Illusory Empire: A Magic School Progression Fantasy, page 10
She picked up the stone in one hand, and a voice called from the forest.
“Pass that here!”
The girl looked at the stone, then up to Esme.
“It’s pretty heavy,” she said, already under her charm. “I’ll bring it over.”
The wolf growled, and the lynx let out a roar, but the girl walked over toward Esme.
Gray suddenly appeared between the animals and their traitorous teammate, Blinking in with his rapier drawn as Harold lumbered in from the side.
The wolf broke to the right to intercept Harold while the lynx pounced at Gray. Harold met the wolf’s bite, bashing its head to the side with his shield and following up with a slash. The wolf let out a yelp and collapsed, transforming back into a human boy who rolled away, regaining his footing. In his human form, he still had a bloody slash across his side darkening his leathers around the wound. The clothing itself was unharmed.
Gray met his own attacker, thrusting his open palm out and speaking the words for Shield. The barrier appeared between him and the pouncing cat and stopped its flight. Before the cat could even reach the ground, Gray stabbed his rapier forward through the barrier, lancing the lynx in the shoulder. The cat, however, recovered quickly from the midair attack, and as soon as its claws hit the ground, it jumped on Gray again, this time pinning the wizard.
The cat slashed at Gray. His Mage Armor protected him from immediate death, giving him enough time to Blink away to the edge of the clearing. The lynx looked around, muzzle stained with blood. It had found a gap in the armor a moment too late.
Before the druid in cat form could find a new target, Mouse suddenly appeared behind it, transforming from her mouse form into her human one. She jumped onto the lynx’s back and stabbed it repeatedly with her daggers. The cat let out a shrill roar and tried to throw Mouse off. Mouse, however, would not be tossed, and the enemy was forced to transform back into her human form. Mouse lost her grip on her weapons as her opponent morphed, and the two began to wrestle in the grass.
The crow, upon seeing its teammate walking the ball to the enemy, cawed, flew at Esme and began pecking at her face.
“What?! Stop it, Fior!” the enthralled girl yelled. “It’s Esme! From class!”
The girl paused at that for a moment, looked at the ball in her hand with confusion, and then her thoughts became clear. She looked up at Esme with horror at what she’d almost done.
“I lost her!” Esme shouted, shielding her face with one hand as she drew her short sword with the other.
She began swinging blindly at the crow, but the bird moved surprisingly fast for one so large.
When the illusion showed a close-up of this battle between girl and crow, Rakin let out a satisfied chuckle.
“Peck her nose off!” he shouted, gaining looks from the other patrons.
The girl with the ball began to transform into a blue jay, the object of everyone’s desire disappearing with her shifting form.
“That’s cheating!” Kole found himself saying, despite knowing that there were essentially no rules in hardball.
“It’s not,” Zale said, not taking her eyes away from the battle.
Esme finally landed a solid blow on the crow, sending it crashing to the ground, a raven-haired boy appearing there.
“Bird!” Esme shouted as she took in her surroundings.
Harold was fighting against the wolf boy and his wooden staff, Mouse was still wrestling the cat girl, and Gray was getting back on his feet after teleporting away.
“Shoot true!” Esme commanded, looking at Gray, speaking the magic of her Blessing into the words.
Gray seemed to recover some of his strength, standing up straighter. Watching the blue jay fly away, he took a moment to steady himself, then cast his hand forward, pointing ahead of the bird’s path.
A jagged spike of ice appeared before his hand, flying up into the air. The bolt met the bird twenty feet above the ground, and when it hit, the bird grew rapidly back into her human form, ice spike still protruding from her side. She continued through the air, only now she fell. Screaming over the brief distance, she stretched her arms out in front of her, they touched the ground, and she vanished.
Mouse—who was being choked by the opponent sitting on her chest—saw the bird’s fall and suddenly transformed back into a mouse, disappearing in the grass. Her opponent transformed back into a lynx, the act taking more time for her than it had taken Mouse, and she began sniffing to find the other girl.
