Chapter Eight

A week passed, it was monday again. When the Academy had started accepting humans they'd accepted the idea of a weekend. Petra took it quite well, the idea of having a couple days a week to do nothing; it was like life back at the palace. Chesi did not; it was crushingly obvious that she had no clue what to do with herself. She'd done some exploring to keep herself occupied. There was a small town at the base of the mountain. The stream below Otan's dojo went right down to it. It sounded rowdy for her tastes, but Chesi had made her promise to go down the following weekend.

Classes were useful, but Petra didn't find them very interesting. With every first year student in all three classes it was hard to have anything too complex that would require close attention to adequately teach. Petra had learned to respect Otan, which apparently wasn't his name just an honorific roughly equivalent to master. Natural magics was a pushover class for any Nielda, and casting came very easily to Petra. Chesi had been right about the scythe though, it wasn't a weapon. Otan had made it his personal project to salvage any combat potential she had, primarily by having her keep it on her back and just focus on dodging.

Her main intrest, however, was getting to meet the candidates for her year TacSim team. Degol had gotten ahold of her over the weekend. There were ninety-three students interested in joining a TacSim team from her year alone. She had to pick eight to get a full team. She'd start after class, the fact that of her entire class about three, counting herself and Chesi, students could actually defend their minds.

Petra was happy to see Vlad, the third most mentally guarded student in her class, was one of the applicants. He was a smart young man with a stong sword arm; he was also devilishly good-looking. She didn't even bother interviewing him. Only downside was his being human, and he wouldn't say what planet he was from either.

The fourth member of her team was Alid. He was the seventh son of a seventh son, Navy family. He wasn't much good at casting, but he had experience on the 52nd fleet's junior TacSim team.
After him was Knarf. He already had experience as a magic user, his father was the shaman of the Blade Tooth clan. His expertise was with natural magic, and he was already quite experienced in pathfinding. He'd be invaluable at battlefield analysis. Sadly, like herself he was what Otan called a 'glass cannon'; in melee he was useless.
Then were Kora and Kara, twins from Anatolia. They were actually first cousins of Petra's, but her father had been compelled to order their mother's execution for treason. Her treachery was quite well known, it would have been taken as a sign of political weakness to take them in. So they'd been eking out a living as pickpockets for the last ten years. Needless to say Petra decided it would be wise not to tell them who she was. They weren't great with magic, but like Knarf they would make great scouts. And in a fight the two of them were invaluable. Kara had shown a peculiar level of good fortune when it came to making decisions; she always seemed to know what would happen next.

The remaining four were Nielda. All had experience on TacSim teams, were able to win at a three-one fight with the practice golems, and had managed to sucesfully recite the first law of alchemy. It wasn't out of any intrest in alchemy, Petra just wanted to make sure they payed attention to their lessons. It was important that they be on top of whatever was taught them, any edge would help.

"So I know Vlad's smart and all, but is that why you really recruited him? I mean I can't help but notice you wear the same colors, you're both pale as the moon, and you both have a disturbing amount of interest in shadow magic. Is there something I should know about?"
"So I think he's cute, he's also smart and talented. Would you have not picked him?"
"I'd have tested him at least, For all you know he might not even know what TacSim is."
"I recruited you didn't I? He'll do fine."
"I sure hope so."
"I hope I am not interuptink you. I just vanted to thank you for allowink me to join you team. It vill be an honor to serve under so charmink a captain."
"Why thank you Vlad. I look forward to seeing you at practice tomorrow."
Vlad proceded to follow the rest of the team as they left the room.

"And you find nothing about him odd in any way?"
"He has that accent, I suppose that's a little odd."
"When he's nearby it feels kind of like walking by the necromancy lab. Yet at the same time, it's like a magician's trace is about him. Only the magician would have to be something like what I felt when you..You know.. the prisoner. There's something wrong with him."
"Nothing I can't handle if I have to."
"That's the other thing that bothers me. Petra, YOU feel like that. Only much stronger, like the magician who's trace can be felt on Vlad had a brother or a twin sister who did something to you and is still doing it."
"That's because you tend more towards the light and we towards the shadow. You're probably just feeling the magical differences between us."
"Just be careful. And if he tries anything, just tell me and I'll drive a stake through his heart."
"Why a stake? Why not a knife, or use that Skullcrushing hammer of yours?"
"I don't know, but something tells me Kora found it hilarious."