Lovedaia spent most of the time on their walk to the stables chattering. She talked about school, food, pythomancy, and spoons. The topics were completely random and only linked together with a thought process nobody could understand but Lovedaia. The duo arrived at the stables.

The stables were large buildings made of wood, filled to the brim with creatures. Lufu entered the stables, glancing around at the multiple horses and even a few griffins. Moving a short strand of hair from her cheek, she pressed her chest to one of the stable doors to get a good look at the griffin within. He stood tall and elegantly with a puffed out chest with beautiful feathers of white coating it.

“So which one is yours?” Lufu asked, moving on from the griffin and walking down the center to look at each horse. She arrived at a chestnut horse and pointed her finger at it accusingly, “This one? Or how about this one?”

After her fun time with Billie, Lovedaia left the stables and stumbled to the cafeteria. Afterwards, she went to her dorm and unpacked. It took so long for her to unpack that she didn't get to sleep until very late. Finally, she let her head hit the white pillow and immediately fall asleep without a worry.

The Next Day

The teachers looked around anxiously. It was two hours before the first general assembly of the year that doubled as the opening ceremony for the students. Traditionally, the Headmaster was supposed to give the opening speech before surrendering the stage to the student representative for the seniors who would give the welcome speech and the rules for the school year.

The student representative who was currently sick in bed, and the Headmaster who was currently missing.

"W-well, who could we find to replace the representative?"

"Even if we did find someone to replace her, we still need someone to stand-in for the Headmaster!"

"A professor could easily fill that role, but we need to find a student with good academics, reputation, and speaking skills to stand-in for the student representative."

Unknown to them, the Headmaster was already searching for one such student. He had in fact anticipated this problem and already had someone in mind . . .

Lovedaia stretched her hands over her head and shifted the covers from her legs. Her blonde hair was tangled to a point where she appeared to be a lion with a straggly mane and her eyes were crusty and weary. She loathed mornings. Early rising was a concept that shouldn’t, in her mind, be practiced – but it was and here she was, watching the sun rise. The blur of orange and blue painted the sky and Lufu gazed unseeingly at the dawn’s approach for a moment before snapping to the present, her sleepy mind slowly becoming aware.

The girl stood up and slowly dressed in beautiful blue robes and brushed her mane with the teeth of her comb. A golden leaf bracelet was wrapped around her wrist and an ornate gold necklace draped around her neck, her collarbone exposed. Sandals were placed on her feet with brown straps wrapped around her ankles like snakes. Once ready for the day, Lufu sat at the small wooden desk in her simple room – simplicity was something she barely tolerated and she prepared to dress it up with intricate portraits and silken sheets.

A slip of paper rested on the table top. Lovedaia squinted her eyes at it and, with all her might, concentrated. The windows were closed and so she could not mistake a breeze for her magic – this was a test. She will make it float. The blonde pretended to find strings of magic in the air and her invisible fingers pulled at them, strumming them like a violin. The magic strings hummed and vibrated serenely; Lufu was reminded of the song of a siren, though she has never been granted the gift of hearing the lullaby, she imagined this was as it would sound. The paper wavered and hovered in the air.

Lufu skipped the entire way to the assembly.

Yesterday had been a minor let down for him. He had spent an hour seeking for someone to talk with but ended up empty handed and had chosen to retire to his room early. With his high grades in the ludicrous amount of classes he took gave him pick of the litter when it came to room choice, rather than taking the most extravagant room however he took the largest one they offered to students. It was a rather unfurnished room filled with books on magic, a modest bed in one corner and a small table and a reading book in the other. He spent a couple hours reading before getting some sleep. The next morning he got up shortly after dawn and after a small breakfast went outside to get in some practice.

He started off with a minor stress test of his limits, He would slowly gather as much of one energy type as he could before his instincts started to warn him of danger before slowly burning through all of the gathered energies with minor spells. he would repeat this three times doing his best to note any differences in the gathered amount over the three times then he would try weaving together more complex spells as quickly as he manage, then he would spend some time just practicing enunciation as well as memorization of the more esoteric words for chants. After that a twenty minuet break for a light snack then another set of everything he had done already.

Currently he was cooling down with another stress test, he was sitting cross legged his eyes closed with a small ball of fire, a small ball of lightning and, a small ball of water floating around him, he also had a small field around him in which he was scanning for surface thoughts as well as his sense of smell and touch had been heightened by a small factor. He was planning on holding these spells until either there was some backlash for the constant expenditure of magic, that someone came up to him, or the opening ceremony started which ever came first.

Surprisingly, Veili, while not a morning person by any stretch, did have the habit of waking up just shortly after the crack of dawn. Eyes open, the redhead laid on top his bed, head tilted just slightly, and watched the sun creep past the horizon. Normally he would have been up and moving about, prepping for the day, by now, but what had transpired yesterday lingered on his mind. Yet, he couldn’t ignore the sun shining in his eyes, rays poking through the blinds, so he forced himself to leave the comfort offered by his bed.

---

His room was not the best that the Academy offered, but it was certainly towards the high end and left little to be desired. Large enough that Veili had raised, with the staff’s permission, makeshift partitions to divide the space up, the room was split into three areas; his private room, a workspace, and an entry space. Though entry from his workspace to the private room was unrestricted, there was a door that blocked the entry space off from the rest of his room. It was yet another layer of security he had been forced to implement by the staff to be granted permission to store weapons in the dormitories. Aside from it, the main door to his room as a whole was constructed out of metal rather than wood like most other rooms in the Academy. Both doors were enchanted in various ways to restrict entry, and the main door itself boasted several locks that required a high mastery in Automancy to open. All security measures were Veili’s design, and it’s something he’s fairly proud of.

Furthest in was his private room and it’s fairly well furnished. A large bed occupies the corner near a window, while a well crafted chest sits next to it on the smooth pine floorboards. There is no need for a lock on it given that the chest itself is sealed tight and requires an application of Automancy to open. In it Veili stores an assortment of belongings, from money he’s earned selling his creations and the documents describing those transactions, to research notes he’s bothered jotting down in regards to his craft. The other corner of the room is occupied by a place for him to study, though the coating of dust on the desk suggests it rarely sees use. Books lay scattered on the fine wood, but on closer examination are quickly revealed to be largely fictitious literature and stories. The rest of the wall has been used to store his clothes as a few shelves extend from the wooden wall courtesy to a bit of Automancy.

The workspace is a little more grandiose, if only for the fact that there are dozens and dozens of weapons hung on racks around the space. Along the walls run metal racks, each holding half a dozen of his creations securely in place. There was apparently an odd sense of beauty to the way each weapon was was entrapped, thin metallic tendrils snaking around each piece and keeping them locked up. Veili never really saw it himself, but mostly blamed it on being the creator. Sometimes things just looked different if you were the one to make it. A great variety was kept in this space; everything from a great axe that Veili himself could barely use to a twisted bow that looked touched by malefic spirits. Aside from the storage of weapons, there were also numerous chests and shelves that held the materials for his craft. It was true that the Academy had a Workshop, but Veili wasn’t one to frequent it; only visiting it to procure regents for and perform lesser enchantments. Anything else, he tried to do within the confines of his own room. His advancements in Outsorcery had let him recently implement further safety measures into the space. At the center lay an intricate web of magic circles, designed to reduce the potential damage should a failure occur. This was in addition to the runes he had already inscribed over the room to make it more sturdy and suited for the use of magic within it.

