The Trials.

We walked out into the yard of the cottage and saw all the students lined up in neat rows. Well all the students that were left after the whole Beast business. A lot of people had just left the school out of fear.

We both got into our respective lines as Eliot began his announcement to the lazily dressed, half asleep people who had been woken up so rudely at midnight and dragged here.

"Hello first years. At this appointed hour as tradition dictates, it falls upon the upper class to administer what is known simply as the Trials.

The Trials test your ability to think and act like a magician. Pass, your journey begins. Fail, you flunk out. This is a test engineered to thin out the herd."

He explained as he walked by us menacingly, relishing in our discomfort.

"Oh nut up. This isn't Harvard." He let up, "It requires actual effort."

He turned around before spinning back over.

"And don't bother to go complaining to the faculty. They are off in a luxurious retreat, observing from a distance.

You are ours, miscreants!" He giggled evilly and raise his golden theatre mask high in the air, looking into the middle distance.

"Onward .... To Glory!"

What?

Everyone just looked at him, confused, when Margo so helpfully advised.

"Come on. Go! GO! GO YOU TURDS!" She waved about her knife, scaring the crowd back into the house.

Did I say helpful?

I meant fucking mad.

She even knicked Alice with it, slicing a nick into her pajamas.

And look at that smile on her face. She thoroughly enjoy this.

I smiled and made my way inti the house and found them already inside, sitting at a hastily set up desk.

How? They were all just outside and....

I sighed

I really need to find a counter to that dematerialization spell every magician seems to have mastered.

It's not hard, just time consuming.

It's just that I have been so busy with other work that I didn't have the time.

I took a ticket from the desk and looked at it.

Team Fishpunchers.

"Horrible naming sense." I commented.

"The trials themselves decide the names, they hold the power. They do as the Dean created them to do. I can however change your seating if you want. Hope you don't regret your choice~" Margo said in a playful tone, pointing at the room.

I looked on my ticket.

Table 8.

I looked over and saw Yue sitting there already. And beside her, Alice.

I turned back to Margo and she just winked and gave me a thumbs up.

I smiled.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Now go. Get that make up sex." She said with a cheeky grin.

I chuckled.

"I will."

Yue huffed, still pretending to be mad at me and turned away as I sat beside her.

It was adorable.

I just wanted to squish her cheeks so bad right now, but first, I had to focus on the task at hand as Eliot appeared on the small podium where the piano was kept and addressed us all with a discordant note.

"In 18th century England, a secret society known as The Brethren encrypted hundreds of spells to hide them from the church." He explained, "You may open your blue books."

I looked down at the small pamphlet on the table and flipped it open.

Inside was a long poem, an analysis of said poem and it's etymology.

Neat. So an English assignment with a side of magic.

"Each team must decode and cast their spell by 9 am. Screw up and it's back to page one." He instructed as he walked around with a candle holder, playing up the Victorian theme.

"FYI this test is pretty much impossible. Begin!" He ordered.

I scoffed.

Impossible? Not with an A.I. and certainly not for me.

I had already decoded the whole text and saved it in my drove the day we retrieved the book from Marina.

I put on my glasses and scanned the booklet as the computer got to decoding it when suddenly they were pulled off my face.

"And!" Eliot announced, pocketing the glasses, "New rule. No A.I. assisted glasses allowed. Codify it, will you Margo?"

I looked at Margo and groaned.

"Really?"

Margo smiled deviously.

"With pleasure."

I rolled my eyes at them.

"I better get those back after the Trials."

"Maybe~" Eliot chuckled and walked away leaving me with the pamphlet and disappointment as Yue gloated in my misery.

"Just let me do it if you can't." Alice suggested.

"Oh no one said I can't. It'll just take me five minutes now instead of 10 seconds." I said, and got to work on the poem.

Alice raised an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I did make the A.I. y'know? I'm not dumb, just lazy."

"Well if you insist. Tell me if you need any help." Alice gave in.

Usually she'd have protested and said 'I can do it myself' but yhe incident with Charlie had tempered her and not to mention, five minutes was a whole lot faster than her couple of hours.

In fact, in the time that it took me to figure that out, I was already a quarter of the way through.

Soon, I had the spell ready and done.

With a gesture, I cast the spell and viola.

A blue-green flame lit up in the bronze chalice provided alongside the pamphlet.

"This fast?" Eliot's eyes widened, "That's a new record. 4 minutes and 52 seconds to pass the first trial."

