by Amy Mah
Apart from hiding her roomie’s skipping habit from their friends, the exploring was a good idea, and everyone was now doing it in their free time. This time everyone had to have 10,000 life points to pass, so the tests and exams would be more than just a tag match. If Alyce had any worries, then not getting enough points would be one of them.
Pink had not only stopped skipping but looked decidedly chilled, so Alyce put her hand into the purse she was wearing, if you could call a leather pouch tied onto one’s waist a purse. She took out a large pebble and handed it to Pink, who quickly swapped it from hand to hand like the hot rock it now was, and Alyce saw a smile cross her face.
“Gee, thanks; you’re a lifesaver! Surely we don’t need to go any deeper. It’s getting so dark down here, and we have not seen anyone else this deep, not even Snowflakes.”
Pink was right; no one would want to come this deep at this time of year. The sun was now only at half size, and it was getting colder every day. Only Snowflakes and creepy Darks liked this time of year, but the final exam would cover this part of the Academy. Everything they had learned would be tested to the fullest with real life and death missions, and the hardest gave the most points.
“Okay, let’s work our way back up, but we will still need to come back down after the next sleep period and bring something with us to help map the place.”
Day: 561
Crap! Why can’t someone invent paper? I want to try and map out the lower levels, and so far I can’t even find a slate to scratch on! In a world without paper we gain by not having to do a written exam, but the downside is that you have to memorize everything!
Pink was not going to tell her friend, but she did have some good ideas; she just normally had them at the wrong times. One out-of-time good idea was underwear, as the idea now made perfect sense after the sun grew colder. She had not said anything to her roomie, but she was now wearing shorts under her skirt and a cut down tee under her top, and it did help to keep her warm, while Alyce now never wore anything under her skirt and liked to fight in the nude. Pink now knew for sure her friend had received far too many blows to her head as she was quite mad. During the hottest time of the year, her friend had insisted on wearing lots of excess clothing and was too shy to let anyone see her tail hole, but now that it was cold she would strip off all the time.
If Pink had her way, she would personally now fight wearing PJs over the thin fight suit to stay warm.
Classes were getting more erratic as groups formed and then disbanded. As the only ones of their kind still at the Academy, Pink and Alyce had no groups to meet up with, so they moved from meeting area to meeting area observing what others were doing.
“It is crazy that all the Moas say we used to be the major firepower for wars in the past. Okay, the Queen hates us, but here we are in one of the top Academies of the hot lands, and how are they going to supply the war effort with distance firepower with just two of us! I met only one Heat here, and now, she has vanished. I have not seen another one. You said you thought there should be at least five Sparks about the place, so where are they now?”
Pink said nothing, and Alyce could feel some of her calm leaving her at the thought of her sister Elements being murdered. She would have to calm down; if she got angry, then she may not be able to control that which now lived inside her.
“Some should have passed the culls, so where are our Elements here?”
She could see that Pink was thinking, and she wondered why it had not crossed their minds before. It did not make sense. They both knew it was said that only about 10% made it out alive from the Academy, but this was only the first year, and already the Academy had just one Fire Demon and one Electric Demon to keep alive for another year.
Another thought that had not occurred to her until now was that her sisters had said to stick with her own. Even they had expected her to find more Heats at the Academy.
The next area was what her mom would have said was a little nippy, but frigging tail-numbing cold, as Pink put it, fit the temperature description better. That alone kept most Demons away, and they saw why as it was a gathering point for Snowflakes or, rather, the heads of the Clouds. Alyce thought they were forming alliances; Clouds rarely attacked other Clouds, but this looked like some were forming mega Clouds.
They knew their presence was not welcome due to the sudden temperature drop that set Pink’s teeth chattering, and even Alyce shivered, which was not a good sign for a Fire Demon. The next time Pink told her that Fire Demons did not get cold, she was going to stick her cold hands up Pink’s skirt.
“I still don’t get it. As powerful as they are, why would they need to get bigger? They would only have to share the points.”
“Yes, the word ‘overkill’ comes to mind, and I have a feeling a lot of unofficial culling for points will be going on during the tests. How many life points do you think we are worth?”
“Even a large Cloud would not want to take us on together. They don’t know what we can do, but they will know that we could hurt them.”
“One Cloud, maybe, but what about several Clouds at the same time? Did you feel how cold that room got? I guess we could now be worth at least 1,000 points each, and we have no friends to back us up. They also attack teams in the exams, as they can take their points.”
They gave up on the touring and headed for a lecture hall to see what was on. They found one halfway through on planning. The following one was on Clouds and the way groups of Elements could form to take on a task, but as points got shared it would mean the more Demons in a Cloud, the harder the task had to be to make it worth it. The Moa then started to explain the types of tests to expect. They had attended this one before, but it was warmer in the hall than out in the corridors, so they stayed.