Beyond the door, was the entry space. Completely unfurnished save for a lamp and separated from the workspace on all three sides, it’s a small area that’s barely enough for Veili and a few others to stand comfortably.

---

As Veili got dressed, he continued to ponder on what Elizabeth had said after she returned the longsword to him. Given what he had glimpsed of her personality and the wide grin she had on afterwards, he couldn’t help but feel it would be something downright outrageous. The curious side of him wondered what she would propose, what someone who also had a feel for metal could think of. The more practical side argued that she likely couldn’t even afford his services, especially if her idea was outlandish. Sure his creations’ price came largely from the runes he engraved onto them, but from how she had requested his services, Veili was confident her “plan” required someone who worked metal not through traditional means, but with magic. And that was not going to come cheap. In spite of all that though… he was curious, and the itch to use his magic for something more complex, more challenging, just wanted to be scratched. He pushed all that aside as he finished dressing for now though. It was unimportant at the moment and he could deal with it when he met Elizabeth again. For now though, he needed some food and he’d figure out if he wanted to bother with the general assembly.

Destination in mind, he ran a hand through his hair and pushed it into place as he left the room. The door didn’t slam shut, but swung quietly to a close behind him before the locks clicked in place. He pressed a hand to the cold metal and nodded in satisfaction as the array of markings glowed momentarily. With his security measures functioning properly, Veili turned around to make his way down for some food. It wasn’t too late or early, about an hour or so after first light and he walked through the hall in silence. It was quite the feat, especially given the length of metallic beads wrapped around each of his forearms.

Elizabeth woke up early. Very likely a lot earlier than most other students, which didn't really prevent her from making a hell of a lot of noise, rummaging through her belongings to find her 'uniform'.

Her room was about as messy as you'd expect from a free spirit like her. It surely wasn't the smallest room in the dormitory by any means, but the girl managed to make it look pretty damn cramped. There was a large working desk with various pieces of metal in various shapes spread across that virtually ate one fourth of the entire room. Lizz' bed wasn't much more than a fair sized mattress obscured by an awfully old looking but surprisingly comfortable couch with panoramic view on said work desk. The actual desk-desk section was horribly small and only offered very few books and a bunch of unorganized sketches and notes. Both of which had scorch marks here and there. The only piece of furniture that didn't look like it was older than Lizz herself was the wardrobe, which contrary to peoples expectations was not the 'avalanche' type, but reasonably uncluttered. And all of that was covered in a fine layer of good old fashioned junk - rags burned as fresh ones, undefinable tools probably used for various tasks at the desk, ripped out book pages of unknowable origin, broken down pieces of armor, a few mostly empty bottles here and there, glass splinters, a variety of bandages and 'first aid equipment', two pairs of clunky leather boots. However, out of all the people in the entire academy, less than a handful knew what the inside of Miss Seyes room looked like, the few exceptions being people who forcefully had to move the pink haired girl into enforced room arrest - they were afraid she could damage or destroy the official holding cells, so it was decided to lock her up somewhere were she'd not cause too much destruction. Apart from that, people keep away from the room as it was considered somewhat like a lions den...and rightfully so. Needless to say, her door has one or two magic seals that can be used to lock it up, and Elizabeth does not have 'the key' for those.

After a decidedly too long period of causing a ruckus including loud and vulgar curses only adept users of sound dampening magic could endure at this time of the day, Elizabeth Seyes the guard stepped onto the corridor. Of course, she had volunteered for a shift at the ceremony, not only because that'd give her a chance to receive some respectful (or fearful) attention, it also earned her a handful of pay and made the horribly dull ceremony more bearable. Her working attire differed from the regular guard only in two points: For one, she was wearing a sleeveless belted leather vest, that really was more belts than vest if you looked at it technically. The custom garment fulfilled two duties, protecting her torso from blows and superficial damage, and putting emphasis on her 'weaponry'. Which was point two. Where other guards had a polearm, halberd or some such, Lizz had two fists, wrapped in fingerless leather gloves that protected ones knuckles in the case of the unintentional - or intentional? - wall punch. This outfit also revealed both of her brawny arms, the left one covered in a tattoo portraying cogwheel shapes, wandering from her wrist all the way up to her shoulder and resurfacing from the vest around the right side of her neck, the other one decorated with three impressive scars, all of which were referring to training accidents. This was no coincident, the girl actually protects the - in her eyes - more valuable skin on her left arm with her right one when shit hits the fan and the fan blades come flying. While the academy guard didn't exactly approve of her appearance, they were secretly relieved because fists were rather low on the lethality-scale, even 'in the hands' of a choleric thug.

Her initially grumpy mood - due to not finding those cursed gloves - was quickly replaced with a self-satisfied and slightly mean smile. She felt superior wandering the academy in this set of clothes. Just outside the dormitory, a group of early-bird second-year boys recognized the face and attire, and promptly made a run for it. It was like sweet honey dripping onto her already swollen ego, which now started to wallow in it. If only, if only someone'd provoke a quarrel at the ceremony...that'd truly make her day.

[The evening before.]

“Aaaah... Mr Arazm! I heard you were taking on a more official tutoring duty this year? I wonder how that will work...”

“Well, it's actually more or less a class! Students sign up for personal mentoring with me that can count towards school course credits. We develop their personalized curriculum together and set a goal for them to accomplish in order to obtain passing marks.”

“I don't really care for the details. What I wanted to say was how absurb it is that the Headmaster would deem you worthy of teaching our Apprentice Magistravi Elite when you yourself never cast spells aside from the basics.”

“Well, Mr Orvo, as you may recall a position was created to keep me within these walls. No doubt the Headmaster has reason to believe in me. I was quite the Elite myself during my time at Aledine.”

“Don't try to fool me about what you were or weren't as a student Auguste. Lest you forget, I was the Director of Advanced Studies while you were here as a boy. You were, at best, the Elite of disappointment. Such a grasp of profoundly difficult theorems, yet utter inability to apply them.”

“You placed your own glory into the hands of a boy who knew better... You confuse inability with wisdom, Crescensis”

“Ah yes, the speaches again... That ancient man did weave quite the tight veil to blind you didn't he? Odd, really, how a man with ridiculous power like Stanislas Korbo would vanish from his social cicle, become a nanny – of all things – and raise a boy who believes a magical handicap to be wisdom.”

“This conversation will enlighten neither one of us, Mr Orvo. Please, accept my polite dismissal of your company.”

“So stoic, as always! Stoicism brings people nowhere Auguste. Power does.”

The last words had barely left his old teacher's lips that Auguste could sense the spell coming. Over the years he had developed an uncanny ability to sense people's intent, to analyze their will power. This sixth sense had propelled Oggie's prowess with magical energy manipulation, “Meddling” as he called it, to new untold of heights. In the end, that's what it all boiled down to: a battle of will to see who would maintain control over the energy. He compared it to vectors. The force needed to either cancel or deviate the intended movement depended on the original vector itself. What direction was the Magistrava going in? What did he or she seek to achieve? That was where people made fatal flaws and that is where Auguste could strike.

