Harlan was still groggy as he moved through the halls, leaning on Adina as they went to their next class.
“So, did you not sleep much last night? Sleep elixir wearing off? Want me to take notes for you?”
“I don’t want to get into it. I’ll be fine though.”
She seemed to be taking Tau’s advice and dropped the subject.
“I heard you fought one of the Golden, I heard they were almost as strong as beastkin.”
“He was weaker than me I think, but maybe his weapons just didn’t let him use his strength. He wanted to use magic more than anything else and he didn’t seem to be as tired as me even though he put more power into his spells than I did. Who did you fight?”
“A soldier wearing a blindfold, they said he was used to fighting in the darkness of deep caves so he was teaching me how to use sound to see what is coming instead of what is just there. I was taught some back home, but then they stopped. I didn’t even get any bruises from him either, it was a nice way to learn.”
Harlan’s mood worsened slightly but he knew there wasn’t anything to be done, maybe it wasn’t even a problem? Breken was always rough with him and Ava and both of them were strong.
Those two people were behind him again, their focus was different, even though he stopping feeling everything else, they still lit up on his mind sense, he could still feel their eyes on him.
There was nothing else said between him and Adina as they moved to their next class, it would be world history and then they would split up to do one of their chosen classes, Harlan would be getting his first look into what a magical creatures class actually was.
Floating in front of a massive blackboard was Vowren again who greeted everyone who entered the class
On the blackboard were written words and diagrams which Harlan could barely understand, there were a lot of swirls though.
Everyone sat in their seats and he found himself surrounded by beastkin students, Reinoans and Ragne sat in the front, larger beastkin sat in the back, the rooms were slanted but they still understood that it would be rude to block the vision of their fellow students, but between these groups was a scattering of every color robes.
Finally a snap of the fingers from Vowren started the class, the lights dimmed slightly as the room shifted, the windows were turned to only thin slits so that the students could see one another but the holograms would appear brighter.
“The world was made an indeterminate amount of time ago, some claim this process was entirely natural, some say it was the gods. I will not be speaking on this since there is simply no way to know.
Moving on to some major events in the world, this was covered somewhat in your politics class but I will be speaking briefly about the old empire which according to Reino never dissolved and according to Ragne has no right over them. Roughly 2000 years ago was the first recorded contact between humans and the gods of Reino, their gifts of magic allowed them to conquer the rest of the world, which lacked magic, in only 200 years. From there things were relatively calm, a civil war or two a decade, but they had effectively no outside threats until magical beasts such as Drakes appeared and needed to be dealt with, it should be noted that magical beasts didn’t seem to exist until after the gods appeared but they were more docile in the past. That is, until roughly 1500 years ago, the gods of Reino left for reasons known only to the grand saints and the world was thrust into chaos. Beasts which were once dealt with by mages were now overrunning smaller towns and cities, with only larger ones having the number of soldiers to actually defend themselves from the wild things which they tried to keep at bay with god blessed people. Every death now meant not just a mage was dead, it meant a mage was gone and there was nobody to replace them. Under these circumstances it makes a lot of sense that Wizards and Witches, which at the time were likely high ranking priests, became undisputed warlords of their cities and the only bastions which kept humanity alive. And I only say humanity as in normal humans, the Golden were unaffected by such things as they already held modern magic, the same could be argued of the Fomorians, though they relied on their strength more than magic, which they only really knew light and dark.”
Adina raised her hand, she knew what she thought was history and there was something off about his story.
“Yes?”
“I thought the Fomorians came into being after the gods left us? And how did the Golden have modern magic?”
“Excellent questions. For starters the Fomorians actually came into being roughly 1700 years ago, I have been warned about what is acceptable to teach, so I can’t get into the details of their creation but it was a natural process. The Golden gained their magic through godly means, but I will not get into details because of the same warning.
Now, onto Marigold’s journey. She started in the south here…”
A hologram of the country from a top view appeared over the blackboard so he could quickly illustrate where she went and when, in 10 minutes he went over every cities that would end up being free states, members of the 13 cities that would later form Ragne, or those who peacefully became part of Reino as it is today.
Then there was some talk about the start of the war which raged for roughly 1000 years before finally ending.
Reino believed that every part of the continent, which was once under the rule of their predecessor empire, should once again form a single nation, however in the 200 years when Reino was conquering its neighbors for the right to call itself the successor to the old empire and the one true Reino, nations had already formed and cast aside their belief that the gods would return and fix everything.
There were free states that were mentioned but many names were lost, others simply became cities at the heads of counties that are still around today, Ragne itself was one such city ruled by a benevolent Wizard King that once the war got too close for comfort and it was clear a stronger leadership was needed the council of 13 cities decided to hand over control to Yggdra the 1st, the war had been in stalemate ever since then.
