It is no surprise that many would sooner risk the ghost moon than the rivers. Why brave almost certain death when you could instead merely gamble your sanity?
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"Professor Derall, may I ask a few questions for a personal project?"
Sina Derall taught both primary and advanced mageblade weapon integration forms, including the base form of the Discharge spell Jair still used to this day. She wasn't the strongest mageblade, but she was one of the handful whose sympathies could be considered closest to neutral.
She also had a tendency of blabbing his secrets to Headmaster Larenok if he tipped things the wrong direction, but at this point anything was better than nothing.
Right now, she sat at her desk looking over the assignments Class 4 had turned in and spoke without looking up. "Not now, Welburne. Make an appointment if it's important."
“This is very important, Professor. Life and death important. For myself and others.”
He heard the huff of her breath as though a single restrained laugh, and she glanced up at him, already smiling dismissively. “If it’s that important, you should take it to the headmaster.”
“I tried, he won’t listen.”
“Then I don’t know what you expect from me.” She waved him away. “I have a lot to do. And shouldn’t you be heading to your next class?”
-
Time was running out, and Jair was no closer to success. Days of attempting various methods for inducing teacher cooperation and he still had nothing to show for it.
"Professor Notek, I need your help settling a bet."
Hiran Notek, primary healer and enhancement specialist for Astralla Institute, raised an eyebrow and stared down at Jair, a half smile playing about his lips. "Young Jair, is it? You caused quite a stir the other day. I'm not surprised to hear you've been gambling."
A much more friendly greeting than usual, Jair noted.
Notek was one of the youngest professors, younger than some of the more advanced assistants, and the most likely to feel kinship with the students rather than the weary detachment of decades spent watching people come and go and move on.
"I saw something flying around in the sky from the tower, and Ran thinks it's just a trick of the light or a bird. I'm confident it's a dragon though. Can you come look?"
"A dragon, around here? That would be quite incredible. I'm afraid your friend is going to win this one."
"But can you come look? I'm very certain of what I saw."
Notek looked at Jair consideringly. "How far away was this dragon?"
Jair feigned discomfort, looking away and shifting his weight. "I... very far away, beyond the city, past the Sectri Oasis."
Notek smiled knowingly and nodded. "I see. And you think an enhancement might be enough to clarify the situation."
Jair nodded hopefully. "Will you come?"
"I can give your friend a temporary enhancement that will allow him to see like a farseer. Send him here and I'll set it up for you."
Jair wanted to scream in frustration, but he kept his emotions in check. Yes, the teachers were all intractable and very set in their ways, he knew this already from countless iterations in the past. He shouldn't be surprised that their stubbornness continued.
"Please, sir, there's no time for that! You have to come now, or it might fly away!" Jair played up his anxiety, tapping at his leg with one hand like he couldn't stand to delay.
Notek glanced between Jair and the piles of paperwork on his desk, a weighing look. 'I have so much to do and this is probably nothing' - prioritize finishing, or allow for a break in the monotony.
He'd seen this look enough to know which side it would always come down on. Even as the newest and youngest teacher, Notek had learned not to procrastinate or neglect his duties.
Time to change things up even further.
"I'll show you my soulsword if you come." Jair widened his eyes pleadingly. "I haven't even showed the headmaster. You can see for yourself what’s so special about it."
Just enough to tip the balance? Hopefully?
Notek glanced out the window, then shook his head. “I don’t have time today, sorry.”
“What would it take?” Jair demanded, any attempt at maintaining a normal demeanor disappearing as frustration overtook him entirely. “What would it take to get you out to the wall? We have five minutes until the dragon comes and kills at least one and perhaps more than one student, and you sit here weighing the options like there isn’t someone’s life on the line!”
Notek’s eyes widened slightly, arm shifting subtly beneath the desk. Jair would bet anything he’d just summoned his own soulsword.
“Is that what it takes?” Jair demanded, holding out his own hand. ”Always, violence? Soulblade, manifest.”
Notek jumped back, toppling the chair with a clatter and raising his sword to a guard position between them. “Jair, think about this–”
“Think? THINK! I’ve done more thinking than you can possibly imagine! The time for thinking is over, this is the time to act.” He lunged forward, Maelstrom extended.
Notek hopped to the side, then ran for the door. Jair had intentionally left the way open. He chased after the teacher.
“HELP! Attack!” Notek screamed for help as he fled down the hall.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Interesting. Apparently Maelstrom did more to augment Jair’s perceived threat level than he’d realized. He’d tried attacking teachers in the past, before the ascension, and it had never done anything but get him killed in new ways.
Maybe this time would be different?
Institute guards came running from their posts, silver tunics gleaming in the afternoon sunlight, blades drawn as they rushed him. Beyond the wall a dragon could only just be distinguished against the clouds.
Jair tried anyway, shouting and pointing, but they were convinced the threat was him and would not be distracted.
Of all the times for them to be good at their job, of course it had to be when it would be most helpful for them to slip up.
Jair felt the first blade run through his body with a sharp warmth as he focused inward and dropped backward through time.
-
Day two. Yet again.
Jair ran through his imprinting and exercises for the morning, reassured Ran that he’d survived his duel with Lian unscathed, ate lunch ignoring the whispers and gestures of the fellow students, then returned to attending classes. There were plenty of other angles he could try, just had to keep at it until he found the right one.
-
"Professor Firdon?"
"Welburne? What now?"
"I need you to help me restrain a dragon."
Firdon frowned in confusion. "If you're looking to organize a hunt, you'd be better served visiting one of the guilds. I'm a teacher, not an expedition squire."
"But you're a very powerful stone mage." Jair gestured to the bold pale lines that stood out across Firdon's arms and shoulders. "Breaking, shifting, moving, creating. Creating isn't much use against a dragon, obviously, but the others..."
