Not because he was lucky, but because out of every person here, including Lucas. Lock was the only one who deserved every single point he earned. He had no training, no preparation, no equipment and minimal knowledge. Yet he took on the challenges and excelled.
Maybe he wanted to help Lock to further his own agenda. That was certainly a factor, but no he had the patience to wait for another Temporal Slider. Even if it took years, he could wait. The truth was that he wanted to help Lock because it was the right thing to do. It’s what his father would have done.
Besides to help someone score points on the Endless Hourglass for the first time in centuries, that was priceless.
“Parameters… adjusted… does that mean we’re ready?” asked Lock.
“Yes,” answered Lucas then he stopped pacing, looked up at Lock, “Good Luck,” and started walking toward the targets.
“Hey, you’re not coming with me?” asked Lock.
“I’ll see you at the finish line,” said Lucas. Because even if he succeeded, he was going to be too sick to move.
As he took up his position behind the targets, Lucas whipped up an impromptu shield. Not that he was in any real danger from Lock. However, if someone else attempted the challenge while he was out there, he might catch a stray mana blast. Better safe than sorry. Once the shield snapped into place, he glanced over at his enchanted butter knife. Good to go. With business taken care of he turned to watch Lock.
Well watch was a bit of a stretch. The only thing he caught was the slightest of blips when he was between activations. Other than that fraction of a second there was no sign that Lock did anything. One second he was standing 100 yards away, the next he crashed into the target headfirst.
Somehow that didn’t knock him out cold, but he was still suffering from displacement sickness. So, Lucas rushed over and shoved him on his side, “Holy crap, I think you did it.”
Amazing, he may have actually done it. Or at least set some sort of record. A recent record at any rate. That was actually a good question, who was the last person to score on the speed challenge. It could have been a member of the Temporal Guard. They died out several centuries ago. Was that an odd coincidence or two pieces of correlated information? Hmm. A question for another time.
After a few minutes of puking his brains out Lock flopped on his back, “I’m hungry.”
Lucas burst out laughing, that’s what he’s thinking about. He just pulled off a feat that was thought to be impossible and all he cares about is eating.
“Seriously, I’m starving,” said Lock.
“Well you did just throw up a mountain of… is that oatmeal?” asked Lucas.
“No that’s puke. It was oatmeal when I ate it,” said Lock.
Food, that was a friend building opportunity. Perfect, but he would need to recover his butter knife first.
“There’s still time before the main tournament starts. We can grab some food,” suggested Lucas as he checked on the knife. A group of Waystar students had drifted close to it, but it was still good for now.
“Actually I’m meeting someone after this. Do you think the proctor will tell us my time,” said Lock.
“No,” said Lucas with a certainty, “But you could always try flirting with him.”
“Not my type,” said Lock with a laugh. Ah-ha friendship, it was working. Sharing some food could solidify things, but if this friend recognized him. That could sabotage his plans.
“Ah so this person you’re meeting is a girlfriend?” answered Lucas.
Lock sat up, “No, just a friend. Clare Everbright.”
Shit, Everbright. She wasn’t a noble but if she knew the Stanford’s, chances were she would recognize Lucas too. Food would have to wait.
“Everbright, don’t know her,” said Lucas as he offered Lock a hand.
“You’re welcome to join us,” said Lock as he took Lucas’s hand, “I’ll introduce you. If anyone is going to understand your algormisms, It’s her.”
Lucas checked his butter knife again. The group of students was still nearby and shit. One of them was Lenard. He had to end this conversation and get the knife fast, “Sorry I’ll have to pass.”
“Weren’t you the one just inviting me to grab some food,” said Lock.
“Something came up,” said Lucas. Damnit, between Lock and Lenard, at least one of them is going to see. Choose. Now. Lock. Or later Lenard. It had to be Lock, at least he wouldn’t know the significance of someone teleporting.
Lucas swiped his wrist, then tapped the spell he needed and got sucked into his portal without another word. Hopefully Lock would not be offended. A necessary risk and one he would need to deal with later.
He put Lock out of his mind for the moment and focused on the problem in front of him. Recovering the knife, was easy but his rapid change in location left him off balance. He went down and snatched the knife but, in the process, caught the attention of Lenard and his group of friends.
“Pukas?” said Lenard, “You little creep, what are you doing back there?”
Chapter 4:
It would have been nice to say that was the first time Lucas had been pelted with dirt and stones, but he was the youngest of three sons. The youngest always gets picked on. It’s the nature of brothers. He would have been lying to say it didn’t bother him. Rejection bothers everyone, but he’d learned to deal with it.
There were a few ways to handle it. The easiest, stand up for yourself and match aggression with aggression. Lucas was smaller and weaker, that had never worked out well in the past. He could run to his mother or his oldest brother for help but that was a child’s solution. In the long-term getting Lenard in trouble had proved counterproductive.
The solution that he preferred was to keep quiet, retreat and get his revenge in more subtle ways. Such as enchanting Lenard’s bed to chirp in the middle of the night. It may not stop Lenard from harassing him in the future, but it kept Lucas from feeling like a victim. The best part was that for years Lucas had faked incompetence in his studies.
