Summoner 4

by Eric Vall

  Layla stuck out her tongue. “He failed, exactly as you’d expect!”

  “Of course,” I said, “teamwork is critical in the rifts.” I gave Layla a warm hug. “I’d say we should go off somewhere to celebrate better but…”

  Layla flashed me a wink. A look of realization came over Braden’s face and he just chuckled at me while Nia let out a knowing little cough. Me, I simply smiled like the cat who stole the cream as I glanced over to Nia.

  “So, how did you sleep?” I asked her.

  Nia looked more alert and prepared than either Braden or Layla had despite having more pressure on her shoulders than both of them combined.

  “Fine,” she replied in short, and she left it at that.

  I side eyed Layla who didn’t look concerned about her lack of response.

  “Think you’re ready for your round tonight?” I tried again.

  Nia sighed as she looked at me. “I’m more than ready,” she replied confidently.

  I sat back a little and laughed. “Okay, okay. Just asking.”

  “I appreciate you being concerned, but it isn’t necessary,” Nia assured. “I have this under control.”

  “I wish I had even an ounce of your confidence,” Layla said from the other side of the table between bites of her muffin.

  Nia smiled at the compliment but shook her head. “You handled your round beautifully, Layla. It wasn’t your fault you were handed an incompetent team. You stepped up when no one else would. That’s the sign of a leader, and that takes confidence.”

  Layla and I both gawked at the outright dig at the other members of Layla’s Magicae Nito squad, and she thoroughly blushed at such a high amount of praise.

  “Thanks.” She looked down bashfully, and it was kind of cute to see her so flustered at Nia giving her a genuine compliment.

  “Don’t mention it.” Nia smiled.

  I waited for her to follow it up with the same line she usually gave me, which was along the lines of ‘no really, don’t. I have a reputation to maintain,’ but no such words came. Maybe we had been a good influence in Nia’s life after all.

  “Where’s Braden?” Layla asked suddenly, likely to take the attention off of her.

  “He was gone when I woke up.” I frowned. “Said this morning that he had something on his mind, but wouldn’t tell me what.”

  “I’m sure he’ll tell you eventually,” Nia confirmed what I had already thought.

  “Yeah, but I don’t want whatever it is to eat him alive either.” I sighed. I knew it was hopeless to worry about it right now, especially with everything else to consider and my own exam only days out.

  “Don’t stress over it,” she insisted and then looked at me with a soft smile. “Go get yourself something to eat.”

  As if on cue, my stomach growled, and I laughed as patted it. I forgot I hadn’t eaten all day, so I grabbed a tray of food, and when I returned to the table, Braden had just taken his usual seat next to Layla.

  “Hey,” I greeted as I took my spot. “Feeling any better?”

  Braden shrugged, much like he had this morning, but he smiled a little. I guess that was progress.

  “A little bit,” he replied and set a stack of books on the table. “Just needed to clear my head.”

  I eyed them as I broke a piece of bread in my hands. All the titles on the spines were books that pertained to summoning, the history of summoning, and there were a few that weren’t labeled, too. I assumed they were also about summoning or has something to do with the subject. In fact, some of them were books that Arwyn had suggested I read myself.

  “Some light reading?” I teased.

  “You could say that,” he replied with a laugh and picked up the first of the books on the pile. He was ever the studious one, so it didn’t strike me as odd that he’d had the books. If anything, I was more shocked that they were books that he hadn’t read already. The timing in which he picked them up, however, was another matter entirely, but again, I wasn’t going to pry.

  Layla leaned over and plucked the second book from the pile.

  “Familiars and Other Magical Monsters,” she read aloud.

  “I’d heard that all summoners have a monster or creature type that acts as a familiar, or a pet, as it were,” he explained, “like Cyra with her dragon.”

  My eyes grew wide as I took a sip of potato and leek soup. That was the first I’d ever heard of that. Then again, I hadn’t done any reading on magic and summoners before coming to Varle, so maybe it was common knowledge to everyone but me.

