Chapter Seven

Ifera sat down on her bed. She then let out a deep breath and said, “I know you are there. Don’t hide anymore, I already know how long you’ve been here.” She looked to the window.

Surely enough, in front of it, was a blue shimmer. “It took you a while to figure out what you were.” The shimmer said. “I am Rihella, and yes, I have been with you since you were a child. Since you were born in fact.” There was a short silence.

“It isn’t just you though is it?” Ifera asked solemnly.

“No. Purua and Lianli are also here, though the last time Purua spoke to a silver, it did not end well.” She sighed.

“You mean a silver potential? The one that went corrupt….” Ifera mumbled. She stood up and walked to the other side of the room. Ifera then looked through one of the many bookshelves, and when she found the one she was looking for pulled it out and went back to the bed. She then opened the book, looking for a certain page. “There. Pure souls are black, and black souls are pure. The truth is a lie, but the lies always tell the truth. It makes sense now that I think about it. If Purua is a pure spirit, she turned the silver’s soul black, but if anyone else had gone to talk, they would have stayed……” Something seemed to click. “You wanted them as a host didn’t you?” She asked.

“We did. We were selfish and wanted to be able to speak again and to feel something. We didn’t care what happened to the people we chose. Not back then. When we saw you though, we realized we couldn’t hurt you. You were an innocent child, and after your village burned, you went through enough as it was and now….. Well, we weren’t going to bring you physical pain too.” She professed.

There were a few moments of silence. “I’ll do it. I’ll be your host.” She said, looking up.

“Just remIfera, you can’t go back from this. Ever.” She said.

“I know.”

By the mountain, Ifera looked as if she were alone. This mountain was where many graduated, as it was full of magic. It had a well-carved pedestal that Ifera was now standing over, her hand facing up. “This is going to hurt, isn’t it.” She sighed.

“Only a little.” A voice promised. Ifera looked at the air in front of her.

Then there was a shimmer when the voice spoke again. “Ok, maybe I am lying. It doesn’t matter though because there is no chance that you are chickening out now.”

Ifera let out a sigh. “Fine, but just tell me what to do.” She sighed.

“OK. All you need to do is let me write a rune on your arm. This is going to hurt, but after this, you are just going to have major migraines for the next day or two.” She said sarcastically.

“Let’s just get this over with,” she mumbled. Soon enough, drawing appeared on her forearm. She recognized the rune partially as a binding rune, and part as a mind rune. When the writing stopped, there was a moment of silence before Ifera jumped back, feeling a searing in her arm. The rune was glowing, and it stopped when the pain did, sinking into her skin. “Thanks for the warning Lianli.” She muttered sarcastically.

‘Your welcome.’ a voice echoed directly from her mind. She was mumbling about how she might kill someone to deal with three spirits bound to her mind. She, of course, didn’t know the worst of it.

One month later, Ifera had her bow out, pulling on the string with an arrow notched. “Just relax your shoulders! It isn’t that hard!” Purua screamed from behind her.

“It is if you are yelling at me!!!” Ifera retorted. She let out a sigh and relaxed her spine. She then let go of the string, her arrow flying through the air and hitting the centre of her target. “Remind me again why you are teaching me? I know I am not the best at using a bow, but still.” Ifera demanded, bringing her bow to her side.

“Because it will be a useful tool when you fight. You may be good with a sword, but what happens when you run into someone better? You have to have more than swords and magic on your side.” Purua reminded her.

“Fine. Though you can’t blame me if I never end up using it.” Ifera scowled. She reluctantly raised her bow again and hit the target perfectly in the centre.

“I guess now we can move onto magic arrows then.” Purua grinned.

Ifera collapsed onto her bed, exhausted from her practice. Every day, she had normal classes, but immediately after she went to the woods to practice, every other day she was doing target practice, the rest were sword fighting. Rihella was sparring with her and helping her with different fighting styles, especially when fighting alone. She realized this would make her struggle with team projects, but she could be hopeful that it didn’t hurt too much for now. It didn’t take long for a letter to reach her after a few weeks of training with them. It was the magic guilds. She had sent a letter along with Fiorei to join a guild as soon as their classes were over, and she was hoping it would be the acceptance letter. She opened the letter slowly as she read the contents.

Dear Ms Ifera Corinth,

We have received your letter and we have thought deeply at the thought of you joining the guilds once you are older. We have come to an agreement that we would like to see your capabilities before we make our decision final, but we seem to be leaning towards the prospect of your acceptance. Once you have graduated from your school, we must ask that you will come to the Fall Tournament and compete. It will be an honour to have you fight and possibly join one of our many guilds. We hope to see you then.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Sincerely,

Douglas of the magic council

Ifera stared at the paper. She then read it over, and over again to make sure it was real. Most people wanting to join the magic guilds had to fight in the tournament. Only nobles and royals did not have to compete, but that was because it was ‘beneath them’. This did give her pride because they were almost certain she would make it in.

Unlike most, she sent a magic letter to the council other than a regular letter. Magic letters weren’t uncommon to be sent, though it is fairly advanced magic to be doing, and not many people had the capabilities. She let out a breath, smiling. She put her letter in her bag and went outside to the field where Fiorei was reading.

She looked up from her book. “What’s up?” She asked. Ifera pulled out her letter and opened it, showing it to Fiorei.

“You got in!!!” Fiorei squealed. She ran a few steps and jumped to a strangling hug.

“My letter is probably still outside my door. We can go check later too. I really hope I got in...” She looked worried.