Distracted as she was by watching Gray’s efforts, Esme didn’t see it coming when the crow boy shot her with an arrow and caused her to vanish.
By then, Harold had dispatched his opponent, making him disappear with a swipe that would have cut his arm off at the shoulder. He’d outmatched his opponent with weapons alone, but the Assuine Blessed had an edge in magic and capitalized on the advantage. Harold was still fighting free of the vines and roots snaring his feet as he looked around.
Gray had lost the strength Esme’s words had briefly granted him, and he was clutching at his bleeding shoulder with one hand as he limped for cover behind a tree. Harold ran for Gray, even as the lynx prowled about, sniffing the ground to search for Mouse.
The former crow fired arrows at Harold as he ran towards Gray, but the warrior hid behind his shield as he went. Once he reached Gray behind the safety of the tree, he touched his neck, and the wound healed beneath his hand.
“I didn’t know he could do that,” Kole said.
Blessings of healing were rare—outside the insane demigod of competition who liberally passed out the ability, but only for wounds gained in battle. The other gods could only grant the power to their Blessed who had selfless hearts on top of their alignment to the deities’ path.
Kole didn’t remember what god Harold followed, but he was certain it wasn’t Ganik, God of the Contest.
“It wasn’t a secret, you literally never asked me about him when we were dating.” Zale had taken her eyes from the scene to look at Kole.
He suddenly felt very uncomfortable.
“I… uhh… was taking my lead from Rakin, who wasn’t a fan,” Kole said, looking to the dwarf for help.
“Aye.” Rakin took him by surprise by backing him up. “I told him ye were besotted with a moron who had no redeeming talents.”
“Well, maybe next time you’ll trust my judgement of character,” Zale said, looking back to the illusion, smiling.
Gray and Harold had broken from cover, Harold running for the lynx while Gray ran for the archer. As the archer left his own cover, Gray vanished, then appeared beside him and stabbed him with his rapier. The blade pierced the archer’s side, but he didn’t vanish. Instead, a ball of flame appeared in his hand, and he punched Gray in the face. Gray jerked his sword, and then both boys were gone.
The lynx broke from her search for Mouse and engaged Harold in a one-on-one confrontation. As soon as the cat turned to face Harold, Mouse rose up out of the grass, hidden from view behind a tree, and ran for the ball. Snatching it up without Harold or the lynx noticing, she then went running through the forest back to their base, not making a sound as the trees and underbrush parted silently around her.
The battle against the wolf Blessed had been tougher on Harold than it had appeared, and he was mostly on the defensive against the lynx’s attacks. He and the big cat held each other off, the latter easily dodging the few tired swings Harold gave out, until Mouse made it back to her starting location, scoring a point.
The match, however, didn’t immediately end, and Mouse stared at the ball perplexed, before remembering that she had to destroy it to end the match. What followed was Mouse slamming the stone ball against the stone platform they’d appeared on. On her third attempt, the ball broke in half, and the projection vanished.
Chapter 16
The Lemon Hall
The Rive Knight’s magic could create a field of destructive severing on a microscopic level that even the blade’s wielder was not safe from, but the Aegis Knight’s Barrier magic could protect them both. These items are not picky in Bonding their wielders, so long as they are siblings. If one of the pair dies, the Bond with the survivor fails—unless they have another sibling ready to take up the Bond.
—Kysin the 195th High Librarian. Bladed Knights, 5th ed.
“That match…” Amara began, looking at Doug. “…didn’t go super well for them. You four did much better.”
She then looked across the tavern table to Zale, holding her hand up to shield her mouth from Doug, and attempted to whisper, “Are they not very good?”
“Hah!” Zale laughed, and Doug joined in. “The Risen Dahn did great! I wouldn’t want to face four of Assuine’s Blessed in a forest.”
