“Leave us alone,” Rose snarled. “I won't warn you again.”
“How… how dare you!” Eridani dropped her hand to her side. The shock in her expression transformed into molten fury, and I felt my heart catch in my throat as power woke to the slighted girl's desires. Golden light blazed within the manashard upon her forehead.
My eyes went wide and round and I felt aether surge forth, reformed into earth mana within the Eridani’s spirit. Was she actually going to attack Rose with magic?
“Merope, Eridani, that's enough!”
I blew out a sigh of relief as Master Vayna's aide approached the three of us. The third-year student's brow was angled down sharply in a disapproving scowl. Eridani's furious expression quickly melted and she backed off, but Rose still looked as if she wanted to go at her again.
“Physical violence is strictly prohibited at the Academy,” the aide snapped. “You, Merope, are not of Solaria, but you are in Solaria now. We are a civilized people; we do not engage in brawls to settle personal disputes.”
“I—fine,” Rose muttered, though it was obvious from her expression that she hadn't let the aide's insult pass without notice.
The aide fell silent and started to walk back toward the lectern. Was she seriously going to let the Eridani girl off without so much as a warning? I glanced at Rose. Her challenging expression was gone, replaced with something more subdued and thoughtful. The Eridani, on the other hand, was looking rather smug and pleased with herself. I couldn’t just let that stand.
“Physical violence isn't acceptable, but magical violence is?” I called out to the aide before she managed to get more than ten paces away. “You couldn't have possibly failed to sense the abrupt condensation of aether, hastily released.”
Eridani's eyes widened in embarrassment and anger, and the aide's smooth strides hitched, but neither of them said a word in response. Vayna's aide continued her path toward the front of the auditorium, and the Eridani simply walked away. I could almost hear mocking laughter in the way she sauntered down the aisle.
I felt a warmth encircle my shoulders and neck. Long arms draped over my chest from behind and I shivered involuntarily. I felt Rose's breath on my neck as she hugged me from behind, and the anger drained away from my heart, replaced with a delicious sort of weakness that threatened to turn my legs into jelly and drop me to the floor.
“Thanks, Lily,” she said softly, her voice just barely audible.
“They're just going to ignore it.” I tried not to think too hard about how angry I sounded. “Eridani will get away with it and you'll wind up with a mark on your disciplinary record.”
“I don't care. She shouldn't bother you anymore if she knows I can and will knock her scrawny ass to the ground, and that's what matters to me.” Rose drew away, but not before she took my hand in her own and squeezed it gently. I was dimly aware that half of the remaining students were staring at us, but I didn't care. “I won't let anyone hurt you, Lily.”
My cheeks grew hot and I nodded.
“You're so cute when you get embarrassed,” she murmured, her breath warm on my ear. A shudder ran through my shoulders, and I was almost certain I would have lost my balance had I not grasped the edge of the desk to support myself.
“Um, I—well, I… thank you,” I managed, somehow.
“Come on.” Rose tugged on my hand, leading me toward the exit. Her fingers were long and strong, smooth but still hardened from a very physically active childhood. Not at all like mine, which were soft and small. “We've got an important assignment to do.”
Chapter 4
Rogue Hearts
“Ready?” I asked.
Rose nodded.
The two of us stood upon one of the Academy's many practice fields, a very large and wide-open area carpeted with a low, blue-gray grass that needed minimal tending. It felt soft and spongy beneath my feet. I wasn’t a fraction of the herbalist my mother was, but I recalled this particular type of grass was bred specifically for its shock-absorbing properties and ease of maintenance.
I glanced up and spotted Vayna's aide, standing upon a hovering platform above the field. She was watching all of the students as they worked through the exercises, but I was keenly aware how often her eye settled on Rose and me.
Not wanting to get scolded again, I turned my attention back to Rose. For the first half of the exercise, she would form her own magical barrier to ward off attack, and I would attempt to break through it. Break through it, not starve it of energy or twist the aether into a useless form. To be honest, I was a little worried as to whether I could manage that or not. Though Rose's barrier wasn't especially strong, I was even less confident in my ability to wield the elements. I suspected most of the other students would have been able to batter their way through it without too much trouble, which could have explained why so many wanted to partner with her.
“Come on, Lily,” Rose called out from her position a few meters away. “Hit me with everything you've got!”
“If I did that I'd fail,” I retorted. “Or don't you remember how Master Vayna called me out in front of the whole class?”
“You can do it, even with that silly restriction. I know you can.”
My eyes narrowed. “You're not weakening it intentionally, are you?”
“I wouldn't do that to you.” Her expression softened a little, losing some of that enthusiastic edge that was doing more to increase my anxiety than my confidence. “You can do this. Just calm down and focus on your magic.”
“Okay, here goes.”
The practice field was covered in artificial ley lines, laid quite shallowly by the masters of the Academy to grant students more ready access to mana. We would have an easier time fueling our spells so that we could focus more on the process. It would become easier, they said, as we developed a greater intrinsic understanding of fundamental arcane formulae.
