Part 3: Education in Eldre’thalas
The years Azia and Eure spent as apprentices in Eldre’thalas were some of the more eventful ones of their lives so far.
The actual classes could sometimes be rather dry… for Azia, but both sisters found plenty of things in Eldre’thalas to keep themselves entertained. Eure enjoyed the Shen’dralar’s vast library when not in class. She genuinely enjoyed spending her free evening quietly discovering new information to better herself and her spell work. Azia found more fun in the social aspects of Eldre’thalas life. Attending the various parties being her absolute favorite thing to do. She had her robes tailored to show up her midriff as a way to draw more attention to herself. It was not as though Azia did not want to learn, she very much did. She just found it rather difficult to keep herself focused when researching the arcane.
Azia and Eure often had their classes in the athenaeum. It held a large collection of tomes and supplies for furthering their pursuits in the arcane arts. Today’s assignment was for each of them to take a corrupted mana crystal and purify it. They were allowed to use any tool in the athenaeum, well… almost any tool. There were clear restrictions that any apprentice was forbidden to touch. At any rate, they had their assignment, now it was time for them to complete it.
“Soooo” Azia said, staring at her cloudy green crystal. “Any ideas?”
“Some…” Eure said shifting her view from her own crystal to her notebook as she wrote down runic equations she thought might be useful for this experiment. “How about you?”
“Was thinking of just draining out whatever energy is in it, then replacing it with new arcane.” Azia smirked.
“Azia!” Eure screeched in alarm at her sister setting her book down to look at Azia.
“What? Is that cheating?” Azia questioned staring confused at her sister.
“No… I mean… maybe? That’s not the problem! You can’t just drain something when you don’t know what it is!
Azia blinked at her sister. “That… is the most vocal I think I have ever seen you.”
“Don’t change the subject…” Eure began to quiet herself after realizing her tone. “It is just dangerous Azia, you don’t know what it could do to you.”
Azia sighed with a flip of her hair. “Fine… I’ll do it the “right” way then. I didn’t know that would upset you so much.”
“Thank you… you scared me there for a second. Eure sighed in relief.
“Change of subject… you want to check out the festival after class?”
“Festival? The Lunar Festival? You surely can not suggest we go all the way to Moonglade and return in a single night.”
“No silly, I mean the local celebration being held out in the gardens tonight. I’m hoping it will be a wild one.”
“I do not know Azia… we still have our assignment to work on… I think I would rather focus on it.”
“Oh come on! You can afford a little fun for one night.” Azia stood up from her chair walking around the table to give Eure a hug. Azia hung around her sister’s neck from behind giving her a sweet hug as well a puppy dog eyed expression. “Pleeeeeease?”
Before Eure could answer Azia’s plea, Archmage Zuramon walked by the table the two sisters were sitting. “What are you two doing?”
Azia and Eure both rose to their feet giving their teacher a bow, almost in unison. Eure was the first to speak.
“We were discussing the Lunar Festival Lord Stormsong…”
“The Lunar Festival?” Zuramon questioned. “What about it?”
“I was trying to convince her to go to the celebration in the gardens tonight, she was worried about getting our projects done if we took the night off.” Azia explained.
Zuramon looked sternly towards his students, the tension behind what he would say was unbelievable.
“I believe it would be a worthwhile experience for you.” Zuramon commented.
Azia would pump her fist in victory whispering “Yes!”
“The Lunar Festival,” Zuramon explained “Is a celebration of our victories over the Burning Legion thousands of years ago. It is a time of reflection, To remember what knowledge we have collected over the years. Celebrate it how you will, just remember what it is meant for.” With his two cents added Zuramon continued walking through the athenaeum.
“Still sounds like he approves to me!” Azia smiled at her sister. “Now you don’t have an excuse not to go have fun.”
“I suppose I do not.” Eure smiled back.
For once it did not take Azia long to pick out an outfit for the festival. Both sisters decided to dress in the spirit of the season and wear festival dresses. Azia still had a difficult time deciding between the purple and green festival dresses but eventually decided on the purple dress. She enjoyed the bright green of the green festival dress, but it “did not like her as much” as she would put it, whatever that meant. Eure on the other hand went with the standard red festival dress. That night the sisters made their way to the gardens. The sight was breathtaking. The glow of thousands of small lanterns lit up the gardens like small moons against the night’s sky.
“I have never seen so many lanterns lit at once before.” Eure exclaimed
“It certainly beats out the celebrations we had back home. We should have been coming here every year… I mean look at all these people!” Azia seemed to be impressed for different reasons than her sisters, but Eure still smiled at Azia’s excitement. One of the attendants carrying a tray of drinks were quick to approach the twins after they arrived.
