Chapter 8: The Duel

Bianca

"Okay...favorite author."

I rubbed the fabric of my day-off robe between my fingers, holding my sandwich with the other while I thought of an answer to that question.

Alex and I were sitting on a red and white picnic blanket, on one of the many grassy cliffs in Olde Town. We sat next to one of the old towers and under a beautiful oak tree, overlooking the town below and all the hustle and bustle of the new day.

The wandmaker and his wife were hard at work, making their gorgeous wands and then packaging them in individual boxes, which were then placed on a cart driven by who I assumed was their son to be taken to Ravenwood. Mr. Silverfist was bartering with wizards and families, trying to get the highest and lowest price selling and buying items from and for his bazaar. The craftswoman, Ms. Tangletree, and her nephew/salesman, Mr. Meadowgrass, were sitting at their little stand outside the tower they shared and selling their secrets and their wares to curious wizards. Finally, Mrs. Krendell, famous for her magical clothing that she and her sister Eloise had sold long ago, sat underneath a tree with a scrapbook, rifling through and fielding offers from random wizards who approached with patch jobs or special commissions.

"I like Hans Christian Andersen," I finally answered after taking another bite out of the cheese sandwich in my hand. Alex had apologized profusely for such a simple lunch, but I didn't care. He could've just bought something a bit more fancy in the market, but no, he'd made lunch and put together the picnic basket himself. I'd never been on a date but I was pretty sure that other boys would just buy the lunch instead of using their own time to make it.

"Andersen's a good one," Alex replied, running a hand through his close-cropped black hair. "Which story?"

"The Snow Queen. The ending always makes me cry."

We'd been chatting for at least half an hour, about everything from magic to spells to school to music to books to favorite things. We'd gone from slightly stiff and a bit awkward, both of us shy, to slouching like the teachers always told us not to, laughing, and talking about every little thing.

Alex had an odd way of talking, and when he was talking about something he obviously cared about he'd get louder and more animated, talking with his hands and getting an odd accent to his voice that I couldn't place. When I asked him about what he liked to do in his spare time, he went off on the library and books and reading for about three minutes, and when he got talking and his eyes shone bright, it helped me to relax and calm down a bit.

I was having a good time and when one of my robe sleeves pulled up a bit, I didn't panic and pull it back down. If he could see my scars he didn't ask about them, and if he did, I had the weird feeling that I would answer truthfully and tell him where they'd come from. It was weird; I'd seen Alex around campus, and I'd seen him running around on the rooftops when he thought nobody could see him. He was in my Myth class and I remembered being paired with him for peer reading essays on Krokotopian mythology. I'd had all of two minutes of conversation with him before today, but I felt like I could trust him. Even with this.

All in all, as far as first dates go, I think that this was a pretty good one.

"Okay, my turn to ask a question." I finished my sandwich, wiped off my hands with one of the paper napkins he'd brought, and crossed my legs. I leaned my elbows on my knees and set my chin on my fists before I asked, "Where does that accent in your voice come from?"

Alex's hazel eyes flashed up from pulling out a couple flasks of water from his picnic basket and he stuttered, "M-my accent?"

I sat back and stared at him. All the color had suddenly drained from his face, and his hands were clenched so tightly around the flasks that I wouldn't be surprised if they were dented when his fingers came away. Slowly, Alex gulped and he answered, with a smile on his face, "I'm from this world way out on the edges of the Spiral. Family moved here when I was a baby but I guess the way they talk got to me. Water?"

He held out one of the flasks, and, when I took it and he thought I couldn't see, his face fell and he frowned at his own flask.

I reached out and gingerly patted his back before I consoled, "I'm sorry, I didn't know that asking would make you sad."

Alex looked up again, a real smile on his face this time, and he replied, "Nah, you didn't make me sad! Just reminded me of something and I was trying to figure out what it was. Anyway, what do you like to do in your spare time?"

We talked about our hobbies (he loved reading and helping Mr. Argleston in the library, I liked studying the History of Magic and browsing the Shopping District) for about fifteen minutes, eventually lying back and staring at the clear blue sky with our hands behind our heads. Our picnic blanket lay underneath us with the basket neatly packed up at our feet.

Eventually the old bell tower began ringing, and I counted out twelve long, drawn out clangs from the old brass thing. Immediately Alex sat up and began checking the basket, making sure that everything was neatly packed inside. I pushed myself onto my elbows and watched him for a moment before he noticed me staring and explained, "I don't just help at the library, I work there too on the weekends. It doesn't pay much, but I'm saving up for an island."

