Page 10 of Lucent Academy 2: Trinity Awakens
"That's the first time I've heard of a summoner setting themselves on fire," she said, and then they were all laughing.
"Shut up, or I'll set you on fire," I warned, but it was an empty threat. I was laughing as well, even though the situation was still mortifying.
I recovered, and by the end of the lesson, we had all managed to get a decent fire going. "Time to break for lunch," Caleb informed us. "When we get back here, you'll summon your mates and try it again. I would like you to see the strain a mate's presence can put on your ability to perform spells. It can be quite hectic when you're at a lower control ranking, but the better you get at it, the less noticeable it will be."
Oliver joined us for lunch, and by the end of it, when we took our empty trays to the cart and passed a few words with Ursula, who had returned to her regular kitchen duties, it felt like I had known Oliver a lot longer than a few hours.
Chapter 5: Fire and Dragon
We returned to the training grounds after lunch. Again, as we made our way over to where Caleb was waiting, the air was thick with magic, something I realized I could almost see, as if it were an aura, a physical manifestation of power.
In some cases, it was. Cleopatra, standing with Principal Lucius and Crystalline, had that aura about her always. Now, as her mate, the Archangel Asau, stood next to her, that aura was even brighter, more defined.
I passed many students who had also been required to summon their mates. Lesser Fiends, Werewolves, many creatures from the Fae Realm, a Giant here or there... It was a cacophony of color and sound that filled me with excitement as I watched the students perform the spells they had been taught today. Many of them were learning the basics of their power just like Amber, Oliver, and I were. Only Cleopatra was learning fusion spells.
She glanced over at me as we passed each other, then dismissed me and turned away. It was as if she had decided that we weren't in the same league just yet, and she would reconsider our rivalry once I prove myself worthy enough to become a threat to her power. It was silly, the whole thing. Just deeply misplaced on her part. I had never considered her a rival. Now, I didn't let her attitude bother me. I had enough on my plate without worrying about the heir to the throne's misguided enmity toward me.
When we reached Caleb, he instructed us to spread out and to summon our mates. Oliver, who seemed to be shining in today's lesson, managed to summon his Lamia Princess without too much trouble. The Lamia was a Daemon with the upper body ofa woman and the lower body of a snake. She had long, midnight-black hair and a copper-toned skin that faded to tones of brown and green toward her serpentine lower half. Her upper body was naked, save for the many beaded necklaces and medallions she wore that hung down her chest and only barely covered her ample bosom. With high cheekbones and a rosebud mouth, she had a haughty appearance that could be construed as arrogant. Oliver introduced her as Naja, and she greeted us with a slight nod, her gaze seeming to measure us. Instead of transforming into a human form, she remained as she was and turned her attention toward Oliver.
"I am here to assist you. Please let my presence be your strength, my Sun and Stars." Her voice was thick and husky and reminded me of pouring honey. Oliver looked pleased as punch until Caleb reminded him he had a spell to perform.
"Right, uhm... fire, setting things alight. Right..." The poor guy looked so flustered, I thought he was going to faint, but he did manage to create a decent flame in the palm of his hand.
Next, it was Amber's turn. She concentrated her will, and before long, an ear-splitting screeching made the whole stadium reverberate. A fissure opened in the sky, and the other students gasped as one. It was different from the Summoning Ceremony because this time, Amber seemed to open a tear in the very fabric of our world. It wasn't a tear, though, but a doorway between two worlds. I saw the fire Phoenix, blazing, iridescent, appear. It circled just below the domed roof of the colosseum, and we all watched it with a sense of wonder. Students and other instructors stopped what they were doing to watch its progress. They all seemed helpless not to.
The fire Phoenix finally touched down a few feet from Amber. Its form began to change, melt, and shrink. Finally, where the greatbird had been moments ago, stood a tall and broad-shouldered man with hair the color of melted bronze. His eyes flickered warmly with an inner light as he regarded her with the steady sort of devotion that burns for a lifetime. His dark skin seemed weathered by heat. Just like Amber's, his hands were the hands of a craftsman, scarred and calloused and strong. They were a very good match. I had known that the moment I had seen Pyrrhus bond with Amber. They seemed right together; they made sense.
