767. The New Novice

767. The New Novice

The Learning Hall hadn’t changed a bit in contrast to everything around it. The buildings that hadn’t been destroyed by the emerald shardfly swarm were demolished by mages and rebuilt anew. Of course, it was golems that had done the building—now a permanent presence throughout the whole of the Academy.

As he flew by, Dallion scanned the cluster for the dwarf item shop. He knew that the shopkeeper had been caught trying to escape. At present, he had joined the other culprits in the growing Academy prison fort. His daughter, on the other hand, had been cleared of all wrongdoing and given possession of the item shop.

Things have definitely changed a lot, Dallion thought, looking at the new building placement. From the sky, one could see that the randomly placed streets formed giant symbols—a protection spell making sure that no foreign realities could enter this part of the world again.

“That’s it?” Diroh asked, flying beside Dallion.

“You expected more?” Dallion asked. For someone who couldn’t see the purple threads and symbols, the place must have seemed rather boring.

“I’ve seen worse.” The fury shrugged. Disappointment emanated from her like a waterfall.

“It’s a lot more impressive on the inside,” Dallion smiled. “You’ll see.”

When he had initially told her that he’d be leaving her behind, he expected Diroh to get angry, protest, or at the very least make a sarcastic remark. Instead, she had merely nodded and told him she understood. The sincerity that came with that had alarmed him.

“So this is where I’ll be stuck?” Di asked.

“This is where you’ll sleep for the time being. I’ve arranged to get a pass seal, so you’ll be able to come and go as you choose. Don’t flaunt Skye too much. Mages are jealous and pets are fair game.” From his shoulder, Ruby flicked his wings.

A small group of apprentices gathered at the Learning Hall entrance as Dallion landed. Being the ones left behind, they had rarely seen the “battle apprentice” in the flesh. Uncertain how to react, they’d whisper amongst themselves, keeping a distance from him. Diroh, naturally, got a lot more comments. Furies were no longer a rarity with all the cloud forts flying about, but someone as unusual as her was.

If she ever learns music, she’d be a force of nature

, the armadil shield said.

Air magic and music do complement each other,

Dallion agreed.

Your stay at the Academy has made you hopeless again,

Vihrogon sighed.

If you only focus on work opportunities will pass you by.

I don’t have time for this, shield.

Road corridors extended through the building. Just as Dallion remembered it, the place was a city upon itself. Now, though, it was a lot less crowded than he remembered. Part of the mage instructors and apprentices had fled the tower during the previous chaos, a far larger part had been transferred to the mage legion. Only a tenth remained to deal with novices.

“Remember this place,” Dallion said as they entered the blue administration building. “If there’s anything you need, you can ask for it here.”

“Does that mean I’ll get it?”

“Nice catch. It all depends.”

The small group of children moved aside, letting the fury proceed with her registration. Since it was a special case, Dallion had sent a letter informing them of the circumstances. It was both refreshing and not that despite a major war going on, the local bureaucracy remained vastly unchanged.

“Battle apprentice,” the mage in charge rushed down the stairs to greet him. “Such an honor to get a visit from you.”

It took a tremendous amount of effort for Dallion not to narrow his eyes. Back when he was an apprentice, the man couldn’t have been more condescending. Now that he was part of the Shimmering Circle and apprentice to Katka, not to mention close to the new archmage, the attitude had drastically changed.

“Everything is in order, just as you requested,” the mage continued with an oily smile. “All that remains is the apprentice seal, and your novice is good to go.”

“You know I’m royalty, right?” Diroh said in a charmingly vicious fashion.

She too had seen the mage for what he was, and didn’t plan on taking any crap with or without Dallion present. Her attitude, along with the experience as an innkeeper, had made her the perfect judge of character.

“A-absolutely,” the mage nodded.

“There’s no royalty in Learning Hall,” Dallion gave her a glance, although a smile had formed on his face. “Get on with it,” he instructed.

“Your hand, please,” the mage said.

Before Diroh reacted, the pearl necklace exploded in size, growing into a cloud with wings. With an audible growl, it bared its fangs indicating that it didn’t approve of the mage or his methods. To Dallion’s surprise, the mage didn’t show any sign of fear. Although sniveling to more powerful political entities—such as the Shimmering Circle—he remained a mage, and as such could easily handle a cloud creature of this type, even an aggressive one.

“Skye,” the fury said in a sharp tone, causing the creature to pull back. A pair of angry eyes formed on the cloud glaring at the mage, though. “My apologies, mage. It won’t happen again.” She offered her left hand.

Taking hold of it, the mage ran his finger along the back of her palm. Threads of magic were released containing all restrictive instructions that would be bound to her for as long as it remained.

After six months of practical experience, Dallion found the method simple, if not useless. The symbols had the most basic of protections, making them easily decipherable. Not only that, but the connecting threads were too wide and utterly unprotected. One simple severing in any of a dozen spots and the mark would be rendered useless.

Diroh pulled back her hand.

“Is that it?” she asked, looking at her hand. It was impossible to say whether she could see anything on it.

