Peter and the Heart of Alchemy (War of Contractia Book 5)

by Tj Dixon

  I walk back to the lunchroom. It would be tempting to fly but I’m not meant to be using too much power and the morning lesson was quite draining. I may have to just watch this afternoon. I hope Professor Kale doesn’t give me a hard time because of it. I reach the lunch room and find Tomo waiting by the entrance.

  “This way. Mirai and Tabi are saving us seats over there.” Tomo tells me and leads the way through the crowded lunchroom. It doesn’t take long to reach Tabi and Mirai. I sit opposite Tomo and next to Mirai.

  “So how did it go?” Tomo asks.

  “Peter was really happy when I told him about the arena. Now you just have to win it for us.” I tell her with a grin.

  “Win it?” Tomo asks confused.

  “Didn’t Mirai tell you?”

  “We didn’t get a chance to talk.” Tomo tells me.

  “We can challenge the club that are using the arena. We have to use Year 3s and it has to be fair, but there’s no way we’d lose in a fair fight.” I tell Tomo.

  “I bet it’ll be Cherry and Sherry who get to fight. Maybe Juliet too, although she might kill them, so maybe not. Unless there are a lot of us involved we’ll not get a chance.” Tomo warns me.

  “I hope it’s not Cherry. I don’t want to give my rival a chance to show off.” I sigh.

  “Cherry’s got to be the best wind mage in the club, other than Peter. There’s no way she’d get left out of any team.”

  “The worst part about that is that I know it’s true.” I sigh.

  Chapter 14 (Tabi)

  Since Midori can’t port we walk back to class together. It means we need to finish our lunch break a little earlier but it isn’t far so it doesn’t make too much difference. It’s the first time in a while that I’ve walked along these huge white marble corridors.

  “Whoever built this academy must have used some really skilled earth mages.” I remark.

  “The main building was built without magic.” Tomo tells me.

  “Why did they do that? This is a magic academy so building it without magic seems kind of strange.” I laugh.

  “It wasn’t built as a magic academy. It was originally a palace.” Tomo tells me.

  “How did you find that out?” I ask, a little impressed by her knowledge.

  “I read it in an old library book.”

  “In the academy library?”

  “Of course.” Tomo grins.

  “It’s a wonder you didn’t join the library club.” I laugh.

  “I can read books on my own. Future’s Forge gets me into an independent company with my friends.” Tomo reminds me.

  “Here we are. 3D.” I say as we reach our classroom.

  “Have a good lesson.” Mirai tells us with a mischievous grin. She knows that there is no chance of that.

  “See you at training.” Midori tells us confidently.

  “I hope so.” I answer.

  “Don’t overuse your power, Midori.” Tomo reminds her.

  “I’ll just watch the afternoon lesson.” Midori says unenthusiastically.

  “Make sure you do.” Tomo tells her sternly.

  “We’d better hurry.” Mirai reminds us. I check the dimensional timekeeper and realise we really had better hurry. Tomo must have realised a moment before me because she is already rushing towards our classroom.

  “See you!” I call out with a wave and then dash into our classroom, following Tomo to our seats. On Professor Sheffield’s desk there is a huge stack of vials with pale yellow liquid in. We slow down as we pass her desk and we’re very careful not to knock any of them. Professor Sheffield ports in just as we sit down. The pair of girls who sit behind us aren’t here yet so at least we’re not last students to get here.

  “I hope everyone is ready, but before we start the afternoon lesson I have an announcement to make.” Professor Sheffield says frowning at me and Tomo. She shakes her head in obvious annoyance at our late arrival and then continues. “It took a bit longer than normal to confirm the test results, thanks to the current situation, but we have two new students in our class. You may have also noticed two students are no longer here. They were demoted and there are no promotions from this class because the only 3C student who failed the test had exceptional circumstances. You can both come in now!” Professor Sheffield calls out and two very familiar girls enter the room. They stand beside the teacher facing us.

  “Hello everyone. I’m Neko.”

  “I’m Aventurine.”

