Azura slowly came to, quickly recognising the books stretching out into infinity as his vision cleared. He sat up, the head mistress’s desk appearing in his vision. “I’m getting real tired of waking up in random places.” He said, groaning as he stood up.
The headmistress laughed. “I imagine you’ll get well used to it before your time in this school is up.” She spoke with a sly smirk etched across her face.
“I appreciate your faith that I will pass the trials.” His response was polite but his expression was blank.
The headmistress gave a confused look. “I’m not sure what you mean, you have already completed the trials.” She smiled a bit. “Perhaps we shouldn’t have all of our trials affect your memory, it seems to have had a negative impact on you.”
“Is that so? I find it more likely that this in and of itself is a trial, but for what I don’t yet know.” he put his hand to his chin trying to figure out what was being tested.
The headmistress frowned. “I see, well believe what you will, I only called you here with a question.” her wizened face became stern. “Have you heard of the book of origin?”
He frowned. “The book of origin? Isn’t that some old fairy tale?” He thought that he would figure this trial out too, but the book of origin? What could that have to do with anything?
“I see very well”
He was about to speak when his vision went black again.
***
He awoke back in the auditorium where their trials had started with a splitting headache. He groaned. “ I’m so sick of trials where I lose my memories.”
“At least you knew what to expect. I freaked out when I woke up in the desert with no idea what was going on.” Katy said clearly nursing a headache as bad as his.
He took a look around and it looked like everyone was waking up now. “But what about the part with the headmistress?... and wait did you say desert?” He looked at her in confusion.
“Headmistress?” Katy gave him an odd look. “She didn’t show up in my trial, did she show in yours?”
Azura suddenly looked lost. “No not at all, I don’t know why I said that I haven’t seen her since the speech.” He looked up smiling again. “Oh well no use worrying about it, it’s probably all the memory loss messing with me, but my trial was in a forested area not a desert.”
Katy glared at him. “Oh so much for your luck being bad you got to have shade and not 120 degree weather.” she huffed. “I bet the proctors you got stuck with were pretty strong though.” She looked at me with concern.
“Yeah they were definitely tough, luckily my team was pretty solid. I even found someone to trade spells with.” He started stretching his limbs hoping to alleviate some of the stiffness. “How about you? How did yours go?”
She winced. “It could have gone better, unlike you my team wasn’t made up of strong members, but the proctor I fought was strong. I was just really lucky that he was a good matchup for me or my team would have lost horribly. The team decided it was better I was with the 3 who stayed behind, since I was the best bet at them passing too.”
“That’s dumb, they realize there is more than 1 trial right? Surely they can’t rely on stronger people helping them through all of them.” He supposed if they were desperate enough to rely so heavily on someone, they definitely wouldn’t get past the 2nd trial. He and his team had relied on each other's skills, but they had all provided to the team.
Katy was about to respond but a loud voice caught their attention.
“Congratulations on completing the first trial.” The headmistress spoke, getting everyone's attention. “As you can see the number of people here has split in half, of the half missing 50 people died in the trial, the rest have simply been deemed unworthy of even attempting the other trials.”
An audible gasp ran through the room as the remaining hopefuls looked around and sure enough the amount of people in the room was less than half of the absurd number of people that started. Even so it was still well over a thousand people.
“Now keep in mind there are 7 trials, each one more difficult than the last, at the end of each trial you will be given the choice to give up or attempt the next trial.”
Azura glanced around seeing many more people looking like they wanted to leave than the last time she asked. He then numbly considered what she said… there were ‘6’ more trials. He felt a little ashamed for hoping they weren’t much harder than the first 1. He could up his game, but it involved using more of his hidden skills then he wanted to so early in the game.
“For those of you who intend to attempt the 2nd trial, return to your rooms, we will inform you when the 2nd trial is set to begin. Everyone who would like to leave may submit their resignation and go.” with that she stepped off the raised platform and then vanished as if she was never there.
“How many do you think will quit?” Katy glanced at him.
“I’m not sur-” he was cut off
“Hey Azura!!! Isn’t it awesome we both passed the first test!!!” A familiar extremely exuberant voice spoke.
“Really need to work on controlling that energy of yours Roran.” He spoke turning to Roran who was behind him and Katy. Next to Roran a shy looking girl with black hair that reached all the way to her ankles, she was just barely taller than Roran but since she was slouched and had her head down it was hard for him to get an accurate grasp.
