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Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (122/?) Revised Version 1
🕑 Added 2025-03-30 16:57:08 +0000 UTCAuthor’s Note 1: Hey everyone! First of all, I strongly suggest you guys give the revised version a read as there’s been a lot of edits! The edits were made primarily in the introduction of the chapter, as well as a few bits and pieces in the middle and towards the end. The edits to the beginning were made in order to better flow with the revised version of Chapter 121, since it needed to connect with Emma bringing up the hologram of the motorcycle. Moreover, I wanted to actually take the time to talk about the motorcycle itself, and show the gang’s initial reaction to it, rather than how it played out in the original version where it was more a back and forth of the gang guessing what Emma’s vehicle is, rather than Emma telling them outright and having the reactions spawn from there! :D The ending was also shortened in order to fit with the restructuring of Chapter 123, wherein I wanted to start with the preamble and lore for the Quest of the Everblooming Dawn first, before jumping into the selection process for the quest! I hope these edits are alright! :D
Author’s Note 2: I’ve also attached the PDF and EPUB versions of this chapter, since Patreon is still working on a solution for the recent formatting bug! However, I’ve been in contact with their help desk, and they’ve informed me that they’re now on the case!
Some say the design language was a direct homage to the heavyweight motorcycles of the twentieth century. Others claim it to have been iterated upon enough to have earned its own place in automotive history.
Whilst the minutiae of classification would be debated upon forever in the halls of historians and enthusiasts alike, there was one thing that couldn’t be denied.
The Martian Opportunity, or more specifically the popular and well-regarded Model V4c, was a work of timeless beauty.
A beauty that extended far beneath its admittedly badass exterior, down into the nuts and bolts of it that made it the ideal pick for the IAS.
Because as much as Captain Li and I would’ve wanted to believe, aesthetics certainly wasn’t considered in the eyes of the vehicle procurement department, no.
Instead, it was its rugged reliability and sheer simplicity that got it the green light— a fact that also aided in its mass adoption and proliferation throughout the stars.
Its powertrain was so robust, so easy to service and swap, that so-called franken-opportunities had been produced in as many variants as there were motors and battery packs.
Its chassis was so simple that an entry-level commercial printer and similarly-specced assembler could put it together without issue.
Its suspension — notoriously unforgiving — traded the comfort of a Daveman Chopper and the snappiness of a Yamasaka Ninja G1 for true off-road capability and near-indestructibility.
Its wheels, braking systems, control systems, and practically every aspect of its being… were likewise on varying levels of indestructible, easily replaceable, or entirely modular.
But what always remained, or at least what most tried to keep as a consistent throughline despite the potential for extensive modification, was its striking silhouette. A fact that continued to be the case on this mission, much to my vintage gearhead heart’s relief. However, this didn’t mean the vehicle procurement department didn’t make the necessary changes required for this mission. The most notable of which was only noticeable on the hologram when scale came into play.
Though the mileage of said revelation, would vary from party to party.
“A powered bicycle, I presume?” Thacea began, her eyes scanning every curve and angle of the rotating hologram.
“Yup! Precisely, Thacea.” I beamed back.
“These are… rather extensive modifications to a bicycle, Emma.” Thalmin quickly added, bringing his face up close to the tablet, so much so that his snout very nearly crossed paths with the grid-like projection. “These various pipes and tubes, the glut of metal running throughout… I can see why your people would call this artifice beastly.” The man paused, his finger pointing to the shielded components in between the frame rails. “Unlike your ‘cars’, the innards of your powered bicycle seem quite nearly exposed to the world.”
“I mean… there’s plates and shrouds in the way—”
“But not in the same fashion as one of your ‘cars’.” Thalmin interjected. “For this… possesses a strange aura of raw untamed power. Whereas your cars and ‘aircraft’ hide their guts beneath layers of steel tucked within itself, this powered bicycle lacks any space with which to hide it. Indeed, it feels far more alive than a car, and more comparable to a horse than a carriage. A fact I very much find appealing.” The man started grinning excitedly.
