"The moon isn't made of cheese, it's made of eyes!!" I abruptly wake up with a yell.
A moment later the door to my new bedroom opened up to reveal Ella looking rather concerned, "U-um are you ok?"
"Huh? Oh.. Yeah, just a strange dream, sorry for startling you Elly." In my dream I'd been walking through a vast dark field, then suddenly the twin moons of the world had risen up over the horizon, but their appearance changed to that of an impossibly large pair of eyes that seemed to gaze at my very soul; It was strangely unsettling. I begin to crawl my way out of bed, my blouse hanging loosely down around my hips, being the only thing that's keeping me decent.
Despite not being able to see anything Ella still blushes furiously at the sight, running out of my room and closing the door with an embarrassed squel, "Ahh~ h-how can you just sleep wearing so little, don't you care if someone sees you?!"
"Sleeping this way is the most comfortable for me," I say as I stretch my arms above my head, "and it's not like I'm exactly showing anything. Besides, I don't think I should be embarassed around you Elly, we're gonna be together for a while after all." it was already our third day living together in the Academy's dorms and still she seemed to have a hard time feeling comfortable around me; cute as her reactions tended to be, I still wanted to do my best to make her feel comfortable with me as soon as possible. "What am I to do about our other roommate though?" Princess Lumira. Strangely enough, when we were moving into the dorms and picking roommates the girl had come up to me stating that she'd be living with Ella and I, "I don't mind that she wanted to be our third roommate, but I don't think she's spoken to either of us since." The young Princess truly acted like she lived apart from everyone else in the world. While thinking about these things, I continued to get ready for what would be my second real day of classes at the Academy.
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Ella Kren's POV:
"T-th-this is too fast, it hasn't even been three full days and she's already saying things like '~We're going to be together forever Elly~', I-I have to tell her that we should be taking things slower!" Even though her exact words may have been a bit different, the message was clear. "What if Princess Lumira heard what we'd said? Did she think we were both some sort of deviants now?" I crack open my bedroom door, spotting the silver haired princess sitting in the living room reading a book, giving no indication that she'd been paying attention to Syllara or I. Abruptly she turns around to look in my direction, "eep!" I fell backwards startled, "Oh no I was spotted spying on the Princess, it's all over for me now."
"Eep..?" is the last thing I hear before I faint; already imagining how all my siblings would laugh at me while mom and dad watched on in disappointment, I hadn't even managed to last a week at the Academy.
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Stepping out of my room, I was greeted with a rather pecuilar sight. Princess Lumira was crouched down next to Ella, who appeared to be sleeping on the floor for some reason, and poking her on the cheek, "No fair I wanna poke her too!"
Hearing my door close behind me, the princess stands up and turns to me simply stating, "She 'Eep'd'" As if that made everything perfectly clear. "I'd like to tell you a story miss Illionan," she suddenly says after a moment, "I believe that you'll find it interesting. Whether you choose to believe it afterwards or not."
"Huh, I wonder where this is suddenly coming from?" I walked over gathering Ella up into my arms before sitting down with her on the couch opposite of Princess Lumira, running my fingers through the girls pigtails as she slept, a contented smile settling on her face. "Ok Princess, I'm all ears. What story is it that you'd like to tell me?"
She takes a moment seemingly to collect her thoughts before beginning:
"Long ago, before the founding of the empire, before the sentient races had even evolved, before the appearance of what we call the system, and before even magic, all the world was supposedly enveloped in nothing but chaos. There were neither seasons, nor the tides, neither day nor night, nor even the passage of time which leads all things to their demise. There was only the world itself, young and primordial, aimlessly adrift in the cosmic ocean. A ball of infinite yet unused potential. Then a great celestial being from beyond the stars saw all of this potential and decided to mold it, enforcing order amongst the chaos, and splitting apart that which was primordial into that which would shape the rest of the world as we'd eventually come to know it. Eventually though, the great being completed it's work and decided to leave, returning to wherever it had come from. However, it did not want it's perfect work to be undone, so it plucked out it's eyes before it left, leaving them behind to watch over the world forevermore."
