Beyond?

“Those who control their rage are wise.

Those who use their rage have power.”

-The Great Shaman.

***Free City States of Nict, Capital***

***Stella***

“Why are you walking backwards through the laboratory?” I fiddle with my fingers while I try to start the important conversation. It has been two weeks since I postponed my confession to Azir.

But somehow it never worked out! It's eating me up from the inside. He always had a reason to run off from one moment to the next, or he dropped a creepy comment, which made me lose my confidence.

Then I had to deal with the Dwemer, plus my sister pays me frequent visits too. Everything is crushing me at the same time! I underestimated her plans. At first I thought that she wants to take the fame for this assignment, but then she started pushing all the work onto me!

“I am thinking.” He is supporting his chin with one hand, while having his other hand in his armpit. It looks really strange and it's the first time I see him doing that.

“Obviously. Does it help to run backwards, while striking a strange pose?” I have to change the topic smoothly to the baby, somehow. Going by all the comments he dropped during the last week, a baby would hit him really hard.

“A little. It's bugging me that I forgot an important formula for building my reactor.” He gestures at a fist-sized, glowing orb, which is encircled by several silver rings. All of them are covered in runes and spinning at different angles.

He persuaded me to transmute a series of heavy elements for him, which he caught inside the rings. My clan's teachers taught me that transmuting these elements is very dangerous for your own health and that you should never attempt to create them.

But Azir explained the danger behind these minerals properly and contained the radiation with the spinning rings. This project has been going on for a long time. I transmute just half a gram of the heavy elements at a time. Azir can't handle more of the stuff safely with his spells. Neither of us is eager to be exposed to a large amount of radiation.

Then he collects the created raw materials in that glowing ball of his. From what I understood he wants to create an energy reactor to light the town... or something like that. The current street lights are going to be a relic of the past.

I mock him jokingly. “I can't believe that you forgot something important like a formula. Aren't you the great archmage from another world?”

Azir places his hands in a praying position. “I may remember that my previous self lived eight hundred years on his world, but my memories aren't perfect. Do you remember what you did exactly ten years ago? Do you remember what you had for breakfast twelve days ago?”

I tilt my head. “No?”

“The same way I don't remember all my life. Of course I remember some important events, but I don't have the perfect memory of a Siorda. I tend to forget unimportant stuff.” He returns to his strange thinking position. “Walking backwards helps me to remember, it gives me another perspective on the world.”

I frown. “So the knowledge on how to build this reactor is unimportant? Why did we go through all the effort of collecting this dangerous stuff in our house?” I point at the glowing sphere.

He sighs. “It's not like my profession was to build miniaturized nuclear reactors. I am allowed to forget some things at least. Building nuclear reactors isn't exactly essential for your survival when you are caught alone in a world of ice. I started gathering the necessary fuel just in case. It took us months to collect enough and I feel like an idiot for forgetting it. Now I have to reinvent the whole thing, but the old books from the empire may help me to remember.”

Nodding my head, I attempt to tell him about the baby. “Actually there is something else-” But just at this moment a voice erupts from my golden card.

“Stella? Azir? Are you there? I might need some help here.”

I curse silently and pull the card from my pocket. “Yes, this is Stella. What's the problem and who is speaking?”

“Ah! Karsen here! I am taking military lessons with Eliot and he is having a fight with the other members of the class.” The answer comes from the card.

“What?” I groan. Why is this happening now!? “Why? Can't you stop them?”

The answering voice sounds a little subdued. “I am not sure if it's so smart if I jump in between them. They announced it to be a duel-”

Azir smacks his forehead. “Where are you, I'll teleport there. It wouldn't be good if someone is hurt.”

Karsen answers obediently. “We are at the magical training grounds.”

Azir grabs my hand and closes his eyes. He concentrates for several seconds, while I keep as silent as possible. He mentioned to me several times that a blind teleport isn't easy for him. Taking someone else on the trip isn't a game.

For a moment I think about stopping him, but taking care of the situation is urgent. If something bad happens it could affect our whole country. Our problem has to wait.

***Free City States of Nict, Capital***

***Azir***

Whew! Karsen's call saved me. Stella was about to confess, I am sure. My spell finally activates and both of us are teleported to the training field. I open my eyes and check our surroundings. We arrived safely on the big open field, which is used by several courses to train magic.

The field is enclosed by the buildings of various faculties.

The field itself is riddled with craters, bushes and a few very lucky trees. It looks like someone fought a war, which comes close to the truth.

In the middle of the field are several students in a heated discussion with each other. I recognize one of them as Karsen, he is arguing with Nikita Truls about something. There is also Eliot, who is facing a girl who is taller than him. I count nine others who are watching the conversation with interest.

We walk towards them and Karsen notices us. “They got into an argument about shamanistic magic and rune based magic. Eliot suggested to spar it out in order to prove his point.”

