Aether Engineering

Chapter 64

Maston Academy

The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

Myles woke up with a lot to think about. The shuriken construct was at the forefront of his mind of course—he couldn’t get it out of his head. What mostly preoccupied Myles though was his conversation with Professor Hazel. The man had made some points about his choice of mana type that had flipped Myles’ conceptions upside down. Now, Myles had a much harder choice to make.

With all of that in mind, Myles found himself stepping into the training hall well ahead of schedule. He figured he could fit in a good session of delving. So far, Myles had spent the whole month delving out a channel leading from his pure mana well to a converter. Just the other day, he had finished the process. Now when he looked inside himself, Myles could see the faintest of glimmers coming from his new mana well, and it was growing rapidly. By passing the mana from his pure well down the channel and through the converter, he could overflow his wind well, drastically speeding up the process of growing it.

Myles yanked open the door to the training hall to find something unexpected. Reah was hastily rebandaging her arm, her face contorted in pain. Myles caught a glimpse of the wound. On instinct, he rushed forward to help, but Reah must have been surprised because she quickly yanked her cloak back on, flinging herself away. Myles backed off, trying to give her the space she needed. He had never seen her react like that, but he knew she’d had a tough life. He had probably just caught her off guard.

Despite his thoughts, after a few moments, Myles began to feel something was off. Reah was continuing to glare at him even after he had backed off. “Don’t tell anyone.” She shot at him, a serpent’s bite in her voice. “You saw nothing.” Between her eyes and her voice, Myles found himself taking one more step backwards.

To be honest, Myles wasn’t sure what he had seen. From the brief glimpse he had got, the wound had looked badly infected. There had been something black seeping under her skin where she had been stabbed. Crimson tendrils had branched around her shoulder towards the neck. He couldn’t have seen that though. Her wound had healed. Even Kate who could sense people’s pain had remarked on how well it had healed.

“Oh. Hello Myles!”

Myles turned around. He had to admit. He couldn’t remember ever being so happy to see Seth. Unlike Myles, who rarely woke up early, Seth was an early bird. It wasn’t a surprise to see him here.

Seth gave Myles’ shoulder a squeeze. “Since we’re both here, want to go a quick bout or two?”

Myles wasn’t exactly keen to fight Seth first thing in the morning. He had taken to the core arcaner’s way of the fist more naturally than anyone. More than a few of the bumps he had gotten through training had come from Seth.

Myles gave a glance at Reah who seemed to have recovered. She still wasn’t exactly smiling, but she looked to be closer to her usual self. Seth caught the glance too. “Would you be interested in joining us, Reah?”

Reah nodded eagerly. That was what made Myles drop his worries. There was no way Reah would choose to spar with an injury. Myles must have just been seeing things. It was early after all, and Reah was skilled with light mana. Maybe she had just been practicing?

By the time the others made their way into the hall, Myles had fought with Seth and Reah three times each. All he had to show for it was a single win over Seth that probably should have been called a draw if Myles was being honest with himself.

The morning continued to prove strange. Primrose was never late, but today, she was nowhere to be seen. Despite that though, the roommates didn’t waste time. They launched themselves into practicing the new steps of the core arcaner’s way of the fist.

There was a lot more intent behind practice nowadays. Even without Primrose looking over their every move, Myles found himself disparaging his own form. Advice came from every direction, and Myles gave as good as he got. The whole group understood just how valuable this time was. When they were sent out for their exams, the core arcaner’s way of the fist made the difference between success and failure as well as life and death.

Primrose didn’t leave them to their own devices for the whole morning though. Eventually, she stumbled into the hall, pulling Dresden along behind her. The way they held themselves reminded Myles of the way some of the older, more established employees at his old job shop had come to work the morning after a festival.

For the remainder of the morning class, Primrose seemed more subdued than usual. Her regular standards didn’t slip in the slightest, and she had no trouble calling out their mistakes, but she was softer while she was doing it.

That all changed when it came time for their instruction on the aether space.

