After a whirlwind morning, the students of Class A were excused for their lunch hour. Thus far their day had been dedicated to assessing their academic placement, their goals, and creating a lesson plan for the school year. Not only was the goal to eventually place them in classes with their peers, but to help figure out an academic path for their time at Brydelgard.
Although anxiety was a near constant state for Senna, she had entered the classroom feeling quite confident from her summer studies. Most of that dribbled away like water in cupped hands once it fully settled in how different the writing system was compared to her native tongue on Earth. A quick assessment told her that she had the writing skills of a ten-year-old, which Zyrn quickly reassured her was completely acceptable. In fact, he informed her that she was further along than he had originally anticipated, but she privately hoped it was sincere and not a white lie.
Thankfully, math proved to be literally universal, as well as many basic scientific concepts that seemed to be shared between the two worlds. Spellcasting, however, was an entirely separate beast with its own physics and laws. Likewise, ‘alchemy’ seemed to be an extension of chemistry: a marriage of magical properties and its effects on substances and elements.
The professors reassured the class that anything beyond the most basic grasp of alchemy and the science of spellcasting was new to most students this age, as primary level schooling was purely focused on teaching pupils’ ethics, as well as reading, writing, and math. This had been pushed prior to the war with Eryx to help improve the literacy of the common person across the seven kingdoms.
Following behind her classmates out into the hall, Senna tried to quietly assess if her anxiety was going to let her stomach a meal or not. Half expecting her new classmates to go their separate ways for the hour, hands in her pockets, she started to slink away without stopping to ask them their plans.
Before she could make it more than a couple of steps, she felt an arm link with hers and step her in her tracks.
“Where do you think you’re going, missy!?”
Senna spun around in shock to meet the gaze of a grinning Lyra. She was blinded by a face radiating a genuine kindness that almost felt like looking into the sun. Mentally reeling, she awkwardly stumbled over her words.
“Uh, did I do something wrong?!” Her voice was panicked, worrying she had already embarrassed herself or committed some social faux pas.
“What? No, silly! I was gonna ask you to sit with me for lunch! We’re gonna be classmates for the next few years, shouldn’t we get to know each other?”
Thiazzi had been Senna’s first encounter with friendship in her new life, but due to helping with his family’s bakery, she generally only saw him in passing in the neighborhood when he was delivering bread. This was potentially going to be the first person she would be seeing near daily and getting to know outside of familial figures from her home life.
Heart somewhat racing at the prospect, she swallowed the knot in her throat that had formed from being perceived.
“Yeah, I’d love to, er, I mean, we should!” Senna’s thoughts were jostled as she tried to unjumble them into a coherent sentence, attempting to downplay the shock that was written on her face.
Arm still linked; Lyra turned towards the other two classmates.
“You two wanna join us?!”
Zoval grinned widely, ruffling the hair on the back of his head. His ears lifted in excitement and his tail wagged somewhat.
“Yeah, that’d be great!”
Beryl looked between them, their enigmatic eyes pondering the offer for a moment. With half their face obscured behind the scarf, their mood was difficult to read.
“SURE!” Beryl’s shining finger wrote hastily.
After the initial response, they hesitated for a moment, before writing out another response.
EAT SOMEWHERE ELSE? NOT COMFORTABLE WHERE CROWDED.
Beryl had quickly began adopting a short hand to accommodate Senna, which she was quick to catch onto.
“Of course, we can! Plus, it’ll be hard to make conversation in a noisy cafeteria.”
Seeing the small gesture in turn made Senna want to return the kindness and offer the same courtesy back to Beryl.
Senna didn’t fully know the circumstances of what happened to Beryl, but she could fully empathize with their desire to not want to eat in a crowded room. The former’s reasons were likely not the same and she imagined it wasn’t just anxiety at play, judging by the scarf, but she understood the importance of respecting someone’s comfort.
Departing the hallway, they made the short journey to the Brydelgard cafeteria, which was on the other side of the ground floor. Entering the dining area, the group found nearly every table occupied, the combined volume of their voices a cacophony. Senna immediately had flashbacks to lunches spent in the library to avoid social interactions and overstimulation.