Well, it was already easy for me no matter where I happened to be. Out here on the field was like standing waist-deep in a sea of aether. The problem wasn't access, but in creating something with the materials available to me. The aether rushed into my soul, a torrent of power that I couldn't possibly keep up with. I tried to visualize the magic becoming streams of pure water, but nothing happened. Again and again, my mind's grasp seemed to slip just as the mana began to form.
I wanted to scream out of frustration. I couldn't have possibly been futilely struggling for more than a minute at most, but that was still far too long. It was already plain I wouldn't be able to gather together enough water mana in two hours, much less two minutes.
Letting out a resigned sigh, I opted to simply direct the energy without altering it, rather than enacting a true arcane process. I extended my hand, palm outward, and sent a blast of pure magical force slamming into the barrier. The raw aether twisted the air around it, manifesting as a hazy, blue-white pulse of distorted magic.
“Yes! Just like that!”
A smile threatened to take possession of my face as I struck Rose's shield with another fist of arcane force, then another. After the fourth strike, there was a sharp cracking sound, like breaking glass. Rose's eyes were squeezed shut in intense concentration as she attempted to reinforce her defenses, but it was too late.
The barrier shattered with a brilliant shower of red-orange sparks, intense enough that I had to look away from the explosion. I took a step back and blinked to clear the bright spots from my vision. When I could see well enough again, I noticed that Rose was grinning at me.
“Alcyone!”
I jerked backward and turned to face Master Vayna's aide. The hovering platform descended and touched down on the grass nearby. My smile faltered, and I didn't even have to look to know that Rose's congratulatory smile was gone. I'd been singled out. Again.
The aide walked off of her platform and stopped about a meter away from me. “You were not permitted to dispel the barrier! Master Vayna explicitly instructed you to—”
“She didn't,” Rose pointed out
. “She broke it down from the outside, just as we were told.”
“What was that spell, then? There was no elemental mana present in her magic!”
“It wasn't a spell, exactly.”
A dubious expression formed on the aide’s face. “Explain.”
“Lady Merope possesses a fire affinity. My water affinity is weak, as you know,” I explained, not quite able to keep the bitterness out of my voice. “I judged that any conversion would have been insufficient to overwhelm her defenses. Without the option to modify the existing structure of the barrier itself, there was no other viable solution.”
The aide's disbelieving scowl fell, just for the barest of moments, and was replaced by something darker and more unsettling. “Very well. As… brutish as your method may have been, you have successfully completed the exercise,” she said in a grudging tone.
There was a rush of displaced air as the aide's platform ascended into the sky, the resulting blast of air blowing the curls back away from my empty forehead. It was a coincidence, of course, even if it felt like the aide's own magic had delivered a mocking little jab.
“Don't let them get to you, Lily.”
I turned toward Rose and shrugged weakly. “It's becoming more difficult. My nerves aren’t just frayed, they’re practically gone.”
“It's the same for both of us,” she pointed out. “They can't get rid of either of us openly, at least not unless we do something really stupid, but they can—they are trying to make us want to quit. The masters, the aides, the students—they all want us to go away.”
“Even Erika Corvus?”
Rose nodded. “Probably. I’d wager she's just better at hiding it than most. Whatever she did to get stuck mentoring us must've been bad by the Empire's standards. Your people sure like to get worked up over nothing.”
“I'm not arguing with that,” I agreed, my tone bone-dry.
“I wouldn't be surprised if that Eridani bitch goes crying to her father and causes some problems for your family.” Rose's expression hardened and her lips parted in a predatory grin. “I knew I should have laid her out on her pompous ass.”
“That really would have gotten you in trouble,” I retorted. “Don’t worry about that. Let's finish the assignment before Master Vayna's aide comes back to berate me some more.”
“Good idea.”
I walked over to the spot where Rose had been during the first half of the exercise, settling down into a defensive stance, both physically and mentally. The magic woke to my command and was shaped into a shimmering barrier of pure force. Like the blasts I'd flung at Rose's barrier, the aether held no elemental Aspect.
Ideally, I would have been able to form a barrier of wind, for wind magic would be the most effective at scattering her flames. I had a feeling, though, that Rose might try something a little more creative to break down my barrier, and something in the back of my mind told me that a vortex shield wouldn't be a good idea. Not that I'd be able to express wind mana in the first place, I reminded myself.
Rose grinned fiercely and the manashard in her forehead blazed with burning power. She took a heavy step forward and effortlessly conjured a fireball the size of my head. The speed at which she summoned the burning projectile nearly stole my breath. I tried to stay confident in my defenses. Bracing myself for the inevitable impact, I shifted weight to my right foot planted behind me, digging in for the explosion that would knock me to the ground if I wasn't prepared—
The fireball exploded, scattering motes of burning magic across the rim of the pale shield. The invisible barrier glowed faintly blue-white underneath the fiery assault. I could feel the power starting to waver, edging toward collapse, and I poured more magic into the shield in an attempt to reinforce it.
My eyes were closed to shield them from the brilliance of the exploding fireball, and that, unfortunately, was Rose's intent all along. By the time my vision cleared, Rose was already less than a meter away.
