Another 2 months, another chapter. I've got a lot of notes at the bottom (including info about a poll), but for now, enjoy the chapter!

Days passed with little fanfare as Aang grew accustomed to life at the Academy. He also quickly learned that he was not anywhere near the four—or five—nations he was familiar with.

For one, the map of Halkegenia, the continent they were on, matched no other landmass Aang had seen in his life. There was no way to scale map against the one in his mind, but on a guess the continent looked to be roughly the size of the Earth kingdom. However, he couldn't see any signs of the continents he was familiar with.

There were also noticeable difference between the magic the students practiced and the bending Aang had learned. He had noticed a few discrepancies during Guiche's duel, but those had been easy to write off as the noble boy adding a dramatic flair to put on a show. When that style was taught in academic classroom, however, that changed things.

Mages used wands to focus their magic, in contrast to benders, who used their own bodies to control their ki. The ways mages manipulated elements that made little sense to Aang. Levitation and flight were well-known spells, but a technique as simple as gliding was unused. Drawing water from the environment was a delicate technique, but spawning it from nowhere was normal. The properties of minerals could be changed with a common Transmutation spell, but mages could not use Seismic Sense. Fire magic could not be used to create lightning. Instead, wind magic held that ability. The elements were both the same, yet so vastly different from what Aang knew.

Which was related to another conundrum

Mages could use any element.

Aang could only guess that the Founder who had gifted them with magic had distributed the power differently than the lion turtles that had given bending to humans. While every mage had a higher affinity towards a single element, they all generally had the potential to use basic magic in any element. Except Void magic, which was lost with the death of the Founder Brimir six thousand years ago. After learning of the differences between the other elements, Aang highly doubted that the "fifth element" had any similarities to energy bending. Partially because no one seemed to know what it did, aside from being very powerful.

Speaking of the Void, Void Day was quickly approaching. From what Aang had heard, it was a holiday that celebrated the Founder's lost element. Unfortunately, the holiday had little to do with the actual element itself, and was largely important only for its festivities. This year, the princess of Tristan would be making an unprecedented visit to the Magic Academy, so everyone was working in overtime to prepare the celebrations.

Aang was mostly content to enjoy the food and games, but he was also interested in the Familiar Exhibition that was coming up. Being on stage and showing some tricks sounded like a lot of fun. Plus, Aang felt confident that he would be able to hold himself back this time.

What could go wrong?

The arrival of Princess Henrietta was heralded by the fanfare one would expect for a member of the royal family. She arrived in a carriage inscribed with her family's symbol. A small group of exclusive female knights—recognizable to the locals as the Musketeers, the princess's personal royal guard—surrounded Henrietta on all sides as she passed through the crowd. With one group of musketeers preventing anyone from getting to close, the other musketeers dispersed, leading away their traveling horses and handling other minor affairs.

To Aang's surprise, the princess's procession stopped directly in front of him and Louise. The circle of guards parted at the front, allowing Princess Henrietta to greet the pair face to face. "I am pleased to see you well, Louise de la Valliere," she greeted the mage with a smile. Unlike the polite smile she wore while walking through the crowd, Aang could tell this one was much more genuine. "And it is a pleasure to finally meet you, Aang of the Air Nomads."

"It is an honor, your highness," Louise said with a curtsey.

Aang was about to say his polite greeting as well, but when he opened his mouth, his mind became confused. He knew what not to say, as the titles he had learned as a child were out of date in an entirely different country; but for the life of him, he couldn't remember what he was supposed to say to a princess. After a moment that lasted longer than what could be called socially acceptable, he fumbled a "pleased—pleasure, uh, to meet you too, princess. I mean, your highness." Aang dropped to a bow as he spoke. That, at least, he remembered how to do properly.

Aang could feel disapproval and embarrassment radiating from Louise, but thankfully, the princess looked amused. "The pleasure is all mine," she said gracefully.

With a final smile towards them, the princess pressed onwards, with her guard once again closing in around her. Aang let out a sigh of relief. He hadn't made the best first impression, but that could have easily gone worse. Those mind blanks were really annoying. "By the way, Louise," he turned his head to the girl, who was gazing at Henrietta's departing figure with a look of longing. "Did the princess recognize you from somewhere?"

After a moment, Louise responded with, "We were previously acquainted."

Finding that answer rather cryptic, Aang pressed, "…How acquainted?"

Louise sighed and turned to face Aang fully. "I was granted the honor of being her childhood playmate since were close in both age and family," she replied.

