Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (122/?)

Author’s note: Big announcement, everyone! Patreon is having issues with formatting again. So I've attached a PDF and an EPUB file of this chapter so that you can see the formatting that has otherwise been removed from the actual text release version. I'm sorry for the inconvenience!

Update 2: I tried manually putting in the formatting again line by line, I'm not sure if it worked this time, but I hope it did! :D In any case, there's still the PDF and EPUB files which will definitely have the right formatting! :D

My eyes ran through the schematics, blueprints, PRINT-sheets, and assembly manuals that had come to clutter my HUD.

One after another, I scattered them within my virtual world. The mess being created as a result of this managing to even rival that of the infamous window-hoarding I was guilty of back home.

Whilst my gremlin-like tendencies had been mitigated somewhat by the virtual workspace streamlining briefs courtesy of the LREF VR task managers… such a habit was difficult to overcome.

Especially as I was met with the Bill of Materials.

[VIEW DETAILED ITEMIZED SHEET? Y/N?]

My gaze landed on the orange and red button, but was stopped at the very last second by an outside source.

“Emma? Emma, can you hear me?” Thacea’s voice once again pulled me out of my newfound hyperfixation, just in time for Ilunor to cock his head at my earlier proclamation.

“We are all tired, Cadet Emma Booker.” The deluxe kobold began with a dramatized yawn. “I understand that the act of fabricating entirely nonexistent solutions to unexpected problems is a time consuming process, so please, get  on with your lofty proclamations of impossibilities so that we can simply retire for the night.” 

“What’s so impossible with Emma’s claims of having other options at her disposal—” Thalmin began, but was quickly shot down by an even more dramatic yawn.

“Everything, Prince Thalmin.” He began at the tail end of an extended exhale. “While I can forgive and even accept the existence of the manaless paraphernalia she has brought over from earthrealm — from her bizarre manaless sight-seer, to her otherworldly artifices, and even her alien weapons — what I cannot accept is the existence of what is currently being implied.” The man narrowed his gaze my way. “You’re no doubt going to claim that you have a vehicle with which to bridge the gap between Telaseer and the North Rythian forests?”

“I mean, in a manner of speaking, but—”

“And there we have it.” The Vunerian cut me off, tutting and sighing in the process. “Cadet Emma Booker. You have proclaimed, multiple times even, that you find the magical art of spatial folding to be an impossibility have you not?”

“Yeah.” I acknowledged, playing along.

“And we have seen now that most of your crates have been emptied, correct?”

“Yeah, save for a couple.” I replied bluntly.

“And are we to assume that you somehow have within those crates, an entire manner of conveyance with enough space by which to house you?” He scoffed. “I have seen your vehicles, Cadet Emma Booker. Your… ‘cars’, as you call them. Even at their smallest, I doubt any could fit any of your crates.” 

“Well… what if she isn’t talking about a ‘car’, Ilunor?” Thalmin butted in, taking Ilunor completely by surprise. 

“What else is there in earthrealm, Prince Thalmin?” He countered with a hiss.

“Bicycles.” Thalmin responded succinctly.

This was enough to give Ilunor pause for thought, as his ramblings were cut short by a single word.

“I assume you remember just how portable those conveyances were. I doubt they’d even take a quarter of the space of one of Emma’s crates.” Thalmin offered. “Provided, of course, they’re capable of being disassembled and reassembled.” 

Ilunor’s features scrunched up further, before abruptly relaxing, indicating that he’d reached yet another ‘brilliant’ lightbulb moment.

“Ah, but you forget, Prince Thalmin.” He paused, raising a finger for dramatic effect. “Those bicycles were ridden by armorless earthrealmers. Cadet Emma Booker here, is significantly heavier than any of her typical countrymen!” 

That revelation completely shifted the dynamics of the arguments on its head, with Ilunor now firmly on the offensive, and Thalmin now pinned against the wall.

Though thankfully, the skirmish wouldn’t have time to propagate from there, as Thacea came in to shake the conflict of the conversation to its core.

