Varino sent out a small burst of air, slowing her rapid descent, all the while laughing, her bright chimes and burbling making Zerine grin. The Spirit lightly landed in front of Zerine and struck a pose. Hands on her hips, her cloak flapping in a currently nonexistent breeze, with her hood up, silver and blue eyes shining. The clock was obviously the Runic Spider silk one, as it was currently shifting through shades of blue. She also saw a recent addition, and it was adorable and immediately brightened her day.
“We got matching boots!” Zerine squeak, pointing at the tiny boots Varino now wore. Oddly, the rest of her deep blue and grey, almost transparent body wasn’t protected, unlike Zerine’s.
Why just the boots and why can she wear her cloak, she thought, but was immediately distracted as Varino jumped up and down, pointing at her boots, then Zerine’s chiming excitedly.
“I know, we match!” Zerine said, lifting a foot in the air as Varino did the same so the spirit could compare.
Their excitement dampened as a thud announced Cassel’s arrival to the small stoney outcropping.
“Why are both of you standing on one leg?” he wondered, eyeing the two who were currently frozen, each with a leg in the air with matching expressions of excitement slowly being drained.
After a second, where Varino and Zerine just stared at Cassel, both stood up straight, trying and failing to act like nothing had happened.
“We were just comparing our boots,” Zerine said, knowing that it wasn’t helping with Cassel’s impression of her.
“Comparing…boots?” Cassel repeated, like he was trying to decide either to be annoyed or amused. He decided to change the subject instead.
“Well, it’s time to train. Now I’ll open the transfer portal,” he said, walking up to the side of the mountain. There wasn’t anything special from what Zerine could tell. It looked like any part of a mountain you would expect to find when rock climbing.
Cassel placed a clawed hand onto a seemingly random spot and stood there for a few seconds. Zerine fidgeted. When they stood quiet for nearly fifteen seconds, she spoke up.
“Did-did you place your hand on the right spot?”
Cassel’s gaze was fixated on the mountain, but narrowed at her words. He grumbled unintelligibly. She only caught. “They’re supposed to have opened…fucking…where is…shit has to be..” He slid his hand over a few inches, moving a bit till he nodded. Another second went by, then glowing cracks appeared in the stone. They shone a bright yellow and spiraled outwards from Cassel’s hand.
Varino whistled an “oooh”, enjoying the light show as the yellow cracks turned orange as they spiraled further away from Cassel’s hand.
There was an audible crack, which proceeded the glowing cracks swirling. There was now a perfectly circular mass of churning yellow and orange as a portal opened.
“Now, let’s go,” Cassel said, gesturing with toward them to go through the portal.
Varino scampered over, peering at the portal, then chittered, pointing at it while looking at Zerine.
“Yeah, looks like the one back home. But you coming?” Zerine replied, crouching next to the spirit.
Varino chimed, always ready for adventure, then hoped on to her shoulder. Varino patted her shoulder showing she was ready, and they stepped in to the swirling mass of yellow and orange.
Cassel let out a breath and stepped into the portal. Here we go, he thought, mentally preparing himself to watch the two absolutely hate what was about to happen.
***
The first thing Zerine felt when they appeared was heat. It hit her like a wall of force.
“Ooh, what…the,” she trailed off, eyes going wide.
Varino oohed and aahed, then chimed. “Look at all those colorful flames!”
Zerine began wondering if Varino’s fascination with explosions was just a symptom of a growing pyromania. Before she could ponder more on the strange contradiction of a storm elemental loving fire, when Cassel appeared next to them.
“Welcome to the Burning Plains under the protection of Escanar, the Lord of Flames,” Cassel said.
Stretching out before them was a field of fire. Blades of burning green and orange grass lit the area brightly. Waves of heat crashed into them as a breeze brushed past. Even if the plains were burning, there was no smoke, luckily, so she could see clearly. Zerine spotted several fire elementals, a giant fire salamander, raptors, and more creatures as she took in the Burning Plains. The sight of the swaying flames was awe-inspiring.
She couldn’t stop smiling. In a blink, they had appeared on another continent! This was the furthest she had ever been from home, and it was…
“By the gods, this is awesome!” she said under her breath. Varino’s soft whistle of agreement only made her smile grow.
Suddenly a crimson serpent dragon flew over head. Its scales lit by the burning plains beneath it.
“Well, this is the recruit and her…what is the Celarian? A familiar or something?,” A voice said behind them, making Zerine jump.
“Kaz, this is Zerine Trevel and Varino Trevel. They are the Thunder Fairy’s and Eldar Shores Rider’s eldest and...youngest?” Cassel said, using a name for her father Zerine had never heard before.
