by Colin Daumen
When Favian attempted to practice casting his spells, he found that it somehow felt like there were two people in one body. It was like another person was trying to mimic his actions. After further inspection, he realized that this was related to the new arcane core he possessed. Unlike his arcane core which was a purplish-black and felt solid, this new one was a greyish-black and nearly ethereal. It was almost as if it didn’t exist whenever he tried to make a deep inspection of it, weaving away from his strands of magic. The spells would fizzle whenever he was about to finish casting them.
Favian was hard at work trying to cast his only two known spells, however to no avail. There seemed to be something he was missing in his understanding of them. He had lost all memories of the important information contained within the book ‘Darkness and Shadows’ after his game system disappeared, and with it, he could only rely on himself to learn these spells again. It did seem, however, that the spells became much more advanced than before, and weren’t at all the same ones he had used. Favian had just had an idea of how to solve the synchronization issues between his two arcane cores when a knock resounded on his door.
“Favian sweetie, it’s about time you leave your secluded training,” Aria called out as she entered the room.
‘Why knock if you’re just going to come in anyway?’ Favian wanted to ask. Favian had no belongings to pack up, so he simply left the chamber he had spent his last two months in. He felt somewhat sentimental about leaving this room as he knew the world energy outside was a lot thinner than in here.
After two months of grueling practice, he finally saw sunlight again. Its rays were difficult to get used to for a couple of minutes, but Favian relished in the way the sun-kissed his face. He was immediately brought to a large room which acted as the academy’s assembly hall. This room was rarely used, however, whenever it was used, it was because some important information would be divulged to all of the students. The room was able to house roughly 5 thousand people, about the same amount as the Colosseum could.
Favian entered the room with his master, however, he was quickly ditched by her as she found some of her friends seated at the staff area of the large hall. Looking around the hall, Favian saw huge banners covering different areas, labelling where staff and student seating areas were, and also divided the seating areas by the different year groups. Being a first-year student, Favian walked to the banner that was meant for him. On his way there, several students would look at him before murmuring to each other. Favian decided to ignore this and instead walked to a friendly face he hadn’t seen in a long time.
“Mind if I take a seat here?” Favian asked.
“Oh, sure thing, you can sit here... WAIT, Favian is that you? Your hair, what in the nine hells?” Dunkel exclaimed as he saw his closest friend at the academy for the first time in months. He was taken aback by how different Favian looked now, especially since his hair was very striking with its dark purple color. Quickly he lunged in for a hug, having missed the only person who would listen to his talkative self for prolonged periods.
“Haha, how’s it going man? It feels like it’s been a million years since I last saw you,” Favian said as he hugged Dunkel back. He missed his only friend deeply and wanted to send him a message telling him he was fine the whole time he’d been training. The realization that Dunkel was more powerful than himself also acted as a driving force for Favian to keep working hard, and aided in stopping himself from falling too far into depression. He wouldn’t be able to stay friends with Dunkel if he fell too far behind.
The matter of Licht and the elves was completely thrown to the back of his mind, and any feelings of vengeance were put on hold. Aria had explained that what happened was truly an accident, and that Garu and the other elf were harshly punished by her. When Favian asked what the punishment was, she replied with just a devilish grin.
Just as Favian and Dunkel sat down on their seats, a loud sound was made at the front of the room. Turbulent wind was formed on the main stage, and a boom resounded in the room as a man crashed onto the stage. He slowly stood up and dusted himself off, revealing brown curls and an apologetic smile. His black skin was flawless and radiated a divine light.
“Everyone, I’d like to announce that as of today, the purging shall begin!” he exclaimed with a loud voice, making sure that every corner of the room could hear. Gasps of surprise were made exclusively by the first-year students, who numbered the largest out of all the cohorts. All of the other students and teacher’s simply sat unfazed as if they knew what was to come.
Chapter 22 – Unexpected ally
“Purging? Why does this sound so ominous Dunkel?” Favian asked his friend. He noticed that only his cohort was fidgeting and riled up, whereas everyone else acted like this announcement was just another mundane aspect of their daily life.
Dunkel looked as confused as Favian did, and shrugged. He had no clue what was going on either. Instead, he took out an oatmeal bar and started munching away at it.
“I know you first-year’s must all be very confused right now, but don’t worry, your handsome headmaster Anansi will explain. Every year that you study here at the academy, you will be put through a rigorous testing process, so that we can weed out the weak of you, and give our resources to those deserving of them,” Anansi, looked around the room as he said this, his eyes focusing on Favian’s for a split second. Or at least Favian thought they did.
“You will be placed in groups of four, and sent into a beast range far away from the academy. You will spend a month there fighting for your life, and only those that survive will continue with their studies here at the Dusk Academy!” he exclaimed.
The headmaster continued to explain that groups could be formed by the students themselves and that they had a 1-day limit from today where they could choose their members, after which they would be allocated randomly amongst other groups. He led them to believe that they were completely on their own once they reached the beast ranges, however, a teacher would always be watching the various groups from far away. This didn't make the students invincible as harm would still come their way, however, he couldn’t just let students die off pointlessly if he wanted to continue having a good standing with the various kingdoms on the continent.
