Proving Oneself [Ari/1st Kodor Test]

Ari arched a brow as she heard a female voice yell out after her, asking her to wait. Turning to look at the female magician, Ari tugged a friendly smile to her face. She had been eager to get home and cleanse herself, feeling dirty for succumbing to the Academy’s ridiculous expectations but still feeling like she had proven something to herself. She now knew for certain that, while she despised the Academy’s rules, she had accomplished what she had failed at before. Giving the other magician a once-over, she stopped walking and turned to greet her.

“Hello there. How can I help you?”

She would then resume walking, though at a much slower pace as an unspoken invitation for the other magician to follow her.

The purple haired woman kept walking as she agreed to listen to what the crazy blonde had to say. Zadi was rather relieved to know that she was a decent person. After such a match, Zadi would probably end up ignoring a random stranger's cries for attention. Anyway, zadi stopped his Gravity Lift spell after getting next to her and walked with her, slightly in front and looking back towards her;

"Thanks for stopping to talk with a lowly 2nd kodor such as myself, hahaha! Anyway, I'm new here and I was thinking of studying the black rukh. Since you seem to be a rather studious magician, I was wondering if you could tell me what Magnostadt knows of the black rukh. It probably isn't much because I haven't found a lick of pertinent information on the black rukh other than 'they exist' and such. Please, anything, even simply pointing towards somewhere would help me tremendously!"

Hopefully the purple haired magician would take kindly such a request. The only other people that Zadi could go to were the teachers, but since classes haven't been assigned to him just yet, it would be difficult to ask a random instructor for such seemingly feeble information. Could make Zadi look stupid!

Ari listened to the words, brushing off the comment about speaking to a “lowly” Second Kodor student.

“This place focuses too much on Kodors, honestly, but I am happy to help if I can.”

When the woman began asking about black rukh, Ari’s face went completely neutral. It wasn’t that there was not information available, but it was fairly limited. Ari thought back to having to explain to Lagi about the black rukh and how he had been completely clueless. She stopped walking for a moment before moving over to a small park with not many people nearby. The topic certainly wasn’t taboo, but it also was not common. Ari wondered about the other magician’s interest in the darker side of the gift but pulled a smile back to her face.

“You will not likely find anything in the Library about it, mostly due to the fact that, while they have somewhat isolated a tentative cause for it, they don’t understand the actual source of it.”

She tapped her fingers on the head of her staff, tilting her head to the side as she looked at the woman.

“I don’t mind sharing what I know, but I am curious as to why you are asking. My entire family, aside from me, has been a teacher here at some point and have connections to things the students do not have access to. There are typically two types of people inquiring about black rukh, those who want to eliminate it or those who wish to experiment with or exploit it. Which category do you fall under, it may help me point you in the right direction.”

Ari knew there were at least two Instructors that had been looking into ways to exploit black rukh, the Chancellor had demanded they refrain from publicly airing any information they found until they were able to prove something, hence the lack of literature on the topic. There were also several Instructors that found the idea of black rukh repulsive and vile, against the flow of Fate and thus worthy of extermination. Their own studies had been about as revealing as the two that wanted to exploit it, though neither group had come close to identifying the actual source of the tiny black birds that were generated when one rejected and cursed their Fate. Ariella had come across her own experiences with the black rukh, cursing the life she had been born into often enough to at least spark the generation of the darkness. Luckily, she had found a sense of purpose and direction in her life and it had been almost a year since she had last witnessed the flutter of black birds around herself. She wondered if the blonde woman was hoping to identify and eliminate black rukh or if she was wanting to further the study of the origin of the darkness.

Exploit!? The black rukh can be manipulated!? Such thoughts never occurred to Zadi as his sole goal was to eradicate the black rukh! However, knowing that they cannot currently be exploited relieved Zadi a little. Perhaps someone was keeping a secret though, but for the now, if the public didn't know about the exploitation of black rukh, Zadi felt that nobody else did. It is preposterous to think like that, but Zadi needed to relax his mind. Anyway, Zadi felt answering truthfully to someone she just met could cause her trouble in the future. Therefore, she would half tell a truth and half tell a lie;

"Exploit it? Hahaha! I didn't even know such a thing was possible! Erhm, excuse my laughter. All the same, know that doesn't deter me from my original thought process. I've been attempting to find the source of the rukh and go even further by finding the source of the source. And yes, that sounds rather silly, but if one were to find the source of the black rukh, then why not the creator, too? Could be possible that he, she, or it also created the white rukh!"

Complete bullshit, but it sounded plausible enough. Zadi just needed to real in the catch;

"I admit that it would be safer to study the white rukh seeing as black rukh, from what I have already gathered, cause trouble in the long run. But the existence of the black rukh is rather new and therefore the source would be easier to pinpoint. Oops, enough rambling on my part. In case you forgot from all my rambling, my answer is simply to experiment with the black rukh. What can you tell me if you don't' mind my asking?"

