Another session of abjuration practicum had arrived, and Ria was again enjoying herself immensely.
A ray of light beamed out from her dragonbone inkbrush and slammed into the protective barrier. It was Keira’s—really Lady Averlee’s—signature Heavy Rays spell. Ria was applying her insights on light’s radiant nature to control the continuously produced light of the spell, gradually ramping up the pressure against a team whose members included the well-deserving pair from her debut, Esten and Belmina—to make them suffer under the unrelenting strain until crushing them with sudden overwhelming force just as their will failed them.
It did what the instructor wanted in letting them struggle as long as possible while still letting her enjoy breaking their spirits and reminding them of her complete and effortless domination that she could bring at any time.
She laughed like a villain. In her head, of course. Her cruel sneer though, that, she proudly showed.
As amusing as the effort was, her thoughts kept wandering back to the attunement practice with Cerena, Ethelle, and Neva.
‘What language was that?’
‘Was that shamanic magic?’
‘What kind of fire is that?’
The trio had breathlessly asked once they awoke from being entranced by the display of dancing lights and the rainbow flame hovering under the control of Ria’s outstretched hand.
No… ‘rainbow’ wasn’t quite right. The heart of the flames appeared black as void, as if devouring light in the way her orichalcum did. From there the flames became an almost illusion-like tapestry of change similar to the play of colors inside a diamond but showing hues she didn’t know existed let alone had names for.
The concept slipped from Ria’s grasp soon after, and she nervously laughed it off as secrets of her Order. She spent the rest of the practicum helping her friends improve their control over fire enough that they could each progress to the third stage of the Serpentine Fire exercise, healing them when the inevitable accidents happened.
Thinking of the primordial fire and how it felt, Ria had a suspicion about what kind of fire it was.
Dragonfire.
And there was only one explanation for the three not understanding the word she had invoked. Through the memory of her bloodline, she had called forth the language of dragons.
Putting thoughts of dragons out of her mind as best she could, the rest of her day’s classes passed quickly.
And soon…
It was time for Spy’s Escape practice!
Ria bounced in place from excitement as she changed for practice. Having learned from Waterday’s experience, she made sure to change in a ready-room at the arena rather than her room in Parthanex Tower. Unfortunately, that meant missing out on meeting up with Ana who was hopefully settling in at Parthanex Tower, but for the sake of one’s pride, some sacrifices were necessary!
She had at least sent Ana a note recommending the girl come watch the practice. It wasn’t the only delivery she had commissioned during the relaxed lunch. Ria also wrote to Desi to investigate the situation around Cerena’s father. In exchange, she included a letter about Mother teaching her about painting, her favorite pigments, and the process of including hints of glyphs into her paintings. Though she included mentions of her paints, she was careful to avoid mention of the brother who had gifted them.
Other than the letters, Ria had spent the free time continuing to practice the space-warping magic, thinking it might be useful for the Spy’s Escape event. Hesiea and Princess Aveneph didn’t join them for lunch. There was no reason given, but Orlisi didn’t appear bothered and was busy with research of her own, like the rest of their group and the Tower of Dreams infiltration team in particular.
Really, the only trouble she had encountered all day came from Phoebe before the start of Researcher Vimlov’s class, and that was mainly troublesome because of her over-busy schedule. Apparently, Master Diviner Onai wanted to meet and arrange another astral body visualization using the Mirror of Truth. The tower was willing to cover the expense this time. Of course, Orlisi overheard and became determined to tag along.
If her spirit-binding was fading as Jarrel had indicated it should, then there might not be much left to see if she didn’t have the second visualization done soon. She had been planning on spending Goldday after her Spellcraft class with Wendra and Aldri… but maybe she should try to meet with Master Onai instead?
A question for after practice.
Bounding onto the dueling arena’s combat grounds, Ria panned her gaze across the spectator seating until she spotted who she was looking for.
Ana was there!
Ria waved with her whole arm and got a happy whole-armed wave back. The girl was together with Iselyn’s maid and looked thrilled.
It was a great day! Her mood was overflowing enough that the spill-over through the bond had Ranger also bounding around and letting out excited barks.
“Oh? Do you have a visitor from outside?” Katria asked, somehow having beat Ria out onto the arena’s grass-tufted dirt despite Ria coming directly after math class and somehow looking more excited than Ria for the coming practice.
“Is that what it was… I was wondering what sort of good thing had Ria’s head in the clouds today,” Orlisi mused and changed stretches to get a view of the section of stands in question. “Wearing our tower’s maid uniform, isn’t she?”
