Eldritch Guidance

Chapter 31: Set for Success

“Markus Rivet, also known as Markus the brave in his homeland, was a war mage of antiquity. Famed for the battles he would engage against the Gix empire of old. He fought for his country of Rivia before it eventually fell and became a vassal state of the empire. Upon the fall of his country, he would flee and become a wandering mercenary outside the Gix empire. His nickname was the ‘noble mercenary’ at the time.

“It should be noted that even at this time, mercenaries were still not well respected. But despite that, Markus Rivet himself was still well respected by many people. He was knighted in the kingdom of Rivia and upheld the honor code of a knight even after the fall of his homeland. Knights of Rivia were expected to embody bravery, honor, and fairness.

“His magic was said to be so devastating on the battlefield, his enemies called him a literal ‘one man army’. He could weave massive firestorms and devastate the battlefield beyond what anyone could imagine. The scale of magic he could cast was so grand that he would be recognized as an unofficial archmage by many mages for years.

“Markus eventually met Cain Mired and was convinced to join in the creation of Graheel university. He gave up the life of a wandering mercenary and dedicated the rest of his life teaching students in the way of combat magic.

“The Lionheart college was formed in honor of Markus. A college dedicated to training mages in combat magic with a golden lion, which was once the symbol of Rivia, incorporated into the sigil of this college. Students attending this college are expected to attempt to embody the values of bravery, honor, and fairness. The same as Markus once did while he was alive.

“Markus was only recognized as an archmage after his death, and is still hailed as one of the archmages with the most destructive magic in recorded history of the western continent.”

—Writing of Archmage Setta on “The Founding of Graheel and it’s University”

A few hours had passed since Alan and his friends had discovered the identity of the person that might be causing the strange accidents. Cid Cook from the Shroom Pact college was the main suspect for Alan and his friends. Now that they knew who this person was, they knew where to start looking for useful information about him. But, that was something Alan and his friends would do later.

Alan and Jafar were sitting at a table in Benny’s Diner. Sere went to write her test while Alan and Jafar went for their outing. Today was the day Alan was going to have a guys night with his friends.

Jafar: “What’s taking Cris so long? It was his idea to grab a bite to eat here before we head out to the bars.”

Alan had taken Jafar’s advice and planned an outing with his friends. Him, Jafar, and Cris were all supposed to go bar hopping and then maybe even to one of the strip clubs in the east end. But, Cris said he wanted a bite to eat before they did that and suggested this diner. Both Alan and Jaffar were waiting for Cris.

Alan: “He’ll be here soon. He said he had to talk to someone a bit before he could come.”

Jafar: “Ugh, it was his idea to eat here.”

Alan: “Hey, the food here at Benny’s is still pretty good.”

Alan was speaking from experience. Sometimes him and Cris would come here to grab a bite to eat after combat practice.

Jafar: “I guess you are right. Anyways, did Cris say how he did on those exams? I haven’t asked him about it.”

Alan: “What do you think?”

Jafar: “He passed with flying colors?”

Alan: “Yup, he said he got perfect on every test, even the written ones.”

Jafar: “I expected him to do well, but did he really get perfect on every test?”

Alan: “That’s what he said. I was surprised he did so well on the written stuff. All I ever see him do is physical training. I don’t know where he found the time to read up on the theoretical stuff.”

Jafar: “Hmm.”

Jafar was about to say something before his thoughts were interrupted by a boisterous, but familiar, voice.

Cris: “Hey guys! Sorry I'm late," he said as he approached the table Alan and Jafar were sitting at.

Jafar: “About time, I thought you’d never show up.”

Cris: “Hahaha. Again, sorry about that,” he then waved his hand over to the waitress that was a mutant with cat-like eyes. “Hey Jenny, we're gonna get three golden platters,” he said before taking a seat at the table with Alan and Jafar.

Jenny: “Ok, Chris,” she said with a smile before heading off to the kitchen with the order.

The staff was quite familiar with Cris and Alan. They were regulars here.

Alan: “Whoa, hey! That’s the most expensive thing on the menu!”

Cris: “Don’t worry. This is all on me,” he said with a smile.

Jafar: “What’s the occasion?”

Cris: “The fact we’re done exams, duh. And… also maybe something else.”

Alan: “Ok. Stop beating around the bush and just say it. I can clearly see you want to brag about how well you did on the exams.”

Cris: “I would never. I’m the most humble person around” he said sarcastically.

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Alan: “Yeah right. You definitely would brag about it,” he said while chuckling a little.

Cris laughed along with Alan a little.

Cris: “Anyways, that’s actually not it. The thing is, I might actually be accepted into the Arcane Eye college.

Both Jafar and Alan had a genuine look of shock on their face from what Cris just said.

Of the seven colleges of Graheel University, the Arcane Eye college was the most difficult one to get accepted into. It was the most famous of all the colleges. It was the college that focused on pure talent and ability in magic, and has produced no end of exceptional mages that have gone on to be great figures throughout history. Even just attending this college was enough to land you an extremely well paying job, whether you successfully graduate from there or not.

Hearing that Cris had managed to make it into such a prestigious and difficult college was truly impressive to both Jafar and Alan.

Jafar: “That's amazing,” he said with a degree of awe.

Alan: “Yeah! Congratulations, Cris!” he said, genuinely happy for his friend.

Cris: “Aww, thanks guys,” he said while blushing and rubbing his hand on the back of his head.

