists which let him deflect weapons without stopping him from using his hands for signs.
The Golden were not as physically blessed as the Fomorians, though Harlan’s mixed blood Delmet was still nearly as strong as him, a gap which would widen over the years should Harlan keep up his workouts. But magically, they were the people designed by Aarde for their needs, they were blessed by all elements and held more mana in their souls than anyone other natural beings, hand to hand for them was the only real answer since any weapons would simply lose out to their magics, they were, in a sense, glass cannons, but very very effective ones, few things lived long enough to make them worry about using up their mana.
They stood facing each other with rings of light at their feet to show them where to stand with another ring of light hung in the air between them as a timer till the start of combat.
5
4
3
2
1
Harlan felt somewhat nostalgic seeing the boy's stance, Gilly had nearly permanently disfigured him, but other than that it was an alright night.
Delmet rushed him, Harlan knew that stabbing would likely be a bad idea, the boy clearly wanted to deflect his sword and then take him down, so instead he used his head. Rushing between the arms the boy held in a wide stance expecting an attack from the outside Harlan stuck his blade in his inner elbow and pushed down, the other arm moved, but not for a punch, rather a simple touch was all it took.
Harlan’s body stiffened as the electricity surged through his body, yet it was a shock intended to immobilize a human, not Harlan.
“Never should’ve gotten close, Fomorian.”
“I will keep that in mind, thanks for the advice.”
Harlan simply grabbed Delmet’s arm and tossed him to the ground.
Point Harlan.
The next round started with Harlan in a stance ready to pounce as Delmet drew close, though this was a simple misdirect Breken taught him.
When he got in range Harlan tossed the sand in the boy’s eyes and kicked his legs out from under him, Harlan disliked drawing out fights when he didn’t need to.
“COWARD” He said as he got the sand out of his eyes.
“A fight is a fight, go to a graveyard to find the ones who fought with honor.” Had he known he would be quoted, Breken would’ve never said these words to him.
They traded rounds back and forth for a little while, Delmet used magics bluntly to overpower and knock Harlan down, Harlan used small tricks, mist and illusions and mud to get quick wins.
Finally Selen was looking over the fights and telling some of the students not to bother doing another round since they would go over the allotted time if they did, but Harlan and Delmet got the go ahead for one more to determine an overall winner, Harlan was actually a point ahead of him, so it would really just lead to a tie.
Harlan was feeling the strain of keeping up with a Golden when it came to magic, not only was he not as well trained but his overall reserves were simply lower by his very nature. He decided that if there was a way to win, it was with the thing he was best at, the thing which he quickly learned was his greatest strength, his body, he trusted and hoped his plan would work.
As soon as the round started he rushed forward as fast as he could.
Delmet wanted to humiliate him, for he was a Golden, he didn’t just believe he was better, he knew he was better. Getting into a tiebreaker match with a Fomorian was simply unacceptable to him, losing was unthinkable.
He turned the dirt of the arena to sand then tried to put up a wall of sand, listening though it to know where Harlan was so he could send the wall forward to finish the fight.
He heard Harlan lift off, they had done this song and dance before and Harlan knew Delmet could hear the sands.
He dropped to the right trying to circle around him, Delmet sent the sandwall surging forward a split second after hearing the sound of something hitting the sand.
Unfortunately he judged wrong, he knew something landed but he didn’t know what, Harlan finally hit the ground right in front of the boy without his sword in hand.
Doubly unfortunate however, was that Delmet expected a fakeout like this.
He hit Harlan with an open palm strike charged with enough electricity to kill a large man.
For Harlan however, his heart simply stopped for a few moments before Selen called a doctor and revived him.
He wheezed as his body realized that he was alive again.
“Good… Hit…”
Delmet got yelled at for nearly killing Harlan, but what he was more upset about was that she tried to disqualify the match, leaving him a point behind Harlan, what upset him more was that Harlan argued in his defense.
“I don’t want your pity, Fomorian.”
Something about the way he said it tickled a deep part of his soul and Harlan threw a punch that broke Delmet’s jaw in 3 places before Selen realized what had happened.
Harlan hadn’t even realized what happened at first, Delmet was on the ground bleeding everywhere and screaming, Selen was horrified that Harlan did that out of nowhere, but Harlan also felt worry from her.
----------------------------------------
The Darkness liked to find futures, the less likely they were to happen they more interesting they were to her, peasants rebelling and turning to nobles, magical beasts forming kingdoms, the deaths of gods, these things were wonders to her, though the cause and effect required for such things to happen were always strange and she had no desire nor right to force them.
But she began to worry, this was not the first time this had happened, but it was the first time in such numbers that so many futures shared a single threat, something strong enough to end all life was here, or it was coming, futures were hard to place in time when she sighted so far ahead.