Ria of Shadewood [Fantasy, School Life/Magic Academy, Tournaments]

[B3] Chapter 23 — The True Nature of the Mystery Disease

Ria trudged her way to Healer's Hall, a concerned Ranger at her side and an armored Arella following a polite distance behind.

She had just gotten free of that place!

And now here she was headed right back.

Arella even had to swap with Rigonni early, since it would be awkward to have Rigonni with her if the testing required her to undress or whatever.

She would be lying to say she didn't feel trepidation for what the tests might show. Her fighting capabilities and power had grown immensely from where she started as an abandoned village girl wielding a lightning wand in Shadewood.

So much progress had been made towards her goals. If she were to lose her affinity because of some disease…

Aelyri's magic had become a pale imitation of its former self.

Without-

No, Ranger's earth-affinity would at least leave her something to work with. She wouldn't end up like Aelyri. But…

Ria called the orichalcum energy to her fist, feeling it empower her.

To give up on her birthright. Her power. Her draconic pride would not allow it.

"You'll be okay, Lady Celestria," Arella quietly assured her from behind.

Ria looked up from the power gathered around her fist, and blinked. She had stopped walking and a few other students she didn't recognize were warily passing, keeping their distance and trying to be discreet with their nervous glances.

Letting out a sigh, Ria thanked Arella and continued on the stone-paved walkway toward Healer's Hall. The pair of older girls in front of her weren't the only ones walking the paths, and she wasn't the only one receiving nervous glances. The others walking toward Healer's Hall all snuck glances around themselves and sped or slowed their pace to keep distance if anyone got too close.

Though…

Ria's brow furrowed. Wasn't the number of girls too many?

Were they all Aelyri's fans?

"Celestria?" Phoebe blurted in surprise. "You came in contact with the infected upperclassmen?"

Ria was just as surprised to see her pink-robed diviner friend. "Yes? Why are you the one doing the… sorting, Phoebe?"

The girls ahead of Ria had their information jotted down by Phoebe and were directly sent to private rooms on the first floor. The attending Healers' assistants doing the guiding glowed with divine protection in Ranger's magesight. Ria's trepidation had only increased with how seriously the school was clearly taking this.

"Master Onai is doing the examinations, so it's only natural that I would be chosen to help out."

Ah, that did make sense.

Ria hadn't really thought about how diagnosing was often done by divination, and Master Onai was one of the best.

"So, which of the three did you come in contact with and when? Any symptoms?" Phoebe prompted.

"Aelyri. I visited her on the third floor here when I saw the article in the Daily Shadow. Other than everything being strange since the poisoning, no symptoms that I've noticed."

"At least it wasn't Gervain," Phoebe sighed out, looking relieved.

"Gervain? Why? Is the disease getting worse?" Ria asked, wondering why which person she had been exposed to would have mattered.

"No, or not that we've noticed. The student insignia has prevented any deaths and wasn't needed for Gervain's case." Phoebe made a warm expression, maybe to reassure Ria, and glanced behind Ria. "Room 128. Master Onai will be with you shortly. You'd better hurry on. We don't want possibly infected students to gather up during the screening."

"Ah, right. Thanks, Phoebe. Stay safe."

Phoebe was such a nice girl. Ria felt glad she had risked approaching her that day during enrollment.

"This way." An attendant stepped forward and guided Ria to her assigned room.

Just like the courtyard outside the hall, hidden divine magic formations lined the hallways. Ranger was sniffing and looking around at them, as he had the protective formation on Cassielle's house.

The room numbering system was interesting. Healer's Hall was the first time she had encountered a place that named the rooms with numbers, and the first floor clearly didn't have a hundred rooms. With her previous room being on the third floor, it was easy to see that the room numbers began with the floor they were on.

Inside room 128 was a chair set within a spell circle and a table with enchanted devices. The only device she recognized was a holocube.

"Please have a seat. A diviner will be with you shortly to confirm whether you are infected."

With those ominous instructions the guide left, closing the door behind her. Arella took up her position by the door.

