It has been 11 months since Domitor had declared war, and the Alliance between Jhargas, Balmung, and Merdelum managed to slow Domitor's advances thanks to the knowledge they had acquired before the militaristic nation had started its assault on them. However, this changed with the appearance of the Shāyú Yá, the Shark-Tooth-Mercenaries of Guan, a clan of orcs who had allied themselves with Domitor centuries ago in the hopes of gaining honour in battle and thus the right to return to their former home from which they had been exiled for reasons unknown. Through their help, Merdelum's closest city to their northern border with Domitor, Crawford, was taken, a major blow to the empire's morale.
Jhargas managed to push into Amvine, though because of supplies and additional soldiers provided by their allies in Yhose, all progress was quickly annulled. However, not all was lost, as due to Ulsset being weakened by "Operation Salvation", Balmung managed to take over large parts of Eurosa, and now planned an assault on Ulsset's capital to quickly force them to surrender.
Meanwhile in Caelum, Corvo, Sean, Mira, and Eleonora discussed which elective classes they were going to take during their second year in Rouclier, as each student was required to take at least 4 and at most 5 electives in conjunction with their regular subjects.
"To be honest with you guys, I would probably go with Western Ordt. Even though people no longer speak it here, I heard it's still common in Ceruceil and up north, right? As for the others... Fencing, Geography, and Biology...", Sean announced, though unsure if it would be the right choice.
"Hm... I definitely need to take Advanced Arithmetic, since it would probably help with learning new spells...other than that, maybe Biology as well? It would probably be a good idea to take Business and Finances as well, though what else?", Corvo mumbled as he looked over the list.
"Business? Seriously? Dreaming of opening your own shop after school, eh?", Mira teased him.
"No, I just think it would probably be a good idea to learn how to earn money outside of combat, is all.", Corvo responded.
"Maybe you should take another language, like Sean and me?", Eleonora asked, as she had chosen Morigengo, the language of the forest elves of Shinrin, as one of her electives.
"I thought about taking Gamall, but I heard the dwarven language is one of the hardest to learn...", he replied.
"You know, if someone could do it, it would probably be you. After all, you got the highest score on the end-term exam, right?", Sean commented, and the others agreed with him.
"Yeah, you're right. I'm gonna take it! By the way, which ones are you going to take, Mira?"
"I was thinking about Biology, Chivalry, Support Magic, and Politics."
"Chivalry and Politics?", the others asked simultaneously, confused as to why she would take the two elective subjects most commonly taken by nobles.
"Well, chivalry includes mounted combat, which is a lancer's forte, right? And politics...who knows? I've always dreamt of becoming a noble, and with some luck, I could get there by becoming a knight!", she explained while sheepishly looking to the ground, embarrassed about telling the others about her childhood dream.
"Huh, that actually sounds pretty cool.", was Corvo's response, and the others joined in with a similar mindset, which surprised Mira, seeing as even her parents had started to berate her for choosing to believe in her dream, telling her that she should be more realistic in choosing her career paths.
"...Thanks guys. I really mean it."
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"Welcome back, cadets of Rouclier. As you probably know, our empire has suffered a rather large loss in the north. Thus, Fourth-Years will now have to join law-enforcement in the Éclat dukedom to temporarily replace those among the guards who were sent to the front lines. Do not worry, it will still count towards your mandatory military service, reducing it from 7 years to 6 as per your contract. Otherwise, our academy will operate the same way as usual. In addition, for the same reason, this year's Cloud-Festival will not commence."
Headmaster Calros' last statement caused a commotion among the cadets, especially those of third-years, who would have been able to show their skills to the empire in the competition against the other academies. A quick, deafening clap of Calros' hands returned the hall to silence, causing the cadets pay his words attention again.
"There is nothing to be done about it. However, know that third-years will have plenty of ways to show off their skills by entering the Abyssal Rifts. That will be all. May the Light of Order guide you on the Ardent Path!", Calros concluded his speech, prompting the entire hall to salute him and the other instructors before he left the podium together with them.
