The carriage trundled away from Serena’s ho and towards the academy. Inside, the pitter-patter of steadily increasing raindrops filled the carriage’s cabin. Serena sat, doing her best not to break out into a giggle. Alia sat opposite her and judging by how she looked everywhere but at Serena, she wasn’t able to make eye contact.
“That was… sothing,” Serena said before biting her tongue to stop herself from laughing. With a mighty effort, she managed to squeeze out the question, “Did you… enjoy the dinner?”
“Uhhh…” ca the agonised groan. Alia didn’t et Serena’s gaze. Instead, she turned her head slowly and let her body tilt until her forehead smashed against the carriage wall. “I think,” she mumbled. “I think I want to die.”
“Nonsense!” Serena replied cheerfully. “It was a wonderful introduction to my Mother and Greatlord Oshiro! You made…” she intentionally paused for dramatic effect, “...a morable impression.”
“Uuhhhh!” Alia whimpered, her eyes squeezed closed. “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? You devilish demon…”
“No!” Serena protested, forcing her eyes wide with innocence.
Yes. She was. There was no way she would miss the opportunity to make Alia squirm. Just like the human had done to her dozens of tis with her crass innuendos. “All I want to say…” Serena raised a finger and placed it on her chin, tilting her head in mock thoughtfulness. “I think we should donate to the Asamaywa Carpenter’s Guild.”
“Huh?” Alia slightly turned her head, giving Serena the side-eye. “Why?”
“Well, for being able to create a dining table capable of withstanding such a brutal-”
“Stop! Oh my god!” Alia wailed, half crying and half laughing. “I swear I’ll hit you! I really will!” Unable to keep it down herself, Serena broke out into a fit of laughter. She laughed heartedly until her belly ached. She would never have laughed like this before, but now she felt like she could enjoy the mont to its fullest.
Alia pouted before moving to sit next to her. Her blond head rested on Serena’s shoulder. “I think I might have been… out of my depth,” Alia mumbled. Serena placed a hand upon Alia’s hair, massaging and running her fingers through it.
“Don’t worry about it,” Serena said soothingly. “When I was a teenager, Father took to my first ball. Trying to set up with so newly sanctioned Lord-Prospect or another,” Serena smiled, rembering the events. “I was excited but so nervous! The mont we started dancing, I kept standing on all his toes and almost tripped over in front of everyone! I thought I’d never live it down! Ha!” She continued gently rubbing Alia’s head. “Everyone’s nervous the first few tis in front of soone like my Mother. It’ll get easier.”
“She doesn’t like , does she?” Alia asked softly before clenching her fist. “She kept saying things in a way that I knew were sly comnts, but I couldn’t figure out how to respond! It was so awkward…”
Serena made a noise of agreent. Her mother was masterful at her ability to control conversation and say ten different things with only a few words. Alia couldn’t be expected to contend with her. Serena was confident that the benefits of having a Second Word Speaker aligned with her family would eventually win out over her mother’s disposition against humans. Serena didn't know whether that would happen over a few months or years. Hopefully, it was the forr.
“At least your Father and Lani like ,” Alia muttered.
“When one horn grows, the other withers,” Serena said pointedly.
Alia was quiet montarily before asking, “Can horns wither?”
“No.”
“...Stupid expression.”
“Yes.”
Alia turned her head, looking up with glistening eyes. “Stupid demon,” she said with a weak smile. She quickly smacked her lips together. Understanding her aning, Serena bent down and kissed her before wiping Alia’s tears of frustration away.
“Stupid human,” she said, grinning.
“Mmm,” Alia answered. She leaned away, moving the curtain and peering outside. “It’s raining hard…” she mumbled. “The moon’s really big.”
“Not long now till moonfall,” Serena replied, peering out her window at the moon. The next moonfall was about a week away. She planned to take Alia to one of the viewing towers to watch it. “Hopefully, no idiots get caught out and hit.” After each moonfall there would be a mad scramble for everyone to gather as many crystals as possible to sell to the authorities for processing. More often than not, a few daring demons - perhaps fathers with children who have empty bellies - would risk the falling crystals and try and harvest early.
“Does it damage the buildings?” Alia asked.
“Sotis, but if you look, most of the buildings have reinforced roofs,” Serena explained. “And those that don’t have coverings that can be pulled over.” Most architectural designs across all cultures incorporated sloped roofs to help minimise the expected damage. The falling moon crystals did slow down as they got closer to the lumina as the aetheric-lumina reaction beca stronger, but the larger chunks could still go straight through a non-reinforced flat roof or kill soone unlucky enough to be in its path.
“How much falls?”
