"Ethan. Your magic is heavily dependent on your emotional state, so you must be vigilant to never let your emotions elevate."
My father always told me that I couldn't lose control, and taught me to calm myself down whenever that happened.
I loved my father.
He was always smiling, and always took care of us. He was... A great man.
It was a quiet night when my life changed forever.
I woke up to sounds of screaming from within the village. I bolted up from my bed, and sprinted out the door. Once outside, I saw my father fighting off four men in leather armor and fur hats.
"Dad!"
"ETHAN NO! YOU GET BACK!PROTECT YOUR MOTHER AND SISTER!"
I stopped in place, gritting my teeth and clenching my fists. Tears streamed down my face, but I followed my father's orders. I ran back to the house and grabbed my spear. I locked the door behind me, and stood outside guarding the entrance. From where I was I could still see my father fighting...
And losing.
He fought for as long as he could, but eventually he fell to his knees. A raider raised their sword, trying to decapitate him, but before their sword could sever his head from their neck they were blasted away.
A blast of lighting had sent him flying away, and I had fired the spell. I walked forward with tears streaming down my eyes, but anger coursed through my veins. I marched forward and sent all the raiders flying with simple Magic Missiles imbued with lightning. I stepped in front of my father, and reassured him.
"I will protect you dad."
I turned to give him a look of reassurance, but a Flame Arrow spell flew past me, my father was then hit by a burst of flames. In pure shock, I slowly fell to my knees and held my father in my hands. Shaking, I tried calling out to my father.
"D-dad? Dad, tell me you're okay, tell me you're alright."
However there was no response.
Tears streamed down my face, while footsteps approached me, I turned to see a large man approaching me. He had a Flame Arrow readily floating next to him, but he only walked up while laughing.
"You know, Lightning is so powerful, but it comes at the cost of being hard to control."
I tried to blast him away, but my magic fizzled out. No matter how I tried, the magic wouldn't listen to me. Feeling abandoned by my magic, I gave up.
"See what I mean? Ahahaha! You only knew how to cast with anger, but the moment you were overwhelmed with sorrow you lost all control... Let this be a lesson to you."
The man walked past me, and began walking towards my house.
"You stay away from my house!"
I tried getting up to attack him, but I was savagely hit in the back of the head. Collapsing, I fell limp to the ground unable to move, and the last thing I saw was that man breaking down the front door of my house.
My vision went completely dark.
When I woke up, I was being carried by a man in armor, and I could see my sister being carried beside me by another man.
"W-What happened?"
The man carrying me looked down at me with a somber expression. He looked at the other man carrying my sister, and then looked back at me.
"Sorry kid... Your mother she... She died shielding your sister. We arrived shortly after... I'm sorry."
My heart was shattered. I looked emptily at my sleeping sister, and saw that she even had blood on her. She must have fainted from the shock.
'I... Failed at protecting my family... I couldn't do anything.'
I let myself just go limp as I cried in the arms of the knight.
That was the last time I would let myself feel so helpless.
****
Entering the Academy of Stars was easy. Over the past five years I had been training my fingers to the bone to improve my spear skills, and learned to fully control my emotions. During the first month I had easily solidified my position as the top student, and for the most part I had gained everyone's respect. Even the respect of the nobles.
After that I heard of a new student coming, and heard rumors that he was an absolute degenerate. I didn't have any expectations, but I was surprised when I first met him. I ran into him on a Sunday, at the training center, during my regular training.
I had been training my body for years, but from the rumors he had never trained himself.
Yet he ran past his limits. He barely managed to run two miles, but what impressed me was how he forced himself to keep going. For the last mile he dragged his body along. I respected the almost masochistic pursuit of better oneself.
However I considered the possibility that it was an act of desperation. I heard that he was on the verge of being disowned. That could be why he was pushing himself to this limit, but most people would give up after a short while.
However then I saw him the next day.
He got into a stint with Alan Brando, but the teacher stopped that. However on the way to lunch, I saw Alan beating him in an archway. I could have helped, and I felt slightly guilty that I didn't, but I decided not to get involved. It seemed like an issue between nobles.
However I hid nearby and watched the situation to make sure it didn't get too out of hand. Gideon was... Incredibly weak. After Alan left I thought that it was over, however then I heard Gideon talking to himself.
"Looks like I'll have to handle this issue myself."
I was surprised to hear that from someone who was just overwhelmingly beat up. Believing it was just something he told himself to feel better about himself. I left to the cafeteria and had my lunch. Another run in with Alan in the cafeteria though.
