Chapter 91. Practical Exams

Things are going well. I'm feeling a little paranoid about it, actually. Not paranoid enough to do something stupid, thankfully, but wary of possible complications I haven't foreseen. It's been four days since the talk with mother, and I've just come back from doing a repeat conversation with father included. Who takes to being suddenly grandpa with surprising aplomb, just like mom. We have discussed possible options and such, because by all the indications they find having a granddaughter to be exciting and are fixing to fulfill the role of doting grandparents with gusto. We have tentatively agreed to them hosting Cy over the next summer. For now, I get the time to grow into the mom role. Admittedly, it is made much easier by the fact I got to skip the entirety of the baby stage, which nivellates a whole lot of my worries about screwing children up. Cy is already pre-screwed, so to speak.

Right now, I'm about to participate in dueling mid-terms. For some reason, I've been asked to attend that particular examination first. The examination, just so we're clear, is held in the Academy yard. The place had been cleared out, a set of low bleachers on one end that holds the students and a selection of tables in front of them holding the examiners. The actual field is empty, save for a stone circle a fair distance away from it, and a straw dummy a couple touse ahead of it.

"Good afternoon, lady Gillespie." - sir Zade rasps - "I hope you don't mind that you've been elected to inaugurate the practical exam."

"I don't, but mind indulging my curiosity why me, specifically?" - I quip back at him.

He chuckles - "Well, starting strong is a good tradition, isn't it so? Anyway, to start with, please demonstrate basic elementary attacks on the scarecrow over there. Showing sufficient mastery of one element to knock the scarecrow over is a passing grade, but please try all of the ones you feel confident at. Please call out the element you are invoking when you do."

Hm. Very well, then.

"Fire!" The gout of flame lurches from my hand, curling lazily as it impacts the middle of the dummy, setting it ablaze.

"Water!" The mist around it abruptly condenses, soaking the dummy through and dousing the fire out.

"Earth!" The ground below the dummy bulges up abruptly, tossing the dummy in the air.

"Air!" The dummy falls into a spinning eddy, suspended in the air by the little whirlwind, charred wet straw flying out of its sleeves.

"Lightning!" A discharge of electricity from my hand to the dummy crackles, burning a hole through it as the whirlwind dissipates, letting it fall down.

"Light!" A ray of concentrated sunshine erupts from the other hand, burning another hole through the dummy's head.

"Darkness!" The wooden carcass creaks as the whole thing at once is ravaged by accelerated entropy, crumbling into a pile of sawdust.

I dust my hands off symbolically and turn around... And the examinators are all sporting gobsmacked impressions. Except for sir Zade, who looks like a cat who's got into butterpot. I wonder... Oh. Right. The rest of the commission is only aware of me through second-hand impressions. Sir Zade has some first-hand knowledge and a lot of tales that are circulating in Inquisition, but the rest? Ambercrombe Senior mostly sees me as an occasionally scary troublemaker, he never had much of a chance to see me do magic firsthand. Monsieur Foxworth, our erstwhile replacement for Hardlock, had gotten the "she's excused from your lessons on account of beating the tar out of previous teacher" spiel from Ambercrombe and apparently never had the gumption to question me about it. I obviously didn't bother inserting myself in the lessons I don't really need.

"All that just through facsimiles?" - Foxworth yelps after a brief silence - "Just... That... Gah!"

He shakes his head and leans towards Zade, whispering to him furiously. Zade just grins at him. "Chop-chop, my good fellow." - he then proffers gleefully - "Lady Gillespie, the second part of the exam is a magical spar against the professor Foxworth... With that in mind, would you please not render him insensate? It would be inconvenient to postpone the exam for the rest of the students."

"Maybe you should've asked me to go last." - I grumble.

"Ah, but then some people would presume your showing was due to professor already being exhausted by previous students." - he parries with a grin - "That would be doing a grave disservice to your talents."

I sigh and wait. And wait. And wait some more. Until Foxworth shows up. Oh. Huh. He has a heavy brigandine on over his clothes. And a sort of helmet, too. Sensible, if overly cautious.

"Lady Gillespie, as this is a training bout, there will be certain differences from an actual duel." - he begins, trying his best to sound casual. Eh, it's a good step up from the shitshow that Hardlock was. "Namely, I will be restricted to using the ray of purity, which is obviously harmless to students, to mark my own attacks. Sir Zade will observe and call for a pause whenever I manage to land an attack on you. You, on the other hand, may use whatever magic you find yourself most comfortable with, though obviously it would be best if you didn't end up injuring me in process." - he continues with a nervous laugh - "Normally, a student wouldn't be considered strong enough to cause me lasting harm in a set of armor like this, but you're hardly ordinary, now are you?"

I consider him critically. "Professor Foxworth, I believe it's already obvious I can do direct evocation." - I quip - "I believe I will restrict myself to conjuration and other indirect methods of offense for the duration of the bout. Please be mindful how you fall."

He has a complicated expression. "MM... That is sensible, yes, but well above the curriculum you're supposed to be tested at." - he objects - "Sir Zade, dean Ambercrombe, I would like your opinions."

Ambercrombe massages the bridge of his nose. "As the dean of Academy, I give dispensation to assess this particular student's ability in advance." - he grumbles - "It goes without saying that lady Gillespie is well beyond what one would expect of a student at this juncture. Assess her abilities across the entire curriculum."

Zade shrugs. "I concur." - he proffers simply.

"Very well then. En garde, lady Gillespie." - Foxworth proffers, pulling out a daisy from the holder on his back. He has several more flowers there. Sensible. Well-protected, too. So long as he remembers which flower is where, he can switch at a moment's notice, and maybe even use them as a bouquet if he is not hampered by a mental block of needing a flower in hand to use it.

