We make our way to the dormitories. Weaving through the various buildings of the Academy I attempt to get a better understanding Riros.
“How do you know so much about enchantments?” I project toward him.
He appears distract as he looks around the Academy soaking in the various halls, towers, and dormitories. Yet his reply is almost immediate, “From my brother.”
Flashes of images come across my mind, all of a man dressed in white, some where he is smiling, some where he is talking to a group of people, and the last one of him fighting. I blink a few times unsure of where those images had come from. I look back at Riros, he still seems distracted.
“Did you send me those pictures?” I ask him.
His head snaps toward me as his eyes catch mine. I feel a burning intensity unfurl from behind his eyes. As if they are burning through my exterior and gazing directly at my soul. For a moment I can’t breathe as the intensity is all that surrounds me, and then right when I feel myself about to collapse, it disappears. The gaze seems to retract and his eyes seem to return to normal.
“WHAT WAS THAT FOR!” I mentally scream at him, after I regain my composure of course.
At this point we have stopped walking and are on one of the pathways between two buildings, approaching the large open area referred to as Student Square due to it being surrounded by the dorms. We stare at each other for several moments before he releases a breath and sends a reply.
“I had to make sure that you weren’t stealing my memories.”
His answer like so many of the others only leads to more questions. Not to be deterred though I press on, “How would I even know to steal your memories?”
He shrugs, “I’m not sure, there remains much that I do not understand about the bond that you placed on me in the first place.”
I narrow my eyes at him, “What do you mean?”
He sighs again, “I mean this connection that you established is something unknown and unfamiliar to me. It is also quite possibly dangerous to myself. When you mentioned that I had sent you pictures, I was worried that the bond was leeching my memories to you.
Sensing that he finished I prodded him to continue, “Go on.”
I took a look at what memories that you had gotten and I realized that the bond was not leeching the memories, but merely acting as a conduit toward my mind. That in conjunction with the fact that I have my mental guard down and the use of telepathy, you were able to pick up on several of the memories that I had recalled due to your question about my brother.”
His explanation helped calm me down enough, that I remembered where we were headed and started walking again, I could feel more than hear when he decided to follow.
“I’d appreciate,” I sent to him as I collected my thoughts again, “If you would refrain from doing that again.”
“Very well.” Was his reply.
We walked in silence the rest of the way to my dormitory. The Student Square was fairly busy as various students were making their way from the dormitories toward the rest of the Academy. The morning classes were going to start soon, and the main reason I was headed to my dormitory first rather than to my own class was that I needed to pick up several materials from my desk. As we approached my dormitory and I saw all the other resident’s summons, my mind remembered something else that I had to take care of.
Turning to Riros, I ask, “What are you planning on doing while I’m at class?”
“I figured I’d follow you. I’m curious to see how the classes work here on this particular world.” He replied.
“But you won’t understand anything that is said.” I say to him.
“That’s not really an issue, I’m fairly close to comprehending your lanquage. Given another day or two and I shouldn’t have any trouble.”
I narrow my eyes at him slightly, “It’s only been a couple of days since you arrived, how could you possibly learn our language that fast?”
“The Duchess Stormcaller and that other man, Gramps, I believe you call him, were more than happy to supply various texts that I could peruse while you were unconscious.”
At this point I hear a voice behind me say, “Calamacy-vim are you alright? This man is not giving you any issues is he?”
Looking over my shoulder, I see Dralfey Serac standing at the edge of our dormitory. A look of concern is across his face. It’s then that I realize that it looks like Riros and I have been staring at each other for more than several moments.
Seeing the concern on his face I say, “Thank you for your concern Dralfey Serac, but there’s no issue here. This is my summon Riros.”
“If you say so, Calamacy-vim” Dralfey Serac replies. There is still a look of concern on his face, but now the look has changed from being concerned for me, to being concerned about me. Even though it seems like he wants to say more, he leaves it at that and heads off toward though rest of the Academy.
Not wanting to continue the conversation with Riros I head up to my dorm room. I feel him following behind me until I am halfway up the stairs.
