Of Wizards and Ravens [Magical Academy, Progression Fantasy, Slice of Life]

I groaned as I appeared on the grass, blinking rapidly to adjust to the high sun, as opposed to the night and faint weirlights. Henry, who had been napping against the tree, cracked an eye open and yawned. An instant later, Salem appeared next to me, and the Erudite nodded to both of us.

"Welcome back. Wait for ten minutes."

I glanced at Salem, who groaned.

"The hellspawn bit t'rough my arcane armor an' was resistin' my first cast'a sleep magic. I managed to knock it out an' rush to the chest, but people were already comin' there."

"Sleep. That's smart. I didn't think a grapple would count as combat, but… I suppose it did."

We waited in companionable silence for Yushin and Jackson to return, Salem nestling in the crook of my elbow as we lay sprawled out on the grass. Once the bell chimed, both of them appeared, and the Erudite fully opened his own eyes.

"Alright. Wanna do the debrief now or next class? If you've got a class and need to run…"

"Nah, 've got an 'our an a half."

"An hour here, but now is fine," I agreed. Jackson and Yushin agreed that they also would like it to be now, and the Erudite stretched, popping his back.

"Alright. First, I should say, well done. I didn't expect you all to do as well as you did. A surprising number of people don't even manage to get into the tower, let alone into his bedroom."

"It was not real, then?" Yushin asked.

"It was, and it wasn't. We've got a standing deal with the Stellthone military to train our spies there, and they can train in our nation. Nothing was actually stolen, though. Now, what went wrong?"

"We put too many of our hopes on someone going inside, which would have given Yushin time to cast her spell and slip through the door, as we noticed them talk to the guard," I said. "Relying on randomness while in a time crunch is a bad idea."

"True, and something to bear in mind in the future. What else?"

"Should'a expected a familiar in the room," Salem said. "He's a mage. Makes sense he's got somethin' guardin' his quarters."

"Also true," the Erudite agreed. "Had you two preemptively prepared a sleep spell for when it was unlocked, you could have knocked it out. What else?"

"We were overly reliant on Yushin and Salem," Jackson said. "They carried me especially, and Emrys to a lesser extent."

"Salem could have used the general dispel on the door instead of me, but I couldn't have made Salem go unnoticed," I agreed.

"That's good, and brings me to my next point. None of you could have done this alone. Now, that's not inherently bad. No mage can specialize in every field, not even one ten times my age. But you should have some competency when it comes to combat, stealth, and statesmanship. This clearly demonstrates that most of you don't. We'll get to statesmanship later, but stealth is something that can be worked on."

"Are you going to actually teach us spells for stealth?" Yushin asked, a touch scathingly. "Or are you just going to keep throwing us into stealth situations and expect us to master it on our own time and prove it to you?"

Henry rolled his eyes at her and shrugged.

"I'll be teaching you spells, but you already know some of them. That said, you're also going to practice with all of them on your own time, and demonstrate mastery in class. But if you want a long list of battle spells, take a class for it. This is about learning to use skills in real world situations."

"Knowing that, if you'd had our power, what would you have done in our situation?" Jackson asked, and I perked up, curious to hear how the Erudite would have handled it.

"I would have mimicked the same approach as you to enter, but then I would have had Salem gradually layer more and more persuasion threads into the mind of the guard on the door. Once he was well enthralled, he'd have let us in, and Yushin could have rendered us all invisible. Emrys would have briefly become visible when dispelling the ward on the door, but not for long, and Yushin could re-apply it. Then we could have all hit the dog with sleep spells, entered, locked the door, dispelled the ward on the chest, and activated our marks."

I pursed my lips, nodding. I wasn't too frustrated about the dog thing – while it was reasonable for a wizard to have some sort of guardian, it could easily have been a construct or animated plant, or something else of the kind. But trying to enthrall the guard was a good idea.

"I dinnae enthrall people," Salem said.

"In terms of preventing your fall to the Creep, that's an excellent sign," the Erudite said. "That said, there is a degree of pragmatism that is needed to counterbalance this. In a training exercise, that's fine. But what if someone had kidnapped Emrys, and set a rune to explode and kill him if you came within range?"

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"I… probably would," Salem admitted. "I dinnae like it, but I would."

"Learn where your lines are. Think about it heavily. Thinking about something and going through it are different, but if you think about it beforehand, you can be a modicum less likely to react out of fear and anger. Find where your lines are, and where they aren't, and bear that in mind. Write it down, if you can, so you can reference and see if you're falling toward the creep."

I nodded. The advice had been meant for Salem, but it sounded fairly useful for anyone who had power. I had to choose how I'd be willing to apply my magic, and where my own lines were. I was a dragon, I had centuries of life ahead of me. It was better to learn my limits now than to react out of fear, as he'd said.

"Alright, any other questions?" the Erudite asked, lifting his staff. He waited a beat, and when nobody spoke up, he continued. "Next class, professor Alydia will go over some useful spells. Good job, kids."

