Radiance - The Alight Archives Book #1

20. Class President

Glyph Academy's bells had long since chimed. The griffins commonly perched on the edge of rooftops had gone hunting in the clouds. The crowds of students and staff members had disappeared from the school grounds. Realistically speaking, classes should have already commenced by now. But much like the morning prior, their homeroom teacher was nowhere to be seen.

As Elaine entered the room alongside Fearne, she was met with a sight of unmotivated and slightly annoyed sorcerers slumped in their seats. She didn't even have to peek a stare at the professor's desk to know that he was absent. You hate tardiness, do you? Elaine thought in frustration, plopping herself at her seat. Then why is it you're the last person to arrive at your own class...?

"Elaine," said Mason next to her, and Elaine herself flinched in surprise at the sound of his heavy yet gentle voice. "I didn't get a chance to speak with you after Spellcasting yesterday. I wanted to compliment you on your magic."

"Oh?" Elaine said.

"Yes, it was...bright," he said, rather awkwardly. "That wasn't a basic-leveled spell, was it? How did you manage to learn it?"

Elaine hesitated. "I...err..."

How was she meant to address this? She hadn't an idea of how she pulled off the spell either. It just sort of happened...but she didn't think Mason would be satisfied with such a vague explanation.

"Every second I could spare," Elaine started, "I'd dedicate my time to learning spells with my brother. I was outright awful when I first started. Fire Magic wasn't for me; I'd always tense up at the thought of getting burned. Water Magic was tricky also, too many variables to keep track of. For some reason though, Light Magic just came easy to me. Even my older brother who had started practicing Light Magic spells years in advance, mind you, said that he was jealous of how fast I'd gotten the hang of it."

Elaine chuckled at the memory; Ellend was red faced and whining whilst she was glowing as brilliantly as the distant stars in the night sky. "I assumed he was putting on a front to make me feel better, but..."

"I don't remember seeing you at the Entrance Exam," Mason said suddenly.

"Oh, that's because I didn't take it."

"Ah, makes sense," Mason nodded. "Even still, when we were preparing to begin, I remember the overseer of the exam mentioning that all the participants present were on equal-footing. That is to say, none of our abilities outshined or came short of a fellow participant. It gave me a peace of mind."

Elaine sensed it, the sunken acrimony trapped in his words. "But..."

"But," he continued, "when it was that the exam commenced, only then did I realize just how outclassed I was. They were using spells I'd never even seen before. I wondered, did someone like me realistically stand a chance here? By some act of divine intervention I passed, although I wasn't excited as I otherwise would have been."

Elaine let Mason say what was obviously on his chest. This was the most the two had spoken since they had first met yesterday. The more she interacted with him, the more it warded away the trace amounts of reluctance Elaine still harbored towards him.

"There's a feeling I always get from people who are stronger than me," Mason said. "People I won't ever be able to compete with. Yesterday, I got that same feeling from you."

Elaine's eyes stretched open. "What kind of feeling, if I may ask?"

Mason lowered his head at the desk. "A great feeling...of despair."

She hadn't put much thought into the matter, but when a sorcerer became too powerful, people would obviously crowd around them to adore and shout and point and praise. But they also had a tendency to stay clear of that sorcerer's path, not due to respect or an unspoken loyalty. It was fear, an emotion as cold as the wintry winds hailing from the peaks of the Argos Mountains in the north.