Another Aftermath

The events that had happened weeks prior had of course not gone by quietly. Many students had been kicked out from the college, many of them had even been charged as criminals for their actions.

Khazan and his faction took plenty of credit for bringing justice against the criminals and not actually killing a single one which allowed the law to be upheld.

Samuel and his faction avoided all the publicity, even though Samuel was certain that the headmaster knew about his inolvement one way or another through one of his children.

Samuel spent a little bit of time, whatever he could spare, to get to know the members of his faction ever so slightly better.

He had also given Night some more attention, with all the studies and events transpiring he barely had time to properly speak with her or let her try things.

One thing he discovered was that she loved eating food, all kinds of food she loved trying new things, she was quite a glutton after all - and she did not try to hide it in any way.

Those few chocolate cakes Samuel had gotten were quickly gone, because not only could Samuel access his shadow pocket, but so could she apparantely, which understandably came as a bit of a shocker when he found the cakes eaten.

He tried to make sure Night made a promise not to take things without permission first. She had been reluctant and grumpy at first but eventually had come to accept the deal that she receive more food pampering in return.

Improving his relationships accross the field was the true horror for him because he hated social situations of all kinds. But he had quite a bit of fun riding his gryphon and getting more connected with her. They went for long flights and practiced many times over their dance in the skies.

After those weeks passed, it was eventually time for another field mission and this time it ended up being a shadow mission to find some illegal slavers that were kidnapping children.

It had been quite a fast mission that took place on the western shorelines, the slavers were conspiring together with pirates to ship them off as cargo.

It had been a quick tracking mission where they had quickly found the slavers and taken them in alive for questioning and destroyed one pirate ship. Unfortunately they also found out that the pirates were well organized far outside the coast along several old islands.

The state of Rejuan took the information and started assembling an attack force to drive the pirates out. The force was a joint military force, the army, the navy and the Gryphon Knight Order, as well as the mage division.

Samuel and his team were some of the ones decided upon to assist, alongside many other mages of course. But the journey would not start until three days later, it would take some time to mobilize that force together at the port town of Crevin.

For Samuel and his friends it meant three more days of studying and training. So it happened during one of his own training sessions, Samuel was seated on top of their house one evening where the sky was filled with southern lights of pink rays and a star lit backround.

One could almost see the weave of magic itself that surrounded the world. But Samuel was not focused on any of that, no for he was listening to the song of the phoenix blade. It had started out like many times before where all he could hear was whispers that grew more intense and almost so he could hear it.

Until he finally heard the screech of a bird of prey, but when he looked around the night sky he saw no such thing until he focused on the song of the sword once more.

The Fire came alive, as a miniature phoenix sat on the blade, engulfed in fire it started tweeting a song. A song he could hear, it sang of fire and rebirth, a song of the ashes that once was, born anew.

The red fire that licked the sword turned into green fire, yellow fire, orange fire, red fire and blue fire until it finally settled on a white flame. The songs of the different phoenix flames, the sword that had been given the name Blade of the Phoenix King.

A legend about a phoenix king did exist, a phoenix capable of producing every flame known to man, said to be the child of the goddess of fire and phoenix kind. Surely it was just rumors, but to Samuel the song was so powerful and beautiful.

He couldn't help but shed a few tears as the sword sung its unique song to him and he was fully bonded with it. He quickly made his way to the Blademage specialization and hoped he wouldn't be too late.

Alas the last students had just about left when he entered a minute or so later. Nereya the teacher of the blade arts looked confused for a few seconds when she heard footsteps but quickly gave a small smile, "Ah it is you! I hope you do realize I am about to close up for the night!"

The blind elven woman beautiful as ever still seemed intrigued by his presence, Samuel held out his Phoenix blade in the air and she almost recoiled and tried to hide her eyes. She was blind to the world but not blind to the presence of magic.

"Such a powerful presence!" She exclaimed, after a while she grew accustomed to the presence and looked at the sword, "You were able to do it then? You finally heard it's song?" She spoke with a smile.

Samuel nodded and spoke, "Yes it seems like I did, and although it has left me confused and with many questions - I feel like I understand the swords intention at the same time that it understands mine!" He slowly flung the blade through the air and it seemed to reverberate on its own.

"Well in that case, knowing what that you are already one step ahead of us blademages with your bladecasting skills, it is with a heavy heart that I am afraid I must give you a diploma for succeeding this specialization!" She almost huffed out the words.

But she was quick to walk over to her desk and find the correct scrolls. She signed the diploma and handed it Samuel, "With this, you are proven to be someone who holds the answer to our skills, go forth and honor it. For you already know the bladesong and you know the art of the blademage, but more than anything you know the bladecast."

"I am indeed jealous, for not many ever attain the ability to cast spells with their blade or the ability to draw runes and sigils with their blades." Samuel could see a small tear streak down one of her eyes as she gave him a small curtsy.

"Thank you Lady Nereya! It was an honor to train under your skills. I feel like there is still a lot I could learn from your wisdom, but I will accept this diploma!" Samuel showed only respect for his teachers, because they were older than him.

Although the might be stronger than many older than him, that didn't give him any right to say that he had more wisdom of years than them. He still had much to learn!

"So is it safe to come out yet?" Night asked quietly after Samuel had taken his leave and gotten well enough distance from the building. Ever since Zalbas had seen her she had become extra careful around people, especially if she knew they were children of mana.

She had no desire to cause any problem for Samuel by revealing herself, which was another reason for her staying quiet, what if someone could hear her speaking or hear their thoughts. She hid deep within the shadow Samuel casted.

"Yes silly dragon, I think it is!" Samuel made a snarky reply with a big grin on his face, he was slowly walking back towards the house to rest up for the night. Meanwhile Night was sneaking from shadow to shadow, thankfully nighttime made it very easy to blend in and hide for Night.

It was in her name after all, "So do you think we will do well on the big attack against the pirate stronghold?" Night asked while slithering forward, looking more like a snake rather than a dragon.

Samuel raised his eyebrows, "I think we will do just fine, we are more than prepared and we won't be going alone like the last time!" Samuel said and looked at the starry sky.

"But I suppose you'd do best to hide yourself most of the time anyway, just in case!" His words echoed inside her head and she nodded several times. "Yeah that sounds good to me!" She replied.

It was then that they reached the house once more and she slithered back into his shadow, Sonya and Erica had never mentioned being able to see Night so she was a bit more carefree in their own house.

Almost like walking around naked was the conclusion Samuel had come to, but when he told Night she had simply huffed and looked like she blushed out of the embarassment.

Samuel walked into the all to regular house that was his home and found Sonya and Erica once again sleeping on one couch each, so he did the sensible thing and snuck inside so he wouldn't wake them. Gently closing the door.

But when he turned around he realized there was another pair of open eyes looking at him quietly, it was Emma who was sitting up in one of the side couches, her entire team was there sleeping as well. "I guess they brought them home this time!" Samuel sighed.

There was nothing he could do about it as he locked the door and started walking up towards his bedroom, Emma was quick to run quietly after him while holding a pillow, Samuel held up the door for her and she ran inside and sat down on his bed.

It looked like she wanted to talk, so what better place to do it since their voices wouldn't disturb the ones sleeping downstairs from the magically enchanted room.