Magi's Path (Aether's Revival Book 3) Daniel Schinhofen (books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📖

also note that the guards will be out in force today and tomorrow. The council will not tolerate any ‘accidents’ this year.”

Nick’s jaw tightened. He started to speak, but Jason clamped a hand on his shoulder, so Nick stayed silent.

Jason cleared his throat. “We appreciate that, Grandmaster. Some of the other clans might try to thin our numbers to have a chance otherwise.”

“Of course. I’m sure they were just lining up to try.” The sarcasm was thick in Pan’s voice. “Now, I’ll post these and you can be on your way to prepare.”

The instant the papers were on the board, the seventh bell began to chime and Grandmaster Pan was gone— a gust of wind was born and died in the same instant. Some of the smaller clans were close to the bulletin board, so they checked first.

One by one, the groups dispersed after seeing if they were in or out. As the crowd thinned, Nick moved to the front before laughing and leading his group away, sneering at Gregory the entire time.

“Well, that means either you face him today or you’ll see him only in the finals,” Hayworth said. “I wonder which it’ll be.”

“Find out after you,” Gregory said, motioning to the board.

“Very well.” Hayworth led his clan to the board to check. “You’ll see him in the finals, if you make it there.”

“That good?” Gregory asked, moving forward.

“You’ll see us tomorrow, as well,” Hayworth said.

Getting up to the board, he looked over the brackets and sighed. “That’s almost as rigged as it could be.”

“Indeed,” Hayworth said. “I wonder how much it cost them?”

“It’s stupid,” Gregory said, “but hard paths make the best magi.”

Hayworth laughed. “Well then, we must be the best clans in the academy this year. Good luck.”

“You, too. See you tomorrow.”

“Aether willing,” Hayworth nodded. As he started to lead his clan away, Hayworth paused next to Willof. “Sergeant, thank you for being here. I was a hair away from putting that imbecile in his place, which would have started a conflict that should be kept to the arenas.”

Willof drew himself up straighter. “Just doing our job, sir.”

“I will inform my clan head,” Hayworth nodded.

Gregory was again surprised at Hayworth’s attitude. He’s so different from how I first thought of him. With him caring so much for the empire, I’m shocked he isn’t in the Iron Hand, though.

“They really did stack this deck,” Jenn snorted once she’d seen match-ups. “Han first, and then the Iron Hand or Winter Steel just to reach tomorrow.”

“While Hayworth gets Eternal Blossoms and either Yamato Shipping or Cherry Blooms,” Yukiko said. “This entire bracket has all the major clans, minus the Eternal Flame.”

“Hard paths,” Gregory said. “It never feels as hard as it should, though.” He gave his wives soft smiles. “Maybe it’s because of those around me?”

“You are sweet, dear one,” Yukiko smiled back. “Let’s go win so we can dismantle Nick tomorrow.”

“‘Dismantle’ is the least we should do,” Jenn snorted.

Gregory gave Willof a nod as they passed him. The sergeant bowed his head in return.

As they left, Willof looked at his men. “Back to patrol, men. You have your orders.”

“Yes, sir,” they replied, saluting him and going off in different directions.

Willof walked down the path to the main arena. Gregory, Yukiko, and Jenn were just in view as he followed them.

~*~*~

Gregory looked at the four apprentices from the Han clan as they approached from the far tunnel. He knew two of them were crafters— they’d been in the polearm group. The other two he only knew from seeing them fight, remembering that one was a physical enhancement magi and the other a wind magi. None of them showed signs of any wounds from their fight with the Eternal Flame the day before. The wind magi was standing at the forefront of the group, his face grim.

“Pettit, we’d hoped you were going to join our clan,” the wind magi said when they got into speaking distance. “If you had, we would have won this tournament easily, as we’re sure Warlin would have joined with you, at the very least.”

“The Han clan was in our top three,” Gregory told him, “but the freedom offered by our clan was the tipping point.”

“We’d like our crafters to not get maimed,” the apprentice continued. “They’ll be using just weapons. We ask you to keep that in mind, please.”

“Enough,” Yunlo said sternly. “The rules remain the same. Bow to the boxes.”

Gregory glanced at Yukiko and adjusted his grip on the practice naginata. She nodded in response, so he looked at Jenn. “Nessa,” was all he said, and Jenn nodded.

Yunlo gave them a curious look as he raised his hand, but didn’t rebuke them.

“We’ll treat them kindly,” Gregory whispered to the wind magi.

“Thank you,” the magi replied tightly, his brow furrowed as he stared at Gregory.

Gregory was able to trigger foresight just before Yunlo’s arm came down and commanded them to fight. Inhaling sharply, Gregory pivoted and shifted. To the crowd, it looked like he burst into a spontaneous dance. The only hint that it wasn’t a dance were the trails of sand being kicked up by the wind blades flying at him from all directions.

While the wind magi tried to hit him, Jenn rushed at the wind magi, but was intercepted by the physical enhancement magi. The clash between them was cheered by the crowd, happy that the first match today was exciting.

With the other two occupied, Yukiko stepped back into the shadows next to the wall and vanished. The two crafters were back-to-back against the far wall, trying to stop her from getting to them and watching their clanmates so they could shout a warning if needed. They found Yukiko right on top of them as she came up between them and the wall,