Peter and the Elven Songs (War of Contractia)

by Dixon, TJ

“It is. Goodnight Peter.”

  “Goodnight Hermes.” I say and try to get some sleep.

  It is morning and we are all gathered. To my relief everyone looks fresh and ready. Just before we enter the arena though a young woman ports in front of me. After a moment I realise it is Alumia, the Queen’s body guard. Well, one of the Queen’s bodyguards.

  “A gift from the Queen.” She says and hands me a familiar looking chain. It looks just like the one that was destroyed. “It is the only master now. You can use it with all the ones you already have, but it can’t be used to contact the Queen anymore. The Queen also said to wish you good luck in your battle today.” I am a little tense after what happened to my left arm but I trust Alumia, and from her aura she doesn’t appear to be lying. Alumia ports away and the whole team are clearly excited about it.

  “Does everyone still have their chain with them?” I ask. As it happens they do. Being a gift from the Queen, even though they didn’t work anymore, my friends kept them on for good luck or similar reasons. “This should help.” I say and put it on my left ankle this time.

  “Rin.” I say using it to contact her and sure enough she answers through her own chain.

  “Peter.” Rin says through the chain. It is only a test but it proves it works.

  “It is time. All competitors make your way to the arena stage.” The commentator announces.

  The other team is already there. After a moment I am convinced by their auras that most if not all are wind users. In the right environment that could be a huge advantage for them, but in the wrong environment it could be a disaster. We are unbalanced towards the wind element too, but not nearly to the same extent.

  “This crystal is your freedom. Lose it and you will lose the battle and your freedom. You must remain within the designated area. The borders are clearly shown by a purple light at the edge. Anyone who enters or crosses the light, including by porting, will leave the battle permanently. If you or the crystal do so though, you lose the battle.”

  “I haven’t forgotten.” I say with a smile.

  “The rules state that I repeat it each time.” The judge says. Every time? That could get repetitive. Oh well, at least I’m not the one who has to say it each time. Suddenly we are ported. For a moment we are falling, but then we pick ourselves up with flight magic. It seems this battle will be fought in mid-air. Normally this would be to our advantage and the team clearly believe it will this time too.

  “Yusa, put up a port block around us! The enemy are all wind users. Cherry, lead our wind users. Rin lead the rest of the team. I’m going to take out their leader, so you just need to buy time. Don’t take unnecessary risks.” I order and then I hide my presence.

  The enemy ported as close as they could and at their current speed will be on us very soon. They are flying in three V shape formations, that themselves form a large V formation. Their leader is hiding her presence but is only slightly behind the rest of the team. I am grateful that I am able to detect her. If our battles had been the other way round and we’d fought this one last week it would have been impossible to find her.

  Yu Kii or Helski seem to have created a flying disc of rock that the non-wind users are standing on. Not needing to focus on flight magic they can focus on their own magic instead. I am close now to their leader but I don’t dare strike yet. I need to wait until the rest of the team is engaged.

  Suddenly a spray of water from Aventurine hits their team. It is just water, and far too weak at this distance to hurt them, but they are soaked and uncomfortable. They shield themselves and quickly dry off with fire magic, but in so doing waste some of their power. They only wasted a small amount of power, but so did Aventurine, and they all wasted a small amount of power. Good job Aventurine!

  Annoyed they race towards my team quicker than is wise. The next attack is earth shards from Yu Kii. It seems the disc is Helski’s magic. They try to dodge but the shards pursue them and end up hitting their shields. Again the impact is minimal. The next attack is Sherry’s fire. This time they don’t bother dodging. I doubt that Sherry could have hit them if they had, but after the last attack they obviously assume her flames can pursue them too. This uses more of their power to shield than the last attack, but none of these attacks are more than a nuisance.

