The whispers were much quieter near the dormitory and Alex could only hear them occasionally. He was glad that the commoner’s dormitory was the furthest away from the school and on the side opposite the city of Zephyr. It was only the first day but he felt a headache coming-on from all the noise.

The Dorm itself was a long four-storey building that looked to house well over a hundred. It was brick with arched windows, built in the same fashion as all the buildings in the school, except its bricks were a dull red, which seemed to be the colour associated with commoners. Facing the back of the nobles building from far enough away that one could only make out the shapes of the windows themselves against its desaturated gold walls, it was a building that felt separate from the rest of the school. To its rear, a large coniferous forest stretched out, with more than a few paths leading into it. The forest looked beautiful in the dying light of that autumn afternoon, and just looking at it made Alex miss home.

For most living in the commoner’s dorms, rooms were shared between two people, and Alex’s room was no different. Reading the name on the map, he’d received forewarning that he’d be living with the student Reno Graves, but when he entered the room, Reno wasn’t there. From that, Alex assumed that Reno wasn’t a new student. It wouldn’t make sense for him to be, as all the new students had entered the building ahead. At first, Alex couldn’t tell which side of the room he was supposed to live on, as both had beds, cupboards and desks with nothing personal or unique in-sight and both sides were perfectly kept, but then, behind the cupboard on the right he noticed something, and took a few steps closer to look.

Neatly sitting side-by-side were two iron mallets with squared-off heads. The heads on those weapons were each as large as loaves of bread, and just looking at them Alex could tell that together they probably weighed more than most adults. This must be Reno’s side of the room, he concluded.

Walking to the left side and placing his bag on the bed, Alex opened the cupboard. Within were a dozen uniforms, hanging neatly. The trim on the uniforms was red instead of the gold that he’d seen on the clothes of Lance and Gwen. The institute had requested information on clothing sizes, so it wouldn’t be completely unusual if the clothing belonged to Alex, but just to be sure, he shifted back to the right side of the room and, keeping an eye on the door, peeked into the cupboard. He immediately regretted that decision.

Within were uniforms that did not belong to just any youth. Whoever wore them would be at least two heads higher than Alex and much wider. Being of an above-average height himself, Alex was a little unnerved, and as if that wasn’t scary enough, lying on the bottom of the cupboard next to two pairs of massive boots, lined up neatly, were an array of iron knuckledusters of different varieties. Some had lumps, some had spikes, and some had claws. Furthermore, those knuckledusters hinted at hands that were large enough to wrap around his head with ease. Alex closed the cupboard.

Slipping back to his side of the room, he finished putting his own meagre belongings into the cupboard, and then stepped back and observed the space that had been filled. There, at the bottom of the cupboard beside his ragged old clothes were an assortment of strange items: chalk, charcoal, a knife, and the handle of a sword. He looked at the handle quietly for a moment, not sure if he should use it, but then made up his mind and reached for the knife by its side. Lifting a sleeve, he drew the knife and cut the top of his arm with a swift, shallow stroke, before pouring blood onto the handle and whispering “Zero”. That whisper seemed to reverberate with meaning; that word fell into the spirit world like a rock into still water

As though his blood had fallen on paper, it seeped into the hilt almost instantly, and that hilt bubbled and swelled, warping and deforming until it was a black and grotesque mass that only barely retained its original shape. In that mass a single eye opened, and pushed out slowly, then from the end a blade began to emerge, extending until it reached a length of two feet. The blade was thin and brittle-looking, but sharper than most swords, and grey-black in colour.

Zero was the creatures name, and it was a naght edge, which was commonly believed to be a subspecies of phantom. They were rare, so not many magisters even knew of their abilities. It was for this reason that Zero was Alexander’s favourite weapon, and it was for this reason that he carefully wrapped it in clothes before tucking it into his belt and slipping out of the room.

The twilight made it hard to see, and while there were no branches to tear at Alexanders face or eyes, it did make the ground difficult to walk. The forest floor was uneven. Branches, rocks and clumps of moss made the section that he was now on completely different to the easy path that he had wandered to get there. The whispers were so soft behind him that he couldn’t even hear them anymore.

Far from the dorms now, he stopped and listened. There were no sounds of pursuit. He hadn’t seen anyone following him either.

Finding a more level section of ground, Alex drew the knife again, and cut into that earth. The circle he made quickly, but the symbols along the outside took longer, and he had to go about the task carefully, as it was difficult to see what he was doing. Finally after a half-hour however, it was complete.

