《Natalia Nocte and the Arcadia Academy》


 The Nocte Family

    The Nocte were an exceptional family. Each of them had a great talent and all of those were different. Family members consisted of seven people, a father, a mother, two brothers and three sisters. However, one of these sisters was the exception in the family. Few people knew about her because she had never shown exceptional talent or got into unusual situations. She was the middle sister who watched the house while the others were out. Therefore, the rest of the family was very happy when she received an invitation to study at the renowned Arcadia Academy. Her name was Natalia Nocte.


    Natalia was in her room, packing up before leaving. Her room was beautiful, with a wooden floor and white walls that were almost completely covered by a variety of interests.


    There were posters of her favorite characters, rows of shelves containing all the books she had read, all meticulously organized (she was a little obsessive about it) there were also had dozens of dolls, which Natalia herself had assembled and painted.


    There was her computer, so loaded with files that it needed an external HD to store everything. A soft bed with blue bed sheets was also there. There was a nightstand on which was her wallet and cell phone, among other things. There was a desk with a chair where she studied. And there was her elder sister, Elidee, who was helping Natalie pack.


    Elidee was 16 and she was pretty, with a body of a marathon runner and a smiling face. So much that she would probably have many suitors if most people were not afraid of her. She had light brown skin and dark eyes, with black hair, features shared with almost all family members, including Natalia. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt, especially to make visible the various marks, symbols and images inscribed at the whole skin of the arms and shoulders, but she also had several marks on the back that were not visible. Each of those brands had a story and Natalia knew many of them, but there were some that Elidee refused to tell her.


    "It''s funny that one of your school books is ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them''" Elidee said, handing the book in question to Natalia "considering it was me that wrote it."


    "You''re right" said Natalia "so it''s good that none of the other family members really like to write books."


    "Really!" She laughed "can you imagine how a book written by mom would be?"


    They both were silent for a moment, then burst out laughing.


    Their laughter attracted the attention of the younger sister, Susan, who came in asking:


    "What''s so funny?"


    "We were imagining a book written by mom" Natalia replied, and they burst into laughter again.


    Susan just smiled, she had never been the type to laugh much, but her smile was very beautiful. She was only 10 years old, but Natalia already could see that she would be a beauty at the same level of their mother, once she grew up. ''I can''t wait to see the expression of the lines of rejected suitors she will leave behind'' Natalia thought ''well, that came out more cruel than I had imagined. Never mind'' she turned her attention to the current situation.


    The red sphere in the necklace around Susan''s neck shook as she bent to pick up the school schedule in Natalia''s bed. Susan wore her hair in the form of pigtails and wore a red dress with complicated embroideries, frills and details in black, along with expensive shoes. Those clothes were much more practical than they seemed, especially considering the skills that Susan had, and almost all of her clothes were similar.


    "Let''s see ... ''Basic Concepts of Initiation in Magic'', ''Magical Artifacts: History and Training'', ''Understanding New Technology'', ''Short Distance Fighting: Basic Level'', ''Practical Psionic Talents'', ''Introduction to Fantastic Beings and Environments ''... and a few more things."


    She lifted her head and looked at Natalia:


    "Looks like you''ve included everyone"


    "Yes" she replied.


    Elidee closed Natalia''s suitcase, after putting the last things inside. Then she looked at Natalia with a mysterious air.


    "What?" Natalia asked.


    She just smiled, and Natalia noticed that Susan was also acting strangely, she had placed herself between Natalia and the exit door, as if she was trying to stop her from fleeing.


    "Who goes first?" Asked Susan.


    "You." Elidee replied without taking her eyes off Natalia.


    Alarms began to sound in Natalia''s head, she searched for another exit, but Elidee had closed all windows beforehand. Had they planned this from the beginning? Knowing them, probably yes.


    Susan started walking towards Natalia. Her muscles stiffened as she prepared for an explosive move, if necessary.


    "I have ..." she said, after approaching enough "a gift!" She had taken a small box from... somewhere. (Knowing her, it had probably been hidden in an artifact illusion.)


    Natalia''s muscles relaxed so fast she almost fell on the floor, but luckily she managed to regain her balance in time. It was because of this kind of thing that Natalia always needed to be prepared, they acted exactly the same way, whether to play a prank or to give a gift.


    Natalia reached for the box and took it "Sorry, I didn''t have time to wrap it" Susan said, but the box was already beautiful on its own merits. It was a box of white wood, the size of a ring box. For a second Natalia had a strange vision of Susan asking her in marriage and almost laughed again.


    So she was surprised to see that in the box there actually was a ring. Obviously it was not a wedding ring, it appeared to be one of those things that people wore to show off. But if it was, it was a very tasteful one.


    Both the ring and the jewel were the same color, a silver that shined as if it had just been polished, the jewel itself was round and very well crafted, but the part that left Natalia sure that that was not a simple ring, was the fact that the whole piece, ring and jewel, seemed to be a single thing. It did not seem like a gem put in a ring, it seemed that the gem and the ring were parts of the same thing.


    "Wear it, please." Susan asked.


    Natalia put the ring on the index finger of her right hand. And suddenly she realized exactly why that ring was so special.


    "This is an Artifact..." Natalia realized.


    "That''s right." Susan comfirmed "It''s called Eye of Light. Try using it."


    Natalia focused on the ring, and closing her eyes, she could see something that could be considered a button, metaphorically speaking. She focused her willpower and metaphorically pressed that metaphorical button.


    The jewelry lit up like a lantern with low battery, it was a light that would be small even in the dark, and in a well lit room like that, it was almost imperceptible.


    "Perfect!" Susan declared with uncharacteristic joy "It was very complicated to find an Artifact suitable for you. That''s a light Artifact.".


    Natalia hugged Susan "Thank you!" she said "I loved it."


    Susan hugged her back, and then they parted "You''ll have to train hard to be able to improve your skills with this" The smaller girl said.


    "I''ll try." Natalia replied, making a victory sign.


    "Now it''s my turn" Elidee said, while removing her gift from an indeterminate place as well (Elidee knew all sorts of tricks), and hers was bigger than Susan''s, being a little larger than a table tennis racket, and it was wrapped in a red paper with white dots.


    She handed the package to Natalia and motioned for her to open it. Natalia undid the package and opened the box, which was a cardboard box, to discover what was inside.


    It was a knife, a dagger to be precise, and it was held in a holster similar to those seen in Western movies, made of black leather, but appropriate to the shape of the dagger, Natalia took it from there to look at it better.


    The dagger had two things in common with the ring, it was a single object instead of connected parts and seemed to have been made by a craftsman of great skill. Its color was light gray and the handle was cylindrical and had a surface that was not rough enough to hurt, but it made the dagger easier to hold.


    The guard was circular and solid, and the blade was straight and triangular, and so sharp that you could almost hear the sound of cutting just by looking at it. Natalia put the dagger back in the holster, that thing was dangerous.


    "And here''s the best part!" Elidee declared, and Natalia looked at her "This is a Lightning Iron Dagger!"


    Natalia''s jaw dropped "You mean ... meteor iron?"


    "That''s right" she nodded.


    Natalia''s chin reached the ground, Lightning Iron was one of the legendary ores, capable of completely blocking the flow of magic, it was very difficult to find, and even harder to keep functional.


    "I had to use some favors to get the ore and an antificer good enough to use it..."


    Natalia didn''t let her finish and silenced her with a hug "Thank you. That''s really amazing." She said.


    Elidee was silent for a moment and then grabbed the dagger along with the holster "Let me put it on you" she asked.


    Natalia unlaced her arms from Elidee''s body and she knelt to tie the holster around the right thigh of her sister. A hidden place, because Natalia wore a knee lenght skirt. Then Elidee got up.


    "Spin a little" she asked.


    Natalia spun in place.


    "Perfect. It''s very well hidden." Elidee judged


    Natalia decided that it was time to ask a question.


    "Well..." She started "I really liked the gifts, but why now? It''s not my birthday." She asked.


    Susan said "It''s because you are going to the great Arcadia Academy. It''s going to be the first time you go to a school, and it is one of the largest schools in the world. You are going to be alone there."


    Natalia looked down. It was true, she had never gone to school before, and never had much contact with people who were not family. But now she was going to another country, far away from her family, to a place where she would meet many strangers. Natalia was concerned, would she be able to make friends?


    "We all decided to do this today to remind you that we are always with you." Elidee said, before making a sound of recollection "Oh and I almost forgot, don''t place the knife in your mouth, Lightning Iron is very poisonous." She spoke with the air of experience.


    Natalia disregarded the last part and looked at Elidee, she could feel that there was something they were not telling her. Natalia then looked straight into her eyes and asked:


    "Is that the only reason?"


    "Of course it is!" Elidee replied quickly, but Natalia kept looking straight into her eyes, and the older girl started to seem uncomfortable.


    Natalia continued to look straight into her eyes, trying to figure out what they were not telling her. This went on for a few seconds, but eventually Natalia decided to give her sisters the benefit of the doubt.


    Natalia stopped with that piercing gaze, and the Elidee''s relief was almost visible.


    "Then I''ll talk to the others." Natalia said.


