by Dixon, TJ
“Hello Queen Emily.” I call back without opening my eyes.
“I forgot to ask your name.”
“It’s Peter. Peter of the Wind.” I say opening my eyes and standing to face her.
“Why do you want to learn to port?”
“To travel to the stars. And yes, I know it isn’t possible with that power alone, but it’s a start.”
“Why do you need to travel to the stars?”
“They call to me.”
“What do they say?”
“It’s not words. Just feelings and emotions.” I say. It’s not entirely true, but it’s not entirely a lie either.
“What feelings and emotions then?”
“Like they are calling me to them.”
“What if you learn everything the Academy can teach you and you are still not able to travel to the stars?”
“Then I will continue to improve my skills, knowledge and power until I can.”
“There is an oath all students of this academy must swear, to protect and serve Contractia. Will you take the oath?”
“You have put an end to the arena and freed all of the slaves who fought there?”
“Yes.”
“You will not enslave more men to fight in the arena?”
“I will not. There are still slaves in Contractia but the Arena will only be used by free people who choose to enter it.”
“Then yes, I will swear.”
“Studying at this academy is not free from risk. Are you prepared to take the risks you must take?”
“Yes, but I will not fail the tests as I have no desire to be executed, especially before seeing the stars.”
“Tests? Executed? What are you talking about?” The Queen asks confused.
“If you fail the tests here you get executed. Even arena slaves know that.”
“I did not know that. I am not from Contractia and nobody told me.”
“So what risks were you talking about?”
“They just said that there are risks when studying magic. Like blowing yourself up.”
“I already know enough about magic that I can’t really see that happening. This porting is certainly new to me but I doubt it is possible to blow yourself up doing it. The rules of magic must still apply.”
“I don’t know the rules of magic. I have great power inside me that Gold left behind, but I can only do simple magic. Powerful, but simple. At least for now. But more importantly, is it really true that you get executed just for failing a test?”
“It’s what I was told, and they told me here that the same rules that apply to the girls will kill me. I don’t plan on failing and dying though.”
“I will not allow students to be killed just for failing a test. Alumia!”
“Yes your majesty.” A girl appears. She is possibly around sixteen or seventeen years old with short blond hair and blue eyes. She is wearing soft blue robes.
“Is it true that failing a test can result in your execution?”
“If your average test score falls below the survival threshold you are normally executed. If your average score is higher than the threshold you can fail a test without being executed.”
“Thank you. You had best port back to the palace.”
“I will see you there your majesty.” The girl says and ports away.
“I wish she would be less formal… I must go now, but someone will be here to tell you to enter soon.”
Chapter 2 (Peter)
The walls, floor and roof on the way to the classroom are smooth white marble. The door to the classroom is heavy black iron. There are clear scorch marks on the floor and the walls near it. I look at it apprehensively before pushing it open, or at least trying to. It is way too heavy so I use magic instead and it swings open. Inside there are rows of desks, most with two girls sitting at them, but a couple have only one girl sitting there and a few are empty. All are dressed in blue the same as the girls I saw last night.
Every girl is looking at me, mostly in shock, although I see a few familiar faces. Elucia is clearly happy, whilst Rin is obviously furious and disgusted. I can’t tell what Kelliet is thinking because she keeps her face completely expressionless. She is in fact the only person who doesn’t seem to have some sort of reaction to my presence.
“You are the boy the head told us about?” An old woman with long, dark brown hair and pure black eyes asks, frowning at me. It is unnerving to be stared at by such unnatural eyes, with not a trace of white, almost like stones.
“I am the new student.”
“Sit at that desk at the back. The empty one. I don’t want you talking to, or even looking at any of the other students, in or out of class.”
“Not looking at any of the other students… Sitting at the back might make that difficult…”
“And no talking back!” She shouts so I shrug and take the seat she told me to. “The test results are as follows. Elucia, score 23, average score 24 and 3 quarters. As you know the survival rate is 25, so Elucia come up to the front for your execution. It hurts less if you don’t struggle.”
Elucia is clearly terrified, and shakes as she stands. Rin’s hands however shake even more. I guess they must be good friends.
“The Queen said she was banning executions for failing tests.” I say loudly and both girls look at me in shock.
“She may plan to, but until I receive the order they will continue as normal. Unfortunate for you, isn’t it Elucia? One more mark on that test and you would have survived.”
“How dare you!?” Rin shouts jumping up out of her seat in unmasked fury. “It’s not bad enough to kill her, so you just have to rub it in like that!?”
“Sit!” She barks at Rin but Rin doesn’t sit. Glaring at Rin she silently invokes powerful flames. It is clear she has no intention of cancelling them so after a moment’s indecision I silently throw up a shield of wind killing the flames with a brief vacuum a moment before they reach Rin. The teacher glares at me before speaking quietly but furiously. “Unincanted magic, and powerful enough to stop those flames. There is not a single girl in this class powerful or skilled enough to cast such magic. If the Queen hadn’t just transferred you, I would kill you this instant. Do not interfere with my magic again.” The flames rise again and Rin is shaking in terror, though she is trying to hide her fear.