“You’ll be given the standard curriculum materials, the rules of Learning Hall, as well as a familiar permit.” The mage maintained his smile. “Please try to follow them as strictly as possible.

“He means don’t mess up,” Dallion translated. “Having a familiar is already an exception.”

And be thankful you didn’t get the same deaging treatment I did.

“Thank you,” he turned towards the mage. “We won’t be taking any more of your time.”

Ignoring the dazzled expressions of children and adults alive, Dallion made his way towards the exit. Halfway there, a pattern of magic symbols emerged in front of him.

The spell was intricate and perfectly executed. It had a large number of fake symbols and dozens of backup thread connections. In a way, it reminded him of the spells that Palag—Dallion’s first magic instructor—had cast. Being at a disadvantage on the magical front, Dallion had resorted to brute force back then, relying on the raw power granted to him by the Moonstone. This time, he no longer had to.

Infusing his thread splitter away with spark, he burst into instances, slicing through the spots which he thought would cause the spell to fizzle. In several cases, the kickback was strong enough to send his instances flying back, as well as cause a substantial amount of pain to all the rest. Still, it didn’t take much for him to find the correct approach and undo the spell before it fully formed.

“Ha.” A girl floated in through the entrance. “You’re not as terrible as before.”

“Nice to see you too, Cheska.” Dallion said, putting his thread splitter away. He could have told her that even good spells were useless cast so close to a target, but chose to give her this moment. “Congrats on completing your apprenticeship.”

“That’s a mage?” Diroh asked, intrigued.

Calling Cheska a mage was the same as saying chaos had form. Considered one of the best prodigies in the last decade, the child had advanced to the point that even the rigid structure of the Academy had no choice but to grant her the title. There were two issues with that. Firstly, despite her magic expertise, she remained a child, and that was difficult to change even with dozens of echoes educating her in the various aspects of world knowledge and responsibility. More importantly, she had been, be it unwittingly, part of the former archmage’s assassination attempt. Her connection had been tangential. The Azure infiltrators had only taken advantage of her skill to obtain the Moonstones; and while Dallion had managed to effectively destroy two of them and keep the third one for himself, Cheska’s stone had managed to find its way into enemy hands. While never publicly acknowledged, he knew that the White Eye were constantly watching her as were the battle mages.

“Di, this is a former classmate of mine,” Dallion introduced the girl. “Mage Cheska.”

“We were among the top three novices, not that it matters,” Cheska said in false modesty.

“I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it, as she guides you through this place.”

“She’ll be teaching me?” The fury sounded amused.

“Guide,” Cheska clarified. “Think of me as an older sister.”

“That would be a bit difficult to imagine.”

“Not as difficult as you think. Back when Dal was here, he had an age enchantment added to his seal to keep him our age while in the building.”

“Really?” The fury sounded a bit too enthusiastic for Dallion’s taste. “That’s something I’ll definitely like hearing about.”

“In any event, if you have trouble with rules, magic, or such, check with her. The administration building is only for serious matters.”

The message was loud and clear: out of everyone at the Academy, Cheska was the one Dallion distrusted the least.

The room that Diroh was given turned out to be the one Dallion had used. No such instructions had been given, although he appreciated the effort. This way, he could share the best route to the dining hall and other important parts of the Learning Hall.

“Take this.” Dallion gave Diroh a silver ring once they were alone. “Wear it at all times.”

“Disfocus?” the fury asked, taking it from him.

“I’ve got an echo inside. Can you make echoes of your own?”

“Sure.”

“Put one here,” Dallion pointed at his library ring. That way, he’d know everything that was going on at the Learning Hall in his absence.

“Both my sister and Eury disliked echoes,” Diroh said. “They told me you did as well.”

“I don’t dislike them. I just don’t use them a lot. Think of this as an emergency. We’ll be able to talk at any point.”

“I guess I’ll have to make do with a copy of the real thing.” Diroh pressed against Dallion’s ring with her index finger, then moved it off.

An echo of her had appeared within the library of Dallion’s domain. He didn’t intend on sharing that the ring was linked to his personal realm. The echo had already found out and as for the fury herself, she never would.

You’re really harsh when you want to be,

the armadil shield said.

Are you doing this for her benefit or yours?

“Get to know the basics. I’ve told Cheska to help get you some artifacts when you need them.” Dallion looked at the bathroom. There was a large chunk of water there, ready for use. “Don’t get into any magic duels. No matter the circumstances.”

“You’ve explained it all before.” Diroh sighed. “Just go on your secret and important mission, okay? I’ll be fine here. With so many ways of you keeping track of me, how could I not be?”

Dallion was sure she’d find a way, if she hadn’t already. He could bet she had at least one blocker item with her right now.

“One final thing. While you’re here, don’t use splitting in public. Since you’re my novice, everyone will think you’ll be able to split into lots of instances. Also—”

“Dal,” she interrupted, causing him to pause.

“Yes?”

“I’ll be fine. You take care.”

A note from Lise Eclaire

Available on Amazon!

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