Nocturnio (29.12.9973 AS)
Today was the last day of school before winter holidays. Tristan, Laura and Abigail were standing in front of the board announcing the results of the exams they had taken last week. The placements brought out two major surprises. One was; although, they didn’t have any means to practice Richard and Seria kept being part of the top ten. The other was; that a girl in class four was tied with Abigail for third place.
Rank
Name
Points
Class
1
Tristan Halblicht
100
7
2
Laura Verheerung
99,5
7
3
Abigail Letum
99
7
-
Annie Kuro
99
4
5
Leo Luci
95
7
6
Ernesti Tod
93
5
7
Richard Lucifer
90,5
7
8
Seria Lucifer
90
7
9
Oriana Cassio
89,5
2
10
Neo Nuovo
88,5
5
“Don’t worry, you are still in the top three” Tristan tried to cheer Abigail up. “No worries there, it’s not like I have to always be the number one, right?” She gave Tristan a genuine smile.
“Yay! You did it Annie! I’m sooooo proud of you! You are the best!” They heard a cheerful voice say out loud and turned towards where the noise was coming from. “Yes, yes, I’m awesome, but now please let me go big sis!” –“Never, I trapped you fair and square! Now give me my daily portion Annie I need to survive!” Sabrina didn’t care about the crowd forming around them. She just kept hugging her little sister.
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After a whole minute of struggling Annie finally managed to separate herself from her big sister. “Jeez, look at the crowd around us! Why do you always do everything to embarrass me?” She scolded her big sister. “I just can’t help it, you are just too cute!” Sabrina said, sticking out her tongue turning around towards Laura and company.
“And I know of someone that is at least as cute as you…” She jumped towards Laura, who was too slow to sidestep. “Muahahah, I’ve got myself another cutie!” She said while hugging Laura against her will. “Leeet gooo!!” the poor girl screamed.
“Sabrina, it’s been a long time!” Tristan tried to grab her attention so Laura could break free. “You too, want some love from me?! Too bad I only like little girls mauahahah” Sabrina continued to hug Laura, while Abigail hid herself behind Tristan.
“So what brings you here? I thought at this time you would be on a mission.” Tristan continued trying to save Laura, who was struggling to breath because of Sabrina’s forceful hug. She finally let go of the poor girl and started ogling Abigail.
“This week we don’t have any patrols. I ain’t a full-fledged member of the military course yet, so my schedule mostly consists of normal lessons spiced up with a mission here and there.” Sabrina explained. “I’m still just a third year, you know?” She continued with a cheerful voice like she always did. She pointed towards the board. “And some told me my sis got into the top three!”
The pale girl who was standing next to Sabrina watched joined the conversation. “That’s not a big deal at all. Big sis always ends up first in her year.” –“Actually, it is a big deal.” Abigail responded, finding the courage to come out of her save post behind Tristan. “Most of the students score between the sixty-five points needed to pass and eighty points. So being in the top three is a big deal.”
“See! It is a big deal!” Sabrina smiled brighter than usual. Tristan who saw that was astonished. ‘And here I thought she couldn’t smile any brighter.’
“By the way people, this is my little sister Annie.” Sabrina pointed at the black haired girl. “Hi, I’m Annie” She introduced herself. “Hi I’m Tristan, this here are Laura and Abigail.” –“These are the explosion people I once told you about. They are all really nice!” Sabrina interrupted Tristan’s introduction with her cheerful voice.
“Jeez, sis there you go again! I’m so sorry she just can’t read the mood.” Sabrina puffed her rosy cheeks. “Of course I can! I just can’t stand people acting all shy and formal!”
The bell ringed signaling class would start soon. “Well, see you all next semester!” The cheerful girl waved them as she ran towards her classroom, just to be scolded by a teacher, not to run in the corridors. “Sis!” Annie hurried behind her to make sure she didn’t cause any more trouble for herself.
“Always refreshing to meet her.” Tristan commented. “For you! For me it’s a nightmare. Why does she always have to hug me?” Laura complained as they walked towards their classroom.
