Azura sighed, his break wasn’t much of a break it turned out. Alice’s plan was relatively straightforward, but requesting the grand forge academy to put together a task force to deal with genesis was easier said than done. He had to choose his words very carefully in the letter, and really stress the dire consequences of failing all without giving away that he was personally invested given that he currently held the book. Reluctant as he was, he did have to admit it was a good idea. Most mages traveled a lot, and asking them to stay near the castle in case something happened was too much, but the school had several means of direct communication with the various kingdoms, and it had lots of powerful mages that were in the same place year round. Kaiser was gone which was a heavy blow, but Elismera would surely be stronger after summer break, so her help would be invaluable.
“Always so dependable.” He rolled his eyes. The princess had been watching over his shoulder as he wrote the letter for her plan. He wanted to say something snarky, but was unfortunately unable to think of anything. Her plan was better than what he had come up with, and her reasoning as to why he had to write the letter instead of her or Xander made sense. A request from a nation would have to be more thoroughly examined, especially since the request would take several of their best and put them in extreme danger. If the request was from a student though? Especially one who was known for getting involved in extremely dangerous situations. Well no one would bat an eye if the headmistress just accepted the request outright.
“Don’t you have princess duties to attend to? I know how to write a letter.” For once he wasn’t actually all that aggravated by the princess. After all she had been behaving herself the entire time he had been in the capital so far. She was being a little annoying now, but the fate of her kingdom was at stake, so it wasn’t actually all that hard to understand why she was anxious about the letter being well worded. Still he had years of her torturing him to work through, and forgiveness didn’t come easily to him.
“Do I have duties more pressing than the imminent risk to my entire kingdom? No, no I do not. Besides, it doesn't matter whether or not you know how to properly write a letter, we desperately need the school to agree to this, and I want to be absolutely sure that our odds are as good as they could possibly be.” Unsurprisingly he was once again left without a proper counter argument. He idly wondered how much of his dislike for the princess stemmed from his own pride. Not all of it obviously, not even most of it, but certainly a portion of it at least.
“Fair enough. Say since you're here anyway I have a question for you. Why didn’t you tell anyone that the attempts on your lives were likely a distraction for something else?” As much as it hurt his pride to admit he knew that if he realized then there was no way that Alice hadn’t. Younger than him or not she was the smarter of the 2. Plus as an analyst she could run through likely scenarios far faster than he could.
“It wouldn’t have served any purpose. Them knowing changed nothing except for making them more paranoid about what came next.” He sighed. She wasn’t wrong per se, but her reasoning felt a little cold. Not that it was surprising given that she had casually put lives in danger to test his dragonic side on more than 1 occasion.
“You know it might not help in the short term, but it might help some people trust you more, which could become important in the future.” It felt almost silly lecturing a girl so much younger than him on not thinking far enough ahead, but Alice was arguably an even stranger case than he himself was.
“Perhaps, but ultimately the odds of this event being useful in such a way are miniscule. My brother's opinion of me has formed, and is unlikely to change, and nobody else I could have told has any reason to dislike me.” At least the girl acknowledged that there were reasons for most people to dislike her. He didn’t think Xander’s mind was as set in stone as she thought it was, but he chose to keep that to himself.
“If you say so.” Honestly even if it was rejected his friends could still serve the purpose, but he was hoping the school would add at least 1 of the teachers to the roster. Afterall while he was confident he and Elismera would be able to defeat Canis if they worked together, but it would probably be better if he fought the vampire with 3 of the others so Elismera could take the rest to deal with whoever else was there, so realistically they could take on 2 of the big wigs at 1 time. Maybe 3 if the others got a lot stronger over the break. A teacher or 2 who could take them on 1v1 would be a godsend, especially since they didn’t know how many opponents they were dealing with yet. He read over the finished letter one last time.
“This letter is addressed to the headmistress of Grandforge academy. I am currently in the kingdom of Delford, or more precisely the castle in its capital. I have uncovered a sinister plot to obtain a mysterious artifact of significant power, and fear that the damage done obtaining the artifact is equal, or perhaps even surpasses the damage they would bring with the artifact itself. This danger applies not just to the kingdom of Delford, but to all the surrounding areas as well. As such I’d like to make a formal request for the academy to aid Delford in defending the artifact. I can handle the transportation when battle comes, all I ask for is whatever assistance you may offer, and for permission to teleport me and whoever is assigned to assist me off of school grounds at any time should the need arise. I thank you for your time, and look forward to your favorable response.”
“Is this acceptable, your highness?” He wouldn’t normally bother with formalities with Alice, but in this case he was doing an official action for the sake of the kingdom. In his mind that was certainly a time to be polite, no matter what his personal feelings were.