"Be careful not to disturb anything," Ria cautioned Ranger, who was again sniffing out the various enchantments that had been prepared.

"Woof." He sent her an impression of the flavors of magic that he had identified.

Spirit. Astral. Divination. Divine. Illusion.

Quite the odd combination for detecting an illness and preventing its spread. Wouldn't air or nature be more usual?

The glyphs weren't ones she recognized, and the control geometry looked designed for containment… No, it was two spells, one for containment and a second for target defining and projection. Oh? There was one glyph she recognized—a divination glyph that pulled information from the astral body. She used the same one in her light-based healing spell.

"Restricted magic…?"

Chances were high that it was.

"Something wrong?" Arella asked, the knight's armor creaking with a shift to a more alert posture.

"Just being cautious, I guess?" Ria reassured her knight. She was leery about stepping within such a magic circle but didn't have any reason to suspect a trap of some kind.

"Cautious? You? Now I'm even more worried," her knight snarked.

"Ha ha, funny. I'm not that reckless."

Ria gingerly stretched a foot within the outer bound, and the containment spell activated, colored clearly in Ranger's magesight with divine, astral, and spirit magic. She pulled her foot back and the magic deactivated.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, she concluded that the containment spell wouldn't keep her contained within the defined cylindrical bounding but something else. She still remembered the trapped feeling from the abjuration the Unseen Hand third-year had used on her at Sophia's behest. Not something she wanted to experience again.

Just to be safe, she used A Mountain That Stands Unperturbed, An Anchor Within The Storm before stepping within the circle.

The containment spell reactivated, but nothing else happened. And nothing strange happened when she sat in the chair, either. The divination spell stayed dormant.

The reason for the divination staying dormant was fairly clear. It was a template magic intended to be powered by the caster. If she had to guess, the setup was intended to capture and prevent something from escaping by restraining its astral body while those being screened awaited the divination mage.

Honestly, though possibly terrifying in their implications, the glyphs and spell construction were fascinating. Ria summoned her notebook and, using controlled heat energy to carefully discolor the paper, started adding the design and her observations into the notebook's pages. Just like burning her workshop mark into her scrolls, this was good practice for improving her energy control.

"Am I supposed to have just witnessed you stealing knowledge of a restricted magic?" Arella asked with a raised eyebrow.

Geh.

"Stealing? Really? It's not stealing if they leave it in plain view," Ria protested with a put-upon expression and huffed, "Besides, my spirit magic license should cover this."

Arella smirked. "Sure, sure. But you know, there's this famous restaurant I have heard about recently. What was it? Fantasy of the Heavenly Tongue or something?"

Ria rolled her eyes at her knight.

"Fine, fine. I'll take you to the Phantasia of the Divine Palate again. We should probably bring Rigonni. I'm betting you already mercilessly bragged to him."

Arella laughed. "I did! He was so jealous! Wouldn't talk to me the rest of the evening and was still grumbly in the morning."

As the young knight no doubt intended, the teasing and joking helped distract from the spiral of tension that Ria was falling into. Her knights were getting surprisingly good at reading her moods and redirecting them. A brief application of Lu Xi's technique further settled her thoughts.

Deciding to be productive while waiting and to keep her mind off useless worries about possible infection, Ria summoned blank letter paper from her vault and started writing the letter to Wendra detailing her spell ideas.

The idea that she thought Wendra could help the most to solve was conjuring arrows with enchantments already inlaid, but that was just the start. Would orichalcum dragonfire be that much different from true dragonfire? Even creating 'accelerate' and 'velocity' spells for launching orichalcum spikes would be useful and should be easy enough if she could modify glyphs and geometry from the rockshot spell. Hells, it was a waste to recast the entire rockshot spell for each individual shot. If she could reuse a single casting for multiple shots, the simple rockshot should be improvable to 'rapid barrage' whether orichalcum or not.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Ria was in the middle of burning example control structures and glyph candidates into the paper when the door opened for Master Onai and a Celestial-Knowledge-mantled assistant to enter.

