Peter of Dwarven Stone (War of Contractia Book 4)

by Tj Dixon

  The four of us port back to my room with our lunch. We are each holding a tray with soup and a bread roll or two. Charlotte and Emma remain in the lunch room because I need to talk to Lilian in private. Rin, Hermes and Asuna already know about the queen’s plan so I can talk in front of them, but I can’t tell too many people. I’m not meant to tell anyone, but can’t keep this from everyone.

  “Hi Peter.” Lilian says as I open the door.

  “Hi Lilian, come in.” I tell her.

  She was waiting outside with a very similar tray to ours. She has a small bowl of croutons instead of a roll, but otherwise she has exactly the same meal as me. I have the same soup I’ve been eating since I got back. Asuna fills a jug with water as I close the door behind Lilian. Lilian places her tray on the table next to Rin’s. We seem to have made our positions at the table permanent so Rin is still opposite me with Lilian on her right, opposite Asuna who is on my left. Hermes is on my right.

  “Peter.” Lilian says seriously. “I’d like to thank you for defeating David. I know you thought you’d killed him before, but it is still thanks to you that my sister is avenged.”

  That caught me off guard. I suppose I should have expected something, but there have been so many things on my mind the thought simply didn’t occur to me.

  “You’re welcome.” Is all I can manage but Lilian doesn’t seem offended by my lack of a proper answer.

  “So what did you want to talk about?” Lilian asks and takes a spoonful of her soup.

  “What I am about to say stays within this room. You can’t talk to anyone outside of this room about anything we say here. To do so would be to betray the queen.” I tell her and she almost chokes on her soup.

  “Then you have my word that I will not betray her trust, or yours.” Lilian tells me seriously, once she has finished her mouthful.

  “We’ll be graduating at the end of this year. Everyone at the academy, and not just this academy, will be graduating in an effort to turn the tide of the war.” I tell Lilian and she frowns.

  “That sounds desperate.” She says, clearly as worried as we are.

  “Desperate or not, it is the queen’s decision. That means we will be forming the company at the end of this year. Will you join us?”

  “Of course.” Lilian agrees immediately.

  “Do you think you will be able to convince anyone else in your year to join us?” I ask her.

  “Not without telling them the truth. If they believe they will graduate ahead of you, then it will seem pointless to join you. Most would need to join the military at the end of the year, so if they believe you will be graduating a year later they will believe that they aren’t going to be able to join your company even if they join the club.”

  “I suppose that’s true.” I admit. Having more Year 1 members would probably make a big difference, so I thought it worth asking, but Lilian’s answer isn’t exactly a surprise. “Well, it needed to be asked. Now let’s eat before our soup gets cold.”

  We finish our food and then Lilian leaves. The rest of us chat until it is almost time for the afternoon lesson, which is theory. It is just as hard as I expected, but Ash helps and I feel like I’m starting to understand a bit more. I’m going to need a lot of help to catch up though. Sadly I can see what I’m going to be doing with Asuna in my lunch breaks from now on.

  I port in to the training grounds and watch as the rest of the club port in. We have two new recruits and I really should have taken the time to speak to them before now. I quickly spot them. I assume that Misty Styx must be the taller one, since she was meant to be in 2D and Juliet Phoenix was meant to be in 3B. They both have typical Contractian features with their short blonde hair, pale skin and bright blue eyes. They look like they are planning to work together, but I want to get a better idea of their abilities.

  “Hi, are you Misty and Juliet?” I ask as I approach them.

  “Yes.” The taller girl, presumably Misty, answers cheerfully. “Thank you for accepting us into Future’s Forge.”

  “No problem. I’m glad to have you here. What were your elements?”

  “I’m a water and wind user. Juliet is a fire user.” Misty tells me. Juliet looks into my eyes.

  “I want it.” Juliet tells me sounding serious.

  “Want what?” I ask confused. She frowns.

  “Never mind.” She says sounding dreamy now.

  “I’d like to work with Juliet.” I tell them both.

  “I’ll find another partner then.” Misty says sounding a little nervous, but perhaps also a bit relieved.

  “I’ll work with you tomorrow.” I tell Misty. We’re both wind users, but I’d still like to work with her as well. In fact in some ways I’d rather work with Misty today, but since Juliet is a fire user it makes more sense to work with Juliet first.

  “Thanks.” Misty says sounding like she is trying very hard to sound genuine, but not doing a very good job of it.