An atmosphere of displeasure weighed on the entire student body as they exited the hall shortly after.
"Aw man, I didn't get the chance to attend the Cloud-Festival once ever since I got here. It would probably have helped us in the tournament next year if we got to see the different fighting styles of the other academies before then.", Sean sighed, as Corvo, Mira, Eleonora, and him made their way towards the mensa, were they wanted to spends some time before they needed to split up, as each of them needed to attend a different class afterwards.
"Hah, as if that would heighten your chances to climb the ranks.", a voice behind them called out to him, causing the group to turn around.
"Crevier? And what's your problem this time?", Mira asked the son of the current city-lord with an annoyed expression.
"Hey, you better show Lord Crevier the proper respect, country bumpkin!", one of his followers called out to her, but he was quickly silenced by a hand motion of Crevier.
"Do not worry, I know that they do not teach manners among mere peasants, so I will not hold it against her.", he continued with a smug grin while Eleonora and Corvo tried their best to hold Mira back, as she seemed set on breaking Crevier's nose for that statement.
"Hah, you got a pretty big mouth for someone who came in behind 3 'peasants' in the end-term exams, isn't that right?", Sean retorted with emphasis, which quickly wiped the smile off Crevier's face and calmed Mira down.
"As if those mattered in any way-", he tried to explain, but was quickly cut off.
"It seemed to matter enough, seeing as how you are trying to get a rise out of us right now, right?", Corvo added, which seemingly hit the nail on the head, as Crevier started to frown.
"Just you wait until combat training. I will show you just how large the gap between nobility and commoners is when it comes to ability!", he barked at them, before walking off together with his followers.
"Hm? What did he mean? I thought he was going to be in the group for support-professions in combat training together with you? Don't only close-range fighters spar in mock-battles?", Corvo asked, as Sean rubbed the bridge of his nose, as if trying to fight off an incoming migraine from the encounter they just had.
"Supporters rarely fight on the battlefield, true, but they still need to be able to defend themselves properly, so there will be mock-battles there as well.", he explained.
"Oh yeah, he was a bard too, right? Think you can beat him?", Mira asked, and Sean gave her an assuring thumbs up.
"With all the preparation we did during our summer-break? I think I got a decent chance!"
"Go and kick his ass for me! I just can't stand people like him, thinking the world should be served to them on a silver platter.", Mira grumbled, and the four continued towards the mensa.
The first lesson of the day was class-specific training, in which students would learn the basics of how to best utilize their specific abilities, as well as learn useful skills and magic which worked in synergy with them. As there existed recruits with all kinds of different combat-professions in Rouclier, the lesson were split into 8 different groups:
Swordsmen, who would learn the fighting-style of Merdelum's soldiers, the Ardent-Blade, from Leroy Montell.
Lancers and classes which used other two-handed weapons, who were taught a variation of the Ardent-Blade which was fine tuned to better make use of their range were taught by Irene Karm.
Rouges and similar classes received training in stealth and agility by the former head of Merdelum's Intelligence Gathering Division, Rebecca Dutertre.
Archers, which needed to be able to adjust their shots for wind and weather, as well as being able to hit moving targets many hundred yards away from them, were taught to do so by Pascal Crozier, the only one in Rouclier without military, noble, or academic background, as he had received his position due to him being considered the best tournament-archer in the entire Empire.
Bards and Fautors, or supporter-classes, as they are more commonly known as by many, would be taught in poetry as well as in the casting of spells, which would aid themselves and their comrades on the battlefield, by a former strategist of the army, Félix Deloffre, who, though no longer being able to serve in the military due to his crippled leg, found purpose in teaching the soldiers of the future.
Healers, which would practice healing magic on wounded animals and volunteers from the city while also going through increased endurance training, were taught by the former court physician of the duke of Éclat, Edward Bonnet.
Arcanists were taught in the ways of the arcane arts by none other than Salazar Blanche, as though his true passion lied in studying magical artefacts, his knowledge of arcane magic was quite extensive.