Vowren stopped just before getting into the fall of the last free state, class was over and most students were leaving.
Harlan said his goodbyes to the rest of his group, and rushed away to his next class; he wanted to be the first in the door.
“Technically the class doesn’t start for another 10 minutes, but since you are all here I am open for questions after I ask my own. There is only 40 of you here so I have time to let all of you answer, why did you choose this class? Are you hunters or biologists? Answer from left to right, bottom row first. Stand while answering, sit down once you are done, try to keep it short.”
Harlan’s turn was here.
“I want to understand how magical beasts work. I know magic subverts physical limits, but I want to know how and if people can do it as well.”
“A good answer, if you haven’t already then find a book to learn imbibing magics, the beastkin have used these magics to great effect, though any boosts from them are temporary and can have severe backlash if used improperly.”
After everyone answered there was only a few minutes until class started, 29 of the 40 students were there for the sake of learning to kill monsters better, 6 where there because it sounded interesting and they could always change classes if they needed to between years, the remaining had different reasons but still the end goal of understanding how magic makes things more than they should be..
A vampire wanted to understand the physiological differences between magical and non-magical beings, specifically unique body parts such as the way vampires process mana and nutrition far beyond what should be in blood or how a hati is made of mostly light, but if you cut out organs from it the body still dies like a normal wolf despite not breathing or having actual blood flowing through its veins that didn’t exist anymore.
“Good, now, questions while we have a few minutes?”
Everyone's hands shot up but Harlan was picked.
“I heard bears are seen as guardians in the north from a friend of mine, why is that?”
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“Ah, well the short answer is 300 years ago the north was still cut off from the kingdom itself and many villages had patron beasts that helped them survive in exchange for things like proper homes and meals, the older a magical creature gets the smarter they get, just because they can live out in a cave in a mountain doesn’t mean they wouldn’t rather have a nice fire in a lodge made for them or a nice meal seasoned with local herbs. I grew up under a Great Wyvern myself. Of the many creatures that did live alongside humans the bears, who give or take a few years, at 30 became Arcus, 60 Callisto, 110 Metotush, have always been benevolent helpers who simply live and grown along with, but didn’t rule over humans, of the changes since the north became part of Ragne only they have been allowed to stay, every other kind of ruler was put to death or chased away because of their treatment of those under them.”
Another question was asked and half answered, Sepul didn’t want to speak about his childhood in any real detail.
“Look at the time, I suppose it is time for class now.”
With a loud clap space distorted and brought the group somewhere else.
They stood in a small forest where a group of goblins were resting, bones of small animals were strewn along the ground.
In the few shocked moments of hesitation both the goblins and students had, Sepul raised his hands and dull light left his fingers, all except for 2 of the goblins were near instantly turned to dust as the searing beams cut them down.
The two that lived were then bound in hardlight chains, their limbs taut but not so tight that they couldn’t struggle.
“Our first lesson is on goblins. Horrible little things, they are all female, with them producing aesexually along with their adaptation to any climate is why you will find them in every corner of the world, they gestate for 3 month periods but can generally only give birth to single goblins each, twins are possible but rarely observed, otherwise they would be a far larger problem, as it stands they are more of an annoyance.
The two I have bound are an unadapted and a one with a rather strong case of adaptation. Take note of the way the one on the left has bark-like skin across its entire body, and if you look closely it has sticky fibrous hairs not unlike spiders, letting it more easily fill the role of an ambush predator hanging on trees for hours on end, those on the hands and feet are thicker and stronger, those are gripping hairs, the rest across the body are either sensing or defensive hairs, you can tell which is which by length and thickness.”
Only the students whose reasons for being in the class was more scientific stepped forward to examine the goblin, the others were stunned by the sudden change in scenery, the killing of 2 dozen goblins in a split second and then the transition directly into teaching.
Sepul set people on edge at the best of times with his corpse-like appearance, but for this children it was also the first time they saw an archmage fight anything, and calling it a fight was a stretch of the definition.
“Ask questions whenever you have them, there will surely be many smaller things skimmed over by books.”
Immediately a girl from Reino raised her hand.
“What does aesexual reproduction mean?”
“They are both mother and father to their offspring, if you have ever hunted them then you’ve likely heard the warning of making sure you kill them down to the last, lest they leave to infest another place.
This brings up another point, they are things that should be killed on sight whenever you see them, but they also fill niches in ecosystems, I will be having a full class on ecology once I show you different creatures so you can better understand their roles once I hold that class, but for now know that they are spore carriers between cave mushrooms, they spread seeds for fruit trees, and they provide a source of food for other predators. They are not worthless things, because of their transient nature, always on the move, they spread plants throughout their lives, then feed the soil in their deaths. Ground goblin is actually used quite heavily in frontier farming.”
Harlan thought it was interesting, but more interesting was what he saw on the face of the wood goblin.