  “It’s going to get burnt.” Juliet says and I turn to face her now, wondering whether I’m starting to regret deciding to work with her.

  “What’s going to get burnt?” I ask.

  “The stars.” Juliet says dreamily.

  “The stars?” I ask in shock.

  “No.” Juliet says and tries to avoid my gaze. I can now see why Rin was worried about Juliet. Misty seems more or less normal, but Juliet seems plain weird.

  “I’d like to see your fire magic.” I tell Juliet.

  “That would be fun.” Juliet nods but then just stares at me.

  “Well, try burning something.” I suggest.

  “Anything?” Juliet asks.

  “Yes.” I answer but only just get my shield up in time as I realise what the target of her fire magic is. “Not me!”

  “Oh… How about her?” Juliet asks pointing at Rin, who isn’t far from us. The fires around me are fading as she says it and I’m not sure she’s going to wait for an answer.

  “No! Just create a fire there.” I tell Juliet before she can incinerate Rin. This girl is crazy, but I have to admit that I am impressed by the power of her flames. I am even more impressed as she summons them again. They literally rise into the sky as high as the tallest trees and they feel as hot as hell even standing a few feet away. She must be burning through her power at a rate that is as crazy as she is though. “How long can you keep that up?”

  “A while.” She answers.

  “How long is a while?” I ask.

  “Another minute.” She tells me.

  “Stop.” I tell her and the flames quickly fade until they are gone entirely. “What else can you do?”

  “Something pretty?” She asks dreamily.

  “Sure.” I answer. Then in front of my eyes hundreds of fish made of flames appear around Juliet. They float in a ring around her and she clearly has complete control. This girl is crazy, but she is also a genius. This is way harder than the water fish I created ten of. Ok, it is her element, but even Asuna only created one hundred. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were over a thousand fire fish floating in the air, and fire isn’t easy to shape. Forming a wall or a ball is ok, but with the level of detail she has achieved each fish is a work of art.

  “Pretty?”

  “Yeah…” I say in awe of the sight before me. I don’t even consider the power required until they disappear and Juliet falls to the ground exhausted.

  “Tired now.” Juliet says sleepily. A moment later she is quietly snoring on the muddy ground.

  Chapter 23 (Multiple)

  (Misty Styx)

  I port into the training grounds and see Peter is already there. In fact most of the club is already here, because Professor Yate insisted I stay behind to go over that question I got wrong in the last test. At least it didn’t take long.

  It was just a stupid mistake. I know you can’t mix dimensional magic the same way as elemental magic, but I didn’t even consider dimension as an option. I just went with earth, which would have been right, if you ruled o
ut dimensional magic.

  “Hi Misty.” Peter calls out as he sees me.

  “Hi Peter.” I reply, trying not to let my nerves show. I’m useless at talking to people I don’t know. That’s why I always tried to pair up with Juliet, even though she’s a walking disaster. I normally manage to prevent her doing too much damage though, so nobody seemed to mind. Especially since nobody seemed overly eager to work with her.

  “Let’s start by seeing how good you are at flying.” Peter tells me and I nod nervously.

  “So you just want me to fly?” I ask as I lift myself up into the air.

  “See if you can follow me. Keep a shield up in case you hit a tree or anything.” Peter tells me and jumps up into the air.

  At first Peter flies slowly but he quickly picks up speed. I dodge in and out of the trees at breakneck speeds as I pursue him. A few branches break as my shield hits them but I avoid crashing into the tree trunks. The chase only lasts for a few minutes before Peter slows down and stops.

  “Not bad.” Peter tells me with a smile as he lowers himself to the ground. I do the same and looking around realise the trees are dead. There is the sound of a stream or river nearby. With my water senses I realise that it is a small stream.

  “So what now?” I ask nervously. The area is a bit creepy.

  “The trees here should make good targets for wind slices and lightning. Show me what you can do.” Peter tells me.

  “So I just attack a tree?” I ask. Peter nods so I pick a nearby, but not too nearby, tree and blast it into little pieces with ten consecutive lightning strikes, all in the space of about a second.

  “Impressive. Your speed and power are both very good. Your mana efficiency was poor though. You could improve it by reusing the after effects of each strike to create the next, given how close together your lightning strikes were.”

  “How?” I ask, confused. It sounds like a good idea, but I have no idea how you would go about doing it.

  “It is probably easier to demonstrate than explain. Open your wind sense and keep it open.” Peter tells me.