    And she left her room.


    She walked through the corridors, dodging various service robots flying from side to side at astonishing speeds. The room closest to her was the bedroom of her younger brother, Aleksei, but she met with him before even getting there.


    Aleksei was a seven year old boy who seemed to have come from the distant lands of Roksoi, this was because of the clothes he wore: An extremely simple light gray monastic robe. Aleksei had several of these robes, most of them in neutral colors such as this. Aleksei had always liked the country where he had been born, and this included the clothes. His name was also in the style of that land, in the same way as the names of his brothers and sisters were in the style of the countries where they had been born. Their parents had always traveled a lot.


    His physical appearance was also very normal, with curly hair and a friendly face. Natalia would like to joke that he would never get a girlfriend like that, but he was already engaged to that Amazon princess. Who knew a children''s fight could turn into something so serious?


    Natalia ended that line of thoughts, approached him and started talking:


    "I''m almost done already."


    He gave her a big smile, Alexei always liked Natalia a lot, ever since he was very small. She had spent a lot of time babysitting him.


    "Come with me." Aleksei said, before stating to walk, Natalia followed him.


    She thought that they would be going to his room, but Aleksei went downstairs and headed towards the entrance hall of the house. Halfway there, she noticed that his feet were not touching the ground.


    "Aleksei, stop floating." she demanded.


    "Ah." He had not even realized what he was doing, and returned to the ground, embarrassed.


    Once past this momentary interruption, they reached the entrance hall. There was a delivery man, and next to him a rectangular box that was bigger than Natalia. Aleksei walked up to the delivery man and signed the clipboard he was holding.


    "You''re just in time. Really good." He said.


    The delivery man said nothing, but bowed, taking off his hat for a moment, then he turned and walked out the front door.


    Aleksei turned to Natalia.


    "I have a present for you!" He said, pointing to the box with both hands.


    "Susan and Elidee told me about it." She replied.


    Immediately his face became disconsolate. It looked like he was counting on it to be a surprise. Natalia ran a hand through his hair.


    "All right, let''s open and see what''s inside." She said


    This quickly cheered him up again, and Alexei repeteadly made several gestures, rushing her. And usually Natalia would go slower, as a joke. But this time she was anxious to see what was inside. So she broke the seal of safety and removed the lid, letting the four sides fall, and revealing...


    Another box.


    This time it was a square box, and much smaller than the box that contained it. ''What is all this extra space for, then?'' She thought before opening this new box.


    Revealing yet another box.


    Natalia was getting impatient, so she began to open box after box quickly and efficiently, and they were getting smaller and smaller to the point that the remaining package was even smaller than the ring box from Susan. She took a deep breath and said:


    "It''s time!"


    And there was another box inside.


    Natalia put her palm on her own face, in a sign of exasperation, she did so for two whole seconds before opening (this time) the last box.


    What was inside was a sphere smaller than Natalia''s fingertip, with a consistency similar to that of a precious stone, but the color was a nebulous turquoise. The smell was the strangest part of it, being a ferrous aroma with traces of chemicals that Natalia could not identify, and a very faint smell of an unknown person.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    "What is this?" She asked.


    Aleksei clasped his hands and then opened his arms dramatically like a master of cerimonies presenting his attractions, and he began speaking "That, my dear, is a legendary..."He paused for a moment, Aleksei knew how to be dramatic:


    "Sphere of Emotions!" He declared


    Natalia was not sure, but she thought her eyes widened at that moment. A sphere of emotions was a solid mass consisting of extremely compressed emotions. It was a very dangerous thing, because the explosion of one of these was able to render almost all living beings in range unconscious. And it had a pretty big range.


    "Yo... you..." Natalia stammered.


    "I asked one of my friends to get it." He said.


    "Okay." Natalia said, starting to calm down "But how... I''ll be able to carry this?"


    Instead of answering, he picked up the sphere and said:


    "Open your mouth."


    Natalia did what he asked, and he reached inside to put the ball in her mouth. She realized what he was doing and relaxed.


    He put the ball in the corner of her mouth, near the gum, and the ball got stuck there when he removed his hand.


    "This will prevent it from being activated by accident. But this thing is still very dangerous, so you should only use it in emergencies." Aleksei said.


    It was as Natalia had imagined. She was still not completely convinced that it was worth the risk, but she could not refuse a gift from her brother. She licked the ball, figuring that she would probably stop being aware of it after awhile.


    "What do you think?" Aleksei asked.


    She hugged him. And then started spinning him in the air.


    "I don''t know if I''ll need something like this." She spoke while spinning him "But thanks, it must have been very difficult to get."


    Natalia put Aleksei the floor and he smiled brightly.


    "Satoshi is waiting there in his room, he also has a gift to give you." He said.


    She thanked him again and went back up the stairs, this time going to the third floor of the house, where Satoshi''s room was. The corridor of the third floor was different from the second floor. One difference was that there was far fewer robots flying from one side to the other and performing inscrutable tasks.


    Another was the fact that the ceiling of this floor was much higher, at nearly twenty feet tall, and yet another was the fact that the decor in that part of the house seemed much more personal. Huge windows with equally massive curtains, upside down stands with several trophies in glass cases adorning the ceiling and various trinkets of all shapes and sizes on the walls were just the beginning of the many personal touches throughout the corridor. A decorator would probably consider it exaggerated, but Natalia considered it perfect for her parents, and their room was also on the same floor.


    She crossed the hall almost without looking sideways, and reached the door to Satoshi''s room. It was easy to recognize, being a heavy metal door.


    Natalia knocked on the door, and a voice told her she could enter. She firmed her feet and pushed the door, opening the way to the room of her older brother.


    There was a simple way to describe her brother''s room, it seemed to belong to two different people. One side of the room was full of bars, sandbags (and bags of other things), and several other, more esoteric, training instruments. An important thing to note is that there were no simple weight lifting machines, but only instruments of serious martial training.


    The other half of the room, on the other hand, was filled with a ridiculous number of video games, video game controls and especially games, all meticulously organized thematically and alphabetically (this part was Natalia''s fault).


    In fact, the only thing that showed that this was the room of a single person was the single bed where her brother was sitting.


    Satoshi was 19 years old, and had the body of a martial artist. He didn''t have bulging muscles, but every piece of his body was perfectly toned by years of training and fighting. His face was also handsome, and he had already gone through several girlfriends, not surprisingly. Satoshi was wearing white pants and a black sleeveless shirt.


    "Hello Natalia!" He waved, calling her closer.


    "How are things going?" She asked.


    "Same as always, having to deal with students who think they know what they are doing, encourage students who are not doing so well and help students solve the problems they have with each other." Satoshi said.


    "You seem to be having fun with it." Natalia said.


    "And how are you feeling about finally entering Arcadia?" He asked.


    "Excited. I''m going to learn many things there." She said. ''And maybe make some friends.'' She thought.


    "By the way. I have something to give you" He reached out to grab something under the bed.


    Natalia looked, she had an idea of what he would give her, but she was still curious.


    And he grabbed... a book. It seemed that she was right. It was wrapped, but it was clearly a book. After the drama of the other packages, such a simple thing left Natalia feeling strangely relieved.


    She took the gift and opened it, revealing "The Book of Five Rings", an instructional tome about martial arts. Natalia had expressed interest in it when she went in a bookstore some time before. And Satoshi was there to listen.


    "So? Do you like it?" He asked.


    She turned around and hugged him. Satoshi returned the hug and began to spin her in the air.


    "Ahhhhhhh!" she cried playfully.


    He put her down.


    "You will take this training seriously, won''t you?" He asked.


    "Of course. It will help in my combat classes." She said.


    He ruffled her hair.


    "Dad''s running through the halls, looking for you." He informed her.


    Natalia thanked him again for the present and went out of the room, again needing to firm her feet to pull the door.


    Knowing that her father was looking for her, it would not be hard to find him, she just walked down the hall until she heard the familiar sound of metal clashing against metal. She turned and waited for her father.


    Calling the machine that was coming toward Natalia a "vehicle" would be extremely charitable. Personally, she would say "death trap". It was like a little scaffold surrounded by a floating metal ring beating on the walls without breaking anything, and with a soft sound. The same could not be said from inside, with which the scaffold clashed constantly, being the source of the noise she had heard.


    And that was it, there was no rope, belt or ring holding the person who was on top of the scaffold. The person needed to use his or her hands, and occasionally the feet to stay in the death trap, while the scaffold was moving at speeds that would be reckless on a highway. That person was the Natalia''s father.


    He was not a particularly handsome man, but he was not ugly. His features were serious, and his body was not as muscular as the son, but he was not skinny. He was wearing a lab coat over a coat and black pants. He was the only member of the family that had white skin, but his features were very similar to that of his sons. His name was Nicolas.


    At the sight of Natalia, he lifted his leg and put the sole of his foot in the bars of the scaffold. Then he braked.


    The scaffold stopped almost immediately, so violent a slowdown that would have thrown her father out of the machine had he not pushed to the other side with his foot. In the end, the ring of the flying scaffold stopped just inches from her face. It would have been scary if she wasn''t already used to it.


