It looked like something out of one of those advertisements on a giant billboard. Beautiful, confident-looking people in flattering swimsuits strolled around the beach, laughing together as they were gently carressed by soft fingers of sunlight. A few joyful squeals punctuated the air from those splashing in the waves. A game of what was probably some version of beach volleyball started up somewhere down the shore, though sometimes the ball appeared to catch on fire.

And then there was Julie. She sat by herself a short ways away from where the water lapped at the sand, hugging her knees to her chin and looking downright miserable. Her backpack sat on the sand next to her. Earlier she'd tried to distract herself by playing around on her phone, but she hadn't been able to concentrate at all, and she'd finally given up. Now she was absentmindedly scratching at her arms and letting her thoughts keep her company, since apparently nobody else would.

Zane had brought her here and summarily abandoned her, apologies falling from his lips and requesting that she wait for him to return. In true Julie fashion, she'd immediately begun to worry, hyperaware of everyone around her and what they must think about her being alone and so obviously miserable about it.

What if he never intended on coming back for her? Maybe she'd been a distraction, and now that they were here, he could go and spend time with more interesting people. It's possible he found the girl who'd originally stood him up and discovered it was all just a giant misunderstanding, and in the wake of the revelation Julie would be forgotten by the wayside. Or maybe he'd simply come to his senses after catching sight of all the people who he could be hanging out and having fun with. She'd had been called many things, but fun had certainly never been an adjective that she'd been associated with.

Perhaps she'd gotten on his nerves. It wouldn't have been the first time. No matter how well intentioned, people always stopped wanting her to hang out with them sooner or later. She chewed on her lip and wondered, as she often did, what she could do to make herself more likeable. A few people have told her she was a real stick-in-the-mud, and so she'd tried not to be, she really did. She just couldn't help but feel anxious when people broke rules in front of her. Rules were there for a reason. Staying silent felt like being an accomplice to a crime.

Julie has also been told before that she took things too seriously and needed to lighten up. For a while she'd tried that too, nervously laughing along with everybody else when people did things like put dead fish in her locker over the weekend. It lasted until they flushed one of her essays down the toilet and she'd accidentally skipped a few classes because she was crying too hard to be able to move. They'd rolled their eyes and said she didn't get the joke. Maybe this was just another joke she didn't understand.

Just as she was regretting having even stepped foot outside her room (and a part of her was insisting that she'd forgotten to lock the door even though she'd triple checked), something caught her eye. Even in the midst of her thoughts she had been watching the beach closely, keeping an eye out for Zane's return and just a bit paranoid that people might be staring or laughing at her. Those worries were, at least for now, replaced by a brand new set.

She was pretty sure she just saw someone fall off their surfboard.

Normal enough, except she didn't see him surface again. The slight furrow between Julie's brows became more prominent as time passed. She stood up and stepped closer to the water to get a better look. She was just about ready to scream for someone to help him when something huge burst out from the water.

Julie froze, rubbed her eyes, and stared at it again. When the image stubbornly refused to change, she festidiously wiped the lenses of her glasses on the sleeve of her jacket, just to be safe. Despite her best efforts, it was evident that that was an eldritch abomination rising out of the sea like a demon straight from hell. The squeals of joy were no more, replaced by yells and screams. Rather than running away from the... the thing, however, many students on the beach were actually running towards it in an almost militaristic fashion.

She yelped as cold water lapped at her toes, bringing her back to reality. Instinctively, she stepped back, face blanching in terror when the water crept back with her. In mere moments she was submerged up to her ankles. Her stomach sank in the split second between her realisation that she was going to be in very deep (ha!) trouble very soon, and the scream that ripped out of her throat as she felt a hard tug on her ankle yank her up into the air.

An air mage can scream quite loudly, given enough motivation.

The world spun, and her heart rose to her throat, defying everything that she knew about human anatomy. At some point, her glasses came loose and dropped into the water, though Julie barely noticed, too busy grappling with her own mortality. If she wasn't pretty sure her stomach had been displaced entirely, she would probably have thrown up.

