AELLARIA, MIDSTDAY, FATHERUS 4TH
The next day, Aellaria’s body had only gotten more sore. The first thing that Aellaria did was walk with Marin to the infirmary. The healers there would still be setting up and could help with the muscle swelling that caused their post-workout soreness. The lead healer of Spire met the request. The Cryomancer was a very sleepy and very old man named Professor Cryonalon. Aellaria thought that the elder mage may even have been older than she was.
When face-to-face with Cryonalon, Aellaria second-guessed this decision. The old man didn’t say anything to their request. He just sat the two young women down and stared at them like a grizzled old town guard seated across the table from a pair of petty thieves.
“You were not here yesterday,” the old mage accused. His voice was soft and scratchy, as if his throat was lined with felt.
“No, Master. I assumed you would be too busy with the other students.” Aellaria explained respectfully.
Cryonalon yawned before returning to his interrogation, “You chose to come for healing before breakfast and not before your gym class.”
“Right, Master. I thought you could help us now since you will not need to cast healing spells for a couple more hours,” Aellaria explained. She picked the perfect time so that the healers had as few excuses as possible.
Cryonalon leaned back, “Your instincts were good to come to me. However, it is a principle of mine this week not to heal growing pains. You freshman will learn to live with the pain or fail. I’m sorry. Honestly, the pain of my students is my pain. Next time your nose breaks or you are in too much pain to move, my door will open for you.”
Marin rebutted, “But what about healing potions? Can we ask the other healers?”
The octogenarian in the ice blue robes smiled, “Unless you can learn to heal yourself or make potions yourself. No. You will struggle to find someone on Spire staff willing to help you—especially my healers.”
Aellaria and Marin limped out of the infirmary. There may have been healers in the Freshman or Sophomore classes who were not bound by the promises made to the healing professor. However, Aellaria and Marin had no leads, leaving the breakfast service aching and sore.
Once in Niall’s classroom, Niall gave the bad and good news. After the first day, three students left the sorcerers program– lowering their competition but signaling the departure of friends of the students that remained. Everyone in Niall’s class from the day before were still there.
The lessons for the day were more basic runes. Elemental cantrips could be modified using these basic movement runes. Specifically, they learned the push, pull, left, right, lift, and drop runes.
The runes all had somatic components; in practice, the actions looked like a form of sign language.
The students learned to cast these spells with the runes for their specific element. The students gifted with more proficiencies had multiplicatively more work for their learning. Paris had to learn twelve new spells, and Marin was tasked with a daunting combination of twenty-four. Aellaria felt sympathy for the overwhelmed lottery apprentice.
Aellaria had a different problem. As Zenithor, he had always cast spells starting with the rune for wind. His body instinctually went to cast wind cantrips, and Aellaria had to unlearn a habit formed over six decades. Wind magic wasn’t just inefficient for Aellaria. It was the least efficient. Aellaria would get almost four times the effectiveness with Geomantic spells.
***
This time, during Physical Education, everyone knew to take it seriously. Over half of the students winced and croaked with every movement, and every woman in the class wore the appropriate clothing for the intense physical activity ahead. All the women were seated facing the stage at the center of the room. Standing by the door was an onlooker–a member of the senior class wearing beautiful gray robes.
“Terra, I made a promise to you yesterday. Today, we will be fighting to see if you truly deserve the respect you want to command.” Tilly said, wearing a black vest. Aellaria knew that this meant that Tilly had earned the title Master Sorcerer.
Terra leaned forward, using the slightest amount of momentum to stand, her body portraying none of the pain from yesterday. “I want to be able to cast spells while we fight,” Terra stated.
“Done. You can cast to your heart's content.” Coach Tilly said without hesitation, “Not only that, but I won’t have my authority challenged by every stubborn girl in the room. I want the rest of you to stand up, too. I will take you all on now and be done with it.” Coach Tilly’s demand left no room for negotiation, and all twenty-nine of the remaining women stood in opposition to the authoritarian coach.
Except for Aellaria. Aellaria calmly walked over to the track and began running laps. She had no interest in getting crushed by a master sorcerer.
As Aellaria ran clockwise around the track, she could hear the sounds of the fight starting in her left ear. The acoustics of the gymnasium were fantastic as the louder cries of pain echoed, bringing cringe-inducing stereo.
Coach initiated and went first for the short woman with the oversized staff. With no effort, Tilly plucked Alyviah’s staff away and then used it to land a swift blow to her forehead. Alyviah went down hard, and Tilly watched as the five nearest girls tried to dash at her in response.
Tilly moved at almost inhuman speeds. Her skin appeared to lose all hydration, and Tilly was casting numerous spells that nearly all the students present couldn’t recognize.
Tilly used Alyviah's long wooden staff to dispatch three more students, including the surprised Marin.
The class tried to collapse as a tide every time Tilly moved to a new area, but it wasn’t working. Flair was the first one to try voicing a strategy.
“Ladies! Backs to backs and prepare your spells!” Flair shouted as she pushed her back against Bren.
However, Tilly was on her in a flash. This time, not whacking her with the staff but using a spell to launch her and Bren up into the air with a pillar of stone.
By the time Aellaria finished her first lap, the talented coach had dispatched half of the women. Back in Zenithor’s day, few positions at Spire commanded as much respect as the drill coach, but times must have changed, and this breaking ritual was added to Hell Week’s curriculum to command full respect from the entire Spire staff. It would also help root out weaklings who gave up when confronted with overwhelming odds.