And lastly, Elemental Magi such as Corvo would receive guidance in their studies by Kassandra Lambert.
The teaching of elemental magic brought some difficulty with it, as learning spells one's soul was not attuned to was significantly harder than learning spells of one's own magical art.
"Which brings me to my point, Cadet Rhedi.", Lambert concluded, as she had taken Corvo away from the other cadets after assigning each of them a spell in their element that they needed to learn.
"Seeing as you were able to cast
"...so my soul is attuned to both fire and light?", he asked.
"Exactly. It's the same as with spirits. However, one of the two will always be more dominant than the other, which makes it easier to understand spells from that element. So, let's test that theory, shall we?", she asked cheerfully, and handed Corvo two pages, one containing the instructions for the spell
"Please try to cast these spells, and after you did so, I would like to ask you a few questions!", she said, before walking towards one of the other cadets to observe their progress or answer their questions.
Corvo read the instructions, and, after memorising them, decided to try out the first spell by aiming his staff at the shadow of one of the straw targets Lambert had provided them with to aim their spells at.
"Fulgeo!"
A ray of light exited the small white spell-circle atop his staff, causing the shadow to disappear completely.
'Huh...that was almost too easy...is it because it was only 1st-Tier magic? ', Corvo thought before ending the spell, as unlike during his time learning fire-spells, he was able to instantly grasp how to do it. He decided to try the second spell as well, and stepped a few yards away from the target, before casting the second spell.
"Lux clare ardeat!"
A spell circle much larger and more complicated than the first appeared atop his staff, before a ray of bright, white light connected it with his target, which only a moment later started to catch fire. Corvo could feel his arcanum slowly drain as he kept feeding the spell, and, within seconds, he had burnt a hole into the target, and the ray of light now started to scorch the wall behind it, as he had accidentally faced the target in a way that would cause it to be between him and the academy building. He quickly ended the spell and ran towards the wall, which thankfully only showed a small black circle where he had hit it.
"Hm? Oh, don't worry about it, Cadet Rhedi! That tiny speck can hardly be called damage. You should have seen what my first pupil did! They had to rebuild the entire left wing of Albion's castle because she accidentally rendered it to ashes!", Lambert called out to him after seeing were he went in a rather proud tone, and Corvo decided to just shrug his shoulders and walk back to his still burning target.
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"...I should probably find a way to put it out, right?"
"No, I got a better idea. Cadet Libra, if you would?", Lambert asked another recruit, a rather nervous looking girl with long purple hair, who quickly stumbled towards them.
"Oh..oh my! Erm, A-aqua influunt!", she stuttered, before casting a small stream of water on the burning target, which slowly put out the flames.
"Splendid! Thank you, Cadet Libra. However, I would like you to put more arcanum into the spell to increase the amount of water! Keep practising, but don't overdo it, okay?", Lambert explained, and the girl gave her a quick bow, before hastily returning to her own target. A sigh escaped the instructor, before she returned her attention to Corvo.
"Though you guys already know how to prevent wizard-sickness, there are still quite a few among you who are too scared to put more energy into their spells. Anyway, how was it? Seeing how the target looks, you at least managed to learn
"...well, I managed to learn them both. It was much easier than learning fire-magic. It took me an entire week to learn
"Is that so? Fascinating! However, there might be a problem here.", Lambert stated, and her usual smile started to falter.
"Which would be?"
"There are only a handful of light-elemental spells which I can teach you, since the scholars of the Magician's Guild were not able to find any more applications of the light-element despite millennia of research, as spells with this attribute do not behave in the same way as light-elemental magic produced with blessings or anima would, and the clerics of the Ardent Path would immediately take in anyone showing even just an inkling of talent in this field. After
Corvo had figured that this was how it would be. The words of Salazar Blanche at his entrance exam came back to mind, telling him that if he wanted to stay at Rouclier, he would likely have to work harder than the other cadets. Before he could spiral into self-doubt and endless questions about his way of life, however, Professor Lambert continued her explanation.
