Natalia went down to the entry hall, where her family was waiting. After the last farewells (Satoshi told her to show them what she was made of, but didn't elaborate on who “them” was), Natalia left the house and walked to the bank, which was the closest place where she could get a taxi.
Natalia had insisted on doing that by herself, from leaving the house all the way to getting to Arcadia, and her family couldn't say no to her.
There were no notable incidents during the trip, except that she was amazed to see the amount and variety of people when she got to the airport. Even knowing that the land of Yuden was rich in people from all over the world, it was different to see it for herself. She had already bought a ticket, so getting on the plane was no trouble.
An old woman with blue eyes sat down next to Natalia. The girl started looking from one side to the other, trying to decide whether she should talk with the woman and watching the other people get on the plane. But she ended up not having to decide, because the old woman talked with her.
"Hello. This is your first time on a plane, isn't it?" She asked kindly
"Ah... Ah, yes. How did you know?"
"I could see from the way you were looking around." The woman smiled "You are going to start studying at Arcadia Academy, right?"
"Yes." Natalia smiled back.
"Good luck, I'm going there to work, maybe we'll see each other again." She nodded "Oh, where are my manners? I am called Cecilia."
"My name is Natalia. And we'll see." She nodded back.
The woman turned and stopped talking while the plane was taking off. Natalia pumped her fist in the air mentally for not having done anything wrong in her first conversation with a stranger.
Then Natalia remembered something her father had said:
'After the first hour of the flight, look through the window, you will not be disappointed.'
So she marked the time when the plane had taken off before getting her baggage and grabbing her textbook of the artonian language.
Artonian was the language spoken in the island of Arton, where Arcadia Academy was located, and since it received students from all over the world, one of the pre-requisites to be accepted at Arcadia was learning artonian, and in this way all of the teachers and students could understand each other. There was even a version of the artonian based on clicks or taps, which was used by the students that were incapable of making the sounds of the normal language.
Natalia passed the time looking over things once more. She was already fluent enough, but that was a somewhat productive use of the time, and the hour passed quickly enough. She put the book back and looked through the window.
For a few minutes, nothing happened. And nothing kept happening for the following minutes, making Natalia wonder whether she had misunderstood her father's words, but eventually she started to hear a sound, a sound different from everything eles she had ever heard in her life.
It sounded like a song, a song of a single note that kept raising without ever losing itself. An impossibly long note that seemed to extend to infinity.
And slowly, the singer of that note appeared from the center of the clouds. It was a serpent, immense to the point of its limits being lost in the horizon. His color was a green so light it was almost possible to see through it. Its eyes weren't eyes, but simple black dots of unknown purpose. Its mouth had no teeth, looking more like a timeless slit in the rocks of an ancestral mountain.
Finally, its body seemed to be a solid turned into air, something that didn't seem to belong to reality. And it was fragile, like a paper carried by a hurricane.
Natalia realized immediately what that had to be. It was an atmospheric beast, a creature so elusive it defied study. They had been sighted extremely few times, and almost never by people who were looking for them.
Almost nothing was known about them, except that they lived in the highest reaches of the atmosphere and sometimes came down to a relatively low area for unknown purposes.
Natalia observed as the beast swam through the air with beautiful and majestic movements, even if undeniably strange, like distorted and jerky jumps without a pattern.
And as suddenly as it had appeared, the beast was gone. Climbing back towards the world of the clouds, a world as alien as the depths of the sea. And after the beast was gone, the song remained for a few seconds, last reminder that anything had happened.
And then there was only silence.
Natalia looked at the other people in the plane, realizing that she had not been the only one to notice what had happened. It was only at that moment that she could be sure that she had not been dreaming.
Natalia fell asleep at some point and the next thing she heard was the voice of the pilot warning the passenger that they were nearing the airport.
After the landing, she left the plane while carrying her bag and accompanied the crowd that went to the bus stop. They didn't have to wait long, and soon she was making the last trip towards the academy.
Natalia listened to music while on the bus, but the thing that occupied her thoughts were her worries about who would be her roommate. Natalia didn't know how she should behave with that person, especially considering that she didn't even know from which country that person would be. She had similar worries about her other classmates, but it was her roommate that weighted more in her consideration.
