Eos sat at her desk, candle light flickering. She sat, studying the dictionary she was given. Two months after her first day, she still felt strong in her understanding of the class- but she had so many words and ideas she couldn’t express in words she didn’t know. She still was unable to summon any of the sickly green lines at will, save for sigils for spells. No attempt she had made at opening settings had worked yet: looking at where the setting used to be, thinking about the word in either english or common, trying to simply will what she saw before into existence. She was equally unable to summon ‘Balls of Light’ or anything else. Frustration was the only surety she had with the hours she spent on either task.
Her studies were trivial: Mathematics- or as it was called, Logic- she was allowed to skip so long as she took summation examinations. This left her with a noticeable gap and nothing to fill it aside from studies; There was no history or equivalent. After some inquiry, she learned that was a completely specialized field, the same as what her parents studied; Religious studies were handled by the Church, completely outside of regular classes; Wielding a dagger or sword or staff was another core component of her education- apparently their hoplology class would last until specialization.
But for languages, she’d been forced to select a second language to study. She chose Dragonic. It was the most interesting option available to her- Demonic, Incarthian, Bestial… everything else lacked in comparison to Dragonic.
She chose the least chosen option. By far. She was one of four in the class. The other three had already formed a clique, and shunned her on principle- it was as if she was the only student.
But there was a third language her entire class was learning: Magic. A small sampling of them- about two dozen- have been able to use magic! Envy colored Eos’s face each time another was able to. They’d learned the sigils for a few spells, but much of it was getting to memorize the symbols. According to Rhawn, there was no other way: study, memorize, and create magic. The schools of magic she remembered quite easily- Amulree had already given her advice on those.
“There are four types of magic.” Rhawn began, “Glyphs, Psionics, Dragonic, Demonic. Glyphs are what you’re here to learn- and can be learned by most. Beastkin has Psionics. Dragons, Dragonic. Demons, Demonic.
“Psionic powers are inborn to Beastkin, and their power is static. For example, one of your seniors- a beastkin, of course- has the limited ability to heat something to the ideal eating temperature, and no more.”- Eos that night found out which beastkin this was- “Another has the ability to, at a touch, detect the percent of gold of an object. Another example, there was one many years back who passed through here with the ability to move lightning freely.
“Dragonic is more simple. Dragons hold it, covet it, and it gives them immense power. Do not cross a Dragon, or give them a reason to fight you.
“Demonic,” Rhawn gently motioned to Alana, “Demonic depends on your clan- to say anything more is to not say anything at all about it. It’s a complicated subject, and only relevant to one of you. Alana, I would suggest choosing to study fire when the time comes- Your lineage’s Daemon will be a great boon.”
Alana nodded, and that was that.
“Demons of Fire are one of the clans from the north- I believe they’re currently the governing clan. The political situations will be covered in future lessons- far future, most likely.”
Eos wasn’t happy at all about this memory. Not only did it hurt- She could have had powers if only she was a different race?! And had animal ears?- but it raised more questions than it answered. Undead were noticeably absent- the only discussions about them happened in hushed tones between adults- and any questions Eos raised about the black glyphs she saw were quickly shut down.
These thoughts did remind Eos of something- She had made progress, if minor, with the green lines only she could see. If she thought about a memory, the glyphs of a spell or it being cast, she could see the sigils and hear the Voice’s pronunciation. It was about useless to her except for cheating on the singular quiz they’ve had so far.
Eos, for tonight, gave in on her studying. Sigils and Common were easy to understand, but only one was possible for her to use. Besides, I’m going to the match with Filos and Lillian afterclass- I need sleep.
The stadium filled with hundreds- if not thousands of people. The layout was similar to a theater or colosseum. At the center was a stage- a half dozen judges, wielding staves, wands, quarterstaffs or nothing at all. The stage’s edge was riddled with sigils, glowing a light blue. One judge, a woman, sat in a chair above the arena with her back to Eos.
Eos sat in the box- apparently, being with the daughter of one of the judges was sufficient to get in the VIP area. Eos didn’t know what to expect when stepping in, but despite the lack of expectations she was still taken aback. Nobody was wearing anything resembling formal clothes- adventuring gear was the commonplace outfit. Leather, chain, plate armor was as common in the box as swords and hoods; Based on looks alone, the average age seemed to be in the late thirties.
The arena cheered out, and Eos’s eyes were turned back to the stage. Out of one of the channels leading from inside the stadium, a loosely clad man walked towards the stage. His blouse was slightly ruffled, but his beard was cleanly taken care of and his hair was trimmed cleanly.
From the opposite end of the stadium, the challenger seemingly appeared from thin air. He wore robes which seemed weightless on his masculine body. From the people around her, Eos could tell that these were common for mages who were adventurers. The challenger’s appearance was nowhere as cleanly maintained as his opponent, and he had a large knife on his waist.
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They met on the stage, and shook hands, before walking off to other sides of the arena. An announcer stepped into the middle and began to shout at the entire crowd. “Ladies, gentlemen and adventurer’s of all breeds! Today is the match of Mr. Fabiano, Master of Magic and Fire- one of only two dozen Master rated adventurers here at Infally. And the challenger is Cassius Volken, Champion of Magic. Will Volken be able to get his first Master Norm or will Fabiano’s skill and versatility undermine him?!”
The crowd, mum during the announcer’s speech, roared to life. Eos heard chanting all around her, yet she couldn’t make out what the words were. Lillian tugged at both of her friends' sleeves.
