'We won, I guess.' Alex thought as he held several trophies in his hands. One from the potions competition, one from the hunting competition, and the last from the rune-writing competition. His furrowed brow fading as he looked up towards the stands.
He and his peers had done their best and gotten several high scores in many events. In the end with their combined efforts they had managed to put themselves in third place for the time being.
He thanked the man who had handed him the trophies and returned to his seat, placing the trophies a short distance from himself.
After he had taken his seat, he looked over at Tori who sat in the distance for a moment before turning away.
Every instinct was telling him to go speak to her, but he couldn't bring himself to even leave his seat. Every second that he wasted, his own voice within his head called him names and cursed his cowardliness.
'We spoke just fine just a few days ago. Why is it so hard for me to just get up and go over?'
He looked up again, and watched as she talked and laughed along with her friends around her.
He stopped beating himself up as he found his reasoning why.
'Because she is happy.'
A thousand different introductions played through his mind, countless different ways to be able to just say hi, but not one where he could picture himself as the same confident person he was a few days ago. As he sat and pictured himself stuttering, he suddenly stood up.
His mind aching as his once sturdy legs felt weak. He stood up and he walked… to the exit.
His mind flashing back to an old memory fragment of a heartbroken man walking away the pain.
Alex looked to his left seeing the shadow of a carriage and a cloaked woman for a brief moment before fading away.
As he walked a dull ache within him grew more painful. He clinched his jaw he held back from speaking what was continually running through his mind. He kept walking before sitting under a tree and closing his eyes.
Alex's spacial energy washed over himself as he finally located where the pain was coming from. He watched as waves rolled out from the contained blue sphere and hurt his mind.
But rather than think of any way to sooth it, he reached out and tore a chunk of the sphere away from the rest. His eyes opening wide as he felt like his mind was split in two. The ache disappearing as it was replaced with nothing.
His last thoughts of comfort were, 'As long as she is happy.' Before he fell asleep under the tree.
——————
Alex opened his eyes and yawned, he leaned back and watched the clouds with a serene look as he listened to the announcer announce who had won. A knowing smile filled his face as he heard the top five contestants' names.
'After-all if they had lost after making it to the Master class with my help, then they would have been hopeless. Her sister would probably hate me if she found out that I had given Tom and James a boost to breakthrough.'
'It did take a while to figure out how to create a halo for their respective elements though.'
Alex looked up as he saw a massive panel appear on the dome with the schools' scores on it.
The stadium got quiet for a moment as the scores were calculated and after a long moment of silence cheers were heard as his own school's score passed first place which just so happened to be Holdensburg. They had been holding first place by the sheer number of students who had competed. Alex had helped his groups, come in first place in all of the main events, and yet even that wasn't enough to surpass them.
Alex chuckled as Holdensburg, not only fell to second, but fell down to third place.
'I guess the final competition has the most weight to the score.'
He stood up as he readied himself to stand in front of everyone.
'The truth-seekers really wanted a public figurehead for their cause. It is hard to believe that in the next few years I'll be recognizable to the point that my face will be tied to my name.'
Alex entered the staircase to the lower area just as his classmates arrived.
"Hey Alex." Tom said as he walked over to him. "Taylor told me that you missed our fights. Don't worry about it too much, I forced Michael to record them, so I'll be sure to show you so that you can brag about me to next year's freshman."
"I'll be sure to brag enough that legends of your fight will be told for centuries." Alex said as they exited the staircase and were met by the roar of the crowd outside.
Alex lowered his head as he heard his name being called out from the mouths of strangers. After a deep exhale he looked up a small smile on his face as he scanned the crowd with his eyes.
"Here they are! This years reigning school, Dalifield!" An announcer seemingly screamed.
Alex looked around, all of the other mages who had performed well were down here as well, but first place meant every mage from a school was allowed to be below.
They received awards, and stood on the stage as they listened to Malcolm praise their good work. After it had all finished, the mages were pushed into a group for a group picture.
Alex tensed up as Michelle was pushed next to him in the first row, along with several other random mages he didn't know.
"You did well." She whispered.
Alex didn't know how to react so he just nodded.
His eyes twitched as the light of the camera went off. The event ended like any other event, Alex shook the hands of the other mages who walked up, and at some point the time had run out and everyone went back to their cabins to pack up.
Alex having already packed everything just went back outside to wait.
He saw several parents arriving to pick up their kids. While all mages had to arrive together they didn't need to return at the same time. Many families would remain in town and celebrate their victories or achievements over a nice meal.
"Hey Alex."
Alex looked up and saw Kayla, Tori's mother approaching him.
"Hi."
"I was going over to pick up my kids when I saw you sitting here. I just came over to let you know that the church in Morrowsville is having an event next summer. We would be more than happy to see your face there, of course you could always come over whenever you want." She said with a warm smile.
Even though Alex could tell that she was lying and had more than likely been looking for him before even going to pick up Tori and Michelle, he still said. "Sure, I'll try to make it. Any idea what it's going to be?"
"The kids will be visiting one of the largest libraries in this kingdom. Of course, it's quite a drive away so we will probably have to stop by at an inn. Just like old times."
"Okay thanks for letting me know."
Alex looked towards the edge of the dome the city beyond covered in a thin layer of snow.
The snow carrying on and growing in quantity as he stared out the busses window. For the first time since he had gathered everything that was awarded he looked at what was all gathered within one bag.
He pulled out a card. 'She said that the potions guild created an account for me and the funds produced for every potion order, will be deposited within. They also gave me a quite bit of money to ensure I could afford the first few brews.'
He looked at the fancy pen the rune-writing competition had given him. He sent a stream of mana into it for a few moments until it lit up.
It was able to transform his mana to a useable state with the pen itself. 'Very cool but I won't need to use it very much at all.'
He kept a small portion of the beast cores he collected from the hunting competition, and he had also gotten to choose between a few weapons for bringing in the most points overall. He chose a sword with one sharp edge as his weapon, only because he had noticed that it was made to be upgraded by a runes master. The material covering both the hilt and the non sharpened side of the sword, was commonly used to write runes on. There were also mana lines already inlaid on the weapon, but because he was in the dome he was not able to test it.
The sword and what he had purchased at the potion's shop was in the busses storage along with what the resources that his school was awarded.
He looked at the various medals he had received. 'New potion recipe creator, a helping hand, proficient rune-writer,' The list went on and it looked like they had a a reward for anything slightly good. Not one mage went home without a reward.
Just the few medals and trophies he had gotten this year would fill his one shelf to the brim.
——————
"Just come here, all we want is to fight you one on one." Tom said as he pulled Alex and Taylor to the dueling rooms.
"Think of it as a test to see how you have grown." James added while pushing the two to help them into the room.
"You said that you weren't going to hold back this time though." Taylor said while is shoes made squeaking noises on the floor below.
"What's your point?" Tom asked as he released Alex who just stood in place and unlocked the dueling room. The two captains dragged Taylor into the room and Alex walked in behind and closed the door.
"Listen Alex, I might've stood a chance if they were still in the expert class but now, no way. You have to help me." Taylor pleaded.
"I can't help, it's a one on one fight." Alex responded feigning ignorance.
Tom laughed while he walked up to the computer on the wall and typed in a password. "Alright we have thirty minutes on the clock. Let's go ahead and begin." He said before charging towards Taylor.
James also charged towards Alex. The two freshmen got into a stance as they hadn't expected to not even grab their weapons.