Ravenfire

I found myself standing still with my head raised inside the massive library that spanned three floors. It wasn’t because there was a classic painting on the high ceiling, nor was it because the intricate architecture was impressive. This library had something that other libraries didn’t.

Tentacles.

I wasn’t sure what face to make when long tentacles hanging from the high ceiling started writhing about and making faint uncanny sounds. How on earth do people even concentrate on reading with that subtle background noise?

“I don’t know whether to be amazed or concerned,” I muttered to myself.

“Hmm? Classes haven’t even started yet and we already have a visitor. Curious. Tell me, what brings you here, student?” I heard a male voice and quickly turned my head.

The school librarian was a short young boy, about my age. He had black hair, unusually pale skin, and curved horns growing out of his head. Almost comparable to the demonic creatures mentioned in gruesome folktales. The look in his yellow eyes told me not to trust his youthful appearance. He probably lived many more years than Prof. Ariston.

“The professor said you have books about the old world,” I replied calmly, trying not to stare too much at his horns. I didn’t care much about whether the librarian was an evil demon or not as long as he did his job.

“Indeed. We have such books. Are you searching for anything specific?” His voice was smooth and soothing, the kind that could easily lure you to temptation.

“I want to know about the war that ended the world.”

“Wait here.”

I stood around and waited as the strange librarian pulled out some books from the shelves using the tentacles and gathered together a pile of books for me.

He happily gave me the books. “Here we are. These should fill you in on the basics of the war. When you’re done with them, just leave them on the table. My assistants will return them to the shelves. Enjoy reading.”

“Thank you.” I carried the books to a table and sat down.

I took the first book from the pile titled ‘Humanity’s End’ and opened it. I spent some time reading it before moving on to the next book. After spending about an hour concentrating on reading, I had a better picture of what led to humanity’s demise.

A few decades ago, most of the world had split into two large military alliances both vying for influence. A nuclear arms race akin to the cold war had given birth to the most powerful bomb ever made, The Morning Star. On the day that it was dropped, the whole earth shook and the skies turned black. The catastrophe was nothing anyone could have ever predicted. Not only did it make half of the world unlivable and cause most living things to die out, winter came unusually fast. The mages believed the coming of winter was something caused by the merging of the two universes.

My older relatives must have spent the first decade after the war suffering from lack of food and resources. It’s no wonder they refused to talk about it when they witnessed something so traumatic.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and saw Elliot freezing in place as soon as he saw me. He was the last person I expected to find in here, especially with the creepy ceiling tentacles around.

“Elliot,” I said, surprised.

“H… Hi,” he forced himself to greet me. He wasn’t expecting to run into me here either.

“I didn’t think you were into books.”

He held his hands together to try and calm himself down. “I like reading, but my settlement didn’t have a lot of books,” he replied timidly and avoided eye contact.

I reached out my hand to grab a book. He immediately flinched in response out of fear.

“It’s ok. I’m not going to hurt you,” I assured him before pausing. “Though I suppose that might be difficult to believe after I threatened you with a dagger…”

He remained silent.

“Anyway, I have nothing against you. I have something against Salamander maybe, but not you.”

He smiled awkwardly. It must be terrible being stuck in a conversation with me.

“Did you end up in the same room as Salamander?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Salamander is in a different room with someone they call Toad. I don’t actually have a roommate.”

“Must be nice having a room all to yourself.”

He was silent for a moment. I assumed he gave up talking to me. “I actually wish I had a roommate. It’s nice having someone to talk to.”

I kept my eyes on the book’s pages. “You might make some new friends when our classes start.”

“That’d be nice,” he said softly and smiled a little. It was the first time he had a proper and genuine smile on his face. He walked away to browse books in a corner.

I found Elliot a little strange. All his actions so far have been him avoiding people, but he actually wants friends? I suppose Salamander and I are just unbearable to be friends with. I shrugged and went back to reading.

Classes finally began the next day. On my way to the classroom, I noticed statues depicting the Meisters and stanzas of the poem etched on them. Salamander was right. The poem was everywhere in the academy, from statues to paintings and wall decorations. It was almost like they were obsessed with it, except for the last stanza which can’t be seen anywhere.

One particular decoration caught my eye. It was a grand-looking statue of Leu, the Meister of summer. The very being that allegedly chose me to be one of his mages. I suppose I owed him my life. If it wasn’t for his whims, I’d have been a pile of gruesome remains right now instead of a well-dressed academy student standing in front of his statue.

“Amazing isn’t he? Leu is always depicted as a strong warrior, bold and courageous,” a tall boy with ginger hair suddenly struck a conversation with me when he noticed me staring at the statue far too long. He had the body of an athlete, which only led me to assume that he was also a Summer student.

“Still, I don’t understand why he’d let me into his mage circle,” I said.

