“Look,” I exclaimed, pointing at building 16 on the map I was given, “They’ve got an entire building devoted to storing their books!”
“Interesting,” Lunia distractedly muttered.
Not paying any mind to her apathy,
“Like you said, Celestia’s one of the best schools in the world, so their books have got to be special. What do you think?”
“I don’t know,” Lunia forcefully answered, blankly looking down at the incredibly large black colored board hanging on the front wall of the lecture hall.
Reaching building 55, immediately after checking in with a man in gray robes at the front entrance, we were led to an incredibly spacious, warm colored room where we would presumably be taking Mana 101. At the very front of and in the middle of the two entrances to the room was a slightly elevated, wooden platform on which a lone lectern stood.
The remainder of the room was taken up by three sections of over a dozen rows of rapidly ascending, curved and continuous wooden tables, on top of which a notebook and a black cylinder covered with gold details were placed where there were seats.
Having been some of the first few to enter the lecture hall, Lunia and I had chosen the very back row of the middle section to sit at.
Letting my cushioned wooden chair fall back to the ground, I blankly stared at Lunia, pondering over what I needed to say in order to cheer her up.
“...Stop worrying so much,” I finally advised, “Look on the bright side. Even though you didn’t have to, you helped someone. So what if you weren’t able to do it the way you wanted to, or that the methodology was less than desirable? The end result was good, and isn't that all that matter?”
Sighing, Lunia pushed out on the metal panel that was nailed into the table and covered our legs from view. Leaning back, she let her arms hang over the sides of her chair’s plush armrests.
“I guess,” she disinterestedly replied, “But I can’t help but think that I could have acted differently, made it so that everyone left the encounter feeling happy.”
She looked at me, gauging my reaction,
“I hate it,” she continued, “Hurting other people I mean.”
“I … came here with an open mind. At Frosthelm, vven when I was being monitored every second, of every minute, of every hour, for years at a time, and not even able to feel the sunlight directly on my skin and still just as naive as a newborn babe, I at least knew that if I were to attend Celestia, it was inevitable I would one day be forced to come to blows with other prospective students."
“But it was so much worse than I ever imagined. I thought,” she paused, “I thought, I’d hit them a few times, make it so that they’d give up, the pain too much for them to stomach. At least, I thought the grown ups in black robes that watched to the side, I thought they’d step in, stop the match at the first sight of blood."
“But I was wrong,” she self mockingly laughed, “Nothing went the way I thought it would. Even as their faces were already beginning to turn purple, and blood began to drip from their lips, they kept on fighting, still so full of energy.”
With the harsh white light emanating from the panels in the ceiling shooting into her eye, she turned to her side, completely facing me,
“I hate the feeling of my sword cutting through their flesh, the way their blood immediately seeped out and splattered onto me. I hate the sound their bones made, the crunch as they fractured, jutting out such that I could see the bone stabbing through the skin. I hate the guttural, beastial roars that left their mouths as they charged at me, still intent on fighting even with one foot already in the grave."
"... But I hated the feeling of being hurt more.”
She paused, rubbing her forehead with her wrist and breathing in,
“And the black robed seniors,” she bitterly smiled, “They didn’t care, not even responding as I yelled at them, begged them to end the match, only saying that if I so desired, I could give up, forfeit the match.
“For just a moment, I considered doing so. To lay down my sword, to take off my improperly secured leather chest piece, to give up, to still be able to look at myself in the morning."
"But just as I was about to do so, so eager to free myself from my suffering, an indescribable, burning rage overcame my heart. For what reason should I give up, when that which I had desired for well over a decade was finally so close within my reach?"
“I’m still a human," she choked, "But even so, am I not entitled to dream, to wish for a better future as well?"
“So I continued. I continued to slash, hack, stab my way forward.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
She reached for my hand,
“When I came back from my second duel, and couldn’t find you anywhere, I panicked."
“I ran outside, so frantic for any trace that you actually existed, that you weren't just another hallucination of mine."
“Fortunately, a passing instructor quickly noticed me, and even more luckily, he also knew Thalric, and I was able to find you at the healers, unconscious and hurt, but still alive.”
“It’s funny,” she blankly stated, her eyes cold and dead, “When I fought my third and fourth duels, so eager to wrap them up as quickly as possible to get back to you, the judges were quicker in stopping the match, and declaring me the winner.”
Tightening her grip on my hand,
“The decisions I’ve made, I made them thinking that what I was doing could be considered right,"
”But I don’t know anymore.”
