Chapter 103 - Just another day part 1 (Patreon)

Sebastian Vintey
Black hair and grey eyes. Reserved, analytical. Comes from a wealthy aristocratic family and is currently ranked just behind Reyna. Water and Earth Aspects.

Matt Stonewall
Brown hair, tall, broad shoulders. Combat focused, stubborn, grounded, and loyal. His father is a general. Fire and Earth Aspects.

Meliana “Mel” Rath
Honey colored hair. Quiet, shy, and diligent. A close childhood friend of Pori. Water and Air Aspects.

Jakol Verdan
Tall and lanky. A younger librarian and an alumnus of the House of the Quill. The Academy Library is pretty much the only thing he truly loves. An acquaintance of Malbek.

Arien woke, as usual, a few minutes before the alarm sounded. For a moment, he fought the urge to close his eyes and steal another hour of sleep. He knew that would be a mistake, though. Perhaps his classes did not start until tomorrow, but he could not afford to waste the morning lying in bed.

He threw off the blanket and sat up, his feet meeting the cold wooden floor of the bedroom. Almost automatically, he checked his mana.

Mana: 768/955

Ugh. Even a full night of sleep wasn't enough to restore all of it.

Then again, he had fallen asleep sometime after two in the morning, changing the color of a pen over and over until he was sick of looking at it.

On his way to the bathroom, he pulled back the curtains and paused for a moment to look at the trees outside. Their leaves had already begun changing color, sprouting vibrant reds and oranges. Arien generally liked autumn, even with the Veil, the strange seasonal effect that always left him more tired and subdued than usual. Fortunately, it was almost over, and his usual energy should return soon. From talking with his friends, he had learned that only Reyna and Pori seemed to notice a similar change, though neither appeared to feel it as strongly as he did.

By the time he stepped into the shower, his thoughts had already returned to the Academy and everything that waited for him once classes resumed.

He stayed beneath the hot water of the shower longer than he should have, but lately it was one of the few small pleasures he allowed himself. Even then, he spent the time visualizing the matrix of Fault, the spell Master Uthrel had shown them recently before casually mentioning that the Fourth Circle spell would be graded at the end of their fifth year.

The spell opened a fissure several yards long and nearly ten feet deep. Arien barely knew where to begin casting it. Using something that complex instinctively in combat seemed almost impossible.

After washing and dressing, he headed downstairs to the Academy mess hall.

The noise reached him before he even stepped inside. Most of the tables were already occupied, and the usual morning mixture of voices, scraping chairs, and clattering dishes filled the room.

Matt was already sitting at their usual table, devouring his customary large breakfast: a generous portion of scrambled eggs, several thick slices of bread covered in butter, and a handful of thin sausages.

Arien waved in greeting and went to fill his own tray.

“How did yesterday's duel go?” he asked, setting his tray on the table and sitting across from him.

“I won, but barely,” Matt grunted through a mouthful of food. He swallowed, then continued. “A year of extra fighting and training makes a pretty big difference. How did yours go?”

“He swept Nelia off the field,” Sebastian said, appearing beside the table with his own tray. It held only a cup of coffee and three slices of buttered bread.

Matt whistled. “You beat her that badly?”

“Not really. It was difficult,” Arien admitted. “But I gained valuable experience.”

“What was that spell you used at the end?” Sebastian asked.

“I call it a Fire Bomb,” Arien said with a laugh. “It isn't strictly a spell. It's something I managed to come up with thanks to my Second Specialization.”

Sebastian and Matt exchanged looks.

“Told you,” Sebastian said, looking pleased with himself.

Matt groaned. “It's not fair that Arien has three Aspects and already two Second Specializations. How much do I owe you?” he asked, rummaging through the pouch at his belt.

“Two gold denars.” Sebastian held out his hand.

Arien cleared his throat, not particularly surprised that they had been betting on it. Bets were one of the few forms of entertainment they still had time for, and they added a little excitement to otherwise ordinary gossip.

