Academy pt 2
Each morning the students would run several miles, do strenuous exercises, and lift rocks before gathering on the wide, open roof of the temple to practise their drills and routines under the watchful eye of one of the Maesters. This morning they were graced with the presence of Lord Lushchek himself.
A few weeks ago, Tyson struggled to learn the exotic manoeuvres of sword arts but slowly he was growing accustomed to them. Lord Lushchek had taken a keen interest in Tyson from the moment he arrived but this attention was a double-edged sword. He got the individual coaching he needed from the Blademaester and at the same time, Tyson could already sense that some of the other students were jealous, though none dared to act against him. Competition among the students was encouraged, but there were harsh penalties for any student caught interfering with or disrupting the training of another student.
Tyson quickly discovered that Lord Luschek wasn't being honest about his intentions or at the very least wasn't forthcoming with the whole story.
He intended Tyson to become the best student not only because he wanted a human to achieve that feat but he had a long-running rivalry with one of the other maesters; Lord Harkon. They were competing for who would be named hand of the king and head of the ruling council- a seat which the King had yet to fill. King Valkor was a staunch believer that leaders must first be great teachers and rumour had it that the King would announce his decision based on teaching ability sometime later that year. Lord Luschek and Lord Harkon were both leading contenders. Shotan was Lord Harkon's candidate to show that he was the superior teacher and Tyson was Lord Luschek's.
After months of gruelling training, he was close to being at the top. The only person standing in his way is an Orc named Shotan -nicknamed the grey demon by the other students. Amongst the sword art apprentices, he was one of the oldest and clearly the best. Tyson had been watching him and from what he'd seen Shotan was ambitious, driven and arrogant. But his arrogance was not undeserved. As a child, he had been a prisoner of war after the collapse of the Orc empire which held most of the southern territories for a century from their capital on the Fire islands; a group of volcanic islands in the southern sea. Lord Harkon had taken him as a slave but through sheer determination, he now held a station in Lord Harkon's household similar to a son.
Tyson planned to use his arrogance to take him down later on by the only sanctioned way students could bring down a rival; a duel. After morning practice sessions, students were free to challenge other students in single combat but the challenged students didn't have to accept. No one ever challenged Shotan to a dual out of fear and he never issued challenges to the other students out of contempt. He thought that everyone else was beneath him. Tyson had no doubt in his mind that Shotan would not impune his reputation by rejecting a challenge and that would be his downfall.
Unfortunately, getting his to take the challenge was easy but defeating him wouldn't be. Shotan was far and away the strongest of the students. There were rumours that he had begun studying sword art under Lord Harkon nearly fifteen years ago, long before even the civil war that created the Kingdom of Endar. Tyson didn't know if the rumours were true, and he hadn't thought it wise to ask about it. The Orc was both powerful and dangerous. So far Tyson had done his best to avoid drawing the attention of the Academy's most advanced student instead he patiently waited for the right time to issue his challenge.
For this reason, Tyson also made two friends; Clarissa and Trevor. Tyson used Clarissa's knowledge of the Drenda'al temple archives to gain an advantage but he had more sinister plans for Trevor.
Clarissa Dawn was a mage student hoping to gain the first link in her chain. When a student achieves mastery of a particular field of expertise under a Maester of the Drenda'al academy, they are given a link of a chain. Students studying sword arts are given an Iron link for warcraft, accountants and merchants are given a gold link and Clarissa was working toward a silver link signifying a mastery of healing arts. Clarissa was always dressed in simple attires geared that failed to draw Tyson's attention to her body (probably by design). She seldom spoke about her past but from the little that she divulged, Tyson discovered that her father was a gifted healer who taught her everything she knew. He was a man of indomitable will and courage. Tyson sometimes saw flashes of profound sadness in her eyes and heard it in her voice when she spoke about him. Other than that she hid her feelings well. She sometimes referred to her father as if he had died and sometimes as if he was still alive. Tyson detected something more there...more than sadness... it was guilt. But why would a young girl feel guilty about her father's death? In the absence of more information, it didn't make sense.
Tyson deduced that she lived alone in Drenda'al due to her always being found amongst the tomes of the archives but he suspected that she did not grow up anywhere near it and that her loyalty was not to the King of Endar or to the Maesters at the Academy.
Trevor Keihin on the other hand was a nobleman's son with a decent sword arm and a massive ego. He was more open about his past and being raised in an estate that bore more resemblance to a temple of elegance and luxury than a home where people lived. Tyson was often nauseated by his incessant talk of rare and expensive works of art that lined the walls of his mansion (his and not his parent's). Trevor always wore finely tailored silk tunics and boots polished to perfection. Whenever he was seen two days in a row in the same attire, Tyson could surmise that he had been partying all night and had only just returned. Tyson's plan was to gently stroke his ego until he challenged Shotan in one on one combat which he would badly lose. Tyson wanted desperately to witness Shotan in battle and study his fighting style so that he could outwit him.
And when Tyson wasn't learning from the Maesters, he was in the library studying the ancient records collected and stored information in the archives of Drenda'al's temple which were limited to scrolls, tomes, and manuals. In the four thousand years spanning many bloody wars including the most recent war of secession against Corsal, enemy forces always attempted to eradicate the teaching tools of the Academy to varying degrees of success and because the collection was constantly being added to, the indexes and references were hopelessly out of date and the archives themselves were badly maintained. Searching the archives was often an exercise in patience, and only the most diligent students spent enough time trying to learn from them. The others gave up and concentrated on perfecting their form.
Having Clarissa made this arduous task bearable at least whenever she wasn't fighting with Trevor about something he had said to get her riled up. Their constant bickering sometimes got in the way of Tyson's studying and he had to waste many an hour on settling them. The amount of wasted time that he spent on this was still far less than the time it would take if he were to try and navigate the archives on his own so for now, he would endure.
Perhaps it was because Tyson didn't grow up around people, or maybe his training at the hands of Freya had taught him patience—whatever the explanation, Tyson spent several hours each day studying the ancient records. He found them fascinating. Many of the scrolls were historical records recounting ancient battles or glorifying the deeds of ancient Knights, Mages, Magical Knights and Battle Mages. By itself, the information had little practical use, but he could see each individual work for what it actually represented: a tiny piece of a much larger puzzle, a clue to a much greater understanding.
The archives supplemented what he learned from the Maesters. It gave context to abstract lessons and Tyson felt that, in time, ancient knowledge would be the key to unlocking his full potential. And so his understanding of the Magic continued to grow under Clarissa's tutelage.
Mystical and unexplainable, Magic was also natural and essential: a fundamental energy binding and connecting all living things within it. This energy, this power, could be harnessed. It could be manipulated and controlled. And through the teachings of the Academy, Tyson was learning to seize hold of it. He practised his meditations and exercises daily, and after only a few weeks he learned to move small objects simply by thinking about them.
Yet now he understood that this was only the beginning. He was starting to grasp a great truth on a deep, fundamental level: that the strength to survive must come from within.