Aida woke up at dawn the next morning for her usual personal training regimen. Light hadn’t fully permeated her room yet, so the small flame from Vanita’s gift caught her eye. Peering at the sculpture, she saw that the flame was still steady, the size of her thumbnail. She hadn’t fed too much mana into it yesterday and would have assumed the fire ruby would have exhausted its energy already, but Vanita had explained to them that since they were on Maglica grounds, which was teeming with mana, their gems would continue to burn, drawing on the surrounding mana, once they activated it. She said if they were bothered by the light at night, they could just extinguish the flame and light it again with a bit of mana.
“So this is why the Helms’ mana gems are so sought-after,” Aida said admiringly. "Passively drawing in energy, no maintenance required." Vanita blushed.
“I think the technique for growing the gems can be applied with great results to other use cases,” she confessed. “That’s why I want to join the Strongholders instead of work in the family business, so I can see what other disciplines could benefit from this technique.”
Aida had looked at her with new respect. Vanita was always sweet and kind, but she had also seemed passive, following along with Lily’s bullishness. If I had played this game as Sue, would I even have been able to meet Vanita and hear her true thoughts?
Humming as she pulled on her tracksuit, Aida tied her hair up in a long ponytail and left her room, watching the merry mini bonfire on her desk until the door shut.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
When Aida finally arrived in the dining hall for breakfast, she heard a lot of girls giggling in groups and floating around the notice board, eyeing the boys who entered the hall. The male population of the school, for their part, seemed to be determinedly keeping their eyes away from the board.
Curious, she made her way over to the new, large piece of paper posted on top.
Old Moon and New Sun Festivals
In observance of the Old Moon and New Sun Festivals, classes will be canceled the star cycle between Old Moon Day and New Sun Day.
Pupils who decide to stay at the Academy during the Festival recess may do so. Please contact your homeroom teacher to make the arrangements.
Concerned, she dug through her schoolbag, looking for her planner. She didn’t see anything marking the festivals in her planner. How much time did she have to make arrangements?
“Good morning.” Glancing up from her shuffle, she saw Dev standing at the board as well, reading the notice. Several girls eyed the pair of them.
“Good morning,” Aida replied, stymied. Dev had never spoken with her again after the placement matches had ended. She thought it odd, but he deliberately ignored meeting her gaze in classes and would go out of his way to avoid being in her vicinity - granted, Pritchard and his boys made up the male half of the middle class, so they all collectively seemed reluctant to engage with her.
“Are you planning on staying at the Academy during the Festivals?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Aida said slowly. “What about you?”
Dev’s chin dipped, though he still refused to look at her. “…also still deciding.”
“Aida! What are the odds?” Levi materialized between them, his roguish smile operating at maximum power this morning. “Shall we eat together today?”
“Sure,” Aida agreed, relieved. She nodded at Dev. “See you in class.”
Levi and Aida queued up at the ordering counter, both carefully avoiding Dev’s gaze.
“I’m surprised you made it to breakfast today,” Aida said. “Nolem said the top five was so busy that you’re all getting your food to go.”
Levi grimaced. “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m skipping the extra practice session this morning. All work and no play makes Levi wither away.”
Aida snorted. “Regardless, I’m glad you’re here. What’s the Old Moon and New Sun Festivals?” she finished in a whisper.
Levi raised his eyebrows, ignoring her question as he placed his order with Nolem, who greeted him with great enthusiasm. After some quick chitchat (“Those pastry bars you’ve been making have been the life giver.” “Thank Aida for requesting them! We’d never have thought about baking a fully balanced treat to be eaten on the go.”), Aida and Levi received their breakfast trays. They went to an unoccupied booth, several girls waving at Levi excitedly.
“Still as popular as ever, even with your absence.”
“If you water your garden consistently, your flowers will bloom even when you’re not present,” Levi informed her. He dug into his food with gusto.
“Very wise.” There was no further discussion as they both ate with abandon. Aida because she needed to replenish her elemental pools after her morning workout, and Levi because he clearly enjoyed eating warm food again.
“So. The Festivals.” Levi wiped his mouth with his napkin. “The Old Moon Festival occurs on the last Moon Day of the sun cycle, and the New Sun Festival occurs on - would you like to take a guess?”
“The New Sun Festival occurs the first Sun Day of the new sun cycle?” Aida guessed dutifully. Levi nodded.
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“The Old Moon Festival is usually more of a family-oriented affair, while the New Sun Festival is more about cultivating external relations; you celebrate with friends, business partners, or those you hope to improve your relationships with over the course of the new year.”
Aida nodded slowly. The Old Moon Festival sounded like Christmas, where close family members would gather together to close out the year, while the New Sun Festival sounded like the typical New Year’s celebrations where people would greet and wish each other fortuitous years.
“So the notice board…it says students can stay at the school during that time?”
Levi nodded, lowering his voice. “Aida typically went home, but…maybe you might be able to argue against going home this year? Since you’re in Class 2 now, you could say that you want to prepare for the meetings with the Affiliates.”
“That sounds like a great idea,” Aida said gratefully. She lowered her voice to match Levi’s volume. “Do students usually stay during this recess?”
