Another week flew by like a breeze, with all four of us further honing and developing our skills whilst we studied for the History final.
During that week Jahi received a letter from back home, and it was informing her that sometime soon a trusted subordinate of the Marquess would come knocking at our door.
From the letter we learned that said subordinate was the Marquess' Squire, who was training to become a Knight of Cinder.
She was a Djinn, which were a race of elementally attuned beings that had astounding magical prowess.
However, this woman wasn't a normal Djinn; she was a hybrid between a Djinn and an Orc, and she received the immense physical prowess from her Orc Mother whilst also retaining the magic talent from her Djinn Mom.
Of course, where there is too much good there is always something to balance it out, and Nirina, the Marquess' Squire, was apparently much like the Marquess herself; brash, loose tongued, and lustful.
With her insane talent and almost unparalleled strength, Nirina was a Lady-Killer and Silver-Tongued Djinn, who currently matched her kill count with her body count.
There were multiple warnings laid out on the page, but the Marquess said that Jahi and the rest of us should be capable of browbeating her frivolous Squire if she got out of hand.
If that didn't work, then the Marquess told us to inform Nirina that she could consider herself jobless if she so much as touched a hair on any of our heads with an ounce of lust in her heart.
Reading that, we had all shared a smile at the line, the Marquess' possessiveness and strong familial bonds bleeding through the page with ease.
Besides that, we were told- no, ordered to pass our finals by the end of the month before following Nirina off towards the Western Border, where we would take part in the border skirmishes for the next three months.
Other than the orders, the Marquess had a few other tidbits inside the letter pertaining to other subjects.
Firstly, she gave us open permission to dispatch any of the Sariel-Kameiel assassins with the utmost prejudice, but we needed to keep it on the hush hush.
No one was to know that there were cracks appearing inside the Empire's power structure, so everything needed to be kept quiet.
Secondly, she told us to not worry to much about the political side of the conflict between our Houses, as she and the Countess were taking care of it slowly but surely; apparently more and more Houses were aligning themselves with us, and a few were swearing fealty to the Asmodia's; some even going as far as to magically binding themselves to the Asmodia's.
This meant a large boost in the political sway of the Empire's Shield.
One of those Houses was one that was a long standing neutral, highly coveted and immensely talented family of warriors; House Zolqia, from the South, were against the Kameiel's due to a previous feud, so the Medusian House pledged their swords to our aid.
Finally, the Marquess informed us that by the time we returned my Mother would be around her expected due date, so our reward for a job well done would be seeing our newborn siblings.
With this influx of knowledge, and pressure to get everything done soon, we all dove straight into our textbooks, reviewing material individually before quizzing one another.
None of us wanted to displease the Marquess or make her Squire wait; least of all Jahi, who, while she might deny it, was very desperate to display her talents and worthiness to her Mom after their last encounter.
The next day we placed our requests to take the finals for Magic Theory and History, surprising both Vice-Headmaster Bijilo and Professor Xiant.
The older man recovered much quicker then the strict History buff, coughing gently into his long sleeve as he asked "Are you certain about this, girls? If you fail one course you risk losing your status as students of this Academy..."
We all locked eyes for a moment, before turning back to nod at the man.
"Each of us is certain, Vice-Headmaster. Very much so."
Hearing the confidence in Jahi's tone, the older man nodding sagely as he said "If you are all so certain, then that's good. Come, I'll test each of you first. Xiant, get your testing materials ready; I'll send them over in a half hour or so..."
The thinner, younger Professor nodded, still not grasping the fact that four students wished to take his final so early on.
Walking away with a confused expression, he went to prepare each of our tests, and when we all turned back to Vice-Headmaster Bijilo, he led us into his lecture hall.
Seating us in the front, he called for Jahi to go first, instructing her on what he wished to see.
His final exam was a practical one, and it required two separate displays; the first was a complex spell, much more complex than the one we displayed in the quarterly exam, while the second was to display our mana's purity and potency.
Each of us stepped up when called, passing the exam with flying colors.
In Jahi's case, quite literally.
