Chapter 16: Chapter 16: The calm before the storm

The trial would be tomorrow, but Azura didn’t really think much preparation could be made for this one. They could only advance their skills so much in a couple of days. So with that in mind they spent most of yesterday just hanging out. Him and Luna did some more lessons on their respective magic. He had gotten to where he could do some of the steps of her spell, but he still couldn’t put them together. Luna however was struggling, which is absolutely fair. Enchantment was easily the most complicated form of magic… That he knew of at least.

The girls had decided to go shopping today, which he and Roran had skillfully convinced them to do amongst themselves. He would apologize to Katy for her sacrifice later. He and Roran had actually been waiting for a chance to talk shop about magic anyway. Him and Roran decided that they(Roran) were too loud to go to the library, so they decided to hang out in one of the spires in the academy. There was a window that they could see most of the town through. They were so high up they could actually see outside of the town from up here.

“Can you really make a magic circle all by yourself?!” Roran definitely knew his stuff. Looks like his little trick before they got into the pyramid hadn’t gone unnoticed after-all.

“Kind of. It’s not really a magic circle though. It’s more like a pseudo-magic circle if you will. I can’t really go into detail about it, it’s one of my greatest achievements as far as spell-casting goes. I would need something seriously impressive to even get me to consider trading that particular skill.” Some things he wanted to spread around, but some things he had to keep close to the chest.

Roran just laughed. “Of course, I wouldn’t expect you to tell me too much about it. I was just looking for confirmation that I wasn’t going crazy.” Azura had never seen Roran like this before, he somehow looked extremely serious and extremely excited at the same time. His face was the picture of seriousness, but his eyes sparkled with unbridled interest. “I mean do you even realize how incredible that is? The whole point of magic circles is to create spells that no one person is powerful enough to cast on their own. I won’t ask you, but mark my words I will find out how you power your pseudo-magic circle.”

Hah good luck, that wasn’t something someone could figure out just by watching him do it. It never would have even occurred to him to do magic that way if he hadn’t read his ancestors advice. As time went by, people began to discover the best ways to wield and train efficiently with their mana. As such, the need for complicated rituals like magic circles began to drop and most didn’t bother to learn about them. “You’re welcome to try, but it’s not such a simple task.”

“Of course it isn’t, if it was it wouldn’t be any fun.” He laughed, Roran sure had some serious tenacity. They continued to chat about magic theory, only deviating from the topic once or twice.

“You hopefuls shouldn’t be up here.” Azura turned and instantly received the biggest shock he had gotten since he arrived. She was an elf. She was taller than him, with a lithe body like a dancer.She had long white hair and pointy ears. Her eyes were as clear as a lake, and he was pulled out of his shock by the stern look on her face.

Azura recovered quickly from his surprise. “We have received no such rules or instructions.” He wasn't too worried, she didn’t look much older than him, but with elves that didn’t really mean anything. Any mage could in theory slow their aging, but the elves could do it instinctively. Not much was known about elves, since they almost never leave their forest kingdoms in the east.

“You’re receiving them now.” Her eyes narrowed, and he heard a faint hint of hostility in her words. He didn’t back down though, they had received a list of areas they weren’t allowed to enter, and this was not on that list.

“On whose authority?” She looked taken aback and then straight to offended.

“I am princess Elismera of the elven kingdom of Eaglespire.” Great, elven nobility sounded just as pompous as human nobility.

“That’s great, but I mean in this academy, who’s authority? No offense, but I am almost positive you are a student and not a member of staff.” Oh yeah, no one could glare quite like a noble, and hers was positively chilling. Azura had never been one to back down though. Surprisingly Roran hadn’t said a word. He merely watched the altercation with amusement.

She looked furious, at least her eyes did. The rest of her face was perfectly neutral. “Are you sure you want to cross elven royalty? It is off limits because I claimed it to be so. There are rules about us hurting a hopeful, but duels between students are perfectly within the rules. Leave or you better hope you don’t make it in.”

He chuckled, he could tell she wasn’t all bark. She was letting out a pretty impressive pressure, but rather than be scared at the risk of fighting someone stronger than him, he was excited about the opportunity. “If that’s a promise, then I’ll happily duel with you once I make it in.”

She said nothing else as she turned and stalked off, maintaining proper posture the whole way. “Was it wise to antagonize an older student?” Roran asked disinterestedly.

“Probably not, but it sure was fun. Apparently picking a fight is a great stress reliever, I feel so much better.” Roran chuckled at him.

“I hope you can put your money where your mouth is, she is most likely older than me.”

“Oh yeah, almost certainly, but aging slowly has its disadvantages. The easiest way to get stronger is to simply physically mature, so slow agers either lose out on that bonus entirely, or it takes much longer before they get it.

Roran nodded. “Yeah that’s fair enough… Hey, do you think that anti-magic thing you did against the golems would break my curse?”

He had put some thought into breaking Roran’s curse, but. “Unfortunately, your curse has to be internal and the anti-magic field can’t negate internal magic.”