"Ah, young Celestria. It's good that you've come. I wanted to get a chance to observe you again with the Mirror of Truth, but I guess this will have to do for now, as I will be quite busy until the current crisis is resolved."

"Greetings, Divination Master Onai." Ria stored the letter-in-progress and asked the question that had been burning in the back of her mind since she investigated the pair of spells skillfully painted onto the floor, "The spells prepared here look notably specific. Has the cause been identified?"

Master Onai made an equivocating hand gesture. "All of the victims have had their magical organs removed from their astral bodies. So, we are suspecting an astral parasite or other astral affliction."

Ria's eyes widened. Such things existed?!

"T-that's terrifying, Master Onai…"

"Indeed it is. Divine magic should allow for some protection, depending on the source. The low number of victims, the lack of concurrent infections, and the proximity to the Grand Games teams suggests a single parasite as the most likely source. As such, we are hoping to catch it here to prevent this from becoming a drawn out affair."

If Aelyri had still been infected… visiting the elf-girl was a terrible risk!

"Shall we get started?" Master Onai politely asked as he moved over to the table and briefly touched the holocube, providing it energy.

As with the last time he performed an astral reflection on her, Master Onai bound everyone present in the room with the Veil of Threadbound Secrets spell.

"Remember, as much as possible, try to not resist the magic," the Celestial Knowledge elder reminded her.

Soon Ria was again peering at an illusionary projection of her astral body. As the master diviner had already lamented, this astral reflection was much less clear than that provided by the Mirror of Truth.

What had been a figure in tatters previously was now whole, but with faint seams spider-webbing the figure like failed pottery glazing.

The assistant gasped at the sight.

Whether he was gasping at the extent of the damage to her astral body or the obvious patterns of the inactive and fading spirit-binding, Ria couldn't guess.

"This is excellent work," Master Onai praised and asked, "The surgery on your astral body was done by High Priestess Elora?"

Ria nodded. "Yes."

"Make sure you offer up a commensurate offering at the Temple of Ellnys."

Ugh. He was correct, of course. Another unplanned expense. "I will make sure the offering is worthy."

"I see no signs of disease or parasitization. You are free to return back to your class or other activities. Your previous injuries will take some time yet to fully heal, so continue to maintain caution with magic that stresses your astral body. Come see me when things have calmed down, and we can discuss the research into your spirit-binding in more detail."

A weight suddenly lifted from her, gone from coiling around her heart.

Ranger let out a relieved whuffle and an encouraging bark.

Master Onai paused as he was about to leave. "Hmm… familiars as an infection vector is a possibility I hadn't considered. Before you go, let us have your familiar take your place on the chair."

Ria was in a hurry to return, so she didn't stay long to chat with Phoebe on her way out.

Ranger had been fine. Just like her, no signs of disease or parasitization.

"All clear?" Shadwich asked when she re-entered the classroom, looking up from helping one of her classmates.

"Totally clear. I was given the okay to return to class," Ria reported with a thumbs up, and the tension that had been suffocating the room eased noticeably, relieved breaths released around the room.

Shadwich nodded and returned his attention to the fifth-year's project—something ambitiously complex judging by the example weave of magic the researcher was demonstrating.

"That is great and all, but does anyone even know what to look for?" Jeston loudly groused as Ria made her way back to where Wendra had pushed their desks together.

It was a good point and what Ria had also been worried about before talking with Master Onai.

"The diviners have a pretty good idea what the cause is, Jeston," she told the fourth-year boy, but held back from giving more information. She had thought about this a fair amount on her way back to class. "The administrators must have a reason they aren't announcing it."

"Obviously, the academy is trying to catch whoever is involved in spreading whatever this is and doesn't want that 'whoever' to know that they know," Yarin pointed out, and eyes widened around the room—Ria's included.

Angry and disbelieving muttering broke out among the students, and Shadwich had to put an end to it, reminding the class that they would all have plenty of time to theorize after class.

