Chương 15: Chapter 16: The best friends are made in times of Peril

Several days after Jim's first Combat Magic 2 class had concluded, he'd been walking around campus with a far-away look in his eyes. Who am I? Where am I? Why am I? These were the thoughts rolling like tumbleweeds through his head. Professor Quatzel was an abomination, not only of body, but also of pedagogic standard. Jim and his peers had been obliterated, disintegrated and annihilated in mountains, forests, lakes, bogs, clearings, cities, villages and once, in a large basement. That's all there was to it.

No spells, no tactics, just relentless fighting, if you could call it that. In the end, Jim had received the grade AT, which likely stood for Absolutely Terrific, but despite his success, he couldn't help but feel lost. Lost and slightly anxious. After all, with his advancement out of Combat Magic 1, he hadn't just received the green light to attend Combat Magic 2, but also to pick an elective.

However, he hadn't gone to the first of the classes that he could have gone to, as it had been on the day after CM2, when he'd still been severely shell-shocked. Today was his second opportunity, and he felt like he needed to grasp it this time. If his future visions were correct, then Waterflower would be joining them in CM2 soon, and if the girl heard he still hadn't taken advantage of the elective slot, he'd never hear the end of it. Not that he cared about her opinion, or anything.

It was after Jim had decided to fortify himself and his dwindling motivation to stay committed to the cause of improving his already fearsome abilities that he met someone whom he hadn't expected to see again, no matter how much he fervently wished for it. Alice, as beautiful as the day she'd defended him from the evil headmaster, was cheekily waving at him from a side alley as he exited academy grounds to make his way to the red lantern.

She was draped, as always, in a bright red cape which contrasted beautifully with her cheerful green eyes and coal-black hair.

"Hey friend!" she shouted to him, causing Jim to come to a stop before he crashed into a stand selling snacks in front of the academy gates. He'd stopped watching where he was going the second she'd come into his view. Jim extradited himself from the large mass of students entering and exiting the academy and went over to where the girl was still waving at him.

Nobody else seemed to be seeing her, which was a bit odd, but she was quite hidden, and Sredina had way too many off-branching back-alleys, which weren't cleaned regularly enough to be worth using.

"Alice," Jim greeted as he sidled up to her, causing the girl's pupils to widen.

"I don't remember introducing myself," she muttered thoughtfully before shaking her head.

"Well, you are…" She shook her head again before extending a hand towards Jim. The Savant looked at the dainty pale hand confusedly, before eventually taking it into one of his own, laying a thumb over her fingers, and then bending down to kiss it. Women of good breeding didn't shake hands, so he was sure she'd been using some other regional variety of hand offering he hadn't immediately recognised.

"Greetings, Jim Papillion Savant at your service," Jim introduced himself.

"Alice, just Alice for now," the girl said with a wink. Jim squinted his eyes and nodded seriously. A princess on the run from an arranged marriage, looking for true love in the capital city of a prosperous kingdom. He filed that information away for later.

"I wanted to thank you for your warning. I was able to find the informant in our midst," Alice told him, demonstrating that she was a woman who knew how to get to the point.

"You are most welcome. It would be a sad day for the kingdom indeed if a woman as distinguished as you were to fall into the hands of a plot as despicable as the one being woven by the headmaster," Jim said, puffing out his chest and preening.

"We redistributed the invitations after reconsidering the list of participants. A surprise meet-up this weekend proved itself very successful," the girl told him.

"The state of a kingdom not allowing people to gather freely to express their opinions is abominable indeed."

"I wanted to ask you, however," Alice said with a tilted head, pointer finger on her chin.

"How did you know that we were compromised?" This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Jim hesitated for a second, thinking about his prophetic abilities. The last person he'd told had been the headmaster, who'd promptly killed him. But something told him that he could trust Alice. After all, the headmaster had been after her, which meant that they were on the same side, right?

Also, having a magical ability like that was highly valuable, especially if it resided within one's bloodline, as was the case with Jim.

"There is seer's blood in my family. I occasionally dream of the future," Jim eventually told the woman in front of him. For a moment, her eyes seemed to flash red, before she smiled beatifically.

"That's incredible!" she complimented, clapping her hands together and swooning, before growing more serious.

"Does that mean by any chance that you know what's going to happen in the future? In five months, perhaps?" Jim thought of how the academy had sent out all their students to villages. He wondered for a moment how the other students had fared, before his blood ran cold. His eyes widened and his breathing quickened. Alice put a steadying hand on his shoulder, thumb gently pressing on his neck, while Jim's thoughts raced at a rapid pace.

The headmaster had been involved in some ritual, sending away all the second circle mages of the academy to random villages. Obviously, the two were connected. Perhaps he wanted to get rid of competition? No, get those who could stop him out of the way.

"The headmaster and his faction are not what they seem," Jim muttered eventually.