  Cherry leads Tabi and Midori towards the enemy. She obviously doesn’t want them getting too close to the rest of our group. They each pick a trio of mages to fight. It is three against one but I am confident that they’ll be able to dodge most attacks and shield what they can’t dodge. Sooner than I expected lightning strikes at Cherry. All nine mages have picked her as their target and ignore Tabi and Midori. All nine mages miss as Cherry displays why she is our best wind mage at the moment.

  Tabi and Midori strike next whilst Cherry focuses on dodging. Their wind slices both hit but like the other attacks they are shielded against. Unlike the other attacks they are too powerful to simply ignore. The enemy decide to focus on the mage that is closest, and so it is three against one.

  The enemy leader seems focused completely on the battle in front of her so I fly up above her, and then drop down right onto her. I can’t see her crystal, but I manage to plant my lips on hers without any trouble. I then try to drain her of power, but to my shock she resists easily and the element of surprise is wasted. She strikes me with a wind slice and I dodge, but I am no longer close enough to try to get her power or her crystal. I strike back but she shields and then a trio of mages break off their pursuit of Midori and launch attacks against me. Again I dodge, but now I’m on the defensive.

  I’ll have to praise Cherry later for dodging nine attacks at once, because even four are a pain. I tell Yusa through the crystal. “When I say now, drop the port barrier for exactly one moment and no more. Now!” I then port and hide my presence. I am above the enemy again and I can sense their shock. Making the most of it I dive again, but this time onto one of the trio. She is small but her power is stronger than the other two.

  Clearly as I hoped they were expecting me to attack the leader again and are caught completely off guard. I reach through her shield and strike her with a lightning bolt. It isn’t very powerful, because I don’t want to kill her, but it is enough that she drops instantly. She should be ported to safety once she passes through the border of our battle ground far below us. The others recover quickly enough that I am unable to take out anyone else in the same attack. I also don’t dare repeat the tactic right away, because they will be ready for it, but suddenly four against two becomes three against two.

  Midori seeing me take out one of the enemy charges their leader whilst they turn their focus entirely on me, and throws wind slice after wind slice at her. Some are dodged but most are not. I sense her shield flicker for a moment but then it turns into nine against four as the enemy all break formation. It is chaos as we all dodge each other, as well as the many attacks that are flying. Rin thankfully has the sense to hold back our support to avoid hitting us at the same time.

  In the chaos however I manage to attack their leader from below. Grabbing her foot I strike with lightning again, but because I hold back again she manages to get away without collapsing. She is definitely weakened and the rest of her team quickly form a flying wall around her. Now they are on the defensive though.

  Helski had managed to get the flying disc much closer than I realised during the chaos and suddenly Yu Kii, Rin and Aventurine all strike at the enemy formation. The enemy shield but the attack is much stronger because they are so much closer now. Then Sherry strikes with fire as Rin and Aventurine both pause their attack. The enemy strike with lightning but Helski attracts it with a metal rod that suddenly grows out of her disk. Before they can attack again I strike with wind slices and so do Cherry, Midori and Tabi. I can sense our enemies’ shields falling as their power is close to exhaustion.

  “Cherry, Midori, Tabi follow me! Rin, no more attacks!” I call to everyone with the chain and I charge through their formation with Cherry, Mido
ri and Tabi following right behind me. We use wind to help buffet the enemy away from the leader. I grab her by the throat.

  “Where’s the crystal?!” I demand.

  “Skirt pocket.” She says seeming to accept her position is hopeless. Cherry puts her hand into the pocket of the girl’s skirt but screams in pain. Cherry falls back but is still able to fly. The girl sneers and strikes me with lightning. I shield and rip the air from her throat with magic. In moments she has passed out but the others have recovered and strike me with wind slices. I dodge but hang onto their leader.

  “Guard Cherry and fall back.” I tell Midori and Tabi, who quickly do so. The enemy are completely focused on me, so thankfully Cherry is soon on the disk. I have no time to search this girl for the crystal whilst I am evading these attacks so I fall back too. “Helski, Yu Kii once I’m there put an earth shield all around us.”