Amara didn’t seem to believe Zale and looked to Rakin and Kole for confirmation.
“Aye,” Rakin said reluctantly. “Those animal kids might as well’ve turned into blind moles for all the good they did with their shapeshifting.”
“They should have just grabbed the ball and run,” Zale said. “Leaving three behind to delay. They didn’t know who they were up against, but they should have known no other group could have matched them in that environment.”
Doug nodded.
“I couldn’t have caught up to any of them, and I don’t think anyone in the class can fly,” he said.
“Not well enough to get through those trees,” Zale said. “There’s an Air primal boy, Wentin. His skin’s very dark, so it’s easy to miss the blue hue.”
“Well—” Kole began, but Amara bolted upright, jumping out of her seat.
“A signal!” she shouted, making her way to the door, only sparing a glance back at her friends.
They all stood, their chairs making loud screeches. Zale fished a handful of money out of her coin purse and threw it on the table.
Kole quickly did the math in his head as he saw the coins spinning.
“That’s way too much!” he protested, but Zale grabbed him by the arm as he tried to collect the gold coin she’d tossed out.
“Don’t be cheap!” she said, yanking him after Amara.
“Bah ha!” Rakin downed his weird mushroom drink before running out. Catching up to Kole, he looked at his friend and shrugged. “Rich girls.”
Outside, Amara’s common sense caught up to her eagerness, and she stood anxiously waiting for her friends. Once they were all out, though, she started running through the streets, chasing the path indicated by her device. Their running caused quite the commotion, especially as people caught sight of Zale with her voidling complexion. She reactivated her disguise to make their passage slightly less noticeable.
The tracker was pointing back out to the plains, far enough away that it hardly shifted when they travelled perpendicular to the bearing. After a frustrating amount of backtracking out of alleys, Zale took the lead, retracing the path they’d taken with Runt as their guide. Once they reached the tents, they broke off once more for the correct heading.
Amara was the weakest link when it came to endurance, and their mad dash slowed to a light jog by the time they reached the plains.
They jogged on, not in the direction of the burnt section as they expected, but into tall dry grass higher than even Doug’s antlers. Doug took the lead, the grass parting for him only to be trampled down by the four following him.
“Motes!” Amara cursed—or at least Kole thought it was a curse. “I lost the signal.”
“I got it,” Rakin said, pushing his way to the front. “Follow me!”
“Why?” Kole asked, trusting his friend, but still wanting to know why Rakin was so confident.
“I can keep a bearing,” Rakin said.
Kole shut up and followed Rakin in what seemed to him to be a pretty straight line. Only after he turned back did he see that the path they trampled through the grass was a perfectly straight line. Better even than when they were following the tracker, as he saw that in the distance behind them, their trail had begun to waver.
They continued blindly at a walk, slowing down now that they knew the portal to be gone. After nearly half an hour, they came to a clearing of flattened grass twenty feet across.
Doug immediately bent low, investigating the ground. The crushed grass parted at his gesture, revealing the dirt below.
“I think these were those soldier ants,” he said, looking up from a footprint.
Despite their ant bodies, the soldier ants had humanlike feet and had worn sandals. These tracks—according to Doug—matched those.
“What does this mean?” Doug asked.
“This plain must be similar to wherever another ant army outpost is,” Kole said. “It sort of looks like what we saw when we first crossed over.”
“Do you think they opened it on purpose?” Zale asked.
“Probably not? The birds flew out before, and I can’t see Amintha having worked alongside the ants to open this if she was responsible for the missing primal. My guess is that this is another natural congruency. Whatever’s happening, I think these portals are naturally occurring to some degree. Maybe the empire’s forces are using the phenomenon to stage an attack, but they don’t seem to be controlling them—at least not yet.”
Doug checked the clearing, but found nothing else, only more of the same footprints.
