Chapter 43 - Stravolux

Characters – 

Felix Sutter: Poor boy living in Sacramento, recently found out magic existed. Hard worker, knows the price of everything.

Erik Morsin: Heir to the Duchy of the Emerald Isle. Just wants to play his violin.

Sora Park: Erik’s loyal friend. Loves flying. An absolute broombrain.

Christopher Mau: The black cat. 3rd year Dragon student. Possibly has nine lives. Unusually lucky and dexterous.

Beatrix Brynwyll: 3rd year dragon student. A little uptight. 

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 Bjorn, now Duke in name and will,
Summoned his banners one by one,
Not with heralds, but with orders.
The weight behind each parchment
Was not ink - but threat.

The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 32

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“Dragon house is tiny.” Chris said. “We’ve got 14 initiates, and 13 are needed to make a team. We’re all on it, even as a reserve.”

“Wait, so the guy who told me I’m on the team…?” Felix asked.

“Still needs to show up to the games, and arguably has a harder time of it because he might be tapped to play any role.” Beatrix confirmed. “Better him than you in the reserve slot though, you’ll have no idea what you’re doing.”

“I want to join Dragon house.” Sora half-whined, then whirled on Erik. “Bossman! We’ve got to join Dragon house! I could be on the team! Come on, let’s go!”

“Sora, we got sorted less than a week ago! We haven’t even started class yet, let’s give it some time.” Erik said. “Plus, we don’t even know if we’re allowed to join.”

“Earliest you can apply is Yule break.” Beatrix said.

“See?” Erik said. “Plus, you haven’t even looked into the possibility of joining the Thunderbird team. Not everyone has one thing on their mind.” He teased.

“I still have no idea what you’re all talking about.” Felix said.

“Stravolux is the best game in the world!” Sora’s words came tumbling out, like she was thinking faster than her tongue could move. Given all the caffeine she’d drank, Felix could believe it. “One keeper, five blasters, seven players, three balls! Looks like they play the one giant hoop variant here, and THE HEDGE VERSION! Erik, Erik, we got to join the team, they play the hedge version! Come on, where is it, ahha!”

Sora pawed through Erik’s bag on her last sentence, and he wordlessly withdrew a broom. Sora snatched it from him and shot off into the sky, circling the stravolux pitch.

“I got none of that.” Felix said.

“One of these days, I’m going to explain something to Sora the way she explains things to other people, and I’m going to laugh, and laugh, and laugh.” Erik said. 

“I’ll pay good denarii to be there when that happens.” Chris joked. “She’ll understand it perfectly the first time and you’ll be left looking dumb.”

“Agreed.” Beatrix smirked. 

“Okay, let’s talk stravolux.” Chris said. “The simple version. You’ll pick up everything else as we play.”

Sora buzzed over them a moment later, going so fast it blew up a cloud of dust. How there was dust the day after it rained, Felix was going with ‘magic’. 

“We’re outside the wards!” Beatrix hollered with her hands cupped over her mouth. “Be careful!”

“Believe it or not, that is Sora being slow and careful.” Erik said. 

“Dear gods, it’s a second Chris, without the luck.” Beatrix mimed horror.

“Oi! I carefully calculate my risks!” Chris said.

“So does Sora, but boy is she bad at math.” Erik teased.

“I HEARD THAT!” Sora shouted as she whizzed over them again.

“Stravolux!” Chris abruptly changed the topic. “Thirteen players on each side. The variant we play here at Camelot uses eight in the air, and the blasters are on the ground, in the hedge maze. There’s one blue ball, and two green balls. A goal is 10 points for a green ball or 20 points for a blue ball.”

At the look on Felix’s face, Erik snickered.

“Yes, yes, make all the blue ball jokes, they’ve been done a thousand times, and will be done a thousand more.”

Chris laughed, and even Beatrix cracked a smile.

“Whoever gets more than 170 points ahead of the other team first wins, aka the ‘domination rule’. Sometimes there’s a time rule instead, but that’s boring. Players in the air are surrounded by a transparent shield, and any spells fired gets converted. No nasty curses allowed! Just a pre-defined set. The blasters wander the maze, shooting at the players up above and playing their own game of cat-and-mouse in the maze with the other blasters. Players are also allowed to fire their own spells back at the blasters, but that’s currently fallen out of favor. Any questions?”

Felix looked up at the giant hoops floating in the sky, and imagined how high up people had to fly. Imagined that Sora was currently flying ‘slowly’.

“I’m going to get terribly injured, aren’t I?” He asked. Chris slapped his back.

“You? No, you’ll be fine. You’ll probably be one of the blasters. Just curse the heck out of the opposing keeper. Duck when someone shoots a spell at you. We’ll have plenty of practice before the first game. Don’t sweat it.”

Sora chose that moment to do some death-defying stunt that had her let go of her broom entirely. The two of them arced through the air in different directions, before she caught it over a hundred meters above the hard ground. The whoop of delight could be heard across half the castle. Felix swallowed nervously.

“Okay.”

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Since Felix already had his schedule, and knew that both Erik and Sora would be in most of his classes, the five of them went on a grand tour inside Camelot. There seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to where classes were located. Mind magic was going to be held on the third floor, rituals were done in the Lightning Tower, which was constantly sparking. It was conveniently close to the Thunderbird Spire at least. Convenient for Erik and Sora, anyway. The combat classroom was on the ground floor, with one of the outdoor arenas reserved for their use. Divination was held in the dungeons, and charms was right next to mind magic on the third floor. Naturally, the two weren’t next to each other on the schedule at all.

Languages was in a room inside the exterior wall, and Felix was guided to both the magical theory and natural world rooms.

