“…and then I woke up here.”

“Well… that explains yesterday’s crazy lift operator and his ‘Holy Chicken of Doom’. By the way, we have taken it and your luggage under custody.”

“That’s so kind of you!”

The guard’s captain frowned at my cheer.

“You do realize you broke sixteen laws and costed the city a hundred and eighty-four denarii in the coal shipment you derailed? And that’s not taking into account all the minor property damage you caused with your little chase, or the healer’s fee.”

I squirmed uncomfortably inside my cell. The captain sighed.

“Do you have anything to say, master Grahamson?”

“Is the kid all right?”

‘Master Captain lifted an eyebrow.

“He must be. We find no one that matches your ‘little thief’s’ description near the scene of the wreckage, so it is likely he walked away on his own two feet before we arrived… That is, if he ever existed to begin with.”

“Hey! I’m no liar!”

“You just admitted to impersonate a count’s magus to make a lift operator into your personal valet.”

“B-but I never said I was a magus…!”

“You mislead him all the same.”

Urgh! This guy was tough!

The captain sighed again.

“Look, master Grahamson…”

“You can call me Blake you know? There is no one else here…”

“Master Grahamson,” he said more forcefully, “the only reason you haven’t been enslaved at the mines, is because you are the son of a well-respected magus at the count service. Our lord is willing to be lenient with you, provided you become half as powerful and loyal as your father is. That is why, this time, I’ll let you go with a fine and a warning...”

“Well, that’s certainly a relief! For a moment there I thought…!”

“I haven’t finished yet, master Grahamson,” he stared at me gravely “I’ll let you go this time, and only this time. If I catch you pulling off something like this ever again, I’ll send you to dig off the rest of your life at the mines, even if by some miracle you become the most powerful magus on the continent.”

He pointed at the heavy cuffs of spirit suppressing Staleslate around my wrists.

“Trust me,” he added darkly, “I can, and I will.”

*gulp*

Say what you will about Aprabat’s Hold bureaucracy, but in less than an hour I had signed all the pertinent documentation and was standing before the castle gates with my whole luggage, -Holy Chicken of Doom included.

“You, a thousand times idiot!”

Jake slapped my nape so hard I head-butted Henriett’s cage.

“Hy Jaky…”

“Shut up idiot!” he slapped my nape again, “You haven’t been here two days and you already costed us nearly two hundred denarii! Dad is so going to take it from our allowance… Will be penniless for the rest of the year!”

“And I lost my focus stone.”

“You lost your…” he slumped at the stone stairs, “Why? Why does this happen to me? What have I done to deserve this imbecil of a little brother?”

“Come on Jaky, I had no choice!” I sat beside him, “There were these twenty huge men armed to the teeth…”

“This was my day off,” he mourned with vacant eyes, “I was going to drink tea and read novels all afternoon…”

“They robbed my purse at sword point I tell you! I have to chased them through half the city and…!”

“What sort of deranged spirit possess you to derail a freaking coal shipment?!” Jake exploded.

Silence.

“I thought…”

“You thought!? That’ll be a first!”

“Ahem…” Twiddling thumbs, I admitted; “I thought of that scene in Masks and Roses where Rouge Roge and Count Mont Black sword-dueled over a moving carriage.”

Jake stared at me, hard.

“O-oh, yes!” I pulled out a jar from my trunk, hurriedly changing the subject, “Here I have some auberges Drake sent you!”

Jake stared at me, harder… then snatched the marinated auberges.

He stood mumbling:

“The carriage fight scene is from Ballad of Thorns, not Masks and Roses, you big fat idiot.”

I followed behind his striding figure; one finger raced.

“Actually, the fight happens in a flashback so canonically speaking…”

“Don’t give me that crap! The scene is not in the Masks and Roses book, and no amount of tong twisting will change it!”

“Fine! Whatever! You are right!” I agreed diplomatically, though he totally wasn’t right.

“I am always right! Now listen; we’ll deal with the missing focus stone later. Right now, we need to reach the academy, or we won’t make it for your entry exam.” We razed down the stairs, “A fine thing spending the night at prison. Not only you missed your chance to study with me, but we are running late… Did you at least practice your Georgians on your way here?”

