Tulip slowly opened her eyes, looking around the room she now found herself in. Heavy blankets were laying overtop of her while the early light of dawn broke in through the window just above her bed.
Only two days had passed since her “official” return to Berinia, and five days since her actual return to the country after being kidnapped by the slavers. The official day of her return was just when her and Kirin had been brought to the school of SilverSky, where she was currently resting inside of her dorm.
Her mind was quick to wander over everything that happened, the fighting, the near death experiences. But the thing her mind settled on for the longest time was the silver haired girl laying in the bed on the opposite side of the room from her.
So many questions were raking her mind that she wanted to ask the girl, but she couldn’t.
“Why didn’t she just run when she had the chance?” It was the question that she wanted to ask the most, why had Kirin, the person who had lost it all through nothing but bad luck of who her parents were, chosen to stay and protect her. Tulip Berini, the crowned heiress of Berinia, the daughter of the man who sanctioned the execution of Kirin’s father, and Kirin chose to save her life multiple times.
She let out a slow sigh as she forced thoughts away with a shake of her head. Tulip was a lot of things, but she wasn’t the kind of person to ask an answer she wasn’t sure she wanted to know—Even if the question was bothering her to no end.
“Mmmf…” Kirin groaned in her sleep, pulling the near dozen covers even tighter over herself while rolling away from the light shining in from the windows. The sound left Tulip to giggle gently as she sat up, only for her laughs to be exacerbated by the sight of the girl under easily ten pounds of blankets.
“Come on Kirin, we can’t sleep in today—Levi was going to actually start getting us caught up with everything we missed.” Tulip spoke gently, not so loud that anyone outside of their room could hear, but loud enough that Kirin would be forced to shift over and listen to her.
“I don’t wanna…” Kirin whined with a soft whimper. Tulip could almost see the girl shivering at just the thought of getting out of bed—And she couldn’t blame her about it either, it was a rather cold morning.
“I don’t care if you don’t want to, you have five minutes. If you’re not out of bed and getting dressed by the end of it then I’ll make you get up.” Tulip spoke with a threatening tone, one she hated to use, especially with a friend like Kirin. But she also knew Kirin wasn’t going to budge without being threatened, and being pulled out of bed by Tulip would be a far less horrifying way to wake up than being pulled out of bed by Levi.
“Fine…” Kirin finally muttered out. However Tulip didn’t wait to watch the girl get out of bed, instead she turned to one of the two small closets they had. There was just enough space inside of either one for them to change privately, which Tulip quickly set to work doing.
Pulling on her school uniform, one of five styles the school had representing the five years a student was expected to attend it for, she and Kirin had matching solid gray uniforms. They weren't unlike the dress uniforms of some parts of the military, with heavy stitching along the shoulders and sides.
But she was quite relieved whenever she pulled them on, the cloth was light and rather warm making them perfect for the weather they had at the school. The pants were a matching color of a deeper black, and while being somewhat heavy they allowed for flexible movement to assist in combat.
The only unique part of any student's individual uniform was their insignia, a metal badge that held a representation of their family name and it allowed any mage she trusted to be able to track them down using it so long as they were wearing it.
Being the crowned heir to the throne of Berinia it was obvious what her Insignia bore, the silver tree of the Berini family while an italic “B” sat at the base of the tree, and below that, along the roots of the tree sat her name “Tulip Berini” curved underneath the roots.
Tulip sighed a little as she looked over towards the mirror at the edge of the closet, taking herself in.
She stood at around five foot ten, making her notably quite tall compared to most people in the Kingdom, but that was likely because her father was an absolute giant compared to her, and even to Levi who stood at nearly seven feet tall. Her hair, not unlike Kirin's, was a deep almost steel colored silver, but it was notably much darker than the almost white hair on Kirin’s head. And her eyes were like twin rubies, gleaming in the dim light.
With the uniform on her body she looked far from the princess that she was, so often she was forced into wearing dresses that wearing basic clothes that didn’t squeeze her body felt relieving. With a tight breath she looked away from the mirror; turning to glance at the ground and pull on her socks and then boots.
Now with her entire uniform on, she pushed the door open, blinking a few times when she saw Kirin already fully dressed and standing across from Tulip with her arms crossed.
