Tower of Memories

It was Saturday morning and I had almost entirely forgotten about Russel's duel. Did that make me a bad friend? I mean…I was still there on time. My training with Vivian wasn't until later, so making it wasn't an issue.

Russel looked like he was having fun, and it hadn't even started.

It was an okay sized crowd, out of the space for roughly a hundred it looked maybe a third full. Without uniforms I couldn't really tell who everyone was. I would have guessed mostly Pixies and maybe a few Salamanders. But I guessed most of the school had better things to do.

Russelwas leaning forward on the railing between the dueling arena and audience with a massive grin on his face.

"You'd better not tie again," Celica warned.

"That was a fluke." Russel's grin didn't leave his face, though it did shrink a bit.

"You're not worried?" Jade questioned. They seemed strangely anxious.

"Nope, this guy's not dangerous. I've got this." In Russel's defense, comparatively this Pixie was barely a footnote. Microscopic potatoes with the Death's Echo situation going on.

"You sound like you have a plan," I said instead.

"Kinda, I don't really do plans for this kind of thing," Russel sounded so sure of himself. I couldn't see me having nearly that level of self-assuredness. Not when it came to magic. It didn't even sound forced coming from him.

No plan? A Dragon has to Dragon.

I couldn't stop worrying however. Not about this, the truth was that Russel probably had very little to worry about. His opponent was a Pixie, probably not the type to break the rules and hurt someone.

"Kick butt out there," I told him.

"Always." His grin got wide again as he stepped into the middle of the arena.

"What do you think his chances are?" Angelina asked me in a low whisper.

"If I had to guess, I would give him an eighty percent chance of winning outright. Ten percent for a tie," I whispered back.

"You have a tremendous amount of faith in him," Jade commented.

"I do." It was hard not to, compared to the other things I was trusting him with, this was practically nothing. Never mind how small the stakes really were. He was just doing this for a date.

But it would still be fun to see Russel throw spells around.

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The Pixie in question, was someone I did know. In that we'd had classes together last semester and we hadn't talked. Technically we were Toweramtes for a time, but I avoided Pixie Tower and thus limited my interaction with most Pixies.

Angelina was the exception.

But the downside of that was that I had no idea what this Pixie had up his sleeves.

Jarec was examining him closely, judging from the look on his face. "He's in our Spellcraft class," he said. "His summon is a fish."

That sounded familiar. Even if I couldn't remember this guy's name.

But regardless, I still had faith in Russel. It seemed too unlikely to me that Russel wouldn't be able to hold his own here.

Russel was standing in the middle of the room with a massive grin on his face. He was wearing a red jacket with orange accents on it. It wasn't one I'd seen him wear before.

His opponent was on the shorter side. Lanky too. Like a young tree that had gone dormant for winter. He was even wearing brown.

"I admit, I wasn't expecting you to go through with it Silver," Russel said.

"I told you, please call me Asher."

"Silver?" Jarec mumbled. "That's not a coven name."

"How can you tell?" I whispered back.

"It's a color and a metal. Both are common Aplos name origins. Major covens use spells," Jarec explained low under his breath.

Which meant Asher Silver had human parents. Maybe that was what he liked about Russel. Or what Russel liked about him. The new name also meant he wasn't with his human parents anymore.

"I don't see the appeal, but Russel's going to want a date for the gala," Celica kept her voice low as well.

Date. Gala. Another dance. Probably something I was going to need to talk about tomorrow at the meeting. I would probably hear a ton more about it over the course of the next several weeks.

"Assuming this one lasts that long, his dates are usually one-offs," Jarec said with a low chuckle.

"But this one isn't his usual type," Celica murmured back. "That could be significant.'

"Could be that he asked Russel first, hard to tell how interested Russel is though," Jarec said with a shrug.

Gossip lovers, the two of them.

I glanced over at Fethris just in time to see him roll his eyes. I knew I could count on him.

"Are you ready Asher?" Russel teased.

"Do your worst," Asher Silver responded.

Russel was grinning like a shark staring down his prey.

It happened extremely fast after that. I almost didn't see it. A zap of orange, not from Russel though. It was the wrong shade. Lighter and with more yellow in it. And then Asher Silver was gone.

Where?

"Oh he's tricky, wouldn't have guessed that one," Fethris commented in that low voice we were all using for some reason.

Probably to not distract Russel too much. Or maybe to avoid being overheard?

I couldn't find Asher Silver. But Russel didn't look worried at all.

He took a single step backwards and then turned around sharply. Orange bones shot out of the ground where his feet had been.

Just in time to block the opaque fish with a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. The teeth shattered on the bone. The summon broke, but still no sign of Silver.

If there was some trick to what Silver was doing.

I didn't know enough about magic to tell from here.

But Russel seemed to know what was going on. A canine skull with extra sharp teeth chopping down on another fish just as it appeared.

"Got you," Russel announced.

Did he? How could he when Asher Silver was still somewhere unseen?

That's when Russel reached into the ground, and with a very strong pull yanked Silver out of it like he was a carrot.

Silver's look of shock was appreciated. Because I had no idea what was happening anymore.

"Not sneaky enough," Fethris commented.

Russel's grin went from predatory to jubilant as he shifted his opponent and spun him like they were dancing instead of dueling.

It wasn't the victory for him I was expecting, but a win was a win.

I almost felt bad for Asher Silver, he stared up at Russel while looking very dazed. I couldn't even blame him.

My Dragons were ridiculous. I loved them.

I didn't want to leave. No matter the risks.