Month: March 2022

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72 Days Until Brilliance And the Uncertain End (part 4)

Evester stepped off the plane squinting as he looked up towards the sky and sun. It took him a moment to register his surroundings. Then he saw Heia standing next to the Prime Minister, Alan Penn. Heia looked good. She stood sturdy, watching him, smile growing on her face as they starred down each other.

“Heia!” Karla cried out, racing towards her sister. Karla jumped in Heia’s arms, and Heia spun them around. Alan Penn stepped away, as to not be hit. Evester saw the slightest smirk on Heia’s lip as she forced him to flee. Crass and Evester stepped up to Heia as soon as Heia stopped spinning.

“Karla.” Heia hugged Karla, looking to Evester with sleep deprived eyes. “You look good.”

Continue reading “YP – B4:Entr’acte – CHAPTER 106 (CHAPTER 253)” →

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72 Days Until Brilliance And the Uncertain End (part 3) 

Zeydar stood with his arms crossed and impressed. Kony was toying with the three. It had taken a moment for him to get into the rhythm but once he realized he held the upper hand, he slipped into his fight cadence. He moved in a way that made it seem like he was struggling, or at least that was what Zeydar hoped. He hoped he had not put too much faith in Kony. He reminded himself of his practices with Kony and the times Kony had fought Aralax. The movements were no the same, as those had been actual threats. However the cadence was. Kony was better than he was showing off. Zeydar wondered if Kony was trying to predict his timing to their attacks, searching for their openings, using as little magic as he could so that he could be ready. He seemed focused, intense. His lips did not move, but Zeydar knew Kony was watching.

“Why isn’t he attacking?” Superior Jasper asked Zeydar.

“Why would I know?” Zeydar watched Kony who was being battered by the spells, with only his wind defense to protect him. He had let some of the attacks get through. The match was until a yield and Kony was trying to make it so that they believed they were winning. Just how much better was Kony than them? Zeydar knew Kony was good, he had full faith in that, but watching the match made Zeydar double guess his own student. It was then that the first attack by Kony occurred. He redirected the fire aimed at him, towards another student. Kony backed up, and at once Zeydar understood what Kony was doing. It made him laugh a bit. 

Continue reading “YP – B4:Entr’acte – CHAPTER 105 (CHAPTER 252)” →

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72 Days Until Brilliance And the Uncertain End (part 2)

Heia stood looking to the skies of the air field. The others were too busy to be there. Their tactical team was progressing well, after May had the chance to practice against Aralax twice. She had been flimsy on the first day, but the second day had provided her with great insight. Kim was confident that with the week they’d have the semblance of a team. They needed communicators, Kim had told her. She was the one person who seemed the most optimistic.

“How is the practice?” Alan Penn stepped to Heia’s left. He too looked to the sky looking for the ship to arrive. The notice had come suddenly, not that it seemed out of character for Evester.

“Well enough.” Heia thought of how the others were working their asses off with May. Lynx and Onyx were fixing the war formations and Kori and Robee and Trace were training the Circles to become skilled in the Aralax killing techniques from their flimsy base. The more that Heia thought of it, the more stressed she became. They had twenty days to make a unit worthy of envy. There was no way they were going to make it in time. They’d never prove the combination worked and change the war. 

Continue reading “YP – B4:Entr’acte – CHAPTER 104 (CHAPTER 251)” →

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72 Days Until Brilliance And the Uncertain End (part 1) 

Unlike the first attempt, this time, the training stadium was filled with spectators. Kony’s previous battle had spread like wild fire through the rumors mill of the campus. Zeydar had told Kony to act as if nothing had happened, while on Campus, but had pulled Kony from the dorms each afternoon to take Kony to the Igilistal home to train. Kony’s stamina and control had skyrocketed in the time. He used too much magic for attacks resulting in minor backlash and a general waste, but in time that too would be changed. Kony was better off eight days later, than he was for his first fight and Zeydar was ready too.

Zeydar had noticed a general change in his classes. There was not much, but of the students who attended his classes, they were more focused on watching him. It seemed, to him at least, that they were paying attention more. Zeydar had been asked a theory question in one of his classes the day before, and had been left stunned. He answered the question, related it back to the subject at hand, and went on. It was, however, one of the questions from his previous tests and not taught in the general academy. Some students were looking at Zeydar as more than a face, more than a famous name, and looking at what made him the top student when he had been a student. It was as if they were beginning to take him seriously for the first time.

Zeydar liked that and just as students were taking Zeydar serious, the Superiors were taking Kony serious. There were three challengers this time. All of the Class One Mages that were Kony’s age stood before Zeydar and Kony on the opposite side of the ring. Their Superiors were with them discussing, unsure if they would be able to convince Zeydar of the legitimacy of the fight. A three on one was in no ways fair, and Zeydar planned to take the challenge. He was petty. He held a grudge. Zeydar wanted to break them.

Continue reading “YP – B4:Entr’acte – CHAPTER 103 (CHAPTER 250)” →

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74 Days Until Facades And the Uncertain End (Part 2)  

Zeydar stood in Evester’s room staring at himself in the full body mirror that decorated one of the wardrobe fronts. He wore Circle clothes he had found in Evester’s wardrobe. They fit and despite how much Zeydar wanted to pretend, he looked good in them. He turned over himself in them, looking at every angle and seeing himself in something other than his Superior uniform.

He wanted to pace, to think, to question, but standing in the room gave him no answers. Trying on the clothes gave him no answers. No one had spoken to him about Evester’s confession. It had, instead, given him more time to train Kony and to think about the golden book. Zeydar was certain he understood it in detail. He had read it over multiple times.

