Azreon and Una stepped forward as their lance’s team leaders without consulting anyone. Apricot and her lance turned to discuss amongst themselves before making a decision, as did Shaya’s lance.

“Well?” Shaya asked, looking to Oraeus, “You do have the home ground advantage in Io, are you comfortable commanding the lance in a swamp?”

“While this border duchy is my home,” he gestured around them, “the swamp is not located here. They,” he nodded at the Ionian mages flanking Zaal, “are going to teleport us again, likely across the border to the east of here, so I will not be familiar with it.”

He sighed and looked at Shaya, “I have no meaningful combat experience and have not commanded others, therefore I believe the best chance we have of gaining renown is relying on your real-world experience – at least for our first deployment.”

Good enough for me.

Everyone else nodded in turn.

“Alright,” Shaya said, nodding as well, “I’ll do my best. In combat, follow my commands, but I’m open to ideas whenever we’re not immediately threatened.”

Shaya turned and stepped towards Zaal. Apricot had already done the same, and the two women exchanged brief smiles while Azreon and Una restrained their annoyance.

“Good,” Zaal nodded, then handed each of the team leaders two items: a small, angelic statuette and a smooth, tiny orb of aethercyte with an Azure hue, “Place the aethercyte in your ear – the tele-pearls will allow us to communicate telepathically if you exert your will towards it. We won’t be able to hear your thoughts, but,” Zaal raised a finger, “the professors will be using these to see and hear through your senses to witness your progress and mark your abilities.”

The four of them looked more hesitant to place the aethercyte pearls in their ears as he continued speaking.

Good to know I’m not the only one who doesn’t want Zaal in their head.

‘Give it a test,’ Zaal said, and it took Shaya a moment to realize she heard it only in her mind, ‘exert your will into the pearl and think the thought you wish to share.’

‘Testing,’ Apricot transmitted, the first of them to figure it out.

‘Testing, testing,’ Shaya said next

‘-RK YOU STUPID-’ Una followed moments later, ‘Oh, I got it now.’

‘Testing,’ Azreon said, last, then added, ‘I believe mine is deficient.’

‘The pearls are fine,’ Zaal confirmed, to Azreon’s displeasure. ‘Now, only use these to report mission relevant information – spotting the enemy, making contact – I do not want to hear casual conversation or blow-by-blow reports. If the rest of us don’t need to know it, keep the line clear.’

Very cool! Shaya said, grinning. Apricot shared her enthusiasm for the device, the two of them nearly giggling as their minds imagined its possible applications. Applications they would ask about after the combat mission, both of them reining in their giddiness.

I don’t remember my moms talking about this at all – a recent magical invention perhaps?

“The primary objective of the vanguard is relatively simple,” Zaal said, switching back to speaking aloud, “your three lances will spread out with approximately two hundred yards between each other and drive towards the enemy’s heart.”

“Sounds easy,” Una said when Zaal paused, earning her a frown.

“While moving quickly will be important, you must also be thorough in your advance,” he continued, sweeping his gaze slowly across the three vanguard lances, “Engage and eliminate enemies in your vicinity to prevent them from flanking you or your nearby allies.”

Shaya nodded, “Slow is smooth; smooth is fast.”

Galo snorted, “Typical barbarian, doesn’t even understand equatio-”

The brute suddenly collapsed to the ground, like a marionette with its strings cut. He lay there without a twitch, like a long dead corpse.

Azreon’s weapon was out in an instant, followed a moment later by Shaya. Apricot was only a heartbeat slower in drawing her scimitar. Everyone else was frozen in shock, broken only by Zaal’s words.

“I will not tolerate antagonistic relationships between the vanguard units,” Zaal whispered as everyone reacted, holding up a hand that glowed with spectral energy, “you are going into combat – the time for being stupid children is over. If I discover so much as a scratch on an ally that could have been avoided with simple cooperation, I will ensure the remainder of your lives are so miserable that it becomes a whispered legend on campus.”

He swept his gaze over those present again, eyes lingering on Azreon as the young noble gritted his teeth and squared off against the older mage, blade still drawn.

“Am I understood?”

Everyone nodded and put away their weapons, though it took Azreon a full second to suppress his defiance and do so.

“Good,” Zaal nodded, releasing his spell, “we will teleport just outside of the swamp, where you can prepare your pre-battle spells. Then, we enter.”

Did Zaal just...defend me? Shaya thought to herself, aghast. Nono, he just wanted to make an example of someone who might threaten the mission...right?

Galo shivered on the ground, taking several more seconds to clamber to his feet. No one came to his aid or offered him a hand up, which Shaya thought a poor sign of that lance’s teamwork. Even if she or Oraeus went down, at least someone in their lance would help them up.

Bari and Basillo joined their group, sparing only a brief glance at Galo. Bari seemed unsurprised at his state, though Basillo narrowed his eyes at Zaal. Zaal ignored the larger man, waiting for the other two professors to fall into place behind him.

His next words were loud enough to carry to every lance, even louder than before as they had all vacated the teleportation circle in case anyone else wished to utilize it.

“You all know your roles,” he shouted, “I trust each of you to perform them to the best of your abilities. Should that be insufficient, do not hesitate to alert your commanding officer. The statuette each of you carry is a beacon which will allow the reserve team – including the professors – to teleport to your location in short order and provide support.”

“Do not,” Bari added, “wait until one of your members has already fallen! Exercise judgment when you engage and alert us in advance if you think you may require assistance!”

Basillo clapped a gauntleted fist to his breastplate, the clang ringing out over the area. “Seven protect!”

Most of the students returned the prayer in kind: “Seven protect!”