“What are these black spots here?”
“Good catch, most don’t notice it but wood goblins have more than just spider hair, they have a second set of primitive eyes to see above them. When a goblin reaches the final stages of adaptation they gain more extreme things such as gills or eyes or arms, though rare because of their relative weakness compared to how long they need to actually mature into such a form there are also creatures known as hobgoblins that we first assumed to be unique creatures until a pregnant one was found with a goblin baby in its womb, it is still debated if that is what really happened, but I’ve seen them myself.”
After a few more minutes Sepul pulled out a watch and checked the time.
“Unless there is anything you need to see on them, we will be starting on dissection now.”
Harlan stepped forward when the other stepped back.
“Yes?”
“I want to look at their souls before you kill them.”
“Very well. But please be careful, a soul breakdown will ruin the flesh.”
Harlan placed his hands on each of them, feeling the coldness from the wood goblin, he couldn’t be sure but to him it felt like calloused skin was what the ‘bark’ was made of.
He couldn’t find anything significant and clearly different between them in the short minutes he had, maybe if he had another hundred of them to poke around with he might find something but he couldn’t be sure.
He backed away from the goblins and Sepul raised his hand again, sending beams of light around the goblins necks and severing their brainstem.
Then he raised a table of stone where he placed the bodies before controlling hardlight tools to take them apart, every organ was placed on another table so the students could see the differences, the only major one between normal and wood goblins was an extra stomach which let them process grasses better like cows or sheep.
Some of the students who didn’t really have a solid reason to join the class turned green at the blood and guts, it was mechanical, without brutality, but most students never had to see these things.
Harlan had also asked to have the wood goblin skinned so he could get a better look at it; the skinless body caused 3 of the students to outright vomit and vow to switch classes, the only part that bothered Harlan was the stretch the wafted out when he started breaking the ‘bark’ finding that yes, it was calloused skin.
Another few students openly wondered if this was really what they wanted to spend their time at the academy doing.
----------------------------------------
The night before, at an empty field 50 miles from any other building in the academy zone, 20 stood around one.
“You got quite a few together here, even the old bag of bones.”
“We have had an alarm specifically for you for a long time, I hoped we never needed to use it”
“Good night light of man, shall we speak in words and not searing death?” Xol waved at Sepul.
“Oh? And what shall we speak of then?”
“Your letters, we found them before they were sent out. A seal on one of them broke and a courier saw the contents, we have been preparing since then.”
“Oh well, I suppose this is it then. You have my word, I will take no further actions such as this. But, when this all boils over, I will be there to say I told you so.”
With those words Sepul was gone, slipping outside of every array and ward that should’ve stopped him. Blackwall and Shifting wanted to cry in frustration, it was a quick job, but to have hours of work undone by a man over three centuries old was humiliating.
As gates started to open in pursuit they closed just as soon.
Xol made his presence known, keeping everyone at that field, his overwhelming aura setting them on edge.
“His words are spoken true, no shedding shall be here and now.”
The headmaster spoke up, deeply worried for the old archmage who he had known for decades, with age came scars, and Sepul was very old.
“Will he? Can we take the risk that he will?”
“I have wandered since the Golden were ore. I have been and will be beyond you and yours from this until then.”
Then Xol waved his boney white gold hand and every ward and array faded, though Shifting and Blackwall took this much better, Xol was something that everyone who knew about him knew was unfathomable.
It also didn’t help that he seemed to only speak in riddles and few people wanted to actually listen to him.
Everyone bowed to Xol as they opened gates and left the area until it was just the headmaster and him.
“Why are you here?”
“It was asked of me, they are needed for the then and there.”
“I doubt we would’ve lost more than Shifting and Blackwall, and only then if we couldn’t get those two out of here when the fighting got heavy.”
“Year for year he is more than me, but eons outpace centuries. Hold fear of him, lest your life slip through your fingers.”
The headmaster pinched his nose and let out a sigh, he hated dealing with Xol, he could understand him but he hated deciphering it all..
“Was this just a show for him?”
“Had he wished his words would cross countries by dawn, to leave them with the nights was no mistake, a bad bit of wax, inconceivable.”
“Why then? All he did was tell us that he wants a war with Reino to happen again?”
Xol looked at the sky for a moment before answering.
“Pride through parishings of foes, pain through parishings of friends, shouting warnings but wishing not to be the one who speaks them, I believe this is of his mind. Past hates of self, regrets deeply etched upon him, wishes to stop those regrets from being once more. There are no more words to pass between us now, fly to your nest, little goldfinch.“
The headmaster left and then it was only Xol.
Eventually he too left, but he stood there for some time and watched the stars as he thought of home before returning to his, he had a special dinner planned for his wife that he missed for what he thought was a pointless gesture from a man too proud to admit what he wanted.