Ravenfire

I followed Prof. Ariston all the way to an old castle in the middle of nowhere. It was about an hour’s walk from the settlement. I’d never really ventured this far from the house, so I never knew such a building existed nearby. Surrounding the old structure were just snowy foothills with small patches of pine forests. It is rare to see castles nowadays after most of them were destroyed during the nuclear war.

“Now that I think about it, my uncle has always tried to think of excuses to send me away ever since he learned that I was using the knowledge he taught me to recreate devices from the past,” I spoke as we walked through the snow.

The professor noticed my dejected mood. “Don’t look so down, Ms. Ravenfire. I can assure you that whatever it is you intended to learn from your uncle and from that field, you will have a chance of learning it at the academy.” He sounded pretty sure of himself, which made me inclined to believe that it was probably true.

“Does the academy have material on the old world?” I asked.

He seemed happy to hear my question. “Plenty! We have a vast collection of books, even access to the Endless Library.”

“The Endless Library? What’s that?”

“You can think of it as a heaven for books that have been destroyed completely. It may no longer exist in this world, but a copy exists in the Endless Library.”

When we arrived at the castle, I saw large wooden creatures walking around as if patrolling the area. It was my first time ever seeing such strange beings.

“What are they?” I asked curiously.

Prof. Ariston was delighted by my interest. “Golems. They help take care of things around the castle. I built them.”

“Will I learn how to build these too?” I watched in awe as the golems did their work.

“If you are capable of it, yes.” Prof. Ariston continued to lead the way inside the castle.

The interior was simple and filled with academic clutter, but very cosy like a warm family cabin in the woods. Its stone walls were covered in paintings and tapestries depicting a time in the old world when knights roamed the land. We went upstairs to the second floor where the professor led me to a common room connected to four bedrooms.

He opened the door to one of the bedrooms. “This will be your room temporarily before we travel to the academy. There is still one more student I must pick up before the start of the school year.”

I dropped off my luggage inside the room. It was warm and spacious with a nice view of the wooded hills. After having spent most of my life with a small bedroom, I felt like royalty being in this tastefully decorated room. I wondered if the rooms at the academy were going to be like this too.

“Now there is someone I would like you to meet. Where is that boy?” The professor left the room to search for someone.

As I stood around in the common room waiting for the professor to return, I noticed a half-open door. I curiously pushed it open and looked inside. Behind the door was a neatly kept room that’d put my own messy room back home to shame. On the bed was a folded dark green scarf and a black journal.

“What are you doing? Stay out of my room!” An angry voice from behind startled me. I turned around and saw a black-haired boy about my age dressed in a dark vest and trousers with a silver snake coiled around his neck. I noticed small clouds of golden powder gathering around the snake.

“Hello. I’m Remina.” I extended my hand for a friendly handshake.

His expression didn’t change. “I have no plans on being friendly.”

“Nice to meet you too,” I said sarcastically.

The professor stepped inside the room immediately. “Mr. Salamander! There you are. I would like you to meet Ms. Remina Ravenfire, your fellow student.”

“Yes. We met just now.” He gave a forced smile before going back into his room and locking the door.

“Is he always this grumpy?” I asked the professor in a low voice as we both stared at Salamander’s door.

Prof. Ariston only smiled at my question. “Mr. Salamander is dealing with some personal issues. I’m at no liberty to tell you the details, but perhaps he might disclose them to you one day when he trusts you.”

I glanced at the door once more before looking at the professor. “He’s never going to trust me. Can you at least give me a hint?”

The professor chuckled. “Sometimes, the hints are right there in front of you,” he said before leaving the room.

Typical professor. Cryptic as always.

Every morning, the professor would give us lessons on basic magic after breakfast. In the afternoon, he would head out of the castle to investigate the whereabouts of the last student. He would always encourage us to practise and study while he was away, but never really forced us to. When he returned after sunset, we would then have dinner together before retiring to our rooms.

The morning after I arrived at the castle, Prof. Ariston brought us to the courtyard after we finished our breakfast. He began to speak, “Magic has four domains, each corresponding to a season. After the catastrophic end of the war, our universe began to merge with another and its laws were adapted as our own, allowing magic to exist in this world. Legend has it that four powerful entities from the other universe attempted to enter our world, forcing their way in and perishing in the process. Their physical bodies may have been destroyed, but their consciousness now governs the selection of new mages.”

He demonstrated his own ability by creating a golem out of a potted plant. “I am a mage of Spring, chosen by the Meister Odette who has a preference for the kind and righteous. Spring mages are excellent at earth magic and creation.”

The professor then looked at Salamander who was listening intently with a serious face and his snake coiled comfortably around his neck. “Mr. Salamander is a mage of Winter, chosen by the Meister Arum who loves power and knowledge. Winter mages tend to be seers and good at manipulating ice.”

This time, he looked at me. “Ms. Ravenfire, on the other hand, is a mage of Summer, chosen by the Meister Leu who favours the warriors and the brave. Summer mages have an affinity with fire and cannot be harmed by it.”

He began to pace with his hands behind his back. “The last domain, Autumn, is governed by the Meister Ophelia who is probably the most silent Meister. Very little is known about her and how she chooses her mages. Autumn mages are probably the rarest, but they all have one thing in common: the ability to transform themselves and the world around them.”

I raised my hand.

“Yes, Miss Ravenfire.”

“Professor, would we be able to use spells outside of our domains?” I asked.

“Of course. You may succeed at using an ice spell, but you might never be as good as Mr. Salamander and other Winter students. The same goes for Mr. Salamander when using a fire spell.” He placed a glass of water on the stone bench. “Try freezing the water in this glass with ice magic.”