Roran laughed. “No way if I don’t use at least this much energy Cynthia will be lonely!!!” The girl next to Roland seemed to look even further down at that comment so he guessed she must be Cynthia.
“I’m surprised you passed, you didn’t really do anything except run away.” Katy spoke to The girl. Though her words were mean, her expression was clearly one of worry.
“...” Cynthia’s response was silence.
“Ah Cynthia is mute. That’s why I was chosen as her guard, because I talk enough for the both of us!!! Oh almost forgot this is Cynthia Violet 3rd princess of Belmond and 2nd daughter of Lilian Violet the moonlit star!!!” Roland spoke getting more excited as he went.
Azura widened his eyes. “I wasn’t aware the moonlit star had any children. Well either way.” He gave a formal bow to her. “I am Azura Silver, 2nd son of Tiamat Silver The Dragon emperor, it’s very nice to meet you.” He wondered if given his plan he should really be introducing himself in this manner, but figured it would be known by the end of his scheme either way.
“...” Cynthia bowed back with a slightly embarrassed look.
“Well I came over here for more than to just say hi, apparently your friend Katy there helped her out quite a bit in their trial so she wanted to repay the favor somehow.” He spoke in a normal tone giving a respectful bow to Katy.
Katy flushed and took a step back. “Please no formalities, I am more than happy to have finally escaped giving them. I have no intention of receiving them.”
“She asks if there is anything you want.” Roran said.
Azura narrowed his eyes in confusion, partly at Roran being calm for so long, but also. “How do you know she wants to ask that?”
Roland glanced at her. “....” He said nothing in response.
“My unique magic is telepathy”
Azura widened his eyes looking around before focusing on Cynthia. He noticed Katy doing the same so he assumed she heard it too. He couldn’t help but be impressed, he had been rather proud of his mental defenses, but they had been broken through left and right since he started his journey.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, your defenses are strong, if I had any ill intent I probably wouldn’t be able to get through to you.” Cynthia gazed intently at him and Katy. Now that she was looking at them he saw her eyes which were a rich brown.
Based on Katy’s reaction he guessed they were having a completely separate conversation then this one.
“Yes sorry, I can set up one conversation, but then you will hear each other's thoughts and without practice it usually becomes quite messy.”
“So is the reason you can’t speak your unique magic or is it a medical condition?” He spoke aloud since he was starting to get uncomfortable just thinking to himself, even if she could hear it.
“It doesn’t seem to be a medical issue, at the very least no doctor I’ve seen has be- hold on please my conversation with Katy needs my full attention”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
After that he felt a presence leave him, that was odd he didn’t notice it arrive but he surely felt it leave. Well since that was over. “Well I got to say, I didn’t expect you to be a royal guard.” He spoke to Roran with a wry smile.
“Haha yeah, if that surprises you, wait until you hear my age!!”
“Why, how old are you?” He tried to guess his age if it’s supposed to be surprising, maybe 20 something? He looked at Roland, but it was hard to see him as 13, much less older.
“I am 68 as of last month!!!” He somehow managed to speak quietly yet still use way too much energy.
Azura’s jaw dropped. “68??!!! No way, you’re messing with me.” He looked on with disbelief.
Roran laughed. “Yeah that’s the normal reaction, but it’s true. When I was young I received a curse that stopped me from aging!!!” After that he quieted down whispering to make sure no one else could hear. “You seem pretty clever so I’m sure you’ve already guessed, but I got special permission to attend despite my age in order to protect Cynthia.”
Azura rolled his eyes. “Yeah that much is obvious, her power is useful… too useful. Having your thoughts read as a noble can only ever end poorly.” He looked at her with sympathetic eyes while she and Katy stared intently at each other. “I’m sure you have already fought off plenty of assassination attempts before her parents decided to have her come here.”
Roran was about to respond, but was cut off by Katy. “Hey Azura, I think we should go. It’s getting late and we have no idea what the 2nd trial will be.”
Azura took a step back. “Wow, that's entirely reasonable… Are you feeling ok? Do you have a fever?” He put his hand to her forehead like he was checking her temperature.
She swiped his hand away “Haha very funny.” Then she turned and walked off, their rooms were pretty far away from each other, but they were in the same direction for aways before they would split off.