The assembly ended, and with it, the first-year students could be seen scrambling around trying to get all of their friends together into a party of four allowed for this test. Favian and Dunkel decided to pair up with each other; it was a no-brainer for the two best friends.
“I don’t really care who else joins the group, I mean we can just wait until the deadline and get two random people through the ballot,” Dunkel said as he and Favian were walking away from the assembly hall, towards the dining area.
They walked at a slow and steady pace, taking in the views of the academy. Whilst they were calm and collected, lots of students were pacing around them, hurrying off to different places as if their life depended on it. These people were probably trying to go to vendors to buy items that would help them out for the test they were about to take part in. Favian was rather tranquil as he knew that with Dunkel he'd be safe for the time being. He hoped that would give him enough time to work on casting spells again, as he felt so close to a breakthrough.
Favian and Dunkel reached the dining hall, which was relatively empty. Usually, it would be full of students, but right now it was understandably vacant. The two grabbed some food, before sitting down at a table in front of a window which looked down onto an orchard. Berries and fruits were being grown in this orchard and were used to create alcohol. Of course, the drinking age on the continent was 18, so Favian still had to wait a couple more years before he could drown away his sorrows with alcohol, if need be.
Dunkel went over some important things with Favian about beast ranges. He first explained that beast ranges were large swathes of land that were inhabited almost exclusively by magical beasts and rare fauna. These areas housed stronger beasts once you went further in, as the concent
ration of arcana was thicker there. Some beasts would also gain sentience, and be able to speak languages or shape-shift themselves from a magical beast form into a more human-like form.
“There are even treasure troves and ancient relics that can be found if you look hard enough,” a sweet voice called out from behind the two. Licht carefully trotted to an empty seat by the two boys. “So, uh, Favian, have you already partied yourself up in a group?” a fresh fragrance of perfume entered Favian’s nose as she asked this.
“Licht!” Favian had been slightly startled, remembering how she stormed out of the infirmary months ago after he’d been injured. He hadn’t seen her in those two months, so he half expected her to have forgotten about him.
“No, I’ve just partied up with Dunkel so far. We were going to just have two more random people join us since we don’t know any other people we can trust,” he said as he looked firmly into Licht’s eyes. The anger he'd associated with her was mostly gone. The amount of time he'd had spent secluded in training had given him time to reflect on everything. He thought that she was just a young girl who still was too naive about this world, so he didn't take her inaction too much to heart. However, if she tried something, he wouldn't hesitate to destroy her with every ounce of strength he could muster.
She became slightly flushed at his intense gaze, before she continued, “Well, how about I party up with you two? I don’t see anything wrong with that, and take it as an apology gift, if you may.”
At this point, Dunkel lost his cool and remarked, “Well, of course, you wouldn’t see anything wrong with that. How about you just try to kill Favian yourself this time, your majesty! I’ll even give you the knife to do it. Or how about he just hands an arm and a leg to appease you?”
Favian was warmed by the protectiveness Dunkel was displaying over him, and knew that this outburst came out of a good place. “Dunkel let’s hear her out at least.”
“Thanks, Favian. Anyways, I’m sure we can all agree that the three of us are probably some of, if not the strongest students in our cohort, so why don’t we team up? You two can even decide who our final member will be,” Licht said.
Favian wasn’t sure about how he should feel about being called ‘one of the strongest students’ when he didn’t know how strong he was right now. He had finally felt a breakthrough earlier this morning, however, he hadn’t yet been able to test it.
‘Hate to break your bubble Licht but I might well be useless right now,’ Favian thought.
Dunkel was still a bit skeptical about letting Licht party together with them, yet, seeing that Favian was fine about the idea calmed his temper. He was simple in this way, and remembered her to have been a kind soul based on his childhood memories of her.
"Licht, I swear on the blood of my people, if you hurt Favian again I will make sure to destroy you!" With that, the three officially agreed to sign up together and put themselves on the waiting list for their last party member.
“I wonder what type of person we’ll get for our last member,” Dunkel said. The trio was eating puff pastries at the Elegantia Café.
Licht was ravenously chowing down on her choice of doughnuts and puff pastries, before she stopped and said, “Hopefully they’ll be a girl. I don’t want to be stuck with 3 smelly boys for a whole month,” she giggled as she said this, and wiped away the crumbs that were littered on her face.
‘Another glutton,’ Dunkel thought as he facepalmed. He was now seriously contemplating whether to just change groups because he had two party members who ate like monsters. How much food would they have to hunt if they ran out of supplies, just to satisfy these two greedy people?
Favian enjoyed the playful nature that Dunkel and Licht were showing between each other. A lot of the animosity Dunkel had felt against Licht had dissipated once they were able to talk properly to each other and reminisce about their childhood. They seemed like brother and sister with the way they bantered with one another. It was a complete shock to Favian that the personality of an elven royal would be so laid-back but also boisterous, especially when she had been so quiet and timid when he first met her. Her personality was a stark contrast to that of all the other elves he’d met so far.
