Once the safety barrier was adequately powered, Welkin and Hulle’s groups began. Or rather, Rialle and her imp began, turning the dueling area into a sea of fire and forcing Hulle and Endreise to counter with frozen mists and ice. The elements clashed in the middle forming an impenetrable wall of steam and dividing the oval-shaped dueling area into opposing sides of flaming hell and frosted icescape.
{{Ria, Aldri, Ulren, can you hear me?}}
Iselyn’s voice timidly echoed in Ria’s mind, and Ria almost failed at properly maintaining her contribution to the safety barrier.
{{Oh? A shared telepathic tether? Does it require line-of-sight?}}
Ulren’s voice was clear over the roar of fire and steam and sounded less resigned than before.
{{No, but it’s easier if I can see the targets. Three tethers is my current limit, and casting or fighting while maintaining the spell is difficult. But Orlisi found me a simpler spell for quick one-way messages as well.}}
{{At least we can use this time to make plans… even if this group is hopelessly overmatched.}}
While Ulren and Iselyn were making use of the telepathic tether, Ria continued observing the match, trying to improve her ability to discern the magic being woven from the perceived tangle of overlapping glows.
Thus far, neither side in the practice match were braving the wall of steam, opting to cast defensive magics—or maybe strengthening magics?—instead, and oddly, even with the participants all either wrapped in fire or surrounded by what looked like a cloying misty cold, the safety magic was less stressed than she expected.
Ria tilted her head. On Hulle’s side, each appeared to be handling the cold differently. Tallien’s skin was a frosty blue after drinking a potion, Endreise was surrounded by a rapidly flowing tentacled bulb of water that her fish familiar was swimming in, Katria was surrounded by compressed air.
In contrast, on Welkin’s side, Welkin, Orlisi, Rialle, and Zell were all surrounded by the same layer of vibrant glow and connected by pulsing strings of spirit energy.
The last to complete his preparations was Zell, and as he finished transforming into a nightmarish werebeast, Orlisi shot forward and punched at the steam. The gusts of wind that threatened to obliterate the current equilibrium were gleefully met by pressure explosions from Katria, and the resulting chaotic maelstrom of steam, fire, and swirling ice shards reached levels of deadly that Ria could only gape at. Even so, Zell attempted to brave it, and for a moment, it looked like he might succeed as everything around him slowed dramatically, only for him to be smacked back and sent flying by a terrific impact from one of Endreise’s ice-coated water tentacles.
The conversation between Iselyn and Ulren had continued as Ria watched the increasingly violent match, and she turned her attention back to what they were saying.
{{I don’t think my ‘sporific illusion’ domain can withstand Rialle’s fire domain,}} Iselyn worried.
Ulren’s sigh came through the link before his voice followed.
{{It might hold up better combined with a water domain like Endreise is using to supplement Hule’s ice domain—but even with that, it’s probably asking too much against a third-year fire-specialist. Unless Aldri has finished his task assigned by Hulle, we might be sheep before a dragon.}}
Aldri’s voice spoke up.
{{I did buy a void-aspected focus tool with the glyphs and constructs needed to add entropic absorption to my spatial displacement magic, but the spell is still unreliable and takes me a while to cast.}}
Ria felt for the telepathic tether, which surprisingly consisted of something other than spirit energy—something unfamiliar, and tried sending her thoughts along it.
{{I can cast the water domain spell. Shadow, and the other major elements too,}} Ria volunteered. The ‘domain’ spell was one Master Harlow had taught her, and substituting in the glyphs for different elements was easy. {{I also have a wand of Air Shield, and can use shadow magic for disruption and absorbing.}}
{{Oh?}} Ulren sounded more optimistic at hearing that. {{Do you think you can take Rialle if we keep the others busy?}}
It was plausible. She nodded. {{I think so, and Ranger can probably handle her imp.}}
{{Hmm… Welkin is mostly support: abjuration, healing, and continually replenishing everyone’s stamina and energy. So, that means if Iselyn’s familiar can stall Zell, Aldri and I would have a fair chance of flattening Orlisi. It might just work…}}
Replenishing?