"Really?" I asked, standing up and helping him fold up the picnic blanket before tucking it in the basket. Islands cost a lot, about ten thousand coins, up to a hundred thousand for the bigger ones, and if the job didn't pay much it'd probably take him a while to save up enough. "What kind of island?"

"I have my eye on a Watchtower," Alex answered, taking the basket from me and slinging it over his arm before we began traipsing down the path to the Shopping District tunnel. "Lots of library space, plus a huge telescope in the attic. And the particular one I have my eye on has a baby dragon in a cave under the house."

"A baby dragon? Aww, that sounds so cute!"

"He was sleeping when Myrella took me down to the cave to show me everything, but yeah, he is cute-looking." We emerged into the Shopping District and Alex continued, "So what about you? What's your living situation?"

"I have a Myth House, but I'm getting kinda bored with it."

"Bored? I've looked at Myth Houses, how can you be bored with it?"

"I dunno, I just am. I want to spend my free periods looking at houses this week if I don't have homework. I never really use my money on anything and I've been saving up for a while, so I have a few choices. I don't know what I'd like though."

"Well they have the Sunken City, Island Getaway, the other School Houses…"

I didn't notice that his hand was drifting towards mine until he neatly twined his fingers with mine, at which point I jumped back and extracted my hand as quickly as I could. Alex jerked his hand away and we stood in the middle of the Shopping District, me nervously wringing my hands and him staring at me like I was crazy. My palms were stinging again, and where Alex's fingers had touched they felt sore.

"Um…" I began, "The skin on my hands is…tender. From uh, too many accidents mixing potions with Professor Wu. So they hurt if people aren't gentle or don't know and just go for it. I don't like people holding them unless I'm starting the hand-holding. Is that weird?"

"No no!" Alex quickly replied, his cheeks a little red. He was embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. You don't have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable."

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and smiled shyly. "Thank you. Now, when do you have to be at the library?"

Alex's concerned, guilty frown disappeared into a smile again, and we continued on to the tunnel leading back to the Commons.

"So anyway, back on topic," Alex began, "You've got Sunken City, Island Getaway, the other School Houses, the Watchtower, and of course the Cottage and the Playhouse…"

We continued talking about houses for the few minutes it took us to get to the library, both of us giving our opinions on which islands we liked the looks of. We climbed the steps to the library, and Alex caught the door as a couple of Sorcerer girls walked out with an armful of scrolls each.

"So…" I began, looking for the right words to say. "This was nice. We should do it again sometime."

"Definitely," Alex answered, grinning. "Maybe we could go to see Destiny's duel together? It's on Tuesday, right?"

"Yeah. I'll let you know what time it is on Monday, when Sarah reserves the time slot."

"It's a date then."

"It's a date," I repeated, smiling. For a moment we just stood there, Alex standing in the door and me standing on the top step, before Alex leaned out and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. Then he disappeared into the library, letting the heavy door drift shut behind him.

I stood there on the top step for a few minutes, one hand held against my cheek, my jaw slack, staring at the door. Even if it hadn't been a kiss kiss, I'd never been kissed by a boy before. It was new, and strange, but it did feel nice…

"Hey, Bianca, you okay?"

I turned around slowly to see Destiny standing in the small courtyard with a huge stack of books, the entire 'history of magic' series judging by the various colors, plus the overarching one on top. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, and her bag was slung over her shoulder with a scrap of white fabric sticking out of it. She had her chin resting on top of the teetery stack of books to keep it steady, and her arms were stretched out straight to hold the thick volumes. She was wearing a brand new outfit, by the looks of it, but no robe since it was the weekend: long black pants and a short-sleeved green blouse.

When I saw Destiny's arms shaking from the weight of the books, and the ones in the middle beginning to bulge out of neat formation, I quickly descended the stairs and took the top four, nudging the rest back into a neat tower in her arms with my elbow. Destiny thanked me before repeating the question, "You okay?"

She started moving towards the small park and lake at the center of the commons, probably to sit down and read and do the essay Professor Falmea had given us, and I walked beside her, answering,

"Couldn't be better."

Destiny

"Heeeey Destiny!"

I turned away from studying the long list of Arena rules to see Sarah entering the stadium and waving at me. I waved back at my roommate and turned back to the bulletin board, half angled towards her, half angled towards the board.

