***Toril***
I was sure Lord Amun was under the wrong impression. While the admission process and my social standing probably had something to do with my coming here, I couldn't deny that it was also because of the unpleasantness my presence caused when my name was still Toril Fulgum.
In the words of my father, I was a bad, unruly child with untamed magic. Known as the boy who ran around the castle, shocking everything in sight. The polar opposite of Count Turok Fulgum, a man like the heart of storm cloud; bellowing out a rolling thunder that commanded all who heard its roar.
With Storm Magic, my father was perfectly safe from my lightning arcing around everywhere; though displeased he still was. My mother, on the other hand, born with water magic, risked herself greatly just to be around me.
As far as I was aware, The final straw came when I shocked her dearly.
Nearly fatally, in fact.
After that was a blur of tears and screams that lasted until I found myself boarded on the train bound for Corvus Tower. The name Toril O'Connell was stitched onto my chest to serve as an eternal reminder of the sin I committed.
Once that happened, I toiled. I worked tirelessly to master the unruly magic within myself and atone for mortally wounding my mother; however inadvertent that action may have been.
As a result of my conviction, I made my way to the top of the class within weeks of the school year beginning. And before half the year had even passed, I found myself boarding the train to depart for Deap Ridge.
I was five and a half five when I first met Amun. Now, I'm a few months past ten. And for the first time since I found myself thinking of my parents. Of what my father would think if he saw what I've become; contempt or pride. And of my mother, of the pain I was sure she'd feel after seeing me again; a searing heat that raced through the branching scars that marked her body.
Strangely, however, there were no feelings to be found within myself; no matter how long I sat and pondered the subject. I felt no sorrow or hope, no anger or indifference even; towards them or myself. There was only… nostalgia, perhaps.
Or perhaps not.
In all honesty, I hardly remembered their faces or the sounds of their voices.
'So, what reason is there to see them again?' I asked myself. 'To rekindle painful memories? To revisit a past life? To apologize for something I'm already reconciling through my actions?'
No.
There was no need for such things, I decided.
All that mattered was the present and the future.
All that mattered, was to continue growing as strong as possible and explore this vast realm with His Grace, Amun of Odissi.
And so, I turned my attention away from the window and back to mentally arranging the vast 53rd floor into a suitable layout for training.
Not long into it, however, I cursed under my breath as I was interrupted by an approaching Edward Pascal, cradling a large cloth-wrapped item in his hands like it was a baby.
"H- Hello, Toril." He meekly bowed after stepping into range.
"Ed." I quickly nodded to him before gesturing to the something in his arms. "What's that?"
"It's what His Grace instructed us to make. Or, one of them." He nervously chuckled before carefully unraveling it. "Though His Grace didn't tell us how it works, it's clear that it's a gauntlet. And he personally told me that it's intended for you. So." He proudly held them out at arm's length. Something that seemed a slight task for his scrawny build.
"Gauntlets, huh?" I tilted my head, eyed them carefully as I took them in my hands, and gave them a close inspection.
True enough, they were fitted exactly for me; a pair of somewhat standard gauntlets: fingerless leather gloves that'd been braced on the forearms, backhand, and fingers with curved metal plates. On top of that, there was a mass of thin copper wires that'd been twisted together to make a thick coil that wrapped around each glove from its base to the wrist.
"And you said you weren't told how they worked?" I asked, pulling one of the somewhat hefty gloves to a snug fit onto my arm.
"That is correct." Ed ruefully sighed.
"Hmm." I hummed to myself as I put the other glove under my arm and reached into my satchel for the note Amun had left me with earlier.
Surely, at the very bottom in the smallest legible print, Amun had written a postscript.
'P.S. The tinkerers are making a piece of equipment for you. Channel electricity through the coils, the gauntlets should do the rest.'
"Stand back," I barked to Ed as I stuffed the note in my satchel.
As quickly as I said it, he pranced off in the opposite direction as I took to the center of the floor and prepared myself.
After only the slightest bit of mana was pulled from my core, down my arm, and guided through the wires that began a bit above my elbow, the energy seemed to latch onto something; like it was grasped by an invisible force that ripped more energy from my core and added it to the stream circulating throughout the gauntlets. Forcing me to cut off the flow from my well entirely.