“Salaria….”
“What?” I snap turning around. He is standing at the edge of the stairs. He is staring at me and I see flickers of what I can only describe as chaos, in his eyes. I also notice hesitation about stepping forward.
“I will wait for you down here.” He says.
“Why?” I ask, “It’s not like it matters if you come up here or not. Besides I was under the impression that you wanted to follow me wherever I go.”
“You are under the correct impression. But I will wait here, because I do not think the wooden stairs or wooden structure or your dormitory will be able to support my weight.”
I blink a couple of times, giving time for yet another fact to register on my mind. I can feel the questions start to boil up. Doing my best to suppress the rest of them, I do give voice to the most immediate of them.
“Just exactly how much do you weigh?”
He simply continues to stare at me, several flickers of the…chaos….continue to swirl in his eyes. After several moments a corner of his mouth curls upward and I hear him say, “Enough.”
“Fine then,” I say, “Have it your way.” With that, I make my way up the rest of the stairs, and move to my room at the end of the hallway.
Hearing the mid hour chime go off in the distance. I hurriedly go through my room and grab the various items needed for my classes today. Stuffing them all in a pack, I am out the door and already rushing down the stairs. It didn’t take longer than 3 minutes.
I find Riros standing at the edge of the Student Square, staring off at the main tower of the Academy. Another question pops into my mind, but I ignore it as I set off at almost a run toward the center of the Academy. He follows behind, seemingly undisturbed by the new pace.
Ten minutes later we find ourselves in Romano Hall. The hall is one of the larger buildings at the Academy. It is only 2 stories tall, but each floor is well over 20ft tall. Not to mention that it has over 50 large classrooms for classes to be held in. It has three large parallel to each other that seem to form the skeleton the building, while many smaller arches and columns fill the rest of the exterior with windows tucked in between. Romano Hall is the main building that all Initiates and Apprentices of the Academy spend the majority of their time. Only later when one reaches their sixth year at the Academy and achieves the rank of Adept can one specialize and therefore spend the majority of their time in the other buildings.
As we enter the main corridor of the hall, with classrooms flanking either side of it, I find that it is still packed. I breathe out a sigh of relief as I slow down my pace. I’m about 20 steps into the hallway when I realize that Riros has stopped moving once again. Looking back at him I see that he is standing just inside the entrance gazing at the various columns which run to the next floor. I’m about to call out to him when someone bumps into me.
“Watch where you’re going!” I hear a voice snarl in front of me. Turning to look at the individual in front of me I see Tlassel Klass glaring at me. He’s not the only one, because surrounding him, and now me, are several of his cronies.
“My apologies, Tlassel-vos, I was distracted.” I say, not wanting to antagonize him any further at this particular moment.
“And being distracted gives you the right to bump into me?!?” Klass says, raising his voice.
Well so much for not antagonizing him. I think to myself. The hall vibrates slightly and I know Riros is on the move I glance over my shoulder to see where Riros is moving and no longer see him. However this seems to just incite Tlassel Klass more.
“Don’t you ignore me! I don’t care that you are Calamacy, Salaria. It’s about time that someone put you in your place. To think you would have the gall to mess with the grandson of the Ivy Royalty herself,” he said only beginning his rant.
My search for Riros, is fruitless however. Klass’s cronies, emboldened by his rhetoric start to hem me into a circle with him, obstructing my view to where I think Riros is. I feel Riros take another step as the building vibrates again. Looking around once more, I notice everyone in the immediate vicinity stepping back, giving us as much room as they can manage even in the crowded hallway.
“Just because you think you’re safe behind that red robe of yours, doesn’t mean a thing, we all know you didn’t actually earn that rank.” Tlassel Klass continues. The hall vibrates again with another step.
At this point, I can no longer ignore him. Not that I wanted to anymore. I let loose with the first thing that comes to my mind.
“You keep making accusations Klass, but I don’t see you doing anything but hiding behind your grandmother’s robes.” Almost the moment the words leave my mouth I know I’ve stepped into it. The building vibrates again.