“But what if it was neither?” She began, garnering the perplexed  looks of both sides of the debate. “Or more specifically, what if it was a combination of the two concepts? A conveyance, with the power and resilience of a car—” She raised one wing towards Ilunor. “—but with the compactness of a bicycle?” Then another wing towards Thalmin, before landing her gaze on me. “Your people have powered ships and aircraft using manaless ‘engines’, Emma. I doubt it is beyond reason to assume your artificers and wainwrights have taken advantage of such manaless cores not just for horseless carriages, but perhaps powered bicycles as well?” 

This thought process seemed to break Thalmin and Ilunor, as they both turned towards me expectantly. 

“You’re right on the money there, Thacea.” I acknowledged, giving the princess a brief dip of my head. “Except for one thing.” I quickly added, garnering a barely noticeable quirk of her brow ridge.

“You see, while I intend on using a powered bicycle, or as we call it, a motorcycle.” I paused, the EVI seemingly giving a rather perplexing translation that prompted the trio to at first react with varying levels of confusion, before all collectively nodding in understanding. “I—”

“Show us.” Ilunor demanded, completely cutting me off from a statement that would’ve defused his concerns.

“Well, I was just getting to that, Ilunor. I didn’t pack—”

“Show us, now, earthrealmer.” He insisted with a hiss. 

“Alright, alright.” I raised both of my hands up in defeat, before gesturing for everyone to follow me back towards my room. “Maybe showing you will be easier…” I muttered under my muted mic.

I wasted no time in marching my way towards one of the recently closed crates, as a digital handshake coupled with a security code upon reaching a close enough proximity was all that was needed to unlatch its security seals. This elicited a hiss as pressures equalized, followed close in tow by a clearing of Ilunor’s throat.

Looking at my rear-view camera, it immediately became clear to me what his problem was. As his height made it difficult for him to peer over to see what was inside. 

Though that was probably for the best given his propensity to poke and prod… especially given the nature of the cargo inside this crate.

In stark contrast to Ilunor’s growing frustrations, I effortlessly reached in to grab a black, nondescript rectangular box. A relatively small thing which fit snugly in my suit’s ‘hand’. Printed on this, in addition to the GUN and IAS emblems, were the red blue and green Advanced Electronics Company’s ‘AEC’ logo, sitting in stark contrast to the stylized CPU die logo belonging to the General Electronics Design Agency. 

With another hand, I reached in to grab a slightly larger, more robust looking brick of an object. The latter of which extended far up my forearm. On this were the snowflake and atom Global Atomics logo, which this time, matched up reasonably well with the vintage exponential graph looking logo belonging to the Portable Energy Systems Design Commission.

“Well, earthrealmer? Where is it?” Ilunor egged on, prompting me to simply hold up the two black boxes.

“Feast your eyes, Ilunor.” I proclaimed bluntly. 

“What? What is this? Do not take me for a fool, Cadet Emma Booker. Show me your two-wheeled manaless conveyance right this instant!” He demanded.

“You wanted to see it now right? Well this is all I have of it right now. Because like I was about to say before you cut me off earlier — these are the only two components of it that I brought with me.” I stated in no uncertain terms, prompting the Vunerian to back off somewhat, raising a brow at that rebuttal.

However, unlike the perplexed Vunerian, it took Thacea and Thalmin barely any time at all to get where I was going with this, as they turned to each other with wide eyes.

“Field procurement.”

“Resource reallocation.”

Thalmin and Thacea spoke over each other, respectively.

To which Ilunor had one simple rebuttal. “Impossible.” The man guffawed. “For one, Prince Thalmin? From where would she procure local resources? And secondly, even if she reallocates materials from the wealth cube, exactly how is she to fashion these ingots of metals into a functioning powered bicycle, Princess Thacea?” The man moved forwards, placing two balled fists by his hips. “I see no furnace, no crafting table, no anvil nor any source of heat nor force by which to melt nor shape raw metals into the finely crafted shapes required of a powered bicycle!” 

