by Dixon, TJ
“Start with earth and then use fire. Everyone else get back please. Hermes, you may begin.”
“Okay.” Hermes says and then focuses. Her earth attack is quicker than I remember. She is getting better but I dodge the flying shards of earth and stone by soaring upwards.
“Stop both of you! You’ll be in a classroom!” Rin shouts up at me and I realise my mistake, and Hermes realises hers.
“So I need to summon earth rather than wreck the classroom floor?” Hermes asks.
“Yes!” Rin says with a glare.
“And I need to stay low rather than going through the class roof. How about we practise back at the academy? There must be a spare room we can use.”
“There are a few practise rooms that don’t get locked. One of them is probably free as it is the first day. They tend to get busy just before tests. They’re reserved for students in classes D to A, but there aren’t that many rooms and there are plenty of students in those classes.” Emma says.
“Let’s see if we can get a room then.” I say. “Could you port us there?”
“Sure.” Emma says. We all hold onto Emma and a moment later we are outside a classroom. It is taken by a small group of students we don’t know so we go to the next room. To my surprise Silmarion is there with a student that I don’t know. She looks up and waves us in.
“She was just finishing so this room is free. Treska, you made good progress but be sure to practise every day.”
“Silmarion, do you have a minute?” I ask.
“Sure.” Silmarion says turning to me and the girl called Treska ports away. “Is it about Claire?”
“No. I would like to form a club and I need a teacher to write and sign a contract with me.”
“You have the four member contracts? Excluding slaves.”
“Yes, Rin, can you get them out?”
“Here they are.” Rin says handing them to Silmarion who quickly reads them. How she does so without eyes I don’t know but it is no different from when we were in her class.
“Acceptable.” Silmarion says and a piece of paper appears out of nowhere and hovers in the air in front of me. Beside it is a magical pen. “Sign this.”
I take it and read it. “How did you know the club name and everything, or even that I was going to form a club?”
“It was in your contract.”
“But when did you write this?”
“After reading the contract.”
“But you were standing here with us.”
“There are many different types of magic.”
“You used magic to write it?”
“Yes.”
“Can I learn that magic?”
“Probably not, and certainly not without improving significantly first. It is a difficult magic for a young one. Perhaps with a few centuries experience you might be able to.”
“Most people don’t live a few centuries.” I remind her.
“I would have thought you would all be aiming for immortality. If you do form the company and serve Contractia well, it is very possible you could gain that status. We are at war after all.”
“I hadn’t considered the possibility. Can a male become immortal?”
“Of course. Now sign the contract and hand it back to me.”
I quickly read, sign and hand it back.
“It is always wise to read the contract thoroughly before signing, but fortunately for you this contract had nothing hidden in it. Have you decided how you will advertise to the new students?”
“We were thinking a mock battle might be a good idea.” I say but Silmarion frowns and shakes her head.
“That’s too boring. Now if it was a real battle against some monsters or criminals then it would be interesting.”
“You supply the monsters and I’ll fight them.” I say joking.
“Very well but it will need to be in the arena at the entrance ceremony.”
“You can really supply monsters?” I ask incredulously.
“Of course. Whatever happens to be available will have to do but I can certainly get you something to fight.”
“Now wait a moment.” Rin says nervously. “It had best not be something too dangerous.”
“Don’t worry I’m not going to bring a dragon or a Death Bird, but if it is too tame then it would be boring. Be at the arena at sunrise tomorrow.” Silmarion says and ports away before Rin can complain again.
“I’d best save my strength for tomorrow. It might be dangerous so I’ll do it on my own.”
“Surely that’s all the more reason for me to help!” Hermes protests.
“No, even if I can’t win on my own I can at least be sure to not get hurt. Besides it will look better if I beat it on my own. You should save your power though in case I change my mind when I find out what we’re up against. Everyone else continue the training here. Some indoor practise wouldn’t be a bad idea, and I don’t consider the arena to really be indoors. Don’t use all your power though, and finish fairly early. I’m sorry but I’m going to get some sleep to make sure I’m ready for tomorrow. Hermes, you should too.” I ignore their protests and port back with Hermes.
“It is still fairly early.” Hermes points out.
“I know but we’ll recover energy quicker if we rest.” I say and fall onto my bed then look out the window at the stars. They’re silent of course. I was sure that I would take ages to sleep but somehow just looking at the stars sends me to a peaceful sleep in moments.
I wake just before the sun rises. Thankfully Hermes thought to set a delayed spell which wakes us with a splash of water. Normally the sunrise wakes me but we need to be at the arena by sunrise. I quickly clean myself and my clothes without removing anything, and turn away so Hermes can get clean. We port to the arena together.
Silmarion, expressionless as always, is waiting. “Go to the front row. If you want to use Hermes be sure to either do so before entering the arena centre or to take her in with you. The new students will arrive at sunrise so take your seats before then.”
“What will we be fighting?”
“You’ll find out when the battle starts.”
“Oh, um, OK.” I say and we walk to our seats.
“Take me in with you.” Hermes says firmly.
