Her name was Elaine Chandler. She was tall and slender, with a long neck and trim waist. Her dark hair was piled high on her head in a pompadour style, and, like me, she wore a fitted shirtwaist and a long, full skirt. Elaine had a gentle, feminine face with high cheekbones and a small chin. Her dark eyes were lively and full of intelligence.
“Oh hello, Miss Lynette.” She looked at me up and down and shook her head as though in sorrow. “You really should get a maid. Failing that, you should learn how to do your hair properly.”
Most people at the Academy were sympathetic to my plight, and no one except for her ever alluded to my straightened circumstances. I chose to ignore her comment and greeted her politely as we walked together to the hall. “Good morning.”
“Did you finish the history paper yet?”
“No. You saw me last night, so you know I haven’t finished it.”
“You might have gone back to your room and spent all night working on it for all I know.”
“Why would I do that? It’s due on Friday.”
She stopped in her tracks and gave me a disbelieving look. “It’s Friday.”
“No it’s not, it’s Thursday.”
“I wondered why you didn’t seem worried last night. How can you not know what day of the week it is?” She shook her head at me again. “You need someone to take care of you.”
“Is it really Friday?” I couldn’t believe it. “I’m dead! I still have eight pages to go!”
“You could skip class this morning and finish it. I can help you.”
“Life is pain…”
“Don’t worry about it, you know the professors don’t really expect much from you.”
I put a hand on my heart and said, “Ouch.”
This was exactly the kind of behavior that made people think that we were rivals. Elaine simply wouldn’t leave me alone. I think, in her own way, she felt sorry for my circumstances and wanted to help me out. The problem was that she had a really caustic tongue, but she meant well, and that was what really mattered.
At least, I’m pretty sure she meant no harm. Probably.
[I like her.]
Ashara approved of Elaine which was reason enough to tolerate her abrasive nature.
We parted ways after we entered the great hall, a magnificent banquet hall that was the biggest in Prythian. The beams of the hammerbeam roof were painted with over 100 heraldic designs of the noble families who had founded and helped build the Academy. The walls were adorned with dozens of portraits of famous alumni, with a large painting of King Vortigern in pride of place at the far wall, above the High Table that was reserved for the senior members of the faculty. My assigned place was at the head of the female student’s table since I was the highest-ranking among them. Elaine, on the other hand, was seated at the table nearest the door with the other commoners.
The Earth human part of me was a little cheesed out by the classist way that the Academy was run, but no one seemed to have a problem with it, not even Elaine who fully intended to find a good husband here and thereby raise her rank in society. In the Academy, social climbing was the true main sport.
Breakfast was steak and eggs with a salad. Ashara had demanded that I go on a high-protein diet that was meant to build up my muscles and MP. I had been a little nervous about making a request to the kitchen, but my tutor had assured me that it was common for summoners to require a special diet, since spirits tended to be quite fussy about food.
I would’ve liked to bolt down my breakfast as fast as I could, but that was impossible because there was always an etiquette teacher dining with us who made sure that everyone behaved properly. Students were given demerits for uncouth behavior like using the wrong fork or putting their elbows on the table, since proper table manners was considered part of the curriculum in the Academy.
After an hour and a half of chatting with the other people at the head of the table, all children of high-ranking nobles, I made my way to the lecture hall to attend the first of my classes. The History of Summoning class was held in a large theater designed to seat up to two hundred students, with aisles running down the middle and rows of tiered seating on either side. The stage area was raised up slightly, with a lectern in the center and a blackboard at the back. The acoustics were good, too, so that students could easily hear the lecturer. These days the hall was less than half full, due to many smaller universities having sprung up, taking the bulk of the students that would have attended the Academy decades past.
Stolen novel; please report.
Since the deadline for the submission of the paper was today, I had to spend the entire lecture time furiously scribbling a half-baked essay on Summoning Theory in order to produce eight more pages. I wasn’t the only one, either. Five other people were also using their fountain pens to dash off pages and pages of writing.
The lecturer, Mr. Penny, turned a blind eye to it. Elaine was right. The Royal Academy of Magic used to be the center of learning of the entire continent, but nowadays, it was simply a place for the nobility, wealthy commoners, and social climbers to get to know each other.
I finished the paper in record time and attended the rest of the morning classes. Lynette’s mother would undoubtedly be thrilled to know that her daughter was a student here, and I thought that getting good grades was the least I could do.