Ria looked again, and sure enough, while Hulle’s side was rapidly draining their energy reserves, Welkin was the only one on his side with significantly lower reserves, but his reserves were gargantuan compared to everyone else. The stalemate certainly wasn’t in Hulle’s favor.
Hulle signalled with his hand, and suddenly, all of Endreise’s tentacles twisted together into one and punched forward through the steam and fire heading straight for a surprised Rialle. Orlisi moved rapidly to intercept, but a discordant rumbling shrillness squealed out from Katria with enough volume to shake the training hall and stun everyone on Welkin’s side.
The tentacle crashed into Rialle like a giant’s fist, causing her to bend in half and ragdoll to the ground. Judging by the sudden draw on the protective magic that Ria was helping sustain, that attack had struck hard enough to overcome whatever abjuration Welkin had used on Rialle.
With Rialle no longer in a condition to sustain her fire domain, Hulle’s ice domain rushed into the opponent’s half of the dueling oval, snuffing out the fires that were previously holding it back. A flood of water from Endreise’s fish familiar followed, and Tallien’s alchemy-enhanced magic joined Hulle’s, flash-freezing the water around Welkin and Zell and surging the resulting ice up to encase them fully.
Orlisi managed to leap in time to avoid the fate of her teammates, and though she flew through the air, miraculously dodging tentacles and zipping around like an oversized fairy, Katria’s blasts soon grounded her, bringing the match to a quick icy close.
Ria stared with her jaw slack. The combination of Endreise and Hulle (and Tallien) was just too powerful!
{{Well, shit,}} Ulren eloquently observed.
The ice faded away into motes of ice and water energy as Hulle and Endreise released their element-summoning spells.
Welkin had only been restrained, instead of defeated, and was quick to congratulate Hulle and his group on their teamwork once free of the ice. Orlisi absentmindedly kicked at the floor while shrugging and making a sheepish expression at Katria’s ribbing. Zell looked frustrated, but Hulle offered positive comments on Zell’s new spell, a velocity reduction field—if Ria heard correctly.
Once Rialle was recovered, Ria’s group switched places with Welkin’s group, and focus tools were used to quickly restore everyone’s energy reserves—much to Ria’s dismay. She did have energy stored in her staff, but that was energy that could have gone to filling spirit tokens.
Hulle gave Ria an amused smirk when their eyes met across the dueling oval, and Ria came to a realization.
Rather than something to dread, this match was an opportunity to pay him back for embarrassing her.
{{I want Hulle,}} Ria decided and chose to ignore the snort that came from Iselyn through the tether.
{{You’ll need someone to cover you from Endreise and her familiar, considering your match with Orlisi,}} Aldri pointed out and offered, {{If I use portals and spatial distortions, I can probably help you dodge and attack.}}
Ulren approved and finalized the plan of attack just as Ria’s group took up their positions.
Orlisi called out for Ria to avenge her death, and Ria gave the elf a grinning thumbs-up.
Like the previous match, there was no signal to start, as soon as spell constructs began to form around Hulle, Ria formed and cast the Body-Strengthening spell while charging toward Tallien with her enchanted training daggers in hand, Ranger loping at her side.
Tallien’s shocked face was pretty funny, and Katria’s amused laughter concurred. A hungry grin split Ria’s face as space rippled in front of her. She braced herself for the cold already spreading from Hulle and plunged through Aldri’s portal.
Cold! Her breath frosted in the suddenly brisk air—air colder than sharpest winds cutting across the heights of the highland wilds!
Not daring to pause, Ria pushed shadow energy through her weapons’ enchanted veins and slashed at Hulle’s neck from behind, her right hand already moving to follow up with a stab to his robed back.
Hulle must have sensed Aldri’s magic because he was already ducking forward. Even so, he couldn’t hope to completely escape her speed, and her shadow magic struck against a protective layer that cracked like imaginary ice. Clipped by each blow, Hulle’s duck turned into a forward roll.
Ria pressed her attack, determined to not give him any time to recover. Terrible explosions rocked the ground as other battles raged elsewhere in the oval.
{{Back!}}
At Aldri’s warning, Ria was already throwing herself backwards as ice spikes shot upward out of the ground around a smirking Hulle.
