That evening, a breeze blew through Orpheion Castle. It was rather cold, and even snuggled up in his comforter, Devion was shivering. Didn't they use fire spells to heat the rooms? How absurd!
Unable to fall asleep and despite the layers of clothing he had donned, the brunet couldn't sleep. If he was going to shiver, he might as well indulge in a pleasant nocturnal visit to Orpheion Castle. So, after putting on his uniform, he decided to return to the castle gardens, the only place outside where students could easily go.
However, there was one obstacle in his way: he had no right to wander around at this hour in the middle of the night without prior authorization.
The corridors were deserted and not a sound could be heard, and nobody really wanted to incur the wrath of the great Jaz Blaese. Devion thought about it and a shiver ran through his body. He pressed on and quickly arrived outside.
He may have been a first-year, but his talent was undeniable.
So, this young girl trying to hide in his shadow, he had detected her right away.
"You can come out. I know you're there."
The girl took a step forward. Devion had spotted her, but he hadn't imagined she was hiding high up in one of the trees in the institute's courtyard.
Nell found herself facing him. Arms crossed in front of her, she leaned towards him and tilted her head to one side before offering him one of her legendary smiles.
"Oops, you found me."
"Why are you following me?"
"Because I was told to." Nell jumped up another tree again and looked into the distance at the moon illuminating the dark night sky. "Come and see, it's pretty!"
"Are you a monkey?"
He didn't raise his voice, ignored the student and continued on his way. She joined him just as quickly, looking from side to side over his shoulders. She was fidgeting all over the place and the young boy, annoyed, was beginning to lose patience.
"How can a girl this small be so intrusive?" Devion huffed in annoyance before resuming his walk trying, once again, to ignore her.
"Oh... Not cool." Nell replied. She spun around as if doing a dance step. "Just doing my job, you know. Where are you going?"
Devion didn't reply. He continued on his way, determined to finally get out of the gardens and into the training grounds, where he could at least do something useful to kill time: train. The grounds weren't far away, but you still had to cross the whole of the gardens to get there, and in the middle of the night without making the slightest noise, that was no mean feat.
"I know a secret shortcut to get there." Nell moved closer, her nose almost glued to the bristle's. "To get to the training grounds, isn't that where you want to go?"
"Ah wait-" The girl grabbed Devion by the arm leading him in a completely opposite direction.
That evening, Carla couldn't sleep either. She had left Maya fast asleep and motivated herself to wander the hallways of Orpheion. Her route soon led her to Devion and one other person.
Nell? That was her first name if she remembered correctly, or at least what she knew is that she and her sister knew each other rather well because they were in the same class and both members of the Scholar Assembly.
Carla's body moved on its own and her curiosity led her to follow the two individuals. More far-sighted than Nell, the girl, suspecting Devion's perspicacity and with the strange feeling that it was better for her to remain hidden, concealed her powers. She then set off to follow them, their strange escapade taking them dangerously close to the outside of the institute.
Nell was holding Devion by the wrist, which obviously didn't please him, and strangely didn't please Carla either. From what she could hear, the second year was taking him to the training grounds outside Orpheion.
Suddenly, Nell quickened her pace: had she spotted Carla? A glance back told her she had. If you want to keep following us, you're going to have to hang on, she mimed. A few elements of fire began to glow on Nell's body and her speed increased tenfold.
Oh hell with being discreet, the scar on her neck began to glow and Carla activated as little power as possible to keep up.
This frantic race seemed eternally long, Devion had resigned himself to letting himself be taken along, a thin layer of frostfire surrounding his body so he could keep up with Nell's pace.
Orpheion's gardens were dotted with perfectly trimmed trees of all sizes. The grass was so green, it was known that magicians of the water element would come and place spells on it to make it the most beautiful grass in Kaelor. Flowers were planted all along the main path. A strange gradation of green to brown indicated the exit and entrance to the training grounds located in the rocky and much more arid zone.
As the three students reached their destination, everyone stopped dead in their tracks. The dry, lifeless grounds were of lunar beauty at this time of night. The moon reflected in the earth and decorated the grounds with its yellowish hue.
"Next time let me know." Devion wrenched his arm from Nell's grip. "I can walk on my own."
"YOU!" Out-of-breath Carla had arrived a few seconds late.
"A little disappointed, you could have overtaken us." Devion replied.
Carla hiccupped in surprise, her gaze shifting from Nell to Devion, the girl slumped to the floor and began to laugh.
"Did you really think I hadn't spotted you?" Devion locked his gaze in the princess's. "You still have some progress to make, princess."
She didn't answer, looking shamefacedly at the ground before shyly raising her eyes. Opposite her, Nell, still slumped on the ground, looked up at the sky, twirling a few flames between her fingers. Devion caught his breath and, after taking a deep gulp of air, released it, sending a powerful spell flying with it.
Before the wide eyes of the two students, the immense wall of rock in front of him exploded. Even Nell, open-mouthed and dumbstruck, stared in amazement at the huge crater that had just appeared in front of her.
"A little practice never hurts." Devion laughed.
