The weekend came to an end fast. While Marissa and I had our fun with the double Slow Fall synergy, Father contacted with professor Accord. I wasn’t present at the meeting, but my father passed down the message to me. We were both eligible for the fifth year of school.
Accord still commented about the option of delaying the skip by a week to further on the testing. Whilst it may be useful to me, I feared that Marissa was already at her limit. I doubted her intellect could carry her beyond it. Either way, it was prodigious for a girl like her, who came from a low-income family and had no previous education, to skip four years suddenly.
The first day of the week, the third week of Frost. The thirty-first day of the year. Weird how this many things had happened in less than a month than probably all of my current life.
“Come on! We will be late on the first day!” Marissa was uncharacteristically excited about such an event. I would have expected her to be reluctant, clearly not assertive. Or this assertive, at minimum.
“I’m going, I’m going.” We weren’t late, not even close. We had arrived at school one-quarter of an hour before classes began. “You won’t be so excited when you are overwhelmed by the subject’s difficulty.” I quipped at her and she responded with a hiss.
She surfed around the serpentine tiles, zigzagging across the corridor. Marissa’s movements were pretty swift, of paranormal agility. Was she using air cantrips?
Thanks to her hurried attitude, we had to wait a few minutes in the end. Students accumulated in the once empty classroom. Whoever was the teacher, they had left the room open. Marissa and I waited at the end of the room as we didn’t know which sittings were available. Some students looked at the new faces, while others ignored us after a quick look, returning to their conversations.
The bell rang, marking the beginning of the class. And after a few seconds, the teacher made their entrance, I couldn’t help myself and air left my nose.
He got in the middle of the class and directed himself to the students. “You may have already noticed, but we have a pair of new students.” Professor Accord told. Yes, that Accord. Did he plan all of this from the beginning? “Cometh forward, both of you.”
Marissa and I walked to the front of the class, the blackboard behind us. We stood on the right side of Algor Accord.
“Introduce yourselves.” He commanded.
“The name’s Edrie Nightfallen, and I have skipped four years from the first year.” I told the class with a slight bow. This raised some eyebrows. I may have, subconsciously, made an extravagant first image.
“Hi, I’m Marissa Farlon, I also skipped four years!” Marissa was cheerful and presented herself more normally.
“They are notoriously good mages, and smart enough to skip four years in one swoop. Don’t be fooled by their ages.” Accord gave them a bit more information. “Master Nightfallen, Miss Farlon,” it felt a bit weird hearing Accord talking so formally, “you can sit at the empty table on the back.” He pointed to it even though it was the only one that was unoccupied.
The tables had three seats like the ones in freshman year, which meant that Marissa and I would be the only duo in the class.
“Alright!” Professor Accord clapped his hands. “We will start with the Mathematics class.” Some groans could be heard around the class. “Yes, yes. I know that having maths in first hour can be tedious, but nothing can be done.”
Actually, a lot of things could be done. We still had PE and Arts and Crafts at fifth year, subjects which were a lot more digestible at such hours. Damn it, even Magical Practice was better than Mathematics at the first hour. And I was the only one who could really appreciate them in the class, except Accord himself that is.
“Last week we laid down the foundations of the multiplication table…”
I… I was expecting the subjects to be lacking, but not this lacking. These were very simple mathematics. I could see Marissa struggle a bit, but that was the same with the rest of the students. They will soon find out they can just memorize the table rather easily.
But I was yet dumbfounded. Fifth year and just learning the multiplication table? These children must be fifteen years old now, isn’t this too late? Yeah, but they were children as I said. Ellari growth and education proved too alien for my brain to process.
What interested me more was the next subject, which was tutored by a different teacher. She entered the room and looked at Marissa and me.
“You are the new students, aren’t you?” We both nodded at her. “My name is Novela Ashcroft, and I will be your History teacher, and also Science, in the coming future.” She did a light bow, her white-blond hair was tied by a ponytail, and she wore round glasses. “What are your names, children?”
