by Tj Dixon
“They’re back today so I wouldn’t want to take their seats. Anyway, here’s fine if you don’t mind.”
“They’re back...” Ash says sounding scared but then sighs. “I don’t mind. Sit where you want.”
“Thank you.” I say but as I say it someone else walks through the door.
I recognise her as one of the girls that was in Ash’s room yesterday. She just pretends to ignore us. She seems very uncomfortable as she sits next to Ash. Ash is also clearly very uncomfortable. The girl takes out a notebook and I see her name on the front. Gabriel Ilford. The silence is very uncomfortable.
“Good morning, Peter.” Emma says as she ports directly into the chair in front of me.
“Good morning, Emma.” I say with a smile. Then Yu Kii ports into the classroom. I blink. Yu Kii never ports when she doesn’t need to and since there is still plenty of time before lessons, she didn’t need to. She may not have ported directly into her chair like Emma did, but even to port near the door like she just did seems really strange.
“Good morning, Peter.” Yu Kii says sounding a little tired.
“Good morning, Yu Kii. Are you feeling well?” I ask.
“Yes, why?” She asks confused.
“You don’t normally port to class like that.”
“Oh, Professor Schwarz insists that I port to and from class every day for the extra practise. As if I didn’t get enough already…” Yu Kii says sounding depressed.
“You are getting better though.” Emma tells her.
“I’d better be improving, with all the time Professor Schwarz is spending with me. Especially since it is just me now you don’t have to do the extra lessons anymore.” Yu Kii complains. So Professor Schwarz is helping her out with dimensional magic, or at least with porting. That is good, even if Yu Kii doesn’t like it.
“Well, give it your best.” I encourage her.
“That’s easy for you to say.” Yu Kii tells me and then shaking her head she sits next to Emma. Then Rin, Hermes and Asuna port into the classroom.
“Leaving without telling us…” Rin complains at me.
“You were asleep. I didn’t want to wake you.”
“Well I’m glad you’re here.” Rin says and sits next to Yu Kii looking annoyed. Hermes grins sheepishly and sits next to Rin. Lastly Asuna sits next to Hermes and then looks back at me.
“Good morning, Peter.” Asuna says with a gentle smile.
“Good morning Asuna, Rin and Hermes.” I say back. Rin glares at Asuna and then looks at me.
“Good morning… Peter.” Rin tells me in a weirdly sweet voice. Actually she sounds kind of scary. I think the army of elves was less scary.
“Good morning, Peter.” Hermes says with a smile, but only after an annoyed look at Asuna. Then other girls start porting in and the classroom quickly fills. I recognise the next few people along on our row as being girls who were in Ash’s room yesterday and none of them seem very comfortable.
When the classroom is full the teacher ports in. Professor Schwarz is very thin and a typical Contractian, except that she is about seven foot tall. She is wearing plain white mage robes with a black hood, though the hood is down.
“Peter, I am glad to see you are back.” She tells me, though she doesn’t look happy. She isn’t really showing any emotions, even in her aura. “The head wants to see you, so report to her office at once.”
This will be my first time seeing her since I lost my left arm. I don’t have a choice though, and I doubt she’ll risk the queen’s anger by doing anything stupid. I hope not anyway.
“Ok.” I say and stand. Then I port outside the head’s office. I knock on the door and wait nervously.
“Come in.” Says an unfamiliar voice and the door swings open. Inside the office is the same desk and chair I remember but sitting on the chair is not the same woman I remember meeting here on my first day and later fighting. The woman sitting at that desk now is a young woman with pale skin, short blonde hair and blue eyes. Not only is her appearance that of a typical Contractian but she has a friendly smile on her face and is wearing pale blue mage robes. She doesn’t seem threatening in the least.
“Professor Schwarz told me you wanted to see me.” I tell her as I enter her room.
“Yes. The queen needs to see you, but before I take you to her I need to know whether you will be taking part in the final round of the tournament. It would normally be far too late to enter it now, but under the circumstances I wouldn’t dream of excluding you if you wish to enter. I need to know now though, so I can announce it at the same time as Sor’s entry.”
“Yes. I would like to enter.” I say a little apprehensively. Rin will kill me, but I don’t want to drop out now. I’ll just have to figure out a way to beat Sor. Hopefully that will be the last match.
“That’s good. Your matches were always interesting.”
“By the way, what happened to the previous head?” I ask curiously.
