The Eyebright's Dimension

Chapter Thirteen: Wyvern

Unfortunately, her second battle was not as interesting as her first. Gwyllion was known for their stubbornness, and would most likely not surrender under any case. Calixte’s Ground Division was situated right toward the border of enemy territories, to cut down any stragglers. Kasity and the other first steps hardly got to do anything—-Lander set up some complicated shields and set Kasity and Aidan to holding them up while the other Division members fought fiercely.

It was, however, Kasity’s first time seeing everyone in action. Calixte used mostly a twelve-point star, a magical instrument, with, as its name suggests, twelve points arranged in a star-like shape. Kasity was amazed by the cool and unruffled way she fought. By watching her face, one might assume she was merely floating in the afternoon breeze, perhaps in a flying exercise.

Lander, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Whooping and yelling, he soared through the sky, ignoring the substantial injuries he received. Rissy, too, Kasity found out, was a talented soldier. She generally used a twirling baton, and was very fast, attacking so quickly she was blur, although didn't have as much strength in her strikes. In contrast, Synnove was defense-orientated and hardly attacked at all, merely flew around, reinforcing all the shields. They won, of course, and everyone was looking forward to the face off with Wyvern on Sunday.

That evening, at the Centre Lawn Dining Hall, tensions were worse than ever. The Sylph Council was in a meeting, but the Wyvern Council was not. Wyvern and its supporters sat on one side of the dining hall, opposite Sylph.

“Hey, scared of losing tomorrow?” Adely sneered as she bumped into the Sylph lower step’s table.

“Watch it,” snarled Rissy back, as Adely’s lip curled. Her usual entourage tittered behind her.

“Watch it,” Adely mimicked in a high voice. “That’s the best we’ll get out of Sylph, I suppose. I will watch it on Sunday. I’ll watch it as Sylph crumbles in defeat.”

“Shut up, Adely,” Kasity scowled. She didn’t want anything, especially not Adely, to destroy her euphoria.

“Oh, look, its little Miss Frizzy-haired Perfect,” Adely sneered, turning her attention onto Kasity. The smirk on her face forcibly reminded Kasity of Aidan.

She snuck a glance at him. Aidan wasn’t looking over at the commotion, merely furiously swirling his soup around in his bowl. However, he was the only one staring at his food. Everyone else seemed to be staring at Kasity.

“Just ignore her,” Karynn intoned.

“Just ignore me,” Adely mimicked. “Just ignore me. I know there’s nothing you can say to me. Kasity, dear, you really must listen to Karynn. After all, being a bastard child is worse than whatever thing you are.”

The Sylphs made noises of disgust. Kasity stood up, her knees trembling. What Adely said hurt more than she expected. Kasity had never really cared that she was not legitimate, most likely because her stepmother had made a point of making sure Kasity knew very well that it was only out of the kindness of her heart that she was allowed to be treated like a real daughter of a nobleman, which had prompted Kasity to convince herself that she deeply and truly didn’t care. Still, there was a hotness in her eyes that, to an unfamiliar passerby, might seem like tears.

“Ignore her,” Karynn whispered faintly.

“Did I offend you? Oh…I’d apologize, but that would mean lowering myself to your standard. Dirt.” Adely’s clique tittered again, and Adely flipped her golden tresses over her shoulder.

“Yeah? At least—dirt—isn’t—what—comes—out—of—my—mouth,” Kasity said, teeth gritted, concentrating, suddenly wanting to do something—-anything—-regardless of the consequences—Adely abruptly gave a little shriek. Her face suddenly blanched—and she threw up a mouthful of mud. The Sylph first steps erupted in laughter. Adely, still belching mud, and unable to do magic, took a plateful of food and threw it at Kasity. Dripping soup and cheese and feeling a large bruise on her shoulder where the plate had hit, Kasity was about to kick her stool at Adely when suddenly another plate soared through the air toward the Wyverns.

It was Rissy. “Slipped out of my hand,” she said, smiling. It hit the girl standing right next to Adely, who gave a shriek of rage and caused a spray of magic to hit Rissy in the chest. Lander roared, outraged, but Eunae beat him to it, throwing a fierce bolt of magic that knocked the girl out cold and caused the entire dining hall to shudder.

It was full out war.

Everyone was throwing bullets all over the dining hall, the whizzing of magic and shouting creating a din even louder than contest battles. Kasity had ducked down to scoop up a plateful of food when a sudden blast hit her body. She flew into the opposite wall, but cushioned her fall by flying up. She was in front of the open door, now.

The second blow blew her out of the Hall.
It was a cold night. The stars hung icily in the sky and the moon leered down at her. Muscles aching more than they had after her most arduous terrain practices, Kasity forced herself to get off the frosty ground. First, she brought up her knees, then her hands. Trying to stop her legs from shaking, she gripped them firmly—and looked up into the leering face of Adely. She looked scarier than she ever had, with mud all over her face and two arctic, sinister eyes.

