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--Bona al la encycla lorica.
Instruction block[]
Chapter 4.1: The Channeling Academy[]
Qura wakes up; It's the next day. Andar tells the girls that Intael's party has left for Aeutaril; they are finally free. Qura, remembering why she had left Aeutaril in the first place, registers for the Academy along with Andar, who wants to learn magic of his own, and Tyl, who wants to see what channeling is like. The Channeling Academy has 12 teachers and each takes on 10-20 students once they've paid; tuition is 0.5 m. silver a day. Students register throughout the year and stay for an indeterminate period; they get one teacher per element and every day students attend each of them; however the order in which they have their teachers randomly changes. During registration, they are given a quiz which determines which element they have a focus in; this is a test about personality and how one thinks, rather than ability. They take courses in and practice in the House (school building) of their focus; a student with a focus in air channeling is known informally as an air focuser. the teachers for their focus element will be their House supervisors. Qura finds that her focus is air. They start with water lessons, where they try to lift a ball of water out of a cup; however, Andar and Qura can't control themselves as well as necessary so it just spills right back, even after 3/2 hours of practice (during which the teacher, Reici, gives them advice based on their actions). Then it's lunch, followed by fire lessons; the teacher Darya Eterdyn has them work on producing flame; not only is Qura no good at it, but she ends up burning herself. Andar, meanwhile, is able to create a substantial amount, and Qura cheers for him, though this causes several others (who had been there longer) become a bit upset. Third is air channeling with Ariel Nayfal; Qura hopes that she can actually excel in some area. The class practices wind dances, which involves creating wind in the vicinity (not any wind; but in a specific direction, from a specific direction). As it turns out, Qura has talent for this kind of magic, and in the first period has excelled students who had been there for a week. There Qura makes friends with other air focus students such as Seria. Finally, they have earth class with Triya, where Andar makes progress raising sand out of the ground but Qura doesn't manage to do anything; she lacks the force of will to do so. That afternoon Qura decides to practice more with her air magic, as she is starting to get the hang of it, learning from Seria. A fight breaks out in House Air when rowdy fire focus channelers led by upperclassman Eseudu come in; she identifies these bullies as enemies, however, she is too weak to fight them, and the air channelers are defeated with significant injuries (since air magic isn't that good for offense). The fighting ends when Ariel comes into the room (since they all know that Ariel's way better at channeling than they are). As the others rest and are quickly healed through the use of liquor (water magic), Qura leaves to return back to White Wolf's hideout. Along the way she comes to see Tyl challenging Ariel to prove the versatility of air magic; Ariel makes examples of moves, but Tyl keeps returning to the topic of buffeting another person, which Ariel can't address; Tyl walks away disappointed. When Qura asks Tyl what's going on, Tyl just says that it would be nice to be able to use air magic to buffet another person (and doesn't reveal her real reason for asking about this). Tyl then tells her that channeling isn't at all what she's looking forward to and so she's decided to drop out.
Chapter 4.2: The Princess's First Probe[]
Qura goes back to dreamscape. The fire bullies, led by Eseudu, take on the air and water channelers out in the courtyard at the evening, while the teachers are at a staff meeting. Everyone gets involved and the place soon turns into a disaster; Qura is in the midst of it all, doing her best to keep herself out of harm's way while the bullies beat up everyone else. However, when Qura becomes their next target, she wills it to all stop out of fear and suddenly, to her awe, everyone is frozen in time. She quickly flees the scene, though she concludes that Reginylgynae was responsible for this magic. The next morning the fire channelers launch a sneak attack and Qura wakes up to find herself sedated and unable to fight them; she realizes that they had unfrozen to find her suddenly gone are all afraid of her magic. Then she is saved as Ariel enters the scene and with some liquor is cured. Qura then storms into House Fire (home to the fire focusers), halting their attacks in midair and freezes them in time, ties them up while they're immobile, then lifts the spell and proceeds to interrogate them one by one. At lunch Darya treats the class to some wine; suspecting attempted poisoning, Qura spills hers and ends up getting to drink from Darya's goblet; however, halfway through their next class Qura collapses from poison, whereupon Andar rushes to get her an antidote wine. Qura recovers and thinks that either