She pauses dramatically for a moment, "Thus goes the story of how the Twin Moons of the world came to be, which my brother and I inherit our names from." Then she gets up, leaving me to my thoughts as she makes her way to wherever it is she goes during the day, being one of the student's who'd tested out of the initial week of classes.
"Cool, this world has some sort of cosmic horror origin story," was there any truth to it I wondered though, memories of my earlier dream playing across my mind as my hands continued to fidget with the sleeping Ella. "I'm sure she only told me because she'd heard me yelling earlier when I woke up. I still don't get the feeling she made the story up though to creep me out or something, she seems too out of touch with others to play such a childish trick. It also sounded like just the sort of thing I'd expect for some sort of fantasy world's creation mythos."
Ella was beginning to squirm and make little moaning sounds under the massaging of my hands, drawing my mind back to focus on the world around me, "...n-no syl~ ...n-not here, w-w-w-we muSTN'TTTTTTTT!!!!!" Ella suddenly shoots up as her weak protests turned into a yell, her face blushing furiously as she see's herself in my lap, my own face following suit when I realized just where I'd been massaging her while I'd been deep in thought.
"Huh, they're bigger than you'd think."
We were in class now, and Miss Alysia was explaining something about how various Mage Tower's around the Empire were used to keep the weather consistent for farming and whatnot. Despite my apology Ella remained too embarassed to even look at me for the moment, I sighed, "She was just so cute lying there though, in my mind it was like I was just petting an adorable little dog." I didn't think telling her I thought of her like some sort of puppy would make her feel better though so I focused back in on the lesson for now.
"-In addition to maintaining temperate weather conditions for farming and comfortable living, these tower's can be used to increase the natural density of mana in the land around them as well as convert a significant portion of it to a certain element or even balance out the surrounding mana to all the elements. Can someone give me an example for why this is so important when dungeons practically do the same thing naturally?" Alysia asked before pointing to where Treyvor had raised his hand.
Surprisingly the pretentious noble boy was one of the few who showed up to the class, whether it was because he wasn't smart enough to test out of the first week classes or if he was just exceptionally studious, I wasn't sure. Other than him there were only 5 others in the class: Ella, the skinny golden eyed boy whose name I heard was Daniel Elyir from Ella, that one buff kid, and then a fairly plain sleepy looking girl with light pink hair; and obviously there was also me. Ella had informed me about Daniel because his family was apparently the highest ranking of the high noble houses, and usually they didn't directly attend the Academy because their family happened to primarily be healers who couldn't take part in many of the duels which the academy encouraged. I wondered what he was doing here, both at the academy in general, as well as in the so-called "mundane" classes.
"Well since these Towers are under our direct control, an example of why this is important would be if our Empire were in a time of war, the Towers can be strategically used to boost the efficiency of certain mages. Earth mages could be boosted to aid in rapid construction of a fort or to repair a cities walls, water mages could be boosted to change the currents within the sea to make it more difficult for enemy ships to approach, air mages to blow back projectiles launched on a city under siege, and so on." Treyvor proudly explained in reply to the teachers question.
I found it kind of weird that this topic was considered to be under the mundane portion of my education. Even yesterday's lesson on the geography of the empire went fairly into detail on mana and magic, detailing how natural ley lines acted like some sort of mana converter, suffusing the lands around them with much more of one of the four base elemental types of mana; these base elements being Water, Earth, Air, and Fire. What about the Light and Dark elements then? Well apparently the Light and Dark elements were everywhere, but they came from the Sun and Moons respectively instead of the world itself. Dungeons would then occasionally appear on or near various ley lines, multiplying their effects on the surrounding land. I'd asked a question then about whether ley lines shaped the surrounding land with the mana they released, or if the surrounding land shaped the ley lines instead. I asked this because when we had looked at the natural topography and climates of various regions yesterday, it always seemed to match up with the naturally appearing ley lines; deserts or volcanoes would be surrounded by fire ley lines, the seas and oceans would have water ley lines, canyons and mountains would have earth ley lines, and the floating islands would have air ley lines. Apparently this question was like this worlds equivalent of "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" though, and I didn't get an answer although Miss Alysia seemed pleased that I was thinking so hard about it at least.