“Across the Eastern cities and their inhabited surroundings? Tens of thousands of tonnes, give or take.” Serena wobbled her palm. “Far more throughout the Great Wilderness, although accessing it isn’t viable for most.” Speakers and other talented adventurers could venture out and harvest, but those with that capability often had better options for inco. The exception was red crystal, which was traded at a premium due to the war effort. Serena heard there was a booming business for those willing to risk the desert sands.
“So much…” Alia said to herself.
A comfortable silence took over the carriage. With a background of soothing rainfall, the pair of them stared out their respective windows, lost in their thoughts. The carriage jolted as it ca to a stop and Serena realised she’d lost track of ti and they’d arrived at the academy.
Soone was talking to the carriage driver. Despite the heavy rainfall blanketing the city, Serena could easily make out the conversation. A female speaker was explaining that the academy path was being repaved and that it wasn’t suitable for a carriage. They would need to walk. The driver - a long-term employee of House Halen - argued quite passionately against the inconvenience but ultimately relented. With the sound of boots splashing through water, the figure knocked on the carriage door. Serena opened it, revealing a drenched figure; their raincoat and hat had not sufficiently defended them against the pouring rain.
“Lord Halen!” They called out. “I apologise for the inconvenience, but you must walk from here! We’re repaving the entire road, and the carriage won’t be able to get past!”
“Who are you?” Serena demanded.
“I’m Instructor Kawas!” yelled the figure through the rain. “We drew straws to see who would co out here and get you!” Instructor Kawas leaned slightly, looking past Serena at the other occupant of the carriage. “Lord-Prospect Thornheart! Welco to Asamaywa Academy! Do you prefer to be addressed as Speaker or Lord-Prospect!?”
“Umm,” Alia bit her lips before collecting herself. “Lord-Prospect is fine, Instructor Kawas!”
“Excellent! I apologise for the weather! Please follow ; we’ll be there in no ti!”
Serena climbed out of the carriage, instantly becoming drenched by the rain. She hadn’t had the foresight to bring a rainhat. Nevertheless, the frantic rain and the air getting colder by the day did little to distract her. Even without Alia’s wards, Serena’s aura was sufficiently powerful enough that she could sleep in a freezing, muddy trench perfectly fine. Of course, that didn’t an she wouldn’t seek better sleeping arrangents if possible.
Alia followed and the mont she stepped off the carriage, her aether surged. The sudden unannounced spellwork caused Serena to prepare herself instinctively while Instructor Kawas stepped back with an expression of surprise. Soon, it beca evident neither of them needed to have worried, as an external ward ford several ters above them. At about a dozen square ters, the ward generously blocked out the rain and the noise of the water took on a cosy, muffled quality.
“Your-” Instructor Kawas began yelling but quickly stopped, realising she could talk normally. “Your talents seem true to the rumours, Lord-Prospect Thornheart.” The instructor took a mont to peer at the ward above. “So large… and so quickly cast… and so silently…” She peered at Alia montarily, an elent of awe forming in her eyes. “I hope all human mages aren’t this capable.”
“Don’t think you’ll need to worry about that…” Serena muttered.
“Lord Halen?” Instructor Kawas said with a tilt of her head.
“Never mind.” Serena decided to change the subject quickly. “What subject do you instruct at the academy, Instructor Kawas?” She gestured along the path. The instructor took her aning and began leading them through the wet and muddy academy grounds.
“Air tactics,” the instructor replied.
“Where did you serve?” Serena asked. Unless you were a Speaker, it would require an unbelievable amount of talent to be allowed into an instructor position. The vast majority of academy instructors would have earned the position through their service record. Instructor Kawas, from Serena’s best guess, was a second-circle mage. She must have had at least one deploynt.
“Did two years on the destroyer Fubuki. Got hit in the battle for Ravensburg. Went down. Ever since then, I, uh…” the instructor paused and Serena caught a tinge of red forming on her cheeks. “I was never able to sail again. I get terribly airsick whenever I’m on a ship, you see. It was fine before we went down. Now… Not exactly the most glamorous ending to a military career, is it?”
“Could be worse,” Alia pointed out. “Could be dead.”
“Aye,” Instructor Kawas nodded. “Could be. Careful.” She pointed at a particularly slippy part of the road where construction ant they had to tread across the muddy grass. “Was given a choice. Fill a ground tactician role on the front, or beco an assistant instructor here. I figured my brain would be better used teaching air tactics to the promising students here than sitting in a command bunker sowhere getting shelled while I pushed models around on a map. Oh, speaking of air tactics, Lord Halen. Many of us are trendously excited to hear how you and your officers approached Port Highwind.”
“I’ll find ti to go over it,” Serena said. “What’s going on here?” She pointed at the construction work along the path. They seed to be laying down pipes just underneath the pathway.
