Luna was the first to catch onto Azura’s amusement. The others were still debating which of the 2 options were better, and she had decided to stay out of it for the most part. As such she noticed Azura’s expression while everyone else was busy arguing. She rolled her eyes. Him asking them was just a formality, and the only reason he hadn’t just told them what the better option was and why was just because he was having fun at their expense. She sighed, she hoped the side choosing the 2nd option were right, less because she agreed with it herself, and more because the other side would be insufferable if they were right.
She stepped over to Azura quietly. “Are you going to end this anytime soon? Or at least just give your opinion on the matter and your reasoning?” Save for maybe Roran Azura was the smartest of the group, but more importantly he had the most keen eye for tactics. He could analyze the pros and cons of any action near instantly, and could usually make quick and calm decisions that almost always proved to be correct. Knowing that it was obvious that whatever he decided would put a massive sway on their opinions of the best option. Not to say they always agreed with him, but his thoughts held real weight for these kinds of things. Not counting that in this case it was really a decision for him.
“I don’t plan too. There are 2 right answers, the one that is correct, and the one that would be right without knowing something in advance. So in other words the correct answer to come to logically for all of you is likely the wrong one, but I want to see if they as a group can at least come to it. You can join them if you want even with that piece of info the challenge is still the same. I have to make sure you guys don’t get too reliant on me being in charge. I can’t be around all the time.” She rolled her eyes. He probably could be around all the time with his copies, and he was functionally unkillable at this point, but she got his point. Besides, she supposed unkillable did not mean uncapturable.
She sighed. “Ok yeah I get your point.” She walked closer to her arguing friends, and stayed silent for a bit so she could catch what direction the argument was going. Elsimera, Cynthia, and Siara seemed to be advocating option 2, while Roran, Lily, and Katy were advocating option 1. She debated whether she should give them what Azura had given her, and have them switch sides. It would probably feel better for the correct party if they were actually right instead of just technically correct. “So Azura said we are probably missing information and that the logically correct answer with the info we have available is incorrect.”
They all turned to Azura in annoyance, aside from her and to her surprise Elismera who merely raised an eyebrow at him. Azura smiled and shrugged. “To clarify he said ‘probably’ missing the info, not we definitely are correct?” She thought over his exact wording. The first sentence merely set the rule that without 1 piece of info the answer would be different. The 2nd was that they would ‘likely’ come to the wrong conclusion. “Technically he said we would likely be wrong, so I’d guess that and probably mean the same thing right?” With Azura you always had to be careful. He could twist words with the best of them.
Elismera hummed and narrowed her eyes. “More or less, the important part is that whatever it is it’s something we could know. I’m going to assume I know what it is and maintain my position. If I prove incorrect, so be it, I’ll see if this new info sways my opinion.” Azura’s smirk never changed. She supposed at this point any overt reaction he had would be taken into consideration, and he wanted them to figure this out without his interference. As everyone other than Elismera flip flopped on whether they would change sides or not she realized that she had actually made the argument harder by telling them what Azura had told her, which she sighed again was no doubt his intention.
“Well I’m not the smartest so I’ll assume I’m wrong, but if this doesn’t put everyone else in agreement I’ll stay on the side of option 1 for the sake of argument.” That was probably the right decision all told. If option 2 was right only without some piece of information, then without said info it would be hard to defend it. Perhaps she’d follow Katy’s lead.
“Well to be honest I bet I know whatever info he’s referring to, but I also know I have a habit of overlooking obvious things at times, so I’ll maintain my position for now, but all think about the basic rules of enchantment in the meantime see if anything comes to mind.” So far everyone was standing their ground, but it was funny that Elismera was the only one doing it out of confidence she was correct.
Now the question was which side should she take. Her first instinct was actually to pick option 2, but that wasn’t because it was the best option, merely because option 1 was purely a tool of murder. It could be used for nothing else. Even a sword could be used for things other than death, but that could not, and that to her was sad. That being said it was true that for Azura option 2 really wouldn’t be as useful as option 1. Why was he even bothering to have them argue about it? She got that it was a test and all, but if it was just for him he should have just… Her eyes widened. Was that the info they were all missing? Was the circle not just for him? “I think I’ll side with option 2. I think I may know what Azura was referring to about info we didn’t know.” She felt kind of silly after her epiphany. He had practically given it to her, and she had almost completely overlooked it.