Her eyesight gone and mind addled, she could hardly keep up with the frenetic movements of her subduer, only that she could feel herself being hoisted further into the air. At least, that's how it started. A sudden splash followed a whole new kind of sinking. Almost as quickly as she had been flung into the sky, she had started falling. The motion lasted only moments, but when she had come to a halt, instead of being greeted by a watery embrace, she was only welcomed by her recent companion and now savior. Although his face was still slightly blurry, she could tell that it was Zane who had caught her, and presumably saved her from whatever that… thing was that grabbed her.

"Picking a fight with that thing isn't exactly a good way to get my attention, but I guess it worked."

"Z-Zane?" she gasped out. Relief flooded her system, both because she was miraculously still alive, and because it looked as though she hadn't been wholly abandoned by him. It didn't last long. "How did--what do--what is that?!"

"If I had to guess, nothing good. Better question, what happened to your glasses?"

Julie reached up to touch her face, her expression somehow taking on an extra level of fear. "My glasses! I... I must have dropped them." She immediately hopped down from Zane's arms, panic obviously bubbling over. "I need to find--Ack!" The water here was about waist high, which would normally have been fine, but Julie had, of course, tripped over herself as she tried to wade away, and she fell face first into the ocean water.

Her sudden submersion did nothing to quell the panic that gripped her. Fortunately, she didn't have much time to even react before she was pulled up out of the water by Zane. She coughed up the water that she'd taken in, trying to catch her breath through the stinging in her lungs and airways.

"I get it, you really want to sell this whole damsel thing, make me feel like you need my protection, but…"

Before he could even finish his sentence, he was interrupted by another student's body skipping past them like a flat stone across a pond.

"That's why we should really find someplace safe."

She glanced back at the blurred shape of the... thing, her eyes wide and totally uncomprehending, before her gaze skittered past it to the waves surrounding them. "I need my glasses!" she gasped, failing to notice the worryingly rapid pace of her breath or the dizziness that accompanied it. She struck forward once more, seemingly heedless of the danger.

"Hey, are you sure about this? Do you even know where they fell?"

"I--I don't...!" She swung around to look back at Zane helplessly, her breaths coming shorter and shorter. Julie felt some of the water on her face warm, and a part of her realised that she was probably crying.

Four new water tentacles rose out of the water behind Julie, poised to attack the duo. Yet another distraction from trying to get a handle of the situation at hand. Julie turned towards the sound of spouting water to see the new collection of enemies, and two were already launching themselves at the pair. Julie was under submission once again, only this time she was restrained by her waist, extending forward into the ocean. She couldn't break free, and she could only imagine the other went after Zane. Even as she struggled, the other tentacles weren't attacking, instead, they appeared to be… aiming? Julie couldn't quite make out what the other tentacles were doing, but they loomed overhead, tilting towards her and, presumably, Zane. Out of nowhere, though, a sword of hardlight slammed into the tentacle restraining Julie, lodging itself into its aqueous hide.

"Hurry, it looks like it's about to attack!"

Julie stared at the sword as if it was going to turn around and bite her. For a moment her body would not move, but she forced her trembling hand to clutch at the sword and pull it free. There was a moment where she almost dropped it, her fingers numb and uncooperative. Her heart stopped and her head swam, but she managed to get a firmer grip on the handle. She closed her eyes against the dizzying vertigo and sliced almost blindly at the tentacle around her. Her stomach swooped as she began to fall once more, curling into herself and screaming.

She expected to fall into the water, but she was not so fortunate. A tendril of water whipped forward fast as a snake and grabbed her wrist, stopping her fall suddenly enough that pain exploded from her shoulder. She whimpered and colours popped behind her eyelids. Her hand fell limp, dropping the sword into the ocean below. She tried to reach up with her other arm to free herself, but her fingers merely slipped through the water.

