by Dixon, TJ
“What did they say?” Hermes asks.
“They were arguing. Then they seemed to notice me and they went silent.”
“What were they arguing about?” Hermes asks and I think for a moment.
“It’s odd, but I don’t remember.”
“Are you sure they were arguing?” Hermes asks.
“Yes. I’m sorry to disturb you. Goodnight, again.”
“Goodnight again.”
As the sun rises I feel awful. I didn’t get much sleep, and what sleep I did get didn’t really help. I take a gulp from the blue bottle. Thankfully the Queen didn’t ask for it back. I put the bottle away before waking Hermes.
“Morning…” She says sleepily.
“I’m going to head to class first. See you there soon.”
“Can I skip class?” Hermes asks looking really worse for wear. Since she isn’t technically a student she could, but I don’t want her to fall behind.
“Are you just tired?”
“I really didn’t sleep last night. I didn’t sleep well while you were gone either.”
“Take a sip of this.” I say taking out the bottle. She looks at it dubiously but then does so.
“What is it? I don’t feel tired at all!” Hermes exclaims.
“A gift from the Queen. Well, more a tool for the mission, but she didn’t ask for it back. Anyway I expect to see you in class soon.”
“Ok, I’ll be there in a moment.” Hermes says and I port to class. Rin and Yu Kii are both there. They actually both look refreshed.
“Good morning Rin. Good morning Yu Kii.” I say sounding normal, but inside I am really nervous.
“Good morning Peter.” Rin says grudgingly, but to my relief she doesn’t attack me.
“Good morning Peter.” Yu Kii says slightly nervously.
“Did you cover anything important whilst I was away?” I ask.
“The wind magic wouldn’t be new to you, but we did cover some important theories. Hermes took some notes for you, and I did for Yu Kii. You’d better make sure to catch up.” Rin says sounding a bit annoyed, but not seeming angry anymore.
“Thank you. I’ll have to thank Hermes, and take a look at those notes later.”
“You’d better not be thinking of skipping training. You can use your breaks to catch up.” Rin says clearly suspicious.
“I’ll find time on our day off.” I say feeling a little tired despite the drink. I’ll have to see whether Rin’s mother can make more, but now doesn’t seem like a good time to ask.
“Are we not doing another job on the day off?” Rin asks.
“We will do, but that shouldn’t take all day. I also want to continue the dimensional training.”
“Since you left without telling us I’ve had everyone take the dimensional training, although some already knew it, so they were quick. I was surprised how quickly Yusa picked it up. I was sure she didn’t know how to port, but she did it first time, just like you did when I showed you. The others took a while to learn.” Rin says.
“I’m surprised. Yusa hasn’t picked up the elemental magic very quickly. Perhaps dimensional magic is her specialty.” I say thoughtfully. “Did anyone have any major problems?”
“No. They were all a bit slow, but they probably picked it up quicker than I did last year.” Rin says.
“So we don’t need to do dimensional training. That’s good.” I say with a smile.
“We should try to do some training on dimensional magic as part of our regular training, like we cover it in class regularly. Being able to port is good, but there’s more to it than that.” Rin says sounding annoyed again.
“Ok. We’ll do that then. Perhaps every other week, and we should have someone work with Yusa on dimensional magic a bit more often. If it is her specialty it would be a shame to waste it.”
“I’d rather we worked on dimensional magic once a week, rather than every other week.” Rin says sounding annoyed still. Not wanting to annoy her right now I guess I’ll have to go along with it.
“Ok, once a week.” I say, and Rin actually looks surprised that I agreed so easily.
“Good.” Rin says a little unsure.
“Good morning everyone.” Hermes says cheerfully.
“Good morning.” Yu Kii and Rin both say.
“Hi Hermes.” I say. “You have some theory notes for me I hear. We have a little time before the lesson starts so let’s go over them now.”