Crescensis Orvo was no apprentice. He had almost as much experience as the Headmaster in his art and was by no means to be taken lightly. Auguste could sense his will clearly though and knew almost instantly which aspect of the spell to attack. As soon as his former-teacher-turned-rival gestured, declaring the end of his quite brief incantation, Oggie simply turned around to face him and looked at him straight in the eyes. People around them grew silent, as if waiting for the climax. Suddenly... Nothing happened. Crescensis lowered a brow and looked into his former pupil's eyes. The elderly man burst out a single word, ever so slightly flicking his right hand... Nothing again. It was a done deal, and Auguste knew it. The first spell unwoven was always the most difficult. His targets could never sufficiently recover from the surprise and frustration to find a window in which to cast their spells.

The two men looked at each other intensely for as much as a few seconds; a veritable lifetime as far as intense moments are concerned. Crescensis was panicking because he had no idea what was happening, and Auguste was calm and in control. At last the still-Director of Advanced Studies belched out laughing the fakest of forced laughs Oggie had ever heard. “You see, ladies and gentlemen! The all-mighty Auguste Arazm has stripped me of my powers with his mundane philosophies! Don't spend too much time listening to his nonsense or the void composing his mystical abilities will suck you dry as well!” The old man laughed some more, a few people joining him. He left the room as he wiped his fake-tear-of-laughter of the side of his cheek and, as soon as he was out of sight, gracefully opened his hand revealing a single speck of light. He closed his fist sharply. “Curse him.”

[At the opening ceremony.]

Auguste walked onto the stage and sat down behind the podium where, if found, the class representative and Headmaster would address the assembly. He turned his head lightly and watched other faculty members panicking backstage. Amongst them was the lovely Mr Orvo who, oddly enough, would never lock eyes...

The sounds of lively conversation drifted up towards Veili as he made his way down the stairs. The upper floors, housing the more luxurious rooms, had been much more quiet than the floors he passed by now. Students in the hallways became a more common sight the closer to ground floor he got, and there was a regular in and outflow at the entrance when it came in sight. The beads clacked against one another, the distinct sound piercing through most of the student’s early morning conversations. It was intentional and though Veili took no pleasure from most of the student body giving him space, he couldn’t deny it was better than trying to squeeze his way through. Yet something gave him a moment’s pause.

While he didn’t pay the students much attention, Veili did pay his surroundings due attention. So it was with a raised eyebrow that he watched a small group of students hurry past the dormitory. He didn’t care so much as to what happened, but rather why it had happened. So following their path, Veili quickly saw what he needed to see and decided breakfast could wait for a few minutes. Even if there had been a crowd, Elizabeth would have been easy enough to spot. As it was, she stood out somewhat like a beacon. He hadn’t made eye contact, so hopefully he hadn’t been spotted yet. That wouldn’t last though, not with his height and distinctive red hair. Turning 180°, he proceeded away from the entrance and back into a nearby hallway. Maybe he wasn’t giving her enough credit, maybe he was overreacting, but there couldn’t be a problem without an opportunity could there? So, he decided to wait a few minutes, leaning against the wall as he did so, and simply let the “opportunity” pass on by.

When asked to envisage a prestigious and prodigious Magestrava’s attire, there would be an inevitable majority that would describe an image of fanciful and flowy robes with impeccable colors, undoubtedly made of expensive materials. Truthfully, this may very well be the case for the more subtle philosophers and desk-bound researchers that oft make up the ranks of the magical elite.

It wasn’t, however, the case for one looking to be a criminal investigator—in other words, a public servant. An investigator's work often became as physical as it did mental. Clothing could get muddy, bloody, torn by suspects armed with blades and otherwise damaged by all manner of things. Fancifully pretty dresses were cute and all, but it was essentially a matter of survival to wear more practical wear. Form fitting materials that weren't too form fitting, a cape that couldn't be easily grabbed and didn't get in the way, cloth that was easy to wash grime away from, and at least passable protection from sword strikes and the elements; those were staples of practical investigator’s clothing.

Idly scraping off some mud from the base of her foot and flicking off some beads of morning dew from her top with little more than a small sigh, it went without saying that Aoife Halloran had come to expect dirt to get on her outfit as part of her daily routine.

It was quite early in the morning preceding the opening ceremony; before most people thought it sane to wake up, when even the likes of Aledine Academy’s guards were still locked in the phase between sleep and wakefulness. Fresh mud and bits of moisture on her attire, crossed with faint dark spots under her eyes signified that the investigator had been up and about throughout the night before and into these early hours of the morn.

With the expanded freedoms afforded to her when she reached her 17th year of life, Aoife quickly expedited on the opportunity to acquire a schedule of increasingly less indoors class time and significantly more outdoors practical time. Add the benefit of the adults’ trust that she would uphold any responsibilities awarded to her, Aoife also quite happily took up jobs that the educational institution normally would not have afforded her prior.

Two years later, the ginger-haired young adult continued the formula of finding jobs and acquiring information with equivalent vigor to when she excitedly joined the academy. Well, at least when the job or bit of information was exciting or had some modicum of relevance to her family’s spirit situation. Unfortunate, then, that the current job held neither descriptor of exciting nor relevant. While the job was lacking, the reward, however, held the prospect of a surprisingly large sum of money—and more relevant to Aoife’s interests: a decently sized box of rare spices.

The job itself seemed simple enough, and the fledgling investigator had given the estimate that she would be able to complete it before the opening ceremony. It was as follows: A fellow classmate’s canine companion had for reasons unknown ceded the comforts of company and ran away. Here’s a description and a really vague drawing. Find the mutt and bring him back.

Aoife let out a mildly irritated puff of breath and condensation, and adjusted her hood, shifting her weight simultaneously. Despite the minimal movement in shifting her center of gravity, the action made a loud schlopping noise coming from beneath her feet. An easy job, I said… Done before the opening ceremony, I said…

The occupation of investigative work and the act of finding things went hand in hand, to the point that finding lost items and people could be called a specialty. Upon receiving the job the day prior, Aoife quickly went to work with what she was given. Seeing as the dog had been lost that morning, information on its whereabouts would be fresh and potential witnesses would not have gotten far. The dog was supposedly quite fast, and it was supposedly bred for endurance, so there was no telling how far it had gotten within a few hours.

The redheaded Magestrava eventually found herself pointed toward the deep confines of the Sundown Forest. At this time of year, the deepest portions of the forest became a dank and unwelcoming morass, and the dog had apparently gone in. It was easy to get lost in the academy’s forest, and the unfriendly wildlife did not make it much more hospitable. Still, let it not be said that Aoife Halloran would abandon a job just because there was going to be some mud and animals.

But perhaps she would abandon a menial enough job if no substantial progress would be made for fourteen hours…

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!” Aoife let out a short yell into the forest for little reason other than to alleviate her own boredom at the onerous task. She had been in the forest for a night, and even had to fend off the occasional beast. The horizon glowered with the colors of dawn, painting what could be seen of the sky through the foliage into an odd purple-violet hue.

Satisfied from her short yelp, Aoife focused her attention back toward traversing through the forest and finding the dog. She took out a small toy with a bell attached to it, something the dog’s master had claimed would attract the dog from some distance. Doubtful.

Irony then when there was a squish of mud, the sound of a twig snapping, and an out of place rustling in the brush. All in reaction the the light jingle of the toy’s bell. All with a low, rumbling, deep growl.