“Took you long enough… Threaten me and you can’t even get changed in five minutes.” Kirin muttered, while the sarcasm was rather clear in her voice, genuine annoyance was as well. But before Tulip could muster a comment she found herself looking Kirin over, after all the girl had changed a lot in the near third of a year they had been missing together.
Kirin stood just under a foot shorter than Tulip, right at five feet tall; she knew the girl had grown a few inches over the last few months. It was honestly sad to her that the scraps they had been eating were more nutritious for her growth than whatever she was forced to eat in prison.
Kirin was wearing a near identical uniform to Tulip, though Kirin's fit far more loosely against her body with Kirin’s simply not having much there when compared to Tulip.
Kirin’s hair sat past her shoulders by a few inches, the bright barely silvery-white coloration standing out like the frost on a tree while it was accented by her deep crimson eyes. Where Tulip’s looked like bright, gleaming rubies, Kirin’s eyes looked like oceans of blood, in a way they were terrifying and beautiful at the same time.
Accenting her chest in a similar fashion to Tulip was Kirin’s insignia, one which she seemed to wear quite proudly. And Tulip did have to admit that Kirin’s insignia was quite a bit more interesting to look at.
It had a plain silver backplate with a brilliant obsidian black outline around it, blue gems sat embedded in that crowning to accent the silver plate even further. The plate itself had two storm clouds on either side of the top, with four bolts of lightning coming down and wrapping around Kirin’s name which sat in the center. “Kirin” sitting directly above “Vulender.”
“Guess I do tend to get a bit distracted when getting dressed huh?” Tulip spoke with a soft smile reaching her face.
“Clearly.” Kirin retorted with a grin reaching her own face, the two turned with soft laughs between them and started moving into the school proper. They had just over two hours before Levi would be expecting them in the courtyard, until then they had free reign to explore the school a little, and find somewhere to eat.
----------------------------------------
My eyes moved around the decorated halls of SilverSky with a broad grin across my face, in just a few days I had gone from desperately fighting for my life to being dropped off into a lavish school that held everything I could have ever dreamed of.
Great white stone pillars stood against the floor, decorating the hall every fifteen or so paces. They rocketed up to the ceiling where the pillar directly mirrored to them would bend across in a large arch to hold up the ceiling that was around twenty feet above my head, every arch held an ornate banner—Each one was unique, pristine symbols that I didn’t recognize, however they were somewhat similar to the symbols upon Tulip’s insignia.
The walls behind these pillars were made of a deeper gray colored stone that held ornate carvings within it while the floors underneath were made of a polished tile that reflected the morning light that broke in from the massive stained glass windows on the outer walls bathing the entire hall in an array of colors.
We didn’t remain inside of the building for long, thanks to our dorm being near the exit of the building. I followed next to Tulip who remained silent as she walked a few paces in front and to my side while leading the way. She took us around a corner where the hallway was peeled away in a gentle curve to show a grand passageway into the inner courtyard of the school.
As soon as I turned the corner behind Tulip I felt heavy gusts of wind trying to take me off of my feet, the frigid morning air that accompanied the harsh breeze chased away any sense of sleep still addling my mind.
The school itself was still docked just outside of Avernus, the same city it had been just a few days ago when we arrived. And yet despite being relatively close to the ground the air was terribly cold thanks to the mountains painting the horizon in the north.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
As I followed after Tulip I was forced to cross my arms tight to myself, practically hugging myself to try and retain any heat inside of my body while my teeth began audibly chattering against my will.
“You cold?” Tulip asked with a teasing grin, to which I just gave her a soft glare. “Don’t worry it’ll be better once we’re in the air—There’s protective enchantments to keep the school warmer once we’re airborne.”
“W-Why c-can’t t-they k-keep that on… all the time?” I complained as another shivering shutter made its way through my body.
“It needs to be refueled with mana. It’s one of the reasons the school has to land every so often despite being relatively self sufficient.” Tulip explained as she slowed down to walk directly next to me.
“How does that even work?...” I muttered through another shiver.
“Magic, duh,” Tulip answered utterly unhelpfully. The annoyed glare I gave her didn’t even budge her smug grin that she met me with. “I’ll be honest, Kirin, I don’t actually know. Despite what you might think of me I don’t know about everything in SilverSky, or about magic. Quite frankly I barely know more than a surface level still.” She continued in a less teasing but still jovial tone.