Without an immediate answer from the pair, the Vunerian quickly turned towards me. “Well, earthrealmer? What say you?”

“I have a printer, Ilunor.” I began bluntly, defusing the man’s theatrics with a well placed dullness, undercutting his flair where it hurt most. “It’s a manaless machine that’s capable of turning refined ingots of metal or other similar materials into components. Smaller components get put into the assembler, while larger components or the sum of smaller assembled components are put together outside of the tent by yours truly.” I pointed at myself with a single thumb. “Though most projects are capable of being handled by the assembler, it’s these special projects such as the motorcycle that’s going to require some special assembly owing to its size.”

Ilunor cocked his head at that, as if trying to find fault with what was even by his standards a rather straightforward answer.

“We’ve seen these… printers before as well, if I recall.” Thalmin began. “Within your people’s apartments. The… communal spaces in which spare parts or such things are ‘printed’, yes?”

“Yeah, it’s more or less exactly that. Except my one’s simultaneously older and more reliable, but a tad bit under-specced as a result. Reliability, durability, and repairability were the core tenets which dictated what sorts of equipment I got assigned with. Since a lot of the fancy stuff back home is heavily reliant on a steady stream of not just parts and supplies, but the personnel and experts with which to operate them.” I shrugged. “But in any case, yeah. The metal goes in one of the portholes of my tent, then fed into the printer that either mills, lathes, presses, or melts and casts whatever the desired end-product is. After which, it’s either finished in the assembler, or is assembled by me.”  

Silence descended upon the trio following that explanation.

A silence, which was eventually broken by Thalmin, as he walked closer towards my tent and the various cables that criss crossed the floor around it.

“And the heat necessary for such processes is supplied by…” He paused, his head following the various tubes and wires towards the massive block of a generator next to it. “... this, I presume?”

“Yeah, amongst other things. It generates what is effectively the most fundamentally important component to my people’s technology.” 

“Mana?” Ilunor replied reflexively, though just as quickly placed his own snout in a chokehold, whilst using another hand to gesticulate wildly in my direction. “Disregard that statement.”

“Force of habit, Nexian?” Thalmin chided.

“I said, disregard that statement.” Ilunor hissed back.

“Right, well, it’s definitely not mana.” I reaffirmed, teasing Ilunor a little bit further to Thalmin’s delight. “We haven’t touched this before on the presentations because of just how much we had to cover in that first trip to earth. But suffice to say, it’s electricity, er, controlled lightning.” 

The formerly boisterous features of Thalmin’s face suddenly subsided, replaced instead by both confusion and disenchantment.

Meanwhile, Ilunor seemed to be in a state of full blown disbelief. 

Followed closely in tow by Thacea who hadn’t even flinched.

“Lightning.” Ilunor articulated dismissively. 

“Forgive me if I sound ignorant Emma, but we saw your machines powered by controlled explosions did we not?” Thalmin quickly added, inadvertently taking Ilunor’s side in the conversation. “I don’t see how lightning factors into your manaless artificing.” 

Though just as soon as those words left Thalmin’s mouth, did Thacea’s eyes suddenly light up.

Her gaze suddenly shifted towards the small LED indicators on the generator, then towards a few of the exposed control surfaces on the various other devices I had plonked around the room. Then finally, her eyes focused on me, or more specifically, the built-in datatab on the underside of my right forearm. 

“Light.” She managed out under a ponderous breath. 

This prompted both Thalmin and Ilunor to crane their heads in her direction.

“This… controlled lightning… this is what lights up your various luminous implements.” The avinor continued, her eyes once again deep in thought, as if going through some adventure we weren’t privy to. “This answers so many questions. Questions as to just how your cities were lit up at night, how your displays can be as brilliant and as radiant as glowstone. And just how your light glows so softly, brilliantly, and consistently, as if powered by mana itself. Because while your engines can effortlessly explain away the more mechanical and physical means which govern the motions of your manaless world, it doesn’t explain the seemingly… magical aspects with which no amount of clever clockwork or rigging could ever hope to accomplish.” The tail end of that statement was marked by a sharp and piercing stare seemingly through my lenses, the avian’s eyes widening with anticipation.