“You’re a Summer mage?” He was mildly surprised. “I’ll admit. You don’t look like one at first glance. I take it that you do some form of martial arts? It seems to be a common trait among Summer mages.”

“A little. My uncle trained me in swordfighting and hand-to-hand combat. Mostly things he learned during his time in the military.”

He was impressed. “Would you be interested in joining the Martial Club? We’re a club that seeks to improve fighting abilities. We’re looking for new members right now.”

“Sounds interesting. How do I sign up?”

“After class, head to our club room near the courtyard. You can’t miss it. There are two lion statues near the doorway.”

“Sure. I’ll be there.”

“Great. I’ll see you later…” He realised he didn’t ask for my name.

“Remina,” I introduced myself. “Remina Ravenfire.”

“Remina,” he repeated with a smile. “I’m Lysander Lionheart.” He bid me goodbye and hurried to his classroom. I could tell that he was probably one of the older students, possibly a third year or one of the seniors.

I entered the classroom for the Fundamentals of Magic class. It was still early, but most of my classmates were already there to pick out the seats they wanted and socialise with each other. As I walked around to look for an empty seat, I noticed Emma at the side politely answering the questions of some male students. Seated beside her was Salamander who was minding his own business, reading a book. There was clearly an empty seat beside him, but I avoided it like the plague.

“This seat is free,” a friendly-looking girl with long red hair offered me the seat beside her.

“Thanks.” I accepted it and sat down.

“I’m Rose,” she said with a smile.

“Remina.”

Rose glanced at two girls sitting behind us who were both looking at her, wondering why she was talking to me. One was a girl with short black hair, while the other was a brown haired girl. One glance told me that they were the type who cared a lot about their appearance.

“These are my friends, Leslie and Arabella. We came from the same city,” Rose explained.

“Where are you from?” asked the black haired girl called Leslie. Judging by the tone of her voice, she wasn’t really interested in making new friends.

“A small, nameless settlement,” I replied.

She laughed condescendingly. “So you’re a country bumpkin? You should consider yourself lucky to be in a place like this.”

The way she spoke irritated me. I decided not to waste my time with her and turned away.

“Hey, don’t ignore me. I know you can hear me,” she sounded a bit annoyed. I must have offended her.

Luckily, we were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a tall male student with black hair. As soon as Leslie laid her eyes on him, her attitude changed and she was smiling excitedly like a little girl who was given a puppy as a birthday gift.

“My beautiful Leslie, how are you this morning?” He then noticed me. “I see you have made a new friend.”

“Toad, this is Remina,” Leslie introduced us. I was still visibly disgusted by her sudden change of attitude.

“Remina? You must be that girl Salamander complains about. I’m his roommate.” Toad seemed pretty calm about it. “I heard you tried to shoot him with an arrow.”

“I was aiming at the birds around him. We were hunting,” I clarified.

“And you tried to roast him like a chicken.”

“He was wrapped in vines. I freed him with a fire spell. He was unharmed, by the way.”

“And you knocked a student unconscious with a branch.”

“He ran into it.”

“And you bound that same student so he wouldn’t run away, then threatened him with a dagger.”

“Ok, that one I actually did.” I paused. “Did Salamander actually say all those? Because if he did, I might be giving him a piece of my mind later.”

Toad nodded in approval and laughed. “I like you, Remina Ravenfire. You’re a crazy girl.”

“Excuse me?” I said at almost the exact same time as Leslie. Immediately after, I could feel Leslie’s jealous stare.

“Settle down, students,” Prof. Ariston said as he entered the room to start the class.

Leslie leaned forward to whisper menacingly into my ear. “I’m watching you, Ravenfire. If I ever catch you making a move on Toad, I will make sure you regret ever setting foot in this academy.”

I smiled. “You know, I might consider doing that just to see what creative method you’d come up with as revenge, but fortunately for you, I’d rather not waste my time flirting.”

“You haven’t seen what I’m capable of, so you’d better be careful with your words.”

“Looking forward to it, Leslie.”

She only grew furious. I probably made things worse, but I’ll admit making people like Leslie angry was too much fun.

At the end of the class, Prof. Ariston gave us an assignment to be done in pairs with our seatmates. Rose and I were assigned to write an essay together about the practical applications of Spring magic. We discussed our schedule for meeting up.

Once our plans were finalised, Rose suddenly broke out of the topic, “I’m sorry about Leslie. She’s a difficult person to get used to, but she’s actually nice when you really get to know her.”

“How many times have you apologised to people for her actions? If it’s more than once, you should probably be concerned,” I said calmly.

My words brought Rose to a realisation. She was deep in thought.

“Also, I don’t accept proxy apologies,” I added. “Leslie can say it to me herself.”

She sighed. “I understand.”

“Thursday at the library after class. Don’t be late.”