  It is too difficult to get away from them so I tell Yusa, “When I say now drop the port barrier again, and again no more than a moment. Now!” I manage to port but one of the enemies does too. Surrounded they lower their shield and hold up their hands to surrender. After their leader’s treachery earlier though, I put my hand on her stomach and strike with a mild lightning attack. She passes out immediately.

  “It’s round her neck.” Yu Kii says, so I tear open the very top of the leader’s shirt and grab the stone. It wasn’t far down, so her shirt will be fine with a few stitches. After the trick she played on Cherry though, damage to her clothes should be the least of her worries. She’d better hope Cherry is in a forgiving mood later.

  Suddenly we are back in the arena. The girl who fell after I struck her earlier is lying there unconscious, and obviously these two haven’t recovered either but nobody is dead. The crowd is mostly glaring at us, but there are no boos or hisses this time. The girls who we just beat, or at least the ones still standing, appear to be in shock.

  “The winner is Peter of the Wind. Gillian, with approval of the royal judge, is hereby declared by royal decree slave of Peter, and Peter will advance to the next battle. The rights of the family of Gillian are eternally forfeit. The rest of Gillian’s team are at the disposal of Peter of the Wind for the royal competition, but otherwise retain their freedom.” The commentator says without any insults this time, but without praise either. I’d be shocked if she did praise us!

  “Rin, could you heal their wounded?” I ask. Rin healed Cherry the moment we got back. She didn’t even wait for the declaration before porting to her room and back again with a potion.

  “Sure.” Rin says and pours a little healing potion down the throat of the girl who surrendered. She isn’t fully healed but she has no right to complain. Next Rin purposely chooses to heal the first girl I struck. Only then does she heal Gillian.

  “Everyone to the training grounds.” I say and grabbing Gillian’s wrist I am about to port there myself.

  “To where?” The girl who surrendered asks.

  “I didn’t mean you. Just my club. I have no intention of using any of you in this competition.” I say and port away before she can answer.

  “My friends aren’t cowards. They didn’t abandon me.” Gillian says firmly.

  “I never said they were. You are though.” I say looking her in the eye as the whole club watches.

  “Maybe, but your power wasn’t as strong as everybody said. How did you convince everyone that you broke a part of the academy wall?”

  “He did.” Aventurine says.

  “I wasn’t talking to you.” Gillian says.

  “You don’t seem to understand the position you’re in.” I say.

  “Aren’t you just going to tell me to join your club?” Gillian says with a mocking laugh.

  “No. You’re not welcome in our club.” I say and her shock is clear even without reading her aura.

  “So what are you going to do with me then?” She asks with bravado, but I can tell it is fake from her wavering aura.

  “Any ideas, Cherry?” I ask.

  “Me?” Cherry asks surprised.

  “It was you she hurt.”

  “It was just part of the battle.” Cherry says.

  “Maybe, but it was still a dirty trick.” I say.

  “There’s no point worrying about revenge, but you could always sell her. A female mage would get a good price.” Cherry says. “I don’t see any reason to free her.”

  “You can’t sell me!” Gillian protests.

  “How much do you think we’d get for her?” I ask Cherry, although I have no intention of selling anyone. It is enough to make Gillian really worried now.

  “I’m not sure. You’d get the best price at the capital. The nobles there are always willing to pay more, but it’s expensive to go all that way just to sell one mage. You could try the local nobles. There’s one who really enjoys tormenting young mages. She’d pay a reasonable amount.” Cherry says. I can tell she is joking, but Gillian is clueless. She thinks we are serious.

  “Please! I’ll do anything! Don’t sell me!” She begs falling to her knees.

  “You can start by giving me your power.” I say and wait whilst she stands and bends slightly so her head is level with mine. It is clear she thinks I am going to kiss her, but I place my forehead against hers and take her power that way. The thought of kissing her again is repulsive. She is a typical Contractian with blue eyes, short blonde hair and pale skin. She is probably about 14 or so, and fairly pretty but I can’t stand her. I simply don’t know what to do with her. I’m not going to sell her and I don’t want to keep or free her, but that doesn’t really leave any other options. “I’ll take your power each day until I decide what to do with you. You will not be attending lessons anymore.”