"They're planning on sending all second circle mages of the academy to their deaths while they complete a ritual."

"What kind of ritual, where?" Alice asked sharply, causing Jim to shake his head.

"I don't know. This is all the information I have. I just know that your meeting would have been one of the casualties of his efforts to silence the people." If it hadn't been a plebeian thing to do, Jim would have bitten his nails. Alice narrowed her eyes and let go of him.

"The gift of prophecy is valuable. Does anyone else know?" Jim shook his head.

"If the headmaster finds out I can see the future, he kills me," he eventually admitted.

"We wipe out several city districts in our battle before he eventually overwhelms me with reinforcements, Hramon and Paitana." Alice looked at him with a quirked brow and slowly nodded.

"The Black Ouroboros, our organisation. We simply want to avoid this conflict. These whispers, of Ezengerd, of the Hrust mountains. The changing of the academy curriculum. The expedited graduations of the knights and their stationing at the fortresses in Mitelos."

"Doomsday propaganda," Jim muttered.

"Ezengerd is a valuable trading partner with more to lose than to gain by attacking their breadbasket, and the mountains are crispy coal; nothing can possibly be alive in there. They want an excuse. I just don't know why." Considering that in their plans, he was sent to die in some village, they probably didn't want anything good. Could the kingdom survive without him?

"We have a way out," Alice eventually admitted.

"All the more affluent merchants, mages and nobles leaving the city now would just cause them to panic. That's why we started gathering them up, especially the mages. Underneath," she said in a low voice, gently nodding her head to indicate down.

"We'll have a gate spell ready. It just needs some juice on the day of activation. When the chaos starts, we go there, we leave. Southern Riche, to the border."

"You're preparing an evacuation," Jim suddenly realised.

"All this talk, true or not, something's brewing and most of us don't want no part of it," Alice muttered quietly.

"What do you gain from this?" Jim suddenly asked, with narrowed eyes. There was always an angle. He ignored her double negation.

"You want to know the truth?" Alice asked. Jim nodded.

"If we help evacuate all the important people, they'll owe us. Just as importantly, when the plan of the royal family and the mage factions is revealed, these influential people can stage a resistance. The prerequisite of course is that they're alive enough to do so," Alice said quietly. A gate spell was advanced magic; most nobles and wealthy merchants of the capital couldn't even afford to hire a mage who knew how to use it. If they could even find such a mage in the first place.

Alice's people having access to it meant they were very well connected. Even if the woman didn't say it, Jim was smart enough to look underneath the underneath. The most powerful factions of the city were planning something for which they needed to manufacture a state of emergency. An excuse for martial law was so important that they were spreading rumours not just about Ezengerd, but also the Hrust mountains.

Not everyone was in on their game, but if someone were to gather and gain the gratitude of everyone important that wasn't involved in the conspiracy, they'd essentially create an entirely new faction. Alice was obviously someone important, or at least she represented someone who was. They'd been cut down by the headmaster due to a leak before, but if that didn't happen, then maybe this faction could grow strong enough to do something in the future. But most importantly…

Jim had been looking for a way to not get drafted for that stupid village mission. He knew which day the academy would send him out. If the day before, he slipped away? They'd search for him; he was too important for them not to. He needed a way to get out of the city, to Riche.

"I want to go with the gate," Jim said decisively. A smile hushed over Alice's face.

"You can join," she said easily.

"Will you have any more visions until then?" she asked. Jim hesitated before shaking his head. His visions seemed to be triggered whenever a future version of him died. He wasn't planning on dying.

"I've only ever had a few my whole life. I don't expect them to suddenly start occurring more often now." Alice nodded thoughtfully.

"Regardless, perhaps it would be better if you didn't join the meetings. After all, you know the real goal of our group now. Don't tell anyone, we have to join the others together on their own terms." she warned him. Jim nodded seriously. He knew the value of secrecy.

"My lips are sealed," he promised.

"Good, I'll come to meet you every now and again to check if you had another vision. I know that seers can't force themselves to see the future, but maybe we can get lucky and avoid this whole mess even better with your help." Jim nodded seriously.

"Were you going anywhere?" Alice suddenly asked.

"I can accompany you," she offered. Jim froze and hesitated. He'd been about to go to the red light district, not necessarily a place you took a woman like Alice. He awkwardly coughed into his hand.

"Actually, I think it's better if I simply go to class early today; this conversation took longer than I thought," he eventually said.

"Alright, I'll see you soon," Alice said, before hesitating. Suddenly, she leaned over to him, went on her tip-toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then she turned around and disappeared down the alley, leaving a frozen Jim behind her. Jim's hand went up to touch his cheek before a smile spread himself across his face. He looked down at his hand, more specifically the ring with his family crest. Gold coin against black.

"I know it's expected that women can't resist my charm," he eventually muttered.

"But still, it's nice." He turned around and walked back to the academy.