The world around her shifted, and one of Endreise’s water tentacles slammed into the place Ria had just been, exploding into a rush of water which blossomed into more ice spikes that the blond-haired ice mage was already directing her way.
Trusting her new earth affinity, body-strengthening, and her enchanted cloak to protect her, Ria barrelled forward into the assault, slashing and crashing through the ice forming in front of her as she pulsed blasts of magic-disrupting shadow energy through her weapons.
{{Katria is contained!}} Ulren shouted into the group tether. {{Aldri! Focus on Endreise and her familiar!}}
The ice gave way to sharp metal stabbing through her chest. Ria was too shocked to cry out at the sudden pain. Though she knew in her mind that a spatial magic trick of the safety barriers had simulated the pointy rod passing through her body, the pain felt all too real. The weapon was different from the fancy rapier she had expected Hulle to use, sturdier and without a cutting edge.
A sharp coldness emitting from the blade(?) woke her from her shocked stupor. She filled her body with heat energy before the spreading chill could freeze her heart, and slashed at his face, forcing him to dodge back. The pain of the stabbing weapon leaving her chest drew a strangled scream that she turned into a growl of fury.
“Good!” He smiled at her, his cylindrical-shaped sword held casually. “That was exactly the sort of thing you should use your wild-talent abilities for.”
“What?!” Ria growled, readying herself for another charge. Didn’t he say not to use her wild talent abilities?
He laughed. “What’s that face for? Obviously, there are ideal uses for your ability to directly manipulate magic, or I wouldn’t have recommended hiding it for now. There’s no sense being wasteful when normal magic would suffice. Efficiency is the key. Knowing when direct manipulation is the most expedient and most efficient solution, that is what you need to learn.”
Why was he stopping to talk?
The answer became clear when she noticed the huge amount of Hulle’s energy flowing into a formation hidden among the magic of his ice-domain spell.
“Hells-!” was all Ria could exclaim before the ice rushed up to imprison her.
Ria mentally kicked herself for naively falling for such a ploy. Before she could rage against her prison, Ria stopped herself, remembering what fire turned ice into. Steaming herself like a freshly caught crayfish wouldn’t go well for her.
Outside the ice, Hulle was preparing another large spell—or at least that was what she assumed since her energy sensing was mostly blocked by Hulle’s energy contained in the ice.
{{Tallien’s down!}} Aldri reported.
Ranger whooped in victory through the familiar bond.
{{Hulle’s casting something big!}} Ria warned her group.
{{Damn it! Block it, Aldri!}} Ulren roared. {{If he frees Katria from my salt prison-!}}
{{On it!}}
Her group was still fighting, but Ria was beginning to feel light-headed and panicky as the ice kept her from breathing. Fighting to stay calm, Ria formed a domain spell and poured energy into a ‘heat’ domain around herself pushing back against Hulle’s magic and drawing a glance from him.
Tremendous crashes out of Ria’s line of sight vibrated the ice she was encased in. As her thoughts clouded, Ria wondered what Iselyn was up to. Had the illusion girl helped with downing Tallien?
A glint of light caught Ria’s attention through the transparent ice surrounding her. Ice shapes that looked suspiciously like mushrooms were forming behind Hulle.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Ria redoubled her efforts to melt the ice, but rather than turning to water, as her domain pushed back Hulle’s magic, the ice disappeared back into air, allowing her to gasp into her lungs a desperately needed breath—a breath that made her twist and cough in pain from her simulated chest ‘wound’.
{{Mushroom wall! Now!}} Ulren ordered. {{Aldri! Lock down that damn fish!}}
{{Hells-!}} Aldri cursed. {{Got it!}}
Judging by Ulren’s desperate tone, the battle wasn’t going well. She needed to escape the ice and a ‘heat’ domain wasn’t going to get her out in time—or in a way that would stop Hulle from just stabbing her once the ice was thin enough. What else could she use?
