The Near Infinite Names of Autumn Aubrey (Psychological Fantasy Progression)

Anna's wishes of good luck lingered in my mind almost as long as the feeling of her lips on my cheek did.

I hadn't even looked at her when she had done it. She had made it all the way to her seat before I was finally able to take my eyes off of Underwitch Yume and look at my beloved.

When I did, all the other things I saw filled me with more feelings than I knew what to do with.

The sight of all the Precepts staring back at me almost made me sick from the nervous spin it sent my stomach into.

Why did I believe that eating before this was a good idea?

Ferrin Faux sitting and staring off in the entirely wrong direction only confused me.

Why would she go anywhere to watch anything?

Underwitch Ailin was still consuming the sliced meats and cheeses that covered the table she stood next to by the handful.

Mothers help me, no matter what happens now, I still have to duel her too.

Maletta and Tana were whispering to each other quietly on Yume's side of the line of chairs, but both of them were looking at me. They were smiling in a way that I knew was not because they were happy to see me.

They are talking about me. They only came here to laugh while they watched me fail.

Then there was Alexei.

If I win, I could make him smile. I could probably make him laugh again. Finding a way to come out the victor would take his mind off of all the dark things that I know he thinks about.

And finally, Anna.

She had wished me luck, how could I let myself lose after that?

"It is just like it is when you are in my class, Ire," Precept Zetta started as she took up the place between Underwitch Yume and I. "The duel continues until one of you withdraws or can no longer defend yourself. No transformations, summoning of implements, or death charms, understood?"

I did not understand why she had needed to say that or what a death charm was, but I did understand the rules and what she had meant by them.

"Yes, Precept Zetta." I answered as I tried to push down all the distracting feelings that were running through my mind.

I did not hear Underwitch Yume agree.

Precept Zetta made the cracking crystal sound with her fingers, and stepped out from in between us suddenly. "Begin!"

Seeing my opponent standing full in front of me instead of being asleep on the cold stones of the floor told me much.

She was tall and beautiful, but not like almost every other sorceress I had met in Zenithcidel. Her features did remind me of Anna and even though I knew how pretty I thought her face to be would not bring me victory, I could not ignore it.

Her clothes did not really seem like clothes at all. The cascading layers of too loose fabric looked like someone had stolen the sheets and blankets off of a dozen beds, cut the right holes in them, and draped her in them one by one. She still wore her uniform cloak, but its place atop her baggy clothes and curtain of raven hair, I could barely see it. Her hands, her feet, and her navel were all concealed completely. All that I could see of her was her face.

There was a sorceress from a memory whose name I could not remember that had used her dress to hide what she was doing with her aura.

Either Underwitch Yume was more sensitive to the cold that filled Lun than anyone I had ever met or she must have had the same idea.

I did not have the faintest idea of what to do, but I felt far too much to just stand there and do nothing.

She was a half moon, and that meant she was stronger than me. It was just like playing points with Arthur. I could not afford for her to make a move. Waiting to react would only give her the opportunity to use her strength against me.

I had to act.

I had to hunt.

Just like my contemptuous familiar had taught me, I attacked my opponent with as much speed and violence as I was capable of.

My firework burst from my palm and streaked towards my opponent in a flash of azure light.

The aura I had been focusing since Precept Zetta had called for me to come to the center of the room was not small, and I knew from experience what getting hit by one that size would feel like.

The last thing I had learned from looking at my opponent was that she appeared to be very, very, very, sleepy.

As my explosive working crossed the small distance between us, I was not sure that she even had her eyes open.

Then, just before she was struck, she raised one of her arms and my firework disappeared within the billowing folds of her sleeves.

There was no burst of azure embers, no sound of the impact, there wasn't even a flash of light.

It went into the darkness her hand was hidden in, dimmed, and died.

I heard someone snort from the line of chairs on my right at the same time that Underwitch Yume yawned.

I turned my eyes to Tana with so much angry heat that I hoped she would burst into flames.

"Focus, Ire!" Precept Zetta snapped from where she stood on my left.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I snapped my eyes back to my opponent and saw that she had been busy in my moment of distraction.

Both her sleeves or held up and out towards me. A somber glow shone out from within them that was almost more gray than it was blue.

Her aura did not come spinning out of them. It did not burst, streak, wash, run, or do anything else I had ever seen before. It was just the glow, and then there were strings.

At first it was only one, then it turned to dozens. The dozens gave way to what had to be hundreds, and those hundreds of blue gray strings became uncountable. They did not glow. There was no light coming from them at all. They looked real, like all of her layers were being used to hide spools of yarn that she was unwinding beneath her clothes.

After too long spent watching her do whatever it was she was doing, I tried to forget Tana's interruption and remember what I was up against.

The familiar cold of my whip formed in my hand with little thought. She may have been unaffected by my firework, but my time at Lun had taught me how to do much more than that.

It would not matter what she could do with her arms if I tied them to her sides with my bright blue power.

I swung my arm out to my side and poured even more of my aura into my working.

