The Archmage: Chapter Forty (Patreon)

Heya! This is just a heads up that there may be a short lag in Archmage chapters during July 4th - 7th, as I'll be traveling to visit my grandparents, who are across the country. I'll try to get out what I can, but I can't guarantee chapters that week, sorry!

- 

I was sure that assaulting a warded fortress must have been exciting from my student’s perspective, but for me, it was rather boring. 

When the group was split in two, Alyssa, Willow, Donovan, and most of my other witches wound up in a group with the poorer druids and sorcerers. On the other side, the wealthy druids, sorcerers, and witches like Isadora were taken off to their own side.

I frowned, leaning forward. In a way, it reminded me of my own first year battle, with witches and poorer people mainly shuffled onto one side, so the nobles who were mostly sorcerers could shine.

But this was even less subtle than the first year. At least they’d just subtly influenced things under the guise of randomly splitting the group as they entered. This was just… Nothing. 

It was interesting that Donnovan had wound up thrown in mostly with poorer students, though. I would have expected that, even with whatever problems that he’d had with his house, he would have been with the nobility. He might have been the statistical anomaly they were using to try and prove that it was random, or maybe his house really was that upset at him. 

Once the students were flown off, we were told to come back in a few hours, and I used the opportunity to slip out to enchant another clock tower, before returning. 

A pair of massive mirrors had been brought out to the center of the stadium, each one sucking in aura from Yesgol and the ambient aura to provide a pair of scrying spells to allow the audience to watch. It was mainly the nobility who had traveled here to watch their kids, much as my own first year, and I stood off to the side, within view, but not really willing to engage with most of the people. 

To my surprise, however, that didn’t stop them from approaching me.

“Oh, what house have you joined?” a large woman with four strings of pearls asked me. I was busy wondering why anyone needed four strings of pearls on one neck, so it took me a second to answer. 

“I haven’t. I’m a teacher here.” 

“What a waste,” she said. “You know, House Fallister may only be a branch of the greater House Roark, but our old head had the ear of the archmage, at least before the tragic incident.” 

I blinked, tempted to laugh at her. She really thought that was worth bragging about? Sure, she might not know that I’d been involved in said incident, or the history I had with the witch, but it was still such an odd thing to brag about. Her old house’s head had worked for the guy who wasn’t in power anymore? And not only that, but I was getting married to the disowned son of the house she was a subhouse for. 

“Maybe after I’ve finished my time here,” I said, trying to be diplomatic. “I genuinely enjoy teaching, and while I want to do good for Paerús, I need to continue my work here for now.” 

“What a shame,” she said, and made some more idle chatter before we separated. 

A few others approached me, several mentioning having seen my performances in the past three years tournaments, and one even mentioning the duel against the Spring Queen. That surprised me, but it had apparently gotten out. 

It was somewhat amusing to me that more people knew about me killing a faerie queen in another world, or dimension, or plane, or whatever the Fae Sovereignties was, than knew that I’d been involved with the death of Frank and his witch, the king, or Edward Elide. 

If they’d known, they likely wouldn’t have been so willing to talk to me. 

Or maybe they would have – I wouldn’t put it past some nobility to try and hire me as a contract killer. 

A few approached Osheen too, but less than they did me. Despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that he was disowned, his old family ties seemed to serve as a buffer, stopping people from getting too close or pushing too hard. 

Things – thankfully – settled down when Justin’s voice boomed out of the mirrors, marking one minute until the kids would land and the assault would begin. 

I turned my attention to the screen, and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. Willow had taken charge, and with the help of Alyssa, was writing out spellwork on paper, then passing it to nobles and those with larger auras to charge quickly. The handful of sorcerers who’d wound up on their team looked tired, and their auras were depleted, but there was a small pile of completed spellwork already done. 

Donovan was off in his own corner, working on a single specific type of wardbreaking tool. It wasn’t one I was the most familiar with, but I had seen Tara use it before, to temporarily divert power away from a section of the ward, and into another. 

I was proud of my students, as they’d produced force bolt burners for the force sorcerer, flame orbs for the fire, and sonic booms for the light and sound sorcerer. I wasn’t even sure where they’d learned the sonic attack, but I was happy that one of them had the initiative to go out and research new types of spells. 

Osheen leaned over to me and whispered. 