Overcome with pain, she couldn't even recognize her capturer's diffusion. Once again caught in a freefall, there was no one to catch her this time, not Zane, not the creature. Instinctively, she knew that she wouldn't be able to handle plunging into the water from this height. Not with her right arm useless and aching and the distant roaring in her ears. She squeezed her eyes shut again and drew as much magic out of herself as she knew how. The air around and especially beneath her began to swirl, faster and faster, until her descent began to slow and angle less sharply downwards.

The air cushioned her just enough so that she landed gently, carrying her close enough to the shore that the water was only up to her knees. She took a few wobbly steps forward before her legs gave out entirely. Her face was a blank mask and white as a sheet as she stared unseeingly ahead.

"Hey, Julie, you okay? I tried to get rid of that thing, but it grabbed you before I could cut it down. Is your arm alright?"

The words sounded muted somehow, like they were coming from the end of an echoey tunnel. She blinked and looked at Zane as though she didn't understand the question.

He firmly gripped her good shoulder with one hand, looking her dead in the eyes. "Julie, we really need to get out of here. Now."

Her head cleared just a bit and she clutched at his words like a lifeline. She was disoriented and numb and there was a pain in her chest, and she could do nothing but trust that Zane knew what to do. Her good arm felt as heavy as lead and she had to struggle to lift it up towards him in a wordless plea for help.

Grasping her by her good wrist, he hoisted the addled air mage to her feet. It took her a few moments to regain her footing, but she managed to restore her balance, if just for a few seconds.

"Come on, let's go."

Julie managed to force her legs to cooperate for a short time. However, her numbness and the weird sense that she was floating outside of her body lead her to inevitably stumble on the uneven sand. She fell, bringing Zane to a halt as well where their hands were still connected. "S-sorry," she apologised, letting go and immediately struggling to try and get back on her feet.

The blonde in front of her let out a stifled sigh, before taking a place behind her. She expected him to aid her to her feet, just as he had done before. However, this time, instead of helping her stand up, she could feel him place his arms on her back and behind her knees. She would've been embarrassed at his touch if it wasn't for the quick motion that had her laying in his arms and biting back a wince at the flare of pain from her arm being lightly jostled. Now she was just shocked.

"Sorry, but I think this might be our best bet to get out of here quickly."

It was a surprisingly vulnerable position to be in; she could do nothing but throw her good arm over his shoulder to stabilise herself and watch him pick up his pace. She could still see the blurred shapes of other students battling the... thing, their yells carrying over on the wind. They didn't seem as though they were attracting its notice, which Julie was thankful for, since her limbs were feeling heavier with each passing second.

"I'm sorry," she said again, head swimming so badly she had to rest it against his shoulder. Even in her current state, she couldn't help but lament over how pathetic she was. As if to punctuate the sentiment, her shoulder throbbed painfully. She looked down at it and cringed. It looked... wrong. "I think... I think my shoulder's dislocated," she said faintly.

Julie's escort paused at her comment, clearly concerned about her condition. Still, the situation they found themselves in forced Zane to continue moving, albeit in a more careful manner.

"I'm not sure what to tell you. I don't know any healing magic and the only place that's safe right now is the school. At least we're close to the portal stone, so just hold on a little longer."

She tightened her arm around his neck and closed her eyes. "You saved me," she mumbled.

He picked up the pace, though not enough to jostle Julie around, eventually arriving at their destination. Several other students had the same idea, all hectically gathering around the one escape route. Shoving his way through, Zane managed to get them through the crowd. Once on the other side, it was only a matter of time. A nurse was already waiting, apparently on alert from another student.

"Sir, my friend hurt her shoulder. She thinks it might be dislocated."

Zane carefully placed Julie on the ground so that the nurse could check her injuries. He confirmed that Julie's shoulder was dislocated, and informed her that treatment would hurt, but that she would be okay. She looked away, feeling more ashamed of her own weakness than ever. Placing his hand on her shoulder, he initiated the spell. A sharp pain washed over Julie's shoulder, but even through that, she could feel her bones shift and her torn tendons mend. It was astonishing just how quickly the injury disappeared, but the sensation and, more importantly, the fatigue remained.