“Everyone gather around.” Primrose gave a heavy sigh. “Your exam for this month was decided last night.”

That sent Myles into an immediate panic, he turned towards Silas, eyes wide, hoping he had heard something Myles hadn’t. Unfortunately, Silas looked just as confused. It should still be too early for their exam.

The group burst with questions. Mercy could be heard over everyone, demanding to know what they were supposed to do. Even Kate who had been quieter than Myles had ever seen her over the past few days was practically bouncing from foot to foot in anxiety.

“Calm down,” Primrose said with another deep sigh and a subtle grab of her head that Dresden mirrored, “I’ll explain if you give me a moment.”

The group backed off, giving Primrose time to take a weighty pause that certainly didn’t help Myles’ nerves. Eventually, Primrose started talking. “There is still some time before the exam, that much has not changed.”

Myles gave a breath of relief. That time would be precious. That time meant more practice, deeper aether wells, and hopefully a finished shuriken construct.

Primrose continued, seemingly unbothered by the relieved intakes of breath around her. “This exam will be different. You’re not going to be hunting monsters, you’re going to be hunting arcaner’s.”

People. Myles had to pause to think. They had fought against some of the miners back in Hydrabridge, but that had been a fight to escape. This sounded different…

“Specifically, you will be tracking a group of deserters from the provincial army that have recently stooped to banditry.”

Myles felt his stomach settle uncomfortably. The punishment for any serious crime committed by an arcaner was death. It was too dangerous and costly to imprison someone like that. They weren’t being sent to track or apprehend these deserters; they were being sent to kill them.

Primrose looked each of them in the eye closely, holding her hand next to her heart as she did so. Myles found her gaze pierced deeply. “I did not sign up for this position to send my students off to kill people.” Primrose’s face roiled in pain. Myles suddenly realized what had sent her and Dresden to the bars last night. “That said, this is something that has to be done.”

Dresden nodded somberly. “The plea came from the minister of education. Bandit activity in the center of the province has increased dramatically. The minister believes that a certain former imperial aurora has been riling them up, likely to force men away from the border to deal with the issue.”

Primrose took over again, silencing Silas—who had looked to be interjecting—with a glance. “Reah and myself have been included as part of the strike force aiming to take out the rogue imperial aurora.”

Of all people, Jane was the one to speak out. “Reah is going! Can’t she stay behind?”

Primrose turned her head, giving Jane an odd look. That only lasted a moment though. “Don’t worry. You will all still be appropriately evaluated.”

Myles knew that wasn’t why Jane was worried—or at least not the main reason. It was concerning not to have Reah along. Jane was thinking about what they had overheard the paladin talking about though. Myles shot her a glance, warning her not to speak further. Jane glared at him for a brief moment before looking at Primrose again and smiling. It was hard to imagine a safer place than at Primrose’s side. She was absurdly skilled and more than likely quite powerful too. Jane’s acceptance stilled Myles’ nerves. He still wasn’t sure how to approach things with The Ivory Force.

The man, whoever he really was, had just murdered a student. Seth and Kate had been right there too. He just as easily could have killed them. Then again, something similar could be said for Myles and Jane he could have killed them for trying to sneak into his meeting, but he had chosen to induct them into his organization instead. Myles privately thought the man must have some specific agenda, but he had no idea what it might be. Silas and Mercy were the ones who were good at this kind of thing. If only he could explain things to them.

Myles shut down any more thoughts about Ivory Force. Just thinking about their upcoming exam made Myles feel a little sick. He couldn’t handle anything else right now. Myles dialed back into what Primrose was saying.

“You should know that fighting arcaners, even deserters with half-complete training, is a whole different situation than fighting monsters.” Primrose took her index finger and pressed it into the side of her head, right next to her eye socket, clearly pointing. “Arcaners are much more likely to take unconventional approaches, to deceive your senses, play on your conscience, or simply ambush you. I tell you this to emphasize just how important your training will be in the time we have left.”

Ah, Myles thought to himself. It was time to start training with wind mana.