Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Rith didn't elaborate further on her warning and she didn't need to. Evin wasn't dumb enough to mess with a magic he didn't understand just for the thrill of it.

Even with Rith's lessons added in the mix, Evin's days didn't change much. He still attended his classes, his training with Bella and the occasional lectures from the Voice. But his approach towards these subjects had become much more disciplined. He absorbed these lessons to the best of his abilities, but he was always careful to keep an objective mind through it all. Especially during the Voice's monologues.

He expected his usual fights with Decatur to occur a few times, but for the next month, nothing had happened. The Chairman and the Vice-chair never instigated the fights and Decatur seemed far less interested in Evin since.

Curious, Evin observed the noble boy to understand what had happened, and noticed a few interesting points. Decatur seemed much lonelier compared to the first two months of the Academy. Every noble student in Evin's year had stopped fussing around the Decatur like they used to, with the only exception being Byron, who was, as always, acting as Decatur's loyal shadow.

And instead, the dozen or so barons' heirs had started to fuss around Bella and Phel. Phel shook them off quite peacefully, but Bella wasn't able to deal the sudden attention so peacefully. After two days of unwanted attention, Bella made sure to make everyone understand the consequences of approaching her without consent.

Evin laughed at the commotion, but quickly realize he wasn't able to when the nobles started to give their attention to even Evin. Theundel had started to mingle with Evin much more since the fight at Decatur's house and the Voice even laughingly pointed out that one baron's daughter was desperately trying to bed him.

Evin asked about the new changes from Phel, but the latter apologized and said he was sworn to silence. He only warned him to be more careful of Decatur. Evin was interested about the warning at first, but Phel was insistent on staying silent so he forgot about it soon enough.

Peacefully, another month rolled by. During these two months, Evin absorbed two more Shards of the World of Air, two more shards of the World of Space, one more shard of the World of Darkness, one more shard of the World of Fire, one more shard of the World of Water and found access to the World of Weight, Qanatohm.

Of course, Evin wanted to finish absorbing the Shards of all twelve Worlds, but the Shards of the Conceptual worlds were rare things, especially for the World of Thoughts. Evin was gunning for a Shard of Lochra ever since he'd received his first, but even with his excellency, he was never able to snatch any of the few rare ones that appeared for the 1st years. The only reason he absorbed two Shards of Therae was thanks to Rith, and the Shard of Qanatohm was a simple matter of luck. She'd tied against Bella in a long distance casting competition that offered the Shard to the victor and they agreed to settle things with the toss of a coin.

But that didn't mean that Evin didn't become strong. When ranking matches occurred, Evin quickly shot up from 7th place to 2nd place, sitting comfortably below Bella and above Decatur. He had to challenge Decatur to get the place, and although the fight was hard due to his Talismans, Evin was able to keep control of the situation through it all and knock the noble boy out in the end.

Due to the glee and excitement, Evin challenged Bella soon after, but his coach quickly reminded him of his place. Evin's mana limit had reached up to three lodestones – which was the average for most 1st year nobles, but Bella was able to easily absorb thrice as much he was able to and she was much more creative and technical with her magic than Decatur could ever hope to be.

It also didn't help that Evin himself was training the noble girl in spell-casting. Of course, Evin kept important things secret, but he still wanted to help her to the best of his abilities. He explained to her that the various world elements weren't something whole and comprehensive. Fire energies, for example, must consist of smaller particles that start the fire, particles that feed it, and particles that help the mage control it.

It was obviously a lie, but it was a helpful lie. From Rith's lectures, Evin realized that for Imagination Casters, technicality and attention to detail was most important. The more control over the details they believed to have, the better their spells turned out. The Worlds didn't care whether one mage believed in one thing, and another mage believed in another thing. What was important was that they believed. The Voice didn't like what Evin was doing, but Evin was adamant on helping Bella out.

Evin suspected that after this point, the Voice was stating to understand that Evin was trying to distance himself from it. Although it didn't say anything other than him acting like a rebellious teen, Evin could tell that it was more wary of him now. Its lectures became less and less frequent and Evin could tell that it was starting to hide things.

Evin prepared himself for the eventual argument, the accusations and the mental shouts, but only a distressing atmosphere occupied Evin's head.

Evin focused on the external matters. Arza was finally showing some progress in Gestures. He could finally strengthen his body to an adequate level and thanks to that, he rose to 5th place in the class ranking and currently, he was trying to boost his speed somehow.

Evin wondered if Lopar was able to help him in Gestures, but he wasn't sure, as the two had broken up after a month and a half of dating. Both of them acted as if nothing had happened, and Evin wasn't interested enough to interrogate Arza.

And now that the winter was nearing and the students started to fuss about the end of the year test: 'Helm's Worthy'. During the last week of the Academy year, all 120 or so 1st year students would find themselves stranded on an island with no one but themselves to keep them company.

The teachers were always clear about what the students were supposed to do, but that didn't mean it was helpful. "The test doesn't have a proper solution because we want to see what you end up doing with no overarching goals and objectives to guide you," Alvert Nuln, the teacher who first taught them the 'Applications of magic' explained smilingly. "But that doesn't mean we'll be content with seeing you survive through the week and do nothing else."

The Academy promised that they were going to judge the students and one of them was going to be the 'Helm of the Year' for the next year and they would receive various privileges from the Academy. A Helm of the Year never had to worry about the scarcity of resources, as they were privileged to always pick first and the rest of the student body was simply competing for second pick. They were also exempt from paying any of the Academy's fees and they were also allowed to receive a monthly stipend from it to study without other worries.

During his stay in the Academy, aside from World Shards, Evin made sure to focus on the tuition for the next year, and also to cover the expenses needed to survive in the Academy. When he first received the two golden coins from Leanne, he imagined himself lasting five years with it, but Evin soon realized how easily one forgot about poverty. In only two months he had spent it all, because during those two months, he'd managed to obtain 20 more, by practically doing nothing – he just had to perform well during classes.

But at around that time, he learned that the Academy tuition cost 300 golden coins per year. Objectively, it was dirt cheap for all the resources it provided to a student alone. An Elemental World Shard cost about 50 golden coins on the market and a Conceptual Shard cost anything between 100 to 400 depending on the World.

Shocked, Evin wondered why he never bothered to think about these matters sooner. He had to actively work on finding funds and that meant less time trying to nab himself a Shard.

But if Evin became Helm, he wouldn't need to bother with any of those things. He wouldn't even need to study in classes with others, because it would be in his rights to ask for the teachers to instruct him privately.

The students also learned that the Helm of the Greater Ankelite Academy often competed against the Helms of other Academies located throughout the kingdom. There was prestige, fame, and power attached to these roles and oh, how Evin wanted them.

The Voice pointed out that exposure was the last thing they needed, but Evin argued that enough exposure acted as a shield by itself. The Voice couldn't say anything back, as it was the Voice itself that taught these words to Evin at some point.

But as Evin was preparing for the Helm's Worthy and the argument with the Voice, an unexpected news came to the Academy's door. On the 10th day of the 8th month of the year 1493, on a wintry morning of the second month of Fall, Countess Alix din Carew passed away in her manor.

…