I don't know why I was watching Gideon Alabaster, but I had a feeling that he was holding himself back. He felt... Dangerous.
After lunch he showed the same diligence as yesterday with his physical exercise. He really pushed himself to the limits again. It also seemed like Redzigan had an interest in helping him grow, as she advised him on weapon choice along with having him strictly focus on his stamina.
However I never once heard him complain. Instead he just did it, and accepted that others might know better than him.
The end of the day came, and as I was leaving I happened to see Alan walking up to Gideon. It was definitely to try and lure him to somewhere private, but I finally saw why he felt dangerous.
He released some sort of gas out of his mouth, and Alan collapsed to the ground. I knew Redzigan must have seen it, but she didn't do anything, so I knew it wasn't a dangerous situation. However Gideon showed the ruthless side of him. He caught Alan off guard with his magic, and even stomped on his face when he was unconscious.
I decided to watch out for him from now on.
Then the days began to pass by quietly. He continued to diligently train, and I never saw him slack off. He also turned out to be really smart as well. His grades quickly rose to the top, and the only thing holding him back was his combat abilities.
However even that he was trying to improve. I saw him spend all afternoon in the training center in a private room. He was most likely sparring with the training dummies.
That was until Friday.
He usually headed strait to the training center after school ended, but today I saw him heading towards the dorms. I was curious as to where he was going, but I didn't dig any deeper into it.
I finished my normal workout before going back to the dorm. Along the way I happened to see Gideon returning from the city. He had a book with him, and I felt it was a coincidence as I had an appointment tomorrow with my sister.
I left the dorm the next day and headed to the market district. Once I arrived I looked around before quickly noticing a large storefront with a giant tree design around the door. I walked inside and saw a young teenage girl in the back of the store.
"Meredith."
She looked up from the book she was looking at, and stared at me with listless eyes.
"Hello Brother."
I didn't express it outwardly, but it hurt quite a bit to see that things still hadn't improved between us. However the rift between us couldn't be mended so easily.
I didn't blame her though. It was due to my inability to control myself that led to us losing both of our parents the night of the raid.
"Did you find any spells you liked?"
"Yes. There is this Icicle Barrage spell. Can you give me 75 gold?"
I took a glance at the price tag on the tome.
"75? But it costs 100."
"Oh, a man gave me 25 gold. He just told me that I could take his book in exchange for a basic tome."
I furrowed my brow at that.
'Someone is giving out 25 gold for people to take his book? That's suspicious.'
I took out a small bag. Opening it, I reached in and pulled out three medium sized coins. These were each worth 25 gold, but I handed them over without a second thought to my sister.
It might seem like a cheap attempt, but if buying my sister's love was the only option, I would still do it. She didn't react though, simply taking the coins and walking to the counter to pay. I followed behind her, but then I took a moment to look through their selection of lightning spells.
During that time my sister went outside to get some fresh air, before she suddenly came back inside in a hurry.
"Is something wrong?"
I asked, noticing the urgency in her face. She surprisingly walked up to me, and grabbed my collar suddenly.
"Do you know a guy with long pitch black hair and green eyes?!"
I was taken by surprise, and I even forgot to ask why she was asking, so I simply replied.
"Uh, the only person I can think of is Gideon Alabaster but-"
"Introduce me."
'What is going on here???'
****
"Ethan who would you like as your partner?"
"Gideon."
I looked over at Ethan Richardson with a look of shock on my face.
'What does he possibly want from me?'
I was rated as one of the worst students in terms of practical skills. I had accepted this because I was just starting to grow, but I was confused why during the first semester midterm the top student had asked for me specifically.
That day after class ended Ethan approached me while I was still practicing magic after being eliminated from today's survival class.
I released a puff of smoke from my mask, before looking up at him.
"Did you need something from me?"
In his typical short and simple way of speaking, he nodded and said to me.
"I wanted you to have a spar with me, so I can better understand your abilities, and we can improve our teamwork."
While it was surprising to have the top student approach me for a spar, I shook my head to decline.
The reason? I didn't want to get heavily injured for no reason. My skills would all apply poison to my opponents, and I didn't want to kill my current teammate before the test.
"I can just explain my skills to you. I use poison."
However his response took me by surprise.
"I know."
I looked up at him in shock, and seeming to understand my reaction he replied simply.
"I saw you knock out Alan last week."