A quick glance back—now that she had room to move her head—showed Ulren and Aldri jumping from frozen mushroom to frozen mushroom, dodging tentacles whipping out from Endreise who was gliding around the dueling area, propelled by a continuous flow of water beneath her. Endreise‘s fish was dumping gushers of water that Aldri had to portal away so they didn’t get frozen in place by Hulle. Iselyn, Tallien, and Katria were nowhere to be seen, but a rhythmically pulsing dome of salt with Ulren’s snake coiled atop suggested where at least one of them was.
Ah! That was it! Pressure! Air!
Ria swapped out her domain’s ‘heat’ glyph for an ‘air’ glyph. There was a brief moment where her domain was unattuned before the element shifted. The sudden change drew a sharp glance from Hulle, and Ria stuck out her tongue at him, but she waited for him to turn his gaze back to the fight before making her breakout attempt… or at least that was the plan.
A cracking from one of the nearby mushrooms claimed Hulle’s attention instead, and the mushrooms all exploded in a flurry of frost and spores and freezing spores that looked like snowflakes.
Though it was hard to tell with the mix of energies, whatever Iselyn had planned seemed to be obstructed by the barrier of ice energy Hulle was surrounded by, and the cold and moisture were rapidly turning the rest of the spores into snowflakes.
Hulle laughed. “Nice try, but Iselyn miscalculated.”
Ria knew she had to act fast! Her attunement with ‘air’ energy was better than her attunement with ‘heat’ and she dumped the rest of her energy reserves into the domain spell to the limits its structure could handle, dynamically thickening the constructs and sigils to allow more to flow.
{{Need more of those spores, Iselyn!}} Ria called out through the tether.
{{Fine, fine,}} the illusion girl grumbled.
“Determined to go another round, huh?” Hulle mocked and readied his sword-thing that looked a bit like a one-handed estoc… or maybe a pointy metal wand with a fancy handle.
When cracks started forming on the ice, Hulle’s eyes widened, and he took a few hopping steps backward, holding his sword-wand upright to protect his body.
But he was too late!
The ice prison shattered, and chunks of ice smashed into the third year boy, shattering the barrier he had surrounded himself with. The remaining spores swirling in the air weren’t enough to fully poison him, but his eyes drooped, and he staggered and mumbled, “Ha, ha… well done… you two.”
Iselyn’s mushrooms were already growing up to deliver another dose of spores. Ria would only need to keep him from moving away!
A gleeful cackle came from Ulren. {{Now, now, now! Aldri! I’ve got control of her water!}}
{{Go!}} Aldri shouted back into the link only to be followed by Ulren’s evil villain laughter.
Seeing how disoriented Hulle looked, Ria hesitated while debating whether she’d get in trouble for unnecessarily stabbing a groggy and defenseless(?) Hulle.
Before she could make her decision. Welkin called an end to the match and the pain from the chest wound left Ria.
{{We did it!}} Aldri cheered.
“Great work group 2!” Welkin praised. “That was surprisingly excellent teamwork! It was almost as if you could read each other’s thoughts!”
Their “Acting Leader” gave Ria a wink when she sent a hooded gaze in his direction.
“Everyone has improved over last meeting, and I continue to be impressed by the effort our first-years are putting in,” he added.
Iselyn glanced Ria’s way as they sat down to again replenish their energy reserves via focus tools. Ria gave her a thumbs-up.
Ria couldn’t believe their group won!
Though… her eyes narrowed as she watched a no-longer-dazed Hulle saunter over an anchor point for the safety barrier—in suspiciously good cheer. Ria groaned in realization. He went easy on her and had purposefully given her chances to ‘defeat’ him!
...and she missed her chance to stab him over and over again! Dammit.
Ria was both excited for and dreading her next match, and all too soon, it was time.
The battle with Welkin’s group went as planned, or maybe even better than planned, right up until it didn’t.
Ria and Ranger leapt through an Aldri-provided portal into Rialle’s fire domain, bypassing the continuous flash-fire where the fire domain met the dense cloud of spores from Iselyn’s ‘sporific illusion’ domain. Rialle’s fires covering the ground burned Ria’s feet through her boots, and the heat in the air stung her eyes and skin and lungs even with her cloak’s protection. The body-strengthening magic limited the damage by blocking the fire-girl’s magic from penetrating too deeply—even if it felt like standing too close to a blacksmith’s forge.