“Star” he whispered, standing within the circle, and again that word rang out as though echoing. To the ears of anyone but a spirit or an oversensitive like Alex, that whisper was inaudible. Like the spirits themselves however, Alex could hear a whisper like that, even from a hundred feet away. It’s effect on the spirit world was simple: Star immediately began to push through the barrier between planes, just as Zero had. Star was Alex’s second spirit.

He waited. Minutes turned into hours and the darkness around him deepened, and then just as thin lines of moonlight began filtering through the pines around him, Alex felt a presence wash over him. With a voice that sounded completely different to his own, star spoke through him: “Is everything okay, Alex?”

“Everything’s fine, Star, I’m just getting everyone together. I’ve arrived at the institute without any problems. I don’t think our enemies have noticed us.”

“I see. Good work. Why are we in the forest?”

“I didn’t think it would be safe to call to you from the grounds themselves.”

“That was probably for the best. I’ll remain on standby within you. Do you need any immediate assistance?”

“First, I was pretty loud getting here, are we being spied-on by any spirits?”

The night was silent for a moment. “There are a few smaller things watching us, barely visible to the human eye, but I don’t think they can hear us from where they are.”

“I see. In that case, I have a few things that you could help me with. First, I want you to take more of my lifeforce than usual from now-on. I might need your help shortly, as I’ve already laid eyes on the first targets. Is that okay?”

“That’s fine. Will that be all?”

“Would it be too much to ask for you to take care of those things that are watching us… and maybe give me a light out of the forest?”

There was another moment of silence.

“That won’t be a problem.”

“Thank you.”

Star was a spirit known as a lightbringer. They could produce light, but could only enter the physical world and influence it through a living host; an approach that could only work if that bodies owner accepted them willingly.

Opening the door quietly, he slipped back into the room.

“There’s a seven-o’clock curfew” a deep voice sounded from the bed on the right side of the room where a giant sat with what seemed like a tiny book in his hands, a lantern sitting on the table beside him illuminating the room.

Alex froze and looked at him.

“…and no entry to the women’s dorms under any circumstances.” The voice had a touch of humour to it, and a slight smile was on his face.

At that, Alex couldn’t help but grin. Perhaps his roommate wasn’t all that bad, he thought. “Just felt like I’d take a walk to clear my head, I had a pretty bad headache.”

“That’s fine, I’m not exactly one to stick too closely to the rules either.” This time his face was in an open smile. “But did you need a sword?”

Putting the sword back, Alex shrugged “One can never be too careful in a forest at night.” He then stretched out a hand and introduced himself: “Alexander Ness”. Reno put down his book and took the hand.

“Reno. I’m someone who can’t sleep unless his room is clean, and I wake up pretty early, but I hope we can get along.”

Alex smiled back. “Those don’t sound like bad things to me.”

Reno lifted the book again and Alex sat down on his own bed. Reno was everything that his uniform had made him out to be and more. He wasn’t just big but covered in muscle too. Alex was no stranger to hard work, and was probably better built than most of the sword-carrying nobles from the earlier crowd, but the man sitting opposite him had forged his body as a weapon and it was impossible to compare them. Alex was sure that Reno would destroy him in any kind of physical contest.

“I couldn’t help but notice those massive mallets you’ve got there, are you aiming for the military?”

“Yeah, I’m planning to go South and join an order down there.”

“South again, huh…”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh no, nothing important. One of the first years that I met today said that she wanted to go South also. I just thought it a bit strange that the only students that I’ve talked to today are aiming for the South, when nobody else seems to want to go.”

Reno nodded. “I can understand that. My case is a little different however; my family is from the South, so going South is the same as going home. I was born there, and only came to Windria to learn magic.”

“I see, that’s definitely different. So you plan on returning to the South and taking a noble title to make the family proud.”

“No, I’m from a noble family with heredity already.”

The words hung in the air for a few seconds. “Huh?”

“I’m technically a noble. My father is a margrave, but I’m from a Southern house, so rather than dealing with the Northern nobles and all their nonsense, I chose to enrol as a commoner.”

“Oh.” Alex’s mind raced back over his words. He hadn’t said anything that would directly insult the upper class, but his way of talking to Reno had certainly been overly familiar. He hadn’t realised that nobles could choose to enrol as commoners and was a little shocked.