“You should really consider a career in detective-work, you know that Thacea?” I responded brightly, before quickly transitioning back to the topic at hand after garnering a perplexed look from the avinor. “What I mean to say is — yes. You’ve absolutely knocked this one out of the park.” I beamed. 

“How?” Thalmin questioned. Not necessarily out of doubt or a desire to disprove Thacea’s conclusions or my statements, but rather, out of plain old curiosity. “I don’t see how controlled lightning can…” The man paused, as if reaching a eureka moment himself. “But it’s the only explanation.” He admitted. “I mean, what else could be fueling your manaless lights?” 

The man quickly walked over to the generator, peering closer towards the various control surfaces and LED indicators that held within it one of humanity’s most revolutionary power generation solutions.

“I can’t believe I overlooked this.” He mumbled to himself, craning his head slowly in my direction. 

“You needn’t blame yourself, Thalmin.” Thacea rebuffed. “We’ve been surrounded by the wonders of artificial mana-fueled light all throughout our lives. Light which draws its life force from the latent manastreams itself. It has become—”

“—something we have taken for granted, indeed.” Thalmin acknowledged. “These surfaces are just so… innocuous, I’d just never given it a second thought—”

The man paused again, his eyes turning to the ZNK-19 holoprojector.

“I’m such a fool.” He reached both hands for his head. 

“No, you aren’t, Thalmin.” I finally chimed in. “Not knowing something doesn’t make you a fool. If anything, an admission of not knowing is far better than assuming you know all there is to know.” 

“Controlled. Lightning.” Ilunor butted in once again, shaking his head, and crossing his arms in the process.

“I…” The man paused, as if trying desperately to figure out a counter to it. “It shouldn’t be—”

“Do you feel the ambient draw of mana into any of these luminous artifices, Ilunor?” Thalmin interjected, pointing insistently at the generator’s blinking lights. 

“Perhaps there is a biological aspect to this, akin to the deep sea creatures which glow—” The Vunerian stopped himself before he continued. “Disregard that Auris Ping level of drivel.” He sighed, reaching a hand up to pinch the bridge of his snout. 

=====

Ilunor

Why was I so resistant?

What was there to gain from playing the fool?

No.

Those were the wrong questions to ask.

I wasn’t playing the fool.

I was merely playing the skeptic.

In a group of blind believers to the earthrealmer’s impossible claims, I had to stay the course.

That’s what I promised myself days ago during the earthrealmer’s manaless sight-seer.

I had to continue acting as the bulwark of reason, the sentinel of rationality.

I had to do this.

To continue down this path of blind acceptance, would be tantamount to the admission that there was a potential for earthrealm to mimic Nexian primacy in every conceivable dimension. 

This couldn’t continue.

Or at least, it couldn’t continue without finally providing something tangible with which to observe.

“To make grand sweeping claims out of superficial observations is one thing.” I began, narrowing my eyes towards the earthrealmerr. “But the burden of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportional to its outrageousness. And while I can forgive certain claims, namely the places and constructs we’ve visited through your sight-seer, this particular claim is one which I believe we can confirm immediately, post-haste.” 

I moved over to the ever-humming box, reaching a hand to touch it—

Only to be met with shrill, ear-piercing claxons, and an ominous voice that bellowed from what were formerly docile golems.

“WARNING! DANGER! DO NOT APPROACH THE BOX.” 

“COMPLIANCE WILL BE ENFORCED WITH THE USE OF FORCE!”

I instinctively reeled back, causing the earthrealmer’s golems to immediately retract, returning to their docile forms. 

