(Resumed) Solstice

[Emmett]

"Good afternoon," Ser Sakura said, announcing her presence as she stepped onto the field for Magickal Martial Arts, "Today we are going to go over lines of attack." She held out her hand, and the golden flame of creation blazed forth again, condensing into yet another kunai. "Who here feels confident with Æther constructs?" She asked, her fingertips touching and her new weapon orbiting around her

I saw hands raise from Patrick, Ansel, Samael, and some of the other more-advanced classmates.

Sakura glanced toward Samael. "Ah Mr. Michaels, I hear you're a squad leader now; come on up."

My Wednesday opponent stood up and approached Sakura on the games field.

Our teacher's weapon came to a halt in front of her, edge facing Samael much like a sword might. "Create a weapon, please: specifically one of Unattuned Æther and ideally one that can adequately parry."

He nodded and drew his hand in a wide circle overhead, pulling Æther out of the sky and finishing with a hard slash, a spectral azure short sword glowing in his hand. He placed his left foot back and raised his right hand to place his new weapon between him and the teacher's.

"Solid construction, but far too flashy," Ser Sakura said, "In a real fight I'd have killed you twelve times over. We will have to cover that later, especially for the men. For now, do you remember the eight basic lines of attack for a sword?"

Samael tightened his grip on his blade. "Up, down, left, right, and the four diagonals."

"Good, and here's the difficult question: Where's the point of view for those angles?"

"The attacker!" Samael shifted his stance a few times with a smirk, "It is the attacker who makes the decisions, so a fighter must gauge the intent of a strike at its source! You trying to throw me off, Ser?"

"Not at all, Mr. Michaels. Defend yourself."

The kunai swung forth in an overhead strike, and Samael blocked without effort. The kunai pulled back and went for a horizontal, then a diagonal. Samael parried and redirected every blow with confident force, including some of the thrusts from the telekinetic knife.

The instructor did not move; her gaze held steady.

The kunai started incorporating light feints in its pattern, throwing a diagonal swing short and reversing into a fast horizontal.

Samael thrust his sword down-left to block and flicked out, but the impact of the floating metal knife shook his body and caused him to stagger. Now with the instructor to his side, he shifted his stance to face the kunai's new facing.

"Notice anything?" Sakura called.

"That I could disengage here and beeline to you if I so wished!"

"Is that so?" Sakura's kunai lifted and swung down for an overhead, but dropped the instant before the two blades clashed. Before Samael could react, the kunai had already fallen halfway.

The weapon, now with nothing blocking it, jutted up and grazed Samael's face. "You are correct in always evaluating the opponent, but the line of attack is from the perspective of the attack itself, and that perspective can be shifted at will; it's actually one of the many prerogatives of being a Magus. Of course, this means you must also be able to defend in any direction as well. Keep this in mind if you are ever called to defend the Colleges. Now form up and practice mindfully. Pay attention to where your spell-work can take you, and watch for unexpected lines of attack from your opponent!"

Unlike Ser Linn, Ser Sakura had everyone pair up, and disperse not only along the games field, but also the surrounding areas. She had issued a decree of only using Unattuned Magick for this session and instructed us to take things slow. Ansel sought me out and paired with me, and a wave of anxiety left me in that moment.

"Well, normally we'd normally go with the lesson as planned, Em," he said, "But seeing as you still can't cast, let's see how your hand-to-hand is."

"Probably bad." And I was right; Ansel had, in nearly all of our matches in the class, broken past my defenses in three strikes or less. Unlike with Samael, however, Ansel pointed out a few tips for me and tricks he had used to secure his victories. While I never really did score even a single hit, I had felt that I was learning a thing or two.

At the end of the class, Ser Sakura drew a satchel from her robes and opened it, willing a flock of kunai to flow out of the opening, and land softly, one in each student's hand. "This is a gift to each of you. I'd like you to meditate on the subject of target lines while holding onto these weapons. Thank you for attending, and I hope to see each of you soon. Oh!" She waved her hand, and four sealed envelopes fluttered into the hands of my squad, and myself of course. "I was told to give you four these, and to direct you toward the South Outer Ring."

After the remainder of the class dispersed, I looked for the three members of my new squad, the Upstarts, and apparently the other three had the same idea.

"Hey Emmy," Patrick called, "Why don't you just go home?"

"No," Grace said, "We need him. A Squad cannot dispatch with less than four."

"Unfortunately," Samael added. "Let's see what the fuss is about, but we're likely being dispatched on our mission tonight. This will be fun. Let's confirm whether we are, then we can open our letters."

I nodded and we gathered ourselves before crossing into the central campus and between the Colleges of Earth and Fire. As was predicted, the simple iron fence was pulled all the way open, allowing unimpeded travel into the Outer Ring.

The area itself was simple: a cobblestone road with fields on both flanks. However, these flanks contained more gardens, grazing pens, and barns than I could keep track of under a cursory glance when I was supposed to be keeping pace with the rest of the team and a carriage stood waiting for us.

Ser Feylance waved us down as we approached. "Why hello Upstarts. Didn't think you'd have a mission the very next day now would you?"

I shook my head. Even with one being lined up, I hadn't imagined it'd come so soon.

"Whatever it is," Patrick said, "We three have it handled."

"Three?" Feylance asked.

"Yeah: Not like Emmett's going to be any use," Samael said.

"We'll just see about that, now won't we?" Ser Feylance said, "Now, I trust that between Mr. Michaels and Mr. Peterson that you can power the Ætheric Delivery Array? Or should I summon for Ser Linn?"