“Hello ladies, may I provide each of you a drink?” The attendant offered.
Azia was quick to answer with a question of her own “What kind of drinks do you have?”
The attendant moved the tray closer to the girls so that they could get a better look. “We have an assortment of several local wines, but may I suggest the seasonal favorite of moonglow.”
“Moonglow?” Azia questioned.
The attendant motioned to several glasses of a strangely glowing beverage on the tray. “If you have not had it I suggest you do so. It is truly a seasonal treat.”
Both Azia and Eure took a glass. With a quick sniff of the drink two things were clear. The first was this drink was incredibly sweet. The second, the drink was obviously alcoholic. Eure was unsure if she wanted to drink at the moment considering she had work to do on the crystal project. She turned to her sister.
“Azia do you think that we should be….”
Before Eure could even finish her question, Azia had already begun drinking. She had an… almost shocked look on her face.
“Are you alright?” Eure questioned.
“Eure…” Azia said blankly. “This is the single greatest drink I have ever tasted. So flavorful, such a rush of mana… I need some more of this stuff… Are you gonna drink yours? You don’t look like you are going to drink yours.”
“I do not think I will Azia, perhaps after our projects are done I will get us a bottle to share.” Eure explained.
“That’s up to you sister, as for me I think I am going to go through as much of this stuff as I can handle… maybe even a little more.” Azia smirked wickedly as she took the drink from Eure’s hand downing it quickly before going back to finish her own drink. “Nope, not enough.” Azia continued. I’m going to go find one of the waiters, butlers, servants? What would you call the guys with drinks? I’m going to call them the guys with drinks. I’m going to find more of the guys with drinks. You, remember to have fun while I’m gone. I know it will be difficult, but you try your damnedest damnit!” Azia smiled at her sister, then turned to walk off further into the festival grounds to find herself her magical, mythical nectar of the goddess.Meanwhile, Eure began to walk throughout the gardens just enjoying the sight of everything. She was not the most social of people by nature, but even she could enjoy this gathering. The sounds, the atmosphere, the sights, especially the sights, were truly beautiful.
After walking for some time Eure found a bench to sit down and just take a moment to not only rest a moment. She had made her way through the gardens a few times at this point. She… had not run into her sister again, which was worrying. However, Azia should be able to take care of herself… for the most part, maybe she would be able to monitor her alcohol consumption… maybe. As these thoughts ran through Eure’s head she noticed a familiar face in the crowd. It was Archmage Zuramon. It was a bit surprising to see him out of a teaching setting, but entirely plausible. He did seem rather enthused at the idea of the festival. Zuramon appeared to also be dressed in Festival clothes, a jet black suit with a golden trim. At first Eure merely looked at the crowd observing the archmage in the crowd, unsure if she would speak with him or not. However, it did not take the archmage long to both notice her, and begin walking in her direction.
“Ah, Miss Eure, it is good to decide to take a night off after all.” Zuramon remarked.
“Y-Yes, Azia eventually got to me I suppose.” Eure smiled
“Did I influence your decision a bit as well?”
“A bit yes… I thought that if you could balance academics and social events… perhaps I could as well?” Eure said nervously.
“I believe you can, you are quite capable Eure, You just need to work on believing in yourself more.”
“That is what Azia often tells me… I just find it difficult.”
“I do not see why, very few mages can match your spell work. You have no reason to doubt yourself so much. You are truly extraordinary.”
Eure began to blush uncontrollably, she nearly let out a gasp of surprise at such a compliment. “Y-you honor me Lord Stormsong.”
“Nonsense, I am honored to instruct such a growing talent.”
Eure and Zuramon spent a fair amount of time talking to one another that night. Complementing each other, generally enjoying each other’s company. It was one of, if not the absolute most entertaining night of Eure’s life. However, eventually Eure and Zuramon realized how late it was getting in the night and decided to turn in for the night. Zuramon would offer Eure a bow and left her to find her sister. By the time Eure found Azia she was a touch worse for wear. Azia’s face was a bright bloodshot red, even when sitting down it looked like she had a hard time keeping herself upright. She also was sitting on one of the garden’s benches as Eure was with Zuramon, clutching onto what looked like a bag filled with several bottles of moonglow.
“Azia? Are you alright?” Eure questioned.
“Uh?” Azia sat up from a loose sitting position to look her sister in the face. “Heeeeeeeey, sista, how…how you doin’, good? Youse the good? I’m good. I’m… all the good.”
