The First War Mage: City in the Sky

"Wake up sleepy head~" I could hear Tulip whispering in my ear, attempting to lull me out of my sleep so peaceful that I didn't want to move. I found myself rolling over, just grumbling as I begged for just a few more minutes in a faint grumble that came out as nothing but an incoherent mess. "Nope! You got your sleep, and you told me to wake you up. You got three seconds." Tulip spoke with a proud tone, yet I could hear her stepping back slowly.

"One." She spoke, a clear, challenging, taunting tone to her voice as I could feel her eyes boring into my back.

"Two." She continued, her voice falling to a more firm tone.

"Three." Quicker than I could comprehend my eyes were snapped open as I began to thrash around... In the air?

"Way- whuh huh? I'm up!" I quickly squealed out in some panic. I was floating in the air half a foot off of my bad, uncontrollably spinning around like gravity had just turned itself off spontaneously, leaving whatever little motion I had put myself in to send me flying around.

"You sure? Because I can keep this up all day~" Tulip replied with a taunting grin spread clean across her face, she had a palm held out towards me, the center of her palm seemed to almost be glowing. Was she using magic?

"I am I swear!" I shouted out in a desperate plea, if there was any feeling I hated the most in the world, it was feeling weightless. Thankfully my sense of gravity returned as I fell face first into my bed once more. I sat there and groaned for a moment, pushing myself back and clutching my nose before I would look at Tulip. "What was that?..." I asked out with a weak tone.

"Magic, duh." Tulip replied without her smirk fading for a moment. However after she saw the daggers I was glaring at her with she sighed, waving her hand in an 'innocent' motion. "I won't go into detail, but my type of magic lets me control gravity. It's a lot and I can't really explain it as well as Levi will be able to, so for now that's all you get 'till classes start." She spoke with a softer tone, turning around Tulip began to walk to her bed, grabbing a bag that was clinking heavily, I could only assume coins were held within. "Now come on, get your lazy butt out of bed."

"Fine..." I sighed out as I began to sit up. I sat still for a moment, twisting my torso side to side I let out a satisfied groan with a series of pops following along my back in the moments before I stood up. "I would still rather just sleep... It's been so long since my dreams haven't been filled with nightmares..." I blinked a few times, looking away as I realized I had mentioned the nightmares, Tulip looked curious but she at least didn't mention them as she began towards the door.

"Yea, well we're gonna be out pretty late. For one, we're supposed to stick together basically everywhere we go. And for two, you're not gonna want to miss the show tonight, I know you want to sleep, but seriously something like this only happens every few years." Tulip now had returned to her calm, caring voice she had held just over an hour ago. Yet, as I glanced towards the window I saw that it was a lot later than I intended to sleep to originally, leaving a little smile as I realized Tulip probably had let me sleep in a lot longer.

"Alright, I get it." I nodded a little, Tulip seemed a little surprised that I was so willing to go along with her plan at first before she jumped into the lead.

"Then lets go! I can't wait to show you the city- And we need to hurry if we want to get you some actual clothes." Tulip spoke just as quickly as she jogged, barely letting me out of the room before she closed the door behind us. There was a notable click as she made a hand gesture, presumably using her magic to lock the door from the inside, from outside of it. "Since no offense but you can't go to school looking like you just crawled out of the bargain bin of the cheapest Arcadian thrift shop they could find."

I was left to wonder what she actually meant by that as she took off. In my eyes there was almost no difference in the clothing we wore. Sure, mine was decidedly lower quality compared to the fine clothes and leathers that she had, but I didn't think the clothes I currently wore were particularly bad either. Sure they looked dull, but my standards were also lower than a sack that would be used to hold grain as far as 'acceptable' clothing.

Tulip kept up with her jogging pace, leaving me to heave as I tried to keep up with the taller, and far more physically fit girl. While I had some decent upper body strength, years of malnutrition had left my stamina more than anything to be nearly nothing. Luckily Tulip took note of my struggle to breath and slowed accordingly to a fast walk that I could actually keep up with.

"Sorry about that..." Tulip quickly mumbled out. "I tend to get ahead of myself, keep forgetting that you can't keep up yet." She gave me an apologetic smile, one that I could at least accept with just a chuckle.

"It's fine... I... Need the cardio..." I tried to joke a little between my labored breaths, thankfully Tulip slowed even further as she exited out of the building we had been inside of. Now we stood in a large courtyard with a defensive wall around the edge, looking around I could see that the massive compound we were inside of appeared to be a guardhouse of sorts. Or, it was the only thing I could describe it as.