On the far side was a serving area where several workers were plating up lunches for students at a counter. Amidst the noise of the room, the aroma of the hot food cut through the air like a knife. Senna’s stomach immediately growled in response, the consequences of a meager breakfast finally manifesting. Unwilling to resist the allure of such a promising scent, the girl now led Lyra by the arm as the other two classmates followed closely behind.
Upon reaching the counter, the girls unhooked their arms as all four students inspected their lunch prospects. Entrees included a kekoko (the Messarin equivalent of a chicken) pasta, a pot roast of eruta (the Messarin equivalent of a pig) with root vegetables on the side, and a vegetarian option of peppers filled with spiced cheese, roasted nuts, marig (a rice-like grain), and butter battered fried roots. Glazed bread rolls and a kekoko veggie soup were offered as a side, and two dessert options of a thin slice of milk cake or cinnamon honey pretzels.
“Senna, are you okay?!” Lyra whispered sharply in the girl’s ear.
Little had she realized that the lunch prospects looked so incredible that it had nearly brought Senna to tears as she greedily eyed the smorgasbord of options laid out in front of them. Celica’s cooking had been a delight, but her mother had been trying to slowly build up her daughter’s ability to eat back over the summer and it was only somewhat recently that Senna had full access to regular food again.
Momentarily snapping back to reality from daydreams of gorging herself silly, Senna met Lyra’s concerned whisper with a regular voice.
“I’ve been waiting all summer to eat like this. I have finally ascended to a higher plane of existence.” Her voice shifted to a faux religious tone; eyes closed with a ridiculous grin on her face as she put her hands together in mock reverence.
Zoval laughed loudly, close enough to overhear the exchange over the voices in the room.
“A girl that lives to eat is shorn from the same wool as I am!” His tail somewhat wagging in excitement.
Senna immediately requested the pasta and two glazed rolls, as well as a small serving of the cinnamon honey pretzels. As each of her classmates filled their plates and collected a set of silverware, they headed out a set of double doors that lead out into the courtyard.
The balmy noon sun greeted them graciously as they took a seat at the far end of the yard beneath an archaic tree that resembled a willow. Lyra and Senna sat on one side of the bench, Zoval and Beryl the other, taking a moment to admire their meals.
Zoval whistled at the spread, grinning as he scooped up a knife and fork to cut into the roast.
“My sister, Zayva, wasn’t kidding, the food here is incredible!”
Everyone murmured in agreement as they began to eat, each of them marveling at the bold flavors that danced merrily across their taste buds.
“Does your sister still attend school here?” Senna asked curiously, tearing off a piece of her roll.
“Yeah, it’s her last year here! She’s been trainin’ to be a Dusk Rider, so she’s been studying transmutation spells, as well as with various weapons and mounts.”
Senna recognized the school of magic known as transmutation. It dealt primarily with altering the physical capabilities of the caster or others, or inversely altering the properties of inanimate objects. From what little she had gleaned; it was a rather complex school of magic.
“Who are the Dusk Riders?” She responded, probing deeper to learn anything she could about her world.
.
“They’re a rescue and reconnaissance group assigned to Enzen and work with guilds and mercenaries to keep highways safe, search for missing people, and occasionally kill monsters! If I wasn’t in line to inherit the family farm, I’d wanna be right beside her trainin’ to be one of ‘em!”
“-but you’d never keep up with me, neither!”
A girl that couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else than a sister of Zoval had snuck up behind the boy, lifting him out of the seat like he weighed next to nothing. She was easily as tall as he was, sharing the same jovial mannerisms. Ruffling his hair as she gave him a mighty bear hug.
“Zayva! You gonna stop and have lunch with us?!”
“Nah lil bro, gotta go to a field exam! Just saw you across the way and had to give you a hard time! But where are my manners, you can at least introduce them right quick!”
Senna was already realizing that the Celestin family all possessed an infectious happiness and laid-back spirit. Zayva had the same dark eyes as Zoval that seemed to twinkle with a strange brew of mischief and kindness.