“Care to share with the class?” Lily said sarcastically. It was obvious most of them were leaning towards option 2 being the correct answer now, so she figured she would share her piece. They would do a final vote and then Azura would either congratulate them or laugh at them for overthinking it.
“Well Azura gives us enchanted equipment sometimes, right? So doesn’t that mean he can make enchantments that other people can use?” She saw realization dawn on all of their faces as Roran facepalmed. Elismera didn’t seem surprised so likely she had already correctly factored that into her reasoning. Azura clapped his hands slowly from his place smirking at them a few feet away.
***
“Without a doubt option 2 is the correct answer, when the fact that all of you can make use of it as well is considered. Well done everyone.” Azura was rather pleased with his team. Elismera choosing the better option was obvious, it was really the thoughts of his friends he wanted to check. Roran did have a habit of overlooking minor, but critical details, and the rest of them had a bad habit of relying on him to tell them the best option. In this case Cynthia and Siara made the right call for the wrong reason, but they were also fairly non-violent in terms of personality so it made sense they would choose option 2 regardless. Lily and Katy liked the idea of pure destructive force so arguably they were biased, but they both had good reasoning as to why it was the best choice, and if his allies were taken out of the equation it would be, so they also got a pass.
“Wouldn’t we be able to use the giant death beam too?” He chuckled. Lily was just being obstinate at this point; she could no doubt see why option 2 was better, but wanted to make it look less superior than it actually was. It reminded him of noble behavior, but it was much less malicious so he let it slide without much reaction.
“Yeah, but what's the point of a death laser one of us can use maybe once a week. It would be better if any of us could access the ability to control this space at any time.” Surprisingly it was Katy that countered Lily’s retort. She had really grown a lot since coming here, perhaps he’d have to stop looking at her as the little girl that used to rely on him for everything. It was a bit sad in some ways, but the pride that filled his chest evened it out.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Lily sighed. “Fine, but I don’t want to hear anyone say a giant insta kill laser wouldn’t be cool.” He laughed. Even he would be lying if he said that hadn’t been part of the reason he had considered it. Powerful attacks were cool simply because of how powerful they were. Themed spells were cool, and his go to, but no one could deny leveling a mountain was cool no matter how you did it.
“So we’ve decided on the best choice, so now what?” Siara asked curiously. Well it went without saying he’d get to work, but he didn’t really have anything especially for them to do. It was one thing to link something to a specific person, but if you were just setting the spell to accept certain conditions, then making it work for them and not their enemies was easy and didn’t require them to be present.
“Well you guys can do whatever you want, save from touching or interfering with my ritual that I’ll be doing anyway. I’ll probably be busy for most of the day with that, but my copies should be done with all of their important tasks in a few hours if you need me for anything.” His response was a bit more blase than he’d of liked, but there really wasn’t anything he needed them for at the moment. They were better off training, or more importantly for most of them studying.
They all groaned. Well aside from Elismera who simply stood unaffected by his comment. “Only you would create an entire dimension, and then not have anything in the dimension you need help with.” He couldn’t really tell if Lily was complaining or not. What did they want him to have them do? He created the space the way he wanted it, and none of them had the skills to help with the wide scale enchantment. Heck the only one who even had the foundation to learn to help him from was Luna because he had taught her the basics when she was learning his antimagic field. Which she had gotten very good at deploying quickly. He had gotten plenty of bruises from their pure melee skirmishes.
“Sorry? If you really want me to tell you what to do I have some reading assignments I could recommend to you.” That did the trick. Aside from Roran and Elismera everyone else used their pendants to return to school grounds. He chuckled. “Works every time.” Both of his remaining guests looked patiently amused.
“You know one of these days they are going to call that bluff.” This was far from the first time he and Roran had this conversation, and it probably wasn’t going to be the last.
“Then when they call it I can finally give them some actual assigned reading which will have the same effect.” He gave them all recommendations already, but he limited himself to what he felt they would absolutely need to improve themselves.
“It’s fascinating they would come to a school like this by choice, but then flee at the mention of assigned reading.” Elsimera chimed in with a curious look on her face. He laughed, but wasn’t sure how to respond. It was one of the few things he could never quite make sense of. Katy didn’t have much in the way of choice, but Lily could have become a powerful mage on her own, Siara had plenty of other options on how to use her magic, and Luna and Cynthia both could have made different decisions if this wasn’t the kind of life they wanted.
