17 – The Custodians

In that split second, Ari tried to recall exactly how she ended up in this predicament.

She’d been staring at the glyphs, the beautiful coalesced orbs of reds and blacks with splashes of gold and brown. Truly, the fight had felt less important than her observations of the essences, particularly the Vacu orbs that stayed in place, arraying together, unflinching.

That was not how Vacu typically behaved.

Vacu was shy and quiet, not dark and menacing.

So Ari was interested in what made it change, so much so that she’d drifted too close to the proverbial sun.

And now, lightning was headed her way.

Her hand jerked up automatically to yank the essences out of position and break the bonds. However, she paused.

If she broke the spell, that would cause backlash on the caster. Backlash from a spell this strong would hurt them very badly.

It might be better if Arielle just took the blow. After all, it was her fault for being in the way, and she was pretty sure it wouldn’t kill her faster than a healing spell could revive her.

She felt the heat kiss her face, the sparks touch her skin.

She was ready to deal with the pain with gritted teeth and endurance, eyes wide open as Mossbornes do.

Then the heat vanished.

Only smoke and the shimmering atmosphere remained of what was once a lightning whip inches from her face.

The fog cleared to show Selena and the boy, now weaponless, staring at her.

“Who the devil are you?” A loud, deep voice boomed across the entire hall. A man as broad and strapping as her father emerged from the side of the room, where about six other students were standing, somewhat shielded by the staircase

Now Ari typically couldn’t read emotions very well, but this man had one of the most expressive faces she’d ever seen. She could tell he was angry; his bushy beard practically trembled with it. So did the hair that was tucked in a messy knot at the base of his skull.

Speaking of hair, he had a lot of it…everywhere.

He wasn’t wearing a mage’s robe, and his shirt wasn’t buttoned all the way, showing a sprouting of chest and arm hair. He looked more mountain creature than man, and the ground trembled as he stomped over to her. “Are you daft, girl?”

Ari shook her head. “No, I’m Ari.”

“I don’t care what your name is. Why are you standing within the duelling circle?’

“The…” She suddenly noticed she was standing within a glowing circle that had been laced with Vacu essences running underground.

Ah. She understood. It was a boundary meant to keep the magic from escaping the circle, thereby keeping any passing students safe.

That is, unless they walked right into it.

Although Ari still thought this was a very unsafe place to duel. It was practically at the entrance. A visitor could arrive and have no idea about the duelling circle limits.

The faculty could have also added a mechanism that prevented other students from walking onto the circle at all, but that might require too much essence and a complex spell.

Ari was about to tell him all this, but realized that he didn’t seem in the mood to be advised.

It was better to apologize.

“Sorry,” she told the man. “I didn’t realize what it was.”

“How could you not know what a duelling circle is? Are you stupid?”

Ari shook her head. “Not usually.”

“Cut her some slack, Graham,” Selena called as she started to stretch. Now that the fight was over, she was completely relaxed. The boy next to her looked a lot more exhausted than she did and bent over to catch his breath. “She’s new. It’s her first day here, so she didn’t know the rules.”

Graham’s frown diminished in ferocity. “You’re new?”

“Yes.”

“Shouldn’t someone be showing you around? Telling you where not to step?”

“Most first years don’t need a babysitter,” one of the other students who had been standing to the side said.

“Prim, don’t do that,” another girl said. “She’s young.”

“So? Most young people have common sense. How does anyone older than five forget to watch for a duelling circle?”

“She wasn’t raised in Ascendant society,” Selena said. “She’s Mossborne, so she may not even know what a duelling circle is.”

Ari knew, in theory. She’d just never seen one before.

She also wondered how Selena knew about her parentage, even as someone muttered, “Well, that explains it,” and someone else said, “What’s a Mossborne doing here?”

“I know a few Mossbornes,” Professor Graham said, his tone softening as he rubbed his chin. “I thought they all came in much bigger sizes.”

“We usually do,” Ari responded. “I’m small for my age.”

“It’s a shame you didn’t gain intelligence to compensate,” the first girl, Prim, said.

“What are you talking about?” A grinning boy piped in. “She’s here, isn’t she? She might be the most intelligent Mossborne there ever was.”

The students snickered, and the professor pinned them with a scowl.

Ari had enough experience with this type of scenario to know she was being mocked.

She wasn’t sure she cared, though.

She didn’t know them, so their opinions truly didn’t matter to her.

“Enough of that,” the professor barked at the students, and they immediately stopped their laughter.

“Yes, Professor.”

He faced Arielle again. “You should be more careful and thank your lucky stars. If Selena didn’t have such advanced control, if she’d been even a millisecond slower, you would have been traumatized and likely scarred for life.”

She nodded, feeling embarrassment crawl up her cheeks. “Sorry.”

“What first-year group are you in?”

Lyra had mentioned this. “Group B.”

“Then I’ll be seeing you at combat class tomorrow,” he said, and his eyes flashed as he smiled. “I’m sure you’ll learn there what it means to be more aware of your surroundings.”

She cocked her head.

What did he mean by that? Why did it sound like a threat?

Was he going to give her another test?

She exhaled. Yet another thing to study for.

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“Why are the duels so close to the entryway?” Ari finally asked, because it was bugging her, and she felt like she couldn’t leave without knowing. “Isn’t it dangerous to passersby?”

He raised both eyebrows at her question. “Yes, but that’s what the circle is for. Restricting the attacks and preventing them from hurting anyone on the outskirts.”

“Regardless, isn’t there another room you can use?”

He seemed stunned by her question, facing the other students with an astounded look. “Am I being told off right now?”

“I think so,” the smiling boy said.

“We do have a dedicated duelling hall,” Selena answered. “Unfortunately, it was overrun by wisps, so we can’t use it. We’re waiting for the custodians to take care of it, and in the meantime, this is the only place that has duelling circles, as it’s typically used for the showcase.”

“What’s a wisp?”

Before Selena could answer, Graham said, “You can ask Woden that when you see him. Now, if you don’t mind, Little Miss Mossborne, you’re holding up my class.”

“Oh, sorry.”

Feeling awkward in the ensuing silence, she simply curtsied and walked away.

She was halfway to her destination, the Luxarium, when her mind wandered to her leveling points once more.

Phineas had said that her system would guide her through all the level-ups and would even suggest to her how to allot her points based on what build she wanted. He stressed that she didn’t have to worry about builds just yet, as she was still an apprentice, but it was something to keep in the back of her mind when allotting levelling points. At this stage, they would only give a slight boost to her mental or physical stats, but it was the cumulative effect over several level-ups that mattered the most. It didn’t affect her cores at all, or her magic, or her casting, or anything else she cared about.

So Ari wasn’t sure exactly what she needed them for or which of her physical or mental attributes she wanted to boost, slight as it might be.

Maybe Elric would know. She should ask him.

A subtle breeze blew across the grass as she walked around the Luxarium.