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Despite Darkmoor’s reputation among the magically inclined for being particularly thick with death energy, no location in the Spiral is completely devoid of mana aligned with any of the schools of magic. The presence of concentrated pockets of life energy in one of Darkmoor’s swamplands help keep the cycle of life and death in constant flow in an area where the otherwise abundant death energies would risk choking out the natural ecosystem.
This is precisely what drew students of the Life School to the area on one of Ravenwood’s infrequent excursions. Being able to identify and interact with such pockets independently would be an essential skill should any of the students end up in a world or any environment such as this.
Independent was no exaggeration, while Professor Wu did accompany her students into the gloomy swamp she would not be giving them any assistance unless absolutely necessary. Instead they were forced to break off into pairs and tasked with each finding and applying their knowledge of life magic to one of the natural wells. Applying the rejuvenating properties of a spring of life to the surrounding area as well as themselves was to be its own reward, and success would surely reflect well on their grades.
These were the circumstances that lead to Stella RainbowMountain being trapped all alone in a swamp with no one to keep her company but Nolan Stormgate. Surrounded by low hanging trees, thick mud and water in all directions, the low hum of a number of swamp creatures that would inspire varying levels of terror… and worst of all, a conjurer.
The heavy death energy in the space seemed to nearly cling and claw at Stella’s skin, not quite as tangible as the air, but far from unreal either. She’d ask if her assigned partner could feel it too but knew the answer would likely be no, or at the very least not being a theurgist would make the potent mana flow feel much less intrusive to him as it was for her.
Nolan gently placed a hand on Stella’s shoulder to shake her, as to him it just looked like she was staring at the darkened sky between the gaps in the trees. Which to be fair, she was.
“Stella. Come on, stay focussed. I can feel a couple of those wells but I can’t really tell how close they are. They’re your school, so you shouldn’t have a problem.”
“Ah, sorry. I thought there was a… vampire.”
Terrible lies aside, Stella shut her eyes and gripped her staff just a bit tighter. It took just a few more seconds than she would have liked for the latent necromantic energies to fade into the background of her perception. Once they had, several small pockets of the life energy they were looking for all seemed to burst out, almost burning like fire.
Stella opened her eyes, turned 90 degrees to the right and pointed.
“That way, I’m sure. That’s the closest one.”
“Then that’s where I’m going! You can stay here where it’s safe while also allowing me to claim all the credit!”
Just as quickly as Nolan had appeared in Stella’s theurgy classes one day, he turned the other way and took off as fast as his legs would carry him, Stella trailing behind once the bewilderment at her situation set in.
“W-Wait! You idiot! You can’t just use me as an antenna and then run off and get yourself hurt!”
Nolan offered no response as he jumped on a fallen log that bridged a gap over a large, muddy ditch. As he kicked himself off and made it to the other side, the log fell, slowly sinking into the ground after its wet impact.
Stella skidded to a stop as she watched the splotch of yellow that were Nolan’s robes disappear further and further into the trees. With no way for her to jump the gap she found an incline and decided to press forward with her only option. Trudging through the mud.
She had half a mind to wait back at their meeting point and let Nolan fall victim to some kind of swamp monster that she was sure existed. But not only would that reflect poorly on her, he didn’t deserve that. He’s not that bad.
Any thoughts about Nolan would have to wait as Stella was soon given cause to worry about herself, noticing that about halfway through the mud-filled pit it had become significantly harder to walk. After trying to quicken her pace to the other side Stella was met with the terrifying realisation that she was trapped, she couldn’t move her feet out of the mud at all. Worse yet, she was slowly sinking.
As panic began to set in Stella thought to stick her staff into the mud to attempt to give herself some means to push herself up. The thought of pushing anything further into the mud only gave her more cause for concern, so instead she stood there, frozen and unsure of how to get herself out of this predicament.
It was at this point, with mud slowly slowly creeping up her legs that Stella felt a rustling from the satchel at her side.
The small, white mouse Stella kept as her pet and familiar practically flew out of the satchel and scurried up Stella’s arm, carrying her spell deck on his back. She took it and he took his place on her shoulder.
“R-Romeo!? What am I supposed to do with—”
Stella dug through the cards as she spoke and seemed to completely freeze again once she came across the one she needed. Regenerate.
“You’re right! Now’s the perfect time to test our theory!”
Stella, struggling to let the thrill of discovery overtake the terror of her situation, let the card float in front of her and hastily drew the life school’s sigil with her staff.
“Please don’t fizzle please don’t fizzle please don’t fizzle! Come on, I'm not a diviner!”
Stella’s prayer was answered and despite her not being in need of any healing the spell played out as it should. A giant hand descended from the heavens and infused her with a powerful curative magic. However, as the hand retreated backwards, Stella tried with all her might to latch onto it with surprising success. As it faded she was able to swing herself forward just enough to land on much more solid ground.
Stella shifted in discomfort as the adrenaline left her and she noticed the grass pricking at her feet. The swamp had stolen her shoes. She turned to face Romeo again, disappointed.
“Awww… mother’s gonna be mad I lost my favourite pair of shoes again…”
Pushing the year old memory of trying to fight the Triton Avenue kraken with a last ditch strategy that involved tossing her shoes at it aside— Stella was able to resume her search for the conjurer that had disappeared.
She figured that he was already at the spike of life energy at this point, but if he’d had the same amount of trouble she did… perhaps not.
Another thought crossed her mind. Would Nolan even be able to effectively use that level of energy? It was obvious that he was just doing this to learn as much healing magic as he thought he needed to survive, not that she judged him for it. It’s common enough for wizards of most other schools to end up taking life lessons at some point… she just wished he wasn’t so… tacky. Because that’s apparently the word she’s using to describe him.
The rest of Stella’s trip across the swamp was thankfully uneventful as she was met with a number of friendly beetles, some kind of strange, purple fruit that she and Romeo determined was safe to eat and even help to get to the other side of an otherwise dangerous watery crossing from an alligator with a suspiciously yellow mouth.
At the base of a tree much larger than any others she’d yet seen were two things; the well of energy she’d been tasked with finding and a very tired Nolan Stormgate, whose robes were a lot more torn and tattered than they were when she had last seen him.
“Stella? You made it?” Nolan barely shifted from his spot at the base of the tree to regard her. “What happened to your shoes?”
Stella had to stop herself from scowling as she responded, but the irritation still managed to seep into her tone.
“Uh. The Ravenwood dress code doesn’t actually require that anyone wears shoes! What’s it to you?”
Nolan looked the other way, embarrassed that Stella seemed to get to their destination with much less trouble than himself.
“Whatever. I still made it here first. We’re telling Professor Wu that.”
“If it makes you happy I guess… You know, I was going to offer to heal you, but there’d be no point since I was also thinking of doing this!”
With no further warning Stella flipped her staff around and bonked the top of Nolan’s head with the wooden shaft.
“Oww…”
“Deserved. Now let me spread the love and joy and whimsy of life magic like we’re supposed to. Something tells me you need it.”
From a small hollow near the roots of the tree, Stella was able to pluck bits and pieces of life magic and spread it to the surrounding area. With each wave of her hand every tree and blade of grass nearby seemed to sway in her direction. The atmosphere of the swamp did not change, but something felt very notably different. Trees might not be able to speak, but they do recycle the air we breathe, and right now it almost sounded as though the air itself was saying ‘thank you.’
Nolan breathed a sigh of relief, the life magic appearing to do him a favour or two as well. He motioned for Stella to follow.
“Come on, we should be heading back now. I won’t ditch you this time.”