“I’m afraid I can’t show you the inside of my generator, Ilunor.” The earthrealmer spoke in that dismissively calm tone of voice. “However, I can do you one better. I admit that my claims must be beyond reason in your eyes, and I appreciate your suspension of disbelief along with your begrudging acceptance of the paradigm-shifting truths of my world. So, I owe it to you—” She paused, before turning towards the two other royals present. “—and you guys as well, a practical demonstration of controlled lightning. By the end of it, I’m sure you’ll at least be able to grapple with its existence.” 

I raised a brow at this, crossing my arms in the process. “I will be the judge of that, earthrealmer.” 

“Oh, I know. Because you’ll be the one leading the charge here, Ilunor.” The earthrealmer beamed out.

…

10 Minutes Later.

There was no shortage of anticipation as the earthrealmer began fiddling with what materials she’d brought with her, and whatever artifices inside her tent were currently producing.

Eventually, she returned with what appeared to be two brightly-colored wires, their ends exposed to reveal impossibly fine and thin metals.

Certainly a feat that was beyond most young adjacent realms lacking in advanced metallurgy, but earthrealm had already proved itself capable of that by virtue of Emma’s armor alone…

Regardless, it was what these wires were attached to that gave me pause for thought.

A small, fingernail-sized green bulb. 

Something I immediately recognized as being quite similar to that of the lights she adorned her box with.

“Right, so, I just got some spares so we don’t waste time printing out an ancient bulb of light.” Emma began, garnering a frustrated sigh from my end.

“What do you wish to demonstrate with this ridiculous—”

“I’m assuming you know a thing or two about casting lightning spells, right?” The earthrealmer interrupted. 

A feeling of gross incredulity stirred within me following that statement, prompting me to maintain eye contact, while reaching for the ceiling with my two hands.

From there, a series of crackling noises emerged, along with a brilliant display of magely controlled lightning.

It was at such instances that I wished the earthrealmer’s helmet wasn’t obstructing her features.

Otherwise, I’d have been grinning even wider at what I assumed would be a shocked expression forming across her features.

“Alright then! Great job, Ilunor. Now, how about you repeat that with these two wires here?” She pointed at the two wires in question, a blue and a red coated wire. “Just make sure not to channel that much lightning through it though. Like, if possible, I need you to channel as little lightning as you possibly—”

POP!

“—can.”

What was once a tiny green bulb, was now nothing more than a black-singed smouldering pile of refuse.

I couldn’t help but to snicker in response to that. “If that is what earthrealm artifices can withstand, I can only pray for your—”

“Okay, let’s try this again.” The earthrealmer interjected once more, producing another bulb, of a slightly larger size this time, which she once more attached two of its ‘legs’ to the exposed metal ends of the wires. “This time, I need you to just really feather it. Like, I need you to barely generate any lightning at all. Like, go as low as you can go, Ilunor.” 

I would’ve been offended by such demands, especially coming from a newrealm commoner of all people, if it wasn’t for a growing morbid curiosity welling within me.

I breathed in, and out, attempting to do what came difficult to me.

Performing sub-optimally.

Moreover, I couldn’t help but to feel a growing concern form within myself, at what I assumed to be the end result of this demonstration.

A part of me wanted to purposefully toy with the earthrealmer until she was left with no more ‘bulbs’ to experiment with.

Though I quickly pushed that thought to the side, as I began tempering my manastreams, attempting to eke out the softest and most pathetic bursts of controlled lighting I could muster.

This forced me to close my eyes.

Which made the results of my efforts only first noticeable by the gasps from the two royals behind me.

“What? What is it? What are you all gawking at—” 

I opened my eyes, only to have my questions answered by the on and off glow of a green bulb.

I felt my heart skip a beat, my guts twisting, and my hands, suddenly, pulling away from this… abomination.

This caused the bulb to immediately go dark.

Which practically confirmed the earthrealmer’s claims.

Silence suddenly dominated the room, as I looked at my two hands, trembling as they were in the warm manalight fixtures present throughout.