She certainly already knew them; this was nothing more than a formality. “The name’s Edrie Nightfallen, Miss Ashcroft.” I replied with a light bow as she did.
“Marissa Farlon.” Marissa followed me in the bowing.
Whilst the name of our new teacher is one I can recall, she obviously wasn't the Novela I knew from the magic store. But it was the first time I had seen a repeated name. I didn’t know why I was so weirded by this fact, in hindsight is obvious that there had to be repeated names by sheer probability alone, but it had also taken me eleven years to find one. Not that I had known many people before this, though.
“That’s good.” She responded with a smile. “You may find yourselves a bit disconnected from today’s session, so feel free to ask any of your classmates for their notes.”
“Understood.” I affirmed.
“Let’s start where we left it last week then.” She made the notion of opening a book, but she didn’t even glance at it. “We’ve talked about how the Tilean continent housed a lot of powerhouses over the ages. Not only the draconids of the Houtz Imperium, the elementals of the Elemental Council, or even ourselves, the ellari of the Ferilyn Meritocracy.”
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This was the first time I had heard our country referred to as a meritocracy. Sure, the signs were there, the omnipresent image of the High Arcanist, the importance of elemental affinity, and my parents’ complaints over the high ellari. But I was never explicitly told this was a meritocracy, only that we lived in a city-state, and the self-proclaimed greatest city in the world.
“But other nations shouldn’t be underestimated either.” Ashcroft continued. “Whether it may be the makeshift hordes of unnumerable races, from orcs to centaurs, to the plentiful human kingdoms at the west.”
The last phrase induced me a headache. I’ve never seen a dragon, an elemental, an orc, or a centaur, yet I could clearly imagine their appearance. But upon hearing the word ‘human’, I felt something. Attraction and repulsion.
My head spun around, a feeling of numbness, a desire to puke. Untold memories, unfurled sentiments. A swirling reminder of the river, an iota of agony. Chaos. Then peace.
This reaction didn’t come from the River’s calling, as I had experienced time and time again, but from myself. I knew it instinctively. I may have felt the river, but it wasn’t the source of my ailment. It was… my soul. I tried to act as unphased as possible. Thankfully, I had ease adopting the stern and stoic expressions my father liked to do.
The lesson continued as normal, no one noticed my out-of-body experience. Not even Marissa. While a bit offended by that, I did my best to hold it in myself. One didn’t have to be very bright that the minimal falter would have ended in the infirmary. Hmm… Maybe that was good…
Be that as it may, I already made connections and theories between the cause and effect of my dizziness. Now, I knew for a fact that my previous incarnation was human. It was strange how I had a clear image of a dragon, yet I had to pressure myself how a human looked like. Did the River of the Damned erase my human memories first? There was a distinction between memories and knowledge yet forgetting my own species even when I knew so many trivial things didn’t add up.
“The Tilean continent has stayed in a standoff for centuries as the forces of the Council, Houtz, and Ferilyn wish to not fight between them. Only petty expansion on the borders of the Imperium has been the source of the latest wars on the east.”
I snapped back to reality as Ashcroft continued talking. My brain worked at such high speeds that my train of thought only lasted for a few seconds. An emotional roller-coaster that ended as soon as it began.
“This is enforced by our lately defensive military stance.” I didn’t notice the continental map that was drawn on the blackboard.
Teacher Ashcroft pointed at the southeast of the rectangular continent at what appeared to be a stretched-out peninsula and a circular island nearby.
“We have no wishes of expansion and going beyond our island, unlike those draconids.”
This was the first time someone referred to Ferilyn as an island nation. Why did no one comment about it before? I knew Ferilyn was a coastal city, but between the coast and a straight-up island there’s a bit of a difference, don’t you think?
“Not only our magical might but also our unmatched navy keeps all foreign powers away. Only the Merfolk United Kingdoms at the west may match our navy, but the continent keeps us separated. Our most near neighbors like the Council and the Imperium find themselves uninterested against such odds at naval warfare.”