Suddenly I understood what answer she'd been looking for though, "The Towers are so important because with them we can create better environments for all types of mages instead of just those of a set element. You could effectively build a tower anywhere and establish a town or city around it and have it produce any type of mana regardless of the surrounding ley lines or dungeons."
"Very astute miss Illionan, but you're still missing one aspect," Miss Alysia replies smugly, goading me into thinking about what it was I'd missed.
Before I could figure it out though, Daniel beat me to it, "Elaborating a bit more on what Syllara had said; unlike ley lines and dungeons, the Towers can convert mana between any and all of its types, this Includes Light and Dark mana, which is what allowed for the development and rise to power of my own Elyir family. And lastly, since ambient mana plays a big role in what affinities one is born with; the development of the Towers is what made those born with multiple affinities much more common, allowing for mages who's specialty lied in elements wich were a combination of the naturally occuring 6, such as lightning and Ice, to become widespread." Lightning being a combination of Air and Light, and Ice being a combination of Water and Air.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
I wanted to be annoyed with him for stealing my thunder, but the strange dreamlike quality of his voice made it hard to take offense to anything the boy said, his tone gentle and soothing with promises of benevolence. "I wonder if that has something to do with him being a healer? In the future I may need to be wary if I ever see anyone else from the Elyir family," I thought, feeling like a combined effort of mutliple people who shared his voice could've talked me into selling my soul if I wasn't careful.
"Well put mister Elyir. The first, second, and fourth ranked of the six high noble houses all specialize in elements other than the four primary ones, this should be the best proof to show you all just how important the development of Mage Towers has been to the Empire. With that Class is dismissed." Miss Alysia finishes her lecture and relinquishes us for the remainder of the day.
I turned trying to get ahold of Ella before she darted out of the classroom door when I was intercepted by Daniel; his messy brown hair, bright golden eyes and thin face abruptly appearing between me and my target. "Excuse me Syllara, but could I speak with you?" he politely asks me, his sonorous voice stopping me in my tracks.
"Ahh dammit she's getting away again. Sigh. Sure Daniel, what did you want to speak with me about?" I reply to him, trying not to sound too disappointed. His expression remains just as unchangingly tranquil as what I've come to expect from him over the past couple of days, so I guess he hasn't taken any offense, "Or maybe he's just got a really good poker face, who knows?"
"Actually, I had only meant to attend the first day of this week's classes so that you and I could have an oppurtunity to speak to one another. You just disappeared before I got the chance yesterday so I had to come again today," there's a slight twinkle in his eye that I'm not sure whether its from amusement or annoyance. "Let me properly introduce myself; I am Daniel Elyir, I'm currently the youngest direct descendant of House Elyir and the only member of the family currently attending the Alterron Royal Academy as a student. My magic is primarily used for healing people, but I can also use it for things like making plants grow rapidly. Though I can make things grow unnaturally large, I can't make them grow in unnatural shapes."
Healing magic was obviously useful, and his other ability seemed quite interesting but, "Why are you telling me this..?" I didn't quite see the point in him pulling me aside just to give me some sort of verbal resumé.
"...because I knew you would be concerned about my capabilities for when we engaged in team battles against other classes in the coming weeks. I'm of the opinion that if used properly, my abilities will guarantee our victory in all future endeavors," he states pridefully.
"Ah.. right, thanks. I'll keep it in mind," I robotically say in return. "Full of yourself much? I guess even the calmest seeming nobles still take it as a matter of fact that others are beneath them. Unintentional classism at it's finest right there," I'd have been willing to bet he didn't even see anything wrong with the way he put things, "Oh well, at least he's not as outwardly pretentious and arrogant as Treyvor. I have little hope in being able to change either of their world views though, as ingrained as they likely are." I reevaluated my already considerable appreciation for Ella though, her personality not being tainted by her noble upbringing was akin to winning the lottery in my mind, "Truly the girl must be an actual angel of sorts."
