Chapter 65 - Cores and Stravolux

In the rough yards and shadowed corners where the sons of warriors play, Bjorn, wolf-born and mother-tethered, was set upon.

They mocked his face - dark of eye and hair, unlike the flaxen brood of the fjord.

They mocked his mother - Rose, sickly thrall and sea-lost flower, who withered in the northern frost.

They mocked his name, fatherless, rootless, unclaimed.

But Bjorn did not run. He gave back blow for blow, tooth for tooth, and blood was his constant companion.

The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 7

===============

Felix blinked, and the summer days passed like a river rushing down a mountain. The mornings started with physical training, followed by a hearty breakfast. Class-lunch-class, then Morsin’s Monsters met for an hour or two of ‘studying’, which generally devolved to goofing off and hanging out, an hour or so of free time, including dinner, then more Dragon house activities. All the while, they built up towards their coven ritual.

Felix loved it. Loved magic, loved learning, loved the mysteries and rewards Camelot offered. It was hard, demanding work, but he was thriving in the environment. Books and spells, essays and worksheets, rituals and charms, they all blurred together as Felix slowly laid a strong foundation for his education.

There were a few flies in the ointment. The first was his magic. It remained stubbornly sluggish and uncooperative, making the few charms he could cast underpowered compared to the rest of his classmates. It did still prove that he was a regenerator, but the designation felt more like a curse than a blessing. Chris and Beatrix could both cast spells forever at the level he was casting.

It made his grades in Charms slip just a little. He simply couldn’t cast the spells in question perfectly, and was marked down accordingly on the practical sections. It was the only class where he was scoring the occasional wolf mark - his other classes were all djinn and unicorn grades. Which was still a trippy way of marking papers. What was wrong with the good old A-B-C, or number grades? 

Felix was finding Natural World to be one of the easier classes, but attributed that to all of the preparation work he’d been able to do before coming to Camelot. He hadn’t been able to do a lick of work for the other classes. Divination was slowly starting to run into the same problem that charms had - namely, his poor magic wasn’t letting him cast as strongly as the others. 

Combat class was pure fun! He even managed to work out the pigment hex - Pictillum - and the six members of Morsin’s Monsters had fun running up and down the ramps, laughing the whole way. Erik and Felix were unremarkable at the sport. Vivian didn’t do well at it. Hazel rarely fired off a spell, but unerringly knew when someone was close, and could point them out. Sora only needed a single shot to hit her target, and Alexandria would simply fill whatever dark corner Hazel pointed out with spellfire until the targets were defeated.

Rituals were a lot, but Felix was suspecting more and more it was where he could shine. Every essay was long, there was no such thing as a short workbook, and the students positively dreaded the single-question exams. He didn’t quite know how he was doing in the class rankings, but his grades stayed high, while the other members of the coven went from wolf-djinn to more firmly wolf grades. A B, to put the grades in reasonable terms.

Professor Mistvale was still on Felix’s case to pay attention in class, and at this point, he’d given it up as a bad job. He studied, he paid attention, and he shrugged as he lost 10-15 points each class for not paying attention. To her credit, his homework and tests were graded fairly, and he was scoring near-perfect grades in the theoretical part. Felix hoped one day she’d apply some critical thinking to the problem - how was the student never paying attention getting excellent grades? - but gave up after trying to bring up the topic himself.

The other sticking point was weekends, which Felix had found were a problem.

The first Saturday after classes started, he woke up on his own. He groaned, grumbled, got out of bed, and cracking a yawn wide enough to unhinge his jaw, stood at attention in the common room.

He was the first one there, and as he waited, with nobody else showing up, started to have a sneaking suspicion. He finally sleepily checked the time - 45 minutes after morning PT usually started - and just then one of the upper years came in. Felix recognized her as one of the potion girls.

“Sutter. What are you doing here?” The older girl asked.

“Uhhh… don’t laugh.” He said. She started cracking up.

“Oh gods, you woke up and went on autopilot, didn’t you?” She said.

“No.” Felix badly lied.

She continued to crack up.