It was about three forty-five on Tuesday, fifteen minutes before our time slot for our duel. According to Bianca's shakedown on how Arena duels worked, the duel would go on from when we started to whenever the next battle scheduled, and depending on when that was the duel could be three rounds and then we'd be kicked out, or it could extend all the way to when the Arena closed. I didn't care how long it went, exactly; I was just hoping that I wouldn't make a fool of myself.

Sarah took the steps two at a time up to me and dropped her bag below the bulletin board, sighing heavily and throwing her head back. "Gahhhh, class felt like it lasted a thousand years today. Did it feel like that to you? Especially Necromancy, ugh. Dworgyn took us on a field trip—and you know, that sounds awesome because you get out of the classroom and get to go somewhere—but then, you won't believe where he took us. He took us to—wait for it—the cemetery. The. Wizard. City. Cemetery. What kind of field trip is that? Whyyy would you do that? Crazy nut…"

"Mmhmm," I replied, only half listening and focusing on the last Arena rule and internally screaming 'Thank you'. According to the last rule, none of the spells actually did damage in here, just caused minute pain (like small headaches or paper cuts, it said) and sapped from a point/'health' meter represented by a colored wheel inside the casting circle. The battle ended whenever the health meter completely dropped, someone forfeited, or we just ran out of time. Being poisoned by another scorpion or something else had been one of my biggest fears about this duel, but this final rule assuaged them.

"And we were supposed to take rubbings of a gravestone and start researching a report on the life of that person. I got the old headmaster, Professor van Helven, before you ask. Dworgyn says that it's so that we know that Death is not just about death, but also a celebration of life. I mean, I get that we need to understand the philosophies behind all the other schools, but still, the freaking. Cemetery."

"Yep," I answered, finishing my in depth reading of the rules and turning towards my brown-haired roommate, tipping my head back slightly to look at the taller girl. Sarah reached up and pushed her black, red, and blue colored glasses up her nose and sighed again.

"So anyway, you ready for this?" Sarah asked, rolling up the sleeves on her fiery orange robe. The outfit was a little baggy on her, which I sensed was just how she liked her clothes, but was still clean and elegant, with sashes along the cuffs of the sleeves, down the small V-neck on her collar, and around her middle.

"As ready as I'll ever b—where did all these people come from?"

When Sarah'd been complaining about Dworgyn's lesson for the day (for the record, I liked him; Bianca was right, he was like your favorite uncle), a large group of people had drifted in, each sitting with their friends. The schools were mixed, not like the other day when they'd been divided according to their schools. Sitting near the front row in the Ice section, right across from me, were Bianca and Alex. From the looks of it, they were trading books and talking about them.

I hadn't expected this many people, maybe just Bianca and Alex and then a couple of random people who drifted in to watch whichever duel was on at the moment. Definitely not all this huge crowd.

"Oh yeah, I invited a few people."

I turned towards Sarah again and leaned forward, hissing, "A few people?"

"Yee-ep!" Sarah answered, smiling excitedly. "Meet you down in the dueling circle! We've got about five minutes."

Sarah darted away again, high-fiving people as she descended the stairs to the Arena floor and people began cheering for the next duel. Diego the Duelmaster hadn't stepped onto his viewing platform yet, and I assumed that that was when the battle truly began.

I stood at the top of the steps, folding my arms around myself instinctively. I'd never liked crowds. They made me nervous. And having what looked like the entire student body watching me at my first duel wasn't helping my nerves at all.

I took a few deep breaths, closed my eyes, and forced myself to calm down. It wasn't the whole student body, and at second glance the seats weren't completely full. I'd be fine. And Bianca had told me that if I had any questions, to just glance at her and mouth the question, and she'd mouth the answer back.

Right, let's get this done.

I knelt to my bag and flipped open the flap, reaching in to grab my spell deck. I sifted past my history books, a stiff envelope that I had to send to my family later tonight (the winged letter spell had actually worked, and I'd been getting daily letters from my family; I hadn't lost them, not completely), my Doctor Who shirt that I'd lost when I first ended up here (Professor Ambrose had given it back to me at tea on Friday, hoping that it would make this entire situation less stressful), my new schedule (apparently Professor Ambrose had enrolled me in the Wandless Spell class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays after school) and finally arrived at my spell deck box. I grabbed it, closed my bag, and nudged it closer to Sarah's before turning towards the Arena.

