Chapter 17: Windbreak

The ship gently rocked back and forth in the rhythm of the waves surrounding us. I was bored, there was nothing but blue around me. Lying on my back, I stared up into the sky above me. Most people on this ship seemed to keep to themselves; the sailors worked the travelers learned. It seemed quite a lot of them intended to try to join the academy. According to Kaylin, even if you had the money to attend, you would still have to take some sort of test. Either way, it was none of my concern, I was pretty confident in myself. There was a high chance that my knowledge of rota was more complete than anyone alive. I was going to be fine. A shadow stole the light warming me. Looking to the side, I noticed that someone had walked up to me.

“You seem to spend your time quite leisurely, I am curious, are you also on this journey to attend the academy?” The mage asked me. Looking at him, I saw that he was a young human with green hair. Wearing robes similar to those I have seen back at the archeological site. Though it did lack the emblem of Windbreak.

“I am, yes,” I said.

“You must be quite sure of yourself then.”

I smirked and nodded. That I was. He put his hand up to his chin in thought.

“So then, how come I cannot sense a mana-sphere within you that is at its 2nd stage?”

I sat up, looking at him, eyes wide. “That is a requirement?”

“Very much so,” he said with a smirk. I shivered, I hadn’t thought about working on my mana-sphere at all since I had first formed it. There had been too much on my mind. I looked around, I was on a ship. Well, duh. If I were to try and further compress my sphere here, it might just blow apart half the ship or at least damage it severely. I balled my fists. Each compression will release more mana than the one before. Thinking back to when I broke nearly everything within Olgore and Dust’s room, yeah I couldn’t do that here. I stood up.

“I am quite sure, if your benefactor pays enough, they will turn a blind eye,” the man said.

Ignoring him, I walked straight to the next door, leading to the living compartments of the ship.

“Hey, I wasn’t done talking to you!” I heard the fledgling mage yell after me, but I ignored it.

I threw the door to my quarters open, with a loud bang, it hit the bunk bed inside the room. Kaylin, sitting at the little desk right next to the porthole, jumped.

“What? What is going on? Are we under attack or something?” She said, standing up alarmed.

“No no, we are not.” I said, holding up my hands. “Wait, is that a possibility?”

“Well, with the Ampyrians active and pirates known to patrol the seas, there is always a chance.” She said, sitting back down. “But nevermind that, what has you so rattled?”

“Is it true that you need at least a 2nd-stage mana-sphere to enter Windbreak Academy?” I asked, closing the door behind me.

“Yes, now that you mention it, that is one of the requirements.” My fingers trembled as I ran them through my hair.

“Why?” I asked, almost shaking.

“Because a lot of the curriculum at the academy requires a lot of mana that you wouldn’t have with a 1st stage sphere.” She said.

“Kaylin, I am still at the first stage. Remember, I told you on our way to the archaeological site. You know, when you stared a hole in me while I gathered ambient mana?”

“Oh, that is true.” Her eyes widened, cheeks turning a slight red. “That is a problem. How did I not think about that?” She slapped her head.

“Are there places I can go to work on my sphere in Windbreak? Maybe I can go to one of those before taking the test?” I said, hands still going through my hair.

“Those do exist. Yes.” Kaylin said, tapping the desk with her finger. “But they are reserved for members of the academy only, unless you have the money to rent them. They are expensive”

“Okay, okay, so I need to earn money then,” I said, sitting down on the bunk bed. “How do they check your stage anyway?” I asked.

“Shouldn’t you know this? They just sense it, how else?” She said, quirking her eyebrows in apparent amusement.

“Wait a second, they don’t check the sphere’s layers directly?” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“No. That… how would that even be possible?”

My sphere already had mana equivalent to a third stage. I was just blocking the pressure it would actually exude. It was good practice to control the energy that was leaving your sphere, especially since people with lesser spheres could often not withstand the pressure of stronger ones.

Sighing in relief, I let my sphere run free. I shivered as I relaxed my hold on it. The first rush of mana made my body tingle all over. Kaylin's eyes widened as she stepped back.

“W-what did you just do? How… What… No!” Her mouth stood wide open, not finding any more words.

