Tolarian High Season 1, Episode 1
"First Day: Jace"
Jace found himself lost in the dark, unaware where he was. That's strange, he always knew where he was and what was going on. It was one of the perks of being a telepath. But here he was still, fumbling in complete blackness, his hands reaching for something to hold onto and finding nothing. Jace soon quickly grew frustrated. He hated the feeling of helplessness, Jace prided himself on his resourcefullness and cleverness. And yet here he was, whereever that is, lost.
What about his deck? Jace thought to himself, hand unconsciously moving to his breast. And found nothing. An exasperated breath left Jace. This was getting better and better.
A beautiful lilting tune suddenly cut through the air. Without a second's hesitation Jace started walking toward it. It had to be someone trapped like him or the one responsible for him being here. Jace wasn't sure which one was better. Either way, he'd be able to get a better handle on this situation.
The darkness weighed down on Jace, pressing everywhere but most of all his chest. It felt almost suffocating. Jace hated it. It was taking too long for him to reach the voice, there's no logical way it was this far away with how clearly he could hear it. None of this was making sense. He had been walking for roughly 10 minutes and nothing had changed. It was still pitch black. The voice hadn't gotten any closer. A tiny part of Jace started questioning if he was doing nothing.
But then Jace noticed something. A deeper blackness was forming. A shadowy figure, a woman. Tentacles of shadow wrapped her body, writhing and moving constantly, obscuring any features Jace could make out.
"Who are you?" Jace asked.
The woman turned to face him.
A moment passed.
Then, she screamed.
Jace bolted upright in bed, hands knuckle-white and gripping his bedsheets. That one was new. Preferable to the other nightmares he would have on occassion, though even now it was fading from his memory. He turned to the journal he always keep by his bedside and quickly scribbled down.
Monday August 29th
New nightmare. A shadowy woman screaming at me.
What could it mean? Am I subconsciously afraid of something with the upcoming school year? About not fitting in at Tolarian High? Maybe I feel like I don't deserve to be there? No, that's ridiculous. If anything, I deserve to be there more than any other student. I got accepted due to my own efforts, not because of my parents like the others.
Satisfied with his morning entry, Jace shut the book and swung his legs out of bed. He walked to the dresser and pulled a pair of black jean pants that he jumped into one leg at a time. Next he pulled out a pair of socks and rolled them over his feet. Jace stretched his arms wide open as he wiggled his toes, enjoying the warming comfort of the cotton.
Closing the dresser, Jace lazily crossed the bare floor of his sparse room. He opened his closet, revealing a row of identical deep blue sweatshirts followed by a row of identical plain white t-shirts hanging, perfectly cleaned and pressed. Jace grabbed a shirt and put it and then slid the sweatshirt over his head.
Now he was ready for the day.
Leaving his room, Jace walked through the narrow hallway as he scrolled through his phone. It looked like President Urza's political platform was running full steam and firing on all cylinders. There was a picture of him smiling and shaking hands with Zhalfir's governor. In the background you could see one of President Urza's famous iron constructs, working on the new educational center for Zhalfir's youth.
Grabbing a glass and pouring himself a nice cool glass of milk, Jace continued reading. It went in depth and outlined the numerous benefits the new building would bring to the city. Jobs and work to help strengthen the teacher's union. Exotic and rare materials that needed to be shipped gave years of work to dockers. And most importantly the young kids that would learn at the Urza Technical Institute for the Youth would be the minds that shaped the future of Dominaria.
Jace smiled. It was a fluff piece for sure, designed to make Urza more attractive to waffling, uninterested voters. But it was a well written fluff piece, and Jace always appreciated good writing. He could only imagine how many backroom deals Urza and his people had to negotiate to get this building made that the article chose not to go into. Jace wondered what the real cost was. The article said $25 million but Jace calculated that as a severe underestimation by at least half. If not more. Jace wondered if Urza had any real intent to have the building finished. Jace leaned toward no. Something about the way Urza spoke from the videos and articles Jace had seen made it look like his public face was a just a persona. The man spoke with false warmth and compassion.
Still Jace wasn't in the same world as President Urza, not yet at least, so pondering the president's character did him no real good.
Finishing his bowl of cereal, Jace looked at the time: 6:00. Time to take the bus to school. He grabbed his backpack hanging on the wall and put on his pair of nondescript sneakers before walking through the front door. He turned to locked it, giving the door a good pull to make sure it was actually locked. He didn't want to come home to the place ransacked. Once was more than enough for his tastes.
