Rose exited her cave, feeling utterly at ease after meditating in her lava baths for the past hour. It was still hard to stay focused, but she was getting better at it. Now that she could properly feel her magical core, it made interacting with it so much easier…
Although she still had a way to go to catch up in her Blue class. Her energetic magic did not want to settle down for Blue.
Almost immediately upon exiting her cave, there was a knock at her bedroom door. Without missing a beat, Rose said, "Come in."
Havi popped her head in, smiling with gentle cheer. "Morning, little kingmate. Today's the day for the competitions, and I thought you might like an escort."
"That'd be great, thank you," Rose said, beaming.
"Ah, if you don't mind me asking, why are you in a swimsuit?"
"I was in my lava baths," Rose explained proudly, patting herself on the back for working on classwork so early in the morning on a supposed vacation day.
That's what good girls did, after all. If she were back at the orphanage, Mother Mara would have made her a big breakfast to reward her effort. No one was there to do so now, though, so Rose had to do it herself.
I'm going to have a cookie with breakfast, she promised.
Havi's dark eyes gleamed as she smiled at the dragon. "You were using them to help meditate? How is that going, by the way? Is there anything I can do to help?"
"It's going," Rose answered. "Professor Yūei said I can take my Blue exam over the summer if I'm not caught up yet."
"Ah. I have to do that for Green this year," Havi said, shaking her head. "Thankfully I don't have to take Green again next year."
"You have trouble with Green?" Rose asked, genuinely surprised.
Professor Mamta's class was one of Rose's favorites. They might not be using Green Magic yet, but it was still a fun class. They got to spend their time outside in the gardens—which always smelled delightful—and memorizing the plants came easy to Rose. Havi always struck Rose as a gifted student, since it was always Havi dragging Lanna and Philip around to do their homework and was helping everyone.
Havi grimaced. "I'm not a compassionate person by nature. Caring for plants is not… my forte. Everyone has a certain magic they struggle with, Rose. Philip and Lanna both had issues with Blue and have had to come back over the summer to take their exams into next year."
Rose's eyes were wide at that news. Professor Yūei had said other students struggled—and Rose and Mortem were the only two students doing well in their Red class—but she hadn't realized everyone had an issue with something.
"It becomes more apparent later in the years when you move on to the trickier things," Havi continued, "so maybe not everyone in your year group will be as obvious about it. Rest assured, though, everyone struggles with something. It's also partly why not all of the core magic classes are a requirement to take after your fourth year."
"Really?"
"Of course. If you'll be going into something like… healing, for example, you don't really need to perfect your Black Magic, do you? Your time can be better spent learning about something that will actually help you after school."
"That makes sense," Rose said, nodding.
Havi smiled at Rose. "Why don't you get dressed and then we'll head out to the first tournament?"
"Okay!"
...🌹...
The tournament of Wyrd was held inside a massive room on one of the upper floors Rose had not been to. It was a huge room—easily the biggest she had seen inside of Gardenia aside from the library and her cave—and stretched widely.
Like many rooms in Gardenia, it had a skylight of painted glass and—to Rose's surprise—showcased what she thought were werewolves and dragons in armor. There were bleachers made of white and black marble on the right and left side of the room, and at the center was a ring with a nearly transparent glowing blue wall around it.
The teachers were seated on the far side and Rose saw there were more teachers she hadn't seen before. She recalled Chester telling her there were other electives in the higher year group, so she reasoned they must have been for those courses.
When she caught Doctor Basileus's gaze, he gave her a bright grin and she reflexively returned it.
Her gaze then swept towards the bleachers, flinching away when she unintentionally caught the gaze of someone from the Hero Kingdom.
Flower Fall had noticeably improved the mood of the entire school and, really, the only ones who still gave her the occasional glare were those from Aella's Kingdom, with the exception of Aella herself. It made Rose's stomach twinge uncomfortably, and she resisted the urge to turn around and go back into her room.