“Oh, I’ll port back and get them.” Hermes says and ports away. A few moments later she is back with them. We sit down and look them over. From what Rin said I assumed it would be loads of work, but I am almost finished by the time the lesson starts. I wonder whether Yu Kii has already finished it under Rin’s supervision.
“Welcome back Peter, and Yu Kii.” The teacher says and I blink in shock at her friendly attitude. “I hear you were doing important work, but I hope you are ready to study with us lowly commoners now your work is complete.” Yes… I knew the teacher being friendly was too good to be true. Most of the class is laughing at this. Hermes is clearly outraged but keeps quiet as I put a hand on her wrist. Rin sits behind me so I can’t see her reaction, or Yu Kii’s. I am sure they are not happy about it. “It seems that you are back just in time for the Royal Competition. I trust that your friends have informed you of it, or perhaps you noticed it when you arrived back at the academy. The rules are, after all, written on the front gate. We need all competitors to announce their participation by the end of today’s afternoon lesson.”
“We were going to talk about it at lunch time.” Hermes whispers apologetically.
“Don’t worry.” I whisper back, annoyed at the teacher and not at Hermes. “And definitely talk at lunch.” Of course lunch can’t come soon enough. Nowhere near soon enough. Finally it is lunchtime. We quickly port to the lunchroom and grab our food.
“So what is this competition?” I ask and take a spoonful of my soup. Rin is busy eating so Hermes explains to me, and to Yu Kii.
“It’s a quick way to advance to the higher classes, but it is really dangerous. Year 1s aren’t allowed to participate, but Year 2 and Year 3 are. Only Year 2s are allowed to be captains, and they have to be at least 2D. You’re allowed only members who are either in Year 3 or are in a lower or equal class to you. You can have as many members as you want but they can’t all fight at once. Including the captain you can have up to ten members fighting together at the same time for 2D captains, five for 2C, two for 2B and only yourself for 2A. If you beat all teams in a class you’re promoted to the next class, and everyone who has fought since your last promotion gets promoted one class, unless they were in a higher class than you. So beat 2D and you’ll be in 2C. You have to fight each other’s teams and people are expected to die in this.
“You win by taking a jewel from the opposing captain. The losing captain becomes the slave of the winning captain. All losing team members can be used by the winner once they have moved onto fighting the next class. So if you’re fighting 2C you can use beaten 2D team members even if they don’t want to. If they are on the losing team twice though, they also become slaves of the winning captain. You can only use your own magic and have to wear the school uniform. You’re not allowed to take anything else with you.” Hermes says and then bites into her sandwich.
“If I become captain will you all fight alongside me?” I ask.
“Sure.” Yu Kii says instantly and Hermes nods whilst munching. I look to Rin.
“Don’t you think it is a bit dangerous? You can’t pull out until you have beaten an entire class, so if you fight 2A you have to beat all the 2A students who decide to participate. If you lose you become a slave.” Rin says sounding and looking really worried.
“We need to get to 2A. This is perfect, and I am sure together we can beat anyone at this academy.” I say confidently. “Besides, you still want to beat Sor, don’t you Rin?”
“Beating her like this isn’t going to prove anything, because it isn’t a fair figh
t. We’ll be allowed ten people and she has to fight alone.” Rin says.
“I suppose that’s true.” I say with a sigh. “But if we can get up to 2A like this we should be able to recruit a lot more people into the club, and in our year, not just Year 3s. We don’t even need to beat 2A to get promoted to 2A.”
“You’d only be two against one.” Hermes says. “Once you fight 2A you’ll be limited to two people. You’re lucky though, because really and truly it should be one on one, since you’re actually in 2A at that point. I guess there’d be no point having different sized teams if they did it that way though.”
“So your team gets smaller each time you get promoted.” I say thoughtfully. “I assumed you kept the whole team.”
“You keep the whole team, but you can only use part of it in any battle.”
“That makes this even more dangerous.” Rin protests.