I bent down and concentrated on the water inside the glass. I could see the golden powder rise from my necklace and float towards the glass of water. Slowly, it froze but only partially. I couldn’t get it to completely turn into ice.

“And now melt it,” said the professor.

Melting it was much easier. Almost immediately, the ice water turned into lukewarm water.

“Good. Mr. Salamander, your turn.”

Salamander stepped forward and froze the water almost immediately without breaking a sweat.

“And now melt it.”

He concentrated and attempted to melt the ice. It was slow, but the ice did melt until it was water.

“Good. Thank you, Mr. Salamander.” Prof. Ariston stuck his finger into the water. “Still cold. I suppose both of you now understand the importance of knowing your domain and the type of spells you will be proficient at. Now we will move to the topic of a very important item to mages, a Focus.”

He showed us his cane. “Embedded in this cane is a crystal that helps regulate the flow of raw magic when we cast spells. Casting spells without a Focus is dangerous. You could lose control of the spell and cause an accident. That is why you must always keep your Focus nearby or on your person.”

He suddenly walked towards me. His gaze landed on the necklace I was wearing. “Ms. Ravenfire, you seem to already have a Focus. Might I ask where you acquired it?”

“I picked it up from the snowy field,” I replied. “I didn’t know it had that sort of function.”

“I see. I have no objections against you using that as your Focus, but you must know that the Focus of another mage tends to contain residual energy from its previous owner. You might experience the feelings and perhaps even memories of the mage who once used it.” He offered me a necklace with a crystal pendant. “If you’d prefer not to involve yourself with matters of the past, you can use this new Focus.”

I gave it some thought. “I think I’ll keep using it.”

“Very well.” He kept the necklace. “Mr. Salamander already has his enchanted necklace, so I believe we are all set.”

“Enchanted necklace?” I looked at Salamander. The silver snake transformed back into a silver necklace around his neck. My jaw dropped.

My expression made Salamander chuckle in amusement. “First time?”

The table in my room was too small to lay out all the components of my project, so I decided to work in the common room. Seeing me so focused must have piqued Salamander’s interest that he curiously rummaged through my box of prototype items. He was probably just bored and had nothing better to do.

“Salamander, if you’re going to rummage through my stuff, just make sure you don’t blow the both of us up,” I said as I continued to put together my new explosive device.

“Blow us up? Are you sneaking in bombs here?” He pulled out a cylindrical metal object from the box and fiddled with it.

“You idiot! Don’t touch that. It’s a prototype explosive device.” I snatched it back before he triggered the spring mechanism.

He was appalled. Even his snake had its little jaw dropped. “Why in the world would you bring such a dangerous object here?”

I took away my box to keep it off his hands. “The professor said I could work on my projects here.”

“Yes, but why explosives? You already have fire magic, for goodness’ sake! That’s destructive enough.”

“I like explosives, especially when they’re triggered by mechanics.”

He shook his head. “You’re truly a student of Summer. Chaotic and dangerous.”

“Indeed I am, O Salamander of Winter,” I mocked him. I sat back down and continued putting together my latest project.

“I’m staying far away from you for my own safety.” He walked back to his room.

“Good. It will be peaceful without your annoying remarks.”

During lunchtime, the golems served us what was apparently called ‘herbed chicken’, which was something I’d call ‘charred chicken’. The golems were great at manual labour and cleaning, but they were terrible cooks.

Prof. Ariston drew a disappointed sigh. “My apologies. The cooking golem requires some additional work. I will have to fix that later this evening.” Once he reluctantly finished his meal, he told us, “I must continue to search for the last student. Study and practise your magic while I’m away. Don’t stray too far from the castle.” He picked up his things and left the castle.

“Come on, let’s go,” I said to Salamander after I was sure that the Professor was already far from the castle.

“Where are we going?” Salamander raised a brow.

“We’re getting food.” I picked up a bow and arrow lying around near the kitchen.

He gave me a look of distrust. “Food?”

“If you’d rather stay here and starve, I’ll gladly witness you succumb to hunger.” I headed towards the door without waiting for him.

He followed behind. “I’d rather not be here inside the castle in case one of your prototype bombs explode in the common room.”

We both went to the foothills and stopped at a spot where we could easily hide ourselves from our prey. I began to prepare the arrows.

“When you said we were getting food, I was expecting us to go to the market,” said Salamander.

“Have you never hunted before, Salamander?” I asked.

“Not really.” He was a bit curious and somewhat fascinated. “Do you do this often?”

“Only when there’s not enough to eat or when we’re having a celebration. It’s good to know how to hunt. You’ll never know when food runs short.” I handed him a cloth pouch filled with seeds. “Salamander, could you empty this pouch over there by that rock?”

Without questioning me, he took the pouch and walked over to the rock. “This one?”

“Yup.” I smirked a little, knowing what was about to happen.

When he emptied it, a flock of birds immediately came after him. I managed to shoot down two of them, which was just enough to keep us fed. I walked over to him and picked up the dead birds.

“Did you just use me as bait?” he raised his voice in anger. His cheeks were flushed red with fury and his fists were clenched tightly.

“Oh, Salamander, you should give yourself more credit. You were more like an animal magnet,” I said as I began to build a campfire.

“I could have gotten hurt! You could have shot me with an arrow!”

“Fortunately for you, I have a good aim.”

He pointed at me. “I am never following your plans again! I can’t believe I trusted you!”

“Alright, alright. Sit down and cool off while I roast these plump fowl.” I loaded some wood onto the campfire and skewered the meat into some sticks. As a gesture of goodwill, I gave him the first cooked fowl, which he received with a frown.

“How is it?” I asked.

“Edible.” Despite enjoying the meal, his pride only allowed him little praise.

I shrugged. “I suppose that’s all the compliment I’ll ever get out of you.”