“Of course, I never doubted your ability after all. I merely wanted to see for my own piece of mind. I too look forward to the headmistress’ favorable response.” He sighed. He just hoped the response came quickly, because until school started up again after new years he had no way to gather a significant force that would trust him to teleport them safely. Although he got the feeling Genesis wasn’t quite ready to attack yet. Canis claimed it was to preserve the lives of the defenders, but he doubted it. It was more likely they were trying to weaken the defenses because they hadn’t gathered their full force yet.
“I appreciate your confidence in me, but for my own piece of mind do you have any backup plan should the headmistress decline to help?” He didn’t think she would, but he was the sort that liked to be as prepared as possible. To the point where he admittedly overprepared more often than not, but somehow he didn’t think overpreparing would be an issue against Genesis.
“I have 1, but it’s not ideal. The kingdom has a secret weapon, but its power is dependent on the season. Winter isn’t the weakest power set by any means, but we’d have to shut down the spells keeping the city warm and sunny in order to unleash it. Given that the temperature is actually fairly cold outside the city, doing so would cause some problems I’d rather avoid if possible.” He hummed, cold didn’t really bother him much anymore. Working for that ice affinity had immunized him to it, but for a long time he had hated the cold, and was quite thankful that his father’s castle was in such a temperate place. The temperature around there stayed roughly the same year around.
“Would it really be necessary to drop it around the entire city? Just what is the nature of this weapon of yours?” Something with power tied to the seasons? He had never heard of a weapon like that, and was admittedly quite curious.
“Unfortunately so. We could turn them on again once it was outside for long enough, but it would need to have gathered enough power outside first. As for its nature I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. It is a secret weapon afterall. Even this is more than I should have shared.” He clicked his tongue in disappointment. He had expected as much of course, but now he was curious. It wouldn’t be the end of the world even if they did have to shut down the magic keeping the city temperate, but nothing in the city was designed with extreme temperatures in mind, so it would without a doubt cause considerable damage to the city’s infrastructure. Not to mention the weapon itself would probably drain even more heat from the city leaving it even colder. He could certainly understand leaving that as a last resort.
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“I see, well as curious as I am about its nature I’ll do my best to make sure it doesn’t come to that.” He didn’t really have high hopes, even if they got 2 teachers with them for the task force that would still only be enough to handle 5 people around Canis’s level at best, that wasn’t even counting the many weaker individuals that would no doubt be there. Still he had been given the opportunity to secure the temples, so at least the battleground would be to his advantage. He had set up several enchantments to prevent different kinds of ranged attacks, so the enemy would have to get in close, and their magic would be constantly disrupted. They would figure out how to deal with it if it was constant like that, but hopefully the initial confusion would be enough to incur some heavy losses.
“Please do, I have every confidence that you will accomplish what you set your mind to.” He rolled his eyes. He hated when she did that. Sometimes he couldn’t tell if she was mocking him in a way he didn’t get or if she was genuinely complimenting him. At least with the letter done she should be vacating his room soon. He still had a lot of training to squeeze in behind the many tasks he had undertaken.
Silence stretched on as the princess continued to smile innocently. Why wasn’t she leaving? That should have been the end of the conversation right? If not surely it would be Alice that would be expected to speak up. She was in his quarters after all. He briefly considered ignoring her and going about his other tasks, but that was an unnecessary slight and he had no intention of dealing with the consequences. “Is there something else you are needing your highness.” He broke the silence first hoping to move past whatever she was waiting on.
“Do you… Do you think we can win? You’re the only one who has fought 1 of them. You’ve also fought against some of the strongest people in this kingdom, so I’m asking you if you think we can win.” He closed his eyes to think more clearly. How was he supposed to answer that? He had no idea of the enemy's total fighting force. Technically he didn’t even know how strong Canis was, much less the rest of Genesis.
“It’s not a matter of whether we can or can’t, we have to. So we will. Simple as that.” Do or die, that’s where he flourished most. He idly wished he could deal with less life or death situations, especially now that he was pretty hard to actually kill. He desperately wanted to avoid an outcome where he was the sole survivor, but against foes like Genesis that would be easier said than done.
She smiled genuinely. It was an odd look on her, looking out of place, but he imagined that was only because of his bias. “How reassuring. Thank you Azura, I know you’re probably doing this for your sister rather than the kingdom as a whole, but I appreciate it anyway. This kingdom is very dear to me, and I’m quite glad to have your help protecting it.” Would you look at that? The princess could be genuine. His eyes softened. It was hard to remember that the princess was still a young girl sometimes.
“On the contrary I’m doing this for the world as we know it. The book of origin is no mere fairy tale, and there is no way I’d allow people like Genesis to rewrite reality.” Honestly he didn’t think anyone had the right to have that kind of power, not even him, no rather especially him. He stretched out his legs putting his arm on his desk for support. “That eventuality at least I can promise will never come.”