“Well, I guess we’ll find out tomorrow. Anyways, I think I’m going to head off to get some sleep, I’ll see you two tomorrow at the assembly hall,” Favian said, after which he got up and started to walk back to his room.
Favian drifted off to sleep quickly once he got back to his room.
…
In Favian’s dream
“Hello? Anybody there?” I called out, but nothing came in response. I was shrouded in darkness, and couldn’t see my hands when I put them in front of my face.
Slowly I walked forwards, making sure I didn’t trip over, hoping that I don’t fall into a pit or chasm to an untimely death. After walking for what seemed like an eternity, I could finally see some light. The brightness hurt my eyes, but I soldiered through the pain. What I approached was a mountain, and a golden staircase was built into it. The stairs went all the way up into the heavens, the clouds masking where their end was.
Again, I walked for an endless amount of time, the harsh wind threatening to blow me off the mountain and to a gruesome death. By now the cold started to affect me, and I shivered continuously as I made my ascent. Finally, I was able to reach the top of the mountain, and here the stairs ended.
A cave. A dark cave awaited me, it called to me, my own voice, from within the cave. I was scared, I didn’t know whether to enter. Something compelled me to enter. I didn’t want to make the trek back down the endless stairs. Once again, darkness took over my sight. But only for a moment. I could see again, but wait, why can I see myself walking towards me?
Confusion. I was so confused. My vision kept switching between myself who was walking in the cave, and my other self who was… standing idly in the cave. I felt a connection between the two me’s, and now I could freely control both.
I fell.
Chapter 23 – Licht
“Haha, I’ve got you now Gael,” a little girl shouted as she jumped onto a larger boy’s back, who had been hiding behind a stone pillar.
The little girl giggled and laughed as she continued to play hide and seek with her older brother, causing a ruckus throughout the household. Glees of joy could always be heard from within the royal palace of the Elven Kingdom because of the two.
A large forest surrounded the royal palace, which was built on the land in the kingdom which held the highest concentration of arcana. The area around the palace was filled with colorful plants and flowers, and a vibrant ecosystem was present here. The elves lived in unison with the land; it could be said that if the land wept, then so did the elves because they held such a special connection with it.
"Gael, when do you think papa and mama will finally teach me magic?" Licht asked her older brother. She'd just recently turned four, and couldn't wait to be taught in the mystical arts. She had always seen her brother, who was ten, practicing magic, for as long as she could remember. She'd been envious of the amount of attention her father gave to him, and he would always talk for what seemed like hours about 'My Gael is so talented,' or 'Gael will make a good leader in the future.’
This, of course, didn't change the relationship she had with her brother. He was still her best friend, and the strongest person ever according to her. She would usually say these things when she bragged about him to the maids and waiting staff at the palace. The attention which she didn't get from her father acted as fuel to her for wanting to practice magic. There wasn't a day when she wouldn't ask Gael the same question, "When will I learn magic?"
"Licht, you aren't strong enough to practice magic yet. Mum and Dad are just worried that you'll hurt yourself if you start practicing now. Maybe in a few years you'll learn some magic, and become even more powerful than me."
Licht never took well to being told that she wasn't yet allowed to learn magic, so she started to train in secret. She woul
d mimic the physical exercises that Gael always did, but only when nobody was around. She also memorized the chants that her brother used to cast magic, and the way he meditated in his free time.
Like this, 3 years passed. Licht had a slightly stronger physique than before, partially due to her natural growth and also because of the physical exercise she would do. She wasn't able to practice as much as she'd wanted, because she was still home-schooled for the majority of the day, learning about classical studies and other things deemed important for a member of the royal family to know.
On the day of Gael's 13th birthday, instead of joy and happiness that was usually circulating the royal palace, a certain hint of sadness was present. This atmosphere was mainly given off by Licht, who was sad to see her brother leave. He was now at the age where he needed to be enrolled in the Elven Royal Academy, where he would learn to become the future ruler of the kingdom. Licht sobbed and cried the whole evening, begging her parents to let her go to the academy with her brother, but to no avail. She was too young, and still wasn't taught any magic, so all they could do was try to calm her down.
News of Gael's studying would be brought back home frequently, and Licht would always light up whenever she could hear stories about his exploits. There was one time where Licht didn't stop laughing for a whole day because her brother had his eyebrows and hair burned off in an alchemy accident. When he came home for the holidays, his bald head and face made him look like a big baby.
Gael would come home at the end of every semester, spending 9 months at the academy and 3 months at home. This continued on for the next few years, the bond between brother and sister as strong as ever. That was until Licht turned ten. Gael had suddenly gone missing off the planet. No tracking device could find him, not even the most expensive materials the King and Queen used were able to deduce what happened to their son. Experts were called from all over the continent, yet, still, his whereabouts were unknown.
