Fortunately, the Armoury can repair itself fairly quickly.

Unfortunately, Armsmaster has forbidden me from using what I have taken to calling the starlance until my control has significantly improved. And I’ve had time to practice it.

Because it drained almost all of my mana, and Armsmaster had used the Armoury to refill me before we entered the target range.

Whilst the starlance is gloriously potent, it is also my single most egregious waste of mana to date, so I will need to refine it a great deal if it’s ever to see combat, and even then it’s likely to only be used on monsters. Which limits my options somewhat.

In related news, I now understand what Mom meant when she said experimenting with magic was a bad idea with how little instruction I’ve had in it. If it weren’t for the fact I was doing it in the Armoury, the damage I’d have sustained would have been much worse.

The last half of that night was spent explaining everything I know about stars to Armsmaster. How they’re born, how they die, how even the smaller stars are so much larger than Aldor (assuming a similar size considering I didn’t feel a difference in gravity), in the same way Aldor is so much larger than us. It took longer than I’d like, especially considering I didn’t have an answer to all her questions. I couldn’t remember the exact figure for how hot they could get, though I knew it was in the tens of thousands of kelvin, and explaining solar wind meant touching on aspects of the sciences that I didn’t have much interest in.

All in all, by the time I’d finished there was a little under half an hour left until I usually got up, so I just practiced my mana control until then.

Which would be about now.

The transition from the Armoury to the ‘real’ world is always a little jarring, though given my current condition it’s a little more so this time. The weakness from the injury itself and Aunt Tamaya’s healing has largely faded, though some of the pain and tension in my shoulder still remains. It’s bearable, but hard to ignore.

I run my fingers over the scar I now bear on my shoulder. The redness is a little incongruous, especially against my now pale skin on that side, and it being vaguely shaped like a hand is weird. The fingers reach up to the top of my shoulder, closer to the neck, with the thumb touching just under the collarbone. Fainter scarring spreads out from the palm for a few inches, though Aunt Tamaya said the main part is there to stay.

While major injuries like mine can be fully healed, if the healer is skilled enough, it will always leave remnants. This is because magical healing, in any of its forms, uses the soul as a blueprint, and when someone is wounded severely enough it can leave a mark on the soul.

It's strange. I feel like I should be much less okay with what happened. I was still reeling from the pain when I spoke to Armsmaster immediately after the fight, I was feeling somewhat numb after I woke up from Aunt Tamaya’s healing, and events feel… disconnected if enough time has passed since when I’m in the Armoury, so this is the first chance I’ve had to really examine how I feel about it all.

And all I can say is I feel fine.

I know that’s not normal, I know that Sophie is having a hard time dealing with what happened, but I’m just not.

I think it feels like I’ve already had a chance to process it all, like I’ve come to terms with it already and now I can move on, but I’ve not done that yet.

Armsmaster? Why am I not freaking out right now? That burn hurt a lot, and all of a sudden I’m just completely fine? What’s going on?

“It’s the reason I talked with you right after you went out. I’ve learned that astral projection can help with preventing trauma from taking root without making anything worse, if you know the right steps, and I’ve had a lot of practice. But you need to remember that it isn’t perfect. Some lingering trauma will remain, and likely stick with you for a while. It just means you’ll be able to function like a normal person a lot sooner.”

Lingering trauma? Like what?

“For you? Likely a deep seated aversion to fire mages and significant discomfort in alleyways. It shouldn’t be debilitating on its own, though I may be wrong. We’ll just have to see”

I see. Thank you.

I stretch my shoulder a little, to try and get some of the tension out, and get dressed. After putting on some casual clothes I brush out my hair at the vanity in my room.

As I’m brushing it, I take a moment to properly look it over. I don’t dislike the new length, and I may even grow to prefer it, but regardless I may have to keep the style anyway. Long hair is a really bad idea in a fight, and I was lucky none of those thugs took advantage of it. I will have to get it tidied up though, the growth ointment grew it back a bit lopsided.