As Daniel finally went on his way, I was left alone in the classroom. Not quite sure what to do with myself, my thoughts once more turned to the story from this morning; though parts of it had the feel of being embellished upon, or even just blatantly false, with my newfound knowledge some it had the subtle ring of truth that any good myth should. One specific part in particular was stuck in my mind, "Maybe there truly was some sort of celestial being that split apart the natural energies of the world and divided them into the base elements?" I wasn't sure why, but the idea of some form of primordial mana existing before all else and then being divided up into the rest of the elements just felt right in my head. My internal musings were then cut short as a series of system messages appeared before me, coincidentally serving to prove my train of thought:
Updating. . .
Updated.
Affinity "???" now recognized as precursor to all other elements. However, as combining all elements does not result in creation of "???" it remains unique to entity SI-51903887642
Due to it's nature, Affinity "???" will be renamed: "Primordial"
Reverting to last stable
I hissed as suddenly a sharp pain filled my head, my vision darkening while the last system message continued to hover in front of me. "What.. the.... fuck......" consciousness fading, I slumped down into the arms of someone in front of me.
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Dean of Alterron Royal Academy's POV:
"Rest child," I say as the girl before me loses consciousness, I'd gotten a vision of a foreboding system error leading to the girl collapsing while I was meditating so I'd decided to come do what I could to help her, "I know not which strange fate you hold, but let this old man ease some of your burden until you are able to pick it back up again." I began casting my unique magic on the girl, while I could not truly stop whatever it was that tried to forcefully interfere, I was sure that I could buy her several years at least to develop uninhibited. If I couldn't do at least this much for my students then I had no place being the dean of the Academy; with my spell formed I placed my hand against the girls back, "~Soul Shield~" The spell circle glowed brightly, imprinting itself through her uniform and onto the upper part of her back, directly between her shoulder blades before fading away. My magic now in place, the girl was beginning to stir, I quickly set her down lest she get the wrong idea upon awakening.
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As the pain in my head abruptly began to fade and I found myself returned to a state of lucidity, I couldn't stop myself from letting out a string of expletives, "*Beep* a *beep* in the *beep* with a *beeeeep* pogo-stick, what the *beep* *beep* *beeeeeep*!" Or at least I tried to, weirdly enough they all came out as censored beeps, "Oh no.. what new curse is this? ...*beep*? Oh, you gotta be *beeeeeep* me, even in my head it gets censored?!" I quickly look around before my eyes settle on an old man, looking like a cross between a certain grey wizard and magical headmaster; he doesn't seem to have a staff or a wand though. And thankfully he seems rather amused with my outburst instead of upset. "You're not about to try and tell me I'm the 'chosen one' or invite me into going on an adventure with dwarves, right? I hate 'chosen one' tropes, and while if I were invited on said adventure I might say yes, I unfortunately think I'm too large and loud to be a burglar-"
"-Relax child... what a wild imagination you seem to have." He pauses, likely wondering what a pogo-stick is before continuing, "Ahem, I am no more than an old man who noticed you seemed to be in trouble. Do you remember what exactly happened before you collapsed?"
"Ah, yeah... I was thinking about this creation myth story that Princess Lumira told me this morning; it was about how the twin moons came to be. I was just wondering if there was actually any truth to the story or not, for some reason something about it didn't seem entirely made up... Then I'm not sure, there was an error message that popped up? But I've had error messages pop up before, and it just automatically resolved itself," I did my best to recall exactly what happened before I'd apparently passed out, but I still felt like I was forgetting something. "Ahhh!! How irritating, there's definitely something I'm not remembering, can the system erase memories?" Now that was a bit scary to consider...
The dean closed his eyes, stroking his beard for a moment, seemingly deliberating on what I'd told him. "No, I do not believe the system alone is capable of erasing one's memories. At least not by design. Perhaps the feedback caused by whatever unique error you encountered is what has temporarily messed with your memories, a side effect of sorts."