    Nicolas came down from the scaffolding.


    "It seems that the others have given you their gifts." He spoke.


    "Yeah, there''s just you and mom left." Natalia confirmed.


    "In this case..." He put his hand in the pocket of the coat "It''s time for my gift."


    She looked at him. Unlike the rest of the family, she had only a vague idea of what he would give her, but the set of possibilities greatly diminished if it were something that would fit in his pocket. Natalia tried to guess what it was.


    She failed.


    He pulled out a pair of extremely stylish white gloves, resembling opera gloves. Natalia grabbed them and and put on after taking off the ring from her finger. The gloves had a similar consistency to velvet, and were very comfortable.


    She was admiring how nice the gloves looked when her father spoke:


    "Let the other fingers straight and press the middle finger and the ring finger in your palm"


    She did what he asked, with both hands, and immediately felt something strange. It seemed that she had suddenly become lighter.


    "Try to lift the ring." Her father instructed.


    Natalya put both hands on the ring of the death trap and tried to lift it up. And to her surprise, it rose easily, as if it wasn''t more than three times her weight.


    "They are dynagloves. While activated, they increase your strength considerably." He explained.


    "They are so... beautiful..." Natalia spoke after having lowered the ring, once again admiring them "But how do I go back to normal?"


    "Just do the same thing as before." He explained.


    She folded her fingers the same way as before, and felt her weight return to normal. Then she turned and hugged her father.


    "Thank you so much..."


    He caressed her head lovingly. After they separated he said:


    "Your mother should be arriving soon, go there in the garden to see her."


    "Okay, but can you take this to my room?" Natalia gave her new book to him.


    "Okay." He accepted.


    She walked out, waving as he turned to climb on the death trap, and went down the stairs, putting her ring back on the finger over the glove and going to the lobby.


    Natalia walked through the door and went to the garden. Different from what one might imagine, this was a perfectly normal garden, and very beautiful. She felt a twinge of pride, as she helped Susan care for it.


    This led her to think about Elidee''s garden, which was very well hidden, since it would be very dangerous to anyone entering there by mistake. The line of thoughts about gardens stopped when Natalia saw a black dot in the sky. She squinted, and realized that the dot was her mother.


    Natalia watched as she got closer and closer, and noticed when she spotted her and started waving, already close enough for Natalia to distinguish the clothes her mother was wearing when something happened.


    She fell. She just fell from the air as if gravity had suddenly realized that something was wrong. It was as if an eagle had magically turned into a stone. The fall couldn''t have lasted more than 5 seconds and she hit the ground like a missile, raising a cloud of dust. As Natalia was close to where her mother had fallen, the girl had to shake hands to remove dust.


    "Darn." Said Natalia''s mother, in the midst of the dust cloud "Why did I have to think of Icarus just at that time?"


    The dust slowly lowered, and Natalia could see her mother closely.


    Simply speaking, she was the most beautiful woman in the world.


    Okay, that was Natalia''s opinion. But the fact was that every time they went to a public place, she attracted the eyes of many men and women.


    Her appearance was not thin like a model, she was curvy and full-bodied, with a wide waist. Her arms and her legs did not look delicate, but that was to be expected, considering her work. Her hair was smooth and perfectly accentuated her beautiful face, especially in contrast with the black eyes. That''s because her hair was white, very white in the way that a sheet of paper would envy. Her name was Bianca.


    The clothes she was wearing were baggy pants that went to the ankle, a white shirt with symbols written in Cyrillic, that Natalia could recognize but not understand, and a brown overcoat that was not closed. She wore no shoes.


    She knocked on her clothing with her hands to dust off, and small multicolored sparks jumped every time she made contact. She finished it, looked at Natalia, raised her arms in the air and shouted:


    "I have ariiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiived!!!"


    Immediately, dozens of small fireworks exploded around her, forming images of home, food and other family members. A rainbow appeared over her head. And finally a huge explosion roared several meters behind her, creating a cloud of red smoke.


    Bianca was always happy when she came home.


    And before Natalia could welcome her, her mother had run towards her and wrapped her in a tight hug, lifting her off the ground.


    "Ugh." Natalia said, trying to breathe.


    Bianca''s strength decreased slightly, allowing Natalia to hug her too.


    "Glad I made it in time!" She said, putting her daughter back on the floor.


    "Yeah, everyone did." Natalia said.


    She looked at Natalia''s gloves and smiled.


    "And it seems that your father has given you your present." She said.


    "Yup." Natalia confirmed.


    "Then it''s my turn!" She declared.


    She turned and put her hand palm up. A burst of light shone in her hand, and then a package appeared.


    "Here it is." She handed the package to Natalia.


    It had been wrapped with multicolored paper, at least three layers of it. But it was still clearly a book. Natalia had imagined what would be the gift from her mother, and it seemed that she had not been wrong.


    She undid the exaggerated wrapping and looked at the cover of the book.


    It was a heavy hardcover book, which seemed to be secondhand. Or maybe seventh hand. It seemed like a book that had witnessed the changes in the world. The book was solid, and smelled of knowledge. The cover said it gloriously: Tome of Spells Outside the Schools of Magic.


    Natalia looked at Bianca, in disbelief, she knew that this would be something related to magic, but get such an obviously rare book was something she was not expecting.


    Natalia''s mother took advantage of her confusion to wrap her in another hug, gently this time.


    "I love you. Never forget this." She spoke in Natalia''s ear before releasing her "Now go finish packing your things."


    "Thank you." Natalia said, waving at her and going back into the house.


    Natalia ran back to her room, Elidee and Susan were gone, but the bag was still there, with Satoshi''s book beside it.


    She quickly put the two books in the trunk, and then went to the mirror to check her appearance one last time.


    Natalia was satisfied, her appearance would always be more similar to the Elidee than with Bianca, but she would not want the extra attention that came with that beauty. Natalia was wearing a black skirt and a red short-sleeved shirt. On her head was a white beret, and her hair was long enough to reach her shoulders. The gloves had not ceased to be fashionable since the last time she looked, and in her feet were black combat boots with white socks. Satoshi would find it better if she wore galoshes like him, but she preferred those boots.


    Natalia smiled and turned to pick up the bag, it was time to go to school.

 Reaching the Academy

    Natalia went down to the entry hall, where her family was waiting. After the last farewells (Satoshi told her to show them what she was made of, but didn''t elaborate on who ¡°them¡± was), Natalia left the house and walked to the bank, which was the closest place where she could get a taxi.


    Natalia had insisted on doing that by herself, from leaving the house all the way to getting to Arcadia, and her family couldn''t say no to her.


    There were no notable incidents during the trip, except that she was amazed to see the amount and variety of people when she got to the airport. Even knowing that the land of Yuden was rich in people from all over the world, it was different to see it for herself. She had already bought a ticket, so getting on the plane was no trouble.


    An old woman with blue eyes sat down next to Natalia. The girl started looking from one side to the other, trying to decide whether she should talk with the woman and watching the other people get on the plane. But she ended up not having to decide, because the old woman talked with her.


    "Hello. This is your first time on a plane, isn''t it?" She asked kindly


    "Ah... Ah, yes. How did you know?"


    "I could see from the way you were looking around." The woman smiled "You are going to start studying at Arcadia Academy, right?"


    "Yes." Natalia smiled back.


    "Good luck, I''m going there to work, maybe we''ll see each other again." She nodded "Oh, where are my manners? I am called Cecilia."


    "My name is Natalia. And we''ll see." She nodded back.


    The woman turned and stopped talking while the plane was taking off. Natalia pumped her fist in the air mentally for not having done anything wrong in her first conversation with a stranger.


    Then Natalia remembered something her father had said:


    ''After the first hour of the flight, look through the window, you will not be disappointed.''


    So she marked the time when the plane had taken off before getting her baggage and grabbing her textbook of the artonian language.


    Artonian was the language spoken in the island of Arton, where Arcadia Academy was located, and since it received students from all over the world, one of the pre-requisites to be accepted at Arcadia was learning artonian, and in this way all of the teachers and students could understand each other. There was even a version of the artonian based on clicks or taps, which was used by the students that were incapable of making the sounds of the normal language.


    Natalia passed the time looking over thingsoncemore. She was already fluent enough, but that was a somewhat productive use of the time, and the hour passed quickly enough. She put the book back and looked through the window.


    For a few minutes, nothing happened. And nothing kept happening for the following minutes, making Natalia wonder whether she had misunderstood her father''s words, but eventually she started to hear a sound, a sound different from everything eles she had ever heard in her life.


    It sounded like a song, a song of a single note that kept raising without ever losing itself. An impossibly long note that seemed to extend to infinity.


    And slowly, the singer of that note appeared from the center of the clouds. It was a serpent, immense to the point of its limits being lost in the horizon. His color was a green so light it was almost possible to see through it. Its eyes weren''t eyes, but simple black dots of unknown purpose. Its mouth had no teeth, looking more like a timeless slit in the rocks of an ancestral mountain.


    Finally, its body seemed to be a solid turned into air, something that didn''t seem to belong to reality. And it was fragile, like a paper carried by a hurricane.