“Well you heard the lady, I think we could all use the rest.” He shook Roran's hand and he and Cynthia inclined their heads to each other. “It was nice to meet you Cynthia, I wish you both luck in the trials to come.” He got a you as well out loud from Roran and in his head from Cynthia at the same time, which disoriented him a tad but not so much he couldn’t turn and walk quickly to catch up with Katy.
***
When Azura had made it to his room he was surprised to find a letter on the small desk he was provided with. He hadn’t bothered to try and decorate the room any, he would only be here briefly after all. He picked up the letter.
“Dear taker of the trials
You have done well to make it this far. The first trial is the easiest, but it is also the only one you will not be provided information on. From now on you will be given 2 days to prepare for each coming trial, not counting the day you finished the previous trial. The 2nd trial will be a simple test of knowledge. However don’t take that to mean it shall be easy. A vast many subjects will be covered, and a score higher than 80%is required to go on to the 3rd trial. I sincerely wish you luck, though if you need it then you should quit while you still have your life.
Sincerely the headmistress of G.F.A.”
He felt like a basic knowledge check should probably come before the life threatening trial, but he guessed lack of knowledge was easier to fix or at least alleviate in 2 days than a complete lack of ability and a good attitude. He used his time checking spell to see it was roughly 8 in the evening. He decided to study until 10 and then he would go to sleep. He wanted to be up early tomorrow more than he needed to study tonight. It wasn’t to be though, it occurred to him that they didn’t really bring any books with them. The school library wasn’t open to them until they became official students, and the nearest one in town was at least an hour away. If he ran he could probably make it in a few minutes, but running at inhuman speeds in towns and cities was typically frowned upon.
He was about to go anyway if only to grab books for tomorrow, but then there was a knock on his door. He considered preparing for a fight, but decided that no one would be dumb enough to attack here. Even if you killed your target there is no way you would escape afterwards. So he decided to just open his door.
“Hey Azura.” He had not been expecting Luna of all people. If it was going to be someone he knew, he would have expected Katy. It was also a bit surreal to see her in normal clothes. She was wearing a simple undecorated brown dress, and had a decent size bag in her hands. She was getting a little fidgety and he realized he had been silent for a few seconds.
“Oh sorry my bad I was a little surprised, come on in.” He walked over to his bed and sat down and gestured at the chair by the desk for her to sit. She did, but she looked awkward. It was obvious she wasn’t used to dealing with people in private. He tried to make it painless, but frankly the only practice he had dealing with people was either him having to deal with politics or not what one would call normal human interaction. Him and Katy for example did not meet at all under normal circumstances. “So, uhh what can I do for you?.”
She worked up her courage for a minute. “I figured we could start with the fundamentals of the spells were trading, since it would kind of work as studying and we won’t really be able to get books or anything tonight anyway.” He considered her proposal. She wasn’t wrong, but with only 2 hours they would probably only get to talk theory.
“Sure sounds good, but I should probably start because you have a choice to make.” She looked at him in confusion. “So there are 2 different kinds of anti-magic, or well 3 I guess if you count magic resistance. Like with that rock in the pyramid, but anyway I'm getting off track. 2 that I can teach you.I promised you an anti-magic field spell, but only 1 however I will let you pick which.”
She nodded. “What are the differences, and pros and cons of each?” She pulled a notepad out of her bag. He had to hold in a chuckle, she really thought ahead. He had a feeling she was going to be really glad she did.
“Ok well to start with type 1. This is the one I’d recommend for you. This is going to stop any magic from forming outside of the body, and dissolve any spell already materialized in its borders. This will affect the user’s spells as well, so your clairvoyance won’t work inside of it. Purely internal spells such as enhancement will continue to function as normal.” She wrote as he spoke, although her pen moved more than he spoke, so he was kind of curious what else she was writing. “Other than affecting the user this way doesn’t have many weaknesses on its own, but there are some situations where its use isn’t advisable. You can still mold mana while inside it so if you get out of it you could in theory immediately cast a powerful spell, so if there are people not in the zone you have to protect it's probably not the best choice. Obviously using it against someone who is superior in melee combat is not advised.”
“I think I get the idea. What about type 2?” She looked interested, which was kind of nice. With Katy he had always had to teach her kicking and screaming. She wasn’t stupid by any means, but she definitely prefered practical experience to study.
“Type 2 is more like an anti-spellcasting field.”
She tilted her head in confusion. “What does that mean? How is that any different?”
