"You barely eat ever since the entry exams ended."
The table is set flawlessly, with neat patterns woven into the edges of the fabric that hung from the table, meant only for the two of them. On top of it are fine bakeware, tiny jars of jams of multiple sorts, and fresh fruit cut into bite-sized portions. The white of the blanket almost matched the flawless porcelain of her empty plate in front of her - the sun that chose to shine today making their color almost blind her.
In silence, he laid a piece of bread on her table - already smeared for her, encouraging her to eat without much of a word. The silence between them was something she was already used to, knowing he was around - moving her jaw or any other muscle became painfully hard. Ripped out of her morning daze, she felt the palm of the commander's son suddenly on top of the pale back of hers - the reflection of her widened eyes in the stern stare of the boy in front of her.
"I give you freedom, the position of a noble, to eat and drink... Even making sure no one else but us can dine this morning so we have our peace - so why can't you at least give me one word to hear?"
His voice was still stern, however, less commanding and instead almost confused - something Skye easily noticed, unable to do much of it as she couldn't muster the strength to speak. Her hand underneath his clutched the tablecloth - the stress in the morning and her growing hunger making her head spin. The fact he was now silently watching her dig her nails in the flawlessly ironed fabric was not helping her situation at all.
"Still not enough? I see."
Slowly extracting him from the seat, he went through the guarded doors that led into the completely empty cafeteria - knights positioned on every thinkable exit of the giant room, some walking back and forth on the outside to protect Skye by herself. From the corner of the room, a student wearing a hood eventually approached him - the blue shine of a water stone lighting up between his fingers.
"Forgive my failure. The one you requested to join your cause has given up his position; from what I heard, he now even joined the student you described to get rid of."
Clutching his fingers tightly around the stone, his jaw visibly clenched, the commander's son silently flashed his teeth, eventually turning to Skye, seeing her fingers hesitantly reach for the bakeware in his absence. Sighing instead, he did his best to keep his composure - having to give his all to finally rid himself of Midas in order to keep Skye at his side.
"Listen. I give you permission to become active - request more from the knighthood if you feel it's needed. Until then I will prepare our third to aid you as soon as possible."
The student nodded in silence, his hands hidden under his robe as he turned away, slipping out of the room between the stationed knights. Outside, Skye silently ate one bakery after the other - not daring to look through the opened doors to the cafeteria in which he stood to watch her in silence. Instead of patrolling, a knight seemed to slowly close in next to her, standing there until retreating sharply after once he saw her stare.
"I will do my best to make sure of your safety, no matter how far I need to go - don't forget that you belong to me, do you hear me...?"
Nearly choking on what she dared to eat, she froze completely at his voice near her ear, seeing him slowly turn away to leave fully before being dragged away from the set table. Sinking her head as she hugged herself - suddenly feeling exposed as she was forcibly guided back into her dorm.
"I was so close to handing it to her..."
Hayas's frustrated groan woke Midas up, suddenly seeing him sit on the table with Qayid and Ivyda - joined by Inaya and Javelin, with Patriq most likely lingering in the darkness between the arches in the old waterway where their hideout was set up. Rubbing his lids, Midas hung on his stool with a hunched back - barely getting sleep as he guided the Gihin girl he managed to save to her dorm. Sighing, Haya took the knight helmet off, able to come the closest to the commander's son thanks to his role in the knighthood.
"That powder... you didn't steal from the pharmacy I work in, did you..."
Inaya spoke in a low tone - her clothed fingers carefully examining what was in the tiny cloth bundle on the table, sighing in disappointment as she shook her head. Lightly slapping the back of Hayas' head, making it slightly sink, Qayid rubbed his chin with a thoughtful expression - eventually looking at Midas as he noticed he was awake.
"And...? Did you find the student who attacked you?"
"I plan on finding out who sent him to attack me; he has direct ties to the son of the general... and I know where this student is, but that will take time since he lingers on the upper floors somewhere."