'Ahh, he saw that. His observation skills are surprisingly good. He's perceptive to say the least.'
I nodded in understanding, but I still didn't want to spar.
"Since you know, that is all the more reason to avoid a spar. I'm not very strong, fast, or good at magic... But I can provide a lot of control and disruption. Let's go to a private training room and I can demonstrate."
We then walked towards a training room. The midterm test that was coming up would be a subjugation/combat scenario. Teams of two would be sent out into the wilderness, and be given points depending on the number of monsters we slayed. This would be relatively easy in concept, however the twist was that you could fight other students and steal their points.
Each time a team was defeated, they would have half their points taken away but then given a grace period were they couldn't be fought for another half hour. The test pitted students against each other, and while I was sure no one could beat Ethan, I didn't want to be a burden.
Thankfully, I had been diligently practicing for the past couple days, and my magic control had significantly improved. I found that it was a lot easier when I imagined spells in ways I could understand using a mix of magic and scientific knowledge.
So after we walked into the room I showcased my new spells. I started with Poison Fog. Instantly a cloud of fog spread five feet around me. While a ten foot wide cloud of fog might not seem like much, it was scary when you had to fight in it. There was no visibility within, and while inside you couldn't even see your hands if they were fully stretched out before you.
This, mixed with my poison, made it a ten foot wide space you couldn't step in at all.
After that I coated my daggers with poison. My poison had just started to reach lethal strength, so the poison was weak but it could kill. I gave Ethan a small cut with the dagger, and after a few moments he began to sway slightly.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, I put my hand on his shoulder and began redirecting the poison out of his body.
A spell called Expel Poison that I learned, knowing that I would have to work with others in the future so until I learned how to protect my teammates, I had to use this.
I then used Poison Bolt to hit an immobile training dummy, before showcasing my favorite spell.
I flicked my finger, and the dummy shot out a small localized cloud of poison. While you would think it's not very impressive, I immediately created a poison bolt with the poison and shot it into the dummy again.
At this, Ethan finally showed signs of surprise.
"How did you do that?"
I smiled lightly.
"I create a thread of mana, connect it to the first poison bolt, and when it pops into smoke I use the thread of mana to allow me to cast a long distance spell. Even though I don't have enough mana control to reach that far, I am able to imitate it."
Feeling like I had managed to surprise Ethan, I instead got a different response.
Respect.
"You're incredibly smart. This was truly impressive."
It was weird. I had finally received some recognition for my hard work, but I almost couldn't believe it.
"Uh... Thanks... In the upcoming test, I can coat your weapon with poison, and use my poison bolt from a distance, but we have to get one thing cleared up..."
I looked Ethan in the eye.
"I want you to trust me. If I tell you to run through my poison... Trust that I would never poison you."
Looking back at me, he extended his hand.
I shook it.
"I'm glad I picked you as my teammate... Also... What did you say to my sister on Saturday?"
'What the hell is he talking about?'
****
"So your sister is that girl with the cold expression, and the same colored hair as you? I remembered that she was oddly callous, which if she is your sister that makes more sense."
I did remember meeting a girl who had bought an Intermediate level Ice spell tome who had a very cold demeanor. She had the same celebrity level of looks as Ethan, that it was now making a lot more sense.
"Yes... But she wasn't always like that. Anyways, you said you didn't say anything to her other than asking for the book she got from that weirdo, but why the book?"
We were both sitting on a bench resting. Ethan was always training after class ended, for even longer than me, so we were both at the training center as usual.
"I can't explain it in too much detail... But it was for her own good. The book had a malicious spell on it, but they were taken care of so your sister is safe."
Nodding, Ethan stood up and stretched.
"Thank you for that Gideon... My sister means the world to me."
"Is that why you asked to be my teammate?"
However Ethan shook his head.
"No, I actually only asked you to be my teammate because my sister wants to meet you sometime. I figured I would use this as a premise to meet outside of school this weekend."
"..."
Without explaining, he just started to jog away, leaving me completely perplexed.
'That's it? I almost began to believe that people were seeing my hard work and taking an interest in me...'
Feeling dejected, I took out a spell tome I hadn't yet read, and began to study. The midterm was next weekend, but I was not confident that I could learn this spell by that time, I had to try to prepare myself as much as I could either way.
So for the next week and a half, Ethan and I trained in preparation for the midterms. Finally the day of the exam came, and we stepped off a boat onto the shores of an unfamiliar island.
"You ready, Gideon?"
"No."