I turned from my book as my sister entered, slamming the door on the way in. She was completely drenched with water and was stomping to her room. “Why are you wet?” I asked, she opened to her mouth to say something then stopped and looked down at herself. She completely froze for a second, before sprinting to her room, pushing past her handmaid. A seconds later a shrill scream reached my ears, something about ‘That bitch!’.

I tried to get out of my chair to see what was happening, but my arse decided to remind me of yesterday’s ‘fight’, making me cringe to the point it almost hurt. I could still remember his face, the soul drenching fear that overcame me when the arena turned black, him towering overtop me, judging me, holding me in complete stillness with his stare, turning my blood to ice.

I shuddered, my sister out of my mind, and just sat still. How could I have known that I challenged a master mage? He was just sitting in a high-class inn and wearing commoner clothes! The high-level mages I knew loved the luxuries in life, wearing what he wore would be a form of punishment to them.

I distantly heard my manservant offer me some tea or biscuits, but I just ignored him, lost in my mind, all physical pain forgotten. I sat like that until Lars came to ask more questions. He had wanted to know everything I knew about the mage when I came back to the inn last night. He asked me questions about the fight, but I wasn’t inside the room then, I wasn’t inside me. Everything from that night was a blur, but his burning eyes, they were seared into my memory, the soul quacking fear.

I still felt some of that shock today, but it had severely lessened from last night, so I did my best to answer my head bodyguards' questions. “I want to know everything that happened before and after the duel, tell me everything you know about the man you fought, Ruther.” Lard was a tall man, bespectacled. He was very secretive, only my father knows he who is, his name was probably fake as well.

I re-laid everything I could remember about Ruther and our fight, but after he had attacked everything became a blur, my mind refusing to remember anything more. After I told Lard everything I knew he just sat back silently, watching the wall. I did the same, going back into my thoughts. “Yes, this Ruther is powerful indeed. Your bodyguards couldn’t interfere let alone see your fight, he did something to block them, they even called me in to help and he blocked me as well. He is truly an archmage, which is strange since we have no records of him.”

Lars never punishes me or says I do anything wrong, his voice is always flat, but I could still hear him saying how stupid and disappointing I was. That thought stung more than the physical pain, embarrassment and shame adding to the fear and shock already warring inside me.

“I spoke with the man today and he was very perceptive and prepared. He has images of you out in public last night, I do not know how he has control of the enchantments to do such a thing, I believed that our kingdom was the only people with such technology, but that only means we need to be even more cautious of him.” My brain froze when Lars spoke of meeting with the man. He could have angered him, maybe he followed Lars to the inn to finish the job, he could be a disguised as Lars right now, hiding behind an illusion, he’s going to torture and kill me. I started breathing heavily, my eyes looking for the nearest escape.

“Calm down prince! I do not believe that Ruther has any plans on harming you, for him, I believe the challenge was just a way to teach a child a lesson, and I believe you should take that lesson to heart. From now on I forbid you from entering in any more duels until further notice from your father and do not make any scenes in public. If you see the man again immediately signal for me.” Before yesterday I may have argued, complaining about the unfairness of the punishment and how he had no right, but now I just meekly nodded.

“His apprentice is enrolled in the academy as well, he was not a student before yesterday, entering with such short notice should not be allowed, so his master must have some sway with the headmaster, which will make removing the Ruther much harder, if we even can. He did not seem to be lying when he said that it would be hard to kill him. Either way, I do not want you to make contact with his apprentice, if contact is unavoidable vacate yourself from his presence immediately.” I almost yelled when he said that he would be removing the Archmage, but I kept myself in check and nodded.

“Good, you will attend the academy tomorrow, your teacher has been swapped last minute for someone I do not know, which seems like an awful coincidence after an unknown master mage appears in the city. For now, stay vigilant, I need to deal with the mess your sister made today, and find out exactly what happened in that classroom.” The normally unflappable bodyguard was looking a bit overwhelmed for the first time I had ever seen. He still appeared neutral to an outside perspective but knowing him for as long as I had and only seeing him in control, I could tell he was drowning in stress.

Lars got up and walked to my sisters’ room, who had her door closed and was currently yelling at her handmaid.

I stared into space for minutes the past day running through my head. Everyone I had ever met had always bowed before my father’s name and title. I had always used it to get out of problems and force people to show respect. But Ruther did not bow, no, I could see the weakness in calling upon my fathers’ name, he earned respect through his leadership and power. If I wished for that same respect I needed the power to earn it.

With new fire in my eyes, I set about to clearing my mana pathways. Fighting through the pain, the fear was worse, I could live with a bit of pain.

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TAY POV:

My brain hurt, and that was only introductory maths. If that wasn’t bad enough my body still hurt from yesterdays ‘exercising’. The only thing worse than how I was currently feeling was the embarrassment of seeing the princess again and the way Ruther treated her. He could have let her off easy, but no, he had to make a scene.

I never wanted to see her again, but at the same time, I wanted to be around her, to see her. Her perfect face, her nice body, her large … No, focus. She would probably kill me before speaking to me.

Following the signs, I found my way to the cafeteria. The cafeteria provided free - at least that’s what Ruther told me - food to everyone who enrolled and there was a constant trickle of people entering and leaving the room.

