NOVEL NEXT B3 | Ch22 — An Unwelcome Announcement
After their conversation finished, Ria couldn't help replaying Jarrel's closing words in her mind.
'If any of the Houses try to force you into something, tell me. If I can take care of it, I will. If not, I'll help you escape. You don't have to stay in Crysellia if it becomes too much.'
She was glad for Jarrel's dedication even if it left her worried that he might do something dangerously risky should she mess up too badly with the politics.
Pushing those new worries aside, she took a deep breath and entered her Spellcraft class for the first time since the debut.
Upon catching sight of her, a cocksure grin lit the face of—Yarin, was it?—the spiky-haired blond who never took notes, nonchalantly reclining in his chair, soft-booted feet propped on his desk. "Welcome back, Shortie."
A girl, Tara, who sat across the room facepalmed and incredulously interjected, "You're the shortie! If it wasn't for the first-year girl, you'd be the shortest in the class!"
Yarin rolled his eyes in response and mock-pouted. "Oy, what would I have done if she hadn't come back? Huh? See, it'd be terrible."
"Don't listen to them, Celestria," Mina spoke up and waved her over. "How's your health?"
Already hurrying past, Ria glanced around the room at Tara and the rest of her already-arrived, politely nodding or waving classmates and back at Yarin, who gave her a thumbs-up, before turning her attention back to Mina. "Fine?"
Mina motioned for Ria to present her hand. "You've been pushing really hard, if what Wendra's been saying is true. Let me give you a scan."
"Um, thanks."
"Hmmm. There's some inflammation, but I guess it's as good as can be expected."
Ria grimaced. "Not trying my best… is difficult."
Her pride really disliked losing.
"Leaning into that whole dragon heritage thing, huh? Draconic pride, dragon breath, I wonder what's next? Sleeping on piles of gold and gems? Or is it… snacking on gold and gems?" Wendra teased with a wink and motioned to the Daily Shadow copy she was reading and pointed at an article title. "You're in the Daily Shadow again."
Ria didn't have a comeback for any of that—it was true enough. She let her gaze follow to where Wendra was pointing.
The Sages' new secret weapon?! Are the Sages preparing a dark horse run at this year's Grand Games title?
"Pretty funny stuff," her fifth-year cousin offered, amusement in her voice before becoming more serious, "Some of the other articles aren't so funny, though."
"May I?" Ria asked while settling into her seat.
"Sure."
Wendra slid the large folded paper onto Ria's desk.
The headline article and the one below it immediately caught Ria's attention.
Amethyst Dream's Popular Third-year Gervain Tevius Catches The Elven Mystery Disease?
Rumors Swirl: This Year's Summer Games To Be Canceled? Will There Be A Quarantine?
Tevius wasn't an elven House. The affinity-destroying disease was spreading to non-elves!
Barely skimming the article about Gervain, Ria skipped down to the second article. There wasn't much to glean from the interviews and speculation. It really was just rumors without the specific answers—just that the Administrators held an emergency meeting, and Houses with children attending the academy were pushing for something to be done to resolve the issue, for further safety measures to be implemented.
"Have you heard anything about a quarantine or canceling the Grand Games, Mina?"
Mina shook her head. "Not yet. If anyone knows the cause, they aren't saying. Some of my Order are speculating that the strange illness might be another attack by Revant to weaken us. If it spreads to the Greater Houses… the damage could cripple not just the war effort but our future strength."
Yeah, that could get bad… maybe she should do some divinations? She was able to solve the mystery in Vorshan's Hills—even if she regretted how that situation ended.
Ria rubbed the divination-obscuring ring on her finger and moved on to the article Wendra had pointed out.
…successfully manifested what looks like true dragonfire using the infamous "Dragon Breath" spell, almost triggering the arena failsafes! With a new heavy-hitter capable of forcing out fourth and fifth year students, are they setting up the pieces to challenge the invincible Champion Rone of the Silver Shields?
Investigations have also revealed that the Sages negotiated for one of the regional preliminaries slots. With the high travel costs, is the resource-strapped Tower committing to a serious dark-horse run at this year's Games?
