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15. Moving forward

When someone applied at the academy it was obligatory to have magic powers, hence a blessing. It was an institution of magic after all.
That meant discussing the possible lack of such wasn't groundless at all.
It also meant that the former prince must have received a blessing at some point. There were no exceptions and it did not matter how influential his parents were.
But there was another topic hidden that found quite a bit of interest.
There had been no official declaration of his return. That made it impossible to guess where the imperial family was standing in all this. Especially if he should have awakened the fire within him. It would mean he could again insist on his right to the throne, threatening his brother's position.
And even taking that out of the picture, he had been declared dead for heaven's sake.

As Fharan returned the following day people started gossiping all around him, but kept their distance even more than before. He was paler than usual but that was the only sign that had outwardly remained of his suffering.
His movements were still a bit slow as well. It felt like every muscle in his body was overstrained and his eyes seemed unusually heavy.
He took his seat and waited for the class to end. He was good in math.
The next class was religions. Fharan sat up a little straighter and tried to concentrate on the teacher's words.
Religion or beliefs in general were a sensitive topic. The section size in the imperial palace was proof enough. The shelves barely contained thirty books.
Because of the multicultural origins of their students the academy took the risk to present many different views.
They were mostly based on the deities of course, but even the time period before their 'appearance' was to be discussed.

He had only three classes today, so it was over in the blink of an eye. Afrit waited right outside the building for him.
One of the spells reacted, he said as he appeared next to him. "Which one?", Fharan asked and observed his surroundings.
The last one.
When leaving his confinement most of his captors had been eliminated but he had spared a few to mark them with one of Afrits tracking spells. It was almost impossible to trace them since they stayed inactive for most of the time. They only activated when either Afrit or Fharan wanted to verify their location or if one was less than 4 mile away.
After getting some distance from the bulk of students Afrit continued.
It seems as if the signal is coming from the outskirts, the caravan camps perhaps. I will wait until tonight and start with scouting the area.
Fharan nodded. "I will keep an eye on the barriers. It shouldn't be long before at least one of them will appear here."
Afrit did not ask how he felt and if he should really leave, but stared at him thoughtfully before turning around and disappearing behind the buildings. Fharan took a deep breath and slowly made his way to the cafeteria, ignoring the stares that followed him as soon as he entered the building.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful. He finished some of his work in the library and read a few books. After supper was served he went back to his dormitory room where he found a letter on his door informing him about a dorm meeting held in the next few days.
He prepared everything for the next day and checked the barriers with his magic. Fharan had attached a bit of his own to the already existing ones, strengthening them as well as enabling himself to connect to it whenever he wanted.

As he kept himself busy he realized for the first time how used he had gotten to Afrit being with him all the time.
Their connection was not cut and they were still able to communicate without any problems, but it was different from actually having him there.
It had only been half a day since he had left, but it was a novel feeling for him. They had been glued together for years after all.
He tried to sleep, but gave up rather fast and as the walls seemed to close in on him sneaked out instead. The doors were locked at night, but he could easily replicate the keys with his magic.
He wandered the grounds aimlessly lost in thought, analyzing these new feelings that confused his mind. Fharan was surprised at the sense of loss he felt. There had been very little in his life so far for which he had felt any kind of attachment.
"You never know what you have until it's gone." His voice was nothing more than a whisper as the wind carried these words into the darkness of the night. He wondered where he had heard these words before, but was distracted by a small noise coming from his left.
Without really noticing it, he had reached one of the enclosures in which the research department held certain animals and beasts. He must have disturbed one of them in their slumber.
He drew closer and carefully put his hand on the barrier, sensing the magic, sensing the spell that powered it and the space that lay behind. Slowly fusing his magic with the spell he observed as his hand gradually sank into the transparent wall before it disappeared. Fharan took a step forward and closed his eyes.

There was little resistance and it felt more like passing through water than anything else.
At first, there was only darkness on the other side, but his senses adjusted themselves to their new surroundings and revealed the scenery he had felt behind the barrier.
While these enclosures looked rather boring on the outside did every single barrier hold a 'bubble' of sorts. A piece of land, big or small, that was not necessarily connected to the outside world, not held down by its rules. It allowed the academy to capture and contain all sorts of creatures unrelated from where they originally came from.
They were priceless nowadays since the art of creating them had been lost during the great wars. A former student had found quite a few of them on the academy grounds and after finding out that most of them had been bound to the academy handed them over to the research department.