Lucilla Scissura (Lu-see-la Ski-sir-ah)
The young woman's eyes constantly darted around nervously as she stood waiting within the training grounds. It was so loud. Swords clashing, arrows flying to and fro, cries of defeat and cries of victory. The sun no longer illuminated the area this late at night, the grounds now being illuminated by a mystical, azure glow emanating from the pre-casted torches that were aligned along the perimeter of the entire school. It was all immensely overwhelming to the student, and her nerves just heightened it. Quickly, her gaze shifted back to her dress shoes, which were bashfully kicking around the stone pebbles that lined the ground. Prior to this morning, Lucilla had no idea that her second orientation had a designated outfit assigned. Although the pair of black robes looked nice with the beige corduroys. Whoever designed this outfit certainly deserved their props. All the noise around her grew silent, her vision growing unfocused. Amidst the angst, she had zoned out completely.
"Hello? Are you even conscious?" A female voice suddenly spoke out, along with a hand waving in front of Lucilla's view of the training ground's solid floor.
"Wuh- AH!" Jumping out of fright, her front leg got caught on her back, causing Lucilla to teeter over. The sky was becoming ever more visible as she fell backwards. Luckily for her Celeste was fast. Only mere moments before Lucilla hit the ground, she was stopped, her senior's grip holding her robe with such tight ferocity. With a sharp yank, she pulled Lucilla back to her feet, almost causing her to now fall FORWARD.
"T-thank you so much!"
"Well, I can't have my Probation Student cracking their head open when we haven't even started our mission yet, right?"
Probation student…? Wait…
Lucilla did a double take, both from shock and excitement. That meant that the lady in front of her was her Guider! Not only was she a Guider, she was THE Celeste Mallory!Zadkeil's School of Sorcery's most infamous student! The highest scorer on the midterm exam AND the final exam for 3 consecutive years! The one honored with the nickname of the "Strongest Probie!" She couldn't believe it! Such a celebrity was her Guider! This was like a dream! Her face flushed pink with such an intense excitement it felt like she could pass out at any given moment and not mind in the slightest. Celeste was as beautiful as the stories foretold. Her heterochromatic gaze sharp enough to pierce through steel, her beautiful, gold hair appearing as though someone took strands of the sunset sky and placed it upon her scalp.
"Er…you're doing that thing again." Celeste snapped her fingers a few times in front of Lucilla's face, attempting to root her consciousness back in the real world instead of lalaland. "Okay, you're back. Just- try your best to pay attention. I'm sure you wanna be here just as much as I do."
"Actually, I don't really-"
"Hello, and welcome, Prohibition Student! As you may know, every student within Zadkiel's School of Sorcery must take part in a Trial of Worth, after a year of education, at the ripe age of 18!" Celeste rudely interrupted her Probie, seemingly having no interest in what she was going to say. With each monotonous word spoken, it appeared in front of Celeste in the form of a magical blue glow. A simple subtitle rune, even though she knew how to perform one of those. All you need to do is write one on a script, and bam, it's complete. Previously, Lucilla had been so consumed by Celeste's divine beauty, she had failed to notice that her Guider was indeed reading right from a script. As a matter of fact, she wasn't even trying to hide it. The slow and drawn out way she spoke sounded as though she herself hadn't read what was on the script until now.
"These trials can range from anything to finding a secret relic, to an overseas mission, all depending on how well you did on the Midterm and Final examination…" Celeste paused, her eyes darting down to a lower part of the paper. "Which you did…pretty damn awful on, no offense."
Lucilla shyly pulled her entranced gaze away at the sudden reality check, not feeling honorable enough to look at Celeste. It was true. Her grades were awful. On practical exams, she had always managed to end up with the lowest grade in class without fail. This criticism had already been dished out to her by her peers, but Celeste? It brought a different level of shame upon her conscience.
"Lucilla Scissura, you are a member of Trial Group Two-Pronged Serpentine, the current highest standing Trial Group."