The only time I've ever been longer was when the arrogant tree had found itself being named my enemy, but I would need that length if I meant to bind her like I imagine.

Before I could so much as roll my wrist to start the motion of lashing out at her, her strings began to weave into one another as they snaked towards me through the air.

I took a quick step forward and drew my arm back to make my strike at her.

The serpent of writhing threads bunched together in front of my face just as the tip of my whip broke out towards her.

From bunch to blanket, her working unbound itself, and spread into a blinding sheet that billowed down onto me before I could avoid it.

I felt my whip hit something and I tried to draw it back as I fought against the blanket.

Freeing my face but falling to escape, I saw my whip coiled around my opponent's legs, the layers of fabric she wore spilling out and draping over it like a too tight belt.

The blanket tightened around both of my own and my middle.

I lost my balance and fell to the floor, trapped in the smoothing folds of Yume's working.

When I thought of blankets, I thought about comfort and warmth. I thought about my mother tucking me in with a glass of warm milk and a story. I thought about the bottom of Anna's cold feet finding their way to my legs and making me feel like I had been stabbed. I thought about the mornings we had spent together in the little wooden shack outside of Lun's gates, when we would have playful arguments about who had to leave the bed and add wood to the stove.

I did not think about it feeling like my bones were all going to break against one another or not having the strength to take a full breath.

I had been caught, and I was smart enough to know that what had caught me would continue to squeeze the life out of me until I gave up.

But I had caught Underwitch Yume as well, and relaxing my hold on my whip gave me enough room to slip my left arm out of what trapped it

Azza's sand, Tana's wave, I was no stranger to pressure and weight.

The uncontrollable panic those sensations stirred up in me, only made me more desperate.

And like I had learned against the gemman the day before, I needed to be desperate.

"Let," I growled as I retightened my grip on my whip. "Me," I rolled myself onto my knees and threw myself up as I snatched my working back towards my bound body. "Go!"

All the slack between us snapped taught, and I ripped Yume's leg out from under her.

She fell straight back.

The blanket grew tighter.

I tried to do the same to her legs, but I could only loop my whip around my wrist so many times.

I had needed length to restrain her properly, but that need was the reason I could not hurt her more than she was hurting me.

I gasped for air and my focus broke. My whip turned to dust in my hand as black spots appeared in my vision.

"That's it! Underwitch Yume wins!" I heard Precept Zetta shout.

All the pressure around me released. The fabric that bound me stopped trying to kill me and became nothing more than a blanket I was laying under.

Precept Zetta came to me and pulled the blanket off before she helped me to my feet.

"Listen. You had the right idea once you were caught, but she has the advantage because she is not using raw aura. Do not trouble yourself over it, that will come with age and experience." My teacher said as she walked me back to my starting position.

I stopped walking. "Why? I don't understand."

"Even if you had separated my legs from the rest of me, you still would have died." Underwitch Yume said, her eyes only open wide enough for me a small sliver of blue grey light leaking out of them.

She still looked like she would fall asleep at any moment, but how sure her voice sounded left me little room to doubt what she had said.

"Try not to get caught, stay on your feet, and you will do fine," Precept Zetta said as she looked to where everyone sat against the wall. "And if any of you can not remain quiet during the duel, you are free to leave."

Underwitch Ailin took two handfuls of bread from the table she stood next to and made for the door.

"Not you, Ailin," Zetta sighed before she turned back to where Yume stood swaying gently like she was rocking herself to sleep. "Alright, Yume. Don't hold back. It is time to really show her something."

"Yes, Precept Zetta." Yume whispered without opening her eyes.

I readied my body and focused my aura, but my mind did not follow.

"She was holding back?" I whispered over to Zetta before she could start the second match.

Zetta nodded and pushed her hair back from her brow. "She wouldn't be a half moon if all she could do was wrap someone in a blanket.

I tried to swallow all the anxious feelings that had risen up in my throat.

"And you would not be here if I did not think you were strong enough to contend with her," She continued. "So take a breath. This is no different than dueling one of your sisters."

I shook my head and admitted something that hurt me to say. "I don't think I am as strong as you think I am."

"You are right. I think you will end up being far stronger than any of us could imagine. But, what you can do with your aura doesn't matter if you aren't strong up here," She said as she tapped her forehead with a finger. "You have had an exchange with her once already. Think about what happened and how to use your knowledge to your advantage."

I might as well have withdrawn at that very moment.

I was not good at thinking. All the things I had done at Lun to make Precept Zetta think I was strong had not come from thought, they had come from being desperate.

But, I had to try.

There were too many sets of eyes on me for me to give up so easily.

If Yume could just swallow them in her sleeves, my fireworks would do me no good.

I could catch her with my whip again.

I just had to avoid whatever kind of murderous soft thing she tried to send for me next.

For the second time that day, Precept Zetta stepped back and shouted to start my next duel. "Begin!"

I snapped my whip out to my side once again and sent it unfurling over the scattering remnants of my first.

Underwitch Yume did not stand there and wait for me to do something like she had before.

Just as Precept Zetta had asked her to, she raised both of her billowing sleeves and really showed me something.