“They aren’t completely unwilling, it’s more like they are overwhelmed by the coursework already, and aren’t willing to add more on top of that. Keep in mind they essentially have extra classes as I spend a lot of time helping them study topics they missed.” Heck he, Roran, and Luna were all in the top 5 for grades. With no one in his group lower than top 20. Courtesy of Lily in 20th. Lily and Katy traded off for being the teams lowest scorer, but neither of them seemed to take that competitive spirit for any of the people above them by a significant margin.
“What he means is that they are overwhelmed by the extra coursework he drops on our heads every week.” He rolled his eyes.As if Roran had room to complain, Roran was the one that asked him to provide them stuff for the classes they missed in the first place. Did he purposely misconstrue it and give them coursework for any class he thought would benefit them… Maybe, but it was helping them in the long run.
“I see, well that certainly explains your group's astonishing competence. It’s certainly not strange for each year to have a few stand outs, but to have a whole group of them teamed up since the trials is odd. In this case it would seem part of it is that you're helping them along.” His first instinct was to deny it. His friends were putting in the work, and had earned their skill, but it was true that without him around they would be significantly less skilled on the magical side of things. He had helped them figure out a lot of their magic abilities and strategies, not to mention helped them have access to more lessons than anyone else. Perhaps it was ok to take some credit in their current skill level.
“I do what I can. I can’t teach talent of course, so they certainly have the potential on their own, but I help refine the edges. My mom used to compare teaching to jewel working. You start with a lump of rock with crystalline pieces sticking out, and then you make cuts. Shave off the parts that don’t serve you, and you hone the edges until suddenly rather than a rock you’re holding a precious gem.” He rather liked the metaphor. Everyone had the potential to be a diamond in the rough, they just needed someone to help bring out and shape their potential.
Elismera looked thoughtful, but Roran looked shocked. “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about your mother. Or at least outside of when you gave us the rundown on your life story.” He smiled somberly. Roran wasn’t wrong. He didn’t like talking about either of his parents, though for completely different reasons. On purpose or not he had killed his mother, and he would have to carry that weight until the day he died. He didn’t talk about her in an effort to have that weight in the back of his mind rather than the forefront.
“Well she’s not something I like to talk about much. I loved her of course. Still do even, but that only makes it all the harder. Still I know she wouldn’t want me to sulk about it, so I’ll work on coming to terms with it. Perhaps with my new mentality accepting it might be a bit easier, though hopefully no less meaningful.” Dragons cared for their families very differently from humans, but that wasn’t to say there was no emotional attachment.
“I assume I’m missing some context here? Not that it’s any of my business of course.” He chuckled. He didn’t know if he’d go so far as to say Elismera was a friend yet, but she was getting there. He wasn’t averse to telling her everything if they got a bit closer, but for now it was probably about time to change the subject.
“Well your business or not, I’m sure you’re curious. You’ve more than proven yourself trustworthy, but I’d like to wait a while before telling you this stuff. It weighs heavily on my conscience and I had to tell the story not too long ago.” The weight wasn’t as crushing as it used to be, but it was still heavier than it was when his memories were suppressed. It was unfortunate, but reluctantly he had to admit the powerful force watching him was right to suppress the memories. He never would have gotten this far with the memories weighing him down, but he was stronger now. He could handle it, and he wasn’t done yet either, he’d grow stronger still.
“I understand, everyone has things they struggle to share.” If only Katy had understood that, maybe she wouldn’t have taken such personnel offense to the secrets he had held for so long. It still annoyed him that the horrible things he had done mattered far less to her than the fact he had kept them a secret from her, as if she needed her childhood to be even more depressing. He stood by his decision, Katy didn’t deserve the kind of trauma he had been forced to go through. Though he found himself relieved to find someone with history as messed up as his. Not that he’d ever admit to feeling that way to Elsimera, even if he was sure she’d feel the same.
“Enough about that! I want to see your plans for the Circle! A magic circle capable of shifting everything in this world, needless to say I’m extremely curious!” He laughed, grateful ROran had held in his curiosity as long as he had. He didn’t fail to notice Eliemera’s face shifting to one of interest either.
“Very well, I’m actually glad the 2 of you stayed, because you 2 might actually be able to be of some assistance.” Still, even with their assistance, this was going to be a long project. Though one he was very eager to get underway.