“And a fact that I find to be quite unsettling.” Ilunor finally chimed in. “However, that is not my conflict with such a vehicle.”
All eyes were quick to turn towards the vunerian, as he raised a single finger in typical dramatic fashion. “I do not doubt the existence of such a vehicle, as abominable as it may be. Indeed, it is a rather logical presumption to assume you would breathe manaless life into anything you get your desperate hands on. What I instead take issue with is the existence of such a vehicle here, in the Nexus.” The man continued cryptically, making a point to walk towards the front of my room. “Given your… size and dimensions, I assume this vehicle to be quite large.”
“Yes, yes it is, Ilunor. It had to be, in order to fit—”
“And therein lies my issue.” He continued with a smirk. “Cadet Emma Booker. You have proclaimed, multiple times even, that you find the magical art of spatial folding to be an impossibility, have you not?”
“Yeah?” I acknowledged, playing along.
“And we have seen now that most of your crates have been emptied, correct?”
“Yeah, save for a couple.” I replied bluntly.
“And are we to assume that you somehow have within those crates, a powered bicycle of these ludicrous proportions?” He scoffed.
“Well, not exactly. I have—”
“Show us, then.” Ilunor demanded, completely cutting me off from a statement that would’ve defused his concerns.
“Well, I was just getting to that, Ilunor. I didn’t pack—”
“Show us now, earthrealmer.” He insisted with a hiss.
“Alright, alright.” I raised both of my hands up in defeat, before gesturing for everyone to follow me back towards my room. “Maybe showing you will be easier…” I muttered under my muted mic.
I wasted no time in marching my way towards one of the recently closed crates, as a digital handshake coupled with a security code upon reaching a close enough proximity was all that was needed to unlatch its security seals. This elicited a hiss as pressures equalized, followed close in tow by a clearing of Ilunor’s throat.
Looking at my rear-view camera, it immediately became clear to me what his problem was. As his height made it difficult for him to peer over to see what was inside.
Though that was probably for the best given his propensity to poke and prod… especially given the nature of the cargo inside this crate.
In stark contrast to Ilunor’s growing frustrations, I effortlessly reached in to grab a black, nondescript rectangular box. A relatively small thing which fit snugly in my suit’s ‘hand’. Printed on this, in addition to the GUN and IAS emblems, were the red blue and green Advanced Electronics Company’s ‘AEC’ logo, sitting in stark contrast to the stylized CPU die logo belonging to the General Electronics Design Agency.
With another hand, I reached in to grab a slightly larger, more robust looking brick of an object. The latter of which extended far up my forearm. On this was the snowflake and atom Global Atomics logo which matched up reasonably well with the exponential graph-looking logo belonging to the Portable Energy Systems Design Commission.
“Well, earthrealmer? Where is it?” Ilunor egged on, prompting me to simply hold up the two black boxes.
“Feast your eyes, Ilunor.” I proclaimed bluntly.
“What? What is this? Do not take me for a fool, Cadet Emma Booker. Show me your two-wheeled manaless conveyance right this instant!” He demanded.
“You wanted to see it now, right? Well this is all I have of it right now. Because like I was about to say before you cut me off earlier, these are the only two components of it that I brought with me.” I stated in no uncertain terms, prompting the Vunerian to back off somewhat, raising a brow at that rebuttal.
However, unlike the perplexed Vunerian, it took Thacea and Thalmin barely any time at all to get where I was going with this, as they turned to each other with wide eyes.
“Field procurement.”
“Resource reallocation.”
Thalmin and Thacea spoke over each other, respectively.
To which Ilunor had one simple rebuttal.
“Impossible.” The man guffawed. “For one, Prince Thalmin? From where would she procure local resources? And secondly, even if she reallocates materials from the wealth cube, exactly how is she to fashion these ingots of metals into a functioning powered bicycle, Princess Thacea?” The man moved forwards, placing two balled fists by his hips. “I see no furnace, no crafting table, no anvil nor any source of heat nor force by which to melt nor shape raw metals into the finely crafted shapes required of a powered bicycle!”