It was a short walk through the apartment complex's long hallways and down the two flights of stairs to the city's cold streets. He took a seat on a graffittied bench, pulling his hoodie over his head and popping in his earbuds to drown out the city.
The bus showed up not long after, and Jace walked up showing the elderly driver his Tolaria metro card.
"Good morning, Jace. Today's the first day of school isn't it?" the driver asked kindly with a smile.
"Yes sir," Jace answered curtly as he took the seat behind the driver.
"Must be exciting. Or nerve-wracking. Either way I'm sure you'll do great."
"Thank you sir. I appreciate it. I'm sure I'll do great as well."
The drive to school wasn't that long in truth. Jace passed the time practicing his mental meditations as students and city-dwellers piled on.
"Current stop: Tolarian High School. Next stop: the Azorius Federal Credit Bureau," the bus driver blared over the speaker system.
Jace popped out his earbuds and pocketed them as he got off the bus. The first thing he saw was an amazing building, cloaked in shadows with the sun barely cresting over it and giving it a soft halo's glow. He was here. After all this, all the years of work it took, he made it: Tolarian High.
He crested the stairs, about to enter when he heard a commotion from behind. Jace turned and saw a sleek black car and gasped. Was that really a Weatherlight Hearse? Who could afford to come to school in that?
Jace's answer was soon answered as the pale driver of the Weatherlight left the car and opened the back door for a raven haired girl Jace's age. Again Jace gasped, this time from how stunning her beauty was. She was dressed in a preppy style that left no imagination to what class she was. She wore a purple and black checkered blazer with a plain black shirt and deep purple tie underneath it. As for her lower body, the girl was wearing an insanely short skirt (that couldn't be school regulation, Jace thought dumbly) with black fishnet legging and two knee high boots. She was simply gorgeous.
And apparently she was in front of Jace now too.
"You'd better pick your jaw up. Unless you're as much of a fool as you look," she said, silky and smooth as Jace shut his mouth, "Oh and thanks for being a dear and holding the door for me."
How'd I let that happen? Can't let that happen again. Jace thought instinctively as he followed her. Not that Jace was following her. He just had to go to school.
Inside Jace saw a massive dragon-man shaking hands with the girl, his clawed hand dwarfing and swallowing hers whole.
"It's a pleasure to have you grace Tolarian High School for Gifted Magicians with your presence, Miss Vess," the dragon said.
"There's no need to call me that, Principal Bolas. Liliana will do."
"Nonsense. Here at Tolaria High we hold ourselves to a different standard. Enjoy your time here and tell your father I said hello."
"Of course," Liliana said as she gave a small curtsy and left.
The smile on Principal Bolas's face left with Liliana as he saw Jace. It was replace with a devious, almost hungry look, "And who do we have here? It's Jace Beleren, correct?"
"Yes sir," Jace answered promptly, "I'm excited to begin learning at Dominaria's most prestigious school."
"Well spoken, I can see why you won our yearly scholarship. I am Nicol Bolas, the principal of Tolaria High School for Gifted Magicians. I must say, your paper on the theoretical application of mental magic was fascinating and groundbreaking."
He paused and smiled a wide gremlin smile.
"The ripples will be felt for decades to come."
Jace's gut said this man was trouble. He didn't care that the past few months of research had turned up nothing incriminating or wrong on the school or its faculty. He had years of experience dealing with types like this principal. The best course of action here was to remain calm and keep his compusure.
"Thank you sir. I couldn't have done it without the help of my parents."
A deep rumbling laugh left Bolas's mouth, "And humble! What amazing parents you must have!"
"They are the best sir. Now if you would excuse me, I need to be on the way for my first class with Professor Akosa."
"No."
"No?"
"No. Having met you now, I can tell you'd be better suited for Professor Kaazilane's class. It's class 227. Inform him that I personally have added you to his roster."
"Understood sir. I'll go their post-haste," and with that, Jace and his mind started running.
Principal Bolas was obviously a power hungry control freak. Apparently dragons weren't too different from humans after all. Still, the last thing Jace needed to do was to make an enemy of the principal. Even if he hadn't gotten to investigate Professor Kaazilane. Jace would be able to adapt. He'd only need one night to find every dirty secret and skeleton he had hidden in his closet.
"You're going to get yourself killed, or worse expelled, if you keep running like that in here. It's against school rules." Liliana said.
