Ends of Magic

Whatever response the white-robed teenager had been expecting to his dismissal, it hadn’t been mockery. His face scrunched up as if constipated and he looked at Nathan in confusion. Then he blinked and shook his head as if resetting. “You can’t see a sharp joke, can you?” Then he brought his hands up in a spellcasting gesture.

[Paralysis]

Nathan had thought about how he would play off his antimagic in the Academy, and there seemed to be one obvious solution. He brought up his own hands in a sweeping motion and poked the slowly forming spell with a wisp of antimagic.

“Dispel.”

The clumsy spell promptly fell apart and was sucked into Nathan’s antimagic. The jaws of both students dropped at Nathan’s casual display of fake spellcasting.

“Dispel.”

Nathan swept his hands again, slashing a tendril of antimagic across the mid-tier student’s [Mage Armor]. It shattered, visible shards of force magic flying away and dissipating. He stepped towards the bully, gasping to pretend the two spells had winded him instead of slightly replenishing his Stamina.

The would-be bully shrunk back, suddenly aware of the seven-inch height advantage Nathan had. Then he rallied and stopped retreating. A sneer appeared on his face. “A spell of power, for a low-tier student. But can you cast anything else?” He held his hands out wide, as if inviting an attack.

Nathan closed the distance with a step and punched him in the face, careful to moderate the strength of the blow so he didn’t cave the guy’s skull in. He still had had to grab the boy’s robes so the backwards fall onto the stone balcony didn’t crack his skull. Nathan lowered the insensate boy to the ground and turned to regard the younger kid - Hibor - who still had a death grip on his soup.

Hibor gaped at Nathan, mouth working for a moment before he figured out what to say. “By the Giant. You punched him. Why?”

Nathan shrugged, flexing his [Noticeability] to make him seem like another student. “The Giant gave me hands, it seems a waste not to use them. [Dispel] is also pretty much my only spell, and I can’t cast it very many times. I didn't want to let him cast again.” He indicated the corridor that led deeper back into the Academy. “Should we go back in? He’s going to get up in a minute, and I don’t want to be here when he does.” His stomach rumbled. “Maybe we can go eat together?”

Having people vouch for you is the best disguise you can ask for.

Hibor looked down at the soup, then around the balcony that seemed to be his hidden retreat. “Yeah.” His voice was dejected. Then he glanced at the bully sprawled on the floor and smiled. “Yeah!” He set the soup down on the bench and turned to leave without a second glance.

Nathan followed him inside, getting his first glimpse of the interior of the Ascendant Academy. All of the surfaces were polished stone in various colors, decorated with carvings and occasional statues or paintings. The ceilings were fifty feet high and vaulted, with pillars standing out from the walls.

It felt like a cathedral, or a grand Buddhist temple. Nathan felt small and out of place in the huge spaces they walked through. He tried to keep the gawking to a minimum as he followed Hibor. They came out into a grand oval hall that would have been a good place for a king’s coronation. It was totally empty.

“I found this area a couple of weeks ago. It's near as high as low-tier students can do, and there’s not much to want. But it’s a way to make space from people, like Eban back there. He’s been pulling me away from my suitemates to sit with his friends at meals. They cut me with their jokes, the one low-tier amongst them.” His voice dropped to a whisper. "I think Eban's been trying to get me to snap back, so he can duel me and set the terms."

Then the younger boy brightened up again, grinning at Nathan. “But you - you splintered his spell and knocked him flat.” His gleeful expression grew curious. “Who are you? I haven’t seen you before. Did you just join? Where is your suite?”

Nathan smiled slightly and held up his hands defensively to stem the flow of questions. “It’s good to meet you. Hibor dho Pacva, right?”

The other student nodded and Nathan continued, lying through his teeth. “I’m Natad dho Asna, and I’ve only been in the Academy a few weeks. I’m from down south, outside of the settlements. My family has a compound on the edge of the desert a few days from Ardglass, but we’re pretty private. We have some Insights of our own and keep to ourselves.”

Then he frowned demonstratively, being very obvious with his unhappiness. “I’m looking for a new suite, since I’m not on good terms with my current suitemates. Is there an empty spot in yours?”