Without an immediate answer from the pair, the Vunerian quickly turned towards me. “Well, earthrealmer? What say you?”
“I have a printer, Ilunor.” I began bluntly, defusing the man’s theatrics with a well-placed dullness, undercutting his flair where it hurt most. “It’s a manaless machine that’s capable of turning refined ingots of metal or other similar materials into components. Smaller components get put into the assembler, while larger components or the sum of smaller assembled components are put together by yours truly.” I pointed at myself with a single thumb. “Though most projects are capable of being handled by the assembler, it’s these special projects such as the motorcycle that’s going to require some special assembly owing to its size.”
Ilunor cocked his head at that, as if trying to find fault with, what was even by his standards, a rather straightforward answer.
“We’ve seen these… printers before as well, if I recall.” Thalmin began. “Within your people’s apartments. The… communal spaces in which spare parts or such things are ‘printed’, yes?”
“Yeah, it’s more or less exactly that. Except my one’s simultaneously older and more reliable, but a tad bit under-specced as a result. Reliability, durability, and repairability were the core tenets which dictated what sorts of equipment I got assigned with. Since a lot of the fancy stuff back home is heavily reliant on a steady stream of not just parts and supplies, but the personnel and experts with which to operate them as well.” I shrugged. “But in any case, yeah. The metal goes in here—” I paused, pointing at the printer that I’d assembled right beside the generator, or more specifically, at one of its many mysterious feeder-bays. “—then it’s fed into the various internal mechanisms that either mills, lathes, presses, or melts and casts whatever the desired end-product is. After which, it’s either finished in the assembler, or assembled by me.”
Silence descended upon the trio following that explanation.
A silence, which was eventually broken by Thalmin, as he walked closer towards the printer and the various cables that criss crossed the floor between it and the generator.
“And the heat necessary for such processes is supplied by…” He paused, his head following the various tubes and wires towards the massive block of a generator next to it. “... this, I presume?”
“Amongst other things. It generates what is effectively the most fundamentally important component to my people’s technology.”
“Mana?” Ilunor replied reflexively, though just as quickly placed his own snout in a chokehold, whilst using another hand to gesticulate wildly in my direction. “Disregard that statement.”
“Force of habit, Nexian?” Thalmin chided.
“I said disregard that statement.” Ilunor hissed back.
“Right, well, it’s definitely not mana.” I reaffirmed, teasing Ilunor a little bit further to Thalmin’s delight. “It’s something I haven’t touched on yet in any of the presentations because there was so much else to cover. But suffice it to say, it’s electricity. Something like… controlled lightning.”
The formerly boisterous features of Thalmin’s face suddenly subsided, replaced instead by both confusion and disenchantment.
Meanwhile, Ilunor seemed to be in a state of full blown disbelief.
Followed closely in tow by Thacea who hadn’t even flinched.
“Lightning.” Ilunor articulated dismissively.
“Forgive me if I sound ignorant Emma, but we saw your machines powered by controlled explosions, did we not?” Thalmin quickly added, inadvertently taking Ilunor’s side in the conversation. “I don’t see how lightning factors into your manaless artificing.”
Though just as soon as those words left Thalmin’s mouth, did Thacea’s eyes suddenly light up.
Her gaze suddenly shifted towards the small LED indicators on the generator, then towards a few of the exposed control surfaces on the various other devices I had plonked around the room. Then finally, her eyes focused on me, or more specifically, the built-in datatab on the underside of my right forearm.
“Light.” She managed out under a ponderous breath.
This prompted both Thalmin and Ilunor to crane their heads in her direction.