    Natalia realized immediately what that had to be. It was an atmospheric beast, a creature so elusive it defied study. They had been sighted extremely few times, and almost never by people who were looking for them.


    Almost nothing was known about them, except that they lived in the highest reaches of the atmosphere and sometimes came down to a relatively low area for unknown purposes.


    Natalia observed as the beast swam through the air with beautiful and majestic movements, even if undeniably strange, like distorted and jerky jumps without a pattern.


    And as suddenly as it had appeared, the beast was gone. Climbing back towards the world of the clouds, a world as alien as the depths of the sea. And after the beast was gone, the song remained for a few seconds, last reminder that anything had happened.


    And then there was only silence.


    Natalia looked at the other people in the plane, realizing that she had not been the only one to notice what had happened. It was only at that moment that she could be sure that she had not been dreaming.


    Natalia fell asleep at some point and the next thing she heard was the voice of the pilot warning the passenger that they were nearing the airport.


    After the landing, she left the plane while carrying her bag and accompanied the crowd that went to the bus stop. They didn''t have to wait long, and soon she was making the last trip towards the academy.


    Natalia listened to music while on the bus, but the thing that occupied her thoughts were her worries about who would be her roommate. Natalia didn''t know how she should behave with that person, especially considering that she didn''t even know from which country that person would be. She had similar worries about her other classmates, but it was her roommate that weighted more in her consideration.


    Everything was forgotten when the academy became visible, though. Natalia had already seen pictures of it, but still she almost didn''t believe what she was seeing when the bus finished riding up a peak and she saw the territory where the academy was.


    There was only one way to describe that land. It was like a colossal patchwork that could not have been created by nature. Glaciers met with deserts that met with forests, parts of areas of all kinds of shapes and sizes spread through the territory chaotically. And in the center of all of that was the school, whose details could not be seen from that distance, but that was completely different than any other building Natalia had ever seen, just from the basic shape alone.


    The bus got closer and Natalia was able to distinguish more details of that... construction, which is the only word remotely adequate for that school.


    She saw circular towers, with a dignified style. She saw silver spheres that seemed to float around the main part. She saw walls that seemed to be made of flesh, and in one of them she could swear there was an eye. She saw raised bridges made of plants, some of which were the size of giants. She saw rivers of clear water floating in the air, and things swimming in those rivers.


    She saw more and more impressive things the closer the bus got to the school. She saw moving crystal sculptures, dragons perched in arcs of ice, golden drops of water dripping from colossal webs and being gathered by robot bats. And soon she discovered that there was always more to be seem.


    While she was trying to process everything she was seeing, the bus got on a raised path in the shape of a C, that went to a higher part of the school. The reason for that was simple, the ground floor with the main gates was literally gigantic, with actual giants crossing it.


    The gates were also very interesting just because the wall to which they were connected wasn''t made of a single material, but were a variety of different structures that somehow coexisted in harmony. Rocks that shined like diamonds, a tree bark-like part, a web of mechanical wires and even a volatile material similar to metal, that spun around like a water whirl (though more slowly) were the things that caught her attention the most.


    And when she got even closer, she started to notice something about the gate. It seemed to be made mainly of a combination of wood and gold, but there were some details that didn''t fit, and she was too far to make them out. Realizing that the bus wouldn''t get any closer than that she breathed deeply and intoned ¡°Azath, Kazath, Nazath¡±. Her vision suddenly sharpened enough for her to make out the details.


    It was like Natalia had expected, the gates seemed to be a microcosm of the same design of the entire school, with detail in all kinds of materials. Natural and supernatural, simple and complex, static and mobile. Satisfied, she undid her spell and blinked several times because of the stinging in her eyes. She then simply waited for the bus to finish its route to the Academy.


    Natalia exited the bus and entered the school through the archway decisively. It was a little more melodramatic than warranted, but that was indeed a very important moment of Natalia''s life. She walked through the corridors, seeing that the style of the inside of the school was similar to that of the outside. The consistency of the floor was a mix of earth, ceramic and other materials Natalia didn''t recognize, the same plurality was verified on the walls and the high ceiling.


    Apart from that, the other noteworthy things was that there was a river flowing through the floor by Natalia''s right, and there was a walkway made of extremely thin metal plates high on the wall on her left. However, the most surprising thing was the ceiling, where students walked seemingly without caring about the laws of gravity. And speaking of the students, they were as varied and impressive as the school itself.


    Some of the students walked like her, others swam through the river, others jumped through the trees spread through the area while others simply flew. Some of the students were small, like fairies that Natalia could step on, while others were big, like a stone golem that had to walk while crouching. Some of them used clothes like Natalia''s, others used different styles, and others still were covered only by their own fur, skin or metallic cover.


    Suddenly, Natalia remembered about the time. There was still some time before the opening ceremony, but she wanted to unpack her luggage and maybe meet her future roommate. So she followed the signs and went to her dormitory section. She had to climb a spiral staircase and walk a little to get there, but it wasn''t far. After double-checking the number, she knocked on the door. She heard a voice saying that she could enter. Taking a deep breath, Natalia did so.


    She saw a girl inside, she was a human like Natalia, or at least she seemed human. Her hair was dark-blond and her eyes were green. She was wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt. She was barefooted. The most striking parts of her appearance were the complex patterns tattooed on her skin, including her face. Natalia recognized those as part of one of the most famous clothing styles of the country of S?o Louren?o. Which meant that girl probably came from there. Natalia gathered her courage and talked.


    "Hi." She said in artonian, trying to be friendly.


    "Hello." The girl answered, doing a slight bow with her head and walking to Natalia "Looks like we are roommates."


    "Yeah, that seems to be the case." Natalia said, grateful that her grasp of artonian wasn''t failing her.


    "I am called Hinata Alveia." The girl said, extending her hand "I''m from S?o Louren?o."


    Natalia shook her hand "My name is Natalia Nocte, I''m from the land of Yuden." She said.


    Natalia could see the pieces come together behind Hinata''s eyes.


    "So that means... you''re the daughter of Bianca Nocte?" Hinata asked, her tone higher than before.


    "Yes." Natalia answered simply.


    Hinata looked like she didn''t know what to do about that information for a moment, it was slightly funny. Then she said:


    "Cool. She''s my idol." Her tone of voice was more even now.


    Natalia thought about that for a moment.


    "So, you also use story magic?" She asked.


    "No, no. I use the manipulation school." Hinata said "It''s just that being a combat mage has been my dream ever since I saw her winning the Atlamontei tournament."


    "I understand..." Natalia had watched a recording of her mother''s fights in that tournament "But, could I ask you to not spread this?" She asked.


    "Well..." Hinata started "It''s not like you''re going to be the most famous person in this school, or even close to that, but I can understand. My family is also a bit famous back home. If this is what you want, I''ll keep quiet."


    "Yes, I''m sure. I''ve thought a lot about this." Natalia assured her.


    "Then I''ll make a promise. Unless I have a really good reason, I''ll not spread the news about your family, otherwise all the curses of the world will fall upon me." She said the last part with the cadence of a song.


    "Is this a S?o Louren?o style promise?" Natalia asked, relaxing a little.


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    "Yes. How do you do it in Yuden?"


    "We say that, ''If we break this promise, we''ll swallow a thousand needles.''" Natalia answered with a smile.


    "Agh... but let''s change the subject. What do you want to learn here? Do you know story magic?" Hinata asked.


    "No, I don''t know story magic." Natalia didn''t quite manage to keep the sadness out of her voice "I never managed to learn it." Then she recovered "I''m here to try to find my calling, if you want to be melodramatic about it. Then I''ll focus on it."


    Hinata noticed the slight change in mood, so she focused on the second part of the answer:


    "Then, what courses are you taking?" She asked.


    Natalia put her hand on her suitcase and grabbed the paper with the class schedule. She handed it to Hinata.


    "Let''s see..." She began "''History of the 20th Century'', Monday and Friday 08:00. ''Basic Concepts of Initiation in Magic'', Monday and Wednesday 10:00. Cool, that''s the same class as me. ''Introduction to the Theory of Magic'', Monday and Wednesday 14:00. I prefer the more practical classes. ''Magic Artifacts: History and Training'', Monday and Thursday 16:00. I could have chosen this class, but I couldn''t find a place in my schedule. ''Psionics: Practical Talents'', Monday and Wednesday 23:00. This is really late. ''Roksole 1'', Tuesday and Thursday 08:00. Learning one language was already enough for me. ''Understanding the New Technology'', Tuesday and Thursday 10:00. I''m already happy enough with regular technology. ''Culinary 1'', Tuesday and Thursday 14:00. They have a culinary class? How did I not see this?! ''Introduction to Fantastic Environments and their Inhabitants'', Tuesday and Wednesday 16:00. Another class together with you. ''Short-Distance Combat: Basic Level'', Wednesday and Saturday 08:00. And another one..." Hinata put her hand on her chin "Wait a minute, there''s something strange here."