  “They caught us up, all the way from 3F!” Tomo whispers to me.

  “Hi Tomo! Hi Tabi!” Neko calls out and there are a few laughs from our classmates.

  “Hi Neko.” I respond weakly.

  “Hi.” Tomo says almost as enthusiastically as I did.

  “Well at least you know two students in this class. You even get to sit behind them.” Professor Sheffield chuckles.

  “Nya.”

  “What does ‘nya’ mean?” Professor Sheffield asks Neko suspiciously.

  “It means I’m happy, nya.” Neko says.

  “Well that’s good. Anyway, both of you sit down so we can start the lesson.” Professor Sheffield sighs. Neko races over towards us and then behind us to her seat whilst Aventurine follows her a bit more elegantly.

  “Hi.” Aventurine whispers as she passes.

  “Hi.” I whisper back. At least she has the sense to whisper rather than embarrassing us in front of the whole class. Of course the whole class hates us already, but now they’ll give Aventurine and Neko a hard time too.

  “Now, as I told you earlier we will be working with advanced fire magic and you will get burnt, but we have plenty of healing salves available. Before you get started you should get some from my desk. The purpose of the lesson is to learn how to reduce or prevent the effects of fire on your body without preventing the fire itself. This will allow you to survive attacks that overpower your shield. It will also allow you to walk or fly through flames that you have no hope of shielding when port barriers prevent you porting past the flames. I will be coming round and sharing my mind so you understand how to do so. Once you know how please collect some healing salves and then begin.” Professor Sheffield explains and then walks over to the desk beside us.

  “This should be fun.” I whisper to Tomo.

  “Great fun.” Tomo laughs quietly. We’d have been a little angry at Mirai for her joke earlier, but she’s going through the same thing right now. In fact she may well have started already, whereas Neko and Aventurine delayed the start of our lesson so we had a short reprieve.

  “Tomo. Stand up.” Professor Sheffield instructs and Tomo does so quickly. Professor Sheffield puts her forehead against Tomo’s and presumably shares her mind. I stand up quickly before Professor Sheffield can tell me to. She then places her forehead against mine and I feel the knowledge seeping into my mind. It is incredibly complex so I can understand why she couldn’t explain it in words. Then she pulls away and moves on to Neko.

  I notice that Aventurine looks rather anxious. She obviously isn’t looking forward to this any more than we are. Neko doesn’t seem as concerned. Professor Sheffield pulls away from Neko and moves onto Aventurine. After a moment Professor Sheffield pulls away and looks at Aventurine with a frown.

  “You don’t need to take part in this lesson.” Professor Sheffield says and there are a few quite loud gasps from around the room.

  “Thank you.” Aventurine says sounding extremely relieved.

  “Everyone, quieten down.” Professor Sheffield calls out with a not so subtle hint of threat in her voice.

  “But why does she get to skip the lesson whilst we all have to…?” A girl from a few seats away asks. Like most of the girls in this class I never bothered remembering her name. It’s not like they use our names so why should I remember their names?

  “Silence, or do you want to continue this lesson through the night as well as the afternoon?” Professor Sheffield asks her with an icy glare. The girl gulps and quickly shakes her head.
>
  Everyone else quickly finds their desk incredibly interesting, other than the couple of girls who had already taken their healing potions. They haven’t worked up the courage to start the practise yet so they are doing everything they can to delay starting. Right now that means neatly stacking their healing salves. Tomo and I quickly take a handful of salves each.

  “We’d better get started.” I sigh and hold out my left hand.

  “Yeah.” Tomo says and hold out hers. “You first.”

  “Thanks…”

  “You’re welcome.” Tomo says and I glare at her, which makes her laugh. I laugh too, but then I focus my magic on my hand to protect it from the flames. I hope I have it right but I doubt I do. Then I create a small flame over my hand and yelp in pain. I drop the flame and pour a small amount of the healing salve over my hand.

  “Your turn.” I tell Tomo who sighs.

  “Are you sure you don’t want a second try first?” Tomo asks.

