Shaya finished writing out her progress for the second week of class, and shook her head as she reviewed it.

End of Week 2:

Ruby Ward: 30 second cast time, poor efficiency

Amethyst Ward: 40 second cast time, terrible efficiency

Invigorate: 20 second cast time

Bear’s Strength: Maybe 20% of the way to casting

Summon Creature (Ritual): 80%

Control Blood: Not started

Other Wards: Not started

Planar Binding: Not started

“Damn Basillo,” she grumbled, looking over her list, “making me re-prioritize all of my spell training to meet his unreasonable deadlines and avoid getting killed.”

“Yo!” Bri said, poking her head into Shaya’s room, “Time to go! Let’s show these prissy high borns what we’re made of.”

“I can’t wait,” Shaya replied, forcing a grin as she turned from her notebook. Grabbing her brigandine, she left her room to join the rest of her Lance at the entrance of their apartment.

“I can’t believe we managed to book a practice room for the better part of a day on the weekend,” Bri said as Shaya joined the group. Like her and Ralus, she wore full armour – a bronze breastplate with plated skirt over gambeson. “You must be a miracle worker, Ral.”

“Of course,” they replied, holding out their multi-jointed arms covered in bone splint mail and giving the group a knife-thin smile, “our success – and futures, really – depend on functioning together as a team. There is no greater priority to me, and nothing I wouldn’t do to secure it.”

Shaya was pretty sure they didn’t mean that to sound threatening, but everything about Kassarah’s bloodline made Ralus seem sinister even if they weren’t trying to be. Even trying to focus on the warmth in their eyes didn’t help, since their scab-red eyes seemed to crack when a smile reached them.

“Yayyy,” Cyren offered without enthusiasm. Like Oraeus and Samorn, he didn’t even wear a gambeson for their training, preferring his light silk robes.

“Alright,” Samorn said, adjusting a strap over her shoulder attached to a hardcase for a musical instrument of some sort, “let’s head out.”

Shaya and her Lancemates traveled southeast to the inner edge of campus, just shy of where the Wards were located, and walked past the public practice range, heads turned to take in the spectacle of dozens of mages in different school years flexing their magical might. Ruby mages hurled fireballs and searing beams of fire down an open range, some of their attacks reaching a hundred yards out and exploding with deafening booms. Their colour’s opposite, the Azurite mages, shaped shadows into illusions or practiced manipulating the minds and hearts of volunteers. In other lanes, Amethyst mages projected spectral waves that drained the life from small plants, while Jade mages encouraged more plants to grow despite the thin soil. Amber mages practiced shaping walls and weapons out of hard light, maintaining or re-molding spells while working through weapons forms. Finally, the few Sapphire mages in the training yard opened small rifts, launching arrows through them to strike from unexpected angles or reaching through them to interact with distant objects.

Wardens from the Order of Heiwa watched everyone in the public range, ready to jump in should anything go awry. Knights from other Orders also watched, trying to pick out potentials for future recruitment. Shaya’s eyes flicked over them, admiring their shining armour and cloaks of various colours.

A squire from one such order was to supervise their training today, bright red cloak billowing as he walked ahead of them. A swipe from his identification slate caused a heavy stone slab to open, admitting them into the walled courtyard that would be their training room. He ushered them all in and then followed, the door swinging shut behind them.

It was one of the smaller training rooms available, a simple square about fifty feet wide with hex-shaped panels of varying sizes on the floor. The center of the room was dirt, and the spaces between hex panels showed signs of plant life – grass and even the occasional root. Weapon racks lined the walls, but Shaya’s eyes were drawn to the inert clay golem next to another wall-mounted magical plate.

“My name’s Avaim Tenvem,” their supervisor said, relaxing in front of them, “Squire of the Order of Justice.”

Bri seemed enthused around him and his red cloak. Shaya’s giant friend didn’t talk about her dreams too much – she was too flippant and sarcastic for that – but Shaya got the sense she was definitely considering the Order of Justice as an option.

Shaya suppressed an initial pang of dislike for him, given his Astorian heritage, and chastised her line of thought. His square jaw and strong build reminded her of Azreon, as did his golden eyes – though they lacked the high born’s molten quality. His cropped black hair barely had a metallic sheen to it and his skin was simply pale like a Zothirian’s, further reinforcing much weaker inheritance than Azreon.

“I’m a graduate from the Academy,” he continued, smiling at Shaya as he noticed her looking him over, “now serving my enlistment. Part of a Squire’s duty is to help train the next generation of the Empire’s elite, and so here I am. I’m able to modify the room,” he gestured to the various hexes on the floor, “to change the environment for your training and I’m capable of summoning a variety of monsters to test your mettle against. I also have a fair bit of live combat experience, so feel free to ask me any questions you’d like.”

Avaim’s smile widened as he continued, “I’m all yours for the next four hours, so please make the most of me.”

“Thank you,” Oraeus said, already turning away from him and looking at Shaya, Bri and Cyren, “but I believe our first goal is to test the power of some of our members.”

Shaya rolled her eyes at him, then walked over to a weapon rack to pick up a sword and round shield. “Since you don’t trust Bri’s power either, I’m guessing you’re going to want Ralus to destroy my soul or something?”

“Very astute of you,” he nodded, “Ralus, prepare to destroy her soul.”

“As you wish, my lord,” they said, and Shaya didn’t detect a hint of humour in their tone. The chaplain walked over to a weapon rack, picking up a staff and giving it a few test swings before nodding in satisfaction. “Teiash!”

The ragged black robe appeared behind them, wielding their shepherd’s crook.