It was warm, but alas! It was also a long, boring lecture. Alyce was sure that Pink was asleep, and she herself began to doze. Her mind traveled back to an earlier time in a faraway and different place. She had done this before; okay, not quite like this, but something very similar. The major difference was dice or, rather, the lack of them.
She stood up and woke Pink up as she did. She then asked her question. She knew by the look from the Moa that it was not what she should be doing, but she wanted to know, and it was important. She liked the answer, so she asked another before the Moa told her to sit down and stop wasting the hall’s time with stupid questions.
As soon as she could, she re-awoke Pink, and they both snuck out. Pink was not very pleased to leave a warm room, and she could not understand why her friend looked so happy.
“What is going on? You look like you have grown a second tail.”
Alyce’s smile was so wide that she looked more like a shark than a Demon.
“Yes, I have, and so have you. Now, let’s register and show off our new tails!”
As Pink was forced to almost run after her friend, she put it down to the cold. It must affect Heats in odd ways, but whatever plans her friend had, she expected they were better than anything she had to offer. She hoped the new idea was somehow like the things called “gloves,” which Alyce had been going on about just after she had screamed when Pink tried to warm herself up by putting her cold hands on her friend’s thighs.
Several Moas were standing around a registration table, and both girls watched groups of Earths line up to register their group along with Snowflake Cloud leaders, which were registering not only members but also alliances: Poisons, Lights, and Airs mostly worked on their own at potions and magic, which gave life points in ways Alyce did not understand, as they both sucked at that sort of thing. From the start, Alyce had thought the only way for them to score points would be as jocks and not nerds.
Those who were good at magic could earn points for creating special spells and things, but the Earth groups and the Clouds had to share points between all members. Ice Clouds were very strong when they contained lots of members, but they were always very point hungry.
When a Moa became free, Alyce dragged
her friend up to her table.
“We want to register as a Storm Cloud!”
Pink turned white at her friend’s comment, and the Moa looked at Alyce and sighed.
“I am sure you would. Once you can form one, we will take it as registered. Now, what do you really want to do?”
“We are basically both Heats, so we want to register as a team as we wish to link our points and fight as a team. Our last lecturer said that to do this correctly, we should come here and register. Was she wrong?” Alyce asked.
“No, she was not wrong, and yes, that would be the only way to share points, if that is what you wish to do. I think it is a bit pointless as you are different types of Heat, but if you are sure you want to, we can call you a Cloud and you can act as a team the way the Earths do. I would have to impose a joining penalty of 500 points off each member. Your only bonus as far as I can see is that you would have permission to hold meetings in a Cloud meeting room, and that would only be possible if a real Cloud did not want to use it at that time. So are you still sure you wish to do this?”
Alyce gave her cutest smile then stopped in case it looked more like she was threatening to bite her. Instead, she elbowed her friend to agree.
“Oh, yes, please! That is what we both want.”
After Pink nodded in agreement, Alyce suspected something magical was done to both make their team legit and also to remove 500 points each. As they went off, Alyce wondered if she could get away with skipping out of the room after all she had told her friend about skipping earlier. Maybe it was a little childish, but what she really wanted to do was throw her fist in the air and shout, “Got ya!”
“You! You told her we wanted to register as a Cloud! How could you? I nearly died!”
“Did you want me to lie? And did you notice that she said if we form one, then it is an automatic registration. I had to follow the rules, as the request will be magically recorded, so now we can proceed to stage two.”
“Stage two? You mean me losing 500 life points was just the first stage? I don’t mind us working together; I just expected to do it unofficially and without penalty points. We will now need 20,000 points to both pass. We are already down by 1,000, so we will have to kick some tough butts to gain that back.”
“We are now a little safer as a team. I am sure the Snowflakes will use the exams to at least try and snuff out my flame, but by then our team hopefully will be larger, and I am burning with ideas for the exams!”
Smoking Hot: (22)
Moa Poisen was irritated. She did not like to be summoned at any time, and certainly not by some jumped-up Admin that though she was better than anyone else due to the stupid ranking system the Academy practiced. Nor did it help that her sister had also been summoned along with her, and then when they reached the room, it was empty.
A door appeared on the blank wall at the end of the room. Two people stepped through it, and then it vanished. Knowing the Admin was a Light Bender did not improve her mood as she faced the two females who had entered in such a showy way. It was not even real magic; the door was always there, just cloaked as it was an entrance to a non-student area.
“I do hope this is not going to take long. I am very busy preparing exams.”
The Light looked like she was reading from the window of light-like tablet floating in front of her. Normally anyone nearby could read such a screen, but this one was just a panel of light.
“Just a little while ago I was on desk duty for registration, and I thought you two may be interested in my work. I had a Cloud request official recognition. This may not sound that unusual, as the Cold Elements do it as soon as they arrive at the start of term, but today was a little different as it was a Cloud of two, and they were different elements.”