Someone at the academy being responsible for the infections hadn't crossed Ria's mind. Agents from Revant setting something loose, sure. But students? Instructors? Neither had she considered that the academy was keeping secret how much they knew in order to find whoever was involved, but it made a lot of sense.

Wendra and Mina welcomed Ria back and motioned for her to join them. From the glyphs and spell constructs visible on their notes, they had been working on Mina's project.

"There's not much time left before lunch, but let's see what you've got in mind for your new spells," Wendra prompted.

"I didn't get a chance to finish the letter, but I did write some of my ideas down," Ria apologized, and passed the letter to Wendra.

Mina scooted closer so she could also read alongside.

After a while Wendra rubbed her chin with a crooked finger. "Hmm…"

"So…," Ria encouraged.

Her cousin grimaced as if she didn't want to deliver bad news. "You see…there might be a problem with what you're trying to do here."

Holding back the urge to groan, Ria motioned for Wendra to get on with it.

"Unfortunately… excluding the dragon breath, the other ideas aren't very dragon-like," Wendra completed with deadpan delivery and a completely serious face.

Mina laughed.

Ria rolled her eyes. Was she supposed to grow claws and wings and…

Wait.

Wings.

One of Orlisi's big strengths was the ability to fly. If she was to replace Orlisi in the Beast Battle event…

"I think I need to learn how to fly."

Wendra blinked at the sudden change of topic then laughed. "That, I can definitely teach you."

"Really?"

"Of course," Wendra confirmed with confidence. The older girl's face soon broke into a teasing smile. "But… you'll first need to decide on an element and method."

Ria tilted her head. "Okay…?"

"The simplest method is, of course, elemental kinesis—wrapping yourself in an element and flinging yourself through the sky. Generally not fast or efficient, but many mages use this method. Beyond that, each element has its own special methods with their own advantages and disadvantages:

"Advanced earth magic can manipulate gravity. Gravity masters can whoosh into the sky like an airship while sending their enemies crashing down into the ground."

Wendra animatedly mimicked the woosh and splat with her hands. "Metal magic can use magnetism. Though, most metal mages prefer flying in style on rideable flying swords.

"Water's most common method combines kinesis with flow. Tempestual Cloak like Orlisi uses when she gets really serious is a famous example. Alternately, for those preferring to travel in comfort, enough skill with alteration magic even allows for transport via cloud.

"Fire magic's Cloak of Flame spell allows the caster to move through air as if it were water. Yet, some fire mages have been known to just blast themselves through the air with explosions below their feet.

"Air magic has the basic Cloak of Wind and the more advanced Wings of the Zephyr. These are the two spells preferred by Silent Sky, but a bit boring of a choice, if you ask me…

"Light magic has the advanced magic: Light Form. Turn to light and beam from one end of the continent to the other in the blink of an eye! And, the eye-catching Anasari's Heavenly Steps—a favorite of mages from the Order of the Golden Dawn.

"Shadow mages from the Twilight Cloak often employ Void Step which uses void anchors to support shadow barriers in the air and run through the sky as if it were ground.

"Spatial magic has Absolute Step which locks space in place relative to the nearest celestial body. Aldri says this one is quite dangerous to learn because accidentally locking space relative to the Heavens themselves or other celestial bodies results in an abrupt mental and energy strain and the locked space accelerating at extreme speed in a random direction…

"And so on. Where do you want to start?"

"Uh…" It was Ria's turn to blink as Wendra continued to smile. Some snickers sounded from her classmates who overheard Wendra's dramatic listing, and even Mina was hiding a grin behind her hand. Shadwich offered Ria a big thumbs up and enthusiastic grin of his own.

Though her pride was annoyed at not getting the joke, Ria pushed that annoyance down and properly thought about the question.

Matching her own affinity was the most obvious choice, but pulling herself around like a magnet didn't sound much better than yanking herself around with elemental telekinesis, and her draconic pride found that idea offensive. Dragons should fly.

Riding on a giant sword likewise wasn't particularly appealing, even if it would be cool…

Making wings out of fire hadn't felt wrong. Should she try Cloak of Fire?