“That’s Senna Lorenz and Lyra Delsen across the way, and this is Beryl Veldt!”
Each of them waved, except for Beryl, who wrote a ‘HELLO’ in the air.
“Hey! That’s a neat little scribe spell! Damn, would you mind teaching me that when I have
time?!”
For the first time that day, Beryl had an expression that resembled a smile.
Nodding, they scribed out a response.
GLADLY! I’VE NEVER HAD ANYONE ASK BEFORE.
“Anyways, I’d love to kill time, but yer girl is a busy woman! Catch y’all ‘round!”
Nicking a roll off Zoval’s plate, she dashed away towards the combat scrimmage fields at the western side of the campus. Her brother shook his head and laughed, not even a glint of surprise in his eyes at the stolen food.
“Sorry ‘bout that! She’s kind of a hurricane…”
I wonder if my older sister is like that… I hope I get to meet her sometime soon.
As the four students began to eat, Beryl cautiously loosened the scarf around their neck, carefully setting it beside them on the bench. It was then Senna understood why they weren’t particularly keen on eating in a crowded place. Scars from burns ran snakelike up and around their neck and along the bottom of their jawline.
From what little medical knowledge Senna possessed, she could tell they had been a mixture of second- and third-degree burns. Despite their presence, it seemed that Messarin medicine had done as well as it could at minimizing scarring. Still, she couldn’t begin to fathom the grief and damage the injury had caused for Beryl. Knowing that plain sympathy would probably be patronizing, instead she chose a different path.
“Hey Beryl, once winter hits and it’s too cold to eat out here, we can find a quiet lounge somewhere in the school to eat, if that sounds good to you!”
Giving her a soft smile, Beryl nodded.
The kids made small talk about themselves as they ate, mostly discussing where they were from and their interests. It had been years since Senna had sat around with people she truly considered peers, having such a normal conversation no less. She couldn’t even recall when the last time was and guessed it would’ve been when she was about the same age in school in her past life.
As the lunch hour waned, a natural lull in the conversation arrived. The warm afternoon sun drew a shroud of drowsiness over their group, all of them now wanting a nap. It was during this that Senna had realized that Lyra had been eyeing her.
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“Is everything okay, Lyra?”
“My curiosity is bubbling over, I gotta know!” Lyra belted out, rather bluntly, radiating an innocent excitement over such an intriguing topic.
Senna hesitantly turned towards the Elf girl.
“Y-yeah?”
“… Okay sorry, that was a bit much. You don’t have to answer! But I want to at least ask… What
was it like being one of the sleepers?”
Zoval leaned forward, an inquisitive shine in his eyes. Meanwhile, Beryl thoughtfully donned their scarf once more, their hands gently affixing it to its prior position. Yet, despite their task, their gaze
was slightly turned towards Senna, their own curiosity piqued as well.
Senna herself wasn’t easily miffed; rather, she had always been somewhat of an open book. The only sentiment that nipped at her heels was Celica’s warning about sharing the truth about her past life. With that in mind, not wanting to lie to her new classmates and potential friends, she concocted a half-truth in the moment.
“I dreamt a lot. Or… at least, I think I did. It feels like I did. Like when you wake up and know you were dreaming but can’t remember any of it.” Senna let herself speak in a sort of train of thought
rhythm, dancing performatively between truth and falsehood.
As she continued her thoughts, she was careful about her language use. She wasn’t sure how advanced Messarin astronomy was, so was sure to substitute “outer space” with “‘the heavens”.
“I only remember a few flashes here and there. I think I was floating through the heavens, surrounded by stars and dust. Then suddenly there was a flash of blinding light, and I woke up in the sanitarium.”
Her classmates stared with rapt attention, even Beryl had dropped their nonchalant side eyeing. Several moments of silence passed between them as they digested what they heard. It wasn’t unusual for sleepers to wake from their coma, but it was rare enough so far that most people had never spoken to someone afflicted.