“And yet you knew enough to teach me how to use magic.” I slowly looked away as I spoke, taking in more of the massive courtyard I was now walking through to follow Tulip.
“I knew enough to get you using magic to survive, you’re not exactly a master at it and neither am I.” Tulip stated calmly as she began guiding us through the courtyard.
It was a large area inside of the semi-circular exterior of the school. The front portion of it was built like an inverted half circle with each layer that moved back inside of the building being built up upon another layer. In the very center at the backmost portion of the school sat a singular, massive tower that even from the courtyard looked like it had to be at least two or three hundred feet across.
The courtyard immediately around me was mostly a series of paved tiles making up the paths between the segments of the main buildings. While they were all connected on the inside the school was simply so large that it was faster to cut across the courtyard to get to some places.
Within this front courtyard there were several sections which I could immediately see. While most of the sections were decorational, flowery paths, gardens and groves of fruit bearing trees. There were two other far more distinct segments of this massive courtyard. The first of which was a circular walkway that was accented by a massive fountain which sat at the direct center of the courtyard.
The fountain was ornate to say the least, carved out of pristine metals with six distinct geysers of water pouring out of the third of four tiers that made up its base. Upon the fourth tier inside of the shallow puddle which remained upon it sat a statue of a person I couldn’t recognize, albeit the statue was masculine in build. There wasn’t any form of a plaque or anything commemorating who it was. The person appeared to be tall, at least judging by how the statue depicted him, with defined muscularity upon his body. His face bore no scars, and no truly defining features appearing as just another person—Almost as if they made a statue of just some random citizen.
In his right hand he held a blade pointed towards the sky while his left supported a banner that hung over his shoulder. The statue was a single solid color of brassy gold with the sole exception of the eyes which were made of a deep azure gemstone.
“Who is that?” I asked curiously as I followed Tulip past the statue.
“It’s supposedly a statue representing the ‘War Mage,’ but it was made almost a hundred years after he would have died. So it’s more like a best guess to represent him than anything. We don’t even know his name so it’s just a nameless grave.” Tulip answered with gentle awe in her voice.
“How do we know he even existed if there aren’t even records of his name? Or even enough knowledge to make an accurate statue?” I asked as my gaze moved away from the statue to meet Tulip’s gaze.
“Because history across multiple nations mentions him. Even if no one has a consistent name or title for him, how he acted and what he did is always consistent. It’s less of a hard fact and more of an incredibly likely theory,” As Tulip spoke she bright her arms to cross under her chest. “And Kirin, please never question the existence of him publicly—People worship the idea of the War Mage, the church exists because of those people, and people aren’t happy when their ideals are questioned like that.” She continued in a lower tone, concern showing in her eyes.
“Shouldn’t we always question history to know if it’s accurate?” I asked but received no answer from her. Tulip instead only offered a sigh with a shake of her head before she continued walking. I opened my mouth for a moment, trying to muster up any words but Tulip just kept walking—Leaving me to jog to catch up to her.
Tulip remained silent once I slowed to a stop next to her, her gaze remained locked forwards to the path ahead. With resignation I looked away, letting my gaze take in the last major area of the courtyard at the front of the school.
Nestled inside the primary curve of the building were two massive flattened areas. They bore nothing but dirt and painted stone outlines around the edges for pathways, while one of the two flattened fields remained totally empty; the second was surrounded by a crowd of students and even a handful of older people who I assumed to be teachers.
The crowd was shouting and chanting something that I couldn’t quite make out through the cacophony, however the distinct flashes of light and echoes of metal colliding clued me into the fight happening.
“What’s going on over there?” I asked once the sounds grew too loud to entirely ignore, each step towards the main section of the school brought us closer to the fight.
“A sparring match probably… but I have no idea who would have this much of a crowd around them.” Tulip spoke in a curious tone, she pushed up onto her toes for a moment before rolling back down to her heels. Despite her added height over me she couldn’t see over the crowd.
“Wanna see who it is?” I was quick to ask, a burning feeling of curiosity was already driving me to try and see magic at play again.