…?
What?
A look of confusion crossed Lucilla's face. How could that possibly be? The Guider was just talking about how awful she performed on every important examination, yet she was seeded within the highest standing Trial Group?
"Are you sure that's right? I don't see how that's even possible?" Lucilla quickly asked, wanting to spare herself from the embarrassment of being placed in the wrong group as quickly as possible. She had already suffered enough embarrassment at the hands of this damned trial and it hadn't even started yet!
"I'm positive it's right." Celeste spoke, throwing the script into one of the mystical torches nearby. The azure flames quickly devoured the paper until it was nothing more than ash. As the last pieces of the paper burned away, sparks shot every which way, causing a magnificent, yet incredibly short lived, lightshow. "It's obvious that whatever our trial is gonna be, we were each chosen for a specific reason. A prodigy turned sour, a flunk, and…"
"And what? Who?" The Probie demanded, wanting to resolve this confusion as quickly as possible.
"And him." Raising her arm, Celeste pointed behind Lucilla.
Spinning around quickly to see where, what or who her mentor was pointing to, it only took a mere second to notice who. A GENEROUS second.
"A Zealot."
The boy that was approaching was slightly taller than she was, but still shorter than the towering Celeste. Each step he took carried an immense confidence behind them, as if there was zero doubt or fear in what came next. His long, white robe swayed with each bold step he took, his sharp, red eyes piercing right into her soul with one look.
"A zealot? Don't insult me." The boy said sourly, running his hair through his jet black hair swiftly, his expression returning back to normal after doing so.
"If only you'd have shown up on time. Your ass is going to make me need to recite the whole damn speech from memory."
"Just save it. I already know why I'm here. I don't need you to repeat it back to me, criminal."
Lucilla's eyes darted back and forth between the two as they butted heads. The spewing of vulgar and rude insults towards one another began garnering attention from the students around them who were training, people beginning to stop and watch. That wasn't good for their reputation at all! Swiftly stepping forward, she raised her arms between the two.
"How about we just relax? You two can do this in private, but now out here, please."
"I'm arguing with a child…what am I doing?" the Guider mumbled to herself. "You know what? Why don't you two go to our team's dorm and get packing for our trip? It's in the southern wing, kinda hard to miss. I have a meeting with the organizers behind our trial. Good? Goodbye."
Before the two could even reply, she was storming away, leaving the two to their own devices.
⧫ ⧫ ⧫
The oak door clicked shut, the locking mechanism automatically turning, sealing out the rest of Hyronil. Celeste flopped against her bed, taking a deep breath. This whole situation was incredibly tiresome. It was beginning to make more and more sense as to why this was a punishment and not a promotion. She was stuck with two dopes, one of which's ego was so inflated he couldn't even see his own feet.
While the quiet stillness of her dormitory was a nice reprieve from those two, the meeting she had to intend was real. Fishing into her pocket, Celeste withdrew a black stone with a crimson insignia sprawled across it. The symbol was the same one that was on the left chest of her inky black coat. A snake with two heads. The symbol felt alive, its molten-red glow surging like flowing lava. The teleportation spell that was inscribed on the rune had to be at least an Entropy Level of 8 or above, preventing it from being replicated by pretty much anyone. How the organizers acquired such a powerful spell was beyond her. Level 8s, as Celeste had nicknamed them, normally required a significant amount of preparation. This meeting had to have been planned out before her punishment was even dealt to her…
"Doesn't matter anyway." Celeste muttered. Spending so much time in deep thought was going to make her late. Who knew what problems that would cause.
Palm clenched tightly shut, her arm raised to the sky. Deep breaths entered and exited her mouth, her chest rising and falling in anticipation. Both fear and excitement laced her mind. The flint within her hand burned, feeling as though it was searing her skin.
"Bring me where you desire!" The young sorceress cried out, her voice heavily weighed down by the pain coursing through her body, mixed with the chant and tone required for the spell to properly activate.
