I groaned inwardly. There was no doubt that Calypso hadn’t been chosen from all the adepts by accident.

  “Someone’s about to get roasted,” I heard Polly mutter quietly.

  Calypso, unlike me, was perfectly calm. Well, at least he didn’t show any sign of concern.

  But I was concerned. That my father might hurt him out of spite. Not badly, but enough to make Calypso lose any desire to talk back to ‘his elders.’ Though knowing him, he wouldn’t lose that desire anyway, which only added to my worries.

  “Now, before we take our combat positions… A trick question: what weapon should you choose under these battle conditions, if you have a choice?”

  “Arrows,” Mia said confidently.

  “If the enemy is so far away. Constantly moving you need arrows to reach them!”

  “Arrows would just get blown away in wind this strong,” Calypso objected, surveying the intimidating field with an appraising look.

  “Only special enchanted ones would work. But best of all – bullets, preferably enchanted too. Throwing discs made of Geross steel would also work great. They’re better because with the right throw they can curve around complex obstacles. Unlike arrows and bullets. Plus, Geross throwing discs return to the sender like a boomerang, so you can at least roughly predict their trajectory. Strong wind isn’t a serious obstacle for these discs.”

  “Correct,” Zael said with an approving smirk.

  “That’s exactly what we’ll be working with today.”

  He gave Calypso a set of throwing discs, and the two of them jumped onto different stone platforms, which immediately started moving and rose into the air. The rest of us hurried to take our places on the observation deck — a specially fenced and charm-protected area positioned in the middle of the field for optimal viewing of the training.

  The communicator bracelet artifacts on Zael’s and Calypso’s wrists had been temporarily switched to ‘speakerphone’ mode so we could hear both of them clearly from a distance, and so the opponents could hear each other, since Zael periodically addressed Calypso and asked him to cast specific spells in his direction.

  At first the opponents warmed up and acted very academically, demonstrating various combat techniques and defensive methods in these conditions.

  Zael commented on each of his strikes and showed, using Calypso as an example, how best to defend against various spells and what to expect in such difficult conditions.

  Some combat charms didn’t work properly in such gale-force winds: for example, pulsars were completely useless, but pressure charms worked excellently, making the stone platforms vibrate intensely and tilt so the opponent was forced to quickly jump to another platform. If you timed several of these shockwaves right, the opponent would eventually miss, fail to land on a stable platform, and plummet down.

  But in any case, it all looked very controlled so far: strike — block, strike — block. The opponents weren’t moving much across the platforms, which were flying around on their own anyway. But then Zael brought out the throwing discs, and the training took on a more aggressive tone.

  Zael wasn’t commenting much anymore, and the two of them were jumping up and down across the platforms so fast that it was sometimes breathtaking to watch their reckless leaps.

  Watching all this from the sidelines was extremely interesting, educational, but still nerve-wracking. I didn’t even notice myself nervously gripping the metal railings of the observation deck as I watched Calypso dodge at the last second from a cleverly curved throwing disc aimed right at his throat.

  “They’re going to kill each other!!” exclaimed the very impressionable Mia.

  “Nah, unlikely,” Grey said doubtfully.

  “Professors don’t kill adepts in class at the academy. I think… Well… Not on purpose, anyway.”

  “But what if he kills him by accident?!” Mia was even more horrified, covering her mouth with her hand.

  I let out a nervous laugh.

  I wasn’t worried about that myself — I understood that my father just wanted to make a show of pushing Calypso around, to knock him down a peg or two. If there was any real danger to his life, he would immediately rush to protect Calypso and any other adept if necessary.

  Zael calculated his strikes very precisely, calibrating to Calypso’s abilities, accurately assessing his capabilities. He wouldn’t use spells and combat techniques against adepts unless he was sure they could block the strike.

  I knew my dad’s training methods well from my own experience, so I could clearly see how he was holding back, using maybe a hundredth of his skills and not even fighting at a tenth of his strength. But honestly, knowing that didn’t stop me from watching the fight with my heart in my throat.

  There was plenty to be horrified about: after all, the opponents were jumping on constantly moving platforms, and far below them lava was boiling, heating the air around them. The scorching wind lashed mercilessly at both mages, their long hair sometimes looking like just a white blur because of how fast they were moving.