Kaz was a red salamander Scalekin. He? Sure, he was taller than Cassel, but had a smaller, more streamlined build instead of the wall of muscle that Cassel was.
Zerine bowed her head when Kaz’s gaze flicked from Cassel to her. Varino waved, whistling with her usual bright, cheerful hello.
Kaz blinked at the spirit. “Umm, hi,” Kaz said, clearly surprised by Varino’s casual greeting. Or it might have been him uncertain what Varino said, Zerine wasn’t sure.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she could have sworn the corner of Cassel’s mouth curled up. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the salamander’s surprise and awkward hello to Varino or just how Varino usually affected people by her adorableness.
“These two are going for the starting training area,” Cassel said.
Kaz looked Zerine up and down then at Cassel, clearly saying, “Really? Her?”
Cassel only shrugged. Zerine mentally sighed, fighting the urge to roll her eyes.
“Right, then training area four is open. Is that alright with you?” Kaz wondered.
Cassel snorted a laugh. “They will be doing all the areas over the next year and a half anyway, so it doesn’t matter to me.”
“Perfect then,” Kaz said and clapped his hands together and light covered them all.
***
Later that evening…
“Cal,” Ava said.
They were in their study. Ava was looking over adventurer reports while Cal was reviewing Mili’s, Naro’s, Estel’s, and Shara’s training recordings. The recordings were all floating in front of Cal in a way that he could easily glance between each.
“Hmm, love?” he replied, his eyes still glued to the floating recordings.
“I just went over a message from Marigold saying that Vinessa was sent out for something, so they sent Varino and Zerine to the riders early. Although it sounds like she wanted to delay her training duties,” Ava replied.
Cal snorted a laugh, but nodded at what he saw in floating images. “Man, Milli has improved. She had me worried when we looked over Naro’s memories of their incident, but…she has impressed me,” he said nodding as Milli sent a four armed training dummy blasting back a shining barrier in front of hr.
“Cal, dragon riders…got Varino and Zerine early,” Ava repeated, now giving her husband a flat look.
“Yeah, I heard,” he said, still not taking his gaze from the training recordings. “You know, Shara said she might go to the Navy Academy too because of her affinities. That might cause some drama with Milli, though.”
“Cal!” Ava said sharply.
“Varino and Zerine should be fine, and it shouldn’t be a big deal if they got them early, either. Cassel is a bit of hardass when he acts as a trainer, but Varino will wear him down over the next year, count on it. Now Zerine,” Cal shrugged, his teal eyes flicking to Ava for a moment before they went back to the recordings.
“It depends. They didn’t really like the idea of her being trained as a dragon rider. It was Falkor’s flight that pushed for it, so they took the recommendation and will see what happens. If she does what she normally does, taking the train in stride, she’ll gain their respect. But it will be a process and good for her.”
“So your’re not worried about, oh I don’t, let’s say our daughter passed out after the training?” Ava wondered.
“Hmm, did she say anything about where they trained?” Cal wondered, his gaze now watching Naro’s training.
“No, so based on that reaction, you're not worried?”
“if Varino isn’t worried, I’m not,” Cal said, which got a sigh from Ava. “But it’s not unheard for that type of thing with recruits. How was Varino?”
“She is curled up, sleeping next to Zerine when Marigold sent this. But was awake earlier,” Ava said, looking back at the message from Marigold.
Cal smiled.
“Yeah, they’ll be fine, although,” Cal sat back and thought for a moment. “Training areas four, seven, and twelve wouldn’t be great this early. Those places sucked. And some would-be riders have died there.”
“And you're not worried?”
“Nah, Varino would heal Zerine up. But those are just the worst. Doing them when I was twelve was a nightmare, and I didn’t have a healer with me.”
“So her condition?”
“It could be from any of the train areas,” Cal said with a dismissive wave. “Like said, it won’t be easy. But any of those three are pushing it. They basically test everything a recruit can do and it’ll be set to Varino’s D-rank because those training areas go to the highest rank, unlike others that go for the lowest rank.”
“I don’t think that magic would even pick up on Zerine so she is probably fighting D-ranks constantly,” Ava said tiredly, while Cal winced.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Well, if the trial was anything to go by, Zerine can handle a D-rank or two.”
“Really?” Ava remarked, raising an eyebrow.
“Nooo,” Cal said, sighing. “She barely could handle one. So Varino takes front and center, but Zerine will get a lot out of this, too.”
“I hope, but I don’t want her hurting her future,” Ava said.
Cal sat up. He found her hand with his, giving it a squeeze.