[Disguise] don’t fail me now. I have the feeling it’ll take at least a few days to figure out how to crack the Academy’s defenses. I’d very much prefer to hide in plain sight while I do that, and this guy seems like a bit of a sucker.

Hibor seemed taken aback. “Why don’t they like you? You can cast fifth-tier magic!”

“One of them made fun of my family.” Nathan replied with a snort. “So I punched him. Now they won’t let me forget I can’t cast any other spells. They soaked all my robes and laughed about how I don’t know spells to dry them.”

“Can’t you just task the domestic slave in your suite?” Hibor asked confusedly, but then waved the question away without waiting for an answer. “You can move in with us! We’ve got three spare rooms right now! It’s just me, Roni and Yelun.” He leaned in closer, like he was sharing a secret. “Yelun dha Declan, you know.”

It took Nathan a second to place the name. When he did, he made sure to pretend to be suitably impressed.

Like archmage Heyo dho Declan. Who… Sarah killed with a bullet to the head. Faline said he was the archmage who ran Ardglass, which was another satellite city down south. Close to where I just said I grew up. Damn.

“Wow.” Nathan said, as if unable to believe his fortune. Then he turned towards Hibor. “It would be amazing to move in with you. Let’s get food and then I can come with you to grab a room. Maybe if I don’t tell my current suitemates they won’t know where I went, and they’ll stop bothering me.”

Hibor seemed thrilled, and walked straight towards the far wall of the grand hall. When he was ten steps away the wall irised open to reveal a grand staircase spiraling down a wide shaft.

Nathan was keeping a careful eye on the magic around them, trying to figure out how the wizardry that controlled the Academy worked. As far as he could tell, there was a moving bubble of ‘attention’ focused on Hibor. It had interfaced somehow with the wizardry on the portal to get it to open. There’d been a similar one for Eban as well.

It’s always watching everybody. Except me. I think between my antimagic, [Antimagic Stealth] and [Mage Infiltration], I’m invisible to the Academy. Which means I won’t set off alarms but I also can’t open the walls to get around unless I can hotwire them somehow. But this stuff is not simple. I can’t even tell where all the doors are yet. I’m halfway convinced that the entire Academy can reconfigure itself at will. But at least this is a good place to practice messing with wizardry. It’s everywhere here.

He followed Hibor down the staircase as the young mage chatted about his suitemates. He told stories about them and their escapades together, then mentioned that they’d been planning a way to embarrass Eban badly enough he’d stop bullying Hibor.

“But he’s got a bunch of mid-tier friends, and they all walk around with [Mage Armor] all the time! It’s a heavy task.”

Nathan grunted his agreement, still mostly paying attention to his surroundings, both mundane and magical. The staircase went down quite a distance, but he was pretty sure it didn’t go all the way to the ground level. There appeared to be some kind of magic occupying the center of the staircase that could levitate people up and down the shaft.

I’m glad Hibor didn’t, or can’t, use that. I would have to fake it with [Airwalking] and after busting through the exterior barrier I’m a bit too low on Stamina for that to be comfortable.

After a few floors another wall parted before Hibor to provide an exit from the stairs. The corridors here were similar to those above, but with more students. They wore robes of gray and white for the low-tier and high-tier students respectively, and walked in cliques. Some seemed relaxed, others harried. Down the hall a woman in an orange robe strolled with a purple-robed student at her heels, and everybody was quick to get out of their way.

Hibor led them through a series of sharp turns, and Nathan memorized the path. He saw more and more students walking to and fro, gossiping and laughing together in a way that wouldn’t be unfamiliar to any American high school student. Except Nathan hadn’t seen any high schools made of marble with fifty-foot ceilings. Or where the students played with each other by juggling little orbs of light.

They turned a corner into another large space, with a crowd of students gathered around a broad oval marked on the ground in shining metal. Nathan could see over everybody’s heads and into the circle, where two mid-tier students faced each other across a thirty-foot distance.

[Wind Blast]

[Force Block]

[Earth Orb]

They traded spells back and forth with intense focus, actively seeking to knock each other over while the crowd rooted for one student or the other. The circle on the ground seemed to be blocking the effects of the spells from impacting the bystanders, and Nathan slowed down to figure out what was going on.

This looks like a duel of some kind? No teachers in sight, and they’re being a bit vicious for practice. The audience also seems too excited for this to be an everyday occurrence.

