The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 30

(I was a little slow on these chapters this week as I took it a little easier after the marathon sessions I had last week to get Scorched Time done.  In addition, getting the finished book together for publication took a little longer than I expected, but it's all done -- including the paperback/hardcover and it's been submitted to Podium for the audiobook.  I'm planning on working on this all next week at full speed, so there should be a lot more chapters coming up!)

Chapter 30

“It’ll be good to finally get caught up on what we missed!” Verne mentioned excitedly as they walked through the perimeter of the park after dinner. Nedira and Norde were up in front of Larek and his tree-like roommate, leading the way toward the entrance of the library. For some reason, the fourth-year was carrying her staff despite there not being a need for it where they were going, and she kept moving her head around as if she was looking for danger. Her actions made him a little tense, as well, because it was so unusual for her.

Larek nodded at his roommate, agreeing with him. Although his thoughts were more focused on the Intermediate Fusions books he was going to have an opportunity to check out, he knew it was imperative that he stay current with his other classes. Not that he thought he was missing anything in particular, especially his Spellcasting and Mana Usage classes, because they were somewhat useless to him at the moment other than learning new spells, but he kept in mind what his Fusions teacher told him the day before. He needed to be able to demonstrate a basic competence of different subjects, and while being able to cast a spell without it blowing up was relatively impossible at this stage, he figured if he could demonstrate his knowledge of everything else, they might let him pass.

Granted, that would probably be years into the future, but he couldn’t help but worry about it right now. What he needed to discover was what would happen if he wasn’t able to graduate from the Academy. Would he be imprisoned or killed?  Would his family be punished? Would he be sent free to do what he wanted?

Larek thoroughly doubted the latter question was even possible, but he didn’t know for sure. He resolved to ask the Grandmaster Fusionist if he knew what happened to those that didn’t graduate within a set timeframe. Or it’s possible that one of my friends might know….

“Do any of you know what happens to those that aren’t able to graduate from the Academy?” Larek suddenly asked those walking with him.

That caused all of them, even Nedira with her strange hyperawareness of their surroundings, to look at him as if he had grown another head.

“Where did that come from? Why would you even ask that?” the fourth-year asked, confusion heavy in her tone.

“It’s just a worry I’ve had after hearing about the graduation requirements yesterday,” he replied as he shrugged.

“Why would—ah. Yes, I see. But I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out how to cast spells at some point. One failure doesn’t mean it isn’t possible in the future.”

Larek didn’t share her positivity when it came to his spellcasting abilities, but he didn’t refute it. It was certainly possible that he could find a way to overcome his issues and not blow himself up, but he was wary of attempting it after the last time. Instead, he asked, “But what if I can’t? What do they do with people like that?”

All of them were silent as they got closer to the library entrance, but then Nedira stopped and put her left hand against Larek’s chest to stop him. She left it there as she looked up into his eyes, a serious expression on her face. “That won’t happen for you. I’m sure they make exceptions for those who are talented in other areas like Fusions; they won’t want to give up your potential just for some silly graduation requirements.”

“Yes, I suppose that might be true, but based on my Fusions’ instructor reaction, they might not have those kinds of exemptions,” he stated. “In that case, what would happen to me? Will they kill me? Hurt my family?”

Nedira shook her head. “As far as I know, from this point on your family should be entirely safe – unless you do something silly like run away from the Academy,” she answered. “I’m not entirely sure of how they handle that kind of thing in the Kingdom, as it doesn’t come up often – or, at least, not enough that I’ve heard much about it.”

“But what about me?”

She was silent for a short moment before she answered. “They won’t kill you outright for failing to meet their graduation requirements, but the end result might be just as bad. It’s not common, but from what I’ve heard, it does occasionally happen.”

“And what is that?” For some reason, the young woman seemed hesitant to reveal what she knew.

“Well, from rumors that I’ve heard, they send those who don’t graduate to… The Diregate.”

