Chapter: 271 Bonus - Illie & Ingrit (Patreon)

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Illie was finally settling into the Academy, now that she was entering her second year.

Students came in fits and starts, whenever their sponsors, teachers, or parents thought they were ready for the difficulty of the Academy.

If their arrival was out of sync with class offerings, that just gave the new student time to acclimatize with the campus and facilities before starting in the next class block.

Each block was three weeks, in which each student would take a single, intensive course. There would then be a week for self-study before the next block.

It was very rigorous.

Illie loved it.

Nalac had been struggling a bit, but he was getting into the swing of things. It helped that they only had a single subject to focus on at any given time, so they didn’t have to juggle priorities.

Supposedly, some older students took more than one class at a time, but they were the exception. It was more common for a student to retake the same course for several blocks to really deepen their knowledge, but again, that was mostly done by older students in later, more advanced classes.

Illie loved the striving; she loved the complex; she even loved the surrounding grounds, though she hadn’t had too much free time to explore.

The best part, though, was that she had her own room.

The chores were nothing and were actually easier than her work at home had been.

Most of the students had quick, cold scrubs to get clean—except on special occasions—in order to avoid chopping their own wood, carrying their own water, and managing the process and cleanup after. Illie was an exception as she had a hot bath every day after her workout in the Academy gymnasium.

Part of that was a requirement due to her propensity to push herself to the extreme. She particularly liked sparring weaponless, and these days she usually had to find four or five opponents in sequence before she ran out of energy.

She wasn’t as strong as most of her opponents, but she was slippery and quick.

While she lost vastly more than she won, that was better than most beginning students, who only ever lost. She really didn’t understand how two students sparring each other could both lose, but the proctor was often insistent.

This dual loss happened particularly often when first years sparred each other, and in those cases, Illie had to admit that what most did could hardly actually be called fighting.

As to her own ability, her teachers thought she had talent, and they were suggesting she take a course in the use of magical weaponry.

She might get to it, eventually, but not yet. She still loved fighting with her body alone, and they didn’t push, allowing that unarmed combat was a great foundation for any use of weaponry.

When the next class block started next week, it would be the beginning of her 13th block, and she would be attending her first second level course, ‘Foundational  Understandings and You 2: Are you sure you chose right?’

No, in fact she was not sure.

Foundational understandings were notoriously hard to pin down, as well as being utterly critical to a Mage’s future.

She felt a smile pull at her lips. I’m going to be a Mage.

As it stood, her concept was… not great.

‘Magic is my fist.’

It appealed to her, especially with all of her sparring. She wanted magic to be as easy to wield as her own body.

She’d tried, ‘Magic is my hand,’ but that had just felt awkward.

Hopefully, this new class would help solidify her foundational understanding, and allow her to take the next stages of inscription coursework.

She could hardly wait to get her first real spellforms.

The keystone inscription on her back still itched, and it pulled at her skin and tissue oddly when she moved, but she was assured that she’d get used to it, eventually not even thinking about the oddity of so much metal within her skin.

That inscription was as generic as it got, and therefore, it obviously didn’t count.

She hadn’t even solidified her quadrant yet, so the spell-lines specific to her quadrant had yet to be added and incorporated. Of course not, Illie, your foundational understanding influences that.

Hence, the choice in coursework.

Nalac had, of course, elected to join her.

They’d taken every course together, and she was beginning to be concerned by his lack of initiative, if she were being honest.

It had started out fine. The first courses every student took were a recommended set, and it made sense for them to take them together, but now? When they were supposed to start pursuing their own interests and plans of study?

He still simply took what she did.

He hasn’t been the same since…

She didn’t like to think about it, but the void in her chest ached unrelentingly.

Tala was gone, and this time no one seemed to know where she was.

One of Tala’s colleagues—a Mage named Rane—had reached out with the news and offered to help them with anything he could ‘until Tala returned.’

Other messages from other Mages had made Master Rane’s words seem like false hope, given to placate children.

Still, he’d responded more quickly than anyone else to their other inquiries.

Apparently connections between the Academy and the human cities took a Paragon level of power, whatever that meant, and seemingly those people were busy.

Such a requirement had gone a long way to explaining why Tala’s communications had been more irregular than expected, back before…

But it also meant that most people they tried to message couldn’t be counted on to respond quickly.

There had been times when Master Rane had been slow to respond, but they’d been infrequent.

Maybe Master Rane is a Paragon? Maybe it’s some sort of job? It was a thought that Illie had had many times before, but she’d never gathered the courage to ask, directly.

Her bath was starting to cool around her to the point that it would be detrimental to stay.

A cold dunk can be good for the body, but sitting in water as it cools to room temperature is just laziness.

Illie had purposely built a small fire, and it had died shortly after the water was a good temperature. She was getting very good at using exactly as much wood as she needed for each given bath.

This day, she’d needed a short bath and had acted accordingly.

I stayed too long working with the weights. Aside from bodyweight exercise, the Academy encouraged their students to use a truly staggering number of odd implements, each weighted in different ways to alter the centers of balance and change up exactly how muscles would be worked.