“I don't get the problem. Eliot is an idiot. If he wants to prove his point with a fight, then let him try.” Nikita shrugs her shoulders.

“The duel has already started?” Stella asks with an agitated voice.

Karsen nods with a bitter expression. “Yes, I am sorry for failing my duty. I should have stopped this before the situation turned into a duel.”

I realize that Eliot and the female student are already taking fighting stances. Interrupting a duel is looked down upon. There isn't much we can do, except for jumping in as soon as someone is disabled somehow. I could argue that continuing the duel any further is pointless.

The female student ignites an aura of fire around her and I groan. She is an Anja. If Eliot doesn't have a way to deal with fire, then I'll have to carry a charred corpse to the healing institute.

But Eliot rolls up his sleeves and reveals two big tattoos on his forearms. They are very complex waves and circles, but I can't identify any runes or magical circles. He strikes a strange pose and places his fist on his right tattoo. “I call upon the Dragon. I call upon Power. The ritual is finished!”

I can only guess, but I suppose that he prepared the ritual beforehand and all he had to do was to finish it.

He blurs, attacking the girl in front of him with a kick. The Anja counters with a fireball, stopping him in his tracks and forcing him to retreat a few steps back.

She summons a raging inferno of flames all around her. I nod in appreciation. Setting the whole area aflame is her best chance against a close combat fighter.

But Eliot isn't impressed, he jumps over the flames and is greeted by a fireball. His jump rendered him unable to dodge and he takes the full force of the fireball, but like before he seems to be unaffected by the spell and is just blown backwards instead.

So far, so good. It seems like the both of them are able to have an almost equal match, but that doesn't guarantee that this fight will go on like this forever.

I watch Eliot trying to break through the Anja's defence and start gathering the mana from the surroundings. He is avoiding long contact with the flames, so his protection isn't perfect. His inability to approach through the wall of flames forces him to jump over it, which in return offers the Anja an opening to blast him away with a fire spell.

This match turned stupid right at the start. They are both locked in a stalemate. If neither of them does something stupid or risky, the fight will go on for quite a while. After watching them for over two minutes without a change to the situation I decide that it's enough.

So I walk in between the two. Watching the fight for so long gave me enough time to gather a large amount of mana, which can be seen enclosing me. “I think the two of you had your fun. This isn't proving anything at this point.”

Eliot's attention turns towards me. “Ah, is that the famous battle aura of the Zait? I am sorry, I just wanted to demonstrate to that girl that our rituals can be fast enough to be used in combat.”

The girl steps back from me, knowing my reputation all too well. “Yes. I think we can declare this duel as finished. I have proven my clan's strength.” She retreats from me with hasty steps. I sigh, luckily she doesn't seem to be eager to fight. Probably Eliot insulted her honour and she was forced to show off her powers.

Eliot snorts. “What strength? You didn't even scratch me.”

I turn to Eliot and smile. “You didn't scratch her either. I am sure that both of you have a few more tricks up your sleeves, we should stop before someone gets hurt.” I say that without much hope. During the time I spent with Eliot, I got to know him well enough. He isn't the type to stop when he should.

Eliot points his finger at me. “There is no problem, but I am not satisfied with stopping here. The point was to show the difference in rune magic and shamanistic magic. I got to see the ability of one of your clans. That gathered mana around you is your clan's ability? I want to test myself against you.”

I shake my head. “It would be unfair. I had several minutes to gather mana from the surroundings. By now I don't think that measuring me against you has any point.”

He shrugs his shoulders. “Even so, please enlighten me.”

My eyes wander to Nikita, who signals herself to be unconcerned by spreading both hands. “I already said that he is an idiot. Give him a good beating.”

Stella shrugs her shoulders beside her and purses her lips.

I sigh and nod towards Eliot. He rushes forward and attempts a straight kick at my belly. Forcing all the gathered mana into my body, I use it to enhance my physical abilities.

Eliot's expression turns into surprise as I sidestep his kick and place my elbow in the path of his face. The result is as expected. His body enhancement spell isn't on the same level as my clan's ability. I had enough time to suck the entire area dry of mana while he fought with the Anja.

His head snaps backwards upon contact with my elbow. It's like he ran into a stone wall and he drops to the ground, knocked out.

I grab him at his collar and raise him towards Nikita. “I think this belongs to you?”

She smiles at me. “It would be very nice of you if you take the trash away. I think he overdid it today.” Then she turns and walks away.

Stella tilts her head. “I think it would be best if you carry him to the infirmary. His nose looks broken.”

I drop Eliot to the ground. “Me?”

My girl pulls at her lower lip. “You ran here at full speed, you interrupted their duel, you hit him unconscious, your responsibility.” She walks away without sparing me a second glance.

I grumble. “Technically I didn't hit him. I just placed my elbow in the path of his face.”

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