“Did you notice I did not say they wished to form a Cloud but just to register it? See, they did not request any magic linking spells. I told them it was an automatic registration as soon as a group was able to create it. Of course, it sounded like a student plan to have a free way to register as a mixed Element team group.”
“In the end they left with a normal team registration that could take in other Elements. Perhaps it is because I can see what others may not see, but the Fire looked too happy at the cost of 1,000 life points and Academy permission to form a Cloud when they become able.”
“As I said, I can see what other Elements cannot, and on looking very closely I saw what could be the start of future problems. I think you may know of them, Moa Poisen, as you personally registered them for each and every one of your courses, and magic spells are very individual, are they not, Moa Dream?”
Dream glanced at the female that stood slightly behind the speaker, not that she needed to, as she knew what she was as soon as a dead space entered the room. The speaker was an uppity Light Bender, hence the illusion trick of doors appearing and disappearing, which only they seemed to find amusing. The dead space was a Mind and, of course, could recognize the magic of others. She was also not someone Dream would like to argue with, let alone fight.
“I think I may be able to shed some light on this.”
Darn! Dream thought. What a dumb choice of words! She saw a smile flash across the Light Demon’s lips.
“Please do! I am all in favor of light being cast about, even by amateurs.”
“What you must have seen could only be a remnant of a short-term spell that I cast when they first entered the Academy. Moa Poisen noticed that they were on the Ices’ hit list due to their Elements and a fight that they had upon arrival. With their firepower it would have been a pity if they were to be killed off too soon, as they may be useful in the future to the Queen’s war effort. That is, if they survived, which of course would have to be due to their own merits. All I did was a temporary bonding spell that would bind them for a short time and then fade as they developed on their own.”
The Light looked away, and when she looked back the room was a lot brighter as her eyes blazed.
“Well, then, that’s all sorted. So I was mistaken when I was concerned at seeing their hair colored with metallic dust to make them look less powerful and at noticing that their uniforms had been burnt out by a static field to hide their true power levels. These behaviors are all very odd, as 4 year olds typically try to look more powerful than they are and not the other way around. Unlike others, when the situation calls for magic, I called in expert help instead of dabbling in things that are outside of my field of expertise.”
As if on cue, the Mind now spoke.
“Surprisingly, the spell you cast has not faded but instead been locked firmly in place, and that would be obvious to anyone who followed standard protocols for checking on cast spells and the recording of the dispersal rate. But then, if the standard protocols had been followed, a mind scan would have been done first, as you should well know. If it had, then you would have seen more than the useless testers we employ; I would not be surprised if they next send us lumps of rock as students if they happen to show a magic score on their stupid sensors.”
“The thinking of the subject who calls herself Alyce is somewhat different, to say the least, and not what we would classify as normal. Her crazy thinking has somehow amplified the normal body abilities, which the testers failed see, and so they have a recorded a power reading with an error of a factor of 10.”
Poisen had been too quiet for too long and now had to correct this overconfident mind.
“No, she is not that bad. True, she does not use her Fire in combat, but she went through all the normal blanket burning stages. I have seen her burst into flame, so how can she be as low as 9/100?”
Poisen hated how the higher Magics looked down on Demons like her. She was treating her sister like a child, but the look she gave her seemed to suggest that she was an animal that had just spoken.
“An error of a factor of 10 upwards. I thought I had made myself clear; I normally do.”
The Mind then turned back to Dream and ignored Poisen as if she were no longer there.
“It is not unique but very, very rare to have a Heat who is also a powerful Battery. I have read that in the olden days, Heats would join together with a Battery in the center. They made a formidable force of nature, so at least we can be lucky to only have one of her kind.”
The Light Bender waved a hand, and panels of shimmering light appeared in the room, which her colleague filled with images of Pink and Alyce.
“If you look at the air shimmer between the girls in this picture, you will see that there is a reddish power link between them. Your spell should have been useless and should have lasted at most for two sleeps, but somehow it is still being fed by the two girls. Before you suggest canceling the spell manually, I would say that if it were tried, then the result will not only be failure but also the practitioner being fried to a crisp, blown up, or both. And as to the girls not being very magical, take a look at screen two.”
Poisen could feel herself getting angry, but she held it in as this was not the time or place for any such emotion. The next screen showed a tag match, as did the other screens, but each was from different positions around the hall. It was the match when Pink had nearly died.
“Now, let us see the same event again slowly and with some intelligence that was not shown at the time by Demons who were there and should have been looking.”
Dream chose to remain silent and hoped her sister would do the same.
“At this point, the so-called Sparks, and don’t we like the playful little names we give our students? We call this one a Spark or a Static or maybe say she is from an Electric breed. What we do not do is call them what they are; this one is a young Electric Demon that when fully grown could take out whole regiments of our enemies single-handedly. Sometimes I think we forget what we are teaching.”