    Hinata went to her bed and took the paper with her schedule, then she gave it to Natalia, together with her''s, while saying ¡°Compare them.¡±


    Natalia did so. Beside the classes they shared, Hinata also had ¡°Manipulation Magic: Basic Level¡±, ¡°Contemporary Diplomacy¡±, ¡°Applying Magic in the Context of Combat¡±, ¡°Calculus 1¡± and two instances of ¡°Magic Practice¡±. Natalia didn''t need a lot of time to figure out what Hinata had considered strange. With the exception of the fact that Natalia had classes at 23:00, both girls had the same rest periods.


    "That really is strange..." She agreed, giving Hinata her schedule back "But I think I know the reason."


    "Really?" Hinata asked "What is it?"


    "I think the arrangements of the rooms are made based on the schedules of the students." Natalia proposed.


    Hinata thought for a second "That is a good explanation. Another thing for the pile of ''Strange Things in this School''. Do you have any theories about why this school has this... ''mixed'' style?"


    "As a matter of fact..." Natalia said with a grin "My mother talked about it once."


    "Oh?" Hinata drew closer, interested.


    "This school was designed by the principal. Since she is pretty much the greatest master of territory magic in the world, she decided to make it so that any territory magic could be used here. And so..." Natalia explained.


    "Ah... That''s really a smart thing to do." Hinata commented.


    Natalia realized that she was still holding the luggage "Could you help me with this?" She asked, hopeful.


    "Sure." Hinata answered. And with her help, Natalia managed to arrange everything quickly.


    Then she looked to the clock on the wall.


    "It''s almost time for the entrance ceremony." She said.


    Hinata looked at her and said:


    "Come with me, I came earlier to have a look at the school, I know a shortcut."


    And without waiting even a second more, she went running out of the room.


    Alarmed, Natalia left the room as fast as possible, locking the door behind her, and hurried to try to reach her roommate. Hinata was fast, and Natalia had to make quite a bit of effort, but she still noticed that no one seemed to think the two of them running was something worthy of more than a slight interest. The people of this school had to be used to way weirder stuff.


    They climbed a rope ladder and crossed a narrow bridge that passed close to a waterfall. Natalia didn''t have time to observe the environment in more detail, because it was all she could do to not fall behind Hinata, who seemed to not even be exerting herself.


    But finally they got to a place where there were two rows of chairs in front of a blackboard, some of the chairs were occupied, but not most of them, and there was a countdown in the blackboard, which was reaching the final seconds.


    "We did it!" Hinata cheered, sitting in one of the chairs.


    Natalia sat on her side, not knowing what was going to happen and too tired to ask. However, she didn''t have to wait long. When the countdown reached zero, the chairs manifested security bars similar to those seen in roller-coasters, and the blackboard slid to the side, revealing a dark passage.


    The floor under the chairs started to move, heading into the dark passage, together with the chairs.


    "Ah, so this is a transpOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORT!" The floor accelerated suddenly while Natalia was talking, making her scream in surprise. It seemed that the roller-coaster comparison was spot-on.


    This became even more obvious when the tunnel ended, and Natalia could see that the floor was moving on a simple and thin cable, that didn''t seen to have any kind of additional support. This also allowed Natalia to see some places on the school she hadn''t seen until then. Like when they passed through the middle of giant spider webs, or when they passed beside giant trees, or when they passed over a normal sized racing track. Not everything could be giant, it seemed.


    They stopped close to a suspended corridor, where a lot of people were entering. And looking at the signs, Natalia could see that this was one of the entrances of the Crystal Sphere, where the entrance ceremony would be held.


    Natalia got up from the bench, having to take a few seconds to make her legs stop trembling, then she and Hinata walked into the passage, following the other students that had chosen to take that path to the ceremony.


    It wasn''t a specially long corridor, and when they reached the end of it the school surprised Natalia once again. The name Crystal Sphere was technically correct, but it really understated the scale of that wonder.


    To start, every one of the tables were the students were sitting were in circular platforms, those platforms were connected by two types of things, walkways to platforms in the same height, and stairs to platforms in different heights. There wasn''t any kind of support pillars on the platforms or the connections, which seemed to be another theme of the school, and there were so many of the walkways and stairs and platforms that the amount of pillars needed to support them all wouldn''t give a lot of space to the students.


    But still, there was a lot of empty space, allowing Natalia to see platforms both lower and higher than where she was. And this was what let Natalia make a conclusion about the Sphere.


    It was big. It had a scale that even the gigantic things she had already seen could not match. Natalia was in one of the ¡°medium height¡± floors, and at first she didn''t understand how the Sphere could be so big. She finally concluded that the Sphere went underground, to floors which were reserved for giants that were too big for even the ground floors. It made sense. Even the school gates could not be bigger than twelve meters tall, and she heard that some giants reached sixteen meters. The ground floor itself was too small for them.


    And another thing that impressed both Natalia and Hinata were the materials for the structures. As the name indicated, the Sphere was made of crystal, but everything else inside it except the students(most of them) was also made of crystal, an uncountable number of types of crystal. Natalia and Hinata saw crystal Arukanji trees, brimming with undeniable life. They saw artfully made artificial crystals, which were gathering information about the surroundings using small sensors. They saw crystals that seemed to be made of light, even if they were as solid as all the rest. They even saw liquid crystals, where aquatic beings were swimming.


    "This is... Amazing..." Hinata said.


    "I agree..."


    And they didn''t say anything more while they went to the closest table and sat in the chairs. They were comfortable, even though the crystal didn''t have the consistency of normal chairs.


    Natalia passed the time before the ceremony watching the other students, while Hinata seemed to be trying to play one of Marx''s symphonies by tapping the table. And there were all kinds of students. Natalia took special note of a humanoid student made by millions of bees, another student made of sand that shifted forms constantly and an egg the size of a person that had arms and legs coming out of it. There were many other students, some of them she couldn''t even begin to figure out what they were, but Elidee could probably give entire lectures about.


    But suddenly, something caught her attention. Her eyes were attracted to a group of platforms near the absolute center of the Sphere. Through the corner of her eyes she could see that the students near were all looking in the same direction, leading her to think that this was not a coincidence.


    Those should be the teachers, but she was too far away to make out any details on them. Reluctantly, she once again chanted the magical words ¡°Azath, Kazath, Nazath¡±, and her vision expanded.


    Natalia could see that there were hundreds of teachers, which wasn''t surprising, considering the amount of students. Her attention was drawn to two of them which were side by side. One was a human whose skin was covered in marks and symbols similar to some of those that Elidee had, including a yellow star on his forehead. The other was a centaur with golden bracelets and a glass eye.


    She was still looking at the teachers when Hinata talked with her.


    "This is pure magic, isn''t it?" She asked.


    Natalia undid the spell before looking at her, and pressed her eyes to deal with the pain.


    "That''s right." Natalia answered "How did you notice?"


    "I use magic too, so I could sense the power. And if you already had specialized into one of the magic schools, you would have classes about it in your schedule."


    "I''ve only learned two spells so far." Natalia admitted "I have a book that I can use to learn more. But it will take a while."


    "And you also want to see if one of the other basic schools is adequate for you." Hinata guessed and Natalia nodded.


    Then, their talk was interrupted by a voice that resounded throughout the entire Sphere, in a way that only magic could do. Well, magic or hundreds of speakers perfectly placed and calibrated, but it would be easier to use magic.


    "Welcome." It was a masculine voice "Your principal could not be here in time so I will give the greetings." Thousands of whispers began after those words.


    "For the students that are starting this year, I hope you enjoy the academy, for those that are coming back, your return is appreciated.


    "Our school has a tradition to keep. We raise the best and most skilled. The improvement in your abilities is our pride, and we also learn with you.


    "Because this is why this academy was made, to teach and to learn." He finished


    There was a moment of silence before the students realized that the speech had ended. Then there was a tremendous ovation, and the noise of thousands of steps while the students were leaving the place.


    Natalia talked with Hinata, while they walked.


    "I though the speech would be bigger." Hinata said.


    "Yeah, me too." Natalia stopped for a moment "Want to eat something?"


    "No, I''m not hungry, but I do want to drink something." She answered after a moment


    Natalia had an idea "In that case, I have something perfect."


    "What?"


    "Let''s go back to the room and I''ll show you."


    And so they walked back to their room by the long path, passing through places neither of them had seen before, including a bridge in the shape of a giant fork. No, neither of them understood that, either.


    When they got to the room, Natalia checked her luggage and took out some things she hadn''t put there. Various small tea packages, a mini-stove and a metal pot full of water. She heated up the water on the stove, while explaining to Hinata:


    "My older sister loves tea, so she puts tea in my things whenever she has the chance. I ended up developing a taste for tea."


    "Okay, but where are we going to put the tea?" Hinata asked.


    Natalia took a package with six cups from her luggage.


    "My sister thinks of everything."


    After Natalia finished preparing the tea, the two of them drank it while speaking about what they had seen. Natalia heard a lot about places she hadn''t been in the academy while Hinata heard details about some of the students and parts of the school.


    When they finally finished their talk and went to bed, Natalia couldn''t help smiling.


    She had made a friend.

 The First Day

    Natalia''s alarm clock rang at 6:40 AM. Hinata was already awake, and was doing push-ups.