  “It is.” I tell him. He strikes with lightning just as quickly as I did and I think I have some idea of what he did, but not enough to do it myself. Then he repeats the process five more times. “I think I know what you mean.”

  “Give it a try.” Peter suggests.

  My first strike works as normal but my second fails completely. I’m annoyed but I try again. These things rarely work first time. It takes about ten minutes before I finally get it right. Well, sort of right. My second and third strikes work, but my fourth fails.

  “You’re getting there.”

  “It’s a good idea. It isn’t easy, but I’ll manage it in the end.”

  “We can just focus on this for today. It will probably take a lot of practise before you can do it right every time.”

  (Cherry)

  Today is my last attempt to win a date with Peter. I came close yesterday and hit his shield twice, but I just couldn’t get the third hit in. I port straight to the spot by the stream just like we agreed.

  “Hi Cherry.” Peter calls out as he turns to face me.

  “Hi Peter.”

  “Feeling confident?”

  “Of course. This time I’ll get the third hit in for sure.” I grin nervously. I’m not actually that confident, but there’s no way I’m telling Peter that.

  “Your aura doesn’t seem to show the same confidence.”

  “You must be reading it wrong.”

  “Well let’s get started.” Peter says and jumps into the air as quickly as always. I’m ready though and get a hit in just like I did yesterday. Then I jump up into the air too and the game begins for real. I only need two hits now though. If I needed three still there would be no chance. Even two is going to be a real challenge, but that’s part of what makes it fun.

  I dart up and down, left and right, and every which way, dodging the branches and tree trunks just like Peter is doing. I don’t fire lightning unless I am confident I have a good chance of hitting. The trees may be dead, but there’s no need to do more damage than we really need to. Whenever Peter veers too far away from the stream I try to drive him back towards it. I need to get my next hit in before I use that tactic though. It will only work once at best, but if we get too far away from the stream I’m not going to have a chance to use it.

  Peter seems to be getting higher and higher. In fact if we go much higher we’ll be above the trees. What’s he planning? There are quite a few branches just ahead, which he shoots through. I follow, but as I emerge from them I realise I have completely lost sight of him. Cursing silently I use my wind senses to find him again. He’s now almost on the forest floor and looking up. In fact he’s waving at me… Damn it.

  I dive down towards him and fire ten blasts of lightning. To my shock they all hit and his presence disappears instantly. After a very worried moment I detect traces of the spell he used and realise that what I just attacked was nothing more than an illusion.

  “Up here!” Peter calls out to me as if to rub in the fact that he just tricked me. I check this time and confirm it isn’t an illusion. Then I dart back up towards him and the chase continues.

  We’re running out of time and I still haven’t got another hit in, so I decide I may as well see if the tactic I thought up last night actually works. Perhaps if I’m lucky I’ll get two hits. I’d have to get really lucky though.

  I drive Peter as close as I can to the stream. He must know I’m planning something, but it can’t be helped. Then I use a wind slice to cut down three trees. I get the angle right and they fall towards Peter. He avoids them of course but I use a wind fist to splatter water everywhere and strike with twelve lightning bolts. Most I target at Peter as a distraction, but two hit the water near him. Sure enough lightning carries through the water and hits his shield. He is unharmed of course, and unfortunately the other lightning missed him. Not unexpected, but still a shame.

  “That’s still only one!” Peter calls out. “You need one more hit, and time’s almost up!”

  He really sounds like he’s enjoying it and I am too, though I’m nervous about exactly what the punishment will be if I lose. If I knew I’m sure it wouldn’t be anything to worry about, but he still hasn’t told me. So I’d best get that last hit in and earn that date, before I find out the hard way. He isn’t making it easy for me though.

  He’s climbing higher and higher again, but if he thinks he’ll get me with the same trick a second time he’s wrong. It could even give me a chance to score my third hit if he lets his guard down as he attempts it. All of a sudden he stops. Whatever he’s planning I’m not falling for it. I strike with lightning and hit his shield before he can do whatever he intends to, but he just floats there completely still, looking up at the night sky as if mesmerised.

  “Peter?” I ask worried now. He doesn’t react so I fly closer. I’ve already checked, so I know it isn’t an illusion. That really is Peter floating there. “Peter?”

  “Oh… Cherry… What were we doing?” Peter asks, looking at me as if he has only just woken up.

  “I was chasing you, like we’ve been doing all week. I got you three times though.” I tell him.