Rising Shards

I struggled against the energy restraints on my wrists as Roux marched back and forth in front of us. Oka and Kalei were similarly tied up on either side of me. The chairs we were in were all connected, so we’d need a coordinated effort to do anything with them. I tried to see if there was anything in the dimly lit cavern I could use. All three of our bloodsabers were just out of reach in a barrel.

“Having been thwarted by our encounter in Litus Empirica,” Roux said. “I have been plotting my revenge.”

“We played your game, Roux!” Oka said. “Doesn’t that count for anything?”

“So, like as I warned,” Roux said, ignoring Oka.

Razmus Marne cleared his throat behind her. His robe now had a pin on it that said “assistant teaches: that’s me” on it.

“What?” Roux asked. “I thought I was doing pretty good there.”

“You threw a ‘like’ in there,” Razmus said. ”And you got visibly flustered by flower girl.”

“Aw, but,” Roux said. “I had the whole march down at least, right?”

“Pretty good,” Razmus said. “But a true wizard wouldn’t have tripped a couple times on the barrel housing your enemies’ weapons. But, I digress. Continue. Remember what you seek to gain from them.”

“Right!” Roux said. She dramatically pointed at us. “Enemies of the Legion of Dark Kolrab! Prepare yourselves for my mighty spell, which will reveal the location of…oh, hey.”

Roux turned to Razmus and tugged on his robe. “Hey, teacher.”

“Miss Roux,” Razmus said. “Why did you interrupt your speech?”

“I thought of something I should say, and I wanted to like clear it with y—”

“Did I not emphasize that you should not interrupt yourself during your speech?”

“Right, but like—”

“Because interruptions disrupt the flow of your abilities. And your spectacle and grandeur.”

“But I was thinking we could, you know—”

“Roux. Stop talking.”

“Right, right.” Roux said. She slapped her face a few times. “Should I start over from the top?”

Kalei groaned. “Please don’t, the first one took like at least fifty-five minutes, that’s like prestige TV episode runtime.”

“How about pick it up from ‘Prepare yourselves…’” Razmus said.

“OK, got it!” Roux said. She generated energy in her palms matching the ones around our wrists. “Prepare yourselves, for my mighty spell, which will reveal the location of something the Dark Legion of Kolrab has been tasked—”

“Legion of Dark Kolrab.” Razmus corrected.

“Right. The Legion of Dark Kolrab has been tasked—”

“Start from ‘Prepare yourselves.”

“Right right.” Roux said. She pointed again. “Prepare yourselves, for my mighty spell, which will reveal the location of something the Legion of Dark Kolrab has been tasked with…..seeking out!”

Roux blasted the energy wave at our heads, which felt like just a gust of wind and looked like a burst of sparkly purple smoke. I instinctively coughed, but I don’t think I even breathed it in. Roux pulled the gust back to herself, letting it swirl around her head as she pressed her fingertips to her temples. After a few moments of humming, she stopped.

“Hey, teacher?” Roux asked.

“…yes?” Razmus asked.

“Well, the thing was supposed to be in their minds, right?”

“What thing?” I asked.

“The thing!” Roux said. “And I’m not asking you, I’m asking teacher!”

Razmus put a supportive hand on Roux’s shoulder. “Arielle, are you entirely sure you have gathered the correct students?”

“It was in my premonition!” Roux said. “I’d never be able to not tell who these three are even in a premonition! They were in my premonition! These three right here!”

“That’s true, I could scarcely forget the indigestion the girl on the right caused me when she sucker-punched me in the gut.” Razmus said. Kalei grinned with pride.

A door appeared on the side of a cavern in a glowing light. Once it solidified, it opened and Dr. Diast stepped out.

“Alright, Marne, wrap it up,” Diast said. “I got three students waiting at their memory trial doors and I’m sure these three have better things to do than this.”

Razmus chuckled, then twiddled his fingers towards Diast like he was casting a spell at her.

“You’re just mad that I had the solution to your issue.” Razmus said.

“Yes. Very.” Diast said.

“Dr. Diast, can you please make him let us go?” Kalei asked. “I’m so bored.”

“I thought I told you three to play along,” Diast said.

“Oka and Zeta did,” Roux said. “Oka was more verbal, and Zeta was more silent terror, but it did make me feel very wizard-like.”

“Alright, well that’s close enough,” Diast said. “Roux, let em go already.”

Roux looked back to Razmus, who nodded in a way that looked like he really didn’t want to give approval. She waved her hands, and the energy binding us released. I had to roll my wrists immediately as soon as the energy restraints faded. I could still feel a weird tingly energy feeling on my skin and it made me anxious.

“Let’s get out of here,” Diast said, tossing us each a gate rosin.

“You haven’t taught us that energy hand thing yet,” Kalei said.

“Because I dread the day you learn it.” Diast said. “Thanks for humoring them.”

“What was all this about, exactly?” I said, looking over to Roux and Razmus, who were quietly discussing something in a corner of the cavern.

“Well, Roux somehow qualified for a program called ‘wizard training,’” Diast said, barely hiding her lack of respect for whatever ‘wizard training’ was. “I think Marne’s wizard training is more supervillain tropes than anything remotely resembling wizardry, but apparently the school board disagrees and has given him a few students to mentor this year. So you all get some extra credit points for this, at least.”

“Were we supposed to have a thing?” Oka asked.

“I have no idea.” Diast said. “The ‘wizard’ school of Cani teaching is…not in my wheelhouse, to put it mildly.”

“Is there really something Razmus can do that you can’t?” I asked.

Diast sighed. “So you know the issues I’ve been having with the memory trials because Wildfire Hearts screwed up the memory collecting/temple building part?”

“Kinda,” I said. Dr. Diast had told us they messed something up when they were uploading our memory patterns to the void or something, and that’s why I had to come with to Oka and Kalei’s memory trials.

“I was chatting with Caya about my issues with it, and unfortunately she decided that telling Razmus Marne would be a good idea because he has the necessary skills to fix it.”

“And you’re fine with that?” Oka asked.

“It was either that or keep forcing you to watch all of these,” Diast said. “And we’re inching way too close to the deadline to start under temple levels of the void, so it was either have you guys do a favor for Marne, have us all get behind on our void work, or pay two easy payments of $599 to a guy I found online who might be even shadier than Marne.”

“Is your wounded pride worth skipping out on having to make two easy payments of $599?” Kalei asked.

“That’s something I’ll have to ask myself every night for a while,” Diast said.