Everything was forgotten when the academy became visible, though. Natalia had already seen pictures of it, but still she almost didn't believe what she was seeing when the bus finished riding up a peak and she saw the territory where the academy was.
There was only one way to describe that land. It was like a colossal patchwork that could not have been created by nature. Glaciers met with deserts that met with forests, parts of areas of all kinds of shapes and sizes spread through the territory chaotically. And in the center of all of that was the school, whose details could not be seen from that distance, but that was completely different than any other building Natalia had ever seen, just from the basic shape alone.
The bus got closer and Natalia was able to distinguish more details of that... construction, which is the only word remotely adequate for that school.
She saw circular towers, with a dignified style. She saw silver spheres that seemed to float around the main part. She saw walls that seemed to be made of flesh, and in one of them she could swear there was an eye. She saw raised bridges made of plants, some of which were the size of giants. She saw rivers of clear water floating in the air, and things swimming in those rivers.
She saw more and more impressive things the closer the bus got to the school. She saw moving crystal sculptures, dragons perched in arcs of ice, golden drops of water dripping from colossal webs and being gathered by robot bats. And soon she discovered that there was always more to be seem.
While she was trying to process everything she was seeing, the bus got on a raised path in the shape of a C, that went to a higher part of the school. The reason for that was simple, the ground floor with the main gates was literally gigantic, with actual giants crossing it.
The gates were also very interesting just because the wall to which they were connected wasn't made of a single material, but were a variety of different structures that somehow coexisted in harmony. Rocks that shined like diamonds, a tree bark-like part, a web of mechanical wires and even a volatile material similar to metal, that spun around like a water whirl (though more slowly) were the things that caught her attention the most.
And when she got even closer, she started to notice something about the gate. It seemed to be made mainly of a combination of wood and gold, but there were some details that didn't fit, and she was too far to make them out. Realizing that the bus wouldn't get any closer than that she breathed deeply and intoned “Azath, Kazath, Nazath”. Her vision suddenly sharpened enough for her to make out the details.
It was like Natalia had expected, the gates seemed to be a microcosm of the same design of the entire school, with detail in all kinds of materials. Natural and supernatural, simple and complex, static and mobile. Satisfied, she undid her spell and blinked several times because of the stinging in her eyes. She then simply waited for the bus to finish its route to the Academy.
Natalia exited the bus and entered the school through the archway decisively. It was a little more melodramatic than warranted, but that was indeed a very important moment of Natalia's life. She walked through the corridors, seeing that the style of the inside of the school was similar to that of the outside. The consistency of the floor was a mix of earth, ceramic and other materials Natalia didn't recognize, the same plurality was verified on the walls and the high ceiling.
Apart from that, the other noteworthy things was that there was a river flowing through the floor by Natalia's right, and there was a walkway made of extremely thin metal plates high on the wall on her left. However, the most surprising thing was the ceiling, where students walked seemingly without caring about the laws of gravity. And speaking of the students, they were as varied and impressive as the school itself.
Some of the students walked like her, others swam through the river, others jumped through the trees spread through the area while others simply flew. Some of the students were small, like fairies that Natalia could step on, while others were big, like a stone golem that had to walk while crouching. Some of them used clothes like Natalia's, others used different styles, and others still were covered only by their own fur, skin or metallic cover.
Suddenly, Natalia remembered about the time. There was still some time before the opening ceremony, but she wanted to unpack her luggage and maybe meet her future roommate. So she followed the signs and went to her dormitory section. She had to climb a spiral staircase and walk a little to get there, but it wasn't far. After double-checking the number, she knocked on the door. She heard a voice saying that she could enter. Taking a deep breath, Natalia did so.
She saw a girl inside, she was a human like Natalia, or at least she seemed human. Her hair was dark-blond and her eyes were green. She was wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt. She was barefooted. The most striking parts of her appearance were the complex patterns tattooed on her skin, including her face. Natalia recognized those as part of one of the most famous clothing styles of the country of São Lourenço. Which meant that girl probably came from there. Natalia gathered her courage and talked.