Even with Havi walking beside her, it took more courage than she'd care to admit to climb up the opposite bleachers and sit down.
To her surprise, Philip soon joined them, carrying multiple baskets. "Give her the food, Philip." Havi told him.
Philip held out something that smelled like bacon wrapped in a red napkin to Rose. She took it hesitantly, ducking her head and murmuring a quiet 'thank you'. When she opened the scarf up, she found that her nose was correct and that it was filled with bacon, biscuits, and an apple.
"Eat," Havi told her. "We still have some time before the tournament starts."
Rose started to nibble on the bacon, grateful her stomach was handling it well. More students started to file in and Chester and Keinan—she could smell the armful of bacon and biscuits Keinan was carrying—both waved in hello to Rose. She gave them a small wave back. By the time Rose had finished the food, it looked like everyone but the contestants had shown up.
Havi placed a basket of flowers in Rose's lap that Philip had brought, picking up her own basket. "C'mon. We'll braid the crowns and bracelets for tomorrow's dance while we watch those apes beat each other around."
"I don't know how to do that," Rose admitted.
Havi's reassuring smile was filled with sisterly warmth. "Not an issue. We can show you, right, Philip?"
Philip nodded shortly, reaching into Rose's basket and pulling out a few stems. "Here, watch."
For having massive, meaty hands, Philip managed to neatly twist and fold the flowers together into a very dainty flower crown.
Rose continued to watch, amazed.
"After this tournament, Philip and I will have to hurry on. I'm in Maylanna's tournament, and I need to add some finishing touches before my presentation," Havi explained to Rose.
"Okay," Rose said, trying to twist the flowers into her own crown.
Rose tried to copy Philip's delicate movements, but she found it difficult. She kept accidentally tearing off the petals and ripping the stems, so by the time she finished her first attempt, it looked like a dog had mangled it.
Havi giggled at it, patting Rose on the shoulder. "Don't worry, keep practicing, honey."
Rose bit her bottom lip and did exactly that. She only paused in her work when Professor Luck strode to the center of the arena and loudly said, "Good morning, students. Shortly we will begin the duelist tournament in honor of Elder Wyrd. The rules will follow the standard set by the Community: One, no maiming. Two, yield when the proctor tells you, or your opponent says forfeit. Three, act with honor. Mister Galio and Mister Hudson, would you both step forward?"
Rose was astonished that her king would be the first one to fight. Galio looked completely excited, and as soon as he stepped into the ring, he shed his human skin like water.
In his true form, Galio towered at seven feet and was a hulking statue made of living stone. He looked every bit like a gothic gargoyle come to life with the exception of the fact that his tail continued to wag like a happy dog and he had a big, stupid grin on his face.
His opponent was a hero kingmate, Hudson Col Braveheart. He was tan with neat hair and dark eyes, and certainly one of the tallest students at the school. He, too, shed his human skin, and out stepped an odd creature. The head and front part of its body was that of a bird with white feathers, but the rest of its body was that of a white and gray speckled horse.
It took a minute of confused staring before Rose recognized Hudson as a hippogriff.
Galio clapped his stony hands together, slowly spreading them apart, and between them was a—a bolt of electricity. Galio grabbed the electricity-shaped-like-a-sword-which-Rose-thought-was-really-cool-and-she-definitely-wanted-to-learn-how-to-do-that and dropped low.
Hudson stomped his clawed hooves on the ground and orbs of blue fire appeared out of thin air around him, circling the hippogriff.
"Begin," Professor Luck ordered, and the two students lunged towards one another.
Galio leapt with speed and strength that made Rose fervently wish to never be on his bad side. He slashed straight down at the hippogriff, but Hudson used his conjured blue fire orbs to turn into a fire shield and block Galio's attack.
Galio swung out his tail around Hudson, catching him by surprise and sending him careening hard into the magical wall that surrounded the arena.
Hudson flapped his wings and sparks of white electricity shot out from them, hurtling straight towards Galio, the magic crackling through the air.
