The First War Mage: City in the Sky

"Yes, I wish to enter the Academy." Nearly as soon as these words left my lips I felt the pressure that was constantly baring down upon me ease away slowly.

I still couldn't understand what that pressure was, only the vague information that Levi had given to me from saying that I had somehow... Been sensing their mana? It didn't make any sense to me, but I didn't have time, nor the want to focus on it at the moment after how much pain it had put me through.

My face was still wet from tears, and my arms and legs already sore, bruised from the horrible ropes and chains tying me to the ground. Yet with a mere flick of his hand, Levi removed them. The sudden alleviation of pressure left me to fall backwards - straight onto my rear from the half standing position I had been stuck in.

It was all still a daze, had they really just let me in like that? I didn't have any time to even ask questions, the entire group of people - at least all of the ones wearing robes, while Levi still sat in place. Watching me in silence while the others filed out one by one.

"Now that they are gone." Levi spoke with a much softer voice than he held before, it was still, terrifying, just from how deep it was. It sounded akin to a growling beast more than a human voice. Levi took in a slow breath as he stood up, walking around the podium to stand before me. "Stand up, I will bring you to the other students." He spoke once more in a more commanding voice, far softer than during the trial yet still far from friendly.

"Y-yes..." I couldn't help but stutter as I shakily stood back up. I nearly fell back down as my legs nearly gave out on me, my entire body still felt like it was on fire, and I could barely focus on anything. "W-what did I do?... That hurt so much?..."

"Hmm..." Levi thought for a moment as he looked down towards me, he stood easily two feet taller than me - if not closer to three. "In the most basic terms, you attempted to feel the mana of myself, and the eight other mages in the room at the same time. While a trained mage would not be affected by that, as you have never done such a thing before, doing it to such a scale was the equivalent of having the first injury you had ever felt be a shattered bone. Absolute agony beyond anything you could imagine." Levi gave a soft, and surprisingly straightforwards answer, something I hadn't been entirely expecting.

"What did you mean by... Bringing me to the other students?... And where is Darek?..." I chose to try and keep asking questions as I slowly steadied myself. Taking a shaking breath I was able to stand up straight enough that Levi began to walk, at least at a slower pace so that I could keep up.

"It is a straight forwards answer, the school is not here yet, so I am bringing you to where the other students are, and where you will meet you teacher. As far as Darek, he wished to be here within the trial, however by the laws of the court he could not. I will send someone to inform him of where you are once we are done." Levi replied courtly as he walked slowly. He pushed open one of many doors into the room, a different one from where all of the guards had left through.

Beyond the doors the sight that greeted me were ornate halls, the walls dozens of feet tall. The floor was glossy, finely carved mosaic tiles from a once more familiar black stone. The walls were a brighter gray color with silver accented columns every dozen feet, between them golden braziers sat hanging from the walls to illuminate the halls with their soft orange flames.

My eyes continued to wander as I followed about five paces behind Levi, never stopping on a single spot for more than a moment until they came upon an ornate tapestry outside of a doorway that Levi stopped before.

The tapestry caught my eye for a lot of reasons, for one it depicted a massive battle. One side was made of men and women in golden armor, lead by two people hidden behind deep black helmets, while across from them were legions of Unspeakables, grotesque black beasts made of tentacles and eyes. Never having consistent builds. Many of them were the size of bulls, while a solemn few were as large as buildings. In the far back of the tapestry I could see a familiar mountain range.

While I didn't know much about the history of Berinia, I did know one thing. This was depicting the last battle against the Unspeakables, the battle which purged them from the lands of Berinia and set the kingdom in place to where it stood today.

"The second oldest surviving artwork of this battle." Levi said softly, his eyes squinting at the tapestry softly. "In here, the other students, and teachers are waiting for the school to arrive." Levi stated before reaching a hand forwards, pushing the door open slowly.

What I had expected to be a room turned out to be a massive courtyard, it was square in shape, with each wall if I had to guess being about a hundred feet in length. The courtyard was lined with grass, bushes, paths and trees. All very well kept by a clearly skilled gardener, yet i didn't have time to focus on it as Levi placed a hand on my back, guiding me to start stumbling forwards.

At the center of the courtyard sat a large group of people, or, two groups to be specific. One group was far larger, being made up of a lot of other people my age. Presumably, the other students who would be attending the school with me, while the other group of about a dozen compared to the near four dozen were far older. All of them had badges, medals, and wore ornate uniforms. I assumed them to be the teachers.

Levi continued to push me forwards until I finally stopped examining things, walking on my own to fall in with the group of students. Most of them were staring at me, a few glaring, while many were snickering, making gestures towards me. I couldn't tell what they were supposed to be, however I could immediately tell I stood out, and not in a good way. I looked like a commoner, just dragged off of the street, still soaking wet from the water that was drenched onto me to wake me up, and my own tears and sweat from the trial.