Tlassel Klass’s eyes narrow again and I notice the people around me grow quiet. I see a gleam of malice enter his eyes, as he raises one of his hands and reaches for a small yellow piece of dyed leather. Raising it up in the air he holds it, a triumphant looking smile spreading across his face. I feel my own heart start to beat rapidly as I watch him take the piece of leather and throw it to the ground at my feet. As if to punctuate the point, the moment the leather lands on the floor, the hall vibrates.
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“I challenge you Calamacy Salaria to a duel as is my right as a Throne Citizen of the Royalties of Eldesaria. I call for this duel to have Salaria stripped of her rank as Calamacy as she has proven herself unfit and unable to hold such an illustrious title, and as such has lowered herself to performing slander upon those lower than herself, and….
For me it was as if time started to slow, I could feel every heart beat and the pulse of it in my head. Tlassel Klass continued to talk as he laid out the terms of his grievances, but it soon became background noise for me. I could only stand there in my own horror at what had just happened. At this point my mind went numb unable to really believe that this was happening in front of me. I just kept thinking, What do I do? What do I do?
And then the building vibrated.
The vibration this time snapped me out of my stupor as it seemed to be more powerful than the last one. The whole building vibrated for a couple of seconds, causing dust and fine flecks of old mortar to rain down from the ceiling.
Tlassel Klass stopped talking as a voice that I had not actually heard in 11 years rumbled out over the entire corridor.
“Excuse me.”
The deep rumble of those two words seemed to resonate with the very building, causing the hall to shake even more. Not only that, it also seemed to resonate inside of every person there. Even me. Everyone’s faces went pale at the immensity behind those two words. Even though they were only spoken at barely above a whisper, not a single student in the corridor remained unaffected. I took a small solace on the pale expression on Tlassel Klass’s face. Everything seemed to stand still for several moments, before all at once everyone shifted toward the source of that voice.
Turning my head, I looked back toward Riros as he stood there, not but ten feet from me. With a flick of his hand he motioned for the people in between me and him to move out of the way, and with nary a gulp they moved out of the way. Two slow strides later he stood in front of me. The chaos in his eyes no longer flickering, but roiling in waves originating from the center.
By the time of the first stride the pressure from the two words faded. By the end of the second stride most people seemed to be able to breathe again. Yet a silence still hung in the air. No one was willing to disturb it.
I heard his voice much softer than ever before resonate in my head, “Salaria, do you have a grievance with this man before you?”
It took me a moment to collect my thoughts before I said, “Nothing worth fighting over.”
His expression turned thoughtful as he gazed at the scene just past me, “I do not understand everything that was said, but I do understand the gist of it," he motions to the piece of leather lying on the ground. "He has challenged you?”
“Yes,” I say.
“Can you choose to decline,” he asked, his eyes meeting mine, the roiling chaos having calmed slightly.
I shake my head.
Tlassel Klass having recovered at this point decided to be the one to break the silence.
“I don’t know who you are, but unless you have business with Calama-”
He stops talking as Riros looks at him. I watch as the chaos in his eyes change again, almost seeming to ignite as if they were smouldering embers being stoked to life. Tlassel Klass tried to open his mouth one more time, before slowly closing it. All around us the rest of the students still remain transfixed, unwilling to leave before the scene before them unfolds to its conclusion.
After Tlassel Klass subsides Riros turns his eyes back to me.
“You should accept.” I hear his voice say in my head, “But know that for this particular duel I will not fight for you, you will have to beat him with your own power.”
The little hope that had been in the back of my mind for the duel had gone away with Riros’s last statement. I knew that my previous self would have no chance against Tlassel Klass. However, remembering that small spell that I had attempted perform the previous day, provides a new flicker of hope.
I turn to face Tlassel Klass. I studied him for several moments as he stood there. It was obvious that he wanted to speak up as could be seen by the near constant fidgeting that he was doing. His expression was also rather dour, as if he had swallowed a bitter pill. I bent down and picked up the dyed yellow leather.