“Steam pipes,” Instructor Kawas explained. “For heating. The pathways freeze in winter and you have students twisting ankles and bruising this and that.”
“Don’t you salt the pathways?” Alia asked.
“Salt’s expensive these days,” the instructor explained. “And we’ve had our funding increased every year for the past five. Budget’s three tis what it was when you were here, Lord Halen. Hmm… maybe I should ask for a raise…” While Instructor Kawas mumbled about salary negotiations, Serena looked around. With her eyes that easily saw through the darkness she could see many new buildings had been erected in the years since she had last been here. She noted the new additions to Instructor Kawas.
“Aye,” she replied. “War demands more warriors and mages and more of those require more students and more students require more infrastructure and teaching and more of that…” Instructor Kawas took a much-needed breath. “...Requires more funding,” she finally finished.
“How many instructors?” Serena asked.
“Hmm… not sure, but the total staff across all departnts is a little over two hundred for fifteen hundred students.”
Serena felt her eyes go wide. Fifteen hundred students? When she was a student, she was one of about four hundred. In such a short ti the academy had almost quadrupled in size! Greatlord Oshiro must be pouring gold into this place!
“We’re here.” Instructor Kawas stopped, and Serena looked up, feeling a sense of nostalgia at the familiar three-story building. The main door was closed but from within she could sense a small gathering of talented individuals. It seed that a dozen instructors had elected to wait for their arrival. Serena briefly wondered if they were here for her, the war hero, or Alia Thornheart, the human Speaker.
“Is that…” Alia mumbled while tilting her head to be almost sideways. She was pointing upwards, and Serena followed her finger to see that she was pointing at the great wooden beam above the main entrance, where a series of fake sword marks were made to trick the first years into thinking it was so fantastic secret technique. About two-thirds of the way across were the marks Serena added in her second year as a reward for winning that year's tournant. She tilted her head and noted with so satisfaction that yes, her marks still resembled a smiley face.
It even had a little tongue!
“That’s it!” Serena said with pride. Seeing Instructor Kawas look confused, Serena explained the story, prompting the woman to laugh.
“If I win the tournant, could I add marks?” Alia asked.
“Instructors can’t enter,” Serena explained, shaking her head. “And even if you were a student, Speakers cannot enter. It’s too much of an advantage.” Serena didn’t ntion that even without Speaking Alia could probably quite easily power her way through the tournant. She decided not to ntion the great Speaker Olympiad which took place in Centralis every four years. If she did, Alia would surely turn up and cause a trendous ruckus!
Once they moved off the muddy ground and onto the stone foundation, Alia cast her cleaning spell, and every iota of mud and water vanished from their clothes and bodies. Instructor Kawas saw this with wide eyes. “That’s amazing spellwork!” she exclaid. When Alia offered to do the sa to her the demon nodded enthusiastically. Once the spell had been cast the instructor pulled at her clothes in awe. “They’re bone-dry…” she muttered.
“Instructor Kawas, I believe we have a party waiting for us,” Serena gestured towards the main door.
The instructor snapped out of her trance. “Yes, apologies, Lord Halen!” She pushed the heavy door open and waved them in. “May I formally welco you both,” she said proudly as they stepped through. “To Asamaywa Academy!”
Of all the things Serena expected when she stepped into the entrance hall, a round of applause wasn’t one of them. A dozen senior instructors clapped heartedly, with so bowing slightly with respect. So she recognised, albeit the passage of ti had etched itself on their faces, and so were unfamiliar. Serena soaked in the applause awkwardly. She waited for it to die down before offering her bow.
“It’s an honour to be welcod so warmly by so many senior Instructors,” Serena intoned politely.
Before anyone could say anything else, a gruff voice called out, “Let’s see, let’s see!” From around the corner, the head of the academy, Grandmaster Jun, appeared. Striding forward, his imposing figure stood out amongst the crowd of talented instructors. His clothes were damp with sweat. Had he just co from training? Serena was surprised to find just how similar he looked to Grandmaster Gu.
Which wasn’t unexpected. They were brothers, after all.
He stopped before them, his towering figure standing more than a full head height above Serena. She’d forgotten the presence this demon carried with him. When she was a student, her knees would shake near this man. Thankfully, she was made of sterner stuff now and was able to face him with an expression full of respect rather than fear.
“Serena Halen…” he grumbled, eyeing Serena up and down appraisingly. After a mont, his gaze lingered on Alia who, to her credit, seed unfazed by his steely stare. “Alia Thornheart…” He clapped his hands together. “Co to my office tomorrow, both of you!” With that, he turned and strode off.
Back to training, most likely. Well, the man was known to dislike small talk.