“It looked like they formed a perimeter and then fell back through the portal here,” he said, indicating a line in the grass. “They didn’t venture out, just defended.”
“So, this is something they’ve seen before and have a procedure for,” Zale mused. “We should report this.”
Everyone agreed, but a tiny part of Kole felt remorse at the thought of turning this information over. Then the horror of fighting through a spider-infested mountain came back to mind, and that faded.
Yeah, we should definitely report this, he thought.
“Can you unflatten the grass?” Zale asked Doug, gesturing to their trail.
Doug looked and then grimaced, shaking his head. “Not after you guys did that.”
Zale blushed and asked, “If we were more gentle, could you hide a path?”
Doug considered it, then nodded.
“Great. Let’s go out further into the grass, and I’ll open a door home. You can hide our tracks. Then we can keep the door out here for a while and check up on the portal.”
Getting no objections, Doug led them through, walking slowly, concentrating hard to keep the grass away from the group as they walked. He took careful steps, instructing them all to step only where he did, and Kole couldn’t help but keep turning back in amazement as the grass stood back up behind them.
After only fifty feet, Doug stopped.
“I can’t do any more. Is this enough?”
They all looked around, not able to see any sign of their path.
“One second,” Zale said, vanishing into black motes.
She reappeared a few seconds later, up in the air, her feet ten feet off the ground, and immediately fell, falling to her side in a roll as she hit the grass.
“Ow!” she shouted, despite the seemingly graceful save.
“I could see the clearing but not our path,” she said. “There are some other tiny clearings here and there, so this one shouldn’t stand out if no one sees the door.”
Zale pulled the handle out of her jacket and opened a door back to the Dahn. The door opened smaller than usually, just tall enough for Kole to step through with his head bowed while Doug would need to finagle his antlers through with concerted effort. One by one they squeezed out into an unfamiliar room, a large circle with doors lining the walls.
“What’s this?” Kole asked.
“The Lemon Hall,” Zale said proudly.
“The what?”
Rakin groaned and rubbed his face in dread at what was to come, while Zale smiled.
“It’s a liminal space,” she explained.
“A lemon what?” Doug asked.
“Exactly,” Zale said. “Once Mom and her team had a lot of permanent doors set up, they made a room dedicated to it. Someone—probably Uncle Tal—called it a liminal space and someone else—probably one of my parents—misheard it as Lemon Hall Space, and it stuck.”
“I like it,” Amara said, looking around.
“The pun or the name?” Kole asked.
“Both,” she said, firmly.
“Can you open any of these?” Kole asked Zale.
She shook her head.
“You can restrict access to people with less privileges than you when you open doors, and that’s what happened to me. I’ve never been able to go through these. Someone must have elevated my access.”
“Who has more privileges than you?” Kole asked.
“Mom, for one. She has the highest. Uncle Tal is probably next, along with Dagmar. After that, it’s the college heads. I’m somewhere around their level—depending on how Mom feels about me on the given day. That’s why I could steal the doors Underbrook set up.”
“Steal, you say?” Kole jumped on the admission of guilt.
“Borrow!” Zale said, blushing as she hastily corrected herself. “It’s not stealing if I’m allowed to take it.”
“Sure it isn’t,” Rakin said, joining in.
Kole changed the topic for Zale’s benefit. “Why didn’t you do this before when we had the door in the dormitory?”
“I… umm…” Zale looked away in a different type of embarrassment. “…sort of forgot about it. I’ve never needed to use it before.”
“It’s fine,” Rakin said, in an uncharacteristic show of encouragement. “It worked out.”
They made their way out of the room, the exit taking them straight to their common living space. Once they were all through, Zale closed the door, opening it again to the foyer of the partly rearranged Dahn, where the defense was being organized. Now more doors lined the walls, some leading to halls with rooms for more private discussions while others opened to disparate locations across Kaltis.
“This is still mind-bending, and I’m a Space primal,” Doug said, rubbing a headache.