Well, at least he seems to have followed a general heading…

---

“Here’s your dog. Entirely unharmed as per our agreement,” Aoife said, handing the leash to the dog’s master.

“My…! It appears you had quite the rough time finding him. Thank you for your trouble!” she chimed, daintily taking the leash with a cheerful smile that wouldn’t look out of place in an advertisement.

“Ah… One question,” the readhead tilted sideways at the waist, peering at the canine as he had retreated behind his master. Aoife’s clothing had more than a few tears across the thinner materials, and there was quite a bit more mud caked onto her attire than the preceding hour from when she had procured the pet.

“Yes?”

“Is that… really a dog?” with a weary note, Aoife held her hand at the beast’s height; the tips of its ears easily reached to her chest while it stood on four legs, “When he charged at me, I thought I had ran into a warg or even a grim… I’m just glad that animals will submit to displays of power.”

“Why, Aoife, of course he’s a dog. A Lismosi Wolfhound. They’re all this big!” the senior classmate held up her free hand and waved casually, as if the knowledge were the most common of facts.

Though frankly, I probably should have known. But you and everyone else only described him as big, not as a hulking leviathan…!

The investigator cleared her throat, “I see. I’ll remember that for future reference.”

Without much more to say, the high-class classmate soon paid the money promised and the pair went their separate ways, to do whatever morning rituals until the opening ceremony.

In Aoife’s case, something along the lines of a bath and a power nap...

En route back to her room, the investigator made a mental note to only take the magic related cases… Scratch that. She made it into an actual note within her grimoire-like notebook. There was no immediate need for money, so she wondered why she took the case in the first place—at least some reason other than the very wrong assumption that it’d be easy to find “a big dog lost on campus”.

---

Mission Accomplished…

Two words capriciously scrolled through Aoife’s mind as she exited her dormitory room following the ninety minute nap that she had prescribed to herself, happy to have gotten in sleep before having to properly begin the day ahead. Completely out in the hallway, the senior offered a short glance toward the other end, peering in the direction of a dorm room belonging to a certain troublemaking power grabber.

Somehow, the thought of the morning’s dealings with the giant dog reminded her of the often rowdy guard postulant. That the opening ceremony was soon served as a reminder that the two may come face to face at some point. With the person in question, Aoife did not have any personal problems, so to speak, though it occasionally appeared as if that pink-hair had a bone to pick with everyone.

Proceeding a faint shrug, Aoife made a dusting motion over her new set of clothes, brushing a hand over the feather decorated article as if metaphorically brushing away the issue. Turning about, the redhead made her way down the flights of stairs, past the lounge, and out of the building. With some time to spare before the ceremony proper, there was room to wander about. In spite of this, she headed straight for the seating area for the ceremony, noting what appeared to be some fleeing school boys on her way...

Render was simultaneously exasperated and entertained as a group of boys ran past him. It was just Elizabeth being herself as always, he supposed, but he sometimes wished that she could stop being so cursedly intimidating to every student she'd met. The Headmaster actually had to suppress a shudder at what would happen if Elizabeth tried that on Miataea - his currently indisposed Senior Student Representative.

The girl was docile and frankly quite plain outwardly, but Render wagered that there was no student (or even some of the teachers for that matter) in the school that could match her in sheer raw talent and skill. The fact that she compounded it with good work ethics was the icing on the cake. It was just too bad that she had a habit of experimenting with her spells unsupervised. Truthfully, her coming here hand been a fluke, like sending a large uncut diamond to a blacksmith rather than a jeweler - it should have ruined her. Instead, she flourished and became the schools best shot at nationwide recognition. In fact, come the Autumn Dragon Festival or even the Summer Phoenix Festival, Render would let her participate in the Honor Games as the Magestrava Grande of the school.

The Honor Games where tournaments held for senior student Magestrava to show-off the prowess of their representative Academy. For years, Adeline Academy was unable to participate due to being unable to produce students who could reach the standards of the Games. Now however, he not only had Miataea but also several other students that more than matched up to the standards, in his opinion. Each student had been under his scrutiny for years, and he knew each one's history, skills, personality. Heck, he might even go as far as to say he knew them better than themselves, in terms of potential.

Adam, Aoife - Fates he might even include Elizabeth and Veili in that list - and finally Miataea.

The other Academies where in for a surprise this year, thought Render,

Adam's breathing was light and even as he maintained his spells, in fact were not for the elemental orbs around him it would look like he was simply meditating and in truth that wasn't too far off. This exercise was so familiar to Adam that he only needed to pay partial attention to feel when he was reaching a dangerous point, thus he was wondering on his most recent problem, himself. Recently Adam had started to notice diminishing returns on his studies, this wasn't to say that he had stopped learning just that he was no longer learning at the same rate that he had been, and this realization has had Adam frustrated. He didn't have time to learn at the same rate as everyone else, not if he hoped to actually achieve his dream, but he was at a loss of what he could do to augment his learning, he had spent days debating this problem with himself and had countless theoretical ideas on other ways to overcome this issue but he lacked the materials to practice these ideas. That wasn't really surprising as most of them involved either a live Magestrava or a corpse of one recently deceased one, and as much as he was willing to experiment on those if he had the chance he wasn't willing to go out of his way to make it happen, didn't want to lose the security and comfort he had at the school, at least not until he was more sure of himself.

Suddenly Adam eye's snapped open and with a hard exhale all of the spells he had running dispelled in an instant. Sighing he examined himself he was bleeding slightly from the nose and mouth and his arms had minor heat and electrical burns and he could feel the onset of a migraine 'I need to solve this issue quickly, I'm dwelling a bit too much on it' He mused as he whipped away the smattering of blood that had leaked out. Standing up slowly, as to not agitate his oncoming migraine, he once again was thankful of his time spent with Auguste; having been tutored on dispelling by the man had proved very useful to Adam, enough that he was willing to deal with the other man's obnoxious attitude. Grimacing he put a hand to his temple, the migraine was setting in. Turning he started the walk to the hall of healers, the nurse that was normally here hadn’t arrived due to the hour and he knew better than to try and heal his own wounds after all three energies had backlashed, and he wasn’t going to deal with this migraine while listening to people drone on and on while he could be learning.

‘It’s more than a migraine’ Adam thought as he walked through the school grounds towards the healers, his mind felt raw as well as having a vicious pounding in his head, this on top of the temporary loss of smell, the blunted sense of touch, the bleeding and the burns culminated in Adam being on an incredibly short fuse. Unfortunately he had to pass through the dormitories to get to the Healers as quickly as he could; this put him on a collision course with the group of second years running away from Elizabeth. The second years were looking over their shoulders when they collided with Adam, who had his eyes closed trying to will the pounding in his head away, leaving all of them in a pile on the floor. Seconds after a great gale filled the area harshly pushing everyone to the walls except Adam as he had been the one to call the winds in the first place. Quietly he pushed himself up and kept walking, ignoring the looks that he got as he glared ahead the pounding in his head even worse now.