Aang stared at her. He blinked once. "You were a playmate to a princess?" he asked incredulously. From all of his time he spent with Zuko, he'd never heard of royalty being delivered playmates. At best, they met young nobles that they were supposed to court or marry later on in life.

"Don't make a big deal out of it," said Louise, turning her face away. "Come on, we've got to prepare for the exhibition tomorrow. We need to blow the princess away."

"With a tornado?"

"Don't be so literal!"

"It was just a suggestion."

"My apologies for having you come all the way up here," the Headmaster began.

Princess Henrietta sat down with all the dignity of a future of queen. "You have nothing to apologies for," she assured him. "I'm aware that this is a sensitive matter, so it stands to reason that our meeting would take place here."

There was only four people in the Headmaster's office. Headmaster Osmond himself, Professor Colbert, Princess Henrietta, and the captain of the Musketeers, Agnes. Mrs. Longueville had other business to attend to outside the Central Tower, and the core of Henrietta's guards were waiting outside the door of the soundproofed room.

"Based on your highness's first impressions, what did you think about the boy?" Osmond asked.

Henrietta responded promptly, already having prepared for this question. "He seems like a perfectly normal, albeit easily flustered child," she replied. "He doesn't strike me as noble born, but he holds himself too steady to be of common birth."

Osmond and Colbert nodded in unison. The latter asked the question, "Did his clothes or the tattoo on his head resemble any culture of your knowledge?"

Henrietta shook her head, but offered, "Rub-ah-Kali in the east has a variety of customs, I would assume him to be from there, if anywhere."

"As his people were nomads, that might be the case," said Colbert. "However, his background suggests that his people were killed by fire mages, and only in Halkegenia could one find enough mages to slaughter such a community."

"It takes very few mages to set fire to a town," Agnes spoke up. She fought to keep the anger down as she spoke from personal experience. "Any group of mage mercenaries or soldiers could do that."

"This was a tribe of wind mages," Osmond explained. "From what we've learned from Miss Valliere, there were no survivors except the boy himself. No small number of ordinary fire mages would be capable of such a feat."

"Aang has not revealed how he survived, but he did stress that he dislikes violence and abhors killing. It is most likely that he used his abundant magic to escape, and now feels that using violence against a person would be the equivalent of committing genocide," Colbert added.

"That is concerning," Henrietta admitted. Her polite smile shifted into a more serious, contemplative expression. "But he is under the care of Louise, and there is little chance of him running into danger right now. Even if war was to come to Tristan, the boy would likely be taken care of by the Valliere family."

"In a normal situation, yes," said Osmond slowly.

Agnes eyes narrowed with open hostility. "You're not suggesting to send a child to war just because he has talent in magic?" she practically growled.

"Agnes."

The princess's tone was soft, but firm. Agnes schooled her features into a passive expression and made a small bow in the old man's direction. "My apologies, I spoke out of turn."

"That's quite alright," said the Headmaster easily. "Sending a child into a battlefield is a grim prospect. One I could not encourage as an educator of youths. However, we did find a most peculiar rune branded into the boy's hand when Mrs. Valliere made him a familiar."

"Peculiar how?" Henrietta asked. It was common knowledge that the runes primarily served as a proof that a creature was a familiar. It wasn't unheard of for runes to provide the familiar special abilities, but even those were usually mundane, like giving black cats the ability to speak.

Osmond leaned forward over his desk as he delivered the news.

"That boy has the mark of the Gandalfr, The Left Hand of God. While he doesn't know it, as far as we can tell, he has the potential to become the most dangerous person in Halkegenia. And it's only a matter of time before our enemies realize this as well."

The Familiar Exhibition was normally only attended by the mages of the Academy and a few family members of the students who would come to visit. However, with Princess Henrietta in attendance, a lot of local nobles with nothing better to do decided to come along as well. As a result, the seats were packed.

While the Princess had several eyes on her, the students on stage with their familiars did an excellent job holding the spotlight. Some performed simple tricks, others posed. Tabitha stood out as she rode Sylphid during the dragon's impressive aerial maneuvers.

Soon, it would be Louise and Aang's turn.

"Make sure to keep it from being too flashy."

"I know."

"And remember, we're trying to wow the Princess."

"I'll do that."

"Stick with only one element, and try not use too many high level spells."

"Louise," Aang complained, rolling his eyes. "We've been over this. I'll only be using simple airbending."

"Wind magic."

"Yeah, that too," Aang said reflexively. "Just relax and watch as first place falls into our laps!"

