Zephyr tugged her bowtie one last time as she stood in front of the mirror, she could feel the softness of the red bowtie, made out of silk, which she rubbed non-stop while tying, when she finished tying, she circled around while still looking at the mirror.
She made sure to not make loud footsteps, as a girl with messy red hair to her left lightly snored, and a boy with messy silver hair in the same bed.
She nodded and found her hands in her waist, standing confidently, her smile glowed as the sunlight coming from the window reached it.
Clearly, she is ready to face what awaits her outside her dorm room, even the sun knew that and was kind enough to aim the sunlight at that confident smile.
She looked to her left, her confident smile quickly transformed to a genuine smile. Aw, it would look very cute if Nex just crawled to his side and snuggled him. Why aren't these two together again? She tapped her chin as she tried thinking of why.
Wait, but Ms. Minerva..! She shook her head, forming an X with her arms. Brother, I can confidently say you are eyed by two great women. Just make the right choice or just get them both!! Her wild thoughts exclaimed.
She sat down on the chair that sits in front of the mirror and the desk, grabbing a journal, leather in appearance with a lock.
Let's see.. Day 67.. Day 145.. Day 296.. The pages rustled as she flipped through the written text-filled pages. At last, she finally found an empty page, she quickly set her ink pot to her right and grabbed her quill.
"Day 330" She wrote at the top right of the page.
"Good Morning World!!" She wrote with a smile on her face.
"It's me again, Zephyr van Doren. Today, I wondered for like.. The 8543rd time on why Brother and Nex aren't together, but then Ms. Minerva appeared in my mind! My heart can't choose who to support.. It might just be best for him to pick both.. Somehow!"
"Anyways. I forgot to write notes for Deleena since she was absent yesterday.. She's gonna berate me." Her happy face turned to a worried face in an instant, her well-being is in danger and she knows it.
"Since that's the case, she most likely won't invite me to lunch as my punishment.. Not like I join them for lunch anyways!" Her worried face turned to a mischievous face this time.
"Now that I think of it, it's been a while since I joined the Academy." Her face turned to a blank expression, you really can't tell what she feels based on her looks here. "I gained a lot of friends immediately.. This was the first time this happened, and I feel overwhelmed because of it!" She wrote slowly.
"I don't hate them but.. I just want to be with my brother more. And I wonder why he doesn't try to make friends." The sunlight that aimed at Zephyr's positive face, eventually faded away as she frowned. "I'm happy that Ms. Minerva and Mr. Percival are approaching him though, before we joined the Academy, it was always me and Nex who he spent time with."
After pausing for a moment, she took a deep breath through her mouth, exhaling it through her nose silently.
"Anyways, I should wake up Brother and Nex already. We still have a long day ahead of us! They're probably going to do training in Stadium #2, whereas I have to do training in Stadium #6, and lastly, training with Ms. Minerva in Stadium #2 after classes." She knitted her eyebrows. "Training, training, training! Nothing but training! But I'd say it's all worth it!" Her eyebrows eased up in an instant as she stood up.
She returned the quill to the ink pot, she closed the journal, locking it as she hid it in the desk drawer. Although it's in an obvious spot, it's clear that she values this book. Not a single inch of it looks worn out, heck, it even looks brand new!
She walked towards the sleeping Sanguinex, who was still lightly snoring, her left arm, hanging off the bed.
Zephyr cleared her throat and leaned closer to her ear. "Sanguine~ Wake up~" She whispered, trying her best imitating Sévir's voice.
Sanguinex's eyes opened all of a sudden, sitting up almost immediately. Sévir!? She looked around, only to see Sévir asleep to her right, she looked to her left and saw Zephyr with a mischievous grin.
"Oh, it's you." Sanguinex frowned.
"Yeah, it's me–your best friend!" Zephyr stood up with her arms crossed.
"I don't have a best friend who imitates the voice of my crush to wake me up." She pulled the sheets away from her as she tried standing up.