“Yeah… Though I almost died of boredom,” I scowled. “The caravan master lent me a whole wagon for myself, so I studied nonstop all my way here… it was just peachy…”

“And?”

“And what?”

“And how many of the forty-eight exercises have you mastered by now?”

“Mastered master or mastered usable?”

“Both!”

“Twenty or so,” I shrugged and started counting on my hand, “I know my true-sight, of course. I have light-glob, sky-glass and phantom-sound on the quick and ready, as always. I think I mastered fire-starter and the delay ritual on that level to, but I feel like I am missing something there. I also know other eleven rituals and a handful of somatic tricks, but I need time to get those working.”

“Do you have the telekinesis ritual practiced? Because I have in good sources that this year’s exam is all about that.”

“I have the levitation ritual, does that count?”

“No, and you know it. But it doesn’t matter, just follow the letter of the test and improvise. You’ll pass as long as you use spirit-craft to accomplish whatever they ask… Now let me ask; what’s with the chicken?”

“Her name is Henriett.” I boasted.

“Of course it is…” Jake rolled his eyes so hard I think I heard them scraping against his brain.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

We took a side street and emerged into a grand square. I ogled at everything around me: The main edifice of the Academy and all its dependencies were built upon a small plateau; pristine towers of white crown by domes of brass and crystal, interconnected midair by arcing stone bridges.

“Move on, dumbass! We don’t have time to play tourist!” Jake pushed me along to a round building at the base of a tower.

We entered a grand hall, pockets of people here and there chatting in hushed tones, atmosphere charged with nervous anticipation.

“We made it somehow.” Jake sighed in relief while checking on a pocket watch, “Blake! See that door over there?”

“The big fancy one?”

“Yes Blake, the big fancy one,” he deadpanned, “You wait here until a professor comes from there and calls in the next batch of students. I’ll take your stuff to our lodgings… Do you follow?”

“Yea? I kill my time here until a professor calls me from the fancy door. Is not exactly hard science bro.”

“Aha. You didn’t follow. Let me be more specific then: Don’t breathe, don’t move, don’t think, don’t flirt, don’t steal random crap, don’t burn any cottage, and don’t derail another coal shipment. Just stand here doing exactly nothing for a couple minutes until someone calls for you. Can you do that for me?”

“Hey! We burned that cottage together…!”

Suddenly, Jake caught me by the arms and closed in, invading my personal space.

“Do you see those people, Blake?”

“I mean, I pretty much can only see your face right now… Oh! Hy Dermatrix!”

The jade and bronze snail over Jake’s ear wave me back an antenna.

“Those people are the children of nobles; do you know what that means?” Jake pressed on, ignoring me.

“That their parents are important?”

“No Blaky, it means they are a bunch of self-entitled brats with the power and the means to make our lives miserable. So please, can you, for once in your life, don’t poke the wasp nest?!”

“All right, all right! I’ll behave! Sheesh!”

Jake’s continence relaxed visibly. He straightened, letting go of my arms.

“That’s all I wanted to hear.”

He snaped his fingers, his eyes flared jade and a deep green aura embelaped him and my luggage. A terrified Henriett burbled nervously as her cage and herself started floating. My gravity defying showoff of a brother was about to levitate away with my stuff in toe when he suddenly rotated in midair to look at me once more.

“Oh! I almost forgot! Bear in mind they have been examining people all day inside that chamber, so the spirits are going to be excitable with all the stimuli…”

“Yea, had figured as much, I’ll compensate for it.”

He sighed but smiled at me warmly.

“Good luck dumbass. I’ll be here to pick you up in an hour.”

And he flew away.

A couple minutes after my brother left the hall’s black doors closed with a heavy thump, barring entrance to new applicants. The crowds nervous chatter intensified. I was half tempted to mingle with the usually tithe-lip locals, but I have made a promise to Jake, and so I laid my back against a column and started popping my lips… What? Isn’t weird! Everybody does it! I’ll let you know I was getting some verry satisfying pops, when the chitter-chatter in the room changed for gasps of the scandalize variety.

