Chapter 35: A War in History Class
I carried Lianza's books exactly as she had taught me in etiquette class: never forcing one arm, weight distributed across both.
History class began with the usual thud.
Professor Vauxol closed the book on the desk. The sound cut through the murmurs. Thirty-two nobles fell silent.
"Open to page fifty-one," he said, writing on the blackboard. "Today we'll continue with the War of the Three Seals. Specifically, the consequences of the Treaty of Ashes."
Sitting in my seat, I took my place. Front row. Layda to my right. Ardwyn in the last row, next to Lianza.
"Has your wound healed yet, Sir Elcronne?" she said in that tender little tone that already annoyed me.
Deciding to play along, I wiggled my bandaged fingers.
"Not entirely. But I can already hold things and grip. Thanks for asking."
"Today you won't be working in pairs," Vauxol announced. "Today will be an open discussion. Whoever answers correctly earns points. Whoever answers wrong, loses them."
The nobles exchanged glances.
In an environment as competitive as the Mayorka Academy of Nobility and Empero, any competition was a declaration of war.
Ardwyn straightened up. Lianza opened her book.
I noticed Layda. Her eyes shone with resolve.
Swallowing hard, I braced myself to survive the incoming war.
[I love it when I don't have to do anything to make you suffer, Romeo. 😁]
I knew you'd be reveling in this.
"First question." Vauxol wrote on the blackboard. "What was the Ash Rift?"
Silence. The nobles exchanged glances. An event with too many versions. Highly controversial. The perfect question to ignite a relentless war.
Lianza was the first to raise her hand.
The professor ceded the floor to her.
"The Ash Rift was the event that ended the Era of Dragons. A war between dragons and humans that lasted three hundred years and reduced Earolden's population to a third."
"Correct, Princess D'Tariel." Vauxol nodded. "And what happened to the surviving dragons?"
Layda raised her hand with so much energy that her long braids brushed my chest.
"Some were sealed in the Mountains of Galia, in Rahlarka. The first Empero Knights and Ladies did it."
"Not all of them," Lianza corrected without raising her hand. The clash between the two smartest girls in all of Mayorka had begun. "The lesser dragons were tamed. The greater ones, sealed. But the ancestral dragon, Duralldan, was killed."
Vauxol looked at her.
"Who slew him, Miss D'Tariel?"
"Lady Aeloran of House Garialys." Lianza smiled, proud. "The first Rank Legend Empero Lady." She closed her notebook. "She used her legendary Rainbow Empero to paint a prison the size of a mansion inside the dragon. She trapped it within itself."
The classroom fell silent. Ardwyn turned to his left, toward Lianza.
"A prison inside a dragon?" he said with one eyebrow raised. "That's impossible."
"For someone who can't even conjure quartz, probably," Layda replied without turning around.
Ardwyn's Empero flickered.
"Enough," Vauxol said. "Well done, Miss Layda and Miss Lianza. Second question. Who were the Four Bookforgers and what role did they play in the founding of Earolden's academies?"
Lianza answered first.
"The Four Bookforgers were the first Empero Knights and Ladies who survived the Ash Rift. Each founded an academy. Mayorka was founded by Lord Valdris, the first Bookforger."
"Lord Valdris," Vauxol repeated. "And what Empero did he possess?"
"No one knows. The records were lost," Lianza answered.
"Incorrect." Vauxol wrote on the blackboard. "The records weren't lost. They were sealed by the Empero Council. Do you know why?"
No one answered.
"Because Lord Valdris's Empero was the first conceptual Empero recorded in all of Earolden," Layda said, cutting through the silence.
That caught my attention.
"That's not confirmed," Lianza objected. No one else dared interrupt the duel the two Empero Ladies were having.
"A conceptual Empero," Vauxol continued, "quite unique. No other like it has existed."
Professor Vauxol pulled a quill from his pocket and pointed it at us.
"He could conjure concepts. His power was so great that many worshipped him as if he were a god. They say all conceptual Emperos derive from his."
He surveyed the classroom, his quill still pointing at all of us.
"Does no one wonder why the Empero Council sealed that information?"
"If a conceptual Empero can be dangerous, the father of all is..." Lianza said, leaving the sentence hanging so expectations would finish it.
"All Empero is dangerous in the wrong hands." Vauxol glanced at me sideways. "But conceptual ones are especially... volatile."
Layda wrote in her notebook. Her fingers moved fast. Too fast for someone who had supposedly learned everything she knew about history in a remote village.
"Third question," Vauxol said. "What are Late Dormants?"
This time no one answered. Neither Lianza. Neither Layda. Not even the arrogant Ardwyn made something up to look clever.
"Late Dormants," Vauxol explained, "are those who awaken their Empero long after the usual age. Sometimes due to mortal danger. Sometimes because of something they're willing to protect more than their own life."
"And what activates them?" Durania asked.
Everyone turned toward her. It was the first time she had spoken up in class.
"Mortal danger. Extreme stress. A motivation so strong that they're willing to lose their life for it."
Vauxol looked at my bandages.
"Tell me, young Elcronne. How did you get that wound?"
"I fell."
"Looking after Princess D'Tariel must require so much concentration that you don't watch your surroundings," Layda said with a giggle, looking at my bandages with her brown eyes.
"That's none of your concern, sweet Layda," I replied.
"The wounds come from something sharp. From a fall, they don't," Layda continued, indifferent to my response. "Did you fight with someone? No... did someone beat you up?"
"No."
"With something, then?" she pressed, amused.
"None of your business, Layda."
Closing her notebook, she stopped pressing. But her eyes lingered on my bandages for a couple of seconds too long.
"Alright. Class is over. I hope more of you participate next class. Miss Layda and Miss Lianza, you're both tied. I expect you to break it next week."
After Professor Vauxol said that, the two exchanged glances.
The heroine and the villainess had begun their rivalry.
For my part, all I could do was worry. Things kept getting more complicated.