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Aellaria finished her second lap, and only Terra and Coach Tilly were left standing. To Terra’s credit, her stoic expression never wavered, ready for whatever Tilly delivered. Terra smiled as she squared up against Tilly. “You took them down in reverse order of rank. You didn’t cast anything more than a cantrip”
“Whatever, child, are you ready for your medicine?” Tilly raised one craggy, dehydrated fist.
“I'm going to get what I want out of this,” Terra said, standing straight.
“You aren’t going to beat me,” Tilly said as she rushed forward, her punch landing squarely on Terra’s raised forearm. Terra had blocked the attack of a martial master. From the perspective of the fight, it didn’t matter. Even Aellaria could hear the breaking of bones in that forearm.
Aellaria took notice. Terra wasn’t trying to win. Terra wasn’t the prideful idiot she portrayed herself to be yesterday. She was trying to make a point. The only gulf in power more significant than the one between Terra and Tilly was between Terra and her classmates.
With a second blow, this time to the bicep of the same arm, Terra was also brought down.
The Senior who watched the fight went into action. Aellaria finally recognized her. The Electromancer worked as a healer; her name was Angel. The electromancer started triaging the injured students and healed them as needed. Since Tilly was a talented fighter, she had gauged almost all of her enemies perfectly to stun or disable with one hit, but she didn’t put so much force behind anything as to injure them seriously.
While the healing continued, Tilly jogged over to Aellaria, following her along the inner ring of the running track. “You must think you are very wise, but running away only makes you a coward.”
“No, Master. A wiser woman would have taken that licking to get the healing potion for her sore muscles. We all have something to prove here,” Aellaria said. Even Aelaria knew the reason was pride. Aellaria never wanted to be defeated. The perception of perfection would allow her an easier path. She could maintain the delicate balance of undefeatable and unnoticeable.
In a typical year, Tilly could break the students and mold them into perfect fighting specimens. Terra and Aellaria both proved in their own ways that they would be tougher to break than any students Tilly had trained over the last decade. Tilly grinned as she sat down and watched the last woman standing run around the track.
MARIN
The recently healed Marin was a new woman compared to the day before. Her soreness was gone, and she wore the correct clothes for today’s workouts. Sure, she was terrible at binding her chest and didn’t like how the tunic showed off her bare arms, but it was much easier to work out in than the heavy robes she loved so much.
As the two women sparred, Aellaria held the advantage in technique, but Marin was refreshed and revitalized. This day, Marin landed more than one blow on the better fighter.
“You must be tired. You’re moving like a zombie.” Marin joked.
Aellaria laughed at Marin’s silly joke, which was surprising as Aellaria seldom laughed at her jokes. She responded, “I could still put you in your place if you wanted me to.”
“Maybe you don’t have the upper hand today.” Marin accused. She went in for a strike, but Aellaria sidestepped her and punched Marin in the gut. “Nope… Nope. Maybe we go back to our normal dynamic?” Marin coughed out.
“You have a real independence streak growing in you. A part of me expected you to follow me when I went to jog.” Aellaria said as they continued to exchange blows.
“I was just confused,” Marin said honestly. “One moment, I was standing up with the class, and the next, Master Tilly was bonking my off button.” Marin pointed to a point on the top of her skull.
“What a colorful expression,” Aellaria observed.
“Thank you!” Marin accepted. She dashed forward, not fully committing and missing her next strikes and avoiding a return from Aellaria. “Say, why didn’t you fight? Did you know Master Tilly was strong enough?”
“Anyone employed as a teacher here at Spire is a Master Sorcerer who graduated from this program. However, that isn’t the reason. The truth is that I am at a disadvantage in fights with my limited magic. I cannot be seen to lose, or I will need to waste my time fighting for my spot against weaklings like Flair or Alyviah.”
“Or me?” Marin asked, also coming in below Aellaria in the rankings. She knew that if she wanted to, she could challenge Aellaria to a duel.
Aellaria smiled at her roommate. “Of course not. I already have to waste my time to put you in your place.” Aellaria taunted.
The taunt didn’t work on Marin. On the contrary, Marin considered Aellaria a friend, and as her friend, Marin thought she would try to help Aellaria come out of her shell. “How about we talk about something more fun? A group of us are celebrating making it through the first week. We’ll visit the falls of Mistfall and enjoy the sight of the lake and stars.”
Aellaria’s expression suggested she would politely decline the offer. However, Marin saw her reconsider and respond: “I think I’ll take you up on that. Who is going?”
Marin pushed forward for another round of exchanges. With each name, it was growing more evident in her voice how much energy she had spent in the sparring session. “The elf… Behngi,” Marin ducked a blow and swung again, missing. “Syn, the one from yesterday,” Marin thought she saw an opening and tried to take it. “And Callo, the Cryomage.”
At the same time that Marin mentioned a friendly outing with Callo, Aellaria had a sudden burst of martial competence. As if in self-defense, while Marin cleared the gap, Aellaria struck Marin in the sternum, punching the wind out of the young lottery apprentice.
“Ah–” Marin shouted silently, her body confusing inhaling and exhaling, resulting in neither getting done.
“Oh gust… you okay, Marin?” Aellaria asked, invoking the domain of wind out of concern.
Marin silently nodded. “I’m okay… you got me good…” Marin lay on her side and took the fetal position to recover for a moment. “What do you say, partner?”
“Yeah, alright, I better keep you out of danger,” Aellaria said.