Week 1 of school has been extremely exhausting and despite how early in the school year it is, I am very ready for this quarter to be over. T_T Normally I would have no time to write, but luckily we have a healthy buffer of ECA stories! ^_^ Enjoy!
PREVIOUS SET (45-49)
50. Party
“This is your idea of a party?”
Arlin floated the textbooks to the courtyard table “Yup!”
Celestine set the snacks around the books, chuckling nervously. “Well…um..finals are coming up.”
Elysia smiled. “I like it. Didn’t think it was Ms. Happy-cheery-jumpy’s type though.”
Arlin grinned, then mock-seriously: “Study. Now, Miss Kieran.”
Aside from munching, page-flipping, and the occasional question, E.C.A. was quiet for three hours, before: “Stretch break! Let’s spar!”
Elysia sipped tea and ignored her, but Celestine set her sketch-notes down and they mock-battled over and around Elysia, laughing at stray hits.
51. Troubling Thoughts
It was while studying that Elysia thought of the most extraordinary idea.
“Wings?”
“Small, jagged and blue— semi-transparent, like tinted glass. Cerulean glitter trailed on the ends.”
“Pixie. Undoubtedly.”
Vesper Aurigae Nox folded his hands, eyes darkening. In his younger years, the senior magic professor had been infamous for designing a jinx that briefly tore people’s souls from their bodies. Not even the legendary anicilla sorcerers of Somnia had replicated its power before. But pixies….
“Is it possible then?” Elysia pressed.
Pause, then a nod. “Celestine Sesium used dark magic, possibly akin in power to my own knockout jinx.”
52. Stirring of the Wind
So far, so good. But it was only her first exam, lore too. She wasn’t sure she could summon or cast with her nerves as whacked as they were after that day in the rain. She shuddered, and it wasn’t just the howling wind. Suddenly she was glad for the jacket Elysia’d insisted upon.
Arlin looked up when Celestine stopped. “What’s—“ Then she saw the smoky shape zooming through the growing storm. “Another attack..”
Celestine fired earth-based attacks into the maelstorm, deterring their new foe as Arlin pieced together a spell to destroy it.
Air. Her element. No problem.
53. Future
“To see the future you must first know the past. Concentrate on someplace familiar,” Anuna instructed. “Don’t cast the timeline too far forward or you’ll get lost.”
Celestine nodded, placed her hands on the clock’s frame and let her mind merge with the clock’s power, feeding it her memories and knowledge of the Room of Clocks.
Her energy drained seemingly without effect. Then suddenly, images flashed through the surface: The same, yet not. Clocks in a glade, in a cave. Stashed in a cabinet, displayed in a museum, buried in ice. And in the one that lingered the longest: destroyed.
54. Health and Healing
“Feeling better today?”
Arlin nodded. “Yes…Thank you..for helping me.”
“Saving,” Aldis corrected, smirking. “Told you Fi could help.”
She smiled meekly. “Fiana’s a brilliant healer. Yesterday, I was able to—“ Arlin cut off, withholding how she’d summoned sunlight itself to banish the unexpected storm-attack. “—Focus on all my exams.”
He peered at her suspiciously, but let it go. “Good to hear. What’s next?”
“Magic.”
“Ah. Need energy? I just have tech.”
“Ah-huh?”
He took her hands, sending green sparks flickering across their fingers and leaving her magic much replenished.
He sauntered away with a wave, “G’luck!”
50. Party
In preparation for their spring quarter finals, ECA has started a study-party. After three hours of studying, Arlin proposes a stretch break and she and Celestine practice throwing spells at each other; Elysia continues studying without them.
One of my favorite college memories was a Saturday spent in a small room on the fifth floor of the Science Library, doing organic chemistry on the board with a friend. Other friends joined us afterwards, and we all went out for dinner that night. Not only was the day very productive study-wise, but very fun. Thus, I decided to give ECA that experience ;)
51. Troubling Thoughts
While studying, Elysia realizes that the power that it must have taken for Celestine to force out the true form of the fire/ convert the fire to that form must have been insane and it might have something to do with the the wings on Celestine’s back that only Elysia noticed. For additional information, Elysia shares her speculations and observations with Dr. Vesper Aurigae Nox, the senior magic instructor of Vesper University (think of him as the dean of magic?) Dr. Nox confirms that the wings were no doubt pixie wings, indicating some connection Celestine has to the mysterious pixies.
Dr. Nox is known in his field for designing a very powerful spell that has not been replicated in power, even by the sorcerers of Somnia (the Land of Dreams) that have been blessed with power from their seraphic patron. However, now he confirms that Celestine may have used a kind of dark magic close to that power.
52. Stirring of the Wind
Arlin has just finished her first exam, Lore (think of it as science of magic), and is walking back to the dorm with Celestine when they encounter a smoky monster literally stirring up the wind. They realize it is another elemental attack, similar to the fire-based one from earlier. They work together to counter it.
After the incident in Umbrella (part 49) with a migraine possessing her as soon as she tried to cast a spell, Arlin doesn’t know if she’ll be able to use magic. Despite this though, she convinces herself that she has to be able to deal with the air attack. The last line, (“Air. Her element. No problem.”) is her little peptalk. She decides to focus on her familiarity with the air element and give it another shot, knowing that she can’t let this elemental get out of control.
53. Future
This is another anachronism, which takes place at some undetermined time. Anuna has been teaching Celestine spells that use the clocks in the Room of Clocks and they have progressed to looking a little in the future or the past. Anuna’s introductory line is reinforcing the idea that they can’t scry the future of a place without first knowing the history of the place. Celestine tries the scrying spell on the Room of Clocks itself and sees snippets of the Room’s past, which all builds into an image of the Room destroyed.
54. Health and Healing
This takes place the day after the air attack. Arlin runs into Aldis before her magic exam. It’s revealed that the umbrella who saved her that day in the rain (49. Umbrella) was Aldis. After the incident, Aldis took Arlin to see his step-sister Fiana Lunaltusiem, who is a skilled healer. Arlin admits that Fiana’s treatment helped her a lot, but withholds that during the air-attack the day before she was able to use sunlight itself to fight (more specifically, she was able to summon Ivarine Callias, the spirit of the Sun to her aid). Aldis is happy to hear she’s feeling better, but still concerned and when he hears she has an energy-demanding exam coming up, he offers her some of his.
The idea of summoning sunlight came up in a conversation and though I didn’t really know what I wanted it to mean, it was too awesome an idea to pass up, especially since we’ve already had a few scenes with Arlin talking to the Spirit of the Sun already.
Energy transfer in this case would be kinda just like transferring mana. Ignore the detail that this energy is also the kind that keeps us running around. Aldis decides he doesn’t need too much as much energy in his technology final as Arlin would in her magic final and donates some.
NEXT SET (55-60)
NEXT SET (55-60)
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