Chapter 5 - Caecilius

"Oh! Hi, I am Florentine, Flo for short and I am a..."

"DayShiner, I know. That is why we got paired," he said, his face entirely expressionless.

"So, what is it that we have to do?"

"We haven't been told yet," he replied, remaining completely stone-faced.

Mr.George's voice boomed across the open grounds from the front of the line.

"Alright, listen up! Each pair must head to a designated testing square! The NightGlow user will cast a small dark magic wave and the DayShine user must block it and clean the energy! We are checking your control today, not your raw power! Do not destroy the premises!"

"Are you ready?" Caecilius asked, raising his hand. His fingers were remarkably steady.

"Wait a second! Let me adjust my cloak first," Flo said, pulling her white hood over her hair.

"Sure, take your time."

"Okay, now I am ready!"

Caecilius then took his position and materialised a ball of dense, purple-black energy above his palm. It was small but Flo could see that the magic was very dense and well-controlled.

‘He must be an advanced student,’ she thought.

"Here it comes," Caecilius warned.

He pushed his palm forward, sending the dark sphere flying towards Flo. It moved fast, cutting through the air with a quiet whoosh sound.

Flo reacted quickly. She raised both hands and summoned her DayShine magic. A bright, warm white light exploded from her palms, forming a small wall in front of her.

The dark magic hit her light wall. For two seconds, the dark and light energy fought against each other. Black sparks and white sparks flew everywhere.

Then, Flo pushed her magic a little bit harder and the dark energy disappeared into thin air. It was like the two energies simply melted together.

"Good job!" said Mr.George, who was observing from a distance. "Now your next task is to increase the level of your magic and try to sustain the connection! This will teach you how to maintain a certain level of continuous power and also build stamina."

Caecilius raised his hand again. This time, the dark energy that formed above his palm was noticeably larger.

Flo thought to herself, ‘He really is good.’

"Ready?"

"Yep!"

The dark wave shot towards her. Flo immediately raised both hands, summoning a bright flare of white light. The impact was stronger this time. Her white cloak fluttered behind her as she held the barrier in place.

"A little more!" Mr.George called out. "Don't let the dark magic pass through!"

Flo pushed more DayShine into the barrier. The black and white energies collided again but this time, something felt different.

The dark magic didn't disappear immediately. Instead, it spread across her barrier like thin black cracks. Flo struggled a bit.

She found it strange because it seemed like there was a certain something which was not letting her DayShine touch his NightGlow, as if his magic itself had a thin barrier around it. Flo had to increase her power and she was visibly having to put in more effort in comparison to Caecilius.

‘I really need to practise my active ability more,’ she thought.

"Are you alright?" Caecilius asked.

"Yes, for now," she replied, catching her breath.

‘I've never come across a DayShine this strong. My NightGlow usually does not get held up by light magic this easily,’ Caecilius thought.

Flo was enjoying this as practising with someone as strong as Caecilius meant she could test her DayShine against high-level dark magic without Mr.Hugo's slow machines.

Meanwhile, back at the Observatory...

Mr.Hugo suddenly sneezed so hard his glasses slipped down his nose and scratched his ears while saying, "Why are my ears itching all of a sudden?"

Back at the Academy, Flo finally lowered her hands. She was tired from the task and decided to rest.

After resting for a few minutes while sitting beside a quiet Caecilius, Mr.George called out to the group again.

"Now your last task for the day! I want you to look at one other pair and notice how the light and dark elements are reacting because sometimes looking from a third point of view gives more clarity than being in the first-hand view itself. And discuss with your partner your reflections!"

"Who do you want to go with?" Caecilius asked.

"Let's look at Peri Peri's!" Flo said merrily.

‘Peri-Peri?’ Caecilius thought, raising an eyebrow.

They walked over to where Perry and Floerry were maintaining a continuous stream of magic. Flo watched the point of contact carefully.