Upon entering the room, the first thing that stood out to me where the table, they were made out of dark and expensive-looking wood, with padded chairs to match. The room was clean with lots of natural light being let in through windows looking out into a large park surrounded by academy buildings. The park was lush green, with trees providing strategically placed shade. The entire cafeteria was well and above the quality I would have expected to see in an academy.

The line for the food was short with lots of kiosks. The kiosks didn’t have anyone at the station, just a few buttons on the counter, with different pictures of food with labels above them. Pressing some food that looked nice a plate came out of a hole in the wall with the food I ordered.

Finding a table without anyone around I plopped myself down and dug into my surprisingly good food. My peace and quiet was ruined by the sound of a plate landing on my table. Standing opposite me was a young woman with brown hair in a short cut, wearing green shorts and a blue shirt, complimenting her green eyes that where currently ruining my solidarity!

“Can I sit here?” she said in a chipper voice.

I was about to ask her to leave then realized she was a girl, which was quickly accompanied by hearing Ruther’s voice in my head calling me a womanizer and a perv. Fuck of imaginary Ruther.

“Sure,” I tried giving her my best smile, but I was seriously out of practice. She pulled out a chair and sat down.

“Great! The food here is amazing don’t you think? I never have food this good back at home. My names Ash by the way.” She put her hand out and I awkwardly shacked it, not having to give a handshake in years.

“Yea, it’s good, I haven’t eaten anything this good in a long time.” Thou truthfully, what I would usually eat was literal garbage, so anything was better than that.

She looked down at my plate, “Yea I can tell.” I gave an awkward chuckle. I may have gone a little overboard with ordering food, as it was piled on top of my plate. If I was going to get free food, I was going to eat until my stomach was about to explode. Old habits die hard.

Talking to her really brought out how long I hadn’t talked to anyone casually. I was not accustomed to socializing and mostly let her talk, which she seemed to enjoy doing. I found out she was a very minor noble who got into the academy by virtue of a scholarship. Her favourite colour was blue, she was around my age, in all my classes, except maths and hated dresses for a myriad of reasons.

I avoided saying anything too in-depth about me, the last thing I wanted was for a rumour of me being a former vagabond going around the school, and being associated with Ruther/Daisy would probably be worse, thou me knowing Ruther may already be a widespread rumour.

I was brought back to the conversation when Ash started talking about the internal mana manipulation class earlier in the day. “Can you believe what happened in internal mana today! That teacher is totally badass, the pompous princess had it coming. She was like, silently screaming, all the while the teacher was calmy talking about what was happening, and that hologram was totally awesome, I wonder if she could loan me that disk?”. Yea, totally awesome, it definitely felt that way when I went through it, but at least she didn’t mention me. I had enough of a bad reputation knowing Ruther.

“Oooh! Did you hear about what happened with prince Arizont?” I didn’t get a chance to speak before she continued. “I heard that the prince was caught sleeping with a master mage’s wife, apparently the mage was in hiding, but when he caught the prince he was so angry that he challenged the prince to a duel to the death! The prince thinking he was unbeatable, accepted.” Her face was bright as she spoke, her eyes sparkling with excitement and mirth.

“The duel happened at this very school yesterday, the prince came wearing special magical steal forged by the greatest dwarves and enchanted by archmages. The mage came in nothing by his normal clothes. When the match started, the prince didn’t even get a chance to taunt before the mage set the entire field ablaze in his anger, but he had such control over his magic that he didn’t hurt the prince at all, just destroying all his armour! The judge apparently tried to stop him, but he just glared at her and she was frozen in place! He gave a speech which made the prince poop and piss himself and begin crying for his mummy. But in his mercy, the man decided to spare the prince, and just sent him running buck naked through the streets!”

I held my fork Infront of my mouth, unmoving and just stared at her with my mouth open. That wasn’t even close to how it happened, but I wasn’t about to point that out. “Yea, that’s amazing,” I said weakly. At least she didn’t mention me.

“I know right, the mage really messed up the prince, and who would have thought a mage of that calibre was just hiding in the city, with no one knowing about him? It would so awesome to be that powerful, if someone makes fun of you or wrongs you, you can just burn all their clothes off and make them run through the streets naked, that would be amazing. No one would ever want to go against you again!” This girl had some issues. Why was she telling a random stranger she met for 10 minutes a rumour that could get her in serious trouble? I looked around trying to see if anyone was eavesdropping, no one was anyone near our table, but that was little comfort seeing as there were certainly spells to spy on someone.

“I almost forgot, apparently this mage had a partner and they were around our age! I want to see if I can talk to him and see if he could introduce me to the master mage. I really need the help.” I spoke too soon. Lesson learned, do not jinx anything, even if it’s in your head, never, again.

Ash stopped talking and just stared into space with a smile, probably daydreaming about burning people clothes off. Ruther’s misplacing his pervert comments, maybe I should introduce the two of them. On second thought that seemed like a monumentally stupid idea.

As much as I hated hearing about Ruther’s exploits the conversation was pleasant, even if I didn’t say much. Just talking to someone that wasn’t trying to beat me with a stick filled something inside me that I didn’t even know was missing.

I sat back with a contented sigh and an overfull stomach, thinking back to friends I barely remembered. Taking surreptitious glances at my conversation partner when I thought she wasn’t looking.