“She’s serving in the military now. I hear she has a good record so far. Now I’d best take you to the palace. We can’t keep the queen waiting.” She says and gets up. Then she ports us even though I am still on the other side of the desk. We are now in a waiting room with two guards by the door. “We’re here to see the queen. She’s expecting us.”
“We know. Go through.” The guard to the right of the door says. The head leads me into the throne room on the other side of the door and then towards the throne. Queen Emily is sitting on the throne and seems happy to see us.
Despite her young appearance Queen Emily does look regal sitting up there in fine blue robes that match her blue eyes and contrast her fiery red hair and pale skin. Her aura is completely hidden, so her skill as a mage must have improved considerably since the first time I met her. Back then she couldn’t even port. The head kneels once we are fairly close to the throne and I kneel to her left.
“You can both get up.” Queen Emily says cheerfully. She waits whilst we stand before continuing. “It’s not like I’m actually there. I can’t leave Portalis at the moment and there’s no point you coming all this way. So I hear that you beat David Ishki. What happened after that?”
“We ended up in a dwarven city. We worked hard so we could return. I even got my arm replaced.” I say and hold it up. The queen obviously didn’t realise before, because her eyes now go wide. “We also helped the dwarves fight off an enemy army. The enemy were routed and many of their elves were captured. Their leader was also killed, though the dwarven king was killed too. In the end we managed to return to Contractia through a portal.”
“Very impressive. I can’t wait to send you on your next mission.” The queen tells me and I wince. “Don’t worry though, it will be after you graduate.”
“Thank you your majesty.” I say very relieved.
“Might we be able to convince the dwarves to aid us?”
“No. I don’t think so.” I answer honestly. Even if we could I’m not sure I’d want to drag them into this war again. If their army left Nirvali their civilians would be in serious danger again.
“That will however be sooner than you expect. When the school year finishes I will be having every mage student in Contractia graduate and join the military. You will be no exception.” Queen Emily tells me and I gulp in shock. “When that happens we will drive the enemy back.”
“With inexperienced mages?” I ask and pray she will forgive my questioning her, but it just seems too insane to ignore.
“Even a student who has only completed one year will be of use. Mostly the inexperienced mages will handle lighter duties, freeing up more experienced mages to fight the enemy. It will also free up our teachers who include some of our best mages. You can’t teach something you aren’t good at.” Queen Emily tells me. Then she looks at me questioningly. “So I trust you will be forming your independent company when you graduate?”
“Yes.” I say with a hopefully confident looking nod. I am actually really worried. This should make it easier bec
ause we can use the Year 3 students, but I do worry about our younger members. I will just have to ensure everyone is ready. Perhaps that is why she is telling me now rather than waiting until it happens. “Not all of the students have the same skills though, so there are limits to what we will be able to do. Especially since many will have only one year at the academy.”
“I understand, but I will still be counting on your company when the time comes.” Queen Emily tells me. “Also you have my permission to form the company, so that is one thing you don’t need to worry about.”
“Thank you, your majesty.” I answer. She is right, but there are still plenty of things to worry about.
“You cannot tell anyone of my plans. Undoubtedly the enemy already know, because our teachers have all been informed so they can prepare our students as best they can without the full three years.”
“I thought Portalis could withstand the enemy. Why the rush?” I ask.
“I can’t answer that, but I have my reasons.” Queen Emily says not meeting my eyes. I can’t see her aura so I can only judge by her expression and her voice, but that is plenty to tell me she is worried. I just hope she isn’t hiding something that will put us in even greater danger. “I had you meet with me so I could warn you that you have only one year left to prepare to join the war again. You may now return to the academy. Goodbye and good luck.”
“Thank you. Goodbye and good luck to you too.” I say and bow deeply. The queen disappears without saying anything to the head.
“We should return.” The head says and ports us back to her office. “All this talk of dwarves and elves really is nostalgic. It has been a very long time since I last saw a dwarf or an elf. A very long time indeed. Now go back to your lessons and remember not to say too much.”
“Thank you.” I say and then port back to the classroom.
“… and make sure not to spill any. If you get the floor wet you’ll be staying for extra lessons in your lunch break.” Professor Schwarz says and everyone stands. I am of course already standing. “Ash, you will work with Peter, so tell him what he needs to know.”
“Yes, Professor Schwarz.” Ash answers.
“You may begin.” Professor Schwarz tells us and everyone else summons clay, which they start forming into a large jar or pot. I look to Ash for instructions.