Galio slammed his foot down on the ground and a wall of stone shot up from the arena floor between the two.
Hudson couldn't see Galio from behind the wall, but since the wall was on Rose's side, she could see her kingmate dig straight down into the ground. The speed and ease it was done with made it look like Galio was simply sinking into water, and soon, the gargoyle was completely out of sight.
Hudson charged around the wall, launching his fire orbs into the space where Galio once was. The hippogriff was caught by surprise by the empty space, and then the ground underneath him rumbled. Hudson was abruptly pulled all the way up to his head into the stone floor. Galio popped back up a meter away from him, all smiles as he pointed his red lightning bolt towards Hudson.
"Winner is Galio," Professor Luck called, and as the students applauded, Galio gave them a big thumbs up.
With a crinkle of his nose, Professor Luck pulled Hudson out of the ground and reset the arena to make it look like nothing happened. The two contestants exchanged good-natured nods and exited the ring.
The next contestants were Lanna and Deo.
Lanna only partially shed her human skin—which made sense since her true form would likely take up all her room in the arena
Black feathered wings with sparks of blue electricity dancing off them appeared on Lanna's back. Electricity surrounded her form as the thunderbird gave a wicked grin to the Chasm king.
Deo didn't shed his human skin, choosing instead to smirk at her. "Not gonna try to sit on me, Thunderbutt?"
"That'd make it too easy," Lanna taunted.
"Begin," Professor Luck cut in.
Deo raised his right hand and the entire arena floor shot up into the air. Lanna lurched high into the sky, flapping her wings and immediately bombarding Deo with bolts of lightning. With his other hand, Deo conjured a purple bubble around himself that blocked every single one of Lanna's attacks.
Deo continued to raise the platform until it nearly reached the ceiling and Lanna was forced to land back inside it, or else be disqualified from leaving the arena.
To Rose's surprise, the bleachers were raised alongside the arena, and she let out a concerned 'eep', nearly dropping the flower crown she was working on.
Now forced onto the same level as Deo, Lanna glared with irritation at the still-smirking king. She threw out her hands and lightning shot out of her fingertips, hot and bright. Deo casually deflected the attack, and it slammed against the shield with such force that Rose could feel its vibrations.
Lanna shot out her lightning once more, but this time Deo ducked underneath it and dashed towards her. Lanna abruptly cut off her attack and lashed out at him with raw Red Magic, but Deo deflected that, too.
Then Deo was in her face, grabbing the back of her head. Using brute force, he slammed her face into his awaiting knee
Rose's stomach dropped unpleasantly at that, and she decided she really didn't want to keep watching.
The match ended shortly afterwards, and things were reset. The two were good sports, with Deo helping the huffing Lanna over to the exasperated doctor.
Rose decidedly didn't like watching people hurt each other, and she chose to focus on her flower circlets. There were times she couldn't help looking, such as one of the contestants using a particularly showy bit of magic, but she honestly tried her best. Watching her fellow students hit each other was… uncomfortable. She hated the sound of bones breaking and the stench of blood.
After Lanna and Deo, it was Aella against Hugh—with Aella winning—and then Connor against Axel. Then it was Galio against Deo—the most destructive battle that had Rose cringing and flinching when some of the spells sounded awfully similar to shotguns—with Aella and Axel following up, and finally, it was Galio against Aella in the final match.
Rose really hated to see either of them getting banged up, so she covered her eyes and hoped it would be over soon.
Luckily for her, Galio was apparently extremely adept at combat, and handedly defeated the Hero knight within the first five minutes.
"Winner: Galio."
The gargoyle's triumphant grin was as brilliant as the sun, and with ease, he pulled Aella back onto her shaky feet and into a hug. The harpy's laughter filled the room and watchers broke into thunderous applause. Professor Luck entered the ring, presenting Galio with a small sword made of emerald. He let go of Aella so he could carefully accept the trophy, his stone tail wagging behind.