Verne and Norde seemed to shrink back at her proclamation, but Larek was entirely confused. “What’s Diregate?” He’d never heard of it before.

“Not Diregate, but The Diregate,” Verne explained, as if that made it make sense. Long story short, it didn’t. When he saw his incomprehension, his roommate shook his head. “I keep forgetting that you’re from an even more isolated place than even the Dyran Hearthwood. I thought that everyone knew about the The Diregate, but I guess I was wrong.”

The other two looked at Larek as if he just announced that he didn’t know what a hat was. “What? That still doesn’t explain anything.”

“Let’s just say that it’s an area near the capital that can see a strong Scission appear once a day, if not more frequently. The Diregate is defended by no less than 1,000 members of the SIC at any time, but they are frequently needing additional bodies. As a result of the constant-if-minimal attrition, only the worst SIC members are assigned there, and those that don’t graduate from the Academy or a Fort are sent to either die almost immediately or somehow improve enough to live longer.”

“That sounds like a place that I’d rather avoid, if at all possible. How come I haven’t heard of that place in any of my classes?”

“You wouldn’t learn more about it until your third year, though everyone knows at least something about it already.” She smirked up at him. “At least, most everyone; apparently, you’re exceptional.”

He grunted at that as he looked down at her still smirking at him, before her eyes flicked to her hand which was still pressed against his chest. A blush crept up her cheeks as she yanked her hand away, clearing her throat at the same time. “Anyway, enough of the doom-and-gloom; none of that is something you have to worry about right now. At the moment, we have more pressing concerns – such as getting caught up with our schoolwork by researching in the library.

She turned around and hurried forward, their proximity to the library meaning she was at the door within a few seconds. Shaking his head, Larek and the others followed after her, passing through the large double-door entrance a moment after she entered.

A step into the library had the former Logger stop and stare, his mouth hanging open in amazement. Everywhere he looked were books lined up on shelves; dozens of rows of those shelves were located near the entrance, but that wasn’t the end of them. Looking up, he realized that there were multiple floors to the library, and they had just walked into the center space, which was open to the ceiling, reminding him a little of the entrance area of Crystalview Academy.

He counted 4 different floors in total, including the bottom floor where Larek and the others had entered, so it wasn’t as many floors as his old Academy, but each floor seemed to be nearly twice as tall. The reason for that made itself obvious as he watched a series of wooden ladders connected to some sort of rail system slide along the top of the bookshelves, which were at least twice Larek’s height; he thought that he might be able to jump straight up and touch the top of one of the shelves, but even that might be pushing it.

“Wow! I’ve never seen so many books in one place before!” Verne whispered in excitement, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. Norde and even Nedira were equally impressed, with the fourth-year adding that it was a lot larger than the one back at Crystalview, and Larek contributed his own.

“It sure is a lot of books… but how are we supposed to find anything?” He had thought the room full of books back at Barrowford where he had met Inquisitor Carl had to have held the majority of books ever written, but it was a bare fraction of what

Nedira took the lead, waving them forward. “There should be an index around here, as well as a map – at least I sure hope so.”

Shaking himself out of his shock, Larek and his roommates followed the green-robed woman as she led to a series of angled desks, each with some aged and torn sheets of paper somehow permanently attached the left side of the surface, along with a large, thick book that was secured to the wood of the desk itself. Along the right-hand side was a map of the library, a diagram on aged paper that showed the different floors with letters and numbers associated with them.

“These show the locations of different subjects found in the library,” Nedira explained, pointing to the papers on the left side, “which you can find on the map over there,” she continued, then pointing toward the diagrams on the right. “This,” the young woman waved at the large book, opening it up to somewhere in the middle, “is where you can find a specific book, broken up by subject and then in alphabetical order. At least… yes, that is the same as it was at Crystalview. It’s a much bigger book, but essentially the same.”