  “So what’s yours?” I asked Braden, and he shook his head.

  “Haven’t found mine yet,” he replied. “You never know which one is going to call out to you until you summon it for the first time.”

  He shifted and pointed to Layla. “For example, her keichim is hers.”

  Layla seemed to consider this before she nodded slowly. “I guess that makes sense.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “How do you figure?”

  “It’s that silvery light that surrounds it,” Nia continued. When I looked to her, she seemed just as fascinated by the idea of familiars as Braden, and she wasn’t even a summoner.

  “You mean to tell me all summoners have one?” I clarified, and the three of them nodded.

  “You don’t get to choose, and I’ve heard of cases where summoners go their entire lives without ever having found theirs,” Braden explained further. “It sort of just happens, but once it does, there becomes a bond there that can’t be broken.”

  I nodded and turned to Layla. “Is that how you felt with the keichim?”

  Layla nodded and handed the book back to Braden who stacked it back in the pile.

  “Yeah, come to think of it.” She smiled off-handedly. “Maybe that’s why I wasn’t afraid to go headfirst into an explosive hurricane. I just knew that I’d be okay, that my familiar would protect me.”

  There was a collective understanding amongst us as we took in that information.

  “Anyway,” Braden gave up trying to read at the table and closed the book, “someone has their round of Magicae Nito tonight.”

  We all looked to Nia, who shied away at the scrutiny.

  “I will be fine,” she insisted.

  “We know you will,” Braden continued, “but we’d be bad friends if we didn’t hype you up.”

  Layla snorted as she picked through her food, and I smirked.

  “He makes a good point,” I added.

  Nia glance shifted between the three of us, and she sighed with a smile. “Thank you, but save it for the arena.”

  “Oh, we’re gonna make signs,” Layla started with an amused smirk.

  “Giant banners,” Braden continued, “and a marquee with a light show.”

  “All because we support you, Nia Kenefick,” I finished, and by the time I had gotten the last word out, the four of us had erupted into a fit of laughter.

  Of course, we didn’t really plan on making a big deal of her Magicae Nito, but it had been fun to joke about it.

  When we arrived at the arena that night, Maelor and Cyra were already waiting for us. Maelor waved us down, and I picked up my pace to jog up to him.

  “Have a good night?” I smirked. I wasn’t dumb. I knew what he was up to with Meriden last night. Come to think of it, maybe that had been why Layla was able to sneak out of the infirmary this morning without being noticed. I made a note to thank him for it later.

  A light flush colored Maelor’s round cheeks. In fact, I could barely see it beneath his bushy beard.

  “Quit ya yappin’,’” he warned, and I snickered at his expense.

  Cyra stifled a laugh in the back of her hand before she turned to my friends and me. “Touchy subject, apparently.”

  The group of us laughed, and Maelor grumbled something about ‘beatin’ us to a pulp,’ but it was mostly unintelligible.

  “I’d better check-in,” Nia said, and she turned to leave.

  “Hold on a second.” I caught her ha
nd and resisted the urge to kiss her deeply as I pulled her flush to my body. I kept her reputation in mind, though, especially after last night. I never knew when Gallahar Kenefick would creep up out from the shadows. Instead, I settled for bringing her hand to my lips. I placed a soft kiss there, and I delighted in the way she blushed a deep shade of red.

  “For good luck,” I told her, and I might have imagined it, but I thought I felt her heart skip a beat. “Not that you need it.”

  Her lashes fluttered, and she looked up me shyly from beneath those long, beautiful lashes. “Thank you.”

  I dropped her hand, and she disappeared into the crowd as they filed into the arena for the next round of the Magicae Nito.

  “We should get going, too.” I turned back to Maelor and my friends.

  “Onward!” Layla cheered, and as I turned to head into the flow of people, she hopped onto my back.

