There are those who say that magic comes from the stars, others who claim it’s created by desire or ambition. If these people ever bothered to look at the world they live in, might they stop proclaiming their ignorance so loudly?
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Despite Jair’s request to the contrary, Raina paced outside the admin building, sans shopping bags, waiting for him to emerge.
“You came back for me? I’m flattered.”
"Jair! You survived! What did the headmaster want?"
Jair smirked and tapped his forehead as they started walking. "What do you think?"
Raina's expression darkened. "You didn't—He hasn't—"
"He demanded I 'show' him, but I don't think it'll go any further than that. He's too canny to take unnecessary risks. He thought he could intimidate me, but even someone as greedy as him can’t bring the Provisional into this without an airtight excuse. 'I want the guy's soulsword' isn't going to be good enough."
“And he let you walk out?”
“I’d have liked to see him try to stop me. Larenok’s not even a proper Mageblade, I wouldn’t need my imprints to take him down. And I don’t care what he tries, you could kill me a thousand times and I’d never give up Maelstrom. Even I don’t know what all it’s capable of, and I plan to be the one to find out.”
“You really did refuse him to his face?” Raina sounded torn between fear and awe. “Even the headmaster? You sure this isn’t taking things a bit too far?”
"I'm not going to let him control me. I’m not going to let anyone or anything control me.”
As if in defiance of his words, Jair’s stomach growled loudly, demanding he stop ignoring it and find something to eat. Jair scowled down at his traitorous middle, but he couldn’t really blame it. He’d burned more mana than his body was used to, been moving a lot more physically, and eaten very little apart from their early breakfast and a few brief snacks that hardly qualified as a proper lunch.
“Yeah, dinner sounds like a good idea.”
The sun wasn’t fully set, but dusk came early between the academy walls. A very bright dusk, but enough that the illumination within the central dome visibly cast light on its shadowed surroundings as Jair and Raina walked past. The brown and lavender shrubbery lining the paths glowed softly as the light waned, highlighting the dark stone of the criss-crossing paths.
Standard meals were provided in the dining hall—actually quite extravagant by the standards of the average Veori citizen. Naturally, the student apartments also contained kitchens for the convenience of those students who brought their own private cooks, but a surprising number of the normally-elitist noble children stuck with the basics.
There wasn’t a set time for dinner, rather a three-hour window during which students could come and go as they pleased.
The two of them arrived a little early, the serving tables only partly filled with the evening’s offerings, but they weren’t the first to come in either. Several others already sat around with their bowls of soup or salad while waiting for the entree to be brought out.
Raina went straight for the heartiest soup she could find, and Jair followed her example. Before they finished eating, other students began to show up in greater quantity. Jair was pretty sure he wasn’t imagining the number who either looked at him far longer than he was comfortable with or who glanced away uneasily the moment they met his eyes.
Despite Jair’s best efforts to prevent any specific information from getting out, downplaying the event could only do so much. His sword’s silver flash had visibly disrupted long-established traditions and patterns that ordinarily went by without the slightest change.
Everyone speculated on the meaning of what they’d seen, and the stories would only continue to grow. He vaguely remembered people talking about Denor's performance in the past, but there was nothing of the sort today. Now it was all about Jair himself. The spectacular show at the exhibition, despite only a handful of students having been in attendance, had leaked and spread very quickly throughout the student body.
Denor himself was less than pleased about it, but put on a fine pretense of not minding having been shown up so dramatically on what was supposed to have been his moment of triumph.
Jair might have to reconsider his approach to the Veshin heir if he continued in this vein. For some, showing them up would be taken as a challenge, others as an insult. He'd never had the chance to do so with Denor in the past. Ordinarily, by the time Jair managed to surpass the fighter heir, he was established enough as a friend or ally that Denor would only be happy for him.
Right now, the general atmosphere had put them at odds—and Jair's supporters proclaimed his lead to the point of proclaiming premature victory.
Denor wasn't enough of a socialite to have more than a passing influence on their peers, he mainly hung around with people like Koho Etzaro and Homiki Ielga, those who would be as likely to practice swordsmanship as Denor himself. Those types were less impressed with Jair's flashy sword and more impressed with his unconventional but undeniably effective style.
Koho normally sat by Lian at dinner, but today ignored the Teretho heir entirely in favor of joining the minor throng around Jair.
As a result, Jair spent nearly a half hour explaining the source and usage of several of his attack moves, and another hour fielding one request for tips on upgrading their weapons after another.
Someone smart had figured out that the way he flashed his sword from hand to hand during the exhibition was an indication of an advanced bond, far beyond what should be possible on day one, and that news had spread even faster than the story about his performance.
Simply eating a meal took three times as long as it should have due to the constant interruptions. Even days when he took it slow and chatted with Raina the whole time never took so long as this.
Only when he finally rose to depart did something truly unexpected happen.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Kili Eldren slipped up to him, grinning coyly, and handed him a sealed message. "Private," she whispered, giving a haughty side-glance at Raina. "For you." With a wink, she sashayed away.
Jair inwardly sighed at the theatrics of it—she'd handed him a note in front of half the school, so of course it would be another source of gossip and rumors. But he'd long ago opted out of playing the usual games at this level. Very few of his classmates had anything to offer that he couldn't obtain more easily by approaching their families directly. In the rare instance someone of his age could be of use to him, he preferred a straightforward negotiation to all this nonsense runaround.
"I won't look," Raina promised. "You can keep your secret rendezvous covert."
"It's from Calisi Hasti," he said, without opening it. "No one else would have the forwardness to send a message through Kili Eldren and also have her react like that." He tapped the envelope against his hand as they walked, considering if he should open it or not, then dropped it in the trash on the way out.