  It was truly a beautiful battle, not just informative but simply mesmerizing. The opponents weren’t fighting anywhere near their full potential, but somewhere on the edge of mortal danger. As if sizing each other up, gauging their strength.

  “I wonder how much longer Calypso has to live,” Iranor drawled, watching the opponents leap across the platforms with a frown.

  “Why don’t you just open a betting pool!” I snorted indignantly, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “Hey, that’s an idea!” Grey laughed and turned to Lamárk.

  “Hey Kes, who are you betting on?…”

  “Zael, obviously.”

  “Nah, I’m rooting for Calypso! Ten gold?”

  “Make it a hundred,” Kes waved his hand.

  “Even ten Calypsos couldn’t beat the First Arma.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Watch it, those are your words, get your hundred gold ready, Lamárk!…”

  “Boys,” I grumbled, shaking my head.

  Then at one point, not just Mia but all of us girls couldn’t help crying out when Zael, with a cleverly launched super-powerful shockwave, actually flipped the stone platform Calypso was standing on, and he plummeted down from a great height, from the very top platforms.

  He tried to stop himself, grab onto other platforms, but Zael knocked away all the platforms below with a precise, calculated strike, so Calypso had nothing to grab onto, and levitation charms didn’t work properly in such gale-force wind — they only slowed his fall. But falling straight into the boiling lava was inevitable given the situation.

  “Help, he needs help!” Mia cried out emotionally.

  “He’s going to die!!”

  “Stop screaming!” Iranor exclaimed from beside her.

  “Zael will save him.”

  “Probably,” Grey added ‘positively.’

  The elf wailed wildly, clutching her head. I felt like joining her.

  And of course, I understood rationally that Zael wouldn’t let Calypso fall into the lava… I understood perfectly.

  I could see, could feel that my father was just waiting for the last moment to dive down and catch Calypso right above the lava, bring him back to the observation deck with us and deliver some dramatic line, putting Calypso in his place… That was surely dad’s plan.

  But I desperately wanted to ruin that plan. Just because I can, out of innate spite, and to prove to my father that Calypso was capable of more than he expected. And I thought I knew how to do it…

  So I focused on the energy flowing through my veins, turned my gaze inward and tried to quickly find that thin thread that connected me and Calypso. I even ‘saw’ it — distinctly golden, strong — try breaking something like that. I mentally ‘pulled’ on that thread and directed my power toward Calypso, the way we did in our training sessions.

  Usually it took me ten tries to get it right, but right now there was no time for multiple attempts. And apparently I tried so hard, wanted so badly to help Calypso by merging our auras from a distance, that the right magical impulse worked on the first try. Now I just had to wait for that ‘impulse’ to travel along the golden thread to Calypso so he could activate his shadow magic. If he could, that is.

  The seconds of Calypso’s fall felt like they stretched into long hours and minutes. In reality everything was happening very fast, but all my senses were heightened now, and I seemed to be watching from outside myself, in slow motion, as Calypso kept falling… falling…

  Come on… Do it…

  Zael was still standing on the upper platform, but he’d moved to its very edge and spread his wings — large, snow-white, powerful and beautiful. A majestic fallen angel — right now Zael looked especially striking.

  But I was watching only Calypso. Come on… You can do it, you’ve got this…

  Yes!!

  At the moment when Zael, apparently, was just about to dive down to help the adept falling into the lava, Calypso flickered in a golden flash…

  And the next instant we saw him soaring upward — on strong energy wings that easily cut through the gale-force wind and confidently held their owner in the air. He flew easily up to the highest platforms, taking a position opposite Zael and looking at him with mocking defiance. His white hair whipped in the scorching wind, his gleaming golden wings casting beautiful reflections across Calypso’s face.

  ‘Thanks, Lori,’ I heard his mental message.

  ‘This time you did it phenomenally fast and precisely.’

  If I’d been alone on this observation deck, I would have done some crazy victory dance right now, honestly.

  But I wasn’t alone, so I had to keep a straight face while bursting with excitement, mentally rubbing my hands together.