She winced as she stood up. "Damn, my legs hurt. Did Sévir rough me up last night or something?"
"In your dreams! Brother wouldn't do something so indecent–let alone when you're asleep!" She huffed.
Sanguinex rubbed her eyes as she walked towards the closet. "Can you tie my hair later?" She searched for her uniform in the closet.
"You do it yourself."
"Hey.. I can't tidy up properly if I'm so.." She yawned. "..Sleepy."
Zephyr sighed. "Okay, okay."
As Sanguinex found her uniform, she slowly took off her top.
"..Hey, it wouldn't hurt to undress faster!" She nudged her elbow. "I swear, you polymorphs are something else!"
"..It's what you call evolution.. We're a whole different breed of sleepy when we wake up."
...
She scratched the back of her head as she entered the classroom. I swear, getting Sanguinex to prepare is the most stressful thing I can experience in the morning!
When she reached her seat, she saw a girl glaring at her, a girl whose hot pink hair is tied in a loop ponytail.
Uh oh.. Zephyr slowly sat down in her seat, she can still feel the glare of the girl piercing through her.
"Hey." Zephyr jumped. She slowly turned to the girl.
"Y- Yes...?" Zephyr's voice was shaking, her face terrified as if she's seeing death right in front of her.
"You have a lot of explaining to do. Sissy!" The girl said with a gruelling voice. You can tell this girl is furious, maybe even beyond!
Zephyr shrieked and let out an "EEK!"
Before Deleena could grab her, Zephyr stood up. "HEY!" Deleena shouted, standing up.
"I'M SORRYYY!!!" Zephyr ran around the classroom as Deleena chased her around.
Another girl, who seemed to be one of their seatmates, raised her hand. "Alright, alright, that's enough now." She said, the two suddenly stopped running and looked at the girl. One, Zephyr, looking at her with appreciation and relief, the other, looking at her annoyingly. They eventually cooled and sat down.
"Here, take my notes instead." The girl passed her journal onto Deleena's table. "Why were you absent anyway?"
"You already know it, Adina. I wasn't feeling well." She opened the journal, immediately flipping through all the pages until she found the notes for yesterday.
"Found it." She closed the journal. "You." She looked at Zephyr. "Make up for your failure by eating lunch with us."
"Sure, I wi-" She stopped, she looked at Deleena with a surprised face.
Deleena raised an eyebrow "The hell happened to you?"
"Oh.. Nothing. You usually wouldn't invite me to lunch when you're angry at me."
"Well, that's true." She rested her chin on her hand as she slouched forward.
It's been two minutes, the chattering students have done nothing but take a quick glance at the door every now and then in confusion.
"What's taking Ms. Phoebe so long to arrive?" asked Adina.
Deleena shrugged. "Don't know, maybe she overslept. That witch could be quite irresponsible with her sleep schedule at times."
"Hey now, you shouldn't call Ms. Phoebe a hag!" said Zephyr.
Deleena rolled her eyes, waving her hand around. "Save your scolding for when you beat me in the tournament, Ms. Angel."
Zephyr couldn't say anything back, so she just sat like normal and waited for Ms. Phoebe to arrive.
The door suddenly opened, and a woman gasping for air entered, her hands, completely full. "S- Sorry guys, I overslept!"
Adina, Deleena and Zephyr all looked at each other, Deleena had a smug smile on her face screaming 'I was right!'.
Zephyr stood up and walked towards Ms. Phoebe. "Ms. Phoebe, let me help you." She said as she reached out to what she's holding.
"Thanks. Put them on the table." Zephyr nodded and took all of them. W- What the.. These are so heavy! Zephyr struggled to keep them in her hands, which tried naturally going down because of the weight. Seemingly by instinct, she slightly leaned back and walked faster, eventually dropping them to the table successfully.
"You looked like you were struggling there, were they heavy?" asked Deleena.