Jace stopped dead in his tracks.
"Thank you."
"It's the least I can do since you helped me earlier."
"What? The door? That's nothing. I'm sure you would have done the same."
"Hmmm. Maybe for a cute boy like you. Tell me something. I saw you talking with the Principal. For a long time. What was that about."
"Nothing, just a change of classes. Principal Bolas assigned me to Professor Kaazilane's class for first period. Said I was better suited for it."
Liliana's eyes widened for a split second.
"Interesting. Not many people make such an impression on Principal Bolas so quickly."
"Thanks. And you, I overheard Principal Bolas call you Liliana Vess? As in Liliana Vess, heiress of the Vess family?"
"Eavesdropping, were we. And here I don't even know your name, mystery boy."
"N-no, I wasn't eavesdropping! You were just in front of me! Trust me, I'm Jace. Jace Beleren," he could feel his face glowing red as he tripped over his words. Jace mentally berated himself, he was better than this.
"Be-ler-en," Liliana said slowly, almost as if she was tasting his name, "I like it. But to answer your question, yes, I am that Liliana Vess. Father said there was no where better for me to hone my skills than here."
"Only the best of the best go to Tolaria High, right." Jace said, not really asking.
"Yes. Well I am the best. I've never lost a duel."
"Maybe I can change that," Jace ventured.
"Hah! Not likely unless you've been training since you were 5."
"I made my first deck when I was 6."
"Oh, you are interesting. Hopefully we'll share at least one class."
"Hopefully,"
"As much as I would love to continue this conversation, I wouldn't dare be late to class on my first day."
"Oh! Yeah," Jace said dumbly, "I still have to make it to Professor Kaazilane's class too!"
"Good bye Jace. I look forward to our next meeting."
"Me too!"
He had wasted too much time talking to Liliana. Not that talking to someone as beautiful as her could ever count as a waste. Still, it had made Jace way too close to being late for Professor Kaazilane's class. He calculated that he should get to the professor's class with just over a minute to spare. It wasn't ideal, but considering the change of plans Jace thought this morning was going pretty well all in all.
Until someone ran right into Jace and bowled him over.
"Sorry. Sorry!" Jace heard a girl excitedly shouting as she get off him, "I wasn't looking where I was going and-"
Frustration boiled over Jace. He didn't have time for this clutz or her nonsense.
"Obviously you weren't looking," he snapped, "Unless this is something you do for fun?"
"What? No! It was an accident," she paled as she extended a helping hand. Jace can see from her face that this girl has lived a different life. Her skin is tanned and sun-kissed, framed with fiery red hair and a stupid easy going, concerned smile on her face.
Jace immediately hated everything about her.
"Save your breath," he spit as he wiped off his sweatshirt, "I've heard it before. If you mess with me again, if you even /think/ about it. I will destroy you. I'm no pushover."
"Whoa cool it," she said, "It really was an accident. It won't happen again. my bad."
"Good. Make sure of it."
"No need to be a jerk, okay," she said, annoyance creeping in, "I don't know what crawled up your butt and died. But I ran into you, I apologized, that should be it."
"Typical. Whatever," Jace scoffed. He knew it was an empty apology.
Suddenly the girl's face started to almost glow as her face contorts into a scowl. Jace braces himself for an outburst as he reaches for his deck.
But then the class bell cut through the air.
"Oh no! My class! I can't be late."
"Better get on your way then," Jace said as he turns to leave.
He can hear the girl shout as she runs off, "This isn't the end of this, jerk!"
Jace gets a small smile as he hears this idiot girl scream in frustration from the lazy middle finger he gave her.
Jace made it to class a minute late. He could see the professor, a deeply tanned man with long white dreadlocks, raise an eyebrow at him entering.
"And who are you?"
"Jace Beleren. Principal Bolas said I'd be a better fit for your class Professor Kaazilane."
"Amazing," he sighs, frowning, "Principal Bolas does love to saddle me with work. As I was telling the rest of your classmates, for our first day of class, I will be explaining the properties of Darksteel and how you can incorporate it into your magic. Take a seat, Jace."
AUTHOR'S NOTES
This chapter took a little longer than I would have liked but as they say, better late than never right? Thank you all for the kudos and kind words, they really mean a lot and helped me with pushing this chapter out. The wait for the next chapter will hopefully be shorter, I'm having an easier time writing from Liliana's perspective than Jace's.