Chương 57: Chapter 52.5: This has gone far enough

The Kingdom held competitions for almost everything. Aetherlocks had their circuits. Artificers had exhibitions. Alchemists had brewing trials. Enchanters did... something. Fabrisse had never looked into it. Everyone knew the Grand Tournament, though. Academies from across the Kingdom sent their best students to compete in thaumaturgy. Actual magic, against actual people. You would become a kingdomwide sensation should you win. Fabrisse tried to remember the last time South Westris had won. Had they ever won?

Perhaps not. He tried to ask Severa, "Have you—""I've made the Academy Final," she said.

"It's in a month." He wasn't asking that, but okay.

"You're overreaching," Lorvan was saying.

"You don't get to question my student while you're treating yours like a bonded adjunct."

"Oh, spare me, Lugano. If bonding with the Eidralith had actually done anything for your favorite student, I wouldn't need reports from two departments just to find out whether he's progressed beyond throwing rocks around." Wow. That's actually an incredible insult if I wasn't the target of it. Severa must've learned from this woman. He stared at his hand, clenching it into a violet-shaded fist. He couldn't just let Lorvan take that. He had the Eidralith now. here were actual ways forward.

Lorvan's brow seemed to have twitched; Fabrisse couldn't be sure. Rubin added with seemingly deliberate slowness.

"And Miss Veist seems to have plateaued rather early. How long are you going to keep pretending she needs protecting instead of pushing?" Nobody said anything for several seconds. Fabrisse genuinely wondered if a ward duel was about to break out in the middle of the colonnade. Lorvan finally said, "Push her where? Until she has no time left to be a normal teenager? I've seen what happens when mentors decide their students can never do enough." Severa stepped out from the archway.

"Mentor." Rubin turned.

"Miss Montreal."

"This has gone far enough." Rubin's brow lifted.

"Has it?"

"You're arguing about your students in front of other students."

"Perhaps they ought to hear it."

"No," Severa continued, "If you have something to say about either of us, say it somewhere else."

"Why?" Rubin asked.

"Kestovar was handed the Eidralith. He didn't ask for it. He certainly didn't earn it. I don't see why either of you should be spared hearing that."

"Not here."

"You disagree with my methods?"

"I disagree with this." Lorvan said, "The class has already dispersed." Rubin looked back at Severa.

"Very well." She gave a measured nod.

"We'll discuss your judgment later. High Instructant Mustafa is already waiting. Remember, he came all the way from Ninnengrod. You'll want to be properly attuned before the session." How many private instructants had it been this semester? Fabrisse thought. At this rate, Severa will collect them all and rune-stamp them like collectibles. What if they really are collectibles to her?

The image came unbidden: towering effigies of the High Instructants, cast in enchanted pewter and dressed in their signature ceremonial robes. Then his imagination made them smaller, little crystal replicas lined up across Severa's dormitory shelf. Some could recite bits of their lectures on loop. Maybe the particularly expensive ones could even recognize students and scowl at them.

The idea of reducing centuries of arcane authority to shelf decorations made Fabrisse wince, though he changed his mind once he started wondering what kind of stone they would use. Prismglass would work rather well, especially if the robes were made from infused ore. Actually, those could be rather nice.

"Understood, Mentor," Severa said. They left. It felt strangely ironic hearing Severa reprimand someone else for making interactions unnecessarily unpleasant, but it was what it was. Lorvan watched Rubin disappear around the colonnade before letting out a slow breath.

"Kestovar."

"I'm ready." Lorvan arched a brow.

"For Fire?" If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"For Fire." Lorvan looked at him for a second longer than usual, then he adjusted one of the outer layers of his robes.

"Very well. But don't train simply because you were offended on my behalf. Miss Lugano is already waiting." They crossed the academy grounds together. Along the way, Fabrisse briefly explained the Eidralith's newest passive that slowly improved elemental affinity, and how the gains were microscopic, but measurable. Lorvan listened without interrupting.

"Actually..." Fabrisse said, "would it be possible for me to keep casting Fire spells while Liene attacks me? If the passive and external exposure both contribute to my affinity, perhaps the effects will stack." Lorvan glanced sideways at him.

"If you don't mind looking ridiculous."

"Your sister is already trying to incinerate me, so…" he never finished his sentence. They kept walking. Training with Liene hadn't changed much. She threw fire at him, and Fabrisse threw considerably worse fire back. He kept Nascent Resonance active the entire time, hoping it would stack with whatever he gained from being repeatedly set on fire. Liene moved through increasingly complicated variations of Cinder Thread while Fabrisse answered with Embercoil whenever he could.

His were still terrible, but that wasn't the point. He kept casting. By the time the afternoon shadows stretched halfway across the practice grounds, Fabrisse's status read: [Fire Affinity Training Progress] [Current Progress: 9. 32% → 9. 51%] That's it? Even with two simultaneous training methods, he'd barely gained twenty percentage points toward the next affinity threshold. Lorvan adjusted another layer of his robes.

"I've already requested access to one of the Fire Chambers." Fabrisse looked up.

"When?"

"A week from now. Earlier if someone cancels." A week. He had two weeks left to practice. Yeah, he was still doomed.

"We'll work with what we have until then," Lorvan said.

"Cast whenever you have the time. Even if you gain almost nothing, almost nothing is still something."

"Understood." Lorvan picked up his satchel.

"I have another lecture. Try not to set yourself on fire while I'm gone."

"That won't happen under my strict supervision!" Liene said.

"I'll do my best," Fabrisse said. Lorvan left. Liene waited until he was well down the path.

"Soooo…" Fabrisse turned around. She already had her hand inside her satchel.

"You remember those Embermoth crystals?"

"From yesterday?"

"I might have done some research." She pulled out a folded sheet of parchment covered in sketches.

"I found all the other components for the necklace!"

"In half a day?"

"I mean, I've already gotten most of them with me, so it wasn't really a big deal." Her smile widened.

"Do you want to build it together?" It would be the first time in over a year that he'd worked on an artifact. He wasn't even sure he still remembered the basics. There was only one responsible course of action: relearn them. [Sidequest Received: Crafting Fundamentals Revisited] Objective: Craft one functional Rare-grade artifact Reward: +150 EXP +5 Progress Points Emotional Link Unlocked: Liene Lugano (Rank III) Progress Points?

[Progress Points: A flexible resource that may be invested directly into the progress of any mastered skill. Effectiveness depends on the skill's Tier and Rank. Approximate Value: Common Rank I: +20% progress per point Common Rank II: +10% progress per point Rare Rank I: +10% progress per point [Expand to see more…] So instead of endlessly repeating the same spell hundreds of times, he could occasionally brute-force the process. That was alarmingly convenient. Between Progress Points and Aether Mastery Points, the Eidralith seemed strangely generous with permanent progression resources. Could he actually get more of these? So far, they'd mostly come from quests. If that was the only source, he'd have to wait around for the Eidralith to decide he deserved another one. [Inquiry Response: Progress Points and Aether Mastery Points may also be redeemed through the Aetheric Repository.] [Unlock Requirement: Level 7] Fabrisse immediately tried opening it. [Feature Locked.] Naturally. All the more reason to reach Level 7 as quickly as possible. He only had one level left to climb. Oh. There was this Emotional Link thing too. It'd been quite a few days since the last quest involving it; he'd completely forgotten about that. Maybe he should— Soft clapping interrupted his thoughts." Soooo…" Liene rocked back on her heels, parchment still clutched against her chest." Have you made up your mind yet?" Oh no. Judging by Liene's expression, he'd once again become socially unavailable while reading blue rectangles." All right," he said." Let's give it a try."