He idly thought he may actually become a teacher, or at least take an apprentice at some point. “Well as I said type 1 prevents any magic from gathering inside its borders. Type 2 instead scrambles the mana of the people inside so they can’t manipulate it properly. This stops them from casting any spell, even enhancement. Another bonus is you can attune it to you so that you are unaffected by it and can continue to use magic as normal.”
“You said you recommend type 1, but isn’t type 2 objectively better?”
“You didn’t let me get to the weaknesses part.” He sighed “Type 2 doesn’t disrupt magic itself, but a person's ability to channel it. Therefore any attacks coming from outside the barrier will function normally and any magic already formed inside won’t dissipate. Given that you don’t have much in the way of range options, this would leave you just as vulnerable to range types. Plus making either one isn’t instantaneous, and on top of that they can’t really be moved after they’re placed, only canceled.”
She gave an embarrassed chuckle. “Yeah you got me there. I have a below average amount of mana, so wasting it on big flashy attacks is a bad idea.” Ah so that was why. Well she was plenty strong even with that so it shouldn’t be a major issue. Maybe when he enchanted her armor he could make the enchantments store mana so she had some extra if she needed it.
“Well the anti-magic field is more difficult in its complexity than its cost, so that shouldn’t be a problem.” She looked relieved. Perhaps hearing the description she started to worry it would rapidly drain her mana. “So since I think it’s decided to go through type 1 we can start going over the theory, but before we start going in depth. Can I get a general description of how clairvoyance works?” He knew it had something to do with light, but he honestly couldn’t guess how she did it.
“Ah well essentially I release my mana as an invisible light. I have to maintain tight control of it, but I can sense everything the light touches.” He winced. That was insane. The control she has must be spectacular. She was able to search quite a distance away, to keep that tight of control on her mana even that far away from her. She wasn’t even a noble, at least with Roran he was almost 70 years old, so his abnormal control and power became perfectly normal.
“You aren’t secretly super old and cursed not to age are you?”
“What? Of course not, does that kind of thing even happen?” He hadn’t really thought so, but he had to check. She must be one heck of a genius. Nobles usually got the best teachers and equipment for training their abilities. To think that level of control was achievable through raw talent and her own efforts.
“I’ve encountered it before.” Once anyway, and a few hours ago was still before so he didn’t lie. “Anyway I was just surprised. Your application of your spell was way more impressive than I initially thought. She started to get a little red and glanced away.
“Is it really something so impressive?” Was she serious? Did she not have anyone to compare magic against, or was everyone around her just equally skilled. No more likely they just didn’t understand how amazing a skill like that was, because it wasn’t flashy and its effect wasn’t useful on its own. The user had to be skilled enough to use it and other spells at the same time. Multi-casting was a fairly advanced skill. He could only focus on 2 spells at the same time, and he guessed Luna was probably the same, but most couldn’t cast more than 1 at the same time.
“Casting and controlling 2 continuous spells at the same time is something less than 5% of the spellcasters in the world can accomplish. That’s including full trained mages. Not only that, but one of the spells is controlling mana further from your body than most could manage even after decades of practice. To put it simply it would be praise worthy for a noble who has been trained practically from birth to master those skills. To do so on your own is proof of a ridiculous amount of natural talent.”
She flushed, however he could have sworn he had seen her lips start to quirk upward before she turned away. He didn’t think he would lose to her in a fight, but once she learned the anti-magic he wouldn’t be quite as confident. “I didn’t realize… My family didn’t want me to become a mage after what happened to my brother. So they only ever discouraged my magic practice.” He resisted a bitter laugh. When his brother was killed his father started focusing more on him. His heir had to be the best mage around. He wondered if his father would even care about what really happened the night his brother died. Frankly he had to resist berating her for taking caring parents for granted.
“I wouldn’t take it as an insult, it just means they care for you.” If anything good came from all the noble practice it was that he managed to keep the bitterness below the surface.
“I know, but I wish they could at least try to support me a little.” Now that, he knew the feeling of.
“Yeah I can definitely get that, I’m just saying it’s important to remember the people that care for you. You never know what might happen, and it’s best not to leave too many regrets.”
She frowned. “You sound like you speak from experience.” ah it looks like he let his guard down a little too much. So he used his strongest deflection tool... He chuckled.
“Nah got it off a fortune cookie, but it sounds good doesn’t it?” She looked skeptical, but let the matter drop either way. “Anyway we’ve wasted enough time chatting. Spell theory won’t teach itself.”