The ride was uneventful which was a strange thing to say about a large transportation system that relied upon will magic to move people miles upon miles from one set location to another. Ludere had never even been on a transport before this all happened.

  The curiosity of it was itching at him the entire trip. He wanted to walk around the space and just examine all of the will construct. The whole thing was a will construct that had layers upon layers working together to create a thing of beauty.

  There was an anchor point at either end of the transport that each required dedicated will. The people on either side had to coordinate but that coordination was through several will contradicts that made his head spin. The utility of Will Magic versus the other disciplines of magic felt like Soul and Spirit magic had almost limited utility by comparison

  He could do so much with soul magic but it was all internal. His soul sight was the main external effect. It let him see more of how the will constructs interacted.

  It he joined government he might be tasked with the kind of work that required him to spend his magic on such projects. That was one of the things that they heavily told students. Not everyone would get Will Magic as a skill before leaving the academy, but everyone who did would get worked hard. Those that only had Soul magic had leg up on the competition in a different way. He was hoping that the combination of the two would get him the best thing that he could possibly get. It might not make him valedictorian but it would make him an essential part of whatever faction he joined when he was done. There was still the option of just becoming someone errand person or a house gopher.

  That didn't really appeal to him, but it was an option that he could consider and ultimately discard later on when it didn't serve him. What served him the most? Was trying to figure out a way to get around a hard conversation with the headmaster. They would be a questions. They'd asked them questions.

  He had thought that had enough questioning. Why would people who he had saved the lives of trying to ask him why he'd save their lives? It was almost like they wanted to die and they just were mad that he hadn't done it with the proper forms.

  If he has done all the bureaucratic processes then who knew where he would be.

  He would probably still be in the arena, either buried under a mountain of paperwork or as a corpse. Neither one suited his long term goals of avoiding joining the legion upon his eighteenth birthday.

  All he wanted was to just avoid his father's fate if at all possible.

  ---

  As expected, there was a welcoming party to count all their arriving students. Three grammarians were augmented by two members of the legion that were unfamiliar to him.

  He'd seen and been around many members of the legion while his father was in service and he recognized the signs. Both were not that high up in rank, but it was noticeable that there were two of them and that they were there on the island. Previously, all of the security forces that oversaw the academy grounds were from religion. The students took care of the rest. Despite that, this didn't feel any different.

  The ten students that had traveled with him were in a line. He took a spot at the end with Cire as they each got checked in.

  "Name?" The first soldier held a tablet out.

  "Ludere." He handed the man a slip of parchment that he had been instructed to hold. It didn't take long for the man to return the slip to him, then he looked up.

  "Ah. Welcome Regnicus. The legion appreciates your hard work. As an added security precaution, we've given each student an updated medallion. Carry this or have it near you at all times."

  The shift in security posture wasn't unexpected. The will construct was small and attached to a string that could be a necklace or and armband.

  "I need to power this with my will, don't I?" He slipped it onto his arm.

  "The students without Will Magic need some help as well so if you can aid them with keeping those charged, that would be much appreciated. We wil be handing out magic gems earlier in the term than usual for this reason."

  Ludere felt the medallion and reached out with a tendril of will. It greedily accepted a small nearly unnoticeable amount. It was refreshing to have a small construct that didn't take up everything he had.

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  "Thanks for telling me that."

  "Also I'm supposed to tell you that the grammarian wants to speak to you."

  "I didn't see that on your list."

  "It wasn't on my list."

  "Ah. Well thank you, Decanus."

  Ludere slept out of the revealing and made his way towards the crowd of people that were mailing about. There was no class today and there was a large sign indicating the times and locations of the next classes. With this being a free day because everyone knows traveling. There were a lot of people around and a lot of eyes. He saw Milla and made a beeline for her.

  "Welcome back. I've got your schedule memorize if you want. We're heading back to dueling practice."

  "Thank you. I'm sorry we didn't see each other more during break but you understand."

  "We can't all have gorgeous Oracle girlfriends doting on our every word. I understand."

  Ludere shrugged. He had the spear wrapped up and no answers about it since they had left the island.

  "I thought that we might work on our ancient celusian and maybe get some answers out of this?"