I began descending the steps, watching my feet so I wouldn't trip, and only looked up when a sea of hands reaching out in front of me blocked my path. People were shouting at me from all sides and reaching out to high five me, looked like. I tilted my head slightly so I could hear properly, and realized that they were shouting "Good luck".

Okay, so maybe this crowd wouldn't be so bad.

I walked down the steps, high-fiving random people on all sides, before I arrived at the Arena floor. Sarah was standing in her circle, sifting through her spell deck, and I took the circle opposite her and slid the lid on my box back, reaching in to grab my already growing stack of cards. Bianca'd lent me some treasure cards (regular spells, with some charm on them so they were stronger) to even out the ten or so cards I already had.

"Wizards!"

The black unicorn appeared on his viewing platform, and the room burst into cheering again. I looked up at Diego, then across to Sarah. Behind her, Alex and Bianca were applauding, only pausing to put their books back into their respective bags, and Bianca caught my eye and mouthed "You'll do great".

"Our duelists today are…Pyromancer Magus, Sarah Bluesong!"

A ton of people in orange and yellow stood up and screamed, cheering for their fellow Fire wizard. A few other people, probably Sarah's non-Fire friends, stood up and clapped for her as well. Sarah waved and drew her wand, a long brown stick embedded with rubies, from her belt.

"And…Theurgist Novice, Destiny Starshard!"

Bianca and Alex joined the group of green-bedecked people who stood up to scream, cheer, and stomp for me. Smiling slightly and forcing myself not to look down and act shy, I waved at everyone and followed Sarah's lead, drawing my wand.

Diego drew his sword and drew a rune I hadn't seen before: a spiral inside of a circle. Immediately a ball of light flew out of the ground in the empty field between us, and rapidly flicked between orange and green before finally landing on green. The Life students cheered again, and Bianca mouthed over Sarah's shoulder, "That means you go first."

"Ladies, prepare your first spell," Diego called, waving his sword. Two balls of light (pips, I remembered) flew from the end of it and flew down to us, dropping neatly into the circular indents in front of us. As one dropped in front of Sarah, it turned bright yellow, and another pip appeared next to it. I furrowed my brow and glanced up at Bianca, and she held up two fingers, mouthing, "Yellow pips are worth two pips. Sarah's wand has enough power that she gets an extra pip at the beginning of each round."

Sarah shuffled the stack in her hands and drew one at random, glancing at it briefly and grinning. I did the same thing and picked out one of my cards, finding an Imp staring back at me.

"And…" Diego waved his sword and the black spell field spun into existence between us and a grass green wheel appeared beneath our feet in our casting circles. Sarah held up her card, studying the rune probably, and prepared to draw it. I'd already memorized the leaf rune and practiced drawing it and the other runes (again, I didn't want to make a fool of myself in any way), so I simply prepared to throw my card. Golden dust from all over the stadium flew to the center and coagulated to form a glowing, spinning golden one, for round one. When it disappeared after a couple of rotations, everyone was dead silent.

"Begin!"

Bianca

I sat down in my seat, glancing over at Alex as he similarly relaxed.

"How do you think she's gonna do?" Alex asked. I shrugged and replied, "When I invited her over for lunch on Sunday her deck was starting to grow. She had about five Life spells and one from all the other schools except for Balance, and I lent her some of my treasure cards to even it out. So…hopefully she'll do well."

"How awesome would it be if she won her first duel?" Alex asked, grinning.

"It'd be totally epic."

Destiny threw her first card into the spell field in front of her, and it hung suspended in the very center, spinning idly, as she expertly drew the familiar leaf rune with her wand and slashed through it. Immediately an Imp appeared, and it began a sing-song taunt at Sarah, using minor magic to cause damage. Sarah flinched and raised a hand to her temple, obviously getting the beginnings of a headache, and flicked her card into the casting field after the Imp disappeared. She drew a rune in the shape of a cloud with a lightning strike coming from it, and slashed it. Immediately the field was covered in a pool of water, and a purple and yellow dorsal fin appeared. The Storm and Fire students cheered and stomped as their respective schools were represented.

I'd never liked this spell. As the dorsal fin zigzagged closer to Destiny and she tensed up, I reached for Alex's hand and gently wrapped my fingers around his. He glanced down at our joined hands and back at me, but didn't say anything, immediately turning his attention back to the fight. But I could see him idly smiling in the corner of my eye.