“Relax, Sutter. We’ve all done it. No PT on the weekends when there’s class. We’re somewhat sane, and how are we supposed to go out drinking if there’s an early morning wakeup call? Go back to bed, you need it.”

Felix mumbled a protest, but the siren song of sleep was too powerful. He crashed back into bed, then got up a few hours later.

Now what? He asked himself, only to immediately hit on the answer. Study ahead. Read ahead. Review.

He set himself up in the common room, but was ambushed by Beatrix in the early afternoon.

“Sutter. What are you doing?” She asked.

“Studying.” Felix said without looking up. Beatrix closed the book on him.

“Hey!” He protested. 

“No.” She said. “Absolutely not.”

“But-” Felix started to protest.

“No. We’re Dragon house. We know burnout. You are on the classic burnout trajectory. You are not spending all these beautiful summer days inside, reading. I don’t care what you do, you need a break. Go play Monsters and Magic with your friends or something. Anything that’s not studying. Eventually, yes, it’ll be study season for exams, and we’ll all be in here right next to you studying. Until then? Shoo. You’re banned from studying. Go on, get.”

Felix knew that Beatrix had no authority over him to make him do anything, but her sheer force of personality was more than enough to get him hurrying along.

“I’m sorry about her.” Felix apologized to his spellbooks as he carefully put them away. “I know I said I was going to spend a lot of time with you today. I was wrong about that. Instead, let me tell you a story…”

Felix shamelessly ripped off the plot of a Disney movie, then left his room with a single, burning question.

Now what?

He didn’t have to work - he didn’t even have a job! There was no television or anything like that.

Felix had no idea what to do in Camelot with his spare time.

Not one.

And then he bolted upright, with his eyes wide open.

There were challenge rooms all over the castle.

Some of them gave money as a reward.

=================

Except, at the end of August, there was something to do. With six school teams for Stravolux - Unicorn house didn’t have enough members to play - there were fifteen matches in a year, for every house to play each other once. Add in a team for the adepts and a team for the initiates, and there were suddenly thirty Stravolux games in a year. Fortunately, the teams played at the same time, otherwise they’d be roughly a game a week. As it was, there would be a game every other week, although Dragon house was only playing in five of them.

The day came, and Felix was miserable. Morning PT was only a light warmup jog. Nothing big, nothing fancy - the entire house was playing. Sure, some of them were ‘only’ reserves and unlikely to be playing, but every member of the house was suiting up.

Breakfast, however, was a different story. It was like a herd of rampaging horses were stampeding through his stomach. The entire house was sitting together, doing last minute strategy.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Felix moaned.

“Nonsense! It’s just nerves.” Chris said, happily slapping Felix on the back, a direct hit even with the blindfold.

“It’s possible to get sick from nerves.” Beatrix said. “But Sutter, you’ve got to eat. The match could last hours.”

“Days, even!” Chris said, as if he was excited by the prospect. The blindfolded boy was patting the table, found the plate of rolls, then shoved them into his robes.

“Mau…” Beatrix groaned, putting her palms into her eyes.

“Brynwyll!”

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“Midgame snacks.” Chris answered. “Unless I’m lucky, then early game snacks.”

Beatrix groaned.

“Is that a serious concern?” Felix asked.

One of the nearby upper years laughed. 

“I don’t want to sound too cocky, but we’re Dragon house. Yeah, the other houses have a larger talent pool, but none of them are exercising five times a week like us, or holding regular practice. They have one member that’s part of the school team, and that’s it. The rest are casual. We’ll trounce them in an hour.”

That proclamation got the rest of Dragon house furiously debating how long the game would be, with an implicit undercurrent of ‘naturally, we’re going to win’. Felix wasn’t quite comfortable with the hubris - pride before the fall, and all that. Speaking of the school team - Sora had managed to fight her way on it as a first year, but only as a second-line player. Given that she was competing against people 4 years older than her and with a lot more experience, Felix was impressed.

“Eat.” Beatrix emphasized, heaping his plate with more sausages. Felix mechanically ate.

The rest of Morsin’s Monsters stopped by, with Erik and Sora both slapping him on the back. Vivian was carrying a suspiciously large bundle.

“You’re going to do great!” Erik said. “We’ll be cheering for you!”