Senna’s gaze momentarily turned away, feeling a faint blushing rising in her cheeks. Lyra seized the moment to ask a follow up question.
“And… you don’t remember anything about your life before falling asleep?”
“No, nothing… I basically started over. I won’t sugarcoat it, it’s been terrifying. It feels like I’ve taken over someone else’s life and have had to relearn everything. My own mom-, er, mother, was a stranger. My father is out there missing, and I know nothing about him, other than what my mother has told me, and apparently my older sister is a frontier ranger helping fight bandits and monsters.”
Zoval’s eyes lit up, as if suddenly connecting the dots on something.
“Gods almighty, is your sister Phaedra Lorenz?!”
“Y-yeah…?”
“A wolf drake attacked our ranch a few years ago and Phaedra was one of the cadets from Brydelgard that was sent to our rescue. It ambushed them and she led it away from her injured squad and killed it herself. She’s the reason big sis’ studying to be a Dusk Rider right now! She’s a damn badass!”
Senna responded somewhat sheepishly at another reminder of how she still knew so little about her own life and the world at large.
“O-oh… I had no idea-”
Suddenly Senna felt Lyra’s arms around her, giving her a gentle hug.
“I’m so sorry! I can’t even imagine how overwhelmed you’ve been! We’re officially friends now, so I’m gonna make sure you’re taken care of!”
Zoval immediately chimed in.
“Same! I know your sister was sent by the academy, but she was so eager to help us! So, we owe your family a debt!”
Senna’s heart thumped hard against her chest.
What’s… happening? Can people really be this kind…?
Before she could reflect on the moment any longer, bells chimed from the nearby campus clocktower signaling the end of the lunch period. The kids of Class A gathered up their plates and returned them to the cafeteria before heading back towards their classroom, all of them ready for an afternoon nap instead of more class.
“We should petition for a half an hour nap, think our instructors would let us?” Zoval wondered aloud in his drawl, hands on the back of his head as he casually strode up the hall.
Lyra was beside him, hands in her skirt pockets as she tried to match his pace.
“I could go for a nap, too. That’s the problem with food this good, you wanna just sleep the day away!”
Behind them Beryl and Senna were keeping pace with one another.
They didn’t exchange any words, although the atmosphere between them was relaxed. Senna had seen too many introverts labeled as rude or judgmental and didn’t want to force conversation on someone that was more than happy to just listen to their surroundings.
Ahead of them reaching their classroom, Beryl hastily wrote out a quick message.
THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR STORY.
Despite their mouth being obscured by their scarf, a smile twinkled in their eyes. Swallowing the thoughts that were still dancing in her mind, Senna smiled and gave their arm a soft squeeze, before mouthing a ‘thank you’.
When class resumed, they continued their outlines of future lessons. Beryl seemed to be exceptionally well versed with academics and the ‘science’ behind spellcasting, but they had quite the mountain to climb as far as nonverbal spellcasting. They were also quite curious about learning at least basic martial skills, interested in arcane staves and daggers.
Zoval wasn’t far ahead of Senna in academics, having spent most of his time in the field acting as a helping hand with the ranch work. Due to his condition of Mana Rage, he had completely avoided spellcasting. His family wanted him to wait until a professional could teach him how to suppress his
condition, however, as if to make up for this self perceived ‘flaw’, he had grown proficient in melee combat. Sparring with siblings and cousins had grown to be his favorite pastime.
Lyra was an interesting case, a background not unlike Zoval. Her family ran a well-established vineyard north of the city known as Elderberry Vineyard. As she aged, her condition worsened, and she was too easily fatigued to help with the winemaking process. Instead, she learned about culinary spellcasting that could aid with the production as well as pored over books about both ‘modern’ and folk medicine hoping to learn more about how to treat fatigue and other ailments.
It wasn’t any shock that Senna was going to have the worst workload of all.
Their primary subjects as a class were as follows: history, spellcasting, martial field tactics, mana temperament, introduction to alchemy, and monsterology. During their lunch hour, the three teachers had been gathering the necessary supplies and books to start the school year. Senna felt a pang of guilt knowing the trio of teachers had been using their time to do lesson prep instead of eating, realizing that teaching was a thankless job in every world.
