Magi's Path (Aether's Revival Book 3) by Daniel Schinhofen (motivational books to read txt) 📕

Less than a minute after that, the novices showed up, all three looking grim. They hesitated when they saw the Swift Wind clan where they’d expected to sit. When Gufta called out to them, they went over to their parents.

“What’s wrong?” Vana asked Nessa.

“We each fight each other as two of our three fights today,” Nessa said.

“That is one way to keep the number of undefeated lower,” Gin said. “What about your other fights?”

“We fight different people, but only Daciana fights Kyle, the other undefeated novice,” Victoria answered for them. “It was just us four left undefeated after yesterday.”

“Ah, so for one of you to be undefeated, you’d need to defeat both of your friends and, in her case, also beat Kyle,” Gin nodded. “Clearly, they wanted to make it as difficult as possible to be undefeated, though the fact Kyle isn’t facing two of you is questionable.”

Lightshield cleared his throat. “It is not up to us to question the council. They have their reasons, I am sure.”

“Who fights first?” Gufta asked.

“I do, against Kyle,” Daciana said, “at ninth bell.”

“What’s his family name?” Yukiko asked.

“Walun,” Daciana said.

“Oh, he uses fire,” Jenn said, remembering him. “I’m surprised he isn’t with them.” Her chin jerked toward where the Eternal Flame was sitting.

“He’s with the Swift Wind clan, if the master of the clan was correct,” Gregory explained to the confused novices.

“Not all fire magi end up with them, though they do try to recruit a lot of them,” Bishop added.

Gregory looked at the rings on his fingers and considered loaning his fire ring to Daciana for her fight. Yukiko took his hand in hers and leaned into him for a second.

“It’ll be obvious if she can shrug off the flames. These rings aren’t common enough for it to be passable,” Yukiko whispered.

“I thought the same thing,” Gregory sighed. “It was just an idea.”

“She has to show she can overcome her own trials,” Yukiko murmured before she sat up straight again.

Gregory sighed in agreement, missing Daciana’s ears twitch and Nessa’s one ear turned in their direction.

~*~*~

Daciana’s face was grim as she walked out onto the sands of the arena. She marched toward her foe, who had taken the entrance she’d been using for the last few days. One of the few match-ups between undefeated novices had the crowd in an excited state, but it was all background noise to Daciana.

Walun stood a few feet away from Magus Igorson, watching her. Unlike many of the other novices, Walun hadn’t made any comments about her heritage over the last few months. He hadn’t done more than give her an occasional, brief nod, but he did that to nearly everyone in the class outside of three others who’d been grouped with him nearly constantly. He’d been vocal and animated with them, but only with them. Walun gave her the same brief nod now before looking at Igorson, who had started explaining the rules to them.

Daciana exhaled, thinking about Walun’s other fights— his fire hadn’t been like the one that had burned Nessa. He kept his fire closer to him, nearly coating his hands when he used it. Everyone he faced ended up burned and submitting before he could do more to them. Daciana knew that was what she had to exploit— his lack of range.

Bowing to Walun, she felt her breathing slow. I have to win if I want to be their equal... Even if he burns my face off, I can’t let him win.

Walun felt uneasy as he waited for Igorson to start the match. Daciana’s lips were pulled back in a snarl and he heard a low growl coming from her. His breathing picked up a little faster and he quickly put himself into a defensive posture. She’s charged everyone and she looks like she wants my throat... I just need to hold her off long enough to burn her. If I do that, she’ll stop… I hope.

“Fight!” The word hung in the air, cutting over the cheering crowd with ease.

Walun flinched back slightly, expecting Daciana to be closing the distance. He was unprepared for her to be running away from him. His jaw dropped as he watched her. “What in Aether’s name?!”

When Daciana was almost to the tunnel off the arena floor, she turned back toward him and set herself into a defensive stance. Her aether surged as she used her magic, readying it for when he came for her. Her earrings drained as she made her preperations and stared at Walun.

The crowd had been as surprised as Walun, with Gufta being the one who was the most surprised at what his daughter had done. That had gotten the crowd’s noise to drop off.

A loud voice echoed in the near stillness, “What are you waiting for?! Go tame the mutt!”

All eyes turned toward the speaker, but Nick Shun ignored them, as he was glaring at Walun. Not many knew that Walun’s great-grandmother was from Shun’s family, but Nick did, and he burned in anger at the novice for rejecting the Eternal Flame’s offer. Walun’s stillness when the eurtik cur had run away from him only made Nick despise the novice more.

Those words jerked Walun back to his senses. His eyes flickered briefly to the Eternal Flame clan and his lips thinned. He was tempted to walk backward just to needle the arrogant ass for his glare, but instead, Walun took a deep breath and started forward.

Nick’s shout and Walun coming toward her made Daciana growl again. She briefly thought that maybe Walun was different, but now, she felt anger flare in her. Her aether was low, but her preparations were complete. She’d listened to the advice Gregory had given her months ago and had read about famous earth magi and what they’d done, giving her this plan. She’d