someone targeted Darya or Darya had a magic poison specifically targeting Qura; Darya appears too shocked to do anything. In secret, Archmage Nuba Myrmidum meets with Qura and Andar, voicing his suspicion that Darya is up to something more dire than just killing Qura. Andar, Qura and Nuba meet up with the air focusers (which are her and Seria's friends), devising a plot that would reveal Darya. The plan is for Darya to stumble upon a captive, alone Qura, whereupon she would try to kill her; but then the air focusers would intercept, with the principal bearing witness. The team gets to work, binding and gagging Qura in the hall; however, the water focusers entrap and defeat the air focusers, thinking they're the bad guys. Darya also happens upon them at roughly the same time, and starts fighting the water focusers, who she says appears to be binding her. With superior magic, Darya defeats them, then proceeds to free Qura in others' plain sight. Qura takes the occasion to tell Darya that the fire focusers had done it, not the water focusers. Upon hearing this, Darya calls out all the fire focusers and roundly berates them for attacking Qura (the fire focusers of course are dumbfounded by the entire event); Qura and Andar no longer know who to trust. Later, Qura goes to House Water, telling the water focusers that the fire focusers were to blame; however, they call her BS and drag out an air channeler, Olynna, who had evidently spilled the beans on Qura's plan to them because she believed it was too risky for Qura to do this; Qura flees with the water focusers in pursuit until Ariel tells them to stop it. Qura then angrily stalks the courtyard until Olynna comes by. When Olynna arrives, Qura lambasts her, accusing her of having a very bad plan; ultimately Qura unintentionally zaps Olynna with lightning, killing her, in plain sight of Ariel.
Chapter 4.3: Rogue Mage of Syrragil[]
Shocked, Qura lets herself be bound and taken to see the Archmage, who is by law in charge of crime proceedings within the Academy. Nuba and Darya argue over her punishment; Aria wants her executed for witchcraft but Nuba wants to spare her. Qura is put in the Academy dungeon. After a short while Darya comes in and laments that Qura had committed so many crimes (including many she never committed); this convinces her that someone has been feeding Darya lies. She doesn't have long to think about this, however, as Darya decides to take the law into her own hands by turning Qura's cell into a prison of ice, preventing Qura from breathing. Remembering what Altair had told her, Qura is able to blink and teleport, suddenly finding herself naked in Altair's hotel room. Qura quickly gets dressed and reveals what had happened, with Altair providing comfort and seeking to reconcile himself with her. She also asks about the spells she's been using, and Altair confirms his suspicions that they and many others are made possible by Reginylgynae. The next day, Qura returns to school, while Altair registers for the Academy (incognito, once again). Qura tells everyone she's looking for Darya; Darya of course wouldn't show up because she believes Qura is out for revenge. When Darya fails to show up, she is convinced that Darya is indeed trying to kill her. Meeting up with Nuba, Qura finds Darya and tells Nuba about what Darya had tried to do. Darya and Nuba fight each other in a spectacular channeling battle in which both demonstrate their mastery over all four elements. Here air channeling is used to knock enemies off their feet, avoid or parry attacks, and leap into the air; water channeling is used to block out fire, make enemies slip and freeze water; fire channeling is used to destroy and harm; and earth channeling is used to imprison, smash and block. Ultimately Nuba defeats and kills Darya, promising Qura that everything will now return to normal and that she can feel relieved. Qura waves bye to Nuba, then sneaks into Darya's room, using a lightning bolt to blast her way through the locked doors. There she looks for stuff a rogue mage would take (remembering her training back in Nairu's Revenge), but doesn’t see them. Suspicious, Qura rushes into Nuba's room and finds the Archmage entirely petrified. She screams out in fear, but then Altair, who is right next to her, tells her to calm down and congratulates her on being smart enough to figure out the real culprit. Altair tells Qura his story: After having heard Qura's story in the hotel, he wasn't convinced. He fights Nuba in a duel, using Reginylandrae and forcing the principal to "slip" and use true magic to protect himself from Altair's creae darta spell, which only experienced magi would know to be deadly. Altair then captured him and uses a golden scroll to bring his verdict: death. (The golden scroll is a hacked version of the gold magic from Religiae, in that it is unilateral, not bilateral like all contracts are.) Altair further explains that Nuba knew what face to watch out for (Altair's) and would thus cease his work, which is why Altair sent in Qura first, allowing Nuba to let slip his desire to capture Qura for knowledge as to the secrets of her Reginylgynae.