“You’re so lucky you get to play today.” Sora said, her hands moving around like she was holding an invisible broom. 

“Well, we’re lucky we get to cheer for a friend today!” Vivian said, unfurling the bundle to reveal a golden dragon on a black field. “Go Dragons!”

“For the hoard!” Some of the nearby Dragons called out.

“That’s really good.” Beatrix said, eyeing the banner. “Can we keep it after the game?”

“Only if Felix says yes!” Vivian smugly replied.

“Yes.” Felix mechanically answered, chewing a bite of something he wasn’t tasting a bit.

“Team! One minute warning!” Leona announced. That prompted a flurry of activity, as everyone tried to grab and stash some food for the upcoming game. Felix was a little worried - he thought games ended in a reasonable timeframe. Everyone stashing away food was painting a very different picture.

“Let’s get down to the lockers. Dragon house! Up!”

As one unit, the members of Dragon house stood up. Vivian whistled.

“I want to do that.” She said.

“Morsin’s Monsters as Dragons.” Erik half-joked. Felix could recognize when he saw someone feeling out an audience.

“YES.” Sora said. “Then I get to play on the team.”

Felix and the rest of the Dragons started to stream out of the dining hall, but his friends tagged along. Erik swatted at Sora as they all left.

“You broombrain, you’re already on the Thunderbird house team.”

“Yeah, but Dragons are playing today.” She said.

“And when Thunderbird house is playing, Dragon house won’t be.” Erik patiently explained. Vivian giggled.

“Yeah, but - oh wait. Yeah. Duh.” Sora said. “Anyways! GO DRAGONS!”

Felix was so distracted by the upcoming game that he entirely forgot to wave goodbye to his friends. He changed with the rest of the boys, double-checking that he had his wand. As one of the Blasters, he was on the ground, and didn’t need a broom.

The question of ‘how will Chris play while blindfolded’ had gotten answered ages ago, although Felix still had a few questions.

“Hey Chris?” Felix asked, desperate for anything to distract him as the announcer started to hype the crowd. “With your ritual, you’ll be able to see everything around you, yeah?” He asked.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Chris said proudly.

“What does Beatrix think of that?” He asked.

“Huh?” Chris said.

“Like, you’d be able to see through-”

Chris, in a remarkable display of still knowing what was going on around him, slapped his hand over Felix’s mouth.

“Yes, okay, I fucked up!” He hissed. “Let’s not advertise the fact to everyone! I’d like to survive until graduation! What do you want to keep quiet?”

Felix grinned under Chris’s hand.

“I don’t know yet, but I’ll figure something out.”

“Mau! Sutter! Come on! We’ve got to go!” The team’s Keeper called.

They lined up with the rest of the team, while the announcer was trying to hype the game up. Given that it was the initiates game, most of the school was off watching the far more interesting adepts game.

“Hey Chris?” Felix asked.

“I swear to all the gods, Sutter, your mouth is going to get you in trouble.” Chris muttered. “What?”

“What can cores do?”

“What the fuck kind of question is ‘what can cores do’ right when we’re about to be in a game of Stravolux!?”

Felix shrugged.

“What, we’re going to be standing out there for hours, might as well have a topic of conversation.”

“Yes, once we’re out there.” Chris said. “Not here, waiting.”

The next ten minutes passed in a blur. The fliers got ready in their spot, the blasters got ready at the start of the hedge, water bottles were handed out, and then the whistle blew.

“Go go go!” The leader of the Blasters said. Him and two other Dragons sprinted through the hedge maze in a three-man team, intent on cursing out and giving the other team’s blasters quite a lot of difficulty. Which left the job of shooting the fliers to Felix and Chris.

“Platform time!” Chris said, going at a fast walk, using his staff as a walking stick. He’d practiced the walk time and time again during their practice, and the two of them rapidly got to one of the small platforms. Chris knelt down and braced his staff, aiming up.

“Aim me at their Keeper.” He said. Felix slowly moved the staff around until it was pointed at the other team’s Keeper, hovering on his broom in front of the goals.

“Excellent. Ranging shots. Ranging… now.” Chris said. “Narke.”