"Well fought," Professor Luck said loudly over the applause. "You have earned Elder Wyrd's favor, and thus, this concludes the tournament."
The applause continued until everyone had left the ring and some students hurried out of the room, Havi and Philip included. Rose was hesitant before moving, her stomach still churning unpleasantly from having to listen to the tournament. She didn't understand how everyone could be so cheerful about it.
Lanna—who had joined her kingmates after her loss—gave Rose a firm pat on the shoulder and said, "Head out to the other tournaments with your friends, okay? Sylvania and Maylanna's tournaments will be judged for the next few hours. It's also when some of the clubs will set up their booths, so make sure you check them out, you gotta join one next year. If you need me, I'll be with Aella, and then hittin' up the food club booth."
Lanna reached over and affectionately nuzzled the top of Rose's head in a way that reminded the dragon of a bird. Lanna then hopped down the bleachers and ran over to Aella who was being healed by Doctor Basileus. Rose watched her for a moment before she climbed down the bleachers herself, eager to get out of the room.
She wasn't too sure where exactly in the castle she was supposed to go, and once again, the temptation to go back to her room was strong.
Then Mortem was beside her and the familiar zing of magic was almost comforting. Rose looked over at Mortem, giving him a small smile.
"Hi."
"Good morning," Mortem greeted her. "Are those for tomorrow?"
"Yeah," Rose answered, looking down at her half-finished projects. "I accidentally made a flower crown first before I realized they were only meant for… dating. Um, but I should probably put them in my room before I go to the next tournament."
"I'll walk with you," Mortem said. "You don't know how to get to the other tournaments, do you?"
"I could get there on my own if I knew where they were," Rose defended. "No one really told me where they are."
"Then it's a good thing you have me as a guide."
"You could just tell me, and I could go there on my own."
"It's a good thing you have me as a guide," Mortem repeated, and Rose had the strong feeling he was teasing her again.
Chester and Keinan joined the duo shortly, Keinan still munching on food he had brought in.
"You guys want to go together?" Chester asked.
"Sure," Rose said, and the quartet began walking out. "But let me drop these off real quick."
It didn't take more than a few minutes to hurry back to the Warrior Kingdom and drop off her basket of flowers. When the task was done, the friends headed off to the next tournament.
Keinan licked his fingers clean of the pastry. "I think I'll join the cooking club next year."
"Unsurprising, you glutton," Chester said disdainfully, his nose wrinkling in disgust from Keinan's poor manners. "Can you not eat like a slob?"
"Can you be more of a priss?" Keinan retorted uncaringly. "You're turning into your mom more and more every day."
Chester's face scrunched up briefly before he shrugged. "Better than my brother."
"Isn't your brother the headmaster, though?" Rose questioned, confused why turning into such a seemingly successful man would be a bad thing.
"He's a—a—" Chester struggled to find the right word to describe his brother.
"Rainbow shooting out of everyone's butt?" Keinan offered.
"Extreme optimist," Chester settled on. "The everyone-deserves-fifty-chances kind of guy."
"Disgusting," Mortem sneered. "How dare he give others the benefit of the doubt or forgive."
"Well," Chester said testily, "do you think those jerks who've been bullying Rose deserve fifty chances? 'Cause that's what he'll give them."
Rose shifted uncomfortably as the topic abruptly transitioned into something she really, really didn't want to talk about. Using all the tact she possessed, she smoothly tried to change the subject by blurting out, "So what clubs are there?"
"A lot," Keinan answered her, sensing her abhorrence for the previous subject. "Clubs are kind of meant to prepare you for whatever job you wanna have after school. There's… Dungeons—for hunters, rangers, and explorers—cooking, music, art, blacksmithing, book clubs, Unity, healer, enchanter, arcanist, Order, historian, and merchant sects/clubs to choose from."
"Those cover all the jobs?" Rose inquired, skeptic.
