THE SHOW MUST GO ON

The interment was quick and uninteresting. Rhaizen Gale was laid to rest by drunkards who didn't give a damn about his body or his funeral. All they could think about was how quickly the ceremony would end so they could return to their normal lives and forget about that miserable excuse for a man. They wanted the trials to begin so that a new champion could be chosen, one who was descended from royalty and had noble blood coursing through her veins.

Luciana was the one who was going to be chosen, as were the majority of IAA students and faculty thought. She had the numbers and the support to back it up. She had always been at the top of her class since her enrollment, and her grades had never slipped. She also showed remarkable promise on the battlefield, winning every tournament she participated in. She was occasionally beaten by Jalon Barr in combat tests and Cecily in alchemy tests, although overall she ranked higher than both when compared. Cecily's absence from the trials also allowed her some breathing room because she had no Elder Alchemist to compete with.

The ceremony was attended by Cecily's relatives. They tried all night to persuade their daughter to stay, but she had already made up her mind. She had no intention of returning to that institution after learning what they had done to one of their own students, let alone an Ithea candidate. Cecily packed her belongings the next day and left. Her parents refused to let her return home, so she moved in with her aunt.

“Now I believe you are past the events of yesterday. The ceremony is over, and I don't suppose we have time to dwell on it, so we'll get back to our classes. The instructor asked the candidates, "Where were we in the last lesson? We'll pick up where we left off in the last lesson," the professor said.

The class size was quite tiny. The front desks were occupied by only three students. They didn't seem to respond to the professor until Norval grew tired of the stillness and said,

“Sir, we were on the unit's second topic. The one concerning elemental elixirs,” 

“Oh, that's right. Let's move on now. Mr. Greensmith, thank you for the reminder; it's always a pleasure to teach you,” the lecturer said before returning to his class. Norval returned the salute, smiling at the end.

Jalon had brought out his smartphone at the back of the class and was taking pictures of himself while the lecture was going on. He'd linger at the photo for a few moments before deleting it and taking another. This was noted by the lecturer, who chose not to intervene. But Jalon went too far; he continued to photograph himself, occasionally capturing a video and directing the camera towards the board where the teacher was scribbling his formulas. After a while, the instructor had had enough and decided to speak out.

“Mr. Barr, I recommend that you schedule your filming sessions when my class is not in session. If you don't want to learn, you are free to leave my class; I have given you much too much leniency, but I can no longer tolerate your arrogance.”

Before putting the phone back in his pocket, Jalon gave the teacher a long look. The rest of his students seemed unconcerned. They became bored of attempting to intercede because he did it all the time.

Jalon occasionally nodded asleep, sprawling on the desk in front of him and waking up to fidget with his hair as the session continued for a few more hours.

“All right, class, I'll take a thirty-minute break before returning to finish today's lesson. Before I return, feel free to use the restroom or have some refreshments,” the lecturer stated as he went out of the classroom and into the teachers' lounge.

Jalon took out his phone and opened his social media account during class to check the alerts he had received; he never bothered to switch off his phone, causing his notification beep to reverberate throughout the room at random.

“Lets see here,” he began his monologue as he scrolled down the pages of the posts, muttering to himself. " What's hot on social media right now. This one is intriguing: ‘King Vonner arrives late and inebriated at Rhaizen Gale's ceremony.'"  He laughed as he peered from the corner of his eye at Luciana.

Luciana tried to ignore him as much as she could. “Wow, look at these hashtags: #JusticeForNelanian, #JusticeForCecily, #BringNelanianBack.” Jalon continued, "Interesting."

Luciana finally said, "Cold, you just shut up." Jalon shrugged it off, as if he hadn't heard her at all.

“Well at least I'm trending today. New Age Model featured me on the cover. Though they didn't capture my best side on the cover photo, yuck, I'm never doing another photo shoot with that publication!” Jalon remarked this as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket.

“Hey Norval, how about we walk down to the cafeteria and get some lunch?” he said.

“Can't now,” Norval gripped his tie and re-adjusted it as he scribbled some notes in his book. " I'm writing down notes for today's class.  “Perhaps we can go another time,” 

“I knew it. You're no fun. How about you, sassy princess, you could use a drink to unwind?”

Luciana didn't even bother to respond. She continued reading her book, ignoring him.

Jalon called out to her, but received the same response. The other two students tried their hardest to ignore him. He tore small pieces of paper from his book and rolled them into small balls before throwing them at them.

They couldn't continue to ignore him, so Luciana turned to him and tried to scare him with a savage gaze.

“Could you please just be normal and leave us alone for a change? Can't you see we're doing something productive with our life while you're drooling on your phone?”

“What do you suppose Nelanian's location is? I mean, the only logical place for him to return was to Rhaizen Gale's family, but he isn't there, according to reports. So, because he had no home and no family, might he have returned to the streets where Rhaizen Gale found him?”

Luciana did her best to ignore him once more.

“What if I do an internet search for him?” Jalon questioned himself aloud. He took out his phone and wrote, “Where- is- Nelanian- Henfery?” loudly enough for the rest in the room to hear.

He stared at his device screen for a long time, waiting for something to happen.

“Hmm, that's strange. There is no mention of a location. I was under the impression that, given his condition, he would be in a hospital somewhere. A brain tumour could leave someone in the hospital for a long period of time. How many people die as a result of brain tumours? Let me try a search on ‘what-is-the-survival-rate-for-a-brain-tumor.' That's a really low figure...”

“Enough!” 

Luciana screamed and slammed her fist against the table. She took her books and walked out of the classroom. Norval shifted his gaze to Jalon, giving him a deathly scowl. “What did I do?” Jalon asked, shrugging his shoulders. Did I say something wrong?”

“You're a complete jerk, Jalon,” Norval said as he gathered his belongings and walked outside. He turned to Jalon before exiting and stated, "I'm going to the library until the professor arrives; until then, you have the room to yourselves." “Do as you please,”

Jalon was the only one left in the room. He took out his phone and continued photographing himself.

/................................................................................/

Rhaizen Gale leapt towards the lorth magician, his hand closely missing the mage's head. He screeched across the dry land as he landed on the opposite side. “Void of Emptiness!” chanted the lorth magician as he ripped out another page.

Over his palm, a black hollow distortion appeared. A similar void developed above a tree close to him when he pointed his other arms towards it. The emptiness that had been lingering over the tree began to descend and engulf it whole. The tree began to sprout out of the emptiness and shoot towards Rhaizen Gale as the mage pointed his palm towards him.

“Quick, go for the child! The mage yelled to the alchemist who had joined him, "While he's preoccupied!" Rhaizen Gale was instantly thrown into a state of fear. He did not want anything bad to happen to Nelanian. He took a vial from his waist belt and yanked the stopper out. He hurled the vial towards the alchemist while avoiding the approaching tree.

The lorth magician created another void in front of the path of the vial thrown by Rhaizen Gale. It vanished once the void had devoured it.  Rhaizen Gale was ready to whip out another vial when a void sprouted inches from his face and spat out the vial he had thrown moments ago. As he tried to escape as far away from it as possible, it fiercely burst, but he didn't make it. He was caught in the explosion, which launched him into the air and slammed him into the invisible barrier.

His vision grew fuzzy, and his ears were ringing. The explosion was deafening.

“So the youngster was as precious as I anticipated he would be!” he heard the lorth magician say from afar. "Mr. Gale, this has given me so many ideas!” he exclaimed. Rhaizen Gale sprang up and glanced about, only to discover that the alchemist had already reached Nelanian, and there was nothing he could do about it.