Felix watched the spellfire erupt out of Chris’s staff. It hit the shimmering, bubble-like field around the field, and turned into an angry orange bolt that continued to fly. The Keeper didn’t even need to move to avoid it.

“Miss.” Felix adjusted Chris’s aim slightly. “Try again.”

“Narke.”

The bolt flew swift and true, but was easily dodged. There was no pressure on the Keeper. Chris’s aim was now adjusted, and he was well-practiced at keeping his staff utterly still.

“Right, Felix, let me know when I should open fire.” Chris happily told the younger boy.

Felix held his wand in a loose grip, and aimed it roughly at the Keeper. He tapped into his magic, letting it slowly flow through his body, down his arm and into his wand. The pigment hex’s movement was a single spiral down to a point, easily resetting back into its starting position.

“Pictillum.” Felix said, and a tiny bolt of magic reluctantly shot out of his wand. It was also transformed when it hit the shield, and zipped off towards the Keeper.

Another downside of being a regenerator - he could do this all day long. He had to do it all day long.

“Pictillum. Pictillum. Pictillum. Pictillum…” Felix cast and cast and cast, keeping a steady barrage of shots heading the Keeper’s way. He was briefly elated when one of his bolts hit, but it only seemed to briefly jolt the Keeper. 

Yeah, just like in practice, there was so little power behind his spells that they barely tickled.

There was a scream from the stands.

“Yay Felix! Go Felix!”

Even from here, Felix could pick out Vivian’s high-pitched voice.

Chris could cast the same tier of spell at the same power as Felix as often, but there was a reason he went for the bigger, heavier spells. Namely, they actually did something when they landed.

“Fire.” Felix said as the action moved towards the Kraken’s goals.

“Narke!” Chris practically shouted.

The Keeper dodged it, but wasn’t able to dodge that, and Felix’s shots, and save both goals that their players shot. 20-0 Dragon team!

The few spells that were going up from the Kraken house’s side of the Blasters abruptly stopped. 

The pattern continued - Felix kept up a steady barrage towards the Keeper, occasionally needing to pause for a sip of water. The constant casting was hell on his throat.

The earlier predictions were right, and Dragon house was rapidly pulling ahead in points.

“Cores?” Felix prompted after taking a sip of water, then went back to his casting. He tapped Chris to let him know it was time to take a shot.

“Narke.” Chris cast, another bolt zipping off from his staff. “You wanted to know… what again?”

“Pictillum. All effects cores can have on a person. Pictillum.” Felix said the middle part as quickly as he could, not wanting to interrupt his casting too much.

“Dude, seriously? Now? Narke. Fine. I think you’ve gotten most of it already. Narke. But I’ll explain from the start. Narke. Core effects come in three broad flavors. Narke. Physical effects, talents, and magical effects. I’m a good example, I’ve got physical effects and magical effects.”

Felix tapped him twice, letting him know the action was heating up, and Chris paused to send a barrage the Keeper’s way.

“I’m out of magic.” Chris said. “Give me a minute to recuperate. Physical effects. I’m a little faster, and a lot more limber than you’d expect me to be.” 

Felix nodded, having seen it for himself.

“Then I’m lucky, which is hard to quantify.”

Again, all things Felix had seen.

“Physical changes can be just about anything you imagine. On the subtle end, you’ve got people being just a little faster, a little stronger, a little more flexible. You’ll have hair colors and eye colors that reflect the inner animal. Glowing eyes… all the glowing eyes.”

Felix nodded along. Sora’s dark hair had an undertone of blue, reflecting her blue jay core, and Vivian’s eyes were golden for her bee core.

“On the extreme end, you get scales, super-strength, fangs, and crossover stuff like eyes that can set things on fire or freaky stuff like that.”

Felix rolled his eyes. What was it with wixen and fire? Seriously. Did he fall into a world of pyromaniacs or something?

“That seems pretty obvious.” Felix ventured, continuing his spells. Chris shook his head.