There was only one real rule: they could only bet on other people taking part in the game. Once a bet was settled, the person it concerned had to confirm whether the outcome was true or false. If they were later caught lying, they were permanently excluded from any future bets.

Naturally, Levels and chosen Specializations were off limits.

Progression, along with Arena matches, remained the most common subject, although some of the bets had become considerably more specific over the years. Arien, for example, knew there was a fairly large pool on whether he would sign a contract with House Voltorey before graduating from the Academy.

He himself saw the betting as a useful source of information about how quickly other students at the Academy were progressing. Having to reveal how many Specializations he had reached was not particularly dangerous at this stage. To a trained eye, seeing someone cast a single spell was usually enough to estimate the approximate level of the Skill behind it anyway.

“Anything from Mel?” he asked.

Sebastian shook his head and took a sip of coffee. “No, but you know what she's like. Even if she managed it, she wouldn't announce it herself.”

“The deadline is in a week. I'll ask her then,” Arien said.

He hoped their friend really had reached her Second Specialization in the Water Aspect. During their last Magical Defense class, he thought he had noticed a change in her spells, though it could just as easily have been the result of improvements in her other Skills.

“Are you going to the Benches later?”

Matt shook his head. “I'm out. I have a meeting with an expert Pori recommended.” He sighed. “I'll be practicing Levitation...”

Sebastian brushed a strand of hair away from his face. “Don't look at me either. I finished my essay for Master Terynheim two days ago.”

After breakfast, Arien returned to his room and settled comfortably into the armchair. He checked his mana again.

Mana: 889/955

Arien exhaled, then used Levitation to raise the pen in his hand to eye level. His control was improving with every passing day, although Vizimir would probably have disagreed. There had been no sudden breakthrough or moment of enlightenment, only daily, tedious practice that sometimes left him struggling not to fall asleep from boredom. By now, he could locate an object's center of gravity within moments and lift it almost immediately afterward.

As a warmup, he repeated the sequence twenty times before moving on to the next stage: moving the pen sideways through the air. It was much harder than it looked, especially when the pen moved farther away from him or when he tried to increase its speed.

With one hand extended, Arien guided the pen toward the door and then back again. Forward and back. Forward and back. He kept at it for another ten minutes, before he brought the pen back into his hand and moved on to the next spell.

For the moment, Transmutation lessons consisted mostly of changing an object's color. From what he had heard, during sixth year Vizimir would begin demanding changes in weight and density as well; things Arien thought sounded far more useful to artifact makers than battle mages.

He turned the pen green, then deep blue, then orange, trying to switch between colors as quickly as possible. Changing directly between colors on opposite ends of the spectrum proved noticeably harder, so he spent several minutes alternating between blue and orange, then violet and yellow.

He continued for another twenty minutes, hoping that, combined with yesterday's practice, it would be enough to keep Vizimir from throwing him out of class.

Still sitting in the armchair, Arien directed the pen toward the half open bag beside his bed. Halfway there, it began to wobble, but he concentrated harder and forced it through the last few feet. A faint smile appeared on his lips.

Now just turn it a little...

One of the mana threads failed under the strain and snapped. The pen dropped onto the bag, bounced once, and rolled beneath the bed.

Damn it.

Arien got out of the chair, dropped to his knees, and looked underneath. The pen had come to rest beside a small tube. He stretched out an arm and retrieved both.

The pen had already returned to its original color. He tossed it into the bag.

That was one of the major limitations of Transmutation, both in combat and for more mundane uses. Once the spell ended, the affected object returned to its original state. From what Arien understood, the magic somehow altered the way an object interacted with physical forces rather than changing the object itself.

He stood in the middle of the room for a moment, staring at the tube, then glanced around despite knowing perfectly well that he was alone.

Finally, he removed the cork and pulled out the tightly rolled sheet of parchment inside.

Setting the tube on the floor, Arien unrolled the drawing and smiled despite himself. Sanrey's farewell gift never failed to improve his mood, at least for a moment. The charcoal sketch showed Arien standing near the stern of the ship.

