by Colin Daumen
Looking towards the direction of the sound, Favian could make out a boy who looked to be around his own age. The boy was freakishly handsome, and his ears were pointy at their ends. He looked like what Favian imagined an elf to be, however, his skin was blackish-blue. His eyes were a deep red and sparkled like crazy. He looked handsome and manly at the same time, due to his unnaturally chiseled jawline. His hair was shaved to a buzz cut, with the sides faded to half an inch and the top of his head having a bit more hair on it.
Favian had been too emotionally invested in himself as he cried that he didn’t notice that another person had been sat only 5 meters away from him at the other end of the fountain this whole time. Clearly, this person must have noticed his mental breakdown. Favian’s face flushed bright red, well if his brown skin allowed his face to portray a blush then it would have right at this moment, and he lowered his head down. ‘He must have seen me crying,’ he thought.
*Sigh* “Well I’m fine now. I just had to get something off my chest, that was all,” Favian replied with a weak voice.
The boy looked at Favian with a smile on his face and asked, “Need some company? I don’t think I’ve seen you around at the academy yet.” He tried to rack his brain as to why this boy who had just been crying seemed familiar to him, yet he couldn’t tell what it was.
“That’d be nice,” Favian replied, motioning for the boy to seat himself next to him. As the boy sat down on the fountain, Favian extended his arm to give him a handshake.
The boy looked very dumbstruck by Favian’s motion towards a handshake. ‘What is he doing?’ is all he could think. Favian had forgotten that handshakes were only the common greeting on Earth. Quickly cursing in his mind, he removed his outstretched hand and simply asked the boy for his name after first giving his own.
“I’m Dunkel, nice to meet you Favian. So, you’re the infamous Favian then are you? The rumors here at the academy have already put you to a legendary status,” he replied with a glint in his eyes. He had heard so many rumors and yet this Favian looked a lot more unassuming than he expected, based on what was said about him.
Now it was Favian’s turn to be utterly confused. ‘What did he mean with I’m infamous? I don’t remember doing anything that warrants such a title.' Favian put himself into deep thought for a moment to rack his brain around what he could have done that caught enough attention to have rumors spread about himself, but he couldn’t come up with anything.
“What do you mean about rumors? I don’t think I’ve done anything yet to warrant rumors about me. Wait, how does everyone know me then?” Favian said, his expressions becoming more muddled the longer he thought about everything.
Dunkel started to laugh hysterically, holding onto his belly as he loudly made a sound more akin to a howl than a laugh. His laugh was one of those laughs that were contagious, and Favian would also have started laughing because of it had he not been the reason for him laughing.
“Wait you’re serious? You don’t know?” Dunkel suddenly let the laughter wash away and instead wore a face of surprise. “So, you don’t remember what happened after you were pushed off the cliff into the portal to the academy?”
Favian nodded, not having a single clue what he was talking about. ‘What on Earth happened,’ he thought to himself.
“Dude you created an arcane rift as you were falling off the cliff. Your body took in so many of the energy particles in the atmosphere in a single moment that the veil separating our dimension, and another was almost torn. Professors Egast, Aria and Mildred all had to combine their powers to save you and stop you from falling into the rift. You literally looked like a meteor on fire as it happened.” He said, his voice akin to that of a parent telling a story to a child. Dunkel was engrossed in the story and went on.
“It’s rumored that this type is even rarer than finding a unicorn. There’s also a rumor going around that you’re the lovechild between Professors Egast and Aria, whom they kept secret until you were of age to study magic.” He read out all of the rumors about Favian, which were seemingly endless.
Chapter 12 – Dunkel
A dark mountain range covered as far as the eye could see, with various streams congealing together to form a river that ran through the Drow Woods. Moonlight shone down onto the river and glistened radiantly in the light. Fish could be seen swimming under the surface of the water, and the banks of the river were filled with flowers which would serve as precious resources for any who could find them. Had the various kingdoms on the continent found out about this place, then they wouldn’t have hesitated to start a war that could span centuries just to claim this territory. This was how precious the resources found in these woods were.
This forest was hidden within the Amity Mountain Range, and a spell had been cast to conceal this location from any intruders. The drow people called this place home, their own sanctuary hidden away from the eyes of the other races on the continent of Ortu Solis. Drow, also known as dark elves or fallen elves, were the distant cousins of the self-proclaimed 'High Elves', who under their pretentious nature believed themselves to be the only true elf. Needless to say, drow and elves did not get along.
Their hate for each other was fueled by the ten thousand-year war, 'The War for Unity', where millions of each kind were killed and seas worth of blood was spilled. The two factions of elves that were embroiled in the ten-thousand-year war had changed so much in this time period, that they had become two distinctly different races. The drow grew darker in complexion than their former brothers, mostly having a blackish or bluish hue to their skin, and their ears were not as long as those of the High Elves.
The War for Unity had been ignited by the brothers Ignis and Pyros, the dual kings of the ancient elven nation, who both fell in love with the high priestess of the elven goddess Kamilla. The high priestess had been ordered to relay a message to the kings, a message that triggered the longest war in the history of Ortu Solis. The message had been a simple one, "Only the blood of the 1 true elven king will receive Kamilla's hand in marriage."