"You don't care what she has to say?" Raina's eyes flicked back to the discarded message, then to Jair.
"There's nothing remotely useful she has to offer, and I'd rather avoid getting any more tangled in drama than necessary." He glanced up at the sky as they cut across the dusty ground between the dining hall and the protected path splitting the Institute grounds in half from the dome at the north to the library towers at the south. "I'd like to get started on the walls, but right now there's too many people around. There'll be a storm in another hour, I can get started then. It should keep everyone indoors."
"Is that why you had me buy so many wind shields? So you can wander around in storms?"
"Yes. The wards on the walls are quite capable for what they're good for, but they fail to provide the kind of robust protection necessary for extreme situations."
Before they reached the central walkway, less than halfway to the student housing district, a new voice intruded.
“Jair Welburne! I challenge you.” Calisi Hasti, marching after them in person.
Raina turned to stare behind them.
He steered her back front-facing with a hand on her shoulder. “Ignore her.”
“But— she just issued a challenge. Guess she didn’t like you tossing her note.”
“Just keep walking.” Jair pulled out a sand-shaper construct from his soulspace—a wide band made of three curved metal plates held together by flexible coils. Each plate had spellwork patterns embedded into it, and it could be tightened or expanded to fit around anything from wrist to chest. He wrapped it around his wrist and palm, carefully strapping the mana input to the tip of his thumb.
“Welburne! Do you hear me? You’ve insulted my honor and my house!”
He added a second sand-shaper construct to his left hand.
“Jair?”
“Keep walking. It’s not worth a blood feud. She’ll get bored with screaming and go off to whine to her friends.”
“What do you think the note said to be worth all this fuss?”
“Probably an invitation to a secret meeting first thing in the morning on the library tower, during which she would try to seduce me away.”
“Seduce? You? That seems like a stretch.”
“I’m sure she’d also insinuate that you and I were romantically entangled, insult us both in various ways, imply that we’re equally opportunistic morons, and then top it off with a blatantly transparent offer to sponsor me with her family resources.”
“That’s an awfully specific scenario for you to have ready on the spot. Doesn’t sound diplomatic. I’m sure she could do better than that.”
“She’s not a very subtle creature, for all her pretenses otherwise. Calisi Hasti is used to getting what she wants without question and doesn’t take kindly to being rejected. So why waste time letting her rant at me before saying ‘no’.”
“Welburne!”
Raina glanced back over her shoulder again. “She’s coming after us.”
“Ignore her.”
“We need to move faster if we want to escape.”
“Don’t need to escape. Just need to get around the corner.”
They entered the student housing village, passed between two houses, and ducked around to the front at the first opportunity.
“You have attacked my dignity, you lowborn dustfish! You will answer for your affront!”
Jair took two steps sideways to the front steps of the nearest apartment and ducked down, activating both constructs at once. They were designed to be easy to use, even for the untrained, and so required only a connection. Once he allowed them access to his manabody, they drew in the power without needing anything more from him. He’d only have about five minutes of use from them before he ran himself dry, given how inefficient external constructs were for mana usage, but he didn’t need nearly so much.
Three quick bursts to loosen the sand beneath the porch, then a coordinated shove to compact it to either side.
In two seconds, he’d created a short tunnel slanted diagonally down beneath the porch, clear to the clifftop foundation below. He slid down in, cleared another space to move over, and beckoned Raina to join him.
She ducked down in, one hand over her mouth to hold in her laughter.
The tunnel was tiny and cramped, barely tall enough for them to crouch. Even if he’d cleared out the area completely, there wouldn’t be room for them to stand without bumping their heads against the underside of the house’s front steps.
“Welburne!” They heard Calisi storm by outside, voice echoing, but since their hiding place was slanted in the opposite direction from where they’d entered she remained safely out of sight.
Jair deactivated one hand’s construct and focused on limiting the draw of the other. Without any scaffolding or support beams, he was the only thing holding it up. If he faltered, the makeshift tunnel would collapse in on them and give away their position.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Raina giggled. “This is outside every protocol you ever learn, you know. I feel like an eight-year-old trying to escape with the cookies.”
“Evading enemy detection is the easiest way of avoiding needless conflict.”
“How are you doing this?” Raina looked up to where Jair rested one hand casually on the tunnel ceiling, holding it in place. “I’ve never seen anyone use a sandblaster like that.”
“At its base function, a shaper construct applies force to a specific type of material. Control the degree and angle of force, and you can do a lot more than this.”
“Every time I think I’m done being impressed…” Raina trailed off as Calisi’s voice came nearer.
“How dare you ignore me! Does your family know what a coward their son is?” Calisi continued yelling, voice growing louder or fainter as she stalked the paths between buildings, searching.
“Does her family know what a brat their daughter is, I wonder?” Raina asked in a barely-audible whisper during one of the fainter pauses, eyes sparkling with laughter.
Jair chuckled. “Doubtful.”
Finally accepting she’d missed the chance to catch them out in the open, Calisi pounded on their door for a while—they could hear it even halfway across the village—before finally giving up.
Silence returned, peaceful and calm.
Jair disconnected the construct with a pained exhale. “That took longer than I expected. Guess my new sword really moved me up her priority list.”
The fragile shell of sand above them fell in, showering them both in dust as they climbed out of the hole. He’d not quite reached overdraw, but his manabody was almost fully depleted and ached deeply.
Raina was still laughing as he helped her scramble up and out of their hole. “This won’t be enough to stop her, you know. Official challenges can be made through school officials, it doesn’t have to be in person.”
“We know that, but she’s not thinking about official channels at the moment.” With one final quick burst of force from the construct, he pushed the bulk of the sand off her clothes and out of her hair. “And that’s about all the magic I can do for the next several hours. Hopefully, that’s the last disaster of the day.”
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