"If you want to do something else that doesn't have a club, you can always start a club. If it's just you, the school will set you up under an apprenticeship," Chester explained. "All clubs are overseen by teachers, and they all have professionals who help. Like, um, the Order club have actual Enforcers and Observers who write letters to those involved, and during the club exhibitions—which will be next year—they come once a month and give one-on-one teaching."
"Oh."
"You're supposed to join at least one club in your second year," Keinan told her. "Almost everyone's in at least two clubs, though."
"Don't the meetings overlap, though?"
"No," Mortem answered for her. "Second year on, all students have Saturday through to Mondays off for club activities. Each club meets for two hours during one of the time slots during those days, and none overlap."
"Is there a, um, potions club?" Rose inquired.
"Cripes, no," Chester said firmly. "That requires a proper apprenticeship and usually takes centuries to complete."
"Oh," Rose said, disappointed.
"You'd be hard pressed to find someone who would want to mentor you, too," Keinan said slowly. "Master potioneers are… really picky about who they take as an apprentice. My pa had a friend who had to practically beg Lady Hue for decades before she finally accepted him as her apprentice."
"Oh," came Rose again, her shoulders dropping.
Mortem cleared his throat. "That br—I mean, Doctor Basileus is a master potioneer. You might want to talk to him about it if you're really interested."
Rose perked up at that. "Really? Although I guess I shouldn't be surprised he's a master potioneer since he's always working on something."
"Yeah, and he seems to like you," Chester pointed out. "All the girls in my kingdom are jealous he's invited you to work on potions with him."
"Same for my kingdom," Keinan agreed. "My princess even started crying when she found out."
Immediately horrified by that idea, Rose's expression morphed into shock and guilt. "I-I'm sorry!"
"Don't be," Chester dismissed. "They're just being silly because they fancy him."
That made Mortem snort. "They have awful tastes."
"He is a lord," Keinan pointed out, "and was Elder Sylvania's apprentice. They could do worse."
"He's vile," Mortem firmly disagreed. "He'd break their hearts twice over if given the chance."
"Huh," was all the two boys said.
"How do you know him that well?" Keinan asked
Chester said, "My queen said Mortem always eats with him. She's jealous of you, too, Mortem."
"I only eat with him because I have to," Mortem replied, his tone drenched with clear disdain. "He's—a f-family friend."
"It's not nice to call people names, though," Rose said quietly.
"I'm an honest person," Mortem said with a shrug. "And I'm sure he'd agree with me that he's a di—delinquent."
That got a snort out of Chester and a grin from Keinan. Rose merely shook her head and tried to steer the subject again.
"So, what clubs are you guys going to join?"
"Keinan and I are definitely going into the arcanist club," Chester answered firmly. "My mother and his father are arcanists, and that's what we want to be too. Outside of that, though? I might join Unity's club, or maybe historian."
Keinan blew a raspberry when Chester said Unity. "That club's filled with pompous politicians. I'll stick with cooking and arcanist, thank you."
The trio looked over at Mortem and the lich shrugged. "I might start up a new club called the nihilist club. It's where we don't do anything and sit around the entire period."
"There's no way you'd get a teacher to sign off on that," Chester informed him.
Mortem cocked his head. "You might be surprised… although I guess I might change the name to the nap club."
"I'd sign up for that," Keinan said, nodding in approval.
The quartet exited the castle and headed into the massive garden where over a dozen hand-crafted booths were set up.
"Let's check out the clubs before we look at Sylvania's and Maylanna's tournaments," Chester suggested. "Keinan and I have to sign up for the arcanist club anyway, or our parents won't let us hear the end of it over summer."
"Okay," Rose agreed.
"Uh, actually, I'll be right back," Keinan said, immediately breaking out into a steady jog and heading to a booth on the far end.
Chester rolled his eyes, likely knowing exactly what Keinan was up to, and brushed out some of his sunflower colored hair from his eyes. "C'mon."