Despite having already reigned for a thousand years filled with prosperity together, Pyros and Ignis decided that their own love for each other was not enough for the spoil of war which they so desperately sought. Whilst embroiled in the war, Ignis realized that his faction would not be able to win, their manpower was too weak and their numbers too small. Thus, he made a pact with the god of the underworld, who vowed to give him the power over his domain, but only in return for his soul upon death.
The war was lost the moment Ignis made a pact with the underworld, as all of the other kingdoms banded together to fight off this ancient evil. In a last-ditch attempt to at least save his people, Ignis sacrificed his remaining essence to cast a high-level magic spell that would forever cloak the Drow Woods and stop any being that was not a drow from entering.
"But that can't be true Baba, why would Ignis have made a pact with the god of the underworld in the first place. Isn't it said that he despised dark magic the most?" a small youth, with glinting red eyes questioned the older lady whom he called Baba.
The older, short lady held herself up with a wooden cane, and looked at the child with an apologetic smile on her face, "One day you will understand this Dunkel. Love is what binds us together as people, but it is also ultimately what tears us apart. Our ancestor had fallen so far in love that he ventured towards the means even he despised, just for a chance to be with the woman whom he desired."
Dunkel looked at the woman with a face which betrayed that he did not understand. He was only a 4 years old child, so it would have been a miracle if he'd been able to. Dunkel spent most of his life here in the Drow Woods, along with his family and friends. Life was easy here; there was always food on the table, the most risk one had was to drown in the river. He spent his early years in a perpetual state of joy; a sheltered life was what he led.
His community didn't let him know of a prophecy foretold a thousand years ago. "A child born under the light of the
next blood will lead the drow to the next cataclysm. Ignis will be resurrected, and the war of ten thousand years will once again be ignited."
….
Back at the Dusk Academy
Favian had been listening to Dunkel spewing out rumor after rumor for almost 10 minutes before he realized that the whole reason he had left his room was to meet up with the voice transmitted over his communication device earlier. Luckily for him, this was only a short walk from the fountain he was sat at right now. He quickly bid farewell to Dunkel and went on his way.
'What a funny guy, I hope I can see more of him here,' Favian thought to himself. He'd been too shy to ask whether Dunkel wanted to hang out sometime, or to ask for his communication device signal. Of course, he had also been in a hurry. Favian always thought of himself as being socially inept, however, the case was that he was just too shy to approach others to talk to. The moment somebody else tried to befriend him, he'd be completely fine. Of course, this had been a rare occurrence back on Earth, partially due to his 'resting bitch face' or the fact that he looked like a stone-cold murderer when outfitted in his nurse's garb.
The scenery for this part of his walk consisted of less indoor corridors, and more buildings and greenery from outside. Favian quite enjoyed this and was able to appreciate the unique architecture of the academy. He passed a pretty huge building which reached about 100 meters into the air and had a large signpost next to it which read 'Library'. Finally, Favian arrived at his destination. A pretty average-sized house. The name Aria Pencost hovered like a cloud above the roof of the building, all bold in capitals.
Favian walked up towards the door. There was no doorknob, so he decided to just knock on the door.
"Come in," shouted Aria. The door opened on its own accord, and what Favian's eyes met was a spacious room with an oak desk in the middle, with piles of books and scrolls on the table. There were various vials placed neatly on a shelf to the side of the room. The room looked like a fusion between an office and a science lab, and had the inviting feel of a home to it.
Aria was sitting behind her desk, browsing the contents of a scroll, after which she took out a vial full of a red liquid and mixed it with a vial of a blue liquid. The moment the two liquids came into contact with each other, a loud sizzling sound could be heard, followed by an explosion. Shattered glass was suspended in the air, as if frozen in time.
"Fuck! What did I do wrong this time?" Aria shouted as she rubbed her temples in a circular motion. A blue barrier was erected around the vials and stopped the explosive mixture from releasing into the room.
"Anyways, Favian how are you feeling now?" she asked him, looking at him with a face full of worry. What Favian didn't know was that Aria had been the most worried after he hadn't woken up this whole time. She felt responsible for not knowing why Favian caused an arcane rift to occur. She believed that if she had given him a more thorough examination, she could have been able to prevent him from being put in such a dangerous situation. What she obviously didn't know yet was that Favian had been stuck in a time-lock, imprisoned by a crazed fanatic who looked like Evelynn.
"I'm fine, my body just feels a bit sore. Except for that, everything's as good as can be," he replied. 'At first, I thought it was going to be hard to explain how I jumped from a lower initiate to an upper-level initiate instantaneously, but it seems this whole arcane rift business has brought me some luck,' Favian thought. He still wasn't sure whether to tell anybody about him being imprisoned in time, he couldn't know exactly who to trust. For all Favian knew, there could be somebody spying on him from within the academy right now.
Aria looked at him with suspicion, not completely believing that he was fine. He wasn't acting like somebody who had just come out of a coma. "Well since you're now awake and fine, it's time for you to get enrolled into the academy!"
