The Lich Without a Soul Vessel

Evan had already caught wind of the tournament. Rankings would be tallied across several categories in points — magical duels, ball games, even contests between magical items. It wasn't a simple test of combat magic; the academy had built the competition to be comprehensive.

When Shirley mentioned it, Evan asked, "When is it?"

"A month from now. Every college is already stepping up their training. Each one sets its own reward standards for participants — the ranking determines how many points you earn," Shirley said.

Before Evan could ask anything more, the message book on the desk lit up, and Ortlando's face appeared on it. "Professor Wang, come to my office."

Evan acknowledged it, puzzled, and headed out.

On the way he ran into Avaz, who said, "Congratulations — I heard your first lecture went over wonderfully. Plenty of students have been coming by the Magic Items Management Department just to talk about your class."

"Thank you," Evan said, and after a brief chat with Avaz, he hurried on to the headmaster's office.

He knocked, and Ortlando's voice came from within. "Come in."

Evan pushed the door open. "You wanted to see me, Headmaster?"

"Sit down," Ortlando said, waving him toward a chair. "First, congratulations on your first lesson — but that's not why I called you here. Do you remember Tina?"

"Of course I remember Tina. What about her?"

"Nothing's wrong," Ortlando said, with an expression that wasn't quite a smile. "She's fallen in love with you."

"What? She's just a child. Don't joke about this. I'm well into middle age as it is — and more importantly, I'm a lich!" Evan had only just sat down; he shot back up at those words.

"Calm down, sit back down. Tina is fifteen now, and the two of you spent time together. Age isn't really the issue here. The lich matter, though — that's more complicated. Do they know you're a lich?" Ortlando asked.

"No," Evan said, hesitating before admitting the truth. "You know how it was — I appeared to them as a necromancer, nothing more."

"That does complicate things. Leonardo wrote to me, asking me to act as matchmaker — he wants the two of you formally engaged. I'm not sure how to answer him," Ortlando said, clearly at a loss himself.

Evan thought it over. "Tell them the truth. I'm a lich — I never had any intention of this in the first place. Since it's happened anyway, there's no point hiding it. Being honest is better for everyone. Tina's a good girl. She deserves her own prince on a white horse. I won't be the one standing in her way."

"I suppose that's the only way to handle it. I'd hoped to keep your identity quiet — the fewer people who know, the better — but hiding it isn't the answer anymore. We'll do as you say." Ortlando waved a hand, resigned, and sent Evan on his way.

Outside, Evan looked up at the sky. He'd never once imagined Tina might fall for him — and Leonardo, of all people, taking her in as his own daughter and then wanting this? There were plenty of promising young men among Katherine's students. Surely one of them would've made a proper match.

He put the thought aside and walked the school paths. On the field, students were practicing a ball game — something like football, except the ball was never allowed to touch the ground. If it did, the opposing team scored a point. A goal was worth ten.

Evan watched two teams facing off. The ball hung high in the air while players on both sides pointed their wands at it, keeping it aloft — each time it dipped, a wand would flick and send it soaring again. The two sides fought over it as it rose and fell, and players could touch it with any part of their body, though holding it outright wasn't allowed. The contest was fierce.

The game rewarded teamwork above individual skill; no matter how good a single player was, he couldn't carry it alone. Evan paused to watch, smiling, until the ball broke free of the pack and sailed straight toward him. He flicked a finger without much thought, and it spun around and shot back toward the center of the field.

Watching the students brim with energy, Evan felt a small pang of envy. He laughed at himself and kept wandering the grounds — no one around him aware that his true age wasn't even twenty.

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He'd been teaching for less than a month, but his conscientious manner, his refusal to stick to convention, and his knack for drawing students into the material had already won him a following. There was another reason too, though few knew it: Evan looked to be well past middle age — that was Nicholas's old face — but underneath, he wasn't even twenty. Without meaning to, he carried a young man's energy into every lesson, and it showed. Students clustered around him after every class, peppering him with questions.

Many of those questions had nothing to do with Black Magic and Defense anymore. Fortunately, Evan had spent nearly a semester preparing, and his own views on magic had slowly taken shape.

"Professor, the college ranking tournament is coming up. I'm competing in the magic apprentice bracket for the dueling event. Do you have time to give us some pointers?" asked Ruby, a Zebishini student, tall and broad-shouldered in a way that made him look like a tower next to his classmates.

