What We Do to Survive

With an irritated growl, I let the pendant drop back into its box. I’d wasted two hours examining the stupid thing, but I had barely learned anything past the first ten minutes.

Despite the fact that it looked like solid gold, I could clearly tell that it wasn’t actually made from the metal. It was too hard, to the point that I wasn’t sure I could damage it even if I wanted to. The gem was similarly mysterious, it looked like a ruby and read like a ruby to the only material identification spell I knew, but any deeper tests told me that was impossible.

My main takeaway from examining it was that the pendant contained an almost unreasonable amount of mana. Under even the weakest mana sight enchantment, the pendant glowed like a tiny sun, any more complex enchantments hidden under the magnitude of mana contained within the inch high figurine.

Beyond that I’d had no luck identifying what it was, what it was made from, how it was made, or what it did. It probably did something, you couldn’t have that much mana in such a tiny container without it being meant for some purpose, but what that purpose was was utterly beyond me.

At the very least the chain was exactly what it looked like. The links were pure silver, with minor enchantments of durability and self-repair woven masterfully into the simple design. The clasp was especially interesting, it contained a miniscule spacial compartment that could store part of the chain, allowing it to grow longer or shorter with ease depending on the wearer’s needs. At maximum length, the chain was almost two meters long, but it could be reduced to an inch long loop with a simple tug.

It was an ingenious design, and I was envious of the enchanting skill needed to accomplish such a feat. The entire enchantment was anchored on a piece of silver smaller than my fingernail and more complex than anything I could manage at the best of times. If this was the sort of spellwork that was used for just the chain, I was even more convinced the pendant had to be something really special.

What that special was would have to wait for another day however. I idly directed the seventeen ball bearings orbiting around my forearm back into their bowl as I stood up and stretched. I groaned in relief as something in my back cracked, relieving some of the tension I’d been feeling all morning.

I’d woken up slightly ahead of my delayed alarm, years of early mornings pulling me out of bed hours before I particularly wanted to be. I’d felt well enough by morning, my potions having kicked in properly while I’d slept, that I’d decided to try and be productive instead of lounging in bed until my alarms went off.

I’d grabbed a late breakfast, then delivered a note to the mailbox outside Janna’s room apologizing for the missed meeting and suggesting another time this evening. I’d hoped to catch her in person, but she was either out of her room or just uninterested in answering the door.

With several hours left before I had to get to class, I’d decided to take a look at the odd gift the Myrddin had left me. As I often did, I also used the opportunity to practice my pure mana manipulation. I’d been slacking in that regard recently, and the events of the previous day had really shaken my confidence.

I hadn’t been able to do anything, the only combat spell I’d thrown at the monstrous pair splashing off their magic resistant hides like raindrops off a shingled rooftop. I hadn’t even done a particularly good job running away from the monsters! If not for them getting distracted by other students, I would have likely been caught before any of the staff decided to interfere.

In hindsight, my jump had been reckless and poorly executed. I should have tried to climb outside to get out of immediate danger, then cast a proper feather fall spell before jumping down. Additionally, the mana shield I’d formed had been painfully crude and far beneath what I should be able to manage at my skill level. I would need to dedicate a few days to researching and practicing pure mana shielding sometime soon.

I’d made much less headway in understanding my new gift that I would have liked, but I was out of time for now. Classes called and I was quite looking forward to this one actually. During our practical session the day before, Professor Shrike had hinted that we would be talking about spell deconstruction in today’s class, a topic I was highly interested in.

I was sure it was going to be a dry and complex lecture of course, but that also meant next week’s practical was probably about spell deconstruction, and that meant countermagic. I’d never really had a partner to practice real counterspells with before and was excited to find out how well I would do in practice.

The practical lessons had always been the best part of Evocation Fundamentals, and this year was proving no different from the last two semesters of the class I’d taken. There was nothing quite like getting shown how to throw fireballs and conjure lightning to make you feel like a real spellcaster.

To my surprise, Brenda was already there when I showed up to class almost fifteen minutes before it started. She was sitting next to my preferred seat, and I almost decided to grab a spot somewhere else, but eventually decided against it. She would probably just get up and move beside me regardless, and then not only would I have to deal with her, but I would also be sitting in a worse spot.

She gave me a bright, sunny smile as I took my seat, immediately latching onto my arm and pressing her cheek against my shoulder. Today she was wearing a periwinkle dress, a wide belt tied with a bow of the same color fastened to highlight her narrow waist. Her hair was tied back in her typical braid with a matching bow, and heavy sapphire earrings hung from her lobes to complete the look.

“Hey Orion! Wow you’re here so early, I knew you were punctual but I didn’t realize you were always so serious about it.”

“Hi Bren. This is a bit early, even for me, but I’m more surprised to see you here already. You usually get to class at the last second.”

She blushed faintly and ignored the question, rubbing her face against my shoulder instead. I suppressed a sigh, what a strange girl.

