Chapter 208: Secrets And Goals

Stryg gasped and opened his eyes. He threw himself forward and sat up. His blue skin was covered in sweat and chills ran through his back. He was in bed, naked, save for the silver bracelet that Loh had gifted him. The moonlight drifted into the room with a soft silver fade.

“You’re awake, good,” Maeve said. “I was beginning to get worried.”

Maeve sat in a tall red velvet chair, reading a book.

Stryg clenched his eyes shut and took a slow breath, “...We’re in your room?”

“Yeah. I think you were having a nightmare,” she said reluctantly. “I didn’t want to wake you, on account that you might accidentally claw me open or something.”

“Sorry,” he sighed.

“...You wanna talk about it?”

“Hm?”

“The nightmare. Only if you want to, of course. I know how bad nightmares can be,” she said sympathetically.

The sight of Clypeus’ bloodied body crumpled on the ground flashed through Stryg’s mind. He smiled ruefully, “Just old memories, nothing I can’t handle.”

“...Okay. I’m here if you ever want to talk.”

“Noted.”

Stryg got up and looked around for his clothes, they were strewn about the floor. He shimmied into his underwear and pants.

“Have you seen my shirt?” Stryg asked.

“I’m keeping it,” Maeve said casually.

“What? Why?”

“I like the smell,” she shrugged.

Stryg cocked his head to the side, “You like the smell of a piece of cloth?”

“Something like that,” she smiled wryly.

“Suit yourself,” he threw his jacket on. “Why aren’t you sleeping anyway?”

“I’m a vampire, we generally prefer to sleep during the day. When I went to the Academy of Merchants I had to wake up at dawn. Not the case anymore.” Maeve grinned, “Being a Merchant Lady has its perks.”

Stryg walked over to her

“So what is the beautiful Lady Mora reading tonight?”

“Just some boring trade logs about one of my ships’ latest cargo,” she groaned. “Being a Merchant Lady also has its setbacks.”

Stryg leaned on the armchair and hovered over her, “Your neck...”

“Don’t tell me you want to drink more blood, you’re gonna bleed me dry,” she frowned.

“Not that,” Stryg removed the bandages around her neck.

Two red pinpricks stained her otherwise unblemished skin.

“What are you doing?” she asked with a hint of suspicion and curiosity.

“Hold still for a sec,” he raised his hand.

A soft white light poured out of his fingertips and blended over her neck. The two pinpricks slowly disappeared, leaving the skin spotless of any injuries.

Stryg stepped back, “Better?”

Maeve rubbed her neck and stared at him, wide-eyed, “...You’re a white mage?”

“That’s a secret I prefer to keep quiet.”

“...”

“Maeve? I need you to keep this between us.”

“Hm? Yeah, for sure. Sorry, it’s just I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that you’re a penta-manifold mage. The more I learn about you the more I’m beginning to understand why you're the famed Loh Noir’s apprentice.” Maeve raised her thin eyebrow, “Are you hiding any other secrets from me that I should know about?”

I’m actually a prime mage. “Not that I’m aware of. You really like Loh, huh?”

“Is it that obvious?” Maeve winced with a bashful grin.

“You talk about her often, along with Gale and a few others.”

“I mean yeah, they’re some of the best mage duelists out there. Or at least Loh was, she’s retired now.”

“I’m aware, she spends most of her time training me or teaching the 1st-years nowadays.”

“Maybe one day you can introduce us?” Maeve batted her eyes playfully.

“I thought you two already met, back at Mora Castle?”

Her shoulders slumped, “Not much of an introduction. My father antagonized you and Loh threatened to kill my entire family.”

“Right… I forgot about that.”

Maeve closed her book, “You’ve never been to one of the dueling matches have you?”

“I never found the time. I would rather train than watch others fight for sport.”

“Stop being so boring. As per the rules of the friendship code of honor it is my duty to help you get out of those stuffy academy grounds once in a while. When you’ve got some time I’ll take you to one of the dueling matches, a few are coming up soon.” Maeve clapped her hands, “You should see the stadium! When all the crowds are there, chanting the duelist’s name, it’s one of the most incredible things you’ve ever seen!”

“Sounds annoying,” Stryg muttered and pointed at his ears.

“Oh, right. Sensitive hearing,” she winced. “Maybe some other time then?”

“I’ll be busy for a while.”

“Lemme guess, training? Why are you training so much anyway?”

Stryg clenched and opened his fist, “I have plans, goals.”

Maeve walked to her bedside table and poured herself a drink, “Such as?”

“One of my simpler goals is to qualify for the Great Cities Tourney,” he admitted.

“You want to be one of Hollow Shade’s four contestants!?” Maeve yelled.

“...Yes?”

“Sorry, it’s just that, well, Hollow Shade has lost for the past seven years,” she grimaced. “Your chances don’t look very great.”

“Time to break the cycle then,” he said adamantly.

“Why do you want to go?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, besides being outright extremely dangerous, students participate in the tourney for two possible reasons. If you’re an aristocrat, you go because you’re representing your House, and if you win you bring honor and glory to your family.”

“I’m not an aristocrat though,” he said.

“Exactly.. Which leads me to the second most common reason. Mages of common birth attend the tourney to show their skills off. Lords and ladies from all four Great Cities will be in the audience, watching the contestants, hoping to scout any promising young mages. But you’re already Loh Noir’s apprentice. You don’t need to be scouted by anyone. So why do you want to go?”