Ria grit her teeth as she charged to slash at Rialle, enchanted training dagger in one hand and Air Shield wand in the other like they had discussed earlier, only to have to dodge a fireball aimed at her chest. A glance spared in Ranger’s direction showed him in a similar predicament dealing with the heat and incoming fireballs while taking on Rialle’s Imp.
Interestingly, the flash-fire kept burning up all the air near it and wasn’t able to make much progress overcoming Iselyn’s domain—which was a good thing, or her team would’ve been wiped out right at the start… it also had the advantage that Aldri and Iselyn could ‘portal-bomb’ by sending spores through portals to instantly combust upon coming into contact with Rialle’s fire domain.
Another fireball Rialle sent her way exploded harmlessly as Ria blocked it with solidified air using her wand. While hunkering down, Ria worried about Zell attacking her to protect Rialle, but quickly glancing around, she was surprised to find Zell no longer on his team’s side of the dueling oval.
The beast-transforming mage somehow made it through the flash-fire and was locked in battle with Malleron. Orlisi quickly appeared beside Zell and saved him from immediate defeat at the hands of coral-sword-wielding Ulren and his crystal snake. The elf and the salt mage were soon pounding it out—and it seemed that the abjuration Welkin was maintaining around his groupmates was terribly mismatched against Iselyn’s spores, which suddenly and rapidly multiplied when in contact with the life energy used in Welkin’s magic!
And those excess spores were being funneled back to the area around Welkin using Aldri’s portals to continuously portal-bomb the enemy leader! Ria cheered in her mind. Her team might win this match too!
A warning from Ranger, alerted Ria to dive to the side and roll as a woosh of fire just missed taking off her hair (or it would have at least felt like that with the safety magic’s illusion).
Oww. Oww. Hot!
“Where are you looking, gray-robe?” Rialle sneered. “Taking me lightly, huh?”
Ria had already rolled back to her feet before Rialle was finished talking and tried to close the distance again, but getting within striking distance of the third-year fire mage was proving harder than expected as the girl kept flaring out fire and retreating. Ria was going to have to take a direct hit to land one of her own.
Ranger wasn’t having much better luck. He could smack the imp around, but unlike his prior success, this time Welkin’s protection was preventing any damage.
“Ah, my group’s in trouble,” Rialle groaned as her eyes took in the scene behind Ria’s back. “Looks like I’ll need to get serious. Sorry, Ria.”
At that worrying warning, a surge of energy passed along Rialle’s familiar bond and her imp flared with fire, its horns and tail blazing. Spheres of searing fire pulsed outward from the imp, catching Ranger with nowhere to dodge. Growling through the pain, her hound was too slow to notice a larger fire spell hidden behind one of the pulses.
Ria stared in horror as Ranger howled and contorted when the fire wrapped around him. The howling continued until he slumped to the ground, his head lolling lifelessly to the side. Fear seized Ria’s heart and her mind flashed back to the barbarian’s lightning spear stabbing through Ranger.
A more powerful flare billowed out from Rialle, and Ria knew she needed to protect herself with the Air Shield magic, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from Ranger lying there unmoving.
The fire from Rialle’s spell poured over her, engulfing her, and her sight went black as her body was eaten into by terrible pain. The pain robbed Ria of reason as quickly as it robbed her of sight. But Ria didn’t need to see to know where her enemy was. The chieftain had harmed Jarrel and Ranger. She would stop him. He would die.
With a primal roar that echoed from the deep earth unto the heavens, the molten power within her surged and threw off both the pitiful fire that ate at her and the strange barrier that was affecting her mind and causing her pain as well. Her senses exploded outward and her target was revealed. Chains. Chains of molten fire to bind and burn. Burn. Burn until her enemy stopped moving. Stilling her enemy’s magic with their weight until it stopped, disappeared.
“Stop the match!” Welkin’s concerned voice rang out, but Ria was too lost in her rage and the remembered pain of Rialle’s fire to notice, and as she tightened the molten chains, smoke began to come off of the older girl’s red robes, accompanied by screams of pain and wide-eyed terror.
“Ria! Stop!” came a different boy’s voice she also recognized. “The match is over!”