Zephyr nodded. "Yeah. I wasn't able to see what was inside." She stretched her hands, still feeling uncomfortable from what she carried.
Ms. Phoebe clapped her hands a few times as loud as she can. Little by little, the chatter of students from the front to the back row went away.
"Thank you. Your other morning teachers are coincidentally absent today, so I'm taking over all of them for today." She pointed at the bags Zephyr carried earlier. "The main thing we're studying for today will be Gemology, so I brought as many gems as I can."
She opened the bag and displayed it to everyone, everyone was in awe.
Zephyr raised her hand. "Uh, Ms Phoebe.. How did you get this many gems?"
Ms. Phoebe walked back to her desk, flashing a confident smile in front of everyone. "I'm a History teacher in my work time, and I'm a Gemologist in my free time.
Ever since I was young, I set out to collect as many gems as I can as a hobby, that's how I have so much!" She put the bags under her desk.
"Enough of that. We'll get to Gemology class later.
So before we get to History class, may everyone raise their hands?"
The class raised their hands immediately, although confused as to why they had to. "Good. Okay. Now, those who are joining the tournament in two days, put your hands down."
Everyone put their hands down, as she counted, not a single student in the classroom had their hands raised. Ms Phoebe flashed a big, happy smile. "That's more like it! I expect a lot from you guys! As your advisor!"
Ms. Phoebe was obviously in a good mood, and so it stayed that way until Gemology class.
...
She flipped one bag over, the gemstones in the bag eventually found itself in her desk, all filled with a variety of colors and shapes, the students stared in awe. "Today, we'll be studying these gems, specifically, their mana count and how we can tell its mana count."
She ascended the stairs in the middle of the classroom, displaying a pink gem she's holding. "Can anybody tell me what gem this is?" The pink gem was small, and had 8 sharp ends like an Octagon.
The class sat in silence, Ms. Phoebe let out a silent sigh. "Looks like you guys don't know the gem, that's understandable." Just as soon as she ascended the stairs, she descended the stairs and turned to everyone again. "This is Kerasite."
"Kerasite is a gemstone you can find usually in rivers, they're commonly found in the Stepanburg River and the Zettican River.
Now, can anybody guess the mana count of a Kerasite in the Hepha Scale?"
Zephyr raised her hand, Ms. Phoebe nodded at her. "Uhm.. I'm guessing around 15,000."
Ms. Phoebe nodded. "A Kerasite holds only 2,000 mana, that's only good for two continuous basic spells. As we all know, an average human holds 30,000 mana, that's good for thirty continuous basic spells."
"So our main topic was how to tell a gemstone's mana count, right?" The class nodded.
She closed her fist, and all they could hear was a crackle. She opened her fist and showed a Kerasite, left in pieces. "If you can break it easily like this, then it only has 5,000 mana or less."
"So just as you saw, you can tell the mana count of a gemstone by its durability, we know one gemstone, a very rare one too, that is deemed unbreakable, and since it's deemed unbreakable, we're guessing it scores around 3,000,000 mana. Does anybody know what that is?"
Oh, it's Nex's heart. Zephyr raised her hand, which Ms. Phoebe nodded.
"The 'Heart of the Blood Moon'." She sat down as soon as she said her answer, her answer could be heard across the classroom, there was no chance anybody misheard it.
Ms. Phoebe nodded once more and smiled. "That's right. It's the Heart of the Blood Moon. It is famous for being the center of the Sword of the Blood Moon, which is currently wielded by Bernard Trysta and his son, Emperor Faris Trysta."
Zephyr couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. What is she saying? Nex is wielded by Brother.. Is there a replica??? She looked down and frowned. How cheap. Is that replica a polymorph like her!? Her thoughts exclaimed in annoyance.
And so the class went on and on until the bell finally rang, signaling lunch time.
...
From a distance, Deleena waved at Zephyr. Zephyr took notice and walked to her, she was sitting on a bench with her lunch in front of her, Adina sat beside with her own lunch.