Levi for his part walked over to the group of teacher, leaving the teachers to all circle around him while he spoke in a low voice. I tried to listen only to hear someone next to me clear their throat.

"What in the hell are you doing here?" A venomous voice called out, leaving me to look over slowly to put a face to the voice. It was coming from the tallest one in the group, while he was a far cry from the height behind Levi, he still stood well over me presumably near six foot. "A damned criminal? Have they gotten desperate?" He continued to speak while I just took in how he looked in silence, ignoring the venom he spewed out. He had gentle blonde and peculiarly orange eyes, albeit they hardly fazed me given my own red eyes.

"She's not just a criminal Erick, she's the damn Vulender. They can't have listened to that crazy old man saying she was an Arcadian?" I looked over, seeing a woman not much taller than me speaking towards the first, who I now knew was called Erick. She was a little more interesting to look at, her hair was relatively long, down to her shoulders, it was evenly split down the middle of her body into two different colors, red and blue. Her eyes were the same, but inverted on which side they were on, with the red eye under the blue hair, and the blue under the red.

"Didn't you see who brought her here Lucia, that was Levi, as in one of the fifteen arch mages Levi!" Another woman spoke as she desperately tried to hide her shouting gossips as whispers. She was the taller one of the two girls talking, she had gentle purple hair, and similarly colored eyes. Honestly she actually didn't seem that bad in my eyes, but I didn't have very high hopes to be liked by anyone here. She did at least give me a name for the shorter girl, Lucia.

"Anestesia why don't you go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and leave us alone?" Lucia spat back in an instant, hate was audible in her voice. I couldn't help but snicker a little as I turned away, looking back towards the teachers to ignore the cat fight that seemed about to break out.

"What's so funny?" Lucia continued to snarl out, her hate redirecting towards me. My soft red eyes flicked back as I just gave her a shrug.

"The fact that I can tell you're not trying to do anything but get into his pants by just looking at you, and that you can't stand being questioned at all." I replied in a deadpan tone, leaving Lucia to grow red with embarrassment and anger, she began to huff and puff towards me while Anestesia looked towards me with some level of surprise in her eyes.

Yet, as I looked away I felt a crushing grip on my shoulder that I had to force myself to not wince from, being forcibly turned back towards the three Erick was now holding me by the shoulder, looking like he was about ready to knock me out again once more.

"Apologize. Now." He spat out in my face, leaving me to just grab my sleeve gently, wiping his saliva off of my face slowly before I met his eyes with an utterly disinterested look.

"Why should I apologize for telling the truth? Or are you really about to go and hit me right in front of all the teachers, and other students?" I retorted back slowly. I was used to people treating me like I was nothing more than trash to be pushed around, nearly everyone in the prison did. The guards especially, Darek was always one of the solemn few exceptions I had to that in my life.

"You little-" Erick spat out before quickly stepping back as a booming voice called out.

"That enough!" Levi shouted out, leaving every single student, and even some of the teachers to freeze in place. He glared at the four of us, his gaze settled on me for a moment before it locked onto Erick rather firmly, Anestesia for her part was backing away slowly, and Lucia was still sputtering with anger. "Fall in, now!" Levi shouted once more, leaving everyone to follow his orders by instinct.

I moved into one of the two lines the students formed, and I could now fully see how many were here. Thirteen teachers including Levi, and roughly forty eight students. Levi seemed to be looking across the students slowly, his gaze fell on one for a moment before he sighed gently.

Erick was still glaring daggers at me from a few paces away, I could feel the glare without even looking at him. But, I didn't bother to give him the enjoyment of noticing him, instead I looked towards the person Levi had locked onto for a moment, yet I couldn't quite see them.

"Now, all of you go through and find a partner. Be absolutely certain about your choice, as you will be with this partner, with absolutely no chance for changes for the rest of this school year. If any are left without a partner, then they shall be put into a group of three." Levi spoke slowly, I just took a step back, letting the groups sort themselves out. I already knew two people I would avoid at all cost, and luckily, the two of them immediately locked onto each other for partnership during the school.

Looking around slowly, all of the students were clearly avoiding me, other than Anestesia at least, she seemed to just be watching and waiting. However, one other person stood out to me, and I looked at her for a few moments.

The thing that stood out to me the most was that she, unlike anyone else here, had white hair, and red eyes. I couldn't know for certain, but I assumed that my hair was completely showing its real color at this point. It was something that bothered me a little, but after a moment of us staring at each other, the girl began to approach me slowly.

