Chapter 24: Chapter 23: meeting the headmaster

The man approaches me before saying “Hello, are you the mage known as Zena?”

I hesitate a bit before answering “Yes… How did you know?”

“Dallard told us to expect you today. He told us to watch for someone with more mana than him, though that might be underselling you a bit. He is waiting in his office and I can show you the way if you want.” He explains with a calm voice.

Makes sense, we did plan this meeting, so him sending someone to show me the way is to be expected. I agree and start to follow him. This is where I expected Jo to part way with me to find her friends, but she follows along. We walk up stairs to the second floor, then the third floor and finally to the fourth floor. Our guide tells us that the entirety of this floor is his, and he uses it for various purposes. As we step into the floor, there is an atrium with a few connected rooms. We head to one of them and the teacher knocks on it before announcing our arrival. He then turn to us and say that the headmaster is waiting inside and turns to leave. I simply walk into the room. 

This time he is wearing a proper robe. Deep red in color, with a pattern of inlaid gold and a pretty hefty enchantment. I can’t tell exactly what it is doing, but it feels a bit like protection and focus enchantment. Probably a combination of both, which is more suitable for an endgame player. His large wooden staff also seems to be of a high grade. Once the door closes behind us, he bows to me and starts to speak.

“I, Dallard the second, Headmaster the academy of Draumr, welcome you, Princess Zena of Zendor, to my humble academy.”

Well, now I feel bad for choosing to dress casually. Also how do I respond to this? I mean, it’s true and as far as I know is an appropriate greeting, but this is not a formal setting. I decide to respond as neutrally as I can.

“Thank you for the warm welcome, though I though it was supposed to be an informal meeting. If it were formal, you should probably have greeted me at either the gate or the main hall.” I tried to make my confusion known and Zena's memories let me know that when greeting someone in higher standing, it’s supposed to be done at the earliest suitable location, which in this case is the location I asked about.

“That would be appropriate for a formal setting, yes, but you are correct that this is an informal meeting. I also understand that you are currently traveling incognito and despite wanting to greet you in a formal way, I made a compromise. If you are curious as to why I know your identity, I remembered your name a bit after we last spoke and everything else matches your description. You might not remember, but we have met before. I worked for your parents for a while when you were but a child.”

He dumped a lot of information on me all of a sudden. I do appreciate that he didn’t spread my identity as a royal. Seeing as he has me all figured out, I don’t really need to hide my wings, now do I, so I summon them. He seems shocked for only a moment before recomposing himself and speaking.

“Ethereal wings are rare, yours are most beautiful though. My condolences for your loss”

You are reading story princess Zena of Zendor at novel35.com

That last bit catches me completely off guard. He probably saw the confused look on my face, because he goes on to explain.

“When you lose your soulmate and mark your body with the sole intention of remembering them, the world will augment the mark. Wings are common, but many other forms have been documented. The rarity of soulmates makes it rare enough for it to occur that few people know of the phenomenon. It is usually thought of as a gift from their loved ones in the afterlife since it always takes the form of something both parties would have loved.”

I cannot help but shed a tear at the revelation. Seeing as I am slightly emotionally overwhelmed for the moment, I just silently walk over to one of the couches in the room and sit down. He just lets me process my emotions for a while and silently sits down opposed to me.

A few minutes later, I calm down and I wipe my tears away. This pretty much confirms that she was my soulmate. Usually I can keep my emotions under control when I think about her, but him acknowledging her as important to me without even knowing of her, kinda put me over the edge.

I start speaking “Thank you for acknowledging her, but I doubt you wanted to meet for that reason.”

“No, I just wanted to speak with another skilled mage, though as I realized who you were, I do have a letter for you.” and he takes out a letter from his inventory.

It is addressed to me using my full title. He tells me to open it in private, as the contents are not for anyone else. I take it and stow it away for later. Afterwards we continue talking for a long while. Mostly about magic, which he seems to know a lot more about than me, but he also tells me about when he worked for my parents as a mage. He seems to really be the grandfatherly type, explaining things with enough details for me to understand and regularly going on tangents and telling anecdotes. At some point he even took out a plate of cookies from his inventory and put it on the short table between us. They were quite good, though far less sugary than equivalent ones on earth. 

After a while, he asks why I brought Jo with me, to which I answer that I didn’t, she just followed. I realize that she now knows my identity and as I turn to look at her, I see her standing stock still near the door. I tell him how we met, and how she is trying really hard to become my apprentice. I also mention what my requirements are, causing him to chuckle a fair bit. He explains that he chuckled because it’s both hard to do and relatively easy to achieve. The magic behind it is pretty easy, at least for the lower level thrusting spells, which I know, but that the difficulty comes from how you apply it, making it much more necessary to train with the spell than most others. That also explains why it’s fallen out of favor with a lot of mages. I complain to him for a bit about how the spell is literally the difference between life and death, and tell a few stories of my own where that was the case.

Once my stomach starts to rumble I say my goodbye and tell him I might come visit again. Me standing up to leave seems to spur Jo into action and she follows me into the atrium. Once we are alone in the atrium, she asks me “Are you really the princess of Zendor?” I simply look at her and answer “yes, don’t go telling people though.”