Radiance - The Alight Archives Book #1

31. Extracurricular Activities

The student gave his wand a twirl in the air—three full circles, and with each rotation, the spark spewing out the tip of the wand grew brighter—and lashed it in front of him as he uttered Untouched Words Elaine didn't recognize. Before them all a gaseous shape materialized in a puff, a small purple cloud that slowly began to grow arms, legs, a tail, and a set of wings, each appendage stretching off of a serpentine body outfitted with a spine of spikes. The creature opened its mouth filled with fangs, and the dragon took off.

Its wings unfolded, catching a breeze that didn't exist and using the air currents to soar over their heads, spinning around and around in a circle. Those around her clapped or laughed, as did Fearne standing beside her, chuckling lightly into a hand. On the stall table before them, however, there were more of the gaseous constructions given form through magic.

Pink-colored pegasi adorned in blue spots grazed on invisible grass, wings tucked on their sides. Behemoths—which weren't that much larger than a glass of water—tramped across the table in herds, lugging along on top of them dome-shaped carapaces littered with trees and rocks and all manner of fabricated wildlife. Land dragons laid on their backs, exposing their fat stomachs to an imaginary sun, baking their cold blood with drowsy expressions.

These illusions were undoubtedly impressive; they reminded Elaine of the illusions that the Bard would make during one of his wild tales, though his seemed a lot more refined than these. If she stared long enough, she could believe that the illusions he made were actual creatures brought to life, but the longer these illusions continued to exist, the more she would notice cracks in their features, an arm puffing into colored smoke or a leg phasing through the table. Nevertheless, Illusion Magic was always something she'd wanted to learn.

"Come now and join the Illusion Mastery Club!" the student hollered in a foreign-sounding accent, braided hair and darkish skin suggesting that he was of Uristan descent. "Join our club, and you'll be able to cast the most convincing illusions in the entire country," he continued as the small dragon landed on his shoulder, mist representing smoke seeping out of its nostrils. "I assure you, it's well worth your time."

"Oh! What about this one?" Fearne asked.

"It does seem like a lot of fun," Elaine agreed. "I wouldn't mind it."

"Eh, let's keep looking before we decide on anything. Can't be too hasty, right?" Custas said, and with his hands behind his head, the boy sauntered out of the crowd and proceeded further into the room. Sharing a confused look with Fearne, the two of them made after him, worming their way out of the growing audience of students.

Today was the Club Convention, an occasion that was always housed at the start of every school year where the various Glyph clubs got together in order to recruit new members. Considering most of the clubs consisted of both first-years and higher—at least, Elaine assumed as much given how there were numerous students with different colored shoulder caplets in the same club—it meant that it not only afforded her the chance to get to know more students at Glyph, but also she could witness what other kinds of magic these sorcerers practiced.

This year, the convention took place inside an auditorium somewhere on the third floor of the academy. The room was expansive, and so it allowed there to be a grand number of clubs present for the gathering. Spanning before them was a winding path of flocking students, and on either side of them were numerous stalls pressed against one another, each headed by representatives of the respective club.

Given its large size, the room wasn't as cramped as it otherwise could have been. Be that as it may, if Elaine wasn't careful where she stepped, it was certainly possible for her to slam into the shoulder of a passing student or trip into somebody else in front of her. Students at Glyph Academy, so it seemed, took these events extremely seriously.