"Why is light stabilising dark used for combat?" Flo mused aloud and continued, "Because it feels like... it's more like the light is not fighting the dark. Rather, the dark lets the light into itself, almost like the dark knows this is the right end to its journey."

"Because light is meant to stabilise the dark," Caecilius said simply. "That is what it does."

Flo looked at him. "But that doesn't explain what I mean."

"What do you mean?"

"It doesn't look like they're fighting. It looks like the dark is accepting the light."

Caecilius watched the two energies quietly. "Maybe that is simply the way they are meant to work."

"Made to?" Flo repeated, catching the word.

"Light stabilises. Dark destabilises. That's their nature."

Flo was still not satisfied with the answer. She stepped closer, looking intensely at the meeting point of the magic which was churning with dark and light elements.

As Flo stared at the swirling magic, Caecilius kept his eyes fixed on her, observing her reaction. He couldn't understand what she was trying to search for, to look so intensely when it was all so clear.

And so, a rather strange chain formed on the training grounds:

Caecilius → Flo → Magic Fusion Centre.

Mr.George was watching from the sidelines, viewing this weird observing triangle.

And the other students were waiting on Mr.George for further instruction, viewing Mr.George viewing Caecilius viewing Flo viewing Perry and Floerry's magic.

(The narrator should join a rap battle soon.)

"Sir, please tell us what to do next!" one student called out. "Can we break our fusions?"

"I can't look away!" Mr.George declared. "Ask Caecilius to stop looking!"

"Flo should look away!" Caecilius called back calmly.

"It's too interesting to look away!" Flo shouted without turning her head.

"Does that mean we must stop?!" Perry yelled, his arms trembling from holding his spell.

"I won't lose to the others!" Floerry snapped. "I'm not stopping until Master George says to!"

"WHAT KIND OF A DEADLOCK ARE WE IN?!" the rest of the class shouted in unison.

The staring competition only ended once the sustained magic broke after a thoroughly exhausted Perry finally dropped his hands.

"Phew! That was intense!" Perry gasped, falling to his knees.

Mr.George clapped his hands together. "The class ends!"

"Indeed, it was so fun, wasn't it?" Flo asked and Caecilius nodded.

In the background, poor Perry was being beaten up by Floerry for breaking the fusion early.

All the students, tired and exhausted from today's class, started heading home.

Looking at the beaten-up Perry lying on the grass, Flo walked over and offered him a bandaid.

"Aww, poor Perry."

Caecilius's hand twitched but he controlled the impulse and just nodded again.

"Well then, it was great practising with you! See you next week!" Flo waved goodbye.

"Likewise," Caecilius replied, still expressionless as always.

He watched Flo go and disappear into the hallway and turned around to leave too.

Flo continued walking in the Academy hallways when her stomach grumbled.

"Ah, I'm remembering the taste of Ami's pasta from yesterday but I guess I'll have to do with what's in the cafeteria today."

Flo walked inside the cafeteria and, to her surprise, it was still open with lots of good stuff available.

"Score! They even have the banana bread I love!"

The cafeteria was pretty crowded today, maybe because today they even had pizza in the options. Flo, with her pizza and banana bread, took a seat beside poor Perry. All of a sudden, people started gasping near the television area.

There were murmurs and a crowd slowly started to gather around the main screen. The screen was showing the news and it was the same reporter she saw before, showcasing a new place with ruins. Flo squeezed in through the crowd and was shocked to see the breaking news headline:

ANOTHER HAVOC: BUT THIS TIME IN THE MOUNTAIN AREA

Flo stared at the screen, frozen.

The reporter spoke hurriedly into his microphone. "A house near the top of the mountain collapsed just like the shop yesterday! A man was injured and taken to the hospital! There still seems to be some destruction going on right now as we are trying to record as much as we can. It seems like a tornado but the weather department could not forecast any such thing. It seems to be moving towards the research departments over the hill! What in the world is this? The Cirnia Defence and Attack Squads have been deployed for now. We will keep you updated."