“That… no… it can’t just be—”

“Here, let me try!” Thalmin immediately lunged forward, moving his bulky and nauseatingly commoner form above me, if only to reach for the two wires as I’d done.

With a barely noticeable crackle of lightning, the light once more came to life, causing the lupinor’s face to contort widely in glee.

“Get off of me, you brutish clod!” I yelled out, causing the man to slowly retract himself from my presence, as I dusted myself off for good measure.

“And there we have it.” Emma quickly reentered the fray. “Like I said, Ilunor, this is something I’ve owed you guys for a while now, a hands-on evidence-based approach to confirm my claims.” 

As Thalmin and I met her gaze, it was clear she saw both of our confusions, as she quickly gestured towards both the small wires here, and the larger ones attached to her tent.

“You see, while it appears to me that you guys bend lightning through your own force of will, we instead had to manipulate it through less direct means. We observed how it worked, studying the natural phenomenon which governs it, and from there, we started to control it. Not by spells or pure force of will, but by wires, capacitors, and circuits. In a similar vein to the control of water through an aqueduct or canal, we direct and control the flow of lightning through wires and cables. That’s the basics of it, at least, but that’s how you get more complex systems like my tent, or the extremely complex grids of power that provide lightning to every human in existence.”

That latter statement… lingered with me more than everything up to this point.

Because in spite of the provision of lightning to the common peasant being something of a ridiculous notion, it became far less ridiculous and far more… worrisome, when one considers the various artifices which utilized said lightning for their operations.

“So… your scrolls and sight-seers.” I began, pointing at the earthrealmer’s hidden scroll, and then the sight seer. “Along with your… printer, and assembler, with which you will use to build your powered bicycle. All of it… is powered by… lightning?” 

“Yup! I hate to make this analogy since it doesn’t work on a fundamental level, but I’ll do it anyway. It’s sort of like how mana has unlocked contemporary civilization for you guys. For us, controlled lightning really was the breakthrough that ushered in modern civilization.” 

I couldn’t do this.

Not tonight.

What had at first just been an exercise in determining the earthrealmer’s folly, was now ushering in a paradigm-shifting revelation that rivaled that of the manaless sight-seer trips.

Imagining a world of commoners, of peasants, possessing tools that made smiths out of the ordinary individual, or even lights which would’ve otherwise only been possible through the gifting of Nexian wisdom… 

It was horrifying, in a slow, insidious, contagious sort of way.

As it wasn’t a weapon, tool, or spell that was imposing in and of itself, no.

Instead, it was a rather simple concept, that when applied en masse, laid the groundwork for an impossible civilization that could indeed pose a rivalry with—

“Ahem.” I cleared my own throat, and by doing so, my own mind. “You have… demonstrated quite enough earthrealmer, thank you.” 

My mind ran through its paces, attempting to salvage something out of this botched quest.

It was then that my eyes landed on the two black boxes she previously held in her hand, and a curious smile crept across my face.

“Cadet Emma Booker. You did say that you’d be producing much of your powered bicycle here, using your printer, yes?” 

“That’s right, Ilunor. What about it?”

“Well in that case… do you mind explaining exactly why you felt the need to bring those two boxes?”

That question immediately stopped the earhrealmer from clearing up this little experiment, as she merely nodded, and grabbed the two aforementioned items.

“Yeah, sure. It’s simply because my printer doesn’t have the required tooling nor hyper-specific materials to produce these two components. One being the powered bicycle’s control unit, think of it as the ‘brain’ of the bicycle, similar to how my drones have their own little brains to receive my orders. And the second being its high-density lightning reservoir pack.” 

That second answer prompted my eyes to widen, as I turned to the humming box once more.

“So, you aren’t going to be generating power for your powered bicycle?”

“Well, there is a form of a power generation system for it. One that’s similar to my suit. It’s actually built-in to the lightning reservoir, though it looks seamless from the outside. However it’s nowhere near as powerful or efficient as my actual generator here. So really, it’s going to rely mostly on stored lightning, and the supplemental energy gained from its internal lightning generator.”