  “I understand.” She says looking down at the ground. I almost feel sorry for her. If she had fought fairly and hadn’t acted so arrogantly I’d certainly have let her join the club like Marian, but there is no way that is happening now.

  “Hermes, take her to our room. She can wait there for now.” I say.

  “Ok.” Hermes says and ports her away. Hermes then ports back.

  “Well done everyone. You all did great today. Other than Sherry and Cherry who were already above D class, everyone who fought today was promoted one class as a result of our victory, so don’t forget to go to the right classroom tomorrow. The team will be the same for the next battle.”

  “What will you do with her?” Cherry asks. “I was only joking about selling her, but she is your slave so you can do whatever you want with her.”

  “I’m not cruel enough to sell her as a slave, even if I can’t stand her. I will have to think about it. Perhaps I could ransom her back to her family.” I suggest.

  “They’re broke, so you wouldn’t get anything.” Rin says. “In fact they can’t stand her so even if they weren’t you wouldn’t get anything.”

  “I can’t blame them, but I’ll think of something. I don’t like her and I don’t want to be too nice to her, but I don’t want to be too cruel either.” I say. “Now, enough of that… We won, so let’s celebrate!”

  Like last time celebrating means having lots of good food and drink out here. Most of us contribute, but Aventurine is especially generous. We borrow some chairs and tables from a classroom, with permission from a teacher. I’m not sure which classroom or teacher, but as long as we return them clean and undamaged she doesn’t mind us using them.

  The food looks even richer than last time. The hot food stays hot thanks to Jenny, and the cold food stays cold thanks to Charlotte. There are hot crispy fried potato chips and lots of different hot and cold meats. There’s a huge fruit cake covered in rich icing and a hot sticky dessert that tastes lovely. There’s flavoured ice that tastes like it’s been enchanted.

  The drinks are more varied today too. There are hot drinks, which go down really well thanks to the icy cold. They include a rich fruity drink that is piping hot and a couple of jugs of warm milk that are definitely enchanted. They also include some ice cold
drinks, for those who want to be even colder!

  I doubt anyone had breakfast, but we are all soon full and just enjoying relaxing here. I keep telling myself we should get to training soon, but after our morning feast I don’t think any of us are up to training yet. We shouldn’t stay sitting here like this for too long though, because it is simply too cold for that. After a few more minutes sitting down like this I stand. After a few moments everyone is looking my way.

  “Thank you everyone for your help today, and for joining in our celebration feast. It’s too cold to just sit here, but I doubt anyone is ready to train yet. We’ll start the training in three hours. Everyone please help clear up, but after that you are free to do whatever you want until the training. We will train here like usual.” I say and everybody slowly gets up. Thanks to our magic it doesn’t take long to clear everything away.

  Three hours will let the food go down, but what to do? I guess there’s no putting it off any longer. I look at Hermes and she looks back understanding what we need to do next. I take Hermes’ hand and we port back to our room. Gillian is sitting on the floor looking depressed but the instant she notices us she puts on an emotionless face. Her aura shows her depression just increases. Not unexpected.

  “So, what to do with you.” I say as much to myself as to her.

  “I could be of use in your club.” She says.

  “Too late for that.” I say immediately. She doesn’t seem surprised but doesn’t seem to have any other suggestions. “As my slave your possessions are mine too. What do you own?”

  “Just what I’m wearing. My mother rented a room for me but that was only paid until last night. I’m telling the truth!” She says desperately, assuming I think she’s lying.

  “I know. I can tell when people lie.” I say and she looks back disbelieving for a moment. “Why did you hide your presence at the start of the battle?”

  “If you beat the leader then the team loses. My friends were stronger if they didn’t have to protect me. You saw what happened at the end. If they didn’t need to defend me they probably wouldn’t have lost.”