//------------------------------// // Old Wounds // Story: The Sun and the Clover // by BG9 //------------------------------// Moondancer checks her watch "Well I need to get back to class. See you tonight." she said, running off "You shouldn't have done that." Bonbon said "Oath pacts are a great way to get yourself into deep trouble. Luckily I was able to read it in full. You didn't even bother to glance at it." "Yeah." he agreed "In hindsight that was a dumb idea." "When you go to her place tonight we will follow behind quietly." Lyra explained "Do not tell her we're there. Tell her that we took the day off." "You're awfully suspicious." "We have to be. You have a magic crest people would literally kill millions of people to have your crest. Like... imagine if it was possible to gain all of Einstein's knowledge. Can you imagine how many mortals would do just about anything to get that?" "Yeah, I guess you're right." "Clover the Clever is one of the most, if not the most, prolific and renowned people in our history. It could even be used to gain a permanent seat in the King's High Court." "The High Court is a step above nobility. They are some of the highest ranking and accomplished mages in the current era. There are seven in total and they all live in castles that make our school look like a children's playground. Do you see what I'm saying?" He nods "Sorry for being so careless." "Don't worry about it." she said "You're new to this life. It's a culture shock." "Do you think I should tell the king?" he asked "Being a member of the high court sounds pretty good if you ask me." "You'd be executed for sure. You having that crest violates not one but two of the most sacred laws we have as mages: mortals are expressly forbidden from the magic world and having a crest that isn't your own without express consent of the previous owner. What someone would likely do, if they were smart, is drag you before the king and demand a seat in the court in exchange for you." "We'd also be executed for helping you" Bonbon said "Along with everyone even tangentially associated with you as co-conspirators." "Why do it then? Why put yourselves at such great risk? "The crest is the valuable. We, as well as the rest of the mage world, deserves to know how Clover lived." she said "If the king ever got a hold of it he would horde the knowledge for himself to strengthen his own power. Many have speculated that she is the reason we still have magic today but, of course, nobody knows how. Imagine if nobody knew how the person who discovered electricity did it? It's in the best interest of the mage world to know." "So who is the king anyway?" "King Tirek. By far one of the worst and most authoritarian kings we've had. Luckily the way our government is structured it's prevented him from becoming a tyrant. But nobody knows how long that will keep him at by. Every day he hammers away more and more of the foundations of our state." He couldn't believe he was so at risk. He always thought the risk came from hitmen and the like. But the threat was just as present from wider society as well. It was like he was a ticking time bomb. And all someone had to do was overhear and the powder keg would explode. Anon looked at his watch "Damn we got to get to class." He and his body guards quickly rushed to the conjuration class. It was, of course, at the top of another tall tower. They made it just minutes before it was set to start. The classroom itself was quite small and unusual to say the least. On the ceiling hung about a dozen cages, each with a strange animal inside: a bird with two heads with red and blue feathers, a blob of black muck that had dozens of eyes sinking in and out it's sludge, and, worst of all, a turtle with multiple snakes coming out from inside the shell. Bonbon and Lyra took different positions from last time: Lyra taking position next to the door and Bonnie using magic to cling to the ceiling, the shadows cast by the point of the tower almost completely obscuring her from view. If he hadn't seen her do take the spot, he'd never know she was there. Like the room, the class size was far smaller, only about ten people. Once everyone was settled it, a woman with green and red hair sat at a desk at the front of the room. She was wearing a checkered red robe and was slightly pudgy. Her piercing emerald eyes cut through the room like a knife, as if she was trying to find an impostor among them. She addressed the room. "Welcome to Conjuration lovelies. I am your professor, Gusty the Great." She spoke in a very upper class, official voice, almost as if she, herself were royalty. She took out her wand and tapped her desk twice. One of the cages up above opened, releasing the two headed bird. After flying about the room it landed on Gusty's shoulder, cawing in her ear. Gusty nodded and looked up, chuckling. "Bonbon if you ever wish to be a body guard one day you simply must get better at hiding your presence." she said, looking