“Get her Stei! Teach her the Giant’s lesson for the insult!” cried one boy, seemingly egging on one of the duelists.

Yup. A duel. Over some kind of insult. Note to self: Try not to insult people, or else I’ll get challenged to a duel that I don't have the tools to fight in. Well, with [Spell Redirection] and my faux dispel I might be able to fake it.

Nathan had to hurry up to catch up to Hibor, who glanced at the event but didn’t stop moving. They entered a huge dining hall with a domed ceiling and a set of weirdly curving support columns. It seemed to be split into eight identical dining areas spaced around a central hub where huge tables groaned with food.

The design of the hall itself caused Nathan to pause. Streamers of fire mana flowed through the air overhead, dodging between invisible panes of force. They gave off an ambient heat that made the entire room comfortably toasty. The mana was invisible to the naked eye, but the pattern of the swooping mana flows reminded him of a spell.

Each of the eight sections is in the general shape of a fireball. The mana you’d use to make one, at least. If you recreated this structure with your own mana, it’d be a pretty good approximation of a fireball. Probably more efficient than the fireballs I’m used to Stella casting, actually. The force is used differently.

His attention was caught by the center of the room, where the food was. The mana flows there included air, and they seemed to spiral in on themselves in an oddly recursive manner.

If each section of the room represents a fireball, what happens when you cast the spell represented by the whole room, with eight fireballs linked together by that central region? A [Grand Fireball] spell?

Wizard’s Intuition 6 achieved!

He’d been absentmindedly filling a tray in Hibor’s wake as he studied the room, and was now following the younger student. They were headed towards a small table, where two other low-tier students sat, a boy and a girl.

“They’re still here!” Hibor said, pleased. He sat down and gestured for Nathan to take his own seat. He pointed at the boy, who looked about fifteen, with wildly unkempt brown hair and a large nose. “This is Roni dho Lahad, my other hand.” Then his finger moved to the girl, who had frizzy blonde hair and a composed expression. “And Yelun dha Declan, the best mage in our classes.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Yelun rolled her eyes in fond exasperation. “Not if you count the lecturers.” She poked towards Nathan with a spoon, looking him up and down. “How did you escape Eban’s grasp? And who is this spawn of the Giant?”

Hibor beamed around. “This is Natad dho Asna, and he just punched Eban in the face.” The teenager giggled, as if he still didn’t believe it. “He cast [Dispel], and then punched him. I’d give a Giant’s Insight to see it again.”

“[Dispel]?” Asked Yelun, her eyes narrowing as she studied Nathan once again, taking in his height and pausing on the faint rips around the edges of his robe.

“Yeah! I saw it! Popped his [Mage Armor] like that,” Hibor said excitedly, snapping his fingers. “He wants to move to our suite, is that ok?”

The third student at the table, Roni, had been occupied with a particularly large slice of cake, but at this comment his head popped up with cream smeared around his mouth. “Yeah! If you knocked Eban over then you’re a mage worth knowing!”

Nathan could see that Yelun was about to either object or start asking questions, so he jumped in with an explanation. “Moving into your suite would be great. My current suitemates don’t like me, and they keep spoiling my clothes and preventing the slave from fixing them.” He gestured to the rips. “This is my best one. I would love to move in.”

“He shares your origin, Yelun. Near Ardglass.” Hibor pitched in, making Nathan wince. He’d been hoping to leave that little slip of the tongue behind.

“Oh? Where?” She asked.

“A little mage-commune on the edge of the desert, a few days walk away from anything. My family is very private. We don’t interact with Ardglass much.” Nathan explained, trying to deflect attention away from his story.

“Hmph.” Yelun responded, wrinkling her nose slightly. Then she shrugged. “I won’t weigh against it. Especially if you can cast [Dispel]. That’s an spell I would trade a Giant’s Insight for.”

Mid-tier Disguise 5 achieved!

“Great!” Nathan said, tearing into his meal with gusto, satisfied with both the food and his successful infiltration. He hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, and this food was among the best he’d had on Davrar. It was also helping to refill his Stamina, and Nathan could probably have devoured three or four more trays of food to refill a larger chunk of his Stamina. He didn’t, because that would have been a weird thing to do in front of his new "friends."