Eure blinked at her sister, confused, she asked. “How much have you had to drink?”
“I…I…I had drink. Soooooo good.” Azia smiled giving her sister a hug. She was… very drunk. Eure could even smell the alcohol on her sister.”
“We should get you home, come on.” Eure helped her sister to her feet. It took them a while to get back to the room in the dormitories. Eure helped Azia to bed, put away the drinks her sister had purchased for later, then went to bed herself.
The next morning Eure woke up later than she normally does, still early enough to get to class on time, and still earlier than Azia, but still notably later. After finishing an abridged version of her morning routine, still having some time to work on the crystal project, she tired waking up Azia… To no avail.
“Azia? Azia, you’ll be late for class if you don’t get up soon.” Eure said as she nudged her sister awake. Azia moaned in response. “Uuuuurgh. You’re so loud… give me a few minutes, my head is killing me.”
“I would, but I need to be going, and you really should be too.”
“I will, I will, just, gah. You can, just go on without me, I’ll meet you there.” Azia pulled the covers over her head and laid back down on her bed. Eure was not convinced Azia would make it to class on time, but she had little option if she wanted to get to class herself.
“If you say so Azia… I shall … see you there.”
Azia was extremely hung over. She would have said anything to get Eure to head to class just so she could get some more rest. Unfortunately, this led to Azia falling back to sleep, and waking up a few hours later. By the time she woke up, it was already past time for class to start. When Azia realized she panicked, changed her robes as quickly as she could and ran out to class. She did not even have time to brush out her hair. If that wasn’t bad enough the main entrance to the capital was blocked with servants cleaning the gardens from the party the previous night. It was a long shot, but if Azia had any hope of getting to class before it ended she would have to take one of the side entrances. She decided to go with the tunnel leading into the east wing of Eldre’thalas. It took her longer than she would have liked but eventually she made it all the way to the athenaeum. She was not meant with the warmest of receptions.
“Azia…” Zuramon stated blankly. “It is nice of you to finally join us.”
Azia looked around, it appeared as though she had missed the entire class. Eure was still working, but there did not appear to be any other students still working.
“I’m… sorry.” Azia said.
Before Zuramon could respond to Azia’s apology someone else entered the athenaeum. A highborne woman, wearing traditional night elf robes, but professionally tailored to be a bit more scandalous than normal. Zuramon shifted his attention from Azia to this new woman.
“Greetings, and welcome. I was just ending a class, what brings you here.” Zuramon said with a bow.
"Oh, hi there. Just passing through. I added a bit to this book and I’m putting it back. Are you the librarian?” The woman responded.
"No, not exactly. I am Lord Zuramon Stormsong Archmage of the Shen’dralar. These are two of my apprentices. Azia and Eure Shadowmoon.”
“I’m Lady Lellith Moonstriker. I’m part of the fel corps. Hi, it’s nice to meet you, and the two of you.” Lellith leans around Zuramon a tad and waves to Azia and Eure.”
“Fel corps?” Azia questioned.
“Oh yeah we’re the trail blazers of the fel arts. You know that demon the arcanists are using to power this place? Well we summoned, and bound it here.”
"Fancy you bring that up Lady Moonstriker, their current assignment is to purify a corrupted mana crystal. It is not too different from what my order does to purify the fel from that creature into arcane.” Zuramon explained.
“That’s fun. Care to put this away on your way out.” Lellith hands Zuramon a book. “It’s called Flabbergasted by FelFire: Drinks, Drunks, and Other things by Lady Lellith Moonstriker.”
“I will see to it that one of the librarians gets to it Lady Moonstriker.” Zuramon nodded, calling over a keeper to take the book to a place where it belongs. Turning his attention back to Azia.
“I suggest you stay awhile longer, to make up for the time you missed during class.” Turning once again to Lellith. “A pleasure lady Moonstriker.” With that Zuramon left the group with a bow.
"He seems fancy. How are you two doing? Honor students or trouble makers?”
Azia sighed. “I may have missed the entire class today.”
Lellith laughs. "I don’t envy you. I remember life as a mage. It was not fun. So much studying.”
Eure looked up from her crystal project. “I suppose I am trying to be the former.”
"The former what?” Lellith asked
“The former option? Trying to be an honor student, Lady Moonstriker.” Eure explained.
"Oh, and honor student. That’s a noble pursuit. Do you want to know a secret?”
“What would that be?” Eure questioned
"There’s no point being an honor student in magic. Any mage who becomes anything specializes in one thing or another.”
