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Chapter 15: Midlian History
🕑 Added 2024-09-30 09:00:09 +0000 UTCThe ritual had a devastating side effect, however, and the spirits that passed through became trapped, slowly losing their sanity. The Hooadin saved their people but at the cost of their ancestors. The spirits were forced to travel to the Celestial realm, or submit themselves to destruction. When Wookan submitted himself to be destroyed, his people begged him to go to the celestial realm on the off chance he could return. He refused, and in that refusal, his people’s respect for him grew so great, he ascended to the status of demi-god, ad in the greatest of ironies traveled to the celestial realm.
While the Hoodin people still forsake the gods, there is one demi-god they revere, and he in turn greatly Blesses his people.
-Excerpt from Wicket’s Guides to the Pantheon.
Kole and Zale were very early to their history class, but they got good seats. Well, good if you asked Kole, who had strong opinions that being just off to the left of the center of the classroom was the ideal spot to avoid being noticed for either slacking off or brown-nosing.
As usual, no one sat beside them. This semester, the avoidance seemed to have less malice than before. When first semester, people avoided her, there was an air of fear to it all, but now it seemed more of a sub-conscious habit. When Zale went out with her illusory disguise bracelet—usually simply so her skin and hair better matched her outfit for the day—all the avoiding ceased, even from people that recognized her and knew she was half voidling.
“How long until the mean looks return?” Zale asked Kole in a whisper.
People turned to look at her at that. Zale was a poor whisperer, and not for the first time Kole saw yet another reason her mother had chosen not to take her on as an apprentice in the arts of subterfuge. She still taught her daughter her tricks of course, only some stuck better than others.
“Why do you say that?” Kole asked.
“Shalin,” Zale said heavily. “She’s going to spread rumors that we were in on the kidnappings.”
“No one will believe that,” Kole said. “That’s ridiculous.”
Kole looked around at the people who were avoiding them and thought about how quickly they forgot about Zale’s nature when she wore a disguise.
“Or maybe not...” he amended.
“Mm-hmm. And, I know that Parrot Song won’t say anything after Tigereye told us not to, but I don’t trust the rest to not spread word about Rakin. That’s not going to be good.”
“Yeah...”
“Good morning class,” the professor said from the front of the room. “I’m Professor Albert Moonsuckle and I’ll be teaching you all about Midlian history.”
Kole looked to the front of the room at the voice. The speaker was a slender man who looked to be in his seventies, but the slight points to his ears that marked him as a half-elf suggested him to be far older.
The elderly half-elf chuckled quietly to himself.
“I suppose you all know that though, you signed up for the class after all.”
A commotion broke out in the corner of the room as one student, realizing he was in the wrong lecture, tried to squeeze his way out of the row.
The professor paused speaking, putting on a kindly smile as he waiting for the student to leave.
“Well, then, let's get to it then,” the professor said, turning to the chalkboard.
“This class with be an overview of the Midlian Empire, from its humble origins as a small Kingdom, to the great machine of evil it became before the Flood mercifully erased them from the world.”
The professor wrote a general timeline on the board.
“We will start our study on the origins of the Midlian family and their rise to prominence during the Age of Heroes. We will then study how they consolidated power and followers after the gods departed the Realm circa 1550 B.F. There was to be a week to study the wars of annexation as the small clan conquered their neighboring human settlements for the Midlian Kingdom—the records from this time are scarce and not terribly interesting. The bulk of this course will cover the expanse of the Midlian Empire in the five hundred years leading up to the Flood.”
Kole was taking notes, once more in spite of the fact he could simply do so later. This was not typically a history class that could be used as a credit to qualify for the Adventuring Track of the Academy of Illunia—typically those revolved around pre-Flood Basin history, as that was the most relevant to the threats and regions that an adventurer might face.
But, after their realization about the true meaning of Zale’s mother’s note, they’d ask for permission to take a class on Midlian history. Professor Underbrook and Tigereye had been quick to agree that the history of the once-feared empire might be gaining relevance in the near future and had allowed the change.
They’d stopped short of requiring all students to take the class, as at this point the Midlian aspect was speculation—well-founded speculation, but speculation nonetheless. There was no need to cause a mass panic at the thought of the return of the evil empire before they had any actual proof—and even then, it might still be best to keep it on a need-to-know basis.
While Kole’s home of Illandrios had joined in the coalition against the Midlian Empire before the Avatar’s Reign, most of the pre-Flood history was lost in the city’s nearly seven hundred years of isolation below the sea. They’d made efforts to recover their history from outside resources since they rejoined the surface world, but Kole hadn’t spent much—or any—time reading those histories.
After class, Kole and Zale headed to lunch in their usual haunt, the cafeteria in the martial college.
They worked at the desk and waved Kole and Zale in as they usually did.
“Wait!” Kole said, getting their attention. “I have a voucher!”
Kole handed the slip of paper to the cashier, who took it uncertainly.
“You sure?” they asked, looking from Zale to the paper. “I was already going to let you in.”
“Ummm,” Kole began, unsure if he was sure now.
He'd been told his food cost would be covered, but he'd only been given a week or two worth of slips.
I’m sure there's a way to get more, he told himself. But his frugal nature fought against reason.
“Yeah...” Kole said, letting go of the slip as he realized he'd still been gripping it.
Inside Kole surveyed the place for an empty seat, and his eyes met with Gray, who was sitting with Harold.
Kole immediately looked away and they found somewhere to sit where neither had to face the other pair.
“Still weird between you too?” Kole asked.
“It’s getting better,” she said. “It’s weird to go from friends to dating, weirder still to try to go back.”
That comment sent Kole through a mental rabbit hole of conflicting teenage emotions.
Zale excused herself after eating for a class martial combat class she apparently shared with Harold, and met up with him at the exit.
Kole remained, working on Radiant Bolt some more to kill time before his next class.
As Kole rose to leave, he saw Gray doing the same, and despite trying to slow his pace to not run into him, the two met at the exit.
Despite that, they left without speaking to each other.
After walking beside each other through three turns on campus, Kole finally asked, “Wizardry 205?”
Gray nodded, and they continued on together through campus.
This is going to be a long semester, Kole thought.