Gingerly, she moved her fingers. At the lack of pain, her eyes widened in amazement. "That's... incredible," she breathed. And then, remembering herself, she looked back at Zane. "I--I'm sorry I've been such a bother. I couldn't do anything at all." Her hands clenched together so hard that her knuckles turned white.

"I wouldn't worry about it. It's not like anyone was expecting it to happen. The only thing that matters is that you're safe."

Julie looked back down at her hands, suddenly feeling the inexplicable urge to cry. She swallowed it down and tried her best to ignore the knots in her stomach when she remembered that her glasses were still lost somewhere in the ocean. It would have to be dealt with later.

She took a breath and said, falteringly, "Is... is that the kind of thing that you fight on--on missions?" She looked up at him, tension in every line of her face and body, and whispered, "I really don't think I could handle that."

Zane punctuated Julie's words with an unnerved laugh. "Not the mission I was on. That thing seemed altogether different than what I fought a few days ago. Those things at least took damage when you attacked. That thing just kind of shook everything off."

Unconsciously, Julie reached up to touch the shoulder that had just been healed. "I couldn't do anything. I could have... I could have died." She was starting to feel like she couldn't get enough air again. "I can't do this," she reiterated, louder this time.

"You got an invitation here for a reason, right? Whether you realize it, they think you have what it takes to fight etherspawn."

"What if I don't want to fight etherspawn or monsters or whatever they are?!" Julie burst out. "I--I want to have a future, I have plans. I don't want to die here." She could barely speak coherently by the last sentence, her breathing was so ragged. Her body was now curled up into a ball in an attempt to take up as little space as possible, and her hands pulled at her hair. She felt a sense of doom; her only available path was inevitably carrying her to her own death. Pure terror clogged her throat and clawed at her insides, and she felt like she was suffocating even though she was practically gulping air. She would leave, run as far away as she could, but she didn't know where to go.

The nurse took the chance to step in, gesturing Zane to remain where he was.

"I think she needs a little space right now. Maybe give her some time to calm down? I'll talk to her, so don't worry. Your friend is in good hands, so you can leave. Please."

Zane just stood there for a moment, dejection showing on his face. A quick glance at Julie's writhing state and all he could follow up with was a muted "I'm sorry." Without so much as a goodbye, he left, going back to the Isles. The nurse let out a deep sigh at the young mage's decision to throw himself back into danger.

"Those are the kids that always get hurt the most."​

Are All Mages Crazy, or Is It Just Vale?
Featuring Domingo Hernández and Anchorman

Domingo crawled out of the water and onto the sandy shore, surprisingly worn from laps he'd done. He remembered being pretty good at swimming when he was younger, always beating his siblings when they raced at the river near home. Though he hadn't actually gone swimming since he was nine. He wasn't sure if the difficulty came from being out of practice, having a completely different body shape, or the fact that he was trying to swim while wearing baggy jeans and an oversized hoodie. Whatever the case, he was done with it for the moment.

He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes, the cool waves still lapping at his bare feet. There under the sun he felt the stress from the past few days melt away. The warm sand underneath vibrated in a way only someone like him could notice, showing him just how lively the beach was. Students running around and playing or relaxing like him, or the aftereffects of various different spells as they hit the ground; he could feel it all. He was also able to feel the various things lying on the seafloor, now that he paid attention. He considered going down and seeing if he could fish up anything interesting later.

Eventually, Domingo decided it was time to get back to doing stuff and leapt to his feet only to receive a rough blow to the back that knocked him straight down again, face-first into the sand. His mind instantly went on full alert as he scrambled to his feet to see what hit him. To his surprise, the question turned out to be less what hit him and more who as he noticed a battered boy laying where he'd been moments ago.