"Hi." She said in artonian, trying to be friendly.
"Hello." The girl answered, doing a slight bow with her head and walking to Natalia "Looks like we are roommates."
"Yeah, that seems to be the case." Natalia said, grateful that her grasp of artonian wasn't failing her.
"I am called Hinata Alveia." The girl said, extending her hand "I'm from São Lourenço."
Natalia shook her hand "My name is Natalia Nocte, I'm from the land of Yuden." She said.
Natalia could see the pieces come together behind Hinata's eyes.
"So that means... you're the daughter of Bianca Nocte?" Hinata asked, her tone higher than before.
"Yes." Natalia answered simply.
Hinata looked like she didn't know what to do about that information for a moment, it was slightly funny. Then she said:
"Cool. She's my idol." Her tone of voice was more even now.
Natalia thought about that for a moment.
"So, you also use story magic?" She asked.
"No, no. I use the manipulation school." Hinata said "It's just that being a combat mage has been my dream ever since I saw her winning the Atlamontei tournament."
"I understand..." Natalia had watched a recording of her mother's fights in that tournament "But, could I ask you to not spread this?" She asked.
"Well..." Hinata started "It's not like you're going to be the most famous person in this school, or even close to that, but I can understand. My family is also a bit famous back home. If this is what you want, I'll keep quiet."
"Yes, I'm sure. I've thought a lot about this." Natalia assured her.
"Then I'll make a promise. Unless I have a really good reason, I'll not spread the news about your family, otherwise all the curses of the world will fall upon me." She said the last part with the cadence of a song.
"Is this a São Lourenço style promise?" Natalia asked, relaxing a little.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"Yes. How do you do it in Yuden?"
"We say that, 'If we break this promise, we'll swallow a thousand needles.'" Natalia answered with a smile.
"Agh... but let's change the subject. What do you want to learn here? Do you know story magic?" Hinata asked.
"No, I don't know story magic." Natalia didn't quite manage to keep the sadness out of her voice "I never managed to learn it." Then she recovered "I'm here to try to find my calling, if you want to be melodramatic about it. Then I'll focus on it."
Hinata noticed the slight change in mood, so she focused on the second part of the answer:
"Then, what courses are you taking?" She asked.
Natalia put her hand on her suitcase and grabbed the paper with the class schedule. She handed it to Hinata.
"Let's see..." She began "'History of the 20th Century', Monday and Friday 08:00. 'Basic Concepts of Initiation in Magic', Monday and Wednesday 10:00. Cool, that's the same class as me. 'Introduction to the Theory of Magic', Monday and Wednesday 14:00. I prefer the more practical classes. 'Magic Artifacts: History and Training', Monday and Thursday 16:00. I could have chosen this class, but I couldn't find a place in my schedule. 'Psionics: Practical Talents', Monday and Wednesday 23:00. This is really late. 'Roksole 1', Tuesday and Thursday 08:00. Learning one language was already enough for me. 'Understanding the New Technology', Tuesday and Thursday 10:00. I'm already happy enough with regular technology. 'Culinary 1', Tuesday and Thursday 14:00. They have a culinary class? How did I not see this?! 'Introduction to Fantastic Environments and their Inhabitants', Tuesday and Wednesday 16:00. Another class together with you. 'Short-Distance Combat: Basic Level', Wednesday and Saturday 08:00. And another one..." Hinata put her hand on her chin "Wait a minute, there's something strange here."
Hinata went to her bed and took the paper with her schedule, then she gave it to Natalia, together with her's, while saying “Compare them.”
Natalia did so. Beside the classes they shared, Hinata also had “Manipulation Magic: Basic Level”, “Contemporary Diplomacy”, “Applying Magic in the Context of Combat”, “Calculus 1” and two instances of “Magic Practice”. Natalia didn't need a lot of time to figure out what Hinata had considered strange. With the exception of the fact that Natalia had classes at 23:00, both girls had the same rest periods.
"That really is strange..." She agreed, giving Hinata her schedule back "But I think I know the reason."
"Really?" Hinata asked "What is it?"
"I think the arrangements of the rooms are made based on the schedules of the students." Natalia proposed.