Mortem and Rose followed closely behind Chester as he began an impromptu tour of the booths. Rose politely listened to each explanation, but if she were honest with herself, it simply didn't interest her. Some of the clubs seemed… fun, but Rose was reluctant to associate with any of the upper year students.
Especially any club that had a sullen looking Hero kingmate glaring at her the entire time.
It was an absolutely lovely spring day, though. It might have been chilly to some of the students—Rose noted more than half were wearing coats and hats—but to Rose, it was simply beautiful. The castle garden was starting to come alive again, breathing color and delicious scents over the school. More flowers and trees Rose had never seen before rose up from their slumber to greet the world.
Rose had always enjoyed her time spent outside and helping those in her town with their gardens, but never in her entire life did she think she could appreciate flowers as much as she did at Gardenia. There simply wasn't any way to give the elegant allure they gave off justice with the words Rose knew.
The tour began to come to a close when they reached the last booth.
"There's my favorite dragon!" Galio cried, leaning over a massive black booth that had the word 'Dungeon' written at the top.
There were several other students behind and around the booth, but at Galio's shout, all attention was directed towards an embarrassed Rose and her friends.
"C'mere, you! You're totally going to join, right?"
Rose hesitantly approached, looking around at the massively grinning faces. "What's it about?"
"This is for anyone who wants to work in Dungeons," a student beside Galio explained, flipping her hair. "You know, like hunters, rangers, and explorers."
"You gotta join, it's like the best club in the entire school," Galio insisted. "Everyone loves it. Watch this."
Galio cupped his hands over his mouth and started chanting, "DUN-GEON! DUN-GEON! DUN-GEON!"
The people around started chanting with him and soon, everyone in the gardens was chanting, "DUN-GEONS! DUN-GEONS!"
Galio lowered his hands and gave Rose two thumbs up with his usual goofy grin. Everyone else kept chanting. "See?! C'mon, kiddo. You know you wanna."
"I'll think about it," Rose promised. "B-but we should probably go see Sylvania's stuff now."
"Bah. Okay. Have fun!" Galio said, waving his hand excitedly.
Mortem tugged on Rose's hand to help her move away from her overly excited kingmate. The trio trekked back down the gardens and towards one of the greenhouses that was labelled "Sylvania's Tournament". Before they could head inside, however, Keinan stopped them. He hurried over to the group, carrying a bunch of white boxes in his arms.
"Here," Keinan said, placing a small white paper box in Rose's hands. "You need to try this."
Rose hesitantly opened the box and found some bread balls inside.
"They're meameabuns," Keinan explained. "The cooking club was out here earlier, and I grabbed you some before they sold out. You've never had them before, right?"
"Never even heard of them," Rose admitted, giving it a sniff. "It smells like steak."
"It's filled with meat," Keinan said with a happy smile. "Well, meamea, to be exact."
"What's a meamea?" Rose inquired.
"It's a plant that grows meat-fruit," Chester explained to her.
"Wait—like it grows chicken?"
"Just certain parts of it."
"It's what the Community uses instead of animals," Keinan said, taking a big bite out of one of his meameabuns. He offered a box towards Mortem, and the lich silently accepted such, although he didn't try eating any of it.
"So—wait, would a vegetarian be able to eat it? If it comes from a plant—but it's meat?" Rose's brow furrowed. "How does this work?"
"I don't eat from meamea, but I'm a vegetarian by health choice and not morality," Chester said. "It would depend on the person, I suppose."
Rose popped one of the meameabuns in her mouth. It tasted a bit like a really juicy steak wrapped in butter bread. She gave Keinan a thumbs up as she chewed and her friend beamed in response.
"They're super yummy, right?"
"Crazy! It's so buttery, and flakey," Rose tried to describe it. "Mm! I think this has become my favorite food."
"I wish they served it every day," Keinan sighed dreamily.
"It's incredibly unhealthy for you," Mortem pointed out.
"Oh, God, are you a rabbit too?" Keinan asked, horrified Mortem might be a vegetarian like his best friend Chester.