Chapter 4.4: Modes of Learning[]
It's over a week later; neither Qura nor Tyl has felt any more hot flashes, indicating that Intael's expedition is no longer after them; Elysian has seemingly disappeared since that one day. It's fourth period (air class), and Qura and Seria practice together on simple levitation (which they've learned several days ago) and are getting okay at it, honing their air channeling skills. After school, Ariel (who favors Qura above her other students) tutors her on a variety of moves for her to practice on, though Qura can't get good at any of them that quickly. When she mentions it to Seria, Seria is jealous of her likeability and challenges her to a match to see whose channeling is better (Seria using her weakest element, earth, and Qura using her strongest). Convinced into going through with it, Qura is defeated, and the two sides smilingly agree that it was a good match. Qura is quite surprised by Seria's abilities and she explains that she perfected and modified a few earth moves based on what she learned from a book. Then Seria explains that these books aren't available for the public and that if Qura wants to get one for air channeling, she would have to steal it. Qura agrees to go together with Seria to steal a book, even though they could be expelled if they were to be discovered. Lake that night they sneak into the Academy's library and manage to take one out with them. The next day they start performing the modified techniques they learned from that book, even into class, but then they get noticed by Ariel, who wants to know how they learned these moves. Ariel sets them up in a prisoner's dilemma situation, questioning them separately and saying she will get the one who doesn't spill into trouble. Qura ends up spilling, while Seria trusted that she wouldn't, so Seria is expelled and as she leaves she tells Qura that she's very disappointed in her. Qura then eavesdrops on Ariel and Janissa talking about the recent trespass into the library and what they were going to do about it; they decide on setting up traps to catch thieves. Qura thinks it highly strange that the Academy would try to block out this kind of information.
Chapter 4.5: Bandit Hunters[]
Two days later, Andar, Qura, Tyl, and Wesna have arrived in Entyreal, having accepted a mission back at Syrragil to hunt down bandits here. Supposedly the bandits have been intervening with ferry traffic along the waterways of the town, which makes Wesna really mad and makes Andar roiled as well. They meet up with their contact Darla, a representative for the local Ferrying Guild, who tells them where the bandits were last spotted and arms them with some home-made weaponry. Their instructions take them into a nearby cave where they indeed encounter the bandits. Surprising them, the foursome manage to overcome the bandits and their leader Roniel Sumpra through use of weaponry and magic. The bandits are taken captive to Darla's house; however, they fail to find anything incriminating them. When the four bring their captives back to Darla, he congratulates them on a job well done, pays them 7.0 m. silver, then tells them that they'll get more after locating documents containing information incriminating them. Wesna suggests that Roniel might keep a diary. Darla has found out where Roniel's home is, and dispatches them to interrogate his wife Cerulea Sumpra. While the four are there, Wesna wants to simply beat her into compliance; however, Andar says that they can't be rough towards ordinary civilians and proceeds to ask Cerulea about the journal as nicely as he can. Cerulea tells them that Roniel is actually the leader of a group of people who want to make life fair in Entyreal. Cerulea tells them that the Ferrying Guild has been using its monopoly to charge incredibly high rates for all transit through the town, and that Cerulea and Roniel merely want to start up an alternative ferrying organization to force the Guild to adopt competitive rates. Cerulea then allows the team to look through Roniel's diary, and Andar sees that there's absolutely nothing there indicating anything bad being done by the family. However, he reasons that Cerulea wouldn't show them this unless she was sure that there was nothing in his diary to incriminate him; maybe she had removed them all. Right before they leave, Cerulea tells them that Darla and the others were merely trying to get strangers like Andar to come in and eliminate people interfering with the Guild's monopoly and at the same time appear as if the Guild were cracking down on bandits; she implores them to see reason. Soon after they leave, Qura and Tyl suggest they just leave it at that; however, Andar notices that the flooded second floor, being rather wet and repulsive, would be a good place to hide documents, especially since throwing things away without getting noticed in a town like this would be difficult. (The floors are all accessible from the outside.) Andar and Wesna go into the second floor and search the place; they find Roniel's