I idly wondered whether people would think the same when they saw me with my three mates. Then I realized sadly that they wouldn't. Even among the Manaborn, I was at best an oddity. Looking at me, no one could have predicted that I would bond with one Diamond-Tier mate, let alone three. I was mousy-haired and plain, ordinary in every regard.
I pushed these thoughts aside as I focused on my friend.
Amber flawlessly performed her fire spell. With Pyrrhus lending her his strength and with her own determination, she was soon standing flushed with success.
She turned her triumphant smile toward Pyrrhus. The Phoenix gave her an approving nod, an action that seemed quite reserved if one failed to notice the glow of pride that lit up his entire countenance.
Now, they all turned toward me, Caleb, Oliver, Amber, and their mates. It was my turn.
I gathered my will and tried to draw from the meditation exercises that Jenny Whips, the yoga teacher, had taught us.
I had to summon my mate. All the others had just one. I had three, but the one I wanted, the one that was tied to my fireelemental magic, was Vaerath, the Abyss Dragon I had bonded with.
I closed my eyes, brought my shaking hands up to my face, and folded them so that my chin was resting on my fingers, almost like a prayer. The action helped to steady me somewhat. At least I was doing something and no longer standing there like a stone pillar.
At first, I tried to recall images of the black dragon as I had seen him on the day of the summoning. Those memories proved to be too vague. I couldn't seem to focus on a single image, as the three of them, my three mates, had all been squabbling for my attention. It had been so overwhelming, had seemed so unreal that I couldn't recall exactly what I had felt.
Just before hopelessness wanted to overwhelm me, I grasped at a different straw and recalled the dreams I'd been having every night since bonding with my three mates. In my dreams, they had often been competing for my attention, but lately I could exercise some control over my nocturnal fantasies to see my mates one at a time.
Like fingers flicking through the pages of a familiar and much-loved book, my mind sifted through my dreams of Vaerath. I recalled spending time with him, strolling through the desert wasteland of some strange world where the constellations in the sky were alien and unfamiliar. Being at his side, it had still felt like home. My hand had been folded in his larger one, the long, dry fingers covered with obsidian skin had curled warmly between my smaller white ones. I couldn't recall the exact words we had spoken, but I could recall the sound of his voice, deep and rumbling, soothing. It had seemed like we had talked for hours, leaving no topic untouched.
Then I thought of another night when he had taken me in his arms, lifted my face, and kissed me. I felt again his lips brushing mine, moving down my jawline, down my throat, leaving my skin aflame as he had trailed down until my breath had come in short little gasps of longing. Moments more intimate than any I had ever experienced in the waking world, I recalled with absolute clarity as if they had really happened. My cheeks turned crimson as I recalled the feel of Vaerath's hands all over my body, stroking and igniting a passion within me that was only matched when I had been dreaming of my other two mates.
Had I been self-conscious, I don't think it would have worked. I may have lost the perfect recollection of those dreams if I had been afraid someone could read my mind and intrude on those most private of thoughts. Luckily, I was so caught up in them, so swept up in the moment, that it felt like the sweetest kind of drowning.
Something more was happening. In the real world, not in the dreams, something extended outward from deep inside me. It seemed like a grasping, phantom hand, searching for connection. When I found it, it felt as if a strong, phantom hand from another world was grasping, too. All this time, I had thought that bringing our mates into this world as we summoned them was an act we were performing by ourselves, but I felt now that it was more a matter of pushing and pulling, that they were helping us bring them through. Still, I felt the draining on my Mana as I opened the doorway, the massive toll it was taking on my power to bring him here, to me.
I heard the fissure in reality open above my head, but I kept my eyes closed until I could sense a shape emerging.
A massive, pitch-black dragon with scales that seemed to absorb the light around them and golden burning eyes flew throughthe doorway, and my heart rejoiced at seeing him again. His enormous wings spread wide enough to cast much of the arena into shadow, and when he roared, the sound shook the thick walls of the colosseum. An Abyss Dragon, one of the Primordial Dragons, the Diamond-Rank beings that had existed before the world took its current form, circled in the sky above me.