“It’s not unheard of for third years to stay,” Levi nodded. “But usually it’s those who feel they would be on the cusp of receiving Affiliate attention, and want to work on their skills more. Rarely do the first and second years stay - they usually stay if they have a companion they plan to spend the Old Moon Festival with,” he said lightly.
“So I’m assuming you’ve stayed your other two years?” Aida asked, curious.
Levi coughed delicately. “Unfortunately, I’ve had to prioritize preparing for the New Sun Festival, so I never stayed.”
“And this year?” Aida persisted. She snapped her fingers. “You’ll stay this year because you are all getting drilled so hard by the professors, yes?”
He adopted a long-suffering expression. “It’s extremely likely.”
“I wonder if everyone else will stay too,” Aida said thoughtfully. There’s no way the plot would let all the leads just leave during a major holiday.
The rest of the breakfast period was spent with them debating who would stay and who would go; supporting Aida’s hypothesis, Levi admitted that the top five were all extremely likely to stay during the recess, while most of the bottom and middle class would go home.
“The odd thing is,” Levi started during a lull. “Why they’re pushing us so hard. I’ve been talking to the professors when I can, but they all give the same canned response - like they’ve all been provided a script to what they can and can’t say.”
“What’s the response?”
“’There’s no excuse to not be prepared for the future,’” Levi said severely, mimicking Professor Havi’s demeanor. He dropped back to his musing tone. “It wouldn’t be so surprising if only Havi and Gemma said it, but even Lloyd and Bruce seem strained - like there’s pressure on them as well.”
Aida tapped the table, leaning her cheek on her other hand. Her experience with the school staff over a month ago put to rest any idealism she might have had for a fantasy magic school. The instructors (doubling as stewards of the school) were just as bland as any other worker in the real world: they didn’t want to deal with additional paperwork, and they were subject to the pressures of maintaining arbitrary performance metrics instead of fulfilling the noble roles of educator and mentor. But they didn’t seem to have any direct bosses they answered to…instead, it seemed like the five of them had to convince each other to reach consensus on how to move forward with the school’s future. So who was exerting pressure on them? Or what?
“Is there anything that’s happening in the rest of society that’s causing them to act a certain way?”
Levi frowned in concentration. “Everything I’m aware of is just family or business politics. Nothing that would directly influence the school.”
Aida bit her lip. Even though it was just family or business, that was a lot to unpack, and she didn’t have the mental energy to do so. Levi’s smart, but what’s the likelihood that a teenager is also a political genius? She shook her head.
“I guess there’s no use in trying to figure out why they’re so stressed this year,” she sighed. “As long as Wyndia isn’t about to plunge into war or something.”
Levi shook his head adamantly. “No way. If we were, I’d have heard about it.”
Aida’s mouth quirked at his confidence just as the bell rang, signaling the beginning of the morning classes. “Okay. We’ll keep an ear out.”
The two parted, with Aida heading towards the gym for her Physical Training class with Professor Gemma, and Levi glumly heading towards the lake for Mana Control class with Professor Bruce.
After Levi’s reveal that the teachers seemed pressured to make sure the students achieved a higher level of aptitude than expected, Aida paid more attention to Gemma. It was hard, not having a frame of reference for how she normally behaved. But even she could tell that Gemma was tense - her mana was rumbling, and there was a tautness around her eyes and jaw, despite the fact that none of the students were disobeying any of her instructions.
What if I’m just reading too much into it? Aida wondered, as she dodged the jagged rocks Gemma shot at her. They were practicing dodging maneuvers, in a perverse game of reverse dodgeball - Gemma would pelt them with rocks ranging anywhere from the size of a small pebble to a boulder the size of one of their heads. Fortunately, there were rules: no one was allowed to touch one another, so in addition to avoiding flying shrapnel, they also had to avoid their classmates’ constantly moving bodies; shields were allowed, but only to block one projectile, so they couldn’t just cower in place.
What’s the likelihood of having a peaceful academic year? she argued with herself, snatching up some water that Dev had conjured to create a small ice shield that shattered as a tennis ball-sized rock struck it.
But this is a romance game! There can’t be war. Mana Surge to leap over Pritchard’s head as he ducked behind an earth shield.
Why else would things be kept so hush-hush? There has to be a better explanation than “for your own good.” Blast a fragment that was falling on top of Tera’s head away. Tera gave her a grateful nod.
You don’t even know what’s normal procedure here. Aida ducked as someone else leapfrogged over her, surging to her legs so she could reverse the direction she was barreling in.
The ruling class always tries to limit information to control the populace.
“Aida, look out!” Instinctively, Aida grabbed all the water within her reach, enclosing herself in an ice spike.
WHAM.
“Enough!” Aida heard Gemma’s command through her wall of ice. “Miss Loreh, please come out.”
Slowly thawing her ice prison, Aida stepped out. Everyone else was panting, or resting against something. Gemma looked at all of them, her lips pressed tightly together.
“Today was better. You’re starting to cover each other’s backs without thinking about it now, so that’s very good. But that’s not enough. We will drill this exercise again next star cycle.” With that foreboding pronouncement, Professor Gemma dismissed them.
Aida glanced around at her cohort’s expressions. They were all too tired to think about the intention behind her words, and were instead muttering about her assessment of their skills not being enough. This is ominous.