“Sol,” Lunia called out, her voice hauntingly frail, as if a gust of wind was enough to completely shatter her, “Does it ever get easier?”
I stared at Lunia’s hand still clasped onto mine, holding on for dear life,
“...No,” I answered, “I’d say being stabbed still hurts the exact same, whether it be your first, third, or even thousandth time.”
Clenching my hand so tightly her knuckles began to turn white,
“And we’ll never know if what we did in the past was good, or even right."
“But so what? The river of time will continue to ebb and flow no matter what we decide to do. You can agonize over what’s already happened for an eternity, but if you do so, before you know it, your life will have completely passed you by, and what should’ve been your future has been consumed by your past."
“I’m nowhere near smart enough to agonize over the way the world functions, nor conjure up esoteric philosophies on how one should best live their life; all I know is that I want to find what I love in this world no matter how small and insignificant it may be, and nurture it, such that my love can grow to its fullest potential."
“And I can’t do that by obsessing over that which has already withered away, long dead.”
Lunia stared at my face, before getting up from her chair, and hugging my neck from behind, her hands placed atop my chest.
“...Thanks,” she rested her chin on my shoulder, and whispered, “I think I feel a bit better.”
I scratched my scalp, my cheeks beginning to burn up.
“...No problem.”
***
The sound of a slamming wooden door reverberating throughout the room, everyone inside the lecture hall, a little under 400 people in all including Lunia and I, jumped in our seats, sitting up just a bit straighter, our faces becoming just a bit more serious.
Followed by a dozen others in gray robes, an incredibly tall, stone faced man walked into the room.
His deep brown colored eyes scanning the room, he picked up a thin, small cylindrical white stone from the ledge of the hanging board, and began to write,
“Magic, at its most basic, is the recreation of some natural phenomena, via the use of mana, an invisible to the human eye energy source that permeates the world around us.”
Turning back around, his face distorted with disdain,
“If I were you, I’d be writing this down.”
Hearing his words, I immediately opened the leather bound notebook in front of me, and confused, I inspected the black and gold metal tube beside it.
“Here,” Lunia whispered, tugging, separating, and placing on the opposite end the short part of my black cylinder, “Pens use ink, so be careful with what you write.”
Lightly touching the end of my pointer finger with the pentagonal point of the pen, a black dot immediately appeared, dying my skin.
Quietly thanking Lunia, I began to take notes.
“...agic, in the traditional sense, is cast via the introduction of mana into a closed system. This closed system typically takes on the form of a “circle,” but any number of forms can be used, although it’s very much recommended for you to stick to circles, as alchemical engravings also most commonly take on this form, most primarily due to the stability the circle shape provides.”
Briefly pausing, he put the white stone down, and completely turned to face us,
“Forgive me, I’ve overlooked something very important. Each and every one of you should have gotten a metal point band. Please rub it parallel to the direction it runs three times.”
Doing as he said, an arcane, blue circle briefly lit up, before disappearing, a white 150 taking its place on my bracelet.
“Because of the quality of the catalyst used in the engraving, the magic circle is powered strictly through absorbed environmental mana. To transfer points, activate the magic circle, then line the bracelet or the point reader up, where immediately afterward, your bracelet will prompt you on the amount of points you wish to transfer. To deactivate the magic circle, rub it three times again."
“In the event of your bracelet being lost, or damaged, points will be deducted on a case by case basis."
“If what I’ve said so far sounds interesting to you, please attend Alchemy 101, the details of which can be found on the timetables my assistant professors are currently passing out.”
Turning to Lunia, I opened my mouth, about to ask her if she wanted to go with me, but I was only able to blankly stare at her, too surprised at the number displayed on her point band.
7000
“In the beginning, harnessing mana is a bit difficult, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes much easier. For those of you currently unable to sense mana, close your eyes…”
“Are you okay?” Lunia worriedly asked, tapping my bare scarred forearm.
“Yeah,” I murmured, forcefully shaking my head side to side, “I was wondering, do you want to go with me to the Alchemy 101 class he mentioned?”
She absentmindedly rubbed the groove underneath her nose, lost in thought.
“Sure, couldn’t hurt,” Lunia shrugged, before smiling and reaching towards me, “Let me see your map for a second.”
“What?” I leaned back, holding my map far away from her, “You have your own.”
“Yeah,” she nodded, “But I want yours.”
“No.”
“Pleeease?” Lunia quietly begged, her blinking eyes widening and looking up in an attempt to rouse sympathy, though she was only able to make me laugh.