Lunch was the same as breakfast. I had a hearty meal of roasted chicken and vegetables with a sweet cheese for dessert while conversing pleasantly with my peers under the watchful gaze of the gimlet-eyed the etiquette teacher.
Then came the absolute best part of the day.
“I absolutely love this!” I said to Ashara as I sat down in the middle of the tiny outdoor meditation spot that I had reserved for the rest of the autumn term.
Merlin’s Retreat was a large garden with a small, man-made pond at the center. Winding paths led to various secluded enclosures that were meant to provide a peaceful and serene place for summoners to meditate.
Some of the more popular spots had interesting ornamental features, also called follies, like fake temple ruins, small pyramids, squat towers, obelisks, and so forth. The place I had chosen had a cheerful little white fountain with a cute mermaid. Her eyes were made of malachite, and the sound of the water falling from her cupped hands down to the marble basin was quite soothing.
The circular space was surrounded by trees, and soft green grass carpeted the ground. In front of the fountain was a square area paved with stone that was the perfect size for me to lie down on.
I spread my coat on the stones and lay down on it with my arms and legs spread apart like the Vitruvian man.
“I think I’ve got it. I feel very close.”
[Mana Breathing is quite simple, so I’m sure you’ll master it soon.] Ashara sent me a feeling of reassurance.
“Okay,” I said.
Closing my eyes, I tried to feel the link between us that would allow me to sense mana. The spirit had made its home inside me. Philosophers debated where exactly spirits resided when they made a contract with a summoner. Was it somewhere in their body or in their spirit? Was it a soul bond? No one knew.
Personally, I had the feeling that she was somewhere in my brain. She couldn’t read my mind, nor I hers, but I always had the sensation that she was there. Weeks of practice allowed me to easily envision a glowing web of power that was overlaid over and through my brain. To me, that was where Ashara was.
Once I had connected with her, I started the Mana Breathing technique that she had taught me. I simply inhaled through my nose and exhaled through my mouth. Connected as I was to my spirit, every breath felt like honeyed air, thick and sweet, coating my lungs with golden mana. From my lungs, the mana flowed to the blood in my capillaries and from there to the rest of my body filling it with a sense of calmness.
Or at least that was how I imagined it. I couldn’t actually feel anything happening.
[+1]
Thank goodness for the Aurelian family’s System! Every time I successfully completed one Mana Breath, a small blue square popped up in front of me with a “+1,” confirming that I was doing it correctly. Without that, I wouldn’t be able to tell that my body was taking in mana. Ashara said that that was because the amount that I absorbed was too small to sense.
It took another deep breath.
[+1]
On the other hand, when I failed to breathe in mana, no +1 message appeared. I took a few more deep breaths, but the pop up only appeared twice every five breaths, which was a big improvement from the first time that I had tried it when I only succeeded once every twenty tries. This immediate feedback from the System was a huge advantage I had over other summoners who probably had some difficulty knowing whether they were doing the right thing or not, though they did have their spirits to guide them.
[+1]
My stats were still the same as they were when I first met Ashara.
[Lynette Aurelian: Level 1 Summoner]
[Int: 1/99]
[Str: 1/99]
[Dex: 1/99]
[Cha: 1/99]
[Con: 1/99]
[HP: 10/999]
[MP: 10/99]
[Skills: Mana Breathing]
It would only be able to increase my MP when I fully mastered Mana Breathing and moved on to the higher level skill of Power Breathing. I could tell that I was halfway to mastery because the System showed me a Mastery XP Bar as I trained.
[+1]
The XP bar only moved an infinitesimal amount after I got ten points, yet I wasn’t disheartened because it was proof that I was getting stronger slowly but surely.
[+1]
I spent the whole afternoon meditating and raising my Mana Breathing skill, collecting hundreds of +1s until the XP bar inched closer to the right side. It was getting dark by the time I got up and stretched.
“Good meditation session, right?” I said. The ancients said that summoners and their spirits could communicate with their minds, but I found that creepy, so I never tried it. I preferred to talk to Ashara out loud.
[Yes it was. Have a good dinner and go to sleep early. I think you need to exercise more.]
I groaned theatrically as I picked up my coat and folded it over my arm. It was a warm day, so I didn’t really need it. “My schedule is so full I hardly get to relax at all.”
And it was about to get even crazier, because tomorrow I planned to make first contact with the Duke.
That was sure to be fun.