Destiny's eyes were wide as the shark leaped from the water and attacked Destiny, almost swallowing her. When the shark disappeared after damage had been done, Destiny was soaking wet, and her eyes were squeezed shut. She cracked them open, glanced down at her wrists where the shark's teeth had caught, and let out a breath after only finding a couple of small cuts akin to paper cuts to show for it. At the same time, I released Alex's hand now that the shark was gone and Destiny was fine, and leaned forward in my seat. In my peripheral vision, I caught him briefly frowning.

The used cards reappeared on the pedestals behind the two girls, beginning to glow with a protective force field so they couldn't be snatched. A glowing two to represent round two appeared in the middle of the field and idly spun, and the two consulted their spell decks again.

"She's doing pretty good so far," Alex noted.

"Yep," I said. "But I don't think she liked the storm shark."

Sarah and Destiny sifted through their decks for their next cards and I leaned forward to get a good look at the wheels below them. Destiny's was a sickly green yellow, and Sarah's still green wheel had just a small chunk missing. Health meters were balanced according to your level and your school, so it made sense for Destiny's to already be changing color. I still hoped that she could get pretty far though.

The spinning gold two disappeared and Destiny flicked her next card, which yielded an orange shield with the Fire rune on it. Smart. Sarah's eyes twinged slightly as the shield began spinning around the circumference of Destiny's casting circle, and she glanced down at her similarly orange card. Sighing, she flicked it, and an orange tiger cat with a fiery tail leapt from the spell field. Destiny's shield stopped spinning in front of her and shattered, already protecting her from a good chunk of damage, and the orange cat leapt forward. Destiny was encased in a large spurt of fire, and I found my hand wrapped around Alex's again. I knew it wouldn't hurt her, but seeing my new friend go up in flames was nerve-wracking.

When the fire went down and Destiny pressed a hand over her left eye, already feeling the effects of the magic-induced headache, I released Alex's hand again.

The golden three appeared, and the girls' pips recharged. Sarah had only one now, but Destiny had three. When she'd shown me her spell deck, she had only one three-pip spell, and it was a unicorn. When I'd seen that, and how thin her deck was, I'd given her a handful of three to five pip treasure cards. So she had a decent mix of cards to pick from.

"How many treasure cards did you give her?" Alex asked, turning to me as the girls shuffled their decks again.

"I didn't count. I had a good stash, so I just picked out a random stack and gave them to her."

The three disappeared and Destiny was quick to throw a gold card into the middle. She briefly glanced at me, and I knew what she was asking: "What rune do I draw?"

"Whichever school rune was on the card," I mouthed back. She mouthed a thank you and then drew the profile of the Death skull in front of her. Automatically, a withered gray woman in a torn dress with a mane of hair floating behind her rose from the spell field. Sarah shot a quick glance at the wheel below her before the Banshee flew forward and screamed in her face. Sarah raised a hand to her forehead again when the ghost disappeared, and immediately her spell wheel went yellow.

"She might actually win this," Alex said, his eyes flicking between Destiny's wheel and Sarah's wheel.

"She actually might," I repeated, leaning forward again.

Sarah cast a shield on herself, this one green with the leaf rune on it. Destiny's eyes narrowed, and she went back to fanning her cards out in front of her as the golden spinning four appeared.

The duel went on for about ten rounds after that: Sarah stacked on a bunch of shields and also some traps, and threw a Seraph, a Cyclops, a Minotaur, and also a Vampire. Destiny only had the one Fire shield by the looks of it, and I realized that she'd probably learned it just for this duel. Destiny used a Unicorn on herself, and then cast a Leprechaun, a Sprite, and Spirit Armor. She saved up her pips for a couple of rounds after those, and then cast a treasure Goat Monk, which caused Sarah to end up with both a major migraine and an orange colored wheel.

All through this, I gripped Alex's hand at random, depending on what was happening to the two girls in front of me and how I saw it. After that I'd immediately let go, and Alex would frown. I apologized once, but he was quick to tell me that it was fine, he didn't want me to be hurting, and I let it go.

Near the end of the battle, Destiny was down to two cards, as was Sarah. Both of Sarah's cards were orange, and Destiny's cards were purple and green. Her wheel was also orange, with just the tiniest chunk missing making it smaller than Sarah's.

"Okay, Destiny seriously might win," I began, before Sarah cast a Fire Elf. My smile disappeared as I realized that, with Destiny's low meter, it would probably finish her off in the next couple of rounds.