Once I’m done I start heading out to the yard to practice what little Armsmaster and I went over last night, but as I pass the dining room I notice a piece of paper on the table.

Picking it up I see it’s written in Mom’s neat, efficient handwriting.

Valerie, Tamaya, or Sophie, whichever of you sees this first, I have decided to go pay Alex a visit. It’s best he’s told about yesterday in person, and it will likely take me most of the day to get there, so I have left early. With my taking up a post at Cardinal, this is possibly my last chance to see him before the semester begins. I intend to return by tomorrow afternoon should nothing delay me.

Ariel

It’s a little out of character for Mom to just go with no fanfare. The total two times she’d had to go on a trip for her job she spent three days beforehand ensuring I’d have everything I’d need, and the whole week and a half leading up to it making sure I knew it was happening.

So her just leaving seemingly on a whim is odd, to say the least, but if she’s right about it being her best chance to see an old friend I guess I can’t blame her. It’s not like I’m on my own at the moment anyway, and if Mom didn’t trust Aunt Tamaya we wouldn’t have come here.

I return the note to the table so the others have a chance to see it and step outside for my morning practice, which basically amounts to going through my martial forms for both my sword and my gauntlets, while switching between the two when Armsmaster gives the signal. I still feel like I could be a little quicker with it, but she says I’ve already made excellent progress, so I’ll take the win.

Once I’m done with my practice for the day, I head back inside. Aunt Tamaya is in the kitchen making breakfast, and Sophie is sitting at the table. Her ears are limp, and she doesn’t look like she slept all that well.

“Good morning, Sophie,” I say.

“Morning,” she grumbles.

“Didn’t sleep well?”

“No. I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me.”

“Alright. I’m here to talk if you need it, okay?”

She nods.

“Any plans for today?” I ask.

“I’m going to start working on manifesting Huntsman. Listening to him describe things to me has worked well enough so far, but he’ll be able to help much more if he could access a physical body. Not all of us have Aspects that can do as much as yours.”

“Yeah, fair enough. As for me, I think-”

“As for you, Valerie, you’ll stay right there after breakfast,” Aunt Tamaya interrupted. “There’s been a glaring hole in your education, and it’s high time we fix it.”

I turn to her. She’s just entered the room and is now carrying a tray loaded with three plates of scrambled eggs and bacon on toast. “Okay, what hole would that be?”

She looks at me archly, “Well for starters, do you actually know how the Academy works?”

I blank. That… is a very good point.

“Uh. Right, yeah, I see what you mean.”

“Good.”

Once we’ve eaten, and Sophie has stepped outside for her practice, Aunt Tamaya sits across from me and says, “Alright, to begin, how much do you know about Cardinal?”

I blush. “Not much. In fact it’s probably for the best if you assume I know nothing.”

She sighs, “Lost gods, Ariel, what will I do with you? Right. Cardinal was a collaboration hundreds of years ago between the elves, beastkin, and humans at the time. As I hope you know the dwarves don’t have any mages, so they didn’t see the point in lending their aid. The intent of this effort was to better prepare future mages against monstrous threats, as at the time most mages learned through apprenticeships, which are slow and inefficient. It used to be that the three peoples in question would all fund the Academy, but with it being built near a siphon and the city of Hortell having sprung up around it, that quickly stopped being necessary.

“A student usually will attend Cardinal for four years, though exceptions exist. When you go there for your enrolment you will be offered a selection of four tracks, Combat, Magical, Scholar, and Craftsman. You pick one track to run for the full four years, and can take a secondary track to dabble in if you feel confident you can manage it. Most do. Sophie, for example, plans to take the Combat track, with a secondary in Craftsman, specifically alchemy. Given your aptitude, I think it wouldn’t be presumptuous to assume you’ll be taking Combat as well?”

I nod. “I’ll have to think on what secondary I might want to take. Magic, maybe?”