Roran sighed. “Yeah I had figured as much, still it was worth a shot.”

They chatted for a while longer, until they noticed where the sun was now. Azura did his time checking spell, the silver clock appearing in front of him. “It’s about 5 after noon, you think the girls are done?”

“Knowing Cynthia, I doubt it.” Roran sighed. “Cynthia doesn’t take charge often, but if there's one thing that can make her do so, it’s shopping.”

Azura laughed. “Well now I feel bad for encouraging Katy to go, she must be miserable.”

***

“Can we go? It’s starting to get late, and I should really get at least ‘some’ training in.” Katy was not happy. If she had to suffer 1 more minute of this torture she was going to kill someone, probably Azura. He had been smart enough to throw her to the wolves by suggesting it be day for the girls to hang out after Lily suggested shopping. She would drag him along kicking and screaming if this ever happened again, if she was going to suffer he would at least suffer with her.

“Woah Katy that’s one dark look you have on your face.” She was snapped out of her thoughts by Luna. Lily and Cynthia were running around the jewelry store they were in, full of excitement about the different pieces.

“Sorry, shopping isn’t really my idea of a good time.” More like it was the worst.

Luna frowned. “Why didn’t you say something? I'm sure we could have found something else to do.”

“You guys seemed so excited, I didn’t want to ruin the mood.” She scowled. “Plus I thought Azura and Roran would at least be here to share my suffering.”

Luna chuckled. “Yeah, credit where it’s due though Azura sure gave a really good speech about a day for girls to be among girls though.”

She growled. “Azura would make a good speech about stealing not only being ok, but just if he needed to. That bastard can convince just about anyone of anything.” Which was normally very helpful, but right now made her want to strangle him.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“I’ll tell you what, there is a weapon shop around here.” She perked up a little, Luna must have noticed because she smiled as she continued. “I’m sure we can look around there after we are here for a bit.”

“Well that gives me something to look forward to at least.”

***

Azura was getting impatient. For the third trial they were only doing it one person at a time. They didn’t seem to be going in alphabetical order, so he had no idea when his turn would be. They were sitting in the auditorium again, with a small room added in the middle, that people went into to be tested. They never came out before the next person was called in. Cynthia had already gone and used her telepathy to tell them there was a portal they were having the hopefuls walk through. Currently he, Roran, and Lily were the only ones left of their group. However he did also notice that Gareth hadn’t been called yet either.

“I think they are doing it in order of magical strength.” Roran looked around. “I’m sure they were watching us during the first trial, and most at this age don’t really have the skill to lower their magic pressure. I’m not really this age, and you and Gareth are exceptions, but given we haven’t been called I’m guessing they saw through it anyway.”

He thought about it, Roran did have a point. Azura’s mana pool was above average. Even still it wasn’t super high or anything. If Roran was right he probably should have been called by now. Then it occurred to him that two teachers had felt the power from his grimoire, and the rock guy felt the mana coming from his self enchantments, so they might have a false idea of how much magic power he had. “You might be right, but they can’t know for sure, so there must be a lot of guesswork involved.”

Roran shrugged. “They probably have a reason for doing it that way, but I don’t have enough info to make a theory on it.”

“Frankly, I just want them to hurry up. I don’t want to sit here all day.” He was really curious about Lily’s unique magic, because the air around he started to heat up as her frustration mounted.

Azura already knew Lily’s magic power was high, in fact if he had to take a guess he would say she had the highest magic power in the group hands down. Although he wasn’t sure between her and Gareth.

There were less than 20 people left when Roran was finally called. “Oh finally it’s my turn! I can’t wait to see what they have me do! I’ll see you guys later!” He cheerfully ran over to the building. Looks like even standing still for 4 hours hadn’t dulled his enthusiasm.

Him and Lily waved him off. “He has way too much energy, it’s exhausting.” He had to agree with her on that.

“Yeah, it can be a little tiring, but he’s a good ally to have.” She nodded then let out a yawn.

“At least they’re almost done. Although now that we think it’s about magic power I almost want to go last.”

He shrugged. “You probably will, it will either be you or Gareth from what I’ve seen and felt.”

She chuckled. “I get the feeling you’re going to end up going last.”

“Why? I definitely have less magic power than you and Gareth.” His eyebrows dipped in confusion.

“I’d say you also have less magic power than Roran, and yet here you are.”

Her point dawned on him. “They had completely misjudged it, they think my magic power is way higher than it is. I knew they might get mixed up because.. But I thought the headmistress wouldn’t.. That’s so annoying.”

Lily simply raised an eyebrow at his partially inaudible rant. “Woah relax will you, it’s not even a big deal. So what if they overestimate your reserves a bit.”

“That’s not the issue, they must have some kind of reason for doing it this way. I hope my misplacement doesn’t cause any issues.” For him mostly. The annoying thing was that people were definitely keeping track of who was left out here when they were called in, especially now when there were so few of them. They weren’t the only ones that figured out the ordering. Magic power wasn’t really a good way to determine how strong someone was, but it was key information in figuring that out. He really didn’t want to stand out so early in the trials, and it wasn’t even true.