Nocturnio (30.12.9973 AS)
Tristan, Laura, Nana and Dolores were walking towards Nocturnio’s Portal Main Station. Abigail’s father had invited the four of them to spend their winter vacation with them in their castle in Ater.
In front of the Portal Main Station they saw Ernesti, Abigail and a woman dressed like a maid waiting for them. Abigail ran towards Tristan and greeted the group. The woman in maid uniform introduced herself as Elisabeth Fern, the guardian of Abigail and Ernesti during their stay in Nocturnio. She expressed her thanks to Tristan and Laura for saving Abigail and handed the group their first class tickets to Ater.
As they arrived in front of the Portal to Ater, Tristan was blown away. This was the first time he had traveled with a public portal since he had gotten his abilities. So he obviously couldn’t keep his curiosity at bay and inspected the portal with his passive.
What he saw was something he had never seen before. A three dimensional magic circle; all the magic circles, he had seen up until now had been two dimensional. He had read theories explaining the concept of three dimensional magic circles. But no one had found any evidence for their existence.
Said evidence was now in front of Tristan’s eyes.
Their portal would open in half an hour, so he had enough time to analyze the magic circle with his passive. For the first time since long he had to use his passive to the fullest because he wanted to get as much information as possible.
The magic circle was the perfect mix between catalysts and enchantments. The creators of the Portal had somehow managed to overlay the magic circle inside the catalyst and enchantments that were used to create items. ‘Wonderful! This is truly wonderful! I would love to meet the genius who came up with this!’ Tristan’s eyes glowed with passion.
In the world of magic circles there was an unwritten rule to never enchant a catalyst, because no one knew what could happen. Many renowned enchanters had died, due to failing in enchanting a catalyst. So Tristan couldn’t help but feel ecstatic about the fact, that something so unpredictable could be controlled and mass produced.
“Are you ok?” Abigail asked Tristan who kept staring the portal. “Yeah” he answered while wiping the drool from his chin. “I just like portals.” Abigail looked like she had realized something. “Oh, sorry for interrupting you, maybe later you can tell me more about those portals.”
Laura turned towards them. “What’s up, you two seem to be a lot together lately.” –“Yeah, they sure are!” Ernesti also butted into the conversation. He looked Tristan deep in his eyes. “You are way too young to be courting my little sister!” Abigail turned red. “No, worries there, we are just two beings driven by curiosity.” Tristan reassured.
“And now that you both mention it, haven’t you two spending quite a lot of time together lately.” Tristan made something up so they would stop annoying him and he could again dedicate himself to analyze the portal. And indeed his plan worked. Both of them went silent and turned around trying to escape the mischievous smile Tristan had put on.
As Tristan finally was done with his analysis the portal opened. “THIS IS IT!” he shouted like a maniac. The eyes of everyone standing close to the portal were glued on Tristan, but he paid them no heed. He continued staring at the now open Portal.
‘After all this time I had the answer to my problems in front of my eyes!’ Tristan stared at the portal. First he was just interested in the portal because of its unique magic circle. Now his interest had picked because it presented the solution to the range problem he had with the item he was developing.
After the portal was activated Tristan had noticed three magic circles he had overlooked. One served as an anchor to stabilize the portal. The other worked as a transmitter connecting the portal with its counterpart. And the last was a receiver also connected to its counterpart.
Especially the transmitter and receiver had grabbed Tristan attention. They were completely different of the ones Tristan had created. ‘No wonder I would have never found an answer to my problem’ Tristan thought. Up until now he had always created the transmitters and receiver in a similar way he had found on the military items he once had stolen. But now he was standing in front of a working wide range transmitter that was build in a, for him alien way.
He imprinted the form of the magic circles into his memory. ‘Alright, even if I can’t work on my item during this trip, it still has been a very successful one’ Tristan smiled. “Trist we are ready to go.” Laura informed Tristan. “Coming!” he smiled as he trotted towards his group who was ready to pass through the Portal.