Danny’s lids opened as he came to, letting out a groan of displeasement as the sun pierced his eye. Realizing what time it was, he reluctantly dragged himself out of his bed and began to get dressed. The attire he wore was exactly the same as yesterday, the third year was quite fond of the rare style. He tied the scarf around his neck and let out a yawn, hoping not to wake up any neighboring students. The young man had spent the remainder of the previous day reorganizing the contents of his room and shopping for ingredients. ”I guess I should make an egg sandwich, and brew some coffee. I’m sure one of my friends or acquaintances will need a cup of my amazing masterpieces.” Though Danny was aware that the chances of a random person asking for a cup of coffee were slim, the beverage was a good ice breaker and is praised by many. His attention was drawn towards the flapping of wings, his companion must have heard him and finally woke up as well. The caladrius skimmed its beak in between its feathers, cleansing itself of any impurities. Since the species of bird was renowned for being the embodiment of “purity”, it rarely got dirty or tainted by the dust of the outside world. “Good morning, Eve. Don’t worry, I bought some bird feed. And since you were so helpful yesterday, I’ll throw in some fish with that. Sounds alright?” The bird cooed ecstatically as a response and glided down to the bottom floor, and landed on its seat at the dining table.

Thanks to his notable grades and his former lord’s gifts, Danny resided and recuperated in a two-floor condo. Though it was slightly smaller than the average accommodation, it was enough to suffice Finks’ needs. The first floor consisted of a seating area, dining section and an openly displayed kitchen, with highly maintained modern utilities. The seating area had two beige sofas in place, which surrounded a circular glass table. The dining portion was basically next to the kitchen, a wooden table dyed white, with chairs of the same color scheme, sat in the middle of the floor. One would need to climb up a smell set of stairs to reach the second floor, a supported balcony built on top of the kitchen. There laid Danny’s bed and work desk, on which were multiple official documents and his syllabi. “I’m coming, I’m coming.” He responded to the bird’s eccentric chirps, descending down the steps. After assembling his cooking tools, he quickly cracked two eggs, readied the coffee pot, and poured the bird’s feeding all within the span of a few seconds. Finks grabbed some fish from an insulated bag and lightly placed them on top of the pellets, then set the bowl out in front of the avian. He let the eggs sit for a couple of minutes, then flipped them. After ten minutes had passed by, his breakfast was all ready for consumption. As Danny took bites out of the sandwich, he wasn’t completely awake. Tiredness still had a grip on his soul, pleading for him to return to its embrace. ”Damn, it’s going to take at least another cup to really wake me up.” He let out a second yawn and stretched his arms out.

BLINK.

He wiped off a small bit of liquid which had been excreted from his temples, his body automatically shut his lids when something got close to it, as do all human beings. As they reopened, Danny glanced down to his left, even though he hadn’t set out a plate on the side of the table, a person was already sitting there. The individual had an arm resting on the table, which his eye slowly traced up to the shoulder, then the neck, and finally stopped at the face. The woman had long silky black hair which went half-way down her back, and had a relatively thin physique. She was wearing a formal dress, with frills accurately sewn on. Though Danny didn’t focus on any of these details, his eye was ensnared by the woman’s expression. An innocent smile, some of her teeth were showing from behind her lips. Finks memorized the woman, he was frozen in place, unable to think or utter a single word. All he could do was stare out of disbelief, until his eye began to feel dry, his body forced his lids shut.

BLINK.

And just like that, the woman had vanished into thin air. His eye remain glued on her seat before he regained his senses. “Let’s go, Eve.” By this time he was nearly done with his breakfast, and decided to leave the rest for later. He poured coffee into two wooden cups and covered them with lids. Danny made his way out of his room and to the entrance of the dormitory. Taking in a deep breath, he felt the need to say a reassuring phrase aloud, “Well, today starts my third year. I’m sure this will be a productive and enlightening ye-”

”Run! Holy crap, run for your lives… I don’t want to die… I need to go to the bathroom... She's so scary, is she even human?!”

The muffled screams resounded from the other side of the dorm's exit door. ”Or maybe it will start off with the screams of children. Great.” He heard a series of thumps, the boys' cries were suddenly ceased. Danny raised an eyebrow, his curiosity slowly getting the better of him. Danny turned the knob with his elbow and slipped his foot in between the opening. An assault of winds caught him off guard, forcing the door to fly open and his scarf to wave before his face. He slid behind the frame and took cover from the gusts, waiting for them to die down. Finks peaked out of the doorway and running past him. A group of second years laid dazed on the ground, probably forced by the high speed winds. "What the hell happened here?" Danny queried, looking around for any witnesses to the event. He spotted a certain red-haired individual, a senior who was extremely talented. He let out a sigh and approached her with his usual nonchalant expression, “Morning Aoife, need a cup of coffee?” He cocked his head to the side, offering one of the cups to her. In all honesty, it was a hassle to carry both of them; "Do you by any chance know why our dear second years seem as if they just saw Oggie when he's ticked off?"

Elizabeth decided against chasing down the fleeing group of boys that by some twisted jest of fate informed half the academy of her presence, since she had places to be. She didn't deem the jumpy group worth showing up late at the job, they probably didn't even do anything punishment-worthy. However, sending a last amused glare after the group, she just barely managed to spot something that was worth being late over. A distinctively red hairdo disappeared in the next hallway, being in her field of vision for maybe the fraction of a second. When in guard-mood, miss Seyes virtually exercised eagle-eyed levels of awareness, so the glimpse was more than enough for the pink-haired one to take up pursuit.

In fact, she was quite familiar with this behavioral pattern. People spotted her and attempted to escape out of plain view, usually believing a simple wall or corner could make them avoid Elizabeth entirely. Until she breaks through the wall, that is. Or in this case, until she darted towards the corridor and bolted around the corner, expecting the redhead to suspiciously press himself against the wall or some such. His casual body posture was a little less comical than she'd expected, but entertained her nonetheless.

"Morning mister Sturm." she greeted him in a sensational, sacrastic voice that unmistakably implied she had seen Veilis attempted 'escape', and not without making a bit of a mockery at the expense of her temporary occupation by applying the guards formal high-and-mighty choice of words. "Who would you be waiting for, I wonder. Here in this secluded corner, far away from the place you should attend in a few minutes, but with no haste to migrate there." It sounded awfully fake and made the overall impression of a badly practiced parody. Had there been other guards nearby, they would surely have taken offense. She eyed him, arms crossed, expecting made up excuses. Lizz was used to people hiding from her so she didn't resent over actions like this, though she liked to pretend the opposite and see how they struggled to talk themselves out of trouble. Something told her the redhead wouldn't be part of that group of people, yet prying a bit would still be fun.

The commotion in the male dormitory escaped her attention momentarily. Lucky them!

His “hopes and dreams” were dashed in but a moment’s notice as a flash of pink rounded the corner into the hallway. “Tch.” Clicking his tongue, Veili moved his head just enough so he could meet Elizabeth’s eyes. He supposed this was his fault in some way or another. Probably fate reminding him that avoidance never really suited him nor was it a forte of his and that he should have just continued along his way instead of trying to hide. His only reaction was a raised eyebrow at the nonsense she gave him was a raised eyebrow. While verbal sparring had never been a particular skill of Veili’s, he preferred the physical variety, acting as a merchant had given him some experience in twisting and choosing words.