“I will accept my execution. Please don’t involve anyone else though.” Elucia says sounding calm but her aura is shaking, so she is clearly terrified.
“Then walk into the fireball. Perhaps I’ll spare Rin if you do.” The teacher says with an evil grin. My power is weak at the moment, so there is no way I could win a real fight against the teacher and I have no reason really to help Elucia. Admittedly I had even less reason to help Rin, but I hadn’t expected the teacher to know it was me that helped her. Even so I feel ashamed as I look on helplessly at Elucia walking up to the front towards the fireball.
“Her majesty the Queen arrives!” A voice calls out at the now open door and through it walks that red haired girl. The fireball disappears as the teacher looks at the Queen in shock.
“You’re the Queen?” The teacher asks disbelieving, and it is obvious that many people in the room are thinking the same thing. She looks like the youngest person in the room and really doesn’t look like a Queen at all. After moment though, realising the mistake, she corrects herself. “I mean, your majesty, what brings you here?”
“Yes I am the Queen, even if I don’t look it. I am here to inform you that there will be no more executions in this academy, and to collect the student Elucia, who I understand fell below the old survival rate. Those who fall below this rate will be expelled and punished at the palace.” The little Queen says firmly and both Elucia and Rin’s relief are obvious.
“Elucia is this one.” The teacher says pointing. “You should be warned though, she is a disaster waiting to happen. If she is not to be executed I would recommend binding her power, so she doesn’t accidentally blow up the palace.”
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br /> “Your concern is not required.” The Queen says looking pointedly at the teacher and I get the distinct impression she really doesn’t like this teacher, and not just because of her first words. “Elucia, follow me.” Everyone watches as Elucia follows the Queen. For a few moments we are all just looking at the closed door, lost in thought.
“Class is dismissed, except for you two.” The teacher says glaring at both Rin and me. Everyone else walks out cheerful but silently. When it is just the two of us sitting at our desks the teacher calls us to the front. “You may both think you’re heroes for saving that brat, but there’s something you should know. Heroes have to pay a price for their heroics. At tomorrow’s tournament you will both be representing this class. Nobody could possibly blame me if you happened to get killed.”
“But Class H never sends a representative! Only classes B and A participate.” Rin complains.
“What is this tournament?” I ask puzzled.
“Rin will explain it to you. As I am so generous though, you have the classroom for the rest of the day. Good luck!” She says and laughs her evil laugh, before leaving us alone.
“I thought we had survived.” Rin says depressed.
“Is this tournament that dangerous?” I ask worried.
“Unless we get lucky and fight against a merciful team we’re dead.” Rin says looking down at the ground before looking up at me. “I’m sorry. Even though you’re male and I’m not, you still saved me earlier, and now you’re probably going to die because of it.”
“Is it just a fight? Us versus another pair of students?”
“Yes, but we’re in the bottom class and they’re in the top class.”
“It’s not really any different from fighting in the Arena then, except its two versus two.”
“But these are the best students in year three!”
“Just year three students, like us? No older students from year two or one?”
“Just year three, but 3A and 3B students. They’re on an entirely different level.”
“All we can do is prepare ourselves. Whether it is possible or not, we won’t know until we try.”
“Possible to survive?”
“To win.”
“To win! Even if we did somehow win the first fight, most of 3A and the best students in 3B are in this. We wouldn’t just need to win once but every fight.”
“If there are lots battles how are we meant to replenish our power? It sounded like a day event.”
“With slaves of course.” Rin says looking at me strangely. “How else?”
“You have slaves?”
“Not me personally, but the academy does. All students can use them at the tournament.”
“How did they become slaves?”
“Prisoners of war or sold by their families I suspect. Why do you care?”
“I used to be a slave myself so of course I care!”
“They’re women and girls so they’re treated better than you would have been.”
“You enslave females too?” I ask in surprise.
“I don’t enslave anyone, but yes, Contractia does. We would hardly have allowed men in the academy even if they were slaves, and we needed to replenish our power somehow.”
“So how do they restore our power?”
“You really don’t know?” Rin asks me sounding quite surprised
“Why would I?”
“You kiss them on the mouth and suck most of their energy. If you suck out too much they die and you get scolded. If you stop in time they just get really tired.”
“You just get scolded if you kill them…” I say shaking my head in frustration.
“So how do you suggest we survive this tournament?” Rin says pointedly ignoring my remark.
“Let’s just win.”
“…”
“For now we need to learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses otherwise we won’t be able to fight well as a team. What are your strengths?”
“I don’t really have any. Not that can be used in combat anyway.”
“You must have something. What about weaknesses though?”