"Next up, we have Louise de la Valliere and her familiar, Aang of the Air Nomads!" Colbert announced from the stage.

Louise and Aang ascended the stairs together, much to the confusion of some of the less-informed members of the audience. Clearly, the word of Louise summoning a human boy as a familiar hadn't reached the ears of some of the guests.

The reaction didn't faze Aang in the slightest. He had an entire lifetime of experience in standing out. "Hi!" Aang greeted the crowd with a bright smile on his face. "My name's Aang, and I'm going to show you a few tricks!"

Aang raised his staff and rolled it in a curved figure eight around his body. The audience was confused at first, but then a breeze slowly picked up. Leaves, conveniently harvested from the outside forest and placed at the sides of the stage, were picked up and followed the flow of the wind. The audience gasped in awe at the simple but elegant display of wind control.

Then Aang raised his staff high above his head and rotated it. The wind picked up the leaves and sent them into the sky in a spiral. To finish the act, Aang brought his staff down on the ground. The leaves fell freely over the stage in a light shower of fluttering foliage. He nodded to Louise, and the two bowed to the audience.

It was a simple performance, but the audience clearly loved it as they gave their applause. Aang would normally put more acrobatics, elements, or even his air scooter if he could, but simple was sometimes best. Especially since he was trying to not reveal his bending prowess to a large crowd. That was part of the reason why he always used his staff for his bending nowadays. It helped him blend in and look like a normal, albeit talented, mage.

Without warning, a loud boom resounded through the air, and the ground trembled.

Panic immediately ensued as everyone started to rather run or try to identify the source. Aang forwent his natural instinct to retreat and instead tapped into his seismic sense. He dug his heels into the ground, and felt.

The disturbance wasn't nearby, but there was good reason why everyone could feel it. A tower was being assaulted by a large, moving mass of earth. Aang's first guess was that it was a golem, but it was entirely different from the ones Guiche used. Aside from its monstrous height, the golem had the consistency of clay, unlike Guiche's Valkyries, which were metallic.

"Something is attacking one of the towers," Aang informed Louise. "A giant golem, I think."

"A golem?" Louise echoed in surprise. "Here? How do you know?"

"I can sense it through the earth with my seismic sense," Aang replied. "It's an earth bending technique that—never mind, what should we do?"

Louise looked around at the growing panic as another boom thundered through the air. "The teachers are busy taking care of keeping people calm," she said. "We can't let an intruder go through unimpeded but…" She looked at Aang hesitatingly. If she was on her own, she would have rushed the golem immediately. However, Aang's presence changed things. She couldn't endanger him for the sake of her own pride.

Aang could recognize the expression on Louise's face. She was viewing him as a child that needed to be sheltered. Normally, he was fine with that, but he couldn't afford to sit on the sidelines at a time like this. If someone was attacking the academy, then people could get hurt. What kind of Avatar would he be if he stayed safe while others were in danger?

"I'll try to slow the golem down!" he said as he ran towards where he had sensed the attack.

"Don't!" Louise called out after him. "You could get hurt!"

Aang turned his head to give Louise a reassuring smile. "A golem is just a mountain of earth, which means I can bend it!" he shouted back. "Be back in a bit. Bring some teachers with you!" While Aang felt confident in his ability to handle a golem, he wasn't sure how to handle whoever else might be there. He hadn't felt anyone on the ground around the golem, but that didn't guarantee that it was alone.

Louise said something else, but it was lost in a burst of wind as Aang leapt up into the air and spread out the winds of his glider. After he had gained enough height, he could see the head of the golem peeking over one of the connecter walls of the academy. The only other person in sight was someone who wore a hooded cloak and was standing on the golem's shoulder.

"One person, one golem, nothing to it," Aang assured himself as he zoomed in closer. He angled his glider to fly towards the hooded figure's exposed back. "If the person is controlling the golem, then if I knock out the puppeteer, the golem stops moving. Easy as gliding."

Once Aang had soared close enough, he collapsed his glider and dove feet-first at the intruder's exposed back. Air pressure began to build at his feet as he kicked his legs forward in an attempt to stun the person with a well-placed air blast. At the last second, the hooded person jumped to the side and turned to face Aang in one swift motion.

Aang landed on the golem's shoulder, his staff now held in both hands. "How did you see me coming?" he asked in surprise.

"Your shadow was an obvious tell," the intruder replied. Aang couldn't tell if it was a guy or a girl underneath the hood. The voice didn't make it obvious, and the cloak was baggy enough to conceal any curvature in the person's body. All Aang could tell was that the person was slim, had strands of green hair peeking from the sides of the hood, and their lips were pursed in a thin smile.

