Editing Eldramin (section)

== Chapter 4 ==
''Fannara''

“Tell us something about yourself.” I internally called curses on the wrinkled professor as he made me stand before the huge class for longer. It felt like show and tell, but I was the item.

I wracked my brain for something-anything that was remotely interesting and not already known. Stupid responses fluttered through my mind, refusing to be dismissed. Someone at the back of the room snickered. Moren. He had made it his goal to be a jerk in every class we had together, and the History of Eldran Magic was no exception.

I glared in his general direction and straightened my spine, turning to face most of the class. “I competed in climbing in the international games on Alithos and got first place when I was sixteen.” I spat the age out with more force than was needed, aiming the information at the jerk in the back.

The class went silent for a beat. Every face staring at me had the same expression; shock.

“Yeah, Fannara!” Ari yelled from the far corner. Her cry was met with applause. Applause for me. For some reason, it felt strange. I had been applauded before, I had won that competition and many others, but this time, it felt genuine. The usual scorn at my achievement came from only one person, not the whole crowd.

I bit back a grin as the teacher released me to my seat next to Arienna.

“That's literally so cool. What kind of climbing was it?” She whispered the words under the buzz of the other students, but loud enough to be heard. And not just by me.

“Probably primitive tree climbing. Alithiosians are proud of their place in time, aren't they?”

Arienna whipped around, her ponytail nearly swatting me in the face. “Would you shut up?” She glared at Moren fiercely enough to make him lean back and roll his eyes. Why he had been assigned a seat next to mine in nearly every class was beyond me, but I knew it made us both miserable.

She turned back to me, awaiting a response. Unfortunately, Moren had been right. The climbing of the oldest tree on Alithos was an ancient ritual, performed as the opening game. Whether he had said that as a lucky guess or had done his homework, I didn't know. I did know that I wasn't going to admit to him being correct in front of him.

Thankfully, Dr. Kortsus began his lecture, informing us that even if it was a required class, he would be no less strict. I wiggled the pencil in my hand as he went on, wishing he would stop droning on about not accepting late homework and start teaching already. I was the only person in the whole class who had a notebook instead of a telecom on my desk. The devices were useful, sure, but the blinding blue light that relentlessly emanated from the silver frame induced headaches and migraines for me.

“Now, onto the material.” I positioned the pencil above the paper, more than ready to show the snooty-faced jerk behind me just how “primitive” I was. “Back in the days of the first Geterrian Queen, a strange anomaly occurred. As most of you should know, the formerly known as ‘vortex users’ lost their magic when the Empire of the Destroyed fell.” Someone in the front made a pun about the empire being destroyed, to which the teacher only deadpanned a response.

“If Miss Aelynn is done ''pun''ishing us with her bad jokes, we'll move on with our recap." The class laughed politely at the professor's pun, the awkward kind of chuckle between a groan and a cough that was often used in response to things that were more cringy than funny. "The former vortex users gained magic that would later separate them from the Geterrian people and they would become the Eldran.” He gestured at us students, indicating the majority of them were Eldran. 

“Time for a little trivia. What are the three main powers of the Eldran race?” At least twenty arms shot up into the air simultaneously, hands and fingers wiggling, hoping to catch the professor’s eye. He pointed to a boy near the middle of the room.

All the arms lowered as he spoke up. “Healing, light bending, and fields-I mean- force fields.”

Dr. Kortsus smiled at the boy. “Well done Mr. Kasivar. Next question: what is the Eldra and the Eldramin?” Dozens of hands flew up once more. He pointed at Arienna. “Miss Harlen, please keep it simple, we’ll be going into the different theories of the Eldra in another class.”

She nodded. “The Eldra is the source of all Eldran magic, and the Eldramin is the guardian of the Eldra.”

He nodded. “And who was the last Eldramin, and when did they live?”

Ari thought about it for a moment. “The last Eldramin was Altum Riddor. He was a fields manipulator, and lived one hundred and forty-nine years ago.”

The professor clapped for her. “Very well done, Miss Harlen, I am impressed. Moving on, after the Eldran separated from the Getterians, they colonized Lathra II, III, and IV after learning how to create portals. Lathra II is the smaller moon of Lathra IV and Lathra III is the second moon. Lathra I orbits Lathra IV, seeing as it's so small. What does this mean for our Getterian guests?" He gestured at Arienna again, but not so she could answer, so she could be an example for him.

A hand was picked. "Getterian's magic is strongest when Lathra I is closest because that's when they are closest to their Tribal Stones. That's why the Stone Tribe only fixes buildings every few months."

He nodded at the student. "Now, you have refreshed, or learned, the basic material of this quad. There will be time for discussion about different Eldra theories, and we will be taking a trip to the Burning Waters to further investigate that theory." A few whoops went up from the class. "We will also conduct further studies on different types of magic and the ancient art of creating portals. Questions?" Dozens of hands shot up once more.

☙❦❧

The morning seemed to speed by, with only a few classes feeling drawn out by a certain jerk who was in two classes too many. Ari looped her arm through mine, leading me...somewhere. I had explored the campus more, only to discover it was ridiculously huge and nearly impossible to navigate. I knew how to get from the tall office building thing, not so affectionately called the {semi rude nickname that could still be used affectionately}, to my dorm, West Eucalyptus.