Larek quickly understood how it worked even if he hadn’t seen anything like it before, and he moved up to one of the empty desks to look at them for himself. The yellowing and slightly torn paper was listed with dozens of different subjects, each with a number and letter pairing next to them, which corresponded with the diagram he would check in a moment.

As he was looking them all over, he sense Verne slide up next to him. “Larek, Norde and I will grab the books we’re all going to need; you can borrow them since we’re roommates and in the same classes,” he said softly, a grin in his tone. “I know you’re eager to get your Fusions books, so go ahead and do that while we take care of the rest.”

Larek looked over at the boy and nodded with a smile of his own. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

It only took a few more seconds to find the subject he wanted on the desk paper, and he looked it over.

Fusions

· Specific Fusions (see index)

· Basic Fusions 1F

· Intermediate Fusions 2F

· Advanced Fusions  3F

· Master Fusions 4F

· Specialization: Fusionist 1B

Huh, at least most of them have “F” in their locations. Though, I wonder what more I can learn about the Fusionist specialization if I were to pick up a book on it? Also, I see that they have Master Fusions, but no Grandmaster Fusions; or is that even a thing?

He wasn’t here to learn about those things at the moment, so instead he moved to the map and looked for 2F where the Intermediate Fusion books were located. It took him a few seconds to realize it was on the second floor, and he hurried toward the stairs that he saw on the map as well. When he arrived at the top of the stairs, he found a bored-looking student in a red robe sitting at a small desk with his head in his hand. The student perked up at his arrival, looking him over but not saying anything until Larek approached.

“Do you have a chit to access the second floor?” the red-robed student Mage asked. Thankfully, he didn’t sound like he expected the new arrival to say no; he only sounded as if this was something he asked dozens or hundreds of times a day. When Larek fished the blue chit out of his robe pocket, he showed it to the student, who nodded. “Very good. I haven’t seen you here before; do you need help finding something?”

Larek shook his head. “No, I think I have a good idea of where I need to go.”

“Let me know if you have any questions. With that chit, you can access the entire second floor, but you’ll only be able to check out books related to… intermediate Fusions, correct?” At Larek’s nod, the young man continued. “Then only intermediate Fusions. You can still pursue other subjects while you’re here, but you can’t remove anything else. Once you’ve made your selections, you can come back here and I’ll help you out.”

“Thank you.” Almost as soon as he said the words, the other student seemed to run out of focus as he slumped back down with his head in his hand, quickly staring off into space again.

That was easier than I thought it would be.

Leaving him behind, Larek oriented himself and pulled up a mental memory of the map, before quickly heading toward his destination. He arrived not a minute later… only to slightly disappointed in the selection of books.

Oh, there were books – hundreds of them, in fact. But there were only five different titles that he could spot all along the shelves, as all the rest were copies. He easily found the two that his instructor told him he needed, Understanding Intermediate Fusion Concepts and Intermediate Fusion Applications, but he also picked the other three. The first was a book named Simple Intermediate Fusions, which sounded perfect for him. There was also Intermediate Fusion Grid Formation Classifications and 30 Secret Tricks To Get The Most Out Of Your Intermediate Fusion; the Classifications book seemed interesting if a little dry, while the Secret Tricks – from a brief glance – didn’t seem like it be beneficial because he believe there was any tricks to Fusions, but he was willing to try reading anything for more knowledge.

He stacked the books in his arms to bring to the red-robed student at the top of the stairs; as he turned to leave, he suddenly bumped into someone standing behind him, his hands brushing up against hard leather. The sight of familiar blue hair and dark skin was reinforced by a voice he recognized.

“What a strange coincidence; here I was just thinking that I never really had the opportunity to thank you properly for what you did without, you know, embarrassing either of us.

“The name’s Penelope, but my friends call me Penny. Larek, right? It’s nice to officially meet you, Larek, and I apologize if I made you uncomfortable yesterday. Can you forgive me?”

Uh… what?

Book 2 Chapter 31: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-83688415