“I stopped suppressing my sphere,” I said, smirking.

“I would love to outright refuse your explanation.” She said, holding her head in her hand. “But, I have seen your other antics already.” She let out a deep sigh. “Could you please stop shaking my beliefs every other day?”

I put a finger to my chin. “Maybe. I’ll think about it.” Kaylin rolled her eyes. It was good they didn’t have the knowledge to detect the actual layers a sphere had.

“But do you think this will fool the professors at Windbreak?” I asked.

“There is no doubt in my mind it will. It really is difficult to believe that you are just at stage one, if I didn't know better.” The tenseness in my body left me, but the shock of this oversight was still fresh.

“Are there any other requirements that I should know about?” I asked, tilting my head.

“Not that I can think of. The test consists of a written portion testing your knowledge about magic theory and a physical one, where you need to display your talents.” She said, tapping her nose. “All things you should excel at, no?”

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“None of that sounds like an issue to me.” I nodded.

“Then you should be good to go,” she said, shifting in her seat.

“Thanks, and sorry for ambushing you like this.” She nodded as I lay down on my bed. I had enough unwanted revelations by strangers for today. Improving my mana-sphere should become a priority once I managed to get into the academy. Grabbing my blanket, I pulled the soft fabric over me. I wondered how far I could push it, considering how much better than the average sphere it already was.

Enjoying the silent company within my quarters, I started drawing rota above me with mana, their warmth slowly spreading through the small room. Trying to construct new spells that might be helpful later.

I was ripped out of my dreams as the ship swayed to the side and was thrown out of my bed. A thud rang through the room as I hit the wall. Before I could even stand up, I was tossed in the other direction towards the bed, hitting it.

“What is going on!” I yelled, grabbing the wooden legs of the bed. The ship was rocking back and forth without stopping. The wind outside howling.

“Apologies, I forgot to tell you to bind yourself to the bed. We reached the last leg of our journey to Windbreak” I heard Kaylin yell from the top bunk. “This is the endless storm surrounding the tempest nexus.” With great effort, almost slipping multiple times, I managed to get back into bed. Creating a bit of light, I saw the ropes attached to the bed and used them to secure myself.

“You’d better get used to this, we will be traversing these rough waters for at least a whole day until we finally reach Windbreak”, Kaylin said.

The next day was rough. We just stayed in bed the entire time. It was boring, but at least I couldn’t get seasick. Kaylin was silent throughout the entire ordeal. When I asked her if everything was okay, she said that she was concentrating on not getting sick. I retracted my consciousness within me to continue working on new spells in my mind, ignoring the outside world.

I slept through most of the last leg of the journey. It was a blessing being able to shut down most of my senses. My eyes blinked open when a cold shower of water washed over me. I shot up and hit my head with a thud on the bed above me.

“Are we sinking?” I yelled, holding my head even though I couldn’t even feel the pain.

“No, we are about to arrive.” Kaylin said in a deadpan voice. “You wouldn’t wake up. Again.”

I dried my dripping face with the blanket on top of me, not sure if I should even be angry; knowing how annoying it must be to wake me up. Seeing Kaylin stand beside me, not swaying in the slightest must mean we had left the storm behind us.

“Thanks for waking me up, then,” I said, untying myself from the bed. The rope had left red marks on my skin. That would itch, I grimaced. Good thing I had that particular set of senses turned off. Kaylin just nodded as she threw her cape around her shoulders.

“Let’s go up to the main deck,” Kaylin said as I finished putting on my armor.

“Time to see what this Windbreak is all about,” I said, clutching my hat as I followed her.

Now that the loud sounds of the waves were gone, I could feel the wood below my feet vibrate. Opening the door to the deck, I noticed that we were currently moving through a tunnel. A purple glow came from the engines on the back of the ship as they propelled us forward.

“Didn’t expect a tunnel.”

“A harbor at the coast is just not feasible. The storm is too strong.” Kaylin said. That made sense. The deck was slowly filling with our fellow travelers. Most of them were wearing capes, still missing the emblem of Windbreak. Looking around, I couldn’t find the green-haired mage who had disturbed my rest two days ago. Good, I wasn’t ready for the question on how I improved my sphere so fast.