“Fate breaking moments aren’t known for being sunshine and rainbows. It’ll prepare her for whatever is coming. And she’ll meet some other recruits, fairies, and people too. So, there is a bright side to this training.”
“I know…I’m just worried.”
“Me too, but not about this negatively impacting her future, but what that future will be,” Cal said, knowing all too well what Fate Breakers went through after all, his master had been one.
Silence fell, and Cal brushed his thumb over Ava’s hand comfortingly.
“We will have to wait and see how their first week goes. Knowing them, I bet we’ll be surprised,” Ava said, making Cal chuckled.
“Too, true. But we should shift this conversation to those new bandit sightings I see on your desk.”
***
A few hours earlier…
Oooh, what the heeell! Zerine thought, craning her head back, taking in what could only be described as a wall of fire.
When I joked about trial by fire, I didn’t expect it to be literal, she thought.
Before them was a mountain kinda, well it was a mountain just this side was…intense. It loomed over them, its jagged cliffs adorned with treacherous obstacles. The entire side glowed an ominous crimson and fiery orange from flows of lava and fire. Hell, she even spotted flaming boulders fall off the side, crashing into the ground in an explosion, flinging bits of fire and stone everywhere.
“Welcome to the Ascent Challenge! A test of courage, agility, endurance, and sheer willpower,” Kaz said, gesturing to the absolute insanity as if revealing a grand prize.
Zerine looked from the challenge back to Cassel and Kaz, then back to the mountain. Then back to them again. This happened a few times. Meanwhile, Varino craned her head back, with her mouth agape, eyes wide, as she stared up at the mountain. The glow from countless fires reflected in her eyes.
Varino pointed at the mountain, then whistled and chimed.
Cassel snorted a laugh, while Kaz looked confused, and Zerine groaned internally.
“She said this looks insane, but the fun kind,” Zerine said, wishing that Varino’s reaction was more inline with hers, which was in the what the actual fuck mode.
“Huh,” Kaz said, glancing at Cassel, silently asking if these two were all there, but Cassel shrugged. “Well then. There are some rules. One, you cannot use magic on the obstacle course parts. Unless you're getting blasted off the side of the mountain and you need to save yourself.”
Now Varino groaned, sounding like a dying flute, which made Zerine fight to not laugh.
“Second,” Kaz said more sternly, “You can use magic and weapons when you fight the golems. Third, don’t die.”
Fuuuck, Zerine thought, while Varino cheered, ready to go.
“Better get going, you two. The start is over by the flow of lava,” Cassel said, pointing a clawed finger.
Zerine and Varino both followed his finger. The start wasn’t marked at all. It simply was a black stone bridge that arched over a river of lava. When they looked back, their trainers were gone.
“Lets go!” Varino whistled, punching a small fist in to the air.
“Yeah, but don’t run ahead, okay? We will need each other to get through this,” Zerine said.
Varino nodded, patting her shoulder, burbling. “Together forever. But it’ll be fun, so smile.”
Zerine smiled at Varino’s words, while the rest of her knew that this was going to suck…a lot.
***
“Yep! This sucks,” Zerine grunted, pulling herself up to a rocky outcropping along the climbing obstacle. She rolled on to her back, breathing hard.
Varino appeared, standing near her head, looking down at her.
“Yeah, I know. I’m getting up,” Zerine said, sitting up. “But you haven’t fallen three different times. Got hit by wood…what do even call those spinning things?”
Varino whistled.
“Spinning wheels? but they have wooden polls sticking out of them and appear and disappear, so I don’t know if a wheel-”
Varino chimed, pointing above them.
“Yeah, I’m stalling, but…oh hey nearly there,” Zerine said, looking up at the hell still to come.
Streams of fire fell seemingly at random down the next part, which lead to another larger outcropping.
“Do you think that’s the end?” she wondered. This heat was awful. She was fairly certain that she had sweated through pretty much everything she wore and her muscles were complaining at this point. A long bath or shower was exactly what a healer would recommend, or at least Zerine imagined they would. Most likely, any healer would take one look at what they were doing and promptly start examining her mental condition.
Varino shrugged and chimed.
“True, we only fought those wolf-like golems so far. But I really don’t want to fight again. I’ve got plenty of bruises since then.”
Earlier had come to a tiny arena where three D-rank wolf-like golems appeared. Orange light filled in the cracks and lines between the stones that comprised their bodies. The glowing cracks matched their orange eyes and teeth.
The fight wasn’t much to write home about as the golems didn’t use magic, luckily, and didn’t fight as a pack. Varino had taken two, while Zerine fought one.