Was it really so simple? "I hope I haven't gotten like the equivalent of a magical concussion," I sighed, "For some reason I feel like that would be just my luck..." Suddenly the strange, very wizardly looking old man before me took a sheet of paper out of his pocket and began to write on it, before casting some spell that caused it to fold into a little paper bird and fly away. "If that spell is called 'Tweeting' I'll be mad."
The wizened old man turned to me once again, "I hope you don't mind, I sent a message to your teacher; I'd like to have Miss Alysia take you to one of the labs on campus and run a few tests if that's ok?"
"That's fine, I didn't have anything else to do. And I'm great at tests!" I reply, and for a moment I would've sworn by the look on his face that he was looking into some sort of dark future.
"AHAHAHAH, I AM UNLIMITED POWERRR!!!" I cackle maniacally, literally hovering a foot in the air while magically generated electricity arcs from the machine I'd been standing in and into various lab equipment causing them to overload and go haywire, with some just outright bursting into flames. Several upperclassman who'd been using the lab before Alysia and I showed up are curled up in the corner sobbing; clearly not despairing because I had inadvertently destroyed months of their hard work but instead due to their feeble minds being incapable of processing what was happening before them. Even Miss Alysia herself stood frozen with a slack expression on her face and vacant eyes, still clutching the syringe she'd used to inject me with some strange liquid before having me stand in this similarly strange machine and turning it on. It was like I'd been turned into some sort of living magical nuclear powerplant, and it felt AMAZING! Like I could do anything I wanted! So what was I just standing in this machine for?
I decided to try something. Almost instinctually, I brought my hands palm together in front of me, containing the power from leaking out of me as best I could. I began to focus on the world around me, amazingly, I could feel what must have been nearly everyone's aura in the entire campus. The strange old man's a vast cloud of constantly changing ephemeral energy that surrounded him in an incredible radius. Miss Alysia's like a deep whirpool that lead to the bottom of the ocean. Treyvor's a rigid flame that somehow neither flickered nor moved. Daniel's a mass of warm golden light that reminded me of those little ball shaped christmas tree ornaments. The Prince and Princess's aura circled one another, a delicate balance between light and dark. Finally I felt Ella's, like a frozen pond that had a strange gash running through it that was leaking energy. I didn't have time to ponder much about this as I suddenly started to feel more and more uncomfortable. With a gasp I opened my eyes, the power I'd tried trapping inside of me felt like it was coalescing within my stomach now, making me feel incredibly bloated, "Oh Fuuuuu-UUGGGHHHHASLKFJGAGHLG" I briefly went googly eyed as I projectile vomited a pure stream of condensed mana in a literal laser beam straight towards Miss Alysia who had to hastily erect a shield in front of her, deflecting the beam straight up where it pierced through the ceiling and continued on reaching far into the sky. This continued for 5 or 6 seconds before it finally stoped. "I-I don't feel very amazing anymore.. oh god I can feel it in my nose still," were the last words I uttered before I then passed out for the second time that day.
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Random citizen's POV elsewhere on the Island of Lunis:
Today was a very important day, I'd planned everything out: I'd picked the perfect place, the perfect outfit, the perfect girl, and finally the perfect ring. Today would be the day I finally proposed to my dear Selena. I nervously glanced to where she was walking alongside me, gripping the box that held the ring tightly within my pocket. "Should I just ask now?" I thought to myself, "No. The fortuneteller told me there would be a sign. I just need to keep waiting until it comes."
Suddenly the people on the street around us began to point into the sky in the direction of the Royal Academy, and as I turned to look up and saw the pure beam of energy piercing high into the heavens above us, setting the very clouds aglow in a rainbow of colors, I knew. This was my sign. Now was the time to ask. I got down on one knee, and as the most beautiful rainbow colored rain began to fall around us. The drops bursting into mesmerizing flashes of light wherever they hit the ground, shining on my love like a sign from heaven itself that I was soon to be the most blessed man in the world. I asked, "Will you marry me?"