When Alex gently took my hand, I jumped slightly, glanced down at our now joined hands, and then up at him. He was focusing on the duel, not looking at me at all, but he was holding my hand very loosely, so I could pull away if I needed to. I was about to do just that, but then realized he was being very gentle with my sore hand, like I'd been when I'd grabbed it so many times over the past half hour or so. So instead, I leaned back in my seat and clenched my fingers a little tighter.

Destiny glanced between her two cards, frowning and looking up again to see what shields Sarah had up. She was left with just a purple card and a green card, a Thunder Snake and another Imp if I was correct. Taking the chance with the low-accuracy card, Destiny tossed the purple card into the spell field and drew the rune. She leaned back on her heels, reaching back to pull out her hair tie and fix it as the spell played out.

The Thunder Snake shot out of the center of the spell field and collapsed. I saw Destiny tense up and shiver, and press herself against the force field that kept her inside the casting circle, trying to get as far away from the snake as she could. Looked like she didn't like snakes either.

The purple and yellow snake raised its head and spread its hood, looking around and finally setting its beady eyes on Sarah. Sarah held her breath as the snake slowly coiled itself and then raised its tail, pointing it like we did with our wands, and shot a lightning strike at Sarah. Sarah's head snapped back at the shock and she shivered for a moment, shaking it off, and glanced down at her last two cards again. She eyed her wheel, squinted to see the color of her pips, and grinned as she realized that she had enough for whatever she was planning. She flicked her card into the center, drew her Fire rune, and leaned back to watch it play out.

Three sparks appeared at three points on the edge spell field and sparked to the center, creating an orange portal that a red bird flew out of. Destiny's eyes widened and she glanced down at her wheel and the spinning diamond before her, and then back at the bird. It hovered for a moment before using its wings to blow the fire from the portal at Destiny. The girl went up in flames again, and as the Arena registered that her wheel was completely depleted, pushed her back out of the casting circle. The duel was over, and Sarah had won.

Destiny

Well that was fun.

I stood there outside of the circle for a moment, placing my wand back in my belt, as the black spell field disappeared and the orange spiked diamond vibrated and then sunk into the ground. Our pips levitated out of their crevices and formed a glowing white ball in the air before it changed orange and manifested the Fire rune on all sides. The students began screaming and cheering and the Duelmaster stepped onto his viewing platform.

"Sarah Bluesong wins!" Diego drew his sword and scratched a tally under the Fire rune on his plaque, and the Pyromancers jumped to their feet and screamed, cheered, clapped, and stomped. The ones in front vaulted the wall separating the seating from the Arena floor and began congratulating Sarah, very loudly.

"And may I say, an excellent dueling debut from Miss Destiny Starshard!"

I looked up from rubbing the rapidly healing cuts on my wrists from the shark only to be attacked by a sea of green. The Life students were high-fiving and hugging and applauding me excitedly, almost all of them chanting, "Des-tin-y! Des-tin-y!" I hadn't expected this, not at all, especially since I'd lost. But after a moment of standing there, frozen with the sense of 'I don't like crowds', I relaxed a little and smiled, high-fiving and hugging people back as they congratulated me on my first duel. Eventually, they backed away as Sarah began moving through the crowd. She stopped in front of me, grinning wildly, a streak of dirty blonde hair hanging in her eyes. The Pyromancer held out her hand to shake, and I reached forward and took it. Then Sarah surprised me by pulling me into a quick hug before she let me go and backed away.

"You did fantastically," she said excitedly. Just then, Diego raised his hooves and the Arena went silent.

"The Arena is now closed, ladies and gentlemen! Have a wonderful rest of the day."

The students cheered again as he took a bow and backed into the shadows. Sarah smacked me on the back and said, "I'm gonna go get a snack. See you at dinner! Or in our room! You know, whichever comes first!"

Sarah trotted up the steps, swung her bag over her shoulder, and left the Arena. A few random people congratulated her again and then me, and the crowd steadily dispersed. I collected my cards off the pedestal and put them back in my box, and then turned around, looking for Bianca and Alex. They were standing, leaning against the stone barrier between the floor and the seating, and from what I could see, they were holding hands. Bianca turned and smiled at me, waving with her free hand, and Alex waved back. I waved at them, smiling at the happy couple, and tucked my box under my arm, beginning to move across the now empty Arena floor to them.