The ball and chain wrapping around the golems legs gave Zerine enough time to stab a sword through its head. Meanwhile, Varino had used one guest of wind to blast the other two off the side of the mountain.
***
When Zerine got to the next outcropping, they found a cave that had a warm red glow emanating from it.
“Well, that isn’t ominous or anything,” Zerine said, looking down at Varino, who had scrambled up after her.
Varino whistled, which turned into a peep of alarm as she pointed at Zerine. In an instant, water dumped over Zerine. The sound of sizzling and smoke drifted up from Zerine, who was spluttering and coughing, having inhaled some water.
“Wh-why?”
Varino waved her arms, chiming quickly.
“Part of my hair and cloak were on fire? Huh…Th-thank you,” Zerine said, coughing midway through.
After Zerine could breathe easily again, they headed into the cave to find yet more obstacles which lead up along the inside of a carven.
“Well, shit,” Zerine said, looking up the spiraling path. “At least-”
The ground rumbled and lava began dripping out of holes in the cavern’s walls that she hadn’t seen.
“And of course. Like we haven’t had enough of lava and fire today,” Zerine grumbled, following Varino, who was skipping over to the start of this obstacle. The occasional streams of lava and fire only made it stressful, not more difficult, not like it was easy. Far from it. This course had more running and jumping on top of everything.
“Now this is an arena,” Zerine said as they finally came out of the cave back on to the side of the mountain.
They stood in a half circle with a ledge leading to the next obstacle, but a barrier of blue mana blocked them from climbing the ledge.
Two blurs fell from the sky, landing in between them and the ledge with a boom. The ground shock from the two impacts, creating a dust cloud that covered the pair.
Zerine’s instincts screamed a warning. She dove to the side just in time as something whooshed over her head.
“Varino!” Zerine shouted, but she had hardly said the spirit’s name when she rolled avoiding as something smashed into the ground where she had just been laying.
A blast of cold air slammed into Zerine, who got lifted into the air. But she had expected this. With no hesitation and a thought, a scythe appeared in her right hand, which smashed down into the stone. A wince accompanied each swing at the sound of metal scraping on stone.
The air blast was powerful enough to send her lower half over the edge of the rock outcropping before the scythe, which with increasing desperation she had kept smashing into the stone, finally found purchase, saving her from falling over the side.
“Shit-shit!” she muttered, forcing the panic down as her feet dangled. Both her hands gripped the scythe’s haft with desperation. She pushed her panic aside completely as she began pulling herself up. But dread quickly replaced it as she saw what they were supposed to fight.
Two golems towered, standing at an imposing nine feet. They were humanoid variants, but had four powerful looking arms. The obsidian stone of their bodies had glowing runes etched into them. To top it all off, a violet eye was in the middle of a rather small head, matching the glow of the runes.
Varino’s serious expression was all Zerine needed to see to know these golems were more powerful than her. The blast of air had shoved the golems back and encased their legs in ice.
Probably mid D-rank, she thought, taking the moment to pull herself back onto the cliff side.
Varino chimed at her, not taking her gaze off the golems, which proved to be wise. Varino created a mana barrier as she moved, blocking a bar of violet flames from one golem. The other golem was smashing its free arms into the ice, breaking chunks away. Wind kicked up around her as clouds formed above them as Varino avoid another torrent of violet flames.
“No need to apologize. Let’s kick their asses, shall we?” Zerine said, drawing her bow out of the spatial storage.
Varino trilled her war cry, and all hell broke loose.
***
Kaz and Cassel were watching the storm elemental and crestless do the Ascent Challenge. They were approaching about a third of the way through the challenge, meaning the fighting gauntlet was about to begin.
“They’re making good time,” Kaz said, which only got a grunt in agreement from Cassel.
“How well do you think they’ll do with the golems?” Kaz wondered, trying to get more out of his silent companion.
“From what I’ve seen, they won’t die,” Cassel said dryly. “We will just have to see how they fight together when everything goes to shit.”
When the spirit trilled, Cassel frowned. “Zappy, Zappy? Why does that sound familiar? Did Cal say something about that?” he muttered, but before he could track down that memory, the fight started in earnest.
They watch as Varino countered a bar of violet fire with a jet of water, creating a steam explosion, which turned into spikes of ice that peppered the golems. Meanwhile, Zerine had drawn and fired two willpower infused arrows, which got the attention of the second golem who had finally freed itself. Each arrow slammed into golems staggering them.
Cassel unfolded his arms, surprised by the first strikes.
