When the monster that had once been my mother vanished, the battle didn't end, but it was a marked upswing in morale among the fighters.

Most of the non-combat mages had been evacuated by the time the Erudite and aberrant's fight was over, either escaping off the spire, or being sent into the Charm and Fable by one of the portals.

My own resources were completely spent, and the wisps of ether and fire that I'd managed to recover were barely enough to handle sustaining a handful of large weirlights, let alone fight another battle. More than that, my physical condition was starting to weigh on me. My stomach and the region just below it and on the back hurt, all of my muscles were sore, and my gut felt strange in a way I'd never felt before.

I watched anxiously as Yushin's aunt and uncle led my friends to safety, then paused when Charm hopped down next to me, his sword dripping with black ichor and emitting a cheerful hum.

"Let's get'ya back in the shop, right?" he asked, slashing into the air. His sword chimed, his mark glowed, and a vulture-esque demon that had been banging at professor Caeruleum's containment dome split in half.

Before I even had a moment to register what he meant, he swept his sword down in a clean slice and muttered a word under his breath that sounded vaguely like 'bex', though it also sounded like an entire orchestral progression in an instant, and like nothing at all.

Where his sword trailed, the world was cut open, like someone had moved the tip of a very sharp sword through thick velvet curtains. It slowly tore into an opening of white light, and Charm clapped me on the shoulder.

"M' not as good as Fable at that sorta stuff, so it's a bit shonky, but it'll do you alright. In ya go."

He shoved me through the rift, and before I could react, I stumbled into the spell shop. I glanced around, seeing that most people had left, and the dwarf from Western Stellthone who I'd met at the solstice party was working behind the counter. He waved in greeting and asked what was going on.

I wandered to one of the couches, noting that most of them were gone again, now that the component shop was partially emptied out, and collapsed into a chair, rubbing my temple.

"To be honest, I don't even know," I said. "But…"

I filled him in on the events of the battle, and his eyebrows crept up, and up, then up some more.

"Thousand hells," he finally said.

"That about sums it up," I agreed, closing my eyes and leaning back into the couch. Despite trying my best to not, I drifted off to sleep before I knew it.

I didn't wake up in the Charm and Fable, nor in my room at the dorms. Instead, when I finally cracked my eyes open, I was in a warm, clean stone room, slightly sterile, save for the scents of incense coming from far away.

"You're awake!" a familiar, boomingly loud voice said.

I sat up, blinking rapidly, to see that I was in the temple of Effervesce, in what looked to be a small treatment room. Through the door I could see a hall that led to the rooms of others who were under treatment of the god and priesthood's divine magics. Jackson was in a small chair that was across from the bed, and he gave me a broad smile.

"I'm awake," I agreed, blinking. "But why am I here?"

"You needed healing. You had a lot of injuries."

"Your friend is right," a young woman wearing the robes of a true fourth circle caster at the university, and with an amulet of Effervesce hanging around her neck said as she strode in. "You were in rough shape."

"My bloo–"

Before I could even finish the word 'bloodline', she'd cut me off.

"Your spatially warped organs, inhuman bloodline, and the regeneration spells you cast are the only reason you survived that long. If a normal human had taken blows like that, they would have died. Even as you were, your kidneys needed to be almost entirely regrown through miracles. A small target doesn't mean a nonexistent one."

"Oh. Thank you. I'm in your debt. If I can ask, how long was I out.

"None of that about debts," she said. "We're a temple. We are meant to be a place of worship, protection, and healing."

I'd known plenty of temples in White Sands who had required payment to lend healing divinities out to the people, but then again, there weren't very many powerful people out there. The connection to Etherius was thin and weak, so there was less healing magic to go around.

She still hadn't answered my question, but before I could ask again, Jackson jumped in.

"Three days. You missed the official end-of-year banquet and celebration. It was… interesting. The Erudite had to use the force limb spell instead of one of his hands and one leg, but he seemed very cheerful."

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"Huh. So I guess it's officially summer break?"

"It is," Jackson said, a smile coming over his face. "But who wants to talk about school? I wanna hear about how you feel. You're free!"

We talked for a while as the healer ran diagnostic spells over me. She told me I had to spend two more days in a healing room, just in case any of the spellcraft healing didn't stick right. Eventually Jackson had to go back to the dorms and get some sleep. I napped for a while longer, until Yushin arrived late in the evening. Shé Rui escorted her, but waited politely in the hall for her.

"Congratulations," Yushin said, bowing her head slightly. "You are free."

"Thanks to you. If you hadn't used your favor for me…"

What followed was a similar, but also very different conversation to the one I'd had with Jackson. When I asked her to fill me in on what I'd missed, I got a very… Yushin… response.

"In terms of school, you only have a week and a half to look over the summer courses. That is assuming you want to take any of them. When it comes to local, national, and international politics, things are more complicated."

"The Dreki matriarch is dead. That's going to complicate things."