Well partially faked, after his father died his uncle took over their education. The instructors he found tried to teach him basic spells that his father taught him years earlier. It was impossible to pay attention and by the time they got to real magic, he had progressed well beyond them. At that point it was just easier to act like he was lazy and incompetent. Most of his instructors bought into the lie but nobody more than Lenard.
Lenard would never guess it was Lucas who enchanted his bed. And the best part; he was too scared of Liam to accuse him of doing it.
“There you are,” said their mother as he snuck out of Lenard’s bedroom. If she’d showed up two seconds earlier, he would have been caught. Lucky Lucas, fate was forever on his side. Well today anyway.
“Oh yeah, greetings mother,” replied Lucas.
“So, how did it go, do you think you did okay?” asked his mother.
“I did my best,” answered Lucas.
“That’s all you can do. I’m proud of you,” she said as she opened her arms to give him a hug.
He’d be lying if he said that hug was unwelcome, but he was a teenage boy. It just wouldn’t be right if he let her know that. She might start doing that in front of pain in the ass Lenard and his annoying friends.
“Thanks, I know,” said Lucas as he pried himself away.
“What are you doing outside your brother’s room?” asked his mother.
“Lenard showed up at the challenges to give his support,” answered Lucas, “I wanted to thank him.”
She pulled him into another hug, “Oh my boys. You worry me when you argue so much. It warms my heart to know you support each other.”
Oh lord, she’d have a heart attack if she knew the truth of it, “What’s family for.”
“I can’t tell you how proud I am,” said his mother, “Your uncle too. He wants you by his side this afternoon.”
“Me, why not Lenard?” asked Lucas. In ten years, he’d never asked for Lucas so why now
? Normally he would keep Liam with him, but with him competing in the tournament that couldn’t happen. The next logical choice was Lenard. Unless he knew how he enchanted the knife.
“I didn’t ask, but,” said his mother, “I know he was keeping an eye on you this morning. He was very pleased.”
Moron, not only did he see the knife, but he must have seen Lucas teleport. How could he be so reckless. Teleporting in the middle of a crowd on such an important day. Of course, someone was going to notice. He thought he was smarter than everyone, when in fact he was just arrogant.
“I should change,” said Lucas as he gave his mom a quick peck on the cheek and rushed down the hall to his room.
He had to be fast. He ripped his spellrod off his belt, tossed it and the knife on the bed then stripped out of his cloths dropping them on his way to the closet. His mother would be pissed if she found such a careless mess, but whatever. He had to destroy the knife and hope that he could talk his way out of this meeting with his uncle.
If he had seen him teleport, he might not know what he saw. The mansion was pretty far from the challenges. But if he did know he was not going to torture it out of him this very second. There was too much going on today, so at the very least Lucas had until tonight to plan an escape.
As he slipped into a new set of cloths, he thought of the best way to dispose of the knife. He could use an incendiary spell on his enchanting table. He’d done that plenty of times so the scorch marks would not stand out but the mana cost was pretty high.
Without looking he grabbed a fresh set of clothes, prayed it was something that matched and yanked them on as quick as he could. Once he was dressed he snatched the knife and spellrod from his bed, and rushed over to his enchanting table. It was full of half-finished projects and empty mana crystals.
He brushed clean a section of the enchanting table and tossed the knife down then raised his spellrod. Before he could cast his incendiary spell his mother started to open the door, “You don’t want to keep your uncle waiting.”
In a panic, he leapt at the door headfirst and slammed it shut with an unintended headbutt, “Ooof, just a second.”
“Are you okay?” asked his mother as she tried to open the door again this time slower.
“I’m fine, I’ll be right out,” he said as he blocked the door with his foot and shook his head to clear the stars. Disposing of the knife would have to wait so he opened the door and slipped out, “Ready.”
She tried to peek inside the door but Lucas pulled it shut behind him, “What were you doing in there?”
“Getting changed,” said Lucas then he offered his arm like a true gentleman.
The chivalrous offer worked; she beamed as she took his arm. Even though he offered his arm, she did the leading. Perhaps because she was the parent, but more likely because he didn’t want to see his uncle.
“Don’t be nervous dear,” said his mother, “this is a good thing.”
“Yes mother,” replied Lucas as he forced a smile.
She gave him a quick hug, oblivious to the danger she led him to, and opened the door to his uncle’s study. To call it a study was an understatement, it was more like a cross between a war room with a map of the entire continent built into the central table and a library with shelves of books lining the walls, two stories high.
As his mother closed the door behind him Lucas scanned the room in search of his uncle. He was on the far side of the room behind a desk looking at some papers. Without looking up his uncle waved him over, “Come over, this will only take a second.”
Lucas checked that his spellrod was still within reach then walked over to his uncle’s desk to wait. It took much longer than a second for him to finish reading. Or maybe it just felt like that because Lucas couldn’t wait to escape.
