The noise and cheers from the crowd in the arena was but ambient noise to Aiken. He always expected the unexpected, but this fantasy world was reaching realms of disbelief. Perhaps, like loss, one cannot fully grasp the severity of the situation until some days later.
Just one sip… he recalled the night that things went south. He didn’t recognise the woman who bought him and Bryan their drinks. No one from his old world or current world rang any bells. Fendora said she and some others summoned us, so maybe that drink has nothing to do with it? Many thoughts bombarded him, including the absolute lunacy that was magic.
It wasn’t a dream. He knew that for sure – the pain was just too real. Hallucinations? No, that didn’t make sense; if he was seeing things that weren’t there, it wouldn’t have been that consistent, would it?
His habit of expecting the unexpected and working around whatever misfortune may find its way to him no matter how difficult made him move before thinking. This is the third time now that I could’ve lost my life. What’s really going on here? What is magic? Where is Harallen? Who summoned us? Why? And why us? Is there a reason I’m ten years younger and Bryan isn’t? Why didn’t those people attack when they had the chance yesterday?
He shivered. Nothing made sense and he was playing a game that he didn’t know how to play. Bryan also weighed heavily on his mind. He thought back on that demon – mother in title only – and cowered at the thought that Bryan’s child might have to endure unnecessary hardships because Bryan might not be able to return home. He read the statistics about single-parent homes, and he experienced first-hand the damage that an unstable parent can cause.
A soft hand brought Aiken’s attention back to the present. “Hmm? What’s up?” he asked Claire.
She had a worried look on her face and he wondered why that was, but didn’t get the chance to ruminate about it. The bespectacled girl pointed at the stage; he had yet another match to take part in.
Right… he released an exhaustive sigh and stood up. A good night’s rest helped with the injuries he sustained yesterday.
When he walked onstage, there was a loud but low rumbling heard throughout the arena. The people became a bit spooked, but didn’t lose their decorum. The guards scattered throughout looked around the immediate area but couldn’t find the source.
Aiken kept a close eye on Claire because he was worried that she might be wrapped up in something; he felt like danger followed him around. After some minutes of checking around, nothing abnormal was found, so the officials continued with Wizzier’s Watchers.
The opponent Aiken faced off against felt like quite the calculative girl. She wrapped her dark hair in a ponytail before the fight started then charged into Aiken once the match was underway. He was a bit startled, but had his defences at the ready. Once she got close, she threw a punch straight to his face, which he tried to block with a small sheet of granite.
Her punch broke through his magic and connected to him on the cheekbone. He was shocked to say the least. Close combat? That’s new. Aiken mentally smacked himself upside the head for not realising she didn’t use a staff. He should’ve known something was up.
The girl’s left fist fired up at him next, but he used a much thicker sheet of granite to block and casted a concentrated gust of wind to blow her away and make some distance between them. She proved unyielding and quickly recovered her balance by rooting herself in place with earth magic. Every time he would try to attack her to make distance, she’d have the ground below her grasp onto her feet and ensnare her so that whatever Aiken through at her wouldn’t affect her too badly. That way, she was able to slowly close the distance.
Again, she took the chance and sprinted towards him, swinging her leg right to his face in the form of a beautifully arched roundhouse. Once again, he resorted to using a thick slab of granite, but she easily broke through it. This time, he chose to duck and avoided her devastating strike then used wind magic on himself to abscond the immediate danger.
Hmm… Aiken realised it wasn’t exactly the strength behind her attacks that made her obliterate his spells. It was something that she did specifically. So, he chose to focus on the point of impact a lot. She attacked relentlessly, and he used a combination of defensive spells and dodging in order to keep in the game.
Eventually, he noticed something flashing quickly right before she would strike a granite wall. A magic diagram! She’s not just trying to clobber me. Hmm, I can see other people’s diagrams then? Interesting. Being able to defend, withhold his offensive magics, and strategize resulted in a few times hits, but he soldiered on. So, her magic messes with other magic? Aiken became interested.
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The girl was well-trained, and didn’t leave herself open to attacks. Her movements were meticulous, fast, and precise, but lacked a bit of weight behind them. She was quite petite after all.
Finally, Aiken grasped the magic diagram she was using to destabilise his own magic and committed it to memory. He surrounded himself in multiple spheres of granite and focused on testing out the stolen diagram himself.
He amassed a little water and tried messing with it by using the magic diagram that the girl used. Of course, it wasn’t as simple as cancelling one’s own spell, or messing with one’s own magic diagram. It felt like seeing a perfect painting, then smudging it with extra paint so that it would be nothing but a jumbled mess. She basically applied her own magical diagram to Aiken’s, thus giving it a whole other effect.