“I’m doing this regardless, but I’d really appreciate your help.” I say.
“Of course we’ll help you, but I really wish you’d reconsider.” Rin says with a sigh.
“If it gets too dangerous we can always stop when we’re promoted to 2A or even 2B. We can probably get promoted the normal way if it is just one promotion.” I say.
“You promise?” Rin asks.
“Yes.”
“How about a contract?” Rin says.
“We don’t need a contract!” I protest.
“I bet you’ll go onto 2A even if it is too dangerous.” Rin says sighing again.
“I just promised I wouldn’t.” I say angrily.
“You also promised not to get killed.”
“I kept that promise!”
“Through sheer luck! You seem determined to get yourself killed. You fought David Ishki alone, and you wouldn’t even tell me where you disappeared off to last time!”
“You fought David Ishki?” A surprised looking Year 1 says, stopping on her way past us.
“We’re not meant to be talking about that Rin.” I say annoyed. “Just forget you heard anything please.”
“He killed my sister. She was in the army. I’m surprised you’re still alive, but there’s no way I’m forgetting you said that. If it was just a joke I’ll never forgive you.” She says at Rin who looks embarrassed. People are starting to look our way.
“Let’s not talk here.” I say. “If you really aren’t going to let this go, at least let us talk about it in private.”
“Ok.” She says glancing around and seeing how much attention we have. She then grabs my hand and ports us. I hope my soup stays warm, but more importantly I hope I can convince her not to start talking about this to everyone. It looks like this is her room, but it is a bit more luxurious than mine, and only has one bed, so it doesn’t look like she has a roommate. I think for a moment.
“I’ll tell you the truth under contract, but only if you make a contract not to tell anyone else.” I say after careful consideration. Thankfully the Queen only made me promise and not sign a contract to keep this secret.
“Fine.” She says and grabs a pen and paper. The Year 1 uniform is very different to the girl’s uniform for our year. The green leafy patterned short skirt and red flame sleeveless top are actually very nice, and though they leave her more exposed than the girls in my year, it is still less so than my uniform. She has pale skin and short white hair. She’s really thin and has the same delicate look that Aventurine does. Her eyes are blue, but with a hint of red in the centre. Is she a noble?
“Is this ok?” She asks. I look at the contract she has written out. I consider for a moment, and shake my head. Even without Rin here I can tell that this isn’t good enough.
“There needs to be a penalty for breaking the contract, or we may as well not have one.” I say.
“We can have a penalty, but as a noble I assure you I would never break my word.” She says. “How about death?”
“How about if either of us breaks the contract we have to become the other person’s slave?” I suggest. I don’t want her to die if she accidentally reveals this, but it needs to be serious.
“Fine.” She says without a second thought. She writes it and shows me.
“That works.” I say and sign it. I’m going to have to be careful not to miss anything, because if I do I may fall foul of this contract. She then signs it too. I can feel the magic take effect. “So, the truth is that I killed David Ishki, alone. He said he was holding my club member hostage, and that if I didn’t go to him alone he would start sending parts of her the next day. I think it was at dawn he was going to. As it happened he was lying. He didn’t have her. Oh, he used another person to give me the message, but he spoke through them using magic, rather than using a messenger. Did you want any more details?”
“How did you kill him?” She asks, knowing from the contract that I’m not lying, but at the same time finding it hard to believe me.
“I used a wind slice. He had grabbed hold of me and was about to kill me, so he couldn’t dodge. If I had been a moment later I would be the one who had died. I used all of my power in that slice and so it overwhelmed his shield and his head exploded under the force. It wasn’t just my normal power though. I had taken power from every slave and servant in the Queen’s palace before I fought him.” Silently I curse at revealing that last part, but not wanting to become a slave again I have no choice. “Is that enough detail?”
“How did you take more power than your normal limit?” She asks incredulously.
“I don’t know, but I just can.” I say.