  I rolled my eyes, but caught her all the same, and adjusted so that she didn’t slide down. We filed in with everyone else, and somehow ended up on the opposite side of where we usually sat, but at about the same level, so the vantage point wasn’t too different from the last two times.

  It wasn’t long before the round started, and the mystery announcer man’s voice boomed over the crowd to introduce Nia’s squad.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting round of the Varle Academy Magicae Nito!” He gave the audience a chance to cheer and holler before he continued. “Tonight, we have a real treat for all of you. For the first time ever, we’ll get to see the prodigy daughter of the famed General Gallahar Kenefick in action!”

  Anyone that had seen her spar during field practice or anyone that had been on a squad with her already knew how powerful she was, but I figured that was a small handful based on the murmurs from people around us.

  “I guess she is kind of famous, huh?” Layla leaned in and whispered to me.

  I hummed and agreed. It never really occurred to me that so many people would know who Nia was or held any interest in her academic career. I guessed when you had some pretty big shoes to fill, that was something you came to expect. I didn’t know if I could ever handle being in the spotlight like that. Sure, I could show off with the best of them and give people something to ogle, but there was a certain pressure that came with the weight of being a Kenefick that made me understand Nia’s desire to get as far away from it as possible.

  “Without further ado, here are tonight’s Takers in this round of the Magicae Nito!” The announcer paused as the squad lined up from left to right. There was a tall boy with flaming red hair and a cocky grin who stepped out before Nia. After her, another girl, a little shorter with yellow blonde pigtails, and then another tall boy with a dirty blond mullet.

  “We have Liam Aegard, fourth-year fire elementalist, the girl wonder herself, Nia Kenefick, first-year multi-elementalist, Laurel Telvith, third-year banisher, and Edym Nigh, third-year augmenter!” The announcer man paused between each introduction to allow for cheers, and of course, Nia received more than a fair few, especially from our group.

  The crowd settled again, and the mystery announcer pushed on. “Vanguard, at the ready!”

  Nia and this Liam kid fixed their masks to their faces and checked their gear before they raised their arms to signal they were ready.

  “Begin!” he cried out, and Nia and Liam stepped through the gate and into the mock rift. As they did, the image warped before our eyes and displayed a much different setting than what Braden and Layla’s had been.

  This was definitely a village of some kind. Homes and establishments burned and smoldered, and smoke filled the air as the fire flickered with a sickly orange glow. Remnants of the people who used to live here were scattered about. Toys, books, kitchen utensils… the list went on.

  Nia uttered something to Liam, who nodded as his hands burst into flame. It seemed sort of ironic to fight fire with fire, but part of the exam was being able to adapt and overcome. I knew Nia would manage since she could harness the abilities of all the elements, but I was interested to see how Liam would handle himself.

  We didn’t have to wait long for the action to start. From one of the piles of debris emerged several grade D monsters, mostly imps, but there were a handful of bandersnatch in the mix as well. Nia had an advantage since she’d fought them before, and she wasted no time in disposing of one that ran straight at her and lunged. It nearly clipped her with its gnarly teeth, but she was able to dodge out of the way and conjure a barrage of piercing ice shards to hurl in its direction. They ruptured its skin, which was no easy feat, and pinned the Bandersnatch to the ground.

  “Oof, brutal,” Cyra commented to my left.

  “She has no filter when it comes to kicking ass,” I replied with a little laugh without taking my eyes off Nia. I could watch her fight all day and never be bored. She always amazed me with how she could overcome anything thrown at her.

  Nia turned just in time to shield herself from two imps that had followed after the Bandersnatch. Their claws wriggled and itched to sink into her flesh, but a burst of flames shot through them, and they perished without ever getting a taste.

  Liam remained in his stance as he moved with full control. He was clearly well-practiced and disciplined. I wondered if maybe I could go against him some time and test my skill versus his. He seemed like someone that I could go toe to toe with.