Eliot clapped and the flame went out.

"Team Fishpunchers, pass. See you at 9."

And with a wave of his hand we were teleported out of the cottage onto the pine needle laden ground outside.

"Ouch!" Alice cried out as she got up from the floor.

I ignored her.

"Yue, are you okay?" I said and tried to check her hands but she rolled away from me, a miffed look on her face.

She humphed and walked off and I quickly followed behind her.

Not leaving her alone. Just as promised.

.

We sat in the cafeteria, in silence as we drank our hot chocolates, mine dosed generously with mega seed juice.

"So... Are you in the mood to talk?" I asked.

"No." She huffed, "Not that that has ever stopped you before. You just do whatever you want, without considering how I feel!"

That ticked me off more than it should have.

What right does she have to-

After I tried so hard to help her, she's just belittling my effort like this?

"I would understand how you feel if you stopped being a passive aggressive bitch and told me." I snapped.

Yue's eyes went wide and I could feel the warmth drain from them again.

"You want to say that again?"

"Yeah. Stop being passive aggressive and tell me what your problem is? Let me help you!"

"Like you helped me earlier today?"

"No, like I helped you back in the labyrinth, you ungrateful cun-" I stopped myself, but it was too late.

She grit her teeth and bubbling with rage gave me a death glare.

"Yue, look I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

Slap!

"How can you sl-"

Slap!

She slapped me again and stormed off.

And this time, I didn't go looking for her.

I just cupped my face in my hands and sighed, oscillating between two responses.

"Why do I keep fucking up like this?"

And.

"Fuck her. She can tell me when she wants to. At least I tried."

I stood up and returned to the dorm, going back to sleep.

And you can guess which side won.

I hate the logical side of me sometimes.

.

It was late next evening that I woke up from a deep sleep, and I could feel a heavy feeling in my chest.

Like an anvil was caving it in.

And the emotions from last night cane rushing in as the mega seed high wore off.

Fuck.

What did I do?

Why did I do that?

Why am I so-ugh!

I stomped my foot on the floor and grunted in frustration.

I need to apologise.

I need to make this right!

I got dressed immediately and rushed out, back over to the cottage.

Only to be stopped by Margo.

"Hey hey hey! Romeo. Stop right there. Where do you think you're running off to huh?"

"I need to apologise to Yue. And I need to make it right." I said, trying to push her aside but she was like a rock in the middle of a river.

"Woven Strength? Seriously? For little old me?" I asked.

Woven Strength as the name suggested was a strength spell. Basically made you 50s superman.

Strong as a locomotive, leap tall buildings in a single bound. That whole shtick.

In the novels, Margo used it to jump across the desert to look for Ice Axes that removed possession and expelled the possessive spirit and she did leap over entire hills with this.

It was overpowered as fuck.

"Not for you, specifically." She smiled, "Besides, you are not near drunk enough to attempt a sloppy but heartwarming apology. Here." She handed me a cup of wine.

And with a look I could tell it was roofied.

"Do I look like an idiot?" I asked her.

"No. You look distracted." She giggled and disappeared.

Suddenly the world warped around me and a forest appeared as I sighed.

The second trial had begun.

"Let's skip over the part where you realise you no makey magic here." Eliot said, and I turned around to see him dressed regally, sitting before an array of scones and sandwiches, tea and coffee in fine china, and a handful of empty plates.

"Ooh, cucumber. Come to daddy!" He picked one tiny sandwich up, took one bite and spat it out.

"Too much mustard."

"Can we skip to the part where you ask me to bring you what? Fish? Birds? Fruits?"

"No. I'm in the mood for some...bacon."

He pointed behind me.

I turned and saw a giant hog some ways from me in the thicket.

"That's not a pig. What is that....that size and signature....Is it one of the descendants of the fucking Caledonian Boar? That Hercules defeated as one of his 12 labours?" I asked.

"Actually, yes. 190th grandnephew, twice removed. Found him especially for you. Go on now. Papa craves a taste straight out of legend!" He clapped and disappeared.

Yeah, no.

I'm not going after the grandson of the Caledonian Boar.

I'll just snipe it.

I raised a hand and connected to my particle beam watch only to find it absent from my wrist.

The same with the forcefield generator. And laser pistol. And D-bombs.

Fucking hell!

I looked back at the Boar and shook my head.

Not in the mood to Robert Baratheon-ed today.

Sure, I could use my god power and one shot the bastard but that would mean revealing a trump card.

No way Jose.