“Sorry. If I don’t know what I’m up against I’m going in alone.”
“But you might get killed.”
“I doubt it but I’d rather just risk my own life.”
“Please!”
“Sorry. Now enough talking, because the other students will be here soon and I don’t want to give them a bad impression.”
“Hmmf.” Hermes protests but is then silent. I feel the sunrise and the students start to enter the audience. We are the only ones in the innermost circle but the next circle is soon full and the other inner circles are mostly full in just a couple of minutes. It is only Year 3 students but I start to feel the pressure. An old woman who I think is the head teacher if I remember correctly enters the centre of the arena.
“Welcome to the Academy of Contractia. This is the first year that every student may survive the year, but the old survival limit should not be ignored. Those who fall below it in class H will be expelled and punished by the Queen. Ten students suffered this punishment last year. They will never see their families again. Do not join them.
“Amongst you there are three new boys. Do not make them welcome. We must obey the Queen and allow them to study here, but we do not want boys at this academy. With those three there are now four at the academy, but I am hopeful that there will only be three left by the end of this ceremony. Now before we proceed any further, we have a club demonstration by the first boy to study here. He wants you to join his club so he can do terrible things to you. Should he survive you have been warned. Do not be fooled. Boy, you can enter the arena stage.”
I get up rather angry at her unfounded accusations and enter the arena stage. Distracted I only realise that Hermes has entered with me when it is too late. The barrie
r is already up. I sense the enemy first and realise I would have been much better off on my own, but it is far too late for that. Hermes doesn’t seem to have sensed the enemy yet and it is almost on top of us. I don’t know what it is called but it seems to be pure fire and so hot it is impossible to see. I rob the air from around it but to no effect. I grab Hermes’ hand and fly us up, but it follows and is getting faster.
I send water at it but as expected the water just evaporates. I am busy dodging it in mid-air and not sure how best to attack. Hermes finally seems to realise what we are up against and where it is. She sends shards of the stage floor at it but as expected they just melt and don’t seem to harm the enemy.
“The enemy isn’t fire.” She tells me.
“So what is it?”
“I don’t know but I would have to guess pure magic.”
“Pure magic… That’s not easy to fight!” I exclaim. I test my senses again and realise that Hermes is right. Damn! “We need some way of draining its magic, and I don’t fancy kissing it! Any ideas?” I ask and then have to dodge particularly hard.
“It must use a lot of energy to create that flame, so it must be replenishing its power somehow. If we knew how perhaps we could stop it.” Hermes says and I check my senses. Sure enough it seems to be draining power from every living thing nearby, mostly the audience though. It seems like the barrier around the arena is slowing the flow.
“Try putting a reversed shield around it.” I say.
“Impossible! It’s moving too quickly!” Hermes protests.
“Then how about you take over the flying magic?” I suggest.
“Impossible! My flight magic isn’t good enough!”
“Once I put a shield around it put one around my shield.” I say and desperately target it with a reversed shield. It misses. Putting a shield around a moving target, whilst dodging that moving target with flight magic, is not easy. The second one misses too. The third shield I am sure has worked for a moment but realise I just missed. My fourth shield however is on target, and I call out, “Now!”
My shield drops as Hermes’ shield takes its place. I sense she is struggling to contain the flames but the flow of magic has definitely been reduced to a slow trickle and is insufficient to maintain the flames at their previous level. They drop first to blue and then to red but Hermes is quickly running out of power. Mine is not going to hold for long because, much as I hate to admit it, my control of pure magical shielding is poor. Normally I use a wind shield. I drain all the air from within the shield to try to weaken the flames further and they quickly drop to a small flicker. Then they are gone and all that is left is ash.
There is silence for a moment and then to my delight the crowd roars in applause. Silmarion is as expressionless as always but the head teacher doesn’t even try to hide her fury. There is a loud clang followed by her shrill voice. “Silence! Do not encourage the boy! Did you not listen to my words just now?! Boy and slave, leave! Now!”
I smile, take Hermes’ hand and port back to our classroom. Hopefully some of those students will be impressed enough to join us, despite the head’s clear opposition. Many will of course not want to incur her wrath by joining us but hopefully that will not stop them all.
Chapter 2 (Peter)
“Was it OK to not give a speech?” Hermes asks.
“I hope so, but I doubt the head would have let me even if I had known what to say.” I reply
“I suppose that’s true.” Hermes agrees.
“So you didn’t give a speech?” Rin asks worriedly. I turn only now realising that both Rin and Yu Kii are in the room.
“I didn’t get the chance, but the students seemed to like our battle.” I reply.
“Well that’s good but how will they know you are recruiting?” Rin asks clearly concerned.
“The head told them. Not exactly in a positive way, but they should at least know I am recruiting.”
“So what did you fight?” Rin asks.
“I’m not sure but it seemed to be some sort of pure magical creature which could create powerful flames and feed off people’s magical energy.”
“That sounds like a fire mana. How did you beat it?” Rin asks.
“We put a reversed shield around it and stopped it from replenishing its power.”