“I accept your challenge Tlassel Klass,” I said, trying to make my voice sound as level as possible, “In accordance with the rights as a Throne Citizen of the Royalties of Eldesaria. The duel shall be held two weeks from now as is tradition at the Academy Training Ground, and in accordance of my own rights as the challenged, I lay claim on your titles and rank as Calamacy. The people here bear witness to my acceptance and the terms.”
That last part caused a stir out of the crowd. The spell that seemed to have been cast by Riros was now broken as many people gasped and more than a few of them started to discuss among themselves everything that had just heard. Tlassel Klass on the other hand, tried to sneer at me, before pivoting on his heel and stalking away. His cronies slowly filing back in with him.
After his disappearance the crowd dispersed. I was able to spot several teachers among the crowd as they made their own way back to the classrooms where they were supposed to be teaching. We followed suit soon after.
Dralfey Altia
Arriving earlier than I normally do to the morning class I was able to get several seats in a corner of the classroom for me and Salaria. I wanted to talk to her some about Riros since we hadn’t had a chance to do that yet with him constantly being around. I quickly threw that idea out the window though when I felt the building start to shake.
Why did she bring him to class? I thought to myself, Well he is a human, and not like most people’s beginning summons. And it doesn’t seem to me that she is controlling him besides calling him here.
While pondering about Riros and Salaria and my own new found abilities, I passed the time until class started by looking around the classroom. Since Salaria and I are in our fourth year at the Academy, we both recently became Apprentices. The class that we are taking is an Apprentice level course and as such we would go into much more depth about certain topics. This month we were getting a more in-depth look at alchemy and arcane chemistry. For example every table in front of his various sets of beakers, burners, chillers, and their arcane equivalents. Today we are supposed to attempt to make a simple mana crystal.
I pulled out some of my notes from the lecture yesterday and started looking over them when all of a sudden students started flooding into the room. As the students started flooding in I kept hearing whispers and snippets of conversations about an incident having occurred outside between Salaria and someone else. I wasn’t able to find out more information as I was keeping my eye out for Salaria. However there was no need for the flow of students stopped suddenly and the vibrations of the building became more and more noticeable. She walked through and I waved at her to try and get her attention. When I was sure that she saw me I motioned for her to head up to where I was sitting. Trailing along behind her of course was Riros.
When she finally arrived I noticed a strained look on her face. I didn’t think anything of it a first until I saw what she was holding in her hand. A dyed yellow piece of leather. Shocked, I felt part of the equilibrium that I used to balance my emotional states slip. I looked up at her managing to catch her eyes.
“Who?” I asked.
She gave a short laugh that was almost a bark, “Tlassel Klass of course, who else?” She shook her head and seemed to absentmindedly play with the leather.
“That bastard,” I say, as I feel little bit more of emotional state slip out of balance, rage starting to come more to the forefront.
She just shakes her head again before replying, “He’s been itching to do it for a while now. I just happened to push him over the edge this time.”
I give her a small hug, she seems to perk up slightly from that comfort, and then I ask, “What type of duel did he go for.”
“A Challenge of Rank.” She said peering intently at the desk.
Upon hearing that I grow hopeful, “Well that should be easy right? You’ve got Riros, and he can deal with anything that that Tlassel tries to throw at you.”
She shakes her head again, and in a much softer voice she replies, “He says he won’t fight for me.”
Stunned I lean back so I can look at Riros, who is sitting on the other side of Salaria. I send to him, “Aren’t you supposed to protect her? How can you not fight for her?!”
He turns his head toward mine, and while his face remains impassive, his eyes are hard and resolute.
“She must learn to become stronger.”
I reply back immediately, “So you’re going to make her get stronger by fighting against an enemy that outclasses her in all other forms of magic. And yet the one thing that her magic has given to her, are not going to participate? Oh sure she’s going to be a lot stronger for this.” The last part I tried to make as sharp and as biting as I could possibly imagine.
However my effort seems to go unnoticed, as I see no outward change in his expression or eyes. His voice resonates again in my head, “Altia, I want you to remember that night that I arrived her and think back to when everything seemed to glow. Think back to your mental state at the time.”