Tulip looked torn for a moment before she nodded, but the crowd was thick, blocking any chance of getting through—Tulip reached her hand out, grabbing my arm. I could feel gravity weaken underneath me as the wind rushed around my body as the ground slowly grew distant.
Tulip guided us through the air with a single kick against the ground, bringing us to a tree that was overwatching the arena. She gently set us down on a low set branch that was large enough to hold us.
Once I felt the heel of my boot collide with the branch I let my leg collapse so that I could sit down, turning to straddle the branch before finally looking to see who was fighting.
They were both students, I could easily tell just from how young they looked. However, one of them I could vaguely recognize. He was a taller kid with pristine blonde hair and fiery orange eyes, his blade alight with a deep azure flame was colliding against the blade of someone I didn’t recognize at all.
“Come on Erick! I know you can do better than that!” The other man shouted over their clash. He was a little shorter than Erick, however it was only by a few inches placing him firmly above Tulip’s height and especially over my own.
He was built in a similar fashion to Levi, with broad shoulders and muscles that were clearly defined even through his long sleeved top. He had a deep brown coloration to his hair that bordered black while his eyes had a brilliant golden shine to them.
Erick grunted as he was pushed back, despite being taller he was clearly at the disadvantage in raw strength and even in reach thanks to his opponent having a substantially larger greatsword to his broadsword.
“Hard to even come close to hitting you back when you swing that absurd thing around like it’s nothing Kendrick!” Erick didn’t quite shout, his words were more like a loud muttering statement.
“Tsk,” Kendrick stepped back, hefting his colossal blade over his shoulder with one arm. A few thin layers of rock fell away from it as it found its rest on his body and he waved Erick away. “Fine, fine. Guess that’s enough sparring for now, especially when we have such a regal spectator now. Wouldn’t want you to disappoint her.”
Kendrick turned his gaze in my direction, and for a moment his eyes landed on me with a hint of disgust before a wide smile fell upon Tulip.
“After all! The Princess is finally back from her mysterious hiatus and finally decided to grace us with her presence.” Kendrick continued as the crowd slowly split apart.
“Showoff.” Erick sighed out as he turned away with a wave. Quickly leaving the area alongside a lot of the gathered crowd now that the show was over.
“Kendrick,” Tulip spoke with an almost threatening tone to greet the man. “You should know very well why we weren’t here for the last four months.”
Tulip stretched her hand out, grabbing my arm and once more gravity fell away for us to slowly glide down to the ground.
“Perhaps I do, perhaps I don’t,” Kendrick brought his blade forwards as he spoke, aiming it directly towards me. “But I certainly know that I can finally spit in the face of the vile thing that Levi has somehow decided to let into this once prestigious school.”
“W-what?” I Stepped back a little, shocked from how suddenly I was brought into the conversation.
“You heard what I said, Vulender,” Kendrick spoke with a venomous hiss at the mention of my name. “You are nothing more than a plague upon this school's perfect history. A plague that I plan on personally purging.”
“You’re expecting to kill her? Under what pretense? Under what law could you even do that?” Tulip spoke defensively as she took a step in front of me, blocking the threatening aim of Kendrick’s blade.
“I-” Kendrick began just to be cut off by a harsh, sharp tone.
“KENDRICK!” A feminine voice shouted from the other side of the arena, originating from a much older looking woman.
She bore similar black hair to Kendrick, and nearly identical golden eyes. However her clothing was utterly unique, a single large robe that covered from her shoulders to her feet that was pitch black with hexagons of golden lines carved into it that seemed to exude a gentle light.
Kendrick froze, glancing back towards the woman before he sighed. With a shake of his head he walked away, he glanced back only for a moment to spit out a final threat.
“Watch your back, Vulender. You won’t always have a Princess to save you.” After his words left his mouth he turned away, making his way towards the woman where a hushed conversation would guide them away.
“What… was that about?” I asked as Tulip began storming off with a deep rooted glare.
“They would be the reason you don’t question the ideals of the church.” Tulip answered vaguely, I was about to ask for more information but the glare she shot my way left my jaw to snap shut with a tight nod.
With a sigh I resigned myself to follow Tulip, although for an instant I couldn’t shake the feeling of someone watching us as we walked.