“This… controlled lightning — electricity — this is what lights up your various luminous implements.” The avinor continued, her eyes once again deep in thought, as if going through some adventure we weren’t privy to. “This answers so many questions. Questions as to just how your cities were lit up at night. How your displays can be as brilliant and as radiant as glowstone. And just how your light glows so softly, brilliantly, and consistently, as if powered by mana itself. Because while your engines can effortlessly explain away the more mechanical and physical means which govern the motions of your manaless world, it doesn’t explain the seemingly… magical aspects with which no amount of clever clockwork or rigging could ever hope to accomplish.” The tail end of that statement was marked by a sharp and piercing stare seemingly through my lenses, the avinor’s eyes widening with anticipation.
“You should really consider a career in detective work, you know that Thacea?” I responded brightly before quickly transitioning back to the topic at hand after garnering a perplexed look from the avinor. “What I mean to say is — yes. You’ve absolutely knocked this one out of the park.” I beamed.
“How?” Thalmin questioned. Not necessarily out of doubt or a desire to disprove Thacea’s conclusions or my statements, but rather, out of plain old curiosity. “I don’t see how controlled lightning can…” The man paused, as if reaching a eureka moment himself. “But it’s the only explanation.” He admitted. “I mean, what else could be fueling your manaless lights?”
The man quickly walked over to the generator, peering closer towards the various control surfaces and LED indicators that held within it one of humanity’s most revolutionary power generation solutions.
“I can’t believe I overlooked this.” He mumbled to himself, craning his head slowly in my direction.
“You needn’t blame yourself, Thalmin.” Thacea rebuffed. “We’ve been surrounded by the wonders of artificial mana-fueled light all throughout our lives. Light which draws its life force from the latent manastreams itself. It has become—”
“—something we have taken for granted, indeed.” Thalmin acknowledged. “These surfaces are just so… innocuous, I’d just never given it a second thought—”
The man paused again, his eyes turning to the ZNK-19 holoprojector.
“I’m such a fool.” He reached both hands for his head.
“No, you aren’t, Thalmin.” I finally chimed in. “Not knowing something doesn’t make you a fool. If anything, an admission of not knowing is far better than assuming you know all there is to know.”
“Controlled. Lightning.” Ilunor butted in once again, shaking his head, and crossing his arms in the process.
“I…” The man paused, as if trying desperately to figure out a counter to it. “It shouldn’t be—”
“Do you feel the ambient draw of mana into any of these luminous artifices, Ilunor?” Thalmin interjected, pointing insistently at the generator’s blinking lights.
“Perhaps there is a biological aspect to this, akin to the deep sea creatures which glow—” The Vunerian stopped himself before he continued. “Disregard that Auris Ping level of drivel.” He sighed, reaching a hand up to pinch the bridge of his snout.
=====
Ilunor
Why was I so resistant?
What was there to gain from playing the fool?
No.
Those were the wrong questions to ask.
I wasn’t playing the fool.
I was merely playing the skeptic.
In a group of blind believers to the earthrealmer’s impossible claims, I had to stay the course.
That’s what I promised myself during the earthrealmer’s manaless sight-seer.
I had to continue acting as the bulwark of reason, the sentinel of rationality.
I had to do this.
To continue down this path of blind acceptance would be tantamount to the admission that there was a potential for earthrealm to mimic Nexian primacy in every conceivable dimension.
This couldn’t continue.
Or at least, it couldn’t continue without finally providing something tangible with which to observe.
“To make grand sweeping claims out of superficial observations is one thing.” I began, narrowing my eyes towards the earthrealmer. “But the burden of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportional to its outrageousness. And while I can forgive certain claims, namely the places and constructs we’ve visited through your sight-seer, this particular claim is one which I believe we can confirm immediately posthaste.”
I moved over to the ever-humming box, reaching a hand to touch it—
Only to be met with a series of soul-piercing noises. Sounds that could only be likened to the wailing of a thousand desperate souls screaming through a sealed oubliette.
“WARNING! DANGER! DO NOT APPROACH FURTHER.”
“COMPLIANCE WILL BE IMPOSED WITH THE USE OF FORCE!”
I instinctively reeled back, causing the earthrealmer’s golems to immediately retract, returning to their docile forms.