"Well, you seem a lot more promising than any of the power grabbers." She spoke with a sort of teasing smile, offering a hand out towards me. She was over a foot taller than me, which wasn't exactly uncommon given I seemed to be almost a foot shorter than I should be, I looked at her hand for a moment before taking it gently - barely trusting her enough but I figured i had nothing to lose.

"Not like I can grab power... But... Why would power grabbers be interested in you?... I'm... Kirin by the way..." I spoke rather quickly, almost as quickly as I began to fell uncomfortable. Everyone's eyes were locked onto the two of us as we talked, as if I had just committed some unspoken sin of the highest order.

"Kirin... I like that name, I'm Tulip Berini." Tulip smiled softly before taking her hand back. Similar to Darek she pat my head, ruffling my hair and leaving me dazed for a moment. People were still staring, leaving me to look around at them, the confusion clear in my eyes.

"They really don't tell you anything do they?" Tulip asked slowly as she noticed my confused stares, she just sighed a little, shaking her head.

"Tell me what?..." I asked slowly, my gaze turning back towards my now supposed partner.

"Well, first of all any of the rules... Which I will be going over once we're in our room, but more than that. I would have thought they would have mentioned something about you being in the same classes as the currently crowned heir to the throne of Berinia." Tulip spoke as if it was nothing, leaving me to look towards her slowly.

"What?" Utter bewilderment was the only set of words that could come close to describing how I felt. The crowned heiress just approached me and wanted to be my partner for an entire year at this school? It left me second guessing my choices, was this just some ploy on her part? Just to use me as a political pawn? My mind immediately jumped to conclusions while she just gave a gentle smile. That smile felt somehow warming, and calming leaving me to just, simmer down and look at the other groups as they slowly returned to their own discussions.

This process went on for probably close to half an hour before every group was set, it was a complete even number leaving us with twenty four groups of two. Yet, after this was done Levi began to go through and merge some of the groups together, leaving to me what seemed to be random groups out as duos, while some increased to as large as six people until there were only thirteen groups left.

"Now, your teachers have already been selected... However, I believe some of these groups have surprised all of us." Levi spoke slowly, his eyes settling upon Tulip and myself for a moment before he walked over towards us. The twelve other teachers all began to approach their groups as well in unison. "Your father would have my head if he knew I condoned this without trying to tell you otherwise." Levi continued in a softer voice as he approached the two of us.

"Well there you have it, you tried to tell me otherwise just now. And my answer? I'm quite intrigued by this little Kirin." Tulip spoke with a smug grin, looking towards me before reaching over and pinching my cheek. "Besides look at that adorable face!"

"Ow! I'm sixteen you know!" I protested almost immediately, leaving Tulip to giggle to herself like a gremlin.

"Fiiiine...." Tulip begrudgingly stated before her face turned serious, and her tone lowered. "Besides, I already figured out how to sense mana a little, Levi, and I am really curious about her now. Even dad doesn't feel close to that." Tulip spoke in basically a whisper while Levi just sighed slowly.

"You're lucky I tolerate you, and yes, she is unique." Levi spoke, he stood up slowly from where he had been, crouched down to be at a more comfortable speaking level for the two far shorter girls before him. "Well then Kirin, Tulip, it looks like I will be the teacher for you two for this next year." Levi stated gently.

"Can someone please tell me what is happening?..." I eventually pleaded out slowly desperate for either of them to answer.

"You really can't tell a girl anything can you Levi?" Tulip immediately spoke out before turning her gaze towards me. "At the end of every year, and just before the beginning of the next, all of the new students for Silver Sky are gathered up and split into these groups. Each group has a teacher unique to them, usually a High Mage or greater in ranking. Levi here is one of the eight Arch Mages who spend their time doing something actually useful - Teaching at Silversky, and he also doubles as the head of the royal court as the only unbiased man within their ranks. Given he isn't part of any High Noble family. What we just went through was the screening process to trim us down into workable groups for the teachers for the year, most of the time you're gonna be with your teacher through graduation. Sometimes teachers don't like their students, or vice versa, but I doubt that will be our case." Tulip spouted out all without stopping for an instant to take a breath. Only to end with a smug grin looking at Levi. "See? was that so hard?"

"You're lucky you're a Princess Tulip." Levi replied calmly, afterwards taking a gentle breath and sighing. "And yes, that covers everything that you need to know to begin with. The reasoning we have for this teaching method is simple, every student learns magic in a unique way, while you will have some general classes upon basic subjects such as mana control, and be pit against other groups occasionally, for the most part, most of your learning will be beside Tulip, and before me."

"This is a... Lot to take in..." I sighed out slowly, thinking it over before I could take in an even slower breath. "But thank you for telling me."