Rise of the Night Witch

Chapter 2.7 - Battle in the Forest

Recap: Last time, Marissa got Initiated. Now, she will have her first lesson at the Cunning Folk Academy.

I ran up the Unseen Tower's floors as fast as she came down, holding a parchment with the electives. Bolded subjects were mandatory. I needed 120 CP in total to pass.

1st & 3rd semester:

General Magical Theory I (10 CP)
Warding and Defense Against Otherworlders (10 CP)
An Introduction to Mundane Information Technomancy (5 CP)
An Introduction to Mundane ID and Tax Law (5 CP)
Potions and Transfiguration (5 CP)
Sympathetic Magic (5 CP)
Basics of Divination (5 CP)

2nd & 4th semester:

General Magical Theory II (10 CP)
An Introduction to Dark Magic (10 CP)
History and Necessity of the Veil (5 CP)
Ecto-Crafting (5 CP)
Elemental Magic (5 CP)
A Guide to Common Otherworlders (5 CP)
Summoning and Containment of Otherworlders (5 CP)

3rd semester only:

Advanced Transfiguration (5 CP)
Advanced Sympathetic Magic (5 CP)
Advanced Elemental Magic (5 CP)
Advanced Divination (5 CP)
Mind Magic (5 CP)
Ritual Magic (5 CP)

4th semester only:

Final exam (20 CP)

Just reading the list gave me shivers. An Introduction to Mundane ID and Tax Law sounded like it taught students how to properly commit tax and identity fraud. Let's wait with this one for the third semester.

After exiting the Tower, it didn't take long to find my group. Dozen-or-so apprentices gathered around Professor Wiggs in a clearing. Trees encircled them like walls of an arena. Cracked stems and charred bushes bore testimony of battles fought between Hunter and demons above my weight class.

Two students stood in the middle, their rods pointed at one another as if they were fighting. Was "combat magic" part of the list?

Professor Andrew Wiggs sat perched on a boulder like a gargoyle. His mouth formed a stern, impartial line while the Academy students next to him sat on picnic mats. A curtain of glamour mixed with a ward meanwhile made sure that any hikers or campers who'd otherwise have witnessed the battle saw nothing and decided to walk somewhere else.

"Ah, there you are," Professor Wiggs said as he noticed me. "Come, come. It's okay, it's just the second week of the semester and this is for all the students who haven't dueled yet."

"Dueled?"

"Yes. See, our Hunters are excellent and hardworking people, but teleportation and self-duplication are things we're still working on. You already ran into Otherworlders once, but not everyone here did."

And I'd have almost died had Siris or Simon not helped.

"It's certainly beneficial for everyone to have practiced combat applications of the Art at least once. You don't know much yet, but your parents might have told you one or two tricks you might want to try out."

Parents, yes. Sure. They taught me a lot.

"You are next," Wiggs told me. "Do you want to choose a partner yourself or do you want one assigned?"

Jaclyn was next to her friends in the crowd. Her purple hair swayed in the wind like the feathers of a bird. Amateur. I had my hair tied back.

She apparently wasn't taken yet, seeing how she stopped talking to her friends when I approached. We had a score to settle.