right at the spot she was hiding in "I thought I taught you better." An eep is heard from in the rafters were Bonbon was hiding. Anon looked back at Lyra to find her giggling like crazy. "Back to the matter at hand: welcome to Conjuration. In this class you will learn to summon creatures from the Abyssal Trench and you will learn how to control them in an efficient manner. Can anyone explain to me what the Abyssal Trench is?" A girl's hand shot up. It was Daring Do, the same girl who fought Fluer during Eclipse! "The Abyssal Trench is the boundary line between our world and the Greater Magic. It was discovered by Starswirl the Beared during the Magic Silver Age and is home to otherworldly creatures." Gusty does a little golf clap "Excellent, excellent. Yes, as Daring described, the Abyssal Trench is what separates our world from the world in which the Greater Magic resides. A world of monsters and nightmares untold." Gusty lifts her wand and points it to the floor in front of her. "I summon thee, Firebrand." A purple light fills the room and from the light, a blue bird appears. However the blue color wasn't from the feathers, but the flames burning on it's skin. It let out the most bone chilling caw he'd ever heard, as if someone were strangling it. The bird flew around with it's wings vertical to the floor rather than horizontally, cawing it's horrible caw over and over before Gusty finally banished it. "Now does anyone know what that creature was?" Daring raises her hand once more "A Firebrand. A species of flaming hawk. Very dangerous and will eat humans if they're in the area. They often shoot flaming feather balls made out of a toxic concoction in it's stomach that turns to fire when in contact with the air." "You seem to be quite adept Miss Daring Do. Are you planning to make Conjuration your specialty?" Daring shakes her head "Not entirely. I want to become a Monster Hunter, just like my parents." "Very dangerous line of work" "It is. But that's why I'm here." Gusty walks back to her desk and starts to use her wand to write across the air in light "Monster Hunters preform one of the most crucial jobs in the mage world. Often, these creatures will escape the Abyssal Trench and make their way into our world, or worse, into the world of Mortals. It is the job of a Hunter to capture and destroy these creatures. Though it can be quite the task" Another girl raises her hand "What's the most dangerous creature inside the trench?" Gusty thinks for a moment "That is quite a tough answer. But if I had too chose, it would be a being called a Nightmare." Gusty draws what looks to be scribbles in the form of a large creature with long arms and short feet. It had four beady red eyes and no mouth. "The Nightmare, or by it's more technical name, the Typhoid, is a being made from the matter within the trench itself. As such it can transform into whatever it deems worthy. It's been known to mimic human speech and appearance, though it can be rather easier to see through it's disguise. However defeating it is a different matter entirely" She draws a circle around it "To beat a Typhoid you must encase it with your mana and crush it, something only the most adept mages can do. Since it can change forms so freely this can be near impossible, unless done quickly." she said "Now that we're done with that little tangent, we will each be practicing summoning and taming a creature from the Trench. There are two spells you need for this." She begins drawing in the air again "To summon, you must merely picture the creature you want in your mind and provide the equivalent mana to take it from there to here. For the creature we'll be summoning, it won't require much mana." she explained "The second is a fair bit more challenging. This is the taming spell called Fortunda. It's an illusion spell that requires you to change the brain chemistry of the target to bend them to your will. However the other option is to use a Sigil however that would take a bit more time." Oh great. Illusion. The school of magic Anon was weakest in. Gusty points up to the cage that housed the black-grey blob full of eyes. It was as if the eyes were floating around in the goo, coming up for air every now and again. "Today we will be summoning one of those. They are fondly called Eyesores. Would anyone like to try it first?" Daring's hand shoots up faster than a lightning strike "Show us how it's done Daring." Daring walks up to the space between Gusty the students' desks and closes her eyes, pulling out her wand. She took a deep breath, aimed at the floor and a small purple light shined appeared. When the light cleared, an Eyesore was on the floor. Daring took another deep breath. "Fortunda." A tiny ball of blue light shot into the Eyesore, though it didn't seem like anything changed. Gusty smiled. "Now show us that it's devoted to you." Gusty said "Command it do something." Daring nods "Eyesore, expend yourself." The terrible creature seemed