"No, but I know not to gorge myself on balls of fat and meat," Mortem retorted dryly.
"Thank you," Chester exclaimed, slinging an arm around Mortem. "Finally, someone who understands."
"Urk," Keinan cried out, "that's awful. Without food, what's the point in life?"
"Family, friends, books, adventures, experiences, laughter, this crazy thing called love," Chester ticked off.
"Rose, help me out here."
Rose had already shoved two more meameabuns in her mouth, so now she looked reminiscent of a chipmunk. "Hwa?"
The boys stared at her for a moment before they snorted and looked away. Chester and Keinan were trying to cover up their laughter by coughing, but Mortem was outright chuckling.
Rose's cheeks turned red and she struggled to finish her food quickly. It took a couple minutes—during which she choked a couple times which caused her friends to laugh even harder—but she managed.
She did decide to put away the rest of her meameabuns to be eaten in private when she could properly savor them… or shove them all in her mouth to see how many she could fit in. Whatever worked.
Wanting to avert the attention from her, Rose ushered her friends into the greenhouse.
Upon entering the greenhouse, Rose was surprised to find only three students inside. Two of the kingmates were currently talking with others, so the quartet headed to the only free student.
She was a fidgety girl with long, curly red hair, big green eyes, and freckles covering her face.
Keinan greeted his kingmate, "Hi, Victoria."
"Oh, hey, Keinan," Victoria returned, shyly smiling at his friends. "Are these your friends?"
"Yeah, this is Chester, Rose, and Mortem," Keinan introduced, gesturing towards each one. "So, you gonna show us what your big project is?"
"Oh! Yes, please have a look for yourself," Victoria said, pointing towards her potted flower.
"What kind of flower is that?" Rose asked, intrigued by how odd it looked.
Victoria brightened. "This is a lyrey! It took me three years to grow it up to this point. It'll be another two years before it blooms, though."
The translucent blue flower glowed softly. Rose could smell something that reminded her of blueberries. It was awfully pretty to look at, little white sparkles fell off the closed bulb at the top, and the leaves were multiple shades of azure.
"It's very pretty," Rose praised. "Was it hard to grow?"
"Well, it's—it's a lyrey," Victoria said, her eyes wide.
"Lyrey only grow in extremely magically enriched environments. They require a lot of magic every day in order to grow, so they're usually only found in large Dungeons," Chester explained to Rose. "Growing one outside of a dungeon takes a lot of skill. It's rated five out of five on the difficulty scale for Green Mages. Oh, um, a Green Mage is a Nehebur who specializes in Green Magic. It's a title awarded to those who pass the highest form of testing into Green Magic, which is the Freya Exam."
Rose nodded slowly, processing the information. "Five out of five, then? So really hard to grow."
"Yeah," Victoria affirmed. "One would be what you grow in school, two would be upper-class stuff, three is for graduates, four is professionals, and five is for experts, or Green Mages."
"Oh, wow. So you're a Green Mage?"
"Not yet, but I'll be taking the Freya Exam this summer," Victoria boasted proudly.
"That's really impressive," Keinan said appreciatively. "I bet a guild has already tried to recruit you."
"You would be right," Victoria said with a huge grin. "After school, I'm going to work at Darkriss with my Pa."
"Congratulations," both boys said.
"That's a well-earned placement. I wish you luck in your exams," Chester praised her.
The other two competitors—both from the Aisling Kingdom—didn't have a flower like Victoria Ious North. The Aisling knight, Neil Hawth Clawva, had a tiny tree with green bark and white leaves. It waved its branches in a greeting, and when Neil pet it, it purred like a cat. Mortem said it was something called a 'newhole', and was a good pet tree, since it was easy to take care of and fun to play with. What made Neil's showing unique was that it had white leaves, which was apparently extremely hard to achieve.
The only other competitor, Viham Tral Sue, had a dead looking vine that lashed out at anyone that came too close to its pot.