“Why I was waiting for you.” His reply dripped with enough sarcasm that it was a surprise there wasn’t a pool gathering at his feet. His expression, on the other hand, had softened somewhat as a hint of a smile tugged at his lips while his eyes no longer glared or observed. “After all, there’s more exciting things to do than listening to some speech, not to mention I had to think of the younger students’ eyes...” Trailing off, he had leaned forward until he was level and seeing eye to eye with her. And just quickly as he had gone down that path, Veili cut himself off. An exaggerated shiver followed, clearly expressing his distaste, while his expression deadpanned as he pulled back to lean against the wall. While he was fairly sure there was no stopping Elizabeth if she decided to take offense to that, at the very least Veili had made it clear that if she wanted to continue, well he wouldn't be playing.

“In all seriousness though, I was planning to grab some breakfast after you had gone on your way,” he muttered, not really bothering to try and hide the truth. “And before you ask why I bothered to avoid you, it was just me being stupid.” He admitted that much, hoping it would take whatever wind she had in her sails.

Questions, answers and observations arose in Aoife’s mind in regard to the fleeing second-years.

It started as a simple curiosity at the back of the investigator’s mind. Mental inquiries and musing nagged at her, pulling themselves into a rush until they shot to the front of her mind much in the same fashion as the boys rapidly closing in on her. Aoife stopped walking and took a closer look at the approaching students.

The boys were fleeing fast; that much was obvious. The second years were looking back, they appeared to be afraid of something, and they were heading toward the direction of the Hall of Healers. Hauling themselves through the hall as fast as their legs could take them, their legs were probably burning from the sudden exertions. Something that could terrify a bunch of typically brazen teens— that roused some alarms.

Well, at least as long as the reasons for their flight weren’t being completely exaggerated.

By the point where she had decided it may be a great idea to attempt to stop the boys and ask them what was going on, they were past the distance where stopping them with magic would incur a bit too much force from the abrupt loss of momentum, and trying to stop them by shouting would have little result. Aoife let out a deep breath as she made a mental note to ask the boys about this later, and began to make her way down the hall once more, even cracking a smile at their yelps as they ran. Maybe she’d get a hint of what got the boys running up ahead.

Aoife made it all of six steps forward before she heard the sound of flesh colliding behind her followed by a sudden and highly unnatural gust of wind.

The gale’s intensity was greatly reduced by the point it had reached Aoife, managing only to rustle her hair and cloak and push her hood forward some; even the metal bits of her clothing barely moved in response. It was, however, quite loud. Not to mention the concern that came from the sounds of multiple bodies smacking the brick panelling at the sides of the hall corridor. For the second time, the red-haired Magestrava stopped her stroll, this time making an about-face.

She turned in time to be greeted by the sight of one Danny Finks holding out a cup of dark liquid in offering, “Morning Aoife, need a cup of coffee?”

You just find it a hassle to carry two cups, don’t you? Aoife’s lips creeped upward unnoticeably in response. She took the cup of coffee gracefully, outwardly displaying a gentle smile to contrast Danny’s nonchalance, “Danny Finks, good morning. Coffee is always a welcome stimulant, so thanks for this.“

A cloud moved overhead beyond the roof of the hallway, obscuring the morning sun and starving the hallway of much of its natural lighting. Aoife took a sip of her bitter beverage and took a glance behind the scarf-clad boy to bear witness to what looked like several second-years lying around, and one person walking—more like shambling—away from it all.

"Do you by any chance know why our dear second years seem as if they just saw Oggie when he's ticked off?" Danny cocked his head to the side.

“I was in the process of investigating just that,” even under the current dim state of lighting, the curious gaze from Aoife’s green eyes could be seen clearly as she looked far down the hall, “Somehow, I doubt it has anything to do with Mr. Arazm, though. It takes far too much to irritate that teacher.”

Aoife cupped her chin with her free hand and continued to look past Danny.

“Speaking of which... Pardon me,” she took another sip of the coffee, savoring its bitter glory. The passing cloud absconded its hold over the sun and brightness was brought to the hallway once again. Aoife gave her conversational partner a nod and stepped aside, making her way to the scene of the magical gale with haste. She was deceptively fast in her approach, reaching the boys and the culprit of their current situation before the robed man could get some scant steps away.

Any onlookers didn’t appear as if they would be doing anything, as they only whispered to one another. It appeared bystander syndrome was in full effect.

For Aoife though, investigator mode was on. The boys were already recovering from their wingless flight into the hallway walls. A pair that had already stood up was in the process of helping the others orient themselves. Aoife sorted out her priorities; technically, what had just happened counted as the offensive use of magic, something that was all too obvious in its illegality outside of sanctioned duels.

In short, whatever made the boys run would be put on the backburner in light of the crime that she just witnessed. After all, that was the type of investigator she was trying to be.

“Hold on.”

Aoife was stern in tone, calling for the shambling student to stop. Despite her intent, she was not a guard, so she had the same restrictions on combative magic as any other student. Though it would in the first place be best to resolve this without any action at all, so Aoife shifted forward, flanked her target and stood in front of him. Careful to maintain a short enough distance that they wouldn’t bump into each other, she backstepped in coordination with him.

“Adam?” she tilted her head inquisitively, now recognizing her fellow senior and calling out his name, “Hey, what happened back here?”

It appeared that he was in some pain and distress, Aoife stalked forward to be in a closer proximity to the raven-haired student. She took in the details of his appearance, keenly sorting through the information that she observed within the span of a second. Dried blood from his nose non-indicative of any outward physical harm. Bloodshot eyes and a downturned gaze hinting at light sensitivity. Severe migraine? Shambling walk, loose arm movement that didn’t balance his gait properly, and the appearance of muscle fatigue. Topping it off, there were burns. The lack of labored breaths or defensive wounds indicated that he hadn’t been in a fight.

Spell backlash?

In the world of Magestrava, and especially to Aoife, there was little that could be feared more than the backlash from a spell. The investigator's priorities changed once again. The crime that left no one injured can be damned, Adam was injured.

“Adam. Stop.” Aoife narrowed her eyes and spoke in a commanding tone, ceasing her backwards movement and hoping Adam would hear her and reciprocate, “You’re heading in the right direction, but let me help you to the Hall of Healers. It’s not a good idea to be going alone when suffering from a spell backlash.”

Ever since standing up again Adam was cursing himself out mentally. His reaction had been rash and idiotic and now his head was even worse. He should be better than this, more controlled, more aware, more something that doesn't fly off the handle like that. All of this mental ranting was in the back of his mind however, as really it was almost too painful to try and form thoughts at the moment.

He was used to spell’s backfiring on him, his body was littered with the scars of times he had had it happen, some were even there from times he had done it intentionally to try and learn from them, but six spells backfiring as one? That was a whole new world of pain, that fact he was standing was a testament to his hard earned endurance.

Another thing that spoke of the drive that was the other core facet of Adam’s character was the fact that there was a part of him seeing if this had brought about any interesting results. Examining himself as thoroughly as he could fighting through the pain to try and gleam if anything useful had been earned from this accident. Unfortunately something had been noticed.

Part of the backlash had off set Adam’s ability to distinguish what it was he was touching, because of this he was starting to notice a rather odd and profound thing. The air was alive with Karma as was the ground underneath his feet, the loss of one sense had allowed another to grow and adapt. He was still trying to make sense of this when someone had stepped in front of him, and for a moment they blinded him as he noticed the Xi and Sakra flowing through them. Reflexively he closed off his magical awareness; it was too bright for him to deal with at the moment.