"Those look delicious." She put down her tray. In her tray came one plate with three pieces of bread and a glass of water.
"I noticed." Deleena eyed Zephyr's meal. "You only buy bread and a glass of water."
"I feel full just eating three pieces of bread. They're medium sized anyway." She grabbed a piece of bread and bit the tip. I'm also quite used to eating this type of food, especially when we weren't in the Academy yet.
"Say.." Adina snuck in the conversation. "Why do you never eat with us? When we try finding you, you're just gone."
Zephyr scratched the back of her head, chuckling nervously. "Well.."
Adina leaned more forward. "Could it be.." Deleena followed suit and leaned forward. "You have a.."
Deleena and Adina looked at each other and giggled. "DO YOU HAVE A LOVER!?" They suddenly shouted, everyone looked at them, confused.
Zephyr's cheeks suddenly burned out of embarrassment, she leaned forward too. "Guys! Don't be so loud!" She whispered, completely flustered.
"Ohh? Why are you flustered??" Deleena asked, her tone is nothing less of a teasing one.
Zephyr slapped her forehead in slight frustration. "It's because you said something so audacious out loud!" And if Brother was here, he would literally kill to just know who that is! It's not like I have one anyway! Her thoughts nervously exclaimed. She can already imagine Sévir with a terrifying glare, holding his dagger, asking; 'Who is it?' in a terrifying tone.
"I don't have one! I swear to Aegir, Marella, Zephyrus and Nasima!" She clasped her hands together as she swore.
"Ooh? Swearing to your gods, the highest form of oath?" Adina asked while picking on her food.
"You better make sure that's true, Zephyr~" Deleena let out a sly laugh, Zephyr can already tell what will happen if what she said wasn't true just by looking in her eyes.
Zephyr cleared her throat. "So.. How's your training going?"
The two girls can very much tell that she's just trying to switch the topic so she won't be interrogated, they looked at each other once more and shrugged.
"It's going well, I've a feeling I can beat you with just one spell." Said Deleena.
Zephyr turned her eyes to Adina, which she took notice of. "Mine's also going well. I've been preparing for this moment to beat Deleena!" She looked at Deleena with eyes that held ulterior motives.
"Psshh, in your dreams, you 'lil squirt!" She scoffed.
"Who the hell are you calling a 'lil squirt!?" Adina asked with annoyance in her tone, her face, showing displeasure that doesn't take a genius to figure out.
Welp, they're getting at it again. While the atmosphere was still getting more and more tense, she stood up with her tray, hurriedly walking away from the powder kegs called Deleena and Adina.
...
The stadium was getting dark, the sky was golden in color, so were their surroundings. From the arena's view, the sun was no longer visible, it will only be some time until it fully hid for the night's arrival.
Minerva and Zephyr walked side by side to the middle of the arena. Zephyr held her hands together tightly. She nibbled on her own lip.
As they reached the middle, Minerva faced her with a smile. "Are you ready, student?" Minerva asked. She stood firm, her left hand resting on the hilt of her cutlass. Something was different today.
They turned around and walked on opposite ends, when they turned around one last time to face each other, although far, they stared at each other.
Zephyr clenched her fists. This is our final spar before the tournament. I'm not letting you down, Ms. Minerva! Her thoughts said with absolute certainty.
I spent a month training you. Show me that it wasn't all for naught! Her thoughts said with a different tone from the usual Minerva. Minerva drew her cutlass out of her sheath, this one was much faster than the usual.
As stated by Zephyr, this is their final spar before the tournament, the atmosphere felt different, both of them could feel that.
Their stares filled with nothing less than determination.
Zephyr's heart was racing. "ON YOUR GO!" Minerva shouted across the arena, which Zephyr didn't fail to hear.
