The Dragon Knight Order (3 page)

“That I leave for you to figure out.”

Master Shadow or Master as I was instructed to call him, told me where to go and told me to make sure I pay attention in class as he will quiz me on whatever I was taught today.

"Ah Alex… I am told you will be taking classes with me," said Professor Lirean with a smile on her face. She then went on to say that it was an honor to have the first Dragon Knight in twenty five years assigned to her and that she was going to take care of me. While she talked, I noticed she was a short woman with short hair. She was not exactly what I would call an attractive woman, but she seemed nice, for a teacher that is. As I snapped back to attention, she had started to talk about what I would be doing in battlemage class, which seemed odd because I never expected this short woman to be the battlemage instructor.

“Well, this is the classroom.” It was a large room with a lot of windows that let in plenty of sunlight, and at the center was an arena. “Remember, you are a Dragon Knight, so set an example. You might be happy to know that my class consists of students from group A and group C, the latter being your friends from the orphanage.”

As we walked into the classroom, my presence forced students to stop and look at the new Dragon Knight who was about to partake in classes with them. As I walked next to the teacher, I couldn’t help but hear whispers coming from the others, “Is he really a Dragon Knight?"

“Doesn’t look like much to me."

“I could beat him down so easily if only I had a chance."

Not exactly what you would call a warm welcome.

“Students, you already know who Mr. Kerm is I presume?” I flinched at the Mr. part of the introduction. I knew most Knights were addressed by Mr., Sir, rank or title but I wasn’t used to it yet. “Yes, well,” she continued when they all nodded, “He will be joining us in our classes. You are to treat him as if he were a regular student of our branch. You will be training with him for quite some time so I recommend you become well acquainted with him. He is currently at the same level as all of you as he has not made his first deal yet.”

“Not the same level as all of us professor… Please, to group me with the rest of them is preposterous, as member of the 12 Great Noble families I am easily above anyone here,” said a mean looking boy. He had black hair and brown eyes and was almost the same height as me. He wore a uniform just like the rest, but his emblem was a little different. Instead of the school emblem, which was a dragon’s head, he had one with two swords crossed and a crown on top and it was outlined by a red flame. It looked like mine but without the dragon spreading its wings.

“Yes professor not all of us are the same,” said a second one. He had blond hair and green eyes. It was clear he was a friend of the one who had just spoken. He had the same emblem, except a blue flame outlined his.

“Enough of that Lester. Even if you are a Noble, you and Eric are no better than anyone of the other students here. Say one more word and I promise I will bind you to that set of yours for the rest of the day.” She turned to me and motioned for me to take a seat while she kept talking to the class. “Now for today’s class, I will teach you the most basic water spell in all existence; Aqua oritur. This will make the water from the cups in front of you rise. As you all know or should know, human magic is different from Elven or Irkanian magic. Our magic is manifested through thought-controlled spells, while runes and magical objects control Elven and Irkanian are controlled with words or chants. We only name spells to give the users a concrete idea to focus on. The tricky part is focusing as much as possible on the idea to make the water rise. If you can do that then I will teach you something a bit more advanced. However, I doubt any of you will be able to achieve it today, so please, do not feel discouraged if you can’t do it on your first try. Now repeat, Aqua oritur,” said Professor Lirean.

We all said it a few times and the professor corrected the ones that were saying it wrong. She then gave us the okay to try by ourselves.

For over one hour all we did was say this over and over and over again expecting the water to rise but to no avail.

Just when I was about to give up and join the part of the class that had already given up, a female voice from the back of the room yelled, “I did it! I did it! I did it!”

“So you have! Wonderful and what might I call you young lady?” asked Professor Lirean.

 Before I could hear the girl's name I decided to try it one more time.

“Aqua oritur,” I said.  And with that, I watched as the water slowly rose, gathered into a small ball and come to a stop in front of me. I was marveling at my water ball when suddenly something pulled at my stomach and I could feel a force beyond my control starting to pull the water away from me. I tried to concentrate harder and I felt the force lightened its pull. A hand landed softly on my shoulder jarring me back into reality, making me lose my concentration and the water dropped back into the cup. It was Professor Lirean.

"It would seem you really were born to be a Dragon Knight," she whispered. Then in a much louder voice she said, "Only four of you managed to control the water.  Eric, Lester, Alex and Adria who not only lifted her water, but drained all of Eric's water in front of him too.”

I turned around to look for Adria but she was looking down. It was as if she was trying to avoid my stare, which hurt me a great deal.

Professor Lirean went on to describe multiple uses for using water magic and I couldn’t pay attention because my mind kept drifting to Adria and why she was avoiding me.

 After class ended, the professor told the four of us to stay for our extra lesson as a reward for completing the class assignment.

“Well to be honest, I didn't expect anyone in the class to complete the task. It usually takes a long time for beginners to grasp the concept of magic and using the words when they don’t possess any power whatsoever. But the four of you managed to do it. I guess it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise considering two of you belong to the twelve Noble families, one is a natural and the other a Knight.”

“What do you mean by a natural professor?” I asked.

“Are you stupid? A natural is a person who is born with one or more specific traits in magic. Everyone knows that,” snapped Eric.