“‘Adam? Hey, what happened back there?’”

Adam blinked rapidly trying to focus on the person in front of him; his vision swam as he did. Once again he cursed at himself for his recklessness. He knew he was suffering from multiple backlashes but he had went and fired off another spell and made it all worse. Blinking once more he willed his vision to still long enough to see who had talked to him.

“Aoife?” He asked more to himself as he finally placed his fellow students face “I could use the help” he added through grit teeth, talking hurt, seems his throat had partially dehydrated it’s self as well. Taking another deep breath he leaned on Aofie for support suddenly realizing just how much his body was despising him at the moment.

“I've got a new record I think though, six spells at once, can’t wait for the rumor mill to get ahold of that” He said with a humorless chuckle well aware of what the both the students and the teachers would think of him after learning that he had both allowed six spells to fail and that he survived the six spells failing. If he wasn't already known for stuff like this no one would believe it.

Lovedaia, or Lufu as she had been dubbed, Marden walked the halls with a bounce in her step, overjoyed with her dosage of magic, however little. So when she was almost run over by two running boys, she ignored it with a dopey grin. So when she felt an out-of-place zephyr brush her short blonde locks, she blinked obliviously. But when some rude brunet knocked into her shoulder and sent her sprawling onto the hallway floor. He was taller and wider than her with unruly brown hair that had an annoying slick to it and she felt her irritation rise.

Sitting up, after hissing profanities under her breath, she dramatically vowed vengeance, loudly. Only a few were near to hear it and all gave her bewildered stares, which she flashed crazy eyes at mockingly. The next few minutes were spent planning, in which she followed the brunet towards the source of the wind and when she arrived at a normally abnormal scene. There was a Aoife, a girl she only knew by reputation, and Adam, one of the smart ones, who was bent over and looking worse for wear. Not particularly caring and feeling that cold streak that ran through her veins, she kicked the back of the brunet’s knee and he toppled over, bumping into Adam. Woops.

Thankfully, Adam did stop.

"Aoife...?" the robe-clad student peered at Aoife with what appeared to be hazy vision, his voice hoarse to the point that the investigator was sure talking was a painful ordeal, and his breath was coming in small heaves, “I could use the help.”

With Adam's acceptance, Aoife switched the hand with which she held her cup of coffee and braced her fellow senior to herself. In a way, she was more lifting him than bracing him, though the ailed Magestrava was still moving on his own power. When she was confident that she had him well supported, they began their walk to the Hall of Healers.

The morning sun shone down in a glare as the pair made it out from the outdoor hallway between the male and female dormitories, in the perfect position to greet them in the face.

“I've got a new record I think though, six spells at once, can’t wait for the rumor mill to get ahold of that,” Adam let out a humorless chuckle, calling to mind how this magic backlash would be received with a backlash of a different kind.

"Six Spells?" Aoife was visibly taken aback, her eyes rapidly opening and closing a succession of times in a combination of disbelief and a hint of anger, "Hadn't Mr. Arazm and I both told..."

She briefly stopped their gait toward the Hall of Healers, recollecting herself with a drawn out breath. Momentarily, her olive green eyes shone in a glare stronger than the sunlight. She continued sternly, "Rather... Admonished you to keep the envelope pushing to a controllable level?"

That would be the last hint of anger, though.

Magic was a mysterious, wonderful, and at times terrifying thing. Those that dealt in it saw the world differently than those that did not, often times feeling as if they abided by special rules separate from those that did not know what they knew and see what they saw.

In a sense, that was true. Magestravi did have special conditions—the world's laws bent to their will, but would sometimes the world would strike back if its laws were bent too quickly or without enough reverence. That was a spell backlash, and the harder a user tried to push at the world's laws, the harder the world could push back.

"I bet you forgot to do proper spell stretches first, too," this time Aoife gave Adam an understanding smile. It hadn't necessarily been that the red-haired Magestrava was in awe, nor was she in any mode of true anger—instead, she felt an odd combination where she felt concerned and at the same time, simply didn't.

Aoife was on an approximately even ground with the raven haired Adam when it came to efficacy in Spellcraft. If anyone had a right to hand out admonishments and expect to be taken seriously, it was her.

...Though ultimately, she hoped that she didn't sound and act too much like someone's mother. Of course, the investigator postulant was far from guiltless in the field of magical experimentation. After all, one of the principles of being a Magestrava was the urge to seek greater heights of knowledge; there was also that duality of Aoife wanting to be an investigator of magic. Curiosity was one of her natural states.

But there was a certain limit that she imposed upon herself, a line etched into the ground that would stop her at a certain point of recklessness. Though perhaps it was because of her childhood accident that she showed such restraint and adherence to a process. The academy too, as well as Magestrava society as a whole, advised on restraint.

"There is a process, you know," she thought aloud, having taken the time to more thoroughly examine Adam's state. Looking at the pattern of burns and their locations, as well as feeling how Adam stumbled, she could tell just what lengths and what kind of spells he used, long after the energies had left him and they had left the area. Knowing you, you got more out of this than you lost. Learning by mistake isn't the best life philosophy, but I do admire your tenacity.

Aoife caught herself smiling wider and adjusted her hold on her fellow student, still pretty much lifting him and supporting his weight so that he didn't have to. They had not much longer to go, lucky too that the comparatively small-of-build Adam was considerably light for the athletic Magestrava that could wrestle with a 120 pound dog bred to be capable of hunting wolves.

Frankly, it almost felt as if Aoife were challenging fate to throw something at her.

"Hey...! What th- Watch out!" came a frantic yelp just off to the side. It had been preceded by the sound of shuffling footsteps and the dull thud of flesh being struck bluntly.

Oh, that irony.

In response to sudden commotion in an otherwise peaceful stroll, the typical human reaction would have been to stiffen up and snap their head over to look at what happened then assess what to do from there—a slow reaction that could get that human hurt, or worse if it were something actually dangerous. On the other hand, someone more trained to be on their toes would react a tad more fluidly.

Especially when they had someone they were protecting from further harm.

Especially when being bumped into had exacerbated the injured party's situation to begin with.

From the 'h' in 'hey', Aoife's ears perked up as far as a human's ears were capable of motor function, signalling up a sense of urgency to her mind.

Instinct took over and Aoife reactively moved to position herself an Adam away simultaneous to hearing the commotion. The investigator took a long sidestep and followed up with a backstep, gently sweeping the injured Magestrava away from the source of the noise. Beyond the reflexive reaction, she made a conscious effort to keep her movement as fluid as possible, avoiding jerking motions to mitigate the possibility of the raven-hair's migraine from deepening. Out of context, it almost looked like she were dancing with Adam.

Aoife took the opportunity from separating herself and Adam from the danger and visually engaged the incoming student as he tumbled over. She also caught a glimpse at a blonde child directly behind him.

She had managed to spare Adam from getting a student's head spearing him in the side; however, moving the robed senior out of the way only substituted the red-haired investigator in his place, only able move so far with what time she was given. It wasn't like Aoife would suddenly use magic or violence on what was certainly someone that had tripped or, more plausibly when taking his yelp into account, had been tripped—there just wasn't that sort of culpability.

So, tumble he did, shoulder first right into Aoife's stomach. As much as she braced herself for the collision, it didn't stop the dull impact's force from transferring from her trunk to her arm and right up to the coffee mug holding hand.