"En garde, professor Foxworth." - I agree, as I shake my arms loose and raise them in front of myself in a martial pose.

"...No flo... EEp!" - he sounds as I step forward, my usual bevy of acceleration, reinforcement and sensory suit kicks in. Unlike Hardlock, this guy is well on the level. A former knight, I imagine, or maybe an Inquisitor on loan. He dodges my kick, not effortlessly, but in a clearly practiced move, and immediately returns fire with the ray of purity. Smart, too, he goes for the center of mass. Not fast enough, though. I twist out of the way, the ray passing by my side and deliver a straight punch. O-ho. He dodges again. Not fast enough to avoid it entirely, but my hand ends up being deflected by his pauldron instead of nailing him in the neck. The next moment he jumps back, obviously reinforcing his jump with magic because he clears almost two touse at a leap backward. Makes sense, his only attack is ranged one by the rules he outlined, so why not stay out of punching range?

Let's switch it up. His follow-up attack from the distance, I don't dodge. Instead, I conjure a slab of silver in front of it, reflecting the light right in his face. Hah, that got him, if the muffled curse and frantic backpedaling are of any indication. Zade exclaims something from behind, but it is not a command to stop, so I proceed. The disk of silver times out and instead I toss out a clump of dry ice, immediately followed by a burst of telekinesis, shattering it into a spray of evaporating crumble. The field between us is full of white cloud now, hampering Foxworth's sight line. Now he needs to either circle the impromptu smokescreen, fire blindly or try running through it, and he doesn't know if the last one is even safe.

And he does. Except he shows up on both ends of the cloud in the same time. Illusion decoy? I wonder which one is... Nevermind, they're both illusions. So where's the real one? I jump up and over the cloud, and... there he is. Instead of running through, he had taken the time to widen the distance to a couple perche, giving him an easy angle on both of his decoys. I think he expected me to attack either of them, and he'd be in a position to snipe at me with impunity. He is still in that position, granted, and already lines up his next shot, so I preempt him by throwing down a cloud of chaff. Mostly conjured ribbons of aluminum, though I toss in a couple overheated magnesium strips. Ooh, that's bright. And I'm still in the air, though on a different trajectory now, using a briefly conjured slab of iridium to bounce off of. Double-jumping is cheating, isn't it? Aaand... yes! While he is still distracted by the burning chaff, I manage to nab him with a conjured net. He struggles briefly against it, then sighs and slumps.

"I concede!" - he shouts out loud. I land next to him, and dismiss all conjurations, extending a hand for Foxworth to help him up. He takes it, hoisting himself off the ground, and chuckles ruefully. "Masterfully done, lady Gillespie. If I didn't know you have bigger aspirations at hand, I'd recommend you for the Inquisition on the spot." - he proffers, then raises his voice - "Dean Ambercrombe, sir Zade! In my opinion, lady Gillespie is well past the Academy curriculum and should be considered passing all of it in advance."

Ambercrombe coughs. "It certainly looked impressive, but some elaboration would not be amiss, professor Foxworth." - he retorts.

"Certainly, dean. To begin with, lady Gillespie had demonstrated a grasp of personal augmentation - her initial attack was entirely martial and was clearly reinforced by magic. In the same time, she demonstrated a grasp of sensory magic by dodging a counterattack she couldn't have seen coming due to her position." - Foxworth proffers - "Following that, once I have widened the distance between us again, lady Gillespie showed a grasp of tactics. Instead of trying to close the distance again to make use of her augmentation, she switched tack entirely and turned my own attack against me by conjuring a mirror. Then she further hampered my visibility by causing that chilly white smoke, forcing me to retreat further - if I were to attempt to engage her in the middle of that smoke, I would be at a distinct disadvantage. Following that, lady Gillespie demonstrated yet another aspect of her sensory abilities by correctly identifying both of my illusory decoys as such and disengaging entirely, rather than wasting her time exchanging blows with a non-existent foe. Instead, she gained the vantage point, blinded me once again with a... I'm not even sure what it was, but it looked like metal ribbons of some sort, and some of them were even burning, and using that as a distraction, carried out an actual attack, which was a simple conjured net, almost invisible amidst the chaos her earlier distraction provided. All in all, it is a very impressive grasp of personal augmentation, sensory magic, conjuration and battlefield tactics. About the only thing left untested would be her ability with weaponry, which I don't feel the need to test, given that she had killed a Sultanate batal in one-on-one combat in a duel earlier in the autumn."

Zade nods sagely. "A well-rounded combatant, then?" - he quips rhetorically.

Foxworth chuckles - "Let me put it like this. If lady Gillespie was ever to fight with viscount Lamarchand, I wouldn't know whom to bet on."

Ambercrombe coughs. "So to sum it up, lady Gillespie passes all the requirements we put forth for the Academy curriculum insofar as it regards dueling, and should be recognized as such." - he asks - "Does anyone have any other comments?"

"Not here, dean Ambercrombe." - Zade replies - "I believe she passes with flying colors."

"Quite so." - Foxworth agrees - "It's been a while since I've been so soundly trounced."

Ambercrombe signs the papers. "Congratulations on passing the dueling course, lady Gillespie." - he offers gruffly - "Here's hoping you will do just as well on the rest of exams. If anyone does deserve to leave this Academy early, it would be you."

And... I am left with a distinct impression that the compliment was quite the backhanded one. Joy. On the other hand, the replacement for Hardlock is pretty competent, if nothing else. I might be not needing his lessons, per se, but my girls would surely benefit from a teacher that knows his stuff.