Rumerra - The Journey Begins

Chapter 3 - Arianna, I choose you! (part III)

"You picked who?!" Velvet's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "You can't be serious!"

"Hey, I don't like this either." Her friend rolled her eyes. "But it's because of you that I had no good picks left! What was I supposed to do? I did a little research on the ones that were left and he was by far the most qualified one to actually help me. The other two barely passed their own exams!"

"Hello, ladies!" Dan smiled widely as he came up to them and put his hand around Arianna. "I knew you would come around eventually! That's why I rejected everyone else who asked!"

"Ehm...uhm..." she got flustered immediately. "Is this...really necessary? You holding me?"

He only squeezed her tighter when she asked that. "Of course it is! We need to establish a bond between us, after all! I want to know all there is to know about you, little Arianna!"

"Her and I already have a bond between us!" Velvet butted in. "She doesn't need you too!"

After much struggling, Arianna finally managed to set herself free and stormed away. Daniel watched her disappear behind the corner of the hallway. "Isn't she just the cutest?"

"What does that have to do with helping her pass the exam?" the brown-haired girl asked.

"Ah, you're one of those oblivious girls!" He grinned. "Don't worry, your friend is in good hands with me! I promise I will do my very best to please her in every way."

"Arianna is already perfectly pleased as she is!" Velvet barked. "We don't need you!"

"Hey, she came to me and asked for us to be partners." The young man shrugged his shoulders. "All I did was accept her request. If you want to be angry at anyone here, be angry at her."

This made her think. A part of her actually was angry at Arianna for abandoning her like this. At the same time, she knew that her friend simply did what she had to do. In the end, her request to Argus was still hanging in the air and they needed a partner to graduate.

"What about you?" Daniel asked, snapping her back to reality. "Who are you going to pick as your partner? Or are you still hoping that they will somehow allow you to partner up with someone from a completely different course?" He chuckled after saying that last part.

"But I...don't want anyone else," she muttered more to herself than out loud, the reality of the situation finally beginning to kick in. "I always thought Arianna would be my partner."

"Well, that's too bad." The boy that was almost a whole head taller than her placed his hand on her shoulder. "Arianna is with me now, so you should pick someone else. I bet there are some graduates from the light course that would like to partner up with a talented girl such as yourself. Talk around the hallways says you're pretty smart. And you're quite cute too, so..."

Velvet grabbed his arm and pushed it off. "What's with you and 'cute'? First, you call Arianna cute, now you're calling me cute? Looks are completely irrelevant when it comes to magic."

"You're absolutely right about that," he agreed. "However, not when it comes to picking partners. I hate to admit it, but I would much rather help out a cute girl than an average-looking one."

"Why do I get the feeling this isn't really about helping Arianna?" She cocked her eyebrow.

"Oh, maybe you're not so clueless after all!" Dan winked at her. "But no. I really do want to help Arianna graduate, trust me. Although I would be even happier if I could get her to fancy me, you know? She seems like a really nice girl to be around, not like those other rich snobs."

"So you're saying you want to be her friend?"

"Err...something like that, yes." The cheeky boy smiled tellingly, knowing that the girl he was talking to right now won't be able to see through to the deeper meaning behind his smile.

"Well," Velvet looked up at him and squinted her eyes, "Arianna did say she wanted to make more friends...so I won't really go against her wishes. But remember, I am her best friend!"

"Yes, yes, sure," he waved and turned around, starting to walk away. "See you around!"

***

The students were gathered at the backside of the academy, where the dueling ring and training arena was. Mrs. Weiss stood before them, giving instructions on the task at hand.

"We are practicing summoning today!" she announced. "You've all done it before, so you know the gist of it. What we will be summoning today are our elementals! I don't want to see any other light creatures flying or jumping around here, understood?"

"Yes, Mrs. Weiss," the students replied in unison.

