(Resumed) Solstice

[Abraham Adams]

I turned my eyes to face my fellow noble Scion. "How-"

Scion Jules was round as ever, but today he was particularly gilded. While he bore his usual attire, his head bore an ornate violet headpiece, riveted to a right shoulder plate funneling into a vambrace that finally tapered off into a gauntlet. He was panting heavily, struggling to stand, left hand clutched to his heart in agony. 

"Heavens...and Havens..." I had seen him weave that lightning at the Remedial. We Three Houses held talent far above the pedestrians, but not even one of us could perform Conceptual Magick at his age. That Armor had to be Enchanted to force Aspection. But then how does Transmutation create worldly lightning? "Recuperate if you can. He still hasn't Overburned." I could always ask him how it worked later.

I had not initially believed Romeo when he summoned me from my duties to tell me that Emmett Sinclair was not only an Emissary of Total Salvation but the heir to Aegis' throne. This was, after all, an Empty Remedial weaker than a child when he first showed his disgraceful self. I had reasoned him to be bedding one of the male teachers in exchange for favours, probably Ser Linn. He was too depraved for any woman to risk her body in courtship, and he was reportedly progressing far too quickly without exorbitant one-on-one instruction.

In spite of doubt, I gave Romeo a chance. He was ambushed in Lovebite by an Emissary, and it was that same weekend Emmett attempted an insurrection in Stormingcalm.

What finally banished my doubt was Emmett evoking that fetish of the fairer sex. Not only was he a molester waiting to happen, but he had to be an Etsy plant. Not even with the finest Enchantments and Adams' blood in the veins could he have achieved that in less than a month. His failure at the Entrance Examination was an orchestrated farce.

And yet here he stood, his voice belching a hiccup and degrading to a shrill laugh.

I advanced toward his position. Romeo was in no condition to fight, and I had a seminary to protect.

Romeo scurried off, hopefully behind a building where he could take cover.

Information wins wars. I opened a probe to his mind on the off-chance he neglected to shield himself, sinking perfectly into his thoughts. He didn't even notice with that mad laughter of his. Even better: he'd lost conscious awareness. Every thought held a woman's sultry moan or pained cry. There was not one hint of his surroundings. How vulgar.

Normally our station obligated a member of House Adams to announce their intent to carry out capital punishment, but not only would my words not reach him, he was an Etsy. Specifically, he was the groomed Apprentice of Aegis himself. 

Without further ado, I raised my foot to invoke the Meteoric Circle. While Father bade me hide my Attunement at CVAC, Annul Rhombus was a different tale. My foot pounded the forsaken road and Drew my Circle in Fire.

The instant I did, he snapped to face me, eyes rolled up yet locked dead onto mine. His laughter lulled into an animal's growl.

They trained him as a Berserker?! Good thing I'm not fucking around. Fire rose from my Hagalaz runes, compacting into meteors that most certainly would have eradicated that paltry testing obelisk. 

I noted the sounds of battle ahead and toward the left. "Romeo, innocents?"

After a few seconds of silence, his voice called back. "None. Just his accomplices and some Devil bitch. 'Sfar as I'm concerned, they can all-"

Emmett blurred into an azure streak, racing dead at Scion Jules with the cacophony of a deranged fox.

Stuck on backhand, I loosed the first Meteor to cut him off, shirk, and seize forehand.

Emmett blasted Æther from his feet to overtake my attack line in a mockery of the Element of Fire.

[Samael]

A cloud of flame consumed a structure ahead and to the right.

The Demon turned its head to assay the wreckage.

Capitalising on the distraction, I swung my arms wide like swords. I bellowed a loud disciplined Soulshout infused with Wind. I threw a relentless hurricane kick. Each action released blades or bursts of Air to whittle away at the inhuman wretch.

A fair lot connected, but even the ones it blocked put pressure on it. It hitched and snarled. "Thou wouldst thy comrade abandon?!"