Rialle’s face overlaid with the barbarian chieftain’s. Her screams were his screams.
“Calm.”
The word from Welkin had a strange power that forcibly stilled Ria’s mind. The orichalcum energy resisted, but the ripple of spirit magic striking her soul-gate was enough to make Ria look his way in shock and lose her grip on the orichalcum magic.
“Ria, you can’t use that magic during matches,” Welkin gently admonished as he drew closer and Rialle slumped to the ground. “It interferes with the safety barrier’s function.”
Ria blinked as the meaning of the fifth-year’s words slowly registered, and with a gasp and a hand covering her mouth, she looked back to Rialle to see the scorched chain marks on the girl’s robe and Tallien tending to the girl, carefully pulling the fabric away from possibly melted skin underneath as a visibly trembling Rialle sipped a potion.
The faint smell of rendered fat and ash together with the pained and wary eyes Rialle was sending Ria’s way told Ria she’d gone too far. Rialle’s imp was irate, and Ranger coming over to interpose himself was probably the only thing keeping the imp from attacking.
“I-I’m sorry, Rialle!” Ria stammered and desperately added, “Seeing Ranger... and the pain from the fire magic… during the Siege, and I…”
Ria let the words trail off. Excuses didn’t matter. She had really wanted to kill Rialle. Reduce her to ash or, at the least, charred, unmoving, and melted flesh like she had done to the barbarian chieftain.
That thought filled Ria with a chill, dampening any excitement to be felt from finally having conjured the molten chains again—to the extent that the dread at what she had almost done froze her in place.
A pair of elven arms hugged Ria from behind. Though still struggling with the sudden mental switch from temporary enemy back to friend, Ria leaned back into her friend, accepting the offered support, and realized that she was trembling as much as Rialle had been. Orlisi hugged her tighter.
“Are you okay, Rialle?” Welkin asked the third-year girl as he crouched down beside her. “Do you need healing?”
Rialle closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath. When she opened them, she seemed calmer and shook her head. “No, I’ll be fine. I think I’m just shaken up from having my magic so thoroughly restrained like that.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” Rialle made a twisted smile and motioned for Welkin to help her to her feet. “I guess we know why Ria hid her affinity now.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Katria muttered in agreement, a tinge of awe in her voice.
“What kind of crazy metal affinity was that?” Zell asked.
“The kind it’s better not to know about, if I’m right.” Rialle was still making the same twisted smile as she gingerly walked toward Ria, and everyone shifted nervously.
Ria glanced at Hulle to see what she should say, only to get a shrug in response, but she caught Endreise eying her oddly from beside Hulle. The wary gaze from Endreise‘s fish seemed to match the fourth-year girl’s somehow.
Rialle bent down, picked up Ria’s dropped wand and dagger, and held them out. “No hard feelings?”
Ria blinked in surprise before vigorously shaking her head and quickly accepting her items. Rialle not holding a grudge was a relief, but… the sight of the damage to Rialle’s robe bothered Ria until she blurted out, “I’ll pay for the repairs to your robe!”
The fire girl held up a hand to decline. “You had no way to know the training hall’s safety enchantment would fail, so there’s no need to do that. Besides, it’s probably time for me to have something more powerful made.”
Even though Ria didn’t have the money right now and should be glad not to pay, she couldn’t help but frown. Robes were expensive, and Rialle was a commoner just like she was. “There must be something I can do.”
“Hmm… I suppose some help if I need to personally source any difficult to acquire materials would be fine,” Rialle allowed.
Relieved, Ria eagerly nodded. “You can count on me, Rialle!”
Ulren stepped forward into the awkward silence that followed, his crystal snake hissing at Ria before settling down.
“We’ll call this match our loss,” Ulren stated and, after a glance at Ria, looked at Welkin. “Should we do another, or do you have other things for us to practice?”
“Let’s call it a day,” Welkin decided with a shake of his head and made a motion with his hand. “Good work, everyone. I know these matches are painful, difficult, and expensive, but to win at the Grand Games is to achieve greatness—to be acknowledged as standing above one’s peers and attaining an achievement shared with some of the greatest mages in the world—and for that we must strive with all our heart if we wish to gain success. When your will to continue on falters, remember that pain and perseverance are the wages of greatness, and do not lose heart. Do not lose sight of the goal. Go and rest. Meditate on today’s gains.”