“Magic.” Rin says lightly.
“Seriously?”
“Magic.” Rin says more seriously and sounding really depressed. “I can at least control it enough to prevent it going as badly wrong as Elucia, but I can’t use strong magic and even weak magic takes ages to cast.”
“Can you take magical energy from anyone?”
“Only if they don’t know how to control their power, or they consent. Why?”
“Your aura is strong. If I could borrow your power I could fight much better.”
“You want to kiss me!”
“Not really, but I don’t want to die.”
“You don’t even want to kiss me, but you’d steal my first kiss!” Rin says angrily.
“Do you have any other suggestions on how we can win, or even survive this tournament?”
“No.” Rin admits gloomily.
“Would you prefer to have your life stolen?”
“No.” Rin says with a reluctant sigh.
“So how do I take your energy? It can’t just be kissing.”
“I can’t describe it in words. I’ll just have to show you. Just so you know though, I’m not doing this because I want to. I’d rather kiss a slug than you, but I don’t want to die.” With that she puts her arms round me and kisses me on the lips. I feel her tongue in my mouth and then power gently flows into me. I feel her thoughts and understand how it works. As she said it is impossible to put into words. I tug at her power and it speeds up. I feel her fear and she struggles to stop the flow but is unable to do so. I stop the flow and then reverse it until her power is back to its normal level. She pulls away and asks slightly scared. “How?”
“How what?”
“You should need my consent, but you easily managed to force the power at the speed you wanted.”
“That’s not normal?”
“Of course it isn’t! I just told you that! Not when the other person is a mage.”
“Maybe it’s because you aren’t a very good mage.” I say shrugging. She looks upset but I don’t know what else to say. “Anyway we should stand a better chance like this.”
“Just make sure you stop in time. Remember what I said about dying if you take too much.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you.”
“You better not. It’s bad enough I have to kiss you in front of the whole school, and to think my first kiss was with you!”
“Do you know how to port?”
“Of course. Even I can do that.”
“Can you teach me?”
“You don’t know? Even though you can do unincanted magic, you don’t know?”
“I didn’t learn my magic here. The one who taught me probably didn’t know either.”
“Who taught you magic?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t… know… How is that even possible?”
“I don’t have many memories from before Contractia.”
“Unbelievable. Porting is quite simple really, but like taking power, it’s not something you can explain with words. I don’t really want to touch you, but put your forehead against mine and I’ll show you how to do it. Consider it thanks for earlier.” Rin says looking annoyed and lowers her forehead to allow me to reach up to it.
Touching her forehead with mine I feel inside her mind. It’s not really words, just knowledge and emotion. How she shares them I have no idea, but I can feel them and instantly understand how to port. I also feel her embarrassment and a sense of fear. She seems to be a little scared of me.
“That’s enough. It’s rude to poke around inside someone’s mind more than you are invited to.”
“Sorry. I don’t really understand how the mind thing works, but I get how to port now. It’s like this I think.” I say and port a step backwards.
“That’s the general idea. Is there anything else you need to know,
or do, to prepare yourself?”
“It would help to know a little about the opponents, such as their strong and weak elements. That sort of thing. Without knowing who we are up against though I guess that will need to wait until the last moment. The only other thing is for both of us to get plenty of sleep. Taking your power won’t help if you haven’t rested properly and I need to ensure mine is as strong as possible too.”
“So where are you going to rest?”
“We have the classroom for the day so I may as well rest here. It beats the ground outside.” I say and Rin looks to be struggling to make a decision. “What’s wrong?”
“You, you can, just this once, sleep in my room. Elucia and I were roommates, so, you can use Elucia’s bed.” Rin says with a strange combination of nervousness and sadness, before looking me in the eye and saying quite calmly. “If you try anything though, I swear I’ll kill you.”
“Try anything?”
“If you try to do anything to me.” She says glaring at me. “It’s too early to go to bed yet though. How about I show you around the academy and then we come back here for lunch? It’s rare to have the classroom to ourselves, but there’s no point staying here for the sake of it.”
“Sounds fine. Where do we get our lunch from though? I can’t remember the last time I ate anything. No, that was it, it was only last week.”
“Only last week… But it’s the end of the week today.”
“Normally its two to three weeks but I fought a battle last week so I got an extra meal.”
“Did you win?”
“I’m still alive aren’t I?”
“Do you have any money for food?”
“No. Do they not provide meals?”
“Not for free. I can’t have you getting us both killed because you’re hungry. I guess we’ll have to share a lunch because I don’t have enough for two lunches.”
“What about longer term? Assuming we survive the match of course.”
“You’ll need a job. There should be work available in the nearby town and if you can port it shouldn’t be too far.”
“Couldn’t I just port anywhere I want to, no matter how far.”
“The further it is the more energy you use.”
“I guess that’s why I can’t port to the stars.”