I gestured forth to Patrick's unconscious self, then left to Grace's. "Nice try. They're right here." As for Emmett, well, it was his fault we were here in the first place, fighting something we clearly couldn't. Plus, if he died, this Squad would dissolve, leaving me available to join a Combat Squad with actual peers. I would honestly be doing House Michaels more proud in that position, too.

The Demon's blade arm trembled. Its voice spat with indignation it had no right to hold. "Hypocrite."

With a deep breath, I twisted my abdomen starboard. Attuning the Æther in my lungs, I crossed my left leg back and sank into a low squat, leaning onto the right foot and lifting my left heel. I held my hands out, covering my face and giving myself a targeting reticle. This was an adaptation and arguable reversal of the Draconic Guard in Endeavoured Time, the foremost Martial Arte. The twisted, deep stance degraded its combat fitness in exchange for valuable english on the Æther. This would impart strength, speed, and accuracy to my Spells, particularly Dragonbreath.

The Demon shook its head and pulled its weapon back, engulfing it in Darkness. "You leave your charges to die yet claim to lead?! She put her faith in you, and for what? To be sacrificed?!"

How rich, a Demon emasculating the Remedial trying to lecture me on morals.

Another firebomb bellowed in the periphery.

The Demon's Spell withered away as its focus broke.

I seized the moment to release Dragonbreath from my lungs. The Magick spiraled into a hurricane lance perfect for vivisection. This degree of strength I wouldn't show in front of the first-years; I wanted them several steps ignorant of my abilities in case they attempted mutiny.

But it was more than enough for this.

The Demon enshrouded herself in violet and dashed through my Spell at impossible speed, scattering it to the Four Winds in sadistic irony.

I scrambled to stand, but it was too late; the Demon had entered my space.

Lightning coursed in my periphery, not that I cared when my life was forfeit.

Its sword sliced clean into my ribs without room to guard. Not that I could have in the first place; the Hellsbound abomination wielded Transmutation Magick with the ease of breathing.

A deep, natural female voice pierced my blinding pain, speaking slow and hard. By my Blade mark I thee. I shan't thee slay, though I such Will hold. Thou leadest none, for thou naught valuest save thine own Face! Thou lustest over Deaths of Killers, yet thou their worse Traits bearest! I set now forth, thy Errand in thine Stead to attend. Goodbye, and pray that thou me nevermore behold mayest. I advise thee, thy Memories to reclaim.

A foreign Magick entangled the opened organs from her wound. I lost consciousness, my last sensation being my insides melding back whole. As if anyone would Call a Demon against one of my House.

[Abraham Adams]

From a position of mad exhaustion, Emmett had elided my first Meteor's direct impact. Thankfully the aftershock had sent him prone.

He had then evaded the second by detonating Æther beneath his position, punching himself into the sky.

Having learned my lesson on the agility of cornered rats, I had planted my feet wide for a low Equine Brace, a squatting stance facing the opponent head-on with fists chambered at the ribs.

Mother had demanded I learn a Martial Arte despite House Adams' Ætheric superiority. Father eventually relented, stipulating it be the eldest form, Endeavoured Time, from which all others were born, through which I could channel all of human history to sear even the Heavens.

I had drawn a breath to strike him dead when a lance of tempestuous lightning streaked his airborne flesh.

Emmett Sinclair dropped to the ground, motionless. The Æther around him blinked out of existence.

I turned to the right and saw Romeo also prone. He must be severely Overburned and in need of attention. It was utterly unnecessary of him to do that, but it worked, so maybe I should be grateful.

I held my stance a few seconds longer. Though victory was already assured, I felt too uneasy to break stance. First, check his vitals. I closed my eyes and opened them in a flash of Ætheric Sight.

What most people are not taught is that Ætheric Sight also reveals manifestations of the caster's Element. Air Magi see wind patterns and air concentrations. Water Magi see water in wells, plants, and bodies. Earth Magi perceive precise geological nature, and Fire Magi, such as myself, see the flow of heat.