“It wasn’t just this once then?”
“No. I’ve taken power from them again since, as well as from the Queen in the past.”
“How do you know the Queen?”
“I first met her when I was a slave in the arena. I led a slave revolt and she had just taken the throne. She freed us all and agreed to let me study here at my request. Since then I’ve met her again a number of times including in the Labyrinth of Lost Lambs, in town, at the academy and at the palace. It would be treason to ask too much though.” I say hoping she will stop questioning me.
“As a noble I would never commit treason.” She says and shakes her head. “Just who are you though?”
“Peter of the Wind.”
“If it is not treason to answer, who were your parents?”
“I don’t know. I was a slave and I don’t have all my memories.”
“Well, thank you, for killing David, and for telling me all of this. I’m not going to cause you any trouble. You’ve avenged my sister. It doesn’t bring her back, but at least that evil man can’t kill anyone else. Is there any way I can help you in return?”
“Well obviously keeping your part of the contract is important. If you really want to help though, you could always join or help out my club.”
“I’m a Year 1 so I’ll graduate before you, but if that isn’t a problem I’m happy to do either. I’m Lilian Firewater by the way.”
“An interesting family name. I have to ask what your element is, and is your family name related to your family’s elements?”
“I specialise in earth magic actually, but my great, great, great grandmother Lilia, who won the name Firewater, specialises in using both fire and water at the same time in perfect harmony. The Rainbow Twins in your year remind me of her, though they aren’t as good. She gained immortality for service to Contractia, but the rest of us are still mortal.”
“Well, Lilian, I look forward to working with you. I am sure there is much that my club can learn from you. Those in Year 2 and 3 will be forming an independent company, so the more we can learn the better our chances of surviving this war.”
“I’m impressed. I’m actually excluded from military service because of Lilia’s contribution and the death of my sister, but I would certainly consider joining your company, depending what it is like at the time.”
“It would be good to have you.” I say enthusiastically.
“At the very least I will help you as much as I
can.”
“Could you join today’s training?” I ask.
“Sure.” She says. We go over the details and then I head back. My soup is stone cold, but I have a new club member. We don’t discuss it whilst we eat though, because as Rin just demonstrated it isn’t a very private place to talk. We port to my room once we are finished and I tell everyone how it went.
Before the afternoon lesson starts I submit my name as a captain, and to my surprise so do two other class members. It seems there will be three teams in our class alone. The afternoon lesson is slow but then we meet for training. Emma and Charlotte are both very welcoming to Lilian and glad I am back. Yu Kii and Lilian get on really well straight away and it is clear that Lilian is a natural at teaching. We all agree that Lilian will take over the earth training from now on. Yu Kii is relieved, because she didn’t really enjoy teaching it to Helski. They got on fine, but she just wasn’t comfortable acting as a teacher.
Chapter 10 (Aventurine)
When I returned nobody was happier than Neko, and nobody other than Neko knows what happened. Except perhaps Peter, but I am sure he does not know mother’s orders. I’ve been thinking about it and talking to Neko. She likes Peter a lot, but she selflessly agreed to help me, and put her own feeling aside. Neko is the best friend I have ever had, and ever will have. Even if there had been any doubt in my mind before, it would have been banished now. Even if I succeed though, there is no doubt in my mind that I would be the Lower Partner. A role reserved for men, and only very rarely given to women.
Now I stand in the training ground with Neko, waiting for everyone else to arrive. My heart beats faster than normal. I concentrate on my breathing like Peter advises us in our lessons on wind magic. I calm myself for now.
“Hello Aventurine.” It is Peter and he is behind me. I gasp and turn quickly. “Is something wrong?”
“No. Um, thank you for your help with, well, my situation.” I answer nervously.
“Oh, no problem. It’s good to see you back here.” He says. “Hello Neko.”
“Hello Peter.” She says but sounds overly formal. Peter obviously realises too, but doesn’t comment.