Ari frowned at the rambling, giggling tone of the woman. The blonde magician was not being very subtle in her avoidance of Ariella’s question, everything about her behavior seemed… off. Ari sighed, and shook her head. The woman’s explanation sounded like a story concocted by a toddler to hide who broke the family vase.

“I’m sorry, but I refuse to risk the trust of these Instructors by sending them some disingenuous student. You haven’t even given me your name, not that I expect you would give me anything close to your real one at this point. Experimentation tends to lead to things like the disaster in Heliohapt, so no, I won’t help you if that is your intention. I had a friend see first-hand exactly what destroyed half of my grandmother’s homeland and the man responsible and I won’t help anyone that, in their foolishness, might recreate such a horrendous thing. Perhaps once you have studied enough to understand the force you wish to ‘experiment’ with…”

She keenly remembered Lexiara telling her about what had happened in Heliohapt with the Contractor using a combination of black and white rukh to create a monstrosity out of an innocent child. She also remembered meeting the result of that experiment in the mountains north of Reim, the conglomeration of a Djinn, an artificial life form and a child creating some unfortunate combination that was rarely sane.

She idly wondered if Yakuroro had made any headway in capturing more of the Torran relics that would help to undo the damage done by the Contractor. Perhaps she could send this woman on a quest to find the pieces that would help turn the abomination back into a human boy. No, the woman already seemed evasive and secretive, if Ari could not get a straight answer out of the other magician, she certainly wouldn’t be putting her in contact with arguably one of the most powerful but unstable creations to ever walk this world.

It seemed that Zadi's indirectness at the beginning made things that much more difficult in search for Zadi's quest for knowledge and inevitable destruction of the black rukh. However, Zadi didn't let it bother him. Not like he took steps backwards. There were answers after all! Not from the purple haired woman but from the instructors. Zadi would just have to take her time and become an exemplary student in order to get the answers she desires. For the time being, Zadi would just push aside the negativity and study more magic skills in order to impress the instructors for the purple haired woman most likely wouldn't budge anymore. Rather surprising that she was still talking to Zadi, much less in her presence.

"Hahaha! No problem! I guess I should just ask the instructors directly once I make a name for myself. Apologies for bothering you after such an intense and rather lucky match- oh! Sorry, didn't mean to be rude. I'll be going noooow~"

Zadi accidentally slipped his subconscious opinion into the mix of words. Zadi knew that the match was fair and that luck wasn't something that existed within a magician's thought process, but something in Zadi's subconscious was bothered by the purple haired woman for not answering her question. Granted, the purple haired woman sounded hostile for a second there, but no the kind of threatening hostility that Zadi felt put him in danger. Anyway, Zadi left in hopes of getting in good with the instructors. Perhaps she would get stronger, too!

"Bye bye~"

[exit]

The abrupt change of attitude from the other magician made Ariella even more suspicious. When the word ‘luck’ was mentioned, Ari, grabbed the other woman’s arm with an arched brow.

“The only thing lucky about that match was the luck Zan showed in being able to scarcely avoid my attacks. A luck that quickly ran out. If you want to be a brat because I won’t give out sensitive information to a complete stranger that won’t even give me her name, then I doubt you will ever manage to get the information you are looking for from an Instructor. I would wish you ‘luck’ but I dislike lying.”

Ari released the woman’s arm before walking off, a smile tugging to her face when Adius and Vin approached her with happy shouts.

---

“What did that woman want?”

“Information on black rukh, I guess. But, she wasn’t very forthcoming with her reason for wanting it, would not even give her name, so I refused.”

Adius arched a brow, glancing back at the woman as they walked away. Ari seemed perturbed by the female magician’s request and he could understand why. While he was on the fence about his feelings towards black rukh, he had helped one other Instructor in their studies of the darkness. He made a mental note to keep an eye on the curious student, along with warning other Instructors. It could be potentially horrendous if the student fell in with the wrong crowd. Shaking away the thoughts, he smiled at his sister, gossiping with her.

“I think that was the student that opted for ‘dummies’ in their Kodor test. They did not even come close to impressing any students, let alone any instructors. They were… underwhelming.”

Ari snorted and shook her head. Instructors were difficult to impress, she knew that from personal experience. At least she could be comforted by the idea that if the random magician was always so awkward and obviously dishonest in all of her dealings, then she would not get far in her investigations. All of the Instructors studying black rukh were paranoid by necessity, the Chancellor attempting to restrict as much information as possible, to ensure that only factual information on the sensitive subject was available.

Shaking out her flying carpet, Ari waiting for Adius and Vin to climb aboard before pointing it for hime. Smiling broadly at her brother, she chuckled.

“Hey, this carpet saved my life in the Exam, brother. Many thanks. I kind of froze up and got stupid at first. Luckily, the venom of my x was readily available to piss me off and smarten me up.”

Adius chuckled as they flew towards the estate, Vin clinging to the side of the carpet, watching things zoom by beneath them.

[exit]