Then there it was.

The light at the end of the tunnel.

Nothing could have prepared me for the sight that awaited me beyond the tunnel. A large space opened up before us. They had hollowed out a large round space within the coastal cliffs. It must be kilometers long. The harbor was right before us; only a quarter of the space at the bottom of this hole was taken up by it. Not that I could see much of the rest—large walls blocked me from seeing what lay beyond the harbor. But right behind it, I could see what was plunging everything into a bright blue, violet light. There it was, a massive pillar of mana, shooting out of the ground in the center of the city. The tempest nexus, an unrelenting source of mana. I could feel its presence; the surrounding air was charged with its energy. Looking up, I held my breath. Large parts of the city were flying above me; shaped like smooth quarter-circles, they were slowly moving around the nexus, connected and powered by it. On the sides of the massive structures, I could make out the beginnings of buildings. My mouth stood open as I looked at them. Even further up clouds were drawn into the whirl of mana as it started to disperse into the atmosphere above. It looked like there were permanent wishing stars forming at its end, falling back down towards us slowly fizzling out.

Maybe I had underestimated how far the technology of this time was developed.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” said Kaylin. I looked at her, she was wearing a smirk on her face, looking up as well. “Space down here ran out quite fast. So they build those flying islands, each one a district of Windbreak. They are moving like that around the nexus so that every part of the city still gets daylight at certain times a day.” She sounded quite proud of her home.

“This is impressive,” I said, still looking up. Then I noticed large floating towers surrounding the outer perimeter of the districts above us. Seven in total slowly circling around Windbreak, creating a blue translucent shield. So that is what breaks the wind, huh? A fitting name indeed. Certainly not what I had expected.

“Tepin, I should tell you that once we reach the pier, we will have to split up,” Kaylin said, turning towards me. “You will have to go through immigration, and once you state that you are here to take the test, they will bring you to the exams right away.” She looked up at one of the districts hovering above us.” They usually take place just a few hours after a new passenger ship arrives. So you won’t have to wait long.” I pulled my eyes away from the magnificent sight before me and looked at Kaylin. “I will try to be at your exam. But I cannot promise it, I will have to report back first. In case I don’t show up, you can...”

I raised my hand, interrupting her. “Let me guess, I can find you at the library?”

A small laugh escaped her and she nodded. “Yes. If I don’t hear anything from you within the day, I will come and look for you.” Kaylin said.

“Don’t worry I can handle myself,” I said.

As we got off the ship, Kaylin turned towards me and, to my surprise, hugged me. I could feel my cheeks burn red when she stepped back.

“Good luck! Until later.” She said, then pointed towards one of the lines that had formed before us. “You will have to wait in that line over there. I need to go another way.”

“Thanks, see you later,” I said, scratching my cheek. She waved to me as she left.

I knew I would see her again soon, but I was sad seeing her go. Her constant presence had grown on me. These past days, she had been like a pillar, making existence in this world bearable. One of the few people who knew what I truly was. Turning to the line, I felt a knot forming in my throat. Cursing myself that somehow my artificial body was prone to crying, I touched my eyes, hoping they weren’t leaking. I let out a deep breath when I found them dry. Even though I knew my knowledge would be more than enough to pass, my back was tense the further I moved through the lines.

Soon, I found myself standing before an older woman sitting behind the counter that stood between me and Windbreak.

“Will you be taking the paid exam or will you be taking the appraisal for a scholarship?” She said in a monotone voice.

“I am here for the scholarship, ma'am.”

“Ah I see. Cannot wait to see you again by the morrow. Please write your details here.” She didn’t seem to have much faith. Still, I did as I was told and wrote my details down.

The same I had used to sign up at Eventyr. Without even looking at me, she stamped the paper and gave me a little card after filling it out.

“Go to the right and wait until you are taken for your exam. Next!” She yelled and looked past me to the next person in line. I did as I was told and went to the waiting area, where several other people were already sitting. Some were tapping their feet, others reviewing their notes. Sitting down, I was wondering what would await me in the test. A little voice in my head asking, what if I was overestimating myself?