  She eyed the spear. It was almost completed covered in a tight animal skin bag. It wasn't common to put a spear in a bag, so it had been a gift that Cire has sprung upon him. He was honestly grateful that he'd received the item. It stuck out badly in a crowd, but it stopped the constant insults.

  "We could do a bit of both? You've got the list of books memorized, right?"

  Ludere nodded. "Tell me what to read and I'll do it right now? Is that what you were going to say?"

  "Hilarious. You know I wasn't benefiting from a personal grammarian for that whole week. I actually put in work."

  She tapped her side bad. There was a girthy bulge there. She made a show of removing a wax tablet and showing him some notes she had worked on during their trip.

  "I can do it."

  "You want to see if Cire is around and we'll work on that this afternoon?" Ludere placed a hand over his forehead to block out the sun as he scanned for the girl who had ridden the transport with them. She'd disappeared almost immediately.

  "I talked to her earlier and she needs to talk to all of the girls that returned. She... doesn't think that all of the students will be returning for the remainder of the term."

  Ludere sucked air through his teeth. They were hovering at the main entrance. He didn't see the headmaster, which could mean anything. He didn't want to be dragged into yet another meeting where he was accused of all sorts of things. =

  "This would be a good time to go to the library if all of the prefereti are all distracted trying to get the news about each others families. How is your family by the way?"

  "Overjoyed that I'm still at the academy. Ludo, please. Let's get to the library."

  He nodded.

  ---

  Hours later they were still pouring over things when his stomach started making him regret.

  "We could have gone to get food first but I guess I wasn't thinking right," he muttered.

  "It's a shame that I wanted you to work on the thing that's going to probably keep you alive. How terrible of us to go work on this together. Did you make any progress or should I call Marcel? Because I made some progress and I want to talk about it before we go to dinner."

  The long shadows across their pile of scrolls was telling him that perhaps their time was short.

  "Alright. We can finish up here if you're willing. What did you find out?"

  "It feels to me like this information has been scrubbed from the canon completely. There's some talk of spiritual significance but I feel like they would use the words. One of the things that scholars have debated on was if people with different languages see their skills differently. The fact that we're grasping at papers from before the cataclysm to find something useful, that is well... That's where we find ourselves."

  Ludere nodded. "If there was some pre-cataclysmic library that we could use then maybe we would find something, but where would we ... You already know a place don't you?"

  Mila smiled widely. "I already have a plan of action. You see there's one place that was not as thoroughly affected by the cataclysm. I don't think that we can go there just yet but there's a chance that we can get there after graduation."

  That might be too long for them. Late only so many days where they were in the position to take an information and grow and learn. Once they were out they would be expected to work for their superiors. There was no doubt in his mind that he would be getting an advantageous position. Similarly, Mila had been getting very interesting offers that she'd been very cagey about. It all went back to his motivations for leaving the academy with at least an idea of how to stop the invasion.

  He began breathing heavily. Mila placed a hand on his shoulder. "Breathe. It's not your job to stop the incursions. In fact, I don't think that it's even possible for you to do it alone. But together? We should be able to do this. Even if we have to drag some of these prefereti along by the ear."

  They cleaned up their scrolls, put them back and he made sure to check his notes twice. He really wish that he brought more paver with him when he went home, but he just hadn't seen a need until he got there and then it was too late.

  "I'm going to be carrying a lot more paper around now aren't I?"

  "If you want to do this? You'll carry a whole library with you. No pressure, Regnicus."

  But really all he felt was pressure. It permeated his shaky hands. He had to physically stop himself from being jittery in front of her.

  "I guess it's time to talk to the spear?" Mila said once they were outside.

  "Soup, I hope not. That would just burn me to my core. You know she just opens up with insults about my manhood right away?"

  Mila covered her mouth. "You didn't say, you don't say. Tell me more."

  "First off she cursed my partner and says that she's a dirty seer, then she questioned my ability to remain in her good graces due to potential performance issues that only she can identify."

  "Honestly, she sounds like a hot mess. Sometimes like these though that's pretty much all of you."

  "I got the hot part down." Ludere flexed his muscles. "I don't need to work on the mess, that's always been there. I know she would say that I'm just a mess though."