A Small Gift

"Oh my God what happened??!!" the girl jumped in shock with the sudden arrival of several students, some injured and some with signs of injury. Jumping off her seat opening the door next to her, "through this door." Take a bed I'll call the doctor. We all made our way inside taking a bed each, the room was extremely large housing over twenty beds each with its own small bedside cupboard. Much to my surprise the walls and floor was made with thick stone slabs, a part of me would have expected it to lead to a more modern hospital design and layout, there were several other doors around the room. I purposely took a bed next to Ashley so I could talk to him more.

Ashley laid down on the bed, "Great now we gonna double down on security and investigate how so many individual managed to breach our defences so easily, less time to finish my projects and research." He mumbled with a heavy sigh.

"Thanks for saving me back there by the way, for some reason I couldn't move..." I replied sitting on the side of the bed facing him. The mattress was extremely firm but had a little give, it was extremely comfortable helping me relax a little.

"Wait you saw everything that happened?!" He turned to me quickly his eyes wide filled with shock.

"Yeah it was weird, I could see everything that happening but I couldn't move at all." I explained to him.

"Well well well.... you're full of surprises Emilia quite impressive for a freshman...… so lemme explain when in combat we use Arcanum to boost our combat prowess. So from my understanding you was able to perceive everything, but your body isn't trained enough to be able to utilise Arcanum for movement I assume." Ashley explained.

"Can I also ask what the strange sensation I get when I hold this wand?" I questioned pointing at my Treant wand.

"Hmmmm you're gonna have to explain to me what exactly it is you feel...….. Is that a Treant wand??!" He replied, surprised again when he looked at my wand.

"Yeah, a Treant back at the fields gave it to me...….Oh his name was Tenderoot." I explained.

"Well count yourself extremely lucky, a natural occurring wand although rustic in appearance is far superior to an artificially created wand, they are more or less priceless." He explained, looking back at the ceiling.

"And the strange feeling happened to me twice so far, once when I held the orb during the examination and secondly when I held the wand, I get this strange new feeling all around us but it feels stronger or denser around other people." I explained.

"Ohhhhhhh I see now.....what you're experiencing is Arcanum, and the reason it feels stronger or denser around people, is because everyone absorbs and exudes Arcanum naturally, so the stronger the individual the denser the Arcanum, hmmmm you probably would have felt an insane amount around Abbraxsoth his strength is monstrous, enough to earn him his title 'TheDemon'." Ashley carried on explaining while staring at the ceiling.

"Ohhh thank you! I'm starting to understand everything a bit better now!" I smiled at him.

"If there's anything else you can freely ask." He added smiling.

"Ummmm... Could I ask for a favour?" I hesitantly asked.

"Sure, but what do I get out of it?" Ashley answered with a grin.

"Ummm….. I don't really have anything to offer...." I quietly replied.

He chuckled a little, "I was only joking, don't you remember? We are family now."

"Ohhh yeah…." I replied scratching my head with one hand awkwardly, "Well…. Say if I wanted to contact someone in the Fighting Pits... how could I go about it?" I questioned him eagerly hoping his knowledge can help me.

"Well not much sadly, communicating from the outside is near impossible, letters can't be sent there, nor can you use 'send message' spell or scrying to stop spies. I guess you could sneak in a communicator, but I doubt sneaking in a communicator into one of the most heavily guarded and the most dangerous school is a smart move…." he answered sighing, "I guess you know someone who went there….?" He questioned.

"Yeah I made a friend after the examinations, and she was chosen by the Fighting Pits…." I explained as sadness washed over me.

"Yeah.... I understand, sorry there's not much that we can do, even if sneaking a communicator in was possible, if it was discovered your friend would be tortured endlessly till she reveals who she was in contact with, then either executed or even worse, lobotomized and forced to become a slave, pretty hideous place to be honest. Then on top it could also start a war between our schools." Ashley answered, his smile now turning to a frown, lifting his robotic arm up looking at it.

Silence ensued as we both began contemplating, Ashley staring deeply into his arm. Closing his fist he threw his arm down, his eyes showing signed of tearing up, filled with a look of despair and intense regret.

"Something wrong with your arm?" I quietly questioned.

"Ahhh… its nothing, just you reminded me of someone I lost long ago." He replied trying to stop himself from crying.

"Ohhh… Im so sorry...… Sorry..." I replied, laying down on my bed staring into the ceiling.

Several minutes past as we laid down in silence, wondering how Caroline is doing, everyone describes the Fighting Pits to be a horrible place…..

Several small spherical flying machines flew into the room through a door, each going to their own student, I immediately sat up with caution. It had a blue lens on the front with a helicopter rotary system on its top allowing it to fly. "It's okay they are scanner bots they will check for any internal or external injuries." Ashley said seeing me react to the sight of them. The small robot in front of me began scanning me from top to bottom, then looked at me a smiley face appeared on the blue lens, followed by a zero.

"I guess this means there's nothing wrong?" I questioned Ashley.

"Yup means you're perfectly fine" He answered, as he began to stand up, shall we head out together?" he asked.

"Sure….. my tour was interrupted so I'm kinda lost right now...." I replied.

"Well we actually in the main building, 2nd floor." Ashley added as we walked out the infirmary, waving goodbye to the student at the counter. "Want me to call Scarlet?" he asked.

"Umm I'm not sure... she seemed busy with Paul." I hesitantly said also waving good bye at the student behind the counter.

"Well this building isn't very interesting, this building is mainly used for lessons, infirmary and the dining hall for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, with the upper levels being the ops room." He said as we walked down extremely large hall ways.