Jafar: “So that means you're going to be an Arcane Eye student next semester.”

Cris: “Well, not yet. I was told I still need to go through the interview process before I become a full student at that college, but professor Black said that my chances still look very good and will probably be admitted.”

Jafar: “Was it professor Sorin Black that told you about you getting into the Arcane Eye?”

Cris: “Yeah.”

Alan: “Huh? I would’ve thought that it would have been a teacher at the Arcane Eye college that would tell you. Not a teacher for the grayscale college.”

Cris: “Well they all work for the same university, and he was just the messenger. I’m sure I'll be interviewed by someone from that college. Maybe, it will be the headmaster of the Arcane Eye college, Lazarus Vaal himself.”

Jafar: “Ohh. You’ll get to meet that famous person.”

Anyone who was the dean of the Arcane Eye college would be famous, but Lazarus Vaal was a person of particular fame. He was hailed as the most powerful Archmage of this generation. All archmages that exist throughout the continent are exceptionally powerful, but he would stand at the top if all archmages were to measure their power.

Alan: “Well now we have extra reason to celebrate,” he joyfully said.

Before anything else could be said, Jenny, the cat eye mutant waitress, came over to their table with three giant golden plates on a tray. She had to put the tray down on a nearby table before she could lift each plate and place them in front of the university students.

Each plate of food contained: two eggs, home fries, a few strips of bacon, two pieces of toast cut down the middle diagonally, and a cup of black tea, tomahawk steak, three different kinds of sausages, pancakes, golden hash browns, an egg benedict, something resembling peameal bacon, smoked fish, and some roasted vegetables on the side. It was an extremely large amount of food.

Jafar: “Holy shit! That’s a lot of food!”

Alan: “Um, could I get some cream for my tea?” he said, directed at the waitress.

Jenny: “Sure thing, hun,” she said, as she walked off to grab some cream for Alan.

Cris: “Well, make sure to eat up! It will make the hangover the next day a lot easier with food in the stomach.”

Jafar: “I wasn't planning to get wasted…at least not that much,” he said as he started to eat.

They all ate as much of the meal as they could before they went out bar hopping. Much later, after becoming somewhat intoxicated, they even went to a strip club in the Red-light district and had a great time.

??????????????????

Later on the same day late in the evening. It was one hour before midnight within the university, all was almost quiet. The exception being a lone figure in the green student robes of the Shroom Pact college. It was Cid.

Cid was walking alone down a dark hallway towards the library. His steps echoed through a short distance within the hallway.

He arrived at a door that should have been locked, leading into the library. With a simple push, he opened the door and headed inside. Cid had jammed one of the library's door's locking mechanisms with chewing gum earlier, preventing it from automatically locking itself at nine o’clock.

He made his way through the entryway and then slowly walked along the rows of bookshelves, before eventually walking into one of the aisle. Cid went down the aisle that contained books on world history. The books were arranged by name in alphabetical order, and he stopped just before the “E” section of the aisle. He looked up and down one of the shelves until he found the book he was looking for.

He then reached out and pulled out the book he wanted, but then stopped halfway before it was off the shelf. He then let go of the book and left it there to stick out of the row of books like a sore thumb, before walking off somewhere else.

Cid kept walking down the aisle until he came across a group of tables for students to sit and work at. There was a pencil on one of the tables. Cid reached out and rotated the pencil around until the head of it was facing north.

He continued to do these series of strange, but oddly specific actions throughout the library. Some of the things he did was moving books in a specific position, placing paper in between books on the shelves, and putting chairs on tables, moving various pieces of furniture slightly.

Eventually he stopped his strange behavior and pulled out the book he received from John. The book he now carried didn’t truly have a name, but he decided to call it the “Book Of Grand Design”, as it’s nature was such. He then opened the leather bound obsidian black cover of the book and flipped through the pages. He eventually found the page he was looking for. The writing on the page was alien in design and illegible to everyone, except for Cid.

Eyes traced over the eldritch language of the book with comprehension of the secrets it was communicating to him.

Cid: “Hmm, something is still off i see. I think the problem is coming from that direction,” he said while looking eastwards.

He then slowly made his way in that direction until he could go no further and came to a series of study rooms. He pondered something for a brief minute before proceeding to check each room. One by one, he opened the door to the study rooms and checked inside each one. Every room was empty and had had nothing of interest, until he checked the last study room.

Inside the study was a single computer on one end of a large table like the other rooms, but unlike the other rooms there were stacks of books left all over the table. Someone had clearly forgotten to clean up after using it.

Cid proceeded inside the study and examined the books all laid out on the table. From a quick glance, Cid could tell that these were all library books related to symbology. They were the kind of books that a first year student might use to study for a test. Mixed in with all the books was a notebook.

Picking up the notebook, he flipped through it quickly while examining the contents. Inside the notebook contained more handwritten notes on symbology. It was obviously study notes of a student who had accidentally left it here. He then looked at the cover and could see that someone had put their name on it: “Sere Lockheart”.

Upon seeing that name, Cid's expression shifted to that of annoyance and slight anger. He then violently ripped the book apart and threw the torn pages all over the room. He then pulled out “The Book Of Grand Design” and flipped back to the page he was reading before. He gave it another read before putting the book away.

Cid: “Soon my trap will be set, and I'll rid myself and Mr Li of these pests,” he said as he quietly left the library.