“I’m afraid I can’t show you the inside of my generator, Ilunor.” The earthrealmer spoke in that infuriatingly calm tone of voice. “But I can do you one better. I admit that my claims must be absurd to you, and I appreciate your suspension of disbelief along with your begrudging acceptance of the paradigm-shifting truths of my world so far. So, I owe it to you—” She paused, before turning towards the two other royals present. “—and you guys as well, a practical demonstration of controlled lightning.”
“We already know of its existence, earthrealmer.” I chided. “If that is what you intend to demonstrate, then—”
“No, no. That’s not what I’m saying at all. The fact that you have lightning magic, implies you probably understand the principles behind it. However, this whole debate is about our mastery and exploitation of its properties.” The earthrealmer corrected, causing me to huff in irritation. “So that’s exactly what I have planned for this little demonstration, and by the end of it, I’m sure you’ll have all the proof you need to grapple with our mastery over this overlooked art.”
I raised a brow at this, crossing my arms in the process. “I will be the judge of that, earthrealmer.”
“Oh, I know. Because you’ll be the one leading the charge, Ilunor.” The earthrealmer beamed out.
…
10 Minutes Later.
There was no shortage of anticipation as the earthrealmer began fiddling with what materials she’d brought with her and whatever her ‘printer’ was currently producing.
Eventually, she returned with two brightly-colored wires, their ends exposed to reveal impossibly fine and thin metals.
Certainly a feat that was beyond most young adjacent realms lacking in advanced metallurgy, but earthrealm had already proven itself capable of that by virtue of Emma’s armor alone…
Regardless, it was what these wires were attached to that gave me pause.
A small, fingernail-sized green bulb — something strikingly similar to the lights she adorned her box with.
“Right, so, I just got some spares so we don’t waste time printing out an ancient lightbulb.” Emma began, garnering a frustrated sigh from my end.
“What do you wish to demonstrate with this ridiculous—”
“I’m assuming you know a thing or two about casting lightning spells, right?” The earthrealmer interrupted.
A feeling of gross incredulity stirred within me following that statement, prompting me to maintain eye contact, while reaching for the ceiling with my two hands.
From there, a series of crackling noises emerged, along with a brilliant display of magically-controlled lightning.
It was in these instances that I wished the earthrealmer’s helmet wasn’t obstructing her features.
Otherwise, I’d have been grinning even wider at what I assumed would be a shocked expression forming across her features.
“Alright then! Great job, Ilunor. Now, how about you repeat that with these two wires here?” She pointed at the two wires in question, a blue and a red coated wire. “Just two things though. One, please direct the flow of lightning from one wire to the other, so it’s a direct flow of current. Two, please make sure not to channel that much lightning through it though. Like, if possible, I need you to channel as little lightning as you possibly—”
POP!
“—can.”
What was once a tiny green bulb, was now nothing more than a black-singed smouldering pile of refuse.
I couldn’t help but to snicker in response to that. “If that is the extent of your artifices’ resilience, I can only pray for your—”
“Okay, let’s try this again.” The earthrealmer interjected once more, producing another bulb of a slightly larger size this time, which she once more attached to the wires. “This time, I need you to really feather it. Like, I need you to barely generate any lightning at all. Like, go as low as you can go, Ilunor.”
I would’ve been offended by such demands, especially coming from a newrealm commoner of all people, if it wasn’t for a growing morbid curiosity welling within me.
I breathed in, and out, attempting to do what came difficult to me.
Performing sub-optimally.
Moreover, I couldn’t help but to feel a growing concern form within myself at what I assumed to be the end result of this demonstration.
A part of me wanted to purposefully toy with the earthrealmer until she was left with no more ‘bulbs’ to experiment with.
Though I quickly pushed that thought to the side, as I began tempering my manastreams, attempting to eke out the softest and most pathetic bursts of controlled lighting I could muster.
This forced me to close my eyes.
Which made the results of my efforts only first noticeable by the gasp and hum of the avinor princess and lupinor prince, respectively.