second diary, this one entirely different from the one before; Andar concludes that the first diary is meant to throw off suspicion and hide the fact that there was a second diary with information like this in it. The writings indicate that Roniel and Cerulea had indeed been sabotaging the Guild. Indeed, Roniel had been looking into faera, and Andar stumbles upon a locked chest which, when picked, revealed a variety of faera. Andar calls the girls to come in as well (which they futilely protest, not wanting to get their clothes wet). There, Tyl recognizes all the faera as being common ones she's seen except for a faera that, when combined with others, de-anchors them and instead causes them to tele-anchor. Tyl is able to use this knowledge and her spell-amplifier to make a magical hand shield that creates a lot of air, blasting away anything that gets close, and which can also be turned on and off. Having gotten all they could from the diary, the team returns to Darla's home to hand it over to him. However, Roniel and his men spring a trap on him as he enters, with a captive Darla bound in a corner. The two sides fight, but Roniel's arrows are thrown off course by the deflective shield and Andar quickly manages to gain the upper hand; also, all but Roniel don't know much about fighting. While they're fighting, both sides proclaim that theirs is right, Roniel saying it's okay to sabotage and use magic to accomplish his ends and Andar arguing that there ought to be justice regarding control of the waterways (a viewpoint favoring the Guild). Despite believing in the same ultimate ends, they disagree on means, and Roniel and his ilk are ultimately defeated; Darla is freed. Very thankful for his rescue, delighted in having an incriminating diary, and happy that Andar and his team agrees with the Guild, Darla proclaims Andar's mission complete and gives them 30.0 m. silver, much more than they had been promised.
Chapter 4.6: Master of the Elements[]
Qura and Andar had by now been attending the academy for two weeks, doing poorly in earth and fire channeling, moderate in water channeling and excellent in air channeling; she has only mastered a few moves (fire sprays, molding earth, moving water, condensing steam, blasting air, levitating, wind dances). At the end of their first period class (water), the newest student here, Elysian, says he knows all this stuff and wants a commendation from Reici. Reici accepts the challenge, and soon she is testing what Elysian is capable of, while the others watch. Elysian only does the most basic actions, and when Reici asks "is that it?", Elysian asks for Reici to show what moves she wants him to show her. As Reici channels water in various ways, Elysian copies those same actions flawlessly and performs them perfectly right afterward. Everyone is amazed by Elysian's skill with channeling, as he performs well even going into the upper level water channeling skills, so Reici gives him a commendation. However, some of them criticize Elysian for showing off and taking the teacher's time, preventing them from learning. After water class, Qura sits beside Elysian and congratulates him while having lunch together. Elysian is immediately charmed by Qura's grace and starts hitting on her, which Qura merely thanks him for, since Qura has already vowed that her life belonged to Andar. Elysian is very chivalric toward Qura and is even willing to tutor her on the art. During lunch, therefore, Qura continues practicing water channeling and although she is far less skilled than Elysian is, he respects her and tells her that with effort, she will master the art. Elysian tells Qura that the commendation basically means that he has effectively graduated from learning fire channeling, so that he can now concentrate on the other three. Lunch ends, and they go to Ariel's air class. As Elysian goes to get his second commendation, the class cheers him on, and the bullies are uncertain as to whether or not they should do something about this, since he seems popular and Eseudu isn't around. Elysian essentially does the same thing, only this time with air channeling, and so Elysian manages to fully learn this set as well and gains the ability to use air channeling and gains his second commendation; several girls hug him, but Elysian is interested in Qura. Then it's Janissa's fire class. Once again, Elysian says that he wants to get a commendation, and so Janissa begins testing him with these spells. However, Janissa won't show the moves she wants Elysian to make, so Elysian is unable to learn the abilities; Janissa says that he can't get a commendation yet. Afterward, as the class practices, the bullies (fire focusers) say how dare Elysian think he's so good that he can get two commendations on his first day at the Academy; they can accept that Elysian may be talented in water channeling, but to be talented in two is unheard of, and they won't stand for it. Elysian sees an opportunity to learn fire magic, and fires back saying that he's the best student