Let's find someone else and see of they have any tools I can borrow for the task. In the show, the second trial was about cooperation. Everyone had to swap tasks and tools to the ones were the best suited for.

I just need to find someone strong enough to tank the charge and flip the boar over, just like Hercules did.

Someone strong enough without magic .....

Yeah.

"Eliot and Margo. You lovable idiots." I muttered

They were too considerate.

The only one strong enough to tank the bore, no magic, was Yue with her monstrous vampiric strength.

And lo and behold.

Not even a minute later, I spotted Yue, trying to rummage through the bushes for berries.

She noticed me too as I drew closer.

"Hey! Yue, before you storm off, listen to-"

She didn't however and was already taking off when I caught her by the wrist.

Wasting no time I quickly announced.

"We are in a pocket dimension Without magic and I don't have any medicine. If you break my wrist, I'll die to the massive boar 509 meters that way. Please don't do anything too rash!"

Instantly, she settled down and stopped struggling.

"Fine." Sge muttered coldly.

"Yue. I'm sor-"

"Save it for someone who cares!" She cut me off.

"Now let me go. I need to find berries to make ink."

"Why do you need ink?"

"To complete my task." She replied curtly.

"Which is?"

"Escaping from this place."

"Without magic?"

"Teleportation circle. Blood will do for magic." She replied.

"Aha! But I have a better way to do this. My task on the other hand." I pointed behind me.

"Hunting that boar. Something you can do, with your brute strength."

Yue thought for a moment before nodding and no words needed to be said as we swapped our tasks.

I took a handful of berries and stuffed them in my pocket as I climbed up a tall tree and looked out over the horizon for a suitably high spot to survey the area from.

Once I got there, it was as simple as 1, 2, 3.

Scanning the treeline, I began to note down the oattern of the foliage and the number of trees in any given place to find out how to escape. If my instincts were right, this was probably a small pocket dimension. A mile or so in radius. Anything bigger would be very noticeable and affect the casting in the school to a degree.

That means that it is probably procedurally generated like a minecraft world.

At somepoint it will start to devolve i to a pattern. And if I exploit the pattern....

I placed the last stone in a bizzare physical Rube goldberg machine made of carefully balanced rocks, leaves and berries along with other assorted material and bit my finger, letting some blood drip into the center of the whole thing.

As soon as the blood touched the machine, the earth shook and the sky flickered, and suddenly I found myself back in the courtyard of the cottage, beside me, Yue with a dead Boar in her hands and the rest of the crew with Quentin and Alice bringing around firewood on a horse and Kady and Penny with a fish and a pheasant in their hands.

"What just happened?" Penny asked.

"I finished my task." I replied, kicking the machine as the elaborate contraption fell apart and Eliot and Margo clapped.

"Wunderbar!" Eliot chuckled, "Great performance. Now prepare the bacon, the fish and the pheasant and then each of you take turns blowing the horse.

Everyone looked at the prostine white horse.

"Seriously?" Quentin asked.

"You won't fail us over something thsi stupid." Penny dared them.

"Yeah, not doing that." I just flat out refused as the rest of them did too and Eliot and Margo burst into a bellowing laughter.

"Of course not." Margo assured, "You all pass. But the looks on your faces."

She cackled like a witch, nearly falling off her chair.

"And did you see Quentin's face?" Eliot pointed out, "He was like 'Fine, but I'm not going first'."

I just shook my head and looked towards Yue who seemed all tuckered out from the fight, her wounds healing up before my eyes.

"Can we make up? I'm really sorry Yue. I was wrong." I admitted.

"Wring about what?" She asked, like my mother used to.

It's a trick. Always a trick.

Like when your mom tells you to tell the truth and she won't be mad.

Same thing.

"Uh....for calling you a-"

"You don't know."

"Then tell me!" I insisted.

"Hey!" Eliot called out, "You two lovebirds can quarrel later. First, we need our dishes. So chop chop. Quite literally."

"Yeah. And Jay, the theme of the last trial is secrets magic, so whatever you have to say, say it there. You too Yue. Now go. You're not the only students we have to judge. Shoo!"

"Yeah, yeah." I looked at Yue who just left, dragging the boar with her and followed her silently. I'll clear it up in the last trial. Or give up on her. Either way, this shit ends today.

__________________

The extra chapter for 200 powerstones as promised!

As the MC said. This drama ends today, next chapter.

Secrets magic and a confession.

Till then, thanks for reading and see ya!