W.E. was the third tree in from the gate leading to {nicknamed thingy}, standing proud in between the other girls' dorms and the bookstore/library. I loved the library. It had the same interior as our dorm, but, somehow, was more ornate. I had gasped at the dark wooden staircases with gold railings in vine designs attaching the handle to the base. The floors were three dorm stories tall, covered in books, painting, and well-lit reading nooks.

Arienna practically had to drag me out of there, insisting we had more places to see, and that I would have plenty of hours to study in the warm slice of home. I hadn’t expected to be homesick; I had hated living on Alithos, but maybe I had just told myself that so I wouldn’t miss it. Whether or not it was purposeful, it didn’t work. I didn’t miss the people there, not by a long shot, but the actual place, the trees, the smells, the buildings, I missed those. I missed the obnoxiously heavy books we had to haul around, the dozens of notebooks and journals and loose papers flying around in your room when it was windy, not some tiny silver square. Everything that seemed better about Elquar was everything I missed about Talidine.

Either way, Ari was dragging me through {nickname} with no explanation of where or why she was taking me. We were on the eighth floor, so it was no surprise that she led me to an elevator. What was surprising was that once we were in it, she pressed the button labeled "R" which was positioned on the row of numbers in a way that indicated it was one of the top floors. I had yet to go to the top floor that was apparently three floors without the dividers.

I didn't even know we were moving until we stopped. The doors glided open, revealing a cafeteria of sorts. Colorful signs boasting sandwiches, coffee, and ice puffs sat scattered throughout the large room, divided by chairs and couches. It was half the size of a normal floor, and the other half was the roof turned tropical garden, complete with waterfalls.

“Welcome to the Orchard.” Arienna threw out her arms in a flourish, presenting the area with contagious excitement. “The food here isn’t nearly as good as the food downtown, but it's much cheaper and much closer, obviously. But, the best part, it has the best view of the campus." She gesticulated at the windows this time, bringing my eyes to the expansive land laid out before me. {description of the campus that I’ll write later cuz I’m freaking tired of this scene}

☙❦❧

The rest of the day passed smoothly, classes starting up with much-needed summaries and too many unknown faces to count. The end of the day was when things becamegot interesting again.

All of my classes were in the {nickname}, but the last class only listed as a vague “training” was on the very top floor of the building. It turned out to be the height of three stories, with nooks, walkways, and random walls. It was one giant training arena. The only complete room was a large armory, full of high-tech weapons and more rustic-looking ones. Bows and spears sat next to handguns and strange handle-like pieces of metal. Shields made of different colors of diamond stood stacked together, leaning on each other and the wall for support.

The training area itself was full of ropes and chains attached to the ceiling. Obstacles had been set out in the huge space, pitch-black against the blinding sun beaming through the glass walls. Normally, this would have confused me, but that last few nights had shown me how the windows could go from seeming to not be there, to not letting a sliver of light through.

A voice boomed over hidden speakers, making me jump as I looked around the room. “All students go to your assigned group and await further instruction from your Trainer.” I started searching the area, now on the lookout for my roommates. At least, I was pretty sure that’s who my “assigned group” was made of.

I found Ari and Mara sitting near one of the hanging chains. I looked around.

“Where’s Mel?”

Mara’s brows quirked in confusion. “We thought she was with you.” We began our search once more. How hard was it to find a 6’5 girl with violet hair? Her bouncy head of hair was finally spotted and hunted down.

“Good Source Mel, where were you?” Arienna smacked Melody playfully.

She shrugged. “The view is very distracting.”

Mara was about to make a comment, but was cut off by the speakers again.

“For new students, let us explain what is going on. When you were accepted to this university, you were automatically enlisted in the Eldran army. You are free to  leave, but only after training, and you will be required to have check-ups every three months should you stay in the country. If you chose to stay or not, you must not tell a soul outside of this university what is happening. If the Deraal learns we are preparing for war, her attacks will surely worsen.” So that was what this was all about. War. The Eldrans needed students to fight for them. The logical thing to do would have been to distance myself from this world’s politics as much as possible, but after hearing everything the Shifters had done, I felt a strange loyalty to these people. If I could help them, I would.

“Your groups should be comprised of one force manipulator,” Mel raised her hand with all the other manipulators in the room. “One light bender,” Mara lifted her arm into the air. “And one healer,” my elbow straightened uncertainty until my long arm shot up like a flag from our group. “Your squadron’s trainer will come and assign your sibling group. Raise your hand when your room is called.” The speaker went through all the rooms on 17 W.E. until reaching our room. We all raised our hands when it was called.

A tall woman walked over to us, her uniform seeming to mean she was a manipulator. She pulled out a telecom, pulling apart the frame until it was the size and shape of a clipboard.

"I'm Valraea, I'm going to say your names and tell you your assigned guy." She said it playfully, making a joke out of how uncomfortable it sounded. "Alamara Mullid, Bryce Anderson. Melody Harfeld, Raymond Kasivar. Arienna Harlen, Lindin Garth. Fannara Harpson," She paused, her eyes actually widening. "Your partner is Moren Keleth."