“You’re such a worrier, I’m sure it will be fine. Besides, your magic power may not be as high as mine, but even still I get the feeling that fighting you would be rough for someone who just throws around powerful attacks.” He had to resist a smirk at that, she had good instincts. “So it’s not like your placement is wrong. From what you and Roran said about your trial I’ll bet you both are pretty strong.” He got the feeling she liked to fight, because she sounded almost as excited as Roran did when he was trying to get Azura to spar with him.

“I suppose so, but I’d rather keep as much hidden as possible until I know what all the trials are. It would really suck to be at a huge disadvantage in a future trial because I showed off now.” She pouted, but seemed to understand.

He was starting to think Lily was right about going last, because when Gareth was called it was just the two of them. Gareth glanced at them and scowled before going into the testing area.

“Woah what’s his deal?” Lily questioned. “I don’t think I’ve ever even spoken to him. What’s he mad at me for?”

“He’s mad because they think we have more magic power than him. Between the two of you it’s a close call, so I have no idea how they decided he went first, and I have a fair amount less than both of you.” Frankly he was curious if Lily really did have higher magic power, and if so how they were able to tell that, but misjudged his own so severely.

“What’s the big deal, who cares. Magic power doesn’t mean squat when it comes to combat ability.” She crossed her arms and frowned.

“That’s not correct at all. high magic power doesn’t equal having high combat power and vice versa, however high magic power does mean that you can cast bigger spells, and that you can cast more frequently without exhausting yourself. It absolutely has an impact on combat ability, it’s just not a good tool to measure combat ability.”

She pouted. “Semantics. My point is, what does it matter if they think I have a bit more mana than he does. It doesn’t mean I’m stronger than him or anything.”

Oh that’s what she meant. “Oh that’s obvious isn’t it? Ego, it’s all about his ego.”

She rolled her eyes and was about to respond when she was called. “Well guess it’s my turn. Wish me luck.” She walked towards the room.

He smiled. “Good luck, but I doubt you’ll need it.” She smiled back at him before disappearing through the door leaving him all alone in the vast auditorium. He groaned. “I knew I shouldn’t have used my body enchantments.” There wasn’t much he could have done about Sylvia and Coal Feeling the magic radiation from his grimoire, he wouldn’t have lasted any longer without it, and it was just his luck that they arrived at that exact moment. He could have at least used other tactics in the trial though. His body enchantments stored mana so that he would have access to more than he could have in his body at any given time, but revealing that trick led to this and who knows what else.

It took them longer to test Lily than it did most of the others, so he was forced to sit there bored out of his mind for almost 20 minutes before he was finally called. He walked through the door and was surprised at what lay beyond. The headmistress sat at a table with hundreds of crystals, each unique in shape and size from the rest. Some smooth and round. Others were jagged and sharp.

“I’m sure you must be curious about why you were called last.” She stared through him, giving him the same uncomfortable feeling as last time. Like his thoughts were bare for her to read.

“Frankly I assumed you didn’t have much to do with picking the order the students went in, and the teachers misjudged my magic power.”

She chuckled softly. “I’m afraid not…” She paused and for the first time that he had seen she looked a little uncertain. “I chose to have you go last, because I would like to offer you a choice.” She seemed to firm up as she resolved herself to whatever this was.

“A choice for what?” He was beyond weary, frankly he couldn’t really say he had liked his interactions with the old lady. He was hoping it wouldn’t be anything too difficult.

“Your, let’s say, unusual approach to magic has left me a little uncertain.” She deliberated before deciding on unusual. “I am certain you more than meet the necessary requirement on each field we are scoring today. That much was certain even before you completed the first trial.” He felt like he should be happy about that, but he felt that something was wrong, and he was gripped in a cold dread. “As such, I think the normal tests are unnecessary for you. The choice I am offering you is to either take the tests as normal, or you can skip them. I’ll give you a perfect score. However if you skip them you would owe me a favor in the future.”

Well that made this easy, perhaps that chill was just a side effect of the headmistress creeping him out. “Well then obviously I’ll take them as normal.”

“You should wait to hear all the details before you reach your conclusion, young mage.” He winced, she hadn’t said it with any kind of negative tone. Yet he could feel her disapproval pierce through him. “As I’m sure you have surmised there is a reason we have students go in order from least magic power to most.” He didn’t like the sound of that one bit. “As students go through this test the crystals we use for testing get charged with more and more magic, the more they have the more difficult it is to control. Since people with more magic power have more mana to work with they are used to working with larger amounts so their control normally won’t falter. However the crystals hold more mana now than you have, which will make controlling it a very dangerous task.”

She had set him up. Even while anger surged through him his neutral expression didn’t shift. They had purposefully made him go last, to try and force him into skipping the test. Well he was through doing what other people wanted him to. His father had controlled him long enough, he wasn’t about to trade one leash for another. His gaze hardened. “Like I said, obviously I’ll take them as normal.”