Chapter 310: For A Fool
Solaris hung above the ruined museum with fire wrapped around her body and smoke turning beneath her like a dark tide.
Her eyes moved across the Academy grounds.
Stone towers. Glass walkways. Hundreds of younglings in dramatic uniforms gathered behind older people in another version of dramatic uniforms.
There were guards with weapons, those she at least recognized. There were banners dancing in the air, hanging from buildings too large to belong to any city she remembered.
Her feather-crown brightened. "What is this place?"
Her voice crossed the courtyard without effort. It carried the heat of the Phoenix with it, low and full enough to silence the whispers beneath her.
Dean Ordenance stepped beyond the line of professors and raised one empty hand. "Lady Solaris Ashen!" he called.
Solaris looked down at him.
"Listen to me! You are inside Awakener Supreme. The prestigious Academy for the awakened youth of our world."
Her brows narrowed with dissatisfaction. "I asked where I am, not what name you have given these walls."
Ordenance stopped several paces from the broken entrance. "The Academy stands within the Kingdom of Aethelgard, in the capital city of Brightspire."
"Brightspire," Solaris whispered. She turned slowly above the roof, searching past the towers as though Cinderhold might appear if she looked far enough.
All she found were more Academy buildings, distant city structures and a horizon cut apart by transport rails. "Where is Cinderhold?"
Troubled silence answered her.
Some students looked at one another. Others lowered their voices and repeated the name as though testing whether they had heard correctly.
Ordenance kept his attention on her. "Lady Ashen. You know that Cinderhold no longer exists as an independent city."
The fire around Solaris heated up as she remembered. "That place you call Carrion Spire, where is it?"
Ordenance kept a troubled expression, choosing his next words carefully.."Carrion Spire is far away from here, Lady Ashen. Close to another kingdom!"
Solaris stared at him.
Below, Danistasia turned her head toward one of the guards standing behind her.
"Send word to Class Group-S instructors," she said quietly. "Have their students surround the museum. Prepare for an attack to secure the threat."
The guard bowed and disappeared into the crowd.
Ordenance heard her. He looked at her with a tightened jaw. "Danistasia."
She did not look at him. "What is it?"
"Perhaps we should try not to antagonize her," he suggested. "She’s in a very vulnerable and explosive state. If we’re not careful she could cause serious damage."
Danistasia glared at him. "Which is why we must contain her immediately! Now keep talking to her and keep her distracted."
Ordenance paused for a bit, then looked up to find Solaris gazing right down at him. "Perhaps I could take you to the Spire myself. If you could just come down... slowly."
Solaris’s gaze remained fixed on Ordenance, but her heat wave sensing ability already told her that danger was coming.
She could sense human heat moving through the buildings with intention. And they were fast.
Several presences crossed the eastern walkway and split apart. Others entered from the lower courtyards. Strong bodies settled behind walls, on rooftops and along the museum’s blind angles.
Taking positions.
Solaris lowered her chin. "You must take me for a fool! Trying to keep me occupied while your child soldiers creep around my back."
Ordenance looked over one shoulder.
Class Group-S students were spreading through the surrounding grounds, their abilities forming around their fists. Vernon Heavenblum stood near the colonnade north of the building with thin streams of water and fire already moving around his hands.
Two Specialists took the western roof. Another group waited beyond the fountain.
Ordenance turned fully toward Danistasia. "Why can’t you just listen?!"
"She destroyed an Academy building in less than a minute," the Headmistress snapped. "She’s dangerous!"
"Indeed I am! And you will learn never to cross me again!" Solaris extended one hand. Behind all of the students, hands of fire rose through the stone.
They closed around their bodies before any of the Class Group-S Awakeners could react.
Vernon threw wind beneath himself, but a burning palm caught him in midair and squeezed until every element around him scattered.
A Specialist on the roof drew his weapon halfway before another hand dragged him down onto one knee.
Students screamed as figures were lifted from behind walls and carried into the open.
Solaris held them all around the courtyard like pieces pulled from a board. "You take me for a fool."
Ordenance’s face hardened. "Release them, Lady Ashen! Please."
"You placed blades around me while pretending to offer answers."
"That was not my order."
"Yet they came."
He looked at Danistasia again. "Call off the rest "
Danistasia watched the captured students without changing expression. "They have already been called off."
"Then tell her."
Solaris’s fingers curled. The fire-hands tightened with them, causing the students to cry out.
Danistasia, fully angry now, decided to take things into her own hands. She stepped beyond Ordenance. "I will handle this."
He caught her arm. She looked down at his hand.
Ordenance released her but did not move aside. "You’re not trying to get into a battle with her, are you? Danistasia, she is a literal God Phoenix reincarnate."
"I am aware."
Ordenance’s eyes widened.
"Besides..." Danistasia looked up at Solaris. "Phoenixes are weakest immediately after resurrection."
Ordenance stared at her.
The Headmistress raised both hands to the clasp at her throat.
The dark Academy gown came apart in a wash of frost.
Ice spread from her collar down her arms, hardening into fitted armor over her shoulders and chest. Her long skirt split into layered battle cloth beneath a coat of pale blue scales. Silver-white gauntlets formed over her hands, and a narrow crown of ice appeared across her brow.
The temperature around her dropped, whitening the stones beneath her shoes. Students nearest to her backed away as frozen stairs formed in the air, one step above the next.
Danistasia climbed.
Each footfall made another step. By the time she reached the height of the roof, cold mist followed behind her like a cloak.
Solaris watched her approach. The fire-hands remained closed around the students.
Danistasia stopped across from her, standing on the final ice step with nothing beneath it but open air.
"Release my students and stand down."
Solaris studied her. "An Ice Mage."
Danistasia’s eyes narrowed. "You sound disappointed."
"No."
Solaris’s gaze moved over the frost armor, then past it to the professors and guards below. They watched Danistasia before they watched anyone else. Even Ordenance had stopped trying to advance now that she stood between them.
"You are powerful."
Danistasia smiled proudly, cold gathered around her fingers. "Of course. I am ranked Platinum and at Level 185. I am the last of Ice Dragon Bloodline. You will be smart not to underestimate me."
Solaris tilted her head. "I did not mean power in terms of magic."
The smile vanished from Danistasia’s face.
Solaris continued. "I meant control. You are the head figure of this place. They respect you. These walls belong to you."
"What are you asking?"
"If I take you," Solaris said, "will I have bargaining power?"