“Oh no, believe me, it’s horribly complicated. How far down the extreme end do you go before you’re not human anymore? Let’s take, oh, a snake core and nagas as an example. How much of a manifestation of a snake core can a person have before they’re not a human anymore, but a naga? When does the child of a naga become a human? How many scales? Fangs? Poison? How many traits are needed?” Chris shuddered. “It’s a right nightmare at times, I’ll tell you that.”

Felix’s mind briefly flashed over to the Dark’s take on things. ‘We’re all magic’ indeed. He could see why the people living next to people that had been significantly changed by their magic might shrug, give up on drawing lines, and say ‘yes, we’re all magic’.

He tapped Chris on the shoulder, and the two of them got blasting again.

“Talents are tricky things.” Chris said. “Some people argue they don’t exist, but that’s nonsense. A talent lets someone be better at things. Like your friend, Renard. Their bloodline is famous for having a talent for cunning, planning, and strategy. At the risk of repeating myself, that’s tricky to quantify. Is it their core giving them a talent? Or is it their long legacy? Like an enchanter’s kid is more likely to be an enchanter, given how they grew up. Is that a magical talent, or just picking up on stuff because they grew up around it?”

Felix nodded, then realized what he was doing.

“Yeah.” He agreed.

“Talents are also arguably where the negative mental effects of a core can come into play. Don’t leave shiny things out around magpie cores, they might steal it, and things like that.” Chris said.

“Isn’t that kinda… mean?” Felix said.

Chris did a head-swerve motion which substituted for his eyeroll.

“Fine. A magpie core might pick up something shiny and put it back down. Happy now?” He asked.

“Yes.” Felix said. He’d been hoping to get more hard details and examples out of Chris on talents, but wasn’t going to push the other boy too much. Cores had been covered quite a bit in class, and Felix intellectually knew everything Chris was saying - he just wanted a better idea of what they could actually do. 

“Magical effects are, well, anything you can imagine. Which doesn’t help much.” Chris frowned.

“Can you give me some examples?” Felix asked. “Like, people you know. You’re lucky, for example.” 

“Sure. Brynwyll can occasionally turn a spell that hits her. Dragon core. That’s one of the ones where the line’s a little fuzzy. Is that a magical effect, or the dragon’s scales?”

“She… does she have scales?” Felix asked. Chris shook his head.

“No, but if she did, it’d be contributing. One of her cousins can breathe fire. Listing a few more out… banshee with a terrible scream, dewstep, water-walking, making a breeze when he exhales, water-breathing, sense of the moon, moss grows quickly in the vicinity, curdles nearby milk, always statically charged, can walk on trees. Stuff like that. Little effects.”

“Can they ever be big?” Felix asked. Chris shrugged, and at Felix’s tap, sent off another barrage towards the Keeper. One of them hit, to great cheers from the crowd.

“You got him!” Felix smacked Chris’s back. “Wait, he’s going to be okay, right? RIGHT?” Felix’s voice was steadily rising in panic as the guy fell off his broom, and kept falling. Completely unconscious.

“Yeah, he’ll be fine.” Chris said, right as the Keeper smashed into the protective bubble with the sickening crack of a dozen broken bones. He lolled around on the bottom while the game kept going on above.

Felix whimpered.

“What were we talking about? Oh right! Powerful abilities. Like, I’d say define ‘powerful’, but that’s all relative to who’s nearby, yeah? My luck could be considered extremely strong if I was the only one that had it, or extremely bad if everyone around me had something better. I’d say… Thorne’s probably a good benchmark for something being strong or not.”

“What’s she got?” Felix asked.

“Regeneration.” Chris answered. “Grimoire Games last year, a blade went through her neck. She went down, but got up a minute later, looking no worse for the wear but ungodly pissed.”

Chris paused, as if thinking about what he said.

“Uh, no offense Morrigan, your godliness.” He said to the sky. Felix paused.

“Wait. She’s actually chosen by a goddess. The goddess actually takes an active interest in that.”

Chris made a so-so motion with his hand. 

“Kinda? I’m not risking it.”

Great. Another thing to be worried about. Blasphemy. 

Right as Felix’s shoulders sagged, their team scored the winning goal, and he forgot all about it as he started jumping and cheering with Chris.

“We won! We won! WE WON!”