"Shit, sorry man!" Called a voice before Domingo could even process what was happening. "Launched him a little farther than I thought!" His gaze snapped to the source, spotting another boy. He was pale-skinned with his dark brown hair in a crew cut, and he wasn't very tall. But despite his height, his body was packed with muscle; his arms in particular. And on top of it all, he was holding a giant fucking anchor way bigger than he was, a thick metal chain extending from the end of it and wrapping around his arm.

The other boy's cheerful demeanor helped diffuse Domingo's panic, which quickly gave way to frustration as the latter finally made sense of the situation. He scooped up the fallen student in one arm and threw him at anchor guy more forcefully than he probably should have. "I was enjoying the chance to finally relax after what a shitty fucking week it's been."

The anchor boy caught his victim easily and, undeterred by Domingo's attitude, was smiling. "You've got a pretty good arm there!" He paused, suddenly leaning closer to Domingo. "Hold on, I remember you!"

Domingo frowned, getting a bad feeling about this.

"Yeah," he continued excitedly. "You're all covered up now, but I saw you on the first day! Tats, scars, and lots of muscle. I was hoping to see you again so I could challenge you to a fight!" He tossed the poor student in his arm behind him like a ragdoll and pointed his anchor toward Domingo, handling it effortlessly even with its massive size. "So, how about it?"

"Fuck no!" Domingo refused, his mind already racing to find ways out of this situation. He was well aware of what mages were capable of, and there was no way he was going to risk fighting one. For both of their sakes. "The hell's your problem, anyway?"

Anchor boy chuckled, further upsetting Domingo. "What can I say? I love a good fight, and you're just the kinda guy I've been lookin' for."

"I don't give a fuck what you're lookin' for, I'm not fuckin' fighting you!"

The shorter boy sighed. He jabbed his anchor into the ground and leaned against it, making himself comfortable as he tried to convince Domingo. "Come on, man. Why not? You can just think of it as practice, or training, or whatever if you need."

Domingo was shocked. He started to wonder if everyone at this school was completely insane. His instincts told him to start using force to get his point across, but he had a feeling that wasn't the best choice against this lunatic. He took a deep breath in an attempt to regain his composure. "What if I just don't feel like getting shot or stabbed or fucking set on fire today?"

"Well, we're mages. It's not like that stuff's that big a deal for us anyway."

"Fucking what?"

"I mean, uh, how about tomorrow then?"

Domingo shook his head. At this point all the tension from before had gone, leaving only annoyance and disbelief. Without another word, he turned and walked away, ignoring the vocal disappointment of the boy he left behind.

As much as Domingo would have liked to get back to relaxing, it seemed the universe had other plans for him. During his encounter with the anchor boy he had somehow missed the fact that a colossal monster had risen from the sea and taken it upon itself to wreak havoc on the beach.

"Oh hell yeah! Now it's a party!" Domingo heard nearby as anchor boy charged past him to fight the creature. By contrast, Domingo froze, filling with dread. Memories of his mission floated to the fore of his mind, specifically the pain he suffered at the hands of the third knight. The monster in front of him was several times bigger, likely several times stronger, and definitely capable of killing him. Yet, while several of the more reasonable students ran away, a baffling number ran toward it, pulling out their weapons or firing magic at it. Hell, it looked like one idiot had already decided to climb the thing, flailing around and shouting obscenities atop it.

"Get back here Nels, I'm not done with you!" Another unexpectedly close voice shouted as its bearer chased after Anchor. Domingo did a double take as he recognized the speaker as anchor boy's unfortunate victim from before, now conscious and full of energy by the looks of it.

Domingo's subsiding anger flared back to life at the sight. The fact that a pasty, scrawny guy like that could charge into that chaos fresh out of a beating and without a second thought while he was practically shitting himself in fear really pissed him off. He knew he'd been through more than most of these spoiled motherfuckers would go through in their entire lives, so there was no way he was gonna let himself look weak in front of them. Or so he told himself. But it was enough, and with teeth and fists clenched tightly he was finally able to step forward.
​

***​