in the Academy, and soon they are trading verbal insults. Being hot-headed, Eseudu and the other fire focusers challenge Elysian to battle. As the two sides begin fighting, it becomes evident that Elysian is immensely talented in martial arts and is able to dodge magic attacks with no difficulty at all. He also is able to learn their moves while in the midst of battle, staying on the defensive for a long while before ultimately defeating each of them without breaking a sweat; everyone is shocked at how quickly Elysian had gone from knowing only a few moves to being incredibly skilled at channeling battles. Eseudu, the senior fire focuser pupil, is shocked that someone new could defeat him, and convinces himself that Elysian actually already knew all this stuff before coming here and is here seeking a job. Having seen what Elysian is capable of, Janissa awards him a commendation; however, she is also aware that Elysian is able to learn moves very quickly, and comes to perceive him as a threat. By the time of earth class, word of Elysian's feat has spread, and Triya downright refuses to give him a commendation, and thus denies him the chance to get all four commendations on the same day, a feat that has never been accomplished. Class resumes; Qura asks Elysian why it is that the library is off limits. Elysian replies that the teachers are greedy: if the books were simply lent out, the people would learn without attending class, which would cut into tuition. Besides, they were likely to contain variations of channeling that only the teachers know, giving them the advantage in battles against any other channelers who would attempt to assert control over the Academy. It is also what allowed the Archmage to have legal jurisdiction over the Academy in the midst of the capital city.
Chapter 4.7: Memory Eye[]
Over the next day Qura tells her air focuser friends about Elysian's conclusion about the off-limits library, making everyone roiled, even the fire focuser bullies, redirecting their anger toward the teachers. Janissa then accosts Qura, telling her to stop spreading rumors. Elysian interferes, telling them to leave her alone; alongside him are many other people (he having become quite popular). When the teachers say that the rumors aren't exactly true, Elysian challenges them, saying that they should then teach these things to the students. The teachers assert that their current curriculum is better; however, it's not a good answer, and the students are suspicious. The argument quickly turns into a fight, with the teachers defending their right to keep parts of channeling a secret. By then, Janissa had already told the other teachers that Elysian has an uncanny talent for learning and copying quickly. As a result, the teachers only use the most basic techniques when Elysian is looking at them, but launch more powerful attacks from behind. Elysian is unprepared for this strategy and is defeated and publicly expelled. Qura goes to Elysian's dorm. Under the pretense of packing up, Elysian trains the new, more powerful moves he learned from the fight. Even Qura has seen through Elysian's pretense of simply being very skilled from the outset, and asks him exactly what's going on. Eager to gain Qura's heart, Elysian reveals to her that he has a well-developed Memory Eye, which allows him to memorize anything he sees after seeing it just once, as well as allowing him to copy peoples' movements exactly. Elysian already has 3 commendations; the real reason of getting them is to be sure that he has learned plenty about channeling, enough for a showdown with the teachers. And because Elysian is an incredibly fast martial artist, he is able to see what the teachers were doing all around him in that last battle, even if he had only caught a glimpse. Despite Qura's warnings, Elysian goes back out and encounters the teachers again. The teachers, having already beat Elysian, think that they can beat him again; however, they are unprepared for him using their moves against them with such skill, even though they have taken care to not let him see their moves. This time, Elysian's skills have caught up to theirs enough so that he is able to press them into using their remaining undisclosed high-level techniques. All of the teachers are fighting against Elysian, and they all are skilled at all of the elements. Qura is amazed at what power they wield with channeling. The teachers are forced back to the central Arena Tower and retreat, fighting all the way to the top, to the Archmage's chambers. However, he isn't anywhere around. Elysian has fully learned all of the instructors' channeling abilities by the time he defeats them all. Elysian then puts graffiti all over the Archmage's chambers, making several teachers say that he'll pay when Nuba returns and rush out to locate him. When Qura asks why Elysian did this, he said that he normally isn't like this, but he had to act like he was an out of control rogue in order to make the Archmage return ASAP and force a confrontation with him.
