Gregory laughed as the last fight their friends had for the day ended. “Only one loss each. That leaves the council with a lot of calculations to do.”
“All three of them making it to the finals is slim,” Jenn said.
“I’m not sure,” Yukiko said. “They only lost to each other, while the others with a single loss might have lost to people with worse records. However, it’ll clearly be the council’s decision on the matter.”
“Well, we have seen all we need to,” Lightshield said. “It is just a matter of waiting to hear who is chosen. Tomorrow is a big day for you,” he said, looking at the apprentices. “Do make sure you are back and sleeping before it gets too late tonight.”
“Yes, sir,” they replied back.
Nodding, Lightshield left, the other clan members following him.
“Hmm… we have dinner reservations to see to,” Hao said, getting to his feet. “We should be on our way.” Yoo-jin, Umbrose, and the apprentices went with him.
Gregory gave the novices a grin as they passed him, heading up to their families. They were grinning back at him as they nodded on the way by.
Once outside of the arena, Hao led them a dozen yards away, still clearly in sight of the arena but removed so others could come and go without issue. “We haven’t been to the auction house at all this time,” he said, watching the people walking by. “Should we go?”
Gregory considered the question, as Yukiko had looked to him. “The elder has a box and, if something of import was going to be there, I’m sure he’d tell us or go himself. Since he hasn’t said anything to us, maybe we should just go to dinner?”
“Very well,” Hao said. “It appears the others are ready, as well.”
The novices and their parents were heading their way. Hao just waved and started leading his group toward the stables.
~*~*~
Since they were all going to the same place, Hao split the carriages differently. The novice’s parents took one, Hao, Yoo-jin, and Umbrose took another, and the magi all piled into the third.
“No surprises today?” Daciana asked.
“None,” Yukiko said. “Not from us. You three had your own surprise, though.”
“You do realize that none of you might make it into the finals now, right?” Jenn asked.
“There’s a chance that none or only one or two of us might, though we’re hoping for all of us, of course,” Victoria nodded. “We’d rather be equal than dance to the tune of others.”
“We’d talked about it before the first day,” Nessa said. “We thought of it in a hypothetical way. A ‘what if’ scenario that we’d least like to see, and then how we might change it.”
“Besides, Vicky did beat me fairly,” Daciana said. “We both fought to win and she beat me. I wasn’t expecting the headbutt.”
“I figured you hadn’t,” Victoria grinned.
“But when I fought and beat Victoria,” Nessa said, “we realized we were in that spot we’d talked about. We all knew the answer, and I really did push her for the first part of the fight. Honestly, I’m not sure I could have won if I gave it everything right until the end.” Nessa shrugged. “When we clinched and rolled, I reminded Daciana about the idea.”
“I hated it,” Daciana snorted. “I was going to win, anyway— I didn’t want it to be given to me— but the idea of hurting the people who made us fight each other just to stop there being multiple undefeated fights made me agree.”
“So instead, you all have one loss to each other,” Gregory said. “If the fights hadn’t looked as real as they had, the council would be asking questions. I wasn’t even sure the last fight was a given, but when Daciana won, it made me laugh.”
“Now we have to hope that the council lets us all fight,” Nessa said.
“Do you think it’ll stop the elder from accepting us?” Victoria asked the question that was weighing on all three novices’ minds. “If we aren’t in the finals?”
Gregory stared at her, letting that question weigh on them a little more. “No,” he finally said. “I don’t think that will sway him one way or the other. Out of all of you, Vicky, you’re the one most likely not going to be in the finals.”
“Because my wins weren’t as decisive,” Victoria nodded. “I did beat Daciana, so it’d be odd that she’d get in and not me, though.”
Yukiko laughed. “That’s true. In fact, that’s evil.”
Jenn nodded, understanding what Yukiko was saying. “Oh, right.”
Gregory started to laugh. “Because between the three of you, you’ve beaten everyone else who might have a single loss or inflicted a single loss on the others.”
“It’s a bit of a logic trap, isn’t it?” Nessa asked with a sly grin.
“I can’t wait to hear who is in now,” Yukiko laughed, “though I do recommend you never try that again.”
“We won’t. Then again, we didn’t really plan on this, either,” Nessa said.
“Are you all ready for tomorrow?” Daciana asked.
“As ready as we can be,” Gregory replied.
“With no idea who we’ll be facing, I think we’re good,” Jenn agreed.
“I think they’ll have us in the main arena,” Yukiko added. “Both of the novice champions are in our clan, after all. They’ll want to see what we can do together.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Gregory nodded.