“It’s fortunate that you took Hermes into the arena with you.” Rin says.
“I went in without permission.” Hermes says looking down nervously.
“Well, thank you, it’s probably just as well that you did.” I say.
“Oh, no problem.” Hermes says with a small smile.
“It certainly is just as well Hermes did!” Rin scolds. “You really need to rely on us more.”
“We work well as a team on our jobs and training.” I protest.
“You need to learn to rely on us the rest of the time too though.” Rin tells me.
“I’ll try.” I say weakly.
“Do more than just try!”
“So when does everyone want to see this play we were told to see?” I ask changing the subject quickly. Rin obviously realises this but just sighs and shrugs.
“Perhaps we should see it today before we get too busy.” Hermes suggests.
“I suppose we may as well get it over with.” I say.
“You don’t sound very enthusiastic. Do you not like plays?” Rin asks.
“I’ve never seen a play before, but I don’t like the people putting on this show.” I say and then explain how we met them. Rin looks at me thoughtfully for a moment before shaking her head.
“If you dislike everyone who looks down on you for being a guy you will dislike most people. Better to change their opinions by proving them wrong.” Rin tells me but I shrug.
“How am I meant to do that with these guys?” I ask.
“By doing exactly what you are already aiming to do. Form the company and make it a great success. One day perhaps everyone, including these folks will have heard what you have achieved.” Rin says, but that doesn’t help me right now.
“Since we have to see this play anyway, it doesn’t really matter whether I want to or not. Let’s do it today.” I say and everyone agrees, but Rin still looks unhappy about it.
Soon the whole class is here and the lesson begins. It seems the whole day is dedicated to dimensional magic. We cover some advanced theories and then have to put them into practise. Thankfully we can work in groups so Rin is able to help us all understand the theory. It is meant to allow us to port further using less energy, but none of us are able to master it. Only one student in the room has done so by lunchtime, and much to her delight, she is allowed to skip the afternoon lesson. We port to the lunch room but to my surprise we are surrounded by at least ten new students who all talk at once.
“You were so cool!”
“How did you know to do that?”
“What’s your favourite colour?”
“I want to be an air mage too!”
“You flew so quickly, you could be a racer!”
I’m a little stunned as I’m bombarded with it all but Rin seizes the moment. “Everyone, there will be plenty of time for any questions you have if you join our club.”
“I want to, I want to!” A tall girl with long black hair and bright red eyes says, almost jumping up and down. Everyone else nods eagerly.
“I’ll need everyone’s name.” Rin says and pulls out pen and paper from her left sleeve. She quickly takes down everyone’s name and just like that I have eleven new contracts to write. I just wish they counted towards the twenty people we need to form our company. “We’ll have your joining contracts ready for you to sign by the end of lunch, so once you finish eating please meet us outside by the tall trees before your next lesson.”
I start to panic but can’t say anything in front of the new students. We grab our food and once we are seated I whisper to Rin. “By the end of lunch? How am I meant to do them all that quickly?!”
“Don’t worry. I copied it with magic so yo
u just need to add their names and sign. Oh, I made a couple of minor changes first, but nothing to worry about.” Rin tells me.
“You can do that?” I ask in amazement.
“Of course. I’m surprised you didn’t do the same with ours if they’re all the same.”
“You’ll have to teach me that magic.”
“It’s beyond basic. Even the new students could probably teach it to you.”
“I’ve never heard of anything like it.” I say and think of all that time wasted copying the contracts yesterday.
“Anyway, the sooner we get them signed up the better. They could easily change their minds, so as soon as you finish eating get signing these contracts. I’ll fill in the names whilst I eat.” Rin says and I wonder whether there is any magic involved as she quickly writes their names at the same time as eating her soup with her other hand. What’s most impressive is that her handwriting is just as neat as usual, which is much neater than mine. “All done.”
“I’m a little envious.” I say shaking my head. I put down my hot curry roll to sign the contracts. We quickly finish our meals and then port to the tree outside. To my surprise the black haired girl is sitting there nibbling a small roll that I am sure didn’t come from the school. It is actually a little cold to be sitting out here so it is otherwise deserted. I guess Rin chose it because there’s less chance of someone trying to put off our new recruits.
“Hello!” She says and jumps up smiling widely but drops the roll in her haste. She looks down sadly. It is covered in mud as the ground is wet. It must have rained during the night or this morning. After a moment she looks up again and is about to speak when a small girl with black skin and hair walks out from behind the tree and speaks first. The top of her head only just reaches my chest. She is the one of the very few people I have seen at the academy with black skin. I assume it must be really rare.
“Yusa here is clumsier with magic than with what little food she has. Hard as it may be to believe. I don’t really care what trouble she causes your little play group, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. I suppose she suits a boy who has trouble beating a mere fire mana. You are both as pathetic as each other, and as all the other fools who want to join you. Since there are no Year 1s, or other Year 2s, trying to form a company, I imagine mine will be the next to be formed. With the support of Mayor Perry, I, unlike you, will have no trouble getting members in my own year.” She says and ports away before I can say a word.