"That is, if you keep doing things just like you did until now!", she told him, and her smile returned.
"Is there a way?"
"Indeed, though it would require quite a lot of work, and a bit of luck. You probably remember how I use fire magic, right?", she asked him, before producing a blue flame on the palm of her hand with the snap of a finger.
"As you can see, the flames I use are blue instead of the usual red-orange, want to know why?", she inquired before cutting the supply of arcanum to the flame, thus suffocating it, and Corvo quickly nodded.
"The secret is, that I changed its properties on a fundamental level. I won't tell you the exact method, as it would probably take forever to properly explain it, but the short of it is, that I force the flame to draw oxygen from its surroundings, making it burn at higher temperatures without having to add more arcanum to the spell. The idea came to me when I studied some old alchemic texts which talked about the different elements of nature, their interactions with one another, and their base components. Similarly to how I managed to change my fire, you could probably manage to do something similar to your light if you read up on some literature about it. We have some books about elemental magic in the library, if you want to look them up!", she concluded, before stepping back a few steps and clapping her hands three times.
"Alright everyone, that's it for today! Everyone, your assignment until your next lesson will be to perfect the spells you learned today, and show them to me during the next lesson. Class dismissed!"
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"-and then he told us that we needed to write a 4 verse poem with the ABBA-rhyme-scheme until next lesson and read it out loud before the others.", Sean sighed deeply after recapping what happened, his head lying on the table next to his tray with food, with Mira and Eleonora giggling at his misery, though Mira's good mood quickly soured as she moved her arm a little too fast, causing pain to shoot to her spine. Sean noticed her wince, and quickly began to tease her.
"Looky looky, what do we have here? Karma, perhaps? Or rather, Karm, as you were in her class, right? HAH! Serves ya right!", he exclaimed triumphantly.
"Eugh...that monster-... I mean, Lady Karm forced us to repeat the same thrust-to-slash move for an entire hour, and whacked us with a wooden pole every time we messed it up. I thought my arm was going to fall off. How was your training, Nora?", Mira asked, before downing a low-grade health-potion they were handed afterwards to prevent any after-workout injuries from occurring. Eleonora lit up at her using the nickname they all agreed on using for her after tossing aside 'El', due to it having been used by the former head of the Crimson Snakes.
"It was quite refreshing. The instructor tested the flexibility of our limbs, and seeing how I was able to do all the complicated posses she showed us, I assisted her in helping the others with them.", she stated, which seemed to spur Mira on to do better in her own group.
"You know what? I think I might go and train a bit more until the next lesson starts. See ya in the evening!", she exclaimed, before walking outside.
"Huh...That was weird. Anyway, what about you, Corvo?", she asked the last one in the round, and Corvo's mood started to sink just like Seans had in the beginning.
"Actually, it was pretty easy. Though it will definitely not stay that way, seeing as how I need to come up with a way to change light-magic in a way that nobody else has been able to for thousands of years if I want to graduate, at least according to Professor Lambert."
"Damn, Corvo. That sounds rough. Makes me feel bad even mentioning that dumb poem.", Sean replied, and the others nodded.
"If you need the help of a bard, I'll be happy to offer mine whenever, just like back when you tried to learn
"Anyway, I'm done with food. Wanna head out and play cards until the next lesson?", he asked into the round, who quickly agreed.
Corvo spent the next two weeks reading books on light-elemental magic to see if he could find something useful. The most useful information he found was written in a book written by the archmage known as the "Enlightened", a member of the Scholar's Alliance who wrote multiple research papers on elemental magic, with his contributions to understanding the light-element being the reason he was given this nickname.