He had to resist the urge to reach his aura up into the invisible streamers of fire mana overhead and replenish himself that way. After all, he was in a room full of mages. He’d been keeping his antimagic tight to his body, mimicking the shape of [Mage Armor]. If somebody noticed it, he was hoping they’d think it was just a strange Insight related to the [Dispel]’s he’d been faking.

They’ll see what they expect to see. They’re in a school full of mages that hide knowledge and scheme for advantage. If they see something weird they’ll think it’s a magic they’re unfamiliar with, not antimagic from a Gemore [Assassin]. I’ve also got… five skills that help with this, if you include [Antimagic Stealth]. I should be able to stay hidden for a little while, as long as I don't mess up anything big.

“Stei and Tiom were dueling in the front dueling ring.” Hibor said when he took a break from his plate.

Yelun’s eyebrows went up. “I assume she had him in her palm?”

Hibor snorted. “I think so. He’s got the intelligence of a stalker, harassing the favored daughter of archmage Dennar. She’s grown up on weighty Insights.”

“He just wants her attention.” Roni’s voice was wistful, and he was gazing off into space. “I wish she would see light in my eyes.”

“Just make sure you don’t end up in the dueling ring against her.” Hibor said sagely, then turned to Yelun. “Do you know what the stakes are?”

“She’ll demand silence. A finger for every word he says to her.” The girl waved dismissively. “Not a heavy prophecy for us. You should think of Eban. He won’t excuse your joke.”

Her gaze went to Nathan, eyes calculating. “If he decides to speak of your attack he could challenge you to a duel, though it’ll be restricted stakes. He may not want to admit he was beaten by a low-tier student. But there willbe reprisal.”

She tilted her head to the side. “Can you fight a mid-tier student in the ring? You could challenge him now to end the conflict. Otherwise he may ambush you with friends later.” Her gaze flicked to Hibor. “Both of you.”

Nathan sighed. “I’d prefer to avoid getting into the ring.”

Heaven save me from teenage drama. Hopefully I can figure out the wizardry around here and start killing archmages before I get sucked into this shit. I’m not sure if figuring out the wizardry of the Academy is going to take a day, a week or a month. Best to prepare for the latter, and try and stay disguised as long as I can.

“We’ll stay with you!” Roni pronounced, spraying chunks of cake across the table. “He won’t ambush you with us around. Especially Yelun! She’s the one people are afraid of, for clean mana and a powerful family!” He waggled his finger at Nathan. “Listen when she speaks, for she says a prophecy of victory.”

The blonde girl flushed slightly, ducking her head and hiding her face behind her hair. “I only speak what I see.” Then her gaze panned to Nathan, turning serious as she moved hair away from her face “My family has been weakened by my father's death, but Ardglass is ours. Even if another archmage takes it over, we control most of the industry.”

Then she shrugged, and sighed heavily. “I won’t inherit a great boon, and have little influence beyond that of a favorite younger sister. Who was given few Insights.” Her jaw firmed.

Nathan raised a hand defensively. “I know little of the Academy, and archmages. My parents had some bad experiences here. They still praise the Giant, but they stay away from other mages.” Nathan made his voice wry. “They said I needed to learn many lessons here, and I have. About trust, and caution. I've learned a few already.”

Yelun pursed her lips and nodded. “The Ascendant Academy is Giantsrest, in all its colors. Now, we should speak of classes. We attend the morning practical with Bran dho Jast, then do the afternoon lecture with Brardan dho Shisk. If you seek to avoid your suitemates, you could join our classes. If you want protection from Eban…” She let her voice trail off suggestively.

Nathan nodded. “Sounds good. Lead the way.”

“Heh, ‘sounds good’. I like the saying.” Hibor said, getting up and leaving his dirty plate behind.

Whoops. I need to try and talk more like a Giantsrest mage.

He shrugged, getting up and walking with the other mages as they left the dining hall.

Roni looked up at him. “By the Giant, you’re tall.”

—

The afternoon lecture was an absolute snoozefest, even though it was about magic. The orange-robed lecturer was a ruddy-faced man named Brardan dho Shisk who sat on a stage before a hundred low-tier students and lectured them on mana shaping. He had that air that teachers got when they had settled on their explanations and weren’t going to bother to check if anybody understood them.

