Chapter 14 — A Matter of Honor

Ria nervously entered the lecture hall and closed the door behind her.

“You’re late, um…” the elderly mage half-heartedly chided as dozens of eyes previously watching the lecture turned in interest at the cause of the interruption. The other students were almost entirely first-years, and her cursory glance didn’t spot any gold-rimmed insignias like her own.

“Ria of Shadewood, Master Elementalist Genwald,” Ria politely supplied to the instructor teaching the course.

“Ria, is it? I would ask you to not further embarrass our Order by being late in the future, but there probably isn’t much point,” the white-bearded old man sighed out and was met with derisive chuckles from the many students—all of whom belonged to other orders, or maybe yet hadn’t chosen an Order.

“You have my sincere apology even so, Master Genwald,” Ria contritely offered and held a bow.

Master Genwald made an unconcerned motion with his hand and shooed her away. “Fine, fine. Find an empty seat, so I can resume the lecture.”

The entrance and podium were at the lower end of the room with the student-seating in raised tiers that arced around the room. Ria quickly climbed the tiers using the nearest aisle and plopped down in the first row that had two empty seats so Ranger could have room beside her.

“The girl who didn’t know how to use a spellbook and took forever with her attunement testing…,” the boy next to her quietly groaned and rubbed his forehead. “It’s a sign of fate, isn’t it?”

Ria glanced over in surprise.

Jax!

Though his comment was rather rude, she had inconvenienced him by taking unreasonably long during the testing. Maybe best would be if she were magnanimous.

Aaaand, Jax had been taking notes, so…

Ria nodded to him as she retrieved her journal and an everflow quill. “Sorry about that, Jax. It was my first time being tested. Umm, mind if I copy the notes I missed?”

“And you’re a golden insignia student?” He muttered back, rolling his eyes, but he did slide his journal closer while continuing to jot down the key points of Master Genwald’s resumed lecture.

“Thanks,” she whispered and scritched away with her quill, returning her attention to the old master mage once caught up.

“…as you can see, the version of the common light spell that requires light energy is much simpler and much more efficient than the version that includes an energy transformation or conversion as part of the spell. It is for this reason that learning and practicing your energy transformations is important. Your mind can only keep track of so much at once and even if it’s only through the use of a focus tool or a specialized wand, the less of the spell you need to actively construct, the more complex a spell you’ll be able to reliably cast…”

The enchanted cubes Master Genwald was using to project the two spell designs into the air were interesting, but Ria was already confident that her fears about this class were justified. Without a doubt, it was going to bore her out of her mind, and it was the only class she enrolled in that met five days a week…

Thankfully, according to Jax’s notes, the class would have practicums on alternating days, including scheduled time at The Garden of Elements, where they would be able to improve their attunements. Though, thanks to being late she had missed her chance to sign up for the best spots and would have to settle for whatever was still available for this week.

As for why she had been late, it wasn’t a matter of missing the carriage because she stayed up all night making scrolls and studying. The staying up most of the night part had indeed happened, but timely use of a stamina scroll allowed her to still be fully rested with the few hours sleep she finally managed. Rather, she had underestimated how busy the Enchanters Guild would be on the first day of classes during the morning rush.

That… and as embarrassing as it was, she still didn’t really know her way around her own Order’s tower yet…

Fortunately, due to the amount of energy stored up in her focus tools, selling a pile of medium-quality scrolls yielded significant funds—not enough to purchase Zephec, but enough to feel more comfortable about whatever Researcher Shadwich and Hulle had planned for Ranger.

Arthur’s help also proved useful, and she was able to acquire enough sets of communication stones. The stone intended for Jarrel she arranged to be delivered to the estate. Whether that was worth the embarrassment of being late to her first class when she had a class at the guildhall later in the day… probably not.

While she was sighing out at her short-sightedness, the door to the lecture hall opened, and a second-year entered holding a folded red paper.

“Another late arrival?”

“Ah, no, Master Genwald. Please forgive the interruption, I have an official notice for one of the students enrolled in this class—Ria of Shadewood. Is she here?”

Master Genwald rolled his eyes. “Of course, it would be a member of my own Order.” With a resigned sigh, the old mage motioned with his drapey sleeve. “Feel free.”

Maybe because of her robe, the second-year boy spotted her immediately, quickly delivering the notice and leaving. Ria heard whispers of “A red letter of challenge!” and snickers at her expense as she turned over the sealed notice.

Guessing that it might be time-sensitive to have been delivered during class, Ria broke the seal and unfolded the notice.

Ria of Shadewood

You are hereby served notice of your requirement to participate in an official duel with second-year student Phaelys Vesali to resolve a matter of honor. Please arrive at the arena promptly after the day’s classes conclude.

Administrator of Student Affairs,

Rente Ravelle

A trembling quill drew her attention away from the letter, and Ria glanced over to see Jax struggling to hold in his amusement. He eventually wheezed out, “Not only were you late, but you already offended a Vesali on the first day of classes!”