Chapter 13 – Enrolment
“Well then, let’s get on with it.” Aria gave Favian a warm smile as she handed him a blank parchment paper. It felt pretty heavy despite being so thin that he could see through it. Favian paused to really try and figure out what was so special about this piece of paper, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
Aria laughed at the boy in front of her who was concentrating so hard on finding out what this blank parchment was. ‘Ahh, he’s really so adorable. He reminds me of Sharie sometimes.’ The moment that thought jolted into her mind, a wave of sadness rushed into her, as she tried to seal all of the bad memories that were slowly drifting upwards.
“Are you okay master?” Favian saw the quick change-up displayed on her face. Despite not having felt the loss of a loved one himself, he had seen this look countless times whilst working and studying in the ER (Emergency Room) at his medical school. His concern was almost a trained response due to his time there.
“It’s nothing, little one. Let me tell you about what your day will be like at the academy starting from tomorrow.” Aria instead diverted away from the question. She was truly happy about the heartfelt concern Favian showed; despite having only known each other for a matter of weeks now (maybe even days when taking Favian’s coma into account), Aria felt a motherly bond had emerged for him. She wanted to nurture and protect Favian at all costs.
A ceramic pot of tea was placed on the desk Aria was currently working on. She took out two teacups with the same floral pattern as the teapot, and poured a fragrant jasmine tea into them. She sipped on her tea, not minding its extreme heat. After a moment she then passed a cup to Favian, who had to blow on the tea to cool it down, before he drank from it. The fragrance of the tea was worse than its flavor. That was not to say the tea smelt bad, however, the taste was just so damn good.
“So, first things first Favian. Your week here at the academy will consist of 10 mandatory lectures, which each take up two hours of your time. These lectures are based on the subjects you wish to study, and usually, there would be 1 subject you are required to study, however seeing that you have already reached the upper initiate realm, I doubt you need to learn about elementary magic principles,” Aria said as she kept sipping on her tea, its consumption soothing her and calming her previous flare of emotions down.
“On that piece of parchment paper, there’s all of the subjects available for you to study written down. Be warned that some subjects are in such high demand that you would probably need to fight for a seat at a lecture. The choices are all yours. However, all I ask of you is to make a substantiated decision.”
The blank piece of parchment paper slowly started to reveal words. The paper was dark brown, and its length was that of an A2 sheet of paper. There were seemingly endless choices for Favian to pick for his 10 mandatory lectures. The classes were placed into different rows and columns, as several of them would clash due to the lectures being held at the same time. For instance, Favian could either decide to learn Alchemy or Enchanting, but not both due to their conflict of schedule.
‘Or wait, I could probably buy notes from another student and use those to learn,’ Favian thought.
Favian spent a full half hour reading through the different lectures he could go to, and finally decided on which to pick. He would decide to take lectures on 'Beast Taming 1' and 'Beast Taming 2', 'Intermediate magic particles 1 & 2', 'Enchanting for beginners', 'Dark magic 1', 'Light magic 1', 'Illusions and their use', 'Martial arts for beginners' and finally 'Monster hunting 101'. It took him time to sort through which subjects wouldn't clash with each other, and which he thought he would enjoy sitting through. If there had been anything he learnt in his past life, it was that it is insurmountably more difficult to learn something which you aren't interested in. He had also received a prompt from his World of Exile game system stating that it could sort out the timetable for him, however, he decided that he didn't want to rely on the system too much in making his own decisions. Thus, he spent half an hour calculating the best lectures to choose from. This made it so that he didn't get the instant results his system was capable of giving, however, it allowed him t
o feel like he was in control.
“Master Aria, I think that I’m done with my choices,” he said, handing the parchment to her with all of his allocated choices.
“Hmm, that’s interesting. Why the focus on beast taming and monster hunting?” Aria asked, looking at Favian with a worried expression. “Taming powerful beasts is one of the most dangerous things you could attempt as a magician. You need to be able to exert such a fine-tuned amount of power onto a beast, not too much to kill it, and not too little to allow it to escape. The fatality rate of young kids like you trying to tame monsters above their pay-grade is too high for me to feel comfortable with you choosing this."
“I mean I don't think it will hurt to just learn about it. It's best that I have as much knowledge about beasts and environments if I'm going to venture outside of the academy in the future,” he countered. His thought pattern was that he needed to learn as much he could about monsters, environments, and magic phenomena in order to make sure that he was safe at any point in time he was outside the academy. He wouldn’t be living here for the rest of his life, afterall.
Noticing the persistence in Favian’s voice, Aria felt at ease knowing that he had truly thought through what he wished to study. “Okay then. That’s everything you’ll need to know. I’ll send off your choices for you right now.”
It was already starting to get a bit dark outside, and dinner time was approaching. “Oh shoot, I must’ve kept you here for too long Favian, you should hurry back to your room and get some food. Oh, and before I forget, everything here at the academy can be bought with contribution points. You earn these by finishing quests which are given at the Trading Outpost, or by contributing to research. We also give you a set number of contribution points based on your talent and level. Since you are of a purple arcane core, and have reached such a high level already, the headmaster decided to give you 300 contribution points.”