Hinata thought for a second "That is a good explanation. Another thing for the pile of 'Strange Things in this School'. Do you have any theories about why this school has this... 'mixed' style?"
"As a matter of fact..." Natalia said with a grin "My mother talked about it once."
"Oh?" Hinata drew closer, interested.
"This school was designed by the principal. Since she is pretty much the greatest master of territory magic in the world, she decided to make it so that any territory magic could be used here. And so..." Natalia explained.
"Ah... That's really a smart thing to do." Hinata commented.
Natalia realized that she was still holding the luggage "Could you help me with this?" She asked, hopeful.
"Sure." Hinata answered. And with her help, Natalia managed to arrange everything quickly.
Then she looked to the clock on the wall.
"It's almost time for the entrance ceremony." She said.
Hinata looked at her and said:
"Come with me, I came earlier to have a look at the school, I know a shortcut."
And without waiting even a second more, she went running out of the room.
Alarmed, Natalia left the room as fast as possible, locking the door behind her, and hurried to try to reach her roommate. Hinata was fast, and Natalia had to make quite a bit of effort, but she still noticed that no one seemed to think the two of them running was something worthy of more than a slight interest. The people of this school had to be used to way weirder stuff.
They climbed a rope ladder and crossed a narrow bridge that passed close to a waterfall. Natalia didn't have time to observe the environment in more detail, because it was all she could do to not fall behind Hinata, who seemed to not even be exerting herself.
But finally they got to a place where there were two rows of chairs in front of a blackboard, some of the chairs were occupied, but not most of them, and there was a countdown in the blackboard, which was reaching the final seconds.
"We did it!" Hinata cheered, sitting in one of the chairs.
Natalia sat on her side, not knowing what was going to happen and too tired to ask. However, she didn't have to wait long. When the countdown reached zero, the chairs manifested security bars similar to those seen in roller-coasters, and the blackboard slid to the side, revealing a dark passage.
The floor under the chairs started to move, heading into the dark passage, together with the chairs.
"Ah, so this is a transpOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORT!" The floor accelerated suddenly while Natalia was talking, making her scream in surprise. It seemed that the roller-coaster comparison was spot-on.
This became even more obvious when the tunnel ended, and Natalia could see that the floor was moving on a simple and thin cable, that didn't seen to have any kind of additional support. This also allowed Natalia to see some places on the school she hadn't seen until then. Like when they passed through the middle of giant spider webs, or when they passed beside giant trees, or when they passed over a normal sized racing track. Not everything could be giant, it seemed.
They stopped close to a suspended corridor, where a lot of people were entering. And looking at the signs, Natalia could see that this was one of the entrances of the Crystal Sphere, where the entrance ceremony would be held.
Natalia got up from the bench, having to take a few seconds to make her legs stop trembling, then she and Hinata walked into the passage, following the other students that had chosen to take that path to the ceremony.
It wasn't a specially long corridor, and when they reached the end of it the school surprised Natalia once again. The name Crystal Sphere was technically correct, but it really understated the scale of that wonder.
To start, every one of the tables were the students were sitting were in circular platforms, those platforms were connected by two types of things, walkways to platforms in the same height, and stairs to platforms in different heights. There wasn't any kind of support pillars on the platforms or the connections, which seemed to be another theme of the school, and there were so many of the walkways and stairs and platforms that the amount of pillars needed to support them all wouldn't give a lot of space to the students.
But still, there was a lot of empty space, allowing Natalia to see platforms both lower and higher than where she was. And this was what let Natalia make a conclusion about the Sphere.
It was big. It had a scale that even the gigantic things she had already seen could not match. Natalia was in one of the “medium height” floors, and at first she didn't understand how the Sphere could be so big. She finally concluded that the Sphere went underground, to floors which were reserved for giants that were too big for even the ground floors. It made sense. Even the school gates could not be bigger than twelve meters tall, and she heard that some giants reached sixteen meters. The ground floor itself was too small for them.