“I heard Volken is going to teach a class.”
“Really?” Filos asked.
“I’ve heard he got the job because he’s awoken.”
“Is that so?” Eos responded.
“Who do you think is gonna win?” Filos turned to Lillian.
“Mr Fabiano has been one of the strongest adventurers in Infally in a while. Apparently he fought a dragon to a draw!”
“No way!” Filos exclaimed.
“I still don’t know what a dragon is…” Eos gently murmured, unheard by either of the others.
“I don’t think Volken has much of a chance.” Lillian replied.
Suddenly the announcer’s shout went across the stadium: “Fight!”
The first move was made by Fabiano. He flicked his wrist, and a small bolt of fire flew from his hand towards Volken. Volken met it with a small magic circle, glowing blue, which dispersed the bolt upon hitting. With his other hand, Volken began drawing yellow sigils. Quickly, another bolt flew towards Volken. It was blocked, again, but this time by a surge of rolling earth heading towards Fabiano.
As Fabiano widened his stance, light blue sigils being drawn, green lines suddenly appeared across Eos’s Vision. The sigils being drawn by Fabiano appeared at the top of her vision, reading “Fabsol’s dramatic leap: lengthened counterdance variation”, and she saw a green mesh of Fabiano, flying into the air and descending ever so slowly. A mesh of the rolling earth slides under Fabiano’s mesh, and about halfway through the descent, Fabiano’s mesh throws another small bolt of fire towards a mesh of Volken.
Eos watched as reality snapped back to its normal pace, and the exact scene in mesh played out in front of her- with only one change: Volken met the bolt of fire with a column of earth he had cast during Fabiano’s leap. Volken began drawing more sigils, matched by Fabiano.
“Make way!” Eos heard loudly shout behind her. She turned away from the match, and saw people in the box with her separate as a Demon walked forward. Sigurd. Sigurd gently nodded towards Eos upon seeing her, and walked to the front of the box. He sat on the empty chair next to Eos, squishing her between him and Lillian. His rippling water had seemingly dissipated from when she saw him last weekend.
“Pay attention.” Sigurd said, quiet enough for only Eos to hear.
Eos turned back towards the duel. Fabiano was casting two different red glyphs with his hands, while Volken seemingly was casting glyphs rapidfire, cycling through schools of magic. Yet, nothing originated from Volken’s glyphs. As she stared at them intently, the green sigils appeared in her vision- but all of them were “unidentified”.
“He’s setting a trap.” Sigurd said. Eos saw out of the corner of her eye that Lillian’s attention was fixed on Sigurd still.
“A trap?” Eos asked.
“Volken is mining the battlefield. Fabiano will need to play carefully- He’s good at it, but Volken can just play defensively afterwards.”
Eos could make out small, shiny pockets of air around Fabiano- as if he was surrounded by glitter. However, each pocket of air was in the putrid green her eyes gifted her with- she wasn’t sure if they would be visible to anyone else.
“Invisible mines?” Eos asked.
Suddenly, one of Fabiano’s castings ended, spawning a fireball which creeped at Volken.
“Not quite, but practically- particularly in the rush of battle. Even I have difficulty detecting them.” Sigurd said.
Without time to summon a pillar- the last one seemingly obliterated when Eos turned away- Volken dodged the relatively slow moving projectile. It crashed into the ground, spewing flames and scorching the rock. Volken seemingly switched the spells he was casting in response- a water spell.
“It’s a knife’s edge.” Sigurd said.
“But Fabiano can’t go an-” Eos began. She was interrupted by a large pillar of fire spewing from the location Fabiano’s fireball landed, expanding quickly to encompass Volken.
Out of the pillar of fire, soot and steam and smoke exploded out. Fabiano couldn’t hold his footing, and being moved a less than a meter back, flew into several of the mines placed by Volken. His body was thrown out from the mines- explosions of earth and water and fire- throwing him into more mines. By the end of the, Fabiano laid on the ground, with only a couple of mines left in Eos’s vision.
The pillar of fire had ended when Fabiano first hit any of the mines, but the steam within the pillar lingered on.
“Heh.” Sigurd said, “His gambit paid off.”
Fabiano laid there. It was clear he was awake, but he didn’t rouse from his spot. Slowly, the steam faded into the air, and Eos was shocked to see Volken still there, on one knee, casting another waterspell still.
“A tactical match for sure. Lucky son of a bitch, playing into Fabiano’s style and still winning.” Sigurd calmly said, standing up. “I should be on my way.”
“Uh, Grandmast- God Sigurd?” Lillian said. Eos wasn’t sure which Lillian had paid more attention to, the match or Sigurd.
“Hm?” Sigurd turned towards Lillian, “Please, you can call me Master Sigurd.”
“I- uh- I’m Lillian. I- I’m a s-st-student and-”
“Ah yes. Your mother was overseeing this match, correct?”
“Yes!”
Sigurd nodded gently. “Make sure to study hard, so you can be just like her.”
“I will! B-but I wanted to ask… Why did you come to this match?”
Sigurd thought for a moment, “It’s of personal interest.” Sigurd gracefully thanked everyone, and left the box swiftly afterwards.
“That… That was Sigurd…” Lillian still appeared in shock.
“Volken won!” Filos said, pointing towards the arena. Both Volken and Fabiano stood beside each other, the announcer lifting Volken’s hand into the air. The blue sigils on the ground surrounding the arena began to flicker, and Eos made sure to get a snapshot of them to study later.
The spell was called Great Tree’s Protection.