Alice must put really high stock in his words, because she truly does look relieved. He wished he was as confident as he had tried to sound, but in reality beating Genesis was going to be a long and difficult road. “Well regardless of your reasoning thank you, and should you need any further assistance don’t hesitate to ask.” It was only his years of practice that had allowed him to hide his shock. It wasn’t often that the princess would give such a vague offer of assistance. In this scenario that basically meant she’d probably help him with almost anything, he wouldn’t take advantage of such an offer, but he couldn’t even imagine the insane requests most nobles would come up with.
He smiled gently and shook his head. “You can save thanks until after we actually accomplish the task of eliminating Genesis. As for the offer of aid, I will take you up on that should I ever be in a desperate situation that I think you could help me out of.” For once a conversation with the princess had served to calm his nerves instead of agitating them.
Her genuine expression shifted to a teasing smile in the blink of an eye. “Perhaps I could take your father’s offer to marry you, surely being in line for the throne would open many doors for you in this battle no?” Nevermind.
***
Katy stared at the demolished training dummy in front of her as she panted desperately trying to get enough air in her lungs. The training room was in pristine condition other than the training dummy that had been torn to pieces, and some slight damage on the wall behind where it had stood. She had finally done it, she had mastered the technique. Unfortunately she had only been able to get the distance down to 25ft, and even then it was a little less effective. 30 ft was still going to be her best bet if she needed the attack at full power. Still it was a start. She’d have to hunt down that physical shadows spell, but she was confident she’d be able to find it at the academy when they went back in a few weeks.
Clapping from the entrance to the training room brought her attention back towards the door. She had honestly expected Azura, and was surprised to see Xander and Serena. Well more surprised by Xander than Serena. Her and the young girl had been friends since they were children after all. “That was quite impressive. It seems Azura manages to surround himself with people as skilled as he is.” She scoffed. It was mere flattery. She was strong for her age, she knew that. She had gotten into grandforge over thousands of applicants afterall, but she wasn’t really on his level. He didn’t necessarily holdback when they sparred, but he didn’t pull out all of his tricks either. She on the other hand did use every trick she had just to keep up.
“The only 1 he hangs out with as skilled as he is, is Elismera, and arguably that’s only because she’s had hundreds of years of practice.” Arguably Lily was capable of matching him, but that was because she far exceeded him in sheer power. He had a significant edge in terms of skill and tactics. That didn’t mean she intended to be left behind though. Azura had a major advantage from his unique magic, and now from his unique composition, but he also had gone more for versatility than being really good at one thing. His enchantments helped in letting him accomplish both at the same time to an extent, but no matter how skilled he got with them it would always be slower than casting a spell normally, and that small weakness was something she had pushed her whole skillset to cover for.
“I don’t know about that, skill comes in many different forms. Determination itself is a skill that must be honed, and I think yours is a match for his. Please do not doubt my words for I do not say things like that lightly, I’ve known Azura too long to bother with halfhearted compliments.” She smiled, it would seem the prince had quite a way with words. She hadn’t spoken to the man much, but she could certainly see how he and Azura got along.
“Besides not being a match for brother is a guarantee if you think too broad. He has too many advantages in the field of being good at everything. You’ve done well to pick one field and push it as far as you can. That’s the only way anyone can keep up with him if you ask me.” Her smile that had begrudgingly come out became a bit more relaxed, Xanders compliment had eased the tension some, but Serena always had been able to make her relax. Azura could too, but only when he wasn’t really trying to accomplish anything, which was exceedingly rare.
“True enough, to this day I have never met anyone who was capable of doing all the things Azura can, but I’ve met many more powerful than he is.” She wondered how much of Azura’s power the prince had really seen. It was easy to see Azura as just a talented mage for his age if you hadn’t seen some of the trump cards he could use if he needed to. Some of them were horrifically powerful. That grimoire of his would probably be enough to have him beat their entire group at the same time. She doubted even Elismera could resist its power. Then again they were called trump cards for a reason.
“What brings you here anyway? We haven’t spoken much, and I don’t see you 2 together very often either.” Serena visiting made sense, but she couldn’t guess why the prince was present.
“Azura and my dear sister have come up with some countermeasures, and I realized I wasn’t adding much to the conversation so I decided to see if I couldn’t help in other ways.” She didn’t think she had ever sympathized with a person more. She had been left confused after trying to listen in on Azura’s strategy meetings enough to know exactly what Xander was feeling in this moment.
“Are you strong?” A sparring partner would benefit her greatly, and as much as she cared for Serena, Azura’s sister was not much of a fighter. She was pleasantly surprised when instead of responding verbally Xander simply drew his rapier and smiled. She hoped he could back up that confidence, she didn’t want to get in trouble for hurting the prince.