He shook his head, rolled it up again, and returned it to the tube before hiding it beneath the bed. If his friends ever discovered that he kept a portrait of himself, they would never let him hear the end of it.

Arien began gathering what he might need at the Benches: several sheets of thick parchment, spare pencils, a ruler, a small compass, and a palm sized calculating artifact capable of handling basic arithmetic.

As he packed, his thoughts drifted to Sanrey.

They still corresponded, although with Sanrey spending most of his time at sea, their letters arrived irregularly enough that calling it a proper conversation would have been generous. The last Arien remembered, his friend had been preparing to sail from the League of City States toward the Old Empire.

Once everything was packed, Arien pulled his cloak over his robe, slung the bag over his shoulder, and headed for the Benches. Master Sonnia Terrynheim had very little tolerance for forgotten assignments.

Before leaving, he checked his mana one last time.

Mana: 589/955

“That should be enough,” Jakol said, placing three rather thin books on the table where Arien had spread out his class notes and writing supplies.

Malbek’s friend had not changed much over the years. He had shot up in height and now resembled a pole, though even that seemed to serve only one purpose: making it easier for him to reach books on the higher shelves. Despite receiving the salary of a Junior Librarian, his robes were still threadbare, his eyes bloodshot, and his complexion sallow.

“You’re the best,” Arien said. “How did you find them so quickly?”

Jakol waved a hand dismissively. “Gilly asked for the same thing four days ago. I knew you’d come at the last possible moment, so I put them aside in my workroom.”

“I’ve been busy with other things,” Arien admitted. “By the way, did you check what I learned from Reyna about Lucan?”

Jakol was silent for a moment before answering. “Yes. There’s nothing about it anywhere. If the source didn’t sound fairly reliable, I would have dismissed it as one of the countless conspiracy theories by now.”

“Are you going to keep looking?”

Jakol nodded slowly. “Yes. I have a lead...” He paused and shook his head. “But I don’t want to speculate until I know more.”

“What kind of lead?” Arien asked immediately, interest garnering in his eyes.

The young librarian shook his head. “Unconfirmed information is nothing more than rumor.”

“I love rumors!”

“I don’t. If everyone wrote down only confirmed information instead of baseless guesses, or deliberately embellished historical events just to draw more attention to their work, my job would be much easier and far more enjoyable. The principles Edycian of Setria introduced in the Old Empire regarding historiography should be universal, and...”

“Jakol, please,” Arien interrupted, knowing the man could easily spend the next hour lecturing him on the proper way to record royal chronicles. “I’m just curious what might have slipped past the people trying to erase Lucan’s history.”

“Tax records,” the scribe replied after a moment’s thought. “What you told me about equality between the classes would have affected taxation as well, so after a rather tedious search, I found the journal of a cloth merchant who belonged to a noble family that no longer exists. It covers both the years leading up to the Empire and its final years, and although it contains little more than numbers, there was indeed a sharp increase in taxes at one point. Of course, it could just as easily have been connected to the war, which is why I’m calling it a lead, not evidence.”

Arien stared at the thin man in amazement. “You’re a genius.”

“There’s nothing particularly ingenious about it,” Jakol replied, adjusting his glasses with one finger and looking away. “I have to go. I still have plenty of work to do, and you should probably get started on your essay about the obligations of mages toward the Crown.”

“Meh.” Arien grimaced. “Academy scholarship students can be called upon for practically anything, with their services valued at the standard Guild mercenary rate and deducted from their debt. Everything else only applies if a state of war is declared.”

Jakol gave him a sympathetic look. “Read those books and you’ll understand that there are considerably more obligations and regulations involved.”

Arien merely nodded and reached for the first book, checking his mana one last time.

Mana: 697/955

The essay should take him about an hour. That ought to leave him with enough mana for his late afternoon training with Will.

I've created a separate collection for the chapter illustrations. This way, those who prefer to rely on their own imagination don't have to see them, while everyone else can enjoy them without having to download them individually. :)