What We Do to Survive

Even with just the initial oath sworn, it was like a massive weight taken off my chest. Studying at Avalon, there was never truly a time to relax. Even the safest places were simply a temporary reprieve from the constant danger. After all, despite appearing as a much more immediate threat, practicing magic killed just as many, if not more, students than conflict with one another did. Someone finding a mangled corpse in a practice room was a near weekly occurrence and watching the faculty drag the remains of unfortunate students out of their private rooms at the end of the semester had been one of the most sobering parts of my first year.

Still, that was something I could at least control, and with this I had once again narrowed down the number of people with motivation to target me directly. I was much more confident in avoiding attacks of opportunity than well prepared ambushes from upperclassmen. More than that, I was glad to get rid of a dagger pointed directly at someone much less capable of protecting themselves. I was thankful I’d thought to conceal my visits to Lea, because I wasn’t sure what I would have done if Clarient had decided to go after her to get to me.

“I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t,” I said quietly, “It would be really unfortunate if I made a mistake here and her soul got banished.” Clarient huffed, but didn’t protest, taking a step backwards so she wasn’t looming over me quite as much. Her companion did so as well, though honestly I didn’t mind his hovering nearly as much. He was holding a vial of some very potent healing potion in one hand and had the spell matrix for a restoration spell primed in the other, so at least he was contributing something. Clarient had just been standing directly behind me and leaning over my shoulder as I worked, which was much more distracting.

I returned to my work, carefully disassembling the stasis spell I’d used strand by strand. The tendrils of mana fell away easily, but I moved slowly so as to avoid triggering one of the half dozen precautions I hadn’t woven into it. I hadn’t actually added anything nearly as complex as I’d claimed, but there were quite a few protections built in to stop someone from simply dispelling the stasis, or making them regret it if they did.

I was proudest of one I’d added right from the start, taking advantage of a specific design ‘flaw’ in this sort of stasis. Before I’d finished stabilizing the spell, I’d had Rea hammer away at her frozen body with a mallet for several minutes, focusing on her head and chest. A peculiarity I’d found with this specific spell was that, if removed without the intended counterspell, any exertion of force that had been prevented by the stasis during casting would reappear in an instant. This had mostly been noted in the spell’s description due to how it interacted with gravity, but in my testing I had shattered a stone cube by smacking it repeatedly with a wooden stick, so her much more fragile body would be reduced to little more than a wet smear on the ground.

With a small rush of air, the entire array of spells I’d attached to the stasis collapsed into a loose cloud of ambient that quickly spread out into the rest of the room. Kwesta slumped forward bonelessly and the fifth year stepped forward, catching Kwesta by the shoulder and immediately casting what I was pretty sure was some sort of diagnostic spell.

After a moment, he straightened up and turned towards Clarient. “She’s all right, my lady. She’s very low on mana, but aside from some bruises and fractures she appears perfectly healthy.”

The severe expression on Clarient’s face lightened slightly and she nodded, “Thank you Cain. Your service is appreciated.”

“Always, my lady.”

I rose to my feet, feeling slightly awkward to be standing between the two. They seemed rather close. I would have to ask Miranda about that later, she hadn’t mentioned anything about him in her report. Then again, I’d mostly had her focus on fourth years and below, students that could target me freely, not any upperclassman that Clarient was connected to.

I let him fuss over Kwesta for another minute, then loudly cleared my throat, “We shouldn’t keep Mage Marc Pierr waiting, I’m sure he has better things to do on his weekends than this.”

They both shot me dirty looks, “I’m working on it,” Cain said with disdain, “I am trying to wake her gently after the strain you put on her body and soul.” There wasn’t much I could say to that without leaving a worse impression on them than I already had, so I simply stayed silent.

After another minute, I walked around Clarient and sat down beside Miranda, who was still sitting stiffly in her spot at the table. Poking her thigh to get her attention, I raised an eyebrow and jerked my head towards the trio.

She bit her lip, shrugged, then nodded. I wasn’t really sure what exactly that meant, I would have to remember to figure out some proper non-verbal code for later, but none of it seemed negative. I leaned back in my chair, mentally going back over the exact wording of the oaths we’d taken. In the end, I was mostly satisfied, and I didn’t see any obvious loopholes. Miranda had certainly been a lot of help in that regard, having caught several things I never would have, and I was thankful I’d brought her with me. She absolutely deserved that reward I kept meaning to give her.

In general terms, the oaths we’d taken were rather simple. Neither of us could seek revenge for what had happened, we couldn’t actively target one another, nor have our subordinates and affiliates target one another. The oath would last until either one of us died or we both graduated, which was not ideal but basically what I’d been hoping for anyway. If I managed to make it to graduation, I was confident Clarient would no longer be nearly as much of an issue.

It wasn’t foolproof, unfortunately, but I had never really expected her to accept something so in my favor. For instance, it did compel her to tell people not to attack me, but she couldn’t perfectly control all of the people interested in gaining her favor. I had however managed to put in a clause that meant that if anyone trying to do so attacked me or mine, she would be partially responsible for helping me deal with them, or getting revenge for me. Hopefully that would mitigate those potential issues.

The oath also included a bunch of other tiny provisions, but nothing overly serious. I’d made several concessions as well, mostly relating to various edge cases within our oath. For instance, if Clarient and I were competing in a bidding war for something, I had to give it up to her. I had no idea when that sort of thing might happen, maybe she knew something I didn’t, but it didn’t feel too important in the end. I didn’t think I had the money to compete with a former princess anyway.