Are these the moves of disgraced ice-mage and strategic mastermind Hulle Novidus? From what we saw of the team's recent public practice event, the addition of two new first-year Divinesday Champions may just be the final needed pieces added to a surprisingly competitive core of members…
Shadwich showed up while she was reading, and when their eyes met, he gave her a questioning look. The nod she answered with caused the jovial man to grin and return a thumbs up before getting right into the week's lecture.
Wendra caught the exchange, and Ria was forced to mouth an "I'll tell you later" to sufficiently appease her curious cousin.
As with the prior classes, the lecture covered a broad range of important concepts in modern magic, tying them to the historical methods they replaced and explaining why the new discoveries were considered improvements. The final topic was a particularly fascinating comparison of shapes shared by elementally similar concepts and supporting geometries that resonated with those shapes.
Though her math class often covered similar material, this class and her enchanting materials class were her two favorites, even when compared with the recent and fun abjuration practicums where she got to engage in sanctioned destruction of academy property while also dominating her peers.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
Fun and interesting things aside, Ria had a goal for the day, and was ready the moment the individual research part of class started. "Wendra, I want to use orichalcum magic to improve my ranged capabilities. The swamp practice gave me a lot of ideas, but I'm not sure what direction to focus my effort."
Wendra raised an eyebrow. "That's what your suspicious exchange with Shadwich was about before class started?"
"Ah, haha. No, no." Ria sheepishly waved her hands in denial. "He wanted to know if I was able to arrange sourcing for a rare elixir ingredient."
"You're going to risk further mutations?" Mina asked in disbelief as she scooted her chair up to Ria's desk.
Wendra slid their desks together to make a larger workspace. Before Ria could answer Mina, a letter-delivery spell deposited a fancy envelope with fancier handwritten script onto her desk.
"Don't worry, Mina. The elixir is to be gifted to someone else. It won't be for me."
"That delivery looks important…," Mina prompted, motioning with her eyes. "Maybe you should take care of that?"
"Ahhaha," Ria nervously chuckled. She vaguely dreaded Phaelys putting into writing things that could be misunderstood and had fruitlessly hoped that pretending the letter wasn't important would have allowed her to escape reading it in front of the specific two friends who currently had an ability to veto her plans. Reluctantly, she used her magic to soften the seal enough to neatly open the envelope and extracted the letter.
An auspicious springtime greetings Celestria ad`Drelfgar,
In this season of growth, I am glad to hear from you. My family has increased my security since the unfortunate event, and with the increased interest in my actions, I thought it best to avoid meeting publicly without your request. That is the excuse I tell myself, but in truth, the real reason is cowardice to face the shame of what happened.
As your escort, failing to keep you safe is a stain upon my honor and further heightens my desire to accustom myself to real combat so such failure will never happen again. I can only be grateful should such an opportunity present itself before I am again faced with the life and death of those under my protection.
Perhaps the Grand Games' Mission Event will provide the desired experience should Amethyst Destiny overcome the preliminaries. Yet, with the mysterious elven illness having struck one of our team members, whether the event will even be held is in question.
The Houses are worried about losing multiple young talents should we remain at the academy. The High Council is worried about the disease spreading to the combat mages of the Greater Houses if anyone is allowed to return home or attend Divinesday gatherings.
As a compromise, heirs are being allowed to leave for safe locations within their controlled territories so that worried Houses can perform their own medical observations and divinations. The quarantine will be announced after the agreed-upon heirs have been transported to safe locations. Cousin Ophesia was House Vesali's choice.
Already, students and mages in particular are being stopped from leaving the academy, and all items being brought in or out are subject to inspection. The official announcement should be forthcoming soon.
The positive from this is that my afternoon schedule has been freed, and in response to your letter, I am glad to offer the promised lesson in crystal magic following my lunch with Cousin Nielle. To facilitate the lesson, using a practice room is best. I recommend we meet inside the Crystal Tower to avoid unnecessary attention aimed your way. The tower's practice rooms are spacious and well-equipped. Please confirm if such time and place are agreeable.