Somewhere to my right, the crowd of students had vacated part of the hall. Alone at the center, stood two girls… Well, not exactly; one of the girls stood with what appear to be a silver letter opener in her hands. The other one was on her knees, sobbing and pleading, the letter opener’s tip inches away from her eye. The other girl had her caught by the scalp.

“P-please, my lady! I-it was j-just one kiss!”

“That was one to many, Jane” her voice was glacial, “or did you thought I would stand and watch as a stray stole from me? You should have known your place.”

“Please my lady! I swear, I tried! I-is just… I didn’t know how to stop him!”

“You should have tried harder! But worry not, dear. Once you have lost an eye or two, he’ll lose interest.”

“No, no! P-please don’t…!”

“…” she looked over her shoulder, “And what do you think you are doing?”

“What does it look like?!” I answered, my hand firmly around her wrist, “I am stopping a crazy bitch from gouging out some poor girl’s eyeballs!”

The entire hall erupted into gasps of the horrified variety. For her part, face reddening with fury, the crazy bitch scanned me up and down. My clothes must have been in a sorry state what with all the water, coal and imprisonment of the last twenty-four hours, because she snorted:

“Is this some kind of joke? Who let you inside? Do you have any idea who you are messing with, you filthy vagrant?”

A tad offended by this tactless woman, I likewise scanned her. She wore an elegant red gown that would be more at home at a ball that at an examination room and had her hair tight in an ornate bun, exposing a lot of gleaming skin under her widow’s peak… I grinned evilly.

“Let me guess, you are the prominent forehead of a prominent household? But it begs the question, how did YOU get in? Pretty sure that thing over your shoulders can’t go through the door.”

The crowd gave out some gasps of the scandalized vineyard as the crazy bitch got redder and redder… I was starting to suspect this city dwellers were a tad one-track-minded.

“Why, you! You! How dare you mock me so!?”

“Is not that hard really, you just have to put your head into it. I don’t know if yours will fit though.”

“I WONT TAKE THIS LYING DOWN!”

“Because you won’t be able to stand without bumping the ceiling? “

Some people in the crowd did snickered at my last awesome display of genius, but it only served to make chin face even angrier. I caught her other wrist before she could slap me, and she roared in frustration.

“Seriously girl! My jokes must be in pretty good shape for them to be over your head so quickly.”

“AH!” she pushed, getting away from my grasp, then she pointed one finger at me hissing; “This isn’t over vagrant. You have made a powerful enemy today.”

“Oh god no! What have I done?! What if she nods at me?! She’ll knock me out from a mile away!”

Now the rest of the applicants were openly laughing.

“You’ll pay dearly for this humiliation.” She said in a low voice, red as a tomato and stomped away.

“Some people just can’t take their heads out of stuff, am I right?” I said to the crowd, who laughed and clap at my performance. I of course bowed to my audience when…

“What’s all this ruckus?!” a man with the looks of someone with severe sleep deprivation appear from the big fancy door, silencing us all with a glare. “Form a line! We are almost finished with the last batch of students so be ready and silent…! Bunch of imbeciles, I’ll disqualify the lot of them …”

I think the professor intended to whisper the last part, but we all heard it loud and clear. Suddenly, all the previous merriment died down into uncomfortable little cuffs and the would-be students formed nervously into a line.

The grumpy professor snorted and turned back from where he came from, flourishing the base of his long, black tunic.

I turned to the shocked girl in the floor beside me.

“Are you all right milady?”

She looked at me through tearful eyes and leaped from the floor to hug me.

“I-I w-was so s-scared!” she sobbed into my chest, “I t-though l-lady Richia was really going t-to…! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

It was then, in that embrace, that I found the true plot of this story; She was my damsel in distress and I was her knight in shining armor. Such two simple plot points, and yet they stroke me as full, round and soft as they pushed ever deeper into my chest.