Not wanting to get distracted in what I felt was a non-sequitur, I narrow my eyes and ask, “How does this relate at all to what I just asked you?”
He says, “It will make sense when you do what I ask you.”
“Fine,” I send back to him. I close my eyes and think back to that moment. I try and ignore what happened beforehand, and what happened afterwards, and just focus on the particular moment, where everything seemed to glow. I remember the burning sensation that was from my own inability to breathe, I remember the panic that was starting to set in, and I remember the fear.
As all of it starts to come flooding back threatening to try and overwhelm me again, I hear Riros’s voice once again echo out in my head. “Almost there Altia, now I want you to hold onto all those emotions, and breathe.” When he says breathe, I feel a wave of energy wash over me, goosebumps wash over me, as I begin to sense the faintest of movement of what feels like wind caressing my skin.
“Open your eyes,” I hear Riros say.
I open my eyes and find that the world seems to have transformed. I see puddles and strands of energy absolutely suffused into the air. It all seems to be drifting untethered by the building and the normal laws of the world. The only things that seem too be affecting this field is the presence of numerous entities scattered about. The entities glow with various amounts of the same this omnipresent energy, and it takes me a few moments of blinking my eyes before I realize that the entities scattered about the room are in fact the students who had entered the classroom not so long ago.
Ever so softly I hear Riros’s voice intrude upon my conscious, “What you should be seeing Altia is mana. The energy that makes so much of the magic of this world possible.”
I turn my gaze towards where he is sitting and I’m greeted by the strangest sight I have ever seen. Where Salaria sits is an a bright burning source of mana. The surrounding mana next to her seems to be ever so softly flowing in her direction. Moving as if in a web of connected strands. Behind her the unfathomable void that I remember from earlier seems to writhe silently. It too seems to attract the puddles and strands toward it. However, it has a much greater pull and every mote of the mana that reaches within a certain distance of the abyss seems to absorbed and pulled into the roiling deep complexity that is Riros.
“What are you?” I can’t help but ask as I subconsciously push that thought toward Riros.
I receive the equivalent of a mental shake of his head, as he says, “One question at a time. The answer to your question about why I won’t fight lies in front of you.”
I look down at Salaria again, and see the bright burning mana. I pause for a few seconds studying her before looking around again at all the other students in the classroom. It seems that only two other individuals brightness seem to rival that of Salaria’s.
“Do you understand now?” I hear Riros say.
I know I’m on the verge of understanding, but the strange sight of all the drifting mana and the brightness of everyone else’s own mana leaves me little room to actually comprehend what Riros is trying to make me comprehend.
As if sensing my incomprehension, Riros voice once again rings out in my head, “The higher the density of mana, the brighter the mana will become. The brighter the mana, the more powerful an individual is.”
Before he can finish saying the first sentence, it clicks. Looking around the room and the intensity of everyone’s mana, I realize now why Riros says that he won’t fight. Salaria sitting next to me happens to be one of the strongest individuals in the room, mana-wise. He won’t fight, because he doesn’t have to.
“I understand now.” I say to Riros. “You don’t have to fight, because she is strong enough to defend herself.” Thinking back to what he said earlier I jump to my next conclusion. “So when you say she must learn to become stronger, you’re saying that she must learn to use her own strength to win the duel?”
“Correct,” I hear Riros say.
I look back at Salaria, and watch the burning intensity of her mana for several moments, before saying to Riros, “Do you think she’ll win?”
“That is up to her.” Is his reply.
At that moment I notice the glow of the mana around me start to dim. I blink my eyes several times and the world comes back into focus as it was previously. The last images I see are the intensity of Salaria’s mana pool and the deep abyss that is Riros.
I put a hand on Salaria’s shoulder and it a squeeze. “You can do this,” I whisper to her.
She gives me a small smile. One that contains only a sliver of hope.
You better know what you’re doing Riros. I think to myself as I watch her get prepared for the lecture that’s about to start.