Nava was just glad that Melissa was smiling. The shy redhead had not taken Nava’s win in the duel with Devin especially well. It had taken her a couple of days to get over seeing her new friend remove a man’s head with magic; it was just not what Melissa had expected of a fellow support stream student. She had got over it, however. The only thing Rochester had wanted to know was what kind of magic Nava had used; he had never seen anything like it before.
‘I’m interested,’ Nava said, ‘but I need to see a couple of other clubs and decide on my priorities. I came here first. The exhibition outside is pretty good.’
‘We’ve got our best flyers out there. They’re the ones who go into the competitions in summer.’ Melissa’s tone became rather proud and a little crowing. ‘The Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery’s Flight Club has placed highly in planetary aerobatics competitions every year for the last twenty years. We’ve had the planetary champion for seven of the last ten years.’
‘My aerobatics isn’t that good.’
Melissa deflated a little. ‘Neither is mine, but that’s one reason I’m in the club. We meet every Sunday for four hours. The senior students provide tuition to the younger ones in order to nurture the next generation of school champions.’
‘You sound like a recruitment vid. And you already told me all this.’
‘I memorised the recruitment vid, actually. I know you know, but I’m supposed to be earning my salary here.’
‘They aren’t paying you.’
‘And that is where the theory breaks down. What else are you going to see? You mentioned judo and karate, right?’
‘I want to take a look at those clubs. I’m not sure they’re right for me, to be honest, but we’ll see. I said I’d drop in at the Metaphysics Club stand.’
‘Oh yes, Chess is on that one. No real surprise there.’
‘And no matter how much he tries, he won’t get me to join up. I want to learn more about the theories behind magic, sure, but I don’t plan on making a career out of it. Similarly, I don’t think I’ll be joining any of the technical clubs, but I might look favourably on the MagiTag Club.’
Melissa deflated a bit more. ‘I really suck at MagiTag.’
‘That could be an issue. It’s one of the main tools used in magical combat training. That’s what it was invented for, even if it’s best known as a game now.’
‘I bet you’re really good at it.’
‘Actually, yes, I am.’
Melissa shook her head, grinning. There was not even a hint of bragging about Nava’s statement. It was a fact and that was all there was to it. Knowing Nava had been an up-and-down experience, but the one thing Melissa had decided she really liked about the strange, white-haired girl was that Nava told it like it was. She figured Nava was quite capable of lying – and figuring out when she was lying would be next to impossible – but generally she told the truth, no matter how painful it was. ‘Go see your fight clubs. The Flight Club will be waiting for you when you discover all the others are boring.’
~~~
The Judo Club was not exactly boring, but it was not what Nava wanted. They were holding exhibition matches in one of the school’s three dojos; unarmed combat was not a major part of the curriculum since it was assumed that graduates would be using magic to fight, but there was space for it to be taught where required. Nava watched a progression of fights between members of the club and rapidly got the impression that she was watching a sport. She had been expecting that, but it still came as something of a disappointment. She had been hoping for more.
More interesting was what was happening on a second mat. There, some of the senior students were fighting whoever wished to give it a go. It was apparent that these students had learned more than just the sporting version of jujutsu. They were demonstrating that their art could be used for self-defence against people who could select a range of fake weapons or try to attack unarmed.
It all went wrong when someone who looked like a first year got flattened when he tried to stab his opponent with a plastic knife. Nava did not know either of the men, but the younger one had the cocky look of someone from one of the rougher worlds in the Alliance. He thought he knew how to fight, though Nava could see that he was basically just a street brawler. As he struggled back to his feet after his unceremonious dumping onto the mat, he looked angry. More angry than Nava would have expected. His body language was far too aggressive. He dropped the fake knife, clenching his fists convulsively, and then fire burst around his hands as he turned, snarling, to face his opponent again.
‘I’ll teach you to–’ he began, and that was when something like a distortion in the air hit him in the side, catapulting him a metre across the mats. He ended up lying on his face, clutching his side in pain. An instant later the fire on his hands died away and Courtney stepped out onto the mat. She was looking annoyed, but at least she was not annoyed at Nava this time.
Courtney came to a stop over the fallen student. ‘Stay down if you know what’s good for you. Improper use of magic is a serious offence. You’re lucky if you get away with a couple of cracked ribs.’ She looked around. ‘What happened here, Rene Garver?’
She was apparently addressing the senior judoka because it was him who responded. ‘I’m… honestly not sure. He didn’t seem like the type to go nuts like that. I put him down and he called up Hand of Flame to attack me.’
‘Huh. Is that what