Suddenly a girl stepped from the shadows to stand in front of me, folding her hands in front of her. I stopped short and smiled politely, waiting for her to say something, or move out of the way.

"Hi!" she said, smiling widely, making her electric blue eyes flash and seem to brighten.

"Hi?" I repeated, folding my hands behind my back and looking the girl up and down. She was short, skinny, and young looking, and looked so small that I could probably pick her up with one hand. Her hair was braided, but I could see that it was long and silvery. She wore dark purple robes, already identifying herself as a Diviner, a Storm wizard. There were extremely light blue, almost white ribbons around the cuffs of her sleeves, and another, thicker one around her waist, like a belt.

"That was an excellent first battle. You almost beat a Magus, when you yourself are a Novice." The girl's eyes narrowed slightly when she stated the difference in my and Sarah's experience, and I got the odd feeling that she was accusing me of cheating.

"Well," I began, "I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did if my friend didn't give me some of her treasure cards. I only have a few school cards…It's only my third day at Ravenwood, you see."

"Ah," the girl lifted her chin in an odd half nod, her shocking blue eyes flashing again. "I just got back from studying abroad in Marleybone myself."

Where was this conversation coming from? I shifted as the girl stared at me, her eyes still narrowed, and decided to introduce myself to break the silence.

"I'm Destiny Starshard," I said, holding out my hand to shake. The tiny girl accepted it, introducing herself, "Sibyl Nightpool, Journeyman Diviner." I copied her half nod from earlier, pulling my hand from her firm grip, and quickly extradited myself from this strange conversation.

"Well, I've got to go see my friends. Nice talking to you, uh, Sibyl."

I shifted my spell deck down into my hand and walked around Sibyl, moving towards Alex and Bianca. Getting the feeling that she was still watching me after a few steps, I turned my head back slightly. She was staring alright, but not at me; she was staring at Alex and Bianca, her lips moving as if she was talking to herself. O-kay then, she was a bit creepy.

"There she is, woman of the hour!"

I turned my head back as I approached the two and came around to stand next to them, accepting a hug from Bianca and a high-five from Alex.

"For a Novice's first duel, you did very well," Alex praised.

"Couldn't have done it if Bianca hadn't lent me some treasure cards. Where do they go after you use them, anyway?"

"Oh, they disintegrate into the spell field. You don't get them back. Now before you say anything, don't worry, I have a chest full of them at home. They're not as valuable as you would think." Bianca smiled reassuringly and patted my back. "Now, I'm in the mood for something that's freshly made, full of chocolate, and can't possibly be good for me. How 'bout you guys?"

"There's a store over on Fifth makes delicious chocolate ice cream cake," Alex put in.

"That'll ruin your diet for the day," I joked, grinning and throwing my arms over their shoulders. "We should totally get some."

While the two started moving towards the entrance, I ran up the opposite stairs to grab my bag, which was still sitting underneath the bulletin board, and moved to follow them. As I approached, I saw that they were holding hands again.

I smiled as I came to stand at Bianca's other side. They were getting along fine so far, and I'd gotten through my first duel, and I'd officially become friends with my roommate.

Despite the fact that my entire world had changed just four days ago, I was doing pretty well.

Hello everyone! New chapter! *casually kicks previous update date under the rug*

Sooo if you didn't notice, Hans Christian Andersen is an actual author in the Spiral. Since the Spiral has its own versions of various historical characters, this may seem a bit anachronistic. But fear not, it's for a reason…

I noticed yet again that I've been using the wrong name/spelling, this time for Nightside, which I've been calling Nightshade. Oh well. But the way I've written it Dworgyn named Nightshade after falling into it when the school fell, and Nightshade seems more like something he'd name a new area, don't you think? WE'LL LEAVE IT. And if I'm lucky that's the very last name change I accidentally make and decide to keep…

Anything else anything else…nope! And I promise promise promise promise that I'm not taking a year to do a chapter again. I'm going to try my hardest to make sure the wait doesn't happen to all you lovely people again. Of course, that's what I said last time but I swear I'm trying.

Alex Raventhorn is the property of Starlight in the Sky.

Bianca Glassheart is the property of Velvet Masquerade.

Sarah Bluesong is the property of Bluepatch.

Destiny Starshard and Sibyl Nightpool (last name courtesy of Jessica RavenGlade) are the property of yours truly.

Thanks for reading and review!