Stryg scratched the tip of his button nose, “Isn’t there some kind of prize for the winners?”

“I mean yeah, but we don't know what that is. Every year’s prize is different; the host city offers up the prize. No one will know until the tourney begins.”

“Is that so?”

Maeve narrowed her eyes, “Why do you want to go to the tourney?”

Stryg looked out the window and stared up at the silver crescent moon, “...I want to prove, no, I need to know that I’m capable of standing at the top.”

“...Is being powerful that important to you?”

Stryg turned and faced her, “If it means I can protect the ones close to me, if it means I can keep them close, then yes.”

Maeve grabbed his hand, “Stryg… Power doesn’t work that way. My father was a merchant lord and he still lost everything.”

“Your father was weak,” he said coldly. “All his power came from others. When it came time for him to stand alone, he lost. I won’t be the same.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Maeve said sadly. “But even the gods have followers. No one can stand on their own, not really. We all need help sometimes.”

“Maybe,” he shrugged. “Maybe not.”

“As your friend, a close friend at that,” Maeve smirked. “I suggest you find yourself a hobby, something outside of magic. Clear your head a bit.”

“No need,” Stryg shook his head.

“Come on, you know I’m right. It’s pretty sad that your only reason to attend the tourney is to beat up a bunch of 20-year-olds. Although, if you do, I will definitely be there to watch it happen,” she grinned.

“That’s not the only reason I’m going,” he said quietly.

“Oh?”

“There’s someone over there I want to meet, I haven’t seen them in a long time…”

“Over there?” Maeve furrowed her brow. “The tourney is being held in Undergrowth this year, right? Who do you know in the City of Thorns?”

“Doesn’t really matter, I guess,” he sighed.

“Is this ‘someone’ a girl by any chance?” she asked smugly.

“Why does that matter?” he frowned.

“~Oh nothing~ Nothing at all,” Maeve skipped away. “I’m going to get some breakfast, you coming?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” he broke into a grin.

~~~

Stryg sat cross-legged in his private mediation dome on campus. Perhaps private wasn’t the right word. More like every student who came in would leave once they noticed Stryg was there. It seemed he had inadvertently created a reputation of fear among the students throughout the years. Not that he minded, fear was a form of power, and one he would gladly use.

Last night with Maeve had been a welcomed respite, but today had been a long day of training with the dwarf Cornelius Rotrusk, his chromatic brown and green teacher. Stryg closed his eyes and walked through the training regiment in his mind.

Cornelius had explained that chromatic colors were a mix of dominant and recessive spell-forms. Brown had two dominant spell-forms, while green had a dominant and a recessive. Recessive spell-forms were when the bonded elemental mana superseded the chromatic mana, such as elemental fire mana creating orange’s flame magic. A dominant spell-form was the opposite, wherein the chromatic mana superseded the effects of the elemental mana, such as orange’s agility magic.

Way back at the beginning of summer, Cornelius had offered to train Stryg in enchantment spells, since Stryg was already so advanced in the arcane language. Enchantment spells were the fusion of elemental creation mana and chromatic brown mana, a very lucrative spell-form from what Freya Goldelm had told him.

Stryg was excited to learn, but he quickly refused when he learned that crafting enchanted objects usually took days to months, sometimes even years. He didn’t have that kind of time to waste, he needed to grow stronger as quickly as possible. Enchantment spells would have to wait.

Instead, Cornelius had trained Stryg in brown’s other spell-form, the combination of brown and fire mana, vigor magic. While the progress of his vigor spells was steadily increasing, today Stryg had focused on practicing green’s stone and flora spells.

Unlike vigor spells, both green spell-forms came very easily to Stryg. He had no problem casting either one. Stone spells shared the earth mana type with yellow’s durability spells and flora spells shared the water mana type with blue’s torrent spells. Since he was already skilled in durability and torrent magic, he wondered if that was why green’s magic came more easily to him?

Then again, he could cast grey’s curse spells, but he couldn’t cast the simplest of black’s necromancy spells, despite them both sharing death mana. It bothered him how he didn’t understand how any of this truly worked. But as Professor Isemene always said, “That’s why we have meditation domes. To ponder our thoughts and let them run their course.”

Stryg still couldn’t succeed in that particular exercise but here he was, meditating. He’d do whatever it took to achieve his potential.

The dome’s heavy door swung open with a loud bang. Stryg opened his eyes and was faced with the one person he really didn’t want to see. Sylvie’s tall form loomed over the doorway.

“Oh, hi, Stryg!” she waved. “Mind if I join you?”

“Yes.”

“So, I can join you?”

“No.”

“So, you don’t mind if I join you?”

Stryg narrowed his eyes.

She grinned, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Sylvie’s heavy footsteps walked across the marble floor until she stood next to him. She sat down, cross-legged, right in front of him. Stryg glanced around the large empty dome pointedly. Sylvie smiled and closed her eyes.

“You know,” he said, annoyed. “There are over a dozen domes like this around campus, some even bigger.”

“Yeah, I heard. This academy is awesome!”

Stryg frowned, “Why are you in this dome?”

“Because this is the only dome that has one gruff, blue hybrid,” she smiled wide.

He sighed, “What do you want?”