Chương 103: Before The Council

Damion slept more than the twelve hours that the Magic System needed for its upgrade. When he did finally wake up, he ignored the notification from the Magic System and went in search for food.

"I'm up!" Damion called out as he put on a fresh pair of clothes. Even with his Belt of Purification, several days in the same clothes was pushing his sensibilities. With fresh clothes on Damion headed to the kitchen. Looking around the house, Damion was surprised to find that no one was home. In fact, there was no sign of anyone having been in the house except for him in several days. Damion took out his communication tablet and tried to connect to his mother's hoping to find out where they were.

He thought they might be stuck in the shelter or perhaps they were not being allowed to return to the neighborhood for some reason. Damion's tablet failed to connect and gave him a disturbing message. [The user you are trying to connect with is unable to be reached.] Damion immediately reached out to Ms. Teft to check if the communication network was down in the area or if there was something else wrong. When Ms. Teft answered, Damion got a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"Damion. I'm glad you are up and about. Everyone was quite impressed with your efforts during the beast wave. I only told the council that you were my student, but they are wanting to meet you. Today if possible."

"What?" Damion asked, confused. His focus was on his family, and it took him a moment to realize what Ms. Teft was talking about.

"The council, the ruling body of Saung, as well as representatives from the various orders, guilds, and magic academies all want to meet you. The rumors about you are flying all around the city. They may have even left the city by now. This is exactly what we were hoping for all these years. We'll really be able to put Thorn in his place."

"That's great," Damion answered, not feeling Ms. Teft's level of enthusiasm.

"Have you heard from my parents? They weren't home when I got here, and no sign of them since I woke up. I can't even get my mom on the communication network."

"I'll ask someone to do a search. Several of the shelters were covered in rubble from other buildings getting destroyed by the S Rank that made it into the city. Who was in what shelter is all in a database. They can check which shelter your family checked into. I wouldn't worry too much about not being able to contact them. The shelters are designed to block all magic signals, so they don't attract the attention of any beasts."

"Oh. Okay. Do you need me to meet you somewhere for this meeting?" Damion asked, feeling better about not hearing from his parents.

"Meet me at the Adventurer Association with my ground car in ten minutes." Ten minutes did not give Damion much time to put on appropriate clothing, but he hurried and was able to make it to the Adventurer Association after putting on a formal outfit consisting of a dress shirt, tie and blazer combination his mother had picked out for him to wear at his school graduation, luckily it all still fit. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"Your armor would have been a better choice," Ms. Teft said as she climbed in the ground car and looked at what Damion was wearing.

"That would have taken me longer," Damion answered as Ms. Teft began to pilot the ground car.

"Don't fret. This is just a supposed to be a glorified meet and greet. I haven't told anyone about your magic seal, or it being lifted when you turned eighteen. So, what you tell them is up to you."

"What should I tell them?"

"The truth, they will know if you lie, but you don't have to tell them the entire truth."

"You want me to blame Dean Thorn right. For not testing me properly."

"He is the one who falsified your test results and essentially made you miss out on three years of magic schooling," Ms. Teft said whimsically.

"Are you saying the years I spent training with you weren't well spent?" Damion teased.

"You learned more about practical magic and combat from me than anything else. The magic academies are more about theory and understanding. Don't get me wrong, you are more capable than any fresh graduate in a fight. But you still have a lot to learn that only the magic academies are allowed to teach, plus, it's hard to learn about magic theories without actually being able to do magic, which is why I didn't teach you those theory classes."

"I never knew that. I thought you just wanted me to make a big splash and ruffle everyone's feathers."

"Well… I did. And you have. And now we are here," Ms. Teft said as she stopped the ground car in front of a tall building of polished stone that looked like it was made of solid onyx.

"Remember, just the truth." The teacher and student pair were greeted and led through the building to a large chamber. Ms. Teft was directed to a seat amongst twenty or so other distinguished looking mages seated behind a half circle table. In the center of the half circle was an empty seat that Damion was directed too.

"Greetings Knight Wells, or should we address you as Mage Wells?" the man at the center of the table asked.

"Either is fine with me," Damion answered.

"I am Chairman Rubert Hathaway, head of Saung's governing body. Seated around the table here with me are a mix of council members and representatives of each Order of Knights, a number of prominent guilds and representatives of the three magic academies." Damion looked around from face to face. He saw a few faces he recognized, like Mage Bianco, whom he guessed was representing Erythraean Academy. He also spotted Justiciar Mathis and Mage Halsey, representing the Justiciar Order and the Adventurer Association.

Eventually, Damion's eyes fell on Dean Thorn who was sitting next to a man in similar colored robes.

"Uhh… hi," Damion said meekly. He was not sure what the protocol for such a meeting was or how to greet any of these people properly, but even if he did, he was not sure he would.

"Can you explain why you have been hiding your magical talents?" Chairman Hathaway asked.

"I don't understand what you mean?" Damion questioned back.

"You clearly have an S Rank magic affinity, but you have hidden it for years. I can't imagine how powerful you would be if you had a proper education." Damion glanced at Dean Thorn, but the man did not seem to recognize him. Twelve years had passed. It was no surprise Dean Thorn would not remember their short encounter from so long ago, especially when Damion's hair had changed color from what it was back then. With a slight smile Damion turned his head back to the Chairman and answered.

"I have never tried to hide my magical talent, but I was also denied the right to be trained as a mage when I was only six years old." Damion's words sent everyone in the room except him and Ms. Teft into a flurry of whispered conversations. Several moments passed before Chairman Hathaway brought the table to order.

"How is it that you were denied the right to be a mage at only six? Testing does not occur until you enter school." Damion saw from the corner of his eye that Dean Thorn had started to squirm in his seat and Damion knew the man was realizing that Damion was the little boy from back then. Now was the time to spring the trap Ms. Teft had set.