Chapter 4.8: Clash of Two Magics[]
Over the next two days, school continues with the teachers wary of Elysian (who regularly picks on them) and the students not wanting to pay the teachers any tuition, thinking that they'll be able to learn more from the books (which they had stolen from the library while the teachers were busy with Elysian). Finally, the Archmage shows up and strikes Elysian with a paralysis attack, which causes instant KO. Elysian is imprisoned. Qura, who had been looking on, realized that what the Archmage had done wasn't the much-expected elite-level channeling that all the students were expecting, but a different kind of magic altogether. Qura comes to realize that she can't simply learn channeling because there would always be people who, like Elysian, are talented at it and thus will always be superior to her at it. And for even the Archmage to be resorting to magic other than channeling seemed to indicate that the ultimate magic resided not in channeling, but in something more like Tyl's magic. And Qura was after all, after true power - the power to resist the power others had once wielded over her. Qura tells Andar that they had seen all there is to channeling, and were underwhelmed; the two drop out of the Academy. Qura goes to visit Elysian in prison, and asks him why he had to fight all the teachers instead of just learning from them. Elysian says that it was the only way to make sure that he had learned all the channeling techniques that were to be learned: he had to force them out of other people. He also finds it shameful for the Archmage to use magic other than channeling on him, as it disturbed his sense of playing fair. He tells Qura not to worry about him, but doesn't mention the fact that he can easily escape.
Chapter 4.9: White Wolf's Newest Member[]
Back in prison, the guards are on their normal rounds when they discover that an inmate, Elysian, seems to be missing. The guard thinks that he might just be hiding under the pallet bed, but in order to make sure he has to enter. The moment he enters, Elysian, who had been on the ceiling, jumps him and knocks him out; Elysian then escapes the prison, stunning all the guards in his way by hitting their pressure points. He's the kind of guy who has no worries; however, he can't stop thinking about Qura, and soon locates White Wolf's public meeting point and, come nightfall, Elysian secretly follows as the gang returns to the hideout. There Qura introduces Elysian to White Wolf and also says that because she's given up on channeling, Andar, Qura, Tyl, Ceratel, and Yuna will be going off to Aureil the next day in search of magic. This would also offer them the opportunity to show Yuna that magic is actually respectable. Elysian then says that he wants to join in on their journey, much to their surprise, since they don't even know much about him. Elysian simply says that there's no time like the present to get to know each other. Andar then says that Elysian doesn't seem like the person who is familiar with traveling across the land, which causes Elysian say that he can survive on his own just as well as any of them; indeed, he has been pretty much alone for years already. Andar picks a difficult lock as a challenge to him; Elysian picks two such locks simultaneously in the same time. Andar shoots an arrow straight at a bull's eye; Elysian shoots out that same arrow with his own, which still manages to hit the bull's eye. An upset Andar then wants to give Elysian a task; if he succeeds, Andar will let him join the gang. Although Elysian has no interest in joining the gang, he does want to get close to Qura, who is a member; hence he takes on the task, which is uncharacteristic of Andar's gang in that Elysian has to steal a considerable amount of money from Grandryn (this is due in part to Andar's desire to get more revenge against the official). Elysian notes from the reactions of the other members of the gang that this isn't a usual mission, and immediately concludes that Andar may try to tell Grandryn about Elysian coming to steal his money and thus show Elysian that he's not that great. Elysian therefore immediately tells Grandryn that he had been tipped off that soon someone would be telling him that some other person would attempt to steal from him in an attempt to make him drop his guard, then warns Grandryn to keep up his guard; Elysian also tells him that this person probably already knows where Grandryn is keeping his money; when his wife Ena comes, Elysian repeats his warning. Grandryn thanks Elysian for the tip, though he is also aware that Elysian might be the one trying to steal from him; he then shares this concern with Ena after Elysian has left. Shortly after Elysian leaves, he ducks out of view as Andar comes by to tell Grandryn about his "tip"; Grandryn and their sons spring a trap on him, quickly capturing Andar. Meanwhile, Ena, worried about the security of the Garna family's wealth, sneaks over to the secret vault in the family courtyard where their money was kept, and moved it elsewhere, all while Elysian secretly observed. After Ena leaves, Elysian sneaks into the vault, retrieves the money (160.0 m. silver) and brings it back to White Wolf's hideout, much to everyone's congratulations.