“Why are you even here?” Zeydar sighed to himself. Looking at himself did not give him an answer if he wanted to fight the Igilistal rules or to fall to them. Evester was going to fall to them but he wanted freedom. He wanted to fight them. Zeydar did not know if he could fight them, or if he was willing to risk falling to them in the event he could not. He wanted the chance at a relationship but the cost of that…

“That was what I was wondering.” Estashia’s voice startled Zeydar and he found her sitting on the bed, as if she had been there for hours, when in reality Zeydar knew she had not been five minutes before. How had she got in and he had not noticed? He knew that in Evester’s room he felt the most at ease, but had the magic not alerted to her entering at all? The door. He had not heard the door open either? Had she come in another way?

Continue reading “YP – B4:Entr’acte – CHAPTER 102 (CHAPTER 249)” →

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74 Days Until Facades And the Uncertain End (Part 1)  

Evester ran his hand over the plane’s hull. It was marvelous and the last one that they had. Taking it would strand all of those at the facility. Taking it would mean that he had to go back for them. They were leaving the soldiers to protect them, all the scientists to rush and work around the clock. the current world was using all the other planes were being used to move the soldiers around the world to unite armies together. The splicing would prove futile if they could not bring everyone together. He was taking their world’s hope ability to flee. All for the possibility of a convincing the world for the final fight and flight.

“You ready?” Karla dropped her bag with a thud.

“Yeah.” He turned to her and was stunned. She wore a white dress with a flower pin in her hair. She looked sweet and innocent, and Evester knew she had safety shorts underneath. “Why are you wearing a dress?’

Continue reading “YP – B4:Entr’acte – CHAPTER 101 (CHAPTER 248)” →

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75 Days Until Grime And the Uncertain End 

Heia looked over the mages that were before her. They were dressed in their beautiful military uniforms, decorated by the grimaces on their face as they knew that they would have to support and work with the X’s. Their bigotry was showing; Heia wanted to punch them in the faces.  They were disrupting the overall mood of the camp and Heia needed to figure out a way to fix it quick.

Zeydar had gotten her the Military Mages and yet none of them seemed to want to be there. He had blackmailed someone to get them there, and all she wanted to do was yell at them for what they had done to her people. To her family. They needed to protect the world. They were the force that was important to doing so.

Still they were there to protect society. She could accept that. They stood there and even if they were disgruntled, they were there. She would figure out how to get them to open up. She would manage it. She would.

Continue reading “YP – B4:Entr’acte – CHAPTER 100 (CHAPTER 247)” →

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78 Days Until Relaxation And the Uncertain End (Part 3)   

Zeydar was about to hang up when he noticed that Evester was starring. He had not left the call and Zeydar had a feeling Evester wanted him to stay. Evester had been evasive towards him the entire call and now, when no one could see, Evester refused to break eye contact? Zeydar’s body felt hot and his mind flipped. His heart started to race, but he forced himself to calm it. They’d had time apart but that did not mean that anything between them had changed. Zeydar was not sure that Evester’s longing was the same as his own. “Yes?”

“I’m just looking at you.” Evester slipped into his charismatic smile and Zeydar almost broke.

Zeydar knew his face was flushed as he closed his eyes to breathe out a bit. The gold book’s rules were in his mind. He had not had the time to fully process what he had read with all the other tasks he had to do. Endwin had given it to him, and now every time that Zeydar thought of Evester all he could think of was do I want to be an Igilistal? As if the question was on the table. As if Evester had anything other than a crush. As if Zeydar wanted to to be more. They could not have that. Not now. They could not discuss it. Not now. Zeydar somehow managed to get out words. “You’re a flirt.”

Continue reading “YP – B4:Entr’acte – CHAPTER 99 (CHAPTER 246)” →

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78 Days Until Relaxation And the Uncertain End (Part 2)  

At first Evester was in shock, and Heia was worried that he was too preoccupied with Zeydar to be able to say anything intelligent. However, an odd calm swept over him, much like the way he calmed when his adrenaline raced. He became cool and calculated. Something had made him panic, fear, something, and she knew that something had to be Zeydar. Or it had to do with Zeydar.

She wanted to ask him to confirm, but she was certain without a method of doubt that it was because of his feelings to Zeydar. Something had transformed in the way that he felt towards Zeydar. Something made him more confident. Heia had so many questions to ask him. She did not ask a single one.

“We have twenty days till the end war begins.” Evester began.

Continue reading “YP – B4:Entr’acte – CHAPTER 98 (CHAPTER 245)” →

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78 Days Until Relaxation And the Uncertain End (part 1)

Evester sat before the computer waiting for it to connect. It was to be one of the few communications that they would have in private. Most of them were public via Kony, Kori and Karla, but this one was specified to be private due to the information that was going to be passed on. As Evester waited for them to connect, he kicked up, trying to think of what he was going to say exactly. He worried of what he would say the moment he saw Zeydar. He worried of seeing Zeydar and losing everything he had said before.

“You look relaxed.” Heia’s voice was the first to arrive. Looking to the screen, he saw her hair large and defined, bouncing in the light. Her natural curls were in an afro about her head, with edges laid. She leaned forward towards the screen. She was healthy, and wore makeup which was strange because she had not for the whole time Evester knew her. It was something Kim had started, and she looked startling in it. She was looking over him as he was looking over her.

“You look nice.” Evester complimented her.

Continue reading “YP – B4:Entr’acte – CHAPTER 97 (CHAPTER 244)” →