"So what is there to do in the spare time?" I asked.

"Well it's up to you really, have fun with friends, practice magic, sparring and training, anything really. So what I always do in my spare time, is teaching and experimenting Artificing with Paul as well as doing my personal projects". He answered.

We came to a door which lead to a winding staircase leading up to multiple floors and down to the ground floor. "How is Paul doing? I haven't met him in so long!" I questioned him.

"He's doing really well for himself, he's pretty well off, and he's a highly sought after body guard as well as doing extremely high paying bounties. He also very adept at many forms of magic." He answered.

"How about Scarlet? They seem pretty close?" I questioned.... Secretly hoping they aren't together.

"She's always with Paul because when Paul defeated the Black Dragon he also saved Scarlet in the process, so she guards over him." Ashley answered.

"A black draon? What are dragons like?....." I inquired extremely curious and excited to hear they exist.

"Well dragons are almost extinct now, but if you ever encounter one, you better prey they spare you. Dragons are almost immune to all forms of magic, their scales are near impenetrable, not including their natural affinity to magic and their huge size and strength. No one know how Paul manged to kill the black dragon, but everyone knows Paul entered its lair and now it's no longer there." Ashley said.

"Wow.....So...what are those books that float around him?" I asked.

"That's his signature spell, he has seven books that he can utilize that each can cast spells on their own, that Paul controls mentally." Ashley explained.

We now exited the main building coming back at the courtyard with the large world tree, "so all that's left is the colosseum and the simulation building." He said pointing at two buildings in the distance. "The colosseum is where all student vs student duels are held, so students can rise up combat ranks, and the simulation building, is where people can go to simulate anything they want, from combat scenarios to relaxing walks in forests." He explained.

The Courtyard was now bustling with life, full of students talking in groups and walking from building to building. There didn't seem to be a uniform but everyone had a school crest on them. "

"So if I missed home could I could I simulate a scenario of me at home?" I asked cautiously.

"You could, the machine will scan your memories and will represent your family, Friends, actions and personality as closely as possible, but id advise not to do it. You don't want to get attached to something that's..... Not real…... if you understand what I'm trying to say." he began explaining while beginning to head to the Engineering department. "Follow me I have something special to give you." He turned and smiled at me.

"I understand...… do you have family you miss?" I hesitantly asked walking alongside with him.

"Yeah, a long time ago.... But they died when I was young, my child hood wasn't... pretty. I've been pretty lucky to be honest.".... Ashley answered looking into the sky."

"If you ever need to talk to someone about it I'm always open to talk to." I replied smiling.

"Thanks, that means a lot to me." He smiled back at me.

We walked in silence for several minutes, the setting sun lit up the sky beautifully the clouds reflecting the sunlight making them illuminate yellow in the fading orange sky. As we approached the building Ashley began to tap on his panel. I stopped a good distance from the building remembering Scarlets warning she gave me earlier today. "It's okay I've already added you to my Dev team, so you can now freely enter the building if you want, but don't go exploring!" He warned.

"Ohhhh okay sure, but how do I know which room is yours." I questioned.

"Hmmm…. Good point…. Well don't tell Scarlet this but I'll do something special for you." He smiled.

We entered the building and began walking to a clear area, the building was notably busier, with a lot of more chatter. Ashley began tapping on his panel and runes began to draw themselves on the floor again teleporting us to his lab. "Righto take a seat" as he pointed out at the seats that we were sat on before. He began rummaging through things taking different small parts from different shelves and placing them on a large table near me.

"So what is it you're trying to do?" I asked out of curiosity.

"That is the surprise." He replied full focused on what he was trying to do, as he went to another shelf to grab some apparatus'. As he began to work on the small object, using various tools, I couldn't really see what was happening, except he was grabbing small parts and fusing them into another.

Looking around I could see several golems standing dormant, and an uncompleted one, this one looked far different, a lot thinner and closer resembles a human body. "Is that your current project?" I asked pointing at it in the distance.

He looked up at me then at the direction I was pointing at. "Ohhh that? yeah currently is, it's a battle suit I've been designing for a while now to help me in combat, Paul keeps telling me there's no need I just need to keep training, but I love to research and develop things." He answered as he went back to work.

"Ohhh wow that sounds pretty cool!" I replied

"Sadly it's nowhere near functional at the, so I have a long way to go. The recent attack doesn't help either, they will be doubling shifts for defence patrol and have the school monstered 24/7 for a while instead of using alarms and triggers, it's gonna be a pain in the ass." He added, while still working.

Several minutes passed as he diligently worked on whatever he was making. "Almost done", as he stood back a little. He began typing on his robotic arm, as the tips of its fingers began to glow, pointing at the table he let off a small beam, hitting the object causing it to spark to life with a very faint blue glow. "Now we're done!" he looked at me with excitement and walked to the table picking it up and showing me, "This Emilia! Is your very own personal communicator, as well as a personal teleporter to my Lab! And the last function I'll let you test it out!" He explained with an extremely large smile, being extremely proud of himself. As he pulled up one of my hands and placed it in my palm.

The badge faintly humming with energy, I could feel very faint levels of Arcanum inside it, "does it absorb Arcanum for its energy source?" I asked with curiously.

"Yes but at very small amounts so nothing crazy can happen." He smiled.

"So this tiny badge can do all that?" I asked in surprise.

"Yup so much can be achieved through Artificing it's amazing, and best yet it's in the shape of our school crest so you can wear it where ever you go!" He beamed.

"And I saved the best till last! You'll thank me for this later! Give the centre button a short tap followed by a long hold!" he instructed with pure excitement.