    "Good morning." She said "I was waiting for you to wake up."


    "Good morning." Natalia yawned "I''ll just change and we can go have breakfast."


    Hinata had also changed her clothes, and now was using a different pair of shirt and shorts. Natalia put on a white skirt and a long-sleeved shirt before leaving together with her.


    They went to one of the adequate cafeterias, which was indicated by a sign saying ¡°human¡±. There were signs saying other things as well, but it wasn''t unusual for a single cafeteria to specialize in more than one type of client, specially in Arcadia.


    Natalia asked for three breads with ham and a strawberry juice, and Hinata asked for a chicken pie. They talked a little while they were eating, and the conversation ended up on the subject of the school''s security.


    "You mean the director protects this school by herself?" Hinata asked.


    "Yes, she never leaves this place." Natalia''s expression became thoughtful "So it''s weird that she wasn''t present for the entrance ceremony."


    "Is she that powerful?"


    "Mom told me that she is in the same level as the Legendary Heroine." Natalia mentioned.


    "Wow..."


    "It is necessary, considering how much knowledge and how many talented people are gathered here."


    "You''re right." Hinata agreed.


    "So, the other countries and organizations send spies here instead." Natalia said in the most nonchalant way imaginable.


    "Spies?"


    "That''s right. My sister told me all about that, some very important people got their positions because of good results in their missions here. Although the fact that the instructors here are very good likely contributed to it." Elidee always had interesting gossip to talk about.


    "I can believe that." Hinata looked thoughtful "How many spies do you think there are in this school?" She asked.


    Natalia thought for a moment "That depends, but I think a third of the students here must be reporting to someone, even if they are not full-blown spies."


    Hinata looked around her, then she yelled ¡°Hey!¡±


    Everyone that was in the cafeteria looked at her. Natalia specially.


    "Which of you guys are spies?!" she asked.


    Natalia couldn''t help herself, she laughed. How could Hinata have thought about doing something like that? The girl herself soon joined in on the laughter. The spectators lost interest in them shortly after.


    After eating, the two of them went their separate ways to their classes. Hinata was going to Manipulation Magic and Natalia went to History of the 20th Century. Natalia went up some stairs and soon saw that the corridors were smaller, the ceiling was only twice her height when she got to the floor in it the classroom was located.


    The classroom for her class was just after a bridge made out of boats. In comparison with the rest of the place, the double doors of the classroom were almost insultingly normal, but it was completely appropriate.


    The classroom was exactly like the ones she had seen on TV and games, it was perfect for a history teacher, with a blackboard, bookcases full of reference materials and maps of all the countries in the world on the walls.


    However, that only extended to the teacher''s part of the room. There were some tables with chairs, but there were also tables without chairs, small tables in the air supported by wires, many screens at the back and a lot of empty space. It was a big room.


    The teacher had not arrived yet, so Natalia sat on one of the chairs and started observing her classmates. Most of them were human or close enough, but there were two fairies sitting in the suspended tables, two of the screens were turned on, showing the faces of a giant and a centipede, and finally, in the middle of the empty space there was a water tank on wheels with a human-sized salamander inside it.


    It didn''t take long for the teacher to come, he seemed as designed for the role of history teacher as his side of the room was. He was a human, had thick computer glasses, several folders under his arm and informal clothes.


    He advanced quickly to the blackboard and looked back at the students. He stayed silent for a few seconds and Natalia realized that he was seeing if all students were in attendance. Seemingly satisfied, he turned back to the blackboard and started writing.


    ¡°Reinate¡±. Natalia got confused for a few moments before realizing that this was the teacher''s name. Reinate turned back to the class and started talking.


    ¡°Good morning, my students. I am Professor Reinate and I''m here to teach you about the history of the 20th century. Can someone answer me about the biggest difference between the study of ancient and recent history?¡±


    The salamander tapped on his tank, attracting attention.


    ¡°Then, what is it, Sales?¡± Reinate asked.


    Through tapping, he answered ¡°The difference is that recent history is closer to our perceptions, so we aren''t as objective about them.¡±


    ¡°That''s right¡± the professor agreed ¡°But this isn''t as simple as you might expect. There are bad parts as well as good parts about our inclusion in the period we are studying.¡±


    ¡°One of the bad parts you have already noticed, it is our lack of objectivity about certain matters. But a good part is that we have context.¡± He kept going.


    ¡°I''ll explain, have you already noticed that the study of ancient history frequently seems like a sequence of facts, simple and easy to understand? That''s because we don''t have the context for those eras, so we can''t easily notice that there are innumerable subtle influences, coincidences and discordant voices that help make the confuse fabric of history. However, it is easier to see that in more recent times.¡± Reinate seemed very passionate about this subject.


    ¡°Now, before we begin, let''s recapitulate the facts of the 19th century to serve as base.¡±


    And that was how Natalia''s first class in Arcadia started. Reinate seemed to think that the most important thing about history was the lack of precise answers, due to the fact that so many different influences act in all points of history. Natalia liked his classes, it reminded her of the style of some of her tutors.


    After class, Natalia met with Hinata in the way for the Basic Concepts of Initiation in Magic class. They talked about their fist classes of the year while they went descended by a tunnel, and Natalia noticed that the floor they ended up in was the opposite as before, it was a little bigger than the floor where her dormitory was.


    Natalia didn''t pay much attention to the surroundings until they got to an hexagonal corridor where every facet had it''s own gravity. The two of them walked in opposite facets, just for fun, until the signs directed them to a specific point in the corridor, from where they went into a passage that led to the classroom.


    Compared to Natalia''s first classroom, that one was acceptably bizarre. It was shaped like a diamond turned on its side, the professor''s desk was located in the point of the diamond while the other desks where spread throughout the rest of the structure. Some desks had supports, while others were simply flying in the air, the theme of that room seemed to be wood, because both the walls and the desks were made of that material.


    There were also various glass globes in a table close to the teacher, and a door that probably led to a deposit. Speaking of the teacher, he was a ferret, and was watching the students enter one by one.


    Exactly at 10:00, the teacher got up, and suddenly an alarm clock appeared next to him. It ringed, attracting the attention of the whole class, before disappearing as suddenly as it had appeared.


    After the teacher got the class''s attention, a loud-speaker appeared next to him, and when a voice came out of the loud-speaker, Natalia realized that the teacher was using invocations, and now was using the loud-speaker to talk.


    ¡°Welcome to your first class. The first thing I want to do is clarify exactly what this class is about.¡±


    He kept going.


    ¡°There are six basic Paths in modern magic and I will show you each of them, in order to help you choose which path you want to follow and to teach the basic about the other paths to the people who already choose one. Is there anyone here who knows what are the six paths?¡±


    Many people raised their hands or similar, including Natalia, but the teacher pointed at her, or to be more exact, the ethereal white hand he conjured pointed at her.


    ¡°Void Magic, History Magic, Manipulation Magic, Contract Magic, Origin Magic and Permanence Magic.¡± Natalia answered.


    The hand became a circle and the loud-speaker came back:


    ¡°That''s right. Those are the most official designations and they will be used during this course. However, I will also talk about some of the other names by which they are known.¡±


    He kept going.


    ¡°I will start this class with a general vision of the field of magic, so prepare to take notes.¡±


    And the lesson went normally. Most of what he said Natalia had already been told by her mother, but he explained so clearly that she knew she would understand even if that wasn''t the case. Natalia looked at the other students once in a while, and many of them were absorbing every word with a look of absolute concentration. That should probably be the first time many of them heard about magic in such an objective manner.


    After class, Natalia and Hinata went to the closest cafeteria and talked about the class while they ate.


    ¡°Now I remembered¡± Hinata said ¡°You said you learned two spells of pure magic, or Void Magic like they call it here.¡±


    ¡°That''s right.¡± Natalia said.


    ¡°I know one of them is that sight spell, but what is the other one?¡±


    ¡°Ah, that''s simple. It''s a spell that explosively increases temperature close to my right hand. Mom said it was for personal protection, but it uses a lot of energy, so I''ve never used it outside of training. Not like I had an opportunity anyway.¡± Natalia explained.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°Ahh. I can see how that spell could be useful. Could you teach it to me one of these days?¡±


    ¡°I can try.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Hinata bowed slightly, with a smile.


    They finished their meals quickly and separated again. Natalia was going to the Introduction to the Theory of Magic  class, while Hinata had one of her instances of Magic Practice.


    This time the classroom was on a higher floor. Natalia found a staircase that went up. The fact that instead of being a spiral, the staircase simply inverted itself every few feet was noted by Natalia with no more than a shrug.


    Reaching the higher floors, were Natalia could almost reach the ceiling with a jump, she saw a group of little goblins all walking in the same direction. She briefly imagined if there were classes so specific all their members belonged to the same species.


    After that, crossing a blue glass corridor and seeing a passage that went directly to a water tube, Natalia reached the classroom.


    It was a dark room, it was made of metal and it was a little rectangular. There were many low tables with what seemed to be transparent glass cubes, and the chairs were around those tables.