  “Holy shit,” Grey breathed, gripping the railings of the observation deck and staring at the mages in awe.

  The rest of my classmates echoed him, throwing in some stronger words. Patricia couldn’t help herself and started clapping excitedly.

  I couldn’t see Zael’s expression clearly from this far away and at this angle, but from the frozen scene it was obvious he was extremely surprised by what he’d seen… To put it mildly.

  “How did you do that?” Zael asked, stunned.

  You could tell from his voice how shocked he was by the sudden turn of events. Even his wings seemed to droop and fold in surprise.

  “For every force there’s always a counterforce, Your Firstness,” Calypso said in a singsong voice, throwing Zael’s own words from when he’d caught us at Kalacen Cemetery back at him.

  “You said that to me yourself recently, didn’t you?”

  I couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing, unable to contain an extremely smug smile.

  “Hey, Lora, can you explain what’s going on?” Patricia tugged at my arm.

  “I can. But I don’t want to,” I smirked.

  By this point Zael had recovered from the shock and grinned broadly. Now he was looking at Calypso not condescendingly, but as, well… an equal, maybe. Or something close to it.

  “Well then, wings it is. No idea how you got them, but in that case, I suppose we can continue training and step up the attacks, right?”

  How they fought after that — you had to see it… They raced across all the stone platforms like mad whirlwinds, knocked each other down, did wild acrobatics in the air… They used everything — spells, wings, throwing discs.

  The only thing they didn’t stoop to was hand-to-hand combat, but the charms they hurled at each other were so powerful that at some point they started using nothing but high-level magic I didn’t even recognize. Or rather, I’d only read about it in textbooks and heard about it in lectures, but actually coming close to performing this magic myself — that was out of the question. Not my level.

  Several times the protective barrier of our observation deck shook from deflected spells hitting it. Several times the opponents knocked each other off stone platforms and used pressure charms to drive the other toward the lava.

  It wasn’t just Mia and me clutching our heads anymore — even phlegmatic Kes forgot his skeptical mask and started reacting very emotionally to each attack.

  “Can someone stop them somehow?” Polly pleaded.

  “I feel like my heart’s going to jump out of my chest watching them…”

  “Are you kidding, I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, don’t let them stop!!” Grey said with eyes wild with excitement, eagerly watching every move Zael and Calypso made.

  “Watch, watch, little Po, watch carefully and remember everything! When are you ever going to see something this spectacular again!!”

  Polly was so worried about the fighting opponents that for the first time she didn’t snap back at the nickname ‘little,’ which always drove her crazy.

  Grey’s excitement was understandable — I’d never seen anything like this training either. So professional, so beautiful… and so dangerous.

  It was obvious to me, of course, that Calypso was naturally outmatched by Zael. It made sense: after all, my father was the First Arma, with combat experience that Calypso and I together couldn’t dream of. But Calypso was fighting at a very high level, and I could see how much my father was enjoying it.

  It seemed like he wasn’t even trying to put his opponent in his place and prove something anymore — he was just genuinely enjoying the intense fight at a serious level, with a worthy opponent.

  At some point I realized that Zael had started treating Calypso exactly the way Calypso had treated me during our first training fight: constantly probing his aura and with each new spell gradually raising the difficulty level of the magical combat.

  This was no longer a fight for the sake of fighting and rubbing someone’s nose in their weaknesses. This was a tough, grueling training session aimed at precisely leveling up the opponent’s magical abilities. Zael was no longer ‘rubbing his nose in the dirt’ he was actually teaching Calypso, professionally stoking his magical Spark.

  I don’t know how Calypso was withstanding this onslaught — Zael wasn’t giving him a second’s rest, and I would have died from this level of strain long ago and fallen into the boiling lava.

  But Calypso wasn’t just staying on his feet — he seemed to be gaining momentum. I couldn’t see his expression from this distance, but somehow I was sure he was grinning from ear to ear.

  I don’t know how long Zael and Calypso could have kept this up or how it would have ended, but at some point they both suddenly stopped and looked at their communicator bracelets.

  I didn’t even have time to wonder ‘What happened?’ because I understood it myself: on all our communicator bracelets, the general alarm button had lit up red and started beeping loudly.