Aiken saw two ways in which he could counter it. He could use two spells in succession and she’d only be able to cancel one spell at a time. Or he could try to give her a taste of her own medicine. He preferred the later, so he removed the granite spheres. It would only be a matter of time before the smashed through it anyway.
Looking at her now, the girl seemed a bit tired by her breath. But after breathing deeply, she continued her onslaught, only to find her punches and kicks unable to break even ice defences. She looked appalled. “What did you do?!”
Aiken smiled, “The same thing you did. It’s an interesting ability.”
“Impossible…” she said. She couldn’t believe what he was saying, and chose to keep attacking like that. It was very obvious that her magic-destroying attacks didn’t work anymore, so Aiken wondered why she didn’t resort to magic like everyone else.
After she swung a few more punches and failed to surpass any spell that Aiken put up, he forfeited the match. There was a glint of frustration in her eyes as she bit her lips. She approached him and put her face uncomfortably close to his in order to get a good look at him. “You’re the holder? Hmm. They found a real useless person for the Eye of Origin,” she insulted. “Meet me at the east gate of the school tonight.”
After another day of matches, Aiken stood outside the gate like the girl asked. He felt a bit uncomfortable knowing that there was an attempt on his life some days ago when he was going home. But he figured that the girl might know something about the Eye of Origin that he didn’t know.
“So,” a voice shattered the silence of night, “where to begin?” The hooded figure came closer, “Name’s Rachel Fendora.”
Aiken tilted his head, “The headmaster’s daughter?”
“Or, you know, just ‘Rachel’ is fine,” she rolled her eyes. She gestured him to follow by somewhat pointing with her chin, “Come on.”
“I have questions,” Aiken sped up a bit to catch her.
She looked at him and removed her cowl to show her face, “So do I, Aiken. But first, let’s get to the reason I told you to come here.” With a deep breath, she looked right at Aiken, “Someone framed Natalie and I want to prove her innocence. You need general help in this new world. We both have needs and wants, so we can help each other.”
Aiken was taken aback a little, but he didn’t know why. Was it because she referred to her mother by her first name? He indeed found it strange, and he couldn’t exactly see a resemblance either. Natalie Fendora isn’t Rachel’s biological mother? He then irked at the issue of being “framed”. The fact that she knew he wasn’t originally from this world, and that she also had knowledge on the Eye of Origin rubbed him wrong. “What are you proposing?”
Her face showed blatant hesitation, but her back was against the wall and she found it hard to trust people. She was banking on the possibility that Aiken might be gullible enough to help her. “Okay, so,” she rubbed her temple in frustration, “Natalie would’ve pissed off a lot of people because of her position as headmaster. Some highborn families constant lobby for power, status, and segregation in the school. Natalie refused a lot of bribes, received threats – some of which were attempted – and even had members of the royal court threaten to replace her. If she bent over backwards at all their selfish requests, lowborn students wouldn’t have a sliver of a chance at a proper education.”
“Okay, I get it,” Aiken cut her explanation short, “she has a lot of enemies.”
Rachel nodded, “It’s hard to know for sure who is behind it, but somebody sent an anonymous tip to the authorities saying that Natalie took something from the library that she wasn’t cleared to take. They framed her for the incident.”
“Okay,” Aiken leaned against the wall under the street light, “and what’s in it for me? What do I get for helping you?”
“Information,” she looked him in his eyes. “I will tell you about the relic, Eye of Origin. You’ll know what it does, and why you have it.”
“Can’t you tell me now?”
She mused, “Well, I can tell you this – your purpose here is directly linked to the Eye of Origin. It holds massive potential, but you can’t improve too much without first becoming at least tier five.”
“Bah! Natalie said that, Countess Clive said that, and now you’re saying it,” Aiken folded his arms in annoyance. “What do you get at tier five anyway?”
She almost reeled at that statement, “You get a chance to become highborn through effort.”
Aiken’s eyes widened at that prospect. The difference wasn’t huge like the disparity between rich and poor folk back in his original world, but he could definitely see a difference in treatment of lowborn people. What he really saw, was an opportunity to make more connections with people who had power.
“But that’s not all,” Rachel pointed out. “You get something like an internship at Sorcery Consortium.”
“You’re not from here, are you?” Aiken inquired.
Rachel grinned, then shook her head, “Nope. I was summoned to this world, just like you and Bryan.”