Nathan had gotten a number of looks as he’d walked into the lecture, but nobody had said anything. There was some quiet muttering he picked up with his enhanced hearing about Yelun gaining a new minion. Nathan snorted slightly as he and his new friends sat to the side of the hall.

They’re not exactly friends. I’m not planning on murdering teenagers in their beds, even if they are training to be mages of Giantsrest. But I’m not going to hesitate to kill them or rip out their magic if they end up on the battlefield. They're more like cover.

After the lecture they walked to the suite. It was a little ways away, in the low-tier student residential portion of the Academy. Nathan had to hide his reaction to seeing the space for the first time, because it wasn’t supposed to be his first time.

They emerged from a large hallway into a huge room seven hundred feet across and full of plants. It was shaped like a cone, as wide as it was tall, and with a waterfall falling from the point at the top of the room down into a pool in the bottom. The air was warm and humid. Combined with the lush plant life it felt like a slice of jungle inside of the Academy.

Nathan’s companions walked through the park without a second glance, and he saw that it wasn’t at all wild. Some regions were dense and overgrown, but they were interspersed by walking paths and private nooks, while other sections were soft grass flanked by flowerbeds.

They stopped at the intersection between paths, and Nathan felt the wizardry of the Academy recognize the students next to him. A spiral staircase descended from the sky above, landing in front of them without a sound.

“I hate climbing these stairs every day.” Roni grumbled as they started up the staircase and towards the angled ceiling.

“Then learn to [Fly], or at least [Levitate].” shot back Hibor.

The stairs went up to a point on the side of the cone, and Nathan noticed that the entire inner surface of the cone was covered with windows and openings. Their particular staircase ended at one specific empty doorway, which appeared to be the entrance to their suite.

A matronly older woman was sitting in a chair inside the entryway, sewing a gray robe. She greeted them as they entered. “Welcome back, dears. Do you need anything?” She wore a slave collar, and Nathan caught a glimpse of a small kitchen area behind her with a cot on the floor.

“Natad is moving in. Get his room set up.” Yelun commanded, not even looking at the woman.

“Right away, mistress.” The slave said, moving with alacrity back into the kitchen and what looked like a storage area beyond.

The students walked deeper into the apartment, flopping on a series of comfortable couches next to a broad window that looked out over the waterfall and park below. Hibor groaned and started kneading his feet. “I swear by the Giant, I will become a mid-tier student just for the quickstep hallways. Any Path necessary, I just don’t want to walk so much.”

Yelun settled primly into her own seat, reaching into her bag and pulling out a scroll. “Don’t forget that lecturer Brardan assigned reading.”

“We aren’t golems!” protested Roni. “After dinner.”

Nathan was distracted by the slave-woman emerging from the room with a pile of blankets and pillows. “If the master would follow me?” She said, then walked towards one of the six doors and opened it. It was also controlled by wizardry that reacted to her presence, but the magic seemed more basic than the complexity Nathan had witnessed elsewhere.

The room beyond was a large and comfortable bedroom, and the slave set the space up for habitation quickly and efficiently. His private room had its own bathroom and desk, and Nathan had to stop himself from thanking the slave as she left.

He tossed a towel into the bottom corner of the door so it wouldn’t close all the way, then blew out a breath. The light turned off, since the Academy thought the room was unoccupied.

Into the Giant’s maw. At least it’s a comfy place.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Aura of Antimagic 9

Permanent Talent 2: Perfected Body 10

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 5

Class: Void of Magic level309

Deepened Stamina: 4390/9570

Void of Feeling

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Magic Anathema

Airborne Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Voluminous Aura

Denial of Wizardry

Mana Severance

Class: Magekiller level 145

Regenerative Focus: 1550/1550

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Unsuspecting Strike

Antimagic Stealth

Spell Redirection

Lethal Index

Utility skills:

Battle Meditation 10

Inspiration 1

Acceleration 4

Wizard Senses 5

Alertness 6

Wizard’s Intuition 6

Effortless Dodge 2

Mental Fortress 9

Tutoring 2

High-tier Tumbling 10

High-tier Noticeability 4

Mid-tier Disguise 5

Mid-tier Battle Cry 7

Mid-tier Aura Manipulation 7

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