“Hmm… you’re right,” Katria confirmed, curious eyes turning back Ria’s way.
Tallien entered from one of the nearby gates together with Rialle and motioned in the direction everyone had been looking. “Someone’s younger sister?”
Rialle looked Ana’s way, chuckled, and volunteered, “That’s the new towermaid, Ana. Tabimi was showing her around the tower earlier. She had the cutest ‘serious’ expression on her face at whatever Tabimi was explaining, but kept getting distracted by all the magic. The girl’s eyes couldn’t get any rounder when I walked past with Ix on my shoulders.”
“And Ria apparently knows her from somewhere outside the academy…,” Katria proffered.
“That so?” Tallien asked, sounding interested.
Ria nodded. “I hope everyone will treat her well.”
Ix chittered something rude and Rialle admonished him.
“Not the Queen of Darkness today, huh?” Zell commented, joining them from the hallway leading to the ready-rooms.
“Not today!” Ria confirmed. She had other plans this time!
Besides! How could she sneak around unnoticed when dressed in her saintess regalia?
“More important than that, Zell, Ria brought someone from outside to watch the practice,” Katria tried again, making her voice breathless—as if revealing some event of importance.
Zell looked around, a suddenly shocked expression on his face. “Eh? The Queen of Darkness has friends?”
“Rude!” Ria complained, and would have given Zell the rude gesture he deserved if not for Ana seeing it.
Orlisi laughed.
“Next to Tabimi,” Katria helpfully added.
Others in the arena seating were taking notice, and poor Ana was blushing and hiding her face behind her hands at all the attention. Iselyn’s maid, Tabimi, was laughing and poking the embarrassed girl.
Katria saw and snorted a laugh of her own.
“Ah, a minion. That makes more sense,” Zell drawled, having clearly solved some grand mystery. “Still, to infiltrate one’s minion into the academy as a maid? Impressive, and as expected of our Queen of Darkness.”
“Right! That!” Orlisi agreed, pointing at Zell and nodding sagely. “All aspiring villainesses need their minions.”
Ria hmphed and ignored the pair’s teasing. She was too excited about today’s practice to let beast-boy or perpetually-amused-prank-girl tarnish her great mood, but just for that, she wasn’t going to show them her new daggers.
“You know, Ria, a prank cloak will make you more obvious than just wearing a normal cloak, right?” Zell whispered to her after discreetly sidling up alongside.
If they were going to tease her, she might as well put it to use. Holding back a smirk at a preliminary success from her planned gambit, Ria haughtily laughed behind her hand and grandly proclaimed, “All part of the plan.”
Zell blinked and laughed. “Now I’m curious.” The second-year boy shook his head as he wandered a short distance away and started working on his stretches.
Ranger tilted his head at her. Ria could almost see the question marks floating in the air.
Normally, Zell would be right, but that was why she decided to go with this plan. Wasting magical gear allotment for a cloak that would mark her as a participant during the actual event was a risk, but Ria felt the misdirection was worth it, hopefully drawing attention away from the shabby clothes she was wearing underneath. If the others were looking for a girl in a prank cloak, then she’d be able to escape notice all the better after taking it off.
The bigger problem was Ranger. No matter how she disguised him, just having a dog-like creature at her side would make her an obvious target since everyone knew she had Ranger with her.
Unfortunately, she realized the problem too late and didn’t have time to prepare a proper solution. That didn’t mean she was better off having Ranger sit out of the event. There were still ways for him to be useful.
Ria didn’t have to wait long before she heard the voices of the fourth- and fifth-years approaching as a group. Her improved hearing caught a business-like discussion of the departure and return times for their regional qualifier—how many days early they should leave to acquire the materials for Rialle’s new robe or if they should spend extra days in Roksairen and the Dartha area after the competition instead.
Ria was briefly distracted by Isellyn entering the combat oval from the ready-rooms wearing an outfit like when they had explored the king’s tunnel, Malleron on her shoulder. Iselyn promptly took a seat and started reading, pretending to ignore her teammates to discreetly observe their outfits and gear, maybe. Ria wasn’t really sure.
Now they were just waiting on Aldri to show before they could get started! Ria took deep breaths. If she was too excited, her aura would be harder to suppress.
She turned her attention back to the discussion. From what Welkin and Hulle had said so far, there would be a chance to make good on her promise to Rialle—assuming she was allowed to leave Roksairen with them. She would have to tell Arella after practice.