“Phaedra!” Shaya invoked, “Alright, give me a bit to conjure my Amethyst ward, I rushed to learn this thing for today.”

“Ral,” Oraeus said, gesturing for Avaim to rise one of the hexes for him to sit on, “don’t give her the time.”

You would.

“Teiash!” Ralus rushed towards her, staff spinning to fight at close-quarters, “Ensorcell my weapon to cleave souls!”

“Ward me from death!” Shaya shouted, dropping into a defensive stance as Ralus closed on her.

Choosing to go close quarters against me is a mistake when you have the reach advantage, she thought, especially since choking up on the staff means you won’t have the same strength behind it either.

The staff howled as Ralus spun it overhead and brought it down towards her head. Even focusing most of her attention on tracing her spell circuit, Shaya had no difficulty deflecting the blow away from her head and parrying the chaplain’s follow-up snap strike with the other end of the staff – despite it coming from an odd angle due to their multi-jointed arms. That gave her the space to slam the rim of her shield into Ralus’ knee, causing them to stagger and leaving them open to a sword stroke across the outer thigh.

Not a lethal exchange, necessarily, but even Oraeus nodded at her ability to smoothly parry and counter-attack while casting a spell. Within a few seconds Shaya had gained the advantage in the fight despite being on the back foot to begin with, and would have been able to move in for the kill in a real fight.

“Keep going,” Shaya said, stepping back while Ralus also stagged back, giving her a respectful nod.

They circled one another for several more seconds, Ralus walking off their stiff knee.

The chaplain’s spell finished before hers, an ethereal blade of amethyst energy sprouting from Ralus’ staff and their esper’s shepherd’s crook to form a dangerous looking scythe.

Oh Titan spit.

Shaya blinked, “Does the training room protect against spells like that?”

“The room has contingency spells built in to prevent death,” Avaim responded from behind her, “as long as it’s not instant.”

Oh good!

“Don’t worry,” Ralus assured her, “this is a weak version of the spell, it can’t kill you.”

Ralus changed their grip, wielding the staff as a proper polearm and moving to keep her at reach now. Given what Shaya knew of Amethyst magic – which was mostly horror stories – she didn’t want that spectral blade to so much as touch her. She focused on dodging their attacks outright, only deflecting with her shield if she knew Ralus couldn’t twist the blade and pass it through her arm.

She was good, but not so good that she could avoid all forms of contact with a giant scythe blade for long. Shaya knew she was running out of room and time to maneuver against the polearm. She bought more of the latter by dodging backward and hurling her sword at Ralus, forcing them to dodge to the side.

Oraeus snorted as Shaya’s wooden sword exploded into splinters against the wall a foot away from him, shooting her an unamused glance.

Definitely not intentionally, friend.

Definitely.

Ralus recovered from the surprise attack and lunged at her with an overhand slash. She could maybe deflect it on the shield, but not without risking the spectral blade passing through her head or chest. Instead, she side-stepped it and took it on her unarmed arm. As feared, the blade passed through her gambeson and flesh like it were nothing, immediately leaving that entire arm numb and useless.

Shaya’s spell finished faster than average due to the shield being a sympathetic implement, just as Ralus pulled back and tried to finish her off by running the blade along her throat. The spectral blade ground to a halt against her ward, the amethyst energy sending cracks through her inefficient magic. The ward held though and, surprised from their attack failing, Ralus couldn’t recover their staff before Shaya stepped in and uppercut them with the rim of her shield.

Ralus’ head snapped back from the force of the blow and they toppled backwards, unconscious before they hit the floor. Shaya tried to grab them before they crashed, but her limp arm was useless and she only managed to couch them slightly with her shield arm, hoping it was enough to avoid a worse concussion.

“Happy?” Shaya asked, shooting Oraeus a glare as he continued to sit on his hex stool and watch with disinterest.

“A good start,” he replied, standing and brushing shards off of his robes, “your martial skills weren’t exaggerated, but Ralus finished their spell in half the time you did and almost burst through your defenses in one swing.”

“Awesome, stage one complete,” Shaya said, her arm tingling as Avaim walked over and channeled Jade aether into it. “Where does that leave us then?”

“I’ll test the rest of you and we’ll see what I have to work with.”

“What we have to work with,” Samorn corrected, “we’re a team, Oraeus.”

“What do you think, Avaim?” Shaya asked, turning to the man as he finished healing her.

“There are better ways to test your team’s performance,” he said, moving on to Ralus, “every lance is asymmetrical in power levels, but what you’re able to do individually is irrelevant compared to what you can do as a unit. Each lance is composed of one mage of each of the six colours for a reason. That diversity is expected to come with some tension, especially from mages from opposing colours,” he looked between Shaya and Oraeus, “but right now your team is more dysfunctional than average.”

“And even if our magic is weaker,” Shaya said, “there’s nothing we can do about it right now – it'll improve with time, so we need to adapt accordingly.”

“Fine,” Oraeus said, looking between everyone as they looked at him, “I’m not trying to be the villain here, but exploring our abilities is integral.”

“You keep saying that like there isn’t a better way to go about it,” Bri snapped, “maybe learn how to interact with other people, you-”

“Bri,” Shaya said, turning to her friend and gesturing for her to stand down. She was really worried about Bri’s unrestrained dislike for their companion, regardless of how well deserved it might be, “I know you’re angry, but we need to focus on growing stronger – together.”

“Well said,” Samorn smiled, but Bri just snorted her derision, looking away from both of them.

“Avaim,” Shaya said, walking to replace her broken sword with an axe, “could you summon some monsters for us to face?”

“Any preference?”

“No, surprise us.”

“With pleasure,” the squire smiled.