Magic is as much physical as mental, and I will neglect neither.

But she was stalling.

She was sore, and a large part of her didn’t want to get up.

With a sigh, she pushed herself out of the water and turned the valve set near the bottom of the basin, allowing the tub to empty into a series of drains.

Apparently, the Academy hadn’t always had those, and she was reminded to be grateful for the ‘luxury.’

Illie had to admit, if she had to carry out her dirty water, as well as carrying in the clean? She’d probably take fewer baths.

She dried off, dressed, and returned the bath room to a better state than it had been in when she’d found it.

That done, she made her way towards the dining hall. It was dinner time, and today was a special day.

She turned thirteen today.

Nalac did too, obviously, but that wasn’t her main focus.

No, it was something else entirely. Something quite self-focused.

Illie was officially a teenager!

Nothing really changed because she was a teenager, of course, but it was another milestone.

Last year, she’d been old enough to come to the Academy, a major milestone if ever there was one.

This year, she was a teenager.

Next year? Well, there wasn’t really anything special about being fourteen, but she’d find something worthy of note. I have a year, after all.

The food here was good, but she missed home cooked meals. Still, she’d seen other students getting special desserts on their birthdays, so she was cautiously optimistic that she’d have one today, too.

Mail call, as well. She smiled, knowing that she’d probably have messages from her family and friends back home.

Master Leighis had been helping facilitate communication between Nalac and Illie and all the mundanes they left in Marliweather.

Illie giggled. It was still odd to think of her friends and family as ‘mundanes,’ but that’s what they were. It’s what she used to be.

To be fair, she was still just inscribed, but that counted! No matter what Nalac says.

There was a distinction and a difference between inscribed and mundanes, and most inscribed didn’t even have keystones.

She didn’t focus on the fact that she was only really inscribed if her keystone counted as an inscription. That was beside the point.

Illie climbed through the Academy from her room near the lowest level to near the top of the main complex.

She was often grateful that her room was so low down, along with all the other dormitories, because it reduced the work required for her baths.

They were worth it, but she wasn’t sad that they were easier than they could have been.

During her steady climb, Illie waved to a few of her new friends as they passed hurriedly in the halls. She’d seen them all earlier in the day at various points, and they’d wished her happy birthday then, but that didn’t stop many of them from reiterating the sentiment.

Even so, she didn’t try to stop them or turn them around. If they weren’t heading to dinner, they likely had to grab something from their room, get changed, or something like that.

They’ll be along shortly.

The wide doors stood open, and Illie took a moment to stand in the doorway and take in the room before her.

Long tables ran up the center of the room with the occasional break in their length to allow for easy navigation.

Massive windows looked out over the sea and to the continent in the distance.

Everything had a simple, functional elegance to it. The furniture wasn’t plain, but it also wasn’t covered in detail work. It fell into the lovely middle ground where if she didn’t know where to look, she just saw furniture, but after a fellow student had pointed out certain details, Illie could truly appreciate the beauty and skilled craftsmanship that went into everything around her.

“Illie Karweil?”

Illie turned to the staff member who was approaching her. “Yes?”

“You have messages.” The man didn’t look old or young. Instead, he had the odd, ageless look of someone who’d been at the Academy a long time, with no growing left to do, but no hallmarks of age, either. It was still a bit eerie to see, if she was being honest, especially since some of the teachers didn’t quite have the look, and she knew they’d been around for decades.

How long has he been here? What does this place actually do to adults?

She’d initially been concerned, but many people she’d trusted had assured her that she wouldn’t be affected unless she stayed on after graduation.

She smiled broadly as the man handed her a stack of paper letters. “Oh! Thank you.”

She knew that the messages weren’t actually sent in letter form, but she and Nalac always wrote out the messages and received them in the same manner.

I’m sure I’ll learn how it works, eventually. She could ask, but she thought it would be more fun to figure it out. When I have time.

But now? Now was time for letters.

Nalac was already at their usual spot, halfway up the northeastern wall, on the second table from the outside, so they could see out, but weren’t in the “prime” seats, worthy of jockeying over.

Her brother seemed to have a similar stack of letters, and that made her smile.

They could grab food afterwards.

Just as she sat down, Nalac gasped.

She grinned mischievously, “What, Nalac? Did one of your old crushes finally confess her love now that you’re going to be a Mage?”

He didn’t respond, as he seemed engrossed in the letter.

“Nalac?”

He jerked, looking up at her, seemingly only just to have noticed her sit down across from him. “Illie?” He looked at the letters in her hand. “Good, you got yours. You won’t believe this.”

“What?”

“Tala.”

Illie felt a jerk within her. “What?”

“Illie, she’s alive!”

* * *

Ingrit was alternatively rubbing her temples and chugging coffee.

It was early afternoon, and she was still reviewing all the information that Mistress Tala had sent her way.

The head Librarian had finally been placated into leaving her alone when it finally became clear that Ingrit couldn't grant access to the books that were referenced in Mistress Tala’s list of titles.

That girl is going to get me killed…

Ingrit was capable of reviewing days of memory in mere minutes, or at least she'd thought she was. Mistress Tala, apparently, had something akin to perfect memories, so Ingrit’s long honed ability to sort through dull, faded, or muddled recollections wasn’t exactly useful in this review.