When the four older students entered the dirt and grass, Welkin called Rialle over to join their decision-making. Travel time to a place called the Fire Lakes and how quickly sufficient spidersilk could be gathered were what Hulle and Welkin seemed most interested in—whether they could complete the task in a single day. Ulren and Endriese felt that leaving later would allow an extra day for practice with the arena and less time for trouble in Roksairen to find them before the event.
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Rialle pointing out that it would still take weeks for an artisan to make the robe solved the debate neatly. No need to be rushed and risk missing the regional for a robe that wouldn’t be ready before the event. Taking as long as needed after the event to ensure the best materials made more sense.
Ria didn’t have any reason to be upset with that plan even if it meant missing classes. It was probably the best outcome for her chances of visiting her dwarven side’s ancestral home. She still needed to talk to Welkin about that but worried whether she had enough information to present her case yet.
Just as Hulle consulted a pocketwatch and Welkin was mentally confirming members, Aldri popped in and tried acting like he had been there all along. Was he sneaking time with Keira before practice?
Noticing Aldri’s arrival, Welkin rolled his eyes and called for the team’s attention. “Everyone not competing for the Spy’s Escape event, come stand by the coaching boxes, and we’ll select practice teams and get started.”
Rialle stayed by Welkin and the older students, shrugging her shoulders. “My magic isn’t suited for this event. Anything I do is going to cost me points.”
“Most likely so,” Welkin accepted with a wry grimace before turning back to the rest. “As expected, seven candidates. That leaves us with a problem since this event is intended for teams of three though individually scored. As such Ulren and Endriese will be joining with Orlisi to form the third team.”
Tallien groaned at the announcement.
Orlisi laughed. “A ‘spy hunter’ strategy, huh? Sounds fun.”
Welkin nodded confirmation. “Indeed. There are teams that will use powerful fourth- and fifth-years to hunt and eliminate opposing teams’ participants rather than focusing on completing the assigned task. The added pressure will help us be prepared for the real thing.
“For the remaining two teams: Iselyn, Aldri, and Zell. Katria, Tallien, and Celestria.
“I will give you five minutes to work out your strategy before having the event’s environment activated. Remember: Acting suspicious, being discovered, property damage, and injuring or killing non-participants will result in point reductions.
“Finding your contact person, retrieving the jade slip, reaching your extraction point, stopping opposing participants, and stealing or acquiring opposition jade slips will result in point gains.
“Good luck.”
Welkin gave them an encouraging nod and took Hulle and Rialle with him into the nearby coaching box.
“Ria! Ready to have some fun?” Katria asked as she grabbed Ria’s hands and bounced in place.
“I am!” Ria affirmed to Katria’s delight.
“Woof!” Ranger agreed.
Katria let go Ria’s hands to strike a ‘reliable upperclassman’ pose. “Fun events like this are half the reason to join the Grand Games.”
Ria grinned and playfully clapped her approval. “Tell me more, Senior Katria.”
“Some say the Spy’s Escape is more fun than the Ten Crystals event!”
“No! Can it be?” Ria fake gasped, bringing the older girl and Ria to giggles.
Tallien looked resigned to his fate as he joined them, and Ria winked at him as she worked some shadow magic to make a privacy barrier—like she noticed the other two groups doing, each using their own element of choice. They were probably all choosing ‘pass phrases’ and signals so they could verify teammates after getting sent into the illusion.
“Could Hulle and Welkin be any more obvious that we’re the ‘second-choice’ team?” Katria groused, then raised her fist. “But they are underestimating us!”
“Yeah!” Ria agreed.
“Woof!”
Tallien looked at the fired-up twin-tailed redhead and raised an eyebrow. “Katria, can you even be stealthy?”
Flashing a challenging grin, Katria proudly raised her nose and puffed out her chest. “Guess who just learned a pressure-aspect magic that lets me muffle the sound around me and another that lets me pick out sounds from really far away. Heh, heh. Besides, I’m actually decent at air magic, you know?”
“Right… I’m assuming we all have some kind of disguise planned,” Tallien continued on, pretending that anything Katria was involved in wouldn’t turn into explosions and cackling disaster not a minute in. “So, what’s the plan for recognizing each other?”
Katria waved away his concern. “Can’t we just tie a white cloth around our wrists or something? That’ll show with a cloak.”
Ria winced.
Teaming up with Katria for the first time did seem super fun, but was she really going to be okay with these two? Their opponents were no joke. And, as much as she wanted to have fun, she still needed to earn a spot in an event!
She glanced at the other groups.