    The teacher was a robot. Not one of those advanced androids that the ultra-rich bought to clean up their houses, he/she looked like a toy robot, only human-sized. The robot had wheels, arms ending in pincers, and several black lines that could be demarcations of possible openings in the body.


    The teacher was evidently a very old model, but you wouldn''t get that from the state of the body, which was so well preserved and clean that it seemed to have just came out from the factory. Natalia noticed he was the teacher because he was beside the blackboard, shining a red light on a name written on it. Asimov, which should be his(Natalia thought Asimov was a male name) name.


    After some more students entered the room, Asimov spun his pincers to attract the attention of the students.


    "Welcome, my students." He said "My name is Asimov, and I am your teacher of Introduction to the Theory of Magic."


    He waited a moment to see if everyone was paying attention.


    "You have chosen this class because you wish to learn more about how magic works, what are its structures, its laws and its capabilities."


    "You should have noticed the presence of those tables. They will be used by us to hold several experiments that will give you all an idea of the properties of magic." He stopped for a moment "But before that, does anyone know what is considered the first law of magic?"


    Natalia raised her hand, together with several other people. Asimov pointed to a girl who had butterfly wings on her back.


    ¡°Ah...¡± She started, clearly unprepared for the sudden attention. ¡°The bigger the effect is, the more energy needs to be used?¡±


    ¡°Absolutely correct!¡± The teacher agreed. ¡°Energy is an essential part of magic, and the spells can use various types of energy, but by far the most common is spiritual energy, that which comes from the soul.¡±


    Asimov made a ball of light appear over one of his pincers.


    ¡°There''s still a lot of things we have yet to discover about magic, and any of you may be the person who discovers those things. Let''s start.¡±


    And Asimov got right into it, explaining the Affinity theory, one of the ways of explaining why it was easier to use the other magic schools than it was to use pure magic.


    After the class, Natalia went down again, going to the room of Magical Artifacts: History and Training.


    The room in question was in one of the floors closest to Natalia''s dormitory. It was a lot bigger than most, which was fair, considering that the class had triple the students of the other classes Natalia had been to. The room was divided in two halves. One was an amphitheater in front of a stage with a screen the size of movie screens. The other was a number of tables divided in three floors and with varied sizes.


    Some of those floors had to be reached with ladders, others were next to rivers that crossed the air, while others had access ¡°bridges¡± round and simple, with a slight incline. Each one of those tables also had a small ceramic sphere. The last thing Natalia noticed was that the ¡°theme¡± of that room was some sort of black rock she didn''t know about.


    The teacher was on the stage, so the students went to the amphitheater. Natalia used the little time remaining to examine the teacher. She was a short woman with blue hair and such brilliant golden eyes they could be seen from a distance, she was using a multicolored kimono in imperial style from the same country as Hinata, she had rings of many types of jewels on her fingers, and so many varied bracelets that her arms couldn''t be seen, even though her dress had no sleeves, and her skin was white to the point of paleness. But the thing that attracted the most attention about her were the two big wings on her back, each of them was longer than she was tall, they were also completely mechanical, seemingly being a combination of various mechanisms and materials. Natalia had a sudden suspicion that those wings had been made inside Arcadia Academy.


    Five minutes after the marked time for the beginning of the class, the teacher attracted the students attention by flapping her gigantic wings. Then, she started to talk with a clear and tranquil voice.


    "Welcome. My name is Rela and I teach about Magical Artifacts."


    She stopped for a moment before continuing.


    "This classes will have two parts, first will be the theory, where I will explain to you the history of the Magical Artifacts. Then, in the second half of the class, we will begin the practical part. You will go to the other half of the classroom and train in the use of the Artifacts. Those spheres on the tables will be your training Artifacts, but you can also use your personal Artifacts to train outside of class, and if you don''t have any, you can talk to me so I can lend one of the Ceramic Spheres to you. Any questions?"


    It looked like everyone had understood, so Rela adjusted the screen to show some images and started to talk about how the Magical Artifacts had been invented. They were very old, from the time of the first magic users in the world, the age of the Celestial Walker. Natalia heard everything with interest, Susan had never been the type to get too hung up on history, so that was all new to her.


    When the teacher announced the beginning of the practical part of the lesson, Natalia went to one of the tables and obeyed Rela''s instructions of trying to make her sphere move through the table. She had a little easier time at the start than most, because of her prior experience with the Eye of Light, but soon she was in the same position as the rest of the class, making a lot of effort for every inch the sphere moved. Obviously, there were some people who were doing better, and some even managed to make the sphere levitate or change form. But Natalia had fun the entire time she was working hard in the class, and the time went by fast.


    After that, Natalia went to eat in one of the cafeterias before heading back to her room, Hinata was there, working on some mathematics questions she got as homework. Natalia didn''t disturb her, preferring to use that time to organize better her school materials and surf on the internet, while listening to music on headphones.


    Hinata finished her homework quickly and they talked a little about their classes of that day. However, soon the topic changed to their personal life. Natalia didn''t have a lot to talk about, having spent most of her life inside her house and being taught by tutors through the internet. On the other hand, she got very interested on Hinata''s story, which started with:


    "Well, I have nine older brothers and sisters."


    Hinata explained that her family had a tradition of producing really important people for the community of S?o Louren?o, and that two of her sisters and one of her brothers had been combat mages that reached important positions on the police and diplomatic corps, and had made several very unsubtle indications about where her talents for combat could be better utilized. Natalia understood that very well.


    At 10:30 PM, Natalia left the room and went for her first lesson of Psionics.


    The Psionics classroom was relatively normal, having the same basic arrangement of chairs, empty space and screens as the History classroom. It also didn''t appear to have a specific theme, having white tiles and granite walls. The only thing that differed was the gigantic whiteboard in one of the sides of the room, that was longer than most cinema screens.


    The teacher, a perfectly normal human with a beret on his head, was next to that board, and next to him was a muscular humanoid of gray skin, black hair and prominent fangs, that Natalia recognized as an ogre. Elidee had talked a lot about ogres with her. Really a lot.


    The teacher, who called himself Marcos, made the requisite initial speech about his class. He said that it would focus on determining what mental abilities each student had. He said that some of them would be better at blocking, others would be better at listening and others still would be better at invading. He also introduced the ogre as Arto, his monitor. Any psionic with the ability to invade had to have a monitor for supervision. That was something Natalia knew well, given Aleksei''s abilities. His monitor was a pretty nice woman.


    After that, Marcos went over some basic concepts and gave some preliminary tests, as well as giving out basic exercises. He also asked which of them had experience, and several students, including Natalia, raised their hands. She was the first person he called to demonstrate, and the skills in mind shielding she had developed during Aleksei''s early childhood managed to impress him.


    The class was tiring, and when she came back to her room, Natalia fell asleep just as soon as she put her head on the pillow.

 Hinata Alveia

    Hinata woke up at exactly 6 AM, thanks to her programmed Wake Up spell. She did her morning routine, including her regular morning exercises. When Natalia''s alarm rang, Hinata hesitated for a moment, noticing that it was earlier than in the previous day. Soon, Natalia had gotten up and went to the bathroom, before coming back and taking a book.


    After checking that book, she walked to Hinata''s side and started her own exercise routine. Hinata approved of what she saw, obviously that book was a serious guide, she had seen people train themselves with similar movements before. Focusing again, she finished her exercises and checked to see what would be her classes of that day. The first one was going to be Contemporary Diplomacy.


    The two of them left the room and had breakfast together before separating to go to their respective classes. Hinata got to the room early and sat near the door, as was her habit. She observed every person that entered, taking special note of how they walked, trying to guess which of them were skilled in battle, and she liked to think that she was very good at that.


    Not surprisingly, there weren''t many students that seemed to be well-trained, but she was surprised to see that the teacher had all the signs of a veteran combatant. Hinata looked closely and noticed that the teacher actually wasn''t human. She seemed to be mostly human, but with some faery blood on her veins. Her heterochromia was the most obvious sign, specially combined with her tall and slim body type, but the way she walked, her long fingers and curly hair were smaller indications that contributed to make Hinata pretty sure that her guess was right.


    The teacher identified herself as Andrea and the lesson started. And that actually that wasn''t a basic class like the others Hinata was in. It was a more complex class with mostly veteran students. However, Hinata had gotten permission to take it by passing a special test. She had already learned a lot about diplomacy in school, like any other person from S?o Louren?o, it was necessary for them to understand the extremely complex and delicate relations the country had with its neighbors, which included several recent conflicts. Because of that, Hinata considered diplomacy as one of her most important classes.


    Hinata took a lot of notes while the teacher explained how the Prevat Deals of 1913 influenced commercial matters between the country of Yuden and the forest of Karaos, but at the same time Hinata was training her senses by trying to figure out what the students she couldn''t see were doing, based only on the sounds they made.


    After her class, Hinata left to go to the next one. While on the way, she focused on her own steps and imagined danger situations and how she could react to them. This training(taught by her sister Rikako) had already become a habit, so she had a little fun by imagining some more outlandish situations. This got even easier because the class was on a much lower floor than any she had gone before, so big that she wasn''t actually on the floor, but crossing elevated bridges. The whole thing made her feel like one of those fairies that were everywhere in the academy. But it didn''t take long for her to get to the room of ¡°Applying Magic in the Context of Combat¡±.