“What? What is it? What are you all gawking at—”
I opened my eyes, only to have my questions answered by the on and off glow of a green bulb.
I felt my heart skip a beat, my guts twisting, and my hands, suddenly, pulling away from this… abomination.
This caused the bulb to immediately go dark.
Which practically confirmed the earthrealmer’s claims.
Silence suddenly dominated the room, as I looked at my two hands, trembling as they were in the warm manalight fixtures present throughout.
“That… no… it can’t just be—”
“Here, let me try!” Thalmin immediately lunged forward, moving his bulky and nauseatingly commoner form above me, if only to reach for the two wires as I’d done.
With a barely noticeable crackle of lightning, the light once more came to life, causing the lupinor’s face to contort widely in glee.
“Get off of me, you brutish clod!” I yelled out, causing the man to slowly retract himself from my presence, as I dusted myself off for good measure.
“And there we have it.” Emma quickly reentered the fray. “Like I said, Ilunor, this is something I’ve owed you guys for a while now — a hands-on, evidence-based approach to confirm my claims.”
As Thalmin and I met her gaze, it was clear she saw both of our confusions, as she quickly gestured towards both the small wires here and the larger ones attached to her tent.
“You see, while it appears to me that you guys bend lightning through your own force of will, we instead had to manipulate it through less direct means. We observed how it worked, studying the natural phenomenon which governs it, and from there, we started to control it. Not by spells or pure force of will, but by wires, capacitors, and circuits. In the same way one might control the flow and direction of water through an aqueduct or canal, we direct and control the flow of electricity through wires and cables. That’s the basics of it, at least, but that’s how you get more complex systems like my tent, or the extremely complex grids of power that provide lightning to every human in existence.”
That latter statement… lingered with me more than everything up to this point.
Because in spite of the provision of lightning to the common peasant being something of a ridiculous notion, it became far less ridiculous and far more… worrisome when one considers the various artifices which utilized said lightning for their operations.
“So… your scrolls and sight-seers.” I began, pointing at the earthrealmer’s hidden scroll, and then the sight seer. “Along with your… printer and assembler, with which you will use to build your powered bicycle. All of it… is powered by… electricity?”
“Yup! I hate to make this analogy since it doesn’t work on a fundamental level, but I’ll do it anyway. It’s sort of like how mana has unlocked contemporary civilization for you guys. For us, electricity really was the breakthrough that ushered in modern civilization.”
I couldn’t do this.
Not tonight.
What had at first just been an exercise in determining the earthrealmer’s folly, was now ushering in a paradigm-shifting revelation that rivaled that of the manaless sight-seer trips.
Imagining a world of commoners — of peasants — possessing tools that made smiths out of the ordinary individual, and homes adorned with lights which would’ve otherwise only been possible through the gifting of Nexian wisdom…
It was horrifying, in a slow, insidious, contagious sort of way.
As it wasn’t a weapon, tool, or spell that was imposing in and of itself, no.
Instead, it was a rather simple concept, that when applied en masse, laid the groundwork for an impossible civilization that could indeed pose a rivalry with—
“Ahem.” I cleared my own throat and by doing so, my own mind. “You have… demonstrated quite enough earthrealmer. Thank you.”
My mind ran through its paces, attempting to salvage something out of this botched quest.
It was then that my eyes landed on the two black boxes she previously held in her hand, prompting a curious smile to creep across my face.
“Cadet Emma Booker. You did say that you’d be producing much of your powered bicycle here using your printer, yes?”
“That’s right, Ilunor. What about it?”
“Well in that case… do you mind explaining exactly why you felt the need to bring those two boxes?”
That question immediately stopped the earhrealmer from clearing up this little experiment as she merely nodded and grabbed the two aforementioned items.
“Yeah, sure. It’s simply because my printer doesn’t have the required tooling nor hyper-specific materials to produce these two components. One being the powered bicycle’s control unit — think of it as the ‘brain’ of the bicycle similar to how my drones have their own little brains to receive my orders. And the second being its high-density electrical reservoir pack.”