Among his findings was the reason as to why there were only few known spells which could bring this type of magic forth, which he believed to be the origin of all elemental magic, the primordial force of Order, which was split into the 7 Elements of Nature by the Titan Arasil. Light seemed to be the base form of Order, as the primordial force was often described as a blinding Light which returned all to its origin. Thus he hypothesized that the light-element favoured magic brought forth naturally, such as magic born from anima, and rejected the chaotic ways of casting magic, mainly spell-casting. This also seemed to be the reason why dark-elemental magic was much easier to learn by those who were not attuned to elemental magic.
Nonetheless he theorized that the light-element only behaved this way due to it being separated from the other elements. The reason for his train of thought was the existence of miracles born from Order, as they could be used by all races who devoted themselves to the lawful gods, even chaotic races such as orcs and demons. Thus if one managed to re-introduce the other elements into light, one might be able to break through this bottleneck in its research. However, since elemental magi are inept when it came to learning spells from other elements, and magi from the other schools of magic lack both the incentive and the skill necessary to rejoin the elements into a hybrid spell that could make use of the light-element, this theory might never be proven.
"'Rejoining the elements'? As in, combining them? That reminds me, Professor Lambert told me that she forced her flames to take in more oxygen, which is derived from air, right? Maybe I could do something similar?", he thought aloud to himself after having returned the book and leaving the library.
"I should ask her during our next lesson."
The next day, after his last lesson, Corvo met up with his friends at their usual hangout spot in the academy gardens, which were situated between the dormitories and the main building, since they always met up there after their lessons had finished for the day. Mira and Eleonora seemed their usual self, but something seemed off to Corvo when he looked at Sean. He had dark circles under his eyes, as if he had slept badly the last few days, and he seemed rather nervous about something.
"Hey, Sean? Everything alright?", Corvo asked him, causing him to jolt.
"What? Me? Of-of course!", he lied, putting up an obviously fake smile.
"Come on, spit it out!", Corvo pressed on, and Sean relented.
"Did you hear what happened to Paul? You know, the guy that was with us in group A last year?"
"Oh yeah! I heard he landed in the infirmary because someone broke his arm! Why, what happened?", Eleonora asked, confused about what he meant.
"That's exactly it! He got beat up by Crevier during the first mock-battle we had three days ago!"
"What? Wasn't that guy like twice as tall as Crevier? How was he able to do that?", Mira inquired in shock.
"Bard-skills. Also, we may use dull practice swords enchanted to be non-lethal, but if you put enough force behind it, you're still able to do some damage with them. Crevier seems like he already knew how to do it before he even enrolled! If it was me who had been randomly chosen that day, he would probably beaten me within an inch of my life, seeing how much he hates us!", Sean continued, his eyes nervously darting left and right as if looking for Crevier listening in on their conversation.
"Can't you use bard-skills yourself? Just try and get him back!", Corvo , but Sean just shook his head.
"I may be able to use them, but their effects are like...random, I guess? There's still stuff I don't get about the whole thing! Our instructor is not really much of a help either, seeing as he is more of a traditional minstrel bard, unlike me."
"I guess we're in similar circumstances then, seeing as no one can really teach me light-magic either, eh? However, that doesn't mean we can't help you out, right, guys?", Corvo asked the others, and they both nodded.
"Yeah, let's get to the training grounds! Seeing as classes have finished for the day, nobody should be using them right now! Maybe we can ask an instructor there to give us some targets so we can find out what your bard-skills do when you use them!", Eleonora suggested, and the four made their way towards the training-grounds at the back of the academy.
Just as Eleonora said, the training-grounds were empty, as most recruits of Rouclier would either make use of them in the morning or the weekends outside of classes. Per chance, they stumbled upon archmage Blanche on their way, and asked him if he could provide them with a few straw-targets. The old man told them not to overdo it and sent them on their way with a set of three targets, which he seemingly procured out of thin air with the snap of his fingers. The four quickly thanked him, before moving towards one of the pristinely white platforms, one which they set up one of the targets.
"Alright. Since we want to make most of them, as well as see what the effect of your skills are, let's not use weapons. Now, how about you use a bard skill on one of us?", Eleonora suggested, and Eleonora quickly volunteered as the first test-subject.