  “Quite sure.” I nod solemnly. Then Neko screams from behind me and turning I see her hand looks much worse than mine did. Normally the class would be laughing at this, but they have to go through the same thing so they just look on uneasily. A healing salve soon returns Neko’s hand to normal though.

  “This is painful.” Neko complains. Aventurine just looks at her apologetically.

  “Your turn.” I remind Tomo.

  “Thanks.” Tomo sighs and then focuses her magic on her hand. Then a small flame rises out of her palm and she yelps before dropping the flame and using a healing salve.

  The painful lesson continues but without success. At least we aren’t the only ones to go through this pain without anything to show for it. There are only three students who succeed by the end of the lesson.

  “We will continue tomorrow.” Professor Sheffield tells us as the lesson ends, which receives more than a few groans.

  “More fun.” Tomo sighs as she looks down at her hand. The healing salves did their job, but the memory of the pain is all too fresh.

  “Let’s meet Midori and Mirai outside 3C.” I suggest since we haven’t heard from Peter yet about the training. Just as I say it though Peter’s voice fills my head and I can tell from their expressions that Tomo, Neko and Aventurine can hear it too.

  “All Year 3s please meet at my room. Everyone else please practise in your rooms for today.” Peter tells us. It sounds like we will be challenging the other club for the arena if Peter only wants the Year 3s, since it will be Year 3s who have to fight. Neko and Aventurine port away before we can say anything.

  “We’ll have to walk.” Tomo reminds me as if I need a reminder.

  “Of course. Let’s go and meet up with Midori and Mirai.” I say and lead the way out of the now almost deserted classroom. The other students have mostly ported away.

  “Hi Tomo, Tabi!” Midori calls out from just outside 3C. Mirai waves to us.

  “Which way was Peter’s room? I’m sure he moved since I last went there.” I ask Tomo, but Midori answers for us.

  “This way! Come on or we’ll keep everyone, and more importantly, Peter, waiting.” Midori tells us and leads the way at a brisk walk.

  “We’d better hurry or we’ll be left behind.” I laugh and then I really do hurry to catch up with Midori. Tomo is slightly behind me.

  “My hand still hurts.” Tomo complains.

  “Didn’t you use the salve on it every time?” I ask.

  “I must have missed a spot that last time.” Tomo shrugs.

  “You walk with your feet, not your hands.” Midori reminds her sympathetically.

  “Find someone else to look after you next time.” Tomo snaps and Midori winces. “Just joking.”

  “Sorry.” Midori apologises.

  “Is it far?” I ask.

  “Not too far, but we’re the only ones who can’t port so we’ll be last.” Midori sighs. I don’t point out that she is the only one who can’t port, because that would be mean. Tomo looks like she’s tempted to but she doesn’t either. It probably takes a couple of minutes to reach Peter’s room.

  “Here we are.” Mirai says as we turn the corner and find a crowd of our friends waiting outside what must be Peter’s room. Peter is standing by the open door.

  “Everyone come in.” Peter says as he sees us and leads the way into his room.

  There are twelve of us Year 3s here plus Peter, Rin, Asuna and Angelika. Of the Year 3s we have Sherry and Juliet as clear fire mages, Yusa and Aventurine as water mages and Helski, Cherry and Sherry as possible earth mages, though Helski is the only pure earth mage. Then we have seven wind mages. Me, Midori, Tomo, Mirai, Cherry, Neko and Niji.

  I doubt Midori will get a chance given that she isn’t meant to be using too much power and can’t use dimensional magic at all. I hope I get a chance to be useful though. Everyone seems to be hoping to get a chance to compete so Peter must have at least said something whilst he waited for us to arrive. The room although large is now crowded and noisy with everyone’s whispered conversations.

  “Everyone, listen up. This isn’t going to be a battle. It will be a contest of the elements.” Peter says and the noise disappears instantly. He’ll need every element if that is the case and unless there are at least five people there’s no chance I’ll be chosen. I’m disappointed but still anxious to find out who has been chosen. It is so quiet it is almost as if everyone has stopped breathing, though that obviously isn’t quite the reality. “Three of you have been chosen to compete against our rivals. Helski, Juliet and Tabi.”