The mim sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as he admitted, "It's only supposed to attack people with malice, but I guess I added too much Red Magic when growing it, so now it attacks everyone." He held up a thoroughly scratched up hand. "Even me."
"Are you going to keep it?" Mortem asked.
"Yeah. He's grown on me," Viham said. "I might be able to fix him up for next year, anyway. He's gonna need a lo-ot of Green Magic now."
"Good luck," Keinan told his kingmate, and the quartet headed towards the end of the greenhouse to give other students a chance to look at the plants.
"Have you seen Mamta's garden, yet?" Chester inquired, gesturing towards the end of the greenhouse once he had calmed down. "It's something he's been working on his whole time at Gardenia. It's pretty amazing."
"I haven't," Rose admitted, looking over towards the end. "Is it over there?"
"We'll show you," Keinan offered, nodding towards it. "C'mon."
Keinan took the lead, heading towards the wide door at the end of the greenhouse. Rose and the others followed closely behind him, Rose's curiosity more than piqued. When Keinan opened up the door, Rose let out a small gasp.
"It's called a crystalvine tree," Chester told her.
The tree itself was a luminous white crystal that curved and branched out. That itself would have been beautiful, but adorning each branch were hundreds of some of the most beautiful crystals and rocks Rose had ever seen. They twinkled like stars in the morning light, giving off an aura of elegance and majesty.
There were a handful of other students admiring the tree, with Mamta standing underneath it and fiddling with a multicolored crystal. Two of the students—who were from the Hero Kingdom—noticed Rose and immediately left.
Rose was too mesmerized by the beauty before her to care too much. "H—how? Is this one of the magical plants we can grow?"
"The tree itself—the white crystal—is something a skilled Green Mage can grow," Chester explained, "but all the crystals added on are things Professor Mamta either grew separate or were given to him by his wife."
"His wife is the leader of the Darkriss Guild," Keinan added. "So, she has a lot of access to some stones found in Dungeons. Stuff that can't be sold, or used, is given to Mamta. He loves the stuff. He adds it to his tree every year. My pa asked my ma to be mates under that tree, so it's pretty special to me."
"I hope you thanked the tree for your existence," Chester teased.
"I did," Keinan said, entirely serious. "I asked Professor Mamta if I could see it the first day I got here."
"It's really pretty," Rose said, hesitant only for a moment before she approached Professor Mamta. "Your tree looks very pretty, Professor."
Professor Mamta continued to fiddle with the glowing green stone. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
Mamta abruptly paused in his fiddles to point upwards at the tree. Rose followed his finger, her attention almost immediately drawn towards a pulsing red stone that seemed to have—to have the light of dawn inside of it. The light slowly grew the longer Rose looked at it, and a part of her was transfixed.
"That's a, a, a dragon's dawn stone. Mrs. Dawn gave it to me, she was a good student of mine. You remind me of her, yes, you do. Although she wasn't a dragon, but I guess she was mated to one."
"I thought dragons were banished?" Rose asked.
"They can't leave, but we still visit," Mamta answered her. "Valerie was a good girl, yes, she was. Her brother was a bit of a rascal, though, that one… I'm glad you don't remind me of him."
"Why is it called dragon's dawn?" Rose asked. "I get the dawn part—but why dragon?"
"It used to be a ruby," Mamta said, lowering his hand slowly, "yes, yes, yes. Dragon fire can change magic. It is magic. From a ruby, to the dragon's dawn, all because of a dragon's fire. There are others, but I don't have them."
"What are the others?"
"From sapphires, to dragon's tears. From emeralds to dragon's heart, on and on, and on and on," Mamta trailed off. "Very special. Yes, indeed. Very happy Mrs. Dawn gave this to me, very pretty, yes, yes?"
"Exceptionally so," Rose agreed, wondering if she could perhaps replicate it.
She had no clue where she would get such precious gems, but if she ever did, then maybe the professor would be happy if she—if she used her own fire on them.