There was another answer: bonding Zephec as she intended to do would give her an air affinity, letting her use Wings of the Zephyr…

The not-yet-learned spells in her advanced air magic books fluttered through her mind.

Ria shook her head. No, dragons should have their own flight magic. She should research that first before deciding on anything. As it was, she could already use the 'air shield' spell to create footholds to kick off of, so that or the shadow method should be fine until she found a magic she really wanted to devote the time to learn.

"I'll think about it some more," Ria finally decided.

Wendra pulled Ria into a supportive side hug and gave her an encouraging squeeze. "White Owl Tower has a training hall dedicated to flight training. Do some research, and when you're ready, we'll sign you up for some flying lessons. Learning to fly is something of a right of passage for aspiring master mages on the 5 year plan. Once you learn your choice of magic well enough, you could also take the regular flight class offered by the Silent Sky. You don't need to rush it. Orlisi is an anomaly of sorts and you shouldn't judge yourself by her example."

Ria wanted to grumble about that taking too long, but she swallowed it down. Maybe the smiles and snickers were because she was showing her youth by being so naive to the difficulty.

A right of passage, huh?

The dragon within her would take that challenge!

Letting Ria go, Wendra placed the letter on the table, and pointed to the three most fleshed out ideas. "Teasing and flying aside, your idea for conjuring enchantment inlaid arrows is ambitious and interesting and complementary to my own research project, but too ambitious for you right now. The elemental telekinesis, on the other hand, has a lot of existing spells to adapt from so let's start there. Once you've achieved some results, we can move to creating the glyphs needed to adapt conjuration spells like rockshot."

Wendra pulled out a book and opened it to a section titled Basic Silver Kinesis, placing it before Ria. "Read through this and copy down the useful spell designs while I help Mina with her project. This will get you started on the right path. Let me know if you come across anything you aren't sure you understand."

Ria thanked Wendra and got to work. As expected from her fifth-year cousin's depth of knowledge, the examples were exactly what was needed, and Ria eagerly added them to her spellcraft journal.

When the musical chime of the academy's bell tower rang out announcing the end of morning classes, Ria leaned back in her chair and just relaxed for a moment. Somehow, she'd made it through the week's classes and was mostly caught up. Relearning how to cast everything with her changed internal energy was tedious but was getting easier with practice.

The morrow would be another jam-packed day scheduled to the max, between the tournament, meeting with her grandmother, and the award ceremony—two award ceremonies if her team won the tournament. It was sure to be a dragon's flight of emotions, but for the rest of the day she was free to work on whatever she wanted.

Currently, that was crystal magic tutoring with Phaelys, and maybe a session with Wendra or Aldri afterward. Maybe after meeting with Phaelys, she should just spend the evening resting or meditating?

Wendra chuckled from beside her. "I made that same face each Goldday during my first year. Celestria, go have fun with Phaelys and then spend the day relaxing. You've earned a break, and there's no way these spell ideas are going to be usable for you by tomorrow morning's tournament even if we work through the night. We can get together Fireday after classes to work more on them then."

"I agree with Wendra," Mina added, while cleaning up her own notes and books and getting ready to head out. "You need to give your pathways more time to heal, Celestria. You've been pushing too hard too soon."

Ria wanted to dispute that she was meeting with Phaelys 'to have fun', but gave in and nodded, giving her friends a thankful smile. "I'll do that."

Their conversation was interrupted by a com-stone's faint pulse coming from her vault key.

Wendra pulled Ria into another quick side-hug and patted her back after letting go. "Xander's Luck tomorrow!"

With that and a wave from Mina, the two older girls left Ria to her business.

"Ria, we're meeting for lunch. Coming? Zena wants to go over strategy," Keira's voice informed when Ria summoned the com-stone and activated the connection.

"Usual table at the library?" Ria confirmed. "Phaelys has agreed to meet me after lunch, so I can't stay long."

"Oh? I'll make sure the others know. Iselyn suggested Parthanex's 7th floor lounge so we'll have more privacy. See you there!"