"I should have watched out for that," Aang muttered under his breath before asking, "Why are you breaking into the school?" With his surprise attack thwarted, he would need to be careful fighting this person. He wanted to limit the destruction to the school, so dodging and counterattacking wasn't an ideal option. It was safer to stall the intruder long enough for the teachers to arrive.

"You don't know who I am?"

"No…?" Aang replied in confusion. "Should I?"

"Tch. I'm Fouquet of the Crumbling Earth, a renowned thief known across all of Halkegenia!" the hooded person declared. "Your vault has something I want, so I'll be taking it off your hands."

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," Aang declared as he raised his staff towards Fouquet.

The thief smirked and raised his—her?—wand. "We shall see."

The two combatants stood still, waiting to see who would make the first move. Then a new voice called out, "AANG!"

Aang turned, recognizing Louise's voice. As he was distracted by the sight of Louise running towards the golem with her wand drawn out, Fouquet flicked his/her/their wand. Aang felt the shift of the earth underneath him and jumped away just in time to avoid a pair of hands that sprouted from the golem's shoulder and attempted to grab his ankles. He quickly formed an air scooter underneath himself to keep his limbs out of direct contact with the golem's body.

"That's seriously creepy!" Aang exclaimed as more hands began to sprout on the golem's shoulder.

"Get away from him! That's a triangle class golem!" Louise called out to Aang urgently.

From what Aang had learned from sitting in on Louise's classes, the earthbending he used during Guiche's duel was comparable to line class earth magic. While Aang wasn't putting his full effort that time, triangle class magic was twice as taxing as line class magic, which put Aang's own abilities barely in triangle class. That meant that Fouquet would most likely win in a battle of pure earth prowess.

If brute force wouldn't work, then Aang had plenty of other options.

Aang grinded his air scooter into the clay of the golem, sending particles of dirt scattering to the wind. Then he swung his staff and sent the dirt particles at Fouquet. The mage waved his wand in attempt to use earth magic to stop the attack. However, the particles had little mass to them, whereas there was a lot of wind helping them along. The wind also tugged at Fouquet's hood and threatened to carry the dirt into his eyes and mouth, forcing the thief to keep his face shielded. With Fouquet blocking his own vision with one arm, Aang was free to throw a more powerful gust of wind to send the thief flying off the golem.

Fouquet's combat instincts were top notch. As the thief fell, the golem reached out to catch its creator in the palm of its hand. Then Fouquet had the golem use its free hand to swing at Aang. The boy could easily dodge the clumsy attack, but he had to be wary of the tentacle-like appendages that kept sprouting from the golem's body.

"Stay still!"

"No thanks!"

Fouquet gritted his teeth. Breaking into the vault would take time, and every second wasted on this child was a second that the teachers had to recover and investigate. He had to get rid of the airbender quickly. The mage pointed his wand at the ground and summoning a smaller clay golem, roughly the size of a person.

"No matter how many golems you have, you can't catch me," Aang said confidently. "Surrender!"

Aang spoke truly. Between his seismic sense and natural agility, he barely needed any bending to keep himself safe from Fouquet's entrapments. The thief recognized this was well, however…

"I don't need to catch you," Fouquet declared. Right on cue, the miniature golem rushed straight towards the nearest person not fighting on top of the larger golem.

"Louise!" Aang shouted. He dove off the large golem to dive bomb its smaller brethren. He landed like a missile, both feet impacting the golem's torso and blowing it to pieces, leaving both Louise and Fouquet in shock.

"That's not earth magic," Fouquet muttered under her breath.

"How did you do that?" Louise asked incredulously.

Aang turned around so he stood facing Fouquet's large golem with Louise safely behind him. "Later! You need to get out of here!" Aang called out as he raised his staff towards Fouquet.

"I can't let you get hurt!" Louise insisted.

"I'm fine!" Aang assured her. "This golem is nothing. But I can't fight it and protect you!"

"You shouldn't be fighting it at all!"

"Then who will?"

"The teachers!"

"They aren't here yet!"

"That doesn't mean you have to get involved!"

"I couldn't stand around and do nothing!"

Fouquet watched the two children argue back and forth, completely forgetting about their current opponent. Seizing the advantage of the moment, the thief chanted, "Earth Prison."

Aang felt the sudden shift of the earth. But instead of dodging, he ran to save Louise. Unfortunately, he forgot how weak his child body was. While he attempted to pick up Louise with one arm and jump away, he barely managed to lift himself off the ground before the earth rose up and encased both him and Louise.

