Chapter 47: A Warlock's Dilemma
When all was done, Arthur found himself seated on a well-made soft bed that was supposedly reserved for him. The prince only spared a few seconds to gauge which bed, of the two, was better: Between this one and the one at Phoenix Castle.
His conclusion was a biased win for the Phoenix Castle Second Prince's Chambers.
Right next to his bed was another reserved for Darius which was then enclosed by two walls. Opposite these two was another for Leo and one next to his as well, bordered by walls in a similar manner before placing the next pairs of beds on either side which were designated to the rest of the Squad Six boys that were attending their first year at Barthlorn.
The dormitories for the different years were separated and since Squad Six was the one with the least members, very spacious.
Spare beds covered the different sections of the strategically constructed room with closets set into the demarcating walls beside each pair with all the necessary belongings neatly packed inside.
The design was fairly simple yet complex enough to get Arthur lost immediately he tried making his way through.
This large multi-sectional room was just one of two others made for the second and third-years.
Since Arthur was not commuting, as explained by Baxter, there was nothing in his part of the closet except a few changes of green robes of Squad Six. The rest of the uniforms were nowhere to be found.
The prince held his bag close to his body, occasionally stroking it like a lost kitten that had finally come home to its master. No matter what anyone said, he was determined to soak in the moment of reunion with his satchel of untold wisdom.
His worries were finally gone and new thoughts filled his mind instead.
Thoughts like, 'What is Squad Six all about?'
From what he could tell, there didn't seem to be any criteria that judged who joined the squad. Not even nobility seemed to factor into this.
Some of them were shy while others were boisterous and loud. Some were gothic and reserved while others were so outgoing that it was overwhelming.
Given the chance, the group of people in this squad was almost impossible to put together. But then again, Arthur had the deep gut feeling that he already knew what made them all compatible with each other.
He just didn't want to believe what he'd realised. There was a common factor linking them.
Beneath their stark differences, there was something fundamentally similar about all the members of Squad Six. It was almost impossible for Arthur to ignore.
Arthur had grown up in the Phoenix castle, surrounded by so many… but almost none of them bore this quality he'd discovered in the members of Squad Six and he'd never thought he could ever find so many such people in the same place.
Arthur was almost certain he'd figured out what made the members of Squad Six so similar when they looked so different. All he needed was the right way to prove it.
Even their Captain and Lieutenant had entirely different characters.
On top of all that he'd noticed, he managed to sense one other aspect of this squad. While most of them were commoners with no significant background to speak of, they were all, in some way, talented.
He'd already taken note of Leo's skills, had prior knowledge of Darius' mind, witnessed the frightening accuracy of Momo's arrows and even watched with heightened senses as Damien Fang followed them stealthily from among the shadows.
Their auras screamed raw power, talent and potential which wasn't reflected in their personalities at all.
'This is interesting.'
"Arthur, you've been hugging that thing for so long. Reminds me of your childish ambitions to pet Damien and the Captain. What's inside?" Darius's sassing voice finally interrupted him.
"Don't say that out loud. He'll hear you. They have sensitive senses you know," Arthur whispered as Darius nodded knowingly.
The Warlock's gaze remained trained on the bag in Arthur's clutches, urging him on, "Oh! This old thing?! It's just 'the' book on," cupping a hand around his lips to conceal a secret, he whispered, "Pheonixes."
Darius stared at him dumbfounded.
For a moment, the warlock stared between his friend and the leather bag he was hugging so tightly.
And in the next moment, he was at his side, violently yanking the leather satchel away from his friend. The pale boy's face beamed with an insatiable hunger for more knowledge as he stared at the old leather satchel as though he was holding a grail of war.
"The famous and allegedly extinct race!" he mused.
After stealthily looking around to ensure no one could see or hear them, he pulled out the large leatherbound book.
Instantly, he realised how ancient, not to mention powerful, the book was and the drawing of the deadly creature's head on the cover seemed to come alive when he stared at it.
Its ruby eyes stared at him almost as though they had a mind of their own held deep within. However, they never moved.
"This thing looks really old. Where did you get it?"
"I found it in the restricted section of our family's library. Although I've barely read it," the prince replied with a hint of excitement.
Darius undid a bronze binding clasp and forced the book open and froze at the very first page where an image of a burning phoenix with its wings outstretched swayed on the page.
Etched inside it was a human figure burning along with the great bird. The human's eyes were glowing an intense amber like the colour of the flames that the bird was giving off, consuming them both.
The two of them were caught in a fiery embrace like they'd been set ablaze to burn for eternity. Staring at the picture long enough made it seem alive with flickering embers.
'Age of Phoenixes,' the title read.
"Have you seen this image somewhere before?" Arthur asked.
"I'm not sure. Father has a lot of books and ancient portraits. He hid all the books on phoenixes before I was old enough to grasp the information.
Well, once he realised I could memorise information I read with inhuman speed, he hid everything he never wanted me to know," Darius replied.
"Wow! Not suspicious at all!"
"Tell me about it. Speaking about it only widens the gap between us so it was only natural that I stop. I've tried hunting for the books before but haven't gotten much luck," Darius sighed.