She extended her right arm, her hand remaining closed. She shut her eyes and inhaled deeply. She opened her eyes again, her eyes were nothing more than hostile ones, the first we've ever seen from this girl. Let's not waste anymore time.
Minerva stood there waiting for her attack, her cutlass ready to block anytime.
"BEKUPARWA!" Spikes of ice formed in an instant and wasted no time, rushing towards Minerva, faster than usual when Zephyr followed it up with "ROJTDAFÆ!".
Minerva smirked as she dodged and blocked the speeding spikes of ice with her cutlass. She's gotten faster, alright! While quite literally avoiding death countless amounts of times, she's still able to feel joyed as she realizes Zephyr has gotten faster.
The spikes of ice seem endless. Zephyr shows no sign of stopping anytime soon, while Minerva is equally keen to evade them without pause. It won't be any fun if Zephyr pins me like this for the whole match..
Within those gaps between here and the spikes of ice, water crept up from the ground instantly and rushed to form a sphere of water. The water surrounded Minerva, the spikes of ice cracked and shattered as it made contact with the sphere of water.
Sanguinex stood up in confusion, she squinted her eyes and rubbed it to confirm she's not imagining things. "How are they not going through the water!?" She exclaimed, terribly confused.
"Calm down. She's using enchanted water." Sévir said calmly.
She turned to look at Sévir. "Enchanted water? I've never heard of that before!" She's still confused.
"It's a type of water heavily enchanted with magic, when the magic force starts picking up water from nearby sources, no matter how little it could be, it enchants it where it could multiply in volume and be impenetrable." He kept his eyes on the sphere of water, which showed no signs of breaking.
She sat down. "..I still don't get it."
He shrugged. "I don't either. That's what I only know about it."
Zephyr stepped back once, she put her arm down, ending the continuous wave of spikes of ice.
She made the ice much weaker so it would spend less mana when she made a non-stop wave. She flashed a proud smile, which can be seen by Zephyr and the others as the sphere of water went away.
Minerva wasted no time and pointed her cutlass at Zephyr, whose figure was small because of the distance.
Zephyr looked back and placed her hand behind her. "UDO SCIANA!" As she clenched her fist, water formed and erected a wall behind her in an instant, shattering the spike of ice from the ground headed towards her. She did it as if it were instinct already.
Minerva flourished her sword around as she waited for Zephyr to make a move, slowly walking around.
I've done that move against her a lot of times, it seems like her body expects me to do that move the moment I point my cutlass at her. She held her cutlass still, she did the same and stood still, not moving an inch as she eyed Zephyr and her surroundings.
Ms. Minerva may not appear intimidating at first glance, but the more I contemplate her in battle.. There's just something about her that sends shivers down my spine! With every passing second, her body grew colder, her hands trembling ever so slightly.
She looks nervous.. Minerva took a step forward, walking towards Zephyr with full confidence, as if she knew nothing would come her way.
Zephyr slowly stepped back, one by one, inch by inch.
"You look off today, student!" Minerva shouted, which reached Zephyr enough. "I think you need help snapping out of it! Let me help!" She crouched and aimed her cutlass on the ground, a puddle of water formed beneath her and as she pulled it upwards, it formed a pillar of ice, giving her the boost to jump and go fast enough.
Zephyr took one step back yet again, her eyes widened as she saw Minerva flying right towards her.
She shrieked for a moment, forming an X in front of her with her arms as she flinched and looked away. "UDO SCIANA!" A wall of ice that was the same length and width as her shielded her, she took three steps back as she tried regaining her composure.
As Minerva landed, she completely shattered the wall of ice, landing on one foot and one knee, she quickly stood up.
"Bekumiecz!" Zephyr wasted no time, water rose up and took the form of a sword, it froze in an instant. Zephyr grabbed her ice sword and pointed it at Minerva. I don't know why I chose to make a sword.. But I can't back down now!