At that, he vanished, and I let out a sigh.

"I know that he said it was a good job, but I can't help but feel like it was a failure. If it had been a real mission, we'd have been caught after the dog started barking, or when we ran out of ether to maintain our disguises."

Yushin and Salem murmured their agreement, but Jackson shook his head.

"We did well. You can't expect our first class to go perfectly."

"I can. In the real world, it does not matter if it is your first attempt, if your life is on the line and you fail, you die. Perfection is–"

"Alright, as fascinating as the difference in philosophy is, I'm hungry," I said, cutting off Yushin's speech halfway through. "I've got about forty minutes to eat, does anyone want to join me in the dining hall?"

My friends rose from the grass and joined me, and we headed in, where it appeared that the hall was in a fish mood. I was served a spicy tuna salad on rye bread, Salem was given a jellied fish loaf, Yushin was fed a pan fried fillet over some spinach, and Jackson's plate was filled with a fish and rice curry.

As we ate, Yushin tapped her fingers on her lips, a nervous tick, before speaking.

"Emrys, will you veil our conversation?" she asked, continuing when I flicked my wand out and cast the spell. "Things are settling down with the dark sect."

"Are they really settled?" I asked. "I mean, they're still out there. They might not be attacking your uncle or you, but they're still lurking."

"True, and we have a plan to deal with this," Yushin conceded. "But the threat has been diminished, and I am now capable of casting all the spells needed to hide myself. Save for one which my aunt must provide."

"You're talking around your point," Jackson said, frowning. "If you're not ready to tell us whatever it is, you don't need to. There isn't any pressure."

"No, I wish to tell you all," Yushin said. She took a second to close her eyes and put her thoughts back into order before she opened her eyes and looked at all of us in turn.

"I am going to begin cultivating soon. I know that I am a touch old, but between the resources that the Shé clan has been preparing, the reassurance of the Traitor Wyrm, and the perfect compatibility of my bloodline with his path, I should rise quickly. If I can reach fifth circle and form a perpetual core by the end of the year, we can set our plan into motion."

"What exactly is that plan?" I asked, frowning slightly. I had seen the plans of wannabe gods once already, with myself, and I didn't like that I'd been used as Kindling, whatever that meant.

"First, we will attempt to lure the leader of the dark sect out. She is likely to be a first-step Nascent Immortal, comparable to professor Alydia or Emir in battle prowess, and a bit more potent than Gerhard. To do this, I will adopt a temporary false face and we will unveil my bloodline fully, which when combined with the power of my cultivation, should be sufficient to draw their spiritual senses. Two of the Shé clan Elders from Shen Long, as well as my aunt, uncle, and ideally all of you, will be lying in wait for us to defeat them."

I relaxed a little bit at that, nodding my agreement, and Jackson actually smiled.

"Once the sect is defeated, we will be able to use my magic, bloodline, and cultivation in tandem to open the way for the Avatar of the Traitor Wyrm," Yushin continued. "The Shé Elders will take him to kill the Divine King or force him to ascend to a heavenly realm, and thus restore the Traitor Wyrm to his rightful place as champion of the people."

I narrowed my eyes, but didn't say anything. That was the part of this that worried me, more than any other portion. I didn't understand divine powers, so I'd have to speak to Jackson. I also wasn't an expert on the cultivation branch of life enforcement, so I'd have to make some probing inquiries. But I did understand bloodlines.

After parsing through the notes from the grimoire left by the Ketsalkuetspalaltepetl royal family, I was confident that I understood the mechanics behind draconic bloodlines better than most. It might not be a perfect one to one when comparing a serpentine demigod, but something about it nagged me.

In order to mimic the power of the Age of Pools, the Matriarch had designed and hidden a portion of my bloodline specifically to be a source of power she could absorb. It was possible that Yushin's bloodline had a similar function built in, also obscured, that could act as a summoning spell of sorts for the divine power of the Traitor Wyrm.

But it just… didn't seem correct. Her bloodline had no spatial components, nor any ability to stretch across realms. By Yushin's own admission, she was unable to use it to step between shadows. Opening a portal, or even having an innate single use summoning function built into a bloodline that lacked any sort of connection to conjuration, spatial, or planar magic just didn't make any sense to me.

"Are you certain that you're not going to become the Avatar?" I asked carefully. "It seems like it would be much easier to establish a faith channel akin to a priest into a demigod than it would be to open a gateway."

"I am, the Shé Elders have shown me the ritual several times, and allowed me to study it," Yushin said confidently. "My wizardry will provide the summoning magic. Fueling the direct connection to his realm will be done with a blood magic ritual using my blood, and the Avatar will take my perpetual core, but that will still leave me with my bloodline and wizardry."

I nodded, but a part of me couldn't help but doubt the veracity of those statements. If the Elders really were so confident, then why would they not encourage Yushin to learn more about conjuration and blood magic? But I didn't want to rock the boat, so I ate lunch with my friends, and made a mental note to prepare some things, just in case, before departing for Intermediate Transmutation.