Unlike any other instance of charging mana in my body, not a spark of lightning; or rather electricity, arced from my arms. There was only a throbbing hum that seemed to vibrate the air itself and the distant feeling of heat.
Frustrated, I turned my scowl to Edward. "Is that it?"
"Again." He carefully approached with an impatient sigh. "Don't know how it works. But." He halted at arm's length and took a knee. "This sound. It's like the tracks at the station, is it not?"
I couldn't even reply as Ed pulled out a pocket hammer and cautiously held it out towards my arm. And within the blink of an eye, the hammerhead was snatched from his hand and came to a violent, reverberating halt against the side of my wrist.
"It's… it's a magnet!" Ed abruptly reached out to grasp the handle and pry it from my arm.
He struggled for a bit before I canceled the spell, then nearly toppled over once he ripped the thing loose. After clumsily regaining his footing, Ed focused on the hammer to cautiously tap at it like a smith testing the sharpness of a blade. And with both a soft chuckle and a wide grin, he confidently grasped the hammerhead in one hand and pulled a few nails from his pocket with the other.
I watched with both curiosity and humor at both the nails sticking to the hammer as if they were glued to the surface at odd angles, and at Edward's reaction to his gear working as intended. It was like seeing a kid fawn over a new toy; a toy that their parent was equally fascinated with.
So much so that they planned to play with it themselves once their child went to bed.
I almost felt bad interrupting him by a nudge with the gauntlets so that I could ask. "Are you coming to training?"
His head snapped back as if he forgot I was even here. More so, as if I startled him. "T- training?" he stammered.
"In about… ten minutes actually." I nodded after checking the time. Then gestured to the colossal amphitheater far off to the western side of the floor. "The students will be gathering here for the announcement. In short, his Grace has tasked me with training in his theories on Elemental Manipulation and Elemental Fusion until we depart for Deap Ridge."
"Elemental… fusion." His eyes trailed off as if they were lost while he slowly repeated the words.
"I know you have things to do but." I continued, snapping his attention back to me. "I'd highly advise you to come."
'You'll have to learn it eventually.' I thought as he gingerly took back the gauntlets.
***
Following the little demonstration, I made some suggestions for improvements before ed wandered off to a nearby tree to take out some papers and begin scribbling away. Shortly afterward, students began arriving in their groups and cliques. Followed shortly after by Jaimess and Jonet arriving in a pair.
As expected, Amun was nowhere to be found. Or rather, was probably observing in whatever shadow realm he so often frequented; if he wasn't off experimenting or writing or doing whatever else he chose to do in his free time.
I found it likely that he'd appear from some obscure place at just the right time. Though something in the back of my mind was telling me that wasn't the case.
Once the clusters of bodies stopped streaming from the elevators, I took to the stage of the colossal amphitheater alongside my two companions and stared in awe at the literal sea of bodies spanning the entirety of the market-sized bleachers; and a mere fraction of the 53rd floor.
"I can handle the speech if you like, Toril." Jaimess' whisper came creeping from behind me.
"No." I quickly turned to him, shaking my head. "Like you will one day address your own subjects, I need practice in issuing orders and taking command of people."
Jaimess gave a frown of approval and silently bowed back to the rear of the stage. I, in turn, nodded a silent thanks before settling myself behind the amplifying stone set within the podium.
"Er- Good evening, everyone." I tried to swallow through the swelling that began in my throat once I looked out across the mural of still, mocking, and expectant faces before me. Then, my heart grew still. So I began looking elsewhere while I talked; at the walls, the ceiling, at the windows, and the vast expanses beyond them. "His Grace, Grand Duke Amun of Odissi, has deemed it necessary that… we train you. During our stay in Corvus Tower." I paused to again pivot my gaze elsewhere. "We are gathered here today, to settle on a schedule. And to choose what subjects you all wish to study. As of now, we've been ordered to teach His Grace's theories on… elemental manipulation, and elemental fusion. Everything else." I dry swallowed and turned once more. "Is to be decided by all of you. So… I'm open to suggestions."
There was a long pause of silence that stretched on while I desperately fought against the impulse to peer into the crowd. With my lungs now dry of words, the constant pounding in my chest seemed to be amplified by the enchanted stone before me. Thumping the very walls with the madness-inducing tempo of my heart.
