Ariya sat in her room, perched on the window sill. Whenever she got bored from reading her numerous texts, she would simply turn
and look out the window. Collegium Arcanum was expansive, almost a city
on its own merit. Places to eat, places to buy supplies, even small
shops where one could buy items not associated with school. There was never a need for anyone to exit the walls of the college. Perhaps it had been
built that way to keep the students focused. Or maybe it was to aid the
faculty in keeping an eye on the students.
From Ariya’s window,
she had a clear view of the “Fire” building. It had a more formal name,
probably dedicated to a notable fire wizard. But, it had been termed the
“fire” building just for ease when giving direction. Each elemental
building had its own unique architecture to them and yet they all
somehow resembled each other. In the setting of the afternoon sun, red and
orange glows fell on the Fire building. Ariya leaned her head back
against the wall and just stared aimlessly at the it. She watches as the students filed in and out of the main doors,
talking and laughing amongst themselves. Probably getting in some
practice before heading home or to the library.
Thinking of the
library, Ariya shifted her focus to the stack of books that were sitting on her
desk. She had gone and checked out just about every book she could get
on her hands on that mentioned Tempest wizards. From what she had
gathered from the librarian who had helped her, there
weren’t many of them left. Very few had trained to be Tempests after the
wars had ended. But their legends were still etched deep in history, never to be forgotten. Ariya slid from off the window sill and sat
at her desk. She picked up one of the old books and opened its yellowed
pages. After flipping through the first few pages, Ariya sighed and ran
her fingers through her white hair. This book mainly just chronicled battles during the wars 100 years ago. No mention of
tempest wizards.
Just as Ariya was about to close the
book, she came across a page that looked like it was copied from a
manuscript.
I am
Jonathan S. Milstein, first mate to Ferdinand D. Davidson, captain of
the Crimson Hawk. We sail under the flag of Varro, part of the royal
fleet. We have been sent in as aid for the eminent battle against the
Vann-Lyse navy. We have read reports that many of our battles at sea have
gone badly. Mainly due to the fact that the North has such powerful
water wizards that man their ships. This has proved crippling to Varro’s navy for quite some time. Hopefully, the Crimson Hawk will be
able to evenly match the destruction magic of Vann-Lyse. Under the orders of the ruler
of Varro, I have assembled several talented wizards and myself to use a
new tactic during battle. If it proves successful, then Varro will
definitely have a new weapon in their arsenal.
Ariya
was very much intrigued now. It looked like more pages had been copied
out of Milstein’s journal and put in this book, along with pictures of
the Varro navy pitted against the Vann-Lyse navy. Smoke curled from the
cannons on deck as ropes were being tossed from either side to make a
way for sailors to cross to the other ship to fight hand to hand. Large
geysers of water were erupting from sea and lightning shot down from
the ominous clouds. Ariya had never really paid attention when people
talked about the wars from so long ago. But seeing these pictures made
everything much more real. For some reason the name
Milstein seemed to strike Ariya as familiar, but she wasn’t entirely
sure why. Ariya continued to thumb through the pages of the old book
late into the night.
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