Iselyn’s magic would give the taciturn girl’s team a means to telepathically communicate, already giving them perfect coordination. That plus her other Illusion and mind magic should make this her strongest event without considering Malleron’s knowledge and abilities. The moon-elf girl and spriggan would surely be a dangerous threat if encountered, and encountering any of Iselyn’s teammates would mean revealing one’s location to all three.
If Aldri gives teleport beacons to his teammates, he could instantly teleport to each at any time, and he could easily escape any discovery by simply teleporting back to a known safe location. Paired with Iselyn’s telepathy, attacking any of their team would instantly turn into a 2-on-1 fight or worse.
Even Zell’s shape-changing and improved senses might be surprisingly well-suited and should make hiding from him or sneaking up on him difficult.
As for the ‘spy hunter’ group, she had no idea what they were capable of when it came to stealth or detection magics, but Orlisi’s divination magic wasn’t a bad fit for the event either—maybe a great fit, assuming divination worked inside the event’s illusionary world—and defeating her in combat without getting caught: not happening. Impossible. That was before taking into account that Orlisi could fly, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the elf knew some kind of invisibility magic.
“Ria? Notice something?” Tallien asked.
Ria took a deep breath. They didn’t have much time left. “I’ll send Ranger around to find you and scout things out. The tied cloth is not a terrible idea, but clean white might stand out too much depending on whether it’s a peasant or noble area, and if we each have it tied in the same place that will make it too obvious as a kind of identification. I’ll dirty mine and tie it around my left hand as if I cut myself while working. What about you two?”
Katria nodded. “Smart. I’ll wear mine like a neck accessory then.”
“I will tie mine to my belt,” Tallien decided after some thought then held out a glyph-carved stone in each palm. “Here, special communication stones I made for this event. They are enchanted to only be heard by the person holding them.”
“Oooh! You’re the best, Tallien! Yay!” Katria cheered, glomping his arm as she claimed her treasure. Halfway through groping the embarrassed third-year boy’s arm, Katria paused and exaggerated a dissatisfied sigh. “If only our alchemical hero were a bit more manly…”
Tallien looking uncomfortable was funny, but the boy’s put-upon eyeroll suggested this wasn’t the first time this scene had played out.
“One minute left!” Welkin’s voice echoed out from the announcer’s enchantment.
“Any last-minute ideas?” Tallien asked his teammates, putting on his best serious face.
“Boo! You used to give such an adorable overreaction when you were a first year,” Katria complained.
“Umm, if I make the privacy barrier darker, should we change into our disguises now?” Ria asked, not at all sure if the magic would be disrupted by the arena before they got sent into the illusion.
Katria let go of Tallien. “Wanna see mine, Ria?”
Ria nodded and made the barrier opaque.
The third-year girl quickly untied her twin-tails, running her hands through her hair to straighten it, and pulled her bangs to one side with a silver hairclip. The moment the clip was in place, the vivid red hair drained of hue, turning an unremarkable mousy brown. Delicate glasses soon followed, changing the girl’s eye color to hazel.
“And now for the finishing touch!” Katria announced pulling out a small jar and, with two deft touches, applied the cream below each eye. “Freckle cream!”
With just those simple changes, Katria could easily pass for a fine-craftsman’s apprentice or maybe a merchant’s daughter! More importantly, she looked like a completely different person!
“Impressed?” Katria preened with a proud smile.
Ria enthusiastically nodded. Magic was too cool!
“Laudably efficient use of your magic equipment allotment,” a well-dressed man said from where Tallien was supposed to be standing.
Wha-?
How’d he change so quickly?
Suddenly, everything around Ria turned a hazy white as the arena filled with illusion and spatial magic and Ria felt her location shift.
When the light faded, she was standing someplace else, the hubbub of a vibrant city echoing off the multistory buildings shading her from the sun and clear blue sky above.
Looking around at the unfamiliar alley and briefly extending the Sensing Sphere spell around her, Ria couldn’t help already feeling that she was like a spy in a story! There was even a scrap of paper in her hand with a mysteriously cryptic message.
Your order with Bookseller Hamon is ready.
‘Only the brave seek the truth.’
Ria hugged herself to contain an overexcited squee, then quickly stored her prank cloak and cast her camouflage spell—not to hide from sight but to hide her aura and mana density. She couldn’t pretend to be a street kid when any passing mage might notice her right away and her mere presence would pressure normal people, after all!
“Woof?” Ranger quietly queried.
“Yep. Go have fun,” she replied, and he took off down the dirt between the rows of multi-family residences.
That taken care of…
Now for her disguise!
“Ria, Katria, check in,” Tallien’s voice whispered in Ria’s ear.