to become solid all of a sudden, shooting portions of it's body out like spikes. Gusty is very pleased. "Well done, well done. Eyesores never do that unless it's as a last line of defense." she said "A+ for today." Daring flashes a confident smile "Now for the third lesson, dispelling. This is the simplest of basic conjuration. To send a creature back all one must do is stop the flow of mana directed at it. Daring, if you would." "My pleasure." Daring said Daring seemingly does nothing but stand there as the creature slowly faded out of existence, as if it were a ghost. "Very well done. You may sit back down." Daring travels back to her seat. Anon swore he could actually see her ego inflating. "Now, who wants to try it next?" Anon decides to just go for it and raises his hand. "And your name?" "Anon. Anon E. Mouse." Gusty looked puzzled "I know quite a few people and mage families but have never heard of yours." "I'm the first in my line." Lyra looks like she's shitting bricks. Apparently he wasn't supposed to say that. Gusty gives him a dirty look. "Ah. You're the mortal-born everyone's been talking about. Fine, fine, show me what you can do." Anon steps up to the front of the class. Time to put all his training to the test. He gets a clear image of the Eyesore in his mind and points his wand at the floor. Sure enough, it appeared. Gusty gave a rather unimpressed shrug. "Now try to command it to your will." This part, as expected, was much more challenging. Try as he might, he simply couldn't get it to do what he wanted. "Work on it. Next." Anon dispelled the Eyesore and returned to his desk, defeated and embarrassed. The rest of the class consisted of the same exercise until finally it was time to depart. Outside Bonbon and Lyra looked concerned. "You really shouldn't have said that." Bonbon said "Why not?" The two look extremely uncomfortable "This is going to be a hard lesson for you to learn, but there are mages among us who are not... let's just say they're not very fond of mortals." "I'm guessing Gusty is one of those people?" "Yes. So just be prepared. This class just got a lot harder for you because of that." They began to walk back to the house "So why do mages have such bad blood with mortals?" "Long ago, mages and mortals used to live side by side." Lyra said "I'm no history buff, so I can't say what set it off, but there was a large war between us and mortals. There were also a lot of executions of people suspected to be mages. We've wiped much of this history away from mortal consciousness, made them believe it's fairy tales and such. But us mages... we have not forgotten." "I saw that in one of Clover's memories. Her parents were butchered right in front of her for being mages." "Gusty's grandparents apparently participated in that war. Prejudice is a hard thing to shake I guess. I'm not altogether sure why she hates mortals specifically, but that's the long and short of it." "I'll just prove to her we're not all the same." "All I can say is good luck." Bonbon said "She is very stuck in her ways. If you want to try, more power to you but what I'm saying is... don't hold your breath." "All I can do is my best." They return back to the room and Anon lays down. He was surprisingly exhausted. Preforming magic really takes it out of you. The only other person who had made it back was Coloratura. She giggled. "Rough day at class?" Coloratura asked "I had to preform a spell six or seven times. Feel like I've just run a marathon. Not to mention it was in my weakest discipline: Illusion." "You'll get it. Just keep practicing." "I know." he said with a yawn "You should take a nap." "Nah I'm good. I have some alchemy homework I need to get going on." "Oh? What?" He pulls out a list "By the next time I go to class, the day after tomorrow, I will have need to have brewed this potion. It's supposed to be a flavor enhancer." Coloratura looked at the list "Ah this isn't to challenging." "It isn't. I used to bake all the time at home." "How have your mortal family be taking this? Do they even know you're away?" "I don't want to talk about it." "Oh, sorry." "So what about you? What classes did you have?" "Mana Rhythm and enchantment." "What are those?" "I love Mana Rhythm. I can already tell I'm going to have a ton of fun in that class. Basically, by moving my mana through the air, one can make vibrations and music. It's kind of a music magic starter course. Want to see?" "Absolutely." Coloratura pulled out her wand and started moving it up and down, like a conductor. He couldn't believe his ears. It was like he was right next to a symphony. He could hear violins, trumpets, guitars, symbols. And it was all performed expertly. "My goodness." he said in awe "You like?" "I love. That was absolutely magnificent Coloratura." Coloratura blushes a bit and giggles "Thanks!" Anon checked his watch. Two o'clock. He just had to wait a little longer. Then he'd be able to see the secret in Moondancer's basement.