After his short speech, Welkin placed a hand on Ria’s shoulder to comfort her and left the hall. Ulren grumbled about the waste of time and stored energy—a sentiment that Endreise shared—leading to teasing from Orlisi and Katria who had clearly enjoyed the challenge of the matches, calling the older students ‘already grumpy old men pining for a desk job’ and similar jibes.
As the group dispersed with the majority heading for drinks at the student lounge, Ria was still standing there, upset with herself.
“You coming, Ria?” Katria asked, pausing near the double doors.
Ria shook her head. “I need to think over some things.”
Iselyn had snuck away without Ria noticing, probably right when Welkin ended the day’s training, and only Hulle and Ranger were left in the training hall with her after the others left. The beautiful-faced and delicate-framed third-year expressionlessly observed her through his glasses for several uncomfortable moments before speaking.
“Don’t forget to talk to Wendra about metal magic.”
Ria nodded. “I won’t forget.”
And with that, Hulle left. Ria and Ranger were alone in the large space. The quiet rustle of her robe’s fabric and the sound of her breathing echoed beneath the tall arches that lined the walls and high ceiling.
Not wanting to think too deeply about things just yet, Ria let her gaze travel around the architecture of the training hall and wondered what it would have been like in the days when her Order was popular, when the stands would have been full of spectators and maybe friends and family.
With a sigh, Ria contacted Keira and Arthur to let them know she was ready to head back, and then found a place to sit and fill spirit tokens while she waited for them to finish up as well.
She couldn’t even imagine what Keira was going through training with Zena’s fire mage friends. Though, after experiencing Rialle’s fire, Ria had a better idea of how terrible it might be, indeed.
At least, she had managed to properly face Hulle without things becoming awkward. Even if he was a jerk. A self-loving beautiful-faced smirking jerk that deserved to be violently stabbed with dull wooden daggers. Lots. Using body-strengthening and shadow magic.
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Ophesia took a sip of the elegant tisane provided by the servants as she looked out over the academy grounds and the trickle of students still moving with purpose below. Other than Nielle sitting opposite her and a servant waiting nearby, Whitestone Hall’s fourth-floor terrace was empty of other students.
Nielle had brought up the distasteful matter of Elaine’s father. Ophesia knew that wasn't what Nielle really wanted to talk about, but it still needed to be addressed.
“If he was favoring one woman at such an establishment, he should have just made the woman a mistress and been done with it. But to seek out women at many different establishments, it speaks poorly about her father and her mother.”
“For that report and the report about the foreigner girl’s journey to come out the same day and so soon after Elaine arranged an effort to put that gold-seeking foreign upstart in her place…” Nielle narrowed her eyes.
“And with Uncle and Grandfather so quickly agreeing to Cousin Phaelys being the foreign girl’s debut escort…” Ophesia agreed. Such happenings when taken all together were unlikely to be a coincidence.
“Do you think she’s connected to someone important?”
Nielle’s question was the key. The important question that naturally followed was: who? It was clear the girl had Novidus backing on the face of things, but it was just too convenient that she arrived in House Vorshan’s territory first—as if she had been placed in a Novidus vassal family to create a plausible backstory. And just in time for her to play a role in the barbarian siege, too.
“Wasn’t an inquisitor dispatched to Vorshan’s Hills just before the barbarians attacked?”
Nielle nodded and her eyes widened. “Yes, Duelleres Novidus, and he returned with a condemned spirit mage of some promise, according to my source in the Hall of Bindings and Inquiries. You don’t think…?”
Indeed. The condemned girl was the right age. If her sponsorship slot was required in order to insert the foreign girl into the academy and if they still wanted to provide similar resources for the other girl, it was conceivable that such a plot could be undertaken.
The most likely explanation was that this ‘Ria of Shadewood’ wasn’t a foreigner at all, but rather from one of the Hidden Houses under the control of the Inquisitors.
“I think it might be worth making a visit to see the girl that Duelleres brought back,” Ophesia decided.