“Gotcha!”
Rose's rush directed all of her body's considerable momentum into the open-palm strike she delivered to the center of my barrier. I gasped and nearly fell to my backside from the physical blow alone, but Rose wasn't done yet. I threw up an arm to shield my eyes again as a sharp, sudden explosion blossomed from the point of impact.
I felt my barrier shatter—and after a moment I realized I had fallen to my backside, which was now rather sore.
Rose stood over me, a victorious grin parting her lips. She held a hand out to help me to my feet, and I gratefully accepted. The girl pulled me up as if I weighed nothing at all. Granted, I was much smaller than she was, but I still had mass, and she was able to pull me up without effort even after expending so much to take down my barrier.
“You okay, Lily?” She gave me a concerned look.
I glared at her peevishly. “My backside is going to turn purple, thanks to you.”
“I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd fall.”
“Try to remember that you're nearly twice my size,” I commented in a dry tone. “Is that common among your people?”
“It varies,” Rose replied. “My family has always tended toward tall, strong and a bit on the round side.” She grinned and crossed brawny arms beneath her rather ample chest. I tried very hard not to stare, though eliciting such a reaction was clearly her intent.
Rose was taller than my mother by a handful of centimeters, but her frame was not the willowy and slender build common to Solarians. She was solid and strong, and big. Everything about Rose was big. Her body, her personality, her words and laughter, her fire magic, her heart. It was strange that I didn't feel intimidated by her in the slightest, even though she was larger and more imposing than most Solarians. I'd always been the smallest, always felt physically inferior to my peers, and yet I was completely at ease with the biggest girl I'd ever met.
“Lily… are you really going to be okay?”
I blinked. “I… I think so.”
“You think so? How hard did you hit the ground?”
“Um, pretty hard.”
“Do you need to go to the infirmary?” Rose asked, a worried look in her eyes. “I can take you there.”
“N-no, I'll be okay, I don't want to be a burden—”
“You're not a burden, Lily.” She rolled her eyes and sighed in a theatrical manner. “You at least want me to take a look for you? See how bad it is?”
Though her tone was matter-of-fact and should have been taken at face value, I felt my cheeks grow hotter than ever before. I was certain the blush coloring my face was so visible even the relatively unsubtle Rose could recognize what was going through my mind at the moment.
“Oh,” she said after a moment's consideration. “Never mind, then. Forget I said anything.”
I felt a surge of disappointment and I wondered if that also reflected in my expression. Rose was still looking at me with a great deal of concern. I opened my mouth, not entirely sure what I was going to say, or why, but Master Vayna's aide returned to our circle, hovering above and watching us closely.
“You have successfully completed the exercise, Merope. Class is dismissed for the day.” The aide paused for a moment and glanced at me before continuing. “The dining hall will be serving the midday meal in half an hour. Merope will be permitted to bring your meals to your quarters.”
Rose nodded wordlessly, gesturing to the distant spires of the Academy in the distance. Vayna's aide descended to the ground and made a casual gesture with one hand. A second hovering platform appeared in a flash of verdant magical energy.
“This conveyance will take you to the healers. Ensuring health of body is equally important to health of mind and magic, Alcyone. See to it that you do not neglect your injury.”
“F-fine, I'll go to the infirmary,” I stammered.
Chapter 5
Azure Currents
I managed to make it to the infirmary without any trouble. The pain in my backside was steadily growing worse as the adrenaline rush of mock magical co
mbat faded and my heart rate returned to a resting state. By the time I arrived, I was having trouble walking without wincing.
There was only one healer in the infirmary when I arrived; after all, it was nearly time for the midday meal, and most of the students serving in such a capacity would have already departed for the dining halls.
“Lily Alcyone?”
“Yes.”
“Come this way,” the healer instructed, gesturing toward one of the examination beds. She drew the curtain back as I stiffly made my way to the low, cushioned platform.
“Go ahead and undress, then lie face-down on the bed.”
I did as I was told without much feeling at all. When Rose had offered to examine my injury, I felt a surge of emotion that was now completely lacking. I realized I hadn't wanted Rose to look because I really did want her to. It was becoming painfully obvious to me that my heart had begun to turn toward her.
Inwardly I grimaced and tried to shake those thoughts off. Dwelling on such things now was pointless. Allowing the healer to tend to my aching backside was the more immediate concern. The cool air of the infirmary brushed against my bare skin as I laid down on the exam bed. “It's turned purple, hasn't it?” I asked.
“Quite.”
I grimaced. “Wonderful.”
“I'm going to perform a physical examination to ensure you haven't broken any bones,” the healer warned me. She made a disapproving clucking sound. “You were hit hard. Shouldn't your barrier have protected you against this?”
I laughed softly despite the painful situation. “Would have, if it hadn't been shattered.”
“You were doing barrier exercises, then.” The healer's voice was intentionally kept calm and soothing as I felt her fingertips start to poke and prod. I yelped in pain as she put pressure on the bones at the base of my spine, and she quickly withdrew.
“That's not good,” she murmured, almost to herself.
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