“Don’t worry about all that noble and commoner stuff. Down in the South things are different and we don’t pay as much attention to it. A mans worth isn’t in his title, it’s in what he does with his life. If someone looks up to me and treats me differently because I’m someone that they genuinely respect, admire, and wish to follow then that’s fine, but if I didn’t earn that respect and went around demanding it, people would just say things behind my back anyway.”

Alex’s smile returned. “Okay. As long as it’s fine with you.”

“It’s better than fine.” He grinned in response. “Now, I’m going to get some sleep; training starts early around here.”

Alex scratched his chin. “Is it alright if I come along? I wouldn’t mind watching.”

Reno raised an eyebrow.

“I’m from a small village up North, so the only training I’ve ever seen is the local guards going-at-it, and that lot certainly weren’t awe inspiring. I also have something of an interest in it myself.”

Reno nodded and smiled again, “I don’t mind”.

*****

The morning air on the campus was chilly, and at the time the two left the dorms the sky was only just touched with light.

“You look sleepy.” Reno declared in a deep, quiet voice that didn’t reach far enough to disturb anyone who might be sleeping.

Alex chuckled in reply. He wasn’t sleepy at all. It was normal for him to wake up at this hour, so he recognized the taunt for what it was. “Still too dark to see properly is it?”

Reno chuckled back, and they made their way quietly towards what Alex could only assume was a practice field. To the far left of the encircling buildings that made up the centre of the campus was an area cleared of any obstacles, where a number of people had already gathered. Many had weapons out and were practicing, either alone or against one-another. They were divided into two groups that could be immediately identified as commoners and nobles. Separate as they were however, the two groups didn’t seem to have a problem with the others presence at all. The groups were quite large, with as many as a hundred people in-total sparring and performing practice swings of various weapons.

Reno noticed Alex’s suspicious gaze. “Don’t worry about conflict here. This is a battlefield, and it’s all the same on the battlefield for both groups. Most of the nobles were trained by regular soldiers, and on the field of battle regular soldiers will fight by their side. It’s one of the few exceptions to the division between classes. The only reason they aren’t practicing in the same group is because the nobles are worried that they might look bad if they lost against a commoner in front of other nobles.”

Alex nodded in response but was still a little anxious at the proximity of the two groups. It was then that he noticed someone waving their way from one of the groups. For a moment he thought that they were waving to Reno, but then recognized the blonde-haired girl and waved back.

Whipping her head around to face the group she was with, Serah suddenly raised her hands began talking excitedly. She was with two other girls, one of which Alex remembered from the crowd the day before. They were smiling, and it seemed like she was getting along quite well with them.

“Is that your headache cure, is it?”

Alex almost tripped over his own feet at that comment and couldn’t help but stare slack jawed at Reno for a few seconds. Reno was grinning wickedly. “No, it’s not like that at all. She’s the student that I was telling you about.” The words rolled out of Alex’s mouth a little too fast.

Serah called out as the two boys were quickly approaching their group. “Hey, I didn’t expect to see you out here. You struck me more as a careful planner than a trained fighter.”

Alex winced internally at her comment, because he couldn’t help but feel that it was spot-on. “Maybe I’m concealing some great secret sword skill that you don’t know about.”

She cocked her head to the side and looked at him closely, her eyes meeting his. “Maybe, but I don’t think it’s a sword skill.”

Another wince. Alex decided not to push his luck any further. “No, I don’t have anything so special. I’m just here to watch today; I’ve never seen skilled fighters training before.”

“I see.” She replied with a little disbelieving smile.

Alex smiled too, a little nervously.

Reno cleared his throat. “So then, are you going to introduce us?”

“Of-course. Serah, this is Reno Graves. Reno, this is Serah...”

Serah held up her hand with a little wave. “Just remembering Serah is fine. It seems that around here people have a tendency to stick with first names, anyway.”

Reno nodded. “It’s true for the common folk. The last names sound more like insults sometimes. Serah…You were named after the goddess of travellers and all things lost, is that right?”

Serah’s eyes widened a little “Yes, though not a lot of people pick-up on that.”

“My family was very strict about learning the names of all the gods and goddesses.”

“I see, that explains it then.” She said with good humour before remembering her escort and turning to the ladies beside her. “These two ladies are Scarlet and Alaya. Scarlet, Alaya, meet Alexander and Reno.” She turned to Alex: “I met these two training behind the dorm after we parted ways. They’re pretty good.”