"I want His Grace to train us how he trained you!" An indiscriminate voice in the crowd shouted.
'His Grace has better things to do, I'm sure.' I internally chided.
Yet that voice was followed by another one. "What's fusion?"
'You'll find out if you come.' I rolled my eyes and sighed.
And then by another one. "Why don't we start now?"
'No!'
"Yeah!" Someone else cried. "We're already here!"
'That comes later.'
"At least give us a demonstration!"
"We're not here for demonstrations!" I quickly snapped my eyes back to the crowd. "If you want a glimpse of what those theories are then come to the first training day! We. Are here. To make a schedule!"
As a consequence of both my frustration and sudden outburst, a bit of mana leaked from my well. Resulting in a series of crackling sparks that inadvertently and menacingly punctuated my words to an outstanding effect.
"Now." I calmly sighed, suddenly relaxed from both a sense of catharsis and the noticeable shift in the crowd's demeanor. "We'll handle this in the simplest way I can think of. If you wish to train on the weekdays after class, produce a flame in your hand and raise it overhead."
I waited a few seconds for any stragglers to decide and made a mental note of the scattered amber lights glowing within the stands before I nodded. "Alright." Signaling the flames to die out soon after. "If you wish to train on the weekends, raise your flame."
Again, I waited a few moments. But even then, only a literal handful of flames appeared in the stands; though a few of them were larger than the others, denoting a group of like-minded individuals in close proximity to one another.
"If you wish to train around this time, after class." Raise your flame."
In an instant, the entire space before me lit up with a blinding auburn glow. Almost as if the stands themselves were made of a singular, massive enchantment that suddenly activated. Forcing me to look away.
"Well, that's settled." I sighed relief into the amplistone once the glow died down.
But of course, someone had to ruin it. "What about every day?" They suddenly shouted.
"Out of the question." I immediately spat. Then leaned over the podium to study the natural elegance of the western coastline beyond the window. "Moving on, we're to decide on a training regimen. As His Imperial Majesty declared, His Grace Amun has extensively trained us for the past five years. Our focuses were dexterity and agility drills, strength and endurance training, elemental practice, spell development, and endless rounds of fighting.
"If you all want to train as we did." I pivoted over the podium once again to study the fine architecture of the opposing wall. "It'll require you all to devote five hours of your day to training. Just to clarify." I paused to chance a glance at the crowd. "That's from just after three in the afternoon to eight in the evening, eight out of ten days a week. Twelve months a year, for the next four years. If you still agree to those terms, then raise your flames once more."
As I half expected, I was once again subjected to the blinding light of the students demonstrating their willingness to train. I was aware that their schedules weren't as loaded due to their graduation from their formal classes. Yet I was more than certain that they had no idea what they were getting themselves into.
"Very well."I nodded. Pivoted once again to stare at the open fields that stretched past the bleachers to my front. "Allow us time to… mold this place into a training environment. We will meet here the day after tomorrow, after class. And keep in mind that this training is voluntary." I abruptly added. Then gave a closing nod. "Thank you all for coming."
With a deep breath and another bow, I retreated from the stage and turned to see a smirking Jaimess and a giggling Jonet sitting at the rear of the stage.
And I quickly turned away from them with a scowl.
"Great job. Gyahahaha!" Jaimess laughed. Then braced his hands up to put brackets around his words as he continued. "We are gathered here today. Gyahahaha! I thought I was at a funeral for a minute."
"Yeah, go fuck yourself, Jaimess." I sneered. Then gestured towards the fields past the dissipating stands. "Are you two going help me landscape, or are you just going to stand there and make jokes"
"We don't have much of a choice. So, a little bit of both." Jonet approached with a shrug, followed by a reassuring nudge on my shoulder. "What did you have in mind?"
"I have the training regimen more or less sorted out." I sighed in an attempt to push my annoyances aside. "But, I'll need His Grace's help to make it a reality. Besides that." I paused to pull out the slip of paper Amun had given me. "He gave me blueprints to make… this."
Jaimess perked up at once and snatched the paper from me before I could explain further. Then gave the two of us a curious look from under his brow after studying it in its entirety.
"Well then." He grinned. "Let's get started already."