“I’m pretty proud of those kids. Most of the nobles were way ahead of the shaping skills I was teaching, but the three you got all worked really hard to keep up. They had thin auras, just like any commoner, but they’ve put a lot of work into getting their density up to par.”  

I grinned at him and whispered back. 

“They’re going to regret the assumption that the nobles will just stampede through this challenge.” 

As soon as the two groups landed, the predominately noble group started unleashing attacks. The sorcerers released their elements, Isadora attacked with some artifact that I knew she hadn’t made herself, and the druids used familiar powers or boons. 

The mostly poorer group, on the other hand, moved like a well oiled machine. Everyone began to move through the field, placing the bits of paper, as  Donnovan approached the ward and slapped his four spells onto it, linking them to create a weakened rectangle. Alyssa then downed two potions and released a series of savage punches at the thinned ward spot, while the rest of the class finished putting down their papers. 

The moment her power ran dry, she stepped aside, and Willow raised her hand. A gout of her aura struck the ward, and her bracelet hummed, activating all of the burners that they’d created. 

Up until this point, the noble team had been far in the lead. Alyssa and Donovan had created a thinner spot, sure, but they couldn’t match against a full squad of soldiers. 

But when more than thirty attack spells were all activated and unleashed in a single massive wave at the weak point? 

The ward exploded, its spellwork overloaded and failing entirely. 

After the sound of the explosion faded, silence filled both sides of the scrying mirror as everyone stared in shock at what they’d done. 

The nobles – both in the stadium, and on the other side of the field – went into an uproar, several of them shouting, and I even saw a few hurl attacks at the commoners. I tensed, but they were deflected by Justin’s guards, even if it took the guards longer than I would have liked. 

On the other hand, the merchants who’d just had enough money to send their kids here, and all of the students on Willow’s side, exploded into uproars of excitement and happiness – well earned, if I said so myself. 

I suddenly started wishing that I’d put more thought into that sound suppression spell. I’d drawn up idle designs earlier this year, but it had seemed so unimportant.

Next to me, Osheen took my hand and gently rubbed his thumb over my knuckles, a satisfied grin over his face. 

“That was clever of them,” he said. “Did you teach them that?” 

“Kind of,” I said. “But mostly, I encouraged them to find their own solutions.” 

Osheen chuckled at that, and we waited for the sound to die down. Once it had, Justin, sounding annoyed, announced the winners, and reminded us of the second round. 

When the students returned, I saw several of the nobles starting to rush to Willow, and deciding to cut them off, I took to the air, moving as fast as I could and landing next to my students in a burst of faerie wind magic. 

“If you’d like an opportunity to do some networking, you’re welcome to stay here,” I told them. “If you’d prefer otherwise, you’re welcome to follow me, and we’ll get you checked up.” 

I said it loud enough that the nobles could hear it, and it got some glares, but a moment later, Osheen landed next to me and crossed his arms. 

In the end, Alyssa and several of the other students stayed to schmooze, while Donovan, Willow, and one of the sorcerers followed me. I glanced over at Donovan and raised an eyebrow, and he blushed. 

“I… Did you really not know?” 

“I try not to pry, but I am a little bit curious,” I said. 

“Wait, you didn’t know?” the sorcerer asked, her voice incredulous.

“I did say I try not to pry,” I said with a chuckle. 

“It’s no big secret,” Donovan said. “My house kicked me down to the lowest branch, probably for the same combo of reasons that your… husband? Was kicked out for. But I want to make it on my own as a witch, rather than begging for their approval.” 

“Ah,” I said. “Thus, networking’s of no use for you.” 

“Right,” he said, and Osheen shook his head. 

“It could be, but don’t force it if you don’t want to,” Osheen said. “Don’t feel bad, though. I’ve gotten quite strong, despite being abandoned by my house. It’s frustrating, but it’s not the end of the world.”

“And it’s not like there’s anything wrong with not being noble,” Willow said, and Donovan nodded rapidly.  

The kids and Osheen chatted for a little bit as I led us to the cafeteria, since I wasn’t sure where else to bring them. I didn’t want to bring them somewhere too private, lest that cause insinuations, but somewhere too public would just draw the nobles back in.

Once things had calmed down, I left them, and that evening, Osheen and I said our goodbyes and claimed to be going back to our rooms for dinner, while in reality we slipped away to work on multiple clock towers.

The following day, we returned for the king of the hill style battle royale.