“Thought you’d get the best of me?” she asked. Adely was holding—-
Kasity gasped.

“My Leader let me borrow it, just tonight.”

It was a caduceus, a traditional Leader’s instrument, and the most powerful weapon on campus. Kasity suddenly realized how Adely had blown her out of the hall.

“There’s no one here to save you, now,” Adely said, smiling insanely. She pointed it at Kasity, and Kasity suddenly had the sensation of a large, invisible hand pressed over her face. She was not in this world; there was something deadly wrong. There was only darkness, devoid of life. She couldn’t breathe—-she couldn’t see—darkness claimed her—-then, suddenly, out of the darkness came a sudden breath of air. From another dimension, she heard Adely howling, the sound pulling her back to earth. Blood was pumping loudly against her ear drums and she could hear her quick shallow breaths, filling her throat, nose, mouth, like a refreshing draft of water down a parched throat after a desert sandstorm.

“Are you okay?” called a voice. Kasity nodded, eyes tightly shut. She was being pulled to her feet. She opened her eyes. It was Aidan.

Aidan? Kasity thought.

Yeah, well, who’d you expect? Aidan asked sullenly.

How’d you know I was out here?

Our minds were still sort of linked.

I didn’t know they were.

Sensory classes pay off.

For the first time ever, Aidan was smiling genuinely at her. Kasity smiled back. Then Aidan was ripped from her. He flew twenty feet in the air and hit the ground with a sickening crunch. Adely had gotten back onto her feet.

“No,” Adely muttered, shaking her head. She waved the caduceus wildly. Kasity glanced distractedly at her and hurried over to Aidan. There was blood trickling from his mouth, and his eyes barely fluttered.

Adely laughed, high and mad. The caduceus was shooting bolts of magic up into the air. Kasity watched with horror, unable to move. Then, quite suddenly, Adely collapsed. Calixte was walking toward them, left hand extended, looking as calm as ever though there was an odd flash in her blue eyes.

“How is he?” Calixte asked, levitating Aidan up with her outstretched hand.

“I…I don’t know,” Kasity murmured, still shaking. Calixte pulled Aidan’s wrist toward her heart, and probed his face gently, muttering under her breath.

“He’ll be fine,” she said, letting his hand fall limply. “I just got the rest of our Cloud to stop their madness; Gautier won’t be happy—-but at least he’ll be proud.” Calixte said, still prodding Aidan’s arm. “Try to get him more comfortable, I’ll notify—-ah…”

The tall girl that Kasity recognized as the Wyvern leader strolled out of the Hall. She stopped at Adely, barely glancing at her unconscious body, and levitated the caduceus to her grasp. She magically flicked off the dirt on the instrument disdainfully.

“I must say it was rather foolish, Morwenn, giving your caduceus to a first step. The magical power completely took over her brain,” Calixte remarked casually.

Morwenn laughed, gray eyes sparkling like the icy stars above. “Give? I did not give such a dangerous instrument to the girl. She…ah…took it from me during that confusion inside. And Calixte, I really must reprimand you for ruining my fun. We were just about to smash Sylph to pieces.”

“I doubt that,” said Calixte lightly. “Sylph and Wyvern seemed evenly matched when I arrived, even with all of our Council missing.”

“Where is the rest of your dratted Council?” Morwenn asked suddenly, eyes narrowing.

“Most likely still in meeting. I came out for a fresh breath of air and discovered this commotion.”

“Liar.”

“It is the truth, albeit a lucky truth. No, there is only one liar here, and that is you, Morwenn. Can you seriously expect anyone to believe that a first step girl managed to steal your most prized possession?”

Morwenn snarled and sent a lightning bolt at Calixte, who deftly blocked it.

“Let’s try to control our emotions, now, shall we?”

Kasity thought it a very bad idea to bait a girl like Morwenn, who was shaking, teeth bared, caduceus glowing threateningly.

Calixte nodded. “Thank you. And as much as I enjoyed our talk, I really must get going. My first step student here (he’s in my Division) seems to be knocked out by the foolishness of your first step student. He’ll probably need some treatment, lucky for you we have some of the best herbalists in our Cloud and aren’t planning on being tattlers…” She motioned to Kasity, plucked Aidan from midair as easily as a ruffle of air, and walked away from Morwenn. Kasity felt uneasy, but she followed.

“Calixte, shouldn’t we-—”

A bolt of magic hissed through the air. Calixte swirled around and reflected it back at Morwenn. Aidan’s head lolled unpleasantly on her shoulder.

“Horrible regimentation of emotion,” Calixte told Kasity, shaking her head. “I’m disappointed.” Kasity nodded proudly (although she had no idea what “regimentation of emotion” meant) as they strode away, leaving Adely and Morwenn under the tree, out cold.