"Zebishini's already strong in magic on its own — you don't need the professor's personal coaching on top of that. Professor, don't listen to him," said Bob, an Aspola student, a fine-featured boy with faint freckles across his face.

"What did you say?" Ruby snapped.

Evan stepped between them before it could go further. "Competing in the school tournament is a good thing — don't go fighting each other over it. Tell you what: come by my place this evening, and let me see how your training's coming along."

Jamie of Marsiba and Mary of Escuro overheard and wanted in on it too. Evan laughed. "Come together, then. Bring your friends if you like. You're all from different colleges, but you're all my students. You're welcome."

That evening, they arrived with friends in tow. Evan's residence was practically a small villa — a two-story wooden building with a wide lawn out front and a few trees, with white round tables set beneath them. Evan had laid out an assortment of pastries and coffee, and once his guests had settled in, a skeleton — one he'd summoned just for the occasion — went around pouring coffee.

Twelve students showed up in all. By the rules, magic dueling was a team event, and for low-tier apprentices, teams were usually formed in groups of three.

Evan sized up the four teams. The strongest was Zebishini's — all three members were tier-three apprentices, one fire mage, one earth mage, and one wind mage. The other three teams were roughly matched, each with two tier-three apprentices and one lower. Aspola's team, aside from Bob, the wind mage, had two water mages, giving them a balance of wind and water suited equally to offense and defense. Marsiba's Jamie was a lightning mage, paired with a wind mage and a light mage. Escuro's Mary was a shadow mage — a necromancy apprentice — with two earth-mage teammates.

"Judging by raw strength, you're all fairly close," Evan said. "But in terms of elemental balance, Zebishini has the edge — good coverage on both offense and defense. Still, it'll come down to how you perform in the moment. Let's have the four teams spar in pairs so I can see what you've got."

They split off. Zebishini faced Aspola first. Evan knew there was some friction between the two colleges — all four had their rivalries, but Zebishini and Aspola in particular tended to rub each other the wrong way. One specialized in magic and magical formations, the other in potions and magical items, and since formations and items were so closely intertwined, the two sides had long kept a quiet grudge going between them.

Both teams arranged themselves in a triangle, one point facing the opponent, with Ruby and Bob standing at the front. Both sides drew their wands and began chanting. Ruby launched a fireball, while one of his teammates raised a glowing yellow shield in front of the group, and the third summoned a gust of wind that pushed the fireball forward at greater speed.

Bob answered with a wind shield, a flash of pale light snapping up in front of him, while his two teammates attacked at the same time — one with an ice lance, the other with a water serpent. The moment the two sides clashed, fire and water canceled each other out in a draw, and whatever backwash remained was absorbed by their shields.

There was a lull after the exchange, then both sides began chanting again — back and forth, in a pattern that looked set to continue until one side simply ran out of mana first.

"Stop!" Evan called, cutting them off. They lowered their wands, having barely shifted position the entire time.

"Your teamwork is solid, but it's gotten rigid," Evan said, frowning. "You've split evenly into offense and defense, but casting a spell takes time, and you've clearly already worked that into your timing — you've pushed your chants right up to their limit. There's no more room to improve the casting itself, which means you've boxed yourselves into a war of attrition."

"So what do we do?" both teams asked at once.

"In practice, all three of you don't need to cast at the same moment," Evan said. "Let's try something. Ruby, you and your team fight the same way as before. Bob, have one teammate start chanting right away, same as before — but you, count to five in your head before you begin casting. Your other teammate should count to five after you start, then cast. That way you build a staggered wave of attacks instead of one single volley — then repeat the cycle." He didn't explain the reasoning. He simply told them what to do.

They squared off again. This time, Ruby's fireball came in on the wind's push, and a jet of water rose to meet it — the fire died, but the heat still rolled forward invisibly toward Bob. His wind shield finished forming just in time, and though it was close, it held. Right after that, an ice lance shot out, and Zebishini had only an earth shield left standing, its glow already starting to fade. The ice lance struck it, and the shield shuddered violently but didn't break.

By then, Ruby's team had already begun their second round of chanting, and Bob's teammate started casting again in the same rhythm as before — except this time, instead of a wind shield, Bob switched to Wind Blade. It shrieked forward, scouring away the lingering heat, and its remaining force slammed into the earth shield, which began to shudder. The ice lance arrived a moment later, and with a crack the earth shield gave way entirely, the ice lance flying straight on toward Ruby's team.