It was late in the evening as I made my way back to the lab. It had taken far longer than thought to work things out but I was now fairly sure that I'd put together the code that I would need for my special project. Far, far too long I thought as I looked at the autumn sky.

This one I'd mulled over for some time, happy that it was at least simple. Well, the function was simple, hiding the code wasn't, nor was the fact that I'd had to check for bugs myself. Nobody knew about this, not even Kala, it was too dangerous. I'd even kept the physical copy of the sequences needed on my person after I'd written it down, making sure there was no chance for any nosy maids or anyone else to see it.

I sat down in the lab with a pound of the silver mix I thought would work best and began my project. There would be four of them, for me, Kala, Dras, and Lucien, so I began by making the shape. It was a simple enough one, molded rather like a ball with a flat extending spiral piece. There were of course a few moldings that needed to be done for comfort, and I doubted that anyone would want to use one of these for too long, but they were for emergencies only, so that was fine.

Once each was done and I'd put a core in them I began the process of actually putting in the sequences. These were simple enough, but even then they were pushing the limits of what one could do with the apprentice core. The lowest level like I had was weak, only able to do the most basic of things. I wasn't sure why that was, but probably to make sure that nobody without experience messed around too much and made something dangerous. I'd not bothered upgrading it so far, but soon that would have to change.

Commands for converting sound and light wove, finally I covered them with the obscuring sequence. Once each was done I needed to do some basic testing, and I already had what I needed for that. A little mana in each and a few illusions and I gave a big smile.

Making some small carrying cases was easy enough with the tools in the lab and once my test was done I simply burned the written copy of the instructions. This was something the army would decidedly want, and there was a zero percent chance they'd take no for an answer if they ever found out about it. So I would make sure they wouldn't.

Now that I was done with all my cloak and dagger nonsense I headed back to the dorms. I'd have to give these to their intended recipients soon, because even in the academy I was starting to hear whispers. Cities were falling and some of the students were finding out about it because fathers, brothers, and friends died. One by one parts of the kingdom were coming undone, and I had little faith that I could stop that.

I considered running, but to where? The lower city would be hit too if it came to that. I couldn't take the information I was gaining either, so that was no good. It would also mean leaving all of my friends, who were the only real connections I had right now in this world.

Even if I managed to get out, then I'd be basically alone in who knows what situation. Perhaps I could hide in a cave somewhere or the like, but that was unappealing. Any city or town I went to would likely be less well defended than where I was now, and I'd have to try and reform a support network, so that was a no-go.

I could also try to support the kingdom, if that wasn't just as insane an idea. It would lead to too many questions like where I'd learned some of the things I knew. Best case scenario I ended up trapped in a little box working my fingers to the bone for some military organization. Worst case they'd milk me for information for awhile then just kill me, and that was far more likely. That didn't appeal to me either, so I thought I'd take a pass.

Joining the rebels? Too many unknowns. I didn't know anyone in that organization and if I got caught the kingdom would definitely execute me. I didn't think I would get caught, but why risk it? I didn't have a love of their tactics either, since they left too many innocents dead or hurt.

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So that left me where I was. Stuck between a whole host of bad options with no really good solution in sight. So I prepared, prepared to leave, prepared to hide, prepared to help my closest friends if I needed to. That was all I could do.

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I had another session with Professor Endel. He wasn't actually insane in his method for teaching me defenses, which was a pleasant surprise. We'd been going over these for a month or two now and I was improving in leaps and bounds.

His version of a lightning shield was fairly simple, it was just a plane that distributed the energy along it until it was harmless. Similar forms were used against fire and straight kinetic energy as well, but this one was tuned towards deflecting the potential of electricity. The way he described how he used it was to form a sheet, or bubble or whatnot, then concentrate on the idea of the difference in energy flowing across it rather than through. Since electricity wasn't well understood, this was more a generalist approach.

I did understand what I actually wanted and that was to create a ground. So I imagined it rather as a bubble that was layered, an outer one which was very permeable to electricity, that helped it flow downwards, and an inner one which was far less permeable to the energy, making it take the other path available, around and hopefully downwards. At this point I knew instinctively what I wanted it to do, and I was quite familiar with the power itself, all of which helped.

Mine was not nearly as powerful as Professor Endel's, yet. His way of testing was to have me form it around a target, which he then hit with successively higher levels of his own lightning spell, until it broke. Then I'd reform it and we'd begin again.

He hadn't aimed a single bolt at me, though he'd had me form it around myself as practice. For that I was grateful. He had aimed other, far less powerful spells at me though. This was to get me used to having things shot at me, as well as for me to get more, and much more intense, practice at my own spell resistance.

"Can we stop?" I asked as he briefly paused in his rapid fire assault of weak magical strikes.

"Are you asking because you're too tired to continue, or because you just want to finish up today's lesson?" He easily read the face I made in response. "Your enemies will not quit because you ask nicely Alana. You will have to learn to make them." With that he redoubled his attack.

That went on for nearly a full minute of me dodging and resisting. His little balls of force weren't enough to hurt me more than a slight twinge, but there were just so many. I tried to dodge and put up shields, only for him to switch to bits of discomforting heat or cold that felt like putting my hand in ice water. As I tried to think of a way to get him to quit I thought over his words.

After brief consideration I began singing up a storm, letting wind and rain lash against him. I could see his smile as he pulled his own shields up and around.

"Good, but this will hardly stop me." At that I let him have a weak bolt. "Excellent! Again!"

He and I spent a minute or two launching intentionally weakened spells at each other until he finally called it off. I was huffing and a bit weak from using a lot of mana, even weakened my lightning spell was still unbelievably expensive.

"Really? You just wanted me to attack you?"

"You didn't just attack me Alana." The teacher laughed as I plopped down in the arena sands.

"What?"

"You attacked me with lightning. It was weak, sure, but when we first started you were afraid to even try it. Now you're turning it into something you control. I'm quite proud of your progress in that."

"So... this is your attempt at giving me a cure?" I asked with a quirked brow.

"Hmm... there was a storm earlier in the week, no? How did you feel as it passed by?"

I looked down, playing with my fingers. "Nervous, like something was crawling up my back."

"But did you panic? Freeze up?"

"Well, I suppose not..."

"A cure is not something I can offer you, as I know of no magic to soothe such pains. Perhaps in time you may get over this problem completely, perhaps it will always bother you a bit. My goal is to get you to the point where you can function. So if you find yourself in the situation you were in before, you perform just as admirably and don't freeze up with terror."

"And to turn me into a walking weapon." I grumbled.

"I'll admit I'm curious how far you can go. It is seldom that I find a bard willing to put forth even a bit of effort, and your circumstances allow me to push you to new heights. Thank you for that."

"I didn't exactly volunteer."

"You showed up. You had the chance to run, to not come to these lessons, to not even learn the basics of weather magic, but you did. You did go and learn what I told you I thought best, you did come to meet me even though you knew I was going to do something unpleasant. Here you are now, going through training I'd expect of a trainee actually preparing to go to war. You did volunteer, even if you didn't realize that was what you were doing."

"I mean... all I did was just show up."

He knelt down beside me, looking me in the eyes. "Alana, it is not the strongest, the fastest, the smartest who decide things. The world is ruled by those who show up."