It appeared like a massive barracks or legal building from the exterior, which made some level of sense given my trial had been inside of it. With it being surrounded in a much smaller wall compared to that of the city, guards marched around, many looking our direction, yet none directly at me. All of them appeared to be gazing at Tulip while she ignored them entirely and kept marching forwards until we were stopped at the gate.

"Halt, Princess Tulip, me must insist you take a guard detail with you if you wish to leave for the city." One of the two guards spoke, she was clearly feminine, both by the armor she wore holding extra space in the chest, and from her voice, though her face was hidden by her helm. Tulip for her part just looked a little annoyed.

"Look, I know its your job but no. I can take care of myself, and besides, I'm trying to not get noticed right now, and a guard detail will definitely get me noticed a whole lot more. Why do you think I'm not wearing my insignia Lotus?" Tulip spoke quickly, and firmly. She seemed to know this guard, who audibly sighed as she stepped back. "Trust me, I know how to protect myself, I'm not a little girl anymore. Besides, I doubt Kirin would be too comfortable having an entourage of guards following us."

Lotus looked towards me, I could feel her gaze even through her helmet. The way it bored into me left me feeling distinctly uncomfortable before she sighed, nodding gently.

"Fine... At least tell me you have your insignia on you just in case?" Lotus asked with a seemingly desperate tone, to which Tulip answered by pulling out a small pendant and flashing it towards Lotus.

"I always have it on me. I just don't always wear it." Tulip stated plainly, I was left watching the pendant, fascinated by its intricacies.

The center of the pendant was embroidered with a brilliant silver tree, the base of which was marked with an italic 'B' for her family name, underneath that further the entire family name was spelled out. I had no idea what the pendant, or insignia as they had called it was for, leaving me to watch it fascinated.

"If you aren't back by the last toll of the bell I'm sending a search party." Lotus stated plainly as she stepped to the side, allowing the two of us to move through easily. Tulip for her part took my hand and took off, she waved at Lotus as she ran by - and dragged me with as my body felt weightless again. It was like I was flying, and even this close to the ground it gave a sudden rush of adrenaline.

"Who was that?" I found myself struggling to talk as Tulip ran fast enough to have wind whistling past out ears. "And what was that pendant thing?" My curiosity couldn't be stopped, and I couldn't help but smile as I felt the wind rushing through my hair.

"That was Lotus, she used to be my personal guard when I was a kid!" Tulip replied with a similar volume, surprisingly she had no issue talking while she was running through the city, the crowds were thin, the only reason she was actually able to do this. "And that pendant was my 'Insignia', every member of a Noble family has one. They act as tracking devices linked to whoever is holding them, it attaches to your mana. That's one of the things I want to get you while we're out today, they aren't expensive to be made and it's just good habit to have one as a student."

Eventually Tulip began to gradually slow her sprint as crowds began to fill into the city. She looked around slowly, impatiently looking around the crowd to try and find a gap before she spoke quickly.

"Hold on tight- we're taking a shortcut." Tulip tightened her grip on me, pulling me closer to hold my forearm, leaving me to do the same before she jumped into the air. It was almost like gravity stopped caring about her too as she sailed into the air and landed gently on the roof of a building. Her steps were exceptionally light as she began running, jumping from building to building as she got us deeper and deeper into the city.

From the view she gave me up here I couldn't help but be amazed. We were on the outer edge of the city near the port, it was built in a way that each layer descended as it got closer towards the ocean by a good two dozen feet. All of the buildings looked detailed, organized and gorgeous in their own rights, and when all held together in the single active image that sat before my eyes it turned into a sight that left me to just smile. Was this all real?

My musings however were stopped as I heard shouting, looking down I could see a pair of guards pointing at us as Tulip kept moving.

"Stop! The use of magic on city grounds is illegal!" One of the guards shouted up towards us, I looked towards Tulip in a panic but she just smiled.

"Don't worry about them they won't find us." Tulip said before she stopped, turning she jumped down straight into the crowds below. The streets were packed densely, people so busy with their own lives that they hardly noticed the pair of us land between them and stand up slowly.

My legs felt shaky underneath me as I stood up slowly, my eyes were shining still as I smiled.

"That was awesome!" I couldn't help but feel giddy, while Tulip for her part looked rather tired.

"Glad I could impress, and we're here now- Lets head inside before those guards find which street I landed us on. Don't want to give Levi another excuse to chew us out." Tulip spoke with a grin on her face all the same, quickly she pulled me into a shop. Glancing up I could see it was some kind of smithy. Tulip finally let go of my arm as she stood up, taking a soft breath and letting it out as a relieved sigh.

I looked up at the intricate door for a moment before Tulip pushed it open, and the distinct ringing of a bell could be heard.