He had no trace of Magickal energy anywhere near his person, but his body hadn't even begun to cool. 

My temper started to slip. This thorn in my side survived the literal Wrath of the Heavens?!

With boiling blood, I released my Sight and condensed Fire into an explosive flare around my fist. I threw it at him with a punch to shatter his skull.

The exploding firebolt did not explode. Instead, it snuffed out like candlelight.

We. Were. Thwarted. Four. Fold.

My stance collapsed. I landed on my rump and screamed. Anger, fear, hate, impossibility, and frustration reverberated throughout. Romeo was dead right: this menace, somehow, held enough influence for Aegis to personally 

During my mental collapse, Æther returned to Emmett, enveloping him as before. His maniacal throes resumed soon after.

My body locked up. I had fought opponents stronger than me. Hells, I had sparred and a few times fought against Father. There, I was afraid yet still could act.

Here, my body was frozen. I was not fighting against Father, nor a Dean, nor a Provost, nor Lady Stahl, nor Lord Jules, nor Headmaster Clarent, nor Aegis.

My enemy was an overgrown baby playing at Magick. SO WHY CAN'T I MOVE?!?!

Emmett's Magick quickly destabilized into a mass of Lightning. "The truth - hah - it hurts - hah - like lightning - hahah - doesn't it? Hahaha"

What was this? What was any of this?!

"Hah - Such arrogance... How - hah - did I think... I could change - hah - what I always...." His Lightning swelled, cutting into him and latching onto the environs. 

I started scrambling in a crab-walk as fast as I could away.

"We should - hah - embrace - hahah - The t-tru..." His body seized as if struck again by Romeo.

In my panick, I bumped against a humanoid figure with viscously melting flesh. I forced my eyes up, and a helmet made of a skull stared back down.

"No, no no, no no no no, no no no no no NO NO NO-"

A scorched talon rested gently atop my forehead.

I was going to die. Whatever this revenant had in store, I must have died at some point in this fight and not realized it.

Its broken voice hissed with chills down my spine. "I will. Set right. The wounds YOU inflicted."

The first thing I felt was a tendril sliding painlessly into my brain.

The next thing I saw was its arm glossing over into an obsidian black with coloured wisps dancing therein.

The last thing I heard was the deathly scream of a Nightmare.

I lost consciousness in the perverse comfort that I would continue to live.

LunaSoltaer

So by far the hardest part of this chapter was researching what happens if someone got struck by lightning in midair. I found a ChatGPT response somewhere claiming some cases of skydivers getting hit existed and most of them survived, and with minor injuries at that. Of course there's alsoThis response also by ChatGPT suggesting that severe injuries and/or death are likely. I got overwhelming research that most people survive lightning strikes... on the ground, but it was really irritating to find anything for airborne that wasn't an aircraft getting hit.

So I decided that for the purposes of Solstice, that Transmuted natural lightning is definitely survivable, but has some powerful side effects. Not as strong as organically-sourced lightning from the real sky, especially with Romeo piloting it, but enough to cause some weird nervous system shite.

As for the Old English, traditionally, thy and thine are used before vowel and consonant sounds, but I experimented with the idea of "what if they were nominative/accusative and dative/genitive instead?" The word order is also obviously wrong for Old English, but that's because I am, to the best of my recollection, using German word order verbatim. (Anyone who tells you English is a Latin-based language is trying to sell you something. English semantics have derived extensively from Latin, but English grammar is Germanic in nature.)

The other annoying thing to research was dragon stance. I wanted a traditionally proper and correct one, but found another site calling something dragon stance that looked wildly different from every other dragon stance I encountered so far. I compared the two and made some novice observations, and away I went.

Also if anyone guesses where I got the inspiration for forehand, backhand and shirk I will fall massively in love for a brief period of time, then fall out of love and into a digital pinball bouncing across the metaphorical room.

Was there anything else? Oh yeah, I think this chapter marks my first deliberate use of an Americanism.

Anyway I should stop rambling. Thank you for reading my book!