And another thing that impressed both Natalia and Hinata were the materials for the structures. As the name indicated, the Sphere was made of crystal, but everything else inside it except the students(most of them) was also made of crystal, an uncountable number of types of crystal. Natalia and Hinata saw crystal Arukanji trees, brimming with undeniable life. They saw artfully made artificial crystals, which were gathering information about the surroundings using small sensors. They saw crystals that seemed to be made of light, even if they were as solid as all the rest. They even saw liquid crystals, where aquatic beings were swimming.
"This is... Amazing..." Hinata said.
"I agree..."
And they didn't say anything more while they went to the closest table and sat in the chairs. They were comfortable, even though the crystal didn't have the consistency of normal chairs.
Natalia passed the time before the ceremony watching the other students, while Hinata seemed to be trying to play one of Marx's symphonies by tapping the table. And there were all kinds of students. Natalia took special note of a humanoid student made by millions of bees, another student made of sand that shifted forms constantly and an egg the size of a person that had arms and legs coming out of it. There were many other students, some of them she couldn't even begin to figure out what they were, but Elidee could probably give entire lectures about.
But suddenly, something caught her attention. Her eyes were attracted to a group of platforms near the absolute center of the Sphere. Through the corner of her eyes she could see that the students near were all looking in the same direction, leading her to think that this was not a coincidence.
Those should be the teachers, but she was too far away to make out any details on them. Reluctantly, she once again chanted the magical words “Azath, Kazath, Nazath”, and her vision expanded.
Natalia could see that there were hundreds of teachers, which wasn't surprising, considering the amount of students. Her attention was drawn to two of them which were side by side. One was a human whose skin was covered in marks and symbols similar to some of those that Elidee had, including a yellow star on his forehead. The other was a centaur with golden bracelets and a glass eye.
She was still looking at the teachers when Hinata talked with her.
"This is pure magic, isn't it?" She asked.
Natalia undid the spell before looking at her, and pressed her eyes to deal with the pain.
"That's right." Natalia answered "How did you notice?"
"I use magic too, so I could sense the power. And if you already had specialized into one of the magic schools, you would have classes about it in your schedule."
"I've only learned two spells so far." Natalia admitted "I have a book that I can use to learn more. But it will take a while."
"And you also want to see if one of the other basic schools is adequate for you." Hinata guessed and Natalia nodded.
Then, their talk was interrupted by a voice that resounded throughout the entire Sphere, in a way that only magic could do. Well, magic or hundreds of speakers perfectly placed and calibrated, but it would be easier to use magic.
"Welcome." It was a masculine voice "Your principal could not be here in time so I will give the greetings." Thousands of whispers began after those words.
"For the students that are starting this year, I hope you enjoy the academy, for those that are coming back, your return is appreciated.
"Our school has a tradition to keep. We raise the best and most skilled. The improvement in your abilities is our pride, and we also learn with you.
"Because this is why this academy was made, to teach and to learn." He finished
There was a moment of silence before the students realized that the speech had ended. Then there was a tremendous ovation, and the noise of thousands of steps while the students were leaving the place.
Natalia talked with Hinata, while they walked.
"I though the speech would be bigger." Hinata said.
"Yeah, me too." Natalia stopped for a moment "Want to eat something?"
"No, I'm not hungry, but I do want to drink something." She answered after a moment
Natalia had an idea "In that case, I have something perfect."
"What?"
"Let's go back to the room and I'll show you."
And so they walked back to their room by the long path, passing through places neither of them had seen before, including a bridge in the shape of a giant fork. No, neither of them understood that, either.
When they got to the room, Natalia checked her luggage and took out some things she hadn't put there. Various small tea packages, a mini-stove and a metal pot full of water. She heated up the water on the stove, while explaining to Hinata:
"My older sister loves tea, so she puts tea in my things whenever she has the chance. I ended up developing a taste for tea."
"Okay, but where are we going to put the tea?" Hinata asked.
Natalia took a package with six cups from her luggage.
"My sister thinks of everything."
After Natalia finished preparing the tea, the two of them drank it while speaking about what they had seen. Natalia heard a lot about places she hadn't been in the academy while Hinata heard details about some of the students and parts of the school.
When they finally finished their talk and went to bed, Natalia couldn't help smiling.
She had made a friend.