“I am sure you did. You are one of the best in school! There is no way you didn’t make it.” Ifera reassured Fiorei, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“I hope so…” Fiorei said nervously.

“Come on. Why don’t we go check?” Ifera prodded.

“Yeah.” Fiorei sighed.

They were sitting on Fiorei’s bed, looking at the letter she received. Fiorei breathed out a sigh of relief. “I made it.” She said content.

“I told you that you made it!” Ifera smiled. She wrapped her arm around her friend's shoulders and said, “How about we go celebrate!?” The girls stood up and grabbed their bags.

“That isn’t a bad idea. Quite surprising coming from you.” Fiorei smirked.

“Hey!!!” Ifera fumed.

“That was uncalled for.” They began their walk to the town nearby. “But that face you made…” Fiorei gasped between laughs. Ifera playfully punched her arm as they laughed and talked on the way to the square. Rihella smiled as she saw a rarity; true smile coming from Ifera. It proved not all happiness had been taken from her.

Jumping back onto an invisible platform, Ifera blocked an attack coming from Rihella, skidding back a few meters. She was panting hard, and her armour was fully equipped. Her two swords were crossed in front of her to block Rihella’s powerful attack. In their bouts, Ifera aimed not to use magic, in order to refine her sword fighting. Rihella pushed off the ground right as Ifera recovered, knocking her down and aiming her sword at her neck. Ifera let out a groan and Rihella put out her hand. “You’re getting better,” Rihella reassured Ifera.

“Not fast enough apparently,” Ifera complained as she took Rihella’s hand.

“Well, you can easily beat Lianli and Purua now. You almost match Purua in using a bow, and that is impressive.” Rihella said.

“Thanks, but It’ll still take a while,” Ifera said discouragingly.

“You are catching up and it has barely been 3 months!” Rihella exclaimed.

“Fair enough,” Ifera said laughing. They walked back to the mountain summit.

“We’ll be going back soon, correct?” Rihella asked as they were walking.

“In three months, but It feels like that just isn’t enough for us to do anything. But it's not like I don’t feel grateful for the scenery, but our deadline is pretty close. I just don’t feel like going back at this point, especially because they are probably already ahead in magic.” Ifera stressed. She summoned a spiral of different elements in her hand.

“Yeah right. You can already harness multiple elements, create them, and solidify half of them. In six months, they won’t even be able to master one element.” Rihella boasted for Ifera.

“Ok, maybe I am freaking out a bit too much. If anything, I need to worry more about the other three holding us back.” Ifera chuckled.

Rihella let out a laugh. “Especially since you will probably be the one mentoring them!” Rihella exclaimed.

Ifera let out a groan “Don’t remind me. They are nightmarish enough as classmates!”

Rihella let off a calm smile. “Well, just make yourself too busy to take care of them then.” She suggested. “That will be your only way out.”

“I still can’t believe you are leaving!” Fiorei exclaimed.

“I know, but it is necessary. I can’t really transfer, and we’ll see each other again at the competition anyway.” Ifera reassured her. It was still early, and Ifera, Sorrel, Tori and Phaelet would be leaving to go back to their school. Iferas hair had grown out since they came and now wore it in a small bun. Their year would be having a party to celebrate their visit to the school. Fiorei wasn’t happy Ifera was leaving as they had grown close over the last few months.

“That still doesn’t make me happy you know.” She said defiantly.

“I know you hate it….” Ifera began. “But if I don’t we won’t make it in together. I won’t get enough practice, and I am still training with the guard.” There were a few moments of silence between them before Fiorei jumped into a hug.

“I am really going to miss you!” She cried.

Ifera glanced at her watch. “We’re gonna be late!!!”

Ifera grabbed her bag and ran down the halls with Fiorei. It seemed they were going in circles through a maze, though we knew exactly where we were going. We had run this route countless times to make sure in case we were late, we would know where to go. We finally made it outside when the others came out from the stables where their ‘horses’ lived. They had an enchantment to hide them from bandits that had a tenancy to hide as students, stealing their well-earned animals.

Ifera then hugged Fiorei one last time. “Be careful.” She whispered.

“You too Ifera. You too.”

Ifera had been waiting at the train station for the last hour, as she had teleported with her being without a steed. She was leaning against one of the pillars reading a book. Three trains had come and gone, and they were due for the next one. Over the last few months, Ifera’s eyes had changed. Instead of the shiny grey that it was before, it was a split iris with a striking blue circling the pupil. Every now and then, there would be a flux, and her whole eye would turn blue. The blue, same as Rihella’s, was slowly taking over, and almost corrupting her eyes. Though, it didn’t seem like anyone had noticed this. Ifera lifted her head when she heard footsteps next to her.

“Had you been any later, we may have missed our train.” Ifera glowered. She then turned away and walked up to a train that had just stopped. She stepped onto it, followed by her classmates. The animals followed a man to the back into a stable cart. Ifera walked directly to a room in the back near the animals. She could hear the growling as they hated confined spaces. She sat down near the window and let out a sigh.

“Annoyed? Or bored?” Rihella said from the space next to her.

“Can’t it be both?” She chuckled.

There was a moment of silence before Rihella spoke. “You seem bitter, and it isn’t because you left school, is it?”

Ifera let out a sigh as she stood up. “No, not really. I just have a bad feeling about going back. Something just doesn’t feel right, and it’s making me nervous.” She said while pacing. “Something is off.”