"The upper floor...? That's for older students. How did you find out...?"
"I got intel - the student that attacked me is willing to work with me."
The room stilled instantly at what Midas said. Haya turned to Midas with surprise while Inaya arched her brow with dim intrigue. Inaya was unphased - making sure the bundle of powder Haya stole from the store she worked at would silently return there again as she stashed it under her robe. Qayid only groaned, his hand dragging down his face - his tone just as disappointed as Inaya's.
In exchange for what does a noble want to work with you...? Did you buy him? Or promised him some mana stone in return...?"
"Friendship. That's all he wanted."
Qayid only laughed in a dry tone, shaking his head slightly in disbelief - almost sounding mocking. Eventually looking at Midas, his loose grin eventually faded as the boy on the other end of the table didn't change his expression. The eyes of the boy were tired, however stern on him - a look that caused Qayid to sigh awkwardly as he quickly realized that his words didn't hold much weight to Midas.
"Bring him over; I have a lot of questions to ask him."
"I don't think that's a good idea; he will most likely feel pressured - being interrogated by all of us underneath the academy... That will only damage the slight bit of trust I managed to build up with him."
"Great... The second one to ignore my commands - do whatever, then, but be careful; Patriq was already stubborn enough. Listen, Ivyda found a lot of southerners and other outsiders that felt free to help us - we don't have the numbers of the knighthood, yet there's quite a sizeable amount of people with mana stones under them..."
Midas' fingers intertwined into each other, critically looking down onto his chipped nails as he tightened his fingers. Qayid planned a direct confrontation with the knights that guarded the son of the commander, ordinary students against trained soldiers. Not trying to provoke him further, the youth stayed silent - even though he knew that their plan was most likely to fail. Getting up to leave, he felt Qayid's gaze on his back before he continued to speak to the others - eventually running into Jakal on his way through the lower floor.
"There you are. I wanted to ask you if you wanted to try out some Null-Abilities with me, and Haya was too busy for me... we need to prepare for the day when we - you know..."
"Sure... we don't have classes anyway."
The grass fields of the campus surrounding the main building were nearly completely empty; the faint bit of sunlight that emerged quickly hid under a blanket of clouds again as both of them wandered the pathway to the unused building in which the physical exams were held. Following Jakal as he casually made his way through the waiting room, they eventually stood in the flat middle - a dusty fighting ground.
"People say you really hurt some nobles during your practical exam - and now Qayid is using that to get more southerners to join us. Since... if you can hold your own against nobles, any other might too if they try hard enough. Or so he says."
"Oh, of course he did... enraging the students further will only make our situation worse."
Midas sighed, crouching down to the old book to join Jakal as he turned one page after another - the leather backside in the dust of the dry floor. Each page described one Null-Ability, the reader's eyes first drawn to the name of the ability before wandering to the depiction drawn beside it. Underneath stood a rough description of how to use the ability, the rough amount of mana, and where to allocate it in the body.
Just as the youth thought, most of these Null-Abilities were not really viable in fights, as most of them served the purpose of self-defense. Most of the more powerful abilities must've been kept secret by the knighthood or generations of families that chose not to make their technique public. The longer he watched Jakal turn the page of the book, the more obvious it was to him how all of them pale to the null-abilities used by the pirates - wondering how hard it was for him to also perform an ability of that level.
"Trust Qayid. He probably knows what he's doing... Many tried the peaceful way, but if we don't risk something, we will most likely never advance at finally making the nobles accept that people born outside their borders are humans too... Anyways, this looks interesting - an ability that allows you to walk up walls. I'll definitely try that."
Midas remembered the old man Jihid telling him about the same Null-Ability, one the military of the stone kingdom most likely used - the fact that it was written into a book from the water kingdom, however, was quite surprising. Most likely meaning that the water kingdom found their own iteration of the technique.