Arms outstretched to the sky, he stretched, closing his eyes as he opened them again, the scar beneath his eye glowing and his green eyes emitting an even more intense color. Ice and fire began to dance again, a show that Carla was beginning to know well. Devion's demonstration had stuck in Nell's memory, which had caused the talkative student not to speak for at least a good five minutes.
"Incredible! Incredible!" Having regained her normal state, she began to hop all around the dark-haired man. "You didn't show everything with Caspian then! Have we found his successor?"
"If you don't want to practice you can go to bed, I'll say it again, but I don't need a babysitter."
"Hey! What about her? Why don't you tell her the same thing?" Nell asked with a sulky look, pointing to the princess a few feet away from them. "Or does she get… A special treatment?"
A hand in front of her mouth, the second-year giggled. Then putting an arm around Carla's shoulders, who immediately stiffened at her touch, turned peony red.
A spear of ice shot through the air, coming to rest less than a millimeter from Nell's face, causing her to jump back, activating her power in the process.
"Maybe it's true. But at least for you, I'm not going to repeat myself twice."
Nell raised her head with a smile, one hand burning the ice spear that had threatened her, the other pushing back her long black hair. Her scar across her throat began to glow and a deluge of flames rained down from the sky towards Devion.
"On guard then!"
Nell Corvenne was, as with most students at the institute, a magician of great talent. She also had a rather unique way of fighting; she was, unusually, fast. Summoning her flames and then drawing them under her skin, she had the incredible skill of being able to temporarily increase her physical abilities.
All this was undeniably impressive. Still not enough for Devion, however.
Protecting himself with a prison of ice, the flames continued to rain down on him, melting his ice.
"Okay, let's get down to business."
Devion had concentrated mainly on defense, trying to ward off the attacks of this strange magician who fought like a flaming rabbit.
Nell managed to break through the boy's ice cage, eventually shattering it with a powerful kick.
"You're mine."
An ice statue before her eyes had grown tall and majestic, smoke billowing from it. It was a decoy. He'd had it.
"For a member of the Scholar Assembly, you're quite naive."
"Wh-" Nell turned at the last moment the flames at the end of her black mane dancing with the ice crumbling around her.
"I'm a fire user too, you know." Devion appeared before her eyes and, without her being able to defend herself, threw a powerful flaming punch at her, sending her flying.
Nell tried to stand up.
"That's enough." Carla said. "You've lost."
Nell couldn't get up, and with a grunt let herself fall to the ground. Her smile soon returned. She raised a thumb in the air and turned her head towards the brunet who was looking away from her, a little further away.
"Okay well done newbie."
"What are you doing here?"
A pale-eyed young man with dark green hair appeared from the darkness. Caspian looked annoyed and dragged man behind him, pulling him by the hair.
"AAAH WHO'S THAT?" Nell looked at the unconscious man on the ground behind the student.
"An intruder."
"But why are you holding him like that?"
Caspian breathed loudly and let go of the man he was holding, looking away from Nell who was still wearing a look of disgust.
"If I don't clean up, maybe you will?" Nell didn't answer and turned her head sulkily. "Well, I'm not going to repeat myself, what are you doing here?"
"We're training, can't you see?" Devion said from the other end of the field that had served as their battleground.
Caspian emitted a slight grin, which faded just as quickly, giving way once again to the dark look he was accustomed to wearing. He made his way towards Devion, summoning several rock serpents in his wake, sailing slowly along his path. His scar shone brightly and his head was slightly lowered, revealing a devastating look in his minnow eyes.
Caspian reached Devion's ladder and grabbed him by the collar with one hand.
The island of Orpheion was surrounded by cliffs, all of which ended in a contour covered by the winding waters of the sea. One of the reasons why it was forbidden to go onto the training grounds without a teacher was that a fall could, and almost always would, be fatal.
Caspian was still holding Devion by the collar and brought him close to the cliff, his feet high above the void, the dark-haired man still staring straight at the man in front of him. It was out of the question for him to let himself be thrown off balance.
"Go ahead, let me down."
"Don't tempt me."
Carla tried to approach and was stopped dead in her tracks. Nell had put an arm across her path and had curiously lost her playful look, her face worried she was totally different.
"It's not just a disagreement. Right now, he's really upset and it's best we only intervene in an extreme emergency."
Devion grinned unconsciously at the powerful magician in front of him. As nonchalant as he was, he was curiously not afraid at all, and maybe it had something to do with his personality, or something else.
"What are you waiting for?"
Caspian raged in absolute calm, his eyes shining with their reverse colors against the darkness of the night.
Then a black shape emerged from the ground, rising even higher, and again until its size became unmeasurable. The creature, resembling nothing the students had ever seen before, swooped down on the two boys and splashed its blackness all around it.
"Devion!" Carla freed herself from Nell's grip and ran towards the two students.
It was already too late. The creature had separated the two students. Caspian rose to his knees, his power still active, and took a few steps to distance himself from Devion.
Devion sat on the floor, his green eyes shining and his scar enlarging, staring, as if possessed, at the ground in front of him. Black smoke billowed around him, surrounding him as if to protect him. His pendant began to move, emerging from his uniform.
A new shape emerged, taking its place on the ground.