“One really nice thing about Camelot.” Chris explained. “You keep the same teachers every year. We have a completely different set of professors, and they’re currently teaching both the 3rd and 7th years. Your set is teaching the 1st and 5th years, and you’ll have the same ones until you graduate. I love it! The professors really get to know you, and can work closely with you. It’s worth developing the relationship with them.”

“I’m not a fan.” Beatrix said. “If you don’t get along with a professor, you’re stuck with them the entire time.”

Chris chuckled knowingly at that.

“If a professor doesn’t have a sub-speciality that you want to learn in-depth, it becomes much harder to get a good education in it.” She continued. “I want to learn telepathy. Since our mind magic professor doesn’t have the talent for it, I can’t learn it from her. I might be able to get in another class once I pass my Cauldron exams, but until then? I’m stuck.”

“Really? Mind magic? That’s one that has the least variance in it.” Chris said. “Charms are where the professor matters more than anything.” 

Beatrix raised an eyebrow.

“I said nothing about mind magic having the most variance.” She said. “Just that I found an area lacking. Languages has to have the most variance, it’s all about which language the professor picks. Greek? Alright then, you’re missing out on all the other languages. Latin? Again, you’ve got that one, nothing else. Olde English? I swear that one’s a prank. But by definition, it’s the most restricted class.”

“I’d have to think it’s rituals, no?” Erik said, seeming comfortable enough on the topic to speak equally with the other two. “I was talking with other students, and every year of rituals touches the bare basics of the entire class of rituals. First year is arrays, then they’re completely put away for potions! One year of potions education isn’t nearly enough, even with a master, and…”

Felix stepped back as the five of them wandered the hallway, off to their new destination, and walked next to Sora.

“What class are you looking forward to?” He asked.

“Flying!” She said. Felix frowned - it hadn’t been on his schedule.

“Which one of the core classes?” He expanded.

“Probably combat magic.” Sora admitted. “It’s the class I’m most likely to use. I don’t have the patience or mind for most disciplines, but I like to imagine I’m good in a scrap. We’re Dark. It means we’re going to get in a lot of scraps with all the nasty shit that lives in the woods and under the waves.”

“You don’t think that’s kinda simplistic?” Felix asked.

“Sure, but sometimes life is just that simple. Zombies come to the gates, someone’s got to blast them. Sea serpent gets a taste for ships, someone’s got to remind them why not. A horse-”

There was something unusual in Sora’s voice on the last item, but Felix never got a chance to find out what.

“The commissar!” Chris said. “For when his lordship runs out of ink and needs to refill it.” Chris dropped to a stage whisper for the next part. “Us plebs actually need to count our denarii, and have to take the trip all the way down to Corwin to do our shopping.”

That comment got Beatrix moving her staff, looking like she wanted to hex him. Chris danced back with a laugh, spinning his staff and throwing up a shield.

“Be nice.” Beatrix said sternly. “Morsin’s been nothing like most of the lordlings that come through here.”

“I’m touched.” Erik said drily. “But I think I’ll also take a walk down to Corwin when I need my ink. Don’t tell me, overpriced?”

“Wildly so.” Beatrix confirmed. “But sometimes, a student needs something right now for class, and can’t take the time to go down.”

The tour continued through to the next day. Rain was pelting the windows and thunder cracked outside.

“Archives are over here, and are great if you want various relics and knick-knacks. Otherwise… it’s a half-room under a staircase, and frankly, I only discovered it last year. I don’t know if anyone else in our year knows it exists. Just one of those things.” Chris said.

“I didn’t even know this was here. Huh. Neat.” Beatrix said, popping her head in. 

There was the kitchen - almost entirely off limits, but they did have a permanent plate of snacks outside to ward off intrusive students. The laundry was shut behind a thick steel door, but warm steam constantly leaked out of the cracks. One cheeky student put their potted plant nearby. There was a pool - ‘a cold pool’ Beatrix specified - and a recreation room. That one was packed with students of all ages, one of who told the tadpoles to ‘bugger off until they learned some magic’.

“Yeah, generally the upper years don’t let the first years in. There’s only so many game tables.” He said.

The dueling hall was in use, with a number of students rapidly firing spells at each other while others cheered. The trophy room was brightly lit and completely deserted, a thousand years of school rewards utterly ignored by the current generation. Anything they won in the coming years would be happily placed in the room and completely forgotten as well.

“Over here are the workshops.” Beatrix said. “If you get a personal project in mind, like brewing a potion, you can reserve one of the rooms while working on it.”

“We totally didn’t brew an aging potion to see what we’d look like when we grew up.” Chris whispered. 

“The funds from that more than paid for the expense of the ingredients.” Beatrix retorted.

“Onto the last room! Pray to whatever god you hold sacred in your hearts that you never need to use it.” Chris said.

“For once, Mau’s not being over dramatic.” Beatrix said. “Still, it’s admirable, and I know at least one student planning on using it.”

Chris paused and whirled on Beatrix.

“She is not.” He swore.

“Absolutely. Five free years? The hardest years?”

“She’s insane.” Chris said.

Erik coughed.

“The place is?” He asked.

“Daycare.” Beatrix said. “Adepts are old enough to start having families, and a few came to Camelot later in life. The support lets them keep going to classes even with a kid.”

“Some initiates are utter dumbasses and find themselves with a kid far too early.” Chris glared at Beatrix.

“Her business is her business.” She said serenely. 

Chris threw his hands up in the air.

“Whatever! Alright, that’s the end of the tour. Shoo. Go read the first chapter of your textbooks to get ready for class on Monday. Or don’t, I’m not your parent. Sutter, stravolux practice starts on Wednesday.”