Back to School: Third-Year Suspicions

We hadn't been back on campus grounds for more than a week, when it had already become apparent that the triop's third year at Al'magi was shaping up to be the Year of the Misfits. Apparently, while turning in their summer report on the first day, a few of their classmates had overheard the brief executive summary they gave to the teacher. In comparison to working alongside an artisan or sailing the sand sea, saving Tahvinstead from cosmic horrors was a big deal. And, as was the custom with small university campuses, the rumours about them and their heroics spread like wildfire.

It also didn’t hurt their popularity when the student body somehow discovered that the three of them were already Rank 1-C Adventurers. For us, our ranking made sense. After all, we had raided a dungeon, stopped an invasion, and survived numerous encounters with giant beasts. But at this stage, if the triop had followed the traditional schooling route, they'd be at the same level as their classmates who were currently ranked 2-E. In fact, following academic recommendations alone, many would be lucky to reach Rank 3-D by the end of the school year. The reality was that most graduating Fourth-Years had little chance to advance beyond Rank 1-D. Though thanks to the triop's innate skill and my knowledge of power levelling locations, we were coasting as far as school ranking went.

So, within the first week of returning, the triop became envied by their peers and feared by those who had once called them nemeses. But those weren't the only changes to campus life. With this new year, the story of the world progressed, and new rules came into effect. Thankfully, with my insider knowledge of these upcoming changes, the triop was more than prepared to deal with them.

The current semester marked the introduction of the annual tuition crisis in my story. Voted on and passed last Winter Solstice, charging students five hundred gold a term was meant to offset the withdrawn funding of the Capital Cities of Sultin’eli, Ter’aquit, and Anak’hati. It had been written into the story by me as a means to push the Heroic Triop beyond their comfort zones, forcing them to use the magosdromes to explore the world and make money on the side. But, unexpectedly, it appeared that not only had their group disbanded, but both Maren and Giovanni had left Al'magi altogether.

So, with the fate of the world up in the air and the chance of Esseria getting its happily ever after quickly approaching nil, I determined it was time to up our training efforts. Unfortunately, in an unplanned turn of events, it was also determined over the summer break that there would be changes to the ‘monster and vermin traps’ across campus. The resulting reduction to prowling creatures and harsh punishments for those found manipulating the system meant stalking the streets in search of a fight was no longer worth the risk. Instead, we divided up our free time between mental and physical training.

At least, that had been the plan.

From the moment we returned to Al'magi, Rionriv had been spending more time than usual in the library. The times I popped my head in to deliver her a coffee, she appeared to be determined to understand the dense and dusty tomes before her. Tomes that, the moment I approached, she hid away from me like a young boy trying to conceal the magazine he had found beneath his older brother's mattress. Even when I asked her what she was studying, drawing attention to the tome she had tucked away, the sorceress would reply in an unusually cryptic manner as she closed her notebooks and struck up a casual, off-topic conversation.

But she wasn't the only one who had begun acting differently. Sharzin, while still up to her usual skulking, lurking, and general anti-social behaviour, had become near impossible to find when a planned outing wasn't scheduled. That wasn’t to say that I couldn't lure her from hiding with my own form of subterfuge. Most of the time, all it required was leaving a message at the front of Phyllis's shop that a particular fast-food restaurant would be open in the mall during a narrow window. From there, I would then hide out behind the divider walls, peeking through plastic foliage, until she arrived, at which point I'd jump her.

Whenever I asked the rogue questions about what she had been up to or what Rionriv was doing in the library, her canned responses were less than insightful. She would always masterfully parry the queries, bring up how the sorceress was diving through old tomes, or she was bouncing around between here and there. But when I asked what the tomes were or how I could help, Sharzin would quickly clam up. Before I could react, she would take hold of her Styrofoam to-go container filled with greasy chicken strips and fries or whatever the meal of the day was and disappear into the void of Phyllis's domain to eat in peace.

Finally, there was Aesandoral, who, after a summer of close contact, had become exceptionally clingy with me. Though it wasn't something I would ever complain about, it did seem like every free moment she had was spent hanging out in my apartment, or at the gym with me, or asking if we could stop by the Mimic Café together for a drink.

Our time together was nice, and with every passing date, I found myself quickly becoming more and more smitten with the elf. I didn’t know if it was her big green eyes that I spent hours looking into, or the fact that I had already seen her completely naked and liked it, or the way she seemed genuinely interested in my life before coming to Esseria, but being with her made me feel happy. And not just aroused, but actually happy. Maybe even more. Being with her made me feel things that I had forgotten. Little moments of joy that reminded me how good life could be.

Over that first month, we spent hours chatting about anything and everything about World Eighty-Two, our lives, and even some school talk. And while she didn't like it when I brought up classwork or whatever her sister was doing, meaning that even she was a dead end on that front, I definitely tried now and again. 

As we conversed, I learned why she was an only child in a house of nearly a dozen parents. Apparently, it was the tradition among Goodshore nobility in this version of Esseria for only the Matriarch to provide heirs. The problem with this came after the death of Aelir Thantossa, Aesandoral’s biological father and Patriarch of the Thantossa line. After mourning her fallen husband, Paethia discovered herself to be cursed and, having waited so long to try again, the blight on her womb had become permanent. After several years of trying, never able to bring another heir to term, she eventually gave up. Instead, she dedicated her life to ensuring Aesandoral picked up the baton that she was now destined to carry.

Knowing this, I had begun to feel bad for telling the defiant archer to march to the beat of her own drum. At the time, there had been no way for me to know what was riding on her shoulders in terms of royal responsibility. But no matter how I felt, there was a sense of relief that in recent months Paethia had dialled it back on the idea of arranged marriages. However, after the last trip to the Thantossa Manor on our way back to school, it was quite evident that I was still enemy number one to the family and staff.

As the semester went on, and we fell back into the motions of school, things remained surprisingly normal. Rionriv studied. Sharzin skulked. And Aesandoral pined. It wasn't until midway through that things started to grow worrisome. Suddenly, Rionriv's studying transformed into being locked away in the deepest parts of the library. Sharzin's stealth training became a permanent state of hiding where even delicious treats could not coax her from the shadows. And it even began to seem that Aesandoral's watchful eye over me and our time together had to do with whatever was happening behind the scenes. While everything between us remained status quo, with exercise and study sessions, I grew ever more suspicious of the companions I had come to know and trust.

And that was why, as the seasons began to change and fall took hold of the campus, I began stalking my friends whenever they went off to do things without me.