"Ætheric Del-" I looked at the absence of horses on the carriage. I looked at the back exit. I climbed into the back exit. I saw the Spell Circle, and was able to piece a few things together.

Kenaz "Torch" rune at Center, expanding to a diamond, with two Tiwaz "Sky" runes at the sides, and emptiness up top.

Wait.

Why were there only two runes, yet it was a full square? "Shouldn't it be a flattened rhombus?"

"Normally yes, but this was deliberately designed," Samael said, taking one of the seats in this airborne hell-shaped cabin, "The absence of a rune means that the Æther is floating, and the circle actually exploits the structure of the Tiwaz runes as an arrow to kick the floating Æther in the desired direction."

"Hey Samael," Patrick said, climbing in, "You think the two of us can even power this? I say two because Emmy's useless and Grace is a girl."

"How does that-" I started to ask, but was met with glares.

"Emmett," said Grace, who had just entered, "just stop."

"Um, okay, sure." I got into position and grabbed the handholds.

Grace looked at me before doing the same, her body shaking a little bit. "Are... we going to be flying?"

"Oh heavens and havens we are, ma'am," Samael said, holding out his hand-

"The circle takes Æther," I said.

Patrick scoffed and drew his hand across his shoulder. "Well duh. You think we'd use our Elements when they're not the same and mine burns shit?"

Ser Feylance poked his head in from the front and waved. "Mr. Sinclair, you may wish to read the mission description while your masculine teammates fuel the Express and Miss Gardner adjusts to being on a flying carriage. When I see Æther flowing into my circle, we'll begin."

I nodded, and opened up my envelope.

Mission Name: Help, We're Caved In And We Can't Get Up
Mission Category: Service - Rescue
Mission Requestor: Stephen Clark
Mission Squad Assigned: Upstarts (led by Samael Michaels)

Mission Description: On the Third Day of the Ninth Month, thirteen employees of the Forty Nine Hopes And Dreams Mining Company encountered a cave-in while excavating gold and platinum from Iron By Right Mine near Golden Palette in Can Vahs. The cave-in was substantial, with multiple meters of cavern being rendered unusable. We are requesting an Expedition Squad to excavate the cave-in and provide a route for the employee's escape and continued survival. We have consulted Forty Nine Hopes And Dreams and received confirmation that they have provisions to last five days.

Mission Parameters: The employees of Forty Nine Hopes And Dreams Mining Company MUST successfully exit Iron By Right Mine ALIVE. Squad MUST remove the debris on the afflicted cave structure to facilitate this escape. Squad MUST NOT alter any other part of the mine. Squad SHOULD complete the Mission within a day of arrival but MUST complete the Mission before employees run out of supplies.

Mission Additional: Additional remuneration will be rewarded should Squad adequately reinforce the affected area of the mine so as to prevent future incidents.

Mission Approved by Myrrdin Feylance on Fourth of Ninth and scheduled to begin on Fifth of Ninth.

I had looked up to see streams of Æther streaming from both the other men in the squad, and reached immediately for the handhold, knowing what was to come. The Sleepless Express lurched forward, and confirmed my suspicions.

"You get a look at the mission?" Samael asked.

"Yeah," I replied, "I'll tell you once we're stable and in the air. Handholds will be your friend here."

"Yeah no shit," Grace cursed, squeezing onto hers, "I'd be willing to court these things if they keep me aliv-Ah!"

And we had lifted off the ground. This time I had some idea of what was going on (and I've done it before three days ago) so I was fine. Patrick seemed to shake a little bit, but either he wanted to show off how brave he was, or he was too busy maintaining the Spell Circle, or both. Grace was yelping every now and again, and muttering some sort of curse under her breath.

Eventually we gained out altitude, and I continued my explanation. "So the basic mission is to clear a cave-in at a mine and rescue some trapped miners. We're only allowed to modiify the area that got caved-in, but we get extra credit if we reinforce it."

"And none of us are Earth Magi so that's out of the question," Samael said, "And they weren't able to clear the cave-in on their own?"

"Apparently," I replied, "Additionally, we have three days total, though we're supposed to clear it in one."

"And of course we have to worry about people in a cave," Patrick cursed, "I could get rid of the cave-in by myself, but with people and caves I have to actually be fucking careful, and that's assuming I have anything left in me when we get there."

"Yeah," Grace chimed in, "I think I'll be handling the majority of the actual excavation, especially with you two on low reserves. How much longer until we get there anyway?"

"Hopefully soon," said Patrick, his hand shaking as if straining from the sustained Magick.

"There's too much we don't know yet," I said, "Let's wait until we land and learn more."

"Sounds good," Samael said, "It'll give me time to think on how best we can use our Elements."

We continued floating in silence for a few moments, almost relaxed, until we heard the dreaded voice of our sponsor:

"We're going to downclimb soon!" The voice was muted but no less scary, and everyone clutched tighter to their handlebars of Not Falling To Ones Death. Then the carriage tilted, and Grace screamed a bit again before entrusting her fate to a cold inanimate object just like the rest of us.

After a few moments of utter tension, the carriage touched down and slowed to a stop. The moment I no longer sensed movement from the cabin, both Patrick and Samael let go of their channeling and struggled to so much as stand.

Ser Feylance peeked in and stuck his tongue out again. "Welcome to Golden Palette. Good job on the Spell Circle by the way. Let's give you about five to ten minutes of rest, then let's go talk to Clark."