“I am just trying to learn all I can at the moment. Though I will take that into consideration.” Eure responded. Then she turned to her sister. ”Would you like me to stay behind and help you with your project Azia?”
Lellith leans in a bit "Hmm, what are you working on?”
Azia worked over to join her sister at the table. Pulling out the bright green crystal she was assigned to purify. “This thing.” Azia said with a groan. Looking to Eure to answer her question, "You can go on and leave, I’ll meet you back at the room”
Eure packed up her supplies and headed towards the door. “It was a pleasure to meet you Lady Moonstriker.” She said with a courtesy before taking her leave.
“Bye Miss Eure.” Lellith said waving, then she looked at Azia. "So, why are you purifying it?”
"Because I was asked to?” Azia shrugged.
"Ugh, it’s full of fel energy. That’s a little battery. Why don’t you use it instead?”
“I originally was just gonna drain the energy out of the damn thing, and fill it with mana to replace it but apparently according to my sister that would be “to dangerous”” Azia explained.
"Really? Drain Life, and Drain Mana are basic spells in my class. I can also put life back into things.”
“Well, unfortunately, this is the class I’m in.” Azia rubbed the sides of her head. "Urgh, my head is killing me.”
"Well you could use the mana to drain it.”
“What mana to drain what?” Azia asked.
"Use the mana in there to cast a fel spell. Cast fel spells until the battery is out of mana.” Lellith explained.
“I don’t know any fel spells,” Azia protested.
"Can you cast any fire spells?” Lellith questioned.
“I can.” Azia said
"Lets go to the fountain and blast it with fire spells, but use the mana from the battery. Let’s see if you can use some felfire.”
Azia followed Lellith outside to the fountain she had suggested. “So… I just cast a spell like a normally do, but channel the crystal?”
"Yep. You should be able to handle it.” Lellith smiled.
With Lellith’s limited explanation Azia began casting a fireball. Aiming it toward the fountain. About half way through her casting time she gripped the crystal in her hand, causing the fire gathering in her hand to change from its normal raging orange to the sickly bright green of the crystal. Once she could no longer gather energy from the crystal she released the fire spell toward the fountain. Upon making contact it created a large whole in the side of the fountain, little patches of green flames still burning around the broken stone.
“That…That felt pretty good.” Azia blinked looking at her hands.
Lellith cackles “Hahaha I love it! Looks like you can manage some Felfire. I’m going to have to remember this to train neonates. You managed that pretty easily. Obviously fel is more powerful than arcane. Looks like you did a little damage.”
Azia’s attention focused back at the crystal is now only slightly glimmered blue showing that all that remained was a touch of arcane.
Azia looked to Lellith. “Think there is enough arcane left in the crystal to pass?”
"I doubt it. You’re going to need to fill that thing up now.”
“I bought a bunch of moonglow at the party in the gardens last night, plenty of mana I can get from that. Thanks for showing me this… It was… different.” Azia said with a smile.
"Oh no problem. fel is fun. Read my book.” Lellith said, returning the smile.
“Never been that much of a reader, but might take you up on that. I should be heading back to my room though, I don’t want my sister to worry too much. Besides, I need to make sure I get back into the moonglow I bought before she does.”
Azia departed quickly with a wave, heading back to her room in the dormitories. Eure of course was there to greet her.
“How did your studying go?” Eure asked.
“Oh good, good, You know, books, runes, I definitely did not blow anything up. That is for sure.”
“That is… oddly specific…” Eure blinked. “I am about done with my crystal. I should be ready to turn it in tomorrow.
“Azia’s eyes widened. “It’s due tomorrow?!”
“You forgot?”
“No!… Maybe… Okay, yes, but I should be able to turn it in tomorrow anyway.” Azia explained.
“Well that is good. I was worried you would not have anything prepared.”
“What? I have it covered, sister, perfectly covered…”
That night Azia waited for Eure to go to sleep before going into their cupboard in search for where the moonglow was stashed. It took her some time to find where Eure put the drinks away, but eventually Azia found the moonglow. Honestly finding the drinks was the easy part, the hard part was still to come. She not only had to refill the crystal with the exact amount of mana she used in her spell earlier, but had to drink the entire drink in one sitting to make sure no one could figure out where she got the mana from. At least that part wasn’t so bad. The moonglow did not have the same kick without its mana though. Azia was not entirely sure she got the exact same amount of mana drained into the crystal… but it was as good as she could do. Tomorrow would be the day she would see if she could get away with this. Till then she could only hope.