There was a light crash from the earthenware mug shattering upon the ground, followed by the loudest sigh of the whole day so far.

Hand now free of the mug, Aoife righted the student for himself, grabbing him by the shoulder and gently pushing him until he stood straight. She then stiffened up and sounded out a small groan in an attempt to drive away the pain from having the broad student's shoulder drive into her solar plexus and bat away the screaming sensation from hot coffee that had made an uncomfortable home on her hand.

“Thanks… Could’ve taken a pretty big tumble there,” the student said. He began to talk further, though everything that came from his mouth after went as an unheard static. Investigator mode was back on, and Aoife completely discluded the younger Magestrava from her purview. Her eyes focused behind him, and it appears that he caught on that he was pretty much translucent at this point.

Ah.... there really isn’t any time for this. Looking through past the student, Aoife cast a sobering glare over at the blonde that had likely caused this to begin with, all while opening and closing the fist of her mildly burnt hand. Part of her mused over whether she should take some measure to exact retribution—in a non-violent, legal fashion, of course.

"Not worth it," she muttered aloud, taking a deep breath and glancing over at Adam, she was just loud enough that the sixteen year old across from her was sure to have heard. Looking at the blonde closer, she mentally drew up a few ideas as to how this all happened, referencing what she knew. Drawing upon her banks of knowledge on the student body, she knew that she was looking at Lovedaia Marden, there was quite a story behind that child’s temperament.

Perhaps the boy, gone by this point. was the center of this, but...

But that was all there was to it. The investigator was in the business of knowing things, finding things, and finding out things. Curiosity nagged, but there were priorities to uphold. Even more, this was pretty much just a random act of low-level violence, the least of the things that would ever pique Aoife’s interest.

Like the running students from earlier, Aoife would just have to address this later. She hadn’t a shadow of a doubt that the short-haired blonde was the culprit. There was that deepset urge to correct this, but this wasn’t the time to engage in some wordy parlance. Aoife shrugged the shoulder supporting Adam and started off toward the Hall of Healers once more.

Seems the things Aoife would have to investigate or deal with were starting to pile up. The Opening Ceremony, scared running boys, Adam’s spell backlash, and an entirely spasmodic fit from Lovedaia Marden, what was next? Zombies?

“In all seriousness though, I was planning to grab some breakfast after you had gone on your way,” he muttered, not really bothering to try and hide the truth. “And before you ask why I bothered to avoid you, it was just me being stupid.” He admitted that much, hoping it would take whatever wind she had in her sails.

Elizabeth decided to be in a good mood and mainly acknowledge the last part of Veilis response. He had the courage to fight back her little charade, which was refreshing and for the most part unexpected. She nodded sagely, contrasted by her playful expression. "At least you're aware of being stupid. That's the most important step. Second comes the realization that there's no escaping me." The pink haired part-time guard suddenly had a moment of realization that clearly manifested on her face before she started checking multiple pockets for something. She muttered a short curse as a second realization hit her - it wasn't there.

"I was sure I had the draft of that little something I told you about..." Lizz discarded the notion with a carefree shrug. "Guess I was wrong, i'll get it to you later. I'd love to accept your generous invitation to breakfast too, but actually I don't have time to slack. It's my shift."

It wasn't immediately obvious if Elizabeth completely ignored what the redhead just said, or if she intentionally interpreted it the opposite way. However, the awful pokerface she put on two seconds later heavily implied the latter. In fact, she made it sound like Veili was the one who stopped her. There was a good reason why Elizabeth Seyes didn't have a lot of friends. As if to emphasize this impression, she added "If you'll now excuse me, I have places to be." - yet still didn't move an inch, waiting patiently for Veilis reaction.

Adam suppressed a hiss as they entered direct sunlight, it was bright enough shining directly in his face, but with his migraine, the light seemed to gain a few magnitudes brighter. Closing his eyes as tightly as he could to block out the light, he slowly opened his magical awareness again, just enough that he could get an idea of what was within a foot or two of him.

"Hadn't Mr. Arazm and I both told...” Adam heard her start knowing full well what she was likely to say next “Rather... Admonished you to keep the envelope pushing to a controllable level?” Aofie stated more then asked, her tone conveying her glare clearly despite his vision impairment.

“Yeah… I know” He muttered disdainfully in response, though the rasp from his injuries covered it well. It wasn’t that he despised their concern; it was just that he felt it would have been better spent elsewhere. He knew his limits well enough and had yet to have a truly life threating accident, and least that was his perspective anyway. Besides he often learned more about his limits and what he needed to learn from pushing himself as far as he could get away with, it was how he got to this far, he saw no reason to change now.

That same willingness to define his limits only by what would backfire or on him had ostracized him from most of the academy community. He could count on one hand the amount of people that were willing to have a conversation with him outside of a class discussion, this wasn’t to say he was lonely, not truly, just that his choice of how to define his limits had a farther reach then just his magical skill. It labeled him as someone to be careful of, for his hubris could take them down as well.

That was the reason he put up with Aofie and Auguste’s concern, because they cared enough to actually have some concern for him, as misplaced as he saw it. Well there was also the fact they were both exceptionally skill in their own rights and he could always appeal to their worries in exchange for information on their methods.

"I bet you forgot to do proper spell stretches first, too" Adam just rolled his eyes; he could never understand the stretches. They were taught as way to help protect young mages from backlash by helping them feel their limits, But Adam, being who he was, often disregarded them when he was younger to the point that the stretches just seemed like a waste of time now.
“Define proper” Adam quipped, his thoughts on the matter well known. He just pulled in energy until he felt he was walking a knife’s edge at the start of his day as his stretches, another way he stood apart from normal mages.
“There is a process, you know” Aofie said seemingly in response, but the softer tone made Adam crack one eye to take a look at her, she was still blinding to his senses but he got the gist of what she was doing. Taking a look himself he once again was made aware of the flow of energy around him, but even more interesting was how he looked to himself. He could see the Xi and Sakra flowing within him, their brightness dulled due to the recent backlash, but their pathways clear as day.

It was an odd thing to see, every mage had at least some idea of what the energies felt like, some were better at sensing them then others, but he couldn’t recall anything about actually seeing the energy. Nor could he understand why he was so sure that what he was seeing was in fact the magical energies, it was just a feeling he got and couldn’t bring himself to doubt.

Adam was busy trying to puzzle out this oddity when suddenly he felt himself being gracefully swept away from where he had been standing. Eyes opening in confusion he tried to piece together what had happened, not taking too long to realize someone had almost knocked into him again. Thankfully the woman supporting him was both more attentive to their surroundings and much more physically capable then he was, thus she saved him another trip to the pave road.

Not caring much about the how’s and why’s, partially because he was sure he wouldn’t be able to piece anything together when he had trouble seeing more than a few feet at the moment, Adam quickly put the incident out of his mind and went back to thinking over his newfound senses.

Only when they reached the Hall of healers did he put the thoughts aside for later, as for now he had to deal with the Healers. Most of which he knew quite well due to his frequent visits to the Hall. In fact a sigh was heard shortly after he had been helped in, as the healer walking to greet them recognized Adam “What did you do this time?” They asked with annoyed exhaustion, it was only the second day and yet Adam was already in need of healing. That didn’t bode well for some of the older healers.