That second answer prompted my eyes to widen, as I turned to the humming box once more.
“So, you aren’t going to be generating power for your powered bicycle?”
“Well, there is a form of a power generation system for it. One that’s similar to my suit. It’s actually built-in to the electrical reservoir, though you can’t really tell since it looks seamless from the outside. However, it’s nowhere near as powerful or efficient as my actual generator here. So really, it’s going to rely mostly on stored lightning and the supplemental energy gained from its internal generator.”
=====
Emma
I didn’t know why, but it was clear that the latter explanation caused the vunerian to simply go silent.
Perhaps it was just because he was tired.
Or maybe my little ‘Electricity 101’ class had already managed to fry his brain.
“I hope that clears things up for you, Ilunor.” I attempted to break him out of his stupor, though he merely reacted with a simple, apathetic nod.
Strangely, it would be Thalmin who would pick up where the deluxe kobold had left off.
“So there is a limit to what you can print.” He began quizzically.
“Yeah. The two aforementioned systems are just really complex, requiring a heck of a lot more precise tooling and volatile materials to manufacture with tolerances that my printer definitely does not meet.”
The man took a moment to process that, his eyes squinting and his posture tightening.
“Understandable.” Was his only response. “I can liken this to the now-archaic concept of creating transportable cores for golems, wherein the aim was to gather resources locally to construct the rest of its transient form.” He explained simply. “Though nowadays, it would be simpler to open up a portal to one’s manufactoriums or forges, completely circumventing logistical bottlenecks. At least, if you’re the Nexus or its favored adjacent subjects, that is.” The man sighed. “It’s humbling and somewhat grounding that despite your kind’s advancements, you still suffer from certain bottlenecks that just make sense without Nexian magical innovations.”
“I… appreciate that Thalmin, thanks.” I responded with a confused tone of voice.
“Well, in any case, I believe we should take our leave.” He began shaking the Vunerian’s shoulder, garnering barely a breathy sigh in response. “I would love to see the progress of your motorcycle, Emma. I’ve had my fair share of experiences in the equestrian arts, so I’d love nothing more than to ride with you.”
“A race then?” I offered with a chuckle.
“If that is what the knight wishes, then yes. You can consider this a princely challenge.” The lupinor managed out with a chuckle.
“You’re on. And oh, since we’re going to be going to the North Rythian Forests together anyways, I’m assuming we’ll have more than ample space to race, right?”
“Indeed.” The man nodded.
“Wait, actually, this brings up a very important question. Are we all going to be riding, or do we have to group up, or… how is this going to work?”
“You’ll find all the answers you need tomorrow, Emma.” Thacea finally interjected. “Because this quest isn’t one to be fulfilled by an entire peer group, but merely two out of four.”
=====
The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. The Grand Concourse of Learning. The Observer's Cove. Local time: 1615.
Emma
“May I have your attention, please!” Professor Belnor proclaimed, my eyes that had formerly been transfixed on the genuinely-impressive world of magical healing finally shifting to take in what I’d been waiting for all day. “I understand we are all excited to return to our dorms to complete this week’s assigned homework—” The professor spoke with a twinge of sarcasm in her warm grandmotherly voice. “—however, I would be remiss if I did not perform my duties not only as professor, but quest giver.”
This seemed to spark something in the faces of the usual suspects, with Qiv and Ping practically ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.
“In accordance with Academy tradition, as incumbent of the office of the Potions Master, I hereby proclaim to all present and only those whose peer groups are fully present — the opportunity to participate in the coveted and long-standing tradition known as The Quest for the Everblooming Dawn.”
Comments
David Betz
“Sounds that could only be likened to the wailing of a thousand desperate souls screaming through a sealed oubliette.” Oooh! What great imagery! Never thought of using “oubliette” descriptively, but it works here!
I Dare Korval
"you’ll be the one leading the charge",..... cute pun there!
