Chapter 1161: New life (3)

[What do you mean by that?]

Lucavion glanced toward Vitaliara. She remained at the edge of the bed, golden eyes fixed on him with enough concentration that the Academy card had clearly lost its place as the most interesting object in the room.

"I mean that Elara ranked lower than I expected."

[And that brought a smile to your face?]

Lucavion considered denying the smile, then decided that doing so would only invite a longer argument. "Yes."

Vitaliara’s ears shifted. She had been present in Stormhaven, knew enough of what had passed between him and Elara, and had watched them closely enough since reaching the Academy to discard several explanations on her own. Apparently, one possibility still required confirmation.

[Do you hold a grudge against Elara?]

Lucavion shook his head. "Quite the opposite."

[Then why are you pleased?]

He turned the card once beneath his fingers. "Because this may be better for her."

Vitaliara continued watching him. [Why?]

Lucavion looked at her while she waited without offering him the smallest assistance.

’How do I even explain this?’

"You are aware that Elara is rather competitive."

[Yes.]

"And ambitious."

[Very.]

That answer had arrived with suspicious speed. Lucavion chose to leave it alone.

"Then what do you think would happen if a girl from some local barony entered the Imperial Academy and immediately ranked far higher than anyone expected?"

Vitaliara considered the question with complete seriousness. [She would be ranked high.]

Lucavion stared at her until her untroubled expression made it clear that she considered the answer perfectly adequate.

"For a beast that has lived this long, you remain remarkably clueless about human behavior."

Her tail struck the mattress. [Was my answer incorrect?]

"Technically? No."

He had asked the question badly. Ranking high was not itself the problem; the Imperial Academy existed partly to find talented students outside the greater houses, and plenty of minor nobles surpassed expectations without provoking a crisis.

Elara’s danger came from everything surrounding that talent.

’Let us try something closer to home.’

He set the card against the desk. "Suppose a young beast entered another beast’s territory. Its bloodline held no importance, its parents controlled nothing worth taking, and nobody expected much from it. Then it began defeating the offspring of stronger bloodlines."

Vitaliara’s tail stopped moving.

"It knew things its bloodline should not have taught it," Lucavion continued. "It handled power better than beasts raised with greater resources, and whenever anyone examined it closely, the explanation almost fit."

[The stronger beasts would investigate.]

"Some would approach it first."

[Others would examine its parents, its territory, and whoever trained it.] Vitaliara watched him in silence for a moment before her ears angled back. [If those answers remained insufficient, they would treat the young beast as a threat or prey.]

Lucavion inclined his head. "Humans prefer more paperwork, but the principle survives."

Elowyn Caerlin could distinguish herself. The Imperial Academy existed partly to discover talented students beyond the Empire’s greater houses, and a baron’s daughter earning a strong position would attract the ordinary mixture of praise, envy, and recruitment.

Her present rank gave her room to improve without making that improvement inexplicable.

The name Caerlin offered some protection, but minor nobility would not discourage anyone powerful enough to act on sustained suspicion. Elara’s formal education already exceeded what many expected from her supposed background. Her frost control, reconstructed magical instincts, and silver-light manifestation offered further reasons to look twice.

The Academy would eventually notice her. Lucavion merely preferred that the attention arrive after Elowyn Caerlin had built enough history here to withstand it.

Vitaliara studied him. [You have considered this carefully.]

"I happened to have time."

[You were looking at the card for several minutes.]

"I would say, it was several very productive minutes."

Her stare dismissed the answer without requiring another question.

Lucavion looked back at the silver script.

The Elara he remembered from Shattered Innocence had entered the Academy without even the modest protection of a baronial name. Every examination in which she exceeded expectations had drawn fresh attention, and attention inside the Academy rarely remained academic for long. Noble students challenged her because losing to a commoner embarrassed them. Invitations became threats when she refused them, while rumors made withdrawal appear as cowardice and resistance appear as arrogance.

She had endured it. She had also found people who mattered because some of them had stepped forward when those conflicts became impossible to ignore.

Valeria had entered her life through one such confrontation. Selenne had first noticed her talent, then the pressure gathering around it. Other bonds had taken shape along the same road.

Lucavion had never admired suffering merely because something useful survived it.

Here, Elara had already formed a circle before the Academy could isolate her. Selphine and Marian had become genuine companions. Aurelian had grown comfortable enough to share their table without ceremony, and Isolde had entered Elara’s life under circumstances far removed from the original story.

Those changes did not make Elara safe. They gave her more places to stand.

Lucavion intended to preserve as many of them as he could, although announcing that intention would only invite arguments from everyone involved.

Vitaliara lowered herself onto the blanket. [She will still try to climb higher.]

"Of course she will." Lucavion retrieved the card from the desk. "The lower placement only buys her time. It will not persuade her to use it sensibly."

[You like that about her.]

His thumb paused against the card’s edge.

"Her lack of sense?"

[Her refusal to remain where other people place her.]

Lucavion returned to the schedule without answering. Vitaliara allowed the silence to remain, which was less merciful than changing the subject.

The permanent Blocks had already introduced another complication.

Until now, the Academy had done most of the work required to keep Elara near him. The examinations had sent every freshman through the same halls, temporary residences had kept their routes close, and shared events had gathered the new students together whenever their paths threatened to separate.

That arrangement had ended.

Elara’s schedule belonged to the Magicians’ Block. His own days would pull him toward the Martial Arts facilities in the west. Meals and chance encounters would remain possible, while the lessons she had agreed to give him provided another point of contact, but those lessons were private by necessity. Neither of them could use the arrangement to explain why a Martial Arts student kept appearing around magical lectures.

Fortunately, Lucavion did not need to invent an excuse.

His Mana Control Trial had demonstrated the problem clearly. He could circulate mana through his body, respond to pressure, and force a structure into cooperation once he understood what it was doing. Distance made everything less forgiving. Detached formations, sustained manifestations, and formal spell construction demanded principles he had never learned properly.

Elara could address part of that weakness in private. Secret lessons, however, could not provide official access to training halls, supervised practice, specialist libraries, or instructors who worked openly within the Academy.

Lucavion looked at the assignment glowing across his card.

PRIMARY BLOCK — MARTIAL ARTS BLOCK

The word primary suggested that a secondary course of study might exist. If students could attend selected lectures outside their assigned Block, he had a legitimate academic reason to request permission. It would improve a weakness the examinations had documented and give him reason to cross the Academy without attaching Elara’s name to the petition.

The fact that it also kept him close enough to observe how the altered story developed only made the arrangement more efficient.

Relying upon his memories had become increasingly dangerous. Elara’s friendships had formed earlier, people had entered her life out of sequence, and Lucavion’s own interference had changed circumstances the novel had once treated as fixed. He could remember what the story had shown him; he could not assume the people standing before him would continue obeying it.

He needed access rather than certainty.

Vitaliara lifted her head when he slipped the card into the inner pocket of his coat. [Where are you going?]

"To discover whether the Academy permits intellectual ambition."

[You are going because of Elara.]

Lucavion straightened his collar before crossing to the door. "I am going because my formal magical education is embarrassing."

The statement was entirely true. Vitaliara’s expression suggested that truth had once again failed to impress her.

[Does Elara know you intend to follow her into the Magicians’ Block?]

"I am applying for academic access, not following anyone."

[Does Elara know that?]

Lucavion opened the door. "I have not yet applied."

Her tail struck the blanket behind him.

He stepped into the corridor before she could refine the question. Someone within the Academy would know whether cross-Block study was possible, and Lucavion saw little benefit in inventing procedures from his room.

Student Affairs seemed like a reasonable place to begin.