Scarlet had long hair that matched her name, tied up in dozens of tiny plaits. With eyes of brown, and a gaze that seemed like it was constantly sizing up and challenging anyone it turned-on, she immediately gave-off the impression of someone who loved battle. The full-length double-ended spear that she held in her hand only enhanced this effect.

Alaya seemed like she was the exact opposite. With long blonde hair several shades lighter than Serah’s that hung freely at her waist, she nodded to the pair giving-off a calm and mature air. She was a head smaller than the other two first-years, and at her side was a one-handed sword in a curved metal scabbard.

Around them, groups of twos were facing-off against one-another. Many were fighting with the weapons on them, though those battles seemed to be slower and more about tactics and approach than overcoming the opponent and dealing a fatal blow. Neither of the members of either of those pairs were moving fast enough that their partners safety was compromised. On the other hand, there were also pairs wielding light, wooden weapons, and they were moving much faster by comparison, circling around and stepping-in to swing or thrust, seeking out flaws in their opponent’s defences, and eventually striking them.

“Well then,” Alex raised both hands and moved away, “I think that I’ll make my way to the sidelines and let you four practice.”

Reno left the girls to join with a group of his own year, and they were practicing in the same cautious manner as the others were earlier. The focus of the exercise seemed to be figuring out how to fight against different weapons and styles, rather than testing one’s skills. The girls were engaged in the same activity. Serah had a sword, and a shield, which Alex could only assume she’d kept in her travel bag, and was trying to grasp how to deal with one of her companions’ weapons, and then the others, as the three of them had turns with each-other. Alaya’s sword, it seemed, was equipped with an iron scabbard, that she used to block. Sometimes she would guard, then draw the blade from strange angles, and sometimes she would wield the scabbard and sword in different hands.

The sun had begun to cast its rays across the field when the three of them switched to wooden practice weapons: one with double swords, one with sword and shield, and one with a light staff. The three then began to fight more quickly, and only then did it sink-in for Alex: they were good. Their battles were so fast, and their skills so honed that they looked to be on-par with those of the older grades who were practicing, and after a few matches, they even gathered a small audience of impressed classmates.

Scarlet was aggressive in her every action, constantly seeking the upper-hand with flurries of blows, Alaya was passive, always waiting for the opponent to attack before responding quickly with deadly counterattacks, and Serah was balanced in-terms of attack and defence deflecting with her shield and attacking with her sword in a style that, while generic, was executed flawlessly. It seemed like every time her opponent moved she could read exactly what they were going to do and had already prepared two moves ahead. The end result was a kind-of graceful dance, that didn’t look anything like a fight to the death, but easily matched her classmates full speed attacks. Alex couldn’t help but be impressed. The bouts didn’t last long however, and soon all three were tired.

“That was really interesting; I’m glad I came.” He said as he walked over to the three who were putting their weapons and practice-arms into bags.

Scarlet raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you going to practice? If you’re interested I’m sure someone will show you the basics.”

“I think he’s the kind of guy that stands back and uses magic, though.” Serah cut-in.

Scarlet looked Alex up and down. “Magic, huh?” She mused, “Then how about a match with me, Alexander?”

Everyone silently looked at him.

“Ah, it’s like Serah said, I’m alright with a sword, but I don’t think I’d compare to either of you.”

“Not with a sword. I want you to use magic.” Scarlet said, leaning on her staff “To tell you the truth, I’ve always been curious to see it. I’ve barely seen magic used at all, much less in battle, and all I really know about it is that it powers dolls. So I’d like it if you could show me. To tell you the truth, I kind-of want to test my skills against it too.” She said this last part looking straight at him, moving her staff into a fighting position.

Alex sighed internally and shook his head “I’d really rather not.”

“Um,” Serah chimed-in, “I’d like to see that too.” She stared at Alex unblinking, curiosity in her eyes.

Alex looked at those eyes. He couldn’t easily deny her, nor could he outright lie and say that he knew nothing, since she knew of his status as a scholarship student. “Why me? There are plenty of students from the upper classes here that could show you?” There were other ways to turn her aside.

She shrugged “I just think that I’d really like to see you use magic.”