“I’m alone in a back alley. Sounds like I’m near a market street. Sending out Ranger and getting started on my disguise. My contact is a Bookseller named Hamon.”
“Hidden behind some crates in a warehouse,” Katria’s voice updated. “Contact is Arman at the courier hall. Sounds like there are some people I need to sneak past to get out.”
There was a pause before Tallien’s voice returned sounding more resigned to his fate than just a few minutes ago. “My location looks like an unlocked prison cell…”
Katria laughed. “At least you’ll know what sort of guards we are up against.”
“Funny,” Tallien huffed. “My contact is a Launderer named Cecilia.”
“Can confirm, I’m in a commoner area,” Ria reported as she watched through Ranger’s eyes. “It’s chilly enough that many are wearing cloaks. Some people have nicer clothing but not quite as nice as seen in Crysellia. Tallien, unless your area is wealthier, your disguise might be too fancy.”
“Thanks, going silent and invisible until I get away from the guards,” Tallien updated.
“Same,” Katria added, and Ria was left with the faint background sounds of her teammates navigating their current situations.
While her team was reporting in, Ria was also working on her disguise. She had taken out a cloth sack of crushed brown chalk. After closing her eyes and poofing the sack in front of her face a few times to get the dust on her and her clothes, she mussed a few handfuls into her hair and combed it through to lighten her unnatural shade and dull the sparkling luster.
Putting the comb away, she repeated the poofing process with a similar sack of crushed charcoal, and smudged some on her cheeks, forehead, and neck.
To hide her four nubs of black crystal, she summoned a pre-dirtied hair wrap, and using her fingers to comb back her bangs, she looped the pale cloth over her hair and tied it under her chin. Her hair-length was still an issue, so she quickly wove the rest into a simple over-the-shoulder braid.
That left only her eyes needing a magical solution. It was a bit scary, but apparently the thin enchanted glass lenses placed directly on the eye were popular with noble girls who wanted to sneak out unnoticed or just try different eye-colors. Ria already had hers on and sent energy into the enchantment to activate the illusion.
A quick Water Mirror spell let her check her work. The commonplace brown eyes of the charcoal-maker’s apprentice staring back creased with amusement.
That left the bandage for her hand and she’d be ready to look for the bookshop.
Looking down at her hands, Ria let out a chuckle. With the colored chalk and soot on her hands, dirtying the cloth wouldn’t be a problem.
Still, it took way too long to get her disguise ready—she was lucky no one saw her yet. Was having the prank cloak’s hood up before the event allowed? How would they know if a team switched members?
As it was, she barely finished tying the formerly clean bandage around her palm just as a cloak-wrapped boy holding a loaf of bread ran into her and fell backward onto his butt with a “Wha-?”
Two boys behind him, hugging more loaves of bread, skidded to a halt, looking just as surprised. “Who’s she?”
“Never seen her before…”
Avoiding the boy would have been easy, but he had something she wanted.
“Hey, sell me your cloak!” Ria demanded and, using the vault key hidden under her shirt, pretended to fish out a silver coin from a pocket.
“What? Why should I-?” The lead boy started blustering but his eyes caught sight of the silver, and after a harried glance back the way they came, tossed his cloak to the ground and relieved her of the coin on his way to continue his escape. The others barely gave her another look before rushing after.
Ria was grinning ear-to-ear as she shook the dirt from the tattered cloak, spinning it around her shoulders with a flourish and setting out.
Spymaster Ria has arrived!
Mwahahaha!
And yet, there was something odd about the illusion. When she compared the cloak’s fabric and even the world around her to any clothing she brought with her, the colors and scents of the illusion seemed limited somehow—shallower. Maybe the sounds as well…?
Would that also be true for the other participants and the items they brought? Would it really be so easy to identify participants? Or for other participants to identify her?
Or was it because of her enhanced senses?
When Ria reached the end of the alley and stepped out into the midday sun, a man selling fresh-baked bread from a cart scowled at her and angrily called out, “Hey, you there!”
Though not unexpected, the aggressive confrontation still set Ria’s heart thudding even knowing everything around her was an illusion. She didn’t have to fake the jump of shock at being addressed and, with a feigned head tilt of confusion, asked, “Something I can help you with Mister?”
There was a pause and the man scrunched up his brow. “You’re not with those troublemaking boys are you?”
“The ones that just ran past? Nope.” Ria shook her head. “I’m looking for Mister Harmon’s bookshop. Can you point me in the right direction?”
An illusionary world where she could play at being a spy with powerful enemies trying to stop her, what more could she want?