  The rest of the imps and the other Bandersnatch fell without much effort from either of them and then things were quiet again. They continued to scope out the area for any signs of monsters but came up with nothing. When they were certain that it was clear, Nia gave Liam the okay to signal for Edym and Laurel.

  The augmenter and the banisher stepped through the gate and into the mock rift, and the four of them stood in silence as Laurel felt out the location of the catalyst stone. A moment or two passed without any movement, and then suddenly, she pointed far off to the east. I saw Nia grimace. It must have been far from where they had ended up.

  I followed the direction Laurel pointed with my eyes and saw why Nia was so crestfallen. The catalyst wasn’t even in the town, but rather on the far eastern outskirts in a forest with tall trees. From experience having fought monsters in the forest, it wasn’t a good time. There was little room for movement, and it greatly altered spacial awareness and depth perception in the heat of a battle. Hopefully, they wouldn’t run into trouble, and if they did, it hopefully wasn’t while they were in the forest.

  Laurel and Edym set off, and Nia and Liam waited by the gate as the vanguard should, but the only active thing was the fire that burned the remains of the village.

  Whether it was out of habit or because she was going for an extra high score, Nia doused the fires in the immediate area and then wandered to the west to put out another before she came back to wait some more.

  Still, I stared intently. Something was definitely up. Not that I was any kind of expert by any means, but something about this rift felt off. Sure, I supposed that not every match could be as action-packed as the ones before, and like any other rift, they varied in potential threat, but I couldn’t help but wait for the other shoe to drop.

  As we all watched in relative silence. My eyes sought out Laurel and Edym, who had only made it halfway to the forest, and I shook my head.

  “Something is wrong.” I gestured at Nia. “She’s one of the most powerful mages at this entire academy, and nothing has attacked them.”

  “Maybe that’s the whole thing,” Braden said, and I realized he was peering off into the distance. “Everyone knows Nia can take down a slew of monsters with a wave of her hand, so how would you test someone like that?” He turned his attention to me, and I realized he was waiting for an answer.

  “If it were me, I’d try to lure her somewhere she couldn’t use her awesome magic to take down the monsters…” I shrugged.

  “Or… you’d try to catch her unaware.” He smirked and nodded into the distance.

  That’s when I saw it
. Out of the corner of my eye, it appeared, and then it was gone again. I couldn’t make out what it was, and I actually questioned if I had really seen it at all. I looked all around, from the forest to the town, and beyond where there seemed to be nothing but plains, but I didn’t see anything. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me after all, or it was another invisible monster. I didn’t know how many monsters had that ability, or if it was exclusively a keichim trait, but I figured there was always the possibility.

  “There.” Braden pointed, and sure enough, a monster phased in and out of existence.

  “Another invisible monster?” I asked. “Are they trying to trick her?”

  “I don’t think it’s invisible.” Braden shook his head. “I think it might be a mirrortaur. They have a reflective coat on their skin that makes them look invisible from certain angles, but they never actually fade away.” He took a deep breath. “In addition, they’re almost impervious to elemental magic. You can blast them with lightning or light them on fire, and it will slide right off them. Hell, they can shrug off most physical damage too.”

  Damn. These Magicae Nito rounds had taught me more about monsters in three days than I had learned my entire school year. I’d never heard of mirrortaurs, but when I was able to get the full scope of what it looked like, I could see why they were so terrifying.

  Its skin was purple, and the black horns that jutted from the side of its head were curved and pointed. I shivered at the thought of being impaled by one. It wasn’t on my top five list of ways to die, that was for sure. Vicious fangs hung over its bottom lip, and a green and orange mane decorated its spine and chest. It carried a giant axe, too, one that seemed to be covered in dried blood.

  “He’s a scary lookin’ fucker,” Maelor said on the other side of Braden. His arms were crossed as he scowled at it.

  “Really? I thought the two of you looked alike?” I couldn’t resist the opportunity to tease the old man, and even he got a good laugh out of my joke.

  “Don’t think just because you’re on Academy property that I won’t kick your ass,” he threatened.