Eva took her seat and watched as Zoe Baxter knocked another student on their back. It was a good show, to be sure, but Eva wondered just what the purpose was. She offered next to no pointers and taught no spells that would help. If she was trying to test everyone’s level, then everyone lay somewhere around abysmal in comparison to her.
This was probably why there were almost no students above the second year. The new students didn’t know any better and the second years wanted to see if what they learned in class would help. For the most part, it didn’t.
“Anyone else?” Zoe looked around the crowd as her latest demonstration limped back to his seat.
To his credit, the boy was one of the better ones. He erected a violet shield that stopped the marbles. He tried to launch spikes of ice at the instructor, but the moment he did, his concentration and shield wavered. Zoe sent a handful of marbles at once, intending to break through, but the shield went down just as they would have hit it.
His ice spike did make Zoe sidestep, for whatever that was worth.
“Miss Rivas. You are looking like you want to try. Care to step on stage?”
Eva glanced at her friend. She had her usual half bored, half tired look on her face. She wasn’t even glaring or really staring at Zoe.
Still, Juliana stood and stepped up to the stage, withdrawing a simple wooden wand. Eva had yet to see the girl use anything else for her magic.
“Prepare yourself.”
Zoe launched a good ten of the steel marbles all at once. Eva did make a note that not a single one had been aimed at the blond’s face. She winced as her friend just stood there.
The marbles impacted. The blond remained unmoved. Instead of knocking her across the room, the marbles splotched out on her sundress the way Eva imagined paintballs might. The silvery metal flowed over her dress and coalesced into a thin plate over her chest.
“Ferrokinesis,” Zoe said. “The ability to control metal within a few inches of oneself. An earth magic spell that is an almost perfect counter to these attacks, and of a skill level far higher than a pre-first year. Where did you learn it?”
“My mother.”
“Indeed. Let us step it up a bit then.”
Something must have clued Juliana into the coming attack. A thick column of earth shot out of the ground just as Zoe finished speaking. A lightning bolt crashed into the column an instant later.
Eva jumped in her seat, as did half the crowd.
Juliana already launched her counter attack. Shards of the earth column that broke off with the lightning oriented their sharp ends towards Zoe. With a flick of her wand, the shards launched off.
Zoe stood her ground. Her pile of steel marbles launched at the incoming earth shards, intercepting every one.
A simple shield would have taken that hit, Eva thought. She’s showing off, still toying with her. For a moment, Eva thought about interfering. A simple light spell flying into Zoe’s eyes. But she worried her new friend may take that as an insult; that she couldn’t hold her own.
A gust of air caught Juliana off guard, rocking her back slightly. She dropped to the ground, narrowly avoiding several of her own earth shards carried by the wind.
A bolt of lightning crackled over her head. “Enough,” called Zoe Baxter.
Juliana climbed to her feet. She pocketed her wand and brushed herself off.
“You did exemplary. You found a way to completely nullify my use of projectiles. In addition, your reflexes to my second attack were top of the line.” She turned to the crowd. No, she turned to Eva. “However, Miss Eva. I saw you out of the corner of my eye. You very nearly attacked me. Why didn’t you?”
Heads turned as almost the entire gathering of students focused on Eva. Eva glanced around, feeling a sudden twisting in her stomach. Juliana just gave her a light smile, barely a twitching of her lips. “I–”
“Miss Rivas could have been the first to strike me since I started these seminars seven years ago. It would have taken just a little distraction.”
Eva let silence fill the air as she considered her words carefully. “I didn’t want Juliana to feel that I thought she was weak. She was doing, as you said, exemplary. It felt wrong to interrupt.”
“So you failed to assist your friend due to wanting to save foolish pride. Her own, not yours. It is true this was a mere mock fight with no intent to seriously injure,” she gave sidelong look at Juliana, “at least on my part. But I hope you would not do such foolish things in an actual battle. I’ve known plenty of people to die because of foolish pride than I care to. I do not wish to add to that count.”
A silence hung over the crowd of students at the heavy words. Zoe seemed to not notice. She turned back to Juliana. “Thank you, Miss Rivas. You may return to your seat.
“That will be all for tonight,” Zoe said as Juliana hopped off stage. “The second seminar will be held on Monday one week from tonight.”
Eva’s shoulders slumped as Juliana sat down. “Sorry,” Eva said.
Juliana just shook her blond hair. “Don’t be. I didn’t help in your fight.”
“That’s different. I wasn’t doing much of anything and Professor Baxter wasn’t doing much in return. You had lightning bolts tossed at you and they are nothing to be scoffed at, believe me.”
“You’ve had run ins with lightning before, Miss Eva?” Zoe walked up to where the girls were seated. “I shouldn’t have held back so much then.”
“Second hand and I’m very sure that it wasn’t quite the same.”
“Oh? Do tell.”
Eva sighed and relayed a sanitized version of her master being hit by lightning. She made sure to obscure all the details.
At mentioning how her master had been laid up for a few weeks, Juliana nodded sagely. “I’ve seen my mother on potion highs after injury. It isn’t pretty.”
“Sounds like you’ve had quite a lot of experiences. I fully expected to be hit by a spell under the cover of your darkness. What led to your decision to use a punch?”
Eva shrugged. “I don’t know why you expected a pre-first year student to do much of anything,” she said with a glance towards Juliana.
“I personally know Juliana’s mother, and have known Juliana for a fair amount of time.” The two shared a glance. “Still I wanted to check and see for myself how her training was coming.”
“Well,” Eva said, “I’ve never had to use major offensive spells. Light spells and the darkness derivative are useful on occasion. My stepping is useful for everyday transportation. I can light a campfire but I’m not going to be throwing around fireballs like that first student.” She shrugged again. “In retrospect, I should have just ducked down and wrote down a sleep rune.”
Zoe Baxter narrowed her eyes. Eva did not miss the glare.
“Something wrong?” she asked.
“A complex and rather impressive array of runes was found outside a museum in your hometown. A certain group expressed great interest in recovering a dangerous object that was stolen.”
Eva stiffened as her stomach clenched for the second time that night.
“And Miss Eva. I do remember your promise to be clever with your lies.”
“There was a ten thousand year old phylactery with a bounty for its destruction. My mentor was looking to collect.”
Zoe had the good sense to look startled. “There was a lich running around while I was there? And you fought it?”
Eva shook her head. “I just put the museum staff to sleep. Apparently its body had been destroyed a long time ago and it was unable to acquire a new one. And before you ask, the phylactery was destroyed. I watched it happen.”
Zoe studied Eva’s face. After a minute, her eyes flicked over to Juliana. Eva caught a shrug out of the corner of her eye. “Well,” Zoe said, turning back to Eva, “that is reassuring. I must admit to being concerned when the sisters refused to describe what dangerous object was stolen in their notice, especially as I suspected one of my students were involved. They’ll be happy to know it is destroyed.”