Senna was also given a small stack of books:
-A Brief History of Enzen and Tiburon
-An Introductory Guide to Spellcasting
-Shedding Light on the Monstrous
-Half Baked: The Dos and Don’ts of Beginner’s Alchemy
-Warfare in the Modern Age
Each tome was leather bound and only one title, Shedding Light on the Monstrous, had an illustration on the cover. These looked like something you would find in a museum or in a back alley, secondhand market, and Senna loved every single part of it.
With only about forty-five minutes left in the school day, Professor Linhardt stepped forwards to take over the lesson.
“Lesson outlines are SO drab, so instead we’re going to finish the day doing something much more exciting. Go ahead and pack up your things and then we’ll all head out to the martial training field.”
The four students gave each other puzzled looks, but each shrugged and obeyed the instructions. Heading out of the classroom, they took a right-hand turn and followed an exit leading outside. The remaining walk to the field was a relatively short five-minute stroll, passing by several senior students running errands or studying freely under those warm, cerulean skies.
Descending two flights of steps into the bowl-like field, Senna had been informed the day of orientation that it was designed this way to account for stray arrows and spells flying into neighboring properties. On occasion, it even could be filled with water for testing water based magic and aquatic training. It was shockingly large despite being smack dab in the middle of an urban center, equal to at least a couple football fields side by side.
At the bottom, they walked about thirty feet towards the center of the space before Professor Linhardt stopped them all.
“Do any of you have a guess as to why I brought you all out here?”
Professors Ci’er and Scarletforge hung back behind the students, arms folded, each with a somewhat amused expression. The students looked amongst each other but said nothing, until Beryl raised a hand.
“Go ahead, Veldt!”
ARE YOU TESTING WHAT GEMSTONE OUR JECTS ARE?
“Ding, ding, ding! Correct! Going forward I’ll need to have an idea what to expect from each of you and this is a sound way to start off. For ordinary folks, you get to know each other with introductions and talking about yourself. For magic, it’s a bit different.”
She paused for a moment, waiting for the students to process her words.
“If you want to get to know someone’s magical potential, you need to look at their ject, the well that mana is drawn from. These take the form of a small gemstone in our souls that help shape our magical abilities. Technically speaking, with enough training a talented mage could use several kinds of magic, but your strongest varieties will always be those that belong to your specific gemstone type.”
This was the first time Senna had heard this, but Beryl and Lyra nodded along in understanding. Zoval’s face, however, stayed neutral, so she was unsure if he knew this, either.
“The spell that lets me see what shape your ject has taken is called lapidaris. It’s painless and
only takes a few seconds. Who wants to go first?”
Stage fright at going first vanished as Senna eagerly stepped forward, her right hand raised.
“Ah, a volunteer! Thanks for your enthusiasm, Miss Lorenz!”
All eyes now on Senna, several steps ahead of her classmates as Professor Linhardt stepped forward.
“Are you comfortable with me putting a hand on your chest, Miss Lorenz?”
“Y-yes, that’s fine.”
“Don't worry, I’m not going to sucker punch you, heh.” Professor Linhardt chuckled at her own joke while raising a hand that now glowed with a silver light.
Pressing the hand against Senna’s chest, the professor closed her eyes, mumbling to herself for several seconds. The light held no warmth, nor was it painful as Eris had promised. And yet, it still felt like Professor Linhardt could see straight through the girl’s soul, despite her eyes being closed. The professor opened her eyes and took a step back, clearing her throat as she moved.
“Just as I thought! A diamond! Not only is this the favored stone for summoning aethos, but it’s also by far the strongest for support magic of various kinds. Things like giving yourself or allies strength, speed, or even things like water breathing! It’s also quite rare!”
Senna’s heart raced. She couldn’t explain it, but she felt an excitement flowing through her veins that was beyond description. The more she learned about Messaris and got to know its peoples, the more it felt like puzzle pieces in her soul fell into place.