The golems split up, focusing on their target. For Zerine, her golem evidently really didn’t want her to use her bow because it used its four arms to cast fireballs, while its one eye blasted beams of fire at her, forcing her to dodge constantly. Varino held her tiny staff, which glowed a silver color as she and the golem traded spells. Steam, fire, ice, and lightning tore across the half circle arena.
Zerine drew three throwing knives, while spinning, then rolling to avoid the torrent of flames. The heat of the spells made her wince, but she didn’t lose track of willpower. As she got to her feet, she threw the knives, which shot towards the golem targeting her, covering the distance in a blink. Out of the three knives she managed to throw before having to avoid spells, one slammed into the golem’s head, the second hit the runes that surrounded the glowing violet eye. The third smashed into the golem’s arms, which it barely managed to move in time.
Varino chimed a warning. A sheet of ice formed under the golems feet, making the one that Zerine had attacked slip falling with a crash, while the one targeting Varino scrambled, but managed to stay on its feet. The only problem was…
A bar of violet flames slammed in to the mountainside, carving a glowing red line along the ground from the golem who had scrambled trying to stay standing, making its aim go wild. This somewhat funny reaction had two effects. The first effect, cracks spread out from the glowing trench and the outcropping tiled sharply. The second was the bar of flames caused stone to fall from above.
Zerine used a chain to wrap around the still standing golem’s left pair arms, using her willpower to tie it to the one that was currently sliding towards the cliff. With the ice and the sudden weight, the second golem crashed into the ground. Unfortunately, this entirely improvised plan didn’t go quite as expected from there.
The first golem regained control right as it neared the edge. All its arms smashed into the ground, creating fissures and only making the tilt of the arena worse. Zerine now slid down towards the violet eye of the first golem, while its fellow stopped its sliding in a less destructive action.
Varino chimed an alarm as the golem's eye staring at Zerine glowed brighter, but an explosion obliterated the golem’s head. Shards of stone shot everywhere as its body immediately went limp and started sliding once again.
The remaining golem was on all fours, but its top two arms were aimed at Varino blasting fireballs. Its head, however, was looking at Zerine. In the next moment, some rather inexplicable things occurred simultaneously.
First Varino’s spells collided with two fireballs, but that wasn’t the unexpected part. Not at all. The unexpected part was how the shockwave from the explosions would affect what came next. The dead golem’s body fell off the cliff, suddenly jerking the other golem off to its left, then the shockwave hit, forcing it back and up on to its knees. Meanwhile, Zerine had drawn her bow and fired an arrow with a rope attached to it, aiming at the mountain to stop her from sliding off the cliff. But suddenly a glowing violet eye was in its path. The arrow punched right into the eye of the golem, which just so happen to release its spell right then.
Zerine had a second to say as she attempted to creat a mana barrier, “Well, fuck.”
KA-BOOM!
Violet light bathed the area as an explosion rocked the mountainside. The blast shot Zerine off and into space, her ears ringing, while the half circle arena collapsed, raining boulders down on to the Ascent Chalange course below. Zerine was stunned, but felt air grip her, halting her fall. Then, she was lifted gently landing next to Varino, who was holding her glowing staff, using her magic to bring Zerine to her.
The spirit was grinning from ear to ear as Zerine sat on the ledge that led to the next part of the course.
Varino whistled happily, saying it was a good fight and explosion while checking Zerine for injuries. After only having to heal her ears, Varino whistled a question.
“I-I need a moment,” Zerine said, panting.
Varino nodded and sat cross-legged and meditated.
***
“Fuck,” Kaz said, impressed, watching the crumbling arena create a rock, lava, and fire slide, leaving destruction in its path.
Cassel was facepalming.
“How the actual fuck did any of that happen?” Cassel muttered.
The fight had lasted only a few minutes. But the ending…was dumb luck, teamwork, and yet more luck.
“I think the throwing knife disturbed the mana absorption of the first golem, while the arrow punctured the mana stone for the golem’s eye right at its peak absorption for the second,” Kaz said.
“This is going to be a huge pain in my ass to get repaired,” Cassel groaned.
“Well, they aren’t done yet, so who knows? At this rate, the entire mountain may just erupt,” Kaz joked.
“Don’t even. Let’s just hope the rest of this and the other affinity based challenges go smoother,” Cassel grumbled. He winced as a mushroom shaped cloud burst upwards from the lower third of the mountain, collapsing in a fiery display.
“You know what I think I heard about a bet with Cal? I think he won it,” Kaz said after a stretched of silence fell as they watch the pair rest.
“And what bet would that be?”
“I think I heard it was something about explosions and those two,” Kaz remarked.
“Wonderful,” Cassel said dryly.