"Well… perhaps, with this one, we can get somewhere. I do want to see what's inside though, so I'll be taking it home with me," Arthur replied.
It was getting late and knowing Darius, the Warlock was bound to get lost in the book's pages the instant he began reading and that was the point of no return he wanted to avoid today.
"Well, this is what I had to show you. Also... the book sort of called out to me the first time I saw it… which made me even more curious," Arthur added.
Darius nodded in understanding.
The prince narrowed his eyes at him, "What is it?"
"Sounds like an enchantment. There are books I've heard of, and some few I've come across, that are enchanted so that anyone that touches them is forced to read them till they finish," Darius shrugged.
"That sounds… pushy. What sort of person would ever force someone else to read their book? That's just insane," Arthur mused.
Darius chuckled, "Yeah, I've met a few authors that wanted to get in good with Arcanium, hoping that my obsession with their magical theories would catch the eye of the Arcanium. Father is… a little scary when dispelling such curses… and even scarier when dispelling their casters."
Arthur laughed, trying to imagine what it would be like to anger the most powerful Warlock within the Wall.
Darius punched the prince's shoulder and looked away.
Arthur scuffed down the rest of his laughter and addressed something else that had been haunting him, "While we still have the time, what was it you wanted to talk about?"
Darius's smile vanished and he closed the 'Age of Phoenixes.'
"Oh. During the long holiday, Father made it clear that I would not be taking the Warlock Course at Barthlorn. I thought I could go through the Sorting Ceremony, then he'd have no alternative once I got chosen to be a Warlock.
I chose to disobey him but… Well, you know how that turned out," Darius looked away, his expression darkening.
"How does someone crash the Sorting? I can't even imagine how that's possible," Arthur tried reasoning. He wanted to imagine someone randomly crashing the Simulation the Hunters were in but couldn't make sense of it.
Was the Simulation even a place?
"Father is…" the warlock sighed, "well… powerful. That's one thing I'll never deny. I just wish he could let me do what I want."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Dar," Arthur sighed, placing an arm on his friend's shoulder.
"On the bright side, my grandfather stepped in and offered to teach me magic…" Arthur got excited, "On one condition…"
"Why am I not surprised? What's the condition?" the white-haired prince groaned.
"I'm never to touch a wand… ever."
"Wandless casting… I thought only…" Arthur was cut off when Darius raised a finger in the air.
At the tip of his finger appeared a faint glow before a rune manifested out of thin air. A few moments later, five glowing letters were dancing in the air in front of him before vanishing.
"Okay, that's…" the prince went mute.
Unlike the beautiful magic, he'd just witnessed, his best friend's brow was freckled with beads of sweat, his breath ragged and uneven.
From Darius's cold dark eyes sparkled a dam of tears that didn't flow out, "It's hard… That alone took a lot out of me. I can probably produce a few one-tier spells but after a few moments, I run out of breath and my mana core's drained."
"That time in the Sorting Test… when you made the stitches," Arthur tried.
"Your body had enough mana to sustain those runes on its own. If the spell depended on my magic, not to mention with you being a mana vortex, I would be out before I even finished casting," Darius sighed.
"What makes wands different?"
"Wands have mana stones embedded inside them that harness the caster's imagination and complete the RuneCasting without requiring much from the Warlock. The spell itself is all they'll have to provide but the runes will be drawn by the wand.
It makes casting easier and faster. My grandfather seems to disagree… so until I can increase my mana capacity. I'm afraid I won't be of much use to the squad," Darius covered his eyes.
"Increasing your mana capacity? So… does that mean you can get better with practice?" Arthur raised his brow.
"I have to meditate every night for about three hours to focus on running mana through my body and absorbing it from my surroundings to increase the amount of mana my core can hold," Darius explained with a frown on his face.
"Then get stronger!"
Darius stared at the prince with a blank expression... 'Huh!'
After a brief pause, Arthur flashed a toothy smile. "You just have to get stronger, right? Then that's what you shall do."
"You make it sound so easy."
"You make it sound so hard."
"It is hard."
"If you look at it that way and believe it to be but if you know what to do and have a goal in mind, then I don't see why you can't just rush forward and charge towards it with full force," the prince replied.
Darius chuckled for a bit before bursting into loud laughter.
"What!"
"Arthur, you'll always be a brute."
"Hey! That's not nice."
"Wow, the sunset really looks good from here," Leo called out, his voice spreading throughout the first-year's quarters from his spot on the balcony.
Darius placed the 'Age of Phoenixes' back in Arthur's bag and pulled his friend towards the balcony.
The two boys walked out and joined the others with Leo on the balcony. All the boys were there, except…
"Hey, Damien, come take a look at this," Arthur called the sleeping shifter. Damien's fluffy mop of black fur peeped out from beneath a blanket and he groaned.
"Your awareness is beginning to bother me," the shifter responded before groggily joining the rest of the Squad Six males on the balcony, staring out at the setting sun.
'Wow, I'm so glad I came this year!' the prince's thoughts soared as he took in the view. The tower was so tall that it overlooked everything on this side of the castle.
So much that they could see the Wall from here…
'The Wall… Ashless cinders! I must be getting home,' Arthur cursed.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone