OldBegginings:[Well this is a friendly warning that if you want me to answer any specific questions about this fiction in my authors notes, please comment to this chapter with it. Also, don't worry, I don't count A/N's as actual chapters, so will release chapter 9 soon after posting it. I just want to explain a couple things to make sure the readers who're not sure on the series can get some help in deciding.

Also, apologies for last chapter's personality change. I tried something but it didn't work, so rewrote it in another way that should maintain the things you guys wanted. Of course, clarification that this is the case would be appreciated.

Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter without another hefty rewrite.]

'Oh god. This isn't good...' was all Silence could think, now looking at her phone.

You have 83 missed calls

and 342 unread messages

She checked where all of them came from, finding the source of the calls was Helen Shard, her older sister.

'Ah... I did promise to talk with her last night... Oops.' she suddenly remembered that she was going to tell her sister how the school felt, but her mental breakdown somewhat stopped her. 

She kicked herself for turning her phone on silent, now calling her sister to make up for it. It was a regular thing for them to do since her sister hadn't lived with her in years, so she felt really stupid for forgetting it.

After two rings the call was picked up. 

A moment of silence was followed by a small murmur by her sister, "Mel?"

There was an initial peace behind her tone, but in seconds this peace was replaced by angry exclamations, "WHY DIDN'T YOU PICK UP YESTERDAY!? I sent you hundreds of calls and messages!"

With a sigh, her explosive tone was replaced with a meek one, "I was worried that something bad happened. Meany."

Silence had accidentally dropped her phone surprised at Helen's deafening shouting. During the time it took her to pick it up, her sister became less and less patient, huffing and puffing by the time it reached Silence's ear.

"I-I'm sorry... a lot happened in the last week, so I forgot. I also turned my phone on silent, and didn't pick it up again until now." Silence replied, making up a reason on the fly. She physically lowered her head even though Helen couldn't see her.

"Huh, what happened then?" Helen's voice perked upon hearing Silence had stories to tell.

"Well... During the open day, I got into a duel with someone ranked thirty or something. They were a mage so I won easily." she replied, recounting the first big event of her school year.

"Eh? You defeated a high-ranked mage in a duel? How?" Helen asked questions continually, attempting to understand how.

"I'm called Silence..." Silence paused, assuming what she said was self-explanatory enough.

Without a response from her sister, she continued with a sigh, "It was a duel to get the first hit on your opponent. I silenced her before she could finish her chant and threw a stone at her. The officials counted it as a hit and I won. I'm now in the elite dorm ranked 73."

"Eh!? Wait, you're in your school's elite dorm now?" her sister's voice now peaked with awe. 

"Yeah... But didn't you get into your school's elite before you even applied?" Silence asked her sister, who was ranked 5th in eighth high school.

"I did, but I'm a mage, so it's not surprising... The last time I saw you, though, you were still silencing yourself by accident," she answered, adding a little tease in with it.

After she received no reaction from Silence and had a moment of thought, she added another couple of questions, "So does this mean you'll compete in the tournament? Do you know which event?"

Silence paused for a moment, attempting to catch up to the pace of her sister's questions.

"I don't know..." she replied, shrugging on her side of the call.

Sounding concerned, her sister asked yet another question, "Why? I'd love to see how much you've improved since I left home..."

Silence had no reason to hide her indecisiveness, so replied bluntly, "In this school, all of the elite need to compete. It's just... none of the events really intrigued me."

Worried that she might not be able to see her, but trying to not sound condescending, her sister asked a relatively simple question in response, "Well, what's your specialty?"

'Huh, now then, how do I tell a high ranking mage that my specialty is fighting mages? Hm...' Silence thought, thinking about whether it was correct to tell her sister the truth.

After a while, she broke the ice, answering the question previously stated, "As you know, my power's pretty unique. So I guess my specialty is beating cocky idiots who try to undermine me. But that's pretty vague..."

Silence paused slightly, attempting to think about the events she knew about, "I was considering the capture the flag and beam toppling events, but they seem to be competitive to get into. Maybe I should just do..."

She sighed, picturing how many people would want to do each event. 

Defeated, she concluded but saying, "I dunno. Any ideas sis?"

"Hm..." whilst stretching this word, her sister seemed to be thinking. 

Helen stopped, as she realized a problem, "Wait, why do you say the beam toppling event? Only mages really have a chance in that event."

"I'm silence..." again assuming it was self-explanatory, she stopped.

Met with no response, she continued with a sigh again, "I assumed I could just silence my competitor and amplify a sound to knock the beams over. Is that not allowed?"

Her sister responded with confusion in her tone, "I don't know. The rules state that attack spells, and basic attacks, are not allowed to hit your opponents, but hexes are allowed... I'm not sure if muting them would count as a hex or an attack, though. I've only done the capture the flag event for the last two years, so I don't know about the other events so much."

Her sister's constant doubts in her made Silence annoyed. Noticing how she completely ignored her mention of the capture the flag event, she quickly called her out with a question, "Wait, what about the CTF event? Is it really that impossible?"

"Well... It's worth the most points and allows freedom for many different abilities. Only one team from each school is allowed, so schools usually pick out of their top ten. I mean, you guys have 'Thor'? Right?" 

Helen stopped temporarily, but before Silence could answer she continued. "Yeah, you're way too under-ranked for the competition. If your abilities can topple the beam, I'd suggest you go for that one. If the requirements are too much, you could try for the random event. But you may just flop due to the random nature of it..."

'Well, my ability's not adaptable to do that event, so that's not going to work, and if that's how CTF works, that won't either... Damn, I'll keep the beam toppling event in mind if nothing else...' Silence thought, attempting to keep make her decision now, since she was bored anyway...

"Oh, it appears my break is over now... Sorry, I couldn't help out much. You caught me at a lucky time since I'm training today. Well, I'm glad we could talk. See ya!" Helen said, ending the call soon after.

'Hm... Do all schools start training this quickly?' Silence thought in reply. Of course, 'training' could be anything, but Silence assumed it was for the CTF competition since her sister's team was still undefeated. She had bragged continuously at Silence about how good her team was, her response was always faked enthusiasm, though...

She decided to try and find Spire tomorrow, reading through her booklet to double check the events she'd want to do.