The next morning was fairly standard for the twins. Eure woke up first as usual and ran through her notes one final time before purifying her crystal. She had planned to purify the crystal before going to class that morning but now, she thought maybe it would be better to purify the crystal in class. It may be a little more spontaneous, but it should help her in the long run, if she was successful. Perhaps it was the small push to her ego Zuramon provided her with the night of the festival, but she was less concerned with something going wrong during a live presentation than she normally would be. Azia, when she woke up, had already packed her crystal the night before. So she was ready for class early for once. She spent the morning brushing out her hair, skipping the previous day, luckily did not leave her hair knotted. Once both twins finished their morning routines they sent out for class.
Upon arriving in the athenaeum the twins took their seats and prepared their crystals for the archmage. Well, Eure prepared, Azia just took her crystal out of the bag and set it on the table. Before long Zuramon began walking from table to table giving each project a grade. Normally, Azia would want to save her spell casts for last, so that she could show off, but today She just wanted to get this project over with. She frankly did not care who Zuramon decided to inspect first. When Zuramon took a look at Azia’s crystal he did not have much to say.
“Do you have any notes explaining your process? Zuramon asked.
“Not, really I kinda just… filled the crystal with more mana until it shared glowing the right color.” Azia was not technically lying, but she did not want to explain exactly what she did out of fear of failing the assignment for not technically “purifying” the crystal.
“I see,” Zuramon said, taking a few notes himself. “Well I suppose you at the very least presented a purified mana crystal, that is worth at least a D. I am afraid I can not give you much more than that considering you have no notes, potentially wasted mana with your method, and somehow have a crystal with less mana in it than it initially had, contradicting the method you claimed to use. The only reason I am not failing you outright is the crystal is clearly the same crystal I originally gave you, and shows traces of the spell work I have come to associate with you.” Zuramon placed the sheet of paper he was righting on in front of Azia. It held a number of suggestions on how to approve her work. In the corner there was a large red D, showing her grade. At least she didn’t fail.
Zuramon then moved to Eure’s presentation. She had her crystal suspended on a stand. It still was corrupted with what Lady Lellith called fel, but Eure was quick to explain.
“I-I felt as though if I performed my spell in person, it would help you understand my thought process.” Eure may have felt slightly more confident than normal, but she was still nervous, nervous enough to stutter a bit on her words. Luckily this was not a lesson on public speaking.
“Originally, I thought I could trap the corrupted energy from inside the crystal in a runic circle. However, I found a flaw in that idea. I realized that if I had done this, it would not truly “purify” the crystal’s corruption. It would just move it. So in the end I decided to alter the spells “remove curse” and “spell steal”, This should be capable of not only removing the corruption, but preserving the amount of mana within the crystal to be used for later experiments.” Eure explained.
“That sounds like a good way to approach the project, in theory. Now, can you perform your theory in practice?” Zuramon asked.
“Y-yes, o-of course sir.” Eure nodded, turning to her crystal. She held her hands out making the proper motions with her fingers as well as focusing on the crystal making the proper mental adjustments in focus until… The crystal’s bright color disappeared in a puff of green smoke, leaving only a beautifully shining arcane blue crystal.
“Wonderfully done, truly.” Zuramon remarked.
“I also prepared proper notes on my process Lord Stormsong.” Eure said, handing Zuramon several pieces of parchment. Zuramon read through Eure’s notes while making notes of his own on the parchment he was keeping the grades.
“There is quite a lot of information here… Clearly you put a lot of thought into this project.” Zuramon handed Eure’s spell notes back to her, then finished writing his own. When finished, he handed his assessment to Eure. Then moved on to the next table. Azia leaned over to her sister’s shoulder to get a look at her grade. A+, naturally, It was obvious Eure did well.
“Congrats,” Azia said, not very enthusiastically given the feelings she had toward her own grade, but not sarcastic in the slightest.
“Thank you, Azia.” Eure said humbly. “I am sorry your project did not turn out as well.”
“Don’t mention it… please, I mean that literally. I am just going to try and move on from this… Not focus on the past, focus on the future, blah, blah, blah.” Azia was more annoyed at her grade than anything else she could think. She was not mad at Eure exactly, more mad at herself that she could not do as well as her. The arcane arts, they were still boring to her. Maybe Lady Lellith was onto something with that “fel” stuff, but would giving up on the arcane now mean she was a failure? No, she could not let that happen, she was going to make it through this apprenticeship if it killed her.
(I want to thank Lellith from appearing in this part. Tell me what you guys think!)
Link to Part 4 : The Shadowmoon Sisters Part 4: The Final Exam
Link to Part 5 : The Shadowmoon Sisters Part 5: Farewell [Finale]