"I'm sure you're capable of finding another stone mage who's better suited to your expedition."
"It's not an expedition, sir, the dragon is coming here."
Firdon snorted softly. "Ah."
"It's not like that. It's to do with my sword. Soulblade, manifest."
Maelstrom appeared in his hand, and he held it up vertically to show the shattered sapphire below the guard.
"This sapphire was stolen from the hoard of a particularly vengeful Eilis Mercurios. It's been chasing me for weeks. Judging by its speed, it should reach us on the afternoon of the 18th. I need as many teachers as possible to help me fight it."
"You should know better than to steal from dragons." Firdon's expression hardened. "I'm not interested in getting dragged into a personal vendetta. Perhaps dealing with the fallout of your own actions will teach you to be more circumspect in future."
"It wasn't me who stole it, I only found out after the fact.” It was a feeble attempt to adjust course, but Jair would try anything at this point. “The dragon already ate the actual thief, but I already used the stone so there's no way to return it."
"Then give it your sword,” Firdon suggested with a dismissive wave. If only it were that simple. “That should satisfy it. You're such a prodigy, you can reforge another with ease. If you survive."
And there it was. As always. No one cared about Jair Welburne's survival. He was a nobody. No one would give out rewards for saving him, or incite reprisals if he died. As far as they cared, he may as well not exist at all.
"But--"
Firdon nodded to the door. "I'm very busy, Welburne, and you have a dragon to negotiate with."
"Sir, I--"
Firdon's eyes narrowed. "Out."
-
“Professor Vern.” Jair stood very straight and appraised Wain Vern with stoic regard. He didn’t anticipate much success here, but if anyone could help ground the dragon from below while Jair attacked it from above, it would be Vern.
"Yes, young one?" Vern looked up, squinting as though unsure of who was speaking to him, his spectacles lying beside him on the desk. The man couldn't be much older than fifty, but he did love to play up the 'old wise' persona. It didn't really convince anyone.
Vern was the other best option for a ranged physical attacker, with his focus on repulsion and magnetism. Jair had used a set of abilities that heavily overlapped with Vern's for years before he finally traded them out for his intermediary set and eventually upgraded to his paired Echoes. He had to try, even if their relationship would likely remain antagonistic.
“I need your help. One of my friends had a vision of my death, of a dragon coming to eat me on the 18th. I need people to help fight it off."
Vern put on his spectacles, his expression darkening when he recognized Jair. "Oh, Welburne, it's you."
Jair kept his expression from showing any of the mutual loathing he felt for this man, and instead remained stiff and attentive. Stay professional, nothing personal.
"I am absolutely confident of this prophecy. I have full faith in the vision. Soulblade, manifest."
Maelstrom appeared in his hand, and he placed it on the desk between them.
"What's this?" Vern adjusted his spectacles, peering down at the blade, eyebrows drawing together. "You reforged your blade with your bare hands? What kind of idiot are you?"
Jair took a slow breath and maintained his calm exterior. "Regardless of its appearances, Maelstrom is a legendary-rank named item. I am so confident of my friend's prophecy that I am willing to gamble my soulsword against its validity. If you come to the clifftop wall tower on the afternoon of the 18th and no dragon appears, you can have Maelstrom. Reforge it to your satisfaction, sell it, I don't care as long as you come to the tower."
Vern leaned back in his chair, staring down his nose at Jair for a long moment, then back to the sword on his desk. Jair couldn't distinguish from his expression which disgusted him more. It was a near thing.
"Not interested." He flicked Maelstrom's edge, the warped side not even sharp enough to break skin. "You used too many expensive ingredients and combined them very poorly. It would be more trouble than it's worth to undo the damage."
"Even at Legendary rank?"
"When you're as old as I am, you'll realize that rank only means so much. Would you rather have an Advanced sword, or a Legendary stick?" Vern shook his head, removing his spectacles with one hand and rubbing absently at them, then flapped his hand to shoo Jair away. "I'm not interested in Legendary sticks."
Jair recalled Maelstrom to his hand, fighting down the hot anger that surged in his chest. It was one thing to look down on him, they had years of history and Larenok's constant stream of hostility. But Maelstrom didn't deserve that.
Jair stalked away, seething.
He spent the rest of the day alternating between intensive exercises and obsessive retracing of his spell imprints. He was done trying to convince anyone today. There was only so much contempt and disdain he could take before he started to wonder if it might be a better idea to just kill the lot of them. That kind of wide-scale attack would surely cause the authorities to intervene. Perhaps whatever investigation force they sent in would be able to deal with the dragon better than these idiots.
No, he told himself, forcing his breath to slow. No. The repercussions may not catch up to him for weeks or months, but there was no way to fully conceal such actions. Soulspells were many and varied, and as many people as there were capable of seeing the future there were as many who could peer into the past.
As much as it might be fun to go on the run with Ran from the authorities, this wasn't the first or only disaster Jair needed to avert. Saving others would become much harder, if not impossible, if he raised that level of chaos.
He'd leave that as a last resort. Perhaps just above showing Larenok Maelstrom's full status.
No, as much as he hated the man, Larenok's attempts at assassination would be easier to deal with than a full official manhunt. Astralla Institute was an internationally acclaimed advanced training academy, if Jair did anything drastic it would pretty much burn every bridge on the continent.
He spent the evening with Ran, drawing abstractions or sketching scenes from his future, amusing himself by coming up with ridiculous explanations for each.
As always, the presence of his friend helped settle him, rebalance his wildly fluctuating emotions and ground him back in the reality of why this mattered.
Tomorrow would be a new day. There was still time.
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