I drape an arm around this bouncing plotline of a woman and delicately pull her chin up so her eyes met mine, then I told her on my lowest register:

“My fair lady, you need not to fear the wrath of any headstrong individual while in between these arms,” I cleared away a tear from her chick with a delicate flick of the thumb, “nor the cold of lonely nights…”

She blushed a tender pink and even I could feel the butterflies fluttering inside her belly… that and the daggers chin face was glaring our way from across the room.

Flustered, she extricated herself from my arms.

“Oh my…Y-you certainly have a way with words, sir…” she spied at me sideways, while hiding her face pretending to tuck a raven curl behind an ear.

“Yes, I am gifted with my tong. I can move women to tears with it, be them of fury or joy…” I waggled my eyebrows suggestively.

She blushed like the sunset.

“W-we better form the line!” she stuttered.

I shrugged and follow, please with myself. It only then occurred to me that I might just broke a certain promise I had made not minutes ago… ups! Sorry Jaky!

“Say, milady?” I ask, still the knight in shining armor.

“Y-yes?!” she jolted at my voice.

“May I ask for your name?”

“Oh! Of course! Where are my manners?! I am Janeva of House Fiorla,” she courtside. “B-but please, fill free to call me Jane, master…?”

“You can call me Blake, Jane, I am happy to meet you.”

Yeap, if chin face’s gown hadn’t been clue enough, Jane’s full name certainly was; I had tangled myself with the verry people my brother had warned me off.

I caught nervously.

“Say, Jane, would you mind telling me what was all that about? You know, the bit with the craze girl that tried to pull your eyeballs out?”

“Oh… I suppose sir Blake would have the right to know…” voice low, she clenched the hem of her skirt, “Please don’t think bad of lady Richia, she has so much weight riding on her shoulders…”

I snickered. She tilted her head at me, confused by my antics.

“Don’t mind me, go on.”

“It was all my fault really…” she sighed, “I should have put a stop to lord Aren’s advances sooner, but his station is way higher than mine… I was afraid I’ll offend the gentleman, but he must have confused my indecision for encouragement, for he ended up… He ended up stealing a-a kiss from me…! Ofcourse lady Richia would react poorly… anyone would if they discovered her friend and beloved fiancé where… uhg! I’m the worst!”

She clasped her mouth in distraught.

“Hey, hey. Calm down!” a patted her back, “for what I hear is all fault of this Aren guy, am I right? You just didn't knew how to say no to him. You can’t fault yourself for that!”

“Y-you really thinks so…?”

“Yea, though you probably should learn how to say no to this Aren person, or he’ll continue taking advantage of you.”

“My lord would never do such thing!” she gasped, “That would be unthinkable for someone of his station!”

I stare at her, considering.

“Jane, darling, you can’t think bad of anyone, can you?”

She tilted her head in confusion, then she went red as a tomato:

“Sir Blake! You can’t just call me da-da-darling! That’s way to forward! Not appropriate at all!”

“I am sorry! I am sorry! I was just teasing you,” I chuckled.

I was starting to suspect miss Janeva of House Fiorla, had a verry sheltered life until now. Seriously, this girl was so gash darn easy, there was no real sport into it. It was no wonder this Lord Aren had taken advantage of her; for all her plot-inducing assets, this girl was way too naïve. Even I was feeling dirty for flirting with her.

“Y-you shouldn’t joke with that! People would think poorly of your honor as a gentleman if you show such attentions to a girl you just met... B-but is not as if I thought poorly of your honor! You where verry brave stepping in as you did! Nobody else would have dare to defy lady Richia like that!”

“Oh, and why is that?”

She tilted her head and squinted, confused by my question, then she gasped;

“Oh dear! Don’t tell me you are knew to the city, Sir Blake?!”

“Pretty much. I arrived yesterday.”

“Oh lord! You didn’t know!”

“Hey, calm down Jane, what is it!”

She grabbed me by the arm, and whispered into my ear;

“That was Richia of House Aparabat! The count’s granddaughter! Sir Blake, you have place yourself in grave danger!”

“Next!” the grumpy professor called the next five on the line, and on that dire note I was separated from Jane.