Once he’d gone, one of the instructors approached her with his hand outstretched. When Serena took the demon's hands, she could imdiately tell he was a great warrior far beyond her capabilities. His horns suggested he was ethnically Eastern, but the blue tinge in his otherwise red eyes suggested he had so Centralis heritage.
“Nathaniel Endo,” he said smoothly. “Departnt of Combat Training. It’s an honour to be working with a war hero, Lord Halen.”
“It is I who should have the honour, Sir,” Serena responded. She knew this na. Nathaniel Endo was a known dual-Speaker with a long list of achievents that far outstripped Serena’s sowhat limited career in the military. “But please, call us Instructor and Assistant Instructor.”
Nathaniel nodded before moving on to shake Alia’s hand. “You have the soft hands of a mage, Assistant Instructor Thornheart. Yet I hear you’ve taken an interest in the sword?”
“That’s right,” Alia grinned. “Serena, I an, Instructor Halen has been teaching ! Also, I’ve had further instruction from Grandmaster Gu of the Kenhoro Academy!”
“So I’ve heard,” Nathaniel mused, rubbing his chin. “Never had the honour of training under him myself. What’s he like?”
“Didn’t take him long to start shooting with a pistol,” Alia replied, referencing the enhanced training the grandmaster and Serena put Alia through.
Nathaniel laughed at the reply. “Sounds like what we do here, although we typically wait a little longer than a few days before shooting our students.” His statent caused a ripple of laughter amongst the other senior instructors. He took a step back. “You’ll both be seeing a lot of ,” he explained. “Although, Assistant Instructor Thornheart, you’ll be working under Instructor Inoue, our resident expert in combat magic. She’s…” Nathaniel looked up, as if hoping the words would fall into his mouth. “...Not here right now, but you’ll surely et her tomorrow.”
“I can’t wait!” Alia chirped.
Nathaniel bowed and left the entrance hall. Once he had left, the remaining instructors all stepped forward and introduced themselves. So only gave a polite greeting while others were more friendly. So reminisced with Serena about her ti as a student while others were more interested in Alia.
“Ryosuke Yamamoto, Departnt of Leadership and Ethics. Instructor Halen, it’s an honour to see you again. It feels like yesterday you were in my classroom!”
“Sarafina Nakajima, Departnt of Intelligence and Security. I’ve been told you’re due for a refresher course on the latest cryptographic thods. It’s dreadfully boring, but I’m sure we can manage.”
“Kenji Tanaka, Departnt of Tactics and Strategy. I see you’ve already t my colleague, Instructor Kawas. We would be delighted to hear about your adventures in more detail, Instructor Halen.”
“Emalina Honda, Departnt of dical and Battlefield Care. Assistant Instructor Thornheart. I am very interested in discussing your healing magic. Could I possibly steal you for a few lectures?”
One by one, they ca and went. Serena did her best to morise them all. It was a surreal experience to have so many people she looked up to hold her in high regard. She couldn’t help feeling her ego bubble up just a little.
There were more departnts than when she was a student. A demon nad Sebastian Kimura led the newly created Departnt of Communication, while Noel Yamaguchi led the Departnt of History and Military Studies. There was also Mina Shimada who headed the Departnt of Logistics, which had recently split off from the Departnt of Naval Operations, led by Kaito Mori. A gruff demon who slled of grease and tal called Gregory Takeda taught the Departnt of Engineering. Apparently, he knew Allston, her Chief Engineer aboard the Vengeance. Finally, there was Joey Ito, who put the students through the seven hells with his Departnt of Physical Training.
After everything was all said and done only Instructor Kawas and Instructor Nakajima remained. The latter yawned before telling Serena, “Instructor Halen, your lodgings are this way.”
“Assistant Instructor Thornheart, if you could follow this way,” Instructor Kawas politely bowed.
Serena raised an eyebrow. “We’re not to be in the sa building?”
Instructor Nakajima shook her head, waving pitch-black hair. “Instructors under Nathaniel stay in the main building. Those under dear Lunaria are all housed in the new building for the Departnt of Aether Studies. Is there a problem?”
Serena shook her head.
“No problem!” Alia said cheerfully. She whispered to Serena, “I’ll see you tomorrow!” With a wave, she bounced away with Instructor Kawas speed-walking to keep up. Serena resisted the urge to sigh.
“Strange human,” Instructor Nakajima muttered.
“You’re telling ,” Serena answered.
Serena hoped she’d be able to sleep this ti, without Alia’s warm body nearby. Even on the Vengeance, they had separate hammocks but were still in the sa room.
Maybe she could hug a pillow instead.
Thinking about how she could best arrange bedding to resemble her dear human, Serena mumbled simple replies to Instructor Nakajima’s questions while she led her through the building.
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