She displayed the spell that she had been working on, creating a triangular prism made from her golden light and solidifying it, using it as an amplified for her next spell.
When she displayed a non lethal version, she poured mana into the bottom of the prism, which made the top of the pyramid shoot out a multicolored rainbow.
Showing the man the lethal version, Vice-Headmaster Bijilo had blanched slightly as he took in the complex runes, before sighing and passing her.
Leone kept some cards close to her chest, displaying her gigantic Ritual Circle that would draw in the ambient Fire Mana from the area and turn it into her own.
It was a rather simple spell in theory, but the layers of runes needed to complete it was rather insane, but she made it anyways.
Anput went with her Earthen Fortress spell, the practicality and complexity making Vice-Headmaster Bijilo nod in approval.
When it was my turn, I displayed an advanced version of the spell I used for my quarterly, making the man raise a brow as he realized that I had hidden a little from him back then.
The difference wasn't large, but incorporating both Water and Wind Magic into the Ice Magic to amplify certain parts increased the potency of the spell by a good bit.
When he wished to measure our mana's potency, he had us pour some into something he called a Grading Crystal, similar to what was used at our Core Awakenings.
It shone a certain color when mana of a certain caliber was inside it, but he didn't tell us what was the grading pattern, keeping it suspenseful.
Jahi got a dull golden light, Leone got a radiant gold, Anput got a vibrant purple tinged with red, and I got a glimmering crimson.
"Hah... incredible... Simply incredible..."
The mans expression was slightly dull at this point, and he proceeded to explain everything to us.
"The ranking goes White, Green, Blue, Purple, Crimson, Gold, Pink, Black, and then Rainbow... Currently, if I placed my own mana inside the apparatus, it would be-"
Resting his hand on the crystal orb, a deep black enveloped the orb as he continued.
"Black. The color of your average Arch Mage is a Goldish Pink, meaning that you, Lady Leone, are already scratching your way at being an Arch Mage level woman..."
He sighed as he shook his head, adding "The average student at the end of this course will likely have Blue; the average Noble Students would have Purple. So for you three to have above that without any teaching inside the Academy..."
Narrowing his eyes, he looked between Jahi, Leone and I as he sighed again.
"You must have some technique to purify your mana's, so I won't pry, but just be aware that your scores are publicized, so be prepared for a deluge of questions... Anyways, congratulations your four; You passed Magic Theory!"
Giving us a wide smile, he added "Though I will miss your sharp minds and incredible answers. I do hope each of you considers continuing your path on the Arcane at the Academy; I think each of you has wondrous potential. Now go, don't leave Professor Xiant waiting..."
Bowing slightly to the man, we all swiftly made our way towards the History lecture hall, before slipping into the prepared seats and staring at the dozen papers with anxious gazes.
"Alright, your time starts when I say so. There are fifty multiple choice questions, ten short answer questions, and two essays. You have two hours to complete it. That time starts... NOW!"
Picking up my pen, I began to read through the questions, nodding to myself.
'When did the Empire absorb the Gregori Kingdom?'
It was currently year 1,321 Post Formation, so the answer is somewhere in the 200's...
Ah, low 200's, so the answer is definitely 232 Post Formation.
'Who guards the Southern Border of Sanctus Petra?'
Lord Ter'Ran, easy...
The rest of the questions were easy as well, but this portion wasn't the main part of the exam...
Scribbling down my answers for the short answer questions, I sighed as I felt my mind begin to grow numb.
This always sucked...
But, I needed to push through, and so I did.
Leone finished the same time Jahi did, and they both got nods from Professor Xiant when he graded them.
Then I finished, and he read over my papers.
It took him a few moments, but he eventually nodded to me, making my heart swell with joy.
I would no longer need to study study study study study...
With a small smile on my lips, I leaned against the wall and massaged my temples, waiting for Anput.
The Jackalkin finished with just a few minutes left, and we all waited in anticipation as Professor Xiant graded her work.
Glancing up, the hawkish man stared at Anput with hard eyes and sighed, saying "Lady Anput, you..."
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