novelraw Chapter 254: Full of Surprises
Chapter 254: Full of Surprises
It became routine.
Mornings, they sparred. Aegis was still losing more than she won, but the gap was closing, and Sylceris had stopped going easy on her somewhere around day four. After sparring, they grabbed food together. After food, they walked to class together. Between classes, they studied together. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, Aegis started noticing that Sylceris was looking at her differently.
Longer glances across the table during study sessions. Her knee brushing against Aegis’s under the desk and staying there a beat too long before pulling away. The way her eyes tracked Aegis when she stretched after a sparring match, dipping briefly to her chest before snapping back up.
Aegis noticed all of it. And she made sure to give Sylceris plenty to notice in return.
A hand on Sylceris’s shoulder when she made a good point in conversation. Sitting close enough during meals that their arms touched.
Small things. Deniable things. The kind of touches that could be friendly if you wanted them to be, but weren’t.
[Slow and steady. Don’t rush it. Let her come to me.]
It was late afternoon when Sylceris led them up to one of the higher floors of the main building, past the classrooms and faculty offices, to a corridor with wide windows overlooking Rosevale.
The sun was going down, painting the rooftops orange and gold, and from this height you could see everything. The Noble Quarter with its wide streets and sprawling estates. The Merchant Quarter packed tight with shops. And past that, the Old Quarter, cramped and gray, the buildings smaller and older the further out you looked.
Sylceris stood at the window, her arms crossed, looking out.
"You ever notice," she said, "how the city gets uglier the further you get from the academy?"
Aegis leaned against the window frame beside her.
"Hard to miss."
"The Noble Quarter takes up a third of the city’s land and houses maybe five percent of the population. The Old Quarter is packed wall to wall with people who can’t afford to live anywhere else, and nobody in government gives a shit because they don’t vote, they don’t donate, and they don’t have surnames anyone recognizes."
"That’s how it’s always been."
"That’s not an argument for how it should stay." Sylceris turned to look at her. "If commoners actually had power here, real power, it would all look so different."
Aegis looked out at the city.
The Old Quarter was already fading into shadow as the sun dropped lower, the narrow streets going dark while the Noble Quarter’s enchanted streetlamps flickered on one by one.
[I mean... she’s not wrong. Feudalism does suck. The whole system is built on the assumption that some people are worth more than others because of who their parents were.]
"You’ve thought about this a lot," Aegis said.
"Every day since I was old enough to understand why my family was angry."
"What would you do? If you could change it."
Sylceris looked at her.
"You really want to know?"
"I’m asking, aren’t I?"
Sylceris turned back to the window.
"I don’t know. All I know is this can’t continue."
[Aaaaand there’s the problem with all you revolutionary types. You know you don’t like the current thing, you want to change it, but you have no clue what you’d actually do if you had the chance. So, what usually happens is whoever had the idea for the revolution declares themselves the leader and, congratulations, you’ve swapped out one tyrant for another. Wonderful.]
"Bold vision."
"We could figure out the specifics later."
"I guess that makes sense."
Sylceris smiled at her.
[+10 Sylceris Wynne]
[Favorability: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🤍]
[Three hearts. She’s starting to open up.]
Aegis held her gaze for a moment, then looked back out at the city.
---
The prayer room. Fourth lesson.
Selene had her satchel open on the table and was pulling out a thin book with a blue leather cover. She set it down and opened it to a marked page.
"Today we’re doing something different," Selene said. "You’ve demonstrated sufficient control over basic divine channeling. It’s time to learn an actual spell."
[Finally.]
"The spell is called Lumen Ward," Selene continued. "It creates a small barrier of divine light around a targeted area, roughly a meter in diameter. It won’t stop a sword, but it repels dark magic and disrupts spells on contact. It’s standard-issue for church paladins."
She demonstrated. A quick gesture, a pulse of white light from her palm, and a shimmering circle appeared on the floor between them. It held for about five seconds, glowing faintly, then faded.
"The incantation is secondary to the intent," Selene said. "You need to hold the image of the ward in your mind and push your will into it. Think of it as drawing a line and daring the darkness to cross it."
"Got it."
Aegis raised her hand, palm out. She focused the way Rosanna had taught her. Cooperative, not forceful. She pictured the ward, a circle of white light on the ground, solid, bright, and pushed.
Light bloomed from her palm. A circle appeared on the stone floor, sharp-edged and steady. It didn’t flicker. It didn’t wobble. It just sat there, glowing, clean and bright.
Selene stared at it.
Then she stared at Aegis.
"That’s..." Selene stepped closer to the ward and held her hand over it, testing its strength. Her eyebrows climbed. "That’s a solid cast. On your first attempt."
"Beginner’s luck?"
"That isn’t beginner’s luck. Beginner’s luck is producing a flicker that lasts half a second. This is a stable ward with consistent energy output." Selene straightened up and looked at Aegis, bewildered. "How are you this good at divine magic?"
Aegis smiled.
"Guess I’m full of surprises."
[+15 Selene]
[Ooh, that look on her face? That’s the look of someone whose worldview just got a crack in it. She came here expecting to find a shadow mage pretending to be clean. Instead, she found someone who can actually do what she does.]
She thought back to Sylceris.
[Both fronts holding. Both plates spinning. Now I just need to keep it up.]