Emerald green sparks ignited from her palm, flying every which way around her room. Whilst they fell, their hues slowly shifted to that of a void-black, completely void of light. Starting from the palm, a shadowy flame engulfed her entire body, crawling down every part of the sorceress' body. The flames consumed and consumed, until there was simply nothing left. Celeste's vision faded into pure darkness.
"You're on time. Good. We prefer when there's no complications." The voice that spoke was that of a man. It was deep, as rough as sandpaper. The voice of someone who's clearly dealt with his own fair share of life.
"Thanks for, er, having me." Celeste replied. Not that she knew where exactly she even WAS.
"Save the formalities." This voice was female. It was sour, with a tinge of venom in it. Clear distaste drenched every word she spoke. "We're here on business. Not as your friends."
Before Celeste could even reply, a third voice spoke. It sounded alien-like, encrypted so deeply by magic it was impossible to tell anything about the person from voice alone.
"Your Trial is not an ordinary one. I assume you know this." The third voice spoke. "You are to travel to Feier. The core of what holds this world together is growing unstable, it hasn't been so since The Before Time. Your job is to retrieve it, and return it here so it can be repaired, before The Grandest Belin's Edicts begin to break apart."
Feier? That island hadn't been touched in centuries. From the fables, it's nothing but rocks and ruins. But now, apparently the core of Hyronil itself lies there?
"We don't care how you get there, just do what you're told." The female voice interjected. "I'm sure the people of the other regions are just as interested as we are. It's imperative you acquire it for the school. It must not fall into anyone else's hands."
"Wh-"
"Oh? Did I say you could speak? No, I didn't. Save your rude interjections for someone else who has time." These words hurt. The woman had dealt a blow to Celeste's ego with her interjection, and ability to shut her up so fast. "What's one region's lifeline is another region's weapon. You are not to tell either of your Prohibition Students about this. No potential information leaks are to be had. Enough information has been compromised already."
An azure light shimmered in front of Celeste. Despite the new source of light, her environment didn't grow any lighter. There was nothing to light up. She was in a void, a vacuum of all foreign magic. The azure light swiftly clumped together, shimmering purple, blue, all sorts of colors. A nebula of The Fuse. Its shape solidified, elongating into what looked to be a closed scroll. Celeste curiously reached an arm forward. The scroll itself beat her to the punch, extending on its own and revealing the contents inside. A contract.
Deceitful tongues beware. No more are your words mere lip service. They are a shackle that binds you until the very stars themself are transfigured into nothing more than dust and blown away.
Celeste Mallory, you are to be bound to the promise that you will not mention your mission's true purpose, beyond arriving at Feier. Should you break this, the contractor will be notified, and you will be punished IMMEDIATELY.
Do you consent?
"And what if I don't?" Celeste inquired. The young sorceress had no intent to deny the contract. The inquiry was more so attributed to her wanting to push the female voice's buttons as much as possible without being punished.
"You will be tried for your crimes as a criminal, not as a student. You will rot the rest of your life in a cell if you are to be found guilty."
It didn't require much convincing beyond that. If she was tried, she WOULD be found guilty, and that was not a punishment she wanted to take. There was still so much more to do, so much more to achieve.
"I consent."
The mystical scroll instantly rolled itself up, seemingly satiated by her reply, promptly poofing into a blue cloud and fully disappearing. Once more was Celeste stranded within the void.
"Time is of the essence, you are to leave immediately." This time the encrypted voice spoke. Without even noticing, the same fire that had whisked Celeste away was now crawling up her legs, hungrily consuming the rest of her body. Without even blinking, Celeste was once more in her dormitory. Sweat pooled from her forehead. Her knees shook with such ferocity, it felt as though she would collapse at any moment. Hungrily. Her teeth gnawed at her rosy lower lip. The encrypted voice had said one final phrase that rung tirelessly through her mind.
"You were each chosen for a reason."