Ria huffed in annoyance and stored the letter.

There was no way she had done anything to offend a Vesali. Had she even met one? She was fairly sure she hadn’t. Maybe… was Phaelys a friend of…? What was the Ravelle boy’s name again?

Ranger huffed out a flappy sigh. The irresponsible mushroom that belonged to Ria’s new friend had wandered off, leaving him alone among the other familiars.

He stilled his tail and resisted the urge to bark at the fox with the glowing tail. Not chasing it off was hard, but he had been told to make friends and promised not to get in trouble.

This wasn’t his farm, and there weren’t any chickens needing protection.

Though there was a cowering rabbit… he’d seen what the wolves had done to the rabbits that night, even though he barked warnings and tried to distract the vicious invaders.

Deciding to right the wrong, Ranger casually walked forward, and ignoring the fox’s yips, snarls, and threatening tail waves, he pinched the curled-up rabbit’s scruff in his mouth and carried him away.

The odd-colored rabbit stiffened at first then relaxed as it realized what was going on.

Ranger found a spot next to a big hard-shelled familiar, one that smelled like the lazy shelled familiar he had met in the shop with the too-big cat, and put the rabbit down, patting him gently on the head with a paw.

The hard-shelled familiar grunted in annoyance, but seemed pacified when, after making a thankful gesture, the rabbit offered up berries from its belt-pouch, one each.

Seeing the glow from the berry and feeling the way chewing the berry made him feel, Ranger realized that was what the fox had been after, and from the smell, the rabbit had a few more still. He wasn’t a greedy dog though and wouldn’t pester the rabbit.

Their new shelled friend had picked a good spot to sit. The rock had one of those symbols Ria liked to draw and smelled of fresh earth. It made him want to dig, but he settled for trying that meditation thing Ria was always doing.

The garden they had been told to stay in had lots of glowy lights, and watching the glowing lights was fun. But today he wouldn’t just watch them.

Ranger had watched Ria become stronger by absorbing the glowy lights. He could feel and see how strong the other familiars were and he was determined to become stronger too. He watched the other familiars drawing in the lights to themselves.

If they could do it, he could do it too.

Besides, since the special training Ria was doing made it so he couldn’t feel her right now, he was oddly hungry. The berry helped. The smell from the stone seemed to help too. He took a big sniff and drew in more of that smell.

“…When a tree with a high density of life energy falls in the woods, one would think that it's life energy would be returned back to the forest, but that isn't what actually happens. In its desperate struggles to survive, the tree actually draws life energy from its surroundings. The wood created during this struggle, deathwood, is quite interesting in that it embodies both the properties of life and death and is a natural store of both energies. Wands and staves made from such wood are excellent for drawing energy from one's surroundings…”

Ria really wanted to focus on Master Enchanter Temiere’s fascinating lecture, but her thoughts kept drifting back to the duel she was expected to participate in after class.

Lunch with Iselyn after their familiar training class was helpful toward better understanding her opponent. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a way to meet up with Keira—something she intended to rectify with one of the communication stones at first opportunity. Iselyn had already been given hers.

Thanks to Iselyn’s knowledge about the greater houses, Ria found out that the Vesali bloodline was a gem affinity that improved their water and earth magic while giving them access to crystal magic. What form the crystal magic took seemed to vary, but tended to involve some form of crystal manipulation—ranging from telekinesis to rapid crystal growth to crystal enchanting.

That left a lot of unknowns, and Ria wasn’t sure how her own favored elements would match up. Shadow and fire didn’t seem like elements that would be particularly effective against crystal, and getting stabbed by crystal spears—no, thanks. That meant earth magic was probably her best bet. Body-strengthening and armor-enhancing. The question was what weapon to use. Daggers wouldn’t be as effective as a blunt weapon. Did she dare fight using her fists?

Of course, such simplistic planning was likely naïve. It wasn’t as if a Vesali couldn’t use any of the standard spells: lightning bolt, fireball, water-whip, and so on—Iselyn had happily pointed that out. Their powerful bloodline apparently gave them deep energy reserves and the control to use pretty much any magic.

No matter how Ria looked at the possibilities, she was likely in for a challenging fight, and it would certainly be good practice for the arena fights during the Grand Games.

The lecture room door opening and a brief knock drew Ria out of her planning.

“Pardon the interruption, Master Temiere. I’d like to borrow one of your students for Order business,” an all-too-familiar glasses-wearing third-year requested.

“That’s fine,” Master Temiere waved off the matter and resumed his use of the enchanted write-board.

Ria was fairly certain who Hulle was there for and was already storing her note-journal when he caught sight of her and nodded for her to join him.

Once they were outside of the room, Hulle’s calculating eyes passed over her briefly before he turned away. “Come with me. We need to talk.”

Had she done something to make him mad at her?