"Good," she nodded. "Let us go over the theory once more for the sake of revision. Who can tell me how summoning works and what we have to be careful about when performing it?"

Lauren's hand was up immediately, but the teacher passed on her. "Someone else, please!"

She eyed Velvet at the back, playing with her adaptive staff by extending it and contracting it over and over again.

"Ah, Miss Crow! I see you decided to join us today! How delightful!"

Some of the other students giggled at her sarcastic remark. The girl stopped playing with her staff and looked up. "Yes, Mrs. Weiss," she replied. "I'm sorry for being absent lately."

"Well, I am glad that Headmaster Finkleshore managed to talk some sense into you!"

The truth was, Argus and Velvet never even talked about this past him mentioning it briefly. It was Arianna who talked her out of skipping classes. Besides, her friend was in class as well right now, so there was nothing for her to do. She decided she might as well attend.

"Can you kindly explain how summoning works to us then?" the scholar asked her.

"I can. Summoning consists of two stages that happen simultaneously. First, you cast the spell to call upon the creature you wish to summon, picturing its form and channeling your magic. The second stage is binding the summon to yourself so it obeys your will. You do that by infusing it with a small part of your soul. That soul fragment acts as a transmitter that allows you to give commands to your summoned servant. In the more advanced stages, you can also see what the bound creature sees and give orders subconsciously."

"Very good!" Mrs. Weiss clapped. "Everything you've said is correct. Now, what do we have to watch out for when performing a summon? What can go wrong?"

"We have to be careful not to put too much of our soul into the summon," the girl answered, sounding exceptionally bored. "The more of our soul is allocated to the summon, the stronger it becomes. But it also gets harder for us to control it. We can lose control of it completely if we put in too much."

"Precisely!" the teacher exclaimed. "Which is why as a rule of thumb, you should never pour more than a tenth of your soul into any summon. You also need to take care not to oversplit your soul when having several summons active at once, but that is way beyond the level you are at right now. This is something you can continue working on and learning about after you have first graduated. Remember, graduation is not the end of your journey. It is more like a new beginning. There is still so much more to learn about magic that we couldn't teach to you in these five years. We only gave you the basics. The rest is for you to uncover yourself."

Realizing she got a bit carried away, Mrs. Weiss cleared her throat and got back on topic. "Ahem...right. Thank you, Miss Crow, for reminding us of the theory behind summoning. Now let us move to the practical part of this lesson. Everyone, please summon your very own light elemental! You should all be able to do this much by now."

The students proceeded to cast the summoning spells and one after the other, beings of light filled the area, each one having a slightly different shape and form. They all took on the appearances of various animals. There were wolves, snakes, and even some birds.

Velvet hadn't cast her spell yet. She was lost in thought, thinking about what the teacher had just said about how there is still much for them left to learn after graduation. It made her feel excited about the future. So many more books to read! So many more new spells to learn! What other secrets does this vast world hold? She dreamed of exploring it together with Arianna, just like the hero in her fairy tales — Thoracc the light wizard.

"Adventure..." she mumbled quietly.

"Miss Crow? Miss Crow!" The voice gave her a rude awakening. It was Mrs. Weiss, standing before her with her hands on her hips and a not particularly pleased expression on her face. "What are you waiting for? Almost everyone else has already completed the summon!"

"Right...sorry about that," the girl apologized and turned away, clenching her staff tightly.

"Oh, light, heed my call," she started to chant, "take form and stand tall. Become my servant and obey me you shall! Light Elemental!"

The crystal on her staff lit up and a steady stream of light started spilling out, slowly taking on the shape of a woman about as tall as the teacher herself, with long flowing golden hair and a serene smile. Once the elemental was fully formed, the golden stream of light turned white. Velvet let it flow for a few seconds before pulling away, severing it almost forcefully. That last bit was her soul leaving her and imbuing itself into her summon.

Her teacher only stood there in silence, mesmerized by the woman made of light. "Oh...I see," she finally said. "So this happened."