Minerva raised an eyebrow. "Oh? You're challenging me to a swordfight?" She asked with a curious and playful tone in her voice. "Well then.. You better satisfy me!" She rushed towards Zephyr with insane speed, she attacked with precision whereas Zephyr could barely keep up with blocking.
Minerva's years of training with swords, clearly, purely evident with how she switches sword styles so effortlessly. She found so many openings, but didn't strike.
Zephyr struggled to hold her ground as Minerva got even more and more precise in her attacks, but her heart refused to back down. COME ON, FOCUS! She told herself. The face filled with anxiousness was now gone, replaced by a stern face, one that showed no signs of giving up after going this far.
A smile formed at Minerva's lips, proud and impressed by Zephyr's resilience. "You're resilient for someone that never fought with swords!"
Heh! Well, a certain teacher taught me what being resilient is all about! As Zephyr cooled her head, her blocks became even more effective and precise.
"It seems like your resolve is getting stronger!" She said as she backed off, keeping some distance between them. "But resolve alone never won the war!" She leapt forward with yet another strike which Zephyr blocked.
The spar reached its climax, both absorbed in striking and blocking, Minerva's movements became absolute, this is a point of no turning back.
A slight smile tugged in Minerva's lips yet again. This is the first time I've had fun in a swordfight in a long time..
Both were getting exhausted, but it's clear that Zephyr was the one bearing more of the hurt, Minerva knew this all too well.
With a swift and calculated strike, the final strike, Minerva disarmed Zephyr, her ice sword clattering to the ground. Minerva pointed her cutlass at Zephyr's neck. Well done, Zephyr.
Zephyr stood there stunned, she looked at Minerva with exhaustion and admiration in her eyes.
"I win." Minerva said, slightly panting. She's also exhausted. But even so, her tone did not fail to express a blend of pride and approval. "You did well, student." She sheathed her cutlass, tossing her hair to the back with her free hand.
"Thank you, Ms. Minerva." Although defeated, it's as if a heavy load has been lifted off her chest, Zephyr couldn't help but smile.
Minerva turned around, but before she could walk away.. "There is nothing left for me to teach you. I'll see you around." As she took a step forward, she stopped. "Oh, but this doesn't mean I won't stop teaching you, I'll get back to teaching you after the tournament." She took a step forward again, and walked away.
From the auditorium, Sévir sat there with his arms crossed, his smile showed nothing more than pride and approval. "It's nice having a sibling you can be proud of." He said with a gentle tone.
Sanguinex nodded.
"Yeah, it's also nice having a best friend you can be proud of!" She nodded, her face expressing pride and approval too.
It didn't matter if she lost, because she'd obviously lose! What really mattered was what she learned from training under the famed Second Undefeated; Minerva Grosvenor.
...
Zephyr sat there with her journal in front of her, as she thought of words to write, she wore a smile.
"Today, I fought Ms. Minerva with all I've got, and she was happy because of it!"
"She told me there is nothing left for her to teach me, but only for the tournament, she said she'll continue teaching me even after the tournament. And it makes me really happy!
Brother and Sanguinex were watching too, when they came down, they looked really happy! That also made me happy." She beamed with joy as she wrote, her excitement evident by her fidgety movements.
"During the spar.. I felt something.. Unlock inside of me. It's like something that's been inside me for a long time but was always left dormant.
I think I might know what it is, but I'm not entirely sure about it." She looked down at the page, which was the final page in her journal. She noticed that there was limited blank space left, but even so, she continued writing.
"It's time to figure out what was unlocked inside me, while I'm at it, I will travel through uncharted territories, could be out there in the big, wide world, or just here in the academy, and as long as I have those who I know and love by my side, I know I won't fail.
May this mark as a new beginning for me. A new beginning for the new life of me–Zephyr van Doren.
Goodbye, Zephyr van Doren of the past." She closed her journal and hid it in her usual drawer spot. Before she stood up, she blew the candle, the light illuminating the face of Zephyr van Doren, was now gone.