We sat in silence for several minutes as I got my things out and ready for class. Eventually Brenda decided to speak up.

“Did you hear what happened after class yesterday?”

I looked back at her sharply. “No, I haven’t really spoken to anyone since I left the practical.”

“Oh, it's crazy! One of the sixth years, Alken Corsly, the tall, flat faced one?” I nodded for her to continue, knowing the student she was talking about. After the first four years, classes became small enough from attrition that it wasn’t hard to be at least passingly familiar with the students who were left. I knew by name all of the remaining seventh years and most of the sixth years, it was important to know who not to antagonize after all.

“Well apparently he lost control during a spell demo in Expert Summoning, loosed an elder horn-fiend and a cackling fleshstaker into the hallways!”

I blinked, somewhat surprised by the news. So that’s what had happened. Expert Summoning was taught by Professor Hareck, and his classroom was just down the hallway from where I’d encountered the monsters.

“That's pretty unusual, didn’t think he’d make such an amateurish mistake. Think someone slipped him something to disrupt his mana control?”

A strange expression flashed across her face for a moment and she looked away. “Maybe. Well it doesn’t matter now. The backlash from the summoning circle was enough that the horn-fiend bit his head off. Then it smashed its way out of the classroom and went on a rampage! It busted out a window and killed two second years and a fourth year in one of the inner gardens. No one important I think.”

I nodded slowly, thinking back to the group I’d glimpsed while escaping. That was probably them, and they were dead now. I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that. It had hurt the first few times, especially when it was classmates I knew well doing the dying, but I was mostly numb to it now. Students at Avalon died or disappeared all the time.

This one felt slightly different however. This time, it had pretty clearly been my fault, and I hadn’t even meant for it to go that way. Well, it hadn’t been entirely my fault, most of the blame lay with the idiot who managed to botch a demon summoning, but he was dead now so it was hard to blame him for much of anything.

I’d ‘dealt with’ three students in my time at Avalon. There was Mistletoe of course, she wasn’t dead but if she didn’t ‘reappear’ in a few more weeks Avalon would mark her as ‘Killed in the course of Studies’. I’d also killed one student during a sanctioned duel during my second year, an arrogant ass I’d known from before I became a student, and I’d sabotaged another’s alchemical equipment in revenge for her doing the same to me.

Well, guilty or not, there was nothing I could do about it. The past was in the past. I would however need to look into who they were and who their friends were. Even though the faculty would not punish me for indirectly causing their deaths, someone connected to them might blame me and go for revenge.

Fortunately, it didn’t sound like my name was associated with the chaos yet, otherwise Brenda would be gushing about that instead.

“Orion? Are you ok?”

Startled, I looked back at Brenda, who I realized was looking at me with a concerned look on her face.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.” Her expression shifted back into her usual cheery smile, but she continued to watch me with unusual intensity.

We continued to chat about nothing particularly important until a vaguely familiar student plopped down his things in the typically empty seat on Brenda’s left. It took a moment to place him as Ezra Floris, one of Janna’s cousins.

He was only a second year student, but was pursuing a specialization in Evocation so he was rushing through the core curriculum at an accelerated pace. I had taken the prerequisite Evocation Fundamentals class the previous fall, while he had taken it the spring after the introductory course.

“Aye, sorry to bother you guys, but I need to borrow Orion for a second.” He had a stronger accent than Janna, the faint lilt of his original Guliviniane clear in his voice.

“Yes?” I asked, looking up from my notes.

“Ah, Janna wanted me to tell you that the time you mentioned would work, she reserved the same training hall that you did yesterday.”

Oh that was convenient. I was worried it would devolve into an entire mess of trying to get out schedules to line up. I only had class with her once a week so planning things out could have gotten quite tedious.

“Oh, thanks. Appreciate it. Tell her I’ll see her then?”

He gave me a sharp nod, “Of course. I’ll let you lovebirds get back to it.” Without a backwards glance, he scooped up his things and headed down to his typical spot.

I sat frozen for a moment, mouth half open to correct him. Holy shit, that was absolutely what it looked like, wasn’t it? She sat here. Next to me. Twice a week. Clutching at my arm. She’d been doing that in every single class we’d shared since last fall.

Was I part of the reason no one had offed her yet? Did they think I’d be upset enough to hunt them down if she died? Oh for gods’ sake, that was definitely part of it. Worst of all, she did nothing to deny his claim, simply pressing herself tighter against my side.

I slowly closed my mouth and looked back at my notes, pointedly ignoring how my arm was pinned between Brenda’s breasts. I did not have the mental energy to deal with this right now. Or ever. Fuck.

The last few minutes before class started were a silent hell as I tried to figure out what I was supposed to do. It was a relief when Professor Shrike launched into his typical homework review, finally giving me something more immediate to focus on. Brenda had been doing this for an entire year now, I could give it some more time before I had to deal with it.