Seeing Jakal eagerly walk to the wall that separates the fighting ground from the high-lying seats surrounding the underground, Midas turned his back to him, experimentally raising his left hand, sticking out index and middle fingers. His brows furrowed - he could transport mana to the tip of his fingers; however, all this did was make his skin tingle there. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the mana deeper into the tip of his fingers - making his flesh there sting as his skin slowly grew red.
Dropping his arm, Midas sighed - he had no idea how Jikith actually managed to form the bundle of mana in the air to trigger the explosion, seemingly able to create shapes from his mana alone. Trying again, the youth remembered how Jikith's weapon clashed with Gunvar's multiple times - perhaps the impact of two mana-fueled strikes was what created these condensed points of mana that hovered in the place of the clash.
"Jakal, could you come here...?"
Turning to him as he nearly managed to take his third consecutive step up the steep wall, Midas watched as he fell back down on the back of his head - letting out a dim groan before quickly scrambling to get up, darting to Midas at his call.
"Listen, draw your blade and charge it up with mana - then let me clash my weapon with yours."
"And this does what...?"
"I have to try something..."
Shrugging, Jakal unsheathed the sword on his back, holding onto the sword with two hands as he charged his mana into the metal. Midas did the same, fueling it into the rusty sickle - only needing one hand as charging the blade was quite similar to charging up his muscle or joint before delivering his strike. Readying himself, he and Jakal clashed their blades together - the sound of clunking metal hurtling through the arena as Midas closed his eyes to check for any remaining mana floating at their clash, unable to see anything.
"Did it work...?"
"No - but I don't know why... perhaps I have to not only clash my blade against yours but actually deflect your strike in order for it to work. Listen, Jakal, charge up your blade and attack me - I will try to deflect it in the perfect moment."
Midas and Jakal continued the slow exchange of blows - the youth felt his mana quickly depleting with each strike he charged up, already seeing Jakal out of breath but still standing as they continued to clash. Rain eventually showed up during the noon, both their uniforms drenched, however, still able to continue as it had a cooling effect, making Jakal's strikes come in a slightly faster pace as he formed a gentle smile.
Taking a sharp breath, Midas anticipated where Jakal's strike would land - knowing that he rotated between a strike against his left shoulder, his chest, and then his right hip. Knowing he'd keep that rhythm as both of them were already quite exhausted, the youth charged up his sickle, the impact of metal eventually making the blade of Jakal vibrate slightly, forcing Jakal to step back to eventually tumble to sit on the damp ground.
Catching his breath with his hands on his knees, Midas closed his eyes again - seeing a tiny light through the darkness of his closed lids, undoubtedly compressed mana. Before he could exhale in relief, the tiny shape quickly fizzled out - making him groan in defeat.
"So close... let's continue."
"I'm drained, Midas, completely... good thing I put the book inside."
Nodding without any breath, Midas and Jakal slowly turned to get inside - his blazer the only thing not completely drenched as he walked back to the hideout. Hearing Ivyda laugh at them gently as they took their seat completely drenched, something Midas ignored in thought as he stared into the distance of the room - at least now knowing how to create the same kind of compressed mana Jikith had made use of.
However, until he could make good use out of it, he would need to somehow learn to hold onto it - also having to store much more mana into an invisible shape to make sure the explosions resulting from them would have actual impact. His time to think was, however, cut short as Qayid sat onto the table beside him, looking down at him with an examining glance.
"Midas... the main building should be completely empty - there are still knights guarding the higher floors, but today might be our best chance to find that student you mentioned this morning. Any of the other students are in their dorms or not on the campus - meaning you have free reign."
Catching his breath, Midas saw as Patriq stuck his head out of the shadows - his eyes set on him again as he watched the youths exchange with Qayid. Jakal clearly was too exhausted for another confrontation. Midas needed Foulard to reach the older student since he was the only one that actively talked to him and knew where his dorm most likely lay.
"Alright. I'm going."