“To go into the individual tracks in more detail, Combat is about more than learning how to hit things. It also includes instruction in identifying monsters, their strengths, weaknesses and habits, combat magic, as well as tactics, which your Mom will be teaching. The Magical track is more theoretical than anything, though it can be helpful to refine your casting. It’s about the interactions mana has with everything, what we know about how it works, as well as more esoteric aspects of the various Affinities and the deeper minutiae of ritual magic. The Scholar’s track is similar to the Magical, in that it is largely theory work, but on the mundane end of the spectrum. History, geography, and other such things. It’s one of the less popular tracks, though it sees enough students to warrant keeping it. Finally we have the Craftsman track. As the name implies, it's about the making of things. Enchantments, alchemy, as well as armour and weaponsmithing, it also includes large scale arrays for those interested later on.”

“What’s an array?” I’ve not heard of them before.

“They’re like enchantments, in the way a shield is like a fortress wall. Enchanted items are meant for the use of a single person, whereas arrays are intended for places and buildings. The walls of Hortell have an in-built array to drastically increase their durability, though it wouldn’t be active at the moment. Arrays are the biggest drain on a treasury because they need so much power to run. I don’t know the details for the city’s defensive array, but it has to use at least a hundred Leaves an hour. They’re intended for short bursts of defense. Monsters don’t exactly lay siege to places, after all. Regardless, to return to the original topic, Magical would prove a good secondary for you. Given your Affinity, you’ll need whatever extra benefit it can give you to shore up weaknesses in offense.”

Oh. Right. She wouldn’t know.

Armsmaster, should I tell her about…?

She responds immediately. “Best not. The fewer who know you can do… that, the bigger a surprise it will be when you need it. Secrets shared are harder kept after all, so better you don’t share it at all.”

Right.

Aunt Tamaya picks up on me talking to Armsmaster pretty quick, it’s not exactly subtle, and says, “Your Guide have something to say?”

I think quickly. I could lie to her, and say something to put her off that trail, but I really don’t like lying, and I’m also really terrible at it.

“I, uh, Stellar isn’t as bad at attacking as you might think. At least, not the way I do it.”

She looks very sceptical, not that I blame her. Conventional wisdom is that Stellar attacks are, at best, mediocre, so I guess I can understand it. “Really? I don’t suppose you’d like to elaborate?”

“That’s what I was asking Armsmaster about. She said it’s best kept as hidden as possible, just in case. She seems to think I may need an ace up the sleeve, if you know what I mean.”

“I don’t know the phrase, but I can guess from context. Say no more, I won’t ask.”

I nod.

“Now then, you’ll get a tour of the grounds after you’ve enrolled, so I won’t need to tell you about that, which means the only other thing you’ll need to know for now is that Rodrick, the current Headmaster, has made it mandatory to attend an introductory set of classes for every track, regardless of what you chose. This is so you can have a basic understanding of what they all entail and it ensures that you know at least something outside your chosen studies. I don’t think I need to tell you this, but versatility can be valuable. That should be all for now. You can return to your training, but remember, nothing strenuous until I say so, got it?”

“I get it, Aunt Tamaya. Thank you for telling me this.”

I step around and give her a quick hug. “I’m going to be outside with Sophie for the rest of the day, so until then?”

She returns the hug, “Of course dear. I have some things to finish up at Cardinal. I’ll likely need to help Rodrick with getting Ariel’s position sorted, given she’s not here to do it herself at the moment. I’ll see you later.”

I step around the table and head out the door. As I do, Armsmaster speaks up. “You know, it wouldn’t hurt to get you working on manifesting me as well. We may not need it for your training, but it would help with other things. Some parts of the process are similar to using the Armoury for storage.”

Oh, that would be useful. What about making a physical doorway, though? Is that related?

“Somewhat. You’re still a ways off from that kind of thing, so don’t get your hopes up.”