"Well, to activate a bard-skill, I have to channel my arcanum and use some proverbial phrase like...[Nora, always fight fire with fire!]", Sean called out to her, and her body seemed to glow for a second, before she returned to normal.
"Huh...I feel...something? Let's see...", Eleonora explained, before facing the target.
She decided to go for a quick jab, but even though it looked like a solid hit, the straw dummy did not even move.
"Huh...that was weird! It felt like my hand was wrapped in cotton or something? Let me try again!", she said, but even after hitting the target a few more times, it seemed as if she could not even manage to push it.
"I give up!", Eleonora exclaimed in frustration before leaving the platform, and the group looked at Sean.
"...what? I have no idea what I just did! Like I said, the effect seems random to me!"
"How about you try something else. My turn!", Mira said and took Eleonora's place.
"Alright...how about...[Mira, don't forget, less is more!]", Sean stated, and Mira, just like Eleonora before her, started to glow briefly.
"Nora was right, it does feel weird! Alright, here goes nothing!", Mira mumbled, and readied her fist for a punch.
Not knowing what to expect, she decided to go for a lighter punch than usual as to not accidentally hurt herself if things went wrong. Unlike with Eleonora, however, as soon as she came into contact with the doll, the entire upper part of the target exploded, as if hit by a cannonball.
"HOLY SHIT, WHAT?", she yelled out in surprise, as hay started to rain down on the platform.
"THAT WAS AWESOME! Let me try again! Corvo, bring me another target!", she asked of him, and Corvo immediately complied.
"Alright, let's put some more oomph into it, shall we?", Mira declared giddily, as she got ready to throw another punch many times stronger than before.
However, this time, the target-dummy did not explode, but just unceremoniously fall over. She repeated the action a few more times, but her punches always stayed the same.
"Aw, come on!", Mira cried out, and just like Eleonora, dejectedly removed herself from the platform.
Meanwhile, Corvo had thought about what was happening, and, recalling the first time Sean had used bard-skills, came up with a theory he wanted to test.
"Sean, do you remember the time you first use bard-skills?"
"Sure, but don't even try it, using the same one twice doesn't seem to work. I tried using the 'you're as strong as a bear and then some' line, but only managed to almost break my hand after trying to punch a tree afterwards."
"Hm...maybe there is something else to it, like intent? Maybe it only works if you actually mean it? Try the same line on me, but this time, imagine me actually being strong enough to lift a boulder, okay?", Corvo asked him to do before walking towards the straw-man, and he nodded.
"Alright, here goes nothing. [Corvo, you're as strong as a bear and then some!]", Sean called out to him, and a familiar feeling made itself known within Corvo.
'Alright, let's see if it worked!', he thought, and tried to pick up the target-dummy.
And indeed, it had become easier to do so than before, with Corvo even being able to move it with one arm and swinging it around like a sword without any effort, much to the surprise of his friends. After placing it back down, he returned to them and patted Sean on his shoulder.
"Told ya! It's the intent behind the words. The other proverbs you used on Mira and Nora probably worked because they were commonly accepted things. 'Fighting fire with fire'? If I had to guess, it probably caused Nora's punches to become the same level as those of the target-dummy, which is to say they wouldn't be able to scratch it! As with Mira, it caused the weak punch she threw in the beginning to do as much damage as if she had hit it with every muscle in her body combined, but when she tried to throw harder punches, the output was completely normal. By the way, Mira, please don't touch us until the effect runs out...when's that going to be, Sean?", he added at the end, and Eleonora took a few steps back, away from Mira.
"2 minutes. I tried it a few times while using the skills on myself, and that seems to always be the limit. Also, I can only do three of them at the same time."
"Alright, let's wait 2 minutes and try a few more, okay?"
Afterwards, the four tried a few more attempts, and, just as Corvo thought, managed to nail the process of how Sean's skills worked. Exhausted but at ease of mind, Sean would finally become able to sleep without problems on that day.