“It makes the most sense,” Jenn agreed.
“We’ll be watching,” Victoria told them.
“You will, from private boxes,” Yukiko added. “The finalists’ families all get them, as you’ll be fighting in the main arena after our matches.” She looked at Victoria. “You’ll be able to sit with either of them. Gregory sat with us.”
“I’ll sit with Nessa tomorrow,” Victoria said.
Daciana grinned. “You don’t want to sit with my father?”
“He gets a little… excited,” Victoria said apologetically.
“I’m not faulting you,” Daciana chuckled. “He does.”
“Which is why she comes by it honestly,” Nessa said with a straight face.
All three apprentices laughed at Daciana’s overacted expression of hurt.
~*~*~
Dinner had been good, but Gregory still thought Vana cooked better than the cook at the Golden Boar. He mentioned it as the meal ended, and Yukiko and Jenn were quick to agree with him. Their comments made Vana blush with pride, and Ramon gave his wife a kiss on the cheek.
As they were getting ready to leave, Gregory cleared his throat. “I apologize, but the three of us should return to the academy for the night.”
Hao’s eyebrow twitched up, but he just nodded. “Very well. The family carriage can take you back.”
“Already?” Daciana asked.
“We need to make sure we’re as ready as we can be,” Gregory said. “I want to see about a few things before we go to bed.”
“Being prepared is always good,” Nessa said, placing her hand on Daciana’s arm. “We understand. We’ll be there to see the match, no matter what arenas they put you in.”
“And we will be there to see your fights,” Yukiko smiled.
With goodbyes said, the trio separated from the others. Yukiko waited for them to be out of earshot before she asked, “Okay, dear one, what did you have in mind? I know you’ve been thinking something over for a couple of days now.”
“You don’t really use your shadow leap ring anymore, do you?” Gregory asked.
“If the fights drain us, I might need it, but no, I haven’t used it since the last tournament.”
“Hmm… I was wondering if I can take it and try to use it.”
Yukiko just stared at him for a bit.
“Why hesitate?” Jenn asked when Yukiko didn’t answer right away.
“Hemet sold us the ring. He said that only a shadow magi could use it.”
“Have you tested that?” Jenn asked.
“No, but we might as well try,” Yukiko said, pulling her ring off and holding it out to Jenn. “Go ahead.”
Jenn put the ring on and it shrunk down to fit her hand. “Use it like all the others?”
“Yes.”
The interior of the carriage was shadowed with only the lights outside the windows to provide illumination. Jenn looked at the seat across from them and willed herself to move to it. A few seconds ticked by, and she shook her head.
“We have the answer,” Yukiko said, taking the ring back when offered and passing it to Gregory. “You think you can make it work?”
“I don’t know, but I want to try,” Gregory said. “Darkness told me that eventually, I’ll be able to manipulate aether… I wonder if I can at least fool your ring into letting me use it.”
“If you could, it would be something no one would suspect,” Jenn said. “And with your skill with the naginata… potentially devastating.”
“That was my thought, if it works. It might not,” Gregory replied as he stripped off his glove and slipped the ring on.
Both women watched him as he sat there, waiting to see if it worked or not.
Gregory frowned— he felt something, but it slipped away from him. He pushed his mind and aether after it, but the feeling was gone.
“Greg?” Yukiko asked.
Sighing, he pulled the ring off and handed it back to her. “I thought I felt something for a moment, but then it was gone and I couldn’t find it again.” He tugged his glove back on. “Maybe when we reach the initiate tier, it’ll work. There might be something else to it… Why does it only work for shadow magi and not all magi? I don’t recall the enchanting book we’d read talking about those limitations.”
“Maybe those books are for more advanced magi?” Jenn suggested. “We could ask Murium. There might be a book in the clan archive. If not, we can ask Rafiq.”
Gregory sighed. “That was what I’d been thinking about. I had high hopes for it. I thought I could practice with it so we could use it during the tournament.”
“It was a good thought, and we’ll have to try again when we advance,” Yukiko said, sliding the ring back on her finger.
“Yeah,” Gregory agreed, sighing again.
“We have more time tonight than we’ve had in a while, and we’ve been missing most of our training,” Jenn said. “Peaceful Fist when we get to the clan hall, and then resonance training before bed?”
“That’s a good plan,” Yukiko agreed. “We might even retire a little early tonight, too.”
“Yes. To bed early,” Jenn grinned back at Yukiko.
“And maybe even sleep at a regular hour,” Gregory chuckled.
“Perhaps…” Yukiko murmured, leaning over to kiss his cheek.