“Basically we have to summon water and move it just using wind magic.” Ash tells me.
“So why is everyone making clay pots?” I ask surprised.
“We’re not allowed to use water magic to control the water, so we need to summon it into something and then pick it up with wind magic. We’re also not allowed to get the floor wet.”
“Couldn’t we just summon it straight into the wind, rather than putting it into something else?” I ask.
“That would be really difficult.” Ash says dubiously.
“You just do this.” I say and summon wind to form a container of sorts and then summon water within it. Ash just stares wide eyed. “So what next?”
“You need to move it like that into the large pot beside the teacher’s desk.” Ash tells me. I close my eyes and sense past the other students to the pot. I then lift the wind and water up above the other students and then lower it carefully into the pot before releasing the wind magic.
“And then?” I ask.
“That’s all.” Ash says a little stunned.
“How many times are we meant to do it?”
“Just the once.” Ash says shaking her head.
“Ok, well, your turn then.”
“Yes. I’d better get started.” Ash says and quickly forms a smooth bowl out of clay. It is very professional and could easily be used to eat from. She then summons water to almost fill the bowl.
“You may want to use less water. If you put a layer of wind in that bowl some of the water is sure to spill.” I warn Ash.
“I’ll make the bowl bigger then, because it needs to be at least this much water.” Ash says and the edges of bowl slowly extend until it is about twice the size. The bowl still looks just as professional, only bigger. I doubt I could have made a bowl that looked as good, let alone extended it and kept the appearance intact. “Now for the hard part.”
“Couldn’t you just use wind magic to lift the whole bowl?” I suggest.
“No. We’re only allowed to use wind magic to lift the water itself. Moving the bowl isn’t allowed.”
“Oh, ok. I suppose that makes sense.”
“Peter, should you really be helping me? We are competing against each other in the tournament.”
“If we fight each other I’m not holding anything back, but whilst we’re working together we should help each other. I doubt anything we learn between now and our fight is going to make much difference.” I answer her honestly.
“So I’m not a threat whatever I learn?” Ash asks quietly and shrugs her shoulders. “I suppose that’s true.”
“I don’t intend to lose to anyone, but I didn’t mean to be rude. I don’t know how strong you are, but we’ve both spent years learning magic. What difference is a week or two going to make?”
“Not much, but…” Ash says and then shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter. I may as well try moving this water.”
Ash summons wind and tries to lift the water but just ends up swirling it around within the bowl. It is fortunate she did make the bowl bigger, because it would have gone everywhere if the bowl was still the original size. Ash seems seriously depressed and obviously not just because of the lesson. Given that just yesterday she did ask to be killed it is quite understandable.
“You need to calm your thoughts. Start by emptying your mind and then slowly form the wind in a ring just above the bowl. Then you slowly thin but strengthen it and finally you lower it into the same shape as the bowl.” I tell Ash. It is how I would do it anyway, if the water was in a bowl like this.
“Ok, I’ll try.” Ash says but she sounds full of doubt. She closes her eyes and for a while just sits there like that. Then she forms the wind in a ring above the bowl just like I told her to. The wind strengthens quickly. Too quickly and then disappears. She at least realised it was wrong and cancelled the magic before anything could go too badly wrong.
Ash opens her eyes, takes a deep breath and closes them again. Again the wind forms and this time it slowly strengthens, though it isn’t getting any thinner. The bowl starts to shake and Ash stops the wind again. Then she summons the wind again and this time it does thin, but it doesn’t strengthen. Eventually it disappears altogether.
“This is hard.” Ash says shaking her head in frustration.
“Good.” Gabriel says with a glare. Ash winces but doesn’t reply. I can’t blame Gabriel for being angry but it still seems wrong to let her lash out at Ash.
“So how is yours coming along?” I ask Gabriel, already knowing the answer. She just glares back at me.
Ash hides it well, but I sense her aura improve a little. She closes her eyes again and summons the wind once more. This time it both thins and strengthens. Then Ash slowly lowers it into the bowl. It is still not quite as thin as I would have made it so disturbs the water, but there is enough spare room in the bowl that none spills.
Once the wind has formed a perfect skin with the water inside, Ash slowly lifts it up into the air above the bowl. Then she stands and walks slowly past my chair, moving the water along the desk as she does so. We are at the end so she doesn’t have as far to go. Once Ash is past the end of my desk she moves the water in front of her and easily walks to the front.