=====

Emma

I didn’t know why, but it was clear that the latter explanation caused the Vunerian to simply go silent.

Perhaps it was just because he was tired.

Or maybe my little Electricity 101 class had already managed to fry his brain.

“I hope that clears things up for you, Ilunor.” I attempted to break him out of his stupor, though he merely reacted with a simple, apathetic nod.

Strangely, it would be Thalmin who would pick up where the deluxe kobold had left off.

“So there is a limit to what you can print.” He began quizzically. 

“Yeah, the two aforementioned systems are just really complex, requiring a heck of a lot more precise tooling and volatile materials to manufacture, with tolerances that my printer definitely does not meet.” 

The man took a moment to process that, his eyes squinting, and his posture tightening. 

“Understandable.” Was his only response. “I can liken this to the outmoded concept of creating cores for golems, before gathering local materials by which to create war golems.” He explained simply. “Though nowadays, it would be simpler to merely open up a portal to completely circumvent logistical bottlenecks. At least, if you’re the Nexus that is.” The man sighed. “It’s humbling, and somewhat relatable, that your kind despite your advancements, still suffer from certain bottlenecks that just make sense without Nexian magical ‘shortcuts’.” 

“Yeah, I… appreciate that Thalmin, thanks.” I responded with a confused tone of voice.

“Well, in any case, I believe we should take our leave.” He began shaking the Vunerian’s shoulder, garnering barely a breathy sigh in response. “I’d love to see the progress of your motorcycle, Emma. I’ve had my fair share of experiences in the equestrian arts, so I’d love nothing more than to ride with you.”

“A race then?” I offered with a chuckle.

“If that is what the knight wishes, then yes. You can consider this a princely challenge.” The lupinor managed out with a chuckle.

“You’re on, and oh, since we’re going to be going to the North Rythian forests together anyways, I’m assuming we’ll have more than ample space to race, right?”

“Indeed.” The man nodded.

“Wait, actually, this brings up a very important question. Are we all going to be riding, or do we have to group up, or… how is this going to work?”

“You’ll find all the answers you need, tomorrow, Emma.” Thacea finally interjected. “Because this quest isn’t one to be fulfilled by an entire peer group, but merely, two.”

=====

The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. The Grand Concourse of Learning. The Observer's Cove. Local time: 1650.

Emma

“May I have your attention, please!” Professor Belnor proclaimed, my eyes that had formerly been transfixed on the genuinely-impressive world of magical healing, finally shifted to take in what I’d been waiting for all day. “I understand we are all excited to return to our dorms to complete this week’s assigned homework—” The professor spoke with a twinge of sarcasm in her warm grandmotherly voice. “—however, I would be remiss if I did not perform my duties not only as professor, but quest giver.” 

This seemed to spark something in the faces of the usual suspects, with Qiv and Ping practically ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. 

“In accordance with Academy tradition, as incumbent of the office of the Potions Master, I hereby proclaim to all present, and only those whose peer groups are fully present — the opportunity to participate in the coveted and long-standing tradition known as The Quest for the Everblooming Dawn.” 

Qiv and Ping were all but leaping forwards at this point, their bodies shaking at the ready.

“Now, since classes have grown since the establishment of Transgracia, we will only be accepting a total of ten peer groups. I understand there are many amongst you who are ready for this opportunity, so don’t worry, I will — with my elven eyes — be able to determine exactly who has raised their hands first!” 

“I will begin the countdown now, so prepare yourselves, students.” 

The countdown started slowly, as more than ten peer groups clearly awaited their chances at this little quest.

“Three—” My arm tensed, even though it didn’t need to.

“Two—” The EVI was primed and ready to spring into action. 

“One!” 

A flurry of fluttering fabrics and ruffled capes echoed throughout the room, as the proverbial dust settled, and the professor’s hands reached for the blackboard with all eyes trained on her next few chalk strokes.