"Not only is she dead, but her consumption killed almost all members of the Dreki family who were in attendance. It permanently weakened those who were not killed, including many members of the elder generations. Based on reports coming in, even those on the Isle of Dreki have reportedly lost as much as half of their fire."

"It won't be the end of the Dreki family," I warned. "Losing half their power is bad, and the loss of face will sting, but they're still an economic force."

"I concur, but it is a sharp decrease in their global relevance and power," Yushin agreed. "It served as a turning point for the war, and the island's parliament has opened peace talks, with the support of the handful of remaining members. Ongdu has banished the family completely, as have several others."

We lapsed into silence for a while, but I eventually asked a question to break it.

"Are your aunt and uncle alright? I saw them fighting, but was sent to the component shop towards the end by Charm."

"Indeed. Uncle Rui did suffer some injuries, as many did, but his life force is strong. He has actually stepped behind closed doors to heal, and to use the insight gained from the battle to compress another layer onto his perpetual core."

"Congratulations to him, then. That's quite an accomplishment."

We chatted for a little while longer, but eventually Yushin had to leave, and I turned to studying some of the spellwork in my grimoire, since I needed something to do. I expected for Salem to visit me next, or maybe even Charm and Fable, but to my surprise, my next visitor appeared in a ripple of blue light.

The Erudite materialized, and the scent of him was heavy and powerful, but not quite as intense as the power that he'd radiated when he appeared to stop me from being splattered. The ether in the air didn't physically warp and change by virtue of his mere presence.

He looked… rough. There were bags under his eyes, his left leg was a faintly glowing blue force construct, as was his right hand, and there was a dark light running through the veins around his neck, twisting into a shape that gave me an impression all too close to a necklace of thorns.

"Hello, Emrys," the Erudite said, smiling some and leaning on his staff. "How are you feeling?"

"Better than you look," I said, sitting up again and shifting in the bed to face him better. "I mean no offense, but… are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine. I can make do with force constructs until I have the time and ether to regrow everything. The bulk of my power is currently… otherwise occupied. But that's not why I'm here. Do you want the good or bad news first?"

As he spoke, he flicked his hands and several stacks of bound together paper appeared on the bedside table.

"Bad news."

"You've got quite a bit of paperwork to do in order to complete your citizenship, as well as the official pardons for dereliction of duty from the Isle of Dreki, your failure to report your immigration here, living in the nation under false pretenses–"

"I never lied to any of the Erudites about school."

"Oh, I know," Henry said, shrugging. "But the laws of the realm still say you need to apply for educational permits. Truthfully, about a quarter of our foreign students don't, and I don't report them. But your fight was too high profile. You'll need to sign on the acknowledgement and the pardon."

"What's the rest of the bad news?" I asked warily.

"There are other things related to your criminal activity in there, like your pardon for a false identity. Even some of the good news has paperwork attached, I'm afraid."

"And the good news?"

"Once you complete the paperwork for it, you can be conferred membership into the Coven of the Twilight Grotto," the Erudite said. "It's one of the school's more prestigious awards, and it comes with a handful of benefits, some stated in your paperwork, and others that you will need to discover for yourself. I was a member myself, when I was about your age, so I suspect you'll quite like the accompanying scholarship and grants."

I felt my eyebrows creep up my face at the Erudite's words. I'd never heard of the Coven of the Twilight Grotto, but the fact that he'd once been a member was quite the boon. I'd read the paperwork just in case there were some sneakily hidden traps in its clauses, but I couldn't see myself turning it down otherwise.

"I assume that you were the reason that I'm getting the opportunity?"

"I'm a portion of it, but the High King is delighted with the amount of propaganda that he's been able to run with this – a first year student of one of Cendel's two Erudite Academies defeats a fourth generation Dreki. Then there's the family's significant financial compensation package. The school is seeing a considerable increase in budget."

"That makes sense. He's delighted, but he can't exactly directly award me or grant me a ton of money, because everything was operating under the legal pretense of an honor duel, and you were the one who actually killed her. Speaking of which… What was that at the end? That wasn't the consume bloodline spell, was it?"

The Erudite's face grew serious at that, and he tapped his staff gently against the ground. I felt the familiar tightening of air caused by the hidden conversation spell, but I suspected that there were other spells in play as well.

"It was not. It was bloodline magic, but it was also partially a divinity. I cannot prove this, but I suspect that the matriarch was a half-step ascendant. A demigod, not in the sense that she was the daughter of a divine, but in the sense that she had begun to tap into the power of faith and devotion to craft her own miracles, boons, and blessings. She was beginning her transformation into a dark god."

There was a moment of silence as the words hung in the air, and I shifted uncomfortably.

"Are you a half-step ascendant? After all, you killed her."

"No. I chose to become an Erudite, rather than entangle myself in the divines."

He relaxed some and leaned on his staff, then continued.

"Get some rest. Look over some potential summer courses. Maybe register for some of the Summer Solstice Games. Oh, and work on your chosen fields to progress towards becoming an Archmage. After all, you have one requirement down already."

With that, he vanished in a flash of blue ether.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.