Page 12 of Phixmery

I jerk my head down in a nod, hoping to hide the small wince at getting my squad into trouble already. “Thank you, Sir,” I say, and take off after the group.

PHYSICAL TRAINING WAS a lot more brutal than I expected. The training yard is massive, and one lap took us fifteen minutes, the older years passing us on more than one occasion. We’re out of shape and my squad was not impressed about the extra two laps I managed to get us by quite literally doing nothing. Evera Gannon—the female with long, pin-straight hair and blood-red eyes—has been glaring at me in every lesson we have, which Cresida was more than happy to notice. They’ve buddied up together despite being from different squads.

I’ve also received split reactions about Nero. He happily perches on my shoulder all day, threatening to pluck people’s eyeballs out for looking at me strangely. Yearwood and Rozen have been more than obsessed with him. Yearwood’s curious gaze lingers on him when she thinks I’m not aware, which just makes Nero preen. He’s enjoying being recognized for his ‘true potential and magnificence’.

My lessons have been pretty straightforward. Nothing worth mentioning happened in Battle Theory today except going over what we will be learning, and the same with Wilderness Survival. It’s the next class coming up that I’m nervous about. Magick for Elemi: year one. I never declared myself as an Elemi Fae, but considering where they found me, I can see why they would assume that.

There are five groups or fae races: the Elemi fae from Allondë who can wield elements—usually only one to three of them. It’s exceedingly rare but not impossible for an Elemi fae to have full mastery over all four. They consider themselves more powerful than most of the others considering they have basically unlimited power. The only thing is, they need to have access to the element they are connected to.

The Szellemi fae of Skyrivene are known as mentalists, being able to sink into the recesses of your mind, find your fears, and bring them to life in front of your eyes, depending on the strength of their power, conjuring life-like illusions or hallucinations. They even say they can mind-read if they’re powerful enough, but they need to have you in their line of sight for them to be able to cause harm or use their magick on you.

Vopn Fö fae of Imperset are known for their ability to master any weapon and be extremely dangerous in combat. Their magick centers around their rage; the angrier they are, the more precise they become. Like anyone else though, some are stronger than others.

The fae of Vathia—our enemies—are the Skuggi Fae, shadow walkers. From what I know of them, they can only use shadows already present, but not make them, so most of their attacks are carried out at night where their magick is at its height. There’s even rumors that some of them can walk the shadows of your dreams, but I’m not sure how accurate that is.

Finally there is—was—the Gallalaus Fae. The royals. But they were wiped out twenty years ago. It’s what started this great war. They had the abilities of all the fae and were revered.

I wrap my arms around myself as Nero and I wander into Magick for Elemi, my nerves getting to me. My new non-friends aren’t here yet so Bracken and Cresida are the only ones I’m familiar with—and Evera from my room, but since she’s made friends with Cresida, I’m choosing the wise decision not to get involved with her, especially with all the seething glares she’s been sending me. So I opt for the end seat next to the other female from my squad, the one with hair as white as the snow and eyes as green as the spruce trees back home. The tips of her hair match her eyes which makes her stand out from the others.

The class is set up so that the chairs with small movable wooden desks are arranged in a circle. Each row going back is slightly higher so everyone can see what’s going on in the center of the room. I get to where my squad is now taking their seats and the moment I sit, the girl with white hair stands—along with the male next to her—moving over to Evera. Great. Well, it’s not like I’m here to make friends anyway.

“Do you want me—”

“No Nero, we aren’t plucking out her eyes.”

He croaks in annoyance, causing a few others to glance our way with wary gazes.

The first female fae officer I’ve seen here walks in and positions herself at the podium in front of everyone. “I’m Captain Batsil. I know in your other classes you’ve talked about what you’ll be doing your first term here. But I go about things in a more practical sense.”

Dread creeps in, and Nero instantly begins to comfort me by mimicking a purr.

“Today I’ll be bringing you up one by one so I can see what I’m working with, and we will go from there. Magick isn’t about studying texts, scrolls or parchments—it’s about doing. We’ll start with you.” She gestures to a young male sitting at the front far right.

He makes his way over to her and she gestures for him to continue. He takes a breath, and it feels like the air is being sucked out of the room before it rushes around us, wisps of hair blowing into my face.

She nods, her face stoic. “Very good, next.”

It continues like that throughout the lesson and I debate on showing a meager amount of my magick, but that could lead to questions I don’t want to answer, especially because I told Ashbluff that I don’t know how to use it. Great thinking on my part, but I also never expected to be dragged into this mess. Maybe if I explain to her my situation—a made-up situation I’m going to have to stick with—then she’ll just move on.

Cresida’s shrill voice knocks me out of my thoughts as she saunters down to where Captain Batsil stands with a bored expression that mars her delicate, stern features. She doesn’t waste any time as she uncorks her hip flask and summons the water out of it, swirling it around the air, freezing it into different shapes. The fluidity of it is beautiful. She uses her hands to form it into a ball before flinging it at me and hitting me square in the face.

I jump up as Nero hops off my shoulder, croaking and hissing, hovering around my head. “That little bitch. She better sleep with one eye open tonight so I can pry it out of her head,” he snarks.

“Sorry Ravina,” she says with a saccharine voice. “I was just trying to show Captain Batsil my aim.” She flutters her lashes as laughs go up around the room.

“Clean your mess up, Cadet Fellowes. Cadet Solace, maybe you would like to come down next considering you didn’t even try to stop Fellowes’s attack?” she sighs, using her index finger to wave me down.

I gulp and mutter. “I don’t know how to use my magick, Captain Batsil.”

A murmur crescendos around the room and Batsil hushes them. “What do you mean, Cadet? Every fae knows how to use their magick. It’s instinctual once you come of age.”

“Commander Ashbluff found me. I thought I was a null, but because of Nero—my raven—he said I wasn’t. That nulls don’t have familiars.” I shrug, trying to play it off, hoping this unusual story doesn’t get me even more attention than if I’d just admitted my magick.I need to keep it hidden.

“You can show them an Elemi ability, Rav. That way you can keep up the pretense so we can escape,”Nero reminds me for the tenth time today. He’s become pushier and pushier about the topic to the point that I’m starting to relent.

Captain Batsil’s eyes narrow on me. “Lesson dismissed. Cadet Solace, you will be staying behind. We will pull something out of you.”

Cresida giggles, sneering at me before looping her arm through Evera Gannon’s, who levels me a glower that tells me if I get our squad into any more trouble today, I’ll be paying for it.

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