TBATE - Strings of Fate

11 - Making Plans

--TESSIA--

Over the next few months, I followed the same familiar routine: Spar in the morning, rest and eat for lunch, practice small-scale spells to preserve my mana, and then finish the day with Gran's exercises.

Gran was right that I could learn a lot from spars. I sparred with many kinds of people, and I had to change my strategy for each one. I learned a lot from how others used spells and spent more time trying to copy others' spells than creating my own.

Every once or twice a week, I would meet with the other elves or the student council. I'd gotten close to the other elves, and we would go shopping or talk about their classes and my training.

I spent more time with Amara than the other two. She pouted about how I hadn't saved her from the racist human on the first day of school for a bit, but she forgave me relatively quickly. We got along well since we both shared a near obsession with getting stronger.

She was a funny and approachable person and was very popular among the humans who weren't put off by her race. However, she turned down every suitor, and I realized recently that she had developed a bit of a crush on Ailred, the water augmenter.

We practiced together on many days, helping each other with breakthroughs. We were both wind mages, and even though she was an augmenter, and I was a conjurer, we were able to teach each other new ways to use magic. Two heads were always better than one.

Meanwhile, things were more tense between the members of the student council. We met many times and continued discussing policy changes, several of which we agreed on, and many more of which we did not. However, one issue that we were never able to agree on was Ben's proposal: Finding a source of funding outside of tuitions and charity.

There were nine members of the student council. Aside from me, Clive, and Ben, who were the president, vice president, and treasurer respectively, there was one other person appointed by Gran: Tyra Borsk, the Secretary. She had advocated for policies that would reduce the divide between battle mages and scholar mages. As a scholar mage herself, she was tired of the bullying associated with it.

The other five members were all committee members, who had the same voting power as the rest of us, but no additional responsibilities or powers. These members were voted into office, and usually won because they were backed by powerful noble houses.

Unfortunately, each of these committee members advocated for the self-interest of their backers, and none of them could be convinced to reduce the reliance of the academy on the noble houses. The council was divided into two groups who were in constant disagreement due to where our interests lay. We ended up calling ourselves the "Inner Circle" appointed by the director and the "Outer Circle" backed by powerful noble houses.

It took six out of the nine council members to vote in favor of a policy to pass it. Because neither group held enough votes to pass a policy without votes from the other, our discussions mostly centered around convincing the other group to vote with us on a topic. When the groups couldn't agree on something, the conversation was normally dropped.

One day, a heated discussion was happening between us about the long-contested policy to reduce financial reliance on nobles.

"I don't know why you keep bringing this up. You still haven't convinced me that this policy will benefit the academy at all, but we all know that implementing this would be an affront to all the generous nobles who have been keeping it afloat so far. It would send a message that they aren't trusted. Aren't wanted. How could you advocate for this?" Preston leaned back and crossed his arms while shaking his head in what looked like disappointment.