"Good," said Fouquet. "Stay there until I'm—" The thief didn't have time to finish as Aang threw his arms apart, shattering the rock around them. "How?!" Fouquet exclaimed. "You don't even have your staff!"

Aang's staff was indeed lying on the ground, where he had dropped it in his hasty attempt to save Louise. "Oops."

Fouquet wasn't sure what sort of mage Aang was, but given his ability to break a line class earth spell with his bare hands, she didn't want to take any other chances. "Smoother them!" she commanded her massive golem.

The golem reached out towards the two. Aang summed a gust of wind to pull his staff towards him. Grabbing it with both hands, he brought the staff down on the golem's outstretched hand. A large crack split both his ears and the golem's hand, but then the golem's hand reformed around Aang's staff.

"Eh?" Aang uttered as he tried to use his earthbending to smash the golem into rubble. He tried pulling his staff. He tried kicking the golem. He tried punching the golem. However, it was all for naught. Every strike damaged the golem, Aang could feel that much through his seismic sense, but the damage was being repaired faster than Aang could dish it out. "Why isn't this working?" he wondered aloud. "I should be stronger than this. Toph would bury me if she saw me floundering like this."

The distracting thought made Aang forget about the golem's other hand for just a second. Louise's scream brought him back into reality. His eyes widened as he saw the golem swing at the mage, who was trembling as she struggled to raise her wand.

The golem's arm was moving fast, and Aang wasn't sure if he would be able to stop it in time. However, doubt did not stop the airbender from trying his best. "Louise!" he screamed as he dashed towards her.

The golem was too close. Even if Aang reached them at that point, he was moving too fast for him to push Louise out of the way without hurting her. And if he ran into the golem, he stood almost no chance of stopping the force of that mass before it would send him crashing into Louise.

Either way, Louise would get hurt.

All because Aang let himself get distracted for one measly second.

It was unfair.

Aang screamed as he saw the world move in slow motion.

A pillar of blinding white light rose into the sky.

If this was a TV show, I would have had Aang's discovery of Halkegenian magic happen "onscreen". But because this story is already slow enough and everyone already knows the twist, so I skimmed over it. The story must go on!

Speaking of the "story", this chapter stumped me for a good while. According to the FoZ canon plot, this should be a dramatic moment. But this is a comedy story, so I was struggling to get the tone right. Eventually, I decided to settle for an Avatar approach. Throw in some drama, keep the tone light even though the fight is serious. Hopefully it worked out as intended.

Now for my laundry list of announcements:

1. Poll is up on my profile. Classes aren't as bad I thought they would be, but I'm still lacking the time to write everything I want. This month's poll is asking you all what stories I should focus on in the next few months. The five of my six ongoing stories are on the list (The Black Shielder is my lax story, which I have no intention to write on a deadline), as well as three potential stories. The potential story with the highest number of votes will be coming out at the end of October. (Votes for this poll are also coming Spacebattles and other places, so only I have the overall results)

2. I have a Ko-Fi under the name "RainEStar". Writing will always be my hobby, but the economy is bad, and my income is limited since COVID knocked me out of a job back in March. Anything you can donate will be appreciated. Starting in October I'll be setting some rewards for people on Ko-Fi. Namely, I'll let my Ko-fi crew have the final decision on who will be summoned in my next one-shot. For clarification, the new characters on the current poll will have multi-chapter stories when I get to them.

3. I'm collabing with someone to make a Graphic Novel. We're going to start on Webtoon in the coming months, so I'll have a more detailed announcement for it next upload. I would tell you what it is about... but I have been told that I can't spoil anything until closer to the release date. You guys read webtoons? You interested in stuff like that? Let me know.

4. If you want to know more about the world I'm creating with this series, Spacebattles is the place to go. I go under the tag "RainEStar", or you can search "Louise Summons Series" on Google. Currently, aside from general discussions, that's where I have a list of all the potential Summons people have suggested to me, and a list of all the spells that I've currently used/plan to use in my stories. I'll also be posting timeline mapping on there too, once I find the time for it. So if you want to know more about the worldbuilding or want to discuss anything about my stories, I hope to see you there. PMs on here work, but I like the forum format since multiple people can get in on the discussion.

A/N was long, but this is my most popular story (big thanks to you all for making that happen!) and I want to get this info out to as many people in one go. I've said my piece, so all I have left is: remember, reviews are food for a writer's soul!