I can understand the importance of a navy in general, especially for an island nation. But aren’t boats useless against dragons? A boy in the second row raised his hand. He waited until Miss Ashcroft directed to him.
“Master Feyline, what’s it?”
“Aren’t dragons able to fly?” It seems the boy had the same question as I.
“Yes. Yes, they are.” Ashcroft affirmed to no one’s comfort. “But the Houtz Imperium isn’t a nation of dragons, but draconids. Common misconception.”
It was true that she presented the rival nation as one of draconids, whatever they were. Most of the class had confused expressions as they also understood ‘nation of dragons’.
“Draconids are a humanoid version of the mighty dragons of yore.” She lectured our uncultured bunch. “Pointy horns, big wings, and long tails are their main characteristics. While they are less powerful and have a lesser lifespan than their progenitors, draconids are more numerous and function in societies, very differently from their hermit predecessors. And as you may have deduced, such inferior versions aren’t able to perform long flights across the sea without resting.”
Humanoid dragons, huh? Weird. How does it work? Did a human reproduce with a dragon? How is it possible? Aren’t dragons the size of buildings?
“They aren’t to be underestimated, though.” Ashcroft added. “There are some draconids whose draconic blood is stronger than the rest and can transform themselves into full-blown dragons. While not confirmed by reliable sources, it is rumored that the exceedingly rare dragonborns, as they call them, are able to rival a mage of superb affinity.”
That information changed the humor of the class, their spirit descending into mild terror. This teacher knew how to scare a bunch of children. While the students thought about how it was possible that there were individuals in other nations being able to rival mages like the High Arcanist, I became paralyzed for other reasons.
Was I equal to a damned dragon?
I couldn’t believe it. It shouldn’t be even possible. Weren’t dragons supposed to be the apex of a fantastical creature, just under gods themselves? How was it that a mage with a good enough affinity can rival them?
“Do not fret.” Ashcroft clapped her hands softly. “Dragonborns are pathetically rare. So much that there are more superb ellari than dragonborn draconids. The Houtz Imperium finds itself unable to replicate their ancestor’s might.”
This, indeed, soothed the tension. But it arose another question. How powerful was the ellari military?
“Either way, every self-respecting race has its elite.” The teacher commented with a peculiar touch of nationalism and racism. “For us, the superb affinity users. For the draconids, the dragonborns. For the elementals, the true elementals.”
She stopped there. No mention of humans, centaurs, orcs, merfolk, or whatever other race existed on the continent. She was implicitly remarking on them as lesser species.
“For those who don’t know what the true elementals are, they are magical beings of a higher affinity than superb. True affinity. Also called, the incarnation of the elements.” Miss Ashcroft dropped yet another bomb. “But contrary to the population of the superb mages and the dragonborns who may be at the hundreds, there are only four known true elementals. Which also coincide with the four basic elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air.”
I nudged Marissa subtlety with my elbow as to say, ‘There is someone with an even higher affinity than you thought in your element’, to which she responded with a not-so-subtle jab to the midriff. I could feel the air leaving my lungs rather forcefully.
But true affinity, eh? It sounded incredible. ‘The incarnation of an element’, I knew this was wishing too much as I was the magical equivalent of a spoiled brat, but my inner child shook in the seat at a such overwhelming title.
“Beyond these three powerhouses, there are no races, nations, or institutions that can match them.” Novela added at the end. “But this is enough for the current world status. Now let’s see what this subject is all about, history.”
The rest of History class was rather dull and much less exciting than Ashcroft’s divagations of powerful individuals and nations as she explained the effects of magic on the evolution of the ecosystem. Was this truly History? I believe this could be explained in a ‘Magical Theory’ subject if it existed.
“…and that’s why our trade is greatly influenced by our plentiful marine fauna.” The bells tolled as the History teacher finished her rambling on ellari foreign trade. “Perfect timing.” She commented, marking the end of the class. “You are free to go.”
When History class ended, we all left happily to the outside. With the rush worthy of bored and starving children. Both metaphorically and literally. After playground time, magic class followed, and Marissa and I had some tricks to show to our new tutor.