"Strange"
"What do you see?"
Croy and Ben had met the next morning in Gym Number Seven. Ben had already changed back into civilian clothes and told Croy that he would be going home after their weekend meeting.
In fact, most of the students at the Imperial Magic Academy did just that. Many of their families were in the Imperial capital, and the Academy was only a week's stay for them. Of course, there were exceptions, students who came from other cities in the vast Empire, or even from other nations, like Princess Kadutor.
Nevertheless, Ben had been kind enough to comply with Croy's request for his smartwatch.
Ben held out the back of the smartwatch, where small symbols were lined up and notched into the case. As Croy now knew thanks to Ben, these were the four basic symbols of all Runespells.
"The rune actually looks quite normal. Well, as far as you can call this normal. It must have been the work of an absolute master. An automatic barrier that doesn't even need mana from the wearer, but has it already integrated - I could never create something like that! Probably every single one of these smartwatches was handmade by someone personally. Just look at this tiny work surface, how much..."
"Ahem," Croy coughed, interrupting the chattering boy.
Ben blinked briefly and then scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Uh, yeah, sorry. I just have such a fascination for Runespells, you know?"
'And pizza'
"It's okay. What's weird about it?" Croy asked.
Ben sighed.
"Well, I'm not exactly sure, but it looks to me like there are two Spells engraved. One is the barrier, and the other is something like... how do I describe it? Like a remote-controlled finger?"
Croy frowned. Ben frowned too.
"I'm sorry. What I mean is that it almost looks like the rune can be changed from the outside. As if someone could use the second rune to change the barrier rune."
Now Croy didn't understand anything anymore. Of course, he had no idea about Runespells, but he would surely have heard of something so powerful.
"Is that even possible?" he asked incredulously.
Ben looked pensive.
"Well, as I said, a true master must have been at work here."
Croy was silent. If it were really possible to change the rune from a distance, then theoretically someone could have disabled the automatic barrier of his smartwatch.
But that would be a long shot. Still, he would want to be sure - after all, his barrier was the first one not to activate. And maybe the only one.
"Could it have just been a malfunction?"
But Ben tilted his head as if he didn't understand what Croy meant.
"Of course. Even a master makes mistakes."
Croy almost laughed. The boy was so innocent that it didn't even occur to him that someone might have tried to manipulate Croy. Whether for the sake of the competition or for something darker.
But why would Ben even suspect that? He wasn't the one who had met a killer from the army and even provoked him. That was Croy's fault.
Even if he was something of a killer himself.
Finally he smiled and shook his head.
"You don't know who draws the runes on the smartwatch, do you?"
Ben shook his head. Then his eyes lit up.
"Ah, but if you meet him, please tell me! I really want to talk to him."
Croy smiled.
"Me too."
When Croy thanked Ben again, and assured him for the hundredth time that he would keep his promise about the pizza, the nice boy left. Croy was left alone in gym number seven.
It was Saturday morning and there were accordingly as many Students in the gym with him - not a single one.
'Am I that sad?' he wondered.
He just didn't feel like exploring the Imperial Capital or enjoying his student life.
Too many other thoughts swirled in his head.
And most of all, even though he didn't want to admit it, his rank bothered him.
Yes, it bothered him. As much as he was a soldier and knew that everyone had a role to play and that every goal could only be achieved as a well-trained team, it just rubbed him the wrong way.
And it annoyed him that he had lost to Jradan again. Even if it wasn't a duel like the last time, it was still Jradan who had made him lose.
That damn chin.
Croy sighed. Getting angry wouldn't help. But he wasn't here to just get angry. He took the Spellsword from the scabbard at his hip and looked at the bastard sword.
"Sharpen"
The sword's sharpening rune began to pulsate with violet light. Immediately it felt different - stronger, sharper, just better.
Croy grinned. At least he had managed that.
But now came the hard part. After all, he was still a beginner in the art of the sword. He wanted to change that as soon as possible.
He took position - and swung.
'Again.'
***
Sweaty and with aching shoulders and arms, Croy leaned against the gym wall after several hours. He was no longer alone. Other students had also come here to train their skills, but there were hardly as many as during the week.
Croy was a little surprised. He would have bet that more than a few of them would have been dissatisfied with their performance and would have tried harder.
On the other hand, he could well imagine that many of these aristocrats had more equipment or even personal trainers at home. At least monsters like the Imperial Twins or the young lord.
Inera was one of these aristocrats. He had talked to her early in the morning, before he met Ben.
She couldn't remember anything because she had been unconscious. Croy had told her very little - he didn't want to involve his friend in a matter where even he was in mortal danger.
Besides, he suspected that Hisama was only after him anyway.
Wiping away the sweat with a towel, Kadar looked at his Spellsword again. Now, he could use and maintain the sharpness rune almost without any problems. Unfortunately, this also meant that he couldn't use any other spells while it was active.
'But Emma had done it.'
However, she had managed it. For Croy, the 'normal' rules for spellcasters still applied. One Spell actively and his barrier passively.
His eyes wandered to the next rune on his sword. The counter-spell rune. He really wanted to master it, but he hadn't managed it yet.
It would be too much to expect to succeed in all these new things in just a few days. He should be more patient.
And the last rune...
He had actually dismissed the Space-Time rune as useless. Why should he come to a different conclusion? Not a single Spellcaster had been able to use these spells after their creator.
And yet. And yet the thought never left his mind, no matter how illogical it was.
Croy stared at the space-time rune on his sword, lifelessly engraved on the steel. It seemed to attract him, but also to mock him - as if to say:
"What could you possibly want with me?
Yet the question remained. How had, in the middle of the final battle, he, Princess Kadutor, Lord Jradan and Inera ended up at the Academy in the first place? And it all seemed to have happened from one moment to the next, after Croy had become a spontaneous explosion of mana, according to Princess Kadutor.
That sounded absurd even then, but now, with all the other questions, it seemed even more ridiculous.
Was the princess simply confused? Was she lying to him on purpose?
Those were the logical conclusions. Simple, plausible, manageable. But Croy couldn't shrug it off so easily, not after what he had experienced before it all supposedly happened.
The voice in the void. That being - whatever it had been - had spoken of a "gift". After that, an overwhelming buzzing had brought him to his knees before everything had gone black. It hadn't been a hallucination, Croy was sure of that. But what exactly it had been eluded him.
He stared at the rune, waiting for something. But no memory came, no spark of insight.
Had... had he used it?
The thought was utterly ridiculous. No second human had ever cast a Space-Time spell, not even the greatest Spellcaster in the history of the Empire.
And yet... what else had that encounter in the void been? Just a trick of his own mind? A coincidence? A bad joke of a higher power that was bored?
Maybe it was some absurd cosmic fetish. The thought was so ridiculous that he let out a bitter laugh.
But he couldn't believe in such nonsense. Just like he couldn't believe that the thing with Hisama was really over. As sure as he was that the voice had been real, he was also sure that Hisama was still a threat.
He wanted to find out. He had to find out. But how? The answers weren't in front of him - and they were hidden behind closed doors. He couldn't prove that he had cast a Space-Time spell, and he couldn't go into the void on purpose to find the voice again.
'And to be honest,' Croy thought, 'I'm not even sure I want to do that.'
He inhaled and exhaled deeply, shook his head and rubbed his forehead. It was frustrating.
Every trail led nowhere. But there was one thing he could do.
He would make a phone call.
His eyes wandered to his smartwatch. It was time to find out more about that damned bastard Hisama.