Shaya and Apricot exchanged another glance, not returning the prayer and instead mouthing ‘good luck’ to one another.

The two Ionian mages traced a circle in the dirt around the four lances, then kneeled to ritually cast their teleportation spell together. A minute later, Shaya passed through a realm of eternal green fire and smoke within a heartbeat. She choked on the infernal smoke, her skin blistered from the heat, and the screams of the damned clawed at her mind.

When they appeared outside the swamp, she wanted to throw up very different reasons. The other students around her looked to be in the same state, though none of the teachers appeared to be phased by the horrors of Vynderwynd’s realm.

“You have five minutes,” Zaal rasped, “begin your preparations. This operation will likely last three hours, so be wary of casting too many spells before contact.”

Espers were invoked as everyone got to work, engaging in longer ritual spells to improve the shape of their circuits and save on aether while doing so. The cast time meant it was impossible to use in heated battle, but it was a valuable tool that Shaya wanted to expand on. Group rituals hadn’t been covered in any of her courses yet, but she knew it was coming up in Intro to Conjuration soon and she couldn’t wait to practice it with her friends.

Shaya drew a quick circle in front of her and kneeled outside it, working through her summon creature spell. Now that she had mastered the basics, Rea had given her a stamp of approval to use it outside of the Wards. While it took her a full minute, she was proud of how efficient she had made the circuits, able to maintain the connection to her summon with barely any upkeep. As she completed the circuit, she dismissed all other thoughts from her mind and focused on the image of what she wanted to conjure: a primal crow.

She released the spell and felt a rift open as she kept the image of a primal crow in her mind. Through the rift, she felt a primordial roar thunder through her chest, the screeching of ancient monsters, and the hair on the back of her neck rose as the eyes of a long-forgotten predator locked onto her. She acknowledged the sensations and let them go, focusing on the image in her mind.

With an amused squawk, she felt her summoned creature enter her reality and opened her eyes to find an enormous crow standing on the ground before her, head cocked sideways at her with its beady black eyes looking at her. The primal crow was much larger than its natural cousin, with a wing span exceeding the largest natural birds of prey in Nadrendir.

Fortunately, the swamp’s canopy and tree cover is fairly sparse, Shaya thought, eying the bird and the environment they were about to wander into, and I mostly need it for scouting anyway.

“Welcome to Nadrendir,” she said to the bird, then pushed aether and will into her next words, “I need you to circle above us and squawk from the direction of any threats approaching us. Can you do that?”

The bird squawked out a laugh at her words, but nodded and took to the air with one strong flap of its glossy black wings.

Looking around, the rest of her lance was using the time well. Ralus exited their ritual circle, a faint glow about their well-worn, bronze-shod staff mirrored in their eyes. Bri’s effect was more obvious, flames flickering along the edge of her blade as it rested on her shoulder – the fire having no effect on her. Oraeus still knelt in his circle, facing towards the cloudy sky, closed eyes twitching without end as he sprinkled tea leaves before him – the leaves dancing up through the air despite it being still and stale in the area. Samorn was still concentrating on her summon spell, but the aether Shaya sensed from her suggested something more potent than what Shaya had accomplished. Cyren had completed his summon spell seconds before she did, a long, furry rodent draped over his shoulders.

“The hells is that?” Shaya asked, pointing at the smelly creature on her friend’s shoulder.

“She’s a primal mongoose,” Cyren said, smiling and scratching the creature’s head. The mongoose looked to hate this, her thick, hard fur rustling as Cyren scratched it. “They’re natural snake hunters – and used to hunting far larger snakes than we have here.”

“Ooo,” she grinned, “good call, maybe I should have looked more closely at that list.”

“Thanks,” he chuckled, “I call her Bitey.”

Bitey gave an annoyed hiss.

Oraeus finished his ritual, brushing off his knees as he stood. His eyes glowed with sapphire light, still twitching as if processing more information. Spell complete, he walked to each member of their lance, opening a pouch on his belt and distributing three vials to each of them. “The yellow vial will increase your strength and endurance temporarily, the blue will quiet your mind and grant you increased intellect, and the red should be saved for dire straits – it will grant you immense alacrity for a short time, but your system will crash once the effect ends.”

“Thank you,” Shaya said as he handed her the potions, placing them in slots on her weapon harness next to her six remaining healing potions, “I know these are not cheap, I appreciate you investing in our success.”

He waved off her compliment, then waited patiently for Samorn to finish her ritual before handing her the vials.

Samorn finished her ritual, high-pitched giggling ringing through the air like tinkling bells. Two smallfolk no bigger than Shaya’s hand flitted about Samorn on butterfly wings, playing with her purple hair and tugging at her clothes in curiosity. She hummed something to them and they stopped, both of them alighting on her stretched-out hand. They sang to each other in low tones for a moment, then the smallfolk nodded and vanished from sight.

Azreon was looking at Samorn again, and Shaya glared at him until he noticed her and returned her glare instead. Caught red-handed, his cheeks reddened and he turned away from her, barking unnecessary orders to his lance.

“Let us begin then,” Zaal said, “Azreon, your lance will take the right flank; Shaya, the left; which leaves Una’s lance to move up the center.”

“You’re giving the fourth best prime position in the spear?” Azreon growled, Una shooting him a glare.

“Yes,” Zaal replied, voice dead pan, “the spear tip has to be able to advance the fastest – Una's team is lightly armoured and possesses the best mobility of the three of you. Therefore, she takes point.”

Una smiled, “Thank you Professor, we’ll live up to this honour.”

Zaal nodded to her, “Now, move out!”