“Take a seat,” said his uncle as he finished reading and opened a drawer to the desk.
Lucas pulled one of the seats closer to the desk and sat down, “Mother said you wanted to see me?”
His uncle pulled something out of the drawer, “It seems like something went missing from the breakfast table this morning.”
Chapter 5:
Shit he found something, “Um yeah, I can explain.”
He might not know what evidence he found but there was no question his uncle knew he was hiding something. He had to escape, but how. This was his uncles study, he controlled the estate.
Before Lucas could find some way to actually explain his uncle tossed three butter knives onto his desk, “You know I don’t approve of stealing.”
“Sorry, I…” began Lucas but his uncle stopped.
“It’s alright. I’ve seen the scores from this morning. You surprised a lot of people. The Magisters are still debating how you pulled it off,” said his uncle with a smile.
“Pardon,” said Lucas as he tried to catch up, this conversation was not going at all how he expected, “how I pulled off what?
“A perfect score on thread the needle,” said his uncle, “of course they didn’t know about these.”
Stupid, stupid, stupid. He should have known a perfect score on any of the challenges would attract attention.
“Sorry about the knives, I just…” said Lucas.
“All is forgiven, under one condition,” said his uncle, “Tell me how you did it.”
“Gershwig’s terra habitus?” asked Lucas, it was a simple enough spell that trapped any earthen object in a stasis field. His uncle must have known that after seeing the knives.
“No, I figured as much. How’d you learn it. That’s a fourth-year spell,” said his uncle.
“Liam?” said Lucas without much certainty, then yeah he remembered that’s where he saw the spell, “Last year’s tournament. He used it to beat someone. I forget who.” Forget because I was sleeping.
“Ah-ha, I thought so,” said his uncle as he stood up and reached across his desk, “Well, let me be the first to congratulate you. With a score of 1522, you are now officially enrolled at Waystar Academy. I’m sure you’ll do this family proud.”
It took a moment to register that his uncle meant to shake his hand, then he pushed himself to his feet a little too fast and wound up shaking his uncle’s wrist more than his hand. His uncle fixed his hand then gave his arm one good pump and let go.
“Thank you, sir,” said Lucas.
His uncle sat down again and started fishing in his desk for something else, “You remind me a bit of myself. Your father was like your brothers, always excelled at well everything. Gosh if I remember he enchanted my bed when we were ten.”
That sounds familiar.
“I on the other hand was a late bloomer,” said uncle William, “Failed my studies for years. Your grandfather even threatened to hold me back a year but one day, magic just clicked. I jumped to the top of my class. I see the same potential in you. You’ll still need to work for it.”
“Yes sir,” said Lucas on reflex.
“If you need anything don’t hesitate,” said his uncle as he placed two glasses on his desk then brought up a bottle of some syrupy brown liquid and filled the glasses. He pushed one across the desk for Lucas then leaned back in his chair to sip on the other.
“Don’t hesitate to what?” asked Lucas as he picked up the glass and smelled the liquid. Good lord it was awful, one whiff made him want to puke his brains out.
“Let me know of course,” said William, “The magisters are great teachers but they’re ill equipped to help you reach the full potential of a Transcendent Blessing.”
“I didn’t,” said Lucas, “I mean Liam didn’t mention?”
William drained his glass the dropped it on the desk, “He didn’t have your potential. Besides Liam and I have never been close.”
“I…” began Lucas, “I’m not sure what to say.”
“Say nothing. I’ve also taken the liberty to select your coursework for the first year,” said his uncle as he flicked a finger at stack of papers on the desk, “I know you’re not much of a duelist like
your brothers but it’s important to know the basics. Especially for us.”
Lucas put down his glass and grabbed the stack of papers, the top one was his class schedule.
Mana Manipulation
Intro to Spellwork
Traits of the Trade
Crafting and Enchantment
Leveling Up
Dungeon Survival
Evil Encounters
Competitive Arts
His uncle was right, he would have skipped competitive arts which was basically dueling but otherwise he picked all of the classes that Lucas intended to take. None of them would be difficult other than dueling and of course leveling. They’d both force him into exercising more than was healthy.
He was still reading the list of classes when there was a knock on the door. Lucas spun around in his seat to find Magnus Creed, and Magnus Slade. They both entered the room with looks of concern. That was an odd expression for a day of celebration and tournament. Whatever news they brought; it was not going to be good.
“Gentleman?” asked William as he ditched his glass on the desk and stood up to meet them.
Magnus Creed and Slade straightened their backs then slammed a fist to their chest, “ProMagnus.”
Before they said anymore Magister Tempo rushed through the door. Once he caught up to the other men he folded his hands behind his back and dipped his head, “M’lord.”
“Someone better start talking,” said William as he crossed the room.
“An assassin snuck into the tournament,” said Creed.
“Nonsense, this man is not an assassin m’lord,” said Tempo.
“One of you better begin making sense and fast,” said William as he pulled the spellrod off his belt, “Ten seconds, or I lock down the estate. I assume I don’t need to explain what happens next.”
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