"That’s putting it vaguely Eric," said Lester. “A natural has a great talent for one or more magical traits. As you should know, there are two types of magic users, elemental magic users and physical users. Elemental users rely on elements, such as water and fire. Physical users are more about tricking the mind and enhancing the body or objects. Some mix both styles but when it comes down to it, it is basically attack and defense magic.”

"That’s right Lester," said Professor Lirean. ”But what I’m sure you don't know is that among the naturals there are those who are far more powerful than the average Nobles in terms of power.  I believe Adria is one of those. Her spell of 'Aqua oritur' was powerful enough to draw water from all four cups.”

“But Professor, she didn’t take water from either Lester is or my cup,” I said.

“That’s simple Alex, even without forming your first deal; a Dragon Knight will be magically stronger than any natural or noble house. The House of Vatn is water based and since Lester is from that house, he is resistant to all forms of water-based magic and excels at them. Eric, being from the House of Pyro, is a fire-based battlemage and is sensitive to water based magic. That’s why his water was easily pulled into Adria’s since she was the more powerful of the two. And I am sure you could tell her magic was influencing your by making you have to concentrate harder.”

“What's the extra lesson you wanted to give us professor?” asked Adria speaking for the first time and interrupting the explanation, a habit she had developed as a child.

“I am going to teach you how to control water by just thinking of its name. This is something you won’t be able to master in a single class and will take a considerable amount of practice, eventually you will be able to do so with all forms of magic you learn,” said Professor Lirean slightly annoyed by Adria’s attempt to cut the explanation short.

“All you have to do is say ‘aqua’ once. Then just by thinking of the water you are going to make it do whatever your mind wants it to do. If you think of making it protect you from fire, then it will try to stop the flames. If you want to walk under the ocean and not get wet, then you tell it to stay away. However, a feat of such magnitude requires years of training and stamina build up. If you want to form a shield against a sword you will tell it to condense in front of your body part that is being targeted. There are endless applications and the more you train the more you can do. Just remember the more water it uses, the more energy you consume and if you run out of energy it will hurt your body to the point where you will collapse.”

It was odd she said collapse. Master Shadow told me I could die from running out of magic. 

“Now, repeat after me ‘aqua’,” said Professor Lirean.

 As one, we all said “aqua” and began to toy with the water still inside the cups. Lester created water blades and shields, but they lasted for only a small amount of time before breaking up into a puddle of water. Adria created a small sphere of water and moved it around her. I created a small bird that decided to rest on my shoulder and stare at the others. Eric couldn’t do anything besides bringing up the sphere of water.

“Well keep practicing on your own time, if you don’t hurry I will be late for my next class,” said Professor Lirean rushing us out.

Walking out to the hallway, I notice Adria walking towards the girls’ dorm. I start jogging to catch up with her. As I got closer to her, I tripped on something and fell to the ground with a loud thump.

"Watch where you’re going Mr. Dragon Knight, you don't want people seeing you tripping and breaking something," said Eric with a fake smile on his face.

“I don’t have time for you Eric. Move!” I bark at him.

“Why are you in such a hurry Alex? I am just trying to be friendly here. After all, what the academies are for is creating friends and learning.” He then saw me staring in the direction where Adria was walking. “Oh, I get it. You want to go say hi to your friend, don’t you? Get real you’re a Dragon Knight now; you don’t belong with trash like her. You should have friends like me from now on.”

“Tempting, but I am just as guilty as her of being trash since we are both from the same orphanage and grew up together. But if I remember correctly, I am
the
Dragon Knight and she is the natural that has a greater magical power than you.” With that, I shoved him out of my way and ran the way Adria had headed. After I couldn’t find her, I headed back to the Dragon Hold.

"Ah, Alex excellent work on being able to complete your first spell. You truly are a Knight," said Master Shadow beaming with pride.

“Thank you Master.” I kept trying to think of a way to approach the subject of what the Twelve Noble Houses were, but I couldn’t seem to find a way.

Sensing my unrest, he said, “ Speak your mind. If not, you will only trouble yourself further.”

“What are the Twelve Noble Houses and why have I started to change if I haven’t contracted my first pact? You told me tha-,” I was cut off by the frightening stare the dragon was giving me.

 “I agreed to answering your questions but I will not answer a stream of questions from an agitated Knight. Calm yourself and then I shall answer. Do you accept the terms?” asked Master in a commanding voice that hinted at annoyance.

The dragon seemed upset as his tail twitched from side to side, and up and down. I thought it would be smart to agree with his terms.

“I agree to your terms and I am sorry for angering you, Master,” I said calming down as the spike at the end of his tail struck a tree and almost brought it down.

“I understand that you would be angered because of the secrets that I must keep from you, but you will eventually learn why it must be done. As for your questions, The Twelve Noble Families are the original twelve Dragon Knights that the dragons created. Since they were the strongest humans of their time, various countries gave them royal status and power in order to try and influence them for their own gains. These countries however, did not account for the years of training they had with dragons. After giving them their power, they turned on the countries that had once given them their status and political power, bending them into what became known as the Empire. The rest, as you humans say, is history. They brought about the Golden era for humanity and to this day they hold more power collectively than the very Emperor that rules over them.” He paused and waited for me to nod indicating I understood everything.