  I blink, because I am as confused and surprised as everyone else is by his choices. When I heard that it was three people I was sure Cherry, Sherry and either Aventurine or Yusa would be chosen but maybe the contest doesn’t require all four of the elements. We all look at Peter with the same confused expression.

  “The rules are simple. There will be five elemental crystals hidden in the arena. One attuned to each element, including dimension. There will also be lots of crystals that are unattuned. The crystals will be placed on each seat in the arena by the academy slaves. We have to find and use the correct magic on at least three of the attuned crystals to win. You will each search for the crystal that matches your element. You are not allowed to fight each other so speed and accuracy will win or lose the match.” Peter explains.

  “Why Tabi?” Cherry asks, sounding a little hurt.

  “You’d have to ask Silmarion that, because she chose the participants on both teams.” Peter answers.

  “Oh… Ok.” Cherry says and sounds a little relieved. To be honest though, I’m a little disappointed to hear it wasn’t Peter who chose me.

  “Not that I disagree with her choice.” Peter says and Cherry frowns.

  “Do you think I’d be a bad choice then?” Cherry asks sounding both hurt and angry now.

  “You’re both very good at wind magic, but I’d say that Tabi has focused on her senses more and you’ve focused more on flight and combat magic. Having different people with different strengths is useful and right now Tabi’s strength is what we need.” Peter explains, which makes me happy, but Cherry doesn’t seem entirely convinced.

  “But what about water and dimension?” Cherry asks.

  “Juliet can cover dimension if it hasn’t been found by the time she gets the fire crystal. Water the other team will probably get very quickly so there’s no guarantee we would get it even if we had a water mage. Silmarion also had to be fair so she had to ensure neither team had an unfair advantage. We have four elements we’re good at and so do our rivals.” Peter tells her and he sounds a bit annoyed at Cherry.

  “Ok. That makes sense.” Cherry says, though she still doesn’t look entirely convinced. Peter frowns at her but then looks at me.

  “The match starts in just under half an hour now. Juliet and Helski look to be at close to full power, but you look like you’re almost out of power.” Peter tells me.

  “We just had a whole lesson on fire protection. It involved lighting a
flame on my hand and trying to stop the flames from actually burning me, without shielding. I guess you had the same thing last year. So yeah, I’m low on power but if it’s just sensing the crystal I should be fine.” I explain.

  “We covered the same thing last week.” Peter tells me, which seems odd. He did move classes quite a few times last year though, so maybe he just missed it. It seems pretty advanced so they probably cover it each year. Something to look forward to next year! Of course tomorrow’s lesson is much sooner. “Tabi, take power from someone. Anyone in the room, as long as they have enough power and aren’t competing.”

  “Not me.” Niji warns me.

  “Are you low on power?” Peter asks.

  “No, but it involves kissing.” Niji says with obvious distaste at the thought.

  “Would you refuse to kiss someone if it would save their life?” Peter asks sounding a bit angry now.

  “Of course not.” Niji answers and Peter frowns.

  “Don’t worry. If it can be anyone then it has to be you.” I joke. Peter, who was focused on Niji, blinks seeming quite surprised. If he’d been looking my way he’d have known it was a joke from my aura so I’m glad he was distracted. It lets me get the most fun out of everyone’s reactions.

  Cherry glares at me now, seeming really pissed off at not only missing out on being selected but also on kissing Peter. She’s normally the nicest person you could imagine so seeing her like this is unusual, but I can understand her feelings. Midori realises I’m joking and smiles, whilst Rin looks at me as if seeing me for the first time which is kind of scary. I’m about to tell Peter I’m only joking and relieve the tension when he actually kisses me and sends power flowing into me.

  My eyes go wide but I don’t resist. I suppose deep down I kind of wanted to kiss Peter, but there’s no way I’d have had the nerve to actually do so when Rin, Cherry, Hermes and more importantly Midori all have feelings for him. Peter pulls away and I realise my power is back to full.