Instead, she was forced to process every moment as if she were actually there.

Bless the Archive, Ingrit was still able to do so at nearly three-hundred-sixty times normal speed, barely a third of her usual capacity.

That girl sleeps so little… It can’t be healthy. The lack of sleep also meant that Ingrit had more to review per day, but that wasn’t why she was grumpy. No, that would be unprofessional.

Now, how pressing is this? Ingrit hadn’t gotten any specific inquiries, aside from the head Librarian, and Tala hadn't reached out for mediation or assistance, so she likely wasn't in a prison somewhere. Though, she likely should be, even if just as a candidate Eskau of a major House?

It was insane to think that Mistress Tala had gotten so elevated within so powerful an organization.

The House of Blood. Ingrit had a whole conglomeration of notes to add towards their understanding of that one house from her review of the Tali memories.

But like so many other sets of notes, this wasn’t the time to process them, not yet. Hopefully, Tala will authorize an assistant or ten, and they can do the grunt work.

Ingrit could dream.

The list of arcanes and their powersets was another treasure trove in these memories, and those were just the first two that came to mind.

Still, she’d already seen enough to know that she needed to talk with Mistress Tala personally. With that thought, Ingrit diverted a fraction of her mind for a moment to contact the girl in question.

As it turned out, Mistress Tala was on her way to Bandfast, already, and in the company of Master Grediv, who was aware of the gist of her situation.

He should be able to contain her, if things are less than ideal. Though, Ingrit herself didn’t have a good picture of Mistress Tala’s experiences yet. Soon enough.

Ingrit agreed to the girl's idea of meeting once she arrived. Even with all her memories, I’m going to have so many questions.

By that point, she was almost through Mistress Tala’s time as ‘Tali,’ she was sure of it, and she was looking forward to seeing who was able to recover the girl’s mind.

Then, after around twelve hours of reviewing, quite suddenly it happened.

“What?” Ingrit didn’t realize she was talking out loud. She sat up straight, leaning forward even though the memories were playing out inside her own head.

She went back and watched it again, fully immersing herself and letting it play back at close to normal speed. Well, only ten times normal speed, but in comparison, it was positively glacial.

Someone hit her on the head then… “This has to be the only time that a mild-concussion restored memories, even if only as a secondary effect.” She hesitated. “Well, that is quite the trope in certain types of fiction, but I don’t think it actually happens…”

She might need to reassess her disdain for some tropes. Though, this is hardly a fair counter-case. Her inscriptions are cutting edge, and I think nearly unique.

Rather than taking more time at the moment, she made herself a note to look it up.

After all, she had dinner to get to, and then, it would be back for what would probably be a late night.

She carefully segmented her mind and access to the Archive, shutting away her work so that she could go and have a meal with her family.

Two hours later, Ingrit was back in her office. She reopened her accesses and unshelved her variously rampaging thoughts.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. Ingrit lightly patted both of her cheeks, then took a long pull of coffee.

She normally never touched the stuff, unless she had a particularly strenuous day.

This day qualified.

This day had qualified from the moment she got Mistress Tala’s message.

Let’s get back into this.

Less than five minutes later, she sat back, reeling. “Eskau. She is an Eskau of the House of Blood.”

Ingrit wasn't sure if she should send out the Arcane Hunters, or grab her family and go into hiding for a century or two.

But if she was hostile, would she have given this to us?

What if she gave all of this to every high level Archon in the cities? And they were all doing as she was? Sequestered, trying to learn.

The arcanes could be assaulting humanity with very little contest.

Ingrit quickly queried some of her contacts, and got back confused replies. No, there were no attacks, or even hints of such, and the few prominent defenders that she inquired with were at their posts, unaware of the landslide of information suffusing Ingrit.

Well, at least this isn't an invasion via information overload… The girl is still supremely dangerous. Master Grediv was with Mistress Tala. Eskau. She’s Eskau Tala. Does he know?

A quick, circumspect message to the Paragon was able to confirm that he knew.

Good, at least he’ll be wary. She couldn’t do anything further until Mistress Tala arrived in Bandfast. Well, nothing except learn all that I can.

That settled, Inigrit dove back in.

Let's get this sorted. After all, Ingrit had still not gotten to the events surrounding Mistress Tala’s acquisition of what amounted to an arcane library.

What other secrets are buried in here?

It was sometime in the middle of the night when Ingrit finished her survey of Mistress Tala’s memories.

Mistress Tala, herself, had not read all the books that she’d included, so the information they contained weren’t in the lived memories of the Fused. Thus, Ingrit hadn’t had time to go through those mountains of information yet.

Even so, the Archivist was torn in so many directions. The information that Mistress Tala had would be sought and beneficial to virtually every Mage in the human cities, and it would actually be helpful to most of them.

There were some things that needed to be dealt with post haste, including arranging for the meeting about all this new information, but for the most part, Ingrit had a single pressing need.

As soon as Mistress Tala arrived, Ingrit was going to give that poor girl a hug.

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