    The students in that class were different from the diplomacy class. While there were some obvious amateurs, most of the ones who were in that class seemed to be at least a little trained, which she gathered both from the way they paid attention to the environment and from the tiny scars she saw on the hands of some of them. That class also seemed to have a wide variety of students, including centaurs, some ¡°tall¡± fairies(which were child-sized), fishpeople swimming in the river that crossed the room and ogres, only in the nearest part of the room. But none surprisedHinata quite as much as the teacher. Because he was a dragon.


    He was an immense green dragon that seemed to have double the size of an elephant. He had no wings, legs or arms, making him similar to a serpent. He had blood-red eyes and fangs that seemed strong enough to destroy diamonds. Hinata understood perfectly the reason why the class had to be held in that room. Speaking of that, the room was divided between the main part, where the teacher was, that had several beings with the height of around seven meters, and the part where Hinata was, which was a kind of stage in the shape of a quarter circle.


    The room was square, and the quarter sphere occupied one of the corners of it. Hinata looked around and saw that pretty much all students had been surprised by the appearance of the dragon. They were already recovering when he started talking.


    ¡°Good day, my friends! How are you?¡±


    The ridiculously friendly voice of the dragon completely broke the tension in the room. In the conversation that followed, the dragon introduced himself as Roahm and asked all students to introduce themselves as well. Every one of them did so, and Hinata took special note of the ones that mentioned having serious training. The lesson itself was complex, with Roahm talking about the combat potential of the main magic schools, while mentioning some of the other schools. Hinata quickly saw that the dragon understood the subject very well, but wasn''t good at organizing his thoughts and teaching in an ordered way.


    Even so, Hinata took a lot of notes, specially concerning the things she wanted to research later, and started to think seriously about golem creation, which she had heard about before but hadn''t understood the implications. Apart from that, Roahm talked about so many different things that Hinata was convinced that every student had found something they wanted to focus on. So she considered him a good teacher, despite the problems.


    After that she ate a quick lunch in one of the cafeterias and explored the Academy a little more, knowing she still had time before the next class. She recited a children''s song of exploration while doing that, which was one of her favorites among the songs children in her country had to know by heart. After exploring, she went to the Calculus class. She had always liked math, and the manipulation mage consulted by her family had said that it would be extremely important for her development in manipulation magic. The teacher of the manipulation magic class agreed.


    The calculus teacher, a forty something years old redhead human called Mara, started the second class of the year by asking for the homework of the previous day. Hinata gave it to her, and so did most of the class, except for three students. That caused a drama that Hinata did not find interesting, preferring to think more about golems. After that passed, the class proper started, and it was explanations followed by more questions and question solving. It seemed like that pattern would hold till the end of the year.


    After the class, Hinata went to the room where the ¡°Introduction to Fantastic Environments and their Inhabitants¡± class would be held. Since she got there before Natalia, she guarded the seat beside her for her friend. She also wondered how much Natalia would know about this class, considering the main book of the class was written by her sister. This led her to wondering if the story about the famous Elidee Nocte and the ogre prince was true...


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    This line of thought was interrupted when Natalia entered the room and Hinata waved to her. Natalia went to the seat Hinata had guarded for her and the girl wondered what were Natalia''s real abilities. The girl obviously had some physical training, but didn''t seem to have the grace and balance of martial artists or professional fighters. Natalia sat down and Hinata decided to clear at least one of her doubts before the start of the class.


    ¡°Hey, how much do you know about this subject?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Not that much. Elidee told me several stories about her adventures, but she never really taught me.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. I thought so...¡± Hinata decided to change the subject ¡°Ah. You won''t believe what happened today.¡± She spoke in a mysterious tone.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°The teacher of my combat magic class is a dragon!¡±


    ¡°Seriously?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, and he is very friendly.¡±


    Hinata started to talk about what Roahm was like while the other students came to the room. Natalia seemed to be a little jealous. But their conversation was interrupted when the teacher entered the room, because he(or was it a she?) was an Aranea, a giant spider. To be more precise, he looked like a tarantula that was one and a half meters tall. Hinata thought about what she knew of the Aranea: They were a complex and isolationist society, they were the greatest creators of Mystic Artifacts in the world, and, with exception of their ancestral land of Orconde, the greatest concentration of them in the world was in Arcadia Academy.


    Another thing to note is that Aranea are not capable of speech, and communicated with each other using an extremely complex system of clicks of the legs. So it was not surprise when the Aranea started ¡°talking¡± with the(much simpler) Arton click language, that only used one of the legs.


    ¡°It''s a pleasure to meet all of you on this day, my students. You can call me Ora, and I''ll be your teacher in this class.¡± Was the message he clicked.


    It was an extremely formal style of speech, and Hinata wondered if this was something specific to Ora or if other Aranea also talked formally with non-Aranea. However, this did solve one of her questions, Ora used the masculine form of ¡°teacher¡± to refer to himself. Also, the class was very normal, with him explaining about the Geology and ecosystem of the land of Roksoi. But he also said that in the next class they would go to one of the mini-ecosystems in the academy for more practical learning.


    Natalia acted very enthusiastic during the class, but that was because she was very interested in Roksoi, considering that some of her favorite artists and writers came from there. Well, she would probably learn a lot more in her Roksole classes.


    And that was the last class of the day. Hinata and Natalia left together to have dinner, and during their talk Natalia suggested that they go see the library, Hinata agreed and the two of them went there. They reached one of the entrances and entered that place, and Hinata almost let her backpack fall to the floor. The Crystal Sphere was impressive, but the Library(she couldn''t help but to think in Capitals) was on a similar level.


    It also had the form of a sphere, but instead of having regular ¡°floors¡±, the people inside walked in the underside of two crisscrossed ring shaped passageways that formed an ¡°X¡± around the room. The check out station, the computers for book searching and the other essential parts of the library were in those passageways. There were also other things, like a Guardian unit(which really made Hinata wonder about that library) and some strange white spirits that floated around and approached certain people once in a while. Of course, the most important part, the books, was in an altogether different place.


    The books were in spheres(of course). Hundreds and hundreds of room sized spheres floating in the middle of the Library. Some of them were connected to the passageways via all kinds of bridges, while others you had to use floating platforms to access. Some of them were clear, letting Hinata see the books inside, while others were opaque and made of all kinds of materials. Some of them were wide open, while others had guards that asked for special permission, and others seemed to have no way of entering. There was even one that was completely sealed by slips of paper covered in magical formulas. Hinata couldn''t imagine what kinds of books could be inside.


    But if Hinata had been impressed by the library, Natalia looked like she was having a religious experience. She dropped to her knees and raised her hands to the air.


    ¡°Natalia? What are you doing?¡± Hinata asked.


    ¡°Can''t you see? The books are organized so perfectly...¡± She spoke, and Hinata could practically see the stars in her eyes.


    Hinata looked at the spheres again and paid more attention to the words engraved in them(except the ones that had no words). Those were the categories of the books, but Hinata couldn''t make heads or tails of the system used to organize the books. Then, a black clothed girl approached Natalia.


    ¡°It seems that you liked the Library.¡± She said cheerfully, somehow managing to enunciate the Capital.


    ¡°Yes... So many books... Such organization...¡± Natalia still hadn''t recovered.


    ¡°There are very strict organizational protocols here.¡± The girl held Natalia''s shoulder sympathetically.


    ¡°You''re one of the librarians...?¡± Natalia looked up at her.


    ¡°Yes. My name is Nora and this is my part-time job. Do you want to be one?¡±


    ¡°Nothing would make me happier.¡± Natalia responded with the largest smile Hinata had ever seen on her face.


    ¡°Then go to the Main Station and talk about it with Boss, we are always in need of extra help these days.


    After that, she left and Natalia finally got up from the floor. Hinata couldn''t believe what had happened.


    ¡°Looks like you''ve got a job already.¡± Hinata commented neutrally.


    ¡°Yeah.¡± She took a deep breath ¡°I''m going to have fun with this.¡±


    After that, they went to the Main Station and Hinata waited while Natalia talked with ¡°Boss¡±.


    ¡°I''m going to be here every Saturday, from four to eight PM¡± Was what she said after getting back.


    The two of them went to explore the open areas of the library. Hinata looked at books together with Natalia while she thought about which part-time job she should try. Her family was well-off, but she would feel better if she didn''t have to beg for money for everything she wanted to buy.


    At the end, Natalia borrowed two books and Hinata said she didn''t need any yet. The two of them went back to their room and Natalia once more made tea after putting some music to play on the computer. After that, Natalia started reading Riviera, The Promised Land, an adventure book from an author Hinata didn''t know.


    While the other girl was doing that, Hinata took several small objects from her backpack and tried to form them into a humanoid shape. Then she used her magic to try and make it move, but every time she tried, the parts started escaping from her grasp.


    ¡°Golems, huh...¡± Hinata whispered to herself ¡°Looks like this will be harder than I imagined.¡±


    She kept trying for a while before going to sleep.