I’d also ended up getting some amount of monetary compensation, to be delivered to me by the end of the week. A thousand pieces was less than I had hoped for, but more than I had expected. Still, a thousand pieces was a lot of money for me, and I was glad to have it. I’d already spent a portion of what I had gotten off of Elpha for her breach of Avalon policy and it was nice to top off my reserves. I was starting to get used to having a sizable amount of money to work with but I didn’t really have inexhaustible wealth. I would have to find a way of making more soon, or perhaps see what I could get out of my second year duo once I was comfortable associating with them more publicly.

Kwesta woke up with a gasp and her hands shot to her abdomen. She looked around wildly, trying to get her bearings. She remembered burning agony in her stomach, something cold tightening around her throat and then– nothing.

She raised her hands in the air and found them clean. But she… she remembered… where–

“It's alright Kwesta. You’re safe now.” Clarient reached down and firmly grasped one of her forearms, pulling her to her feet. She stumbled slightly, just catching herself on her friend’s shoulder before she could take them both down.

Clarient was wearing her armor, she realized. Had she heard what was going on and come saved her from the consequences of her own stupidity? An intense wave of shame washed over her. She hadn’t listened, she never listened, and once again her friend had to bail her out.

Then she looked around and her eyes widened as she saw the unnatural third year sitting casually off to the side, speaking quietly with the disgusting slut that had started all of this in the first place. She scrambled backwards, jerking her arm out of her friend’s grasp and taking several stumbling steps before collapsing onto her ass. The boy looked up at the commotion and her heart froze in her chest when their eyes met. There was a promise of pain and death in those soulless eyes and a reflexive shield of wind sprang up around her, sending a renewed wave of agony through her entire body as her overtaxed soul protested the spell.

Before she could so much as scream, her entire body was suddenly frozen by an overwhelmingly powerful force. A moment later, her shield of wind was stripped away by an overpowered dispel that shredded the magic animating it and blasted away every trace of ambient mana around her. Her eyes, the only thing she could still move, shot around the room frantically until they landed on an older, unassuming boy who was leaning casually against the back wall of the room.

He tilted his head towards her, then loudly announced to the room at large, “No fighting. You should know better. Control your friends, Miss Valorous, or I will do it for you.”

The force holding her in place vanished, but Kwesta didn’t move, simply sinking fully to the floor and curling up into a whimpering ball. Everything hurt, a soul deep ache that resonated throughout her body and made every breath a wave of knives biting into her lungs.

Clarient knelt down on the ground beside her, holding one of her shaking hands with both of her own. Another man, one of Clarient’s former vassals she thought, rolled her onto her back and placed a hand covered in strands of golden light over her heart. She let out a pained breath but her haggard gasps quickly evened off into something much more regular and the worst of the pain began to recede.

“Don’t strain yourself,” Clarient whispered to her, “You're in no shape to be casting spells right now. You’ve been through a lot, but it's been taken care of. You’re safe now.”

Kwesta began to nod, then winced and stopped moving again. She tried to say something, but her voice failed her.

“It's okay,” whispered Clarient again, “You’re safe.”

“Wha– what,” she stumbled over the words, her mouth not quite obeying the commands her brain was sending it, “ha-ha-ppen. Where… we? Yo- you c-came?”

Clarient shifted slightly, lifting Kwesta’s aching head into her lap. Kwesta watched in silence as Clarinet and the healer exchanged serious looks before he nodded somberly. Clarient gently brushed a strand of hair away from her face, “You were captured. Orion smacked you around, then carried you off. He healed you a little, and then shoved you into stasis for several days.”

Kwesta’s heart sank. That was something of a nightmare scenario, and though she might be no longer frozen, the younger students' continued presence likely meant their deal wasn’t finished just yet. “How much,” she interrupted before Clarient could continue, “How much did my stupidity–”

“You weren’t being stup–”

“I was. I picked a fight that didn’t matter and… How much did it cost?”

Clarient bit her lip and looked away. “Later,” was all she said. “For now, we’ve agreed on a reasonable oath you need to swear, otherwise our deal is void and… I already swore.”

Kwesta wanted to cry. She should have known better, and now her closest friend had locked herself into some sort of stupid agreement to dig her out of yet another mess of her own making. “How bad?” she asked in a whisper.

After a short pause, she replied. “Not terrible. He was rather reasonable, all things considered.”

“I’ll do it.”

“You don’t want to hear the terms first?”

“I don’t care, whatever it is, I’ll do it. Dead is dead, can’t be much worse than that.”

Clarient nodded, an unreadable expression on her face. Kwesta took the moment to wonder what she’d just agreed to. It couldn’t be that bad, Clarient never would have agreed to something like a slave’s oath, and she doubted a random third year, no matter how competent, could pressure her friend into something ridiculous, but even the most benign oaths could cause no end of trouble. Still, she was resolute. Not swearing would certainly be worse for her friend than swearing, there was no telling what kind of penalties had been included in case she proved uncooperative.

“It goes like this…” She listened in silence, nodding along as Clarient recited the wording they’d agreed upon from memory. Clarient was right, it wasn’t too bad. In fact it was much more generous than she’d expected from the way her friend was acting.

She nodded resolutely when her friend was finished, then tried to lever herself to her feet. “Lets get this over with.”

Clarient stopped her, glancing over towards where Orion was sitting. “You’re in no state to do this now, at least wait a bit for some of your mana to regenerate. He said we could have some time to get you ready.”

“No, no, I’m good.” Once again, she tried to stand, but her arm gave out before she could even sit up. “Maybe I need a few minutes.”