Standing amongst her classmates again, Beryl approached Professor Linhardt after Senna. Their gemstone was opal, which governed light, restorative, and protective magics. Zoval was obsidian, the polar opposite end of the spectrum, the humor of which was not lost on Senna. Obsidian governed darkness, curses, shapeshifting, and debuffs. It seemed to occupy a strange juxtaposition paired against Zoval’s kind personality, a sentiment that Professor Linhardt seemed to pick up on immediately.
“Remember, with nearly all magic, none of it is inherently good nor evil. Nor does it determine their moral compass, either. With all things, it’s their actions and intentions that decide these things. Magic is simply a tool that most living things are born with and, as we all hopefully know, how they use it is shaped by their environment and community.”
Lyra was last to take the figurative stage, hands in her pocket looking totally carefree.
“I bet you the candy in my bag I’m an emerald, professor!”
Belting a laugh, Professor Linhardt casually waved a hand.
“I’m not a gambler, and I don’t know if I want to bet against such confidence.”
Following the same rhythm as before, the professor confirmed what Lyra already seemed to
know.
“Have you already had this done before, Miss Delsen?”
“Nope, but everyone in my family are emeralds! Felt like a safe bet to assume I would be, too.
Plus, we’re forest elves that run a vineyard, so it’d be kind of ironic if I wasn’t.”
Professors Scarletforge and Ci’er joined ranks once more with Linhardt, as class was about due to finish for the day.
A thoughtful expression had overcome Professor Linhardt’s face as she spoke a final time.
“We don’t get to have a class like this every year, so this is exciting as is. What’s more, the gemstones fall under two categories: cardinal and elemental. Cardinals are your gemstones that are more abstract and cover various things, like obsidian or opal. Elementals are far more straightforward, covering things like fire or ice or even lightning. To have a class that’s all cardinal is quite unusual, but it’s all the more exciting!”
With that, Senna’s first day of class officially closed, leaving her with a swelling excitement about her future at Brydelgard. She didn’t think it was possible to be this enthusiastic about school, but it probably didn’t hurt that it was to study magic and monsters, not to be another drone in the workforce.
Turning to her classmates, she asked if anyone was walking in her direction.
“Nah, I’m in the girl’s dorm just down the path from here.” Lyra said, visibly growing tired from
the long school day.
“Same, I’m at the boy’s dorm in the other direction. Makes sense since neither of us are from the city proper.” Zoval stretched, ready to lug his books back to his room. “Plus, I gotta go check on big sis, she’ll prolly wanna hang out.”
“Did you need someone to walk with, Beryl?” Senna inquired.
THANKS, BUT I WAIT UP FRONT. MEETING FAMILY.
As they all ascended the flights of stairs back up to ground level, Senna eyed Lyra, who was looking rather winded. Senna was about to offer help when she saw Professor Linhardt walk up beside the girl, offering to sit and take a break with her.
Not wanting to interrupt, Senna smiled and waved goodbye to her teachers and classmates before heading off towards the front gates. The walk to and from school wasn’t particularly bad, and she was looking forward to having thirty minutes or so to be in her own head after a long day of socializing.
The only thing that would’ve made the journey better is headphones playing her favorite songs. Twenty minutes later and in the residential district once more, Senna let her mind wander, daydreaming about what her future school days would be like. Only grounded just enough to not bump into someone, she mused about heroic adventures she’d go on once she mastered magic and sword.
It was in these moments that she didn’t notice a peculiar passerby: a woman with blonde hair so pale it was nearly silver with shining, crimson eyes draped in a black shawl and leather armor dyed burgundy. The woman stepped aside from the crowd to stare menacingly at Senna, who was shrinking into the foot traffic towards her neighborhood.
Sniffing the air, the ghostly woman muttered to herself. “What a curious scent that little starling has. She reeks of Eryx’s spell and her spirit burns brighter than the sun. I’ll have to return to this borough soon and maybe pay her a visit. No matter, I have other tasks at hand.”
Pulling the shawl tighter, the enigmatic woman vanished into the crowd.