A somewhat vague and annoying reply, Alex thought. Once more he was being pressured into accepting, and he knew that he couldn’t get away with using some half-baked magic and losing on-purpose: after today and yesterday, he wasn’t stupid enough to think that he could underestimate her intuition. To Alex, the worst thing about it all however was not her intuition, but rather that she didn’t seem to have any ill-will towards him. It’s not as though showing his magic here would automatically reveal him to be a scholarship student. It was likely that some of the first-years were capable arcanists also, so normally he should have no reason to hide it, but Alex didn’t really want to reveal his true fighting style. “Fine” he answered in a little more serious a tone than he’d intended to, and for a moment a flicker of doubt clouded Serah’s face.

She didn’t say anything however, and instead walked back a few metres.

Alex wasn’t going to call-on his own spirits to fight directly. That would be a reckless display of his power, so instead he whispered “Star. Do we have enough carrion in the area for free-spirit combat?”

“There are hundreds of them, but they are all fairly weak.”

Alex laughed because he probably could have predicted this result: whispers spread minute amounts of energy into the ether and the lowest tier of spirits, called carrion, would feed on that energy, so it made sense to have hundreds or even thousands of them at an institute where people were in constant communication with the spirits. It also made sense that any spirits more powerful than these tiny ones would be bound and used exclusively by the casters here. The end result of-course was this unnatural flood of tiny spirits.

“That mess will have to be my weapon” Alex muttered, annoyed. He disliked free-spirit combat because it always felt overly technical and had none of the flair and beauty of bound-spirit combat. Then he spoke in the language of spirits and extended an arm towards Scarlet .

The flurry of commands flowed out as fast as Alex could force them out, and he knew that Star was relaying them as quickly as he could voice them, her superior status easily enough to send the weak spirits into a flurry of action, but it was still slow enough that Scarlet raised her eyebrows. “Does that mean that you’re ready?” she said, looking at the extended arm a little impatiently.

Alex shrugged. “Okay.” Immediately after this word came out of his mouth he issued the initial combat commands.

Scarlet nodded and rushed forward, but before she’d taken two steps she stopped.

Alex was floating. Moving slowly at first, and then quite quickly, he ascended into the air, and then at around ten metres up, stopped.

She just stared at him, and her staff was lowered till its tip touched the floor. It doesn’t matter how good of a fighter she was, short of throwing the staff at him there was very little that she could do in a situation like this.

Around them, the other battles had stopped also, and all of the people in the area were looking up at Alex, many of them with confused looks on their faces.

He looked down at Scarlet. “Magic doesn’t just compete with the physical world, It can also provide a means by which to cheat the physical world; and the only way to overcome that kind-of magic is with magic. Your skill with a weapon only matters if you can break the enemies magic first, and if you don’t learn magic to break it, you will certainly lose.” It sounded somewhat arrogant, but Alex didn’t let his tone become arrogant at all. It was something obvious to those who could wield arcane powers.

Serah frowned in response to that. “So, you’re saying that all my years of training were for naught? That I should have been learning magic from the start?”

“No, I’m saying that you need magic to overcome some kinds-of magic when they are used against you. All it would take for Scarlet to bring me down right now and render my spirits useless would be a single word, and it’s a word that she could learn to use in less than a day. With that one word she could stop me from using magic completely, and I would be at the mercy of her staff, but without it I can completely render that staff useless.”

“How can you…” Scarlet started speaking, but then realised what was happening just before she finished the sentence and let the staff go. It was quickly becoming too hot to touch. “I see.” She said, looking down on it, “That’s a pretty outrageous difference. I guess this is your win then, haha.”

“Not really a win. If it was a real match you could probably have struck me before I even used magic.”

Serah’s eyes narrowed. “The way you said that…you were still holding back, weren’t you?”

Alex sighed loudly, irritation showing again. “I just did the best with what I had available, it’s not like I was taking Scarlet lightly.” It was the truth, though such a deceptive truth wasn’t something he felt good about at all.

It was at this point that everything fell apart. The spirits had been tiring out quickly, and the inevitable result was that they couldn’t stop Alex completely before the ground, and he fell hard enough to leave him writhing in pain, holding his legs. At that point the intrigued looks on the faces of students who had witnessed someone using magic to fly for the first time quickly turned to amusement. Some of them realised what he had done, and the fatal flaws in the strategy, and laughed openly. It was the obvious conclusion to such an outrageous tactic.

Alex whispered the one word that Scarlet could have used to easily win the match, before cursing that he needed to use such stupid methods.