Awaiting a response with anticipation,
Phaelys Vesali
"Ugh, they're really quarantining us!" Wendra groaned from where she had leaned close to also read.
Mina had been more polite and waited patiently, but the fourth-year girl's brow creased at Wendra's statement. "Is there mention of how that's going to work? Healer's Hall sees a lot of patients from outside the academy. Will we no longer be able to see them?"
"Quarantine?" a fourth-year girl from a few desks over blurted out, distracted from her teams' animated discussion by Wendra's outburst, and when all eyes in the room caught sight of the fancy letter in Ria's hand, a minor commotion broke out.
Ria sent the letter to her vault before anyone could even think of grabbing for it, and raised her hands in a placating manner. "There's no official announcement yet…"
As Ria was speaking, letters began to arrive for every student present. Wendra and Mina's copies looked identical to the one that stopped to float in front of her.
Administrative Announcement
The letters promptly unfolded themselves.
Greetings Student,
The Crysellian Grand Academy of Magic has been placed under quarantine by joint order of the Crysellian High Council and the academy administrators. All students are hereby required to remain within the academy's walls until notice of the lifting of this quarantine.
To allow for the acquisition of goods and supplies and the honoring of existing contracts, registered servants with no magical ability can still leave and return, but will be subject to a full examination upon departure and return. All items carried or stored using spatial magic will be subject to examination. All teleportation that passes through the academy's barrier will be subject to interdiction.
Procedures are being finalized to accommodate those participating in Grand Games regional competitions outside the academy grounds. More information will be forthcoming as necessary. Divinesday games will continue, but students will no longer be allowed to enter the public seating areas.
For now, students are advised to focus on their studies and continue activities as normal. In the case of a decline in magic ability or a feeling of general weakness, immediately seek evaluation at Healer's Hall. Anyone who has been in contact with Aelyri Windseeker, Uvial Heartwood, Gervain Tevius during this school term, report to Healer's Hall for examination.
Administrator of Student Affairs,
Rente Ravelle
The storm of letters was soon followed by an out-of-breath Shadwich returning early to the room from his usual break to check on his experiments.
Jeston jumped to his feet. "They can't do this!"
Murmured agreement spread around the room.
"The reason for the quarantine is obvious. For all anyone knows, all of us are already infected," Yarin breezily offered from his seat at the front of the class. "You could just lock yourself in your room until it is over if you are scared."
"I am not scared," the excitable Celestial Knowledge boy denied. "It is common sense to not stay where one is in danger. Being forced to stay is a violation of our noble rights!"
Tara shook her head. "The notice said this is a decision directly from the High Council. If the Greater Houses are forcing their own to stay as well, then the risk of spread must be serious."
"We've been abandoned to our fate?!"
"Do the healers even know what is causing it?"
"Are we going to die?"
Others from groups around the room began to add their voices to the increasingly tense atmosphere in the room.
Ria glanced at Wendra and Mina, who both had furrowed brows.
Shadwich clapped his hands twice to get the class' attention. "Alright, I see you all have received your notices. There's no use getting too worked up over it; I'm sure they'll get it sorted out soon. Instructors have been told to continue classes as normal, so I'll be continuing to assist with your individual projects until the lunch break, but if any of you have matters that need to be seen to, feel free to take care of them. I will post additional office hours later for those that need extra assistance. Any questions?"
Ria hesitantly raised her hand. "Um…"
"Celestria." Shadwich gave her a nod to speak.
"...I visited with Aelyri when she was in Healer's Hall…"
Gasps and worried glances were exchanged all around the room.
Shadwich made a shooing motion. "Well then, best you hurry along to Healer's Hall. Special examinations may have been set up."
"Okay…"
Ria looked to Mina, and the Healing Hands fourth-year nodded confirmation. "The announcement said for those with contact to go."
Wendra offered an encouraging smile. "Send me a letter with your ranged magic ideas, and I will work on recommendations."
"I'll do that. Thanks."
"Don't worry about meeting with Grandmother," Wendra added. "I'll contact her and find out what needs to be arranged."
Once out of the room, Ria checked on Ranger through the bond, telling him to meet her at the elevator platform. The healers probably needed to examine him as well.